The Savage Caves

5

They found pieces of a dead raccoon and knew they were on the right track. It was getting dark fast, and Regdar was getting nervous even faster. The spiders were dangerous enough when they were easy to see, but the deeper they got into the forest, the more they walked, the more the deep wound in Regdar’s calf reminded him of just how dangerous the creatures could be.

“Webs here,” Lidda whispered. There was something about the dark woods that made them all want to whisper.

Regdar looked up and saw that the web went sixty feet or more up the tall, old-growth firs. He had his sword in his hand but couldn’t see any spiders.

Something heavy crashed through the underbrush behind him, and he whirled, his sword out in front of him. There was just barely enough light filtering through the tall trees for Regdar to see that it was Naull.

She looked up at him from the ground, pine needles scattered in her hair and clinging to her clothes.

“Sorry,” she said. “I tripped.”

Naull smiled weakly, and Regdar sheathed his sword. “Let’s move away from these webs and camp.”

“Camp?” Lidda asked. “You mean sleep out here?”

“It’s dark,” Regdar said. “We can’t even see to walk. It’s too dangerous.”

Regdar looked at Jozan, who nodded and started moving off into the darkness. Naull stood up and brushed the pine needles and dirt off her clothes.

“Afraid of the dark, Rudlor?” Lidda asked, her head tipped to one side and her voice almost squeaking she was trying so hard to tease him.

He smiled at her and said, “My name is Regdar.”

He turned and followed Jozan, not turning around when he heard the two women giggling behind him. Ahead, the trees were beginning to thin out. Jozan was heading for the clearing, exactly as Regdar would have done. The farther they went, the more stars Regdar could see behind the trees, and he started to feel a whole lot better.

They had been going uphill for a long time, and Regdar’s leg was throbbing. Jozan was sort of a purple blur ahead of him in the darkness. He came out of the trees into the clearing, and in front of him was a wide swath of pure black darkness. Regdar could make out the rumpled lines and jagged shadows of bare rock above and to the sides of the huge dark space. Jozan stopped walking, and Regdar halted several paces behind him, just out of the line of trees. Naull and Lidda stepped up on either side of the fighter.

“What is that?” Naull asked in hushed tones.

Regdar shook his head.

Jozan said, “Shade your eyes. I’m going to cast a spell.”

The priest bent at the waist and picked something up off the ground. Regdar squinted and listened as Jozan murmured a prayer.

After just a few seconds there was a burst of bright light. Regdar closed his eyes and saw spots flash behind his eyelids. He opened his eyes carefully and saw that Jozan was holding the light in his right hand. It wasn’t too bright to look at once Regdar’s eyes adjusted, but it had the effect of transforming the area around them. The deep shadows filled in, and colors came out of the murk.

“That’s handy,” Lidda remarked.

“Yeah,” said Naull. “I can do that too.”

They were standing in front of a tall ridge, an almost vertical wall in front of them where it looked like a huge part of the hillside had split and fallen off—a million years or so before. At the base of the stone wall was the black space Regdar had seen before Jozan cast his light spell. It was the mouth of an immense cave.

Regdar walked up closer to Jozan. The cave mouth opened not only on the face of the cliff but underneath it as well. Jozan’s light was bright, but they could barely see a few feet down the hole that emptied into pitch-black nothingness.

Jozan lifted the object he’d picked up off the ground, and Regdar realized that it was a rock—a rock that was glowing with Pelor’s light. The two of them walked closer to the edge of the gaping pit, and they could see farther down, maybe ten or fifteen feet. The cave was jagged, natural rock on all sides and deeper than Jozan’s light could penetrate. The floor of the shaft sloped down at an angle only a bit more extreme than the hill they’d been climbing through the forest. Regdar figured he could probably keep his footing walking down it.

“Let me guess,” Lidda whispered, walking slowly up to join them with Naull in tow. “The spiders came from there.”

They all looked at each other, and both Regdar and Jozan shrugged.

“We might assume so,” Jozan said, “but let’s see.”

He lifted the rock and drew back to throw it.

“Wait,” Regdar said. The priest stopped. “We could use that light.”

“It only lasts ten minutes or so,” Naull said, and Jozan glanced back at her. “Am I right?”

“She’s right,” Jozan said with a smirk.

Jozan hurled the rock into the dark cave. It was a good throw, and the rock arced over the pit then hit the slope and clattered down. All four of them took a step closer and watched the brightly lit rock roll downward, revealing nothing as it went but more uneven rock, scattered with gravel and stones—until it disappeared over an abrupt edge about a hundred and fifty feet down the slope.

Regdar listened carefully and heard the rock hit something, but just barely. He was about to say something when Lidda spoke.

“It’s still falling… there… maybe, what? Ninety feet from the drop-off at the bottom of the slope?”

They all looked at her in the starlight. Regdar couldn’t make out her face, then she smiled, and her teeth seemed to glow in the dim purple light.

“Hey,” she said, “it’s a halfling thing.”

Regdar sighed and said, “We’ll camp here.”

With the drought there was no shortage of dry wood to be found. Regdar made one fire, then set about making six more, forming a circle of smaller campfires around the first one. None of them had encountered spiders like the ones they’d fought earlier, but it seemed a reasonable assumption that the creatures would shy away from fire. Regdar figured that even if the spiders were brave enough to approach the flames, at least the light would help them be seen. Both Naull and Jozan had offered to help him, but he’d gracefully refused. The enterprise gave Regdar something to do, and the idea of a campfire chat with the priest and the two strange women didn’t appeal to him. He found Lidda’s teasing foolish, and there was something about Naull that was distracting.

“So, Lidda,” Naull asked, “how did you end up with Jozan and Regdar? Jozan said something about someone wanting to hang you?”

“The good people of Fairbye,” Lidda said, “are a pack of bloodthirsty murderers—and racists too. They kill halflings on sight.”

Jozan laughed and said, “And thieves, interestingly enough.”

“You’re a thief?” Naull asked the halfling.

“I’m an adventurer,” Lidda responded.

Regdar almost laughed at that. He looked up long enough to see Naull smile and gaze into the star-spattered sky.

“Adventurer…” the young woman said.

“I told the burgher I would question you thoroughly,” Jozan said. “If you’ve stolen something, you should admit your crime and make proper restitution. Stealing the odd this or that shouldn’t bring a death sentence, but one can’t expect to simply—”

“The burgher is a whoremonger,” Lidda said.

There was a space of silence, then Naull asked, “In Fairbye?”

“Sure,” Lidda answered. “Fairbye sits on a trade road. Caravans pass through there. Not often, mind you, but they pass through, as do other travelers, like yourselves. Burgher Tomma provides weary travelers with a little… well, you know.”

“Returning an accusation with an accusation is not a defense, Lidda,” Jozan scolded.

“It’s true,” she said. “My first night there he approached me in the tavern. He put his hand on my thigh and whispered lewd suggestions in my ear.”

Naull giggled and asked, “Really? Like what?”

Lidda scuttled closer to the young mage and said, “Well, first of all he told me that if I put his—”

“Ladies,” Jozan interrupted, “for the love of Pelor, remember yourselves.”

Regdar was happy that no one could see him blush in the darkness.

“Sorry, Father,” Naull said.

“Yeah, Pops,” Lidda giggled, “my bad.”

“You can call me Father,” Jozan said, “or Jozan, thank you. You know, it’s customary to show some gratitude when people do you a service.”

“Is that a sermon?” the halfling asked.

Her petulance was beginning to grate on Regdar, and he felt his jaw clench. Jozan said nothing.

After a few moments, Naull said, “I think what Jozan is trying to say is—”

“I know what he’s trying to say,” Lidda cut in. “He’s right, I guess. Thank you, Jozan, for getting me off the hook, but eventually you’ll have to let me go on my way. I pay my debts. You saved me from swinging, and Naull saved me from the spiders, so I’ll see this fool’s errand through. In the meantime, please don’t preach to me. No offense, but you don’t know me. You don’t know where I come from or what I do or why I—”

She stopped, and Regdar thought she might be crying.

“We should get some sleep,” Regdar said, waving his hand over the last fire, which had caught nicely. “I’ll take first watch. Naull, please relieve me in a few hours.”

Naull was tired, but she hadn’t slept. Eventually, she just couldn’t pretend anymore and sat up. Regdar barely spoke to her, he just curled up in his bedroll, looking a bit odd without his armor on. He was asleep in seconds.

She tended the fires and scanned the darkness around them for signs of movement. She kept her spells in mind, ready for anything, and was surprised to find that she wasn’t the slightest bit afraid. There might be giant spiders out there, or worse, but she was almost deliriously happy. She was out. She was doing it. Like Lidda, she was an adventurer. The word was like medicine to her. Adventurer.

She knew the instant she heard the sound of gravel shifting that it was a spider. She looked up and over at where the sound had come from and saw nothing in the firelight. Taking up her staff, she listened for a long time before she heard the sound again. It came from a bit farther away and to the left.

Naull reached down and touched Regdar on the shoulder, then yelped when the huge fighter sat bolt upright. By the time Naull realized Regdar was awake, he had tossed off his bedroll and reached for the shield that he’d been carrying on his back. Naull recognized the spindly red dragon painted on the shield as the sigil of the Duke of Koratia.

“Regdar—” Naull started, but he held out a hand to quiet her.

She heard the sound again, a bit to the right this time, then again almost immediately and from much farther to the left.

Lidda snored loudly and turned over in her sleep. Regdar bent and picked up a short bow. He slung a quiver of arrows over his shoulder just as Jozan sat up, a crossbow already in his hands. Naull was amazed at how well armed these people were. Regdar nocked an arrow and lifted the bow. Jozan did the same, sliding up to his feet. Lidda was still breathing regularly, letting loose the odd dainty snore.

Naull brought a spell to mind that would launch a bolt of magical energy at a spider, one that would never miss its target, but she’d have to be able to see the spider to make it work.

She stood slowly, her hands on her staff but still ready to cast the spell, then something burst out of the darkness. She jumped away as something clattered to the ground next to her. Regdar let loose his arrow, and it streaked out into the darkness. There was a loud scuffling of feet in the shadows, coming from several directions at once.

She looked down and saw that what had come out of the woods was a straight wooden pole about four feet long, carved and burned to a sharp point on one end—a crude javelin.

“It’s not the spiders,” she said.

Lidda snored again, and Regdar nocked another arrow, scanning the darkness but obviously not seeing anything.

“Are those people out there?” Naull asked, looking at the javelin then at Regdar. “What do we do?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he fired another arrow into the darkness. Naull thought she heard it pass through tree branches.

“Regdar,” she whispered. “What do we do?”

He glanced over at her as he nocked another arrow, and a cold chill ran down Naull’s spine at the look on his face. He didn’t know.

Another javelin came out of the darkness and spanked off Regdar’s shield. The big man cursed. Naull realized all at once that they were standing in the middle of a ring of campfires. Whoever—or whatever—was out there could see them.

“Regdar, wait!” she gasped, grabbing his arm just as he began to draw his bow back again. He looked at her and she said, “We can’t see them, but they can see us.”

She touched the arrow lightly and nodded to him. He opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. The look in his eyes was a mixture of curiosity and impatience. He was going to trust her but not for long.

With her staff leaning against her body, she started to chant the words of the spell as she fished in her pouches for the proper material component. She had to look through more than one and had almost completed the incantation when she found the right pouch and pulled out a dead butterfly, pinched between two fingers. The dried insect disappeared almost before she’d gotten it completely out of her pocket, and she spoke the last word of the spell.

The arrow blazed with a bright, almost blinding yellow light, and Naull said, “Shoot it!”

Regdar pulled back the bowstring and let loose. Naull squinted up at him and saw that his eyes were closed. The magically illuminated arrow shot out into the darkness, lighting a patch of the world as it went. Naull saw the trees, the ground, the stones all around in vivid, colorful detail—then there were new sounds.

Something grunted, growled, there was a sound that might have been a yelp, and Naull saw a shadow running through the trees. It was just the black outline of a person, a little person no taller than Lidda but more stoutly built. It was running from the light.

The arrow landed in the underbrush, and they all watched, listening, for the ten minutes it took for the light to flicker, then go out. There were no more footsteps and no more javelins.

Lidda yawned, and Naull looked over and saw the halfling sit up slowly. She looked around, squinting, and asked, “What… my turn to be the lookout or something?”

Everyone stared at her.

Lidda looked back at them and said, “What?”