Queen of the Demonweb Pits Read online

  “Escalla? The wounds are infecting.”

  “Jus… will fix it. He… can fix anything.”

  Enid took Escalla, staff, and wand into her mouth, then slipped painfully back into the water. She turned, spared a glance for the gutter opening above, and then swam downstream.

  A scream cut the air. Enid twisted sideways, and a chain smashed into the wall beside her. Clinging to the tunnel roof, a chain monk gibbered and lunged for Enid’s throat. The snake dove. The monk hit the wall, landed in water a dozen feet deep, then managed to claw out of the filth and onto the little stone ledge.

  The chain monk screeched, lashing fetters at its prey. Enid twisted aside, bashing the monster with her tail. The chain monk fell into the water, thrashing in panic as it disappeared, but the damage had been done. A dozen answering calls came echoing down the sewers as chain monks homed in on their prey.

  Enid sobbed and swam, shoving through bobbing garbage and trying to leave the monsters behind. The tunnels echoed with their screeching laughter until it seemed they came from every side. The shape-shifted sphinx swam onward, stiff with pain, Escalla jerking and shivering in her jaws.

  It was pitch black. Suddenly, a faint glow of magic sparkled on Escalla’s scales, and the injured faerie stirred.

  “D-detection spell. We’re being scryed.” Escalla almost wept with the effort of lifting her head. “She must… have a… crystal ball.”

  Enid spoke though a mouthful of snake. “She can find us?”

  “No.” Escalla swallowed back a throat full of bile. “One… strip of dark tunnel looks like… looks… the same.”

  She coughed, and the effort tore her injuries. Escalla convulsed, then spasmed, going stiff as a board. Enid stared in fright.

  “Escalla?”

  Silence.

  Enid swallowed, feeling her snake-blood run to ice. The faerie had fainted—or worse. The wand and staff were still gripped tight in her coils. Was that a good sign… or bad?

  Jus would know.

  Escalla was dying. Enid turned a frightened look up to the surface world, then painfully began to slither her way up a metal stepladder, rung by rung. Above her, flames sent red light shooting though the gutters, while the town rang with screams.

  * * *

  Gargoyles landed in the streets, and the terrified refugees cowered away from them. The monsters ploughed forward, lashing with claws to rip the hearts out of shrieking townsfolk. One gargoyle carried its screaming victim to the heights of the city temple. Two others waded through a multitude, bathing themselves in blood and living flesh. The two monsters fought over one choice, screaming morsel, tearing it apart, laughing as they tasted fresh, hot meat.

  And they died.

  Jus’ sword struck in near silence—sharp, horrific strokes chopping into stony flesh. The first gargoyle fell with its head split in two. The second turned then took a sword blow through its neck and into its chest. The monster bubbled—the white blade tugged free and instantly stabbed. Driven by the huge strength of the Justicar, Benelux punched through the gargoyle’s back. The monster sank to its knees, dead before it fell. Jus ripped free his sword and held out a commanding hand to the refugees.

  “Follow me, if you want to live!”

  The mob of refugees split and ran, some fleeing east, some west, some hiding in the houses and the alleyways. Cursing, the Justicar ducked beneath the eaves of a house as three more varrangoin flapped overhead, showering flame and acid down onto the roofs.

  Henry sighted on the monsters, but they flew onward. Jus swore, then pulled Henry away as the building behind him collapsed, flames billowing into the air. In the weird darkness of the city, the flames ran thick as treacle. Henry and the Justicar ducked and ran onward, while behind them terror spread out into the alleyways as the monsters ate their fill.

  There were already monsters on the battlements of the citadel. Jus could see gargoyles, bats, and other creatures landing unopposed. The soldiers must never have made it to the keep. The streets had cleared, as every living thing in the city tried to claw its way out of the gates. Jus and Henry stopped inside a burning alleyway, hiding as a dark wave of flying monsters swerved a few feet overhead.

  Cinders suddenly sniffed and growled. Left!

  Jus turned. A badger shot out of a burning public building with a neat roll of black cloth stuck through its belt. Ducking a storm of sparks, Jus ran to catch the animal before it disappeared.

  “Polk!”

  The badger stopped and looked about, squinting. The Justicar ran over to him and picked the badger up.

  “Polk! Polk, where’s Escalla?”

  “I’m a badger, son! Short sighted! If she’s anywhere here, then I ain’t seen her! She’s gone! Disappeared!” Polk patted the portable hole on his little belt. “But look here, son! I’ve got a job to do. I better do it while there’s still time!”

  “Job?” Henry winced, using his cloak as a shield as a collapsing building shot coals across the street. “What job?”

  “I’ve got the portable hole, son—the one we got from the underdark.” The hole weighed nothing, no matter how much was put inside. It opened into a strange, otherworldly chamber ten feet deep and ten feet across. “I’m going to the library, son. The temple! We can save holy books and scrolls. We can preserve these people’s great heritage for future generations to come!”

  The Justicar pounded his fist against a wall.

  “Polk, there aren’t going to be any generations to come!” He handed the badger, portable hole and all to Henry. “Where did you look for Escalla? Did you look in the merchant’s quarter?”

  “Everywhere! All I saw was a war!”

  Jus grabbed a piece of burning timber from the wreckage and passed it up to Cinders, who chomped on it in glee. Jus looked at the city streets, trying to think like a faerie, and drew a blank.

  Cinders wagged his tail. Down. Up dangerous. Faerie be down!

  “What?”

  Smart faerie. Clever, like dog! Cinders grinned. Abyss bat be up—faerie be down!

  Sewers! There were gutter openings in every street. Jus wrenched a corpse out of the way, uncovering a stone slab set into the street. He heaved it open, revealing a drain and stone-cut ladder that plunged down into the dark.

  A scream came distantly from below—a feminine shriek tinged with pain and panic. The Justicar sheathed his sword and jumped feet first down the hole, plunging into total dark. Henry froze in shock, then heard a mighty splash from below. Moments later, a shout came from the dark.

  “Henry! Jump!”

  The boy did as he was told, keeping a tight grip upon the wailing Polk. He shot down through a dark well and crashed into warm, stinking water, sinking over his head before his feet could find the bottom.

  With one hand, the Justicar heaved Henry half out of the water, crossbow, Polk, armor, and all.

  “There’s a ledge by the side.”

  Henry’s feet found support, and the boy stopped believing he was drowning. Charging through the water like a galleon, the Justicar threw up a huge bow wave of foam. Throwing stealth aside, he forced his way downstream, his sword spilling a ghostly light into the air.

  The scream came again. Jus ploughed out into an open space—another ladder to the surface—and stormed forward.

  A huge snake hung limp from a rung halfway up the well. Below the giant snake hung a keening, babbling monster—a being like a cadaverous monk wrapped up in chains. The creature whipped its arms, shooting lengths of chain to trap and tangle around the snake. Burned and injured, the snake sobbed in a feminine voice of panic and tried to get away.

  Jus smashed his sword onto the chain monk’s back. Sparks showered from the creature’s thick sheath of chains, blocking the blow. The monster gibbered in rage and tried to punch Jus with a chain-armored fist. The Justicar ducked two blows, caught another on his sword, then kicked the monster in its gut and sent it crashing through the water. He turned and hacked with his sword, severing with two huge blows
the chains that bound the snake.

  The chain monk surged back onto its feet, whipping out two lengths of chain that caught the Justicar. The monster wrenched, and Jus slipped and fell. Bulling forwards through the water, Henry erupted from the sewer tunnel, firing a quick burst of darts at the monsters chest.

  Sparks flew as the crossbow bolts ricocheted from the dense mat of metal chains. The monk whirled and screamed fury at young Henry.

  Bursting from the water like a behemoth, the Justicar surfaced behind the monk. His huge arms flew around the creature’s throat, the forearm blocking the monster’s windpipe and his other arm locking the hold tight. Jus’ muscles bulged as he threw all his strength into his grip. The chain monk jerked and flailed backward with its chains, wrapping them around the Justicar’s throat Jus kept his grip, his neck muscles bulging as the chain monk tried to throttle him to death.

  There was a cracking noise from the chain monk as it died, its neck crushed. Jus roared and shook his head, loosening the chains about his throat even as he held the monk to make sure the thing was dead.

  A second chain monk burst from the dark. Jus whipped his head sideways, Cinders grinned, and then a white-hot column of flame thundered straight into the monster’s face. It fell back, screaming yet still alive, the water around it hissing as it met burned flesh and molten steel. Throwing away the first monk’s corpse, the Justicar lunged up the ladder. His damaged throat was hoarse as he laid a hand upon the giant snake.

  “Enid?”

  “Jus!” The serpent collapsed into his grip like coils of heavy cable. “Jus, Escalla’s hurt!”

  A little snake hung through the rungs above them. Holding thirty feet of exhausted Enid, Jus felt Enid shivering with shock. Henry slung his crossbow and clambered up the ladder, carefully retrieving the little serpent.

  “I think it’s Escalla!” Henry tried to feel for a pulse. “She’s cold!”

  “She’s a snake!” Jus looked anxiously up the ladder. “She’s burned?”

  “Bad. Real bad.” Henry tried to cradle the snake carefully as he fought his way down the ladder. “She won’t wake up!”

  The Justicar was hurt—burned, half strangled, and a rib felt broken. He had three healing spells to his name. He immediately cradled Escalla and punched two spells into her burned body, feeling the burns shimmer and heal. The snake was still horrifically injured—burned by acid until bones were exposed to the air—but it drew deeper breath, and she seemed alive. The third spell went into Enid. The huge snake heaved, croaking as the spell spread a tiny sensation of cool into her burns.

  Polk came paddling madly down the sewers, angry at Henry for hurling him aside.

  “Help! Son, help! I can’t swim, son! I’m going to drown!”

  “All badgers can swim, Polk.” The Justicar snatched a handful of badger fur. “You’re doing fine.”

  Henry held Enid’s head in his lap, distraught and torn by her pain as he stroked her softly. The snake was still clearly in agony. The Justicar held Escalla and checked under her snake jaw for a pulse, then unclamped the wand and staff and shoved them under his cuirass. He draped the snake around his neck beneath Cinders’ pelt as, somewhere off in the darkness, more chain monsters keened.

  “Enid, how many?”

  “Thirty.” The snake coiled into Henry’s arms. “At least. And Tielle! She… she has magic. Some sort of acid blast.”

  “Tielle!”

  “There’s a scrying spell.” Enid sounded horribly weak. “She… she’s tracing us with a scrying spell.”

  “Then let’s move.” Jus looked up the ladder. Monsters snarled, and the crash of falling, burning houses filled the air. “Polk, come here! Henry, you have to tow Enid. Keep her head up high.” The man let Polk seize Cinders’ tail and towed him through the water. “Downstream. Go!”

  Sword in hand, the Justicar led the way. In the sewer tunnels, monsters screamed, while up above, an entire city burned.

  * * *

  The tunnels angled ever so slightly downhill. The sewers were apparently not draining, and water had risen from the river to flood the tunnel system. The result was that the water level rose higher the farther they went. Inch by inch the roof level grew lower. Struggling to tow an injured snake in his wake, Henry was scarcely able to keep his chin above the water.

  One tunnel was alive with the chittering, screeching sound of stirges. It was clearly the best route, but Cinders had only one more flame blast left until he could find time to feed. Jus hoisted his sword and the badger higher and pushed onward, choosing tunnels from the maze of cross connections, twists, and turns.

  Enid’s snake eyes glazed with pain.

  “Sh-should we go this fast? There might be… chain monsters in the dark.”

  The Justicar ploughed forward, dark, grim, and confident. “The last attack came from behind. If we move fast, we’ll stay ahead.” He checked a corner briefly, then looked left and right down a tunnel junction.

  “Cinders?”

  Worstest smell to left. Stinky-bad-stinky!

  “Left it is.”

  Henry and Jus waded forward. At the tunnel junction, the water stirred, and a great rubbery eyestalk rose stealthily from the murk. Black-armored, with a hell hound as a cloak and a magical sword glowing in his hand, the Justicar turned and fixed the creature with a dire stare. “Don’t even think it.”

  The eyestalk blinked once, then nervously withdrew.

  The water became densely matted with floating garbage, until walking forward became a matter of shoving through a six-inch belt of flotsam. Henry foundered, holding Enid’s head above him in one hand, and the Justicar held the boy up as he made his way through the gloom.

  The tunnel fed into a hideous cavern. It was pitch black, the ceiling hanging mere inches from the water level. The pool here was stagnant, and the bottom was deep in slime and filled with sunken debris. With his chin only just above the water, Polk clinging fearfully to his back, and towing Henry and Enid behind him, the Justicar pushed forward until he reached the farthest end of the cavern.

  The sewer simply stopped. There should have been some sort of tunnel leading out to the river—a tunnel that must have been entirely underwater with the river flooded. The drain was probably blocked by a metal grate. The Justicar peeled Polk away from his neck and rummaged in the badger’s purse.

  “Son! Son, you’re hysterical! I’m not Escalla, son! She’s the snake over there!”

  “Quiet!” Jus retrieved the party’s portable hole. Holding it up out of the water, he unfolded a corner of the weird black surface. “We’ll have to make an underwater swim. Get in the hole—all of you.”

  “But son!”

  Jus tossed Polk into the hole, then nodded to Henry. “Go. I’ll lower you Enid, then Cinders and Escalla.”

  “Will you be all right, sir?”

  “It’s just a swim.” The Justicar sheathed his sword and threw it in the hole, making the sword yell in anger and Polk screech in fright. He followed it with his helm. “Get in there—hurry!”

  The boy climbed awkwardly over the lip of the hole, managing to splash water down into the space below.

  “Sir? We could go back up there and try to save the city.”

  “Another lesson: Know when to withdraw so you can strike again.”

  The Justicar lowered Enid’s head into Henry’s hand, then Cinders. He peeled Escalla from his own neck, saw that the smaller snake still had a fluttering pulse, and made ready to go.

  A wild peal of laughter came from the dark. Light sparkled, and an angler fish floated on the garbage, waggling the glowing bulb that dangled from its brow. In Tielle’s voice, the fish celebrated its joy.

  “Ah! Here we are at last! Where’s your little dog?”

  Behind Tielle, a dozen cackling shapes flailed through the water. The chain monks whipped their manacles to catch the jagged and broken ceiling stones, dragging themselves forward through the water. Cocking an eye at the Justicar, the angler fish smiled.

/>   “I knew she’d still have her little friends with her, so I brought a bit of help along. They’re precious, don’t you think? It’s so lovely to have friends.” Tielle’s voice was fragile and gay, and she watched the Justicar with sick eagerness. “Now that we’re all together we can play a game!”

  Escalla moved weakly in Jus’ hand. With his eyes upon Tielle, he passed her down to Henry and folded up the flat entrance to the portable hole. He sealed the pouch in his purse, airtight and safe.

  If Tielle expected a snappy comeback, she never got one. The Justicar simply ducked down beneath the water and shot away. The chain monks bellowed, then hurtled forward while Tielle fired ice darts into the dark.

  “Get them! Get them now!” Tielle turned back into a faerie—filthy and naked without her spider jewels. “Block the sewer tunnels. Go!”

  Chain monks wallowed forward, lashing at the water with their flails.

  In the pitch-black murk beneath the surface, the Justicar felt the water boil and shudder. A chain streaked past him, but he brushed it as he swam across the bottom. Other chains crashed down. He hit buried debris with force enough to hurt—bunched his legs and used the obstacle to launch himself away. An instant later, chain monks plunged into the water behind him, their manacles lunging at the bottom like harpoons.

  Jus hit a stone wall and groped for an exit. There had to be a drain to the river! He jabbed his hand against the floor, the water shuddering as more and more monks blundered into the cavern. Out of breath at last, Jus found a wall, surfaced, drew a breath then launched into a dive.

  There were too many monks. Two of the monsters saw him and blundered in pursuit, and their wild cries dragged more chain monks to the scene. The Justicar twisted like a dolphin as a dozen chains speared point-first through the water. One crashed into his leg almost hard enough to shatter bone, glancing off the big man’s boot.

  The Justicar had long used water as a lurking place. Boots and dragon scale armor slowed him, but he was used to swimming with their bulk. As a chain monk plunged beneath the water and whirled on him, he shot forward and crashed into the monster’s chest. They grappled underneath the water, the monk thrashing madly and trying to use its chains. Grabbing the monster’s chain-covered flesh, the Justicar tried to dislocate a limb. The monk pulled away, its chain links slippery. Jus felt a chain wrap about his waist, then shot between the monster’s legs. The chain yanked at him. He lunged up behind the chain monk, grabbed its head between his forearms, and surfaced, roaring as he broke the creature’s neck with one massive twist of his arms.