by P D Ceanneir
His wonder at the carving turned to anxiety when his eyes travelled to the only odd thing about the statue. Buried inside the pseudo-carapace sat a small brown onyx, carved into a sphere, polished to a high sheen and about the size of a clenched fist.
‘A heart,’ whispered the Ri.
‘What was that?’ said Gunach, startling the Ri out of his thoughts. Rawns had the ability to detect life forms close to them even when none was in evidence. Dwarves, on the other hand, tended to ignore this fact and often ended up in places where one least expected them to be. Like the Ri, he was scrutinising the same statue.
‘A heart,’ said Lord Ness, pointing towards the strange brown stone, which looked out of place on the all-white statue.
‘It’s an Orrinn, isn’t it?’ Gunach asked. Ness Ri nodded. He had known Gunach and his people for a long time, but it was easy to forget how wise dwarves were and the Master Smith knew more about Rawnlore than most Rawns.
‘Earth?’
Lord Ness nodded again, ‘definitely.’
‘It’s a Golem’ said Gunach, the tone of his voice was wary.
Lord Ness snapped his head around and looked at the dwarf. ‘How did you figure that out?’
‘Earth Orrinn in the chest of a stone warrior,’ shrugged Gunach, ‘who happens to be carrying a real spear and shield. There does not seem to be any other form of defence against intruders in this place.’
Ness Ri pursed his lips thoughtfully and backed away from the effigy. Gunach did the same.
‘We had better warn the others,’ said the Ri.
The others had already moved through the narrow foyer, which held three arched niches on either side of the walkway. Filling these niches were statues similar to the two in the outer entrance. Lord Ness and Gunach moved quickly through this area and entered another room, which much resembled a huge atrium; there were dozens of stone urns, which at one time may have held many flowering plants but now the stems were dark and withered and the dry leaves were scattered over the floor. In the centre of the room sat a pool, empty now. Beyond the pool was an exit to a stone stairway that spiralled upwards. Two statues stood on plinths on either side of the pool, but the startling thing for Lord Ness as he and Gunach burst in, was the tall statue of a robed Ri in the centre of the pool towering twenty feet high which dominated the entire atrium. Like all the other figurines, this one also had an Earth Orrinn set into it’s chest, but this one was the size of a man’s head.
‘Don’t go near the statues!’ shouted Gunach as he and the Ri entered.
It was pointless thing to say because Furran had already extracted a spear form the grip of the closest statue by the pool and was looking at the Skrol inscription burnt into its long black ash shaft.
‘Why?’ Furran asked tentatively.
Something moved above their heads, making the grinding noise of stone on stone. They all looked up to see the statue of the Ri looking down at them with a frown of such anger and malevolence that they all yelled in shock. Lord Ness felt movement behind him. He did not have to turn around to know that the statues in their niches had stepped forwards into the Foyer and the two at the entrance had joined them.
Suddenly, there was a loud female scream from above, which echoed down the stairway beyond the pool.
‘RUN!’ shouted Lord Ness.
12
‘So, are you some sort of spirit inside my head?’ said Havoc, as he plunged his fingers into yet another slime-encrusted crevice and hauled himself another couple of feet up the wall of the dungeon well. Above him the iron grating was now only a few feet away, which was just as well because his arms and legs had been screaming in agony for the past few hours, but he ignored the pain.
I am not sure what I am, said Blacksword, but I feel that I have always been a part of you.
‘That’s just so strange. I am sure this does not happen to other people. So it’s the Muse Orrinn on the sword that brought you to life?’ Havoc’s curiosity about the Sword that Rules was beginning to annoy the Blacksword.
Look! I don’t have all of the facts. Part of the reason we are on this quest is to get some answers about our…condition. The sooner you get all of your memories back, the better!
‘Did anyone ever tell you that you have an anger issue?’
Yes, but I don’t let them live long enough to go into any detail about it. Now concentrate!
Suddenly there was an incredibly loud bang, which almost made Havoc let his footing slip and he quickly pulled himself into the wall as the grating above his head shifted slowly to one side with a high-pitched grinding noise. Beyond the grating, the Storm-vortex formed out of thin air and a black hole opened up in the centre of the swirling clouds. Something small and covered in tattered rags fell out of it and into the dungeon; narrowly missing Havoc as it fell passed him.
The grating rolled back, locking with a click. There was another loud bang like booming thunder and the storm was gone.
Did you see who that was? The Blacksword said, referring to the twisted corpse that fell past them.
‘It was not Tia, if that’s what you mean.’
From above, a scream flowed down the well; it was distant, but clearly female.
‘That’s Tia.’
Cimb!
Havoc covered the final few feet quickly and grabbed hold of the grating. Within seconds, the metal turned a sickly shade of white and then crumpled into ash around his hands. The prince hauled himself out of the well.
He found himself in a larger room; brick walls surrounded him on three sides. On the fourth was a stairway leading up, but his attention was drawn towards a metal chain hanging above the dungeon-well. Its links receded upwards into the dark spine of the building. On the opposite wall sat a pulley-counterweight and a length of the same chain wrapped around a winch.
‘That’s our exit,’ said Havoc as he climbed onto the well wall and grabbed the chain. He waved his hand and a blast of wind struck the winch latch, releasing the winch and allowing the counterweight to drop. The winch whirled; the chain became taught and jarred Havoc’s arms as he shot upwards at incredible speed.
13
A spear point clanged off Little Kith’s shoulder-guard as he swung his axe. The steel half-moon blade bit into the Golem’s midriff, but the statue barely flinched. It gripped the axe shaft pulled the blade out of its side. Then the cold lifeless eyes fixed on Kith once again and jabbed, Kith dodged the point and kicked the Golem square in the chest sending it onto its back. The big warrior suddenly realised that marble was a very hard and heavy substance to kick as he hopped on one foot and cursed.
All around him, the statues attacked the other Paladins. The Golems were quick, nimble and skilled in combat. It was taking a lifetime of skill for the knights to hold them back. Sir Powyss had already decapitated two with a flame wreathed Bor-Teavan, but even dismembered, the statues fought on. Luckily, the dwarven-forged blades of the Paladin’s swords were strong enough to cut through quality stone but that was if they could get close enough.
A white-fletched arrow embedded itself inside the head of the statue fighting Kith; it did little to slow it down.
‘Gods! How do you kill these things?’ shouted Whyteman, who was notching another arrow
‘Aim for the Orrinn in its chest,’ yelled Ness Ri who had already took the legs from one statue and was aiding Furran and Velnour with another. The Ri was still casting worried looks towards the tall Ri-golem that stood above them. It was watching Lord Ness with a very menacing frown and ignoring the others.
Linth stepped in beside Whyteman and the two Eternal Archers loosed arrows at the same time. The shafts struck Kith’s opponent right in the centre of the Earth Orrinn and the statue stumbled, stopped and then toppled over to smash into pieces on the marble floor.
Both archers yelled in triumph. Their joyful shout was cut short when a small blur, in the shape of Gunach, tackled them to the floor. All three of them rolled away as the huge fist of the Ri-golem slammed into the ground
where the archers were standing.
Ness Ri turned towards the huge statue just as Furran blocked his opponents spear with his shield and Velnour slashed a deep grove into its Earth Orrinn with his heavy Cavalry Sabre.
‘Run towards the stairs!’ ordered Ness Ri. ‘I will stall it.’ With that, he leapt high into the air bringing Belthoin down onto the creatures face to score a deep slash into its eye and cheek. The thing jerked back from the Rawn blade and stepped off the plinth just as Furran, Velnour and Hexor ran in-between its legs. The tall Golem stumbled as the thing’s back crashed into the atrium wall to send out a myriad of cracks along its surface and rain debris down around Gunach and the two archers.
Foxe, on the other side of the plinth, slammed his shield into a Golem he was fighting to send it crashing to the floor and sprinted for the exit. He nearly ran into Lord Ness as he rounded the corner of the plinth and both men had to duck as the giant statue’s hand swept, open palmed, across the floor trying to grab the Ri. The hand smashed two attacking Golems to pieces and then swung back for Lord Ness but the Ri threw two bright balls of flame at the appendage and its fingers exploded into marble shards when the fireballs struck.
‘Run!’ he shouted at Foxe, who seemed captivated by the giant statue. He turned and ran towards the exit. The Ri-golem noticed their intent to escape and it lashed out towards the huge arched lintel above the doorway with a fingerless fist. The arch collapsed just as Kith, Furran, Powyss and Velnour sprinted under it. A torrent of brickwork rained down upon them blocking Foxe, Hexor, Linth and Whyteman’s escape.
Whyteman cursed in anger and loosed an arrow that struck the Ri-golem in the centre of its Earth Orrinn. It had little effect other than serving to make the creature more angry. Lord Ness knew that the only way to kill the thing was to shatter the stone itself. He sprinted forward and jumped high, narrowly missing a grasping hand as he ran along its arm and leapt again with Belthoin raised high and its blade pointing downwards.
The long silver blade pierced the Orrinn deeply and the statue stumbled as if in complete shock. A myriad of cracks spread out from the brown orb connecting into a web of darkening ruptures. The silver marbled veins along the Golem’s torso began to glow as Lord Ness hung there, mesmerised at the damage he had done. Then the statue froze for a few seconds before juddering violently.
A sudden sense of danger flared in the Ri’s mind. He quickly pulled out his sword and pushed himself off the statues chest with his feet. He executed a perfect backward flip just as the Ri-golem exploded.
14
Havoc held on tightly to the chain as he rose through the darkness. After a few seconds, there appeared shafts of sunlight through tall openings in the walls, beyond which he could see a stairway and high arched windows. Obviously, he was travelling through the central stairway of a tower.
Suddenly, there was a loud boom from down below and the walls shook. The chain jerked to a stop and a strong gust of pressure shot up through the shaft below him. He swung his legs out to the opposite wall and pushed himself towards one of the openings, grabbing the foot ledge with frantic fingers and pulled himself over the edge. He managed to get half his body through the opening when the pressure wave struck him and it sent him spinning through the opening to land onto his back on the hard marble stairs.
He groaned as his back bruised, ‘are my days always like this?’ he asked the Blacksword.
Pretty much.
15
Lord Ness had put a huge amount of energy into the first element in an attempt to lessen the damage that the exploding Ri-golem would cause. It was not enough. Large chunks of marble smashed into the outer walls to rain yet more debris down onto the atrium. Luckily, the other, lesser Golems disappeared under the avalanche of rocks and boulders.
Still, the Ri had managed to save the others from the worst of the collapse. He found Foxe close by him relatively unscathed and together they found Hexor, groggy, bruised, but otherwise undamaged.
‘I’ve heard may tales about you, Master Ri,’ said Hexor as he recovered his sword and shield from the rubble, ‘but they do not do any justice to the real thing.’
Lord Ness chuckled, ‘I must admit, my foes usually bleed.’
Together they found Linth who had dived for cover under a pillared mezzanine that ran the whole length of the Atrium’s west wall. Two of the pillars had collapsed, narrowly missing him, but crushed his quiver of arrows, which he had dropped as he rolled away from the explosion.
‘Whyteman! Has anyone seen him?’ he asked; concern for his friend evident in his voice. The others began to search and call out to the tall skinny archer. The dust was clearing all around them and that was when they noticed the exit to the spiral stairway was now totally blocked with rubble.
16
Powyss pushed something heavy off his back. It clattered onto the floor next to him and he was shocked to see a limbless torso of one of the Golems. He pushed it away and stood up. The wide stairway was directly in front of him. Behind him, the entrances outer archway had collapsed bringing most of the upper floor with it. There was no way back into the Atrium.
Something shifted in the dust next to him and what he mistook for a large boulder turned out to be a grime covered Kith. His armour was dented and he was missing his right shoulder guard, his helmet gone and one side of his face matted with blood from a scalp wound, yet he seemed unfazed as Powyss helped him to his feet.
‘You fit?’ asked Powyss.
‘It’ll take more than a few pebbles to stop me,’ growled the big man.
There was a muffled voice calling from the rubble behind them.
We’re alright, thanks for asking…we don’t want to disturb you.
‘Furran,’ Powyss grinned.
Together he and Little Kith moved rubble and found Furran’s outstretched hand. Kith grabbed it and pulled his friend out.
‘Careful,’ said the shorter knight, ‘Gunach, Whyteman and Velnour are in there. Velnour’s in a bad way.’
Powyss looked into the recess of debris to see Gunach hunched over a prone and unconscious Velnour. Whyteman was shifting rubble to clear a way to drag Velnour out of danger. Powyss noticed that Gunach had his left shoulder against the underside of Furran’s shield. He was using his superior dwarven strength to hold up about a ton of boulders above them before it collapsed. Whyteman began pulling Velnour towards him, but the space was tight and every inch made the collapse shift. Even as Powyss reached in for Velnour, he could see Gunach’s arms were wobbling with the strain of holding the weight above the shield.
Powyss ignored Velnour and Whyteman and placed his hand on the nearest boulder. He summoned the energies of the Earth Element and fussed the huge blocks of marble together to strengthen the opening. Gunach visibly relaxed.
‘Thank you, Ercat,’ he said using the dwarven name given to Powyss.
‘Don’t mention it, old friend.’
Together they pulled Velnour out of the rubble. Powyss could see from the twist in his leg that his tibia was broken.
They heard shouting from the other side of the collapse, calling their names.
‘We are here, my Lord,’ shouted Powyss to the Ri. ‘I have Whyteman, Gunach, Kith, Furran and Velnour with me. Velnour has a broken leg. Do you have the twins and Linth?’
‘They are here,’ acknowledged Lord Ness. ‘Commander, I do not have the energy to clear the debris. Are the stairs clear on your side?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I suggest you continue. We shall find another way up.’
‘Agreed,’ said Powyss. He looked at the others. Little Kith was over by the far wall where the high window could be reached by climbing on the rubble below the ledge.
Kith turned to Powyss, ‘me and Furran will take Velnour through there,’ he pointed towards the window, ‘we’ll head back to the Cybeleion. You three best be quick.’ He nodded towards the stairs.
Powyss nodded. Gunach had found his axe in the rubble and made for the stairs but everyone h
eard Whyteman curse as he pulled out a quiver of crushed arrows. Miraculously, his war bow only needed a new bowstring.
‘Half the arrows are damaged!’ he said with a tone of annoyance.
‘You shall just have to use your sword if you run out,’ smiled Furran as he and Little Kith hefted a still unconscious Velnour onto their shoulders, ‘you archers do still know how to use one, eh?’
The tall blonde archer glared at him, ‘you’re not making my bad mood any better!’
17
Lord Ness looked around at the devastation. Over by the main entrance the masonry was piled high, though not to the same extent as the Atrium exit. It was passable with the use of the Rawn Arts, however, he wanted to find a way up, not out. He climbed up onto some rubble and tried to peer over the buckled balcony above the mezzanine in the hope of finding a door on that level.
That was when he sensed the use of the Arts.
It was subtle at first. He mistook it for Sir Powyss who was an expert at using low levels of Rawn energies to maximum effect. However, the energy flow was coming from his right under the smashed torso of the Ri-golem. Broken marble shifted and an arm from a Lesser-Golem crawled out from under the statue. The three remaining fingers of the hand pulled the rest of the appendage along the floor. It halted by the shoulder socket of a cracked torso. Smaller chunks of marble trundled across the floor towards the arm. Lighter pieces footed through the air drawn to the torso like a magnet, fitting into place perfectly like a large wooden blocks of a puzzle he remembered from childhood.
Over to his left, Sir Linth gasped and notched one of his few remaining arrows to his bow. Lord Ness could only assume that he had seen another of the Lesser-golems reforming close to him.
‘Arcun! That is just not fair!’ cursed Hexor as he unsheathed his sword looking down at something the Ri could not see.
The Golem by Lord Ness had had by now gained a leg and was carrying a head in its one good arm.
‘Erm…my Lord?’ enquired a hesitant Foxe.
‘Yes, I know,’ answered the Ri, ‘they are putting themselves together. Time to leave, I think. All of you stand together.’ They did as asked, all three of them standing back to back in a tight circle. Lord Ness jumped down from the rubble and fashioned a tight ball of hardened air around himself and the others as he approached. He used the Wind Element to lift them onto the balcony.