Masquerades - Kate Novak [104]
There was a sharp crack, and the entire wall panel swung slightly outward and upward, revealing another stone passage.
Alias looked at the halfling, stunned.
"I guessed the secret word!" Olive cried out excitedly.
From behind them came the clicking sound of the saurial's laughter. Dragonbait was standing behind the obsidian throne with a clawed finger resting on a panel in the back of the throne. As they watched, the saurial pushed the panel and the door swung closed.
"I would have thought of that next," Olive said with a sniff.
Dragonbait reopened the door. Just inside was another empty sconce. Most notable about this passage, though, was the damp, pungent smell, not of the sea, but of sewage. Wrinkling their noses, the adventurers proceeded through this new tunnel, Olive in the lead, with Alias and Dragonbait just behind her.
Despite the lantern she carried, Olive did not see the chasm that abruptly crossed the passage until she was right on top of it. Fortunately, the stench and the sound of running water had warned her to slow down and she was able to back away from the edge before she stepped into the yawning void. Alias and Dragonbait halted beside her, and they all peered downward. Across their path lay a circular sewage tunnel lined with brick. They stood near the top of the tunnel. On the other side, nearly twenty feet away, the passageway to the Faceless's lair continued on. Ten feet below them the sewage of West-gate churned and surged past.
"You'd think the Faceless would be concerned that a sewer inspector might stumble on this place," Olive quipped.
"Cities the size of Westgate have enough underground sewers, pipes, and cisterns to confuse a dwarf. They probably built this tunnel before King Verovan's time and promptly forgot it," Alias retorted.
"How're we going to cross it?" the halfling asked.
Alias shrugged. "The Faceless must have some way across," she said.
Dragonbait picked up a handful of pebbles from the floor and tossed them into the chasm. They skittered horizontally in midair, some finally tumbling into the dark water below, but others remained suspended, resting on an invisible surface.
"Aren't you clever," Alias said, smiling at the saurial.
The paladin shrugged. He could detect the bridge from the way it masked the heat flowing up from the sewage below.
Alias stepped out into the void. Assured that the bridge was sturdy beneath her feet, she continued across, using her sword as a cane to tap out the edges of the bridge. It was only two feet wide, but flat and smooth. Nonetheless, when she reached the opening in the sewer wall at the opposite end and stepped off the bridge, she breathed a sigh of relief. She turned and waved for the others to follow.
Olive began crossing next, using her own sword as a guide. The halfling moved more quickly than the swordswoman had, but when she was halfway across the bridge, she froze.
Alias furrowed her brow in puzzlement. Olive had never been afraid of heights, yet now she stood motionless, looking down into the water. "Come on, Olive!" the swordsman whispered urgently.
"I can't," Olive retorted through clenched teeth. "I want to move, but I can't! Feels like magic, maybe some kind of trap."
Alias had just set one foot back on the bridge when something erupted from the water below. By the light of Olive's lantern the swordswoman could make out a great serpentine beast-its body stretching out far longer than the lantern light could make out. Its back was covered in a diamond pattern of green and brown scales, and a green fin ran the full length of its eel-like body. It reared its head, revealing a yellow belly, and filthy water dripped from the slimy moss coating its scales. Thrusting upward toward Olive, it roared with a mouth large enough to swallow the halfling in a single gulp. Needle teeth glistened by the light of the halfling's lantern. In the beast's eyes Alias imagined she could detect intelligence and cunning. "It's the quelzarn!" Alias shouted. "Olive, you have to move!"
Olive, unable to comply, looked into the maw, wondering