Chương 16: Underbelly

Wretch jumped off the ladder with a splash. He stood in a shallow pool of murky water. Their only lantern cast long shadows in a circular chamber, a stream of water ran from several open tunnels into the center directly under the ladder and then continued down a slope, disappearing through another black arch.

"This takes me back," Wretch said as Edmund jumped off the ladder.

"Back in the slums, places like these are crawling with horrors." Edmund cast a glance in the dark.

"It's not worth clearing those places out, better to seal the holes. This however is at the base of the Spires. The Bureau won't let the sewers here go without a fight. Wretch held back a scoff. Why was this place worth so much more? The stone floor was slick from mold and humidity, shattered glass and strips of newspaper laying strewn around the chamber.

"A sewer cistern by the looks of it," Astrid answered.

"Now where did our mummified friend come from?" Elenya said and looked between the handful of stone archways.

"Your moment, kid," Edmund said, casting the lantern light forward.

"We need that trail." Wretch craned his neck, producing a strange motion as he sniffed in the air. He moved around the group, bobbing his head up and down with flaring nostrils. Suddenly, he froze.

"That way," He said and pointed a clawed finger towards the sloped stream disappearing into a dark tunnel.

"Nice one ratty!" Elenya said and stepped to the front.

"Just don' t cut yourself with that knife when we get in a fight."

"Behave Elenya." Edmund commanded, raising their only lantern.

"Kid, you follow, anything happens, protect Astrid." They walked through the dark corridor with raised weapons as he sniffed in the cold and wet air. Edmund and Elenya in front like a wall of steel while Astrid and Wretch trailed behind. Several offshooting doorless openings and stairs leading further down, but Wretch had locked on to the trailing scent.

"Stop here!" He called. To the left, a spiraling staircase descended deeper into the dark, tubes of copper and bronze snaking down along the walls.

"Further down," Elenya said with a frown.

"What could be down there?"

"Saint knows," Edmund answered as Wretch crouched and sniffed along the wall. A black stain was left on the surface, reflecting some of the lantern-light. Wretch scratched at it with his claw, bringing it up to his tongue to give it a lick. Astrid winced.

"Please tell me you didn't just…"

"Blood," Wretch said.

"Human I think."

"Cant argue with results." Elenya said, pointing her halberd towards the stairs.

"So that living corpse did come from here." Wretch rubbed his chin.

"But—" he began. Edmund finished the thought.

"That thing didn't have a drop of blood in it." Astrid let her fingers run across the cuff of her dress.

"The vagrant…" Wretch nodded.

"He came from below too." The four Hunters looked at each other. What was a man from the slums doing in these forsaken depths. Wretch thought to himself. Edmund nodded as if he could read his mind.

"Let's move." They descended, down the spiraling stairwell and through a half collapsed tunnel. Their only lantern painted the stone yellow and orange as they moved to the drum of their own boots. The tunnel opened up into a perfectly smooth floor surrounded by nothing but darkness. They walked out in a tight group and Edmund raised the lantern. Barely close enough to be visible, the outline of massive pillars reached into the dark above. Each, ten meters across and made of solid granite.

Rusted remnants of tubes and pipes ran erratically along the perfect sculptures. Despite how Edmund angled the light, no roof was visible, the ceiling too high. Neither did they see any walls. Only an endless forest of pillars.

"How can a place like this exist, just under the city?" Wretch said, looking around with wide eyes.

"My father called it the Underbelly," Edmund answered.

"And our assailant isn't the first thing to crawl up from its depths."

"A better question is what a civilian was doing down here." Astrid answered.

"In the dark without a light." A shudder went through Wretch.

"You still have the trail?" Elenya said and lowered her head to Wretch's level.

"Both of them," He said with a nod.

"That way." They continued in silence. Each of the Hunters treading lightly as if to not disturb the place. W hat kind of Blessed could have made all this. They walked for what felt like hours. Then, the hall abruptly ended. Before them was an abyss. Giant pipes ran through the dark. One extended just below them, like a four meter wide bridge into nothingness.

"Dont say it…" Astrid began. Wretch crawled forward on all fours, his claws chiming against the corroded metal. A few meters out, he stopped and stood straight.

"The trail goes across," he said. Astrid gave a shudder.

"Captain… perhaps destroying the pipe would be enough." Edmund rubbed his chin.

"We won't be paid from just that, besides…" he said with a smile that reached his eyes.

"We are Hunters, and this is our city." From across the bridge-like pipe, something gently breezed against Wretch's senses. A whisper. But so low that not even his ears could pick out the meaning. A shiver shot down his spine and his eyes grew wide. T he others looked at him as he slowly turned his head around to look at the darkness beyond the pipe.

"What?" Elenya said.

"I hear someone," he said.

"Someone?" Astrid asked. As if to answer her a sound traveled from across the abyss. Knock Knock If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Knock A hard unrelenting sound like that of an officer demanding a wooden door to open.

"It's calling us," Wretch said, gripping the hilt of his dagger. Edmund stepped past the group, walking out on the slope metal tube with lantern raised high.

"Let's see what has nested under our city." They crossed the bridge, Wretch in front and the other three in a tight group behind. Wretch was scared of many things, but height was not one of them. The knock repeated, urging them closer. Astrid peeked down the dark to her side. With a screech her boot slipped. She fell downwards with a gasp. A hand with shades of red shot forward, snatching her up by the back of her dress. Leaving the wide-eyed healer suspended in the air.

"Watch your step, princess," Elenya said, lowering Astrid to her feet.

"Careful, eyes forward." Edmund ordered. The group moved at a slow pace, crossing the dark until Edmunds lantern caught the edge of a structure. A large circular mountain rose like a wall in the dark. Its surface was covered with stairs and doorless houses. Roads with sockets for gas-lamps, strangely pristine. Like an undeveloped embryo of a vertical district.

"I can't believe it." Astrid whispered.

"That's…"

"A Spire." Wretch finished. The pipe disappeared into the rock, a rusty walkway running up to a platform. Elenya raised an eyebrow.

"What lunatic would build this beneath the ground?" A knock echoed from within the jumble of stairs and unfinished alleyways.

"Maybe we can ask whoever is down here." Edmund said. They followed onto solid ground and Astrid exhaled. continuing after the rhythmic thuds through dust covered streets, they found two sets of footprints. With drawn weapons, they turned a corner. The lantern illuminated a lonely door, clearly out of place. Two metal coffins flanked it, each with a thick chain wrapped around the metal. One was laying overturned on the floor, its chain broken and oil seeping from its lid. Naked footprints leading towards them.

From beyond the black stone door came a knock.

"Here we are," Edmund said and held up his lantern. Wretch walked forward on light feet, sniffing in the stale air.

"It came from here, but the human scent is gone." The second coffin shook. Something threw its weight to one side and the casket tilted. Wretch was quick to cover his ears as the metal slammed against the ground. A muffled bang rattling his eardrums. The rusted corroded chains splintered. Elenya's grip tightened around her halberd and Edmund stepped forward. The coffin lid screeched open as the Hunters watched. A shriveled body flopped to the stone floor in the light of the lantern.

It lay there like a gutted fish, unmoving except a pair of quivering, cracked lips,"Inside,""Inside,"" Inside." Edmund placed his armored boot on the head.

"I hear you, loud and clear." With a shift of weight, the skull cracked like a rotten egg, staining his sole. He turned to the group.

"We know two things..."

"One of its blessings can control the dead from a considerable distance, and it seems to want to meet us."

"Elenya, the door." Edmund continued with a gesture. She took three quick steps forward, and slammed her shoulder against the black surface. It groaned but didn't budge. Then she launched a kick against it. A heavy snap sounded from the other side and it screeched open. They moved through the passage, Wretch last, glancing behind them before slipping inside. Just keep it together, you did your job, Elenya and Edmund can handle the rest. He thought, gulping down a growing sense of unease.

On the other side, Edmund raised his lantern to light the interior. It was a smooth stone corridor. Elenya's foot hit something that rang out and they all looked down. A wobbling bucket at their feet and some tools Wretch didn't recognize.

"Mason gear," Astrid said as she crouched down and stabbed her dagger at the bucket's hard gray substance.

"Old but not ancient, a few decades perhaps," she continued as she looked back at the stone door. A thick layer of masonry around its edges.

"They barred the passage?" Wretch asked. Astrid nodded.

"From the inside." A wave of prickling coldness crept over his skin.

"Weapons drawn," Edmund said.

"We keep moving." They continued down the narrow corridor, Edmund in the front and Wretch in the back. The path, hewn from stone, was slick with no adornments or markings. After a minute, the swaying lantern-light revealed a circular room, the corridor continuing beyond. They stopped, Edmund illuminating the room's interior. In the center stood a decrepit wooden table with a multitude of rusty containers and tools. A bundle of cloth littering the floor.

One part of the round wall was carved with storage slots, filled with stone urns.

"What is this place?" Elenya asked. Astrid stepped forward and examined the tools.

"Knives, surgical ones. And some tools I don't recognize," she whispered. Wretch moved up to the containers and removed the lid. He flinched.

"Some kind of oil. The same thick smell as the creature." He said, waving a hand in front of his nose. Astrid held up a shirt from the floor, shaking a thick layer of dust from its yellowed fabric.

"Ivan Datlovich," she said, reading from a tag on the piece of clothing.

"An embalming chamber." Edmund said with a nod.

"Embalming?" Elenya asked"It's a banned practice, preserves the dead but hasn't been used for centuries."

"Why ban it?" Wretch whispered and hurried back to the group.

"The practice could create Blessed with problematic powers." Edmund said, holding up the lantern and inspecting the room again. A knock echoed from the corridor on the other side of the room. Urging them deeper into the dark.

"Hmm, this is good," Edmund said. Astrid grimaced and there was a strain to her voice.

"Sorry captain, but I fail to see how unearthing a death cult is good."

"The Bureau will reward us for this," Edmund said with a smile.

"But first, I think someone wants to meet us." The group looked to the corridor leading further into the dark, a heavy knock urging them on. They moved out of the embalming room deeper into the earth. This is ok. Not even half as bad as when I crawled through the sewers. Probably. A minute later, they stopped. Another stone door blocked their path, a chiseled placard above it. A heavy knock shook the space. Reverberating just from the other side of the door.

"What does it say?" Elenya said in a whisper, halberd at the ready. The captain cleared his throat.

"Here lie the Datlovich tomb, family through life and death, Blessed by the Flame of Ends, tread with care and grief."

"What's the Flame of Ends?" Wretch asked.

"No clue. Do you know Astrid?" Edmund asked. The girl was pale and held the dagger with both hands as she shook her head.

"Perhaps Mr Datlovich can tell us. If he's still human." Wretch tightened the grip on his dagger.

"Prepare yourself," the captain commanded and h e pressed a hand against the door, the sound of stone grinding on stone vibrated the stale air. Slowly it swung open. The lantern threw orange light across a large chamber, cut straight into the rock. It was wide, with shelves covering the walls, each holding a shriveled corpse with brownish skin, clutching rusted swords. The scent of the embalming fluid hung thick in the air. The hunters' steps echoed in the space, but there was another sound as well.

One that made his heart thump in his ears. Whispers, low and indecipherable like the mad sputters of the flame. They grew into a hum, a hundred unintelligible voices. All but one.

"Come closer."