The Cleric Quintet: The Fallen Fortress

 

"My thanks to you," the soldier whispered to Cadderly, all the while eyeing the charred mass of his dead allies. The pile fell apart then, resettling upon the floor, as Cadderly's strange enchantment dissipated.

"Where is Aballister?" the young priest demanded. The man's lips seemed to tighten into thin lines,

Cadderly leaped past Danica, grabbed the man by the collar, and slammed him hard against the wall. "You are still a prisoner!" he growled in the surprised man's face. "You can be an asset to us, and we will repay you accordingly.

"Or you can be a detriment," Cadderly went on grimly. He looked back to the pile as he spoke, and the unvoiced threat drained the blood from the captured man's face.

"Lead on to the wizard," Cadderly instructed. "Along the most direct route."

The man glanced at Danica, as if pleading for some support, but the monk looked away impassively.

That gesture did not reveal the turmoil in Danica's heart Cadderly's move and threat against the prisoner, a person he had just declared was not an evil man, had surprised her. She had never seen Cadderly so calculatingly cold, and while she could understand his determined actions, she could not deny her fears.

The prisoner took them through a door to the side, halfway around the circular room. They had only gone a dozen steps when Cadderly grabbed the man again, pushed him up against the wall and began roughly stripping off every piece of his noisy armor, even to the point of removing the man's hard-soled boots.

"Quietly," he whispered to the man. "I have but one battle left to fight, a battle against Aballister."

The man growled and pushed Cadderly away, and found Danica's silver-hiked dagger at his throat in the blink of an eye.

"The wizard is powerful," the prisoner warned, wisely keeping his voice soft

Cadderly nodded. "And you fear the consequences of your actions should Aballister win out against us," he reasoned.

The man's lips went tight again, and he made no move to respond. Cadderly eased Danica away and again put his face close to the man's, his jaw firm and unrelenting. "Then choose," the young priest said, his voice low and threatening. "Do you take the chance that Aballister will not win out?"

The man glanced about nervously, but again said nothing.

"Aballister is not here," Cadderly reminded him. "None of your allies are here. It is just you and I, and you know what/can do."

The man started off again immediately, his bare feet making little noise as he padded along the corridor with appropriate caution. They crossed several side corridors, often hearing the sounds of other soldiers rushing about, probably in search of them. Each time some group was about, Danica looked nervously to Cadderly, as if to say that this man, who could betray them with a simple call, was his responsibility.

But the man held true to the terms of his capture, moving with all stealth as they worked their way past one guard position or patrol group after another.

When they entered one long corridor, though, a group of goblins entered it simultaneously from the other end, and they found that they had nowhere to run. The goblins, six of the beasts, advanced cautiously, weapons drawn.

The prisoner addressed them in their own croaking language, and Cadderly understood well enough to know that the man had concocted some lie about being on a mission for the priests, going to Aballister with some important information.

Still, the goblins eyed Cadderly and Danica dangerously, exchanging a few quiet remarks - doubts, Cadderly knew -  amongst themselves.

Even the cooperative prisoner looked back, his expression showing sincere worry.

Danica didn't wait for events to take their obvious course. She leaped out suddenly, punching the nearest goblin in the throat, circling about her leg flying high to connect on the next one's chest, and whipped a dagger into the face of yet another. She ducked low under a sword swipe and sprang up high from her crouch, double-kicking the sword wielder in the face and chest

Two goblins rushed by her, more concerned with escape than with tangling against Cadderly and the soldier, but Cadderly got one with his walking stick, shattering its knee, and the soldier tackled the other.

Danica spun about and again kicked, sending one goblin flying into the wall. The creature smacked hard against the stone and bounced back, and Danica, timing her spin perfectly, promptly kicked it again. Again it bounced out again it was launched backward by a perfectly timed kick.

The fourth time, the goblin was allowed to fall to the floor, for Danica sprang away, leaping over the prone prisoner at the back of the goblin that had slipped his grasp. One hand reached around to cup the goblin's chin while the other grabbed the hair on the back of its head.

The goblin squealed and tried to stop and turn, but Danica rushed right beside it, twisting her arms viciously, snapping the wretched thing's neck.

"Down!" Danica called, coming around behind Cadderly. The young priest fell to the floor and the goblin facing him was caught fully by surprise as Danica rushed by, connecting with a heavy punch into its ugly face. It flew backward several feet, hit the stone with a groan, and Danica ran past

The goblin she had hit in the throat was up to its knees again, trying to find its footing. Danica leaped high into the air, coming down with her knees driving against the skinny creature's back, slamming it down fiercely. She pulled her second dagger from her boot, grabbed a clump of hair with her free hand and pulled the goblin's head back, cutting a neat line across its throat

She did likewise to the helpless goblin that had her other dagger sticking from its face, ending its misery. And then she turned back, to see Cadderly and the prisoner staring at her incredulously.

"I do not parley with goblins," Danica said grimly, wiping her blades on the nearest monster's dirty tunic.

"You could not outrun her," Cadderly remarked to the prisoner, and the man, in turn, gave the young priest an incredulous look.

"I just thought I would mention that," Cadderly said.

They set out at once, Cadderly and Danica anxious to put some distance between themselves and the scene of the slaughter. The prisoner said nothing, just continued to lead them at a swift pace, and soon the tunnels became quieter and less filled with rushing soldiers.

Cadderly sensed that the walls in this region were not natural, though they were lined by uncut stone. The young priest could feel the residual energies of the magics that had been used to make this place, as though some powerful dweomer had pulled the natural stone from between these walls.

The sensations sent a mix of emotions through the young priest. He was glad that the captured soldier was apparently not leading them astray, glad that their search might soon come to its end. But Cadderly was worried, too, for if Aballister had created these tunnels, had magically torn the stone from these halls, then the storm at Night-glow only hinted at his powers.

Something else assaulted Cadderly's thoughts then, a fleeting, distant call, as if someone was summoning him. He paused and closed his eyes.

Cadderly.

He heard it clearly, though distantly. He felt for the amulet in his pocket which he'd acquired some time ago and with which he could communicate with the imp, Druzil. Now it was cool, indicating that Druzil was nowhere about

Cadderly.

It was not Druzil, and Cadderly did not believe that it was Dorigen, either. Who then? the young priest wondered. Who was so attuned to him that they might make telepathic contact without his knowledge or consent?

He opened his eyes, determined not to get sidetracked. "Keep going," he instructed his comrades, taking his place beside them.

But the call remained, fleeting and distant, and what bothered Cadderly more than anything else was that it somehow sounded so very familiar.

Dwarven Stealth

We must move quietly," Shayieigh pointedly instructed her dwarven companions, what seemed to her an obvious precaution. Still, Shayieigh soon came to understand that her definition of "moving quietly" was apparently very different from Ivan and Pikel's. The clomp of Ivan's boots echoed loudly off the stone walls, and Pikel's sandals double-slapped - once against the floor and once against his foot - with every pumping stride.

They rambled along several long, dark corridors, the only light coming from widely spaced torches hanging in iron sconces. Around a bend and through an archway, the three companions found the walls lined by fonts, filled with a clear, watery substance.

Ivan, needing a refreshing drink, paused and moved to scoop up some, but Pikel quickly slapped his hand away, waggling a finger in his startled brother's face.

"Uh-uhhh," the green-bearded dwarf implored, and he hopped up high and pulled a torch from its sconce. Still waggling the finger tucked under his arm, Pikel touched the fire to the liquid. The stuff hissed and sputtered, and a noxious gray cloud arose, making Ivan pinch his nose. Pikel hung his tongue out of his mouth and muttered, Tuck"

"How did he know?" Shayleigh asked Ivan when they had cleared the stinky area.

Ivan shrugged. "Must be something to this druid stuff."

"Doo-dad!" Pikel agreed.

"Yeah, doo-dad," muttered Ivan. "Or ye just knowed that this place is for Talona, and Talona's the goddess of poison."

Sly Pikel wasn't letting on. He just followed the other two, every so often chuckling, "Hee hee nee."

Around a sharp bend in the corridor, the friends found a group of enemies waiting for them.

Shayleigh fired her bow between the bobbing dwarven heads, catching the leading ore in the chest and dropping it dead.

"Frog!" Ivan called, a reference to a game he and his brother used to play. Pikel rushed in front and braced himself, squared to the next leading ore, and Ivan leaped up from behind and straddled Pikel's shoulders. Pikel fell forward, hooking Ivan's feet and his propelling his forward-flying brother into a downward arc.

The ore froze with surprise, stood there with no practical defenses, and Ivan's axe cleaved its skull, drove right down through the stupid creature's head so that it seemed as if it would literally be split in half.

The move left both dwarves sprawled on the floor, with several enemies still standing, unharmed (though after witnessing a comrade practically split down the middle, none of them seemed overly anxious to rush in). With the line of fire clear between them and Shayleigh, their hesitation was not a wise thing.

The elf maiden set her bow to furious work, hardly aiming, just firing for the mass of enemy bodies.

A few seconds, and a few arrows, later, what was left of the enemy band was in full flight

"Now move quietly," Shayleigh instructed through gritted teeth.

"Quietly:" Ivan balked incredulously. "Bring the whole damned bunch of them on, I say!"

"Oo oi!" Pikel cried. The agreeing brothers turned together toward Shayleigh, to find the elf maiden back against the inner wall of the last corner, her bow up as she looked behind them.

"You may get your wish," she explained. "Goblins, led by an ogre."

Ivan and Pikel rushed up to the corner beside her and nodded to each other, as if they already had come to a silent agreement on how to approach this next fight. Ivan stooped, and this time Pikel went up on his shoulders, leaning against the wall and putting one hand up high, fingers conspicuously wrapped around the edge of the wall, in plain sight of the approaching force.

Ivan nodded for Shayleigh to fall back a few steps.

The ogre came around the corner expecting, from Pikel's high-placed hand, to find a tall foe. Pikel fell away as the monster spun around the bend, its flying club smacking harmlessly off the empty stone wall.

Ivan's axe chop gashed into the thigh of its lead leg, severing muscles and tendons.

Unable to stop its momentum, the wounded ogre continued its turn, squaring its back to Shayleigh. Still backpedal-ing, it jerked twice in rapid succession as arrows drove through its shoulder blades, and then it tripped altogether, falling backward. One arrow shattered under the tremendous weight, but the other, angled perfectly so that it hit the ground straight up, plunged through the massive beast, through its heart, with the arrow tip bursting out the front of the ogre's chest

By the time the goblins, just two steps behind the ogre, came around the corner, they found their leader dead.

Not that the lead goblins even had time to register the scene. Pikel, crouched back in the corner, swiped his club across, smacking shins and sending two of the monsters sprawling - right at Ivan's feet The yellow-bearded dwarf, his axe chopping viciously, made quick work of them.

The rest of the force, with typical goblin loyalty, turned and fled.

They will be returning from the front," Shayleigh said grimly.

"Yeah, and the stupid goblins will hear the fighting and come back the other way, probably with a hunnerd kin!" Ivan agreed.

"You may indeed get your wish, Ivan," the elf answered grimly. "The whole force of Castle Trinity might soon squeeze us between them." Shayleigh moved to the corner and looked back, then ran up ahead and peered as far along as she could, hoping for a side tunnel, for something that could get them free of this tight area.

Pikel, already understanding their dire predicament, tuned out of the conversation. Down on his knees, he crawled along the worked wall, butting his forehead against any promising stones.

"What is he doing?" Shayleigh demanded, obviously dismayed by the dwarfs apparently ridiculous actions.

Even as she spoke, Pikel pressed his forehead back against one of the rocks. He turned to Ivan, smiling from ear to ear, and squeaked.

"There's the way!" Ivan bellowed, falling to his knees beside his brother, both of them digging with their fingers at the edges of the cut stone.

"They always put secret tunnels beside the corridor," Ivan explained to Shayleigh's doubting expression. "Drains the water in case of a flood."

Shayleigh's keen ears caught the sounds of footsteps approaching from both directions. "Hurry," she implored the dwarves, and she ran to the wall and grabbed a torch. Shayleigh rushed back around the corner, as far down as she could go, then reversed direction and ran back, dipping the torch in every font she passed, and pulling out all the other torches. All the corridor behind her was soon filled with a noxious gray cloud, leaving the passage in smoky darkness. Through it, Shayleigh could see the red dots of goblin eyes, using their heat-sensing infravision.

"Stubborn," she muttered, and she ran around the corner, down the hallway the other way, repeating the procedure. By the time she got back to the dwarves, enemies were closing from both directions. A goblin peeked around the corner, then fell back with an arrow in its eye.

"Hurry!" Shayleigh whispered harshly, coughing as the evil smoke descended over her.

"Hurry, yerself," Ivan growled back. He pulled the elf maiden down to the floor and practically stuffed her through the opening, dropping her down a muddy, descending chute. Pikel came in behind, chuckling and placing both his club and Ivan's axe in the slope behind him.

"What is he doing?" Shayleigh asked, but Pikel only put a stubby finger over his lips and whispered, "Ssssh!"

Ivan rushed across and put his back to the corner, closing his eyes so that the red glow of infravision would not give him away. Goblins shuffled around behind him.

The enemy host came moving down from the other direction.

"More than we thinks!" Ivan roared in the goblin language, a squeaking and croaking tongue. Those goblins beside the dwarf, peering ahead through the confusing veil, took up their weapons.

"Charges them! Kjllses them!" Ivan bellowed, and the call was repeated by many goblins as the horde rushed the approaching force. In a confusing instant, the two groups were together, hacking away, each thinking the other to be the intruders that had come to Castle Trinity.

Ivan calmly walked over to stand in front of the secret tunnel. Pikel reached out to him, but Ivan hesitated, thoroughly enjoying the battle. Finally, Pikel's patience evaporated, and he reached out with both hands, grabbed Ivan by the ankles, and jerked him from his feet, dragging him into the tunnel.

Pike! clambered over his facedown brother, out of the tunnel far enough to retrieve the block and tug it somewhat back in place. Now it was the green-bearded dwarf who hesitated, enthralled by the raging action, chuckling as one severed goblin head came bouncing by. Never one to miss an opportunity for payback, Ivan grabbed Pikel by the ankles and yanked him through the mud.

Soon after, the three friends found a way out of that crawl tunnel, into another stone-worked corridor some distance from the fighting. Ivan and Pikel led the way, their muddy faces set in a determined grimace.

Shayleigh shook her head in disbelief many times over the next few minutes as the dwarves rambled through the complex, overturning everything in their path, including a few startled goblins. Shayleigh didn't tell them to be quiet, though. She knew that their escape had been a temporary reprieve, that no matter how stealthily they might now travel, sooner or later they would meet an organized defense.

The elf smiled then, glad that she was beside the rugged Bouldershoulders. She had seen the brothers like this before, in the battles of Shilmista. Let the enemy come on, she decided. Let them face the battle-lust of the hearty dwarves'.

Ivan and Pikel did slow down and become somewhat quieter when they neared a staircase, rising up out of sight just beyond a four-way intersection of wide corridors. A perfect place for an ambush. They heard singing coming from the stairs, a booming, giant voice. The corridor behind them and the two to the sides seemed empty, so they crept across.

The stairs went up, which was the way they all figured they had to go, but they could see the boots of a giant not so far up the stairs. The huge monster continued its off-ltey singing, apparently unaware of the intruders that had come to Castle Trinity, "Get ye up fast" was the only explanation Ivan offered to Shayleigh, and with a wink to his brother, the two dwarves set off, using the giant's booming voice to cover their heavy steps on the wooden stairs.

Shayleigh glanced all about nervously, thinking this a bad situation. She heard the dwarves roar out in glee, though, heard the smacks as Ivan's axe and Pikel's club connected on the giant's legs. Then the whole ground shook as the behemoth tumbled down the stairs.