The Realms Thereunder

7

Swi?gar’s body, though it would have been almost cripplingly heavy to anyone else, did not slow Ecgbryt down much at all. He walked silently behind Daniel and Freya as they moved down the new passage, which wound on with many curves and corners but was brick and piping all the way along.

This was the way that Gad had directed Freya to go, and she prayed that it wouldn’t be another trap. The possibility that it was actually the way home, however, pulled her onwards, walking quickly ahead of the other two, pausing to wait for them at the turns so that they wouldn’t lose sight of her. At one corner she paused long enough to talk to them.

“Do you see something up ahead?” Freya asked.

“I can’t tell. Yeah, maybe. Something shining.”

As they went farther, Daniel could start to see the ghostly image of a wall in the distance. “We’re almost there,” said Freya.

They kept their feet and moved onwards. White light was streaming past the wall-daylight, Freya realised with awe. For the first time in a month or more, they were seeing daylight, projected onto the brick wall of the corridor.

They rounded the corner and had to stop, their eyes dazzled by the light that fell through a large grille. They both gasped and shielded their eyes.

“The sun . . . ,” said Freya, wiping tears off her cheeks.

“It hurts!” said Daniel, surprised.

Ecgbryt flinched and squeezed his eyes shut. “I have not seen the sun in over one thousand years. I do not remember that it stung so.”

They moved forward, out of the direct path of the light, and stared up through the grille.

“Can you see anything?”

Daniel jumped up and down a couple of times to try to get a better view. “No, just the sky . . .”

“Feel that fresh air.”

They stayed underneath the grille for several short seconds, fixated, before their fears pricked them onwards.

“Come on,” Freya said. “It can’t be far now.”

But the next turning revealed a plain brick wall and nothing else.

They stared at it blankly and it stared back at them, just as blankly.

“It’s like a bad joke,” Daniel said.

Freya was in turmoil. Gad had lied to her. She had wanted to believe in escape so badly; she had wanted to put this terrible world and all that had happened to them far, far behind her. But now-now there was no telling what else they’d have to go through in order to get back home again.

“Maybe we can break through the grate,” Freya said. “Maybe we can call out to some-”

A high, piercing scream cut through the air.

“Yfelgopes,” Ecgbryt said. “We need to turn around and prepare ourselves. No good can come from fighting in a corner.”

“Wait,” said Daniel. “Where’s the mortar?”

“What?”

“There’s no mortar between the bricks. It’s just a pile of stacked bricks. I think we can break it down.”

Skittering footsteps and scraping clatter was heard from down the zigzagging corridor. Ecgbryt set Swi?gar’s body down, propping it against the wall. He unslung his shield from his back and hefted his axe. He hunkered down, ready to meet any attackers.

“Be mindful,” Ecgbryt said. “I shall protect you as best I can, but I may not be able to halt them all.”

Daniel drew his sword and shoved its point in between the crack of two bricks. It slipped in easily enough, all the way down the long tip. He wriggled it gently from side to side, causing the wall to bulge towards him. “It’s coming . . . !”

He pulled his sword back out, and with it, a stream of bricks and damp soil. He felt a hand on his arm and he was yanked backwards sharply, losing his balance and falling lengthways on the ground as the large old bricks fell to a crashing heap at his feet.

Freya was lying beside him. “Thanks,” he said, picking himself up. Dust was billowing around them. The upper half of the wall had given way, turning into a large pile of bricks and dirt. Behind the wall was . . . more dirt. Dark, brown, muddy earth.

“No,” Freya said quietly, despair finally sinking into her heart.

“It’s not fair.”

“Never mind, Freya,” Daniel said consolingly. “We’ll find-”

“Hold on,” said Freya, climbing forward on the dirt heap. “I can see light.”

“What?”

“Up through here . . . it’s-” She thrust her arm into the dirt and pulled. A small clump of mud and grass came with it, revealing a dim blue corner of sky. “Hurry, help me!”

They dumped their packs and leapt forward, clawing clods of dirt away. Freya’s fingers dug into a mesh of fine white fibers, which turned out to be the roots of grass that hung like a curtain in front of her. She started ripping through it, tearing it apart as much as she could.

“Ecgbryt,” Daniel said, turning to the knight who still stood, weapons at the ready. “Come on, help us!”

“Not today, young Daniel, young Freya. This is where our paths part.”

Daniel also stopped. “What? Why?”

“Your work under the skin of the earth may be finished, but mine is not. I must toil in the darkness awhile longer yet.”

“No, Ecgbryt-” Freya moaned, the image of Gad stabbing Swi?gar played over in her head. “If you stay here-” she choked.

“I’m not leaving!” Daniel exclaimed. “Ecgbryt, I want to stay with you.”

“Daniel, you can’t-”

“Shut up, Freya, this was always the plan. I was going to help you get home and then stay myself. I want to be a knight. I want to destroy evil!”

“Daniel, that’s not-”

“I hate the world. Hate it! I’m not going back! I refuse!”

Ecgbryt knelt in front of Daniel.

“You must go,” he said. “You do not belong here.”

Those words cut Daniel to the heart. “Don’t say that.”

“I would not want you here.”

“I don’t care,” Daniel said, eyes hot with tears. “I want me here.”

Just then, the first of the yfelgopes rounded the corner at high speed, howling at them. Ecgbryt rose and with a swift motion brought his axe up and into its jaw.

“Go!” Ecgbryt commanded them.

Daniel drew his sword and went to stand near Ecgbryt. “You better hurry, Freya.”

Freya looked beseechingly at Ecgbryt, who nodded at her and then turned his back.

Gritting her teeth, Freya dug up towards the light. She pushed with her legs and pulled herself forward just as a shower of loose dirt and pebbles fell upon her head. She was completely buried except for her forearms and ankles. She couldn’t move her legs enough to kick herself forward, nor could she move her shoulders to pull herself out. Worse, she couldn’t breathe-cool, damp earth completely covered her face. She flailed her arms as much as she could, trying to find something to grab, but found nothing.

Twisting, turning, and scrunching herself together and thrusting herself forward like an inchworm, she finally managed to get her head and shoulders out into the open air and blinding light. Her arms were next and then the rest.

She stood, blinking. Although bright to Freya, the sky showed it was only evening. She was in a field with a small clump of trees nearby and a large stone building just beyond that. She looked down at her feet on the ground and the loose earth that she had climbed through. She could hear nothing but the sound of the birds in the distance-no sound from Daniel or Ecgbryt.

And then with a lurch, the ground beneath her collapsed along the line of the corridor they had been walking down. It made an almost indescribable sound-a sort of muffled, basso profundo crump.

She watched the caved-in earth for any further movement and spied something pale and wriggling frantically. It was Daniel’s arm.

Fast as a shot, Freya was over there and pulling at him with all her might. She wasn’t strong enough to shift him much at first, so she started desperately to dig and claw away the dirt around him.

She managed to uncover his face-she had almost been standing on it-which allowed him to breathe, with huge, grateful gasps, and from there they worked together to extract him completely.

“Ecgbryt-” was his first word, still spitting dirt from his lips.

“Ecgbryt-”

“Is he still down there?” Freya asked, alarmed. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to dig again. “Where do you think-?”

“No-” Daniel sputtered. “He pushed me. He pushed me away. When the walls started caving in . . . he could have pulled me towards him instead.”

“Maybe not, maybe . . .”

As Freya searched for words, Daniel shook his head. “I saw his face, his eyes. He didn’t want me with him. He didn’t want me.”

“Excuse me,” came a voice from behind them. “But who might you be?”

They spun around and found a boy, a tall, lanky teenager with dusty-brown hair, staring at them in amazement. “Where did you come from?”

“Freya,” Daniel whispered, “what do we do now?”