Amanita (Chapter 15)

Template:Amanita nav Cain didn't know (a first) what happened to the sun, but Lysander had a good guess. A few decades back, some weird creatures called Claw Vipers used a magic ritual to block out the sun. A handsome, athletic young sultan named Faduwas led an expedition against them, restoring the sun and crushing their strength. I guess he didn't get them all. I know a little about Claw Vipers. They're magical, sucking heat out of anything nearby, like a salamander in reverse. When it's really cold, they get so icy one can chill you to the bone on contact. They're the only reptile that likes cold weather. Enchanters will pay a lot for Viper skin and some of their organs. There's other stories too, about them torturing people for fun, eating babies, eating their own babies, and worshipping evil. I don't know how exaggerated they are, but blocking out the sun is enough reason to take them on. Finding them might be tricky. Faduwas found them in an ancient city, abandoned when its wells dried up after an earthquake. The city is west of the maggot ranch. I probably won't find Vipers in the city, and their trail will be long cold by now, but I've got no better leads.

After a short walk from the farm, I found my first ruined building, a small house with a cactus growing through the roof. It was dark. I never saw the cats. A breaking bottle was my only warning. As the poison cloud spread around me, I swore and dove outside. More potions came raining down from somewhere to my left. I still couldn't see the cats, and fired blind. A yowlp came back to my ears; if a shot in the dark hits, there must be a lot of them.

I knew roughly where they were, so I put a wall between me and them and listened. Little cat feet barely made the sand rustle -- I could just hear them over my own heart. My bolt crunched off a shield, and I ran as bottles crashed against the wall. As I rolled, I looked back, and saw their tall helmets against the stars. My first good target of the night. One went down with my bolt between his eyes, and I ran as the rest of the pride threw. Torches started appearing in the distance, silhouetting another cat. He died, and then another as the Raiders came into view. They had leaping lizards on leashes, and let them run the minute they saw me.

Lizards aren't hard to deal with. They're sight hunters, easy to fool, and poison works great on them. Raiders are so cowardly, they were even less of a problem. The fight actually went better once they'd brought some light onto the scene, so I concentrated on killing the last of the cats before I put them down. Once matters were settled with the city welcoming committee, I looked for loot. These cats were rich, with lots of coin and jewelry, and plenty of potions. The Raiders were well-decorated too, and the lizards all had collars, like guard dogs. Smelly, weird-looking guard dogs.

I explored some more. The city was laid out in even rows coming off a central square. Most of the houses had been fixed up: boards and slats were nailed or wedged in to hold up the crumbling walls and ceilings. Some of the wood still had the decorations desert gypsies put on their wagons. Outside the houses were packs of lizards, leashed to a post or left to roam free. They acted a lot like dogs: sleeping, chasing each other, or gnawing on fresh bones. Cats and Raiders were inside the houses, or roaming the streets. They were all as rich as the first bunch, or richer. Sometimes they had other stuff: traveler's chests, bundles of wood, bolts of cloth, or slabs of meat. The meat wasn't always human.

By contrast, back in Lut Gholein, the streets were almost empty. There were plenty of people at Atma's, maybe because she'd put dozens of lamps out. Inside, it was almost bright enough to be day. "Hi, Atma. Big crowd. Why's everybody in here?"

"Hello. Yes, I have many customers today. I think the light brings them some cheer. My hope is that if we stay calm and comforted, there won't be any sort of panic. I have no idea what else to do. This unnatural darkness is making all of us very nervous."

"Yeah. Greiz said everybody was kind of spooked." In a lower voice, I asked, "How much are you watering the ale?"

She didn't laugh, even a little. "Enough to know that my stock will last the day. I don't want anyone being truly drunk just now. It could only make things worse."

"Even Geglash?"

That made Atma smile. She looked down at her feet, under the bar. "Geglash, are you worried about the dark?"

A voice said, "Wha... ? It's dark out?"

"Never mind," I laughed. "I forgot how much he already has in his own personal barrel."

"I think that belly-full could last him until the next moon," Atma agreed. "You seem calmer than anyone. Does nothing trouble you?"

"I'm kind of worried, but I think I can do something about it. Out there, while I was looking for Claw Vipers, I found this old city. There's a lot of Cat People and Raiders there. I think they're using it as a base."

"I have seen the city. As a child, I used to play in the ruins while my mother was visiting the nearby farms. It would make an excellent bandit camp." Her voice went hard. "I trust you are dealing with the murderous scum as they deserve?"

"Yeah, pretty much. The cats can see in the dark, so it's been kind of hard. The Raiders are easy, though. Say, um... do you remember a Vizjerei visiting the palace? This would be a while ago, before the trouble started."

"Matters in the palace are usually not my concern, though I believe I know of the sorcerer you speak of. The palace guards used to come here for drink and conversation. They are not easily frightened, but that man unnerved them."

I nodded. "Kind of crazy, huh? Sudden fits of madness?"

"From what I overheard, they sensed in him something worse than the pride sorcerers are often guilty of. When our former lord died so horribly, he was immediately suspected, but was nowhere to be found."

"He was there when Lord Faduwas died?"

"Yes. But not afterward."

"How did Faduwas die, again?"

"Walls of hellish flame surrounded him, then leapt up beneath his feet. Though nothing else in the room was even singed, our lord was burned beyond recognition. We did not know it at the time, but his was only the first of many deaths we would suffer at Diablo's hands. Soon after, the desert seemed to sprout swords and spears. The dead rose up, and... well, you know the rest. Lord Jerhyn has done what he can, I suppose, but we are very grateful to you for what you have done as well."

"Thanks. I didn't know Jerhyn had done much at all."

Atma smiled diplomatically. "I would not say that aloud."

"Ah. Just one more thing... do you have any more of those narlant wraps?"

Atma chuckled faintly, and reached for a box. "They are called cigars. I'm afraid I'll have to charge you for this one."

"The first hit's free, huh? How much?"

"Five."

"What?! For that?"

"These must be imported from the Amazon isles. The Amazons are a proud people, and expensive to deal with. I charge what I must to keep narlant in stock."

"Oh, all right, one. It's not like I'm hurting for cash right now."

The burning ember at the tip of my cigar didn't seem too conspicuous. The cats noticed the smoke when I got close enough, but they'd seen me by then anyway. In the central part of the city, the Raiders had lamps and some torches. It helped me a lot, at least so I didn't trip over any more sleeping guard lizards. Five human corpses in various stages of butchery lay in the central square. The freshest was a lean, fit young woman, less than a day dead, a bloodstained pair of cesti still strapped to her wrists. Her name was Hashep.

A few whole wagons had been dragged into the square, so there was plenty of wood, all dry as tinder. The pyre would attract every enemy for miles around, but I didn't care. Let them come, I've got something for them. It kind of bothered me that I hadn't done this for anyone else, and I'd found plenty of people, but I decided not to think about it. If I did, I'd get too mad to do my job. Once she was burning enough to light up the city, I went back to work. Things went smoothly. More than once, new arrivals came out of the desert, probably wondering what the fire was. I didn't care to explain it to them.

On an upper level of the city, the buildings were larger and spaced further apart. Hardly anyone was here, except for one area. A group of zombies was wandering around an open square, next to an old stone tower. When I stuck my nose in, the tower started shooting fireballs, and the zombies came shambling after me. There were no cat or Raider tracks in the area. Poison worked even slower than usual on this bunch of undead. I wound up carving them up, then knocked over the tower with my katar. I guess it was about to fall over anyway.

Next to a large building, a trap door led to some old tunnels. The lighting was actually better down there. There weren't any tombs -- these looked more like storage tunnels -- but for some reason, they were crawling with undead. No Horadric mummies, just the regular kind, and a bunch of lightning skeletons. Maybe the building was a temple and these were priests, guarding the treasuries even unto death and all that. Whatever it was, they didn't guard it from the Raiders. There were one or two here and there, and in the back chamber, a richly dressed and well armed leader with a pack of helpers. Maybe it was the bandit chieftain and his harem. I can't tell on sight if a given Raider is a boy or a girl, and I'm not interested enough to look.

Down below, Hashep's pyre had burned down to embers. I saw nothing, and standing on the cliff top, outlined against the stars, nothing saw me. I'd taken out the area bandits, so my good deed for the day was done, but I hadn't found a single clue which way to go next. Thinking about it, I remembered a story I heard, about a drunk who lost a coin. He's looking for it under a lit window. Another guy comes by, and asks him what he's doing. "I'm looking for a silver I dropped in the alley," he says. "If it's over there, why are you looking under the window?" the other guy asks. "I know it's over there, but the light's better here." The drunk is stupid, you see, but not completely: it's hard to find little things in the dark. I, despite the cigar, am not drunk. Maybe a little buzzed, but I know where to get a torch.

Right next to the temple building is a little valley, hardly more than a notch in the cliffs. I almost passed it by before I noticed the tracks. You don't often see snake tracks over a foot wide. Looks like the survivors of Faduwas' campaign had a pretty easy escape. Hidden in the valley was a tomb, like any other in the desert except for some recent additions. Two heroic statues of snakes flanked the entrance. They must have been twenty feet tall, with un-serpentlike broad shoulders and brawny arms. Fangs like stalactites filled their mouths. Each finger had a talon about two feet long. I almost laughed. This must be the place.

Like every other tomb in this damned desert, there was only one door, the front door. On top of that, snakes are likely to be venom-resistant. I took out the katar and went in. Sure enough, right inside the door, five Claw Vipers slithered to attack. I was kind of surprised to see they looked like their statues: brawny shoulders, claws big as daggers, and a mouth of needly teeth taking up most of their surprisingly small heads. They also had wicked spikes on their tails. The fight didn't go well at first. After a few body-slams too many, it was pretty clear that cold didn't faze them much. The biggest belly-crawler was lightning-enchanted, too. When I had the chance, I ran, and shot them as they chased me. Each took only a single bolt -- no poison tolerance at all!

Once I found that out, the rest of the tomb was a cakewalk. I've heard regular snakes hunt by smell, and their eyes aren't so good. The big ones sure don't seem to hear or see well, and I wear soft boots. Keeping my distance and sniping worked like a dream. In between kills that were almost too easy, I looked around at the tomb. It looked like the Vipers had been in here for years. All the traps were disabled, and the human bodies were gone. Empty sarcophagi, urns, and niches were everywhere, but no mummies. Maybe they dumped all the dead guys in those tunnels, which would explain why they were so packed. This tomb was huge, easily big enough to have held that many mummies.

In other tombs, the lower levels are reserved for those considered most worthy in the eyes of the richest living people. This one was different. The lower level was one big chamber around a central dais, probably meant to be the eternal home of some grand poobah. Now it had an altar drenched in blood and innards. The walls were decorated with heroic serpent statues and gutted human corpses, one after the other. On the right, there were cages that might have held living people at some point. On the left, there were three Claw Vipers. I shot them and ignored them as they slowly died. The last one expired as I kicked the altar to the ground with a very satisfying crunch.

When I got back to Lut Gholein with the loot, it was already after noon. Everyone was out for the sun; even Geglash stood blinking in the tavern window. "So this is daylight..." I heard him mutter. "It's overrated." It's not ale, but you can't live without it, either. Maybe it was antisocial, but I dumped my finds with Cain and crawled back to the inn. I've never been that good at accepting gratitude, and I was too damned tired to try. All I wanted was to sleep, perchance to dream.