Chapter 22

They left the skivver city with Blip, who led them down another tight tunnel almost too small for them to fit through. This one sloped downward slightly, as did the last one, but it didn’t go nearly as far. After crawling for just a few minutes they came back out into the ravine.

They were not at the bottom level, however. This tunnel had dropped them out onto a small ledge, barely big enough for two of them at a time. They were still fifty feet up from the bottom. Below them, a crumbling stone pillar stood maybe four feet away and ten feet lower. Below that, wedged into the ravine, was a piece of what might have been part of the floor, maybe another ten feet down.

“You can’t be serious,” Grace, who came out of the tunnel behind Osric, muttered. “We’ll break our necks.”

“The safest way. Trust Blip,” the skivver said before leaping down to the pillar with ease, his tiny claws finding purchase on the weathered stone. He looked back expectantly, waiting for them to follow.

Osric exchanged a glance with Grace and leaned down to look into the tunnel, coming face to face with Talia, who was waiting for them to clear out of the way before she came out.

“We’re going to have to jump down. There’s ... you’ll see when you get out here. We’ll go one at a time. Just follow the person ahead of you. And be careful,” Osric said to her, before straightening up and turning to Grace. “Wait until Talia is out to follow me, so the people behind us know what to do.”

“Sure,” Grace said, for once not sounding sarcastic.

Seeing that Osric was ready, Blip jumped down to the next piece, making room for him to jump down. Osric took a deep breath and leaped. His feet hit the pillar with a jarring impact, nearly sending him stumbling off the edge. He windmilled his arms, steadying himself. Blip looked back up to him again, and then jumped to the next perch.

Osric followed him down, each landing feeling like he was going to go careening over the edge. Above him he heard exclamations and curses as each of his friends followed after him.

The final jump was the worst. It was by far the farthest, and it was dark enough at the bottom that Osric couldn’t be sure where the floor was. To make it worse, Talia’s light was high above him, causing shadows to dance around, obscuring the floor even more.

Not that he had any choice now. He’d already committed this far. With one last leap, he hit the ground hard, pain radiating up his legs. Nothing broken, though. He was able to stand and shake it off in time to see a much more nimble Grace touch down next to him, easy as could be.

There was one tense moment when Jasper almost went over the side of the third landing, sending a shower of pebbles down. Osric still wasn’t sure how the old man managed to regain his footing, but he did. Thankfully.

“Let’s not do that again,” Talia said when she landed, her elbow bleeding from when she hit the ground and fell forward, smashing down on her arms.

“Agreed,” Osric said, helping her up.

Once they were all on the ground, Blip said, “Come on, not far now.”

Blip scurried ahead, leading them through the ruins of the temple’s once-grand entrance. The rooms that once sat there were now mostly crumbled stones, faded remnants of a lost civilization. Blip led them toward the center of the building, stopping just before a half-standing doorway.

“Usually here,” he said, indicating the door.

Osric edged toward it, listening and hearing nothing. Peeking inside, he saw what looked like a makeshift camp, complete with tents and crates that looked much newer than the temple ruins around them.

“They’re gone,” Osric said.

“But where?” Jasper asked, coming up behind him.

“Grace, keep an eye out,” Osric said, as they went in to look through the supplies.

Everything was in good order, as if they’d walked away from it expecting to come back. The remains of a fire were cold, so it had been some time since they’d been there, but the food stored in a sack near one of the tents was still fresh and good. It had been brought down maybe a week ago at most, which matched with what the skivver said about when the new Brethren arrived and the timeline of when Godfrey would have dispatched additional men.

“Gone to the center place,” Blip said as they dug through everything. “They come, then go to the center place. They never come back.”

Osric didn’t like the sound of that, but it was almost certainly where they needed to go.

“Show us,” Osric said.

Blip chittered anxiously but led them deeper into the complex. They followed him to a large open area, possibly a courtyard, in front of a massive set of double doors that stood cracked open. It wasn’t clear what this area was used for, as it was in the center of an open-air building and was mostly surrounded by debris, some of which looked like it had been pushed aside to clear the area out more.

What was more shocking by far, however, was the carnage in its center. The bodies of half a dozen men, likely Brethren, lay strewn about, their bodies twisted and lying where they fell. There were still two men standing, fighting some grotesque beetle-like creature that stood about waist-high. It had cuts and slashes on its body and a sword stuck out of its side.

One of the two men was swinging a sword desperately, backpedaling, trying to get away from the creature that was lunging forward, its mandibles closing around the mid-section of his friend.

That man’s eyes went wide in shock as the monster lifted him off the ground, letting out a raw, primal scream as the pincers clamped down with an audible crunch that Osric could hear from where he stood. The scream was cut short when the powerful jaws closed all the way, severing the man into two pieces.

His friend, with a bellow, reversed his grip and stabbed forward, his sword sinking deep into the beetle’s head. The beetle let out a screech and skittered back a step, wavering before ripping the sword that was still stuck in its head out of the man’s hands. It shook its head, trying to dislodge the weapon, but it was stuck fast. Opening its jaws again, it hissed and a stream of some kind of green, viscous ichor shot out, splattering across the man’s face and armor.

The beetle then took a sideways step, fell over, and spasmed. The man didn’t even notice his victory, screaming himself, trying to simultaneously wipe the green liquid from his face and pull his armor off, as everywhere it had splashed began to smoke. Osric watched in horror as the skin on the man’s face began to blacken and peel, spreading wider and wider, revealing the skull and sinew beneath as the substance ate through him. He managed one last scream before falling dead.

And then it was quiet.

“Did that one creature do all this?” Rowan asked, looking at the bodies.

“There are two more beetle things over here,” Jasper pointed to a side of the courtyard, where two more bodies lay, covered in cuts and slashes.

After seeing the effect of the acid, no one wanted to get closer.

Blip, hiding behind Osric, let out a whimper.

Osric knelt down, placing a gentle hand on the skivver’s head, and said, “You should go back to your people. It’s not safe here. Thank you for all your help.”

“You should leave. Run away,” Blip said, clearly afraid for them.

“I can’t. I wish I could, but I have to do this. It’s important.”

Blip looked at him with its big eyes, and then reached under itself, almost like it was rummaging around in its own fur, before coming up with a small, very old-looking pendant that was missing its chain. For a moment, Osric wondered if the skivver had pouches of some kind, like some surface animals had. It would be convenient, given their predilection for shiny trinkets.

“A gift. For remember Blip,” the skivver said, pressing the pendant into Osric’s hand.

He took the small piece of metal and said, “Thank you, Blip. I’ll treasure it always. Now, go, quickly. Stay safe.”

Blip looked at him for another moment, and then scampered off, disappearing into the darkness.

“You don’t have to do this with me,” Osric said, standing. “It’ll be dangerous.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Grace said, before Jasper grabbed the back of her collar, holding her tight.

“We’re with you, Osric,” Jasper said.

Everyone pulled weapons as they approached the large doors. They weren’t open wide enough for them to get all the way through, and from the position of two of the bodies, it looked like they might have been trying to push them closed and were stopped in the process.

Osric took one look back at his friends before gripping the massive door and heaving it open. The metal groaned as it was pulled back, scraping against the tile, ruining any chance of them sneaking in quietly.

The chamber inside was poorly lit, mostly illuminated by the floating ball next to Talia and the torches put in place by the Brethren in the courtyard outside, creating shadows that danced and moved inside the chamber. Shadows that did not do enough to hide the monstrous creature inside as it turned towards them.

It was a grotesque amalgamation of insect and nightmare, a massive beetle-like abomination with a jagged patchwork of mottled brown and black chitin plates, scarred with deep grooves and fissures. Between the segments, bulbous sacs of grayish flesh pulsated, covered in some kind of slimy substance that reflected the light.

Where pincers should have been, a gaping maw split its face, a ragged hole lined with needle-like teeth, some kind of dark green viscous fluid dripping from it.

As Osric watched, one of these sacs pulsated more than the others, and a beetle-like creature burst from it, leaping to the ground, snapping its small pincers at them.

“By the gods,” Rowan breathed. “What is that thing?”

As if in response, the creature let out a bone-shaking roar, a sound that was part insectoid chitter, part agonized howl. It reared up on its hind legs, towering over them, its bulk filling the chamber.

Rowan reacted instantly, notching an arrow and releasing it at the monstrous creature, managing to sink the shaft into softer skin between two of the hard plates protecting the beast.

A putrid odor filled the room as its dark, black blood began seeping from the wound, eliciting another roar from the creature.

Cinder darted forward, leaping at the smaller beetle, the two bowling over as their jaws snapped at each other. Grace was not far behind the wolf, dodging past the spindly legs of the creature and stabbing as they rolled around, her blade managing to find the beetle while avoiding Cinder.

Talia and Jasper stayed back, each performing magic in their own way. Talia slammed her staff down, again bringing up the magical barrier to protect her. Jasper called for his god’s favor, once again filling Osric with a warmth and confidence.

Osric gave a roar, almost out of reflex, as he charged forward, longsword held in a high grip, swinging at the creature as soon as he got close. The blade skidded along one of the hard pieces of carapace before sinking into flesh. The creature wrenched back, nearly pulling the blade out of Osric’s hand, but he managed to pull the weapon out just in time before he would have been disarmed.

As the behemoth landed, another of the pulsating sacs on its abdomen began quivering before, with a sickening sound, bursting open, sending another of the small beetle creatures to the ground.

The creature Cinder and Grace were fighting, managed to dislodge Cinder, throwing the wolf free. Its mandibles snapped out at Grace, clamping down on her leg, eliciting a cry of pain.

Cinder rebounded from being thrown off and charged again, snapping down on the edge of the smaller creature’s mandible, forcing it to release Grace, who stumbled back, a nasty gash across her thigh.

“There are more of them!” Rowan warned, releasing another arrow, which sank into the creature a hand span from the first.

Grace started to move back into the fight when the second small beetle the creature had released charged at her. Dancing aside, although not as effectively as before, her leg giving a little as she put weight on it, she raked her sword across the new beetle’s side before pushing hard, managing to pierce its exoskeleton and pierce the creature itself, which screeched and leaped back, abandoning its charge.

Talia, who had been looking up at the ceiling, began weaving her hands, casting a spell. Except this one didn’t emit electricity or acid or glowing bolts. Instead, high above them, a piece of the still-intact roof of the temple pulled free, floating on its own for a moment as it spun in mid-air until the most pointed of its edges faced down toward the creature. And then gravity took over, the large piece of masonry and tile plummeted into the huge creature, the weight of it cracking the carapace along its back and causing it to stagger sideways slightly.