Spice & Wolf IV (28 page)

“You’re quite right,” agreed Lawrence.

Elsa squeezed her eyes shut and openly grabbed Evan’s hand.

She opened her eyes. “I want to run.”

Iima looked back at Lawrence, who looked at Holo.

“Leave it to me,” said Holo. “I have one condition,” she continued, pulling back her hood and ignoring Iima and Evan’s surprise. “Think of everything that happens from now ’til dawn as a dream.”

When it came to decisiveness, perhaps women were better than men.

Elsa nodded, and only after seeing her agree did Evan also nod.

“What am I but a fairy that brews ale in the forest? Drunkards remember nothing,” said Iima.

Holo smiled. “Then leave this all to me. Now, if the lot outside have spears, I can jump past them easily enough, but they could still trouble you.”

“Does the church have a back door?” Lawrence asked.

For a moment Elsa began to shake her head, but stopped. "Perhaps—Father Franz told me about the cellar only once, but when he did, he said there was an underground passage accessible from its rear.”

If the construction of churches was the same the world over, then so were the actions of the people within them.

Any church with as many enemies as this one had would have secret passages for escape—it was a well-known fact among the kind of people that needed to know.

“Well, let’s use that,” said Lawrence.

Elsa nodded and looked at Iima.

“‘Things should be all right for a bit longer. They haven’t decided exactly what they want to do out there yet.”

It was true—once Iima had banged on the door from the inside, the hubbub seemed to have quieted.

“We’ll go down to the basement, then,” said Lawrence.

“We’re relying on you,” said Elsa, her tone firm, though uncertainty colored her features.

Anyone would feel trepidation upon suddenly hearing they had to leave their birthplace forever, unless they’d spent their days dreaming of doing exactly that.

“You’ve got it easy,” said Iima. “At least you can do a bit of preparation before you leave.” Iima’s own hometown had been razed by pirates, and she’d had to flee for her life.

“Indeed,” agreed Holo. “It is not as though your home will have disappeared tomorrow. Be glad it will still exist.”

“Oh, ho, Miss Fairy has lost her home as well?”

“Don’t lump me in with those weaklings.”

Knowledge of others’ suffering did not lessen one’s own suffering, after all.

It could be used for a bit of encouragement, though.

Elsa recovered her resolve. “We’ll make ready right way,” she said.

“Do you have traveling money?” Iima asked.

“Evan,” Lawrence said. Evan remembered the coin purse Lawrence had entrusted him with and produced it for Lawrence. “This should be enough for the four of us, provided we’re frugal," said Lawrence.

“Good. Right, off with you!”

At Iima’s words, everyone sprang into action.

She was the image of a heroic woman, mused Lawrence as he ran. Once they arrived at the statue of the Holy Mother, Holo spoke up as if having read Lawrence’s thoughts.

“Even I cannot match her presence.”

Lawrence opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it.

This did not, of course, go unnoticed.

“Worry not—this is the only form I can assume,” she said with a laugh.

Lawrence harrumphed, partially out of embarrassment,
and
replied, “It’s a shame. I prefer a more generous figure.”

Holo cocked her head and smiled, then smacked Lawrence in the face with her closed fist. “Just open the cellar.”

Lawrence decided not to think too much about what had angered Holo lest it bring still more anger.

Chapter 5

Lawrence had been concerned that Elsa and Evan would have trouble getting their things together quickly, but perhaps thanks to Evan’s long-standing desire to leave, they were prepared in short order.

The supplies they had prepared contained nothing unnecessary, save perhaps for a battered book of scriptures. It was a passing grade.

“The passage?”

“I’ve found it,” said Lawrence. “It’s blocked by a wall.”

Directly opposite the foot of the staircase leading down to the cellar, there was a section of bare wall where no bookshelves had been set.

Once he knew that there was a passage out of the cellar, that was the first place Lawrence looked. After knocking a few times upon the wall, it was clear that beyond it was a hollow space. He kicked at it, causing cracks to form in the mortar between stones and eventually breaking through.

Beyond the wall was a perfectly round tunnel—so round it was eerie.

It was less a passageway and more of a cave or den of sorts.

“Shall we?” said Lawrence.

Under the watchful gaze of the Holy Mother, Evan and Elsa nodded.

Iima was probably still above them at the church door, keeping the villagers from doing anything reckless.

Lawrence took a deep breath and, candle in hand, headed into the tunnel. Holo followed immediately behind him with Elsa and Evan bringing up the rear.

There were still many unread books in the cellar. In one of them may well have been tales of Holo’s old companions.

And from a strictly mercantile point of view, the magnificently bound volumes were worth a fortune.

Lawrence very badly wished to bring one with him in order
to
add to their meager travel funds, but he didn’t have the nerve to try and bring a book chock-full of pagan stories along on such
a
trip.

In case of trouble, a book was silent and unhelpful, whereas the strange girl with her ears and tail could muster eloquence that no merchant could match.

And so Lawrence stepped farther into the tunnel.

His body was immediately surrounded by a strange chill.
The
tunnel was not high enough for him to stand up straight; he had to duck his head slightly to pass. It was narrow enough that he could touch both sides simultaneously with his outstretched hands. Fortunately, the air did not seem stale or moldy.

Candle in hand, Lawrence saw that the tunnel was as strangely circular as it had first appeared to be with large stones here and there deliberately and cleanly chiseled into the proper shape.

And yet the tunnel was not straight; it wound to and fro.

If the builders had not intended for the tunnel to be
perfectly
straight, then why go to all the trouble of deliberately carving it into these contortions? It made no sense to Lawrence.

The passage also had a raw, animalistic smell, which conveyed a sense of unease wholly different from the smells that filled the sewers of Pazzio.

Lawrence held the candle in his right hand and Holo’s hand in his left. He could sense a slight nervousness coming from her.

All were silent as they walked.

They had decided that Iima would close the entrance to the cellar after a time, but Lawrence now found himself worrying about whether she would open it back up for them should this tunnel turn out not to have an exit.

They proceeded forward nonetheless, undaunted. The passage had no branches off it despite its winding nature.

If a fork were to appear in the path, Lawrence knew he would probably succumb to the pressure and speak.

Silently, silently, they walked farther along the passageway. It was hard to know how much time had passed, but eventually they could detect snatches of fresh air amid the fetid smell in the tunnel.

“We are close,” murmured Holo, which elicited an obvious sigh of relief from Evan.

Taking care not to let the candle blow out, Lawrence quickened his pace.

Urged on by the unbearable eeriness of the tunnel, he saw moonlight in the space of time that it took to take three breaths.

Trees grew thickly around the tunnel’s other entrance, which made Lawrence assume that it was hidden between crags. But no—as he approached, he soon saw that was not the case at all.

The entrance was wide, seeming to almost gulp down the moonlight.

He had assumed the entrance would be situated in a hidden, inconspicuous location, but before it stood something that was distinctly altarlike.

As he approached to get a better look, Lawrence saw that a broad, flat stone had been placed carefully upon four square rocks. Upon the flat stone lay some dried fruit and wheat.

Surely not, Lawrence murmured to himself.

Holo likewise seemed to notice and looked at Lawrence.

A moment later, Elsa’s voice called out, “Th-this is—”

“Ha! Oh, this is great,” said Evan, laughing.

The tunnel that led from the church seemed to pass through a hill at the outskirts of the village, emerging on the opposite side.

If they followed the gentle slope down, there was a scattering of forest, and past that could be seen the faint reflection of moonlight off the brook.

When all four had exited the tunnel and made sure there were no villagers nearby, they looked back at the hole.

“Mr. Lawrence, do you know what that hole is?” Elsa asked.

“Not really.”

“It’s the burrow that Lord Truyeo used when he came from the far north to hibernate long, long ago.”

Lawrence had more or less guessed as much upon seeing the altar with the offerings on it, but his face still betrayed surprise when his suspicions were confirmed.

“Every year for sowing and harvest, the villagers come here to give prayers and celebrate. We don’t usually participate, but...why would the church passageway lead here?”

“I don’t know why, but it’s certainly clever. The villagers would never dare to enter,” said Lawrence.