Kristoff coughed, choking on the stench.
"Sometimes, when mining or digging, pockets of sulfur are hit, and the air becomes foul and unbreathable. We need to leave," He tied a cloth around his face while she wrapped her scarf over her nose and mouth, grateful for the winter garb. She couldn't fully process why what he said didn't make sense, but he was right that they needed out, and quickly.
She snatched up the box, which thankfully was small enough for her to carry, setting the lamp atop it. "Let's go!"
Her voice was muffled through the cloth, but Kristoff took off at a brisk pace.
She had trouble managing the box and her lamp, so he took the former from her. He led, walking quickly without running, while she did her best to keep from tripping in the dim light the lamps provided.
It was becoming difficult to breathe in the confined space with the awful smell.
They turned a corner, passing a few more rooms as they went. She caught a strange sound, like the chittering of insects. At the next one, she chanced a sidelong glance into the room as they passed.
She sincerely wished she hadn't.
A grotesque visage looked at her lamp and hissed, and she and Kristoff broke into a full sprint.
It couldn't be anything other than goblins.
Either the countermeasures were failing, or the General was holding them back because she had come down into the tunnels.
They couldn't let the goblins get up into the city!
As Kristoff leapt over the next rope in their path, she paused to yank on it with all her strength. Hopefully that would be enough to get things going.
Were the goblins slow, or merely distracted by something? Were they being chased? She tore her waterskin from her side, dropping the lamp behind her. Hopefully the light would deter pursuit. They seemed to prefer darkness.
Kristoff's lamp would have to suffice.
"How much further?" She asked as she looked over her shoulder. The sound had increased somewhat, but she didn't see anything behind her for the moment.
"A short way," Kristoff muttered as he continued to run. It was impressive that he could move so quickly with the bulky box of items still in his arms, holding the lamp underneath.
"Thank you, Gwen, if you have any part in protecting us, thank you. Keep helping us." Finn whispered.
The chittering and hissing of the goblins increased in volume, and Finn wondered how many there were, where they had come in, and how long it would be before they reached the surface.
Another sound began to fill the halls, and Finn was both relieved and terrified. The order had been given. She hoped they were close enough to the entrance to make it out.
The faint roar grew steadily in volume, and the hissing of the goblins turned to enraged screeching. If the humans weren't being pursued before, they would be now.
Ahead of them, a set of stairs led upward, and Finn recognized them as being the last of seven sets she'd counted on the way down from the surface. They had come very deep indeed.
She pulled up her skirts and took the steps two at a time, following Kristoff's example. A screech close behind let her know that not only had the goblins begun chasing them, but they were close.
The afterimage of the horrifying sharpened teeth and colorless eyes in a grey face stuck in her mind. The dark passage seemed endless as the stairs went upward. Something flew past her head from behind, grazing her ear.
Kristoff grunted, but kept up his grueling pace. The first set of stairs behind them, he sprinted forward to the second. Finn followed, one hand up to check the amount of bleeding from her ear.
It was too dark to tell anything other than the fact that her hand didn't seem wet. Maybe it hadn't drawn blood. The past rumors of Rhone using poisoned blades flashed through her mind. Did the goblins use poisoned weapons?
She hadn't even seen what it was. An arrow? A throwing knife? It wasn't large enough to have been a spear. Though that blow may have narrowly missed, the next one likely wouldn't.
She gulped in the darkness as she continued the run. Turning the corner to climb the next set of stairs with Kristoff, she felt a rush of water hit her feet.
The tunnels were flooding.
_____________
Roland woke to a deep rumble and looked frantically around the room. In his exhaustion, he had dozed off while Finn fed the babies.
And now she was gone.
He threw on clothing as quickly and silently as he could before leaving the room and knocking on Phillip's door. His father in law would have to listen for the babies' crying while he went in search of his wayward bride.
Shortly, he was sprinting for the nearest outpost with Caspian at his side. His cousin had also woken to the sound of the rumble and had run into him in the hallway.
Silently, they had nodded to each other and set out. Roland ran for the General's residence, knowing that the man had departed to get some rest at the same time he had some hours before.
Had it been hours? It felt like he had only barely closed his eyes when they had opened again. It was still the dead of night, but unmistakably, time had passed.
Enough time for Finn to get deep into the tunnels? He hoped not. Perhaps she was still on the surface. He had to hold onto that tenuous hope that she had been wise enough only to deliver her theory and concerns to someone else and let them handle it, or that she hadn't yet been able to gain access to the labyrinth beneath the city.
It was a tenuous hope, but he held it close as he ran.
He was barely down the block before the padding of heavy feet behind him made him slide to a stop in the snow. Judah's curious chirp narrowly preceded the animal's kneeling to let Roland climb onto his back.
Roland could kick himself for being so much in a hurry that he'd entirely forgotten about Judah. The great cat took off running at a slow pace, for him, but Caspian was left behind to follow in their tracks.
"Forward, second left, then follow the road until the home marked by a flag." Roland murmured to Judah.
Roland knew from the General the plans that had been made for if the goblins got into the tunnels. The fairy tales said that goblins couldn't swim. They were terrified of water, in fact. Drowned easily and had some sort of negative reaction to being touched by it.
The last part didn't quite make sense, as they would have to get moisture to live from somewhere, but the lack of ability to swim wasn't out of the question.
A thick wall of solid bedrock at the edge of the city formed a natural barrier preventing the lake from seeping into the tunnels. For hundreds of years, the winding halls beneath Klain had been blessedly dry, with only the runoff from rain needing to be dredged and pumped out of the deepest levels.
The tunnels in and out of the city were all rigged with explosives as a defensive measure, and had been for as long as anyone in Klain could remember. However, as the goblins were a tunneling race, collapsing anything might kill a few, but would only delay them.
Flooding the tunnels, on the other hand, would prevent incursion of any further goblins.
It ran the risk of destabilizing the city, and so while some crews had worked on digging trenches from the lake down to connect to the tunnels at a moment's notice, others had been reinforcing the vulnerable parts of the tunnels so that the sudden influx of water would not create sinkholes that would endanger the populace.
Roland had been proud of his wife for coming up with the idea, but if she were down there right now…
Roland would be furious with her if he weren't so terrified. What had possessed her to leave without him? Without allowing him to talk her out of her crazy scheme? He'd offered to accompany her in the morning after he had gotten some rest. Why had she been so insistent on going immediately??
The last part gave him pause, and he almost slipped from Judah's back as they rounded a corner in his distraction.
It could not possibly have been a coincidence that the countermeasures for attack would be triggered so soon after Finn had the sudden urge to check the tunnels. As usual, she was in the middle of danger.
And, as was too often the case, he was far away and unable to get between her and the threat.
Judah skidded to a stop in front of the General's home, Roland saw fresh horse tracks away from the front door, far enough apart to indicate a gallop.