Tamzin and the Viper Extract: Escape!

Standing motionless against the tunnel’s rough wall, well outside the glow cast by the nearest lantern on its metal bracket, Tamzin held her breath as she realised the import of the conversation on which she was eavesdropping. The suspicions that had prompted her to tail the two men out into the mountains had been fully justified after all. Their meeting with this gang leader, Corby, had taught her more about Chaskandrah’s criminals than she had dared to hope for. She strained her ears, waiting for more, but instead heard a yawn from the little room around the corner.“Anyway, we’d better be off,” one of the male voices said. “Can’t sit here jawing all day, we’ve still got a few things to sort out back in Chaskandrah.”That was Tamzin’s signal to move, she realised at once, and snuck quickly back out of the short corridor. There were plenty of possible places to hide in the tunnels between here and the entrance to the catacombs. All she had to do was conceal herself until the two spies she had followed here had exited, and then emerge to make her own way back to Chaskandrah. Her head was buzzing with what she had just overheard. And then suddenly -“Oi!” The loud exclamation echoed around the tunnel. A burly man with a shock of spiky black hair had rounded a corner with the natural soft tread of many large men, and walked straight into Tamzin. For a split second he stopped dead, staring in incomprehension at the unexpected girl. And then two muscular tawny dogs trotted into view in the passage behind him and, on seeing Tamzin, instantly crouched and began to snarl.But it was Tamzin who reacted first. Grabbing hold of the man’s shirt front, she hauled him towards her, delivered a vicious headbutt to his face, kicked a foot around the back of his leg and pulled, sending him crashing backwards into the dogs just as they sprang. All three landed in a confused jumble of limbs, out of which the two dogs emerged with teeth bared – but Tamzin had already fled back the way she had come.Guard dogs! Trained attack animals made human opponents look benign by comparison. Even if you managed to down them, by the time you did they would either have ripped your hamstrings to shreds or savaged you so badly you’d quickly become faint from blood loss. And the dogs were between her and the cave system’s exit.She dashed down the tunnel, deeper into the caves once more. The man’s yell and the growls of the dogs had alerted Corby and the two spies, who came pelting up towards Tamzin only to be knocked aside like skittles as she barged between them. A cacophony of shouting erupted from the trio as she raced away from them.She had to find another way out, and quickly – or at least a position out of reach of the dogs, from which she could fight back. Swerving around a corner, she found herself in a larger cavern, its rough red walls eerily lit by a combination of a smokeless cooking fire and a weak shaft of sunlight from somewhere high up in the roof. The two thieves occupying the blocky table and chairs in the centre of the room were halfway to rising, hands reaching for weapons, when Tamzin barrelled into them. The table went over with a crash and both of the thieves went down too, one gasping from a kick to the stomach and the other clutching a broken jaw. Tamzin snatched up a fallen sword and plunged into yet another tunnel moments before the dogs burst into the kitchen behind her.Downhill – she had to keep going down. Water had carved these caves, she thought desperately. So, somewhere, it must have found a way out. She couldn’t outrun the dogs forever. They weren’t the type to waste energy barking, but she could hear their eager panting getting closer behind her. And following after them she could hear human pursuers – goodness only knew how many.The tunnel forked and she turned left, following the slope. Around a corner and ... a battered cupboard and a couple of chests sat at the far end of a tiny room. Tamzin skidded as she checked her headlong dash, bouncing off the cupboard. She whirled around barely a second before the leading dog sprang at her, mouth agape. She kicked out at its chest. It jinked sideways in mid-bound to avoid the blow and closed its jaws around her calf. But the kick had only been a feint. At the same moment that the dog’s teeth broke her skin, Tamzin buried the sword in its skull. Blood spattered her clothing and she let go of the weapon as the animal convulsed, but she freed her leg easily and crossed the room in a leap. A heavy fur blanket unrolled easily when she seized it from atop one of the chests. When the second dog bounded in, bristling and slavering, Tamzin cast the blanket like a net over its head and shoulders. It stumbled, its front paws scrabbling at the fur. Tamzin planted a kick squarely in its ribs.Even as the agonised yelp rang out she dashed from the room, back towards the last fork in the passage. And there was Corby running towards her brandishing a pair of wickedly curved daggers, three other crew members at her heels. But, at the sight of Tamzin still on her feet and apparently unscathed, an expression of surprise crossed the crew leader’s face – a split second before the two parties collided.Someone’s blade glanced off Tamzin’s back in the confused melee. She punched and ducked and cannoned her way through the group, thanking her luck that they hadn’t been expecting her to escape the dogs. A club whistled past her head as she broke out from the fray. A moment later she was pounding down the right-hand fork, hoping and hoping that this one wasn’t a dead end as well.She forced herself to breathe deeply, hearing the racket of her pursuers already hard on her tail. She wouldn’t be able to keep up this frenetic chase forever. But, she thought grimly, neither would they. As long as she didn’t run herself straight into a cul-de-sac...Suddenly the tunnel began to open out, and then sloped downward so abruptly that Tamzin nearly went head over heels. Half running, half falling, she scrabbled for balance. And then she was in a cavern; not a small one like the kitchen she had passed through earlier but a gigantic space, its ceiling lost in shadow. Pillars of rock like petrified tree trunks thrust upward from the floor where stalactite had met stalagmite. A handful of lanterns formed puddles of illumination here and there – perhaps there would be somewhere to hide.And then something came into view, glimmering faintly in the uncertain light and gently filling the air with its soft rustle... Water!Thump. Unlike Tamzin, her pursuers had not been taken by surprise by the abrupt slope. One of them, sprinting ahead of the others, had launched himself at her in a flying tackle. Tamzin felt multiple joints jar as the impact carried them both to the ground, and then momentum took over, tumbling them down the incline in a bone-shaking roll.They landed in a dazed sprawl a few feet apart. Tamzin muzzily lifted her head, spitting blood from a split lip, and blinked. There was the water, close enough to touch, gleaming dully as it flowed through a deep trough carved in the cavern floor. For a moment all she could seem to do was stare at it, her whole body throbbing like one big bruise.The slap of approaching feet jolted her back into awareness. With a heave she staggered upright. A hand – that of the thug who had tackled her – closed on her leg. She pivoted unsteadily, trying to kick it away, but his grip was tight and with a lurch he had got his feet under him and seized a handful of her blouse too, hauling her off balance again.“Hold her!” Corby howled as she and the others pelted headlong down the slope towards the combatants. “Don’t let her get away again!”As the enraged crew leader bore down upon her, Tamzin made her decision. She let herself fall, grabbing at the thief’s shirt as she went. For a moment they teetered on the lip of the trough, and then plunged over the edge.In a whoosh of water all sound was cut off. The river was deep. Tamzin felt the thief release his hold and struck out for what she hoped was the surface. Black water filled her vision and for several seconds she seemed to be suspended in a shadow-world which tossed and swirled and pressed in on her aching limbs.Finally, with a splash and an ear-popping gurgle, she found herself with her head above water. Gulping air, her ears still roaring with liquid, she registered Corby and her two remaining cronies running along the bank towards her. The rocky walls of the river trough were sliding past on either side of Tamzin, she realised as she trod water. And the channel was deepening.She glanced downstream. A blank wall of rock loomed up before her, its contours barely touched by enough light to cast shadows. Momentarily Tamzin panicked – this too was a dead end! But there’s a current, another part of her mind insisted. The water has to get out...The man whom Tamzin had dragged into the river with her had surfaced as well, coughing and spluttering, only a few yards behind her.She looked again. This time, as she squinted into the gloom, a faint jagged shape at the surface of the water resolved itself into a crack in the rock face, dark grey on black. And as she was swept nearer, a tiny diamond sparkle showed deep inside the cleft. Daylight.She dived. Once again dark water suffused her senses. Down here it was nearly pitch black but there was only one direction she could go – so long as nothing blocked her way. A body of water this size must have carved an exit big enough for a human to fit through, surely? And the current was strong. It wouldn’t be if the water was struggling to find a route to flow easily through, would it?Tamzin’s mind raced and she fought to maintain her calm. Fear wouldn’t help her hold her breath for longer or swim faster. The outstretched fingers of one hand scraped stone but suddenly the light was brighter up ahead. Her lungs were burning; her body desperately wanted to breathe. Just a few moments longer, she pleaded with herself.Just a few more seconds...The relief came sooner than she was expecting it. She was spilled out of the watery tunnel down a tiny waterfall and surfaced, coughing, to claw her way out onto the riverbank. To her surprise, the strip of ground by the river was well worn, a clear path curving its way down the mountainside.Somewhere in the depths her shoes had slipped off, but she paid their loss no heed. Scrambling to her naked feet she immediately set off down the trail, hardly daring to believe that she might have escaped from the lair and its occupants. Would they come after her? She couldn’t guess and she wasn’t prepared to hang around to find out. But paths led somewhere, and since she was now in a part of the Brazoa Mountains that was completely unfamiliar to her, she was prepared to take this one and hope it led her back to something like civilization.It was only after she had been moving for almost a quarter of an hour, the sun rapidly drying out the water trail that she had initially left behind, that she allowed herself to feel relieved. Because, still, the only footfalls she could hear were her own.