Crypt of the Moaning Diamond (15 page)

The wall vanished, and Ivy flung herself directly under the

skull, sliding on her stomach through the bones on the floor. As she had intended, the flameskull spun in place, turning itself upside down as it tried to track her movements. A bolt of energy from the skull’s mouth whizzed by her ear and extinguished itself in the floor beside her.

Zuzzara swung with her shovel at the back of the flameskull at the same time that Ivy flung herself under the floating flaming head. The half-ore missed, the flameskull shooting up toward the ceiling too quickly for her to connect with. The flameskull twisted around, trying to hit her with blasts of energy. The mane of flame whipped around the skull, long green tendrils hissing through the air. Again, with a howl of frustration, the skull’s energy bolt undershot its target as Zuzzara grabbed her sister around the waist and leaped out of the way.

Gunderal let out a little squeak as the two of them rolled across the floor, outside the flameskull’s range. “Let me down. Sanval, get over here,” the wizard called.

“Missed, missed, missed with your missile,” yelled Kid, cartwheeling around the skull, which had zipped lower again in an attempt to hit Ivy with a whip of fire. His hooves clicked on the floor, then spun in the air close to the skull as he went into a handstand. The flameskull blasted upward with a whistling screech, dived in a wide arc over Kid’s flailing hooves, and aimed itself again at Ivy. In desperation, Ivy grabbed an old shinbone off the floor and lobbed it with her left hand at the skull. One end knocked against the flameskull’s bony pate. The skull hit the floor with a thud and rolled to a dazed stop, then slowly drifted upward. Ivy heard a sharp bark and a “No!” from Mumchance. Wiggles raced past her, barking wildly and dancing on her back paws, trying to catch the skull floating above her.

“Crazy dog!” yelled Ivy, grabbing for Wiggles’s collar.

“That’s a bad, old bone. You don’t want that.” She scooped the little dog up and tossed Wiggles to Mumchance. The dwarf caught Wiggles and dropped her behind him.

“Stay!” said Mumchance sternly in Dwarvish. Wiggles folded her ears back and dropped to a crouch. She kept giving out eager little whines as she watched the flameskull bounce and dip around the room. The little dog started to crawl forward on her front legs, rump high in the air and fluffy tail wagging madly.

“No!” said Mumchance again in Dwarvish. “Bad dog! Settle!”He picked up a collarbone from the floor and chucked it with a big overhand throw at the flameskull. The undead head bounced out of the way with a jeer.

“Can’t hit me!” yelled the flameskull and spat another ball of sparks at the dwarf. Mumchance skipped to one side with the lightness of a dwarf half his age, Wiggles dancing at his heels.

Kid spun around the flameskull, flipping and cartwheeling to confuse the creature. With one big spin, he managed to clip it with the edge of one hoof, shoving it back against the stone wall. “You cannot catch us. We are too quick for an old cracked head like you!” he said.

A spray of green sparks zoomed past Kid. Several settled on the toe of one of Sanval’s boots. The smell of burnt polish and leather filled the air. Glaring at the boot, Sanval rubbed the damaged toe against the back of the opposite shin, then glared again as he stamped down his foot. A large scorch mark marred the shiny polished surface of the toe.

“That does it,” he muttered. “Get me there, wizard!”

Sanval slid into place next to Gunderal. With a quickly whispered spell, she slapped Sanval hard between the shoulders, shouting, “Go, go!”

Screaming, the skull dived after Kid, spreading a trail of

green fire and ignoring Sanval, who charged after it. With magically enhanced speed, Sanval swung his sword down on the skull. The brittle bone shattered, scattering pieces around the room.

It had only taken a few moments. As quickly as the threat had appeared, it was gone. Ivy sat at the edge of the room, shaking her head. “Well, that was fun, I think. Good work, Gunderal.”

“Oh dear,” said Gunderal, pointing at the shattered bits of skull scattered through the other bones. Tendrils of green flame were sprouting from each separate piece of the skull. As they all watched, the pale green flames twisted across the room, reaching for each other. “We should leave now.”

“Isn’t it dead?” asked Sanval, straightening his helmet after he sheathed his sword.

“It was always dead,” explained Gunderal, pushing them toward the archway at the opposite end of the room. “But it is one of those dead things that can put itself back together again.”

“I hate those types of dead things,” grumbled Mumchance.

“Dead should stay dead,” added Zuzzara, picking up the torch and shovel that she had dropped when she grabbed Gunderal. She thrust the shovel, handle straight down, through her belt and raised the still-lit torch high to illuminate the exit.

“I could not agree more,” said Kid, skipping back and forth and watching how the green flames tended to bend toward him whenever he passed too close. “But perhaps we can break this spell.” He reached down and scooped up one rotten molar that had been knocked out of the flameskull’s jaw. Kid tucked it into one of the many pouches dangling from his belt.

“Ugh, that is one terrible souvenir,” commented Zuzzara as they left the room. “Kid, you should leave it be.”

“No, he should take it,” said Gunderal. “Such guardians can rarely reassemble themselves if you take away a piece.”

“Hope you’re right, little sister,” said Zuzzara. “That thing nearly burned my britches.”

“Of course, I’m right. I told you. Trust me, I know magic.”

Beyond the room containing the flameskull was a swift, hidden passage back to the place where they fought the phantom fungus. Once they reached that room, the Siegebreakers would have no choice but to follow the northern passageway that Sanval had wanted to take in the first place—the one that sent them on the trail of the other party in the ruins and, possibly, a troop of Fottergrim’s raiders. Ivy thought that Sanval looked smug, but when he caught her staring his face smoothed into that irritating bland look that he was so very good at.

“Gunderal seems pleased,” said Ivy to Mumchance, watching the little wizard walking in front of them. Although she still cradled her injured arm, the wizard held her head straight, and her long black hair bounced on her shoulders, free at last from its confining topknot.

“Yes,” said Mumchance, but there was no elation in his voice.

“What is wrong?”

“Not all her spells worked,” Mumchance replied with a frown. “She couldn’t throw a decent frost, that wall of water nearly collapsed, and she should have been quicker with slapping that last spell on Sanval. That trick should have been easier for her. And, Ivy, we may need more from her before we are out of here. The river is going to worm its way into these tunnels. I just know it. And the only one of us that has any control over water is Gunderal. But if she has no control over her magic, then we are sunk—way down in the mud sunk.”

“You worry too much,” said Ivy. Gunderal had been slow in the fight—Ivy had never seen her more unsure when casting a

spell—but she was not going to give the dwarf the satisfaction of agreeing with his gloomy prognostication. After all, she was the captain of this little company, and a captain should be optimistic even when she was stuck up to her hips in a mucky situation with only one shovel to dig herself out. She tried to cheer the dwarf up. “After we got away from the river bank, it’s been bone dry, even in the ossuary!”

“Make jokes if you want. But it doesn’t feel dry to me. Just you wait and see.”

As they entered the baths, the smell of the dead phantom fungus assaulted their noses. Mumchance glanced down into the dry pool with the mosaic bottom, shifting his head so he was staring straight down with his good eye. He cursed—quiet little curses that made Wiggles whine—and waved his lantern over the edge of the pool. Dry dust had become slimy mud, and water clearly shone in the light of the torch.

“The river is rising,” Mumchance said, “and the water is running through the old pipes that fed the bath.”

“Well, that’s something less than wonderful,” observed Ivy before Mumchance could say anything more and upset everyone. Nobody needed to hear “I told you so” right now, most especially her.

But Ivy was more worried than she let her friends see. The water was rising, and they still had no idea how to get out of the ruins of Tsurlagol. Ivy feared they might have to swim to make it out.

When they passed out of the chamber still stinking of dead bugbear and fungus, the Siegebreakers entered into a network of much broader tunnels. Looking at the ledges running high above them, Mumchance suggested that they were traveling down an ancient and dried-out storm sewer.

“And,” he pointed out glumly, “if it was a storm drain, it means that it had pipes feeding into it—the type of pipes that will carry the rising river water into it.”

“We’ll worry about that when our feet get wet,” countered Ivy.

Kid picked up new sets of tracks in the tunnel. The four who had fled from the phantom fungus and a larger group following them. “Wide feet, short legs, iron nails striking sparks on the stone as they march along,” said Kid, clicking beside the group, still watching for tracks in the dirt. “And that other thing behind, dragging over their footsteps and wiping some away.” At one point, he stopped and stooped, tracing the peculiar track with one hand. “One very large snake moving very fast.” Satisfied once the mysterious track was identified, Kid wandered out of the circle of lights cast by their torches and lantern, sniffing the air for more tunnel entrances.

“Fottergrim had hobgoblins and mountain ores moving in and out of the city until we bottled up the western woods,” observed Sanval. “We never could find their tunnel. Maybe this is it.” He sounded excited and pleased by the prospect of running into an unknown number of adversaries.

“Maybe these are old tracks,” said Ivy, with very little hope.

“New,” said Kid, rejoining the group. “A day, not more, perhaps less, my dear.”

Upon hearing that, Ivy shifted her position to the front, grabbing a torch from Zuzzara in passing. In her opinion, she was the best fighter among them, even if she did not have the shiniest armor.

“Who is playing hero now?” whispered Mumchance to her.

“Hey,” said Ivy in sharp if not coherent rebuke.

The dwarf jerked his head back toward Sanval. “You are mad that he killed the fungus.”

“Not at all,” hissed Ivy. “Did you smell that thing?”

“And smashed that skull.”

“He needed Gunderal’s help to do that.”

“And Zuzzara stopped the kobolds.”

“Zuzzara is good with kobolds. I am more than happy to let her bat them around.”

“So why are you shoving to the front?”

“Because I don’t know if it is kobolds, fungus, or more talking skulls around the corner. And you know the rule. It’s only a good day…”

“.. When everybody gets to go home.”

“So far, it has been a very bad day. I want it to be a good one,” said Ivy. “Besides, right now, if we run into anything that is not an ally, I would prefer to hit it hard and keep hitting it until I feel better.”

“Fair enough,” agreed Mumchance. The dwarf put Wiggles down to run. She raced past Ivy, yip-yap-yip, except the last yap cut off abruptly.

“Wiggles!” yelled Mumchance. The dark way before them was filled with silence and shadows. “Wiggles!” The dwarf whistled and whistled again.

Kid’s sharp ears caught the answering bark. “Ahead, dear sir, ahead,” he said. “And down.”

Around the next corner, the floor just disappeared. Ivy spotted the darkness half a step short of the edge, her foot raised. She stopped and leaned back, slapping her hand against the wall to balance herself. She raised the torch that she was carrying as high as possible to illuminate the hallway. The hole stretched halfway across the corridor. There was no sign of Wiggles.

“Stupid, stupid mutt,” murmured Ivy as she hung over the edge and waved her torch in an attempt to see Wiggles. Ivy’s torch barely lit the wall for several feet down, and then the hole went black. “Dumb, dumb dog.” But she muttered softly, so Mumchance could not hear. He was too busy whistling and calling to the little dog to pay any attention.

“Stay, Wiggles, stay!” the dwarf yelled into the black hole.

“Truly, truly wonderful,” said Ivy.

“I’ll go, Ivy,” said Mumchance. “I can grab her and get back here fast.”

Ivy stared at the dwarf, who was at least three centuries older than her and never a good climber, and sighed. “No, I will go down. I will get Wiggles. I will bring her back. You will all stay here and do nothing foolish, like come after me.”

She did not hear a chorus of agreement.

“That was an order,” she said.

There was still silence.

“I am an officer of Procampur—” Sanval began.

Ivy interrupted him. “Which means that small white dogs are not your responsibility. Protecting my friends, however…”

“They will be safe. I will protect them,” he stated in his quiet manner. Ivy believed him. It had to be, she decided later, the way that he just gleamed in the torchlight. Shiny armor. It just made a man look like a hero, Ivy thought. Something about the way that he stood too. Absolutely straight. Sword drawn and clasped in both hands, point down. She had tried that stance a couple of times when she was younger. It had never worked for her. But Sanval, he made it look natural—like one of those guardian statues in the better class of temple. Although most guardian statues did not have a huge scorch mark running across one shiny boot and a worried frown wrinkling a normally smooth forehead.

“It will be all right,” she said, just to make that line disappear. It certainly did not suit Sanval’s usual noble and serene demeanor. Ivy handed her torch to Kid, who just stood there looking at her with an eerily similar crease in the middle of his forehead that made the outer edges of his eyebrows tip up even more dramatically. “Don’t worry. Whatever went down there is long gone. Just look after my friends.”

“Ivy, I got a rope off that dead bugbear,” said Zuzzara, uncoiling it from around her waist.