“I don’t know how you keep coming up with these stupid, harebrained ideas,” Hakimi muttered under his breath. Hakimi tried his best to sound unamused, but there was no hiding the smirk in the corner of his mouth.
“Oh, I learned it all from you,” Vardan said with a chuckle.
The laughter didn’t last long, however. A few of the bandits caught on quicker than the others and were back on their trail already. The commotion they caused back there had spread throughout the town. Slowly but surely, the bandits scattered across the area were now aware of their approximate location.
The five boys started to run into more and more bandits with every turn they took and every tunnel they passed. Vardan led the way still, zigzagging down random tunnels and scaling short cliffs to run around the bandits standing in their way. Luckily, they were getting closer and closer to the heart of the town, which meant they were getting closer to the market.
The tunnels were shorter, the caves were larger and more spacious and the improvised huts and cobbled-together slums were more numerous. There was more room to hide from and to throw off any pursuers.
Vardan and the boys scampered up a pile of garbage to climb up the roof of a crumbling roadside tavern. The zinc roof creaked and bent under their weight. The proprietor yelled at them from inside. The boys hopped around as the man stabbed blindly through the roof. They quickly sped away, hopping from roof to roof along the entire stretch of makeshift shops. They grabbed onto a ledge at the very end, climbed over and vanished down another tunnel.
Meanwhile, the tavern owner’s howl of frustration was cut short by the sound of his roof caving in, as a half dozen surly men came crashing into his establishment.
They had been running for thirty minutes now and the bandits were slowly closing in on them. As unorganized as they were, they were slowly starting to figure out what paths Vardan was taking and were setting up blockades ahead of time. Vardan, as sly as he was, managed to bypass most of them through hidden shortcuts and longer detours. The obstacles slowed them down and soon, the boys found themselves pursued by another group of bandits.
“Almost there!” Vardan shouted at the boys.
It was hard to tell if Vardan was telling the truth or if he was trying to keep morale up. Things were looking dire. Everyone was heaving and huffing in exhaustion. It didn’t seem like they could keep running for much longer.
They came out of the passageway to the sight of a large, rickety wooden building in a spacious cave. The cave smelled comfortably of food. Tables were placed all over the empty space. This place was a restaurant. Yet, strangely enough, there were no customers and all the stools and chairs had been turned upside down and placed over the tables.
A man stepped out of the building when he heard the footsteps. The boys recoiled instinctively. Most people they encountered along the way had drawn their swords at the first sight of them. Bandit or no bandit, it seemed like the monetary prospect involved in hunting them down was too much of an incentive to turn down.
They started looking for another way out of the cave beside the way they came. There were several tunnels all over the place, each branching in a different direction. However, before they could decide where to go, Vardan said, “Follow me.”
He then sprinted straight at the building in the center of the cave, towards the large, threatening man. The boys looked at each other hesitantly, but followed after Vardan without question.
Vardan exchanged looks with the man as they approached. They nodded at each other and shook hands. Vardan pressed a small pouch of rice into the man’s hand and ran into the building. A skinny Malay boy was waiting for them inside, wiping plates with a cloth.
When he saw Vardan, he smiled and put the plate in his hand aside.
“Vardan, you made it!” he said.
“Adil,” Vardan smiled and nodded in return.
The plate that Adil had placed on the table was precariously close to the edge. It wobbled and fell to the ground with a crack. Old Fatt leaned and peered into the restaurant with a stern look on his face.
Adil laughed sheepishly and immediately led the boys away.
“This way,” he said as he led them into the kitchen.
He pushed aside a heavy shelf to reveal a trap door underneath it. He opened the lock with a key and ushered the boys in.
“It leads to the west bank of the old Slaver’s Creek. Go right, turn left and take the first left turn again. It should lead you to the west side of the market, right beside where Skinny You used to sell scrap meat and bones.”
The boys went in one by one and Vardan was last. When he descended into the tunnel, Adil said again, “Oh, right. Aiman wanted me to tell you that the preparations are ready. Same place as discussed. He wants you to hurry up. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” said Vardan.
Adil closed the trapdoor and locked it with a click.
Vardan lifted the lamp in his hand, shining the light into the straight and dark tunnel. It was incredibly quiet in here compared to the bustling streets they had been running through earlier. All five boys felt a slight chill run down the back of their spines as they stared into the darkness in the distance. It occurred to all of them, at the same time, that there was nowhere to run here, if they were cornered by their enemies.
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If Old Fatt or Adil had betrayed them…
“Let’s go. The faster we finish this, the faster we can be back home enjoying a nice, warm pot of stew,” Vardan said with a smile, trying his best to dispel the pessimistic thoughts from everyone’s mind.
It was too late to turn back. The five of them gritted their teeth and pressed forward. They strode at a brisk pace to conserve energy; not quite running, but not walking too leisurely. The tunnel was small, cold and damp. Water was constantly dripping from above their heads. They couldn’t help but shiver.
The tunnel continued for almost ten minutes. Finally, they came to a stop in front of a wooden trapdoor. Cautiously, Vardan unbolted the door and slowly lifted it, peering between the gaps to see if anyone was there. Fortunately, their worst fear was unfounded. There was no one at all. Vardan threw the door open and climbed out from within. The rest of the boys followed suit. They were standing in a small and narrow strip of land, cut off from the vast expanse of the Nameless Town’s market.
Right there, across the wide and dirty river, was a loud, bustling market filled with shops and stalls that seemed to stretch on forever. All that life and all that noise, trapped between the earth and a low ceiling, as if the market itself was a sandwich, dotted with countless lamps and lanterns. There were so many lights in sight that for a brief moment, it was easy to forget that this was an underground world.
They all stood in awe of the view for a brief moment. None of them, except Vardan had seen a view like this.
Even Hakimi hadn’t witnessed the market from this angle at this time of the day when they paid a visit to Fang Chen Yu.
“Looks pretty, but it’s a real mess inside,” Vardan chuckled, “Most of it is connected through tiny, narrow passageways and tunnels. The west end of the market is the only place with a clearing this large and a view like this. Come on, let’s go.”
The five of them followed Adil’s instructions and came out of the passageway into a nauseatingly bright and narrow passage. The ceiling was right at their heads. Vardan, who was the tallest of them all even had to bend down and walk.
The vendors whose stalls were right next to them immediately started hawking their goods, practically thrusting it into their faces.
There was food, weapons, armor, pipes and all sorts of exotic goods for sale. The boys ignored the vendors and pressed on, trying their best not to step on anyone or anything as they navigated the tight alleyways. They followed Vardan’s lead and passed through odd, winding tunnels, with strange shops carved into the sides, and into straight, destitute streets that seemed completely abandoned.
Where the merchants and vendors were brimming with smiles and pushing wares on anyone that passed by (even the stern-looking bandits), the abandoned streets were littered with beggars and drunks.
“Most of them used to work here too, with their own stores,” Vardan explained, “but this is usually what happens when you start piling up a debt and Fang Chen Yu’s men come knocking.”
“The other vendors, they seem to make a good living. I didn’t…I didn’t expect that,” said Hakimi, his head and chin pointed down, as if deep in thought.
Vardan laughed dryly and said, “Not much of a good living when 90% of everything you make is taxed by Fang Chen Yu. Fang Chen Yu grants them protection, but they barely make enough to feed themselves. Most of them are associated with bandits as well, if not outright controlled by them. The market looks prosperous from the outside, but it’s nothing but rot and decay if you look closer. Fang Chen Yu controls everything.”
The geography of the market lent itself well to concealment. The narrow, suffocating tunnels made it difficult to pursue and the many passageways made it hard to track. Nevertheless, the boys noticed that a few men had started to pick up on their trail and were following them. Some at a distance, some more brazenly closing in on them.
They were five minutes away from Fang Chen Yu’s palace, but the enemies were getting closer and closer. They broke into a full sprint and all the men started running towards them as well. Han Yang, who was at the rear of the party, pulled over a few baskets full of ores and a rack of spices over the narrow road. The vendors cursed at them, but the obstructions helped to slow down the bandits.
The bandits were still hot on their heels, however. Vardan turned a few corners and arrived at yet another abandoned street. He let out a sigh of relief when he reached the place, almost as if they had reached their destination. The boys all noticed this and subconsciously, their postures became relaxed as well.
Their feet were not getting any slower, however. They continued running down the street as fast as they could down. The bandits entered the same street just a few seconds later, a small group of nine men barreling towards the boys.
The boys were almost at the next tunnel, when Hafiz suddenly shouted, “Look out!”
The others immediately turned around to look, only to see and arrow whiz past their faces, just barely missing them by inches. They immediately scattered and hid behind old barrels and rotting wooden posts.
The arrows kept coming, embedding themselves one by one into the cover that the boys had taken. The attacker wasn’t incredibly accurate with the weapon, but he was good enough to injure them from this distance. Hakimi tried to peek over the wooden counter he was hiding behind and almost got his eye taken out, had Vardan not pulled him back. Every time they tried to leave their hiding spots, an arrow would immediately shoot towards them. They had no choice but to remain where they were, all while the bandits in the distance slowly closed the distance.
“We gotta keep moving!” Hakimi yelled at Vardan.
“Keep your head down and keep your cool,” said Vardan with a twinkle in his eyes, “Don’t worry about it. We’ve got them right where we want them.”
The bandits were just a few meters away from the boys now, right in the middle of the street.
Just then, Vardan whistled. The wooden shed to the left and right of the bandits collapsed without any notice, burying the bandits underneath a pile of debris.
A pack of a dozen scruffy children and teenagers emerged from behind the wreckage, up and down the streets. All of them carried rope and some sort of improvised weapon in their hands.
The bandits that remained conscious shoved pieces of wood and dirt off their bodies and tried to dig themselves out of the mess, only to be greeted by a brick to the face and stick to the back of the head.
In a matter of minutes, the bandits had been completely subdued. The children quickly started tying up the bandits while they lay there unconscious.
“Told you I had a plan,” Vardan said as he raised his eyebrows proudly at Han Yang, who watched the whole thing unfold with his mouth agape.
“Alright, let’s go. Just a few more streets and we will be at the palace,” said Vardan.
The leader of the children that ambushed the bandits was a short but built teenager with tan skin. He nodded at Vardan and Vardan gave him a thumbs-up in response.
The boys all turned to leave, all of them except Hakimi.