Tales of Vyscher Book 2

Chapter 35

Fehrys ensured his weapons were ready, and then silently headed down the stairs. The steps were worn smooth with age and usage, and wide enough for several people, or luckily a smaller dragon, to walk down. As a precaution, he put up his skintight protection spell, just in case.

The stairs descended over fifty feet before opening into a cavern split down the middle by a twenty foot chasm spanned by a stone bridge. The greenish lights were still embedded here and illuminated ranks of undead on the other side of the bridge.

He had found the guards.

They were guarding a tunnel on the right end of the far side of the chamber, which Fehrys assumed was where he needed to go.

"You must be the intruder we were warned about, welcome." Oozed a voice from behind all the decaying flesh. "Grollzan said you were dangerous, but I'm not impressed."

Grollzan had a method of communication with the tunnelers, he should have suspected. "Well, since you're digging under Vysher territory, I thought I should come pay a visit. You do know you're violating our borders."

"Those borders will mean nothing soon, so no, we're not too worried about it," chuckled the voice.

"And are you Sowyan? Or just one of his lackeys?"

"Sowyan will soon be your king! Show respect!"

"That seems unlikely. But perhaps if I kill you and your friends here, then maybe Sowyan will come to tell me himself."

"Enough! Destroy this ignorant intruder!" the voice commanded the undead troops.

Fehrys slashed the air horizontally with his axe and a wave of silver and gold flames washed over the masses, turning them to ash. The hidden mage had time for a quick squeak of pain before he too was destroyed.

A mass of the undead poured in from the far tunnel, and Fehrys quickly took a position in the middle of the bridge. He could feel the power of another mage beyond the tunnel directing them, but this one stayed out of sight. The power was small, and midnight black, which was new to him.

The mix of zombies and skeletons was not smart, they rushed right at him, and he got busy chopping them to pieces. But there were so many. He was killing dozens every minute, but they never seemed to end, they just tumbled off the bridge into the chasm, damming the little stream at the bottom with their putrefying corpses.

A new wave of the zombies and skeletons rushed in, but to his surprise, they just jumped into the chasm. More and more followed them, until they started to fill it. Fehrys realized it would only be a few more minutes before his bridge would no longer be a good defensive position, they would have made their own. This was getting to be a little bit of an emergency. His protective spell would help against most attacks, but he would be overwhelmed sooner or later. He had to get through them and find Sowyan, quickly.

"Kyrian, clear a path to that doorway, time to get moving!" he called over his shoulder.

She appeared gloriously, a gout of lavender hued flames bursting from her mouth through the room and out the doorway. Nothing even twitched in the room.

"Quick, follow me!" Fehrys raced to the doorway, which led to a short passage opening itself onto a ledge overlooking a massive cavern.

It had to be miles long, since he couldn't see the other side, with stalactites and stalagmites breaking up the contours of the cavern. Small streams wound their way through the cavern, feeding a small pond in the middle. It was an entire ecosystem in a hidden little world. The floor was a seething mass of black, filled with the undead. It wasn't an inspiring sight to someone that wanted to bring down an entire tunnel. The light was different as well, instead of the sickly green, the entire cavern was lit by huge masses of glowing yellow moss that grew over the floors, walls and up the bases of the stalagmites.