The Lord Son's Travels (64 page)

The
tunnel kept to a more or less northern heading for the first few hours of their
journey.
 
Then they suffered
several bits of bad luck.
 
Not only
did their tunnel make a sharp western bend, but it suddenly widened into what
was apparently a well-lit bustling commercial district.
  
The alcoves to the sides now
featured tables and stools, mostly occupied by animated, lively monsters
chatting amiably with their tablemates.
 
The majority of occupants were warriors, still armed with blades strapped
in scabbards and sheaths in easy reach, as well as their own natural teeth and
claws.
 
Underneath the cover of the
hem of her cloak, Elenna reached for Adrien's hand and gripped it tightly.
 
They had no choice but to plunge into
the crowds and hope for no one catching an unlucky glimpse under their
hoods.
 

Early
morning meant the end of the workday for most of the monsters, who apparently
came to this section of the underground warren as a place to buy drinks and
catch up with buddies after their long day hunting.
 
The crowds were good-natured and boisterous, calling out to
each other in welcome and often blocking the passageway as small groups
recognized each other and stopped to chat. Often the travelers had to squeeze
between small clumps of residents, grimacing at the feel of scales or fur or
unidentifiable material rubbing against them as they passed.
 
None of the monsters they had passed so
far had even vaguely human faces; it was often hard to resist staring at some
of the creatures they encountered.
  

Once
Elenna accidentally backed in to a four-legged monster and nearly fell
backwards; it made some sort of growl of irritation and stomped off as she
muttered nonsense in an apologetic tone and hoped it wouldn't realize she
wasn't speaking its language.
 
She
heaved a sigh of relief at its departure and hurried off to where Adrien was
waiting, right hand ready to strike from under his cloak in what he knew would
be a quickly futile gesture if she had been discovered.
 

Near
the end of the market, in an extra-wide grotto carved into the side of the
tunnel, was another gathering of tables and chairs now occupied by a group of
off-duty hunters.
 
By the
collection of empty jugs in front of them, they had been camped there some
time.
 
They were singing; or at
least those with voices were singing.
 
The others joined in with hooting, braying, or whatever sound their
vocal chords could manage.
 
As
Adrien and Elenna passed, they stopped singing, and regarded them with
curiosity.
 

“Oh!”
one cracked loudly, pointing at Elenna.

Adrien
did not change his placid expression, but gripped her tightly by the
elbow.
 
“Keep moving,” he murmured
in her ear.
 
They continued pushing
through the crowds, as the monster reiterated his greeting more loudly.
 
When they were within paces of the exit
of the market, he rose to his feet and howled.
 
The crowds paused in their bustle, their attention caught by
his consternation.
 
His friends
laughed and urged him to give chase.
 
A couple of his buddies joined in the fun as the monster set off on
their trail.

The
market emptied into a narrower hallway, similar to the one they had traversed
on arrival. It was nearly empty, to their great satisfaction, and they could
increase their walking rate until they were nearly running.
 
Most monsters were asleep at was what
to them was a late hour, with only a few tired pedestrians shuffling home from
work.
 
After they had passed, those
few that were up and about noted the group of soldiers marching their way
hollering loudly and suddenly discovered business elsewhere. Adrien and Elenna
tried to pretend they were unconcerned about the commotion behind them, and
slowed their pace while they searched for any side passage to hide.
 
Their pursuers grew closer and louder
in their demands for them to return.
 
Soon it would be impossible to avoid them.

Adrien
finally spotted an empty grotto, and without warning pulled his companion
inside.
 
The monsters saw his
maneuver, and with suspicions raised, drew their weapons.
 
At first they gathered outside the
opening of the grotto, but after hearing no sound of activity inside, sent two
of their group inside to investigate.
 
Elenna and Adrien waited on either side of the opening, swords ready to
strike in the pitch black of the cave.
 
As soon as they felt movement they attacked, leaving two bodies dead on
the ground.
 
The rest of the
monsters heard the sound of fighting and as a pack moved towards the
grotto.
 
The narrow doorway only
allowed a couple monsters at a time to enter; then they had to climb over the
dead bodies on the floor, giving Adrien and Elenna time to attack while the
incoming monsters were at a disadvantage.
 
One of the monsters turned and scrambled back out in to the corridor and
out of their reach.
 
Before either
human could react, he had taken flight, screaming out for help as he raced back
to the market.

Adrien
cursed and barked an order for Elenna to follow.
 
She complied without question, dodging past monsters who had
stumbled half-asleep to their doorways in response to the ruckus outside their
chambers.
 
Since all were
accustomed to disruptions from the drinkers that gathered daily in the market,
none of the residents intervened until a cluster of soldiers tore past,
screaming for the heads of the murderers who had passed their doors.
 
Elenna and Adrien kept just ahead of
the mob that was steadily coalescing
 
behind them.
 
They dodged
into random directions whenever the tunnels divided, sure that their lives
depended on good luck in their picks.
 
They were fortunate; none of their chosen tunnels terminated in dead
ends or another busy district.
 
The
mobs separated at each split in the tunnels to cover both possibilities, so
after a few decisions they only had a few monsters left in pursuit.
 
These they could handle easily by
waiting in an empty chamber in a deserted section and letting their pursuers
run past.
 
When they were sure the
other pursuers had not double-backed to find them, each heaved a sigh of relief
and took a moment to catch their breaths.
 
Elenna dropped to the floor and clutched her knees to her chest, near
exhaustion from the exertion and fear.
 
Adrien crouched down and leaned his back and head against the stone
wall,
Arèal
still gripped in his
hand.

“Close
call,” she muttered.
 

“We
have a few more hours until the sun sets,” was his answer.
 
"We can rest here for some time, I
think.
 
You can tell me your
plan."

"I
would if I could," she admitted, "but my plan is to improvise a whole
lot once we get there.
 
But I think
if we get to the Northern road, we'll find a place where they're storing the
fuel they're bringing in from the north. I've got some ideas in mind in which
that fuel can be very helpful."

 
"We should try to mix in with the
workers entering on the next shift," he added. "We've done quite well
with blending in so far."

"Yep,
its been great," Elenna replied dryly, and despite her acute anxiety
yawned repeatedly.

"We
should try to sleep a few hours," her husband pulled off his cloak and
laid down on the cold rocky floor.
 
After a moment of internal debate she gave in to her weariness and
stretched out next to him, grateful for the warmth of his embrace in the
darkness.
  
He thought of
several things to say about the coming evening, but instead brushed his lips
against her neck sleepily and gathered her in closer in silence.

Chapter 60

When
they woke there was no way to tell how much time had passed, but both agreed
their internal clocks put the time around early afternoon.
 
The shift change should be starting in
a few hours; they hoped they were as near the action as they thought to be able
to arrive in time to catch the transition.
 

“Where
is the compass?” she asked, then patiently described the talisman he carried
that could tell north.
 
He passed
it to her, as well as the light stick he had hidden deep in his cloak.
 
She studied it in silence.
 
“That way is north,” she pointed to the
tunnel entrance to the right.
 
"Somehow we were still heading in the right general
direction."

They
returned to the last intersection they had encountered in their frantic chase
earlier that day.
 
The tunnel they
hadn't taken was larger than the other; probably a major thoroughfare for the
monsters heading to the northern road.
 
There were lanterns set along in nooks in both walls, but none were
burning that time of day, so they had to rely on the weak beams of the light
stick.
 
The corridor kept on a
reasonably straight line to the north.
 
Within less than an hour they were close to their final destination, and
found themselves again amongst the residences of the underground city.
 
There was quite a large settlement as
they drew near the northern road; they passed chamber after chamber they
imagined were filled with sleeping monsters.
 
By the time they reached the center of the residential area
dusk was nearing, and the city was coming awake.
 
Now yawning workers were exiting their chambers on their way
to their daily duties.
 
All wore
the same cloaks, or as similar as the various body shapes would allow,
different than the hunters they had met before.
 
They guessed this was the main area for housing the brigades
of soldiers.
 
From what they could
see, most of the caves here were unoccupied while their residents were away on
business in Roden.
 
Their tunnel
came to an abrupt end with a T in the road with welcome light in one direction,
and more darkness in the other.
 
The majority of the arriving workers went towards the dark.
 
Elenna sniffed the air, and nodded with
satisfaction.

“I
smell fuel.
 
I think we’ve reached
the right place.”
 
She led the way
towards the darkness.
 
Ahead of
them they could hear sounds of workers starting their labors of the day.
 
Several yards down the stretch, they
caught their first glimpse of sunlight, a tiny glint far away as large as a
flashlight beam.
 
The tunnel was on
a slight angle heading up towards what they guessed was the surface.
 
As they approached they realized
something large was blocking the mouth of the channel.
 
Parked roughly twenty feet into the
entrance of the tunnel was a horseless wagon with a metallic chamber in back
for storage.
 
On the front of the
wagon were a pair of steady lights, similar to what they had seen in the town
back in the Forgotten Lands.
 
Illuminated by the glowing lamps, workers were unloading wooden barrels
from the back of the wagon onto wheeled carts and gingerly rolling them into to
the tunnel, where they were being stacked in rows three barrels high against
the stone walls.

Adrien
and Elenna casually approached the wagon, trying to appear like any other pair
of workers with a job to do.
 
Elenna ran her finger along the top of the barrel to where several drops
of the liquid had dripped down, then sniffed her finger.
 
She leaned close and whispered to her
companion, “That's crude oil.
 
Oh,
I can't believe anyone is dumb enough to store oil in a wooden container, but
that does work in our favor.
 
Follow me.”
 
She jumped up
on the back of the truck and began to help unload.
 
Adrien followed suit, careful to keep out of the beams from
the headlight as he helped roll the barrels towards the waiting delivery
workers.
 
When the truck was empty,
he and Elenna jumped on with a few other workers for the journey to the
surface.

“Keep
your face hidden in the light!” he warned her softly as the engine started, and
they began to back up.

She
nodded, and whispered back,
 
“Do
you have your weapon loaded?”
 
He
agreed.
 
“Okay, then.
 
If I'm right and that is some cruddy
low grade oil, than this will work great and be a whole lot of fun.
 
When I say so, you’re going to get
yourself at the farthest range you can get and still shoot at the barrels
accurately.
 
The wood should be
saturated enough that lots of volatiles have escaped into the air.
 
Our poorly made bullets should make
enough sparks that the barrels can catch fire.
 
If this is our lucky day they'll explode, so you don’t want
to be too close.
 
Okay?”

“What
will you do?” he demanded in concern.
 

“I’m
going to take out the wagon when it’s back inside the tunnel.
 
The explosion should cause enough
confusion that we can get to the Keep without much of a fight.
 
If not, then we fight our way through
to the Keep.
 
I'm really hoping for
option A."

“Be
careful!” he admonished, knowing he had to trust her judgment on the plans he
didn't understand.
 
He turned his
thoughts to the Keep he could now see rising to the sky ahead of them as their
truck exited the tunnel into the cloudy dim morning.
 
It reached up several stories, sturdily built from thick
stone and wood, surrounded by several smaller buildings in the middle of open
land.
 
A secret approach would have
been impossible without the tunnels.
 

The
small buildings caught Elenna’s attention.
 
They were wooden and clustered about in a small village on
their side of the Keep.
 
Over the
rough coughing of their truck’s engine, she could hear more mechanical sounds
coming from the buildings.
 
She
wondered what else her fellow traveler had managed to produce or bring
back.
 

The
truck pulled to a stop near a even larger rig, which she could see was filled
with at least forty barrels of oil.
 
She smiled to herself at her good fortune.
 
The truck was near enough to the buildings that the
resulting explosion would likely take out at least a few; the stranger in
charge had apparently not given much thought to terrorist activity in his own
backyard.
 
He was about to learn
from his mistakes, Elenna promised herself, as she jumped down from the truck
to help with the loading.
 
She kept
her eyes lowered to the ground; the main weakness in her plan were the few
minutes it would take to load the vehicle when she was outside in good light.
 
One glance to her or Adrien’s face
would be enough to destroy all of their chances.

She
didn’t acknowledge her companion as he hefted the heavy barrels onto the
truck.
 
She had to trust him to do
his part, as he trusted her to do hers.
 
When all the barrels they could fit were on board, the driver started
the engine, and the truck began its journey back underground.
 
Elenna took a deep breath, and turned
to Adrien.
 
He nodded slightly, and
began to slowly step away from the scene.
 
The monsters remaining on the scene didn’t notice they were two less
returning underground.
 
Elenna hovered
near the entrance to the tunnel, waiting for the truck to pass before slipping
into the darkness to follow it at a safe distance.
 
Adrien stepped towards the outer border of the encampment,
pretending to gaze down the northern road as if he had seen something
interesting.
 
He turned back
towards the camp and studied the layout.
 
He could easily hit the targets on the large truck; a few barrels had
been left behind nearer to the outbuildings for use inside.
 
Both targets were far enough away from
Elenna to be safe.
 
She followed at
some distance behind the wagon descending below the surface, and when the first
barrel had been lowered to the ground, pulled out her pistol and started
firing.
 
The monsters jumped back
in fear at the unfamiliar sound and whoosh of sudden air currents.
 
The wooden barrels had been soaked
through by the volatile liquid; her first shot merely put a hole in the barrel,
causing it to gush fuel.
 
She fired
again towards the resulting puddle on the rocky ground and the puddle burst into
flames.
 
By the time the first
monsters could rush towards the flames to put them out, the barrel had caught
fire and then exploded.
 
This set
off a chain reaction as all of the barrels on the back of the truck went in
gigantic booms and brilliant flames.
 
Elenna raced for her life as the narrowness of the cavern funneled the
force of the explosion along the axis of the tunnel.
  

Adrien
waited for her first shot to begin his own assault.
 
He aimed directly for the barrels in front of the small
buildings.
 
Oil leaked from the
newly made holes.
 
It took several
shots but he finally was able to generate first flames than an explosion in a
number of barrels.
 
This combined
with the chaos inside the tunnel caused the crowds of monsters to scatter in a
blind panic, racing back and forth and squealing in terror.
 
From one of the buildings a half-dozen
men raced out, cursing, and attempting to order the monsters back under
control.
 
Then Adrien aimed for the
back of the truck, hitting and detonated one of the barrels still stowed
there.
 
Adrien felt the resulting
rush of intense heat burning his now exposed face, but he ignored it.
 
He searched for Elenna in the
confusion; as the smoke poured out of the entrance he could see nothing.
 
His weapon was now empty; he dropped it
to the ground and called for
Arèal
, all the while
searching for his companion.
 
She
burst through the smoke and called for him, Midiral already in her hands.
 
“Come on!” she screamed, and motioned.
 
He raced towards her, “The Keep looks
empty!”

Because
of its secured location, the chief resident of the Keep had not felt a need to
keep many guards at its entrance.
 
The few who did hold this largely ceremonious duty switched watches at
dawn and dusk.
 
Those that had been
about to come on duty had just left their chambers under the ground to come up
to their posts and were blocked by the flames.
 
The ones who were about to switch off were part of the mobs
racing about trying to stop the fires and determine their cause.
 
None of the monsters on duty here
understood anything about their master’s secret weapons; they had known not to
bring torches to that part of the compound, but they had no idea how to stop
this kind of conflagration.

Elenna
and Adrien were able to traverse the main gate of the Keep without a
challenge.
 
They raced inside to
find yet more chaos – a few men barking orders at each other to contain
the fires, but none of them knowing how to accomplish that. There was no large
source of water nearby; their master had not thought an accident of this
magnitude was possible, and had never dreamed of a deliberate attack.
 
The invaders bypassed them quickly
without their notice, and searched the first floor without finding anything of
interest to either.

“Upstairs,”
Adrien gasped as they reached a flight of steps.
 
They thundered up, blades raised and ready.
 
At the top was a short corridor
connecting two longer hallways.
 
This floor was empty; all of the soldiers had run outside to help with
the firefighting.

“We’ll
check every room,” Adrien ordered.
 
They started their search on the right-hand hall, going door by
door.
 
The hall was filled with
small office chambers evidently assigned to the commanders they had seen
arguing downstairs.
 
There was no
sign of what they had come for; by the time they finished searching all of the
rooms they were growing frustrated.

“Upstairs,
I guess, I saw outside there was another floor,” Elenna announced.
 
“But how do we get there?”

“It
must be a secret door,” he snapped in irritation.
 
The situation outside was calming down; they could hear that
some of the human guards were now regaining control over the panicked
monsters.
 
Soon they would be
returning inside. “How could he hide a door?”