“It is well,” said a voice behind him. “Swim as you can and push yourself along the rocks. It’s not far.”
Daniel swallowed and took a deep breath. He bobbed up and down in the water and then plunged his head under. He tried to pull himself forward and felt a strong hand on his back giving him a push that sent him surging forward faster than he liked.
He put his hands out in front of him and felt them scrape hard on the floor of the underwater stream. The pain made his face clench. He wanted to let out a scream but didn’t dare open his mouth. Suddenly, there wasn’t enough air in his lungs. He made a mistake-this was wrong. He didn’t have enough air. Should he go back, or was he already there? He tilted his body upwards, thinking or hoping he must be there, but banged his head against a rocky ceiling instead. He saw red and white lights before his closed eyes. Throwing his hands outwards, he tried to push, claw, or scrape himself along. He gained a little momentum but not a lot. He kicked his feet, but they felt heavy and slow in his waterfilled shoes. His lungs burned. This must be what dying is like, he thought.
He felt a large hand grab his back and he was once again lifted out of the water. His breath exploded outwards. He sucked air deep into his lungs, marveling at its taste and warmth. He had survived.
“It is done, lad.” It was Swi?gar this time. “You made it. Stand.”
Daniel put his legs down. The water was shallower here but moved much faster. He stood coughing and sputtering in the absolute darkness. “Freya?” he said when he found his breath.
“Yes,” came a reply in what, to him, seemed a very calm and collected voice, though shivering slightly with cold. “I’m here. Are you okay?”
“I think so,” he said, grinning. “I wish I had tried harder in swimming class.”
Ecgbryt surfaced behind them, his metal armour jangling as he struggled for a footing on the wet rocks. “It gets the blood flowing,” he said, laughing, “does a good dip like that.”
“I’ll say,” Daniel said.
“Let us press onwards,” Swi?gar said. “Freya, hold on to my shoulder; Daniel, take Ecgbryt’s. We will lead you.”
With Daniel and Freya shivering uncontrollably, the four moved through the near-total darkness. Time had become abstract since entering the tunnels, and now didn’t seem to touch them at all.
They had just begun to think they would wander around in the dark forever when a quivering outline could be made out on the surface of the water up ahead. “It is here,” said Swi?gar. He stepped beneath a dim halo of light that fell from the well’s shaft above them. A soft luminescence cascaded down his face and shoulders, throwing his high-browed features into sharp relief. It was the first clear image that Daniel and Freya had seen for some time, and it stung their eyes.
“There are rungs for climbing set into the stone,” he explained.
“I will lift you up as high as I may, then follow behind. A warm fire and dry dress will be waiting for you, think on that. Daniel, you come first this time.”
Swi?gar knelt, allowing Daniel to put one foot on his squared upper leg. Reaching up, he found he could touch the bottom rung.
Swi?gar made a cradle out of his hands and Daniel, putting his other foot inside it, found himself launched up into the round, rocky hole. With a cry of surprise, he threw his arms out, bracing himself along the sides of the well to keep from falling back down.
Just above his right hand was a rung and he grabbed it. Below that was another, which he managed to get his foot on. “Alright,” he called down.
“Start climbing,” came the reply. “I’m sending up Freya behind you.”
With water cascading off of his drenched clothes, Daniel started to haul himself up, relishing the idea of putting those dark and extremely wet caverns and creatures behind him and wondering what was ahead.
He kept his head up and eyes fixed on the little circle of light still far above him. He started climbing faster, even though his arms and legs were very tired and unbelievably heavy.
Eventually he came to the end of the rungs. He paused before putting his head through the opening. Then, placing his hands on the rim of the well, he pushed himself forward and tumbled up and out of the darkness. He slid off and onto a stone-paved floor, exhausted. He lifted his head, looked around slowly, and gaped at what he saw.
4
A huge tree towered above Daniel, stretching up into the darkness. It was unlike any tree that he’d ever seen before; it was carved out of a pale, almost golden stone and set tight against two trees exactly like it-and more after each of those, and on and on into the distance. Their branches interlaced with each other in the most elaborate and bewildering patterns. The leaves were painted green and traced with something metallic that glimmered like gold. Long garlands of ivy were chiseled into the trunks of the trees-all of them twirling around in the same direction. Daniel became completely lost in the design of the branches, which he now saw contained small sculptures of birds, animals, and insects. He walked slowly up to the tree, clothes still dripping, and reached out his hand to touch a leaf, half expecting it to be soft and thin. It was rigid and cold. “Wow,” he said in awe.
He turned around to help Freya and took a moment to examine the well-the Western Well. It was carved out of the same stone as the wall but in a much different style. Swirling shapes rose up from the ground in a short pillar of water and continued seamlessly into a large iron frame, which rose above the well’s rim and supported a pulley mechanism.
There was a wet slopping noise from inside the well, and Freya appeared from the darkness. He helped her up with an effort and she toppled onto the stone pavement behind him. He couldn’t stop himself from grinning as she did a double take at the wall of stone trees.
“Can you believe this?” he asked her in amazement. “An underground city! I wasn’t sure I believed it but it’s here! Look at this wall, it just goes on and on! And these . . . just look!”
Buildings rose up on the other side of them, about ten storeys high, carved out of the stone, with strips of intricate tracery around the doors, windows, and roof. In the spaces between, Daniel and Freya could glimpse more buildings-some grander, some smaller, but all of them displaying a wealth of fascinating details. More of the silver lanterns could be seen being used as streetlamps and houselights.
A hand tugged Daniel’s elbow. Freya gripped his arm and pointed a shaky finger.
Approaching them was a scowling man holding a long, glistening sword. There was a scraping sound behind them and they turned to find themselves surrounded by three more men drawing similar weapons. All four faces were pale and almost deathly grey. Features like eyebrows, noses, and chins all blended into the pallid skin, making the faces look oddly similar.
“What should we do?” Freya whispered.
“Just wait and see what they say. Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you.”
One of the men opened his mouth to speak, when the grunting and muttering of Ecgbryt was heard behind them. He climbed out of the well and shook the water from his wet clothing. Swi?gar came close after. The two knights glared at the circle of guards around Daniel and Freya.
“We are Ecgbryt and Swi?gar of Oxenaforde with two lifiendes.
We seek Ealdstan the Wise. Is there one who will take us to the Langtorr?”
One of the guards standing around Daniel and Freya acknowledged the knight’s request with a nod. “Well met,” he said in a soft but gruff voice. “I am Breca; I will take you there.” He turned and led them away through an arched passageway between two buildings and out into a wide street.
Freya’s and Daniel’s heads swiveled in every direction as they walked down the streets of the underground city, trying to take in as many of the amazing details as possible. Ecgbryt watched them and smiled. “Welcome to Ni?ergeard, young lifiendes,” he said proudly. “Perhaps the greatest of the hidden wonders of the world! I have heard of far-off kings, who spoke in tongues now dead, living in sandy kingdoms who have built strange and enormous structures to their own memory. I have heard tell of Elfin palaces in twilight kingdoms whose citizens have harnessed the power of the moon just as the Laedenware have tamed the rivers to their towns’ purposes. There are people on the far side of this strange world who live in rooms of parchment, wear gossamer robes, and kneel to eat. There are dark men who live in forests with trees so vast and large that the sky is never seen. But were all of these far-off brothers and sisters to arrive here, in this hallowed place, they would think their homes small and their birthplaces of little consequence to the might and glory of Ni?ergeard, the Slaepera-Burgh!