Race -Chapter 13

Elmerin pulled out the map. The mapmaker had tried to obscure locations, but it didn't work well on someone familiar with the labyrinth's layout. The location of the cavern where they had just fought the vine monster was accurately marked, giving them a point to orient by. This gave both Elmerin and Drysia the necessary reference point to understand the rest of the map.

"This marking overlaps part of the Cothmore family area and the Lot B storage chambers on the second level. Either would be a good place to put the crystal." Drysia traced the path on the map. "The shortest route would be through here, but I bet the red guys have taken out the rope bridge across the gorge."

The gorge was a deep natural cleft in the caverns the labyrinth had been founded in. It was impractical and possibly dangerous to fill it in, so a bridge had been built across it a long time ago. The original had been stone, but damage by monsters and lack of maintenance since the Cothmores took over the territory led to a rope bridge being strung across next to the crumbling stone structure.

"No bets," Elmerin replied. "The route by the old statue fittings should work -the only narrow passages are near where the crystal is, and blocking them would cut off access from that direction to the residence the Cothmore lords use. They would have a fit about that."

"If it is in the Cothmore residence. If it's in the storerooms, it'll take hours to search them all. In the Cothmore rooms, there's only a few places that would work if you're using a full setup -and with a Bolat crystal, you want to."

"If we need to, we'll snag someone and beat what we need out of them." Elmerin shrugged. "I'm more concerned about how many guards these guys might have around the crystal."

"Then we'll beat them up to get at it." Drysia shrugged. "The bigger concern is purifying the area -the symbol papers may not be enough to reverse it in time. Do you have paint to draw on the walls?"

"I can use purifying spells. The priests of the various temples grudgingly allow emergency use by nonactive priests. Preventing a dungeon is an emergency everywhere."

"Except Jerkmore," Drysia grumbled. "If they were doing their jobs, this wouldn't be a problem." Her eyes suddenly widened. "I wonder if Count Cothmore -if he wants that -because." She cut herself off. "Let's go."

Because what? Elmerin's curiosity warred with his dislike, his future knowledge offering nothing. The current emergency won. "Yes, let's go."

*******

They set off, not sprinting, but running at a steady pace that would eat up the distance and could be maintained for hours. Even though Elmerin had at least 15 centimeters on Drysia and longer legs, she had no trouble keeping up as they sped through the tunnels.

Encounters with monsters were avoided if they could; if they couldn't, they struck fast and hard to finish the fight quickly. Fortunately there was nothing higher than a Ruby in their path.

"Elmerin." Drysia stopped and pointed down a darkened side tunnel. Dried vines could be seen in the light from the ceiling crystals, intact this far from the explosions. "It's Heartfoot or Tickleweed."

"I hope it's not Heartfoot. That crap is bad enough without being monsterized." Elmerin peered into the shadows. "Fucking magicians, using the distraction of the Demon King to make all kinds of crap."

Drysia had taken out some chalk and was drawing a warning sign and line in front of the side passage. "With either, as long as no one crosses into their territory, it's fine even as monsters. It's Lustvine that roams." She put the chalk away and dusted off her hands. "Hopefully this doesn't grow much more until someone has time to handle it."

He had to admit, Drysia was easier to talk to without Falchan around. Elmerin handed her some dry meat and a ration bar. A snack and a quick drink of water later, they were off again.

*******

After several hours, Elmerin and Drysia had bypassed the turnoff to the gorge and were approaching the area the map seemed to mark as actively patrolled. They slowed to allow Elmerin to use Echo, Drysia keeping an eye out for distractions or trouble.

"Picking anything up?"

"No. But I haven't set the strength or range very high. If they have any decent magicians, they might detect it if I use too much mana in one go."

Drysia grunted. She was about to say something else when Elmerin started and held a finger to his mouth, gesturing her into a nearby side passage.

Crouching behind the sides of the doorway, the two watched carefully as a pair of people in red hooded cloaks walked by. From Elmerin's angle, he could see they both wearing the symbol of two red dragons wrapped around a staff. His eyes widened.

"Dragon badge?" Drysia whispered once the cloaked duo were out of hearing range.

Elmerin nodded. "After seeing it, I think that symbol is close to one used by one of the more minor units in the Demon Wars." He tilted his head in thought. "If the map and what we know matches, then they're coming from the area they've occupied. Probably a patrol."

Resuming their trek, they now crept with more caution through the stone halls where worked stone gradually began to replace the natural walls of the caves. A sign they were approaching the area where people with more money lived during the visits from Bolat.

"The wealthy section of the caves," Drysia snaked softly. "They can't live surrounded by raw stone like a peasant -that just won't do."

Elmerin silently agreed with her. The age-old problem of wealth, magic ability, bloodlines, and power by any and all means always plagued Tas. The biases the Summoned had brought -well, some of them- and the improvements they had tried had just complicated the mess.

There were advantages to worked walls over raw caves. Including consistently higher ceilings. They came to a part where three passages connect with theirs in a three-pronged "Y" formation, and looked up. 

Good. The wall ledge a couple meters under the ceiling along one passage was on the same path they needed to follow. 

Elmerin stowed his spear and knelt, interlocking his fingers to make a step. Drysia sheathed her sword and backed up. Running forward, she stepped on his hands, him giving her a boost up. She grabbed onto the ledge and pulled herself up.

Taking a breath, she pulled herself to her knees and looked around. In times of occupation, these ledges held expensive statues and other items, put there by the inhabitants of this section. For now, there were only some pedestals and racks. Pulling out a rope, she secured it to one of the pedestals and let down the end for Elmerin to climb up.

Once on the ledge, Elmerin looked down. They'd knocked off very little of the loose gravel and dirt on the ledge that had collected over the last century, and nothing that couldn't be accounted for by the animals and monsters that roamed the labyrinth. As long as the two were careful, they could use the ledge to speed up their journey without running into the Red Dragons -the ledges were poorly designed for patrolling or defense. Even most monsters stayed off them.

Keeping close to the wall behind the ledge, they resumed their trip, slightly slower than they wanted due to needing to watch for loose stones and holes hidden by dirt, that could slow them down at best and could cause time- and mana- consuming injuries at worst.

About an hour later, they looked down from the ledge in the last passage, toward the door that should lead to the audience room of the Cothmore Counts -and hopefully the Bolat crystal. 

*******

Characters in this chapter:

Elmerin

Drysia

Red Dragon patrol

Monsters mentioned in this chapter:

Heartfoot: A tentacle-vined monster. Its flowers release toxic pollen. The pollen paralyzes monsters and animals, but makes humans, beastkin, elves, etc., feel severely romantically attracted to anyone within view. As a plant, it's fairly small and can release pollen in a radius of about a third of a meter. As a monster, it can grow quite huge and have a pollen release radius of twenty meters. In either form, it stays rooted. Paralyzed prey becomes fertilizer. Created by a magician so he wouldn't have to "waste time" getting girls to like him. 

Lustvine: A sinister tentacle-vined monster with a large flower acting as a "head". The flower can range from deep red to light pink. There is a larger rooted "male" plant that is attended to by a number of mobile "female" plants. The size of the male and female plants depends on their age. The female plants spread ball-shaped seed pods wherever they can, but prefer to plant them in living organisms. The vines exude a thick mucus.

Living beings caught in the vines of the plants are either crushed for fertilizer, or exposed to the mucus. The mucus creates an intense state of lust, making it easier for the females to plant their seeds. The vines will assist this state as much as is needed.

The plant form usually has a half meter-tall male flower and four to twelve centimeter female flowers. It is rare for there to be more than twelve female flowers to one male when they are in plant form. In monster form, the male can reach ten or more meters in height and the females can number in the hundreds. A Diamond level male monster may become mobile. Created by a magician to use with the victims he kidnapped.

Tickleweed: A tentacle-vined monster. It will grab anything in its range and literally tickle it to death; prey dies from suffocation. As a plant, it grows to about a meter long. As a monster, it can grow to thirty meters or more, and the vines take on proportional thickness. In either case, it stays rooted. Created by a magician as an "amusing" way of handling trespassers.