The Darksteel Eye

CHAPTER 4

Glissa’s eyes adjusted to the dark inside of the lacuna. The mossy ground glowed as it had before, but its light was far dimmer than that of the mana core.

“Can you see where you’re going?” she asked Bosh as he bounded up the tunnel, carrying her and Slobad.

“Yes,” came the metal man’s reply.

Bruenna hovered along behind, just off Bosh’s shoulder. She looked up the lacuna, and when Glissa looked over the golem’s shoulder they were almost face to face.

“How’s your leg?” asked the elf.

“It hurts.”

“How long will that spell keep you in the air?”

“Long enough to get us back to Lumengrid-if we don’t run into any vedalken or levelers.”

“Don’t look now.” Slobad stuck his scrawny arm out in front of him, pointing down the tunnel. “Well, maybe should look, huh?”

Glissa turned to see the point where the two paths in the lacuna joined, heading up the surface as one tunnel. Coming around the corner, spears held high, was the front of the vedalken army.

“Hurry,” shouted Bruenna. “If we can get past these few before the rest of them make the corner, we might be able to get by.”

Glissa could feel Bosh’s whole body rumble as he spoke. “Good plan.” The golem took off at double speed.

“Hope crazy elf can do that trick again,” said the goblin as they closed on the slowly growing group of blue-skinned soldiers. “Better figure out how to make it happen, huh?”

“Yeah, right,” replied the elf.

* * * * *

Marek turned the corner and looked down the other passage of the blue lacuna.

“There she is.”

“Sir, we’ve cut them off,” said a soldier beside him.

“Lord Pontifex will be pleased.”

“What should we do?”

“We should …” Marek looked back over his shoulder.

More vedalken soldiers filled the tunnel. It would be some time before his entire squad could march up the passage and join the fight, but more than a dozen soldiers already stood by his side, and more were arriving every minute.

“Sir?” asked the soldier.

“We should delay them, give the rest of the squad enough time to catch up with us. Don’t let them get past, and don’t let them go back down the lacuna. When more of our soldiers arrive, we’ll capture the elf girl and kill the others.”

“Sir, there are more than enough of us here to capture an elf, a goblin, a human, and a rusty old metal golem.”

“Perhaps.” Marek looked into the warrior’s eyes. “But we will do things my way, and you’re going to follow my orders. Right?”

“Yes sir,” replied the soldier. “We will delay them until the rest of the army arrives.”

Marek smiled. “Good. Make sure the others have their orders.”

* * * * *

“Are you sure we can get through?” asked Glissa as they scrambled up the lacuna.

“No,” replied Bruenna, “but what choice do we have?”

“We could go back.”

“The levelers have surely followed us into the lacuna. We’ll be trapped between two armies.”

Glissa looked ahead. The vedalken had lined up shoulder to shoulder, ten wide, across the tunnel, waiting. A second line had formed, and a third was beginning behind them as more soldiers came around the corner.

“What are they doing?” asked the elf.

“Clogging the tunnel,” said Slobad. “They hold us here for levelers. Cut us to little bits. Dead goblin. Dead crazy elf, huh?”

Bruenna nodded. “He’s right.”

“What do we do? We can’t fight all of them.”

“No,” said Bosh, “but we can bowl them over.”

“What-?” Glissa’s question was cut short.

Bosh lifted both she and Slobad off of his shoulders. A huge section of rusted iron opened on his chest, and the metal golem stuffed the elf and the goblin inside.

“You might get dizzy.” Bosh replaced the metal piece.

Glissa sat, knees jammed against her chest, in complete darkness. The heavy thumping of Bosh’s footfalls echoed loud inside the chamber.

“Is this going to work?” she asked.

“Don’t ask Slobad,” grunted Slobad. “Slobad don’t know what crazy golem doing.”

* * * * *

Bruenna flew behind the stomping golem. “What’s your plan, Bosh?”

“Stay behind me,” he said, “and stay close.”

With that, Bosh pulled his arms in to his sides. To Bruenna, it looked as if they were retracting. His head did the same thing, dropping down inside his body and disappearing from view.

The metal giant took three more bounding steps and leaped into the air. When he came down, he’d retracted his legs, and his whole body had turned into a perfect ball. The metal sphere rolled at the waiting lines of vedalken.

“Good plan,” muttered Bruenna, and she followed the rolling golem as he crashed into the soldiers.

Spears, helmets, and other accoutrements went flying, making a terrific noise as they smashed into one another and came down in a heap. Those soldiers who didn’t immediately jump from the way were squashed flat under the weight of the rolling metal ball.

Bruenna slipped in behind, following Bosh as he bowled the vedalken down like a patch of razor grass.

* * * * *

Marek couldn’t believe his eyes. One minute, there was a golem charging down the lacuna at him and his men. The next, a giant ball careened into his soldiers. Blue-skinned, four-armed vedalken were knocked every which way, many of them maimed or killed as the ball rolled over them and through the ranks. Marek dived out of the way to avoid being smashed.

Getting up from the ground, the vedalken lieutenant dusted himself off. He watched the still rolling ball and the flying human wizard as they passed swiftly through his shattered ranks, and continued up the lacuna toward Lumengrid.

“What was that?”

Moans were all he got in response.

* * * * *

Glissa braced herself against the inside of the golem’s empty chest. The steady beat of Bosh’s feet on the metal ground was interrupted by several loud slamming noises and one long grinding sound, then the world began to tumble. She wasn’t able to see anything in the lightless chest cavity, so she had no way of knowing which side was up. Whenever her head hit something hard, she figured she was upside down. Her legs, hands, and hair had become tangled with Slobad. Eventually, the two companions clung together for dear life.

“Slobad scared,” the goblin shouted.

“Me-”

Glissa’s response was cut short when her back smashed into something hard, knocking the wind from her lungs.

“-too,” she finished when she had regained enough composure to scream.

There were several loud thumps that sounded like something hitting the outside of the chest cavity. Abruptly, the tumbling stopped.

“Thank the maker,” said Glissa.

She had landed on her head. She was sure of this only because her neck hurt, and her feet seemed to be touching nothing but thin air. Flipping over, she untangled her body from Slobad’s and lifted herself up off the dark ground.

“Goblins not made for rolling, huh?” said the goblin. “Slobad sick.”

His words were followed by a gurgling sound, and the splash of liquid on the chamber floor. Glissa felt the wave of fluid flood over her feet.

“Nice, Slobad.”

The door opened and light poured in.

In the dark, Glissa hadn’t noticed how dizzy she had become. When she saw the wall of the lacuna, her head spun one way, and her eyes the other. She vomited.

Bosh’s stubby digits reached in and pulled the two nauseous riders out into the light.

“You must stop that,” said the golem. “It tickles.”

Glissa looked up at Bosh then leaned over his hand and threw up once again.

“Thanks for the warning,” she said. “What did you do?”

“We can cover that ground later,” interjected Bruenna. The wizard hitched her thumb over her shoulder. “Right now we’ve got a bunch of angry vedalken to outrun.”

Bosh lifted Glissa and Slobad onto his shoulders and took off along the tunnel.

Glissa clung tightly to the seam in Bosh’s neck. The fresher air and the light were helping her to regain some equilibrium, but she was still a little queasy. Slobad looked even worse off. Every few steps, his limp little goblin body threatened to fall from the golem’s shoulder. He hung on with all his might, his knuckles turning pale against his rumpled flesh. Every time one of Bosh’s feet landed on the ground, Slobad let out a little moan.

Bruenna hovered behind them. “You two going to make it?”

Glissa looked up, shrugged, then nodded.

“Good, because once we get up the Pool of Knowledge, we’ve still got to get out of Lumengrid.”

Glissa grabbed her head. “I’d forgotten about that. I’m not sure if I can make it.”

Slobad gagged. “Me neither.”

The company continued up the lacuna. The mossy stuff on the ground began to give way to simple metal, and the tunnel grew darker. The vedalken warriors were nowhere in sight, though Glissa knew they couldn’t be too far behind.

“We’re nearing the top,” exclaimed Bosh.

The giant metal golem came to a halt. On the floor, the edge of the tunnel rippled. An opalescent oval broke the regular metallic sheen before them-the bottom of the Pool of Knowledge.

Glissa looked at it. “I didn’t like this on the way out.”

“It’s easier on the way in,” said Bosh.

The golem lifted his two passengers off his shoulders then knelt down. He poked his finger at the floor, and the silvery substance gave way, letting the golem’s whole hand pass through. Waves rippled off in every direction, as if a drop of water had hit a puddle.

“That all serum, huh?” said Slobad.

Bruenna nodded.

“But how does it stay there? Why doesn’t it just drain into the lacuna?” asked the elf.

The human wizard shrugged. “If I had to guess, I’d say magic.”

The sound of booted feet coming up the lacuna echoed up the tunnel.

Slobad dashed for the silvery wall. “Good enough for Slobad,” he said. The goblin dived upward into the serum.

The wall wavered but none of it came into the tunnel.

Bruenna levitated into it as well, disappearing from view after a bloop, bloop.

Glissa looked after her friend. “I don’t know, Bosh-”

“Time to go,” interrupted the golem and shoved the elf into the serum.

Glissa slipped through the wall, her mouth still open from her last word. The world around her was thick and slow. She felt the weight of the pool on top of her, and her chest seemed empty. Her ears felt as if someone had his hands cupped over them, and everything had gone silent.

Opening her eyes, Glissa looked up. The world was blurry. The top of the pool looked like the wall she had just passed through, only it was a long way away and wasn’t in focus. Ahead she could see a small, frantic green thing that looked like a child’s drawing. That must be Slobad, she thought. Behind him, a fluidly moving blue streak raced toward the surface. Though nothing was recognizable, Glissa knew this must be Bruenna.

Turning around, she watched Bosh transform from a disjointed reflection beyond the wall to a ghostly blob as he slipped into the serum. The golem moved toward her in a rush. Grabbing Glissa by the arm, he forced her up to the surface.

Kicking her legs, and with Bosh’s help, Glissa rose through the thick liquid. Her lungs burned, and her mouth was full of serum. She wanted to spit it out and take in a big breath. Looking up again, she tried to focus on getting to the surface. It seemed such a long way away. The pool hadn’t seemed so deep on the way down.

Glissa kicked harder, pulling free of Bosh’s grasp. Still, the surface came no closer. Reflexively, she tried to take in a breath, but there was no air, and all she managed to do was collapse her cheeks. She felt trapped, panicked. She might drown in this pool. Her heart pounded in her ears, and her limbs ached with fatigue.

She felt Bosh’s hand again, and the top of the pool dropped toward her. She could see the surface clearly now. There were lights, and where they hit the serum, a star formed. There was something else-dark figures moving around the edge of the pool. She couldn’t make out what they were. She squinted, but it was no use. Whatever they were, they slipped from view as her head breached the surface.

Glissa spat out serum and sucked in a huge breath. Blowing it out, she took another gasp.

“I didn’t think I’d make it out alive,” she shouted, wiping the serum from her eyes.

“You won’t,” said someone in a gurgling voice. The words sounded as if they had come from underwater-far away and muffled.

Dragging her hand over her face once again, Glissa looked out over the edge of the pool.

A dozen vedalken guards filled the room. Two of them held Slobad by the arms, while another pair pointed their glowing halberds at the wounded Bruenna.

“Get out of the pool,” said the same far-away voice.

Glissa couldn’t tell which one was talking because all of them wore heavy helmets filled with what looked like water or blinkmoth serum.

“I said ‘out,’ ” commanded the voice.

“All right, all right.” Glissa began pushing herself toward the edge. From underneath, she felt a large pulse, as if a huge bubble rising from below had hit her legs.

Then she was airborne.

Serum trailed from her limbs as she rocketed toward the ceiling. Waving her arms in a circle, Glissa managed to keep herself upright. As she reached the apex of her upward arc, she drew her sword from her belt and glanced down at where she had been. Below her, the pool writhed and bubbled, as if a hundred deadly fish were fighting over the carcass of a zombie. Bosh’s head had burst through the surface, and he rose like a piston-climbing to a height with tremendous speed then falling back under the serum.

Waves lapped over the golem’s shoulders as he slipped back into the pool. The elf came down atop a vedalken guard. Her boot heel smashed through the creature’s face mask, spilling the liquid underneath. The guard dropped his halberd and clutched at his face.

Glissa turned on the next vedalken guard. This one was ready with his halberd. Angling in, the four-armed warrior brought the head of his weapon down on the elf.

Glissa just managed to get her blade around in time, blocking the vedalken’s strike. Had she missed, she would now be missing an ear. Twisting away from the blow, the elf stepped in, pulling her sword free.

The guard was defenseless, unable to bring his long weapon in so close, and he backpedaled, but it was too late. Glissa cut a long gash across his belly, opening his robe and abdomen in the same stroke. Pink and purple blobs of flesh poured from the warrior’s open stomach. Glissa assumed they were vedalken entrails, though she’d never seen the inside of one before.

The guard went to his knees, scooping up his guts in both arms and trying to stuff them back in. Glissa turned away, sure that he’d cause her no more trouble, at least for the foreseeable future.

Four halberd blades descended on her at once, blocking each of the cardinal directions.

“Drop your weapon,” came another gurgling voice.

Glissa bashed away one of the great spears, dodging through the hole as she did so and coming around behind the circle of guards. As she spun, something caught her foot, and the world spun with her. For the dozenth time in as many minutes, the elf landed on her head and saw stars.

“Not again.”

Glissa tried to sit up, but her path was blocked by a trio of spearheads.

“That’s far enough.”

Glissa looked up into the eyes of a vedalken guard. His head swam inside a helmet full of serum, making his lips and eyes appear stretched and rubbery. He looked like a cross between a fish and a human-no elf could ever be so grotesque.

Glissa lay on the ground, panting. “What do you want?”

“I want you to drop your sword.”

Up this close, Glissa could see the creature’s lips move as he spoke. Somehow the words seemed to be coming from his neck or the top of his chest.

The vedalken jabbed his spear into her belly.

“All right.” Glissa released her blade, and one of the other guards kicked it across the floor, away from her open hand.

A great splashing sound echoed through the room, and a wave of serum spilled over the sides of the Pool of Knowledge. Bosh’s head and chest rose into the air. The golem lifted himself from the pool, his feet coming down with a thud as he landed on solid ground.

“Stop right there,” sputtered one of the guards.

Glissa felt two pairs of hands reach under her arms, and she was yanked to her feet by a vedalken. To her left, Slobad and Bruenna were being held in the same fashion, their arms pinned back by a pair of guards, blades to their necks.

“On your knees, golem, or your friends are dead.”

Bosh looked to Slobad and Bruenna then to Glissa.

She shook her head. “No.”

A guard grabbed her by both cheeks, immobilizing her head and jaw. The elf struggled, but it was no use. The vedalken had a good grip, and all she could do was move her eyes in their sockets.

“On your knees,” repeated the vedalken.

Slowly, Bosh lowered his head and dropped himself to the ground.

A pair of four-armed warriors rushed over and pried open a metal plate on his back. Flakes of rust fell to the floor. Bosh flinched at the sound.

“No,” shouted Slobad. “Don’t turn him off. I just turn him back on, huh?”

A guard shoved the goblin to the floor and knelt on him.

Glissa felt a cold chill run down her spine. She’d gone too far. All of this had started because she had vowed revenge for her parents’ death. Along the way Bosh and Slobad had joined her, and this personal quest had turned into something bigger. Now Glissa had dug too deeply, and they were all going to die. She closed her eyes. She couldn’t bear to watch.

A clank rattled around inside the room, echoing over the pool and the walls. Glissa cringed, remembering how she and Slobad had found the golem, sunk and forgotten, lying in pieces in the Dross, and a tear ran down her cheek.

There was another clank, and another, followed by the sound of footsteps and shouting.

Glissa opened her eyes.

Humans, wizards and soldiers alike were flooding into the room. They all wore blue robes, and most carried wicked hooked staves, ending in jagged points, covered with glowing jewels.

Half of the vedalken guards holding Glissa broke off, heading to intercept the humans. The elf’s head and jaw were again free.

“Bosh, get up,” she shouted.

The iron golem anticipated her command. Standing in a single fluid movement, Bosh brought his hands together-behind him. The clap crushed a vedalken to pulp and shut the golem’s open access door at the same time. Spinning to face the remaining guard, the golem let the vedalken’s limp body fall to the ground.

Glissa didn’t see any more. With her arms still held firm by two guards, she kicked her legs into the air, flipping over backward and coming down behind the vedalken. Twisting, she got one arm lose. That was all she needed.

Funneling mana into a spell, the elf willed her body strong as a bear, her skin tough as bark. Her arms grew thick and muscular, and her once-lithe elf frame doubled then tripled. Reveling in her new found power, Glissa scooped up the guard who still had hold of her arm and lifted him over her head. With a feral grunt, she heaved him against the wall of the chamber. His face mask cracked from the impact, leaving a wet streak down the wall as he slid to the ground.

Turning, Glissa reached for the other guard, but he was gone. A human soldier had the crook of his staff wrapped around the vedalken’s neck, the tip dripping blood as it poked from his throat. The rest of the vedalken guards had suffered similar fates, and as quickly as it had started, the fight was over.

Bruenna, her arms draped over the shoulders of two soldiers, hobbled up to the elf.

“They got here just in time,” she said.

Glissa looked around. “These are your soldiers?”

Bruenna chuckled. “You saw the marketplace. Many people from my village work inside Lumengrid.”

“But they seemed so scared before. Everyone scattered when Pontifex came through.” She scratched her chin. “What makes them so brave now?”

“There is no love for the vedalken in my village,” replied Bruenna. “When the time comes, we take care of our own.”

Bosh stepped up beside the women, Slobad on his shoulder. “No time to waste,” he said. “The other vedalken warriors will be coming from the pool any minute.” He ran his huge, glowing eyes over the floor. “I do not think they will be happy to see us.”