Naturally, going through the tunnel meant trying to minimize the rasping noise created when I brushed against the impossible to avoid uneven walls. Wrapping my cloak tightly around myself stifled much of that sound. To my ears, Alex couldn’t help making a relative uproar with his movements, but to those in the cavern, he remained a ghost. It helped our furtive goal that an incessant youth in the camp started to annoy his mother with demands for food. That same boy crossed the tunnel’s path. Thankfully, he did not look over to see two intruders mere feet from crossing into his personal affairs.
I glanced back at Alex, a nod signaling for him to get ready his prana. My own prana swirled within my chest as it prepared to douse any and every heat source in my range. I next impelled it forward through an outstretching arm. The lantern by the tunnel exit yielded to the brutish spell first. A prolonged second later put the rest of the cavern in complete darkness. As expected, the imprecise action spent what remained of my non-corrupted spirit reserve.
Someone who might have been either a child or woman shrieked in surprise, but Alex’s spell cut their outcry short. I sensed his paralysis spell take a hold of me as well. However, by switching to my corrupted self, the hex instantly severed. Before the persisting spell reclaimed its nonphysical grip, I leapt out the tunnel and flicked the lighter’s metal wheel. Combined with my stronger prana, the swaying light provided me with the capacity to roam the spell-infused cavern, though it still felt as if every movement of mine had to fight against ten thousand strands of spider web.
“You all right?” I asked Alex. I still whispered in case I alarmed anyone unbound in a tent.
With half his face expressing a mild, scrunching strain, he answered, “I’m fine.”
“Any of them resisting with prana?”
“A couple. Nothing too strong. Shut up and let me focus.”
Taking his advice, I surveyed the lighter’s illuminated range. Right at its perimeter stood a middle-aged woman, her body hunched over. At her feet sat the hungry male child. Their startled faces, having been presumably drawn to the first extinguished lantern, were both turned to my direction. What the living statues thought of the young man putting down the lighter and moving toward them with a coil of thin rope around his shoulder was likely a blend of helplessness, terror, and rage.
Up close, I perceived the woman’s hard breaths and darting, slow blinking eyes. I gently grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down. She was easy to manipulate. Too easy. She almost fell. I caught her and laid her down. Pulling out some rope, I cut off a piece long enough to tie her ankles together. I next turned her over so I could tie her wrists behind her back. Lastly, I stuck a ball of cloth in her mouth and wrapped another ribbon around the lower half of her head. In case something went wrong, I removed the gun at her hip and set it near the lighter. I laid down the youth alongside his parent and restrained him in the same way.
At the end of tying up the child, I found my sight had become accustomed to the unbalanced volume of light and dark. At the farthest corner of the cavern were a pair of tunnel entrances. The light was far too weak to penetrate beyond their rounded lips, so I couldn’t tell whether they led up or down. In addition, I counted fourteen tents in the vicinity, ten of which were lined in a semicircle at the end of the cavern. Most of their flaps were closed, so to make certain Alex had every turncoat in his invisible clutches, I headed for the shut tents to expose them to his hex.
The first tent I checked had a sleeping woman in it. Or she looked to be sleeping, anyway. Trusting she was now restricted in her movements awake or asleep, I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder. Without resistance or much in the way of sound from the captive, I laid her next to the first woman. Figuring he would have an easier time with his prana if the people were closer to him, I decided to forgo restraining her and searched around the cavern to collect everyone.
I assembled a dozen women and, including the pink-swaddled baby reposing in a crate inside one of the tents, four youngsters near Alex. Sometimes they would squirm or let out a groan, but their paralyzer did a good job in preventing them from crying out.
As I resumed tying them up, I spoke my thoughts aloud, saying, “It’s kind of ironic. Turncoats want to meet and help the corrupted, right? Hope they’ll give you mercy and power. Maybe become one of them. And yet, here we are, two corrupted brothers binding you. So, be careful what you wish for and all that.”
Excluding the baby, I eventually subdued the entire collection by non-magical means. I sensed Alex’s spell waning throughout the whole undertaking, though I did not know enough about it to accurately guess how close he was to losing his hold. In any case, our dripping sweat proved that neither of us considered the chore a breeze. When I told him to end his effort, Alex simply could not keep standing straight. He ambled over to a chair and sat on it.
Possibly more out of relief than an attempt to call for help, the women and children squirmed and rattled their throats at being “let go” by my brother. Their struggles both physical and verbal were barely heard when I walked back to the tunnel to get the others, so I wasn’t too worried they would succeed in drawing the attention of any unbound turncoats lodging in the mountain.
Using the mechanism I handed back to Bregman, he lit the lantern by the tunnel. Once he did so, the major handed him another lantern and told him to light it as well.
“Take the lantern near those other tunnels over there,” continued the major. “Guard them.”
“And if I see or hear someone coming?”
He looked around. “Let’s see… Grab one of those blankets. If you hear someone coming, cover the lantern with it. That will be the signal.”
Bregman nodded and went to set up his position.
Inspecting the bound people under the two lantern lights, Eric said, “Good job, boys. It’s always a bonus when we don’t have to shoot women and children… Do you know who the baby belongs to?”
I pointed at a young woman with short brown hair. “I found her in the same tent.”
“Bring her over and get her on her knees.” Svren pulled her up and took her to the requested position several yards away from the other captured turncoats. Squatting to be eye level with the woman, the major asked, “You’re the baby’s mother?”
Her brow was furrowed in resentment, but her wide eyes conveyed distress. Whatever her state, she nodded at the question.
“Then my proposal is simple, ma’am. Answer some questions for me and we’ll keep her in your sights. Refuse me or call for help and we’ll take her away. I guarantee you’ll never see her again. Do you understand?”
Her eyes spied her fellow prisoners, but since they lied prone and at the edge of her sight, she could not see their miens. She next fixated at the crate her baby occupied, which Svren lowered next to her. Once again, she was forced to nod. Thus, the major pulled down the cloth around her jaw and removed the one in her mouth. Her grumble sounded like a growl, but she abstained from crying out.
“How many more turncoats are here? Where are they? Keep in mind, telling the truth will mean better options in the future. You’ll be able to see your daughter grow up. Lying will mean your daughter will someday learn her mother died by hanging.”
The woman whimpered.
“If she doesn’t get it now, she never will,” said Svren.
“So, how many more turncoats can we expect?” the major asked again.
“I-I don’t know exactly how many,” answered the quivering lips of our captured turncoat. “Some come and go… But there’s normally about twenty to thirty men and lads working farther below.”
“Working on what?”
“Different projects.”
“Like corrupting people and animals?” I asked.
“…I’ve never seen people corrupted. Only rats and dogs and the like.”
“Why did you hesitate?”
“Because there are always rumors.”
“What isn’t a rumor?” asked Svren. “What is going on in this place?
”
“Well… digging.”
“What for?”
“For crystals.”
“Crystals?” I said. “The kind that absorb magic?”
“Yes, I think so?”
“You’re not certain?”
“It’s just, I think we’re supposed to be looking for a special kind of crystal, so it might not be the crystal you’re thinking of. I don’t have experience mining or weaving the elements, so I’m not involved with the search.”
“I see. Have the diggers ever found anything special?”
“Maybe? Not a lot.”
“You talk like you haven’t been here long,” said Eric.
“No. I lived in Noxward last year.”
“Is the child’s father here?”
“Yes. I-I don’t love him, but being with him promised a better life for me, so I took it.”
“Spare us the sob story. Turncoats don’t bring just anyone into the fold. You believe as much as anyone here that everyone should either become a ghoul or become subservient to them. Stick with answering our questions without flourish. Now, why are the men separated from the women and children?”
It wasn’t by a lot, but the major’s behest peeled away part of her groveling wretchedness. “We need a group here to guard the exit, and the children can easily get lost in all the tunnels near the men’s camp.”
“But I imagine you’re not separated at all times.”
“No. We travel between camps throughout the day. I know there are two women at the men’s camp right now. They took down the latest meal we prepared. As you’ve seen, the deepest part of the night is the quietest our camps get. We never expected anyone to make it this far in the dead cold… Wait, how did you sneak past the boys watching over the way up the ledge? Did you capture them already? They should have seen you coming and warned us.”
“We came from above, so it seems we avoided alerting them.”
“Above? You came on an airship?”
“Something like that. Those two tunnel openings behind the column, where do they lead?”
“Um, the one on the left leads to those boys keeping watch. The right one goes down to the men’s camp, though it does split off into different storage rooms and dead ends before then.”
“All right, that’s enough for now. I’m going to gag you again, all right?”
“You swear to protect me from the others? They’ll kill me and my baby if they get the chance.”
“I’m aware. Assuming your information is reliable, you will be sequestered from the others.”
Once her mouth was reclogged, Eric and the rest of us distanced ourselves from the captives.
“So, what now, boss?” asked Svren. “We go deeper?”
“It sounds like we’ll get lost and overrun if we attempt it. I say our best option is to-”
Half the light in the cavern disappeared. Bregman had covered his lantern with a blanket.
To Svren, the major said, “Keep an eye here.” Next, sprinting toward Bregman, he made sure Alex and I followed him by waving us over.
Bregman, whose back was up against the wall to the right of the right tunnel, gripped his revolver with both hands. In that right tunnel, which sloped slightly downward, a faint, steady light incrementally brightened.
“It’s a flashlight, I think,” whispered Bregman.
“Can you extinguish those, Mercer?” asked Eric. “They’re like portable light bulbs.”
I clearly overheard a pair of footsteps. “I might, but I’ve never been able to test it.”
“If you can’t, we’ll just have to take them out the messy way.”
I put myself at the edge of the tunnel entrance and waited for them to get a little closer. A woman in the passage chuckled at something a man said. The light they cast re-illuminated our part of the cavern. When coming within three or four strides from exiting the passage, my corruption reached out to the mechanical torch. It flickered, but it was immediately obvious that the light and heat the device emitted was quite different from a natural flame.
“Cheap piece of junk,” said the man.
Still, I nearly connected with it on some level. So on my next pulse, rather than smother it, I tried to ignite it. Sure enough, at the same time I heard an electric crack, the light went out. The woman squeaked in surprise, and she was about to form a word, but Alex’s spell interjected on its creation. However, not all the light from the tunnel disappeared.
From farther down the passageway, a man, in a half playful tone, exclaimed, “Hey, Ann! Why’d it go dark? You all right? What happened…?”
With his hex focused, Bregman and Eric could hurriedly loot the weapons off the two turncoats Alex paralyzed without being too hindered by the harmful effects. I tossed the rope to Eric when he gestured for it.
“Ann? Richard?” said another man’s voice. “We’re serious now. What the fuck is happening, eh?”
“The woman one is really resisting me,” said Alex.
“Her name is Ann, apparently,” I said.
“Who gives a shit?”
“Can she beat you?”
“No, but it’ll be tough to-”
“Hey!” said one of the men. “Anyone want to answer me?!”
“Get help!” the woman shouted through a clenched jaw.
The footsteps and the light retreated in haste.
“Damn it, boy!” said Bregman. “I thought you said you could hold her!”
“Shut up! I don’t see you trapping anyone with your shadow!”
“Enough!” said the major. “Bregman, finish restraining the woman. Tie her up tight. The less blood flow to the limbs, the better.” Eric next ran over back to the baby’s mother. He ungagged her and asked, “How fast can they bring reinforcements?”
“Oh, uhh… Well, they’ll only have to fire a few shots to bring the others up here. Once you hear that, it won’t take more than… oh, I don’t know… two or three minutes for them to run up here?”
Taking out a knife, Eric said, “I’m going to cut you free. Do anything other than hold your baby and we’ll assume you’re pulling a fast one on us, understand?”
She nodded. With freed limbs, she lunged for the crate to clutch her child to her breast.
“We’re only taking her?” asked Svren.
“No. Mercer, you and your brother each take a youngster with you. Bregman! You done yet!? Come and carry the last kid!”
I pointed at the first child I saw when entering the cavern, instructing my brother to pick him up. Despite the sigh and eye-roll, he lugged up the kid and put him over his shoulder. My choice was between two young girls. Not knowing how careful Bregman would handle her, I chose to carry the youngest of them, a girl no older than eight. No matter how careful I treated her, there was no ignoring the fact that it felt rather lamentable to separate a dejected, frightened child from their family. I wondered how much Alex could relate to the little girl.
Two signaling gunshots rang out from somewhere in the lower tunnels.
“I could carry one of the adults,” said Svren.
“No, I need someone with free hands available. Just collect as many of their weapons as you can without encumbering yourself… What are you doing? There’s no time to check them all! It doesn’t matter if they’re the best ones or not! Hurry it up!” He picked up the black lantern. To the still constrained mothers, he said, “If you ever want to see your children again, I recommend turning yourselves in to the Vanguards and giving up every piece of information in your heads… Svren, you ready? All right, let’s get out of here.”
Short of a genuine run, we ascended the passage with Eric lighting our way. All the jostling prompted the baby to cry. Notifying us of our progress was the snowballing chill. I tried keeping an ear out for anyone following us, but the echoes of our own footfalls and absconding breathes made it difficult to differentiate anything similar behind us. On actually coming into contact with the outside world, a gust of wind on my cheek felt like getting slapped wi
th an iceberg.
“Now what?” asked Bregman.
Eric put down the lantern. “We get on the dragon.”
“We can’t get on from here.”
“I know. We’ll have to climb back up.” Walking toward the cliff face we descended earlier, he said, “Give me a minute to build us some stairs.”
Thrusting out his arms, the major used his prana to pull on the rock. It obeyed, if stubbornly so. A roughly rectangular block bulged outward. The stone around it cracked and came loose, but to prove its stability, the major himself hopped on it. He next went to work on pulling the next slab of stalwart rock.
“This is gonna take too long,” said Bregman. “They’ll be on us before we can reach the top.”
Seeing his point, I replied, “I’ll get Aranath to delay them.”
Needing the dragon crystal’s aid, a summon spell vibrated through my body and out into the air. The woman screamed on seeing the winged monster suddenly appearing before us. She would have fallen backward were it not for the mountain wall behind her.
Once the beast got his bearings, I waved him down. As he hovered in front of the ledge, I said, “See the cave entrance? We need it blocked.”
My words got Svren and Alex scuttling away from the cave. In an attempt to distract the poor girl’s distress for a moment, I made sure she was at an angle where she could clearly witness the dragon as he maneuvered to a better position. Jaw opening, a tremendous amount of concentrated heat and light combusted into the cave. He angled the attack so the conflagration struck the tunnel’s ceiling. The rock that did not vaporize melted and oozed to the ground. The stone above the liquefying layer fissured. The instability caused a partial collapse inside a few moments. It shook the ledge and cliff face, but it didn’t threaten to unbalance us.
“Wait for us on the cliff!” I told Aranath.
My partner obliged. Given the toppled rock still glowed white hot, it actually felt rather nice to stand near it. However, we soon had to climb up the unnaturally natural stairway Eric was building. When he finally reached the top, the earth specialist needed to take deeper, methodical breaths as he looked down to see the rest of us leaping our way up one block at a time. An insistent Svren helped the turncoat make the ascent.
The Dragon Knight and the Steam World Page 20
