Chapter Twenty—Monsters in the Dark

Walking through the archway, Shiro and Ali found themselves descending more stone steps. Something in the distance made a noise. It echoed across the dark chamber as the two men held up their glow stones.

The stones provided a lot of ambient lighting, but even these could not reach the chamber walls in this area. But Shiro could see more of those thick stone pillars descending down on both sides of the stairs.

“Watch your step,” he said. “We don’t know how far down it is.”

“Shiro?” Ali said, a questioning air in his tone.

“Hai?”

“If I fell down these steps and broke my back, would you carry me to safety?”

Shiro frowned. “What kind of a question is this? Pay attention—there are monsters about.”

“Bah!” Ali scoffed. “We’re adventurers. This is nothing we haven’t done before, my friend. Now answer the question.”

Shiro turned to look at the other man. “I would carry you out, Ali.”

Ali nodded. “This is good.”

“Would you do the same for me?”

Ali burst out laughing. “Of course not. More loot for me!”

“Be quiet!” Shiro said, his face deadpan. Something told him there was a line of truth in that jest of his.

They reached the bottom.

“I hear water,” Ali said, looking about.

“I do too.” There was a gentle shushing, like there was a flow. For being in the desert, this dungeon was very wet indeed. “I do not think the water from the oasis above would carry down so much here in the dungeon.”

“Neither do I. This is magic, for certain.”

Shiro continued forward, stopped. “This is…”

“Huge,” Ali finished for him.

The two men regarded their surroundings together. The large pillars were interspaced together in lines going forward and on each side, there were passages—corridors leading to other parts of the dungeon.

“There is no way we will finish exploring this dungeon tonight,” Ali said. “Perhaps we should return to the surface so we can begin again tomorrow.”

“Perhaps we can find that hole in the ceiling where the palm trees are and repel down from there.”

“Yes, I like this idea,” Ali said. “So let’s—“

“Shh!” Shiro shushed. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what? There is nothing. Oh, wait, yes—what is that?”

“If you will stop talking, maybe we can find out.”

Ali silenced as both men regarded their surroundings as they stood erect, back to back, their swords at the ready.

The sounds. They were like a soft pattering scurry. A strange sound Shiro had not heard from monsters before?

“I’m worried, Shiro.”

“Silence.”

But I am worried as well. What is this new monster? How many are there?

Shiro tossed his glow stone onto the floor. It clattered against the stones, the light projected bouncing about the room as he took up his hilt with both hands. Something inside him said that he needed to wield his sword in the most effective manner possible.

“Get ready,” he said. Something moved ahead of him. “What is that?”

“What’s what? I don’t see anything over here.”

They were… legs?

“Something’s here!” Shiro called. He gently kicked his glow stone. The gem clattered atop the tiles and the light revealed a black spider, its height at least as high as Shiro’s sash. He screamed furiously and stepped forward.

“WHAT IS IT?!” Ali screamed.

Shiro came down on the spider with his scimitar, the blade making a wet, viscous slash in the creature.

“Oh my gods!” Ali cried.

Shiro ignored him. As he pulled out his scimitar and took another slash at the thing. The spider died, oozing its life force out onto the stones at his feet.

“I hate spiders!” Ali said. “They never make any noise, even when you kill them! There is something wrong with that.”

“Stay alert!”

“I AM!”

“Oh no—look!” Ali said, thrusting his glow stone at two more spiders, one crawling among the pillar at least five paces above their heads.

Shiro shivered.