Chapter 9
Tathan watched them enter. In all his travels, he had never seen anything like Vevin. Vevin’s leap to Liselle was further than Tathan had ever seen anyone jump. Whatever the creature was, it was not human. Liselle seemed to trust it, but she was naïve. It could be leading them into a trap.
The wound on the side of its face was severe. Tathan had seen lesser wounds kill people. All of it added up to trouble in Tathan’s eyes.
He suspected he wouldn’t be able to overcome the creature should it become violent. Vevin was more dangerous than almost anything Tathan had come across, though he couldn’t tell exactly how.
He followed them into the vacant building, ducking along the wall after entering the doorway.
A small blue flame appeared from Liselle’s hand. She lifted it into the air and let it float above them as they looked around the room.
Tathan sighed. Announcing they were there by tossing a light up in the air was not the way he did things. He snuck along the walls, ready to flank anything that might attack.
It was a large room with chambers on the sides. Cracks lined the ceiling and walls. A fallen altar, broken into five pieces, stood at the end of the rubble-strewn aisle. The remains of a fallen statue rested behind the altar. Two crumbling fountains, similar to the ones outside, were on either side of the aisle. At one time, it would have been beautiful.
“Which way should we go?” Liselle asked Vevin. They had their arms linked and the creature was looking at her with that sharp grin.
“Oh my! Which way indeed? This is so much fun. Let’s find a way down!” Vevin pointed to large stairs on either side of the room. The staircase on the left was caved in. However, the stairs on the right looked to be intact.
Liselle walked toward those. “All right, down it is. Let’s see what we can find.”
“Oh yes. I hope we find the caves underneath!” Vevin hopped forward. “We need to remember to look for someplace to put treasure too.”
“We’ll definitely look for someplace to put treasure.”
“Oh wonderful! You are my favorite person ever!” Vevin stopped. “I’ve never met a person before. You’re my first person ever! Yay!”
Liselle laughed, “Yay! That’s wonderful. You’re my favorite . . .”
He stared at her with a toothy smile, not taking the bait.
“ . . . Vevin. You’re my favorite Vevin.”
He added a skip to the dance. “Oh, that’s so wonderful. I always wanted to be someone’s favorite Vevin!”
Tathan shook his head at the exchange. There was something seriously wrong with the creature. He continued to scan the room looking for danger as he followed them to the stairs. “Let me go down first.”
Liselle’s ghostly flame illuminated the landing as Tathan entered the gloom below. He knew appearances didn’t always matter when exploring, but it truly felt abandoned.
The level below had hallways and rooms, which appeared as though they might be quarters for the long-gone priests. Tathan used a gesture and a word to light his own yellow flame. It stayed at the tip of his finger like a candle.
Vevin looked at Tathan’s flame as he came downstairs. “Why do you light flames? Are you cold?”
“We need them to see by, not for warmth,” Liselle said.
“Oh! You can’t see in the dark? How extraordinary.” Vevin flicked his hand and tossed a purple flame into the air. “There you are. That should help.”
Liselle had cast her blue flame easier than Tathan had ever seen anyone cast a flame spell, but the ease with which Vevin had casually flicked his purple flame made Liselle’s casting seem labored.
“That’s wonderful, Vevin! Thank you.” Liselle gave him a hug.
Vevin returned the hug. After releasing, his happy dance had new moves.
Tathan moved through the hallways, peering into each doorway.
Liselle and Vevin exchanged glances, shrugging at his behavior.
Tathan saw the exchange and didn’t care. He had stayed alive this long for a reason.
They came to a large room that might have functioned as a dining room. The remains of a barren kitchen nearby lent credence to the belief. A large spider the height of Tathan’s knees skittered away at their flames. Tathan looked around to make sure there wasn’t a nest.
“There’s nothing interesting here. Let’s go further down,” Vevin said.
Tathan turned to look at him and discovered the creature was doing another dance. Vevin hopped on one foot twice while his other leg was stretched to the side. Then he hopped on the other foot, while stretching the original leg out to the side. Then he would do a shuffle each way. The entire time, Vevin had a wide grin on his face.
“I don’t trust you, Vevin, if that’s even your name. I think you’re leading us into a trap.”
Vevin stopped dancing. With a hurt look, the creature hung his head.
“Tathan!” Liselle scolded. “I know you jump at shadows, but I’m telling you that he’s not leading us into a trap!”
“How do you know that, Cousin? You’ve never been out of the Valley.” Tathan shook his hand to extinguish the flame on his finger. It took effort to keep it going. “People will trick you, betray you and lead you into traps all the time!” He crouched with sword ready and teeth bared.
They both stepped back with fear in their eyes. Vevin’s eyes rippled as they had when talking about the monster that had hurt him.
It wasn’t Tathan’s intention to frighten his cousin. He was surprised at what seemed like genuine fear from the creature. “How can you be so sure, Liselle?”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I don’t know how, Cousin, but I know.” Taking a deep breath to gain control of her emotions, she wiped her eyes. “I don’t know what terrible things have happened to you. Perhaps someday you’ll tell me, but you can’t keep pointing your sword at me.” She stepped forward and pushed his sword aside with fingertips. Then she reached out and wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a hug.
He stood there in shock for a moment. When she continued to hold onto him, he broke down and cried on her shoulder. He didn’t even know why he was crying. It could have been the death of his family, or the stress of his journeys and all of the times he had been afraid in his past.
After a minute, they separated. “I’m sorry, Cousin.” Tathan wiped his eyes with a sleeve. He looked at the creature. “I don’t trust you, Vevin, but I’ll give you a fair chance. Agreed?”
“Of course, Tathan! I don’t know why you don’t trust me, but I promise I won’t betray you.” Vevin gave him a sharp-toothed smile.
Tathan nodded. “Let’s explore the lower levels.”
The next level appeared to be empty storage rooms. They ignored them, going down to the level below. It looked to be a cave that had been used as more storage. As they walked through it, they discovered smaller caves off to the sides, but they led nowhere.
Liselle turned to Vevin. “There doesn’t seem to be anything further down. Are you sure there was magic and some sort of creature down here?”
He pointed at the eastern wall. “Oh yes! We just need to go through the hallway to the stairs.”
She looked in that direction. “What hallway? I don’t see anything.”
“The one behind the wall. It leads to a lower level.”
“Oh. You can see through walls?”
“Of course! Can’t you?” Vevin seemed surprised.
Tathan rolled his eyes and walked over to the secret door he discovered in his searching. It bothered him that the creature knew exactly where to go next. Tathan’s instincts were yelling at him to get away, but for some reason he couldn’t understand, those same instincts were telling him that trusting his cousin was more important.
“There’s a secret door here. It’s well concealed but basic.” He pulled a torch bracket and watched as a section of stone began moving away from the
wall.
The stone stuck.
Tathan sighed. “Centuries-old secret doors don’t always work of course.” He walked over to the door and tried to move it enough to be able to get through. It wouldn’t budge at all. “I don’t know how we’re going to get through.”
Vevin placed his hands at the edge of the stone. He used his leg to leverage against the wall and pushed.
Tathan gestured for him to give up. “It’s jammed . . .”
The stone moved the rest of the way with a loud scraping sound.
Vevin turned to them, pleased with himself. “If you use a little leverage, you can pry things open.”
“Uh huh.” Tathan walked past Vevin into the secret entrance. Moving that stone had taken more than leverage.
Upon entering the hallway, Tathan felt a warm, moist draft coming from nearby stairs. “There’s a draft coming from below and it’s humid.”
“Oh that’s wonderful!” Vevin exclaimed. “I like warm and humid.”
“Good for you. Let’s take a look then.”
The dark stairway went down more than a hundred steps. There was moisture and lime deposits on the walls and stairs. He turned back to caution the others to be careful. When he did so, he noticed that Vevin’s silver eyes were glowing in the dim light of the flames. It was an eerie sight, which unnerved Tathan a little more. “Uhh . . . watch your footing. It’s slick.”
At the bottom of the stairs was a small chamber with arched steel doors set in the west wall. Tathan studied the doors. Moisture had caused them to become rust covered. In a few places, rust had created holes. The door handles were covered with rust as well.
“Are they locked, Tathan?” Liselle asked.
He crouched down in front of the locks, looking for any sign of a trap. By the amount of rust on the doors, even if there were a trap it wouldn’t be functional. He reached out and tried to open them, but they wouldn’t budge.
“It looks like they are. The locks inside are most likely rusted as well. It doesn’t look good.”
“I could give it a try . . .” Vevin offered.
“No, let me take care of this. I’ve dealt with rusty locks before.” Tathan pulled a leather toolkit out of his vest. He unrolled it on the ground in front of the door. There were a number of small metal devices in it. Then he pulled a small flask out of another pocket. “Oil,” he explained as he dipped two of the metal devices into it. He worked the oil-covered tools into one of the locks. A moment later, there was a click and tumble within the door.
“Well, I had to use a little more force than usual, but it was easier than I expected.” Tathan put the metal devices back in their pouch.
“Oh my! I will have to remember not to let you near my treasure, Tathan!”
Tathan chuckled as he rolled up his toolkit to put it and the oil back in his vest. He braced his feet and took hold of the handle. The door budged, but rusted hinges let out a tortured cry.
Vevin winked at Tathan. “Ahh, I’ll make certain the hinges to my treasure are rusty so I hear you coming.”
Liselle giggled.
Tathan glared playfully at them, but inside he was seething at such a stupid mistake. He pulled the oil back out and put a little bit on the hinges. They still made more noise than he wanted, but it wasn’t quite as tortured.
The wall was rough and damp as he moved inside. From ahead, Tathan heard running water like that of a stream. He waited in silence for a moment. There was no feeling of danger, so he motioned the others inside. “I can’t see far into the cave,” he whispered.
“There isn’t any danger in this cave. It’s the cave below it which has something in it,” Vevin whispered back. “It looks like there’s just an altar and a stream here.” His eyes were glowing brightly now that it was almost completely dark. At some point, he had extinguished his flame as well. Liselle’s blue flame was the last.
“You can see in the dark then?”
“Of course! Can’t you?” Vevin didn’t even try to whisper that time.
Tathan sighed. “No. I can’t see in the dark.”
“Oh! Here, let me help.” Vevin’s purple flame appeared again. It split into twenty that settled along the ceiling of the cave. They illuminated everything with an eerie purple light. “There you are!” Vevin did a little dance.
Tathan sighed and looked around. It was a natural cave, but eight stone buttresses braced the ceiling to keep the building above from falling. The air was thick with moisture. He could see and smell moss growing on the walls. A stream ran along the southwestern side, disappearing into the floor. In the middle of the cave was the altar Vevin had mentioned.
“Oh! I do like it!” Vevin jumped into the air and did a few somersaults interspersed with the dancing. “I could make this home if it has a bigger entrance.” Then he stopped. “We need to see what’s below us first. Shall we?”
Liselle looked around. “You want to live in a cave, Vevin?”
“Oh yes! It’s a wonderful cave. It’s warm and humid and there’s a stream running through it too. We just need a big entrance and it will be perfect.”
Tathan walked toward the altar. “Why do you need a big entrance Vevin?”
“Well, you always need a big entrance if you’re going to live in a cave.” He rolled his eyes, making a wave run around the liquid-silver.
Tathan sighed. There was something on the altar. He examined the base for traps or hidden danger. Then he stepped on the moss covered step leading up to it and discovered bones.
“A skeleton?” Liselle came up behind him. “I’ve never seen one before. Is it dangerous?”
“Only if it’s moving and trying to kill you,” Tathan said in all seriousness. “This one seems to be truly dead though.” It wasn’t a formed skeleton, so much as assorted bones lying on the altar. There may have been clothing or other things on it at one time, but if so, they had decayed.
“There’s a ring on one of the fingers.” Liselle pointed at a finger bone in the middle of the ribs.
When she reached for it, Tathan put a hand out to stop her. “If it’s been here this long when all else has decayed, then it’s probably magical, perhaps even cursed.”
“It’s not cursed.” Vevin danced past, casting an uninterested glance at the bones.
Tathan folded his arms. “How do you know that?”
“Because it’s not cursed.” His shrug implied Tathan was being silly. He went over to examine the stream.
“We probably shouldn’t touch it anyway.” Liselle gestured to the body and altar. “It was obviously an important person. The Gods might become upset if we disturb it.”
Tathan stared at her in horror.
She held her arms out to the side. “What?”
“You’re one of those.”
“One of what?” Her brow furrowed in confusion.
“One of those ‘Don’t take things off of dead bodies because it’s bad and might be wrong’ type of people.”
Liselle threw her hands up in exasperation. “You said when we burned the warriors that we should respect other people’s customs. Shouldn’t we respect the skeleton’s customs?”
“That’s different.” Tathan held a finger up in the air. “I’m sure customs were observed when it was placed there, so that’s all taken care of. Now there’s just a skeleton with a valuable ring sitting in an abandoned cave in an abandoned city, so it’s acceptable to procure it.” He finished with a decisive nod.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t like it if someone took something off my parent’s bodies.” She brushed that memory aside with a wave of a hand. “Vevin!”
Vevin took an unnatural leap back to the altar.
Tathan jumped and reached for his sword, but managed to restrain himself from drawing it.
Liselle asked, “Is it acceptable for us to take the ring, or is it sacrilege?”
Vevin reached out and slid the ring off the
finger bone, which cracked and fell to pieces. He handed the ring to her. “The bones don’t need it. It would be sacrilege for it never to be used again.”
She looked at the ring in her hand, then at the bones, and then at Tathan. “Well, there you go. It’s not sacrilege.” Liselle put it on the ring finger of her right hand.
Tathan gasped and reached out to stop her, but was too late. He stood there waiting to see what would happen, eyes wide.
Liselle looked down at the ring. There was a round diamond set into the top with a ruby on each side. The ring itself was gold with interwoven designs.
Nothing happened. She didn’t turn inside out or start speaking in tongues. The ring fit her perfectly, which was normal since magical rings tended to fit their wearer automatically.
“Can you take it off?” Tathan asked.
She took the ring off then put it back on. “Yes. I don’t feel any different when it’s on. I think it’s safe.”
He took her hand and studied the ring. “The designs are some sort of rune, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”
“You seem to be seeing a lot of things you’ve never seen before, Cousin,” she said with a teasing smile.
“Yes, I suppose so.” Tathan chuckled. “Promise me you’ll be more careful when dealing with magic or unknown things, Liselle.”
“I will, Tathan. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. Also, be careful not to show that in civilization. It’s worth a great deal of money, not just because of the magic, but the gold and gems as well.”
“Oh, all right. I will.” She looked down at it with new admiration.
“Aha! I found the way down, and it’s very big!” Vevin was, of course, dancing in excitement.
Rojuun Page 17