Victim of Fate (26 page)

"Alto, don’t be a fool!" Tristam
demanded.

"You’re here because of me," he said. "I’ve
been fool enough."

The farm boy turned warrior turned champion
walked back up onto the rock bridge. At the far side, Beck stood
with an arrogant tilt to his lips.

"Quite the way with the ladies," Beck mused.
"Why don’t you lay that sword down now and come over here?"

"You want it? Come and take it from me," Alto
called out.

"You know I can beat you," Beck reminded.

"Aye, but I wasn’t offering a fight."

"You impertinent peasant!" Beck growled. "I
should gut you to show you your place!"

"Kind of hard to take me back to Fizzulthorp
if I’m dead," Alto said. "Is he one of your Silver Dragon knights,
too?"

Beck belted out a harsh laugh. "Only true men
of steel can be knights! Wizards are no better than gelded
horses."

Alto heard Kar mutter something behind him.
It was almost enough to crack a smile on his face. He looked past
Beck instead and saw the tide of warriors rushing from the ramp to
join the knight’s side. "Very well, let my friends go."

"Surrender yourself first!"

Alto took a deep breath and nodded. He
started across the wide bridge and then after both he and Beck had
taken a few steps, he leaned forward and jammed his foot into the
rock. He burst into a run that caught the skilled knight by
surprise. Beck drew his sword back to strike but was unable to land
the blow before Alto slammed into his midsection and threw both of
them off the edge of the bridge and into the deep waters of the
underground river below them.

Chapter 22

"Alto!" Patrina stumbled and fell
forward.

"Grab her! You, northerner, pick her up if
you must!" Kar shouted.

Garrick stepped next to Patrina and scooped
her up with one massive arm. "Got her."

"The tunnel?" Mordrim prompted.

"Yes, the tunnel. Let's go!" Tristam said as
he recovered from the shock of Alto sacrificing himself to deal
with the enemy leader. He turned and rushed into the milling
goblins and ogres, scattering the smaller creatures and leaving
gaping wounds on the larger ones.

Namitus and Karthor hurried after, each
striking out to widen the path so that Mordrim, Kar, and Garrick
wouldn't be contested. The monsters rallied and fought back but not
in time to stop them from reaching the tunnel the dwarf had
promised as an escape route.

"Hold them off!" Tristam ordered once they'd
entered the tunnel.

"Put me down!" Patrina snapped while slapping
Garrick's leg and kicking her own feet.

Garrick set her down and leered at her. She
looked down and saw Alto's chain was hanging loose enough to gape
and display the cleavage released by her torn dress. She
straightened and pulled the armor into place on her shoulders.
"Mind Tristam!"

Garrick laughed and turned away so he could
draw his sword and stand ready. He didn't have to wait long, and an
ogre met him at the entrance wielding a large wooden club with a
stone tied to the end of it.

"Wizard, block that tunnel!" Tristam
said.

"Might as well pull the mountain down on top
of us while I'm at it!" Kar grumbled.

"Not us, just them," Namitus suggested.

"Whatever you're doing, be quick about it;
we've a long walk ahead of us," Mordrim said.

"And this tunnel isn't lit," Karthor pointed
out.

Tristam swatted a goblin aside and stepped up
to block Garrick's flank. He paused when he realized that the
barbarian had blocked the ogre's club and they stood locked against
each other, each trying to use brute strength to beat the
other.

"By the saints!" Tristam muttered. He spun in
time to slap aside a crude spear thrust, and then split the
goblin's head in two with his sword.

Garrick drove a punch into the stomach of the
ogre, and then did it again but the towering brute seemed
unaffected. He moved his left hand to the hilt of his sword to take
a two-handed grip and slowly forced the club up and away. The ogre
tried to counter, using both of his hands, but the momentum was on
Garrick's side already. As soon as the club slid away to the side,
Garrick pulled his blade in reverse and opened up a deep gash along
the ogre's belly that spilled blood and viscera onto the stone
floor.

Namitus snapped his fingers next to Kar.
"What about those spectral flames from before?"

"Those were goblins before; they won't slow
an ogre or troll, nor the humans. We'd buy a minute at the most,"
Kar mused. "What was that thing you did with the rope out
there?"

"Just a simple trick." Namitus shrugged it
away. "Something I picked up in the south."

"It was a spell, though."

"Not like your spells. I've never had any
training nor been prepared to handle real magic. I don't have the
patience for it."

Kar grunted and looked back to study the
tunnel entrance. The pile of corpses was growing, providing a
natural barrier to the entrance. He frowned and scratched at his
beard before saying, "I've got it. This was meant to help us in
case we became trapped or encountered a door we could not
open."

"Whatever it is, do it!" Tristam snapped. He
pulled his sword back from a strike against a troll and stared at
it. The blade was bent by the impact. He threw the useless weapon
at the creature, making it flinch, and fell back. "Barbarian!
Garrick, right? Come on if you want to live!"

Garrick and Tristam rushed past the others
and stopped only when they were behind the chanting wizard. He
sprinkled some pebbles across the floor of the tunnel between
himself and the corpses and then nodded. "That should do it!"

"Do what?" Tristam asked.

"Do you want to stick around and find out or
would you rather be on our way?"

Tristam scowled and motioned with his head.
"Let's be off! Kar and Karthor, use your lights. And does anybody
have an extra sword?"

Tristam’s request for a blade went unanswered
as the wizard and his son both invoked their supernatural lights to
aid them in their passage. Little more than a minute passed before
they heard the first scream of a goblin travel down the hallway
behind them.

"They found my trap," Kar chuckled.

"What did you do?" Namitus asked him.

"The spell was intended to allow us to push
through a rock wall in case we couldn’t get through a locked door
or became trapped. I had to deconstruct the third metaphysical
vertices in order to change the intent of it, but when you’ve had
my experience and education, it’s a simple matter of turning theory
into practice." Kar paused for a breath and to glance around.
Garrick was scowling at him as he looked back, Tristam bore a look
of impatience, Patrina was staring at the ground as she walked, and
Karthor was shaking his head and keeping close to the dwarf. Of
them all, only Namitus seemed to be paying any attention to
him.

"I don’t know what that means, but I suppose
it’s impressive," the rogue offered.

Kar sighed. "Yes, quite."

"So what did it do?"

"It made the floor of the tunnel
semi-corporeal!" Kar snapped. When he saw the blank look on
Namitus’s face, he took a deep breath and elaborated, "It acted
like a dry quicksand. With any luck, several of them will fall in
and when the spell wears off, they’ll be buried alive."

"Ugh!"

Kar smiled and took his pipe out, and then
clamped it into his mouth without attempting to pack or light
it.

Namitus watched him for a moment longer and
then stepped ahead to fall in beside his former friend. "Trina, are
you okay?"

She shook her head slowly but didn’t look up.
"It doesn’t feel like he’s really gone," she whispered.

"It just happened," Namitus said. "But I know
what you mean. One minute he was here, risking all our necks for
what he believed in, then splash, he was gone."

"It’s what I believe in, too!" Patrina lifted
her head and stared at him with her red-rimmed eyes. "He just knew
what the right thing to do was and he did it! He wasn’t afraid to
stand up for it. Wasn’t afraid of anybody challenging him. I always
wanted to be like that. He was so strong."

Namitus nodded and reached out to put his
hand on her shoulder. She glanced at it and offered him a faint
smile. "I’m sorry about how I treated you, too. You were like my
brother and I was hurt knowing that you’d lied to us. I understand
why you did it and I don’t think it was right, but I
understand."

Namitus shared a smile of his own with her.
"Well, maybe some good can come of this after all."

Her smile faded and she shook her head. "What
doesn’t make sense is that he could be so perfect in one way, then
be so shallow and hurtful."

"Aleena?" Namitus guessed.

She sniffed and glanced away.

"He cares for you, you know," Namitus
offered.

"But he thinks I’m a foolish girl!"

"Well, you are," Namitus said. She spun on
him, her mouth wide open in shock. "It’s part of what makes you
irresistible. But Alto knew he wasn’t in your league. He couldn’t
compete, so when Aleena showed interest…well, she was there for him
when he needed her."

"I couldn’t be there," Patrina whispered. "I
was stuck in a castle leagues away."

"He saved me, you know," Namitus said. "Saved
me from an angry merchant and the royal guard. At the same time he
saved the merchant’s family and a dear friend of mine."

"Saved them from what?"

"From the fire that burned the merchant’s
house to the ground," the rogue said. He let out a soft laugh and
shook his head. "Never seen anything like it. House was on fire but
the merchant’s wife, son, and daughter were inside. Alto didn’t
blink an eye; he ran straight in through the flames to go and get
them."

Patrina gasped. "What did you do?"

"Only thing I could—I went in after him."

"That was brave."

"Brave would have been standing outside
knowing I hadn’t gone in to help him. What if something would have
happened? I’d have to face the merchant, the Blades, the Kingdom,
Aleena, and eventually you. No, I took the easy route and followed
him inside."

"So what happened then?"

"We got the people out, except the merchant’s
wife collapsed inside, insisting Alto and I get her son and
daughter out first. The house was fully ablaze by then; only thing
keeping her from being burnt to a crisp was the barrel of water
Alto had upended where she lay. But that fool ran back in through
the flames, even though he was soon on fire because of it! He ran
out with her, then collapsed in a heap at my feet."

Patrina’s hand went to her mouth. She glanced
down at the armor and shirt she wore, and then tucked her nose and
lifted the shirt up to inhale deeply. "It smells like him," she
whispered. A fresh tear ran down her cheek. "She was there to nurse
him back to health, wasn’t she?"

Namitus nodded.

"Hey!" Karthor called back.

Namitus chuckled. "Okay, Karthor put him back
to right, with St. Leander’s blessing, but Aleena sat with him and
was there when he woke."

"Does she know about me?"

"She knows of you," Namitus said. "I don’t
think she ever knew what a threat you were to her, though."

Patrina barked out a bitter laugh. "Some
threat. You heard what he said."

Namitus frowned. "Yeah, I heard. He needed to
make sure we all got away so we could warn everyone. Especially
you, since you’d spent more time in this place with him than the
rest of us."

"I been here, too!" Garrick tossed back.

Namitus nodded. "Indeed you have; my
apologies. I’m Namitus, by the way."

"Garrick, of the Snowbear clan."

"Pleasure to meet you, Garrick. Now please
don’t step on me."

Garrick chuckled and then glanced ahead at
Mordrim. "He’s the one who needs to be worrying about getting my
boot on his head."

"You’re still an oaf!" Patrina spat at
him.

Garrick recoiled from her vitriol and looked
to Namitus for support. The rogue shrugged and shook his head just
enough to warn the northerner off.

"Hold up!" Karthor called them to a halt and
raised his holy symbol as high as the chain on his neck would
allow. The passage ended in a pile of rubble that looked like it
had fallen hundreds of years past.

"Thought you said this was a way out?"
Tristam growled as he stomped up to Mordrim.

"Didn’t think you weren’t going to be getting
a little dirty, did you?" the dwarf shot back at him. He turned
back to the cave-in and frowned.

"Dig this out and more will fall," Kar
warned.

"Bah, shut your mouth!" Mordrim snapped. He
glanced back at Kar and added, "And if you’re going to be growing a
beard, do it right or stop insulting the hair on your chin!"

Kar’s eyes widened and he reached up to touch
his beard that he kept trimmed short. Karthor and Garrick snickered
but Mordrim turned away and started tapping his knuckles against
the side of the passage on their right. After a moment, he cried
out and turned so he could place both his hands on it. He felt
around a bit and then, after muttering something in his language,
the wall suddenly fell away without a sound and swung back on
perfectly weighted hinges.

"Hurry yourselves up. Ain’t been a human down
here in ages, if ever. We be entering the secret halls of the
dwarves." Mordrim eyed each of them as they passed him. "And don’t
be touching nothing! Got no way of knowing what’s still trapped and
what’s not. Plus it don’t belong to your filthy hands."

"Don’t think it belongs to anybody anymore,"
Tristam said. He gestured with his hand to the halls ahead of them.
Dust and rubble covered the floor ahead of them as far as their
lights would show them. Scattered amongst the rubble, they could
see the remains of dwarves that had been dead so long even their
skeletons and armor were falling apart.