by Kevin Ashman
‘Two minutes,’ said Kenzo, and he slipped through the narrow aperture. He walked to the edge of the causeway walls and caught his breath at the sight before him. The first reaction was vertigo and his hands grasped the walls quickly seeking extra purchase. The city below was now unveiled in all its glory, a complicated metropolis of buildings of all shapes and sizes, disappearing into the distance as they followed the walls around the curvature of the city perimeter.
Kenzo was fascinated. It was everything a city should be, there were streets and alleyways, small houses and tall multi-floor buildings. Yes, they were the worse for wear and for the most part covered with rapidly drying seaweed, but their purpose was obvious. Sometime in the long forgotten past, people just like him must have occupied this place. If the council had known about this, they had certainly kept it quiet.
Like Amber before him, he noticed that there was no obvious way up from the city floor, and stranger than that, he noticed there seemed to be no gates leading through the outer wall.
Soon he heard a hiss from the city gates.
‘Kenzo,’ said the guard, ‘come on, we are due to be relieved soon, I don’t want Fatman finding out.’ Kenzo reluctantly returned into the city perimeter.
‘Have you seen it?’ he asked the soldier.
‘Yes, creepy innit? Makes you wonder where they’ve all gone.’
‘Came up here, I assume,’ said Kenzo.
‘Doubt it,’ said the soldier, ‘too many.’
Kenzo stared at him. He was right. There were far more buildings between the encircling walls than there were in the upper city. If every one of them had been populated, there must have been thousands living down there. Whatever had happened in the past, one thing was certain. If the rising waters had forced them out, there would not have been enough room in the Citadel for everyone. Either they had drowned where they lived, or they had gone, elsewhere!
----
Chapter 19
Kenzo stood in the dark alleyway, holding Leona’s hands in his.
‘If we are not back tomorrow by ten bells, go to Pelosus,’ he said.
‘We’ve been over this a hundred times already,’ said Leona.
‘I know, I’m not worried about me, but Amber doesn’t deserve to be in this position again. Promise me.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she said, ‘I promise, now go, the quicker you go, the quicker you’ll be back.’
Kenzo kissed her tenderly.
‘Come on you two,’ called a voice from below, ‘there’ll be time for that later, let’s go.’
Kenzo smiled and let Leona go before lowering himself down into the sewer shaft to join Amber. Leona dragged the grid over and blew Kenzo a last kiss before watching them both disappear into the sewer pipe. She waited a minute, before returning to the keep, unaware that all the time, another set of eyes was watching her.
----
Ten minutes later, Amber and Kenzo stood in the seawater shaft listening for any sound of movement in the darkness. Kenzo retrieved the ball of string from the pack and wedged one end into a crack in the wall before leading the way into the first tunnel. Within minutes, they came across the first junction.
‘Right, this is where I found you,’ whispered Kenzo, ‘slumped against this wall.’
‘It seems I was almost out,’ said Amber, ‘a few more minutes and I would have been at the shaft.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Kenzo, ‘no harm done, now where do we go from here.’
Amber took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
‘I remember we took two left turns, then a right and walked a long way up hill,’ she said before opening her eyes again.
‘First left? Second left?’ he asked, ‘how far along? Do you remember?’
‘I don’t know,’ she replied, ‘all I know is we turned left twice and then right. It was pitch black.’
‘Of course it was,’ said Kenzo, ‘we’ll just have to check them all, let’s go,’ and holding the lamp before him, walked deeper into the blackness. Sure enough, they soon came across a left turn and didn’t hesitate to follow the tunnel.
‘Oh well,’ said Kenzo when they reached a dead end, ‘it would have been too good to be true to get it right first time, let’s go back.’ They retraced their steps winding the string up as they went. Over the next hour or so, they checked numerous options until finally Amber stopped.
‘Kenzo,’ she said, ‘this is it.’
‘You think so?’
‘I know it is.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Look,’ she said, and pointed to the floor. In front of her was a dip filled with seawater approximately four foot across. ‘That’s the pool I fell in.’
‘Why do you think that is the same one?’
Amber bent over and picked up an old knife from the side of the pool.
‘This is mine,’ she said simply.
----
They continued slowly up the slope.
‘Stop!’ said Kenzo suddenly.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘Amber, look around you,’ he said, ‘the walls and the floor, they are bone dry. We must be higher than the water level reached.’
‘So?’
‘You don’t understand,’ he said, ‘if the water did not reach this high, then it means that Crispin wouldn’t have drowned.’
‘You mean he could be alive?’ she gasped, ‘quick, we have to find him.’
‘Amber,’ said Kenzo grabbing her arm, stopping her running past him, ‘wait, it’s been over four weeks. There’s no chance he would have lasted this long.’
‘You mean he would have been trapped in here until he died of thirst?’
‘Probably,’ he said quietly.
‘Oh, Kenzo,’ she cried, ‘I promised him I would return. He must have waited and waited for me and I let him down.’
‘It wasn’t your fault, Amber,’ he said, ‘you weren’t to know and besides, the water had risen. You couldn’t have come back even if you were able to. You can’t blame yourself.’
‘But I promised,’ shouted Amber, ‘I let him down, Kenzo, I let Crispin down!’
----
Not much further into the Catacombs, the tiniest of movement flickered in the darkness, disturbed by the sound of crying in the distance. The white pinprick dilated as the strange consciousness took in its surroundings, its eyes focusing in the pitch-blackness of the room. Its memory of the time before was vague and its comprehension of the future was even vaguer but the one thing it was sure of, was it was getting stronger. It could feel every wave of blood as it pulsed through its veins and the contractions of powerful muscles as they twitched beneath his skin. Something was happening but he was not sure what. Something was calling; he had a need to stretch, to extend his body, to escape from the binds that restricted his being. But there was time, he was patient, he could wait.
----
Amber and Kenzo continued into the tunnel with trepidation, afraid at what horror may await them in the semi darkness.
‘What’s that smell?’ gasped Amber, ‘oh my God, do you think it’s Crispin?’
‘I have often smelled death,’ said Kenzo, ‘and this isn’t it.’ They carried on, eventually coming across an open door and looked inside. The room was essentially empty except for pools of a white milky substance. Kenzo wrinkled his nose, the smell was obviously stronger in here and he suspected the pools were the source.
‘What is it?’ asked Amber.
Crispin touched the substance with his boot.
‘Don’t know,’ he said, ‘but it’s very sticky.’ They left the room and continued up the tunnel but within minutes, reached another dead end.
‘It can’t be,’ said Amber, ‘I’m sure this is the right tunnel, my knife was in the water.’
‘There are no other rooms,’ said Kenzo, ‘unless you were in the room with the sticky stuff.’
‘No, it was empty.’
‘How do you know, you said it was dark?’
‘It was, but if that stuff was in there, I would have known.’
‘Perhaps it happened later, after you left.’
‘Only one way to find out,’ she said and they retraced their steps back to the room, staring into the eerie space. Kenzo held up the plankton lamp.
‘Don’t know what that stuff is,’ he said, ‘but the boy is not here, he must have left after you went to get help and got lost in the tunnels.’
‘The poor thing,’ said Amber, ‘he must have been terrified.’
‘Come on,’ said Kenzo, ‘no point in hanging around here.’ But before he could turn away, he was catapulted forward into the room by Amber’s falling body and they both fell onto the floor landing just short of one of the strange pools.
‘Amber,’ shouted Kenzo, ‘what do you think you are doing?’
‘It wasn’t me,’ shouted Amber getting to her feet, ‘someone pushed me!’
Kenzo looked up at the doorway, seeing an outline in the darkness, the silhouette just visible in the faint light of the fading plankton ball.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he shouted, ‘who are you?’
‘Crispin is that you?’ shouted Amber, ‘we have come to help you.’
The stranger remained silent, though the room suddenly reverberated as the ancient door was slammed into place. Kenzo rushed to the doorway but was dismayed as he recognised the sound of a heavy bolt being dragged into place. They were locked in.
‘What are you doing?’ shouted Kenzo, banging his fists on the door, ‘let us out.'
‘Let you out?’ came a muffled voice from the other side of the door, ‘oh I don’t think so. We have waited far too long for this.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Kenzo, ‘open this door at once.’
‘A birth,’ said the voice in awe, ‘no, not a birth, more of a reawakening, a religious experience, if you like and you two have a pivotal role to play.’
‘You are making no sense,’ shouted Kenzo, ‘what the Saint is going on?’
The voice laughed out loud.
‘Oh, how ironic; even in your futile attempts at enlightenment you take his name in vain.’
‘What are you on about?’ shouted Kenzo, banging the door again, ‘who are you?’
‘My name is irrelevant,’ said the voice, ‘for there are many such as me within the Brotherhood.’
‘The Brotherhood? You mean the Brotherhood of the Sark?’
‘I see our name precedes us,’ said the voice.
‘And this Crispin,’ said Kenzo, ‘does he belong to this Brotherhood as well?’
‘Belong to the Brotherhood, oh that’s rich. No, Kenzo, Crispin doesn’t belong to the Brotherhood of the Sark, he is the Sark!’
‘What exactly is a Sark?’ asked Amber quietly.
‘You will find out soon enough,’ said the voice.
‘But why do you need us?’ asked Amber nervously, almost afraid to hear the answer.
‘It is a fair question,’ answered the voice, ‘but trust me, young girl, you really don’t want to know the answer. Now, if you have quite finished, I have to make the arrangements for his arrival.’
‘Wait,’ shouted Kenzo, ‘you can’t leave us like this.’ The footsteps receded into the distance and within seconds, the room fell into silence again. They stared at each other in the gloom.
‘What are we to do?’ gasped Amber.
‘I don’t know,’ said Kenzo and held up the lantern to inspect the room. ‘There doesn’t seem to be any other way out.’ He held up the light to inspect the ceiling but it was far too high and the dim green light didn’t reach that far.
‘Well, I’m not going to just sit here and wait,’ snapped Amber and she started banging on the door. ‘Help,’ she shouted at the top of her voice, ‘somebody help!’
‘Amber, what’s the point?’ asked Kenzo. ‘There’s no one down here. Nobody can hear you.’
‘Then what do you suggest,’ shouted Amber, ‘we just wait here to die?’
‘Don’t forget, when we don’t turn up, Leona will know something is wrong and will tell the Stargazer. He will organise a rescue party.’
‘Can we wait that long?’
‘I guess we have to,’ said Kenzo, ‘what choice do we have?’ They both looked around to examine their surroundings. Several pools of the white sticky substance were evident around the room, glowing slightly in the darkness.
‘What is that stuff?’ asked Amber.
‘I don’t know,’ answered Kenzo, ‘I’ve never seen anything like it before.’
‘It stinks!’ said Amber and sat down to sulk.
----
As Kenzo sat beside her, far above them, something peered down through the darkness. The Sark watched the two humans with curiosity, fighting the instincts that came naturally. The male seemed strong and would no doubt, put up an interesting, yet ultimately futile defence while the weaker of the two, the female was fascinating. There was something about her, something familiar from deep in his memory. His eyes closed again to rest. His body was changing fast and though he needed constant nutrition, he had only just fed and needed to digest his last kill. The humans could wait. He would rest as his form neared perfection and when he woke again, he would feed.
----
Chapter 20
Pelosus and Petit sat once more in the Stargazer’s chambers, sharing breakfast.
‘You are dressed in rugged attire this morning,’ said Petit, ‘is there a reason?’
‘There is, I have been tasked to descend to the lower city and undertake a survey before the waters rise again.’
‘Can I come?’ asked the clerk.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Pelosus, ‘Helzac instructed me to do this on my own. He wants no other eyes recording whatever is down there.’
‘Shame!’ said the clerk, ‘it sounds fascinating.’
‘At any other time I would agree,’ said Pelosus, ‘but considering our lives may depend on my other work, this is something I could do without. You stay here and scour the histories for any clue to that message. If I start straight away I should be back by dark and we can explore that passage.’
‘Will do,’ said the clerk and busied himself tidying up the room as Pelosus got ready.
----
Half-hour later, Pelosus walked out through one of the gates onto a causeway and was surprised to see Helzac and a soldier waiting for him.
‘You are late!’ snapped Helzac.
‘Sorry, your Excellency,’ he said, realising no excuse would be accepted.
‘I will deal with you later,’ said the Governor, ‘in the meantime; this man will be your assistant.’
Pelosus stared at the grinning soldier in concern.
‘Are you sure, Sir?’ began Pelosus, ‘surely I should take a man of science.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Helzac, ‘you are the man of science; this soldier will be your muscle.’
Pelosus approached Helzac and whispered in his ear.
‘Sir, I know this man, he is stationed in the keep and is nothing more than an ignorant oaf.’
‘I am aware of his limitations,’ said Helzac, ‘that is precisely why I picked him, I want someone who’s limits of aspiration lie with wine and women, not personal gain or political ambition. Who knows what secrets lie down there?’
Pelosus groaned and turned back to the soldier.
‘So be it,’ he sighed, ‘where are the ladders?’
‘Got no ladders, doctor,’ said Braille, ‘we are using this.’ He held up a large wicker basket secured to the end of a rope.
‘You have got to be kidding,’ gasped Pelosus and turned to Helzac, ‘surely there is a better way than this.’
‘Braille will lower you down and climb down the rope after you,’ said Helzac. ‘It is better this way, the less people who know, the better.’
‘What exactly am I looking for?’ asked Pelosus.
‘Information!’ said Helzac, ‘anything that may shed any light on the s
ituation.’
‘But why the secrecy?’
‘Do not take me for a fool, Pelosus,’ growled the Governor, ‘despite the agreements of the council, I am aware that all seek to secure their own futures and there are plots within plots already underway. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have already been approached by one or more towers.’
Pelosus stayed tight-lipped.
‘Thought so,’ said Helzac ‘but it matters not. I am the Governor and am not burdened by the needs of others. All I want is a way out of here and down there may lay the answer. Report back to me and if you are successful you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams.’
‘What about the soldier?’ asked Pelosus.
‘He is expendable,’ said the Governor, ‘when his job is done, he will be taken care of. Report back to me at last light.’ He turned to re-enter the Citadel and the giant gates clanged shut behind him.
Pelosus walked over to the soldier and stared at the coiled rope.
‘Is it strong enough?’ he asked.
‘Climb in, doctor,’ shouted Braille, his stupid grin on his face, ‘we’ll soon find out!’
‘I am not a doctor,’ said Pelosus as he climbed in the basket.
‘Look like a doctor to me,’ said Braille and climbed up on the parapet, ‘climb in then.’
Pelosus closed his eyes in fear, mumbling prayers to every deity he could think of before crouching as low in the basket as he could.
‘Right then, here goes,’ said Braille and hoisted the basket over the edge to lower it slowly down to the houses below, his muscled arms bulging under the strain. To Pelosus’s surprise, the journey was smooth and uneventful and a few moments after he had clambered out of the basket, Braille came down the rope hand over hand until both men stood on the muddy floor of the long deserted city.
‘Spooky!’ said Braille looking around at the facades of long empty streets.
‘Right,’ said Pelosus, ‘let’s get started, look for any building that looks important.’
‘Like a brothel?’ queried Braille.
‘No, not a brothel,’ groaned Pelosus, ‘something that may have artefacts that may give us an idea of the history of this place.’