by David Adams
Tala knelt at the edge of the moving floor and peered down. She reached in and cupped a dozen small, crystalline objects in her palm, then lifted them closer for inspection. “They are all of one shape. They feel right.” She poured them back out of her hand, and they fell like raindrops into the ocean. “So many…”
“How can we tell which is the real one?” asked Demetrius. Before he got an answer, he bumped the wall behind him, even though his toes hung over the edge of the floor. Knowing the floor would continue to recede into the wall, he stepped forward and dropped into the shards, sinking in to his thighs. He probed with a foot, but couldn’t feel the bottom.
Both women joined him in the pile as the floor finally slid from sight. Alexis moved toward the place where they had come in, and was able to trace the outline with her finger, two thin cracks that ran from the top of the shards to the ceiling. She listened at the wall, and then putting her lips close to the stone called out, “We’re all right. There are thousands of shards here. We just need to find the right one.” She listened for a moment, then turned to the others. “They are fine. Nothing has changed out there. They said they will try to get the door open again.”
Tala nodded, then dug into her pouch for the Sphere. Taking one of the shards in hand she placed it this way and that until she found the spot where it fit. “Well, the shape is right, but with the magic buffers on this place—” Her own words gave her pause, and she closed her eyes and cast the finding spell. With a frown she continued her last thought. “Still there. Not only can’t I use magic to find it, I’m not even sure when we do find it that it will attach like it should.”
“Then this is hopeless unless we can get all these shards outside the castle walls.,” said Demetrius.
Tala uttered a mirthless laugh. “By the time we do that, Solek will have conquered all of Arkania.”
“Wait!” said Alexis, smiling. “I have a piece of the Sphere still. I know we thought to keep it separate and hidden, but as far as we’ve come, it seems this might be a good time to try it.”
Tala nodded agreement. Demetrius only said, “Be sure not to drop it.”
Carefully, Tala took the shard from Alexis’ outstretched hand. She fitted the piece into the Sphere and let an audible sigh of relief escape her throat as they fused together. “Now all we need to do is find the next one,” she said, as if the difficult part was over.
* * *
After Rowan heard Alexis explain that those trapped inside the shard room were well, he backed away from the stone door, tracing its outline with his eyes. He turned and made sure the opening to the room he occupied was still present—it was—and then began to study the room in earnest. Nothing struck him as out of the ordinary. He rubbed absently at his upper lip, and then sat cross-legged on the floor some twenty feet from where the door had separated the party.
“How you just sit there?” asked Lucien, incredulous. He had been pacing like a caged tiger, his warblade held before him in a furious grip.
“I currently have nothing better to do. I don’t believe the door can be opened from this side.”
“How you know?” Lucien’s growl always made him seem angry.
Rowan couldn’t be sure the goblin wasn’t really furious, but he went on calmly. “I don’t. You’re welcome to try whatever you think might work.”
Lucien scowled and turned away. He sized up the former opening, struck the stone once tentatively with his warblade, then slashed at it four times in full fury. No mark appeared where the weapon’s sharp edge struck.
“Magically sealed,” said Rowan. “You won’t break it down with any ordinary blade.”
“Warblade not ‘ordinary.’ ”
Rowan simply shrugged.
Corson was making a slow circuit of the room, giving the walls occasional half-hearted pushes, as if he hoped one of the stones would act as a trigger and re-open the door. He wore the expression of someone who had just buried a favorite pet.
“Why so down, Corson?” Rowan asked. “Alexis said they were fine.”
Corson’s smile was forced and faded quickly. “It’s not that. It’s just…”
“You think you should be on the other side.”
Corson’s jaw dropped a fraction of an inch before he caught himself. He took a long breath. “I was in front of Tala. As soon as the door started to close she jumped through. But I hesitated, and then I just stood there and watched.”
“You couldn’t have followed her through,” Rowan pointed out.
Lucien’s warblade rang out several times against the stone wall. His thought that the wall might prove less protected than the door had turned out to be wrong. He grumbled to himself and stalked angrily around the room.
Corson watched Lucien pass, then saw that Rowan was still looking at him. “I know I couldn’t have followed Tala through, but it should have been me leading the way.”
Rowan gave a dismissive wave. “We spread out on purpose. The goal was not to get everyone caught in the same place. Maybe you made a better decision.”
“I made no decision. I just froze for a second while she acted.”
“None of us thinks you a coward if that’s what worries you. I’ve seen your mettle in battle.”
Corson shook his head. “It’s not that. I won’t run from a fight. I’m a soldier, trained and unafraid to do whatever duty requires. But there are soldiers and there are leaders.”
“Everyone can’t lead.”
“All of you could.”
“As could you if it’s required of you. We face enough on this quest. Don’t let your own doubts be another obstacle.”
Corson nodded, but his eyes showed no less dismay. He turned away from the paladin and started randomly pushing stones again.
* * *
No one in the shard-filled room had spoken for several minutes. Tala took one piece after another and held it in place against the Sphere, then cast it aside when it did not fuse. She moved slowly, mechanically, and discarded shards in close proximity to where she stood, meaning that the chance of picking up the same one some time soon was significant. Demetrius had watched her silently for a moment, then shook his head and settled back as if floating on a shimmering crystalline pool of water, staring upward at nothing in particular. Seeing this, Alexis turned back toward the doorway.
Her hands played over the stones gently, probing for anything of interest, but she saw it before she felt it—a small depression in the shape of the shards that filled the room. She traced it with her index finger, then picked up one of the shards. Aligning it, she pushed it into the small, concave spot in the door, and when she took her hand away it remained in place. She stood with her arms crossed, staring with a scowl at the unmoving door. “I think I’ve found a way out,” she announced, pointing at the shard in the door. “But it probably needs the real piece to work.”
Tala tried to connect another piece with the Sphere, and then flung it aside. “Is that all we need? Just the right piece?” Her voice held more anger than she intended. “I am sorry,” she said after composing herself. She worked her way over to the door and studied the imbedded shard. “If you are right, it leaves us with another dilemma.”
“How so?” asked Demetrius.
“If we attach it to the Sphere, how can we use it on the door?”
“We’ll just try the door then,” said Alexis. “Once it’s open, we can take the piece and place it with the Sphere.”
“We don’t even know for sure if the shard will open the door. It could be another trick.”
“We don’t even know if the right shard is in the room,” Demetrius pointed out, immediately regretting saying such a thing.
Alexis grabbed a handful of shards and started trying them one by one in the door, casting the failures to the far end of the room. “Until we have a better plan,” she said with a sigh. The others moved over to help.
* * *
Alexis had told Corson through the stone door what they were doing, and that it might be a
very long wait. Thirty minutes had passed since the news, and Corson had decided it was best to leave them alone to do their work undisturbed, so he went to the near corner, worked his cloak into a makeshift pillow, and tried to stretch out for some rest. Rowan continued to pray or meditate in the center of the room, while Lucien had finally stopped his angry pacing and was sitting in the opposite corner, quietly grumbling to himself.
Corson could hear the gentle click of each shard as it was put in place against the stone, a two-second rhythm forming that was interrupted every thirty pieces or so—he assumed this to be when Alexis grabbed a new handful of shards. The noise didn’t bother Corson; he found it comforting, a reminder that his friends were still there. His mind started to play with numbers, working out how many shards an hour they could check, but when he tried to grasp just how many small pieces of crystal might be in the next chamber it made his head hurt.
The soft lighting and warmth of the room, combined with the subtle, hypnotizing rhythm of the clacking shards finally had an effect on him, the cold and snow they had know for so many weeks fading into memory. Slowly, Corson drifted off.
When he awoke, it was to shouts of alarm.
* * *
Alexis and Demetrius worked tirelessly at the door, Alexis fitting and casting aside pieces to her left, Demetrius making sure a fresh supply was always placed in her hand when needed from the right. Tala fell back, pushing through the shards and letting her mind drift, trying to catch an inspiration, a simple solution to the puzzle. She knew there might be no answer at all, but she wasn’t prepared to yield mentally to that possibility quite yet.
The first drop hit her forehead and she brushed it away, thinking nothing of it. A second and a third followed in quick succession, and that was enough to command her full attention. She looked up just in time for another drop to hit her in the eye. She blinked it away and tried again.
A latticework of sorts had formed in the ceiling, the grout darkening and weeping drops of water. Tala mumbled to herself, wondering aloud what was happening.
Demetrius said, “I see it, too.”
“If water is getting through, it might be a weak point. Possibly another way out.”
“We can’t reach the ceiling without a ladder,” said Demetrius. He estimated the ceiling was fifteen feet over their heads.
Tala grabbed an arrow and nocked it. Taking careful aim at one of the darkened grouts, she let fly. The arrow slapped harmlessly against the stone and dropped back into the pool of shards. “Worth a try,” Tala said, retrieving the arrow with a shrug.
The dripping became more insistent, like a gentle spring rain. Alexis held out a hand and pulled it back, shivering in response to how cold the water was. A few moments later individual drops were replaced by steady streams of water, and the confusion the three had been wearing on their faces became looks of alarm.
“Help me!” Alexis barked at Demetrius as she returned to her task while the water splashed behind her. She moved at a more fevered pace, inserting and discarding shards as quickly as she could.
Demetrius thought to tell her that even if they had the right piece it might need to be in place for more than a fraction of a second, but he decided not to when he saw the angry determination on her face. He kept handfuls of shards at the ready while he stole glances behind, seeing that the water now fell in torrents. He wondered when it would quit melting away through the shards and start flooding the room.
Tala readjusted her position a couple of times to stay out from under the falling water, but soon there was nowhere she could go to avoid being soaked. After a time she realized with a sinking feeling in her stomach that the wetness she felt soaking through her boots was from standing water rather than that which fell. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the sensation, feeling the level rise to her knee. “The room is filling up,” she said in a flat tone, not expecting a response and not getting one. She held the Sphere in her hand and rubbed it absently, wanting to feel its power, hoping the ancient wizards that had forged it might send her an answer.
The water was up to Alexis’ waist when she shouted through the wall to let the others know of their predicament. Her voice betrayed no panic, although she had already heard the failed attempts to break through. She was simply passing on information. In some distant part of her mind, she wondered if they were the last words she would speak to her friends.
As the water neared the mid-point of Demetrius’ chest it also neared the key-depression in the door. They stayed on task, futile though it seemed, since they had nothing better to try. He studied the ceiling for a moment while Alexis continued to pluck shards one at a time out of his hand. “At least the rising water will eventually get us up there. If there is a weakness, we’ll get a chance to find it.”
Tala had been studying the deepening pool of water. Upon hearing Demetrius’ comment she looked up and nodded her agreement, then looked down once more. The shards were not completely buoyant, but neither did they remain laying at the bottom of the room. She brushed an arm through them, watching as they floated around and away from her. Despite her excellent eyesight, she couldn’t see more than a few inches into the murky soup the water and shards had created. Something about that bothered her, enough so that she said aloud, “This is odd.”
“What is?” asked Demetrius.
“I cannot see far into the water.”
“So?”
“So nothing. Except we have been able to see just fine since we entered this castle, without windows, torch, or spell.”
Demetrius pondered this for a moment. “I guess I assumed the walls had been infused with a spell of some kind, like the branches you lit up for us in the Great Northern Forest.” His own words gave him pause. “But you said no spell can be cast here.”
“A warding spell has been placed against casting, yes. Magic in the walls, the fusion of the shard—these are unaffected.”
“But why light the place?” Alexis asked. “That could only help us.”
“Whoever set this up seems to have a warped sense of humor, at least based on the maze,” said Demetrius. “Perhaps he’s happy to pull us in and then turn the lights out at some opportune time.”
“Maybe…” Tala paused to think, while water lapped against the bottom of her chin. “He likes games. He sets a trap and leaves a way out. What fun is there in a puzzle with no answer?”
“The death of your enemies, for one thing,” said Alexis.
“Then why not acid?” Tala asked with a raised eyebrow. “Why not have the roof simply cave in on us?” A soft smile crossed her lips. “Light can reveal, but it can also hide.”
“Hide what?”
“The shard. Remember earlier when we fused the shards, how a yellow light emanated from the crystal as the pieces were brought close together, and then a brighter light issued during the fusion?”
Alexis had completely stopped working at the door. “When you joined the piece I had been keeping we saw nothing.”
Tala nodded. “The light in this place is meant to hide it. If this room was fully dark, we could probably see the right shard just by getting close to it with the Sphere. It would give off a soft glow that would grow warmer the closer the two pieces got to one another.”
“So our tormentor set the trap but left a way out…if we can solve the puzzle,” said Demetrius.
“If I am right we have the answer,” Tala said, bobbing now to keep her head above the rising water. “Now it is a race.” She held the Sphere above the water, made sure her grip was firm, took a deep breath, and then dove into the icy water. She moved away from the surface, forcing her way down into blackness, and then worked by feel, raking the Sphere through the shards, or pushing handfuls of the crystal objects with her free hand past the Sphere. There were so many…
She surfaced, gasping for air. Shaking the water from her hair and eyes, she saw the expectant faces of Demetrius and Alexis as they waited for news. They floated now as well, the surface of the water higher t
han it had been when she had gone under. “Keep trying the door,” she told them between gasps for air. “If I have any luck, you’ll be the first to know.”
“If you need to catch your breath, I’ll take a turn diving,” Demetrius told her, even as he fished out a handful of shards for Alexis.
“Next time,” said Tala. She spun, kicked, and dove again.
* * *
Lucien and Corson worked in smooth rhythm, warblade and sword alternating rapid blows against the stone door. Corson felt sweat running down his face, and he could see the veins on Lucien’s thick neck bulging out from the non-stop work. The cold outside seemed only a memory from ages ago.
Rowan remained stationary in the center of the chamber, but now his eyes were closed and his head was bowed. He blocked out the noise and the growing panic he felt despite his outward composure, ignored the sense of helplessness and despair that beckoned him with open arms. “Let us find a way,” he said, too softly for even his own ears to hear. “We seek to do your will, to do what is right and good. Deliver us from this peril.”
Corson finally stopped hammering away, his heavy arms dropping while he panted for air. Lucien gave the unrelenting stone one more vicious whack, then stalked away. Corson watched him go, then turned to Rowan. “Say one for me as well,” he said.
“I will,” the paladin answered.
* * *
When Demetrius resurfaced he looked first to the ceiling. Less than five feet now, he guessed. Without comment he gave the Sphere to Tala and watched as she disappeared into the murky water.
They had not caught so much as a glimpse of light, despite untold dives. Not that they had fooled themselves into believing they had come into close proximity with each shard. They had divided the room into rough thirds, and Demetrius made sure to dig into the shards that concentrated at the bottom of the pool as much as possible, but even then he guessed they’d be lucky to even be able to check one shard in ten. He managed to catch his breath enough to speak. “We’ll soon get a crack at that ceiling,” he said to Alexis.
She nodded, but her face betrayed a subtle despair that had not been there a few moments ago.