Demon-Killing Sword

3.2 Retrieval

It took him a moment to recognize her under all the mud. She hugged the reed basket to her front, her hands hidden under its lip. Børge stared. What in the everloving hell is this? "Muninn," he started, sighing. Had Bjarne finally pushed her too far? He'd always known she'd snap sometime. Too bad she had to involve me. Kids should stick to themselves, not bother adults.

"Give me the sword," she demanded.

Børge narrowed his eyes. "You're the one who owes me, squirt," he said. He thrust the sword through his belt and crossed his arms. "The sword isn't worth enough. I'm going to need to take an extra cut today."

Faster than he could move, Muninn pulled her arm out of the basket and smashed a glass jar on the floor.

Beetles burst out. The air was full of their wings and their hissing. They swarmed in the shop. Børge had no time to react before they were upon him. Their bites were red-hot, sharp and angry. "The hell!" he snapped, and then he snapped his mouth shut before anything could fly inside. Beetles flew at his eyes; he shut them for fear of losing them. The beetles were everywhere, thick in the air and all over him. Bjarne screamed. Jere screeched in agony. Lars vanished into the back, trailing curses behind him. There was no time to help Bjarne, to think about anything. Børge slapped himself all over, desperate to chase the beetles away.

Something pulled at his belt. He opened his eyes in time to watch Muninn snatch the sword away. He grabbed at her arm. She twisted her arm and slid free, sloughing mud off in his hand. Beetles swarmed her, too, but she didn't seem bothered by it.

The mud!

Muninn spun and vanished out the door the way she'd came, sword held tight.

"You're not getting away!" he thundered. Børge chased after her, swatting the beetles away. It didn't matter any longer that the sword was worthless. She'd attacked him. No one attacked him and lived to tell the tale.

For a little squirt, she was fast. She beelined it across the road, then paused to kick a rock. Fool! Børge closed the distance. He grabbed her shoulders. "I've got you now—"

Muninn dropped out of his grip. He was left holding nothing but mud. Børge stared at the place she had been, startled, then looked down. Darkness gaped where she'd kicked the stone aside to reveal a gap too narrow for him to follow. Crouched in the bottom of a deep chamber, Muninn looked up at him. Then she grinned and held the sword aloft. "Come and get it, if you can!" she taunted him, and vanished into the darkness.

Børge ground his teeth. That little mud rat! Dammit, the quarry?

The limestone quarry beneath the city was a popular smuggling route. They'd mined it to make the wall, hundreds of years ago, before even the miasma, as a response to the first Demon War. Since then, it had laid abandoned, save a single guard. It was a dangerous place to be. Even experienced smugglers sometimes got lost, and he'd heard of men found dead without a mark on their bodies.

A vicious smile spread across his face. Back in his day, when he was still small enough to wiggle through the tight spots, he'd been king of the quarry. He knew the routes like the back of his hand. Someone like her, she'd only know one exit, maybe two, he thought. She'd made a grave mistake in underestimating him.

♢♢♢♢♢♢♢

Muninn pressed her hand against the wall. It was dark. As dark as midnight. Darker. Every now and again, she thought she could see something in the distance, sparks of light that flickered out as soon as she focused on them. She fidgeted, then slid her foot forward, feeling along the limestome for a hole, a drop. Solid ground awaited her. Slowly, she shifted her weight onto that foot, then started to slide her other foot forward. She paused and reached into her basket again. Thought I had a flint and steel in here somewhere.

Nothing else for it. She slid on slowly, wary of the path ahead. Come on. Come on. Any moment now, surely. There had to be hundreds of memories down here. She'd stumble across one sooner or later.

The tunnel lit up. A man pushed past her. She glanced over her shoulder and found the rest of the group loosely arranged behind her, tall Gunnel, skinny Niina, portly Vivi, and the new one with the fluffy white hair. Whatever his name is. She frowned. He was too young for this kind of work. Someone should stop him. Not me, of course. But someone.

"Kjell," Viktor said, glancing back. "Are you sure this is the right way?"

"Of course," she said, in a voice both deeper than she'd expected and that she'd heard every day of her life. She pulled a paper from her back pocket and unfolded it to examine the map. Rugged fingers traced a corridor toward a round room, around to the second exit and through to the little 'X' marked on the map. "Exit's just up ahead. Should lead out just inside the walls."

"Inside?" Niina protested, snapping to look at her. Sharp canines flashed when she spoke, horns cresting at random through her short hair. She couldn't help but notice how beautiful her eyes were, the way they mirrored the torchlight back. "Isn't this supposed to be a smuggler's saferoute?"

She—Kjell—groaned. "It's faster than taking the high route. Besides, in case you don't remember, the guards were up our—"

Muninn blinked. Her knees burned and her shoulder hurt. She picked herself off the floor and dusted herself off, carefully brushing around her wet knees. Grimacing a little, she put them through the motions, but they moved fine. Wish I didn't fall every time. A little more warning for when a memory was coming would be nice, but magic didn't work that way.

She had a map, now. A way out. Muninn allowed herself a little sigh of relief. Now I don't have to climb out where I went in. It would've been embarrassing to climb back up in front of Lars after her dramatic exit.

Author's note: Have you ever had to go back on a dramatic exit? Is Muninn going to give him a slip? Should she have maybe planned a little more? Let me know in the comments! And don't forget to vote or follow if you're enjoying the story!