The Balm

The flatboat drifted sluggishly down river, riding low in the water from the piled crates of supplies it was hauling from the civilized lands. On each side of the barge, deck hands nervously poled the craft away from sandbanks dotting the riverbed, their heavy breaths raising clouds of steam in the early spring chill.

"Ready now! Along in here is where the attacks usually start, in the shallows," her grizzled skipper called from the deckhouse. From the bow of the barge, Jubelo nodded, scanning the calm surface of the muddy river, which was perhaps a league across at this point. Behind him, a giant of a man with a curly, red-tinged beard let out a laugh as he clapped the wide hilt of the enormous blade weighting his side.

"Look sharp, lad," the man said. "Get ready to be a hero."

Twirling a worn silver coin back and forth through his fingers, Jubelo glanced over his shoulder then back at the river. Corin, his new boss, was full of bluster, he thought.

Hardly a lad, Jubelo was in fact several years older than the burly, boisterous adventurer. He was also a head shorter and a few stones lighter, though his lean frame was hard from a life of soldiering. Jubelo brushed back a stray lock of sand-colored hair blown into his eyes by the river breeze.

"Where is Bai?" he asked, not looking back at Corin.

"That prairie rat is guarding the stern," the big man answered. Bai, the coal-haired outlander from the distant Karagan steppes was the other hire-sword taken on by Corin and his wife Jess.

Jess was a workaday enchantress whose quiet demeanor and large, timid eyes Jubelo liked much more than he did her swaggering husband. The spare, almost drawn woman stood ready by the deckhouse beside the captain, dressed in a man’s jerkin and breeches with her wheat-colored hair tied absently behind her neck. In addition to the four mercenaries, the barge carried a regular detachment of five motley, worry-eyed soldiers from Lucky Town.

Suddenly there was a splash in front of Jubelo as a clawed hand latched onto the bow of the barge, followed by the leering, hissing maw of a reptilian face set on scaled, manlike shoulders. The hire-sword leapt back, grasping for the weapon at his side.

"Time to see if you’re worth your wages, free-blade," Corin shouted, hefting the broad-bladed claymore in his fists like a toy.

Jubelo spoke the eldritch word that brought the frost-magic in his sword to life, sending an icy blue sheen fluttering along its length. The blade was blessed by the Maid of Snow, and carried the chill of her wintry kiss with every strike.

As Jubelo sprang toward the invader, five more of the creatures were scrambling over the bow. Behind him, the thrum of crossbows told that the flanks of the craft were under attack as well.

Jubelo’s head-high slash rang off the fork-like spear the reptile-man gripped. He parried its counter thrust, forcing the tines of the fork into the planking of the deck, then felled the beast with a cut to its scaled throat.

Beside him, Corin slammed one of the lizard-men back into the river with a heavy leather boot, then crushed the snout of a second with the pommel of his sword. The creature fell senseless to the muddy waters as the fighter sunk the blade of the claymore deep into the shoulder of another reptile.

The last lizard man, bearing a crude javelin, struck out with a thrust that Jubelo barely deflected. He answered with two lighting slashes across the midsection, finishing the brute.

The warriors turned back toward the middle of the barge as a tremendous splash rang out. Beside the cargo hold, two soldiers of the guard detachment lay dead. Above them, three of the lizard-men were frantically dumping what crates and barrels they could into the river while six of their fellows engaged the other guards. In the stern of the barge, Bai struggled with three more reptiles alone, the swarthy nomad spinning like a ghost among the scaled beasts.

As Corin and Jubelo rushed toward the hold, Jess shouted an arcane incantation and cast her slender hand toward the looting reptiles. A jagged streak of lightning flew from her fingers into the chests of the nearest two. The lizard creatures jerked and convulsed before falling to the deck, filling the air with a burning stench.

The third looter dropped a crate and dove for the side of the barge. The wizardess spoke a word in a long-dead tongue as she cast a tiny dart high in the air. The barb sparkled for an instant, then flashed into the muddy river after the fleeing lizard. More splashing followed from the port side of the barge as the other lizard men fled from her magic.

Jubelo and Corin, barreling down the starboard side, had scarcely reached the stern as Bai slew the last of the intruders there in a flurry of steel. The tiny steppe-nomad looked up at them with a wink, a smile curling beneath his long black mustachios as he cleaned the gore from the machete-like blade he carried.

Letting his huge claymore thump to the deck, Corin clapped his comrades on the shoulder with a hearty laugh.

* * *

An hour later, the four sat on the deck as the sun went down, leaning against the bows as they shared a meal of dried meat and fish. The danger had now passed and all that remained was the slow drift down to Lucky Town.

All told, the boat had lost two guards and one sailor, as well as what crates and barrels of supplies the pirates had thrown overboard, but the skipper was satisfied with the run all the same. By the Baron’s orders, men were expendable – supplies for the new city were not.

Jubelo had watched with ire as the sailors had slid the burlap-wrapped bodies overboard. Cress’ soldiery was mostly only farm-boys or even felons dragged from the gaols, press-ganged into service. With no training, bad outfitting, and only fear keeping them from desertion, what did the Baron expect if not more corpses?

"Yes, a good run. We’ve never lost so little goods to the cursed reptiles," the river-runner said with a crooked grin, squatting down among them. Jubelo did not look up to acknowledge the praise. "But that big bastard wasn’t with them today. He killed my first mate last run--spitted him like a pike."

Word had whispered up and down the river of the gigantic reptile-man that often led the raids. The sailors claimed he was seven feet tall.

Jubelo doubted that; in his years as a merc he’d never seen a lizard-man taller than an elf. It was likely only sailor-talk. The mercenary shifted his sword to sit more comfortably, then leaned back and sipped a mug of tea, reflecting on his current employment.

Lucky Town was a city being built around a fortress that was itself still under construction, hired dwarven engineers working night and day on its thick walls. It was to be the capitol of a small fiefdom granted to the newly dubbed Baron Cress, an old soldier of some fame. Jubelo had heard of it as he wandered through the winter streets of Creunstadt, jobless as the border wars there wound to a close.

Cress was now faced with the task of civilizing his holdings and carving a proper barony out of the wild. Such places always needed an extra sword-hand, so Jubelo had shouldered his bags and drifted south to look for work.

One of the problems plaguing the new capitol was a rogue tribe of lizard men pirating vital shipments of goods from the Heartlands, threatening to close the river. This the Baron Cress could not allow, as the overland route, a small ocean of muck and swamp, would be impassable for several months while an army of serfs slaved a road out of the mire.

With no men to spare, Cress put the job of eliminating these pirates out to tender and the contract had fallen to Corin, who it seemed was something a distant relative of the new baron. The blustering adventurer made it no secret that he meant the head of the giant lizard chieftain to be only the first trophy of a legendary rise to fortune and renown in the new realm.

Needing more muscle to face the raiders, though, Corin had made offers among the myriad of free-swords wandering the new city, and so Jubelo was here. It could be worse, he thought, blowing steam from his mug. The gold the man paid was good and his wife was a fair cook. For a free-blade, that was more than could oft be expected.

Jubelo looked to Bai, who sat across from him intently sharpening the strange machete he carried. Jubelo wondered what the nomad’s story was--every mercenary had one--but the small man’s dark eyes were inscrutable, revealing nothing. He had never said a word that Jubelo could remember, such that he wondered if the man could even speak the Heartlands tongue.

Corin and Jess were sitting close to a fire the mage had lit in a small pit worked specially into the deck of the barge. The broad warrior grinned across the flames at his two hirelings.

"Well, lads," he burred, slapping his knee. "A fine start. Now with Jess’s spells, we can track the beasts down to their slime-hole and be done with them. Ain’t that so, Jess," Corin said with a snort, nudging the woman’s bony arm as she stared into the fire. She looked up with a shy smile, the firelight tracing deep lines around her eyes.

"Nay, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Baron hasn’t got another job lined up for us back in Lucky right now," Corin beamed as he swigged back the last dregs of ale from his mug.

A moment later he set the stein down with a curse, his big hand trembling. Scowling, he held the quivering fingers up to his face.

"Is it time already?" Jess asked softly. Corin nodded once, laying the arm in his lap. Bai and Jubelo looked up from the musings to see what the witch-woman did.

The wizardess drew from her bags a few small ceramic pots then carefully unsealed them. A fetid, dank scent floated from them on the chilly night breeze, mixed with the smell of old blood.

Jubelo wrinkled his nose as the witch-woman began to mix contents from each pot in a stone mortar. One of them looked like seaweed or wet tobacco, some were mere powders, while one was a glistening paste of an unhealthy crimson. Jess began to grind the mix with a pestle, chanting under her breath. The odor from the mortar rose as her intonations droned on.

"What is that?" Jubelo asked at last, covering his nose as the stench became overpowering.

"The secret of my strength, free-blade," Corin boasted, his black eyes shining as he eyed the mixture. His hands were trembling more violently now and his breathing had become shallow. In the red light of the fire, his craggy features took on the look of a demon greedily contemplating the coals of Hell.

Jess finished grinding the stinking concoction and went to kneel by her husband. The sturdy warrior freed his dagger from his wide belt and drew a long, deep cut down the inside of his hairy forearm, biting his lip as drops of blood puddled on the deck.

Jubelo watched as Corin dipped two fingers into the mortar and pulled out a dollop of the rank-smelling paste.

"Remember what the Jhaiyan told you," Jess said as she leaned close to him. Jubelo’s eyes widened at the name. "Not too much. You’ll--"

"Shut up, woman," the warrior barked as he smeared the poultice into the bleeding cut.

His huge body stiffened and his eyes squeezed shut as his face flushed yet redder in the firelight. One brawny leg twitched in time with the sound of his teeth grinding as Corin’s canine-like jaws convulsed.

Jubelo leapt to his feet with an oath.

"I’ll have nothing to do with Red Jhaiy magic, Corin" he said, spitting on the deck. "You can take your gold back now."

After a few moments, Corin let out a sigh of pleasure and relief as his rebelling muscles went slack. He opened his eyes and pulled himself to his feet, swaying drunkenly for a moment. With a swat of his hand, be brushed away the poultice from his arm. Nothing remained but an angry crimson welt.

"Sit down, sell-sword," he snarled at the free-blade. "It will do you no harm."

The hulking red-beard reached down and took up from the deck a five-foot iron bar used by the crew to shift heavy cargoes. He strained for an instant, a vein bulging on his wide forehead. With a metallic groan the bar gave way, curling into a U. Grinning, Corin turned it over in his huge fists then bent it into its former shape with a grunt. Two deck hands watched with eyes wide as silver florins from the shadows of the deckhouse.

"See, sell-sword," he laughed, tossing the bar on the deck with clatter. "No harm."

"I saw proof enough of your strength in the capitol-square," Jubelo said. In Lucky Town, a runaway team of horses had overturned an hostler’s cart, trapping a young girl’s leg beneath it. Corin had gripped the sides and righted it with a shove, a task five men might have strained their backs at.

"And I respected you for it," Jubelo continued. "But I thought that strength was yours, not the drug of a damned Red."

"Bah, you," Corin snorted, waving his thick hand. "I’ve seen you and the prairie rat there, going through your drills in the mornings," he said, pointing at Bai as he pantomimed a push-up in the air. "For what? Care to test your grit against mine? I’d snap your neck like a twig, free-blade."

Jubelo ignored the challenge, but kept his gaze locked on the big man’s eyes.

"I’ve never met any who dealt with the Jhaiy, or their magics, to their profit, Corin," he said at last.

"I pay you gold for dead lizard men," Corin growled, jabbing a finger at the hireling’s chest. "For a bout of fear-talk, I’d have hired an old woman. Handle your blade and mind your mouth--you’ll be glad enough for the strength of my arm before this foray is done," he said, then stalked off toward the stern, leaving Jubelo alone with the silent mage and Bai.

"It will do no good," the wizardess said suddenly, still staring into the fire. Jubelo turned around.

"It’s best to leave him be," she added, looking away into the dark night sky.

Jubelo stood there a moment undecided, then sighed and rubbed his eyes as he sat down with his back against the bulwark. He dug his worn silver luck-piece from his pocket and rolled it back and forth across his knuckles, as he always did when old memories floated up, like vast dark shapes in the water.

Jubelo, as with all free-blades, had once had another life than this wandering one. Under another name, his true one, he was a paladin of the Cripple-King’s guard far away to the north, but the honors of that rank were long ago stripped from him. When faced with a choice, he allowed a young girl to die so that he might slay a long-sought enemy. Somehow, in Corin’s drug Jubelo could feel some unsettling trace of that mad pursuit of Ten Hands.

Shaking his head, Jubelo looked down at the deck between his feet, even more disturbed by how far he had come from those days.

As a Knight of the Pale, he would never have soldiered with Corin for a heartbeat longer after seeing him use Red Jhaiy magic. Too many friends and comrades had been lost to those fell magicians in their undeclared war on the Cripple-King. No, nothing would have kept him from a duel – he could not have rested until the big man lay dead, damn his gold!

But my dueling days are over, Jubelo thought bitterly. For a landed knight, honor was an easy thing – now gold and the food and dry place to sleep it bought were more important. He slapped a half-hearted fist on the deck, then rose and paced toward the bow.

* * *

Corin and Jess looked up from the cook-fire as the two swordsmen approached, preparing a midday meal while the teenage boy they’d hired as a wrangler in the city brushed down the mounts. Jubelo and Bai squatted down by the fire, taking steaming mugs of tea from Jess. Both looked bone-weary and their clothes and armor were caked with mud.

"You found them?" Corin asked gruffly, pulling at his beard.

"Aye," Jubelo nodded. "We did."

For the last six days, the four had slogged through the wetlands from the new capitol, following the quiet witch-woman as she used her craft to trail the lizard-man she had wounded on the barge with her enspelled dart.

At last Jess had led them to a bare mound of earth a few leagues distant from the river, like a low hill in the marsh. Somewhere below was the lair of the reptilian looters.

The four had cast about in a widening circle, searching for a way underground. Finally, they had come upon a tiny arroyo just a league from the river, where keen-sighted Bai had spotted it.

Just a four-foot hole in the side of a low bluff, the entrance had been recessed, hard to see, but it surely led to a larger burrow underneath. This morning, Jubelo and Bai had made ready to scout out the cave, when the nocturnal reptile-creatures would be in their daily hibernation that resembled sleep.

Wiping caked mud from his face, Jubelo described to Corin and Jess what they had found there.

At first the entrance was just a muddy worm-hole, forcing the two to scuttle forward on hands and knees in the muck. Unable to carry torches, they had instead spread a strange black unguent Jess had given them over their eyes. Though it stung like fire, it made the deep black of the tunnel seem like the dim light of dusk.

After a few spans, the burrow had widened to the point where Jubelo and the nomad had been able to walk almost upright, then it had taken a sharp turn downward into glistening wet rock. After what Jubelo guessed a half-league the cramped tunnel widened at last, feeding into a broad cavern dotted with spiked rock formations.

It was there in a frenzied battle that he and the steppe-rider Bai had slain three gigantic lizards, each half the size of a man.

Though this seemed to be the only guard or sentinel the reptiles had placed, Jubelo was not surprised. Lizard-men were little more than animals themselves, barely intelligent enough to use tools and weapons.

The only other exit from the cavern was a near-vertical shaft that spiraled down for more than ten spans. It was no more than a spear-length across and rough-sided, making it easy for the two to scale down. The shaft leveled out onto a broad lip of glistening rock edging a smooth sheet of stone that flowed down like a frozen waterfall. Here he and Bai had had no choice but to tie off a rope and rappel down.

Leaving Bai to guard the ropes, Jubelo had then silently paced the twisting, chaotic passages, mapping in his head. After no more than a league of twisting through uneven water-worn passages, he had found the main chamber, where at least a score of the reptiles were sprawled in sleep.

Flat on his belly behind a fence-like wall of spiked rocks, Jubelo had surveyed the cavern as best he could, barely breathing lest he wake the reptiles.

Near the center of the cavern, he had spied the lizard man the sailors had spoken of--even in sleep clad in a thick vest of bronzed mail. The reptile-man was large, but not the giant the tales described.

"And there they are," Jubelo said finally, drawing lines in the dirt. "In the big cavern. Twenty, perhaps more. All males, no young--they must simply raid from here. Perhaps the rest of the tribe is closer to the coast."

"Is that all?" Jess asked, rubbing her hands to warm them. "They have been raiding barges for months. Where are the goods and supplies?"

Cress had granted the adventurers to keep any goods or gold they could recover. Which would go a long way toward covering the cost of the bribe Corin likely paid for this contract, Jubelo thought to himself.

"I don’t know," Jubelo replied, sipping at his mug. "It was hard to tell from far away. There were some things--weapons, clothing, some food, but no more than what they could have taken from the last raid. They must have traded the rest away or carried it down-river."

"I don’t care what they did, sell-sword," Corin said with a wave of his massive hand. "Our task is to kill them."

The big man slapped his knee with a broad, toothy grin.

"Five Hells, that’s it then," he said. "Let’s be about it."

"But Corin," Jess objected, looking up from the fire. "These men are tired – they’ve only just returned and already been in battle once today. Is it not better to rest the night?"

Corin shook his head, not looking at her.

"Nay," he said with a snort. "The damned reptiles may move in the night, then we’d have to track them all over again. These two will be alright – it’s time they earned their gold."

Jess did not answer, merely began to gather her things.

Jubelo said nothing as he stared down into his cup, but he thought he heard the steppe-man beside him utter a foreign curse beneath his breath. He knew by now there was no arguing with Corin.

Corin pushed himself to his feet and stalked to the edge of the campsite to gather his gear. As he bent down to gather up his armor, the red-bearded warrior was gripped by a coughing fit, his big frame wracked with a hacking croup for several breaths. After a moment, he stood, wiping a fist across blood-flecked lips.

"Damned wetland air," he rasped. "I’ll be back. Make yourselves ready." Shaking his head, he stomped off into the scrub brush surrounding them.

Jubelo twirled his silver luck-piece from one finger to the next as he watched the huge fighter go. Many times over the last few days Corin had been forced to stop as they traveled, sometimes even to dismount as strange fits took him: sweating, chills, odd fevers. At times blood flowed from his eyes like tears. The fits lasted for no more than a few minutes, then passed like an autumn rain.

Wetland air in a sour-back’s eye, Jubelo thought grimly. He had no need of a witch-woman’s touch to know the true cause of Corin’s ill. He had held his tongue until this point, but each day it galled him more.

He looked to Jess, who was already digging through her packs for her pestle and mortar. She looked up suddenly as he knelt beside her and grabbed her slim wrist.

"What is that poison doing to him, Jess?" he asked, locking his gray eyes with her timid green ones. She shook her head and tried to turn away.

"It is not your concern, Jubelo," she said, avoiding his gaze.

"I am about to go underground and into battle with him—-it’s my concern. Tell me, or by Hell’s Gate I’ll not go one step further with you," Jubelo said, pulling her back toward him.

The wizardess pulled her arm away and met his gaze with a tired sigh. She was silent for a long time, her thin features seeming set in stone.

"What do you know of magic?" she asked finally as Jubelo sat back on his heels.

"No more than I need, which is nothing," he replied.

"Very well," Jess said, her voice low and serious. "Know this then: all magic requires energy to draw from, a source. Often it is the elements, fire or earth or even frost, such as your own blade calls upon," she said, motioning to the enchanted sword at Jubelo’s side.

"Some magics gain power from the force of life itself," she continued, her thin face darkening. "Or death. The balm feeds now upon Corin himself, upon his body and spirit. Are you satisfied?" She turned back to her bags, laying out the clay jars containing the ingredients for the balm.

"Fitting for the spell of a Jhaiyan," Jubelo said, his lip curling. "Then how can you go on making this magician’s bane for him day after day? The man is your own husband."

"You think it pleases me to see him thus?" Jess hissed, turning back toward him. "I wished only for his happiness. The Jhaiyan sold me the secret of its making a half-year ago, telling us it would make Corin a mighty warrior."

"And it did." she said, lowering her eyes. "But only too late did I discover that once imbibed, it cannot be turned aside." She put down the sealed cask she had in her hand.

"What does that mean?" Jubelo asked, looking at the cask as if it were a viper.

"Without the balm the power already within Corin ravens, scours him with pain. Should I deny him the potion now, the magic would consume him even more swiftly," the witch-woman said curtly as she opened the clay pot. "Now gather your gear, I have said too much already."

"But what will happen when…" Jubelo stopped as a shadow fell over the spot where he knelt with the wizardess.

"When what, sell-sword?" Corin growled, standing over them, apparently hale once more. "After my balm? Draw your wages and be gone with you," he said, pointing to the mounts as he fumbled at the pouch of coins at his belt. "Get out of here before I flay your hide! I’ll not have a--"

"Corin!" Jess cried out, coming stubbornly to her feet. "He means no harm." She shot the sell-sword a hard look. "We are few enough already and he alone of us knows the underground. Do not be a fool!" she said, moving between her husband and the mercenary.

The fighter was silent for a moment, his big face flushing more crimson as his hands clenched unconsciously.

"Very well," he breathed after a moment. "Ready yourself now, sell-sword," he said, punching a thick finger into Jubelo’s chest. "And not another word. We move within the half-hour."

Jubelo and Corin stood with eyes locked for a tense moment before the sell-sword shook his head and turned away in resignation. After that no more was said as the four prepared themselves in silence.

* * *

Jess cried out desperately as she cast her hand over Jubelo’s left shoulder, her fingers splayed. He shivered as a hum of power tunneled the air beside his ear.

Instantly the saurian forms in front of him were enmeshed in thick strands of gray-green webbing stretching from either side of the corridor, blocking it like a heavy curtain. A corner of the eldritch netting caught Bai’s left arm as he battled with the pursuers to cover their retreat.

Jubelo reached out and helped the nomad disentangle himself from the clingy strands. Panting, they followed Jess and Corin down the corridor as the reptiles behind them struggled to pierce the gummy barrier.

The four adventurers came up short as they stumbled blindly down a shallow drop ending in teardrop-shaped chamber whose craggy walls echoed with the roar of running water. At the far end of the chamber a wide fissure opened in the ceiling, from which a gush of water spewed into a deep chasm below. There was no other exit.

As they came into the middle of the chamber Corin fell to one knee, bulging arms crossed over his mighty ribs, then rolled over onto his back. His face was drenched in sweat and creased with lines of agony.

Their entry into the caves had gone well, or so it had seemed. They had met no resistance as they traced the winding tunnels, following the path Jubelo led them, believing that the reptiles had yet to stir. Then they had entered the narrow twist of passages at the bottom of the steep stone slope and steeled themselves to assault the main chamber.

It was then that the attackers had fallen upon them, quite literally in fact. Jubelo cursed himself for his foolishness as he remembered it. Though he had ventured below ground more than a handful of times, a life lived on the surface had left him with a flat view of the world. Never once had he looked up for passages or shafts opening above in his explorations.

He would never make that mistake again he had thought as the first whisper of movement had flickered above him. Five or more of the saurians had plunged upon them suddenly from a rock shelf a half-span above, driving down with steel-tipped javelins.

At the same moment they were attacked from front and behind by more lizard-men charging down the stone tunnels. In an instant the four were scattered.

It was then that they had been saved only by the fantastic strength of Corin. The warrior had roared as he cleared a great circle about himself with three mighty strokes of the claymore, the tip of the sword raising sparks off the rock walls. His brute power slung back the advancing reptiles, giving his companions a precious moment to regroup.

By the time the three swordsmen had been able to form a circle around the woman-mage, a quick javelin thrust had grazed her across the ribs and knocked her almost senseless. Her husband had cried in fury as he knelt beside her. He helped her to her feet, where she listed unsteadily.

After that the four had been forced further into the tunnels, encircled by the reptiles from unknown tunnels to cut off their escape. Soon all three of the men had been wounded, though none seriously. Giving ground a step at a time, they retreated deeper and deeper as Jess struggled to ready her spells.

The mage had just managed to throw back their pursuers with a tongue of flame blown down the corridor when Jubelo’s worst fear had come to pass. Corin had been gripped by a balm-induced fit, and Mother of Sin, it was the worst yet. They had been forced to almost drag him until he recovered enough to stumble along, wracked double with pain.

Now the huge fighter lay still on the stone, his limbs twitching at odd intervals. Jess knelt beside him, a slim hand on his brow. Jubelo dropped to one knee across from her, placing his fingers to the warrior’s woolly throat. His pulse was a dull throb, weak and erratic.

Behind them, Bai searched the cavern for any means of escape. Jubelo heard him cursing under his breath in the native tongue of the steppe.

"No way out," the nomad yelled to them, his throaty voice brittle with fear. So he can speak, Jubelo thought. The nomad peered over the edge of the chasm through which water flowed from the ceiling above in a heavy torrent. "This water flows to somewhere below, but how far?"

Too far, Jubelo cursed to himself. The reptiles knew just what they were doing when they herded us here. He felt the cold mist from the water settle on the back of his neck.

Jubelo started suddenly as Corin went still. As he looked down, the bearish fighter opened his eyes. Though Jess’s cats-eye potion blurred all natural colors, he could see that Corin’s eyes now shone a bloody red, no pupils visible in their crimson pools.

"Corin?" his wife shrieked, staring. The warrior ignored her as he shook his head violently.

"What are you squatting here for, sell-sword?" the fighter growled, shoving Jubelo back as he pushed himself to his feet. "Where are the reptiles?" he spat as he swept up his great sword.

"Are you well?" Jubelo asked incredulously. Corin glowered at him with his bloody gaze.

"Don’t mind me, sell-sword! Look to the lizards - here they come!" he bellowed, pointing toward the entrance to the cavern.

The lizard-men had finally broken through Jess’s web and were pouring down the corridor. Jubelo and Corin moved to block the entrance as Bai sprinted across the chamber to join them. Jess rifled hurriedly through her pouches for some thing needed for her magic.

The mage had no time to cast a spell, however, as the entrance of the dead-end cavern became a mass of writhing fury as the three warriors struggled to hold the entrance against the onslaught of lizard-men. They slew twice their number of the saurians before the sheer weight of the attack pushed them back into the middle of the chamber.

Now the battle began in earnest as Jess joined in with her magics, the three fighters forming a ring to protect her. Even more fearful than the witch-woman’s magics, however, was the berserk fury of Corin, his huge blade slinging ruin among the reptiles. Every stroke of the claymore felled one or more of the lizards as the warrior fought with inhuman fierceness.

Even with the weight of numbers against them, the four took a fearful toll upon the river raiders, but the cost was high. All three fighters bled from a half a dozen small but dangerous wounds.

Still, the attack had all but been turned when the giant leader of the lizard-men, bearing a long-bladed sword with a snake-headed pommel, came into the fray with his retinue--four huge saurians bearing tridents. The decimated raiders redoubled their efforts as the closeness of their leader lent them heart.

With the five headmen organizing their attacks, the reptiles pushed the four humans back against the rough wall of the cavern, seeking to pin them there and force them toward the chasm. On the flank Bai fought like a whirlwind to keep from being pressed backward. Less than a spear-length separated him from the brink.

Jess called out to them, screaming to be heard above the din of battle.

"Back on my word!" she cried, then began a high chant, her voice tinged with desperation. Jubelo felt the hair rise on the back of his neck as energy gathered around her.

"Now!" she cried, then thrust her slender hands at the nearest lizard-man. Jubelo jerked himself back.

White lightning crackled forth from the woman’s fingers, blasting the reptile through the chest then arcing in the damp air toward the next lizard-man. In a heartbeat the sizzling bolt zig-zagged around the chamber in a hot chain from one foe to the next, roasting the lizards where they stood. One by one the saurians quivered and dropped as the jolt passed through them.

"Corin! Look out!" Jess screamed as her husband leapt heedlessly through the open space cleared by the spell toward the giant, mail-clad lizard man in the center of the attack. Their blades had barely met as the chain of lightning arced from the charred body of a lizard-man to them, bouncing back and forth between their armored chests in a fiery spectacle.

Corin threw his head back and roared as the electricity coruscated through him, his blade locked with that of his shivering adversary. At last the lightning died out in a shower of sparks. The giant reptile staggered back a pace as Corin fell to one knee. Their blades, now too hot to hold, fell to the floor.

The lizard-man recovered first, throwing itself upon Corin with fangs bared. The big fighter yelled as those fangs sank into his shoulder, then grappled the reptile about the waist and bore him to the floor.

Bai and Jubelo fell upon the lizard-men left standing by Jess’s chain lightning. The bewildered reptiles put up little resistance before taking flight, scurrying from the cavern.

The two free-blades turned to help Corin as he writhed on the floor with the huge lizard-man. As they neared, however, the fighter clasped his brawny arms in a vise-like grip around the monster’s shoulders and back. Rolling over onto one knee, the huge warrior leaned back with a groan, snapping the reptile’s spine like driftwood. The lizard-man flopped to the stone like a rag doll.

"Hah!" the big man snorted as he rose to his feet, wiping a paw across his lips. "So much for the river raiders." He stood for a moment, breathing heavily.

Jess breathed a sigh of relief as she slumped back against the damp wall of the cavern. Bai and Jubelo did the same as they leaned on their blades to rest.

Corin took in a few more ragged breaths, then reached down and hauled the head of the lizard headman up by a handful of scaled skin.

"See, free-blade," he said with a gloating air as he turned toward Jubelo. "I told you you’d be glad of my str-"

The big warrior stopped suddenly, a strange look clouding his features. Abruptly he bent over at the waist and coughed once, then a torrent of dark ichor spilled from his lips onto the stone. Wracked with spasms, the mountainous warrior slipped to one knee as black fluid gushed from him like water wrung from a washrag. Suddenly his body went slack as he slumped to the floor.

Jess screamed and started toward him, but Jubelo waved her back. As he approached the unmoving fighter, a whisper of warning tingled along his spine.

"Corin?" he asked, drawing near and laying a hand on the man’s huge shoulder.

The warrior struck out suddenly, swatting at the sell-sword with the back of his outsized hand as he rose like a bear roused from slumber. Though Jubelo ducked the main force of the blow it lifted him from his feet and threw him across the chamber like a hurricane wind. The fighter stood and glared after him, ichor still dripping from his twisted beard.

"Wretch!" issued an unearthly voice from the warrior’s lips. "Corin is no more. I now claim this body, another pawn for my armies of dread!"

"That voice!" Jess cried, her face drained of color. "The wizard Geth - the Jhaiy who sold me the secret of the balm!"

"The same, witch-woman!" the voice leered, turning toward her. "My balm has consumed him - his empty husk is now mine. Your fool husband sought his glory and found death in its stead. And now so shall you!"

The massive form of the fighter began to close on Jess, who stood stock-still with fright and shock.

To Jubelo, struggling to steady himself as he gained his feet, what had occurred became crystal-clear. Years of fighting the Red Jhaiy had taught him that their bargains and promises were never what they seemed. Geth’s balm was nothing more than a slow poison, devouring its would-be hero’s spirit and desire, creating a hollow vessel. A vessel possessed of unimaginable strength that now answered somehow to the whim of the Jhaiyan wizard.

Jubelo lurched forward to protect the witch-woman, but Bai beat him there, lunging at the massive back of the dead fighter to slash at his vulnerable hamstrings. The strange machete cut a deep slash across the trunk-like legs of the warrior, but it was ignored as Corin’s golem-like form turned and sent the wiry nomad sprawling with a backhanded fist.

Jubelo came in from the side to engage the monster, swinging high with his frost-ensorcelled blade. The golem that had been Corin made no move to avoid him. It accepted the force of the blow into its shoulder as it grasped the blade with sausage-thick fingers and ripped it from Jubelo’s grasp, oblivious of the keen edge shredding its callused palm.

Jubelo’s blade rang off the far wall and fell to the stone as the golem’s other hand snaked around his throat and lifted him from his feet. He gasped and kicked for an instant in the crushing grip before he felt a sudden lurch as a blur swished across his vision.

Jubelo found himself on his back on the stone floor staring up at the golem, which was flailing the stump of an arm in the air, neatly severed between wrist and elbow. At his side Bai crouched and swung his machete back into a guard position with a defiant flourish.

"Hold him as long as you can," Jubelo yelled hoarsely at the nomad, then he lurched like a madman toward the witch-woman who still cowered unbelievingly against the rock. Jess screamed as he started toward her and backed away with fear-widened eyes. The sell-sword practically tackled her.

"It’s too strong!" he yelled at her. Jess looked blankly back at him. "It will kill us all," he pleaded. "Have you no magic left?"

The mage started to speak, then stopped and shook her head as if in misunderstanding. She was almost too dazed to move, much less work spellcraft.

Jubelo hesitated for a moment, but the sounds of battle over his shoulder decided him. There was one magic the enchantress had that he might use.

"The balm!" he cried, bringing his face close to hers. "Have you more of it?"

Jess nodded weakly and started to shuffle out of the light leather rucksack on her shoulders. Jubelo grabbed it and ripped it open, spilling its contents upon the stone floor. Jess picked up a tiny clay jar and opened it--a daub of the sickly red paste remained.

Jubelo scooped it onto his fingers.

"Where?" he urged the witch-woman.

"On… on your arm," she said weakly.

Jubelo looked to his left arm where three deep scratches ran from shoulder to biceps, marks of a lizard-man’s claws. Taking a deep breath, he smeared the poultice into the wound.

For a moment he felt that the blood had boiled in his veins until it cooled and ran to ice in an instant. A feral spirit rose up in his heart and he could feel the muscles of his frame ripple with power. In spite of himself, he exulted in it.

Shaking off the feeling, Jubelo turned back toward the battle where Bai was desperately trying to keep space between himself and the golem, but the nomad was tiring fast. The pawn of Geth knew no fatigue however as it slowly closed in on the outlander. Before Jubelo could move, the massive form connected with its one good fist with a wet crack.

Bai slid several feet and lay still. As the golem shambled forward to finish the nomad, Jubelo glanced at his sword but it was too far away. With a defiant cry, the hire-sword charged across the chamber to catch the creature about the waist and slam it into the rock wall.

The golem was stunned for but a moment from the impact, then smashed down hard with an elbow into the back of Jubelo’s exposed neck. As the free-blade fell to the floor, the huge fighter swung a savage kick into his side that lifted the hire-sword and threw him several feet.

Jubelo struggled to his feet as he fought for breath, cradling his bruised ribs. Though the balm gave him strength far beyond his own, it was nothing compared to the brute force of the golem. He had no choice but a desperate gamble. Steeling himself, he stumbled backward toward the edge of the well.

Corin’s form followed him mechanically, the fighter’s features set in a grim mask. Jubelo crouched for an instant, then lunged forward at the advancing hulk. The fighter’s brawny arms reached out to intercept him, heedless of its missing right hand.

Jubelo avoided the golem’s grasp and caught at its left arm, pivoting sharply with all his might to toss the huge form over his hip. Jubelo had been a fair wrestler as a lad, but the ponderous bulk of the fighter sent him sprawling to the stone all the same as he threw the monster toward the chasm.

Corin’s body slid toward the precipice. The golem slipped over the side, then stopped suddenly as its big hand shot out and somehow managed to gain purchase on the wet stone.

Jubelo lay spent on the stone floor and panted helplessly as the golem struggled for an instant to pull itself from the crevice, its features working furiously as the rushing water clawed at its back. The sell-sword breathed a sigh of relief as its grip gave way suddenly on the slick rock and the golem disappeared from sight without a sound.

Jubelo rolled over onto his back and breathed for a moment. After a long while, he rose and stumbled over to tend the fallen outlander. Over his shoulder he heard the gentle sound of Jess softly crying.

"How is he?" she asked in a small voice after a time.

"He is alive, but his jaw is badly broken," Jubelo sighed.

"And you?"

Jubelo paused for a moment as he scratched at the caked dressing embedded in the scratches on his shoulder. He did not answer.

* * *

The next evening as the stars began to peek out from the dusk Jubelo knelt by the warm blaze of a campfire with Jess across from him. Bai lay not far away, still unconscious but healing.

The witch-woman, her eyes still empty and dazed, chanted softly as she ground with her pestle the foul-smelling amalgam of the Jhaiy wizard. Body taut with expectation, Jubelo waited with the keen edge of his dagger pressed to his bare forearm.

The hunger for the drug scoured him and he knew that any hope of freeing himself of it lay in seeking out the maker of the cursed balm. It would be no hard task, however, to find in all the vast realm of the Jhaiy the house of the wizard Geth, he thought. The strength-giving potion had one last effect. Even without looking at the stars above to guide him, Jubelo could feel where that dark land lay. Every red beat of his heart beckoned him toward it.

Dustin Appel has recently come back to his beloved Texas after a long stint overseas. He and his wife now live in Dallas, where he is steadily making up for a 5-year deficit of margaritas and fajitas.

E-mail:Dustin_Appel@email.msn.com

Return to the Aphelion main page.