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Author: Atticus
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Wellp here it is, the final installment. if you read none of the other chapters read this one, im very proud of it and i hope you enjoy.
Chapter three: Sathek's Choice
Sathek turned the key and stepped back, secretly hoping that nothing would happen and he wouldn’t have to see what lay beneath the hills after all. For a moment it seemed that may very well be the case, but then, he heard it. A deep subterranean rumbling, almost inaudible at first, but growing more and more intense as it sped upwards at an alarming rate. After a few seconds the rumbling had grown so violent that Sathek thought maybe they had done something wrong and triggered some sort of ancient trap. All three travelers clapped their hands over their ears, fully expecting the earth to open up and swallow them. All of a sudden there was a thunderous crack as the rumbling reached the surface and the huge boulder that blocked the entrance to Xalgoz’ crypt split in two and peeled back, followed by an eerie silence. Sathek removed his hands from his ears and peered into the gaping black tunnel revealed by the boulder. He turned and looked from Veshar to Sneed with bewildered eyes. They were both still clutching their ears but slowly dropped their hands when it became clear that whatever force commanded the door had receded back into the hills. They all looked into the tunnel and shuddered at the thought of the horrors it lead to. After a moment of uneasy silence Sathek spoke “Alright,” he said “ I’ll go first, then Sneed. Veshar you ride drogue and keep your eyes and ears sharp.” Both Veshar and Sneed just nodded briefly and continued to stare into the inky blackness.
As soon as they set foot in the tunnel they were greeted by a blast of stale air that spoke of deep darkness and ancient evil. It was a little unnerving at first but Sathek pressed on, leading the procession onward to whatever end. Now both iksar and ratonga are known for their exceptional night vision but after about ten steps into the tunnel Sathek was absolutely certain that there existed no darker place in the entire world. He had seen darkness before, but never anything like this; this was an ancient, almost tangible darkness, that seeped into your orifices and wrapped around your brain.
Sathek place his hand on the wall in order to get some sense of his surroundings, and cringed. The wall was slippery, and almost spongy giving the impression that they were descending into the mouth of some great cave dwelling beast. He quickly put the thought out of his head and called back to the others, “stay close” he said “and if anything seems amiss, say so” and with that he began leading them blindly into the belly of the Charnel Hills.
They stumbled through the darkness for what seemed like hours, led only by the sound of one another’s feet and a hand trailed along the slimy wall, until the tunnel took a sudden right, which nearly caused Sathek to lose his balance. The sharp right turn was followed by another and another, the steep downward grade increasing with every turn; they were spiraling steadily downward. This corkscrew path drew them deeper and deeper into the vampire’s lair, and by the time the path finally
straightened out Sathek had lost count of how many turns they had taken. His head swam in the thick darkness, and the ever worsening smell of ancient slime, and he had to pause a moment to get his bearings and calm his nerves. “rest a moment,” he said. Sneed grunted in reply but there was no sound from Veshar. Sathek waited a moment and then whispered into the blackness behind him, “Veshar?” he asked. No reply. “Veshar!” he called a little louder, and was answered by a sharp “shhhh!” from Veshar’s direction. “What?” he asked “what’s the matter?”
“I think I heard something.” Said Veshar. Sathek listened for a moment but couldn’t hear anything. Sathek opened his mouth to berate his friend for his sick sense of humor, when he too, heard something. First there was a click followed by a sloshing, slithering sound, the sound a sack of entrails might make if they were to be dragged clumsily across a stone floor. The sound was slow and steady and as it drew closer to them, Sathek could hear wet breath being sucked between unseen teeth. Sathek’s breath caught in his throat and his heart sank, something had gotten the drop on them, and was now slowly stalking them through the tunnel. Sathek mustered his courage and drew his blade. “Who goes there?” he shouted into the darkness. The sound paused for a moment and then came back, the click, drag, click, drag, was faster this time and the raspy breathing sounded more intense, ravenous even. “Announce yourself!” Sathek cried, and this time he was answered. A sickly, wheezing shriek echoed back at them from the blackness and Sathek heard Sneed stifle a scream. The scream was absolutely gut wrenching and Sathek didn’t want to stick around to see what kind of a creature had made it. “Run!” he screamed, snatching up Sneed by the scruff of his neck and shoving him into the crook of his arm. Sathek felt Veshar run past him in the direction they had been going, and the next thing he knew they were running. Running to where? He hadn’t a clue, they could quite possibly be running toward a whole pack of those shrieking beast but for the time being it didn’t matter.
They ran for at least a mile in the darkness followed closely by the horrible slithering gasps, which only sounded more ravenous the faster they went. They ran until their heads pounded and their throats burned, They ran until their tendons ached and their muscles felt ready to explode, and just when Sathek began to think that he could go no further the tunnel began to ascend, and Sathek thought he could make out the dull flicker of torchlight up ahead. Both Sathek and Veshar took a deep breath and made a final desperate push for whatever lay at the top of the incline, be it death or salvation they would find out soon.
They burst from the tunnel into a small rectangular room, dimly lit by a small torch in each corner. The walls of the room were the dark rusty color of dried blood and were, engraved with ancient glyphs, the type used in Cabilis of old, and horrifying depictions of iksar being sacrificed in a number of different ways, each one as terrible as the last. The far wall was adorned with a series of pikes upon which were impaled the rotting skulls of many different races. But the most terrifying thing about the room, was it’s complete lack of exits.
Sathek dropped Sneed and all three of them ran to the walls and began searching for a lever secret passage that would put a wall between them and the advancing terror in the blackness behind them. The creature reminded them of its presence by letting loose with another of those disgusting raspy scream, they had been able to outrun it this far but it looked like this was the end of the line, one way or another something was dying in this room tonight.
Sathek drew his sword and shouted so that both Veshar and Sneed could hear “It’s no use,” he cried “there’s no way out. Steel yourselvess friends, this is where we make our stand.” The three of them ran to the center of the room and drew their swords, ready to make whatever fight they could against the screaming monstrosity which was now no more than fifteen yards beyond the mouth of the tunnel. Both Sathek and Sneed stood tall and strong, but Veshar shook like a leaf in a rainstorm. “Veshar! Stand strong, we need every blade we can get here!” shouted Sathek, but he could tell by the wild look in Veshar’s eyes that he was beyond reason. Veshar had never been confronted with his own mortality, and now when it was staring him right in the face, he flinched. His eyes darted around the room looking for anything that could save his hide, anything at all. Then his eyes rested on Sneed and Sathek saw a look of calm come across his friend’s face. “The rat.” Muttered Veshar.
“what?” said Sathek.
“The rat.” He repeated, a little louder “give it the rat!”
“Are you mad?” hissed Sathek. Sneed turned and looked at Veshar in disbelief. He opened his mouth to object but it was too late. Veshar screamed at the top of his lungs and lunged forward. Sneed screeched and swung his sword at Veshar but the iksar was too quick. He seized Sneed by the throat and hurled him into the darkness as hard as he could. They heard a wet thud and a loud hiss, followed by a blood curdling scream that slowly dissolved into a muffled gurgle. The creature in the tunnel issued a satisfied wheeze and then slow began to click, drag, click, drag back into the abyss from whence it came. Veshar’s plan had worked, by throwing Sneed to the beast Veshar had sated it’s hunger for the time being, and in doing so, he had killed them both.
“Fool!” screamed Sathek and he punched Veshar hard in the throat, wiping a look of stupid relief off his face. Veshar fell to his knees, coughing and gasping for air. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he continued “We have no sacrifice now! The alliance will crumble! We have failed, we’ll be killed. Fool! Coward!” Veshar just lay in a crumpled ball at Sathek’s feet sobbing. Sathek grabbed Veshar and pulled him to his feet “We can never go home! Do you understand that? Do you see now?” Veshar only cried harder. “Come on!” snapped Sathek “let’s get out of here before it finishes Sneed and comes back for more.” He turned and started back toward the tunnel but was stopped short. The ground began to rumble again, much as it had when they first opened the passage but not nearly as loud. Sathek whirled around just in time to see the ground at the far end of the room sinking and separating into the shape of a staircase leading downward. The stairs formed and a hollow raspy voice beckoned from within. “Come in, Come in we beg.” Said the voice of Xalgoz. They were caught, Sathek knew they couldn’t leave now, not without incurring the wrath of the ancient vampire. He gave Veshar a disgusted look and strode forward and down the stairs to meet his fate.
Sathek emerged into a huge room, easily two hundred square feet, that was filled to the brim with stacks and stacks of ancient book’s of all shapes and sizes. The room was filled with an unnatural blue glow that seemed to emanate from nowhere in particular, and that grew brighter as it neared the far side of the room where a small figure, dressed in voluminous black robes, sat hunched over a huge stone table. “Come Closer” it pleaded, “we don’t want to have to shout across the room at them now do we?”
Sathek walked cautiously forward as Veshar slinked sullenly into the chamber behind him. As he drew closer the unflattering features of the strange creature began to materialize in the eerie blue light.
Xalgoz was much shorter than Sathek had imagined, but for some reason that only made him more frightening. His skin was a dusty shade of red and his sunken eyes burned liked coals beneath his heavy skeletal brow. Sathek stared at the ancient Sarnak for what must have been a moment too long, because his gaze caused the old mummy to twitch to his left and mutter something about “snake eyes” to an unseen confidant. Realizing what he had done Sathek dropped to one knee and spoke to the ancient vampire in the manner which he had been directed to use. “Master Xalgoz” he said “we come from Freeport, bearing a gift, and good tidings from Lucan.”
“Yes, yes. We remember how it goes” he said to no one in particular “we all remember” he moved his hand in a sweeping arc, indicating either the books or more of his invisible cohorts. “but shouldn’t they have brought a third, hmm? There were always three before. Two dragon men and a third croak of a different race, for us to drink. Where is the drink? Have they forgotten the drink, hmm?”. Sathek looked uneasily from side to side.
“No we did not forget,” he replied hesitantly “but there was an accident in the passageway…” he was cut off by a loud burst of laughter from Xalgoz.
“The Slurps got it didn’t he?” asked Xalgoz “it happens from time to time, we’ll at least once by any of our counts. Nasty fate that. We saw it once you know, eh? Not pretty, not very pretty at all, not at all.” He cocked his head and tittered insanely. Then he stopped and let out a dusty sigh “Well it would seem as though they have a choice to make doesn’t it?”
Sathek looked at Xalgoz with confusion “a choice?” he repeated “what choice?”. Xalgoz let out another of those insane tittering blasts then came back to his senses with that same strange speed, as though none of this was happening “Well we must have something to eat mustn’t we? That’s the deal. We need to eat or we’ll seal up the hole and read yon books to the walls until we turn to dust.” he licked his cracked beak, and looked over Sathek’s shoulder at Veshar who was slumped on the stairs rubbing his throat. And suddenly, Sathek knew exactly what choice had to be made. He eyed his longtime friend, who seemed to be lost in a world of misery and failure, and swallowed hard. He could hear Xalgoz breathing hungrily through his splintering teeth, and for a moment he considered drawing his blade and turning it on the ancient mummy, but then General T’vek’s words echoed in his mind “Xalgoz must feed, or the alliance will crumble”. Then he thought of Veshar’s ruthless toadying and his self centered shallowness. He thought of how the only reason Veshar was here was his selfish desire for popularity and gloating rights. He thought of how in one careless act of cowardice Veshar had sent them both to an early grave without a second thought. Sathek brooded for a moment on the matter at hand, then drew his militia longsword and made the hardest choice he would ever make in his life.
Sathek emerged from the tunnel as the first light of a cold dawn peaked over the tops of the Charnel hills. He grabbed the slender bone key and removed it from the keyhole. The boulder slid shut behind him, showing no sign of the drama involved in its opening. He looked eastward toward the rising sun which seemed to shine right through him, exposing to the world the blood that now stained his soul. Sathek would never forget the look on Veshar’s face as he pulled his blood soaked sword from his friend's belly. He would see that face in his nightmares for the rest of his life. It would follow him into the battles he would preside over as a general in the Freeport Milita, and, in the end, it would be seated at the jury of ancestors that decreed the final destination of his soul. But despite all of that, Sathek knew two things. He knew that he had served his people well this day, and he knew that given a second chance to make that decision, he would do the exact same thing.
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