Nedric didn’t like leaving the others in complete darkness for an indeterminate length of time. Fortunately the three injured men had indicated that they planned to sleep rather than move around. Anyway he had no choice.
By the time they entered the sewers, the water levels were almost back to normal. Presumably there had been a downpour above them, which hadn’t lasted too long. Anyway they were able to walk through the sewers and there didn’t seem to be anyone down there to notice them.
What they did notice was an increase in the numbers of animals around the place. The first time that a rat brushed against Nedric’s leg he jumped with surprise and a little fright. He almost shouted out but remembered what he was doing soon enough to control himself. He didn’t expect that there was anyone else down here but if there were he didn’t want them to be alerted.
There were quite a few packs of rats. Generally they ran when they saw the light, although some just stood still and watched the two move past with dark shiny eyes. Nedric couldn’t say that the animals appealed to him but they did him no harm and so he tried to ignore them.
The next animal they met was much harder to ignore. Bethan first brought Nedric’s attention to the creature by his comment.
“What the hell is that awful smell?”
Nedric had a fairly poor sense of smell at the best of times and walking through a sewer he was surprised that Bethan could smell anything, until that was the stench hit him. Surprisingly he had an answer for Bethan.
“I don’t know what it is doing in the sewers here but you are smelling an Igwar.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a reptile that is fairly common in the backwoods of Esteril. It is fairly harmless but when disturbed it emits an awful odour to rid itself of unwanted company. You’re lucky it isn’t any warmer down here, the warmer the weather the worse the smell can get. What’s more the Igwar would be moving around more and they have been known to spray things that really annoy them.”
“I’ll keep out of its way. Now all I have to know is where it is, so I can go another way.”
Nedric spotted the creature on the walkway ahead of them. It was a singularly uninspiring creature being almost completely grey. It did have a black tail which was exceptionally long and flexible and apparently useful when it came to mating. Personally Nedric couldn’t understand how Igwars could stand to be near each other. Obviously they either couldn’t smell or could accept it, as the species was fairly numerous. He wondered what this one ate, as in Esteril they lived on leaves and shoots.
They counted the number of turnings they passed, thinking aloud so that they both were sure that they had the same number. One part of the sewer looked very similar to another to them so they needed something specific to guide them back. When they felt that they had travelled far enough they took a side turning and climbed the first ladder they reached.
Having no idea of the time of day or the location of the ladder in relation to the city Bethan was extremely cautious about lifting the cover. The heavy metal cover was awkward to lift especially as he only wanted to raise it a short way to look around. He hoped as he lifted that he would not make much noise and that the cover had not rusted in place.
It took him longer than it should have done to realise that the cover was raised sufficiently for him to look out. The reason was that he had expected it to be lighter outside but instead they had found themselves in an unlit back alley with only the stars to provide light. Bethan couldn’t see anything to cause alarm and so raised the cover enough to allow him to exit.
He lowered the cover again and looked around. He had agreed with Nedric that he would signal if it were safe. He didn’t want them both to be captured if there were guards looking for them. As it was, apart from a cat inspecting a rubbish heap there was no movement around.
He signalled to Nedric and his friend emerged. As there was no one about, they changed into the slave outfits they had brought with them. They had reasoned that slaves were more likely to be moving around at odd hours and that nobody would see them.
It had surprised Nedric when he had first entered Nothering, the way that slaves were ignored. He felt that it was in their interest to make the most of this attitude.
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They moved carefully along the alley until they reached the main street. They were in one of the residential areas. It must have been a fairly affluent area as lamps lit the main street and the people moving past showed little concern for their safety.
The two watched from the shadows, making sure that there was no one to see them emerge from the alley and when the street was clear, entered and walked slowly along it. They walked slower than they would like, as it was rare to see any slaves moving at anything other than the slowest pace they could reasonably be expected to walk. A fast moving slave would have attracted unwanted attention.
They emerged not far from a tavern, which displayed a sign showing a horse pulling a cart laden with beer barrels. It made an easy landmark and let them know where they were in the city. It was important for an entertainer to know as many of the taverns as possible, there was always a chance for work and so the places stayed in Nedric’s mind.
They were perhaps a little too close to their previous residence for Nedric’s liking but he had noticed that few people in the city moved far outside their local areas. They should be safe from being recognised by any of their neighbours. Also it gave him a head start in knowing where to find the merchants he needed to get supplies. The only problem was that purchases this late in the day would attract attention.
Bethan was tempted into waiting until folk started to sleep and then breaking in to whichever stores they needed to obtain their goods. Nedric talked him out of it, he could see no way that they, as novices would be able to steal from shops that were used to city thieves. All they were likely to do was attract even more attention.
In the end they decided to be blatant. They went to the merchants with worried expressions on their faces and a tale appropriate to the shop as to why their master needed the goods in a hurry. The merchants seemed to accept this at face value, as there were few questions when they produced the coins. They paid over the odds for everything but that was of little concern, money was not the problem.
By the time they had visited the last merchant, a carpenter, they had amassed quite a lot of stuff. They had plenty of food but little to drink other than wine. This might be fine for one night but the five of them could not spend the next week drunk. They’d picked up a couple of flasks but needed a source of clean water and the sewers were unlikely to provide this.
They didn’t have time to look. They were attracting more attention the later it became. There were still quite a few people on the streets but fewer and fewer of these were slaves. They decided to retreat to the sewers before somebody noticed that they were impostors.
They were nearly back to the alley when they spotted a couple of guards walking down the street towards them. The guards spotted them at the same time so there was no chance to retreat. Instead they walked forward moving to the side of the road and hanging their heads down in a typical slave stance. The guards kept moving towards them, walking in the centre of the road and marching with quick ground-eating strides.
Nedric knew that it would be totally out of character to look at the guards, as they got closer. No sensible slave would ever wish to attract their attention. However he found the urge to look up, as the guards’ footsteps got even nearer, almost impossible to resist. He noticed that Bethan was moving even closer to the wall and followed his steps moving slowly.
The guards stopped about twenty yards in front of them. They were talking amongst themselves with one of the guards giving the other grief about being lost.
“I’m sure the tavern I was telling you about was around here somewhere, perhaps it was up the turning we just came past. Slave, where’s the Brewer’s Dray?”
Nedric could tell that Bethan was keeping his face down and realised that it was possible that the two guards knew him slightly from his attempts to talk to the guards at the guild, he knew that it was up to him to talk.
“It’s just up this road and first turn left, you can’t miss it.” Nedric didn’t have to work to put the nervous quaver in his voice. If the guards recognised his face then he and Bethan were dead meat, neither carried a weapon, as a slave would have no need of one.
The guard grunted and he and his companion turned back the way they had come and marched away. Nedric breathed a sigh of relief as he watched them turn the corner. There was an even deeper one from Bethan.
“I knew the other one a little.” He confessed. “Had a drink with him about a week back, mind you he had had more than a few drinks before I started talking to him so he might not have remembered me anyway.”
They managed to get back to the alley without any additional alarms. The route was unpaved and extremely dark and Nedric tripped over one of the ruts caused by the passage of refuse carts. He went flying and made quite a lot of noise as he hit the fence of one of the houses. This started a dog barking and then another joined in. Nedric thought that they would be sure to attract attention but the noise must have been a common occurrence, at least nobody bothered to investigate.
By the time they had found the sewer hatch and descended it felt almost as if they were coming home. There was something comforting about the tunnels. The dark and quiet seemed to calm Nedric’s nerves, which were in something of a state after their trip above ground.
They reached the others without further incident and quickly distributed food and the wine. They now had sufficient candles and oil so that they could have light on a permanent basis and this was a considerable improvement.
The enforced rest had done the others a lot of good and they were all keen to be moving around. Daiga was the worst of the lot. After Bethan had washed his wound with wine and put a fresh dressing on him he was all for exploring the sewers a little. It took all four of the rest of them to persuade him that he should stay resting. His wound needed time to heal.
Nedric’s most expensive purchase had been a pocket watch. It had cost him almost thirty golds but it was worth it. There was no other way of determining time in the sewers and they had been lucky to emerge in the dark this time. If they had popped out in some busy place in broad daylight they would have been caught, it was too much of a risk.
Another risk that he had foreseen was that of light from their hiding place being seen from the sewers. He dealt with this by securing a blanket over the pipe through which they reached the sewers. When he went into the sewers he was relieved to see that nothing could be seen and that as an added bonus the noise that the others were making was barely audible in the sewer proper.
He was rather relieved about the latter. He didn’t fancy being the person to constantly tell the others to quiet down and with the wine they had been drinking they were all much more relaxed and therefore more talkative than they should be. Concerns relieved he returned to the others and the cellar that was now their home.