“This tunnel has remained for over two thousand years,” she said.
“You can’t know that.”
“But that’s just it,” Lorelei said. “I can.”
I scowled.
She stepped back in alarm.
My shoulders drooped. “Sorry,” I muttered. “I won’t strike you. It’s just-”
“Darkling, do you remember I spoke about a third way?”
I nodded.
“I’m the third way. There are several of us. We’re…we call ourselves the Immortals. We’re not, I suppose. We can all too readily die. But we’ve lived an awfully long time. I’ll try to help you if I can, but part of the way we’ve managed to survive the millennia is by knowing which side to keep on good terms with.”
“Why tell me this?” I asked.
“You’re unique, and the hour is dreadful. Now go. The tunnel will hold, I promise.”
I glanced into the depths. It was damp and cold, and so dark. I quailed at the thought of marching down there.
“Why does the Moon Lady need a Darkling?” I muttered.
“Surely that must be obvious,” she said.
Something boomed above. It might have been a boulder rolled out of the way.
“The Lords of Night will be hunting for you,” Lorelei said. “Because of Magi Filippo’s pendant, they may even know who you are. Trust no one. Be especially careful near Perugia.”
I stared into the depths, hated the idea of going deeper.
Lorelei made a last jingle with her bells. “Let me see your torch.”
I slowly held it up. She touched her lamplight to it. The tarry end whooshed into smelly flame.
“Goodbye,” she said, “and good luck.”
I muttered something. She retreated and soon stepped around a curve. My shoulders hunched. I glanced at the torch. The flame would last so long and no longer. I slid my foot forward, shuffled the other. I needed speed. According to Lorelei, the way was long. I had to gain a march on the priestess and slip past any guards the Lords of Night might have placed on patrol around the castle.
The tunnel narrowed ahead, and it kept going down. My grip tightened and I blinked repeatedly. The time in the hole in the cave, buried under dirt…there had been another incident. I shuddered as I recalled it. The memory brought me to a halt.
It had been in my father’s day. He’d hired out Perugian men-at-arms as mercenaries to a count of Rome. The count had besieged Todi. The men of Todi were hardy soldiers and from upon the walls had jeered the Roman. In his fury, the count had ordered mining operations. He’d put me in charge and ordered us to dig out the rebels.
The count had been a fool. Todi’s soil was rocky. My soldiers had wielded picks and sent a laborious shaft into the earth. I recalled the sweating, the hard work, the foul air that had drifted with tiny particles of rock and dust. It had caught in our lungs. We’d all spat dirt for days. I had gone down with the men because I’d been the commander. The count had sent us wormy wood, which we’d used to shore up the tunnel. The point of the memory was two-fold. The men of Todi had heard our laborious picking. They’d picked a counter-shaft. And in burning torchlight, they’d come upon us.
The screams, the desperate swings, the tight confines, the shove and push, it had been horrible. I’d taken a gash in the arm and lunged at a black-faced miner. I’d shoved a dagger through his ribs. We won that fight. But the next day, the wormy, rotten wood had collapsed ahead of me. The Earth had shaken like a quake, and dust and rocky particles had vomited into my face with a blast of air. I’d joined my men, and we’d dug like dogs to free those trapped ahead, bloodying our fingers.
The collapse had cost me eleven Perugians. And it had stoked my boyhood fear of caves into terror. I’d raged at the count for giving me wormy wood. But what I’d really done was goad him into a towering fury so he’d ordered me home. My father had railed and later, the count of Rome became my worst enemy. Yet none of that had mattered, because I’d escaped the horrid tunnels at Todi. Nothing could have gotten me to go down them again.
My torch crackled. I stood deep in this tunnel under the evil castle of the Moon. My feet had become rooted. Lorelei had left some time ago. For all I knew, the priestess’ guards hurried down here. Maybe the priestess would release the beast.
I glanced over my shoulder in dread. I hated this place.
Erasmo had tricked me into wading into the swamp. Later, he’d told me he would take my guise and my wife. Was his sorcery that powerful? According to Lorelei, the world had changed by what he’d done. I bared my teeth. And I thought of Erasmo lying atop Laura.
“You foul cur,” I whispered. I slid my foot forward. This was worse than waking up with grass through my chainmail. This was worse than being-
“I’m alive!” I hissed. “Now move, Gian.”
What would I do if my torch went out while I was deep under the Earth? I groaned, and I increased my step. It was the best I could manage as I strode deeper into darkness.
— 14-
I cringed as a drip hissed into my sputtering torch. I jerked the torch from side to side, fanned the flame into greater life, but was careful not to strike the walls. The tunnel was narrow. Sometimes I’d twisted through passages. Too often, I had to crouch and once I’d crawled. I’d also splashed through more than one puddle. Water clung to the cramped ceiling like evil beads. They were wily, these drops, and only dripped when I glanced elsewhere.
Black spots now danced before my eyes. It wasn’t a lack of air, for I didn’t breathe. I could feel the weight of millions of tons of rock and dirt ready to crush me into oblivion as a man crushes a flea between his fingers. It terrified me. Every time I squeezed through a particularly tight spot, I dreaded wedging myself.
The torch sputtered again. I closed my eyes and retraced in my thoughts the various choices I’d made. Had I correctly followed Lorelei’s instructions? She hadn’t said anything about these tight passages. Might I have taken a wrong turn?
Maybe because I had my eyes closed, I felt a soft voice calling. It was soothing. I cocked my head. I heard nothing audible…I felt the voice, and I found that I clutched my belt where I kept the coin hidden. I palmed the coin, fingered the engravings. The sense of soothing grew. I had the feeling that if I begged the Moon Lady, if I knelt and pledged my soul that all would be forgiven. She would show me the way out of these tunnels. I could walk under the stars again. I could-
Something roared in the tunnels behind me. My eyes snapped open. I twisted round and stared into the dread blackness. It had sounded like the guardian beast, the chained thing. Was it loose? Had it sniffed out my trail?
I sensed the softest of chuckles. I stared at the traitorous coin, at the mocking curve of the Moon Lady’s lips. The coin had led the beast to me. The coin, or the Moon Lady, had betrayed me.
I wanted to hurl the coin into the darkness, but didn’t dare. It held my spark of life.
“I’ll never be yours!” I shouted.
An answering roar dislodged a shower of droplets. One hissed as it dripped into my torch. Another slid under my collar. Then scratches and leathery sliding sounds told me the beast wriggled through a narrow part of the underground tunnels. I believe I knew where it was by my memory of that particular tight spot, and it was much too near to me.
I saw a momentary picture in my mind of what would happen when the beast arrived. The thought showed a giant, lizard-like creature dragging me back to the castle like a wolf-bitch carrying a pup.
I squeezed the traitorous coin. Then I thrust it into my belt. It was impossible that I could fight such a monster in these narrow tunnels. I heard a clink, maybe that of a giant collar striking rock.
“Curse you,” I whispered. The black splotches before my eyes increased. I fled crouched over. My poor eyes missed a curve and I slammed against stone. I wanted to weep. Then I slammed against stone again. The jar knocked the torch out of my hand. It slid into a puddle. The flame hissed. I snatched it up, shook the torch and watched as the flame shrank. I would rave like a lunatic if it went pitch black.