ESKER XII

  Esker let out a primal roar as she pounded her stone encased fist into the slab that now obstructed the doorway. It did not mar the sturdy material in the slightest. It was not made of any ore or rock, but was nearly as dense. Each time her fist impacted, Esker felt more and more hopeless; however, she had to try.

  Guillaume put a hand on her shoulder, “If anyone could survive a situation like this, it would be Eógan.” Esker knew her friend was trying to comfort her, yet she hated feeling powerless. “We must press on and find a way to help him,” Guillaume insisted as he carefully scanned the dimly lit tunnel. A green flame torch sputtered in a nearby sconce; the rest of the curving hallway remained dark.

  “Let there be light,” Liadan repeated with a sad smile and her palm flared brilliantly, scattering the recessed shadows and nearly blinding Esker in the process. “I will take the lead,” the Gaídel holy woman volunteered. “There may be more traps ahead.”

  Guillaume followed closely behind her, while Esker dropped back a few steps to allow her eyes to readjust. She was still adapting to the strange sensation and weight of her stony hand. Unlike in her vision, she could not flex or bend her fingers. Her fist was a solid piece of rock with crude approximations of fingers and joints. She liked the heft, but would be unable to use the harvestman’s limb in this state and would be unable manipulate objects beyond pulverizing them.

  The passageway was curved, like a life stream bored through bedrock and the surface was damp with a slight give. It was unsettling for Esker to travel deeper into the bowels of this dungeon, uncertain if she would ever seen Eógan again. She felt a pain in her heart that she had not felt since she had lost Loess in the work tunnels: Esker could no longer bear the thought of anyone sacrificing themselves for her.

  Liadan and Guillaume made slow progress down the tunnel, after the various traps they had already faced, their apprehension was understandable. Esker was grateful for their diligence and was soon lost in thought. As she ran her stone fist along the curved side of the tunnel, she found it had a similar give as the floor.

  She was surprised when her hand dipped into a transparent membrane, gelatinous in texture. As she brought her eyes closer, it appeared there might even be a passageway on the other side, but the slight opacity of the substance made it difficult to be certain. Esker could move her hand in this medium with relative freedom, but had to battle resistance like that of a thick clay. She was curious of the depth of this membrane and considered trying to push her arm through it, yet was alarmed as she began to see slight discoloration on the stone encasing her fist. Esker tugged at her hand but could not defeat the hold the membrane had on it: she braced her long legs on the walls of the tunnel and pulled with force. With a wet plop of suction, her hand was released and she was shocked to see it was dotted with pumice like craters. There also appeared to be some oxidization on the rock, suggesting that the membrane was composed of a corrosive element. As Esker stared down at her fist, she nearly stumbled into her companions, they had stopped in their tracks and were craning their necks towards an eerie green glow, not unlike the witch light in Lady Galdr’s bog.

  The curve of the tunnel opened up into a large chamber, dotted with large puddles of glowing green liquid and heaped with piles of treasure. Chests full of golden coins glittered and gems twinkled in the pale green light. Tengu prized minerals and metals for their transmutative properties or malleability: in other words, their utility. It was clear by the gaudiness of this treasure hoard that whoever had amassed it was driven by avarice. Some of the gem encrusted scepters had even more priceless gems adorning their details.

  Both Guillaume and Liadan seemed taken aback by the sight and Esker was relieved that neither showed signs of being consumed by greed. She had been told cautionary tales by her childhood amahs of Tengu who had their minds poisoned by desire, digging ever deeper to satisfy an unquenchable lust for rare ore. Some were never seen again, while others released unspeakable evils from the depths.

  “This feels like a test,” Guillaume said in a near whisper. “I do not think we should touch any of this treasure.”

  “That seems prudent,” Liadan agreed. “Dragons are known to collect vast hoards and are notoriously protective of them. If we are truly within the remains of one, I imagine those tendencies might be tied to this room.”

  Esker took a long look around, this time paying more attention to the sickly green pools of liquid. When a nearby puddle bubbled, the hackles on her neck rose and she studied her pockmarked stone fist once more. “I touched a membrane back in the tunnel,” her voice reverberated in the large chamber, its ceiling was rounded and expansive.

  Guillaume was immediately concerned and approached her.

  “The substance was corrosive,” Esker said, extending her arm so Guillaume could examine the damage and oxidation that had occurred. “I suggest that we disturb neither these pools or the treasure.”

  Guillaume and Liadan agreed. Esker’s suggestion proved to be more difficult than anticipated, much of the floor of the chamber was in strewn with coins or puddles of green liquid. At first it was easy to maneuver past obstacles like scepters or bejeweled swords, yet halfway across the room, the optimal path was unclear and they stumbled into numerous dead ends, carved into piles of glittering treasure.

  “I was not expecting a maze,” Guillaume announced, bewildered by the dynamics of this room.

  “If only we could see above these piles of treasure,” Liadan mused, their view was obstructed by the towering mounds of glittering coins and gems, well exceeding even Esker’s height.

  As their path twisted in a serpentine fashion, Esker finally caught sight of the far end of the chamber. “I can see a large door,” She said, her eyes were adjusted to the pale green light and the gloom. “It appears to be covered with images of animals, in the fashion of the markings on Eógan’s skin.”

  “Oh bother, likely another puzzle,” Guillaume complained. “I hope Eógan is fairing well, it sounds like we will need his help.”

  “I have faith he will join us soon,” Liadan replied and Esker got the sense that she was trying to convince herself as much as the others.

  When Guillaume arrived at a particularly difficult to navigate juncture, where the green viscous substance spread throughout the strewn treasures like fingers, he had to balance precariously to step over a large chest. Esker’s breath caught as she watched her friend wobble, yet he managed to stabilize himself on his left leg and smiled back at her. Before he could shift his balance, the satchel slung across his back slid from his right side and arced down like a pendulum. Guillaume gasped in surprise and compensated for the abrupt change in weight, but the satchel made a curious trajectory: instead of swinging as expected, it appeared drawn to the rare metals beneath it and rushed down to meet them.

  Esker shut her eyes in resignation when the cause became clear, the lodestone was tucked away in Guillaume’s satchel. She did not see her friend fall, but she heard the clatter as he tumbled into a pile of coins, followed by what seemed to be an unending cacophony of baubles, crowns, and weapons ringing throughout the hall. When she opened her eyes, Guillaume was half buried by a priceless rockslide, one arm still free and a knee protruding from a mountain of coins.

  Since the glowing green ooze was at the lowest point of the floor, gems and coins tumbled into it with a hissing sizzle. Esker was not surprised by the corrosiveness of the substance, however, she was shocked when the green substance began to take form. Pseudopods probed from the twitching and amorphous mass, drawing more of the hoard into its bulk. The tentacle-like protrusions lashed out gently at first and quickened into a roiling frenzy.

  “Oh Broken Man, I am so sorry,” Guillaume whimpered as he struggled to free himself from the deluge of treasure.

  “Never mind that,” Esker replied curtly as she barreled her way towards her companion and began to sweep aside coins and artifacts with her stone fist in an attempt to dig Guillaume free.

  “It… it is searching for something,” Guillaume said in a shaky voice, pointing awkwardly with the index finger of his partially buried hand. Esker turned and saw that whatever they had disturbed was reconstituting. The green ooze pooled in an area devoid of items from the hoard, it seemed to actively avoid any of the metals.

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  “We should climb atop the piles of coins!” Liadan declared, scrambling above their position and sending doubloons tinkling in all directions. “Look, it is searching for something else.” The Gaídel was correct, Esker watched with morbid curiosity as the mass of quivering ooze solidified and grew. Each time its pseudopods lashed out and connected to any gem or metal, the tendril would recoil, as if disgusted.

  When one slimy tentacle found purchase on a wooden chest, there was palpable excitement. The chest was grasped tightly and enveloped by the growing mass of the monstrosity. Strangely it had begun to take on an angular shape that was unmistakable, it formed a cube. The quivering gelatinous ooze towered over Esker and since it was transparent, she could see the chest within it starting to dissolve. The metal hinges oxidized and the wood began to blacken.

  “Esker!” Guillaume hissed quietly through clenched teeth, still buried in a mound of treasure at her feet. Esker could understand his urgency, yet despite the ooze creature being relatively close to their position, it did not seem to be targeting them. Instead it slimed this way and that, until it butted up against a pile of golden coins and altered its course.

  Esker met Liadan’s eyes as she perched at the peak of treasures where Guillaume was submerged. The Gaídel wobbled slightly and Esker saw everything in slow motion. Liadan caught her balance and teetered, managing to stay upright, however the surface she stood on did not cooperate. In a wave of coins and gems, Liadan surfed down towards the valley of bare floor. The cube was quicker than Esker would have expected, especially the pseudopods that whipped out of it in seemingly every direction. As the valuables poured down the slope in a jangling avalanche, the massive ooze practically pounced. The wobbling cube recoiled as gems and coins were enveloped, but not enough to avoid Liadan’s free fall into it. With a meaty squelch she was fully engulfed and floated within the ooze, her eyes wide with fright.

  Esker grabbed Guillaume by the arm and yanked him out of the treasure, before charging the cube. “What should I do?” Guillaume called out, but she did not have time to respond. Esker cocked back her stone fist and struck the ooze with all her might. The impact was jarring as she found purchase and launched a fist sized chunk of sizzling goo off of a corner of the cube. It punched back, hard, catching her square in the chest with a pseudopod and leaving a searing welt.

  Liadan writhed in agony from within her transparent prison. Guillaume began to rain treasure down upon the monstrosity. With a blinding flash, Liadan’s palm blasted a significant chunk out of the side of the cube, splattering globs of ooze in an arc. The cube wobbled as if disoriented and Guillaume kept shoveling more coins down upon it.

  Esker followed up her fist blow with an overhand slam, yet this time she was surprised to find no purchase on the ooze, only give. Her entire arm slid into the cube and she lost her balance from the momentum of the swing, toppling into its bulk. It was a strange sensation as she was fully immersed in the viscous and acidic medium: able to move only by overcoming immense resistance. Coins and gems slowly sank through the cube past Esker’s eyes as she struggled to breathe.

  Liadan had clawed her way towards the hole she had created in the ooze with energy from her palm. Her torso was free, but she struggled to release the rest of her body. Guillaume scrambled over to grab her hands to help.

  The cube was strong, yet Esker was stronger. She was tired of the burning sensation everywhere her skin was in contact with the ooze. She swam awkwardly out of the cube in the opposite direction of Liadan, gasping for air when she emerged. A pseudopod punched her in the shoulder, yet she barely felt it. She rained blows upon the cube, sending balls of ooze flying in all directions. She was lost in a fury, pummeling this monstrosity with enough force to knock it up against a towering pile of treasure. It was surrounded by lustrous canyon walls of even more precious materials.

  “Esker!” Liadan called down to her, from atop the mound of coins and snapping her out of her berserk state. “Back up as quick as you can,” the Gaídel yelled. “Guillaume and I have a plan.”

  Esker punched the cube once more and as she ambled backwards, a torrent of doubloons poured down from the top of the stacked hoard, burying the cube. Guillaume and Liadan worked frantically, sweeping their arms and kicking their legs to send as much of the precious treasures down upon the ooze as possible. At first the cube was able to absorb much of the coins and gems, however, it was soon overwhelmed, sagging and disappearing under a glittering tide.

  Esker labored up the slope to her left, her footing awkward on the uneven and treacherous surface of jewels and rare metals. Hallway up, she started scooping handfuls down onto the ooze and with Guillaume and Liadan’s help, the valley between the mounds of treasure was soon filled in.

  “Do you think we have trapped it?” Guillaume asked tentatively. The pile of coins and gems trembled as if in response and all three of them dumped more of the hoard on top until there was no sight of any green hued ooze bubbling upward.

  Panting from the exertion, Liadan caught her breath before saying, “That will buy us some time. We need to find a way out of here.” She turned toward the far end of the chamber. “Is that the door you mentioned Esker?”

  “It is,” Esker said, taking long strides to join her friends. “Guillaume, can you make sense of those animal pictographs?”

  “They are certainly Pechtish in origin, your instincts were correct,” he replied as they made their way down the slope of valuables and towards the large arched doorway that appeared to have been carved out of a massive bone. The door was covered in interlocked and iridescent green scales. When Esker rapped upon it with her stone fist, she found it to be incredibly sturdy. Guillaume pointed to the foot of the door at an image. “That is clearly a tree, or the tree of life,” he said as he looked up. “And above… is that a dung beetle?”

  Both Liadan and Esker laughed.

  “There are empty slots between those two images,” Liadan pointed out the nine vacant positions between the tree and the insect, “What goes between them?” On either side of the door, pictographs were mounted upon the wall and Liadan began to list them, “There is a mouse, a rabbit, an eagle, a frog, a grasshopper, an owl, a wolf, a snake, and a song bird.”

  “I do not understand,” Guillaume said as he studied the animals. “We have to put them into some kind of order, yet how are we supposed to know where each one goes?”

  “I will not be able to help with this challenge,” Esker added. “I am familiar with the dung beetle and snake, but none of the others.” She checked the door to see if it was metallic in origin. Despite its appearance, it seemed to be organic along with the frame of the door.

  “There are cycles in nature,” Liadan mused. “Some animals eat plants and others hunt them as prey. Eógan may know more about the order of this, yet if the bottom of the door represents plant-life, perhaps the top represents the other end.” She turned a bit red.

  “You mean excrement?” Esker asked and was confused when Liadan flushed an even deeper hue of red.

  Guillaume laughed in response. “Esk, to my people and I assume the Gaídel, such talk is viewed as vulgar.”

  “Why? Everyone must shit,” Esker replied.

  This time Liadan joined in on the laughter. “There must be taboo subjects amongst the Tengu, right Esker?” she asked.

  “Yes and you both bring them up constantly,” Esker answered dryly. Both Guillaume and Liadan stared at her for a moment, before recognizing that she was joking and laughing heartily.

  Liadan grew serious. “There are grooves connecting and separating some of the nine slots on the door. Many of these animals eat plants, perhaps we should start with them.” Esker nodded but did not think that she would be able to contribute much to helping solve the puzzle, since she was unfamiliar with many of the animals on the surface world. Her mind wandered as Guillaume and Liadan debated where to place the animal tokens. She caught snippets of their discussion detailing which animal consumed another, but was largely lost in her own world.

  A barely audible tinkling of coins snapped her into focus and instantly she was on high alert. Something was cresting the nearest slope of treasure, she moved to intercept it. Taking delicate care to make as little noise as possible, she crept up and readied to pounce.

  “Esker, is that you?” a familiar voice called from above. “You make so much bloody noise,” Eógan said as he peered down at her with a silly grin on his face. Esker was overjoyed to see him and scrambled up towards the top of the mound of coins. She was dismayed by what she saw.

  “I do not want to bloody talk about it,” Eógan said in anticipation of questions concerning his appearance. He was covered in some remnants of ooze, yet mostly his bare skin was mottled in acid burns. Even for his standards, he was almost completely naked: the plaid blanket he kept wrapped around his waist was in tatters and his hair was largely singed away, but the spear he clutched in his hand appeared untouched. His disposition seemed to be in even further shambles.

  “Come join us Eógan,” Esker said softly. “I was concerned about you.”

  Eógan seemed a bit surprised by her tenderness and she could see many emotions contort his features before he reluctantly smiled. “I am glad to see you too, friend.” He looked down at his spear and shook it violently, “This bloody thing.”

  “What about it?”

  “Nothing. We can talk about that later as well,” Eógan replied cryptically and began to slide smoothly down the mound of coins with his bare feet.

  Liadan waved warmly at Eógan as he approached the massive door. “Can I tend to your wounds?” she asked sweetly, but he brushed her off. “We need your help Eógan, I believe the herbivores are in place, yet I cannot determine how to match them to the predators,” she said as she gestured towards the slots on the door which were now all filled with animal glyphs. Guillaume smiled at Eógan and resumed studying the array of animals.

  “You got the gist of it,” Eógan said as he walked up to the door. “The insect, the mouse, and the rabbit eat the plants, however, only the bird and the frog eat the insect.” He swapped some of the tiles on the door. “The snake eats both the frog and the bird, and the hawk will eat all three of them,” he said making another adjustment. “You have the owl and the fox mismatched.” He removed the glyph with the fox on it, yet the owl was above his reach. Eógan looked at Guillaume standing idly at his side and glared at him.

  “Ooh, I get to be useful,” Guillaume said playfully as he reached up and removed he picture of the owl, swapping it with the fox.

  Eógan placed the owl firmly into the remaining slot and took a half step back. “That should have done it…” He scratched his scruffy chin impatiently.

  Guillaume began to speak but was interrupted by heavy mechanisms shifting within the door. Each animal lit up with an eery glow and a crease of light appeared in the center of the door. With a metallic susurration, the scales on the door rotated in unison and the two panels opened inwardly, revealing a passageway plunging into darkness.