Soul Goblet

by J. A. Culican

  I looked between the two of them, both watching me with confusion. I exhaled, frustrated at having to explain my thought process, but hardly surprised. My brain didn't seem to work the way anyone else's did. This was the part I hated the most. Explaining how to get from A to B.

  "Don't you see? From what I've read, all the symbols involve groups present at the time Dag’draath was locked away. I think behind this door are some of the answers we need to find, maybe about the original ceremony, hopefully about how to trap him again and end the wars for good."

  "Are you sure?"

  Jarid blinked, taking in a quick breath. He looked at the door again, this time with a bright-eyed look of excitement.

  I turned back to the door, feeling breathless myself as I considered the possibilities. "I just want to try to open it and see if I'm right." When neither made a move to stop me, I again reached out my hand. This was it, the moment where I’d find answers. I turned the handle … but nothing happened. Confused, I jiggled it again. It didn't feel locked, but the handle just spun and spun and spun without opening. I frowned, looking at Jarid.

  "Does it need a key or something?"

  Jarid cocked his head, holding his hand out hesitantly. "May I?"

  I stepped aside for him to try. He repeated the same thing I had, with the same results.

  "That's strange," he muttered.

  "I don't understand. Does this happen often?"

  Jarid jiggled the handle again before looking at me with a grimace.

  "No. Never. Either the door opens, or it's locked. Maybe the handle is broken." His voice trailed off as he leaned over to peer at it in detail.

  I could tell he was trying to figure out how to get it to work, so I waited silently. I was becoming increasingly frustrated as he toiled away before he finally quit in frustration himself.

  "I don't know what's wrong."

  I took a deep breath and tried to re-center myself. What did I know for sure? Well, I’d discovered a book about dragon history with small trident symbols on it. It was written just after the time when Onen Suun had trapped Dag’draath, before he’d disappeared himself. I also knew the High Dragons had something to do with making the prison.

  And as I had walked through the Library, which I was becoming more and more convinced was a living entity, the trident symbol had been joined by symbols of other groups. Which meant they were connected. I just didn’t know how. Maybe in order to open the door I had to discover what the link was. My eyes widened as a bolt of enlightenment shot through the darkness.

  "What if it's a puzzle?"

  I watched Jarid's face change from frowning to wide-eyed.

  "Maybe." Jarid's eyes darted around, then he leaned in closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. "I'm probably not supposed to tell you this, but some of the other apprentices and I think the Library tests people. There have been whispers of older rituals, but we aren’t privy to information about what they entail."

  I hummed as I considered his words, but instead of answering him I turned to the door. This time I wasn't looking for the symbols, but clues to the connection between them. I carefully examined every inch of the black surface. The lintel on the top of the door had the four symbols in a place of prominence, with the picture of the sun in the middle. But for the first time, I also noticed engravings along the sides of the doorway.

  "What if it's a pictogram?”

  I was half speaking to myself, half to them if they were still listening, and to my surprise, it was Sel who responded.

  "It could be." He stepped closer and squinted at the door. “If you look here, on the left, and over there, to the right, it kind of looks like the door was built in a series of blocks."

  I blinked, surprised to find he was correct. It had initially looked like a single, uniform panel to me, but now he’d pointed it out, it was easy to see the pictures repeated all the way along both sides from the top to the bottom.

  I did a quick count. Both sides of the archway had thirty plates which made up the solid appearance of the wood. I nibbled absently on my thumbnail as I considered them. The same as the symbols at the top had signified the different groups present at the time of Dag’draath’s imprisonment to me, each of these plates showed scenes from several different cultures.

  I saw the mountains bordering Cliffside, the Desert Lands sand, the cloud cities of what I assumed were for the dragons, and the depths of the ocean. Some of the figures were clearly meant to represent mermaids, elves, humans, and dragons. But others were more difficult to determine exactly what they were about. Those ones seemed almost abstract, and yet somehow not at the same time.

  "Jarid, what are these?"

  I pointed to one of the symbols depicted on a block I couldn’t make out. He leaned so close his nose was almost touched the plate, remaining there for several long moments while I waited impatiently. He finally pulled back, shaking his head. "I've got no idea. I've never seen it before. But looks like a tree of some sort, like a huge oak tree, except it's dead."

  He looked at me, brows pulled together, and it was evident he was as bothered by it as I had been.

  I pointed at another one. "How about this one? What does this look like to you?"

  “That looks like a battle, only after it's already been lost." Sel's quiet voice answered from behind my left shoulder.

  "And what about this one?" I pointed at another that was unusual.

  Jarid squinted at the block, turning to me with a gasp. “That looks like a pod of mermaids encircling the sun.”

  "That one?" I pointed to another one to the right of the lintel.

  "That one looks like dragons, and lots of them," Sel replied, adding as an afterthought, "they look disappointed, if it's possible for a dragon’s face to look disappointed."

  Sel’s interpretation confirmed what I had begun to suspect.

  "What if we need to find the correct chronological order of these pieces?" I turned, biting my lip. "Like a locking mechanism. If we touch the panels in the correct order, maybe the door will open."

  Jarid looked doubtful. "That seems fairly easy. How can you be sure?"

  "It's not like you have any better ideas, unless you do, in which case I'm all ears." I touched the points of my ears to emphasize my point. Sel bit back a laugh, but Jarid was less amused.

  "Fine, you could be right. But how do we know which order to press them?"

  "We don't. I assume it’s part of the challenge. If we knew the right order, it would hardly be a test."

  "What if we get the wrong order?" Sel's question interrupted my attempt at convincing Jarid I was right.

  I looked at him, raising my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

  Sel looked uneasy. I realized that during the entire time I’d been focused on the door, he’d been pacing back and forth. Now, his eyes darted around the hall, peering at the walls and even at the ceiling, as if looking for something before he responded. "What if we get the wrong order? If the door is guarded, perhaps something will happen to us if we choose incorrectly."

  I hadn't even thought about the possibility of a consequence for being wrong in my desire to find out what was behind the mysterious door. I caught Jarid’s wince as he stepped back from the door he’d previously almost been touching with his nose from examining it so closely, and I suspected Sel might be correct. If a strange new door didn't open easily in the Library, which had surprised even Jarid, it was equally likely it was protected by magical or physical means to get rid of undeserving intruders who failed the test.

  I took another look at the door and tried to make sense of everything I'd seen. So far, four symbols had repeated, leading us to this mysterious, non-opening door, which I was certain, was what I’d been looking for. Down the side, the same four groups were depicted in varying scenes. There were ones with dragons, with mermaids, one of a battle, which I had to assume was the sword symbol, and in addition to those there was also a dead tree. In fact, the only thing missing was any mention of my people, the e
lves.

  I looked at the lintel again. There needed to be at least one more picture, whether elves were part of it, or not. As I searched, one figure caught my attention. It floated in the air, surrounded by bodies, and seemed completely unrelated to the others. I couldn't tell what the bodies were, but there seemed to be thousands. Next to the darkness covering the floating figure was the figure of the sun. Together they cast a shadow over everything else in the picture.

  I drew closer, catching my breath when I realized this plate, unlike all the other plates, seemed to be alive and moving in front of me. Before I could think better of it, I reached my hand out to touch it, wondering if it was as warm as it appeared.

  "Rhin! Are you sure?"

  Jarid’s sharp voice interrupted my trance, but it was too late. I'd already pressed it. I winced, shooting them an apologetic look. Sel was already too busy looking around with wide, frightened eyes to notice. At the same moment, a chunk of ceiling gave way just to the left of where he was standing, and he yelped and jumped closer to me.

  "Sorry, sorry. On the positive side, it looks like your theory was right." I laughed nervously. It wasn’t ideal, but it did confirm I was on the right path.

  "Okay. So, we have a war, or battle. Mermaids around the sun. Dragons. A dark figure with the sun, which we now know is definitely not the one to push first."

  "You’ve been looking for the ritual, right?" Sel began hesitantly.

  "Go on."

  Sel pointed at the individual panels, careful not to touch them. "I’m guessing from common history the picture you touched probably comes last. Now we have to figure out which comes first."

  "What if we went with the battles as the first picture? After all, it was Dag’draath’s continued war efforts which drove Onen Suun to search for a way to lock him up in the first place."

  I began to get excited again. "Okay. If the battles are first, and the dark guy is last, we need to figure out where the mermaids, dragons, and one more panel goes. I'm thinking the one with the tree is important, but I'm not sure why.”

  Why weren’t the elves mentioned yet? With the memory of my conversation with Uncle Jorel at the banquet replaying in my head, I looked at the panels again. My eyes widened. In addition to the tree, which I was certain needed to be part of the sequence, I could now see another plate, interwoven amongst other panels of a ghastly image which corresponded to what I’d heard about the Dead Clan. But now I was left with six panels.

  "Most of the other panels don't look important enough, but now I'm concerned I have one too many."

  “What do you mean?" Jarid looked at me, his eyes narrowed in thought.

  I pointed to the new panel I'd found. "Look. Here's one depicting the Dead Clan, the tribe of elves who fought on the side of Onen Suun and almost completely perished as a result. It was an important part of elven history, so it must be involved somehow. But now we have six panels to place."

  "What about the tree?" Jarid pointed at it again. "What makes you think that one is important enough to be part of the sequence?"

  I looked at the tree again, shaking my head. "I'm not sure. There’s something about it."

  He snapped his fingers, causing me to raise my eyebrows. "I just remembered something. You know how I told you the Library is kind of a living thing?" When I inclined my head, he continued, voice animated now. "One of the whispers I’ve heard is that, right before he disappeared, Onen Suun came to the Library for answers on how to defeat Dag’draath."

  "He did? So, the tree comes second." Bone-deep certainty filled me.

  "That sounds right. First came the battles, followed by Suun and his desire to stop them. What next?” Sel leaned closer to the door, then turning to look at me.

  I shrugged, staring at the door. "That's three. Two at the beginning and one at the end.” I examined the panel of the elves again. "The other symbols on the lintel depict four groups. I'm wondering if this one of the elves is meant to lead me astray. I don't believe they had any major role in stopping Dag’draath. If I discard it, I’m left with the dragons looking betrayed and the mermaids crowded around the sun."

  I continued to nibble at my thumbnail, but stopped when I tasted the tang of copper. I frowned at the blood welling from the ragged side of my nail, wiping it away as Sel spoke.

  "The one at the end, with the darkness and the sun behind it. Do the bodies on the ground look a little like dragons to you?"

  I leaned forward, giving him a giant smile as I looked between the panel and him. "Sel, you’re brilliant. They do look like dragons! Which if I’m right means the panel with the dragons looking betrayed should come immediately before."

  "Putting the mermaids in the middle." Jarid’s voice was clear. We shared the smile of scholars who’d come to the same conclusion, and I repeated the sequence for clarity before touching them.

  "I'm going to press on the panel with the battle first, followed by the dead tree, the mermaids, dragon betrayal, and lastly, the plate with the dark figure and the sun. If I'm wrong, I'm betting something worse than a chunk of ceiling falling beside us will be the result. Sound good?" My voice cracked on the last word and for one uneasy moment, we stood still, staring at each other.

  Finally, Jarid replied. "We’re as sure as we're going to be. Go ahead."

  Sel added a nod of his own.

  I took a deep breath and pushed.

  Chapter 13

  My hand touched the metal doorknob. It was warm, like it was a living object or had been heated by the sun and turned easily in my hand. I almost stopped, surprised my theory had worked. After everything else, it almost seemed too easy. With them close behind me, I opened the door and held my breath. Anticipation bubbled through my veins and I carefully pushed the large black door open, only to be disappointed. Another dark, dimly lit hallway stretched in front of me. My shoulders slumped.

  "That's it?"

  Jarid was unperturbed. "If the Library is hiding something big, chances are it wants to make sure you are a worthy contender for the information. I’m pretty sure the door is only the first part of the challenge. There are likely more puzzles to come."

  I groaned. "Is it possible the Library knows how impatient I am? I mean, I love a good puzzle as much as the next person, but I just want some answers already!"

  My petulant tone rang through the hallway, rebounding and becoming louder as if amplified by an unseen volume enhancer, changing as it multiplied to the point where the noise caused actual pain. When it crested, I winced and covered my ears. But even still, it was all I could do not to cry and to keep a single thought in my head until the reverberation began to fade away, returning to normal levels after what felt like forever.

  "What was that?" I kept my voice low, almost whispering. I was afraid to set off another deafening, whiny echo like the one before and I feared that a second episode would kill me, or at least render me permanently deaf.

  Jarid looked pale and sweaty, slowly lowering his hands from his head. Clearly, the sound had been painful for him as well. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's another challenge."

  My heart sank as I looked down the hallway. It was boring and seemed to stretch endlessly onward. I saw a torch flicker on the wall. The light moved sinuously, like long grass in the wind and as I stared, a reflection of the three of us appeared across from where we stood. But the reflection was wrong, broken in a way I couldn’t quite explain.

  Sel stepped further into the hallway. Behind him, the door swung shut loudly, once again causing the noise to echo deafeningly in the small space. We waited, hands over our ears for several minutes before it finally faded away to bearable levels. Obviously, this hallway was enchanted to accentuate noise, if nothing else.

  Something about the mirrored wall bothered me. Cautiously, I regarded my appearance in the mirrored hallway, trying to convince myself things were normal, and when I looked the way I imagined I usually looked, I turned away. Maybe I’d imagined it.

  "Let's keep walking. There must be another door
way at the end somewhere."

  I kept my voice low, hoping to avoid a replay of the loud echo. I was successful and the guys followed behind me as I crept forward in lieu of an audible response. Sel cast frequent glances over his shoulder while we looked to either side and ahead. It wasn't until we were halfway down the hall the same oddness in our reflection caught my attention again. But unlike what I'd seen the first time, this unexpected vision caused my heart to pause before picking up speed.

  Over my left shoulder, like a silvery image in water, was another me. Only this one had eyes that glittered malevolently as it turned to look me full in the face. My mouth dropped open in shock and the other me opened its mouth as well. With an evil smile swimming in the other’s eyes, it let out a shrill scream.

  The sound emitting from it was far more painful than the door slamming, or even my earlier complaint. This noise pierced my eardrums. I was certain it was blood pouring down my face at first due to the intensity of it, like knives were being inserted over and over into my ears. How could it be anything else? But as I wiped it away, clear fluid glistened on my hand and I realized it was a cold sweat pouring from my head. My heartbeat slowed, and coldness spread down my arms and legs.

  I panicked. My throat clenched, terror freezing me solid as my brain frantically raced through the vaults of my memory for help. I recalled reading something years ago when I'd still been a child. A doppelgänger. Its cry could be fatal to the original, but there was a way to stop it. What was the secret? How?

  My brain was numb now, sluggish, and I didn't have much time. Somehow, I’d ended up crouched on the floor covering my ears while Jarid and Sel shouted at me in distant, muffled words I couldn’t make out.

  Sel was kneeling next to me now, shaking my shoulders as I covered my ears. I could feel sweat streaming down my numb cheeks as though rain was falling on window panes. Digging deep, I cast my lure as far as I could to retrieve the information I needed.