Chapter Fourteen: The Dungeon Master
That morning, Guy and Dekar woke early to help themselves to the last of the rations and to put on their complicated armor. Artea and Lexis, who found that plate armor slowed them down, glanced over their spells for the last time. Tia and M'hana did their best to remain inconspicuous. Their unspoken agreement to sneak after the party added to the tension which filled the air. Finally the warriors finish attaching the last of their cumbersome little buckles. Artea and Lexis shut their spell books and proceeded toward the dais.
"There is a chance that we might not come back," Artea warned Tia as they approached the formidable marble staircase.
"It is a small one, however, seeing as we have two people on par with Sinistrals!" Guy interjected.
"Actually three," Dekar corrected him. "I'm the man of enormous hidden power!"
Artea rolled his eyes. "In the event that the Dungeon Master poses a problem, we will shoot off red fireworks. Even Guy and Dekar can do this, since Lexis has enough flash powder for everyone."
Tia nodded seriously, trying to squelch her emotions, yet look suitably worried so she wouldn't rouse suspicion. "Be careful, Artea," she said at last. "All of you…please. After you revive Maxim and Selan, there will only be one wish left!"
"Cheer up, Tia," Guy said. "With me in the party, how could we go wrong?"
Tia ignored him, meeting Dekar's earnest eyes. "I wish you luck," the blue haired woman said.
"Feh," M'hana snorted. "They're going to need it."
"Remember," Lexis said as Artea, Dekar, and Guy mounted the stairs. "Watch for the red fireworks!"
"Will do," Tia said, trying to smile reassuringly. Lexis grinned uncertainly and ran after the elf and the warriors.
Alone with M'hana, Tia could feel the connection of the Iris treasures surging through her. "When do you want to start after them?" she asked. "Since you're the one with all the experience in stealth?"
"Wait 'til they're out of sight," M'hana suggested.
More waiting, Tia thought with a pang. She watched the four men shrink as they climbed higher and higher, back to the top of the cave it seemed.
Finally M'hana started for the steps. "Let's go," she said.
Tia tightened her grip on her staff. She could hardly believe she was doing this as she ran after the swift thief. As the ground fell away, the torches, once roaring bowls of fire became as small as her hand. Do these stairs ever end? Tia wondered as sprinted. Sweat matted her hair to her forehead. M'hana never slowed. After a while, Tia's side began to ache. She stopped, panting, and looked back. The stairs were endless. She could no longer see the bottom. And still the top was a considerable distance away. M'hana was already a speck against the upper shadowy reaches. Tia sighed and started after the thief, this time taking the stairs two at a time. It had not bothered her earlier, but now she was really starting to notice that the stairs had no rail. Still she pressed onward, occasionally looking out of the corner of her eye. Before long, she could no longer make out the ground, save for the winking torches, now as small as the Iris jewel. Everything was a tapestry of dim threads upon darkness. Just as Tia was beginning to falter, she came upon the lean thief. M'hana was standing with her arms crossed.
"Feh," the thief greeted her sourly. "I was hoping that you hadn't fallen off."
"How much farther is it?" Tia asked.
M'hana shrugged. "Who knows? These stairs could lead all the way to the ground floor for all I know."
Tia swayed a little bit. "Oh great."
"Come on," M'hana urged. "Or they'll be done with the fight before we get there!" The two women hurried onward.
{****}
"How much farther?" Guy whined. "If I had known how high these stairs are, I wouldn't have bothered with this armor!" Rivers of sweat poured from the warrior's forehead alone, stinging his eyes. "We should have climbed some of this yesterday and camped on the stairs."
"You wouldn't have liked that if you rolled around in the night and fallen," Dekar pointed out.
"It can't be too much farther," Lexis huffed. "The structural integrity wouldn't stand for it, surely!"
"What do you mean?" Guy wheezed.
"If it gets too much taller, it's going to be really rickety at the top," Lexis explained.
Guy winced. "I think that we're going to have a really unstable perch then. Look at how far ahead Artea is!"
Suddenly the staircase bucked, throwing Guy, Dekar, and Lexis to their knees.
"What in the hell is going on up there?" Guy shouted. Rubble began to rain from the ceiling. Without warning, the chimes of a warp spell sounded. Artea materialized beside the scientist and the two warriors.
"I need some help up there," Artea said.
"Have you seen the dungeon master already?" Dekar asked.
"How much farther is it?" Guy queried.
"So much for structural integrity," Lexis muttered, his face paling.
"Warp!" Artea said. The four materialized on a narrow outcropping composed of transparent crystal blue tiles. "The Cup of Wishes is in the chamber beyond this platform. I just saw it!"
Just as the elf mentioned the cup, an explosion rocked the platform.
"Such power!" breathed Guy.
Whirling flames appeared in the center of the platform, forcing the party backwards. The four men reached for their weapons. Out of the flames oozed what was easily the largest jelly in the world. The dungeon master was the hue of a ruby and easily filled two thirds of the platform. Lexis and Artea immediately moved back toward the stairs.
"Is this the dungeon master?" Guy made the mistake of saying. "He's a jelly!"
Insulted, the jelly quavered a bit, causing the party members to scramble to regain their footing.
"Are you here for the tenth cursed treasure?" the jelly asked. It's deep, booming voice made its body and the blue tiles shiver a little more.
"No," Artea said, bracing himself with his staff. "We are here for the Cup of Wishes!"
"How peculiar," the jelly remarked. "I did not believe that an elf would travel the dark paths within the earth." Then the impact of what Artea had said registered with him. "The Cup? You filthy, puny beings seek my precious cup?" The jelly sounded astounded. "I shall see if you are worthy of holding my cup in your hands! En guarde!"
{****}
M'hana and Tia shrieked as the stairs quavered. "What is going on up there?" Tia managed to yell as bits of the ceiling came loose.
M'hana, after nearly being pitched over the side of the stairs, cursed vehemently. "This must be the dungeon master," she said. She did not mention that she could sometimes feel the final Iris treasure resonating with his power as she touched those she had gathered. "Hurry! We must get to the top! There's gotta be a platform or something up there."
The two women, spurred on by the occasional rumbling of the stairs, hurried on, faster, faster, even recklessly. At last Tia could hear the familiar chanting of Zap and Thunder.
"We're close!" she said.
"Let's go slower now," M'hana said. "We want to get a feel for the situation."
Tia agreed. They approached the battle slowly, noting at once that Lexis and Artea were forced to fight on the stairs because of the dungeon master's tremendous bulk. When Tia first glimpsed the creature, she thought at once of what Dekar had said about the first jelly they had encountered in the cave. "I wonder if that's what happens when they grow big and strong," she muttered.
"There's not much room up there, is there?" M'hana remarked.
Tia's stomach clenched with worry for the party. All too easily, any one of them could fall right to their death!
The jelly seemed to sense the difficulty that the four men had fighting on the platform. Waves rippled gently across his ruby-colored bulk as he began to expand, forcing Guy and Dekar backwards.
Tia gritted her teeth. "At this rate, we'll be discovered," she muttered.
"It was going to happen sooner or later," M'hana reminded her. "By the way…I have a plan that will get the five of you the cup. I can see it in that room beyond the jelly. Then they won't have to fight the dungeon master."
"What's the plan?" Tia demanded. Her pulse quickened.
"This," M'hana said. "I'll distract the jelly, and you can sneak past it and get in there."
"But…" Tia thought of the long drop to the ground floor. Then she remembered that the very same peril was facing Lexis, Dekar, Guy, and Artea. At last Tia said, "Alright. I'll do it."
{****}
"Watch out, Dekar!" Artea shouted. The dungeon master slung a missile that glinted like red flame. Dekar barely dodged the slime projectile, veering dangerously close to the edge of the platform. He teetered on the brink for a minute before gathering his weight into his sword thrust. With a deafening scream, the warrior buried his sword up to the hilt in the dungeon master. He jumped back from the embedded blade just as Lexis summoned the Thunder Beast. From the beast's maw sped a ball of white lightning that split in the air, becoming many smaller strands. These jagged bolts sought Dekar's sword, glimmering deep within the metal. The resulting explosion rocked the platform. The dungeon master quavered from the impact. The waves that formed on his body sped to the speed of white caps. Dekar abandoned his sword and darted back to the relative safety of the party. Lexis and Artea struggled to their feet. Guy, meanwhile, recklessly braved the trembling platform to charge at the jelly. His sword flashed in the inconsistent light of the Thunder Beast. The jelly shone like blood in the flickering illumination. Guy drove his sword in with all his might. The jelly reeled in pain, but Guy clung tight to his sword. Slowly, ever so slowly, the blonde warrior closed his free hand around Dekar's sword. His muscles burned with the effort of pulling it loose. Guy was so intent on his task that he did not realize that the jelly was gathering itself to attack.
"Guy!" Artea yelled as the jelly bucked. The elf's face went pale as the jelly smashed down on top of Guy. The warrior's face turned a ghastly blue in seconds, for the dungeon master was crushing the life out of him. Fury flared in Artea. I did not gather Maxim's companions so they could die! His ring flashed white. With more audacity than he knew he possessed, Artea crossed the distance between the stairs and the jelly's platform. He could dimly make out Guy's outline beneath the jelly's considerable bulk. The light from Artea's ring had spread to his staff. It shone with starfire. With a scream, the elf brought the staff crashing down. On his tongue he tasted strange arcane words. A great wind whirled about the platform, making the elf's hair billow like a flag. The staff began to pulsate as if life moved through it. A white dome formed around Guy, and he vanished. Artea looked back to see that the warrior had materialized by Dekar's side. Ashen-faced, Guy returned Dekar's sword to him. A five-pointed star rose from above Artea's staff, lighting the entire ceiling. It shone brighter and brighter still until Artea's eyes teared to see it. Then it sped towards the jelly and smashed into its side, displacing a smoldering chunk of slime. Then the light from Artea's staff died. The elf stared at his ring in amazement. Dazed, he was about to return to the party when thick, choking yellow smoke filled the air. He remembered the sulpherous reek well. Smoke bombs. M'hana! The elf's skin crawled as he stared at the solid wall of sickly yellow. He had no illusions of what would happen if the dungeon master regained visibility before he did. Damn the thief! Artea thought vehemently, watching for even the slightest break in the smoke.
{****}
Once Tia had agreed to follow M'hana's plan, the thief had taken out several lopsided packages. She had thrown them onto the platform where the dungeon master stood and cast the spark spell before waving Tia ahead. "Don't worry," M'hana said as Tia looked at her in disbelief. "I'll make sure that the smoke doesn't blow away before you're done."
That, Tia thought, is the least of my worries. How am I supposed to see through this? She had steeled herself to brave the smoke, which not only made her eyes water, but smelled like a barrel of rotten fruit baking in the sun. Tia crept forward, feeling for the edge of the platform with her foot. The breathing of the jelly beside her was like a giant bellows.
Suddenly it occurred to her to wonder how M'hana would know if she had reached the cup. Her heart beat a little faster. I'm pretty certain that the platform was shaped this way, she thought, carefully inching forward. Without warning, her foot pitched into nothingness. Biting down a scream, Tia jerked backwards. She scrunched her eyes shut, willing her pulse to slow down just a little before she panicked completely. Smoke waved before her, a billowing banner, thick as cloth. Then Tia glimpsed a break in the smoke, where it became thinner and she could begin to make out the doorway of another chamber. She realized that the smoke must have flitted into the room that the cup occupied. She made for the room, hope brimming in her heart. Sure enough, the closer she came, the paler the smoke became. Tia slid past the enormous mound of jelly and into the room.
There she sighed with relief to have solid ground beneath her feet. The room she had entered reminded her of the various shrines she had encountered in her travels with Maxim, festooned with marble, columns, and even a small fountain. In the center of the small chamber rose an unfinished column flanked on either side by rich drapes of red velvet. The cup stood atop it.
At first Tia wondered if it was an illusion, so inconstant was its form. When she first glimpsed it, it was a grand chalice formed of glittering gold, inlaid with pearls and precious gems. After a second look, however, the cup had become a smooth silver goblet that bore no other ornament. By the time she had taken it in her trembling hand, the cup had changed again to crystal so delicate that Tia might have smashed it in her hand if she clutched it tightly enough. Perplexed, she stared at the cup of wishes, daring it to melt in her hands or to undergo yet another metamorphosis. The cup obliged her with another transformation, this time becoming a simple copper bowl in which one might serve tea. Tia returned to the opening of the chamber. The smoke was fading even from the platform where M'hana had concentrated the smoke bombs. However, the offensive smell lingered.
Tia hardly noticed when the copper tea bowl became a warm, rich honey-colored wood that gleamed like bronze, as the fight against the jelly had begun again. Despite the disadvantage the party had at having to fight at such a horrific height, it was obvious that they were somehow overpowering the dungeon master. Tia watched, spellbound, as the final round of the battle unfolded.
{****}
"I think that this time you can finish the dungeon master!" Lexis shouted, his eyes steaming from the smoke bombs.
Artea materialized, ghostlike, at the scientist's side. "He is weakened sufficiently. It is as you say," the elf said. "Guy, Dekar, prepare yourselves. This round we are going to administer the killing blow."
Guy and Dekar nodded in agreement.
Lexis directed the Thunder Beast to attack the jelly. The dungeon master rose like a red tide and engulfed the beast. Lexis shuddered as the beast flailed and thrashed while the jelly suffocated it.
Dekar and Guy charged at the Jelly Master, their swords held before them.
"Firebird!" Artea shouted. A scream sounded above him as the phoenix materialized. Flames roared in the elf's ears, drowning out all other sound. The bird split into countless particles and entered Guy and Dekar's swords. The warriors had gone to opposite sides of the platform from one another. Now they charged straight towards one another, their swords blazing orange and yellow. They cut through the weakened dungeon master as easily as if he had been made of butter. His flesh parted for their swords, melting away with a fierce hiss. When Dekar and Guy met in the center of the jelly where Lexis's thunder beast was imprisoned, the firebird broke free of their swords, beating his wings and shrilling in triumph. The blistering heat from its wings seared away the last of the jelly that remained, and the thunder beast broke free. Thunder and flame circled one another, trailing glistening embers and electricity, crimson and gold. The dungeon master was defeated. Before the party could rejoice at their victory, the platform, strained to the breaking point, gave way. With piteous groans, the stairs nearest to the blue crystal platform broke off, launching the party into the endless darkness and the arms of doom.