The House of Yeel (27 page)

Yeel tried to pull aside
the edge of the black sheet, but his tentacle simply slipped
through it. It didn’t hurt. Yeel grabbed a rock and slipped it
through then retrieved it.

“Here, we go,” he said, and
slid through.

The stone stairs beyond
were slick with moisture and slime. Yeel moved easily down but
Jymoor slipped and fell behind him, causing a thump to echo ahead
of them. Master Kasil followed, and fell herself as she tried to
help Jymoor up. Kasil swore.

Her vocabulary is more
colorful than the other females of her species,
Yeel thought.

Yeel got to the bottom of
the stairs perhaps fifteen feet below. A long stone chamber lay
ahead, lit by holes in the ceiling. Square pools of water hugged
the walls to the left and right. A straight stone path led through
the center of the room to a dark archway at the end. A stone
balcony overlooked the room from the far side, just above the
archway. Yeel spotted a second exit from the balcony.

He waited for more
Companions to join him at the bottom of the stair. He tested the
water with a tentacle. Cold, but pure.

As people began to press on
the stairs behind, still slipping and falling, Yeel moved forward
down the walkway. Jymoor and Master Kasil followed behind. A knight
that Yeel knew called Groylvir drew his longsword as he came down
the stairs. Yeel had given the man a special ring. Anyone struck by
a weapon in the hand wearing the ring lost body heat rapidly. The
attacking weapon became hotter, the target colder.

Suddenly a column of frothy
water rose on their right. It was about the size of a man. The
water seemed to take shape for just long enough to make Yeel wonder
before breaking up into a random spray and reforming.

“What’s that thing?” Jymoor
asked. As she spoke, another column sprouted up out of the water on
their left.

“Everyone hold your
breath!” Yeel called out.

The columns moved out of
the water and onto the walkway among them. Limbs of water struck
out and exploded across Master Kasil and Groylvir, then Jymoor.
Yeel turned and whipped a tentacle completely through one of the
things, but it wasn’t disrupted by his move. He fished through his
pack.

Jymoor fell to her knees.
Water poured out of the eye slit of her helm. She started to remove
it. Master Kasil was stabbing the water before her, but it had
little effect. An arm of water reached out to engulf her
face.

Groylvir tackled one of the
watery forms. Water sprayed everywhere. Groylvir fell to the stone
floor, water clinging to his armor. More Companions rushed in to
help him. The knight thrashed, trying to breathe.

Should I change its
density, or alkalinity? No time. Both.

Yeel grabbed two packets
and ripped them open, then sprayed their contents out upon the
other column of water. It bubbled and fizzed angrily. Another
Companion, emboldened by Groylvir’s move, tackled a column and fell
into the water beyond.

Groylvir was helped up and
friends removed his helm. He sputtered and coughed. Jymoor had
started to recover.

“Help that man…Uncir? Help
him out of the water!” Yeel called.

A brilliant white light
flashed across the room. A shining creature appeared on the stone
balcony above. It looked vaguely humanoid, though three eyes blazed
redly atop its head. Collections of crackling sparks moved across
its body.

“Oh no! I’m afraid the
resistance of our outer integument has been drastically lowered by
all the water,” Yeel said.

“What?” Jymoor
asked.

Yeel wrapped the end of a
tentacle around one of the vlure spheres. He threw it up toward the
balcony. As it flew through the air, a bright flash of lightning
exploded through the room. An intense pain coruscated through Yeel,
causing him to emit a high-pitched keening wail.

A moment later, the pain
was gone replaced by an aching numbness. From up above on the stone
balcony, the shining being screamed a long, frantic scream ending
in a gurgle.

“The vlure has done its
work,” Yeel said.

The Companions had fallen
beneath the onslaught. Everyone moved slowly. Moans filled the
room.

“How badly are you
damaged?” Yeel asked Jymoor. She grunted and stood
unsteadily.

“I’ve never felt such pain!
My hands are tingling.”

“At least the vlure got him
before it could get worse. Is everyone alright?”

“There!” someone
called.

Yeel spotted the object of
their attention. The man who had fallen into the pool after
tackling the water column floated with his head under the water.
Two other Companions retrieved him. They listened for breath. He
sputtered weakly.

“Can you help him? He was
the first one struck, I think,” Jymoor said.

Yeel felt the man’s chest.
The heartbeat was weak. The man trembled. His breath
wheezed.

“Can you feel anything?”
Yeel asked him.

“No,” the man
croaked.

“I’m terribly sorry. There’s
nothing I can do,” Yeel said. “The man is Uncir. I remember
him.”

Uncir looked up at Yeel.

“My life ended in the
garden. You gave me life for a while again, and I’m
grateful.”

The man shook in
pain.

“Please punish the
Meridalae. The pain is—”

He shivered again, then
passed out.

“Is he dead?”

“He will be soon,” Yeel
said. “The neural pathways have been damaged.”

Jymoor shook her head, but
when she spoke, there was only confidence.

“We have to continue. And
quickly.”

“Through the upper
archway,” Yeel said. “The lower one ahead of us is a
trap.”

“You remember?”

“No. It’s only
logical.”

“Well, I see no
stair.”

“That thing has some kind
of a ladder it can put down from its perch. But now it’s dead. I
can lift one of you up there to look around.”

Jymoor shrugged. She walked
down toward the door but stopped under the outer edge of the
balcony. Yeel lifted her up.

“It’s so odd how you do
that,” she said from above.

Yes. I project one image
into your mind, yet you see me perform feats impossible with my
illusory body.

“Beware! There may be other
enemies nearby,” Yeel called up.

“I don’t think…oh wait, I
have it.”

A set of stones extended
from the wall to the right, forming a crude stair. Tiny streams of
water poured from its edges. Yeel slid up.

He examined the balcony.
The exit was merely a stone archway heading out to a wet corridor.
A small pool of water had formed on the balcony. The walls nearby
wept water slowly. Before Jymoor, a mess of a creature was all that
remained of the guard.

As the Companions ascended
the slippery stair, Jymoor and Yeel went further into the lair. The
dark corridor split once, then a few paces later it split to the
right again.

“Which way?”

“We have to send some each
way,” Yeel said. “We don’t want any to escape on this world. No
doubt they have means of traveling to other worlds in their main
shrine, but we can’t help that.”

“Split up into three even
groups?”

Yeel put the impression of
a shake of his head into their minds.

“I think the shrine will be
directly ahead, the deepest point in the lair. These side passages
are probably not as important. I would ask five to go to each side
and make sure no Meridalae there make any escape. Be mindful there
may be prisoners from your world here, or from any world for that
matter. If there’s any confusion, bring them to me afterward and
I’ll determine their innocence.”

“I’ll go to the right,”
offered a strong man in chain mail. Yeel had carefully remembered
his name as Rodan of Mountover. Yeel saw that Rodan wore some of
the dense weave fabric under the chain mail. Apparently, Rodan
wanted a double layer of protection.

“You are armed?” Master
Kasil asked.

The man held up a loosely
clenched fist.

“The sword is invisible to
all but the wielder. Yeel gave it to me,” the man said.

“Ah yes, that sword came to
me from the distant—”

“Excellent!” Jymoor hissed,
cutting Yeel off. “Will any join him? Four more?”

Four other Companions
nodded or raised their weapons, moving behind the first.

“Then me and my brother can
try the left,” a soldier offered. Yeel had remembered him as
Captain Carmar. Another man stood at his side. It was his brother,
Grael Carmar. Two more men and a woman joined them in the
passageway.

“Good luck to you all,”
Jymoor said softly. The large group of Yeel and nine Companions,
including Jymoor and Master Kasil, moved forward down the central
tunnel.

Yeel took the lead. The
tunnel headed deeper underground. Rivulets of water flowed down the
walls and the gentle sloping floor. It got darker, then lighter as
a glow grew brighter from ahead. The tunnel emptied into a larger
cave or chamber. The inside of the room was obscured by a low wall
that forced a right turn at the entrance.

Yeel raised his
tentacle.

“One moment,” he thought at
them.

Yeel plucked a good eye
from his ridge, then tossed it solidly away. The eye bounced off
the stone floor and rolled into the next room.

Quan lay in wait inside.
Yeel saw them and a low, chitinous creature with many
legs.

Apparently they’ve been
preparing for us. That’s their master. And that’s the one who’s
dangerous
.

“Quiet. It’s a trap for us.
I’ll clear the way, then come in ready for a fight,” Yeel put into
their minds. Yeel tossed a firebomb into the room. The flash of
light was impressive. Yeel supposed the Companions would be able to
smell the smoke, though he could not.

Yeel rushed into the room.
One of the Quan had been hit by the bomb and lay smoking on the
floor.

The other Quan moved in on
Yeel and his Companions near the entranceway where they poured in.
Yeel projected the image of himself growing larger, more fearsome.
The tips of his tentacles grew into giant venomous spikes. He
hissed like a wicked creature come to kill everyone
nearby.

The Quan edged away from
him, but they still engaged his Companions on the flanks. Yeel
didn’t pay them any attention. He focused on the crab-like being
behind them. He tossed his last firebomb in its direction,
simultaneously shifting to conceal his next vlure
sphere.

The creature chittered at
him and moved aside. The firebomb failed to detonate. Another bolt
of violet energy shot toward Yeel. This time he was ready with the
vlure. The bolt struck his tentacle holding the sphere. Yeel felt a
sharp pain as the energy bit into him, then receded as the vlure
absorbed it. It cracked and opened in his hand, sending a small
white form shooting toward the crab-thing.

The effect was immediate.
The crab-thing scuttled and chittered, then flipped upside down,
its legs waving like an overturned bug.

Jymoor and the others
chopped up the Quan in short order. By the time they’d gotten to
the crab-thing, it was dead. Yeel picked a few tools and reagents
from the corpse.

Not sure what all this is.
But I can categorize the spoils later
.

“I’m confused, Yeel,”
Jymoor said as she surveyed the room. “Some of these weren’t killed
by us.”

Yeel looked around. Jymoor
referred to several bodies at the perimeter, in bays against the
stone wall. Most of them floated in small pools, though two of them
had been taken out and put onto flat tables.

“The Meridalae may have
tortured them. Perhaps they resisted. You see, the Quan were once a
free and respectable people just like the citizens of Riken. Then
the Meridalae got a hold of them. Took over their world,” Yeel
said.

“Now the Meridalae are
doing something horrible to them.”

“Some kind of experiments?”
Master Kasil asked.

Yeel looked over the
specimen before them. Its outer integument had been split open down
the middle to allow access to its vitals. Yeel examined the scene
carefully. Bits of arcane apparatus were spread about the
corpse.

“They were working on this
poor Quan to augment their control over him,” Yeel concluded. “With
these devices in place, the creature’s life is in their hands. If
the Quan disobeys, then death will result. This is the ultimate
goal of the Meridalae: to enslave all worlds. To eliminate all
resistance, to crush any chance of fighting back.”

“Those Quan I killed…they
weren’t interested in harming us. They were simply forced into
service.” Yeel couldn’t see Jymoor’s face, but he detected sorrow
in her tone.

“You were given no choice.
But we can stop this here and now. Kill the Meridalae and destroy
this lab. Close the portal.”