Hunter's War (Legend of the Wild Hunter Book 4) (54 page)

They waited until nightfall, before setting off across the wastelands to where they hoped the entrance to the aqueduct was located. Kile led the way, followed closely by Daniel and Carter. Tullner and Sandson filled in the middle of the line and Marcus followed up the rear. She led them based upon the fox’s map, until she was close enough to smell the tainted water.

She motioned for them to stop.

“It’s here,” she whispered, although, all she could see was more sand.

“There’s nothing here.” Carter said as he knelt down beside her.

“I know it’s here, I can smell it.”

Daniel knelt down and placed his hands on the ground. “It’s here, but it’s deep,” he said.

“Are you saying we have to excavate the wastelands to find the entrance?” Sandson asked. “That could take a while, like a couple of years.”

“I may be able to narrow it down,” Daniel replied.

He started to crawl along the ground with his hands in the sand, moving from left to right, trying to hone in on the water. He was doing his best scullery maid imitation when he suddenly stopped.

“It’s strongest along here,” he said, but the ground looked no different than any other patch of the wasteland.

“Now all we need is someone with an earth Edge,” Carter remarked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Daniel replied, brushing away the sand. “There appears to be some type of stone surface.”

The more sand, he cleared away, the more the area resembled a floor, or possibly a street, whatever it was, it was compiled of closely interlocking stones. Sandson and Tullner joined in, and within minutes, they managed to uncover an eight foot square section, although the actual surface extended much farther in all directions.

“Hold up guys.” Sandson called out. He slipped his long knife from his boot and began prying up one of the loose pavers. It took him a few minutes to work the blade around the edges, but when it finally came free, it created a small hole in the ground, no more than five inches in diameter.

“Oh great, at this rate, we should be in there by Hob’s day.” Marcus commented from where he was sitting.

Tullner was unimpressed as he looked down the hole. “I don’t suppose any of you Hunters can shrink yourselves down to fit?” he asked.

“It’s too bad we didn’t bring Alex along after all.” Carter remarked.

“Even he couldn’t fit through that, but I know someone who can.” Kile said. She was looking directly at Marcus.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, girl! There is no way I can fit down there.”

“No, but your purse can.”

“What are you on to?”

“Just hand it over.”

“Great, I’m being mugged out in the wastelands.” Marcus said as he unfastened the purse on his belt. He made sure to dump the contents into another pouch before handing it to Kile.

“What do you say, Vesper, you want to go for a ride?”

-Me look?-

The yarrow replied.

“I get it.” Sandson said, and quickly produced a small ball of twine from his pack.

“Will he be able to see anything down there?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know, it is a bit dark, but he’s been in darker places,” Kile replied.

“I can take care of that as well.” Sandson said, and started rummaging through his pack again. He pulled out the small vial of liquid kindling, and then tore off a strip of his cloak. “Get me some brush from that shrub over there, will ya?”

Carter cut off a few branches and Sandson wrapped the cloth around them. Pouring a couple drops of liquid kindling on the end, he quickly dropped the bundle into the darkness. As it fell, it ignited, and when it hit the ground, it lit up a small section of the stone floor.

“That should give us light for a little while.” He said, looking down into the hole “can’t really make out much, just a lot of darkness.”

Kile fastened the twine to the pull strings of the purse and made sure Vesper was comfortable.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” she told him.

-Help Kile, Kile family, help family.-

He said, and she knew the yarrow would do just about anything he could to help her. He had proven that many times.

“Good, now just stay in the pouch and don’t move around too much. Just see what you can see,”

-Me see.-

Daniel carefully lowered the pouch into the hole while Kile closed her eyes and fell into her Edge. It didn’t take her long to connect with Vesper, it never did, and she was soon seeing through his eyes.

The hole was narrow at first, and all she could see was a wall of dirt. As she descended further, the world suddenly opened up around her and she felt as if she was suspended over the dark pit from her nightmares. She was afraid to look down, for fear of seeing those yellow eyes staring back up at her, but all she could see was Sandson’s small fire burning far below. When her eyes, or Vesper’s eyes, adjusted to the darkness, she was able to make out distant shapes. The aqueduct was just as Rowd remembered it: a long dark tunnel. It stretched far to the east, farther than her vision would allow. Great arches held up a barreled ceiling of the same interlocking stone as the street above, and the floor had a channel cut down the center, where the tainted water flowed. She didn’t have to taste it to know it was undrinkable. The smell alone was enough. There was one thing she couldn’t deny. This was not the work of the Alva.

While she swung and twisted on her rope, something behind her caught her eye.

“Daniel, can you turn the rope a bit?”

As Daniel twisted the rope, she slowly began to spin, and that’s when she saw it.

“Over there.” She said, pointing to a place just behind Marcus.

Carter ran over and quickly began brushing away the sand. Tullner and Sandson helped. Marcus watched.

“There’s something here.” Tullner shouted.

“Daniel, pull me up.” Kile said.

As she started to ascend, she held her breath when she passed through the narrow hole and only released it when Vesper was finally out. Daniel removed Vesper from the purse and handed him to Kile.

-Did good?-

The yarrow asked.

“You were wonderful,” she replied. She placed Vesper on her shoulder and followed Daniel to where the others were gathered. What they found was a metal plate, perfectly fitted into the stone street.

“What do you make of it?” Tullner asked Sandson, who was already inspected it.

“It looks like a hatch of some kind.” he replied.

“Made out of metal?”

“I think there might be a ladder leading up to it.” Kile said, kneeling down beside Sandson. She helped him brush the rest of the sand away.

“This looks like the release.” Sandson said, and after a few moments, and a few failed tries, there was an audible click. The metal plate jumped.

Tullner and Carter opened the hatch, which revealed a perfectly circular stone tube. Rungs of a ladder were embedded into the side of the rock wall leading down into the darkness. Sandson produced a small hooded lantern from his pack, one of the many things he had acquired from Treesand, and handed it to Tullner, who was the first to descend into the aqueduct. When he called back to give them the all clear, they proceeded down, one after the other.

The tunnel was not nearly as impressive as when Kile saw it through Vesper’s eyes. Although it was still a remarkable feat of architecture, it was much smaller than she thought. It was only ten feet wide, and with the channel cut down the center, for the water, it left them three feet on either side to walk. Even the height was nowhere near what she thought. At its highest point, it was probably only about eight feet.

“I thought it would be bigger.” Daniel said, echoing her thoughts.

“Bigger than the last tunnel I had to crawl through to break into a place,” she replied.

“And where was that?” Sandson asked.

“Windfoil.”

“What? Are you saying you broke into Windfoil?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t that big of a deal,” she said, passing him on the narrow ledge.

Walking single file, they headed east, or as east as the tunnel would lead them. They had no idea how far into the stone city they traveled, or if they were even heading in the right direction. They were traveling blind, but it was the only direction they could go. When it looked as if the tunnel was going to go on forever, Tullner spotted another set of rungs.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“We’ll have to go up sometime.” Sandson said as he started up the ladder. It didn’t take him nearly as long to release the hatch from this side, and the metal door seemed to be lighter, or better balanced, than the last one. He pushed it open just enough to get an idea of where he was, and then let it close behind him as he climbed back down.

“Well, the good news is, we are in the city,” he said.

“And the bad news,” Tullner asked.

“We aren’t actually near the building we want.”

“I didn’t really think we were going to come up inside it. That would be too much to hope for.” Tullner replied. “How far are we away from where we need to be?”

“We’re not that far, but there are a few valrik we might have to deal with. Like the one standing about three feet from the hatch.”

“Yeah, that could be a problem.” Daniel added.

“Is there only one?” Carter asked.

“As far as I can see. I didn’t dare open the hatch any farther.”

“Not a problem then. I’ll take care of him,” he replied and started up the ladder.

Carter was gone before he even reached the top of the ladder, as he slowly faded from sight. The metal hatch opened by itself, just wide enough for someone to crawl through, and then it closed. They waited nervously, trying to listen for any noise above them, but could hear nothing over the babbling of the water. It felt like an eternity, until the hatch opened again, and a dead valrik fell through. He bounced off the walkway with a thud, rolled into the water and was carried away

“Come on.” Carter whispered.

They went up in the same order they went down. Tullner first, followed by Sandson, Kile, Daniel and finally Marcus.

When they reached the surface they were standing in what used to be a room, although there were only two walls left of the original structure. What purpose the room served, there was no way of telling. Any furniture or identifying features were long gone. Only small bits of discarded wood gave any indication there was any furniture to begin with. One of the remaining walls had an opening where a door once hung. Now it was open to the street. From here they had a perfect view of the Uhyre camp, only ten feet away.

It was hard to say how many valrik were garrisoned in the stone city, but from their vantage point they could make out about three-dozen. They didn’t appear to be preparing for battle, or even guarding anything for that matter. They were just going about their lives, unfazed by the war along the border. Kile started to wonder if the valrik were any different than the vir, in that neither race truly wanted to go to war.

They exited the room through the gaping hole in the back wall, and silently moved around the perimeter of the camp until they reached another building. This one must have been a shop or store as there were still sections of wooden shelves lining the walls. From here they could clearly see their building they needed to reach. It wasn’t difficult to identify because it was the largest in their general area and the only one with guards posted on the door.

“Any ideas?” Tullner asked.

“I’m assuming a frontal assault is out of the questions.” Sandson replied.

“We can go up and over.” Kile suggested.

“Unless one of you Hunters can fly, I don’t think that’s an option.”

“Not fly, jump,” she replied. “See the tower next to the building. If we can reach it, and get to the second or third floor, we may be able to get onto the roof. If not, at least we’ll get a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”

“Better than staring at it from afar,” Sandson added.

“It’s not like we have much of a choice.” Tullner replied. “Alright, we make for the tower. Keep low and keep quiet,” he said and ducked out the back door.

The lack of security was staggering. The valrik either didn’t care what was in their secured building, or they didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to come all the way across the wastelands to break into it. The closest they came to being spotted was when they stumbled upon a valrik relieving himself. Fortunately he was too busy with the task at hand and didn’t even notice them. They waited until he was finished, and when he staggered back to camp, they quickly skirted the alley and made for the back of the tower. It was easy enough to break in, since there was no windows in the windows, just large holes in the side of the wall.

Like every other structure they passed through, the tower was completely empty. Age removed all the details of the city and the sand filled in the spaces left behind. Whoever the architects were, they were long gone and long forgotten. Getting higher than the secured building was a lot simpler than they thought, as the staircase was made of stone, or it was for the first four floors, after that there was nothing. No floors, no ceilings, no roof, it was just a tall chimney, extending upward fifty feet and open to the sky.

When they reached the fourth floor, they were able to get a decent look at the stone city. It was much larger than it first appeared, although most of it was still buried in the sand. The valrik had set up camps in six different locations, pitching tents throughout the streets. There were only a few buildings which looked to be habitable, and the light spilling out of the windows revealed they were being used.

Daniel stepped back from the edge. “Do you think Eric’s down there?” he asked,

“He could be.” Carter replied.

“That’s not our concern at the moment,” Tullner said. He was looking down at neighboring building. The distance was much greater than they had anticipated. “We need to find a way over there.”

“Zip line.” Sandson shouted.

Tullner turned and looked at him.

“You know, you string a rope, one side higher than the other, and you slide down it.”

“I’m aware of what a zip line is,” Tullner replied. “But, don’t you need to secure the other end.”