Ross Lawhead by The Realms Thereunder

“It seems that people carry corruption around inside of them wherever they go.”
    â€œYou mean we can’t do anything?”
    â€œI mean that we must do everything, but that even that may not be enough.”
    They walked in silence for a while, contemplating the pessimism in that statement.
    â€œIs it much farther?” Daniel asked after a time.
    â€œNot at all,” Swiðgar replied, and he was shortly proven to be right. Within a few hundred paces, branching tunnels started to join their own, widening their way, not dividing it. The path they were walking on grew wider and the ceiling gradually rose higher, giving them that odd shrinking sensation again. The echo of their footsteps gradually faded away and then disappeared altogether and the walls around them grew darker as they became more distant.
    Swiðgar and Ecgbryt slowed, obviously cautious. They moved from the centre of the tunnel to the side, walking along the righthand wall. Eventually they stopped and lowered their torches.
    â€œWhat is it?” asked Freya, suddenly fearful again.
    â€œShh! Liss ,” Ecgbryt breathed, motioning them to stop.
    Daniel and Freya strained to hear. Coming from the blackness in front of them they heard a faint scrabbling noise.
    As they strained to see what might be making this sound, they realised they were staring into nothingness. Looking up, they could just trace the outline of the edge of the natural archway that opened into an unknowably large area. Cold, stale air swept over them in a chilling wave. “Where are we?” Daniel asked in an awed voice.
    â€œAt the mouth to one of the entrances to the Niðerland.”
    â€œAre we still underground?”
    â€œYes. It is a large plain—mostly flat—supported by large natural pillars. Now, silence.”
    As Daniel and Freya squinted, they made out a line of faint, pale-yellow pinpricks of light running straight across their field of vision. The lights were extremely dim and noticeable only if you did not look directly at them. They could hear distant voices arguing and shouting.
    Daniel and Freya felt sick with anticipation now. “What’s going on?” Daniel whispered.
    It was a few moments before Swiðgar answered in a low voice, “I know not, but now we must move in silence and darkness, not to be seen or heard.” To Ecgbryt he commanded, “We will extinguish the torches here, broðor .”
    They did so, plunging everything into such an empty darkness that Daniel and Freya gave quiet gasps. Then each of them felt one of the knight’s hands on their back, and they were pushed forward.
    For a time Daniel and Freya felt as if they were walking in nothingness. It was completely dark except for the fallen starfield of campfire lights. As their eyes adjusted to the almost tangible darkness, they started to distinguish the dim shapes of landscape that lay flat on the top of each other, broken by pillars of stone rising up on either side, reaching up and vanishing towards an unseen ceiling.
    In the distance was a dim glow—an arc of faint light like a misty haze. Freya, who had spent some time camping up north, knew that this was the light that cities often gave out at nighttime.
    That must be where Niðergeard was.
    As they went farther, they found that the ground wasn’t as flat as they had thought—there were slight rises and falls and chasms that spewed cold air that had been spanned by bridges.
    Stalagmites rose ahead and to either side of them with bases larger than tree trunks and tops that vanished into the darkness.
    The curious scrabbling sound grew louder and the individual noises became separate and more distinct. There was a low chattering noise, a dusty scraping, and some intermittent clanking.
    The pinpricks of light that ran in a line across the landscape gradually grew larger, but not much brighter, as they approached them.
    Freya and Daniel soon discovered they were