Pathway

Chapter 157: Leaving The Underground [I]

The tunnels were penetrated by the flickering light, and silence broken only by the hollow echoes of their footsteps were starting to give the two a terrible headache. How much farther before they wandered out the other side of tunnel? They had thought they were very close to the exit the other time. Eventually, though, the tunnel before them emptied out into a barrel-shaped cavern, and Icelin heard the sound of rushing water. An underground river gushed over stones, and a forest of stalactites hung low over the water.

Chang Chang stared at the river, grateful for anything to look at besides dark tunnel walls. The water foamed around the stalagmites as if from the mouth of a crooked-toothed beast. Blue-green fungus grew among the rocks on the shoreline, and there were a few stepping stones out in the river itself, but these looked dangerously slick and barely large enough to hold one person.

How many souls had actually crossed this river in all the centuries since its creation? As a blood, Chang Chang had never dreamed, when they set out, that the tunnels would lead them this far into the Underground. She'd never thought of herself as being afraid of extremely tight spaces, but the idea of being so far from sunlight unnerved her. Yet another part of her thrilled to the idea that she walked in a cavern unknown to most of the people above. They had stepped into another world. If only her parents had been there to share the sights with her, Chang Chang would have been content.

Well, content might not have been the best word, not while he things in the tunnels continued to affect the two of them. What had gotten into the underground anyway? When they'd stood near the last tunnel, for a second she'd thought they were leaving the underground. She wondered how they would find their way out now.

A sharp hiss and twang cut the air, vibrating down the length of her staff. Chang Chang flinched as she stared at Ju Feng. Chang Chang opened her mouth to say something to Ju Feng, when suddenly a second black quarrel buried itself in her arm. Staring at the missile in shock, Icelin at first didn't feel any pain. Blood welled and flowed in a warm trickle down her arm. Icelin found her voice. "We're under attack!" she cried.

Ju Feng spun, and pulled Chang Chang to the ground behind some rocks. Chang Chang clutched her wounded arm and looked through a crack between two rocks. In the middle of the river, three figures levitated near one of the larger stalactites. One wore a warrior's robes, and the other two wore armor that fit their slender bodies like a second skin. These two reloaded hand crossbows. Even in the dim red light of her staff, Icelin could appreciate their graceful forms, elegantly pointed ears, and obsidian skin.

Chang Chang shouldn't have been surprised to see the yaoguai in the Underground, but knowing such beings existed in the world, and seeing them firsthand, was quite a different experience. Red eyesa wave of fascination and revulsion swept over Icelin. The tales don't prepare you for seeing such burning eyes.

Throbbing pain in her arm reminded Chang Chang that they were not safe even crouched behind these rocks. Gritting her teeth, she wrapped blood-soaked fingers around the quarrel's shaft and pulled it out. Flesh tore as streaks of fiery pain shot up her arm. When she could stand it, Chang Chang examined the barbed weapon. A mixture of blood and a black, ichor-like substance coated the point.

"Are you all right?" Ju Feng asked, his gaze traveling from her wound to the Yaomo and back again, as if he couldn't decide which danger to address first.

"The quarrels are poisoned," Chang Chang said. Her fingers shook when she touched her wound. A numbing fatigue traveled up her arms, weighing them down. "I think it's a sleep poison. At least I hope it is and not something worse."

The fatigue quickly spread to her chest, her legsIcelin rolled onto her side, putting her back against the wet rocks by the river. The frigid water revived her a little. She had to stay alert, but all she wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep.

"Hold on," Ju Feng said. He yanked up a cloth and covered the wound, then folded her fingers around her staff. "Keep the light down," he said. "Don't make yourself a target."

"Come ashore and fight us, you bloody cowards!" shouted Ju Feng, drawing Chang Chang's attention momentarily away from her wound. He made a sharp gesture. A ribbon of water coiled up from the river and encircled his hand, forming the shape of another rune. The water snapped out, its foam crests like barbs that lashed at the drow crossbowmen and caused them to waver in midair.

The Yaomo raised his hands, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid the blows. Water slapped the skin of his cheeks with audible cracks. His red eyes burned, and he shouted in incoherent fury. He shouted something in an unfamiliar tongue, snarling the words as his hands clawed the air in a complex gesture. A curtain of flame rose at the Yaomo's feet and rippled across the river.

"Get down!" Chang Chang cried, and Ju Feng, who had been moving among the stones, making his way to the river, went down on his belly. Flames roared over their heads, leaving a trail of steam over the river that temporarily obscured the drow.

"Got them angry now!" Ju Feng touched the rocks along the shoreline, tracing symbols furiously as he crawled to where they crouched. A burst of gold light shot up from the rocks, pushing the flames back to the edge of the river and creating a pocket of protection around them. Steam still rose in thick clouds. They couldn't see the Yaomo, but at least the Yaomk couldn't see them either.

Ju Feng again began crawling to the river. "What are you doing?" Chang Chang demanded. "The river's still covered in fire."

"I know."

Ju Feng leaped to his feet and ran toward the river. He jumped through the flames beyond the land's protective barrier and disappeared. A breath passed, and Chang Chang heard a splash. She looked over the rocks, but Ju Feng was underwater.

Icelin brought her glaive up close to her face. The blood needed to be able to get at the Yaomo through the fire and steam, and Chang Chang wanted to make sure Ju Feng was all right. That meant getting rid of the fire. Her body was still sluggish from the poison, but manipulating water was not a difficult spell, not with the cave breezes to aid her, and the staff guided and focused her energy.

Whispering the words of the mystical arts, Chang Chang held up the glaive. She pointed it across the river, and a burst of air shot out, stirring up waves. The roiling water from her spell pierced the curtain of fire and quelled it. Cool air flowed through the cavern in the wake of the blaze. When the steam flowed through the cavern in the wake of the blaze. When the steam dissipated, she saw the Yaomo warrior was still standing on air in the middle of the river. One of the other Yaomo warriors had levitated high above and hovered near the cavern ceiling, his hand crossbow held at the ready. The third Yaomo was nowhere in sight.

The missing warrior didn't seem to trouble Chang Chang. She shouted a laugh and hurled her glaive at the yaomo hovering near the ceiling. The weapon flashed straight forward, black horns flashing. The yaomo tried to dodge, but it was too late. Chang Chang's glaive impaled the warrior in the chest with a sickening thud. The force of impact bent the Yaomo's lithe body backward and knocked him out of the grip of the levitation move. He fell into the river, and both he and the axe disappeared beneath the water.

"You're outmatched, cursed yaomo!" Chang Chang shouted at the wizard. "Your arts won't protect you forever."

The yaomo laughed scornfully and spoke in human tongue. "You hardly have the advantage, blood. You are getting weak from our poison, and the other is missing inside the river. How much longer will your own art protect you? Why don't you retreat to your tunnel? We'll root you out there eventually, but why not claim some peace while you can?"

Chang Chang watched warrior's face. He expected her to react with anger, to strike out at the him with her glaive, but Chang Chang's expression remained a mask of impassivity. 

"We're not lost yet, ," Chang Chang said and touched her glaive. The runes along the blade flashed.

The Yaomo's gloating expression vanished. An astral weapon! Furiously, he began casting againconjuring shields, Chang Chang guessed, so he wouldn't find himself with her glaive protruding from his stomach.

At the same time, Ju Feng burst from the river, coughing and scrubbing water out of his eyes. The second yaomo warrior surfaced in front of him. A dagger glinted in his grip, reflecting the light from above.

"Feng!" Chang Chang shouted.

Ju Feng grabbed the yaomo's wrist before he could finish him with the weapon. They grappled with each other and the current for a breath, but Ju Feng was the stronger. With a simple hand technique, he turned the dagger aside and forced the yaomo's arm down, driving the weapon into the warrior's own stomach. Ju Feng pushed the drow's body aside, letting the river carry it away.