Chasing Sparks

Chapter 33.2

Once inside the walls, Celie found a place to hide and wait. She wanted to see if the guards suspected anything before continuing. However, nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen. The wounded guard simply limped back to the house and was replaced by another similarly big and shaved fellow. Other than that, the two guards took up very similar positions to what Celie had seen before. Satisfied, she had made it this far unnoticed, Celie began to pay attention to her environment.

The yard was empty, except for a few unkempt plants and bushes dotted around the place. In between the overgrowth, it was just dusty stoney ground. Given the money the merchant clearly had, gardening didn’t seem to be one of his passions. In fact, Celie had serious doubts whether this man was actually a merchant at all. Most merchants she had seen, especially rich ones, had beautiful well manicured gardens and took pride in their surroundings.

Pushing these secondary thoughts away, Celie made her way around the house quietly, looking for an open window or door. But it was something else that caught her eye. There was a trap door on the ground. It was in the yard, just to the right of the house, and seemed well worn, most likely from regular use.

It was also barred from this side, as if keeping something inside from getting out, rather than the opposite. Celie was curious. She quietly moved closer and listened at the door. Nothing. She then examined it closely for anything suspicious. It didn’t appear to be trapped or warded. Celie looked around, all seemed quiet but she wasn’t sure about opening the door and going inside. It would just take one person to notice it was open, reclose it, put the bar back in place, and then she would be trapped.

But if you were going to kidnap someone, it seemed the obvious place to take them, so she resolved to go inside. First of all, she took the bar off the trap door and hid it around the opposite side of the house. She then quietly lifted one side of the door and slipped inside. She let it close above her, plunging her into pitch darkness.

Celie remained motionless, letting her nightvision adjust and listening for any sign she had been seen but there was none. As she made her way slowly down the steps she was on, she quickly realised this was more than just a basement or cellar, there were numerous tunnels leading off in several different directions. Reaching the foot of the stairs, she peered down three different tunnels. Two of the three tunnels disappeared into darkness but one had a faint glow of lamplight at the end, so she decided to head down that one.

The air had changed. There was the definite smell of Kolle lingering around. Another thing to add to the mystery of this place. Why would Kolle be this close to a town? Celie felt the ground beneath her feet, wriggled her toes and brought her mind fully back to the present, as she began creeping down the tunnel. She needed her full attention on the job in hand.

As the dim light in the distance began to grow she began to discern slight flickers of movement in and out of the light. There was someone or something moving at the end of this tunnel.

Gradually Celie began to make out a small form passing in front of the tunnel exit periodically. She was far enough away to be out of sight if the small form had nightvision, which she suspected was the case, despite the light from the torch in the room. Celie tried to count the seconds between each sighting of whatever it was passing in front of the tunnel but there was no discernable pattern to its movements. The small form wasn't behaving like a sentry. More like someone bored, just wandering around to pass the time.

Enough watching, Celie thought. Time for action. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and waited for the form to pass in front of the light and began moving. She stalked quietly but quickly towards the light. She was about halfway towards it when a shadow flickered across the exit again. Celie froze and stood like a statue.