Chapter 8: Yuri Hyuga, Monster Hunter
Disclaimer: I don't own Shadow Hearts or Koudelka. Darn! Thanks again to AriesCelestial (Shadow Souls) for the brilliant idea that Yuri not only doodles, he doodles nasties. And if you haven't read her opus: why not?
WARNING! Ah, you get the drill. Turn back before you lose all sense of reality!
Yuri talked until his throat was raw, at first pacing the floor in the small sitting room, then taking the last chair after Mrs. Elliot brought in tea. For Margarete and Alice it was simply a review of what they already knew from Koudelka herself, but for Cashiel and Carter and the listening Mrs. Elliot it was something else. Yuri, although not articulate in English himself, could tell a story, especially if he had heard the story from someone who was good at the telling; and Koudelka was good. Alice could almost hear Koudelka's inflection when Yuri described her encounter with first Edward Plunkett the American adventurer and then James O'Flaherty, the bishop. Yuri detailed the major confrontations that Koudelka had recited, adding comments about the creatures from his own experience. When he got to the description of the underground passages, he grinned.
"I even have a map," he said, waving haphazardly at the upper floor of the house. "Koudelka gave it to me before I came back to Wales."
"Do you still have it?" Margarete asked her eyes bright.
"Yeah, it's upstairs in my satchel. But it doesn't show the other passageways that she told me about, hey!" Yuri said as Margarete rose and ran up the stairs to the upper floor. "Where are you going?"
"Never mind, Yuri; Margarete's only bringing the satchel. Go on with the story; what did they encounter in the church proper?"
"Oh," Yuri said with a widening grin. "That would be Amon!"
By the time he had finished the tale it was late. Cashiel sat ruminating about the story while Carter grinned.
"Brittey's gonna wish he was here for this," Carter said with a toothy grin.
Cashiel chuckled, a sound more like a growling dog. "Yeah; so what does all this have to do with the killer, Hyuga? You haven't explained that."
"Well, it's like this, I think I've seen its like – but I cannot be sure. I was in Siberia ... well almost to Mongolia. An' it's only a thought. I won't know for sure until I catch up to it."
"So why do you think it's similar? And the connection is where?"
Yuri scratched his head with a sigh. "That smell I got from Lars; it reminded me of the poison that th' creature used on me before. An' I think this thing came from Wales 'cuz a lot of creatures escaped when Albert raised that damned Float thingy. I don' know for sure; I'm just guessing. But it makes sense to me."
Margarete, who had returned with Yuri's satchel some while back, said "That's a bit scary, sonny boy, that it makes sense to you. You've never been a thinker, but your instincts have always been good."
"Thanks, I think," Yuri replied. "Look, all I can say, is that I think we'll find this creature somewhere near th' wharf. That is where you said the other deaths have been near, yes?" he asked Cashiel who nodded. "But it must be dark; quiet. It's been nearly two days since th' last death. There will be another one soon, maybe even tonight. You find that dark quiet warehouse, or abandon'd building or hell, even a sewer, and you'll have your creature."
Cashiel rose and headed for the vestibule. "I'll get men onto it right away," he said.
Carter offered Yuri his hand. "The old man appreciates this, even if he doesn't say, Hyuga."
"I'll walk you out, Lieutenant," Margarete offered and took the young officer's arm as she walked him out of the sitting room.
"Alice," Yuri went down on one knee at Alice's chair, "Alice, I'm gonna go back out there tonight. I gotta feelin', that's all," he said.
Alice took his hand in hers and nodded. "I – I know. Be careful, all right?"
Yuri chuckled. "Ah, you know me, I'm always careful."
Alice laughed in her turn. "No, no you're not, that is why I'm asking you." Alice's fingers caressed Yuri's calloused knuckles. "Yuri," she said softly.
Yuri looked up into Alice's clear blue eyes, his own amber eyes shining with suppressed emotions.
"I didn't tell you," she said softly, "because I didn't want you to do something reckless, but I think you should know that I told mother," she hesitated.
"I'm not reckless ... much," he said with a lopsided grin.
Alice made a breathless laugh and one hand came up to caress his cheek. "Yes you are. But I want you to be careful. I want you safe, because I told mother that when you had finished helping the captain, when you had finished, you and I would be married."
Yuri looked at Alice, his breath stuck in his throat. He slowly sank onto his heels, his mouth open to speak, but no words came forth. Alice, holding his hands once more, watched his face as he went through the emotions of surprise, confusion, delight, and bewilderment.
"Yuri, what's wrong? I thought you wanted to get married," she exclaimed.
For his part Yuri was having trouble finding his voice. He nodded dumbly before finally coughing out a laugh.
"Of course! I – I thought you didn't ... you kept saying 'soon' I didn't know if you had changed your mind and I wasn't I didn't I – I,"
"Breathe, Yuri," Alice said with a laugh.
Instead Yuri stood, pulling her up into his arms and folding her into a long embrace, his lips pressed hers, his tongue tasting her, and when she didn't open her mouth he scoured down her chin and laid kisses on her throat until she was moaning then returned to her lips, mashing them.
"Open up will ya," he said between kisses, and Alice opened tentative lips to find Yuri instantly sending his tongue questing into her mouth, their tongues meeting and greeting before he pulled back. Alice melted into his arms, further burying herself in his broad chest and Yuri could hear her sigh with pleasure.
"Don't ever doubt my love for ya, Alice Elliot," Yuri said softly, his chin resting in her hair.
"No, never," she breathed.
"Tea you two," Margarete called from the kitchen and Yuri growled.
"Damn her timing anyway."
"There's always later, Yuri. Let's … let's have some tea before you leave."
Yuri sighed but offered Alice his arm and with a giggle, Alice took it. Together they walked down the narrow hallway to the kitchen where Mrs. Elliot was preparing the tea. Margarete had Yuri's satchel set out on the table and, spread out between the cups and the sugar were the maps that Koudelka had given Yuri, and something else. When Yuri spotted the other sheets of paper his face blossomed crimson.
"What are you doing?" he shouted and grabbed across the table for the other sheets of paper, but Margarete was faster and swept them away.
"What? You don't think we should look at these? Then why put them in with the maps, huh?" Margarete taunted Yuri with the sheets of paper and one look at Mrs. Elliot's expression told him she had seen them and was not amused one bit. Yuri backed away from the table, his expression changing so rapidly that neither Margarete nor Alice could tell what he was thinking. Finally he reached out and, grabbing the satchel, upended it on the table, spilling its contents.
"Here, take everything else while yer at it!" he shouted and turned toward the kitchen door. "And you say you're my friend," he muttered and the door swung closed behind him.
"Yuri! Don't go, please … what's wrong? What is it?" But Yuri refused to answer. He went to the entryway, donned his trench coat once more, and left the house. Alice turned with fire in her eyes. "What did you do that for?" she asked, glowering at Margarete.
"Hey, hey, don't get mad at me!" Margarete said. She laid the papers out flat on the table, showing them to Alice. "I didn't do these, he did!"
Alice looked at the topmost piece of paper; it was brown with ragged edges, having been torn from something else at some point and it showed heavy creases where it had been folded again and again. The paper contained drawings, several small portraitures and studies, but the central most figure was herself, lying on a bed, totally naked. Alice blinked, and then looked up at her mother.
"I never did that, I swear."
"And I never did this either," Margarete said with a chuckle and showed the next piece of paper. This one was Margarete and the pose was anything but sweet.
Alice instantly blushed. "He – he did that? What are these others?" Alice took the other papers from Margarete's hand and laid them down on the table. The first one to catch her attention was stained in blood, this she pulled out from the others. It was a portrait of a man and woman and a small child; the child's figure was covered in the old dried blood while the man's had been crossed out, tearing deep gouges in the paper.
"Are those his parents?" Margarete asked.
"I – I think so. He probably drew that in China before we met." The next picture was of a fusion soul, the same one from the newspaper.
"Is that him?" Alice's mother asked, pointing a trembling finger at the Spirit of Loathing.
"Yes, Death Emperor, Yuri's favorite; he's had him since the beginning. I'm surprised he could draw it."
"Oh my god, he drew that," Margarete murmured and showed the last one. A large picture with the top of Kuihai tower sketched in. There stood Dehuai, merely a stick figure, summoning the Seraphic Radiance which filled the majority of the paper, its crimson wings stained with … Margarete shuddered. "How can he do that?"
"What's that pattern? Is that the Mandala?" Alice asked, and both she and Margarete squinted closer. "Yes, it is; it's the Mandala of Hell. How could he draw that so well?"
"I never knew he could draw," Margarete said with a chuckle. "Kid's got talent, even if the subject matter leaves much to be desired."
"And you hurt his feelings, digging into his bag Margarete. You shouldn't have; and you shouldn't have teased him either."
Margarete opened her mouth to protest but then closed it, her lips pressing themselves into a pout.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh shit! He left without me again. Damn!" Margarete tossed aside the papers and ran from the kitchen, the front door banging shut behind her a moment later.
Alice stood silently for a moment, looking at the pile of items spilled from Yuri's satchel. A couple of rings were tangled up with the Brigand and Pirate earrings and she reached down to put them right, but then a small black book caught her attention.
"He kept this?" she said softly and pulled out her small black and gold trimmed bible, its pages bent and worn from use and the leather cracked and torn where the metal plates in the covers had broken through. "I thought he sold this," she said looking up at her expectant mother. "He paid me the money for it anyway. Why would he keep it, he can't even read it?"
Mrs. Elliot turned to the stove to pour the boiling water into the teapot. "Perhaps he kept it because it was yours?" she offered. Alice looked up surprised at her mother's candid suggestion and then sat down with a thud.
"Oh God, keep him safe," she whispered as tears threatened her cheeks.
Yuri was fuming as he ran down the street. The evening traffic had abated and now, as the sun was setting, he had little trouble making room on the trolley. As the coach pulled away he spotted Margarete running to the stop her arms waiving in the air, trying to catch the trolley's attention but it pulled away without her.
'Good,' Yuri thought in a moment of anger. 'Let her walk it, nosey bitch.' He sat quietly, contemplating his next move until the trolley came to his stop and he stepped off above Blackfriars Bridge. He stood looking at the bridge and the surrounding docks and warehouses and wondered where to start. Finally, with a shrug, he turned left and bypassed the bridge and headed for Queenithe Dock and the warehouses just beyond. He was just passing the dock when Margarete caught up to him.
"Yuri Hyuga you egotistical son-of-a-bitch!" she called loudly so that he had to stop and turn back to her.
"Back off, Margarete," he answered, one hand pulling out the Nightbird Claws from his pouch. "You gonna give me shit now too?"
"You just don't know when to take it lying down," Margarete said as she approached one green eye on the claws and one on his face. "You're not going to use those on me, are ya sonny boy?"
Yuri growled as he put on his claws over his leather gloves, his eyes shifting to a darker shade of amber-brown. "I dunno. Do you deserve to be clawed to death, Maggs?"
Margarete stopped three feet away. "What did I tell you about calling me 'Maggs', kiddo."
"Fuck you bitch. I got no time for you an' your shit, you just stay out of my way," he growled and made a gesture with his claws before turning away.
"Ah, I had no idea you were a murderer as well as a harmonixer, Hyuga. Will you teach me the finer points of slaughter by claws?" she asked, her words dripping with sarcasm.
Yuri spun around and covered the few feet between them in a heartbeat. He grabbed Margarete's coat lapel and pulled her close, his warm breath washing over her face. "I tell you Maggs, if you don't stop picking on me, I will personally slit your lovely throat, an' afterwards I'll make passionate love to your corpse!" He stared into her green eyes for a full minute before pushing her aside and turning toward the dock.
Margarete straightened her coat and brushed imaginary dirt from her skirt before looking up at his retreating back. "Yuri, you say the most interesting things," she muttered with a grin, then followed him.
Yuri wandered around Queenithe Dock, pocking his head into the wharf-side warehouses and even into the dock master's office. Even after dark the wharf was busy, but as the evening progressed to late night the docks shut down and, except for the civilian guards or army soldiers around the military ordinance, everything was quiet. Yuri made his way around the dock and back up to the warehousing along the quay, making his way east toward Southwark Bridge. Behind him, the whole while was Margarete, keeping out of his line of sight but there to support him if he got into trouble. Yuri ignored her.
A little after midnight Yuri stopped along the river, the dark expanse of Southwark Bridge rising on his left, and the even darker shapes of warehouses behind him. Across the Thames was the Shakespeare theatre with its lights and entertainments. Yuri had seen the bustle of activity earlier but now even that was dark, its actors and stagehands having packed up and gone home. Yuri squatted on his heels, watching the slow flow of the river, hearing the quiet lap at the water's edge and the overwhelming smells of river rot and garbage washing up to his nose. There was something about large cities, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and now London that brought to mind garbage. They were always dirty, always crowded, and always enchanting. Yuri, who had lived most of his life wandering the hills and vales of China and Russia, could appreciate big cities; they enchanted him with their verve and the people's lust for life. He could feel their pulse and smell their refuse and know that the city was alive. He rose to his feet after a few minutes and a sudden movement caught his eye; he glanced to his left and saw only darkness. He looked back to see Margarete was still there, waiting above the shoreline, and then turned toward the darkness.
He stayed along the shore, kicking his way over clumps of unknown weeds and bits of trash and once he was in the shadow of Southwark Bridge he was in deep darkness; he could see nothing in the immediate area until he changed his eyes, bringing the partial fusion trick he had learned many years ago into play. Instantly the bridge stood out in relief with a darker shadow beneath it, skittering along the shoreline. With a quick adjustment to his claws he followed the dark within dark shadow as it seemed to fly over the ground and under the bridge, and he followed it, using tracking skills he had honed in his early years in Siberia. Ahead, just as he turned the corner of the bridge support, was the dark movement and it vanished almost as quickly as Yuri saw it.
He slowed as he came directly beneath the bridge and his eyes grew wider, gathering in all the subtle shades of black in the area. Then he saw it, to his left and along the ground; a grated entryway to the underground sluiceway; there he saw scratch marks of something entering the grate. Yuri took off one of his claws and pulled experimentally on the grate before wrapping both hands around the bars and pulling. With a grinding shriek, the metal gave way and the grate came loose in his hands and he tossed it aside; ducking, he entered the sluiceway tunnel.
Inside was a new form of darkness, this cloying and close and Yuri, on his hands and knees coming through the small tunnel, could barely see even with his enhanced vision. A long minute later, he tumbled down out of the entry tunnel and into the main sewage line. He could stand at a crouch in the tunnel and he hesitated only a moment, listening to the sounds in the tunnel before heading out to follow the sounds, hoping it would lead him to his quarry.
As he moved down the dark passage, he heard the scratch and scrape of someone else behind him and then he heard Margarete's muttering voice.
'Damn stupid woman,' he thought. 'She's determined to get in the middle of this."
Yuri decided to ignore Margarete; maybe she'd miss him in the dark, and he continued down the passage. He hadn't gone a hundred yards when the passage split and he paused to listen, but Margarete was making too much noise. He turned to call to her when something moved up behind him and slammed him to the ground, shoving the air out of his lungs. He scrambled to his knees and struck out with his right hand, claws extended and connected with something hard. He could hear his attacker moving in the dirt and turned toward it, blinking his eyes to try to make out the dark within dark shadow that had struck him. He could barely make out the movement of darkness to his left and he leapt toward it, his left arm grabbing onto something fuzzy and hard. He swung his right arm back and thrust downward bringing his claws into contact with the creature and there was a satisfying crunch of bone and a high-pitched keening that set Yuri's nerves on edge.
Behind him, stumbling down the dark passage, Margarete heard the scrambling sounds ahead and pulled her Luger, checking its clip, before continuing on quickly in a crouch. She mentally cursed herself for not obtaining a torch before following Yuri on this madcap adventure, but then resigned herself to the fact that Yuri was just as reckless as she was and there was nothing to do about it. When a loud keening began ahead of her, she sprinted to where she could hear Yuri struggling before dropping to one knee. One hand extended with the Luger, the other one supporting, she tried to decide where to put her bullets.
"Kid?" she called and waited a heartbeat before pulling the trigger, firing off three rapid rounds just where she figured the sound was coming from. There was a satisfying thud and a ricochet before she stood and advanced toward the sounds. In the next instant she was wishing she had stayed put.
Yuri felt the creature lurch when Margarete discharged her gun and knew that at least one of the bullets had found flesh, but in the next instant, the creature was struggling, tossing him aside like a rag doll, and scuttling back down the passage toward Margarete. He hit the side wall with a thud, banging his head but shook it off and with a growl curling his lips, followed the creature.
It caught up to Margarete in seconds and in the unremitting darkness, slammed Margarete to the ground, pinning her. Margarete struggled beneath its appendage, trying to wiggle free when something sharp pierced her chest and she knew instantly that death was holding her to the ground. Fire flamed in her chest and her limbs were suddenly heavy, her breathing became nearly impossible and she barely gasped out before falling unconscious.
Yuri heard Margarete's gasp and knew he had only seconds to act. He reached within himself and pulled out the power of his fusion. He felt his body grow in stature, layers of muscle building on his already athletic frame. He felt the power of his fusion and its rage as well, summoning its magical fireball attack to send flame arcing over the dark shape crouched over Margarete's supine form and bathing it in searing fire. There was a loud keening screech from the creature before it burst into flame, its body shriveling and smoking as it collapsed. Inferno stepped over the crisping body and pulled Margarete from beneath it, holding her up in his four arms, and moving down the passage toward the entrance. Once there he set Margarete down on the dirt and placed his large hands on her chest, summoning a warming magic to suffuse her with healing and remove the poisons coursing through her unconscious body. When the warmth subsided, Inferno was released and Yuri picked her up once more, slung her over his back, and carried her back down the small narrow sluiceway tunnel to the outside. Once he had her outside, he laid her out on the ground and checked her pulse and relief filled him when she opened her eyes and stared at him.
"It's all right, Maggie; you're outside. Here," Yuri reached into his trench coat pocket and pulled out a flattened root. "Thera root. Take it, it's all I got."
Margarete took the small greenish brown root and looked closely at it.
"It's got mold on it; how long have you had this thing?" she asked.
Yuri rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, probably since China," he said and chuckled. "It's still good. Take it."
Margarete popped the offending weed into her mouth and chewed, the usually tangy flavor of the root now overshadowed with an earthy moldy flavor.
"Ugh," Margarete said.
"You'll be fine now," Yuri said and looked up at the dark bridge. "Hey Maggie, how come you have green eyes? I thought they were blue."
Margarete chuckled softly. "Contacts, sonny boy. Say, what was that thing?" she asked.
"A guard," Yuri answered. "Spider," he finished with a grin.
"Oh swell. Ow, that hurt!" Margarete exclaimed as she tried to sit up, but then noticed her chest, covered in blood and her jacket and blouse hanging in tattered shreds.
"Yeah, yer showin'," Yuri said with a chuckle, then pulled off his trench coat. "Here wear mine, and Maggie, there's something I need ya to do."
Margarete put on the coat, securing it with one of Yuri's belts, before looking up at the young fighter's face. "Yes?"
"I want you to get the police; tell them to cordon off alla this place. And then I need you to get some medicines. That Thera root is all I had; I don't even have any Mana, if you know what I mean. And then … I can't believe I'm askin' ya but ... explosives, incendiaries. You can get them, yes?"
Margarete nodded. "You think you'll need them?"
Yuri rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "Well, the only thing will kill those bastards is fire. I have limits, especially without Mana leaves. So you do that for me, okay?"
Margarete nodded. "Okay kiddo. But, you don't go back in there until I return, you got me?
"Yeah," Yuri said and helped her to her feet. "But you go for the police first all right?"
"The police are here," a voice said from above them and Yuri looked up to see Lieutenant Carter and a handful of officers descending the embankment.
"Oh, you're around are you?"
Carter nodded. "And the night watch heard shots. What is happening?"
"You go on, Margarete," he said and watched until the beautiful spy was away before turning to Carter. "We found the killer; or killers. The shots were from Margarete's gun."
"The French lady carries a gun?"
"Yeah, a beautiful lady like that needs protection from us men, ya know?" Yuri said with a smile.
Carter frowned a moment. "And does she need protecting from you?" he asked, watching Margarete climb the last few feet of the embankment.
Yuri laughed. "Oh yeah, but don't tell my fiancé, yes?"
Carter chuckled and watched as Yuri squatted down on his heels, then he turned to direct a couple of men to alert the local stationhouse to send more constables. When he returned Yuri was still sitting on his heels unmoving.
"You going to wait here for her?" he asked.
"I said I would but," Yuri said and stood up, scanning the embankment. "Is she gone?"
Carter nodded. "Yes."
"Good, I can leave now."
"You promised you'd wait," the lieutenant reminded him.
Yuri smiled and said, "I lied. You don't follow understand? It's dangerous."
"I thought you killed it?"
"No, just the guard. We made enough racket to alert the nest; I gotta find it before they get too active. You keep anyone else from going down there, all right?"
"All right, but I don't like that you are going in alone, Hyuga."
Yuri shrugged as he put his claws back on. "Cannot be helped. Say, are there munitions in any of these warehouses?" he asked and indicated the above buildings with a wave of his hand.
"Probably in some of them, why?"
Yuri shook his head. "Nothing, just wanted to know."
A moment later Yuri had ducked down and entered the sluiceway passage and a few minutes later he made the main passage, the whole time thinking that munitions and Margarete's explosives could be a bad combination. He didn't dwell on it however, contenting himself with retracing his path to the split and then listening carefully for any movement. The silence was deep but not complete, as faint sounds ahead could have been either the clinking of metal a great distanced away or the movements of the creatures; Yuri was betting it was his prey and he turned down the passage.
Margarete knew damned well that Yuri would not wait, she knew him that well. So time was wasting and she needed a quick ride. Ahead on the quay was the police car, its driver waiting for Lieutenant Carter. She approached at a run and jumped into the back seat.
"Carter's orders, take me to Alliston Road right away!" she said authoritatively and the driver complied without thinking.
Along the way, Margarete planned what she was going to need for the upcoming combat and mentally reviewed who she knew and who owed her to get the incendiaries she would need. By the time they pulled up to Alice's home, she had a plan. Disembarking the car, she told the driver to wait and ran up the stairs to the front door. Without knocking, she entered and called out for Alice. She had lots to do and little time to do it.
Alice and her mother had retired to the sitting room some hours ago and while her mother sat sewing, Alice read her Book of Flesh, or appeared to do so. She read the same passage repeatedly, her mind searching out every feeling and intimation she could of Yuri and his whereabouts. Her psychic abilities were not the strongest and she needed practice it was certain, and while she could feel his presence and knew he was all right, she worried none-the-less. When Margarete slammed into the vestibule calling out for her, it was almost a relief.
"Margarete, is Yuri all right? Where is he?" she asked even as she opened the sitting room door.
"He's fine. I need your help; I need medicines, supplies. And I need your telephone."
"All right; I'll get the supplies, the telephone is in here. Mother?" Alice asked her mother without turning around and ran up the stairs to the bedrooms.
Mrs. Elliot showed Margarete the telephone and, setting aside her sewing, followed her daughter upstairs.
"Alice, you're not going with her are you?" she asked as soon as she entered Alice's bedroom. The young exorcist had disrobed and was pulling on a sturdy skirt and blouse, adding her armored vest and then a jacket.
"Of course I am going, mother. Yuri needs me. I will be there for him," Alice said and put her Book of Flesh into its special pocket in her jacket. She snatched the last remaining packets of Thera and Mana that Yuri had saved and placed them in the pocket as well.
"I am sure it is dangerous, and I would rather ..."
"No mother. The world is dangerous; this is just the world. It's Yuri's world; it's my world. I am going to marry him and this will be a part of our world. I am going. That's final."
Mrs. Elliot sighed before offering her daughter a kiss on the cheek. "I guess I will have to get used to this; but I do not like it. Please be careful daughter."
Alice smiled up at her mother, realizing at last that her mother was trying to make peace in her own heart as well. "I will mother. I love you," she said and ran from the bedroom.
Downstairs Margarete had just hung up the telephone when Alice rejoined her.
"Say Margarete, what happened to your clothing?"
"I got attacked; Yuri lent me his coat," she answered, picking fastidiously at the smelly trench coat. "I'm afraid I'll owe him a new one now too, as I've gotten blood all over it.
"Are you still hurt?" Alice asked, making motions to use magic to heal her friend.
"No, no Yuri used a fusion to heal me. But we've got to go. We need Thera and Mana and I need fresh ammo; something with more punch. And torches! It's dark down there!"
"I have a little medicine, but surely not enough; so, where to?"
Margarete headed out the door to the waiting police car. "I've got a contact a little way off ... over on Piccadilly."
Alice thought about the distance as she joined Margarete in the back seat of the car. "That's a long way from the wharf, Margarete."
"It's not too far, and it will be all right; we're in a police car. Hit it, Eddie and lay on the noise; we gotta hurry," the spy said as she settled herself again in the back seat and the driver pulled away from the little Edwardian house, putting on speed as he headed for Prince Albert Road.
Yuri paused at the split in the passageway, listening carefully then decided to head left following the dark path as it went further downward. He could tell that he was heading for the old sewer tunnels when he hit a sudden drop and heard running water. Casting about he found a pebble which he dropped, waiting for the plop; when it hit water Yuri shook his head.
'Long way down; must be a fifty yards,' he thought the looked up, his black eyes scanning the darkness ahead; the passage appeared to continue past the drop before it turned down another passageway. 'Shit, how far is the damned nest?' he wondered and then jumped over the intervening space to continue along the dark tunnel.
It was another few minutes after he made the turn that he came to a ladder in the stone wall of the passage. He climbed up the ladder until he reached a wooden reinforced door. He gave it an experimental shove but it proved locked from above so he dropped back down to the lower level. With a shrug, he continued down the passage.
Frustration was beginning to set in just as he came to another opening. Yuri hunched down and dropped to one knee, scanning the interior of the chamber. It was vaulted and tiered and had obviously been a storage facility of some kind in the past. And was used as such now for the tiers were full of silver-white and grey cocoons, their sticky silks covering the niches in which they lie and along each cocoon was another shaped very much like a human being. Yuri ground his teeth.
'Murder my ass,' he thought, 'the Captain don't know the half of it!' Black eyes glittering with their own light, Yuri scanned the chamber for company and found it just out of reach. Black and brown legged, bodies almost the same size as the guard he had fought, the spiders were rolling up a cocoon and placing it near another egg sack; they had managed to find food that night after all.
With a mental sigh and adjusting his Nightbird Claws, Yuri leaped from the dark corridor, jumping over several smaller egg sacks and leaping for the body of the first spider. He landed on the first spider's hairy upper abdomen; grasping a handful of wiry spider hair, he flipped his Nightbird Claw around and drove it downward into its body. The spider jumped, trying to dislodge its attacker and Yuri went for a wild ride before finally using the one claw to stab his way forward toward the spider's head. He straddled the spider between its front legs and stabbed down repeatedly until the spider finally shuddered and collapsed, dead. The other spider now came scuttling forward, its fangs dripping with poison and Yuri vaulted clear of the dead one in time to avoid getting ripped by the attacking fangs.
Yuri crouched low, watching for an opportunity to attack the remaining spider, but the creature was fast and had jumped and turned toward him in a heartbeat. Grinding his teeth Yuri ran in, still in a crouch, slipping under the spider's front legs. With one hand, he grabbed the pedipalp, holding on for dear life and with his Nightbird Claw, began hacking at the creature's mouth and poisonous fang. The spider retaliated with a swipe of its leg, slamming into Yuri then prodding him, trying to dislodge the fighter from his handhold. For his part Yuri kept striking at the fang until he severed it, black blood flowing from the creature's mouth and down his arm, then he let go the pedipalp and ducked underneath, slashing at the chest as he went. Once under the creature's abdomen he stood up, pushing with all the strength of his legs and plunged his Nightbird Claw into its gut, puncturing the lung, connecting ganglion and ripping through into the lower gut. He then rolled out of the way as the spider shuddered and fell, its legs curling up beneath it. Yuri stood panting for a moment before wiping ichor off his face with his arm and turning around to scan the dark chamber. There were no other spiders, only egg sacks and cocoons with food.
Yuri shook his head in disgust. 'He thinks he's only got a handful of dead; shit he's got bodies he doesn't know about,' Yuri thought and kicked his way through the nearby egg sacks to the next chamber opening; this passage sloped downward and lead further underground toward the old sewer system. Somewhere down there Yuri knew he'd find the real problem, the egg layer herself.
Koudelka had talked about the underground passages beneath Nemeton with details that left Yuri's head swimming. He thought at first that she was informing Halley, but after the half-pint had fallen asleep, she kept speaking; covering the first corridor leading from the caretakers building to the underground septic tank, the holy shrine at its base, and then the follow-up tunnel that they discovered leading underneath the abattoir and back toward Patrick Hayworth's chambers. There had also been one leading off from the main underground shrine that lead to the graveyard. Yuri knew that one from their traipsing through the tunnel to find the ancient graveyard. That had been beyond a second doorway leading off from the shrine, but there had been others that didn't appear on Koudelka's map. One lead beneath the herbal garden, a side passage collapsed from age and subsidence. There was another that Koudelka mentioned as well, leading off the main tunnel system, reaching back into the mainland soil, digging deeply into the earth. That one had lead off from the ancient burial site, a side passage away from the Float systems that were buried beneath Nemeton proper. Koudelka said she tried reaching those passages before, when Edward, James and she had been there, but the door had been blocked and the old hermit Roger had said a horrible secret resided there. She had assumed it was the Float, Neameeto; later, as she talked to Yuri, she was not so sure.
"There are many other passages leading back into the rich earth from Neameeto, Yuri. We couldn't explore them because the passages had collapsed. After Edward left, Roger and I buried an old manuscript of James's in St. Daniel Scotus's old grave. Roger told me that the lands around Nemeton dated back to the Stone Age and passages opened, filled and reopened over the centuries. He didn't say if he knew how to get to those beyond the collapsed passages, but he might. At any rate, we fought many creatures that were changed by the evils of Nemeton; not just ghosts and spirits like your Amon, but living creatures that had changed with the powers residing there."
Yuri remembered thinking that he wouldn't want to meet anything so changed, beyond what they had already, but now he wondered if what he was fighting was just such a creature.
The passage ahead made a sharp turn downward and he started to slide, his boots scraping on a mixture of dirt and stone. Grabbing out for any handhold he could, he grasped an old pipe and then plunged his left hand into the flaky stonework, embedding the Nightbird Claw into the passage wall, stopping his forward slide. Scanning ahead he listened intently and could hear the rush of water again almost like a breath the way it echoed off the stone, and a little ahead a dark opening leading to the left. Pulling his claw free of the stonework, he let go of the pipe and slid down to the opening. He jammed one leg into the opening as he slid past, stopping before he got too far past the lip of the next chamber and then pulled himself up and in to the dark chamber opening. Crawling on his hands and knees, he inched his way into the inky darkness and listened with every pore in his body. What he heard made him break out in a sweat, his heart suddenly beating so hard he thought his chest would burst. Ahead in the dark chamber was a chirring, scraping, chittering sound that could only be what he was looking for, and it wasn't alone.
Yuri crawled a little further into the dark tunnel, finally pausing near the next opening. The chamber ahead was dark, but he could hear the susurration of movement, the sounds of insects scuttling about in the chamber. With his altered vision he took a look and felt his heart freeze: the chamber was a vaulted area with several other openings leading off from it and fanning out into lower passageways while the chamber itself was floor to ceiling in egg sacks with one gigantic monstrosity laying more even as he watched and others rolling the eggs away to secure them against the walls; literally hundreds of the creatures rolling hundreds of eggs. Yuri wondered what devil he had pissed off this time.
