The Sword of Retribution

The Wyrmhole - Part 5

     When the cthillian returned it was carrying Jerry, and Matthew was floating down beside them with the aid of Lirenna’s Autumnleaf ring. They dropped to the ground silently, so that Thomas and Lirenna were at first unaware of their arrival, and the tiny nome grinned to himself at the sight his infravision gave him, of the other two wizards wrapped in each others' arms, kissing passionately. “Oi!” he said out loud, nearly bursting into laughter as the two almost jumped out of their skins. “None of that!”

     “What’s going on?” asked Matthew as the slaver took the ring again and went back for Angus and Diana. “Nothing improper, I hope.”

     “Just passing the time,” said Lirenna, struggling to compose herself and regain her half shayen dignity. “Not that it’s any of your business. Has it been two hours already? We shae folk are usually good at judging the passage of time.”

     “Well, you were distracted,” said Jerry, still grinning, and then ducked to avoid the stone she threw at him.

     “Why is it so dark?” asked Matthew nervously. “I can’t see a thing! Where are you?”

     “Don’t move!” called out Thomas urgently. “There’s a huge great hole around here somewhere where the wyrmhole continues on down.”

     “It’s all right,” replied Lirenna. “It’s over there a way, Charlie made sure to drop us well to one side of it.”

     Jerry led Matthew over to Thomas and Lirenna, and the two men kept a firm grip on each other in the darkness while the two demihumans looked around at their surroundings. The surface was dry soil in which the dry, sticklike forms of dead shrubs were dotted intermittently, along with the occasional treestump. Some of them had the shriveled forms of dead fungi and toadstools clustered on them, and a few feet away were the desiccated remains of some large animal, about the size of a horse, its leathery hide torn to shreds and its bones scattered around by scavengers.

     “Weird,” said the tiny nome. “Looks as though there was light here once and it failed, so that all the plants died.”

     “Yes,” agreed Lirenna. “The fungi were able to survive for a while, feeding on all the deadwood and stuff, but in the end all their food ran out as well. The animals were the last to die. They were able to survive for a while by eating the toadstools.”

     “Is all the Underworld like this, do you think?”

     “No, Charlie said that most of it is still lit. It’s only here that it’s failed.”

     “I wonder what happened.”

     “He said he’d tell us when he gets back. We’ll just have to wait. Get out your klann board.”

     “I prefer the other way of passing the time,” said Jerry wickedly.

     “How would you like to have your spellbook stuffed down your throat?”

     Jerry laughed. “I’ll get my klann board,” he said.

     When the slaver returned with Angus and Diana, Jerry had won the first game, and when it got back with Shaun and Douglas he was ahead by three games to nil. Thomas was immensely relieved when Shaun arrived with the red glowbottle, which seemed to blaze as never before after eight hours in total darkness, and he stared in amazement at the dead landscape as the soldier handed the magic ring back to the demi shae.

     “All this levitating has exhausted me,” said the cthillian, seeming to sag where it stood, its proboscis hanging listlessly. “We will make camp here, get some sleep, and continue on in a few hours time.” It then walked away without another word, disappearing into the darkness.