NexLord: Dark Prophecies (11 page)

Aerin gave the sheepish Dono a wide-eyed look
of silent
reproach
but then
returned to peeking around the corner at the
churchman.  The man finally found the key he desired and
twisted it in the large lock mechanism. The grinding tumblers
protested
movement
but gave up to
his superior strength.

He pulled open the resisting door, and almost
instantly a strong stench wafted into the hall.  Aerin
instantly recognized the smell of rotting garbage and human waste;
the unmistakable smell of the sewers.

Then a deep guttural voice came echoing out
of the sewer's darkness. Involuntary fear and horror iced the blood
in Aerin's veins as the horrible memory of his parent's deaths
returned. He had heard the unmistakable sound of a Togroth's ugly
inhuman
speech.

"Agoktalek,
cator
umog
?"

The churchman spoke disdainfully, “I only
speak in Mumand's chosen language, and you will do the same."

The deep guttural voice echoed out of the
darkness as it answered, and its words were thickly
accented.  "You have orders make from Malachai?"

"Malachai has ordained that you shall deliver
a human child we have captured to the Wastelands after tonight's
mission is accomplished, do you understand?"

"Argoth," the voice agreed.

"The child can be found
in
the cell on the left, if you follow this
hallway that direction," he pointed past where Aerin and Dono's
hallway connected, to where the main hall made a turn.

Aerin looked at the bend in the hallway
noting that it was only a few yards
away
if they could get to that turn they would only be in
sight for a moment.  The open door blocked most of the
churchman's view.  Aerin
waited
for
a moment until the man's face turned away slightly and
then he ran lightly across the hall and hugged the wall until he
was around the corner.  He paused to listen, but luck was
still with him, he heard the churchman discussing the final details
of the plan with the Togroths.

"Wait under the sewer grate at the corner of
Sentinel Street, stay there until we open the
grating.  As soon as you are within the courtyard of the
Seat you must enter the barracks and kill all the Guards in their
beds.  Should some survive and manage to fight, hold them
for a time before falling back into the sewers to make your
escape.  At no time are you to kill anyone wearing one of
these patches, is this understood?"

There was a grunt of understanding from out
of the dark doorway.

Dono and Aerin saw the churchman holding up a
red triangular patch.  Aerin caught Dono’s attention, and
motioned for him to come across, but Dono shook his head
negatively.  Aerin pantomimed a finger across his throat
and then pointed down the hall toward where he figured Lor was
being kept.

Dono understood and with a heavy sigh he
checked the churchman’s position, before running across as Aerin
had done.  As soon as he arrived Aerin ran down the
hallway as quietly as possible, with Dono following
behind.  Their bare skin hardly made a whisper as the
light boys ran on the balls of their feet.

"What WERE those things in the sewer?" Dono
whispered when they had rounded
the
second
bend.

"Togroths," Aerin stated simply.

"Togroths!" Dono exclaimed, his body shaking
slightly in fear.  "They couldn't be, there aren't any
Togroths in the Seat, there just AREN’T!"

"I watched Togroths kill my parents, and
heard them speak. Have you ever heard a voice like that from a
man?" Aerin asked.

Dono shook his head, still shaking in
fear. 

They passed doors, but all of them were open,
except one on their left.

The boys stopped and Aerin tried the handle
only to find it locked.  "Lor?” he called softly.

"Who is THAT?" Lor's voice answered from
inside.

"Dono and I are here to get you
out!"  Aerin answered in a whisper with his face pushed
up near the crack of the door so his voice wouldn't carry down the
hallway.

"Hurry, before that priest
Malachai
returns! He's as slimy a thing as I
ever want to meet.  Get me out of here!"

"How?" Aerin asked.

His voice sounded slightly exasperated as Lor
replied, "You're the rescuers, rescue me!  Ask Dono
if he has his
wire
with him!
Gedin, do I have to do everything?  I don't have my
stuff, they stripped me bare."

Dono had his wire out in a moment and was
working on the lock.

Aerin glanced up the hall, but he didn't hear
anything approaching yet.  "Hurry," he said unnecessarily
to Dono.

That earned him a brief look of disgust from
where Dono knelt in front of the door.  He paused to take
a deep breath and calmed his shaking fingers, then started working
the lock. 

"Speaking of clothes," Lor's muffled voice
said, "I'll need something. Throw me in a cloak or something; I'm
completely naked... and DON'T look!"  Lor exclaimed
passionately.

In the fear of being killed by horrible
Togroth monsters, Lor's sudden modesty was almost humorous to
Aerin.  "You're kidding right?"

"NO, I mean it, toss the cloak in without
looking," Lor replied.

"We're about to be eaten by Togroths and you
want PRIVACY?"

Lor hesitated, and then said, "Just do
it, OK?"

Dono whispered to Aerin so that his voice
didn't carry through the door to Lor.  "He's got a mark
on his chest, a brand..." he added, trailing off.

"Brand?" Aerin asked.

"Taint never seen it, he don't like nobody to
see it, but you know what it must be... there's only one brand he
could have."

Aerin remained silent while considering what
it might mean to have been branded a thief before the age of
twelve... and he shuddered.

Dono got the lock to open, but before opening
the door he quickly pulled his
knee-length
tunic over his head.  He nodded to
Aerin who cracked open the
door
so
that Dono could toss his tunic into the cell.

Lor's hand shot out from the side scooping up
the tunic and a moment later he was out the door and into the
hallway with them.

"What was that about Togroths?” he asked, and
his face was flushed red.

"Togroths are going to be coming down that
hallway in the next few minutes to take you out of this cell,"
Aerin explained.

Lor's eyes nearly bulged out of their
sockets, and for the first time since Aerin had met
him,
the rascally boy was speechless.

Dono headed further down the hallway and
motioned for the others to follow.  "Let's go this way,
at least we won't run into those horrid things."

Aerin and Lor didn't waste words and
followed.  The hallway turned to the right again after a
short way and then went a distance past two doors to another right
turn.

After that
turn,
the boys came to a third right turn. They peeked
around the hallway and found themselves looking at the hallway
where the sewer door stood open, but
this
time,
they were on the far side where they would have to
pass the opening to reach the stairway going up.  They
had traveled in a large rectangle and had come back around to the
start.

"Do we go?" Aerin asked after telling Lor
that the Togroths had been in that sewer opening a few minutes
ago.

"They must have gone to fetch me from my
cell, which means they'll soon discover it's empty... we better
make a run for it," Lor suggested.

The other two boys nodded and they all ran
down the hall together.   They darted past the
opening to the sewer, without mishap, and rounded the corner of the
hall that led to the stairs, only to run smack into the churchman
who had opened the sewer.

"In Mumand's name, I command you to stop!”
the churchman demanded, but when the boys started backing away from
him the priest yelled out, "I have the child!  And there
are two more of them loose in the fold, help brethren!” Then he
pulled out a curved knife from beneath his robes.

To the boy's further shock a man suddenly
brushed past them from behind and confronted the
knife-wielding
churchman.  Aerin was
amazed to see that it was Yearl.  The thin
lavender-skinned
man reached over his shoulder
to the quiver that was habitually tied there and pulled out two one
inch thick, three foot long, round sticks of
hardwood.  He held one before him, almost like a sword,
with the other held low and to the side. Yearl approached the
knife-brandishing
churchman and
spoke softly, “Leave them be, these boys only wish to depart these
premises."

"Sacrilege!” the man screamed in intense
rage.

His face turned so beet red that Aerin
thought his head would simply explode. 

"A Wiggen has befouled the holy ground of
Mumand!  Die foul creature!"   The man
leaped
forward stabbing for
Yearl's throat with the wicked looking knife.

In a movement that seemed to blur his shape,
Yearl moved.  There were three almost simultaneous
thumping sounds.   The attacking churchman staggered
forward and his knife flew tumbling down the hall.  His
unconscious body fell heavily to the stones. 

"Sleep on Mumand's bed," Yearl advised the
still body sarcastically, "Quick," he said, turning to the three
startled boys, "up the stairs and out.  Though it might
please me, I have no time to beat this entire enclave of fanatics
unconscious!"

Aerin saw Lor and Dono staring at the sticks
that had seemed almost invisible in their movement a moment
before.  

"He's a friend of mine, do what he says!"
Aerin said.

"But he is a Willowman!" Dono exclaimed, with
loathing.

"Do you want to die?" Aerin noted, with a
raise of his eyebrow.

Lor needed no further prodding and dashed
past Yearl heading up the circular staircase; Dono and Aerin
followed hard on his heels.

They reached the top of the landing and found
a group of four acolytes, led by a priest, coming toward
them.  Aerin smelled the same cheap cologne he had
smelled when they eavesdropped at the door.
  
The priest took one look and spoke in that
voice of silk Aerin had heard through the doorway
earlier.  "They are defiling the temple, kill them
all."

Then Yearl was there again.  He
stepped forward almost casually and faced the four oncoming
acolytes who were now brandishing their curved
knives.  "Attacking children?" Yearl inquired.

Malachai spoke in a strange ritual voice, "He
is unclean.  You cannot allow a Willowman to live, so
sayeth
Mumand."

The four Acolytes’ faces turned to masks of
pure hatred and they attacked as berserkers, showing no regard for
their own safety.

Lor didn't wait to see what was about to
happen, he yelled at the other two boys, “Come on, follow me!" and
then dashed down a side hall.

Malachai noted the three boys darting away,
and seeing his four acolytes against the one Willowman, he decided
to take care of the children himself.  The priest took
another hallway that led the same direction as the one that Lor had
taken.

Lor slid to a halt at the end of the hall in
brief indecision on whether to turn left or right, but the choice
was made for him when the priest appeared
a little
ways down to their left and then started coming
toward them swiftly; they ran to the right.

The air wavered before them and a black shape
rose up out of the floor, coming through the very
stone.  It wore a black hood and intense blue glowing
eyes could be seen within the darkness. 

Grabbing each other in an attempt to stop
their forward flight, the boys scrambled to a halt; the apparition
was hovering in the air before them.

"The priest is coming!" Aerin yelled, having
seen the white skinned man bearing down swiftly from the rear.

Lor grabbed a torch off the wall and threw it
at the hovering apparition.  The torch passed through the
blackness and landed on the ground beyond.

"It's not really there!" Lor yelled and then
dove forward going right through the hovering
creature.  As he passed through he felt a blast of pure
hatred for all living things, including his own
friends.  Something
congealed
in his chest as if his soul was freezing over,
but as horrible as it felt it was instantly over and he was on the
ground beyond the apparition.

"Come on!” he yelled to the others.

Aerin gulped and dove through as well, and
then Dono followed.

The ghostly being turned and followed them,
but having felt its touch once the boys needed little urging to get
them running.

They made a few more random turns and found
themselves back where they had started; the four acolytes Yearl had
faced were now unconscious on the floor.  From ahead they
saw a new pack of churchmen coming through a door into the
hallway.  They turned and found Malachai approaching from
the other direction.  With no other
choice,
they went back down the circular stairs
toward the cells and the Togroths below.

"What if the Togroths are coming up?" Dono
reminded them fearfully.

"Don't say that," Aerin
exclaimed
since he had no other answer.

They reached the hallway at the
bottom
and moved to the corner
carefully.  "We're trapped, you know," Dono noted, "there
are priests coming down after us, there are Togroths down here in
these halls looking for us, and there is no way out."

"No, we can take the sewers," Lor
exclaimed.

Dono looked at him as though he had just
turned into a girl.  "Are you crazy?  That's
where the Togroths came from!"