The Echoes of Destiny: An Epic Mage Fantasy Adventure (Legend of the Ecta Mastrino Book 5)

by BJ Hanlon

  Finally, it came to him, the vision that he’d been most wanting… most needing. The one of her.

  Arianne. She was in the dark corner of a tiny room on an uncomfortable looking stone slab. There was nothing around her. She was just as lovely, though she was pale. Ghostly pale and her hair, blonde normally, was nearly white. He couldn’t see her chest moving.

  Was she even breathing? There was little light in the room from some unknown source. Edin tried but couldn’t reach out to her, he couldn’t speak or move or look to see anything but what was before him.

  He saw she still wore her cloak, though her pack, her bow, and everything else was gone. The top of her shirt was torn and the necklace that had held the three ballast stones had been taken as well.

  He thought he’d be crying or screaming or dancing but Edin was a statue. Just seeing her, knowing she was alive was a greater feeling than he’d ever thought possible. He was speechless, thoughtless, he just stared.

  Then, as if being pulled out of a lake by the scruff of the neck, Edin was sucked back into reality.

  When people in the past had told Edin that someone collapsed because of news, Edin hadn’t believed them. To have something told to you and lose all control of your body, it just wasn’t possible.

  Even when he heard about her engagement to that blotard, he was able to at least lower himself to the ground. He didn’t flop like a fish out of water.

  He was not able to lower himself now. Edin cried out and dropped to the floor like every bone had been plucked from his body.

  Edin didn’t move, he didn’t try to stop himself from turning into a blubbering old lady whose kids had finally left her for being far too overbearing. Then his body tumbled like a fallen tree and he landed on his shoulder, his head smacking the red floor. The wall cradled his back and after a long time, he did not know how long, he slowed and finally stopped. Edin didn’t know if it was from lack of tears or if it just started to hurt less. Probably the former.

  Slowly, he opened his eyes. In front of him was the underside of his forearm and the small hairs growing there. Not thick, but they were there. Edin blinked. The side of his face was wet as was the ground beneath it. Edin peeled it off and slowly began to rise.

  He looked around for Vestor. How could that be truly the god? But Edin knew it was and that now, he was gone. The room was empty and cold. The door was shut and the moon had lowered.

  Edin still didn’t stand. He looked out the doors and past the balcony at the moon and just stared.

  At one point, his butt seemed to fall asleep. So he got up and moved toward the balcony and looked out it. Below was the foyer of this secretive land, the stables, the shed, and the fields. Then there were the huge stone walls. From here there was no parapet, there was no turrets to look out of. Only the walls as if they were protected by something else. And then much further he saw the stairs to the valley.

  This was the view. The one from his dream. And he was called here by Vestor. Called here for what?

  Down below, it was dark but there was still movement visible. The lake was rippling from something crossing it either at or just below the surface. There were creatures lying on the bank in the moonlight. But he was too far away to know what they were.

  This was somehow a place that shouldn’t exist. Not in what he perceived the mountains to be and where the pass was; it was impossible.

  He pictured Arianne on that slab of stone in the cold room. The light was similar; she was under the same moon.

  Edin wiped his eyes. They felt sticky at the corners and he was sure they were red, but he was okay. At least for now. He’d cried all he could.

  “Not again, not till I find her,” he vowed. But she was in that other’s capture. The dematian king who wanted to release Yio Volor.

  Something caught his eye. He watched it float down from somewhere up to the right. It looked square and seemed light. Slowly, he saw it was a piece of parchment paper. It moved right past the open window and within a half a foot of Edin.

  He grabbed it.

  ‘Lorno died beneath this monastery.’ Was all it read and Edin shivered because he knew what that meant. It had to be the reason he was summoned here, the reason there were guardians and the way to get Arianne back and save the world. One spot where no dematian king can reach but where the prophesized Ecta Mastrino must go.

  Edin pocketed the note and started back down the stairs. He passed a monk who was heading up. The monk gave him a quizzical look. Edin reached his own floor and ran across the grounds to his cell. Edin opened the door and grabbed his sword. He strapped it on his belt and picked up the quarterstaff.

  As he took a step out, he saw Berka opening his door. His friend looked confused.

  “Where are you off to?”

  “The dangerous parts.”

  “Of course you are.” Berka sighed and held up an open palm telling him to wait. “Let me get my sword.”

  “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

  “When you do something stupid, so do I,” Berka called back as he strapped the greatsword to his back.

  Edin nodded and they started toward the stairwell.

  They followed it down, but it stopped at the first floor. “Blast it,” Edin said.

  He exited in a long corridor and followed it. They passed open doors with monks inside. Some were sleeping, others were writing, and one it looked like was painting a picture of a landscape. There were rolling hills and blooming flowers and a river that came to the very edge of the painting and looked like it was about to pour out of it.

  The monk gasped and covered it.

  “Thought they weren’t much for decoration,” Berka said.

  “Everyone’s got a creative side, if they just embrace it,” Edin shrugged.

  They continued down the corridor until they reached another door. Through it was another corridor.

  “Do you know how we’re going to get there?”

  “No,” Edin said calmly. He was completely turned around even though they’d only gone through three halls and down a single flight of steps.

  This place was confusing as any place he’d ever been.

  A monk stepped out. Their guide monk. He appeared as if out of nowhere, which was not right because there was a door next to him that Edin couldn’t see.

  “Awake I see and dressed for battle. Is there somewhere you wish to go?”

  Edin cleared his throat. “Down below. I need to see where Lorno died. I need to face the guardians.”

  The man made no expression of awe or shock. In Edin’s mind he heard, ‘it is unwise.’

  “Take me to the abbot,” Edin said allowed. “Let him be the judge.”

  The man simply walked past Edin without a word and back through the previous door, turned left through a different one, then right and another left before there were stairs.

  Edin’s head was spinning again. There was a distinct possibility that if he ever got separated and never saw another monk, he’d die in here of dehydration, hunger, or just frustration.

  Then he stopped at a door. Just as plain and simple as the others. There was no knock and after a moment, the monk opened the door.

  “The abbot will see you.”

  Edin stepped past the monk into a cell the same as Edin’s, though the pallet was on the other side.

  “You wish to venture below and meet the guardian,” the abbot said. “No one has done it since—”

  “Lorno,” Edin said. “Who hid the Ballast Stones.” He pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to him.

  The abbot took a look at the paper, looked up at Edin, and then back down for just a moment. He sighed and said, “I cannot believe he showed himself to you.”

  “We conversed,” Edin said hoping that he could get going now. And that did it.

  “You wish to go as well?” The abbot was looking at Berka. Berka nodded. He looked at the other monk. “Take them to the gate and stand guard.” Then he turned back to Edin. “
If you fall, we may never find you.”

  “It is a chance I must take.”

  The abbot shook his head. “Some days I don’t know if he is all there anymore.” Then he looked around as if he were going to be struck down at any moment.

  “Who are we talking about?” Berka asked.

  No one answered him.

  After a moment, the monk said, “Okay, this way,” and they followed him out. It was just as confusing, but they reached a door with a coldness coming from below and Edin had a feeling there were more stairs on the other side. He wondered if there were more stairs here than anywhere else in the world.

  Through it they began down. It took more than a half hour for them to reach the bottom of the switchback staircase. They met a door with three giant bolts across it. One at the base, one at the middle and a third at the top.

  The room itself held an almost wicked feeling. It reminded Edin of a graveyard or a torture chamber. There was a barred window through which to look, but on the other side was naught but darkness. “This is as far as I go,” the monk said as he lit a torch on the wall. “It is not a good place down here.”

  Both he and Berka nodded.

  The odor grew worse as the door was opened and the feeling became more than just oppressive. Edin took a torch from the wall, lit it with the monk’s, then paused. He took a deep breath and stepped in first.

  The room was a thick, lichen covered stone tunnel with an arch about ten feet off the ground. Unlike the dwarven tunnels, this was made from separate stone blocks and the flame reflected off the floor that was slightly damp like sweat on a farmer midday.

  Then something caught his eye. In a crack, he saw puddled water. Only it didn’t shine like water should. It had a green tint to it.

  A great gust of wind ran through. It sounded like a sigh from a giant and Edin felt the hairs standing on his neck. Was that one of the guardians?

  They pressed forward; their footsteps were the only sounds in the tunnel.

  Then it split into two: one left, one right. Edin saw more water with the green tint to it. It seemed a bit brighter. An emerald color. Then he noticed something, only with his sight not with his feeling: the water rippled.

  But he and Berka weren’t close enough, right? Edin stopped.

  “What are you—”

  Edin jumped and landed hard on the stone floor with a smack. The water was still. Maybe he was just seeing—

  The water rippled again. But neither of them were moving.

  “There’s something coming, isn’t there?” Berka whispered.

  Edin nodded.

  “It’s big?”

  “I would certainly guess so.”

  “A wyrm or something?”

  “The ‘or something,’” Edin said.

  “And why are we here?”

  “To find the last Ballast Stone.” They began walking again while whispering. “If the dematian king gets all of the stones, he can open a door.”

  “A door to where?”

  “To a place we really don’t want him opening a door to.”

  “Cryptic,” Berka whispered and was quiet for almost ten seconds.

  A puddle Edin spotted off to his right rippled. That time, he was almost certain he felt the tunnel rumble.

  “Who was that person you and the abbot were talking about?”

  They came to a four-way crossroads and Edin looked down them, at least as far as he could see.

  How was he expected to find the birth stone? Did Lorno leave a trail? He didn’t for any other of the stones, or maybe he did and Edin didn’t follow it. Maybe Edin was just running off like a treasure hunter without a map. Edin felt the fire on the torch, he let it grow and looked around. Nothing. Then he summoned a decent sized ethereal light so it overshadowed the firelight.

  “What’s that?” Berka said. He was pointing at a green symbol on the wall of the tunnel straight ahead. Slowly it faded but Edin was able to make it out. A green crown. An emerald crown and it was pointing the way.

  The feeling of something coming up on them grew as they continued. It felt like forever though it was probably only twenty minutes. The few puddles he’d seen had stopped rippling and Edin wondered if the guardians had left or if they had taken a wrong turn. It was possible.

  They began to hear water. Trickling at first around the walls but then it sounded like a river rushing through the underground. It was impossible to know how close or how far away it was. Edin closed his eyes and tried to sense it. And he did, a lot of water.

  The air was damp with moisture and puddles and he was almost certain there was another river down below them.

  The river they heard was ahead, a quarter mile or so. There was another crossroads, he used the ethereal ball and saw the symbol. They continued straight and toward the river.

  The damp, moldy taste and feeling began to grow in conjunction with the sound of the river. After a little while, the tunnel expanded and they were in a large open space with an arched ceiling fifty feet up. Cutting them off like one of the crossroads was a channel of gurgling black water. The tunnel on either side went off into darkness with damp walkways following it like boardwalks.

  As they stepped forward, something danced at the edge of the firelight. Something that seemed for a moment to be two giant green emeralds. Edin tilted his head slightly and saw in the green ovals a black dot that looked directly at him.

  Then something snuck out of its mouth. Something that looked a bit like a half-moon spade, but it was pink and came with a hissing sound.

  Edin stepped back and drew his sword. “There,” he croaked and heard Berka doing the same. The thing was out of the firelight now though he could see the remnants of the green in those eyes. He handed Berka the torch. “Hold this for me.”

  Berka took it and Edin felt that flame, the fire, and summoned a bit of it from the torch. It was more than a bit. A ball the size of his fist leapt off the torch.

  It hung in the air above his hand and he let it grow and spin. Edin stepped forward again to see the green eyes of the beast.

  They were gone.

  “Blast,” Edin said as he let the fire grow larger until he could see the other side of the room. There was an identical tunnel over there, only there was also a hole in the wall. A large one and oddly shaped. Edin glanced back and saw holes on either side of their tunnel as well.

  “I think it made those holes.” Berka said.

  Edin said nothing. He didn’t see the beast in either hole or anywhere around. The giant eyes were so like emeralds, just like the Birth Stone.

  “So… about heading back,” Berka said, his voice shaking slightly.

  Edin shook his head. He looked at each of the open apertures slowly and in turn wondering which one the beast went through. “You don’t see any emeralds, do you?”

  “No.”

  Edin let loose the fire and summoned the ethereal ball. There was no green marking. Ahead, there was a thin bridge that crossed the river. It looked to have seen better days. Holes in the stone and rusted metal posts indicated there had been railings once, only trip hazards now.

  Edin stepped onto it and crossed. There were cracks and crevasses in the stone through which he could see the black water. He thought maybe he should seal them with ice but didn’t want to release the ethereal ball.

  What was that guardian? It wasn’t big enough to be the ponnoa, the giant serpent of the vale. Maybe another wyrm or some other creature. Why were all nasty beasts some sort of reptile? Edin wondered. Then he remembered the crillio and the giant spider from the dream and shivered.

  Was it one of Yio’s beasts? If so, if there was some sort of connection between it and the god of the underworld, the dematian king should be able to get to the Birth Stone.

  But according to Vestor, he couldn’t.

  Edin was just about across when he heard a small cracking sound. It sounded like a few pebbles clapping on stone. Edin paused and slowly turned back.

  Between the two, Edin
on one side of the river and Berka on the other, was a thin gray mist; but it wasn’t a mist. It was a waterfall of those pebbles and dust.

  Edin locked eyes with Berka and slowly, they both began to look up.

  High above his head, he saw something walking, crawling on the ceiling. It was long and gray and its body was scaly. It reminded him of a snake, only with legs. The tail, he saw, was thin and long, but it ended in a large ball that looked almost like stone.

  It stopped and looked down. The green emerald eyes glared at Edin. It had a long, thin face with a squared snout. The tongue slipped out and hissed. It blurred in the air so fast it was as if it were two feet tall.

  Then, it opened its mouth to show razor sharp teeth. Its jaw shot open and there was a giant flap of skin, something like a shield that sprang up around its head.

  Then something shot out of its mouth toward Edin.

  A glob of gooey, putrid smelling saliva. Edin reacted with barely a split second.

  His mind told him, ‘whatever that is, don’t touch it.’ So, he jumped sideways over the last still intact rail and wrapped an arm around it. The ethereal light disappeared and all that was left was Berka’s torch.

  The rail groaned and at the same time, he felt a sizzling and burning sensation on his right thigh. Edin screamed in pain as his body slammed into the side of the bridge and then the water started dragging his legs back trying to pull him into the water and the darkness.

  Then he saw Berka running up the bridge trying to help him. Edin sheathed his sword as he saw Berka, whose hands were full with the torch and his greatsword, looking confused as to what he had to do.

  Behind him. Edin saw the beast. Its shield around the neck was still up. There was a design around it. Four triangles all connected by wide Ms like a child drawing birds. They were oddly blue on the beast’s gray skin.

  He could see the mouth snapping open and knew what was going to happen next. Edin reached up and grabbed Berka’s lapel and pulled.

  Time slowed. Berka’s face filled with horror for a moment as the glob slowly exited out of the thing’s mouth.