Ever cautious of tricks and traps, Serena went first, checking every corner and every depression in the walls. After the first two hundred feet or so, she became less worried about finding nasty surprises the ancients might have left behind. Apparently they hadn’t been too worried about who would be coming after them. Maybe there wasn’t anything here worth stealing after all. Or maybe they’d just never thought that their empire would fall, leaving the tomb to fade to an obscure memory.
“Wait a minute, Sera.” Declan had stopped and was peering at the wall, his eyes only inches from the surface.
“I thought you wanted to get out of here?”
“Shut up. This is important, and I can’t translate it if you’re distracting me by running your mouth.”
Serena snapped her jaw shut. She balled her fists, expending a considerable effort of will to keep from throttling Declan where he stood. Slouching against the wall, she heaved a huge sigh, blowing her hair away from her forehead.
Declan had his chalk out again and was scrawling symbols on the wall beside a faded inscription. She could only hope that this didn’t take as long as the first time. It didn’t. Only a few moments later, Declan stood and brushed the chalk dust from his palms. There was a twist of a smile on his face. The first since the door had slammed shut behind them.
“Well?” she demanded irritably. “Are you going to tell me or not?”
“It’s a map, of a sort. There’s another entrance four floors up.”
“How many floors are there?”
“Eight. We’re on the bottom floor. This floor and the two above it were for storage and tradecraft. The fourth up is in the main entrance hall. Once we get there, we should be able to get back out into the jungle, then home.”
“What’s above the entrance hall?”
“Does it matter? We found a way out. We should take it.”
“Yeah. To go home. You said. To a home we can’t afford. What do you think is going to happen to us if we go back to Overwatch empty-handed? Do you think we’re going to be able to stay in the hostel forever? What about your medicine? How are we going to pay for that?”
“I don’t know.” Declan scuffed his foot against the floor. That gesture, and his sullen tone of voice, made him seem like a kid again.
“Aren’t you the slightest bit curious? You said this place was a burial chamber. Why would they need storage? Or rooms for tradecrafting? Seems strange to me that they’d put all those facilities in an overblown graveyard.”
“I don’t know, Sera. Maybe it’s not a tomb. Maybe I got the translation wrong. The language is thousands of years old. Whoever built this place obviously had power and resources. I don’t want to meet the monster they left behind to protect all of it.”
Serena jumped on his words. “If you’re not sure you translated ‘tomb’ correctly, what makes you so sure there’s a monster here that they left to guard it all? Couldn’t that have meant something else too?”
Declan stared at her for a long moment. Finally, his shoulders sagged and he shook his head.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I guess.”
He looked so lost and afraid that Serena almost felt sorry for him. If it weren’t for the fact that they were completely broke, she might have been more sympathetic to his worries and fears. As it was, though, she just wanted to get into the upper levels of the tomb, or whatever it was, and see what they could find that would turn them a tidy profit.
“Listen, Declan, I know you’re having second thoughts and you don’t want to be here. I promise we won’t stay any longer than we have to.” She pointed to the inscription on the wall. “Does that tell you where any treasure or valuables might be?”
“The top two floors. They both have variations of the words for knowledge and power. If you were going to find anything, you’d find it there.”
“We’ll find it there,” she said firmly. Declan sighed.
“All right, all right.”
Through a combination of flattery, cajoling, and outright brutishness, Serena was able to get Declan to move again. It didn’t take them very long to find the door that led to a wide switchback stairway that seemed to climb the entire height of the tomb. When they reached the landing on the fourth floor, Declan stopped again and pleaded for Serena to reconsider. She ignored him, starting up the stairs toward the upper floors, thankful that whoever had built the place had put in such an ingenious way to light it. Even she might have balked at the exploration if she’d had to do it by torchlight.
When they reached the archway that led onto the main floor of the second to last level, Serena knew their quest wasn’t going to be in vain. The archway glittered in gold and precious stones.
Serena’s fingers stroked the adornments with a tender touch. She could almost feel them crying out to be released from their prison. Taking the sword from its scabbard, she pressed the tip into the soft metal and leaned into it, opening a fissure around a ruby the size of a strawberry. Without too much effort, she prized the stone out of the arch and hefted it in the palm of her hand. It wasn’t the most valuable stone to be had, but it was hers. Serena’s head swam with giddy excitement.
“Look!” She shoved her head under Declan’s nose. “See? All this was worth it. We’ll be rich. We can have whatever we want now.”
Declan shrugged. “Just be quick about it. I want to get out of here.”
“It’d go a lot quicker with your help.” She took him by the hand and dragged him through the archway. She stopped dead in her tracks. Declan’s soft gasp summed up Serena’s own feelings rather aptly.
Where the lower floors of the tomb had been a maze of corridors and hallways, this floor was a huge open space broken up by massive columns that extended to a ceiling so high it was shrouded in darkness. Huge shelves lined the walls, holding toms of ancient knowledge that had been lost to mortal memory for hundreds of years. Declan gravitated toward these as Serena took in the ornate platforms that were arranged around the hall. Each one had a gilded golden coffin laid atop it, surrounded by overflowing coffers of thick gold coins and glittering gems. The air was old, but not musty and held a hint of spice that made the room strangely welcoming. It seemed as if there was more wealth in this single chamber than in the entire city of Overwatch.
Serena walked among the coffins, trailing her fingers through the piles of coins as a sailor would drag his fingers through open water. The soft tinkle of the coins sliding against each other wakened an urgency in her. She wanted to grab handfuls and shove them into her pack and pockets. There was more here than she could ever dream of taking, but now that they knew where the tomb was, they could return at their leisure to take whatever they needed. Or wanted.
Brows furrowed, she scowled at the riches laid out before her. Steps would need to be taken to protect their bounty. It would be far too easy for someone to follow them and steal their gold. They couldn’t trust anyone. She’d have to make sure that Declan understood that. He was far too trusting, and they couldn’t take any chances.
Thinking of Declan made her realize that she hadn’t heard a peep out of him since they’d entered the treasure room. For as vocal as he’d been about wanting to leave, he was very quiet now. Serena scanned the chamber and found him sitting on the floor among a pile of books that he’d pulled down off the shelves. He had several of them laid open in front of him, his lips moving silently as he read.
Serena stepped up to him as quietly as she could, though it didn’t seem to matter. He was completely lost in a world of his own. All the better to make good on her plan.
“Boo!” she shouted, clapping her hands together behind his head.
Declan screamed, scrambling to his feet. The books he’d had balanced on his knees tumbled to the ground. He rounded on Serena, his face burning red. He raised his hand as if to slap her, and Serena put her palms up and backed away.
“Whoa! Easy now. It was just a joke.”
“You gremlin-eared, banshee-faced, motherless whore!”
&n
bsp; “Well there’s no need to be mean about it, Declan,” Serena pouted. “I’m much prettier than a banshee.”
Declan’s face twisted as if he’d been slapped, then he laughed and Serena joined in. Their laughter had a strange, echoing quality to it. If it had a slightly hysterical edge to it, neither of them would mention it.
“Did you find anything valuable?”
Declan paused in gathering the scattered books from the floor.
“Oh! Yes!” He patted a thick tome with an exquisitely etched brown leather cover. “It’s amazing. Some of these books have first-hand accounts of historical events in our past. The founding of Dragonfell is in here, as if it just happened yesterday. It really is amazing.”
“So you said.” Serena pantomimed a yawn. “No. I said valuable. As in, worth something to someone other than a bookworm.”
“Those who don’t remember their history—”
“Are doomed to be bored to death by those who do,” Serena finished for him.
“This is more valuable than all the gems and coins you can stuff in your pockets, Serena.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it.” She motioned to the room behind her. “But since you mentioned it, I think I’ll be over there, stuffing my pockets.”
Declan rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, then apparently thought better of it and turned back toward his books. Serena shrugged and wandered back among the platforms. She took a handful of gold coins from one of the piles. They were larger and thicker than the official coins of the Human Imperium. They’d be worth more just based on that alone. She shoved them down into her pockets, and they pressed against her thighs with a comforting weight.
“Look at this!”
The tone in Declan’s voice was enough to pique Serena’s interest. The only things that ever elicited that tone from her brother were objects of considerable beauty, vast amounts of knowledge, or one particular merchant’s daughter in Overwatch. Either of the first two might be worthwhile if she could sell it for a profit.
Declan was standing in the far corner of the room, almost out of the warm touch of the oil light from the tracks above. The corner was wrapped in a blanket of semi-darkness and roped off from the rest of the room by silver pillars with fine silver chains running between them. In the center of the isolated area was a simple wooden pedestal. Atop the pedestal was a box made of a wood so dark it was almost back. Intricate silver symbols were etched into its surface.
As she got closer, Serena felt the skin on the back of her neck crawl. A tight knot formed in her stomach and gooseflesh popped up on both arms. It was as if she’d walked through an invisible curtain into a room that was twenty degrees cooler than the rest of the tomb had been. Declan lifted the silver chain from one of the posts, and Serena wondered how he couldn’t feel the wrongness of that simple action.
“Wait,” she cried, as if she had to force her voice past reluctant lips. “I don’t think you should touch that.”
Declan glanced over his shoulder, and Serena shuddered. His face was a mask of greed and longing. Nothing she could say would convince him to abandon the box and whatever it held. If she’d been closer, she might have been able to reach him before he touched it, but as it was, she could only watch as his hand stretched out and plucked the dark treasure from its pedestal.
Serena wasn’t sure what she thought would happen when Declan’s fingers touched the box, but a massive sigh of relief gusted from her as he did and nothing happened. The gentle caress he lavished on the smooth wood was almost obscene.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” he breathed. “I can feel the power in it. Surely this is worth everything we’ve gone through to come here.”
“Just don’t open it.”
“Come now, Sera. What harm can come of one little peek? We need to know what it is so we can try to sell it, right?”
The wheedling tone in Declan’s voice made her skin crawl. It didn’t sound like her brother at all. She’d heard stories of evil spirits and demons taking possession of human hosts to further their own nefarious aims. She wondered if that hadn’t happened to Declan. Not that there was anything she could do about it if it had. She wasn’t a cleric or a priest. Serena contented herself with shaking her head emphatically.
“No. I think we should wait until we get outside.” She patted her bulging pockets. “We have plenty for a first run. Let’s go home.”
She stepped forward to take his hand, and Declan shrank away from her.
“Just a peek,” he whined peevishly. “It was all well and good to stay a little longer when I wanted to leave. Now I want to stay a little longer, and you’re going to stay with me. Just like I did for you.”
Serena wanted to grab him by the neck and drag him out of the room. Unfortunately, he had a point. She’d made him stay when he wanted to go. Now the tables were turned and she’d have to deal with it.
“All right,” she sighed. “One look and then we go. Fair?”
“Perfectly.” The smile Declan beamed at her was almost enough to counter the disquiet she felt. Almost.
Declan’s fingers danced over the complicated latch, moving chains and bars this way and that, as if he’d built the mechanism himself. He’d always been good with locks, and apparently those of ancient design were no great challenge either.
The latch fell open under his deft manipulations and he lifted the top of the box with his thumbs. Delight curdled to disgust and his face fell.
“What? What is it?” Serena almost didn’t want to know.
“Worthless,” he said morosely. He tipped the box toward her to she could see.
Nestled in the velvety center of the box was a small crystal ball. It wasn’t clear, but rather a milky-white, the color of common quartz. Even the size of it wouldn’t impart any real value. Similar trinkets could be had in markets and bazaars for a fraction of a crown.
Declan eyed the sphere and glanced at Serena. There was a mischievous glint in his eye that had nothing to do with the strange way he’d been acting before he opened the box.
“What?” she asked him, suddenly wary. “What are you thinking?”
“Bet you a week’s worth of chores that I can hit that far pillar from here.” He jerked his head toward the huge stonework at the far end of the room.
Serena laughed. “You’re on.”
Declan lifted the sphere from the box and closed his hand around it. He drew back his arm as if to throw. His entire body went rigid. Violent spasms shook his thin frame, and Serena watched his eyes roll back in his head, showing far too much white. He fell backward onto the floor, his hand still clutching the crystal ball.
Conquering her initial moment of panic, Serena fumbled in the thigh pocket of her breeches and produced one of the last two vials of medicine. She trotted to her brother, falling to her knees beside his head. Her fingers prodded at his jaw, but it was locked tight.
“Come on, damn it!” She tried to get her fingers between his clenched teeth to no avail. “Open up. You need this.”
“It would not help him, even if you could give it to him,” a soft voice said from behind her.
Serena screamed in surprise. Fingers, numb with shock, dropped the vial, which shattered on the stone floor between her knees. She drew her sword and whirled to face the intruder.
She’d been prepared to face another grave robber, or adventurer, or even a native of the thick jungle outside the stone walls of the tomb. Serena wasn’t at all prepared for what she found when she turned around.
The soft voice belonged to a stooped old man in robes so thick and fluffy that he was almost lost among their folds. His wrinkled head was bald, save for a pair of bushy white eyebrows and a thick beard that flowed down from his chin and cheeks like a frozen waterfall. His watery blue eyes were so pale that they were almost white as well.
“Help him, or I’ll kill you,” she snarled, with more bravado than she felt. The old man laughed without smiling.
“Idle threats are no w
ay to get what you want, child.”
“It isn’t an idle threat.”
“Of course it is.” He walked forward until his chest was pressing against the tip of her sword, his heart directly under the blade. “Kill me, if that is your wish. Strike me down.”
Serena wanted to call his bluff, to stain those pristine white robes with his blood. She tried to push the sword forward, to pierce his skin and prove that she was no coward. No matter how hard she tried to lash out at him, she couldn’t make her arm obey her wishes. Finally, she took the sword in both hands and tried to run him through. The sword didn’t budge. She tossed it away in disgust.
“See?” he asked in the same calm voice. “Idle threats will get you nowhere, Serena. I would be much more concerned with your brother. I am afraid he is dying.”
“How do you know? And how do you know my name?”
“I know all I need to know. Declan dies.”
A quick glance at Declan told her the old man was right. Thin trickles of blood had seeped out of both his ears and were tracing red rivulets down his shaking neck. A pink-tinged foam was forming at the corners of his mouth. Her thirst for vengeance blew away like dust in the wind. Now all she wanted was for Declan to be better.
“Can you help him?” Tears sprang to the corners of her eyes. “Please!”
“I can, but I will not.”
“Why?”
“I am the guardian of this place. You have trespassed in our sanctuary and disturbed the slumber of my people. Judgment must be handed down.”
“You? But Declan said it would be some kind of monster.”
The man moved to stand over Declan’s twitching body. His feet didn’t even make a whisper against the floor.
“I am afraid your brother’s skill in translation leaves much to be desired. I am not a monster, nor is this place a tomb or a temple.”
“Then what are you? And why won’t you stop my brother from dying?”
“I told you. I am the guardian of this place. Stop your brother from dying? Yes. I can do this.”
Quintessential Tales: A Magic of Solendrea Anthology Page 7