Well, I think the boys have to find several ways in this city, but there are those things that run about in the night to worry about too....
Finding your way I'm not sure if it was just that we'd already walked through the streets once, or if it was sleeping overnight there, but the city seemed more familiar in the morning light. We moved quickly and quietly, keeping our eyes wide open and our ears just as open. On the one hand Ben and I were nervous about the hooting creatures from the night before, and on the other all three of us were concerned that there might be sailors from the boat scouting through the city, or hauling piles of gold that we'd not yet found. After reading the book though I suspected that the gold, what there was of it, was going to be hard to get at. We had seen from our rooftop den that there were two streets that ran in parallel and covered most of the distance between us and where the dock was, so we'd taken the eastern-most one as that had a plaza of some kind roughly two-thirds of the way along. When we reached it -- the streets were as empty as they'd been the day before, thankfully -- we found there were statues at each corner, and a large empty square in the middle with odd dark patches on the stone that suggested that something had been here once and then removed. The buildings around the plaza had high windows but no doors, and most of the exits from the plaza -- narrow defiles between the buildings -- had been blocked off by piles of stone rubble. Tufts of wiry yellow and white grass grew from the piles, and the bases were submerged in dirt and mud so they'd been there for years at least. "Strange," said Ben, looking at them. "I thought maybe the Elizabethtown folks were boarding things up as they emptied them out -- would make sense, right? Stops people wasting time going through places that are already looted. But this... it's like there's been a whole bunch of bad things happen here." "It's very odd," I said. "The docks are that way," and I pointed northwards, "so we want to go a bit west of that yet. I think," and I turned on my heel as I looked around, "that the river should be that way" -- now I was looking almost due west -- "and, hey that's very strange. That's the only exit from this plaza that's not blocked off." Indeed, the only path out other than the one we'd come from was to the west, and it looked like it had never been blocked off. "Either that's the only safe route, or it's a trap," said Ben. "How do we tell?" asked Jimmy. "We send someone down there," said Ben, with a broad grin. "Feeling restless, lad?" Jimmy grimaced. "Seems like the only safe way is back the way we came." I shrugged. "Actually, we've not found any traps yet, and like Ben says, all this seems old. I think it's safe enough to take that path, and we're not going to get to the see the boat if we don't find a way out of here." The western path was as wide as two men standing shoulder-to-shoulder and no wider and slipped between two buildings that were at least four stories tall. Six paces in the light of day was practically gone and there was just the umbra of architecture enfolding us. We slowed a little, checking our feet in case there was a pit-trap or some other unexpected and unlikely problem in front of us, but the way remained clear and solid. After a minute or so it turned a corner and to all of our surprises, dead-ended at an unboarded doorway. "In or back out?" said Ben, but it was a rhetorical question. He pushed the door, and it swung inwards, revealing a large entrance hall, well lit by windows on the other side which looked down over a steep, grassy slope towards the river and the dock.
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Well, I think the boys have to find several ways in this city, but there are those things that run about in the night to worry about too....
Finding your way
I'm not sure if it was just that we'd already walked through the streets once, or if it was sleeping overnight there, but the city seemed more familiar in the morning light. We moved quickly and quietly, keeping our eyes wide open and our ears just as open. On the one hand Ben and I were nervous about the hooting creatures from the night before, and on the other all three of us were concerned that there might be sailors from the boat scouting through the city, or hauling piles of gold that we'd not yet found. After reading the book though I suspected that the gold, what there was of it, was going to be hard to get at.
We had seen from our rooftop den that there were two streets that ran in parallel and covered most of the distance between us and where the dock was, so we'd taken the eastern-most one as that had a plaza of some kind roughly two-thirds of the way along. When we reached it -- the streets were as empty as they'd been the day before, thankfully -- we found there were statues at each corner, and a large empty square in the middle with odd dark patches on the stone that suggested that something had been here once and then removed. The buildings around the plaza had high windows but no doors, and most of the exits from the plaza -- narrow defiles between the buildings -- had been blocked off by piles of stone rubble. Tufts of wiry yellow and white grass grew from the piles, and the bases were submerged in dirt and mud so they'd been there for years at least.
"Strange," said Ben, looking at them. "I thought maybe the Elizabethtown folks were boarding things up as they emptied them out -- would make sense, right? Stops people wasting time going through places that are already looted. But this... it's like there's been a whole bunch of bad things happen here."
"It's very odd," I said. "The docks are that way," and I pointed northwards, "so we want to go a bit west of that yet. I think," and I turned on my heel as I looked around, "that the river should be that way" -- now I was looking almost due west -- "and, hey that's very strange. That's the only exit from this plaza that's not blocked off."
Indeed, the only path out other than the one we'd come from was to the west, and it looked like it had never been blocked off.
"Either that's the only safe route, or it's a trap," said Ben.
"How do we tell?" asked Jimmy.
"We send someone down there," said Ben, with a broad grin. "Feeling restless, lad?"
Jimmy grimaced. "Seems like the only safe way is back the way we came."
I shrugged. "Actually, we've not found any traps yet, and like Ben says, all this seems old. I think it's safe enough to take that path, and we're not going to get to the see the boat if we don't find a way out of here."
The western path was as wide as two men standing shoulder-to-shoulder and no wider and slipped between two buildings that were at least four stories tall. Six paces in the light of day was practically gone and there was just the umbra of architecture enfolding us. We slowed a little, checking our feet in case there was a pit-trap or some other unexpected and unlikely problem in front of us, but the way remained clear and solid. After a minute or so it turned a corner and to all of our surprises, dead-ended at an unboarded doorway.
"In or back out?" said Ben, but it was a rhetorical question. He pushed the door, and it swung inwards, revealing a large entrance hall, well lit by windows on the other side which looked down over a steep, grassy slope towards the river and the dock.
Greg - yes, those hooting night creatures are definitely a concern.
Really enjoyed the descriptions and atmosphere in this one. I can feel the tension gradually increasing as they near their destination.
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