Tanis the shadow years

32

The water explobed through the tunnel wall with so much force that it threw Tanis and Brandella against the far side of their tomb as if they were pieces of driftwood in a pounding surf. They thrashed in the rushing water, trying desperately to get above the surface of the flood to draw a breath. But there was no surface. The water had almost instantly filled the tunnel to the very top. The enormous pressure of the water and the slope of their tunnel kept them virtually pinned against the area that had caved in. Yet the very force of the water made Tanis realize that there was, in fact, a possible way out- if only they could swim against the tide and make their way through the broken tunnel wall through which the water was flooding in.

Tanis's lungs were on fire, and he felt the panic of imminent death rising inside his brain like a bubble that would soon burst. He couldn't hold his breath too much longer.

The muddy water obscured his elvensight. Nonetheless, he had to find Brandella. He groped in the murky, swirling sludge until he grabbed hold of one of her arms. With Brandella in tow, he pushed off the caved-in portion of the tunnel and then thrust himself against the fiercely flowing tide. Kicking his legs as hard as he could, and stroking madly with his one free arm, he almost made it to the opening.

But the current was too strong. It threw him and Brandella back with tremendous force, turning their bodies- into battering rams. They slammed against the far end of the tunnel with such a jarring impact that Tanis could no longer hold his breath. His mouth opened.

But so did the tunnel.

The debris that had blocked their path from the cave- in gave way. It turned to loose mud that became the crest of a fast-moving wave. Tanis and Brandella were swept along with it, sputtering for air as they were washed back through the tunnel they had dug.

In mere seconds, they were deposited back at the bottom of the pit. Coughing until they felt their insides would split, Tanis and Brandella crawled away from the opening, where muddy water gushed in.

The leathery old woman and her grandson leaned over to study this new development. They watched as the bottom of the pit quickly filled with water.

The boy smiled. "They're alive. Grandma!"

"So they are, child," she replied. "And they're still our prisoners."

He raised two fingers. 'Two of them and two of us," he said gravely.

As the depth of the water in the pit increased, Tanis and Brandella were forced to stand, their muscles protesting after the unwonted battering of the past few days. Then, when the pit became a deep lake, the pair had to tread water. Soon they found themselves rising with the water level toward the top of the pit I

"What will those two… up there… do when we get… close to them?" Brandella asked between gasps.

"Anything they can," Tanis replied, watching the two above as carefully as he could while still coughing up dirty water.

The old woman said something to the little boy, who nodded and smiled. They hurried together to the corner of the pit and bent over, each picking something off the ground.

Neither Tanis nor Brandella could see what was in the ghouls' hands. "They're up… to something," Tanis wheezed. "Be careful."

The pit continued to fill from the tunnel down below, the water running downhill from the underbelly of the stream on the high ground above. Tanis and Brandella were just five feet from the lip of the pit. Two more feet and Tanis felt he could reach up to dry land and pull himself out of the water.

"Now!" screamed the crone, rearing back and throwing a rock right at Tanis; it splashed next to his head. The boy threw his rock at Brandella. It struck her a glancing blow in the arm; she winced in pain.

"More!" cried the old woman. "Aim for their heads!"

Now it was clear why the ghouls had waited so long to act. The two would stun them, then pull them from the water when they were near the top.

"Dive!" Tanis ordered.

Brandella took as deep a breath as she could manage and dove beneath the surface. A rock hit her in the back as she went head-first into the murky depths.

Tanis followed right behind, a stone grazing his ear just as his face hit the water. He knew one thing: He planned to be as far away as possible from the old woman and the boy when he came up for air.

Swimming a foot below the surface, he blindly stroked his way to the far side of the pit. When he felt the muddy wall, he shot straight up, hoping his momentum would help him reach the edge so he could climb out. Instead, he found himself right underneath the two who wanted his heart. They'd anticipated his move and run to the far side of the pit. Both heaved rocks the size of their fists from a distance of a mere few feet. One struck Tanis in the shoulder. The other narrowly missed his temple; he deflected it with an outstretched arm.

Falling back into the water, Tanis barely had the time to take another breath before diving under again. He swam in no particular direction, and that turned out to be a wise decision. When he came up for air, the hag and her grandson were more than fifteen feet away and the rocks they threw at him sailed wide of their mark.

Tanis didn't see Brandella. He hoped she'd since come up for air and gone down below again. Waiting for her to surface, however, was out of the question. He took three quick breaths, then one deep lungful of air, and dove, even as more rocks came hurtling in his direction.

Once again, Tanis chose a random direction. Swimming deep enough under water to hide his movement, he made his way to another side of the pit. With his lungs afire, he kicked down hard and fought his way to the top, reaching for the dry ground. The two ghouls were not there.

This was his chance. With palms flat on the outside of the pit, he began pulling himself up out of the water. A rock splashed next to his hip. Another rock bounced past his hand. With a grunt, he swung one leg up out of the pit, and then the other. He rolled away from the edge and came up on his feet. The old woman and the boy were dashing toward him, the boy hurling a rock that flew over Tanis's head. The old woman waved her trowel as if it were a dagger. It was sharp enough to be one.

Even now, Tanis would not draw his sword against them. But he had no qualms about defending himself. The boy stopped short of attacking him, but the old woman came at the half-elf with hate in her eyes. "I need your heart I" she wailed.

Tanis grabbed her by the wrist and wrestled the razor- edged trowel out of her hands. The boy lunged for it, but Tanis was faster. He kicked it into the pit; it immediately sank out of sight.

While Tanis restrained the old woman by pinning her arms against her body with a bear hug, Brandella scrambled out of the pit and hurried to his side. She grabbed the boy from behind, swinging his legs off the ground. He flailed and kicked, but she held him tight, her arms strong from years of archery practice.

"What are we going to do with them?" she asked, keeping one arm locked across the boy's chest. His eyes flashed flame at Tanis. "We need time to get away."

Tanis looked at Brandella, and she looked at him, and the same idea struck them simultaneously. With gigantic muddy splashes, the two ghouls landed in the water of the pit.

"I can't swim!" the crone gurgled. The little boy flung both arms around her neck. She struggled in vain to loosen his hold.

"You can't die, either," Tanis called back.

'Tve never been so filthy in my life," Brandella said after they'd walked about a mile.

"Is this what they mean when they say, 'Here's mud in your eye'?" Tanis said, a crooked grin creasing his worn face. She gazed at him, eyebrows raised. She'd tried to wipe away the vestiges of their stint in the tunnel but had succeeded only in spreading the mud more evenly around her face. Some of it had dried to a thin film. "Scowarr would be proud of you, Half-Elven. You've almost developed a funny bone." He snorted. "You're certainly amusing-looking, too," she taunted, "with those streaks of mud in your hair." Tanis countered, "You've changed a bit, as well, since I first saw you that evening in Reehsha's shack." She giggled. "Reehsha's cabin. Wasn't that a palace?" He joined her laughter. "It looked like it hadn't been scrubbed since the Cataclysm." "Well, so do we," she rejoined. They laughed again. Then they sobered as both realized that their companions back at Ankatavaka had vanished with Kishpa's death. They trudged on for some time through the unvarying glare of the sun. The landscape was flat, dry, and dull. Only a few weeds broke through the crust of the ground. After a while, they didn't bother to look up, merely plodding along in silence, heads down. "Maybe we'll find a pond or stream we can wash up in," Tanis finally said. She nodded, scuffing her wet shoes, which she'd fished from the pit with a stick as Tanis warded off the two ghouls with a board from the old woman's wagon. "I wouldn't mind drinking some nice clean water for a change, either. I still have the taste of mud in my mouth." "At least it was something to eat," joked Tanis, his stomach grumbling. The woman met his quip with a smile. Then she looked up and stood stock-still. Tanis took a few extra steps and looked back at her, eyes questioning. "Tanis…" she whispered, indicating the route ahead. He looked up. The mountain of Fistandantilus loomed ahead of them. Suddenly, it was as if the sunshine gave no warmth. He shivered despite the glare. "What's that at the base?" Brandella asked, her voice still quiet. He looked. It was a village.