Part 54

Darkness swallowed them.

Everything vanished, and for an instant there was nothing but feel of leather and metal against his body, and the swaying of the frame as the men carried it. The men themselves were gone.

David knew... or strongly suspected, based on the fact that he was still moving... that they were still there. But he couldn't see them. He couldn't hear them.

"Mmm?" David grunted tentatively. He tried to move his head, but the strap around his neck was tight. It hurt to swallow; his attempt to move almost choked him.

Why was it so dark? There'd been plenty of light in the chamber where they'd washed him and tied him down. That was just a few steps back... how could a room go from bright to total darkness that quickly.

Magic?

Magic.

The magic made it real.

The numbing dread he'd felt moments ago was still there, but the obvious presence of magic... REAL magic... dangerous magic... helped to burn it away.

They were going to kill him. They were going to kill him SOON.

David tested the leather straps at his wrists. They creaked faintly as he tugged, but showed know sign of loosening. The bindings at his ankles were even tighter; he couldn't even attempt to move his feet.

...very, very soon.

Suddenly the platform tilted downward. David thought he'd been dropped; he wondered if the impact with the floor would loosen anything-

-but the fall never came. He continued to ease forward in the darkness, his progress marked only by the slow motions of the lattice that bore him. The motion became cautious and irregular as the slope increased.

And then the darkness vanished.

Light blossomed around them, returning with the same suddenness that had marked its departure moments ago.

They were in a gently curving, downward sloping corridor. Because of the incline, David was able to see the walls without having to move his head. Fresh torches jutted from notches in the rough stone; the flames burned a deep red, broken by occasional bursts of blue or orange.

David had never seen fire like that.

And he'd never smelled anything like what wafted up from whatever lay below.

It wasn't a stench, exactly... but the scent of dust and age and ash made his nose itch. They were mixed with a musky animal smell. David couldn't tell what kind of animal it was... but it smelled big. And old. And... wrong. A deep corner of David's mind reacted with a pang of panic.

Run! Predator! RUN FAST!

David twisted in his bonds, pulling on all of them at once.

"We Come Through The Darkness." All six of the men in gray said in unison. "We Come Bearing Tribute."

"We Come Through The Darkness." Another set of voices said after a pause. They had come from behind him and his bearers. Who was following them? "We Come In The Old Ways."

The lattice moved forward. The men carried it... and David... around the bend in the corridor, moving ever deeper into whatever lay beneath the town hall.

Behind them, more voices rose:

"We Come Through The Darkness. We Come To Call Him Forth"

"We Come Through the Darkness. We Come To Bow Before Him."

"We Come Through the Darkness. We Come To Make Good Our Debts"

The voices went on, a different group speaking a different phrase each time. David couldn't hear them all. The walls seemed to devour their words after a short distance.

Were they all back there?

The entire town?