Refuge: Kurt's Quest (22 page)

Kurt dodged the sword, then swung the hammer
into the stone blade in a two handed strike.  The sword cracked, then shattered
under the force of the golem’s blow.  The golem stared at the broken sword for
a moment, then staggered back as Kurt brought the hammer around and hit it in
the chest.  A few stone chips flew off, not like what had happened when it had
held the spell the Dwarf had put on it.  The golem staggered back, and Kurt
slid his feet forward, braced his body, and swung a trio of blows into the same
spot on the chest.  The golem staggered again, looking for a moment like it was
going to fall on its back, but caught itself at the last moment.

The big Immortal moved in again, swinging two
more blows to the chest, trying to work on the one area to see what would
happen.  The stone statue again staggered back, then swung its shield with all
its considerable mass behind it to strike Kurt in the face.  The Immortal flew
back through the air, his vision blurring, reaching into momentary blackness. 
He landed on his back twenty meters away from the golem, shook off his injury,
and sprang back to his feet.

The first sight to meet his eyes was Jackie
attacking the golem from the back, her twin blades striking off sparks and bits
of stone.  The creature started to turn, and Kurt ran up on it and swung the
hammer into the back of its right knee.  With a flurry of blows he started the
limb cracking around the joint.  The golem fell to one knee, a hand lowered to hold
it off the floor.  Kurt took a couple of quick steps and brought the hammer
into the creature’s elbow.  At the third strike the elbow shattered, and the
golem tumbled hard to the floor in an Earth shaking fall.  Kurt brought the
hammer up, then down on the neck of the golem, cracking the stone.  He hit it
again, and again, finally, on the fourth strike, the head came off.  It rolled
across the floor for a couple of meters, as the body went rigid in its
semi-prone position, once more nothing other than a statue.

Kurt staggered back, sucking in air as his body
overheated.  He started to turn, so he could walk to the wall and sit with his
back to some support.  Halfway through that turn everything went black, and he
fell hard to the ground, unconscious.

Chapter Fourteen

 “What in the hells is that?” asked one of the
Ellala warriors, looking up, his ears rotating slightly.

The Marshal stopped for a moment and held his
hand up.  A sound like thunder reverberated through the tunnels and caverns
that made up this underground world beneath the mountain.  A moment later came
another crack, again sounding much like distant thunder.

“That is divine magic,” said Millistara,
tilting his head and listening intently.  “The magic of a Dwarven priest,
called up to combat creatures of stone.”

“More stone golems?”

“That would be my guess,” said the Priest,
giving a head shake of acknowledgement.  “I would say that our friends made it
into the ruins.  They are still quite a distance away, but we may find
ourselves adjacent to them in the near future.”

“So the Great Wyrm didn’t get them,” said the
troubled leader.

“Nor the Gorgon the dragon hinted at,” agreed
the Priest.  “They are a mighty party.”

Stronger than us?
thought Ellisandra,
looking in the direction of another thunderclap, and realizing that his party,
for all their power, would have had a difficult time taking on and defeating a
huge dragon like the one they had found guarding the entrance.  It didn’t prove
that the foe had beaten the dragon.  They could, of course, have merely escaped
and hidden from the beast.  But the Marshal had a feeling that this was not the
answer. 
We have not had contact with the Wyrm since he flew off to confront
the humans and their allies.

“What do you think happened to the great Red?”
he asked the Priest.

“I think he is dead,” said the Priest.  “From
what we have been told about these, Immortals, and the natural mages they
brought with them, the dragon, arrogant as all of his kind, probably
underestimated them, and paid the price.”

“And will the golems stop them?” asked Ellisandra,
not really expecting a hopeful answer.

“Who knows,” said the Priest.  “While I doubt
it, I couldn’t say for sure.  Any more than I can say that we will make it.”

“But,” said the leader, before the sound of a
loud roar echoed through the caverns.

“They are having a fight of it,” said the Death
Priest with a smile.  “Perhaps we will be lucky, and they will not be.”

“We need to keep moving,” said the Marshal,
waving the men to keep moving.  They passed through another opening, into
another large cavern with a winding path through the middle.

The sounds stopped as they entered this cavern,
though, based on their having moved, that could have just been the vagaries of sound
transmitting or not through other passages. 
May you be crushed into the
stone
, thought the Marshal of his enemies.  If he could get to the
artifacts before the humans, he was sure he would win.  Krug, equipped with the
sword and armor, would be unstoppable.  And anyone with the crown would be able
to call up an army of allies.  If the enemy reached them first, there was
little doubt they would not use them, but, powerful as they were, they might
not need them to win.  Only keep his people from getting them.

Screaming broke out behind, followed by angry
shouts.  The Marshal turned around to see one of his infantry groups standing,
looking down a side tunnel, spears and swords at the ready.  There was a lot of
gesturing going on, and one word repeated. 
Tentacle.

“What’s going on?” asked Ellisandra, walking
back to the men with swift steps, his own sword out, just in case.

“A tentacle came out of that tunnel and grabbed
Klesini, my Lord” said one of the men, poking with his spear at the dark
opening for emphasis.  “One moment he was here, the next gone.  We’re about to
go in pursuit, if it please the Marshal.”

“It does not please me,” said Ellisandra,
glaring at the Ellala.  “We don’t have time for a pursuit down endless
tunnels.”

“But, Klesini,” stammered the Ellala who had
been talking.  The rest of the men gave their leader sullen looks.

The Marshal knew what they were thinking.  They
had been conditioned to be obedient to their superiors, no matter what.  They
had also been conditioned by their circumstances to be loyal to their fellows,
to depend on the other men in their unit to come to their aid, just as they
would for them, no matter what. 
But if we go traipsing down tunnels leading
the Gods know where, we could add hours to our quest, if not days, and that I
cannot afford.

“Keep a careful watch at any other dark
openings,” he told the men.  “Let this be a warning to you that we are in
dangerous territory.  Klesini is most likely dead already, and going after his
corpse would lead to more loss of life.  Now, we forge on.”

The men said nothing.  Their looks told the
story better than any words they could voice.  Some muttered, but all fell into
line and followed their leader.  And all kept close watch on any walls they
were near.

Ten minutes later another Ellala was snatched
from their line, this time from a tentacle that arose from a hole in the floor. 
The Marshal knew then that whether he wanted it or not, he was locked into a
death struggle with one or more creatures in this underworld.

*     *     *

“My Lord Kurt.  Can you hear me?  Are you
well?”

Kurt opened his eyes, closing them almost
immediately as the ambient light evoke pain from his optic nerves.

“He’s coming around,” said the familiar voice.

“I hope there’s no permanent damage.” said a
woman’s voice. 
Jackie?
he thought through a cloudy mind. 
And the
other voice is the Dwarf, Garios.
  Kurt took a deep breath, attempting to
clear his head. 
I’ve never gotten so overheated before.  I have to watch
that in the future. 
He dismissed that thought as soon as it came.  He
would do what it took to save his companions, no matter the risk to himself. 
He was a soldier, and that had always been the way of the army he had served
in.

“I’m, OK,” he said, opening his eyes and
looking into the face of the Dwarf, catching Jackie’s concerned visage past him. 
He smiled at the Dwarf, then gave the woman an even brighter smile.  “I’ll
survive, I think.”

“Any wounds you might have received fighting
the golems are gone,” said the Dwarf, tilting his head and looking at the right
side of Kurt’s face.  “It’s really remarkable the way you heal so quickly. 
There can’t be many things that can kill one like yourself, or the Lady
Jackie.”

“There are some,” said Kurt, remembering his
conversation with Levine. 
At least those memories survived, and I know why
we’re here, so those are also fine.
  He knew that when he needed a memory,
one he knew he had, and it didn’t materialize, he would realize how much he had
lost.

“Help me to my feet,” he told the Dwarf.

Jackie pushed past the Priest and grabbed Kurt
by the arm, using her strength to help lever him to his feet.  Kurt smiled at
her again, knowing that she was one he would give his life for, just as he was
sure she would do the same for him. 
Hopefully, it will not come to that.  I
want both of us to live for a long, long time, and to grow closer through that
time
.  That in itself was a wonderful thought.  He had spent many decades
divorced from the rest of humanity, afraid that whomever he became close to
would age, while he stayed the same.  Now there were others just like him, who
would live as long as he did.

“White Paw is scouting ahead,” said Jackie as
she let go of his arm and let him see if he could walk steady on his own feet. 
“So far he’s found nothing.”

“I’d forgotten about him,” said Kurt,
remembering that the loyal wolf had held back, trying to bombard the golems
with his mental waves, and failing to accomplish anything against the animated
statues.  It was really good that the wolf had more than animal intelligence. 
If it had tried to attack one of the golems, it would have just injured itself
while accomplishing nothing, except put itself in the danger zone of a counter
attack.

One of the knights had not survived the conflict,
and the Immortal looked over at the man being propped up against the wall in a
sitting position as their leader said some words from his faith over him.  This
world knew resurrection magic, and Garios did not have that at his disposal.

James Drake came limping up, holding his head. 
One eye was blackened, but the other was clear and focused.

“Will you be alright?” asked Kurt, concerned
for his young friend, who was also one of their most powerful party members.

“My head may hurt for a while,” said the Mage,
starting a shake of said member, then stopping and grabbing his forehead with
both hands.  “And I guess it’s going to hurt for a while.”

“I used healing magic on the Mage,” said
Garios, frowning.  “He was at risk from the stone that struck his head. 
Possibly life threatening.  Now he will survive, but I was not able to take
away all of his injuries, or his pain.”

“We will move at a pace you can handle,” said
Kurt after a moment’s thought.  “I would not have you wandering this place
alone.” 
And I want to keep our heavy artillery close.  If not for the
misfortune of being hit by that golem, he probably would have generated enough
dragon’s fire to melt them.

Drake looked grateful, though he had to know
the concern was not just because he was such a great human being.  There were
dangers ahead, which no one in the party could really imagine.  And he might be
the power they needed to push through those dangers.

The party moved out in the same tactical
formation they had assumed before running into the room of statues.  Jackie
took the point, Fenris by her side, though she was still a good hundred meters
behind the wolf.  Gromli and one of his men followed behind the female
Immortal.  Kurt, Garios and Drake formed a trio twenty meters back from
knightly pair, with the two Nords, H’rrut and his son, walking just behind them. 
Four other knights followed, forming both the reserve and the rear guard.

Kurt was now linked with White Paw, as well as
Jackie, who was also in link with the wolf.  All were looking through their own
eyes, and the eyes of the other two.  Jackie’s vision looked normal to Kurt, with
maybe a little better dark vision than any regular human, same as his.  White
Paw’s vision was missing some of the color enhancement that he enjoyed with his
own, and the depth perception seemed just a little off.  But the night was very
clear, and the hearing of the beast as much better than even his enhanced
sense.  As far as smell went, even his enhanced Immortal olfactory sense was
just plain pitiful compared to the wolf’s, which was an order of magnitude more
sensitive than his wild, not genetically enhanced, cousins.

[I’m picking up the odor of rotting flesh,]
came a call back from the canine.

[How long have they been dead,] sent Kurt,
holding up a hand to stop the rest of the party.

[A very long time.  And they are moving.  I can
hear the rattle of dried tendons and muscles.]

[Zombies?]

[Not like any I’ve encountered before.  These
are some kind of greater undead, but not the night stalkers.]

Kurt told Garios what the wolf had sent, and
the Dwarf stood for a moment scratching his beard.  “I don’t like the sound of
this.  Those could be mummies, or skeletal lords.  Either would be bad news. 
The question is, what are they doing down here, when their natural inclination
is to search out the living, and make them dead as well.  And, if they were in
hibernation, what woke them?”

“Our passage?”

“We have not gotten to them yet,” said the
Priest, shaking his head.  “The only one close enough to possibly trigger a
wakeup is the wolf, and they normally wouldn’t react to the presence of an
animal.  I wonder.”

“Wonder what?” asked Kurt, looking at the
tunnel ahead, where Jackie and Fenris were stationed, out of his sight.

“It could be a litch, an evil Mage who traded
his soul for an Immortal pseudo-life.  He could have magical trigger spells all
over the place, letting him know when the living are about to invade his lair.”

[Isn’t a litch what the Ellala Emperor is
trying to become?] sent Jackie through the mind speak link.

[Trying is the catchword,] replied the Dwarf. 
[If he ever achieves that ambition, he will become almost impossible to kill. 
As would be this litch, if such is in our path.]

[This is all conjecture,] said Kurt in a mental
growl.  [We have no way of knowing what lies ahead, only that it might be this,
or might be that.]

[Should we try to go around?] sent Jackie, and
Kurt could feel that the woman really didn’t want to delay.  She wanted to
attack and crush this enemy, just like all the others they had faced.

[We don’t have time,] sent the Immortal
leader.  [Every second we waste means the enemy gets closer to the objective.]

[It will risk much if there is a litch, and
some greater mummies or skeletal lords with him,] said the Priest in caution.