‘I didn’t do anything; I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Rhys said, stuttering out the words as he tried to stay calm.

‘Really,’ Giannis said in an acid tone, his expression twisting into a sneer. ‘The guard outside your door slit his own throat, did he?’

‘I don’t even have a knife. It wasn’t me,’ Rhys said desperately, watching with horror as Giannis’s hand tightened around the grip of the pistol.

The door swung open before Giannis could do anything else, a new pirate coming in with a concerned expression. Giannis glanced over at them and frowned before shaking his head and looking back at Rhys with a hard expression. ‘I might not be allowed to kill you,’ Giannis said, his mouth contorting into a nasty smile, ‘but I can cripple you.’

Rhys felt the world slow down around him as Giannis pointed his pistol at Rhys’s right knee, his finger tightening around the trigger as his smile broadened.

Two loud cracks split the air in quick succession, followed by Giannis crying out in pain as he jerked to one side and blood sprayed out to one side. The sudden movement started Rhys free from his surprised stupor, and he staggered away with wide eyes.

The surprise of the hit had made Giannis drop his pistol and stumble to the side, falling heavily to the ground. The pirate groaned and clutched at the ruined clothing on his side, momentarily stunned by the impact.

The acrid smell of burnt flesh assaulted Rhys’s nose as he backed further away from the pirate, who gritted his teeth and scrabbled over to his pistol.

The second pirate that had entered the room walked calmly past Rhys and kicked the fallen weapon away before levelling a small pistol at Giannis. Looking away, Rhys flinched at the close proximity retort of the gun.

The sudden absence of Giannis’s cries of pain was oppressive, and Rhys risked a glance back to see that the new pirate was looking his way, ignoring the ruined remnants of what he’d done to Giannis.

‘Well, that wasn’t how I wanted this to go,’ the new pirate said calmly, tucking away their odd pistol and picking up Giannis’s from the floor. ‘I’m sorry for the inconvenience, the guard caught me trying to sneak in to speak with you, so I had to deal with him.’

‘You killed them both,’ Rhys said, eyes wide as he backed away from the dangerous man, his gaze flicking to the too-still form of Giannis.

‘Well, yes, it was necessary,’ the pirate said with a shrug. ‘I have a debt to repay, and it would be foolish to let them cripple you, especially after I’ve already gone through all this effort. Are you ready to go?’

‘I don’t understand. Go where?’ Rhys said warily, keeping a good distance between himself and the other man.

‘For now, out of here. Afterwards, that’s down to you,’ the pirate said with a shrug of indifference. ‘I will escort you from here and down to the lower tunnels, where your crew is kept. We will rescue your crew, and I will get you back here so we can raid the main building for your captain’s medallion. Hopefully, enough of them will be hunting for you that they won’t be guarding the buildings by that point. Once we have the medallion, you are free to fly away, and our debt is paid. Do you understand?’

‘No, not at all, but I have no other choice,’ Rhys said, lacking any other option. If the other pirates found him like this, they’d kill him for sure. Not to mention that if he was telling the truth, Rhys had no chance of finding his crew on his own.

‘Good, here, take this,’ the pirate said, walking forward to hold Giannis’s pistol out to Rhys.

Rhys took the pistol with a trembling hand, noting some flecks of blood that had gotten onto it and carefully wiping them away. Somehow, despite having a weapon, Rhys felt even less safe than he had before he’d woken up.

‘Come, we have much to do and little time to do it in,’ the pirate said, hurrying over to open the door out of Rhys’s prison.

‘Wait, what’s your name? Why are you doing this? What debt are you talking about?’ Rhys asked, almost reluctant to leave the building. Once he was out there, that would be it, no turning back until he was back in the Endeavour. He’d have to fight, to kill, to get where he wanted to be.

‘Call me Goer, and I’m doing this because of the service you’ve done for my people. A lot of us owe you greatly for what you did; this is my way of paying back some of that,’ Goer said as he opened the door and dragged inside a large body with a nasty wound across the throat.

‘What are you talking about?’ Rhys managed to ask, bile welling in the back of his throat as he looked at the bloody ruin of Actus’s throat. So much death already.

‘Oh, interesting, do you truly not know?’ Goer asked, peering at Rhys with curiosity.

‘No, please explain,’ Rhys said with some frustration. He didn’t understand anything that was happening here.

‘I think its best if I don’t, actually,’ Goer said after a moment of thought. ‘Though, I do have a request for you.’

‘And what would that be?’ Rhys asked, wondering where the catch was in all this.

‘I have another captive hidden nearby that I would like you to take with you, preferably as part of your crew.’ The pirate said evenly, his stance open and relaxed, despite the situation.

‘My crew?’ Rhys echoed with surprise, not sure what to think of this.

‘Yes, but if you simply take them away and drop them off somewhere, that will be suitable. What do you say?’

‘You leave me with little choice,’ Rhys said, eyes flicking down to the two dead men in the room with them. He’d had to watch the execution of that rogue artificer, but this was different, more personal.

‘Good, now follow me and stay quiet. We have a long way to go,’ Goer said, giving Rhys a crooked smile before stepping out through the door.

Taking a deep breath and recoiling at the stench of the two dead men, Rhys hurried out the door after Goer, closing it firmly behind him.

The crimson coloured mist that hung over the pirate base was particularly thick currently, which Rhys was especially thankful for. Goer stood a few feet to his right, motioning for Rhys to follow before turning and heading deeper into the cavern and away from the red lights.

Swirling mist flowed past Goer and obscured his movements, making Rhys stay close in order to keep track of where the pirate was. Soon enough, the light had faded to the point that Rhys was struggling to make out the dark form of Goer in front of him, the light poles becoming more and more spaced out as they headed for what felt like the edge of the cavern.

Goer diverted them around the light-poles they came across, keeping them in the dimly lit mist and hidden from any others who might be passing by.

The pirate came to an abrupt halt after a few minutes of moving through the mist, Rhys cautiously stepping up next to him to see the dark rock of the cavern wall. The wall stretched up into the darkness far above Rhys’s head, reminding him of the scale of the place they were in.

‘Stay here; I need to check if anyone is here,’ Goer said, leaning in to whisper the words into Rhys’s ear.

Nodding tightly, Rhys held on to his new pistol with a fierce grip as Goer disappeared into the mist, following along the cavern wall. Looking further along the way that Goer had gone, Rhys saw the tell-tale crimson glow of a light pole further along the wall. At this distance, it was little more than a splash of colour in an ocean of grey.

A minute passed by, the seconds ticking slowly by as Rhys waited anxiously for Goer’s return.

‘It’s clear,’ Goer whispered, stepping into Rhys’s eye line seemingly from nowhere. ‘Follow me.’ Goer turned back around and started walking in the original direction once more.

Rhys blinked rapidly and tried to slow his pounding heart as he followed after Goer. The glow of the light pole increased as they drew near, eventually revealing a small tunnel leading into the cavern wall and a guard station.

The guard station was little more than a chair and table with some sort of bell hanging from the wall and a small box next to the table.

‘Where’s the guard?’ Rhys asked softly, wondering if Goer had killed them.

‘I’m stationed here today on the roster, which is what I was waiting for before coming to get you. This way, we should have at least an hour or two head-start on any pursuit.’

‘Right,’ Rhys said, nodding as Goer spoke; he was feeling more confident in this now that Goer was explaining things. Waiting until he was the guard on duty here did make sense, after all.

‘Here, take one of these,’ Goer opened the box and passed Rhys a torch, taking one for himself as an afterthought. The torch was a piece of quartz seated in an ironwood tube with a grip and two quartz controls. One to brighten and one to dim. Rhys had seen similar pieces in the past and expected that it would run off the ambient energy in the air, which would limit how bright it could be.

Unlike the light poles, the torch gave off a slightly blue-tinged light when Rhys activated the one Goer had given him. Goer activated his torch, adding a little more light to the area. The mist around them took on a different hue, which was a nice change from all the red around them.

Hurrying after the pirate, Rhys couldn’t help but sweep the tunnel walls and ceiling with his torch, the cone of light it emitted showing a surprising amount of life. The walls of the tunnel had sporadic clumps of some sort of lichen, which was more than Rhys had seen in the pirate camp. Then again, he’d not exactly been able to look around, so who knows what he might have missed.

Mixed among the areas of lichen were what seemed to be mushrooms of various sizes, but their caps were luminescent, giving off a faint green glow. The mushrooms grew together in clumps that illuminated small sections of the tunnel, giving it an eerie and otherworldly aura.

The tunnel was large enough for six or so people to walk side by side comfortably and was almost twice again as tall as Rhys. Caught up in his fascination with this odd environment, Rhys stayed a few steps behind Goer, looking at it all with fascination.

The tunnel was uneven and patchy in places, lacking the defining clear cut lines and smooth surfaces you would expect from the work of miners. Rhys could only imagine that this was a natural tunnel of some kind.

‘Careful now. We’re entering a dangerous area. The tunnels below Kolis are home to a range of creatures. If I say to turn off your light, do so immediately and stay as still and quiet as possible, understood?’ Goer said as they walked past a pair of stalactites that dropped down from the ceiling to Rhys’s head height.

‘I understand,’ Rhys said, somewhat nervously. He got a closer look at the lichen on the rock as he went past; it was dark in colour and covered the bottom half of the stalactite in a thick layer. What drew his eyes, however, were the sections further up the stalactite, where the lichen had been eaten away by something. Given how high it was, it was likely the creature had come down to it from the ceiling.

Rhys hadn’t really considered the possibility of creatures down here, but Goer’s warning had him looking nervously up at the roof of the tunnel. What sort of strange creatures would live down here?

Suppressing a shiver, Rhys hurried after Goer and swept their surroundings with his torch, watching carefully for any sign of movement.