“What in hells is your problem, Cleis?” Bel turned on the overbearing hippo, her nostrils flaring and her lone eye narrowed with anger. “It’s like you’re trying to be an obstacle.”
“Whoah,” the hippo began, his meaty arms raised. “Miss Bel, this–”
“Don’t ‘whoah’ me! I’ve been in the damned Labythrinth before, if anyone’s doing any ‘whoahing’ then it should be me!” she sputtered. “And Beth has spent more time in the Labyrinth than all of us put together, so why are you trying to leave her behind? The council put her in charge of this exploration, didn’t they? Hanti finally agreed to that, didn’t she?”
Cleis shrugged. “She did agree that Beth would be the nominal civilian lead, yes.”
Bel gestured vaguely towards where they’d left Beth behind. “And Beth put me in charge of this group. So stop ignoring what I have to say.”
The hippo tapped his hands together delicately. “Well, your understanding is not quite correct, Miss Bel.”
Her eye narrowed and her jaw clenched with frustration. Politics, she thought angrily. Bel’s serpents rose up to stare Cleis in the eye. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” he gestured at her, “you are the civilian leader of this expedition. However, as the highest ranking military member, I will be in charge whenever we are not in a civilian situation.”
Bel shook her head at him. “What nonsense are you spouting? Are your brains made of mush? Anyway, Flann has been in way more battles than you have – how about he leads anything ‘non-civilian’.”
The hippo nodded. “Certainly, I appreciate Mr. Flann’s advice, but he was part of a volunteer militia in a war that is long over.” Cleis thumped his chest and gestured to the three other semi-humans with him. “We have all been extensively trained in modern tactics. When it comes to battle, you’ll find each of us quite capable. We will be relying upon Flann for logistical support with the hot air balloon, of course, but any additional support will not be required.”
The hippo smiled. Bel’s hand drifted to her new short sword as she wondered if she could take him in a fight. She’d been busy recovering and trying to catch a spirit since the death of the Dark Ravager, but she had still reached the twentieth threshold of her second path. She’d been saving her free strokes and practicing with her current abilities, and she thought that she’d grown pretty competent.
Bel also had the magical, faintly glowing armor that Kjar had gifted to her. Beth had spend a solid hour trying to scratch it without any result. She was feeling confident.
I think that I would hit him with a powerful glare to start, and then I’d liquify his weapon just to teach him a lesson. Maybe give him a quick bite from my snakes.
Cleis seemed to be big and in your face. Really big. Big enough that he could probably crush her in a single blow. Well, maybe I would be better off just glaring at him when it would be most embarrassing. Maybe when he’s relieving himself?
While she was pondering, Cleis decided to take her silence as angry agreement. He gave a self-satisfied nod and turned away, gesturing for his semi-humans to follow after him.
“What a little prick,” Flann said.
Orseis shrugged her tentacles. “This is about what Beth predicted. While Hanti may support the overall invasion of Satrap, she also wants to manage every detail. I hope those four are at least capable of holding their own in a fight.”
Bel snorted. “They’re capable of pissing me off at least. What kind of military training did they do anyway?”
Flann flicked his tail. “Hells if I know, kid. It was survival of the fittest in my day.”
“I was trained in the marshes of the Lip before following the shore to Outpost 2. By trained I mean I survived until I could leave.” A shudder passed through Orseis.
“I don’t know what these jokers got up to, but I’m going to guess that there was a lot of sitting around and feeling smug about themselves,” Orseis added. “I’ve heard that the Outpost has its fighters absorb a standard set of abilities from the local wildlife before selecting one of the patrons of order.”
Bel immediately recoiled at the thought. “Order? Why not war or something? Order sounds like…” She pondered for a moment. “It sounds like Technis’ priests. I don’t like it.”
Flann chuckled. “Well, that’s just what they do. Last big war was with the Dark Ravager’s people back in my day.”
“I thought Daran said that everyone had to get along. Something about resources being to scarce to fight.”
Flann chuckled. “Well, we’re not quite fightin’, are we? If you didn’t notice, nobody on the council agrees about anythin’. Sometimes they hold tongues long enough to get things done, but usually it’s just a lot of backstabbin’.”
Orseis flicked a tentacle at Bel’s ear. “Can’t you call Beth with those ear… uh, ear things?”
Bel reached up to rub the new call stone that was hanging from her right ear, right below the earring that she’d gotten from Ventas. “It uses the pillars to carry the signal, or something weird like that. It’ll only work within a few thousands strides of one of them, so it’s useless right now.”
Orseis clicked her beak with frustration, her expression partially obscured behind her veil. “Lame,” she loudly drawled.
Bel nodded sadly. “Yeah, lame. Maybe I should just stab Cleis in his sleep?”
Flann patted her elbow. “We should parachute down into the wild part of the labyrinth and closer to the pillar tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe Cleis will leave some of this politickin’ in the craphole once we get into the real shit.”
Orseis snorted. “Thank you for that strange – and disgusting – metaphor old man. Have you seen how much the hippo shits?”
He guffawed, slapping his knee with delight. “You’ve got a sense of humor, young’un!”
Bel grinned. Thank Kjar that these two are getting along, at least.
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Cleis shut down any conversation that night, spouting some nonsense about “attracting the wildlife.” Bel didn’t even bother try to argue, instead tossing her sleeping roll up again the cavern wall and turning away from the light of their torches. She thought angry thoughts until she finally drifted to sleep.
She awoke some time later to someone’s hand covering her face.
“Mmph!” she exclaimed.
“Shush, Bel. It’s me.”
Bel squinted into the darkness of the Labyrinthos, their torches extinguished at some point while she slept. Kjar’s Sight helped her make out the form of a person standing above her, glowing with a slight aura that meant Kjar thought them something less than blameless but nowhere near as bad as a true villain. She recognized her sister immediately.
“Hey Beth,” she greeted her sister. “Why are you skulking about?”
“Shush,” Beth replied. “The hippo snores about a loud as a monsoon wind, but I don’t want the rest to realize that I caught up with you. I need to warn you that Hanti plans to blow the mission and then blame it on my – you know, since I’m supposed to be in charge and stuff.”
Bel nodded quickly. “That makes sense. So Cleis is going to mess things up on purpose?”
Beth chuckled. “Ah, no. He’s just really incompetent. Everyone knows it, apparently.”
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Beth rubbed at one of the knife handles protruding from her vest. “Hanti did tell him to split the group, though. Anyway, here’s my plan. You’re going to let him mess up.”
“So far I’m not liking it,” Bel quipped.
“Hush.” Beth poked her in the ribs. “Listen to the entire things first. Hanti is going to find a way to blame use no matter what. I’ll deal with the fallout up here, but–”
Beth poked Bel in the ribs to punctuate her words. “Do. Not. Leave. Let Cleis run back to report his failure, but you stay down there with Orseis. See if you can keep Flann with you as well.”
Bel sighed. “That’s not much of a plan.”
Beth patted her on the head, rustling her dozing snakes. “It will be once you make it under the Barrier and up the other side. When you’re successful, Hanti will just have to suck it up. Talk to us with James’ magic rock until then.”
Bel yawned as she tried to think about all the ways Beth’s terrible idea would go wrong. “I still think it’s a terrible plan. The three of us going deep into the Labyrinth? Sounds downright stupid.”
“Oh, come on, Bel,” Beth snorted. “You’re blessed by some goddesses, right? It should be simple.”
“I’ve got some fancy, glowing armor. That doesn’t exactly make me invulnerable.”
“Maybe not invulnerable, but you’ll be tough to kill. Look at me – I lost an arm, and I’m still getting stuff done. You’ve just got to ride these waves and keep on swimming.”
“I don’t think–”
“Whoops, I think I hear someone else stirring. Well, you just stick to the plan, okay kid? I’ll see you when you get to the other side.”
Before Beth could finish rolling her eyes, Beth had already darted off into the darkness.
Bel sighed heavily and tossed herself back into her sleeping roll. If she was about to embark on something stupid, she at least wanted to be well rested.
----------------------------------------
Bel yawned uncontrollably as her eye drifted shut.
“Oi, Bel, we’re here,”
She looked up at Orseis and then turned towards the distance. She could see a rough gate that was protected by a few semi-humans armed with long spears.
“Is this the jump point?”
“Looks like it,” Flann replied. “I’d have thought you’d be excited.”
Bel glanced at Cleis and his entourage, who had been slowly pulling away from Bel’s group during the morning ride. “Well, I wanted a chance to talk without them listening in. Beth thinks that they’re going to blow everything on purpose. When they do, she wants me to stay in the Labyrinth and keep looking for a way through.”
“And she wants us to stay with your, right?” Orseis added. “She came and saw me last night too.”
Bel clicked her tongue. “Look, it’s a dumb plan and I don’t want you two staying if it’s dangerous.”
Flann chuckled, a series of sneeze-like wheezes. “Ah, youngun’, I’ve been up to much more dangerous. Anyhow, who else would inflate your escape balloon if I leave ya down there?”
“I’m staying too,” Orseis proclaimed.
“Thanks, guys. But, even if my goddess mother plans to protect me, that doesn’t mean that she’ll protect you. I think–”
A loud shout interrupted Bel’s speed. Cleis was standing tall on his very tired-looking riding lizard, waving angrily at them.
“Do not separate from your protection! The labyrinth eats mistakes like that for breakfast!”
Bel shook her head. “What is even going through his head? Does he listen to what he says? Maybe he doesn’t actually know words, and he’s just making random sounds that we think are him speaking?”
Flann leaned over in his saddle to pat Bel on her back. “Don’t worry Bel, we know what we’re gettin’ into.”
Orseis and Flan directed their lizards forward with flicks of their reins, and Bel followed behind them helplessly. As they neared the small encampment the visibility increased. There was a very large fire burning with unnatural stillness in the center of the camp, illuminating a wide area around their solid fencing. Several stern-faced guards watched them with suspicion as they approached the gate.
After a few moments of awkward silence, the guards pulled open the large metal gate. Cleis urged his riding lizard ahead.
“Greetings, Lykus!” he called.
A tall, gray-furred man lifted an arm in greeting. “Greetings, Cleisthenes.”
Bel was the last to direct her own riding lizard into the gate. A couple of semi-humans shoved it shut behind her. They directed her to bring it to a paddock, clearly meaning to exclude her from whatever conversation was happening between Cleis as Lykus. She tossed her reins to one of the startled guards as she dismounted, and ambled over to Cleis, with Flann and Orseis joining her a moment later.
“Greetings, Lykus!” she called out. “Cleis has been telling me all about you.”
She grinned at the hippo, interested to see if he would contradict her.
Lykus looked down his long snout at her. “And you must be–”
She shoved her hand forward to shake. “Bel, beloved daughter of the goddess Lempo, blood-child of the divine spirit of chaos Dutcha, niece of the mighty god of punishment Kjar, and the appointed leader of this expedition.”
She grabbed the semi-human’s paw and vigorously shook it while he gaped.
Cleis cleared his rumbling throat. “Hmm, what she means is that–”
Bel waved her hand dismissively and interrupted. “Yes, yes, Cleis is in charge of the day-to-day details, stuff like rationing food and where to poop. So, Lykus, what do we know about our landing site?”
Bel could hear a quiet chittering as Orseis’ beak clicked with laughter.
Bel felt bad for poor Lykus; his ears drooped and his tail sagged between his legs. He clearly wasn’t happy being involved in the little power play between her and Cleis, but Bel couldn’t let Cleis continue thinking that he was the one in charge or he would do something stupendously stupid and get them all killed. The inexperienced hippo just didn’t have enough skin in the game to be the one making decisions. For all she knew, his plan was to eat all the food on the first day and then give up the mission due to unavoidable starvation.
Cleis rumbled with discontent, but Lykus made the decision to rush through things and get rid of them. He gestured down the tunnel, where Bel could now see that it came to an abrupt end.
“We’ve lowered a few people on ropes. They’ve dropped torches to check the depth, and we’re looking at nearly two thousand standard strides.”
Bel’s eyebrows went up. “That’s deep. It should take us to the next level, shouldn’t it?”
Lykus nodded. “It should. Seems to be a gigantic sinkhole.”
He pointed off in a direction, although there was just a rock wall there. “Best thing is, once you drop you’ll be able to see the Blue Wall, and a pillar that supports the world in front of it. If there’s a route under it, this’ll be the way to go.”
“Is the return clear for the balloons?” Cleis asked.
Lykus tilted his head. “Eh. We haven’t dropped, so I’m not sure. We’ll be keeping torches lit at the edge so you can find the cliff again, and we’ll have a few of our people standing by with hooks to drag you in when you ascend.”
Cleis rubbed his massive mitts together. “Excellent. Then we shall begin our descent. Since Miss Bel is lacking in low-light vision–”
“Oh,” Bel interrupted, “that’s not the case. I have an ability for that.”
Cleis only paused for a moment. “Forgive me, I misspoke. I meant that since you do not have the ability to see great distances, that we should have another person take point.”
Bel quickly directed her senses inwards to the constellations of abilities that hung near the sensation of her cores. She traced the pattern for an ability that she called Eyes of the Huntress from her gorgon abilities, burning it onto the open strokes of her unpathed core in record time.
The ability filled thirty-three strokes, but let her see at a distance and even glare from farther away.
It seemed a bit silly to use so many strokes – three quarter of the free strokes in her unpathed core – just to win an argument, but Bel wasn’t going to back down now. Besides, she’d been thinking about taking the ability in any case.
“I actually do have an ability that lets me see long distances.”
A strange tingle enveloped her remaining eye as her ability took hold. Bel looked at Cleis and could now see the massive hippo’s dissatisfaction in incredible detail. The untested warrior shifted his armor and thumped his large poleaxe into the ground.
“Nevertheless, I shall descend first to secure out landing sight. From your practice jumps, I estimate that your landing will be off target. It will be best if you wait to jump until we secure the area.”
Bel seethed. It wasn’t her fault that she only had one eye and no depth perception.
Lykus nervously waved his hand for attention. “Actually, we already have pretty clear instructions for the jump. The artificer – James – he already planned it out.”
Lykus gestured to the cliff edge. “Here, I’ll show you.” The wolf-man trotted away, clearly happy to cut off their arguing. Everyone in their group hurried after him.
Lykus was standing by a large parachute with a large plate tied to the bottom. “This’ll go down first. We’ll light it before we toss it, and it should illuminate the way down.”
Lykus held his hand in the air. “There’s no breeze down here, so it should fall pretty straight. It won’t burn forever though, so everyone needs to follow along after it. James said it would be best to go in order of size, so Cleis should go first.”
Bel couldn’t really object to that – it was her brother’s plan. She nodded grudgingly and Lykus smiled.
He gestured to a metal bar that had been driven into the ground at the edge of the cliff. “Just affix your rip cords to this, and then jump off, one after the other.”
He wagged his tail, clearly excited to be rid of them. “Any questions?”
Everyone grunted, nodded, clicked, or hooted their assent. Cleis was going first, followed by the fishy Pelagius. Then Bel and Orseis, who were about the same size. Johan looked like he was larger than Flann, but his hollow bird bones and feathers exaggerated his mass so the fox went before him. Simon, the waist-high, rope-thin snake person was going last.
“Artificer James estimated that the fall would take a couple of minutes, although it depends how far up the rim of the sinkhole you land. Try to avoid the side closest to the pillar. A huge colony of scrattes has built a nest around it.”
Everyone glared at the man; that seemed like an important detail to leave out until the last moment.
He grinned back at them. “Well, best of luck to you all!”
He gestured to one of the guards and they lit a highly flammable substance that filled the large dish. Lykus immediately jumped in to help the other guard shove the burning dish over the edge, and then he waved his arms at them. “Hurry, hurry! You need to follow the light!”
Cleis didn’t hesitate. The ground thumped as he ran up to the edge and hurled himself over. Pelagius soon followed, and then it was Bel’s turn. She didn’t want to hold up the line and ruin the jump, so she rushed over, hitched the cord from her parachute back onto the bar, and tossed herself over the edge.
It took everything she had to keep her eye open. She also kept the screaming to a minimum.