Both Maximilian and Freedan stared at the mysterious sword Rawne now wielded.
Though slender and curved, its length seemed suited to someone of much taller stature than Aden Rawne. A matching sheath hanging over his shoulder, the end clearly visible behind his hip. A hilt that was long enough to easily accommodate the two-handed grip Rawne employed, and only the most minimal form of a crossguard at the base of that smoky dark blade.
“You found it…” Freedan gasped, recognizing the style of that wickedly curved blade from sketches of Edric’s find. “The rest of the treasure…”
“Deep in the heart of the tower,” Rawne nodded, then turned back to Maximilian. “You should feel honored to even lay eyes on it before you die.”
“Not if we have anything to say about it!” Justin told him, double-barrel power pistols already aimed at him, as he and Shades topped the stairs. Max following close behind, having bandaged his shoulder while his friends guarded him.
Rawne paused to look around, noting, to his dismay, that there was no sign of any of his men around.
Likely also realizing they were outnumbered, Freedan snatched up a fallen power pistol, making a mad dash up the stairs to the top of the structure.
Justin shifted his aim and opened fire at him, but Shades tackled him just in time to avoid another throwing knife from Rawne, even as Max called out a warning.
Rawne then bolted for the nearest doorway, Max in hot pursuit, and Justin and Shades scrambled back to their feet, chasing Freedan up the steps.
“Dammit!” Maximilian shouted as he got back to his feet and took off after them. “Wait up!”
As Freedan staggered out onto the platform at the top, he stopped short at the squarish building that sat at the top, a massive stone cube with only the side facing him open. In the center of the room was what looked like some sort of pedestal, though not long enough for that mysterious sword Rawne found. Yet he could all too easily picture Edric finding a dagger resting there, once upon a time. The far wall glowed and shimmered like a pool of water somehow sitting sideways.
Hearing footsteps behind him, closing fast, he decided to try using the pedestal, which was made of the same stone as the rest of this place, as cover.
Only to find a black-and-white panther already hiding behind it.
Caught completely off-guard by such an unexpected turn of events, he stumbled back against that shimmering wall, falling right through it with a startled yelp, that echoed weirdly in his wake.
“Bandit!” Shades called out as he reached the top, realizing only now that they had lost track of their feline friend during the battle.
Even as it occurred to him to wonder where Freedan disappeared to, Justin yanked him aside, nearly toppling both of them back down the steps, as Rawne thrusted at him from behind.
Stumbling from his failed surprise attack, Rawne spotted the big cat, which he vaguely recalled seeing in their party at the start of the battle, and, putting two and two together, decided that a hostage was in order against these numbers.
Bandit, not at all liking this man’s sudden interest in him, found himself trapped between that sleek blade and that strange wall, finally deciding to take his chances with the wall.
“Bandit! Wait!”
The two Maxes joined them at the top.
Deciding that four against one was not his kind of odds, Rawne decided to try the wall, as well.
Seeing where Bandit went, Max quickly followed, the Young Master hot on his heels.
The former noticed, only in passing, a vaguely familiar tingling sensation as he pushed through that mysterious membrane, stumbling out into a dank, musty-smelling darkness beyond the glow of his energy blade.
Immediately followed by a piercing light in his face, and Rawne charging right at him, flashlight in one hand, his new sword in the other.
Max barely dodged, missing any chance to counter-attack in his frantic evasion.
“Not one more move!”
Freedan’s voice. Seeing a second light now, Max turned to see him standing a short distance away, in what appeared to be some sort of cavernous stone chamber. Though what held his undivided attention was that Freedan was pointing both his flashlight, and his power pistol, at Bandit.
“All of you!” Freedan added, as Shades and Justin shimmered into the middle of the chamber as well.
“You coward!” Max blurted.
“As I thought!” Freedan gloated. “This creature is important to—”
Only to have Justin shoot him in the shoulder before he could threaten them any further, causing him to drop his gun with a howl of agony.
“Justin!” Shades gasped.
“Damn straight, he’s important!” Justin shouted at Freedan.
“Damn you!” Freedan howled, dropping his flashlight and clutching his wounded shoulder. “Damn you all to hell!…”
“Why don’t you just give up?” Maximilian demanded. “You’ve lost. Come quietly, and once we reach the surface, you can answer for your crimes like a man.”
“A risky move,” Shades commented, trying to figure out how to deal with a prisoner in such extreme circumstances, “but if that’s what you want…”
“Why don’t you just die!” Freedan screeched. “I waited ten years for this! For my triumphant return to New Cali! I refuse to go out like that!”
“You don’t have any—” Maximilian began.
“Look out!” Max warned him, belatedly remembering that they were not alone in here.
Maximilian barely noticed Rawne, who had turned off his flashlight, in time to avoid a huge, arcing swing of his new toy, falling over backward as the blade swept by.
Rawne’s swing completely missed him, instead slicing clean through a stone pillar in the middle of the chamber, encountering so little resistance, he lost his balance entirely and fell flat on his face.
Both of them scrambled to their feet, Maximilian barely rolling out of the way of the pillar as it fell over with a thunderous crash that sent everyone else scattering.
Undeterred, Rawne charged at Maximilian again, but was struck in the back by a falling hunk of rock, sending him stumbling to the left, where he shimmered and vanished blade-first, right about where they entered the place.
“The treasure!” Freedan cried, staggering over there to find himself unable to pass through whatever mysterious way connected the two places.
Apparently the only one who failed to notice that Rawne had taken out a load-bearing pillar with that missed attack.
“This place is falling apart!” Max screamed.
Though the place appeared to be part natural cave, part stonework, and it was fast becoming obvious which part had come to support which as whole chunks began raining down.
“Over there!” Justin shouted, pointing to a stone stairway leading up into a tunnel.
They wasted no time, as the chamber they were in was becoming more and more dangerous by the second.
As he entered the tunnel, Maximilian turned to see Freedan just standing there.
“Come on!” the Young Master called out to him. “Give it up! It’s not worth your life!”
Freedan simply glared at him, his baleful gaze only wishing death upon those seeking escape.
“Move it!” Max called back to them.
Then the whole ceiling seemed to give out a once, burying both Freedan and the cavern entrance under tons of rubble.
“He made his choice,” Shades told Maximilian as he dragged him up the stairs behind him.
Justin waited for no one, actually holding the lead as he relived Pullman Mine every step of the way. Up the stairs, around a corner, and down another tunnel. The walls and ceiling shaking and spilling rock and gravel at every turn.
All of them coughing and hacking for breath by the time the dust settled.
Not that any of them tarried, even after the shaking stopped. Fearing the potential instability of the cave system, they pressed on, catching their breath as best they could as they walked. Each of them moving as quickly and carefully, and quietly, as possible, fearing another cave-in.
“Where the fuck are we?” Justin muttered, aiming his flashlight around.
“Hard to say…” Shades whispered. “Even the stone looks completely different…”
Neither the red-orange stonework of Alta, nor the grey-green of that strange place they just escaped from, but instead more of a dull brown color none of them had seen anywhere else down here.
“You don’t think we ended up even deeper underground, do you?” Max wondered aloud.
“Don’t even think it,” Justin hissed.
“The last thing we need now is to be even deeper than those ruins we already visited,” Shades agreed.
The only thing that offered any cause for hope was the fact that the tunnel they wound their way through seemed to be taking them on an upward cant, with occasional steps carved out of the steeper sections.
After about ten or fifteen tense minutes, they came to another cavern, though not as large as the one down below. Adorned with several pillars on each side, and a broad stone stairway leading up to a doorway on the far side.
As they drew nearer, the first thing they noticed was that the doorway was bricked-up.
“Looks like the only way out of here,” Shades noted.
“Unless there were others forks farther back down that tunnel,” Max pointed out. “We were in a pretty big hurry back there.”
“No way in hell I’m goin’ back down there!” Justin remarked. “The only good thing about that mess is that no one can follow us now.”
“We might have no choice,” Shades replied. Any other exits to that chamber were now buried along with the portal. “Though I also don’t recall seeing any other paths down there…”
“Just a minute,” Max told them, seeing Bandit sniffing around one side of the doorway. “Let’s take a closer look at this thing.”
“I think you might be on to something…” Shades stood in front of the seam on the left side of the doorway, no longer needing their feline friend’s nose now that he stood in the right place. “I feel a draft from here…”
“Then that means… it leads to the surface?” Justin tried not to sound too hopeful, but he just couldn’t help himself.
“Perhaps,” Shades cautioned him, “but it’s probably a safer bet than going back down.”
“Only one way to find out.” Max fired up his laser sword, stepping up to the doorway.
“It would stand to reason,” Shades mused, “since it appears to have been sealed from the other side. Any objections to taking a peek?”
Hearing none, Max went to work, cutting out a two-foot-wide slice of the left-hand side, making it wide enough for them to slip through single file, while still leaving most of the masonry intact, just in case.
Seeing that the gap was stable enough, they slipped through one by one, finding themselves in another chamber, smaller than the one on the other side. Not only that, but the air on this side was noticeably less stale and stifling than the other side, and the tunnel appeared to lead still further upward.
“Why does this feel so familiar to me?…” Maximilian mumbled, looking back upon the sealed passageway from this side.
Around the next bend, they saw a faint light up ahead, pressing on with cautious optimism.
That light grew steadily brighter with every turn.
“Daylight!” Justin cried. “We’re free!”
“Wait!” Shades shouted as he took off after him, having had enough surprises for one day. “It might be dangerous!”
Much to everyone’s relief, though, the light at the end of the tunnel did indeed turn out to be the light of day. All of them cheering heartily, even as they blinked away at the full blaze of daylight.
Author's Chapter Notes:
daylight
