Khan-Tral stepped out into the clearing, followed by Anna and Lamb. They were crossing the moss when suddenly a net shot out from concealment and engulfed them. The weighted strands pulled them to the ground as a horn trumpeted before dying out, as if a bladder of air had been exhausted.
While Khan-Tral pulled at the heavy ropework with his bare hands, Lamb set to cutting the net with an arrowhead. Anna was able to draw the knives from her wrist sheathes. Her razor-sharp blades sliced through the web of strands easily, and in a moment, she was out of the net and cutting out Lamb.
The sound of armored feet running across the stone caught their ears, echoing from the nearer roadway tunnels, and an aura of apprehension overcame Anna. The warrior noticed her discomfort.
“Quickly!” Khan-Tral said. “The Druegar are coming!”
Anna freed Lamb, who nocked an arrow and watched toward where the sound was coming from. He could not see the tunnel mouth beyond the foliage, so it was likely that whoever was coming would not be able to see them.
Suddenly he was lifted from behind by Khan-Tral and thrust up onto the ladder. Anna was already quickly climbing ahead of him. He followed, and the warrior brought up the rear as soon as he was clear.
As she crested the top of the mushroom trees, Anna hazarded a glance back toward where the noise was coming from. As she watched, a half a dozen short, bald, wide men dressed in chainmail armor emerged from the tunnel. They immediately looked in her direction and ran toward the ladder.
Behind them, a couple more appeared leading a train of humanoid beings, but clearly not all human, who were mostly naked, and shackled together by the neck with their arms chained behind them. The latter ones poked and prodded the captives with their spears.
“KEEP GOING!” Khan-Tral shouted up to Anna. “THE DRUEGAR CAN’T CLIMB THE LADDER. THEY’RE TOO HEAVY! ONCE WE’RE HIGH ENOUGH, WE’RE CLEAR!”
Anna renewed her efforts and advanced rapidly up the ladder. Lamb followed, but he was not as confident on the ladder and his feet kept slipping off the rungs. He jumped when arrows started striking the walls around them. The Druegar were not good shots, but it would only take one stray shot.
An arrow struck the rung Lamb was about to grab and pulled his attention away. His foot slipped and his other hand gave way. He struck the ladder and flipped over, falling face-first. But Khan-Tral caught his leg is his meaty fist.
“I’VE GOT YOU,” he said, clearly strained. “GRAB THE LADDER WHEN YOU CAN.”
◆
O’Malley turned away when Lamb lost his grip on the ladder. He turned back to see the floor of the cavern, perhaps twenty feet below. Harry was hanging upside down. Lamb looked out into the cavern and saw about a dozen armored dwarves running toward him. They stopped every few steps to fire a volley of arrows.
“Get climbing, Harry,” O’Malley said in desperation.
“He cannot hear you.”
“I know!” the priest snapped back. “It just helps me feel less impotent,” he added quietly.
◆
Lamb hung upside down perhaps 20 feet above the Druegar. Helplessly, he reached out to catch the contents of his quiver as they dropped past, soothed only by the fact that the heavy metal arrowheads pointed downward when they struck those below. However, only a single arrow hit one of the armored figures, and it bounced harmlessly off his helmet.
Fear and desperation filled him. At the last moment, he was able to catch the ornate, golden baton that he had found among the Draunskur horde, which had gotten caught in the fabric of the quiver. He gripped the baton hard as a spasm of pain erupted from the leg Khan-Tral was tightly gripping. A blue bolt of energy shot from the device and blasted away a section of the cavern floor in a blinding flash.
When his vision cleared, Lamb saw four of the small warriors on the ground, blackened and smoking, while their peers retreated to the concealment of the foliage.
“Good shot, archer,” Khan-Tral said with some effort, “but take hold of the ladder now. Khan-Tral is losing his grip.”
Lamb reached out and grabbed the ladder with both hands, and then looped his free leg around one of the higher rungs.
“You should have led with that,” the warrior said with humor in his voice.
“I didn’t know it could do that,” the doctor replied. “Now help me get right-side-up!” He felt the ladder shake as the warrior descended. A moment later, Lamb was lifted by his belt and pulled from the ladder. He nearly dropped the baton. He rose slightly, until he was almost level with the warrior, who had looped his own arm around a rung and now lifted Lamb over his head.
“Take hold of the rungs with your hands reversed,” the warrior said. Lamb followed his instructions and was quickly ascending the ladder between Anna and Khan-Tral.
◆
Anna had not stopped climbing. She was preoccupied with the ladder and reaching the top. The nervous tension the aggressors seemed to radiate remained strong. Also, she knew not to look down from a height, as it might cause vertigo.
She climbed steadily. Her arms ached and each rung irritated her bandaged hands, but adrenaline kept her going. Eventually, she reached the top of the ladder, where a metal hatch was built into the stone ceiling. Anna pushed on the hatch with her shoulder, but it did not move.
As she pondered, her fatigue caught up with her. Instinctively, she stepped down a rung, put her legs though the ladder, and sat precariously on the metal step.
She examined the edges and could not see how the door opened. There were no evident hinges, and any handle seemed to be on the other side. Perhaps this was the bottom of a trapdoor. But then why would there be a ladder up to it from below?
Anna’s musings were interrupted when something tapped her bottom. She was too tired to react, and peered down to see Lamb looking up at her, with Khan-Tral right behind him. The doctor was holding an ornate, golden baton of the style given to commanders of Roman legions. It glowed slightly, and Anna could feel residual heat emanating from it.
“Comfortable?” Lamb said with amusement, though his strain and fatigue was evident. The glowing baton illuminated the hatch, and Anna noted characters engraved in it. She peered closer, but her head cast a shadow over them.
“Lend me your staff,” she said to Lamb, holding out a hand behind her. She felt the warm metal in her palm. The heat was unexpectedly soothing on the wounds. She brought the light closer to the characters, but they were partially encrusted with grime. She wiped away the grit, and it exposed an indentation.
Anna moved the baton closer to examine the interior of the indentation, and when it got within an inch of the space the end of the golden rod was sucked into the gap as if magnetically, and there was a hiss. The baton was released from the hatch, and Anna pulled it out. Then the panel rose slightly and slid to the side into the ceiling of the cavern.
Beyond the exposed portal was a shaft of perhaps another ten feet. A similar ladder continued up the opening.
“There is another-” Anna started to say.
“Just keep going!” Lamb shouted. “I can’t hold on much longer!”
Without hesitation, Anna lowered the baton and dropped it carefully into Lamb’s open-topped quiver. Then she continued climbing.
When the three were all climbing the second ladder, the hatch below slid closed on its own. Anna continued climbing and discovered that the shaft from which she emerged had been covered by a leathery animal skin. Beyond it was a cavern littered with rubble from fallen stalactites and the mounds of broken stalagmites.
“What was that?” she heard a quiet voice say, followed by a shushing sound.
Anna quietly attempted to cover the opening again. The animal skin was stiff enough to be moved from beneath, but she had no idea if moving it had made it visible from above. Then she climbed down to Lamb.
“There is a cavern beyond that cover, but I heard someone sneaking around inside it. They did not want to be discovered.”
“We are at their mercy down here,” Khan-Tra
l said from below. “We must get on an equal footing, whether they be friend or foe.”
“Is there cover or anything?” Lamb asked.
“There are many broken stalactites and stalagmites strewn about, but I did not get that good a look.” She pictured the room in her mind. “There is a mound about three feet high and perhaps five feet wide a couple feet to the left of the opening. The voices I heard were to the right. Head for that mound as quietly as you can.”
With the silent consent of the others, Anna climbed back up. She quietly lifted the animal skin barely off the ground and folded it over itself to the right. Then she peered out in the direction from which she had heard the noise.
“We don’t know what that was,” she heard a different voice whisper. “Best to stay hidden until it reveals itself.”
“I’m scared,” the first voice whined, and Anna heard a gentle tapping sound. She stifled a chuckle and pointed in the direction of the sound.
Climbing out of the hole, Anna quietly stepped through a layer of dust and hid behind the indicated rock. She peered around to watch Lamb emerge, look around, and freeze. He scanned the cave warily and caught sight of Anna, who motioned him toward her urgently.
Lamb crawled awkwardly out of the hole. The rustling was evident. Lamb recovered and loped toward Anna, but as she watched where the sounds had come from she saw two disheveled men, one bearded and one younger, peer around a similar outcropping. The older one saw Lamb and ducked back down, grabbing the other one’s shirt. As he fell, the latter made eye contact with Anna.
Khan-Tral vaulted from the hole, glanced at Anna, and then leapt over the rock she was looking at. A moment later, the giant warrior lifted the two off the ground by the collars of their garments.
Chapter 25
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“WHO WOULD SEEK TO WAYLAY KHAN-TRAL AND HIS COMPANIONS?” the warrior shouted.
“Please don’t hurt us, my lord,” the bearded man whispered, “and please lower your voice. We are right below the dungeons of the Red Wizard, Gho-Bazh!”
“Khan-Tral?” the younger one said quietly with evident excitement. “They said you would return. They said you would come back for Deb-Roh. Finally the Red Wizard will be defeated.”
“You know of Khan-Tral and Deb-Roh?” Anna said as she emerged from her hiding place. “Who told you about them?”
“Everybody knows the story of Khan-Tral and Deb-Roh,” the younger one said proudly. “The warrior and the scout, traveling all the lands righting wrongs and fighting for the oppressed.”
“Your story is common knowledge where we come from,” the older added.
“What more is said of them?” Lamb asked, standing beside Anna. “How do the stories say the Red Wizard will be defeated?”
“Why, Khan-Tral will summon an army from the stars and lay siege to Gho-Bazh’s palace,” the older one said. “The Red Wizard will challenge Khan-Tral to single combat,” he looked side to side furtively, “but he will cheat. He will have archers waiting in concealment to kill the warrior when he emerges into the arena.”
“How does Khan-Tral prevail?” Anna asked.
“Unknown to the Red Wizard,” the younger one said, “Khan-Tral recruited assassins of his own, who silently dispatch Gho-Bazh’s archers. When the sneak attack fails to happen, the wizard is distracted, and the mighty swordsman chops off his head.”
“And this story is common knowledge,” Lamb asked, “even among the Red Wizard’s guards and household?
“Yes, my lord,” the younger one replied. “That story has been unchanged for generations.”
“It was passed from my father to me,” the older one corrected sheepishly, “and I told it to my son here exactly as I remembered it.”
Khan-Tral returned the two to the ground and released their collars. The younger one looked Anna up and down, and then excitement bloomed in his eyes.
“You’re Nygof,” he shouted, then caught himself and whispered, “the Shadow!” He beamed. “Gho-Bazh doesn’t have a chance now!”
“There are still many challenges to be overcome before we can strike at the Red Wizard,” Khan-Tral said. “To begin with, the terrain is much changed from what Khan-Tral recalls. He needs you to tell him the lay of the land.”
“How did you come to be here?” Anna asked.
“We were in a cell in the dungeon,” the young man said. “The Red Wizard captured our whole village and brought everyone back to his castle.”
“Why?” Anna asked.
“To sacrifice to the Other Gods to keep the Dark One trapped here,” the older one replied. Anna and Lamb exchanged unhappy glances.
“As I was saying,” the younger one continued, “the three of us were in a cell, and he heard horrible noises coming from a door at the end of the hall.”
“Screams and death wails,” the older one chimed in, “like people being tortured.”
“So we were trapped in that cell,” the younger one started choking up, “and they came-”
“And they came for my wife,” the old man said. “We fought them, but they threw me to the floor and took her away.”
“We heard her scream in agony for hours-” the younger one said and then sat weeping.
“So I was determined not to let that fate happen to my boy. I checked all the cracks in the walls looking for loose stones or cracks I could expand and such, and I found an outline in the floor. I blew away the dust and there was a seam all around it. Together, we managed to pry it up, but it was real heavy.”
“There was a tunnel beneath it. So we climbs down and down and finds a cave. There’s a tunnel from the cave, and we ended up here.”
“They must have been in the same cell as Khan-Tral and Deb-Roh,” the warrior said with a grin. “The tunnel is still there.” He glanced toward a low side tunnel on the wall facing them.
“Did you cover the hole back up?” Anna asked urgently. The two looked sheepish.
“Well, “the older one said, “no. We was focused on escaping. We went down and didn’t look back.”
“Then your escape has probably been discovered by now,” Lamb said in frustration.
“I don’t think so,” the older one said. “It took a long time to pry out that stone, and we were never looked in on. I don’t think there’s any guards in the dungeon now.”
“I heard some of them talking about a campaign in the Endless Barrens of None to take the fight to the Dark One,” the younger one said. “That was about the time Father found the entrance. A short time after that, they stopped bringing us food, and then stopped coming by at all.”
“I saw Gho-Bazh and an army crossing the Endless Barrens by air just a few days ago,” Anna told Khan-Tral.
“Even if he knew who we were and where we were going,” Lamb conjectured, “I imagine it would take several days to return to his palace from there.”
“Yes, my lord,” the older one said. “Our village was on the border of the Endless Barrens, and it took us a week to walk here in chains.”
“Indeed,” the younger one added, “and even without the burden of prisoners, it would still take a few days.”
“You have been most helpful,” Khan-Tral said with a smile, and patted the two on the back. “What is your plan now?” The pair looked at each other.
“We don’t have a plan, my lord,” the older one said. “Perhaps it would be best to stay with you.”
“I am afraid that we cannot risk bringing you with us,” Anna said evenly. The two escapees looked at her, wide-eyed.
“We don’t have any supplies to share with you,” Lamb said, “but I advise you not to go down that shaft.”
“If memory serves,” Khan-Tral said, “and I may be mistaken - I don’t recall all this debris - there should be a passage that way. Follow that tunnel until you get to a cavern with an entrance that has been carved to look like some kind of beast. In that cavern, you will find a concealed exit in the floor bearing stairs. That is the route that Khan-Tral and Deb-Roh used to flee this
place.”
“Thank you, my lord,” the old man said, bowing low, first to Khan-Tral, then to Anna, and finally to Lamb.
The young one was overwhelmed by the experience. He glanced from Khan-Tral to Anna to Lamb and back to Anna, and then hugged her tightly. She broke the embrace violently. The man dropped to his knees and looked up at her begging.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me.” Anna softened and extended her hand to help him to his feet.
“You have been through a lot,” she said, “so I forgive you.” He moved to embrace her again, but she raised a finger to stop him and shook her head. He stepped back and nodded respectfully.
“Go now,” Khan-Tral said, “but be wary. This underground realm is perilous beyond your imagination.” As they turned to go, Anna handed each of them one of her two hand axes.
“You will need these,” she said, and then turned toward the tunnel to the Red Wizard’s dungeons.
◆
Anna examined the indicated tunnel. It was dark, and looked natural. She noted faint light about thirty feet down the passage. The tunnel was barely big enough to crawl through, and she wondered how Khan-Tral had managed to the first time.
“From this point forward,” the warrior whispered from behind, catching Anna by surprise, “we should proceed as quietly and carefully as we can.” He paused for Anna and Lamb to indicate understanding. “Beyond this tunnel, excavated by Khan-Tral and Deb-Roh, are the cells of Gho-Bazh, where unfortunates are held for the Red Wizard’s vile rituals.”
Lamb considered the tunnel and wondered what had happened to the displaced dirt, but the others entered the passage before he could ask. Up close, it was evident that the walls and sides were composed of packed earth, and there was evidence of work by bare hands. But it was curious that the was earth suitable for digging here rather than stone. The thought nagged at him, but he hurried to keep up.
The Other Realm Page 15