by TJ Klune
I turned and went into the sewers.
AND IMMEDIATELY gagged because dear gods.
“What do the Darks eat?” I moaned, covering my nose and mouth. “Their feelings? Sweet molasses, this is terrible.”
It was like getting hit with a wave of spoiled meat and evil. The air was thick and heavy, and I was pretty sure vomiting was an acceptable reaction to our current predicament. The others were similarly affected, breathing shallowly through their mouths. They stood upon a wooden walkway that had been constructed atop a noxious stream of water and many other things I didn’t want to think of. The sewer was dark, but we couldn’t risk lighting a match or a torch, given the gases rising from below us. I snapped my fingers, and a little burst of light exploded above my hand and began to flit around like a fairy.
The brick walls and ceiling were wet and dripping, covered in a blackish moss that seemed to grow all around us. I waved my hand toward the darkness ahead and the light shot forward, leaving a thin trail behind it.
“The quicker we move, the faster we’ll be out of here,” Lady Tina said.
I hated it when she was right. So I ignored her in favor of Ryan. “You’re sure this is the right sewer? Those schematics were dense. I couldn’t make heads or tails of them.”
“It’s a good thing I could, then, huh?” Ryan said. “Part of my training, making sure I knew every way in and out of the castle.”
“So glamorous. I can see why you’d want to be a knight.”
He laughed quietly as he bumped his shoulder against mine. “It has its perks. You noticed me, after all.”
“Gods,” Lady Tina said. “I liked it better when Sam wasn’t here. At least Ryan acted like a knight and not some lovesick teenager.”
“You get used to it,” Justin said. “Mostly. Ryan will lead. Then me. Sam will be next, and Lady Tina will bring up the rear.”
Lady Tina looked startled at that. “Your Majesty, I think I should be the one who’s behind you. We don’t know what troubles lie ahead.”
Before I could retort (how dare she question me), Justin said, “Sam will have my back, just like I know you’ll have his. He’s my wizard. He’ll—Sam, get that look off your face. We are not hugging right now, so don’t even think about it.”
“I’m only agreeing to the no-hugging thing because I’m pretty sure I just saw something that used to be alive floating underneath us, so. Yeah. I’m good with that. But don’t think I won’t get you later. You called me your wizard again. You adore me.”
He muttered something I couldn’t quite make out but I assumed was complimentary. Then, “Any more questions? Good. Let’s move.”
WHEN ONE is traipsing through a Shit Tunnel in the dark trying to infiltrate a castle to rescue a king from a group of villains, one has time to reflect upon all that has led them to this moment. I thought maybe this was divine retribution for all the things I’d done wrong. But then I remembered that some of this shit could belong to the King, having had to poop into a bucket, and it solidified my resolve, though I would never tell anyone that I’d had such a thought. Well, maybe years and years from now when we could look back on this whole thing and laugh.
The light swooped back and forth in the tunnel as we followed Ryan, first turning left, then right, then straight, then left and left and right. I trusted him to know where he was leading us, because I’d already gotten mixed up three or four turns back.
And somehow I’d gotten used to the smell. At the very least, the bile in my throat was gone, and I could breathe a little deeper. Every now and then we passed an opening above us, moonlight drifting down and illuminating the path ahead.
There was a moment, perhaps an hour later, when I felt something wash over me. Not physically, because there would have been a lot of screaming that followed, but mentally, like a blast of cool air in my mind that burst through the fog. It took me a minute to realize what it was. And what it meant. Who it meant.
“We just crossed into the City,” I said quietly.
Ryan looked back at me. “How do you know that?”
“I felt it. It’s…. Randall and Morgan are scorched into the bones of the City of Lockes. Into the wood and stone. Everywhere. Morgan’s gone, and Randall’s only the gods know where, but their magic is still here. It’s… dissipated. But I would know it anywhere. I always felt it when I came back from our adventures. I always thought it was just a feeling of being home. But it’s… it’s them. Even the Darks haven’t been able to take that away. That’s a good thing.”
A hand squeezed my shoulder as I sighed.
Ryan nodded slowly. “That’s… great. That means we’re on the right track.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why do you sound so relieved? You said you knew where we were going!”
He shrugged. “It’s always good to have validation.”
“I’m onto you, Foxheart.”
“Sam, I told you. Not now. I’m obviously busy leading a mission to save the King.”
“God, that’s so hot when you get all Knight Commander.”
“Yeah?” he said, eyeing me up and down. “You like it when I take charge?”
“Oh yeah. If we weren’t standing in a fog of urine and fecal matter, I’d be all up in your shit.”
Ryan winced. “Might want to work on the phrasing.”
“Oh my gods,” Lady Tina moaned. “I hate everything.”
“It only gets worse,” Justin muttered.
“Justin, Tina, stop wasting time,” I scolded them. “Let’s get the fuck outta here, then, shall we? We have to be close. The slums weren’t that far from the gates of Lockes.”
They had matching looks of irritation on their faces. It would have been sweet if one of them hadn’t been Lady Tina in the skin of a man.
But whatever.
It took us only a little while longer before Ryan came to a stop next to rusted metal rungs that rose up the wall toward a sewer grate above. “I think this is it,” he said, squinting up. We could see patches of sky beyond the looming buildings, and the stars were fading into a lighter blue. We didn’t have much time before the City awoke to whatever it had become now. At the very least, I assumed there would be Darks in the streets. We needed to hurry.
“You sure?” Justin asked. “I could have sworn that we had a few more turns to go.”
“Pretty sure,” Ryan said. “I’ll go first. Check it out. Stay here.”
“Don’t you dare do anything stupid, Foxheart,” I growled at him. “If we need to move to the next one, we will. We can double back if we have to.”
He winked at me like a douchebag. But since I loved his face, I didn’t call him on it.
He dropped his pack on the wooden walkway and began to climb the ladder. I helped him by groping his ass under the guise of assisting him up the unsteady rungs.
“It’s so pretty,” I sighed.
“It really is,” Lady Tina agreed before coughing and shaking her head. “I mean, one would think you could at least control yourself in a sewer, Sam. However, the only thing shocking about this is how not shocked I am.”
“I was surprised at how easy I acclimated to the smell of the sewers,” I said mildly. “But then I realized I’d been near you for the last day or so and there’s not much of a difference in odors. Also, you look like an ugly man.”
Before she could reach for her sword and give me justification to Flora Bora Slam the hell out of her, Justin intervened. “Would you both shut up? We don’t have time for petty squabbles.”
“Yes, my Prince,” Lady Tina said, bowing low.
“Yes, my Prince,” I mocked under my breath.
I looked back up to see that Ryan had reached the sewer grate. His head was bent at an awkward angle as he tried to see around him before he attempted to lift the grate and set it aside. We weren’t going to disintegrate this one, given that it’d be more noticeable if it was missing.
Then an alarming thought hit me. “What about the map?”
Justin gla
nced at me. “What map?”
“The elven map. In your father’s office. Won’t that show us coming? As a threat?”
Justin shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. It only shows villains with malicious intent. If anything, it’s probably swarming with Darks right now. Even if it showed us, we wouldn’t stand out. It’s one of the things I wish I could have grabbed when the City fell, but I didn’t have time.”
I swallowed past a lump in my throat at the thought of what he must have went through while I was gone. “I should have been there.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you did what you were meant to. It doesn’t matter now, Sam. What’s done is done. The only thing that matters at this very moment is getting to my father.”
Before I could respond, Ryan had made his way back down the ladder. “Road looks empty,” he said, wiping his hands on his trousers before picking his pack back up. “And the grate is easy to move.” He smiled quietly at me. “You’re not going to believe where we are.”
“Where?”
“You’ll see. Or you will if you remember. Come on. Sun’s coming up. The morning bells will start ringing soon.”
I waited a couple of rungs below Ryan while he grunted as he shoved the sewer grate up and over. He climbed up, then turned around and reached down to help me up. I didn’t need it, but since I had a chivalry kink, I allowed it, and absolutely did not giggle and flutter my eyelashes at him as we stood face-to-face, my hands upon his shoulders, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as he leaned in to—
“Seriously,” Justin said. “Now? You’re doing this now?”
I rolled my eyes and stepped away. “Once all of this is said and done and I’ve saved Verania from the clutches of evil, I’m going to find you a boyfriend so when you have special, intimate moments, I will be there to interrupt them like an asshole.”
“Good luck with that,” he muttered. “Because I don’t care about—what’s wrong?”
I barely heard him.
Because I was too busy taking in our surroundings.
Where we stood.
It was—
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“Told you,” Ryan said, sliding the grate over the sewer again after Lady Tina climbed out.
“What is it?” she asked. Then she frowned. “Gods, these are the slums? It’s far worse than I ever imagined. And you came from here? No wonder you—”
“Not the time,” Justin snapped, and she looked sufficiently cowed.
“This is…,” I started but couldn’t find the words to continue.
Ryan came to stand beside me. “I stood just there,” he said near my ear, pointing down the cracked cobblestone road that stretched out before us. “I didn’t know why I was so upset to see you walking away with Morgan. I hated you. You were annoying and stupid, and I thought I’d be happy to see you go. I told myself I was just angry because you were getting to have a life I would never have. That it was unfair.”
“But you were just already lusting after me.”
“You were eleven.”
“Okay, maybe not lusting.”
“You turned back and waved at me. Just once. And then you were gone.”
“I remember. It was….” I shook my head. “I don’t know what it was. Funny how things turn out.”
His smile was a beautiful thing. “Yeah. Funny how things work out.”
“Are you two finished?” Justin asked. “Because we don’t have much time.”
I glared over my shoulder at him. “Excuse me. We’re being romantic. It’s not as if—”
The morning bells began to echo over the City.
“Shit,” Ryan said. “We need to move. Now. Sam?”
“Got it. I know where we are now. You’re sure it’s empty?”
He nodded but wouldn’t look me in the eye for reasons I didn’t understand. “It’s empty. Lead the way.”
I didn’t have time to question him. I moved toward an alley to our left, the others following.
It was strange, really, an odd sense of dissonance crawling over me as we made our way through the slums. Before Myrin rose to power, before Vadoma and my Destiny of Dragons, I’d made a point of coming back to the slums as often as I could, if only to remind myself where I’d come from. Ryan never came with me, more inclined to forget the past and focus on the future, but I was okay with that. We were just different that way.
The slums looked mostly the same, maybe a little drabber and more run-down, but the buildings stood as they always had, their shutters hanging off their hinges, gutters dripping water onto the broken cobblestone. It was grimy and dark and felt more like home than Camp HaveHeart ever would.
Justin and Ryan had told me that those who had been captured in the City had been relegated to the slums, that it was more like a prison than anything else. No one was allowed out, whether they be rich or poor. All were treated the same here, and while I thought there was a twisted sort of justice to it, everyone here was a prisoner. It didn’t really matter what they’d thought of me or what they’d done before I’d disappeared. They were all the same, and they didn’t deserve any of this.
Candles and torches were lit in windows and doorways as we kept to the shadows, moving through the slums toward our destination where we’d camp out for the day, waiting for dusk before making our way toward the castle.
It wasn’t long before we exited an alley onto the street where I’d—
I stopped.
Ryan crashed into the back of me, and I took a stumbling step forward. He grabbed me by the shoulders, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the sight before me.
There, between two dilapidated buildings, was our little house.
The one I’d grown up in.
It looked the same as it had the day I left. Yes, I’d come back to the slums often, but I’d never dared come here, sure that it’d undo my wish that had somehow come true. I’d been part of something greater than myself, and I’d been convinced that if I returned here, everything I’d been given would fade away as if it were a dream.
This was the first time I’d seen my home since Morgan of Shadows had taken me by the hand and led me to the castle.
And yes, the house itself looked the same, but the piles of freshly cut flowers around it were different. The scraps of parchment pinned to the walls and door were different, scrawled with words I couldn’t make out. The chalk drawing of a heart with a lightning bolt through it on the ground near the doorway was different, the heart green, the lightning bolt gold.
“What is this?” I asked quietly.
“It started a little while after you left,” Ryan said, taking my hand in his. “When the Darks started to come from the woods.”
“People prayed here,” Justin said, coming to stand on the other side of me. “To the gods. To you. To help them. To believe in them. They came here because they didn’t know where else to go. They thought you had forsaken them.” He shook his head. “And no matter what we said, they couldn’t be convinced otherwise. It started with just people from the slums. But then it grew to the other quadrants of the City. And then beyond the City.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re their hope, Sam,” Justin said. “It’s as simple as that. And hope can become a weapon when all else seems lost. They’ve been waiting for you to return. And now you have.”
I walked across the street, the others behind me. The doorway to the shack was covered in flowers and notes, and as I read them, I wondered if I deserved such faith, such faith and veneration.
Please come back.
I hope you’re safe, Sam.
I’m sorry for what I said about you, wizard. I just didn’t understand.
MYRIN SUCKS BALLS.
My brother is missing. He believed in you more than anything.
I don’t want to be scared anymore.
Fuck the Darks! Sam of Wilds is the best wizard there is!
HAVEHEART 4 LIFE! :) :) :)
And one, writte
n in a childish scrawl: We will always believe in the light.
I didn’t deserve them. Any of them.
“What if I let them down?” I asked, staring at the dozens of notes pinned to the door and wall. “What if I can’t be what they need me to be?”
It was Lady Tina who said, “You’re not alone, Sam. It doesn’t just rest upon you. We’ll all fight to take it back. And we’ll win.”
For once, I couldn’t think of a single snarky thing to say to her.
Ryan stepped over the flowers and pushed the door open. He looked back at me and held out his hand. “You ready?”
I hesitated, but only briefly. I took his hand and went inside.
“YOU NEED to get some sleep,” Ryan said. He was lying on the floor in my old room, head resting on his pack. Sunlight was beginning to filter in through the slats of the shack, and I knew the room would get warm later in the afternoon. I was busy staring at a collection of rocks piled in the corner. “We’re going to need to be as fresh as possible.”
I snorted. “Just because you can do that freaky thing and fall asleep immediately doesn’t mean the rest of us can.”
“Army training. Learned to sleep wherever and whenever we could.”
“Yeah. Freaky.”
“Why are you staring at those rocks?”
I shrugged. “They used to be mine.”
He squinted up at me. “What?”
“I collected rocks when I was a kid.”
“Why?”
“Because we were poor and there was nothing else I could get for free. And they were pretty. Sometimes.”
“You were a strange kid.”
“Right? And look at me now. Collect rocks, kids, because one day you’ll get to bone a knight and do magic and go on adventures.”
He laughed. “Maybe refine that message a little before you actually tell children that.”
I arched an eyebrow. “It’s pretty much true.”
“I think you might be a special case.”
“Heard that before.”
“Come here.”
I sighed and shoved my pack next to his. He opened his arms as I lay down, my head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. He kissed my fake hair, and I nuzzled his fake beard. It was nice. Mostly.