An annoying buzzing in her ear alerted Bel to an incoming call on her earring. She quickly grasped the small, golden stud between two fingers to establish a connection.
“Hey James,” she greeted cheerfully, “how’s it going?”
“Really? That’s all you have to say?” her brother replied incredulously. “I’ve been trying to call you, but you haven’t been answering. We thought you were dead.”
“I'm fine though,” she said, doing her best to keep her tone light.
“Orseis is fine, too.”
Tentacle girl mimed trying to drink from an empty cup, clearly complaining about the lack of water yet again. It was practically all that she'd talked about for the last day.
“Flann said that you and Orseis decided to dive into a pool of boiling water and hope that an underwater tunnel would lead you somewhere safe. Everyone up here agreed that wasn't very smart.”
“But it worked,” Bel protested. “It worked great! And Flann made it out safely too! I’ll bet that Hanti is chewing her own arms off with frustration, right?”
“It worked great?” James responded testily, completely ignoring the bright side of things. “And are things still going great? Are you trapped there, or have you figured out a way out? And why haven’t you been answering my calls?”
Bel’s snakes writhed with agitation.
“I’ve been busy,” she replied. “There’s been a lot of fighting, and–”
“Fighting?” James interrupted. “Fighting who? Aren’t the layers getting more dangerous as you go? Are you sure you're safe? Maybe I should convince Beth to go after you.”
Bel laughed nervously. “We’ve been fighting these tall, bearded people. They’ve got pointy teeth. Oh, they’re cannibals too. Orseis has been calling them dhvaras.”
“Dwarves?”
“No, dhvaras. The meerkats apparently tell their young that they’ll be eaten by them if they don’t listen to their elders, but Orseis thought that the dhvaras were just made up to keep little kids in line.”
“Interesting,” James muttered. “Wait, they sound pretty dangerous.”
“Hah,” Bel snorted, “I’m much stronger than when I set out, and Orseis is pretty tough too. We also have some help.”
Bel glanced at the mob of scrattes that surrounded them. The small gang had been growing as they made their way across the lava-filled floor of the limitless cavern and had now progressed into a small horde of a few hundred members. Their group had grown so large that the last few oases had been rapidly sucked dry upon their arrival, forcing Bel and Orseis to fight to get any of the precious water for themselves.
Luckily, the stuff that the scratte leader smeared on them seemed to prevent violence even among the newly arrived scrattes. Unluckily, she and Orseis had seen where it came from. The choice between leaving it on and staying uneaten but mentally scarred or scrubbing it off and being immediately devoured had weighed heavily upon them, but they eventually resigned themselves to their unhygienic fate.
“Who’s the help?” James asked, skeptically.
“My mother sent some of her followers,” Bel replied cryptically.
“Really? Like Ventas?”
“Um…not exactly like Ventas. We don’t speak the same language.”
Bel still wasn’t sure if the sounds coming from the scrattes counted as a language, but she didn’t want to tell James that she was surrounded by them. She couldn’t imagine that conversation ending well.
A new voice intruded upon the conversation. “Hey, are those new allies going to help us take Satrap?”
“Beth! I didn’t know James’ calling rock could work with two people!” Bel felt a sudden surge of happiness in her heart – she was still a bit angry that her adopted sister didn’t trust her abilities, but that didn’t mean she didn’t miss her.
“We’ve got our faces smooshed together,” Beth replied flatly. “I’m wishing that Daran hadn’t convinced him to grow a beard, it’s driving me crazy.”
“Look, you could have waited to talk to–”
“Oh, shush,” Beth scolded him. “I have some important stuff to say and not a lot of time to say it.”
Bel’s smile dropped and she turned serious as her sister continued.
“Look, Hanti still wants to take over the attack on Satrap. Flann did his best to paint your efforts in a good light, but that damn ant – no offense to your wife James – that damn Hanti has gotten most of the council on her side. That sheep woman, the main opposition leader, she got caught trying to sneak some of the former followers of the Dark Ravager into the city. She claims she was just helping some poor, brainwashed sods reintegrate with civil society, but nobody believes she’s that altruistic.”
“That sucks,” Bel huffed, “so now Hanti’s in charge?”
“Close. Most of the council still wants to listen to me and James, given that we’re the only ones who’ve been to Satrap, but they want their own people to lead the attack. Some of them are even talking about grabbing a few humans and making a run for it to completely avoid fighting with Technis and his followers. That isn't what I planned for at all.”
Bel pinched her brow as she thought that through. “I don't think Technis would let them get away with that. I still don't really agree that kidnapping some humans and starting more wars is the best option, but if they waste the element of surprise things will just be even worse than they are now.”
“Exactly,” Beth agreed while ignoring Bel's objection. “So can your new allies help?”
Bel looked at the scrattes. Then she sniffed her odiferous arm. Her nose wrinkled with disgust.
“They’re really not a long-term thing. I’m not sure they speak a language either.”
James’ voice piped up again. “What are they?”
Bel grimaced, but a moment later she remembered that they planted seeds. “They’re walking plants,” she replied.
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Plants that lay their seeds inside the corpses of their enemies, but still plants, she thought smugly.
“Strange,” James replied.
“Yeah, they’re–”
Bel was interrupted by a tentacle tap on her shoulder.
“Hm? What’s up? Oh, it looks like we’re almost where we’re going.”
She stared up at the glowing pillar that now dominated her view. It was so unbelievably large that she hadn’t been able to tell that they were getting closer to it, in spite of hours of walking. Now though, she could see a large entrance on the side of the pillar. It was close enough that she could have thrown a stone through it from where she was standing.
A stone might be the only thing I can throw through it, she fretted. The portal, a perfect circle cutting through the otherwise impervious surface of the pillar, was filled with an angry, flickering curtain of flames.
There was nothing burning that she could see, but the impossible flames didn’t seem to mind.
“Is that another spirit?” Orseis asked.
Bel nodded. “Hey guys, can you let Flann know that we’re okay? And say hi to Jan from me?”
“Bel, don’t you dare disconnect,” Beth warned.
“Sorry sis, I’ve gotta go,” Bel apologized. She released her hands from her earring just as she caught sight of the scratte’s leader making his way towards them.
Her earring began buzzing again almost immediately. Bel winced at the noise, but ignored it.
“I guess he wants you to open it.”
“Yeah,” Bel agreed. The scratte was screeching and waving his arms at her and at the fiery portal, clearly expecting her to handle it.
Bel rolled her shoulders and strode confidently to the raging inferno – or at least she tried to be confident. She stopped ten strides away when she began to feel her skin tightening uncomfortably from the heat. Even her thermal regulation couldn’t entirely deal with the oppressive spirit of flames.
“Hey there,” she greeted hesitantly. “I’m Bel. One of my moms is a spirit.”
Her snake hissed at the flames. Bel hoped that her little magma spirit could communicate with this spirit as it had with the burning lava bear.
The flames continued to undulate, licking the unburning walls of the pillar with desperate persistence.
“Ahem. I guess that doesn’t impress you. I don’t suppose you could just move over a little?”
Bel made an arm motion. “You know, shift to the side a bit so we can get through?”
Her snake hissed emphatically, but the flames didn’t respond.
“What are you doing here anyway?” she questioned. “This doesn’t seem like a fun place for a fire. Why don’t you go off somewhere more fun?”
The flames flickered briefly before going back to their previous state.
Bel smacked a fist into her palm. “Ah, you want to leave but you’re stuck?”
The flames flickered again, and this time she got the impression of a negative response.
“Not stuck then? Maybe you don’t know where else to go?”
The flames flared up, forcing Bel back a step. “Oh, you want to go somewhere but everything looks just as boring?”
Bel spun around, surveying the burned out nightmare of the third layer.
“Well, it’s not much,” she agreed. “But you know who has stuff that would burn?”
She glanced at her audience. “Well, of course you don’t, you’re a pile of flames.”
She pointed back in the direction that she’d travelled with the scrattes.
“If you go that way for a few thousand strides…” She looked at the legless flames.
“Well, just go that way for a while and then head up that really tall mountain. At the top you’ll see…” She looked at the spirit that also didn’t have any eyes. “Well, whatever, just get to the top. Some bad people live there and they make a lot of cloth.”
The flames didn’t seem interested, flickering listlessly as Bel finished speaking.
“Huh. Oh, cloth is really flammable,” she added.
The flames’ response was immediate. It folded in on itself, like a flower blooming in reverse, and rolled out of the portal. Bel threw herself out of its way, certain that even Kjar’s armor wouldn’t save her from an encounter with the powerful spirit. She stared after it as it rushed past, wincing as it spun through some of the scrattes, leaving behind a short trail of ashy clumps.
“Crows,” Orseis cursed, “what did you say to it?”
Bel wiped herself off as she stood up. “I said that the nearest dhvaras castle had a bunch of stuff to burn.”
Orseis twisted her lips. “They do?”
“No. I lied. Maybe we should leave before it gets back.”
“You think?” Orseis shouted. “Why would you lie to a gigantic flame monster?”
“Spirit,” Bel corrected. “And I lied to get it to move. C’mon, the scrattes are already moving.”
She pointed at the portal. The scrattes were already streaming into it, like water rushing through a burst in a pipe. In just a few blinks of the eye the entirety of their force was inside.
“I guess this was what they wanted me for,” Bel speculated. “I wonder what my mom promised them?”
Orseis wrapped a tentacle around Bel and began dragging her towards the circular opening. “Who cares about the scrattes? I don’t want that that angry ball of flames to come back here and eat us. Come on, move faster!”
Bel picked up her feet and jogged through to the portal. The two of them entered a long, barren tunnel and fell into a quick jog. She would have been worried about more dangers ahead, but Bel assumed that the scrattes would have run into any dangers lurking in the tunnel when they passed through.
Well, unless something was on the ceiling. Bel looked up quickly to check, but realized that the tunnel was pitch black.
“Let’s run faster,” she suggested, quickening her pace to something just below a desperate sprint. She couldn’t help from frantically searching the curving walls for something dangerous.
The light at the end of the tunnel couldn’t have come soon enough. Bel and Orseis burst through the other end, emerging into a wide, beautiful courtyard. It was tiled with smooth, polished stone and filled with ingeniously crafted sculptures that used different colored rocks to produce incredibly lifelike effects. As Bel stared around in awe she heard a voice shouting.
“Get back here you worthless potato people! You can’t pass through without a token!”
Bel turned towards the source, excited to meet someone new who could actually speak.
Two people… no, one person… no, two people, stuck together back to back, stormed into the courtyard. The first face was nearly apoplectic with rage and as bright red as a brilliant sunset.
“Get back here or I will hunt you down and plant you so deep in the ground that your roots won’t even know which way is up!”
Bel glanced at Orseis. “His insults could use some work.”
“What? Can you understand him, Bel?”
“Of course,” she replied. “Can’t you?”
Orseis shook her head.
“Huh.” Bel shrugged. “I wonder if he can understand me.”
“Hello, sir,” she called out, waving. “Can you tell us–”
The man screamed when he looked in their direction.
“Who let the flames out?” he demanded. “Where did they go?”
Bel blinked a few times and looked the figure up and down. He had two faces, although one of them was now hidden on his other side. He was also equipped with four arms and four legs, each pair facing in a different direction as though he was two men sewn up back to back. He seemed ungainly, but Bel had just seen him running nimbly through the courtyard while screaming incoherently and barely looking where he was going. He was also twice her height, and his muscles bulged so vigorously that Bel almost decided that he was a bizarre muscle spirit rather than a regular person.
In summary, she decided that she didn’t want to fight him.
“The scrattes did it,” she said without hesitation. “They sent the fire to go burn some stuff somewhere else.”
The man’s arms shot into the air. “Let’s go with rock, I said. No, you said, rock is too boring, you said. Well a god cursed rock wouldn’t have fallen for the tricks of a few dim-witted potatoes, I’ll tell you that.”
It took Bel a moment to realize that he was yelling at his other half, but she nodded in agreement anyway so that the side staring at her wouldn't think she disagreed.
He glowered at her. “You two can go ahead and show yourselves out. Bet you’re just here looking for some gossip anyway.”
Saying that, he spun around so that one of his faces was looking towards the scrattes’ escape route. His rear-facing head glowered at them again before the forward facing head took off at a speed so fast that Bel couldn’t help but feel impressed.
“What’s happening?” Orseis demanded. “What did he say? What did you say?”
“Oh, he’s going to go punish the scrattes I think.”
“So let me get this straight. Outside there’s an extremely dangerous living ball of fire that is going to figure out that you lied to it at any moment now.”
Bel nodded.
“And inside,” Orseis continued, “is an extremely angry giant man with extra arms, legs, and head. He’ll be back to deal with us right after he pulverizes the scrattes?”
“Well, I don’t know if he’s going to pulverize them…”
Orseis smacked Bel on the back. “They’re going to come back and kill us! We need to get out of here!”