Chapter 2

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The descent was more glide than free-fall. Hot winds rising from the Midden floor buffeted them as if they were sky-diving their way to hell. By keeping their arms outstretched and their bodies level, the air currents buoyed them above the Midden while simultaneously pushing them further downwards.  

Luci gazed in horror as they glided towards the bottom. Details became clearer the closer they came, including the shapes of the Grumption guards now watching them with predatory glee. Grumptions. Nasty workhorse do-badders who existed to obey orders and inflict pain where possible, these Grumps appeared to be the guards overseeing the prisoners. Oh, the prisoners! There must be thousands of them, some standing still as stone, others chained and slinging axes. Were those the only options, stuck in a deep-freeze or slogging one's guts out? She absolutely definitely, did not want to spent time either way. She had to stop falling!  

Panicking, she jerked her arms upwards as if trying to fly but that was impossible. Try flapping your arms with a guy attached to one limb. "Geoffrey, let go!" she cried. 

"Fear not, fare Lady, for I will never release ye!" 

"But you have to! We can't hit bottom!" 

And then the shabby knight unsheathed his sword and pointed it to a wall, a far, far, away wall, and, in a sizzle and a jolt they were suddenly jettisoned horizontally in the direction the sword pointed. Luci saw the wall coming, imagined herself splatted against it like a giant bug, until suddenly, unaccountably, she was hurled into a corridor instead where she rolled over several times before landing in a winded heap. 

Geoffrey hefted her to standing at which point her legs wobbled and she crumpled to sitting. "What happened?" she gasped, looking up at him. "What did you do?" 

Geoffrey stood looking shaken. "Forsooth, I know not. I thought we must not fall. 'Sword point the way', said I, and it did." 

She gazed up at him shaking her head. "Just like that and you think that's normal?" 

"The sword must bear great power, not me." He swung around, retrieved the sword from the ground, twirled it in scrutiny before quickly sheathing it. "What miracle is this?" he said, "For it seems I have mastered a magic sword." 

Luci rubbed her eyes, suddenly exhausted. "It's an ordinary sword but you are not an ordinary guy. Nobody comes to the Midden unless they are power-bearers, like I said. Objects do not have power, creatures do." 

"Me?" 

"You steered that sword with your mind. Anyway, enough. " She reached out her hand and he helped her to standing. "We must find out where this corridor leads. The fact that it leads away from the Midden is good enough for me."  

On the other hand, nothing but a maw of darkness lay ahead. At least she knew rudimentary lighting spells. She was just sending light to her fingers when a horrible ruckus began clammering behind them, Midden-ward. 

"I fear they sound the alarm." 

And then they saw something heaving itself up into the tunnel from the Midden. A Grumption. Many Grumptions. 

"Run!" 

They barreled down the dark corridor with Luci's fingers held high to light the way but they could tell by the snickering, slobbering, sounds at their heels that the creatures were gaining fast.  

Suddenly with no notice, they banged straight into a wall, first Luci and then Geoff, thudding into her back. 

"Where'd that come from?" Luci cried, looking up at the stone bastion.  

The Grumptions gave out a great collective snicker of glee and lunged at them. Luci felt talons clawing her legs, smelled the foul stench of unwashed Grumps or worse, and kicked and clawed as the creatures tugged her legs and soon toppled onto her face. She had time only to look over her shoulder to see Geoff struggling to unsheathe his sword with a Grump attached to his arm when white light flooded the corridor. The Grumps literally froze to the spot as if the light turned them to clay. Luci gaped at the lumpy mass of congealing brown goo that had one been an army of grumps. Slowly, she turned her head and squinted into the light.

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