The Realms Thereunder aet-1

by Stephen Lawhead

  Swi?gar’s face went slightly dark and then cleared again.

  “Nevertheless,” he said, “if you don’t think it mocking fate, I would like to mark our exit.”

  Ecgbryt shrugged and hoisted his pack. Using the butt of his spear to scrape into the soft stone, Swi?gar made large Xs on the walls above the hole. They gathered their things and started exploring the new tunnels.

  They walked for some time but arrived nowhere. Each section of the tunnel was the same as the last, a short corridor leading to a perpendicular crossroads, always carved out of white, powdery rock. Eventually their path ended in a wall so they turned and walked along that for a while. When that ended after a short distance, so they went in another direction. Freya’s eyes were starting to water from the dust clouding up from their steps and from the endless repetition.

  Eventually they decided to stop at a crossroads and rest. The light from the torches did not reflect off any wall down either end, as far as they could see. Frustrated, they sat together, not saying a word or even looking at each other. Daniel finished massaging his feet and very carefully put his socks back on. He drank some water and lay back on the cold floor, willing his muscles to relax.

  It was as he closed his eyes and let his mind drift that he felt something on the back of his head-a dull vibration that came from the ground: a kind of pounding and scraping.

  He opened his eyes. None of the others were doing anything to create the strange sensation he was feeling. He strained his ears to listen, trying to separate sounds away from each other, then realised that he wasn’t listening to one sound but to lots of the same sound. The feeling of dread swept over him.

  “Everyone, quiet,” he whispered. “I think it’s yfelgopes!”

  All held their breath. Swi?gar and Ecgbryt stood, quietly drawing their weapons.

  Soon they heard the sound of footsteps-many footsteps. A flickering light grew around them. Daniel stood up and took a few steps down the tunnel. He guessed what the source of the light was before he saw it-it was another lamp. In the deep blue glow they glimpsed a shape, which they quickly recognised.

  More gnomes.

  For a dizzy moment, Daniel thought that it might be the Gegan clan-whom they had somehow circled around to meet again. But the light of their own torches soon revealed a fatter, swarthier gnome with different clothes and hair. Daniel took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Hello,” he said and introduced himself.

  “Halloo!”

  “Hail, and well met!”

  “Welcome!”

  “Pleased ta meetcha.”

  “Hello,” said the rotund figure at the head. “Our name is Ergan.”

  “Greetings to you, friend gnome,” Swi?gar said, coming to stand beside Daniel.

  The gnome gaped up at the knight-many times taller than he-and blinked rapidly.

  “Are you-do you have two cousins?” asked Freya.

  The gnome turned his eyes to her and seemed to ponder the question. There was a confused muttering behind him. “Yes, we believe we do. Gegan and Negan are kinsmen of mine. Have you met them?”

  Ecgbryt snorted and nodded his head. “For all the good it’s done us.”

  “Yes,” said Freya, “we have.”

  “They are silly folk,” said Ergan. “One of them won’t go anywhere and the other tries to go everywhere at once. So they end up nowhere!”

  “Yes!” said Daniel. “Exactly!”

  “When really,” continued Ergan, obviously pleased at the reception he was getting, “it doesn’t matter where you go, so long as you go somewhere.”

  “Right,” said Daniel. “Exactly. Listen, we are searching for the entrance to the Sl?pismere. Do you know where that is?”

  “Oh . . . ,” said Ergan slowly. “I think we do. That is, we must do-we have walked these tunnels long enough! Let us see . . . Let us see . . . We shall consult the maps. Bring the maps!”

  There was a chorus of “bring the maps!” and after some bustling, several bundles of scrolled-up parchment were produced.

  The lamp was turned up to give enough light to read by, and the four travelers could see that they were now in the company of a much more sophisticated type of gnome. These seemed much more prepared than any of the others. Some of them were wearing metal helmets and had coils of rope across their shoulders. There was a call for more light and candles were produced.

  “At last!” said Ecgbryt excitedly. “We can move onwards!”

  “I thought that we were moving onwards, bro?or,” Swi?gar jibed.

  Ecgbryt glowered. “For lack of a leader,” he said, “we were simply moving-or drifting, rather. Rudderless, directionless.”

  “So, you disregard my advice and claim that you had no direction?” Swi?gar charged, his voice rising.

  Ecgbryt batted the question away with a flip of his hand. “Bah, he is starting to sound like Ealdstan,” he muttered to himself, bending over the maps that the gnomes were spreading out.

  Swi?gar’s teeth clenched. He folded his arms across his chest and turned away.

  “Ah, here we are,” announced Ergan. “We haven’t come across the Sl?pismere yet, but we know several places where it could be.”

  “Show us,” said Ecgbryt, bending over.

  “Show him,” commanded Ergan with a signal. Instantly, four gnomes sprang forward and pointed fingers at different points on several of the scrolls that had been unrolled before them. “The lowest points of the tunnel we’ve found are here, here, and here,” he explained. “Found on maps 27-12, 18-39, and 111-3e7. However, none of those tunnels diverge and at no point are any of the tunnels crossed by any streams or tributaries.”

  Ergan paused as Swi?gar and Freya joined them to look over the mapwork. “However,” the gnome chief continued, “however- ah, do you know in which direction this Sl?pismere lies?”

  Swi?gar shook his head.

  “Pity,” said Ergan. “Because that would have helped us narrow it down. You see, there are, as yet, at least one hundred and thirty-four unexplored branches and divergences.” All of the rest of the gnomes reached into their satchels, pulled out unrolled maps, and waved them in the air.

  Swi?gar sighed and removed his helmet. Daniel and Freya watched him run a hand several times across his head.

  “This is what you do?” Swi?gar asked. “You search through the tunnels and make maps of them?”

  All of the gnomes’ heads began nodding furiously. “Yes,” said Ergan proudly. “That is what we do.”

  “How long have you been doing this?” asked Freya.

  Every shoulder of every gnome shrugged once; Ergan shrugged too. “Years and years. Maybe a hundred. Since I was this high.” He placed his hand at his waist, roughly twelve inches from the ground.

  “And not once have you discovered the Sl?pismere, or imagined where it might lie?”

  Ergan shook his head. “No, we can’t say that we have.”

  “What have you discovered?”

  “Tunnels!” squealed Ergan delightedly. Several gnomes behind him echoed the word in a happy fashion. “Lots and lots of glorious tunnels! Every one of them a marvel. Don’t you find them simply fantastic? How many people have wandered these tunnels over the years? Who made them? What stories do they have to tell? Why, when we think of how much there still is to do, it makes our hearts ache. So much to look forward to, and so much that we may not live to see. Still, at least future generations will be able to enjoy the benefits of our work and go wherever they want, whenever they want. You-do you not think that grand?”

  Ergan faltered when he realised that the look on the companions’ harrowed faces was anger dangerously mixed with a little fear.

  “What?” squeaked Ergan. “Whatever is the matter?”

  “I think I understand,” said Ecgbryt calmly, drawing his axe.

  “Hold by, gnome. I am a master axeman and this will be done quickly . . .” He took a couple steps towards the small figure.

  “What are you going to do?” as
ked Freya.

  “Since we cannot coax the direction we need from them, I am going to peel the chief’s skin back and see if it lies inside of him.

  And if not him, then I’ll try the next. I’ll unravel every last one of them, if I have to. Unpleasant work, certainly, but I am resolved to it.”

  The gnomes’ faces blanched in terror, their eyes staring from their round heads. There were many confused cries and shouts.

  A dozen hands were placed on Ergan and with a chorus of voices yelling, “Save the chief!” they fled back down the tunnel. The light from their lantern bobbed in the darkness when they could be seen no longer, and then it too disappeared.

  Ecgbryt was laughing as he sheathed his sword.

  “That was mean,” said Freya.

  “And pointless,” said Swi?gar.

  “But hilarious!” exploded Daniel.

  “Aye, the boy has me,” said Ecgbryt. “It was all for the look on their funny little faces.”

  “But now we are worse off than before,” said Swi?gar gravely.

  Ecgbryt shrugged. “Perhaps.”

  “No, we aren’t worse off,” said Daniel. “In fact, we’re better. All those gnomes were just confusing us, and I think they were meant to. What if this is a trap of some kind? We’re probably meant to wander around forever and become just as confused as those gnomes. We have to go back to the big cavern-I think there’s something we’ve missed.”

  Swi?gar frowned. “What you say may be true, but then again, it may be that the path lies some farther distance up and we do not know it yet.”

  “Of course,” said Daniel, “but I don’t think so. Remember what Ealdstan said? Gad would want to make sure that he could get to his heart quickly if he needed to. So the hiding place wouldn’t be too far away. Besides, those gnomes have been wandering everywhere and haven’t found a thing. No, we went wrong at the start of this, somehow.”

  “A riddle!” Ecgbryt exclaimed gleefully, rubbing his hands together. “Now my blood is running and my feet shall go no slower. Come, ??elingas, I wist you will have a job to keep up.”

  Daniel and Ecgbryt virtually leapt back down the way they had come, with Freya and Swi?gar trailing behind them. But after a few steps, she hesitated and stopped, wanting to turn to Swi?gar, who she knew was still standing there unhappily. She decided not to in the end, thinking it might embarrass him. Instead, she spent an extra long time adjusting her pack.

  Behind her, Swi?gar said something she didn’t understand, and then there came a crash, a smash, and a rattling clatter as the lanterns bounced into the darkness. It startled her, but she hid this by hiking her pack up onto her shoulders. Then Swi?gar passed her with his enormous strides and she hurried to catch up to him.

  5

  They made their way back to the big cavern. The journey was uneventful and embarrassing, and bad feelings still hung in the air. Freya only hoped that they could solve the riddle quickly so that they could get on with their journey and put the unpleasantness behind them.

  After a time they were able to see the purple glow of Gegan’s lamp through the worming tunnel. They unslung their packs when they came to the mining camp and stood a fair ways off from the static gnome chief and his orbiting clansmen.

  “So, what are we looking for, Freya?” Daniel asked. “We’re underneath Britain, wedged between solid rock-it has to be a tunnel.”

  “We have plenty of tunnels, but we think that they’re here to distract us. So maybe it’s a tunnel that doesn’t look like a tunnel.”

  “A hidden tunnel?”

  Freya nodded. “Let’s start looking.”

  The two of them, and after a short time the knights also, began hunting around the abandoned campsite. Daniel was searching the rack of lamps again to see if it concealed a hidden doorway, when, taking a step back, his calf bumped against a gnome. Startled, he flinched away and let out a surprised grunt. There were not one but four gnomes standing at his feet. “I nearly trod on you,” Daniel said. “What are you doing here?”

  The gnomes just stood, looking up at him. “Freya? Ecgbryt?” he called. They turned to him and bumped into gnomes of their own. Swi?gar almost squashed one completely, except that he shifted his foot at the last instant.

  “What do you want?” Freya asked the gnomes. They just stood looking vacantly up at her. “Guys?” she asked nervously. “What’s going on?”

  Daniel and the two knights had begun to draw away from the corners they had been hunting in to stand closer together, and the gnomes followed their footsteps.

  “Are you trying to help us?” Freya asked her gnomes, bending forward slightly as she slowly edged towards the others. “Are you trying to stop us?” The gnomes said nothing, just kept following.

  Freya joined the others, who were trying to gently push the gnomes away with their feet. She looked up to the rest of the Gegan clan and saw that more gnomes were leaving the group and wandering towards them. Except for two.

  Two of them were heading towards . . .

  The well.

  It all clicked into place for her at that moment. The Gegan gnomes’ chief did know where the exit was, and while its main thought was to keep them away, it couldn’t help also thinking about what it was keeping them away from-which was the well, another tunnel hidden, but in plain sight. Freya nudged Daniel and pointed. He looked at it for a moment before his eyes grew wide, and a smile flashed across his face. They silently communicated to the two knights, and they pushed through the growing circle of gnomes and collected their packs. They brushed aside the gnomes that were clinging to them or who had climbed on top of them.

  They had just turned towards the well when they heard:

  “Where are you going?”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Stay here.”

  “Stay away from there.”

  “Get ready, boys.”

  They paused instantly, and then Swi?gar said, “Let us be swift, ??elingas-the gnomes are starting to turn.”

  “Do they know?”

  “They’ve twigged it.”

  “But do they know?”

  “They’ve figured it out.”

  “Get them!”

  As one, the gnomes leapt forward, gripping at their legs and climbing upwards.

  “Run!” shouted Ecgbryt, booting a gnome halfway across the encampment. Daniel and Freya struggled forward, trying to shake the gnomes off of them. It was hard work, as their little pudgy hands gripped their clothes tenaciously.

  “Slow them down!”

  “Weigh them down!”

  “Stab them!”

  “Slit their throats!”

  At these alarming cries, one of the gnomes that had swung onto Freya’s sleeve produced a knife from its belt. Its blade was only two inches long, but it looked very, very sharp. Whipping her arm away, she sent it flying, just as she heard Daniel cry out.

  He reached down and clawed a gnome off of his shin and threw it away from him. More and more of the gnomes were producing knives. The well bristled with them now; the whole rest of the clan of gnomes was now lining its rim, waiting for them.

  Daniel had an idea, though, and glanced across to the gnome chieftain, still atop the rock near his the purple lantern. He was standing, hands clenched at his sides, glaring at them in anger, but there were no gnomes around him, and none between the two of them. Daniel saw his chance and jumped towards the chief, clearing the heads of several gnomes around him.

  The gnomes were fast and energetic, but no match for a boy running at top speed. In any case, it was only a dozen steps before Daniel had reached him. During that time, he had shaken the gnomes from him and drawn his sword.

  “No!”

  “Stop him!”

  “Help!”

  “Don’t!”

  “Please!”

  “Mercy!”

  Biting down on his lip, Daniel brought his sword down and cleaved through Gegan, the chief gnome. The sword entered the gnome’s shoulder and sunk to his
belly. A second later the small, rotund little creature was dead.

  The gnomes exploded into a frenzy. The ones that were on either the knights or Freya let go and fell to the ground. The gnomes lining the well ran all different directions, bumping into each other and falling in and off the well itself.

  They scattered, screaming and wailing into the darkness. Soon they were gone from sight.

  Wincing, and trying not to vomit, Daniel shook the dead body of the gnome off of his sword. It fell to the ground with a plop.

  “That was fast thinking, Daniel,” Ecgbryt said. “Well done.”

  “You gave me the idea for it,” Daniel said, wiping his sword with a bit of his leather coat and sheathing it again.

  “Let’s move on,” Swi?gar said. “Before the Ergan gnomes come back.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The Faerie Fayre

  1

  Now . . .

  Daniel awoke just as the sky-where he could see it between the billows of the smoking woodpiles-was just starting to lighten and the stars had begun to fade. Finally his body was adjusting to the incredibly long days.

  During the night, the collier had extinguished the fires and was breaking open the first mound. He had paused in his task and was resting his hands on his shovel, his lips moving as if he were talking to someone. As Daniel watched him, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he thought he saw a shadow standing before the collier, which was roughly the size of a person.

  The collier stood as if listening now, and then inclined his head and raised his arm in a farewell. The shadow evaporated and the collier turned back to his work.

  Daniel sipped some water from a bowl taken from the cistern and relieved himself behind the hut. After taking a sip from the breakfast bottle and ignoring the gnawing pit of hunger in his stomach, he picked up a shovel and went to join the collier.

  They shared a “good morning” nod.

  “My wife will be here, perhaps this afternoon,” the collier announced. Daniel was surprised; he hadn’t considered that the collier might be married.

  “Is that who you were talking to?” Daniel asked. “Where is she now?”