by D N Meinster
Mirabelle gave a little nay and backed away from Rikki. She gave her owner a heartbreaking look before galloping back toward Castle Tornis.
"I hope she can find her way back," Rikki stated, watching her horse depart.
"There's no missing that," Aros said, pointing at the giant black castle in the distance.
"Mirabelle will be fine," Doren said with confidence, and he headed right back inside the abandoned home.
Rikki trailed Aros inside, where it was just as empty as had been promised. The floors were covered in a mixture of dust and sand, only interrupted by the footprints of recent intruders. They moved briskly through the first floor of the house, past unoccupied wooden chairs and rolled up rugs leaning against the walls. The back door was ajar, and Rikki dashed through it, grateful to get out of that musty place.
With a little flexing of her staff, the door shut behind her, and she squeezed into the alley with her companions. There was not much to this tight space, except it was dark even in sunlight, only adding to the peculiarity of this expedition. She illuminated her channeling crystal to increase visibility and kept pace behind Aros. The three traveled in single file, for it would not be possible to move side-by-side.
Emerging from the alleyway, the light on her staff went out, and she came up to Doren's side. In front of them was an ugly taupe structure that must have been giving off the putrid scent she had caught earlier. It wasn't very elegant in its design, which was rigid and boxlike. Rikki looked around the empty street, which appeared to be leading downhill.
"Welcome to Grimemound," Aros said.
"That's where the sewers are?" Rikki asked.
"That's the entrance to the sewers," Doren informed her. "Designed by the Bellish long ago. I guess they had no way to contain the smell."
"Then why does it need such a huge structure? Aren't the sewers underground?" Rikki took the lead, entering a single door that served as the entrance to the light-brown monstrosity. She was stopped right inside by a gate of iron bars that blocked the way forward. Against the wall behind the gate stood a guardian, pinned in place by a spear in each shoulder. His eyes were open, but his face was sallow and lifeless.
"I think we can say with some certainty that Ale came this way," Doren stated, joining Rikki in front of the gate.
"How are we supposed to get through?" Aros asked.
Doren and Rikki both looked at him, not sure if he was serious.
"What?" he added.
Rikki placed the tip of her staff on the iron bars, and they slid open without hesitation.
"Oh, right," Aros said, undoubtedly embarrassed. "Magic."
Rikki stopped right beyond the gate, examining the deceased guardian. "He's been gone for a while. We shouldn't leave him like this."
"We can send someone for him when we get back to Castle Tornis," Doren said.
"It doesn't seem right to leave him," Rikki replied.
"He's dead," Doren stated, not comprehending why she cared.
Rikki placed her palm on the guardian's forehead, and slid her hand down, closing his eyes. She touched her staff to each spear and they disappeared, but the body remained standing. She was reluctant to leave him but willed herself to carry on. These Thalians had to be stopped before more innocents were used as their props.
The three of them moved past the dead guardian, with Aros hugging the opposite wall to avoid the body. They pushed through a set of double doors and entered the hub of Kytheras' sewer system.
Rikki launched her arms out to her sides right as they entered the next room. Doren and Aros stopped as she had intended, and they all marveled at the Bellish design before them. It was undoubtedly the largest open chamber any of them had ever seen. Up above them, where there could have been other floors, were instead layers of twisted metal pipes, curving in every direction. The pipes enveloped the top half of the room and lined every inch of the walls around them. Where there should have been a ground floor, there was only a ledge, followed by empty space. Rikki peeked downward. There was a landing far below them, which branched off into several tunnels.
"There's got to be stairs, right?" Aros hoped. But there was nothing in their vicinity except this platform and a metallic ladder which poked up from its edge.
"Looks like we're climbing," Doren said, moving up to the ladder.
"We could check the rest of the building," Aros suggested.
"This is the rest of the building," Doren replied, and he grabbed the sides of the ladder and started heading down.
Rikki touched her staff to the floor of the platform and slowly moved her hand away, leaving the staff to stand on its own. She placed each foot on the ladder and descended each rung slowly, to keep her balance and give Doren enough time so she didn't accidently step on his hand. "At least the Bellish were wise enough to use metal and not wood," she said during her descent.
Aros did not start on the ladder until Rikki was more than halfway down. It took him the longest to make it to the lower level, where he finally joined Rikki and Doren on a concrete landing. Rikki raised up her arm as soon as Aros was off the ladder, and her staff zipped from the ledge down into her outstretched hand.
"Couldn't you have done that to us?" Aros asked, still uneasy about the climb.
"I think you were safer on the ladder," Rikki replied. "Wouldn't want to accidently drop you."
Aros looked upward, examining the length of their climb. They had to have gone nearly four stories underground.
Rikki concerned herself with their surroundings. The concrete platform led into six tunnels heading in opposite directions, five of which contained subterranean rivers. The pipes from above traveled along the top and sides of these tunnels. Occasionally, some at their entrances would spurt water down into the rivers.
The sixth tunnel was more like a dry riverbed, its bottom layered with sand. The pipes headed into it were inactive and rotted, with not a sign of moisture as far down as Rikki could see. Despite never having left the castle before, she knew exactly where that tunnel led, and she felt immensely guilty about it.
"That way," she informed her companions, pointing her staff toward the barren tunnel.
"Does that lead where I think it does?" Doren asked.
"The Outer," Aros stated flatly.
"I knew the Outer had been neglected but..." Doren couldn't even finish his thought. He just stared, horrified at the corroded shaft.
Rikki marched forward but came to an abrupt halt before her foot touched the first patch of sand, as she realized that only Aros had accompanied her. She looked back at Doren, who was still struck by the sight.
"Do you think he knows?" Doren murmured.
Rikki didn't want to answer, and she wasn't sure Doren wanted her to. King Halstrom almost certainly knew and did nothing. That was how he operated. "Come on, Doren," was all she said.
Doren dragged his feet toward her. "What if people actually lived there? How would they survive?"
"They probably couldn't," Aros replied, unaware of Doren's internal anguish. "I mean, there's rainwater, but it only rains maybe twice a season."
"The Outer is a joke to them," Doren said, passing Rikki and Aros to take the lead down the tunnel. "My family is responsible for this. Whether it's my father or my father's father. My bloodline has a lot to make up for."
The sound of rushing waters and bursting pipes faded as they proceeded down the sand-infiltrated sewers. Rikki lit her staff to guide them, as the sunlight that had snuck into the main room did not penetrate far beyond it. She felt apprehensive of what might lie ahead. Were there Thalians in the shadows, waiting to pounce? Or, perhaps worse, were there rattipedes hiding in the dark?
"Stop!" Rikki shouted.
Both Aros and Doren made for their weapons. "What is it?" one of them yelled.
"Just wait," she insisted. Rikki held her staff high above her head and concentrated on what she wanted to manifest. She pictured the bright light of her staff and thought of it making hundreds of copies of itself to
line the ceiling with light. The crystal's intensity increased until she had no choice but to shut her eyes. When she reopened them, the lights along the ceiling had materialized. They were floating near the top of the tunnel, illuminating the path that lay before them.
"Wow," Aros whispered, gawking at the lights above him.
"And you don't think you're ready to give Mirabelle wings?" Doren teased.
"This is nothing," Rikki said. As she took a look at how far down her lights went, something along the way caught her eye. A small patch of sand seemed to be rippling toward them. "What is that?" She moved a few steps closer to get a better look.
There was something traveling just beneath the sand, but its legs were still partially visible on the surface. And there were a lot of legs. There were pairs upon pairs, each with their own set of pink toes clawing at the grains. She couldn't see any other part of this creature, but she didn't have to, for she knew what it was.
The sack slid off Rikki's arm as she hopped back, petrified of what was coming at them. "Rattipede!" she shouted, her voice echoing down the tunnel.
Doren and Aros flung their weapons out from their backs and prepared to face the giant vermin.
As it neared, the front of the rattipede emerged from the ground. Its cylindrical body had coats of gray fur, with only its legs distinguishing it from a hairy snake. Its head was mostly an elliptical mouth containing rows of sharp teeth, while two beady black eyes were barely noticeable on its sides. It was a terrifying presence, mainly because it was often considered an urban legend used to scare children. So few visited the sewers to verify its existence. But there it was, right in front of them.
They only got an idea of how long it was when the rattipede leapt at them from the sands. As it soared into the air, half of its body still remained hidden beneath the ground.
Doren smashed his shield into the rattipede's head, rocketing it backward. It floundered on its back for a minute, half the tiny legs clawing at the air. But it managed to flip itself back on its underside and made at them again.
Doren prepared for another strike as the rattipede shot at them once again. Just as it sprang toward them, a spear appeared out of nowhere and soared into the creature's side. The spear collided into the pipes on the wall, leaving the rattipede there to dangle lifelessly from its shaft.
"There are things worse than rattipedes down here," said a man fading into view before them. He was still wearing the tattered cloak Rikki had seen him in before, along with the pearl white mask.
"Sarin," Rikki said.
A grin flickered across Sarin's face. "Not even going to give me a chance to introduce myself. Fine, Rikki, Doren, and..." Sarin's visible eye studied Aros. "Don't think I know who you are."
Aros pointed his clawblade at Sarin. "You took my friend."
Sarin scratched the scars on his chin. "Which one of them is your friend?"
Was this Thalian going to play mind games with them? Rikki didn't want him to get inside Aros' head, or Aros might act rashly. That would only give Sarin the advantage. "Shouldn't you be dead?" Rikki asked, changing the subject.
"Well isn't someone a good history student," Sarin mocked.
"You weren't even alive during the Dark Incursion!" Rikki shouted at him. "Why are you a Thalian?"
"I'm not, really," Sarin answered. "But they brought me back. And they let me have fun!" He raised his arms into the air, and six spears materialized, floating at his sides. He folded his arms. "In Neanthal's world, I am free."
"You weren't a mage, either," Rikki said.
"Referring to these?" Sarin asked, pointing his thumbs out at the spears. "They were a gift."
The hovering spears targeted Rikki and her companions. She knew they were about to come flying at them and only had a moment to react. Rikki slammed her staff into the ground and a barrier of sand rose up. The sand crystallized in midair, creating a thick glass wall between the trio and Sarin.
Each of the spears slammed into the glass but barely made a crack in it. The projectiles hung against the wall, unable to hit their targets.
Sarin walked up to the glass and placed his hand upon it. "Clever," she heard him say.
He and his spears disappeared, and Rikki thought their ordeal was over.
"You just turned sand into glass," Aros stated, dumbfounded.
"It's less impressive than you think," Rikki mentioned. "Better mages could stop them in midair or create magical barriers."
As soon as she finished the sentence, a spear flew past them from behind. Rikki turned and found another spear heading in their direction.
Doren slammed his shield down upon the spear, sending it sailing into the ground. Eyeing Sarin, he swung the shield to his side and then flung it at the Thalian.
Sarin easily sidestepped the whizzing shield, which smacked into a wall before it teetered to the ground. He glanced at the idol bronze disk. "You need to practice getting it to come back."
Rikki extended her staff and willed the shield to rise up off the ground.
"Look at that!" Sarin exclaimed. "You've got your own return service."
Sarin had several spears accompany the shield as it flew back towards a defenseless Doren.
Rikki panicked, unsure if she could drop the shield and stop the spears at the same time. All she could see as those spears rapidly neared was Doren being impaled and dying before her eyes, and she couldn't let that happen. She twirled her body in front of Doren and gave him a tiny smile, certain that her back would soon be pierced by several pointy spears.
Aros' clawblades sliced through the shafts of the spears before they had a chance to stab Rikki. The pieces fell to the ground, as did Doren's shield.
Rikki gave Aros a relieved and grateful look before spinning back around. She hadn't even considered that he might save her from a trip to the Great Bastion. Facing Sarin, she summoned up another wall of sand and transformed it into nearly impenetrable glass.
"We're trapped," Aros whined.
"At least he's out there, and we're in here," Rikki commented.
"Wrong," Sarin cackled, appearing between the glass walls with them. Two body-length spears materialized in each of his hands, and he charged at them, swinging wildly.
Aros ran up to him with his clawblades held out at arm's length. Sarin's spears collided with the clawblades several times as he spun them about, while Aros' blades remained still as they took the hits. When Sarin took a pause from his swipes, Aros swung out his clawblades and trapped the shafts of the spears in their curved tips.
Sarin studied the predicament before fading away, leaving the spears dangling in the nook of Aros' clawblades.
Doren bent over to pick up his shield, which was in his hands just as Sarin shifted in front of him.
Sarin poked his newly formed spears at the Prince, who blocked each jab with the recovered shield. Growing more furious with every block, Sarin raised both spears above his head and slammed them down upon Doren's shield. The tips of the spears broke and the shafts folded in on themselves as they hit the bronze metal. Sarin shifted once again.
This time, he appeared in front of Rikki, who was more prepared for the Thalian. Her foot was already in the air and kicking into his chest before he had completely materialized. Sarin tumbled back into the sewer wall and Rikki raised another glass barrier in front of him.
Sarin smashed his spears into the glass, but it failed to shatter. "Trying to turn me into a mime?" He slashed at the glass relentlessly and summoned more spears to his side when it refused to crack. He guided every spear to attack the wall, the ones in his hands and the ones hovering alongside him.
Though he finally managed to create several cracks, the wall did not crumble.
"Guys, get close together," Rikki ordered.
Sarin shifted out from the glass she had trapped him behind, but she created two more of these barriers to contain herself and her companions in a tight glass box. There was no room inside for Sarin to shift to, so he appeared outside the box, gaz
ing at his prey.
"How are we supposed to get out?" Doren asked.
"Not our immediate concern," Rikki replied.
Sarin paced back and forth alongside the glass wall, undoubtedly trying to figure a way inside.
Rikki knew her barriers wouldn't hold forever; they were only glass. They had to get out of these sewers and far from Sarin. She knew what he was capable of, for his feats were so terrible they took up pages in the history books. He wiped out villages on his own and got a sick pleasure from the deed. He was especially notorious in Faunli, where he committed the atrocities. Sarin should be dead, not pacing in front of them. She was afraid of him and feared that they were going to end up on a body count that should have long ago been finalized. Sarin without magic took them years to bring down. Sarin with magic could be unstoppable.
Sarin stopped moving. He placed his hands on the other side of the glass and gave the trio a grin, which they could only see half of. He summoned more spears, but these did not appear beside him or in his hands. Instead, the spears appeared inside the very glass that composed the walls. They were stuck there, unreachable on either side, and yet he summoned more of them.
Cracks spread through the barrier with each new spear that appeared within the glass. He was weakening the structure and would soon be able to break through. Rikki had to beat him to it. She brought her staff to her side, knocking it into Doren's stomach, and swung it forward. Every glass wall she created shattered, sending shards of glass flying through the air. Sarin shifted away to avoid the fragments, while Doren ducked behind his shield and Aros swatted at the glass with his clawblades.
Rikki raised up her staff and froze every piece of glass in midair. The shards near her and her companions floated away, clearing a space for them. She lowered her staff until it's crystal was right in front of her face. She focused on the crystal and thought of all the glass that surrounded them. That glass would still protect them. It would be a hurricane, and they would be the eye.