In this episode of “Secrets in Sulsut”, Malric battles to escape the seaside stronghold of the Scavengers.

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There is a passage two ledges above, Malric. The voice was almost a whisper. The owl was lying on its side, mortally wounded. Malric removed his tunic and bundled the creature up, tying it securely to his belt. Its breath rasped slowly from its hooked beak.

Malric slashed at two tentacles that probed the ledge, spilling ochre blood over the rocks. He quickly found a foothold and began his ascent. The climbing would have been easy, but the owl threw off Malric’s balance, and his knuckles were white as he clutched the rocks.

Malric pulled himself over the ledge by the tunnel. The pungent smell of the Scavengers wafted through the entrance.

The Scavengers . . . they are mostly blind . . . eyes accustomed to the murky waters of the sea . . . but their sense of smell is great, Malric . . . cloak yourself in their smell.. . The voice fell off into silence.

“Sol!” pleaded Malric. “Sol!” Quickly Malric unwrapped the owl and placed it on the floor. Malric knelt beside the dying animal. Its eyes were almost completely closed.

No time, rattled the brittle voice, no time . . . remember, Malric, they can smell their dead . . .

Malric held back the hot flood of tears and set his teeth, drawing strength from the steely reserves of his soul that had been honed to a fine point during his service with the Thieves’ Guild. He held his breath and thrust his body against the slick wall of the passage, shutting out the stench that invaded the pores of his skin with wraith-like fingers.

He removed Sliver and crawled forward; his loss submerged in the greedy tides of hate.

Malric continued forward for what seemed like hours, passing many adjoining corridors but staying in the one he had originally entered because it had begun to slope noticeably upwards. He stole past Scavenger women with yellow, sagging breasts and Scavenger young playing in shallow pools. He witnessed them fight, frolic, and breed within the cool darkness.

Malric walked right into an ambush. Slashing downwards with its trident, a Scavenger cut a shallow wound from Malric’s shoulder to his ribs. Malric sprang backwards, his heart racing from the fiery bite of the Scavenger’s blade.

Malric retreated into the passage, scouring the walls for the natural fissure he had passed just moments before. He expertly slid his wiry frame into the niche and waited.

To be continued…

In this episode of “Secrets in Sulsut”, an unexpected ally comes to Malric’s aid in his darkest hour.

Happy Reading!

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Malric thrashed within the net like a fish pulled from the sea. He couldn’t believe he was going to die in the belly of a deity lost to his kind; alone, anonymously, his bones hidden in the darkness of a cavern beneath the sea.

Still, the calculating part of Malric’s mind, the part that had guided him safely through the countless pilferings and assassinations in Sulsut, insisted that there was a way out of this. Ledges jutted out of the sides of the cavern every few feet. Once free, it would be little work climbing back up into the chamber. But then what?

Suddenly a clamor rose from above. Malric craned his neck against the heavy rope and spied a shape flying over the edge of the cavern and down towards him. Knives and tridents clattered against the sides of the pit as they tried to bring down the creature.

Malric could not determine what it was, but it clutched something shiny in its talons.

Vibrations trembled down the rope that held Malric. He frantically searched the nearer side of the cavern. He noticed a ledge down and to the left. Bracing his boots against the wall, he shoved out and to the right. He swung outward, then over the ledge he was aiming for, and then back to his original position. He shoved off once again. The rope snapped on his return.

Malric impacted the ledge with his shoulder and cried out in pain. For an indescribable moment he teetered on the edge of the ledge. Sinuous arms broke the water’s surface to grasp him. Then he rolled back against the wall in a tangle of netting.

Hearing the fluttering of wings very close, Malric turned his head and spied Sol’s owl above him, holding Sliver in its talons and running its blade back and forth against the netting.

It is me, old friend, boomed the weary voice of Sol in his head, I guide the owl. Make haste; even as we speak my strength wavers. Malric noticed that the owl was struggling to stay airborne, and that blood flowed down one of its wings.

Soon Malric was free of the netting and felt the exhilaration of a lover’s reunion as he removed Sliver from the owl’s talons.

The water below was feverishly crashing against the sides of the cavern, a manifestation of the distress of the ancient god below.

To be continued…