At the very edge Teldin saw a barrel-lift just to the left. He lunging outward, and his fingers grazed the wooden rim, then slipped away. With a frantic flail, his arm wrapped around a rope. The farmer clung to the slender line, his body swinging out over open space. Water from above battered the human, as if trying to knock him loose. A small body smashed against his shoulder and disappeared into the darkness.
Looking through the spray, Teldin saw the barrel he had lunged for just above him. The rope he clung to was the other half of the lift and somewhere above it looped over a big pulley and ended at the barrel. Somewhere below was the counterweight.
Teldin wrapped his legs around the hemp, then began to carefully slide down. The rope creaked and groaned, but the farmer paid it no mind until he realized, to his amazement, that he was moving up, not down. Even as his dazed brain tried to figure this out, the barrel on the other end dropped past him. The wooden gondola was filled to the brim with water, and as more crashed into it from above, the force drove it down farther and faster. Teldin, in turn, rose higher and faster. Before he could stop it, the lean human was rocketing to the upper levels.
Teldin wanted to scream, but the cry was driven back into his throat. Looking up, he saw a massive disk forming out of the darkness. As he sped toward it, the drenched climber suddenly realized it was the pulley. He thought briefly about his hands being dragged over the metal wheel. With a wild, frantic kick he swung the rope toward the outer edge of the shaft, and at the height of the swing, Teldin let go, praying the momentum was enough to carry him to safety.
The wild lunge carried Teldin to one of the landings. He tried to land on his feet, but, soaking wet and slippery, he crashed to the floor. With an almost audible crack, his temple hit the stone. Teldin’s eyes suddenly flashed bright sparks, then darkness settled upon him.
“To the Chamber of Pain take meat you shall,” the leading neogi whispered to the red-brown brute carrying Teldin. The human, stripped of his weapon and slung over the beast’s shoulder, craned around to see the neogi scuttling about. Teldin’s head throbbed and he had trouble focusing. The horrid little creature swam before his eyes.
Hanging limply across the umber hulk’s shoulder, such as it was, Teldin’s chest banged against the creature’s bony hide. Gradually his head stopped swimming and he could see around him again, albeit upside-down and across the back of a smelly, plate-covered creature. From his position, though, the human had a fairly good view of the back of the beast’s feet, and somehow he was not surprised to see the creature’s talons gouging the solid rock floor like soft sand. Each glimpse of the cracked, yellow claws accentuated the agony of the equally powerful hand that dug into Teldin’s back, holding him in place.
Teldin caught fleeting upside-down glimpses of the corridors and rooms they passed, but he had no idea where he was. He counted five of his captors. At least one neogi and four freakish umber hulks were in his group, of that much he was certain. The escort plodded through the halls, the noise of cracking stone and clicking mandibles echoing with every step. Just as Teldin thought he knew where he was, the caravan reached a stair, still dripping from the gnomish flood, and disoriented him again.
After climbing several levels, the group struck off through the corridors again. The pace was brisk; apparently, the neogi was trying to spirit its captive out of the gnome warrens as quickly as possible. Along the route were clear signs of battle: shattered walls, broken machines, bloodstains, and bodies. Most of the dead were gnomes; only a few were umber hulks, and none were neogi. In several instances, the neogi leader ordered its slaves to collect the corpses until the beasts were loaded down with bodies. Bloody streaks darkened their rust-brown hides.
When the sanguinary caravan finally reached the outdoors, Teldin found himself once again looking at the crater lake. The neogi’s choice of direction was now clear, for hovering over the water below was a massive ship-or creature. From his vantage point, Teldin couldn’t be sure.
Whatever the thing was, it looked like a gigantic spider, divided into three parts. The rear section, blood red and larger than the rest, was egg-shaped with an underbelly, if one could call it that, lined with veinlike courses. This abdomen loomed fat and plump in the starlit sky over the tiny Unquenchable. From its broad end protruded a smaller section, looking much like the head. A thick, curved, gray mantle covered the forward part while glowing hemispherical ports gave the impression of malevolent eyes glaring down at its prey, the hapless little sidewheeler.
A tight cluster of slender spars, jointed like gigantic legs, were affixed at the front of the head. Four swept to the rear, arching above and below the main hull, and each tapered to a point. Four others reached out to the front, probing into the darkness. Teldin could only see the spars as the spider’s legs, completing the image of an immense, bloated arachnid hovering in the sky. Gossamer sails, woven like vast cobwebs, stretched between the tips, trembling on the slightest breeze. More webs, strung like ladders, reached from the abdomen of the hovering thing to the shore. The ship was a maleficent spider weaving its web over the helpless Unquenchable.
Teldin’s ride, forced as it was, became rougher as the umber hulk scrambled down the talus slope. For once the yeoman was thankful for the creature’s gripping claws, though its bony hide scraped his chest nearly raw. Finally it reached the bottom of the slope and grabbed a webbed ladder. The farmer expected the massive beast to tear through the thin hawsers but the cables were far stronger than they seemed. The ladder swayed and tossed as the immense bulk ascended toward the ship’s belly. Teldin could clearly see the gnome sidewheeler floating in the water below. While he knew it was undamaged, the ship looked like little more than floating wreckage.
The swaying stopped and darkess closed about Teldin as the umber hulk struggled off the ladder and into the neogi ship’s hold. Apparently the neogi did not feel the need for lights, since none of several commands the leader hissed involved illumination. The words were foreign, but Teldin felt he understood them. “Dead meat take to food lockers,” the foul thing told its slaves. “Live meat take to Chamber of Pain. Live meat guard well, and see it escape does not.”
“I obey, small lord,” rumbled Teldin’s keeper, its chest trembling beneath his legs.
“Do it, lordservant.” A scrabbling series of clicks told Teldin the neogi had departed. He was unable to follow their progress in the darkness, and Teldin could do nothing but let himself be carried to some new destination. Somewhere along the way, the umber hulk climbed a ladder, pressing its claws into Teldin’s back and causing warm blood to seep into the weave of his shirt. Held helpless, he gave up his ideas of escape.
The umber hulk reached another deck, no brighter than the previous, walked a short distance, then stopped. Teldin heard the rattling of a lock, then the faint creak of a well-oiled door. With a savage clench to the ankles, the beast swung the human off its back and hurled him through the doorway to crash to the floor, skinning his body even more. Teldin heard the door slam and the lock drop into place.
Teldin huddled on the floor in the darkness for he didn’t know how long, his mind shut down in shock. Eventually self-preservation took hold and the farmer pulled himself up. “Don’t sit there! Do something!” he cursed under his breath. Teldin carefully began to crawl on his raw knees across the prison’s floor, feeling his way. Groping along this way, the captive bumped into several tables, each of them bare, though he could feel the tops were scarred and scored. There was a smell in the air, the faded suggestion of a sweetly thick odor. What was it that seemed so familiar? As he surveyed the cell’s dimensions, the mule skinner in Teldin remembered the odor, a long-forgotten scent from the war. It was blood, dried and stale to be sure, but blood just the same. Suddenly fearful in the darkness, Teldin pressed himself against the wall, trying to melt into it, fighting the panic that rose from his core.