A Soldier's Life

Chapter 166: Good News, Bad News

The steel helmet, with its scratched red lacquer, came off, and I recognized him immediately. Even with a scraggly beard, the familiar lines of Kolm’s face were easy to make out across the chamber. The company armorer was alive. “Eryk? Is that you?” he yelled across the chamber, clearly skeptical and not believing what he was seeing.

I remembered he was with Flavius, Linus, and Donte. A relieved smile spread across my face. “It is me. Are you alone?” I yelled back. The earth drake that had been agitated was now going into a frenzy as we yelled back and forth, making conversation difficult. It was not permitted to leave the room, and two tasty meals encased in red armor were talking back and forth, just out of its reach.

“Flavius, Linus, Donte, Brutus, and Favian are at the other end of the passage! They are fishing in the last room!” he yelled back. I relaxed somewhat. Five men of the company were alive, and so was the Scholar. Admittedly, I could have done without one of them being Flavius.

“Maveith and I are fine as well. I’m glad Brutus found you!” I replied. My thoughts turned to the forthcoming reunion and what it would mean—no longer being able to use my ability or the collector and storing Raelia.

He laughed. “We found him! He wouldn’t leave his entry room to fight the spiders. He was with the Scholar and starving. We were surprised he had not eaten the Scholar!”

I could not even contemplate such an action, but when men got desperate, they would do anything to survive. “How are you on food?” I yelled across.

“Not great, but we have enough to go around if we can reunite. We managed to clear a few rooms, but only this last one had a decent source of food with the fish.” He turned and looked back down the hallway. “I have to get back, Eryk. They are fishing in the previous room, but the pair of harpies will return soon. Our safe room is just beyond the harpy room, the left hallway coming from this direction. I’m sure Flavius can come up with a plan to take care of this,” he indicated toward the powerful earth drake. “Just hold on a bit. I will go get someone,” he reassured. Then he was gone, disappearing as if he were a figment of my imagination.

I watched the large pseudo-dragon storm around the chamber for over an hour. It looked powerful and well-muscled, with thick scales that moved like small shields along its body. Its head appeared bony, and its jaws sported dozens of six-inch fangs. It calmed down a few moments after Kolm left and focused all its attention on me.

Just over an hour later, Flavius and Brutus arrived with Kolm. They talked among themselves before Flavius yelled across, “Eryk, we cannot defeat this drake. Kolm was watching it, looking for a weakness, but attacking would be a death sentence. Have you seen anyone else?”

I tempered my reply. “Maveith is still with me. We appeared on a lower floor of the dungeon.” I pointed behind me. “There are stairs here, leading down.”

Brutus yelled, “What happened when you entered?” His tone held some anger, likely for being left to fend for himself with just the Scholar.

I explained what had happened. “Maveith got struck multiple times by a specter and lost contact with the Scholar. He was in bad shape when we entered, and we have had a rough time of it on the lower levels.” I said this more to mollify the clearly angry Brutus. “No sign of Castile?” I added to brush past his antipathy.

There was a brief conversation I could not hear before Flavius yelled back across the chamber, stirring the earth drake. “Brutus and the Scholar exited the dungeon to reenter three days after everyone else entered.”

Brutus added, yelling over the drake’s movements, “I was hoping to appear in a different entry room with another group. The bodies of Remus and Soren were just outside the dungeon entrance, torn apart. The snow was packed around the entrance, and there were half a dozen specters as well.”

The news of the death of our company mates was hard to swallow. “What about Cyrus?” Only one group of three had entered the dungeon: Cyrus, Soren, and Remus.

Brutus impatiently replied, “I didn’t have time to check all the body parts, but I did not see him. He could be wyvern shit by now, for all I know.”

Flavius took over the conversation. “We think the summoner is in the dungeon with us.”

“What? Why would he enter the dungeon?” I was confused by the stupidity of it. Why trap himself in here? Was his lust for vengeance really that great?

Flavius answered, “The wyverns were gone, but they killed Soren and Remus.”

Brutus added, “After the specters chased us back into the dungeon, the Scholar said he saw bloody footprints in the snow heading into the dungeon. They were narrow, like an elf’s, and definitely not legion boots.”

There was a prolonged period of silence as they let me absorb the implications. We were fighting for our lives in every room and being hunted by a mage seeking revenge.

Flavius broke the silence. “Eryk, we have to head back past the harpy room to reach our safe room. Linus has a broken leg, and Donte is recovering from spider poison. Even if they were healthy, I don’t think we could defeat this creature.” The earth drake hissed at Flavius in apparent challenge at his gestures.

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Kolm was the last to leave and tried to encourage me. “If we can find Castile, she can defeat this drake. Stay alive until then.”

I gave him some parting knowledge. “All the bears have had healing potions in their reward chests, Kolm.” He nodded curtly in thanks, and I heard Flavius yell at Kolm to hurry. The earth drake focused solely on me now. It lay down on all fours, its long neck extended toward me, and its glossy black eyes waited.

I waited ten minutes and took out the collector in the meantime. I decided to talk to the creature. “You know I have killed a wyvern before, and it was much bigger than you.” The drake cocked its head like a dog and turned to the other passage to confirm no one was there before focusing on me again.

I stepped into the room, and its body tensed as its head snapped up. Then, like a marionette with its strings cut, it collapsed to the ground. The drake had resisted but not as strongly as the wyvern had. It still bottomed out my aether, but I was now so accustomed to the feeling that I could brush off the disorientation it created.

I was not going to pursue the others right now. Maybe after I moved Raelia to the safety of my storage, we could reunite with them. I balanced the collector on the drake’s bony head and left it for now while my aether recovered. The reward chest was in the center of the chamber. It was the largest I had seen, the size of a narrow coffin. It also took a little more effort to shatter it. A few gold coins were mixed in with silver, but the real prize was the spear on top of the coins.

The leaf tip was matte black, like it had been left in a fire too long and was covered in soot. The shaft was black wood, but after hefting the spear and studying it, I noticed the grain of the wood spiraled and was extremely dense. I went through a few forms, assessing the weapon, and it hummed through the air faster than it should have. It was a little hefty but a well-balanced weapon. Even though I could not see any runic script anywhere on the spear, I was fairly certain it was a dungeon artifact.

I walked to the walls to study the green slime, carrying the spear with me. The slime appeared to flow across the surface, and its faint smell reminded me of rotten eggs. I guessed this was the only thing the drake had to eat, and I could not blame its eagerness to eat us instead.

I was about to return to use the collector when I paused at the slime wall. It appeared too smooth and was shaped like a door. The tip of the spear cut through the slime curtain that concealed another corridor with no flowing lights in the ceiling or the floor. I flicked the slime off the tip and watched as it slowly began to cover the entrance again. Interesting.

I returned to use the collector, and thick blue lines were drawn on it. The essence that formed was an apex earth essence.

My body briefly shuddered, remembering the last time I consumed an apex essence with the earth affinity. Castile had explained that adding new affinities to your core was not dangerous, but it overwhelmed me since I had received a greater benefit from each essence with my convergence spell form. Before descending the stairs, I waited long enough to store the coins, spear, and earth essence in my space. I then positioned the heavy drake’s head to face away from the passageway so that if the others returned, they would think the drake was sleeping. I also concealed the chest remains behind the drake’s tail.

Raelia was sleeping when I returned, and Maveith looked up from a pot of stew he was attending. His deep voice asked quietly, “What was at the top of the stairs?”

“A fat earth drake. Also, there were a few members of the company on the far side of the chamber. They didn’t want to risk fighting the earth drake. Flavius, Kolm, Linus, Brutus, Scholar Favian, and Donte are alive.” I informed the goliath and watched Raelia carefully to see if she was listening. Her body did not flinch, and drool dripped down her cheek. Maveith looked over his shoulder at her, too.

“Any news on Castile?” Maveith asked as softly as he could.

“No. Remus and Soren are dead, though.” I was not going to tell Maveith about the elven summoner with Raelia possibly overhearing.

Maveith nodded slowly at the news. “What do you want to do?”

“They are retreating past a room with harpies to another safe room. There was another exit from the earth drake room. We will explore that for now.” I said as I took the bowl of offered stew. Maveith had mixed the pork and bear meat together, but it needed a longer simmer to break down the tissue. The potatoes were well-cooked and balanced the meal.

I felt a little guilty about not reuniting with the men to share our food stores. I could not postpone it forever, though.

I sat down opposite the griffin rider, studying her momentarily before setting up my sleeping arrangements. The amulet was in my hand, and I confirmed with eye contact that Maveith would remain awake while I slept. With the ring of sustenance almost acclimatized to my body, I was down to about four hours to feel fully rested.

The entrance to the dreamscape dungeon felt familiar. It weirdly almost felt like home now. Seeing Konstantin almost made me miss the guy until he asked to spar. I materialized a replica of my new spear, and his eyebrow arched.

“Another new weapon? We are going to have to train you twice as long and hard to master both the black blade and this black spear.” Konstantin said eagerly.

I rolled my eyes and decided I would practice for a time with Xavier, the sword master. Of course, I did not know how Xavier would fight someone with a spear or with a spear and shield. The practice was inefficient, but I found some comfort with the new weapon.

Before leaving the dreamscape, I went to the elven collection of herbalism and apothecary books to look up the sundrop flowers and sugarweed. The sugarweed petals needed to be dried in an oven. They were used as a sweetener, like Raelia had said. They were also used to ease stomach cramps and help digestion when made into tea. I regretted not at least taking some of them.

The sundrops were also interesting. They only bloomed in early spring and were actually eaten by animals of both sexes to increase fertility—not particularly useful to me. I finished my four hours in the dreamscape and left.

Maveith had cleaned up and was playing checkers with Raelia. As I started putting things away, I told Maveith, “You have eight hours to sleep before we climb the stairs.” Maveith nodded and won the game, to Raelia’s consternation in the next few minutes.

Maveith took a few minutes to get comfortable but was soon snoring softly on the stone shelf. Raelia looked at me expectantly. I guessed it was time to have the tough conversation about her going back into my dimensional space.

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