Chapter 14

It was the middle of the night. Outside, the full moon would be glowing brightly in the sky. In Darktown, however, the moon was nowhere to be seen and the slum tunnels were as they always were. They were alive, with debauchery, dirty dealings, and destitution. It didn't matter what time of day it was, that was Darktown.

Anders led them through the old mining tunnels of the Undercity. If all went well, tonight was the night that he would lead them to Anwen, to free her from a life she never wanted. It will go well, Ronan thought, and I will be holding my grandfather's blade in my hand again when this is all over. But he had a bad feeling about it all. He couldn't say why though and so he tried to ignore the feeling.

Ronan watched the others carefully. Ty's hands twitched above the hilts of his daggers and he seemed slightly uncomfortable walking through his old home. He's nervous as a hen, Ronan thought. He hoped Ty wouldn't cower in fear or balk if they met any Templars. Vance, on the other hand, walked confidently through the slum, and though he had no specific expression on his face, Ronan knew he was ready for whatever came their way. The same could be said for Chug.

They reached a quiet and empty part of the slum and Anders finally came to a halt. The mage had a hard expression on his face as he looked behind them, in front of them, to the right, to the left, and even above. When he seemed sure that there was nobody else around, he bent down to uncover a latch in the ground.

"You must swear to keep this a secret for all time." Anders said, looking each of them in the eye sternly.

In return, Anders received nods and grunts of agreements. Satisfied, he opened the latch in the ground. It creaked loudly as if the hinges needed to be oiled. "The passageway," he said.

Chug looked at the hole warily, rubbing his belly as if in thought. "Will I fit in there?"

Vance went over to his big friend and slapped him hard on the back. "We'll butter you up and squeeze you through if you can't."

"That makes me feel so much better." Chug replied as Anders motioned for them all to climb down through the latch. Anders went first, and then Ronan. Vance gave a slight shove for a tittering Ty to follow and then went in himself. Chug shook his head, as if he doubted he would fit in the hole, but in the end, he did, without any problems.

The secret passageway was dark, cold, dank, and mossy. Ronan never liked the underground, but he forced himself forward. The ground was stony at parts, and at others wooden walkways, stairways, and bridges provided footing. A few corners held bones.

"I hope none of you are afraid of spiders." Anders said as he brushed away a large web from their path.

"Why?" Ty asked, looking nervously around them.

"There are some really big ones that hang around here sometimes." Anders said with a little chuckle. He pointed to the rocky ceiling of the passageway. There was nothing there, but Ronan saw Ty shudder and Chug stopped in his tracks.

"Spiders?" the big man rubbed the back of his head. "Shit."

"Big?" Ty asked, glancing overhead. "How big?"

Ronan gave Ty a pat on the back. "Don't worry, Ty, they're just bugs, no matter how big they are." He couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of Chug and Ty's fright at the prospect of seeing large spiders. For his part, Ronan had battled a giant spider before, though that was a shapeshifting mage. A natural spider, on the other hand, would not scare him. Bugs never did. In fact, he used to terrorize some of the girls in his clan by planting the little critters onto their heads or into their braids.

"Bloody cowards," Vance taunted as he stalked by them. "How can we hope to win tonight if you're afraid of bugs? I'd hate to see your faces once we reach the Templars."

"If we see any." Anders pointed out.

A gurgling screech stopped them all in their tracks. Ty went wide eyed as he spied a skeleton rising from the ground behind his brother. "Vance!" he shouted. But Vance had already sensed the undead thing and was swinging his greatsword around. It connected with the skeleton and sent it shattering, the bones flying everywhere.

"Walking skeletons?" Ty asked with a swallow.

"I don't think they just walk." Ronan said as about another dozen skeletons rose from the ground, brandishing weapons at them all. Ronan quickly hacked at the nearest creature, sending it tumbling back to the ground. Two others came toward him swinging axes. He ducked swiftly and cut at one's legs. He needed to get his shield out, but there was no time to waste as the next one swung at him. He blocked the blow with his sword and then kicked at the skeleton, sending it backwards onto the ground. But it was still moving. He dropped his sword to the ground, took out his shield, fitted it to his stump, and then retrieved his sword, all in the time it took for the skeleton to get back up and come swinging at him again. This time he blocked the axe blow with his shield. The shield did not move up his arm, much to Ronan's relief. He brought his sword back and then swung it with all his might toward the skeleton's head. It flew off and rolled onto the ground. He bashed the rest of the thing with his shield and the bones crumbled to the ground in dust.

Around him the others were battling it out with the walking skeletons. Chug was smashing the creatures with his maul and roaring loudly with every swing. Vance cut through the creatures with his greatsword. A cut on his left arm was dripping with blood, but it did not slow him down. Ty's anxiety had fled with the onset of battle. He ducked and slid around the creatures, too fast for them to hit him. He finished off quite a few with his daggers. Anders stood calmly by the side, casting spells from his staff, freezing the creatures or burning them. Either way, it was over.

"There is no time to waste. Let's continue on." Anders said as he fled through an opening. They quickly followed him through. Ronan wondered why they had been attacked by skeletons. If this was a passageway used often by lyrium smugglers and mage freedom fighters, then why was it occupied also by the undead? Shouldn't it be free of those things? He had no time to ask, though, as the spiders they had been chatting about finally made an appearance, crawling down from the ceiling or sliding down on webs.

"I hate spiders!" Chug yelled. He strode forward toward the creatures he hated so much and smashed them with his maul in a frightened fury. The spiders' guts went flying everywhere. It was not a pretty sight.

Ronan braced himself as one of the spiders, not nearly as big as the one he had fought on the beach long ago, flew through the air towards him, its legs spread out and its fangs clicking, ready to cut deep into him. It's just a bug, a really big bug, he found himself repeating in his head. He held out his sword and moved his shield up in front of his face. He felt the spider's furry legs wrap around him but they went quickly limp as his sword cut through the creature and he shoved it away with his shield.

"Help!" Ty cried out. Ronan turned toward his direction. A spider was chasing after him and the idiot was running right into a corner. Ronan ran after the bug and whistled loudly. The spider didn't change direction; its beady red eyes were set only on Ty. Shaking his head, Ronan rushed at the creature from behind, leaped onto the creature and dug his sword into its back. The spider hissed and tried to knock Ronan off. He held onto his sword tightly and used his shield to bash the creature to death.

"Thanks," Ty muttered, breathless. "I've never seen such big spiders." He looked towards the others. Most of the spiders were dead or dying. A couple of the spiders were on fire, and there were spider legs and squashed spiders scattered all over the small cavern. Ronan burst into laughter as Ty gingerly stepped away from the dead spiders and guts, afraid to touch the things.

"I thought we'd be fighting Templars, not giant bugs and walking skeletons." Vance grumbled loudly in Anders' direction.

"The lyrium smugglers guard their passageway seriously." Anders said, brushing off his robe. "As to the Templars, they might be around, waiting for a fix. We'll have to kill any we see, to keep the passage safe."

"The passage isn't really a secret then, if the Templars already know about it." Ronan pointed out.

"Only the seedy ones know about it, but none of them know that it is used for freeing mages from the Gallows." Anders replied. "We must keep it that way."

"Let's go then." Ronan said. Who knew how long Anwen would wait for them before losing face and running back to the Gallows, or worse, right into a pack of spiders or skeletons.

They didn't see any more spiders or skeletons anyway as Anders led them through the rest of the passage. They didn't meet any lyrium smugglers either, which was a good thing, for if they had gotten caught and if any of the smugglers had gotten away, they would be walking a perilous edge between safety and danger. Lyrium smugglers took their trade seriously and anyone who got in their way would do best not to in the first place, for all the horrid tales Ronan had heard about them.

They came to the last cavernous room in the passage. Ahead of them was a steel gate which led to the Gallows dungeons. They crept cautiously through the room, watching the corners, the shadows, for any signs of hidden Templars. For any sign of Anwen. Anders furrowed his brows and a look of worry overcame his face.

Anwen should have been there by then. Something was very wrong.