Syline vomited. Bile and acid burned at her throat as the acrid stink filled her nostrils.
Thelonious looked at her; his scarf held over his mouth.
‘Wait outside, Syline,’ he told her.
He was trying to ignore the fact that the face in the ground she had vomited on was still moving. Trembling, Syline nodded limply and retreated to wait by the door.
‘We need to burn this place,’ Amberly said, more to the room and to herself than Thelonious.
‘Not gonna argue that, but not ’til we’re leaving, I don’t want to suffocate,’ he replied, careful with his steps as he moved towards the back of the room. A glint of metal had caught his eye.
‘Will there be more rooms like this? More of these… horrors?’
‘I couldn’t say. If there are, I’d say that’s a problem for Syline’s pa. It’s well beyond us. Let’s not die here today and just settle for the finder’s fee.’
‘But what if these things.’ Amberly paused, turning to see Thelonious pushing to the back of the room, using the tip of his blade to push flesh aside. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I saw something. I don’t think we’re the first ones to find this place.’
Thelonious reached down, a hand reached up to him, he took it, and pulled. The sound of waxy flesh peeling from the stone would haunt him for a long time, but a great lump was dislodged, to shudder and wail quietly, as he found what he’d looked for. There was a man under there. Not a monster, not one of these waxwork horrors. A man. His body had long since rotten, but the leather and metal of his armour remained. As did his sword. That was what had caught Thelonious’s eye. It was a bastard sword, like his, but of much finer make than his weathered blade. The edge was almost sky blue, fading to near black at the centre of the blade, and the crossguard was shaped into the form of two sets of antlers, rising from the centre. The hilt was two different types of wood, lovingly wound together into a single, firm grip.
Thelonious let out a whistle, prying the blade from the man’s grip. He pulled out two silver coins from his purse and placed them into the man’s hand in its place.
‘Sorry, fella, bad way to go,’ he murmured, wishing him an easy journey to wherever he wound up. He looked to Amberly, lifting the sword.
‘Well, would you look at that,’ she cooed. ‘Looks like tundra elf make, though bastard swords aren’t usually their style, as far as I know. Maybe it was a commission.’
‘Either way, it’s real nice. I’ll get Syline to check if it’s magic for me when we have the chance,’ Thelonious said, managing to put a bit of a brighter shine on this place, at least for himself. ‘Wonder how the poor bastard got down here…’ He trailed off, then looked to Amberly. ‘Are we happy to get out of here now?’
Amberly nodded. ‘For now, if Syline’s father doesn’t come here in force, I’m finding someone who will.’
They retreated from the chamber and found Syline finishing off the dregs of her waterskin, trying to clear her mouth of the taste of vomit. She jumped slightly when Thelonious said her name and turning to look at them, cheeks flushed.
‘It’s time we got out of here,’ Thelonious told her, ‘but not before you burn that place to the ground.’
Syline gulped. Pulling her scarf up around her nose.
‘Alright, but it’s your fault if I throw up again.’
With the awful stench of burning flesh, and a few pitiful wails of pain following after them, Thelonious helped the two girls up through the hole, and it was with a fair bit of groans and pain that they pulled the far heavier hellblooded up with them. With that, the trio set off back to the surface.
‘I swear, if the blizzard still hasn’t ended,’ Syline joked as they walked. She was moving with the aid of her staff and was still finding it a bit hard to get her breath. Still, her good mood was having a hard time fading; she couldn’t deny the rush that came with coming out victorious against such a seemingly impossible challenge.
‘Well, we’ll just have to find something else to kill,’ Amberly said, shooting her a grin. ‘You were the real hero of that fight, Syline. No way we would have won without those flames. Shame you couldn’t find a spell to get us out, but I suppose, in the end, it didn’t matter.’
Syline smiled but let the conversation trail away. She was struggling to keep walking, let alone talking and the visions of that awful room kept playing through her mind. Thelonious seemed to realise this for, without asking for a word of permission, her bodyguard came up behind her and swept the little mage up into his arms in a bridal carry. She felt a rush of fear, followed by a little guilty thrill at it but didn’t argue, resting into him even as Amberly gave Syline a cheeky grin. It slowly faded as she stared at Thelonious and the trio kept walking.
Finally, she asked, ‘So, you said Laes might be your father?’
‘Could be.’ He paused. ‘I mean, Ma did say it was a proper half-devil. Don’t think there’s all that many of them running around the kingdom.’
‘Right.’ Amberly looked conflicted. She let out a little sigh and looked to the ground as she walked, nursing her hip.
‘I don’t suppose,’ she put in. ‘I don’t suppose you’d know a way to summon him?’
‘Sorry, Amberly. Never met him and I’m no warlock just ’cos I’m a hellblooded. From what you told me about him though, he seems a pretty good one to have as a father. Shame I never met him.’
‘Maybe we can.’ Syline coughed and wriggled out of Thelonious’ grip; it was starting to feel awkward, being the only one not walking. It wasn’t as bad with just her and Thelonious, but with another girl forging on, it made her feel like the odd, weak one out. ‘Maybe we can find a way to summon him when we have a bit more access to components. I’m sure the book has something on summonings, but from what I know, summoning an outsider involves a bit more than just the incantation and magic, so it’ll probably have to wait until this is all over.’
Amberly shot her a little smile, nodding her thanks. With that, the trio largely fell silent. The going was hard enough with their wounds to spend too much time speaking. It took them a fair bit longer than the walk down had, but eventually, they found their way back to the surface and the rather ecstatic Alma. Corax fluttered out from where he’d been hiding in Syline’s robes during it all, to land on the horse’s head as the horse butted it into Thelonious’ chest. The hellblooded let out a laugh as he stroked at the horse’s ears.
‘It’s so cute that she worries about you,’ Syline said, smiling at the exchange.
‘Me and this horse go a long way back. People don’t think horses care, but I think they’re a lot like dogs, at the end of the day. You care for a horse and that horse will care for you.’ He patted the horse’s neck before fetching off her saddle bags a bag of salted, dried meats.
He let the girls grab however much they wanted, before getting a good and proper handful himself and shoving most of it into his mouth. It only occurred to him then that he hadn’t eaten yet that day.
‘Wonder what time it is,’ Thelonious mused, heading for the cave entrance. Alma tailed him, and Syline and Amberly quickly followed, chewing on their “breakfast”. He had to shovel out a fair bit of snow, cupping his hands and flinging it away to free the entrance enough for them to get out. While the blizzard had raged on, it had filled the entrance to the cave enough so they’d have a bit of a hard time getting Alma out. The storm was over, though the snow sat heavy on the ground. The sky was finally clear, bright and blue setting the snow in a sparkling array.
One by one, they eventually made their way out with a bit of pushing from the girls to get Alma to dive into the snow, the horse’s legs sinking deep into it. The trio shared quiet smiles, enjoying the warmth of the sun upon them before Syline finally said, ‘What now? Where do we go?’
‘Well,’ Thelonious started, ‘I suppose we can start by heading back north.’
‘You can start by dropping your weapons and getting on your knees,’ said a woman in dark leathers waiting at the entrance in the clearing beyond, flanked by a monstrous hound. ‘I’ve got a message from Lady Jane and there’s no reason for this to get violent.’
Four men stepped out from behind the trees ahead, aiming their bows at the trio.
