“It’s here, in the last cell of this branch of the dungeons.” Nelson pointed it out on the plans of the lowest level of the palace. The dungeons were three levels deep, though they only used the top level for prisoners. He had shuffled through layers of plans, like he had raided a courthouse archive in one of those heist movies.

  “See? It leads into the sewers right there.” He shuffled to the sewer map, showing the general area where the lowest dungeon level was smack down in the middle of several of the tunnels and channels that bore waste and water away from the palace. He pulled out another section of the sewer map showing where it emptied into a swamp, south of the city.

  Harper hugged herself tight, looking at the map. She had mostly calmed down with the calamitous entrance of the chamberlain, but the sight of the tunnels and channels that emptied into bigger and deeper tunnels did nothing for her state of mind. Stood stroking his goatee and mustache, deep in thought while looking at the maps.

  “Yes. This could work. What about the disposition of the mercenary company? Are they actually all in town?”

  “The mercenaries, General Venegas? They are in town and outside of it, blocking passage to the southeast road and gate. And their main camp is to the south, near the swamp.” Chamberlain Nelson replied.

  Juan frowned. “Hmmm. That’s a problem. We need to head in that direction.” He contemplated me. “Finn, let me know if your disembodied friend makes any comment on this barrier to getting to the caves.”

  “I can. The Voice has said nothing about it yet.” I replied.

  Juan glanced at his former student. “Are you going to be okay down there?”

  “No, I’m not. But we don’t have a choice. We are going to need a few things, Nelson. Lamps, magical ones, if possible. I don’t want to blow up down there. We’ll also need food, blinders for the horses. Clean water. And some strong spirits. Maybe some wine.” She looked a little wild around the eyes, a little strained. But I saw some strength in her vulnerability, being willing to go down into that personal hell.

  “You want to take the horses with you? Y-you realize we’ll have to bring them through the palace?”

  She looked sharply at the Chamberlain, “Of course we’re taking the gods’ damned horses. They won’t like it, but the sewers are big enough for them, and I don’t know if I’ll be in any state to calmly steal more. So, like, whatever the fuck you have to do, just fucking do it.”

  Juan put a calming hand on her shoulder, and she shrugged it off. “Damn it, old man! Just leave it!” She walked away from us, muttered to herself.

  We all watched her for a moment, and the royal official nodded. “I’ll get your horses moved to the dungeon, though I’ll owe the Stable master a favor or two. Alec will not like doing this to the horses. I’ll get the other things she asked for and none of it should be a problem. You should be ready to go within an hour.”

  “Thank you, Nelson,” Juan replied. “I can see why you have this position.”

  Nelson perked up, “I-I appreciate that, General. I like to keep things organized, and I get nervous when things don’t go the way they are supposed to. L-like today. If you would excuse me, I must get everything moving.” With that, he bowed and quickly left.

  Juan pored over the sewer maps, tracing out a path. I pulled up my map, and it populated the sewers from the physical maps on the table. There seemed to be some areas of the sewers that were not clear of the fog of war, and I noticed Juan was tracing a route around the vaguely clouded areas. Likely, Juan had his own map up and was aware of what they were.

  A servant brought some refreshments and some food for us while we waited. Juan had shown Harper the path he had picked out for us through the sewers before that, and she was quiet until a more relaxed chamberlain led us down to the dungeons.

  “We really use little of the dungeons as the last few kings have only used them for high crimes against the crown. District jails handle everything else. Oh, watch your step. I think that’s horse manure. In fact, I believe we only have one criminal down here at the moment.” The chamberlain told us as we walked down through the surprisingly clean and dry holding cell-filled floors.

  “As you’ve likely noticed, it’s nice and cool down here, and we keep it in good repair. Ah, here we are, the bottom floor.” He pointed out the hallway leading to the ‘secret entrance’ to the sewers. Ahead, we saw the horses and a few stable workers keeping them calm. Each horse had a couple of lanterns on poles attached to their saddles. I saw GB pawing at the floor, more disturbed by this than the other three horses. It was kind of odd that we kept the extra horse still, but it was more than happy to stay with its fellows and carry most of the goods.

  We looked over the supplies while Nelson argued with the annoyed Stablemaster while waiting for the guard to find the right key to open the cell. From what I overheard, it was about how many bottles of brandy the Stablemaster would be getting. And how difficult it was to get my mare through the palace. Ever since the run in with the quillotes, I believe she had decided she was a warhorse and had gotten an ego. I gave her a treat out of my saddlebags, and she reaffirmed we were still tight by bumping me with her head.

  When the cell finally opened, I saw the first instance of disrepair in the place as the hinges screeched and rust-red dust fell from them. The horses did not like the sound. GB acted like it was nothing, but she didn’t like it either.

  Nelson walked into the cell and pulled out some notes, looking over the walls. “It should be right here, but I don’t see it,” he said. With a straight stick, he tapped on the walls until he found an area that sounded different. “Does anyone see a button or a lever? Anything?”

  We all started checking the walls. We still had four hours before the mercenary commander’s deadline, but I didn’t know how long it would take to get through the sewers. A few minutes later, we found a button under a rough hewn section of wall, hidden from view. There was an audible click on the wall where the door should be. Instead of a hidden door opening, the entire wall swung out.

  “Whoa.” I said intelligently.

  Juan snorted. “It’s just a large door. Convenient for us, but nothing fantastic. Someday, you’ll have to see the Rainbow Fields of Noom, which only bloom for a week. Or the magical caverns of Na’Saak, where ancient semi-aware crystals continually share and refract light from thousands of years ago. Those are just some of the wonders that are deserving of your awe.”

  Harper stared into the darkness, her breathing fast. “I can do this,” she whispered. The stable hands brought us our horses before making a swift retreat. We turned the flameless magical lamps on. I tried to turn mine on, with no success.

  “Um. How do these work?” I tapped on the lamp, to no avail.

  “Just twist the knob on the bottom,” Juan said. He pointed it out on the closest lantern to him.

  The light from the lanterns reached only so far ahead of us, a discernable edge to the border between our light and the darkness. The rats avoided the light the best they could, but only just. Though mostly drowned out by the horses’ hooves, the sounds of their movement kept us tense.

  “Are there turtles down here? I feel like there should be turtles down here.” I said, trying to ease the tension. Harper glanced back at me with surprise and let out a nervous laugh.

  “Why would there be turtles down here, Finn?” Juan asked.

  I gave him a deadpan look. “I just thought I smelled pizza a moment ago.”

  Harper snort-laughed, sounding almost normal. She hadn’t relaxed, but I got the feeling that she was less likely to go off the handle.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Pizza? What does that have to do with turtles?” My allusion genuinely perturbed the old man. It wasn’t really for him, as he wasn’t the one who had been stuck down here for days without light. “You are strange at times, Finn. I don’t think anyone is making pizza in this city.”

  Harper, who had been leading us through the sewer for the past hour, halted, putting her fist up. She went from laughing at my joke and her old mentor’s confusion to on edge, to tense silence, her eyes wide.

  “What is it?” asked Juan.

  “Can’t you hear it?” she replied. “The rats. They’ve all gone quiet.”

  I hadn’t noticed it until she said something. Even with the horses stopped, I hadn’t noticed it. With the echoes of the massive tunnel, its walls being twenty feet apart, everything should have been noticeable. But then the rats were in panic, squeaking and running into the light and at us. A massive flood of rats flowed toward and through us, to the horror of the horses who began freaking out. GB started kicking and stamping the mass of rats, while the others attempted to buck and run.

  They would have, except both of my companions were able to hold them. As soon as the flood started, the rats were gone, disappearing in the distance behind us. The new silence was broken by the sound of something big coming our way. Something the rats feared. I could only guess what that could be.

  Juan pulled a bow into his hand. Not the magnificent black bow with electricity, but the serviceable one I had first seen him with. “How many?” he asked Harper.

  “Five, maybe six.” She answered, pulling her rapier from her belt and one of her long knives from her inventory. “I had hoped they were dead.”

  “You know them?” I asked. “What the fuck are they?” I had really wished I had bought some more mana potions before we had ended up in this situation. I would have to be careful with my spells.

  “They are like rats, only bigger. And smarter, a lot smarter. They eat the rats and anything else they can catch. They really hate me.” She shuddered.

  “ROUSes? There’s fucking ROUSes?” I snapped. “What did you do to them?

  “I killed their mother,” she replied.

  “That makes sense.” I said. “They are really playing up the tension vibe with the slow walk.” I could finally differentiate the steps into multiple fucking ROUSes walking towards us.

  Clomp, clomp.

  A half-eaten rat flew out of the darkness. Before it hit Harper, she neatly sliced it in two. Not a bit of the blood and other fluids landed on her. A roar of rage came from the darkness before the first massive, bipedal rat stepped into the light. It pointed at Harper, and a greenish glowing glob flew from its outstretched claw directly at her. She easily sidestepped it and ran toward the creature, screaming in rage.

  I had never seen her move or attack like this, so full of murderous intent. Whatever had happened to her down here, the scars were deep. It swung at her, so swiftly I almost missed it. But the raging purple-skinned cambion was faster, going under the blow and slicing the arm with her knife from paw to shoulder, moving behind it and slicing its tail off with her rapier.

  Another rat thing lumbered out of the dark only to sprout arrows from where its eyes had been. Both giant rats screamed in pain, and I sent a firebolt at the second one. I missed, but the firebolt lit up the darkness as it flew down the tunnel, causing the rest of the giant ass rodents to cower from the added light. They were too far away for my chain lightning to be affective, but not for Juan. He used the opportunity to put the light to use shooting arrows into the darkness. The cries of pain were the only indication each arrow had likely hit.

  The first rat-man-thing made angry sounds that sounded like curses as the skin and meat of its arm mostly sloughed off. It tried to put it back into place as it stumbled from losing its tail, its balance lost. I think it was in shock. I watched in horror as Harper rode on the shoulders of the blinded one, stabbing it repeatedly. Tears were making wet lines on her face, reflecting the lantern light. The first one got closer to me, not even noticing that I was there, and I cast two shards of ice. It fell over on its side, mewling. I hadn’t killed the damned thing, but it was dying from what Harper and I had done to it. Mostly her. I heard her out in the dark, the blinded one dead, killing more of them. GB trotted forward looking for a fight and expanding the area lighted.

  Harper screamed, her voice hoarse as she killed them. The blood covering her was a gruesome sight. The last of the huge, ugly creatures still would not flee and attacked with claw, spell, and teeth. But the mad purple-skinned cambion was the apparent mistress of this dance, avoiding every blow, using their attacks against them to launch herself from one ROUS to another with deadly consequence. Juan joined me in watching, an arrow ready.

  “I never got the full story from her, and I doubt I ever will. But those things, they did not treat her well when they caught her. Alone, in the dark. Though, I don’t think it matters what they did. It is enough for them to die, these things that are almost men.” Juan stopped, watching her rip through the creatures like a vengeful spirit.

  The last one attempted to flee, but Juan put an arrow through the back of its knee. Or what I thought was its knee. It fell down and tried to move away on its good leg and arms. She cut its tail off. It screamed horribly. She sliced the back of its good leg, letting it pull itself along by its arms. She watched it for a moment, like a cat I once observed toying with a mouse. Nothing is more terrifying than a cat with its prey. Or my friend at that moment. She cut its wrist, almost clinically. It stopped for a moment and I thought I could hear it sobbing. I started forward so I could put it out of its misery, but Juan’s hand clamped onto my arm.

  “No, boy. This is for her to finish. We don’t know. We really don’t know and can’t judge her for this. Let Harper have this.”

  Watching the screaming dervish that was Harper, I found myself terrified of my friends. Her now casual torture of this creature, toying with it cut by cut. Juan’s full acceptance of her actions as right and proper. This world had made monsters of them. I remembered stories of horrors that soldiers went through and the breakdowns they had stateside. I had not seen it, nor the soldiers. Maybe I was judging my new companions too harshly in the moment, but to see what Harper was capable of in this dark place… I wanted nothing more to run from them both. I did not want to become so callous, or maddened by vengeance! I just wanted to go home.

  But I stood there and watched as she finally killed the sobbing creature she had mutilated. And I saw her drop her weapons and stumble back to the wall, only to slide down it. She pulled her knees to her chest like a young child, rocking and sobbing. My heart broke to see her in so much pain, so lost. This time, when I stepped forward, the old man let me go to her.

  It didn’t matter that I had just watched her mutilate and slaughter clearly sapient beings, however ugly they were, nor the look in her eyes as she had done it. Here was a person I called my friend, and she was in pain. I did the only thing I could do; I sat down next to her in support while she rocked her personal demons away.

  It took her some time to get herself back to a place where she could rejoin the world. But in that time, Juan had gone through and looted the ROUSes, sorted the loot, and dragged the bodies off where Harper couldn’t see them. I’m sure he would have burned them if it had been safe to do so, but there wasn’t anywhere for the smoke to go down here. And if it escaped up to the streets, certain soldiers of fortune might get curious.

  “Thank you for sitting with me,” she said. She put her hand on my knee, using it to get to her feet. I watched her walk over to the piles of loot, rooting through them. She came back with a book and tossed it to me. I barely caught it.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “Spell book. A mage spell book.” She said, turning back to the piles.

  I opened the cover to the massive book. Inside, the title stated it was for the spell: Poisonous Shot. I turned the page, seeing words and diagrams that made no sense to me. The whole thing glowed, and I suddenly knew the spell. I got the feeling it was rather cheap on the mana side, so I could cast it several times more than my other attack spells. The book was still in my hands, and I transferred it to my inventory.

  I cast Poisonous Shot against the opposite wall, and unlike what the first rat monster had cast, it wasn’t a blob. It was more like a crossbow bolt. And it was fast. “Oh, boy.”

  “Was that a new spell?” Juan asked.

  I nodded, “Yeah, Poisonous Shot.”

  “Good. Likely low damage, but poison works nicely over time depending on whether your target has resistances to poison.” He replied. “I hope you kept the book. You’re going to need it when you want to improve the spell.”

  “That’s good to know.” I hadn’t known that was a thing, but I needed any edge I could get if I wanted to avoid becoming fucked in the head. Or worse, dead. It was kind of a toss up, though, as to which would be the better option. “What about my other spells? Do I have to find or buy books for those?” I asked.

  “Find, yes. I doubt anyone in their right mind would even carry mage spell books among their wares.”

  “Hey, are you two going to keep gabbing or get over here and take your shares of the loot? We have to get moving. I fucking hate it down here!” Harper shouted. She was still on edge, but had gotten herself back to functioning. Mostly.

  I noticed I had ended up with some experience energy, not enough to level up, probably for my assist on the first rat man. Juan let me grab what I wanted from the piles of loot, which wasn’t much. I grabbed a small bag of gold and an odd necklace of bone and colored glass. There was a feeling of pressure when I picked it up, that I sounded like Juan’s description of magical items. I wouldn’t know what it was until I had it identified, so I put it immediately into my backpack.

  We continued onward in silence, leading our horses down the tunnel. I heard what I could only assume was a swarm of rats down a branching tunnel, and Juan nodded when I looked at him. The bodies of the ROUSes were down there. We came to a fork in the tunnel, and I looked at my map, showing that one of the fog covered spots was down the right fork about fifty feet.

  We ran into a few of those forks as we moved through the sewers. The constant trickle of water from where we entered had grown over time, so we stayed closer to the side of the tunnel to stay out of the fetid water. The smell, which I had gotten accustomed to, also amped up as we walked past human waste of multiple forms.

  I was missing the constant sound of rats from before the giant ass rat-man things, when I heard new noises. Rough, scaly skin rasping against the bricks of the tunnel. It sounded like snakes. There were motherfucking snakes in these motherfucking tunnels.

  And I HATE snakes.

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