Lost City

by Jeffrey Poole

  The blow never came.

  “You’re right, of course,” Kasnar admitted. “There were times that I… you’re falling behind. Hurry! Don’t let my grandson out of your sight!”

  “Sorry.”

  “As I was saying, there were times when I was allowed out. Rahygren knew that the more knowledge I had at my disposal, the more apt I was to discover the secrets of the armor’s impenetrability. I was escorted to the library so many times that I started memorizing the layout of the city every time I left the palace.”

  “How well do you know the palace?”

  “Better than most,” Kasnar replied cryptically.

  “What do you think Rahygren is after?”

  Kasnar sighed and suppressed a shudder. “If only you knew some of the advances the Narians made. As the value of their armor continued to increase, they were forced to come up with ways to protect themselves. And let me tell you, the Narians were a very creative people. More and more powerful weapons were created. Some could utilize sounds to shatter stone, as you have unfortunately witnessed. Thankfully our own tone disruptor was a newer model than what Rahygren had. Breslin only had to hold his hammer next to it for the helix to power the device.”

  “How did you know it’d do that?” Venk asked. His lungs felt like they were on fire.

  “I didn’t. I saw several lights appear on the device whenever Breslin neared. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the disruptor needed a power source. The power hammer had a helix, therefore it had a power source.”

  They rounded a corner and came to a halt when they saw Breslin squatting next to an open doorway. He held up his hand then put a finger to his lips. He silently pointed through the door and mouthed ‘Rahygren’.

  Venk nodded. He automatically reached behind his head to grab his crossbow but instead punched Kasnar in the eye. Venk sighed and waited for the inevitable. Three seconds later, after the shock had worn off, Kasnar pulled himself halfway out of the harness and leaned forward to better glare at his steed. Giving Venk a look which clearly said they would be revisiting this particular argument in the not-so-distant future, he lowered himself back into his harness and waited.

  Breslin motioned Venk over and kept a finger to his lips. He forked his fingers at his eyes and then pointed into the room. Venk slowly leaned forward to look in. It was another of the security checkpoints, and this door wasn’t closed, it was open. More specifically, it was wedged open much the same as the palace door had been. Rahygren was doing his best to dislodge whatever he had used to prop the door open, and just like they had experienced earlier, the crumpled object refused to cooperate. Breslin gripped the power hammer in his right hand and held his red axe with his left.

  “We end this,” Breslin softly told Venk. His eyes widened as he saw that the two of them were alone. “Where’s Athos and Lukas? Where’s Tristofer?”

  “Athos tripped while carrying Lukas and went down, taking Tristofer with them. I saw them. They’re fine. They should be here at any minute.”

  Breslin tiptoed into the room while Venk and Kasnar watched quietly from the doorway. This was too easy. Rahygren was so busy trying to pull whatever it was he had crammed in between the door and frame that he never noticed Breslin silently approaching from behind. Just in case things went wrong, Venk pulled the handheld arrow shooter from his belt and held it tightly in both hands.

  Unfortunately, this was the time that his brother and his son arrived, followed closely by the scholar. Wheezing loudly, Tristofer coughed noisily. Rahygren, alerted to their presence, spun around and reacted instantly. Their adversary unclipped something from his right forearm and pointed it straight at Breslin.

  The device belched out a large, gray mass and as it flew toward Breslin it rapidly spread out. It was a net! Breslin had seen Rahygren fire the weapon and had instantly dropped to the ground. Unfortunately for Venk and Kasnar, they were directly in the line of fire.

  The net hit them square on, and before Venk could let a choice profanity fly, or fire a shot from his arrow shooter, he and Kasnar found themselves completely immobilized as the ends of the net burrowed deep into the surrounding stone and held them tight.

  “Is it me or is this net getting tighter?” Kasnar suddenly asked, worry evident in his tone. The wizened little fellow had crouched down in his harness, which brought his head down below Venk’s shoulders. The two of them were pressed tightly against one another, and with the net continuing to constrict around them, found themselves being forcibly flattened against the wall.

  “Quick, cut them loose!” Athos snapped to Tristofer as he whipped out a dagger. He grabbed one of the strands and swiped his knife across it, expecting the net to part right down the middle. It didn’t.

  “My dagger is ineffective!” Tristofer cried. He was raking his dagger against the strands and might as well have been trying to cut through solid steel.

  Breslin regained his feet and turned to look back through the doorway at his companions. He saw Athos frantically sawing away at the net while Tristofer searched through his possessions for something that would be successful in freeing his friends. A commotion started just to the left, causing Breslin to look back at Venk. The metal wrist band, given to them by Kasnar, had activated. Miniature metal squares unfolded from the metal bracelet and snapped into position, forming the large metal square he had seen earlier during the demonstration with Tristofer. Thankfully the net’s constrictions were thwarted by the large plate of Narian metal which bowed down the middle but refused to break. The net ground to a halt and held them helplessly against the wall.

  By this time Rahygren had managed to dislodge whatever it was that had prevented the door from closing and hurried through.

  “We’re fine!” Venk called out to Breslin. “Get after him! Athos, go with him.”

  “I have to look after Lukas,” Athos protested, casting a worried glance at his nephew. “I cannot leave an underling alone in the –”

  “I’ll look after him,” Tristofer calmly told him. “Leave this net to me. Go help Breslin.”

  With a final look at his immobilized brother, Athos ran towards the sealed door just as Breslin held the hammer up to the jewel. The door creaked open.

  “Stop him at all costs!” Kasnar shouted to them.

  Both of them nodded and disappeared through the door.

  “Another hallway,” Breslin muttered crossly. “Who would have imagined it?”

  “Where do you think we are?” Athos whispered.

  “Maybe a barracks of some sort?” Breslin suggested. He peered closely at the large hall and looked worriedly at his companion. With a hall such as this, and since it was already illuminated, there was no telling which door Rahygren might be hiding behind.

  “What now?” Athos wanted to know. “There are doors everywhere. He could be hiding in any of those rooms. How do we know where to look?”

  Breslin pointed up at the ceiling. “See the chains up there? They’re already lit. That would indicate Rahygren has passed by. As long as the hallway is lit, we move forward.”

  Athos grunted in acknowledgement.

  Breslin counted sixty doors, thirty on each side, before they finally rounded a corner and saw that the lights in the hall had faded to darkness in the distance.

  “He’s nearby,” Breslin whispered. “Be ready.”

  “What do you think?” Athos asked. “Does he flee or is he trying to find a way to fight?”

  Breslin thought for a moment. “Personally I think he’s looking for a weapon. The sensible thing to do is to flee, seeing how he knows he’s now outnumbered. The problem is I can’t imagine him wanting to give up the location of the city, not after all these years of taking what he wants and selling it to whomever will buy it. But what if there’s a third option? What if one of these rooms has a secret passageway that leads out? If anyone would know of such a passage, it’d be him.”

  Athos shrugged. “What if there’s a Narian princess behind one of those doors? What does
it matter? Whether he fights or flees, we must find him. Period.”

  Inching forward, stopping only to cautiously poke their heads into each room, they worked their way towards the dark end of the hallway. As they were checking another one of the featureless square rooms they both paused and looked at each other.

  “Do you hear that, too?” Athos asked. He pointed towards the door. “It’s coming from out there. What is it?”

  Breslin’s face had gone pale. He’d heard that noise before. It was one of the audio disruptors, like the one which had been used against them in the Narian king’s private chambers! They had to get out of there! Breslin spun on his heel, grabbed Athos by his arm, and pulled him out of the room.

  “What are you doing? We don’t want to be out in the open like this! We should get back in…”

  Athos trailed off as Rahygren appeared in a doorway about twenty feet away. He was holding another device, one that Breslin had instantly recognized. It was just like the device he had used to blast their way out of the hidden armory, and what was worse was the fact that this one was bigger. How had he powered it? Did he have one of the ruby whorls? He couldn’t have or else he could have made it through the doors without worrying about propping them open. Maybe this one still had a charge?

  Athos’ speculation was cut short as Rahygren made a few adjustments on the machine, pointed it in his direction, and grinned maliciously at the two of them. The whine the device was emitting increased in volume and began rising in pitch. Breslin was mesmerized as waves of distorted air began to appear over the machine, much like the distortion one would see from heat waves over a fire.

  Rahygren smiled evilly as he held out his index finger, pointed it down, and jabbed the machine with it, presumably over that which triggers the device. At the same time, both arm bands being worn by Breslin and Athos activated, and less than a second later had expanded to its full size. Holding his left arm up to receive the brunt of the audio waves, Breslin stepped in front of Athos and braced his left arm with his right. Wave after wave of tonal distortions slammed into him, shoving him backwards along the stony floor.

  Much to Rahygren’s chagrin, the Narian shield refused to buckle under the brutal assault. Such was the power of the device that it shoved Breslin backwards, into Athos, and then pushed the two of them into the closest room.

  Once the concentrated sound waves hit the tiny confines of the small square room, the walls began to crumble. Huge chunks of stone broke free from the walls and crashed to the ground, narrowly missing Breslin and Athos, who were still crouching behind their protective metal shields. Breslin was trying to brace the shield with his body to free up his right hand to get to his hammer when Rahygren suddenly aimed the device at the ceiling.

  The ceiling, already weakened by the destruction of several load bearing walls, broke apart and collapsed, burying Breslin and Athos under tons of rubble. Rahygren screamed with triumph and shut the machine off, pulling a set of earplugs out of his ears in the process. When the whine finally died down and the air cleared, Rahygren surveyed his handiwork.

  “To think you actually had me worried.” Rahygren carelessly let the device fall to the ground. “Good thing I still had a few of these tonal disruptors, as our friend Kasnar calls them, left. It’s getting progressively difficult to find one that still has some power left in it. Although they’re messy, I find them to be terribly handy.”

  Rahygren climbed to the top of a particularly large boulder and sat down on it as though he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Every hundred or so years someone manages to find my city. I guess I was due. Your little group are the first visitors I’ve had in about 150 years. I was starting to think people had given up trying to find Nar. Well, one can hope, can’t they?”

  Rahygren looked down at the large pile of rubble and kicked a small stone away from the rock he was sitting on.

  “I wonder how you people managed to find your way here. How did you get through the sealed doors? It must have something to do with that hammer. To think you made it all the way here only to fail now. I pity you. So let’s talk about that hammer. How in the world did you find an intact power hammer? Pah. It matters not. The hammer belongs to me now.”

  “Can you move?” Athos quietly whispered to Breslin.

  “No,” Breslin whispered back. “I can barely breathe.”

  Athos tried to shift his weight to his hip so that he could free up his arm, but thanks to the many tons of rock resting on them, neither could move an inch. Fortunately, both he and Breslin were wearing the Narian suits of armor, so no matter how many tons of rocks were piled upon them, they would never be in danger of being crushed to death. Pinned, yes, but never crushed.

  “Good thing you put that armor on,” Breslin whispered. “You’d be flatter than a piece of parchment right now if you hadn’t.”

  Above them, barely distinguishable through the broken rocks piled over them, they could hear Rahygren prattle on and on about how he was going to claim the hammer as his own, how he now had access to every part of the city and the palace thanks to the power of the helix embedded in the hammer. All thanks to their wonderful gift of the power hammer.

  “How do we get out of here?” Athos growled. “I need to personally shut him up.”

  “I can’t feel the hammer anymore,” Breslin realized. “I had gotten used to the feel of it on my belt. It’s not there! Of all the infernal luck!”

  Athos grunted from somewhere on his left.

  “I have more leverage than you, I think.”

  Breslin heard a slight scraping sound.

  “I can move my right arm,” Athos told him in hushed tones. “Not far, but I can feel around a bit.”

  Breslin heard more shuffling and scrapes as Athos forced his right arm to slide underneath a giant boulder that was sitting partly on his legs. Thanks to the armor, the massive stone wasn’t quite sitting flat upon the ground. A little more questing with his arm revealed a very welcoming touch. He could feel the tip of a wooden handle. It was the hammer!

  “I can feel it!” Athos whispered excitedly. “I don’t know how that’s going to help us as I lack the leverage to move it. Maybe if I…”

  Athos again tried to turn on his hip. This time he was partially successful as he was able to bring his right knee up closer to his chest. The rock pile shuffled noisily.

  “Quiet, you fool!” Breslin hissed. But it was too late.

  “You can’t possibly still be alive under all of that,” they heard Rahygren’s voice say. “You should be crushed flat with all that tonnage on you.”

  Ignoring Rahygren, Athos shifted his knee again. This time the tip of his boot came into contact with the cylindrical shaft of the hammer’s handle. Inexplicably, the hammer slid along the ground as though it weighed no more than a normal hammer.

  “The hammer moved!” Athos all but shouted. “How? Why?”

  “You’re touching me,” Breslin told him. “I believe my left hand is pinned under your…”

  “Don’t say it,” Athos sternly told him. “I’ve been trying my best to ignore that.”

  “Do you think you can get the hammer to me?”

  “Let me try.”

  Athos gently straightened his leg and felt along the floor to see if he could feel it again. Ah. There it was, almost out of reach.

  “You’d better hurry.”

  Athos hesitated. “Why?”

  “He knows we’re alive and he knows we’re going for the hammer. I believe he’s digging like mad to get to the hammer first.”

  Athos cursed and doubled his efforts. He managed to get his boot just under the head of the hammer.

  “Ready? I’m going to try and kick it over to you.”

  “I’m ready. Do it!”

  Athos kicked out as hard as he could, smashing his knee against his armor as the armor impacted with the large stone holding him in place. There just wasn’t enough leg room to kick properly. All he managed to do was give the hammer t
he gentlest of nudges. Thankfully, that was all that it took. The hammer handle was now resting just inside of Breslin’s left hand.

  Breslin’s fingers closed about the handle. He had just enough room to leverage the hammer up and tap the undersides of the huge rock pinning them in place. They heard the rock begin to break apart. Dust and debris filtered down through the rock pile and into their eyes and mouths. Figuring it was time to go all out, Breslin began hitting the rocks as hard as he could and with as much leverage as he had. While not much to work with, Breslin did notice that he was now able to move both arms. He kept tapping the hammer against the rocks, which obligingly kept breaking apart.

  Finally, the great boulder shattered into a thousand smaller pieces. A stream of rocks, large and small, cascaded down the pile towards he and Athos. Breslin finally stood. A single smash from the hammer pulverized the rest of the rocks that had been confining Athos to the ground.

  Rahygren let out a string of profanities as he saw Breslin once more wielding the power hammer. He dove over the rocks towards the door to scoop up his tonal disruptor. Before he could activate the device, though, Breslin threw the hammer straight at it and watched with satisfaction as the hammer smashed the device out of Rahygren’s hands and sailed through the open doorway, colliding into the wall out in the hallway beyond. Rahygren screamed with triumph as he saw the power hammer resting up against the wall amidst pieces of his disruptor.

  “You stupid fools! Now you’re finished!”

  Rahygren scooped the hammer up off the ground and was startled to discover he could barely lift the thing from the ground. The red helix had faded and was no longer glowing. The hammer felt clunky in his hands and felt like it was being pulled downward, as though the hammer wanted to be on the ground. Rahygren bared his teeth as he fought to raise the hammer into a defensive pose.

  “Hey!”

  The voice brought him back to reality. Rahygren snapped his gaze up to discover Athos standing directly before him, arm cocked. A split second later Athos’ gauntleted fist smashed into his face, breaking Rahygren’s nose and sending him straight into unconsciousness.