Zantalth: The magic is returning

by Gary Burfield-Wallis

  “Not exactly. I put her in touch with a fisherman that I know who provided transport for her and her friends but to exactly where I don’t know.”

  “Where can I find this fisherman?”

  “Right now he will be out fishing. You won't find him till the boats come in tomorrow or maybe the day after if he stays out.”

  “Hmmm, not good. Is there anything else you can tell me?”

  “No, sorry. Oh, wait, yes, after speaking to a priest she was very excited and needed passage to somewhere quickly. He may know where.”

  “And who was the priest?”

  “Don’t know exactly. Never said his name only that he lived on a boat on the docks. Shouldn’t be too hard to find out who he is as doubt many priests live on boats.”

  Merek stood up. “Which way to the docks?”

  “No point in going now your eminence,” Halthor said. “It’s late, and the fishing boats are all out, I doubt you will find anyone around,”

  “Halthor‘s right,” Beldros said, “Guess you two need rooms for the night then?”

  Merek slumped back down in his chair.

  “Yes please Beldros,” Halthor said.

  The further they walked the more rugged the rock faces began to look, and it appeared the mountains were getting higher. Suddenly Tallia stopped and stared towards the mountains with a deep concentration on her face.

  “What’s up Tallia?” Poriya asked.

  “Look there,” she said and pointed to a point at the base of a high vertical cliff face some five hundred or so arm lengths away. “What do you see?”

  “A very big wall of rock. You’re right it’s very strange seems to be almost smooth.”

  “No, not that just in front of it.”

  “What those two spikes of jagged rocks.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about them?” Poriya said.

  “They look almost identical,” Jeb said.

  “Like twins,” Poriya said with it suddenly dawning on him.

  “Exactly,” Tallia said. “We may have found them.”

  “Brilliant,” Jeb said with excitement. His face then dropped. “Err does that mean we have to go up there?”

  Tallia realised that this next part might be the most dangerous part of their quest. She was well aware of the warnings and stories they had been told of anyone entering the mountains never being seen again. No one had ever returned to tell of what was in there or what terrible fate had befallen the brave adventurers.

  “No Jeb,” she said. “This is as far as you and Poriya go. The rest is up to me now.”

  “The hell it is, little lady,” Poriya said. “I’ve come this far. You’re not going to cut me out of the best bit.”

  “Or me,” Jeb said. “Anyway I made a vow to protect you, and I don’t go back on my vows.” He looked in the direction of the twins and swallowed hard. “No matter what the danger.”

  “Boys, no,” Tallia said. “I have no idea what will happen. You have both got me this far.”

  “Shut up Tallia,” Poriya said. “We’re coming, and that’s final.”

  Tallia looked at them both, and Jeb nodded in agreement. “Well seems I have little choice in the matter. Thank you, thank you both.”

  Chapter XX

  They started the steady, steep climb up the grassy slope towards the twins and stopped just short of the bare rock all looking hard for any sign of movement or some other unknown danger.

  In front of them, the rocky landscape was littered with large boulders some the size of a house, some looking as if they were precariously balanced on their smaller edge and the lightest of touches would make them roll down the steep slope towards them. Some were piled on top of others leaving big dark gaps under them like dark caves where it was impossible to see what lurked in the shadows.

  Poriya led the way working out the easiest way around the boulders too big to climb and trying to steer clear of the dark gaps in others. They hadn’t gone more than thirty paces when they all heard a deep growl to their right above them. They all looked up and on top of a big boulder there stood looking down at them a hellhound. A large four-legged beast, one arm length high, two and a half long. It had razor sharp claws that can slice through thick leather like it was an insects wings. It had glowing yellow eyes and a long pointed snout with long sharp fangs that can rip its prey open with ease.

  Poriya drew his sword and Jeb deftly flipped his bow into his hand at the same time as drawing an arrow and placing it on the bow ready to fire. They heard a second growl and glanced to their left where another hellhound was watching them looking like it was ready to pounce.

  Before anyone could make a move, both hellhounds pounced at the same time in a well-practiced attack. Both Jeb and Poriya turned to the one leaping from the rock above which Jeb shot straight through the heart before it landed already dead on Poriya’s sword. The other hellhound was on Jeb before he could get the new arrow he had pulled quickly from his quiver pointed at it. It knocked Jeb to the ground, it’s claws slicing through his leather armour on his left shoulder and deep into his skin.

  Jeb felt a white-hot pain in his shoulder and down the top of his arm and cried out squeezing his eyes shut tight as he saw the open jaws of the hellhound with its razor sharp teeth in front of his face.

  He laid there unable to move and expected to die in that instant but nothing happened. He felt something warm dripping onto his chin and running down his neck. Carefully he opened his eyes to see the beast still there its jaws now slack and a sword sticking out of them almost touching his chin with blood running down in it dripping onto him.

  Jeb began to tremble as he quickly realised just how close it had been. Not only had the hellhound nearly bit his head off but Poriya’s sword almost killed him as well.

  Tallia stood and stared at the scene which had appeared to have suddenly frozen in front of her eyes. Just moments ago it was all a rapid blur of beasts and men, and now there was a strange, surreal, calm with nothing moving except the slow trickle of blood dripping on Jeb.

  With a grunt, Poriya dragged the dead body of the hellhound off of Jeb using his sword and withdrew it from the beasts head. “Sorry about that.” Poriya said, “had trouble getting the other one off my sword.”

  Jeb went to say something as he moved to get up but the pain in his shoulder caused him to scream, and he fell back clutching it.

  “Jeb,” Tallia shouted. “Your hurt.” She rushed to him and knelt down beside him to see what the damage was. His blood was oozing out between his fingers as he gripped his shoulder. Jeb looked in horror at it and said, “I’m going to die.” His eyes filled with tears.

  “Get out of the way let me see,” Poriya said sternly.

  Tallia moved over to give him room. “Let's get this armour off quickly,” Poriya said.

  Tallia helped Poriya remove Jeb’s armour and rip his shirt open wider so he could see the deep gash in Jeb’s arm. “It’s not big and a nice clean gash,” Poriya said. “Pass me my back sack Tallia.”

  Tallia passed it over, and Poriya cleaned and dressed the wound as best he could from some bandages he had.

  “Am I going to die?” Jeb asked grimacing in a lot of pain.

  “Not from this,” Poriya answered.

  “But it hurts.”

  “Yeah probably does. Here chew on this.” He handed him what looked like an old dried out root.

  “What is it?”

  “No idea. I just know it will help with the pain. Now chew.”

  As he chewed on the root he felt a little tingly all over but the pain did feel a bit better, and he smiled up at Poriya and nodded his head.

  “Good, now can you move your arm?” Poriya asked.

  Jeb tried to move his arm but the pain suddenly came back even more than before, and his face screwed up.

  “Guess not,” Poriya said. He withdrew some leather strips from his pack and tied Jeb’s arm to his body before helping up.

  “But how am I going to use m
y bow now?” Jeb whined.

  “You’re not,” Poriya said.

  “But what if there are more?”

  “Well, lets hope not. Anyway, let’s get a move on before the smell of all this blood attracts any more.” Poriya said then as an afterthought “or any other bloodthirsty beasts. Mind you these two will keep them satisfied for a bit so we should be okay.”

  “Macaque? Where’s Macaque?” Tallia said.

  Macaque pulled herself out from the small gap under a nearby boulder looking very sheepish.

  “There you are. Come on were moving on.” Tallia said.

  As Macaque climbed up Tallia to sit on her shoulders, Poriya said, “a fat lot of help you were.”

  “Leave her alone. She was scared. She is still trembling,” Tallia said.

  They continued on much faster now wanting to get some distance from the dead hellhounds in case Poriya was right about attracting more beasts. Tallia had to help Jeb with scrambling over some of the rocks which was hard to do with only one usable arm and so painful with every move even though the root he was still chewing did help.

  As they rounded a large boulder that towered overhead, they could see the twins just up ahead. They looked much taller now they were close to them and stood as two sharp rock spikes pointing straight up barely two arm lengths apart.

  They walked around to the far side of the twins and looked for the entrance to the cave but could see no opening in the ground or nearby.

  Jeb’s heart sank along with his face. “I can’t believe it. All that and it’s the wrong place.”

  “You didn’t think it would be that easy did you?” Poriya said. “It might be here somewhere, we need to look.”

  Jeb heaved a big sigh and started to wander around kind of expecting to fall across a large cave entrance that would have been obvious in the first place.

  Tallia stood and stared at the twins wondering about them. Maybe they used to be spears used by the gods that had been forgotten and left here, or maybe they were two great columns into a giant grand palace that had been beaten by the weather over the many years since its collapse or destruction. No that was silly no god could fit between those, they are too close to each other. But a man could.

  This gave Tallia an idea, and she climbed up to stand between the two towering giants and turned around to face the mountains. There it was, right in front of her, between two big boulders she could just see through to the rock face beyond and a crack in the cliff.

  “I can see it,” Tallia called out as she pointed.

  Jeb and Poriya turned to see where she was pointing but could only see boulders. “Where I can’t see anything,” Jeb said.

  “You won't from there. It’s only just visible from here,” she said as she climbed down. “Come on follow me.”

  They walked around to the left of the boulders to find there was no way through so turned around to go round the right but that way was impossible as well.

  Macaque had climbed up between the two boulders. This way she thought.

  “Well done Macaque. Up there where she is,” Tallia said.

  They climbed up to where the two boulders leant against each other. Halfway up a gap started to open up just big enough for them to squeeze through. On the other side, they could clearly see the opening in the cliff face and scrambled across loose rocks to get to it.

  They all stood just outside the entrance which was only just wide enough for one person to walk through and narrowed to nothing five or six arm lengths above their heads.

  “It’s very dark in there,” Jeb said.

  “Good thing I bought these then,” Poriya said.

  Jeb and Tallia turned to see Poriya holding three torches.

  “Where did they come from?” Tallia asked.

  “Back at Kargell Landing. When you mentioned a cave I guessed it wouldn’t have its own lighting,” he said grinning.

  “Well done Poriya, I am so glad you are always so prepared,” Tallia said.

  Chapter XXI

  Poriya struck two lighting stones together and lit the torches before handing one to Tallia and one to Jeb. Poriya went inside first followed by Jeb and Tallia at the rear.

  The walls were rough and looked to Tallia as though the cliff had been torn apart by some incredible force, but she couldn’t imagine what. It continued straight into the side of the mountain for at least two hundred paces where it opened up into a small cavern with two other tunnels leading off it.

  “Which one do we take?” Jeb asked.

  Tallia approached one of the tunnels and looked down it. The light from the flickering torch didn’t reach far down the dark tunnel and couldn’t see anything. She moved to the other and looked down that seeing exactly the same. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “You two wait here I will have a look down this way a little way,” Poriya said and started walking down the right tunnel.

  Tallia and Jeb sat down on the floor leaning against the side of the chamber to wait. They didn’t have to wait long, and Poriya came running back into the chamber. “In there quickly,” he said pointing to the way they came in with his already drawn sword. They scrambled to their feet and into the tunnel as Poriya turned to face the tunnel he just came running out of panting heavily.

  Tallia and Jeb peered out into the chamber, and Poriya was standing with his sword raised ready. “What is it?” Tallia whispered.

  “A spider,” Poriya said.

  Jeb let out a snort. “What a little spider has scared the big fier....” His voice trailed off as two giant legs appeared out from the tunnel hooking round to press against the walls either side of the entrance.

  As Jeb and Tallia’s eyes widened and Macaque hid her face behind Tallia’s head, two more legs appeared through the entrance followed by eight large glassy eyes above hairy menacing pincers opening and closing slowly looking for something to grab, its head almost filling the tunnel entrance.

  “Tallia use my bow, quickly,” Jeb said as he struggled to get it off his back which was hard enough with only one arm but in the confines of the tunnel was even harder and he banged his right elbow on the hard rock sending a sharp pain up his arm making him whimper.

  Poriya saw his opportunity and raised his sword high stepping forward driving the point directly in the centre of its cluster of eyes. With a sickening crunch, the sword penetrated deep into the spider and it briefly squealed loudly, its pinchers snapping shut just a fingers length from Poriya’s chest. Poriya pulled his sword out and stepped back with it raised ready for another blow but the legs either side of the tunnel slipped down the wall and dark black blood oozed out of the wound. Its head dropped to the floor, and it lay their dead, its eyes still staring at them.

  “Sorry about that. There was not enough room in the tunnel to swing my sword around,” Poriya said still panting from the exertion. “Needed room to move.”

  Tallia and Jeb slowly came out of the tunnel they were in and looked at the fallen beast. “Never seen one that big,” Jeb said.

  Don’t like spiders anymore Macaque thought.

  “Well guess we will have to go though the other tunnel now that ones blocked,” Tallia said.

  “It was a dead end anyway,” Poriya said. “It’s at the end I found that waiting. Seems to had made it’s home there.”

  “Well I hope it doesn’t have neighbours,” Jeb said peering down the other tunnel.

  “Wait there I’ll go check,” Poriya said, picked up his torch and headed off down the tunnel with his sword already drawn this time.

  “Here Tallia, take this,” Jeb said handing her his bow.

  “I’m not very good with a bow. You know that.”

  “You’re better than you think. Even if you only wound it at least it will give Poriya a chance of a killing blow. Well, providing you don’t hit him instead,” and grinned at her.

  “Shut up. I’m not that bad.”

  Poriya was gone much longer this time, and his two companions were relieved to see him come cas
ually walking back into the chamber.

  “We were getting worried,” Tallia said.

  “Yeah sorry had to investigate several branches off this one but eventually found another chamber. Come on,” Poriya said and turned back into the tunnel.

  After passing several tunnels going off the one they were in it opened up into a much larger chamber. The light from their torches only just reached the ceiling and the far side. There were six other entrances to this chamber, and Tallia’s heart sank as she realised this was going to take a long time.

  “This one here I think,” Poriya said.

  “How do you know? You couldn’t have searched all these,” Tallia said.

  “I didn’t, but when I found this place, I thought I felt a slight breeze through this one, so put my torch in another one and looked again and there was some sort of light at the end of it.”

  “What do you mean some sort of light?” Jeb asked.

  “Well, it was green.”

  Tallia furrowed her brow and said, “Green?”

  “Yeah green. Come on let's go look.” Poriya said.

  The tunnel widened quite quickly, and they were able to walk along it side by side. It turned slightly to the left and started to go downhill gradually before turning right. Eventually, they could see the green glow up ahead even with their torches still lit.

  As they made a sharp turn to the left and started to go back uphill, they could see the end of the tunnel ahead glowing quite brightly. When they were twenty or so paces away, Poriya stopped and said, “You two wait here while I go have a look.”

  Tallia and Jeb watched as Poriya walked on ahead drawing his sword as he went. He slowed as he approached the end of the tunnel. They watched in silence as he peered through the entrance looking left and right before stepping out into the green light. He turned and signalled them to follow.

  The cavern was enormous, with a large lake going right across it that glowed green, the source of the light they could see from the tunnel. A stone bridge spanned from the side they were standing to the other side easily wide enough for someone to walk across. Looking up, they could only just make out the ceiling a long way above their heads. On the other side of the bridge, they could just make out another tunnel. It had two carved stone pillars either side making it look like the entrance to something rather than just being another tunnel.