Saga of the Old City (24 page)

“Come here quickly!” barked the young man. As soon as Evaleigh reached him, Gord led her into the passage that angled away from the building complex, hoping that they would find some means of egress along the route.

Evaleigh shuddered and pressed close to him, for there were cobwebs, bugs, spiders, and rats aplenty in the dank corridor. That there was occasional traffic here seemed evident, however, by the lack of webs obstructing the center. That meant that it was unlikely they would encounter anything really formidable inside the passage-and besides, at the moment, Gord feared no creatures other than pursuing men-at-arms.

The candle flickered uncertainly in the breeze caused by their movement, and its illumination was feeble at best. Despite this, they traversed several hundred feet of the passageway without mishap before being brought up short before a rusty, iron door. Recalling the layout of the palace, Gord guessed that they were at the base of the middle tower of the wall that formed the compound of the fortress.

The door was meant to be barred on this side, but the iron rod was simply leaning against the wall of the corridor. Gord tried to pull open the small portal with as much effort as he could muster, but it would not budge; it was certainly held fast by a bar on its other side. Shrugging, Gord picked up the unused rod and rammed it in place.

“That should prevent unwanted visitors from this end,” he said with forced cheerfulness. “Now we had better backtrack and look for a door we can get through.”

Evaleigh’s grim expression melted into a thin smile for a moment as they began retracing their steps. After they had gone only a few dozen paces, they heard from ahead the clang of bare steel on stone, followed almost instantly by a great hammering at the iron door behind them. There were guards coming toward them, and soldiers from the tower beyond assaulting the barred portal-they were trapped!

“Lie flat on the stone beside me-now!” Gord said as he blew out the candle. A glow was visible ahead-the light of several approaching torches and lanterns. The girl complied with his order instantly. Men could be seen with the lights now, just entering the long passage.

“What are we to do?” Evaleigh wailed in a faint whispering voice.

“Take my hand, and crawl,” Gord told her. “Use your elbows and knees. Keep your body down.” Gord headed for the bewebbed wall of the corridor, trying to disturb as few of the ancient cobwebs and freshly spun silken networks as possible.

“It’s no use! They’ll find us,” moaned the girl.

“Hush, and don’t give up yet,” he reassured her. “There is plenty of chance they’ll overlook us in here.” Then he looked ahead and saw guardsmen thrusting their flaming brands to either side of the corridor as the knot of soldiers progressed toward them. This slowed the pace of their pursuers, but the process made certain that no one would go unnoticed in the curving recesses of the arched underground tunnel. Shadows and webs-the only allies they had-would provide no obscurement for thief or damsel. It was time to come up with another strategy….

“Turn around, get as close to the wall as possible, and keep up with me,” Gord hissed as he suited action to words. Left shoulder against the rough stones, he began crawling on his stomach back toward the iron door. He paused for a second, and Evaleigh ran into his feet. She had followed the soft sounds of his movement remarkably well and quickly.

“Ouch!” she said involuntarily at the contact, as much from surprise as from pain.

“Shhh… I wanted to make certain you knew where I was. Let’s move again now,” he said as he resumed his worming movement. Things scuttled across his hands as he crept, and he felt a spider crawling in his hair. From the stifled gasps and faint rustling noises coming from behind him, Gord knew that the girl was experiencing the same unwanted intrusions.

Suddenly, surprisingly, there was no stone against his shoulder. Gord almost entirely overlooked the opening in his desire to escape the oncoming men, then realized the message that his nerves were transmitting to his brain. He stopped abruptly after his upper body had passed the place, and again Evaleigh hit his feet with her head and uttered a soft sound as before.

“Back up about two feet-quickly!” Gord whispered sharply.

Gord could not make use of the light from the torches and lanterns of the men-at-arms searching the passageway, for they were-fortunately, all things considered-more than a hundred feet distant yet. So, he used his hands to explore the perimeter of the opening, and they told him it was a rectangle about a span high and perhaps a little more than half again as wide. It seemed to slope slightly downward, as near as he could tell by reaching into it as far he could. It was low and narrow at the entrance here, but about a foot beyond it seemed to open into a rounded pipe-probably a drain for this place. He knew that his size and skills would enable him to negotiate the passage easily, and Lady Evaleigh was fortunately also slight and slender-although Gord suspected that her bosom and rounded posterior might pose some problem.

“What have you found?” asked Evaleigh, a hint of panic in her voice.

“This is our way out, my lady. It is a small hole, but it leads to a safe place. I’ll crawl through first. You come as close upon my heels as possible, but be cautious of my kicking feet when I turn and enter. As soon as my legs are through the opening, follow me with all speed!”

Without waiting for a reply, Gord turned his body and wiggled his way through the opening. In just a couple of seconds, he was clear of the rectangular opening and into the somewhat more spacious pipe beyond. He crept ahead farther to make room for Evaleigh, whose breathing indicated she was laboring to get through the small access hole. Then, just as he was hoping it would not happen…

“I am stuck!” she cried. “Help me, Gord!”

Chapter 19

The searching guards could be no more than fifty feet from the place now. Within a very short time, light from a torch or a lantern would reveal the form of the would-be escapee, even though the webs above and around Evaleigh were very thick. Gord wished there was room for him to turn around, but he knew the cylinder was barely wide enough for forward progress.

“Try drawing up your legs and pushing with your boots!” Gord called over his shoulder to her as loudly as he dared. “Push your forearms tight against the walls to anchor them and hunch your body ahead wiggle-wise!” he added. Then he moved ahead a bit to see if there was any place that might afford him space to reverse himself and lend a hand.

A big bug of some sort plopped on the back of his neck just then, and Gord reacted with an involuntary sweep of his hand to remove the vermin before it bit him. His hand did its work, and he was surprised to notice that it did not make contact with any surface above his head. In a flash Gord rolled over, and with his back to the floor reached upward. There was a square, vertical shaft here, and it allowed him to rise cautiously erect. Once upright he turned, lowered himself until he was again on his stomach, and now found himself in a position to crawl back toward Evaleigh.

“Oh!” Evaleigh said, startled at first contact with his hand.

Before she could utter anything else, Gord grabbed her by the upper arms and yanked her toward him. He worked backward down the pipe a short distance, enough to straighten out his arms, and pulled her toward him again. She was well clear of the constricting entrance now, and able to move on her own, so Gord merely backed a bit further, stood up once again in the shaft he had discovered, and quickly climbed upward a couple of feet.

“Gord! Where are you?” Evaleigh whispered into the darkness.

“Pssst! Ahead! I’m in a shaft that goes up. When you hear me clearly, use your hand to find the opening above your head,” he instructed the frightened girl. “I’ll keep talking, and I’ll climb up farther so you’ll be able to stand in here, too…. Are you at the place yet?”

Gord heard her moving directly beneath him. “Yes, I’m going to stand up now,” she said. “But I can’t climb!”

“I’ll help, so don’t worry-we’re as good as free now!” Actually, Gord had no idea where the shaft would lead, or if they would ever escape, but here was a chance. This was no time for doubts!

There was a good foothold just a couple of feet up into the shaft, and using this advantage, the young man braced himself and reached down between his feet to where he felt Evaleigh’s hands grasping at his booted legs in a desperate attempt to move upward in the chimney. As the sounds of the search in the corridor outside grew even louder and closer, her small hand found his groping one, and the little fingers closed on it with surprising strength-the grip of terror. He hauled and she came upward, feet scrabbling noisily on the sides of the shaft as she did so.

“I hear something in there!” A shouted voice echoed through the pipe and up the shaft. “And look-there’s been something crawling around this damned drain!”

So they had found the exitway quickly, thought Gord, but could they get through the opening as easily as he had? That was the key question now, for they needed time to get up this chimney and to wherever it led. The shouts and commands that followed indicated that armor was being stripped off for an attempt at entry. Some guard tossed his torch into the narrow passage, and it rolled nearly all the way to the opening in which Gord and Evaleigh were hiding. It was time to move upward as swiftly as possible, while the noise and confusion of the intended pursuit masked their ascent.

Holding Evaleigh in place with one arm, Gord groped upward with the other, seeking a crack in which he could lodge his fingers to pull himself up farther. Then his spirit leapt as his exploring digits closed around the cold metal of an iron rung! Grasping it firmly, he used his other arm and his feet to help his frightened companion upward at the same time. Fortunately, the hard soles of Evaleigh’s boots made it possible for her feet to find purchase on the sides of the chimney, so Gord did not have to bear all of her weight in addition to his own. And after this bit of practice, she became fairly good at hoisting herself up.

The pair clambered up until Gord’s waist was opposite the rung set into the stones of the wall and the top of Evaleigh’s head was even with his shoulders. Thanks to the faint illumination afforded by the torch, Gord discovered another metal rung about two feet above the first one, in what seemed to be the start of a ladder arrangement that would enable them to ascend more easily.

The sounds from beneath them were louder now; someone was in the passage! But no sooner had fear begun to rise in his throat than Gord heard a deep voice cry out: “I’m stuck! Push!” Gord allowed himself a slight smile as he grasped the second rung and boosted himself up another few inches. As he did this, his shoulder pushed against a projection on the wall opposite the rungs. The projection pivoted smoothly upward under the pressure he had accidentally applied. At the same time, a dull grinding sound came from beneath. In a moment the light from the torch below was shut off.

“What happened?” the girl inquired.

“I think my shoulder tripped something that closed the mouth of this shaft!” Gord answered excitedly. “This must be a secret means of escape placed here by some bygone lord-and long forgotten, no doubt, else the passage would have been shut tight and we would now be worming our way hopelessly toward some deep sink or cistern.”

Gord felt the beautiful girl shudder at the thought of what fate could have been theirs. He helped her move up until her feet were braced against the lowest of the metal rungs. Then he felt his way a few feet farther upward, confirming to himself that the metal bars did indeed progress up the chimney, and that they were strong enough and anchored well enough to hold under his weight. The thoughtfulness of the builder in making them thick was appreciated by Gord, although he was sure that time and decay had weakened them sufficiently to bring breakage from hard or heavy usage. Neither he nor Evaleigh would be so careless as to unduly strain these metal rungs.

Positioned just above the girl, he pulled out the candle stub once again, sparked the tinder, and got the wick alight. Sure enough, more rungs led upward, reaching into the darkness beyond the area illuminated by the tiny candle flame.

“I’ll ascend slowly, one rung at a time,” he told Evaleigh. “You climb just behind me, being careful not to place all of your weight on any one rung, and holding firm so as not to slip or fall. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I can do it easily here. This is just like a ladder!” Evaleigh sounded slightly hysterical, but she climbed calmly enough. She also climbed quickly, so that Gord was forced to stop looking back to watch out for her and instead devote his attention to keeping a good pace ahead of her.

The shaft led them up no more than another thirty feet. Then it opened into a cylindrical cell about twenty feet in diameter, the vertical passage coming out about three feet from the base of the wall. The center of the cell’s domed ceiling was about eight feet above Gord’s head. There was nothing in the place except a tangled heap of old, filthy rags lying a short distance from the shaft opening and an ancient lantern a few feet away to the other side. The latter still held the remains of a thick candle. This Gord set burning with the small taper he held, extinguishing it as the larger one came to life.

“How do we get out of this place?” asked Evaleigh uneasily as she gazed at the unbroken expanse of stone that formed the walls of the cell.

“No place such as this would exist,” Gord told her in reply, “unless the builder had made some means of exit. Its purpose is secret escape, and therefore we must look for a hidden means of egress. Unless the entrance is secret too, the rest would not be, lady,” Gord explained.

“Oh,” said the girl, brushing dirty hand against smudged cheek. “But how do we find a secret means of leaving this tiny place? The air here is bad, I can hardly breathe, and the walls seem to enclose and suffocate me!”

“Help me look for marks on floor or wall, which could mean stone moving on stone,” Gord said as he put down the lantern near the center of the chamber. “Don’t worry-it won’t take long, for I am skilled in this sort of thing, being a thief.” Gord too noticed that the air within the room was stuffy and stale. It was damp and reeking as well, and he suspected that their breathing and the flaming candle helped to make it worse.