"So, this is the way where we only encounter a few of the denizens of this charming city?", Chantal yelled while trying to defend herself against three corpses at the same time. Why did some people simply not have the grace to stay down once they were dead? She hated undead. They were tough, took a lot of damage before going down, and they were impossible to drive into retreat.

Plus, they stink.

"Whatever are you complaining about?", Bishop shouted back. Chantal risked a short glance and saw him leaning with his back on the wall, trying to hold off two undead by kicking them into the chest with his foot.

Some steps away was Casavir, holding up his holy symbol of Tyr, radiating a glaring white light, calling out to his god to destroy their enemies. As the white light reached Chantal, two of her foes crumbled to dust. Relieved, she brought her sword down on the third one. It hissed as the blade cut into its unnatural flesh and lunged for her. Chantal felt the claws digging painfully into her skin, piercing the chains of her armour. She jumped back one step, swinging her weapon in a wide arc. It connected with a heavy thump, nearly cutting the undead in half. It crumbled on the floor. Chantal did not waste time on checking if it still moved.

Have to get to Bishop.

With his hands bound on his back, he was helpless – and they could not risk losing him. They had wandered through endless, twisting tunnels, branching off countless times. She had totally lost any orientation. Without the ranger, they would almost certainly never find a way out of here again. She only hoped he knew his way around here as well as it seemed. She nearly could not believe he was not lost, too – but he had never once hesitated when reaching a junction.

To her right, she heard a cracking sound as Casavir's hammer connected with an undead skull. Another creature crumbled to the ground, but there were still more coming. And Bishop...

Her heart stopped when she turned to him. One of the undead was gone, probably thanks to Casavir's turning, but the other one was on him now. Obviously having dodged the ranger's kicks, it had buried its claws in his arms – and its teeth in his throat. With the enemy so close, Bishop could do nothing without his hands. Chantal saw him trying to buck off the shambling corpse, but already his movements were getting weak.

No! We need him!

She rushed the distance. Not daring to attack with her sword because she might hurt Bishop as well, she gave the creature a vicious kick to the side. It stumbled away a few steps and turned to her with a hissing noise. Yelling, she threw herself against it and drove the blade home. With one fierce strike, she sent the head flying, cleanly cut off the torso.

She turned to Bishop again, saw him sinking down the wall, his face pallid under the perpetual stubble, his chest rising and falling visibly, his eyes wide and already slightly glassy as he stared at her, blood flowing freely from a nasty wound in his throat.

This looks bad...

Movement caught her eye. Still more of these blasted undead! Did they grow them down here? She stepped in their path to keep them from reaching Bishop, shooting him one last worried glance.

Hang in there!

Again she swung her sword, but there were so many... she could not bind them all. Already some were sidestepping her, trying to get to the helpless quarry behind her that smelled so enticingly of blood. Desperately, she tried to keep them away, but it was of no use, they were just too many. Several more claws found their way through her armour, since instead of concentrating on defending herself, she was rather throwing herself in harms way to distract them from Bishop. She gritted her teeth against the pain, hitting another one with her sword, but it just hissed and kept coming. Desperation rose in her. She would never be able to keep them at bay. And if Bishop died...

A glaring white light illuminated the area again, and most of the creatures surrounding her fell. For a split second, she closed her eyes in relief and sent a very short prayer of thanks to the gods. Then, with renewed vigour, she threw herself against the remaining undead, screaming at the top of her lungs without noticing it. Under the relentless blows of her sword, one after the other fell.

Her breath coming in gasps, she wildly looked around, but the number of foes seemed to have dwindled remarkably. Casavir was just finishing off the last, his blue eyes blazing, his hammer mercilessly shattering bones. Chantal turned on her heels and hurried back to Bishop.

He was sitting against the wall, deathly pale, the red gash on his cheek standing out starkly in contrast, his eyes closed, his breath shallow, the wound on his neck still bleeding.

Don't you dare die on me!

She dropped to her knees beside him, sword clattering to the ground, her hand fumbling for a healing potion in her belt. She drew the cork with her teeth while letting go of her shield as well. Her hand reached behind his head, gripping his neck, drawing him a bit away from the wall, so that his head fell back lightly. His eyes were still closed. Was he unconscious? She could not tell. She brought the vial against his lips and slowly let the liquid run into his mouth. To her immense relief, he swallowed.

Good boy!

After a moment, a bit of colour returned to his pale cheeks, and he opened his eyes. They glittered feverishly, but the bleeding had lessened, and his breathing had steadied a bit. Still, he looked ready to drop.

"Casavir", she yelled, without taking her eyes off Bishop's face.

"Worried... about me?", he whispered coarsely. With the last word, he coughed, some blood showing on his lips, and his eyes closed again.

She realised she still had her hand in his neck.

His hair is so soft...

A boot appeared in her field of sight, and she looked up at Casavir looming over them.

"Do something! He's dying!", she said, forcefully.

He did not move, just stood staring down at them.

"Casavir!"

There was another moment of hesitation, then the paladin knelt down beside her, quietly murmuring a prayer. A soft, warm light surrounded his hands, and he touched the wound on Bishop's throat. The glow seemed to flow into the ranger, and Chantal saw the wound closing, the flesh knitting itself together, the blood flow finally stopping.

Bishop opened his eyes again, coughing, slowly sitting up, drawing deep breaths. "Well, that sure was close", he muttered, his voice hoarse.

Chantal hastily took her hand away from his neck, putting it on Casavir's arm instead. "Thank you", she said softly.

His expression was dark. "Don't thank me", he said. "I have sworn to protect and help the innocent. He does not qualify. I only did it because you are right, we need him for this."

Bishop gave the paladin a wry look. "Why now, are you telling me you won't include me in your nightly prayers? That hurts."

Chantal sighed and got up. Bishop obviously felt better.

xxx

Bishop stopped, throwing them a warning glance over his shoulder.

"Careful, now", he whispered, his voice so low Chantal could barely hear it. She peered past him and saw a gigantic cavern, very dimly illuminated by some greenish glow. There was just no telling how big it might be. She could perceive the outline of jumbled houses, some half collapsed, walls bent, roofs warped, as far as the eye could see in what passed for light down here. Nothing seemed to move.

Bishop pointed his head back into the tunnel they had come from, and they retreated a bit. As soon as they were away, he started talking again, his voice still in a whisper.

"Put out the torch. It only will draw them to us. And we can't make any noise." He eyed Casavir's plate mail. "You might want to take that off."

"What?" Casavir's voice was also down to a whisper, but still managed to sound indignant. "I'm not going in there without armour!"

"Oh, is that so? Well, let me tell you..."

Chantal rolled her eyes and started muttering some words under her breath. Suddenly, everything went wonderfully quiet. She saw Bishop's lips still moving, but no sound was coming out. He stopped talking and gave her a murderous glance. She smiled. Sometimes it was so good to be a bard...

Lead the way, she mouthed and pointed back to the cavern. She saw him spit out a word that certainly was not fit for a lady's ears. Then he turned and marched back to the cavern. Chantal and Casavir followed on his heels.

In the silence of Chantal's spell they crept along the edge of the sunken city, keeping as close to the cavern wall as possible. The complete soundlessness somehow added to the already creepy atmosphere. From time to time, Chantal thought she saw shadows move between the broken buildings, sometimes even behind windows. Her heart was beating painfully fast. She had to admit that she was more afraid than she had been for a long time. This place was just too scary. She really was glad Bishop had not chosen the short way.

All for Neeshka.

Oh yes, she would have a word or two with the tiefling after they were safely out of Luskan. It was true, if her friends were in danger, she came for them. That did not mean she would not give them a piece of her mind when the danger was over.

They kept going for a seemingly endless time. Once, Chantal had to renew the spell since it expired. She did so quickly, before her two companions could start going at each other again. She would not put it past them to pick a quarrel right here and draw every undead around to them with their bickering. Even Casavir, normally so level headed, could not be counted on to stay focussed, he just hated Bishop too much.

Men…

Well, there surely was a time to tell Bishop what they thought of this safe passage of his, but this was not it. Not before they were out of this horrible place. She had to admit, though, that with the exception of that one hard battle they only had some minor skirmishes with a few undead who were quickly dispatched.

Ahead, she could see Bishop pausing and turning back, waiting for them to catch up. When she walked up to him, she saw a small archway in the cavern wall. Behind it, in what little of the greenish glow reached through the arch, she could see a narrow spiral staircase leading up. She gave him a questioning glance, but he just turned, went through the doorway and climbed up a few steps, stopping again and giving her a meaningful look in the near dark. Casavir quickly moved to impose himself between her and the ranger. Chantal rolled her eyes. This was really getting ridiculous.

She followed Casavir as far as possible up the stairs, sat down her backpack, got out a torch and looked at Bishop. He nodded, so she lit the torch and in the flickering light, they started to ascend. Endlessly, the stairwell seemed to go round and round. Now and then, other tunnels lead away from it into the darkness, but Bishop just kept climbing. After a while, the sound of their shuffling feet and her own heavy breathing told Chantal that her spell had expired again. But none of them said a word.

Then, when she thought she would just drop if she had to climb one more step, Bishop stopped in front of what seemed to be a blank wall. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned his back to the wall and pressed one stone in with his still bound hands. Chantal heard a clicking sound, and the wall started to move.

A blast of fresh air hit her face, and she inhaled deeply, only now realising how stale the air in the tunnels had been. Bishop went through the now open doorway without turning back to see if they followed him. Casavir stopped and carefully peered out of the doorway before stepping outside. Chantal followed him, leaving the gloomy staircase with a feeling of immense relief. Behind her, she could hear a rumbling as the door closed again. She turned and saw only a blank wall. She would never have suspected a secret door in it.

Taking in her surroundings, she saw crumbling ruins all around her, overgrown with all sorts of lichen, moss and twines. Nothing seemed to move, no sound was to be heard. Above her, the night sky was bright with stars. What place was this?

She turned to Bishop, frowning.

"Where are we? This does not look like Luskan. Or any inhabitated city!"

He shrugged. "Ruins of Illusk. Right in the middle of Luskan. No one ever comes here. They say the place is cursed. It's forbidden to enter, so we won't encounter any townsfolk here, not even guards. Of course, these ruins have their own… inhabitants, and sometimes meeting them is not fun, either. But they mostly tend to stay underground, so normally it's quite safe."

Wow. That sure was the longest speech she had heard from him since… well, ever. How come he was so talkative all of a sudden?

Best make use of it as long as it lasts.

"Sounds charming", she said sarcastically. Casavir only snorted. Obviously he was not in a good mood. Well, what else was new?

"So, what do we do now?", she asked.

Bishop looked at her, his eyes unreadable in the dark. "First, you put out that torch again. Second, you release my hands. Third, I go into town and see if I can reach any of my… acquaintances."

Chantal nearly laughed. "You wish!", she said. "I'm not letting you go into Luskan alone. Gods know what you are up to. I'm coming with you to keep an eye on you."

"You mean, we are going with him", Casavir rumbled.

She turned and looked at him. "No", she said, earnestly. "I mean I am going with him. You will stay behind. We must not attract any attention, and two people are less suspicious than a group of three. Besides, you are not exactly the sneaky type. And if anything happens, if Bishop and me get caught, there's still a chance you will find a way to do anything for Neeshka. If they get us both, she will be lost."

Casavir murmured something unintelligible, but it did not sound happy. Chantal turned back to Bishop, who regarded her with his usual sneer.

"Please yourself", he said. "I can't vouch for any of my contacts to be willing to talk with you around."

"Oh, no worries", she replied sweetly. "If they trust you enough to talk to you, they can't be the suspicious sort."

She heard Casavir make a choking noise. Bishop just shot her a deadly glare, turned on his heels and started walking.