Hammerhold Tales: Thrallborn (11 page)

He hit the hard snow on his backside and half slid, half tumbled down a steep slope for several hundred feet. He was lucky that he missed any large rocks as he fell. By the time he stopped falling, he was bruised, battered, and unwilling to move. He stared at the snow that he was face down in. Shadows began to fall over everything. He turned his head to the left and saw a couple of dark figures in the snow. He closed his eyes and allowed one last thought to run through his mind.

At least I was killed by a hill and not a gnoll.

Sawain opened his eyes. Everything was blurry at first, as his eyes tried to focus on the light around him. Muffled voices tried to enter his ears, but he could not understand them. Soon, figures came into focus, his ears attuned themselves, and the cold numbness in his body began to flee. A kind, round face of an older woman came into focus. She had big brown eyes, a round nose, and slight points on her ears. Her ruddy colored face shone with care.

“Lookit you! Already comin' round! The others said you'd be out of it for a week! I told 'em you looked like a strongun! Looks like I win the wager! Been 'ere two days and yeh've already earned me some fortune! What a blessing ye are, youngun!”

Sawain tried to sit up, but his ribs forbade it as they shot searing pain signals to his mind. Sawain reluctantly obeyed his broken ribs and lay back down. When he did so, he noticed that he was laying on two down mattresses that were pushed together on a long dining table. they had white sheets on them. A green crochet blanket was draped over his lower body. He got a better look at his caretaker and realized she was standing on a bench and could not be over three feet tall.

“Where am I? Who are you?”

The woman grinned broadly, “You're in Underfell Town. My name's Tilly Urthkeep. I'm the residential healer in these parts. What's with the confused look, child? Never heard of Underfell Town?”

Sawain shook his head sheepishly. In honesty, he only actually knew of three holds in Hammerhold.

Tilly nodded sagely, still grinning, “Aye, that's to be expected. Wouldn't be much of a secret community if everyone knew about it, now would it? Underfell Town is exactly what it says in its name: A town under the Fells. It's a bona-fide Halfling settlement, kept since the Ald Days. This town is a relic of the ancient past as much as it is a modern home.”

Sawain stared up at the ceiling. It curved around like a vault. It was smooth and cylindrical. Several square tiles covered the walls and ceiling of this room. They were different shades of green and made mosaic patterns all over the room. The room itself was fairly small. It was about fifteen feet wide, twenty five feet long, and six feet tall. He brought his gaze back to Tilly.

“So, you're a halfling and we're underground right now?”

Tilly gave him a sly smile, “Yer a clever one, aren't ye, boy? Aye, we're deep underground. Underfell Town extends hundreds and hundreds of feet below the surface. Keeps us safe from the outside world of the bigfolks. Now, you know who I am. Care to enlighten me as to the identity of this strappin' youngun that's been sleepin' on my dining room table for the past two days?”

Two days. Sawain's head swirled at the thought of being out for so long when it only felt like a few moments for him. He tried to recover quickly. He noticed a look of concern on Tilly's face and assumed his feelings were more visible than he would have desired.

“My name is Sawain. I'm a hero from Anvilheim.”

Tilly wore a look of heavy skepticism that wilted Sawain.

“Well, I'm a hero in training. I was out on a mission to clear some gnoll bandits off the road while the rest of my company was off fighting a gnoll army in the north.”

Tilly smirked, “You mean you was off playin' hero, trying to prove yehself to your boss. Lemme guess, ye got caught?”

Sawain was livid, “No, I didn't get caught. I did clear it out. Well, kind of. The details aren't important, what's important is I learned that Jordborg was planning to attack Anvilheim, or I thought so. On the way home, I was cut off by a massive army that had torn through one of our strongest forts and is now threatening to tear our entire hold apart. I'm trying to get to Alfhaven to seek out help, but I got caught in that blizzard, and I should have died, but...”

Sawain remembered Turin, “But I guess destiny wasn't done with me yet.”

Tilly looked nervous and worried. She was wringing her hands and stammering, “G-great t-turnip greens! Yeh said a great army? How great? Could they have followed you here?”

Sawain shook his head, “No, at least, I don't think so. If someone was following me I would think they would have tried to kill me while I slept, so I don't think anyone was after me.”

Tilly calmed down and looked satisfied with the answer. She placed her hands on her hips and nodded.

“Right, well, that's good to know. I am concerned about this news, but we can't be sending ye off to Alfhaven in yer condition. Ye need a few weeks to heal up and recover. There's no magickers in this town, I'm the best yeh've got, and I do things the Ald way.”

Sawain tried to sit up again, grimacing as the searing pain from his ribs tried to force him back down. He stood his ground this time.

“I can't stay down here, resting, while my friends are being slaughtered! This is too urgent! You don't get it! Our entire world is in great danger! The army that moves from the north is no mere army! There is a deep darkness present. I saw it. It is going to consume everything!”

Tilly placed her small hands on Sawain's chest, trying to calm him down, “Now, now, child, settle down! I understand that it's important to you, but you'll die if you go back out there too soon.”

Sawain broke away from her and swung his feet off the table, “If I don't go now, we will all die!”

He jumped to his feet. This was a mistake. As soon as he was on his feet, his legs crumpled beneath him. He fell to the floor, trying to catch himself, but found only the tiled floor. He tried to pull himself back up, but the pain from his ribs was overwhelming. He had no strength in his arms, either. He felt Tilly's hands under his arms. Though she was not very strong, it gave Sawain enough leverage to get back to the table after several painful minutes of struggling. He sat there in a daze as Tilly went to fetch a kettle of hot water on a nearby stove. She poured it into a ceramic cup along with some herbs from a clay jar. She mixed and ground the contents for a few minutes while Sawain contemplated how to get his strength back so he could escape. Soon, Tilly came over to him with the cup.

“Here, youngun, drink this. It'll relax ye and help with the recovery process.”

Sawain did want to recover. He took the cup from her. A brown liquid swirled within it. It smelled of flowers. The very smell of it began to calm Sawain down. He took a sip of the liquid. It was bitter. He made a corresponding face. Tilly responded with a scowl of her own.

“Wassa matter? Not a tea drinker? Go on, tough it out. It'll make you feel better.”

Sawain looked from the halfling nurse to the 'tea'. He took a deep breath and hesitantly gulped the rest of the cup down. It was hot, and burned a little, but it was down. He let out a big sigh, then waited for the results. A few seconds later, he felt no different. After experiencing one of the Housemother's potions, he was not impressed by this tea.

“When is it going to kick in? How long is this going to take?”

Tilly grinned, “Oh give it some time, youngun! It'll do the trick. It just takes some time. I told you, I'm not a magicker. Just lay back down and let it work.

Sawain did not feel like laying down.

“Look, Tilly, I appreciate your help, and saving my life, and everything, but I really need to get going. Anvilheim is in danger. War is breaking out as we speak. The other holds need to be warned.”

Sawain's eyelids were becoming heavy, and he noticed.

Tilly kept smiling gently at him. “You can tell yer war stories to the governor after yeh've had more time to rest. I have nothin' against you going out and being a hero, but not until yeh've had time to recover. If there is a war, it'll still be there waiting for you when you wake up.”

Sawain was confused. His head began to swim a little.

“Tilly... What did you do to me? Poison?”

Tilly shook her head, looking disappointed. “No child, not poison. Medicine. I'm not yer enemy. When you wake up, yeh'll thank me. Now come, youngun, lay down before you pass out again.”

Sawain wanted to fight it. He wanted to push past Tilly and make a break for it, but his limbs were non-responsive. He glared angrily at Tilly, feeling betrayed.

“You said you were going to help me... You tricked me...”

Tilly shook her head, still smiling, “No, child, I told you the truth. I told you the tea would relax you and help with the healing. That's no trick. I also said I'm not your enemy. Now, just settle down and rest a while. Yeh'll be glad you did.”

As much as he didn't want to, as strongly as he felt in regards to being deceived, Sawain could not fight the strong pull of sleep that fell over him. He begrudgingly laid back on the makeshift bed and stared at the ceiling. His temper flared only for a moment before he felt content again. It wasn't so bad. At least he was safe here. Maybe he would take a nap after all. He smiled as euphoria took over his senses. He let his eyes close shut.

I'll save the world tomorrow. It can wait another day. Like Tilly said: The war will still be there, waiting on me.

Chapter Ten

Sawain slept in a dreamless slumber for what felt like hours. Darkness enveloped him as he lay in a state of induced paralysis. He could not think, he could not move. He fought it for as long as he could, trying to awaken on his own, but he could not. Finally, he gave in and stopped fighting. He simply slept.

When he opened his eyes again, the room he was in the other day slowly came into focus. It was dark, dark enough to render his elven vision useless. He tried to sit up. The pain in his ribs was still present, though not as strongly as before. He swung his legs to the side of the table, resting them on the bench below. He was about to stand when he remembered his failure from the other day.

Instead of haphazardly leaping out this time, he gently put pressure on his legs to see if they could support his weight. They could not take much before going limp. He frowned and decided to try again, flexing his leg muscles, trying to get the blood flowing through them again.

He worked at reviving his legs for twenty minutes before they could finally hold his full weight again. Now that he was on his feet again, he stumbled his way through the room to the doorway he remembered from the other day. With some frustration, a bruised shin, and a little dumb luck, Sawain found the door. He twisted the handle and pushed it open.

A cold draft hit him as he stood in the open doorway. It was at this point that he realized all he was wearing was a pair of trousers ans a thin cotton shirt, neither of which belonged to him. He did not have any of his weapons or gear. This immediately unnerved him, especially the thought of him having to be undressed to be changed in the first place.

The hallway before him was dimly lit by the light seeping out from under one of the side doors. The hall was about eight feet wide, twenty five feet long, and five feet tall. Sawain had to crouch to walk in. There were three other doors in this room. The one spilling light from the crack was on the right wall and the other two were spaced six feet apart on the left wall. The ceiling in this room was vaulted, like the bigger room he just came from. And the doors were rectangular, with an arched top that curved up into the vaulted ceiling.

Sawain decided to try the lit door, hoping to find some help. He walked up to it, reached for the handle, then thought to himself.

If someone is in there, it might be a private room. I had better knock first.

He followed his own suggestion and knocked on the door with three moderate raps. He waited a moment, but there was no call of any kind. He pressed his ear against the door. He could hear what sounded like the bustle of a busy street. It reminded him of the sounds he would hear in Anvilheim on one of his evening walks.

Sawain tried to open the door, but found it was locked. This was not a problem, since the locking mechanism was on his side of the door. He unlocked it, then opened the door. More light filled his vision. He stared out in awe at a cobblestone street as wide as one of the streets in Anvilheim.

Sawain stepped outside to get a better look. This looked like a residential district of Underfell Town. The street was at least twenty feet wide. It was paved with cobblestones from wall to wall. The walls of this wide tunnel rose up thirty feet into the air, arching at the top as well. Hundreds of small twinkling lights shone down with blue light from the ceiling. The houses were built into the wall itself, but instead of mere doors in an earthen wall, Sawain could see mason work around the doors that made it look like the houses themselves had merged with the walls. To make them look even more house-like, alleys had been dug out just as tall as the ceiling, between each house, that connected to other streets beyond this one.

Torches lined the columns made from these strange houses, just above the mason work. These burning sentinels cast their light throughout the street, making it look like day time. There were several halflings going about their daily businesses. Some were pushing carts of produce along the street, hawking their wares, while others were going to and fro on personal journeys or just standing on the street corner chatting.

Everyone nearby stopped what they were doing and gawked at Sawain with wide eyes. Sawain felt incredibly uncomfortable about the unwanted attention that was drawn to him. He grew slightly irritated as the awkward silence dragged on. He quickly had enough of this treatment, so he raised a hand in salutation to the onlookers.

“Good... Um, good morning? Evening? Hello?”

The crowd of gawkers hesitantly returned the salutation and replied with a chorus of nervous good mornings. Some of them hastily went on their ways, some even going in the direction opposite of their original trajectory. A few of the loiterers went back to their chats, keeping a watch on Sawain out of the corner of their eyes. This uneasy and suspicious atmosphere set Sawain on edge. He approached a pair of well dressed halflings in cotton shirts and trousers, gray wool jackets, and wide brimmed black hats. They both sported thin brown beards and curly brown hair.

“Good morning sirs. Can you tell me where I am and where to find miss Tilly? I'm new to these parts.”

The two men eyed him suspiciously. One jammed his hands into his jacket pockets and stuck his chest out, trying to look impressive, or so Sawain guessed. He cleared his throat before answering.

“Ye don't say? Hmm, yer on Ballynock Street now. Miss Tilly is most likely at the Infirmary on Hilltroder Lane.”

Sawain waited a moment, expecting the halfling to go on, but he only received a stare that said
Well, you got what you wanted, so be on your way
. This further aggravated him and he was becoming conscious of the fact that it was showing in his voice.

“Well, how do I get to Hilltroder Lane?”

The halfling squinted his eyes arrogantly and smirked, “ It's easy enough, surely a big folk like you can figure it out. Just go left to the end of this street and turn right. Count three alleys and turn down the fourth. Take the elevator down one level at the Gorge, then you'll be on Hilltroder Lane.”

Sawain nodded, feeling overwhelmed by the instructions. Instead of continuing this pleasant conversation with this friendly halfling, Sawain cut off the chat and started to the left. He paused and ran back to Tilly's door, locking it from the inside before closing it.

He followed the halfling's instructions to head to the left end of the street, ignoring the amazed and shocked stares of the passersby, all halflings. The street went along for a quarter of a mile in this direction, curving gently to the left as he walked on. He turned right at the end and counted three alleys on either side of him. When he got to the fourth, it was another double alley, one on each side of the street. He was irritated that the halfling's information was incomplete, but he took the left one on a hunch.

He stepped out of the alley on the other side and was dumbstruck at what he saw next. A massive gorge extended out before him. It was around three hundred feet wide and stretched as far as he could see to the left and the right. There was a complex series of cables that stretched across the gulf at different intervals. He watched as suspended trolleys made their way slowly from one end of the gulf to the other, stopping at respective stations built into the walls of the gorge. There were at least three dozen of these trolleys that he could see traveling along the vast steel web. He also noticed cable systems that spanned the height of the gorge's walls. Similar trolleys climbed up and down these cables, stopping at different times in stations that lined one of the varying streets that were carved into the rock itself.

Sawain walked to the edge of the street he was on and leaned over the fence that was little more than railing for him. The gorge was so deep that he could not see its bottom. This stirred a feeling of sickness in his head, so he pulled back and stopped looking. He took a moment to recompose himself before looking for the thing the halfling called an elevator. He remembered that the halfling said to go down, so he assumed that the trolleys going up and down the walls were elevators.

He looked to his right and saw a wooden platform that extended out past the street, over the gorge. It had two steel cables, fifteen feet apart and about five feet away from it that ran vertically. He strolled over to the platform and read a sign above it.

ELEVATOR TO HILLTRODER DOWN – GREENTON UP

Sawain was elated to find himself in the right place. An attendant stood on the platform. He was wearing blue cotton trousers and a matching jacket. He and the small crowd waiting on the elevator received Sawain with the same courtesy he had come to expect from these depth dwellers. He sighed as he walked up to the wide-eyed attendant, whose mouth was hanging slightly open. Sawain waved and smiled as he addressed the attendant.

“Good morning, sir! I need to go down to Hilltroder Lane.”

The attendant shook his head a little as if just waking up, “Oh, er, right, well, I suppose you can fit in the elevator if you ride it alone. There will be one here shortly. If you will stand in line, you may board the next one after these fine people.”

There were three other halflings already waiting on the elevator. Sawain snorted and crossed his arms. He scowled as he got behind the group, who never spoke a word to him. A few minutes passed before the elevator going down arrived. The three waiting passengers boarded it quickly, as if they were unnerved by Sawain's presence. Sawain stepped forward, but felt a small hand on his knee that made him stop and look down. The attendant had grabbed onto Sawain's trousers and was staring up at him, pale as a ghost.

“Look here, lad,” His voice was rather shaky, “You're going to have to wait for the next one. I just don't want to risk overloading the trolley. They're not built for bigfolk, you know.”

Sawain scowled harder, squinting at the attendant, then looking at the trolley with the three halflings still on it, looking worried. Sawain sighed and decided not to cause a scene.

“Alright, fine. I'll wait. How long will it take?”

The attendant looked more relaxed as the color returned to his face, “Only a few minutes. There are multiple trolleys on each line that continuously circle the two lines. It really is a marvel of halfling ingenuity.”

Sawain could not shake the feeling that he was being advertised something as he listened. The attendant pulled a lever nearby that unlocked the brakes on the line. Shortly after, the trolley slowly climbed down the cable until it disappeared from view. The attendant pulled a golden disk from his pocket. The disk bulged out from the middle on either side, making a sort of clam shell shape, though it was more circular. The attendant pressed a button and it opened up. He watched it intently for a few seconds, then pulled the lever again.

Sawain was curious as to what he was doing, but he was afraid to ask, since he did not really feel like getting a lecture on some obscure feat of engineering. The attendant glanced at him, as if expecting to be asked. Sawain resisted the temptation. After the way he had been treated thus far today, he did not feel like giving the halfling the pleasure. Instead, he stood silently with his arms crossed and an irritated look on his features.

Several minutes passed before the next trolley down came to a halt at the platform. A group of halflings unloaded from the cart, each one stopping for a moment to stare at Sawain before remembering their manners and sheepishly scuffling away.

The attendant grinned, seeing Sawain's frustrated glare at the crowd, “You'll have to forgive them, sir. No one down here has seen a bigfolk in Underfell town in ages. You're a bit of a shock, especially to those who never go to the surface.”

Sawain blinked in confusion, “You mean there are some people down here that have never been to the surface? They're never seen the sun or felt a breeze or seen trees?”

The attendant chuckled, “Oh sure, they've seen trees and even sunlight in the Crystal Grove Gardens, but aye, it's a relatively uninteresting life we live down here. Everyone wakes up in a comfortable bed, goes on a nice walk to work every day, has three to six square meals every day, and goes back to sleep in their comfortable beds. That's the way things are down here.”

Sawain did not mind the sound of that lifestyle.

“What do you do if this place is ever attacked? Does the city not have an army?”

The attendant nodded, “Oh sure, we have an army. The Underfell Militia trains every day to stay sharp, just in case something bad does happen, but nothing ever does. This town is very well hidden from the bigfolk. There's all kinds of wards and enchantments keeping us hidden, you know.”

That knowledge did comfort Sawain. Maybe this place wouldn't be so bad of a place to stay, if it was not for that nagging feeling of having to save Anvilheim from utter destruction in the back of his mind. After processing the information, he nodded to the attendant.

“Right, good to know. Thanks for holding a trolley for me.”

The attendant returned the nod with a smile, “Any time, sir. Enjoy your stay in Underfell Town!”

Sawain strolled across the platform and stepped into the trolley. The ceiling was low, so he had to crouch again to get in. iron bars around the perimeter of the trolley made a sort of cage that kept anyone from falling out. There was no door, just a gate that Sawain shut himself and got away from.

The attendant saluted Sawain with a wave and pulled the lever. The trolley lurched and dropped down, faster than the one he watched earlier. He held on tightly to one of the bars until his knuckles turned white. He watched the stone wall rise farther above him as he dropped. A few seconds later, the trolley lurched again as the brake system caught it.