Chapter 5. Guardians

As they continued further down, moisture began to condense on the stone in tiny motes of water. In the motes lived even tinier fish, sparkling with a green or blue phosphorescence. It was like traveling through a tunnel of stars, albeit even more slowly than usual as Bruno took the added beauty to be a guarantee of further traps, and Delilah stopped every few feet to take samples. Jeremiah didn’t mind. After the troll’s lair, the air in the tunnel was fresh and pleasant. He took the time to admire the effect, wondering if the fish had been a natural part of the cave system or were added by whoever installed the traps. 

Even Bruno’s most painstaking search yielded no hazards. They continued along the tunnel until it opened onto a huge cavern. A steep and narrow descent, like a natural staircase, led from where they stood down to to a pool of water—nearly a lake—that stretched across the cavern. No fish illuminated this place, and Jeremiah found himself missing them. The pool was of unknowable depth, its surface a dark mirror that had stood undisturbed for an age. On the far side of the cavern, an opening in the wall indicated their way forward.

"What are those things along the walls?" Bruno asked. He gestured to dozens of large stone rectangles surrounding of the pool of water. They were unadorned, merely slabs of rock leaned side by side against the walls.

"Architecture?" ventured Delilah.

“No chance," said Allison. She picked a loose stone from the cave floor and hefted it in her hand for a moment, eyeing the slabs. Then with a grunt, she hurled the stone across the cavern. It landed with a plunk in the center of the still pool, disappearing below the surface.

Ripples from the stone spread slowly over that mirror surface, concentric rings emanating outward. Watching them filled Jeremiah with an inexplicable sense of dread.

It took nearly a minute for the first ripples to reach the slabs, tiny waves lapping against the stone. Then, everything happened at once.

The cavern filled with the grinding of stone on stone. Jeremiah, his eyes fixed on the nearest slab, gasped as the front of it, which he now recognized as the lid of a coffin, slid aside to reveal a gaunt humanoid figure. Its flesh was withered and taught, and scraps of bandages hung over its limbs, long since rotted away. Around its neck was a rusted iron collar with four protruding spikes, rising like stalagmites around its face. No bandages remained on its face, only blackened skin which still held the features it had had in life. The hint of humanity remaining only made it worse when the figure raised its head with a wrench, staring blindly at Jeremiah.

“Those are mummies,” said Jeremiah. He tightened his grip on his spear as his heart thudded in his chest. He was about to be in a fight without magic. His mind briefly brushed against memories of blood and dead men, but his revulsion at his own cowardice gave him focus. "I will  not fail my friends again. ”

The water churned as dozens of mummies lurched into the pool at once, each beginning to make their way towards the adventurers huddled at the cavern entrance.

"Is a mummy a zombie, or is there something different about these we should know?" Allison asked. She made her way to the front of the group, hoisting her shield and sword and bracing against a sturdy boulder.

"They're people who choose to become undead through ritual magic. They'll be stronger and tougher than regular zombies, and the bandages are usually alchemically treated to act as armor," said Jeremiah.

"Tips?" Bruno asked. The first mummies had reached the foot of the stone staircase and were beginning the steep climb. Aside from the splashing and shuffling of their movements, they were eerily silent.

"Cut them apart. The flesh is treated in the creation process though, so it'll be tough," said Jeremiah.

Allison switched to her axe then turned and pointed at Jeremiah. "What do you do?"

"I poke?"

"You poke. Bruno with me, that crap around their necks is an ancient form of armor, hopefully it'll be too rusted to help. Delilah, keep them from swarming us." The closest mummies were only a few paces away now, their eyeless gaze fixed on Allison.

"Should we retreat to the tunnel? Limit their number?" Delilah asked, rummaging through her various pockets.

"You remember the bandit fortress? The hallways were like charnel houses. I want room to swing and maneuver," Allison answered. Three glass bottles hurtled overhead from back line and crashed open on the rocks nearest the water, covering the base of the stairs with a pearlescent oil. The mummies that tried to climb them could find no purchase and toppled back into the water.

The first mummies reached Allison, arms outstretched. Allison swung her axe with a bellow, connecting just above the neck armor. The tines on the collar shattered, but stopped the blow from cleaving the mummies head in half. Allison swore, kicked the mummy in the chest as its hands reached for her face, sending it stumbling backwards into the mummy behind it. Despite Delilah’s oil hazard, the stairs were already growing crowded. The first mummy came within range of Allison again and she swung once more. This time her axe easily parted its head, and the mummy fell, limp. 

Bruno darted into the opening left by the felled mummy and his swords found vulnerable targets before the creatures could react—hands, arms, and feet were severed by his twin blades, and then he was gone, flitting down the stones towards the mummies climbing out of the water, maiming as he went but never lingering long enough to be a target.

"Ready?" Delilah asked Jeremiah as several mummies closed in on their position. She shifted her grip towards the butt of her spear and stood just behind Jeremiah, who was positioned behind Allison.

"I poke," he said, like it was a holy mantra.

"Then let's poke!" Delilah reached past Allison to thrust into the head of a mummy further down on the rocks, lodging in its skull. The mummy, undeterred, tried to wrench the spear free. 

"It's like stabbing a log,” said Delilah. She braced her feet and pushed backwards. The mummy lost balance off the side of the rocks, falling away from the spear to the water below. It disappeared briefly below the surface, then Jeremiah watched it clamber to its feet to begin the long journey anew.

"Pick it up!" yelled Allison. She swung her axe in great arcs as the mummies reached her and battered them back with shield bashes. But despite her strength, the mummies would not be felled in a single hit. Thanks to Bruno’s attacks, many were missing limbs, but with the neck armor there was little he could do to thin their numbers and they were beginning to crowd Allison.

A small group of mummies reached Allison at once. She stunned two of them in a single swing of her axe, but a third was lurking in the blind spot beneath her shield. Jeremiah spotted it, steeled himself, then raised his spear and poked. 

The spear stuck barely an inch into the mummy's neck. He poked again, still to no effect. The mummy stood and swung a hardened fist into Allison's shield, denting the metal with its unnatural strength. Allison staggered from the unexpected force of the blow, but managed to keep her footing.

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Jeremiah poked again, but this time shoved against the mummy with all his might. It teetered for a moment, then fell backwards, tumbling down the rocks. 

He stared, his spear still outstretched as the mummy fell. “I did it? I did it!”

"Now do it faster and better!" Allison shouted. She hacked at one mummy while kicking another away, then brought her axe down on a third as it reached past her towards Jeremiah. 

Below, Bruno struggled to continue his dance of attacks and retreats, but his options were growing limited. One heavy fist clipped his shoulder as he darted past, sending him spinning towards the pool below. He struck out mid-spin to lodge a sword into the chest of another mummy, slowing his momentum to catch his balance. The mummy didn’t even notice the blow however, and surged upwards with its fellows, taking the sword with it.

"Al, we need to move," said Bruno, switching his remaining sword to his right hand.

“Right. Fall back!" Allison commanded. As she raised her shield to cover Jeremiah’s and Delilah’s retreat, a mummy lunged forward, seized her ankle, and pulled. Allison fell flat on the rocks as her foot was yanked out from under her. In a moment a pile of mummies were upon her, and a dozen fists that could smash bone began hammering down. Her non-magical shield was reduced to splinters in moments.

"Allison!" Jeremiah cried.

"I'm okay!" Allison yelled back over the din of fists pounding on metal, "the armor is too strong, they can't break it!" Blow after blow rattled her magic armor, without leaving so much as a dent. She dropped her axe—there was no room to swing it anyway—and pulled a dagger, jabbing the mummies with the weapon and raking them with her clawed gauntlets to try and create enough of an opening to escape.

“Eyes up, Jay!” Delilah’s voice in his ear made Jeremiah jump. He regripped his spear and stared in horror at the horde approaching. The mummies that were not busy mauling Allison were flowing past her like water around a stone, bearing down on Jeremiah and Delilah as though spurred to fresh energy by the newly available targets. 

Bruno rushed towards Allison and hacked at the mummies. His sword sliced through flesh and sinew, but they remained undeterred. Sidestepping a swipe by a passing mummy, he snatched Allison's discarded axe and retreated to Jeremiah's side. Bruno handed his remaining throwing blade to Jeremiah. "Gonna need you to do more than poke, Jay," said Bruno. He hefted the axe and swung it down onto the crown of a mummy, cracking the skull in half. 

Jeremiah held the sword like it was a cactus. The weight was strange, it was short, it felt clumsy in his hands. The prospect of attacking meant putting himself within reach of danger, and one of Allison's biggest lessons with the spear was how to stay out of it.

The shriek of metal on stone rang through the cavern, accompanied by Allison’s shouts. Jeremiah searched for her among the mummies, and for one heart-stopping moment he couldn’t spot her. But then—there, near the bottom of the stairs. They were dragging downwards, had nearly reached the water. Allison was swearing and kicking at the mummies to little effect. As her feet touched the water, she drew her longsword and heaved it towards her friends on the stairs above her. Moments later, she was sinking into the pool, dragged towards the very center, thrashing uselessly at the mummies clinging to her as her armor took on water. And then she was gone, disappeared beneath the surface in a riot of frothing water. 

"We need a plan! Now!" Bruno shouted. He and the others retreated to the entrance of the cavern while the rest of the mummies climbed towards them. Meanwhile, the pool was already returning to its mirror-like stillness. 

Delilah threw a hefty sack down onto the rocks below. It burst apart, sending thousands of metal foil strips across the surface of the water, where they began to dance and hiss white smoke like a rolling morning fog. “Knock them into the water,” said Delilah. “Allison, if you can hear me—don’t come up!”

No sooner had Delilah spoken then the white fog began to glow and pop with thousands of tiny flames. The hiss from the water became deafening, and despite its size, the cool cavern began to grow warmer.

Bruno closed the distance to the horde and kicked a mummy hard, sending it tumbling over the side and into the burning water. When it emerged again, the countless strips covering its body had ignited with blinding intensity. The strips burned into the mummy’s preserved flesh until that too was alight, and the mummy went up in an inferno.

Jeremiah picked another mummy ascending the slippery rocks and shield checked it, driving it backwards. The mummy slipped over the edge, but grabbed onto Jeremiah’s shield. The weight of the undead threatened to pull him over too, and Jeremiah fumbled at the shield’s straps as he fought for balance. Delilah’s arms wrapped around him as he finally managed to unlatch the buckle. The mummy fell away to the flames below, carrying Jeremiah’s shield with it. 

The heat was becoming intolerable now, the brilliance of the flames searing Jeremiah’s vision. But the mummies kept coming. “Get back to the tunnel!” he shouted.

“We have to get Allison,” said Delilah. Her spear impaled a mummy, but it was buoyed by its comrades and she couldn’t push it to the edge.

“We’re getting overrun, fall back,” yelled Jeremiah. A mummy grabbed at his arm, powerful fingers closing on leather armor but mercifully missing Jeremiah’s flesh. The leather came away like clay in its hands.

Reluctantly they retreated towards the tunnel, Bruno taking the rear guard with great sweeping swings of Allison’s axe. The remaining dozen mummies followed, clumping together to fit through the entrance. Bruno made his stand there, with Delilah and Jeremiah falling in to help. Killing the mummies with weapons was nearly impossible without Allison, but the three of them together could at least hold the line.

Behind the mummies, the heat in the cavern was increasing. The flames on the water grew to such heights that Jeremiah was blinded to look towards them. 

Suddenly, one of the rear mummies’ bandages was alight, and that white-hot fire was nearly upon them. With a shout, Delilah grabbed her friends and hauled them back up the tunnel as fast as she could, away from the undead. 

For a moment, the mummies started to surge forward, victorious. But the triumph was short-lived. A rancid burning wind swept through the tunnel, and that flame enveloped the entire group of undead instantly. The mummies were transformed into a just a wall of white fire roaring like a dragon of legend. 

Delilah kept pulling them away, and Jeremiah let himself be pulled. Even from the distance of fifty paces, his face burned with the heat of the fire. 

“She’s still in there!” said Bruno. “We’ve got to get through!”

“You can’t!” said Delilah. “You have no idea how hot that is, it’ll burn your skin off. I know, I’m sorry. But we have to wait.”

Minutes passed like hours until finally the flames subsided enough to be passable. Jeremiah and his friends rushed into the cavern. It was like entering an oven. The fire over the water had burned out, but Allison was nowhere to be seen.

“Get in there! Find her!” said Bruno. The three of them leaped down into the black water. Jeremiah threw himself towards the center of the pool, where he had last seen Allison go under. 

The bottom of the pool, only ankle deep near the edges of the cavern, dropped out near the center. Jeremiah dove, eyes straining in the sudden darkness after so much light, reaching frantically and haphazardly. He resurfaced for air, then dove again. She had to be here. And again. 

Jeremiah’s knuckles grazed something metal, and he seized it. It was heavy, nearly impossible to move, let alone swim with. He used it to pull himself down to the bottom, wrapped his arms around the thing, screwed up all his strength, and kicked off against the floor as hard as he could towards the surface.

Allison popped out of the water and took in a great coughing gasp of air. She started swimming to shallower waters, carrying Jeremiah now as much as he carried her. “It’s safe now?” she choked.

“She yet lives!” cheered Bruno. He splashed towards them.

“What the-how long can you hold your breath for?” asked Jeremiah. He and Bruno wrapped Allison in a relieved hug.

“Long time,” gasped Allison. “Very long time.” She gulped the air greedily.

“Anyone need medical attention?” asked Delilah.

“My eyes are killing me,” said Jeremiah.

“Mine too,” said Bruno, “and I think I’m the first person to get a sunburn underground.”