The Cave Maze- Wizard Warrior Quest

by C A A Allen

  I figured their gathering had something to do with treasure. “Pardon me Sir. Castillo.”

  He looked up at us briefly then returned his attention to the thief at work. “No, no, no! The third rivet, then yank.”

  “Sir. Castillo, my name is Raff Orcslaughter and I—”

  Castillo clinched his fists and looked at me with bulging eyes. “You sons a bitches got my top thief and only sniffer killed. Bonnaroo was my closest friend, and the best chest opener I have ever quested with. Thanks to you, all I’m left with is this stank, sniveling, non-chest opining runt of a thief you see right here.”

  The thief turned her head and glared up at Castillo. Her wart-littered face revealed some faint dwarf-like features. A thin stream of yellowish mucus ran from her black-tooth ridden mouth.

  Dread could open that chest in half a heartbeat, but I wasn’t about to make that common knowledge. Not unless it gained us something.

  Castello kicked the thief hard in the back. “Get back to work Gnarly! Your condolences are unwelcome here Raff Orcslaughter. Now get the hell away from my camp.”

  Chawett stepped up to Castello. “We fell down a pit to these depths and need to join up with your team to get out of the Maze. We’ll help fight off anything encountered on the way up.”

  “And we have a mighty fine thief,” I pointed out.

  Castillo chuckled mockingly. “Chawett Loinchop, I should have known your half-ass, no magic-casting, rat-soup eating self would be with these non-accredited questers. Hell no! There is no way I would let you fools piggyback on us. You’ll just end up getting more of my men killed.”

  Gnarly yanked her nail and the treasure chest popped open. All eyes turned to the shiny gold immersed in crystal clear water inside.

  Castillo motioned to one of his fighters. “Fergus, take this gold and add it to my pile.”

  Just as Fergus was about to reach both hands in, Dread pushed him aside. He picked up one end of the chest and dumped its entire contents.

  Razor-toothed maggots scrambled from the spill searching for victims. Everyone scattered to avoid the chomping pests. Some of the maggots dug into the ground, others were squashed under heavy boots.

  After crushing a few of the dangerous maggots Fergus looked at his hands. He then looked at Dread. “Thanks for that, thief. I’d be maggot food if it weren’t for you.”

  Castillo righted the chest and slammed it shut. “Leave my camp! If I catch any of you following us on the way out I will have your whole team murdered. Now go on, get out of here.”

  Gnarly grunted and kicked dirt at us as we walked away.

  Castillo laughed out loud. “That’s right Gnarly, get them out of my face!”

  We set up camp in the opposite corner of the room from Castillo and his men. Dread broke up the shield bench to use as wood for a fire. We all took a seat around it. The warmth brought the only comfort in this forsaken section of the cave. I tried not to think about everything that just happened.

  Tigress cuddled Mustela in her lap. “We need a plan.”

  Chawett rubbed his hands together in an attempt to create a lava sphere. “Nothing. I’ve exhausted all my useful spell power. We will be dead long before it regenerates, and that’s if it regenerates. I’m only a five-finger magic user now.”

  Dread elevated his leg on a rock and rubbed his knee. “I could really use that bottle of green fairy from the orc captain’s room to sooth my leg.”

  Chawett held up his bad hand and flicked flakes of char off the tips of his nubs. “I’ve seen a lot of betrayals in this Maze, but what Chaz did was extra ugly. With that ring on my finger we could have fought our way out of just about anything. And then there’s the gold, we could have used what little we did have to pay Castillo to take us to the top. Now we have nothing to barter with. And nothing from nothing leaves nothing. Two questers per level deep is the standard survival rule for questing. We’re a five-man team in the deepest depths. This is a death sentence.”

  I did my best to get comfortable on the hard dirt floor. “We’ve survived everything the Maze has thrown at us so far and overcame some nasty stuff. Let’s try and get a little rest. We’ll have to come up with an exit strategy before Castillo’s team leaves here.”

  It seemed as if I had just fell asleep when I got a push in the ribs. I jumped up quick to find Gnarly standing directly in front of me.

  CHAPTER 23

  “Castillo has a proposition for you all,” Gnarly squeaked. I put my hand over my mouth and nose to block the foul smell of her tart breath. “Come with me. All of you.”

  Propositions. I liked propositions, especially when our other options amounted to a big fat zero.

  Dread stood next to me and put his finger in Gnarly’s face. “Your breath smells like a bucket of rancid ogre armpits Gnarly. You need to go chew on some mint leaves or something.”

  Gnarly grunted and spun around. “Come with me, a proposition awaits you.”

  Castillo watched us approach with a crooked smile. “My team member Fergus here came up with an idea that can possibly save your people Raff. He tells me your thief took a few of my team members for quite a bit of gold at the shell game back in Trosworth. It’s because of his supposed skill at the game that I am willing to offer you a deal. If he can solve Les Trois Perdants, and provide me with its prize, we will safely escort your team up to the Entry Cave.”

  “So Les Trois Perdants really exists,” mumbled Dread.

  “What exactly is Les Trois Perdants?” Tigress scratched Mustela behind the ears.

  “I know all about it,” Chawett said. “Word is there are three identical treasure chests floating above a bottomless pit. Two chests empty, one loaded with gold. An unstable earthen plank reaches out over the pit with three rocks at the end. Step to the rocks and the chests will shut and shuffle. Once they settle you throw a rock at the chest containing gold. If you hit the correct one it will float down to deliver you its ample bounty.”

  Castillo laughed. “Throw a rock at the incorrect one and the chests, along with the plank, and yourself, drop into the pit. This is a one-time offer. If you say no, that’s it. Once the chests fall they don’t reset for over a year, so you will need to make this count. Do we have a deal?”

  “Picking the correct chest won’t be a problem for Dread,” I said. “In addition to the escort out of the Maze we want a fifty-fifty split of the gold. Do we have a deal?”

  Castillo’s head snapped to the left where he stared unblinking at one of his younger questers. The young man took a slow step back. “Uhh, he actually did just say that boss. That man said he wants a fifty-fifty split.”

  Castillo’s head whipped back to me. “There will be absolutely no cut. This was going to be Bonnaroo’s job until you got him killed. An escort to the mouth of the Entry Cave is all I offer. The complete contents of the chest go to me.”

  “No pay, no play,” I said. “We don’t have a deal.” I ignored the glares from my team. Sure, we were desperate, but we weren’t going to risk our lives to escape this place with nothing. Dread was the thief. Me? I could haggle ‘til all the world’s mead dried up.

  “Have it your way Raff,” Castillo said calmly. “Gnarly! It’s time for you to walk the Les Trois Perdants plank.”

  “We’ll take the deal,” Dread said. “Show me to the chests.”

  I ran a hand over my face. Why did Dread have to step in and mess-up our chances for a payout?

  “I thought you would see it my way,” Castillo said. “Follow me.”

  We trailed behind Castillo and a contingent of his men. The line of guards followed us toward the dark end of the arena. I gave Dread a shove at his shoulder. “Our team members don’t do that free stuff Dread.”

  “I know this,” he said. “But we have no choice. Chawett, what more do I need to know about the Perdants?”

  “I’ve never heard of any quester picking correctly,” Chawett said. “Are you sure about doing this? You got the part about a bottomless pit right?” />
  Dread clapped his hands. “I’ve seen Bonnaroo do his thing at the shell game before. He was very good, but I’m better than him. If Bonnaroo thought he could do this, then I know I can.”

  “Light up my nemesis!” Castillo bellowed out.

  Fighters on either end of the room dipped their torches into large circular pits. Flames erupted lighting the area.

  Three large chests bobbled slightly in midair. A blinding yellow glow resonated from the shimmering treasure stashed in the middle one.

  Tigress’ mouth dropped “Wow, there has got to be over ten thousand gold coins in that thing.”

  I grit my teeth. Ten thousand gold coins that would all go to Castillo.

  Castillo and his men took up positions along the pits edge. Dread stood at where the plank began and surveyed the area. He then sauntered up it to the three rocks at the end. At once, all three chests slammed shut.

  Tigress took my hand and squeezed tight. “You can do it Dread.”

  The gold-bearing chest slowly switched places with the chest on the right. After a brief pause, it circled over and switched with the chest on the far left and stopped.

  “My gold says he’s in the pit,” hollered one of Castillo’s men.

  “I like the cut of the thief’s jib,” said another. “I’m taking all bets!” He got mobbed with takers.

  Dread did not take his eyes off the chests. He nodded and made a hand gesture for everyone to be quiet. The chests whipped around each other. They spun faster and faster in a confusing switching flurry. Slowly they came to a stop.

  After a moment of silence one of Castillo’s men yelled out. “It’s the chest on the right!”

  “No, no!” Another man yelled. “It’s the middle chest! The middle chest is the one!”

  Tigress bounced up and down. “Witch one do you think has the gold Raff?”

  “I couldn’t tell you,” I said. “They were moving stupidly fast.”

  The plank started to shake slightly as Dread contemplated our fate.

  “Study long, study wrong!” a quester squawked. “Come on thief! Pick a chest!”

  Castillo waved his hands in a panic. “Throw a rock before the plank breaks up you fool! Do something now!”

  Dread picked up a rock and threw it at the chest on the right, it popped open upon impact to reveal the gold.

  “He chose correct!” I said.

  Dread turned around sporting a huge smile. “Yah that! I’m the king at this game!” The chest slammed shut behind him.

  Dread slipped to one knee nearly falling off the plank. His head spun back around to the chest. “What’s this?”

  The chests once again began to shuffle.

  “That’s a good start thief,” Castillo hollered. “You got to choose correct three times to get the prize!”

  Thick frosty white snow flurries steamed up from the pit. The arena’s temperature instantly dropped to a shivering cold.

  I stepped to the pit’s edge and peered into the confusion. “Now that’s just foul. Talhoffer is way dirty for that right there. I can hardly see a thing.”

  The chests spun around each other this time faster than before. The motion created a furious twisting blizzard in the freezing steam. The whole mess looked like a swirling white and brown tornado of chaos. Once again the chests slowed to a stop. The plank buckled down a notch and started shaking.

  Dread snatched up the second rock. “Sometimes you got to let your nuts hang!” He threw the rock toward the chest on the left. It got hit and sprung open to once again reveal the gold.

  “That’s my cousin!” I yell. “One more time Dread. You can do it.”

  The chest closed and began to shuffle with the others. They spun and moved up and down in a lightning fast crisscross pattern. The room dropped further in temperature. Condensation below Dread’s feet began to freeze turning it into an ice sheet. He slipped around, but didn’t take his eyes off the chests.

  “This is it!” Castillo yelled. “Be quick, that plank won’t be under your feet for much longer.”

  As soon as the chests came to a stop the plank cracked. Dread reached for the final stone but it popped away and slid backward down the icy shuddering plank. Dread dived for the stone, picked it up on the slide, and sent it zinging toward the chests. The projectile ricocheted off the top right corner of the middle chest then popped up in a high arch before landing on top of the chest on the right. The snow flurries then blasted the pit so thick they engulfed all the chests into a white out. The whole arena began to rumble.

  Dread slid out of the fog. The plank collapsed behind him with a crash down into the pit. “Did I hit the right one?”

  “You hit two different ones,” I said. “I can’t see what the chests are doing through all that fog.”

  “What’s happening up there?” Castillo yelled. “Did he hit the correct chest? Somebody answer me!”

  Several of Castillo’s questers leaned over the pit’s edge trying to confirm the outcome. The entire arena suddenly took a deep drop then bounced and tilted. I fell to all fours on instinct, flattening myself against the ground. Two of Castillos questers fell into the pit. Several other men got knocked down and slid into walls. Others ran to the back of the arena in search of stable ground.

  Chawett and Tigress were close enough to the walls that the tilt didn’t affect them much.

  Dread tried to stand up but fell in the shaking. “Did I choose right? Did I?”

  Castillo stood firm through the rumble. He looked steadfast into the air above the pit. The shaking stopped and a chest soared out of the mist. It slammed down and spilt a flowing tsunami of gold coins across the ground.

  Castillo ran to the spillage, dropped to his knees, and cascaded the gold through his fingers. “Ha, ha, haaaa! You bootless questers have officially acquired an escort out of the Maze!”

  Tigress ran into Dread giving him a big hug. “You did it!”

  Mustela pranced from Tigress’s shoulder onto Dread’s, swirled around his neck and dooked.

  My desire for the gold didn’t hold a candle to my relief at Dread’s safety.

  Dread dusted himself off and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Nothing to it family, you already know the shell game is what I do.”

  CHAPTER 24

  We packed our things and took a position at the rear of Castillo’s team. After traveling up five winding levels we came to a stop.

  Fergus came sliding backward across the ground.

  A quester ran up on him with balled up fists. He stared down Fergus with one eye, the other wondered upward. “Why the hell do I have to wear a blindfold? I just killed three orcs, and took a scorching hounds bite in the ass for that man. As a matter of fact this is my third run in with Castillo. I can be can trusted!” He spat on the ground in our direction. “You can’t treat me like these losers.”

  Castillo appeared behind the man, grabbed a wall torch, and clubbed him in the back of the head. He dropped to the ground and rolled, trying to knock burning embers from his hair. “Your ass not the only thing scorching is it Cockeye? Blindfold him before he gets left behind. And double blind fold team Beeston here.”

  A short walk later I heard what sounded like a large stone being moved. Then, still blindfolded, we ascended a tight spiral staircase at least three levels, maybe four. I attempted to count the turns, rises, and switchbacks, but my memory didn’t cooperate. Besides, it’d be a long time before I wanted to descend to level thirteen again.

  Once again I heard the sound of a large stone being moved. A short walk later the blindfolds are removed. Five more levels of confusing twists and turns had us out of the main entry cave, the sun directly overhead.

  Blindfolds were removed.

  Noon. I’d almost forgotten the luxury of sunlight. Tall trees surrounded us, breaking only to allow a dusty trail to lead to the Maze entrance. I took a deep breath. “The fresh air of Broxington’s Light Woods has never smelt so good.”

  “It don’t smell that good to me,” D
read said. “By my calculations we are two days away from Beeston. That puts us one day behind our deadline with Joe. Not that it matters, we have no huo-yao, and no gold to buy any.”

  After what we’d just been through, a run-in with Joe didn’t intimidate me one bit. We followed Castillo’s team down the Elfin Toll Road to the point of toll collection. A stone arch spans the road where several elf’s stand guard. From the back of the procession I watch some negotiating between Castillo and the elf leader. Without looking back Castillo gave a wave to proceed, and walked off with the elf leader laughing loudly.

  As we approach the arch an elf advanced on us with a few of his band. He looked us over then spoke with Tigress in a notably grumpy version of the elfin language.

  “We have a problem,” Tigress said. “The elves require payment for us to continue down their road. When I told him we have none he directed me to the Trollebotten Path.”

  Castillo didn’t pay our way? I assumed that was part of our deal.

  Chawett ground his teeth and shook his head. “This time of year the Trollebotten Path is infested with trolls. We might as well still be stuck back in the Maze if we have to take that route back. It will be dark by the time we reach the halfway point, the amount of trolls triple on that path at night.”

  “Castillo!” I yelled out. “We need to talk!”

  Castillo and Gnarly came over to the arch where they stopped just before going under it. “My time is short,” Castillo said. “What is it now Orcslaughter?”

  “We need some of that perdants gold we acquired together to pay this toll.”

  Castillo looked at the elf leader and smirked. He pushed his finger into my chest. “Our deal was to bring your so-called questing team to the mouth of the entry cave. Nothing was said about the toll road, but I do have a proposition for you. Gnarly here needs a sniffer, I will pay your team’s toll in trade for yours.”

  Gnarly reached her hands toward Mustela, who hissed and ducked behind Tigress’ neck and hair.