by Mark Hockley
THE UNDERLAND
"This way," cried Jinn, as they passed swiftly beneath a wooded thicket, dense and unyielding against a sunless sky. Tom stared ahead, half-dazed, not really knowing what to expect, the only thing clear in his mind the appalling baying of the bloodhounds that stalked him so relentlessly. The man who led him pointed a long finger toward a small hole in the dank earth, situated at the base of a long, grassy bank.
"What!?" Tom muttered, panting, his throat burning and dry.
"No time to squander," voiced Elrin Jinn with irritation, but Tom simply came to a halt and stared at the man utterly despondent and mystified.
"There's nowhere to run," he stated, beginning to lose the will to go on.
His new companion smiled gamely. "We shall see."
Quite suddenly the world changed for Tom, above and all around him monstrous green creatures swayed overhead, bending down as if to smother him. He almost screamed but stopped himself as he saw the face of Elrin Jinn loom before him, appearing from nowhere and blotting out all else.
"Come master," the man commanded, taking hold of Tom's arm roughly and as he was herded toward the deep, black entrance of what he presumed to be a cave, Tom just had time to glance about him, to see that there was no longer any evidence of sky above, only a vast roof of green, alive and ever-moving.
This will be the first place they'll look, he thought as they were swallowed up by darkness.
"All goes well?" he asked, assured that it did, a contented smile playing upon his fleshy lips.
The woman looked down upon the small man for a second, her eyes narrowed, then nodded. "All goes well," she confirmed in a melodic voice that he found quite enchanting.
"And is there word of the others?" he enquired, his confidence growing.
The woman in white raised one eyebrow enigmatically. "I know where they are," she said simply and he rubbed his fat hands together with enthusiasm.
"Is there anything further you wish of me?" the man ventured, boldly stepping forward. "You know it is my pleasure to be of any small service to one so fair."
The woman smiled at this, an appealing, coy aspect in her expression that revealed the face of a young girl. "Yes," she sighed, "there is something. Just a little thing." She paused as if in thought, a faraway look in her dark eyes while the man hung upon her every word. "An errand!" she exclaimed, now looking at him intently. "It seems I have left something behind. Would you fetch it for me?" He nodded, anxious to do his mistress' bidding. "It is inside the house," she directed, "in the generator room." The woman smiled at this briefly, as if privy to some private joke, her sharp teeth glinting like steel.
The small man's brow furrowed, unsure. "What is it that you wish me to bring?" he questioned, fearful of her wrath, but the smile remained.
"You will know it when you see it," she assured him gently, her voice no more than a whisper and he bowed, knowing that his lady's word was final. The task, after all, was not a difficult one and yet he felt strangely apprehensive, a dull, distant throbbing beginning inside his head, the first faint pulse of something akin to fear. But all the same he went. And the woman in white watched him go.
She had made him responsible for the house since their arrival and yet, despite her trust, he had been careless. But she could not really blame him for that, for in truth, he had only been guilty of his own limitations. He was just like all of the others in her service, no more or less than a device, an instrument, to be used and then discarded when it had served its purpose.
Now though, she wanted blood, the smell of it, the taste of it, the divine gluttony of the kill and her hunger had to be satisfied. Even as her huntsmen tracked the interlopers, she would have her hors-d'oeuvre, a tasty morsel before the feast.
Death, her consort, was an insatiable lover and to appease that constant lust, she had sent her servant down into the bowels of the house, down deep into its writhing gut, where a force almost as wild and powerful as herself was about to burst free of its long confinement.
These things she knew and much more besides, and so with gentle laughter she made her way back toward the great house, intent on having the best possible view when the show began.
Jack rested against the sturdy timber of an old tree. He felt relaxed and peaceful.
Beside him, the badger lay sprawled out, its breathing regular, the gentle rise and fall of the animal's chest somehow reassuring to him.
"What are you doing, Mo?" he said softly, laughing a little. "Sun-bathing!?"
But there was no sun, he knew, the realisation sobering him at once, although he noticed that something high above them did gleam, a radiant sphere in the heavens. Jack peered up at it and wondered what it could be.
Maybe it's an imitation sun he speculated, his thoughts forming very slowly, his faculties languid and hazy.
It occurred to him that if there was indeed no true sun, then they should not be able to see anything at all and this led him at length to a conclusion that was difficult to accept but nonetheless undeniable. There has to be another source.
He stared up at the bright orb and watched it as it seemed to move almost imperceptibly across the cerulean domain above him. Becoming bored, Jack turned his attention to a blade of grass he had plucked from the mass around the base of the tree and proceeded to chew on it absently. This is a great holiday. I'm having a wonderful time. He thought this in a flat, impassive way, not really understanding his own feelings.
Memories stirred, pressing to be set free, but Jack shut them away, locked in the vault of his confused mind.
I'm fine as I am. No need to dig up the past. Let it rest in peace.
He spat out the grass and stared dumbly at his hands. They seemed almost alien to him and he turned them over, eyeing them as if they had no business being attached to his body.
Mo turned his head and looked solemnly at the boy, blinking his large eyes and Jack smiled at his friend. "Hello."
The badger regarded him thoughtfully for a few seconds and then shook his body. "How do you feel?" the animal asked.
"Fine," Jack replied, his head clearing, his thoughts becoming more focused. "I feel fine."
Mo continued to stare fixedly at him and Jack felt a little uneasy under the badger's scrutiny. "That’s good."
"Did you have a nice rest?" Jack enquired in a good-natured way, but Mo did not answer, turning his head to stare into the thick woods that surrounded them.
"We can’t stay here," he stated at length, "this place is not safe."
"Let's get going then."
The badger returned his gaze to the boy. "There is something, it would seem, that you have forgotten."
Pursing his lips slightly, Jack tried to think what Mo could be talking about. Had he forgotten something? He didn't think that he had. "I can't think of anything," he said with
a small shrug, as if to dismiss the matter.
"Yes, that may well be," returned the animal, grim-voiced, "and in some ways, at least for the present, that is for the best, but surely, Jack, you cannot have forgotten about Tom?"
Jack bit his lip hard and frowned. Tom! Where was Tom?
Before he could voice this question, the howling of a dog, or at least that was what Jack thought it must be, disturbed his thoughts.
"The hunters are abroad," called Mo, hurriedly moving to the boy's side.
"Hunters?" questioned Jack, failing to see what it had to do with them.
"Indeed!" the badger answered, "and they come for us."
An expression of anxiety replaced the vaguely perplexed look Jack had worn moments before and he felt a chill run through his body. "But what about Tom?"
"They hunt him too," said Mo with simple force. "But for now, you and I will have to look out for ourselves and pray that Tom can do the same. If we can elude our pursuers, then perhaps we can set about finding Tom. Remember Jack, hope is always with us, if we care to look for it."
Jack's mind was still a blur of unresolved questions and mysteries,
the circumstances leading up to this moment difficult to discern, a fog clouding his recollections. What had happened to him in the great house? He couldn't say. A mental veil now masked these events and only vague images, like ghosts haunting his mind, drifted into his awareness.
They began to move away swiftly cutting through some undergrowth, following the line
of a low bank, the bulky figure of the badger leading with Jack in close pursuit, his concentration now solely on not falling behind.
Down, down, into the deep he went. Tom felt as if he were becoming smaller and smaller as he followed Jinn. Like a speck of dust whirling through infinity, it was as though he had lost all sense of his physical being, or at least in the way he had always known it.
Was this escape or capture?
"Where are you taking me?" Tom breathed, his voice reverberating from the tunnel walls.
"Into the deep, and beyond. Worlds within worlds, dreams within dreams." With a suddenness that caught Tom by complete surprise, Elrin Jinn came to a halt, the boy barely managing to avoid crashing into him and trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness, Tom waited for the man to speak again. "Listen," Jinn said after several long moments.
Tom did as he was told and above them, far away it seemed, there came a thunderous boom, echoing through the ground. For one awful moment he was convinced that there would be a cave-in and dreadful visions of earth choking him filled his head, but the sound soon died away and he knew then that it must have been something distant from them.
"What was that!?" he asked, just able to make out the dim features of his companion in the gloom.
"The cry of a dying beast perhaps," Jinn said dryly. "It matters not to us. There are other things for us to consider now."
"Where are we going?" demanded Tom, still wary of this strange man.
"Into the heart," retorted Elrin Jinn, "to where you'll be safe."
"The heart of what?" Tom questioned, frustrated by the man's ambiguous remarks.
Jinn chuckled but did not answer. "We should go now."
"Do I have a choice?" Tom said fiercely and the man came close to him, his face inches from the boys.
"Of course," he hissed vehemently. "You can turn around and go back if you wish. The redcoats will be pleased to see you!"
With a quick, irritated shake of his head, Tom peered ahead into the darkness. "Let's get going," he said gruffly after a second or two and he thought that he saw the man in green smile.
"Yes, let us do that. But be warned," came Jinn's ominous whisper, "watch out for the shrews."
"The shrews?" Tom repeated.
"They come and they go, this way and that," the man went on evenly, "you never know when they may come." And then he was off again, moving rapidly along the winding
tunnel, deeper, deeper into the earth and as they went the mysterious man known as Elrin Jinn began to sing:
"Into the heart of the deep you go,
into the kingdom that lies below,
secrets and treasures are waiting there,
for you to come and claim your share,
with fortune travelling at your side
and lady luck as your bride,
take as much as you can hold,
if you are daring, if you are bold."
