Rick worked the paddle in the back while Ellen rowed from her bench near the front. Alice knelt where there was no seat, seemingly intent on looking ahead of them. Ellen couldn’t see her face, just the back of her blonde head. Alice had tied up her hair with a blue bit of cloth. Blue seemed to be her favorite color, which annoyed Ellen for some reason.
Blue is everybody’s favorite color.
“I hear something,” Alice said.
Ellen turned back to Rick. The man cocked his head to one side.
“Best to get down, Molly, just in case.”
The river pulled them out of one chamber, dragging them slowly along. Rick had stopped paddling, letting the current do the work, and Ellen followed his lead. All was quiet. Then she heard voices. They seemed very distant. The next chamber they entered was particularly gigantic, with a long, even bank made of worked red bricks. This chamber was so deep that the light mist was able to block out the far wall, but she could see silhouettes of men moving. There must have been a dozen of them.
Rick shouted, “Don’t shoot, it’s Rick.”
The silhouettes stopped and looked their way. As the canoe was moved forward by the slight current, Ellen began to make out the figures and faces of the Harpsborough hunters.
“Massan,” Rick said softly, “I want you to lean down like you’re fixing something in the boat. Then I want you to cover Molly with that blanket. Make sure it never rises above the edge of the canoe.”
Ellen readjusted her grip on her woodstone paddle, realizing how sweaty her palms had become. There wasn’t much room in the bottom of the canoe, and the blankets that covered Molly were going to look extremely suspicious.
“Fuck,” Alice said, “it’s Graham.”
“Let me up.” Molly’s voice was muffled by the blanket she was edging over herself. “I’ll take him out again.”
“Quiet, Molly,” Rick said.
“Ahoy,” one hunter’s distant voice called.
“What’s that guy’s name again?” Rick asked.
“Huxley,” Massan answered. “He’s Graham’s right hand man these days.”
They drifted closer.
“Come on over to this bank if you don’t mind,” Graham called, motioning to them with his gun in a gesture which could either be considered as completely natural, or horribly threatening.
“Be happy to,” Rick yelled back. “Any danger ahead of us?”
Ellen started paddling again, keeping all of her effort on the right side. Rick let her turn the canoe until they were facing the hunters, and then he evened them out with long strokes on the left.
“If only!” Huxley replied. “Then we wouldn’t be so hungry.”
The hunters laughed in unison. The laughter didn’t sound genuine. It made them sound like predators.
“Try and act normal,” Rick said. “Try and look calm.”
How in the hell am I supposed to do that?
Ellen looked towards Molly. She was completely covered, but the shape of the blankets around her didn’t seem natural. Massan moved some packs on top of her, which helped.
“Don’t look,” Rick warned.
These hunters wouldn’t really shoot us, would they?
Ellen tried to gauge their mood. Graham seemed particularly malicious, and the rest of the hunters were studying them a little too intently.
Could they know?
Ellen looked at Massan and then back to Alice. Was it possible that one of them had ratted them out? Who else knew that they were leaving?
Turi, I may be coming for you soon. I’m sorry, I know I promised. But this I can’t help.
“Any chance we’d win?” Massan asked, his voice as soft as the river.
Rick snorted. “There’s eleven of them. Not a chance.”
As the canoe pulled up to the bank, Rick reached out and put his hand on the stone, slowing them until they halted. Ellen put her hand out as well to help hold them in place. The hunters had a perfect view into the bottom of their boat.
“So you’re headed out, huh?” Graham asked.
“That we are,” Rick said. “Headed all the way to Macon’s Bend.”
Graham nodded. “Hear there’s good trading out that way.” He put his foot up on a rock by the river and leaned down. “Hear there’s a good bit of food.”
“I’m afraid not,” Rick said. “Galen scouted out that way before the . . . well before the failed expedition. He said the dyitzu had left there too.”
Graham nodded.
Huxley put his own foot up on the rock as well, mimicking his leader’s position. “Have to admit though, it is interesting timing.”
“That it sure is,” Graham said, putting his fist under his chin as if he was pondering something. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with that recent incident in town, would it?”
The man’s gaze settled on Rick.
“It does,” Rick said.
Both Graham and Huxley straightened, the rest of the hunters nearly took a step back.
“Martin and a few of your men did an admirable job of keeping the peace,” Rick said quickly. “I was truly impressed by your fearlessness. By how you stood up to a group of villagers who had you outnumbered, and by how you all reached a peaceful resolution. It renewed my faith in your city. That’s why I’m willing to take a trip where I’m protecting your villagers.”
Graham’s face darkened, but the mood of the some of the other hunters seemed to change.
Rick’s so smart. He’s driving a wedge between them. Graham will notice it soon.
One of the hunters stepped forward. Ellen didn’t know his name, but the man had traded her some bullets once.
“It’s the least we could do,” the hunter said. “I can’t believe Constance acted that way. I’m sorry, Rick. You’ve been with us a long time. We haven’t forgotten that.”
Graham looked back at his hunter. Ellen couldn’t see the expression on his face, so she didn’t know if he was surprised or angry. Slowly, Graham returned his gaze to the canoe. For a moment, his unreadable eyes rested directly on Ellen. She shivered.
Then he looked back to Rick. “You all look tense.”
“It’s their first time in a gondola,” Rick said.
“And I can’t even fucking swim,” Massan added, eliciting some laughter from the hunters.
Graham didn’t laugh, but he seemed slightly amused. “So what all are you intending to trade?”
There was silence for a second. The amusement left Graham’s face, and he switched his rifle to his right hand.
“Okay,” Massan said finally, “but you have to promise not to tell anyone. And I mean anyone at all.”
What is he going to say?
Ellen looked back at Massan. Maybe he had a plan. Maybe he was just stalling for time.
“Secrets ain’t safe in Hell,” Huxley said. “Liable to get people killed.”
“It’s not that kind of secret,” Massan answered, giving out some surprisingly genuine laughter. “I’m getting Kara a ring. I’m going to have Father Klein give us a union ceremony.”
Despite how good he sounded, Ellen was beginning to notice his body odor. The man was sweating fiercely.
Some of the hunters laughed a bit, and they seemed more at ease, but Graham was still suspicious. He leaned forward. “Ahh, you see that’s good news. Rumor around Harpsborough was that you were abandoning us. Maybe that explains why you have so much in your canoe. I wouldn’t have listened to them, except that you were taking Alice with you. People talk, you know. They’ve been saying that Alice didn’t forgive Mike for not trying to rescue Aaron. They’ve been saying you blame Mike for Molly’s death.”
The mention of Molly hit Ellen so hard that she made a small sound. She turned and looked at Rick, but the man was a better actor than she would have given him credit for. He always seemed so honest, but now he wore a poker face.
“Look,” Massan said. “Do you really think I’d leave Kara behind if I went somewhere?”
“Of c
ourse you wouldn’t—” one of the hunters began, but he was cut short by a glance from Graham.
“We didn’t say that everyone in this boat was skipping town,” Graham said. “Did we?”
Ellen looked back towards Rick, hoping he would have some answers. What she saw, though, was Molly’s ankle, poking out from under the blanket. A backpack must have shifted, and there she was, exposed for all to see. They probably only had seconds left before someone noticed her.
Rick caught her gaze, and his poker face gave way for a second when their eyes met.
She saw his fear.
Oh please, God, help us.
But she was in Hell, she realized, and no prayer was going to save them.
Rick cocked his head to the side for a second and stared out across the lake. Some of the hunters, even Graham and Huxley, also looked that way. Then, calmly, Rick put his paddle down with his free arm into the canoe and leaned forward. The motion pulled the blanket over Molly’s ankle. Even as he did so, he looked back at the hunters, as if he had thought he’d heard something and ignored it. His acting was so perfect, the action so natural, that the hunters didn’t seem to think anything of it.
I love that man.
Ellen’s sweaty hands were shaking badly enough that her grip was slipping on her own paddle. She put the paddle into the boat and then stuck her freed hand behind her back so no one would notice. Her hand on the bank was shaking too, but she hoped they’d think that was from the strain.
“So, Alice, why are you going along?” Graham asked. “Never heard of you leaving the village before.”
“I just need . . .” she began, but obviously didn’t want to finish what had popped into her head. “I just need to be helpful.”
Massan began to stand up, grabbing onto the bank as the boat began to rock. He pulled himself halfway up onto the rocky shore. The blanket that covered Molly caught on his heel. He shook it off and then stood up. He pulled Graham aside, whispering into his ear, but the whispers were loud enough for Ellen to eavesdrop.
“What are you trying to do man?” Massan accused suddenly.
Graham was like a rock. “We don’t take kindly to people abandoning us when the chips are down. It’s not right to stay through the thick and leave in the thin.”
Massan completely ignored the man’s intimidation and continued on. “You know damn well Alice hasn’t been able to get food lately,” Massan pointed at her and then put his arm around Graham’s shoulder, pulling him in tight. “Damn well. And you probably know that the only reason she offered to come and help us is because we’d have to feed her on the way. I sure as hell knew that. Rick sure as hell knows it. Fuck, even Ellen probably knows it. But that doesn’t mean you have to run around and make her admit it! Why do you want to shame a girl like that? You know she doesn’t sew like Chelsea. You know without Aaron she doesn’t have a way to feed herself. Why do you have to be like this, man?”
“Oh,” Graham said, doubt appearing on his face.
“‘Oh’ is right. It’s not like she hasn’t had it rough. Her lover’s dead, her best friend turned out to be a fucking psychopathic Infidel lover . . . and you know she feels guilty about that. Why are you trying to make her feel worse? That’s just sick, man.”
“I didn’t know, I wasn’t thinking . . .”
“Sure. Sure you weren’t,” Massan said, rolling up his sleeves. “You know, Aaron would have never done something like this, and not just because it’s Alice, either. You get one little bit of power, and you just want to lord it over everybody.”
“Look, I’m serious,” Graham insisted. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Massan stood back for a second. Ellen could see the sweat stains around his armpits. She wasn’t sure how the smell wasn’t bothering Graham, but in her experience men didn’t care as much about such odors.
“You sure?”
“I’m serious. I’ll apologize,” Graham offered.
Even from the boat, Ellen could see Massan’s eyes grow wide. “Oh no. You shouldn’t!”
“Shit! You’re right,” Graham admitted. “That would just make it worse. Okay, go on. Just get out of here, okay? I’ll handle the guys.”
Massan gave him a quick glance and then climbed back into the boat. Ellen realized as he sat down that she was holding her breath. His smell hit her hard, but she gritted her teeth and made sure not to breathe through her nose. She saw that Rick’s hand, the one holding the paddle, was shaking. He was pressing it down to make sure the blanket didn’t move.
“Well, I know things ain’t as dangerous as usual,” Graham said, clearing his throat, “but keep a careful eye out. Dyitzu might be rarer, but they haven’t gotten any nicer.”
“Will do,” Rick said.
Ellen waved at the hunters and let go of the bank.
“Oh, Rick,” Graham said suddenly.
Ellen caught her breath.
“Yeah?”
“We hadn’t seen one, but a couple of days ago we heard some hound calls down that river. Be careful now. You know some of them devil dogs can swim.”
Ellen let the breath go.
“Thanks for the warning,” Rick said. “We’ll be back soon.”
He pushed off from the bank. Ellen’s arms were so shaky that she bumped Alice with her paddle while she was getting it back into the water. She mumbled an apology, but Alice hadn’t even noticed. Ellen’s arms felt like jelly, and she barely hit water with her first attempt at paddling.
Rick’s powerful strokes set the canoe moving, however, and he alternated sides to make up for her.
They passed through a tunnel and then into another chamber.
Alice began laughing and crying at the same time. Rick gathered up the blankets and Molly emerged, breathing hard. Ellen caught Alice up in a hug.
Molly leaned forward, grabbed Massan’s head with both hands, and planted a loud kiss on his forehead. “Mwa! You beautiful man!” She was laughing while she spoke. “You beautiful, beautiful man. I can’t believe how lucky Kara is to have you. You know, you really are going to have to get her that ring now.”
Ellen felt her grin split her face. She looked over and saw Rick. She couldn’t believe how well he had handled the situation. Molly may not have noticed his smooth misdirection, or even that her foot was exposed, but Ellen knew. Rick met her gaze and nodded.
“And to think,” Rick said, “that was the easy part.”
Calimay’s lavender robed priestess knelt, almost disappearing into the mists. Her shoulders moved as she felt around the stone floor. After having found what she was looking for, she raised one arm and motioned to her two soldiers. They bent down beside her, thrust their arms into the mist, and grunted as they grabbed something on the ground. The priestess stood aside as they hefted up a piece of stone and set it aside.
“Ingenious,” Galen congratulated them. “Yours would be a hard place to find.”
Kelly’s eyes narrowed and she stepped forward to challenge Calimay’s priestess. “By showing us this, you just sentenced us to death. Why did you not blindfold us?”
The smile on the lavender clad woman’s lips was no less cruel than the smirk Arturus remembered seeing on Maab. “Dakota will lead you. Myself and my other soldier will follow you.”
Kelly grabbed her arm. “You will answer me.”
Calimay’s priestess, though shorter than even Johnny, dwarfed Kelly. She closed the distance between them, looming threateningly over the slighter woman.
Galen was suddenly by Kelly’s side, and almost as quickly, the two soldiers stood up and leveled their shotguns at him.
“Go ahead, Dakota,” Calimay’s priestess ordered without taking her eyes off of Kelly.
Reluctantly, the soldier she’d called Dakota holstered his shotgun behind his back. He dropped down, disappeared into the mists, crawling into whatever passage had just been uncovered.
“And you, you Little Lady,” the lavender clad priestess said with a derisive sneer, “you can follow Dakota.�
��
Slipping into the passage will bother her ribs.
Kelly’s face showed neither emotion nor pain as she bent down to enter the secret passage, though Arturus heard a small grunt as she did so. She too disappeared.
Galen searched through the mists with his foot until he had verified where the entrance was. Then he followed Kelly down.
Arturus lowered himself in after Johnny.
He hadn’t expected the tunnel to be so small. In some places it was tighter than others, and he heard Galen’s armor scraping against it as they moved. The walls were uneven, giving Arturus the impression that they had been carved out of Hell unnaturally.
If Kelly’s right, then we’re all about to be put to death. Or at least she will, we might get to be slaves. Her dreams of becoming a priestess, of having me as her slave, they won’t come true. And all because that other priestess showed us their secret entrance without a blindfold.
The stone was beginning to heal back together in places, making the crawlway extremely tight. He felt liquid on some of the stones. He sniffed it.
Blood. Someone’s injured.
He heard Avery cursing behind him.
“Everything okay?” Arturus whispered back over his shoulder.
“Quiet,” one of Calimay’s soldiers ordered.
The passageway reminded Arturus very much of the one he and Galen had used to infiltrate Maab’s ceremony, except that this one hadn’t been lined with rustrock. It might have been his imagination, but even accounting for the roughness of the walls, the previous crawlway seemed to have been better constructed.
They climbed up and out of the passage after traveling for what Arturus guessed to be thirty yards, emerging into a place so dark he couldn’t even tell if it was a room.
Arturus searched about himself with his hands until he found a wall. He heard grunting as the last of their group exited the crawlway. Stone ground on stone, and Arturus could feel the vibrations of the passage closing in the floor beneath him.
Knight of Gehenna (Hellsong Book 2) Page 14
