House of Blades (The Traveler's Gate Trilogy) (22 page)

The shock of the impact carried Simon backwards, and he fell onto his tailbone. For a moment he froze, looking into the dying eyes of the eel-fish, which thrashed for only a moment in the throes of death. His heart slammed in his chest for a few minutes, but his first coherent thought was:
Oh, good. Dinner.

His second thought was that he should ready himself in case of another attack. So he did, springing to his feet and whipping his sword through the air to clear it of its burden. The corpse slid off easily, releasing a tangy smell halfway between fish guts and copper. Simon scanned the area but, seeing nothing, continued.

He remembered to scoop up the corpse of the creature before continuing.

Evidently he had almost reached the end of the tunnel, because moments later the ground began to flatten out. A few minutes after that, the tunnel opened, and he began to see the true face of Orgrith Cave.

It was, as he had feared, enormous. The cavern roof was so far above him that he would almost believe it scraped the sky. It was as though someone had hollowed out a mountain and dropped him inside it. It was far bigger, in fact, than the dome above the Cave entrance, and that confused him for a moment before he realized that he had to be far below and away from that structure.

The open space stretched farther than he could see; infinitely, as far as he could tell, in any direction but behind him. The tunnel through which he came was the only opening in a miles-long wall, flat and massive.

The cavern roof was supported by hundreds if not thousands of stone columns, seemingly formed naturally rather than carved, and so thick around the base that he didn’t think he and five others his height could encircle them with their arms. At least he could see; the pillars were ringed with spirals of glowing green mushrooms that shed an acid-green light over everything in the cave, in most places much brighter than the light in the tunnel

Patches of the glowing blue moss were splashed across the ceiling and walls, and in places mushrooms grew big enough to shelter an entire family under their caps. The underbellies of these huge caps, as well, shed an eerie green radiance. From the ceiling and some of the pillars hung chunks of crystal that shone with a violet light. The overall effect of the clashing lights—blue, green, and purple—was eerie and otherworldly. For some reason, it made him feel cold.

There was plenty of light, but some of the things that light revealed churned his stomach. A worm as fat as a cow, seemingly made of strung-together chunks of boulder, slid across the ground, dipping into the floor inside what was presumably a hidden tunnel. A four-armed crab with a shell that reflected the light like a mirror piled some stones up into an irregular pile, at least until it was suddenly seized and eaten by another eel-fish leaping up from the floor. It let out a piercing cry as the fanged creature bit into its soft underbelly.

Something he could barely see scuttled along the far wall, and he heard motion on the wall behind him. He saw nothing, but something sounded like a dog’s claws scrabbling on rock.

This isn’t any worse than the House. It can’t be. Not
everything
here wants to kill me. Not that everything there did either, now that I think about it. And at least I know how things work there. And at least I could have a clean bed, and regular meals, as long as—

He shook off those thoughts. They wouldn’t be helpful here. Taking a deep breath like he was about to leap into an icy pool, he stepped into the huge cavern.

And none too soon. Just as he cleared the tunnel, he heard a monstrous scraping behind him, like rock sliding across stone. He flattened himself against the wall to the side of the tunnel wall, waiting. Had the cave itself collapsed? Maybe some kind of rock slide?

Foolish hopes, he knew, but he clung to them anyway before he saw the huge rock worm slide out of the tunnel like a maggot through a rotting fruit. It paused for a moment, eerily silent, lifting its boulder-head and waving it into the air, before it continued sliding forward and was lost in the forest of giant columns.

He let out a breath and loosened a white-knuckled grip on his sword. Maybe he should summon the skeleton’s power now, just in case. And maybe the Nye essence too, for good measure. Except he didn’t want to be in the middle of trouble when they ran out. He touched the cold silver power in his mind, resolving to reach for it as soon as he noticed anything else out of the ordinary.

Out of the ordinary like the high-pitched scream that sliced through the sounds of the cave. His first thought was that it must be some kind of death-scream from one of the cave’s monsters, but his mind refused to interpret the sound as anything other than what it was: the terrified cry of a human girl.

Liquid steel surged through his veins before he realized he had decided to check it out. He repeated the process with a deep breath of essence from Valinhall. Then, with icy energy filling him till he felt his skin was ready to burst, he took off. The columns blurred around him as he left them behind, passing the clawed silhouettes of things that probably belonged in nightmares.

He had begun to wonder if he had run too fast and should double back when a scream came again, this time mixed with a terrified sob. It was coming from his left.

He turned to the side as soon as he recognized the direction, but he had never before tried to turn so quickly while moving at his enhanced speed. His own momentum flung him into the air, and he barely twisted to get his feet under him before he was dashed against a stone pillar. He landed with his feet against the pillar and immediately kicked off, shooting in the direction of the cries. The air tore against the corners of his eyes till he could barely see through the tears, and he couldn’t get a full breath of air.

At this speed he couldn’t see details, and he didn’t have time to think. As soon as he saw a splash of color—a yellow light, he thought, next to something red—pressed back against the wall by a monstrous gray shape, he simply reacted. He swept his blade down in an arc, felt it bite something and pass through, then he was past, hurtling towards the floor.

It was even harder getting his feet under him this time, but he barely managed to do so, slamming to the floor in a hard crouch. Only the steel running through him, strengthening his muscles, his bones, kept him from crushing himself on the rocks. Only the spirit of the Nye gave him the reaction to land, the grace to keep from rolling head-over-heels into the wall.
 

As it was, his landing used up the last of Benson’s steel, though his essence lingered. Weakness gripped his muscles, and his sword suddenly felt ten pounds heavier. He looked up from his crouch, hoping desperately that he had not been too late.

Two children—a boy and a girl—cowered against the wall, holding a flickering lantern between them. The splotches of red he had seen were the girl’s skirt and the boy’s jacket; not blood, he was relieved to see. A skeletal monstrosity loomed over them, something like a praying mantis but covered in rock-plated armor.

It stood there for a moment as though it was about to crash down on them, impaling them on its forearms. Then its head slid slowly off its body and drifted to the floor.

Simon released the Nye essence, letting it flow back into his Territory. The world resumed normal speed, and the head slammed to the floor as if it weighed five hundred pounds. The rest of the body crumbled after.

A trembling ran through Simon’s body after the power left him. He shook with relief and with delayed fear, as if he had run blindfolded along the edge of a cliff and only afterwards realized the danger. His breath came in shallow gasps, and he shuddered. One lapse in judgment and he might have crushed himself against the cave wall.

The children’s screams faded uncertainly to whimpers. As one, their heads turned to take in Simon, crouched a handful of paces away with his sword still bare. He must have scared them. They looked like they were trying to decide whether or not to run.

“Don’t worry, I’m here to help you.” Now that he got a closer look at them, they were clearly brother and sister. They each had the same dark skin and light hair, a combination that until now he had only seen on Alin.

“That was amazing,” the girl said. She was perhaps twelve years old and over a foot taller than her brother, so Simon took her for the older, even though the boy stood protectively in front of her. His jaw still sat half-open, and Simon wasn’t sure if he looked more awed or terrified.

Something else skittered in the darkness, and the girl held the lantern out. A segmented insect claw pulled back from the light into the shadows.

“Could you light that lantern again, if you had to?” Simon asked. She nodded. “Then put it out. Follow me; both of you hang on to my shirt.”

Obediently, the girl blew out the light in the lantern and grabbed onto his right sleeve. Her presence would be a nuisance if he had to fight, but any move he made with the sword would shake her off anyway, so he decided to say nothing.

Experimentally, he reached out with his mind of the Nye essence. Nothing yet. He knew from experience that it would take a minute or two for the moonlit mist to begin replacing itself, and a little longer for the steel. He would be completely vulnerable for the next few minutes, and wouldn’t be back to full power for almost half an hour afterwards.

He set off at first for the entrance tunnel, hushing the children if either of them tried to say anything. Not that they did speak very often. The dim lighting and the scuttling shapes in the shadows tended to strangle conversation.

As soon as the entrance tunnel came into view, Simon realized he was going to have to re-think his plan. One of the huge boulder-worms lay coiled up around the entrance, plates of its rocky armor shattered and cracked, exposing pale flesh. Dozens of the luminescent eel-fish he had seen earlier leapt from ripples in the stone, crawling all over the gargantuan corpse, tearing away chunks of meat.

Most of the body was piled up at the entrance of the tunnel, but the tip of the tail was out of view. As Simon watched, something tugged the giant worm back up the tunnel. He couldn’t get a glimpse of whatever was pulling on the boulder-worm’s tail, but it had to have been huge to shift the monster’s massive bulk. The fanged eels barely noticed, but continued to feed.

One of the children made a sort of gasping sound behind him, as though they wanted to cry but were afraid to make more noise. Simon could relate; terror hovered around him, not touching him yet, but making its presence known. He was trapped in this cave. Trapped.

Simon turned and looked into the faces of the two children. No matter what happened to him, he needed to get them out.

They walked in silence until they had left the noises of feeding monsters far behind, returning to the spot where he had killed the huge mantis creature. There was a crack in the wall nearby, highlighted by glowing blue moss, that might be big enough to shelter all of them. Maybe. They needed a place to rest and talk, and they wouldn’t get it out here in the dark.

Simon eyed the entrance to the shelter for a moment. From here shadows shrouded the entrance; there was no way to tell how deep it was, or what waited inside. He summoned strength from Valinhall and ventured sword-first inside, hoping he could fight well enough in a crouch to keep him alive.

Fortunately, it was empty. Though not nearly high enough for him to stand upright, at least the space was a pace or two deep, and more than wide enough for the three of them to squeeze in and seal the entrance.

The last of the silver flowing through his veins was enough to let him fell one of the giant mushrooms in a single swipe. He severed the cap and pulled it over to the wall, sealing all three of them inside and providing light at the same time. It was like a giant glowing door.

When they were seated, the girl pulled a tinderbox from her pocket to light her lantern. The mushroom door was more than bright enough, but there was something eerie about the spectral blue cave-light. Still, practical considerations had to come first.

“Hold on,” Simon said. “We should save the lamp oil. Let’s not light the lantern until we really need it.”

“No problem,” the girl said. Then she looked at him expectantly, as if waiting for his next order. Simon shifted, uncomfortable. He had rarely spent time with children back in the village. Alin, he knew, would have said something comforting and taken care of the problem himself.

“My name is Simon,” he said. He used the soothing voice he had used on his mother when she might take off running or attack him with a frying pan. “Don’t worry; I’m here to help.”

“I know,” the girl declared. “I bet Mother and Father sent you down here. I’m right, aren’t I?” Her eyes twinkled as if she were ready to tell a joke, or hear one.
 

Her younger brother breathed, “I’ve never seen anybody move so fast. Are you an Overlord?”

The girl hit him. “The Overlords wouldn’t come down here looking for us. They’re too busy.”

The boy glared at her. “They could. You don’t know.”

Simon raised his hands to quiet them. He felt a flash of irritation at being taken for one of the Overlords, but it was quickly suppressed. They were just children, after all. “I’m not an Overlord.” He couldn’t quite keep a sneer out of that last word. “What are your names?”

The girl rose up to her knees and mimicked a curtsy, smirking like she was playing a prank. “I am the Lady Andra Agnos, at your service. Thirteen years old. This is my younger brother, Lycus. He has a mere ten years.”

“Are you really a lady?” Simon asked uncertainly. He had heard stories of the nobility, but he had no idea how he was supposed to behave around them. Did Damasca even have lords and ladies?

“Don’t you think I look the part?” She swirled her red wool skirt the way women back in the village would show off holiday dresses. The effect was marred somewhat by the fact that she was kneeling on the floor of a cave.

Lycus glared at his sister. “We are not noble. Our father is a free merchant for Malachi.”
 

Andra giggled. “But you believed it, didn’t you?”