The Obsidian Cube, Book 1: An Unknown Past

by Mark Mulle

says you went down into the caves, so I thought you are stupidly brave; now I find you barricading your door and hiding in a corner like a little kid?”

  Steve saw that behind her it was day already. The fear that had gripped him all night was wearing off, and he began to think he might have fallen asleep after all in his corner. He was certain, however, that the man with the glowing eyes had not been a dream.

  “Did you see…anything?” he asked.

  She raised her eyebrows quizzically.

  “Well, I’m not blind.”

  “You know what I mean!” he snapped, not in the mood for jokes. “Anything weird or creepy?”

  “Not before just now when I got here,” she said.

  Steve retrieved the cobblestone blocks, went out the door, and looked over at the hill. It was empty now.

  Alex followed him out, looking more concerned by the moment.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I…I saw something last night,” he said. “These eyes…”

  Alex blanched.

  “Purple eyes?”

  “No,” said Steve. “No, white.”

  She frowned at him.

  “You sure they weren’t purple?”

  “I’m not colorblind; I know the difference. Besides, I’m not going to forget those in a hurry.”

  “Well, I don’t know about any Mobs with glowing white eyes,” she said with a shrug.

  He turned back to her.

  “Why did you think they must be purple?”

  Alex shivered.

  “There are these…things. You don’t see them too often, but…well, let’s just say that if you ever do see glowing purple eyes anywhere, especially at night, don’t look at them.”

  “If I don’t look at them, how will I see them?”

  “Don’t look directly at them; don’t make eye contact, don’t focus on them,” she said. “Whatever you do, just ignore them.”

  Now Steve was starting to shiver.

  “Why not? What are they?”

  Alex looked around nervously and shook her head.

  “I really don’t want to talk about Them. Even Draugr knows better than to get in Their way.”

  Steve was more confused than ever. He wished she would just tell him instead of being so ominously vague about it.

  “So, anyway,” she said. “What about these white eyes?”

  Steve told her, as well as he could, about the uncanny experience of the previous evening. Alex listened with a confused frown on her face. When he was finished, she said frankly that she had no idea, and suggested they go ask Remin about it. Remin, however, had never heard of such a being either, and with no further avenue of inquiry, Steve was forced to let the issue drop.

  “Besides,” said Alex. “If all he did was stare at you, I’ve faced worse.”

  “No,” said Steve grimly. “You haven’t.”

  Though the man with the glowing eyes never left his mind for long, Steve nevertheless set to work on the plans he had conceived of the night before. It turned out that smelting the iron ore in his furnace produced handy iron ingots, which he used to craft a sword, a pick, and a helmet and breastplate for himself. The sword and pick were both far sharper and stronger than any stone tool, and Steve found himself almost wishing for another round with Draugr’s troops just to be able to test his metal.

  His next task, as he saw it, was to construct a wall around the village to make things a little harder for the zombies and skeletons the next time they came to call. It was a fairly minor construction; only four blocks high, with a door facing north and south and lined on both sides with torches, but it made Remin and his people feel considerably safer. Steve even included steps on the inner surface so that he and Alex could climb up and harass any attackers.

  Though the wall was relatively crude and minor, Steve still needed to dig up a hefty supply of stone. Rather than trek back into the dangerous caverns for this, he’d simply made a quarry for himself in some open land south of the village. In the process, he had also found more coal, iron, and even some whitish stone called diorite, which didn’t seem to be of much use at the moment, but he kept it anyway.

  To hold his growing supplies, Steve needed more chests, and, more importantly, a stronger house. So, once he finished the wall, he set to work laying the foundations of a house made of solid stone, and on a much larger scale than his last one. And even this, he thought, would be only a temporary measure; his dreams were expanding all the time.

  During all of this, Alex helped some, but mostly kept out of his way. She wasn’t all that interested in mining, even after he made her an iron sword, which she accepted, but said categorically that she did not want any iron armor.

  “I like this stuff,” she said, tapping her leather tunic. “It feels nice and…me.”

  “Maybe, but it’s not as good at keeping the arrows out of you.”

  “I’ve lived this long,” she said, but Steve caught a doubtful look in her eyes.

  “You want to take it just in case?”

  “No, keep it for when that one wears out. There’s something else I’ve been worried about.”

  “What’s that?”

  They stood on the half-finished wall of Steve’s new house. Alex gazed eastward at the hazy outline of the mountains where the Mobs lurked.

  “How many days has it been since you arrived?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I’ve lost count.”

  “Me too,” she said. “But whatever it is, it’s the same time since the last raid. And it’s a heck of a lot longer than it’s ever been before.”

  Steve looked at her, frowning.

  “Longer than what’s ever been?”

  “The time between raids,” she said. “Draugr hasn’t bothered the village since the night you showed up. He’s never held off that long before. Usually, three or four days is the max. Now he’s sat back and given us time to build that wall and find this iron and all that stuff.”

  “Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” asked Steve.

  “No!” she said. “If he’s holding back, he has a reason, and if he let us build that wall and stuff without even sending a few zombies to harass us, that means he’s obviously not bothered by it.”

  This was a view of the situation that Steve had never considered before. And one which, frankly, he wished she had brought up a little earlier.

  “You said he didn’t really care about the village,” he reminded her. “Maybe with two of us here, and the wall and all, he just doesn’t think it’s worth the effort?”

  She shook her head.

  “You don’t know him like I do,” she said. “Maybe raiding the village was just a lark before, but the harder it gets, the more important it’ll be to him. He’ll see it as a challenge; a way to prove how much better he is than us. No, he’ll be coming sometime, but the longer he delays, the more worried I get, because that means he wants us to be prepared; he wants us to think that we can take him, so that then he can rub it in our faces after he’s won!”

  As she spoke, she grew more and more agitated, until by the time she finished, she was practically snarling. Steve stared at her.

  “You…haven’t just been keeping him away from the village, have you?” he said gently. “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”

  She grunted but didn’t answer.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” she said, in a tone that he didn’t believe for an instant.

  “Look, if we’re going to do this, I ought to know…”

  “It doesn’t matter!” she snapped. “Just drop it!”

  She hopped down from the wall and stalked away, back in the direction of her own house.

  Steve frowned after her. He’d never seen her like that before; usually she acted as if she could take on the world without breaking a sweat. Whatever had happened between her and the Skeleton King, it had been something truly terrible; something that scared him even to contemplate.

  B
ut that would have to wait. First, he had to think about what it meant if Alex was so convinced that Draugr could still roll right over them if he wanted. That also raised the question of why he was so interested in the area in the first place. Alex had said he was after something. Whatever it was, Steve had a suspicion that it wouldn’t inspire Draugr to adopt a life of peaceful seclusion or set off in search of the Far Lands.

  They needed more information. And he had a feeling he knew where to find it.

  Ever since his trip into the caves, Steve had been haunted by the image of that vast underground cavern. The more he considered it, the more he felt certain that there was something about it that was off. Something that he needed to investigate further. He had planned on finishing up his new house first, but after his conversation with Alex, he thought he’d better do it sooner rather than later.

  With his new sword, armor, pick, and two whole stacks of torches, Steve returned to the cave entrance, where his torches still glowed brightly, illuminating the way down into the Earth. He crept down the sloping tunnel, listening for any faint sound of pursuit.

  He reached the ledge of the ravine without encountering any Mobs, but he did not immediately descend. Instead, he knelt at the edge and looked about him, trying to see what had so disturbed him the last time.

  Of course, the sheer size of the space was daunting; it soared overhead to an unseen roof and plunged below into a vast depth; at least twenty blocks below him. But it was more than the size or the ominous darkness that filled the space that disturbed him. He sensed that this place held dark secrets of which he could conceive no faintest image, unless he was to descend and seek them out.

  With no other choice, he took out his