The watching sentries leaned forward, staring in amazement. The gold was real. The drow looked behind them at the entrances to the guard rooms in the tunnels behind them, wary to see if they had been missed. There was no point in sharing treasure with too many other grasping hands.
Gold clinked again. The rat could be heard digging, and flecks of dirt and bat dung scattered out onto the floor.
The two drow raised their hand crossbows, the bolts glistening with venom. With short swords in their other hands, they advanced side by side up the passageway. They glared at one another with no love lost, then stalked forward, walking over the rat’s little pile of coin. Both movedfaster and faster in pursuit of the busy rat. They passed outcrops of rock, passed loose soil and gravel left over from a crumbled wall, and watched the rat as it flitted toward its treasure horde.
The elves saw the rat stop to dig at a half-buried skeleton. They gave a grin, hefted their crossbows, and strode toward the rat. Behind them, buried underneath the gravel, a pair of red eyes suddenly gleamed.
There was the softest whisper of sliding gravel, then the two sentries seemed to fall apart. One heartbeat they were half-turning as movement flickered in the dark behind them. The next instant, one elf’s body stoodwithout its head, and the other jerked as the Justicar’s sword blurred downthrough his skull and into the torso below. Without even watching his victims fall, the Justicar swept his blade free, flicked it clean, and sheathed it all in one smooth curve. The two dead drow fell to the tunnel floor, their blood pooling into a gruesome mud on the floor.
Jus shook himself free of dirt and gravel. From far down the tunnel, Polk and Private Henry peered out of hiding, looking pale.
The rat came out into the middle of the corridor and waved them closer, turning to look up and whisper to Jus, “Think they heard?”
Jus shook his head, then knelt to drag the twitching corpses out of sight.
The big rat shimmered, changing from its furry form and into a very naked Escalla. Her clothes had been stuffed out of sight in a rock crevice. She dragged on her leggings, then wriggled her bottom into her undergarments. At the sound of a little noise behind her, she looked archly across one shoulder to see the shocked eyes of Private Henry.
Already pale, Private Henry hurriedly turned to face the wall. Escalla gave a wry smile and began pulling on her long gloves.
“Whassamatter, kid? Never see a girl before?”
“Yes.” The teenager looked a tad unsteady on his feet. “Well,sort of, but you’re a lady!”
Escalla paused, brightened, and instantly radiated a glorious goodwill to all creation. She jerked on her dress and fluttered up to kiss the boy upon the cheek. “Now you’re a gem! Where have you been all my life?”
The boy came forward with Escalla, his crossbow at the ready, but the two drow were most deeply and sincerely dead. The Justicar, spattered here and there with dark blood, had relieved them of small pots of venom sheathed beside their crossbow bolts. He tossed these to the young soldier. Henry stared aghast at the corpses.
Escalla looked at him, and for once without any laughter in her eyes.
“They’re drow. Don’t waste time feeling bad for them. Thesebastards are worse than orcs.” She jerked one of the drow’s clothing aside.“Check it out. Their boots are made from human skin.” Escalla let the clothingdrop. “They skin girls to make the softest boots. The longer the victim staysalive and screams, the better the boots are supposed to be.”
Henry took a tighter grip upon his crossbow and choked, “Mygods.”
“Kill them. Kill them any way you have to.” The faerie noddedher chin at the Justicar’s back and gave a grim smile. “It’s a bad day to be adrow. Justice is coming.”
12
After hiding the bodies in the gravel scrape and covering theblood with dirt and gravel, the Justicar turned to watch the dangerous spaces down the tunnel. Just past where the two sentries had sat their watch, two caverns opened out from the main tunnel, each most certainly housing more guards. The party intended to move down the corridor to creep silently past the two caves on either side of the passageway. The destruction of the entire drow nation, although desirable, was not their current mission.
Escalla patted gravel in place over the corpses, started after Jus, then stopped, reversed, and hovered directly above Private Henry, her newest admirer.
“Hey, kid! Here!” The girl sprinkled powder across PrivateHenry, her eyes closed as she spoke a powerful charm. He jumped as he felt his skin ripple with strange force, and an eerie glow seemed to soak into his skin. Escalla breathed out a sigh, then dusted off her hands. “There you go, kid.Stoneskin. Keep you safe.” The girl rapped knuckles on her own skin. “Bestinsurance policy in the world!”
“B-but what about the Justicar?”
“He’ll get one tomorrow! You’re a bit spongier than he is!”The girl put her finger to her lips. “Now creep along quietly, and we’ll sneakpast the guard rooms.”
The Justicar stole slowly and carefully forward, his sword held ready. He walked with cat-footed care, his boots touching at the heel, then the outer sides, then planting flat and sure. Escalla kept behind and to one side, her battle wand ready.
Jus reached the cave opening on the left, lay flat against the stone, and let Cinders’ ears and nose search the air inside. He thencarefully crossed the passage to the cave on the right. Cinders slowly waved his tail and sampled the damp, dull breeze.
Drow here. The hell hound’s voice echoed softly in theminds of Jus, Escalla, Polk-and also now to the startled Private Henry. Maybeten left, ten right. Bad girlie girls on right. The hell hound grinned. Cinders bum!
Jus held up a hand to halt the hell hound’s antics. The bigman lifted up his hand, and a spell spread slowly out around him. A sphere of total silence radiated from the man, and he walked back to fold his companions in the spell.
There were two caves-one with three small entrances on theleft, and one with a wider, more opulent single entrance on the right. The five companions moved together down the corridor, hugging one wall. Jus brought them swiftly, ushering Polk and Private Henry past and taking the last position as he covered the nearest cave mouth with his sword.
They were past the dangerous cavern mouths and already heading for safety, when suddenly a male drow carrying a basket of food came out into the main tunnel. He saw the Justicar only a few paces away, stared, and opened his mouth to scream.
No sound came. The spell made the drow blink, then he turned to run into the cave. Jus moved, but then something flashed past his flank. The drow jerked, spun, then smashed against the cave wall with a crossbow bolt protruding from his heart. Private Henry stared, his empty crossbow still held on target, amazed at himself, then could only watch as the perfectly matched team of Jus and Escalla sped into activity.
A second drow appeared, looking back over his shoulder and talking to someone behind him in the cave. His voice cut out in his own ears, and then his entire body fell severed diagonally through the waist as the Justicar’s black blade sheared him in two. The drow fell, his hand spasming tofire his crossbow. The bolt sped into his home cave, struck sparks from the stone, and suddenly black figures surged upright in the gloom.
Behind Jus, Escalla shot toward the other cave. With the air of a master craftsman at work, Escalla fired her wand. A silent blast of frost solidified into an ice wall that sealed the opening to the cave. Escalla left only one small hole high up in one corner of the ice. As vaguely seen figures on the far side of the barrier began to appear, Escalla whistled happily, licked her index finger, and fired an ice storm through the little hole.