“Come on lads, don’t go spoilin’ ‘is mystical robes now!”
They laughed and dragged him away. Frequent rains had transformed the dirt paths into bubbling pits of mud. The skies tortured the landscape with lashing bands of rain.
Bael looked up. An immense mountain loomed. Its peak was shrouded in a crown of misty white fog. No trees or grass or anything green grew on its craggy cliffs.
They came to a stone ledge and dropped him to the ground. He stared up at the sky. Rain splashed the aged lines of his face and soaked his iron grey hair.
The soldiers moved a massive boulder and revealed a long black tunnel.
“Ain’t gonna show us no hocus pocus?” said one.
“Show us a little spell. Maybe we four’ll let you off and says as we chucked you in,” said another.
Bael stared upwards. They dragged him to his feet and hurled him into the pit.
Rocks slashed his body. He bashed against boulders and against the cavern walls. After a long fall he slammed against the floor. He lay there for a long time listening to the rhythmic drip of rain into a shallow pool. |
 |
He recalled a night a thousand years ago.
#
He had stood on the bow of a ship and watched the world below. Clouds swirled over green plains and blue oceans and frosty mountains. He smiled.
She had emerged from the ship’s cabin. Her skin shimmered like stars on a pool of water. Her eyes were flashing opal orbs. She stood beside him and looked down on the slowly spinning world below.
“Beautiful today,” he said.
“Yes,” She said. She smiled.
“What’s it like? In their forests? Swimming in rivers? Living in their cities?”
“Cold. Cruel. Horrors lurk, and worse ones prey on the lesser,” She said. Her voice was silk sliding over summer grass.
He laughed. “Not so bad as that. There is so much beauty.”
She looked at the ship. Men and women pulled at the oars as the ship floated through starry emptiness. “These men and women were human. This oblivion they chose, else they suffer in the mud of their world and be born again.”
He looked at them. “What memories do they keep?”
“Pain. Ashes. Iron. And joy. Like the gleam of a silver sliver in torrents of filth.”
He watched them row and looked back down over the crystal gunwale.
“You wish you were human,” She said.
He looked at her. “Mother.”
“If you go among them you will find only pain.”
They stared at one another.
She sighed. “My ship is for the weary. When their souls have tired they may come and abide here. I am weary. A millennia weary. But you are not. You are young. I cannot remember my youth.”
“Will you let me go?”
“Yes,” she said. “Someday you will be old. Remember your youth then.”
By Her magic he was remade. His form took the shape of a strong young man with glittering eyes and proud features. He laughed, feeling his flesh.
“Go among them,” She said. “Teach them if they will learn. Aid them if you wish. Your soul is immortal but your flesh is not. You can die though not from age.”
“Thank you.” He had embraced her. “Thank you.”
“You may never thank me again.”
“You speak so grim.”
“Their world is grim. You will not survive unarmed.” She had pressed her hands to his. Tiny glass phials appeared. “Every child is their mother’s favorite.”
#
Bael pulled himself up. Clumps of mud fell from his robes. He drew an orange phial from his sleeve and dabbed his fingertip.
He closed his eyes. Heat surged through his right arm, coursed through his veins, growing hotter, hotter. . .
He opened his eyes. A steady flame burned at his fingertip. He cast the dim light into the darkness. The chamber was a cramped pit of slick stones and gnarled rocks. Decomposed skeletons and half-rotted corpses were scattered about. Men, women and children were frozen in grotesque postures. Bael went poking through the dead. He found a stick. He pulled some rags from a corpse, wrapped it tight and lit it with his finger.
Bael claimed a broadsword from the bowels of a man’s half-rotted corpse. The blade was flecked in orange rust and part of the handguard was chipped but it was lighter than it looked and the hilt felt comfortable. He stuffed it in his belt.
Bael searched the chamber. He found a deep crack at the floor. He knelt and looked inside but his torch was too weak to penetrate the shadow. He compressed his body and crawled in.
His torch and sword were unwieldy in the crack but he dragged them along. He slipped and clung to a rock by his fingers. A sprawling chasm waited below, like the waiting maw of a monster.
Bael pulled himself back up and dropped the burning torch down the pit. Darkness quickly snuffed it.
He began to climb down step by step, feeling his way. Before long his shoulders ached and his legs cramped with each step. He reached the bottom and felt around for his torch. He found it and pressed his way further into the dark.
He stepped on something strange. The pulp of a fleshy mushroom was ground against the rock. A pond of dark water stretched in front of him. Tiny pale mushrooms surrounded the water’s edge. He crouched and sipped some water from his palm.
Pebbles slid behind him. Bael spun.
A filthy man stood on the shore. Soiled rags hung from his emaciated figure. His left hand clutched a heavy rock and his right arm was gone to the elbow. A wisp of hair remained on his head. A wild beard and mustache hung past his neck.
“Who are you?” the man said.
“Is there a pit to which your kind hasn’t sunk?” He went.
“Wait.” The man followed, stumbling. “Wait.”
Bael shook his head and ground his teeth.
“You have to help,” the man said. “You have to help me.”
He might have laughed. “Need a hand do you?” Something occurred to him. He stopped and turned.
The man stood staring. “Do you fathom these caves?” said Bael. “Is there an escape?” The man shielded his eyes. “The light burns. Please. I’ve been here days. Weeks.” “Who are you?” |
 |
“A knight,” the man said. “Once. We were all knights. Now I am a worm, living in the filth.”
“Is there an escape?”
“I do not know,” he said. “There are creatures that block any possible way out. But they do not come to the shore here.”
“What is your name?”
“Angus.” The man paused. “Sir Angus of Red Ridge.”
“How did you come here?”
“I was taken captive,” said Angus. “They kept me for ransom. But my lord refused to pay. So they threw me and others in here.”
A whooping howl. Angus looked up. He grabbed Bael and shook him. “Monsters! Run!” Angus stumbled into the dark.
Footsteps padded closer. Grunting breaths. Pebbles slipped. Bael spun and slashed. Black blood spewed. A lanky black-furred ape fell dead. Hooked fangs jutted from its malformed mouth. Its matted fur was caked with mud and filth.
Howls erupted all around. An ape leapt from the shadows and charged at him. Bael swung his sword and the beast stumbled and fell headless.
The shadows muttered and receded, melting back into the darkness.
Angus emerged from behind a boulder. “Ill done,” he said. “More will come. The blood attracts them.” He paused. “What manner of beast are they?”
“Ordai,” said Bael. “Ancient monsters. But there are worse yet.” He wiped blood from the blade. “I require haste. Guide me.”
Angus stared down at the growing pool of blood. “I can’t. There are too many. I can’t make it.”
“You will never see me again,” said Bael. “You were a knight once. Have some courage.”
“I have none.” Angus shook his head and shrank back.
Bael looked at the sword in his hand. He gave it to him.
Angus looked at it. “I have one arm,” he said.
“I’m pleased you can count,” said Bael. “Lead me.”
Angus’s eyes glowed. “My thanks,” he said.
They set off into the cave. Shapes of apes loped on the edge of shadows, padding after them, scurrying away.
Angus stopped and crouched. “Ahead. See there?” He pointed with his sword.
“No.”
“There’s a pool. Those things dive down and don’t resurface.”
“An underway passageway?”
“Maybe,” said Angus. “But there’s too many. We’ll never fight our way through.”
Rocks clattered behind them. They glanced back. “We don’t have a choice,” said Bael. He pulled a phial from his sleeve and drank.
“No time for drink,” said Angus.
Bael leapt over the rocks and ran for the pool. Flames exploded from his lips. Wild screeches crackled around the pool as hundreds of Ordai scattered. Bael spat fire in wild snaking patterns into the air, turning night to dawn in the cave. He snuffed his flames. “Come on!” he said and ran to the water’s edge. Angus stared at him. “Sorcerer. Demon.” He raised his sword. Bael felt like he was punched in the chest. “What matter is it? I helped you. Saved you.” |
 |
“You won’t steal my soul, deceiver.”
Bael turned and dove into the pool. The frigid water made him want to shout. He swam grimly into the deep.
Someone splashed into the water. A one-armed shape struggled after him.
Bael cursed. He turned back and grabbed Angus by the throat, dragging him down with him.
He fought with the weight of the man and swam down through the cave.
The underwater cavern ended. Bael threw himself out of the water and dragged Angus up with him. The knight choked and wretched.
Bael drew a clear phial from his robe. He emptied some glittering powder on his palm. The ghost of a tingle crept through his hand.
Ordai surfaced from the pool and scrambled up the side.
Lightning spiraled from Bael’s arm and struck the surface of the water in a white flash. Smoke simmered from the pool. Black-furred bodies floated to the top.
Bael hauled Angus to his feet. He moved through the cave, blindly feeling his way.
Angus followed, using the sword as a makeshift cane as he ran.
The air grew humid and rank with a choked scent.
Angus sniffed. “Do you smell that?”
“Yes,” said Bael. “Rain.”
“No.” Angus sniffed again. “Blood. Rotten. Sweet, sick. I’ve smelled it a thousand times.”
They came to the tunnel’s end, into a large grotto. Scores of Ordai tortured men. Some were dragged by ropes across sharp stones until their skin was raked off. Some were chained from the ceiling by their ankles like sides of meat. Some were branded with red hot irons.
“Those filthy beasts!”
Bael stopped him. “Wait. See?” He pointed to a narrow crook in the wall. Ash-grey daylight bubbled through.
“We can’t leave. We have to help,” said Angus. He dragged himself over the rock.
Bael shoved him down. “Witless oaf! Eager to join them?”
“I have nothing. The Gods gave me this chance to redeem my honor and die well.”
Bael ground his teeth. He looked over the rocks. “Free your comrades if you can.”
“What will you do?” said Angus.
Bael watched the cave. Something was wrong. The shadows were impossibly dark and something about them held his gaze, clinging to his eyes like sap on fingers. Bael shook his head and poured the sparkling powder and clear fluid on his palms. He rubbed his hands together and jumped over the rocks.
Serpents of white flame spun from his hands. The apes were incinerated into dust under the sparking infernos.
From the corner of his eye Bael saw Angus cleave his way through a half dozen Ordai, sundering them to pieces.
Bael staggered. The cave went dark and spun. Dizziness swept him away like an avalanche. His focus broke.
The spiraling flames snuffed out against the rock walls. The catacombs shook. Stalactites plummeted and shattered across the rock floor. An immense scaled slug wormed from the caves. Its spikes and spines shaved rocks from the walls like shreds of paper. Its eyes were black jewels emitting swirling darkness. It squirmed towards him. |
 |
Bael reached for the phials in his sleeve. The slug’s wriggling tail swatted, sending Bael sprawling away. He lay strengthless against the rocks.
The slug reared up before him. Saliva frothed from its hooked fangs.
Angus clove his sword into the slug’s back. It screeched and convulsed madly.
Bael reached and grabbed the phials and sprayed the slug. It ignited with a sudden raging flame. The slug careened through the grotto, bashing itself into the walls.
Angus lifted Bael up. They ran from the cave out into the grey daylight.
The maimed men and freed slaves embraced and cheered. Bael dropped and lay strengthless against the ground.
Angus knelt beside him. “Are you hurt, wizard?”
Bael glared at him and forced himself to his feet again. “No.”
Angus looked back at the cheering men, all maimed and crippled and wounded but cheering. “What do I tell them of you?”
“That I am a wizard,” said Bael.