Aethosphere Chronicles: The Rat Warrens Read Free Page A

with lead. There was almost no
light to be seen except the most fleeting circle ahead of him, and
that was only in the sense of a shade less black then the rest.
    By the time the tunnel finally broke Fen’s
disquiet had turned to low-level dread and when he stepped out into
a corridor he stared around at his surroundings wide-eyed and
alert. He’d come to an access way of old brick all covered in
lichen and mold, and somewhere around the curve ahead a fire
flickered. Not a soul was in sight, and it was so quiet here he
could hear the water dripping from the ceiling, and his own heart
pounding in his chest. Fen had to remind himself to breathe when he
began to feel lightheaded. He hadn’t been lost in the Pinprick Slum
since he first started scrounging when he was six, but he had to
admit none of his current surroundings looked familiar.
    Adjusting the pack over his shoulder, Fen
ventured towards the light while trying to reason it all out. The
Crawl was a labyrinth alright, but it was also surrounded by
thoroughfares. To the north was North Walk; to the west, the Drain
Line; south, the Chimes Way; and east, Skitter Row. To be in a
tunnel like this meant some sort of service corridor, but nothing
even close to it existed in the Crawl. Fen turned and looked back
from where he came, but it seemed he’d lost track of the tunnel
he’d come out of.
    He turned to continue…
    …But something appeared out of nowhere and
blocked his away.
    With a startled yelp, Fen fell back, hitting
the ground on his rump before staring up in a panic. It was the
figure of a woman, not more than a meter away, and as thin as a
skeleton. This creature was wrapped in a dress of dusty white and
the brittle flesh of her legs and arms were covered in peculiar
tattoos. On her head hung a tangled gray mane of coarse hair,
beneath which hung a veil of black that completely covered the
face, leaving it a blank canvas to which one’s terrors could be
painted.
    “ The Gutter Lady ,” Fen gasped aloud,
unable to stay silent. There was little doubt the immediate woman
blocking his path was the infamous witch rumored to prowl the
Pinprick. Eddy, the best of his gang mates, was often fond of
saying she moved like a ghost, appearing and disappearing in a
flash, but most disturbing of all, it was said she had no skin on
her face, just muscle and bone beneath a mask of glass. Staring up
into that gossamer veil, Fen almost thought he could see it all,
long teeth, slit nostrils, lidless eyes, and glistening red muscle.
Overcome with fear, he scrambled back through the grit and the mud
as the woman took a few steps in his direction.
    The Gutter Lady’s feet didn’t seem to touch
the ground but instead appeared to float, and that made the snakes
of terror wriggling around Fen’s guts wriggle around all the more,
and between the mud and terror-sweats he couldn’t tell if his
bladder had let loose in his britches. He hadn’t much time to
contemplate it either before the specter lifted up a bony arm and
held out a dead rat dangling by the tail. Fen lost his ability to
reason, and as she dropped that corpse to the gutter, his vision
flushed to black and he bound up to his feet and ran.
    Fen didn’t care where he was running to so
long as it was far, far away. In the darkness what did it matter?
All he had to guide him anyway were the echoing of his pounding
boots and the gasps of his own breathing. He thundered through a
nightmare, bouncing off curved brick walls that only got narrower
and narrower, and at some point every little bit of light vanished.
Only darkness was left, black as bilge-oil.
    With his heart banging strong like some
hammer forge, Fen wiggled and squeezed his way forward, feeling the
presence of the Gutter Lady hot on his heels, the screech of her
predator’s voice ringing in his ears, and her bony claws racking at
his hair. Then all at once a brilliant light flashed and Fen
skidded to a halt and slammed his eyes closed. Staggering back