Sleeper Of The Wildwood Fugue (Book 7) (19 page)

Sari makes another attempt to clean some of the nearby water, but the small patch is swiftly devoured by the dirty river. “I have a bad headache. Thank you for your concern, Kira. I guess I’ll look to you for protection if we get in trouble. After all, I’m sure you’re a shining example of warrior training and have honed your skills since graduating. Especially with all the adventures and battles you’ve been on.”

“Stop it or I will drag both of you to the surface and leave you there,” Timoran snaps before covering his mouth and fighting the urge to retch. “I am sorry for that, but I am not in the mood for infighting. Let us get this done quickly.”

“This way,” Luke announces, beckoning for everyone to follow him.

“How do you know?” Asher asks, earning a mumble of agreement from the mercenaries.

Alanik blows his nose and spits into the water, grinning at Timoran’s frown. “The little guy is lost. There’s no way to catch a scent in here and he doesn’t have a barbarian’s ears. I haven’t seen any tracks either.”

“Well, you’re not him,” Delvin states from behind the armored barbarian.

Alanik tries to whirl around at the sound of laughter, but slips on a patch of slime and nearly falls into the raging sewage. His arms are caught by Delvin and Asher while Kira wraps her chain around his waist. They haul the barbarian back and he presses his body against the slimy wall. He takes a big gasp of air and vomits into the river due to the horrific taste that consumes his tongue.

“He means thank you,” Sentrent nervously says, scratching his head.

“Can we stop wasting time?” Luke impatiently asks while idly spinning his sabers. “I can hear the Felcri, but it isn’t easy. The further away it gets, the harder it is to track. If we lose it then we’ll have to wait for it to attack again.”

“How are you really tracking it?” Sari whispers as they lead the party around a sharp turn. She glances down into a dark abyss, sensing the roiling water below. “You had to put a new shirt on and the rest of us had to get our gear. The Felcri would have been too far away for your sound sight. What’s the secret?”

“There’s no secret,” Luke says helping the gypsy over a cold stream of brownish green water. “I can’t pinpoint the creature, but I hear it ahead of us. It hasn’t moved since we got into the sewers. That’s why I took my time just now. I stopped before to give us some time to rest our legs. The Felcri is fast, vicious, and I think it’s waiting to ambush us.”

The group enters a large chamber where many of the sewer tunnels meet and empty into an enormous shaft. They can see a swirling pool far below them, the crashing currents mixing and flowing into various openings in the slick walls. A large grate can be seen in the distant ceiling and it lets in several narrow beams of blue light from the winter moon. The walkways are narrower than the tunnel edges, so they are forced to walk single file behind Luke. It is a challenge for him to use his sound sight due to the loud water, so he is forced to depend more on his eyesight. He scans every shadow, stopping when he thinks he sees a form moving near the top of the chamber.

“This is the perfect place for an ambush,” Kira says over the roar of the filthy waterfalls around them. “I hope dad listened and has some healers ready to purify us when we get home. I don’t want to think about the diseases we could get down here. Do you think there’s anything incurable in here, Ash?”

“Good chance of that,” her brother replies, peering down at the polluted pool. “This is why you should have stayed home.”

“Now isn’t the time to have this fight.”

“It’s only a fight if you argue.”

“Watch out for the slime.”

Asher stops his foot a few inches above a glob of ooze that has already been tread on by someone. He steps over the slippery growth and signals down the line to be careful. He frowns when Alanik continues on his way, the barbarian refusing to warn those behind him. Most of the party has passed the dangerous spot when one of the other mercenaries slips. The armored woman tries to balance herself, but the sudden movement makes her situation worse. With a scream, she plummets into the churning water and the last thing anyone sees of her is a flailing hand that is dragged into a tunnel. Asher is about to yell at Alanik when a hissing screech echoes throughout the large chamber.

“If you fall into the water, keep your mouth closed,” Delvin says as he draws his longsword and watches the shadows. “You can probably survive the fall and avoid drowning if you keep your head about you.”

A scaly hand snakes out from under the walkway, grabbing an Elven mercenary’s legs and yanking him off his feet. The swordsman can only yelp before he is silenced by the sound of something devouring him. Everyone watches the ground in fear of being the next one taken, so Ralgin and another mercenary are not ready for the Felcri’s attack from above. The young barbarian stumbles away with a deep cut on his shoulder, but the other target’s head is ripped clean off his neck. Before anyone can react, the monster pounces on Alanik and gets its claws stuck in the warrior’s chainmail. The green-scaled monkey is as tall as an ogre, but lean like an elf with a bony ridge down its back. Its powerful tail swings as Alanik turns around and the thick extremity knocks Kira off the walkway.

“I got her,” Sari says, taking control of a nearby waterfall. She catches the heiress with a watery hand, but the strain of controlling the sewage causes the gypsy to grow faint and tumble over the edge. Kira snags her with her kusari-gama and both women disappear into the churning pool.

“We’re helpless here!” Alanik shouts as he grabs the Felcri and hurls it at the wall. The creature flips in midair and lands with a slap, its body adhering to the stone like a spider. “Get to the tunnels, boys!”

The barbarians try to push their way back to the wider path, not caring if they have to knock their allies into the pool. One of the mercenaries that Ralgin throws out of his way is impaled through the chest by a lancing tongue. While the Felcri savors its newest meal, Alanik panics and accidentally shoves Delvin off the walkway. Luke and Asher sheath their weapons and dive after the armored warrior, grabbing his hands before they plunge into the water.

“What are you doing?” Timoran asks, lunging to grab the black-haired barbarian by the arm and spin him around. Seeing Alanik’s clenched fist, he punches the man in the face and draws the attention of the others. “All of you are putting our allies in danger. Help me to kill that creature and save my friends.”

“That monster is butchering us,” Alanik argues, gesturing for his friends to keep moving. “We need to regroup and lure that thing into a tight space. After that, we’ll handle our issues with you.”

“Now is not the time.”

“It’s the perfect time since you don’t have that woman guarding you.”

The Felcri lands on Alanik again and opens its mouth to sink its fangs into his neck, but Timoran punches the beast in the nose. Banton grabs the thrashing tail while Sentrent tries to find a way to strike with his broadsword. With a wild hoot, Ralgin makes a running jump over everyone and gets behind Timoran. He shoulder rushes the red-headed warrior, sending him crashing into the water below. The four barbarians continue wrestling with the Felcri, the beast shrieking at them and baring its poisonous fangs. With a violent twist of its flexible body, the creature forces everyone off the walkway and into the whirlpool.

*****

Kira gasps for air and violently spits out the foul water that drips from her hair into her mouth. She pulls herself onto the low walkway, dragging the unconscious gypsy behind her. The floor is covered in filth that smears on her leather armor as she crawls to the wall. She uncoils her weapon from her gloved hand and the bare arm of Sari, which is covered in bruises. Sitting against the cold stone, Kira stares down the tunnel in the hope that one of their friends or her brother will break the surface of the running water.

“What happened?” Sari asks as she wakes up. She tries to stand, but falls back down when a wave of nausea grips her stomach. “I think I swallowed some of the sewer water. Though I’m not sure how I fell in.”

“You tried to use your powers to save me,” Kira replies, running a hand through her ebony hair. She shudders at the touch of slimy garbage in her matted tresses. “Next thing I knew, you were falling, so I tried to save you and we both fell. All I could think of is to hold on, so we didn’t get separated.”

“Good idea,” the gypsy agrees, focusing her powers on the filth in her stomach. Her eyes bulge and she lurches to the side to vomit. “Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry for what you’re seeing here.”

“Honestly, after seeing a lot of bodies the last few weeks and being in this sewer, I’m not really phased by you puking,” the heiress admits with a half-hearted smile. She pulls a cord from her pocket and ties her hair back, shuddering at the sensation of thick liquid dripping down her neck. “Let’s get moving in case the Felcri shows up. I’d rather give it a moving target.”

Kira’s back audibly pops as she stands and stretches, a pathetic whimper escaping from her mouth. She helps Sari to her feet, but the gypsy gently pushes her away and tries to walk on her own. With a sigh of resignation, the heiress lets her companion use the wall to move down the tunnel. It is a slow, frustrating pace that grates on Kira’s nerves as they wander the sewers in search of a ladder. When they do find a way up, Sari takes so long to climb it that the other woman is tempted to leave her behind. The only reason she refuses to abandon the girl is because every shadow is a place for the Felcri to lurk.

The pair groan and curse when they reach a place where the walkway has fallen into the lower levels of the sewers. Sari kicks a rock into the pit and waits for it to hit water, but only the echo of stone being struck comes back. Kira is already coiling her chain around her arm and preparing to bind herself to the gypsy when she sees her companion hurry onto the narrow remnant of the ledge. Grumbling curses and focusing on the far wall, she follows Sari and holds her breath as she inches along. Her toes stick out over the edge and she presses against the slimy wall, the temptation to look down more powerful than she expected. She glowers at the gypsy moving swiftly ahead of her, the woman having a better sense of balance and more experience with perilous ledges.

Turning a corner, Kira is happy to see a ladder that Sari is already scaling. She gets excited and attempts to jump the last three feet, her arm stretching for a rung. The one she catches snaps in her hand and her foot slips on another that is covered in muck. Her chin strikes the ladder before she can hook it with the sickle end of her weapon. With a throbbing pain in her head, she climbs toward a dark square in the ceiling and stops when a dirty hand comes within view. She bats Sari’s offer away and finishes on her own, massaging her aching jaw.

“What’s wrong with you?” the gypsy asks, reaching out with ice on her fingertips. Again, her hand is smacked to the side. “I only want to help.”

“If you’re going to reject my offers then I’m going to do the same,” Kira says, cringing from the pain of talking. She can taste blood in her mouth and her tongue finds a cut on her inner cheek. “I’m not going to be treated like a delicate heiress. Luke might not be here, but I have my pride and I plan on being your equal.”

“I apologize for being stubborn earlier. I thought you helping me would make you an easier target for the Felcri,” Sari admits, walking to the edge of the walkway. The water appears cleaner than what she has seen so far, but it still reeks of sewage. “Let’s get out of here and we can talk about this. It’s obvious we have words to say to each other and we kept them hidden when Luke was around. So for the sake of our friendship-”

Kira cuts off the girl’s words by getting in her face, coming dangerously close to tackling her into the water. “We’re not friends! We’re rivals, Sari!”

“But your traditions.”

“Forget my damn traditions!” the heiress screams, spitting blood out of her mouth. She steps away and strikes the floor with the club end of her weapon. “I let you happen to Luke and now you get to spend more time with him. There’s no way I can compete with that and he’s not going to let me travel with him. The only time I have with him is now and we’re traipsing about a sewer after a monster that ate my brother. Let’s also mention that you’re hanging around my home moping like a wounded puppy. He sees you wallowing and it keeps him up at night. So even though he’s with me and promised that this is my time, he’s still thinking about you.”

“I’ll talk to him after we kill the Felcri and break things off,” Sari states, turning away to hide the pain and anger in her voice. “That way you get what you want and only I get hurt. I’m fine with that.”

Kira smacks Sari across the back of the head with enough force to send the gypsy stumbling away. She drops her weapon and darts in to deliver another strike, catching her rival’s ear. With a low growl, Sari kicks the heiress in the shin and throws a punch. Being more experienced at hand-to-hand combat, Kira deflects the attack and slams her fist in the blue-haired girl’s stomach. She holds onto Sari’s shoulders, preventing her from falling to the floor. A thrill runs through her body when she sees the anger in her rival’s emerald eyes.

“Never say that again,” Kira growls, shoving Sari toward the wall. “When I win Luke, I don’t want it to be because you took pity on me. Besides, he’ll never be happy with me unless he makes the choice on his own. Would you be happy if I quit, so you get to be with him by default? You’d always wonder about the truth.”

Sari grimaces at the tightness in her gut and takes in a coughing breath. “I live in the moment, so it wouldn’t bother me. So where do we stand with each other? I still don’t hate you, but I’m getting there.”