44
They ran into an enormous cavern, larger even than the Atrium at Vocans. A pool of lava sat in the very centre, bubbling and seething like a boiling cauldron. Four rivers of molten rock, offshoots from the fiery lake, seeped away and into the walls, splitting the room into four quarters of solid rock. Each quarter had its own tunnel to other chambers, and the patches of solid ground were all connected by precarious bridges made of misshapen stones, crudely held together by crumbling mortar.
And there were eggs. Not just hundreds, but thousands and thousands of them, some piled so high they almost reached the ceiling. Many were covered in dust and cobwebs, while those closer to them appeared fresher. The dried-out husks of those that had already hatched littered the floors. There were almost as many of them as there were eggs.
‘There must be a legion of goblins hatched by now,’ Fletcher murmured, prodding a nearby husk with his khopesh. ‘We may already be too late.’
‘Last time I was in ’ere was three years ago,’ Mason said, his mouth flapping open like a fish on dry land. ‘There weren’t ’alf this many then.’
‘No time to worry about that now,’ Isadora said, burying her blade in an egg. ‘Leave the big piles – we’ll burn them last in case there’s too much smoke.’
Already her Felid, Tamil, was slashing apart the nearest eggs, hissing as the alluvium within coated his claws. The other demons followed suit, except for the Mites, who were too small to do much damage. Instead, they hovered by the three other entrances to the cavern, to watch for patrolling goblins.
‘Let’s get cracking,’ Fletcher said, raising his khopesh. In seconds the room was filled with the acrid smell of rotting meat, the stench so strong, Fletcher could taste it.
Then he felt a sudden sense of comfort and satisfaction that made him start. It took him a moment before realising it was coming from Ignatius.
The Salamander was swimming to the centre of the pool of lava, where the molten rock was white hot. The demon felt no pain, only a sense of yearning and purpose, and even … familiarity. Fletcher wondered if the place reminded the imp of his home in the ether, wherever that might be.
‘What the hell is Ignatius doing?’ Othello growled, kicking a pair of eggs into the lava. They sizzled and blackened, emitting a whiff of burning hair.
‘I have no idea,’ Fletcher said.
As the stubborn imp reached the core of the lake, Fletcher felt a sudden jolt of power. Something was changing.
The seconds ticked by and, despite the changes in his consciousness, Fletcher could do nothing but hack away at the eggs, keeping an eye on Ignatius as he swam circles around the heart of the lake. All the while, pulses of mana seeped from Ignatius’s body for no apparent reason. It was like a leaking tap, and Fletcher wished he had kept back a vial of mana for himself.
He was sure it was something to do with the lava. He tried to call Ignatius back, but his demonic control didn’t seem to work, almost as if the little Salamander wasn’t even aware of him. Fletcher could do nothing but hope that when it was time to leave, Ignatius would heed his call. He concentrated on destroying the eggs, ignoring the jolts of power that flooded from his demon.
Even with nonstop work, no more than a few hundred eggs had been destroyed once five minutes had passed. Some of the eggs even had half-grown goblins within, which had to be quickly dispatched as the poor deformed creatures were brought into the light.
Fletcher took stock, and saw that the teams had barely cleared their quarter of land, and that didn’t include the large central pile that was to be burned.
‘What about the prisoners?’ Rufus panted, looking at Malik beseechingly. ‘My mother?’
‘We’ll get this done first,’ Malik replied, grunting as he bisected an egg with a slash of his scimitar.
‘Get on with it, Rufus. It’ll take all of us to destroy these in time,’ Didric snarled, shoving Rufus towards the nearest egg.
Rufus stumbled, then turned back, his shoulders stiff with anger. There was something in his eyes Fletcher hadn’t seen before. The mousy-haired boy was shy and unassuming at the best of times, yet now he was filled with a steely resolve.
‘I’m going to get my mother. I’ll be damned if some pleb with ideas above his station thinks he can tell me otherwise.’ Rufus spat at Didric’s boots, and Fletcher couldn’t help but grin as Didric’s face fell at the insult.
Before anyone could stop him, Rufus sprinted over the nearest bridge, dodging through the eggs to the closest tunnel. Fletcher didn’t hesitate. He charged after him, with Mason hard on his heels.
‘Rufus, stop!’ Mason said in a half-shout, half-hiss. ‘You’ll give us away!’
But Rufus was fast and had a head start. By the time Fletcher had crossed the bridge and reached the tunnel, the young noble had disappeared into the darkness.
‘At least the bloody idiot’s goin’ the right way,’ Mason groaned, catching up behind him. ‘The other tunnels lead to the surface.’
‘We’d better follow,’ Fletcher said, listening for sounds of disturbance ahead. ‘He can’t do it alone.’
Mason hefted his sword, a large, cleaver-like weapon known as a falchion. It looked almost comical next to the boy’s emaciated frame, which was already weighed down by a large crossbow. He was still skinny from his long incarceration, but he handled the sword well enough. After all, the boy had once been in the Forsyth Furies, a fearsome regiment by all accounts.
‘Let’s go then,’ Mason said, leading the way.
Fletcher paused. He knew the pain of losing a parent, and his heart went out to the scrawny young noble.
But was this really what Hominum needed? There were thousands of eggs that were yet to be destroyed. How would rescuing a mad old noble change the fate of the war?
Still, he could not let Rufus run into danger blindly, not least because he might raise the alarm.
Torn, he left Athena to continue destroying the eggs. Pacing into the tunnel, he sheathed his khopesh and drew his bow, an arrow ready on the string in case of sudden attack.
‘We come back in fifteen minutes,’ Fletcher murmured to himself. ‘With or without them.’
The tunnel sloped upwards, so much so that Fletcher began to breathe heavily from the climb. In the dim light, he could just make out Mason ahead of him. The boy was moving stealthily, keeping to the shadows and avoiding the stream of light from the exit at the end. This glow was of a different kind – natural. They had to be near the surface.
There was a final slope before the tunnel opened up, blocking their view of the cavern beyond. Mason crawled up to the edge and Fletcher followed his example, making sure to keep himself pressed firmly to the ground. His chest was soaked from the damp soil by the time he reached the top, but this small discomfort was swiftly forgotten as he took in the scene within.
‘Bloody hell,’ Fletcher breathed.