In the answering silence of the walkway outside of his prison he felt Aceso off to his right. He had no idea where he was in the city but he knew that Aceso was close by. He felt something else. He felt it in the same way that he had felt Aceso. It was also feminine but very different from Aceso. Somehow, he knew what it was he was just very confused by the new sensation.
He followed where Ansuya had walked off. The narrow walkway followed a very linear path, with harsh right angles. The walls of the walkway met overhead in a perfect square tunnel. He had no idea where he was or where he was going. He supposed that this tunnel would eventually lead to the city. He just had to keep walking.
His stomach was quiet and he didn’t feel hungry although he knew that as soon as he started to eat something he would want to eat pounds of food. Somehow the thought of eating wasn’t very appetizing. The thought of meeting with Aceso wasn’t very appealing either.
He kept reaching back to those last days in the forest with Achelois. He couldn’t keep her out of his mind. The idea that she was dead was something that still didn’t seem real. He knew it was, but the thought of her actually being gone was something that defied reason.
The tunnel took a sharp right turn and he was let out onto a landing overlooking the City under the Mountain. The familiar black squares of the buildings and the sheen of the ceiling crystal lights playing off of their polished surfaces was something that he found to be rather beautiful. This was his home and the fact that he had almost lost it and everything else, including his life, was sobering. William followed a ramp down into the city. He knew that Aceso could feel him, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t muster the energy to run so he trudged through the vast black underground labyrinth. He had an idea of where he wanted to go but he didn’t think that he would go there.
His body moved through the outskirts of the city, through the labyrinthine walkways and streets. He kept his distance and direction away from the monolithic tower at the heart of the city. His sense of smell kept him on track more than his eyes. He was lost in the memories of what he could have done different and the lost possibilities of those last days in the forest. What mistakes had been made that could have been avoided? Ideas kept circling around in his head as his feet kept him moving. Eventually as more of a peripheral view than actual understanding, he found himself following an old path, one that was familiar but unrecognizable. The fact that he knew that he was approaching the ramp that would take him out of the underground cavern, was lost on him. His mind was too in depth analyzing his mistakes and the missteps that led to Charles current predicament to really comprehend that he was in fact walking up the ramp that Mr. Davis had led them onto only days before.
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The ramp followed the curvature of the underground cavern and William turned his head to see the vast underground city with its green splotches of forests. The forests were massive even when compared to the complexity of the city itself. He never really thought about, nor did he think he would ever truly comprehend the size of this place. He turned away from the city and walked up into the long black tunnel that was the entrance to the massive underground cavern.
Soon the darkness was complete, and he couldn’t see anything. This fact did not concern him, not really. The blackness of the tunnel was almost a comfort to him. The hellish remembered ordeal of him having no control over his body replayed itself with an inhuman clarity against the perfect black of his surroundings. He could hardly call what his other had been able to do hellish. He admired the remembered motions of his body, the speed at which his other had been able to move, the endlessness of the fight with Charles and Achelois.
That of course brought him back to think about what would happen to Charles now. Ares had told him that the Elders would give him a few more days. Did that mean that a decision had already been made or that Charles still had a day or two to regain himself? Had he already been killed? William followed the tunnel as his mind asked these unanswerable questions. He might as well ask if the old grey had been able to save his pack in the forest. The idea of those people intruding on his life like that was wrong, but he couldn’t muster even anger at this point. Who were they to hunt him like a dog? The wolves of his forest may have been killed. They had trusted him, just as his pack had trusted him, and he had failed all of them.
He almost didn’t notice the sudden downturn in the tunnel. He stopped and felt the walls in the darkness. After some grouping around he found the cold metal of the torch rack that Mr. Davis had used when he escorted them out of the city. He wasn’t trying to hide anything, but the sudden sound of his own howl was loud and invasive to his ears, causing a slight pain that he endured without pity. He deserved all the pain that could be visited on him.
Nothing happened.
William knew that the secret opening to the mountain was here. He howled again trying to mimic as closely as possible Mr. Davis’s howl. Still nothing. The rock and the darkness around him were just as solid as it had been since arriving. He howled again, making a subtle change in pitch and tone, nothing. William knew that it had been a stupid idea to try to exit the underground cavern by himself but now that he was here, he wasn’t going to just give up.
He howled again and again and again. Each time changing pitch and tone, volume and timbre, nothing seemed to work. If he was in his human form, he would have gone horse long ago but his werewolf lungs and throat were up to the task and he howled again and again and again.
He noticed a dull light coming into the tunnel. He turned around and saw a sharp black line moving across a brilliant star field. William walked out into the cave that would let him exit the mountain. He hoped that he would be able to duplicate the howl that had just opened the tunnel entrance. He moved farther out into the cave and sat down.