The Death Ray

19

Regdar stretched, holding his neck. He hadn't slept and the adrenaline high that followed the mysterious attack had long since run its course. While he was still gathering men and resources to begin a search of the sewers, Naull returned. She'd said only a few words to him about having to rest and regain her spells. She seemed angry, but maybe scared as well. The look on her face and the tone of her voice troubled Regdar deeply, but as always seemed to be the case, he had pressing work to do, more immediate problems, and Naull would have to wait-and understand.

Standing knee-deep in waste water, Regdar finished stretching and pressed on. The tracker was several paces ahead of him, and already there was a space of inky darkness between the pools of light from his lantern and Regdar's. The curved ceiling was only a few inches over Regdar's head, and the walls were only a couple feet to either side of him. The sewer passage was a long, brickwork cylinder-a pipe, really. Sounds echoed so strangely in its confines that Regdar eventually gave up jumping at every sudden noise. A drip could sound like a warhorse's hooves, a splash like the beating of a giant heart.

The tracker was another of the city watchmen who Regdar commanded, though he hadn't met the man an hour before. The sergeant told him that the tracker, whose name was Willis, had worked in the sewers and knew their quirks. Having spent an hour following Willis through the worst place in New Koratia, Regdar wasn't so sure. They seemed to just be walking in a straight line.

Behind him followed two more watchmen, whispering gripes and dirty jokes to each other to pass the time. Regdar wished he could join them but he was still working out how a Lord Constable should act, and griping with the men probably wasn't it.

He had three more teams of four men apiece fanned out in the maze of sewer tunnels, each led by someone who claimed to know the subterranean ins and outs. Regdar could only hope that one of those other teams, at least, was on the right track.

He was beginning to think about turning his team around and going back to the Thrush and the Jay when one of the men behind him screamed. Regdar whirled and saw a single, flailing arm surrounded by splashing water. The other watchman moved back and to the side, pushing through the water, pinwheeling his arms so that the sword in his right hand scraped the ceiling and the wall close behind him.

Regdar sloshed toward the commotion, scanning the rippling water for the downed man. Bits of garbage and feces bobbed in the brown water, which was being churned from below. The water was no more than two feet deep, and Regdar couldn't believe the watchman could have disappeared completely in it.

"What happened?" he asked the missing man's partner.

The watchman looked at him with wild eyes and managed to say, "He just-" before the water exploded up into Regdar's face, and the missing man appeared with a high-pitched, gurgling scream.

The horrible sound echoed over and over again in the sewer tunnel, and Regdar bent back away from the man's fear-ravaged face as it lunged toward him, or was pushed at him. Something had the man in its jaws.

"Run!" the tracker called.

Regdar grabbed at the flailing man and got hold of his soaking tabard. The fabric tore, and the man was jerked back. Something slapped the water, and the light dimmed in the tunnel when the lantern was knocked out of Regdar's hand by the screaming watchman's flailing hands.

It was a snake that had him-a huge snake with a head as big as the watchman's torso.

The snake dropped its head and the still flailing watchman back into the water. It slithered forward under the surface. Regdar felt it slide across his legs, then it twitched against him and almost pushed him off his feet.

Regdar drew his sword but momentarily forgot the low ceiling. The heavy blade clanged against the bricks.

The tracker was trying to run away and was still loudly urging the others to do the same when either the drowning victim or the monster snake itself tripped him up. He fell facefirst, his lantern dropping into the water with him and going out. The only light left was one small lantern held by the man who'd watched his partner fall to the snake, and that man was taking the tracker's advice. He was running away as fast as he could manage in the knee-deep water and taking the only remaining light with him.

"Stop!" Regdar shouted at the man's receding back.

Regdar looked back over his shoulder and saw the disturbance in the water as the snake slithered away just under the surface. The tracker splashed past him, and they made eye contact as he went by. Regdar saw a little guilt there, but not much. There was another splash from farther up the tunnel and the snake's victim screamed again.

Regdar reached out to grab the tracker but the man stopped anyway, looking back at his dying comrade.

"Your bow," Regdar said, keeping his hand out.

Willis slipped the shortbow off his shoulder and handed it to Regdar, who took the liberty of sliding an arrow out of the tracker's quiver. He nocked the arrow and drew back the string in a single motion. He aimed but the light was already so far behind him that he was basically shooting blind.

"Pin it," the tracker said, and Regdar let the arrow fly.

There was a great disturbance in the water-splashing, a cough, something like a shout-and the light didn't get any dimmer. The other watchman started splashing his way back.

"Did you get it?" the man called. "Did he get it?"

"Help!" came echoing down the corridor, then was swallowed up by more splashing.

"He got it," Willis said, and followed Regdar up the tunnel.

"Get him to the temple," Regdar said as he handed the wounded man to a pair of watchmen in the basement of the Thrush and the Jay.

The remaining two members of Regdar's team clanged up the ladder behind him as the wounded man was carried away, bleeding, his head lolling weakly to one side.

"You found it," Naull said, and Regdar flinched.

He hadn't expected to see her there, but was instantly happy he did. She was dressed in her traveling clothes, with her straps of pouches over her shoulders and her hair tied up away from her face.

"What was it?" she asked.

"It was a snake," he said.

"A dire snake," the tracker Willis added as he climbed through the formerly secret door behind Regdar. "A nasty one, too. Almost swallowed Kirk whole."

Regdar found himself about to ask who Kirk was, then realized he needed to start introducing himself to his men. He was ordering them into the notoriously dangerous city sewers and hadn't even bothered to learn their names.

"A snake?" Naull asked, skeptical.

She had good instincts.

"It was just a big snake," Regdar said, "that lives in the sewers. It wasn't what tunneled up and tried to kill M-" he almost said Maelani but quickly switched to-"me. It was just an animal."

"A big animal," said the fourth member of Regdar's team as he crawled from the shaft.

"So, you didn't find it," Naull said.

Regdar opened his mouth to reply, but the sergeant spoke first.

"One of the other teams got a good trail."

Regdar looked at him and asked, "What trail?"

"Scratches on the ceiling," the sergeant reported, "fresh and deep."

"Where?" Regdar asked.

A watchman covered in dirty water and filth stepped up from behind the sergeant and said, "Goes right out to the river, My Lord. It's only a couple hundred feet really, but I had a hunch, so we got a boat, rowed across, and went in through an opening on the eastern bank. We followed the scratches deep into the Trade Quarter but lost the trail in a particularly nasty stretch, one that runs under where the old slaughterhouse is. I heard they were going to pull it down but for now, it's just a smelly, old eyesore. No one ever goes near it-at least, no one with a nose."

"A good place to hide," Regdar said. "Good work, Constable…?"

"Jandik," the man replied.

"Constable Jandik," Regdar said. "Draw some fresh men and supplies and another boat. I trust you can find this slaughterhouse again."

"Yes, My Lord."

As Jandik trundled up the stairs out of the basement, Regdar fished in a pouch for the piece of jagged metal he'd cut from the intruder. He found it and handed it to Naull.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A piece of whatever it was that came up from under the bed."

She frowned and turned it over in her hand.

"Is there a spell," he asked, "that could tell you what that was or what it came from?"

She looked at the metal fragment in her hand with renewed interest, then looked off, thinking.

"Naull," Regdar said, taking her by the arm and leading her away from the other men, "I never got a chance to-"

She jerked her arm away and said, "Yes."

A few of the watchmen looked over at them, but when Regdar met their gazes, they turned away.

"Yes," Naull continued in a quieter voice, "there is a spell, but I don't know it. My mentor called it 'legend lore.'"

"Sergeant," Regdar called without turning away from Naull.

The young sergeant came up behind him, and Regdar said, "This is Naull, a mage in whom I place the utmost trust. Escort her to the palace im-"

"I'm not going to the palace," Naull interrupted. Regdar raised an eyebrow and she continued. "You need me with you when you go to that slaughterhouse. If the duke has someone who can cast that spell, he doesn't need me, but you might."

Regdar smiled but Naull didn't. He got the idea she was trying hard not to.

"Sergeant," Regdar said, taking the piece of metal from Naull's hand, "what's your name?"

"Lorec, My Lord," the sergeant said. "Watch Sergeant Lorec."

Regdar held the piece of metal out to the man and said, "Watch Sergeant Lorec, I'm trusting you to convey this directly to the duke. Ask him to call on wizards that he trusts to cast this…"

"Legend lore," Naull provided.

"As quickly as possible," finished Regdar.

Lorec took the jagged shard and said, "Yes, Lord Constable."