20

Hollow Victory

The adamantine golem left Jeshu in such a sorry state that the rudra had to lift his head to administer a healing potion. He forced the druid to swallow the entire bottle, then searched for Patches. He sensed her very faintly, and picked his way through the rubble until he saw the mouseling's still form.

"Oh, no, child..." Oydd rushed to her side, tossing the chunk of boulder that pinned her with no more than a thought. Her paw lay in tatters, with shards of bone protruding from the contorted fur. Gently, the rudra lifted her to his chest, cradling her.

"This didn't have to happen," Licephus' voice spoke softly from behind the rudra.

Oydd found the vampire leaning against the wall, his armor dented unnaturally deep at the chest.

Licephus coughed. He held his helm at his side. Matted blood soaked his fine white hair, and dripped down his arm.

"The... druid knew. He knew it was folly." The vampire's glazed eyes stared off at nothing.

"I'll get Jeshu," Oydd responded.

"No..." Licephus shook his head. "I do not want any healing that comes from Elkennah."

"Don't be ridiculous."

Licephus smiled dryly. "I cannot be healed by his goddess. It is part of my curse. Only—'' the vampire coughed up blood. "Only..."

"You need to feed?" Oydd asked.

Licephus shook his head and leaned back against the rock, staring up at the ceiling. "Ah, Eyrgan... so we go!" he whispered.

Skunk came to the rudra's side and began to sniff at the vampire. The mutant's grey skin showed no wounds, though the rudra had seen him take more than one impressive blow.

He left Skunk to guard Licephus while he returned to the druid. Jeshu breathed peacefully, but still lay in a heap.

Oydd was about to leave him when the dryad spoke, his eyes still closed.

"I sense... a sealed portal nearby."

"What do you mean, sealed?"

"Not open," the druid answered. "But there is a link..."

"Can you open it?"

Jeshu shook his head weakly, and took another deep breath.

Oydd considered this information. "I suppose the trollblood needs access to the forge. I would like to see his face the next time he checks in."

"Give me the mouseling."

"What? You're in no condition to heal anyone."

"She is little. It is... nothing to me," Jeshu stated, honestly.

Reluctantly, Oydd laid the mouseling at Jeshu's side and wandered off.

"Where are you going?"

"Even if the portal is sealed, there should be some structure nearby to facilitate it." Oydd answered. He climbed the stairs to the highest platform, passing the changeling's mangled remains. Oydd noticed the gleaming, violet glow of the forge hammer beneath the gore and reached for it. However, when he was still a few feet away, his skin began to blister and peel. He pulled back, but white singe marks already covered his palm.

Oydd took a few steps back and held out a hand. He tried to lift it but the hammer did not move. The rudra concentrated. His tentacles began to whip about and the hammer wobbled, but before it even rose from the ground, the skin on his tentacles began to blister and peel. Instantly, he released the energy and the hammer sank back into the blood and gore.

Frustrated, he abandoned the hammer for the time being and walked to the rear of the immense platform, where he found a half circle of stones, like an upside-down archway. Each stone was engraved with a single rune, save for the keystone, which was bare. Three of the engravings were filled with gold—the runes for Life, Measure, and Obeisance. Though the runes of Passage and Bounty sat higher in the circle.

Oydd raised a palm toward the stones but sensed nothing.

The adamantine golem, from across the chamber, roared as if in triumph, and Oydd turned to see it break free from the ghast's mangled hand. As it began to run back across the room, the ghast grabbed it with its other hand and slammed it against the wall, where it continued to writhe against him, tearing off chunks of flesh with its gruesome claws.

*****

Cricket sighed. He wanted to lay on the ground a little longer before anyone bothered him. He felt around at his side until his fingers bumped into the shaft of his spear, and reluctantly he gripped the weapon.

He gave himself a countdown. 3... 2... 1...

But before he made a move, the silhouette of the approaching insectoid melted into a pile of tentacles.

Cricket took a deep breath. "Zit?"

The mimic screeched in annoyance.

"Okay, okay! Ixitl..."

The mimic screeched in annoyance.

"That's the best I can do!"

Ixitl snapped its beak semi-playfully as it crawled past Cricket. Beyond it, Cricket saw the archers closing in.

One fired at the mimic, but the arrow passed through his rubbery skin without inflicting any noteworthy harm. It bounced from the stone near Cricket's head.

Seeing the new combatants, Cricket thought it reasonable to restart his countdown. 3... 2...

In a flash, Ixitl overcame one of the archers, snapping its bow with his beak. The other archer trained an arrow on the mimic, but hesitated to fire with his companion so close. A moment later, Ixitl reached out with a tentacle and yanked him from his feet. All the while, it wrapped tentacles around the arms and legs of its current prey and began to sever tendons with its beak as it slowly dragged the second archer closer.

Cricket needed more arms.

Seeing as the mimic had things under control, Cricket sat up slowly. He winced in pain and felt behind his back with a couple hands. It stung when they touched the raw part of his shell, and they returned with a semi-clear, yellowish goo on the fingers.

Cricket reached for his pouch to look for an invisibility potion before realizing it wasn't on him.

He crouched down at the mimic's side. "Hey, how much do you understand?"

The mimic looked up from its meal. Its long tongue hung over the edge of its beak as it panted, and it appeared to bark, though Cricket couldn't hear a thing to be certain.

"Hold up two tentacles..." Cricket attempted.

The mimic barked again and took another bite of azaeri.

"Okay..." Cricket sighed in disappointment.

The mimic rose up onto its legs, mimicking the insectoid. It spread four tentacles out like arms and curled them in the middle to resemble fists, then straightened the tips to resemble swords. Without the benefit of the fog, it was a pretty pathetic facsimile.

Cricket started back toward the stairs, but the mimic stayed behind.

"Come on, Buddy. We've got to get back to Scorpion..."

The mimic seemed to perk up at the ratling's name.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Yeah... you know a few words. Come on."

Cricket started off again, and the mimic stayed behind.

"Ugh... come on. Do you want a treat buddy?"

The mimic perked up.

"Treat?" Cricket repeated and started down the hall.

This time the mimic followed.

Cricket was pretty sure the octopus was expecting a fish, but that was a problem for another time. He dashed down the hallway at a pace he believed the mimic could not quite match.

When he was about halfway back to the stairwell, he passed an archway and skidded to a stop, then ran back to look through. On the far side of the room, he saw the broken wall where he had been spying on the trollblood. Cricket entered the chamber, now empty but for the silvery-pink portal.

He approached it gingerly, as if it might explode, before reaching out and touching the surface. Instantly, it vaporized the tip of his finger.

Cricket screamed as quietly as possible and put the burnt finger in his mouth. It still stung like hell.

He paced around the room to shake off the pain. His jaw clenched so tight that he cracked the exoskeleton around the finger and he had to take it out. He continued to pace, however, shaking the finger in the air to cool it, when he noticed a small puddle of dried saliva where the trollblood had been standing—a shiny, snail-like residue.

"What did, uh... what did the trollblood do?" He looked at the portal. "He used Bale's hand, right? Hey, Xitl, want to track down a troll?"

The mimic inched closer, and Cricket dipped two fingers in the tongue slime at his feet. The inside was still wet. "Go get 'em, boy!" He held it up to the octopus' beak, then rethought his plan.

The mimic, however, reached out with a tentacle and momentarily latched on to the insect's fingers with its suction cups, processing the taste. A moment later it turned and began reaching along the ground in each direction with its tentacles. Finding the troll's "scent", it crawled along the stone floor quickly and excitedly.

*****

The forgotten shadow crept closer to the goblin laborers—green goblins, which meant they were likely slaves of the deep goblins. From his new angle, he could finally see what they had been working on. The slaves had evidently finished the construction of a semi-circle of runed stones, rising from the ground, and now worked on a three-tiered platform around it, supervised by a muscular dhampir in stained bone armor. He carried a bone spear as well, which appeared to be the carved rib of a drake, based on the size. In his other hand, he held a coiled whip with bits of obsidian worked into the leather, which he had not yet had occasion to use.

Cricket had seen the dhampir earlier, but not close up. Now, he was certain, the stains were from blood. Not simply the incidental blood of battle, but a layer deliberately and painstakingly painted over the bone, seeping into every crevice.

Cricket turned to signal to Gad and the other shadow, but found only the half troll.

When he looked back toward the dhampir taskmaster, he saw the ill-formed shadow charging in —or rather drifting—waving its flickering weapons.

*****

Cricket jogged after the mimic down several winding hallways, and up a flight of stairs he hadn't seen before. He emerged at the center of the tower, evidenced by a circular room with a circular stone in the middle, from which all the other rings of stones emerged.

This floor appeared much shorter than the others, and Cricket could almost reach the ceiling with his upper arms.

The mimic felt around in circles, tasting the floor with its suction cups, then started down a narrow hallway.

It reached out a tentacle to the insect, and he grabbed hold, letting the octopus lead him along.

When they were halfway down the hall, a large, axe-beaked lizard appeared at the end of the corridor, choking down a severed limb. It bounded toward him at a trot. Cricket pulled to the side of the hallway, and the feathered lizard hopped past, barely glancing sideways as it continued on its way. It passed near enough that he could smell the blood on its beak.

Ixitl tugged at his arm, and Cricket let it pull him forward as if nothing had happened.

A moment later, Bax came around the bend after the lizard, looking quite frazzled. However, he managed a smile and a wave. He ran to Cricket's side, wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm, then placed both hands on his knees huffing and puffing.

He waved again. "Hey, it's me, Dax."

"Bax," Cricket corrected.

The gnome shook his head. "That's closer, isn't it?"

"Where'd you come from?"

The gnome's face lit up. "Oh, it's quite the anecdote!"

"But you got out of your cage?"

"I think," Bax answered, looking back. "Are you aware of the placebo effect?"

Cricket shook his head.

"Well, basically, you'll perform better if you think that something is making you perform better. But you have to not know, you know? So, that was the first part of my plan!"

"Uh..." Cricket sighed impatiently. "How many parts were there?"

"Seven."

"Just tell me the main three."

"Okay, so the fourth step, Shank went to look for a rope."

"Do you mean Shiv? He got out first?"

"Oh, yes. But I think it was Shank."

"Shank got pulled up."

"Shank was the one with the Shiv."

"No," Cricket answered. "But I see why you would think that."

"Well I did switch them at one point, so you might have seen the wrong one go up. I kind of keep a constant flow of trickery going, but I can't always keep track."

"Since you can't see through your own illusions?"

"Right. So I had to wait for it to wear off. Are we in a hurry?"

"No, not really."

Bax nodded in approval. "So when the ledge illusion wore off, I made a new illusion that made it look further away, you know? But that was step three, and you told me to skip it."

"You're good."

Bax nodded again. "And that kind of gave Patrick the nerve to jump, since he knew the ledge was closer than it looked."

"Who's Patrick?"

"Oh, that was the ratling's real name. We had quite a while to talk after you left. So he easily made the jump since I incentivized him to jump further..."

"That's the placebo effect?"

"No, the placebo effect was step one. You told me to skip that. So I told you about the rope that he didn't find. I didn't say he couldn't find one, but he couldn't."

"Well, you've already told me at least three steps..."

"You said we weren't in a hurry!" Bax protested.

"I'm not, but I really only had the attention span saved up for three steps."

"Oh, okay." Bax caught his breath. "Well, last part is, I ran into that big feathery lizard, and luckily he was full from eating other people, so he kind of left me alone."

"Yeah, I was a little disappointed he didn't at least try to eat me," Cricket said.

The gnome nodded in understanding.

"Like, I think those things mostly eat ratlings, but I thought he might at least bite at me. So where's Patrick?"

"The lizard ate him. I just told you."

Cricket frowned. "We need to go kill that troll, so no one else gets hurt. And the witch."

"What witch?"

"The old azaeri woman," Cricket replied.

"That kind old granny?"

"That's what I said! But yes, I don't think we were paying attention. Her kind eyes deceived us. Scorpion convinced me she was a witch."

"Maybe she charmed us with her magic."

"I was thinking the same thing. But right now I'm hunting down the half troll. Wanna come?"

The gnome nodded.

"I only have this spear though. I don't have anything for you. Maybe you can make us all invisible?"

Bax shook his head. "That spell only works if you sit very still."

"Oh, that's not useful in a fight."

"Which is why I made those potions. You can move as fast as you want when you're invisible off one of those!"

Cricket looked down again at his missing pack. "We'll have to come up with something else."

"I could make it look like I have a dagger," Bax suggested.

The mimic pulled at his arm impatiently, and Cricket started down the hall again. "No, that seems like more of a disadvantage—having a weapon that doesn't work."

"Then I could make it look like the troll has a dagger in his hand."

Cricket shook his head.

"Well, which is it? It's either a good thing or a bad thing," Bax responded, not in irritation, but in his normal cheery voice.

"I think... it's just too close to no thing. But keep thinking."

As they talked, Ixitl led the group to another small stairwell leading down, with a wooden door at the bottom. He paused and inched toward the edge of the steps growling.

"This it?" Cricket asked.

The mimic curled up his tentacles.

Cricket held out his spear to Bax, and the gnome raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"I... need you to cut off my antenna. I'd do it, but... I don't like hurting my friends."

"That's your plan!" Bax whispered excitedly. He grabbed the spear, almost too eagerly, and began to pull it back like a cudgel.

"No, no! Just slice it." Cricket grimaced, leaning his head forward.

The gnome placed the spear against the base of the last remaining stalk and gave a quick jerk. Instantly, a throbbing, impossible silence engulfed the insect. A moment later, the antenna dangled in front of his face, hanging by a thread.

Bax recoiled and covered his mouth, as if gagging. With a heavy heart, the insect took the spear, raised the blade to his antenna, and made the final cut.

He held onto it, almost with tears in his eyes, but, with a great frown, Cricket tossed the antenna aside.

"All right. I guess we burst in." Cricket hesitated. "Um... I'm used to having a few shadows with me..."

Bax smiled and mouthed, "On it."