The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [63]
“Over here,” Miko hollers at him. He begins moving garbage out of the way and opens a trap door that had been concealed by the garbage covering the floor. The smell that fills the room when the trap door opens leaves little doubt as to where it leads. Miko begins to descend the ladder down into the hole when he looks over at James, almost laughing at the expression on his face. “Do you want to stay up here?” he asks.
“No,” replies James, doing his best not to breathe through his nose as he moves closer to the opening. When Miko climbs to the bottom, James begins his descent into the dark opening of the sewers.
Chapter Eight
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The odors emerging from the entrance to the sewer assaulted James’ senses. His eyes begin watering and could barely breathe. Only the threat of the boys trying to break in the door and possibly doing them bodily harm convinces him of the wisdom to climb down. He sets a foot on the uppermost rung of the ladder that descends into the sewers. His foot slips a little on the slime coating the rung, making it slippery and treacherous.
Using great caution, he slowly makes his way down to the floor of the sewer, his hands becoming slick as the slime from the rungs coating them. Upon reaching the bottom, he steps onto the sewer floor only to slip on a slick, slimy patch. Losing his balance he tumbles backward into the stinking, oozing muck slowly making its way through the sewer.
The fall into the stream of nastiness breaks his concentration, causing the spell holding the door closed to fail. The sound of breaking wood filters its way through the opening above as Miko helps him to his feet. They proceed quickly down the dark sewer tunnel putting distance between themselves and the entrance. Thoroughly nauseated, James tries to scrape as much of the filth off him as he can while hurrying down the tunnel.
They proceed along the stream of filth for a ways before taking a moment to turn and see if pursuit materializes. James watches the faint light coming through the trapdoor they so recently fled through. He is sure that by now the boys would have found the sewer entrance and should be descending after them. They remain quiet for several seconds but don’t see or hear anything other than the constant dripping of water coming out of several ducts in the wall, spilling into the main flow of the sewer.
“I don’t think they followed us down here,” he whispers to Miko.
“No, I didn’t think they would,” replies Miko in a low voice. “Not many come here who are not invited.”
“Invited?” questions James.
“Yeah, there’s a gang that claims the sewers as their own and anyone else who comes down here is fair game. Everyone knows not to come down here.”
“So why did we?” he asks with exasperation. He tries to scrape more of the sewer muck off but only ends up spreading it further. Giving it up as a lost cause, he stops trying.
“It seemed the better choice at the time,” replies Miko.
Grabbing Miko, James asks “And just who were we running from anyway?”
“They’re a bunch of petty thugs. They think I fingered them on a job they pulled last month,” Miko explains. “I didn’t but word got around that I was the one and they’ve had it in for me ever since.”
“I see,” he says. “Anyway, we need to find our way out of here.” He casts his light spell and the glowing orb appears, bringing a startled gasp from Miko. Using the orb to illuminate their way, he says, “Let’s go,” as he indicates Miko to lead them further down the sewer tunnel.
They come to a junction where a smaller branch of the main sewer enters from the left. James decides to continue following the main passage after pausing only a moment to look down the other. After another hundred feet they come to a ladder leading into the darkness above.
Grabbing Miko, he pulls him close to the rungs and says, “Look, these rungs are clean which means they must be used regularly. It could be a way out.” Gesturing toward the ladder he says, “Climb up there and see where it leads.”
“There