Chapter 13
Rusty Bones had to stop in the well room. The stairs had gone up far longer than she remembered and her legs were about to collapse under her. Her lungs strained and she saw bright spots dance before her eyes.
"Hold-" It was barely a gasp, but the others were more than willing to rest for a moment.
Rusty let the Professor slide down from her back and examined his face. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be sleeping peacefully, for now. Would his madness return if he woke up? Could they keep him out cold all the way back to civilization?
"Rope! Give me some rope! We have to tie Curio up. If he wakes up like- like he was, he could be dangerous."
"What about his magic?" Gustaf pointed out.
Rusty lowered her head and closed her eyes for a moment. They were looking to her for answers, but she didn't have any. She searched her memory for everything she knew about unicorns. "Winter Shine? Winter, look at me!"
The mare was still in Gustaf's arms with her hooves around the griffin's neck. Her face was pressed in the mass of feathers on his chest and it didn't look like she intended to let go anytime soon.
"Damn it, Winter, pull yourself together!"
An ear flicked her way, which was an encouraging sign. Gustaf patted the distraught mare on her back and murmured something to her. It worked and she slowly let him go. Of course, as soon as he lowered her to the floor Winter's hing legs folded up beneath her, but at least she remained sitting upright.
"Winter! Can you block the Professor's magic?" Rusty asked.
The poor unicorn looked at her teacher, then back at the adventurer. Her eyes were wide and incredulous and she shook her head.
"Are you sure? Isn't there, I don't know, a spell to keep him safe? Think, mare!"
"I- I- I'm not- ack" Winter began, but something caught in her throat and she coughed. It took her nearly a minute to get back control over her breathing. "Sorry," she gasped, "I don't think I'm strong enough. The- The Professor is much more powerful than me!"
"Try, damn it! We don't have a lot of choices!"
Gustaf raised a claw. He was glaring at the older unicorn as he made his suggestion: "I'll carry him. If he so much as makes a peep, I'll bonk him on the head again. That'll keep him nice and quiet until we're out of here."
It could work, but Rusty didn't like the idea so she shook her head. "Only as a last resort. We don't want to give him brain damage."
"Um," Ember Clover piped up, "are we sure he hasn't got that already? He wasn't exactly acting like himself down there."
"I don't know. It was like- like something took him over."
At those words there was a quiet eep from Winter Shine. They all looked at her and Rusty thought her eyes were even larger, with the pupils the tiniest pinpricks. "They- they're talking!" the mare moaned and lay down. She put her forelegs over her head as if to shut the sound out. "They're calling me!"
"Who is? Who's calling you, Winter?!" Rusty called out to her.
"I don't knoooooow!" it came out as a wail.
Gustaf leaned down and put a claw on her withers. "Hey, it's fine. We'll keep you safe. Nopony will hurt you, okay?"
Unfortunately Winter Shine wasn't quite listening. She shook her head and babbled: "No. They're not ponies! They're- please, make them stop!"
Rusty was about to ask something else, but the question simply vanished from her mind when she realized the air was moving. A gentle wind was ruffling the fur on her muzzle. It was a completely unexpected thing after days of stillness and quiet. She turned her head around, trying to triangulate where the breeze was coming from. It led her to the well in the middle of the room and she cautiously approached.
"Miss Bones, what are you-" Ember began, but she held up a hoof.
"Shush!"
The edge of the well loomed before her and Rusty took a deep breath before daring to look into it. It was just a black hole, but there was definitely a breeze flowing up from it. She carefully sniffed, but the air had no scent. Then her ear caught something. A low rumble, deep below them.
"We have to move," she said. That dark, foreboding shaft filled her with nameless dread and she backed away from it, ears pinned back. "Now!"
"I'll take the Professor," Gustaf said and hurried over to pick the unconscious pony up. He hefted him up on his shoulder, making it look easy as he balanced on his hind legs.
Rusty didn't like that idea, but she also didn't have much choice. "Can you walk like that? I mean, how far..."
The bird grimaced, but a moment later his features settled into stoic determination. "It won't be comfortable, but I'll do it. Let's move."
"We'll take turns to give you a chance to rest. Yell out if he starts waking up."
"Got it."
He started down the corridor where they had come in, a day and a lifetime ago. Rusty was waiting for Winter Shine, who seemed paralyzed with fear and was having trouble getting her legs under her.
Rusty Bones hurried over and put both hooves on Winter's shoulders. "Winter! Look at me. We're leaving. We're out of it. Nothing can touch you all the way here, okay? Ignore what you're seeing or hearing and concentrate on walking. Come on."
Ember took position on the mare's other side and they both nuzzled the stricken unicorn up to her hooves. She took a step, which seemed to give her courage and the next came easier.
"Good, just like that. Come on," Ember said, his voice full of encouragement. "I'll take the light!"
They picked up speed and stumbled after Gustaf. Just before they left the room Rusty glanced back and her breath hitched. A mass of black, oily smoke was rising from the well. She hastened her steps and a moment later Ember and Winter matched her. They didn't look back, which was just as well. If Winter Shine saw what was behind she might find herself unable to walk again out of sheer terror. What in Tartarus was that thing?! Where had it come from? What had it done to the Professor? Rusty glanced at the unicorn mare next to her and bit her lower lip. Was it trying to do the same to Winter as well? If it did, could they fight and subdue two unicorns? Could they carry them out, even if they managed to knock both of them unconscious?
They came to an intersection where Gustaf was waiting for them. He was looking back, but turned and continued when he saw them. There was a short flight of stairs and Rusty began to breathe a little more easily. They were out of the temple. Perhaps whatever evil was after them couldn't leave it, or else they would have encountered it sooner.
She forced herself to slow down and called out to Gustaf. "Slow! Conserve our strength."
In her mind's eye she sped through the miles and miles of corridors, shafts, stairways and intersections. They were such a long way down. They'd have to stop and rest eventually, sleep if they could. Even at the fastest pace they could maintain for long periods they would need more than a day to reach the housing section. A few more hours to the bazaar from that. It was perhaps another day of walking to get to the grand hall from the bazaar, and then...
She thought longingly about that little guard office right up at the entrance. That quaint trap door in the corridor. It felt like it had happened a lifetime ago, to entirely different ponies.
Maybe, in a way, it had.
Gustaf settled down into a steady, two-legged trot, one which the tough old bird looked like he could keep up for hours and hours. The other three ponies fell in step with the griffin, determined to put as much distance between themselves and the temple as they could before stopping to rest. At least they weren't carrying as much water, and they would have even less as they went on.
A couple of hours passed in silence, only broken by heavy breathing and an occasional whimper from Winter Shine. Gustaf was the first to begin flagging, a result of his unnatural, upright gait and carrying the unconscious unicorn. Winter Shine didn't look much better and Rusty herself was beginning to feel her own lungs strain at the air.
"Okay-" she gasped out, "okay. Rest. Stop."
They came to a halt and gratefully sat on their haunches. Gustaf lowered Curio down to the floor, then reached for his flask of spirits. Rusty would have liked some too, but the griffin drained the last of it and let the metal container fall to the ground. It was just extra weight.
"You okay?" she asked him.
He gave a nod, all the while fighting to get his breathing under control. "Will be. Hard to run like that and the Professor isn't the lightest of ponies. I'll be fine."
She kept her eye on the griffin, but ultimately decided to believe him. He was a warrior, he knew lying about his condition wouldn't help anypony and would only cause more problems.
"You two? Oh, Winter, I need you to block the Professor's magic."
"I don't think I-"
"Try," Rusty insisted.
The mare gulped and cast wide, fearful eyes at her teacher. She took a tentative step closer to his prone form and lowered her head. Her horn began to glow and the magic extended from her to the stallion.
Rusty wasn't sure what exactly she was expecting, but nothing much was happening. The two ponies were connected by that unearthly glow for a while, then Winter sagged. "I can't. I'm sorry, I just can't. He's too powerful!"
It was bad news and Rusty Bones tried hard not to think about brain damage. They'd do what they had to and she'd prefer to get the unicorn out alive, even if he was the worse for wear. "Anything else we could do? Is there, like a potion or something? No, even if there is, why would you have it with you..."
"What about the wire trick?" Ember Clover suggested.
"The what?"
Winter Shine stared at him. "How do you- um, no. That's like a trick bullies in dorms play on unicorns."
"What's the wire trick?" Rusty demanded.
Ember Clover explained, but he didn't sound too certain about the facts: "It's like, when students want to prank a unicorn in the dorms, they wrap a copper wire around their horn while they sleep. I think it messes with their magic somehow."
Rusty transferred her gaze to Winter Shine wordlessly and the mare lowered her ears. "It's true," she confirmed. "If you try and do magic with metal wire around your horn it- well, it's not pleasant."
"Not pleasant how?"
"Blinding headache," Winter Shine explained. "The spell fizzles and- um, it hurts."
"Does it have to be copper?" Rusty asked.
"Any kind of metal," the unicorn mare said.
Ember Clover sighed. "Which we don't have."
Rusty almost groaned in despair when Gustaf reached into his pack and pulled out something glittering. "Here, but I'm gonna want this back."
"What is it?"
He held it aloft, a thin, sparkling chain. It looked silver and there was a tiny, clear gemstone attached in the middle. Diamond, perhaps, if Rusty had to guess. She opened her mouth to ask the griffin why he had such a thing, then changed her mind. He might have taken it from the ruins, but she didn't think so. Gustaf wasn't a thief. Probably something with sentimental value, then.
"You'll get it back, I promise."
Gustaf held the prize out to Winter Shine, who shook her head, aghast. "I'm- I don't wanna do it! You don't touch another unicorn's horn!"
With a sigh Gustaf bent over the unconscious Professor himself. "Fine, I'll do it. I just wrap it around his horn?"
"Yeah, and maybe tie it around his head so it doesn't fall off," Ember Clover suggested. At least the stallion wasn't as squeamish as his classmate and went over to help.
Rusty Bones took one of her last few bags of water and emptied it. She dropped the plastic on the floor, glad that it meant a tiny bit less weight for her to carry. She was looking in her saddlebags to gauge the state of her provisions when Ember Clover yelled, followed shortly by a screech from Gustaf.
Metal clanged against the stone wall and Winter Shine jumped back in fright. Curio was awake! His magical aura held Gustaf's sword and Rusty saw, to her horror, that it was dripping with blood!
"No no no no, buck no!" she stammered and rushed forward.
There was no time for finesse. They couldn't fight a mad, possessed unicorn. Gustaf was wrestling with the weapon and Ember held the Professor's limbs down, both had their hooves, or claws, full. Curio himself had a grotesque snarl on his muzzle and he struggled with both of his assailants. His eyes were still completely dark.
Just as Rusty Bones reached the melee, Curio went limp and the magic vanished. He closed his eyes and turned away. "Please!" he begged. "Get it out! Stop it!" He cursed in an unrecognizable language, then shifted back: "I'm sorry! I didn't- gah!"
His horn began to glow again.
"Winter! Do something!" Rusty yelled, but the mare was curled up and crying, lost to her immediate surroundings.
There was no way to tell what spell Curio was preparing and Rusty didn't dare risk it. A unicorn could be extremely deadly if they wanted to be. She lifted her hoof and, with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, brought it sharply against the Professor's temple. She felt, more than heard, a dull thwack and Curio yelled out in pain. She smacked him again and his head bounced against the floor. His eyes lost some of the darkness and she could see hints of white at the edges. The magic winked out.
"Quick! Gustaf, the chain!"
The griffin didn't have to be told twice. He gave the sword to her and she immediately understood. He didn't want the Professor to snatch it again. Rusty couldn't really hold a sword, but she dropped it on the ground and stood on it. That was the best she could come up with on short notice. In the meantime Gustaf was frantically winding the silver chain around Curio's horn. When he was done, he reached into his pack and took out a fine, but sturdy spool of string. He nipped off several lengths with a precision only a sharp griffin beak could offer, then tied the ends of the chain under the Professor's chin and around the back of his head.
It was done in no more than a minute and just in time, because Curio was already coming to his senses. His muzzle twisted into an expression of rage and he tried to use his magic against them again. There was a flash and a sort of a 'sizzling sputter', or at least that was how Rusty remembered the effect. It winked out almost as quickly as it came on and the Professor cried out in pain.
"What have you done to me?!" he demanded.
He began to struggle again, but between Ember Clover and Gustaf they quickly subdued him and tied his hooves together. Curio couldn't fight them off, but he screamed profanities at them until Gustaf shoved his handkerchief in the stallion's mouth and tied it there with more string.
They all sat down, panting and bewildered. Rusty Bones realized she was dripping with sweat and her leg was going numb from pressing down against the sword so hard. She picked the weapon up gingerly and gave it back to the griffin.
Only then did she remember the blood. "Buck! Who's hurt? There's blood!"
Gustaf grimaced and reached behind him. "He got my wing! The bastard was pretending he was still unconscious and grabbed my sword with his magic."
"Let me see!"
Rusty was not a doctor, but she had some experience with first aid. It was pretty much a requirement for her line of work and she had learned the skill while hoping she would never have to use it. Gustaf looked like he was about to argue, but blood was dripping from his feathers and Rusty's expression brokered no disagreement. He sighed and turned around so she could examine him. The cut was not deep, but it was bleeding profusely. Rusty fetched her tiny first aid kit from her bag and pressed clean gauze against it. She was being as gentle as she could, but a wound like that was undoubtedly painful. Despite that, Gustaf never even flinched.
"You won't fly with that," Ember Clover commented.
"I know."
"How bad is it, Miss Bones?" the pegasus addressed his question to Rusty.
"It's not deep, but it's a long gash. I'll bind it up, we have to get the bleeding stopped. I think it's gonna be fine, but we should hurry and get you to a real doctor."
"Sounds like a plan," Gustaf agreed.
They looked at Curio, who was glaring at them balefully.
"What do you think got into him?" Ember Clover asked, now that they had a moment of peace.
"I honestly don't know. Maybe it's the same thing that got into those cultists all those years ago? He was going to cut me open on that altar." A new whimper from Winter Shine reminded them of the mare. Rusty nearly groaned at how useless the young unicorn was, but kept her emotion in check. Winter hadn't signed up for any of this. She had come to explore an ancient ruin, nothing more. She wasn't a hardened adventurer. "Ember, can you- you know?" she murmured and jerked her head at the mare.
"Sure." he answered and walked over. "Hey, it's okay now. We tied him up, it's safe. Come on, we have to keep going."
After that his words devolved into soft murmurs and Rusty had a few minutes to speak with Gustaf in relative privacy. "You okay to go on? I'll take Curio, if somepony walks beside me and keeps him steady. We'll take turns. Buck me, but it's uphill most of the way, too."
"We could solve this problem, and the issue of our supplies. I saw you counting," Gustaf said. His claw went to the bandage on his wing and he looked angrily at the Professor.
It took Rusty a moment to realize what Gustaf was suggesting, but then she shook her head in a firm no. "We're not leaving him behind, nor killing him, Gustaf. He's one of us, even if he is possessed or something right now."
The griffin's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Are you sure he hasn't been working for them the whole time? He kept insisting we have to come down here and he seemed to know the way pretty well."
"We had a map. For the record, I agreed we should explore this far down, so it's my fault too."
"Yes, but-"
"No, and that's final!" Rusty said irritably and the other two ponies looked at the sudden noise. She lowered her voice. "I mean it. Only if there's no other way and right now he seems quiet. We got it under control and we're taking him out! Somepony can help him back home."
Gustaf sighed and lowered his head for a moment. "Okay, I just hope he doesn't have any more tricks up his mane."
"I'll take him for the next part, then Ember. Then Winter, if she's better by then."
For an instant it looked as if Gustaf would object, but he hung his head and recognized the logic in her decision: "Agreed."
"Let's rest a few more minutes. I'll watch behind us, you three eat something."