Into The Labyrinth - a work of fiction

[Terquem]

Originally posted in 2018, I am going to put this story back up (with some new edits) from the beginning. I hope you like it.

[Terquem]

Into The Labyrinth – an episodic story for the Steve Jackson Games forums
© D. H. Austin 2018

Chapter 1

Part 1

It was late, the night was clear. The light from the moons and stars was faint and the sound of the waves against the breakwater were distant and regular. He checked the map. The marks of his deciphers were clear but the old map was difficult to read in the dim light. He knew he was close.

He held the folded, heavy parchment at an awkward angle, his face close to the musty sheet of paper, but the symbols, lines, and runes made no sense now and his hastily scribbled notes only made things worse. The wall he was following had been slowly curving to the southeast, on his left. The moons overhead in conjunction of the threen days, the smallest blocking the two behind, gave only scant light and the sound of the gentle waves to his right came like a lullaby carried by voices of sea nymphs calling his name. He walked along the ancient sea wall near the lower coast road, where the city ended and the wild places began, alone and cold, with all that he owned on his back, and only a promise of a reward keeping him going.

*Zing*

That sound was unmistakable.

He had first heard it a few times in the chambers of Queen Korr’s Test Maze, the one that was designed after that one in the deserts far to the east. The sound came from a light, cheap crossbow favored by hooligans and thieves. But damned if he could tell what direction it had come from.

Brendun Mark threw himself against the sea wall to his left and held his breath. Dropping the map, he swiftly curled his fingers around the hilt of the short sword hanging at his side. He glanced left and right along the length of the wall, and that is when he noticed something that he had missed.

It was a crack in the wall, barely a few feet wide, irregular, and angled just so that it created its own shadows, concealing the gap from anyone coming upon it from the direction he had been walking, but now that he was well past it, he could see it. The assassin must have stepped out, fired and disappeared back into that space.

He thought for a moment, to himself, “Brendun, you should run away. Standing here isn’t doing you any favors.”

Naturally he decided that running away was a bad idea. Putting his back to a crossbow was likely to be the last thing he would ever do.

Taking his hand off the hilt of the sword, he crouched, turned, and sprinted back the way he came, turned at the crack in the wall and bounded into the dark crevices.

He would surprise the assassin. It had always worked in the past. Their kind never expected their target to turn and face them.

His groin was then introduced to a knee.

The pain was sharp, but not debilitating. The assassin was holding back. In the darkness, he threw his hands forward. His fingers caught hold of the sleeves of a loose-fitting garment. He fumbled, just for a moment and then took hold of the attacker’s wrists and forced his way forward into the confined space.

Brendun felt his nose touch a soft, furry cheek. He could smell brandy and coconut, two smells he knew well, and two smells that made him sick.

In the confined space of the broken gap in the wall Brendun and the assassin twisted left and right, each trying to gain the upper hand. Brendun had a tight grip on the assassin’s wrists, but the assassin’s legs were agile, and strong. Their grunts and short breaths were punctuated by the sounds of their bodies scrapping against the stones on each side as they both struggled. When it seemed that neither of them would get the advantage, Brendun finally spoke.

“Why are you trying to kill me?”

The assassin answered. He knew her voice as soon as he heard the first word.

“Stop searching for the Cryssalium.”

“How do you know I’m searching for the Cryssalium,” he grunted, not giving into his desire to say her name out loud.

“Everyone knows you are searching for it. Everyone knows you’re the only one stupid enough to search for it. Everyone knows you might actually find it, and that can’t happen.”

“The Queen would disagree with you,” he said as he put all his weight forward and pinned her against the back of the niche in the wall. He turned his hip, and drove the flat of his sword, still in its scabbard, against her left arm until he knew her hand was held against the rock. He let go of her wrist, drew a small knife from his vest, and brought it up to her breast. He knew her size. He knew exactly where her heart would be.

“Tabitha,” Brendun said, “we promised we wouldn’t fight anymore. I don’t believe you broke your promise carelessly. Who hired you? Why are you trying to stop me?”

“Do noth harmm her,” a cold alien sounding voice behind him spoke softly and Brendun felt the points of two slender blades against his back.

A tentacle moved slowly across his right shoulder, extended a few inches and turned to come within inches of his face.

“I wouldh move a slow, or you couldh die.”

It had been a trap, a good one. Tabitha was always good at setting traps.
Tabitha leaned her head close to his. Her lips brushed against his as she spoke. Her words were light, almost laughing.

“Brendun, I’d like you to meet my employer. Her name is Alowthnas Gwynemidd, but she can be called Alo. She has a good reason to want you to stop looking for the Cryssalium. I’ll let her explain, if you put down the knife, or I’ll let her kill you.”

He lowered the knife and backed away from Tabitha. The points of the blades in his back stayed solidly pressed against him as he moved. It was a sign that the thing behind him had excellent tactile awareness.

The three of them emerged from the crack in the sea wall one at a time until they were standing on the street, the quiet roll of the waves against the beach making the only sounds.

When the blades relaxed a bit, Brendun slowly turned to face the assailant behind him.

“You’re a…”

“I amh Mauli A’Anawa. Thisth is where Ih was bornn,” she spoke.

Though Brendun could see no mouth, he knew the thing was talking to him in a way that it was best he didn’t dwell on. All he could see where her large bluish-black eyes when they reflected a bit of the star and faint moon light around them. A dark hood was pulled over her head, her body draped in the folds of a green cloak.

She seemed to float where she was standing. Her cloaked form drifted a few inches to the left and then to the right, and she went on, saying, “Ifth you sayh I am thatd nameh. Ih will kill youh.”

“Agreed,” Brendun said, letting out a long breath, “no reason to insult someone paying Tabitha’s bills, or you know, holding her leash.”

His backside was then given the same introduction to the same knee his groin met earlier.

“Don’t be smart,” Tabitha hissed.

“Alright,” he laughed. “you aren’t going to kill me immediately, so tell me why? Why aren’t you killing me now? Why do you want me to stop looking for the Cryssalium? I mean, if you killed me, it’d be very hard for me to find it, wouldn’t it? This all seems strange. I don’t like strange. This is an unusual job for someone like you Tabitha, and you, Alo, is it, well, I promise no insults, I see you are sensitive about the things your kind are called, but you know there is a price on your head, right? Everyone of your kind is wanted. If the Queen’s Darrls knew you were here, you’d be dead. The more I think about it, the more I am beginning to think I really don’t want to know what is going on here at all. Why don’t we call it a night? We’ll go our separate ways. I’ll drop my interest in the Cryssalium, and the two of you can disappear in the night. I’ll forget about the both of you. Hell, it was easy to forget about one of you already, after you left me in Dainsport,” Brendun finished, turning his head to the left and bringing Tabitha into view.

Her golden-brown eyes sparkled. He expected to see her full lips in that wide, digrit eating grin she always gave him, but instead her expression was grim, even a bit nervous.

It was her expression that did it. Whatever was going on here, if it had taken the fiendish childishness out of Tabitha’s sails, it was something beyond serious.

“Or, maybe not,” he said. “Okay, I changed my mind. Tell me why I’m not dead and why you think if I stay alive, I won’t keep looking for the Cryssalium.”

The walking octopus lifted two of her tentacles in way Brendun knew as a sign of surrender.

“Ith musth not be foundh,” she said. Her cold alien voice now took on a more desperate tone. “Theh AhQueen of Kithhzjta musth noth haven ith. Ith isa noth whath sshhee thinksh ith isss.” As she spoke her words came quicker, and it became almost impossible for Brendun to understand her.

Tabitha moved toward the octopus and placed one of her own hands on the alien creature’s head.

“Shhh, it’ll be fine. We stopped him. I know him. He won’t keep the job. Besides he was never going to find it. The map he bought was a fake.”

The octopus seemed to relax a bit when Tabitha comforted her.

“Yes, it was a fake. I knew that,” Brendun said, reaching down to pick up the map from off the ground where he had dropped it. “But, the person who faked it made a few mistakes, and the fake has clues. Clues that reveal the forger knew what she was trying to hide better than she wanted me to believe. An entrance to the Labyrinth is nearby. The Cryssalium is hidden in the Labyrinth. If I can find an entrance, I can find the Cryssalium.”

Tabitha turned her head slowly, dropping it to the side.

“You’re joking,” she said.

The octopus rose up on her legs, the slim blades appeared, her voice was loud.

“Ifn you canh findh ith, takeah mee to ith. Weh musth destroya ith thish time.”

She moved close to him, and lowered her voice, calming herself some, and spoke as slowly as she could, revealing that if she tried, she could be understood perfectly.

“Take. Me. Into. The. Labyrinth.”

[Terquem]

Part 2

Of the things that he had not seen coming, recently, agreeing to help a Kao’La’a woman who had betrayed him not just one year ago and a walking octopus, among the most evil beings known on this planet, had to take the top spot on Brendun’s list.

And yet, here he was, leading the two women along the sea wall, in the dead of the night, looking for a hidden entrance into the mysterious underground realm known as The Labyrinth.

He would say, “Brendun Mark, you’re getting too old for this,” if it weren’t for the fact that he was only twenty-seven, and hoped he had many, many more years ahead of him. In fact, he often wondered if he didn’t change his ways, soon, if he would actually live long enough to ever be able to say that with any truth.

Brendun lead them on. Tabitha was right behind him, her hand on his belt, not tightly, but there. He could feel it. He remembered her touch. The other one, the one Tabatha had called Alo, was behind Tabitha, and Brendun did not particularly care if that one was keeping up at all. He’d had his share of encounters with others of her kind. The ones he’d met in the past had tried to kill him, every time. They never spoke, but he had heard they could speak the common tongue, and they fought with a savage grace he knew must be treated with a healthy respect. How or why he so willingly allowed this one to talk him into joining forces with him he couldn’t quite figure out now. Maybe it was magic, a spell, probably, meant to cloud his mind, and make him ignore his own good judgment. Or maybe it was Tabitha. She had a similar, if somewhat more potent effect on him.

“Hold on,” Brendun said in a whisper, and the two women behind him stopped.

“This is it. I think, the wall stones here are not right. See, they are larger, older, and probably no one notices the pattern, unless you are clued in to look for it.”

“Can you open the door?” Tabitha asked as her hand tightened on his belt.

“I’m not sure,” Brendun said as he gently fingered one large stone about shoulder height, and then another. “I know a few types of locks that might have been used, and I have a few tools that should do the trick if I find the locking stone. I guess all I can do is try, right? Wish me…”

Brendun’s words were cut off by the swift and sharp grinding sound of the stones in front of him swinging up and away, while the ground beneath his feet dropped to a steep angle. He tried to spin, swing his arms for balance, but Tabitha’s hold on his belt got in the way. He felt himself pitching forward unable to stop.

Brendun was not a light fellow. His weight pulled Tabitha forward, and she screamed.

Alo threw two of her tentacles out and wrapped them around Tabitha’s waist.

Again, Brendun was not a light fellow, and the three of them fell onto a slick, wet stone surface.

They raced at a breakneck speed along the stone slide, curving for a while to the right, then going up a bit, back down sharply, to the left, and then in a spiral which made their sense of all direction leave them. They tumbled over each other, rolled on their sides, threw their arms up and back for stability, and collided with each other over and over again until finally they came to a slow stop in a dark chamber well below the surface.

Brendun decided that the top of his “things not expected list” needed revision.
It was Alo who got upright fastest, getting to five of her legs in a swift motion. Her cloak had gotten spun around, so that the hood was tangled in front of her among her belts and pouches.

“Myh swordhs!” She cried out. “I’hhvve droppedeh my swordhs.”

“Well, I think I found one of them,” Brendun hissed as he rolled off his stomach onto his backside and brought his left leg up in his hands. The slim, long blade of one of Alo’s swords had pierced his calf, passing clean through near the back of his leg through his baggy pants.

Tabitha got to her knees and raised a light above her head. It was a brand, a magical device which shed a good amount of light without creating any smoke.

“That looks bad,” Tabitha said, moving on her knees around Brendun until she was on the opposite side of him.

“Yes, thath is oneh of mineh. Thankh youh,” Alo said and reached for the weapon with one tentacle so quickly that she could not be stopped from pulling the blade free from the wound.

“Eiychee mama,” Brendun cried.

“It’s a bad wound,” Tabitha said. She placed a leather kit on the floor beside him and unrolled it. The kit was small, but packed with rolls of linen, needles, thread, and small tins of medicinal herbs. Tucked into the very end of the roll were two small, silver vials. “Here,” she said taking out one of the vials and pulling the stopper, “this is nacromoid oil, it will stop the bleeding.” She handed the vial to Brendun and then with a small knife from the kit she cut open a large hole in his pants. Taking the vial back from his hand she pulled the stopper with her teeth and emptied half of the contents, a thick bluish liquid, directly onto the wound. Where some of the liquid contacted the fabric of his pants it turned into a hard crystal-like patch, but when it touched Brendun’s flesh it flowed into the wound seeking the source of the bleeding and sealing around the damaged vessels.

“Where did you get that kit from?” Brendon asked. He knew she was not wearing a backpack, like his.

“It was in my pouch. I thought I might need it if I accidentally hit you with the crossbow bolt earlier.”

“Your pouch?” Brendon’s face scrunched up, “ewwww, that’s gross.”

“What,” Tabitha said calmly. “It’s clean and dry. Why, what do you think is in there?”

“I don’t know. Isn’t that where you…”

“Where I what, Brendun, Where I what? You think I have a joey in there. You? You think I have a joey, you?” Tabitha’s words came in short bursts, her anger growing.

“No, no, I just wasn’t, ahhh, sheesh, please Tabitha don’t make this awkward. I’m sorry,” Brendun said scratching at the back of his neck.

“Ifh youh twoh areh finishededh, weh areh noth aloneh,” Alo said leaning toward Brendun and Tabitha.

[Terquem]

Part 3

The three of them were in a large underground cavern. The light from Tabitha’s brand illuminated an area around them out to several yards, and in the shadows just beyond the reach of the light they could make out the glistening walls of this chamber, giving them at least some idea of the size of their surroundings.

Near them there were natural columns made from the constant migration of limestone by the dripping water seeping in from the nearby sea. Each of the strangely shaped columns threw their own peculiar shadows.

The floor was uneven. Here and there they could see small puddles. Scurrying little crabs and other crustaceans were all about the place giving it a feeling of life and activity.

Brendun peered around Alo to see three short humanoid figures no more than a dozen yards away. They appeared to be a kind of goblin, but he could not be certain. He only knew that they were too short to be humans, and they were not children, though he knew that finding lost and abandoned children in the Labyrinth was not uncommon. The figures were wearing armor made from large pieces of shells, from turtles and other large sea creatures, and carrying long weapons that looked like the bones of saw-toothed fish.

The figures were hovering about, just beyond the light, and were probably trying to measure the group’s strengths and weakness before committing to an attack. This gave them a moment to come up with a plan. Coming up with a plan might not be easy, as even though Brendun knew Tabitha’s style and habits well, he knew nothing of the Mauli woman Alo. She carried a pair of slim bladed swords, that was all he knew, and right now she only had one of them.

What Brendun did know about the Octopus-folk was this – they were dangerous in every sense of the word, cunning, diabolical, relentless in combat, often learned in many skills and spells, and always on the attack. He had never known any of her kind to back down in a fight. He had run into a pair of them, once, in the testing mazes of the queen. How the octopuses got there, well, no one could ever say for certain how they got there, exactly, but those that were in the maze were about the mostly deadly thing a person could run up against when taking their shot at the queen’s tests.

“They’re measuring us up,” Brendun whispered, “Probably trying to decide if they are hungry enough to risk a three-on-three fight. I can probably get to…”

“Thereh areh sevenah of them,” Alo whispered interrupting Brendun. She adjusted one of her tentacles around the smooth hilt of her sword and moved in a little closer toward where Brendun and Tabitha were on the ground.

As she moved, Brendun noticed that two other tentacles of Alo’s were moving back and forth nervously. He recognized the behavior.

“You’re afraid,” Brendun said, and then he felt Tabitha move closer to his back.

She put the brand on the floor of the cavern, close to Brendun and then put her hands under his arms close to his chest. “Let me help you up, quick on three,” Tabitha whispered.

“No, wait,” Brendon said.

[Terquem]

Part 4

“Wait for what?” Tabitha whispered.

Brendun swung his legs around and pulled his knees under him, “Why are you afraid, Alo?” He asked.

The octopus woman swayed side to side, and Brendun could see she was taking in as much as her eyes could see.

“Ihhhveeeh nhevverhhh donnnnh thisahhh befrrrr,” her words came out fast and slurred almost in one long incomprehensible sound.

“What?” Brendun and Tabitha said at the same time.

“Alo, slow down, speak clearly and precisely,” Tabitha said as she took her arms out from under Brendun’s, and reached slowly for the brand.

“Yes, we need to understand you, if we are going to get out of this together,” Brendun said. He then turned his head a little, keeping one eye on the small monsters in the shadows that he could see while wondering where the others Alo could see might be. With his head turned, he said out of the corner of his mouth, “Tabitha, where’s your crossbow? How many bolts did you bring?"

“Eight,” Tabitha answered, “And it’s about six feet away to my left. I could scramble over to it, but it might be broken. I didn’t have a lot of money, even after Alo paid me. It’s not the best of its type.”

“Well, I hope,” Brendun began to say, and then Alo, lowered her head so that her face was close to Brendon’s.

She once again proved that if she tried, she could speak as clearly as anyone.

Alo spoke each word slowly making sure to pause a moment between each, “I said, I have never done this before.”

Tabitha’s eyes grew large, and Brendun dropped his chin.

“You know,” Brendun said as he struggled to get to his feet, favoring his leg, and drawing his sword as he stood, “I was really hoping that wasn’t what I thought you said.”

Without a warning Brendun rushed, limping as he went, at the three creatures in the shadows that were behind and just to the right of Alo. Tabitha rolled away as he moved, tucking the brand in close to her, causing the cavern to grow dim.

Alo rose up, turned in place on four of her tentacles while another drew a long fat dagger from a belt around her body, and lowered her head.

Two of the small monsters moved left, away from Brendon, while the third moved toward him. The small creature was bringing back the strange, spiked weapon with both hands, but Brendun’s sword was straight out and ready, and in one clean thrust he ran the small thing trough.

The sound of small flat feet slapping on the wet floor came from several directions as Tabitha dropped the brand beside the crossbow, examined it quickly, and then went to work cocking it with a lever built into the side of the handle. She stood and drew a bolt from a pouch on her side and then felt a sting on her right leg. One of the creatures had struck her with something. The blow was not hard, but she knew it penetrated her skin.

Alo moved just a short distance backward, as the two monsters that ran around Brendun came toward her from the left, and another two came at her from the right. Her strange slip, slide, and waving movement seemed to confuse the monsters and not a single one of them managed to land a blow on her as they closed in around her.

[Terquem]

Part 5

He pulled his sword out of the mysterious creature as it fell backward onto the floor. Brendun saw two situations unfolding badly.

Tabitha had managed to get to the crossbow, load it, and then get to her feet, but was now flanked by two of the monstrous little humanoids, while Alo had backed herself against the cavern wall and though she faced four opponents was managing to keep them back with fast movements of a long rapier and a heavy dagger. In another instant, Brendun knew one of them could be injured or worse, dead. These small creatures didn’t seem strong or agile, but what they lacked in abilities they made up for in numbers.

Of the two of them Brendun knew Tabitha well enough to hope that she might hold her own long enough for him to even the odds for Alo. But what was the best approach? He only hesitated a moment, and then moved. He came up behind one of the creatures facing Alo and hit the thing hard on the top of its head with the flat of his blade. The monster fell to the ground, the shell armor it wore making clinking noises that drew the attention of the other three.

But it was Alo’s reaction that got Brendun’s attention. The Octopus-girl seemed to jump, almost trying to climb her way up the wall behind her. She swung the sword wide to her right and held the dagger in close to her body as if to use it as a shield.

Brendun didn’t understand her reaction.

The monsters, stopped for a moment from closing in around her, turned to see what had happened.

Brendun drew his shoulders back and tried to stand as tall as he could. He lifted his heels to gain a few more inches. At five-foot seven inches, it wasn’t much, but he still towered over the three small creatures. One by one the three looked around. Taking clues from each other, they looked, first to the fallen one across the chamber, then to the one on the ground near them, and then in unison they all ran away.

As they ran Alo flowed down along the cavern wall until she was lying on the floor. Brendun didn’t know if she was injured or overwhelmed, and he didn’t take time to find out. Turning again, he looked to see if Tabitha was in trouble.

She wasn’t. He was not surprised. One of the monsters lay limp to one side, while Tabitha was straddling the other, her knees on the ground one on each side of the little creature while she beat against the thing’s armor with her fists.

Tabitha was a brawler of the first and most dangerous kind. Hers was the kind of attack that was best described as relentless, and deliberate. She wasn’t exceptionally strong, but she fought with determination. Her hands were small, but she was quick, and knew how to hit, and hit with all the strength she had.
The little monster below her tried to raise its arms to block the blows only to have its arms knocked aside and feel more blows rain down on its head faster than it could recover. In a moment it was over.

There were many things that needed to be done, now that the fight was over. Four monsters lay on the cavern floor, dead or dying, while three had run away and that didn’t sit well with Brendun. Whenever you let your enemy escape, you put yourself in danger from a counterattack. Reinforcements might be just around that rock, or maybe further away, but the potential for the ones that got away to return, with greater numbers, was always a possibility. He acted fast, doing the first and most important thing he could think.

“Why would you only bring eight bolts!” he shouted at Tabitha waving his arms to get her attention.

“Because,” Tabitha shouted back, “I wasn’t expecting to be going on an adventure I only needed one! To get your attention, but the shop wouldn’t sell me less than eight!”

“You should have at least bought a gross!” Brendon shouted walking toward Tabitha as she rose to her feet.

“I didn’t have money for a gross!” Tabitha’s voice grew louder as she took two steps toward Brendun.

He took one step. She took one step. Tabitha was just as tall as Brendun. They came nose to nose. Their faces were set like stone as both tried not to give an inch or back down in any way. They stared into each other’s eyes through the dim light of the brand that was still lying on the floor.

“Alo!” Tabitha suddenly exclaimed.

“Yes,” Brendun agreed and the two rushed together to where the octopus-girl lay on the cavern floor.

As they reached her, one of the small creatures, the one Brendun had hit on the head, made a gurgling sound.

“That one’s still alive,” Tabitha said as she reached into her pouch for her physicker’s kit only to remember she left it on the floor where she had treated Brendun’s leg.

“I’m on it,” Brendun said as he pulled his pack off his back and dug into it, pulling out several short lengths of light rope.

Tabitha touched Alo below her right eye, softly, and said her name quietly, “Alo, hun, are you alright?”

“Yesh,” Alo replied. “Are theyha ghone?”

Just then Brendun rolled the injured creature over causing its armor to clink against the stone floor.

Alo flinched. Her eyes rolled around, and she slinked back against the cavern wall.

“It’s just Brendun,” Tabitha said. “He is tying up the ones that aren’t dead. Alo, what is it? Why are you afraid.”

Alo rose up slightly, bringing her head up to the same height as Tabatha’s, who was on her knees. She spoke very slowly, “I know what those creatures are. They are the Fejevar. Crab eating toad-folk. They are not normally a threat to us, but in numbers they can be dangerous, and they, they…”

“I get it,” Tabitha said.

“Andhh theyhh,” she began to speak quicker, “wearah thhhe shellsss ov thhhe thhhingsss thhhheyhh eatah. Thhhe shellssss makeh ithhh shheem likeha thhhey arahe madhhe ov stonessss. Thhhe ssssoundss, thhhe sssoundsss…”

“Relax, shssh,” Tabitha soothed as she gently stroked Alo’s face.

Brendun tied the one’s hands behind its back and lifted the shell helmet from its head. It was a toad-man alright. He would have thought it a bullywug, or one of the other kinds of toad-folk from the swamps and marshes inland along the river. He didn’t know that there were saltwater types of these small, dangerous creatures.

Most of the toad-folk he had heard about were cowardly but could be dangerous in large numbers. They were known to eat anything they could catch, and would attack people travelling along the river alone, or even sometimes, if they were desperate, raid a small hamlet or farm carrying off whatever they could get their hands on. Rarely sticking to a fight to the end, he was lucky these types of toad-folk were just like the others.

[Terquem]

Part 6
Brendun bent over and picked up the brand. The simple magical device would continue to shed a soft light for a good long time, now that it had been activated, and it was better than a torch in situations like this.

“Tabitha, stay sharp,” Brendun said over his shoulder, “I’m going to look around.” He kicked his pack so that it slid across the floor and ended up close to where Tabitha was kneeling next to Alo.

And then it occurred to him. It was a feeling he knew well, a feeling that something wasn’t adding up right. Something about Alo bothered him more than just a little bit. He turned back around and came close to them. Standing over them he said, “I think I need to ask a few questions first.”

“Ihh havehh questionsssss,” Alo said. “Isss thisah thhhe labyrinth?” She spoke in her hurried sloppy way until the last and slowed down to carefully pronounce the word labyrinth correctly.

“Okay,” Brendun said squatting down and holding the brand so that it illuminated all three of them at the same time. “That sounds fair. I’ll answer your questions, and you can answer mine. No, this isn’t the labyrinth proper, I thought it might be, but it is not. I suspect where we are now will lead us to it, eventually. I think I stumbled…”

“You mean we stumbled,” Tabitha said glaring at him.

“Well, I Stumbled,” he said. “You could have let go. I didn’t drag you here against your will. You followed because you weren’t thinking ahead, like always.”

“I was trying to save your ass,” she said and turned toward him.

“My ass never needed to be saved by you. Saved from you maybe.”

Tabitha’s mouth dropped open, and her thick brown hair fell to the side of her face as her head bobbed up and down as she seemed to grow angry with him again. “Oh, oh, really. That’s how you want to be,” she said.

Alo leaned close to the both of them and whispered slowly, “Maybe it would speed things up if the two of you just copulate now and get it out of the way.”

Brendun was stunned, and only managed to make peculiar noises, while Tabitha tuned to face Alo, her eyes growing large.

“What?” Tabitha finally managed to say.

“You told me,” Alo said, again taking her time so the words came out clear, “that you knew him because the two of you used to have a physical relationship. You said you would fight all of the time, about all kinds of things, and then have intercourse afterwards to make up. You called it something, I remember.”

“You told her we had make up sex? All of the time?” Brendun said with a long sigh.

“Well, we did,” Tabitha leaned back, folded her arms and closed her eyes.

Brendun pinched the bridge of his nose, took a breath, and then said, “No, look, no we aren’t going to copulate. Let’s try to stay focused, for once, alright. Alo, I think this is an old smuggler’s lair. It probably was built in the time of the sugar embargo, twenty, maybe thirty years ago. It has good access to a long stretch of isolated beach. The sea here is deep enough for a large ship to move close to shore, drop a few small boats and sail away without being noticed. I think the caves and tunnels here might lead to an entrance of the labyrinth. It wouldn’t surprise me. Now, here’s my question. What are you, exactly? Are you some woman under a curse, some transmogrification spell? You don’t behave the way I have learned your kind normally behave. You said you were from Mauli, one of the islands in the Nua’lonalani archipelago. I’ve heard of the place. I know that octo…I’m sorry, octopus-folk come from some of the islands. Those islands that no one dares investigate, but you are different, why?”

She leaned away, turned her large head to the side, and then with two of her tentacles she drew her hood back and away. Her large head was bluish green in the soft light of the brand, and on it Brendun could see a fine spiral tattoo.

“I am,” she said, “Mauli, Mauli A’Anawa. It means the ones who lived there first, on Mauli. I am,” she hesitated even longer than normal, “an octopus creature, as your kind is like to say. I am not like the ones you may have had the trouble of meeting in the past. I’ll tell you why, if you think we have the time.”

Brendun was curious. He rested on his backside and folded his legs in front of him. Tabitha did the same, taking the brand from his hand and holding it low, below Alo’s face.

next…Alo’s tale

[Terquem]

Part 7

“I was born on a red tide,” Alo began, speaking carefully, slowly. “Were it not for my heritage, I would have been sacrificed to the great sea god, Alucaarat. Instead, I was raised in isolation, kept from others of my kind except those who among my people are allowed to be in contact with those who are untouchable.

When I was nine years old, I was branded,” she said as she indicated the mark on her head with one tentacle.

“At the age of eleven,” Alo paused, her head fell a little, and before she could continue Tabitha reached out and touched her below the eye.

“You don’t have to explain it to him,” Tabitha said in soothing tones.

“No, it will help him understand. When I, when I was eleven my rostrum was removed in a ritual designed to mark me as a slave for the rest of my life. It is because of this that when I speak too quickly, I slur and misspeak some words. It has been nine years and still my muscles have not adapted to the pain and injury.”

“I was sent to live on the island of Ka’Nahalin. It is a place where outcasts and untouchables are allowed to live out their lives. It is a harsh place. You should know that my people are, how do you say, xenophobic. We do not want any others, of any kind, coming onto our islands, or telling us how to live our lives. Our rules, our way of life, our traditions, may seem harsh, but it is only because many other kinds simply do not understand where we have been, what we have suffered. Because of our ways, many are cast out, and many, those who cannot follow our laws, are sent to die on isolated islands at the southern end of the archipelago. Some of these manage to survive, even escape their isolation, while others band together to form clans of their own. Some of these isolated clans of my people are driven mad by the separation from the greater population, driven to great atrocities, even cannibalism. Some manage to find a way off their prison islands aboard the ships of pirates, and these, more cruel, more insane even than those who live their lives in isolation, are the ones you most likely encountered here in your own country. My people, strange as they are to you or others of your kind, do not leave our homes voluntarily.”

“Still, there are others, the ones most dangerous of all. These are the ones who have been cast out in great numbers in the past. Because of conflicts among the nobles of my people, whole families of hundreds of individuals have been cast out. These are cast out onto great rafts. Twin and sometimes triple hulled great ships called Lukaloke, with sometimes as many as five masts roaming the seas with the remains of these people. They are scavengers, pirates, and scoundrels, often trading upon the high seas with other pirate peoples.”

“Just over one year ago a Lukaloke made anchor off the coast of Ka’Nahalin. It is forbidden, even for the untouchable, to have contact with the outcast people of the sea, and we assumed it was going to be a raid. But instead, the outcast people came ashore in one small boat begging for help. They had been attacked by a great vessel of the gymnagaopthians, you call them sea-elves. The sea-elves were searching for the Cryssalium. The outcast people did not have it, nor know of its location, and the sea-elves were not pleased to hear this. They stole all the outcast people’s supplies, leaving them in a desperate situation. It was the season of the southwest rainstorms, and they could not hope to reach an island where they could resupply before many of them would die. The Lord Governor of Ka’Nahalin allowed the outcasts three days to gather supplies from the island but would offer no other help to them.”

“On the second day a fire was started in a warehouse on the docks of Ka’Nahalin. I was a working girl in the Othapa, a place where the men of the island could ease their loneliness. During the confusion of the fire, I escaped my cell and stowed away on a supply raft. The outcast peoples, naturally, were blamed for the fire, and fled in fear of retaliation by the island dwellers. They did not notice me until they had sailed away from the island with the few supplies they had collected.”

“Three days later a ship sailing out of Norral, north of Galdorland, hailed the outcast peoples. I was traded to humankind on that ship for weapons and supplies, mostly ropes and sailcloth. Tabitha was among the crew of those people, and she paid for my freedom with her share of the ships goods once the ship reached port here at Bayfield.”

“I began to investigate what could have made the sea-elves believe the outcast people were in possession of the Cryssalium. I learned about the reward offered by the Queen of Kijzta for its discovery and its return to her palace, but I also learned much, much more. When we have more time, I will tell you what I have learned about this artefact and why it cannot be found. Look, our assailants are waking up.”

End of Chapter 1

[Terquem]

Chapter 2

Part 8

“The layout here seems simple and obvious,” Brendun said as he led the way along a tunnel. The tunnel was man made, in that it was obviously not made by the toad-folk. The ceiling was high, at least two feet above their heads. The walls had been reinforced with cheap bricks and thick timbers spaced about twelve feet apart supporting crossbeams on the ceiling. Everything was wet. Water dripped from the beams and left small puddles along the uneven floor. The water had a dense, brackish smell and he could tell it came from the frequent high waves that crashed against the sea wall above. The passageway turned gently to the right and began to slope downward. After a short distance, the tunnel opened up into a large chamber.

“Well, that answers that question,” Tabitha said as she walked past Brendun into the chamber. The remains of several pieces of wooden furniture were scattered along the wall to her left, and against the far wall sat a heavy wooden chest, marked across its face with a swordfish painted on a representation of a sail. “Looks like I might have known these people. That,” she pointed, “is the mark of Captain Rahlo Agaspando. This was either one of her hideouts, or someone managed to steal that chest from her and hide it here, and I only know a few pirates dumb enough and tough enough to steal from Captain Rahlo. From the looks of this place,” Tabitha went on, taking the brand from Brendun’s hand and walking a few more steps out into the center of the chamber, “there was a pretty good-sized battle, but when it was over the winner, if there was one, didn’t try to break the seal on that chest. I imagine that, if there were bodies, maybe both sides killed each other off, the toad-folk must have carried them off a long time ago.”

“Iha stihhl don’thh uhndersstandhh awhy youhha lhet them gohh fahree,” Alo said moving from the rear to stand next to Brendun. She had found her other sword and was holding them both at the ready.

When she moved, it was without any sound at all. A tinkle from a buckle on one of her belts, or the slight sound of her leather pack stretching as it shifted on her back was the only thing that gave her movement away. Brendun had always been curious about the way the octopus-folk were, well, arranged. He had not seen many of the regular ocean living types in his life, just one or two and those all seemed built for sliding along the sea floor trailing their head bodies behind them. The octopus-folk were not built like those creatures at all. Anyone could tell the first time you encountered one of their kind. They had eight tentacles, and large solid dark eyes, with enlarged heads, but that was where the similarities ended. Octopus-folk’s legs, long as they were, ended in a body, a torso not completely unlike any other land walking folk. The torso was slim and short. When the Octopus-folk wore any sort of cloths at all, it was usually a long “kilt-like” garment which tended to obscure the region where their bodies and legs came together leading to the belief that their legs went all the way up to the bottoms of their heads, which was obviously not true at all. Where their heads rested on their torso there was a short, thin, neck. The head, larger than an average human’s head by easily twice the size, did tend to droop toward the back, but it still stood upright. All the Octopus-folk that Brendun had ever seen wore hooded cloaks, great billowing things of heavy, dense, dark colored fabrics. With the cowl pulled over their heads, and if moving slowly, keeping their tentacles close to each other, the octopus-folk could usually slip by, in a shadowy alley way or crowded street on a cloudy day, without being noticed for what they were.

He let Tabitha explore the room a bit, even though he had earlier reminded them to stay close, knowing that this was her field of expertise. Tabitha, Brendun knew, had a keen eye for minute details, and her knowledge of the pirates and other sea travelers in the region was unmatched, but as she moved closer to the chest, he began to get nervous.

“Tabitha, don’t do anything stupid. We have time to be careful,” Brendun said as he took his pack off his back, and then turned to face Alo. It took him a moment to decipher Alo’s question about the crab-eating toad-men, and Brendun said, “I let them go for a good reason. They understand we are dangerous, and if they had more numbers, they would have already been upon us while we searched the room for our stuff. They won’t risk attacking us outright, but I bet they are following us at a safe distance, hoping something else does us in, and they can pick up the scraps. We’ll keep moving. I think we might either find an entrance to the Labyrinth close by, or an exit back to the city. That trap door was a minor setback. I still intend to find what I am looking for.”

Alo slid closer to Brendun, and spoke slowly, for his benefit, and perhaps tyring to frighten him again, “I told you that it should not be found.”

“That’s interesting,” Brendun said, taking a knee, and reaching into his pack.

“Oh, great, here we go,” Tabitha said, turning slowly and with a flip of her hair she moved quickly back to stand beside Alo. “I told you to be careful of what you say around him.”

“What, whhahht didha I sssayh,” Alo said shrugging two of her tentacles.

Brendun stood up, holding a small leather case in one hand, “You said, ‘shouldn’t be found,’ not couldn’t be found. That means you know it can be found, even if you don’t know where it is. It means that you know things I need to know. Unfortunately, now isn’t the time to get to the bottom of that. This place isn’t safe, at least not safe enough to rest, so that means we see if that chest there is trapped, and if it is leave it alone, or, if it isn’t see if we can find out why it was left here and by who. We’ll keep this short, and then be on our way. I will feel a lot better once we are back in the city, or in the Labyrinth proper. Pirate hideouts give me the willies,” Brendun shivered at an old memory.

[Terquem]

Part 9

Brendun approached the large sea chest cautiously.

“I’ve never heard of any of these chests ever being recovered, and always thought they were only a myth,” Tabitha said as she rushed toward the chest, passing Brendun on the left, holding the brand over her head as high as she could.

“Stop!” Brendun cried.

Tabitha froze in place, holding one foot off the floor. It was a credit to their time spent together that Brendun could count on her reaction time and understanding of his warnings.

But almost immediately Tabitha recovered from her reaction. “Oh, would you stop being so careful all the time. I know this pirate captain’s history. She sealed her chests with magic spells, and let unwary thieves believe the spells would last for years, but the Xason resonators that she used could only store spell strength for a few months, at best. She knew this and kept it a well-guarded secret. Most of her treasure chests were small, and those were hidden on islands to the north, near the coast of the Duchies of Olwand and Sviel. Chests of this size were always mentioned in stories about her, but no one ever said they found one. She disappeared nine years ago, in a storm off the Azar Peninsula. Other pirates who were active at the time were the Fuldir Brothers, Captain Parcell of Niranel, and The Red Dawn. I don’t think this chest is trapped, and it might be the only one of its kind, probably captured by the Red Dawn just before Captain Agaspando disappeared.”

As she filled them in on her encyclopedic knowledge of the pirate captain, Brendun moved a bit slower toward her, and when he was right beside her he shifted her still raised foot to the left and pushed gently down on her knee.
“Ha, haha,” Tabitha laughed nervously. “I didn’t realize my foot was still up. Silly me.”

“Good that it was,” Brendun said. “It wasn’t the chest I was worried about. A different sort of trap is set here. It’s simple but well hidden. The floor right where you were about to step isn’t made of flagstone like the rest of the floor here. It’s made of plaster, painted to look like the rest of the floor. It has lost some of the paint, due to the water here I’m sure, and I spotted it just in time. I can’t tell what it covers, but let’s not find out. I feel it was added later, by someone other than the people who built this hideout in the first place.”

“Fhhhejevarahh,” Alo hissed moving away from the two of them.

“Not likely,” Berndum said, kneeling close to the trapped floor. “Alo, hand me a few of those pieces of wood there by you.”

Alo sheathed both swords, and then collected a few of long narrow boards from a pile that looked like the remains of a table, as she did a small water lizard scurried out from under the debris.

“Olololol,” Alo made a strange sound, dropped the wood and backed away quickly.

Brendun stood up and stepped toward her as she was backing up. He caught her with both hands, and she turned and placed her large head against his shoulder.
“It’s alright,” Brendun said feeling the upper part of her mantle. It was warm, and dry, and not at all what he expected. “This really is your first time at this sort of thing, isn’t it?”

“No,” Alo said and turned her eyes up at Brendun. She slowed her voice and looked directly into his eyes, “I’ve done things like this before. It’s just caves, wet caves, and lizards or snakes that I get a little nervous around. There was a matron in the orphanage that used to tell us stories about a group of outcasts who lived in deep wet caves. They had resorted to barbaric behaviors, wild and violent kinds of our people, and they, they mated with the snake-women, producing monstrous offspring. They were stories to frighten children, like me, and I suppose it worked.”

“I need you to not be easily startled, Alo,” Brendun said. “If you want me to help you, if you are going to help me, I need you to be ready for anything.”

He had never held an Octopus-kin in his arms before. He had thought it would be uncomfortable, but for one reason he couldn’t pin down at the moment, it wasn’t. She looked different, and she spoke differently, at times, but she was just another intelligent species, like so many that lived in this city, not as different as some, and in some ways more the same than others.

He gathered the wood, with Alo’s help, and placed the pieces in a box frame pattern on the floor around the area that was not a real floor. When he was sure he had the trap identified, and warned Tabitha and Alo of the area, Brendun approached the seal on the lid of the large chest. He unrolled the kit of small tools to one side of the chest, and then, without touching the chest at all, he brought his eyes as close as he could to the elaborate seal where the lid met the box edge.

“Tabitha, bring the light closer,” he said in a whisper, and then turned to Alo and asked, “Do you have any torches?”

“I do,” Alo said slowly, “I have ten.”

“Light three torches and place them ten feet back from the front of the chest on the ground, avoid the trap, in a semicircle, and then lower yourself to the floor as low as you can, while still being in a position to get up quickly if you need to. Tabitha, I want you ten feet to the side, on one knee, with the crossbow on the floor at your side, loaded, and any other weapon you might have ready. You both understand?”

Alo took out the torches and lit them one by one. She then flattened her body to the floor near one of the torches, while Tabitha moved away and set up her small area as Brendun had said.

“Alo, can you get up quickly from that position?” Brendun asked.

Without answering, Alo rose quickly, almost faster than Brendun thought possible, and then lowered her body back down again. “When I know what I need to do,” Alo said, again speaking slowly, “I can place my arms where they need to be to assist me in this sort of maneuver.”

“I appreciate your making the effort to be clearer when you speak,” Brendun said as he turned back to the chest. “It is more helpful than you know.”

He was not aware, as the saying goes, but Tabitha knew Alo well, and the colors that passed briefly across Alo’s face were not missed by Tabitha. Not missed, and for the moment, not taken well. Tabitha had only ever seen Alo blush once before.

Using a pair of the small tools together, one in each hand, Brendun carefully removed the seal from the chest, and then, still on his knees, moved to the opposite side of the chest from Tabitha. Drawing his short sword, he placed the tip of the blade against the gap between the lid and the box itself, and said, “Alright, I’m going to lift the lid, on the count of three. If there is a magical trap still on this chest, let’s hope the crystals have drained over time, if not, be ready for anything.”