Tunnels

The Heroes of Fannen-Dar, Chapter 22

The blips and splashes of the river echoed off the cavern walls as Robin, Anzo, Gwynt, and Hudtan followed the flow away from the well. There were footholds along the bank, but barely. Robin slipped, and caught the wall to catch herself, but quickly withdrew her hands. The cave wall was slimy and probably had bugs on it. Robin wiped her hands on her pant legs, and became acutely aware of how raggedy her clothes were. Stumbling around in the dark underground was only serving to get them dirtier and more torn.

“This isn’t too bad,” Gwynt said in a voice that was a bit too high-pitched to call calm. “We’ve got water, and I’m sure we can find rats or something to eat. Sure, it’s dark, but what good are colors anyway?”

Robin followed his voice. “Gwynt, don’t you have a smoke bomb or something? I think we should use that the next time we’re being chased by people who want to murder us.”

“Doesn’t matter now!” Gwynt said, laughing briefly. “This is our home now.”

“Could we light a torch?” Robin asked. “My bruises would be sincerely grateful.”

Hudtan’s voice came from farther ahead. “Do not. Someone is giving us pursuit. I heard another set of footsteps make contact after Robin’s.”

“They can join us in our new life,” Gwynt said. “They can be the butler.”

“We can lose them up ahead in one of these tunnels,” Anzo said.

Robin realized she was falling behind, and scurried to catch up. “You mean it’s not just a dead end? How can you tell?”

“The echoes from the river,” Anzo said. “I, like you, dear Robin, cannot see in the dark. It will be up to Hudtan and Gwyntmarwolaeth to lead us to safety.”

“I wonder if cave spiders make good pets,” Gwynt said with a strained sigh.

“Okay, it’s up to Hudtan to lead us to safety until Gwynt’s mind isn’t broken.”

Robin put a hand out in the direction of Gwynt’s voice in an attempt to comfort him, but ended up nudging his face instead. She felt him reach up and grab her hand, then slowly moved it up and down in a formal handshake. “Don’t worry, Gwynt,” she told him, “we don’t have to live down here forever. We can head back up once night falls.”

“If we can shake our pursuer,” Hudtan mumbled.

“Are you sure that’s what you heard? I don’t hear anything,” Robin said.

Hudtan cleared her throat. “Please do not take dire offense to this, but your human ears compared to my elven ones are like a spider sensing every vibration on its web is to the vision of the fly that waltzed right into it.”

“Wait, so my hearing is better than yours?”

“No, the-It’s the other way around! You know what I meant!”

“Please,” Anzo said, “if we are being stalked, the less sound we make the harder it will be to follow us.”

“It’s so lovely to meet you!” Gwynt said in a sing-song voice, still gently shaking Robin’s hand as they walked. “Welcome to my humble abode. Can I interest you in some rock cake? It’s made from real rocks.”

“Gwynt has the right idea,” Hudtan said. “Let us grasp each other’s hands and form a succession so that I may lead us silently.”

Robin and Anzo waved their arms around until they finally bumped into each other. Anzo’s half-ogre mitt almost completely enclosed Robin’s hand, but he held it without squeezing and tugged her in the right direction. They started moving away from the river. Robin could walk through the new tunnel while still standing upright, although it seemed Anzo was crouching. They then took a turn down another tunnel, and another, always with the sound of the river echoing around the walls, sometimes farther and sometimes closer again. How long had these tunnels been underneath the town, Robin wondered. And where did they lead?

“Follow Hudtan, everyone,” Anzo said. “And make sure you stick with your buddy.”

“Gwynt, did we lose whoever was following us?” Robin whispered.

“This will be a lovely spot for the dining room!”

“Would you snap out of it already-”

Hudtan suddenly stopped, causing Anzo to bump into her. Robin walked face first into Anzo’s back, and Gwynt stepped on her toes. “Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry!” he whispered.

“Nnh...Why did we stop?”

Hudtan was silent for a moment, then whispered, “I think there is someone up ahead.”

Anzo tugged both Hudtan and Robin’s hands so that the whole group was flung against the tunnel wall. “Is it our pursuer?” he said. “Did they find another path that brought them in front of us?”

“How am I supposed to know?!” Hudtan hissed.

Now Robin could hear it too: a quick series of footsteps that suddenly stopped before starting back up, short and quick breathing, the sound of something metal scraping against the cavern wall. It sounded like it was coming from every direction at once due to the echoes. Unless it actually is coming from all sides, Robin thought, just as her fears were confirmed.

Gwynt shouted and let go of Robin’s hand; Anzo’s grip only tightened. She heard a growl, but it sounded like a person imitating one rather than something a wild animal would make. Hudtan shouted, “Draw your weapons!” Robin held up her free hand and balled her fist.

“What are we fighting?” Anzo called back. There was more snarling and chittering, and a clash of blades. He finally let go of Robin’s hand to draw his mace. She shook the feeling back into it and raised it up next to the other, in case something attacked her.

“Goblins!” Hudtan shouted back. Robin heard one of them gurgle as Hudtan’s dagger found its mark, but still she backed closer to the wall. Goblins were a short, nasty people who were known for sowing as much chaos and violence as possible. It was not a good idea to get into a fight with a goblin, for they would not hold back from even the dirtiest of tactics.

Gwynt had drawn his rapier to fight them off. “Can’t even get any peace and quiet in my own home!” he said.

Robin scrambled to remove her backpack, searching for a torch or at least a match, anything to let her see what was going on. The elves and presumably the goblins could both see in the dark, so Anzo was the only other one currently blind. He didn’t seem to care; from the sound of the battle, he was swinging his mace in wide circles around him while telling off the goblins for daring to do battle against the mighty Bedlam. Robin dug around the bottom of her bag, but there was only some rope from the orphanage heist, the broken lockpick she found in the alchemical warehouse, and some “healing potions” that Gwynt had given to her.

Robin heard the wind get knocked out of another goblin with a sound like a tomcat not landing on its feet. “We’ve got them on the back foot!” Anzo said.

“That’s great,” Robin replied, trying to find something to do with her hands. The other three were keeping the goblins away from her, leaving her to sit there feeling useless.

There was a chorus of goblin war cries coming from down the tunnel, and Robin heard Hudtan gasp and shift backwards while parrying the blows from at least two goblins in front of her. From the sounds of the footsteps, there was a huge crowd heading down to reinforce the troops currently fighting. Although, Robin realized, knowing goblins, it was probably not a military tactic, but rather that they had just heard the fighting and wanted to join in.

Anzo grunted as several bodies a fourth of his height leaped onto him, trying to drag him to the ground. Gwynt ran past Robin to assist on the new front, and a gurgling goblin fell at her feet, dying from the poison that tipped every one of his weapons. However, the horde had already overrun Anzo and now surrounded them. There was no one to get in between the goblins and Robin any more. She quickly bent down and felt for the dead goblin’s hand, grabbing his dagger and holding it up in front of her with two hands.

She heard a snarl and movement in front of her, so she slashed the dagger sideways. She felt contact and heard fabric tearing, and whatever goblin had charged her fell to the side. Another one shouted and jumped at her from the left, so she jabbed at it, and the dagger sank into its chest. There were more guttural mumbles around her, but the goblins now seemed more reserved and reluctant to jump at her. She couldn’t help but laugh. “Look at me, I’m fighting!” she said.

“Great, now we’ve lost two of them to madness,” Hudtan said. She then yelped, and Robin heard her fall to the floor.

The cave was suddenly bright with light, and Robin held up a hand to shield her eyes. The goblins took the opportunity to rush around her and grab her arms, pulling her to her knees. When her eyes adjusted, she could finally see their faces. They had green and purple skin, wide faces with smiling mouths, showing off their crooked teeth, and most had little or thin and wispy hair. The light was coming from a cold-torch, held by a goblin standing at the back of the throng and dressed in furs that seemed to be from rats. The others looked to this one for their next instructions.

The chieftain surveyed the scene. Anzo was struggling still, but eleven goblins were sitting on him to hold him down. Hudtan and Gwynt were both similarly restrained as Robin, and Hudtan had a long red gash on her arm. The chieftain pointed down the tunnel, in the direction of the river. They said something in the goblin tongue, and the others started dragging Bedlam away, literally in Anzo’s case. Robin looked over her shoulder at the way they had come in, wondering what they had got themselves into.

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