"Did they find something?" Zav asked as she approached the four remaining earth wizards. There had been eight, but the group had been split in half to support Ylena's squad while the others remained with the main company. Venya, the other earth wizard apprentice was close by perhaps figuring that the apprentices would be safer in the larger group of soldiers and mages here.
"Not yet. Wizard Beyrieth has asked for you earth wizards to come try your luck. The compass tells her that the rift is nearby, but stone blocks them from finding it. Though it might be safer left as it is, we can at least have you tell us if you can sense it."
"Good, about time," an older man in the brown of the earth wizards stated from behind the young man. He was also much shorter and stockier than Zav, though his clothing might have masked the man's true shape. "Come, Zav, maybe you can learn something while I search for Beyrieth."
"Yes, Master Chalman," the apprentice returned with a nod towards the man. He turned back to face Katya and rolled his eyes holding a mischievous smile as he did.
"We'll join you, Chalman," a woman younger in appearance volunteered from just behind the wizard. "Venya and I could use something more interesting to do than just sitting here waiting for you and the others."
Looking like he barely tolerated the woman's interference, the older man replied, "Do you what you will, Ueris, but don't get in the way. If there is something hidden here, I am sure that I can find it without your help; but I suppose I can understand wanting to do something more important than waiting down here."
With the mentors in agreement, the two earth wizards led the way. Zav and Venya moved beside Katya looking from their footing to their mentors with slight shakes of their heads as they followed.
"Those two..." Venya began, "I am not sure if they like each other or are completely annoyed by one another."
"Ueris is probably a little too young for him," Zav countered.
"I didn't mean to make it sound like that," the girl complained.
"It sort of sounded like it, didn't it Katya?" the tall young man asked trying to draw her into their conversation.
Not wanting to be caught in the middle, the diplomacy apprentice smirked and replied, "You two sound a lot like them right now. Is there something I should worry about?"
A gasp from Venya and something unintelligible stammered by Zav cut the questions off pretty succinctly, the younger girl thought.
Venya was brought inside by her mentor, but Chalman stopped Zav saying, "Remain outside. Pace the outer wall and try to gain impressions from here. Sometimes the stone can play tricks using odd metal deposits. You might read it differently from this position than we will inside."
"Yes, sir," the taller apprentice nodded towards his shorter mentor.
The three earth wizards chose different paths. The two women followed the main tunnel casting their magic into the stone by placing their hands on the walls there. Meanwhile, Chalman disappeared into the tunnel to the left leaving Zav with Katya and those guarding the outside.
A sigh escaped the boy's lips as he released a pent up breath of air.
"Well, maybe you can discover something that they can't out here," Katya offered trying to be helpful and assuage the other apprentice's feelings after being left out again.
"Maybe," Zav replied sounding unconvinced, "but I guess I shouldn't complain. I get the benefit of your company."
His award winning smile proved that he wasn't exactly torn up being left out after all. It also reminded Katya that Zav was also quite the ladies' man and apparently she was good enough to distract him for now.
"Wizard Beyrieth, we found something!" the voice came from one of the side tunnels echoing throughout letting not only the intended target but most of those inside know of their discovery.
"What is it soldier?" the gate wizard asked.
Mercer moved from closer to the tunnel mouth. The battle mage had given up and walked to the entry to get a little air. Many of the soldiers had returned to open air from the tunnels and other soldiers or battle mages would switch with them. Only the earth wizards truly seemed comfortable inside of the mountain, Katya thought looking in from the tunnel entrance.
A young man gestured back down the tunnel saying, "Nestle noticed a uniform depression in the stone wall. It's manmade and when he pressed on it, the wall shifted aside. There's a small room and chest there."
"Where is Nestle? You two shouldn't risk entering the room or touching anything. Certainly don't touch that chest until we have a chance to look at it with our magic," Beyrieth warned the soldier.
"Well, he remained behind just in case it might close again, Wizard Beyrieth," the young man answered and glanced back with worry.
Chalman and the female earth wizards hurried from their respective searches. The male wizard frowned and said, "But I searched that tunnel myself. There was no sign of a room anywhere. The stone felt solid all around that branch."
"Well, apparently something must have masked it from your magic then," Beyrieth stated in return. Her frown seemed less aimed at the man than it showed her worry about the chest being tampered with when she wasn't there to oversee the operation.
"Why don't you earth wizards head back out? We should probably limit the risk of this being a trap, right? There's no sense in all of us being here, if this is the source of the magic I can verify it without all of us squeezing in there.
"Mercer, why don't you get the other soldiers out as well? This soldier can escort me there for now," the red haired woman suggested rather than ordered the battle mage. Her face softened when she looked at him as well. Someone looking for it might have thought that there was something between the two even if it was a bit rare for a mage and wizard to be caught in such a relationship.
"Are you sure? I can help," he started.
"I can as well," Chalman argued with her order for him and the other wizards.
The second man's voice brought a new firmness to the gate wizard's face. "Wizard Chalman, please join the others outside. There doesn't appear to be any enemy soldiers to worry about, but I still wish to keep everyone else out of the possible line of fire just in case."
Mercer gestured with his hands towards the wizards coming close to laying his hands on their arms to push them ahead of him. Though the earth wizards appeared to want to argue their worth in examining this discovery, Beyrieth was essentially in charge and her argument was sound as well. They knew little of the creatures which had found their world only about half a year ago. Why they would leave a chest, even hidden as it was, alone and in this mountain was a question that none of them could answer at the moment.
Listening to the earth wizards grumble about being led away, the apprentice Venya was already far ahead of her mentors not bothering to argue the point. She was an apprentice and used to following the orders of full wizards, even those of the gate team.
"Ok, show me where it is..." the woman's voice faded realizing that she hadn't gotten his name.
"Timmel, ma'am," the younger man replied causing the wizard to wince. She was only twenty-eight and hardly felt like such an older sounding title should be used in her case. "Nestle, Gerid and I were in this tunnel just feeling the stone when Nestle suddenly felt this piece of stone move and the wall shimmered and disappeared next to it."
It definitely sounded like magic, Beyrieth thought as she hurried alongside the soldier, though it wasn't any spell that she had read about in her studies. Even that wasn't completely surprising. Beyrieth had turned from general studies of spells to learning everything that she could about rifts, portals and gate spells. The recent discovery of the Dark One's portal magic had been exciting to her, but she hadn't been back long enough to learn the spell.
If she could learn to both create gates as well being able to close them, perhaps she would understand them better and learn how to keep unwanted openings from occurring. Wizards had been fighting the rifts for centuries, but no one had ever figured out why they occurred naturally. Obviously magically cre
ated ones required stopping those wizards from doing it again, if it was decided that these doorways should be stopped permanently.
Her eyes glanced up seeing only one soldier ahead of them holding a lantern.
"Where's the other one?" she asked in alarm. Hadn't she warned all of her helpers to wait for her if they found something?
"Hey, Gerid, where's Nestle?" Timmel called out for the wizard.
The man with the lantern started to point to the new opening in the side of the tunnel making Beyrieth start to run.
"Get out of there, you fools! It could be dangerous!"
A strange sound filled the air drowning out her cry. The soldier ahead of her looked a little younger than the wizard one moment, and then a cloud that looked like black sand entered the tunnel from the side room. In an instant, the skin disappeared from the soldier. A skeleton stood a moment longer before even that dissolved into dust different from the black swarm heading their way.
"Run!" the wizard cried out in fear and panicked.
Timmel was slower to move. "Gerid? Nestle?"
His eyes widened and her single warning suddenly rang in the young soldier's mind. Fear surpassed his shock sending the soldier into motion. Fleeing the swarm of flowing black sand as it buzzed in the air, the soldier turned to see the smaller wizard already a dozen feet down the tunnel.
"Run!" Beyrieth screamed in a higher pitch as fear continued to numb the wizard to anything other than flight. Her voice rang out as the wizard hoped to warn anyone too slow to leave the tunnels. Her warning had been given and Beyrieth only hoped that Mercer had managed to get the others to move better than she had managed to stop the chaos caused by a soldier too curious for his own good.
She never heard Timmel scream as the dust swarmed around the young man's body. In a step, the twenty year old soldier aged to death. Skin and muscle dissolved as time continued to pass. Bone decayed and fell forward with his momentum. The sound of bones ringing on the ground sent a shiver up Beyrieth's spine urging her faster.
Her footsteps rang on the stone of the main tunnel as the woman ran for her life. Her mind hadn't the time to process what she had seen. The passing of the three soldiers had been felt more than seen. A lamp had clattered to the ground seeming to rust away and wood torches dissolved like the fires had been incinerated in an instant. Darkness followed the wizard as more torches disappeared as the sand storm rolled out of the side hall.
A couple bodies blocked the light immediately ahead of her. Even her screams hadn't actually made the soldiers turn to run. Did no one listen to her warnings? No wonder she just followed Ukor's lead in the squad, a brief thought sprang up amidst the fear otherwise numbing her brain.
"Ru..." she started to cry again but the buzzing was all around the wizard. Beyrieth felt years go by in an instant.
The last vision the woman had was the sight of Mercer's shadow near the tunnel's exit. Daylight was at his back, but then darkness was all around the wizard and night took her with a single step.
Katya heard the frantic cries to run. The diplomacy apprentice had been waiting near the entry and watched as Venya approached followed by the older earth wizards.
The scream of fear made Mercer turn back.
"Beyrieth?" the battle mage called back.
A buzzing came from the tunnels. Four soldiers had just left, but a handful remained straggling after the wizards. A man and woman in leather armor pulled their swords turning towards the screams hoping to help whoever was calling out so frightfully. The warning said run, but Southwall soldiers protected their people. Wizards hid behind them in battle freeing them to use their magic. Though not every man would hold in the face of death; these two soldiers looked ready to fight.
Katya saw Beyrieth beyond the large battle mage and watched as darkness seemed to follow the woman. Torches were touched and flickered out of existence.
"Everyone out!" the girl cried out. Her magic entered her voice adding impetus to the feet of even those willing to turn and fight.
Mercer tried to fight her magic. "Mercer we need to leave now! Hurry!"
The big man turned away from the red haired wizard as the cloud caught up to her. He missed as Beyrieth's body aged in an instant. Her bones clattered to the ground with only the metal of her dagger resisting aging long enough to touch stone.
Katya watched as the wizard's very bones turned to dust leaving nothing of the woman in a split second. The two soldiers turned too late and were dust a moment after.
Calling up a wind spell, the girl drove the air forward to slow the dark cloud. Mercer and those closest to the entry were buffeted back as Katya tried to save the rest of them.
"Dragon claws," she ordered sending four red clawed arms forward to pull Mercer and the earth wizards free of the impending death.
"Seal the cave, Zav, hurry!" Katya called out to the earth apprentice who stood nearby looking shocked. He had seen what she had as well, but her magic was in her voice. Without questioning or being allowed to process what he had seen, Zav cast his spell. A new stone wall rose from the ground sealing the tunnels.
She only hoped that whatever had just killed Beyrieth and the others couldn't break through stone.
"Beyrieth," Mercer said with choked breaths. Tears formed in his eyes even as he turned on Katya, yelling, "We left them to die!"
Sighing, the diplomacy wizard added calm to her voice as she said gently, "We couldn't save them. They were dead instantly."
"What was that?" Zav asked still sounding shocked. A handful of battle mages had seen Beyrieth and the two soldiers die as well. It was unlike anything any of them had ever seen.
"I don't know," Katya said quietly. "Beyrieth warned that there could be traps."
A sudden gasp came from the girl and she cried out, "Ylena, and the others... they could be walking into another trap!"
The girl started to run in the direction that Ukor had led the second squad. "Dragon wings!" the girl called on her dragon mage spell. Like her dragon claw spell, her wings were red. Usually Katya preferred something prettier like pink or maybe a light blue, but she had just watched people die in front of her. Her mood was darker than pink.
Strongly thrusting downward, the birdlike red wings drove her into the air with a single powerful push. Flapping quickly, the dragon mage rose higher into the air as Katya shot forward as well. She didn't know where the others would be exactly, but followed the cliff face in the direction that they had gone. She had seen the second mark on the compass and hoped that the second squad wouldn't be too hard to find before something happened to them as well.
Flying as quickly as she could, Katya noticed the cold of the air. It was spring to the south and even in White Hall it no longer felt like winter, but the Dimple Mountains were higher up and there was still snow. Winter hadn't left the mountains yet and the girl felt cold. Usually fairly resistant to the temperature thanks to her magic, Katya added her dragon armor around her body. Her winter clothing and dress were too thick to try adding the hardened red crystal to, so the dragon mage covered her skin nearly to her jaw and covered her leather boots. It helped, but her face still took the brunt of the cold.
It didn't take long before she spotted the knot of horses. People hung near them or wandered between them and a cave that Katya was just starting to make out when she first tried to call out her warning. She spotted someone in black with equally dark hair. It was too far to note any silver or gray highlights on her clothing, but she knew that it was Ylena.
"It's a trap!" she screamed, but the wind threw her words back into her face.
Closing the distance, the dragon mage called out again and again hoping to stop them from triggering the same event that had just taken the lives of Beyrieth and the handful of Southwall soldiers with her. She just hoped that it wouldn't be too late.
Chapter 10- True Beginnings
Ylena stood in the mouth of the second cave trying to keep one eye on Ukor and those searching the tunnels, while her second eye tried to
watch over those waiting outside. Air wizards stood near close to their soldiers and horses. One wandered the winds above them keeping an eye out for possible trouble, while the other kept watch with food and water waiting.
Half the earth wizards waited outside. The two men were nibbling on a snack after searching the stone around the cave. A handful of battle mages ranged around them and spread out from the cave looking torn between defending the cave and defending them from what was within it. They were in much the same state as the diplomacy wizard, Ylena thought as she watched Ukor and Blake returning from inside the cave.
"Well?" she questioned a little more bluntly than the wizard meant to in her distraction.
"It is smaller than the last, but seems to hold this rift beyond the walls of the tunnel. Unlike the previous marker, I didn't find a third at least," the gate wizard replied. Ylena thought that he looked older than she felt on the inside. Most days, the woman could forget that she had seen thirty-seven birthdays. She didn't actually feel like she should be out of her twenties really.
The fact that Ukor could look like an older man, and she was older than he, meant that Ylena knew that she was getting older quicker than she wanted to admit. It was a fact that the woman tried to forget instantly.
"Is it between the branches again?" the diplomacy wizard asked trying to help work the puzzle out with Ukor. They had spoken of the readings on the way to the second point and the gate wizard had told her that his compass had read the mark to the left of the main tunnel and deeper into the mountain from the closest branch. He had eliminated the closer side branches, though Beyrieth had been cautioned to check even those farther from the marker just in case there might be a channel leading below or above them towards the secret place of the rift.
Pointing with his entire hand towards the cave, the wizard answered, "The central tunnel goes in for about a hundred and fifty feet with only a couple branch tunnels. If it went just a little deeper, I feel that we might see the breach to deal with it; but of course we come up short," he finished looking frustrated. "It is like someone made them to taunt anyone who might come searching for them."
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 12