“I’m stronger than I look,” Silence said and, closing one of the trunks — which only just latched shut, stuffed as it was — he lifted it easily. “Everyone discounts a mouse,” he said as he carried the chest toward the stairs. “But they can lift their own bodyweight easily. I’ll be back for the rest in a moment.” Mice also had exceptional balance and speed, so Silence was able to hurry down the many stairs from the tower to the front of the manor. He loaded the chest onto the wagon — which was quickly filling up and another was being brought around — before hurrying back up to get another chest.
The army wouldn’t be here tomorrow or even the next day. The capital was a two-day ride in a carriage, and armies did not move that quickly. But still, everyone wanted to be away with all haste. Advanced scouts on fast horses — or True-Bonded with bird forms — could be here soon enough. So, the two wagons, loaded past capacity, were rolling out just before noon. Tusk drove one, with Princess beside her. A stone-faced Crane, matched with Midnight, led the other. Sparrow and Dove circled high above us as their avatars, keeping an eye out for trouble. Foggy, Fennec, Ant, and Silence himself, walked beside the slow-moving wagons.
It only occurred to Silence now to ask: “Where are we going?”
Ant answered. “Fin’s family are fishermen from a small village not too far south of here, down the coast a little. He bought a cottage there a while ago, and Maverick liked the idea of a second home, a place where anyone could go for some privacy so he helped to ah… refurbish it.”
A single cottage? How big was it? “Will we all fit?” Silence asked, looking at the group and the two wagons piled with chests and sacks.
Ant gave a low chuckle. “Maverick did a lot of… refurbishing.”
Silence didn’t know what the meant, but he supposed he’d find out soon enough.
They reached the Sea Road — one of the few true stone roads in the south, which ran the entire length of the southern shores — and turned south. By late afternoon, the seaside cliffs began to slope down, and Silence saw a village up ahead.
Surprisingly, they didn’t go there. Even before they got to the village a small cottage at the side of the road came into view. And that’s where they stopped. Ant knocked on the door. Silence didn’t ask who might be within if this cottage was meant to belong to Fin. A spry man in his later years with a wiry body, large eyes, and mostly grey hair answered. He looked around quickly then nodded.
“Silence, meet Clam. He’s the one who did the refurbishments on the cottage, so as a reward we let him live here.” The way Ant kept saying “refurbishment” gave Silence the impression it was far more than just new thatching on the roof. Also, this cottage looked large enough for a small family, no more. If Clam lived here… where were the rest of them going to fit?
“You all unload, I’ll get the home-fires burning!” Clam said with a grin missing several teeth, before ducking back inside. Silence helped to unload the wagons, though when he went inside the old man was nowhere to be seen in the one-room house. Odd.
When the wagons were unloaded — the cargo filling the small home — Fennec and Foggy drove them away, toward the village.
“They’ll sell the wagons to a teamster in the village,” Ant said in response to Silence’s curious look. “We’ll probably be here for a while, and hopefully Fin will have returned by the time this is all over and can help with transporting things back to Hedgewild.” Ant smiled reassuringly. “This will all be resolved soon enough, you’ll see.” He put a thick hand on Silence’s shoulder and led him inside.
It was cramped inside with all the people and the cargo from the wagons. One end of the house was a living and sleeping area with a bed and a few comfortable looking chairs. There was a hearth at that end, already warm. The other side was a kitchen area with a long table, shelves well stocked with all manner of provisions and another hearth for cooking. And still no sign of Clam.
Crane went to the far end on the bedroom side and slid her finger into a knothole in the wall, silently pulling open a hidden door. Princess and Tusk moved the two chairs out of the way, onto the bed, making a cleared area to move things to the door… and beyond.
Eager and curious, Silence picked up a small chest and carried it to the door behind Ant. The space beyond the door was narrow, perhaps two feet wide? Since it was the corner of the house there was a small landing, then stairs descended steeply down to the right, into darkness. Ant went slowly, having to move sideways because of his bulk, the chest he was carrying now lengthwise under one arm.
Silence was skinny, but even so, he and the chest he was carrying could — just barely — slide down if he walked sideways as well.
Three steep steps led down to another small landing, the outer wall across from Silence transitioned from wood, to fieldstone foundation, to solid stone, carved smooth. Then came another right-hand turn with a low ceiling here, probably the floor of the house above as they moved underneath it. Ant had to duck awkwardly, but Silence made it under with only a bit of a nod of his head. After that, the stairs evened out and the stone-carved hall broadened. After about a dozen steps, they made another right turn. Then the stairs went down for a long stretch. Small torches on the walls barely lit the long downward hall. Then they came to a landing and a switchback, then down more until finally the stairs let out into an open area… a cave, but with the walls carved smooth and straight.
“Silence! You’re holding things up!” came the voice of Princess behind him. He hadn’t realized he’d stopped to gawk and moved to one side, setting the chest down. Then he truly took in the large room. It was roughly as wide as the length of the house above, with heavy carpets covering most of the smooth stone floor. There were two hearths, on either side of the room. Silence tried to re-imagine things in his head and could see how the chimneys for these hearths might go up right under the hearths in the house’s bedroom and kitchen. The smoke from those chimneys would seem to be coming from the house… ingenious! Yet the room was long and spacious. There was a sitting area before the hearth on one side, and a kitchen with a long table with benches, probably able to sit ten to a side, close to the other hearth. On the far side were a number of tunnel-like windows, with long shafts through the stone between the glass on this side and the edge of the cliff on the other side. They would let in some light, but only have direct sun first thing in the morning when the sun was close to the horizon.
“The bedrooms are down here,” Ant said. He pointed to another set of stairs heading down, back behind Silence. Leaving off with the lugging of supplies for the moment, Silence followed Ant down, deeper into the stone of the cliffs. Another long set of stairs straight down, to a landing, then a switchback again and farther down, this time to a hallway, which ran perpendicular to the stairway. Smooth stone archways, hung with heavy cloth curtains on the inside, dotted one side of the hall at even intervals. Silence peeked past the curtains into the closest room. It was simple, a bed, a small chest next to it, which could double as a nightstand. That was it. There was a window, like the ones up above, glass on this end of a long tunnel out.
“How…?” Silence whispered. This place was amazing, and someone had painstakingly carved these perfect tunnels and rooms. “Who…?” but then he remembered who. He turned to Ant. “Clam did all of this?”
Ant nodded. “Bet you didn’t know clams were good at digging through stone.”
“I didn’t, no.” He looked down the long hall. There had to be at least twenty doors. “Still, this must have taken him his entire life.”
“Only about seven years, actually.”
Silence marveled that that, shaking his head.
“It’s not the most comfortable place. It can get very cool down here, but the beds have lots of covers and we have lots of wood for the hearths upstairs.” Ant rested a strong hand on Silence’s slender shoulder. “Come on, let’s help the others unload.”
Silence nodded and followed Ant up the many stairs once more.
Seven years to make all of this… Amazing!
Clam had prepared a dinner for them in the main hall by the time they had everything unloaded down into the caverns. It was also about that time that Fennec and Foggy returned from the village, and Dove and Sparrow returned from keeping an eye on things above.
The news wasn’t good.
