Empress of the Underworld (10 page)

Uncovering the entrance did not take long, for when the Gemini Twins and the boys did not make much headway, Volka grunted, “Ho, move aside.” With his huge hands he began pulling at the rocks. “
Hroom!”
Soon he had laid bare a tiny entrance. “There.”

Beren grinned. “I don't think it's big enough for you. You ought to make it bigger, Volka. But this is the place!”

When Volka had enlarged the hole, Beren said, “This is a dangerous way.” His eyes grew serious. “Watch out for the worms.”

Reb stared at him, then scoffed. “Worms! Why, I use them for fish bait. I'm not afraid of any old worm.”

“These worms are different,” Beren said grimly.

“How different?” Sarah asked tentatively. She shivered a little. “I never could stand to put a worm on a fish hook.”

Beren hesitated, then said, “You wouldn't put these on a fish hook, Sarah. They're enormous—and dangerous.”

“What do they look like?” Jake demanded.

“They look pretty bad,” Beren said. “In the first place, they're big—about a foot or more in diameter. And sometimes up to twenty feet long.”

Reb whistled. “Boy, that
would
be fish bait.”

“And another thing—they're poisonous. They have an ugly-looking head with horns, and in those horns are
poison sacs. They'll strike at you like a snake, and if they nail you with one of those horns and pump poison into you, well—there's not much that could be done.”

Sarah stared at Beren, then shivered again. “Is there any
other
way in besides this one?”

“No. But the good part is that the guards of the empress don't come this way. They're afraid of the worms.”

“Well,” Josh said quickly, seeing the apprehension in the eyes of his friends, “we'll be all right. Get your swords out, and if we see any of them, we'll fight together.”

“That's the best way,” Beren agreed. He pulled something that looked like sticks out of his pack and passed them around. “These are special torches,” he said. “They're soaked with oil, and the tips will burn for about an hour. It'll be very dark at first, but later on it will be better. Are you ready?”

“Let's go,” Josh said. “We've seen bad things before, and Goél will help us.”

Beren lit his torch, and the others ignited theirs. Beren then turned and slipped into the hole in the ground. The Sleepers followed with Volka bringing up the rear. He had a difficult time wriggling through the small hole and had to enlarge it even more. The others waited.

“We'll have to crawl for a while, then the tunnel will get bigger,” Beren said.

For the next half hour, they crept along the dank, musty tunnel. The flickering lights threw fantastic shadows on the wall.

Sarah was right behind Josh, who followed Beren. She had always been afraid of going underground. Once, back in Oldworld, she had refused to go down into Mammoth Cave. Now, she said, all she could think of was worms!

Josh was having somewhat the same difficulty. He
held his torch as high as he could and gave a nervous start from time to time as the wavering light revealed a hole.

“Things will be a little better up ahead,” Beren said, “but also it's a favorite hunting ground for the worms. Be careful!”

Suddenly the tunnel opened up so that they could stand. They still had to stoop over, and Volka could only go forward on his hands and knees, but it was better than it had been.

They had not gone far when Beren cried, “Watch out! Worms! They're crawling out of their holes!”

Josh had bad dreams for some time about what he saw next.

The torches threw their feeble light ahead, casting enough illumination so that he could see the holes along the sides of the cavern. At one of the openings a frightful sight appeared—a horrible head with bulging eyes and two spiked horns.

Behind Josh, Sarah choked back a scream. What came out of the hole looked like an enormous snake. And he knew that snakes were Sarah's second greatest fear, after being underground.

His own knees grew weak, and his hands trembled, but Josh hung onto the torch and his short sword tightly.

Beren, at the head of the group, was quickly joined by Josh, Dave, and Reb, all gripping swords.

“They'll strike like a snake!” Beren cried out. “Let them run themselves onto your swords.”

Josh was appalled by the sight of the wormy creatures. First one or two emerged, then the whole cavern floor was filled with them. As they drew closer, the worms reared up like cobras, reddish eyes glaring. They had teeth, these worms, white and sharp. Josh well knew that teeth like that were only useful to carnivores—beasts that ate their prey.

He wanted to turn and run, but there was no place to run to. A worm reared in front of him, red eyes ablaze, and he could see drops of liquid on its needle-sharp horns. He held his sword high.

The worm drew back, then lunged. Josh felt the jolt as his sword caught the head of the monster. It drove him back a step, and the sword was nearly wrenched from his hand. But he held on, and the worm writhed fiercely, then grew limp.

“That's the way, Josh! Let them kill themselves!” Beren cried.

Reb was hollering loudly, and the others were shouting too. Some were crying, “For Goél! For Goél!”

The battle seemed endless. The Sleepers and their friends were driven back by the weight of the awful, squirming serpents. Dave performed heroically. He was the best swordsman and stayed in the forefront of the battle.

“Be careful, Dave!” Sarah cried out.

And even as she did, a worm came at him from the side, thrust forward, and caught him on the right forearm with one of its horns.

Dave cried out, and Reb leaped forward to pierce the head of the monster with his sword.

Dave blinked, gripped his arm, and then weakness seemed to come over him. Josh watched him fall into unconsciousness.

But Volka, the giant, seemed invincible. He picked up boulders that an ordinary man could not lift and sent them into the mass of worms, crushing them. He kept crying, “
Hroom, Hroom!
”—his favorite battle cry.

And then Beren cried out, “Look! They're leaving. We won!”

And that was the last of the battle. The worms were driven back into their holes.

Josh leaped over the worm carcasses and knelt beside Dave. At once Sarah joined him, crying, “Dave! Dave!”

Beren came too. He pulled back the sleeve of Dave's shirt and saw the wound. He shook his head gravely. “We'll do what we can.” He leaped to where he had left his pouch and pulled a small leather bag out of it. “We'll have to draw that poison out,” he said.

The Sleepers watched as Beren took out what looked like a rubber bulb. He attached it to Dave's arm over the wound and began squeezing it. “I hope it's not too late. The poison works very quickly.”

“He—he looks like he's dying,” Sarah whispered. She reached out and gripped Beren's arm. “Don't let him die,” she begged.

“We need to get him out of here,” Beren said. “Some of you carry him while I pump the poison. I want to get away. Those worms could come back.”

Volka said, “Me carry.”

Fortunately the ceiling of the tunnel rose even farther, and the sides widened. They were able to walk easily now. Only Volka had to stoop slightly. He carried the still body of Dave, while Beren walked alongside doing what he could for the wounded young man.

“There's light up there,” Josh said.

“Those are the light-bearing stones,” Beren said. “We can put out the torches now.”

They soon found themselves walking by the pale green light that illuminated the passageway. This passage was much easier. The floor was flat here, and there were no rocks to stumble over—and no worm holes.

“The worms don't usually come this far. We set traps for them,” Beren said.

“How's Dave?” Jake asked, coming up to look into the pale face of the boy.

“He don't look good to me,” Wash said. “Don't you have medicine for worm bite?”

“We do have one other thing that might possibly help. Put him down, Volka, and we'll try it.” Beren plunged into his sack again and brought out a small glass vial. “Hold his head so he can swallow this.”

When Volka held the boy upright, Beren removed the stopper, put the little flask to Dave's lips, and forced the medicine down.

Dave swallowed convulsively.

“That may help some,” Beren said. “But we've got to get away from here. Sometimes the empress's guards patrol this area. Not often, but I'd hate to be caught after coming this far.”

The party made their way, for what seemed hours, through a maze of tunnels. Sometimes the ceiling lowered, forcing them to stoop over, and Volka had difficulty squeezing through. At other times they passed through large natural caverns.

“These are sandstone, washed out by an underground river. They weren't made by us,” Beren said. “Up ahead is the river.”

“That's good. I'm thirsty,” Jake said.

The large river cut across the tunnel path. It came out of a huge cavernlike space on the left, flowed across, and disappeared into the rock on the other side.

“Where does this thing go?” Josh asked curiously. “It's a big one.”

“It comes out on the surface, miles from here. But we never advise trying to use it,” Beren said.

“Why not?” Sarah asked quickly.

Beren appeared to be reluctant to say. “Well, there are some bad things in here.”

“Bad things?” Josh demanded. “What sort of things?”

“Blood fish.”

“Blood fish!” Josh echoed. “What are
they
?”

“They don't sound good,” Reb said, staring at the water. “I hope they're not what I think they are.”

“They are fierce predators,” Beren said. “In your world you may not have them. But they tear any living thing to pieces and eat it. I saw a goat fall in once, and in a few minutes all that was left was a skeleton.”

“That sounds like a piranha back in our world.” Josh glanced at the water. “How do we get across then?”

“We'll have to swim.”

“Well, how do we know those fish won't get
us?”
Wash asked, looking apprehensively at the dark water.

“We don't. We'll just have to take a chance. They're usually drawn to blood. Do any of you have any scratches or cuts?”

Several had scratches from the sharp rocks, so Beren took time to bind up all of those. Finally he took a deep breath. “Well, there is no way to go around this river. So let's go. Hold Dave up as high as you can, Volka. Can all of you swim?”

It turned out that all of the Sleepers could, although Beren said, “We can wade most of the way.”

It would be a chilling adventure indeed. As Wash crept slowly into the ice-cold water, he told Reb, “I'd just as soon be at McDonald's eating a chocolate ice cream.”

Reb nodded. “Me too.”

Josh was a fiercely brave young man, but he knew that the idea of being devoured alive by vicious fish took all the courage everyone had. “Come on. We've got to do it,” he said desperately.

As it turned out, the crossing was not difficult. The blood fish were not active, and Volka stood in the deep part, handing the others across so they didn't have to swim.

They reached the opposite bank, and Josh took a deep breath. “Well, I'm glad that's over,” he said. Then he sat down beside Dave. He stared into his white face and said, “I don't think he's any better. He looks worse, as a matter of fact.”

“Yes, he is,” Beren said. He looked down the twisting cavernous road ahead and added, “We must go quickly to a friend.”

“A doctor? Do you know of one?” Sarah asked.

Beren shook his head. “But I know of someone else who could help.”

They rose, and the small procession made its way through the winding cave. Behind them, the river and the worms seemed to stir as the darkness closed in.

10

A Desperate Venture

A
fter many twists and turns in the underground passageways, Beren finally led the Sleepers into a large cavern with a high ceiling. As soon as they entered, many of the inhabitants rushed forward to greet him.

“This is my mother,” Beren said. “Mother, these are the Sleepers.”

“My name is Laiona,” the woman said. There was a graciousness about her, and even though she wore rags and her face was lined with care, the Sleepers immediately recognized nobility in her.

“Why, you'd be the true Empress of the Underworld!” Sarah exclaimed. “Isn't that right?”

Beren answered. “She is the
rightful
empress, but we have been in hiding ever since Fareena and Lothar overthrew our royal house and killed my father.”

“You must be tired,” Laiona said. “Come. You must eat something.”

“Mother, we have one who has been wounded,” Beren said. “We were attacked by the worms.”