by Cadman, Dean
Gasping in disbelief, he said, “You're right, it is a door! I can see it glowing when I use my mage-sight, and there are also another two indentations up there on the ceiling. That makes five in total, one for each point of that star.”
Chapter Four
Shiva sat behind his luxuriously carved desk at the back of his small smoky office, half-hidden by the low amount of light the single small desk lamp gave off. He was looking over the reports of a recent robbery they had carried out on a local nobleman’s house two nights previously in Stelgad. What he read didn’t please him at all.
He had obtained reliable information that there would be several very expensive and rare jewels in the house when the robbery took place. No one but himself and his closest lieutenants had known about the jewels. He had always kept information like that secret, and only a trusted select few within his organization were ever privy to such information. He had always found it to be the best way of avoiding any information being leaked accidentally by a member of his guild. It's a well known fact, that too much drink can make a man's tongue wag too much, and in the wrong company, that could cost him a lot of money, or far worse.
He checked the report again, carefully going through the list of items obtained, but there was no mention of the jewels. That could only mean either the information he had paid a good price to obtain was incorrect, or at least one of the three men he sent to do the job had stolen the jewels for themselves.
The informant Shiva had bought the information from, he'd used several times before, and he had proved to be very reliable in the past with his information. Since he had crushed his main rivals the Crows' guild two months earlier, many of the informants who used to work for them had approached his guild with information they wished to sell. If the Crows' guild had still been around, he might have thought that they'd got to the jewels before he'd managed to obtain them. But there wasn’t any competition left in Stelgad. Not since he had wiped out the Crows' guild, as well as another three smaller guilds.
He would make sure the informant hadn’t indeed sold him false information, by the usual painful methods, of course, but he simply could not allow any member of his own guild to steal from him. He would have to make an example out of whoever was responsible, so nobody would ever want to steal from him again.
Two of his best men stood guard inside the doorway; one each side of the heavy oak door. Shiva wasn’t concerned about any threat to his life from the outside world, here, so deep in his headquarters. The main threat to a leader in his position always came from within. Usually some young thief with a little too much ambition, and not enough skill or brains to be much of a threat. But occasionally, within a guild there would be a genuine attempt for the leadership role, and that posed much more of a threat.
Shiva had been in charge of the Hawks' guild for just over ten years now. His fast and brutal rise to power had become legendary amongst the thieves of Stelgad, and even further afield. Many had tried to remove him from his position over the last decade, both from inside his own guild, and also rival guilds, but all had failed. He ruled with a steel fist, and any who crossed him usually paid with their lives, or worse.
As he sat there, contemplating exactly which method of killing the traitorous thief would be the most painful, and the most extravagant for any witnesses, he heard a quiet knock at his door. He looked at one of his guards, who turned towards the door and slid a small spyhole open, enabling him to safely see who was on the other side.
“It's Skelly sir,” the big guard informed his boss.
Shiva nodded his head once to indicate the guard could let him enter, and sat back in his chair to await his lieutenant.
Skelly was a very average looking man in every way, average height, build and looks. Every way except his cold steely blue eyes, which could scare anyone half-to-death with a single look. He was one of Shiva's best lieutenants, and exceptionally deadly with a dagger. Skelly entered Shiva's smoky office, casually nodding his head in greeting. He then stood at the opposite side of his desk waiting for the door to be closed behind him, making sure no one outside the room would overhear their conversation. When the door was finally closed he spoke to Shiva.
“Do you remember the horse that was stolen from us about two months back?” Skelly asked.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Well, it turned up this morning. A local horse-trader that we buy from spotted it for sale over in Helveel a few days ago. He recognized the brand on it as ours, and thought we might be interested in the information. I told him that he would be compensated well, if his information checked out.”
Shiva had almost forgotten about the horse, but being reminded of it now only served to enrage him even more. Just how did people expect to steal from him, and still live to tell the tale? Shiva's hand came crashing down on his desk in anger.
“I want you to choose one of our men and go with him to Helveel. Find this fool who thinks they can steal from me and get away with it. Question the horse-trader where our horse was seen, and find out what he knows. Find out who is responsible, and bring them here to me—alive!” he almost shouted, banging his fist down on his desk again.
“No problem,” Skelly replied calmly.
“Remember, I want them alive when you deliver them to me. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, don’t worry, I won’t cut off anything too important,” he replied with a slight grin. Skelly was the only person in the whole guild who could possibly get away with a comment like that, and he knew it. Although, he wondered if even he had gone too far with the dark mood Shiva was in at the moment. Nothing else was said between them, so Skelly just nodded and turned towards the door, before departing Shiva's office. Skelly quickly recruited another well known assassin within the guild, and they made plans to leave for Helveel, to bring back the fool who had stolen Shiva’s property. He certainly wouldn’t want to be in their shoes when Shiva got a hold of them.
Chapter Five
Lusam and Neala quietly stood looking at the huge star carved into the stone wall, wondering just what great treasures might have been hidden behind it centuries before.
“Well, are we going to try and open it or what?” asked Neala impatiently.
“What happens if it's booby-trapped?” Lusam asked. “They obviously went to a lot of trouble to hide this place when it was in use, whenever that was. Surely it has some kind of defensive measures in place, in case anyone tries to steal whatever is in there.”
“Maybe,” agreed Neala, “but there again, with those two indentations right up there on the ceiling, who would know how to get inside in the first place?”
“Hmm. Just how are we going to press those two up there anyway? Or for that matter, how are we going to press all five at the same time?” Lusam asked, gesturing to the very well spaced out indentations.
“I'm not sure. I was hoping you had a plan for that,” Neala replied. “Well I suppose I could try pressing them magically. I was taught by my grandmother how to move things with magic, and although I've never tried manipulating five things at the same time, I could give it a go.”
“Sure, that sounds like a good idea. But, can you do that from a distance? If you can, maybe we should move further back down the corridor, in case you're right, and it is booby-trapped.”
“Good idea,” agreed Lusam, as they retreated to what they judged would be a safe distance, before he tried to activate the opening mechanism. Lusam concentrated on the five points and applied pressure magically to them all at the same time, but nothing happened. He tried to press harder, but still nothing moved.
“It's not working. I'm pressing them all but nothing is happening. Maybe it's a combination lock, or maybe I have to press them in a certain order?” he said out loud, but mainly to himself. He worked out the number of possible combinations in his head, then with a groan said, “If it is actually a combination of the five indentations, there would be one hundred and twenty permutations. That's going to take some time and pla
nning, to make sure we don’t miss any combination.”
“How long will it take to open if it is a combination lock?” Neala asked impatiently, looking at the wall, and dreaming of what could be behind it. “That depends. If we're incredibly lucky, we could get the correct combination on the first attempt, or if we are equally unlucky, it could be the last attempt. Then there's the possibility that if the combination is entered incorrectly once, or several times, it may lock out further attempts for a set period of time, or even permanently. It could even trigger that supposed booby-trap. The truth is, it's simply impossible to know exactly how long it would take to open, and that’s even if it is a combination lock in the first place,” replied Lusam, sounding slightly defeated even before they had begun.
“Can't you just blast through it with your magic powers?”
Laughing at the imagined destruction, he replied, “I wouldn't know how to, and besides, even if I did know how, we couldn't destroy Mr Daffer's property like that anyway.”
“I know, I wasn't serious about blasting through. It's just so annoying being this close, and not being able to see what’s behind this damn door!”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he agreed. “I suppose we better start working out all the combinations if we're going to try this. That way, we don’t miss any.” He turned and started heading back towards the main chamber again.
“Could the star have any clues to the combination?” Neala suggested, as they began walking back.
Lusam thought about it a few moments. “Of course, the star! You're a genius Neala,” he said, jumping with excitement.
“What about the star?” Neala asked confused.
“A five pointed star, and five indentations. Look at how the star is created on the wall. It's been drawn in one continuous line, without beginning or end. All the points of the star are connected. Maybe all I need to do is magically connect the indentations with each other, just like the star, and not just press them,” Lusam said excitedly.
“It's worth a try,” Neala agreed.
Lusam cleared his mind, and concentrated on connecting the indentations magically in the same configuration the star had been created. He wasn't sure exactly how he could do it. He finally concentrated on the image of what he wanted, and let the power flow out of him. A green line of power burst into life, connecting each of the indentations with the next, and creating a perfect five pointed star to mirror the one on the wall. With a grinding sound, and a flurry of dust, the wall, very slowly, started to move on its own.
“You did it!” shouted Neala excitedly, hugging and kissing him on the cheek at the same time.
“Yeah, looks like it. You'll have to find me more doors to open if you're going to do that every time,” he said, grinning at her. She just smiled back at him, and they waited for the door to fully open, trying to be as patient as was humanly possible.
When the door had finally fully opened, and the dust settled, Neala said, “Maybe I should go in alone first.”
“Why?” he asked, confused at her request.
“Well, seeing as you're the only one who can open this door with magic, it makes sense for me to go inside first, just in case the door closes again and traps me inside. Then you could let me back out again. If we both go in together, who would let us both out?” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lusam laughed. “That's a good point,” he agreed. “The only problem is, there may be other dangers in there that you can't see, but I might be able to with my mage-sight. I suggest you take a lantern and enter the room. If the door remains open, wait until I enter and check the room for hidden traps before you move any further inside, just to be on the safe side.”
“Hmm … I hadn't thought about that either, maybe you're right. Okay, I'll go see if the door stays open, but be ready to get me out of there if it closes fast,” Neala replied, looking a little less confident than she had a moment ago.
“Sure, no problem, but if it closes even twice as fast as it opened, we would still have enough time for a picnic before we would be in any danger of getting locked inside,” he chuckled. “True,” she agreed smiling back at him. She took her lantern and approached the darkened room. As she reached the entrance she held up the lantern and took a step forward into the room. As soon as her foot made contact with the floor, the whole room suddenly burst into light.
“Aargh! My eyes,” she said, now shielding her eyes from the daylight-strength light emanating from the walls all around her. Lusam came running towards the room and stopped just outside the doorway, then looked tentatively inside. The room was circular in shape, with the single pedestal in the centre. On the pedestal was a single item. As Neala's eyes became accustomed to the bright light, she also took in the almost empty room. Empty apart from a single item sitting on top of the pedestal.
“OH GREAT! Just what we need, another book!” Neala said exasperated.
Lusam burst out laughing at Neala's reaction. She was obviously expecting a room full of gold,silver and gemstones, and not a single book to be so well guarded behind the almost impenetrable wall.Lusam noticed another five indentations in the same configuration on the inside of the room, and felt confident he would be able to reopen the door from the inside, should it close automatically while they were still inside. He walked over to where the large book was placed on top of the pedestal and looked at the title. He didn't recognize the language the text was written in. He had never seen anything like it before.
“I can't read the language this is written in. I wonder what kind of book it is?” he said, looking at the ornately designed leather and metal bound cover of the book. “Maybe it's some kind of holy book that the monks used in the past,” he guessed.
“Could be I guess, but if nobody can read it anymore, I guess we'll never know,” replied Neala.
Lusam was curious as to what the book contained, so he took a step up onto the base of the pedestal, where he could better see the contents of the book. Reaching out he opened the book, ready to try and make sense of its contents, when a searing light stunned his whole body. He instantly turned rigid as a force-field of some kind completely surrounded his entire body. Neala noticed the sudden change and called out to him, but he was unable to respond, as he could no longer hear her calls.
“LUSAM!” she cried out. Neala reached out to grab him, and was violently thrown across the room by the force-field now surrounding him. Luckily she wasn't hurt badly and quickly got back to her feet, whilst rubbing the lump that was now forming on the back of her head. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't reach him because of the force-field, and he wasn't responding to her ever desperate calls. She also dare not leave him, in case the door closed again and trapped him inside all alone.
Panic pulsed through her with every breath she took. She hadn't known Lusam that long, but he was the best friend she had ever had. More than a friend she realised at that moment. Maybe she actually loved him, she wasn't sure. What she was sure about, was the fact she couldn't lose him. Not here. Not now. It was her stupid idea to try and open this room, and now it had resulted in this happening to Lusam.
Neala paced around and around the outside of the room, trying to think of a solution, but she could think of nothing. At one point, in sheer desperation she had sat down and cried for several minutes, before finally pulling herself together again, and once more attempting to come up with an answer, but to no avail. The passage of time was difficult to judge, but she guessed at least forty minutes had elapsed since Lusam had become trapped. She had come to the conclusion that she must risk leaving him, and get help somehow, from somewhere. She was about to leave the room when she heard, rather than saw the force-field vanish, and Lusam collapsed onto the floor clutching the now closed book to his chest.
“LUSAM!” she called to him, running over to where he'd fallen. As Lusam became more aware of his surroundings, he realised he was being hugged tightly by Neala. She was crying whilst calling his name, and apologiz
ing over and over again.
Confused, but enjoying the attention from her, he hugged her back, and while stroking her hair asked, “What’s the matter? Why are you crying? Are you okay?”
“Yes, I'm fine now. Are you hurt?” she asked, still crying on his shoulder.
“No, I’m fine, I think. I … I just know things. Things about magic that I didn’t know before. Strange things. Strange, but incredible things. It's hard to explain, it's all spinning in my head at the moment.”
“I was so worried about you. I was going crazy in here looking at you just standing there, and I couldn't do anything to help you,” she sobbed into his shirt.
“I don't understand. I just opened the book, and then fell onto the floor. How can you have got so worried about me?” he asked confused.
“You opened that book and some kind of force-field froze you up there on that pedestal. I tried to get you out, but I couldn't. You were stuck in there for a long time, maybe forty minutes or more, then you just collapsed onto the floor just now.”
“I only remember opening the book, then I felt dizzy and fell over. It all happened in a blink of an eye for me,” he replied hugging her close, as she still clung to him tightly.
“Please can we get out of here? I've had enough of treasure hunting for one day,” she said.