Chapter 52 Into the Deep
Ray grasped Thornhold’s wrist, his face pale. Then, he let out a harsh sigh. “He’s still alive.”
“What’s wrong with him?” I couldn’t help myself. I knew that Ray hadn’t had time to examine him, but I had to ask anyway. “Never mind,” I said. “I know you don’t know yet.”
“Somebody hold a light so I can see his eyes,” Ray said, ignoring me.
Reggie held out his wrist, the flashlight of his watch shining down on Thornhold’s face. Ray opened Thornhold’s eyes, checking them. Then he began to examine him, looking for any wounds or injuries. Another moment, and he shook his head.
“I don’t know what’s wrong. He’s not injured, not that I can see. But he’s out cold—”
“I know,” Reggie said, sniffing the air. “Can you smell it?”
Ray and I raised our noses and sniffed. I could smell a faint odor in the air that I didn’t recognize. But it smelled like…
“Lemon? Do I smell lemon? And there’s something beneath it—it smells like frankincense?”
“Copal,” Reggie said. “Lemongrass and copal both go into a sleeping spell. I think whoever it was, they knocked both of them out with a sleep spell. A simple low-level spell that almost anybody could counter if they had any decent magical resistance. But Brynn’s a fighter and Thornhold’s a dwarf, and neither one has any pluses against magic. ”
“Crap. And we were already asleep, so it didn’t affect us,” I said.
“Not only that, but spells like Sleep have a limited area of effect. It probably just covered the area where Brynn and Thornhold were sitting watch,” Reggie said.
“Can you wake him up?” Ray asked.
“It will wear off in a moment. Quicker if I pour water on him—” He reached for his water bottle.
“No,” I said. “You don’t want him wet in this weather. Shake him. That might help.” I glanced nervously at the tunnel through which the creatures had dragged Brynn. “We need to go after her.”
Reggie smacked Thornhold across the face, then a second time, and a third. On the third strike, Thornhold let out a grunt and shot up, squinting. He caught Reggie’s hand.
“What are you doing, lad?” he said, then groaned. “My head—I feel like I drank a bottle of wine.”
“You were hit by a sleep spell,” Reggie said. “We had to wake you up somehow.”
“Sleep…Brynn?” Thornhold jumped to his feet, fully awake. “Where—what…”
“What were they?” I asked. “We came out of the tent just in time to see some sort of creatures dragging Brynn away, and you were flat on the floor.”
“I don’t know. All I remember is hearing a scuttling noise, then as I stood, I saw something coming toward us, and I was about to shout an alarm when…everything went dark.” He caught his breath. “Brynn? They took Brynn?”
I nodded. “Yes, and I know which tunnel. We needed you awake, so let’s head into the tunnel to follow them.” I headed toward the tunnel.
The others hurried to follow me.
“Do you have your weapons ready?” Ray asked.
We did, and as we approached the first tunnel, I steeled myself.
The creatures had Brynn. They had taken her, but not Thornhold.
Which suggested either they dragged her away because she was a woman, or because Thornhold was too heavy, or they didn’t have time before we came bounding out of the tent.
Given that we weren’t sure if they were planning to kill her, or to keep her alive for some unknown reason, we had to be swift and silent.
We approached the tunnel opening and hesitated. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on any sounds that might be coming through. I could hear the faint chatter of voices, though I couldn’t understand what they were saying.
As I took a deep breath and stepped into the tunnel, trying to keep my footsteps soft. They had to know we’d follow, but I didn’t want to give them any help.
We snuck along the tunnel, which graded down at a fairly steep angle.
The air in the tunnels stunk—at first I thought because of the goblins, but then, I wasn’t sure.
I knew the creatures had a stench to them, but this tickled my memory as to something different.
It smelled like wet dirt, sour and tangy, with mushrooms and mold growing in it. Like the forest in autumn.
Up ahead, the tunnel split off in two forks: straight ahead, and to the left. Thornhold reached out to catch my hand and motioned for me to slip behind him. “I’m a dwarf,” he whispered. “I understand the tunnels of the world.”
I let him take the lead. A moment later, at the fork, he walked over to the wall of the tunnel leading left and placed his ear against it, closing his eyes. Then, he did the same to the tunnel heading straight.
“They took the fork,” he said, turning around. “They aren’t that far ahead of us, so we should be able to catch them.”
“How do you know?” Reggie asked.
“Remember that dwarves can speak to the rocks, and if we’re lucky, they’ll answer us.
The rocks tell me that they’ve gone ahead in this direction.
And the rocks don’t lie.” He sounded so assured that I motioned for him to continue in the lead.
Truth was, being underground bothered me more than I ever remembered.
Back in the real world, I had very little claustrophobia, but ever since I’d turned into an elf, I had felt uncomfortable walking under a canopy of rock.
Thornhold led, Reggie followed him, I came next, and Ray took up the rear. We wound our way through the labyrinth of stone, passing several more turnoffs. At each one, Thornhold would listen, then choose our direction based on what he heard.
“I just hope that you aren’t under some spell to fool your senses,” Ray said at one point.
“I’m not. I can hear the stones. And goblins don’t have much magic, remember?” Thornhold answered.
But eventually, we descended the sloping tunnel, and up ahead, a larger exit appeared, leading into what I could only guess was another cavern.
Voices echoed out from the cavern, and at one point, I thought I heard Brynn shouting, but her words sounded garbled, as though they had partially gagged her.
Thornhold motioned to me. “Sneak up and peek in. You’re better at skulking around than the rest of us,” he said.
I gave him a nod. I was better at sneaking, and we all knew it. We were coming to trust the specialties each of us possessed.
I crept toward the opening, keeping close to the wall so that I wouldn’t be seen. The others hunkered down, trying to remain silent. As I neared the exit, carved into the stone, I heard Brynn. At least she was alive.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Put me down, or so help me—” Her voice trailed off, and she let out a short scream. “You have to be fucking kidding me!”
Worried now, I edged around, trying to see what the hell they were doing.
As I peeked around the corner, I found myself staring at what looked like a makeshift temple—a grungy, rusted looking metal plinth covered with what appeared to be dried blood and dried bits of flotsam that might—or might not—have been dried guts.
Atop the plinth, four goblins were trying to drag Brynn over to the altar table, but she had broken free of the sleep spell and was fighting back.
The fact that they were using weapons and she was still kicking the hell out of them gave me secondhand embarrassment for the little freaks, but it also triggered me to yell, “Come on” and rush in to help our fair .