DANTAR
Under the city, deep within its sewers, Velza’s brother would have been safe from an attack by the three dragons. Nevertheless, he was still in a great deal of danger.
‘I’ve never seen so many rats in one place,’ said Dantar as he and Marko stood together in the reeking gloom.
‘Just don’t step on them,’ said Marko.
‘Could be your last mistake,’ said a rat perched on a pipe emptying slime into the main sewer.
‘Do I have the honour of addressing the rat king?’ asked Marko.
‘Rats have kings?’ said Dantar.
‘I am just a prince,’ explained the rat. ‘Merikus is my name.’
Marko went down on one knee.
‘Kneel!’ he hissed.
‘Kneel?’ exclaimed Dantar. ‘We’re in a sewer, ankle deep in everything that goes down the privy. Besides, he’s a rat.’
‘He’s a rat with a title and an army! Now kneel!’
Dantar knelt in the cold, clinging sludge. He had heard about rat princes, but he thought they did not exist outside of children’s stories.
‘What are you doing in my tunnels, humans?’ demanded Merikus. ‘I heard the stupid one say that he was a hunter of rats. Might you two be down here to hunt us?’
Merikus spoke in a squeaky, chittery voice, and another rat seemed to be translating for the benefit of his subjects. There was a lot of agitated chittering when he got to the part about hunting rats.
‘We are lost, we only seek guidance so that we may leave,’ said Marko.
‘How could anyone be so stupid as to get lost down here?’ replied Merikus. ‘Anyway, why should I help you? Why don’t I just have you bitten to death for being rat hunters?’
‘Because helping us would increase your status, Prince Merikus. Your followers have seen humans kneeling before you. That makes you look important. If you show us how to leave, we shall owe you a big favour. Can you imagine that? Two humans in debt to a rat?’
‘No rat would care,’ replied Merikus. ‘We already have all the rubbish we could ever eat from you humans.’
‘Then be a hero,’ said Dantar, suddenly remembering how much flattery went on in the royal courts of humans. ‘You have two human rat hunters cornered in your principality. If you were to just force us to leave without killing any of your subjects, think of how impressed they would be.’
‘Why would that make me a hero?’
‘Because in the battle, we would kill a lot of rats before you could kill us.’
‘Ha!’ said the rat, eying Dantar. ‘For someone so stupid you have clever ideas.’
‘Will you help us?’ asked Marko.
‘Saving rat lives is good, but I would also be letting you go. That will not look good to my subjects. What are you offering as payment?’
‘Payment?’ snorted Dantar. ‘For a rat?’
‘Hand something over or my subjects might decide they want someone else as a prince.’
Marko reached down into his left boot and withdrew a golden ring set with a beautiful green stone.
‘Family heirloom,’ said Marko. ‘Old rolled gold.’
Merikus took the ring in his tiny hands and like a jeweller, eyed it closely. After several long moments, the rat looked up.
‘Some of the gold seems to have rolled off,’ he said.
‘So? It’s old,’ said Marko.
‘And the green stone doesn’t shine like an emerald.’
‘What do sewer rats know about emeralds?’
‘You’d be surprised what gets tossed down the privies when human wives are arguing with human husbands.’
‘I’ll tie it around your head with a strip of cloth and it can be your crown.’
‘A crown! I like that. What do you think, my subjects?’
The translator rat translated. Hundreds of little voices chittered and squeaked with excitement. The rats definitely approved. Dantar tore part of a trouser cuff away and used it to improvise a headband for the rat.
‘I crown thee Prince Merikus the First of the Undercity,’ said Marko as he tied the ring on the rat’s head.
The squeals of excitement went on for a very long time.
‘You, stupid one!’ said Merikus. ‘I must have a steed to ride, so that everyone will know my status.’
‘I’ve never heard of a horse in a sewer,’ said Dantar.
‘Oh, that’s all right, I can ride on your head.’ Breath hissed between Dantar’s teeth, but
Marko clamped a filthy hand over his mouth.
‘It’s just until we get out of here!’ said Marko hurriedly. Then he placed Merikus on Dantar’s head.
‘I do believe that I’m now in a position to help,’ said Merikus.
‘We must make our way to the docks,’ said Marko.
‘Easy, when there’s a rat to guide you. Lots of good pickings at the docks, and a lot of relatives visiting on the ships. I know all the right holes to crawl through.’
‘Big enough for a human to squeeze through?’ asked Dantar.
‘Could be a tight squeeze, but yes.’
‘Do we have a contract?’ asked Marko. ‘Do you swear by earth magic that you will carry out your promise to get us safely out of this place?’
‘Do I really have to?’
‘You really do.’
‘Very well, then. I swear.’
‘Great,’ said Marko. ‘Now lead on.’
‘You, steed, walk forward for thirty paces, then turn left into the next branch tunnel,’ said Merikus to Dantar.
Dantar set off, with Marko following behind.
‘We must be crazy,’ muttered Dantar, once they were away from the other rats. ‘Trusting a rat to get us out of here! Why do you think someone invented the term “ratting out your friends”?’
Marko sighed. ‘According to custom, we’ve entered into a contract bound by earth magic, Dantar. Merikus cannot break it, unless we betray him.’
‘But neither of us is an earth shapecaster.’
‘A contract entered underground and sworn by earth magic is binding. We can tell the next earth shapecaster that we meet if we are betrayed, and he can do horrible things to Merikus.’
‘We won’t be around to complain!’ Dantar said, exasperated.
‘No need to fret,’ said Merikus. ‘I’m a rat of honour.’
‘I still don’t like it,’ muttered Dantar.
‘Turn here,’ said Merikus. ‘Left again.’ Although the sewers were dark, a slimy phosphorescent fungus glowed from the walls here and there. It reeked like rotting flesh, and dripped on them as they passed. Where the drips fell, their clothing glowed.
‘How much farther?’ Dantar gasped, fighting back another urge to be sick.
‘We’re here,’ said Merikus.
They’d stopped where some bricks had crumbled and fallen from the roof of the sewer tunnel. Above their heads Dantar could see only darkness.
‘You first,’ said Marko.
He made a stirrup with his hands and boosted Dantar up through the hole. He was tall enough to grasp the edge and pull himself up. Then, by the light from the fungal drips on their own clothing, they stood and surveyed the chamber. It was dry, and the air was a little fresher than down in the sewer, yet there was still a suggestion of rotting flesh. They seemed to now be in a maze of tunnels made of old brick, and rooms branched out continually from the main tunnel as they walked.
‘What is this place?’ asked Dantar.
‘The catacombs,’ said Merikus, still on top of his head.
‘That’s nice,’ Dantar said. ‘From the sewers of the city to the city of the dead!’
‘You might want to keep your voice down, too,’ added Merikus.
‘Why?’
‘Because there are things here.’
Dantar felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Things? ‘What happens if we meet any . . . things?’ he asked.
Merikus snorted. ‘Then you’ll have to use your magic, won’t you, boy?’
‘Well, that could be a problem, because I don’t have any magic!’
‘Keep your voice down,’ said Marko, ‘and move a little faster, before we’re noticed.’
Dantar had the feeling that Merikus was nervous too. That worried him. An hour later, they’d stumbled, crawled and jogged through nearly three miles of the labyrinth of burial chambers.
‘Nearly at the docks,’ said Merikus. ‘Don’t know why you want to go there, though. The Dravinian soldiers burned most of the ships and stole the rest.’
‘What?’ gasped Dantar and Marko together.
‘There are no ships. None that are above water, anyway.’
Dantar snatched Merikus off his head, held him very firmly in one hand and glared at him.
‘Listen, rat, why would we want to get to the docks, except to escape on a ship?’ he snarled.
‘There’s all sorts of scraps to be stolen –’
‘I think he meant why would we humans want to go there, except to get passage somewhere – anywhere – on a ship,’ said Marko.
‘I think you’re being very unreasonable,’ said Merikus. ‘It was an honest mistake.’
‘Get us to the surface, now!’ snapped Dantar.
‘Somewhere where there’s a bath, soap and clean clothes.’
‘I’ll have to think about that,’ replied Merikus.
‘We rats don’t wear clothes or have baths – Wait! Stop. Stop here.’
They stopped at the entrance to a large arched chamber. The faint, fungoid glow from their clothing did not reach far enough to light up all the corners. Dantar opened his hand, and Merikus sat up on his palm, sniffing the air and twitching his whiskers.
‘Don’t like it,’ he muttered.
‘Don’t like what?’ asked Dantar.
‘Wasn’t talking to you,’ snapped Merikus.
‘You’re only pretending that there’s danger so I won’t strangle you.’
‘Something very odd down here,’ squeaked Merikus. ‘Never smelt anything like it, except . . .’ He eyed Dantar.
‘Yes?’
‘Smells a bit like you.’
‘Me?’ exclaimed Dantar. ‘I don’t smell.’
‘All humans smell. Actually, they stink. You especially.’
‘Well, take us to a bathhouse,’ said Dantar as he took one step out into the huge chamber.
He stopped, his second step suspended in mid- stride. Shrill, cackling laughter echoed through the great, dim chamber. It was not the laughter of someone enjoying a good joke; it was more like that of a monster that had just cornered its victim.