by DB King
There were no more strange dreams, and there were also no more reports of exsanguinated bodies showing up, either in the Merchants’ Town or anywhere else.
Then, at the end of the week, two pieces of news reached Marcus that caught his interest. The first was that the Maiden’s Hope, the quarantined Sun Islander trade ship that had been waiting in the bay beyond the King’s Dock, had struck its colors and was making its way into port. The folk at the docks said that there were strange folk on board, folk who were not Sun Islanders. The city guard, under Armsmaster Demos, their new captain, had gathered at the docks with representatives from the Traders’ Council, to greet the newcomers and hear what they had to tell.
Marcus had decided that he would go to the docks and see what story this strange ship would bring when the second piece of news arrived, in the form of Jay, the Gutter Gang’s chief scout.
Jay had been the leader of the Gang in the old days. He had ceded most of his authority to Marcus since the battle, but he still retained a great deal of respect within the Gang. Some of the Gutter Gang had chosen to leave after the battle of the Underway, but more had chosen to stay. There were fifty of them, and they mostly chose to live in the lower levels of the stronghold, rebuilding their dwellings in the Underway into new and better versions.
Marcus made sure they had access to all the supplies they needed to make their new berths as comfortable as they desired, and he made sure they were well fed and well armed. Their proximity to his dungeon magic had restored them all to health after their long, hard lives, but most of them had lived in the Underway so long that they had no desire to move above ground.
Since he had lived as one of them for many years, he understood that desire, and he was happy to see the Gutter Gang occupying their new and upgraded dwellings in the lower levels of the stronghold and the reclaimed Underway.
Jay was a shrewd, wise, and thoughtful man. He was also a conscientious and systematic worker, and so Marcus had put him in charge of the mapping parties, knowing that his attention to detail was second to none. The work had kept Jay busy, and Marcus had not seen him for some time. When Jay came into the study late one morning, Marcus greeted him gladly, but Jay looked troubled.
“We’ve found something… disturbing,” Jay said as soon as they had greeted each other. “I know the Underway is full of strange things, but I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Well, what is it?” Marcus asked.
Jay shook his head. “I’d much rather you came down to see for yourself, Marcus, if you don’t mind.”
Marcus had been getting ready to travel to the docks and see the strange ship, but the look on Jay’s face said that this was something serious. Marcus knew Jay was not one to exaggerate, and so he decided to change his plans.
He scribbled a note to Ben and Anja, who had planned to accompany him, saying that he would be delayed and they could wait for him or leave without him as they chose. He went to the door and called for a guard. “Find Anja Drakefell and give her this message, please,” he said. The guard saluted and hurried off.
Marcus glanced around the room. Ella was down in the Grove chamber, and Kairn was at his forge. Anja and Ben were probably in their own quarters, getting ready for the trip to the docklands. Hammer was almost certainly in the kitchens, where he had taken to sleeping by the big central hearth and eating leftovers given to him by the indulgent cooks.
“Looks like it’s just us, Jay,” Marcus said, smiling at his old friend. “Is that ok?”
“I don’t think there’s any immediate threat, Marcus,” Jay said. “And I’ve guards down there anyway. Come, let’s go. The sooner you see this for yourself, the sooner I’ll be able to relax.”
Marcus strapped his sword, his mace, and his new silver knife to his belt and gestured to the door. “Lead the way,” he said. Jay nodded and headed out.
They walked together down the corridor and down a winding central flight of stairs that linked the upper levels to the Underway. Doors opened off either side of the stairway on each floor, but Marcus and Jay bypassed them all, heading downward.
As they descended, it got quieter, and colder. The familiar sensation of being deep underground settled on Marcus, and he realized that it was a long time since he’d actually come down to the Underway which had been his home for so long.
The changes were everywhere as he looked around. Lights burned in wall sconces, illuminating a clean, well-ordered little collection of dwellings. The Gang had cut rooms out of the stone, and erected wooden platforms and stairways, creating an beehive-like arrangement of living spaces and storerooms that extended from the bottom of the Underway right up to the foundations of the stronghold above.
It was a much cleaner, brighter, and healthier place than it had ever been in the days before the dungeons, and Marcus was pleased at that. Through the use of his dungeons, Marcus had lifted up the Gutter Gang and given them the means to create a better life for themselves. That had always been his goal, and he felt like he had succeeded.
When they reached the bottom of the newly created Gutter Gang’s underground township, they found themselves in the Underway proper. A long, tall, broad tunnel plunged away from them, sloping steadily downward. It was square and lined with brick. Jay led the way, and Marcus followed, looking around and breathing the cool, faintly musty air.
He knew this part of the Underway—he knew all the tunnels around the Gutter Gang’s old dwelling—but Jay quickly led him to an area he didn’t know.
“It’s down here,” Jay said, gesturing to a low doorway that led off a larger tunnel. A pair of guards were stationed at the doorway, two members of the Gutter Gang, dressed in chainmail and boiled leather and armed with spears and shields.
“Anything to report?” Jay asked briskly, and the guards said there was not. They both saluted Marcus and clicked their heels together as they drew themselves upright.
Marcus smiled. “At ease,” he told them, and they relaxed. He was not entirely comfortable with the reverence that his former equals in the Gutter Gang were now prone to give him, but they seemed to think it necessary, so he didn’t try to stop it.
The guards nodded them through. Marcus had to duck his head to avoid banging it on the low, brick-lined doorway. The entrance was narrow, and the top was a curved arch made of old red bricks. Beyond the doorway, the corridor opened out a little, but it was still not wide enough for them to walk side by side.
Jay went ahead.
“We’ve been mapping this area for a few days,” Jay explained as they walked. “Initially, we almost walked right past it, but it turned out that there is a whole network of other passages down here. So, I set men to map it. Down here, follow me. Careful, it’s tight.”
Jay indicated a small hole in the corner at the end of what seemed to be a dead end corridor. He was carrying a small portable oil lamp, and he handed it to Marcus as he dropped his legs through the hole. He sat and dropped down through the hole.
There was a scuffling noise.
“Pass the lamp down,” Jay said.
Marcus leaned over and hung the lamp down through the hole, illuminating the space below. Jay stood in a corridor only a foot taller than he was, with narrow brick-lined walls and a layer of some kind of pale mold on the ceiling that glowed with an eerie luminescence. Marcus gave the lamp to Jay and sat on the edge of the hole. He used his hands to hold his weight and let himself drop feet first into the space below.
They were deep underground now, and the air had a still, dense quality, as if nothing had stirred it for years. There was a smell of mildew in the air, and it was oppressively quiet.
Jay held up the lamp. “Just down here,” he said. His voice sounded flat and dead in the confined space.
A chill ran over Marcus. “This better be good,” he said.
“It’s not good,” Jay replied grimly, “but I guarantee that you want to see it.”
They didn’t have to go far. At the end of the short corridor, another
low doorway led to a cramped chamber, barely visible in the lamplight. Marcus took the lamp from Jay and looked inside.
The chamber was small, with curved walls arching to a low, domed ceiling. There were no exits but the door through which Marcus gazed. On the floor of the chamber, three lead coffins glinted as he edged closer.
They were empty.
Each coffin had a lid of thick, gray lead. They had been sealed around the edges, welded shut, but the tops were ripped and bent.
“We’ve not been further into this chamber than the doorway,” Jay said quietly. “I wanted you to see them first.”
“Good,” Marcus said. “That’s good. You did the right thing. Wait here for a moment.”
Three steps led down from the entrance. Holding the lamp, Marcus leaned down and inspected the steps closely
There was no getting away from the story they told. Something had walked up these steps. The whole chamber, including the floor and steps, was furred with a thick layer of gray mold, and the impressions of three pairs of feet were perfectly visible on the steps, heading up toward the door.
“You’re certain none of your people stepped in this chamber?” Marcus asked.
“Certain,” Jay replied flatly.
Marcus had not expected anything different, but he’d felt he had to ask. Avoiding the steps so he didn’t mess up the footprints, he jumped down from the doorway into the chamber and dropped into a squat, holding the lamp close to the floor. Yes, there were three sets of prints here, one leading from each of the coffins to the steps. Two sets were small, but one was much larger.
Holding the lamp ahead of him, and taking great care not to spoil the prints with his own, Marcus approached the coffins. He swung the lamp around. His own prints were distinct in the mold, leading away from the door. There were definitely no prints other than his leading into the chamber, but three sets leading out.
With a heavy feeling in his gut, Marcus leaned over the nearest coffin and held up the lamp. There was nothing inside. Leaning closer, he examined the underside of the torn lid. Until that point, he had been able to retain a hope that he would find evidence of a crow bar or some other tool being used to tear the coffins open from the outside. Even with the footprints, that would have been comforting.
But there was no such evidence. As he leaned closer, he saw something that chilled his heart. Pressed into the soft lead on the underside of the coffin, there was the unmistakable shape of a human fist.
“You can come down, Jay,” Marcus said. “Follow where I’ve walked, and don’t disturb the prints on the steps.”
Jay did as he was told. After a moment, he stood by the coffin, looking down and shaking his head. “I’ve seen many things in my time,” he said, “but I’ve never seen anything like that before, nor ever want to again.”
Together, they moved around the coffins, making a careful examination of each one. In each, they saw the unmistakable shapes of fists smashed into the insides of the lids. There was no denying it. Whoever—whatever—had occupied these coffins had smashed their way out with their bare hands, torn the three-inch thick lead asunder and walked out.
Chapter 14
The middle coffin was the biggest. As Marcus turned away, he caught a glint of gold in the shifting lamplight.
Leaning back over, he lowered the lamp into the coffin. Tucked into a corner, he found a little gold pendant on a chain. He reached into the coffin with an involuntary shudder and drew the little thing out. He held it up, the metal cool against his fingers.
“This is familiar,” he said quietly. “It’s like something I’ve seen before but I can’t place it…”
The chain was tarnished gold, and dangling from the end of the chain was a pendant in the shape of a leaping stag, with outstretched legs and elaborate antlers lowered to the charge.
“What a fine piece of work,” Jay said, looking over Marcus’s shoulder. “What do you think it means?”
“I have no idea,” Marcus said with a shrug. “It reminds me of something. I’m sure I’ve seen it before, or something like it, but I can’t place it right now. But let’s not delay here. For now, I think we’ve seen everything that there is to see. It’s disturbing, for sure, and I don’t like it any more than you do, but there’s nothing to be done about it now.”
He dropped the pendant into his pocket. “Come on, let’s get back to the stronghold. I want to tell the others about this and get their advice. For now, keep the chamber under heavy guard. If anything comes back here and tries to get back in, I want it captured alive if possible.”
“Do you think that’s likely?” Jay asked.
Marcus considered. “Not likely, no, but possible all the same.”
Jay nodded. “I’ll do as you say.”
They left the eerie chamber and made their way back above ground. After the clinging darkness of the dank coffin chamber, Marcus was glad to breathe the fresh air again. He went to the battlements and stood there, breathing deep. A wind was blowing in off the sea from the south-west, bringing with it the fresh salt smell and the cried of the innumerable gulls that lived on the sea cliffs.
“Marcus,” said a voice behind him. He turned. It was Anja, with Ben at her side.
“I thought you would have left without me,” Marcus said.
“We considered it, but decided to wait. Come on, let’s go to the docklands.”
Marcus thought for a moment. He could stay here and order a meeting of his closest advisers to discuss the findings in the Underway, or he could go to the docks with Anja and Ben, and let the news wait.
I’ll go to the docks, he thought. I can talk to Anja and Ben on the way. I need a change of scenery anyway.
“Let’s go, then,” he said out loud, smiling at his companions.
They did not take an escort. Between the three of them, their fighting prowess and their magic would be enough to defeat any hostile person they were likely to encounter. On the docks, in broad daylight, Marcus felt that it was unlikely they would meet an enemy, but if they did he was confident that they could handle it.
They walked out of the stronghold and made their way across the mile of flat land that led to the edge of the slums. As they walked, Marcus told them about the coffin room that Jay had found, and showed the amulet to them both. When Anja took the amulet, she gave a sudden involuntary shiver.
“What is it?” Marcus asked. “Is there something about that amulet?”
“Yes,” she said. She had slowed and was looking at the golden thing in fascination. “It feels… I don’t know how to describe it. I like it. I like it a lot!”
Marcus smiled. Anja, normally hard-eyed and aware of all her surroundings, was softened somehow by the gold chain and the stag amulet. Her eyes were wide as she stared at it, drawn in by it somehow. She was dressed in a cloak that matched her gray eyes and the few streaks of gray in her brown hair. Her boiled leather armor was dark brown and black under the wrapping of the cloak, but the buckles and clasps that held it together gleamed. The breeze from the sea blew her hair into her face, and she brushed it away distractedly with one gloved hand.
They had now stopped entirely. Marcus glanced around, seeing the bleak, flat brown and green Wasteland stretch in every direction. Away to his left, the stronghold was a black block rising out of the flats. On his right, the great bulk of Kraken City rose up abruptly and climbed skywards.
“You can keep it, if you like,” Marcus suggested, and Anja’s eyes snapped from the amulet to his face.
“Oh, can I?” she said with a smile. “I’d like that! I’m not sure why, but I feel drawn to it somehow.”
“Clearly,” Marcus said wryly, and Anja laughed, apparently realizing that she had stopped in place.
“Sorry!” she laughed. “I got distracted completely. Come on, let’s make a move.”
“What do you think of it all?” Marcus asked as they approached the edges of the slums. “The coffins, the amulet, and the exsanguinated corpses. It all points to only one thing,
doesn’t it?”
“I agree,” Anja said. “It sounds to me like there were vampires asleep in those coffins and something—I don’t know what—has woken them up and brought them back to life. The attacks in the city, yes, I think it can only point to vampires being on the loose in the city.”
“Three of them, by the number of the coffins,” Ben put in. “Would the number of victims who have been killed in the city match that, do you think?”
Anja shrugged. “I really have no idea, I’m afraid. I know a bit about vampires because of my antecedents, but I don’t know how much it would take a coven of three vampires to feed.”
They left it there. As they entered the slums, they were greeted by the pleasant sight of many people working hard to better their living space. People were working on expanding the buildings, widening the roads, and digging drainage ditches. There were folk in the streets with carts and barrows full of supplies, and scaffolding up on some of the taller buildings.
As they walked through, the people greeted Marcus and his companions cheerfully, but they didn’t stop working.
“They’re making good progress,” Marcus said to his friends. “In the old days, this was a dangerous place to be, and the people were a ground-down and half dead lot, broken by overwork and bad conditions. Now look at them. They’re well fed, and have found their identity and their dignity again.”
“And it’s all down to you and your dungeons,” Anja added with a smile. It was true. Marcus had channeled a great deal of his dungeon wealth into the support of the slum dwellers since they had come to his aid in the battle. With the right funding and a steady supply of tools, building supplies, and decent food flowing in, a great deal of progress had been made.
“The thing about the slums,” Marcus said, “is that many of the people here are merchants and craftsmen who have fallen on hard times. There are some skilled folk living here, builders, engineers, scribes, and more besides. They just needed a bit of encouragement and most of all a bit of pay and food, and they’ve been able to get their lives back!”
