33 – Scarag Heights

  Andy set his and Lucy’s packs at the top of the stairs, leaned his spear against them, and then sat down in one of the empty camp chairs someone had left behind. The settlement was waking up, and a steady stream of people were making their way down toward the waterfall to take care of their morning business. Someone—probably Bernice—had taped a sign on the wall down near the final bend, indicating the start of a queue; not everyone was comfortable using a five-gallon bucket in front of others.

  He chuckled at the thought. Nobody had been around when he went down to the waterfall, and he’d just peed off into the water; the wind was still blowing, but not into the tunnel. The storm was something else—pitch dark despite the morning hour, and rain that fell in sheets like the heaviest of monsoons.

  He figured he had a few minutes before Lucy got done down there, and he’d yet to see Bella or the others. To pass the time, he opened his status sheet; with three improvement points left to spend, he thought he’d take a look at his list of bound Brimstone Stalker spells:

  *Balefire Lance – Bound: 4

  *Unseen Stalker – Bound: 3

  *Ember Vision – Bound: 4

  *Smoke Cloud – Bound: 3

  *Brimstone Breath – Bound: 3

  *Smoke Drift – Bound: 1

  When he’d been alone down in the long waterfall tunnel, he’d tried out Smoke Drift. In essence, it reminded him a lot of his old Twilight Steps spell. It seemed to nearly double his normal pace, even when he sprinted, which was damn fast. Moreover, when he’d passed through the high-ceilinged stairwell room, he’d jumped and found that not only could he leap significantly higher in the air, but he fell a good deal slower. He could imagine that the spell might be useful for jumping off something as much as trying to jump up onto things.

  All of that considered, he didn’t know if the spell was worth one of his last three Improvement Points. The ability that drew his eye the most was Unseen Stalker. He and his friends were about to go into unknown territory, facing unknown—but elite—threats. It seemed to him that his ability to sneak around was likely going to be very important.

  Though it pained him to see his pool of points drawn down so low, Andy put another one into the spell.

  ***Your spell, Unseen Stalker, has evolved to become Cloak of Shifting Smoke!

  Cloak of Shifting Smoke – Bound: You merge the essences of smoke and air into a deeper shroud. Your form wavers, your footsteps fade, and even your scent dissolves into the haze. While active, light scatters and sound dulls around you, masking you from most natural senses. Sudden movement or contact will break the effect. Mana Cost: 25 per minute.***

  Andy hadn’t realized he’d held his breath until he blew it out with relief. His anxiety over the spell morphing into something unusable seemed silly in retrospect; it wouldn’t really make much sense for the System to work that way. He was just trying to decide if he ought to improve another spell or save his final two points when Bea walked up wearing her usual army-green canvas coat, but also sporting a well-worn camping pack.

  “All set?” she asked.

  “Yep,” Andy replied, closing his status screen, more than happy to put off the decision for another time. “Lucy will be here soon.”

  “I saw Bella and Omar in the breakfast line. They said they’d hurry over when they got their food.” She cleared her throat and stepped a little closer. “Between us, Jace is pretty upset about not being able to come.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yep, I was checking on him this morning, giving him another dose of my strongest water, and he tried to insist he could come. The System gave him the quest update—to go into the dungeon. He’s not ready, though, and when I told him so, he got pretty upset.”

  Andy stood up, hefting his backpack onto one shoulder. “I’m surprised that with magic and all—”

  “A body can only tolerate so much healing magic in a given time. He was in bad shape, Andy; his bones are still mending in that leg. Worse than the bones, though, are the shredded tendons. My water is slowly helping them to regenerate, but it’s a lot different from just knitting cut flesh like I did for you.”

  Andy pressed a hand to his stomach; the muscles were still tender, and he hadn’t had any sort of appetite that morning, which made him think things still weren’t back to normal inside him. “Yeah, I can imagine, I guess.” He shrugged. “I’ll talk to him when we get back.”

  “Thank you. Speaking of talking to people,”—Bea gestured toward the tunnel mouth where Bella and Omar were emerging—“you’re going to get a kick out of our girl, there.”

  “Yeah?”

  Andy watched the two approach, noting that, like him, they wore some James-crafted plastic armor. That morning, Andy had found everyone and handed out the weapons he’d enchanted the night before, and he could see the glimmer of the magic on Omar’s spearhead. Bella’s sword was on her belt, wrapped in a makeshift canvas sheath. He didn’t imagine that would last very long, but it probably prevented her from accidentally cutting herself. A backpack sat on her shoulders, but she also still had Omar’s satchel. “Wait a minute—”

  “Okay, before anyone says anything,” Bella said, hands on her hips, “yes, I have Chani with me, but that’s because the System gave me a new class last night.”

  Andy tilted his head. “Chani?”

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  “My baby rat. I named her after Chani from Dune because she’s calm and tough, and the Fremen are fierce and resilient.”

  Andy couldn’t help but laugh softly as he shook his head. “I just don’t know if a baby rat inside an elite dungeon is a great idea.”

  Bella made a hmph sound. “Well, she’s my problem, so don’t worry yourself.”

  “What class?” Omar asked.

  “Oh, my new one? Bonded Warrior. I got to keep all my fighter stuff, but I’m level one again.”

  “Did you get anything? Skills or spells, I mean?” Andy asked.

  “Only one—Sense Companion.” Bella shrugged. “I can get a feel for where she is and her mood.” She looked past Andy and called out, “Hey, Lucy! Come and help me out—Andy’s picking on me.”

  Andy groaned. “I’m not picking on you.” He turned to watch Lucy approach and smiled when she met his gaze. “She’s just messing—”

  “He wants me to abandon my child.” Bella stepped past him, her fuzzy white rodent the size of a football in her hands.

  “Didn’t she tell you she got a new class?” Lucy asked.

  “You knew?”

  Lucy nodded, gently tickling the rat under the chin. “When you were talking to Eduardo this morning, I went over to check on the little squeaker.”

  “Anyway,” Andy said with a sigh, picking up his spear. “We’re all here. Ready?”

  “Ready,” Bea replied, thumping her softly glowing staff on the stone by her feet. “Thanks to your enchantments.”

  Bella turned to smile at him, holding Chani up under her chin. “I’m just teasing, Andy, and we’re ready.”

  Lucy nodded. “All set.”

  Omar was already on the stairs. “Let’s get in there.”

  On the way down to the dungeon, they passed two bored-looking guards—Tucker and one of Lydia’s people—who were keeping a lookout on each landing. They weren’t the only guards Omar had set up; five more awaited in the tunnel opening onto the waterlogged cavern with the portal.

  “Anything?” Andy asked as they approached.

  “Not a thing,” Hector replied. Apparently, the rugged man had gotten some rest and then gotten right back into the guard rotation.

  “Welp,” Andy said, gesturing to the shimmering green portal hanging near the center of the cavern, “hopefully we’ll be back soon.” He stepped past the rest of the guards and, watching his footing carefully, started through the shallow water toward the dungeon entrance. “Wish I had some good boots,” he said, turning to look at his companions’ feet. Only Bea had boots on—the rest wore sneakers like him.

  “Something to go shopping for when the storm’s over, I guess,” Bella replied.

  When they stood before the portal, a thought occurred to Andy, and he asked, “You think there’s any chance it will separate us?”

  “On entry?” Omar asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I hope not,” Lucy said, shifting closer to the rest of them.

  Andy took a minute to button up his armored coat, then he cast his Cloak of Shifting Smoke spell. Omar whistled, and Bella stepped to the side to see him better as the warm mana in his chest spread out through his body, seeming to pass through his skin as wisps of smoke that curled around him, forming a cocoon of sorts that shimmered, bending the light Bea’s staff was emitting.

  “Is that spell different? I don’t remember it looking quite like that,” Lucy asked, her voice hushed.

  “I upgraded it.”

  “Your voice sounds far away,” Omar observed.

  “Can you guys see me?”

  “Yeah, but not really,” Bella replied. “It’s more like there’s a haze in the air where you’re standing.”

  Andy smiled, pleased with his upgrade. “Give me like a few seconds head-start, then follow me through, I guess.”

  “Well, like I said, I can barely see you, and I’m looking right at you, so maybe say when you’re going through,” Bella replied.

  “Heh, all right. Going through in three…two…one.” Andy stepped through the shimmering green window into nowhere.

  The first thing he realized was that it wasn’t a window into nowhere. His foot touched solid ground, and when his face passed through the tingling, almost itchy plane of the portal, he immediately saw hazy blue skies overtop a warren of gray, stone buildings. In the distance, he saw a high stone wall, and beyond it, the slope of a rocky, barren mountainside. He quickly shifted his attention to his immediate surroundings, leveling his spear and scanning the…rooftop?

  Sure enough, it seemed the portal was on top of one of those gray stone buildings, and up close, he could see it was constructed of large, irregularly shaped stone blocks and mortar. A warped-looking, closed wooden door seemed to be the only exit from the roof, so Andy approached it, spear ready, watching while he waited for the others.

  As he stood there, heart pounding, palms sweaty on his spear, he slowly looked left to right, his mind still struggling to grasp the situation. Had he really just teleported into a “pocket dimension”? The air was dry, but he could smell the unmistakable musty, ammonia tang of rodent nests. Licking his dry lips, he scanned the thatched rooftops nearby, but he didn’t see any movement. The portal crackled, and he turned to see Bella and then Omar come through. A second later, Bea and Lucy appeared.

  Andy cleared his throat and whispered, “Over here.”

  “So this is Scarag Heights. What a trip!” Bella hissed, stalking toward the door, crouched low as her dark eyes scanned the rooftop.

  “That’s an understatement,” Bea said, but Omar shushed her.

  “Remember, there’s a horde in this town,” he whispered.

  Bea nodded, her eyes shifting toward the nearby stone parapet. “Did anyone look down?” she whispered.

  Andy stepped toward them, his steps muffled by his smoke, despite the loose gravel scattered over the stone roof. “I was watching that door,” he whispered, “but let me look over.” Nobody argued, so he approached the edge of the roof. Ever so carefully, he inched his head over the parapet and peered down at the cobbled streets.

  The first thing he noticed was how narrow the street was—he doubted a single car would be able to drive on it. At first, he didn’t think he saw anything to worry about, but then, as he stared to the left, he saw movement through a window across the way. Narrowing his eyes, he cast Ember Vision, and suddenly the dark windows in the buildings across the way brightened. Within, he saw dozens of large, fur-covered shapes milling about.

  Andy returned to the others near the portal and whispered, “The buildings are loaded with rats, but the streets look quiet—at least nearby.”

  “What’s the plan?” Lucy asked.

  Andy looked from her to the others, and when no one else spoke, he said, “I guess we’ll sneak as far as we can, and fight when they find us. Hopefully, the whole town won’t get alerted—”

  His words were cut short by roars, screams, and squeals echoing distantly over the rooftops. When it didn’t subside right away, Andy hurried over to the roof’s edge again, staring toward the source of the commotion. He saw figures moving on the street far away—perhaps half a mile—but up close, none of the rats were leaving the buildings.

  “What is it?” Bella whispered, having crept up right behind him.

  “I don’t know. They’re fighting or something.”

  Bea lightly drummed her fingers on her staff. “I think that’s good for us. If they don’t all chase toward the sounds of combat, we might be able to survive being spotted.”

  “But where do we go?” Omar asked.

  Andy slowly turned in a circle, peering over the rooftops as far as he could in every direction. When he looked in the direction opposite the mountain, he saw what he’d hoped to find: a square stone keep lay in that direction, built up against the high wall that surrounded the town. He pointed with his spear. “I think we need to get there. That’s where we’ll find the Baron of Corruption.”