Spice & Wolf I (28 page)

They’d gone a short distance after turning right at a T-junction before reaching the end. Lawrence kicked at the wall, breathing heavily. His actions made his worry clear, but Holo, her breathing also ragged, simply squeezed his hand tighter.

The Medio Company had apparently decided it was important to capture both of them—and they’d sent ample manpower to accomplish it.

Their footfalls and shouted voices echoed through the halls. They were so many that even Holo couldn’t be sure of their number.

The companions’ anxiety made them imagine a great swarm of men pursuing them, more numerous than ants.

“Damn. We’ll have to head back. I don’t remember anything else.”

If they pushed ahead into unknown passages, there would be no going back.

Lawrence’s memories were already quite shaky, but seeing Holo nod her assent, he didn’t say so, not wanting her to feel any more uncertain.

“Can you still run?” he asked.

Lawrence was a hale and hardy traveling merchant, and despite his fatigue, he knew he could still run—but Holo could only nod her head in answer.

Perhaps her human body wasn’t as capable as her wolf form.

“Just a bit,” she said hastily as she gasped for air.

“Let’s find a place to...” Lawrence began. He was going to say “rest,” but he caught Holo’s glance and the word never got out of his throat.

Her pupils glowed keenly in the darkness, every inch the forest predator scanning its surroundings.

Heartened to have someone like Holo as his companion, Lawrence quieted his breathing and listened carefully

Crunch, crunch
came the sound of their pursuers’ cautious footsteps.

From where Lawrence was standing, it sounded as if they were coming from a passage that led off to the right some distance ahead.

The path they’d taken was now directly behind them. If they doubled back on it, many possible paths branched off of it. They hoped to guess the timing and run back, then escape down one of those paths

Crunch, crunch
, came the sound as the footsteps grew closer. There was still a wall between them and the source of the noise, which was encouraging, but the footfalls were incessant—it was as though the Medio men were purposefully causing a commotion as they talked in some kind of incomprehensible code.

Lawrence felt as though they’d already fallen into the trap, and their pursuers needed only to toss a net out to capture them.

He gulped painfully, gauging the timing for their sprint.

He hoped to run as soon as there was another shout from the Medio Company people.

It was not a long wait.

“Ah, ah ..

Another sound came from the direction of the footsteps. A sneeze.

Lawrence took this as a blessing from the gods and grabbed Holo’s hand tightly in preparation to run.

“Ah-choo!”

It sounded as though whoever sneezed realized his mistake and tried to muffle the sound with a hand.

But it was more than enough for the two to begin their flight. They turned left at the first junction.

Just then, something black crossed in front of their faces.

Lawrence realized it was no mere rat when Holo began to growl.

“Rrrrrr.”

“Wha—shit! Here! They’re here!”

A small, almost child-sized clump of darkness wove this way and that before Lawrence. He felt something hot on his left cheek. He realized it was a knife wound when he put his hand to it and felt the warm wetness there.

When he realized that Holo had abandoned escape and even now had her teeth in the arm of their knife-wielding attacker, Lawrence, too, lost control.

Strengthened by hauling loads heavier than themselves over mountains and across plains, traveling merchants had fists as hard as silver.

Lawrence put all his strength behind his right fist as he punched, hitting the man Holo was attacking square in the face at a slightly upward angle.

There was an awful squishing sound, as though a frog had just been stepped on, as Lawrence’s fist connected.

With his other hand, Lawrence reached out for Holo and snagged the back of her shirt, pulling her back to him.

The shadow that the fist had struck tumbled slowly backward. There was no time to say anything—Lawrence took off running, trying to find a different path.

But he soon realized that the sneeze had been a ploy to flush them out.

As the body hit the ground with a
whump
, Lawrence felt a shock, as if the blood in his veins suddenly reversed direction.

The moment they tried to turn, a blade thrust directly into Lawrence.

“O holy God, forgive me my sins...

Hearing his opponents words, Lawrence realized this man intended to kill him.

There in the darkness, his assailant held his breath, surely thinking he had in fact slain his target.

But the gods had not yet abandoned Lawrence. The knife found purchase in his left arm, just above his wrist.

“Before you think about your sins,” said Lawrence, raising his leg and delivering a vicious kick to the man’s thigh, “regret your daily deeds!”

The man dropped soundlessly, and Lawrence grabbed Holo’s sleeve with his right hand and sprinted past him.

The sounds of the Medio Company closing in echoed all around them.

They veered down a path to the left, then went immediately right—but not because of some plan or because Lawrence remembered the way.

They simply ran. Stopping was not an option. Lawrence’s left arm felt heavy, as if it were sinking into a swamp, and it burned as though impaled on a piece of red-hot iron. His left hand was cold, perhaps from the blood that flowed freely from the wound in his arm.

He would not be able to run much farther. Lawrence had been wounded several times in his travels. He knew the limits of his own body.

It was hard to tell how far they'd come in the darkness. The confused echoes of their pursuers eroded his fading consciousness like rain over grasslands.

When even their pursuers started to sound distant, he had no energy left with which to worry about Holo. He didn’t know how long he’d be able to keep going.

“Lawrence.”

When he heard someone calling his name, he wondered if it was the Grim Reaper already.

“Lawrence, are you all right?”

He returned to himself with a start, realizing that he was leaning against the wall of the tunnel.

“What a relief. You weren’t moving when I called to you.”

“...Ugh. I’m okay. Just a little sleepy,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence wasn’t sure if he succeeded in smiling. An irritated Holo hit him in the chest.

“Pull yourself together! We’re almost there.”

“...We’re almost where?”

“Did you not hear me? I said I can smell the warmth of the sun ahead. There must be a way to the surface close by.”

Lawrence had no memory of hearing this at all, but he nodded, righting himself, and staggered forward. He realized his arm had been bandaged with cloth.

“...This bandage?”

“I tore my sleeves off to patch you up. You didn’t notice?”

“Uh, no, of course I noticed. I’m fine.” Lawrence made sure to give a reassuring smile; Holo said nothing. When they continued walking, though, she led the way.

“Just a bit farther. We’ll take this passage, then turn right...” she began, taking Lawrence’s hand—but then stopped short. He could tell why.

More footsteps behind them.

“Hurry, hurry,” said Holo hoarsely Lawrence quickened his pace, feeling near the end of his strength.

Although their pursuers were getting closer, they were still some distance off. As long as they could climb to the surface, Lawrence imagined they would be able to convince the citizenry to help them, given his condition.

The Medio Company probably wouldn’t want a scene in front of so many witnesses.

As long as she took the opportunity to contact the Milone Company, Holo’s escape would be enough. The top priority now was to meet with the Milone people again and restrategize.

Lawrence mulled this over as he heaved his body forward, though it seemed to grow heavier by the second. At length, just as Holo said, he saw light ahead.

The light shone from the upper right down to the left. The footsteps behind them grew closer, but it looked as if they were going to make it.

Holo pulled harder on Lawrence’s arm to hurry him forward; he tried his best to keep up.

At the end of the path, they turned right.

“It goes to the surface—just a little farther!”

Vitality had returned to Holo’s voice, and Lawrence pressed forward, encouraged.

The prey had escaped the hunter by the slimmest of margins.

Of that much Lawrence was certain.

That is, until he heard Holo’s voice on the verge of tears.

“N-no...” she said.

Lawrence looked up.

Even when he looked down, the light stung his eyes, which had adjusted to total darkness. It took him a few moments to focus, but once he did, he understood the reason for Holo’s dismay.

Perhaps it was left over from when these tunnels supplied water. There was an unused well there with light stabbing down through a round opening in the ceiling.

But the hole in the ceiling was too high. Lawrence stretched and could just barely touch the ceiling, but the well opening was even higher than that.

Without a rope or a ladder, it was simply impossible for the two of them to escape.

Lawrence and Holo fell silent, despairing like loan sharks looking down the long path to heaven.

Then, as if to confirm that they were well and truly cornered, the source of the footsteps behind them rounded the corner.

“Found them!” a voice cried, at which point the pair finally looked back.

Holo looked up at Lawrence, who drew his dagger with his good right hand, and with a movement so slow it was as if he were underwater, blocked the path between her and their pursuers.

“Back up.”

Lawrence planned to advance, but his legs had no more strength left in them. He was rooted to the spot, unable to take another step.

“You can’t—you’re through!” said Holo.

“Hardly. I can still move,” Lawrence managed in a nonchalant tone. Turning to look at her over his shoulder would’ve been impossible, though.

“Fool, you don’t need my ears to know that’s a lie,” snapped Holo. Lawrence ignored her and fixed his gaze straight ahead.

He saw five Medio men at a glance. Each wielded a knife or staff, and more footsteps signaled reinforcements on the way.