Gone like Shlara.
I sighed again and forced the self-pity out of my consciousness. There was nothing I could do today to bring Paug and Nadea back, or resurrect the friends who had imprisoned me. The only solace I had now was action.
Action and revenge.
The heavy footsteps stopped pacing outside of my door and I imagined Greykin's knock before he did.
"Enter," I said loud enough to pass through the door.
"Are you ready?" he wheezed after the door opened a crack.
"I'll be ready in ten minutes." He nodded and closed the door. I listened to his boots walk away from the door and toward the stairs leading down to the main room of the tavern his men filled. He broke out into a tortured cough before he reached the end of the hallway. The whole building groaned and shifted as the big man leaned against the wall for support.
I completed a few warm-up exercises and donned my clothes before I exited the small room they gave me. I guessed the time to be a few hours before midnight, so I made an effort to creep down the stairs silently. My efforts proved fruitful, and I slipped unnoticed into the assembled group of soldiers as they whispered instructions over a rough map of the city.
"Our best entrance option is through one of the drains that lead into the river." The warrior that spoke stood next to Greykin and instructed the other nine. "There are a hundred entrances into the sewer. This one in particular," he pointed to a spot on the map, "I used to play in when I was a street kid and I know it well. Over the last few weeks I have spent more time exploring it and I am confident it can get us into the underground network of catacombs beneath the castle."
"Good job, Danor." Greykin nodded and the other men quickly mirrored the Old Bear's movement of approval. Danor reminded me of Runir. He was tall, muscular, and handsome; but while Runir was clean-shaven and blonde, Danor wore a brown mustache and shaved the top of his head.
"What about things that live beneath the castle?" one of the soldiers asked. The room was lit by three small candles stuck into the table next to the map. Their tiny flames cast shadows of uncertainty and doubt across the faces of the gathered men after the words were spoken.
"What are you crying about?" Greykin demanded. "We are the king's finest and we show no fear toward any other man or beast."
"Yes sir." The soldier stood up straighter and tried to hide his uneasiness. "I've just heard stories of creatures living in the sewers."
"I didn't notice anything while I was down there and I doubt we will see anything tonight. Keep your torches lit and your wits about you," Danor said with enough confidence to convince the other warriors.
"We'll have Kaiyer with us as well. He is a capable warrior." Greykin nodded at the map. A massive roach walked across the rough drawing of the city and the Old Bear crushed it underneath his thumb.
"Can we trust him, sir?" One of the soldiers who stood next to me whispered so quietly that everyone leaned toward the center of the group.
"He was about to be knighted by the king. I would trust him with my life." Greykin spoke angrily as he wiped the roach off on his shirt and glared at the man who questioned my worth. Then he noticed me standing behind the warriors and his eyes softened.
"Are you ready Kaiyer?" he said as the rest of the men spun around in surprise.
"Sure." I shrugged and rested my right arm on top of the swords at my belt. Their handles dug into my skin, sharp and reassuring.
"You're carrying extra torches, water, and some medical supplies." He nodded over to a lone backpack resting against the far wall. I donned it and followed the other darkly clad men as they slipped out of the front door into the streets of Nia's capital.
"You'll need this as well," the Old Bear said as he passed me a thick dark scarf. It smelled like flowers and sword oil. Before I could ask him or the other soldiers what the cloth was for they ducked out the door. I put the fragrant handkerchief in my pocket and followed.
This night was colder than the last few weeks had been. An angry wind from the north helped hide the stench of the dying city and disguised the sound of our passing. We didn't spy any Losher guards patrolling, but we still crept through the back alleyways to avoid any possible problems. The journey took a half of an hour and the only incident we had was when the group stopped to let a pack of roaming street dogs pass. These animals eyed us hungrily but fled to find easier prey after Greykin snarled at them.
The grate was a semi-circle about four feet in diameter. Danor lifted it up and motioned for someone to head down into the darkness. There was a slight hesitation as the other men glanced into the abyss. My eyes easily pierced into the black depths and I saw the smooth, worn stone of a floor thirty feet below us. I grabbed on to the edge and flipped into the opening, ignoring the rust-covered iron ladder that the other soldiers would have to use.
"Make a light," Danor whispered down a second before I pulled the Earth and Air through my body. A small stream of flame shot out of my palm and I aimed it toward the tip of an oiled torch I took from my pack.
With the aid of the fire I could see that I stood upon a narrow, elevated path above a canal. There was another pathway across the sewer with periodic metal bridges that extended between each raised stone shoulder in case anyone should desire to cross. The channel only had a trickle of water in it. The foul smelling fluid oozed in the direction that would take it away from the city, toward the river. I looked up and noticed that the ceiling formed a smooth half-circle shape like the domed cavern where Nadea and Paug first woke me.
"It doesn't smell as bad after a rain, but rain makes it much more dangerous. The water runs deep and quick," Danor remarked to the other soldiers once they descended the ladder to stand next to me. They winced at the stench and tried not to show the fear that their quickly beating hearts betrayed. These were brave men when confronted by battle, but the deep darkness under the earth could be more terrifying.
"Lead on," Greykin commanded. Danor nodded and adjusted a scarf around his neck so it covered his mouth and nose. The other warriors pulled up their scarves and I remembered the kerchief the Old Bear gave me. The scent of oil and flowers was much better than that of shit, death, and sulfur.
We paused briefly to let another one of Greykin's men light a torch off of mine and then Danor led us up the path toward the castle. The torches did little to relieve the oppression of the darkness. The air was thick, rank and stale, and it felt as if the pressure of the earth and the castle above us was pressing down on my back and shoulders as we walked. Even my eyes had a hard time making out the shapes in the deepness of the dark, and I imagined the uncertainty and fear was great for my human companions who could see little outside of the faint circles of light from our bobbing torches.
Our guide carried a piece of chalk and he marked the wall every twenty feet so that we would be able to find our way back. For the next half an hour, there was no conversation, just the sound of our footfalls, the scraping of the occasional chalk marking, and the wet, slurping slime of the sewage.
Danor veered to the right and into a narrow hallway that angled up away from the foul stench. After a few steps, we stopped and he began to speak softly. I brought up the rear, but my heightened sense of hearing allowed me to catch the mustached man explaining that we had to journey down another level of the sewer before making our way underneath the castle. Or so he believed.
Was the big man's plan foolish?
I had agreed to help under the assumption that Greykin had a solid plan and knew the sewer system well, that these sewers were just an easy series of tunnels leading to the castle. Now it appeared they were more like a complicated maze of passages, pipes, canals, and ladders. It seemed premature to attempt a rescue without knowing the exact route into the fortress. I had no doubt that I could find my way to the castle without their aid, but I didn't want to spend all night down here. I probably should have asked Greykin if there were other infiltration options.
The second ladder led down almost sixty feet. The sound
of water echoed stronger here, and when I finally set foot on the stone below I could see we were in another canal tunnel like the one above us. This deeper cavern was twice the size, with much more sewage flowing through its center. The stench was worse, and I was thankful that I had nothing in my stomach to vomit.
Every so often, something would scurry away from our light. I could see that they were large rats, but the other soldiers grew more nervous at the unexpected movements. We trekked for another half of an hour, made a few turns that Danor marked with chalk, lit a second round of torches, and then came to a tight hallway. This corridor was narrow, and forced us into a single file. I noticed the heartrates of my companions increased, and I guessed they were close to mental exhaustion. During the exploration I had positioned myself at the front of the line between Danor and Greykin so I could hear any discussion they might have.
"How much longer?" the Old Bear whispered past me to Danor.
"Right up here. There are four different paths. I've explored the one I thought led to the castle, but got hit with a dead end." Danor looked back apologetically at Greykin but the big man just grunted in annoyance. "It goes down a far ways and is a squeeze. Be careful Kaiyer," Danor said as he lifted a heavy grate over a massive iron ladder. The draft emerging from this opening breathed cold and wet. The hole didn't smell as bad as the air around us. I grabbed the rough iron rung and started my descent.
Danor was correct about the distance down the ladder. It hung inside a tight stone shaft so narrow my back scraped across the opposite wall as I tried to climb down while holding my torch. The fire from the brand and the tight, close air of the tube made me sweat as I had in the humid jungles of Vanlourn. After what I guessed to be a half an hour of descent, I hit bottom and gratefully set my foot on solid rock.
I looked up to the tunnel from where I came, it looked like a man-made, hollow stone icicle protruding from the domed ceiling above me. I was now in a massive, open cavern, nothing like the system of tunnels and aqueducts humans had built above us. My field of vision was obstructed in places by isolated stalactites that crumbled like broken columns. I knew my boots touched stone, but I couldn't see them through the thick layer of mist that flowed a foot off the ground like an opaque gray blanket. The torchlight extended only fifty feet from me but my magic allowed me to perceive a few extra yards into the blackness. I saw no other walls or man-made masonry work down here.
There was the sound of movement in the distance behind me and I spun around to see something disappear back into the mist outside of my field of vision.
It was much larger than a rat.
I heard Greykin's labored breathing from the shaft above me at the same time that I saw the fog part on my right side. My sword came out instantly and I turned to face the creature, but it had already retreated. I wanted to run though the darkness after it but I guessed that the Old Bear would be mad if I didn't greet him after he descended the ladder.
"Greykin," I called up to the big man.
"What?" he yelled down the shaft. He still sounded very far away.
"There is something down here. A large animal I think."
"I'm going as fast as I can. What else do you want me to do?" He started to cough, and it echoed off of the shaft and spread out into the cavern like the dammed river I used to kill the Elven army so long ago. The tube had been tight around my body and I guessed from the tone of his voice that the Old Bear was having a frustrating time descending.
"I just wanted to tell you." I cringed at the sound of his echo and scanned the edges of my vision for movement. Nothing.
"Maybe you should teach it how to read!" Greykin called down after his coughing spasm ended.
"I don't think that will be possible. Paug only spent a few hours teaching me. I don’t have any books in my backpack to use as an example." It seemed like a weird request.
"It's a joke, Skinny! If you see it again put your fucking sword in it ‘til the damn thing dies!" he yelled. I nodded and looked around me again. Perhaps Greykin's shouting and coughing scared the creature away.
"What was it?" the Old Bear said as he landed heavily on the ground next to me.
"I don't know."
"Was it big?" He pulled out his axe. His large body was covered in sweat and his breathing came out in ragged, pain-filled gasps.
"Yes."
The rest of the soldiers followed down the ladder and we fanned out with our backs facing each other, weapons drawn.
"I didn't notice any creatures last time I was down here,” Danor whispered to Greykin and me.
"Where do we go now?" I asked the handsome mustached man.
"If we head a quarter of a mile north, we will see the foundation support beams of the castle. Each has a stairway that leads up them. I'm positive that one of them will lead us up to the dungeons beneath the fortress."
"Let's get our asses moving then. If this thing was going to attack, it would have done so by now," Greykin commanded.
"I tied a rope around the ladder last time since there are no walls to chalk. Head that way." He pointed in a direction I assumed was north and began to walk. A few of the other men lit additional torches to ward off any creatures.
There was another sound of movement to our rear, but I guessed no one else but me could hear it. The creature sounded like it was just outside of the edge of our mist-obscured vision. I thought that we might have scared it away, but I realized that it was stalking the group.
"It is behind us," I whispered as loud as I dared. "It sounds as if it is dragging something large and wet." Everyone stopped moving and tightened the circle.
"Throw your torch at it Kaiyer," Greykin asked. "You're almost out anyway."
"Light another one first!" a soldier spoke with a crack of fear in his voice. He handed me a spare brand and I fed it to life with mine.
"I'll listen for it again,” I said and the group grew quiet. Their hearts were beating fast and their breathing came in excited gasps.
"There is moving water to our north?" I asked.
"Yes. There is an underground river that feeds into the ocean. You'll see it as we get closer to the support structures," Danor whispered. "Do you hear it?"
I was about to respond when the same scraping noise emerged from our west. I threw my torch toward the source of the noise as quickly as I could. The brand flipped like an expensive coin until it landed on the ground, spraying bits of charcoal and oil above the fog. The creature made a loud hiss that I was sure everyone heard and then it slithered away out of the light. It moved like a snake that had just had sand kicked it its face. I imagined the creature was coiling back and getting ready to strike.
"What the fuck was that?" one of the men asked.
"It was huge!" another soldier said a split second before the large serpent creature struck forward and clamped its massive jaws around his midsection. The man screamed as the serpent pulled him in its maw and up into the air high above our heads.
“Wurm!” Greykin bellowed. I never imagined anything could scare the Old Bear, but I understood his terror when I saw the wurm. The creature’s hide was scaled like a lizard, covered in oily, congealed mucus. The scales shone gray, brown and green, the putrid decaying mucus glistening in our torchlight. It was at least six feet in diameter, with small, mutated arms growing out of the sides of its swollen belly at sporadic intervals. Each arm ended in a misshapen claw, dripping black slime. The arms twitched as if attempting to walk, but it moved like a snake, slithering with powerful flicks of its muscular body.
The monster thrashed its head sideways like a dog playing with a toy. The man ripped in half, spraying blood and limbs over us and ending his scream in a cantata of dynamic volume changes. Then it pointed its massive jaws up to the ceiling and gulped down a large chunk of the meat and leather armor. Its bird-like jaws opened in three pieces instead of two. Dozens of fist-sized black eyeballs lay on each side of its maw and I imagined that the beast saw in all directions at once.
"Kill it!" G
reykin screamed as he jumped toward the monster and landed a powerful overhand chop into the snake's armored flank. It gave a terrifying scream as his blow cut through the scales and I noticed several rows of spiky teeth inside its mouth cavity. It whipped its tail around and knocked the big man aside as if he weighed ten pounds. Then it dove toward another of my companions.
The warrior tried to slash the monster across its eye cluster, but he moved too slowly and it bit into the side of his right shoulder. Repeating the tactic the beast had with the earlier meal, it lifted this soldier into the air and shook him like a rag doll. The man screamed in horror until his torso tore loose. The soldier fell down on the misty ground in front of the snake, but the creature seemed more interested in consuming the man's limb before going for the kill.
I jumped forward past the other warriors who were frozen with fear. I bent back my left arm and then spun it forward, harnessing the energy of my run, my hips, and power from the Earth. My attack landed true and I cut across the serpent's chest in a diagonal path that sundered two of the mutated arms off of its front side. The beast screamed and dropped the arm it had been about to swallow. The stench of blood and gore overpowered my nose through the scented scarf I wore and I almost stopped to vomit.
Fortunately, I realized that the monster was coiling back its grotesque body to strike at me. I threw myself backward and managed to roll clear of the snapping jaws. The creature's breath reeked of shit and disease. I imagined that even a cut from one of those teeth would probably end someone's life by way of painful infection.
The rest of the men charged forward and aimed savage cuts at the beast. A few of them connected but bounced off of its armored scales as if it were crafted of stone. The monster swung around its tail again and crushed a terrified man beneath its long torso.
Greykin let out another battle shout as he slammed his axe into the wurm's belly like he was chopping down a tree. The creature screamed again in surprise and my brain threatened to liquefy and pour out of my ears. The screech echoed across the massive cavern and I wondered if there were any other monsters that now knew we were down in this underground. I dropped my torch and sprinted forward, taking a gamble that the monster would coil back in the familiar way and attempt to strike at the Old Bear.
The Destroyer Book 2 Page 10
