Songreaver (30 page)

"Sorry," Scupp said, her voice softening,
"I'm just worried about you."

"Worried about me?" Garrett said.

Scupp nodded. "Warren says you got it pretty
bad for this girl... We just don't want to see you get hurt is
all."

"Marla is really nice," Garrett said, "She
wouldn't do anything to hurt me."

Scupp gave him a flat look. "Garrett," she
asked, "how many girlfriends you had?"

Garrett felt his cheeks blush. "What?"

"How many?" she asked.

"I don't know..."

"You kissed a girl before?" Scupp asked.

"No," Garrett said.

"It ain't nothin' to be ashamed of, Garrett,"
Scupp said, putting her paw on his shoulder, "and I ain't tryin' to
make sport of you. I'm just sayin' that you're new to this, and
it's real easy to get hurt your first time."

Garrett laughed. "I've been hurt before,
believe me," he said, "I had a little run in with a dragon
once..."

"No," Scupp said, her face serious, "that
ain't the same. Fire only burns your outsides, and it can only burn
you enough to kill you. Then it's over with. There's other hurts
that can eat up your insides, and they let you live, burnin' you
for the rest o' your life. Fire ain't got nothin' on that."

Garrett said nothing. He stared down into the
blackness of the pit.

"Just be careful, all right?" Scupp said,
"You're the only human was ever really nice to me and my brother.
Be a shame if you went all crazy and bloodthirsty like the rest of
'em."

Garrett laughed. "We're not all like that,"
he said, "The other necromancers like you guys."

"Yeah," Scupp laughed, "they like us as long
as we're doin' the dirty work for 'em. You know, Garrett, I think
as you're the only person with no tail ever tol' me
Good
Mornin'
." She thought for a moment and then made a playful grab
at his backside, "You ain't hidin' a tail in there, are you?"

Garrett laughed, jumping clear of Scupp's
paw. The heel of his boot caught on the edge of the channel behind
him, and he teetered for a heart-stopping moment at the edge of the
pit.

Scupp shot out a hairy arm and caught him by
the front of his harness, pulling him back from the edge.

"Thanks!" he gasped.

Scupp gave him a pointed grin. "Friends gotta
look out for each other," she said.

Garrett smiled and nodded.

Suddenly, the rope affixed to the spike
between their feet began to vibrate, and they looked over the edge
to see Marla's light coming up the shaft from below. Garrett
marveled at her speed as, a few moments later, she pulled herself
to the top of the pit, panting with exertion.

Marla looked up at them, her black hair
plastered to the sides of her head, and her face and clothing
streaked with filth. "I... found something," she gasped.

****

Garrett and his friends assembled together on
a narrow ledge, halfway down Marla's last length of rope. Garrett
leaned out, shielding his eyes against the foul-smelling rain of
water, to peer back up the shaft, unable to even make out the light
of the torch they left burning in the chamber far above. The rope
continued into the darkness below and the shaft deeper still. To go
any further down would be beyond Marla's ability to take them, but
a narrow tunnel lead into the rock face behind the ledge, and the
group was keen to explore it.

They stepped back into the tunnel to get out
of the malodorous rain that fell on the ledge, and the ghouls
passed around an old shirt that Warren had pulled from the food bag
that he had brought back from Marrowvyn. They used it to scrub the
grime from their faces. Garrett took the shirt in turn, and then
grimaced at the old bloodstains surrounding an enormous gash in the
shirt's back.

"Where did you get this?" Garrett asked.

"Chunnley wrapped the pies in it," Warren
said.

Garrett mastered his revulsion and found a
clean patch of sleeve to rub against his face. He offered it to
Marla, but she politely refused.

"This isn't a lava tube," Warren said,
running his paw across the pale, rippling stone of the tunnel
wall.

"Limestone," Scupp said.

"You sure we're in the right place?" Diggs
asked.

"I don't know," Garrett said, "I just know
we're supposed to be looking really deep. How deep are we?"

"
Way
below the catacombs," Warren
said, his eyes wide and glowing in the witchfire light.

Garrett's chest swelled with pride at the
look of wonder on his friends' faces.

"Everyone be careful," Marla said, "I haven't
explored very many caves before."

"No worry," Diggs said, "Ghouls love caves...
just like home." He stuck out his long tongue and licked the
moisture from the tunnel wall. He rubbed his tongue around inside
his mouth for a bit and then spat. "Yep, this cave is full of
demons."

Scupp and Warren snickered with laughter.

"Keep an eye out," Garrett said, "We don't
know if there really is a guardian or not."

"Guardian?" Marla asked.

Garrett went suddenly cold. "Oh... yeah, I
forgot to tell you," he said, "There might be some sort of...
guardian."

"Yeah, big demon. Eat your face and
everything." Diggs said as he and Warren headed off down the
tunnel.

"Garrett, why didn't you say something about
that before?" Marla asked.

"Sorry," he said, "I just forgot..."

"Don't worry about it," Scupp laughed,
"Garrett's fought demons before, on the way back from the war. He
ran into a whole nest of 'em. Burned one of 'em to nothin' and
scared the rest off. Just stick by him, girl, and he'll keep you
safe."

"Garrett?" Marla said, looking from him to
Scupp in disbelief.

"Yeah... well I was just lucky really. I
guessed the right spell and got him before he got me. It was pretty
close though."

"He's just bein' modest," Scupp said,
slapping Garrett hard on the back, "I imagine they call him the
Scourge of Hell
by now. Any demon sees him now is likely to
just poop hisself and start runnin'."

"Garrett, this is serious," Marla said, "How
much danger are we in?"

Garrett started to answer, but Scupp cut him
off.

"Come on! Let's keep up, or my fool brother's
gonna wind up down a sinkhole if we don't watch him."

Marla gave him a flustered look but hurried
after Warren and Diggs with Scupp shooing her and Garrett from
behind.

"Hey, Garrett!" Warren called from somewhere
up ahead, "You really need to see this!"

Garrett and Marla and Scupp followed the
tunnel as it descended in a narrow zigzag between high walls of
limestone, having to go single-file in some places. Presently,
Garrett became aware of a pale blue light from up ahead, and he
wondered if one of the ghouls had lit an algae lamp. Then the light
became so bright that he extinguished his own torch and had to
squint against the brilliance of the glow as he reached the end of
the tunnel.

They stepped out onto a broad ledge of rock,
overlooking a vast underground chamber filled with twinkling blue
lights. The lights hung from the cavern roof high above, streaming
down like beaded strings of stars, their light reflected perfectly
in the smooth surface of a black lake below. A series of natural
flowstone terraces acted as steps, leading down to the lake's edge,
and, from there, pale domes of stone peeked above the motionless
surface of the water like stepping stones all the way across the
lake to the far side.

"It's beautiful!" Marla gasped.

"Yeah," Scupp agreed.

Diggs snorted. "I seen prettier," he
said.

Scupp slapped his ear.

"It's lucky there's a path across the water,"
Garrett said.

"Yeah," Warren said, "a little
too
lucky, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.

"I've never seen a cave give you a clear path
to follow," Warren said, "I mean caves are natural things. They
don't care whether you explore 'em or not. Usually you have to dig
your way through in spots. You never just find a trail laid out for
you. This is weird."

"You think it's a trap?" Garrett asked.

Warren shrugged. "Only one way to find out,"
he said. He loped down off the ledge to the edge of the lake, and
they followed him.

"What are those lights?" Scupp asked, the
blue pinpoints of light reflected in her large, dark eyes.

Diggs found a spot where the ceiling came low
to the ground at the edge of the lake. He crouched low and then
leapt up, grabbing a sparkling thread and tearing it from the
ceiling. He squinted at the filament in his hand and then stuck it
in his mouth. "Yech," he said, "some sort of spiderweb. It's all
sticky."

"No," Marla said, narrowing her eyes as she
studied the ceiling, "It's some sort of worm spinning these
webs."

"Are they dangerous?" Garrett asked.

"Probably not," Marla said, "Still, I don't
suggest trying to eat them. They could be poisonous."

Diggs continued to try to spit the taste out
of his mouth and pull the sticky thread from his fingers. At last,
he reached over and wiped it off onto the fur of Scupp's back.

"Hey!" she shouted, and the sound of her
voice echoed through the chamber. Ripples formed on the surface of
the water, wherever it touched the walls or the white
stepping-stones. The ripples spread out, shimmering with rainbow
light, stunning them all to silence with the beauty of the
sight.

"This place is magic!" Scupp whispered.

"Yeah," Warren agreed, "let's just hope it's
good magic." He drew in a breath and leapt across the water to the
first stepping-stone.

Warren landed on the stone and froze in
place, as though expecting something terrible to happen. Instead, a
pulse of green light shimmered from the edge of the stepping-stone,
slowly dissipating as it spread across the surface of the lake.

"Huh," Warren said. Then he jumped to the
next stone.

A pulse of yellow light rippled out from the
edge of the stone across the dark water.

The next stone pulsed with a rich orange
glow, and the one beyond that a deep red.

Scupp followed after Warren. She giggled with
each flash of light as the others watched in awe.

Diggs decided to go next, though he paused to
jump up and down on the first stone, sending out a different color
pulse each time he landed.

By this time Warren had made it all the way
to the far end of the room. "Come on," he shouted, "it's safe."

Diggs grew bored with the game at last, and
moved on, crossing the lake in a series of vibrant hops.

"You go first," Garrett said, lifting his
hand toward the lake.

"Thank you," Marla said. She backed up a few
steps and then sprinted forward, bouncing from stone to stone and
filling the black lake with a rainbow of scintillating color.

"Wow!" Garrett said. He took a running leap
and jumped for the first stone.

His foot came down on a smooth section of the
stone, and it slipped out from beneath him. He went down with a
yelp, his boot splashing loudly in the water.

Garrett scrambled to keep from sliding into
the water, pulling his wet boot out of the lake. He gasped at the
sight of the water, solidifying into crystal at the point where his
boot had gone in. The crystals branched out like frost across the
surface, crackling into a solid, glimmering shell atop the dark
water. He froze, not daring to move.

"Garrett!" Marla called, already bounding
back toward him across the stepping-stones.

"I'm all right!" he said, getting to his
feet. He looked around, watching as the crystals slowly dissolved
back into water once more, and their light faded.

"Did you break the magic rock, Garrett?"
Warren called across the lake.

"No!" Garrett shouted back.

"Then hurry up."

"All right," Garrett growled. He gathered his
courage and leapt to the next rock.

It went easier after that. He met Marla
halfway across the lake, and they jumped together, one stone at a
time, until they made it to the far side where Warren waited for
them. Diggs and Scupp had already gone ahead, through a broad
tunnel filled with light. Low stalagmites with flattened tops
caught little pools, of water, in bowl-shaped depressions in their
tops. Tiny, luminous pink fish swirled and darted in these pools
with each pool hosting a slightly different shade of pink.

Garrett and Marla and Warren weaved their way
between the living pools, pausing often to marvel at some movement
within. At last, they made it to the far end of the tunnel and the
chamber beyond. A cool breeze touched their faces as they entered a
broad hall of natural stone, filled with a dim violet light. Diggs
and Scupp stood, looking down over a ledge with the wind ruffling
their brindle fur.

Garrett walked up beside them and looked
down.

The pale, waxy stone of the floor, ceiling,
and walls, was riddled with smooth round holes of all sizes. It
seemed almost as though they stood inside a great slab of cheese,
and the wind was blowing in through the holes. The faint light came
from every direction at once, infusing the stone with a sort of
weird glow.

"Uh, now what?" Diggs asked.

Marla pointed at the wall. "It looks as
though there was once a floor to cross."

Garrett looked and saw the broken shards of a
thick crystal plane that rimmed the entire chamber like the crust
of ice around the edge of a winter pond.

"I'll bet that was the exit," Warren said,
pointing out a hole, larger than the rest, in the far wall.

"Yes, the floor is still intact there," Marla
said.

Garrett grimaced. The hole-riddled cavern
floor dropped at least thirty feet below the level of the broken
crystal floor. It looked far too slippery to try to climb down and
cross that way.