The Lands Below

by William Meikle

  “Can you take a turn, lad? I’m bushed.”

  Ed’s chest wounds complained bitterly when he sat up too fast but the pain felt duller than it had before, and when he stood, he realised he was moving much more easily.

  Unlike Tommy, who won’t be moving ever again.

  He pushed the thought away; grief would have to wait. He needed his wits about him if he was to stand guard…he owed it to the old soldier. He owed it to Tommy.

  Danny had left a skin with some water in it and the remnants of the last of the cooked rabbit lying by the fire.

  “Breakfast, and a poor one at that,” Ed said, but the water tasted sweet and the rabbit was strong and gamey and went down just fine. He took up a seat with his back to the fire facing the entrance, found a battered cigarette in his shirt pocket, and lit up thankfully, taking smoke deep down into him as if it would dispel the dark thoughts swirling there.

  Soon, there were two sets of snores echoing in the cave with Danny’s tenor complementing the shepherd’s rumbling bass. At another time, it might have amused Ed but now his thoughts were back with the pale wyrm and wondering whether it was even now creeping stealthily down the gully just outside. The fire behind him cast Ed’s shadow dancing on the far wall of that gully but that was all that he could see; there was only darkness to either side. By the time he’d finished his cigarette, the thought that the beast might be right there, just out of view, was too much for him to bear.

  Taking care not to make any sudden noise that might wake the others, he fetched one of the ancient firebrands and held it in the fire until the flames took. He drew the right-hand side pistol and with the brand in his other hand stepped out of the entrance into the gully.

  As soon as he was fully out of the cave, he heard a movement up the slope to his right. He turned, raising his pistol, and saw his brand reflected in two great eyes that seemed to peer into his soul. Even as he took aim, the beast retreated, the slither of its flesh against stone clearly audible. The red eyes disappeared from view. Ed’s right hand…his whole arm…shook with nervous tension, the barrel of the pistol waving alarming. He let the hand drop to his side but didn’t holster the weapon, standing still, waiting for his heart to settle and his breath to catch.

  He was already regretting not taking a shot. The thing that had ultimately killed his brother had been right there, but no amount of promises, no hardening of resolve, had prepared him for the abject terror that had gripped him at the sight of those great eyes peering into his soul.

  And yet, it too was afraid. I was not the one to retreat from the confrontation.

  That thought gave him strength, and a measure of hope that next time, if it came, he would be able to take the chance. What he wasn’t expecting was that the chance would come immediately. A fresh rasping of flesh on stone alerted him to the fact that the beast was on the move again. He had enough time to turn side on and raise the pistol then it was right there, eyes blazing in fury.

  This time, he took his shot, but didn’t get a chance to see if he’d hit anything; the beast’s momentum was such that it came on in a rush and he was forced to retreat. He took two steps back, hoping to step into the cave mouth but somehow he’d missed his step in the gully and went farther backward than he’d intended. His left foot didn’t land on stone, only meeting empty air. He tumbled backward, off balance. He lost his grip on the firebrand, which fell for a second with him then was extinguished as the beast barreled over it.

  Then he was tumbling ever faster down an increasing slope.

  The beast came on in the dark after him, its howls rushing down into the blackness with them.

  - 17 -

  Danny came awake with a start, unsure at first whether the echo of gunfire and answering howling was a dream or reality. He knew he had not been asleep for long; he felt the tiredness drag at his bones as he sat up reaching for his pistol.

  Stefan was also getting to his feet. Elsa had moved to the cave mouth and stood there, barking excitedly in counterpoint to the howling that was already fading into the distance.

  “Ed?” Danny shouted, and got no reply. “Damn and blast the lad. What’s he gone and done now?”

  He looked for the firebrands, saw that there was only one remaining, and his heart sank.

  “Edward?” Stefan asked.

  “He’s outside somewhere. And so is yon beast. Come on…we’d best fetch him back.”

  Danny had Stefan gather up their packs before leaving.

  “If he’s made a run for it to flee the beast, we might not be coming back this way.”

  He took what he could from Ed’s pack and shared it between himself and Stefan. The extra load dragged at already tired shoulders as he put the pack on. He lit the firebrand from the fire, drew his pistol in his right hand, and stepped out into the gully with Elsa at his heel and Stefan at his back.

  The howls of the beast came up the gully from their left, from some distance below them. They found the doused firebrand, still glowing red, several paces down the slope. Stefan bent and took it for himself.

  “Don’t light it yet,” Danny said. “We might need to conserve them.”

  Together, they followed the howls downward.

  The slope got steep almost immediately and became more of a scramble than a walk. Several steps farther on, they found one of the Colts. Danny passed Stefan the brand, picked up the pistol, and checked it.

  “Just the one shot fired. Let’s hope he’s held on to the other pistol.”

  He holstered the Colt at his hip, took the firebrand back, and continued downward.

  The beast still howled somewhere below but it sounded distant now, although whether that was because it was far off or whether there was too much rock between them there was no way for Danny to know. He could only hope that the howling was a good sign; it meant that the beast wasn’t feeding…it meant there was still a possibility of them finding the lad alive.

  That hope diminished slightly when Elsa brought them to a halt, sniffing around excitedly at a rock. It appeared to gleam dark in the firelight and when Danny bent for a closer look, he saw it was blood, although whether from man or beast he was unable to tell.

  “Find Ed, Elsa,” Stefan said. “Fetch him back to us.”

  The dog didn’t need asking twice; she bounded away out of sight into the darkness.

  “If he is in trouble, she will be of some help to him,” the shepherd said in reply to Danny’s glance. Danny also saw worry there but didn’t speak of it for the same feeling was crawling through him from toes to crown and his gut seethed and roiled, indicating trouble ahead.

  They continued down.

  Silence fell below them. The flickering firebrand showed only dancing shadows ahead. They passed several cave entrances, but a quick look into each was enough to show that Ed hadn’t managed to take shelter in any of them. The slope eventually evened out and became less severe, but there was still no sign of their companion, nor of Elsa. They found another patch of blood on a flatter area of ground.

  “He’s injured,” Stefan said.

  “Either him or the beast. Let’s hope it’s the latter.”

  When the attack came, it was from out of a deep-cut rift on their left that Danny had been about to explore. His instincts kicked in; almost before he was aware of seeing the red eyes, his pistol hand had come up and aimed such that when the beast’s head lunged out of the dark and its mouth opened it was a perfect target. Danny put two shots down its throat, but that barely slowed it. It came forward so fast that Danny had to retreat or be buried by its weight. He thrust the firebrand into the left eye, feeling it pop under the pressure, tasting burning flesh in his throat. The beast howled in rage and pain. It tried to back away, but in its rage had got itself stuck in the cleft.

  It spat blood in Danny’s face and howled again, dislodging ancient dried roots from the roof in its frenzy to escape. Danny raised his pistol again, took careful aim, and put two more rounds into the remaining eye. Finally, the beast reali
sed it was dead and went still. Danny put another bullet into its head to make sure.

  His shots echoed long and loud around them then silence fell again.

  Several seconds later, Elsa barked, somewhere in the dark below them.

  - 18 -

  Ed didn’t know for how long or how far he’d fallen in the dark. He’d landed, hard, on bare rock, the landing knocking all breath out of him. All he could do was lie there and wait for the beast that he heard howling somewhere high above.

  It felt as if he’d gone blind. His senses seemed to have pulled in on themselves, hiding as deep in darkness as he was himself. There was only pitch blackness in front of his eyes and the pain in his bruised body. He knew nothing else for several minutes and it was some time after that he realized that silence had fallen.

  Somehow, that just made things worse.

  He reached for his pistol on the right side, found an empty holster, and remembered he’d been holding the weapon when he’d fallen. He didn’t have it now and wasn’t about to go crawling around in the dark looking for it. The one in the left holster was still there, and he took it out, transferring it to his right hand. With his left hand, he felt his body for injury. Nothing seemed to be broken; when he sat up there was pain in his back but no grinding of bone against bone, and his legs worked when he forced himself to his feet. The movement had caused some noise which echoed faintly around him. He guessed he was still in the same gully as before, possibly at the foot of it, but without light, there was no way to know.

  The wounds at his chest had opened again and the front of his shirt felt wet but feeling around inside the material he found stickiness but little fresh flow. It seemed he was alive, and likely to stay that way.

  But for how long?

  He considered calling out then thought better of it. He couldn’t hear the beast, but he knew it had to be there somewhere and drawing attention to himself in the dark would be a quick way to suicide.

  “Gillam will come for me,” he whispered to himself.

  It felt like a prayer of hope.

  He was considering taking a step in the dark to feel for a wall when he heard a scrambling somewhere high to his right. He got as far as raising the weapon to take aim, but he was too slow, and almost leapt out of his skin when Elsa leapt up, planted her legs on his tender chest, and licked him full in the face.

  “Good girl,” he whispered, almost weeping at the sense of comradeship he found in the simple presence of the dog. “Where are the others?”

  In reply, Elsa dropped to her paws and tugged his left-hand cuff, as if telling him to follow. He crouched, kept a hand at the scruff of her neck and together, painfully slowly, they began to climb through the dark.

  They had moved only half a dozen steps when the sound of gunfire echoed through the cave system. When the echoes died down, Elsa let out two loud barks.

  After several seconds, a voice called out faintly from above. It was the old soldier.

  “Ed? Are you there?”

  This time, there were indeed tears as he shouted out an affirmative.

  “Stay where you are, we’re coming to you,” Danny answered. Ed fell to his knees, holding the dog tight to him, letting its warmth and simple comforts fill the dark spaces he felt inside.

  Less than a minute later, he saw red-flickering shadows dance on the roof, and a minute after that saw the flame of a firebrand appear high above in the gully, with two dark figures walking there. Elsa barked excitedly, and Ed allowed the tears to come and flow freely, so much so that he had to wipe them clear to greet his companions when they arrived at the foot of the slope.

  “Hail fellows, well met,” he said, hearing the hitch in his voice as he spoke.

  Danny grunted in reply, then smiled.

  “Damn, lad, it’s good to find you alive. But don’t be going doing anything daft like that again.”

  “The beast?”

  “Dead as anything I’ve ever shot,” Danny replied. “But don’t go celebrating too much; I’m guessing there’s more of the buggers around here somewhere.”

  Ed took the firebrand while Danny reloaded his pistol and swapped it in the holster for the Colt, which he handed back to Danny.

  “You dropped this,” he said, and repeated his earlier words. “Don’t be doing anything daft like that again.”

  “So what now? Back to the cave so you can get some rest?”

  “Nay, lad. Yon beast might be dead, but I’ve no need to see it again. And can’t you feel it? The breeze is stronger again here. We’re getting close.”

  Ed had to turn his head to feel it, but the breeze was indeed stronger here, coming up through where the gulley widened at his back.

  Danny clapped him on the shoulder.

  “Full speed ahead, lad. Supper’s waiting.”

  Ed allowed Stefan to check his wounds. The shepherd sucked his teeth, muttered under his breath, washed away dried blood with some water and a handkerchief, then declared Ed to be fit enough to move on.

  “If we have to run, he will bleed again, and bad at that.”

  Danny grimaced.

  “Let’s make sure we don’t have to run then.” He held up the firebrand. The breeze was enough to set the flames flickering wildly. “Are you ready to move, lad?”

  That last was addressed to Ed. He felt stiff and sore, but his legs worked just fine. When Danny headed into the breeze, Ed followed right behind him.

  He realised as they walked that he was listening for sounds of pursuit, still fearing attack from the wyrm.

  “Are you sure it’s dead?” he said.

  “As sure as I am of anything,” Danny replied. “I know you wanted the honor, but I didn’t have time for niceties. If it helps to know, I took it down with your brother’s gun, so if you are looking for a measure of revenge, find it in that.”

  Ed fingered the butt of the pistol at his hip.

  “We got it, Tommy,” he whispered, but if Tommy was somewhere listening, he didn’t reply.

  They descended into the dark.

  Ed was calculating their descent in his head, and he didn’t like the results he was getting, but the outcome came out the same every way he looked at it.

  “We’ve come down too far,” he said. “Much farther than we climbed from the village. We are below ground level by now, surely?”

  Danny took his time in replying and when he did, he was grave.

  “Aye, I know. And my gut tells me we’re going in the wrong direction too. But we’ve made the correct decision at every opportunity on the way. I cannot see any other course but to follow our noses. Mayhap we will come out further down one of the mountain valleys. Yon stream has to come out somewhere.”

  Ed knew that streams in caves didn’t necessarily emerge in the open but he held his peace; like the old soldier, he could see no other course of action but to follow the breeze and hope. Hope was about all Ed had left.

  The breeze continued to strengthen. There was a definite smell to it now. Ed tasted brine at his lips.

  “Salt water? But we are many leagues from any sea.”

  “Let’s not second guess ourselves,” Danny said, but Ed saw the same concern in the man’s face that he felt in himself.

  Several minutes later, they began to see dim light far ahead of them, and it brightened quickly as they approached what appeared to be an opening out of the cave.

  Danny let out a yelp of joy.

  “I told you, lad. Didn’t I tell you?”

  They were almost running as they approached the light and Ed came close to knocking Danny over when the old soldier came to a sudden halt in the cave mouth. Ed saw why when he looked over Danny’s shoulder to the scene beyond.

  Far from having escaped the cave system, it appeared they had emerged into an even larger, more complex part of it. A ceiling of rock festooned with luminescent roots hung a hundred yards overhead, arching over an underground lake that stretched away into an unimaginable distance with no apparent far edge that Ed could discern.
A flock of the giant bat-things wheeled lazily just below the ceiling, the only things moving in the landscape save for a gentle ripple on the shimmering surface of the water.

  Elsa barked at Ed’s side, and he looked down to see that she was looking over to the right. A high path led away from where they stood around this side of the lake and upwards slightly to a ledge overlooking the lake from a higher vantage. Then he saw what had caught the dog’s attention; they were not the first people to see this scene. Someone had been here before them in some distant past, and had left a marker of their presence, a tall roughly hewn stone cross atop a large mound of piled stones.

  Ed saw that Danny was looking the other way. To the left, a path wound down the cliff towards a shoreline fifty yards below. A rough forest of pale distended woodland filled an area between the cavern floor and the water. There was no sign of life there either.

  Ed brought the old soldier’s attention to the right-hand path. Without another word, Danny extinguished the firebrand and set off at a brisk walk around the path towards the cross.

  - 19 -

  On his first sight of this new cavern, Danny’s hopes of a quick escape had been dashed so completely that he considered, for longer than he would admit to himself, just stepping forward, two small steps was all it would take, then a quick fall into oblivion.

  He couldn’t do it, not just because he felt an obligation to his companions, but because the old soldier in him wasn’t used to admitting defeat without a fight and there was nothing to strike against here but himself. When Ed pointed out the stone structure on the ledge, he saw it as a sign of renewed hope. They were still on the right track; they just hadn’t quite reached the end of it yet.

  By the time they were getting close to the stone cross, the track had widened enough that they could travel two abreast, and Danny wasn’t in the least bit surprised when Ed went past him, almost at a full run, with an excited Elsa at his heel. When Danny caught up with him, he was at the cross, moving rocks aside. He turned, and Danny saw disappointment in his face.