Descent Into Underearth

by Susan Bianculli

  Silence was my reply. The mare stamped her foreleg once and nudged at me to continue my work, but I put down the comb and exited the stall. There couldn’t have been anyone in the stables right now except for me. Was someone hiding out up in the loft to slack off? I found that hard to believe because everyone from the valley still pretty much worked like Bascom and Morsca were still here. When the workers were set to a task, they didn’t deviate from it until it was done. But, apparently, someone had managed to break the mold. I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased about that or not.

  “Hey, whoever you are, it’s okay. I won’t say anything to anybody. But you really should come down and report in to a work detail or something,” I called up. “The sooner the valley is cleaned and organized, the sooner you can get to figuring out what your life should become now that Morsca and Bascom are gone.”

  There was no reply, but I did hear some rustling upstairs as if someone was trying to move quietly through the straw.

  I grew annoyed. “You could at least say something, you know.” Then the thought occurred to me that maybe the someone was hurt. “Hey, do you need help?” I asked.

  Without waiting for a reply I found the ladder and climbed to the loft. As soon as the someone realized that I was coming up, all pretenses of being quiet were given up. Heavy feet ran unevenly along the sides of the loft heading away from the ladder, which made me realize that the someone was probably not hurt, or if so, at least not hurt badly. It flashed through my mind that maybe it was a guard from the battle yesterday who wasn’t ready to give up working for the slavers. And though I was wearing my chainmail, I didn’t have anything other than my eating utensils on me.

  I jumped down off the ladder and ran outside to the grooms working around the stables, yelling, “Hey! There’s someone hiding out in the hayloft! And whoever it is may be armed!”

  The nearest four grooms—a tan-skinned Ogre, a black-skinned Miscere Troll whose other half looked like it was Ogre, a green lizard-like Ataque, and a grey-green Goblin—stopped and picked up lengths of stout broken wood from the debris to use as cudgels. They followed me back into the stables while I told them what I’d heard. The grooms and I climbed the sturdy ladder, and they readied their makeshift weapons before fanning out through the dim loft in pairs. I stayed by the ladder with my knife out, ready to delay the someone from coming back and escaping down it, because the loft-hider had to be flushed out eventually.

  While scanning around me for anyone that wasn’t one of the grooms, I saw a long piece of ragged black fabric that looked like it had been torn off of something. Investigating, I found the piece of flooring where the someone must have been before we came up the ladder. It was black with dirt and dotted about with splotches that looked like blood. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and leapt to my feet, but it was only the grooms returning.

  “There is no one here,” the Ogre grunted.

  “Well, there certainly had been,” I said, pointing out my discovery.

  The grooms all looked at it and agreed with me, but they still insisted there was no one up there besides us. I found that puzzling. There was no other exit from the loft except through a large hatch on the front wall that opened to the outside to allow hay bales to be loaded directly into the hayloft. But it hadn’t been opened. And there was no other way down to the ground floor of the barn from the loft.

  How could the mysterious slacker have gotten away?

  CHAPTER 2

  I took the matter and the fabric to Dusk. I found him at Barrel HQ, my private name for the place I’d hidden before the mini-war had begun, which first had become a supply station and now a headquarters in earnest. The tall and wide pile of wooden casks had been turned into the Grey Riders’ base of operations for the valley since Dusk and the others really didn’t want to use the keep that much. They didn’t want to get in the way of the building being demolished piece by piece to repair the village, farms and roads that had been damaged in the earthquake over a week ago. I had to wait while the Miscere Surface-elf mediated between the two valley leaders he’d left the courtyard with some time ago, who were squabbling like geese over a particular set of building supplies. When they finally left, both still somewhat dissatisfied, it was my turn to speak to him, tell him about my encounter, and show him the scrap.

  “Hmm. That is indeed odd, Lise,” he said as he took the fabric from me and examined it. “Look here,” he said, pointing to one of the ragged edges. “It looks like this cloth has been burned at some point in the past.”

  I nodded. “How do you think that could have happened?”

  Dusk shrugged. “Some of the potion bottles that Heather had thrown down on the various fights she’d flown over yesterday exploded. And those explosions made fires break out while you and Ragar were inside the keep looking for Arghen and Auraus. I would guess that this cloth came from a guard who got burned by one of the explosions and fled the field to hide in the stables.”

  “What if those grooms were covering up for the someone?” I asked suspiciously. “Maybe the someone was a relative of one of them or something.” I then frowned as I realized something. “Oh, man, I didn’t go up and check through the loft for myself after they left. I should have gotten my sword and done it then, but there’s no point now because the someone will have had plenty of time to get away from there. I’m sorry,” I apologized.

  Dusk gave me a brief, white-toothed smile. “There is no call to be sorry, Lise. And what is done, is done. We will find out who it was. It was part of my intentions to do a sweep for hostiles in any case, so this incident will just make that take a higher position on my list, is all.”

  “But how could he or she have escaped?” I asked. “There was no other way out of there.”

  “There might be a secret exit somewhere, although it seems unlikely for a stable’s loft. In any case, not only will I have a sweep done, I will have the leaders pull some people off reconstruction/deconstruction to search and act as guards for the area in case there are other deserters who are hiding in and around the keep.”

  He waved over one of the Grey Riders standing nearby and started organizing a search and guard detail with her. I had to be content with that, and I left him to it. Dusk had a lot to do and not much time or materials to do it with. I didn’t envy him his self-appointed job.

  Lunch time found me walking aimlessly around the construction zones. I didn’t stray too far from the area around the courtyard because that was where Auraus was going to come back to report. I scanned the skies every so often, hoping to see white wings in the distance, but the skies remained stubbornly empty. I grabbed something to eat from one of the food carts wending their way among the work gangs, wished for a large, hot café-au-lait with three sugars as I took a long drink from a tepid waterskin, and continued my restless wanderings. Finally, mid-afternoon brought me the sight that I had been craving—a flash of white in the sky far across the valley and heading straight for us. It had to be Auraus.

  I dashed to the courtyard. “She’s coming back! She’s coming back! Now we can go rescue Jason!” I yelled excitedly.

  Everyone who heard me stopped what they were doing and looked up at the sky. Sure enough, a tiny winged form in the distance got larger pretty quick as it neared us, and soon Auraus landed in the courtyard with a big smile on her face.

  She reached into one of the many pockets in her clothes and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. “Here it is, Lise!”

  I took it eagerly from her and smoothed open the thick paper on a flattened chunk of stone as everyone in the area crowded around. Dusk entered the courtyard and joined us, keep map in hand. He spread his larger map to the right of mine, and everyone compared the two.

  “Lise, I think that this entrance is about half a day away on foot,” the amber-eyed Surface-elf said finally. “Since you will be mounted, it should only take a few hours to get there.”

  I put on a brave face, but that was not the news I had wanted to hear. I had bee
n hoping that the entrance was much closer than that.

  He traced the real map against Auraus’ hand-drawn one. “Good job, Auraus. Your work is fairly accurate, but let me add a couple of features.”

  The Wind-rider smiled at the compliment and was quick to hand him her quill and ink. Dusk added a few landmarks that he felt would be useful to us while we were trying to navigate by her map.

  “There,” he said, finishing with a flourish. “I am guessing that you want to get underway, even though it will be sunset in a few degrees’ time?”

  I nodded vigorously, not trusting my voice.

  He smiled as he handed Auraus her quill and ink back. “I figured as much. Your mounts are outside. When I saw Auraus approaching, I ordered your animals to be made ready. I am sorry that I cannot go with you on the rescue, but my work here is still far from done,” he ended with regret in his voice.

  I threw my arms around him. “Thanks for everything, Dusk! And I do understand. I’ll miss you.”

  “You are most welcome,” he said, hugging me back. Stepping back to hold me at arm’s length, he said with all seriousness, “Lise. Be careful. You are going where no Surfacer that I know of has willingly gone. It is sheer luck that you have Arghen on whom you can rely for knowledge of the Sub-realms. Trust his judgment, and let him stand in for our agreement on learning to lead.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  Turning to include everyone, he said, “Thank you all for agreeing to rescue our comrade, Jason. May the Goddess Caelestis watch over you as you travel the roads, and may my mother Quiris be able to guide you in the depths.”

  I said, “All right everybody, let’s get this show on the road!”

  I caught my breath in a pang as I remembered using almost those same words to Jason several weeks ago on our original trip in. Shaking it off, I headed to Saffron and saddled up, waiting a little impatiently as Ragar, Heather, and Arghen mounted their animals. I made sure to give Heather an iron bar while putting my own into a specially added pocket sleeve on my sword sheath modified to accommodate it.

  “Remember about iron over here, Heather! You need to be careful that no one besides you touches it, or you could burn somebody.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” Heather said dismissively, shoving the ex-cell door bar into her sword sheath’s pocket. “It’s not like we haven’t talked about the dangers of iron before.”

  Auraus, after one long kiss with Dusk that left the Miscere Surface-elf breathless, waved a jaunty little salute at us and launched herself into the air. Arghen, smiling a half smile at Dusk, took the leading strings of Auraus’ horse, Starr. The Wind-rider had wanted to meet us at the Sub-realm cave entrance because she wanted to fly while she could. I’d agreed since we didn’t know when she would have a chance to do it again.

  Heather, Arghen, Ragar, and I hit the road. We traveled the only road out of the pretty valley, which led south. I reflected as we rode up the incline out of the valley that it wouldn’t take much to cut this area off from the rest of the world for a while, if someone was determined enough to do it. I could see Arghen had the same thought because I noticed him sizing up the pathway and its cliffs in relation to the valley as we crossed over the lip and down the other side. We traveled the ways the hand-drawn map indicated, with me pushing the pace as much as I dared, in order to get as close as we could before the growing darkness forced us to halt.

  “All right, let’s make camp,” I said, raising a hand for everyone to stop as the sky started turning the purples and blues of after sunset.

  We all dismounted in the middle of a long, dirt-and-rock canyon trail, with Heather doing so more slowly than the rest. The first thing she did when her feet hit the ground was to reach into her saddlebags and pull out the familiar jar of muscle cream. I smiled sympathetically at her, remembering how much I hurt those first few days when I’d come here.

  “Don’t worry, Heather, it does eventually get better,” I said by way of encouragement.

  She made a face at me and turned away to slather it on her tan skin inside her pants to soothe her aches and pains. The rest of us set up camp against the canyon wall and had dinner started by the time she gingerly walked over to join us around the fire and sit next to Ragar.

  “It isn’t room service from the Ritz, but it’ll at least make you not hungry anymore,” I joked with her as I gave a plate of moistened warmed jerky with a compressed vegetable and grain bar on the side.

  “Don’t remind me about room service,” she said glumly while accepting the food.

  The little voice in the back of my head lamented along with her. Turning away, I caught Arghen scanning the sky with his sharp amber eyes. Realizing why he was doing that, and getting worried myself, I started looking upwards, too.

  “Do you think she’s all right?” I asked him.

  He replied, “I hope so. Just because the valley has surrendered does not mean there are not quads or small companies of guards out there who are not interested in having the peaceful farming life for which the valley is likely headed.”

  As he spoke Arghen perked up, and I understood why when a rushing sound was soon heard overhead. Auraus landed nearby, the wind from her white and gold wings making the flames of our little campfire flicker. The Under-elf smiled at her with relief and handed her a portion of dinner that he had saved for her. She took it with gratitude and started in on it right away as she sat down by our fire.

  “You’re late,” I said to her casually. “I thought you’d be back by sunset.”

  Auraus stopped eating to give me a contrite look. “I am sorry, Lise. I did not know you were expecting me back at any particular time.”

  I quirked my face to one side. That was such a typical avoidance answer, and one that I had been guilty of giving to my parents myself from time to time. Okay, she had me there. I had just assumed that she’d be back at sundown.

  “You’re right, Auraus. I hadn’t said anything because I had thought you’d be back at sundown. As did Arghen,” I said pointedly. “There may still be enemies about, like Arghen mentioned to me earlier, so it worried us when you did not show up.”

  Auraus looked a little embarrassed as she explained, “Lise, Arghen, I did not mean to worry you. I had thought it would be a good idea to fly scout over this whole area in case there were any roving bands of beings we should be concerned about as we neared the Sub-realm entrance.”

  I mentally smacked my head. That was something I should have thought of to have her do. She was used to being a scout as well as a priestess of Caelestis for the Grey Riders, and she probably did that kind of stuff automatically. My problem was that I kept thinking of her just as a priestess.

  “That was smart of you and something I should have discussed with you before we left the keep,” I said. “What did you see?”

  “I did spot some groups of what appeared to be guards roaming the trails,” she replied, “but they were not looking up and I quickly flew out of their line of sight after encountering them.”

  I frowned. “Is it possible that those guard groups didn’t get the memo that the valley is under new management?”

  “Memo?” she sked, confused.

  Heather snorted as I smiled at the Wind-rider. “Sorry, Auraus, I meant ‘have been informed that the valley has surrendered.’”

  Ragar spoke up in his husky voice. “I would say it is possible. Those guards would have been sent out looking for escapees to turn in to Bascom at the keep and likely were given orders to not come back until they found someone to bring in.”

  Arghen nodded agreement. “It has only been a day since the valley has yielded. Remember that Dusk had told us that quads of guards had been sent out searching the trails before we attacked, as Ragar has said. That was a factor in our side winning the battle. Had those guard groups been there, it likely would have gone much worse for us.”

  Heather said as she tossed her black hair over her shoulder, “Soooo, what you’re saying then is that we are going to possibl
y encounter groups of guys wandering in the mountains who are going to try and either kill us or capture us for someone that doesn’t exist anymore?”

  “Yes,” Ragar answered her, his green cat eyes gleaming with excitement in the firelight. The mountain-cat-elf looked like he was spoiling for a fight.

  I sighed as I wondered if Ragar’s lust for fighting came from his feline nature or if he’d been like that before Bascom’s magic had twisted him from the Surface-elf he’d once been to what he was now.

  Arghen asked, “Where did you spot these roving bands, my lady?”

  “There was one a couple of trails over from here a while ago. But if they have not come here yet, they most likely will not make it here before we leave tomorrow morning. The rest were much further out.”

  Arghen shook his white-haired head. “Not good enough. Lise and I have had an experience of a night time attack while we were on Jason’s trail.”

  My mind flashed back to the crossroads fight where Arghen and I got the breastplate that we’d ended up using to guide us to the keep.

  The Under-elf looked at me and said, “Lise, I would suggest that everyone sleep lightly and with weapons to hand. Everyone should be ready to back up whoever is on watch if, or more likely, when, the quad eventually comes this way.”

  CHAPTER 3

  I set the night’s watches during dinner: Heather on first, Ragar on second, Arghen on third, Auraus on fourth, and myself on the last. Having five people meant that everybody’s watch would be shorter, and everyone would get that much more sleep. Which was a good thing, because I really needed some shut-eye despite my long sleep last night in a real bed. I was so tired that as soon as we’d cleaned up our dishes from dinner I set up my bedroll and made myself as comfortable as I could in it. I remembered to check and make sure my sword was right beside my head like Arghen had suggested. Not that it wasn’t standard procedure for us anyway, but I knew that Arghen had mentioned the weapon thing mostly for Heather’s benefit. Since Heather really hadn’t traveled on the open road with us for long, I wanted to be sure and model good behavior for her. The last thing I remembered was sleepily wondering and worrying about how Jason was doing.