I comforted myself with thoughts of a roaring fire and the warm, dry bed that awaited me at the guard barracks as bitter sea wind whipped over me. My hair was soaked and cold water trickled down the back of my neck. Heinrich, my partner, could not stop retching though he’d long emptied his stomach.

  I smiled, forcing a dark chuckle as I leaned on my spear for support. The stench of the bodies and the briny slime swirling around the overflow drain pipe below overpowered Heinrich’s vomit. At least I didn’t have to endure the reek of foul death and sour milk.

  My legs shook and my gaze drifted skyward as I cleared my throat. “They must’ve come back up with the flood. All that rain.”

  Heinrich gagged.

  Six decomposing bodies floated in the foul seawater by a massive overflow drain pipe that had been cut directly into a cliff face, wide black crossbars giving the dark chasm a sinister appearance. Four were definitely human and one was definitely dwarven. The last was too far gone to say.

  The only identifiable feature of the poor sod being tossed about by the waves was a mop of tawny brown hair.

  I swallowed hard. It had to be an adult dwarf, albeit a short one. Definitely not a child.

  Heinrich shuffled on the stony bank behind me, spitting and praying dwarven prayers under his breath.

  I couldn’t say how high the water was for sure, but if any of them down there had still been alive, I could’ve dived in and made a daring rescue. One floated face down, limbs bloated and grey.

  Its leg moved. Just a twitch.

  I tore my eyes away from the ghastly trick of light, heart racing. The hair stood on the back of my neck and I shivered. My mother had always told me her elven blood blessed me with a good sense for dark forces. It didn’t matter that my father was human.

  But I didn’t need heightened senses to know that something wicked lurked in the sewers of fair Zorrian, free city by the bay. Of the bodies that floated supine, all four looked as though their hearts had been torn from their chests.

  There was talk around the barracks about a deranged lunatic on the loose. Heartless bodies of all species, races, and genders had been turning up around sewer drains and overflow pipes for years.

  Finding some kind of new clue or lead would’ve made me look really good. Maybe even earned me a promotion. Then I could’ve gotten off the afternoon shift.

  I held my breath as fluffy white clouds drifted by, skies clear and blue. The sea churned below the bank, likely still stirred by the savage storm that had blown through Zorrian three days before.

  “It’s horrible, isn’t it,” said Heinrich.

  As Zorrian city guards, the “King’s Spears”, the two of us had been working overtime; the district we patrolled in a state of chaos since the flood waters receded.

  I exhaled, blinking against the sunshine bursting through the clouds, its warmth on my skin like a kiss from the gods. Even though I was exhausted and scared, I was still confident joining the guards had been the right decision.

  I glanced back over my shoulder. “You mean death?”

  “The sea.” The bulky dwarf stumbled forward, bright red-hair a blur as he skidded down the bank. The rock gave way beneath my feet and I fell back with a yelp, landing on top of Heinrich as he slid into me.

  He let go of his spear, throwing thick arms around my chest and pinning me to him. “Don’t you hear her, Teo? Maren demands more souls. She didn’t get enough in the flood.”

  I flailed against him, desperately jabbing the butte of my spear against the bank. If the gods had been listening to my prayers, the shaft would’ve lodged into a rock crevice, stopping our rough tumble to the waters below.

  “She’s angry,” bellowed Heinrich, his hold on me impossibly tight. “I hear Caelum. I can hear the sky god’s taunts.”

  I threw my body weight against Heinrich’s hold and we rolled onto my side, the spear butte scraping against the stone.

  “The Sea Queen demands souls,” roared Heinrich.

  The scraping ceased and my arm jerked, pain popping in my shoulder joint as Heinrich tugged me downward. The end of my spear caught on something solid, but my hold on the shaft weakened as I struggled against Heinrich.

  “Let go!” I twisted and turned, kicking out with my legs as hard as I could.

  The dwarf slipped down my waist, my heels striking his shins. With a shout, I reached out with my free hand, latching onto my spear.

  “She’ll keep coming.” Heinrich clawed at my yellow guard’s tabard as he rolled down the bank, body thudding against the rocks.

  I slid the soles of my boots over the stone, checking for slickness before I tested my weight. Wind lashed across my face, a blast of sea spray soaking my hair. Heinrich screamed from below.

  I pressed my body against the bank, ignoring the bobbing corpses as I scanned the water for my partner. What an absolute nightmare.

  I’d joined the guards because I wanted regular meals and a safe place to sleep. My initial hope was to be assigned dull, easy work. Safe work. But the storm hit during my first shift as a guard and three days later I watched with horror as the dwarf flopped onto a large flat stone, eyes closed.

  “Heinrich!” I gripped the haft of my spear and yanked it free, a shower of rocks and gravel tumbling down into the water below.

  The dwarf didn’t budge.

  A powerful gust of wind sent me sprawling down the bank and I was suddenly very grateful for my barracks-issued thigh-high leather boots as jagged stones sliced the material protecting my knees.

  Strange gurgling and a low moan rumbled from the overflow pipe and I froze, terror creeping down my spine. Blood pounded in my ears as the water began to churn even harder, corpses breaking as they slammed against each other. A wave crested over the tawny hair, submerging it below.

  I used my spear like an old man’s cane to hold myself steady. Wet curls fell over my eyes and I pushed them back over my brow. “Wake up, Heinrich! She’s coming!”

  Caelum kept the Sea Princess locked away on high and the Sea Queen was furious. She wanted her daughter back.

  I squeezed my eyes shut as the water raged. Maren promised me eternal paradise if I fought for her cause. She would raise me up. Call me her own. All I had to do was dive in.

  She never said anything about three hot meals a day, though.

  The ground shook and I fell, skidding farther down the bank. With a burst of sound, long, black tentacles shot out of the water and twisted through the air like snakes toward Heinrich and I.

  Animal panic set in, my body so tense I feared I would snap. I cried out as I jabbed with my spear, the point slicing through flesh like a knife through butter. Black ooze hissed from the tentacle and it retreated, yanking free of my weapon with a tearing of flesh. A pale ring of smooth tissue landed at my feet, the liquid pooling on the ground as dark as night.

  My skin crawled and I whimpered. It was just a bad dream. All I had to do was wake up.

  Heinrich’s wailing brought me back to reality and I looked up with a scream of my own. Two tentacles coiled their way around the dwarf’s kicking legs and lifted him into the air. Heinrich’s pale eyes bulged as he screamed, the sheer terror in his voice enough to bring tears to my eyes.

  Another tentacle slammed into his chest and the dwarf’s face contorted with unadulterated fear, the shrill squealing coming from him the worst sound I’d ever heard. A sickening crunch echoed through the din and Heinrich’s body jerked, his eyes blinking rapidly.

  Tremors pulsed through the rock and the bank began to crumble, two more tentacles shooting out of the water and racing toward me. The others released poor Heinrich, my eyes immediately drawn to the bloody hole in the dwarf’s chest.

  I screamed, legs shaking as a crack of breaking rock reverberated deep inside my bones.

  It had sucked out his heart.

  Heinrich plunged into the water below and I clutched my spear, the tentacles opening tiny mouths. Rings of razor-like teeth flashed in the sunlight. The thickest stalk opened a gleaming red eye ball, slit pupil shrinking in the sunlight. A crash like thunder boomed overhead and a boulder fell onto a tentacle, the others releasing mind-breaking shrieks.

  Pain exploded in my skull and I cried out, falling to my knees.

  My stepfather would laugh when word reached him. The runaway half-breed was dead. Good riddance.

  The tremor intensified and I fell, the sea still a beautiful blue green as it swallowed me up. Cold darkness pressed in around me and I fought the water’s violent pull. The primal desire to live wouldn’t let me give up.

  That, and my first pay was due at the end of the following week. I planned to buy myself a tankard of rich, dark ale at the tavern by the guard barracks. If I survived, I’d buy a whole round.

  I tore and kicked at the water, but only sank deeper as a strong current sucked me into the darkness. It was a shame I’d never learned to read. Scribes got to sit inside all day.

  Water filled my ears and nostrils as my lungs burned for oxygen. Sudden pressure around my body made me realize I was inside something narrow and I panicked, lashing out with my arms and legs as hard as I could.

  Pain burst in my knuckles as they scraped against a rough surface and I kicked against something solid.

  The overdrain.

  I opened my mouth to scream, death closing in as my body suffocated. Strange lights flashed above me as water poured into my mouth, choking me.

  Darkness closed in. Death waited with open arms.

  Cool air rushed over my skin and the realization that I was falling dawned on me. I tried to draw breath, but the water trapped in my lungs made it impossible. My arms and legs spread out as I plunged into the darkness below.

  I hit the water’s surface with a splash, but something caught my arm, keeping me from sinking. A strong force pulled me from the water and slammed me on my back. Pressure squeezed the water from my lungs, warm liquid bursting from my mouth.

  I sucked at the air, voices murmuring overhead as I was rolled onto my side. I coughed and sputtered, mind reeling as I struggled for breath. Light flickered behind me.

  “Take heart, my friend,” said a woman’s voice. “You may survive yet.”

  Water splashed and other voices cried out, one gruff and booming while the other was stange; alien with an echoing resonance.

  The woman shifted away from me and I immediately missed her warmth. “Keep moving. If you can’t fight, find a place to hide.”

  A shrieking tentacle and a flash of blue light sent a bolt of panic directly to my heart. I drew a deep breath, flopping onto my gut. When I lifted my head, a dead man leered at me with a hideous skeletal grin, lips and nose chewed away by hungry creatures. What remained of his arm was curled around a dead dog.

  Dead dogs hurt me just as much as dead kids.

  My mouth dropped open, but no sound came. I couldn’t die in stinking darkness. I had to get back to the guard barracks and tell them about the monsters lurking below.

  Water dripped from my tabard as I forced myself to my feet, my skin already chafing beneath my wet leather jerkin and boots. I was otherwise unharmed. Somehow. I fumbled at the barracks-issued dirk at my waist, fingers shaking too hard to get a proper grip.

  “Look out!”

  I whipped around, fists raised in a feeble effort at self-defense. A tentacle sped toward me, vile mouth dripping slime as it screamed. I collapsed with a wail of my own. It parted the air with a hiss as it raced over my head.

  Slime dripped onto my cheek and I flinched, skin burning. I tried to wipe the mucous from my cheek with the back of my hand, but that only made the burning worse.

  A dark chuckle slipped free.

  They said scars made a man sexy.

  “The eye,” called the woman. “The eye!”

  I drew my dirk and sat up as a tentacle slithered up my leg. With a hard yank, it dragged me along the rough ground. My jerkin may have been wet, but it did its job protecting me. The blue light kept flashing and I twisted my neck toward it, gasping.

  A beam of crackling spell-energy pulsed through the air with a bizarre thrum, slicing a thick tentacle in half. I was jerked into the air as the stump hissed and oozed dark liquid, air rushing in my ears. Darkness swirled as my arms fell over my head.

  I screamed.

  It was too terrifying to be real. Never in all my nightmares had I ever imagined anything so horrific.

  I clung to my dirk and flailed, my body alive with a fear so terrible I thought I’d gone mad. The tentacle lifted me higher, the screeching chaos below like the sounds of eternal torment. Maybe I actually had drowned and then been cast into some terrible Hell.

  “Lox!”

  Blue light flashed and filled the room, the sight below a true horror. A red-eye flinched as tentacles lashed out at three figures, its oozing stumps still flailing as the monster shrieked.

  Flashing light caught the corner of my eye and I turned, the insidious mouth of a tentacle opening wide.

  Instinct took over and I swallowed hard, my life the only thing that had ever really been mine. I wasn’t ready to die.

  I lashed out at the tentacle around my leg, the tip of the blade dulled by my boots. Black ooze splattered onto my face and the tentacle released me, my triumph short lived. The eye swiveled, unblinking as it watched me fall.

  An intense calm spread over me and time slowed.

  “Come to me, Teo. A soul as foul as yours will nourish me.”

  Defensive anger made me chuckle. I was no saint, but I wasn’t as wicked as a monster who told nasty lies in the dark.

  The calm broke, sound reverberating through my body in a roar of sensation. With a cry of my own, I slashed at the eye as I fell, the tip of my blade piercing the pupil. Black ooze and a white-gelatinous material gushed from the beast as I dragged my dirk through it.

  A high-pitched cry of agony shook the darkness and my body went limp with a sudden bolt of piercing pain. The blade slipped from my grasp and I fell, plunging into the foul water below. The cold shocked the life back into my limbs and I struggled, searching for the surface and sweet air.

  Hard tentacles beat me back and forth, the water surging. Pain burst through my body and I closed my eyes, praying for peaceful oblivion.

  Blue light surged above the water and the tentacles went limp. My eyes flew open as my lungs began to burn. I couldn’t give up.

  I tore at the water, kicking as hard as I could. The light never faded and a strange face, featureless except for two black eyes, appeared. A blue hand reached for me.

  I reached back, mouth clamped shut.

  Something cut into my thigh and tugged me back down into the darkness. Searing pain shot through my leg and I opened my mouth to scream, water pouring inside.

  The hand broke the water’s surface, long, thin fingers glowing blue as they grabbed my wrist.

  Intense pressure flowed into my body as the blue light enveloped me, strength and vitality welling up from an unknown source. Water was expelled from my lungs as I was dragged toward the surface.

  The pain in my leg suddenly seemed so insignificant, the forcing pulling me to a watery grave laughably weak. My rescuer pulled me out of the water, dragging me over a pile of lifeless tentacles.

  I gasped for breath as the world trembled.

  To my left, the eye floated, dull and dead in a pool of water, white mucus and dark ooze still flowing from deep wounds. I grinned with goofy pride. My cut was the longest and the deepest.

  “Talin. Myra.”

  I craned my neck to gawk up at the strange blue creature who pulled me through the water. His head was a smooth blue egg and a pair of giant black eyes never blinked. Gangly limbs supported a hairless, featureless body. He was very tall with two slits for nostrils. No lips.

  Voidwalker.

  Some didn’t believe they were real, but my mother had always known. She’d never bought into humanity’s Terrestrial Temple. If only she still lived. I could’ve told her I’d seen one.

  Heat gushed over my leg and smoke made me cry out. I jerked my head down and began to scream, throat raw.

  A black tentacle had latched onto my thigh, pulsing as it oozed slime all over my boot. Something heavy slammed into the water beside me, the ring of steel loud as two swords glittered overhead.

  “Lox,” cried the woman. “Bring him here.”

  Blue light flickered off the blades as a tall elf brought them down on the tentacle. It jerked and went limp, but my pain lingered.

  I slapped at the cursed beast, its mouth still clamped on my leg. “Get it off!”

  “Calm yourself.” Orange eyes burned with malice.

  The elf lifted a booted foot from the water and kicked the tentacle away, the edges sharp as they slid free. Long, white hair was plastered to his head, neck, and shoulders. He had a curl about his upper lip that I didn’t like; the sneer of a being who thought himself superior.

  Water sloshed as the Voidwalker dragged me up a bank of slimy stone. The elf followed, flicking dark ooze and mucous from his beautiful curved swords.

  “Don’t be afraid,” said the Voidwalker, voice tinged with its strange resonance as he laid me down. “Myra brought a salve.”

  A woman flopped down beside me, reaching inside a chainmail shirt. A blocky head and a square jaw gave her a rugged charm, big doe-eyes softening a squashed nose and crooked teeth. The halfling nodded as she pulled a vial from her shirt, the red sash she wore at her waist stained with filth.

  “Where did the guards find you? Most of those fat old boys would’ve keeled over and died at the sight of that thing.” She peeled a chunk of smoking leather from my thigh, immediately dribbling cool, clear liquid onto my burning flesh.

  The pain lessened and a lavender scent calmed me as my skin began to tingle.

  “Good thing the eye was dead when that little bugger bit you,” said Myra. “It’ll take longer than normal, but you’ll heal up fine. Not even that deep.”

  The wall had collapsed, the overdrain pipe completely destroyed. Water flowed into the dim cavern through gaps in the rock. Boulders broke loose and fell into the pool below with a mighty splash.

  “What’s going on?” My heart pounded in my chest as the low moaning rumbled from below.

  No one had time to answer as the ocean burst through the rock, a powerful torrent of water surging over us. The force of the water drove me deeper into the darkness. Fighting against it was futile, my body helpless as I was propelled through wet oblivion. That time, I knew better than to scream.

  A gentle ringing filled my ears as tendrils of blue light enveloped me and pulled me towards the Voidwalker to my right, the halfling wide-eyed and puffy-cheeked as she floated beside the blue figure in a sphere of light. Squat brown toads came to mind and I snorted with laughter, bubbles rushing from my nostrils. The elf floated below us, white hair a wild tangle as he clutched his weapons.

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  Somehow, the Voidwalker spoke without a mouth, his voice echoing around my skull. “Be not afraid in the face of wickedness. The Beholder fears my power. That’s why he’s willing to bring the city down on top of us.”

  My lungs burned and I ground my teeth as I struggled to keep my jaw clamped shut. I didn’t care how powerful the Voidwalker was. I needed to breathe.

  Suddenly, the water fell away from us, cascading over a rock and crashing into a pool of filth below, mountains of shit being rinsed away. I gasped, somehow hovering over a waterfall of sea water and sewage. My stomach churned at the powerful stench, tears blurring my vision.

  The Voidwalker waved his hands in a strange sort of ceremony and the four of us floated downward, blue light beating back the darkness as we approached a stone ledge. The water rose higher with every moment.

  The blue light uprighted my body in midair and my heels struck the stone.

  The halfling cupped her hands around her mouth to make herself heard over the roar of the water. “We don’t have time to dally.”

  I fell to my knees, body trembling as my cheek and thigh twinged with burning pain. The Voidwalker knelt, closing his eyes as he laid a hand over a stone.

  “I’m Myra.” The halfling grinned, nodding at the scowling elf as he pushed his hair away from his face, skin streaked with foul blackness. “That shit-smeard elf over there is Talin.”

  I chuckled softly.

  Not even shit could conceal that smarmy bastard’s sneer. Seaweed dangled from one of his pointy ears. I swallowed a bubble of laughter and looked away, checking to see if any dangled from mine.

  Elves typically hated their half-elf brethren, especially those born to elven mothers. I kept my distance, nodding at Myra. “Teo.”

  Water seeped over the ledge. Dark algae and slime covered stone walls. A walkway extended both directions a few feet back from the ledge.

  “We must be miles under the city,” I said.

  Talin regarded me with no less contempt than he had for the shit he wiped from his hands, a red tabard already soiled. Both of his swords emitted a faint blue light.

  “Corporeal beings refer to me as ‘Lox’.” The Voidwalker stood, black eyes unblinking. “The Beholder is somewhere in this labyrinth of tunnels. He attempts to conceal himself, but I can still sense his presence. A sewer system is a great place to hide.”

  “If you don’t have a nose,” said Myra.

  I pushed myself to my feet as water sloshed around my boots. A turd squished under my heel and I grimaced. “Are all of you with the Monster Brigade? What do they call you? Red Boots?”

  Talin cleared his throat, hawking a luge into the water. “Something asinine like that, yes.”

  Lox took a step forward, gangly legs almost too thin to support his body. “Come.”

  “Lox isn’t.” Myra looked me up and down, brow furrowing. “You look young to be a guard.”

  Talin’s boots clicked as he strode down the walkway, foul water rushing over my feet. Lox was a spell caster. I didn’t need to crunch the numbers to calculate the odds of escaping the wretched Hell I’d fallen into on my own. Especially if there were more tentacle monsters lurking in the darkness. Better stay with the group.

  I shrugged my shoulders as Myra pulled two daggers from her belt. “I’ve always been immature.”

  She laughed under her breath and offered me one of her blades, the weapon plain, but well-crafted. “I couldn’t help but notice you dropped yours.”

  I accepted it with a murmur of thanks and hurried after the others, Myra following behind. The dagger’s grip felt wonderful in my hand.

  “You’d be better off with one of Talin’s, but he’s very possessive. Not one to share what he holds dear,” said the halfling, loud enough to make the elf tense up ahead.

  I pretended I didn’t hear.

  Lox paused and glanced around the sewer, long, spindly fingers scratching his chin. Talin pointed to a split in the walkway, a tunnel opening in the wall like a gateway to oblivion.

  I swallowed hard and forced Heinrich from my thoughts. I’d deal with that when I made it back to the barracks. Maybe I’d drag a tentacle with me as evidence of the monster’s existence. “Are there any Voidwalkers in the Monster Brigade?”

  “No,” said Myra. “He showed up at our command center yesterday and asked for volunteers to take out the Beholder that’s been terrorizing the city for years.”

  I paused several feet behind Talin, Lox’s hands folded in front of him as if he were in prayer. “Years?”

  A glowing blue line appeared over the tunnel entrance and my jaw dropped.

  Magic. Spells. All of it real.

  “People started going missing two springs ago. Random. Bodies started washing up on the beaches without hearts. The guards haven’t been able to figure it out.” Myra caught my eye as she stopped beside me.”No offense.”

  Talin scowled, radiating hostility. I ignored the powerful urge to roll my eyes.

  “I’ll mark the tunnels as we pass through them,” said Lox. “If we separate, never enter a tunnel with two marks over the entrance. It’ll lead to a dead end.”

  He slipped into a tunnel without further delay, the water creeping up my legs.

  “Keep up. If you get lost, we’re not coming after you.” Talin stepped inside the tunnel.

  I went ahead and rolled my eyes. If the elf saw, he didn’t say anything.

  “Don’t mind him,” said Myra.

  “Guard Commander Gregor thinks the disappearances and the heart removal is the work of some sick sorcerer,” I said. “Wait’ll he finds out it’s a monster.”

  “That’s not an inaccurate assessment.” Lox’s strange echo was magnified in the tunnel. “Beholders do possess a powerful magic. Unfortunately, they use it to bring death and chaos wherever they go.”

  Beholders were similar to Voidwalkers in that it was impossible to determine where myth ended and fact began; the creatures used to frighten children into behaving somehow all too real.

  Lox moved through the water with ease while the rest of us sloshed along, the stinking slop rising at an alarming rate. When it reached my thigh, I swallowed hard, creeping fear making me anxious. Talin’s side-eyed glares didn’t help.

  “What are we gonna do about all this water?” I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth.

  Myra snorted. “Do you have any suggestions? I didn’t think to bring a bucket.”

  “I’m more concerned about tentacles.” Talin’s orange eyes darted over the water’s surface.

  Lox slowed and laid a hand on the slimy wall and closed his eyes, light spilling out from beneath his fingertips. A tense silence fell over the group and it quickly became too much for me to bear.

  “Do Beholders travel between worlds?” I babbled. “I’ve been told they emerged from the dark underbelly of the universe and invaded worlds, seeking a brighter home.”

  “It’s not so poetic,” said Myra. “They eat up everything in a world and then move on. It doesn’t take many to cause total destruction.”

  Lox opened his eyes and lowered his hand. “This way.”

  We followed him to a fork in the walkway, the water up to my hips. Myra wouldn’t be able to go much farther.

  Lox pressed his hands together and two blue lines appeared on the walls: one marking the tunnel from whence we came and the other marking the right passage. “There’s a staircase this way that will bring us back up to sea level. Beholders prefer to stay dry. This world’s sea creatures give them a run for their money in terms of savagery.”

  He turned, blinking at Myra. “Here. Let me help you.”

  She gawked as the blue hand reached for her, long fingers curling over the halfling’s wrist. Blue light enveloped her and Lox pulled her from the water.

  “You have to keep holding onto me, but you can walk on the surface.” Lox set the halfling on her feet.

  Myra stood as though she were on ice, laughing. “Wait’ll the fellas at the command center hear this!”

  I grinned. None of the other guards would believe me, either.

  Talin’s eyes met mine, but he looked away. For a moment, I considered teasing the stiff old boy with a wink, but he didn’t strike me as having that kind of humor. I needed to stay on his good side if I was going to make it out of there alive.

  I rushed after the Voidwalker, eager to get away from the ever-creeping water. Drowning in a sea of shit and piss had to be one of the most horrific ways to die. Not only scary, but also humiliating.

  Talin held out one of his swords, offering it to me with a stiff glance. “You handled yourself well back there. It pains me to offer this to you, but I don’t want to die today. Myra has the right of it.”

  I accepted it with a nod of thanks, stunned silent. The grip was worn, but the blade’s edge gleamed with a wicked sharpness.

  He waved me along. “I want it back, though.”

  “Of course.” I struggled forward, desperate to stay upright lest I slip and fall into the ocean of waste.

  Myra glanced back over her shoulder, a wild grin on her face as she walked on the water.

  “Beholders are the spawn of the Dark One, spreading his corrupting influence among the children of the Light,” said Talin.

  Myra stumbled, turning away.

  I peeled dry, dirty curls from my cheek, praying my hair wasn’t ruined. The girls really seemed to like my blonde ringlets. My stomach rolled as the water lapped at my chest, the stench invasive. “Do you really believe all that?”

  “No.” He sighed. “But it’s nice to hear the old stories in a situation such as this. Especially from one so young.”

  My hatred for the old boy abated. Talin was just as scared as I was. I fumbled for the words. “The Voidwalkers are Light manifest. Lox will lead us to the surface.”

  His brow furrowed. “Not before he slays the Beholder.”

  Realization dawned, jarring me from my delusion. No one had ever said I was smart. Not even my mother.

  Every muscle in my body tensed. “What?”

  Talin shook his head. “What did you think we’re doing down here? Rescuing half-breed guards?”

  The tension snapped and I whipped around to face him, my foot slipping beneath the water. I managed to catch myself before Talin had to intervene, but the little sneer on his face as he pulled away stoked my fury.

  “Don’t give me that,” I snapped. “I’ve seen more these past three days than most guards see in three years. And I’m no coward.”

  Myra called over her shoulder. “Steps!”

  Talin stiffened, suddenly a beacon of cold focus. He moved past me without so much as a look and I bristled, struggling to keep up. By the time I reached the steps, I was out of breath. He ignored me as we climbed a narrow staircase, but I honestly preferred it.

  If there could be no comradery between us on the surface, why pretend otherwise down below?

  Water dripped from me as I stepped onto a dry landing, and unexpected crossroads before us. One led straight ahead into the blackest darkness while the other two forked, one looping to the right and the other a sharp left.

  I sucked rancid air into my lungs, praying it wouldn’t fester. “Which way?”

  Lox moved to press his hand against the wall just as the water gurgled behind.

  Talin whipped around, curved sword raised. “Look out!”

  Tentacles shot out of the water, shrieking as they pelted toward us. Lox’s light reflected off their viscous teeth, the glow making them especially monstrous. My body ached with dread and I screamed, swinging my blades like a child playing with sticks.

  The edge of Talin’s sword collided with a tentacle in a wet crunch of teeth, the force of the blow lancing up my arm and into my skull. I clamped my jaw shut to keep my teeth from rattling as black ooze dripped over my hand, the beast hissing.

  My victory was short-lived.

  Before I had time to yank the blade free, another tentacle coiled up my leg and jerked me into the water, sound rushing over me in a swirl of darkness. Something hard collided with my chest and I grunted, desperate to keep my mouth closed.

  I slowed, more tentacles wrapping around my chest. The lack of air and the crushing pressure in the darkness was all too much. I was forced upward, water rushing over me. I fought my need for breath.

  With a crash of sound, I broke the water’s surface, cool air wonderful on my skin. I opened my mouth and wheezed, air rushing into my lungs. A tentacle slammed into my chest, piercing pain lancing through me.

  I moaned, liquid dripping from the tip of my nose as I dangled over the water. The tentacles coiled around my body kept me from falling. It was too horrible to be real.

  Foamy slime oozed from the mouth sucking my chest, my leather jerkin dissolving with a hiss and foul odor. My body heaved in time with the pull of the monster’s mouth, my skin burning.

  I prayed for death. No Hell could’ve been any worse than that.

  “We have to cut him down!” Myra dodged tentacles, lashing out with her dagger.

  I clung to the other, my wrist bound by the monster holding onto me. Tears trickled down my cheeks as I writhed with fear and pain. Talin’s sword glinted on the staircase, still lodged in the tentacle mouth. I forced a grin. At least I’d hurt it a little bit.

  In a whirlwind of filthy hair, Talin leapt high into the air, weapon held high overhead. He bellowed like a bull, cutting through three tentacles in a single swing.

  My body jerked, the monsters supporting me giving way. The creature’s sucking slowed, coils around my chest loosening as it went limp.

  “Be still!” Lox’s voice echoed around the tunnel, his light brilliant.

  Wicked teeth popped from my skin and the tentacle fell away. A blinding light flashed and I fell, too exhausted to scream.

  “There,” shouted Myra.

  Talin caught me and pulled me close, his hold tight as we fell into a heap of still tentacles, his body taking the brunt of the impact before we slipped into the water.

  Blue light burst overhead, the water’s distortion somehow making it even more spectacular. Maybe death wouldn’t be so bad. I’d never have to remember any of that. A force pulled us from the water and onto the landing. Talin pushed me away while Myra leapt about, screaming.

  I slumped over a limp tentacle, breathing ragged. My body seemed to deflate; as if life leaked from my flesh. My chest burned. It would’ve sucked out my heart.

  “We don’t have much time.” Lox knelt and laid a hand over my brow. “More are coming.”

  A pleasant buzzing filled my head and I was warm, vitality flowing through my limbs as peace surpassed all understanding. Some cultures worshipped Voidwalkers as gods.

  “Stand.” He helped me to my feet as Myra grabbed my wrist, forcing Talon’s sword into my empty palm.

  She held up her salve. “Let me see.”

  “No time.” Lox ran ahead

  I followed, my heart hammering in my chest as the Voidwalker disappeared beyond the sharp left, his mark bright on the wall. The water gurgled behind us and I gritted my teeth, arms pumping as my boots pounded the ground.

  I’d die before I let that cursed monster touch me again.

  Myra shouted behind me as Lox marked another wall without stopping, whipping around another bend. “There’s so many of them!”

  “Don’t stop,” called Lox. “We’re close. It’s getting desperate.”

  I followed him around a few more twists and turns, my body aching for rest as the others charged behind. The occasional shout or grunt of exertion followed by the thud of a dead tentacle hitting the ground did nothing to calm my nerves.

  A tremor rumbled through the floor, powerful vibrations traveling up my legs and turning them into jelly. I slipped, dropping the dagger as the wall to my right crumbled into a shower of dust, rocks pelting my face. The shriek of tentacles made my heart clench.

  Lox disappeared beneath a writhing mass of black tentacles and I screamed, forcing myself upright. Myra’s dagger was gone, but I raised Talin’s sword high overhead as I charged, a cry of rage tearing from my throat.

  Beams of blue light shone through gaps in the tentacles and a pulsing ring pierced the air.

  I froze, a wave of goosebumps making me shiver.

  The tentacles shredded, bits of tattered flesh blown back by the force of Lox’s spell. He stood, hands held high as light surged around him. The walls crumbled, tentacles shrieking as they were crushed beneath the rubble.

  Lox pointed at a gaping hole in the wall, the ground shaking. “That way!”

  I stumbled over the rocks with a death grip on Talin’s sword, the threat of more tentacles ever present. A sickening crack ripped through the air, the ground lurching beneath our feet. Sudden silence rushed over me and time slowed as I rose into the air.

  Falling.

  A man screamed and the rush of water thundered below. My mind began to slip towards insanity.

  Blue light flashed and I began to fall in the opposite direction. Weightless.

  Not falling.

  “Floating!” shouted Myra.

  I hovered, suspended, in a sphere of blue light. It lifted me upward. Myra floated inside a sphere to my left, Talin behind us both. Lox brought up the rear of our bizarre procession, hands outstretched as though he were supporting us.

  I laughed; uninhibited like a child. Or a lunatic.

  “That’s the spirit, lad,” called Myra, the feral excitement in her expression contagious. “Never let them take your joy!”

  I careened forward, somersaulting as Lox guided us upward through a wide tunnel. The walls began to rumble, a hideous, squealing shriek making my skin crawl as my heart clenched with the deepest dread. I froze, stunned stupid.

  Talin laughed.

  “Just up ahead,” cried Lox. “Through that crack in the wall. Brace yourselves!”

  Thick tentacles emerged from the crack, wicked mouths opening as they sped toward us. I flailed, trying to upright my body. A streak of light raced by. Lox’s sphere slammed into the tentacles, driving them back.

  I clutched the sword, babbling prayers and curses as my sphere carried me through the crack in the wall, the monster’s shrieking combined with an otherworldly thrum enough to break me. I begged the gods to strike me dead; to spare me from the Hellscape I’d floated into.

  Lox illuminated the cavern with his blue glow. The red eyeball, black, slit-like pupil contracting as it adjusted to the light, was not even the worst part. It wasn’t the multitude of heartless corpses bobbing against each other in a pool of water or the fetid stench.

  A throaty gurgling echoed through the cavern. It was as if Hell spoke for itself. “Leave me Voidwalker! I trouble this vile city no more than a mild plague or a gang of criminals. Their Maker made them meat and I must feast.”

  The Beholder’s voice touched every part of me, sapping my courage and strength. The blade slipped in my grasp as tentacles approached. Death would be a release.

  Myra’s voice rang through the air, clear and bold like the peal of a Temple bell. “You will not have me, spawn of darkness! I will wipe you from the face of this Earth!”

  The smallest hope flickered in my chest and I laughed. If I ended up in the same afterlife as my mother, I’d have a great story to tell. The sphere around me flickered, dimming.

  Lox’s brilliance intensified, the eyeball wincing with a hiss. “Now is the time! We must fight!”

  The sphere flickered out and I took a deep breath, a screaming tentacle speeding toward me as I fell. Its viscous teeth gleamed with a wicked malice.

  With a desperate cry, I thrust the sword into the creature’s mouth, my falling momentum forcing the blade through its flesh. I clung to the grip, legs dangling as a mass of writhing tentacles rose up to meet me.

  “The eye.” Lox launched a bolt of light into a hissing mouth, the creature exploding in a shower of viscera. “I must strike it through!”

  As soon as the tips of my toes brushed the tentacles, they began to squirm, relaxing so I sank deep into the mass. I pulled the sword free with a curse and began to hack and slash at the monster, grinning as it shrieked.

  Talin cried out, the terror in his voice unmistakeable. “Myra!”

  I whipped around, slipping as water seeped in between the tentacles. They slithered over me, cold and heavy like death, and I screamed. Myra kicked and jerked in the air overhead, body twitching. A tentacle mouth had closed over her head, the black tube pulsing.

  The Beholder’s hideous voice filled the cavern. “I will drink you mortals dry! You followed the Light to your deaths!”

  Myra’s body jerked with a sickening snap and fell, headless, into the depths below.

  Tentacles coiled around me, squeezing the air from my lungs. I gripped Talin’s sword with all of my remaining strength as the monster tried to pull it away. Lox’s light faded, the otherworldly thrum intensifying, and I froze, skin crawling with dread.

  “You have no power here, Voidwalker. This realm is mine,” bellowed the Beholder.

  Water lapped against my cheeks, smaller tentacles prodding at my back as I was pulled below.

  “Keep fighting,” called Lox. “I need you to keep wounding it.”

  Talin somersaulted through the air overhead, blade reflecting the light as he sliced through tentacles. The hold on my chest weakened and I sucked a deep breath into my lungs. I yanked on the sword, the creature coiling up my arm.

  Talin landed with the dexterity and grace the gods had granted the elves, slashing the tentacles at his feet in a swift stroke. My blade slipped free and I hacked and cut wildly, screaming. I winced everytime my blade collided with something hard.

  Water gurgled and more tentacles burst from the churning water, screaming mouths and peering eyes moving in the dimness. Talin and I shouted and swore as we fended off tentacles, slipping and sliding as the beast slithered below our feet.

  Lox darted through the air overhead, dodging tentacles as he launched bolts of light at the giant eye. The Beholder deflected the Voidwalker’s spells with its tentacles, the tendrils of flesh exploding, black ooze raining down like a curse.

  Fatigue weighed heavily on me as I lashed out, slicing an eye stalk in half. The eye blinked one final time before closing for good.

  I took a desperate step forward. “We have to get closer!”

  The tentacles parted and my legs sank into the water. Something hard slammed into my back and pushed me forward. More wretched tentacles burst from below, wrapping around my head and neck, pulling me into the fetid depths.

  I pulled Talin’s sword tight against my body as darkness swirled. I struggled against the forces that bound me, chest heaving, lungs desperate for breath. Strange lights danced on my vision. I huddled toward death, ready. At least I could say I’d died fighting as hard as I could.

  Something gently grasped my leg.

  Strength surged into my body, and, by no small feat, my lungs expanded, the breath of life soothing. Tentacles fell away and Lox drifted alongside me.

  He pressed Talin’s other sword into my free hand, his voice loud in my head. “You will be my spear. Be not afraid.”

  Sudden understanding swept over me and I pointed the blades overhead, making my body straight and rigid like the haft of a spear. Lox’s power surged into my limbs and spread to my core, my body thrumming with spell energy. Intense pressure welled up inside my chest and I feared I would burst.

  It was somehow fitting. Maybe even a little poetic. A Zorrian city guard, a “King’s Spear”, was about to be wielded as such.

  “Take heart, child of Light,” bellowed Lox. “Your courage has saved you!”

  I shot forward like a crossbow bolt, my body rigid as I sliced through monstrous flesh. Light blurred my vision and a whirlwind of sound sent me reeling. I added my scream to the cacophony as I was propelled toward the eye. It widened as if it were afraid.

  Tentacles, eyes, and mouths rushed to meet me and I grinned. “Here I come!”

  Beams of light blasted the tentacles out of the sky, the cavern shaking with a violent tremor as the monster screamed. My body tensed as I braced for impact.

  The Beholder’s eye closed as if its thin eyelid would’ve shielded it from the sharp blades. I held my breath, calm.

  Steel sliced through the eye lid without a sound, razor’s edges parting the gelatinous material with ease. A terrible shrieking and wailing set my hair on end as I was forced inside the eye, intense pressure threatening to crush me. I couldn’t even scream.

  I gripped Talin’s swords so hard it hurt, the pain in my hands grounding me as I was forced through that tight oblivion. Light burst before me as I emerged on the other side of the Beholder. Lox and Talin floated in a sphere of light.

  The Voidwalker held up his hands and I slowed, limp. With a wave of his arms, I soared toward them, the sphere opening so I could slip inside.

  An agonizing wail tore through the cavern, the Beholder’s fear and pain somehow tangible. I hovered in the air, panting as I shuddered.

  “You killed me!” Dark liquid and gobs of white gelatinous material gushed from a gaping wound.

  Tentacles fell from the sky, limp as they crashed into the water. With a crack like thunder, a boulder fell from overhead, a shower of rubble raining down on the monster. Lox’s sphere protected us. Rocks bounced away from its surface with a strange thud, but the eye squashed beneath a massive chunk of stone.

  We did not linger to savor our victory. With a wave of Lox’s arms, the sphere sped upward, toward the sun and precious life.

  —Epilogue—

  It took three weeks for the stench of shit to completely dissipate from my body. In the end, I had to shave my head bald.

  Typhr, my new partner, called me “Eggman”. I found it especially frustrating because there was a new girl who worked in the barrack’s laundry room. She sang bawdy drinking songs under her breath while she washed clothes. I wanted to take her out, but I figured I should let my hair grow back first. Girls dug my curls. Hopefully, she thought scars were sexy.

  Lox disappeared as soon as we emerged from a drain at the bottom of a ravine on the west edge of the city, bowing low with a word of thanks. Talin tied a red sash around his waist and I began to retch.

  Poor Myra. And Henrich. They deserved better.

  Talin was kind enough to walk with me to the guard barracks and put in a good word for me with my superiors, explaining how I had been a real help to the Monster Brigade.

  Heinrich’s death kept them from promoting me, but I honestly didn’t mind. Typhr was annoying, but it was easy enough to turn him out as I lost myself in the exhausting work of cleaning up the city of Zorrian. The smell of sewage didn’t even phase me anymore.

  —The End—