The Call of Kerberos

by Jonathan Oliver

  "Oh, don't worry about him," Ignacio said. "He always looks like that. He'll be pining for the Faith."

  "I... I had an unpleasant dream. I'll be okay."

  Katya put a hand to Emuel's forehead. The flesh there was hot and clammy.

  "You're not well. Come on, let's get you some rest." She led Emuel below.

  "Good idea," Dunsany called after them. "Make sure that the poor chap is comfortable and we'll explore that which lies below. By the way, does anybody know where Maylan is?"

  "Still lost in the clutches of the weed," Ioannis said. "Not even running aground managed to rouse him."

  "Then would you mind trying to wake him? He won't want to miss this."

  Ioannis nodded and followed Katya and Emuel below.

  "Dunsany, how are you proposing that we explore underwater?" Silus said. "We don't know how far down these towers reach and we're not going to be able to hold our breath for long enough to make anything out."

  "As the Llothriall was being built there were several alchemists and mages working on a sort of suit that allows for underwater exploration." Dunsany said.

  "And have these 'sort of suits' been tested?" said Jacquinto.

  "Well, actually no." Kelos said. "Because Dunsany and I stole the ship before they could get that far. But we have eight of the suits below and there's very little doubt in my mind that they will work."

  "To be honest I'd prefer no doubt to very little, but I suppose we should see for these things for ourselves." Silus said.

  They descended to the lowest deck and were joined there, in a low square room, by a bleary-eyed Father Maylan and a fresher looking Ioannis.

  "Ioannis tells me that there's something to see out there." Maylan said.

  "We have run into a tower," Kelos said.

  "Right, I'll give you a hand readying the boats."

  "No need. We have everything we require here."

  Kelos slid back a wall panel to reveal a row of eight identical suits.

  A domed hood with large ovals of glass set into thick material sat on top of a baggy one-piece garment made of what appeared to be heavily waxed cloth.

  "Those things are far too big." Silus said. "How do you expect us to move around in them down there?"

  "Each of these suits will fit the wearer perfectly. Perhaps you would help me demonstrate?"

  Silus struggled to get his arms and legs into the rumpled suit and, when he did, the material sagged around him in folds and crinkles.

  Jacquinto laughed. "Could it be that the elves were considerably fatter than the legends state?"

  "These suits weren't taken from elven design," Kelos said. "Believe it or not they were actually put together by the Final Faith themselves. Anyway, as I said, the suit will fit the wearer perfectly. Note the disk of metal on the chest? Watch."

  Kelos took an identical disk from a drawer and touched it to the one attached to the suit. Instantly the material came to life, contracting around Silus until it fit him like a second skin.

  "It's water tight and also protects against the cold. Now, the hood attaches like so."

  Kelos placed the hood on Silus's head and it sealed itself to the suit with a sound like an indrawn breath. Silus stared out of the eyepieces, the glass throwing everything into perfect definition.

  "Right, and how are we supposed to breathe down there?" He said. "There's a hole where my mouth is but I presume that you're not expecting us to inhale water?"

  "Ah, now this is the really ingenious part. The secret is worms."

  "Worms?" Father Maylan said. "He's going to breathe worms? Tell you what, I think I'm going to go back to my bunk. Let me know how you got on with that worm breathing thing on your return."

  "No, of course he's not going to breathe worms. The worms are going to provide the air. Look."

  Kelos opened a compartment and took out a gourd-like object. He unscrewed the bottom half to show an empty base. Opening another compartment he took out a box, which contained a writhing mass of midnight blue worms.

  "These creatures were first discovered in the World's Ridge Mountains. When fed a certain mineral they will actually fart out, if you'll pardon the expression, air. So, we're going to need a couple of scoops of you fellows." He spooned the worms into the base of the gourd, "and then we sprinkle two measures of the mineral powder over the top." From a vial, Kelos poured a dark powder onto the worms before sealing up the two halves of the gourd. "Then we just give it a quick shake to get the process going."

  "That reminds me of a cocktail I once had at Here There Be Flagons," Dunsany said. "It actually made me go blind for half a day."

  Kelos screwed the narrow end of the gourd to the mouthpiece of the hood.

  "Now Silus," he said, raising his voice, "you should be able to breathe. Give me a thumbs up if all is okay."

  Silus felt a moment of claustrophobia as he heard Kelos's muffled voice through the thick hood. There was a strange taste in his mouth that reminded him of rock dust and honey but when he took a breath, the air was cool and pure.

  He raised his thumbs and nodded.

  "Excellent." Dunsany said. "Right, I suggest the rest of you get suited up and then we can have a look at what's out there."

  Chapter Ten

  They descended roped together, each carrying a glowing stone to light their way. When they entered the circle of towers Silus looked down and tried to see through the gloom below them, but whatever awaited them there was hidden for now.

  Behind Silus trailed the three smugglers, followed by Father Maylan. Watching them climb into the strange suits had been a comical affair. As Jacquinto had pulled the suit over his legs he had leaned on Ignacio, knocking his brother into the renegade priest. Maylan had then stumbled into Ioannis and the two of them had tumbled to the floor. Katya had come to see the men before they ventured forth and, despite her tiredness and the worry that lined her face, she managed a chuckle at the sight of them in their various states of disarray, looking like some strange new race of sea creature in their bizarre garb.

  "Any sign of danger, any sign of the Chadassa, I want you out of there," she said.

  "Of course," Dunsany replied. "Don't worry, we'll be perfectly alright."

  Katya had then touched her forehead to the hood of Silus's suit, mouthing I love you, before watching him follow the crew through the portal in the side of the ship and out into the sea.

  The sudden cold that Silus had expected on entering the water didn't come. Instead there was just the warm embrace of the suit as he swam away from the Llothriall, his breath echoing hollowly and the beat of his pulse amplified by the confines of the hood.

  Silus followed Kelos and Dunsany, the glow of the stone in the mage's right hand bobbing ahead of him like a will-o'-the wisp. Fish and other marine creatures swam in close, attracted by the illumination; some responding with their own bursts of light, briefly defining strange piscine forms in the darkness.

  As the crew were rounding the curve of one of the towers they were suddenly confronted by the reflection of their glowstones in the pupils of an enormous fish. It opened its mouth and inflated to twice its original size, its gullet a dark tunnel lined with barbs. Pseudopods extended from the brow of the creature to paw the water around Kelos, one exploring the hood of his suit. Silus hoped that the probing tentacle wouldn't puncture the material, but the creature clearly didn't regard Kelos as prey as, after a moment's exploration, it swam away.

  Kelos made sure that it was out of sight before giving the hand signal to proceed.

  They followed the towers down and soon the surface was lost to view. Silus wondered how far below them lay whatever supported these mighty columns, or whether there were just the towers themselves, leading to unfathomable sunless depths.

  He was beginning to think that this was indeed the case when the glow from their lightstones finally revealed dark shapes beneath them.

  The towers rose from a vast mound of rock, its sides dropping precipitously away. There was no hin
t of design or purpose to the mound and the only thing to show that hands other than nature's had shaped the stone were the magnificent pillars rising from it.

  Silus was beginning to wonder how they were going to find a way in when he saw what he took to be a window in the side of one of the towers. Signalling to the others to follow he swam in close, but could make out only his reflection and nothing of whatever lay inside. He put out a hand and tried to clear the glass, but instead of coming up against a solid surface it passed straight through. Silus cautiously flexed his fingers, but could feel nothing on the other side. He withdrew his hand and looked at it, but it didn't appear to be any different.

  The others had now clustered around him and, giving them a nod, he held out his lightstone and thrust himself into the side of the structure.

  Silus's stomach turned over as he dropped, but it was only a short distance to the floor and he did little more than bruise his knees. His hands left wet prints in the thick dust covering the floor as he raised himself to his feet and looked over his shoulder. The others floated there beyond the window and he was about to give them the signal to proceed, when he realised that they couldn't see him. So, instead, he gave a tug on the rope that let them know that it was safe to enter.

  All seven of them took a moment to look around after they stepped inside, their breathing and the drip of seawater from their suits the only sound in the musty chamber. Father Maylan crouched over something in the corner of the room and removed his hood in order to get a better look.

  "Did you even stop to think that the air in here might not be breathable?" Kelos shouted, after removing his own hood.

  "It's perfectly breathable, look." Father Maylan said, and demonstrated by taking a deep breath. "I wonder what manner of creature this is?" He said, indicating the skeleton before him.

  The skeleton was propped against a wall. The skull that sagged against the chest was larger than that of a human and had an oval hole for a mouth instead of a hinged jaw. Behind the broken ribs the spine was a single piece of bone that tapered down to just above the ankles. The legs were much like those of a human, though there were only three toes on each foot, while the creature's arms were - like the spine - each a single piece of tapered bone.

  Silus saw an object lying near the body and picked it up. From a metal handle emerged eight thick strands of a material that looked not unlike squid flesh.

  "I'd be careful with that if I were you," Dunsany said. "It may be a weapon and you don't know how what it does."

  As Silus looked at it more closely, he tightened his grip on the handle and the strands came to life, swaying like the fronds of a sea anemone caught in a gentle underwater current. When they began to twine around each other and crackle with small tongues of lightning he dropped the strange flail and stepped away.

  "Whatever this creature was, it clearly went down fighting." Dunsany said.

  "Fighting what though?" Silus said.

  Apart from the creature's corpse and the strange weapon, the chamber was empty.

  Kelos took a moment to untie each of them from the rope that joined them together, before they ventured through an archway in the far wall.

  As they exited the room they were hit by a strong blast of wind, whistling down the tower from above. On it Silus thought that he could just make out the call of gulls.

  "These towers must act as ventilation shafts." Kelos said.

  "If they needed air to survive," Jacquinto said, "what did they go and build this place underwater for?"

  "Most aquatic mammals need air. Consider dolphins, for example."

  "What, dolphins built this place?"

  "I believe that Kelos was only using dolphins as an example," Silus said. "The architects who designed and built these towers were clearly far more complex creatures."

  The wind at their backs dropped briefly and, in the lull, Silus thought that he could detect a bitter odour rising from below. It reminded him of the smell of a cold range in the morning, the phantom of smoke that wafted from the grate as the ashes were shovelled out.

  Ahead of him Dunsany stumbled as he tripped over a broken step and Silus saw that the stone there was cracked and charred. Streaks of soot began to mark the walls as they continued cautiously down, the stone in places bulging and glassy as though a fierce heat had once attacked the tower. When they reached the base of the tower the walls were almost entirely black and they had to hug the outer curve of the spiral to negotiate the last few shattered steps.

  "Gods, it's a bloody charnel house!" Silus heard Dunsany gasp.

  When he reached the bottom, Silus saw for himself what had so taken his crew-mate aback. Behind him there were similar exclamations as the rest of the crew joined them.

  They stood at the entrance to a massive circular room, the floor of which had been gouged by deep, blackened rents. Above them the ceiling shimmered and through it they could see the six towers rising to the surface far above. Fragments of scorched bone and broken skulls were scattered across the floor, but it was not these that had evoked Dunsany's exclamation. There were three entrances into the chamber, besides the one through which they had entered, and each one was piled high with bones.

  The smell of burned bone intensified as Silus approached one of the arches. The skeletons piled there - like a jumble of blackened twigs - had been fused together by the fire that had consumed the flesh that had once clothed them. Silus reached out to touch the edge of a leg bone and the whole pile shifted suddenly as it crumbled, a small avalanche of dry remains tumbling into the room.

  "What in the name of Kerberos happened here?" Father Maylan said.

  "A massacre." Silus said.

  "Perfect! So, we discover a new race, only to find that it has already been killed off?" Kelos said. "Who'd want to be an adventurer?"

  "It beats languishing in a Vos prison," Jacquinto said. "Trust me."

  Beyond the archway, Silus could see through to where a flight of stairs descended.

  "We could clear a way through this," he said. "Maybe we'll find some clues as to what happened here."

  He unsheathed his knife and started to cut a path through the brittle skeletons. It wasn't a particularly difficult task as the majority of the bones crumbled as soon as he touched them. Black flakes rained down on him as the pile shifted and creaked. He paused for a moment but the mound of the dead held and he continued to tunnel towards the stairs.

  The crew looked at each other, then at Silus sawing away, and - after only a brief hesitation - followed him through the charnel mound.

  The quantity of bodies didn't lessen any as Silus approached the top of the stairs. The glow of his lightstone revealed yet more skeletons crowded into the scorched tunnel sloping away from them. Some were wrapped around their companions, as though the creatures had been seeking solace in their final moments. Others, towards the top of the pile, had arms outstretched and heads thrown back. Silus imagined them scrabbling across a pile of their already dead brethren, only for them to be annihilated by a roaring wall of flame.

  "Do we really want to find out what did this?" Dunsany said from behind him. "I mean, I've seen the old battle fields in the Anclas territories but this... gods, it's just..." His voice caught for a moment and a sob escaped his lips. "Horrible."

  Kelos put a hand on his friend's shoulder and Dunsany covered it with his own.

  "I think that whoever did this is long gone," Silus said. "There's no more threat here. Just a tomb."

  "It could be haunted." Ignacio said, from further behind him. "Places like this are always haunted."

  "No, I feel nothing." Father Maylan said. "This place is just... dead."

  Descending the stairs took them longer than Silus had anticipated. The bodies were packed in more tightly around them here and it was hard to see where each step fell. Twice Silus had to tell the group to back off so that he could work out the best route through.

  As he was pulling bones away from the wall of the tunnel he heard a sound like a whispe
r and looked up.

  A skeleton hung spread-eagled above him, its empty eyes seeming to observe him with contempt. Silus thought that he could see a glint of something deep within one of the sockets. The glint resolved itself into a more definite form, as a spider crawled from the hollow and skittered across a cracked cheekbone. With a dry rattle, the skull shifted slightly to the side, almost as though the dead creature were cocking its head at him.

  Then, with a sound like the breaking of a thousand dry branches, the walls of bone shifted.

  Silus ducked as a cloud of desiccated remains erupted around him, the vicious dust scouring his throat and making it difficult to breathe.

  "Get back!" He shouted. "It's coming down!"

  But Silus didn't have a chance to see whether his friends fled to safety, as he was swept away on a wave of bone.

  The clattering avalanche that enveloped him sounded like the chattering voices of the dead. Wicked shards scratched his face and the lightstone was knocked out of his hand as he tumbled head over heels. And then, there was nothing below or above him as he fell into empty space, only to land with a thud that punched the air from his lungs.

  From somewhere nearby there was the thud and crunch of living bodies impacting with long dead ones, as Silus's companions tumbled after him. He scrabbled his way to the surface and, looking around, he could see where some of their lightstones had fallen. Silus crawled his way to one of them and, raising it, he could just make out his friends, struggling to their feet.

  "Well, I suppose that was the quickest way down." Father Maylan said, wading towards Silus. "Gentlemen, shout if you're amongst the living."

  All answered and soon they had picked themselves up and were peering into the darkness that surrounded them.

  This room felt bigger than the one from which they had descended and, as their eyes adjusted, they began to make out rows of columns rising to a roof far above them. The glow of their lightstones was thrown back by their smooth, reflective surfaces and Silus realised that the columns were made of glass. Within them, cloudy liquid moved sluggishly.