When the guards started into the sewers Nedric thought they were going to be caught for sure. They came closer and closer towards the fugitives. Their torches shone against the walls flicking back and forth and exposing the mould and slime that covered the walls and walkways.

The five friends pressed into the shadow provided by the uneven walls, hoping that they would not be exposed immediately and would have some chance to fight. Nedric, who had been bringing up the rear, felt the most exposed and readied a throwing knife as he waited for the first guard to turn the corner. In his other hand he held a long dagger.

As the guard turned the corner, Nedric threw. The guard saw the blade coming and raised his hand to defend himself. He was successful in that the knife stuck in his hand and he dropped the torch. He cried out as Nedric leapt towards him, dagger ready.

The guard, already suffering from his wound, was unprepared for the sudden attack and didn’t see Nedric’s strike to his body. He grunted in pain as the dagger hit him in the stomach. Fortunately for him, the hard leather jerkin he wore protected him from further harm but the impact sent him staggering back and he fell into the sewer.

Nedric grabbed the fallen torch and moved back to his comrades. He expected the other guards to come rushing to their comrades aid but they seemed reluctant. Putting himself in their place he began to understand why. It would take quite a lot of courage to rush forward into danger against an armed group of unknown size and obvious fighting prowess. If it were him, he’d be holding to the back of the group hoping the others would push forward.

The torch was passed forward to Daiga who led them forward as quickly as he was able. This wasn’t that quickly but they were around the next corner before the guards had reached the first one. Nedric hung back to see if he could surprise another guard and also to hear what they were saying.

“We’re not going to catch them in here. They obviously know what they are doing.” The voice of the guard indicated that he had no wish to be walking through the sewers.

“What do you think will happen to us if we let them get away?” The second voice although sounding more authoritative also had that tone that said he could be convinced to change his mind.

“What do you think will happen if we do catch up with them? There’s only six of us and they’ve already taken out more than that number.”

“It’s my job that is on the line if we don’t try.”

“It’s our lives that are on the line if we catch them.”

“That’s a good point, slow down and make a lot of noise. We can say we lost them after a fight and go back in a few minutes. We’ll leave it to someone else to find them.”

Nedric let his breath out slowly and moved as quietly as possible to catch his companions before they came to another junction and lost him. He didn’t need to hurry overly as he didn’t have the burdens that his friends carried.

When he caught up with them he whispered what he overheard. A quick and quiet discussion ensued and they decided to find somewhere underground where they could hide and rest. Daiga in particular looked like he wouldn’t be capable of travelling much further so Nedric took the opportunity to carry Scabad.

Hefting the quiet ranger, Nedric realised just how strong Daiga was. Injured and after losing blood and fighting through the building, the ranger had still carried his companion with a speed and determination that now seemed incredible. Nedric although fairly fresh felt as though he would buckle under the weight of the larger man.

They slowly made their way through the sewers aiming generally away from the river, which was the most obvious exit and so most likely to have guards. The sewers themselves varied in size and repair getting generally smaller and more dishevelled as they walked. There were various pipes and ducts at irregular intervals, which brought all sorts of things into the sewers; some of these were almost as large as the main ways.

When they were getting to the point where none of them could move much further, they entered one of the larger pipes, which was part way up one of the walls and appeared to be dry. Shining the torch along it, they could see that it bent sharply only a few feet away. Bethan pulled himself in and along and reported that the pipe opened into a larger space just around that bend. The situation was as ideal as they were likely to find and so they decided to rest there.

The group were so exhausted that there was no thought of mounting a guard. If any of them thought about it they might have reasoned that they were unlikely to be found in such an out of the way place and that a large troupe of guards marching through the area would probably wake them anyway. Regardless, the five were all asleep within seconds of stopping.

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* * *

Water dripping on his face woke Nedric up. At first there didn’t seem to be much difference between having his eyes closed and open as the darkness seemed the same. Gradually he was able to see a slight greyness in his surroundings. The darkness where his companions lay was just slightly more apparent than the general dimness.

The water was falling through a small crack in the pipe above him and he could almost sense it gradually building into a drop before it fell. There was no other evidence of water and the moss in the centre of the pipe seemed to have absorbed any moisture that had managed to get that far. Even so there was a dull roar coming from the sewers, which Nedric supposed meant that they were filling during a downpour.

The others gradually started to stir as the noise increased. Nedric crawled along the pipe and reached the sewer proper. Although he could not see, he could determine that the water level had risen so that it now covered the walkway by about an inch. He assumed by the feel of vegetation on the walls that the water would not rise more than a foot higher and that they should be safe but it should mean that there would be no immediate search by the guards.

By the time he had crawled back to his companions they were all awake. A quick conversation determined that both Scabad and Rialto felt that they would be able to move around. Although each had been tortured, all their wounds had been relatively minor. The most deeply wounded person was Daiga and he maintained that he would be able to move around without any problems. After his heroics of the evening before Nedric did not doubt him.

They first had to determine what they were going to do and how they would go about this. They had to decide priorities and see if there was anywhere safe they could rest and recuperate before attempting to rescue Elsebeth. Before everything else though, Nedric wanted to know what had happened to Rialto and Scabad the night before.

“It was my own stupid fault,” said Rialto feelingly. “If I had been slightly less sure of my success with women I wouldn’t have fallen into the trap!”

“What happened?” asked Nedric.

“I arrived at Irlena’s house and knocked on the door. She poked her head out through the upstairs window and told me to come right on in. When I went through the door I was jumped and someone hit me over the head. I passed out for a while and when I came to I was all trussed up. They had me lying on the floor in a dark room but it was pretty easy to tell that it was the same house.

After a while Irlena came in and started crowing at me, telling me that I was incredibly stupid to think that I could just sweet talk her into giving away secrets. Did I think that she wouldn’t be suspicious when a young man started to court her for no good reason?

I told her that I had fallen for her obvious charms and she just laughed. She told me that she was under no illusions what she looked like and anyway if I had wanted her I shouldn’t have been asking all those questions about her job. She seemed to be quite delighted about the idea that I was going to be taken away and tortured. I must be losing my touch.”

“It did seem a little too good to be true when you told us about her.”

“At least I found out that Elsebeth was in the building?”

“What? How?”

“I asked her if she knew if there were any female prisoners. She told me that most prisoners don’t live long enough for it to matter. Then she said that actually there was one female prisoner below ground, as she had had to buy clothing for her. She then told me that it was a pity that her boy friend was going to die trying to rescue her.”

Nedric hoped that the information Rialto had learnt was correct and was still accurate. Although rescuing Elsebeth seemed like an almost impossible prospect at the moment he still planned to do his best to accomplish his goal, even if he had to do it on his own. Having an accurate idea of where Elsebeth was would help. Having a plan would be better but at the moment he was trying to recoup lost ground as his friends were trying to recover.

Whilst they lay in their dry tunnel Bethan used what medical knowledge he possessed to help the rangers and Rialto to overcome their injuries. It soon became clear that Daiga was in the worst condition and that it would take at least a week for him to recover from his wound. During that time it would be necessary to obtain food and plan their actions. With three of them sure to be recognised, it was going to be Bethan and Nedric who would have to take the risks of wandering around the city.

Before they went anywhere they decided to explore their pipe a little more. Nedric couldn’t understand why it should be dry; they were after all in a sewer. So he relit the torch and followed the pipe away from the sewer entrance.

It wasn’t a long journey. He found himself in a large brick-walled room that was obviously the basement of a building. The room was empty of everything other than a staircase, which led to a wooden door. The door was secured from the other side and was solidly built. Nedric doubted that it could be broken down. He noticed that there was moss growing around the base of the door and therefore couldn’t have been used for ages.

He returned to the others and they speculated why there existed this entrance into the sewers.

“It’s probably a bolt hole put in place by someone who plans ahead.” Bethan commented.

“How do you figure that?”

“Well it doesn’t look like it is used, it’s there for a purpose and the door and you say the stairs are in good condition. If it was just an old route that had been closed up then there wouldn’t be the door there or the stairway might have deteriorated.”

“It’s as good an explanation as any other we are likely to guess at. Anyway it doesn’t look like we will be disturbed from that end and if we move into this room we should be fairly safe from discovery.”

With some difficulty they moved into the basement. Sleeping in the pipe had caused the injured members of the group to stiffen and the pipe wasn’t high enough to stand upright. Eventually they managed to move everything.

The ground consisted of stone slabs some of which must regularly have had water dripping on them as moss was attempting to cover them. At the moment the growth was slowed by what must have been a particularly dry summer. Much of the moss had dried out and turned brown giving the slabs a mottled effect.

They used the dry moss as bedding. Nedric had at first thought to burn it and provide a little light and heat but the smoke would probably head into the building above and they had no wish to let the owners know they existed. The lack of light was one of his worries. The torch he had acquired from the guard was almost out, even though they had only used it sparingly. They were going to have to get supplies very soon.

They made a quick plan. Nedric and Bethan were going to have to explore the sewers to some extent. They didn’t have enough light to do much of this and they had to emerge from the sewers as far from the guild building as possible and hope no one spotted them. Therefore they were going to have to move rapidly along a main route and then take a side route to find an exit. With some luck they would be able to do this before their light gave out.

Leaving the others in pitch darkness they hurried through the sewer, taking careful note of the route they took to ensure that they would be able to find their way back again.