Baldur's gate II_ throne of Bhaal - Drew Karpyshyn [31]
Imoen took the compliment in stride. "Well, I got us in. Now where?"
The tunnel ran both north and south from where they had entered. Abdel had no doubt they would find it branching off in countless directions no matter which way they went. Without a map, any choice they made in this labyrinth would be nothing but a guess.
"North," he finally said, hoping his voice sounded more confident than he felt. Fortunately, nobody questioned him on his choice.
There was enough room for them to walk two abreast in the tunnels, so Abdel and Sarevok took the lead, splashing through the ankle-deep sludge that covered the stone floor. Rats scattered at the sound of their approach, and the beetles and roaches that covered the walls and ceilings scrambled away in terror as the light from Jaheira's glowing quarterstaff fell upon them. Occasionally Abdel felt something brush against his foot, a creature hidden beneath the slime they waded through. Fortunately none of the denizens of the Saradush sewers were curious enough, or hungry enough, to attack the strange invaders of their foul world.
They wandered for hours beneath the city, Abdel randomly choosing their path each time they came to a junction or fork in the path. They avoided the smaller side passages, sticking to the main sewer tunnel. Eventually, Abdel reasoned, it would have to lead them out.
Jaheira's spell had worn off and been re-cast several times, and Abdel was beginning to doubt his leadership ability. His back and neck ached from the perpetual hunch the low roof forced on him, and he could feel himself becoming ill from prolonged exposure to the diseased waste they were trudging through. Did that pile of dung in the corner look familiar? Had they passed this way once already?
He was just about to admit defeat when Imoen piped, "There, up ahead… there's a gate!"
Rushing forward, Abdel discovered Imoen had not been entirely correct. It was not a gate her sharp eyes had seen but a grate-an iron grate blocking their path, each of its round bars as thick as the sellsword's massive wrist. The bars showed no evidence of corrosion or rust. Just beyond the grate was a set of stairs leading up toward the city surface.
Abdel pulled on the bars, but the grate didn't budge.
"Can you call upon the powers of Mielikki to get us past this?" he asked his half-elf lover.
The druid shook her head. "Here in the city my magic is weak," Jaheira explained, "I can barely feel the touch of nature. She recoils from these man-made cities."
"If there was a lock of some kind I could pick it," Imoen offered, "but I don't see anything like that."
The big man sighed. "All right, we do this the hard way."
Without being asked, Sarevok stepped up beside his half brother and seized hold of the bars with his mailed fists. Abdel secured his own grip.
"On three. One… two… three."
The two giants heaved on the heavy grate with the strength of their half-immortal blood. Abdel's jaw clenched, the muscles in his back knotted up, his arms quivered and shook with the strain. His massive shoulders bulged as he tried to wrench the iron bars loose from their very settings. From the corner of his eye Abdel could see Sarevok's armor quaking from the force of the mailed warrior's own exertions.
The grate moved. Barely, but it moved. Abdel collapsed against the iron bars, gasping for breath. Sarevok slouched against the sewer wall. Though the armored warrior made no sound, his breastplate heaved in and out as if he was panting.
While the two men recovered, Jaheira came over to inspect the results of their work. "There are faint cracks in the stone," she informed them. "A few more hard tugs, and the settings will crumble away like dust."
In fact it took nearly a dozen more long, exhausting pulls from the two men before the grate was dislodged. Had it not been for Abdel's godlike recuperative powers-powers Sarevok seemed to share-the two men would have collapsed trembling from their efforts long before achieving their goal.
As it was, however, the grate wrenched free so suddenly that both