The Underground City (12 page)

Instead
of an empty pool of sewage, now we faced hundreds of damned souls who were wallowing in sewage that was up to their waists. Meanwhile, a ceaseless barrage of rain bled from the brick ceiling and showered everyone below with putrid sewer water in droplets the size of quarters. The damned souls beneath could only writhe and scream as if suffering excruciating agony from the rain above. The main focus of my attention, however, was centered on the three snarling “dogs” that were headed toward us.

“What
the hell are those?” Bill wailed out.

“With
his three gullets like a dog is barking over the people that are there submerged.”
– Dante’s
Inferno

SEVEN

“Demon dogs,” Tallis replied as he held his sword up in a defensive stance and pushed me directly behind him. Reminding myself of Tallis’s lessons again, I breathed in for a few counts, trying to calm my frantic heart and scan my surroundings.

Demon
water creature directly in front of Tallis
, I thought to myself.
Three demon dogs standing in front of the water creature and all seem lethal.
Glancing to my right and left, I realized there was no way to escape the cavernous room. I looked at the demon dogs again and figured Tallis would go for the largest one in front, leaving me to defend myself against the other two.
If the need arises, Lily, just retreat until your back is against the brick wall; then lash out at anything that approaches you with your sword,
I strategized. Tightening the grip on my sword, I breathed in slowly for another few counts, readying myself for the battle that was sure to ensue any minute.

The
demon water creature that had led us thus far faced the three demon dogs and held its watery, grey arms open wide. Even though I couldn’t hear its voice in my head, I believed it was imparting its message and warning them that we must be left alone per Alaire’s fiat. The two smaller demon dogs continued to snarl at us, but soon dropped behind the largest one that appeared to be the leader, and the one, which I supposed, was Cerberus.

It
stood on all fours and was maybe the size of a Great Dane, although much leaner. It didn’t have any ears that I could see, but its eyes glowed orange and its snout was long and very fierce looking. Its hideous mouth flashed enormous incisors. And its body was so thin, I could see every vertebra of its spine protruding from its back. It didn’t have any fur at all, but rather, a light purplish-colored skin that was darker in some spots than others. There were areas on its ribs where the skin was either missing or translucent, revealing the redness of its flesh and muscle, as well as its bones, which glowed yellow.

The
two demon dogs behind the larger one looked nothing like it. Both were smaller in stature and the one on the right had ears that stuck straight up from its head like a German shepherd. It was a greyish-brown color and its skin looked loose and pillowy, like it was wearing a bodysuit that was maybe two sizes too big. It also had no hair or fur, but its skin looked leathery, like an armadillo’s, and its snout was long, terminating into a triangular, black nose between two glowing red eyes. Its fangs were just as enormous on both its lower and upper jaws.

The
third demon dog looked least like a dog and more like a lizard. Its skin was a hide of scales that reflected all the colors of the rainbow, depending on how the low light of the cavern reflected off them. This creature also had sharply pointed ears and glowing eyes like the other smaller one, but its eyes were blue, not red. I could barely make out its nose because the scales were so prominent in its face that the lines of its nose just sort of faded away. Its mouth, however, was every bit as intimidating and sharp-fanged as its brethren.

The
largest of the demon dogs, which finally stopped snarling, now examined each of us with keen interest as it took a few paces forward, studying us with large, strange, glowing orange eyes.

“I
do not appreciate interruptions, Grashnelle,” the dog suddenly announced to the water creature who still stood in front of Tallis and me.

“You
can talk?” Bill cried out, sounding mildly amused. “Rad! I feel like we’re in a Disney movie!” I gave him a look, shaking my head as I wondered if he’d ever seen a Disney movie. Judging by the hideous creatures standing before us, which were anything but charming and lovable, I’d say no. Bill sighed and shrugged. “Well, a screwed-up Disney movie, but whatevs.”

The
dog glared at Bill, its glowing orange eyes adopting a deeper ginger hue. “And I definitely don’t appreciate angels in my territory,” it said with a snarl as it looked over at Grashnelle. I supposed that was the water creature’s name. Of course, Grashnelle didn’t say anything that was audible, and again, I figured he must’ve been conversing in thought, rather than speech, because there were long, silent pauses where no one said anything at all.

“I
don’t care what Alaire wants!” the demon dog suddenly barked out angrily, in response to whatever Grashnelle said, albeit silently. “He should have shown me the respect to inform me of this himself!” he continued. The dog’s voice was deep, gravelly, and very enraged. When it spoke, it vacillated between words and barks, as if it were speaking two different languages at the same time.

“We
dinnae want any trouble, Cerberus,” Tallis announced, his tone low, but hard as steel. The enormous demon dog looked at him and narrowed its eyes as its canine mouth lifted into a warped smile that instantly caused my stomach to turn on itself.

“I
know you well enough to know that isn’t the case, Bladesmith,” Cerberus responded, its eyes narrowing as soon as they rested on Tallis. A spark of recognition flashed through its gaze, and immediately, they seemed to cloud with anger. “Trouble always finds you, no matter how hard you try to avoid it.”

Tallis’s
posture went suddenly rigid and he tightened his grasp on his sword. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to—his body language conveyed that he was obviously bothered by Cerberus’s comment.

My
attention shifted to Grashnelle when the creature lifted its hands in the air almost in frustration. It was, presumably, still explaining to Cerberus that we had permission to do our business without threat of being harmed per Alaire’s orders. Cerberus just listened to the watery, grey creature while eyeing each of us skeptically. A low growl sounded from its mouth. Then it looked at Tallis again. “Bladesmith, as I seem to have little choice in the matter, I give you permission to retrieve your soul,” it spat out. Then, its lips peeled back into a snarl as it showed off multiple rows of sharp teeth. It glared at Tallis for another few seconds before the snarl vanished from its face. “I am not pleased to do so.”

“Cerberus,”
Tallis responded as he lowered his head slightly in what I imagined was his way of saying “thank you.” He resheathed his sword, turning to face me as he nodded, indicating that it was okay to put my sword away as well.

Cerberus
barked at his canine companions a few times before they turned around and padded back into the muck of sewage at the center of the room from which they’d emerged. Cerberus made no sign to retreat, but continued standing where he was, blocking our path to the sewer’s vortex.

Tallis
faced Bill. “Yer phone,” he said. Bill handed Tallis the phone and the much larger man studied it for a few moments before handing it back to Bill again. Then he faced Cerberus. “The soul is in the vestibule,” he announced as he crossed his arms over his chest. Apparently, he was waiting for Cerberus to step aside.

Cerberus,
however, made no motion to step aside, but merely nodded stiffly before turning around and trotting down the brick path that led to the cesspool. The raining sewage continued to pelt the damned, who whined and cried as they swam through the pool of feces, moaning pitifully. When Cerberus reached the sewage, he growled at two souls who were in his way. The souls, in response, doubled over on themselves in their attempt to get away from him. But since the muck in the pool was so viscous and gluey, they didn’t get very far.

Cerberus
didn’t seem to notice though, but discourteously pushed past the two souls before simply jumping into the cesspool and demon dog-paddling to the center. I watched the damned as they attempted to clear a path for him, pushing and pulling at each other in the sticky goo, all the while trying to get away. But, as with the other two souls, none of them could manage to get very far; and seemed mired in place, getting stung by the disgusting rain overhead as the tar-like sewage held them captive.

Cerberus
paid them little attention. Once reaching the center of the cesspool, he simply dove into the putrid water, his head fully disappearing under the dark brown muck. Unlike the souls, Cerberus appeared to move fluidly through the sewage, as if its tackiness didn’t affect him. The other two demon dogs continued to patrol the cesspool from the brick pathway beside it, where they could escape from the pelting rain overhead. Whenever a soul moved too close to one of them, the demon dogs lashed out with gnashing teeth and long, pointed claws.

Despite
searching the tumultuous sea of sewage for any sign of Cerberus, I didn’t see him. The seconds seemed to drag on as I watched the demon dogs continue making their rounds, harassing the damned. Meanwhile, Grashnelle stood in front of us silently, apparently waiting for us to retrieve the lost soul so he could lead us directly to Alaire.

Cerberus
finally appeared above the sewage again, seemingly minutes later. He paddled through the feces pool and shook himself off as soon as he climbed out of the muck and onto the brick pathway. I wondered why the noxious sewer fumes no longer bothered me and could only deduce that maybe I was just growing accustomed to them. At any rate, my attention was rerouted to Cerberus’s mouth when I noticed his jaws were slightly open. It almost looked like he was panting. As soon as he came closer to us, though, I realized something was inside his mouth, glowing. When he reached Tallis, he sat back on his haunches and Tallis pulled a vial from his sporran. Tallis popped the cap of the vial and held it in front of Cerberus, who poked his snout into the tip of it, opening his mouth as widely as he could. The white light, which turned out to be our lost soul, gladly moved into the vial as Tallis replaced the cork cap and returned the vial into his sporran.

One
of the riddles I was unable to solve was why the souls who were mistakenly routed to the Underground City appeared as small, white, glowing balls; while the souls of the damned were very detailed, making it easy to distinguish their faces and even some of their features. It was another question I had to add on my long list for Tallis. But now was clearly not the time.

“Thank
ye, Cerberus,” Tallis said as he nodded toward the enormous, ugly dog.

Cerberus
eyed Tallis narrowly, but didn’t say anything more as he trotted back down the pathway, still growling at the damned souls closest to him.

Very
well, we shall now travel on to the master
, Grashnelle’s voice suddenly sounded in my head.

None
of us said anything, but Tallis silently nodded and started forward, pushing me behind him with his right arm. Bill followed me and pretty soon, the four of us were walking single-file like kids on a field trip. The water was still up to my thighs, which made walking a little more difficult.

The
tunnel continued straight for maybe a quarter of a mile. When it finally turned slightly to the right, I noticed it led into an expansive, open area where there was nothing but vast brick floors and walls. There wasn’t any water in this area at all. It was almost as if the sewage water in the tunnel was restrained by an invisible dam. The water level went from being thigh-high to completely nonexistent as soon as we entered the open breadth of the cavern.

Looking
ahead of us, I noticed a fairly large pipe sticking out from the center of the cavern’s wall. It was to our left and the entrance into the pipe was probably five feet above ground level. A ladder leaned against the opening of the pipe, and I had the sinking feeling that this was our exiting point.

That
tunnel will lead you out of the sewer and onto the mainland
, Grashnelle said, affirming my hunch.
I am not able to continue as your guide
, he finished while motioning to his lower body, which was still submerged in the foul sewer water, right up to his waist. I supposed he meant that since his bottom half was basically a fish, he couldn’t continue to guide us over the land.
Bladesmith, are you familiar enough with the Underground City to find your way to the master’s headquarters?

“Aye,”
Tallis responded quickly, as if he were uncomfortable with his familiarity with the Underground City. Whatever the reason, his discomfort seemed strange to me—if he’d been retrieving souls for a while in the Underground (which he obviously had been,) why would he be uncomfortable? Without another glance at Grashnelle, Tallis started for the tunnel pipe, which, apparently, led out of the sewer aqueduct.