"Do you hear anything?"
"No. Just water dripping."
"Something doesn't feel right about this place." The hairs on the back of my neck prickled and sent shivers down my spine.
"Like someone's watching us?"
"Let us go, boiche." I snapped my head to stare at the vampire striding nonchalantly down the stairwell lit by guttering candles. At last I figured out where her strange dialect came from: she spoke as the deer from Riverwood and as the Bosmer in northern Valenwood. Though, that aspect of Bosmeri was long gone with the dissolution of the Ayleid bloodlines into Bosmer clans.
Somehow, realizing this did nothing to relieve the feeling that we were being led by our noses right into a trap. The leather of my armor creaked and the rings of Valindor's mail clinked shrilly in the empty stairwell as we cautiously approached the bottom where another nondescript door lay. Serana paused at the door for us to catch up, then with a shove, opened it to a narrow corridor.
The smell of moisture and decay sank into the insides of our nostrils. I swallowed thickly, pushing down the bile and trying not to think too hard about how my stomach felt like it was curdling. Val wrapped his cloak about his face. The vampire, however, merely waited in the doorway, seemingly unphased. "What is that?" I hissed.
"Rhondil said uneaten food thrown away here," she responded quietly. With a grimace, I tried not to think about innocent people captured, drained, then left weak, but alive, to rot in this foul place. If they intended to consume someone, why not eat the entire body?
A gentle tug on my shoulder brought me out of my thoughts as Valindor pulled me with him, shoving past Serana. His eyes were wide and alert, pupils overlarge in the dim light. It made him look like a wild animal on the trail of something, and I momentarily forgot all about the wasteful attitude of the vampires. Smirking a little at my expression, he turned away and drew his bow, holding it at the ready. Up ahead, I noted the familiar sound of rippling water and slapping footsteps. More undead. Why is it always more undead?
At the end of the corridor, we found ourselves in a large cistern covered by a vaulted, arched ceiling like that of a cathedral. Thick layers of ice coated the edges of the reservoir and a heavy mist covered the damp floor. With relief, I noticed the smell of decay was less noticeable--as if the water purified the air. As we crossed a bridge spanning the cistern, I heard something splash below our feet. Jumping, I pointed an arrow down at the offending sound, waiting for something rise out of the water.
It was only a bucket, fallen from a frayed rope that dangled in a small opening in the ceiling. On the other end of the room, feet slapped noisily as a shadow passed before a guttering sconce. I shifted my aim to the shadow, sidestepping off the bridge onto the opposite side of the pool. Valindor followed suit, flanking me on my right.
A thin vampire stood in the candlelight, her eyes glowing brightly in the darkness. With a gasp, Valindor loosed his arrow, letting it fly wild when the creature's eyes met his. A look of painful longing crawled across his face, and I felt a pang of disappointment that the expression wasn't directed at me. He stumbled forward, bow forgotten in his hand, a drunken smile playing on his lips. "Why hello there," he said.
"Val! Don't!"
He didn't listen, nor did he stray from his path toward the raggedly-dressed undead, even when she grinned toothily. I shot at the vampire, trying to break the spell she placed on the Bosmer, but she dodged my arrows nimbly. Sounds of scuffling and claws clicked around the corner, and a reanimated hound appeared, snarling and flashing its teeth. I put an arrow in its back to slow its careening approach, but it barreled towards us in spite of the dragon bone that shattered its spine. Serana finally broke the spell on my friend with a blast of ice that shattered our foe's chest and sent her to the floor.
"No!" cried Valindor when he snapped out of the trance and noticed the hound almost reached me. Drawing an arrow, he prepared to shoot it, only to find it dissolving into ashes as its master expired.
Coughing, I shook the foul-tasting dust from my body, trying not to think of where the beast had lain or been made of. "Thank you," I finally managed.
Lowering his bow, resentment flashed across his face as he flicked his gaze momentarily at Serana. "Thank her, not me." The words seemed to drag themselves from his mouth kicking and screaming in his reluctance to speak them. Serana, however, paid us little mind and proceeded down a hall to the left, where a wooden drawbridge stretched across a pit filled with scummy water and starving skeevers. They peered up at us with hungry, beady eyes.
The moment we crossed the bridge and left the cleaner, misty air behind, a chilled, sickly sweet smell assailed us. It was as if we had walked into a wall of stench that left Valindor and I gagging and eyes watering. The source of the smell revealed itself in a matter of minutes.
The floor was littered in piles of bones, some with chunks of meat still rotting away. Pools of blood mingled with water, leaving a thin layer of oil and floating offal. Above, the ceiling was coated in ice, riming over an open grate that lead to a blood encrusted chute. When I turned to head back up the hallway, thinking we'd gone the wrong way, Serana shook her head and stopped me with a delicate hand.
"Rhondil say way to garden is beyond bone room. West. That way." She pointed down the long room to the far end where a rounded doorway that looked like little more than a sewage pipe.
Valindor glared at her, his face puckering in disgust as he covered his nose with his hand. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to leave us to rot down here. Not like we'd be missed. Just a couple of drained bodies left on the trash heap, right?"
"You promise to help me. Why would I kill you now?"
"Now? What do you mean 'now'! Not that I expected anything less from the likes of you."
"Then why you follow? Could always refuse. Say 'no'." The vampire caught Val's glance in my direction as I considered our path through the muck. She grinned darkly, "Such is love. It will lead you to ruin."
"If you two are done bickering, I've found the least disgusting path," I said.
As I began to step over the driest bones, Valindor gripped my elbow, tugging me back roughly. "We could turn back still, Henny. We don't have to do this. We shouldn't do this."
"I have to. She knows about the-- She knows something useful. I know it."
"How do you know? Gwaihen, just show me some solid evidence and I'll stop questioning you. Just tell me something that isn't a hunch." But all I could do was shrug and step forward onto the bones, which cracked brittlely. Occasionally, my foot sank with a squelch into rotting flesh and it took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to upend the contents of my stomach. After several nauseating minutes, we crossed the room, Valindor and I looking and feeling noticeably green about the gills.
The doorway led to an even tighter hallway in which we had to crouch to avoid hitting our heads on the slimy ceiling. With many tight turns, the passage wound ever upward, the air slowly clearing and feeling fresher. On the last landing, another lit sconce suggested recent passage or a magical response to sentient presence.
Finally, at the top of the last stair, we stood panting before another small wooden door, this one just as nondescript as the last. From the cracks around the door, cold, salty air seeped inward. Giddy with relief, I smiled. "This leads outside!"
"Open it. I smell nightshade. Mother's garden is ahead!" With a rough tug, I managed to yank the door open with some resistance and a blast of a fresh breeze hit our faces.
"Oh, bless Y'ffre. I've never been so glad to see that tiny bright sun."
Comments
You have done an incredible job with this trio...three is an awkward number at times, and the mini-alliances seem to flow and change very quickly, adding many layers to these relationships. Thoughtfully done!