Kara Varnya
“Don't wait for me! Keep running!” shouted Jack Sunder, a veritable horde of the dead only meters behind him. A severed hand went flying past his head, fingers grasping.
Kara turned and started to run again, inwardly cursing her lack of physical aptitude. Long days and nights spent in the library and her study had not prepared her to run across half the city. And that short break hadn't even helped – instead, running felt even harder than before.
In front of her, that young street girl dashed lightly, easily, like a feather on the wind. Besides her, Kallaster ran with an easy confidence, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. Again, she was the weak one. Her lungs burned so very much. She could not keep this up for much longer.
“Lore! The undercity!” shouted Jack, right beside her. Surprised, Kara found that Jack had caught up with her, his face streaked with sweat. Lore veered to the right, suddenly, and Kara barely made it into the alley, hands catching herself from colliding with a hewn stone wall.
“Good call, Jack!” the girl replied. Lore was the name, wasn't it? Kara was getting dizzy, but she had to keep running, following the girl over the debris in the alley, and left, and then right again. Kallaster and Jack were both in front of her now, and she was falling behind. Another right... and then a dead end?
The girl Lore ran to the end of it, and then stopped and looked down. Then swore. “Jack, can you fit in down that?”
Kara slowed down and doubled over, gasping for air. Kallaster was beside her. “Arms back, head up, my Lady – don't want you fainting or cramping.” Kara did as she was told, but it didn't seem to help much. Sunder was standing with Lore, over some sort of small hole.
“Kallaster, can you make the hole bigger with your magic?”
“What? I'm an archer, not a mage!”
“Kallaster, do it.”
“Uh... okay. Everyone's going to hear this, though.”
“Do it – we passed several dead on the way here, but the main group should be far behind. We'll be gone before they get here.”
Kallaster nodded, then pressed her hands together, her eyes closed. The hairs on Kara's neck prickled. She had read much about the free magic the Southerners used, but never had the chance to see it in person like this. Kallaster's eyebrows knitted, then her eyes snapped open and she slammed both hands into the ground, with a thunderous boom. The blast knocked Kara off of her feet, and sent a dust cloud billowing up. Kara coughed and hacked, her lungs screaming for air, but clogged with powdered cobblestone. Tears welled up as she tried futilely to breathe.
“Kara!” Jack was there, grabbing an arm, and hauling her to her feet. The air was a bit clearer, standing up, but Kara still could barely breathe. “Kallaster, rearguard. Lore, lead the way. Kara, can you climb?”
Kara wiped her eyes of a mixture of tears and dust. The little hole in the alley way now a great rend in the earth, with shards of shattered cobblestone giving it the appearance of some terrible maw. Kara coughed some more, and felt like vomiting, but nodded anyway.
“Okay, good. Follow Lore's lead.”
Kara dipped one foot into the hole, and found a foothold. Lowering herself, and trying not to have another coughing fit, she found another. A little lower, and she was almost underground. Kara reached down with her other foot, searching for another foothold. Cold fingers closed around her ankle, and Kara shrieked, a thrill of fear shooting through her body.
“It's me! Lore!” came a voice from below. The hands guided her foot to another foothold. “Just a little bit further.” Kara stifled a cough, found new handholds, and let small hands take her other ankle.
Kallaster Poe, Lady Adventurer
Complete darkness was a strange thing. During the night, there were the moons, and if not, there were always the stars. In buildings, there were windows, or maybe the barest of light defusing through the thatch. But here, there was darkness.
Kall sat back, and blinked. No difference between her eyes being open or closed. Her fingers stroked her bow, and her back could feel the the rough stones of this... this cave? Tunnel? Down in the South, there were no under-cities to speak of. Another something new for the North.
“Hey, I'm Lore,” said a voice in the darkness. “Short for Lorelei. I'm part of Sunder's Associates. What are your names?”
Kall pondered replying with her normal title and spiel, but her normal optimism was dampened by the pitch-black darkness, and strain of casting that spell.
“I'm Kara. Sunder told me about you.” A pause. “I'm the one you helped down the tunnel, not the lady with the bow. Thanks for that, by the way.”
Kall shook her head. Why not. “I'm Kallaster Poe, Lady Adventurer. I'd curtsie, but I'd hit my head and you wouldn't see anyway.” Kall smiled. She was Kallaster Poe, Lady Adventurer, and she always saved the day. This mess could be no different.
There was a giggle in the darkness, but it died down nearly immediately. “Kara... you're the lady who stayed with Narma, right? Rae's sister.”
“Um...” More pausing, more silence. “Yes. Yes I am. I don't think that matters anymore, though.”
More silence. Kallaster heard a drip in the distance, the sound distorted by the rough stone of the tunnels.
“So... what were you doing at Narma's? She said you were a friend of Mr. Sunder, who was staying there.”
“Oh, uh... you should probably talk to Mr. Sunder about that.”
There was something moving towards them, echoing down the tunnel. Kall decided that it was coming the way they had come. “Is that you, Mr. Sunder?”
“Yeah.” A grunt and a pained wince. “The dead are still some distance behind. Did you find a fork?”
Kall nodded out of habit. “Yeah – left or right, basically.”
“Oh, what I would give for Selena's north-fork, and one of her flares.” He was closer now. Kall was pretty sure that he was crawling where they had merely stooped. “Lore, are you there?”
“Yes, boss. Kara too.”
“Good. Seen any ratkin so far?”
“No...”
Ratkin?
“Well, that's not good.” Sunder's voice was right near them, and then Kall felt a hand on her boot, groping. She pulled away. Sunder grunted. “Well, I don't really fancy wandering around lost down here, but at least there aren't going to be many people.”
“What about ratkin... do you think they can turn? We closed off the hole we made, but we know the Life Aspect Temple links to them, and that got overrun.” The girl sounded distressed. Apparently she cared about these ratkin creatures.
“I'm hoping that they were drawn up to the surface, since there are more people up there. Were more people. Hrm.”
“Friend said that men would come down here with torches and swords to hurt the ratkin. I wonder how they found their way in these tunnels...”
“Oh! Sewerfiends!” The voice belonged to Kara, this time. “I should have realized you were talking about them.”
“They prefer to be known as ratkin.” Lore again, this time sounding hurt? Defensive? Kall decided not to try and speculate.
“I could see that,” said Kara. “I also read about the fiend-hunting expeditions. They carved arrows into the stone underneath them, pointing back up to the surface. Of course, we don't have any way to see them...”
Well, Kall could do something about that. She reached into her quiver, and pulled out an arrow. She felt the shaft for a familiar bump. There was none on that arrow, so she put it back, and drew another.
Sunder responded, from directly in front of her. “That doesn't help for this choice here. We are going down.”
“Yeah, and Friend said that this tunnel was too small for the men with fire and blades – there wouldn't be an mark anyway.”
Kall stopped looking for the appropriate arrow. Probably a waste of energy anyway.
“Okay, we can't wait here forever. I say we go... right.”
“Why right?”
“Why not?”
“Right.” Kall could make out the slight sounds of Lorelei creeping down what she assumed was the right fork.
“Lore, wait,” said Sunder. “If we get separated... I told Perl, Selena and Glynn that we'd meet them at Narma's house, but failing that, we'd meet in Parveno. Down here, I think they will have come and gone long before any of us get to Narma's. So Parveno. Do all of you know where that is?”
“Yes,” said Lore and Kara, nearly at the same time.
“And you, Kall?”
Kall frowned. Glynn had been the one with all the maps, and he had been talking to people for directions. For her, directions meant going where people needed to be saved, not the minutiae of maps and orienteering. “No, I don't think I do.”
“Outside the city, go South down the Warrior's Road. You'll see a sign pointing to Parveno Lake, turn right and go down that until you get to it. ...you might not actually want to be on the Warrior's Road, though – too many people. Just stay west of it.”
Kall tried to remember it all. It was so much easier not paying attention, and then having Glynn remember the directions. But... she didn't have her partner in adventure, so sometimes a heroine must stoop. “I think I can manage that. Seems simple.”
“Good. Lore, lead the way. I'll stay in back again.”
Kall grinned in the darkness. “I thought that I was rescuing you – I saved you from that man who jumped out of the window, that puts me ahead. So I, uh, should be behind, to keep you safe.”
“No.”
“I insist. Plus I'm faster than you, down here, so we won't have you lagging behind, all that.”
“I wasn't lagging, I was trying to... Oh, nevermind. Sure, you can go in the back.” The sound of him crawling in front followed shortly, and then Kall stood up, stooping over her bow, cradling it, and started behind him. Time to save the day, right? She felt better already.
Jack Sunder
“Light!” yelled Sunder. He slashed forward, blindly, hoping to drive the dead man back. Maybe Kall would keep him in the dark, kill him in revenge for leaving Glynn behind. But then, behind him, Kall's arrow glowed to life, and his opponent reared back, wide eyes squinting. Formerly a butcher, perhaps? Sunder lunged forward, with as wide a swipe as he could manage in the catacombs. The blow sank deep into the creature's upper arm, but then Sunder was behind it, cleaving apart its spine, with a wet, echoing chop. The dead man dropped to the ground.
“That's too many to be a coincidence. They can still track us, somehow.” Sunder kicked the corpse, rolling it face up. “Came from the side.”
“We've made a series of turns, too... kept quiet.” Kara knelt next to the corpse. “He's from above ground – I can't imagine he just wandered over to this area from the Life Temple, and heard us...”
Sunder rubbed his arm some more. She was right, of course. The Life Temple didn't employ any butchers, which meant he must have been killed and turned after it spread to the surface.
“No major injuries, though – maybe he came down here to hide, like us, and then... then...” Kara stood up. This time she was wrong, or maybe just being optimistic. The last one that attacked had been some street girl, and she had been missing most of her gut. Or maybe Kara hadn't seen that. Sunder nodded anyway.
“Maybe,” said Kallaster, holding up her glowing arrow. “But I'd put my money on those things tracking us by scent, or by magic. And since they aren't following us by our trail, then I'd say magic.”
Kara shook her head. “You're the expert, but I read that you need to call like to like. You need some part of whatever you are trying to scry.”
Lore stepped into the informal circle. “So if we have a trace of their blood on us, and they have the blood in them?”
Kallaster shook her head. “I don't think they are smart enough to trace the blood of their dead cohorts. Certainly not ones unrelated to our previous, um, fight.” She pointed at the corpse with her arrow. “It would have to be something unique, really. Or specialized. I mean, these creatures are obviously magical in nature. Maybe some sort of passive ability, not exactly casting a spell.”
Sunder rubbed his arm some more. “What about them tracking the... the disease?”
“Not unless the disease could tell the difference between being in a living body and a dead one.”
Sunder chewed on his lip. “I think I'm infected. They might be tracking me.”
Looks of terror... and suspicion. But they didn't look like they were going to attack him just yet.
“H-how? When?” Lore's eyes were wide. She looked concerned. Maybe she even was concerned.
“The one that jumped out of the window at me. He... it...” Sunder swallowed, suppressed terror threatening to rear up. He could still feel it – holding the head at bay, those jaws snapping wildly, hungry for his flesh. His hands around the creature's throat feeling something upwards. The passing bulge... then the spray, over his face... and then the sensation of things crawling, swimming and wiggling into his mouth, down his throat... sliding through his nostrils...
No. He was Jack Serronir. Mr. Sunder. People were relying on him. He couldn't be weak. He couldn't be afraid.
“I was rolling in the glass, I think I got a nick or two, and there was infected blood there.” He frowned, the familiar expression masking the horrors that he would not think about. “Maybe it's just that I have so much of their blood on me.”
“Oh Sunder, you'll be okay...” Lore came towards him, her arms grasping, reaching. Sunder stepped backwards reflexively, away from the danger. There was a lie to explain that. “Uh. You shouldn't touch me, really.”
“Oh...” Lore looked a bit crestfallen. Behind her he could see Kara, face pale in the blue white light of the arrow. He knew that expression – that one of understanding, of knowing, and accepting anyway. But now tinged with sadness, too. What was his expression? What was he saying?
Kara swallowed, then cleared her throat. “You're leaving us, aren't you?”
Sunder met her gaze. “I'll escape, I'll live. I'll meet you in Parveno.”
“No!” said Kallaster, her voice echoing down the ancient hallways. “I'm saving you, remember? That means you're not going to go and sacrifice yourself for me – that's all backwards. What kind of heroine would I be if I let you do that.” Sunder could feel her anger, but... that was just a trick. He knew she wasn't angry, despite what he felt. Some effect of the disease. Parasites? Whatever went into him felt alive, crawling around in his mouth, nose, and throat...
“No, you're saving Kara, saving Lorelei. Keep them safe. I'll be back for them, so don't you disappoint me. I'll be there.”
He turned to Lore, reaching out with one hand. She took his hand in hers, his soiled gauntlet in her two gloves. “I'm not saying goodbye, okay? Keep Kara and Kall safe, stay alive. We'll see each other again. Just keep working your way out of the city, and meet me in Parveno.”
“Where... where are you going?”
Jack pointed at the ground. There were arrows carved into the bricks. “I'm going up to the top. Borrow some fresh clothing, see if I can clean off. Then run and hide, once they can't track me.” It even sounded like a plan. “You people just say safe, okay. I can go without worrying about all of you, right? Right?”
There were tears in Lore's eyes now. “We'll be safe... just... just... don't you die!” She lunged forward and hugged him tightly. “Don't you die...”
A few minutes of following carven arrows in the dark, and he was at the surface, looking up out of a broken cellar door in the pale moonlight. He could feel fear surging through his system and make-believe enemies lurking in every corner, but... he could fight it. Maybe he could fight the disease, as well. Maybe he could just fight everything, and it would all be alright.
“Don't you die,” he repeated to himself. “Don't you die, Jack Sunder.”
As he clambered out into the pale light of the rising moon, he could feel something in his spine, shifting, moving, growing. Disappointing Lore and Kara would be such an unfortunate note to end on.
Next: Chapter 10