"The path to freedom," Tamura announced, pitching his voice to be heard over the noise of the imps.
The corridor ended in a mountain of rocks and stones. It was quite clear that no cave-in had caused the blockade. The ceiling was intact. No one wanted to mention it though. We were too focused on getting free to care about what we might be unearthing.
"Do you get the feeling they don't want us here?" Yorin asked me as he passed by. He put his knives away and set to helping Tamura and Hardt shift the rocks, clearing enough space for us to squeeze through.
I stood next to Isen, watching the imps chatter and move behind us. He held his sword in hand. I left my own sheathed at my side. None of the little creatures dared come within the lantern light or meet my eyes. I knew they wouldn't attack. Or maybe I just hoped.
"Get away, you little beasts!" Isen shouted, waving his sword and stepping forwards, holding up the lantern he carried. The imps retreated but only for a moment. Only while the light was close.
"Shut the fuck up! They can't hear you." My voice was perhaps a bit more severe than I intended. I wanted Isen to shut up and leave the poor creatures alone. "Help dig. I'll watch them."
Isen snorted. "If they attack, you'll need someone who knows how to fight by your side."
I sighed and relented, ignoring his repeated attempts to make the imps flee by waving things at them and shouting. I think Isen did it more to reassure himself that they were scared of him than anything else.
Hardt cursed, something about improper use of a goat's mother, and then the grating of rock against rock. The imps turned as one and fled into the darkness.
"I knew it would work," Isen said triumphantly, as though it were his shouting that had scared the imps away. I sent a glare his way then turned to the others. They were still pulling rocks out of the way, but I could see an opening at the top of the rubble large enough that I could crawl through.
"Stop! Stop." I rushed forwards, touching each of the diggers on the shoulder. They all paused and waited. I turned my head to the side, straining my hearing.
"What..." Yorin started, but I hissed at him and he fell silent.
"I hear… something," I said.
Tamura nodded. "The wind."
It was true I could hear the howl of wind echoing from a distance, but I was certain there was something else. A noise carried on the wind. A different howl. For once I was glad of the cold I felt inside, it stopped that noise from chilling my blood.
"It's just the wind, Eska," Hardt said. I realised he was holding a rock as large as my head and could see his arms straining with the effort. I stepped back and let them continue digging.
There're worse things than imps down here. The thought sent tingles up and down my spine. It's a strange thing feeling yourself grow stronger as though feeding on your own fear. That should have given me pause, an indication that the ancient horror I thought I had pacified was inside. It should have told me just how closely we were now linked.
Once the gap at the top was large enough Hardt scrambled up and through the blockade. Tamura passed a lantern through and followed. I made Isen go through and then Yorin. Yorin stopped next to me before climbing through. He gave me an odd look for a moment.
"Those things," he pointed back down the corridor where the imps had fled, "were scared of something through here. I'm willing to bet they blocked it off, and for good reason."
I shrugged at him. "You want to find that way out or not?"
Yorin just smiled and scrambled up and through the opening. I followed, but not before a final glance backwards. I wondered whether the imps were waiting back there in the darkness, or if they had fled, leaving us to whatever fate we encountered.
Once we were all through the barricade, we started forward, following the feel and sound of the wind. Tamura and Hardt led, holding a lantern each, and Isen and Yorin followed behind, weapons drawn. I was no longer angry at Isen for his bared steel. It was strange, but the corridor seemed darker there, as though the gloom was even more oppressive. It took a while to realise there were no light gems embedded in the walls. They had all been gouged out.
We were only a few dozen steps in when we heard sounds behind us. Isen snatched a lantern from his brother and ran back to the barricade. Already some of the rocks we had moved were back in place. I heard imps scatter the other side.
"Little slug kissing fuckers are sealing us in!" Isen shouted.
I took the lantern from him and handed it back to Hardt, fixing the younger brother with a stare. "If they do, they do. No way we can stop them, and no bloody reason to try."
"We could kill them," Isen said, indignant.
I ignored that. We all did.
We continued on, and again heard the sounds of the imps sealing us in behind.
Chapter 30
We crept along, lanterns held high in front of us and behind. The wind howled from somewhere far ahead, yet all we felt was a breeze. There was something wrong about the situation, like an itch I just couldn't scratch. I had never seen a wind trap before, nor even heard of one at that time of my life. And as far as magic went, Aeromancy was as alien to me as Empamancy, though I had seen the things a Sourcerer could do with nothing but thin air. I just couldn't understand how the wind could be so loud and yet we barely felt it.
The others were scared, of the noise and of the oppressive darkness that seemed to close in around the lanterns unnaturally. I suppose I couldn't blame them, the howling had me on edge. Isen fished our third lantern out of the bag and lit it before anyone could stop him. Hardt hissed at his brother, but Isen backed away, clutching at the lantern as though the light were the only thing keeping him alive. He really was a coward.
"We don't have any more fuel." Hardt's voice came out as a harsh whisper. It's an oddity, but people tend to lower their voices in the dark. A natural instinct to be as discreet as possible, maybe.
"Then we should get out of here quickly." There was real panic in Isen's voice. It can happen to people who live too long in fear. Their mind loses the ability to reason. Isen was acting out of irrationality and terror. Part of me wanted to knock him senseless and leave him there in the dark. I think the only thing that stopped me from telling Yorin to do just that was that I knew Hardt would never leave his brother.
Tamura stopped and cocked his head to the side, holding up his own lantern.
"Do you see something?" I asked, pushing past Isen and letting the older brother deal with the younger.
Tamura cocked an eyebrow at me. "The walls have eyes," he said.
Yorin let out a grunt. "He's not wrong."
That was when I realised he meant it literally. With lantern light spilling out around us, I could see dozens of crude faces carved into the walls. Each was different, but the same, and each had piercing eyes staring straight ahead.
"Balls of a crag cat," Isen cursed and drew in a ragged breath.
I stepped close to one of the walls and inspected the faces watching us. Whatever had carved them had no real artistic skill and the faces were misshapen and ugly. But the eyes... The eyes were piercing, watchful. I would be lying if I said I wasn't unnerved by it all. They were bloody creepy.
We continued down the corridor. It was hard to ignore the faces carved into the walls once I knew they were there. Every step we took revealed more and more of them watching us. They weren't part of the architecture. It was obvious something, or someone, had added them long after the city had fallen. Back then, I wondered at what might have carved them and whether they marred every wall in every corridor. These days I wonder more at their significance. Why so many faces and why such a focus on the eyes?