Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) (49 page)

Two prayers later, their strange party gathered at the
mouth of the entrance to the sewer system below the Seat. The
sewers themselves were ancient, in many cases even older than
The Before; remnants of the ancient times before the world came
to be known as Ereas. Catelyn’s books had taught her that no one
knew of that time, other than the few scant artifacts that survived
whatever had befallen humankind in those days.

The six of them filed through the gate single file, traveling
down a slight slope, which flattened out after about ten paces, and
stretched off into what seemed to be an endless darkness. Ortis
reached into his satchel and produced a torch, which he lit using a
device he had in his possession, a portable oil jar with some type of
contraption on top. He squeezed the head of the jar and it shot
sparks, and Catelyn could see that there were two chips of flint that
scraped against each other when he squeezed. The sparks ignited
the oil, and a small flame burned at the top of the device. He
touched the flame to the torch, and the pitch-coated torch head
caught, sending its light bouncing off the walls.

After passing through the gate, they walked along
featureless damp stone corridors for what seemed like ages before
reaching the beginning of the sewer tunnels. The cavernous stone
corridors now gave way to narrower passageways lined with steel
and a smooth type of stone which Ortis called concrete. Ortis
climbed through, into the pipes.

Silena followed, then the girls, Erich and Catelyn entered
last. She looked ahead and could barely make out the light dancing
paces ahead of her. The smooth circular walls were cool to the
touch, but dry, as was the ground beneath her feet, which took her
by surprise but pleasantly so. She had anticipated being forced to
wade through ancient sludge.

As they walked, Ortis informed them that the men of The
Before had built the Belkyn Channel above the ancient sewer
system as a way to make use of any existing infrastructure that was
still functional. Whatever had happened in those days hadn’t
destroyed things like sewers or other below ground structures.
Catelyn admitted to herself that she was more than a little curious
about exploring that part of the history of their people, of how
humans might have lived in the past, but as soon as they passed
from the wide stone corridors into the tighter confines of the sewer
system, Catelyn also felt her hands and feet begin to sweat and her
pulse began to race as she felt the tightness of the corridors, felt
the walls closing in around her.

Her memories of her time spent in the Imperial holding
cell, with its walls not even wide or tall enough for her to stretch or
stand upright, came flooding back and she felt herself falling into a
panic. She bent to one knee.

Somehow, the girls noticed first, calling out to Ortis to
wait. Sera squeezed past Erich to come to Catelyn’s side, and put a
small hand on her shoulder.

Catelyn reached up and grabbed the young girl, squeezing
her arm reassuringly.
“It’s OK, I just...I need a whisper.”
Catelyn took a number of deep breaths, trying not to focus
on the smell of the close air down here, until she felt her heart rate
slow and her breathing returned to normal. She squeezed Sera’s
arm again, and said “OK, I’m better. Let’s keep going.”
Catelyn expanded her bubble in the hopes that it would
help settle her nerves if she could sense more of her surroundings,
but all it did was make her more aware how close in the walls of
the sewer were, and so she focused her bubble to just a pace in
front of her.
She followed along like that for the bulk of their trip
through the abandoned sewer tunnel. The trip itself was almost
entirely uneventful. The sewer system had dried up long ago, and
the smooth metal and concrete slabs that made up the structure
were sparse, and only every once in a while did they come to a
junction where another tunnel system intersected the one they
were in. Twice they passed under a vertical shaft leading upwards,
but each appeared to be cut off by cave-ins above, so they
continued onward.
Catelyn began to wonder if Ortis actually knew what was
at the far end of the sewer tunnel or if he was simply guessing.
He’d seemed convinced that the sewer system would allow them to
come up in the heart of Belkyn, bypassing the entry gates and the
guards dividing the city from the Belkyn Channel altogether, and
then from there they would be able to cross the city toward the
Grand Gate and formulate a plan for getting through it.
Catelyn had no idea how possible that would be. She didn’t
know how big this Grand Gate really was, or even whether the
name made reference to its size or to its composition. In her
mind’s eye, it wasn’t so much vast as it was extravagant. But for all
she knew, the Grand Gate was as big as the Citadel was. She
should have thought to ask Ortis some of these questions. She in
fact had many queries for him that she had mentally filed away as
a “just in case”. She figured it would be better to ask now, while
they still had breath to spare, and she started with the one she was
most curious about.
“Tell us about the Grand Gate, Ortis. What can we expect
when we get there?”
Her voice echoed down the chamber and bounced back at
her a couple of times before she heard Ortis’ reply.
“It’s a massive gate of quarried stone. It stands twenty
paces high and forty paces long, and is connected to it’s hinges by
enormous metal girders. It’s so heavy that it takes five whispers
just to get it moving, and then another ten to fully open. As a
result, it’s only opened once a span and only for a few moments to
allow certain approved traders to leave and return.”
Catelyn was only mildly surprised to learn this
information. She wasn’t surprised that an Empire with walls
designed both to keep others out, as well as its own citizens in,
would control access so tightly. Still, the fact that there was a
scheduled opening once per span was good news. If they could
somehow get past the guards, perhaps all they would need to do
would be to wait for the next scheduled opening and slip through.
However, Catelyn thought better of that idea almost as soon as she
went over it in her head.
“I would guess that those traders are all checked and
inspected both coming and going, right?” she asked him.
“Yes,” came the reply.
“Could we slip through while they’re still opening the gate,
since it takes so long?” Erich asked.
“Impossible. The gate opens just before midday. The
guards will be at their most alert, and there will be tens of units.
The Grand Gate is the second most defended point in all of the
Empire,” Ortis replied, his voice almost boastful.
Catelyn was confused.
“So what is your plan for getting us through?” she called to
him.
“We cut our way through.”
Catelyn was much more surprised to hear this answer. She
presumed that he had some plan or some trick to distract or divert
the guards and get her and the others past the Gate. A full on
frontal attack by their group, only two of whom could actually last
more than a whisper against trained soldiers, would be suicide.
Catelyn said as much.
“Ortis, that’s insane. We wouldn’t stand a chance! I
thought you had some plan to sneak us out,” she said, her
frustration growing.
“I never agreed to that. I agreed to get you and your
friends out of the Empire. You asked for my help. That is the help I
can give.”
“Ortis, stop. We need to have a conversation.”
She could hear and smell Silena and Erich’s discomfort,
and the girls were silent, but anxious. The four of them knew that
Catelyn was right, but she had been the one to convince them that
they would have a plan and a chance, and now it was becoming
clear that they didn’t have even that.
Silena and Erich took the girls and sat them down on the
dusty ground, and broke out some dried meat sticks and a hunk of
cheese that they broke off and shared with one another. Catelyn
walked past them and stood near Ortis. She held out her hand,
indicating she wanted the torch and he passed it over to her. She in
turn gave the torch to Erich, and then she walked past Ortis a few
paces past the others, and he followed behind.
When they were far enough away from the others to not
easily be overheard, she stopped. The light from the torch flickered
from behind the two of them, and she looked up at Ortis. He was,
as usual, expressionless and serious.
“Ortis, what on Ereas makes you think that we can cut our
way through the Imperial guards at the gate?”
“I should not have said we.”
Catelyn didn’t know what sort of answer she had expected
from her question, but this wasn’t one of them.
“What does that mean? You intend to cut your way
through the entire Imperial Army detachment? Alone?
He looked down into her eyes, paused to make sure she
was reading his sincerity and answered with a simple “Yes.”
Catelyn felt awash with conflicting emotions from such a
simple answer. She had at least tens of questions that all vied for
her attention, and she reached for one with her mind and pulled
out the first that came away from the rest.
“Are you insane?” Catelyn asked, and she saw that
question register in his face, and he looked sheepishly at her.
“I’ve asked myself that question many times since meeting
you,” he began, and Catelyn could sense that this was the truth.
“But in every case, I’ve only questioned my sanity about my
response to you. I’ve since resolved that to my satisfaction. When
it comes to this plan, there is no better plan, so no, I am not insane
to suggest that it will work.”
She tried to step in with another question, but he raised
his hand, stopping her. She folded her arms, heaved a sigh of
frustration, and tried to wait patiently. She was still not entirely
sure how she felt towards him after the realization that it had been
him who had left her to fend for herself all those sojourns ago.
“Catelyn, think back to spans ago, when you were still
blind. How did you find your way? And don’t tell me that it was
just something you learned how to do. You have a gift, don’t you?
Something that makes you...different from the rest of us?”
This question, and the implications behind it, admittedly
took Catelyn by surprise. She’d never told anyone about her
bubble. She hadn’t even fully confided this to Silena yet, for some
reason she didn’t fully understand. How could Ortis know?
Unless…Catelyn saw it then, in his eyes. He had seen such gifts
before. Though what he said next truly surprised her.
“I too have a gift. Something that makes me...different. My
gift is not freely accessible to me, as yours is. But when I’m in the
heat of battle, it comes on me like a storm raging inside my body.
When that storm is over, my enemies lie dead and I emerge
unscathed. It’s the reason that the Emperor chose me to lead his
army and secure the Empire in his name. I once believed that he
had chosen me because he loved me, as I loved him. I have lived
my entire life using my gift in the service of another, and for the
worst of reasons.”
Catelyn saw in that moment a glimpse of the mountain of
pain and shame buried deeply inside this man, and she began to
understand what it was that had prompted him to help her.
“I can never atone for the sins I’ve committed in the name
of Uriel, and I don’t intend to mock the memory of those I’ve slain
by trying. But my last act in this life will not be in service to a
madman, but to my self. Believe me when I say that I can, and I
will, get you to the Grand Gate.”
Catelyn remained silent, pondering his words and her own
feelings. Her senses were telling her that everything he had just
told her was true, and where before she had felt little more than
loathing for this man, more complex feelings surfaced, some of
which made her uncomfortable. Instead, she simply acknowledged
the basic truth.
“I believe you.”
Ortis nodded and turned to return to the group. Catelyn
stopped him.
“Ortis, if you have this gift, how on Ereas do you expect
that I can kill you when the time comes? How can I do what an
entire Imperial squadron can’t? Won’t this gift of yours take over
and you’ll kill me?”
Ortis pondered this a moment before replying.
“Because it’s what I want. My gift responds to my need. It
keeps me alive in battle because in battle I want nothing more than
to live. When it comes to you, I wish nothing more than for you to
put an end to my pain.”
“But why? Why me?” she blurted out, desperate for the
answer.
He smiled sadly, then simply turned and made his way
back to the group. Catelyn walked back as Ortis took the torch
from Erich, then he walked past her, leading them through the
sewers once more.
Erich followed with a wan smile, leading the girls who
looked frightened. Catelyn gave them both a smile to let them
know it was OK, and as Silena passed she reached out and
squeezed her hand.
“It’s going to be fine. We...are starting to understand each
other. More than we did before.”
Silena nodded, but didn’t say anything. Catelyn turned
and followed behind, wondering what fate would await them as
they made their way through the darkness, and towards the next
stage of their journey.

Ortis led them through the cramped tunnel, the torch
casting shadows on the wall that fluttered like the memory of the
wings of the butterflies he had so admired as a child. He thought
about those days more and more often, since he had fallen away
from the Emperor’s side. He remembered warm summer days
chasing after the multicolored insects, and lying on his back
chewing sweet-root with his feet in the grass, or splashing in the
cool river with his brother.

He remembered his father’s broad face, and the love he
had known in those days. It seemed a lifetime ago; part of a
different world. It might as well have been for all the good it did to
recall such memories. Uriel had come into that life and stolen him
away from it. And Ortis had let it happen.