by Philip Blood
"Agoktalek, cator umog?"
The churchman spoke disdainfully, “I only speak in Mumand's chosen language, and you will do the same."
The deep guttural voice echoed out of the darkness as it answered, and its words were thickly accented. "You have orders make from Malachai?"
"Malachai has ordained that you shall deliver a human child we have captured to the Wastelands after tonight's mission is accomplished, do you understand?"
"Argoth," the voice agreed.
"The child can be found in the cell on the left, if you follow this hallway that direction," he pointed past where Aerin and Dono's hallway connected, to where the main hall made a turn.
Aerin looked at the bend in the hallway noting that it was only a few yards away if they could get to that turn they would only be in sight for a moment. The open door blocked most of the churchman's view. Aerin waited for a moment until the man's face turned away slightly and then he ran lightly across the hall and hugged the wall until he was around the corner. He paused to listen, but luck was still with him, he heard the churchman discussing the final details of the plan with the Togroths.
"Wait under the sewer grate at the corner of Sentinel Street, stay there until we open the grating. As soon as you are within the courtyard of the Seat you must enter the barracks and kill all the Guards in their beds. Should some survive and manage to fight, hold them for a time before falling back into the sewers to make your escape. At no time are you to kill anyone wearing one of these patches, is this understood?"
There was a grunt of understanding from out of the dark doorway.
Dono and Aerin saw the churchman holding up a red triangular patch. Aerin caught Dono’s attention, and motioned for him to come across, but Dono shook his head negatively. Aerin pantomimed a finger across his throat and then pointed down the hall toward where he figured Lor was being kept.
Dono understood and with a heavy sigh he checked the churchman’s position, before running across as Aerin had done. As soon as he arrived Aerin ran down the hallway as quietly as possible, with Dono following behind. Their bare skin hardly made a whisper as the light boys ran on the balls of their feet.
"What WERE those things in the sewer?" Dono whispered when they had rounded the second bend.
"Togroths," Aerin stated simply.
"Togroths!" Dono exclaimed, his body shaking slightly in fear. "They couldn't be, there aren't any Togroths in the Seat, there just AREN’T!"
"I watched Togroths kill my parents, and heard them speak. Have you ever heard a voice like that from a man?" Aerin asked.
Dono shook his head, still shaking in fear.
They passed doors, but all of them were open, except one on their left.
The boys stopped and Aerin tried the handle only to find it locked. "Lor?” he called softly.
"Who is THAT?" Lor's voice answered from inside.
"Dono and I are here to get you out!" Aerin answered in a whisper with his face pushed up near the crack of the door so his voice wouldn't carry down the hallway.
"Hurry, before that priest Malachai returns! He's as slimy a thing as I ever want to meet. Get me out of here!"
"How?" Aerin asked.
His voice sounded slightly exasperated as Lor replied, "You're the rescuers, rescue me! Ask Dono if he has his wire with him! Gedin, do I have to do everything? I don't have my stuff, they stripped me bare."
Dono had his wire out in a moment and was working on the lock.
Aerin glanced up the hall, but he didn't hear anything approaching yet. "Hurry," he said unnecessarily to Dono.
That earned him a brief look of disgust from where Dono knelt in front of the door. He paused to take a deep breath and calmed his shaking fingers, then started working the lock.
"Speaking of clothes," Lor's muffled voice said, "I'll need something. Throw me in a cloak or something; I'm completely naked... and DON'T look!" Lor exclaimed passionately.
In the fear of being killed by horrible Togroth monsters, Lor's sudden modesty was almost humorous to Aerin. "You're kidding right?"
"NO, I mean it, toss the cloak in without looking," Lor replied.
"We're about to be eaten by Togroths and you want PRIVACY?"
Lor hesitated, and then said, "Just do it, OK?"
Dono whispered to Aerin so that his voice didn't carry through the door to Lor. "He's got a mark on his chest, a brand..." he added, trailing off.
"Brand?" Aerin asked.
"Taint never seen it, he don't like nobody to see it, but you know what it must be... there's only one brand he could have."
Aerin remained silent while considering what it might mean to have been branded a thief before the age of twelve... and he shuddered.
Dono got the lock to open, but before opening the door he quickly pulled his knee-length tunic over his head. He nodded to Aerin who cracked open the door so that Dono could toss his tunic into the cell.
Lor's hand shot out from the side scooping up the tunic and a moment later he was out the door and into the hallway with them.
"What was that about Togroths?” he asked, and his face was flushed red.
"Togroths are going to be coming down that hallway in the next few minutes to take you out of this cell," Aerin explained.
Lor's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, and for the first time since Aerin had met him, the rascally boy was speechless.
Dono headed further down the hallway and motioned for the others to follow. "Let's go this way, at least we won't run into those horrid things."
Aerin and Lor didn't waste words and followed. The hallway turned to the right again after a short way and then went a distance past two doors to another right turn.
After that turn, the boys came to a third right turn. They peeked around the hallway and found themselves looking at the hallway where the sewer door stood open, but this time, they were on the far side where they would have to pass the opening to reach the stairway going up. They had traveled in a large rectangle and had come back around to the start.
"Do we go?" Aerin asked after telling Lor that the Togroths had been in that sewer opening a few minutes ago.
"They must have gone to fetch me from my cell, which means they'll soon discover it's empty... we better make a run for it," Lor suggested.
The other two boys nodded and they all ran down the hall together. They darted past the opening to the sewer, without mishap, and rounded the corner of the hall that led to the stairs, only to run smack into the churchman who had opened the sewer.
"In Mumand's name, I command you to stop!” the churchman demanded, but when the boys started backing away from him the priest yelled out, "I have the child! And there are two more of them loose in the fold, help brethren!” Then he pulled out a curved knife from beneath his robes.
To the boy's further shock a man suddenly brushed past them from behind and confronted the knife-wielding churchman. Aerin was amazed to see that it was Yearl. The thin lavender-skinned man reached over his shoulder to the quiver that was habitually tied there and pulled out two one inch thick, three foot long, round sticks of hardwood. He held one before him, almost like a sword, with the other held low and to the side. Yearl approached the knife-brandishing churchman and spoke softly, “Leave them be, these boys only wish to depart these premises."
"Sacrilege!” the man screamed in intense rage.
His face turned so beet red that Aerin thought his head would simply explode.
"A Wiggen has befouled the holy ground of Mumand! Die foul creature!" The man leaped forward stabbing for Yearl's throat with the wicked looking knife.
In a movement that seemed to blur his shape, Yearl moved. There were three almost simultaneous thumping sounds. The attacking churchman staggered forward and his knife flew tumbling down the hall. His unconscious body fell heavily to the stones.
"Sleep on Mumand's bed," Yearl advised the still body sarcastically, "Quick," he said, turning to the three startled boys, "up the stairs and out. Though it
might please me, I have no time to beat this entire enclave of fanatics unconscious!"
Aerin saw Lor and Dono staring at the sticks that had seemed almost invisible in their movement a moment before.
"He's a friend of mine, do what he says!" Aerin said.
"But he is a Willowman!" Dono exclaimed, with loathing.
"Do you want to die?" Aerin noted, with a raise of his eyebrow.
Lor needed no further prodding and dashed past Yearl heading up the circular staircase; Dono and Aerin followed hard on his heels.
They reached the top of the landing and found a group of four acolytes, led by a priest, coming toward them. Aerin smelled the same cheap cologne he had smelled when they eavesdropped at the door. The priest took one look and spoke in that voice of silk Aerin had heard through the doorway earlier. "They are defiling the temple, kill them all."
Then Yearl was there again. He stepped forward almost casually and faced the four oncoming acolytes who were now brandishing their curved knives. "Attacking children?" Yearl inquired.
Malachai spoke in a strange ritual voice, "He is unclean. You cannot allow a Willowman to live, so sayeth Mumand."
The four Acolytes’ faces turned to masks of pure hatred and they attacked as berserkers, showing no regard for their own safety.
Lor didn't wait to see what was about to happen, he yelled at the other two boys, “Come on, follow me!" and then dashed down a side hall.
Malachai noted the three boys darting away, and seeing his four acolytes against the one Willowman, he decided to take care of the children himself. The priest took another hallway that led the same direction as the one that Lor had taken.
Lor slid to a halt at the end of the hall in brief indecision on whether to turn left or right, but the choice was made for him when the priest appeared a little ways down to their left and then started coming toward them swiftly; they ran to the right.
The air wavered before them and a black shape rose up out of the floor, coming through the very stone. It wore a black hood and intense blue glowing eyes could be seen within the darkness.
Grabbing each other in an attempt to stop their forward flight, the boys scrambled to a halt; the apparition was hovering in the air before them.
"The priest is coming!" Aerin yelled, having seen the white skinned man bearing down swiftly from the rear.
Lor grabbed a torch off the wall and threw it at the hovering apparition. The torch passed through the blackness and landed on the ground beyond.
"It's not really there!" Lor yelled and then dove forward going right through the hovering creature. As he passed through he felt a blast of pure hatred for all living things, including his own friends. Something congealed in his chest as if his soul was freezing over, but as horrible as it felt it was instantly over and he was on the ground beyond the apparition.
"Come on!” he yelled to the others.
Aerin gulped and dove through as well, and then Dono followed.
The ghostly being turned and followed them, but having felt its touch once the boys needed little urging to get them running.
They made a few more random turns and found themselves back where they had started; the four acolytes Yearl had faced were now unconscious on the floor. From ahead they saw a new pack of churchmen coming through a door into the hallway. They turned and found Malachai approaching from the other direction. With no other choice, they went back down the circular stairs toward the cells and the Togroths below.
"What if the Togroths are coming up?" Dono reminded them fearfully.
"Don't say that," Aerin exclaimed since he had no other answer.
They reached the hallway at the bottom and moved to the corner carefully. "We're trapped, you know," Dono noted, "there are priests coming down after us, there are Togroths down here in these halls looking for us, and there is no way out."
"No, we can take the sewers," Lor exclaimed.
Dono looked at him as though he had just turned into a girl. "Are you crazy? That's where the Togroths came from!"
"Would you rather get killed here? Or have a chance to lose them in the sewers?" Lor asked with unassailable logic.
They all moved toward the sewer door.
Aerin once again caught the smell of cheap cologne and knew they were in trouble. The silky voice of Malachai spoke from behind.
“There is no need to run, my children."
The boys spun around and found the pale skinned priest standing at the corner of the hallway behind them.
"That's the creep who grabbed me earlier!" Lor whispered in disgust.
Malachai spoke calmly, "If you run your companions will stab you in the back."
Dono spun to face Lor, and the two friends faced off with a snarl of mutual hatred. Aerin backed away from them both, also showing the sudden and unnatural hatred for his friends.
Malachai smiled and Aerin hated him as well. Turning quickly, Aerin dove past Dono and rolled into the open door leading into the sewers.
Malachai was slowly walking forward; his voice was still silky smooth. "The winner can join me and live forever."
As Aerin's body rolled onto the damp stair that led into the darkness of the sewer the abnormal hatred for his friends evaporated as if it had never been. He scrambled to his feet just in time to see Lor sidestep a thrust from Dono's blade. His friend's face was twisted in hatred. Aerin reached out of the doorway and grabbed Dono's arm to stop his next attack on Lor. As his hand touched Dono's arm, the boy's face changed to a look of horror.
"What was I doing?” he exclaimed, staring at the knife in his hand.
Aerin didn't know what was happening, but he knew his touch on Dono's arm had set his mind free.
Lor saw his opening and locked his hands around Dono's throat, and instantly the hatred fled and his mind returned to normal.
"Don't let loose!" Aerin yelled and hauled on Dono's arm, pulling him into the sewer. Lor held onto Dono and the three connected friends landed in a pile.
Malachai was only ten feet away now, and he was coming fast.
The boys tumbled down the stairs into the darkness. They landed with a splash into a two-foot-deep stream of sewage water. Above them, the silhouette of Malachai stopped in the doorway. "We will meet another time then, children." He said as though nothing was wrong, and then turned and called loudly, "Tagak, gethrunk utoblen!" fluidly in the Togroth barking language. A faint barking answer showed the Togroths had heard.
Dono leaped to his feet, splashing fetid water everywhere. "Run for it, the Togroths are coming for us!” he exclaimed.
The boys all splashed their way down the dark tunnel in full flight. The floor suddenly sloped down and the slimy footing caused them to slip and fall, sliding down a long chute with the water toward a drop-off below.
Aerin yelled when he went over the falls, getting a mouthful of the foul tasting sewer water for his trouble. The water was deeper here and he had to swim to keep his head up. He thought he saw one of the other boys ahead, but could not be sure. He began making for the side. Eventually, he found a place where he could get up onto a ledge that followed the coursing water. He ran ahead and found Dono holding onto the side, after quickly helping him up, they both ran forward and found Lor already out and heading back their way. His bare white legs stood out in the darkness below the thigh length tunic.
The sewer was lit by a green glow of phosphorescent moss, though it was only as bright as a half moon's light in the tunnel, still they could see well enough to navigate.
In the distance they heard the barks of the Togs, so they quickly ran until they found an access ladder that led to the streets of Strakhelm above.
Aerin had never been so glad to see the stars in the dark sky above.
"What, in Gedin's name, happened in there?" Dono demanded.
Lor answered him, "He hexed us somehow!"
"It doesn't matter right now how he did it, we've got to get to the Guardsmen!" Aerin exclaimed.
A passing mill worker on his way
home looked curiously at the wet boys emerging from the sewer, but he knew enough of Strakhelm not to become involved in something he didn't understand. He kept a tight rein on his emotions and moved on.
Glancing at the retreating back of the mill worker Lor kept his voice low. "And tell them what? Tell them that the priests grabbed me for no good reason when they caught me snooping around? Or tell them that they suddenly made me hate my friends? Even if by some chance they take us seriously, by the time they get to that church the bodies will be gone and the Togroths will have disappeared into the sewers. They'll think we are just children with overactive imaginations. It won’t work."
"They're going to kill the Warlord's son, tonight!" Aerin blurted out.
"What!" Lor exclaimed with his chin trembling from being wet in the cold night.
"I heard that priest tell the other one about the traitors they have inside, who are going to open the gates to the Seat and let in those Togroths and some of the cult members. They’ll kill the Guardsmen in their sleep and then go murder Gandarel Trelic, the heir to the Seat of Stone," Aerin explained quickly.
"I cannot help you, Aerin, I will not go to the Guardsmen," Lor exclaimed. “Besides, Togroths will never get into the Seat of Stone! It’s a fortress in the heart of this city manned by hundreds of Guardsmen. The Guardsmen will chew them to pieces if they try."
"When I heard you were in trouble I came without question. Now I'm asking for your help Lor. I cannot go to the Guardsmen, the priests have false Guardsmen in uniform and I don't know which ones are the traitors. We will have to reach someone in authority, like the Guard Captain, or Gandarel Trelic. Lor, please, I can't get in without your knowledge of the city! I'm asking you as my friend."
Lor looked away, but after a moment, he looked back and nodded. "If you ask like that, what am I to say? What do you want us to do?"
"Dono, you go to the Inn and find the woman named Mara in room three, and tell her of our plight. Tell her everything! She is really wise and maybe she will know what to do. In the meantime, Lor and I will go to the Seat to try and find someone who will listen."
From far off in the distance a bell rang twice and then a voice faintly called out the hour, it was echoed louder from another voice nearer to the boys.
