25th Day of Goodmonth, 565 CY

The Dungeons of the Slave Lords

The Aerie, The Pomarj

Elrohir opened his eyes.

He couldn't believe he could hurt so much and still be alive.

His back was on fire, as if he had been thrown into a smith's forge.

He could feel thunder in the ground beneath him.

His right palm was in agony. One of the toes on his right foot was throbbing so badly, the ranger wished it would just drop off.

A scramble of faces before him slowly resolved themselves into those of his dear friends.

They were all talking; all babbling at once. He couldn't understand them, and their shouting hurt his ears. He made a weak gesture for silence.

The shouting died down, but now the ranger could hear something else.

Sobbing.

Awareness flooded back to Elrohir, and instinctively the ranger tried to stand up, but he only made it as far as his elbows, before the pain and the restraining hands of his compatriots forced him to abandon the idea of going further, at least for now.

"What… what happened?" he gasped.

Cygnus came and bent down on one knee next to him.

"Zantac killed the cave fisher, Elrohir, and then we saw you and Talass leap off the ledge. I'm guessing she had maybe a minute left on that jump spell, and then she-"

The wizard's voice caught in his throat.

"She healed you."

Talass!

Elrohir turned to his right, but Argo was crouched down between the two of them. The team leader tried to move his head to peer past Bigfellow, but the big ranger kept intercepting him.

"Argo, move out of the way! How is she? Her arm- it was ripped off by the cave fisher! We've got to stop the bleeding! We've got to-"

And then Argo Bigfellow Junior leaned over Elrohir and placed both of his meaty hands on his friend's shoulders.

Those auburn eyes stared directly into his own.

Those auburn eyes, starting to well with tears.

"Elrohir," Argo said quietly, "Talass is gone."

Elrohir couldn't believe how Bigfellow could make such a mistake.

The ranger was still for a moment, feinted right, and then rolled to the left, enough so that he could reach out and touch Talass' face. It fell towards him.

His wife's eyes were closed. Her face was caked with dried blood. Old and new scars- her broken nose- these were nothing. Surface appearances only. Argo so easily deceived.

Elrohir gently stroked Talass' cheek with his fingertips.

"Hey there, beautiful," he whispered.

She couldn't die. That was impossible.

He had rescued her.

His incredible, foolhardy, heroic and daring rescue attempt had paid off. He had reached her just in time. Tojo had secured the rope across the chasm. They had all crossed safely, and Zantac had slain the cave fisher, and then they-

They had jumped.

"It's time to wake up, dearest," Elrohir whispered. "We've got to get out of here."

He felt a cold wind starting to blow. No one else felt it- it was only inside him.

It raced through his limbs, rendering them useless. Not from pain, for that was receding, but from hopelessness and fatigue.

It swam in his head, blowing and freezing Elrohir's hopes.

And it collected in his heart. Freezing it shut. Closing it down.

Elrohir couldn't pretend any more.

He felt Cygnus kneeling down beside him.

"It was her. She was the one," the wizard said, his tone thick with grief.

But Elrohir shook his head.

"No. It was me. It was supposed to be me all along, but Talass changed that. She wouldn't accept the decree of her god, so she defied him to heal me."

Cygnus eyed the ranger warily. "You don't know any of that for a fact, Elrohir."

"We will," Elrohir muttered so only the mage could hear him. "If the Justice Bringer refuses to bring her back, we'll know."

Slowly, with help from Cygnus and Argo, Elrohir stood up.

"Someone," he asked. "Anyone. Please, carry her."

As fast as Cygnus and Argo rushed forward, Arwald beat them both.

"I'll do it, Elrohir," the fighter said as he hoisted the cleric's body into his arms.

"I owe you this."

Their eyes met.

"I'm sorry, Elrohir. One death does not cure another, but I promise you; we will get her back to civilization, and we will get her raised."

The group leader nodded wearily. "Thank you, Arwald. I wish I could have saved Hengist. I wish- I wish there was something I could do."

"There is, Elrohir."

Arwald turned his gaze across the chasm. Elrohir's eyes followed his.

"You can save Aslan, like he saved me and Thorimund."

Aslan couldn't tell what was going on.

Were both Elrohir and Talass dead?

That grim scenario certainly seemed like a possibility as the paladin watched his friends huddle over the two forms on the ground. He could hear exhortations, pleas, prayers, commands- and the sound of tears.

Aslan had long used up his paladin healing for the day.

His Talent could save them both. He knew this. It couldn't regenerate Talass' arm, but it could certainly save her life. His Talent was full- he could feel it.

But try as he might, Aslan just couldn't access it.

Part of the paladin's soul rejoiced, and another part died as he saw Elrohir move- and people stop working to revive Talass.

She must have healed him, he thought. I know she had one prayer left. One of her most powerful. She sacrificed herself for him.

Aslan looked back at the tunnel entrance, which was glowing more brightly every moment.

I don't want to die falling into that pit. A useless death. Perhaps I am a coward after all. There will be no nobility in my death, and yet I have nothing left to offer my friends by living.

"Aslan!"

The paladin whirled back around.

Elrohir, still covered in blood, was standing by the lip of the far edge. Behind him, Argo and the others were stretching the rope taut by pulling it back.

"Aslan, cross!" the ranger shouted.

But the paladin shook his head.

"The rope is too weak, Elrohir. It'll snap."

Elrohir seemed about to shout something else, but then abruptly sighed. He seemed to visibly shrink in size to Aslan. Then he looked to his left, where Arwald was standing, staring at Aslan while holding the dead body of Elrohir's wife.

"Aslan," Elrohir called, his voice cracking. "I- I've lost my wife. I don't know if I can go on. I need my friends, now more than ever. I need the friend I've known longer than any other. I… I need you."

There was more, but Aslan didn't hear it.

The wind behind him suddenly increased in intensity still further, and the orange glow grew still brighter. A sound like a roaring sea grew louder until it filled the paladin's eardrums.

Aslan abandoned thought.

The paladin only felt.

He felt he was needed.

And as Aslan turned and ran towards the edge of the pit, a torrent of molten lava poured from the tunnel in a horizontal geyser behind him.

Aslan dove over the side of the pit.

Both of his hands grabbed hold of the slimy filament.

Right behind him, the rope snapped.

"PULL!" Argo screamed.

Eight people pulled, but the floor buckled again, and they all toppled against each other and down to the ground.

Aslan saw the far side of the pit hurtling towards him. He was going to strike it at least twenty feet below the lip of the chasm.

As quickly as he could, the paladin wrapped as much of the rope around his forearm as he could.

Right before impact, he raised his legs towards the oncoming wall, bent his knees and closed his eyes.

As a child, Aslan had often wondered what it might be like to be struck by Mjolnir, the mystic hammer of Thor.

Now he was pretty sure he knew.

The paladin thought he could hear bones crack, but he wasn't sure of anything anymore. The impact had knocked all of the wind out of him. The cavern spun.

The burning in his right arm was the first concrete thing he could concentrate on.

Aslan was being slowly hauled up the side of the chasm by the rope wrapped around his forearm.

But as he watched, the ligaments began to unravel.

Aslan grabbed the rope above his forearm just before that section snapped off from below.

But now the rope was stretching out again; several inches above where his new grip was.

The paladin reached up and grabbed the rope again.

And again.

The rope was stretching under Aslan's weight to the breaking point even as the paladin continued to climb it.

He was only ten feet from safety now, but five feet above him, the rope was stretching thin again.

He wasn't going to make it.

Aslan scrabbled frantically, his eyes locked on that section of rope, but just before he reached it, it stretched too thin and snapped.

And two hands grabbed the paladin under his shoulders.

With a cry of surprise, Aslan looked up.

Directly into the violet eyes of Yanigasawa Tojo's upside-down face.

The samurai was hanging down from the side of the cliff- and Argo and Cygnus were hanging onto his feet for dear life.

As they slowly and jerkily began to rise, Aslan whispered, "Thank you, Tojo."

The samurai gave an upside-down shrug. "Used to it by now, Asran-sama."

Aslan tried to stand as soon as he was hauled up and over the side, but a blinding pain in his right foot made the paladin cry out and stumble. Fortunately, numerous hands helped him stay upright.

The paladin tested his foot again, wincing.

"I think the ankle is broken, or at least sprained," Nesco announced solemnly from where she was kneeling and examining Aslan's foot.

The paladin turned to Elrohir, gritting his teeth and trying to focus only on his friend.

"All right, Elrohir, I'm here, and mostly in one piece. You lead us out of here. Tell me how I can help."

The ranger walked over to the paladin and laid a hand on his shoulder.

Elrohir's blue eyes held a cold emptiness in them.

"Take over if something happens to me, Aslan; physically or otherwise."

The two men stared at each a moment without speaking, and then Elrohir turned to address the others, firing out orders as he pointed at each of them in turn.

"Tojo and Sitdale- you two are in the lead. Cygnus, you help Aslan- second rank. Argo, Thorimund is your charge now- third. Arwald- fourth. Zantac and Unru, fifth. Sir Menn and Nesco, you're next. I have the rear. We need to-"

The rest was drowned out as a stone hurricane hit.

Rock screamed all around them. The walls bulged outward, and up above, the cavern ceiling began to collapse.

"MOVE!" Elrohir yelled.

They had barely exited the cave when dust and debris obscured everything behind them. Elrohir briefly heard the faint squeal of the remaining cave fisher before a deafening roar of collapsing stone drowned it out.

It was almost impossible to keep moving. The floor shook and cracked under them; the tunnel walls and the ceiling were shedding rocky debris as they moved past, and the dust all but obscured their magical illumination. Elrohir could hear several cries of pain as stones struck some of his compatriots ahead of him, but he couldn't tell who, or how badly they were hurt. The noise of the earthquake overwhelmed everything else.

Except for Sitdale's voice.

"There it is! It's the exit, and it's big!"

The passageway ended in a hole that led upwards to the surface. A portion of a small tree trunk and several branches had apparently fallen into the hole from the quake, and it made climbing out considerably easier than it might have been otherwise.

Several minutes later, a dozen people stood outside.

Outside.

They had finally, truly, made it.

And now they realized just how dire their situation still was.

The party stood in the midst of a forest. Beech and pine trees were all around them, but nearly half had either fallen or looked severely damaged. To the south and west the woods were burning. Hot, acrid air was already setting several lungs to coughing.

A huge pall of black smoke rose behind the flames, blocking out half the sky. A continuous low rumble, or perhaps a growl, came from the direction of the smoke.

About three hundred feet to the north the forest ended. A paved road, now seriously buckled, ran east-west just outside the forest perimeter. Indistinct shouting could be heard from this direction, but no one was visible from here. To the east, the forest sloped upwards.

Elrohir was about to tell everyone to head north when an explosion sounded to the southwest.

The entire island trembled. Everyone fell down among the leaves, tangles and toppled trees.

A terrible bellow came from the direction of the volcano. It was so monstrous that everyone clamped their hands over their ears, but the sound threatened to tear into their every minds. Their screams were lost in it.

The Earth Dragon roared.

And the volcano roared back.