Swords Against the Shadowland (Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar) (22 page)

The sound chilled the Mouser's soul. He grew quiet as he eyed those cold, iron-barred doors, imagining the half-starved and tormented humans shut behind them. Suddenly he felt the pain in his bruised ribs again, the cuts and lacerations on his face, all the places where Rokkarsh's soldiers had punched and kicked and beaten him.

His guards dragged him into another chamber. More locked cells, barely perceived shuffling behind the bolted doors— someone pacing mindlessly. Rats, licking at the slime on the floor, scuttled out of the way, squeaking in protest. Here stood instruments of torture. Chains, racks, strappados, thumbscrews and ankle-vices, other devices unidentifiable even to the Mouser.

The next chamber contained only one device, a wooden platform with manacles for arms and legs. The Mouser's eyes widened in fear. He lunged against one of his guards, knocking him sideways, and turned to make a desperate escape. A huge hand caught his long hair, halting him painfully, and a meaty fist slammed against the side of his face. The Mouser hit the floor hard, his vision full of a red haze and bright pinpoints of light like a bloody sky burning with stars.

He felt himself lifted, placed on the platform. Manacles snapped around his ankles, then a knife swiftly cut his ropes. Forced down upon his back, cold iron bracelets clamped around his wrists. One of the giants laughed now, a harsh and ugly sound. From above the other guard fitted a leather strap under the Mouser's chin and jerked it tight, forcing the Mouser's head back until it nearly cut off his breath, and the muscles of his throat stood out with the tension.

The Mouser stared upward, terror gripping his heart. What a devilish device, to force the victim to witness the descent of the blade that meant his own execution. The largest of the giants stepped close, chuckling low as he regarded his helpless captive, an ugly sound from a tongueless mouth. He raised the axe in his two hands, chest swelling, muscles tensing, and swung it down.

Despite himself, the Mouser screamed.

A scant inch from the Mouser's throat, the axeman checked his swing. Looking to his partner, he chuckled again. The second guard ripped a piece of string from the hem of his loincloth and measured the distance from the Mouser's Adam's apple to the edge of the axe. Marking the string with his thumb, he handed it to the first guard and, taking up his own axe, moved into killing position.

Though he bit his lip, swearing not to give them the pleasure of a second scream, the Mouser nevertheless cried out as gleaming death hurtled down upon his offered throat.

Again, the axeman checked his swing, and his partner measured an even shorter distance with the piece of string. Swallowing, the Mouser could just feel the sharp metal edge brushing his skin. Grumbling, the first guard took up his axe again.

A movement near the chamber entrance caught the Mouser's attention. A black-cloaked figure swept into the room, its features concealed beneath a hood. A long-bladed sword arced high and whistled down upon the first guard's unprotected neck. A spray of hot blood fountained into the air.

"Fafhrd!" the Mouser croaked, straining at his manacles, twisting his head as far as the strap beneath his chin allowed.

The figure made no answer. Knocking the corpse of the first guard aside before it could fall, his rescuer leaped upon the platform, nearly putting a boot in the Mouser's stomach as he swung his sword again. The second guard ducked and tried to swing his axe. Before he could lift it, a bolt sprouted from his left eye.

Surprised, the Mouser strained to twist his head again. Another cloaked figure stood in the doorway, a crossbow still braced against one shoulder. "You're not Fafhrd!" he said, rolling his eyes toward his nearer savior.

A gloved hand pushed back a concealing hood. Nuulpha grinned, his face flush with excitement. "Want me to leave?" he said.

  
The Mouser did his best to shrug. "As long as you're here ..."

Nuulpha's partner found a ring of keys on a peg near the entrance and tossed them. "Hurry!" the second figure insisted, shooting a nervous glance back over one shoulder.

Nuulpha fumbled with the keys, trying one after another in the manacles until he found one that fit the locks. Freed, the Mouser sat up, and with Nuulpha's help, stood.

"Aarth!" Nuulpha muttered. "Your face . . .!"

The Mouser touched his right cheek and winced. His right eye was nearly swollen shut, too. His whole face felt like overripe fruit. "You're not so pretty, yourself," he said, forcing a grin. Then he shook his head. "No, forget that. Right now, you're the prettiest thing I've ever seen."

"Kiss him later," hissed the figure guarding the doorway as it loaded a new bolt on the string. "Let's get out of here."

"Can you walk?" Nuulpha asked.

The Mouser nodded, relaxing his steadying grip on Nuulpha's arm. "If you don't particularly mind, I'd rather run. This damp environment is bad for my complexion."

"Walk or run. Just be prepared to fight," said the second figure, in a harsh whisper. Sweeping back one side of a cloak, a slender arm tossed a bundle toward the Mouser.

"Scalpel!" the Mouser exclaimed, as he unrolled his gray cloak and found his weapons. "Catsclaw!"

Nuulpha took the Mouser's arm again and steered him into the next chamber with an urgency. "When I heard someone had tried to break into the forbidden tower on Nun Street," Nuulpha whispered as they hurried through the dungeon, "I knew it was you. At the North Barracks I found your weapons and learned that Rokkarsh, himself, had demanded to see you."

A body sprawled in the corridor, blood oozing slowly from one ear to pool on the slimy floor. From the leather apron and the keyring at its side, the Mouser guessed Nuulpha had jumped the jailor.

Glancing at that keyring the Mouser asked, "Is there time to open some of these cells?"

"No!" said Nuulpha's partner, who prowled the corridor ahead as an advance scout. "Now shut up—before we're all caught!" Reaching the bottom of the staircase, the partner ignored the steps and instead ducked into the shadows below the stone cascade.

The sound of well-oiled gears turning shivered faintly through the air, followed by a barely audible scraping. A gleam of light drew a line near the floor, illuminating the partner's boots, then calves, knees, and thighs as it widened. A door, hidden beneath the stairs, rose. Just beyond its threshold, a lantern, suspended on a peg, limned Nuulpha's partner with a golden radiance.

With concealment no longer an advantage, the partner pushed back the concealing hood and shook free a curly mass of black hair before seizing the lantern and beckoning them onward.

The Mouser gaped, taking a full instant to realize through the surrounding light, that the face before him belonged to a young woman. Before he could say anything, she turned away and hurried down a narrow, stone-lined tunnel whose ceiling hung so low it nearly brushed her head.

Stepping into the tunnel, Nuulpha leaned on an iron lever embedded in the dusty floor. A narrow panel, seemingly made of thinly sliced granite, dropped into place with a clinking of chains. But for the lantern's light, which was moving ever farther up the tunnel, darkness ruled.

Crouching to avoid banging his head in the low passage, Nuulpha touched the Mouser's arm and urged him after the light. The Mouser, quickly as his aching muscles and injuries allowed, chased after that singular glow with his friend and rescuer close on his heels. As he went, he strapped on his weapons and tossed his light cloak over his shoulders, feeling a little better in familiar accoutrements.

"What is the lady's name?" the Mouser whispered over his shoulder as they strove to overtake Nuulpha's swiftly moving partner.

"Jesane is a lot of things," Nuulpha answered, "but she's no lady."

"Even better," the Mouser said with a grin. "Women with crossbows excite me. I've got a quarrel I'd like to fit to her string."

"You'll have more than a quarrel if she overhears you," Nuulpha warned, nudging him along. "Limp faster."

A narrow, stone-lined archway marked another passage that abruptly forked off to the right. Slowing his step, the Mouser stared into impenetrable darkness and repressed a shiver. Though he could not say how, he felt sure that something unseen not so far down that tunnel stared back at him, a malevolence so cold and ancient that he perceived it on a level deeper and more primitive than any of his five senses.

Humor deserted him. He hurried on until he stood at last in the umbra of Jesane's lantern, and when he spoke again, he kept his voice to the barest of whispers for fear of disturbing things best left undisturbed. "No rats," he muttered, eyeing the tunnel floor. In a place like this there should be hundreds of rats, thousands of rats. A queer urgency crept into his words. "Where are the rats?"

Neither Nuulpha, nor Jesane, answered, but in the lantern's yellow glow the Mouser caught the look on the soldier's face. He noted the grip Nuulpha kept on his sword and the manner in which Jesane held her cocked crossbow ready.

Swallowing nervously, he put a hand on his own slender sword and loosened it in its sheath. The walls seemed closer than ever, and he felt the weight of earth and rock above him as surely as if it rested on his shoulders.

Another archway and another darkness-filled passage branched off to the left. Only a few paces beyond that, yet another passage offered itself. Jesane led them under its low arch, and they soft-footed in a new direction. The lantern seemed a tiny shield against the overpowering blackness, and the Mouser found himself praying someone had remembered to fill its reservoir. The thought of getting lost down here. . . .

They turned into yet another tunnel, and the floor turned slick with slime, then muddy.

Without warning, the darkness burst with a glittering and glimmering. Neat pinpoints and jagged shimmering streaks of brilliance flared to sudden life. Jesane lifted the lantern higher as the Mouser caught his breath.

They walked no longer in a man-made tunnel, but in a natural cavern whose roof dripped spectacularly with stalactites. Bits of quartz and mica embedded in the formations, in the walls and roof, caught and scattered the lantern's glow, creating an eerie and awesome display.

"The underworld of Lankhmar," Nuulpha whispered. "A honeycomb of man-made tunnels, natural caves, and deep caverns. A secret closely guarded by the Overlord and the Great Noble Families with the cooperation of the high priests of certain powerful religions."

Instinctively the Mouser softened his step, and his gaze searched the shadows and gloom-filled crannies, the upper reaches, and the unyielding darkness beyond the reach of Jesane's small light. Such horrible, mysterious grandeur! Putting out a hand, he dragged his fingertips over the rough limestone surface and the jagged point of a stalagmite that rose as high as his waist. An overwhelming sense of age shivered through him.

Letting go of the stalagmite, he gazed upward again and imagined himself in a stygian mouth, between powerful jaws, monstrous teeth about to crush out his life.

Jesane moved ahead quickly, and Nuulpha, glancing back the way they had come, again put a hand on the Mouser's shoulder and urged him onward. Once more the Mouser caught the narrow, worried look in his friend's eyes; he perceived the way Nuulpha listened as if to the very darkness and the tension revealed by the grip that never eased on the hilt of his soldier's sword.

Quickening his pace, the Mouser turned his eyes from the beauty the cavern offered. Beauty sometimes made tender bait for deadly traps, and every attitude of Jesane and Nuulpha suggested danger lurked near. He resolved, not just to follow Jesane's light, but to stay within its wavering, yellow circle.

Their journey through the cavern ended abruptly when the lantern's light fell upon another man-made archway cut into the limestone wall. Upon one rough-hewn stone block a queer symbol stood out in a faded, ancient black paint—a crude, leering face with a crescent moon above its brow, a dagger beside its right cheek, a bone beside its left, and a pentagram below.

Without knowing its meaning, the Mouser recognized it for a darkly evil sign. "Where do all these tunnels lead?" he asked, following Jesane into the new passage. The thin smoke from her lantern rose and spread upon the low ceiling.

"To nearly every important edifice, public or private, in the city," she answered quietly without slackening her pace. "The Overlords built them originally as storeplaces during times of war and invasion, and as a means of moving unseen between the Rainbow Palace, the Citadel, the garrisons and the Royal Docks."

"Over the centuries the Great Families expanded the network, taking advantage of the natural caverns, until they had secret access to every public building, temple, even to the private estates of their enemies."

"The temples?" the Mouser said thoughtfully. "Even the Forbidden Towers?"

"No doubt," Nuulpha said.

"Of course," Jesane affirmed.

Nuulpha nodded. "She knows the network better than anyone."

The Mouser pursed his lips and thought of Fafhrd, a black anger filling his heart, mingling with fear and grief. "That explains how Rokkarsh's soldiers caught us off-guard. There was no other visible entrance save the window we used."

Jesane paused and turned suddenly, holding up a hand for silence as she peered into the darkness behind them. For a tense moment, all three listened, hands on their weapons. She lifted the lantern a bit higher, throwing its light back down the passage. Finally, her finger eased off the crossbow's trigger.