Monster Child

Chapter 3

The Mission Begins

As we approached the castle, heavy black storm clouds loured over us and the air felt chill and dank.

Our plan was to sneak in through the underground entrance. A narrow path sloped downwards, dipping into the ground. We crept along it. The cobblestones beneath our feet were cracked and worn. Eventually we came to a heavy wooden door.

"The lower levels begin here," I whispered, "I'll try to break in quietly." I took out my lockpick. I hoped my experiments in lockpicking would turn out to be relevant with this heavy old door. I strained and strained. The lock was rusty, but it held fast.

"Can't you really open locks?" asked Addie.

"I thought I could… just wait…" finally the lock broke open and the heavy door swung inwards with a disastrously loud creaking. Addie took a step forward, but I darted ahead of him, quickly lighting my lantern. The lantern burned with a special compound that cast a flickering green light over the damp stone walls and flagstones. The air had the fusty reek of an underground dungeon.

"Be careful, I don't want you blundering into a trap, I've got to go first," I said frowning at him. Now that it came down to it, I suddenly couldn't bear the thought of his being in real danger and wished he was safe back home.

"Oh come on!" he exclaimed, "I thought we had agreed you would not coddle me, you are not my flaming mother!"

He had raised his voice rather injudiciously though I should not blame him. There came a strange, growling and my heart thumped as two skeletal figures came into the flickering lantern light with stiff jerky movements. To my horror, they really were nothing more than bones and sinews, the livid grey hue of decay. In one swift movement, I took a morning star from my pouch and flung it with pinpoint precision at the skull of the nearest horror. It keeled over with a weird, thin roar. The other snarled and staggered forwards, it's the cold bone of its arms flailing, but a second morning star took care of it.

I breathed deeply, calming myself.

"I'm really sorry…" I told him, "I don't think I could bear it if you were hurt or… is that hard to understand?" I could feel tears coming to my eyes.

"The master did not assess your mental fitness very well," he said sighing. He put his arm around my shoulders.

"Perhaps not," I admitted, my voice quivering a little. His muscles were so firm and his body felt so warm in that dank hole. "If you stay by me, I'll be calm."

There seemed to be a fresh breeze coming from further down the passage. We found that the rough stone corridor opened out into a wide cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling and stalagmites rose from the rocky floor. Some had even joined together to form rocky pillars. One shining white pillar in particular had the girth of an oak tree. At some point this mineral had been born by milky liquid from the underground streams, but now it had solidified. Some freak property of the rocks bathed the cavern in an eerie green glow. There were various pools in the cavern floor. I knelt by one. The surface was very smooth, like a mirror. And yet there was a movement in it. I gave a little cry as a mass of tentacles broke the surface and grasped my arm. Addie drew his sword, but I bade him hold. Thoughts from the creature entered my mind.

"You pry willingly into great peril, human?"

"A WaterBrain!" I exclaimed, "a magical being. I've read all about them."

"Is that the word?" Addie expressed sardonic amusement well, "the Dark Forest Dialect is so prosaic."

The glistening green form clutched my arms. A mass of tentacles, but now two beady little eyes were visible.

"Here there are teleportals – pools leading to other key parts of the superstructure. See those pools of air? They lead to other chambers."

I nodded. There was a pool of what appeared to be a swirling turquoise mist and a second pool of shimmering jade.

As I expected, Addie could sense the WaterBrain's thoughts too.

"We must find the Earthfire chasm first. Getting an idea of the layout should be the easy part."

"I can show you," came the creature's thoughts, "but the heat will be great. I will not go too close. The Earth and Fire in the superstructure are inimical to my physical form. The Water sustains me."

"We would never ask you to go too close," I said gently.

"Let's get started," said Addie, "no point waiting around."

We left the cavern by a narrow, winding track that sloped downwards. The air grew warmer and drier and eventually we entered another cavern. There was a palpable rise in the temperature. The WaterBrain clung to me all the tighter. There was a dull red light emanating from a chasm at the far end of the cavern. So this was the pit of the EarthFire.

The WaterBrain extended its tentacles to wrap round me in a slimy embrace. I could sense its agitation.

"We have been sensed! Dire peril approaches!"

And then, with a sickening feeling of panic in the pit of my stomach I heard a chilling voice.

"You are out of your depthssss, worm beingssss. I have resssurrected an old servant to rot you alive. I have empowered Disssciple Yirr with the power of putrefaction. He is now Disssciple Mortiss. Hisss foetid touch will bring decay!"

How to describe that voice? The icy tones of a man with a strange accent spoke and yet at the same time an uncanny hiss seemed to form the same words. Truly Carcescu and the Fire Demon had been fused.

"Look!" exclaimed Addie.

With a surge of horror, I saw a grotesque figure approaching – a giant rat skeleton in rusty armour striding and lurching into the bloody light cast by the Earth Fires.

A voice seemed to emanate from the skeleton, a man's voice with a weird hissing impediment: "Naughty children, I have come… Disssciple Mortiss iss here to put you to death!"

Addie fired a stone from his slingshot and Mortis snatched it from the air. In his foetid grasp, the stone crumbled to dust. He truly had the power to bring decay.

"He really has a power I do not understand!" came the anguished thought from the WaterBrain.

"Run!" I screamed, grabbing Addie by the arm and pushing him back into the tunnel. Fortunately he did not argue this time. We ran up the rough stone slope, back to the water cavern.

"You're only putting it off young sssinnersss," crowed Mortis, "the crime isss life… the sssentence iss death!"

Back in the cool water cavern again, a desperate plan was forming in my mind.

"No more running," I said breathlessly.

"But now what?" said Addie, blue eyes wide.

With a shuffling and clanking, the terrible form of Mortis emerged. I had to provoke the vile being. Addie must not risk himself. How could I antagonise followers of a primitive culture, such as the Dark Disciples? From what I had read about the most barbaric people in the most dreadful corners of our own world certain patterns did seem to recur. A couple of tactics seemed the most likely to provoke.

"Better kill me Mortis, or I'll go from here and I'll tell all of how you couldn't defeat a mere girl. And for the record I don't believe the male gender is superior and I am a slattern. Death Worship is lunacy and I blaspheme against it. Everyone has a right to life. Every living creature is equal and defies you equally." I flung a morning star at him, but it merely glanced off his skull. "Come on, kill me, bury me or melt me."

"You really believe your fine sentiments. Despite your confusion, your purpose is true," mused the WaterBrain.

"Foul blasssssssphemer!" hissed Mortis in a rage and he lurched towards me.

I leapt forwards as Addie fired a sling shot at Mortis. It merely bounced off the fiend's rusty armour. I would risk fighting the horror at close quarters if needs be.

I brandished my curved scimitar as Mortis lunged at me. To my horror, I felt the WaterBrain's intention too late to protest. It flung itself at Mortis who roared and hissed in rage as it wrapped round his skeletal claws like ropes of seaweed… but not for long, for it putrefied in his deadly grasp and turned black. I felt the agony of its last moments and staggered back against the supporting pillar of the cavern.

The rags of the poor waterbrain dropped from his claws and Mortis lunged at me, but I ducked and Mortis embedded his claws in the pillar instead which began to crumble at his foetid touch… but as it crumbled, the gleaming white mineral became sticky again as it disintegrated and his putrefying talons were stuck there. Mortis roared and hissed even louder. Cracks appeared along the pillar and it began to sag. The ceiling groaned.

I grabbed hold of Addie.

"Come on, try the turquoise pool," I said, aware of tears flowing down my cheeks.

He nodded, his face pale and solemn in the eerie green lights of the cavern. He leapt into the pool and vanished from sight, but I paused … I could not risk Mortis following. How to destroy the abomination? I felt rage well up within me against the undead horror and his depravity. I drew my scimitar.

But then cracks appeared in the cavern ceiling as the supporting pillar gave way. A good portion of the rocky ceiling gave way and the turquoise pool was buried underneath it.

Feeling an icy surge of panic, I leapt into the jade pool and the entire cavern caved in, crushing the inhuman shell of Disciple Mortis beneath many tons of rock. But the spell of teleportation in the pool had already whisked me away, as the spell of the other pool had taken Addie away too. I was spinning through a beautiful jade light… but where would I end up?

Author's Note: The Dark Disciples first appeared in human form in Moonlight and Shadows, the beginning fragment of the very rough draft of which is still here on my fictionpress account.