Waiting there for the guard to appear, James feels the prickling sensation continue to gradually increase. Whatever they are doing entails quite a bit of magic.
Finally the guard makes his appearance. Six pairs of eyes watch him as he turns and crosses in front of the temple. Then, when he reaches the corner and turns to follow the other side of the temple, Jiron says, “Now.”
Even before the guard completely disappears from sight, they are racing across to the doors. Taking the steps two at a time, Jiron reaches the top and pauses before the doors. He turns back and scans the temple grounds. Not seeing anyone else moving about, he takes the handle of the right door. Giving it a slight shove, he begins pushing the door open.
From within the murmur of voices comes to them. It sounds as if many men are chanting. Peering inside, he finds a large room with a vaulted ceiling. Lit torches line the walls at ten foot intervals giving off plenty of light. Besides the way they came in, there are four other exits leading from the room. Two are doors, both of which stand closed. The other two are the beginnings of hallways that extend further into the temple.
Not seeing anyone, they move inside quickly and close the doors.
James begins to pull out the diagram of the temple given to them by the Slavemaster but Jiron shakes his head. “I have it memorized,” he asserts.
“You sure?” asks James.
“Definitely,” replies Jiron. “We take the hallway to the right.” He points to the hallway off to their right that runs along the inside of the outer temple wall.
Glancing to the diagram, James sees that Jiron is indeed correct. “Okay, let’s go,” he says. Moving along the side of the hall, they make for the opening of the hallway. James refers back to the diagram again and sees that the first of the areas with annotations is the room at the end of this hallway.
He shows the diagram and the annotations to Jiron as they reach the hallway. Jiron nods then scans the hallway. The right side has no openings as it’s the temple’s outer wall. The left wall has two openings before they reach the end. At that point the hallway opens up onto the room with the annotations. Just what the annotations mean they have yet to decipher.
Jiron has the others move just within the hallway then wait there while he hurries forward to check the two openings on the left. He moves down to the first one and finds another corridor branching off. Fortunately it’s currently empty. At the second opening he finds a dark room, just an alcove really. Like the corridor before it, it’s empty as well. He then returns back to the branching corridor and makes sure it’s clear before signaling the others to hurry past and join him.
Then with the others following close, he moves down to the end of the hallway. The chanting they heard upon first entering the temple pervades the corridors. It doesn’t sound very close, in fact it’s hard to tell just where it is coming from. One thing’s for sure, it isn’t coming from the room ahead of them.
The room they’re approaching is well lit and they can easily see within it long before they reach it. From their vantage point within the corridor, the room looks deserted. He has the others wait while he moves to the end of the corridor. Peering into the room, he finds it empty.
It’s a room that stretches about forty feet away from the corridor and is close to thirty feet wide. The walls are plain and unadorned. Another corridor exits the room through the wall to their left. In the middle of the room sits a pedestal, roughly four foot high. Sitting upon the top of it is a statue of a bent and gnarled humanoid form. The statue stands two feet in height and its back is to Jiron so he’s unable to get a good look at the face of it from his vantage point.
Other than the corridor wherein he’s standing, the only exit from the room is the corridor to his left. There’s something about this room that bothers him, then realization hits him. He waves for the others to come forward and when they join him he points to the other corridor on the left and says, “I don’t think we are supposed to go that way.”
James brings forth the diagram and looks at it. “You’re right,” he says. “According to this there should be another way directly across from where we’re standing.” He shows the diagram to the others.
“Then that means we know what those annotations on the diagram mean now,” Miko observes. When the others look to him he clarifies, “They probably tell us how to locate and activate a secret door.”
James nods his head. “I think you’re right,” he says.
“Okay then,” Jiron says as he glances to the others. “Scar, Potbelly.” Pointing to the other corridor leading from the room he says, “You two keep an eye down that corridor over there.” As they cross the room to get into position, Jiron says to James, “I’ll keep watch here while you find that secret door and get it open.”
James nods his head. “Right.”
“Ahhh!” Miko suddenly exclaims as his knees almost buckle.
James turns to him. “What happened?” he asks concerned.
Miko turns sorrow filled eyes toward him and says, “I think they’ve begun killing the slaves Jiron saw them bring in here.” Then again he feels a life ending prematurely.
“You going to be okay?” he asks as he sees the pain again in his face.
“No,” he replies. “But what choice is there?”
To Brother Willim James says, “Stay with him.” After he receives a nod from him, he moves into the room and crosses over to where according to the map the secret door has to be. On the way over he passes by the statue and notices that it is looking directly at the place the secret door must lay.
The visage of the creature is truly demonic, even down to the two small horns sprouting from its forehead. Only giving it a cursory glance, he hurries to the wall. Once there, he begins a quick search for any loose stones or sections that might activate the triggering mechanism. After several minutes of fruitless searching, he comes to the conclusion that it must be elsewhere.
Turning back to the pedestal and statue, he gives it a quick once over. He runs his hands first over the pedestal, then when he finds nothing, turns his attention to the statue.
“Someone’s coming,” Scar says from where he’s watching the other corridor. He and Potbelly move to either side of the opening and flatten themselves against the wall.
From his vantage point in the middle of the room, James can see two of the temple guards making their way down the corridor toward the room. Moving quickly, he moves to the side of the room out of the view of the approaching guards, and quickly makes his way next to Potbelly.
Both Potbelly and Scar draw their knives and wait. The approaching footsteps grow louder as the two men draw closer. When they emerge from the corridor, Potbelly and Scar strike fast and hard. Both guards fall without a sound.
“Anyone else?” asks Jiron as he remerges from where he, Miko and Brother Willim had ducked back down the other corridor to keep from being seen.
Scar glances back down the corridor and shakes his head. “No,” he replies.
“Alright,” Jiron replies. Then to James he says, “Hurry it up.”
Nodding, James returns to the statue. He begins trying to move the various appendages of the demonic figure. He pushes and pulls the arms, head and torso. Then one of his fingers encounters a slightly loose gnarled bump on the creature’s back. “I found something,” he says.
“Don’t stand there talking about it,” Jiron says. “Get it open.”
He presses the gnarled bump but nothing happens. Another quick examination reveals two more bumps that are slightly loose, one on its stomach and another on its back. He presses all three simultaneously and is rewarded with an almost silent grinding noise as a section of the wall begins to rise into the ceiling.
James moves to the entrance and looks through. “There’s another corridor extending away,” he says, “exactly as the diagram shows.” Brother Willim and Miko move to follow him as he steps just within the new passage.
“Nice going,” Jiron praises James. Then to Scar an
d Potbelly he says, “Bring those two dead guards into the secret passage with you.”
“Right,” Scar says. Then he and Potbelly each take one and begin dragging them toward the new opening in the wall.
“Hurry it up,” Jiron says to them. “We don’t know how long it’s going to stay open.”
“Then give us a hand,” Potbelly says.
Crossing the room to them, Jiron grabs hold of each of the dead bodies and helps to drag them into the secret passage. They no sooner have them inside then the secret door begins to close. When it finally settles once more to the ground, they are plunged into pitch darkness. The chanting which had been present ever since they first entered the temple is no longer audible. The chanters must be in some other part of the main temple not connected with this secret area.
In the darkness they see a glow coming from Miko. It’s the glow of the Star of Morcyth from where it resides in his belt pouch. “I think it senses the presence of Dmon-Li’s priests,” he says.
“More likely the dark rites they’re performing,” suggests Brother Willim.
“Will they be able to detect it if we do magic?” James asks him.
“I don’t think so,” he replies. “With what they are doing, it’s going to drown out anything we do, unless you’re planning on something big?”
“Hardly,” James says. Then his orb blossoms to life on the palm of his hand. To Jiron he says, “Lead on.”
Moving down the corridor, James follows after Jiron and takes another look at the diagram. He sees that the corridor they’re heading down turns to the left sharply just ahead, then just after that, turns back to the right. From there it moves forward less than ten feet until coming to an end. Then on the right side is a long, narrow room with another set of annotations.
They continue down the corridor, and true to the diagram, they follow the route until they reach the final turn where it goes back to the right. “Hold up Jiron,” James says.
Coming to a stop, Jiron glances back to him.
James points to the door on the right at the end of the hallway. “Beyond that door is a long narrow room,” he explains. Holding up the diagram, he adds, “And there’s another set of annotations across it.”
“What do you suggest?” he asks.
“Just be careful,” he replies.
Giving him a nod, Jiron then moves toward the door. Placing his ear against it, he listens for any noise coming from the other side. Turning his head back to the others, he whispers, “It’s quiet.” Placing his hand upon the handle, he pushes and the door moves inward an inch then stops.
“If there’s anyone inside,” he says to James. “Your orb will give us away.”
James cancels the orb and plunges them into darkness. “Good thinking,” he says.
The only reply he hears is the all but silent creaking of the door as Jiron pushes it open. When no light comes through from the other side, Jiron says, “Alright James, give us some light.”
When the orb appears and dispels the darkness, the light reveals the room before them to be another plain room. The walls are simply the same stone blocks that make up the rest of the temple’s walls and floors. No pedestal this time. Nothing but a long, plain room. Pushing the door open all the way, he looks in while remaining in the corridor.
“Hand me the orb,” he says. “Want to get a better look inside before we enter.” James hands him the orb and then he extends his arm past the doorway allowing the light from the orb to illuminate most of the room. Peering around the doorway, he sees that the room extends further away than the light from the orb can reach.
“It’s empty,” he says after a moment’s scrutiny.
“Maybe the annotations don’t mean anything here,” suggests Scar.
“Willing to bet your life on it?” Jiron asks as he turns his gaze on him.
“Not really, no,” Scar replies.
James moves forward and takes a look. “What do you think?” Jiron asks him.
“I don’t know,” he says. “Looks pretty normal.”
“I know,” he replies. “That’s what bothers me.” He starts to step into the room when James places a hand on his shoulder.
“I may need to lead here,” he says. A barrier envelopes him after he removes his hand from Jiron’s shoulder. Something about this room has a very Indiana Jones feel to it. If it weren’t for the annotations on the diagram, he probably wouldn’t be feeling nearly so nervous. But they have to mean something.
Jiron steps back and makes room for him to enter. “Hope they don’t sense that,” he says indicating the barrier.
“So do I,” replies James. Creating a second orb on his palm, he begins moving forward into the room. At first he moves cautiously. Every step he takes, expecting something to happen. But after the fourth step, the room remains quiet. At the sixth step, he gains confidence and begins moving a bit quicker.
Then it happens. He must have stepped on a pressure plate or something for a four foot iron spear shoots up out of the floor beneath him. It strikes the underside of the barrier and launches the barrier with him in it upward.
“James!” Miko exclaims from where he’s watching in the doorway.
As he and the barrier come to land back down on the floor with jarring impact, another trigger is activated. Directly beneath him, a spear shoots up out of the floor. Again he and the barrier are catapulted upward, this time James is thrown on his side within the barrier. “Ahhh!” James hollers as he’s thrown further into the room.
Then every time he lands, another spear shoots upward and propels him further down the long narrow room. Head over heels, he’s propelled as spear after spear launches him and his barrier further along until it finally hitting the wall at the end of the room and coming to rest.
“James!” Jiron hollers. “Are you okay?”
Sitting there in the barrier, he wonders the same thing himself. Doing a quick self check he finds nothing broken, just a few bruises from where he hit the ground hard a couple times. “Yeah!” he hollers back, “I’m fine.”
Glancing to the wall at the end of the room, he discovers another door. Between where he sits and the doorway Jiron and the others are standing at is a patchwork of iron spears sticking upright out of the floor. “There’s a door down here,” he hollers to the others. “Make your way down. Step as closely to the spears sticking out of the floor as you can and you should be okay.”
He dispels his barrier and gets to his feet as the others begin moving into the room. Following the same route the spears sped him along the first time, the others cross the room. He can hear Jiron say, “Step where I step”, as he leads the others from one spear to the next.
No further spears erupt from the floor and they finally join him at the far end of the room. “Secret door, now deadly spears,” comments Potbelly. “Can’t wait to see what we’ll discover when we reach the next set of annotations.”
“Probably a demon or something,” guesses Scar.
James produces the diagram and sees that another corridor extends from the other side of the door they’re standing next to. At the end it looks like a spiral staircase goes either up or down then another long corridor before they reach a round room with a circle drawn in the middle. In the corridor just before the round room is where the next set of annotations is noted.
As Jiron listens at the door for any sound coming from the other side, James cancels the second orb, leaving just the orb Jiron is carrying. Not hearing anything, Jiron opens the door and they begin working their way down the hallway.
Halfway down the corridor, something causes Miko to glance backward. His heart skips a beat when he sees light now coming from the room with the spikes they had just left. “James!” he says as he points back they way they came.
The tone of his voice brings the others to a halt and they turn to see what he’s pointing at. “Oh no,” Brother Willim says as he sees the light within the room growing brighter.
Then all of a sudden temple guards e
merge from the doorway. When they see them there, they draw their weapons and charge. There’s at least a dozen or more of them coming through the doorway.
Scar pulls forth his swords and says over his shoulder, “Keep going.” As Potbelly draws his sword and knife he adds, “We’ll hold them off.” When it looks like the others are hesitating, Scar yells, “Go!”
Then he and Potbelly move forward to engage the oncoming guards. “First one to Coryntia’s realm buys,” Potbelly says.
“You’re on,” Scar replies then the battle is upon them.
Jiron sees James beginning to pull a slug out of his slug belt. He places a hand on his arm and says, “No magic. If they think we’re just thieves, they’ll send guards. If you start throwing magic around, the priests will come.”
“He’s right,” Brother Willim says.
“But they’ll never survive,” James says. More guards are piling up behind the ones engaging Scar and Potbelly.
“They know that,” Jiron says. “We have to get to the dais!” He turns James toward him and looks him in the eyes. “Don’t let their sacrifice be in vain!”
James glances back at the pair holding the corridor against what now must be over three dozen guards. Fortunately the width of the corridor prevents more than two or three coming at them at any one time. Nodding, he turns his back on them and follows Jiron as he runs down the corridor toward the stairwell. Brother Willim and Miko follow close behind.
When they reach the stairwell, they glance once more at the pair fighting in the corridor, then rush down to the lower level. The stairs wind around four times before coming out at another corridor. “It’s in the room at the end,” James tells the others. “But be careful when you reach the end of the corridor, that’s where the final set of annotations lay.”
As they head down the corridor, the sound of the fighting going on above them gradually diminishes until they are no longer able to hear it. Moving down quickly, they soon see the end of the corridor ahead of them. To their surprise, the corridor ends at a solid stone wall. Slowing down they approach the wall cautiously.
The Mists of Sorrow: The Morcyth Saga Book Seven Page 52