NexLord: Dark Prophecies (12 page)

"Would you rather get killed
here?  Or have a chance to lose them in the sewers?" Lor
asked with unassailable logic.

They all moved toward the sewer door.

Aerin once again caught the smell of cheap
cologne and knew they were in trouble.  The silky voice
of Malachai spoke from behind.
 

“There is no need to run, my children."

The boys spun around and found the pale
skinned priest standing at the corner of the hallway behind
them.

"That's the creep who grabbed me earlier!"
Lor whispered in disgust.

Malachai spoke calmly, "If you run your
companions will stab you in the back."

Dono spun to face Lor, and the two friends
faced off with a snarl of mutual hatred.  Aerin backed
away from them both, also showing the sudden and unnatural hatred
for his friends.

Malachai smiled and Aerin hated him as
well.  Turning quickly, Aerin dove past Dono and rolled
into the open door leading into the sewers.

Malachai was slowly walking forward; his
voice was still silky smooth.  "The winner can join me
and live forever."

As Aerin's body rolled onto the damp stair
that led into the darkness of the sewer the abnormal hatred for his
friends evaporated as if it had never been.  He scrambled
to his feet just in time to see Lor sidestep a thrust from Dono's
blade.  His friend's face was twisted in
hatred.  Aerin reached
out
of
the doorway and grabbed Dono's arm to stop his next
attack on Lor.  As his hand touched Dono's arm, the boy's
face changed to a look of horror. 

"What was I doing?” he exclaimed, staring at
the knife in his hand.

Aerin didn't know what was happening, but he
knew his touch on Dono's arm had set his mind free.

Lor saw his opening and locked his hands
around Dono's throat, and instantly the hatred fled and his mind
returned to normal.

"Don't let loose!"  Aerin yelled
and hauled on Dono's arm, pulling him into the
sewer.  Lor held onto Dono and the three connected
friends landed in a pile. 

Malachai was only ten feet away now, and he
was coming fast.

The boys tumbled down the stairs into the
darkness.  They landed with a splash into a
two-foot-deep
stream of sewage
water.  Above
them,
the
silhouette of Malachai stopped in the doorway. "We will meet
another time then, children."  He
said
as though nothing was wrong, and then turned and
called loudly, "Tagak,
gethrunk
utoblen
!" fluidly in the Togroth
barking language.  A faint barking answer showed the
Togroths had heard.

Dono
leaped
to his feet, splashing fetid water everywhere.  "Run for
it, the Togroths are coming for us!” he exclaimed.

The boys all splashed their way down the dark
tunnel in full flight.  The floor suddenly sloped down
and the slimy footing caused them to slip and fall, sliding down a
long chute with the water toward a drop-off below.

Aerin yelled when he went over the falls,
getting a mouthful of the foul tasting sewer water for his
trouble.  The water was deeper here and he had to swim to
keep his head up.  He thought he saw one of the other
boys ahead, but could not be sure. He began making for the
side.  
Eventually,
he
found a place where he could get up onto a ledge that followed the
coursing water.  He ran ahead and found Dono holding onto
the side, after quickly helping him up, they both ran forward and
found Lor already out and heading back their way. His bare white
legs stood out in the darkness below the thigh length tunic.

The sewer was lit by a green glow of
phosphorescent moss, though it was only as bright as a half moon's
light in the tunnel, still they could see well enough to
navigate.

In the distance they heard the barks of the
Togs, so they quickly ran until they found an access ladder that
led to the streets of Strakhelm above.

Aerin had never been so glad to see the stars
in the dark sky above. 

"What, in Gedin's name, happened in
there?"  Dono demanded.

Lor answered him, "He hexed us somehow!"

"It doesn't matter right now how he did it,
we've got to get to the Guardsmen!"  Aerin exclaimed.

A passing mill worker on his way home looked
curiously at the wet boys emerging from the sewer, but he knew
enough of Strakhelm not to become involved in something he didn't
understand.  He kept a tight rein on his emotions and
moved on.

Glancing at the retreating back of the mill
worker Lor kept his voice low.  "And tell them
what?  Tell them that the priests grabbed me for no good
reason when they caught me snooping around?  Or tell them
that they suddenly made me hate my friends?  Even if by
some chance they take us seriously, by the time they get to that
church the bodies will be gone and the Togroths will have
disappeared into the sewers. They'll think we are just children
with overactive imaginations.  It won’t work."

"They're going to kill the Warlord's son,
tonight!" Aerin blurted out.

"What!" Lor exclaimed with his chin trembling
from being wet in the cold night.

"I heard that priest tell the other one about
the traitors they have inside, who are going to open the gates to
the Seat and let in those Togroths and some of the cult
members.  They’ll kill the Guardsmen in their sleep and
then go murder Gandarel Trelic, the heir to the Seat of Stone,"
Aerin explained quickly.

"I cannot help you, Aerin, I will not go to
the Guardsmen," Lor exclaimed. “Besides, Togroths will never get
into the Seat of Stone! It’s a fortress in the heart of this city
manned by hundreds of Guardsmen. The Guardsmen will chew them to
pieces if they try."

"When I heard you were in trouble I came
without question.  Now I'm asking for your help
Lor.  I cannot go to the Guardsmen, the priests have
false Guardsmen in uniform and I don't know which ones are the
traitors.  We will have to reach someone in authority,
like the Guard Captain, or Gandarel Trelic.  Lor, please,
I can't get in without your knowledge of the city! I'm asking you
as my friend."

Lor looked away, but after a
moment,
he looked back and
nodded.  "If you ask like that, what am I to
say?  What do you want us to do?"

"Dono, you go to the Inn and find the woman
named Mara in room three, and tell her of our
plight.  Tell her everything!  She is really
wise and maybe she will know what to do.  In the
meantime,
Lor and I will go to the
Seat to try and find someone who will listen."

From far off in the distance a bell rang
twice and then a voice faintly called out the hour, it was echoed
louder from another voice nearer to the boys. 

"The watch calls two!” they heard
faintly.  From somewhere further it was repeated, as the
hourly proclamation of time circulated through the city.

"It's two bells; we have only one hour until
the attack begins.  How fast can we get to the
Seat?"  Aerin asked.

Lor appraised him a
moment.  "Fifteen minutes, but I must detour and get
shoes and clothes; I cannot travel the High Road barefoot."

"How long will it take you?"  Aerin
prompted.

"We'll be outside the wall in twenty
minutes," Lor decided.

"All right, go, I’ll stay here until you
return. Dono, you and I need to retrieve our shoes. We will have to
sneak back to where we left them near the church entrance.”

Dono nodded resignedly and the two boys
headed down the street with Dono in the lead.  Lor took
off in another direction, at a swift run.

There was no commotion to show anything had
been amiss when they reached the street where they had left their
shoes.  After sneaking along the side of the street to
where their shoes were, Dono and Aerin quickly put them back
on.

“Go, Dono, tell Mara what we know!" Aerin
urged, and Dono took off at a run.

Aerin returned to meet
Lor
and lost a year's growth when Lor dropped
out of the darkness next to him in the alley.  The street
boy was wearing old clothes, mostly too small for him, but at least
he had a well-worn pair of shoes.

"Come on, be careful and follow me exactly,"
Lor cautioned, climbing up the side of the building.

Aerin swallowed hard, but he followed the
agile Lor up the rough blocks of the stone wall.  They
seemed to climb forever, but
eventually,
they reached the rooftops.

"This way, come," Lor said, running across
the rooftops toward the distant structure of the Seat of Stone.

Aerin followed as best he could, and Lor kept
giving advice on how to move as they went.

When they reached the outer walls of the
Seat, Lor stopped and crouched on the rooftop of the building
across from the legendary fortress.

"How much time do you think we still have?"
Aerin asked, out of breath from their run.

Lor estimated a moment.  "I think
it must
be passed
the half, we
took longer than I anticipated getting here."

He didn't add that it was because Aerin had
slowed him; he didn't need to since they both knew it.

"The guards at the gate are likely the
traitors since they are to open the gates for the
invaders.  I guess that means we will have to sneak
inside somehow," Aerin reasoned.

Lor’s voice was calm as he said, "You know
that it is the death penalty to enter the Seat of Stone without
leave?"

Aerin looked
stricken.  "Death?"

"Yes, and they mean it.  You still
want to do this?"

Aerin swallowed hard.  "Yes, I will
not allow these horrid creatures to kill anyone else when I can put
a stop to it."

Lor smiled.  "Just checking; fine
then, we go over the wall… there!” he exclaimed, pointing to a
place two buildings down the street.

"How?" Aerin asked.

"It's easier to show you, but just remember
who wanted to go in," Lor exclaimed as he ran off toward the
indicated building roof.

They reached the roof and Lor went to the
tall flagpole that was mounted in the center.  "Give me a
hand here; we need to lift this pole from the holder."

Both boys grasped the four-inch diameter pole
and lifted for all they were worth, slowly they got it up until the
bottom cleared the holder, but then they lost it.  The
pole came falling down and Aerin had to leap clear.

"Somebody inside has to have heard that!"
Aerin exclaimed after the pole landed on the rooftop with a loud
wooden thump.

Lor shrugged.  "Perhaps; but this
is a store, and it is closed until morning, so perhaps we might be
lucky."  Lor quickly went to the pole and removed the
rope that had run to the pulley at the top. Then he started
dragging the pole toward the roof edge,   "Come on,
we have to shove the pole across to the wall!"

"What good will that do?  The
fortress walls are higher than this building; we'll never lift it
that high, even if it would reach!" Aerin complained.

"Stop griping, we don't have to reach the
top, trust me," Lor explained. 

They started shoving the pole across the
intervening gap.  Luckily it wasn't far to the fortress
wall, as the city had expanded until buildings had crowded the
outer wall of the fortress.  The fortress walls were
higher,
though, so the pole could
not reach the top.

"Aim for that protrusion… no, more to the
right!" Lor said pointing.  "Now push!” he added, and
they managed to get the end of the pole on the flat piece of block
that projected about two inches from the main wall.  The
pole was now suspended across the street to the
wall
and lay on the thin ledge of the projecting
stone about fifteen feet below the top of the wall.

Aerin looked at the pole
dubiously.  "You don't expect me to swing hand over hand
across this, do you?  For one, it would make the pole
come loose, and I'd fall to the street, and second, once I'm there
I'd be stuck. Other than that one projecting stone I don't see how
you could climb up the rest of that smooth wall."

 Lor smiled at him, "No, what I expect
you to do is hand me that piece of wood right there," he said,
pointing at a yard long piece of wood about two inches by two
inches thick.  "And now I expect you to get down to the
street level and get over near the wall just below the pole."

"I can do that," Aerin agreed, "then what's
the plan?"

Lor was pulling off his shoes, which he
slipped into pockets on either side of his tunic.  "Then
I'll drop this rope to you, tie it on and I'll help you climb up...
got it?” he asked, winding the rope around his waist.

"But how..." Aerin started to ask just as Lor
stepped up on top of the pole with his bare feet.

Aerin's eyes grew round in
surprise.  "Are you NUTS, you can't..."

Lor looked back at him
smugly.  "Don't ever tell me what I can't
do."  Then he walked out over the drop smoothly moving
across the pole while holding his piece of wood horizontal before
him for balance.  He moved slowly yet continuously so as
not to make the pole bob around and dislodge itself from the
precarious place it rested on the fortress wall.

Aerin watched entranced, the pole bent as Lor
reached the middle, but held.  If Lor had not been so
slim it would surely have bowed too much and fallen from its
position on the wall.

Aerin suddenly realized that he was watching
Lor when he should be getting down to the street, so he went to the
side of the building where a series of ledges allowed him to climb
down.  He nearly slipped twice and skinned his ankle
once, but he managed to make it to the ground.  As soon
as he reached the other side of the street, and looked up to check
Lor’s progress, a thin rope fell down beside him, nearly hitting
him in the face.