It was surely the stuff of 1950s sci-fi B movies, its clacking hard-shelled legs scampering to keep it balanced in the scalloped, curving walls of the tunnel - a tunnel that the giant crab easily filled. Great jagged-edged pincers swayed and snapped ominously.
Kelsey reacted first, slicing his sword in at the closest menacing claw. The weapon, fine though it was, bounced harmlessly aside and the monster claw came around more quickly than Kelsey had anticipated, opening wide enough to envelop the elf.
Geno saved him. The dwarf slammed into Kelsey, knocking the elf safely aside, then, unexpectedly, rushed straight ahead, into the grip of the snapping claw. The dwarf lifted his arms up high as he wedged in tightly, keeping his hammer-holding hands free to punish the crab even as it tried to crush him.
Gary and Mickey gasped in unison, but the tough dwarf understood his rock-hard makeup better than they. The gigantic crab claw squeezed relentlessly, but it hardly seemed to bother Geno, singing a song now and drumming his hammers against the monster's stubborn shell.
Kelsey, seeing that the dwarf was in no immediate peril, scrambled over the clawing arm to get in close to the crab's face. His fine sword swiped across at a stalk, and a crab eyeball dropped to the tunnel floor.
Any thoughts of quick and easy victory blew away, though, as the wounded monster went into a frenzy, whipping its engaged claw up behind the elf and knocking Kelsey across the way, into the reach of the other deadly appendage. Kelsey skittered down to the floor, rolled to his back, and slashed wildly with his sword, struggling to keep the second claw up above him. He tried to scramble out, but the press of the monstrous limb was too great, and the crab too quick.
"Now is the time for courage, young sprout,"came a call in Gary's head. Gary hardly needed the encouragement, and about the only thing in the communication that he took note of was the sentient spear's continuing reference to him as a "young sprout."
He took up his dwarven spear in both hands, leveling its iron tip before him, and as soon as he found the opening, let out a roar and charged straight ahead, between the deadly claws.
Many minutes passed with the giant crab holding tight to Tommy. Tommy fought against his building panic, forced himself to remain patient. He had popped the snorkel into his mouth soon after the crab had pulled him under, and though the instrument's seal wasn't tight without the extra goo around it, the giant found that he could breathe readily enough.
Tommy wasn't the most powerful of thinkers, but he was cunning enough in battle, having taken care of himself in the wild mountains since his childhood days. He knew now that he could not break the crab's hold, not with one of his arms so tightly pinned, but guessed that the creature would likely loosen its grip when it believed Tommy to be drowned.
Another crab, a much smaller one, pinched hard on Tommy's toe right through his heavy boot. The giant grimaced and sublimated the pain, knowing that to move now would only convince his captor that much more time was needed to finish the drowning. And Tommy was running short on patience. In the trapped and terrified giant's thoughts, the water was beginning to hug him nearly as tightly as the crab.
When the claw finally loosened around Tommy's arm, the giant exploded into action. He pulled his limb free, punched and kicked, and scrambled for the shore. He got free for just a second, but then the relentless crab's claw caught him again, by the ankle. Tommy grimaced and tugged. He lost his snorkel and had to fight, not only to get to the shore but to keep his head above the water.
He nearly turned the wrong way in the sudden confusion, thought for certain that the crab's wicked pincer would tear his foot right off, but somehow, he got within arm's reach of the outcropping of tree-like pillars along the shoreline. When the powerful giant clasped his hands around a tangible support, the crab had no chance of holding him back. The monster came right with Tommy out of the pool, snapping at the fleeing giant's legs every step of the way.
Tommy roared and turned about, grabbing one of the huge claws. Spinning around and around, he soon had the crab up in the air, and then he sent it soaring far out over the small pond. It hit the mountain wall with a resounding crack and splashed heavily into the crimson waters.
Far up above, Tommy heard shouts from the castle guards. He turned to run but found that his wounded ankle wound not support his weight. So the terrified giant hopped and crawled, pulled himself any way he could back to the safety of the distant crevice.
The spear tip, still a bit bent over from Gary's fight with the mountain troll, ricocheted off crab shell, but then hit a fleshy spot near the creature's mouth. Determinedly Gary drove on, throwing all his weight behind the weapon. He smiled grimly as the head of the spear disappeared into the monster's flesh.
Crab claws flew about wildly - one holding Geno and slamming the dwarf off the ceiling, wall, and floor. The creature bucked and thrashed, kicking all of its legs, spinning a complete circle in the corridor, even trying to roll back over itself. The claw waving over Kelsey retreated, focusing on Gary, the more immediate danger. He felt its pinch about his waist, but told himself to hold onto the spear and trust in his armor and in his companions. Gary knew that he had committed himself to the charge; there could be no retreat.
Flecks of shell flew about the corridor as the relentless dwarf continued to batter the claw that was squeezing him. Chunks of flesh followed and soon the claw's iron grip relaxed.
Kelsey came up in an instant, knowing that Gary had helped him, literally, out of a tight pinch, and knowing, too, that now Gary was the one needing the help. The elf thought nothing of his prized quest as he leaped in to fight right beside the human, thought only of aiding a companion, of aiding this man who, unbelievably, had somehow become Kelsey's friend.
His first target was the crab's remaining eye, and in the flash of an elf's magical sword, it, too, bounced to the floor.
The remaining claw let go of Gary's waist immediately, but the crab's thrashing only intensified. Gary's helmet rolled about on his shoulders, blinding him as completely as the eyeless crab; his elbow slammed hard into a wall, sending waves of pain through him, followed by a tingling numbness.
He held on. For all his life, Gary Leger held on.
He was on the floor, a great weight atop him. Something battered the side of his head, but his spear slipped deeper into the monster, and still he held on.
Then it was over, suddenly. Gary couldn't see, didn't know how badly he was injured, but he heard Kelsey and Geno congratulating each other and felt the weight lessening as his friends worked to pull the giant crab off of him.
After what seemed like many minutes, Geno hoisted Gary to his feet and Kelsey straightened his helmet. Gary blinked in disbelief at the toppled monster, and managed a weak smile when he heard Geno smacking his lips and describing a hundred different ways to cook the thing.
"Suren the three of ye have come to fight well together," Mickey said from back down the corridor.
Gary's smile disappeared.
He spun towards the leprechaun, his green eyes narrowed. "And where were you?" he demanded. "That's twice now, two fights in which Mickey McMickey played no part and didn't even try to play a part!"
For the first time since he had met the leprechaun, Gary believed that his anger truly wounded Mickey.
"Tommy almost died against the Crahg wolves," Gary fumed on, holding to his ire. "And you would have let him die - as long as you could keep your hiding spot behind his head!"
"Crahg wolves pay no heed to illusions," the leprechaun explained meekly.
"Be easy, friend," Kelsey said to Gary, putting a calming hand on the young man's shoulder. The elf's words and the gesture struck Gary profoundly, an action he would never have expected from grim and aloof Kelsey.
"And what can I do against the likes of a crab?" Mickey asked, gaining strength from Kelsey's intervention. "Just an animal, and a stupid one at that! I've no weapons..."
"Enough!" Kelsey commanded, ending the pointless debate. "We are alive, and we have come far, but our greatest trial yet awaits us."
"Do you think we could stop and have a bit of supper before running off to face that trial?" Geno asked hopefully, smacking his lips again and staring at an exposed area of juicy crab meat.
Kelsey smiled - another action that struck Gary as curious, given their situation and their impending meeting with Robert - and started making his way over the fallen crab to the tunnel beyond. After he had passed the tangle of legs, he motioned for Geno and the others to follow.
"The meat will stay good for a few hours," the dwarf mumbled as he passed beside Gary. "So let us get to Robert and get our business finished quickly."
Mickey strolled by as Gary worked to free his spear. The leprechaun did not even look Gary's way, and Gary, though he now realized his previous ranting about Mickey's contributions to be ridiculous, couldn't find the words for an apology.
The scalloped tunnel wound in and up the mountain, climbing gradually mostly, but so steeply at some points that even Kelsey had a difficult time in climbing. The passage forked only once, and Kelsey led them to the left, deeper into the mountain. Fortunately for the companions, they met no more monsters and no guards, and a short while later they came to a small and square opening, covered by an iron grate.
Kelsey looked out to a flat gravel bed, lined by sheer walls fifteen feet high.
"Dry moat," the elf whispered.
"I can get the grate out," Geno remarked, but Kelsey stopped him as he reached for his hammer.
"Guards outside, no doubt," the elf remarked softly. They waited in the quiet and soon heard the scrape of many marching soldiers on the wall above them.
Geno shrugged and put his tool away.
"We will go back the other way," Kelsey instructed in a whisper, and he swung the group around and headed back for the fork.
When they came to the end of the other passage, they were not so certain that they were any better off. This exit had no iron grate covering, but it came out on the exposed side of the treacherous cliff, still more than twenty feet below the base of the castle wall and several hundred feet from the ground. Kelsey sighed as he looked down, way down, to the tops of tall trees.
"Back to the grate?" Geno asked him when he came back in, the dwarf's gravelly voice diminished by the wind's howl as it entered the tunnel.
Kelsey leaned out again, looking for some path up to the castle walls.
"This way is the better," the elf decided. He unbelted his sword and handed it to Gary, then removed his pack.
Gary leaned out to regard the cliff. Agile Kelsey might make it, he decided, but he wasn't so certain about himself, wasn't so certain that he would even willingly follow. He had never been afraid of heights, but this was insane, with sheer walls and a strong wind and the tops of trees waiting like feathered spikes down below.
Kelsey never hesitated. Sometimes holding on by no more than two fingers, the strong and agile elf picked his careful way up the mountain cliff. The difficulty only increased when Kelsey made the base of the wall, for the castle stones were tightly fitted and wind-beaten smooth. Still, the wall was not that high - no more than fifteen or twenty feet - and Kelsey only needed two well-spaced handholds to get his fingers on top of the parapet.
He heard a commotion, the rasping voices of several guards, not too far to the side just as he was about to pull himself up over the wall. He waited a moment to ensure that he was not the cause of that commotion, then gingerly peeked over the wall.
A group of three guards, scaly humanoids as much lizard as human (Kelsey knew them to be lava newts), huddled together along the wall a short distance from Kelsey. They apparently had no idea that there was an elf nearby, for they continued to peer down to the region of the crimson-colored pond.
Kelsey held his place and held his breath.
The lava newts' excitement soon ebbed, and two of them wandered away, back to their distant posts, while the third began a slow, meandering course back towards where Kelsey was hiding.
Kelsey had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He produced a slender dagger from his boot and put it between his teeth, then hung low, just his fingers on the wall.
The barely alert creature passed right by the hanging elf, taking no notice whatsoever. In the blink of an eye Kelsey came up behind it, slapping one hand around its snout and driving his dagger into its throat. The creature, much stronger than Kelsey, struggled back powerfully, bending forward to lift the elf's feet right from the ground and nearly breaking free of Kelsey's stubborn grasp.
Kelsey's dagger ripped in again and again, and finally the creature slumped heavily in Kelsey's arms. The elf glanced around nervously, praying that no other guards had seen.
The night was dark, though, and all the castle remained quiet.
Kelsey carefully rolled the heavy creature onto and then over the wall, letting it drop, to be swallowed up by the darkness and the mournful wind. The elf quickly secured a rope on the parapet above the cave exit, dropping one end down to his waiting companions, then took up a defensive position, hiding tight against the wall, but with his stained dagger drawn and ready.
Gary looked doubtfully at the dangling rope, and even more doubtfully at the deep drop below. This should be easy, he argued against all his instincts. He had seen dozens of adventure movies where the hero simply leaped out onto a rope and scaled hand over hand up impossible distances.
This wasn't easy.
In fact, Gary decided, as he leaned out and gingerly took the rope in his hands, this was damned impossible. He fell back into the tunnel, shaking his head helplessly.
"Ye have to go, lad," Mickey said to him. "Kelsey cannot wait for long."
Again, Gary shook his head.
"Get out of my way!" Geno fumed, roughly shoving Gary aside. The dwarf scrambled out to the edge of the tunnel, and, without the slightest hesitation or any look below, hopped out to the rope and began pumping arm over arm, powerfully and methodically, just like one of those adventure-movie heroes.
"Ye see?" Mickey coaxed. "It is not so hard a thing."
"I can't do it," Gary replied. "Especially not in this armor!"
Mickey saw the excuse for what it was. "Ye've gotten used to the fit," the leprechaun reasoned. "And it's not so heavy now, is it?
"Ah, go on, lad," Mickey continued. "Ye cannot fall with me below ye. Ye remember the rocks in Dvergamal? I catched them good, and held them up in the air. Ye think I'd let ye fall?" Mickey held a pointed finger up before him and motioned for Gary to go on.
Gary considered the words for a long moment, then moved again to the tunnel exit, taking the rocking rope in his hands. He couldn't see the top of the castle wall from this distance, but suddenly the rope stopped bobbing and Gary knew that Geno had already made it up.
"I've got to start eating rocks," Gary muttered dryly, and he checked once to make sure that both his spears were secure on his belt, then hoisted himself out onto the rope.
His arms ached every foot of the way; only the knowledge that Mickey was below him, ready to levitate him should he fall, gave Gary Leger the courage to continue.
He heard a sharp hiss from above, followed by a crunch that he knew instinctively to be the result of a dwarf-wielded hammer. Sure enough, just a moment later, another lizard-skinned humanoid form came tumbling over the wall.
"Quickly!" came Kelsey's hushed call from above. Gary tried to respond, but his already weary arms simply did not answer his mental call to pick up the pace. Finally, after what seemed like many minutes, Gary put his first hand onto the parapet. Geno grabbed it up in an instant and hauled the tired man over.
"I wish Mickey could have given me more of a magical push," Gary rasped. "With the leprechaun's magic, I don't even know why we needed that stupid rope anyway."
"The leprechaun's telekinetic powers are limited with regard to living beings," Kelsey replied. "Mickey can lift a rock easily enough, but would have a difficult time in levitating even a frog."
"What's that now?" Mickey asked, umbrella in hand as he floated easily over the wall.
Gary considered the deep drop one more time, then shot the leprechaun a dangerous glare.
Mickey shrugged innocently. "Call it a lie, lad," he said. "But it worked, now didn't it?"
They had crossed the castle's outer wall, but that signaled only the first obstacle in the two-tiered structure. Just a few feet down from the companions lay an open courtyard, encircling a higher cluster of stone buildings. The castle had been built around the natural formations of the mountain, and in many places, bricked walls blended harmoniously with natural jutting stone.
Fortunately the courtyard was not overly busy. The main bustle seemed to be to the companions' right, down a road that went beyond a portcullis out of the castle proper, and through many buildings tightly packed together.
"The side gate," Kelsey explained in a whisper. "Leading to the barracks. And up there" - he gazed at the walls of the structures looming above them - "is where we will find Robert."
Gary didn't like the prospects - even forgetting that a dragon waited at the end of their road. There were but two ways up from this level as far as they could see: a steep stair around the left-hand side of the massive structure directly before them, and a sloping cobblestone path circling up around the same building's right side that forked from the main road, which led out of the castle's side gate.
"The stairs?" Mickey asked softly.
Kelsey nodded. "The gates up the road will likely be closed - and guarded in any event." Kelsey motioned for them to wait, then took his sword from Gary and slipped across the courtyard to the base of the stairway. He didn't go up immediately; rather, he moved along the wall running down the left-hand side of the stair, around the base of the structure and out of sight of his companions.
The elf reappeared almost immediately, waving frantically for the others to run and join him, and Gary knew that trouble was brewing.
Sure enough, several sword-wielding lava newt soldiers intercepted them before they reached the stairs.
At the sight of Geno, leading Gary and Mickey, the monsters howled wildly (like so many of the races of Faerie, good and bad, lava newts hated dwarfs), and charged ahead, taking no note of Kelsey, lying in wait behind the solid handrail a few steps up the stairs behind them.
Three flying hammers preceded the dwarfs answering charge, dropping two of the seven newts. A third tumbled heavily at the end of Gary's hurled spear.
"Didst thou throw it?"the sentient weapon on Gary's belt screamed incredulously in Gary's head.
Confident of his actions, Gary didn't bother to answer. He was certain that Kelsey and Geno would make short work of the remaining four, and knew that even if he still held his weapon, he probably would never get close enough to an enemy to use it.
As he figured, Kelsey leaped down into the midst of the remaining group of monsters, his brilliant sword glowing fiercely as it flashed every which way. Geno barreled into the throng a moment later from in front of the group, and in mere seconds of whipping hammers and a slashing sword, all the guard lay dead.
Gary went for his spear but never got there. Around the side of the stair came a host of soldiers, and the blare of horns went up all around the trapped companions.
Gary felt a strong hand - he knew it to be Geno's - grab him by the arm and tug him along. "My spear...," he started to protest, but stopped almost immediately when he heard Kelsey, up ahead on the slightly curving stair, engaged in battle once again. Geno released Gary and charged up to join the elf, and Gary reluctantly reached for his belt and took out the tipped half of Cedric's magical weapon. Unbalanced and unwieldy, Gary could only hope that he could find some way to utilize it in battle.
"Fear not, young sprout,"came a comforting thought."Thou is not alone.
Kelsey slashed and fought savagely to gain each subsequent step, but a line of lava newts packed above him, blocking his progress every step of the way. At the back of the party, Geno faced similar unfavorable odds.
Gary trusted in his two warrior companions, and facing the newts one or two at a time on the narrow stair certainly made the situation less catastrophic. But the lines of newt soldiers were long indeed, and were only going to get longer, Gary knew.
Another lizard-like form went over the outside wall of the stair, at the end of Kelsey's sword.
Gary blinked once, even moved to rub his eyes, when he looked back to Kelsey, for he saw not an elf, but a great mountain troll in the place where Kelsey had been. The lava newts up above apparently noticed the change as well, for no longer did they press the attack. Indeed, many of them turned about and fled back up the stairs; others even scrambled over the low wall of the handrail and dropped the fifteen to twenty feet to the outer courtyard.
Guessing the source of the apparent transformation, Gary turned to regard Mickey, standing at his side.
"I do what I can," the leprechaun remarked smugly, reminding Gary once more of how ridiculous his earlier remarks concerning Mickey's value had been.
They made great progress then, the illusionary troll Kelsey leading the charge all the way up to the upper courtyard. This area was more squared than the lower bailey, with a cobble-stoned base laid flat around many lumpy natural stone breaks, and lined by several buildings, some tall and towering, others low and long.
Still, the newts retreated from the troll figure, but many more poured out into the courtyard, threatening to surround the small band.
Kelsey gazed diagonally across the courtyard, to a distant door at the far end of a low-roofed but obviously sturdy structure. If the elf meant to go there, though, he quickly changed his mind as dozens of lava newts rushed out that very door. For lack of a better choice, Kelsey led his companions to his left instead, to the tallest structure. He burst through a door, neatly slicing the throat of the surprised newt standing just inside, and rambled up a narrow spiral stair.
Hearing the continuing battle behind him, Gary was glad that Geno had taken up the rear. The walls of the stair pressed in tightly against Gary's broad shoulders and he did not believe that he could manage to fight in here at all.
Geno, too, was tightly pressed, but the dwarf, with his chopping hammers, did not need much room to maneuver. One newt lunged in boldly, lizard maw snapping, and Geno promptly crushed its skull. Other monsters came on bravely, though, clambering right over their dead companion.
The room at the top of the stairs would have proven disastrous for the companions if the newts up there had been better prepared. Apparently oblivious to what had transpired outside, the undisciplined rabble hadn't even taken the effort to arm themselves.
Kelsey came in first, appearing as an elf again (Mickey's troll illusion wouldn't have been very convincing, given that a troll wouldn't even have fit in this low room!), hacking and slashing at the wildly rushing monsters. He nicked one but didn't bring it down, as it made its way for a magnificently ornamented dagger hanging on the far wall. A single glance revealed to Gary the magic of that ancient, gem-encrusted weapon and he knew that he must not allow the newt to retrieve it. He leaped forward past Kelsey, shoulder-blocked one newt aside, and closed on the one reaching for the dagger.
The evil soldier grasped the weapon and swung about, but Gary got his strike in first as it blindly turned, catching the newt on the shoulder.
It was not a deep wound, nor did the spear hit a vital area, and Gary threw up his arm and ducked aside, expecting a retaliation. The lava newt did not swing or throw the ornamental dagger, though, did not make any move at all, save to open its toothy maw in a silent scream.
"Taste of blood!"came an emphatic thought in Gary's head. He felt the power thrumming through Cedric's spear, a power long dormant. Horrified, Gary tried to pull the spear out, but the barbed weapon resisted, holding stubbornly to its enemy's wound. When Gary finally did extract the tip, he felt compelled beyond his control to thrust it right back into the dying newt, this time blasting the creature through the heart.
Telepathic waves of intense satisfaction rolled through Gary's mind and body. Gary couldn't stop and consider them, though, for Kelsey came to him, prodding him towards the small room's other door.
Gary managed to reach out and pluck the dagger from the fallen newt before Kelsey had pulled him too far, and Kelsey, intent on escape, did not even notice the ancient weapon. Hardly giving the dagger a further thought, Gary slid it under the folds of his wide belt.
Then they were out of the room, going down a staircase quite similar to the one that had taken them up the tower. A hallway ran off its side at the ground level and the companions heard lava newts stirring down there. Kelsey took the group right by the corridor, and moving through a door, they came back into the courtyard of the upper bailey just a short distance from the door that had first brought them into the tower.
That short distance gave the companions all the opening they needed to get across the way, for the pursuing newts were still stupidly gathered at the other door.
Mickey scrambled up to perch on Gary's shoulder. Gary started to protest, fearing that he would soon be fighting once again, but then he realized that the leprechaun needed the position to work some more of his magic. Soon Gary, Kelsey, and Geno all appeared as mountain trolls, their footsteps even sounding like the thunder of a troll charge. The newts scrambled furiously to keep out of their way as Kelsey led the charge across the courtyard towards the desired door in the low-roofed and sturdy structure.
Again the elf burst right through, sending two not-so-surprised lava newts fleeing down a small and dark passage directly ahead. Kelsey didn't pursue them. A few steps inside the building, beyond a hanging tapestry, he turned a corner and came into a huge and ornate hall.
Just a few lava newts stood in the hall, and these made no move to intercept the companions. They remained at their posts, spaced in regular intervals along the decorated walls. And those newts outside that had found the courage to pursue the group did not even enter the low-roofed building. Gary had the uncomfortable feeling that this had all been arranged, that he and his friends had been purposely herded to this very chamber.
Hammers ready for more play, Geno started for the closest newt, but Kelsey held him back. To the dwarf's - and to Gary's - amazement, the elf then sheathed his sword and nodded to Mickey.
The troll illusion disappeared. The group was just an elf, a dwarf, a man, and a leprechaun once more.
As if on cue, a huge man, red-haired and red-bearded, with thick and corded muscles, stepped out from behind a suit of plated armor at the far end of the hall. Even from this distance, Gary could tell that the man stood at least a foot taller than he, and a hundred pounds heavier.
"Kelsenellenelvial, how good of you to finally arrive," the red-haired man cried out in a bellowing voice that reverberated off of every wall.
Kelsey's return greeting confirmed what Gary somehow suspected, what Gary feared, though he couldn't sort out the obvious discrepancy in this strange man's appearance.
"My greetings, Robert."
