Forest Kingdom Trilogy 3 - Down Among the Dead Men

the sack and pulled out a handful of gleaming gold coins. He stared at them for a long moment, and then opened his hand and let the coins trickle slowly through his fingers and back into the sack. He smiled gently as he listened to the musical clatter of gold on gold.
    “A hundred thousand ducats,” he said softly.
    “Don’t get any ideas, Hammer,” said MacNeil calmly. “That gold belongs to the king, and that’s the way it’s going to stay. You’re entitled to a reward, and I’ll see that you get it, but that’s all.”
    Hammer smiled at him, and then pulled the sack’s drawstrings tight and placed it down by the others. Scarecrow Jack sniffed dismissively and looked around him. He had no use for gold in the Forest. He frowned suddenly and held his torch close to the right-hand wall. The extra light revealed a narrow opening, low down on the cave wall and almost obscured by the shadows of the piled-up sacks. He drew MacNeil’s attention to it, and the two of them crouched down before the opening. It was barely three feet in diameter and led into yet another tunnel. Once again the tunnel walls were unnaturally smooth and even. Jack looked at MacNeil.
    “What do you think? Shall we take a look?”
    MacNeil shrugged. “Might as well while we’re here. But, Jack … keep your eyes open. That gold must have been brought down here for a reason, and I’m starting to get the feeling that so far we’ve just been led around by the nose. Constance thought the Beast could be using the gold as bait, to lure us down here.”
    Jack looked at him uncertainly. “What would the Beast want with us?”
    “That’s a good question, and I’ve a strong feeling we’re not going to like the answer when we find it. Hammer!”
    Hammer looked around sharply. “What is it?”
    “There’s another tunnel here. Jack and I are going to take a quick look; you want to come along?”
    Hammer smiled and shook his head. “Somebody had better stay here to look after the gold.”
    “Somehow I just knew you were going to say that,” said MacNeil. “All right, suit yourself. Jack, leave your torch here. We’ll make do with the lantern.”
    He got down on his hands and knees and crawled into the tunnel. Jack handed his torch to Hammer and followed after MacNeil. Hammer watched him go, then turned his attention back to the sacks of gold, his lips moving silently as he counted.
    The narrow tunnel was cramped and slippery, and MacNeil crawled along it as quickly as he could. He pushed the lantern along in front of him, and its unsteady light shone dully back from the smooth tunnel walls. The pale golden light made the tunnel seem even smaller than it was, and MacNeil could feel a shivering claustrophobia gnawing at the edges of his self-control. He shuffled stubbornly onward on all fours, peering ahead into the darkness beyond the lantern light. He could hear Jack struggling along behind him, and the quiet grunts and scuffling sounds reminded him suddenly of the crawling giants, moving blindly through the tunnels under the earth. He shook his head quickly to clear it, and then his hands slid off the smooth floor and onto rough stone, and he realized the tunnel had opened out into another cave. He crawled out of the tunnel, straightened up painfully, and held his lantern out before him. Jack emerged from the tunnel mouth and got up to stand beside MacNeil. They stood together for a while, and stared in silence at what they’d found.
    Every man, woman, and child who’d died in the border fort lay piled in one great heap at the back of the cave. They seemed to have just been dumped there and left to rot. The cave had to be a hundred feet across, and the bodies filled half of it, stacked from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling. Every body showed signs of a violent death, and most were caked with dried blood. MacNeil stared grimly at the piled-up bodies, and felt painfully helpless. They were dead and gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. The children got to him most. The small bodies, torn and mutilated and discarded. No child should have to die like that. His hand dropped to the sword at his side, and silently he promised them vengeance, whatever it cost.
    Jack moved closer to the bodies and looked them over carefully, checking the exact cause of death where he could. He didn’t find their presence disturbing in the way that MacNeil did. Living in the Forest had accustomed him to the presence of death in all its