The Elf King (39 page)

“
Sewer,” Wix smiled, “is
the only place I know that most people won’t track you.”

“
It’s not men that track
us,” Prevost shot back.

“
Just get us out of here,”
Kamen growled, sending Wix a look that suggested he wish to harm
him in a way that he would not recover from.

Qenn noticed Wix take a
quick glance at the staff before turning them away. They followed
him up along a brick walkway next to the waste-current. Qenn was
having a hard time adjusting to the thick must in the air. He was
forced to breathe out of his mouth only, in short gasps. He could
feel Kandish very close behind him and wondered how she was
handling the new scenery. He wondered how often it was that Wix
made his way through the sewer.

Then he wondered if they
would notice if they were being followed or not. The rounded brick
tunnel was very dark, and the current next to them was loud enough
that they barely heard themselves walking. Someone following could
easily be upon them before they realized it.

A long while had passed,
and with that the group moved away from several more ladders and
manholes, each time Wix climbed to the top and moved the grate to
look around, only to come back down and lead them on again. He gave
excuses of burning wreckage, or too many dead bodies, but none of
it was convincing to anyone. Qenn began to think that maybe Wix had
no idea where they were. The look on Kamen’s face at one point
seemed that he shared Qenn’s thoughts. But after moving through
countless corridors for what seemed like hours, Wix found the exit
he was looking for. As he climbed out, he left the manhole open and
urged the rest of them to join him, helping each of them out by
hand.

Until Qenn.

As Qenn reached the top, he
saw Wix smile, watched his beady eyes shift from his own down to
the staff. Wix leaned down, keeping his gestures subtle, keeping
his voice carefully low. “Give me the staff first, elf.”

Qenn lowered himself
slightly, moving the staff further away. “Move out of the way,
Wix.”

“
The staff,” he whispered
again. Wix looked around, making sure the others were not paying
close attention. His desperate eyes turned hard, angry. He reached
down towards Qenn. “Give it to me.”

Qenn shook his head. Wix’s
face turned sour. But before anything could happen, Qenn saw
Kamen’s sword tip finding Wix’s throat again. Wix backed up slowly,
saying how he was merely trying to help. Kandish nudged Wix aside
in an unfriendly manner as she moved to help Qenn.

“
Give me a reason why I
shouldn’t bleed you and toss you down that hole,” Kamen grunted to
Wix. Qenn stood next to Kandish, wishing Kamen would toss him down
into the sewer.

“
I’m trying to help you. No
one else could have brought you here. You certainly could not have
managed by yourselves. But I did it. I know the way of the
city.”

Wix moved away from them.
“Look. There’s your bridge.”

Everyone turned to look
where Wix was pointing, except for Kandish. She glared at Wix and
did not turn away, causing him to feel threatened enough so that he
began walking towards the bridge. Kamen led the others, walking
towards the bridge at the end of the street, almost two blocks
away. A few times Wix turned to stare at the staff, only to find
Kandish still glaring at him as she walked beside Qenn. Once at the
bridge, they paused to stare at it. It was huge, made of steel and
iron, with huge cables running from the base to the top arching
framework. The bottom was made up of steel grates, the water of the
Spira seen flowing beneath.

“
Wait. Look.” Kandish
pointed further ahead. A large section of the bridge was missing.
It had been destroyed beyond repair. Long cables and massive beams
were strewn everywhere.

“
It’s impassible.” Qenn
sighed.

Kamen either didn’t hear
him, or simply didn’t care. He kept walking, moving across the
bridge, staring ahead to the missing section. The others followed,
saying nothing. When they came to the gap, it was nearly fifty feet
across, at the center of the bridge, the highest point. The river
was a hundred yards below them, land a few hundred ahead. Kamen
mumbled to himself for a few minutes. He was angry. He didn’t need
to speak for them all to know it.

“
I can find you a boat, if
you’d like.” Wix offered. No one replied.

Kamen looked around, then
ordered his men to grab a hold of one of the fallen support
trusses. “Drag it over here.”

As they did so, Kamen
walked to the very edge of the gap and began pulling up on one of
the cables dangling down to the Spira. As the last of it came into
his hands, he began untwining the frayed end. He told the others to
remove some of the rings in the truss, the ones that the cables
would have been attached to. It took them some time, but they did
so, removing one, then another. By the time they had the second one
off, Kamen and Prevost were pulling up another cable.

“
Bend the ends,” Kamen
ordered, showing them with his finger how the ring shaft should
look like. They found this to be a very uneasy task. They had no
tools to work with, nothing to pound the shaft with. Then Prevost
gave the idea of placing the ring into the grate and slamming the
iron truss against it. This worked. When they were finished, they
had made a hook.

Kamen took the ring and
tied it to one of the cables while Prevost worked on the other
cable. Within a matter of minutes, Kamen was throwing the cable and
hook across to the other section of the bridge, hearing it clank as
the hook became stuck in the grate.

“
Keep it close to the other
one.” Kamen showed Prevost where to try and place his cable, then
told the others to begin on dragging the giant truss closer to the
edge.

“
You’re going to bridge the
bridge?” Wix was astounded.

With Kamen guiding them,
the group pushed the truss across the cables, finding that it slid
fairly easy. And that it reached the other side.

“
Who’s going to risk their
life first?” Wix all but laughed.

Kamen marched over to him
and breathed on his face. “Do you know the land west of
here?”

“
What if I do?”

“
Then you cross
first.”

“
What if I don’t?” Wix
didn’t like the first answer.

“
Then you go back to the
city.”

Qenn was hoping that Wix
would return back to the sewer. As he turned to see Kandish, he
made eye contact with one of Kamen’s men just as his head glowed
red and his body exploded.

“
T
akers
!”

At the start of the
bridge, a group of
Takers
began walking for them. Shrieks of terror
squealed from within their cowls, red eyes glowing, hands spitting
burning heat. The group wasted no time in testing out their
would-be bridge. They moved on it in a line, walking as fast as
they could safely, keeping balance above the cold water. Fire shot
past them in waves. A scream was heard seconds before the sound of
someone’s body exploding behind them.
Wix,
I hope
, Qenn thought, but never looked
back to find out.

Kamen and Prevost made it
safely onto the other side, helping others off the truss as they
reached them. As Qenn stepped onto the grates, he heard Kandish
behind him, and turned to see Wix bringing up the rear alone.
Instantly Kamen and Prevost began trying to lift the cables, but
the weight of the truss made it impossible. Still the demons
advanced.

“
Cut the cables!” Kamen
handed a long sword to Kandish and they took turns with Prevost
hacking away at the steel wires. It didn’t seem to be
working.

“
They’re coming!” Wix
yelped.

The
Takers
entered the would-be bridge,
moving slowly after one of them slipped and fell down into the
Spira. The group hacked harder and faster, cutting through one
strand at a time. The added weight on the truss only helped them.
As the demons reached center point, one of the cables snapped and
the truss tipped, tossing them aside seconds before the second
cable broke loose and the entire truss collapsed down with them.
The group stared for a second, then ran away into the
darkness.

Chapter 22

“
Y
ou need to watch your back
with Wix,” Kandish whispered to Qenn. She was close enough to smell
the sweat in his blonde hair. Her lips brushed against his ear by
accident, but he didn’t seem to mind. “He’ll take the staff the
first chance he gets. I don’t trust him.”

Qenn nodded. He turned his
head only slightly, just enough to make eye contact. He did not
want her to move any further away. He reached down and took one of
her hands into his own and squeezed it gently. He liked her
caring.

Hours had passed since the
group crossed the Spira, leaving the smoldering dead city behind
them. Kamen and Wix took the lead, Qenn and Kandish walked together
a few yards behind them, and Prevost trailed by himself. The night
was cloudy, darkness smothered the land around. They left the main
road and headed north on a narrow trail. The trail they walked on
now was becoming overgrown with weeds as they left the grass-bedded
fields and entered into a stretch of woods. They were in complete
darkness then and their pace slowed considerably. The group
tightened together, keeping within arm’s length as they stumbled
through almost blindly. The terrain became hilly, long slopes and
steep drops were choked by scrub bushes almost every step of the
way.

“
Do we have any water?” Wix
asked, doubling over to catch his breath. They had been walking for
so many hours now without rest that they decided a short one would
be permitted.

Resting in a small
clearing, the group passed around a canister of water. No one sat
down or even tried to sleep, they remained cautious of the woods
and anything that might be dwelling in it. They had been through
too much to let their guard down now. Even if one of them had
wanted to sleep, it would have gone unnoticed to Kamen Ode. Within
a few minutes, the big man was urging them to trudge forward once
more.

It was less than an hour
later that they reached the top of a bluff overlooking the land.
The group stood near the edge and admired the view. Dawn was
approaching at their backs, shedding light across the hills and
deep valleys plastered with green leafy trees, stretching for miles
in any direction.

“
You know the way to
Creatia?” Kamen asked Wix, looking for reassurance. The other
looked up from his slouched position and nodded, pointing to the
northwest.

“
The
LifeWaters
is where we need to go,” Kandish
corrected.

Wix’s face turned sour
instantly. He stood upright and faced the girl. Something had upset
him. “Well, which is it? Because they are two different places,
girl. One of you wants one thing, another of you wants something
else. Make up your minds.”

“
L
ifeWaters
.” Kandish didn’t back down from his rant. She was happy to
see that she had made him just as uncomfortable as he made her.
“This is where you need to take us.”

The anger in Wix’s eyes
intensified. “The way you are going leads to your deaths. You must
be mad! The so-called
LifeWaters
is forsaken. Entire tribes have gone there
looking for its magical waters, and none of them returned! And
beyond that, north through the stench-plagued swamps, you’ll find
nothing but wickedness and the darkness festering there!” He
stomped his feet in a fit, then yelled to himself, keeping his
voice bottled up. When he was finished, with everyone staring at
him in wonder, his face changed and he smiled. “And you want me to
guide you for nothing?”

“
You could die right now.”
Kamen growled at Wix, who shrank down to the earth. “But the choice
is yours. I don’t care either way.”

All eyes were on Wix. His
face turned red, but he held his tongue. Seconds later he was
answering with a smile. “Of course. Anything to help. You saved my
life, after all.”