by Robert Beers
“WHAT COULD?” Adam yelled out the question.
Bilardi stopped, and turned to face Adam, “According to Grisham's history, the same engineer who designed the harbor defense, created the schematics for the tunnel system. Those,” he pointed at the cut running across the tunnel floor, “aren't sewers at all. That's why they're dry. They're part of the city's defensive system, troughs to carry burning pitch and naphtha. Somewhere back up there,” this time he pointed into the opening in the tunnel wall, “are huge cisterns filled with the stuff. And somewhere, hidden in this wall, is a release for the bridge.”
“I'm not surprised you didn't know anything about this, Adam,” Ethan said, as he continued his search. “The knowledge was kept pretty close to the royal family during the time of the empire.”
“And I'm just as surprised you knew,” Bilardi remarked, dropping onto one knee to check the bricks near the tunnel floor, “As it is supposed to be secret.”
Ethan smiled, “Another aspect of my misspent youth. Grisham's family tree has a few sprouts. Some of those sprouts have daughters. One of them liked to talk, among other things.”
Bilardi grimaced, “My grandfather, yet again. That old man would have bedded the statues in the gardens if it were possible. I don't suppose you know if this dalliance of yours shared her secrets with anyone else, do you?”
Ethan turned back to the wall, and his search. “Don't know. I was just passing through back then. She was a barmaid in a pub. I doubt anyone paid much attention to her mouth. The usual focal point is about a foot lower.”
“Ah ha!”
Adam turned at Ethan's shout. He had his right hand pressed against a brick in the tunnel wall, situated nearly level with his eyes. “Look at this.” He exerted pressure, and the brick swiveled out, revealing a brass lever set into a slot nearly as long as the brick.
“Well, see if it works, man.” Bilardi wiped his hands on his trousers and stood.
“Go ahead Ethan. We may as well try it.” Adam wondered if a mechanism so old could even function.
Ethan grasped the lever handle and pulled. It moved reluctantly, but it moved. A grinding sound built up beneath the paving stones, and then, slowly, as if shaking off the sluggishness of a long sleep, a series of metal planks extended from both sides of the gap to meet in the middle.
As the ends joined, great blunt hooks, pushed by the heavy flanges on the opposing plank, pivoted out and snapped into place, sealing the two into a solid bridge.
“So, that's how it works,” Adam said, moving closer to look at the bridge.
“I'll bet it would hold an armourer's cart, no problem,” Bilardi nodded.
Ethan stood, walked over and picked up the paving stone he had removed earlier. “I'd best put this one back with its friends,” he said.
After replacing it, he stood back with Adam and Bilardi and looked once more at the bridge. The stone he had replaced formed, along with the others, an inch high bump in the middle of the bridge about two feet wide.
“Perfectly disguised, when the gap is opened,” Bilardi said, pointing to the stones, “and, just a slight bump for the wagons to cross over. We'll open them back up when we return this way.”
“If we return this way,” Ethan added. “We still don't know what we'll find at the end of this tunnel.”
“You are a gloomy individual sometimes, do you know that?” Bilardi said, with a smile. “Let's see where the end of this tunnel is, and then we'll be able to forecast our fates a bit better.”
Four more of the gaps crossed their path before they saw the pale light that signaled the tunnel's end. A sound, like that of a distant wind rose up as they approached another corner. Faint halos glimmered, highlighting the bricks at the corner's edge.
They turned the corner and saw the source of the illumination, as well as the sound. Gaps, both small and large, showed in the tunnels wall where bricks had fallen. Some of them lay strewn across the paving stones of the floor. Small flying insects danced lazily in the light shining through some of the gaps.
Adam looked upwards through one of the larger rents in the tunnel wall. “It looks like we're spanning a gorge. All I can see is a faint line of sky mostly hidden by a cliff edge.”
Bilardi went to the other side of the tunnel and looked through a gap. “This shouldn't be here. There are no gorges near Grisham.”
“Weren't, you mean,” Ethan said, with a smile. “That earthquake did this, I'll bet. The ancients built their tunnels well.” He tapped the paving stone under him with the heel of his boot. “This feels just as solid as the rest.”
“There's the tunnel's end.” Adam pointed ahead of them where a sharp rise in the floor vanished into gloom.
“Are you sure?” Bilardi asked, “I can't see anything in that blackness.”
Adam then realized he was using his Wizard sense. Bilardi and Ethan would only see the deep shadows that hid the tunnel mouth. “Trust me, it's there.”
Ethan looked at him sharply, and then nodded, “Ok, lad, you're the one with the sharper eyes, let's check it out.”
As Adam had said, the tunnel's mouth lay at the back of the gloom, a thin line of light, too faint to be seen from any distance from the doors, shone at the join of the two massive iron-studded doors. Tendrils of green curled from beneath the doors and a faint dusting of earth covered the floor just inside the doors rim.
“I don't see a handle for opening.” Ethan peered closely at the walls on either side of the doors.
“They're probably hidden, just like the lever for the bridge,” Bilardi joined in the hunt by poking at the paving stones at the base of the left hand wall.
Adam stood away from the doors and let his Wizard sense explore the area. The doors were even more solid than they looked. His sense told him whole armies would wear themselves out against them. Huge steel beams, wrapped in brass, shot through both doors and into the rock of the walls. Heavy brass hinges, running from floor to ceiling, connected the doors to the wall. The doors swung inward, so any controlling mechanism had to be set far enough away from the doors so their opening wouldn't cover it.
He cast his sense into the wall several feet back of where Bilardi was searching and found it. A cupboard disguised by a facade of three bricks covered a small alcove. Within the alcove sat the lever they were looking for.
While Ethan ran his hands over the stones along the right hand side of the tunnel, Adam crossed over to where he had sensed the door's control. It swung open smoothly. More of the ancient's building mastery, he thought.
He looked down. Bilardi still had his attention focused on the stones below him, and Ethan had just stopped his search and was gathering himself back to his feet. Both turned as the door locks began pulling back into the walls.
“Who...?” Bilardi halted in mid-rise and watched as the massive doors slowly began to open.
“I think you'd better step away from there. They look heavy,” Adam said, dryly.
Ethan gave Adam another searching look as he joined Bilardi next to the control.
Adam saw the look and shrugged.
Ethan nodded back with a small smile at the corner of his mouth. There's a lot more use in knowing a Wizard than one would think, he said to himself.
“We'd best be ready just in case,” Ethan drew his sword by example.
Adam and Bilardi followed suit. Adam sent his Wizard sense out beyond the slowly opening doors as a probe, but all he got was a feeling of green. It was getting harder to sense things, and he could feel a strain in the back of his mind. Probably some more of that draining Milward told me about, he thought, as he cut off the flow of power.
The doors continued their stately traverse inward. As the gap between them widened, the density of the growth outside the tunnel revealed itself.
“Lovely,” Bilardi grumbled. A tangle of vines and underbrush thoroughly blocked any passage through the doorway. “It's going to take a good hour to hack our way through this mess. I can't see a blessed thing, besides leaves
.”
“Well then,” Ethan swung his sword a few times to loosen his arm, “we should get started.” He put action to his words and greenery flew.
Adam stepped in beside him, glad for the chance to do something with a distinct purpose. Bilardi watched for a couple of seconds and then he too joined in.
Contrary to the Captain's estimate, they were through the overgrowth in less than a quarter hour. Bilardi hacked the last length of vine that dangled before his eyes out of the way and looked at the tableau before him, “Bloody hell!”
Chapter Nineteen
Charity stood at the edge of the rock promontory shielding her eyes against the rising sun. Below her stretched the white ribbon of Labad's highway, and below that, the blue expanse of the eastern ocean. Next to her Circumstance sat, with his legs dangling over the rock's edge. It had been two days now, since their encounter with the demon from the shadow realm. The boy did not appear to have taken any lasting harm from the fight, but she could not help glancing at him every now and then, just to be sure.
Flynn and Neely stood to the right and behind Charity and Circumstance, minding the horses. The cat sat upright just behind Charity's saddle, seemingly asleep. Neely took out the straw he had been chewing on and spat. “It ain't gonna look any shorter, Charity, no matter how long you looks.”
Neely rubbed one of the several bruises he had picked up during the fight with the Draugs. Flynn patted his draft horse's nose and limped over to stand just behind Charity. “Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout, Miss Charity?”
She turned and favored the big man with a sad smile. “My brother, I've been thinking about my brother. It's been so long, nearly four years now, Flynn. I ... I'm wondering if he'll even recognize me by now, there've been so many changes.”
Flynn did not answer.
“I'm afraid, Flynn. After all we've been through, I'm afraid. It's the one thing I've wanted, since I found out he was alive, and now I'm terrified over the prospect of actually seeing my brother. What's wrong with me?”
Circumstance turned halfway and looked up at Flynn.
The big man shrugged and scratched his thigh. The wound was starting to itch. “I dunno, Miss Charity, they's nuthin’ wrong with you I kin see. Maybe it's just nerves, ya know? I mean ... iffin it's somthin’ really important to a body ... uh, then that body tends to be a mite more thoughtful about it, you follow?”
Circumstance transferred his attention back to Charity.
She looked back out over the vista that included the highway and nodded. “That's probably it Flynn, and I thank you, but it doesn't settle my stomach.”
“Well,” Flynn said, softly, “Iffn you need a shoulder sometime, mine's big enuf to take the load.”
Charity nodded again and turned back to take the reins of her mare, “Like Neely said, looking at the road won't make it any shorter. We may as well be on our way.”
Flynn grunted in assent and swung into his own saddle. His draft horse whickered softly, and he reached out to rub the spot between the stallion's ears. “We'll be headin’ down soon, m'lad, just be patient.”
Neely spat once more and reached for Wilbut's halter, “Yeah, let's be going, though I can't say I'm much lookin’ forward to it.”
“I am,” Circumstance stood and moved over to where Flynn could help him up behind his saddle, “I've never seen Grisham, it sounds interesting.”
“Yeah, Neely,” Flynn spoke up, with a chuckle, “You never know, it could be more fun than a barrel of fish.”
Neely's reply was unprintable.
* * * *
The wolf pack worked its way down the slope, following a trail that was ancient when Grisham was little more than a gathering of shacks near the water's edge. It had been an easy journey thus far, game was plentiful and so was water. The growing pups were able to keep up with the Alpha Wolf's pace easily, and the abundance of small game gave them plenty of practice in the hunt.
The Alpha wolf halted in mid-stride and sniffed the air. He sniffed again and growled low in his throat. His she, walking just behind him and to the left, sniffed. She too released a low warning growl.
“You smell it.” The Alpha wolf's ears remained flattened against his skull.
“As does the pack, my mate, there is great evil in the wood, and it is not the man-things we passed before."
More growls and a few snarls came from the pack gathered behind them. One of the pups began to whimper.
“Gather the pups into the center and keep them safe,” The Alpha wolf sniffed the air again. “It is behind us. We will run in that direction,” He pointed, with his muzzle, toward the southeast, further on down the foothills toward Grisham's wooded outskirts.
The pack ran, as if the very pit itself was chasing them. Breath was saved for flight now. None of the pack, not even the youngest pup, uttered even the briefest of growls. The only sound of their passage was the slight padding of their feet against the leaf cover of the forest floor. After they had covered a good three to four miles, the Alpha wolf slowed, and trotted to a stop before a vine covered hillock. He sniffed the air, whimpered softly in his throat, and then sniffed again.
“What is it, my mate?” The mother of his pups turned from her examination of the young as he whimpered again.
“Do you not smell him? It is Bright-eye, our two-leg packmate. He is here, nearby.”
She sniffed, and opened her mouth in a wolf smile, "I smell him, my mate. He is with two others, in there.” She turned toward the hillock.
A sound came to their ears, a low rumbling from deep in the ground. The pups yelped in fright and hid between their mothers’ legs. As the sound continued, the vines covering the hillock shifted and rustled, as if seeking prey.
With his hackles raised, the Alpha wolf sidestepped toward the hillock, fully ready to do battle with whatever was between himself and his two-legged packmate. The voices of the two-legs came to him and then the sound of the long teeth they sometimes carried, cutting into things. He backed away until he stood alongside his mate.
“We wait?” She asked.
“We wait.”
* * * *
“Bloody hell!”
“What is it?” Ethan pushed through the cut vines and immediately dropped into a fighting crouch. “Adam! Get yourself ready. There's a pack of wolves out here.”
“Wolves?” Adam shouldered his way past Ethan and Bilardi and walked over to stand just before the pack. His sword went back into its scabbard.
“Adam!” Ethan hissed, “What are you doing?”
“Captain!” Bilardi's warning came in riding on the back of Ethan's.
Adam ignored them and knelt in front of the Alpha wolf and his she, “I smell you pack leader. Was the hunting good?"
“...What is he doing?”
“I think he's talking to them.”
“That ... growling, is talking?”
Adam heard the whispers behind him, but his focus remained on the pack. He hadn't realized how much he missed the honest camaraderie the wolves offered before now.
The Alpha wolf ducked his head and opened his mouth in a grin, “I smell you bright-eye. The hunting has been good, and the pack is strong. Where is your she, have you sired pups yet?"
Ethan and Bilardi remained with their swords at the ready, but the wolf, and the pack behind him, studiously ignored Ethan and Bilardi in favor of their two-legged packmate.
“There will be time for that later,” The Alpha wolf's she broke in before Adam could answer. “There is danger near.”
Adam's sword leapt into his hand, “Danger, from where?”
“What is it?”
“What's going on? Are those beasts attacking?” Bilardi slid over to Adam's left, and Ethan covered his right.
“Stay back, back!” Adam whirled and glared at his would-be protectors, “These are our friends. They sense danger somewhere close to us, and if they say it's near, you can be sure of it.”
Ethan paused, started to say something, and then nodded, movi
ng his attention away from the wolves to the area beyond them.
Bilardi shook his head in confusion. “I can't believe what I'm hearing; these ... slavering beasts, friends? I'm sorry, Adam, but I'll need...”
“Do what he says, Captain Bilardi,” Ethan said, quietly, “Or have you forgotten about what occurred the day he entered your city?”
Bilardi's eyes lost their focus for a moment as he thought back to that day.
“Captain?”
The eyes refocused, and Bilardi flashed a brief smile, “I remember. There's a lot about our young Captain we know nothing about.”
“We're just scratching the surface, I imagine,” Ethan answered. “Now keep a sharp watch, my own hackles are starting to rise.”
“Do you think it's Southerners?” Bilardi swept his eyes across the rise running to the left of where he stood.
“I don't think so,” Ethan answered. “According to the map, that entrance sits at least ten miles or more behind their lines. I'd wager we couldn't even see the city walls without committing to a good hike.”
“The two-legs with you, bright-eye,” The Alpha wolf growled, “can they fight well?”
“Both of them are worthy, pack leader,” Adam answered, in the wolf's tongue. “They are members of my own pack, tried in battle and the hunt.”
“It is there, my mate,” The Alpha wolf's she crossed in front of her mate and crouched, growling before a copse covered in brambles and slender hardwoods.
The Alpha wolf turned with her as the rest of the pack spread into a skirmish line. Two of the females herded the pups off to the side and into the tunnel entrance.
As he sent out his Wizard sense, Adam shifted his stance to match the position of the wolves. “It's coming from this direction.” He pointed toward the copse with his sword.
His Wizard sense rebounded off of something that roiled with blackness. It sent shivers of icy heat along his spine. Whatever was out there, it was big, and possessed a form of magik all its own. He was going to be forced into using his power, in spite of everything.
The hardwoods along the ridge just above the copse rustled, and then snapped as something slammed against them. Adam got another sense of blackness just before the thing's head came into view.
