"The Path of Ascension Chapter 5" by José Manuel López Vega

Chapter 5

“You said the same thing last time!” Zadier’s exasperated voice echoed through the drafty corridors, as Tabagar pointed out that the exit was only moments away.

The three fleeing men had been wandering about in semi darkness for longer than any of them cared to remember. Ever since Tabagar had found the small trapdoor, in a shadowed back alley, Alros had had doubts about the wisdom of this course of action. Once they had run into several dead ends that the guard had assured would lead them outside, Alros was now positive that they had chosen the wrong way out. The long, low ceiling corridors exuded a nauseating, musty smell, and the atmosphere was sticky and cold, from somewhere of in the darkness they could hear running water, Tabagar told them that as long as they followed the sound, they would be alright. Alros had taken several unlit torches from a pile outside the sewers and Zadier had lighted them, the light provided by the orange flames was minimum at most, the heat, however, had them all sweating in moments, just to add to the discomfort of the clammy, slimy atmosphere of the sewers.

They now all stood in front of a large, impassible wall, with only a small space in the bottom, into which the black waters rushed.

“What now?” Alros asked Tabagar, trying to keep his voice level.

  “We return to the fork some ways back and take the other way.” Came the larger man’s answer.

Zadier shook his head “I could hear no water from that side.” They had been relying on the young sorcerer’s keen hearing to follow the waters that were supposed to lead them outside.

The guard turned to look at him. “ Sometimes the path through which the water goes is impassible, so you have to circle around it. We’ll find it again. Trust me.”

“How do you know these sewers so well, Tabagar?” Alros asked of him.

Tabagar shrugged. “I used to work in one of the work gangs that helped build this place.”

“Oh” Alros said, only slightly convinced. Something about Tabagr’s explanation was wrong but he could not put his hands on it just then.

“Do you suppose we could continue now? We must be out of here before sunrise.” Zadier’s lean frame interrupted from somewhere behind them, his voice sounded slightly anxious.

Tabagar nodded, and retraced their steps as far as a fork they had come through some time before. The fork was one of the few lit places in the entire sewers, it was noticeably larger than the other parts and circular in form with three openings. They all moved towards the one on the right, from where the sound of the water could not be heard. The march continued thus for some time until, Alros fell, with a startled oath. Tabagar’s strong hand managed to grab him before he fell to the large hole that had opened before their feet, the weak torchlight illuminated a still body of water far beneath. After they had all regained their footing, they followed  a small stone path that jutted from the walls as it spiraled downwards apparently to a hidden landing at about the same level of the ominous waters. They had to watch their step carefully, as the path suddenly became wet and the stone turned green with moss. More than once one of the three fell and slid downwards several feet before regaining his footing, the descent seemed eternal, somewhere off in the distance, the water rippled as drops fell from the ceiling in spaced intervals, the small splashing sounds were strangely magnified, whenever this happened they would shoot furtive glances at the water, almost as if they expected something horrible to suddenly surge from the water and attack them. This thoughts made Alros particularly nervous, he had heard horrible stories of people who lost themselves in the sewers and were never heard of or seen again until their remains were washed out into sea, and of horrible creatures who dwelt in the darkness and abandoned their mossy dens to steal people from above and eat them. He shook all these unpleasant thoughts as he fought to keep his balance, one of his feet slipped and he braved a look at the water in which he would soon fall, and what he saw froze his entrails. He could see two huge, baleful eyes staring hungrily at him and then he could see even more eyes and several strong, black arms with webbed hands reaching yearningly towards the upcoming meal, and then, just as he thought he would surely fall he felt Tabagar’s firm grip around his arm and he was safe.

“There is something down there!” He told the other two shakily, trembling all over.

“Are you sure, Alros?” Tabagar’s firm voice managed to calm the trembling youth slightly, who managed a nod, his glowing eyes frightened.

Zadier had turned to look at the water as soon as Alros had opened his mouth, his sharp eyes evidently saw something the other two couldn’t because he cursed under his breath and had begun to stare even harder, talking to himself all the time. Finally he turned to face his companions

“There are merpeople down there” he said grimly. His long, pale face drawn in consternation.

“Merpeople?” Alros asked baffled.

“Water dwelling monsters.” Tabagar supplied. “They can be found in almost any body of water in the world” he looked at Zadier for confirmation, who nodded. “They mut have been washed here from the sea”

“This is not good.” the large man continued. “Once we reach the landing, they will be all over us.”

“We must do something to distract them, then.” Alros finished the guard’s thought, he looked at Zadier.

The sorcerer looked away into the darkness, apparently ignoring Alros, his hands folded, the fingers drumming into his arm in nervous debate. Finally he appeared to make up his mind, he unfolded his arms, and opened his hands. At first nothing happened, then there was a small light that seemed to quiver and jump out of his hands, then it encompassed his entire hands and gave off a bright light and crackled dryly.

“You’d both better run once this strikes the water” he said, not bothering to look at them. Tabagar and Alros nodded, their leg muscles tensing.

Then without any signal, Zadier’s hands rose sharply into the air and came crashing downwards , the two lobs of intense light flying through the air and hitting the water with shattering force and an ear splitting crack. Small tongues of lightning crisscrossed the water which had suddenly become alive with the writhing of thousands of bodies and screams of pain. Almost without thinking the three men ran at breakneck speed downwards, their feet so fast they almost made no contact with the slippery stone, Zadier kept throwing those spheres of  electricity at the water which had started to smoke. Then they were all in the landing and running on through a small corridor, stopping only enough to unsheathe their weapons when they heard a great deal of splashing behind them. Sounds of pursuit were clearly audible soon after, the crash of heavy feet in the floor, the panting breath and a smell of burnt flesh. Alros braved a look backwards and saw several hulking mermen running after them in all four, he suddenly lost his balance and fell, exultant croaky roars filled the air as the merpeople moved in for the kill. In one fluid movement Tabagar spun around and swung his sword, chopping off a head which sailed into the crowd with incredible force, Alros also lashed out with his long, slender dagger, cutting one slimy, webbed hand that had approached his face at lightning speed. The merman drew back and howled with pain, but not for long since soon after he received a blast of lightning in the chest as did many others as the long, spidery beams of light raced through their ranks. Then they were running again, though now they could hear no signs of pursuit. The corridor went on for some time, the gurgling water now clearly audible, though it brought them no comfort to hear it. The path was surrounded by water on both sides that was supplied by ducts that jutted from the wall, spilling water in small falls. The path ahead narrowed and they could see a set of rickety stairs and two doors.

“Up the stairs!” Tabagar roared as merpeople suddenly began spilling from the ducts behind and in front of them.

Zadier wasted no time in dispatching those that were that were blocking their path with more lightning. They all jumped  over the scorched bodies and ran towards the stairs that shook with all the stamping of feet behind them. Tabagar shoved  the lagging Alros in front of him and told him to run, he then turned and threw a wicked looking dagger at the merpeople, the sudden scream of pain told him that it had found its mark, then he followed after Alros while Zadier brought up the rear, walking slowly up the stairs with his back turned to them as he continued shooting at the black mass before him, his face intent and his right hand lashing out with his rapier every time one of the monsters came too close. When he was a short way from the top of the stairs he turned and fled, slamming the trapdoor shut behind himself before tumbling to the ground panting and wheezing with the boy and the large guard.

 It had taken them a great deal of time to reach the other end of the sewers, it had taken them much effort and a great deal of danger but at least now they were outside Isgrel, sweaty, their faces and clothes filled with slime and grime and even some blood from all the times they had fallen.

“So here you are. Took you long enough.” came a female voice from somewhere to the right. Tabagar and Alros were too tired to even look, but Zadier had managed to get to his feet on shaky knees and bow.

“Lady Eala.” Zadier managed to say between pants and gasps “I…”

“You did as you were ordered to Zadier.” she said, cutting his explanations short. “And you have done it well, though it was becoming trying to keep the Avatars away for so long. It is still several hours before dawn. Sleep now.”

They all did exactly that, being watched and guarded all the time by her.

Alros had not dreamt at all, which was rather strange, since he usually dreamt every night, though all those dreams seemed more like memories, Any way he was shaken awake by someone only about an hour before dawn. He looked around not remembering why he was not in his room, but out in the desert sand, all dirty and bloodied, with his clothes in such a horrible state. Then the memories of the past night began to resurface and he felt a keen sense of loss and grief. Not even a day ago, his life had been one of a perfectly normal low nobility class adolescent. But it had all changed so abruptly and quickly, he had been bereft of his life brutally, all that he had once known was gone, staring back at the still sleeping Isgrel and then at the sprawling desert he wondered what fate had in store for him, thinking of all the bad things that had happened, he didn’t really think that anything good was prepared for him in the future by fate, he sighed resignedly. All the humans of Gaehar worshiped the God Shefel, though unlike the dwarves and the elves who all worshiped their God in the same way, humans of each part of the earth worshiped Shefel in different ways, honored Him in different ways, and interpreted His teachings in different ways. The Rajenians believed that Shefel had created a fixed destiny for each man, which he should follow forever since he couldn’t stray from it. That is why he had never truly believed what Zadier had told him that day that seemed in another lifetime, that some of the generals were involved in the rebellion. Military status was hereditary in Tel Rajen, so the generals destiny set to them by Shefel was to serve the king that had been made king by Shefel; their religion, nor their oaths of fealty would permit them from betraying their liege. The other rebels perhaps were meant to be rebels by Shefel, but then, wouldn’t He be contradicting Himself by putting the one He had desired to be king in danger? Alros shook his head in confusion and suddenly noticed that he was ravenously hungry. He looked up, following his nose to the source that had alerted him of this state. Tabagar and Zadier were wolfing down a large piece of bread each and several small strips of dry meat, Alros noticed that there was another piece of bread in a the earthenware platter, he scrambled over to them and began gulping down his breakfast as well. After they had finished, Tabagar and Zadier proceeded to start packing. Alros suddenly thought of something. If those two had been eating, then, who had woken him up? He jerked his head backwards, his eyes falling for the first time upon the woman he had heard Zadier talking to some hours back. Illuminated by the pinkish glow that announced dawn, he could make out her face. It was a perfect oval, she had one of those faces that defied age, she could easily be in her late twenties to late thirties, or even early forties, he really couldn’t tell, her nose, placed well above the delicate lips, was rather beaky, deep red locks of hair showed from the edges of the cowl of her green cloak, her deep brown eyes were looking at his with carefully masked wonder.

“They would not have left you anything had I not woken you up” she said in a gentle voice.

“Thank you” Alros said awkwardly.

She smiled and looked over at Zadier, who was busy putting food in a large pack, which he then hung on the side of a nearby, tethered camel, humming a tune to himself. Apparently he was back to being the mild, slightly foolish young man. “Can’t say I blame him though. He had not eaten anything for about two days. He was too busy trying to save you.” She looked at Alros square in the face, her voice becoming firmer. “Do not be so resented towards him, Alros. He has done that which was best for you, and that is not always pretty, at least not at the beginning.”

Alros nodded  mutely, noticing that he had actually felt rather resented towards the northerner. He turned to look at the tall, gangling man that was only some scarce years older than he was. Had he been in Zadier’s place, to be forced to choose for a friend that which would be better for him, even though he would not like it, he believed he would not have been capable of doing it, and in realizing this he came to appreciate the other more than before.

“I thought you might feel that way.” The woman’s voice came from somewhere behind him.