Half of what had been a large crowd still left them with a chance. The ones who remained seemed more agitated than before, more desperate to get into the elevated city. With courage and anger on their side, they could overcome anything. Hopefully.
As Seb studied the remaining crowd, he made eye contact with the minotaur creature he’d met in the slums previously. The one who’d tried to fight him. The large brute stood a head above most of the beings around it and it looked up at Seb. Where it had stood in his way after he’d buried Phulp, it now stood beside him going into battle. He nodded at the creature and the creature nodded back.
In another part of the crowd, Seb saw two giants. Both of them stood even taller than the minotaur. They’d easily take down ten opponents at a time. Maybe they could win this. Maybe they’d be okay.
The time for words had passed. Seb hopped from the wall he’d been standing on and walked toward SA, Gurt, Sparks, and Bruke. He nodded and walked straight past them, heading for the dark entrance to the sewers.
Chapter 42
At the head of hundreds, if not thousands of beings, Seb pulled his shoulders back, filled his lungs with the stench of the sewers in front of him, turned his torch on, and strode into the void.
The torch had seemed like a good idea, but the complete darkness of the sewers feasted on the pathetic beam. About to lead an army into a place where he had no control, Seb took another calming breath and pushed on.
However, once Seb had ventured about thirty metres into the sewer, the line of beings following him brought enough torchlight in with them to light the place up. The collection of naked flames flickered and shimmered. It manipulated the shadows, but at least they could see where they were going.
At their first junction, Seb stopped and saw a thick arrow pointing down one of the tunnels. It glowed with a wet bioluminescence as if it hadn’t been there long.
“What the hell?” Gurt said.
“It’s okay,” Seb said, his voice echoing up the tunnel ahead of them. “We can trust these markings. They must be guiding us to the ladders leading up to the elevated city.”
Sparks stepped forward and sniffed the arrow. A screwed-up nose and sneer of revulsion and she said, “What have they used to draw it on with?”
Somehow Seb had been oblivious to the smell of the arrow until now. The entire place stank, but now Sparks had pointed it out, he caught a whiff of rancid meat and stepped back a pace.
Bruke walked up to the slimy mush. A few seconds later he stuck his finger into the stinking mess and tasted it.
Seb’s stomach lurched to watch his green friend.
“Sea cucumbers,” Bruke said.
“You just ate that?” Gurt asked.
“They’re perfectly edible,” Bruke said. “There’s a certain kind of sea cucumber that lives in the sewers. Their blood glows like this. I think whoever’s made these markings must have used the blood of those creatures.”
“That’s sad,” Sparks said.
But Bruke shook his head and placed one of his large hands on Sparks’ small shoulder. “Don’t be sad. Sea cucumbers, although tasty, are the most vicious little things I’ve ever seen. If they get a chance, they sheathe their enemy, or a part of their enemy”—Bruke looked down at Seb’s crotch and Seb stepped back a pace—“and they strip it of the flesh in seconds.”
When Bruke pointed down at Seb’s crotch again, Seb nearly said something, but Bruke cut him off. “I’ve seen someone’s finger stripped to the bone before.”
Seb did have his hands covering his lap. He breathed a relieved sigh.
“I’ve also seen a male’s penis ripped to shreds.”
“Bruke!” Seb said.
A shrug and Bruke said, “The less of them there are in this world, the better. Also, whoever drew this arrow did it at a great risk to themselves. Sewer cucumbers are expensive on account of how hard they are to catch and kill. The amount of fingerless cucumber fishermen is unbelievable. You must have some good friends down here, Seb.”
Because they’d stopped for a few seconds, a lot of the creatures behind had caught up to them and Seb felt their collective attention on him. He didn’t need to be talking about the sewer dwellers’ prophecy now. “Right,” he said. “Let’s not hang around talking about this. We need to get to the ladders leading up to the city.”
But of course Gurt wouldn’t let it go. As they walked—the echo of hundreds of footsteps in the huge tunnel—the large Mandulu called to Seb, “So who are these creatures down here you’ve become friends with?” Despite standing right next to him, he spoke with a loud enough voice for many of the beings behind to hear him. “Is it anything to do with that nutter who called you the chosen one?”
As Gurt’s loud guffaws rang through the sewers, Seb listened to the rushing water beside him. Too much noise and surely the squid-like creatures would come for them. Although they couldn’t silence the rumble of hundreds of footsteps, so Gurt’s loud voice probably made no difference.
“Come on, Seb,” Gurt said when Seb didn’t reply. “Tell us about your fan club of shit-eating lunatics.”
“If it is anything to do with the beings down here, Gurt,” Sparks said, “you should probably shut up about it. We’re in their domain, so the last thing you want to do is upset them. If you have any kind of a brain, that is, which I’m still trying to ascertain.”
Gurt instantly shut up and Seb smiled down at Sparks.
The deeper they plunged into the sewers, the faster Seb’s heart beat. When he looked behind at the line of beings, he couldn’t see the end of it. Torches stretched all the way back and around the bend. He’d led a lot of creatures down here. What if one of the large squids attacked them?
Seb shook his head. He couldn’t think like that. They had to keep going.
When they arrived at a ladder, Seb stopped and turned to Gurt. “Can you wait here and take one in every four beings that come through?”
“You trying to get rid of me?” Gurt asked.
Seb nodded. “Yep.” Before Gurt could respond, he said, “I need you to wait before you start climbing. We need to all go up the ladders at the same time. Also, I want the Shadow Order members to be the first ones into the city. We don’t know what’s waiting up there, so we should be the ones to face it. When you get to the top, head for the square in front of the Crimson Palace. We don’t know where we’ll come out, so we need a meeting point.”
A nod and Gurt said, “How will I know when to start climbing?”
Although Seb opened his mouth to answer, he had nothing to say, so when Sparks stepped between them, he moved back and let her speak.
“I’ll set this off,” she said whilst retrieving a flare from her bag and holding it up for Gurt to see. “It’ll glow red when it burns.”
Gurt nodded, and although Seb waited for a snarky comment, none came.
Just before they set off again, Gurt grabbed Seb’s arm and pulled him close. “You’re a born leader,” he said. “You’re doing a good job.”
At first, Seb didn’t know what to say, watching Gurt’s face for a hint of mirth. He couldn’t see any, so he said, “Thank you.”
Gurt didn’t respond, so Seb turned around and led the others deeper into the sewers.
Chapter 43
A few minutes later they arrived at the next ladder. Although nothing had happened, the deeper Seb walked into the sewers, the more tension wound through his body. Much further and he’d become brittle. Some of his anxiety seemed to rub off on Bruke, who appeared to grow more nervous with every passing minute.
More arrows had directed them to the next ladder, so Seb should trust they’d lead them all the way. Also, the large squids had left them alone so far. Maybe they got a sense of just how many beings had entered their domain and they thought better of it. Even those monstrous beasts would have a hard time defeating Seb’s army. Besides, nothing had happened yet, so he shouldn’t worry unless he needed to.
When Seb pointed his torch up the length o
f the ladder, he saw the tunnel it disappeared into didn’t close as tight as some of the others. “SA,” he said, “I need you to take one in every three beings and wait for the signal.”
The water splashed next to them and Seb jumped, pointing a trembling torch in the direction of the sound. Foam floated on the surface of the river as if stirred up by something—possibly a tentacle—but nothing else happened.
Seb looked back at SA and her eyes glowed the same colour as the markings on the wall. Ever calm, she stood perfectly still. A look at Bruke and he watched the large, scaly creature wring his hands and chew on the inside of his mouth.
“Also,” Seb said, “I want you to take the giants with you too. I think they’ll fit up this tunnel.”
SA nodded again.
Another look at Bruke and Seb saw his wide brown eyes. “Bruke, I want you to use this ladder. Stay with SA, okay?”
“Okay,” Bruke said. Although it sounded more like a question than anything. SA would help calm him down. He needed her influence.
Although Seb wanted to hug SA, he refrained. Instead, he rubbed her upper arm and smiled at her. “I want you to be the first up the ladder, if that’s okay? The Shadow Order should be the first to emerge just in case there’s a trap up there. And then head for the square in front of the Crimson Palace.”
She smiled back and nodded.
“Good luck,” Seb said. Before he could set off, Bruke grabbed his arm and pulled him to one side.
“What’s up?” Seb said, speaking so only Bruke could hear him.
Bruke looked all around them and walked on the spot. “I’m worried,” he said.
“That’s okay, we’re all worried.”
“What if it goes wrong?”
“We have to have faith it won’t.”
“Is that all you have?”
“What else can we do, Bruke? It’s worked so far.”
“No, we’ve had plans so far. What are the plans now?”
“Get up to the city and see what’s waiting up there for us.”
“That’s it?”
“Look, Bruke, you may have thought I had plans when we went to the fighting pit, but I didn’t. I didn’t know the Shadow Order would turn up at that point. What would we have done if they hadn’t?”
Bruke gasped, the sharp drawing of his breath running away from them into the darkness. “What would we have done?”
“Exactly.”
A shrug and Bruke said, “What’s your point, Seb?”
“It worked out. Sometimes you can’t plan everything. We have enough of an army to deal with whatever we need to deal with. Now we need to see what happens.”
The chat didn’t seem to allay any of Bruke’s fears, so Seb reached across and placed a hand on his friend’s scaled shoulder. He leaned forwards and looked into Bruke’s dark eyes. “Just follow SA. She’s the best fighter and calmest head out of everyone here.”
A look over at SA and then back at Seb and Bruke nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Seb repeated. “See you up top, yeah?”
Bruke nodded again. “Okay.”
After Seb had stepped away from Bruke, he looked at Sparks. She offered him a tight-lipped smile and the two of them led the rest of the army deeper into the sewers.
Chapter 44
Once they’d gotten far enough away from the previous ladder, Seb spoke to Sparks in a low voice so only she could hear him. “I’m worried. What if this doesn’t work?”
Sparks shrugged. “It has to work.”
The collective sound of movement echoed through the tunnels behind them. Quieter for losing half of the army to Gurt and SA, it still reminded Seb of the weight of his responsibility. Where he’d expected Bruke to have faith, he now had to take his own advice. He smiled at Sparks. “I can’t argue with that.”
“Seb?”
Seb looked at his small friend and saw her looking at one of the bioluminescent arrows.
“Why have the sewer dwellers marked out the way for us?”
Extra careful to keep his voice down, Seb said, “I came down here on my own. I had to find out what the nutty woman was talking about when she called me the chosen one.”
“And?”
“It was crazy. They caught me and tied me up. I thought they’d eat me. I watched them slaughter another creature and cook it. But then I saw some paintings on the cave wall.”
“Paintings?”
“Like hieroglyphs. It painted out what I think is their prophecy. They showed images of my life, all the way up to meeting you Shadow Order guys.”
“I was on there?”
“Yep. Gurt and SA too. It was freaky. One of the elders arrived while I was tied up and he recognised me. He called me the chosen one, but they couldn’t tell me much more than that. They know about my mum. They know more about my mum than I do, but they wouldn’t tell me. On my way out, I ran into a couple of those”—he lowered his voice some more and glanced back at the slow march behind them—“squid-like monsters.”
“What happened?”
“I thought I was done for until the sewer dwellers turned up and attacked them. Several of them died in the process, but it gave me a chance to escape.”
“So they really do want to help you out?”
“It would seem so.”
They came upon the next ladder and Seb sighed. He’d only got a fraction of his worries out, but it would have to wait. “Okay, Sparks, you take one in every two beings now, yeah? I’ll call down to you when I need you to drop the flare.”
For a second, Sparks didn’t reply, a frown on her face as if trying to process their conversation. She then nodded. “You take care, okay? Everything’s going to work out.”
“See you up top,” Seb replied and moved off into the darkness following the direction of the next arrow. The collective glow of hundreds of torches had dropped down to just tens with the thinning crowd.
Chapter 45
Seb stopped at the fourth ladder and looked at the line of beings behind him. Now they’d been whittled down to just a quarter of their number, they seemed impossibly underpowered. The Countess would destroy them. But he couldn’t think like that. He had to have faith. He had to.
The sound of the river still rushed beside Seb and he continued to listen for the creatures. Nothing.
Once the beings at the back had caught up to him, Seb drew a deep breath to call to Sparks. Before he could loose his call, two frog-like creatures appeared in front of him. They were the two he’d seen when he’d snuck into their hut whilst hiding from the Crimson soldiers. The ones whose child he’d healed.
“Where’s your boy?” Seb asked. “Is he okay? His sore healed fine?”
They both nodded and one of them spoke. “We’ve left him with family.”
“And he wasn’t in the huts that got burned?”
“No.”
Seb heaved a relieved sigh. “Praise the stars for that.”
“We wanted to fight this war with you because we believe in you,” one of the creatures said. “We’ll never forget what you did for our boy. We’re forever in your debt.”
Seb batted the comment away with his hand. “You owe me nothing. But if you feel like there’s a debt, you can consider it paid now.”
Before they could say anything else, Seb pointed up the ladder. “We need to get up there.”
They both nodded. They could talk later. Now they needed to keep moving. Seb drew a deep breath again and did his best to ignore the smell of waste. He called back into the darkness, his voice echoing through the tunnels. “Sparks, set the flare off.”
A rock tightened in Seb’s gut as he heard the whoosh of the flare and saw the red flickering glow. No chance of turning back now. A deep breath to settle his nerves and Seb gripped the cold rungs of the ladder. He fought against the reluctance in his legs and started his climb.
Chapter 46
By the time Seb reached the top of the ladder, his hands had turned numb from the frigid metal rungs. The lo
ng climb had left him out of breath and his legs and arms ached.
The beings who’d followed Seb had discarded their torches at the bottom. The collective glow from them sent light up the tunnel and showed him the line of creatures on his tail. They stretched from the top to the bottom of the ladder. His stomach lifted to look down at how far he’d climbed. At how far he could fall.
Seb reached up for the manhole cover just above him with his left hand. Because he now had to grip on with just his right, he shook worse than ever, his entire body wobbling as the strength drained from his limbs.
Through fear of being heard, Seb pushed the manhole cover away as gently as he could. The moon cast a pale spotlight down the tunnel and illuminated the faces staring up at him.
As quietly as possible, Seb eased the manhole cover completely clear of the hole. The scrape of the metal against the hard ground betrayed him to anything close enough to hear. But what other choice did he have? They had to get out of there.
When Seb had pushed the cover far enough away, he gripped back onto the ladder. The shake in his right arm eased a little. Several deep breaths to find the final push he needed and he climbed the extra few rungs to allow him to see out of the hole.
They were in an alley similar to the one he and Sparks emerged into when they came to the elevated city before. Small cottages, with thatched roofs, white brickwork and dark beams, lined either side of the space. Black cobblestones ran along the dark ground, and every so often the fog glowed from where it hid a gaslight.
Seb climbed out into the white mist. It hid him from sight, but meant he wouldn’t have any idea if something watched them.
One of the frog-like beings followed Seb from the hole. He held his hand down to help them out. After he’d aided the first one, he left them to help their partner and hopefully continue the trend.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 49
