***
Ivo squinted as he studied the red rock landscape and steep path. He pushed himself into a wary run. Beside him, Jaeger growled, panting and snarling like a predator nearing a kill. The narrow path swung left around a hairpin turn. Both Ivo and Jaeger shouted, dug their boots into the ground, and skidded to a dusty halt. Jadeth slid to a graceful stop beside Jaeger. Ominous thunder rumbled from above as the clouds rolled and swirled with the evil shadows in an inky fury.
“What is it?” She gasped as she let her hammer drop to her shoulder. Emaranthe walked up past the three, blinking as dust and rock rained down the cliff walls. The turbulent wind whipped and dragged her pale braids from her shoulders.
“The mines,” Emaranthe turned and fell in beside Ivo, her eyes oddly neutral in the graying purple light.
“Um. Earthlanders go inside those?” Jadeth frowned. Elfkind didn’t do well in dark holes, preferring the jungle-covered mountains and trees of their homeland in the warm and tropical central valleys of Ein-Aral. Dread pulled on her. She swallowed and glanced between Ivo and Jaeger for reassurance.
Neither man’s face offered any.
Ivo frowned at the pitch-black rectangular hole into the cliff, his dark brows drawn and lined. Jaeger’s face was grim, but resolute. If it came to a battle in the mines, there would be little room to maneuver, and both men knew how perilous that could be.
Thunder shook the ground and echoed off the cliff walls. Four pairs of eyes snapped up as far above them on the pinnacle of the plateau the Dro-Aconi, the living shadows of death, their world’s oldest enemy, swirled and stormed.
“We have no choice,” Emaranthe called out over the ghastly screeches and moans emanating from the shadows high above. “If we are to get up there. This is the only path.”
Ivo dropped his gaze with a grimace.
“Yes. Let’s finish this,” his hand clenched around the shaft of his sword until the leather in his gauntlets creaked. “Be warned, fighting in a mineshaft is deadly business.”
“Be wary.” Jaeger shifted his feet, ready to spring.
“Can we have light in there?” Jadeth licked her dry, cracked lips. “What if there are bottomless pits?”
Emaranthe caught and held Jadeth’s gaze. She nodded and lifted her small gloved hand, palm up. A small, luminescent flame ignited. It flickered and twisted in the stiff wind. She cupped her fingers, shielding it, and its soft light steadied and brightened. All watched the small flame with a sense of dread and hope.
“Ready? Emaranthe, follow behind me, then Jadeth, then Jaeger, you can be rearguard.” Ivo said. He turned and vanished into the darkness.
Emaranthe followed, holding the tiny lamp aloft. Jadeth hesitated a half second. Her innate fear of dark holes dragged her usually-lithe feet and spirit to a standstill. With a soft snarl she dove after Emaranthe and the guiding light she held.
Jaeger followed on her heels, his gaze wary and watchful in the dim light. Both hands gripped the shaft of the great axe as he ran lightly behind the other three. For long, tense moments the only sounds were their ragged breathing and the swift and sure steps of their feet echoing in the dark.
The mineshaft was narrow and only so often was shored up by fire-blackened timber bracing. Often Ivo and Jaeger both ducked as the roof itself abruptly lowered. Emaranthe paced behind Ivo easily despite her smaller stride, and her arm did not tire from holding the flame aloft. It cast a puddle of gold about their feet and the fast-moving shadows of their legs and arms marched beside them along the walls and ceiling.
The shaft dove steeply down for many yards before angling up again and veering sharply to the left. Every so often another shaft would drift off to the side and the four would hesitate in caution before resuming their steady run. At one such offshoot, Emaranthe halted with a gasp as her flickering lamplight fell on its walls.
“Wait!” She lifted her arm higher, dragging both the golden glow and their shadows along the cold stone walls. The side shaft was empty and silent, but still she stared into the blackness beyond. “There’s something here.”
Jaeger frowned suspiciously into the dark, “What?”
Ivo stared into the deep side shaft, his eyes narrowed, and searched for an unseen foe, “What is it, Emaranthe?”
“This.” Emaranthe stepped into the side shaft and lifted her arm high above her head, as close to the stone ceiling as possible for her diminutive frame. The flame in her hand flickered and twisted in an unfelt draft and as they watched an iridescent red glow bloomed within the rock above the flame.
The red glow glittered and spread, spiraling and streaking along the ceiling and down the walls. The veins of red continued to multiply until they raced down the dark tunnels, leaving a nearly fully lit tunnel in its wake.
“Wow, that’s something I’ve never seen before,” Jadeth gasped. She watched the mesmerizing dance of red trail down the mineshaft until it vanished into its depths elsewhere. Bathed in the incandescent light, the companions traded amazed—and simultaneously worried— looks.
“Raw Starstone,” Jaeger muttered. He inhaled deeply and shifted his axe to his shoulder. “I didn’t know it could be found so close to the surface. I thought this stuff was buried deeper within the ground.”
“And this is the most I’ve ever seen,” Ivo added. The glow was bright enough to make them squint now. Static crackled and forked along the vein making the red glow shift and undulate. “This mineshaft alone could power a portal or factory.”
“This is why the Dro-Aconi have come here. It is easy to get.” Jadeth shivered as an icy draft tugged fitfully on her braids and chainmail dress. “The villagers have been lucky to hide it for so long.”
“This discovery is not news, but nonetheless grim,” Ivo sighed. “There are neither minions nor other slaves here mining, so what is going on? How will they dig for it?”
Emaranthe let her arm fall to her side with a weary sigh. Her little fire flickered and died, leaving them bathed in the vivid red glow of the Starstone veins. Now charged with her power, they would glow for days. Their ability to remain undiscovered was limited now.
“We must get to the surface,” she whispered. “I’ve left a trail for any foes to follow us, I am afraid.”
As one they turned aside and pushed themselves into a swift run. Emaranthe's flame rekindled in her hand, small and white hot. Ivo reassumed the lead, his sword raised before him. Nothing evil lurched out of the dark tunnels to waylay them as they wound through the maze higher and higher toward the surface.
The first hint of inky, clouded sky showed itself when they angled around a steep turn in the tunnel and a rectangle of grim light appeared. They halted as the mineshaft quaked and rumbled from the force of the evil shadows close by. Dirt and dust choked the air. Emaranthe closed her fist over the flame and it flickered and died.
“Keep close; keep wary,” Ivo hissed. He crept toward the exit. He noted the exposed landscape outside the mine shaft, noting the terrain and foes with a single glance. “The Dro-Aconi’s shadows stretch across the expanse of the plateau. I cannot see what evil is stirring within.”
“Let me see,” Jadeth poked Jaeger in the shoulder. Reluctantly, he moved aside to let her slip to the front. She dropped into a wary crouch, her keen gaze narrowed on the gruesome turmoil within the odd tangle of shadows swirling about the plateau. Not just the Dro-Aconi, but four generals. A fifth, perhaps of a higher rank, stood at the center of the chaos.
“There are at least four generals. They guard a fifth figure in the center. I can’t see who or what it is,” Jadeth hissed over her shoulder. Ivo’s features tightened.
“And the Dro-Aconi?” He asked.
“None yet, but their shadows twine and cling like the slime of a slug,” Jadeth whispered. “They are close, but not strong enough to materialize yet. There aren’t enough living souls for them to capture yet.”
The Dro-Aconi have no corporeal bodies. They are the true evil, manifested only within the darkest
moments of reality. Their shadows come before their forms, with long-reaching senses and abilities used to conquer and enslave. Their slaves were once free peoples of Ein-Aral. Bitter minions now, half dead, perhaps undead, and all corrupted by the stench of darkness that precedes the most terrifying evil in their world. To face the true creature that is the Dro-Aconi is to face true evil. True terror. Only The Four have ever done so, in ages past, and now they are missing. Legend speaks that they will return only when needed at the end of all days.
“Let’s go.” Jaeger snarled.
They crept out of the shaft into the barely-brighter light. The clouds roiled and swirled in the gloom. A peal of thunder rattled the rocks beneath their feet. They hugged the cliff wall to the left, skirting the open landscape in favor of the cover of the few spindly bushes and craggy rock outcroppings.
Emaranthe pulled her staff free and it gleamed faintly with smoldering fire as she bent and crept behind Ivo. Her gaze flicked between the few generals guarding the shadows. They were singularly evil, twisted, beings—higher forms of minions clothed in midnight black robes. Instead of empty eye sockets in fleshless skulls, twin beads of black fire burned as eyes.
Ivo held up a hand. They halted as near to the generals as they dared, behind a bush and rock outcropping at the eastern edge of the plateau.
“We need to pick them off one by one,” Jaeger said. He studied their movements; his gaze narrowed as he tried to see beyond them to the creature in the center. The frenetic pacing of the generals made identification frustrating. “Get them away from the leader.”
“Okay, nearest first,” Ivo said. He pointed at the towering, robed skeleton. “Remember, these have powers the lower minions didn’t.”
Jaeger shifted his axe. Its razor sharp edge bled water and froze, now much sharper, and deadlier. Ivo freed his shield, the motion sending a nearly invisible gust of wind ricocheting around his massive body. The wind eddied and twisted until it swirled before his battered shield, creating a blanket of buffeting air. Unlike Emaranthe, their gifts were subtle and easily overlooked by the enemy and the brothers preferred to use them sparingly.
Jadeth held her hammer low to the ground so that its healing glow would not attract unwanted attention. The gritty sandstone dirt shifted and sank beneath the weapon, leaving a carpet of green in the exact same shape as its shadow. Tiny vines coiled and waited for their orders.
Emaranthe inhaled deeply. Ghostly flames licked and curled from her staff up her arm to her shoulders and over her body. The fire writhed and twisted, nearly invisible, until her entire body was sheathed in a layer of living flame.
Ivo shot a glance at his friends and three pairs of determined eyes met and locked with his own. He nodded and turned with a blur of speed. With a blast of wind, he heaved his shield into the air with a silent, furious cry.
It arced across the distance, spinning and glinting in the gloom, but silent and true. Guided by the wind, it turned, clipping one general in the shoulder, before spinning back to him with unnerving accuracy. Ivo caught it with an outstretched hand just as the infuriated general turned and screeched with slack jaws and bony arms outstretched. Still unable to see its attacker, it shambled closer to them.
They waited for a long, breathless moment for the general to be out of range of its companions. With a suppressed snarl, his breath frosting the air, Jaeger launched forward, axe singing in a brutal arc. It connected with the outstretched arms and they splintered like dry branches of a tree and clattered to the rocky dirt, frozen solid.
Ivo darted in and swung his sword low, snapping the general at the knees and sending it flailing to the ground. Its screams of rage were short lived. Emaranthe grabbed a moth-eaten fold of cloth and a hungry flame uncurled from her fingers and consumed as it spread. The odor of charred bone joined the stench of death and decay.
One down. Three to go.
Ivo crept forward, his gaze pinned on the next general. He sensed Jaeger shift to reposition for the attack.
Twin gasps, gagging chokes, from behind made both pause, then spin on their heels. Blue and green eyes stared in dawning horror at Jadeth and Emaranthe.
“No!” Ivo cried out. His sword clattered to the ground.
Long, impossibly strong fingers wound around both of the women’s slender throats, lifting them high in the air. The leader of the generals had somehow slipped past them.
Her skin was dark and well-toned with muscle and voluptuous curves. Long, lithe legs drew the eye up her lush body, and her face was shockingly, horribly beautiful. Full lips, dark red, wanted to pout but tended to sneer instead. Dark eyes burned black in the inky light and her red curls, held in check by a bone headdress, towered high and regal. A Necromancer.
Emaranthe scratched and clawed at the woman’s hand. She tried to suck in a breath, but couldn’t. In the towering Necromancer’s other hand Jadeth struggled to breathe, her long legs kicking valiantly.
“Well, well, well… two men, an Elf girl, and a child.” The strange woman cackled. The hairs stood on the men’s arms. Her voice was as lush and as deadly as her beauty.
Chapter Six