The Darksteel Eye (6 page)

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.