Rise of the Spider Goddess (21 page)

“I'm sorry about this, I really am. But you shouldn't have come here.” The priest grabbed Galadrion's hair and wrenched her head back. Making a clucking noise with his tongue, he brought the knife up under her chin.

“Maybe you're right,” Galadrion said quietly, closing her eyes.

Then he drew the blade across her throat.

The priest's eyes widened, seeing that his knife had no effect. Galadrion reached up and grabbed him by the front of his cloak. Then he was hurled through the air and crashed against the altar. The knife clattered to the ground.

Oh sure, I could have written, “Galadrion hurled him through the air.” But why use active voice for an action scene when I can use passive voice and make it 158% less exciting?

“Maybe not.”

Wincing, Galadrion got to her feet. Her wounds weren't healing properly, she noted. Looking around, she tried to remember which door Jenn and Pynne had gone through. Picking one, she limped over and grabbed a torch from the wall next to the door. Then she opened the door and began walking down the tunnel.

Almost immediately, she came to a set of poorly carved stairs that circled downward. Where they ended, two different tunnels led off into the darkness.

Galadrion stopped at the bottom of the stairs and peered down the tunnels. There didn't seem to be any difference between the two. With a mental sigh, she began walking down the right tunnel.

She studied the corridor as she walked. It was obviously well-used, for the floor was free of dirt. The walls were covered with some sort of gray-blue fungus that clung tenaciously to the stone.

Cobwebs filled the uneven cracks and spaces in the ceiling. Absently, Galadrion raised her torch up until the flame licked at one of the webs. She watched as the web curled away from the torch, burning into nothingness. A spider fell, landing next to her foot.

Smokey the Owlbear says, “Only you can prevent dungeon fires!”

She crushed it with her boot.

“If only it were that easy,” she whispered to herself. Then she froze, hearing voices from ahead.

It was too far away to make out what was being said. All she could tell was that they were male voices. Perhaps this tunnel connected to the one Whoo and Nakor escaped through.

Confident in her ability to protect herself, Galadrion raised her torch and began walking toward the voices.

As she got closer, the voices suddenly stopped. Galadrion began to feel a faint buzzing in her mind. It was painless, and familiar for some reason. She stopped and waited.

Soon she could see a light approaching. Two men walked into view. One man held an oil-burning lantern in, while the other had a sword drawn.

He held an oil-burning lantern in WHAT? Don't leave me in suspense. His hand? His mouth? His boxer shorts?

The one carrying the lantern stepped forward to study Galadrion. He was dressed all in black, with a sword strapped to his side. His sleek brown hair was tied into a ponytail, and a neatly trimmed goatee decorated his chin. Deep brown eyes stared past a hooked nose as he contemplated Galadrion.

“We weren't informed of your arrival,” he said at last.

Suddenly Galadrion realized why the buzzing in her mind was familiar. It was a sensation she hadn't felt for nearly thirty years.

After being bitten by a vampire, Galadrion had fled from her home. She had dug herself a shelter deep in the forest. There, she was able to escape from the rest of the world, covering the entrance with sticks and leaves. Then, a few weeks later, he had come back.

He had been ready to receive Galadrion's gratitude for the gift he had bestowed on her. Instead, she had tried futilely to kill him, repeatedly stabbing him with her dagger. After a while, she stopped, realizing the hopelessness of it. He had laughed, bowed courteously to her, and departed.

All the while they had been together, Galadrion had felt that same sensation in the back of her mind. She had been too enraged at the time to think anything of it, but now it made sense.

All the while they were together? They spent what, five minutes together after she was turned?

A feeling of dread came over Galadrion then, as she realized that she faced her own kind. She was still weak from the priest's attack.

The second vampire sheathed his sword and stepped forward. He was slightly taller and more muscular than his companion. His blond hair was tied in a similar ponytail, but he was cleanshaven. Like the other, he was dressed in black. The only exception was a deep blue sash tied around his waist.

The bad guys all wear black. I guess I should be grateful I didn't give them all evil moustaches to twirl.

“I am Gavin,” he said, “this is Derek.”

The other vampire nodded.

“I'm Galadrion,” she answered.

“Why did Olara send you?” asked Gavin.

Hope filled her heart. They thought she had been sent down here to join them!

“I was sent to look for the intruders,” she answered, thinking quickly.

They looked at each other. “Intruders?” Derek asked.

Galadrion cursed silently. She had assumed they were down here looking for her and her companions. Now, it looked like she had just put Nakor and the others in greater danger.

“They found a dead priest up above,” Galadrion explained. “Olara wants whoever killed him found and brought to her.”

Gavin nodded. “Olara has been paranoid about outsiders ever since she got a hold of that prophesy.”

“Prophesy?” Galadrion inquired politely.

“You haven't heard?” Derek asked.

She shook her head.

“Apparently some old priestess predicted that Olara would be killed by that elf who helped resurrect her,” he said. “To make things worse, he disappeared right after she found out.”

Vampires are rather chatty, aren't they?

“So, now she's got us patrolling the tunnels down here, just to be safe,” Gavin added. He rolled his eyes. “We've been down here for two straight days.”

Galadrion was relieved. It was obvious that these two hadn't heard the rumors about Nakor's vampiress companion. That was probably a result of being alone in the temple for so long.

“Do you think it's him?” Galadrion asked cautiously.

“Nakor,” Derek said. “The elf's name is Nakor.”

“It takes a lot to kill one of Olara's priests inside the temple,” Gavin said with a frown. “From what I've heard, Nakor doesn't have that kind of power. Especially without his magic.”

“Maybe he figured out how to get his magic back,” Galadrion ventured.

“I doubt it,” said Gavin. “Olara has to do a special ceremony for a priest before he can cast spells in here. She only goes to that effort for a few of the exceptionally gifted ones.”

“He could have had help,” Derek offered.

“Does it really matter who the intruder is?” Galadrion asked, avoiding that topic.

“Galadrion's right,” Gavin said, “we should just find whoever it is and take them to Olara.”

They began to walk down the tunnel.

“You okay?” Gavin asked, noticing Galadrion's limp.

She snorted in disgust. “I mouthed off to one of those exceptionally gifted priests.” She pointed to the scorches on her shirt and trousers. “This is what I got for it.”

Derek clapped a hand on her shoulder. “We all get that from time to time. One of these days I'm going to teach some priests what happens when you annoy a vampire.”

“Shut your mouth,” Gavin said in disgust. “If anyone catches you talking like that, you're going to get burned just like her.”

Up ahead, a door was built into the left wall. They stopped there, and Derek took a small key from around his neck to unlock it.

“You new?” he asked Galadrion.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Then you've probably never been in here.” She shook her head, and he continued. “This here is where we make our base while we're living in the lower levels.”

He swung the door inside and set his lantern on a round wooden table. It was a small, cramped room filled with various weapons, tools, and several barrels.

“Extra oil,” Gavin commented, pointing at the barrels.

Galadrion nodded, staring at a large map that on one wall. It was obviously a map of the temple. She could see the octagonal room they had found, with eight tunnels twisting out in different directions.

I'm sad to say I don't think I have my map of this dungeon anymore. Otherwise, I could have a fancy front-of-the-book map, just like all the real fantasy novels!

The temple was larger than she had expected. Corridors twisted around each other, forming a complex labyrinth. The occasional room broke the maze of tunnels.

“What's this?” she asked, pointing to a tunnel that stopped abruptly at one side of the map.

Derek glanced over. “That one opens up into a huge cavern. It's a dead end, nobody's been there for years.”

“Nice place to end it all, though,” Gavin said dryly. “There's a molten river at the bottom of the cavern,” he added for Galadrion's benefit.

“How nice,” she said, matching his dry tone.

Derek cleared his throat, trying to get people's attention. “Do either of you need anything here?” he asked. “I've already grabbed a few extra flasks of oil.”

Gavin looked at Galadrion, who shook her head.

“Then let's go,” he said.

They walked out of the room, and Derek locked the door behind them.

“I think we should stick together,” Gavin said.

Derek looked at him questioningly.

“Galadrion here doesn't know the tunnels like we do,” he explained. “Besides, I'm not too keen on the idea of going up alone against someone who took out one of the black-robes.”

Derek laughed. “You afraid of this guy, Gavin?”

“Just being careful,” he answered. “Olara thinks this elf has the power to kill her. If so, there's always the chance he'd be able to do something to us, too.”

“Whatever,” Derek said, walking ahead.

Following behind, Gavin looked over to Galadrion. “Derek's a little on the aggressive side. He can be a little on the stupid side sometimes, too.”

“I heard that,” Derek called from up ahead.

“Good!” Gavin yelled back. “Now shut up before you warn everybody in the whole bloody temple that we're here.”

After that, they walked in silence.

* * *

“Why don't we head up to the altar room and see if there's any clues about which passage this intruder took?” Gavin suggested.

“Sure, whatever,” Derek said grumpily. He was still sulking about being yelled at earlier.

Galadrion just nodded silently in agreement. She was finding it disturbingly easy to fit in with these people. Since becoming a vampire, Galadrion had tried to avoid people as much as possible. That was why she had been so willing to live with Nakor, isolated in the forest.

Now, for the first time, she was spending time with her own kind. There was none of the hatred, none of the fear she endured from the “mortals,” as Gavin and Derek referred to them. She felt as if she belonged. For the first time in over a quarter of a century, she no longer felt like a monster.

Nakor had been the only one who had treated her with anything approaching this type of acceptance. Jenn seemed to like her, but Jenn didn't understand exactly what she was yet. As for Whoo and Pynne, well, perhaps pixies had a different perception of vampires than footerlings.

Her musings were interrupted as they halted before a door. Yanking it open, Derek led them back into the altar room.

“Two of the torches are gone from the wall mounts,” Gavin noted immediately.

“I took one of them,” Galadrion explained.

“Hey, look at this,” Derek called. He was kneeling next to the body of the dead priest, still crumpled against the altar.

“It looks like something just hurled him through the air,” Gavin commented, studying the corpse. “And look over here.”

He had turned his head and was now examining the shattered remains of one of the crystal spiders. The pillar still lay on top of the pile of splinters, where Galadrion had thrown it.

“The other one's over here,” Galadrion called, trying to conceal her nervousness.

“What could do this kind of damage?” Derek asked, surveying the room. “Even I'd be hard pressed to get close enough to do that to a priest,” he admitted.

“You might have been right about Nakor finding a way to get his magic back,” Gavin speculated, glancing at Galadrion. “If so, he's more powerful than we've been told.”

Galadrion breathed a quiet sigh of relief. They didn't suspect anything. Now she just needed to find a way to divert the pair so that the others could escape. Her comfort at being with other vampires had evaporated when she was reminded that these two would kill her friends without hesitation.

She knelt down by Gavin to study the pillar-crushed spider. “I'm impressed,” she commented.

“But none of this tells us which way to go,” Gavin said, glancing around the room. “Any ideas?”

“How about that one,” Galadrion said, pointing to a door she knew was the wrong one.

“Why that one?” Derek asked curiously.

Galadrion shrugged. “I figure your guess is as good as mine.” Then she smiled. “But I'd still rather go with mine.”

They were turning to re-enter the tunnels when they heard a noise behind them. Spinning, they beheld a priest walking into the room.

“Greetings, Niuris,” Gavin said respectfully.

I have no idea where I came up with that name. Or how to pronounce it. But at least there are no random apostrophes, eh?

“Gavin,” the priest replied absently, nodding his head in greeting. “Who is your friend?”

Gavin frowned. “This is Galadrion, she's new.”

Niuris studied her for a moment. Then his eyes widened.

“You fool!” he shouted. “One of Nakor's companions is a female vampire!”