It didn't take long for the cave to transform into a low tunnel intersected with numerous side-passages. So close to the surface, the tunnels corresponded closely enough to their inky equivalents on the bishop's map.

  A light orb was floating around Gaius' shoulder. It was producing just enough light to see where you were going without illuminating the entire cave and undoubtedly annoying its skulking denizens. For the time being, the beasties were too timid to reveal themselves, but that didn't stop them from scurrying around in the dark, scratching and whispering in their bestial tongues just out of sight.

  The others followed Gaius in a single file, with Gertrude covering the rear. The wizard had a similar orb following her, only as opposed to Gaius' steady light source, hers was zipping around like an excited floating dog.

  Staring at another one in a long series of forks in the road, Gaius was trying to remember the map's directions. Unless he got turned around, their group should have been roughly parallel to the dwarven mines by now. If that was the case, he needed to go left and then down.

  To Victor's great disappointment, the leftwards path had the lower ceiling of the two options. The northerner, who by that point felt at home under Siembra, simply let out a short grunt and rounded his shoulders.

  Soon after, the tunnel turned into a rather precarious slope before opening up into a wide cavern. It was impossible to see the cavern's other end. Its ceiling was high enough to not pose any problems for Victor should he decide to swing his axe overhead.

  The cavern was separated into smaller areas by natural walls. The bigger open spaces there were dotted with man or rather dwarf-made columns ensuring their stability.

  In the distance, Gaius could hear running water. This normally innocuous sound put him on alert. Where there was water, there was life. And Gaius had very little interest in meeting the kind of life that made places like this its home.

  His raised awareness and slowed pace allowed him to spot a barely-noticeable bump in the ground. He crouched and very carefully removed the top layer of dirt around it. This revealed to him a nasty-looking bear trap, its jagged edges coated with a layer of pungent ooze.

  "And what's this now?" He held the disarmed trap up to his companions.

  Esven grabbed the trap, looked at it, sniffed it, then threw it forward where it was snapped up and mangled by another one just like it.

  "Remember how I told you about the opportunists? This is exactly why we're in luck. They always set these things up before an alef night. Maybe they catch a retreating beast, maybe they don't. But remember, these caverns are usually packed right about now. A suit of slightly mangled armor and a weapon cost more than the parts of any beast you can find down here."

  Gaius shook his head, singling out Victor with his eyes. "And you chose to do this for a living?"

  "It's not that bad." Victor shrugged. "Alessia has this thing she does with her vapors. Makes you invisible. So we mostly just avoid these hunters' hunters types."

  "How many times do I have to repeat this? It's not invisibility. Everyone can still see you, they just choose not to." Picking Gaius for someone who could better appreciate the specifics of her craft, Alessia produced a corked bottle with a cloud of thick swirling fog inside and said, "It hides you from others' attention. As long as they're not actively looking for you and you don't make any sudden noises, those who inhale the smoke leave you be."

  Esven coughed a laugh and said, "Your magic is impressive, miss, but I'm honestly more amazed you've managed to teach the big fella how to keep quiet."

  Leaving his companions be, Gaius put his nose to the ground and started removing the remaining traps. Most of them were of similar simple construction. A few were more crafty. Those tried to shoot Gaius with darts or impale him on spikes. The intention there was to distract him, or someone like him, with the simple stuff and then spring the nastier surprises.

  It was an impressive setup for an underground cavern. But once you've been to a few manors belonging to the more paranoid among collectors, you wouldn't be caught with a simple dart. Gaius had robbed more than a few of those.

  While Gaius was working on the traps, he heard the northerner say to Esven, Gertrude, or both, "What's this you were talking about leaving instructions behind? Do you really think we may perish down here?"

  "I wear a fresh pair of pants every day," Esven replied. "Just in case I die. Make peace with the inevitability of your demise, and you won't have to worry about it ever again." Gaius heard Victor gulp. "Nah," Esven chortled. "Just a few days ago, I would have called us suicidal fools. But now that we've seen that Lucius survived down here, shade or no shade, I know for a fact it's possible to come back. And what Lucius can do alone, the six of us can surely do better. Maybe we'll even get to keep our bodies."

  "You've read my book, young man, did you not?" Gertrude asked.

  "Many times."

  "You must remember the chapter on death-defying adventures. Every dungeon that's said to lead to one's certain doom remains that way only until someone accepts its challenge and survives. There isn't a place in this world no one can return from. Only places no one has returned from yet."

  Without turning or standing up, Gaius said, "Ah, I can feel the motherly love from here. You have a ballpark for how many youths your book turned into food for rats and vultures?"

  "It's good for society in the long run." Gertrude was showing no shame or remorse.

  Gaius picked up the trap he was working on and stood up.

  "Hey, as long as it puts food on your table, you won't hear another complaint from me. I'll just make sure to never let my future kids read any of your stuff."

  He tossed the trap over his shoulder. Much like earlier with Esven, it activated another one with a loud clang.

  "That's the last of them," Gaius said. "I say we keep moving and leave this discussion for a time when we're sipping tea in a gazebo, not when we're trying to defy death."

  Not long after that, the cavern narrowed into a tunnel, and following another steep slope, opened up again. The occasional bits of dwarven masonry were left behind, replaced by rough natural walls that lacked any sort of support. And even though he hasn't seen any signs of structural instability yet, Gaius was anxious when he had to move through the big open areas.

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  As he forged ahead, he nearly bumped into a craggy stalagmite that served as a sentry to a whole grove of standing stones.

  Gaius' light orb was focused on the ground and when he willed it to illuminate the stone instead, he cursed.

  Before him, he saw dozens of life-like statues frozen in what appeared to be either a battle stance or abject terror. Further still, beyond the reach of his light, there was movement.

  With his elbow covering his eyes, Gaius shouted for Gertrude.

  "Lower your arm. If it can't look you in the eye, it will simply bite you in half," the wizard said, advancing past Gaius and tapping her cane on the cavern's floor.

  A wall of solid rock moaned and grumbled as it shot up in front of her, covering their group from the unseen threat up ahead.

  "What's going on?" Isabella asked, and, feeling invulnerable as usual, stepped from behind the wall to find out what startled the Mystlunders.

  Gaius had to drag her back, all but praying that her shield recognized him grabbing her by the waist as friendly.

  Isabella produced an entirely unknightly yelp that was echoed by Alessia's giggle. Back in the relative safety of the wall she rewarded Gaius with a stern look.

  Gertrude came to his rescue.

  "Here's the thing, dear. There are but three things that can petrify a man. A wizard, a gorgon, and a basilisk. Our unlucky predecessors aren't arranged in any amusing way. This rules out the wizard. I've not seen any treasure carpeting the ground, so that's a no for a gorgon. This leaves us with option number three. This shield of yours would protect you from a wizard's spell or a gorgon's curse. But a basilisk's ability is perfectly natural for its kind. There's nothing your shield can do against that."

  "How do you know that?" Isabella asked, her hand covering the pendant she now knew was responsible for her protection.

  "I don't want to get into a theological discussion right now. Suffice it to say after you strip the divine element, you're left with essentially a piece of complicated magic. And my college is renowned for its courses on magical theory."

  "Well then, we simply have to discuss this further at a later time," Isabella said.

  Gertrude nodded. "With pleasure."

  Lost in this conversation, pretty much no one noticed Esven pull the same move as Isabella tried to, but on the other end of the wall. And there was no one there to stop him.

  "Get back here, you fool," Gaius yelled upon spotting the captain's excursion.

  "I'm fine," came a muted reply from behind the wall.

  "Not for long," Gaius muttered under his breath.

  The sounds of what was likely a basilisk were getting closer. The tip tap tapping of claws on the rocky ground, the angry huffing of a beast intruded upon in its lair, the rustling of scales that protected the creature better than any suit of armor.

  "Can we try to blind the thing before it gets here?" Gaius turned to Gertrude.

  "I said, I'm fine," Esven insisted instead.

  And somehow, he wasn't wrong. By then, the beast was loud enough to suggest proximity to their conjured cover within which nothing should have been able to survive.

  Then, Gaius heard Esven loose the string of his arbalest. This sound was followed by an annoyed roar and the clanging of Esven's heavy boots as the captain searched for a spot to reload and send another bolt at his bestial foe.

  This ongoing battle didn't make any sense. Combining everything Gaius knew about basilisks with what he knew of Esven, he could only conclude that the captain should have been turned into a statue by now.

  "Can you restore someone to life after they've been petrified?" Gaius asked Gertrude.

  The wizard had to think about this for a bit, long enough for Esven to shoot the beast once more.

  "If it just happened, then maybe," Gertrude said. "These statued adventurers? It would take a miracle to bring them back. And dammit, I'm a spellcaster, not a miracle worker."

  Preempting Gaius' next question, Isabella shook her head. Such a feat was outside of her abilities.

  Interpreting Gertrude's words in a way that made him feel safer about his next stupid decision, Gaius peeked from behind the wall.

  He figured that the beast would be too busy chasing after Esven to pay any attention to him. Regardless, he made sure to show as little of himself as possible.

  Without adding any extra light into the mix, Gaius could barely see anything, just a vague prolonged shape that fit with what he knew of basilisks, and an occasional glimpse of a bolt with a glowing tip hitting the beast.

  "I like where your head's at, but you'll need to do better than that if you plan on saving the day," Gaius yelled from behind the safety of the wall.

  "Just you wait," Esven responded.

  Another bolt reached its mark. Esven started to count down from three. When he reached one, a loud popping noise turned the basilisk's growls into a pained whimper. The pop was followed by another one, and then several more, going off in quick succession.

  As the final bolt popped, silence settled over the cavern. Illuminating a good chunk of the ground around him, Gaius approached the beast, or rather what was left of it. The remains were mangled beyond recognition with what must have been a score of tiny explosions.

  The grisly sight filled Gaius with a mix of revulsion and relief. He was about to congratulate Esven when he heard the familiar by then huff of a basilisk, only this one was deeper and angrier.

  Overconfident in victory, Gaius added more juice to his light orb. This allowed him to see another basilisk weaving its way between the statues. The beast was long as a horse but low to the ground, with six powerful legs carrying it forward. Its tail ended in a natural spiked club, and its head was that of a deformed rooster with a great big leathery frill making it look even bigger than it actually was.

  Gaius didn't know enough about basilisks to be certain if this was the first basilisk's mate, family member, or just a good friend. He simply knew that the thing was royally pissed and with where he stood, it saw him as its number one foe.

  Then, a realization hit Gaius. If he could see the basilisk, the reverse was also true. He jerked to the side in an attempt to evade the beast's gaze.

  Dashing through the air, he already knew he was too late. There was an unnatural heaviness in his legs. The sudden change threw him off balance and laid him out on his back. The light orb followed this maneuver and allowed Gaius to see what looked like dirt boots creeping up from his feet.

  This gradual petrification rendered him virtually immobile, and Gaius, who knew better than to try and fight the inevitable, instead got perfectly still.

  His only action was a high-pitched scream for help, as the basilisk cautiously crawled towards him.

  "Mallia's tits and other parts I dare not mention with ladies present. I'm out of explosives," Esven's voice came from the far end of the basilisk lair.

  "Oh, come on. You knew what we were up against. You couldn't pack more?" Gaius was struggling to maintain a jovial appearance. He was already verging on a full-blown panic. The last thing he needed was infecting others with it.

  "These things aren't cheap, you know. Especially on a constable's salary."

  Gaius was halfway through coming up with a retort when he heard Gertrude's muted voice.

  "Do you trust me, young man?"

  "You're Gertrude. You wrote the guide. Of course, I do," Victor replied.

  The basilisk was a fearsome beast, but a beast still. It didn't have the mental capacity to question Gaius' stillness, gifting him the precious few moments in which Gertrude got to chant a throaty incantation.

  She followed it with a clap and submerged her hands in the cavern's rocky floor as if it was malleable dough.

  "When I say go, you start running, right at the basilisk. Don't stop no matter what happens until I tell you to. Then you take your shot. Now, go."

  Confused, but impressed by Gertrude's display of sorcery, Victor readied his axe and darted to intercept the beast.

  As he ran, a wave of stone extended from the ground and lifted him up and above the basilisk. With the cavern's ceiling all but scraping the top of his head, Victor kept running, and the wave kept moving with him, plowing through the petrified adventurers.

  Victor was about to reach the basilisk, protected from its gaze with the moving wave of stone underneath, when Gertrude shouted, "Now."

  Not really sure what the wizard meant, the northerner raised his axe and prepared for just about anything.

  He didn't prepare for the platform he was riding to disappear from under him. His instincts took over. He let out a thunderous roar and used the collective firmness of his muscles to turn himself around, plummeting onto the basilisk from above.

  The single chop of Victor's axe, strengthened by the force of his fall, split the unfortunate beast's skull. The axe head lodged itself deep into the rock underneath.

  Teetering somewhere between terrified and exuberant, Victor recoiled from the beast's lifeless body and started to walk back and forth with the purpose and determination of a man about to go into battle, not one who had won it.

  Disregarding Victor's posturing, Isabella was already standing over Gaius. The basilisk's gaze may have only grazed him, but still, the porous stone was now covering Gaius up to his ribs.

  Story Facts - Chapter 31