by Joseph Lallo
The boulder bounced once on the ground and was instantly airborne again, sweeping the henchman along with it. Together they smashed into the back wall, punching a hole straight through to the hallway beyond. Looking through the new doorway they could all see the boulder lodged in the next wall. Below the boulder were two boots sticking out of the rubble. The mercenary was alive, but unable to move as the artificial boulder was pinning his arms to his chest. Not far away was a second pair of boots, also pinned to the ground by several hundred pounds of stone.
Rahygren regained his feet. A frantic look around confirmed his confident welcoming party had been reduced to a solo act. Cursing profoundly, he started towards the door when he saw Athos hurrying to intercept him, but thanks to the bulkiness of the armor, wouldn’t make it in time. Thinking Athos was Waxrobbe, Rahygren started to smile that smug smile of his when he finally caught sight of his backup’s unprotected head. Rahygren’s eyes widened with disbelief as he watched the impostor reach up under his breastplate and pull out two long flat metal bars, one green and the other gold. The smile melted right off his face.
Rahygren did the only sensible thing he could think of. He fled.
Tristofer finally appeared in the freshly cut circular doorway and hopped over.
“We did it! We won!”
“The hell we have!” a shrill voice exclaimed, catching everyone’s attention. “Stop him! Catch him! Hurry!!”
Everyone turned to stare uncomprehendingly at Kasnar. The tiny little dwarf had a distraught look on his face and looked as though he was going to keel over at any moment. Concerned, Athos approached and laid a hand on Kasnar’s shoulder.
“Are you alright? Perhaps you should –”
Athos never had a chance to finish his sentence as Kasnar cocked an arm and smacked him on the back of his head. If Athos had been wearing a helmet it would have undoubtedly flown off his head. Kasnar climbed up Athos’ back to get to his harness. Remembering that Athos had removed it when he had lured the guard away from the palace door, Kasnar abandoned his attempt to climb Athos and instead latched on to Venk and climbed up his back. Once the protective leather straps were once more holding him in place, he gripped Venk’s shoulders tightly and smacked him on the back of his head.
“Hurry! Run!! You’ve got the arrow shooter. If you get the opportunity, use it!”
Venk dangerously eyed his brother as Athos began coughing in an attempt to hide his laughter.
“Why do we pursue, grandfather?” Breslin wanted to know. “Now we can leave unhindered. We can go home. You can go home.”
“Not yet we can’t!” Kasnar insisted. The old man peered intently at the five of them shuffling uneasily from foot to foot. “Do you think small toys are the only weapons to be found down here? Larger, deadlier devices exist that make what you’ve seen thus far seem like toys. Most importantly, if Rahygren makes it back to Bykram first he’ll report us as being the looters responsible for desecrating this city!”
It was suddenly so quiet that a simple chirp from a kyte would have echoed thunderously throughout the room. Breslin and the others nervously eyed each other.
“He wouldn’t,” Breslin began.
“He can and he will!” Kasnar confirmed. “Now run, boy!”
Breslin took off as though he had been shot out of a trebuchet. The others were right on his heel. Athos had stopped to let Lukas climb up on his back.
“Don’t let go, boy,” Athos warned as he sprinted after the others.
“Which way would he have gone, grandfather?” Breslin called out from the front of the procession.
Kasnar thunked Venk on his helmet and urged him to run faster.
“Get me up there next to my grandson. I can’t hear him. Hurry!”
Venk’s curse was lost amidst his wheezes as he doubled his efforts to catch up to Breslin.
“Through there,” Kasnar pointed, singling out a long narrow hallway that was heading away from the king’s private chambers.
Breslin angled left and ran towards the illuminated hallway. He suddenly realized that following Rahygren through this maze of corridors and hallways was much easier than he had first anticipated. Whatever route Rahygren took, the gold chains, which responded to movement, would illuminate the way and make it incredibly easy to pinpoint which direction he was traveling. Since the hallway they were following dead ended at another running east and west, a quick glance in each direction verified that the chains were illuminated on the right and not on the left.
Following this corridor led them to a courtyard with doorways in all directions. Quiet and serene, nestled safely within the palace, Venk figured this courtyard must have been used by the king himself. A commotion just ahead snapped his head up and he watched Breslin disappear through the second doorway on the left. Holding his aching side, Venk ran for the door before the crotchety old timer on his back could deliver another stinging blow to the backside of his head.
“What’s through here?” Venk wheezed out.
“No idea.”
“What? How is it you don’t know?”
“You were aware that I was locked up for most of the time?”
Venk nodded. “Well, yes, but clearly you’ve been out of that cell or else you wouldn’t have seen the hidden armory door in the king’s room. That tells me they’ve let you out before, or else you escaped. No offense, Kasnar, but I believe the former more than the latter.”
When no comment was forthcoming from his rider, Venk turned his head to see for himself what Kasnar was doing. He was just in time to see the old man raise his hand for the impending blow. Venk cringed.
The blow never came.
“You’re right, of course,” Kasnar admitted. “There were times that I… you’re falling behind. Hurry! Don’t let my grandson out of your sight!”
“Sorry.”
“As I was saying, there were times when I was allowed out. Rahygren knew that the more knowledge I had at my disposal, the more apt I was to discover the secrets of the armor’s impenetrability. I was escorted to the library so many times that I started memorizing the layout of the city every time I left the palace.”
“How well do you know the palace?”
“Better than most,” Kasnar replied cryptically.
“What do you think Rahygren is after?”
Kasnar sighed and suppressed a shudder. “If only you knew some of the advances the Narians made. As the value of their armor continued to increase, they were forced to come up with ways to protect themselves. And let me tell you, the Narians were a very creative people. More and more powerful weapons were created. Some could utilize sounds to shatter stone, as you have unfortunately witnessed. Thankfully our own tone disruptor was a newer model than what Rahygren had. Breslin only had to hold his hammer next to it for the helix to power the device.”
“How did you know it’d do that?” Venk asked. His lungs felt like they were on fire.
“I didn’t. I saw several lights appear on the device whenever Breslin neared. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the disruptor needed a power source. The power hammer had a helix, therefore it had a power source.”
They rounded a corner and came to a halt when they saw Breslin squatting next to an open doorway. He held up his hand then put a finger to his lips. He silently pointed through the door and mouthed ‘Rahygren’.
Venk nodded. He automatically reached behind his head to grab his crossbow but instead punched Kasnar in the eye. Venk sighed and waited for the inevitable. Three seconds later, after the shock had worn off, Kasnar pulled himself halfway out of the harness and leaned forward to better glare at his steed. Giving Venk a look which clearly said they would be revisiting this particular argument in the not-so-distant future, he lowered himself back into his harness and waited.
Breslin motioned Venk over and kept a finger to his lips. He forked his fingers at his eyes and then pointed into the room. Venk slowly leaned forward to look in. It was a
nother of the security checkpoints, and this door wasn’t closed, it was open. More specifically, it was wedged open much the same as the palace door had been. Rahygren was doing his best to dislodge whatever he had used to prop the door open, and just like they had experienced earlier, the crumpled object refused to cooperate. Breslin gripped the power hammer in his right hand and held his red axe with his left.
“We end this,” Breslin softly told Venk. His eyes widened as he saw that the two of them were alone. “Where’s Athos and Lukas? Where’s Tristofer?”
“Athos tripped while carrying Lukas and went down, taking Tristofer with them. I saw them. They’re fine. They should be here at any minute.”
Breslin tiptoed into the room while Venk and Kasnar watched quietly from the doorway. This was too easy. Rahygren was so busy trying to pull whatever it was he had crammed in between the door and frame that he never noticed Breslin silently approaching from behind. Just in case things went wrong, Venk pulled the handheld arrow shooter from his belt and held it tightly in both hands.
Unfortunately, this was the time that his brother and his son arrived, followed closely by the scholar. Wheezing loudly, Tristofer coughed noisily. Rahygren, alerted to their presence, spun around and reacted instantly. Their adversary unclipped something from his right forearm and pointed it straight at Breslin.
The device belched out a large, gray mass and as it flew toward Breslin it rapidly spread out. It was a net! Breslin had seen Rahygren fire the weapon and had instantly dropped to the ground. Unfortunately for Venk and Kasnar, they were directly in the line of fire.
The net hit them square on, and before Venk could let a choice profanity fly, or fire a shot from his arrow shooter, he and Kasnar found themselves completely immobilized as the ends of the net burrowed deep into the surrounding stone and held them tight.
“Is it me or is this net getting tighter?” Kasnar suddenly asked, worry evident in his tone. The wizened little fellow had crouched down in his harness, which brought his head down below Venk’s shoulders. The two of them were pressed tightly against one another, and with the net continuing to constrict around them, found themselves being forcibly flattened against the wall.
“Quick, cut them loose!” Athos snapped to Tristofer as he whipped out a dagger. He grabbed one of the strands and swiped his knife across it, expecting the net to part right down the middle. It didn’t.
“My dagger is ineffective!” Tristofer cried. He was raking his dagger against the strands and might as well have been trying to cut through solid steel.
Breslin regained his feet and turned to look back through the doorway at his companions. He saw Athos frantically sawing away at the net while Tristofer searched through his possessions for something that would be successful in freeing his friends. A commotion started just to the left, causing Breslin to look back at Venk. The metal wrist band, given to them by Kasnar, had activated. Miniature metal squares unfolded from the metal bracelet and snapped into position, forming the large metal square he had seen earlier during the demonstration with Tristofer. Thankfully the net’s constrictions were thwarted by the large plate of Narian metal which bowed down the middle but refused to break. The net ground to a halt and held them helplessly against the wall.
By this time Rahygren had managed to dislodge whatever it was that had prevented the door from closing and hurried through.
“We’re fine!” Venk called out to Breslin. “Get after him! Athos, go with him.”
“I have to look after Lukas,” Athos protested, casting a worried glance at his nephew. “I cannot leave an underling alone in the –”
“I’ll look after him,” Tristofer calmly told him. “Leave this net to me. Go help Breslin.”
With a final look at his immobilized brother, Athos ran towards the sealed door just as Breslin held the hammer up to the jewel. The door creaked open.
“Stop him at all costs!” Kasnar shouted to them.
Both of them nodded and disappeared through the door.
“Another hallway,” Breslin muttered crossly. “Who would have imagined it?”
“Where do you think we are?” Athos whispered.
“Maybe a barracks of some sort?” Breslin suggested. He peered closely at the large hall and looked worriedly at his companion. With a hall such as this, and since it was already illuminated, there was no telling which door Rahygren might be hiding behind.
“What now?” Athos wanted to know. “There are doors everywhere. He could be hiding in any of those rooms. How do we know where to look?”
Breslin pointed up at the ceiling. “See the chains up there? They’re already lit. That would indicate Rahygren has passed by. As long as the hallway is lit, we move forward.”
Athos grunted in acknowledgement.
Breslin counted sixty doors, thirty on each side, before they finally rounded a corner and saw that the lights in the hall had faded to darkness in the distance.
“He’s nearby,” Breslin whispered. “Be ready.”
“What do you think?” Athos asked. “Does he flee or is he trying to find a way to fight?”
Breslin thought for a moment. “Personally I think he’s looking for a weapon. The sensible thing to do is to flee, seeing how he knows he’s now outnumbered. The problem is I can’t imagine him wanting to give up the location of the city, not after all these years of taking what he wants and selling it to whomever will buy it. But what if there’s a third option? What if one of these rooms has a secret passageway that leads out? If anyone would know of such a passage, it’d be him.”
Athos shrugged. “What if there’s a Narian princess behind one of those doors? What does it matter? Whether he fights or flees, we must find him. Period.”
Inching forward, stopping only to cautiously poke their heads into each room, they worked their way towards the dark end of the hallway. As they were checking another one of the featureless square rooms they both paused and looked at each other.
“Do you hear that, too?” Athos asked. He pointed towards the door. “It’s coming from out there. What is it?”
Breslin’s face had gone pale. He’d heard that noise before. It was one of the audio disruptors, like the one which had been used against them in the Narian king’s private chambers! They had to get out of there! Breslin spun on his heel, grabbed Athos by his arm, and pulled him out of the room.
“What are you doing? We don’t want to be out in the open like this! We should get back in…”
Athos trailed off as Rahygren appeared in a doorway about twenty feet away. He was holding another device, one that Breslin had instantly recognized. It was just like the device he had used to blast their way out of the hidden armory, and what was worse was the fact that this one was bigger. How had he powered it? Did he have one of the ruby whorls? He couldn’t have or else he could have made it through the doors without worrying about propping them open. Maybe this one still had a charge?
Athos’ speculation was cut short as Rahygren made a few adjustments on the machine, pointed it in his direction, and grinned maliciously at the two of them. The whine the device was emitting increased in volume and began rising in pitch. Breslin was mesmerized as waves of distorted air began to appear over the machine, much like the distortion one would see from heat waves over a fire.
Rahygren smiled evilly as he held out his index finger, pointed it down, and jabbed the machine with it, presumably over that which triggers the device. At the same time, both arm bands being worn by Breslin and Athos activated, and less than a second later had expanded to its full size. Holding his left arm up to receive the brunt of the audio waves, Breslin stepped in front of Athos and braced his left arm with his right. Wave after wave of tonal distortions slammed into him, shoving him backwards along the stony floor.
Much to Rahygren’s chagrin, the Narian shield refused to buckle under the brutal assault. Such was the power of the device that it shoved Breslin backwards, into Athos, and then pushed the two o
f them into the closest room.
Once the concentrated sound waves hit the tiny confines of the small square room, the walls began to crumble. Huge chunks of stone broke free from the walls and crashed to the ground, narrowly missing Breslin and Athos, who were still crouching behind their protective metal shields. Breslin was trying to brace the shield with his body to free up his right hand to get to his hammer when Rahygren suddenly aimed the device at the ceiling.
The ceiling, already weakened by the destruction of several load bearing walls, broke apart and collapsed, burying Breslin and Athos under tons of rubble. Rahygren screamed with triumph and shut the machine off, pulling a set of earplugs out of his ears in the process. When the whine finally died down and the air cleared, Rahygren surveyed his handiwork.
“To think you actually had me worried.” Rahygren carelessly let the device fall to the ground. “Good thing I still had a few of these tonal disruptors, as our friend Kasnar calls them, left. It’s getting progressively difficult to find one that still has some power left in it. Although they’re messy, I find them to be terribly handy.”
Rahygren climbed to the top of a particularly large boulder and sat down on it as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Every hundred or so years someone manages to find my city. I guess I was due. Your little group are the first visitors I’ve had in about 150 years. I was starting to think people had given up trying to find Nar. Well, one can hope, can’t they?”
Rahygren looked down at the large pile of rubble and kicked a small stone away from the rock he was sitting on.
“I wonder how you people managed to find your way here. How did you get through the sealed doors? It must have something to do with that hammer. To think you made it all the way here only to fail now. I pity you. So let’s talk about that hammer. How in the world did you find an intact power hammer? Pah. It matters not. The hammer belongs to me now.”