NexLord: Dark Prophecies (5 page)

After a little time observing the market, Lor
motioned for their attention, "Follow the leader," was all he
said.

For the next
hour,
they traveled the rooftops.  Each time
Lor
leaped
across a building each
boy followed in single file, or when he slid down a smooth sloped
roof to a lower area they slid down behind. It became a game
to follow exactly. They tried to place their feet where the person
before them had stepped, and little did Aerin and Darel know, but
their instruction in the art of the High Road had begun.

Aerin and Darel both found themselves
becoming more accustomed to the height as they spent more time
leaping between buildings, scampering along edges and jumping up
and down varying levels of roof heights.  They passed
tall churches, walled in gardens surrounding impressive villas,
narrow streets with stores packed in tight and even the large
gladiator arena.

Exhilarated from the danger and flushed from
their exertions, Lor eventually took them to a place where a series
of shorter and shorter buildings brought them back down to nearly
the street level.  He finally found a place where the new
boys could jump down to some crates in an alley and reach the
street level.

Dono looked around and then motioned to Lor,
pointing out a scratch in the stonework on the corner of the
alley.  The mark was a rough circle with three dots, two
above and one below.

Darel noticed the look that passed between
the other two boys so he poked Dono in the side with a
finger.  "What's that mark?"

Before Lor could stop him Dono said, "Skull
mark."

"It's nothing," Lor muttered.

Darel looked skeptical and said, "Tell
me about 'nothing'."

Dono ignored him and spoke to
Lor.  "Let's clear out over the roofs before we're
spotted."

Darel crossed his arms and scowled at the two
boys who were ignoring his questions.  "Spotted by
whom?"

Lor ignored Darrel again and answered
Dono.  "Don't sweat about it, they can't catch me."

Darel had enough.  "Look, are you
going to tell us what's going on?"

Dono shrugged at
Lor
and then turned to face Darel and
Aerin.  "We're in the Skull's claim.  They must
have made a move yesterday, this was
notown
last we knew.  We best get out before
one of their vultures spots us."

Aerin was confused, "What do you mean, what
are vultures?"

"We're in Skulls Town now, but don't worry, I
know the ropes, so if you stick with me you'll be ok," Lor
explained.

"Skulls Town?" Darel exclaimed with a puzzled
frown.  "I've seen many maps of Strakhelm, there's no
quadrant called Skulls Town."

Lor kicked a piece of stone at a nearby rat,
which scampered into a hole in the wall.  "Skulls Town
ain't on no map, nor could it be as the lines keep changing, but
you're in it now, that’s a Skull mark."

Dono looked toward the alley entrance
nervously, watching the occasional person passing the
opening.  He spoke without taking his eyes from where he
watched.  "Ratpacks, they rule the streets around here;
certain areas are
notown
and other
places are claimed.  It's ok to drag your butt around if
you don't do
nuthin
' wrong, but
the Skulls recruit pretty young."

Darel
scowled.  "Recruit?  What are these
'
ratpacks
'?  What do
they do?"

Lor shook his head at Darel's naïveté; "They
exist, that's their purpose.  Oh sure, they organize
ratfights
, where other
ratpacks
meet to decide who owns what street
this week.  They
steal
but have to turn in their loot
to
the leaders. They have wars that no one knows how they started, but
in the end,
they do nothing but
get us kids hurt, killed or arrested."

From the rote
way
Lor spoke, Aerin could tell he was repeating
something someone had told him nearly word for
word.  "Who taught you that?"

Lor rounded on him quickly.  "Who
said anyone taught me anything?"

"I was just asking," Aerin replied.

"Well don't, I speak my own mind."

Dono suddenly hissed and they all looked up
the alley just in time to see someone disappear around the
corner.

"It was that jackal,
Berver
, and he spotted you, we're in for it now," Dono
said fatally.  "He's running to spill his guts to Eddo,
no doubt."  To the other
boys,
he added.  "Eddo has had this craving for
Lor all of a sudden, wants him to be a Skull in a bad way."

"Let's
fade
, I
don't belong to
no
Ratpack, and never will… I'm
freelance!"  Lor exclaimed.  "Come on, no one
knows these streets better'n me!  We'll lose them faster
than a Wiggin’s honor."  He turned and headed the
opposite direction from where they had been spotted.

They ducked down a smaller alley and popped
out two streets south next to the hanging pot of a Tinker's
shop.  There were a couple of high-pitched warbling
whistle sounds from a street away.

Dono scowled.  "That sounds like a
full-scale
hunt! There must have
been a group of
Skullers
just down
the street.  Come on, Lor, get us out of this."

Aerin picked up the worry in Dono's voice and
knew that this wasn't a game anymore.

Lor bit his lower lip for a moment and then
spoke, "We'll head over the roofs to
Mucuck
Street, then past the
Keper
Cathedral and we'll be in Drake Town, they won't
bug boys our age there, and Skulls won't dare follow."

Dono started across the
street.  "Let's move then!"

A shrill whistle came from just up the street
and Dono froze.  "Gedin, they're on us!"

"This way!" Lor called, running up the
street.

They followed him through the thin crowd of
people who took little notice of four children dashing through the
streets.  The crowd began to get thicker, slowing them a
bit, and the occasional whistles from behind them started getting
closer.

They rounded a corner into one of the large
open-air market squares and Lor led them into the throng of
buyers.

For all Aerin knew this was the very market
they had looked down at from above earlier.  He tried to
spot the building corner where they had been perched and ran smack
into the belly of
a very round
man.  The young boy rebounded, landing hard on his rump
when he hit the ground.

"Watch where you're running, boy, and
speaking of running, stop that too!” the fat man exclaimed, then
stepped around Aerin and continued on his way, nose held high.

Aerin started to his
feet
but was suddenly grabbed by either
arm.  He looked up and found himself staring at two
strangers.  Both boys were around sixteen, and they were
smiling wickedly.  "So, boy," one hissed, "you're in
Skulls Town and you
don't have no
leave to be, now we'll be teaching you what happens when you run
from the Skulls!"

Aerin saw a small earring pierced through one
boy's right ear, it was in the shape of a cheap looking silver
skull.

The crowd parted slightly and the boys each
kept a grip on one of Aerin's arms as they started walking him down
the row of seller's booths.

"Don't say nothin' or call out or I promise
we'll break your arms," the boy on his left said and smiled,
showing one of his front teeth broken half off at an angle.

Aerin shuddered.

Then Lor was standing before them next to a
booth displaying small gold inlaid jewelry boxes.  The
owner was busy with a patron so his back was half-turned away from
Lor.

Lor reached back and in one quick motion
snatched one of the boxes and tossed it to the cracked tooth boy
holding Aerin's left arm.  "Catch," Lor exclaimed.

In reflex to keep the box from hitting his
face,
the boy released Aerin's arm
and caught the box. 

Lor immediately pointed and yelled at the top
of his lungs, "Thief!"

The Skulls gang member's mouth dropped open
as the large
shopkeeper
spun and
saw one of his jewelry boxes in the miscreant's
hands.  "Stop that thief!” he seconded, pointing a chubby
finger at the shocked boy.

"It wasn't me, I..." he started, still
holding the box, but when some angry citizen's started closing on
him he yelped and darted away through an opening between two tents,
still holding the box.  "Stop him!" someone yelled, and
the chase was on.

The crowd closed in on this interesting
action and Aerin was pulled away from the other Skulls
boy.  He lost sight of Lor and just tried to keep from
getting trampled.

Hands grabbed his collar and dragged him
between two tents.  Aerin
yelped
, but it was Dono's voice that said, "Quiet, it's
us, you
Drakwolf
!"

Aerin was relieved to see Dono and Darel
crouched down between the two tents.  A few moments later
Lor slipped in and gestured for them to follow.  They
played a game of cat and mouse with a few of the Skulls who
were
hunting them through the
market
but finally slipped out
into a side street. 

"I think we've lost them," Darel noted while
looking back down the street over his shoulder.

A shrill whistle let out from nearby and they
all spotted a fairly young boy who was about their age. He had two
fingers in his mouth to assist his whistling.

Dono scowled again.  "It's that
stinkin' son of a Wiggen, Berver, again!  I'm gonna pound
his ears!"

"Later," Lor suggested and then dashed down
the street. The other three boys followed. Behind
them,
they once again heard the whistles of the
Skulls hunting pack resuming the chase.

"Ok, Lor, this is your great moment to
impress us," Darel exclaimed from the back as they ran.

Dono pointed to a wagon that was parked close
enough to a lower roof edge to start them up onto the rooftops.

Lor took one step toward
it
but then stopped.

Dono nearly ran into him.  "What
are you waiting for? They'll be here any moment!"

"They'll know we went to the roofs," Lor
exclaimed.

Dono started forward again.  "So,
who's king of the High Road?"

Lor glanced at Aerin and
Darel.  "You forget these two are
Greenies?  The Skulls will be all over us like crap in
the sewers... wait, that's it!  Since they know I'll
go up, we'll go down, follow me!"  Lor ran to the side of
the street where the large black opening of a sewer drain split the
curb.  He ducked down on his belly and lithely slipped
in. "Come on, hurry!" his voice echoed from the dark interior.

Aerin got down and dropped in after him and
Dono followed.  Darel stopped when he got close and could
smell the rankness coming from the hole.  "Gedin's
breath, I'm not climbing into that foul hole!” he exclaimed from
where he had just lain down.  He started to get back up,
but a hand darted out of the opening and grabbed the fine collar of
his shirt. With a
yelp,
he was
pulled headfirst into the drain.

It wasn't a moment too soon.  The
sounds of running feet passed above a moment later and the whistles
of their hunters echoed in the round stone tunnel where they
crouched.  Lor had a hand over Darel's face, which
stopped most of the mumbling sounds.  As soon as the
footsteps were gone he released the struggling boy. 

"Of all the foul and disgusting things I've
ever smelled or done… this takes the ribbon!” he exclaimed and
backed away from the thin river of slime that ran down the center
of the tunnel.  "Can we please get out of here… NOW!"

Lor grinned at him.  "Too dirty
for
you, pretty boy?"

Darel scowled at the other boy, "I'm not your
pretty boy, and I can handle anything you can."

Lor started down the tunnel deeper into the
sewer.  "Good, then follow me, if you dare."

After traveling some distance from the place
where they had entered the sewer they came to a branching of
tunnels. After a little discussion between Lor and
Dono,
they picked one of the larger
ones. As they began to realize that they had truly escaped the
Skulls their relief turned to euphoria. 

"THIEF, he
yelled,
" Aerin exclaimed, imitating Lor's
shout.  It echoed down the sewer.

Dono snickered and that made Aerin start to
laugh.  Darel was trying to be sullen, but the echoing
laughter of the other two boys was infectious and he was soon
laughing with them.

  "Did you see that look on his
face?" Lor exclaimed while imitating the Skulls boy's look of shock
and surprise.  "And when he bolted, that was
perfect!"  Lor then splashed off down the sewer
tunnel.  He waved his hands frantically in panic above
his head giving an exaggerated performance of the running Skull
Town boy.

  The other three boys yelled,
"Stop thief!” Then laughing, they ran down the sewer tunnel after
Lor.

They were still laughing and running when the
body dropped from high above to land directly before
Lor.  In real panic Lor tried to stop and slipped in the
mossy water, nearly skidding into the thrashing body. Red blood
pumped from the slit throat of the dying victim. 

The man was not yet dead and he tried to
speak, but only bubbles of blood came out of his
mouth.  Using his trembling finger and his own blood he
drew a triangle with a single dot in the center on the slimy stones
of the sewer, and immediately below he wrote four letters,
"T-o-g-r," then he convulsed massively and died.

Aerin's face was white; the blood covered
body brought back the horror of his murdered parents.