Raymond E. Feist - The Serpentwar Saga

‘Shoot,’ cried Calis, and the ten archers who remained to him started peppering the five remaining Saaur with arrows.

Jadow said, ‘Look!’ and pointed into the distance.

‘That’s why they’re so fearless,’ shouted de Loungville. ‘These are just the trail-breakers!’

Afar, a large column of dust rose into the sky, and even at this distance the rumble of hooves was thunderous. Erik didn’t wait but set heels to the flanks of his horse and charged after the remaining Saaur, who were attempting to keep the humans engaged as long as possible until their companions could overtake them.

Biggo let out a whoop and charged after him. They rode full into the same Saaur, striking at him from both sides. Erik caught him on the sword arm, shattering bone and cutting deep into flesh, while Biggo hammered relentlessly at the creature’s shield.

Soon it was quiet.

Calis said, ‘Ride for the cave! We’ll stand there!’

Erik sucked a deep lungful of air and willed his tired horse to run. There was no choice. The alien horses were stronger and more powerful and had more endurance. They couldn’t outrun them, it was clear, and at one to one, they couldn’t outfight the Saaur in the open.

Erik hoped that the cave tunnel did lead somewhere, as Praji had claimed. For if it was only a cave in a hill, it would be a lonely place to die.

In ragged order, leaving the remounts to follow or wander, Calis’s Crimson Eagles, exhausted and sore from the short but furious fight, headed toward the distant hillock.

Nakor was among the first to reach it, and without much grace he half jumped, half fell from his horse. He grabbed a waterskin and a bag of rations, then struck her on the rump, yelling enough to send her running away as he ducked into the cave.

As Erik and the others began to dismount, he shouted, ‘There’s a door! Come quick!’

Strike a light!’ commanded Calis, and de Loungville produced a special oil and motioned for someone to give him a torch. A bundle of them was fetched from the baggage along with a few other items the men would carry, but most of the baggage, food, and all the horses must be sacrificed.

De Loungville sprinkled the oil on a torch, then struck flint and steel to cause a spark. The oil caught and the torch was lit, and he ducked inside the cave.

Erik followed after, and had to duck-walk to pass below the low ceiling. After about ten yards, the ceiling rose and the corridor broadened, as the passage moved down into an underground cavern.

Erik looked for the door and discovered it was a huge round stone. It was nestled in a heavy iron and wooden frame, rigged so it could be rolled from its position to the right of the passage to block it. While a few strong men could use large wooden pegs set in the face to move it from inside this cave, those following after would have no handhold on the smooth surface, nor any way to gain enough leverage to move the massive rock.

When the last man was inside the cave, Erik, Biggo, and Jadow grabbed the wooden pegs and struggled to move the rock. Others insinuated themselves against the wall so they could push against the edge once it moved enough.

Slowly, protestingly, the rock budged and then with a grinding rumble moved as the sound of horsemen echoed through the entrance of the cave. Angry shouts in an alien language echoed down the hall as the grinding stone moved slowly to block their retreat.

Suddenly Erik felt resistance and knew that the Saaur on the other side had tried to prevent the closing. ‘Push!’ he shouted, and another pair of hands moved below his, and he looked down to see Roo trying to add his strength to the task. The little man had slipped below and crawled on the floor to find a place from which he could help.

Nakor shouted, ‘Close your eyes!’

Erik was slow and was temporarily blinded by a sudden flash of light as Nakor lit something from de Loungville’s torch and tossed it through the narrow space between the wall and the slowly moving rock door.

A scream and several shouts of rage answered, but the pressure on the door was released and it closed suddenly with a deep and final thud. Erik felt the shock in his shoulders as it slammed into the opposite wall.

His knees felt suddenly weak and he sat down on the cold cave floor. He heard Biggo laugh. ‘That was closer than I like.’

Erik found himself laughing, too, and looked over at Jadow. ‘Foster and Jerome?’

Jadow shook his head. ‘They all died like men.’

Calis said, ‘Bobby, light another torch so we can see where we’re going.’

Do we have another torch?’ asked the sergeant.

A voice in the dark said, ‘In the bundle here. Sergeant.’

Calis said, ‘Biggo, while we’re looking ahead, I want you and von Darkmoor to do an inventory. We’ve left most of what we had outside, but I want to see what we have here.’ He glanced around. ‘Though if there’s not another way out, it really doesn’t matter, does it?’

Without waiting for an answer, he moved off into the gloom as de Loungville lit a second torch, handed it to Luis, and moved after the Captain.

Nakor hurried to grab a few loose rocks and lay them between the stone and the floor. ‘Won’t roll back very well if they do get a grip,’ he said with a grin.

Biggo turned and said, ‘All right, me darlings. You heard the Captain. Look around and tell ol’ Biggo what you thieving rascals grabbed when you ran for your lives!’

Erik chuckled, but knew it was just relief at still being alive. He didn’t know who else had noticed, but when he ran into the dark he had looked back over his shoulder and seen at least thirty of the hundred or more men who had left that morning lying dead on the ground. They had survived the first encounter of a long and bitter journey to come, and almost a third of them were already dead.

He put that thought from his mind and began looking to see what resources they had.

Hours passed, and there were faint sounds from the other side of the rock door, so they knew the Saaur were contriving ways to move the boulder and come after them. At one point Roo wondered aloud what they would do if some Saaur magician came along and used magic to open the door, and the anger that greeted the remark caused the wiry man to fall instantly silent. Erik couldn’t remember a time when Roo had been shut up so quickly or effectively.

When Calis finally returned, Biggo said, ‘We’ve got food for four or five days, Captain. A few extra weapons, but mostly what each of us is carrying. We’ve got plenty of gold and gems, ‘cause the sergeant there grabbed the pay sacks, and we’ve got a fair supply of bandages and herbs.

‘But all our camp gear is gone, and a lot of us are going to be thirsty if we don’t find water quickly.’

Calis said, ‘The tunnel seems to head down gradually, and toward the foothills. I saw signs that someone’s used this route not too long ago, maybe a month, but no more than that.’

‘Tribesmen?’ asked Roo.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Praji, standing up. ‘Unless you’re anxious to face that angry pack of lizards waiting out there’ – he pointed to the door – ‘we go that way.’ He pointed into the gloom.

Calis said, ‘Everyone ready?’

No one said no, and Calis turned to de Loungville. ‘Get them into some sort of order, and let’s start seeing where this passage leads.’

De Loungville nodded once, then turned and gave the command. Once the men found their way to the positions they normally took while riding, a sense of the familiar surrounded Erik, as if following orders made the closeness of the tunnel and the gloom bearable.

Then Calis gave the word and they moved off into the darkness.