The Ghost's Crusade

X: Akkali

Taking note of where the Inferi had wandered off to she started to head straight for the mine shaft. Whatever had caused the panic at the mining camp was long gone; the trails it left behind were old and stale-smelling like the film that collected on the surface of a still pond. Grudgingly she was going to have to admit that the man was right and whatever had decimated the mining camp and kept decorating the alleyways of Baedorn with corpses was indeed somewhere in the Shalewarrens. That meant until it was dealt with she was going to have to deal with his Inquisitor friend, and that was a very uncomfortable proposition for her.

The entrance to the mine shaft was half-collapsed, though not from any miscalculated explosion or landslide. It looked as though something wide and heavy had collided with the supports trying to fight its way back into the tunnel itself and brought the loose shale and dirt of the mountainside down in its wake. At first she would have guessed the culprit to be an ox pulling a mining cart but there were none of the usual supplies needed to keep work animals evident at the camp. Judging by the complete lack of tack, feed, and pens everything had been dug out, carted up, and sifted through using manual labor.

Tiernan came to a halt not far from where she stood and looked at the shaft entrance with a critical expression. “Odd.” He leaned forward slightly and took a deep breath, then recoiled almost immediately. “There's something down there.”

“Really,” said Akkali dryly, sneering at him with a scrunched nose. “Was it the pickaxes or the smell of flesh rotting that gave it away?”

The Inquisitor ignored her sarcasm for the time being although she could tell he was biting back the urge to lash out at her, at least verbally. He didn't seem to be overly receptive to satire, unlike Drystan. It was a bit puzzling how the two had ever gotten along in the first place, but then again she hadn't known Drystan before he became an Inferi. For all she knew he had been just as much a prude as his friend, though it seemed highly unlikely given what she also knew about Arathron. “You say there's an entrance to the Shalewarrens around here?”

“There's always an entrance somewhere. It's not as if I have a map of them all. It's more likely they dug through one of the tunnels nearer the surface. That's usually how these things go.” She surveyed the wreckage for a lantern and found one not too far from the mine entrance that was serviceable. It took a few minutes to put it back in working order and find a decent amount of lamp oil to fuel it, but as soon as she had the small box in one piece she struck fire to the wick and headed into the mine entrance.

Behind her she could feel Tiernan's hand moving forward to stop her and she immediately pivoted to the side so his grip landed on nothing but stale air. Before he could say anything Drystan ducked between them and flashed them both a disarming grin. “Ready when you are.”

'You're just going to walk in there without...” The taller man groaned and tucked his book away in the smaller satchel slung across his chest. “Of course you are. Why I bother asking as if you may have actually matured in the last decade baffles Junan Himself.”

Akkali handed a laughing Drystan the lantern and slipped ahead of them both by a few paces. Their system was one that usually worked flawlessly; she, who had the quicker reaction speed and keener eyesight, always took point. Drystan, who needed range and slightly more time to adjust to an opponent, hung back and kept an eye on the rear and kept the light. As for Tiernan, whose six foot five inch frame was rapidly running out of headroom in the mine shaft, he was just extra baggage they were going to have to compensate for.

“I don't believe I am doing this,” muttered Tiernan with a scowl. “I hate being underground.”

The Enkiri chuckled slightly. “Don't tell me the big lumbering Inquisitor is afraid of the dark.”

“You're one to talk,” he retorted. “Your kind is not exactly made for the under-earth either.”

“Ah, but miners love we Enkiri,” she went on nonchalantly, noting that there were corpses in the pathway ahead by signaling Drystan with a quick hand wave. “We're small and quick and a lot more sensitive to tunnel air. They use us like canaries that can dig; if we happen to drop dead in a mine shaft the humans evacuate.” She tossed a quick grin over her shoulder. “Did I mention we're cheap labor? We're cheap labor.”

“I don't believe you can speak so when walking over the corpses of your own people,” he grumbled under his breath.

“Perchance you've not noticed, but there's lots of humans here too.”

“I'm not comparing them to canaries.”

“That's because no one shoves a human down a bore shaft and asks if they can still breathe.”

Tiernan let out a grunt of disgust. “You're a terrible person.”

Something made her nose twitch and she halted immediately, shoving her hand backwards and catching the Inquisitor on the sternum. “Stay.”

“And here I was starting to enjoy your irreverent banter,” piped in Drystan, who had contrary to his nature remained silent since entering the mine. "I'm guessing it's not a rat, is it."

Akkali scanned the dim tunnel ahead trying to figure out exactly what had made her pause. There was an odd smell in the air, one that was slowly starting to overpower the stench of decaying flesh that hung thick in the mine. It was coldly familiar, lingering somewhere in a bitter memory of her time in Harenholl. The highborn women smelled like it when they emerged from their winter hibernation for spring galas, having drenched themselves in perfumes and hexed hair colorings suitable to whatever the Empress Regent dictated the current fashion trend was.

“Lavender,” said Tiernan in a quiet voice, putting a name to the scent in the air. “Remember the lunatic, what he said? Lavender whispers.”

She looked back over her shoulder and scowled at the men. “That was a locus for a killing field. You want to take what a talking carcass says seriously?"

“Explain the smell, then,” countered the Inquisitor. “Do you think anything like that grows naturally underground?”

Grudgingly she had to admit the man had a point. “A psychotic bastard is littering the city-state with corpses and he has a fetish for making them all smell like flowers." She groaned in disgust. "Here I thought I'd seen all the weird shit Oratios got up to in private before I escaped Harenholl.”

“Well it's not of Pandemonium, we are certain of it.”

Tiernan cocked his head towards his friend. “'We' who?”

The smell thickened as the mine seemed to exhale sharply like a coughing beast. Something cold and wet slammed into her from behind, sending her reeling straight into Tiernan and pitching them both to the ground.

“Akkali!”

Irritated that he was mocking her for being caught unawares she snapped back, “Plant it in your ass Drys!”

“No, we can see more of them heading up! We need to fall back!”