Dark Depths
Nov. 13th, 2009 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackWe descended the cold chasm with picks and pitons, into the fell breath squatting in the depths. The vampire was strung between us with chains of silver-flecked cold iron. She was wan, and struggled no more, though she could have sent us all tumbling to the bottom. Her blood was cold to hot desires of revenge, and she didn't want to hasten her own descent by even a few minutes even if she would bring us with her.
The chasm was infamous amongst explorers. A single bridge crossed it, a massive stone edifice, but people hurried across it quickly. There were perpetual rumours of great treasures buried at the bottom, but an evil presence lurked there. Any explorers spending any time near the chasm, or descending into it, had its influence wash over them.
Occasional travellers, normally travelling alone, would be overcome by despair and rush to the edge of the bridge to throw themselves into maw. Even more rarely, whole caravans travelling along the edge would fall into fighting. The more they killed each other the more the survivors opened themselves to the influence, until, apparently, the last few survivors would drag all the wounded to the chasm, and cast them down.
Poole and some companions had discovered the remnants of such a massacre only recently, and as the gossip crept along the trade routes it reopened interest in the chasm. Few people passing near were affected badly, but many explorers descending into it never returned, but there always seemed to be some new reason someone wanted to. I figured some of those had been planted in the minds of passers by when the thing's intelligence had waxed more powerful and subtle, though I couldn't prove it.
Now, Poole, Mallory, and I had planned the latest expedition, but this one was going to be different. Forgetting doubtful evidence of hidden passages and mineral resources in the sides of the chasm, I figured that there must be something at the bottom -- at worst, the goods from hundreds of years of caravans, and a small but significant number of powerful magical items that previous explorers had brought thinking they would let them navigate the chasm safely. But forget sneaking in. I figured we could dispose of the demon, or not, and any attempt to sneak in with it there would just lead directly to our deaths.
My reading suggested that the thing came slowly closer to breaking free of its haunt with every death. My own theory was that if we could feed it a vampire, herself having devoured hundreds of people, that would be enough to free it in one shot, and it would drift away to devour something else, leaving us to move in on its old demesne.
A cold foetid breath rose past us and dread cramped our hands. Mallory started trembling, and stopped, reaching back for her last handhold. "Can we just throw her from here?" she quavered.
"Shut the fuck up," I said. "Keep moving."
But Mallory just put her face to the cliff and shivered.
"I think she's right," called Poole. "I don't think little miss bitey is going to get much further."
The vampire hissed at her, and I shrugged. "Come, on Mallory! We can't fuck about." Poole lifted the rope between them as if to pull it, but then let it fall. "Come on, it's close enough," she said to me.
I gritted my teeth, but I needed the others' cooperation for a while yet, and didn't think I'd be able to push them much further and still have them do the job. "Fuck it."
I turned to the vampire. "OK, bitch. Get ready." I nodded to Poole and we released the chains from ourselves. One of Poole's swung free, but she let it go and looped the other one half round her fist. Our eyes met, and the vampire hissed helplessly, and then we jerked.
The vampire lost one hand's grip first, and swayed backward. My chain was slack, but before I could get a better hold Poole yanked again, and her other hand slipped, and then she was gone.
I looked down, and she was already a small dot, and then a distant plumph on the low snow floor of the chasm. There was a pause, and I wondered if anything was going to happen, but then I got a sense of a malign presence below stretching and wakening from a long sleep, and then drifting upward.
Poole swore, and I smiled. I don't think she'd really thought this would work. I peered down past my armpit, and it was hard to tell, but I think a faint smoke was visible where the incorporeal demon was rising towards us.
"Come on, we've got to get to one of the tunnels," Poole called, but I just ignored her. It was coming much too fast for us to get out of the way, I just hoped that I'd be shielded by the mystical baubles I'd packed for protection, but that any protection Poole and Mallory had thought to bring wouldn't be at all effective.
The chasm was infamous amongst explorers. A single bridge crossed it, a massive stone edifice, but people hurried across it quickly. There were perpetual rumours of great treasures buried at the bottom, but an evil presence lurked there. Any explorers spending any time near the chasm, or descending into it, had its influence wash over them.
Occasional travellers, normally travelling alone, would be overcome by despair and rush to the edge of the bridge to throw themselves into maw. Even more rarely, whole caravans travelling along the edge would fall into fighting. The more they killed each other the more the survivors opened themselves to the influence, until, apparently, the last few survivors would drag all the wounded to the chasm, and cast them down.
Poole and some companions had discovered the remnants of such a massacre only recently, and as the gossip crept along the trade routes it reopened interest in the chasm. Few people passing near were affected badly, but many explorers descending into it never returned, but there always seemed to be some new reason someone wanted to. I figured some of those had been planted in the minds of passers by when the thing's intelligence had waxed more powerful and subtle, though I couldn't prove it.
Now, Poole, Mallory, and I had planned the latest expedition, but this one was going to be different. Forgetting doubtful evidence of hidden passages and mineral resources in the sides of the chasm, I figured that there must be something at the bottom -- at worst, the goods from hundreds of years of caravans, and a small but significant number of powerful magical items that previous explorers had brought thinking they would let them navigate the chasm safely. But forget sneaking in. I figured we could dispose of the demon, or not, and any attempt to sneak in with it there would just lead directly to our deaths.
My reading suggested that the thing came slowly closer to breaking free of its haunt with every death. My own theory was that if we could feed it a vampire, herself having devoured hundreds of people, that would be enough to free it in one shot, and it would drift away to devour something else, leaving us to move in on its old demesne.
A cold foetid breath rose past us and dread cramped our hands. Mallory started trembling, and stopped, reaching back for her last handhold. "Can we just throw her from here?" she quavered.
"Shut the fuck up," I said. "Keep moving."
But Mallory just put her face to the cliff and shivered.
"I think she's right," called Poole. "I don't think little miss bitey is going to get much further."
The vampire hissed at her, and I shrugged. "Come, on Mallory! We can't fuck about." Poole lifted the rope between them as if to pull it, but then let it fall. "Come on, it's close enough," she said to me.
I gritted my teeth, but I needed the others' cooperation for a while yet, and didn't think I'd be able to push them much further and still have them do the job. "Fuck it."
I turned to the vampire. "OK, bitch. Get ready." I nodded to Poole and we released the chains from ourselves. One of Poole's swung free, but she let it go and looped the other one half round her fist. Our eyes met, and the vampire hissed helplessly, and then we jerked.
The vampire lost one hand's grip first, and swayed backward. My chain was slack, but before I could get a better hold Poole yanked again, and her other hand slipped, and then she was gone.
I looked down, and she was already a small dot, and then a distant plumph on the low snow floor of the chasm. There was a pause, and I wondered if anything was going to happen, but then I got a sense of a malign presence below stretching and wakening from a long sleep, and then drifting upward.
Poole swore, and I smiled. I don't think she'd really thought this would work. I peered down past my armpit, and it was hard to tell, but I think a faint smoke was visible where the incorporeal demon was rising towards us.
"Come on, we've got to get to one of the tunnels," Poole called, but I just ignored her. It was coming much too fast for us to get out of the way, I just hoped that I'd be shielded by the mystical baubles I'd packed for protection, but that any protection Poole and Mallory had thought to bring wouldn't be at all effective.