15.
Rats in a Cage 21: Chapter 15.
Rats in a Cage 252 AC.
The Stepstones.
Irat Rexarion.
Rock everywhere.
Stone vaults, stone walls, stone floors.
Dampness and stale air.
Darkness barely pushed back by the light of torches, forcing us to strain our eyes into every shadow.
The sound of trickling water and drops breaking against yet another stone.
Frequent puddles underfoot from seeping water, into which one boot or another would slip.
Splashes flying in all directions.
Squelching boots and the miserable feeling of being soaked to the knee.
“Oh, more rocks,” I thought, kicking another pebble that got in my way.
A whole line of men stretched out ahead of me.
Nearly our entire unit was advancing into the network of tunnels, except for those left to guard the outside.
The same tunnels the pirates loved to hide in.
These sea rats had proven far more cunning than we’d initially thought.
Somehow, they’d managed to slip back onto the Gallows.
How it happened was of little concern to me.
Maybe it was a lookout’s mistake that let so many through.
Or maybe these bastards had never left the island at all, just hidden well while we drove out their brethren.
I didn’t care about the cause.
I cared about the consequences, and they were far from pleasant.
These pirate scum had set out to systematically ruin our lives, perhaps even drive us to kill each other.
Their methods were inventive and cruel.
Midnight murders were common, often gruesome ones.
More than once we’d found bodies with slit throats and tongues pulled out through the wounds.
And then there was the simple poisoning of our fresh water supplies.
All of this had taken its toll on the men’s morale.
Everyone wanted to kill the pirates as brutally as possible.
We were all eager to end this scourge, and I was no exception.
This constant harassment was getting old, and I wanted to eliminate the source of our problems once and for all.
Ironically, fate had chosen our unit to deal with the entrenched pirates.
That’s why we’d been wandering through this stone labyrinth for the past hour, a place more like a maze than any real passageway.
Narrow corridors would suddenly open into wider passages, and occasionally we’d emerge into open air with nothing but a sheer drop onto sharp rocks below.
Suddenly, our procession stopped.
We’d entered a fairly large cave filled with crates.
This was likely where the pirates kept their plunder or supplies.
“Search everything here!” Astaar ordered, pointing at our find.
While the men scrambled to obey, checking every corner and opening crates, I decided to explore a little further.
I moved slowly, trying not to bump into anyone.
I kept going until I reached a fork.
Two passages led from the cave, not counting the one we’d entered through.
“Sergeant!” I called out loudly to the Joker, waiting until he looked at me.
“I think you should see this.” As Astaar made his way toward me, I examined my discovery.
The right passage was quite wide, wide enough for several men to walk abreast.
Likely the route the pirates used to bring their goods into the cave.
The left passage, in contrast, was narrow, barely enough for two men.
And that made it the more suspicious one.
When the commander finally reached me, he stood beside me, staring at the fork just as I was.
“Irat,” the sergeant addressed me.
“Take your men and search the left passage.” I nodded and signaled my squad to follow.
Once everyone was gathered, I moved toward the left tunnel, snatching a torch from a passing regular soldier as I went.
We had to move slowly.
The torchlight barely pierced the surrounding darkness.
I could only guess how the scum navigated these places.
We moved carefully, trying not to fall too far behind.
Behind me, I could hear Beric’s quiet cursing and Rob’s teasing.
“Any idea where this tunnel leads?” Ross whispered practically in my ear, having come up close behind me.
It was hardest for the big man.
His frame was a tight squeeze in these narrow passages.
Watching him, I shuddered inwardly.
My own already considerable height had been increasing lately, a fact I’d noticed when it became harder to fit into my armor.
“If I knew, my friend,” I sighed, peering into the darkness, “I’d tell you.
But one thing I can say for certain: I don’t like this.” And indeed, I liked it less and less with every step.
Tension coiled inside me like a spring, ready to snap and turn everything around us to rubble.
Suddenly, the narrow tunnel walls opened up.
We’d emerged into another cave, much smaller than the supply cave.
The torchlight barely illuminated the whole space, but it was enough to reveal a horrifying sight.
The silence was broken by Beric’s quiet cursing, which no one tried to stop.
We all shared his sentiment.
Countless shabby, rusted cages that looked like they’d been assembled on the spot.
Long chains bolted to the stone walls.
And piles of bones that could only be human.
Skulls spoke for themselves.
Only one question remained: how long had these remains been here?
Given the conditions, at least a year or two had passed since death.
That far exceeded the time we’d been fighting the pirates.
It meant, at minimum, that even the pirates had long abandoned this place.
“Search everywhere,” I ordered, leading by example and thoroughly checking every corner.
No one spoke.
All silently, with grim determination, set to their task.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Magok stop in front of one of the cages.
With a grim expression, he stared at the remains behind the iron bars.
In the torchlight, I could see his jaw muscles working.
His gaze seemed empty, but I knew it wasn’t.
The Summer Islander was furious.
He kept reaching for his sword hilt, then stopping himself.
There was no one here to vent his rage on.
“It seems I’m not the only one with secrets,” I thought grimly, returning to my own task.
The rest of the search yielded no answers, only further soured the men’s already foul moods.
Any lingering doubts about the necessity of this war were gone.
“Monsters,” Ross growled, coming to stand beside me as he saw another discovery.
I crouched down, examining a not-yet-fully-decomposed body.
Its size and bone structure suggested it had once been a child.
A child unlucky enough to fall into pirate hands.
“Seven hells,” Rob spat, also drawn to our find.
I didn’t respond, just continued staring thoughtfully at the corpse.
It all seemed strange and wrong.
For a pirate, profit is everything.
Their activities should focus on gain.
But what’s the point of a pile of corpses?
Why not sell them in the Slaver’s Bay?
Any Free City, Braavos excepted, would have gladly taken a new shipment of slaves.
I had no answers.
The only ones who could give them were hiding somewhere in this stone labyrinth.
“Either I’m missing something about this world, or it’s far more brutal than I first thought,” I noted, recalling my own relative good fortune and the sheltered conditions I’d grown up in.
“Commander!” Ammis suddenly called out.
“I found something.” His voice was strained and slightly frightened.
“What is it?” I sighed, standing and trudging over to him.
As I approached, the smell of rotting flesh grew stronger.
“I think you should see for yourself,” the new recruit replied, pointing at his find.
Closer inspection revealed a small alcove, forming a much smaller chamber.
The contents of this “room” were even more horrifying than anything we’d seen in this war.
The alcove was literally piled with a grotesque mound of bones, some still bearing flesh.
Bodies hung from chains under the ceiling, some missing limbs.
The floor was stained the color of dried blood.
A massive wooden table stood to one side, its surface similarly stained.
It had restraints for limbs.
Next to it lay empty bowls like those used for stew, the kind we’d seen in some of the cages.
It all looked like a butcher’s table.
The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
I had to cover my mouth to stifle a gag, then quickly left the alcove, trying to catch my breath.
“What’s in…” Ross began, stopping mid-sentence and recoiling.
Even a hardened veteran like him was shaken.
I’d have been more surprised if he hadn’t been.
Few could remain unmoved by such a sight.
No one had expected such cruelty from pirates.
You could only guess if they were all that depraved or only a few took pleasure in such “entertainment.” “We’re leaving,” I said hoarsely.
“We won’t find anyone alive here.” I led the way back into the tunnel we’d come from.
The return trip passed unnoticed, unsurprisingly.
No cursing from Beric, no demands from John or Rob to shut up.
No conversation at all.
Each of us was lost in our own thoughts.
When we returned to the supply cave, our grimness set us apart.
It didn’t go unnoticed, and soon drew the sergeant’s attention.
“Find anything?” he asked, approaching.
By the time we returned, the crate inspection had mostly stopped.
Most of the men had dispersed around the cave.
Some were resting, others checking their gear.
“Found,” I practically spat.
“Wish we hadn’t.
We won’t be able to eat normally for days.” At the mention of food, I heard the new recruits trying to stifle their gag reflexes.
My squad’s veterans chuckled, and I was glad for the distraction.
“What was it?” Astaar asked, confused, looking from me to my men as if searching their faces for answers.
Silence and the new recruits’ green-tinted faces were his only answers.
“Go see for yourself,” I said grimly.
“If you don’t mind losing your breakfast.” With that, I headed for the exit of this cursed stone labyrinth.
I was sick of these damn tunnels.
My men silently followed.
No one tried to stop us.
Probably because of the look in my eyes, promising swift destruction to anyone who got in my way.
Interlude.
Astaar Dahiris.
Another command meeting.
The agenda: a handful of pirates who’d been making our lives hell for days.
I sat there, trying to listen, but my thoughts kept drifting back to today’s discovery.
The horror of it had become the talk of the unit, and the news was spreading through the company, growing more embellished with each telling.
“We should send more men,” Stone suggested.
“One unit wasn’t enough.
We need to deal with this threat once and for all!” Silence.
I’d never heard a dumber suggestion.
“In these damned tunnels, sometimes you have to squeeze through sideways,” I said, looking at the idiot who’d somehow become a sergeant.
“What’s the point of numbers you can’t use?
Answer me that, genius.” He wisely chose to stay quiet.
“They can’t hide forever,” Gared said, trying to change the subject.
“Supplies aren’t endless, especially since the Joker’s unit took their stores.
Sooner or later they’ll make a mistake.
Then we’ll deal with them.” “And you suggest we just endure their tricks until then?” John asked indignantly.
“Silent One’s right,” I said, backing him up.
“That’s no solution.
We don’t know if that was all their supplies.” The tent fell silent, broken only by the distant shouts of decani.
Everyone was thinking about the problem.
The pirates had the advantage of knowing the terrain and the tunnels.
We had numbers, which meant nothing here.
“Reinforce the exits,” Thorn suggested quietly.
“Make those rats afraid to even stick their noses out.” “And you’re sure we know all the exits, genius?” I asked.
“Calm down, Astaar,” the captain said softly.
“Fighting won’t help.
We need to think…” He was interrupted by a terrible crash.
The ground shook beneath us.
I had to grab the table to stay upright.
“An earthquake?” Araino asked in surprise.
Just then, a soldier burst into the tent.
He looked shocked and frightened.
“Captain,” he stammered.
“It’s…
it’s the tunnels.” “What about them?” the captain frowned.
“What happened to the tunnels?” The soldier swallowed audibly.
“The tunnels collapsed,” he said in one breath.