294) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 58 — Secret Tunnel

They landed in a tangled heap on hard-packed snow, but before they could react, something very strong had ahold of their feet and was pulling, dragging them backward into darkness.

Kohra’s struggle was momentary and futile, as she found herself pulled through a hole and practically thrown into a heap with Dominic, landing hard on cold dirt and stone. Vaguely, Devona and Lenny came into focus, standing beside Gorb, who was helping Dominic stand up in a … cave?

There was no time to process what happened, as vicious barks and snarls exploded behind her. She spun to face the onslaught, but Melkorn was already there, standing above a narrow crack in the ground, smashing his axe onto furry bodies and fanged heads as the Kobolds tried to scramble through.

He was covered in blood, his axe spraying the walls like an insane painter, breaking backs, crushing skulls and severing bodies in a grotesque festival of death.

Suddenly, all was still. No more furry bodies came through the crevice under the boulder that was the entranceway to their little cave.  The Kobolds, realizing their quarry had eluded them, had retreated. For now.

Melkorn stood resolute, carcasses and body parts heaped in a ring around him, axe poised to snuff the life out of anything that dared to attack his friends.

Kohra felt nauseated, but elated. It had worked! Her cloak worked! She had “folded space,” and brought Dominic with her! As she clambered to her feet, Dominic swept her off them, hugging, laughing with the unhinged giddiness of someone who had just stared into the face of death and gotten away with it.

“You did it Kohra! You did it!” He paused, the gravity of the moment hitting him. Quietly, looking into her eyes, “I owe you my life.” He hugged her even more tightly.

Kohra didn’t know how to respond, so she didn’t. She HADsaved him. She knew it. But she didn’t know how to take it in, how to even say “You’re welcome.” So she stood there, half in shock as he hugged and laughed and said things she was too overwhelmed to comprehend.

Lenny, Gorb, Dev and Melkorn were of more practical presence of mind, kicking carcasses into the crack, trying to build a corpse-barrier so as to prevent another rush, although it seemed that the Kobolds had learned their lesson.

The canyon was now silent, dead silent, not a growl or yip to be heard.

“What’s happening?” Devona whispered.

“’Tis like a cat, outside de mouse-‘ole,” Gorb frowned.

Kohra’s heart flipped from relief to despair. They were alive, even miraculously unharmed. But now they were trapped, and the Kobolds knew it. They had chased a whole feast of nice, meaty humanoids into a little cave and it was only a matter of time before their prey would get hungry and be forced to come back out.

“We’ll ‘ave t’ wait ‘em out,” Gorb muttered. “We got lots o’ food. Two weeks, if we strrretch it. No bloody beast’ll wait dat long.”

Dominic let go of Kohra, suddenly aware that Reilly was laying on the cave floor, holding her arms and legs tight against her body, curled up like a little ball, eyes closed, not moving. He knelt, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Reilly?” No response. “Hey, Reilly?” No response. He sat down on the cold ground beside her, hand still on her shoulder.

“Reilly….” His voice was gentle. Reilly loved animals as much as he did. That was the main basis of their friendship, observing the critters of the world, watching frogs and toads (she especially loved frogs), birds and snakes, and anything and everything fuzzy.

“Reilly, I’m, I’m sorry. I’m sorry we left little Goaty behind. It was terrible. I’m sorry she died Reilly. I….”
The little girl started to cry, deep, heart-rending sobs shaking her curled-up frame.

“I, I didn’t know what to do, Reilly. We would have died too. We would have. We, we had no choice.”

Reilly nodded, still crying, then the little ball stuck out little arms, and Dominic swooped her up into a long, tight hug, waiting for the emotions to subside.

“I hate them.” She buried her head in his neck, sniffling. “I hope they all die.”

He patted her back with one hand. “I know. I know.”

For a moment, he was about to say something about how it wasn’t the Kobolds’ fault. They were animals too. It was natural for them to hunt, just as it was natural for the goats to be hunted. But he realized now wasn’t the time. “We made ‘em pay, Reilly. We got a lot of them.”

“Good,” she muttered.

Reilly knew she wasn’t being fair. The Kobolds were animals too, she knew. It was natural for them to hunt, just as it was natural for the goats to be hunted. It was “the balance” the Druids were always talking about. But still, she hated them.

“I just…. It was our fault, Dom.” She lifted her head up and looked into his eyes, her own betraying a sorrow he had never seen in her before. “My fault, Dom. Mine. Little —” (she paused, tears filling her eyes again). “Little Goaty would never have come down if it wasn’t for me. She just wanted friends!”

Melkorn tapped her on the shoulder and she looked up. His blood-stained face was full of love. One of Grok’s cookies nestled in his outstretched hand. She took it, nibbled, then buried her head in Dominic’s shoulder again, while Melkorn went back to his post at the carcass-filled hole.

“So what do we do now?” Devona was standing at the back of the cave, looking around carefully. “There’s no way out. I can’t sit here for a week! It already smells terrible!”

Lenny sniffed her own armpits. Dev laughed, in spite of herself. “Not you!”

Lenny grinned. Dev laughed again. “Well, maybe you a little.”

“There HAS to be a way out.” Lenny looked around, feeling the wall for cracks, or…anything. “Hoodie comes in here. It has to go somewhere.” But she found nothing; this little cave went nowhere.

“Maybe he uses the Flux somehow?” Kohra suggested. “Maybe he can fold space too?”

“Then why bother coming in here at all?” Devona retorted, a clear note of scorn in her voice. “Why not just ‘FOLD SPACE’ from out there?”

Kohra was too shocked to respond. Whenever Dev used “tone” like this, it meant she was upset, usually at Kohra. And as usual, Kohra couldn’t understand why. She looked over, but Dev averted her eyes, pretending she didn’t notice.

They all examined the walls, except Reilly, who sat disconsolately on the ground, munching her cookie, and Melkorn, still guarding the entranceway.

The cave was narrow and long, roughly rectangular. It was remarkably roomy, the ceiling raising higher the further back they went. It was solid rock on all sides, although Gorb noted that it looked unnatural, like someone had carved it. There were no exits or anything else noteworthy, except a sizeable pile of bones, mostly tiny ones, heaped in the back corner, like some animal occasionally used it as a lair, and these were the remains of its victims.

“There’s really no way out!” Fear crept into Devona’s voice. She slumped against the back wall, looking at the others, trying not to focus on the corpse-filled entrance tunnel. “We’re trapped.”

Squatting beside her, Lenny thoughtfully sifted through the bones. “These are mostly mice. And other rodents.”

“Mostly?” Kohra asked weakly.

Lenny shrugged. “I don't know, I'm not a bone-ologist, Kohra.”

“Something else must live here,” Dominic commented, “or use it as an occasional lair.”

“Yeah, or Hoodie likes to hang out in a cave and eat mice,” Lenny muttered.

It was still quiet outside the hole. “They're waiting for us.” Dominic frowned. “We have to….” He sat down, hanging his head, bow on his lap. For the first time he could remember, he couldn’t come up with a plan. “I don’t know. I just, don’t know.”

Just then, Arrowhead poked his head out of Dom’s backpack, where he’d been curled up in blankets.

“Snakey!” Reilly pointed. The snake flicked out his tongue as though to say “Hey Reilly, what’s up?”

Dominic slapped his knee. “Of course! Arrowhead! He can find the way out! If there ISa way out.”

The black snake slithered out of the backpack, across the floor of the cave (while Kohra slowly backed away), and up Dominic’s body, resuming its familiar perch around his shoulders.

Dominic whispered to it until he could feel the snake’s understanding. He didn’t know it, but his connection with Arrowhead was exactly the same as Reilly’s heart-bond. Reilly was just better at it.

Arrowhead slithered down, tongue flicking, head moving back and forth. Then he headed for the back of the cave, pausing by the pile of bones, tongue flicking madly. After a moment, he started up the wall, muscular body slithering easily along the rough stones, straight toward the ceiling. Everyone stared, even Melkorn taking his eye off the entranceway for a few moments. And then, Arrowhead disappeared! Well, his head and the front section of his body did anyway, seeming to penetrate directly into the ceiling as he slithered “through” it.

Abruptly, Snakey stopped, recoiling backwards, losing his grip and falling the short distance down to the cave floor. He hissed, prepared to strike. But nothing happened. Nothing else moved. There were no other sounds.

“Hey there, Arrow, you okay?” Dominic asked gently.

Arrowhead slithered quickly over to him; Dominic crouched down, letting him wrap around his shoulders again. He had never seen Snakey like this before. Scared. And angry. Even Kohra could tell he looked different.

“What’s wrong?” Kohra asked. “What happened?”

“Shhh, gimme a sec,” Dominic replied, looking directly at Arrow and whispering. He grimaced, like he had eaten something rotten. “Something is on the other side of that ceiling, something Arrow really doesn’t like.”

Lenny picked up one of the little rodent-bones, and carefully threw it up at the ceiling, right above the bone pile. It sailed through, disappeared, then fell back down a moment later, clattering against the other bones. Nothing happened. Whatever was on the other side wasn’t making any noise.

Dominic waved all of them over into a huddle. Kohra waved Melkorn over to join them but he shook his head. “Nothin’s coming through this hole while I’m here.”

Good ol' Melkorn; what would we do without him?

Dominic looked at each person for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Somehow, he realized, he was becoming the leader of this group. It was up to him to make sure they worked together. He took a deep breath.

“Okay, we need ideas. What do you think is up there?”

“It’s a trap!” Reilly exclaimed. “It blows up, or slices your head off or something, as soon as you poke it through that fake ceiling!”

“Nah,” Lenny shook her head. “Hoodie’s gotta be able to get through here without too much trouble. He’s not gonna disarm a trap every time.” She frowned. “Something’s up there though. Guards?”

“Of course!” exclaimed Dev, eyes widening in fear as she glanced up at the seemingly solid ceiling.

“Den dey know we’rrre herrre,” Gorb muttered. “Dey’rrre waitin’ ferrr us, just like dem damned dogs.”

“What do we do?” Kohra begged. “We can’t stay here, but we can’t leave!  We —“

“That’s it!” Reilly yelled, pulling out her Wand of Fire. “I hate this!! Stand back everyone —”

“NO! You’ll kill us all!” Kohra screamed, lunging for the wand. Luckily, Reilly was smarter than Kohra gave her credit for, and fast enough that Kohra’s lunge didn’t disrupt her aim, or she would have killed them all.

The little red spark flew directly into the hole in the illusory ceiling and disappeared. A moment later, a massive blast of fire and super-heated air shot back out, in a cloud of dust, with a stench like a roasted, burnt corpse. The illusion covering the ceiling flickered out; they could plainly see the hole now. But everything past it was obscured by putrid smoke.

Dominic placed Snakey back in his backpack and leapt up. Grabbing the edge of the hole, he hauled himself through. Coughing in the smoke, he lowered a rope. “Come on!”

Reilly scrambled up first, followed by the others, Melkorn staying until the end, dutifully watching the entrance hole until the last moment.

As the dust settled, Dominic let out a distinctly un-Dominic wail, a sound somewhere between a gurgle, a sob and a scream. Normally, Lenny would’ve made fun of him, but Lenny was staring in shock with everyone else.

Reilly's fireball had utterly destroyed a pair of large (larger than Arrowhead) grey snakes, their carcasses black and split and smoking. Grotesquely, their tails had spikes driven right through them, pinning them to the rock, imprisoning them right in front of the hole.

Dominic shook with rage, his eyes shining with murderous hate. “This was the trap, gods-damned ‘fernal bastard.” His fist pounded into his other hand repeatedly, as he stared at the tortured snakes.

Reaching into his backpack, he brought out Arrowhead, who curled tightly around his arm. “I’m sorry, Arrow, this is so horrible. I’m so sorry.” Dominic was crying. “But I want you to see this. That hooded bastard, that sick demon…” He broke off with a sob. “Gods-damned piece of shit, he is. We’re going to stop him, Arrow. I don’t know how, but I swear to you right now, we’ll kill him for this.”

Kohra figured now was not the time to point out that they had ZERO intentions of killing the Hooded Man. Once they found the location to his secret stronghold or hiding place or whatever, they were high-tailing it out of these mountains immediately and giving the information to someone who could do something with it. Like Captain Klardynne.

But she understood. She wanted him dead too; she just knew this was not in their cards. They’d have to settle for exposing him to the authorities and hope that some kind of justice was served. Somehow.

Gorb, who had been checking the passageway, put a hand on Dominic’s shoulder, bowing his head respectfully. “’Tis a terrrrible t’ing, Dominic. A terrible t’ing.” He paused, reluctant to continue. “But Dominic, we kinna stay. ‘Tisn’t safe. Anyone could be comin’ after dat explosion.”

Dom nodded vacantly. He put an arm around Reilly's shoulder; the poor girl was just sitting amidst the smoke, staring in shock at the snakes she had killed.

“You did the right thing, Reilly.”

“I didn't know...” she mumbled, refusing to look away from the smoking carcasses. Tears tumbled freely down her cheeks. “I didn't know….”

He lifted her to her feet, then wiped her eyes with his sleeve. “You ended their suffering, Reilly. It was horrible how they were living up here, tortured like that, turned into a gods-damned trap by that horrible creature….  You ended their suffering. They’d thank you, if they could, I’m sure of it.”

Arrow slithered forward, resting his head on Reilly’s shoulder, as if in agreement.

“We better go,” said Lenny quietly.

“Just a sec,” Dom whispered. Kneeling down with one of his long-knives, he gently cut the snakes’ bodies away from the spike that had imprisoned them. Cutting off part of his cloak, he wrapped them in it, and laid it to the side of the little tunnel they were in. Reaching into one of his pockets, he withdrew a little packet of herbs, selected one and sprinkled it onto the cloak.  Then he passed one to each person, and they did the same.

“Rosemary,” he explained. “It commemorates the dead.”

Each person stood for a minute longer, head bowed.

Reilly felt unspeakable grief, slicing deep into her heart; it had been a horrible, horrible day; she had never caused a creature to die before, and now, she had killed three. Three innocent animals who did nothing to deserve it. She stared at the truth of death, feeling in her heart the permanence of loss, and a deep, soul-wrenching guilt.

Kohra felt so sorry for her, and Dom, and the snakes; it was just all so terrible.

Devona stood slightly apart, her expression inscrutable.

Lenny stared at the cloak, her gaze fierce, tears silently running down her ashen face.

Gorb whispered a prayer in Klliik. Melkorn knelt down beside Reilly, wanting her to know that he was right there.

And Dominic felt deep, deep into his Ranger training, feeling for the intertwined energies of life and death that were foundational to a relationship with the living world. He knew that death was part of life; that it wasn’t to be feared. But he also knew that what had happened here was just not right, no matter one’s philosophy. He connected with the snakes’ suffering, and vowed in his heart to avenge them, no matter what it took. Somehow, Arrow and him would find a way.

* * * * *

Gorb led the way into the tunnel, holding a torch he had lit and passing a second one back to Devona, who brought up the rear. In a sombre line, they proceeded into the darkness. The passageway was clearly artificial, carved directly into the solid bedrock of the mountains, leading on a gentle but insistent slope downward. 

“Looks like an old minin' tunnel,” Gorb commented, scanning the walls. “De constrrruction’s similar.”

It was much warmer here than it had been in the mountains. As they shed their outer gear, Dominic tied it all together into two bundles. The bigger one he fastened to Melkorn's pack, and the smaller to his own. The big man grinned. Same as always.

They descended steadily for a good hour before Dominic stopped them. “Shhhh,” he whispered. “The air is different here. I think there's an opening ahead.”

“What if there's another trap?” Kohra whispered.

Gorb shook his head. “Nobody's dat parrranoid.”

“Let's be quiet anyway,” Devona whispered. “There could be guards.”

They extinguished the torches, and after their eyes adjusted, it was clear there was a light ahead. The tunnel was not completely black and the outlines of the walls and scattered stones could be seen, albeit barely.

Carefully, they crept forward, Dominic in the lead, bow at the ready. Melkorn stayed in the rear with Devona holding his hand to keep him from stumbling. She pointed out rocks for him to avoid, and parts of the ceiling where he needed to duck. As a result, they actually did move quietly, creeping into the dusky gloom.

Rounding a corner, they found themselves in a large-ish cave, about thirty feet across, dim light entering from an opening at the far end. 

Crawling on their bellies, they slithered forward and peered over the lip of the cave.

Dominic gasped, shaking his head as he whispered to Kohra. “You see? THIS is what happens in a world full of doors.”