There was a loud crack, Maquin hissed and slumped.
‘Next time, use a shield, not your shoulder,’ Orgull said.
‘I’ll try and remember,’ Maquin mumbled, spitting the leather from his mouth. He sank to one knee.
‘Take what you need,’ Orgull said, reaching down to grab a shield from a fallen warrior. ‘We need to find a way out of here.’
With an effort, Maquin walked away from Kastell’s body and began searching the ground. First he looked to his water skin, drinking deep, then refilled it from others about him. In short time he found a plain wooden shield, iron-rimmed and bossed. Its face showed signs of the battle, but only shallow scratches. He hefted it, checked its straps, then slung it across his back. He also found a broad-bladed spear. Orgull was holding an axe that had belonged to one of the long-dead giant warriors left guarding their king. As Maquin stared at him, Orgull swung the axe at the stone floor, sparks flying as it chipped a chunk out of the rock. Rust fell from the blade. Orgull ran his thumb along its edge and nodded approvingly.
‘You thinking to chop your way out of here?’ Maquin asked.
‘If I have to. It’s still sharp enough.’ Orgull smiled humourlessly. ‘I’m not taken with the idea of using their front door, though. Can’t see that Calidus leaving it open, or unguarded. And if I start chopping at it I’ll wake all between here and the forest.’
‘Agreed,’ Maquin said.
‘See those flames?’
Maquin looked up at the blue flames. Some flickered and crackled, touched by a breeze.
‘Let’s find where that air is coming from and hope it’s more than a crack in the ground.’
There was a sudden muffled groan from amongst the bodies around them. Maquin pulled at the corpse of a Jehar warrior, revealing twitching fingers, a moving arm.
It was Tahir, one of their Gadrai sword-brothers. He was a young man, not much older than Kastell. They had been friends.
They uncovered him and checked him for wounds but could only find a large, egg-shaped lump on his temple. The stocky, long-armed warrior touched it and winced.
‘What happened?’ he muttered, his eyes unfocused.
Orgull recounted Jael’s treachery.
‘Vandil?’ Tahir asked, rising unsteadily to his feet, gazing at the dead strewn about him.
‘Dead. Slain by Calidus’ pet giant,’ Orgull said.
Tahir whistled, shook his head and instantly looked as if he regretted doing it. ‘What now, then?’
‘Find a way out of this hole. One thing at a time.’
Maquin fashioned torches out of axe and spear shafts, wrapping them in strips of cloth torn from tattered cloaks, and dipped them in the oil-filled bowls that lined the walkway. They flickered with the same blue light.
Together they marched to the edge of the chamber and began tracing its edge, searching for a doorway. It was not long before they found an archway draped with thick cobwebs, a slight breeze stirring it. Maquin touched his torch to the web and blue sparks crackled out in a widening circle, consuming the web right back to the stone. Orgull looked at them both, then strode into the darkness. Tahir followed.
Maquin paused, looking back into the chamber. ‘Farewell, Kastell,’ he said, and after a few long moments he gritted his teeth and stepped into the tunnel.
The three of them trudged in silence, blue-tinged torchlight flickering on the tunnel’s high roof and walls. Other corridors branched off, Maquin eyeing the dense shadows suspiciously. This place was in Forn Forest, after all, or beneath it, and Forn was the dark savage heart of the Banished Lands. Its inhabitants were by and large unpleasant. And predatory.
His thoughts drifted back to those left behind, to Vandil, to his Gadrai sword-brothers, to Romar and most of all to Kastell. Yet again he saw Jael stepping in front of Kastell, stabbing him. He should have stayed closer. His vision blurred with tears and he swiped at his eyes, fist clenching.
A sound drew his attention: a scraping, submerged in the deep shadows of a side tunnel. He stared into the darkness, thought he saw the hint of movement just beyond the torchlight’s reach. Something big. There was a faint reflection. He hissed a warning and drew his sword.
‘What’s wrong?’ Tahir said, as Orgull joined them.
‘Something’s down there,’ Maquin muttered.
‘What?’
‘I don’t know. Something.’
Maquin walked into the side tunnel, his torch held high. Darkness retreated before the light, revealing nothing but empty space.
‘Nothing there now,’ Tahir pointed out.
‘Come on,’ Orgull said. ‘Tahir, guard our backs.’
‘Aye, chief.’