57. Bump in the Night (Patreon)

I would have liked to close the gate behind us. It would have made it all but impossible for the humans to escape, but it would also alert the guard outside, who might send for help. And it was unlikely to make a difference anyway. They couldn’t escape me, not in the darkness.

Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

After they had finished their breakfast and their preparations, both scholars and their guard took their packs and headed out. They left much of their gear in the camp, bringing mostly writing materials, light sources, fuel, food, and things like that. They smothered the fire, using some kind of blanket; clever, I thought, and convenient for me.

I followed them into the darkness.

They had come well prepared. Perhaps they were experienced, well read, or simply clever, but every so often they would drop a small stone that glinted in the light of their lanterns. Quartz, perhaps. When they returned the stones would probably have been easily visible in the darkness, leading them back to the camp. I considered collecting the pebbles as I went. I'd left my bag at home since I wanted to be able to shift, and anything I wore or carried just fell off when I did, but I could have put them in my mouth or something. I wasn't squeamish. But even though I wanted to stack the deck as much as possible, I wanted to get lost down here again even less. And if they were lucky, and open to reason they would be returning instead of the alternative.

If talking to them doesn’t work, I thought, not bothering to catch my dragon’s attention first. She knew when I was talking to her. Can you make it easy for me?

“We will not hesitate. I will make certain of that,” she reassured me.

That was a relief. I honestly wasn’t sure that I could do it. These people had done nothing, and planning to kill someone who was innocent, even when I knew that I wouldn’t feel any regret afterwards, was difficult.

I felt a flash of disgust at my selfishness as I thought that, and then it was gone.

*****

I had expected them to go straight for the largest tunnel, the one that led to the throne room, but instead they chose the closest. Much like the tunnel I had fled through the first time I was here, this one split and merged every so often, and the worth of the pebbles proved itself. I had no more idea where I was than the scholars; perhaps less, since they rarely hesitated to choose a direction.

I wondered how the ones who made these tunnels found their way around. I hadn’t seen any markings anywhere indicating how to find anything. I was fairly sure that there should be little groups of rooms here and there, because there had been in the other tunnels I’d explored, but I had no clue how to find them. Maybe that was the point? If the tunnels were confusing enough, and the people who lived there just knew how to find their way around, attacking them would be hell. That would kind of make sense. Considering how easy it had been for the gremlins to surround and ambush Herald and the others in the mine, this place would be a slaughterhouse.

We hadn’t gone long, only half an hour perhaps, when the tunnel ahead of me filled with excited chatter. As I got closer I understood why: they had found a room. And when they moved on and I followed them in, the layout looked eerily familiar. There were no doors here that I could see, but the tunnel opened into a small, empty room. In each side wall, towards the back, empty doorways gaped. If I took the left door, where the humans had gone, I suspected that I would find a dormitory. Through the right, a larger hall with an exit.

My curiosity overwhelmed me, so I moved quickly through the right door. Sure enough, there was a hall. On the shorter side opposite me was a doorway into another room, and on the long side to the right the empty door gaped into a long, smooth tunnel.

I hoped I could find this place again. I’d love to know where that tunnel went, and if the first complex I’d entered, where I’d first seen the slavers, had the same layout. Perhaps it was all completely standardised? But that was not why I was here.

I could hear the scholars’ voices echoing through the empty rooms. They were talking with fascination about the stonework, which was a perfectly fine thing for archaeologists to be excited by, I supposed. Unfortunately for them, this was where their expedition would end, one way or another.

I’d ruled out trying to make friends with them. I wanted to, for sure, but it was just too risky. When I’d tried it with Herald and the others I had been alone and barely surviving, and the risk had been acceptable. Now, only two months later, I had so much more to lose. Negotiating didn’t seem like an option either. We each knew things the other wanted. I’m sure they would have given almost anything to speak to a living dragon with memories – or access to memories – of the one who had once lived in this place. And they obviously had some kind of knowledge about what this place had been, though it was patchy at best. The problem there was that I had no real way to hold them to any agreement. Once I’d given them what I wanted they would know about me, and then there was no way for me to know that their greed, for gold or for knowledge, wouldn’t make them move against me.

That left two options. Death, or terror. I desperately wanted not to kill them. Once you kill someone for your own convenience – which is what it would be, really –  you’ve crossed a line. If I did that I had no idea where I might end up, considering how many inconvenient people there were in the world. So instead I thought I might try scaring the shit out of them, and work from there. I just wished I’d watched more horror movies back when I could, but I thought they were boring, Andrea had been way too easy to scare and hated them, and Alex, my ex, had thought they were stupid. My brothers had roped me into watching one or two, but when it came to scary movies and terrifying monster strategies I was woefully ignorant.

At least I’d watched the Alien movies. Not that I had any good ceiling vents to run around in, but the vertical ventilations shafts might do in a pinch.

As I watched and waited I formed the palest beginning of a plan. First, I needed to get them in the dark. That seemed like common sense, really. For one, darkness was my whole thing. For another, if you want to scare the shit out of someone, everything is scarier in the dark. Besides, if they saw me I’d probably have to kill them.

They had two directional lanterns and Barro’s rather weak torch, which had been burning down the whole way there. I figured that if I could get rid of the lanterns I should be alright, but since I didn’t have a plan for how to do that I just had to be patient and wait for an opportunity to present itself. Fortunately I didn’t have to wait long.

Barro, for all his fine qualities – probably – was far less patient than I was. After five minutes of listening to the two scholars talk about how the stone of the walls had been shaped, he excused himself to make sure that the nearby rooms were safe, telling the two scholars to stay put and then leaving through the door in the far wall from me.

It only took seconds after he left for Tavia to start chafing at his order.

“Do you think…” she said, turning her lantern to light up the door on the right hand wall and parts of the room beyond

“The man is overly cautious,” Ramban said. “Go ahead. We’ll get so much more done if we split up!”

“My thoughts exactly!” Tavia said excitedly, taking her lantern and practically running out while Ramban took out a writing board and some paper.

In the near absolute silence even my soft steps should have been audible, but the man was so focused on his notes that he didn’t realise that anything was wrong until I’d already grabbed his lantern and flung it into the room’s ventilation hole. It fell in a flare of spilled, burning oil, the brass housing banging and clanging loudly as it bounced off the sides.

With a loud, startled noise he stood and whirled around, but it was far too late. In the pitch black I had already shifted and moved away, taking up a position by the doorway the woman had left through. “Tavia?” Ramban exclaimed. “Was that you, girl? This is no time for jokes! Tavia?”

“What?” came Tavia’s distracted voice from the next room. “What happened?” she said as she came into the room. I could hear Barro’s voice from beyond the far door as well, so as quickly as I could, as soon as Tavia had passed me, I shifted back, reached out, and ripped the lantern from Tavia’s hand. She stumbled from the force of it, and shrieked with fright as I scuttled through the door she’d come from, the light dancing ahead of me until this lantern met the same fate as the first.

“What’s happening?” Barro called as he stormed into the room behind me. “Are you hurt?”

“Something…” Tavia said, her hand on her chest and trying to get her breath under control. “Something…”

“There is something here with us,” Ramban said, his voice shaking. “It stole our lanterns!”

“Oh, hells,” Barro muttered. “Alright, stay close to me. I’ll get some more torches out. What was it? Did you see? Gremlin? A ghoul? Any idea at all?”

“It moved in the dark,” Tavia said. “I never saw it.”

“Nor I,” Ramban said.

I could hear Barro opening his pack, and I really did not want him lighting any more torches. It was time for part two: theatrics. I’d never been a drama kid, but I was sure that I could overact with the best of them. They’d probably not notice if my performance was less than perfect.

“You… you… you…” I said quietly to myself, testing my voice until I found a low, menacing tone that should work.

“You brought light into this place, where no light is welcome!” I said loudly. Watching through the doorway, I was quite satisfied to see them all startle at the sound. “By what right do you invade this place?”

Then, just to fuck with them, I shifted. Pushing the shadows ahead of me I drifted right past them, through the room and into the doorway of the room Barro had come from.

“Who are you?” Barro called through the doorway as I passed. “Show yourself!”

“Show myself?” I said from behind them, and Tavia squeaked while Barro whirled around, drawing his sword. “You already see me. I am darkness, and these halls are mine!”

I repeated my trick, slinking past them to the door we had all originally entered through. Ramban must have seen the shadows move as I passed, because he suddenly pointed and exclaimed, “There! I saw something move!”

Barro waved his torch around, but I was already past.

“We’re sorry!” Tavia said. Her breathing was quick and shallow, and she sounded on the verge of tears.

“You are not welcome here,” I hissed from my new location, and now they were turning in confusion, not sure which way to look. “But I am feeling merciful. I do not want to foul this place with human blood. So I might be persuaded to let you go.” I extended my claws, raking them slowly down the stone and making an awful scratching sound before I moved again.

“What do you want?” Barro said, and even his voice was a little unsteady now.

“Is it not obvious? I want you to leave.” I said, and moved.

“I want you to return to your camp, and take everything there.” I moved.

“Leave nothing. I want no reminders of your intrusion.” I moved.

“Forget this place.” I moved.

“Never return.” I moved.

“Do not speak of this to anyone.” I moved.

“Do not even think of it.” I moved.

“I will know. The darkness is mine.” I moved.

“And if you fail to do as I command, the shadows will take you.”

I approached them, not bothering to shift and instead pushing the shadows before me until they almost enveloped even Barro’s torch, throwing the three into near total darkness. Only a yard away from Tavia’s back, I roared, “Now GO!”

They fled, Barro shoving the two scholars before him. He stared into the darkness, backing up rapidly and never turning until he was through the door. Then he turned and hurried after the others.

*****

I followed the three as they rushed back through the tunnels the way they’d come. Credit where credit is due, once they’d left the rooms they didn’t actually run. They walked quickly, making sure to identify every turn until they reached the camp, barely speaking except to point out the direction they needed to go. Once there they risked my wrath by lighting more torches as they began to pack the camp.

I couldn’t help myself. From the darkness I hissed, “Leave nothing!” and almost laughed as they desperately searched the ground to make sure they hadn’t missed anything. They even collected the ashes of their fire, shovelling it into the bag they’d carried their firewood in. When they left, I followed them down the tunnel. I could hear them speaking in low, fearful voices, but couldn’t make out what they said, which was unfortunate. It would have been good to know if they meant to disobey me the first chance they got. I followed them out in shadow form, closing the gate behind me, which got another fearful reaction. Even then I stuck around until I was sure that they were leaving, watching them break camp and get on the road back to the city..

"If nothing else, that was certainly amusing," my dragon said.

It was, wasn't it? I answered. I just hope it worked.

I meant what I’d said. If they came back, I would kill them. And I didn’t feel bad about that decision. I’d given them a choice. I’d given them the option of not doing anything to force my hand. I’d given them a chance.

If they decided to throw that chance away, it was very literally their funeral.