The Unsuspecting Mage (20 page)

An idea comes to him. He concentrates and then says:

Door of wood have the strength of steel,

Allow no entry for those who would kill.

James feels the now familiar surge of power as he completes his spell. Maintaining his concentration and visualization of his desired affects, he gradually reduces the pressure he’s exerting on the door. Once he’s confident his spell is in affect and holding, he turns and practically trips over Miko, almost causing him to lose his concentration.

Passing through the doorway, they enter a smaller room, dirty and smelling like an outhouse. James realizes with trepidation that there is neither a window nor a door except for the one they just come through.

“Over here,” Miko hollers at him. He begins moving garbage out of the way and opens a trap door that had been concealed by the garbage covering the floor. The smell that fills the room when the trap door opens leaves little doubt as to where it leads. Miko begins to descend the ladder down into the hole when he looks over at James, almost laughing at the expression on his face. “Do you want to stay up here?” he asks.

“No,” replies James, doing his best not to breathe through his nose as he moves closer to the opening. When Miko climbs to the bottom, James begins his descent into the dark opening of the sewers.

_______________________

The odors emerging from the entrance to the sewer assaulted James’ senses. His eyes begin watering and could barely breathe. Only the threat of the boys trying to break in the door and possibly doing them bodily harm convinces him of the wisdom to climb down. He sets a foot on the uppermost rung of the ladder that descends into the sewers. His foot slips a little on the slime coating the rung, making it slippery and treacherous.

Using great caution, he slowly makes his way down to the floor of the sewer, his hands becoming slick as the slime from the rungs coating them. Upon reaching the bottom, he steps onto the sewer floor only to slip on a slick, slimy patch. Losing his balance he tumbles backward into the stinking, oozing muck slowly making its way through the sewer.

The fall into the stream of nastiness breaks his concentration, causing the spell holding the door closed to fail. The sound of breaking wood filters its way through the opening above as Miko helps him to his feet. They proceed quickly down the dark sewer tunnel putting distance between themselves and the entrance. Thoroughly nauseated, James tries to scrape as much of the filth off him as he can while hurrying down the tunnel.

They proceed along the stream of filth for a ways before taking a moment to turn and see if pursuit materializes. James watches the faint light coming through the trapdoor they so recently fled through. He is sure that by now the boys would have found the sewer entrance and should be descending after them. They remain quiet for several seconds but don’t see or hear anything other than the constant dripping of water coming out of several ducts in the wall, spilling into the main flow of the sewer.

“Yeah, there’s a gang that claims the sewers as their own and anyone else who comes down here is fair game. Everyone knows not to come down here.”

“So why did we?” he asks with exasperation. He tries to scrape more of the sewer muck off but only ends up spreading it further. Giving it up as a lost cause, he stops trying.

“It seemed the better choice at the time,” replies Miko.

Grabbing Miko, James asks “And just who were we running from anyway?”

“They’re a bunch of petty thugs. They think I fingered them on a job they pulled last month,” Miko explains. “I didn’t but word got around that I was the one and they’ve had it in for me ever since.”

“I see,” he says. “Anyway, we need to find our way out of here.” He casts his light spell and the glowing orb appears, bringing a startled gasp from Miko. Using the orb to illuminate their way, he says, “Let’s go,” as he indicates Miko to lead them further down the sewer tunnel.

They come to a junction where a smaller branch of the main sewer enters from the left. James decides to continue following the main passage after pausing only a moment to look down the other. After another hundred feet they come to a ladder leading into the darkness above.

Grabbing Miko, he pulls him close to the rungs and says, “Look, these rungs are clean which means they must be used regularly. It could be a way out.” Gesturing toward the ladder he says, “Climb up there and see where it leads.”

“There’s only one group of people who would be using these rungs regularly,” Miko tells him, “and they don’t like unexpected guests.”

“Maybe. But we need to get out of here before they discover us,” he insists.

Nodding understandingly, but not too happy about it, Miko goes up the rungs. He returns shortly and says, “There’s a trapdoor but I can’t get it to open. It must be barred or locked from the other side.”

”Alright, let’s go down a little further and see if there’s another way out,” James says as he turns and continues making his way down the main sewer passage. They pass several lesser passages, but after giving each a cursory glance, continues following the main one.

Further down they come to where the water flowing through the sewer begins growing progressively deeper and soon has risen to their calves. They slosh their way through the water and other floating debris until they come to the blockage that’s obstructing the sewer and causing it to back up. As they draw near to the obstruction, James begins to realize just what it is that’s blocking the water’s flow.

It’s a body and by the looks of it, has been here for a while. The flesh is in an advanced state of decay with maggots crawling all over it. A couple of rats are having a meal on the corpse’s exposed thigh. They squeal and scamper away at their approach. Other debris has wedged itself around the dead body which has only added to the blockage.

Feeling like he’s about ready to throw up, James steps over the corpse and hurries down the tunnel. Once they’ve put some distance between them and the corpse, he begins to recover some of his composure, but still feels a little green.

“I hear you see a lot of that down here,” Miko tells him. “People come up missing and their bodies come out through the sewer’s outflow into the river.”

“Let’s hope the next ones won’t be ours,” states James.

Continuing down the passage, they pass two more offshoots, the smallest ones thus far. The second one is barely wide enough to squeeze through. Not much more than a wide crack in the wall. Looks like it may have been created during an earthquake or something similar.

They travel a short distance further past the small passages before discerning a light coming toward them from up ahead. James quickly cancels his light spell, plunging them into complete darkness. They start backing up the way they had come.

As they back up, James runs his hand along the wall until he encounters the smallest passage, the one that’s not more than a crack in the wall. He stops Miko and says, “I think we can squeeze through here and hide until they pass.”

Miko goes in first and then he follows, squeezing in until he’s a few feet from the tunnel. The approaching light steadily grows brighter as it draws nearer. It’s not long before they hear the approaching footsteps of several men.

As the group passes by, James counts five men, the one in the lead carrying the torch. The men continue further down the sewer and soon the light fades until only darkness remains.

After it has been dark a minute or two, James cautiously makes his way back out of the crack to the sewer tunnel. He looks down the way the men had gone and discovers the light is no longer visible. Taking the chance that no one will be able to see, his orb springs to life on his palm. It’s then that he realizes Miko has not followed him back out into the sewer. Holding his light close to the opening, he whispers, “Miko, come on. They’re gone.”

From the opening he hears Miko’s voice, “James, there’s a room in here and another passage leading from it.” Pausing momentarily, he continues, “It may lead to another way out, away from trouble.”

“All right, I’m coming in,” he says and begins to squeeze back through. At one point he starts panicking when the crack narrows and he becomes stuck. But then he manages to wriggle past the narrow section and at last comes through to the room Miko has found.

The illumination from his orb shows that the room is small and looks like it had once been used as a storage room long ago. There are several barrels as well as a couple boxes stacked around the room, all of which have a thick layer of dust coating them. Examining the floor, he sees the only footprints disturbing the dust are the ones he and Miko have made. The single exit is a small, narrow hallway leading away into darkness.

“Doesn’t look like anyone has been in here for a long time,” observes James.

“Yeah, I wonder who used to use it,” adds Miko. He pokes into several of the boxes and barrels that are still intact but fails to come up with anything worthwhile, just old clothes long past the time when they were serviceable. Looking at James he says, “Nothing of any use here.”

Finding an old lantern in a box, James takes it and places his glowing orb inside. Now the light from the orb illuminates even better. He crosses the room to the hallway opening and shines the light down it, discovering a simple hallway which extends further than the light can reach.

“Wonder how far it goes?” Miko asks from behind him.

“Don’t know,” he replies as he moves into the hallway. The hallway continues for well over a hundred feet before ending at a flight of stone steps leading up. He directs the light toward the top and sees where it ends at a trapdoor in the ceiling.

He makes his way up the stairs to the trapdoor. Putting his shoulder against it, he pushes and manages to raise it a crack. Amazed at how much strength it took to raise it even that far, he sets the lantern down on a step and braces himself for a second try.

This time lifting with all his strength, he manages to raise the trapdoor far enough to allow light from his lantern to illuminate what lies beyond. Beyond is another small room, this one as untouched as the one below had been. No one has been in this area for a very long time.

Then letting out with a grunt of exertion, he raises the trapdoor several more inches, just enough for Miko to scramble through. Holding it open, he says, “Go through and help lift it from the other side.”

Miko scrambles up the steps and while James holds the trapdoor open, wriggles on through.

James’ strength is about to fail when he feels the weight ease up as Miko takes hold from the other side. When it’s open far enough that Miko can hold it by himself, James picks up the lantern and hurries through to the room beyond. Now he can see why the trapdoor was so heavy, a barrel was firmly attached to it. Perhaps in order to hide its existence and keep this way secret. He sets the lantern down on the floor and helps Miko to carefully close the trapdoor. They don’t want it slamming down hard and alerting whoever may be around. Just because this area has remained unused for a long time, doesn’t mean a nearby area is likewise deserted.

After the trapdoor is once more closed, he picks up the lantern and pans the light around the room. The room has stone walls on three of its sides, with a wooden one on the fourth. A door stands closed in the wooden wall. Around the room are more dust covered barrels and boxes. A quick search shows that there is nothing of interest in any of them, only some old cloth that has long since deteriorated.

Intrigued by the hidden rooms, James wonders where the end of it will lead. He goes over to the door and puts his ear to it. Not hearing anything, he cautiously opens the door and finds that it opens onto a dark, narrow passageway extending both to the right and the left. Shining the light on the floor reveals footprints in the dust, an indication that there has been someone through here recently. Upon closer examination, he finds the foot prints head in both directions.

Entering the hallway, he shines his light first down to the right, then the left. It looks as if they are standing in what could be a secret passage that might connect to several rooms. Miko enters the hallway behind him and shuts the door. That’s when James notices that he can’t tell where the opening of the door they just came through is. It looks like a solid wooden wall with no apparent openings.

Whispering, he says to Miko, “Now I can understand why those rooms have been unused for so long. This secret door must have been forgotten. Let’s see if we can figure out how to open it before we go any further. I’d hate to not have a way out of here if things go bad.”

Nodding his agreement, Miko takes the lantern and keeps watch for anyone approaching while James feels around to see if he can find the opening mechanism. He searches the wooden wall, feeling for any grooves or indentations that might indicate a trigger, also checking the floor for any loose boards. Returning his attention to the wall, this time taking more care in his search, he discovers a small knothole in the wall that is a little loose, but doesn’t move when pressed. He also finds two others that are loose as well and tries pressing them all at the same time. As he applies pressure, all three simultaneously sink into the wall about a quarter of an inch and a barely perceptible click is heard as the door swings open on a silent hinge.