Nix and his group crossed the desolate terrain toward Baneridge mountains. Scrub brush sprouted up around them. Jagged rocks jutted from the ground. The wind blew dust at their faces, like the lashes of a horsewhip.
The ground trembled slightly beneath their feet, so they stopped. The guard to Nix’s left gazed down. Pale tentacles wrapped around his boots and jerked him to the ground. They dragged him away from the group in a flash.
“Derith!” A stunned Nix raced for his comrade as the tentacles pulled the helpless elf into a vast pit. Nix dove to the ground, his arms outstretched, but he narrowly missed the guard’s hands. He was gone.
The tentacles lashed out of the pit once more and snagged Nix’s pouch, snapping it from his body. They retracted into the dark orifice and were gone. “My soul jar!” Nix cried. “My soul…jar…”
Lianna and the others reached Nix’s side. Vanare hovered above the pit. “What by the Gods was that?”
“I think I know…” A worried look washed over Nix's face. “I believe it is a Snare.”
“A Snare?” Lianna said. “I thought they were extinct.”
“Apparently not this one. We need to go in after it. It took my soul jar. My ancestor is lost. We cannot face the dark queen without it. We must have all three.”
“That is the lower depths,” Vanare said. He planted his feet back on the ground. “It’s bad mana to walk in the lower depths.”
Nix looked back at him. “We do not have a choice. We fail here if we refuse to go.”
“We may not make it back out alive.”
Nix ignored Vanare and whipped a thin rope out of his pack. He tied it off to a thick tree root and tossed the length down into the pitch-black pit. “Without the soul jar, all of Orum is dead.” He descended into the darkness.
Vanare sighed and rolled his eyes. His wings fluttered and lifted him into the air. He glided into the pit, following Nix. Liannna took the rope next then her guards, Nali and Myrrh, followed. Last, Nix’s remaining escort, the elf Ayre, took hold of the rope and protected their rear.
The first thing Nix did after unsheathing his sword was reignite his torch. Lianna did the same. The firelight chased away the shadows to reveal a huge subterranean tunnel. Rows of razor sharp stalactites stretched from its roof like teeth. The ground was littered with bones, and some of the walls glistened with a sticky substance.
The left side of the tunnel was a solid rock wall. To the right the tunnel stretched off into the dark and bent around a corner. They heard a crackling coming from that direction.
“I sense that is the way,” Nix whispered as he pointed with his sword. He alerted the others to keep their noise to a minimum.
Unable to glide in the confines of the tunnel, Vanare drew his sword and walked with the others, keeping to the right. The group scaled the tunnel, turning its corner, where it opened into a larger chamber.
The first thing they saw were the skeletal remains of a horse entangled in a viscous coating akin to amber or tree sap. The body hung from the ceiling, attached to one of the stalactites.
A rotting smell wafted out of the chamber. Nix and Lianna pushed forward as the others reluctantly trailed behind, trembling. Nix swung his torch in front of him, and the flames flickered. Beside the horse, on a smaller stalactite, he discovered the half-eaten body of his missing warrior hanging upside down.
“Derith…” Nix’s eyes widened. The elf was trapped in the sticky casing too. One of his arms was missing, but in his remaining hand he clutched Nix’s pouch containing the soul jar. “There it is.” Nix started toward the limp body, swaying back and forth as he reached for the pouch.
A gargantuan shadow stretched across the walls of the chamber. The crackling was accompanied by the scuffling of dozens of feet. Moments later the Snare dropped from the ceiling. Its bone-white tentacles shot out of its proboscis and latched onto Nix’s feet.
“No!” Lianna raced to his aid, her sword swinging wildly. She jumped to the closest boulder and catapulted off of it. Her blade smashed the armored shell of the Snare’s body, but simply bounced away without causing damage.
The Snare, a hybrid of a giant gray spider and prehistoric millipede, had a segmented carapace studded with barbs that were a hard as stone. Its natural armor. Almost nothing could cut through it. A dozen or more bristle-covered legs could scale the walls of any underground cave or tunnel. The feelers pulled prey to its monstrous, horned mandibles where it would crush and eat its meal. Whatever was left over would be covered in a sticky secretion to preserve for years to come.
Although Lianna’s attack did no damage, it did have the desired effect. The Snare released Nix and swung one of its legs at the amazon queen. Lianna fell to the ground with the wind knocked out of her. It crawled toward her, mandibles clicking in anticipation. Three black eyes leered at her as liquid oozed out of it proboscis and over its feelers. Lianna screamed as it advanced.
“My queen!” Nali rushed in between Lianna and the beast, sacrificing herself. The mandibles caught the young amazon warrior in its vice-like grip. The sound of bones snapping echoed through the chamber.
“Nali!” Tears soaked Lianna’s cheeks.
Myrrh pulled back her bow and took aim. The arrow ricocheted off the Snare and hit the nearest wall. The amazon tried again, launching another arrow, but the result was the same.
While the creature was distracted, Nix made his way to the body of his cocooned elfin comrade and pulled the pouch from his dead grip. The soul jar was safe. Nix turned to see the Snare rip the amazon’s body in half, then it encased the corpse in its secretion.
Vanare and Arye both held back, unsure of what to do as the Snare turned its attention back to Lianna.
Nix ran toward the creature and spotted its rust-colored underbelly. He dropped to the ground and slid beneath the thing as it crawled to Lianna.
He lifted his sword, holding it above himself as the Snare arched back to attack the still prone amazon queen. The blade plunged into soft flesh when the creature came down to finish its kill. A hideous shriek filled the air. Nix retracted his sword and thick pus poured down his arms and gushed across his face. The creature reeled back. All of its legs flailed madly. A desperate squeal followed.
Myrrh saw her chance. She shot at the Snare’s belly as it pulled back, nailing it to the rock-encrusted wall behind it with her arrow, then another, and another. Vanare hurled himself across the chamber and drove his sword into the creature. More white fluid poured onto the ground then spattered the group as they scrambled away.
The Snare buckled and twitched a few times. Its three eyes blinked in stunned agony. A roar escaped it and the wall behind it began to crumble. The chamber shook and trembled. Stalactites tore from the ceiling and plunged to the ground below.
Nix pulled Lianna to her feet, escorting her out of the path of a falling stalactite. They joined the others heading back down the tunnel, and climbed up to the entrance as fast as they could. The entire tunnel quaked as the heard the Snare pull free of the wall and scuttle after them. Boulders and rubble rained down from the ceiling. The tunnel imploded and the pit caved in on itself, trapping the Snare as they escaped.