“
Vaughn approached you in Kassandrea quite awhile ago asking for information on how to slip out of there. You said the Isogorreans had killed your men at the last attempt?”
The man shook his head.
“
No, we just didn’t want to reveal the tunnel is all.”
The man turned and rode off leaving Wollfen to his thoughts. As he rode back to the army column, he got to thinking. The gang couldn’t have dug the tunnel. It was over half a day to reach its destination and that was by horse. By foot it would be even longer. No, he suspected that this tunnel may be one of the lava tubes they were going to look for. It certainly made sense. Would it help them find the right one under Kassandrea and the staircase to the fixed portal? Time would tell.
Dark watched as Wollfen pulled back into line with them. He seemed a little more content now.
“
A good leak was it?” Wollfen responded with a curious look and then he raised his eyebrows.
“
Oh, yes indeed.” Dark laughed.
“
You are a funny man wolf boy, did you ever think of going into comedy?” He chuckled.
“
Somehow I don’t think I would come across very funny at all, more likely send ‘em off screaming.”
The following afternoon at seeing the cliff face, Wollfen called for his companions and a small force of Elves to peel off. Before they moved off he gave final instructions to the Generals present.
“
Tomorrow night we will be inside Kassandrea. We will open the gates at midnight at all three points. I expect you will be able move in under cover of darkness at that time. It should be ideal. There is no moon for a few nights so that will aid us perfectly.”
“
We will be ready, they won’t know what hit them.” Wollfen was pleased by his response.
“
Good because I really don’t want to be wandering the streets surrounded by Isogorreans trying to look inconspicuous.”
“
Save a beer for us then won’t you? Good luck!” Wollfen waved back as he rode off and called back.
“
You too!”
Wollfen’s small column disappeared into the woods. It wasn’t long before they rode up to near the base of the cliffs and dismounted.
“
We are looking for a small cave entrance covered by shrubs, fan out and see what you can find.”
They entered the bushes and poked about searching for it. It took maybe ten minutes of scrambling around and digging about. The gang leader was right when he said it wouldn’t be easy to find. Finally one of them called out, it was found.
“
Alright, everyone grab a torch and a pack,” Wollfen turned to one man, “I want you to return to the column with our horses. I expect we will need them again at the other end.”
The soldier gave a salute and did as he was told.
They all stood there at what was a low small hole exposed after pulling back some branches. They all had to stoop low to work their way in. The elves had the hardest time being the tallest. The entrance didn’t open up for about thirty feet but when it did it widened quickly. There Wollfen lit his torch and looked around. There was no evidence at all that anyone had been this way. Probably deliberate so as not to tip off any idle inspection.
Two elves took the lead and they walked along for what seemed like only a few minutes. It was a lot longer but in that darkness all sense of time was lost. They came out and before them lay three openings. Wollfen took the scroll out given to him and he looked at it.
“
We take the middle one.”
The elves resumed the lead and continued forward. Wollfen studied the walls as they moved. They were too sharp and smooth to be lava tubes. Maybe his guess was wrong. It looked like it could have been mined. After a few more hours, they exited into a much larger tunnel from the side. Looking around Wollfen could see this one definitely was a lava tube. The roundness, uneven floor and swirls in the rock paid testament to that.
Wollfen looked at the scroll once more.
“
We go to the right here.”
Again they set off traveling at a steady pace and still going down. After awhile Wollfen got to wondering; how far away were they now? He knew they couldn’t rely on a sense of time, but this constant blackness and silence was starting to get to him. He kept referring to the scroll even though he already knew very well what was on it. The thought kept coming to mind that maybe they had gone the wrong way? It was a normal reaction and he kept reminding himself to be patient, they would get there.
The elves in front stopped. One turned and signaled Wollfen to approach. He walked forward and found himself at the edge of another larger area in front of them. He peered forward but there was nothing to see. The other walls were too far away for the light to reach. One of the elves spoke up,
“
It appears to be a cavern but we cannot tell how big it is.” Wollfen gave it some thought and he came up with an idea.
“
Wrap a rag onto the end of one of your arrows and light it, fire high and long, we shall see how far it travels.”
The elf did as he was instructed, lighting an arrow he notched it into his ornate bow. He moved forward a little, drew the bow and fired. The arrow flew in a bright shining arc across the gloom and just managed to light up the cavern roof. It was huge, the arrow continued on unimpeded on its journey to finally fall a few hundred yards away. They all stood there looking on in wonder, you could fit thousands of people in here with room to spare if you wished.
Wollfen looked to his scroll again. It did mention a large cave but he wasn’t expecting this. Looking at it he read off to the others. They were to keep to the left hand wall and count off three side caves before entering the fourth. Giving the elves their instructions they moved forward once again. They were nearing the end of their journey. In the fourth cave they walked along for only forty yards and they came upon a staircase going up, Wollfen looked at them. They had sharp edges, it was quite obvious they weren’t very old at all. Up those stairs and they would find themselves in Kassandrea.
“
There is no need for us to go up there now. I don’t want to accidentally tip off any enemy soldiers to our presence, we wait until it is time.” Wollfen looked about, “We can get some sleep here, three sentries posted on one hour shifts. I’m not sure how we are going to measure the time but make the best guess you can.”
Wollfen looked to Vaughn,
“
You can go first then give me a tap when you are done.” Vaughn nodded and sat against a wall to make himself comfortable.
After eight shifts had passed Wollfen sent an up elf to check on what time it appeared to be, when he returned he was able to report.
“
The hatch opens into some sort of storage area. There is much in the way of crates and sacks of supplies. I had a look around and found the building to be deserted. It won’t be hard for us to move about once we leave here. It appears to be mid morning too.”
That was good, it meant they wouldn’t be disturbing any guards when leaving. It occurred to Wollfen that with approximately twenty thousand troops in place the city would be rather deserted. That meant they would have much less chance of running into someone. The flip side was they were more likely to stand out should they be seen.
“
I’ll have you go back up and do a study of the local streets from within the building. See if you can ascertain what sort of regular activity there is.”
The elf nodded and left again. Wollfen sat there looking off into the gloom, they were burning one torch to save the others should they have to return this way. It would be fifteen hours before they could move, he began wondering what they should do?
“
Dark?” She looked up at him. “Would you like to go exploring the main cavern with me?”
“
Yes we have a lot of time to kill, what about the others?”
Wollfen turned to Vaughn and the two other girls, they looked up and gave him the thumbs up, anything was better than sitting around doing nothing. Wollfen turned to the waiting elves,
“
I have another quest that I might be able to carry out in the meantime, we shall return before it's time to move out.”
The Elf officer acknowledged Wollfen's words with a curt nod of the head.
The five of them retreated back along the tunnel to the great cavern. There still wasn’t anything to see in that blackness but they could at least skirt the edge and have a quick look down each of the branch tunnels. Each time they found a side tunnel two of them would go down while the others waited. There really wasn’t much to see.
“
What are we looking for?” Nightwing was curious.
“
Looking for a very old staircase that goes down. It is supposed to take us to a portal that is sealed.”
They stood there near the wall of the cavern. They had just come across the tunnel that they had arrived from the north in. Dark asked Wollfen a question.
“
How does that verse you have go again?”
Wollfen reached into his jacket and pulled it out. He carried it everywhere he went.
“
Down, down, down, dark is the way and sure is the path for here lies the way of the ancients, hearken all mortal souls for travel within will spell your doom. Let it be known for only those blessed with the blood of an angel may tread and be free, all are blessed but only few are guaranteed. Find ye the stairs near the waterless flow, do not hesitate in passing from in to out for only from in may you pass.
Take no heed of the dragons bite in the night sky and you shall see its reflection on the face of your desire.”
“
Well that last part doesn’t make sense, if we are already supposed to be underground when we look to the night sky how are we supposed to see it? And then ignore it anyway?” Dark was confused. “I mean passing from in to out and all that? Could it get any more confusing?”
Wollfen had studied long and hard in his idle moments.
“
I don’t think we are meant to take it all literally. It’s a matter of working out what it is they are hinting at. The waterless flow is obviously these lava tubes, but I don’t know which one. That may be guesswork and searching, but even then it doesn’t say that the tube itself is the way, just that it is near to your goal.”
The others were listening but not able to offer anything constructive. Wollfen went on,
“
I’m not sure about the in to out bit, maybe that’s this cavern, we were in the tunnel and passed out of it? It's as close as I can get.” Nightwing spoke up.
“
I think you may be right Wollfen, now that we are in the cavern it is very black and we can look up and not see anything, maybe that is supposed to be like the night sky you spoke of?” Wollfen started feeling some hope.
“
Yes, you may have something there, but still blackness doesn’t reflect anything. We can’t see a reflection anywhere, let alone a dragons bite whatever that means.”
They went quiet again in thought, then after a moment Vaughn took the only torch they had and doused it.
“
What are you doing?” asked Loranda, Vaughn explained.
“
Wait for your eyes to adjust, it may be that what we seek is very faint and our light covers it?”
They sat for a few minutes and waited as suggested. Then they started to notice the glow of tiny spots far above them.
“
Look, you can see above us!” They all looked harder now.
“
I know what they are, glowbugs on the ceiling. We haven’t been able to see them because of our own light. Now doesn’t that look like the night sky and its stars?”
They looked around slowly and carefully pointing out variations but nothing seemed like what they thought might be a dragon’s bite.
“
Maybe we should skirt the cavern again as before.”
“
Agreed, let’s go, two in front watching where they go with the rest of us hanging on and focusing on looking up.”
They moved slowly along the wall. Having got about a third of the way around Wollfen noticed a rather odd-looking stalactite hanging down from the ceiling, it was at an angle.
“
Wait, I think I have found something, look up there at the stalactite, it isn’t like the others.”
They all focused in the gloom, it was difficult to pick out but it was there. Loranda piped up.
“
Dragons have big teeth, could you think of it as a tooth?”
“
Damn.” It was Dark, “There is another there too. Look, it is as big and exactly the same angle.” Wollfen realized that was it.
“
You got it, it has to be it. Now, we are supposed to ignore it to see the way.”
Wollfen stepped out from the wall and slowly made his way to under the two stalactites they were interested in.