Distopia (Land of Dis) by Robert Kroese

Author:Robert Kroese [Kroese, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Westmarch Publishing
Published: 2015-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

They’d only gone a few yards down the street when they heard clanking coming from the shadows in front of them as well.

“They’ve got us surrounded!” cried Wyngalf. “Tobalt, what do we do?”

“Alas,” panted Tobalt, already out of breath from exertion, “my skulking abilities, paltry as they are, do not extend to extricating a group of individuals from a hot pursuit situation.”

“We’re caught,” said Evena, slowing to a halt. “There’s no way out!”

Wyngalf and Tobalt cast their eyes around desperately but could find nothing to belie her lament. All the shops on the street were closed. They could only go forward or back, and either way they would run into the city guard. Wyngalf drew his sword.

“What are you doing?” Evena said. “You can’t fight off all those men!”

“I have to try,” said Wyngalf. “If they catch us, we’ll be stuck in Skaal City. When Verne comes back, they’ll turn us over to him.”

The three put their backs together, with Wyngalf facing the direction they had come, and Tobalt and Evena facing more or less the other way. Tobalt bared his fangs and did his best to look menacing. In both directions, armored men with swords emerged from the shadows.

Something moved in the shadows just to Wyngalf’s left. “This way!” a man’s voice barked. He saw now that a door had opened, and someone was beckoning to him. A vision of yet another gathering of impotent, dithering plotters flashed into his mind, but he pushed it away. Whoever waited in the shadows, he was their only chance.

“Follow me!” Wyngalf cried. He sheathed his sword and began running toward the voice, hoping that Tobalt and Evena were following.

“Inside, hurry!” snapped the man, and Wyngalf slipped past him into a dark room. After advancing a few steps inside, he stopped and turned—and the svelte figure of Evena crashed into him, followed by Tobalt. Behind them, he caught a glimpse of the stranger framed in the moonlight pouring through the doorway, but the door slammed shut before he could make out the man’s features. Wyngalf heard a door latch and a heavy deadbolt slide into place. They were in total darkness.

“Keep going!” barked the man, and Wyngalf turned and took a few uncertain steps in the dark. “Move to your left until you feel the wall,” the man’s voice said. “Then take six steps forward. Reach out with your right hand.” The man’s voice seemed vaguely familiar to Wyngalf, but he couldn’t place it.

Something crashed loudly into the door behind them. “City guard!” shouted a voice. “Open up!”

Wyngalf did as instructed. His hand brushed against something that he realized after a moment was a doorknob. He gripped it and turned, pulling the door open, revealing nothing but more blackness.

“There’s a staircase right in front of you. Take it until you reach a small stone landing. Then stop.”

Wyngalf once again followed the man’s instructions, keeping his bearings by running his fingertips along the stone wall to his left. When he got to the landing, though, the wall disappeared.

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