The Hands of Ruin: Book One

by Peters, Dylan Lee

  Gildwyn was confused again and feeling as if he had missed some crucial piece of information. He wasn’t sure how that name summed up a feeling regarding anything.

  “Sorry,” he said. “You say Endemall summed up the way you felt?”

  “Yeah,” Endemall said. “End ’em all. End them all. It was how I felt. Life was piss. Can’t say a whole lot has changed.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way.” Gildwyn didn’t know what else to say. His life had been so clean compared to Endemall’s. The loss of his father was the only tragedy that had occurred, but his mother was still around, and she loved him. He had grown up loved and cared for by parents who were good people. He struggled to identify with Endemall. “At least you have your father, right?”

  Endemall gave a piteous laugh. “Lost him about four years ago. Went too deep, and a leggy mander got him.” The man shook his head. “He knew better, too.”

  Gildwyn was getting nowhere with this conversation, and he decided to give up and stay quiet. He didn’t know what a leggy mander was, but he obviously didn’t know enough about anything in this place. Only a week ago, Gildwyn never would have imagined himself in this situation. He was a simple envoy, a happy member of Whiteclaw tribe. He and Mayddox lived a life of relative luxury, without worry for tomorrow, and he couldn’t have imagined anything changing that.

  “I suppose you’ve got good parents,” Endemall said, not letting Gildwyn off the hook. “You must’ve been raised right to have ended up an envoy.”

  “They are good parents. Were,” Gildwyn added, correcting himself. “My mother is alive, but I lost my father to a horned boar. It gored him in the belly.” Gildwyn didn’t like to talk about his father, but he felt he didn’t have a right to self-pity any longer.

  He reached back into Mayddox’s saddlebag and fished around for a bit of sweet root. Endemall looked back in reaction to the noise and watched Gildwyn give the stag the root from the palm of his hand. Mayddox noshed on it happily, and Gildwyn realized how thankful he should be that Mayddox had such an even disposition. Endemall observed the same thing.

  “I’m surprised that stag is as calm as he is. Most creatures don’t like coming underground like this. It confuses and scares them. I haven’t seen many green ones like him. Where do you get a thing like that anyway?”

  “Mayddox here is a rare breed,” Gildwyn said. “His kind is found in the northern hills of Tiber tribe. My father gave him to me in my fourteenth year. I’ve never seen another like him.”

  “He’s special to you,” Endemall said, more as a statement than as a question.

  “He is,” Gildwyn confirmed.

  Just then, Endemall stopped walking, and he raised the lantern. Gildwyn and Mayddox stopped behind him, and Gildwyn could quickly see over Endemall’s shoulder what the issue was. The tunnel had collapsed in on itself, and the way was blocked. The view ahead was nothing but a solid wall of brown dirt.

  “No,” Endemall groaned with gloom.

  “What happened?” Gildwyn asked.

  “Well, the tunnel collapsed here,” Endemall said. “We’ll have to reroute.”

  “I can see that,” Gildwyn said. “But how?”

  “It happens every once in a while,” Endemall explained. “These tunnels aren’t exactly well made. I was really hoping for some luck though. This’ll cost us hours, maybe a day.”

  “A whole day?” Gildwyn complained. “You’ve got to be joking. There’s got to be another option.”

  “This is the only safe option,” Endemall said cryptically. “There was a side passage a couple hundred yards back. We’ll take that way, and we’ll just have to pick up the pace. Maybe we can make up the time over the course of the trip.”

  Endemall walked back past Gildwyn and Mayddox and waved for them to follow. Gildwyn obeyed, upset with the situation but incapable of thinking his way out of the problem. He was stuck in these tunnels, and with Endemall’s leadership, for better or for worse.

  After a few minutes, they reached the passage Endemall was talking about, and Gildwyn watched the man turn right into the mouth of a new tunnel. He noticed as he followed there was another passage going left that they could have taken, and he decided he would ask about it. Gildwyn wasn’t stupid enough to think he could find a better route than Endemall, but it was hard for him to be completely at the mercy of this stranger. If nothing else, it would make Gildwyn feel better to learn more about the tunnels.

  “Where would the passage to the left have taken us?” he asked.

  “That’s not an option for us,” Endemall said as he led them down the new passage. “Just put it out of your mind. Trust me.”

  Trust was the very thing Gildwyn was having such a difficult time with. He sighed and looked ahead, trying to see past the lantern light and into the darkness. His eyes had adjusted quite a bit in the time he had been underground, but he still couldn’t see as well as Endemall. Whether it was the man’s experience in darkness, his better knowledge of the terrain, or something to do with his goggles, Gildwyn didn’t know. He was being led onward as if wearing blinders, able to see only what was directly in front of him. He shook his head in frustration and then brought his hand up to rub his eyes. They ached from their fruitless straining.

  Foolish things, he thought. Don’t you know trying harder won’t help?

  With his fingers rubbing his eyelids, Gildwyn didn’t realize Endemall had stopped, and unknowing he walked directly into the man’s back.

  “Damn it all!” Endemall shouted.

  “Sorry,” Gildwyn said sheepishly as he stumbled to the side. “I wasn’t paying atten—”

  “Not you,” Endemall interrupted. “Look at that.”

  Gildwyn looked ahead, and now the lantern light revealed the real issue. Another tunnel had collapsed, and their path was blocked again. Endemall was grumbling curses to himself, and Gildwyn was frantically searching his mind for a bright side to their situation.

  “We’ll just have to backtrack again,” Gildwyn said. “No major problem. We were already losing time. As you said, we’ll just have to make up the time along the way.”

  “There ain’t infinite passages, Nye.” Endemall’s words were harsh and low. It spoke to how serious this newest development was.

  “So what then?” Gildwyn asked. “What does that mean?”

  Endemall placed the lantern on the tunnel floor and sat down next to it. “Hard decisions,” he said. He drew lines into the dirt with his index finger, and after a moment Gildwyn realized Endemall was detailing a rough schematic of the tunnels. Once he stopped, he pointed to a place at the head of the series of lines he had drawn and said, “We’re here.” Then he traced his finger all the way back to the other end of the lines he had drawn and said, “This is where we started.” Endemall looked up at Gildwyn and shrugged. “All the paths in the direction we want to go have collapsed, so piss on us. The closest way back to the surface that is available to us is back the way we came, almost all the way back where we started, which will leave us at least three days from the southern border of Zehnder tribe. This is assuming your stag can’t carry the both of us while on the surface.”

  “Not quickly,” Gildwyn admitted, shaking his head. “It would be difficult for him, and slow work. We might as well walk.”

  “Right,” Endemall said. “So we now have a difficult path ahead of us. Or more to the point, I have a difficult path ahead of me.”

  “What does that mean?” Gildwyn asked.

  “Think, Nye.” Endemall was frustrated. “I’m a criminal and a fugitive. The only reason I surfaced to go to that restaurant was because I was dying for a hot meal. In truth, every moment I spend up there is pure danger for me. If I’m recognized, if I’m caught…they’ll kill me. So what this means is I’m going to take you back to the surface and then you’re going to go on to Ferrenglyn without me.”

  “What are you going to do, just live down here?” Gildwyn didn’t see how that made any sense as an option.

&nb
sp; “No,” Endemall said and got quiet. “I’m going to have to go deep.”

  Epiphany struck Gildwyn, and he was able to piece together a bit of the puzzle. “You’re talking about that passage you told me wasn’t an option, aren’t you? It goes down deeper. That’s where your father died, isn’t it?”

  Endemall nodded in the mellow light of the lantern. “I’m out of options.”

  “How is that safer than the surface?” Gildwyn asked.

  “It’s dangerous, but at least I know what I’m up against,” Endemall argued. “On the surface, I don’t really know what to expect. They could have any number of people after me, and they could be trying to trap me in any number of ways.”

  “How long will you have to be down there?” Gildwyn asked.

  “With luck?” Endemall shrugged. “Not long, maybe two hours depending how far the collapse goes south. Then I’ll be able to come back up to this level and continue on.”

  “Two hours?” Gildwyn couldn’t believe it. “Then we’re going with you. We’re going to the deep.”

  “You and your stag will die,” Endemall said, arching his eyebrows for emphasis.

  “We might die on the surface,” Gildwyn argued. “If you hadn’t come along, we would have been lion fodder. Who is to say that wouldn’t happen again? I’d rather take my chances for a couple of hours and then be right back on track. You just said you know what to expect down there.”

  “All right,” Endemall began in a condescending tone. “Let me paint the picture for you so you have a good idea of the deep. We can’t bring the lantern down there, because the light will attract the leggy manders. I’m assuming you’ve never heard of a leggy mander, or you’d probably be running for the surface right now. Well, they’re bigger than your stag, all white, got more legs than I can count and teeth bigger than the blades of my knives. They like to rip your limbs off before they kill you. I guess they think it’s fun. I don’t know whether they’re lizards or insects or even from this planet, but it doesn’t matter. They are a nightmare come to life. You can’t make noise down there either, for the same reason you can’t have the light. That would be a real problem for us considering you can’t just tell your stag to stay quiet.

  “Now, let’s assume we don’t have to deal with the leggy manders—which is a completely moronic assumption. You still have to deal with the slides. The ground is soft in places down there, and brittle. It can fall away from you like nothing, and there’s no way to see it coming. You’ll fall down into the depths and never be heard from again, buried alive just as quick as you can snap your fingers.”

  “How can you see down there if you can’t use light?” Gildwyn asked.

  “You have to stay around the crystal grottos,” Endemall answered. “They give off light enough to see by. The crystals light up the waters. It’s honestly the most beautiful thing you’ll ever see. It’s the last thing you’ll ever see, but beautiful.”

  “I know you’re trying to scare me,” Gildwyn said and put his hands on his hips. “I don’t doubt it’s dangerous down there, but you’re forgetting I know one thing.”

  “Oh?” Endemall said, getting back to his feet. “What’s that?”

  “I’m your ticket to asylum,” Gildwyn said, smiling, “and I want you to guide me through the deep and keep me and Mayddox alive.”

  Endemall shook his head and frowned. “I should’ve run from you the first time I laid eyes on you. I should have kept for the border and never looked back.” Endemall spun away from Gildwyn and kicked at the dirt in frustration. He mumbled something and punched himself in the thigh. Then he turned back around and pointed a finger in Gildwyn’s face. “You better not be lying about asylum. If I get you through this and you don’t come through on that promise, I swear I’ll kill you.”

  Gildwyn extended his right hand. “Deal.”

  • • •

  It had been at least four hours since they had entered the deep, and if Gildwyn hadn’t been constantly terrified of making noise, he would have screamed at Endemall. “Maybe two hours” was what he had said. To Gildwyn it felt like a day. He was so tired, and his legs felt weak. As soon as they got back to the upper level of the tunnels, he would have to rest. Gildwyn could only imagine Mayddox was in need of rest as well. The stag was such a well-mannered companion, though. Before they had entered the forbidden passage that led down to the deep, Gildwyn had looked at the stag and said to him, “Stay quiet while we’re down there, Mayddox. Stay quiet until our lantern is on again.”

  Endemall had laughed. “What are you doing, man? You think he understands?”

  “He does,” Gildwyn had argued. “You’ll see. He’ll stay quiet.”

  And he had. As long as they had been in the deep, Mayddox hadn’t made a sound. Gildwyn knew he was lucky for Mayddox. The stag was the best friend a man could have. If Gildwyn could have talked now, he’d have told Endemall so. He would have let Endemall know he was wrong about Mayddox, and rub it in however he could have.

  Wait until we’re back in the upper level, Gildwyn thought.

  However, there was no telling when they would be back in the upper level. They had already come across two places where Endemall had tried to bring them back up, only to find the collapse was still blocking their way. Gildwyn wanted to know how Endemall felt about it each time. Was it a minor setback? Were there many other places to return to the upper level? Was each extension of the collapse another nail in their coffins? But he couldn’t talk to him. He couldn’t communicate. Gildwyn didn’t dare. There were Endemall’s warnings, obviously, which would have been enough to keep him quiet, but there was also what Gildwyn had already seen while in the deep. It had been enough to keep him silent for the rest of his life if need be.

  Endemall had been right about the grottos; they were absolutely beautiful, and the crystals within the waters’ depths illuminated the caves in a subdued blue that filled the imagination with pure fantasy. Gildwyn had looked down into the water when they had approached the first grotto. Large geometric crystals pulsed with light at the bottom of the pools, as if they were the very heartbeat of the world. Gildwyn wanted nothing more than to dive into the waters and return with one of the gorgeous gems so he could look at its beauty every day for the rest of his life.

  However, the glowing pools of water and crystals were the only wonderful things about the deep. Everything else was the stuff of nightmare. Gildwyn had already seen a leggy mander and had already seen the ground slide away. About an hour ago, they had come across a very large cave with a very large glowing pool at its center. Gildwyn imagined the pool must have been seventy yards across. They walked forward along the left side of the massive pool, staying quiet and close to the wall. But as Gildwyn had looked out over the great water, he had seen the terrible thing Endemall had described. It must have been twenty feet long, and it swam through the glowing water. It was blue from the light of the crystals, and Gildwyn would have described it as looking like a gigantic snake if not for the hundreds of legs that came out from its sides. Gildwyn held his breath as the thing swam away from them, eventually climbing out of the pool onto the far shore. Endemall had stopped their progress, and Gildwyn immediately understood it was of the utmost importance to remain perfectly still.

  They watched the ugly creature where it stood, and they waited. The thing never saw them, but as it moved along the far shore, a loud crack rent the air, and suddenly the creature squealed. Like a flash, the ground below the leggy mander slid away, and the thing disappeared. Gildwyn found it disturbing how quickly the creature had fallen. He was happy to have the leggy mander gone, but the idea that each step they took could be the one that sucked them underneath the ground to be buried alive was terrifying.

  Now, as they moved through the deep from one cave to the next, each minute brought a new prayer they might find an open passage back to the upper level. Gildwyn was so tired, and he could feel heaviness in Mayddox as he held on to the stag’s reins. If Gildwyn could have taken this de
cision back, he would have. If they survived this, he swore, he would never return to the deep again. Suddenly, Endemall stopped their progress. The guide raised his arm slowly, pointing ahead and off to the right. Gildwyn followed Endemall’s finger out past a large pool, and he could see there was a passage on the other side that led upward. He silently hoped it led to the upper level and was not blocked off.

  But as Gildwyn’s eyes found the path around the pool they would have to take to reach the passage, his eyes also found a gigantic obstacle in their way. A great white leggy mander was standing on the path, roughly fifty yards before them. Endemall put one finger to his lips, and with his other hand, he silently drew a blade. Gildwyn assumed Endemall knew what he was doing, and he tried to steady his nerves with a deep breath. He watched as his guide cocked his arm back and crept toward the leggy mander. If the creature knew Endemall was there, it made no sign.

  Now twenty yards from the creature, Endemall stopped and took aim. With speed and force, he whipped his knife through the air, and it struck the leggy mander in the head. It shrieked and stumbled to the side. Then it went limp and fell into the glowing water. Gildwyn watched as it sank, hoping beyond hope the creature was dead. Then, with a slightly buoyed spirit, Gildwyn reached back for Mayddox’s reins. He hadn’t remembered letting them go, but he must have done so while watching Endemall’s attack. Gildwyn turned to reach for Mayddox, and immediately his legs weakened as he stared at the nightmare before him.

  “No,” he uttered from his dry throat.

  Directly behind Mayddox was another of the massive white fiends, and this one knew they were there. It shrieked and rose up like a centipede, preparing to come down on the stag. Something whizzed through the air, and one of Endemall’s knives struck the creature in the neck. It lodged deep, and the leggy mander staggered backward heavily. Then a cracking sound filled Gildwyn’s ears, and his stomach tied in knots as he felt the ground under his feet shift. He fell and backed into the wall as the leggy mander lunged at Mayddox, latching on to the stag’s back just as the ground slid out from underneath them. Poor Mayddox bellowed in fear as both he and the leggy mander disappeared underneath the dark-brown dirt.