Crypt of the Moaning Diamond

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ivy emerged from the staircase and blinked as she went from the darkness of the shadowy stair into the glowing corridor.

Behind her, Mumchance let out that soft half-sigh, half-whistle that can only mean one thing coming from a dwarf-that there was a fortune in raw gems surrounding them. He set down his sputtering lantern to better examine the strange corridor where they found themselves. Obviously others had come before them, as various crystals had been pried loose from the walls and littered the floor.

"Oooh, that is so ugly!" Gunderal squealed. The dainty wizard had just tripped over a large dead creature, sprawled over a rusty pile of armor.

"We better hurry, Ivy," said Mumchance. "The ground is getting unstable here."

"How do you know that?"

The dwarf pointed at the dead monster. A number of large crystals and smaller stones were scattered around the body. "Those must have fallen out of the wall and brained the creature while it was eating," said the dwarf.

"Lucky for us. One less thing for us to fight," said Zuzzara.

"Hey, doesn't that look like Procampur armor?"

"It's too rusty," said Gunderal. "Can you imagine anyone from Procampur letting their armor get into such a state!"

"Let's move," commanded Ivy. "That creature may have had friends, and we don't need any more trouble. Let's find Kid and get out of here."

"And what about Sanval?" Gunderal hopped neatly over the pile of rusted armor and gave Ivy a teasing look.

"Oh, him too."

"So there is still treasure in the ruins of Tsurlagol," said Mumchance, still checking the crystals studding the wall as he walked besides Ivy.

"Apparently. Funny that nobody ever looted this part."

"I think we are in the oldest bit," said Mumchance. "The most buried bit."

"What do you mean?" Ivy asked, picking her way carefully along the corridor. Besides the gems studding the walls and ceiling, more were poking up through the floor. It made the way rough, and tripping was a distinct possibility. Worse yet, there weren't enough clear flat bits to show any good tracks. Kid might have been able to see something, but Ivy didn't have his clever eyes and cleverer nose.

"Look at these tunnels, straight, narrow, and slanting down. This bit isn't some part of the city that sunk below ground. Someone chiseled this bit out of solid stone."

"Why?"

"Well, if they had bothered to take the rocks out of the walls, I would have said it was a mine shaft. But, as it is, and seeing what is in front of us, I think this is a tomb shaft," Mumchance said, halting before a pair of golden doors, emblazoned with the type of funeral scenes that they had seen earlier in the old city bath and in the ossuary. Only these scenes were much more finely wrought and studded with colored gems.

Above the funeral procession, the walls of a long-lost Tsurlagol tumbled down before a solitary figure with upraised arms. Again, the pictures showed a fantastic gem clutched in the man's hand, radiating out lines indicating some type of magical force. And above that were the runes for earth, sky, water, and emptiness that had decorated the floor of that odd trapped room. "I'd bet that this was the first time they made those pictures," said Mumchance, looking up at the doors, "and all the others in the ruins were just copies-what people remembered about these pictures."

"How about warnings?" suggested Ivy, still staring at the huge doors. She had never seen that much gold in one place. One door could probably buy an entire mansion in Procampur.

"Could be," said Mumchance, who also looked a little stunned by the sheer amount of gold that somebody had thought made an excellent door.

"Don't suppose they are just gold foil over wood," said Zuzzara, also blinking at the wealth on display. Gunderal was just tilting her head from one side to the other, seeing how her reflection looked in the polished gold panels.

"It's solid," said the dwarf, rapping the door with a heavy fist. "And too heavy for us to carry out."

At Mumchance's knock, the doors before them creaked half open, the lock neatly sprung. Wiggles jumped forward, squirming through the open doors ahead of the rest of them. "Charmed and mechanical," said Mumchance, stopping to peer at the lock in front of his nose. "But somebody went through it quick and clean. Must be Kid's work."

"That's why Archlis took him," Ivy said. "He needed Kid's talents to get through this door and any other locks he might encounter."

"Because he has no talents of his own." Gunderal sniffed. "Told you that it was all stolen magic and Kid's just another token to him."

"Still," said Ivy. "If Archlis needs Kid's talents, he should keep Kid alive until we can retrieve him." She looked back the way that they had come. Even with her human nose, she could smell river water.

"Ivy," said Gunderal, confirming her fears. "The river is coming closer. It will be in these tunnels soon."

"Then we go forward," Ivy said.

"And close the doors behind us," added Mumchance, clicking his fingers at Wiggles to bring the dog to heel. "Solid metal, dwarf-made, these should seal tight. That should keep the water out of this section for a while."

"But we can't go back." Even as Ivy voiced this objection, she realized that the doors were the least of their problems. With the river filling up the tunnels behind them, returning the way that they had taken into the treasure trove would soon be impossible.

More gems gleamed on the other side of the door. With Ivy's help, Zuzzara was able to drag the heavy golden doors closed again. With a firm click, the doors locked into place.

"So now we hope that Archlis has another way out," said Gunderal.

"I'm sure that he always did," said Ivy. "He just wanted to get here, and he couldn't with those destrachans in the way. When we drew them off, he came straight here and straight through. He is moving fast, hunting for one particular treasure, or he'd be chipping out part of these walls, wouldn't he?"

"They are good crystals," admitted Mumchance, trailing his fingers along the wall. "Useful for spells-the sort of thing most wizards would want. If it had been me, I'd have slowed down and taken a few with me. Maybe tried to shave a bit of gold off those doors."

"So he's blind to all of this, and set on getting some other treasure out of these ruins," Ivy said.

"Must be. And there's something odd about these walls. Has been since we came down those stairs."

"What?" Ivy asked.

"These crystals shouldn't be here at all. Wrong type of rock for such gems. These come from lower down probably. And they weren't set here by somebody. Not like dwarves studded the walls, if you see what I mean. More like the gems just pushed themselves out of the dirt here."

"There's more earth magic here," agreed Gunderal. "Very strong and very close now."

"I just wish I had not lost my sword back there," Ivy said, pulling the long knife from her belt. It would work for close fighting, but she most certainly regretted feeding her sword to the destrachan. The corridors still blazed with an internal light, and for the first time since she had fallen into the river, Ivy could see clearly ahead of her-no shadows, no darkness, nothing hiding in front of her. It made her exceedingly nervous. Remembering the phantom fungus, she had the queer feeling that whatever you couldn't see might turn out to be worse than what you could.

Zuzzara and Gunderal seemed equally anxious, starting at their own footfalls as they passed through the crystal-studded tunnel. Obviously, they too thought this was just too easy.

Only Mumchance seemed carefree. He was too intrigued by the gems surrounding them on all sides to notice much else. Turning slowly, his real eye gleamed with appreciation of the stones arrayed in front of him, and even the fake eye appeared to sparkle in the light of the corridor. "I'm sure that these crystals were pushed straight out of the earth, called out of it as it were. This was done by magic. Then somebody came along later and made those doors and sealed the place off. And who seals off a terrific source of wealth like this?"

"Somebody who is afraid of the magic down here," said Gunderal with a shudder. "Whatever is here is what buried Tsurlagol before."

"What was it?" Ivy asked. Whatever it was, this had to be what Archlis was hunting-an artifact so powerful that he had led Fottergrim to Tsurlagol and plunged an entire city into war just so he could roam around these ruins.

"Something was hidden here a long time ago," Gunderal said. She pushed her dark hair back from her face and closed her eyes, a small worry line marking a perfect crescent between her eyebrows. She waved both hands with palms upturned, like a seer trying to draw scented incense toward her face. Gunderal swayed twice, and Zuzzara stepped forward to steady her sister. Ivy gestured her back. Gunderal sighed and then opened her eyes. "An object of great power. A gem that calls to other gems and rules the earth beneath it."

"Is it evil?"

Gunderal shrugged. "No more than any other jewel. It is how it is used that has caused both trouble and sorrow. And fear. It was fear that caused them to build the golden doors and lock this treasure away."

"She is more sensible than she looks sometimes," said Mumchance. "Treasure is never evil. But the spending of it-that can cause great wickedness."

"Well, then," said Ivy, "it would probably be best to keep this treasure away from Archlis. Because I feel that he would be a very careless spender of wealth."

The tunnel branched in two directions ahead of them. Both ways curved off into shadows; neither showed a clear path. There were no boot prints on the gem-studded floor, and no visible archways or flickering lights beyond the branching.

Better still, Ivy noted with some relief, no trail of blood or beastly fluids.

"Right or left?" queried Zuzzara.

"Don't see which way." Ivy missed Kid more than ever. "What do you hear, Zuzzara?"

The half-orc cupped her hands around her ears. "Metal striking metal. Somebody in a fight, but no yelling or screaming. Not like a normal fight."

Ivy grinned with relief. "Sounds perfectly normal for a man from Procampur who thinks it is uncivilized to insult his opponents. Which direction?"

"Left," Zuzzara said.

Ivy pivoted on her heel and started down the tunnel that Zuzzara indicated. Her fingers tightened around the handle of her dagger. "Come on, Sanval is down there," she said.

Whipping around a corner, Ivy barreled into the melee. Sanval and the magelord's two bugbears were whirling in the middle of the corridor, stuck in an odd three-way fight with each other. The bugbears were snarling softly, but Sanval, as expected, was fighting with his usual silent expertise.

Ivy was surprised to spot a new foe-two skeletal arms appeared to be floating through the air and spinning around the other fighters, wielding a rusty sword. There was nothing but empty space between the arms where a body and shoulders should have been. Still, when any of them moved, the upper arms drew slightly toward each other, the elbows shot out, and the hands tightened on the sword hilt, exactly as though the arms were attached to an invisible body. Each arm was polished white bone, from shoulder to elbow to wrist to the ivory hands that clutched the rusty sword. This was a creature created by magic, and one that the Siegebreakers knew, and there was something rather comforting and welcome about facing a danger that you understood, rather than one like the destrachans.

"Oh dear," said Gunderal behind Ivy. "More undead."

"A dread!" said Mumchance. "Lousy, lousy dread. I hate dead things that don't stay dead!" Wiggles's ears pricked up, and she gave a happy bark as she spotted the flying bones.

"A skeleton without a head, a head without a skeleton, and now arms without a body. Another undead guardian," Ivy agreed. "Somebody liked to play with bones in old Tsurlagol."

The dread seemed to be guarding a doorway. Each time Sanval or one of the bugbears got too close, the arms would swing the sword. If they backed away, the arms stayed floating in front of the entrance.

"So where are Archlis and Kid?" asked Ivy. "Why didn't that bony thing attack them?"

Gunderal gave a little sniff. She twitched her nose a couple of times to be sure. "No sword on Archlis."

"Lacking a sword is an advantage? So I can march right past it?" Ivy asked. When Gunderal did not reply, and continued to stand with her head tilted back, nostrils flared, Ivy added, "How do you know Archlis doesn't have a sword?"

"Keen sense of smell," Gunderal said.

"You can smell that?" said Zuzzara. "You are kidding, little sister."

"Of course not. I'm that good. I keep telling you that I can smell magic."

Zuzzara gave Gunderal a "big sister" look. "You can smell a missing sword on someone who isn't here?" the half-orc asked.

Gunderal giggled and then admitted, "I can smell an old command spell in this space, and I can see that Archlis and Kid shed their blades." She pointed across the floor. Just outside the doorway lay the magelord's slender sword and Kid's three stilettos. "Kid probably told him how to get around the dread-most likely it has a command on it to attack anyone bearing edged weapons. Kid's good at guessing such things. Remember the dreads that we found under the wizard's tower-the ones that were commanded to attack only dwarves? Besides, watch the arms. Anytime Sanval or the bugbears get near it, it attacks their weapons. It's there as a barrier, but one that would be easy to pass for anyone who knew what its commands were."

"I hate those things," muttered Mumchance, who still had a few scars from his previous encounter with the dwarf-activated dread.

"They're mindless, at least," said Gunderal. "They'll only fight what they are told to fight. Sort of like you, big sister."

"Ha-ha. So what about those three? Do we rescue Sanval first? Or get rid of the dread?" asked Zuzzara.

"We really can't afford to lose any more weapons," Ivy said. "Fairly soon, we'll be down to chucking stones. I would rather dismantle the bones than shed any blades that we have left." She gave the fight ahead of them a cool look. "Sanval's doing all right. Let's get rid of the dread first. It's upsetting those bugbears-look at them snarl and whine. And a frightened, upset bugbear is a big, hairy problem."

A dread always cast an aura of fear. As Ivy had learned in previous encounters, that fear could be ignored if you knew what was causing it. But if you didn't know what was causing it, that creeping feeling of terror could shake your confidence. The bugbears obviously didn't know why they were feeling so panicked, and that was making them fight all that much harder. Their huge ragged ears twitched, their tiny eyes narrowed to pinpoints, and their bear noses quivered. One of the bugbears had clenched his jaw so tightly he had thrust a pointed fang through his own lip, and a fine line of blood trailed down his chin and dripped over his matted chest. He brushed at it where it fell onto his shiny breastplate, dulling the gleam, and let out a low growl of frustration. In one clawed hand he clutched a glaive, and with the other he pulled his dagger from its scabbard. He hunched forward and swung wildly at the dread with the knife.

The dread lifted its arms and made a quick downward slice that missed the bugbear's sword but clipped against the loose chains hanging from the bugbear's shoulders. The blow did no harm other than rattle the chains and clang loudly. The bugbear let out a howl of anger; or was that fear? He jerked in a clumsy turn on his clawed feet, and the chains spun out around him, banging against the wall but missing the dread. It floated up and away, then paused beyond the bugbear's reach.

"Suggestions?" said Ivy.

"Break the dread's hold on its sword," said Gunderal. "That should weaken the spell. Might even dispel it."

Ivy looked at the arm bones floating in front of her. They were very skinny. A slow, wicked grin crept across her face. "Hey, Wiggles, come on, come on. Let's play fetch!" Ivy shed her knife, the only edged weapon that she had left, and skipped toward the arm bones, waving the little dog on.

"Ivy!" shouted the dwarf as his dog went racing after her, attracted by Ivy's whistle and "come hither" gestures.

Wiggles danced on her back paws, her fluffy white tail beating back and forth in an eager wag. As neither the dog nor the woman carried any type of edged blade, the dread ignored them. Ivy lunged for the bones and grabbed the nearest forearm. She punched down on the slender bones with her mailed gloves. As with most dreads, the thing was too tough to break, but she forced it near to the ground. Wiggles immediately leaped forward and clamped her sharp little teeth around the nearest wrist bone. She growled, backing away and dragging the dread after her. With no command laid upon it regarding small dogs with sharp teeth, the dread just went bumping after Wiggles, its sword still scraping behind it.

Ignoring the tough old bones, Ivy jumped directly on the rusted blade, landing hard on her boot heels. Unlike the bones, the blade was not magically immune to breakage. It cracked and crumbled under her feet. She stomped a few more times. The bony hand now held only the remnants of a rusted handle, a weapon that posed no danger to anyone. Wiggles still growled and tugged at the bones. She had hooked one paw over the hand bones in an attempt to hold them down for better chewing. With her sharp little teeth, she finally worried free a thumb bone. As soon as it snapped off, the entire dread broke into a shattered pile of bones. Ivy shuffled through the pile, scraping her soles along the floor, and quickly scattered the pieces as far apart as possible. She glared at the bones for a moment, but they remained only broken bits on the floor with no flicker of magic trying to paste them together.

With the dread no longer attacking him, the largest bugbear, Osteroric, whipped around and tried to brain Sanval with his glaive. Ivy shouted for her knife. Zuzzara grabbed it and flipped it blade over handle to her. Ivy caught it with one mailed hand. She took a running jump and flung herself at the bugbear, kicking with both feet at the creature's knee.

The impact sent a shock of pain through her injured toe, and Ivy screamed in a mix of anger and aggravation. More startled by the scream than injured by her kick, the bugbear tripped and rolled with Ivy on top of him. She dropped her knife and wrestled the glaive out of his hands. She used the long pole to swing herself upright, turning it again to swing the iron ball hard against Osteroric's chest. The ball rang against the shiny breastplate that Osteroric wore and knocked him flat. The bugbear waved his furry hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Peace and parley, peace and parley. Don't dent my new breastplate," he wheezed. "Pull your friend off Norimgic before he harms him."

"Sanval!" Ivy shouted. He ignored her, matching dueling sword against glaive with the snarling Norimgic. "Hey, Sanval, stop!

When Sanval ignored her commands and continued to battle Norimgic, Ivy realized the spell of the dread was still upon them, terror driving them to fight with mindless fury. She thrust the glaive between Sanval's legs, tripping him and sending him rolling off to one side. Norimgic tried to follow, but she shoved the glaive's blade against his throat. "Back off," she said, pricking the bugbear's skin enough to draw blood. "He's mine to kill, if I want to."

Norimgic turned his head and looked at the blood pooling in the hair on his shoulder, blinked his tiny eyes, flattened his ears against his skull, and whined in the same tone that Wiggles used when she knew that she had been a bad dog. Ivy eased off on the pressure of the blade balanced against his throat.

"Fighting females," said Osteroric, scrambling upright and dusting off his breastplate with gentle, concerned strokes. "You should never argue with them."

Ivy reached past the bugbear, grabbed Sanval by the back of his neck, pulled him upright, and shook him until his feet were firmly planted under him. Then she glared at him. She noticed his dark hair was amazingly mussed-the black curls were dusty, streaked with rust, and sticking up in all directions. She looked him over more carefully and frowned. "Aren't you missing something? Shiny stuff?"

Sanval managed a growl.

Ivy felt like she could stand there all day hanging on to Sanval, but she really had other things to do. She settled on a way to keep him out of trouble until she could get them above ground. She shoved him into the arms of a bugbear.

"Hang onto him. Tight," Ivy instructed Osteroric. "Now, where's Archlis? I want to get out of here."

A little cowed by her tone, Osteroric gestured to the archway in front of them. "He went into the crypt. He took the other one with him."

Turning to Sanval, the bugbear held the Procampur captain at arm's length, stared at him, and said, "You have nothing much left to trade, you know that?"

Sanval's growl deepened.

"Good thing I got that breastplate when I did. Did you lose your other stuff? I would not have thought of you as careless."

Sanval pulled his lips back from his clenched teeth and hissed. The bugbear gave him a wary look and stopped talking.

Ivy strode through the archway formerly guarded by the dread and entered the crypt. Its walls shone with the reflected glitter of countless gems, and patterns of light danced across the arched ceiling. Ivy stopped, turned slowly, and stared at her surroundings. It was like being inside a treasure chest. But that wasn't why she was here, she remembered, and she forced her attention back to her job.

"Never hesitate when going to confront a magelord with a lethal command over fire" was going to be her new motto. Just stroll on in like you expect to be paid, and see if you can bluff your way out of this mess, she told herself.

Of course, she was a little startled to find herself wading through gems that rolled underfoot like pebbles on a beach.

"Oooh," moaned Mumchance when he spotted the piles of gems that rose higher than his head in some corners of the room. "Rubies, emeralds, diamonds. Oh, look, puppy, look. It is all our favorite friends." Wiggles trotted proudly beside him, tail still wagging and the dread's thumb bone clenched in her jaws.

Norimgic went down on his furry knees, grabbing gems and stuffing them into his pockets. He might have been a bugbear poet, but he was bright enough to recognize portable wealth when he saw it. Osteroric kept one hand clamped tightly around Sanval's wrists and used the other big hand to scoop up jewels and stuff them behind his breastplate. "I can buy many beautiful new chains with these. Maybe even some fine black leather vests for my brother and I. Females always like that look. You should try that. It is better than that rust you wear in your hair," the bugbear said in friendly tones to his prisoner.

The prisoner's eyes gleamed darkly, and the sound of grinding teeth could be heard, but Sanval remained silent.

Kid was on his knees, kneeling on what looked like a pile of black sapphires. The carved chest before him was remarkable for its very plainness after the golden doors and the crystal corridor. It was a sarcophagus carved from gray stone, with a number of strange symbols etched into its side. From the stone box an ululation rose, a moaning cry rather like a wailing kitten trapped in a box. Kid's face was wrinkled in concentration, and he apparently did not notice the tip of the magelord's Ankh pressed into the back of his neck. Ivy, however, was very conscious of the grim and greedy expression on the face of Archlis. His eyes had narrowed to yellow slits; frown lines creased down the sides of his long nose and past his scowl to his jaws. His hand tightened around the shaft of the Ankh. If he leaned forward over Kid or stumbled at all, the Ankh would crack the little thief's neck bones.

Ivy hand-signaled for quiet. She did not want to startle Archlis into a sudden attack. Behind her, she could hear the clicking noise of gems being trickled into pockets. She hoped it was just the bugbears and the rest of her friends were paying attention.

Kneeling in front of the gray stone box, Kid pointed a finger at the etched markings on its surface. He did not turn his head to look up at the magelord and seemed completely unaware of the threat looming over him. But Kid was clever, and for now she would have to trust his instincts to save himself. He wasn't one to make some rash move, unlike a certain captain from Procampur who was ready to risk his life for a chance to kill Archlis. At least she did not have to worry about that sort of foolishness from Kid. He who saves himself first lives to save the rest of us, she thought, and decided to add it to her growing list of mottos. The list that started with "The only good day is one where we all walk away" and Mumchance's old favorite: "If the wall is falling down, don't stand under it."

"So, my lord, so," said Kid to Archlis. "We press in the pattern of the name. Three times and then three times more. A little tricky, but no great barrier."

As he had with the silver buckle that made the belt float, Kid's quick fingers danced in the perfect rhythm needed to trace the secret code and unlock the chest. He kept his head down, his fingers moving, and played the lock as though it were a musical instrument. Once, twice, tap tap tap. The lid popped open.

"Mine! Mine at last!" cried Archlis. He threw his arms up toward the ceiling, the force pulling his tall body to its full height. His sleeves flapped, his stringy blond hair bobbed on his shoulders, and the Ankh lifted off of Kid's neck.

The shouts of the magelord were drowned beneath a sobbing wave of noise that reminded Ivy of funeral mourners. It crested into a terrible moaning sound, and it issued from the stone sarcophagus.

Behind her, Ivy heard Gunderal cry out, her genasi nature sensitive to any spells or curses near her. Even Ivy could feel the chill prickle of the magic that issued from the granite coffin.