Chương 54: A Call for Help

Tim half opened his eyes and let out a long, laboured groan.

"Tim, you're awake. Are you okay?" Aaron asked.

"No, my head is killing me. What happened?"

"You went crazy and we had to use a sleeping potion," Paige said. Tim's face dropped.

"Did I hurt anyone?" He scanned around the cave with his eyes. A tear welled up in the corner of one eye.

"No, we're all okay," Alex said, smiling at him.

"I don't remember making it into the mine." Tim stretched his head and looked around the cavern.

"The last thing I can think of was being locked up in a cage."

"We made it relatively unharmed, but we need to keep moving. The proximity of the relic is affecting your curse badly and we need to cleanse it as fast as possible," Aaron said. A distant high-pitched whistle echoed through the mine around them.

"And it's not safe enough to wait around," Aaron added.

"Yep, agreed," Tim said, pulling himself up into a standing position. He was stiff as a board and shuddered.

"I'd rather not meet whatever is making that noise." The party packed up their bedrolls and supplies. They had taken a moment to eat, rest and organise their weapons ready for the delve. As a group, they had decided to go the back path, away from the main route down the mine in order to avoid the patrols of peacekeepers. After their close encounter with the elementalist, it was probably best to take their chances with the corrupted creatures. Giddeon led the way, with his large white orb of light.

Paige was at the back with her smaller light spirit illuminating the mine behind them. Aaron kept a close eye on the back, in case anything snuck up in the shadows. The path wasn't straight. It snaked back and forth, gradually going deeper. The wood beams supporting the mine were more rotten and worn than on the main path. Aaron suspected the larger route down was new and never existed when he lived on the farm. Perhaps it was built by the peacekeepers as a more direct route to the relic.

There were old broken bits of track on the floor. There were a few battered, rotten carts around, which must have once pulled ores to the surface. Although they were in no state for use now. They passed several discarded rusty pick axes, many of which were so corroded that they almost melded into the rock beneath them. Nothing seemed particularly familiar to Aaron, although he could sense the relic's curse, and he used it to orient himself towards it.

Every few paces, Giddeon fired a small blue orb into the ground, which moulded into the rocks and disappeared. This must have been the magic he used to leave a trail for Paige to find him. Cuthbert's caw seemed to echo endlessly through the long empty shafts of the mine. The faint white lines on his body illuminated the walls as he flew around. It revealed pockets of shimmering minerals in the rock.

"Wait," Giddeon said, holding his hand up to the rest of the party. A cluster of eyes, the size of pinheads, all blinking out of synchrony, looked back at them from the floor. It scuttled out from behind a rock, revealing eight legs. It was a spider the size of a small coin. Gidden let out the breath he had been holding in relief.

"Okay, nothing to worry about," he said as they carried on down the path. The spider scuttled off into a hole in the wall. Looking around, Aaron noticed many webs around the top of the mine and in the gaps between the wooden beams and the walls. He wondered what they were eating. He hadn't seen any other insects around. A loud shout echoed from up ahead. It wasn't like an animal this time, but more like a man.

If there were any words, they were impossible to make out, but the deep, raspy nature of the sound made it appear human. The party continued cautiously, in case it was a peacekeeper. They suspected this part of the mine wasn't patrolled, based on the thick layer of dust on the floor, but it wasn't impossible. As they continued forwards slowly, the distant shouting continued. They shortly came up to a bisection. One path continued down towards where Aaron felt the relic.

The other branched off and descended to the left. There was a broken lantern at the crossing and signs pointing each way, although the wood was too rotten to make out the words.

"Which way, Aaron?" Giddeon asked as he stopped the group. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Pausing to sense the relic, Aaron felt for the mana around him. He knew the relic was straight ahead, but made a show of it because he wanted to hear where the shouting was coming from.

"HELP!" A deep, raspy voice echoed from the left branch.

"We have to go that way," Aaron said, pointing down the left side.

"Is the relic that way?" Giddeon drawled with a touch of sarcasm.

"Someone down there needs help," Aaron said.

"Let the soldiers help them. It's too risky for us to mess around," Giddeon replied. Tim folded his arms and frowned.

"Giddeon, no one is around. They could die if we leave them."

"And how many will die if we fail to destroy the relic? You've seen the creatures spewing out of this place and what the so-called peacekeepers are doing with them. It's not our problem." Aaron looked towards his friends in shock, gesturing for them to support him. Alex looked terrified and winced a bit every time he heard the shouting. Paige appeared fairly indifferent, although he was certain she would be up for an opportunity to throw her magic around at some creatures.

"Let's put it to a vote then," Aaron said.

"This isn't a democracy," Giddeon said, "this is my mission and my word goes."

"That's not what we agreed," Aaron said.

"We said we would get you to the farm and help cleanse the relic. In return, you said you would help Tim. As far as I'm concerned, we all have an equal stake in this quest and deserve a say."

"Giddeon. We can't simply walk by someone begging for help. You say you hate necromancy, but won't help someone suffering at its curse," Tim said. Aaron smiled at him. Tim would have made a great politician in another life, he thought. Giddeon grumbled and huffed. It was obvious that his pride couldn't take being called out as a hypocrite, and he wouldn't stand for his self-assumed authority being undermined.

"Okay, fine. We will go and investigate the call for help. But we do it my way. Slowly and carefully, and if the danger is too great, we will leave. Do you understand?" Giddeon said. Aaron grinned.

"Yes, boss," he said sarcastically. Giddeon rolled his eyes and started walking down the left-hand path, sending the orb ahead to scout it out. They followed the path for a few minutes. It gradually led deeper underground. It followed a straight line towards the shouting. The cobwebs on the ceiling became larger and thicker as they travelled and the shouting became louder and clearer. It was a man's voice they could hear. Deep and loud. It called out the same word repeatedly every so often.

"Help." They eventually arrived at a large underground opening. The walls were curved and irregular, rather than the straight, man-made tunnels they had been navigating. This was a natural cavern. Large stalactites dangled down from the ceiling, dripping water onto the ground. There were still beams placed around the walls, providing support and structure to the cave, however, they were so rotten that they were unlikely to be doing anything.

There were multiple holes and exits around the sides of the opening, all of varying sizes. Aaron was certain that some of them would lead to the surface. He remembered playing around the entrance to caves around the farm as a child. Aaron held his nose in disgust. The smell was almost unbearable, like a combination of sulphur and rot. Giddeon hacked and slacked through the numerous cob webs in front of them. They were thick and branched from floor to ceiling.

Tiny spiders scuttled and fled with each swipe, retreating to the sides of the cave.

"HELP!" The man shouted. It was loud and he sounded close. Probably within this opening, although the echoing made it really difficult to pinpoint his voice. Giddeon cleared the webs, gradually progressing through the long cavern. They eventually reached an open space with no webbing. There was a small puddle of water on the floor beneath their feet, which would have made it impossible to anchor a web.

"There!" Paige pointed towards a distant corner of the room. There was a person, wearing a torn-up cloak with a bronze eagle on the back. It was a soldier kitted out in plate metal armour.

"HELP!" he called. He was standing and facing the wall away from them. Giddeon approached, hacking away at the webbing in his way. The man didn't turn. He just kept yelling. Perhaps he was stuck in some way. But there was nothing obvious restricting him. Thousands of tiny spiders crawled forwards on their webs as Giddeon walked closer to the man. They had fled up until this point. The sudden change in behaviour made Aaron uneasy. There was a spider next to Aaron.

Just outside the span of the puddle, sitting on a web looking at him. It was larger than the others, about the size of a plum. Aaron inspected it closer. Several beady eyes looked back at him, and its front two legs were waving around in the air and feeding back into its mouth as if it was tasting its surroundings. On one of its back legs, part of it was missing and there were hairless patches along its body.

"Giddeon, wait. There's something wrong with the spiders. I think they're undead." But it was too late. Giddeon tapped the soldier on the shoulder to offer help, but he wasn't stuck. The man flung an arm back and spun around, taking Giddeon by surprise and knocking him flying across the room. The spiders on the web behind him dispersed as he landed. Thousands of tiny black dots darted around, leaving empty pale white webbing behind. The man's face was rotten down to the bone.

A thumb-sized spider crawled into his mouth, out his nose and then back into his eye socket.

"HELP!" he yelled again. Although his mouth didn't move. It just hung open, and the words came out. If this was a man, it wasn't human anymore. It was simply a husk. Maybe help was the last word he said before succumbing to the rot in the cavern, or perhaps it was sentient in some way and using it to attract unsuspecting victims. Either way, they needed to get out. Paige charged at it around the side of the master lying on the floor.

With wind swirling around her fist, she threw a punch into the chest of the creature. The impact made a loud crack as it sank into its plate chestpiece. Several rusted chunks of metal clanged around the floor where the chestpiece had split. The once-man fell back into the wall. The impact sent its head flying off its shoulders. The skull, contained in a helmet, hit the floor and rolled out and across into a web. The thumb-sized spider crawled out of its mouth and fled. An ear-piercing shriek filled the room.

Aaron looked up. The ceiling was filled with rat-sized bats hanging down from their feet. They were tucked inside their wings, asleep. This must have been the cause of the horrible smell in the cave. One of the bats was awake. It had its mouth open, showing its rows of jagged teeth and was flapping its wings around frantically. Click click click click.