The Cry in the Water Part 8

It had been waiting for them. Quietly, patiently, waiting for them. In a moment of retrospect, Jayr realized that it had probably been there for the last few minutes or more after locating their foot falls or the sounds of their voices. The creature was intelligent, cunning and beyond subtle when it wanted to be. Only now that it had been revealed, did the creature allow the translucent nature of its scales to regain their original color. A dark black shade, polished surface like obsidian, covered the creature entirely. Only it yellow eyes, large great orbs with vertical slits like a cat, stood out against the inky blackness of its body, and these burned with intense focus.

The creature screamed again with its eerie high pitched feminine voice that was twice as frightening in the silence of the keep. Gathering its body together, the creature tried to cram itself through the window, knocking loose the stones around the opening. It was a tight fit as the wizard had observed, but the wall was not as strongly built as those around the fortress. The stout construction was giving way in jerks and movements, a larger hole being dug by determined black scaled flesh.

"Back to the stair!" cried Jayr, waiting just a moment for Burton and Zena to turn the other way, before speaking a word to illuminate the tip of his staff with a piercing brightness. The flash of light was absolutely blinding, and even he who had closed his eyes before the moment of discharge, found himself momentarily disorientated when turning away to follow the other two back the way they had come.

Zena heard the creature cry out in pain, even as the room was lit by a blinding white light. She had seen something similar once when a bolt of lightening had lit up the back room of a cottage as it struck a tree in the front of the house. It was one of those moments she never forgot, where her shadow silhouette was bold and stark against the white lit wall. The same thing happened now as she knew Jayr had lit off a blast to cover them.

The stair spiraled down, descending on the right side. Jayr was fighting fatigue, but still able to illuminate the space before them as he followed Zena and Burton. By now she had lit her sword with the word of command, a fierce flame coating the blade as she led from the front. It took them only a few moments to regain the first floor, and the sounds of crashing stones above followed them.

"We have to go down," shouted Zena, indicating the continuance of the stair before them. "If it can get through and follow, I want to find a better place to fight than the hall."

They plunged forward, guided by the wizard's light, and the fear that followed on their heels. The combined lights of the blade and sword led them to the next floor below, passing beyond the screams of the terrified horses. They were apoplectic with fear, but the crashing of a huge body behind them led Jary to believe the horses were spared for the moment. The creature was moving quickly, but ponderously through the spiral passage downwards.

Storage chambers below the main level of the fortress had once kept the wine supply in large barrels, and there was even a small well that would have furnished some water for a standing guard. A quick look around seemed to indicate they had come to a dead end. They were trapped. Then the light of the staff moved over a dark space beyond the last wine barrel. A break in the basement wall, wide enough for a man to pass through, was dimly visable.

"Let's try this!" shouted Jayr, leading the way now as Zena covered their retreat with her flaming sword swinging backwards and forwards, the smoking flames dripping from here blade.

"Oh Valin, oh Valin!" whispered Burton, being led by the wizard, who had grabbed his hand when the lad froze with terror at a crashing sound above them.

The gap that they had found, was an actual break in the wall and was jagged on the edges. Beyond the opening were steps into the darkness, and a faint red glow beyond. After they had gone the first few steps away from the door, Jayr slowed their pace and gestured to his wife to dim the flames of her blade. They were far enough down this new path that the creature above would be stopped, for the passage was wide enough only for one to pass at time.

"What is this?" asked Burton in a whisper, having recovered himself enough to not need guiding.

"I really don't know, but I suspect trouble," said Jayr, slipping a long dagger from his belt and handing it to the young man. "You might need this. Do not hesitate to defend yourself to the last blow if we get separated and you are in danger. I do not know what we are dealing with here."

Burtin grimaced and nodded. He could see the growing red glow of light beyond, and the slowly spiraling passage downward suggested they were coming to the opening that produced it. Above them, the noise of crashing and a huge body trying to force its way down, had abruptly come to a stop. The creature had been checked, and would doubtless seek another way if it knew of one.

"I don't like to think of how we left them behind," sighed Zena, close behind them. "My horse was very sweet. Didn't cause me a bit of trouble."

"I am sorry," said Jayr. "I liked my mount too, but we could not have done much for them. Let us hope we can avenge them before this is over."

"You think the others got eaten too?" asked Burton, in a hushed voice. "Everyone who went away with old Benenji?"

"I'm not certain this old Benenji is quite what he seemed," replied Jayr quietly. "If he was living up here, where the creature could clearly come and invade at will as it has done today, what are the odds that he knew it? What are the odds he knew about this secret tunnel? I have a feeling we are about to find out what happened to everyone else who went with him, and I don't think it is good."

"Stick close to me," instructed Zena, putting her arm in a comforting manner on Burton's shoulder. "Whatever we find down here, I will not leave you. If it is flesh and blood it will fall to my blade. If its magic, Jayr will deal with it."

They came around the final corner, and saw the opening into a great chamber beyond. The red light was as they had expected, from a great fire, a blazing pit of it beyond the opening. A robed dark figure was standing before the flames, chanting words that they had barely understood earlier, arms outstretched to his sides. A massive throbbing globe of light was pulsating above the flames, apart of them and yet not connected. From within this whirling vortex of orange, yellow, red and black flames, sounds of creatures braying and barking, screaming and raging could be heard.

"Oh Valin," whispered Zena, pointing to the great metal cage off to the right of this macabre scene, a cage full of shrinking and shivering wretches, huddled together as far as they could get against the back wall. "The villagers?"

"Yes," answered Jayr, pointing to one prone figure, bound and laying on the floor. The man or youth had been blocked from view at first the by the dark figure chanting his incantations. Yet as the sorcerer moved backwards as the spell reached its crescendo, the three could see the victim writhing on the ground, trying to roll away from the great orb of roiling fires. Something was coming forth from the flames. They could all sense it with dread.