I put a protective palm over my soul-destroying dagger. "It ain't for sale."
"Show me your weapons!" Kat ordered the merchant, with no intention of buying or selling. "Do it now!"
"Alas," the thing returned, "I have none but this spear to support me." He coughed what appeared to be more hair into his already furry palm. "I was robbed crossing the deserts — my horses, my stock, all taken by the sand dwellers. I killed twelve before I was overcome, but nevertheless escaped with my soul intact."
Confused by his predicament, Wisp leant rather pitifully against the wall for air.
"What favor do you seek from us?" I asked, feeling sorry for him.
"I am in search of resurgence,” he wheezed, painfully. "My body…is frail, you see. Only the labyrinth holds the key to my renewal. With the dangers that lay ahead and my current condition, I cannot achieve this feat alone. If you will see me safely to the centre of this web, each of you will be handsomely rewarded. Very handsomely indeed."
We were intrigued, but far from interested…Yet.
"Why our help?" pressed Harmony. "You don't know us. Why, we could be out to rob you ourselves!"
Wisp gargled. Under that cloak, he sounded more animal than anything else. "A samurai, a knight, angel and man; such unions are made in Heaven not Hell. I have seen most Hell has to offer, and I see in all but one, that hearts are good here."
It wasn't difficult to deduce who the bad heart in our group belonged too. Kat did not appear insulted. Although he had killed for less, there was something about Wisp that Kat clearly warmed too.
"Tell me," I pried; "what lies at the centre of the labyrinth? We saw its light from above. What is it?"
The odd creature stepped and limped forward, and with a face of vacuous shade, he bent to share his secret. "The well,” he grumbled. "The light…and the well."
Kat's gasp shocked me, and Wisp responded with the merest dip of his cloaked head. Harmony and Eddinray were as open faced and nosey as I was, and Wisp didn't keep us waiting.
"Every sentenced soul in Hell,” he began, “has at one point, knowingly or unknowingly, drank the wells water. It is dispensed from the labyrinth centre in various forms: showered through droplets in the air itself, or distributed by the black angels alongside their death and despair. The well water is circulated to reach all who deserve incarceration, and here it contains them."
"What does it do?" whispered Eddinray. "What can it do?"
Wisp coughed again and stumbled sickly against his spear. "It gives the suffering…a threshold. One sip and the body can withstand the most unimaginable torture. The mind will feel, but the body survives. Perpetual suffering is the way of things here, and the well and its light make eternal torment possible. Drink enough of the water, knight, and it is said to replenish ones youth and vitality — the Holy Grail itself. All this awaits a mere few walls away…"
I knew now why the decayed Wisp desired such a gift, but I was still indifferent to this crazy side quest.
"That's not why we're here,” I said. "We don't seek any treasure, especially one found in Hell. I'm sorry Wisp, but we can't help you…"
Wisp gave me a respectful wave. "To find the greatest treasures," he said, "one must endure the worst hardships. I see by your eye that you know exactly what I am talking about."
I turned the left side off my face from his sight. I didn't need reminding of the worm's post or the bluntness of Scarfell's knife.
"I too have been through much hardship,” Wisp added. "The body has been ravaged by various forms of fire and brimstone. My health will be restored by the well…as will your eye to you. Alternatively, do you humans seek something greater? The way out perhaps? I can, if you so desire, lead you there."
With a gasp similar to Kat's a moment ago, I looked greedily back to Wisp. I wanted my eye back, course I did, but I coveted the Gauntlet even more. "You know where to find the Gauntlet? You know where it is?"
"I do," he answered, "but I dare not run it."
"We go to the well,” interrupted Kat, still making our decisions for us. "You have a deal with us creature. Do not break it!"
I did not like nor understand Kat's sudden hunger for this well, the man seemed drunk on the preposterous power of it. "Why do you want this Kat?" I asked, taking him aside. "Why…would we want it?"
His expression scrunched queerly, as if I was insane for not understanding his motives. "Your task is the 9th Fortress," he grizzled back; "mine is to get you there in one piece. The well guarantees both."
His brief argument sounded reasonable enough — insurance you could say. Fill the flasks with this miracle water and insure the bodies I dragged down here, whilst gaining the vital location of the Gauntlet.
"What do you think?" I asked Harmony and Eddinray, who shrugged unhelpfully.
"The well…for the Gauntlet,” I said, agreeing terms with Wisp by shaking his hairy hand. And so we five set off along the confined corridors of the labyrinth, eyes ever sharper — for the jewel of invincibility will not come cheap…or unguarded.
24. War
Apprehensively, Kat was led by Wisp, and following that beaten old tire took time. I stuck to the lagging group with Eddinray and Harmony, and it seemed only I was confused by Kat's sudden shine to the merchant. Ahead, those warriors passed words with occasional nods of agreement and unheard of smiles from the samurai.
"You believe that?" I whispered. "I've been with Kat forever. We've climbed mountains together for God-sake, fought a Centaur king; he even cut my toes off at one point! Yet there he is…having more conversation with a stranger than he ever has with me!"
The Angel and Knight shared wiry grins. "No need to be jealous,” Harmony said. "Besides, I'm sure Kat likes you the best."
"How many toes?" asked Eddinray. "Have a falling out then?"
"It's a long story. And I'm not jealous of Wisp, okay?"
"We know Daniel,” added a condescending Harmony, causing me to stop them both.
"I am not jealous! Guys this is not about being popular, I just don't understand it, that's all. The Apache was the same ilk as Kat, why not show him the respect he's giving Wisp now?"
"Perhaps our Indian friend was too similar to the samurai?" Harmony considered. "A threat to Kat's leadership?"
"Leadership," Eddinray pointed out; "requires a commanding of communication my dear, which the Kat is clearly lacking."
"Wisp on the other hand," continued Harmony, "is an older warrior, an alien thing with no territory to mark, a merchant making a trade and keen to share his wisdom. Why wouldn't Kat embrace this?"
"He's still a stranger,” I said, expecting them to agree; but all I got was another joke-like grin between the pair. "It is not jealousy!"
"Sometimes it's best to talk to a stranger,” said Eddinray. "They do not judge a man…Not out loud at least."
"Yes,” added the angel. "They share experience those two, surviving danger and death at every turn. The Kat and Wisp are kindred spirits."
"I also share their experience!" insisted Eddinray. "But they are not as gallant as I. They are blood thirsty killers clearly, having nothing of the moral dilemma that tortures the gentleman warrior, who kills because he has too, not because he wants too."
It was now Harmony and my turn to share smiles. "Thanks,” I said. "Don't know where I'd be without you two."
"I do,” answered Eddinray, with complete confidence. "Danny you'd be in the belly of the Scurge, and Harmony you'd be locked away in a wizard's cage — if it weren't for me that is."