Daughters of the Night

Chapter 10

A wide canal separated the magical kingdom of Aegaeon and the mortal lands of Kerberos. It ran from the jagged mountain range to the city of Sirius where trading took place. Sirius was also under King Elias' rule, which was another reason Kerberos was left to fend for itself when it came to goods and services.

The Elders told the people of the village that it was a great blessing from the High One to be isolated from the rest of the world – that we were better off in our suffering than we would be in overindulgence. And maybe there was a ring of truth in that statement, but it was hard to justify a such a sacrifice when children died from small fevers that could have easily been cured by medicine brought in from Sirius.

Juriah and I would make a trip to the canal once a year and steal supplies from the docks. Well, Juriah did all the actual stealing – I was usually positioned behind a large boulder holding my bow ready to cover Juriah if anything bad happened. In all the years we made that trip, not one person spotted my stealthy brother, and I had no reason to release my arrow into the back of a stranger.

My brother would give most of the supplies away to families in the village. I never realized how dangerous it was for him to do so.

The canal was quiet today. Alasia and I avoided the unloading docks and traveled far North where we were certain travelers, merchants, and guards would be scarce.

"How are we going to cross it?" Alasia asked.

The canal was wide enough for two narrow boats to pass each other without colliding. If this was just any canal, we could simply swim across. But this canal was designed by King Elias in an effort to prevent such crossings. Shadows of large eels danced underneath the surface. We called them Crawlers since they were known to breech the waters and climb up the side of the canal onto land. They could only last a few minutes out of water, but it was enough time to scare the daylights out of anyone thinking of entering. Rows and rows of razor sharp teeth were clearly visible.

I stared at the canal and tried my best to recall the layout I had studied before traveling with Juriah. "There are fresh water lines that run from the canal to the center of Aegaeon. The water is filtered there – " I pointed to a small building resting on the opposite side of the canal. " – and then it's pumped many miles to the castle and surrounding areas. There are other lines that run parallel to the fresh water. In those pipes, there isn't a constant flow, and it would be easy to climb through."

Alasia turned, and her eyes pleaded with me. "Don't tell me you want to enter through the sewage line to cross."

I smiled. "How did you know?"

She groaned. "My father was always complaining about how their sewage was being released into our lands. There's an outlet, right?" She circled around and pointed. "Over there." She pointed to a dip in the mountains were a pool was beginning to form and seep into the lands.

I nodded. "That's it."

Alasia pleaded with the sky. "Oh High One, please show us another way."

I started walking towards the sewage outlet. "Maybe this was the way all along. How lucky are we to even know about how the lines?"

Alasia scrunched her nose. "Yeah, I wouldn't call it luck. We are about to wade through poop, Rhea."

We stared at the entrance for a very long time. The opening was round, and it reached my shoulders in height. We'd have to crouch. A steady steam of brown sludge and waste water exited the pipe into a dark pool.

"You know what? I'd rather be eaten alive by a Crawler." Alasia declared.

"We just have to go a few hundred yards. There are openings in the top of the pipe to climb through. They help the flow of the – ."