This infestation of fulan seemed fresher, or had perhaps simply been contained for longer, because there were still small stretches where the plants seemed untainted, and creatures like the fuergar chittered and squeaked in the distant shadows.
Spores hadn’t yet collected in drifts over everything, so as they walked, the bodies were clearly visible. There were a lot of them, and the type and placement of the wounds told a story of females attacking one another with power, then tooth and claw. Kaz found himself compelled to count the number of missing cores, and by the time they reached the tunnel that Civ said would take them to the Bronzearm den, the total had reached fourteen.
Fourteen wasn’t a large number when considered against the total population of a large tribe, but given that they were all found within a short distance, it was a powerful indicator that there were probably many more the group hadn’t seen. If Litz had begun to change after eating only a few cores, what would this thing look like by now?
For a long moment, they all stood and stared down the branching tunnel Civ had pointed out. They could see huddled mounds in the distance, but Kaz, at least, felt no urge to go investigate them, and he could tell from Li’s emotions that she felt the same. The dragon was still less than pleased with her transfer to Lianhua, but she was too worried to sulk properly.
The group set into motion again, glad enough to be able to leave the grim sight behind as they headed for the stairs. Everyone followed after Raff, whose sword was out and glowing brightly, and Kaz tried to send his little friend a sense of reassurance. This was difficult, since he himself wasn’t exactly thrilled about what was going on, but he did his best anyway. At least until he passed the tunnel mouth, finally forcing himself to look away from the shadowy lumps littering the ground. The moment he turned his back on it, something clicked.
He froze, knowing he should turn and look back, while at the same time he longed for nothing more than to push ki into his legs and run away as quickly as they could carry him. Ahead, he saw that Ilto, too, had noticed the tiny sound, and the warrior’s head slowly began to turn.
No. Don’t look, he thought, knowing that not looking wouldn’t change what was there, but still unable to stop the desperate thought. Sensing his apprehension, Li’s head lifted, and her long, slender neck began to twist.
As if time had slowed, Ilto’s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. He already held his knife, but now his hand tightened on it even as he stumbled back, bumping into Regz, who yipped in surprise. This made everyone else look back, and one after another, faces paled and eyes grew large. At last, Kaz couldn’t bear it, and he, too, turned.
Whatever creature it had been in the beginning, the thing that was advancing down the tunnel was now little more than an amorphous mass. Unlike the first one they’d fought, it didn’t have distinct heads or necks, but rather a dozen mismatched faces that stared vacantly out from its body. There were pincers and fingers and several things that looked like lopo tongues, but no definable limbs. It was as large as the tunnel through which it moved, filling it from top to bottom and side to side, and the sounds it made as it rolled over the bodies of its victims was the only warning it gave.
The one good thing about it was that it was slow. It flowed toward them with a movement that was as inexorable as time, but seemed either unwilling or unable to do so with any great haste. As one, they turned to look at Gaoda.
“Run,” he said.
Run they did, though Chi Yincang fell in at the rear, fully visible for once as he watched the atrocity advance. Their order broke down, and while Raff maintained his lead, thanks to his long legs, the others shifted as each slowed, then put on a fresh burst of speed as they got their second wind, or perhaps simply thought about what lay behind them and found fresh urgency in terror.
Fortunately, they were nearly to the stairs, and soon they stumbled into the echoing cavern, more like a pack of frightened puppies than a group of seasoned warriors. Raff and Chi Yincang, at least, managed to maintain their composure, quickly falling in to bracket Gaoda and Lianhua as soon as everyone came to a stop.
Kaz looked around, noting that the large space seemed much the same as it was in his memories, in spite of the distance of years. There were clear signs of kobold occupation, from the broken stalactites hanging overhead to the tall totems bracketing the wide staircase. The ever-present red lights lined the steps, illuminating the toothy grins of the skulls on the totems, and causing a crimson glow to glare out through the otherwise empty eye sockets.
Lianhua shuddered. “Why do all of the totems have to be so gruesome?”
Kaz actually managed a small laugh. “The mountain is made of stones and bones, with a little ore to hold them together. What else should we make them out of?”
The other kobolds nodded, chests heaving as they tried to get enough air after their mad dash. Kaz noticed that he, like the humans, was still breathing easily, which gave him a flush of satisfaction entirely at odds with the cold dread that otherwise filled him.
“Down the stairs, then,” Gaoda said, already starting in that direction.
“There are no guards,” Raff muttered, eyes darting between the dark entrances to three other tunnels leading to this chamber.
“Probably dead or ran away-” Gaoda started, then looked down the steps ahead of him. He stopped, and the others hurried forward to see why.
It was like they were staring into one of the clouds that now inhabited Kaz’s dreams, but dyed red as garnet. Those vaporous depths had frightened him at first, but Li’s fearless dives in and out of the fluffy white had quickly driven his unease away. This red haze brought back his initial sense of trepidation and deepened it a hundredfold.
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“Is that fulan?” Ilto asked, sounding very like a puppy again.
“I think so,” Lianhua murmured, leaning forward to extend a hand, not quite touching the first heavy swirl of fog, which lurked on the first step like sanguine smoke.
A long scraaaape of sound came from the tunnel behind them, and they whirled, staring back at the approaching atrocity. They couldn’t see it yet, but each indication of its progress made the entire group shudder.
“We gonna stay and fight, or go into that?” Raff asked, expression grim and fingers tight around the hilt of his sword.
Lianhua stood again, closing her eyes. Kaz saw the bubble around her head brighten as she pushed more ki into it. It wouldn’t last as long now, but she and Li should be safe from the fulan at least.
Someone whimpered, and Kaz looked toward Ilto. The other kobold’s ears were flat, and his curly tail was tucked. “I don’t want to go,” he said, eyes huge as he looked from Civ to Pils.
Civ turned away, refusing to meet the younger kobold’s gaze. Instead, he stepped forward and down, paws all but vanishing, sending eddies swirling through the hanging dust. Pils reached out and patted the thick tuft of fur between Ilto’s ears, then did the same.
“Wait,” Lianhua said, reaching into her pouch. She drew out the beginning of a length of rope, continuing to pull until she had nearly a hundred feet of it before slicing it off with the small knife that hung at her belt. Her hands moved quickly along it, tying a simple loop every ten feet or so. When she was done, she turned to Raff and tucked the end beneath his belt.
“There. Everyone hang onto the rope, and at least we won’t be separated accidentally.” She started to hand the next loop to Kaz, then hesitated and looked at Civ.
The black-furred kobold held out his hand. “I know the way to the Redmane den.”
She nodded and gave him the rope. The next three loops were taken by Pils, Regz, and Ilto, who seemed embarrassed by his outburst. Kaz accepted the one after that, with Lianhua falling in right behind him, ignoring the loop she’d tied further down. Gaoda picked that one up with a scowl, and Chi Yincang simply shook his head, though his eyes never left the tunnel opening behind them.
Once everyone besides Chi Yincang had hold of the rope, Civ took another step, and the group shuffled forward awkwardly. Step by step, the warrior vanished into the indelible fog, though even he took one last desperate gulp of clearer air before his head sank below the surface. The others followed, each hesitating before the irreversible step. Kaz glanced back once more, just in time to see the first part of the grotesque mass of the thing chasing them extend itself into the cavern. A dozen lifeless eyes stared back at him, gaping mouths making mocking circles of darkness beneath.
Kaz shuddered and checked his mask before allowing the spores to surround him, blocking out the sight. The rope in his hand tugged, and he took the next step, and then the next. His paw tried to twist as it found the broken edge of a step, and he gasped out a warning to Lianhua, who was so close to him that he could feel the subtle draw of her power.
Adjusting his grip on the rope, Kaz took two steps in rapid succession, leaving behind the loop he’d been holding, but gaining enough distance from the female following him that she could only take the thinnest trickle of ki from him. He could afford to spare it, though, and she was keeping Li safe, so it was a price he was willing to pay.
He wished he could speak to Li as he had done when the two of them were lost in the between-levels. He wished he could feel her weight on his shoulder, and tease her until she nipped at his ear. His physical eyes were all but blind in the haze, and even the light of Raff’s meridian ahead was dim.
Then he took another step, and Gaoda must have entered the fog, because it lit up around them. A reddish glare developed, ki-light reflecting from one spore to the next, expanding and constricting the area illuminated by the orb all at once.
“Gaoda, tone that down,” Raff said, an unaccustomed note of command in his voice. “You’re makin’ us a target, if there’s anything left out there to see.”
Gaoda gave a grunt, but the hazy illumination dimmed. “I don’t want to waste my strength,” he muttered, as if reducing the light had been his own idea.
“We ready?” Raff asked, and Kaz felt a little tug on the rope as the human took another step.
“Go,” Chi Yincang said. “With haste.”
Raff chuckled, and Kaz could imagine the grin on his face. “I’m gonna count. Each count is one step. If you fall behind, you’ll have to make it on your own. Here we go. One.”
Step by step, number by number, they advanced. At first, the pace was a bit too fast for the shorter kobolds, and once Kaz had to quickly help Ilto back to his paws. Once they all settled into the rhythm of it, though, the steps vanished behind them, dropping them ever further into the depths.
As usual, nothing grew on or beside the stairs, and there were recessed alcoves holding the red lights every five or six steps. Under normal circumstances, these lights would have been more than enough to allow them to see, at least as far as Kaz was concerned, but now they just added to the eerie shadows that grew and vanished as they moved along.
Raff had just counted to one hundred sixty-seven when he said, “Wait,” and they heard him tap his toe several times. The rope tugged as everyone shifted restlessly, and then Raff said, “That’s it, unless this set of stairs has a landing in the middle.”
“No,” Civ’s gruff growl said, and then he coughed, sounding like he was trying to expel every spore he’d breathed in, which perhaps he was. This triggered the other kobolds to begin coughing as well, and then Lianhua made a sound and moved from behind Kaz. She felt her way past him, barely touching him on the way by, and from the sounds of it soon reached Ilto.
“Here,” she murmured gently, and he could see her dantians shift as she bent over or knelt. “I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner. This isn’t made from spiritual bamboo, but it should be better than nothing.”
More muted sounds broke through the quiet darkness as Lianhua finished whatever she was doing, and Civ finally said, “Thank you.” His voice was even rougher than usual, but he was able to continue.
“The cavern here is large, but if we keep to the left, we’ll take the second passage we find. From there, I’ll have to lead in order to guide us to the Redmane den.”
Raff sighed. “Be my guest. I’ll surely let someone else be the front man in this soup. Real quick, though, everybody sound off. I’d hate to start out already missing somebody.”
One by one, each of them called out, confirming their continued existence in the darkness. Chi Yincang was last, and then they began to move again, dragging their feet through a morass of fulan that swallowed their steps. The rope pulled, they walked, and the dense fog of floating spores obscured everything.