Chapter 11

Day 8:

They camped in the storeroom over night. Watching the stairs with a fire at their back made the time more bearable. They each took slightly longer shifts, so Hal could have a short one last. His fire-warmed, dry armor felt like heaven when he got up.

“Thank you all.” He told them when they got up in the morning.

He scouted up the stairs to the next level while they packed up. He found another storage floor at the top of the flight. This one was bigger, wider, with pantries and meat lockers extending off the main hall. Another draugyr guarded the stairs, and on a hunch he used his improved draugyr disguise to walk around the sentry. Frost-covered containers were broken open everywhere. There were a handful of trolls digging through detritus in various rooms, but the place looked completely picked-over.

The main halls formed a rectangle. Hal found three separate staircases climbing to the next level above. One looked to be the main one, wider than the one they’d been climbing up to now. The other two were smaller, just wide enough for a single person, spiraling upward. He would’ve walked right by their entrances if they hadn’t already been cracked and dented by centuries of abuse. Only the main stairs were guarded, which Hal thought an odd oversight. He circled, checking every room and hoping his count was accurate. When he had a good idea of the layout, he reported back to John and the others.

“ ... I found that strange, but didn’t want to get too far ahead of you, so I came back.” He finished.

“Good thinking.” John complimented him.

“What do we do?” Hal asked.

John thought for a minute, then asked, “How far from us are you willing to go, comfortably?”

Hal shook his head. “Not very far, I admit. While your help with my disguise worked with the trolls and draugyr, what happens if I find something new, that I cannot fool? We have seen no varg yet. Heegan’s men of the Watch told me that the worgh have very good smell and taste. If the varg have even a small part of that ability, I will be detected immediately. I would not want to be on the other side of our foes from you when this happens.”

“Fair enough.” John agreed. “Could you disguise all of us at once?”

Hal shook his head again. “I do not think so. If it was just the surface illusion, then yes. I think I could maintain myself and five others. But with the internal illusion, I would not be able to hide more than another person beside myself.”

John looked at Syg. “Any ideas? I really don’t want to fight that many at once. I’m afraid once we start, they’re all going to come running.”

She looked at her son for a moment. “We do not know which path is best.” She reasoned aloud. “So Hal must go, and one of us must go with him. While I am a better warrior,” she tapped her cheek just below her eye, “you can see things none of us can. You should go with him, and decide what our path should be. I will wait here, with Treb. We will keep the fire going, so that if any trolls investigate, we will have that weapon in addition to our own. If you find a place to hide, and can send Hal back, do so. He can take Treb, then me. If you cannot, return and we will try to fight our way together.”

John looked at Treb. “What do you think?”

The boy’s panicked look almost made the old soldier laugh out loud. “Me?” He squeaked. “I, um, sure ... what mother said. She knows way more than me.”

John put a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe she does. But don’t sell yourself short.” He noticed everyone’s quizzical looks. “Doesn’t translate well, huh? Treb, everyone can have a good idea. Just because you haven’t seen as much combat as your mother and me, doesn’t mean you can’t contribute. And if you don’t have anything to say, learn what you can from us. If you can do that, someday you’ll be even better than we are.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “You really think so?”

John smiled. “If you listen close, and learn, sure. Your mother is our most experienced warrior. I always listen to her ideas. You should too.”

“More experienced than you?” Treb looked doubtful.

“I was only a warrior for about ten years before being wounded so badly I could not walk anymore.” John informed him. “Your mother has about twice that, right?”

Syg nodded.

“Then why are you the leader?” Treb asked, looking from his mother to John and back.

“Because he keeps us together.” Syg said. “The Cambion would not follow me, or you. Jyon might not be as experienced as I am. Might. But he shows how a true battle leader should be. I am learning all I can from him, and you should too.”

“How can you be a better leader if you’re not the best fighter?” Treb wondered. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Where I’m from,” John said, “we’ve made a careful study of both fighting and leading. You cannot be a good leader of warriors if you are a poor one yourself, true. But if warriors trust your judgment, you don’t have to be the best one, either. Fighting is about skill in battle. Leading is about skill with other warriors. I promise you, there is a big difference between them.”

“This is wisdom.” Syg said. “I will think on this. Treb and I will talk more, while you scout ahead.”

John turned to Hal. “What are your thoughts on the plan?”

“Me?” Hal also looked surprised. “I know less than the ... young one about group fighting. This is all new to me.”

“Maybe, but you’re not new to sneaking around and finding which way to go. Are you?” John argued.

“I guess not. And your plan rests on my abilities, so I must be honest about whether I can do it.” Hal reasoned aloud too.

“I need to know if there’s a problem you can see before we’re separated and can’t fix it.” John added.

Hal smiled, and nodded. “I am not boasting when I say I know I can disguise myself and another good enough to fool the draugyr we have encountered so far. If you will go with me, I will take you as far as you wish.”

“It’s a plan, then.” John looked around the group. “Stay alert. It’s a risky plan.”

“Just not as risky as fighting more trolls than there are of us.” Syg concluded.

The mother and son worked to build the fire back up while Hal dropped his illusion on both of them. John found it unsettling, since he could See the spell or whatever it was like a transparent curtain around him. They straightened and with Hal’s assistance, mimicked the draugyr’s mannerisms as they walked back up the stairs.

Once a Green Beenie, always a Green Beenie. Mason sent.

You’re just jealous, Spooky.

Jealous? I think not. Only reason I didn’t do SFAS was because the Robin Sage role players are really hard to replace.

Heh. Good point. You are a ‘scorched earth’ kind of guy. John snorted.

Just goes to show that you’re the right guy for this. Mason praised.

Yeah, I shudder to think where you’d be right now.

I do too.

John and Hal moved as carefully as they could through the next floor. Knowing there was probably a really, really good reason why the side staircases were unguarded, he still couldn’t pass up checking them out. They were on opposite sides of the rectangle of rooms, so he was fairly certain they didn’t lead to the same place. He hoped they’d just been overlooked.

The first one they tried went up a very long way before ending in a collapsed wall. The pile of rocks was too treacherous and too large for them to clear in any reasonable amount of time. Disappointed, they trudged back down. John had Hal count with him, so they had an idea of how high they’d gone. When the reached the bottom, and compared numbers, John did some math and figured they’d climbed around three hundred feet. The levels so far had been around twenty or thirty feet high, counting the stairs, so he figured if they could get as high or higher with the other stairs, they might skip around ten floors.

John crossed his fingers when they started on the second set. So far, their disguise had held up well. Any trolls they passed either ignored them entirely, if they even noticed, or gave them a passing glance if they did. John counted the steps up and just a hair higher than on the first staircase they came to another pile of rubble. This one was mostly worked metal and wood. There were some gaps in it, and both men thought they might be able to clear a path.

Trying to stay quiet, since vibrations can travel much farther through solids than air, they began moving the pieces one at a time. It was slow going, but John was reluctant to immediately send Hal for the other two until they had an idea of whether they could clear enough to keep going. It took an hour before they stopped to discuss.

“Shon, we are very high. This will go much faster if we have the others to help.” Hal argued, wiping sweat from his brow.

“Yeah. I think you better go get them.” John agreed. “And I don’t think you need to walk Treb all the way up here. Once he starts on the stairs, go back for Syg. All right?”

“Agreed my friend.” Hal smiled. “My friend. I cannot believe I can say this. I did not even know what the word meant when I first heard it in the Trade Tongue. There is no word like it in my own language.”

John gripped Hal’s forearm. “Without your help, I don’t believe we’d even have a chance to get there.”

“I believe you are correct.” Hal nodded. “But without you, I think I would be dead already.”

“You’re welcome.” John joked.

“It is kind of you to say, but I must go.” Hal pointed out.

John laughed, sighing. “Bad joke. I’ll keep working here. You go get our friends.”

“Your friends, you mean.” Hal remarked sadly as he started down.

Poor guy.

Poor guy. Melvin said.

Yeah. He’s pretty messed up in the head. John sent back.

Pancake, Doctor Brown believes that Halphis only finds your friendship novel. He cautions you against relying on it too much. I can’t argue with him on this one. From what we’ve seen, the Infernals are a completely amoral, individually self-centered race. They tortured one tester so bad, she died here as well. And there wasn’t anything we could do.

How could a simulation make someone die? That makes no sense. John argued.

Worse than you imagine. You’ve seen into Halphis, you know how badly twisted he is.

John cleared steadily for a long while before Treb joined him. Steadily, but at an ever-slowing pace. He had to set the cleared trash down carefully, and still leave a path for the others to come up the stairs. It meant he had to walk farther and farther down every time he picked up another piece.

“Hi Lord Jyon!” Treb chirped when they met. “Wow, these stairs are really high! How far up the mountain do you think we are?”

“No idea.” John admitted. “But I think we’re ten levels higher now.”

“That’s a lot of trolls and draugyr we passed. What do you want me to do?”

John put him to work ferrying the rubble while he pulled the crumbling wood and twisted metal apart. At one point, a good portion shifted and he flattened himself against the wall to avoid being crushed.

“Look out!” He called.

Treb’s yelp made him dash down after the garbage, but found the panting boy had jumped aside in time. He showed John where a metal edge had gouged a furrow in his bracer, and bruised his arm underneath. But otherwise the youth was fine.

They stood facing each other and caught their breath.

“You, okay, Treb?” John panted.

“Yeah. Wow. Are we through?” The boy asked.

“I don’t think so. C’mon.”

They returned to the blockage. The rubble wasn’t passable yet, but they could see an opening at the top, with only stairs beyond. John also noticed that three steps flattened into a small landing before resuming their upward climb. There was a doorway-sized opening in the wall, which looked like the source of the obstacle.

John put his fingertips to his lips and mimed listening closely. They sat still for several minutes, straining to hear any sound.

That was the pose Syg found them in when she came upon them. Treb signaled her with his hand over his mouth, so she stopped an waited.

John sat for another few minutes before gesturing for them to move back down. They dropped two full turns before he spoke.

“That should be far enough.” He halted them.

“Did you hear anything?” Syg asked.

“No, but I can tell the stuff we’re moving came from a room the stairs open into. Did you notice that?”

Syg shook her head.

“What does that mean, are we at the end?” Hal asked.

“I don’t think so.” John disagreed. “But I can see if we move some more, just taking from the side next to the center column, I think we can get by and keep going up.”

With two more people, one of them their strongest, clearing a path past the blockage took only another hour.

“We can always come back if the way higher up is blocked for good.” John told them.

“Yes, but hopefully we won’t have to.” Hal eyed the remaining pile with distaste.

They shared a chuckle and with Syg in the lead, kept climbing.