Andy Remic - Soul Stealers

Saark sat there, choking, covered in grey dust and looking pathetic. He wiped his sweating, dirt-streaked face, and glanced up at Kell. "Thanks, old boy."

Kell gave a single nod, and stood, stretching his back. "It's going to get more enclosed ahead."

"Just what I need," said Saark.

"I'm just warning you."

"Well, don't! I'd rather have a sour, nasty, bad surprise."

Again, they picked up the trail of glowing passageways, this time rising steeply until the tunnel emerged onto a small platform overlooking a cavern. As they approached, they could see the slime-glow increase in intensity, and this warned the group; they moved slow, hunkering down as they broached the rise. The small platform was just wide enough for the three of them; and what they saw left them crouched in stunned silence.

Below, in what appeared to be a naturally carved cavern, a massive affair strewn with stalactites and stalagmites, there were pods; corrugated, white, each pod about the size of a horse and divided into six or seven bubbled segments. They lay, motionless, not glowing but pale white, almost luminescent. And there were hundreds of them. Thousands. Littering the cavern, many of them packed in tight, crammed together.

"What," said Saark, with a completely straight face, his voice low and carefully neutral, "are those?"

"I don't know," said Kell.

"But you said you've been here before!"

"Yes, but I've never seen those before!"

"Are they, you know, something to do with the worms? Maybe they hatch, or something? Like eggs?"

"Possibly," said Kell, giving a small shiver. If they hatched, the group would be immediately overrun.

"Look," said Nienna, pointing. Kell lowered her finger.

"I can see it, girl."

They were pulsating. As if they were breathing.

"What now?" whispered Saark.

"I reckon we could go down there and cut one open," said Kell. "Then we'd know exactly what was inside. Exactly what we're dealing with."

" What? " snapped Saark. "Are you out of your mind, you crazy old fool? You might set them all off, then we'd be fucked for sure. And here's another thought – if they are eggs, then what in the name of the Grey Blood Wolf laid them?"

Kell nodded. "I suggest we circumvent."

"I would second that," agreed Saark.

They moved to the right, still watching the thousands of pulsating, segmented cocoons, or eggs, or whatever the organic objects were. They looked dangerous, and that was enough for the party.

Taking a right-hand tunnel, Kell led the way once more, wary now, Ilanna in his great fists. He was more alert, eyes straining to see ahead, ears listening for sounds of any approaching enemy. He wouldn't let Saark or Nienna speak now, and they travelled in morbid silence, ears pricked, nerves suspended on a razor wire.

The tunnel wound on, ever upwards, crossing many more in a complex maze. Kell chose openings with a sure knowledge, and Saark made a mental note not to get lost down here. The Valentrio Caves were a maze like nothing he had ever witnessed.

Eventually, the low-ceilinged corridor ended in a small chamber. It glowed. There were eight of the slowly pulsating, slowly breathing pods blocking their path.

Kell halted, and held up his fist. Saark and Nienna froze, peering past him. The chamber, floor lined with sand, was small. The pods filled it entirely, leaving nothing but narrow passages between each throbbing slick body of luminescent white. Nienna shivered.

"I don't want to sound like a pussy," whispered Saark, "but is there another way around these… these blobs?"

"It'll be all right," said Kell. "I'll lead. Nienna, stay close behind. Saark, bring up the rear."

"Why do I always have to go at the back?" he whined. "What if one of the quivering little bastards wakes up and jumps on me?"

"Well," smiled Kell, "it won't be the first time you've taken it from behind."

"You are a jester, Kell. You truly should be capering like an idiot in the King's Court."

"Can't do that," growled Kell. "The king is dead."

They moved into the narrow spaces between the segmented bodies. Each cocoon was tall, as tall as a man, and most at least as long as a horse, high in the centre and then tapering down in staggered segments towards the tips, which seemed to glow, changing suddenly from pale white fish-flesh to jet black, and then back.

Saark shivered. Kell moved with his jaw tight. Nienna desperately wanted to hold somebody's hand, for she could feel the fear in the air, smell the metallic scent of these pulsing cocoons. Kell brushed against one, and for a moment the pulsating ceased. In response, Kell, Saark and Nienna froze, staring in horror at the huge bulbous thing.

"You woke it!" mouthed Saark, urgently, face screwed into horror.

Kell gripped Ilanna tighter, but after a few moments the regular rhythm of the creature resumed. The group seemed to breathe again. They crept past, six, seven, eight of the cocoons, and then Kell stepped out into the opposite tunnel and breathed deeply, shoulders relaxing. Nienna stepped out behind him, and Saark turned to stare back at the corrugated pods. "Well thank the bloody gods for that!" he grinned, as his rapier swung with him, tip at knee level, and the point of his decorative scabbard cut a neat horizontal line across the nearest pod's fleshy surface. There came a hiss, a bulge, then a thick tumbling spill of white splashing out like snakes in milk. A scream rent the air, so high-pitched the group slammed hands over ears and grimaced, then ran down the tunnel as the scream followed, perfectly in rhythm with the pulsing of the thing's body.

"You horse dick!" raged Kell. "What did you do that for?"

"I didn't do it on purpose, did I? Can I help it if their skin is as flimsy as a farm maiden's silk panties? I barely touched the damn thing!"

"Come on," said Nienna, pale from the screaming, and she led them on a fast pace up a steep corridor. Suddenly Kell lurched forward, grabbing Nienna and bundling all three into a side-tunnel. They stood, in the gloom, and watched the albino soldiers pounding past. Kell counted them. There were fifty of the very same black-clad albino warriors who'd invaded Falanor. "So, this is where they hide," whispered Kell, face grim.

"I am assuming," said Saark, in a quiet, affable voice, "that this place wasn't crawling with either egg-pods, nor albino soldiers, the last time you came through?"

"It was twenty years ago," snapped Kell. "I've slept since then."

"And got drunk many times," responded Saark, voice cool, eyes shaded in the gloom. "You've brought us into a hornet's nest, old friend. How many albino soldiers are here?"

"Let's find out," said Kell.

They moved back up the tunnel, which rose yet again on a steep incline that burned calves and sent shivers through straining thighs. They travelled for an hour, and three times more they came across squads of albino warriors wearing black armour and carrying narrow black longswords. And several times they passed along the lips of vast caverns, each full of pulsating segments, glowing, quivering cocoons. The third time they did so, Saark called for a stop. Down below, they saw several albino soldiers moving through the chamber, and one stopped, resting a hand on a quivering flesh segment.

"They're changing colour," said Saark.

"Eh, lad?" said Kell.

"The pods. They're no longer translucent. Now they are a deep white. Like snow. Look."

Kell peered. He shrugged. "So what?"

"And their pulsing is slower," said Nienna.

"So what?"

"You're an irascible old goat," snapped Saark. "The point is, each chamber seems to be some kind of birthing pit. That's my opinion. And these things are looked after by the albinos."

"Why would they do that?"

"Maybe they like to hatch worms," said Saark. "Maybe they are building a worm army!"