"Thorley! Is there a tunnel in my tavern?" he demanded.
"Not in yer tavern lad", he said, "in yer backyard."
They ran behind the inn and gathered next to the privy. Thorley stepped up to the shabby cobblestone wall and stuck two fingers into a gap between the stones. A dwarf-sized section of stones shifted in the wall. He pushed it open.
"You've been smuggling through my backyard?!" Earloke yelled.
"Only a little bit," Thorley said ruefully.
Earlok was about to say something more, but Tymuld interjected, "Not now! We've got to get everyone inside!"
Thorley pushed them into the hole. A roar echoed from the other side of the building.
"Asman!" Gansel shouted and she turned back towards the front yard.
Earlok tried to stop her. "Don't do it! Come back!"
He followed her as she turned the corner and they saw the horrific sight of humans pushing up the street en masse. They were tearing open doors with the sheer weight of their bodies and pouring into the houses. Yet, they had given enough space for the two bugbears to engage each other.
"Asman! Get out of there! This way!" she yelled.
Her yell distracted Asman as he fought what was left of his uncle. It was enough to allow the corrupted bugbear to getting in a swing. Somehow, Asman sensed it and ducked. He couldn’t move fast enough however to escape the mutated giant as his elder brought around a tentacle and struck him with a solid uppercut under his jaw. Asman flew back into the side of the tavern.
"No!" Gansel screamed, her voice ringing off the surrounding buildings in the heavy sudden silence. She looked away from the bugbears, eyes wide in terror.
The cacophony of chants had ceased at her cry as every human stopped what they were doing and turned to face her. She felt her heart freeze and a voice in the back of her mind warn her. ‘Move! Move now!’
The humans surged towards them, circling around the fighting bugbears.
Gansel turned to run but tripped and went down, her boot had tangled up in some old boxes. She tried to get up, but couldn’t stand straight.
She looked back up in terror as an old woman stalked in her direction, discolored hands extended like claws, seeking to rend and tear. Gansel’s heart froze.
She choked, “Mama?!”
Drool ran down her mother’s face as she reached forward, grabbing her daughter by the hair. Gansel struggled in her grip, pulling hair out by the roots A scream rose up in her throat.
'Do not show fear!' she could hear Fulang calling in her mind.
She swallowed back the scream just as her mother closed blistered and blacked fingers around her throat, choking the life out of her. Gansel couldn’t escape. She heard her mother breathe in her ear, "Weakness..."
Suddenly, she dropped Gansel in the dirt. Choking and wheezing, she scrabbled at her throat, her mother’s hand was still gripping her. She squealed and plucked at the decaying fingers, flinging the hand away.
Her mother lifted up the bleeding stump of her arm, looking to where the attack had come from. Thorley and Earlok stood there, the older dwarf wielding an ax and reaching back for another swing. What had been Lore raised her arms to block the oncoming blow. She was unable to stop the powerful downward swing and the Bug grimaced in triumph as the ax lodged in the screeching woman’s skull. Yet, she didn’t fall, merely buckled under the blow.
Gansel screamed, “Mama!”
To their surprise, Gansel’s mother reached up and pulled the ax from her head and turned her glazed, violet eyes back to Gansel through the blood pouring from her cleaved skull.
Earlok reached down and pulled Gansel up, "Run lass, that’s not your mama."
Gansel let the dwarf push her ahead of him and they reached the hole in the wall, the horde pouring through the alleyway behind them. Thorley pushed them inside and turned to face their attackers.
“Come on you old sewer rat! Get in here!” Earlok yelled.
Thorley looked over his shoulder, his eyes large and wild behind his glasses. He gave a mad smile and turned away.
Earlok could hear his war whoop as the old dwarf charged the berserk humans.
27
At first, Gansel could still hear the city’s cacophony outside and thought of the horde surrounding Asman. Daylight disappeared though along with all sound of the battle in the courtyard as Earlok sealed the passage. Her heart began to race as the memory of her mother’s twisted face entered her mind’s eye. She pushed that aside, but a vision of Asman engulfed by the dead replaced it.
"We can't leave him out there!" she cried.
Light flared and she could see Earlok's face as he held a brimstick to the wick of a lantern hanging by the door. He looked haggard and wouldn’t make eye contact.
"But that's what you're going to do though, isn’t it? Be the typical dwarf and look out for yourself first?" Tymuld accused her father. “Surprised you’re complaining though, Ganny,” she added, her look of disgust spread between them.
Earlok closed the lantern and took it off its hook. The light outlined a small chamber. The old dwarf stared hard at his daughter. "We’re gonna get out of this damned city at last, no matter how you want to fuss girl. I'm not opening that door again. I’ll not say any more about this."
He walked over to the corner where a wooden barrel lid covered a ring of stone. Beside it lay a coil of rope on the ground. He stuck his fingers into a hole on one side of the lid and lifted it. The dank odor of old sewage and mildew drifted out of the hole.
Gansel caught Tymuld’s eye briefly, but the dwarf girl looked away to her father, worry etched over the contempt and fear already hardening her face.
Earlok took the rope over to the hook by the door and tied it off. Testing the knot, he addressed his daughter, "Tell me you were able to get the message to the Zeedrak?"
"Yes father, but what if they didn't get away in time?" she said.
"We'll have to just hope that they did. Either way, this is now the only way out" He sat on the edge of the shaft and tested the rope. "I'll go first."
Gansel walked across the chamber and peered down into the hole. Fear trickled into her stomach. She felt nauseous. “Are you sure this is the best way?”
There was a heavy thud outside as something large slammed against the stone that sealed them within the passage. Dirt fell down from between the stones overhead and there was a terrible scraping sound outside as if hundreds of hands were digging around the entrance.
Earlock looked at Gansel. "Sure it’s the best? No. Certain it’s the only? Yes."
Before Gansel could reply, he wrapped his legs around the rope and slid down into the darkness, one hand holding the lantern. She and Tymuld watched him descend as the light in the chamber dimmed rapidly.
Soon he was at the bottom and the only thing Gansel could see was Tymuld's round, paling face as she peered down at her father, her red curls clinging to her forehead with nervous sweat. The sound of digging outside was louder now.
Earlok called out in a hushed voice from below, "Come on now!"
The chamber shuddered again, pouring dirt on top of them. One of the stones fell from the roof and down into the shaft.
"Look out!" Tymuld screamed.
They heard a thud and Earlok yelped, "Daddy!" Tymuld called down. "Daddy! Are you okay?"
He cursed and groaned, then shouted up "Fine! I'm fine! Get down here now before that roof caves in!"
Gansel motioned for Tymuld to go next. She helped the young dwarf over the ledge and into the hole, steadying her until she could hold the rope on her own and waited for her to lower herself down. She threw her arms over her head as the room shook with another loud thud from the doorway and light poured in from above amongst a shower of dirt and stones.
As the dust settled, Gansel looked up and saw Buchak's large, bat-like face, wreathed in twisting, flailing, black tentacles glaring down at her. He roared at seeing her and disappeared. Hands reached into the opening and grasped towards her.
&nbs
p; She didn't have much more time before they were through. Tymuld was only halfway down the rope. She couldn't wait for her to reach the bottom, so she grabbed onto the rope and put her feet on the stone rim. Leaning back, she slid her right foot into the hole so that it could rest on the wall of the shaft.
She heard heavy footsteps outside as Buchak charged into the broken wall of the chamber. She flinched, her feet slipping and she dropped into the hole. The rope in her hand sped through her grip. She felt it cut into her skin as her heels caught on the stone shaft, yanking her upside down.
Her body spun around and her head cracked against the wall. Pain exploded and she saw stars. She hit something, hard, below her, and her breath got knocked out of her chest.
Tymuld cried out. She hadn't expected the blow and lost her grip. They plummeted through the darkness and into icy water just deep enough to break their fall. The chill snapped Gansel out her stupor.
Earlok grabbed both of them by the backs of their dresses and yanked them to their feet. With another surge, he pulled them away in time as rocks and dirt rained through the shaft from above them. The roof had finally collapsed.
Gansel staggered in the dark, vertigo washed over her until she found a wall to lean on. Earlok propped his daughter up against the wall to check on her.
Gansel's head throbbed. She whimpered and cried for her mother once more. Something hot and wet flowed down her face. She touched her forehead and felt a gash in her scalp. She could see her companions in the lantern glow, Tymuld was also bleeding from a blow to the head. The young dwarf spat blood into the dank water flowing around her ankles.
Earlok was asking Tymuld something in a low voice, but Gansel couldn't hear them. The sound of the dead above them echoed in her mind.
She looked around nervously into the surrounding darkness. Earlok pulled out a flask and put it to his daughter's lips. Tymuld coughed and groaned out, "Dad, how do you drink that? It burns like fire!" He smiled and took a swig himself.
Gansel waded out of the water and stepped up onto a walkway illuminated by the lantern Earlok had dropped there. She shone its flickering light around them and was astounded at the size of the tunnel they were in. Pillars reaching up to a vaulted ceiling were evenly and widely spaced in all directions. Echoes of dripping water came from everywhere. She couldn't see how far the chamber went. Wherever she looked, darkness swallowed up everything in sight before there was any glimpse of a wall.
"What is this place?" she asked aghast, amazed at the chamber's size and doubtful that there wasn’t something creeping about in that darkness.
Earlok stood his daughter up. She coughed again and said that she could manage on her own. He climbed onto the walkway and took the lantern from Gansel. "This is the city's old cistern. It hasn't been used for water for twenty years, ever since the water went bad for some reason. That's why Frogtown was built, none of the humans cared what happened to this land or what was beneath."
Reaching down, he helped Tymuld onto the walkway. "Uncle’s been using it to smuggle goods in and out of the city ever since I was a baby," she divulged.
Earlok shook his head and snorted. "It's been used more as a septic system ever since the water went bad," he continued.
Tymuld wrinkled her nose at the fetid air. "This explains why your clothes reek like they do when you come back from your 'walks' late at night." Her breath hitched and she swallowed hard as they all stood quietly for a moment realizing that would now be just a memory.
As they walked along the raised walkway, Earlok shone the light on the ceiling. Gansel could see holes broken through the brickwork that formed the vaults, their edges stained with effluvia. "Well, considering that every outhouse in Frogtown is connected to this chamber, it's hard to come away from working down here without a stink."
Tymuld, sensing Gansel’s unease, tried to lighten the mood, "He wasn't the one that had to clean his shirts."
"Was it that bad?" Gansel asked.
Tymuld made a face of disgust and pinched her nose. Gansel snorted, half choking on a giggle and the two old friends, so on edge about everything else, exploded in sharp laughter that echoed throughout the cistern. She suddenly felt guilty, what was wrong with her? Mama was dead!
Earlok spun around and barked, "Quiet!"
The girls covered their mouths, stifling their laughter. Earlok peered into the darkness as their echoes died away. A short, low moan, followed by a watery rattling doused any remaining spark of humor.
Gansel saw a look of panic on the old dwarf's face. "We've got to move quickly, now!" he said in a whisper as he motioned for them to go ahead of him. "Go!"
"Why? What is it, daddy?" his daughter asked, but Gansel didn't hesitate. She could feel the presence of something menacing approach. Taking Tymuld's small, wide hand she ran ahead into the blackness. Earlok's lantern cast their long shadows before them on the slick flagstones.
Gansel could hear a thrashing in the dark water to her right. Something huge was getting closer. Memories of her last visit to the sewers ran through her mind, forcing her to keep running forward into the gloom.
There was a whooshing sound and she heard Earlok cry out as he fell on the stones, his lantern dropping from his hands and skidding towards Gansel.
“Daddy!"
The lantern spun on the stones and halted at Gansel's feet, the light shone back on a mass of black, wet tentacles that rose up over the side of the walkway, looming over and clutching at Earlok's prone body. Gansel could hear thrashing in the waters around them, there were more out there.
‘Take hold of me.’
A new voice called out inside her head, she could feel it vibrating in her skull.
‘Take hold of me. Bring me out for them to see.’
As if it had a mind of its own, her hand went to her apron. The nerves of her fingers tingled as they slid into her pocket. Touching the large seed inside, she could feel her bones vibrate.
Grasping the seed, she pulled it out.
Springing from the surface of the seed, a green flame enveloped her hand. She felt warmth emanating from it and her whole arm surged with energy. The air crackled and her skin crawled, but she felt no pain.
The flame leaped up to touch the vaulted ceiling and a wave of force poured out from where she stood. She could see the entire chamber now aglow in bluish green light.
Tymuld crept towards her father on her hands and knees. The creature that menaced them was attempting to take hold of the flailing, kicking Earlok, but its mass was pressed back by the light. Two more creatures were revealed on either side of her in the water, slithering away from the glow as it illuminated the cistern.
At her feet, Gansel heard a rapid stretching and creaking noise. She looked down and saw that something was twining and growing outwards around her feet. A mass of deep green vines was pouring out of the seed! They soon stretched out in every direction, covering the walkway, wrapping themselves around the columns that supported the ceiling. Feelers shot forth and thickened. Her arm began to ache from the expulsion of energy. Her bones felt as if they would fly away from each other and every particle of her being would explode into a red mist.
Dark, serrated leaves sprouted forth from the vines and more feelers extended. In seconds, they had surrounded the trio, on their small section of the walkway.
As Tymuld reached her father, she took his hand, bleeding from tangling with the tentacled creature, and cried out, "Daddy! Daddy what was that?! What’s happening?!"
Gansel could do nothing but watch as the vines sped towards her friend and wrapped around Tymuld's foot with unnatural speed. Soon it was lashed around her ankle. The dwarf girl screamed in surprise and pain. Gansel could see the vine constrict and blood well up under its grip.
"No! Stop!" Gansel screamed out. She tried to lower the seed, but its force was too strong. She was frozen in place! Whatever was causing this growth now filled her whole body. She screamed again as the vines rapidly engulfed her friends, picking up speed, searching
for more to consume. Tymuld's screams rose in pitch, but there was a sudden, wet snap and she was silent. Gansel sobbed, helpless to stop what she had started.
Flowing like living water, the vines soon reached the creatures that surrounded them and consumed them as well, their writhing, monstrous forms struggling to escape as the vines braided their tendrils among the black tentacles. There was a horrible sound of popping and squelching like wineskins squeezed to bursting.
When the dissonant sounds of death subsided, the flame died from the seed and Gansel’s body was released from its thrumming power. She let go of it, sobbing and horrified at what she had seen. At what she had caused. For surely this was her fault. First Tar’dur, then mama, then the dwarves. All her fault! The seed thumped to the floor, resting within the wreath of roots at her feet.
What had she done? How could she have killed the only people she had left in the world that cared for her? She crumpled to the vine-covered ground and tried to disappear within herself, wrapping her arms around her head and legs. She felt exposed. Naked, raw, and terrified. But, she didn't care. She didn't want to go any further. She wanted to be swallowed up in this darkness forever.
‘Take me up,’ the seed spoke to her mind.
"No," she whispered. "Leave me alone."
‘You are not safe here.’
"I don't care," she whimpered.
‘You must. You are the Branch. You must lift up the Root and the Crown.’
"What? What does that even mean? No, I won't lift anything up! I already lifted you up and you killed my friends!" she yelled, eyeing what remained of Earlok and Tymuld. Two humanoid shapes, frozen in an embrace under the tendrils that that had engulfed the chamber.
‘When the Root comes, you must pick me up again and search for the Crown!’
She didn’t understand. She felt so angry at the voice, angry at losing more people. First her mother, then Asman, and now Earlok and Tymuld.
‘The Root. The Root is coming.’
The voice fell silent. She stared at what had once been the last of her friends. They had saved her.
The Necrosopher’s Apprentice Page 29
