Bottom Rung, page 53
“I have heard enough.” Khumdar stopped there and smirked.
“Full set of leather armor,” Jackal called. “I’m not seeing any place to hide things on it. Do you want to check, Tibs?”
“What’s the quality like?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the sorceress and cleric.
“Not much better than what the guild first gave us. Did the dungeon lower the rewards now that the second floor is there?”
“It’d make sense,” Carina said, joining him. “If we got things like the shield or the other stuff we had before, there wouldn’t be much incentive to go on the second floor.”
“I’d still go.” Jackal motioned Mez over.
“Yes, but you are unabashedly greedy,” she replied. “Not everyone is.”
Tibs walked up to Khumdar, glaring at him. “Stop doing that,” he said, lowering his voice.
“And by that, you mean?” the cleric asked, his voice also low.
“Acting like you know something about Carina.”
“Why do you think I am acting?”
Tibs closed his eyes and reminded himself Khumdar was a teammate. He didn’t stab teammates. Even Jackal didn’t deserve that. He opened them as he let out the breath. “If you’ve found out some secret about her, you don’t use it to hurt her. She’s a teammate. A friend.”
The man’s lips tightened. “I think you may be giving her more credit than she deserves. And what I know isn’t a secret, she is simply—”
“Well, I don’t know what the problem is with having white blood, and she doesn’t. She bleeds red like everyone else. She bled defending us. She helped you. If you want off the team, you need to tell us.”
Khumdar’s face darkened momentarily, then he relaxed. “I do not wish to leave your team. You have taken me in when I suspect no one else would have. I apologize for letting my prejudices affect my interactions with our teammates. I will do better.”
“It might help if you told us what the problem is.”
The man shook his head. “I fear all my confession would do is make matters worse. I thank you for your understanding, Tibs. You are a special kind of person.”
Tibs snorted. “I’ve just lost too many friends to the dungeon. I don’t want to lose them to stupid stuff like arguments.”
“Are you two done conspiring against us?” Jackal called. “There’s a second floor waiting to be cleared.”
Tibs looked at Khumdar, who nodded.
“I’m not conspiring,” Tibs said, heading for the stairs. “I’m convincing Khumdar we’re all his friends.”
“And you are very convincing, Tibs,” the cleric answered.
“Maybe you can convince the dungeon to be our friend and just give us all the loot?” Jackal asked.
“I don’t think it’s that nice,” Tibs replied, starting down the stairs.
“Why does it do that?” Jackal complained on entering the first room. “Carina, show me the papers again. I’m certain that path is wider on it.”
“It was wider on our first run,” Tibs said. He didn’t like that there had been no hissing at any point. It made him feel like the dungeon wasn’t paying attention to them. He couldn’t decide if that was a good thing.
“Do you think it’ll get narrower each run until it’s gone?” Carina asked.
“Seems to me the dungeon always gives us choices,” Mez said. “Taking it out would remove that. We’d have to take the ledge.”
“Or the water,” Tibs added, looking down. That looked like the last time. Even the essence mix felt the same.
“If the path becomes no wider than the ledge,” Khumdar said, “it may be so we will take it. Jackal should attempt it since he will be able to climb out of the water, even with a lack of ladders.”
“I just like how you assume I’d fall.”
“You will,” Tibs replied. He could climb out too; he had earth essence, and it hardly took any to make handholds. He wondered how much water he could freeze with the essence he had. He knew how much water he could generate, but since Carina could use her air essence to affect the essence in the air around her, he should be able to do something like that with water.
“Regardless,” Jackal said, “I’d rather stay dry. We’re taking the path.”
Tibs stopped the fighter before he stepped on it. “After I check it.”
“Why? It doesn’t matter where that trigger line is. You remember how slow the slab drops. I can walk fast enough not to be crushed by it.”
“You’re not remembering things correctly,” Carina said. “You’d have to run to not be crushed. But Pyan’s team didn’t indicate it drops any faster.”
“It’s been eight days,” Mez said. “I’m with Tibs. I want to know if the dungeon has done changes in that time.”
“I believe we can take for granted that it has made changes,” Khumdar said.
“And we need to know so we won’t die.” Tibs fixed the fighter with a glare, and Jackal raised his hands.
“You’re the smart one, I concede.”
Tibs sensed for the essence as he inched his way along the path. Now that the dungeon could work with essence, he didn’t trust it not to pull some trick, like getting the essence trigger to condense just as he stepped on it.
This time it was closer than it had been on their previous run, and from what Pyan had indicated on the map. If he’d gone by that, he would have crossed it before even checking.
“The line’s here,” he said, “and it’s not fixed.”
“That’s two things different from the map,” Carina said. “Can we trust it at this point?”
“Seems early to throw it out,” Mez replied.
Tibs studied the line as it moved up and down, from his chest to the path. “Everyone can sense the essence now, right?” Everyone but Khumdar answered they could. Tibs looked at the cleric.
“I will point out that unlike you, I have not received formal training, and that as a cleric, the expectations Darkness places on me are different from those placed on you,” Khumdar answered with what Tibs though was too much innocence.
“Darkness’s got nothing to do with me,” Jackal said.
“The point remains.”
“You don’t sense essence,” Tibs stated.
The cleric smiled, and Tibs considered kicking him in the shin. He could do that to a teammate. Or maybe now was the time to put Khumdar’s words to the test.
He decided against it. “Mez, you guide him under this one, I can sense another one and I’m going to check it.” He slipped under when it was at its highest and made it a dozen steps to the next one.
It moved back and forth before him, simple enough to pass, but beyond it, again a dozen paces away, was another trigger, and that one worried him.
He stepped around the line when it was to its left, and approached the next one. Instead of one essence line as the trigger, there were two, one moving up and down, one back and forth—the two previous triggers put together. Like the previous ones, they were slow enough all he needed to do was wait until their motion made an opening and he slipped through, then turned and waited for his team..
“Khumdar first,” he said as they approached, and the shuffling to get him to the front of the line was awkward. Any narrower and they’d have to cross it one at a time. Tibs indicated the right side at the height of his hip. “When I tell you, you get through there. That’s as high as you can be.”
“I am beginning to think this dungeon does not like anyone tall,” the cleric said.
“You aren’t that much taller than anyone here but me. You ready?”
Khumdar nodded, and once the lines moved away, to the right and up, Tibs gave the signal, and the cleric stepped to the trigger. There was just enough space for him to squeeze through. Carina and Mez crossed, then Jackal, who was nearly past it, when the slab came down before anyone could react. Jackal was lying on the path, writhing in pain, his left foot a crushed and bloody mess. Khumdar and Mez pulled him to the hall, and Tibs crouched next to him. Just like his foot, the essence there was shattered.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do anything; this is not like your leg.”
“Try,” Jackal groaned.
Tibs created an essence wrap around the shattered essence, then reinforced it. He had to use half what he had left, even if the area was smaller, before he was confident it was dense enough to not let anything through. He tightened it slowly, using what he felt of the right foot to guide the form.
Jackal screamed, and Tibs stopped.
“Unless,” the fighter panted, “you’re ripping my foot off, keep going.”
In the pause, Tibs was surprised to feel Jackal’s essence shift on its own, moving to reassemble the right foot. If the essence wanted to have the right shape, this would be easier. He did his best to ignore the screams as he tightened his essence until it was a sheath-over, something identical to Jackal’s other foot.
Jackal no longer screamed, but he was panting hard and covered with sweat. “I think it’s best if we keep Tibs for really bad injuries.”
“You mean liked a crushed foot?” Carina asked.
“I’d rather not go through that again.”
“I don’t think I could do this again,” Tibs said, feeling strained. “And whatever I do next is going to have to be simple. The more damaged the area is, the more essence it takes.”
“It is none the less impressive,” Khumdar said. “I would love to know what you have done.”
“If you get hurt, I’m guessing you’ll find out,” Mez said, helping Jackal to his feet.
The fighter moved cautiously. “What amazes me is that I’m not feeling any pain. It’s like I’ve taken numb weed, but it only affects the area you’ve healed.” He headed for the next room and Tibs hurried to join him.
“Are you going to run in like nothing can hurt you?”
“Not if you can’t heal me,” Jackal replied, grinning.
“I couldn’t heal you the last time.”
“But last time I was making a point.”
Tibs rolled his eyes.
Jackal cursed at the entrance to the room. “Carina, the map said three, right?”
“Yes.”
“Either no one on Pyan’s team can count.”
“Or the dungeon’s changed things again,” Mez said.
“Five of them,” Khumdar said with a shudder.
“We can take them,” Mez said, stringing his bow. “I can take one down by myself, but I’m going to have to stick to my regular explosive arrows after that.” He smiled at Tibs. “My version of the flame arrow is much more impressive than theirs.”
“I’m with Mez,” Jackal said, “but this is a team decision, and I will listen this time.”
“We take them,” Tibs said, watching the essence in the golems and feeling how empty his reserve felt. He didn’t know how he’d done it with Big Brute, but he knew he could do it, and BB had also been a golem, just like these.
“If Tibs is willing,” Khumdar said, taking the staff off his back, “then so am I.”
“I’m not leaving you four to get yourself killed,” Carina grumbled.
“I thank you,” the cleric said.
“Mez, you start,” Jackal said before Carina replied. “Then Khumdar, Tibs, and me rush in. Carina, I would love it if you could pull that wind clap that earned you the first win in the FFA.”
“I can’t promise that in an enclosed space like this, but I have a few new tricks that will help.”
“Keep your distance, Tibs, until you’re out of knives.”
Tibs said nothing. If he didn’t answer, he couldn’t be accused of lying.
The heat from the arrow that formed as Mez pulled on the string was nothing like what Tibs had felt from the other fire archers. It was intense, but also focused. Even the essence was nothing like the others. It was in the arrow’s form the fire made, with more at the tip and almost nothing at the string, which Tibs thought explained why it didn’t burn through it.
Mez let go, and it detonated on impact, sending rubble all over the room, and pushed the other golems away. Tibs stared. No fire archer had ever done anything like that; Tibs would have heard.
“If you’re counting on me to do all the damage,” Mez said, notching a regular arrow, “you will be disappointed.”
Jackal shook himself. “Go!”
Tibs followed the fighter in, sensing the essence in the golems. Unlike that of the Runners, it had no color to it; it was identical to that in his reserve. He threw a knife at the wall and one of the golems struck that spot. Tibs stepped for it, then cursed as his shoes creaked, forcing him to jump out of the way from another whip.
Jackal was pounding one to rubble. One had chunks missing as another arrow exploded in its chest, the third was in the middle of a whirlwind that seemed to lift it off the ground, and the fourth…
Tibs cursed as Khumdar fell, his staff flying into two different directions from blocking a whip strike. Tibs ran and jumped on the golem’s back, wrapping his arms around its neck.
He’d touched it. That was all that had been needed the last time. The contact had been enough to suck the essence into him. So why wasn’t it happening now? He lowered his head as the golem reached back for him.
He had been dying, and he wasn’t going there for this one.
He reached for the essence in the golem and pulled on it as he would when looking to refill any of his reserve. Instead of the slow trickle, as soon as he willed it to happen, Tibs fell through the rubble the golem turned into.
“Wait,” someone said as Tibs got to his feet. “How did he do that?”
Tibs grinned as he looked for where the voice came from.
“Ganny! Did you see that? That was amazing, but how did he do it?”
“I knew I’d heard you,” Tibs yelled at the dungeon.
Chapter 53
The only sound was that of pebbles falling as Khumdar stood and dusted himself, eying Tibs cautiously. Tibs realized each of his friends were looking at him as if there was something odd about him.
“Tibs?” Jackal asked. “Are you okay?”
“You heard him, right?” he asked in return.
“Heard who?” the fighter asked.
“You hear me?” the voice asked cautiously. “Ganny! Get over here.”
“Him!” Tibs pointed to a wall. Everyone looked where he pointed. He wished the voice came from a specific place. That the speaker was there, instead of sounding all around him.
“What did you do now?” Ganny said.
“Why is it you always think I did something?” Sto replied.
Tibs looked at his friends, who were staring at him again. “You aren’t hearing that?”
“Sto, everything in here is your doing,” she said.
“Tibs,” Carina said, “maybe we need to have the clerics look at you.”
“I’m fine,” he said, and looked up. “Come out!”
“I believe Carina may be right,” Khumdar said, joining the others.
“Is he talking to you?” Ganny asked.
“Tibs,” the cleric continued, “we do not know how your essence affects you.”
“I think so?” Sto answered her.
“It does affect all, in one way or another.”
“Khumdar,” Tibs snapped. “Stop talking. All of you stay quiet.”
The cleric stiffened, his expression darkening, but he said nothing.
“He can’t do that,” Ganny said. “He doesn’t—”
“Sto,” Tibs ordered, “show yourself now!”
“You were saying?” Sto asked Ganny.
“How is he hearing you?” Ganymede whispered.
“You too, Ganny,” Tibs ordered.
“Did you tell him my name?” she accused Sto.
“If he can hear me, then he probably heard me say your name.”
“Of all the stupid things to—”
“Enough!” Tibs yelled, which caused his friends to look at one another. “I am not crazy,” he told them.
“I believe you,” Jackal hurried to say. Tibs glared at him. “What else do you want me to say, Tibs? You’re talking to no one, and you tell me you’re not crazy. I’ve been around fighters who’ve been hit in the head once too often—caused that a few of those, actually. I’m not going to contradict the guy who’s responsible for me being able to walk.”
“I’m not going to take my essence back,” Tibs said in exasperation.
“I believe you,” Jackal replied in the same hurried tone.
“Sto, if you don’t show yourself right now, I’m—”
“This should be interesting,” Ganny said.
“Ganny,” Tibs warned, “don’t make me go look for you either.”
“Did he just talk to me?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Tibs said through gritted teeth. It was one thing to not see the people talking, it was another for them to act like he couldn’t hear them at this point.
She shrieked, then fell silent.
Tibs looked around. “What happened?”
“I think you scared her,” Sto replied, sounding baffled. “I’ve never seen her scared, and trust me, I’ve tried.”
“At least you’re answering me. How about you show yourself now? Before my friends tackle me and take me to a cleric.”
“If it’s going to stop this thing about you hearing me, I’d prefer they do that.”
“It’s not going to help,” he told his friends who were spacing themselves around him.
Sto sighed. “Ganny, what are the rules about this? Ganny? Come on, it isn’t like he can do anything.”
“He can hear me,” she replied, sounding further.
“He can hear me too. At this point I think we can just accept it and move past that. Can I tell him?”
“How would I know!”
Tibs turned to keep an eye on everyone. They wouldn’t hurt him, but if they thought there was something wrong with his head and that it involved the dungeon, they might keep him out.
“So there aren’t any rules about this?” Sto asked.
“No one can talk to us! Didn’t you listen?”
“I’m the dungeon,” Sto hurried to say.
“You can’t tell him that!” Ganny yelled, sounding like she was back in the room.
