CHAPTER ELEVEN – Arrows in the Dark
Tev Arlan moved quickly and assuredly through the night dark streets of Sundabar. Every so often he surreptitiously checked his back to be sure he still wasn't being followed. He never noticed Tharkunn, who tailed him expertly. The boy was good, but he wasn't even close to being good enough to shake a master like Tharkunn.
He shouldn't have drawn attention to himself, fiddling with his ring like he did, Tharkun thought. Not many would have known the significance of the ring to begin with, but he had. Toranes would have as well, had he seen it.
He slipped to the corner of a side alley he'd used to get ahead of the boy. A quick peek showed the boy still moving in the same direction, as expected. Tharkunn found a deep shadow and ducked into it. From his hiding place, he watched as the boy ducked into an alley almost across from his own.
The boy lifted a sewer grate without making a sound. It had been well-oiled, a sure sign. Tharkunn counted ten and checked to be sure no one was watching. He saw no sign of anyone. He sauntered across the street as if he had not a care in the world, as if he had every right to be where he was. Once across the street and into the alley, he moved to the grate.
After counting another ten, he lifted the grate himself and slowly descended the metal rungs into a dark tunnel. It was clear immediately that the tunnel was no longer part of the city's sewer system, if it ever had been. There was no foul stench, and very little moisture at all.
The tunnel branched off in both directions. Tharkunn listened carefully for a moment, until he heard the slight sound of a boot scuffing on stone down the passageway to his right. He pulled a ring of his own from a pouch hidden in a disguised pocket inside his cloak. Putting the ring on the pinky finger of his left hand, he twisted it once. Suddenly, the pure blackness of the tunnel ahead seemed as though it had lightened to the dimness of an evening sky under the stars. The magic of the ring would hold for a few hours, allowing him to see fairly clearly, even in total blackness. It was an advantage he'd put to good use before. At the very edge of his sight, he could see the boy moving slowly, his right hand feeling along the wall to his right, for a door, or possibly another passageway.
Tharkunn moved quickly, and soundlessly, quickly closing the gap between himself and the boy, until he was no more than 20 feet behind. He saw the opening to the side before the boy reached it.
He'd long since lost count of how many times his intuition had saved his life. Just as the boy reached the passageway, the hairs on the back of Tharkunn's neck began to bristle. He threw himself to the other side of the passageway as an arrow whistled through the passageway, just past the boy, cutting through the very point where Tharkunn himself had been standing just an instant before.
He realized that it had been the creak of the bowstring that alerted him. He hadn't even known what it was it at first, but he'd reacted anyway.
The boy let out a soft cry, then stumbled and fell into the side passage. Tharkunn gathered himself and charged beyond the passage, toward where the shot had come from. Within two steps, he could just see the archer at the far edge of his vision. The man was fumbling with his quiver, trying to draw and nock another arrow. He clearly hadn't expected anyone to charge blindly down the darkened passage. He couldn't have known that Tharkunn could see through the darkness, though he might now have begun to suspect.
Finally, he managed to nock another arrow & draw on the rapidly closing man. As he drew back on the bow, Tharkunn began to dodge left and right, in no real pattern, while still moving closer. The man let loose his shaft, just as Tharkunn dodged right again. The arrow whizzed by his left shoulder, just grazing him, & leaving a small tear in the shoulder of his shirt and cloak. Damn it! They were his favorites.
The man dropped his bow, fumbling for a dagger at his belt as he drew in a lungful of air to scream. Tharkunn hit him like a runaway bull, crashing into the man's chest and driving him to the ground. The air left his lungs in a huff before he could do more than squeak. In an instant, Tharkunn had him pinned to the ground, and then flipped him onto his stomach, a knee in the center of his back. He had a handful of the man's hair pulling his head back, forcing his back to arch as much as it could with his own weight on it, and a dagger at the man's throat.
"Keep quiet, and listen to me very carefully if you want to live," he hissed. "I don't like it when people I don't even know try to kill me."
"I was just…" the man started to say, only to cut off at the slight increase in pressure of the blade at his throat.
"I said, keep quiet and listen," Tharkunn whispered again. He waited for a second to see if the man would disobey him again. He did not. "Good. So, you can listen when you try. I'm going to let you go, but I'm keeping the bow for now, and that pretty little bauble." Tharkunn plucked a silver chain from the man's brow, which had left a pale yellowish-green stone dangling on his forehead. It gave off a very pale glow, soft enough that he hadn't seen it until he was within five feet of the bowman. It had to be what had allowed the man to see him in the darkness. The man was human, after all.
"Now, I want you to go to your Master, Humorgett, and tell him that Tharkun Doressin is waiting to speak to him. I'll wait by the sewer grate north of here."
Tharkunn having let go of his hair and eased off just a bit on the pressure with the blade, the man nodded, almost imperceptibly.
"The boy has no doubt run to tell them, so they'll be sending some men to kill me. Turn them around, or I promise you I'll be back, with enough support to shut you all down for good." The man nodded again before setting off down the side tunnel. Tharkunn waited for just a moment before moving back toward the sewer grate where he'd entered the tunnels.
