Session 8 - Interlude, or Another Long Road Down

Night of 12–13 Sleepwind 850

Lial had long since lost track of time, but he kept walking, relying only on signs that made sense to him alone. The path was not straight. It twisted, forked, and crossed other passages. The old mines had long since fallen behind, giving way to caves just as old. They had been walking openly for quite some time. Lial had even given the woman the second lantern. Whenever Mirin slowed at another crossroads, the man merely smiled and kept walking without breaking stride. The woman tried several times to ask what signs Lial was seeing, but he only waved her off, citing experience and intuition. Conversation on other subjects did not come easily either. Lial answered every question unrelated to their route briefly and did not react at all to statements that were not questions.

The journey was not always easy. Even corridors gave way to crumbling ledges above a raging stream. From time to time, large boulders blocked their path, which they had to climb over, and doing so was not always easy. Both Mirin and Lial himself slipped several times while trying to get over yet another boulder, but they never once turned back to choose another route.

During another rest, Lial finally decided to break the silence:

“Good news — we’ve managed to shake off the guards. Bad news — I only know of one exit, the one where the stream from the old mines comes out. And they’re clearly waiting for us there.”

He paused for a moment, then gestured toward the stream beside them and continued:

“I have no idea where this water leads. If we’re lucky, to an exit. If we’re very lucky, to some other exit.”

Lial stood, slung his pack over his shoulder, and swore under his breath. When he had offered Mirin a deal, he had expected her to be more useful, especially when it came to finding information. Lial had been delighted when the woman got hold of maps of the old mines, even of the section cut off from “Gareza”. That delight did not last long. In all the archives Mirin had managed to rummage through, there was no useful information about the old caves beyond the fact that they existed. Lial could see only two explanations. Either access to the caves had been closed when the old mines were surveyed, or the records of that survey were classified. And he did not know which was worse. After waiting for Mirin to catch up, Lial moved on.

The network of tunnels branched more and more. Where Lial had once barely slowed whenever they came to a crossroads, now he stopped more and more often to decide which way to go. Fatigue and the injuries they had suffered along the way were taking their toll. Their conversations, infrequent even before, stopped entirely, and when they survived a cave-in by sheer luck, losing one of their lanterns, they did not even have the strength to swear. From time to time they found the stream again, but even that no longer lifted their spirits as it once had, especially since sooner or later the path would lead off somewhere to the side again.

When Lial almost walked straight into a burly man, at first he could not believe his eyes. The man wore clothes made from the hides of some animals and seemed to blend into the stone behind him, and he had no source of light at all. Lial carefully lowered his lantern to the ground. He tried not to make any sudden movements. Lial immediately dismissed the idea that this was some chance encounter. A person who calmly wandered through long-forgotten caves, without a light at that, could not be ordinary. Mirin merely yelped and sat down right on the floor. A quick glance at the woman was enough to see that she had no strength left. Not to flee, and certainly not for a possible confrontation. Pulling himself together and trying to speak without letting his voice betray his unease, Lial said:

“Hello. We’re lost. Could you tell us where the exit is?”

The stranger only kept smiling as though waiting for something. Lial continued:

“We came through the old mines. We were supposed to emerge by a mountain lake, but we took a wrong turn.”

Lial chose his words carefully. He did not want to lie outright, but telling the whole truth was dangerous.

The stranger remained silent a little longer, then grunted as though to make it clear he did not believe a word and beckoned for them to follow. Lial helped Mirin to her feet, picked up the lantern, and followed the stranger. He walked with too much confidence, like someone who had long known every stone here. At several crossroads, he chose nothing like the route Lial himself would have taken. After about half an hour, they emerged from the caves. It was deep night outside, but the snow covering everything around them made it easy enough to see. There was a lake close by, which, judging by the sound of splashing water, had not frozen despite the cold season.

The stranger waved in a direction that meant nothing to Lial and spoke for the first time:

“You’re on your own from here. And don’t… get lost again.”

He seemed to emphasize the final word. The man kept smiling, but Lial saw nothing but danger in his eyes. Yet he no longer had the strength to leave at once. So Lial nodded briefly and said:

“Yes, thank you. We’ll rest for a while and then move on. Provided you don’t mind us being here, of course.”

The stranger continued to smile silently, and Lial had the feeling their fate was being decided at that very moment. Mirin, meanwhile, seemed not to notice the danger at all. She smiled and said:

“Thank you for leading us out.”

Then she added:

“I’ll go get some water.”

Lial merely followed her with his eyes, waiting for the stranger's decision. But just as the man opened his mouth to say something, a fairly loud cry came from Mirin's direction. Leaving the stranger behind, Lial went over to the woman standing beside a dark patch. As he drew closer, Lial realized that the patch was a body lying at the water's edge.

“Just how many of you are there?”

Lial flinched in surprise. The voice came from behind him, yet he had not heard a single footstep. The stranger walked up to the body and turned it over with his foot as if it were a sack of potatoes.

“Well, look at that! Still alive! Not for long, though. Poor thing’s frozen.”

It was said calmly and without emotion. Lial knew that kind of indifference. That was how people spoke when they had seen so many deaths that counting them in dozens was no longer enough. The next moment, Lial swore loudly. It had finally dawned on him that the clothes on the body were the same ones issued at “Gareza”. Which meant the guards following the stream would find this exit as well. Lial did not care whether anyone else could use their escape route, but potential pursuers were not something he could simply brush aside. His thoughts were interrupted by Mirin, who stood with her hands pressed to her face:

“That’s Talik… Lial… We have to help him… I know we don’t have time, but if it weren’t for him…”

The woman did not have time to finish before the stranger stepped closer and exclaimed:

“Damn it! I’ve had it with the lot of you!”

In one motion, the stranger hoisted Talik onto his shoulder. He was no longer smiling, but the same danger showed in his eyes. After slowly looking Lial and Mirin over, he said:

“May Ayk tear you to pieces. Follow me if you truly care about him.”

He did not wait for an answer and headed back toward the cave entrance. Mirin immediately followed. Lial himself thought it was a waste of time and that they should keep running, but after some hesitation, he gave in. They had changed course and emerged in the middle of nowhere. On top of that, something about the stranger's appearance suggested they were quite far from the nearest settlement. So the previous plan to part ways with Mirin as soon as they left the caves had to be revised. In an unfamiliar forest, without proper weapons and with only the bare minimum of equipment, surviving alone would be very difficult. Regardless of how things went with Mirin from there, he had to admit that resting somewhere sheltered was the better option, even considering the threat of pursuit. Lial had no doubt that the stranger was carrying Talik to just such a place.

Once back inside the caves, the stranger took a different route. About ten minutes later, they entered a small cave equipped for long-term habitation. The stranger laid Talik on a bunk, stripped off all his wet clothes, and covered him with a blanket of hides. After adding wood to the fire, he sat down on the only chair and said rather sternly:

“Now, tell me everything. And perhaps start with those bracelets your friend is wearing…”