by C S Vass
He didn’t have to say it. Fiona, feeling rather selfish, suddenly realized that there was a whole city full of people who had their entire lives and fortunes on the line as the Vaentysh Boys took over their city. If they were eager to drive out anyone who didn’t see eye to eye with them then Martin would stand a better chance being welcomed into the Tellosian Parliament than Haygarden’s guard.
As they continued on Fiona felt a growing sense of foreboding as they moved down into the lower sewers, away from any final traces of human civilization. The mineral lights on along the passageway no longer glowed so bright, but there was an odd twinkling to them now that made her stomach uneasy.
“Fiona,” Martin hissed. He grabbed her arm tight, and pulled her close to him as he kept walking.
“What?” she asked, heart thumping in her chest.
“Don’t look, keep walking. There are more of those things. They’re creeping behind us.”
It took every ounce of willpower that she had not to look, and even then she almost did as soon as she started imagining disturbing vertical mouths with snake-like tongues poking out. Straining her ears against the chilling darkness she tried to hear something. They picked their pace up to a quick walk. There was a buzzing in her ears.
Then she heard it, a noise like a wet low growl. A vision of bulbous twisted skin and sharp rows of teeth brought a stinging pain into her neck. “We’ll never manage to fight them all.”
“When I say, run and don’t look back,” Martin said. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then said, “Now!”
They shot through the darkness like twin arrows racing in the night. Fiona was moving so quickly she couldn’t even be sure that her feet were touching the ground. The caves around her transformed into a streak of blurred red light. From behind she heard frantic scuttling, and the sound of hurried feet slapping against the wet ground of the cave.
Down they went, and the farther down the more the ground transformed from dirt to mud and plants crept through stones in twisted patterns. A sudden jerk sent Fiona flying, and before she knew it she was rolling through the cave with a reeker snapping at her face.
Soaring on adrenaline she placed her sword through the creatures neck. In an instant Martin kicked the dead body off of her, but more were coming by the second. Side by side swords danced in their hands as they met their oncoming attackers. Reekers hissed and shrieked in the darkness as they lost life and limb to the whirl of blades.
In the heat of battle Fiona was surprised to feel a new surge of courage swelling from within her. Running had triggered even more fear, but now that it was time to stand and fight she moved with cool precision, placing strategic blows to the hearts of her enemies.
Martin fared well too, she saw. His powerful long limbs moved deftly, and while he couldn’t match her own speed he was more than fast enough for the clumsy reekers. Over and over again he pierced an enemy that was ready to sneak behind her, as she did for him, and with great crushing swings his merciless longsword cleaved many a reeker’s head.
But still they came, and doubt began to creep into the back of Fiona’s mind. How long could they keep going like this? Already she could feel her arms burning with strain and her legs screaming protest every time she lunged to avoid a new attack. Yet weak as they were the reekers showed no sign of slowing down.
“Listen,” Martin said, as he panted heavily. Fiona’s face was drenched in sweat. “When I signal, you run on. I’ll hold them off as long as I’m able to a—”
“No!” she said. “I’m not leaving you here.”
“I’ll be right behind you,” he lied. “Listen, it doesn’t do us any good to both get killed down here. One of us will need to move on and find the twins.”
A reeker’s slashing claw cut her above the eye. As she opened the creature’s belly she could feel a trickle of blood flow from the wound, blinding her.
Fiona shook her head and felt absurdly like a stubborn child. There was going to be another way. There had to be.
More shrieks interrupted her thoughts and she saw the silver blur of Martin’s sword cleave a reeker’s head. She couldn’t leave him…could she?
“Go!” he yelled. His voice echoed down the hallway, a taunting ghost.
At that moment bright purple light blinded her. “Martin!” she shouted. The cave suddenly felt overwhelmingly warm. When she could see again she was awed to find the reekers were retreating back towards the way they had come.
“Fiona,” Martin breathed. She felt him tug her arm. Turning she saw a female figure glowing with electric purple light. It radiated from her eyes, her hands, and most brightly from a thick tome she held open on the palm of her right hand. A black cloth covered her nose and mouth, but left two wide blue eyes glowing like twin stars.
“Quickly, with me,” the newcomer said. In an instant, she turned and ran down into the lower caves. Fiona and Matin gave each other one quick searching look, and as one sprinted down the passage after her.
Chapter Sixteen
They ran until Fiona thought the aching muscles in her legs would burst, and then they ran some more. Onward they went through winding twists and turns past underground waterfalls and glowing crystals that moths gathered around by the dozens. At last, when Fiona thought she could take no more, they stopped.
They were deep below the city now, very deep. Mineral lights glowed red in the glass-like sparkling cavern walls. The ground was soft and wet, and murmuring underground streams breathed their quiet songs all around them.
“Are…are you one of the twins?” Fiona asked as she regained her breath.
“No,” the woman responded in a voice that seemed to come from all around them. The intense purple light that had engulfed her whole body had faded, but the great tome she held open in the palm of her right hand still glowed brightly. “Why have you come to this sacred place?” Her eyes shone with dangerous anger.
“We’ve come to speak with the twin sisters of the Moonwood,” Martin said. “Please, who are you?”
“I am called Raesha,” she responded. Raesha thumbed through her tome with careful precision. After a few moments it became clear that she was not going to say anything further.
“Thank you for saving us,” Fiona ventured, wondering who in the world this strange person could be.
“I bear no love for those creatures. They are a constant reminder of the cruelty of your race.”
“Yes, well,” Fiona said, unsure how to proceed. “It was very kind of you. But now we have to see the twins. Will you—”
“They will not see you,” Raesha snapped, as she shut her book for emphasis. “You are not welcome here. Turn back.”
“You don’t understand,” Martin said. Before he could continue Fiona knew that was the wrong thing to say.
“No human, it is you that doesn’t understand,” Raesha said. The sharp violet glow returned to her eyes. “These underground halls were not made for the likes of you to stumble about. Your own Duke made that promise, many years ago. He vowed he would keep you fools out.”
“The Duke is dead,” Fiona blurted. “That’s part of the reason why we’ve come.”
Raesha closed her eyes and bowed her head, apparently deep in thought. After a time she said, “It is no matter. What one Duke promised, the next Duke will honor. Go, you sewer rats, or you will wish that you had.”
Raesha’s words were low and musical. It was obvious to Fiona that there was enormous magical power in them. They would have to be very careful in dealing with her.
“Listen to me!” Fiona said, while trying to keep her patience. “There’s been a rebellion. These new people, no one knows what they’ll do. There’s no guarantee that they’re going to honor anything that the Duke promised. If we don’t get help—”
“THRAH!” Raesha’s yell boomed across the cave. As she shouted the glowing minerals changed from soft red to a threatening purple, the same shade of which electrified her hands and melted into the air around her.
“Child, you try my patience,” Raesha said. “Your Duke has been in power for a few moons. Now he is dead. What is that to the great and terrible Maeyori and Maeyumi? What is it to those who have lived as long as this mountain? You are stubborn, and refuse to listen. Now go before you anger me.”
“Hey, hey,” Martin interjected. “We should all be friends here.” There was a real note of panic in his voice. “We just wanted to bring the great Maeyori and Maeyumi news of the tidings from above. They might be interested to know about the affairs of our city, because the new people in power want to come down and abuse this sacred place.”
“Let them try,” Raesha said. “Whether those foul-smelling creatures or the fouler smelling humans I can scatter them all the same. Anyone who doubts that is welcome to find out for themselves.” She gave Martin a challenging look.
Fiona looked at this strange woman and wondered what they could do to move past her. The violet light shone around them malevolently. There was certainly powerful magic at play that she didn’t understand. If Raesha could scatter dozens of reekers like rats then surely they could pose no serious challenge to her.
“I’ve entertained you long enough,” Raesha said, her voice low and dangerous. It’s now time for you both to go.”
Wildly going to the last possible hope Fiona said, “Okay! We’re going! Just allow us to leave an offering for the twins. Here.” She reached into her quiver and removed the silver arrow that Thrushling had betrayed her with. “This belongs here, doesn’t it?”
Raesha took the arrow between her long spider-like fingers and held it close to her eyes. “This…this should never have left this place,” she said. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.
“We need to talk to the twins about this,” Martin said. “It’s a big part of the reason why we’re here. Please, take us to them.”
Raesha looked at them with fire in her eyes. She began chanting in low quick rhythms. Immediately the great tome in her hand began to glow with purple light, far more powerfully than before, and Fiona tried to take a step back. To her shock, she found that her legs would not move.
Panic rose in her chest as her heart thumped like a forge hammer. She couldn’t even move her neck to look at Martin. Raesha had frozen them stiff.
“Very well, humans,” Raesha said, her voice thick with loathing. “You wish to see Maeyori and Maeyumi. I will grant you that wish. You can explain the treachery to them.”
Fiona tried to open her mouth in protest, but even that small power had been stripped from her. Harsh invisible hands seemed to grip every inch of her body. Painfully, her legs thrust forward, and she was forced farther down the tunnel. She could hear Martin’s boots moving through mud by her side, but was not able to see him.
They walked deep into the heart of the caves, where mineral lights glowed warmly and the muddy ground gave way to dirt, roots and bushes, and at last tall trees that loomed over them like watchful guardians. The magic in the caves must keep them alive without sunlight, Fiona thought. When Shifter had told them that there was a forest underneath the city she had imagined a garden of some sort, not a vast and diverse woods where the trees were so big that she and Martin together would be unable to wrap their arms around them.
“Few from Haygarden have ever come to this sacred forest,” Raesha said. “You should be honored. Even if your lives are forfeit, you have lived to see a great wonder of the world.”
Silently Fiona agreed, though she still had plenty of fight left in her—assuming she would be able to control her body again before someone decided to take off her head. The forest was magnificent. Silent but alive with energy, there was a beauty in the darkness of the bark, the evanescence of the strange fog that hovered through the trees like ancient ghosts.
At last Raesha brought them to a central grove where the fog was thickest and stood still. Fiona and Martin were forced to their knees, and there they waited. At long last, twin silhouettes could be seen drifting through the fog, gradually assuming shape, until the twins were in front of them.
They were tall, thin, and draped in robes with strange black and white patterns that swirled around them as they moved. Their faces were similar, but not identical, with angry arched brows, cold black eyes, and high cheekbones that gave them a regal look.
“Raesha, who have you brought here?” asked a booming powerful voice.
“Two from the city who were eager to meet you, Maeyori,” Raesha said with her head bowed low. “They have stolen from you.” She extended the arrow, which Maeyori took and eyed suspiciously before handing it to Maeyumi.
Fiona anxiously awaited a similar reaction that Raesha had given, but if the twins were enraged they did not show it.
“I see,” Maeyumi said at last. “This was crafted long ago…long before Haygarden had a Duke. How did you come by it, thieves?”
Instantly Fiona felt the iron grip that held her body vanish and she gulped in air unrestricted. Her body felt sore and violated, but there was no time to think of that. “If it was stolen, we are not the culprits,” she said. “We are happy to return it. The arrow has brought me far more harm then good since I unknowingly took possession of it.”
“An easy lie to tell, should it save your life,” Maeyumi said. “I crafted this magic arrow by my own hand, and never did I intend for one of Haygarden to hold it. What was the vow, sister?”
“Song for Haygarden,” Maeyori said. “Silver for Laquath.”
“Song for Haygarden, silver for Laquath,” Maeyumi repeated. “Thus balance would be achieved. It seems a pact has been broken.”
“Please, great twins,” Martin said. “We don’t understand. Nothing is known of these pacts by ordinary folk such as us.”
“Oh no?” Maeyori asked. Her voice fluttered like a bird’s song as she spoke. “It does not surprise me. Redfire, Questian, these are men of little worth, little honor. We did not deal with the best, simply with what were given.”
“But you are not here to learn our history,” Maeyumi said. “So why have you come?”
“We were sent by Shifter,” Fiona said. “There are terrible things happening in the city and—”
Maeyori burst into loud laughter that interrupted her. “Shifter? Why would the secret-keeper send the likes of you down to this place? Are the old pacts so easily broken? What would the Duke say?”
“The Duke is dead,” Martin interjected.
“Good riddance,” Maeyumi spat. “A liar and a fool. It concerns us not.”
“His daughter will do better,” Maeyumi added.
“Not if she’s killed!” Fiona said. “Haygarden is under siege. The Vaentysh Boys have all but conquered it. I don’t know the fate of Sandra Redfire, but Lawrence Downcastle now rules Haygarden from Sun Circle.”
“So Shifter has sent you here to seek out aid?” Maeyumi said. “The little trickster monster is as bad as the masters.”
“We have no pact with these new rulers,” Maeyori said. “A regime change could interrupt our work.”
Fiona suddenly realized that they could never negotiate with the twins without understanding their history, their importance to Haygarden. “Please, sisters,” she said. “Tell us about your pact with Haygarden and Laquath. Tell us about this place. How did you come to be here?”
“We came here ages ago,” Maeyumi said. “We were here in a time before the present era. So very long before humans walked the earth. I forget…so much has changed.”
“We were artisans among our tribe,” Maeyori said. “I learned the workings of weapons, and Maeyumi learned that of music. When our tribe vanished, we remained. We walked ancient Tellos even before the Vaentysh kings settled this land. We came here to this forest, before the rise of the mountain, and learned the mysteries of the magic that comes from here.”
“All magic has its origins in this wood,” Maeyumi said. “It is only with our skilled hands that we weave spells into the weapons and instruments that come from the minerals in this dirt, from the bark of these trees.”
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“Why would you start giving these magic items to men?” Martin asked.
Maeyori scowled. “Do you ask the storyteller why he shares dreams? The painter why she paints her imagination for all the world to see? Our concern is with the perfection of our craft. What men will do with it is their own affair.”
“But it became your concern,” Fiona pressed. “You made a deal with the rulers of Haygarden and Laquath.”
“Yes,” Maeyumi said. “It was during that struggle for what you foolishly call independence. The Tellosians in their infinite greed were encroaching on our forest, slaughtering trees without replanting them, and ripping dirt from the womb of our world.”
“The Lords Questian and Redfire came to us,” Maeyori said. “They wanted to fight back. They said it was to protect this place. An obvious lie, but still any enemy of the Tellosians was one we could find common cause with.”
“The twin cities were to rebel, and in order to survive the storm of wolves that hungered for their blood we would offer them protection. Silver for Laquath, songs for Haygarden. Without the Tellosian demand for magic our woods would not be threatened. With our spells, Laquath and Haygarden would defend themselves.”
“Twin cities?” Martin asked, the disbelief clear in his voice. “What do you mean?”
“Foolish boy,” Maeyori said. “Haygarden and Laquath are as much twins as myself and my sister. The magic blood pumps through both of their veins.”
Realization dawned on Fiona at once. “The Moonwood. It extends all the way to Laquath, doesn’t it?”
The twins nodded. “They are more one city than two, not that the leaders ever could admit it. In days long past the Moonwood was not underground, but on the surface of the earth under the good sun. Only through the greed of men has its magic been harvested, its trees tortured until it shrunk down to the belly of the world. It makes no matter. We continue to craft our spells without the interference of the great empire.”
“But all of that is threatened now,” Fiona said. “These new people who have killed the Duke, the Vaentysh Boys, they don’t care about your agreement. Lawrence Downcastle is a soundmage. He’ll do whatever he can to harvest as much of this power as possible. They want to expand into the Lordless Lands.”