NINE - KILLER VEES
It took another hour to get through the magma maze. Beyond were more tunnels, and beyond them a series of natural caves variously modified. They made their way without incident until they came to a crudely hacked-out tunnel connecting the second and third caves.
“Wait a minute guys,” Danny whispered, “I think I've got something—or nothing.”
The party clustered around as Danny checked his magic detector.
“Well, which is it?” Malkin asked.
Danny looked up. “Both. The whole area up ahead is magically dead,” Danny reported. “I mean not a spark anywhere that I can see.”
“Not even the normal background magic?” Wiz asked.
The young programmer shook his head. “Not a sign.”
Wiz noticed Malkin make sure her rapier was loose in its sheath.
“Okay then. Let's take the hint and move slow and careful.”
Again the tunnel widened out into a cavern and again the party moved ahead by the light of a single magical globe. Strain as they might they could hear nothing but their own footfalls and what sounded like rushing water faint and far ahead of them.
Halfway across the room they found the source of the sauna. A chasm divided the cavern and from the bottom, faint and far away, came the sound of the water.
“How deep do you think that is?” Danny asked as he squinted down into the blackness.
Too deep,” Wiz said.
Too wide besides,” Malkin added as she looked across the gap. “I don't think our ropes will reach, even if we could find something on the other side to secure them to.”
Wiz thought of crossing the dizzying blackness on a rope and got a distinctly queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Let's assume ropes are a non-option,” he said.
“Well, I've got something for this,” Danny said. “Watch.” He lifted his staff and pointed.
The hair on Wiz's neck stood up and he started to protest, but he was too late.
Rocks and boulders on both sides of the gap glowed blue, then rocked in their places and rose gently into the air. Danny waved his staff like a conductor's baton. Waves of magic twisted and congealed into invisible forms as the rocks floated out into empty space and settled in place according to some unseen plan. More waves of magic as the rocks locked together and a great arched bridge began to take shape. More magic and smaller stones rushed to fill in the gaps. A final burst of magic and a bridge sat in place, glowing from the unnatural forces that held it together.
There!” Danny said proudly.
“Come on then,” Wiz said unhappily. “Let's get over this as fast as we can.”
The bridge was solid enough beneath their feet as the party started over.
“Beats a rope, doesn't it?” Danny said gaily. “It's a variation of a spell I worked out for Ian's toy blocks. Just scale it up, and hey…”
Takes a lot of magic,” Wiz said.
“So? We've got power to spare here.”
The magic globe lighting their passage flickered, then flickered again. Wiz saw something like a moth flit around it. Then another and another and another.
Something stung Wiz on the back of his neck. He slapped at the spot and felt something small and furry under his fingers. He jerked his hand away and shook his fingers and a scrap of black fluttered out of them.
“Get off the bridge!” he yelled and charged ahead. Caution forgotten, the rest of the party charged after him, swatting at the things around them.
As soon as they were on the other side, Danny gestured and the rocks went thundering into the canyon. But by that time the entire party was under attack.
In swarms and hordes and legions the tiny black things came on, diving mindlessly to the attack and sticking where they landed to bite and chew. Each of them was no larger than a mouse, but they struck with blind ferocity.
Wiz laid about him with his staff, striking great swaths of the creatures down by magic. Malkin turned out to be a surprisingly good swordswoman. Her long arms gave her reach and her wrists were like iron. She used her reach to keep the things off and the edge of her rapier to take out several at once. June was a whirling dervish with her knife, slicing in a dozen directions at once. Danny also struck out with magic. Glandurg flailed about him with Blind Fury. He never hit what he was aiming at, but there were so many of the things that each stroke felled half a score. Along the way he also brought down two good-sized boulders and a stalactite, but he barely noticed.
The light in the cavern dimmed as the creatures mobbed the magic globe, like a pack of enraged moths. Wiz struck out desperately again and again. Caught in the open as they were the things could attack from any direction, including driving straight down. Even the ones who had been knocked from the air crawled toward them to continue the attack.
A fireball whizzed past Wiz's ear and singed the hair on the left side of his head. He turned his head to glare at Danny and the thing that was diving on him missed his eyes and latched onto his ear instead. Danny shrugged and went back to throwing fireballs.
The little things were so thick in the tunnel there was really no place to aim at, but it didn't matter. As soon as each fireball emerged from Danny's staff it was surrounded by a horde of suicidal batlets who dived to their destruction in it. Wiz, seeing what was happening, began dividing his time between beating off attackers and throwing fireballs. The cavern filled with rank smoke and the reek of ozone and burned flesh. Gradually the attackers became fewer and fewer and finally there were none.
The party found themselves standing back to back in the cavern, surrounded by a haze of stinking smoke and a carpet of dead creatures. Wiz realized he had been bitten in a dozen places or more. He could feel the blood oozing down both cheeks and a wound in his forehead was trickling blood into his eyebrows. Most of the others appeared wounded in several places as well.
“What where those things?” Danny panted, as he wiped blood from his eyes. June was instantly at his side with a cloth, cleaning the wounds on his face and ignoring her own.
Wiz bent down to examine the litter of corpses around them. Each of the things had the form of a tiny bat, perhaps hah0 as long as his little finger. The mouths sported a pair of outsized fangs and even in death the little eyes showed a glazed malevolence. He picked one up and showed it to the others.
“Little vampire bats,” Danny said. “I wonder if these things carry rabies.”
“Rabies we can handle,” Wiz reminded him. “Healing magic, remember?”
“Speaking of which…” Malkin said, looking at the bloody wounds on the back of her hand.
As one person, the party sank to the ground where they were and started rummaging through their packs for what Wiz persisted in thinking of as “first aid kits.”
On an impulse Wiz tried a listing and scowled at the result.
“More weird code,” Danny said and then winced as June dabbed a healing salve on a wound on his neck.
“So the Enemy sent these things against us,” Malkin said.
“If I had to guess I'd say they weren't exactly sent,” Wiz said. This part here looks like another variation on the watcher spell and there doesn't seem to be a lot of code for remote control.”
“Meaning?” Danny studied that section of the listing-
“Meaning I think these things operate independently. If I had to guess, and that's pretty much what it is at this point, I'd say this part here is a magic detector and they home in on magic. What's more, magic seems to rouse them to a rage. You'll notice Malkin wasn't the focus of an attack and they didn't go after Glandurg until he got Bund Fury into action.”
“Kinda like leaving hives of killer bees around as guards,” Danny said. “Cute.”
“Ugly,” Wiz corrected. “Especially since the same principle could be applied to other critters. Nastier ones.”
Danny nodded. “Let's get out of here then. There may be more on the way and I'm not sure I'd want to face a horde of maddened dragons.”
“And no more magic,” Wiz admonished. “Not if it attracts these things.”
“Our steel and our courage alone shall carry us henceforth,” said Glandurg.
“Well,” Wiz amended, eyeing Blind Fury, “we don't have to swear off magic completely.”