Indra shook her head.
"We could pull the boat aside and try to make on land,” Elden said.
She shook her head.
“The land is worse,” she said. “Do you see the soil?”
Thor turned with the others and looked out at the shore.
“It is not soil,” she added. “It is a hundred million worms. Flesh-eating worms. The second you step foot on it, your foot will be no more.”
Thor examined the dark soil closely—and as he did, he could see that it was indeed moving, ever so slightly. He gulped, with a new respect for this place.
"Our map says we must take the river through the cave," Dross insisted.
Indra let out a short, mocking laugh.
"Your maps says many things. But does it tell us how to stay alive?”
The tide became stronger, and soon their decision was made for them, as it sucked them right into the cave, all of them ducking their heads so as not to hit the low, stone arched entranceway. Thor’s stomach dropped in dread. What was this place?
As they entered the cave, it was like entering a whole different world. At first, it was pitch black in here, the ceiling low to their heads, dead silent save for the sound of drops of water echoing, reverberating off the walls. Thor could hear his brothers breathing hard, the sound amplified, echoing, and he could sense the fear in all of them. He felt it himself. He braced himself in the blackness, expecting to be attacked any minute.
After a minute, the cave opened up, the ceiling above their head rising dozens of feet, the tide continuing to pull them slowly through. It was noisier in here, every drop of water reverberating off the high walls—and there also came another noise: a cacophony of insects and small animals. There was the fluttering of wings, strange cooing noises which Thor wished he had never heard. There came the low and high-pitched groans and moans of all sorts of odd insects, each sound more ominous than the next. It was as if they had entered a cave of horrors. And not being able to see anything just made it all worse.
Beside Thor, Krohn snarled, his hair on end. Thor turned side to side, as did the others, trying to peer into the blackness and see if he could decipher anything.
As the water carried them deeper inside, the cave walls began to take on a soft glow, to light up just a bit; Thor looked closely, wondering where the lights were coming from, and all along the walls he spotted thousands of insects, clinging to the stone, hissing at them, their glowing green eyes opening as they passed them and casting off a light. Thor realized, with dread, that they were waking them. It was like a thousand small candles in the blackness, but at least it afforded them a light to see by.
"What are they?" Elden asked Indra, on guard, afraid they might attack.
"Cavesuckers," Indra said. "They carry the sting of a hundred bees. You need not worry: they stick to the walls. Unless you provoke them.”
"How do you know if you’ve provoked them?" O'Connor asked.
"Their eyes will glow,” she answered.
Thor gulped.
“As they are doing now?” he asked.
She nodded back.
The hissing continued, and the cavesuckers crawled along the walls, some of them arching their small heads towards the boat.
With the cave aglow, Thor could dimly make out its proportions: it was cavernous, its arched ceiling soaring dozens of feet, and they were riding down the center of a narrow river. Huge stalagmites and stalactites hung from every direction.
There came a low, soft snarling noise from somewhere in the depths of the cave, and Thor turned with the others—but saw nothing.
"I don't like the feel of this," Reece said, tightening his hand on his sword hilt.
"Nor do I," Conval said. He drew his sword, and the metallic ring echoed loudly in the cave, again and again, as if a dozen swords had been drawn.
"You shouldn't have done that," Indra scolded him. "Now you will provoke them.”
"Provoke who?" Conval asked.
There began to appear from the depths of the blackness, walking towards them, dozens of shadows. They resembled human skeletons, all bones, no flesh, but their bones were black, and their eyes glowed white. They each carried a long, white sword, glistening, reflecting off the water’s light. Thor could see that each sword was made of bone. It looked like human bone.
"The army of the undead," Indra answered, fear in her voice.
Thor turned slowly and saw that from every corner of the cave there emerged hundreds of these things, these undead skeletons wielding swords of bones, all heading right for them.
“Undead?” Elden asked. “Can they not be killed?”
"No,” Indra replied. “They are already dead. The only ones left to be killed are us."
There came a great clatter of bones, and suddenly the undead raced towards them, raising their swords.
“Well, if we’re going to die,” Thor said, “it’s going to be on dry ground, and with our swords held high. ATTACK!” Thor commanded.
As one, the nine Legion members jumped from the boat, onto the dry ground of the shore, Krohn leaping out with them. They all drew their swords and bravely charged the undead.
There came a great clash of weapons as sword met sword, the sounds amplified, echoing off of everything inside the cave. The Legion had trained for this, had trained to be outnumbered, had trained to be pitted against fierce warriors—and while these shadow skeletons were fierce, they were still conventional warriors, and no match for the expertise of the Legion.
Thor and the others went blow for blow with the skeletons, and as Thor’s sword met one of theirs, he was happily surprised to see that his steel shattered the bone sword; he then swung around and slashed the skeleton before him, and as he did, all of its bones broke and crumpled into a heap on the ground.
Thor wheeled in every direction, blocking blows, parrying, shattering swords and slashing skeleton after skeleton, leaving heaps of bones at his feet.
All around him, his Legion brothers were doing the same, deftly defeating the warriors before them.
Krohn joined in, leaping into the fray, snarling, pouncing on one skeleton after the next, knocking them down to the ground, and leaving them in piles.
After nearly an hour fighting, the shores were lined with heaps of bones. Though Thor and his Legion brothers were bruised and scratched and breathing hard, exhausted, none were seriously injured.
They all looked at each other, regrouping, out of breath. For their first time since being in the Empire, Thor was hopeful, even optimistic. They had taken some of the worst the Empire could throw at them, and they had survived.