It occurred to Scott as he headed down into the shaft that we should probably have considered the question at some point of where Gretchen had acquired her breeding daemons.
    Bringing up the rear and cringing at every broken twig, I was in position to notice Big Shot and Big Sword find the place where the turkey had been killed. Big Shot picked up a feather, turned it slowly. Growls were exchanged, and then the gnoll threw back his head and howled. Ahead, the Scott-mist flowed down into the sinkhole, leaving us behind.
    I caught up to the others and let them know that the trail had been found. One way or another we were going to be discovered soon.
    "Anyone have a container of oil?" Phoenix Talon asked.
    No, we didn't.
    "If the gnolls followed us we could wait until there's a convenient curve in the tunnel and drop the oil on them, that would take care of them," he explained.
    "Or we could kill them more mundanely," I pointed out.
    "It's a question of speed. That's going to take a while. You guys go down and I'll bring up the rear."
    Thunderbolt and I flew down into the darkness.
    Phoenix Talon concealed himself and waited for the gnolls, who were gathering where the turkey had killed. They spread into an arc and began working their way forward, occasionally dropping to the ground to confirm the scent and exchanging yipping conversation. They were forming a tightening circle. Big Shot and Big Sword were sending out messages that it was more than the beasts; be wary, the Revolution might be there. Phoenix Talon climbed down after the rest of us.
    Meanwhile, Scott was following the gorilla through the branching, interweaving tunnels. At branches he briefly solidified and left a mark on the floor for the rest of us to follow. It dropped deeper and eventually climbed down into a large, mined-out chamber containing six four-armed gorillas, eight normal if very large gorillas, a man lying on a sort of travois-hammock contrivance, and an orangutan wearing a floppy hat. He coalesced his gaseous form near the ceiling where it was unlikely to be noticed and watched with interest.
    The man in the hammock nodded at the gorilla with the turkey. "Good. Well done. Rue, make a fire. Cook that for me."
    "Yes, of course," the orangutan replied, and produced a box of matches. The turkey was quickly prepared and cooking, as the four-armed gorillas grunted at one another and then left the room. They went off through the tunnels in a variety of directions.
    Thunderbolt and I walked along the mine shaft, following Scott's marks. He put his goggles on. "If at any point I tell you to close your eyes, do it. I have a whole bunch of crap that makes really bright light."
    I thought I heard something off to the right... or was the it left... it was both... or I was imagining it. We kept going, me looking nervously around in what was even to me almost total darkness.
    Thunderbolt heard it before I did, turned and saw the four-armed creature behind me. Before he could do anything, it had grabbed me in an arm, one massive paw over my mouth. I struggled fruitlessly.
    "Crap," said Thunderbolt, given that most of his spells would hit me, too.
    I can heal myself you idiot I tried to say, not at all happy about this situation.
    He fired off a set of Magic Missiles instead. Rays of light flew from his hand and struck the creature, which bellowed but surprisingly enough did not tighten its grip. I wasn't big on the idea of being taken captive, but it was better than having my head twisted off.
    Phoenix Talon heard it just as he was starting to wonder if he was lost, and headed for the sound, turned the corner to see Thunderbolt with his arm stretched out as the gorilla bounded off into the darkness, carrying me.
    I supposed it was too much to hope they needed someone raised from the dead, flung this way and that as the thing moved with amazing speed through the old shafts. At one point it leaped and looked as if it (and me) would strike the ground head-first, but there was an opening there that swallowed us. I closed my eyes.
    
    * * *
    Thunderbolt and Talon tried to follow, came to the place where it had jumped into what looked like an elevator shaft. Every fifteen feet or so below another shaft branched out, and it was impossible to tell which way the thing had gone.
    They could keep trying to follow the gorilla, or try to find Scott. They decided to try on the latter, and retraced their steps to where they had been.
    "On the bright side, if it was trying to kill her it would have done that instantly," Thunderbolt opined hopefully.
    It took them a while, and they found plenty of gorilla tracks of varying sizes as they traveled, as well as the scent of roasting turkey.
    Scott meanwhile was watching Traveler (as that was of course him on the travois) as he made his dinner, managing somehow not to get any grease on himself while eating turkey with his hands. He daintily cleaned each bone and set it aside.
    Phoenix Talon and Thunderbolt eventually found the shaft leading down. Somewhere down there the flicker of firelight announced a presence. They could not see Scott from where they were, but did hear grunting conversation, and something coming down the tunnel behind them. They concealed themselves. The gorilla knuckled past Phoenix, reached the shaft, then became aware of Thunderbolt's presence and looked directly at him. This was not the one he had singed earlier.
    In the room below, Rue looked at a recently-arrived gorilla and frowned. "Your fur has gotten singed. There might be savages about, sir."
    Scott, seeing that the man had finished his meal, knocked on the wall.
    Above, Phoenix Talon saw the gorilla about to attack Thunderbolt and preempted it. The gorilla shrieked, drowning out Scott's knock.
    Now what are they doing? the golem thought, vexed.
    Outside the room, the wounded gorilla flailed at Phoenix Talon, who was unable to stop all four arms, as two of them swiped across his back, tearing at his flesh. Thunderbolt readied a lightning bolt at point-blank range. The stench of burning fur overwhelmed the roasting turkey, and the smoldering gorilla corpse fell down the shaft.
    "There will be no more screaming," Talon observed.
    Scott shook his metaphorical head. I work with barbarians.
    Rue Morgue had changed to a much smaller shape and was a goodly distance from his master in case more lightning should manifest. "I told you there were savages. Savages!" The gorillas grunted among themselves. One knuckled over to the dead creature and made a sorrowful sound deep in its throat.
    "No, vengeance must wait," Traveler said.
    Hiding having become moot, Thunderbolt and Phoenix Talon dropped down the shaft and into the room. The monkey with the hat seemed oddly familiar.
    "I don't recognize either of you," the man said, "but I have it on good authority that one of the daughters of the storm is present, and therefore leads me to believe that the Phoenix Talon is also here. You must be Scott Silver and Thunderbolt then. May I ask what you're doing here?" He sounded both weak and weary, and had clearly been wounded recently.
    "Originally?" Scott said. "We were looking for dragon lairs. ("But there's been some mission creep." - Brian) Then we ran into large people sneaking around town at night, and then the gnolls who are tracking them."
    "Ah yes, the gnolls," he sighed. "You are looking for a dragon lair?" He adjusted his spectacles.
    Thunderbolt had made his way into the room by then; Phoenix Talon followed more slowly and circumspectly; no one had yet actually seen him.
    "What do you intend to do at the dragons' lair?"
    "Well, that becomes an interesting question," Scott allowed. "The worst-case scenario is, get eaten by dragons."
    "That's your intention?"
    "No, that's the worst-case scenario."
    "Assume if you will, a best-case scenario," Traveler replied gravely.
    "Find the object that Gretchen's using to control dragons, and we take it."
    "The best case scenario will not happen." He adjusted his position on the travois slightly.
    

| Top |