Making it to the opening, he holds his orb to allow the light to shine in and discovers the opening extends further back into the hill. The entire length his orb illuminates is a uniform three feet in diameter and the sides looks to have been bricked to hold their shape.
He goes back to the others and tells them what he’s found. “It looks like an outflow for an ancient sewer or maybe for drainage,” he explains. “There’s a breeze coming out of it as well, so that means there has to be another opening somewhere deeper within.”
Just then, another force of soldiers can be heard approaching and they hold still. Fifty soldiers move quickly down the hill, following the same route as their fellows had earlier. One of them lifts a horn and blows a staccato before they move out of sight.
“You sure it’s safe?” asks Aleya.
“No,” replies James. “And it might not lead anywhere, but it has to be better than being out there right now.”
“True,” agrees Jiron. He begins moving to the rear of the pile and says, “I’ll go first.” Coming to the opening, he takes James’ orb from him and gets on his hands and knees as he begins crawling in through the opening.
Once his feet have cleared the opening, James glances to Aleya and says, “Ladies first.”
“Whatever,” she replies as she gets on her hands and knees to follow Jiron. Positioning her bow and quiver on her back and out of the way, she enters the opening.
James waits until she’s disappeared into the tunnel before he too gets down and begins to enter.
Chapter Twenty Three
“Jiron,” James says after they’ve crawled for several minutes.
“What?” he hears him reply from further ahead.
“Why is it, that no matter where we go, we always seem to be crawling around in some sewer?” he asks.
His laugh echoes back to him. “I don’t know man,” he replies. “Just lucky I guess.”
After crawling for what seems like half a mile, he hears Jiron holler, “I’m through!”
“What’s there?” Aleya asks him.
“I’m in a small room with two feet of water,” he replies. “Might be some kind of drainage system from the looks of it. A set of rungs lead up about twenty feet to what looks like it might be another passage.”
James looks down the drainage tube and sees the back end of Aleya silhouetted by the light from the orb. Another minute of crawling soon has both he and Aleya standing in the room with Jiron, both soaking wet.
The room is about fifteen feet square and slightly taller. Water pours into the room from numerous openings in all the walls, save the one with the rungs leading up. The water itself seems fairly clean.
Aleya checks her bow quickly as Jiron begins ascending the rungs. “Wait here,” he tells them as he climbs up to the passage above. Upon reaching the top, he peers over the edge then turns to them waiting below and says, “Looks like it goes down a ways.”
“Alright,” hollers James, then to Aleya he says, “After you.”
Finding her bow still to be in good shape despite having scraped along the narrow passage as she crawled, she slings it behind her shoulders and grabs one of the rungs. After she climbs up several feet, James follows.
When James crests the top, he glances down the long dark passage that Jiron mentioned. At least this one will enable them to follow it without crawling. Shivering slightly from the chill in the air, he indicates for Jiron to proceed.
Holding the orb in front of him for light, he begins moving down the passage. “Wonder what this place used to be?” he asks.
“Who knows?” replies James. “Could be anything.” Taking a closer look at the walls, he adds, “Whoever built this, made it to last a long time. This stone still looks in good condition.”
“I doubt if anyone’s been down here in a long time,” pipes up Aleya.
“I agree,” says James.
The passage they’ve been following suddenly ends at a stone stairway, spiraling up. Without even pausing, Jiron takes it with the others following close behind.
The stairs circle around twice before ending at another passage similar to the one below running left and right. Jiron glances down both ways then turns back to the others. “Can’t see anything other than corridor either way,” he tells them.
“Take the right,” suggests James.
“Okay,” he replies before stepping out to the right. Moving quickly, it isn’t far before they come to another corridor branching off to the left. “Keep on straight,” he hears James say behind him. Nodding, he continues on past the new corridor. He shines the light from the orb down it but doesn’t see anything of note.
A little further down, the corridor opens up to a square room. It’s a rather bare room, an old tapestry hangs upon one wall but is so faded and tattered by time that whatever it once depicted is now lost forever. On the left side of the room lies the opening of another corridor.
Suddenly, James starts when he sees a pair of red, glowing eyes stare at him from the other corridor. Then the eyes disappear and a rat scurries into the room. His overactive imagination seems to be working in high gear.
Ever since coming here, he’s had a feeling of foreboding, though he can’t quite say why. He doesn’t sense anything magical in nature, no tingling or anything like that, just a feeling of unease, as if this place doesn’t want to be disturbed.
There’s got to be a way out of here, other than the way they had come. Jiron crosses the room to the other corridor and enters. He continues holding the orb in front of him as he moves down the corridor. The only thing they encounter is the occasional rat or other small animal which has made this place their home.
James is somewhat comforted by the fact living things have made their home here. If there was a malignant presence here, nothing living would’ve chosen to stay.
They come across another corridor on the left again but the light once more fails to reveal anything of interest. “If we fail to find a way out up ahead,” James tells them as he indicates the passage they’ve been following, “then we’ll come back and try the passages we passed by.”
“Good idea,” Jiron says as he continues down the corridor.
James can’t help but think that if this was an adventure he was running, the players would never have passed up anything which might’ve held possible treasures. But this is real life and he just wants to get out of here. The last time they’d been in a similar situation, Miko had almost been killed by a trap set to guard a handful of crystals. That’s the last thing they need right now.
They pass another passage and again, nothing could be seen when they shine the light from the orb down it. Thirty more feet and the left side of the passage opens up to a room, twenty feet wide by forty feet long. Several rotting tables sit within the room, the chairs which once sat around them now all but disintegrated.
Pausing a moment to investigate, James has Jiron bring the light over to one of the tables and he takes a good look at it. He reaches out his hand to touch it, and when he touches it, a section of the table breaks off, falling to the floor where it crumbles apart. “Rotted,” he tells the others. “Looks like termites or some other sort of insect’s been feeding off this for centuries, or used to. There’s no sign of them now.”
“This place must have been here for a very long time,” offers Jiron.
“I would think so too,” agrees James. “I would also think that it has remained unknown to the locals, otherwise it would be used by smugglers and thieves if by no others.”
“Any idea yet who used to be here?” he asks.
“Not yet, no,” replies James.
“I don’t like the feel of this place,” announces Aleya from where she stands at the edge of the light.
Glancing at her, James nods and says, “I feel that way too.” Then to Jiron he adds, “We better get moving.”