by Allan Joyal
Shaylin just smiled. "I'll be fine. I have a family again."
Shaylin ran forward, joining with Gertrilla and Corwar by the sled. Mertiln just snorted before stepping away from the circle of light and looking back at the rear of the caravan. He stood as a silent sentinel as we continued forward through the tunnels.
Chapter 21: A Cry in the Dark
For the next two days, we continued our march through the tunnels. The beetles pulling all of the carts were tireless and the dwarves seemed to be paranoid about slowing down. Lunch would be served by a couple of the dwarves who would walk up to us and offer small bags. The bags would have some hard biscuits, cheese and usually some dried meat and mushrooms. Esme worked to make sure we supplemented this with some dried fruits from our own stores. Breakfast and dinner proved to be filling as the dwarves would cook up large pots of hearty stew.
The pace of the march definitely drove our appetites. Every one of my friends was ravenously hungry by the time dinner was served each night. It was worse for Natalie and the kids. None of them had the stamina to complete a full day's march. Steve, Al, Henck and I carried the children on our backs. Natalie tried to walk with the help of Kariy and Esme, but finally ended up standing on the runners of the second sled. The wood creaked alarmingly, but held up and allowed her to lean against the frame of the sled and relax as the beetle continued forward.
The morning of the third day, Natalie, Aine and Jennifer all had to be helped to stand. The brutal pace worried me and I sought out Mertiln as we finished off our breakfast.
"I hate to ask…," I began.
"We'll slow down a bit starting today," Mertiln said. "There is an encampment near our outpost."
"Inhabited by those who might attack this caravan to steal its goods," I continued.
Mertiln nodded. "It's a motley assortment of races, mostly exiled because they liked fighting too much. But they don't range far from their encampment."
"So does that mean we won't be racing through the tunnels today?" Heather asked hopefully.
"We still have to keep moving," Mertiln said. "The tunnels echo with the sound of our passage, and there are always desperate creatures down here. Some will attack the caravan if we linger too long in one place."
"I'm surprised they don't haunt the campsites you have set up," I said.
"It has happened," Mertiln said angrily. "I have several dwarves who scout the sites before we arrive, to make sure that they are safe."
"We thank you for that," I said sincerely.
"And we definitely thank you for slowing down," Heather said fervently.
"How bad is everyone?" I asked.
"Not all that bad," Heather reported. "Natalie is the worst of course, but Aine and Jennifer are both struggling with the pace. You know about the kids since you've helped carry them every afternoon."
"What about Victoria and Verval?" I asked.
"Oh, he's happy," Victoria said as she came over to collect empty bowls. "I make sure of that most nights and if I don't, Jennifer does."
"Most? He's been with us barely a week." I replied.
Victoria giggled. "Well, I used him a couple times."
I shook my head. "I thought the two of you were going to work on helping him adjust first."
"We did," Victoria said. "He's actually beginning to realize that if he treats us with respect, we'll make sure he's happy."
"So you think he'll work out?" I asked.
Victoria nodded. "He's actually rather sweet. I think if he could, he'd ask Jennifer to marry him, but he's trying to figure out who he'd pay the dowry to."
Mertiln looked confused. "I thought you were all together."
"We are," I said. "But Verval and his younger brother joined us in a village just three days before you admitted us into the tunnels. Verval had some problems adjusting to how independent the women in our group can be."
Mertiln shrugged. He seemed about to say more when we heard a loud groan. Everyone looked around trying to figure out where the sound came from.
The path we had been following was now traveling through a large chamber. The path itself was only about twelve feet wide, but beyond the curbing of the path a forest of uneven stone and stalagmites stretched off beyond the range of the lanterns.
The groan sounded again and then a deep voice called out. "David, where are you? Help me."
"He sounds American!" Esme cried out as she sprinted toward the edge of the path. She was about to step off the path when one of the dwarves guarding the caravan swept her legs with his spear and knocked her to the ground.
"Hold!" Mertiln called out. He jogged over to the edge of the path. I followed him, staying a couple of steps behind him.
The groans continued, but we could see no one through the raised pillars of stone. I kept scanning as Mertiln shouted something to one of the dwarves escorting the food wagons. We could hear movement back there and then a dwarf entered the circle of light between our two sleds. He was carrying a lantern.
To my surprise Mertiln pointed to me as the dwarf approached. The dwarf held the lantern out to me.
"You're taller, which might help," Mertiln said. "This is one of our special lanterns. Lift it up so the glass panel faces off the path. It should be able to cast light to the walls in this chamber."
I took the lantern and held it over my head. A single beam of flickering light shone out across the field of colored stone. At first all I could spot was more stalagmites but as I slowly twisted my arm to move the beam to the left, the moaning stopped.
"Is that a light? Is someone out there? Please, help me!" a voice cried out in anguish.
There was a grunt from the ground in front of me. I looked down to see Esme struggling to stand up as a dwarf held her firmly. "Let me go!" she shouted. "Someone needs help!"
"You would never reach him," Mertiln said calmly. The leader of the dwarves shouted something. Another dwarf quickly ran up. He was carrying a spear that had a large piece of fungus hanging from the tip. Mertiln looked at me. "Keep the tip of the spear in the light for a moment."
I nodded and turned my hand so that the beam of light from the lantern illuminated the spear. The dwarf paused for a moment and then carefully stepped to the edge of the path. I noticed that he was carefully scanning the air just off the path. Finally he slowly pushed the spear away from his body.
The movement was slow enough that I had no trouble making sure the light followed. To my surprise, the spear only moved a couple of feet before the fungus at the tip brushed against a long strand of white hanging from the ceiling.
The dwarf jumped back, pulling the spear away. The white strand whipped around, quickly engulfing the piece of fungus. As we watched, the strand began ascending towards the ceiling, taking its catch out of sight.
"What was that?" Esme screamed.
"Hunter. They capture creatures in the strands and then carry them to the ceiling to feed on," Mertiln said.
"Can we get past them to rescue the person shouting?" I asked.
"I don't know," Mertiln replied. "We should probably move down the trail a bit and see if you can get the light on him. Once we do that, we can see if there is a safe path through the hunters."
I nodded. "Esme, don't leave the path."
The girl nodded. "After seeing that, I'm going to stay on the path. But won't those monsters try to catch people on the path?"
"The lead guards watch for them and use crossbows to make sure they don't have their traps hanging over the path," Mertiln said. "Over time they've learned to avoid it, but they often hunt nearby as the paths attract prey."
The dwarf holding Esme down allowed her to stand. We started to move down the path again. I held the lantern and turned so that I could pan the light across the walls of the chamber, looking for movement.
We had moved about one hundred yards down the path when I thought I noticed movement in the beam of light. I swung it back and a human hand waved frantically where the beam met the wall of the chamber.
"David, is that you?" the anguished voice cried out. "Please, I'm so hungry and thirsty. Can you get to me? I can't walk."
I started to pan the light back and forth. I quickly found two more of the white strands descending from the ceiling. Neither completely blocked the path, but I would have to turn sideways and keep my back to a stalagmite to safely pass one of them. Mertiln noticed this and put a hand on my side. "We can probably get that one to move," he said. "But not for too long."
I nodded and held the lantern out for Esme. She took it as I pointed to the first of the two strands I'd have to avoid.
Esme's face paled as I turned back around and looked at the floor of the cavern. There were several spots where trickles of water made the stone glisten. I took a deep breath and then carefully stepped from the path.
I was carefully picking my way through the rough stone. Esme tried to hold the light steady as I dodged the first trap and began to make my way towards the one that would require me to turn. I was about halfway to it when I heard a groan from somewhere above me. I stopped to look up, only to see darkness.
"Don't stand still," Mertiln said. "They might move and see if they can catch you that way."
I waved my left hand to signal that I had heard the instructions. I then pointed upward before sliding to my right and putting my back against the stalagmite. The lure was moving back and forth slightly as I worked my way past it. My back was still touching the stone when it swept away rapidly and then flew back towards me. I dropped to my knees and crawled towards the groaning. Behind me I heard a sticky splash.
Esme had the light following me, but as I got closer to the groaning I could not see anyone. I paused for a moment and then a hand rose up from a depression in the floor. "Help," a weak voice called out.
I scrambled forward. The beam from the lantern could not illuminate the depression, but I was able to look down. The speaker was a young man wearing the remnants of a button-down white shirt and tie. He looked up at me. "You're not David!"
"Quiet," I whispered. "There are creatures in this chamber that eat people like you and me. You aren't safe here. Can you walk?"
"I'm hungry and thirsty," the man complained. "Dave and I escaped from slavers, but we got lost. Dave was ahead of me, but now he's not answering me."
The groaning from the ceiling area started getting louder. "No, what ... It hurts ... it hurts!"
"Dave!" the man in front of me cried out.
"We can't save him!" Mertiln shouted. "It sounds like he's being used to brood eggs. He's already dead."
"Who's that?" the man said panicked. "Are you slavers?"
"We're not," I said. "But we do have to get you out of here. I'm going to risk using a fireman's carry but you'll need to help."
The man nodded and held both of arms up. I grabbed his right arm and draped it over my left shoulder as I turned away from him. His body slid forward as I reached back with my right arm. It took a moment, but I found his left leg and was able to pull him so his body was laying across my shoulders.
He groaned. "This is very uncomfortable."
"It's probably going to get worse. The hunters here fish using some kind of sticky tongue. There were two I had to dodge as I got to you."
"What do I do?" the man asked.
"Hang on and keep your legs close to your body. I'm not sure I can win a tug of war with one of these things," I said as I got into a crouch.
I turned back towards the path only to find that the light from the lantern was nearly blinding. There was no way to shield my eyes as I needed both arms to hold the man so I turned my head and tried to crabwalk over the broken ground.
"Shoot at the ceiling where the lure comes from!" Mertiln shouted.
The metallic twang of several crossbows echoed in the cave. Above me a breathy hiss responded.
"It's rising out of sight!" Esme shouted. "Ron, run!"
I ran forward as fast as I could. The man riding my shoulders grunted several times when my feet got tangled in the uneven stone floor. Still he said nothing as I tried to dash to the path.
The light indicated that I was about twenty feet from the path when something sticky hit my right shoulder. Esme screamed as something tried to wrap around my arm.
Desperately I lunged forward. I felt a pop and then I rolled away, dropping the man as I fell to the ground. My right arm hung limply as I crawled the last few steps to the path.
"Ron!" Heather shouted. I felt hands on my arms as I lay on the stone. One of the people touching me tried to lift me to my feet by my right arm; the pain dragged a scream from my throat.
"He dislocated it when he escaped the fishing thing!" Esme said. "Natalie, how is the man we rescued?"
"He's from Earth," Natalie said absently. "And he looks like he's been starving."
"Give him water and something to fill his stomach. He'll probably have to ride on the sled for now," I said through gritted teeth.
"Steve!" Esme shouted. "Come here, I want to get Ron's arm back in its socket. Henck, help Natalie move our new friend."
"Jeff," the man complained. "My name is Jeff. And what about Dave?"
"We can't save Dave," Steve said as he reached over and used my left arm to help me to my feet. Esme was holding my right arm so that it was parallel to the floor. I held back another scream of pain.
"Take Ron's arm," Esme said. "Ron, I know it hurts and it's about to hurt one more time."
I had a hint as to what was about to occur, but the sharp strike on my shoulder still surprised me. A loud pop rang out from my shoulder and then the pain dropped to a dull throb.
"Better?" Esme asked.
"Yes," I said as Steve released my arm.
Mertiln touched my shoulder. "We need to be going," he said. "The noise we made will attract scavengers and some of them will fight if they run into us."
A signal must have been sent because the sled ahead of our circle of light started moving. Heather immediately slipped her head under my left arm and started pulling me forward.
"It's my shoulder, not my legs," I pointed out as I started walking with the rest of the group.
"Then walk," Heather ordered.
Chapter 22: Unpleasant Memories
The early part of the day we had traveled at a somewhat relaxed pace. However, once we rescued Jeff and resumed our march, Mertiln pushed the pace back to the one we used the first two days after leaving the outpost. Esme complained, but Mertiln pointed out that we had lost quite a bit of time while I crept across the floor of the cavern to reach Jeff.
"The safe camps do take some time to get to. If we want to get a full sleep, we need to move a bit faster," Mertiln said firmly.
"We'll handle it," I promised. "Esme, how is Jeff?"
"Malnourished," Esme responded. "If I was going to guess, I'd say that he has been barely eating for twelve days or more."
"Natalie?" I called out.
"Quiet!" Mertiln hissed. "It hasn't been a huge issue the first couple of days, but some of the caverns we'll be passing are home to creatures that will react to shouts. They'll come to see why there is so much noise."
"And our passage won't get them coming?" Lydia asked. "The carts make noise as do all the footsteps we are taking."
Natalie trotted over. "I'm going to see if we have anything like soup we can give Jeff. He needs something, but I'm not sure his stomach can handle much. He says he hasn't eaten in days."
Mertiln stepped to the left until he could see past our sled. He waved to a following dwarf and then returned to where the rest of the group was. "We don't have any soup or stew ready. I've signaled Crispin to bring a mug of beer."
"Beer?" Natalie asked.
"If it's like the stuff we drank that first night it will be hearty, but it will also get him a bit drunk," I warned.
I can feed it to him slowly," Natalie said.
"What do you think about him?" Heather asked.
"I can't say," Natalie said. "He's been willing to drink from one of our canteens, bu
t he hasn't said much."
"I wonder if he was part of the other group," I mused.
"How did he get here then?" Steve asked.
"We can ask tonight," I said. "For now, let's make sure we keep moving."
Everyone seemed to agree with that. Natalie moved by the sled. She and Kariy watched over Jeff as he slumped over the frame. The dwarven beer was brought over as promised and the two girls made sure that Jeff drank a few sips every hour or so.
The warning Mertiln had made about sound had everyone moving in near silence. Conversations were whispered, or handled with gestures as everyone listened for movement in the darkness. A couple of times Hencktor jumped, but the dwarves seemed calm. Finally, as everyone was starting to stagger from fatigue the beetles started turning to the left and passing through a narrow opening.
One by one the carts and sleds passed through the opening. When we finally slipped inside, we could see the beetles were walking in a wide circle around a raised section of smooth stone. A lantern hung from a pole set in the center of the circle and under it two dwarves were cooking a stew. Mertiln pushed me off the path as the beetles continued to make their way forward.
"It's a special outpost, lad," he told me. "The only entrance is through that opening and we'll guard it well tonight."
I nodded as I watched Natalie and Kariy collapse to the ground. "Thanks," I said.
Mertiln turned his head to see what I was looking at. "Do we need to rest a day?" he asked.
"If we do, is there a danger that the other tribes in the tunnels here might try to ambush the caravan? I'm sure they will notice we have arrived," I asked.
"It will definitely give them more time to gather," Mertiln admitted. "But if they are going to ambush us, they'll attack even if we don't rest."
"But it's safer if we don't give them time to gather?" I asked.
Mertiln nodded. "That it is."
"Let me talk to Esme and Steve," I said. "Most of us are used to the walking and should be able to recover with a night of sleep. I think we can help Jeff keep up."
Mertiln turned away to talk to several armor wearing dwarves who had followed the last cart into the stone chamber. I looked around to see the beetles settling down on the path. It was clear that the dwarves were setting up for the night, so I walked over to where my friends had gathered.
