Marthian and Pallatian found the secret
entrance after half a day’s searching. It was hidden inside a stone hut within
a small copse. A large round boulder stood in the middle of the leaf-strewn
floor of the hut obstructing the entranceway. It took three of their human
guards to roll it aside. There were steps leading down into a dark tunnel,
illuminated from somewhere by a green light, the colour of new beech leaves in
the spring. The revealed entranceway had clearly not been used for a long time
– it was covered in cobwebs and numerous long-legged spiders ran away when they
revealed it.
Pallatian ordered two
of his guards down into the tunnel to reconnoitre, but Marthian stopped them.
‘These are secret passages, my lord’ she said, ‘I
think we should respect that fact...’
The Emperor looked
irritated.
‘Meaning what,
proconsul?’
Marthian smiled
patiently, ignoring the edge in his voice.
‘We should probably
go down alone. If there are secrets to be found under there, I’d prefer it if
the two elves most qualified to discover them actually did the discovering’
Pallatian considered
this for a second, obviously uncertain. He seemed to struggle internally with
several responses, but finally said ‘good point’ and made to dismiss the
guards. He told them to wait outside for a day and then if no-one returned head
back to Amansk. He thanked them all and then he had them all leave the hut
except for two strong men who he ordered to roll the stone back on to the
entrance once they gave a signal. They were also told to stay and guard the
entrance stone, just in case anyone came near or the Emperor and his proconsul
wanted to get back out.
They took two lit
torches from the retreating guards and made their way cautiously down the
steps. Marthian counted them; there were forty three. This was more than enough
to take them deeply beneath the soil and so, presumably, eventually, beneath
the city.
Marthian led the way,
conscious of how dangerous their actions were; and how high the stakes were.
The Empire couldn’t afford to lose either of them. She remembered a book she
had read when she was a child, about a captain of a large Visneorian naval
vessel and his crew, whose job, for some obscure reason, was exploring the
islands of the southern seas. Every time that any dangerous exploration was
required it would always be the ship’s captain, mage, navigation officer and
healer who went ashore, while less indispensable characters remained safely on
the imperial sloop. Fortunately, however, it seemed that those main characters
were indestructible, despite the grave dangers that they always faced. She just
hoped that the same was true for them.
After the steps the
tunnel levelled off and led straight ahead of them. It was about three feet in
diameter and so they had to walk in single file. Marthian continued to lead, walking
very slowly, and checking the way ahead with exaggerated care.
The first fifty feet
of the tunnel were made of bricks, rather a like a sewer conduit. After that,
however, it became light green and featureless, like the inside of a giant
stem.
‘I recognise this’
she said
‘The colour, you
mean?’
‘Yes – the original
city walls were exactly this colour, beneath their stone facades. When the rays
attacked them they were reduced to blocks of this sort of green before they
were destroyed’
‘What does it
signify, proconsul?’
‘It’s Ophia’s green’
she whispered, almost as if in awe, ‘the green of Dwarven Magic’
‘Ah, right’ said the
Emperor, noncommittally. They hesitated at the end of the brick tunnel.
‘Is it safe?’ he
asked
Marthian was tempted to
shrug, but then thought better of it.
‘I’m sure that it is
– Ophia would never harm us’
Pallatian frowned – ‘We’ll
see...’
Marthian knew that
she had to demonstrate her confidence, even if she didn’t feel it. She took a deep
breath and stepped on to the green stem. Pallatian followed, a little more
cautiously.
The floor beneath her
feet felt slightly sticky and it gave a little. Every step seemed strange; it
felt almost organic. She forced down a shiver of revulsion. She had to tell
herself that his wasn’t anything evil; it was part of the defences of her city.
She looked round at her lord – he appeared deep in thought.
The
green tunnel headed straight, just as Aurelian had written that it would. Every
now and then there was a side passage running off at a seemingly random angle.
Those side branches were of all different sizes; some quite a lot wider but
most much narrower.
They walked along
this tunnel for about forty minutes. They scarcely spoke. Marthian found the
atmosphere discomfiting. She felt as though she had been miniaturised and
injected into a plant – now she was walking inside its circulatory system.
A wide passageway
opened up to their left and right, dwarfing their tunnel. Pallatian turned
right to gaze down its length.
‘Did General Aurelian
mention this way?’ he asked
‘No’ she replied, ‘he
only told me about the route that we needed to take’
‘This must be
something important, though’
‘Possibly, but I’m sure that’s not the way. Aurelian
told me that we just needed to go straight on’
Pallatian stared at
her. His face looked rather peaky in the green light.
‘Don’t you want to
find out what’s down here?’
This annoyed her. He
was quite right, she was dying to find out what was in this strange collection
of intersecting tunnels, but there were protocols for these things. It required
experts, guards and forward planning; this was just a mad scramble around in
uncharted territory. Was this how he always proceeded? She realised that it
probably was. She remembered all too
clearly his messenger disguise and how foolish it had made him look. However,
he could not be refused, he was her liege lord.
‘Perhaps we’ll have a
quick look...’ she said, ‘I don’t think we should go too far though’
The right side of the
wide tunnel ran on for about one hundred yards, with several side tunnels, even
narrower than the tunnel that they had been walking on, branching off it at
intervals. At every one the Emperor stopped and looked. There was nothing much
to see, but nonetheless he was fascinated. Marthian just hoped that he wouldn’t
try to struggle down one. Fortunately he didn’t.
At its end the large
tunnel opened into a small square room, illuminated by a brighter orangey
light. It was made of brick again and it stood out starkly in the sea of green.
Most of the room was filled with a pool that left no space either side to walk
round it, although at the end there was a space wide enough to fit a standing
elf. Marthian was certain that this was the Lady’s work.
They approached the
room very slowly. At its end, on the other side of the pool, they could see a
plain arch thrown across the corridor. They stepped a few steps closer, but not
quite into the room. They could see now that
the portal was covered in a skin; a membrane that shimmered with a pink-orange
light.
‘What is that?’ asked Pallatian, gesturing up at
the portal.
Marthian shook her
head.
‘I have no idea’ she
said, ‘but I don’t like the look of it’
The Emperor shuffled
forward as if he were going to step straight into the pool. Marthian twitched
involuntarily.
‘My lord, I don’t think...’
‘Why not?’ he asked,
mildly peeved.
‘The Lady is guarding
this door’
The Emperor looked
down at the pool.
‘Using this?’
‘Yes, using this –
her presence is in all of the waters of the city’
Pallatian looked down
into the pool. Even in the half-light they could its bottom; it was no more
than a foot or two deep. He stepped into the water and waded across
‘I’m happy that she
should know I’m here. I am the
temporal ruler of this city, after all’
Marthian frowned, but
made sure that he had his back to her.
‘My lord – we
shouldn’t provoke her any further than we have...’
He looked back at
Marthian and snorted.
‘She should be
pleased – she’s getting you back, after all’
‘Hopefully...’ she
muttered. She looked down at the water – there were still a lot of ripples and
they seemed to lap at the sides even after the Emperor had stepped out.
‘Come on over,
Marthian...’ he said. She was shocked. He’d never referred to her by her first
name before. Without even thinking she obeyed, stepping into the water.
Where her foot landed
the water parted. She was standing on dry land. She was grateful that her gasp
of shock was too soft for Pallatian to notice it. He was too engrossed in the
door. She hurried through the dry pool floor to where he stood. The waters
closed behind her. She smiled to herself: thank
you goddess.
He was now pressing his
hand very cautiously against the skin of the door. The membrane pushed
cautiously back. He pressed harder and the skin pushed back harder.
‘Magecraft’ he said,
his voice flat, ‘it doesn’t want to let me through’
Marthian was
relieved. It was perhaps better not to know what was on the other side yet. She
knew, however, that she would have to find out soon.
The Emperor had moved
away from the portal. Marthian watched him closely.
‘How dare they! How
dare someone block my way in my own demesne’
Marthian had no idea
what to say. She just knew that she wanted to leave this place as soon as was
possible. She waited until he had calmed down.
They both tried to
peer through the translucent membrane of the archway. She could see almost nothing,
but had a fleeting image of green, slitted, almost serpentine, eyes. If only I had Viola’s vision. She turned
away to look at the Emperor but he didn’t seem to have seen anything.
‘We should move on’
she whispered. He nodded, but seemed reluctant. She gestured at him encouragingly
until he turned to go.
On the way back she
made sure that he was well ahead of her in the pool and so that, once again, he
didn’t observe the strange water movements. She felt a little guilty – she just
hoped that the Lady hadn’t hurt him. Given his recklessness, however, she saw
no good reason to tell him what had happened.
Pallatian was silent
all of the remaining way along the corridor. Every now and then he looked back,
as if he worried that something was following them. It wasn’t long, however,
before they climbed up stairs at the end of the secret tunnel, identical to the
ones they had entered by, even down to the number of steps. They emerged
beneath the far eastern side of the Temple, this time through a storm drain. Three
priestesses were waiting for them;. the High Priestess clearly knew exactly where
these tunnels were.
The priestesses
escorted emperor and proconsul from the depth of the temple out into the bright
summer sunlight. They scarcely said a word. Nonetheless, Marthian felt like
hugging all of them – she was so happy to be home.
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