Darkness was an understatement! Were it not for their flickering torches it would be so complete as to prevent them from seeing their hands in front of their faces. Tanisin was glad Relf had thought to bring more. As it was they'd burned through two and it was clear as they traversed the passage that whatever end there was to it was still a long way away.

  The tunnel was constructed from stone blocks arching overhead. They had thought to find a natural passage or dirt but it was clear someone had built this place. What it’s purpose was here in a small ruined town in the middle of the Dreadlands was something Tanisin did not want to think about too much. Whatever it’s original purpose it kept on arrow straight with no breaks or turns. It was also–he noted–suspiciously clear of the dust on the floor that one would expect of a long abandoned place.

  “How far do you think this cursed tunnel goes Tan?” Relf spoke the very thought Tanisin was having.

  “I wish I knew, we have to be past the townsite now and I can’t see any indication it’s ending.”

  Relf barked a laugh, it sounded desperate and forced. “I’m not normally afraid of close spaces, but this one makes me wish I’d stayed with the others.”

  It was the effects of the Dreadlands amplifying the constriction of the tight space. The intrusive thoughts were bombarding the both of them without pause. What if this place has no end? We should turn back! There’s nothing here but darkness and death! What if the tunnel collapses? Incessant and constant. Only their resolve to find Dav kept them putting one foot in front of the other. As they traversed deeper Tanisin felt something even darker in the back of his mind. A presence or intruding connection with something. He tried to shake it off but it nagged constantly above even the thoughts brought on by the Dreadlands effect. Meanwhile they were forced to light another torch and their light sources dwindled.

  They trudged along for what Tanisin figured was roughly an hour, though time was an illusion in this place beyond the consumption of their torch. It was coming down to decision time, they’d burned down half their torches. Pathetic things really, nothing more than rags wrapped around branch ends. If they continued on much longer without turning back they’d have no light to return by. That prospect was daunting.

  Tanisin voiced the concern aloud. “These torches are burning quick, we can’t go much further.” They’d do no good if they lost themselves, either for Dav or the others waiting behind.

  “I was just thinking the same thing Tan.” A desperation overlay Relf’s voice.

  “We carry on until we light the next branch.” He decided. “After that I dare not continue. We’ll have to return to the others and make more torches. Try again.” Frustrated, he sighed. “Damnit, Despair!” The last delivered loud and alive with his anger made all the more forceful by the pervading sensation in his head.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find him. If we have to turn back we’ll just try again.” Relf did his best to offer assurance. It was forced and empty. They both feared Dav was in trouble and the longer they left him the worse it would be.

  Tanisin’s torch began to sputter on its last legs. Relf’s was over halfway consumed. Tanisin held his aloft as long as he could, casting its pathetic light down the tunnel. Resigned he stopped, they’d have to light another. There was just no help for it. Tanisin dug in the pack for another torch just as his old one flickered out. He set to lighting it, turned towards Relf facing back the way they’d come.

  “Tan…” Relf said, a hint of hope in his voice. “Look.” He pointed past Tanisin’s shoulder.

  Ahead of them but still distant they could make out a dim light. Tanisin lit his torch and held it aloft. The two of them continued with some destination in sight and a renewed sense of hope mixed with caution in their steps. They didn’t know what awaited them.

  Dav came to slowly. Upon regaining his senses he found that he was bound, hogtied really, and naked! Alarmed, he tried to cry out only to find he was gagged as well, unable to make more than muffled noises around the cloth in his mouth. He had no idea where he was! His last recollection was of grabbing the rope to be hauled out of darkness. He also had a splitting headache and a lump on the back of his head. He reasoned out that someone–or something–must have knocked him out.

  Looking around he could see it was some sort of hall or cavern. No, a hall for sure. Built from dressed stonework from what he could see. The place was large and equally dim. He strained to look around, hindered by his bonds.

  “He’s awake!” A gruff voice spoke from behind him, out of sight. “Get him up and bring him here.” It was a command, issued in a gravel hard and grating voice.

  A shadow loomed across his vision and he was hauled up via his arms tied behind him. Rough and uncaring at the strain put on his limbs. He struggled feebly with no chance of breaking free. Two large men held him suspended by the arms between them.

  “Now now little rat. None of that.” one of them said close to his ear.

  He turned his head side to side trying to get sight of his captors. He couldn’t make anything out, only that they were large men and cowled in dark tattered robes leaving nothing visible but rough hands and the tips of noses. He did manage to see a dark tunnel on one wall across the hall and a large crumbling stone staircase on the other end.

  His captors turned to take him to the speaker, as they did he noted the vast size of the hall he was in. It was immense, with pillars supporting a vaulted ceiling. The deepest areas shrouded in shadow with only their immediate area lit by a large bonfire. They appeared to be right in the middle. The two men dragged him towards the fire and their leader standing there.

  His arms bound behind him sent jolts of pain into his shoulders. His legs similarly tied, dragged on the rough stone floor leaving a trail in the dust of centuries. The firelight made the shadows dance. A creepy sort of cavorting as opposed to the normal cheerfulness a large fire in the dark should have. He suspected it was Despair’s Influence working in his mind–addled from the blow he’d received earlier. The fellows dragging him stopped in front of their leader and dumped him on the floor.

  This man at least he could see. He was as large as the others and similarly dressed but his cowl was down leaving his face exposed. It was a cruel face of hard lines and sharp plains that looked to be carved from the very stone surrounding them. He was shorn bald and the firelight glinted off the dome of his head. There was no hint of kindness on that face. His brows were as jutting as his chin and topped small dark eyes that shone with a hint of madness. Dav couldn’t place his nationality.

  “Stop glaring at me little worm.” The man demanded, irate. Crouching down he took a hold of Dav’s chin in a grip made of iron. “You’re the one the Master has told us is coming. Oh yes. You and your friends.” Dav continued to stare at him. The grip tightened on Dav’s face as the man twisted his head back and forth studying him. “He’s vext with you.”

  Dav worked some saliva into his dry mouth. “I don’t even know him.”

  With no warning the man slapped Dav across the face leaving stars in his vision and snapping his head to the side. “Quiet dog! You may not know him, but he knows you. You’ll soon have your chance to meet him and you will rue the day your path crossed his.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Dav opted for silence in response. It seemed to mollify his captor. “You two, check his bonds. See that he won’t be wiggling free on us. Hurry! Our Master comes soon.” A snap of his fingers got his underlings scurrying to do as asked.

  They checked and double checked the ropes securing Dav and left him lying on the hard ground. Then they hunkered down beside the fire waiting for whoever was coming soon. Dav cast a hopeful look back towards the passageway. His assumption was that it led back to the trap door that had dumped him down here.

  “Looking for your friends?” The leader followed his gaze. “Don’t fear, two followed you down and they will soon be trussed up for the Master as you are. The other two stayed on the surface, they will soon be dead. It’s you the Master wants. You and your ‘brother.’ The two pups, weaned by the priest.”

  “You won’t find an easy fight.” Dav stated with defiance. Though in truth with a bravado he didn’t feel.

  “Oh never fear. We were quite prepared for your arrival here. The Followers of the Inevitable won’t be caught lacking.”

  “The Followers of..? You're the Cult!”

  Without warning the man turned and kicked him soundly in the side. “Shut up!” He bellowed angrily with an even deeper and more dangerous glean in his eyes. “You dare insult The Followers. The Cult… bah. Your little religion is the true cult. Our order is old beyond old in comparison. For more than four millennia we, The Followers have acted as Despair's hands in Etrusia. We carry out His will and His end. Despair is INEVITABLE!” There was more than a hint of madness about him now. As the echo of his words faded out he began to laugh, a chilling sound that was soon joined by that of his two companions.

  The whole lot of them are crazy. Dav could imagine why. Bad enough willingly giving your life over to Despair, all the more so to do it in The Dreadlands. He lay there nursing a sore head and ribs as these men continued laughing into the darkness and hoped his friends would get there soon. Before too much longer the men’s laughter died off.

  The leader began a chant, quiet but ominous in a language Dav couldn’t place. His versus punctuated by a response from his underlings in the same dialect. The language was guttural and alien, though these men seemed to know it well enough. Dav was more afraid than he was willing to show as he waited for whatever was to come next.

  Tanisin and Relf crept along the corridor, careful to be as silent as possible and wary of any noise not made by them. They had extinguished their torches leaving the burnt nubs on the floor behind them. There was just light enough to see now from the glow ahead. Thus far they’d encountered nothing and no one but they weren’t taking any chances. Swords loose in scabbards and helms on heads they continued on.

  They stopped abruptly as a strange sound filled the air. Someone ahead of them was laughing. A raucous, insane sounding burst of mirth. Who could be doing so in such a dire place as this? Tanisin moved his mouth close to Relf’s ear and whispered. “We’re close now, be on your guard.” Relf merely nodded, he needed no prompting. Indeed he’d been on his guard since entering the tunnel.

  They moved on as slow and quiet as mice when the cat’s about. For the first time and fortuitously the tunnel began to curve slightly, just as they were to traverse that curve they heard ahead, another laugh. Not as loud as the other, more a chuckle as if someone was in on the joke. It was enough to alert them to a presence ahead.

  Tanisin threw caution to the wind. Sayoshti’s Grace had favoured them with this warning and he meant to take a chance on it. He drew his sword and noted as Relf did the same. The two looked at each other with a mutual understanding and sprang to action. First Tanisin then close behind him Relf broke into a run.

  They rounded the bend to find two men clad black robes. They’d been lying in wait but Tanisin and Relf’s headlong charge had turned the ambush against them. Tanisin noted the surprised look on the one man's face as he bowled him over, leaving him there for Relf to take care of. He continued on towards the second who was desperately trying to unsheathe his blade. He never got the chance. Tanisin ran him through before it was even halfway clear of its scabbard. His opponent gave a raspy sigh as Tanisin’s sword was pulled from his torso and died in the dust, blood staining the stones of the floor as it seeped from the body.

  Tanisin turned to see if Relf had finished his opponent. The man was on his face struggling against Relf’s weight on top of him. He was a large man but Relf was even larger. He’d pinned the man face down on the floor with a knee to his upper back, blade to his throat. The fellow attempted to call out, perhaps as warning to someone else ahead but he couldn’t draw a breath with Relf’s weight on top of him. Tanisin approached the two.

  He tore a hunk of cloth off of the man’s cloak and when he had a chance thrust it past the fellow’s teeth into his gaping mouth, then tore another strip off the cloak and tied it around their ambushers head making an effective gag. He then gestured for Relf to get off the man. Relf did and dragged him to his feet. Tanisin took one arm, Relf the other and they led him back the way they’d come away from the light.

  Once safely back they dropped their captive to the floor. Relf bent over him. “I’m going to remove your gag now. Any noise not asked for will be very unpleasant for you, understood?” The fellow nodded and Relf untied the cloth, pulling the wad from his mouth. The man was clearly not cowed by Relf’s hulking presence nor his threat. He drew a deep breath and made to yell. Relf was ready for his duplicity though and struck a solid punch to the man’s chin, he stood then and delivered a kick to the ribs.

  “That’s enough.” Tanisin stopped Relf from delivering another blow. “Now. You can see my friend here is serious. He’s also quite capable of delivering more and leaving you still able to talk.”

  The man nodded again, sincere this time.

  “Tell me,” Tanisin asked, “Where is our companion?”

  “He’s up ahead. Likely dead already.” A note of defiance still in his voice he used his chin to point back up the corridor.

  “I doubt that.” Tanisin told him. “How many more of you are there?”

  “Enough to take care of you two.”

  Relf, feeling they weren’t going to be getting the answers they wanted, wound up and struck him again. “I’ll cut you if I have to.” It was an empty threat, he really had put his violent past behind him. But the fellow didn’t know that and Relf looked truly threatening. The man cowered back frightened, his crazy eyes darted between his two captors.

  “I’m not certain I can stop him even if I wanted to.” Tanisin remarked. “How many?”

  Their prisoner was subdued at last and wasted no time answering. “Three, that's all. Just three.”

  “There now, that’s better. I really don’t enjoy inflicting pain on others. My friend here however…” He left that hanging in the air for a minute before asking his next question. “What will we find ahead?”

  With no fight left the man answered. “A hall, a big hall. This passage comes out on one end. You’ll find them in the middle, there’s a large stairway at the other end.”

  “And where will that stair take us?”

  “Out. To more ruins about five miles from where you came in.”

  Tannin had all he needed. He slipped his dagger from its case. For the first time the captive had true fear in his eyes. “Rest easy fellow. I’m not going to kill you.” He took the gag and stuffed it back into the prisoner’s mouth and tied it. Then he deftly cut away more of the man’s robes and used the pieces to tie him. “Knock him out.”

  Relf stepped forward and dealt a wicked blow to the man’s temple, effectively rendering him out cold.

  “Now,” Tanisin stated, “let’s go see if we can free Dav.”

  They resumed their creeping progress down the passageway stepping light on their feet and cautious. They passed the body of the man Tanisin had dispatched earlier. Slowly they made their way to where the passage opened up to the hall.

  Peering around the last corner with Relf on his heels, Tanisin strained to spy ahead. He could see the hall. It was vast! The light coming from a fire some ways inside, almost center between the passage and the stairway. He could just make out the vague shapes of men moving around that fire. Large silhouettes in the dancing light. Also there, lying on the stone a dark bundle that could only be Dav. He wasn’t moving, though if bound, helpless, unconscious or dead, Tanisin couldn’t say. He put a hand back to Relf’s bulk behind him signaling they should move back.

  “Seems the fellow was telling the truth, at least about their numbers. I only see three of them. Dav’s trussed up there too I think.”

  “What’s the plan?” Relf asked him.

  “A short sneak and a quick surprise would be best. We can get close unseen if we’re quiet. Once we are in the light we’ll have to charge and take them quick. They look to be big guys so let’s just hope they're as unprepared and unskilled as their friends back there.”

  The plan was dependent on luck, desperate, but he saw no other real option. There was too much space between them. Relf as ever though was game. “Sounds good to me, let’s do this.”