The Caverns of Kronos

Return to Kronosia - Part 2

     The Tharians soon reached the junction where they’d have to leave the giant moon trog tunnel, and they looked back at it one last time before leaving it behind. “Hard to believe that people capable of a feat of engineering like this are afraid of the degenerate inhabitants of a half destroyed city,” mused Thomas thoughtfully.

     “Yeah,” agreed Shaun. “Pacifism is a nice idea, but unfortunately this is the real world we’re living in.” Diana gave him an annoyed look, and the soldier led the way on before she could answer him with a piece of pious morality.

     Carefully following the path laid down on the map, they followed the tunnel for a couple of hundred yards, turned left at a junction, followed the steeply sloping tunnel downwards and turned right at the next intersection. This took them to the most unusually shaped cave they'd seen so far. It was circular in cross section, thirty yards wide at the widest point, but was a hundred yards from top and bottom where it tapered to sharp points, like the inside of a huge spindle. It was full of lush vegetation growing in the light of twenty or so fibre optic lights, and half a dozen more tunnels ran away from it from points along its sides.

     “What an unusual shape,” said Jerry thoughtfully. “I wonder why they dug a cave this shape.”

     “Must have had some specialised function once,” muttered Thomas. “The shape’s much too regular to be just chance.”

     “I don’t like it,” declared Lirenna unhappily.

     “Why not?” asked Thomas.

     “I don’t know,” replied the demi shae. “It just doesn’t feel right somehow. And the birds aren’t singing. Did you notice that?”

     She was right, they realised. The cheerful sound of birdsong was entirely absent here. The cave was eerily silent, and instincts that had saved their lives many times in the Overgreen Forest prompted the two soldiers to become extra alert, scanning the cave for any sign of a threat.

     “I think maybe we should get out of here as quickly as possible,” said Shaun, unslinging his bow from across his back and fitting an arrow. “I don’t...”

     He was interrupted by a volley of arrows flying out of the concealing shrubbery, hitting them with terrifying accuracy and stopped only by their glass ceramic plate mail armour. Without it, Thomas, Jerry and Lirenna would certainly have been killed, the arrows bouncing squarely off their chests, and Matthew would have been badly injured by an arrow that was deflected from his upper thigh. As it was, though, the only one who suffered any injury was Diana as an arrow glanced off her skull just above the ear, opening a flap of skin and half stunning her.

     Shaun shot an arrow back into the foliage, but had no way of knowing if he’d hit anything. He forgot to take the reaction into account, however, and was left tumbling end over end in the air, grasping at the leaves and branches around him to steady himself. “Ambush!” he shouted. “Look out!”

     It was a moment or two before their ambushers attacked again, as if they were surprised that their first attack had had so little effect. Then more arrows came flying at the Tharians, bouncing off their armour again as they struggled to raise their hoods. Thomas grabbed Diana by the arm and pulled her down into the shelter of a large elder bush. “Are you okay?” he asked anxiously, but she could only touch the wound on her head and stare at the blood on her fingers in dazed bewilderment.

     Seeing that their arrows weren’t having much effect, the Konnens left their hiding places and leapt through the air at them, drawing their swords. Shaun shot another arrow, missing Glabbro by a hairsbreadth, and Thomas fumbled for a pinch of sand for his sleep spell before remembering he’d run out. He cursed and cast a volley of firebolts instead, aiming at the huge and menacing figure of Rakkus.