The Sea Below Read online

  THE SEA BELOW

  William Meikle

  www.severedpress.com

  Copyright 2021 by William Meikle

  - Danny -

  Danny arrived at the cave mouth far better prepared than he had been on his last trip here. Last time it had been a nightmare of plunging through watery darkness, evading a cave-wyrm in dark caverns and almost being buried under a mountain of stone, all done with limited supplies of booze and tobacco. This time he resolved to travel with at least a modicum of comforts.

  The telegram from Stefan had been short, almost curt, but to the point.

  "The lad has gone back down these two days now and there has since been no sign of him or his companions. Can you come?"

  Danny had thought about it for all of a minute. Young Ed had come to him last time with a need for an adventurer-cum-bodyguard for a treasure hunt. They'd found, and lost said treasure, and Ed had also lost a brother. Danny wondered which of the two the lad was now searching for, and just how lost the young man might have got himself. It wasn't as if he was leaving behind any pressing engagements when he left London bound for Calais and points east that same afternoon; there are only so many old soldier's tales you can tell in the city taverns before the locals grow overly familiar with them. Likewise, he had few affairs to settle, having relied on his meagre army pension for the necessities of life. His only possessions were what he carried with him; his revolver, his saber, his sturdy boots and rugged clothes, and the contents of his pack. He'd spent most of what little savings he had on the contents, which consisted mainly of ammunition, tobacco, papers and matches, and liquor for his belly, something that had been sorely lacking last time round.

  A large part of the liquor and tobacco was dispensed with on the journey on trains, boat and more trains, but he had replenished supplies in the inn before setting up the mountain trail and arrived at the cave mouth mostly penniless and as ready as he was ever going to be for what awaited him this time.

  The journey had been a frustrating one of delays due to weather, broken-down trains and missed connections but all of that was forgotten in the welcome he received first from Elsa--a hot wet lick of the face from a German Shepherd dog made most things better--then from Stefan who gripped Danny's hand and shook it so violently he feared it might come off at the shoulder.

  "Well met again, my friend," the shepherd said. "I only wish it were in better circumstances."

  Acquaintance renewed, Stefan wasted no time in other pleasantries. He led Danny into the cave where it was immediately obvious that the way had been prepared in a far more engineered fashion than on their last visit. There were stout ropes and ladders in the passageways, oil lamps hanging, swinging in a slight breeze strung every three yards on a wire along the wall above head height, and wooden bridges across any parts that might otherwise have been perilous.

  "The lad has been busy," Danny muttered.

  "More than you know, my friend," Stefan replied.

  The shepherd didn't elaborate, and didn't need to for Danny soon saw that young Edward’s scheme of works in the cavern had been undertaken with a most definite purpose in mind. They arrived after a ten minute uphill walk that had taken the best part of an hour the last time, in the large cavern from where their descent into the lands below had begun. Two younger men sat at a camping stove. Stefan didn't really need to introduce them; it was obvious in their faces that they were all three related.

  "My sister's boys," the shepherd explained. "They will wait here and raise an alarm should we, like Edward, fail to return."

  There would be no need for a blind underwater descent on this occasion; the waterfall was no longer in evidence and more stout ropes led into the basin that had been a frothing pool, disappearing into the black dry pit that now showed there.

  "He had the water diverted higher up," Stefan said when he saw Danny looking.

  "Diverted to where?"

  Stefan shrugged.

  "I did not ask. All I know is that as soon as it ran dry the lad, two companions with him, was off and away down there, leaving me to wait. That was nigh on five days ago now."

  "And there has been no communication since?"

  "None. If you had not arrived today I would have gone down on my own, but now that you are here we can go together; it will be like old times."

  "I bloody well hope not," Danny muttered, and eyed the dark pit with some degree of apprehension.

  In the end the descent proved remarkably simple. Young Edward's engineering works had extended to an ingenious winch and pulley system that allowed for a controlled descent. A large wicker basket proved to be more than ample to allow Elsa to travel with them and it was not even necessary to descend in the dark, for the well-remembered glow of the bioluminescent vegetation was present after only a few yards down in the pit. The nightmare journey of the last time was forgotten. Danny had a smoke while Stefan's nephews did all the work with the winch in the cavern above and they went down at a calm, even pace towards the lands below.

  After an uneventful trip of no more than ten minutes they descended out of the channel high above the underground lake. Danny had plenty of time to note that they were coming down into water again; that part couldn't be avoided. He flicked the butt of his smoke away and took out his revolver, raising it above his head as he went into the lake. The water only reached his hips and he was able to keep both his weapon, and his ammunition dry.

  He noted that there was another winch and pulley system installed just above water level. They'd be able to use the basket to send up a message to the lads way above when, if, they were ready to return. The fact that Edward had not done so in the long days of his absence brought a fresh chill up Danny's spine as he unhooked himself from the harness. He looked up to see Elsa looking down at him. He swore that the dog was smiling. He didn't have to help her out of the basket; she waited until it was floating and then launched herself out, paddling for the shore at some speed.

  Stefan was just seconds behind. The shepherd entered the water with less grace than the dog had managed but like Danny, he kept his rifle overhead and seconds later they were wading towards shore, each keeping an eye on the water, remembering the pale worm-like thing that had attacked them on their last visit.

  No attack came. They reached shore safely and found their first indication that Edward and his companions had made it at least this far; there were signs that camp had been made on the rocky ground above the shore.

  "Edward?" Stefan shouted, but Danny knew in his gut it wasn't going to be that simple. Elsa appeared to agree with him. She had run off some twenty yards down the slope and was now looking back at them, as if to admonish them for wasting time.

  Danny motioned that Stefan should lead.

  "Do you remember the way?"

  "Every inch of it. It is seared in my memory. Is it not so with you?"

  "In memory and in dreams," Danny replied. "Let us hope for happier instances of both this time around."

  They headed off down the slope under the dim, all-pervading glow from the bioluminescent foliage on the roof above them.

  They made good progress; the route was indeed impressed on their minds, and they had Elsa to follow if their memories should falter. They navigated the first series of caverns with no difficulty and nothing to impede them; there was no sign of any of the voracious predators they had encountered the last time. There was life however; a small flock of the pale, six-legged horse-like things scattered at their approach, and Elsa showed remarkable restraint every time they flushed the smaller, rabbit-like beasts from their hiding places.

  They got their first indication they were on the right trail when they arrived at the cavern where Thomas Ellington had met his end. His fiery grave was now marked by a tall stone c
airn topped with a rough wooden cross. Edward had been as good as his word and had returned to mark his brother's resting place properly.

  They'd seen several of the great bats on their descent so far, and more of them hung here, bunched like a cluster of leathery fruit under the roof. They stirred listlessly overhead as Danny, Stefan and Elsa passed Tommy's cairn. Danny felt wetness drop onto his brow.

  "The bloody things are pishing on us now."

  He was tempted to shoot some of the beasts from their roost, just to teach them a lesson, but discretion proved stronger. Seconds later he felt another drip on his head and looked up to see only tangled, pale roots hanging above. On closer inspection he saw that the water appeared to be seeping out of the rock itself.

  He thought no more of it and when they reached the end of that cavern and went down into a tunnel, the walls and floor were dry around them, although there was a faint, distant roar, like thunder heard far off on a summer's night.

  They found more evidence of someone else having been in the caverns in a cave off the main channel; the remnants of a fire long since gone cold. It wasn't one of their making on their last trip, and was too long cold for it to have been Ed this time around; Danny could only surmise that it had been made by the ones that made the map Ed followed; the Templars who'd come down here to hide their treasure.

  After a time they passed the skeletal remains of a great worm; they knew only too well the origins of this one. If he had a rummage among the bones Danny knew that he'd find several of his own bullets among them. They'd killed this bugger on their last trip, but at great cost.

  "Do you think the lad has met another of these?" Stefan said, kicking at the bones.

  "I bloody well hope not, for his sake," Danny replied.

  Elsa pished on the pale skull as they passed. Danny quietly applauded the sentiment.

  They were getting close to the deepest point they'd reached on their last trip, managing in a few hours what it had taken them more than a day the last time, when the thunder grew louder above them, a roar that seemed to fill the cavern.

  "What's this shite now?" Danny said. Elsa growled, as if in agreement.

  Water dripped from the roof and Danny realised the rock underfoot was wet now, and getting wetter. They were in a steeply sloping cavern, heading down to where Danny knew it opened out to an inland sea some distance below. He wished he could remember how far it might be for the water underfoot was coming faster, a stream that was threatening to become a river.

  "Quickly," he said, "we need to get out of this sharpish before it gets worse."

  They broke into a trot, splashing through running water that felt cold around their ankles. The thunder rose, and rose again until they couldn't hear their splashing above its roar. The current got stronger, threatening to topple them, and more water ran from the roof such that it was like running through a rainstorm.

  Danny looked up to see a rough oval of light far below them.

  "Faster!" he shouted, and put on a burst of speed he didn't know he had in him. The water built up around them until they were being pushed more than they were running. They emerged out of the cave seconds later like a cork out of a shaken bottle. Danny threw himself to one side of the cave mouth as the roar became a crescendo and a wall of water blew in a spout out and over the cliff face. He tumbled, flailing arms and legs, then slid on his arse down a wet scree slope before coming to a halt, bruised, battered and alive, barely, on the rocky shore of the inland sea.

  Elsa licked at his face, Stefan groaned somewhere to his left, and the shadow of something apart from his companions fell over him. He was reaching for his pistol when a well-remembered voice spoke from above him.

  "Captain Daniel Garland as I live and breathe? What in blazes are you doing here?"

  Danny reached up a hand and let young Edward Ellington help him to his feet.

  They'd found their quarry at the first time of asking.

  - Ed -

  Ed was surprised to see the soldier, less so to find Stefan and the dog alongside him. He'd been meaning to return up through the caverns and get a message up top for several days now but there had just been so much to do, so many preparations to make and time had got away from him. He tried to explain it to the new arrivals as they sat around a fire while a pot of coffee brewed.

  "It was when I realised that the treasure was lost to us that I made up my mind," he said while Danny rolled a smoke. He motioned over, past where water still gushed out of the cave mouth, to a wall of what looked like recently tumbled rock. "You remember the serpent and the hoard? Of course you do. Well it's under there now, several hundred feet under there. That cause is hopeless. We couldn't get at it if we tried, not even with a hundred men; we'd bring the roof down around us at the first attempt."

  "So why are you still here?" Danny asked. "What did you make up your mind to do?"

  Ed pointed the other way along the shore. His two companions were a hundred yards away in that direction, the sounds of axes on wood carrying clearly across the still air between them.

  "We're building canoes. I mean to explore this sea."

  He had to give both Danny and Stefan time to calm down after that revelation, as both the older men obviously saw no merit in the idea.

  "I didn't come all this way to go fishing with you, lad," Danny said. "The Lord only knows what dangers might await out there."

  "And that's exactly why I plan to go," Ed replied. "There are islands out there, I saw them from high up on the cliff when I was exploring. A whole archipelago waiting to be found. Think on it."

  "I am thinking about it," Danny said. "That's the problem. I'd prefer a few tankards of ale back in the inn though."

  Ed laughed.

  "I'll admit that sounds enticing, and I would gladly join you. I owe it to Tommy...I owe it to myself. I will go on. However, I cannot ask you to accompany me. You are welcome to go back. But I believe it has become a moot point in any case; our return passage is closed to us." He motioned back to the cave mouth from which water spouted in an arc over the cliff. "Sheer pressure of water alone would be enough to prevent any egress by that route."

  "That will soon run dry," Danny said and Ed laughed again.

  "I believe not. You see, when I had the water diverted above the waterfall, I had a feeling that I was merely postponing the inevitable; water finds its way to the lowest point, in time. It seems that this is the lowest point, and that time has arrived."

  "You mean we're stuck here? Again?" Danny said.

  "No, my friend, we are not stuck. We are, as you said, going fishing."

  After coffee and a smoke, Ed took the new arrivals along the shore to the spot that had been home for him and the others for the last week. He introduced them to his companions, Bill and George, two soft-spoken, quiet English youths who Ed had spent the summer climbing with in the Alps. The youths eyed Danny's pistol and saber warily but quickly warmed to the man once Ed explained his friendship.

  Introductions done, Ed showed Danny the progress so far.

  Three rough huts had been built high on the shore. In front of them lay two long, wide canoes hewn out of the wood of the thick-rooted vegetation that passed as trees down here.

  "We had to look a long way down the coast to find large enough specimens for the job, and they were a bugger to hollow out. But they float just fine, they're totally waterproof. They'll get the job done," Ed said, seeing that Danny was still skeptical of the whole affair. "We have paddles, we have rough fishing rods, even some bait. We've caught enough of the rabbit-things to have a plentiful supply of dried meat for the trip, we still have rations in our packs, and if there are any big predators in the water, we have yet to see them. We can do this."

  "And nothing has attacked you in the days you've been here?"

  "Just the bats," Ed answered. "And they've kept away since we shot three of them down that first time they showed up."

  The one thing that seemed to please Danny was that Ed had come prepared on t
his trip. He'd insisted that all three of them be armed with both pistols and hunting rifles and Ed himself had a large knife--more akin to a small sword--strapped to his belt. The only thing he'd used it for so far had been to hack at vegetation, but he felt better for having it close by him at all times.

  He'd lost Danny's attention again; the old soldier's gaze kept turning to the spout of water and the cave mouth, as if willing the flow to lessen but Ed could see that the opposite was happening. The waterfall had done nothing but gain strength since ejecting Danny and Stefan, and the whole side of the cliff below its exit point had started to flake and crumble away under the pressure.

  "There is really no other way back?" Stefan said.

  Ed shook his head.

  "The way up to the surface that we took from the treasure room is buried under a mountain of rock. And I have walked the shore miles in each direction from here to no avail. It's the sea or nothing."

  "Nothing it is then," Danny said under his breath.

  "So what makes you think there's going to be anything more than more of the same to find out there?" Danny said later when they were once again sitting around a fire drinking coffee.

  "What makes you think there isn't?" Ed replied. "Aren't we here to explore?"

  "You might be. I'm here to save your arse," Danny replied.

  "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big boy now, Danny," Ed replied. "I'm sorry I was remiss in sending news back of our endeavors here, and I'm sorry that decision has got you stuck down here with me. But as you can see, I don't need saving."

  "That's a matter of opinion."

  "Look, wait here if you want. But by my watch it's time for a kip, and when we wake, Bill, George and I will be taking to the water. Come or stay, it matters not to me."

  Ed saw the displeasure on Danny's face but took little heed of it. He'd come on this trip for two reasons; firstly to give his brother Tommy a proper burial, and secondly to attempt to recover the lost treasure. He'd succeeded at one, failed at the other. But adventure and exploration were more than enough compensation, for him anyway. A jaded old soldier was not going to hold him back.