CHAPTER IX
They peered into the dark, but the sound had stopped. Yes, they could see in the dark, but it wasn’t as bright as day and they could only see a couple of metres or so ahead. Beyond that distance something was out there. Or was it?
“Rats, maybe?” Bell asked.
“Maybe.”
They started walking again slowly. It was another hour before they heard a sound again, this time behind them. Again they stopped and scanned the darkness, trying to hear where the sound was coming from.
“It is not rats,” Mattaeus said.
“I hate caves.”
“I fear they are not fond of us either,” the Shadow Ranger said and suddenly a swarm of cat-sized bats flew over and around them. The two men ducked and covered their heads as the mighty beasts swooped over and away.
“I fear you are right,” Bell said as he slowly stood.
“I can only assume the day is drawing to a close if the bats are awake.”
“Maybe we should rest,” Bell said, but the noise came again. This time it seemed to come from their left.
“The sooner we finish this the better, I think.”
“I agree,” and the two men once again set off along the tunnel.
But the sound came again from ahead of them, and now behind as well. And again to their left.
“There is nothing but wall to our left,” Bell said.
“Yes, there must be another tunnel next to this one,” the Shadow Ranger said. “By thunder, who knows how many tunnels are in here.”
“Let us go,” Bell urged as the sounds drew closer from behind.
And then the two men were running through the dark and suddenly a wolf like creature jumped from in front of them. Instinctively the Shadow Ranger brought up his sword and impaled it. It fell to the ground and they both looked at it. It was indeed much like a large wolf, but there was a furred stalk on top of its head with a ball, the size of a tennis ball, on top that held a single, very large eye.
They ran on and could now hear at least two of these wolves running after them. Then they came to a large circular opening with a high ceiling. From it came five or six tunnels, but coming out of these tunnels were more of the wolves. Bell and Mattaeus stood in the centre, back to back, with their swords drawn.
“Not how I imagined my ending,” Mattaeus commented.
“Then don’t let it be. I am getting a strong feeling for that tunnel there, do you feel it?”
The wolves slowly got closer.
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
“Then you break the ring and I will keep them at bay behind us,” Bell said.
“Good luck, Forest Ranger,” and then Mattaeus moved forwards and the nearest wolf ran to meet him.
He dodged its claws and slashed at its back. The other wolves now moved faster and Bell let his sword sing through the air at them. Somehow they moved closer to the tunnel, fighting all the way. Claws swiped and swords answered, jaws tried to bite, but were punched away. Mattaeus swung in a circle and cut a head clean off. Bell plunged his sword into the back of another, straight through the heart. They moved toward the tunnel until there was a gap in the wolves and the Shadow Ranger shouted for them to run.
They ran into the tunnel, Bell cutting off a wolf’s eyestalk as he went. It went mad with blindness and attacked another wolf as they continued to run, hearing the remaining wolves following them. They couldn’t stop to think about whether there were any more ahead of them; they couldn’t stop at all.
For a while the wolves sounded so close Bell expected one to bite him, but suddenly the noise fell back and disappeared. They stopped. The silence was deafening. They both leaned against a wall to recover.
“They stopped,” Bell panted.
“Perhaps this is too far from their home,” Mattaeus said.
“Or this is the realm of other beasts,” Bell groaned.
After a while they began walking again. They stopped again when they saw the tail end of some giant worm crossing in front of them at a junction of tunnels; they tried not to think about it as they walked on.
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The Port of Columbina was bustling with people. The town was built on land that sloped down to an ocean that sparkled in the sun. Dylan could see big ships with large white sails out on the ocean and others down at the docks. The main road of the town was very wide and ran from the docks, up through the town and out into the countryside.
They stood in front of a building watching the carts go up and down the roads, the people carrying sacks and wooden crates, the people trying to sell things on the streets.
“What do you know of this town, Lucas?” Dad asked.
“Not much, I am a mountain man, not a seafarer,” he replied. “But I know it is an important port and so there will be Chinerthian Ruling Guards around. We cannot be caught by the Guards; it will not take much questioning for them to realise who you truly are.”
“So you have an idea where to start?”
“From what I know of pirates? The seedier parts of town.”
“You know them?”
Lucas laughed. “I think anyone can find the seedy parts of town, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure I want Dylan in those parts.”
Lucas looked at the ground in thought. “No. No, but what other choice do we have?”
“I’m OK,” Dylan said. “I’ll be careful.”
“I know you will, Son.”
“Well, let us find something to eat first; I’m hungrier than a Chaper Mouse,” and Lucas led them to the nearest inn for food.
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It was decided afterwards to go down to the docks and look for ships that would be going to the Port of Silas across the ocean. That took them two days. Dylan wanted to find the pirate, he thought pirates were cool, but Lucas insisted they knew when and where ships were leaving in case they had to leave quickly.
Lucas then spent the next three days going to bars trying to find the Pirate d’Gaz. Over these days Dylan and his Dad explored the town. It was nice and the people were quite friendly, but it was busy too. There were always ships coming and going so there were always people coming and going too. The streets were never quiet, even at night you could hear people and Dylan thought that maybe the noise was coming from the seedy part of town. He couldn’t imagine it, why would there be lots of seeds? It couldn’t mean that, unless it had something to do with fruit, maybe a fruit market was there, but why would a pirate hang out with fruit?
“No sign of him?” Dad asked Lucas over an ale.
“They are a cagey bunch as no one knows who I am.”
“So?” Dylan asked.
“So,” Lucas said, “they don’t know if they can trust me, maybe I am one of the Ruling Guards.”
“Maybe we should come with you,” Dad said.
“Yes, I was thinking that, you are probably better at these things than I.”
Finally, Dylan was going to get to see this fruit market. But when he saw it, it wasn’t what he expected; it wasn’t what he thought about when he thought about pirates. The lanes were narrow and there were a lot of men who Lucas said were sailors, but not like on Earth, these men were dirty with ripped clothes. There were also a lot of women on the streets, talking to the sailors, but they were not wearing a lot of clothes and Dylan thought they must be cold, maybe asking the sailors for their coats.
Here, every other house, which were all joined together, seemed to be a bar or inn, none of them seemed to sell fruit. In fact, it was a pretty scary place, Dylan didn’t like seedy places, they felt full of danger; perhaps pirates were not like they were in films.
“How are you, Dylan?” Lucas asked.
“I don’t like this place.”
“No, I don’t either, but stay close with me and you will be fine,” and that helped, surely no one could hurt Lucas. At least none of these tired looking sailors.
“Hey there, big man,” a woman said to Lucas.
“No, thank you,” Lucas replied.
; “Oh, come on, I’ll show you a good time,” she replied and Dylan thought a good time sounded better than being here.
“Not now, woman,” Lucas said sternly.
“How about you then?” she asked his Dad and Dylan hoped they would go for a good time instead of one of these inns.
“Not for me, thank you,” his Dad replied.
“I’m always up for a good time,” a sailor stumbled up and said.
“But your money isn’t,” she replied and walked off.
“Hey, you’re that big man looking for d’Gaz ain’t you?” the sailor said.
“Hush your mouth, sailor,” Lucas almost whispered.
“Oh, yes, true, true,” the sailor said and winked. “Try the Old Cattail, some of his associates may be there,” and then he stumbled away.
“What was wrong with him?” Dylan asked.
“Too much ale,” Dad told him. “It’s not good for you.”
“Well, let us get off the street, though I fear the Old Cattail will be no better,” Lucas said and walked on.
The Old Cattail was just one large room with a balcony running around it on the inside. On the ground floor there were tables and a bar as well as a man playing the piano. Dylan liked the music he was playing, it was much happier than the rest of the bar. Every table was full of men and women and more were standing at the bar. Some were drinking ale, some were playing cards, some were just talking.
“Well, I guess,” started Lucas, “Er… I guess we ask around.”
“No,” said Dad, “we can’t be halfhearted in a place like this. We get a table and an ale.”
“There aren’t any tables,” Dylan said.
“Then we take one. Lucas, see that sailor there? He’s at our table.”
“No he isn’t”
“Yes. He is.”
“Oh, right, I see you.”
“Take Dylan and I will get some ale.”
Dylan and Lucas walked over to a man who looked half asleep.”
“You are sitting at my table,” Lucas told him.
“What? This here ain’t no reservation.”
“You’re sitting at my table I suggest you move.”
The man stood up slowly, he swayed a little as he pulled his sword, but Lucas pushed it away and it fell to the ground.
“As I said, my table.”
“OK, OK, I wasn’t to know, was I?” the man said and walked slowly to the bar, falling to the floor before he got there.
“I don’t think you should drink any ale,” Dylan said.
“Oh, it’s OK if you drink just a bit,” Lucas said.
“Hi, sweety,” the barmaid said to Connor.
She was a large woman, looked like she could handle any of the men drinking here and Connor guessed she would have to. “Nice to see a sober man in here.”
“Well, I’ll work on it, I guess,” Connor smiled.
She laughed.
“Now don’t go getting like the rest of the men in this place, it’s hard for a good woman like myself to find a man. What’ll it be?”
Connor ordered two ales and asked about the card games.
“Oh, don’t be doing that,” she said.
“It’s not a habit of mine, but I might just have to.”
“Well, ain’t you a strange man, I don’t think you should be drinking in a place like this.”
“But the card games?”
“If you insist, you can always join as long as there is a free chair and money in your pouch.”
“You are too fine a woman to be in a place like this. A diamond in the rough,” Connor said and she blushed and laughed.
“Oh, my! You can come see me anytime, ‘diamond in the rough’? Never heard that one before. I like it, I do.”
Connor weaved his way back to the table and sat down.
“I’m going to play some cards, Lucas, I need some more money.”
“No, we can’t waste what we have on games.”
“It’s not a game; I think it will be the best way of getting noticed.”
“How?”
“If d’Gaz or his friends are here we need them to notice us, we’ll never find them otherwise.”
“And how will cards help?”
“Well, I intend to win,” Dad said and grinned.
They waited for a while and had another ale and Dylan wondered how many were too many. They talked about the ships and about how Bell and Mattaeus might be doing. Had they defeated the dragon yet? Were they even now on their way to meet them? How long should they wait?
No one ever suggested that they might have failed, that they might be dead or lost in the dark.