The Realm of the Drells

by Kenneth Zeigler

  “Her voice!” he gasped. “Captain, she got her voice back.”

  “I should have told you about that,” admitted Lukor.

  “But how?” said Lemnock, turning to Lukor. This time there was real fear in that voice. “The elixir always works. No one ever recovers from its effect, but this one did. Does it have something to do with what happened in the tunnels yesterday?”

  “I’m right here, Lemnock,” objected Debbie. “Why don’t you ask me?”

  Lemnock glanced but momentarily at Debbie, yet he quickly looked away. Debbie had never seen him in such a state.

  “Not directly, it happened several days ago,” said Lukor, placing his hand on Lemnock’s shoulder. “We must depart soon. There will be plenty of time to tell ya the story along the way.”

  “I hope yer right,” said Lemnock, making his way down the corridor.

  Lukor turned to Debbie and Leslie, who had now risen to her feet as well. “I need the two of you to be ready. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

  Lukor went next to Marci and Gwenn’s cell then to David’s and Camron’s. A minute later several wolvers had placed a number of large backpacks full of supplies in the corridor even as the selected humans were brought forth from their cells. Each was fitted with one of the large backpacks.

  Debbie noted with concern that Camron had to help David with his pack. David seemed unable to reach back with his left arm to put on the pack, and with the pack on he seemed unsteady on his feet. The extended period of rest last night hadn’t helped him very much. He was in no condition for a long march through the caverns. Camron seemed to realize it too. He insisted on taking some of the load out of David’s pack and carrying it himself.

  Debbie found it interesting that little Gwen was given a far smaller burden than the others. Even Lukor picked up one of the heavy packs. A moment later the humans were placed in wrist shackles linked together and the group began the long journey to the crystal cavern. No one seemed to have very much to say. All seemed convinced that this was a death march. That was all except Debbie. She was absolutely convinced that this was a part of some divine plan.

  They had traveled less than an hour, well beyond the caverns they were familiar with. They traveled through a large almost circular tunnel with few obstructions to block their way. Lukor and Lemnock held before them a pair of particularly large and bright crystals by which they were able to see their way.

  The group collectively was aware of every sound around them. There was more than just the shuffling of feet and the rattling of chains. There were distant sounds of a sort that Debbie had never really been aware of here in the depths. Perhaps it was due to the fact that most of the time they were obscured by the loading of rocks and the impact of hammers and picks. Now far from familiar surroundings these other sounds seemed to echo all around them greatly magnified.

  None seemed more nervous than Lemnock. He continually scanned his surroundings. The slightest noise caused him to turn with a start; direct his light into the region of the perceived disturbance.

  Debbie looked back at David frequently. For the moment he seemed to be doing alright, keeping up with the procession.

  It was at a particularly wide point of the tunnel that Lukor bid the procession to stop. He turned to Lemnock.

  “This is far enough. We’ll need to unchain the humans, remove all of their shackles,” announced Lukor. “We’ll place the shackles over there in that small gap in the rocks. We’ll shackle them once more on our way back.” Lukor set his pack down at his side and unlaced it. He withdrew a menacing looking short sword within a leather scabbard. Then he pulled forth another and another. “You’ll be distributing these to the humans. I will be giving them lessons on the use of these weapons from time to time during the journey.”

  Lemnock just stood there for a moment. “What?”

  “I thought I made myself clear,” repeated Lukor, total calm in his demeanor.

  “But they’re humans!” objected Lemnock. “Would ya release them and place a sword in their hands? We’d be outnumbered six to two.”

  “Don’t look at it that way, I don’t think in those terms at all,” continued Lukor. “We know that these are dangerous regions. How would you have it? Should two swords face the perils of these tunnels or should eight. I for one feel more comfortable for my blade to be joined by seven others rather than just one.”

  Lemnock looked on incredulously then bowed his head. “You command Captain Lukor.”

  Lukor and Lemnock unshackled the human’s wrists. Then Lukor took a large hammer and a metal block and hammered open the links that connected the two ankle shackles to the chains.

  “I wish that I could remove them bands about your ankles as well, but that would take too much time and I am not so good a smith as that,” said Lukor. “I’d be more likely to hurt ya than release ya. This will have to do.”

  Debbie looked down at her feet. It seemed so strange for them not to be linked together.

  Then the humans were supplied with the swords. Each had a belt that allowed them to be attached to the waist. Debbie slowly drew hers from its scabbard; it was razor sharp. It would no doubt have been a formidable weapon in the right hands. She seriously doubted that described her. She gazed over at Marci. It was the way that Marci was handling the sword that told her this was not the first time. Marci swung the sword about quite expertly. She seemed to approve of the weapon. Debbie wondered if the Marine Corps still taught swordsmanship to its soldiers.

  A small glowing crystal was also distributed to each of the youths. In the event that they became separated from the others at least they wouldn’t be stumbling around in the dark.

  Lukor took about twenty minutes to give the group their first lesson in swordsmanship. These swords were somewhat shorter than the ones carried by the wulvers yet they were light and easy to handle. They would give them a fighting chance should they be attacked by ciudaches or some other beast. Debbie’s suspicions about Marci’s abilities with a sword were confirmed, she handled the weapon like a pro.

  “We had a swordsmanship association in the corps,” said Marci. “We had actual competitions. I was ranked second on the base, top swordswoman.”

  That statement seemed to only add to Lemnock’s uneasiness. There was no love lost between him and Marci. Debbie wasn’t so sure that Marci couldn’t have actually beat him in a fair fight. Now she wielded a sword. His worries were greatly compounded.

  “These caverns are dark, free of the glowing slime and the droppings of cave beasts,” said Lukor. “I’ve seen no trace of cave slugs, mushrooms, or monnites. The walls of this tunnel must be poor in nutrients and this is good. If it provides little or no food for the ciudaches they will not frequent it. But there are places ahead that are rich feeding grounds. In those realms we must be vigilant.”

  “Captain, have you made this journey before?” asked David.

  “I have,” confirmed Lukor. “Twice I’ve made the sojourn, once when I was just a young foot soldier, once as a squad leader. On those journeys we had about twenty slaves and just as many well equipped soldiers guarding and defending them. The first journey was uneventful. We ner saw a ciudach nor had to draw our swords. But that second one was a different matter. We got out there easily enough, got the crystals we sought, but the return journey was a nightmare. A ciudach got our scent shortly after we left the crystal cavern. Apparently it alerted others to our presence. The ciudaches pursued us all the way. They would try to separate us from one another, attack stragglers. We had been told that they were just beasts yet they traveled in packs and I swear planned their attacks against us. Ya didn’t dare underestimate them. They were picking us off one by one. At one point our captain left five shackled humans behind on the hope that in the process of feeding upon them they would lose the scent of the rest of us; they didn’t. By the time we returned there were but eight of the humans and eleven of us remaining. Still the mission was considered a success.”

  “So what
chance would the eight of us have?” asked Camron.

  “That would depend,” replied Lukor. “If the ciudaches do not pick up our scent we have an excellent chance. If they do, well, we shall see.”

  A few minutes later they were on their way once more. The tunnel was leading downward, of that much Debbie was certain. They’d traveled for about another hour when she noticed a slight greenish glow beyond a turn up ahead. A few minutes later she beheld what at first looked like glowing rocks. There were just patches of it here and there, but they did add some welcome light to their surroundings. She soon came to realize that the glow was coming from tiny worms that seemed to be feeding upon the rocks themselves. Never had she seen such a thing.

  “Monnites,” noted Lukor. “They feed on minerals in the rocks. Some caverns are swarming with them. They won’t hurt ya. They are particularly fond of sulfur. They don’t smell too pretty but they’re alright eating if they’re all ya got.”

  “Lovely,” said Marci. “I’ll have to keep that in mind if I get the munchies.”

  Debbie smiled slightly. She wondered if Marci had eaten any strange things during her time in the Marine Corps. Those folks were tough as nails and probably expected their soldiers to be able to survive regardless of the odds.

  As they proceeded on they could all detect the faint odor of sulfur and on occasion had to step around what looked like large droppings from some sort of animals. Debbie became more nervous. She remembered Lukor’s words about these kind of caverns and the dangers they posed.

  A gathering of football sized brown blobs huddled together near the side of the wide tunnel. They looked to be breathing, growing larger and smaller in unison.

  “Cave slugs,” noted Lukor, who gave them but a cursory glance. “They’re harmless for the most part, sulfur eaters they are. They’ll tunnel through solid rock a little bit at a time to find food. They’re no good for eating though. The slime they excrete will blister your hand so stay well clear of em.”

  As they proceeded, this subterranean realm became a complex network of passages. Lukor occasionally consulted his map but seemed certain of his route. He allowed the group rest breaks yet they were few and far between. He pushed on and his pace was relentless. No one in the group spoke very much. Perhaps they were just too tired to speak.

  Debbie looked over at Gwen who managed to keep up the pace with the others. What a brave little girl she was.

  As the day progressed Debbie was becoming aware of a growing rumble in the background. It didn’t sound like an animal, but she couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. She was approaching the point of exhaustion when they emerged into a cavern so huge as to defy description. At first Debbie was certain that they had just stepped into the outside world. Overhead, when the veil of low clouds would momentarily part, she was convinced that she could see a myriad of stars. Yet she soon realized that this was an illusion. These stars were in reality glowing crystals imbedded in the ceiling of an impossibly high cavern surely a thousand or more feet high. It was a place illuminated mostly by the glowing monnites that added to the illumination of crystals within the walls of this twilight realm. This cavern’s width was difficult to judge as well, for the walls were but barely visible through the haze, though that dimension most surely was measured in miles. Great columns of rock ran from the lofty ceiling to the floor. No cavern on Earth was a thousandth as grand as this monstrosity. Then there was the lake or sea or whatever it was. It occupied almost the entire floor of this cavern to an unknown depth. Along the edge of this subterranean sea was beach of rocks that ran a few hundred yards to the almost vertical cavern wall.

  “Oh my God!” gasped David.

  “Its waters are undrinkable,” cautioned Lukor. “They’re salt. We’ll need to live on the water we brought with us. We’ll be following its shoreline for many hours. Not far ahead is a narrow passageway into the cavern wall. It leads to a sizable room. The passageway is wide enough for us but far too narrow for a ciudache to squeeze through. We’ll be safe there. However, the regions between here and that cave are another matter. Don’t even think about going in that sea. The things that lurk within its depths are far more deadly than those on its shores. On the last journey we lost two warriors to its horrors.”

  “What sorts of creatures are we talking about?” asked Camron, looking toward the waters nervously. “Did anyone ever see them?”

  “No,” said Lukor. “It all happened so fast. Our warriors were warned to stay well clear of those waters but three young and inexperienced ones decided that going fer a swim might be fun. After we’d made camp in the safe cave and most of us were asleep three of them crept out to the beach. According to the one who survived they didn’t go out far from the shore before something pulled one of them down, then the other. The third barely got back. He was almost out of his mind when we got to him. He could ner even describe what it was that he saw. We had little chance to question him, for it was the next day that a ciudache got him. Perhaps it was just as well. He had disobeyed a direct order, had gotten two of his fellow warriors killed. He’d have been tried, perhaps sentenced to death upon our return. It was just as well that he perished along the way.”

  Camron nodded but said nothing more. After that tale it seemed unlikely that any of the party would go anywhere near those waters.

  The group continued on, staying close to the wall of the cavern. It was Marci that seemed most fascinated with this place. She gazed about continuously.

  “This is impossible,” she finally said. “No geologic process known could do this.”

  “Well it’s here,” said Leslie. “I guess it has to be possible.”

  “This should all be one great sinkhole,” said Marci. “Look, I was taking college classes while I was stationed in Germany. I’d hoped to become an engineer and an officer in the corps. I’m telling you that there is no way on Earth that you could have a cavern this large. There aren’t enough supporting columns, too much empty space.”

  “I don’t think this is Earth,” said David, struggling to keep up.

  “I’m just saying that there has to be something more than just rock holding that roof up,” insisted Marci.

  “Can we argue about this later?” asked Debbie. “Right now I want to get to this safe cavern Lukor is talking about.”

  Lukor nodded but didn’t reply. They moved on. The minutes passed. Lukor frequently looked at the map. He seemed concerned.

  “I remember it was around here somewhere,” he noted, almost under his breath.

  Lemnock looked at Lukor incredulously. “You don’t know?”

  “It’s been twenty years since I’ve been here,” said Lukor. “It will come back to me.”

  “Great,” said Lemnock. “I just hope we don’t get lost out here.”

  Lukor shook his head but didn’t reply. Perhaps he knew Lemnock only too well.

  Still more minutes passed. Then Lukor pointed at what looked to be little more than an indentation in the cliff face some hundred or so feet ahead.

  It was as Lukor had described it, narrow but passable. The narrow passageway widened about fifteen feet in and then opened into a dark cavern room about thirty feet across. Lukor pulled several glowing crystals from his pack to illuminate their surroundings. This place was devoid of life, however there was evidence that people had been here before. A rotting water skin sat on the floor near the far end of the room and rocks that must have been scattered randomly about the room at one time appeared to have been stacked in a pile on one side.

  “We shall be safe in this place,” Lukor announced. “We shall stay here for a time, get well rested, then we can move on. Things have gone well so far. I’m certain that no ciudachs have seen us.” He paused as he sat down his pack. “The last time I was in the crystal cavern the humans cut far more crystals from the rocks than they were able to carry. You five may not need to so much as swing a pick. We might be able to pick what was left behind right off the floor and get out of here. In that way we s
hall meet the goal the drells set for us and get home alive.”

  “Then they will have to invent another way to kill us,” said David.

  “Most likely,” said Lukor.

  “How much further is it?” asked Leslie.

  “We’re a bit more than half way there,” replied Lukor. “There is another safe retreat close to the crystal cavern. It is not so large as this one but there should be enough room for the eight of us.” Lukor turned to Debbie. “You’ll need to pray to this Jesus of yours that we make it there and back safely. I’d be interested to see if He answers you.”

  Debbie smiled, though slightly. “You might be surprised what God can do.”

  “Ta my way of thinking He hasn’t done much for your or my people here,” observed Lukor. “Oh I’ve read a little of that Bible but the stories don’t make no sense to me. I can’t picture the world it describes for one thing. Rivers, towns, cities; I try to picture them in my mind’s eye but I can’t. And an all-powerful God, that’s another thing. If God is so good and so powerful, why does he allow bad things to happen to good people? Your people are good people, for da most part. So are mine. But it seems to me that God, if He really exists, has abandoned us.”

  “Only God could answer that question,” answered Debbie. “His ways are greater than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. But I believe that the day of our freedom is here.”

  “You can believe what you want, I’m not going to stop you, but I’ll not be sucked into a bunch of superstitious nonsense,” said Lukor.

  Debbie was tempted to challenge Lukor’s words yet she decided against it.

  It is often said that there are no atheists in the foxhole. Apparently the same could be said about this obscure subterranean cavern. Though the two wulvers refused to participate, the six humans joined together in prayer before falling asleep. They only hoped that God could hear them in this remote part of the universe.