The Compass Key (Book 5) (40 page)

“He asked you to make a net to catch me and Delvin,” Luke groans while lying on the cold floor. “The room is heating up with a geyser, so he couldn’t wait.”

“Son of a hobgoblin!” Delvin shouts as he crashes into the edge of the floor with a metallic clang. He is slipping into the geyser when Nyx casts a spell to flip him onto solid ground. “Thank you for that. Though, I would have preferred a net.”

“
Sorry about that. I didn’t hear Timoran. Where did he go? I hope he didn’t try to jump over the geyser.”

“
He couldn’t possible make that leap. He has to be in the room somewhere.”

They watch as the floor changes to a frigid pool of icy water. A faint yell catches their attention as Timoran comes barreling down the
distant ice slide, his great axe clenched in his hands. When he hits the end of the slide, he leaps with all of his strength. With the power of his momentum and muscles, Timoran soars across the room. He hurls his great axe at the far wall and grips a rope that is secured around the haft. The moment the weapon is embedded in the wall above the exit, he adjusts his weight and swings to his friends. Once he is on the ground, a final yank dislodges his weapon and he catches it in his hands.

“I’ve really been a bad influence on all of you,” Luke jokes with a smile.

“Let us be on our way and find the next slide, my friend,” Timoran declares.

The sound of gurgling water makes the adventurers’ blood freeze in their veins. They turn around to see several of the puddles bubbling like they are being heated. Humanoid forms rise from the
liquid, their bodies churning with dark blue water. Foamy eyes appear in their faces and long, pointed ears rise from their heads. The monsters ooze toward their prey, spreading out in the hopes of surrounding the adventurers.

“I can handle this,”
Nyx says with a confident grin.

As soon as fire appears i
n her hands, a creature wraps around her from behind and sucks her into its body. She struggles to breathe and cast magic, but the monster spins itself into a living whirlpool. The others encircle the remaining heroes and are about to pounce when Delvin holds up his sword.

“We have come to worship the bile serpent,” he announces, nodding for the others to sheath their weapons. “Please let my friend go and take us to our new master. We only wish to join your ranks and serve.”

The monsters gurgle to each other until the one in the form of a whirlpool spits Nyx onto the floor. She coughs and sputters as Luke drapes her arm over his shoulders to help her up. With a chorus of bubbles and spitting, the monsters make a circle around their captives and herd them down the hallway.

“Do you know what you are doing?” Timoran quietly asks Delvin.

The warrior shrugs and grips his longsword until his knuckles crack. “I’m praying that I made the right decision.”

*****

The double doors swing open on creaking hinges as the watery monsters lead the adventurers into the lair of the bile serpent. Luke recognizes the enormous room even with the thick mist created by the cascading waterfalls. A brief parting in the mist confirms his suspicions when he sees the ice slide far above them. He is about to mention it to his friends when the mountain shakes and the beast in the middle of the room roars.

Only the top of the bile serpent can be seen in the large pool that takes up most of the room. Its gray scales are rotting and missing in some places, revealing pink flesh that oozes with silver
poison. A ridge of crooked, yellow spines runs along the monster’s back, their tips ending in crimson barbs. With another roar, the bile serpent thrashes and reveals a tail that ends in a boney scythe. The keen weapon slashes through the air and beheads an unlucky creature that resembles a blue, two-legged frog.

“It must be sealed in the pool,” Nyx whispers when
their watery escorts leave them to join the other monsters. Reaching out, she touches an invisible barrier that ripples with ancient magic. “The barrier is strong, but it won’t hold for long. Something is weakening it from outside the mountain. All I can tell is that the bile serpent’s thrashing isn’t making a dent in this thing. I wish I knew more.”

“We should
get this done,” Luke says, his eyes scanning the strange collection of corrupted beasts. The feel of his sabers in his hands brings him some comfort, but he does not dare to draw them. “Can we blast it and run?”

“Not an option,” Nyx states with a scowl. “The barrier was also designed to keep the
other monsters out. So, we would need to bring down the barrier to get to the bile serpent. This is a real mess.”

“It is not as big a mess as you think,” Timoran
claims, taking a few steps away from the others. “We have time to position ourselves before you cancel the barrier. The bile serpent does not know we are here or it would have tried to attack even with the barrier.”

“It knows we’re here,” Delvin
says, pointing below their feet. They can see the blurry shadow of a serpentine head staring at them, a forked tongue licking at the icy floor. “That thing is going to attack as soon as the barrier is down, but I think you have a point Timoran. If we spread out, the bile serpent can only attack one of us. We focus on it while Nyx does her thing and whoever is in front of it will run like hell on her signal.”

The caster
sighs and crouches to get a closer look at the barrier. “That’s a good plan, but I don’t think I can undo this. It could take hours because of the layers and potency of the magic. That’s if those monsters don’t attack me.”

“They’
re acting strange,” Luke claims, cocking his head to the side.

Following
the forest tracker’s gaze, they see the collection of monsters are quietly praying around the barrier. Ranging from humanoid frogs to thick-furred arctic predators, the bile serpent’s followers show no interest in the adventurers. Even the watery creatures that brought them to the room are silently kneeling before the barrier. Occasionally, a monster will raise its head to the sky and mutter in a guttural voice. The others whisper and hiss along until the bile serpent roars and shakes.

“Monsters don’t pray,” Luke
says, drawing his sabers. A few of the creatures look up at him, but make no move to attack. “Something bad is about to happen.”

“I’ve felt that since we stepped foot on this island,” Delvin admits with a nervous chuckle. A queasy feeling washes over him and
he chokes back the urge to retch. “I taste something foul in the air. It reminds me of zombies in a hot room. It’s worse now that I’m closer to the bile serpent.”

“I do not smell or taste anything that strong,” Timoran says, sniffing the air and grimacing at the mild odor of decay. “Could you be sensitive to the corruption within the temple?”

Nyx touches the floor and traces one of the dark lines that she sees in the ice. “With his aura, I wouldn’t be surprised. The corruption is flowing out of the bile serpent and through cracks in the lower part of the barrier. The sinking of the island must have done it, so we’re lucky the barrier is still in one piece. I guess I can shatter a weak point with enough force, but that could cause backlash.”

“Everyone get to the corner of the room and draw your weapons,” Luke suddenly says, his eyes wide with fear.

A trembling screech startles the retreating heroes as a winged serpent slams into the barrier. The monster is engulfed in crackling energy and it is torn apart by the powerful spell. As the last scrap of the monster hits the ground, a chorus of roars, screeches, and hisses erupt from the other followers. Many of them hop up and down excitedly, their eyes locked on a blue-furred beast standing in the middle of the chaos. This behemoth rises onto its back feet and snorts through its two noses, holding up its thick arms for quiet. With a coughing bellow, the monster awkwardly charges into the barrier. All of the monsters follow and crash against the shield at the same time. The barrier becomes visible as cracks race along its surface and monsters explode around the room.

“They’re sacrificing themselves at once,” Nyx says as she cre
ates a defensive orb around the adventurers. She watches the bile serpent happily thrash under the ice, the beast waiting for the sound of a shattering spell. “I get it now! The barrier is made of pure aura, but the corruption has infected it. It wasn’t enough to break it immediately. Instead, the barrier has been absorbing death on this island. The veins of corruption weren’t coming out of the bile serpent, but going into the barrier.”

“Why are they able to do this now?” Delvin asks as the behemoth releases a dying call and explodes. “This is a lot of death at once.”

“It’s the final blow. The battle outside must have killed a lot of the ogres, which weakened the barrier enough for this sacrifice to work.”

“They brought us here to be the bile serpent’s first
meal,” Timoran points out while gently patting his great axe.

“Stay
within my shield, guys!”

The barrier shatters as the final monster is turned into a pile of body parts. A wave of water sloshes out of the pool as the bile serpent dives under. The shadowy form races toward the heroes and bashes through the ice under their feet. They stare into the gaping mouth full of rows of jagged teeth at the front of an arrowhead shaped head. Bulging eyes of yellow and black bore into them while Nyx’s barrier expands to prevent them from being swallowed whole. The bile serpent violently shakes its head in an attempt to knock them loose.

“This is a bad plan!” Luke yells, struggling to stay on his feet. “We need to get out of here and fight this thing.”

“It’s about thirty feet long and we’re in an enclosed space!” Delvin shouts back as he falls on his side. “We need to think of a plan. Nyx and Timoran have the advantage of magic
and strength respectively. Luke and I are going to have a problem once this barrier is gone. We can only dodge for so long on such little flooring.”

“Do you need a noble steed?” Luke mockingly asks while feathers sprout from his body.

Delvin smiles and clambers to his feet. “If you don’t mind. I promise to only need Lucy for a few minutes.”

“I need to get us out
of here now!” Nyx screams. She watches the jaws of the bile serpent begin to dislocate, centuries of ice cracking and falling from the joints.

With an empowering scream,
the caster sends a blast of fire into the bile serpent’s throat. The explosion knocks the monster back and frees the adventurers from its jaws. Timoran lands with a dull thud while Nyx floats to the ground, a flurry of fireballs already striking the bile serpent’s underbelly. Delvin watches the water rise to meet him until Luke swoops in to catch him on his back. They soar into the air and loop around toward the bile serpent, which is trying to slice Timoran with its tail.

“I’ll jump onto its head,” Delvin whispers into
his steed’s ear. He is surprised when the griffin emphatically shakes her head. “Why not? I can stab it in the head and finish it off quickly if I can get on it.”

The bile serpent hisses at the approaching griffin and tries to bite it with
alarming speed. The flying beast is barely able to twist out of the way, forcing Delvin to wildly flail at the corrupted guardian. He circles the monster until Nyx hits it in the face with a lightning bolt, attracting its attention. The griffin dives underneath the bile serpent’s chin while Delvin slashes a clean cut in its throat.

“This isn’t getting the job done,” Delvin insists as they spin away from another attack. “I need to get on that thing.”

The griffin rises out of reach of the bile serpent, hovering at a height that she thinks is too high for Delvin to jump from. The warrior curses under his breath and leaps off before she can stop him. With a screech, the griffin rushes after her rider while Timoran lops off the bile serpent’s deadly tail. The monster is rearing back to strike as Delvin approaches, angling himself to land on its head. At the last second, the griffin catches the warrior in her beak and lands on top of the bile serpent. The smell of burning flesh and fur fills the air before she gets off the toxic beast. Spiraling down to the ground, she lands on her knees to avoid touching her melted paws to the ice.

“
I’m really sorry about that, Luke. I had no idea,” Delvin says, kneeling next to his injured friend. He looks up in time to see the bile serpent’s head coming toward them, but Timoran knocks it away with his axe.

“This
creature is ignoring most of our attacks,” Timoran mentions, driving his axe into the bile serpent’s nose.

The barbarian is thrown
against the wall as the monster rears back and breaks into a coughing fit. A putrid green liquid foams into its mouth and it leans forward. Whimpering in pain, Luke grabs Delvin and leaps away from the blast of acidic liquid. The floor is eaten away within seconds and the bile serpent turns to spit again. A magical rope wraps around its mouth, causing the acid to burst through its cheeks.

“
It’s shrugging off my spells,” Nyx says through gritted teeth. Her body is glowing from a strength spell as she pulls at the magic rope. “I can try to focus on a big spell, but it’s not giving me any time. If I wait too long, one of you two will get eaten.”

The griffin
roars and rises into the air, her wings pushing the mist away as she rises to the top of the room. She circles near the ceiling, letting out faint calls in an attempt to communicate whatever plan she has concocted. She slowly gains speed, but refuses to dive at the bile serpent until she has a clear shot.