"Stay quiet," Leo said without prompting. I had only grabbed my pistol and began to rise.
Ignoring him, I said, "What is going on?"
He scowled but did not look at me as he answered. "They are sweeping houses. They're asking about trucks and an American." He looked at me then. "Word of your escape from Andorra has traveled almost as quickly as you."
Olivia was suddenly beside me with a tiny pistol in each hand. Standing beside her with only my magical .38 pistol, I suddenly felt the need to grab my scabbard.
"What do we do?" She asked. Leo looked at her, his face an unreadable mask.
"We use the traboules." It was a French word, but I had never heard it before.
"Traboules?" I asked, allowing my eyes to dart back and forth between Leo and Olivia.
"Secret passages," Olivia answered.
I nodded. "Good. I was just thinking to myself how much we could desperately use secret passages right now."
She frowned at me and I caught myself wondering if she'd learned the excessive use of that mannerism from Leo.
Leo pushed away from the window and moved between us and toward the kitchen. "They are coming this way and will be here after the next house. We must move quickly." He nodded the direction that he walked. "Traboules or fight?"
"Traboules," Olivia and I said in unison. I had no doubt that we could take however many were going to be knocking down our door, but to do so would be to give up a perfectly good safe house as well as make another person have to leave their home. Leo might have been grating on me, but I did not wish to boost him out of Lyon.
Or give him cause to join me and Olivia.
Leo didn't look back as we answered, instead continuing into the kitchen. I grabbed my bag and we followed him in silence. When I saw him struggling to move the heavy cast iron stove, I stepped to his aid and together we shifted it forward.
Behind it was a small hole in the floor, about the width of myself with only a few inches to spare. Beyond the hole was only blackness.
Leo quickly grabbed a military flashlight from a drawer and handed it to Olivia. Together, Leo and myself lowered her down by her wrists. The floor must not have been far. She was touching the ground while we still held her.
Leo waved me forward and I did not hesitate. With a quick leap I was through the hole and beside Olivia as she worked the flashlight.
As Leo came down, she aimed it at the hole and we saw a heavy iron bar that was attached to the base of the stove. Leo and I grabbed it and pulled the oven back into place.
With the oven now covering our entrance, I assumed us safe, and turned to walk down the tunnel. I took two steps when Leo grabbed my arm and stopped me.
"Don't move." He said.
He then yanked the flashlight from Olivia's hand and aimed it at my feet. I stood only one step from a deadly hole directly in the middle of the floor. It wasn't a hole from some sort of wear or tear on the foundation. This was a hole actually built into the floor of the tunnel. It had an edge that was beveled, but there were no stairs. It was only a straight drop.
I eyed Leo curiously, and his only response was "Protection, in case they follow us."
"This foundation is much older than the Nazi party." I said. "Who would you have had to run from before this?"
"It is not my home, wizard." He replied. His face said that he wasn't telling me everything. "France has a long history of uprisings. Perhaps you are not the first wizard to grace these halls with your presence."
I had no explanation for it then, but I found myself suddenly gripping my pistol tighter.
Olivia grabbed the flashlight back and, without hesitation, stepped around the hole to continue down the tunnel. Keeping my tight grip on my .38, I followed her and allowed Leo to take up the rear.
The tunnel seemed to continue on forever in the endless blackness, but we only went another ten or fifteen feet before Olivia came to a stop and held a finger to her lips. "Listen!"
We did as she bade and we could hear the pounding on the front door of the house. Shouts began in French, quiet and angry, and quickly rose to a much louder volume.
I heard one of them shout that they had seen movement and that it was our last chance to open the door. It hadn't been a full count to three when the front door must have been kicked in, because I heard a loud crash and then we could hear them stomping around the house.
Leo looked away from the tunnel ceiling that we had all been staring intensely at and toward us. "They will not find the tunnel, we are safe if we stay in here for the rest of the night."
The flashlight, still in Olivia's hand, suddenly cast to the floor. Seeing nothing of a disgusting nature, Olivia sighed and plopped her bottom down on the cleanest looking corner.
"Find a seat and relax, American. The evening has just begun."
I took the flashlight from her and looked for another clean spot on the floor. My eyes saw that there was another beveled hole in the floor and I took the moment to look down into it. Even with the light in my hands, I couldn't see the bottom, but I could hear something, similar to a shuffle, shambling in the darkness and echoing up the hole. It was faint, but definitely there.
"Where do they lead?" I asked Leo, hoping for either a reveal of more knowledge or for a possible escape other than the oven entryway.
"I do not know." He sat down beside Olivia without looking to see what might be beneath him first. "This is not the only house that I have found them in. There are rumors that most of Paris is tunnels. I have no doubt that Lyon is the same way." I turned off the light then and sat down across from them and listened as he continued. "In Paris, they speak of the tunnels being of the dead. I would not compare Lyon's tunnels in the same manner. I have heard of...things down here. Rumors of old witches and wizards that had created black sorceries in these caverns. There are many different tales about what lives down those holes."
With nothing better to do, I pressed him. "Such as?"
"The one that the children like to tell is that the holes are where the old wizards would spirit away the bad boys and girls and save them for dinner. The noises that you can hear are those stolen children, old and withered, praying for release from life." I heard Leo move, only slightly, and then he continued. "Another story talks of monsters, made from the parts of animals and man. They were kept down there so that the wizards and witches could conduct their dark experiments upon them. This story is the one that you hear in the taverns and brothels. The whores tell that the wizards and witches died of incredibly old age, but their monsters survived. The spells that were done to them gave them unending life and torment."
I could hear in his voice that he didn't believe either story. My own travels and experiences left me open to the possibility that either story could be true. It was easy to hear in Leo's voice that he thought them just legends for encouraging children to stay well behaved.
His voice also hinted that he did fear what was down those holes, so I asked him.
"What do you think is down there?"
Leo laughed. "What, wizard? You don't believe that monsters live under the streets of Lyon?"
I was certain that monsters did, in fact, live under the streets, and not only in Lyon. I didn't say as much. Instead I said, "It isn't what I believe: it's what the man who calls these streets home believes."
"Well said," was Leo's reply. The mirth had left his voice as he continued. "I am not very superstitious, but I have found that the only story that scares me is the one of the tombs." He became quiet for a moment and from over head we could hear the Nazi soldiers tearing apart the furniture. "I believe that the tunnels were used by the wizards, but that through their dark practices they had found the path to immortality. The wizards fought among each other using their magic. During the last of their battles, many retreated into those holes but they couldn't get back out."
Olivia made a noise, and I imagined that she shivered then.
"There was a problem with their magic," Leo went on. "They had learned how to trap their
souls in the realm of the living, but they hadn't figured out how to stop the slow decay of their bodies."
"You think those holes lead to the trapped and rotting bodies of the ancient wizards?" I asked him.
"I've heard more fanciful tales." He replied, but I could hear in his voice that whatever was at the bottom of those holes was something that terrified him.
Olivia spoke up then. "Yes, boys, please keep telling your scary stories while the Nazis hunt us and I try to sleep. This night was just beginning to become too light on my nerves..."
I laughed and Leo joined in. It was a nervous laughter brought on by our situation and I was sure that Olivia, for all of her brusque nature, had a smile across her face as well.
A crash and the sound of falling debris stopped our laughter instantly. The sound rang in my ears and I felt as if I had just been in the center of an explosion. I turned the flashlight in the direction of the entrance to the tunnel and saw dust and the looming forms of several men. The Nazis had found our tunnel escape.
Leo was beside me then and grabbed the light out of my hand. As he took it, he flipped the switch to keep it from giving our enemy a clear target. Together, the three of us took off down the tunnel and around a corner away from the Nazis.
Without the flashlight, I couldn't see where I was going, but I had seen two of the holes and they had both been in the center of the tunnel. I kept tight to the walls and continued to run forward, directly behind both Olivia and Leo.
Gunfire suddenly came racing down the tunnel and smacking into the walls beside me. Spinning I shot three times over my shoulder. Their firing stopped but only for a second. I shot once more and then also stopped. They began firing again then, coming incredibly close to my head with their aim. The stone began to chip away and shower into my face as the walls became riddled with bullets. More out of reflex than anything, I dove forward.
That was my undoing. As I dove, I couldn't see where I was placing my feet and the shot so close to my head had left my sense of direction completely useless. It was one step and then a second and I couldn't feel anything under my foot on the third.
I fell, my bag and shoulder hitting the edge of the hole hard, and then I went down the hole.
With a sharp yelp, I began my descent. I placed my boots on the edge walls and thrust out my arms, hoping to slow down my fall. I knew that if I couldn't see the bottom than it was far enough at least to break my legs in the free fall. I said a quick prayer, begging whoever was listening to allow me to slow down enough not to land and become a puddle.
My boots suddenly couldn't touch the walls anymore, and in that same instant my arms were free of it as well. I fell for another ten feet or so before my legs slammed into a solid floor. The force went through my knees and hips, and no amount of bending my knees could absorb enough shock to stop me from feeling it all the way up my spine.
My bottom hit the ground in almost the same instant as my feet hit, and I was certain that I had broken my tail bone.
I laid on the cold ground for what seemed like forever before I decided to test out my legs and back. I hurt everywhere but, to my relief, nothing was broken and I could stand with only minimal discomfort.
Judging by the constant ache in my behind, sitting was going to be a horrible experience for the foreseeable future.
My bag had landed nearby and after feeling around in the dark I managed to scoop it up. Bending carefully over I also ran my hands over the floor in an attempt to locate my gun.
That was when I heard the howl.
I couldn't tell where it was or how close. The cavernous nature of the room that I had landed in made the echo reverberate and I couldn't tell if the creature who had howled was ten or a hundred feet away. I gave up on my search for the pistol and dug my hand into the bag, withdrawing the scabbard that held my magical sword. In a clumsy movement, I pulled the sword free and held the scabbard out in a defensive stance. The thing that howled made no further noise and the echo finally began to die down.
Once my ears had stopped ringing with that monstrous voice, a new noise filled them.
It was dry and sounded as though it was somewhere between a choke and a cough, but I had no trouble understanding it.
"Finally," said the voice. "You've...come..."
I shivered then; the voice scared me. Without a sound to indicate movement I was suddenly hit in the chest and thrown backward.
My sore tail bone hit the ground hard and I dropped the sword and scabbard. Before I could recover from the attack, the thing that had spoken was upon me. It wrapped bony appendages around my throat and began to choke the life from me. Groping, I found the handle of the sword and swung it gracelessly at my attacker. One of the appendages pressing down on my throat was struck by the blade and suddenly went limp. I felt it begin to liquefy and a thought floated into my mind then. Whatever this was, it had been touched by the void. My sword only did that nasty liquefy trick when it touched something of the void.
That was the last thought to go through my mind. Instead of reeling when I removed the thing's arm, it instead thrashed out with the other appendage. It smacked me directly in the forehead and everything went dark.
***
"Andrew!"
I woke to my name being called. I could hear it everywhere and I knew that I must still be in the hole.
To my surprise, I answered the call, but without moving my mouth. As a matter of fact, the voice was nowhere near me.
"Yes," my voice echoed. "I am down here. Do you have any rope?"
I heard Leo answer, "Yes!"
I was laying down, and I still couldn't see anything in the blackness. I was confused and worried that I had experienced a blow to my head. I didn't remember answering, but it had most definitely been my own voice.
I placed my right arm under me and sat up. My body ached in all sorts of new places, but not in my tail bone. That formerly sore place on my person had stopped hurting, making it easier to sit up than I had expected.
As I sat up, I looked around and was surprised to realize that I could actually see something.
Light was flashing down through the hole. I couldn't see much other than the inside of the hole being lit up, but I could see the light moving around within it.
Whoever was up above, and I assumed that it was Leo and Olivia by the voices, was trying to see
whatever was down the hole. Then the light hit upon something that I couldn't completely understand. It was another person, and my immediate assumption was that it was the monster, but whoever or whatever it was had two arms...and my pistol, which I recognized as the light from above glinted off of the runes etched into its surface.
Working from the assumption that I had been capable of speaking only moments before, I tried to do so again. My intent was to let them know that I was not the only one down there.
"Gak...glak..." My throat was incredibly dry and it felt as if I was choking as I tried to speak. When the monster had strangled me it must have caused more bruising than I had thought.
I saw the length of a rope as it came down through the hole, a loop had been tied into its end. The man with my gun grabbed the rope and set his foot into the loop. He held on with only one hand as it began to rise. The beam of light came down onto him more directly as he began to lift from the floor and I saw something that only added to my confusion: the man on the rope looked like me!
I placed both hands under me then and attempted to stand, except that wasn't what happened. As I placed both arms beneath me, I fell to my left without any support on that side. I hit my head hard onto the floor and let out a moan that sounded just as dry and raspy as my attempted speech had been. Groping blindly, I brought my right hand up and grasped at my left arm.
It had been cut off beneath the elbow.
I finally understood, as well as anyone could, what was going on.
One of those damned wizards or mutants or whatever they were had hijacked my body and meant to leave me down here to rot in his place.<
br />
You did not need to know the secrets of not aging if you knew the secret of hopping bodies.
It was a difficult spell to create, but I was lucky to have been the victim. The soul was shaped very specifically for everybody. Squares could not fit in round holes without being forced. Thieves of bodies had to force their way in and they would have to deal with the shape being all wrong for them. For the victims it was simple, with only a little of know-how, to reverse the effects and bounce back into the proper body. All I needed to do was touch the being. Physical contact was key.
I raised my/his head up toward the light and my body was no longer visible. I ran the dried out tongue of the mouth I had been forced to use around inside of it and prayed that it had enough moisture for what I needed. Once I thought that the job had been accomplished, I shouted as loudly as I could.
"Stop...!" It was raspy, but the word came out. "Stop! Please! That is not your friend..." I broke off then in a coughing fit and tripped over something as I stood.
I felt around on the floor where I had tripped and something bit into the flesh of my only arm and I let out a small gasp of pain.
Aside from the cut nothing special happened though, and I reached down and felt for what had caused me the pain.
The hilt and the runes gave it away; I had found my sword, but it had not dissolved my flesh when it had cut me. The sword, for as much as a sword could, recognized me. I didn't know how, but this information might become useful in the future.
Finally bringing my new body more fully under my control, I did my best to sprint to the hole and looked up.
My doppleganger, or hijacker, or whatever you would like to call it, was well beyond my reach, but I called out again.
"Olivia!" I took a deep breath. Yelling was very difficult and I was already feeling the toll on my withered and aged lungs. "Olivia! That is not the Andrew Doran that you are pulling...up..." I coughed uncontrollably then. "Please, drop him! Drop him now!"
My voice echoed from above me. "The demons are trying to trick you, Olivia! Quick! Pull me up before they try to grab me again." "Ask him!" I wheezed. My breath was getting harder to catch. "Ask him...from where...he hails!"
The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set Page 11