“Tidalwrath’s teeth, that was slicin it thin,” Ilbei said. “Fine reflexes ya got there, son.”
Kaige grinned as he straightened his half of the curtain. “Don’t need you full of holes, Sarge.”
When Ilbei was back on balance, he noticed Jasper gaping across the pool, aware of what had almost happened and, therefore, again paralyzed with fear. “Jasper,” Ilbei said, sharply enough to get the wizard’s eyes blinking again. “Get on with it!” He pointed into the water at the glowing fungus.
Looking downstream, Ilbei was relieved to see a slick of the luminous fungal chunks shaping up, big pieces and little bits that whirled in the current like floating dust. Through the gap in the curtain, he could see it moving down the cave, its soft glow gently coloring the walls.
“It’s workin,” he hissed. “Keep on.”
He reached for the giant sword on Kaige’s back, and the soldier bent down, angling his shoulders so that Ilbei could slide it free. Ilbei drew it out and cleared the edge of the pool around them, then worked toward the back. He reached across as far as he dared, clearing toward Jasper’s half of the pool. He didn’t want to expose his hands to Verity through the curtain gap, though he got very close.
He discovered this by the fact that Verity’s next shot put a hole through the flat of Kaige’s blade, a short, loud clank, as if it had been struck with hammer and punch. He stared at the hole for a moment and cringed. “Ya’d be better off with an ogre kick to the face than to take one of them arrows to anythin.” Kaige and Meggins readily agreed.
Ilbei waited until Jasper had cleared off as much of the fungus as he could on his side, then had him slide back over to the safety of the curve where Meggins was. Then he instructed Meggins and Kaige to pull the curtain over to the near side of the hole where he was, and he set to it again with the sword.
Two more arrows came through, one high and one low, the second striking the sword beneath the water. The water slowed it enough that it didn’t punch through, but the shock rattled up the sword so violently that Ilbei dropped it into the pool.
Ilbei groped around in the near dark for it. Their progress clearing out the fungus had dimmed the little chamber down significantly. He found the weapon, and with a few more scrapes, he broke loose the last big chunks of fungus, making darkness almost complete. Only little bits here and there remained, crumbs whose light shone in tiny spots like submerged starlight. Ilbei scraped most of those away with his boot. Soon after, it was dark enough that Ilbei dared to wade back across the pond. No arrow came through.
“You think he left?” Meggins asked.
“No. He ain’t the sort to leave,” Ilbei said.
He leaned out to where he could see through the gap in the makeshift curtain and looked downstream. Verity crouched against the wall on the left side, opposite where Jasper had said he was, but at the same distance. He only knew it was Verity and not some round feature of the rock by the way the green feather on the arrow glowed, the arrow he had nocked and ready to let fly.
There came a hiss right after Ilbei saw it. The curtain moved, and there was a splash in the water. Ilbei jerked back behind cover, but realized as he did that the shot had been nowhere near him.
“Doesn’t change anything, Spadebreaker,” Verity called. “I’m as comfortable in the dark as you are. Likely a lot more so than your mage.”
Ilbei turned to Jasper. “Get the spell out. Let’s go.”
He couldn’t see Jasper’s expression until the satchel was open and the small bit of fungus Jasper had kept illuminated his face as he searched.
“Keep that light back if ya can,” Ilbei said.
“I still think this is a terrible idea,” Jasper said.
“Just do it. Let’s go before the light is all washed away.” He crossed the pool and gave Kaige back his sword.
Ilbei chanced a glance out through the opening. He could see the last of the fungus they’d broken loose was perhaps twenty paces upstream of Verity. He noticed as he looked that Verity had moved back to the right side of the cave again.
Another arrow whistled past, this one through the opening at the curtain’s edge. It missed Ilbei by less than half a hand.
Jasper looked up from his glowing satchel, unfurling a scroll as he did. “Are you ready?”
“Go,” Ilbei said.
Jasper began to read as Ilbei pulled his pickaxe over his shoulder and gripped it in both hands. The trailing edge of the glowing fungus floated even with Verity.
Jasper continued to read.
The blue glow moved past Verity and began to fade around the gentle bend.
Jasper read.
“Son of a hydra,” Ilbei muttered. Then he was in water halfway to his knees. He heard the hiss of an arrow, felt it by the wind on his face. He ran forward, his feet splashing loudly for three long steps. He knew he was giving himself away, even in the pitch black of the cave. As soon as he thought it, he dove and rolled.
Chunks of shattered stone hit him in the back of the neck. Some went down inside his armor as the sound of the arrow rattled on the stone. He jumped up and ran downstream three more paces, then dove right, rolling up against the side of the cave wall where he hoped the curve began. He used the gurgling of the running water to help him navigate what he hoped was straight.
He heard another arrow strike the stone on the other side of the stream.
He was up again, running around the bend. He saw in silhouette the figure of Verity drawing back his bow, pressing himself against the edge of the cave another twenty paces down, the hunter backlit by the floating fungus washing gently away. Ilbei dove again, and this time the arrow cut through his chainmail at the shoulder, driving several links into his flesh and spinning him all the way around. His pickaxe hit the wall and splashed into the stream.
He made a move to go for it, then leapt across the water, leaving it behind. An arrow plunged into the water where he would have been. He jumped back, grabbed his weapon, then jumped forward again, intentionally splashing the water with his feet. He stepped across quietly and went low, this time creeping silently along the edge, staying out of the water. He could see Verity as a black shape, but growing less and less distinct as the fungus drifted farther and farther away. He wouldn’t be able to see him at all very soon. But he knew Verity couldn’t see him at all now. It was now or never.
He sprinted forward, holding his pickaxe high. Five steps, six. He knew they were audible. He jumped across the flow of the water, using the dimming light like a guiding star. He saw Verity’s elbow move, the barest of movements, an angle of shadow. Ilbei pitched himself forward, headlong into the stream, sliding down the smooth slope of its bed as the arrow whizzed over him. He was on his feet the instant after and saw the shadowy movements of Verity drawing yet another arrow from the quiver on his back. Ilbei flung his pickaxe, end over haft, sprinting forward right after it.
He heard the crack of bone as he approached, the dull, woody splintering of something hollow breaking open. By the time he’d finished the distance between them, Verity had tipped over onto his side and lay pouring out the contents of his head. Soon after, the glowing fungus washed out of range, leaving Ilbei and the body in the dark. He called back to the rest, “That’s done it, boys. Nice work.”
Chapter 25
W
ith the wan light from Jasper’s bit of fungus, he, Meggins and Kaige made their way downstream to Ilbei, Mags cradled in the big man’s arms. When they got to Ilbei, Meggins pulled one of their two remaining torches and lit it. It was wet, like the rest of their gear, but with the help of one of Jasper’s oil spells, he got it to burn. Doing so brought a gasp from Jasper, for the light illuminated the wreckage of Locke Verity’s head, gray bits of brain clumped like curd, spilling into the waterway, an oily residue clouding the water and drifting from his broken skull like seeds from a busted melon, at which point the wizard turned away and retched.
“Hey, do that downstream,” Meggins said, though his attention was stolen right after by what he saw. It was not the seeping brain matter that transfixed him. It was Verity’s black bow.
Ilbei raised his hand, shielding his eyes as Meggins approached with the torch. He saw immediately where the warrior’s eyes had gone. He nodded and kicked the dead hunter over, raising the quiver filled with arrows out of the water for him to see as well. “Too bad these things are so heavy ya can’t shoot em,” he said. “But the bow is yers if ya can do anythin with it.” He turned back to Kaige, who was standing upstream from Jasper still holding Mags in his arms. “Get what you’re gonna get, and let’s get downstream where we can lay her out long enough fer Jasper to do his fancier spell.”
He took the torch from Meggins and went to check on Mags. He leaned down and listened for breath again. The water running past was still too loud, but there was warmth blowing against his face. Not quite willing to be excited by it, he pulled back and stuffed two fingers against her neck, digging in deep enough to feel her pulse. His fingers were too wet and cold, and he couldn’t feel anything. He blew on them and then tried a different angle, pressing into her neck again. Still nothing. He tried twice more. Her flesh was wet and clammy, but he told himself it was the water she’d been lying in. Finally he felt it, the barest pulse.
“Her heart’s a-thumpin, boys. By the light of sweet Mercy, she might come through yet. Get that stuff gathered up, Meggins.” He turned to look at the man, but the soldier already had the bow in his hand and an arrow nocked.
“See there, Sarge. You just got to have the quiver on, or maybe just close.” He drew the arrow back as far as he could, then relaxed, not firing. “Draws back easy too. Could have pulled this back when I was twelve.”
“Well, ya can brag on yer new prize later,” Ilbei said. “Just watch it fer now. Jasper, ya got any of them magic seein spells what can get out ahead of us? Be our luck to finish off Verity here just in time to amble right into the Skewer.”
“Oh dear,” gasped Jasper, and a long, whining sound issued from his stomach as his intestines churned. “But I don’t. I’ve already told you what I have.”
“Well, we need light the way on up ahead, otherwise, we’re targets just the same as we were back there.”
“I can use my last fireball,” Jasper said. “But it will be gone pretty fast, like the other one.”
“How about the oil?” Meggins said. “Like the stuff you used on the torch. That burned, wet and all.”
“I’m not sure how that will help,” Jasper said.
“Same as the floating fungus did. Can’t you light something and float it down the creek?”
“Technically, the oil will float down the creek,” Jasper said. “And I suppose it might work.” He looked down at the water running by. “I think it will still be moving too fast.”
“Not if we run,” Ilbei said. “We only need to get her back to the fork where it’s dry.”
“But that’s a long way,” Jasper protested. “Do you have any idea how far that is?”
“Yeah, it’s an hour. Maybe more. If’n they’d put ya through boot camp proper instead of in the pillory half the time, ya wouldn’t be worried none.”
“Well, that’s just too far.” Jasper’s voice was high and whining like his guts had been. “We didn’t even get a good night’s rest.”
“I been on three-day drinkin binges what used more energy than what we done so far,” Ilbei said. “Mags needs ya to man up, son.” He looked past Jasper to Kaige. “Can ya keep up while carryin her?”
“I can keep up,” the big man said. “And drag Jasper along too, if I have to.”
“Good lad,” Ilbei said. “Ya tell me if’n ya need me to spell ya some runnin her.”
“I will.”
“All right, let’s get movin. Go on, Jasper, read yer oil magic.”
Jasper studied all three of his upright companions in turn, an expression of horror growing upon his face as he realized they were serious. He would have protested again, but he saw the way that Ilbei began to broaden about the chest and shoulders, preparing for a tirade or perhaps worse. Jasper wisely let out the breath he’d drawn for his complaint. “Fine,” he said. “But if I die of exhaustion or heart failure, you’ll have both deaths on your hands.”
“I can live with that,” Ilbei said. “Now cast.”
Shortly after, a tacky patch of flame drifted downstream, spreading and contracting as it went, sometimes stretched very thin and long, other times seeming to pile up against the narrow strip of stone serving as creek bank. Jasper assured them it wouldn’t stick to the rock because he hadn’t read the spell with the inflection for adhesion but rather with one for a congealing property to keep it from breaking apart. It was an explanation that everyone else ignored as they waited for Ilbei to gauge that the flames were far enough downstream for them to follow at a trot. The command came soon after, and they were off: Meggins in front with the bow ready, Ilbei right after, Kaige and Jasper doing their best to keep up.
Running as they were, they arrived at the branch in the tunnel in a little under an hour, each of them in various stages of breathlessness. At one end of the weariness spectrum was Jasper, wheezing and sounding as if he might collapse and die, and at the other Meggins, who looked as if he’d hardly done more than cross a road.
“Meggins,” Ilbei said, as he waited for his wind to return, “follow them flames down another three hundred paces and set yerself on watch. Kaige, go on over there where it’s dry and get Jasper goin on Mags. Then grub up and rest a spell.”