I thumped stone hard and drenched, and to my astonishment, could already feel the blinking lid in my left eye. I vigorously tore the wrappings from my face and was staggered by the perfect vision in both my eyes. I could even feel all the wiggling toes returned to my foot. This was black magic, an unholy miracle; but I didn't mind.
"Help us Danny!" yelled a perturbed Eddinray, deflecting a rat's blunt hook. Dripping wet, I scuttled to their side, shielding off rodents with slash after slash. "Get back!" I screamed, chipping them away.
I hacked and hacked with more power than I've ever had in my arm, my sword hand pulsating, unadulterated adrenaline pumping through my system, urging me to kill more and more and more! My companions, although far from pulsating, kept up their ends. Harmony gave up on the longbow and simply held her arrows like knives, stabbing any close. The knight meanwhile struggled to deal with one of the larger rats taking an unwelcome fancy to him.
"Off!" he moaned. "I'll run you all through!"
More came, and more over them, too many to see off. For all their overwhelming numbers, my sword did not stop. My wrist seared from overuse, and already I could feel this brief talent drain from me as human bodies with rat heads began to shroud the light. They were everywhere.
The second scream from the well caused every living thing to stand rigid — the wrenching ululation of something wicked. Kat burst from the water in a tremendous explosion of light and sound — and removing both swords in flight, he landed with a crunch of stone under his feet. There, the man smouldered — recovered in body, but pathological in mind.
The samurai raised a queer brow to the odious mob, wearing a fresh and disfiguring scar down one whole side of his face. He saw their claws, smelt their breath, and thus began the slaughter. Kat destroyed every rat near and not near him, a steel tornado leaving destruction in his wake. Death cries were high pitched and excruciating, and it didn't take a minute for Kat to eviscerate, behead, and vanquish every one of them. He was superlative, superhuman, the devil incarnate. Once finished, he slunk famished, then observed his massacre with a still, insane satisfaction.
After a moment, we three came over our friend in deadened disbelief, the flesh and hairy parts piled around us like a mass grave. The blood of the rats smeared gooey greens over the labyrinth floor, and there Kat sat and soaked in it, those trench eyes of his trapped open, not blinking nor flinching. He held this glacial expression for too long, and remarkably, just one bead of sweat dribbled down his temple.
With open arms, I diligently bent to him. "Kat?" I whispered. "Kat?"
"Your body was gone,” said Harmony, keeping her distance. "Daniel saved you…"
I shook my head. "Not me Harmony. The well."
Eddinray was highly strung, restlessly jerking and winking. "Well?" he yelled. "Are you alive, man? Say something!"
Bending down to the petrified warrior, Kat's predator eyes made contact with mine to once again inspire a curdling in my stomach. I placed a gentle hand on his knee, and spoke as softly as my voice would allow.
"You're okay Kat. Do you understand?"
At last, he blinked, and then stood like David to his feet.
"Fill flasks,” I said, quickly. "We get the hell out of here now."
We guzzled down the remaining barrel water from our flasks, and all but Harmony refilled them with the miraculous well water. We would need every drop.
25. The Flood
Grazing my hand on the left wall, I took the lead and Virgil's advice, while the youthful face of Scarfell played in and out of my mind. The witch told me he had the power to come and go between realms whenever he pleased, but it never once occurred to me that it could be his face under that disguise. He had us all fooled.
From time to time, I would peer at Kat, concerned. He appeared half-alive at my side, caught in some mental paralysis between the living and dead. There was no obvious problems with his physique, but there was something wrong with his presence, a part broken.
"Must be close,” I said, pushing them hard. "How long has it been?"
"We should rest Daniel," suggested Harmony, the sweat sapping her bandanna "This exertion is intolerable."
They were ready to drop, but we couldn't stop. Not here. I now felt the weight of leadership bare down on my shoulders. It was a heavy burden, and with Kat giving no hint, order or opinion — it was definitely mine.
"There!" bawled Eddinray, pointing out a rodent, crawling at speed toward us.
Grunting, I cut a slash up the creature's chest, leaving its bloody graffiti on the wall. This incident appeared to shunt Kat out of his mind; a lively focus came back to his eyes, and they honed in on those now swarming over the labyrinth rims.
"Our home! Our home!"
"Arm yourselves!" cried a primal Kat. "Run!"
"Run!" I repeated, setting off in a frenzied charge, blocking claw, teeth and hook with my sword. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
"Cover my back!" Kat ordered Harmony and Eddinray. "Hear me?"
Troubled by their silence, I searched back to see Eddinray rolling on the deck with a rat snapping down on top of him. Harmony stood over their tussle, kicking the rat's ribs.
"Use your arrows!" I screamed, returning to them. "Harmony! Your arrows!"
Eddinray manoeuvred his panting face to the left and to the right — all the time avoiding the malignant mouth over him. Unaware that I had left his side, Kat fought like a powerhouse ahead, parting heads from bodies on his way forward.
Endeavouring to remove an arrow from her quiver, Harmony failed to see a scavenging rat at her blind side. Seeing it for her, I flung my short sword spinning through the air, hurtling past the angel's ear and finishing in the rat's heart, if it had one.
"Up!" I exclaimed, forcing the knight to his feet before recovering my sword from the dead body. Glancing high, the blood froze in my veins when I witnessed a vast number of rodents filling the labyrinth.
"Don't stop swinging!" I said; and full of resilience, Eddinray and I began to carve a path through rats whilst Harmony shot her arrows. We couldn't see Kat any-more, so arriving at the next fork, we continued following Virgil's advice.
"A cave ahead!" shrieked Harmony, after the left turn. "There! There!"
It was a serrated scar cut into a dead-end, like someone attempting to make an exit when there was none. With the pack fast on our heels and no other options, we three dashed desperately into that dark crack.
***
The surface was not sturdy, but a spongy, pliable soil. Rats bunched behind at a careful pace, almost ushering us in. I detested the smiles on their dribbling gobs, as if they knew they'd be eating well tonight.
"I'm scared,” mumbled Harmony, her voice bouncing off the jagged stone here.
"We all are,” I said. "Kat! You in here?"
Observing nothing but the rats, we stumbled over the strewn organ pieces, juice-less eyeballs and stinking bowels left uneaten at our feet.
"Our home!" they hissed, and Harmony screamed upon noticing the six creatures, appearing out of nowhere to block any progress through the cave. Six behind, hundreds in-front — we where emphatically surrounded.
"Back cannibal!" demanded the knight, his sword flailing. "Get! Scram!"
Harmony pulled arrows back on the bow and killed anything slithering, Eddinray and I meanwhile struggled to hold the distance between us and them.
"Our home!"
"Get out of it!" I growled, but on their turf, they closed the net. "We take out the back group!" I panted. "They're only six!"
"Five!" exclaimed Harmony, firing into that half dozen to strike one in the neck. We then cut through that lot in unison, and into deeper, darker territory.