Within

by Aaron Bunce

  The stranger chortled loudly as Dugan took another step back. He tried to keep his movements smooth, using all his knowledge of predator behavior to his advantage.

  “Up on the roof…roof…roof!” Henri babbled incoherently, pulling away towards the building behind him.

  Dugan heard the creature chirp above them and turned just as a second stranger dangled bird-like from the building’s roof. Dugan cried out, stumbling back, tripping over Henri’s limp form.

  The second creature dropped to the ground, bouncing gracefully on springy legs. It extended its neck and approached, cautiously at first, but then its steps flashed with alarming quickness.

  Dugan acted out of pure survival. He released Henri and pushed off, pumping his legs as hard and as fast as he could. He barely registered the chirping in the lane behind him. The unruly drumming of his heart drowned out the odd noise. He fumbled his hand into his pocket, fumbling for the iron key bouncing around inside.

  Chapter 42

  Long lost

  Julian pushed a woman away, crawling away as terrified people swarmed towards him.

  “What are they going to do with us? Why are we here? What is this place? Help me…I’m so scared!” the woman screamed as Julian pulled away.

  Julian looked to Sky, but he just shook his head. They pushed through the people together and made for the wall that blocked them in.

  “Ama’lik, what are we going to do? We need a plan…” Sky pressed, but when Julian didn’t immediately answer, his face fell. “I know, I have been watching…waiting for an opportunity to catch one of them distracted, even to grab a weapon, and try to make a break for it.”

  “But that moment never came,” Julian finished for him, “I cannot get this accursed thing…off…my…neck,” Julian grunted, clawing and tugging on his restrictive collar. He didn’t feel its parasitic presence stabbing into his body, only its leaded weight upon his body and spirit.

  Cautious not to linger in any one spot too long, Sky and Julian limped around the perimeter of the colossal wall, but when they reached the Iron Gate, they stopped. There was a dark gap between the inner gate and its outer twin, but he could clearly see into the underground city beyond.

  Julian put his arms through the gaps in the gate to take the weight off his aching legs. Sky did the same. Bats fluttered to and fro in the darkness just out of reach, their wings fluttering like falling autumn leaves.

  “What do you suppose those things are…those white creatures?” Sky asked with an exhausted sigh.

  “Never seen anything like them before, like something out of a nightmare,” Julian said.

  “How could they have been living down here the whole time, and we’ve never seen them?” Sky asked. Julian took a deep breath, but he didn’t have any answers.

  They fell silent for a while. Julian tapped his fist against the gate as he searched ponderously for an answer to their dilemma. The metal was thick and strong. Escape didn’t just feel impractical anymore. It felt impossible.

  Neither of them bothered to turn when the crowd behind them started to howl. They didn’t have look to know that Spider and his lot had returned.

  A shiver shot down his body, causing his arms and legs to tingle as his collar came to life. His body, as had become his horrible norm, was once again no longer his own.

  Spider was waiting for them as they turned around, their movements mechanical movements completely in sync. Julian and Sky walked side by side past the crowd of terrified people, Spider’s masked fellows pulling them out seemingly at Random. They screamed and wailed while others moved forward with quiet resignation.

  Julian felt like a sheep. They filed through the doors of the cavernous tower, an overwhelming sense of foreboding stealing his breath away.

  Will I never see Tanea again, my parents, or home? Julian thought, sliding into despair.

  They walked into an audience hall, the chamber left empty and silent for a long time. Meticulously crafted stone benches covered the sloping floor, like giant stairs leading down to a solitary lectern. The lectern was enormous, easily three times Julian’s height and substantial in width, with long, smooth curves. A massive wooden gavel still sat upon it, propped up in its ornamental holder, with only the dust of centuries to embrace it.

  They followed the curve of the room, moving towards two large, sweeping stairs. One curved upwards while the other spiraled down. Julian looked up into the darkness of the ascending towering, his sense of wonder snuffed out by his fear.

  Spider led them down the descending stair, his feet slipping and sliding on the thick layer of collected dust. Currents of air swirled up and around him, carrying the stench of animal and filth and decay.

  Their footing became treacherous as the stone became damp underfoot, even Spider seeming to struggle with it. Julian felt his feet slide, a pang of anxiety shooting through his chest. He cursed his helplessness and longed to feel the strength and solidity of his legs beneath him again, even at the cost of substantial pain.

  They reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped out into a much different setting. The smooth, dwarf crafted walls and pillars were gone, replaced by rough, seeping stone.

  He passed through a rough passageway, jagged, mold covered stone hanging a hand's breadth above him. He scraped through the narrow passageway before emerging into a wide, sweeping cavern. Massive, wagon-sized braziers burned brightly. Julian had to close his eyes.

  “Do you know where you are? Do any of you know what this place is?” Spider asked, sardonically. “Of course you don’t, your people didn’t care about the dark and bloody history of this land when you settled here generations ago. They didn’t understand the significance then, just like you don’t now. Welcome to the War Room of King Gruteo Brave Hammer. He is long dead, and his dwarvish kin pushed from these halls. These dwarves…so productive, like moles, burrowing all about, dug tunnels that crisscross from coast to coast. They collapsed some of them as they retreated during the Great War, others caved in on their own over the thaws.”

  Julian opened his eyes and squinted against the glare. Dark, blurry shapes scurried all around them. He knew them by their smell alone.

  “Gnarls,” he growled.

  Julian watched in disbelief as they came into focus. The creatures hustled about, completing tasks with diligent focus. Some cleaned, picking up debris from the ground while others worked with hammer, nail, and chisel to repair the once great chamber. Someone screamed ahead of him, followed quickly by a loud splash. Julian felt his gut tighten.

  He passed piles of relics, swords, axes, and armor, all lying teasingly just out of reach. The weapons were of make and quality Julian had never seen before. The metal was covered with strange runes and glyphs. Several of the blades seemed to glow. The sight of those weapons, so close at hand yet so completely useless to him was infuriating.

  Julian saw Tanea’s face appear in the line before him, before disappearing a heartbeat later. He craned his neck to find her, just as a strange fog forced its way into his mind. It was Spider. He was playing with his head, continuing to use his potent manipulation to break him.

  In the cave at Cottonwood Grove, Spider told him that Tanea was not there, that the Tanea he had seen the night outside Craymore was just an illusion.

  The truth of his deception was lasting. It found a finger hold in Julian’s mind and wormed its way in. Doubt, once latched on, would not relinquish its hold easily. He couldn’t see her face in the crowd. Instead, all he could see was the horrific gnarls.

  She is not here. Tanea is still in Craymore, he told himself, shutting his eyes tight.

  Julian focused on the slow, rhythmic beat of her heart. He shut everything else out, and for a moment he could hear her voice. Warmth blossomed in his chest and spread outward. He knew that it was really her.

  Someone bumped into him, pushing through the line and snapping him out of his momentary reprieve. He opened his eyes and took in a vast, round dais. Wide stone stairs ran in perfect circles
around it, leading upwards.

  He heard claws raking against stone and then saw two gnarls circling the top of the stair. They bent low, disappearing for a moment before heaving something out of the water below.

  Julian felt his heart race as the two disfigured creatures carried the lifeless body of a woman down the stone stairs, where they laid her gently on her back on the smooth stone. She was quite young and pretty. Her face seemed familiar. He was sure he had seen her before, yet he couldn’t place where.

  He looked down at the young woman. Her skin was pale, and her lips and eyes were blue. It was a waste of so young a life. Julian felt his anger swell, but at the same time he was filled him with a profound sadness.

  Blood started to seep from numerous cuts and wounds all over her body. It looked very dark in the flickering yellow light of the cavern. He thought it almost looked black.

  * * * *

  The bird followed him. It brought him joy. The bird, like his children, was something he cherished.

  A small pain formed in Henri’s head and his face itched horribly. He had to keep scratching and scratching. He also couldn’t think quickly anymore, he couldn’t think past the pain in his head.

  “Wrong way. Wrong way,” he mumbled, not wanting to see the big black pit again. The pit was dark. The pit, he knew, was full of monsters.

  Henri just wanted to go home and see his wife and children, but he couldn’t remember their faces, not his wife, not any of them.

  Why am I here? He thought.

  “I don’t want to be here anymore,” he mumbled, but Dugan wasn’t listening, so he followed in silence. It was so dark, and Henri’s legs felt heavy. His feet like blocks of granite and his toe snagged on…something.

  Henri’s vision faded as the impact jolted him stupidly. Now his head hurt, and something was running into both of his eyes, something hot and sticky. A hand grabbed ahold of his shirt and hefted him along.

  Good, Henri thought, Dugan will take me home.

  Henri draped his arm over the hunter’s shoulder. His head felt so very heavy that he almost couldn’t lift it anymore.

  “Home…home, home, home, and home,” he mumbled over and over again. Dugan hissed at him to be quiet, but he couldn’t.

  Dugan started to move very fast, bouncing Henri around like a corn-sack doll. The throbbing pain in his head grew worse. Then, mercifully, Dugan stopped, and Henri felt better.

  Henri heard a strange noise. It sounded like his bird. This excited Henri. He wanted to see the bird again. Dugan turned, and Henri let his head roll back, so he could see the sky. He watched and waited, but it was so dark. And then Henri fell and didn’t immediately know why.

  The ground was cold and hard. It made him hurt all over. One of his legs was bent the wrong way, and he couldn’t feel his foot. He lay there, holding his breath and looking up at the sky expectantly, waiting to catch sight of the bird. He heard the noise again. He thought it sounded like the bird, but he couldn’t be sure. Henri couldn’t move to make sure, but the noises were close now, very close.

  Strange shapes caught Henri’s eye. They circled him like ghosts. Their skin was pale, and their eye’s as dark as the Dedpit itself. The strangers moved over top of him, chirping horribly like hungry, agitated animals. Henri knew they weren’t his bird. He didn’t like the monsters from the dark hole. They scared him.

  The creatures pawed at Henri. He tried to push them away, but his hands hit only air. He moaned as his lower lip trembled, and he silently willed the wretched, ugly things to go away and leave him be.

  The strangers chomped their horrible mouths together, their jagged teeth scaring him. He wanted to scream, but for some reason, he couldn’t find his voice.

  I want to go…I want to go away from here, Henri though feebly.

  He would crawl home if he had to, crawl home and see his kids. But before Henri could roll over, the creature’s claws raked over him and bit into his flesh.

  Henri finally found his voice. He yelled out in pain, and he yelled out in fear, but he couldn’t see anyone coming to help. The strangers pulled on him, their strange hands clammy against his ankles.

  The ground, bumpy and rough, caught and tore at his back and head. The pain floating just behind his eyes flared and pulsed, taking his thoughts away and silencing his screams. The strangers chattered excitedly.

  Maybe they are going to take me home? Henri wondered, his thoughts jumbling.

  Something sparkled, and at that moment, Henri’s mind focused a bit. He squirmed left, and then right, and managed to turn his head enough to see what caught his eye. A woman crouched on a rooftop not far away, her armor glittering in the lantern light.

  The pain behind his eyes subsided, and his thoughts became less jumbled, less manic. The woman stood from her perch, like a bird preparing to take flight, and Henri suddenly remembered. He remembered a sun filled valley with a bubbling brook running through its center. And right before he became ensnared in the giant death fisher’s web, he saw it, the same sparkling armor and radiant face.

  In his newfound clarity, Henri understood the horror of his situation. He kicked and thrashed and with enormous effort managed to flip onto his belly, but the strangers reacted ferociously and jumped on him. Their claws raked over his body, blood running as they split his skin.

  Henri rolled and covered up as best he could. He kicked out, but the wiry creature caught his foot and it bit down into the meat of his thigh. Henri howled in pain, feeling every one of its jagged teeth pierce his flesh. The other creature swung its arms like clubs, striking him relentlessly in the chest, head, and face.

  The first blow stunned him, stars exploding before his eyes. He didn’t even register the second and third blow right away. The stranger continued to pound on him. His nose popped and crunched, pulsing angrily as it was smashed out of position. He tried to breathe, but blood ran down his throat and choked him. He sputtered and gagged.

  He felt the ground slide below him. They were pulling him along, but he could only see out of one eye. He lifted his head with a great effort, his heart clenching painfully in panic. The Dedpit sprawled like a giant, hungry maw, eager to consume him.

  The strangers stopped at the lip of the Dedpit and hoisted Henri to his feet. He teetered there for a moment, terror stealing away his breath as the dark nothingness spanned out beneath him. Then, with a quiet chirp, the strangers pushed him in.

  Henri heard a terrifying screech from overhead, but couldn’t discern it from the cries of fear and anguish spilling out of his own mouth. The air rushed all around him as he toppled end over end into the rank darkness of the Dedpit.

  He flipped over again. The opening of the Dedpit was a bright, jagged orifice growing smaller every second. But there was something between Henri and the opening, something moving with unimaginable speed.

  His momentum carried him over again, and he flailed with his arms and legs, flapping like a flightless bird desperate to deceive its own design. He heard the thundering screech once more. It sounded like it was right on top of him. A crushing pressure bit into his shoulders.

  Sharp talons dug into the flesh, bones, and muscle of his shoulders, and his fall suddenly stopped. The momentum carrying him down ripped and tore at his body from the sudden halt. Pain split his body in two as something ripped loose and then he was rising.

  Henri felt as insubstantial as a feather, as if he had been liberated from a tremendous burden. Powerful feathered-wings thundered on either side, pulling him up through the air and away from the cursed darkness below.

  Something struck the rocky floor below, the stone walls amplifying the noise. It wasn’t anything hard, like a rock. It was a sickening and unmistakable noise or something soft, like skin, organs, and bones breaking upon the unforgiving rocks below.

  Henri thought it was one of the strangers. But not a moment later both strangers appeared, horribly pale and wretched, scrambling hungrily down the sheer rock wall. They moved with revolting efficiency, ambling cr
ab-like down the stone and into the darkness. The strangers showed no sign they noticed Henri, or the massive bird, and continued down, disappearing into the murky depths.

  They broke free from the darkness of the accursed pit, the bird continuing to beat its massive wings until the ground was far beneath him.

  Chapter 43

  For a friend

  Spider flicked his hand.

  “Over there,” he said, moving the man at the end of the line. He worked to sort them out into two groups. His reasoning was beyond Julian.

  “Him over there, you over there,” he continued as the masked ones worked their way down the line. Spider stepped before Sky, and Julian held his breath. Sky stared defiantly back into the cold, dark eyeslits of Spider’s mask. He held his chin high and proud as the small man considered him, spinning him around, sizing him up like a beast at market.

  “No…over there,” Spider said finally.

  Before Sky could turn to Julian, he took a jolting, awkward step towards the smaller group, where the weak and sickly gathered. Fear and uncertainty gripped Julian as he watched his oldest, closest friend, walk away.

  Spider stepped before Julian. He ground his teeth, wanting nothing more than to pummel the mask and the face behind it, against the ground.

  “Yes I agree…yes, over there…go,” Spider said nonchalantly as if sharing an unspoken conversation with someone.

  Julian lurched forward, his step forced and mechanical, but he kept his gaze locked on Spider’s cold, apathetic mask. Before he knew it, Julian was shouting. He cursed the men and their ugly masks. His anger flooded out in a hate-filled rant, born of desperation and helplessness. He threw every emotion he had experienced since leaving Tanea behind at them, hurling them like spears and arrows at a foe he could neither touch nor harm.

  Spider took a step forward, and without saying a word, he pinched his fingers before his mouth. Julian felt a surge ripple up his neck from his collar and his jaw abruptly clenched shut, and his lips went rigid.