Tartarus Beckons by Edmund Batara (reading an ebook .TXT) 📕

“Huh? Something or somebody to beat senseless? Grind to dust? Or burn to ashes with my axe?” quickly asked the einherjar.

“Nope. A more difficult task – saying goodbye to family.”

Chapter Fifteen

Asag

“Of course, goodbyes would have to come after these cursed underground halls. No sense having warriors fighting a battle for their lives while in a bout of depression. Now that I come to think of it, I am feeling a bit despondent myself,” admitted Tyndur.

“Your journey, though it might force you to take a personal detour now and then, will always take you back to us, Tyndur. I am not a prophet or a soothsayer, but I feel that that would be your fate,” replied the mage, trying to lift the spirit of now clearly dejected einherjar.

“My thanks, sire. But we’re not out of this cave system yet. I’d be happy when I get to see the sun and feel a cool breeze on my face.”

“Me too, Tyndur. Me too.”

“We do have a problem, sire. Most of our provisions were left with our cart and the horses. The company went to meet the dokkalfr for a duel, not for an extended vacation on the other side of the Dokkalfr Range. We’ll run into food problems later, and that is if the water in the stream in this hollow is good for human and dokkalfr consumption. And I don’t fancy spider leg steak, even if Sford had the gracious courtesy to cook them beforehand,” observed Tyndur as he pointed to the arena filled with the burned and dismembered mutations.

The mage momentarily reflected on the effect of the einherjar’s absence on their group. Tyndur had naturally come into his own – a battle leader. Tyler had no doubt Kobu could serve the same purpose, but the exile had appointed himself as the mage’s personal guard. Habrok had always been a scout, and he didn’t know if Astrid was experienced enough to handle the leadership role.

I guess Kobu would have to go on double duty when Tyndur departs, thought Tyler, considering the possible changes to the company’s structure. And Asem is still a question mark. I don’t know if she’s strong enough to come back. If she wants to rejoin us.

“Now that is a problem. A big one. Fighting on a hungry stomach is never a good idea. Aside from spiders, any idea on what food could be hunted in this place?” asked Tyler. He knew everybody would be hungry in a few hours, if they’re not starting to feel the pangs now. The mage saw some food bags on Astrid and Habrok, but he doubted if the rations would last them more than a day. They had a lot of mouths to feed.

“Well, cave worms, probably blind fish in that stream, other bizarre creatures, weird mushrooms. I really don’t know which ones are edible, poisonous, hallucinogenic, or whatnot. Magna and Hoenir could help with that, I guess. I know that some spiders themselves use venom, just as Kobu said. As to which kinds, I absolutely have no idea. All in all, I guess we’re in for an exotic, interesting, and probably dangerous diet,” chuckled the einherjar.

“Ewww. That’s gross. And deadly. Can you work with the rest to prepare our supplies before we venture further into the cave? If there are any fish in that body of water, I guess they’d be good eating,” said Tyler. Now that Tyndur had reminded him about it, food was going to be an issue. A major one.

It took almost four hours before Sford opened his eyes. The enforced break did give the company time to rest. Meanwhile, the distant sound of fighting reached their ears, echoing through the passageways. The first time it happened, everybody looked at each other and reached for their weapons. Habrok stood up, held up a hand to signal for everybody to stay where they were, and quickly retraced their path. After some time, the ranger came back.

“Spiders, sire. A vast horde of them blocking the entrance and the field outside it. The jotnar army had tried to follow us but ran into them. There’s a lot of fighting going on, mostly out in the open. But I doubt if the jotnar would be able to defeat the arachnids. There’s too many and more keep on coming out of other holes on the mountainside. Some of the buggers could even jump long distances. Even if the jotnar came with a lot of mages, they’d be hard-pressed even to disengage from the battle,” reported the ranger, not without some sense of satisfaction.

“Then I was right in assuming they’d block the entrance after we passed. In larger numbers. But for a change, these narrow tunnels are a lot better for defense. But I am surprised they didn’t go after us.”

“I am guessing the jotnar got them distracted,” smiled Habrok. “Between the few of us and a vast army intent of entering her domain, even the mother of this spider colony knew which target should be her priority. But I admit I am uncomfortable about the idea of traversing the myriad, deep passageways of the cave. We’re going in blind,” confessed the ranger.

“Let’s just hope the map Magna talked about is still there and can be of use,” answered the mage. “Let’s get everyone up. Time to move.”

Nothing disturbed them as the party proceeded towards the shrine of Freyr. It was within a large hollow created out of a cave wall. As the rest formed a defensive perimeter. Tyler, Magna, Hoenir, and Kobu came closer and inspected the statue of the deity. It was made of basalt and portrayed a standing though pensive Freyr with full armor, with a sword with its point down and the shield upright, both supported by the ground. A hand held on to each of the items. The life-size statue itself didn’t suffer any vandalism, though the passage of time had eroded most of the details.

Tyler examined the effigy and found that Magna was right