Descent into the Depths of the Earth (31 page)

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The long passageway continued, now chilled by the breeze that
flowed from the icy river. Other paths joined the main tunnel, and the air took
on a distinctly fishy smell. Only Cinders seemed pleased. The rest of the party
wrinkled their noses and tried not to gag as the reek thickened until it almost
brought tears to the eyes.

Flying cautiously beside Jus, Escalla’s tall ears pricked up
at the same moment that Cinders gave a warning growl. Far down the passageway,
lurching shapes began to appear. Escalla turned invisible as the remainder of
the party faded into hiding against the tunnel walls. Looking over her
companions, the faerie moved carefully down the tunnel to investigate the
oncoming shadows.

A dozen fish men walked along the passageway in a weird
hopping gait. They were led by a vast, powerful kuo-toa, its skin a ghastly
white, and its hide covered in thousands of knotted scars. The creatures’ huge
eyes flickered to stare at the invisible faerie, and the fish creatures
instantly readied their harpoons.

With her cover somehow blown, Escalla dropped her
invisibility. Hiding behind a stalactite, she poked her head out and examined
the kuo-toa, then cautiously waved her hand.

“Um, hello.”

She had a fireball spell ready to make instant fish fry, but
much to her surprise, the kuo-toa leader gave a croak of something almost like
relief. The creature lowered its weapon—almost certainly defusing a spell of its
own—and lifted a hand toward Escalla in a grave gesture. The beast held out its
hand with its middle fingers separated into a v-shape.

Always affable when allowed, Escalla copied the gesture with
her own small fingers and repeated, “Hello.”

Eight feet tall, fanged and clawed, an eater of human flesh
and a drinker of blood, the kuo-toa leader bobbed its head in deference. The
girl tried to make a placatory gesture, and the other fish men sank down in
ritual obeisance.

From the corridor behind Escalla, Jus’ voice called out
calmly and quietly, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. It’s more kuo-toa.” Escalla kept her face affable,
motioning to the fish creatures in what she hoped was a friendly way. “There’s
about a dozen of them, and they’re getting along with me just dandy. Everyone
come out and be perfectly calm.”

The kuo-toa leader gurgled something to its followers, and
the fish men resumed their ungainly march down the passageway. On seeing
Escalla’s companions, the creatures saluted casually with the middle fingers of
their hands spread wide, a salute both uncomfortable and strangely silly. Jus
gravely returned the gesture. Polk and Henry did the same, and the creatures
continued on their way toward the river and the ferryman.

Jerking with ill temper, the sword Benelux gave a cold growl.
Kuo-toa. Assassins! Murderers! We should find their nest and eliminate them
all!

“We have a prior task.” Jus settled the sword through his
belt. “Racial genocide is not my mission.”

Do you call yourself a warrior for law?

“No. I’m only interested in Justice.” The Justicar took
Escalla onto his shoulder as he spoke. “These fish men have done nothing worthy
of my attention.”

From Jus’ shoulder, Escalla stretched and yawned.

“Hey, Spiky! Ease up!” Escalla peered down at the sword.
“You’ll get wrinkles. You have to expand your emotional horizons. Make a promise
to tell yourself a few jokes in between kills. It worked for me!”

Benelux merely seethed.

Jus tugged at Escalla’s foot, quietening her down as the
tunnel opened out into a titanic, echoing cave. An open space more than a
hundred yards wide yawned in the gloom. A weird blue light swam like reflections
in an ancient sea, and an alien world took hold upon the underdark.

A sinister, stepped pyramid arose at the center of the
cavern. The mound served to raise a horrible idol high above the cavern floor—a
blood spattered thing shaped like a naked woman with the head and pincers of a
lobster. The claws were opened in the same gaping salute used by the kuo-toa in
the halls. A still-bleeding human heart was wedged into one of the claws, and an
ocean of blood seemed to have poured down the pyramid. Guarding the approaches
to the idol were kuo-toa priests and warriors, creatures who even now tore the
eyes and organs out of human victims who had slid lifeless down the blood-soaked
stairs.

Escalla stared, quite ashen, and felt her skin turn strangely
numb.
“Now
they may have just crossed the line.”

Private Henry crept forward, staring at the shrine—the
corpses and the fish men feeding wetly on their prey. The boy’s hands gripped
more tightly at his crossbow.

“Human sacrifice… ?”

“Human sacrifice.” Jus seemed to swell, his huge, bristling
frame turning carnivorous and savage. To the Justicar, no crime was worse than
preying on the weak. The kuo-toa suddenly seemed in need of
Judgment.

Escalla saw Jus’ stance and felt a cold chill of panic as
she expected him to begin slaughtering the kuo-toa. There were a dozen in sight,
but countless carved doorways opened onto temples, barracks rooms, and even
palaces.

“Jus! Deep breath! Don’t go all apocalyptic on me!” The
faerie whacked Jus across the helmet. “I need to clear my name here! This is a
prime place for evidence collection!”

“I know.”

“Kill fish later. Help disturbingly attractive yet strangely
innocent faerie now.” Hastily ushering the group into cover behind an outcrop of
fungi, Escalla gathered Henry by her side. “Henry, Spiky, brief recap. Yours
truly here has been wrongfully framed and accused of a crime. We’re here to
prevent a miscarriage of justice and protect one of the world’s most priceless
beings from harm—namely
me!”

Do tell.
Benelux seemed to glow with pure sarcasm.
Who
would ever have placed you as a criminal?

“Hey! This is serious!” Escalla whacked at the swords sheath.
“A faerie cavalier has been offed, and whoever did it is a faerie who likes
using the underdark as a private holiday home. Whoever murdered Cavalier Tarquil
used a marine cone shell. If these fish men down here are an assassin cult, this
is probably the place the cone shell came from.”

Brilliant.
The magic sword gave a sniff.
With wisdom
like that, you should bottle it.

“I’m warning you!” The faerie faced the sword, her antennae
stiff and her little fists balled. “I can still find a rust monster! So just
shut up and keep your eyes open for evidence. We’re looking for clues—anything
to show that someone’s been getting his murder equipment from the kuo-toa!”

Hmph!
The sword gave a droll little sneer.
Such as a
signed receipt in triplicate? “One cone shell, please return by Godsday.”

“Sounds ideal.” Escalla gave a snort, then hitched up the
belt of her little black dress. “Jus, if you had a lending library for cone
shells, where would it be?”

“Somewhere near where assassins are trained.” The Justicar
loomed in the tunnel like a feral nightmare. “Look for a marine water pool. All
the other water here is fresh.”

“Hoopy.” The faerie briskly clapped her hands and rose up
into the air. “Well, let’s just go into the shrine and act like we’re here as
guests. No one has seemed interested in stopping us so far.”

Private Henry gave a nervous blink. “The fish seem to like
you.”

“Just as long as that doesn’t involve feeding on my
intestines, I’m happy.” Escalla led the way into the terrifying cavern. “Follow
me, people, and try to look like we see human sacrifices twice a day. Jus, no
sword stuff until we get some evidence in my hot little hands.”

From a side passage, more kuo-toa appeared. The creatures
approached the guards at the pyramid’s base, exchanged the strange salute,
tossed money into a giant clam shell, then removed little tokens that were hung
about their necks with string. One of the visitors moved to a second shell and
seemed to pay far more money. The guards hooted in approval and hung the donor
with a somewhat flashier token—a bright red crab claw. The visitors immediately
proceeded to climb the pyramid to pay homage to the idol.

The guards looked over at Escalla, Jus, Polk, and Henry,
fixing them with their huge, emotionless eyes. The fish men made no immediate
move to sound an alarm. Girding her narrow waist and hoisting her rather
understated bosom, Escalla steeled herself for the ordeal to come.

“Here goes.”

She flew over to the kuo-toa, opening her hand in the local
salute. The kuo-toa responded, and one guard addressed her in a language made
mostly up out of jaw clicks and gashing teeth. Escalla kept her smile and gave
an easy wave of her hand.

“Sure!”

The kuo-toa spoke again, and Escalla fluttered over to the
big clamshell basins.

“I totally agree! But it might rain on Moonday. Best cover up
once that bad weather sets in!” The girl waved a rather nervous, reluctant Polk
forward. The teamster was looking up at a seven-foot tall kuo-toa that was
eating wet chunks of a human liver. “Polk! Get your shanks over here and get the
purse open!”

“Portable hole.”

“Whatever! Just get us some cash!”

Escalla peered into the more expensive of the two offering
basins, then stuck her head into the portable hole after Polk had partly
unfolded it. She flew inside, entirely disappearing from the outside world as
she entered a weird little space about ten feet square. Sure enough, rolling
about in one corner of the hole there were a few small gems and baubles. Escalla
grabbed a few of the less impressive items and popped back out into the light.
She dropped a pair of little pearls into the basin, trying to indicate that she
was paying for her entire group. The kuo-toa gave the same savage hoots of
approval, then proceeded to hang stinking crab claws about the necks of everyone
present. Escalla took one sniff of the partly mummified claw and a pained
expression crept onto her face.

“Why,
thank
you.” She gave a watery smile. “I’ll
treasure it always.”

The guards opened the way to the pyramid and idol. There
seemed to be no way to avoid it. Mincing past a collection of human remains,
Escalla slowly flew out over a moat filled with giant leeches that were kept at
bay only by a narrow little wire mesh fence. Jus glanced at the leeches, dragged
a protesting Polk into the water with him, and waded toward the pyramid with
Private Henry splashing clumsily at his heels. Revolting leeches fully three
feet long reared from the water outside the fence, their sucker mouths probing
and puckering, sending Escalla whizzing high above Jus with her legs tucked up
out of harm’s way. She flew backward, her eyes on the leeches, and so managed to
bump her backside into something sticky, hot and wet.

She had reached the pyramid. Escalla stared rigidly ahead of
herself, reaching behind her rear. Something wet, congealing and hot clung to
her bottom—and a big, dripping, solid
something
was right at her back.

“Jus, it’s a corpse, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” The sound of his voice revealed that his fury was
barely in check.

“I think I just shoved my bum into its chest cavity.”

“Yup.” Jus climbed slowly and steadily up the pyramid. “Looks
like it.”

“I’m gonna puke!”

“Don’t.” His face savage and his black hell hound skin
bristling, Jus clambered heavily up to join his friend. “Do nothing suspicious,
not until it’s time to fight.”

The pyramid steps were awash with blood. A foul cascade had
poured down from the base of the huge idol above, dripping over the steps and
oozing slowly into the moat below.

At the upper platform of the pyramid, the lobster-headed idol
loomed. Blood had been smeared over its claws and breasts, and a heart had been
placed in each open claw. A clamshell at the monstrous image’s feet held votive
offerings. There were shells and basalt figurines, images carved from bone or
chunks of brilliant coral. Hanging upside down on the edge of the platform was a
sprawling corpse, a figure whose whole chest had been torn open to feed the
monstrous goddess above.

The last group of kuo-toa pilgrims had already departed,
heading down the far side of the pyramid. Jus swiftly knelt beside the corpse,
wiped blood from its still-warm face, and stared at it in thought.

Escalla had painfully levered herself free, fighting an urge
to scream.

“You, ah, you found… found something?”

“It’s one of the half-orcs from Sour Patch.” Jus turned the
dead creature’s face. “Still bruised from where I hit him.”

“Oh.” Escalla had worries of her own but felt somehow vaguely
responsible for Sour Patch. “Do you think the slaves all ended up here?”

“Doubtful. The drow are in charge of them.” Jus let the
half-orc’s head slump back onto the cold stone steps. “They may have given some
of the captives as a bribe to the kuo-toa.”

“So some might still be alive here?”

“Perhaps.” The Justicar could hardly hold out much hope.
“Cinders?”

Smell kuo-toa.
The hell hound’s eyes seemed more cunning,
more feral when he hunted prey.
Smell drow. Human smell a bit. Little bit
smell.

Standing to look out across the cavern below, Escalla watched
the guards at the northwest tunnel exit. The girl turned, flicked her glance
across the votive bowl before the idol, then reluctantly edged closer and peered
inside.

Quick as a weasel, she darted her hand in and snatched a
trinket from the edge of the seashell.

“Hey!” The girl held a treasure in her hands. “Look. A
votive!” The other adventurers surrounded her as she showed them her prize.
“It’s hair,
faerie
hair.”

The lock of hair shone like pale gold. The strands were long
and fine, and tied about an elven finger bone. Escalla held the hair up against
her own. They were almost a match, shade for shade. The girl’s humor left her
face as she stared at the hair strands in thought.