City of the Beast

Chapter Nine BURIED ALIVE!

I OPENED my eyes but saw nothing. I smelt much.

My nostrils were assailed by a foul, damp, chilly smell that seemed to indicate I was somewhere below ground. I flexed my arms and legs. They were unbound, at least.

I tried to get up but bumped my head. I could only crouch on the damp, messy ground.

I was horrified. Had I been incarcerated in some tomb? Was I to die slowly of hunger, or have my senses leave me? With an effort I controlled myself. Then I heard a slight sound to my left Cautiously I felt about me and my hand touched something warm.

Someone groaned. I had touched a limb. It stirred.

Then a voice murmured: "Who is there? Where am I?"

"Darnad?"

"Yes."

"It is Michael Kane. We seem to be in some sort of dungeon-with a very low ceiling indeed."

"What?" I heard Darnad move and sit up, perhaps reaching with his hands above him. "No!"

"Do you know the place?"

"I believe I have heard of it."

"What is it?"

"The old heating system."

"That sounds very innocuous. What's that?"

"Narlet is built on the ancient ruins of one of the Sheev cities. Hardly anything of it exists, save the foundations of one particular building. Those foundations now make up Chinod Sai's foundations for his palace. Apparently the slabs forming the floor of the palace lie over an ancient, sunken pool which could be filled with hot water and made to heat the ground floor of the palace-perhaps the whole of it-by means of pipes. From what I hear, the Sheev abandoned this particular city well before their decline, for they later discovered better methods of heating."

"And so we are buried under the floor of Chinod Sai's palace?"

"I've heard it gives him pleasure to imprison his enemies here-having them permanently at his feet, as it were."

I did not laugh, though I admired the fortitude of my friend in jesting at a time like this.

I put my hands up and felt the smooth, damp slabs over my head, pressing on them. They did not budge.

"If he can raise the slabs, why can't we?"

"There are only a few loose ones, I've heard-Belet Vor told me all this-and very heavy furniture is placed over those when prisoners have been incarcerated."

"So we have been buried alive," I said, suppressing a shudder of terror. I admit that I was horrified. I think any man-no matter how bravewould have been at the thought of such a fate.

"Yes." Darnad's voice was a thin mutter. It seemed that he, too, had no liking for what had happened to us.

"At least we have saved Shizala," I reminded him. "Belet Vor will see that she returns safely to Varnal."

"Yes." The voice sounded slightly less strained.

Silence for a while.

Later I made up my mind.

"If you will stay where you are, Darnad," I said,

"so that I may keep some sort of bearing, I will explore our prison."

"Very well," he agreed.

I had to crawl, of course-there was no other way.

I counted the number of 'paces' as I moved across that horribly wet and foul-smelling floor.

By the time I had counted to sixty-one I had reached a wall. I then began to crawl round this, still counting.

Something obstructed me. I could not tell at first what it was. Thin objects like sticks. I felt them carefully and then withdrew my hand suddenly as I realized what they were. Bones. One of Chinod Sai's earlier victims.

I encountered several more skeletons on my circuit of the walls.

From where I had started, the first wall measured ninety-seven 'paces'; the second only fifty-four. The third was, in all, a hundred and twenty-six. I began to wonder why I was doing this, save to keep my mind occupied.

The fourth wall. One 'pace', two, three…

On the seventeenth 'pace' along the fourth wall my hand touched-nothing!

Surely this could not be a means of escape? By touch I discovered that some sort of circular hole led off from the fourth wall-perhaps a pipe that had once brought water into the chamber. It was just wide enough to take a man.

I put my head inside and reached my arms along it. It was wet and slimy but nothing stopped me.

Before I raised Darnad's hopes, I decided to see whether the pipe really offered a chance of escape.

I squeezed my whole body into it and began to lever myself forward, wriggling like a snake.

I began to feel elated when nothing obstructed me. Soon my whole body was in the pipe. I wriggled on. I hate being so confined normally, but if the pipe meant escape it was worth suffering my claustrophobia.

But then came disappointment.

My questing hands found something-and I knew at once what they touched.

It was another human skeleton.

Evidently some other poor soul-perhaps manyhad sought this means of escape and been disappointed-and not had the energy or inclination to return.

I sighed deeply and began to wriggle back down.

But as I did so I suddenly heard something from behind me. I paused. It was the sound of grating stone. A little light filtered up the pipe and I heard someone chuckle.

I did not move. I waited.

Then came Chinod Sai's jeering voice. "Greetings, Bradhinak-how are you enjoying your stay?"

Darnad did not reply.

"Come up, come up-I wish to show my men what a real Bradhinak of the Karnala looks like. A little befouled, perhaps-I am sorry my accommodation is not quite what you are accustomed to."

"I'd rather stay here than be subjected to your insults, you scum," Darnad replied levelly.

"And what of your friend-the strange one? Perhaps he would like a little respite. Where is he?"

"I do not know."

"You do not know! But he was put down there with you. Do not lie, boy-where is your companion?"

"I do not know."

The light increased, probably because Chinod Sai was peering into his horrible crypt, using a torch for illumination.

His voice rose querulously. "He must be down there!"

Darnad's tone seemed lighter now. "You can see he is not-unless one of these skeletons is his."

"Impossible! Guards!"

I heard the faint sound of feet above me.

Chinod Sai continued: "Take up some more of these stones-see if the other prisoner is hiding in a corner. He is down here somewhere. Meanwhile, bring up the Karnala."

More sounds, and I gathered that Darnad had been escorted away.

Then I heard the guards beginning to tear up other slabs and I grinned to myself, hoping that they would not think of looking in the pipe. Then something occurred to me. It was not a pleasant thought but it might save me and give me, in turn, a chance to save Darnad.

I wriggled up the pipe again and reached up to take hold of some of the bones of the unfortunate who had been there before me. He had not been lucky but, even though dead some years, he might be able to help me now-and help me avenge him if and when the opportunity came.

Squeezing myself up against one section of the pipe as tightly as I could, I began to pass bones down in front of me until quite a heap lay below my feet. I did this as soundlessly as possible, and any noise I did make was probably drowned by the racket the desperate guards were making pulling up flagstones and crawling around in the semidarkness trying to find me.

"He isn't here," I heard one of them say.

"You are a fool," answered another. "He must be here!"

"Well, I tell you he isn't. Come and look for yourself."

Another guard joined the first and I heard him stumbling around, too.

"I don't understand-there is no way out of here.

We've put enough of them down here one time or another. Hey-what's this?"

The guard had found the pipe. The light increased.

"Could he have gone up here? If he did it won't do him any good. It's blocked at the other end!"

Then the guard found the bones. "Ugh! He didn't go up, but someone else tried to. These bones are old."

"What are we going to tell the Bradhi?" The first guard spoke nervously. "This smacks of magic!"

"There's no such thing!"

"So we're told these days, but my grandfather says there are stories…"

"Shut your mouth! Magic-ghosts. Nonsense…

Still, I must admit that he had a strange look about him. He seemed to belong to no nation I've ever seen. And I have heard that beyond the ocean lies another land where men have powers greater than normal. And then there are the Sheev…"

"The Sheev! That's it!"

"Hold your tongue. Chinod Sai will tear it out if he hears such language spoken in his palace!"

"What do we tell him?"

"Only the facts. The man was here-but he is no longer here."

"But will he believe us?"

"We must hope that he does."

I heard the guards clamber up and march away.

The instant they had gone I slipped down the pipe as fast as I could and was soon standing up in what had been my prison, my head just above the level of the floor. Flagstones had been ripped out and the whole floor was in a mess. I was glad of that, at least.

No one was in the room, which seemed to be some sort of throne room judging by the huge, ornately carved, precious-metal gilded chair at one end.

I heaved myself up and stood in the room. As swiftly and as silently as I could, I ran towards the door and stood by it, listening.

It was half open. Angry voices came from the other side.

There were more sounds coming from outside the palace itself-shouts, cries. They sounded an-gry Somewhere in the distance several pairs of fists began to beat on a door.

Then I stepped back as, suddenly, someone came into the room.

It was Chinod Sai.

He stared at me in horror for a moment.

That moment was all I needed. In a flash I had darted forward and snatched his own sword from his belt!

I pressed the point gently against his throat and said with a grim smile on my lips: "Call for your guards, Chinod Sai-and you call for death!"

He paled and gurgled something. I gestured for him to come into the room and shut the door. I had been lucky. Everyone had been too busy with whatever else they were concerned with to notice what had happened to their "Bradhi".

"Speak in a low voice," I ordered. "Tell me what is happening and where my comrade is."

"How-how did you escape?"

"I am asking the questions, my friend. Now-answer!"

He grunted. "What do you mean?"

"Answer!"

"The scum are attacking my palace," he said.

"Some petty dahara-thief seeks to replace me."

"I hope he makes a better chief than you. And where is my comrade?"

He waved a hand behind him.

"In there."

Suddenly someone entered. I had expected the guards to knock and had intended that Chinod Sal should tell them not to enter.

But this was not a guard.

It was the surviving Argzoon. He looked astonished to see me. He turned, giving a roar of warning to the men in the room.

They came in and I backed away, looking around for a means of escape, but all the windows in this room were barred.

"Kill him!" screamed Chinod Sai, pointing a shaking finger at me. "Kill him!"

Led by the blue Argzoon, the guards came at me. I knew that I faced death-they would not take me a prisoner a second time.