Escape From the Drow

Maxi's arousal was both physical and mental as he thought of how the great seduction would take place. It would be in his own quarters, warm and dry and covered with soft furnishings. Maxi and Jade would both be resting after the rigours of a hard fight, and Jade would be a tight coil of sexual tension and anticipation; waiting breathlessly for Maxi to unravel her. Maxi would take off his leather armour and then he would slowly move towards Jade, reclining on the soft furnishings of his apartments. She would groan with pleasure as he gently stroked the inside of her thigh, and then slipped his fingers into the moist...

With a supreme effort, Maxi dragged himself back to the task in hand. Business before pleasure. After reading the priestess's account he had put the finishing touches on his plan, but he went over it carefully in his mind one more time, knowing that if he stuffed it up, his chances of ever getting laid again were slim. Unless it was as the unwilling recipient from some of his men who did not like girls much. The thought of this was enough to extinguish all traces of sexual arousal and force him to concentrate. The plan was a good one, but not totally watertight. Maxi knew that there were still considerable risks involved, and that he and Jade would both require all the skill and courage they possessed.

Chapter 7: The denizens of the underworld

The escapees searched the two priestesses and guards, and Jade took one of the swords. Bill and Garrett already had swords from their original captors, and Freda shamefacedly admitted she did not know how to use one. The drow swords were too heavy for the halflings, who preferred the daggers and small crossbows.

The two halflings rushed at the place that the slain drow had come from and started peering, tapping and scratching at the wall, until Freda told them rather tersely that the door was dwarfen made and they would never even find it in a hundred years, let alone open it. The reason for Freda's bad temper was easy to see -- while everyone had been distracted by the door, Jade had neatly decapitated Meriem the priestess and was in the process of kicking her head down the passage. It was just like having a particularly psychopathic toddler around, Freda thought to herself as she spoke a sharp word to Jade.

"She's the bitch who beat me," snarled Jade, giving the head a boot.

"And I'm the bitch who made it better," replied Freda. "And I'm telling you to stop it."

Jade pouted, but nevertheless turned away from the severed head and wondered back to the others. Freda saw the two halfling siblings glancing at Jade with a rather amused expression, and she remembered how they had wanted to put Jade out of her misery while she was still unconscious. Perhaps we are not much better, she thought resignedly. Freda touched each corpse in turn and muttered a short prayer for their peaceful transition to the afterlife.

Then she returned her attention to the others. "There is no way out that door. I don't have the spells to find it, and even if I did there is strong magic keeping it shut. The only way out is past the mind slayer, and I don't fancy our chances."

"Unless one of the soldiers opens it for us". Jade realised she had said this aloud. Because she at once thought of her mother, then her mother's lover, and wondered whether Maxi had in fact engineered her escape. She shuddered when she thought of his creepy lustful eyes on her, but nevertheless she decided that if he wanted to rescue her she would eventually pay the price that he would inevitably demand.

The others turned around and looked at her, wanting further explanations, but at that moment Jade decided that what she had said was wishful thinking. It was not certain that Maxi had anything to do with this, though she was fairly convinced that somebody among the drow hierarchy was responsible for their contrived escape.

Even if Maxi wanted her, there was no way to get her. If Maxi had been involved, then it was he who had conveniently got rid of two priestesses, but Jade the ex temple slave, with her practical experience of priestly hate sessions, knew more about religious fervour than the atheist Maxi. Jade knew enough about her own people to realise that Maxi would not get away from the wrath of his own men if he attempted any sort of insurrection. The common soldiers would probably not take very kindly to him killing their only links to the goddess they simultaneously feared, loathed and worshipped, so even now he may be quelling a rebellion.

"What do you mean?" quizzed Digg, appearing very suspicious at Jade's last remark.

Jade shrugged. "Nothing, just a thought". Jade was thinking furiously. And she came to a conclusion that was not at all unfavourable to her own chances of getting out alive. Starting with her treatment as a temple slave. Because she could now make sense of something that had puzzled her during her period of slavery. Although beatings had been frequent and often severe, she had not suffered from the ultimate humiliation that other attractive female slaves had to put up with from the brutal male overseers. Almost as if she was being saved for something better, she thought. Then Jade wondered where her new companions may fit in all the schemes and counter schemes, and she decided she would keep her theories and suspicions to herself.

Freda broke into her thoughts. "Well if we are not going to be rescued, we have to go on. Unless we want to wait for the mind slayer to come to us. Jade, you're the expert, do you know anything about these creatures that may help us?"

Jade shook her head. "Only what I heard in the temple. And now I think of it, most of that must be just made up to keep the rest of us in line. After all, there are lots of things they tell us that don't make sense. Why for example would the Spider Goddess only communicate to the High Priestess and not to the rest of us? It all seems far too convenient for me."

Digg snorted. "Your big spider doesn't even exist," he sneered. "It's just a ploy to trick dupes like your mother into plundering dwarfen gold. None of the gods exist. If they did, and this is the best world they could make..," he gestured around the darkness contemptuously.

"Of course they exist, you pipsqueak pillock," squealed Jade. She made a grab at Digg, only to find Freda in her path.

"I am reluctant to break up your theological discussion, but there is still a little matter of a mind slayer to deal with. It does not seem very wise to me to weaken our party by fighting each other."

Jade shrugged and continued. "As I said I only know what they told us in the temple. And they were scared of them. Seemed to think the Spider Goddess had put the mind slayers on this planet to torment them. But even the High Priestess starts stuttering at their mention."

Freda nodded. "Fear feeds on fear. No doubt we have a formidable foe, but you notice nobody seems to be afraid of anything it can do, only its name. Rational fear can be conquered, but let's not be like children, afraid of the dark. We six are also very talented in battle, and I am sure we are more than a match for anything evil that comes our way. That is if we fight as a team, which I want us to do. Agreed?"

Freda looked around at the others. Jade suddenly felt a lot calmer after Freda's wise words, and she nodded. So did the halflings. Freda repeated her statement in the dwarfen tongue and the two dwarfs smiled and saluted her, dwarfen style, with the knuckles in front of the face.

"Then lets go," said Freda quietly.

Freda was gratified to discover that fighting discipline had not deserted her makeshift army and they formed a marching order that placed the fighters where they could protect the weaker spell casters. The party walked up the passageway, into the chamber they had just left, and towards the second door in the opposite wall, the one facing away from the operations room and temple complex.

Just as Bill was about to open it, the door swung open. A pong escaped through the opening, followed by its source. Six hairy, pock marked bodies bearing sharpened battle axes, spears and wooden shields, and dressed in dirty leather armour. They were feral orcs of the deep; far larger, hairier and hideous than the semi-tame orc and half-orc slaves of the drow.

Bill charged the leader, pushing him back so he could not enter the chamber, at the same time stabbing with his sword. Garrett rushed past the halflings to get to the front. Freda also pushed forward, her hand stretched in front of her in the universal gesture of peace and started to speak in her accented orcish. No doubt intending to make some common cause with these creatures, who, like them, had been trapped by the mind slayer in its labyrinth.

The front orc was now engaged in battle with Bill in the passageway through the door. But the orc behind him obviously had different views on peaceful negotiation, because instead of replying to Freda's gesture he drew back his spear, ready to ram it straight through the guts of the little hairy dwarf. Except he never got a chance. Instead of thrusting forward to aim a blow that would have certainly skewered Freda, he fell back, a bolt from Jade in his eye.

Bill had by now dispatched his opponent, and Garrett stepped in his place in the passageway to engage the next orc. The orc behind had his spear in battle position ready to despatch Garrett, but then he suddenly screamed and fell. The halfling siblings had crept into the passage each side of him, and had aimed vicious blows at his gut. The orc writhed on the floor in agony, essentially out of the fight, and soon to be out of this world. With the threat from the spear now removed, Garrett had no difficulty finishing off his adversary.

Bill moved in again to engage one of the two remaining orcs. The last orc tried to make a run, dodging to get past the halflings. But not fast and hard enough, as Digg and Elma brought him down, wrestled him on the ground and sat on top of him.

And now Bill's orc was down, and the party were debating what to do about their captive. Freda was all for sparing him. After all, she reasoned, all of them were escaping from the common enemy, and would do best to band together. Freda translated her reasoning into her own tongue, and her two compatriots appeared to agree with her. She was vigorously opposed by Jade and the halflings.

"You're too soft, Freda," said Jade. "And if I had not reacted as soon as I saw those vermin, you would be dwarf kebab." The two halflings laughed aloud at Jade's turn of phrase.

Freda gave a twisted smile. "So we're even now, Jade. I saved your life and now you have saved mine. I imagine we will be saving each others lives on several occasions before we get through this tunnel. Well fought everyone, this time it was me who was the weakest link."

"Only because you're soft," said Jade. "One day it will kill you."

"I agree with Jade," said Elma, and Freda noted with satisfaction that this was the first time the halflings had called Jade by her name. "Never trust an orc."

Jade was silent. As a temple slave she had often had to oversee the orc and half orc labourers. There is hierarchy even among the slaves. So of course she knew that orcs couldn't be trusted. But Jade also remembered the snatches of conversation she had heard while still semi-conscious, still absorbed in her pain. "Its a drow, kill her." Never trust a drow.

Jade wondered how she herself might have appeared to the rest of the party. Even Freda, respecter of life and liberty, who Jade alternatively admired and despised, did not argue with the main facts of the case; never trust a drow. She had only wanted to save Jade's life because Jade was part human. Maybe it was wrong to simply form snap judgements on the basis of type, no matter how objectionable those types may be. But still an orc... they're different aren't they. The drow have a sense of honour and duty, whereas orcs are just scum.

"Let's hear what it has to say first," she found herself saying

Freda looked at her gratefully. "Four against two I think." She stepped over to where the orc was huddled against the wall, guarded by Bill and Garrett. Freda started to talk to the captive.

Jade came with her. She didn't speak orcish, nor did she ever want to learn, so instead of listening to the talk, she concentrated her attention on the face of the captive. His eyes were bloodshot and bulbous, typical of his race. But Jade noticed something else. His pupils were fully dilated and there was an expression in his eyes that the expert enchantress instantly recognised.

But before she could shout a warning, the orc's hands had suddenly leapt out and grabbed Freda round the throat. Bill and Garrett acted on instinct, with the result that the orc never knew what hit him. But his severed hands were still clutched around Freda's neck, and Freda was gasping for air. The two fighters had to break every finger in those hands before the grip was relaxed, and by that time Freda was unconscious and turning blue.

The halflings vented their fury on Jade. "What did you have to say that for?" shouted Elma. "You of all people should have known".

"Leave her alone." The voice was rasping and weak, but nevertheless commanding. Freda sat up and gasped for breath. "If you must blame anyone, blame me." She then turned to Jade. "I think I know why you changed your mind about killing the orc. Southern pit dwarfs and dark elves have been enemies since the Separation. Mistrust runs deep in both our races. But I would have spared you even if you were full drow. I have met good drow. Those who escape from their own sprawling complexes usually find work as soldiers guarding the human outposts. They are fiercely loyal to their new masters. Especially against their former comrades." Jade touched Freda's furry shoulder, but said nothing.

"Help me up." Freda held her arms out and Jade supported one side, while Bill grabbed the other.

"I should have known they were charmed," said Freda. "Very likely the devilry of the mind slayer. This makes things more difficult. It would appear as if everything we meet will be hostile. At least we must assume so if we are to survive."

Bill and Garrett helped themselves to a spear each, but they found nothing else of any value on the bodies of the orcs. Freda said her prayers over the slain. Then without speaking further, the party resumed their marching order and continued down the corridor.

#

Maxi watched them through the spying glass. He had no love for pit dwarfs, but he had to admire their fighting prowess. Even those little squirts could move with the grace of a panther. As for Jade, his admiration grew each time he saw her in action. Jade was certainly worth saving, and he understood better what Trieste had seen in her. Maxi knew that at the speed these seasoned warriors were ploughing through the hostile cavern dwellers he could waste no time putting the next part of his plan into action. He strode back into the barracks to marshal his men.

Chapter 8 - The mind slayer's lair

It would be tedious to recount, blow by blow, the many skirmishes the six companions had to endure. Suffice it to say, both of Freda's predictions turned out to be correct, several times over. Everyone they met was hostile, and there were so many of them. The mind slayer had been busy. Every creature of the underworld; feral orcs, kobolds, toxic drips, slimes and even a few molluscan stranglers, had fallen or oozed into its snare. Mixed in with these larger foes, of constant danger to the party, ready to trip them, snare them, sting them or bite them, were legions of smaller, vindictive creeping vermin. Giant rats, scorpions, centipedes and spiders, dangerous only to those who let down their guard. But this was so easy to do, when the enemies were so numerous and unrelenting.

If the enemies had been fighting as a unit, the escapees would never have survived. But as it was, each small group, raiding party, swarm or patrol had wandered or blundered into the mind slayer's domain, and each had been snared, with no knowledge of each other. Added to this fact was the fortunate geometry of the tunnel, a narrow passageway that wound its way past many mine chambers and even narrower openings, and which made it difficult to fight more than single file. This meant that multiple enemies did not have to be all engaged at once, allowing the archers and spell casters to ply their craft from relative safety behind the fighters.

This is not to say that the fighting was easy. It took its toll on bodies and morale. The two dwarf mercenaries took most of the knocks, and they regularly had to be healed by Freda, situated conveniently behind them. On a few occasions when the dwarfs needed rest their positions were taken by the halflings, both useful fighters, and even by Jade, who had learned to handle a sword to some extent under the expert tuition of Trieste. But the continuous combat meant that arms got tired, feet slipped and stumbled, attention lapsed, and Freda's second prediction came true only too often.

The fighting unit were always having to watch each others backs. So on one occasion, Jade was suddenly grabbed, half strangled and dragged into a side passage by a tentacle that appeared out of nowhere, which had to be hacked off by Garrett closely following behind.

On another occasion it was Garrett who was knocked down from behind by a giant hairy creature with an axe, and the halfling siblings who sneaked round and stabbed the enemy in the rear. Freda's healing and combat spells were in constant demand, Jade was using her charm spells in most encounters, the two fighters had blunted two axes and were on their third, and the halflings had long ago used all their crossbow bolts and had to dig used ones, often blunted and inaccurate, out of corpses.

At the end of every battle, Freda intoned a short service for her enemies. Something Jade thought laughable at first, but later found strangely moving. And all the time the tunnel was sloping gradually but consistently downwards. All of them knew that when they reached the bottom of the tunnel they would meet the light hating mind slayer in the deepest part of the cavern. And then they still had to struggle back to the surface.

At the end of the first day, Freda, who had been keeping the morale of the party together, wondered whether they could make it. But then they had a stroke of luck. Bone weary, too weak to cast spells, and desperate for a place to rest, the party stumbled upon a side cavern where their enemies had done most of the work for them.

It belonged to a nest of spiny kobolds, but most of the rightful tenants were lying on the floor in various stages of dismemberment. Two kobolds were standing groggily over the corpse of a huge hairy hobgoblin they had recently dispatched, together with a few of his colleagues. It was the work of a moment for the party to forcibly invite the two remaining kobolds to join their companions, and then they set to searching the lair. They found some provisions that looked vaguely edible and some flasks of water that were not too foul. The cavern had only one entrance into the tunnel, which was hard to see and easy to guard.

Even in their exhausted state the party did not relax their discipline, but instead, under the watchful eye of Freda, they divided the food and water equally, and set a guard roster for the entranceway. The tunnel had been levelling off, and they knew their biggest battle would be upon them very soon.

#

Maxi had been staring intently at Jade in the kobold cavern as she took the third watch, thinking about how sexy she looked. Jade's beauty had turned his head when he first met her, but now she was a woman, not a girl, and Maxi marvelled at her perfect figure, her smooth thighs, and the firm breasts pushing against the leather armour she had taken from a fallen orc. Her body had the muscular firm texture of the drow, plus the more rounded and full proportions from her human father. She looked in fact more human than drow to Maxi's lustful gaze, and her warrior pose, sword in hand, further increased the soldier's desire.