by Jamie Murray
"Now, no one let go of me," he warned. "At least not until we're all the way through."
Jameson faced the shimmering barrier again and took a giant step so he would land on the other side. He slid right through the barrier and, like before, he did not feel a thing. He glanced over at Luke who was coming next, and he also seemed unaffected, and then Cyrus and Louisa appeared equally astounded but unharmed.
Once they passed the barrier, it shimmered a bit more before it just turned invisible again.
"We're on the inside," Cyrus said, staring back at where they had begun.
"That wasn't so hard at all," Jameson said.
"This is something I've been trying to do for years!" said Luke, punching Jameson lightly in the shoulder. "Let's get to the Shrine."
"What are we going to do with the Shrine once we get there?" Cyrus asked.
"We'll figure it out," said Jameson.
"We're making it all up as we go along anyway," Louisa pointed out.
Jameson felt strangely childish and giddy that his plan had ended up working. Even though he was confident in how things would turn out, he never expected it all to be so clean and easily attainable. He removed the short sword from the sheath and made a dash for the Shrine's staircase which he used to play in during his childhood and, more recently, slay a gigantic creature attempting to kill the Rain Spirit with Louisa.
"What happens once we get inside?" Cyrus asked Louisa as they reached the top of the staircase and would now have to work together to get it open.
"Does it look like anyone's listening to me anyway?" Louisa frowned.
The massive doors looked just as they did when Jameson and Louisa had to open them, and Louisa made that same observation to Jameson as they approached it.
"Should you and I do it? For old time's sake?" Jameson offered with a laugh.
"You do it, Felix," Louisa said.
Cyrus didn't seem to have any objections to just getting it done so he got up and grabbed the door and began to pull. It was a considerably heavy door and, after a few awkward seconds passed, Jameson decided it would be polite to offer his services as well. Once Luke joined in, the door was easily opened all the way in an attempt to get as much light in as possible. Once the massive door was completely open, the small group took some steps back to observe their handiwork.
"What's inside it?" Cyrus asked.
"The Rain Spirit is dead," said Louisa. "But the Forces keep coming from it. There's got to be a reason why. So everyone spread out and look around. There's going to be clues around here somewhere."
The Shrine had many unlit torches lining the wall which would have certainly provided significant light if they were ignited. Luke used some flint and started one of them so he could hold it up and use it to see where he was going.
"Smart," Jameson commended.
"I'm just resourceful," Luke said proudly.
"Found anything yet?" Louisa said.
"We've hardly started looking," Cyrus pointed out.
Luke distributed the fire to other torches around the room to illuminate the space. Jameson took one of the torches off the wall and took it to one of the less lit corners, examining every bit they may have overlooked. He walked alongside the wall and came around the back of a large statue which had been knocked over. As he slowly approached the statue, he realized he recognized it; the Ancient Lorne. This was one of the first things Louisa had shown him ten years ago but when she had showed him, the statue was standing up.
Jameson knelt beside the statue. The Ancient Lorne's body from the waist up was still standing, but the shoulders and head were broken and laying several feet away. Jameson took a moment out of feeling bad about the desecration to realize something was off.
"If this Shrine is really where the monsters are coming from, where are the monsters?" Cyrus questioned.
"Louisa, is there another floor?" Jameson asked, standing up.
"Another floor?" Louisa said in a voice which clearly did not support this theory.
"A downstairs, maybe," Jameson suggested.
"I don't think so," Louisa said.
Jameson knelt down beside the statue again. "The Ancient's torso is missing."
"What do you mean?" Luke asked, coming over to where Jameson was kneeling.
"Look," Jameson said. "There's a piece of the statue missing. If it was knocked over, then shouldn't all of the statue be here?"
"Good point," Luke said, examining the floor skeptically.
"Careful," Cyrus advised, taking Luke by the shoulder and pulling him away.
"What?" said Luke.
"Watch," Cyrus said, picking up a small stone from the floor and tossing it to the floor beside the statue. Instead of hitting the floor, the stone disappeared and they heard the steady tapping which steadily grew fainter.
"It passed right through the floor!" Louisa exclaimed.
"I've seen this before," Cyrus said. "In Gislan. It's an illusion to disguise a staircase. Look."
Jameson stood up and backed away as Cyrus drew his sword and pointed the tip at the ground until he made contact. He progressively took small steps forward, using his sword to lead him, until the tip of the sword disappeared into the floor. Cyrus did not seem surprised and, instead, stepped right where the tip should have been. Naturally, his foot disappeared up to his ankle.
"Right here," Cyrus said. "Let me go first."
"No, I will," Jameson offered.
"It's all right," said Cyrus rather definitively. "I'll let you know if it's safe."
Finally, Jameson nodded and agreed. Cyrus faced forward and began to step down the invisible staircase, disappearing further into the floor until he was completely gone.
A few moments passed and, just when one of them was about to grow uncomfortable enough to call out for him, he said, "It's safe. Bring a light and come on down."
"Let me hold it," Louisa practically ordered Jameson who graciously handed over the torch. She was hesitant at first but also insisted on going before the others, probably out of apprehension of being the only one above ground. She, like Cyrus, disappeared into the ground.
"After you," Luke said to Jameson.
Jameson stepped around to where the first stair was and then blindly descended. He instinctively ducked his head when he was about to come in contact with the illusion of the floor, but the image was thin so he almost instantly was brought to a new place; a long and dark hallway which he could not see the end of. Louisa and Cyrus were both standing at the bottom of the stairs, examining the walls, so Jameson stepped over the Ancient Lorne's broken stone torso, and joined them in waiting for Luke.
"This is so weird," Louisa said, holding the torch up to the wall as Luke came down the staircase. "In all my years, I never knew this place existed."
"Where do you think it goes?" Luke said, holding up his own torch. "And what's all this covering the walls?"
"Looks like a plant," Cyrus remarked. "Not surprising in the Forest."
"I know this plant," Jameson said. "It's that same plant that attacked me yesterday."
"So don't go near it like an idiot, then," Louisa ordered.
"You're right," Luke observed. "This hallway is pretty narrow. Do you think we can get to the end without touching it?"
"I wish there was more light here…" Louisa said, sounding a little whiny.
Louisa insisted on carrying her torch, but of course she wouldn't go first. Luke led the way with the others following behind, keeping close eyes on the vines on the wall in case they started shifting.
Painful and silent minutes dragged by until they finally encountered a difference in the scenery. The hallway opened into a small circular room no bigger than Jameson home back in the village with a doorway on the other side which stretched all the way up to the ceiling. There were two stone pedestals in the middle of the room, framing the large door, each with an orb propped up on them similar to the orbs which had been in the room below Market City. The largest distinct difference was that thes
e orbs were not emitting any light.
The vines from the hallway crept all along the walls of the strange room as well, wrapping around the two pedestals in the middle of the room but strategically not touching the orbs. It looked very much like the vines were somehow constricting the stone, but none of them could make sense of it.
Louisa came out from behind Cyrus and raised the torch higher. "I don't get it," she remarked. "What is this place?"
"Where does that door lead?" Luke questioned.
"The only way to find out is to go through it," Jameson announced.
Confidently, he went right for the door, even though Louisa warned him not to. He reached the door and touched it lightly, but it was solid and did not offer any option of how to open it; there was no doorknob and there were no hinges.
Jameson turned and looked at the other three, then he glanced at both the pedestals. He pointed to the one on his right, then began moving towards it, saying, "There's something about these orbs—"
He was unable to finish because when he took his last step, his foot fell right through the floor. Jameson could barely hear Louisa yell at him as he free fell through the invisible floor and tumbled downwards.
Only halfway through his fall did Jameson realize someone else was falling along with him. He hit the ground hard, knocking the wind right out of him. For a few moments, he didn't think he would be able to move, but he let out a long exhale and pushed himself up, discovering Luke had landed in a similar discombobulated state a few feet next to him.
"Luke," Jameson began as Luke sat up as well, looking up at the ceiling with a less than enthusiastic expression. "What just happened?"
"I'm not sure," Luke admitted, putting a hand on his head. "I saw you start to fall and I just tried to catch you, but I think I fell through too."
"Obviously you did," Jameson said.
Luke reached for the torch which had clattered next to them, still ignited. "How far did we just fall?"
"I can't hear Cyrus and Louisa," said Jameson, getting to his feet. "Don't you think they would call down to us?"
Luke did a quick sweep of the room and it looked fairly standard in comparison to what they had encountered thus far with the vines and stone walls. "There's a staircase going up over here," Luke called to Jameson. "Since we fell, it only makes sense to go up."
20. That Was Me?
Chapter 20
Luke and Jameson climbed the staircase, moving slowly and cautiously at first. They reached a landing which only led to another set of stairs, so Luke glanced back at Jameson, expecting some kind of input.
"There's no place to go but up," Jameson said.
Luke nodded and started to turn, but then stopped. "Do you hear that?" he said quietly, raising the torch.
Jameson stopped, listened and unfortunately realized that he recognized the sound of vines moving and creeping. Luke held the torch up to the wall and Jameson's fears were affirmed when he saw the plants on the wall twitching ever so slightly, just as they did right before they had attacked him a day earlier.
"We have to get out of here and find Cyrus and Louisa before those things really wake up," Jameson said.
Luke didn't even have to say anything to agree as the two immediately began to run up the stairs. The sounds around them increased in volume and intensity so when Luke reached the next landing, the next staircase was barricaded by small branches attached to the wall. With every passing second, the branches intertwined, twisting and turning over one another. Jameson found himself initially mesmerized so he didn't react at first, but once he saw a branch from the wall reach out in Luke's direction, he snapped out of it.
He grabbed Luke and pulled him out of the vine's reach, though Luke was surprised and dropped the torch. It rolled to the corner of the room where it was quickly scooped up by several plants and muffled. For a few seconds, Luke and Jameson stood back to back in the darkness until Jameson discovered a faint glow coming from around his neck.
It gave him comfort to know there was power left in the stones. He whipped out his short sword and ordered Luke to arm himself but not to attack just yet. Luke took out an arrow and drew back his bow, waiting for Jameson's command.
"You have an idea?" Luke said.
"Half an idea," Jameson admitted.
"It'll work," Luke led.
"That's one of your arrows with a stone from the barrier," Jameson inferred hopefully.
"Yeah," Luke said, his voice barely raised above a whisper.
"Fire it up the staircase," Jameson said. "In the middle. It'll clear a path for us and we have to run through. We'll have seconds—at the most."
Luke lifted his bow up to eye level and concentrated on the staircase. Holding his breath, he unleashed the arrow in his desired direction, immediately taking off for the target with Jameson quick on his heels. The arrow pierced through the plants, causing them to retract as an echo of a bizarre shriek ricocheted off the walls. Jameson could feel the vines snapping at his feet as he wildly swung the sword, though was barely able to deal any damage with his limited range.
He didn't want to stop, but he had to pause a moment to cut a vine which had shot out from the wall. When he spun back around, he watched as several branches assaulted Luke, wrapping around his arms and legs simultaneously like it had all been planned, and then lifting him off the ground. Luke's yell was immediately stifled as a vine stretched across his mouth and his bow clattered to the ground.
Jameson attempted to dive forward to cut his friend loose, but as he raised his arm to fight, a vine grabbed his wrist and pulled him backwards. Jameson hit the staircase and tried to call to Luke, but he got no response. The vines began to constrict him again, just like they had the day before, except now Luke was not going to be able to rescue him. He struggled fruitlessly against the supreme force of the plants, barely able to see Luke doing the same thing, pinned against the wall.
As he lied there, slowly losing feeling in his fingertips, he imagined things which he could have done differently to bring him to a more successful conclusion to the personal mission but, in the end, when he closed his eyes, he only saw Meg's face. He thought of her asking to see him again and asking him not to run away, but he did it anyway. And, if he died here, then she would never know what happened to him and that was just unfair to her.
In one last ditch effort, Jameson remembered the potential of the stones. He tried to concentrate every bit of strength he had into channeling their power, knowing it was his and Luke's only chance for survival. His eyes opened and he could see it; the glow emitting from his neck, just barely peeking through the layers of plants and vines. At first, it was weak and didn't appear to have an effect, but the glow grew and became progressively brighter. The grip of the plants loosened parallel to the increase of light, and Jameson felt the light warming him as it happened.
Soon, he was able to sit up and wrench himself away from the planets. He picked up the discarded sword and went right for where the plants still clung to Luke against the wall and began to hack away at the vines. The light from the stones seemed to be doing more damage, however, as the plants shrieked from a distant voice and retracted, slowly releasing Luke and dropping him back to the floor.
Jameson caught his friend who did not move at first. He shook him slightly, and finally Luke coughed a breath and leaned over to catch himself on the stairs, shielding his eyes from the light Jameson was emitting.
"Come on, we can't wait," Jameson said, pulling Luke to his feet.
Luke nodded and scooped up his bow, stammering after Jameson as they climbed the staircase to the final landing. There was a small door with an old, broken lock, which Jameson started to struggle with, still haunted by the sound of vines shifting and crawling around them. He came to realize that only one of the six stones were glowing; the green Rain Stone.
"Jim—"
"Help me out here, Luke."
"I can't."
"You what?"
Jameson turned around to see Luke hu
nched over, cradling his arm and keeping his head pointed at the ground. Jameson knelt beside him and Luke looked up at him, revealing a large tear in his forearm which was bleeding profusely.
"You'll be fine, Luke," Jameson started optimistically. However, he quickly realized that the blood stains on Luke's shirt where not castoff from his arm wound but were, in fact, another problem all together.
Luke put his hand on his side and winced. "I can't remember when it happened," Luke admitted weakly. "I didn't feel it until it let me go."
"Come on, you can still walk, can't you?"