by Bill Albert
“Thank you for coming, Gallif,” he smiled and pulled the door open. “You can bring your horse in here to avoid attracting attention.”
“Her name is Snow,” Gallif pointed out sharply and Tome nodded his understanding.
Gallif looked inside and found that half of the interior of the building was being used as a horse stall. There were several other horses tied to posts with a water trough and hay within reach of each. She was impressed. As she got to the door Snow stalled briefly and snorted at her. She looked back surprised and finally managed to coax her companion inside.
There was a wall that cut the building in half and a small door in the center.
“We’re going to try something here I want you to see,” Tome said. “But prepare yourself first.”
She nodded as Tome opened the door and she followed him inside. Once inside she came to an immediate stop and felt her stomach turn.
The second half of the building was also one room. One quarter of it was taken up by a large cage. The bars were nearly an inch in diameter with only a three-inch gap between them. There was one door with a heavy lock on the near side and inside the cage was an aquilus.
“That must have been what Snow smelled before entering,” Gallif said with a whisper.
The aquilus looked at them for a second, and then threw itself against the bars in an effort to attack them. Even though she was well out of reach Gallif took a step back from the thrashing hands. As she moved, she drew her short sword and took a fighting stance. Tome put a handout and stood in front of her.
“Wait!” he cried. “Don’t kill it!”
“Why? What the hell are you doing with this beast?” Gallif demanded.
“We need it,” he said defensively. “We have to figure out who it’s working for.”
“Working for?” she asked with disgust. “Those things don’t work for anyone; they just eat, steal, and kill. That’s what they are.”
“No, Gallif, listen,” Tome insisted. “There were three caught after the attack on the judge. Seven of the pack was seen all together but the rest were killed in combat.”
Gallif gasped as she realized what he had said. “Aquilus attacked the giant? I thought all the attacks were by orcs?”
“The attack you thwarted and the one near the river were orc attacks. We found that the arrows used in the third attack were elven arrows. This one was found here in Atrexia last night.”
Gallif brushed back her hair and turned away from the cage. “You’re saying it was an organized aquilus attack on the giants?”
“Yes,” he said, standing behind her. “It wasn’t just a random raiding mob, like usual. It was a well planned and executed assassination.” He paused before saying, “There’s something else you need to see. Take a look at it.”
Gallif took a deep breath and turned to face the monster in the cage. It was still pressed against the bars with its eyes wide and snapping its jaws at them. It spit several times and grunted something at them. Even though it didn’t speak she could feel the hatred and evil it spewed at her.
She took a half step forward and looked at the aquilus closer. It had the pointed ears and jagged teeth of the aquilus but there was something different about this one. The skin was lighter, not as wrinkled and leathery as others. The body was also heavier and stockier than any elf she had ever seen before.
She looked it up and down several times and then asked, “It’s not a pure aquilus?”
“No, it’s some sort of halfling. I think there’s a dwarf mix somewhere in the path.”
Gallif’s grip on the sword tightened as she examined the monster yet again. The aquilus were so evil and hated everything not of their race. Even the possibility of a halfling was hard to comprehend. In all the centuries since the Dragon War many myths and legends of elf tribes had become widely known. Not once were rape gangs ever mentioned or even thought of. It was too frightening and sickening to imagine.
“What are you going to do with it?” she asked without looking away.
“We need to try and find out who it’s working for. That’s what she is here for.”
Gallif had been so caught up in the shock of the creature in the cage she hadn’t realized there were other people in the room with them. There were two men wearing the same style of blue clothes that Tome wore. She suspected it gave them the ability to be recognized by each other without being noticed by anyone else. Standing next to them was an old woman dressed in a flowing orange and green gown. She had white hair and a weathered face, but there was an essence of youth about her. She nodded to Gallif and came forward. Gallif slowly let the point of her sword drop.
“I am Kadame,” she said in an accent that Gallif did not recognize.
“Gallif,” she introduced herself and shook the woman’s hand.
“Kadame is going to read the memories of the aquilus to try and get more information on what’s going on.”
“How will you protect yourself?” Gallif asked.
“The creature will be heavily sedated first,” Kadame said. “That should allow me to get at least some coherent images of what it’s seen.”
As she spoke, Kadame gently caressed Gallif’s arm in circular motions. Gallif found it pleasing and relaxing and allowed her to continue.
“How many times have you done this before?”
“Many.”
“How many times has it worked?”
“Few. It depends on the individual creature’s own strengths and talents.” Kadame took Gallif by the hand and led her to a rickety wooden chair. Gallif sat down and Kadame’s fingers touched Gallif’s cheek. “Observe,” she said and turned to walk to the cage.
Tome and the two men went to the cage door. The aquilus jumped against the bars, grunting and snarling at them. Its hands clawed out to scratch them, but they were out of reach. Tome took a step closer and the aquilus lashed out at him. With quick reflexes Tome grabbed it by its wrists and held tight. He used his feet to push against the bar, so the elf was pulled forward, its face in a gap, not able to retreat.
The two men quickly opened the cage and went in. One man grabbed the aquilus by the head and pulled it back forcing the mouth to open. The second held a bottle and started to force the dark purple liquid down its throat. It tried to spit the potion at Tome, but he easily ducked out of the way. The second man inserted the lip of the bottle into the elf’s mouth and tipped the container up. It was forced to drink and soon stopped struggling.
The two men took leather straps and tied its hands and legs together. They took a second bottle of pure white potion and poured it into the throat. It spit out just a bit, not completely docile, but swallowed most.
Kadame went into the cage and instructed them to move the limp body of the prisoner. After placing it on the bed the men stood back and she sat on the edge. From under her gown Kadame produced a jade crystal charm and let it swing like a pendulum above the prisoner’s head.
There was complete silence for several minutes. No one spoke or moved and even the aquilus seemed to have lost all of its desire to fight. Kadame stood and walked out of the cage and the three men followed.
Kadame started pacing the room. The crystal was clasped tightly in her hands and, though her eyes were closed, she walked freely.
Gallif looked at Tome who motioned for her to stay quiet. As the woman walked in an apparent trance Gallif stood and went to the cage. Once at the bars she looked down and was surprised to see that its eyes were still open. It was glancing around the room as if things were out of focus and was looking for something. Suddenly the eyes snapped in her direction and came in to contact with her own. She was so surprised she nearly jumped with the sudden rush of emotion she felt. Despite its relaxed demeanor she could feel how much it hated her and knew it would do anything it could to destroy her. She felt its complete hatred focusing on her.
Suddenly Tome’s hand was on her wrist and she was jolted back to the present. The aquilus lay before her and her sword was above its throat.
She wasn’t even aware she had been doing it and had it not been for Tome’s intervention she would have beheaded the monster.
Tome put an arm around her, slowly walked her away from the cage, and sat her down in the chair before closing and locking the cage door.
“There was dark water and many elven deaths,” Kadame said. Even though she spoke suddenly, her voice was so calm it wasn’t a shock to the listeners. “It stayed there in the dark for days waiting, eating rats and waiting,” she said.
“Recently it was joined by others and then yesterday they were given scrolls to deliver.”
“Do you know,” Tome started to ask but stopped himself. “Does it know who it was to deliver the scrolls to?”
“No,” she said. “It is just a follower. But it did see who the scrolls came from,” she assured them. “The aquilus are working for giants.”
“A giant,” one of the men whispered.
Tome put a hand to his forehead and leaned against a wall. “Giants plotting to kill giants?”
“Not just that,” Gallif pointed out. “Giant’s plotting to kill Giant Lords.”
“You have a choice, Gallif,” Tome said without looking at her.
“I know,” she said and stood. “If I read the description she gave correctly, there is only one obvious place to start.”
Tome told one of the men to escort Kadame on her horse back to her residence and stay there until she was safe. He ordered the other to stay with the prisoner and if it attacked or escaped to deal with it appropriately. Not long after that he was on his brown and black horse and Gallif was on Snow heading towards Gold Town.
***
Over the years, by a natural grouping of races, Atrexia had been divided up into several districts called towns. Gold Town and Silver Town were the most expensive, and well known, and attracted the most tourists and high-end businesses. Mostly dwarves lived in these towns and many multiracial neighborhoods. Blue Town was where most of the people who did the actual work in the great city lived. An over whelming majority of its inhabitants were humans. Red Town was the smallest and quietest of the city where most of the hobgoblins and goblins lived. Brown Town was the melting pot for everything else. There was an active sex and, sometimes legal, gambling trade going on here. People of all races came here if they were lost or wanted to get lost. Despite their differences above ground there was one important thing they all had in common below ground. They all had extensive sewer systems. Gold Town had, like everything else; the most advanced and maintained sewer system in the Land of Starpoint. It was sturdy, complex, and as clean as possible. It was big enough to keep the things the wealthy people who lived there but didn’t want to see out of sight. Big enough to keep things moving. Big enough to hide a giant.
They reached the entrance to the main sewer by mid-afternoon as gray rain clouds started to fill the sky. Even though they still had several hours of daylight in which to work, they prepared torches. Gallif took a cloth from one of the saddle bags and wrapped it around her mouth and nose. Tome did the same with a dark strip of an old shirt he found in a discarded pile of trash. Leaving the horses outside the stable of a nearby inn they started to work their way in to the system with swords in hand.
They traveled only a few hundred feet before the tunnel split into five different branches at various angles. There was a groove in each of the tunnels where water would normally flow. Unfortunately, the weather had kept them dry for several days, so what little water that remained, was stagnant and colored.
“If you were a giant, where would you hide?” Tome asked. Even with the cloth she could tell there was a smirk on his face as he spoke.
“If I were a giant I’d hide someplace far away from here,” she replied and winked at him. “You know more about this city than I do. What exactly is above each of these tunnels?”
“The northern one will be under the museums and galleries; the next two would be under the hotels. The fourth will be under the entertainment areas and the fifth would be for the attendants, domestics, servants, etc. There is a junction several blocks down where they all come together by the underground river.”
“What would be used the least?” she asked.
“I’ve heard through the grapevine that the museums and galleries haven’t been getting the crowds this year and would only get used during certain hours of the day.”
She nodded and they carefully started down the northern most tunnel.
After traveling a block, the water got deeper and they encountered more piles of sewage. There were also more rats and other disgusting forms that moved in the shadows and made strange echoes. Before they traversed the second block both torches were burning to make it easier for them to see and to ward off curious three, four, six, or eight footed inhabitants who might take an interest in them.
Another block’s worth of walking and they could see a light source ahead of them. Tome explained that the main junction had several casting wards and a natural gem that gave out light to help the maintenance men who had to work in the area. They patted out their torches on the concrete floor before entering the main junction. Tome had a waterproof skin with him and wrapped it around the torches to keep them safe. Then he looped it to his belt.
The main junction was almost half as large as the arena that the contest had been in a few days before. It was circular and the roof was domed to a height of two stories. The middle of the junction was cut in half by a slow-moving underground river with square cobblestone banks on each side. Several troughs made by men and dwarves took fresh water from the northern entrance of the river and led to various pools. Other troughs brought some of the dirty water and waste from the tunnels and dumped into the river at the southern exit. There were several wooden bridges in the junction so that one could easily cross from one end to the other without having to step in the water or waste. There were also several cobblestone pools that had been added at various heights to give the junction an uneven surface. There were lots of places to hide.
Gallif scanned the floor and found several runes engraved into the slabs that she recognized as dwarven in origin. She had to admit she was impressed at just how well the system worked and admired the design.
Without a word they entered the junction. They were both moving constantly and quietly as they started to work their way across. They had just reached the opposite side when there was a loud rumble that echoed through the chamber. They froze in place and listened. A few seconds later the sound was clearly heard again.
“That’s not natural,” Gallif said.
“No,” Tome agreed. “But where was it from?”
The sound came a third time and Gallif leaned over and listened up and down the underground river before it finished.
“There,” she pointed upstream. “It’s coming from that direction.”
“A giant’s lair?”
“Probably. Also makes more sense that it would be sitting upstream to get fresh water.”
They moved toward the upstream mouth of the river. Tome made sure his feet were on sturdy ground and took Gallif’s right hand. With her feet on the edge of the bank, and her short sword in her left hand, she used him as a brace and leaned out as far as she could go to look up the river but saw nothing. She listened for any signs of life but heard nothing unusual. She looked up to speak with Tome when she saw four orcs quickly coming towards them from one of the tunnels.
“There!” she shouted.
Tome glanced at the approaching enemy, then quickly back at Gallif. She nodded and he pulled her back up. She used the upward momentum to catapult herself on to the edge of one of the cobblestone pools. Tome swung his weapon, a long sword, up and ready as they moved to take their attackers on.
Now that they had been spotted the four orcs split up. Three of them went after Tome and one jumped up on the edge with Gallif. She was rather offended that they didn’t consider her as much of a threat as Tome and decide to use that to her advantage. She took a few steps back to bring the or
c closer to the edge to fight her.
Not far away the orc started swinging its axe. Gallif dodged a few swipes and then went on the offensive with both hands on the short sword for maximum effect. She drove it hard at the orc’s armored chest hitting the metal plate. The orc moved to parry a left-hand attack, but she circled to the right and caught the orc in the side. It howled and barked at her with spit dripping from its fangs.
She glanced over and saw that Tome had already seriously damaged an attacker. She jumped across one of the pools to make the orc’s attack more strenuous. She readied herself as it came around the edge of the pool howling. She swung with all her strength knowing it was out of reach. As she hoped the orc misjudged the distance and tried to escape the blade. It stumbled forward briefly and with a sharp back swing she cut deep into its leg and it howled in pain.
It leapt forward and nearly slammed into her. She blocked its axe and, for a brief moment, they each tried to push the other over the edge and into the pool. The orc snapped its jaws close to her and its fangs scraped against her bare shoulder. The pain stung sharply, and she shifted her weight to push the orc away from her. Again, it stumbled, and she advanced on it, swinging as fast as she could.
In a few seconds they moved away from the pool. She saw the orc balance itself as it prepared for a striking blow with the axe. She paused briefly, giving it a chance, and then ducked as the blade passed less than an inch over her head. She cut back and nearly embedded it into the wooden handle of the axe. She slid the blade up along the handle and planted it hard between its fingers. As the searing pain hit it, she pulled back and stabbed at its bare abdomen and continued low and deep into the body. Before it dropped lifeless to the ground, she pulled her sword clear and was on her way to join Tome.
As she came around one of the raised pools, she saw that Tome had also killed one of his opponents and wounded another. The two remaining orcs had taken up positions on opposite sides and were circling him. She ran hard and barreled into one of the orcs from behind. It dropped the axe in surprise as they rolled together and she landed on top of it. The struggled briefly for control of the sword when Tome’s own weapon ended the orc’s life with a quick slash.
