Ava hugged Nathan tightly. She had been so scared when the fireball exploded into his chest. “I am fine. Let’s get Cyrnic’s diary and get out of here.”
Nathan held her a minute longer, before letting her go. “Grab the rocks you threw, we might need them later,” he said as he walked over to the first mage’s body and removed the book from his hand. His last assumption that a mage was dead was still fresh in his mind. This time around he made sure they were truly dead, not stunned. It was a distasteful task, made easier by remembering the evil acts the Darcarions had already done. Ava collected her rocks as Nathan as he made sure each mage would be worm food.
With the distasteful deed done, they ran back to the others, both eager to be away from the dead bodies.
When they got to them, Nathan handed Cyrnic his diary. “Here you go. I hope you can find the order’s hideout now.”
Cyrnic flipped through the diary, found the page he was looking for and started reading. “At the south end of the lake there are two large stones on the shoreline. From the stones, head directly east into the jungle 400 yards.”
Nathan looked at the journal. All he could see were squiggly lines and dots. “You got that from reading those marks?” he asked.
Cyrnic smiled. “Well actually it is not my marks. The Red Order used this code. It took me three months to decipher it. It should be easy to find their home now. Come on, let’s get moving.”
Chapter twenty seven
FINDING THE BUILDING WAS not easy. The stones on the edge of the lake they found easy enough, but when they went 400 yards east, they could see nothing. The jungle was thick and dense, making finding any landmarks challenging.
Undeterred, Cyrnic smiled. “Well, let’s get looking.”
Sharon was the first noticed something that wasn’t just a vine or leaf. A dark red brick caught her eye, and she moved closer to inspect it. It took several glances before she was sure that there was a building hidden underneath the vegetation. The jungle had grown so thick around the building that it was completely covered.
“Over here. I think I found something,” said Sharon. As Quinton came to see what she had found, Sharon moved some of the vines, revealing the stone structure.
“Good eye,” said Quinton. “Let’s see if we can find a door.”
As the group began inspecting the building Ava shouted. “Got it.”
The opening was dark and hidden in vines. Steps led down a narrow entrance way, before ending in front of a stone wall. In the darkness of the corridor, there seemed to be no way to get beyond the stone wall.
“Quinton, would you please provide us with some illumination?” asked Cyrnic.
Quinton raised his hand and a bright warm glowing orb of light appeared above his hand, lighting up the dark corridor. The stone wall seemed to be very thick and did not budge when Nathan pushed against it.
“Excellent. This is the place!” exclaimed Cyrnic. “See those markings above the door. Those are symbols of the Red Order. Only members of the order may travel beyond this point, or one who has studied their ancient texts and found their password. Let’s hope that I have this right.” Cyrnic raised his voice. “Extum Blaytox Rouge.” Suddenly the stone wall slid down, revealing a staircase cut into the ground, leading further underground. “Be careful, this entire structure will be booby trapped and full of all sorts of unpleasant surprises.”
“Wonderful,” said Sharon. “Tell me again, why are we risking our lives for some old books?”
“Because, if the Darcarions get the ancient tomes of the Red Order, they will give the tomes to the king of Morthon. He will build an insurmountable army of stone golems. And then everyone in Balta will be killed or enslaved,” replied Cyrnic.
“Oh, why didn’t you say so,” Sharon retorted with a sudden change in attitude. “Come on guys, let’s go get that book.” Booby traps be damned, Sharon thought. She was ready to do anything and everything to prevent the destruction of her new home. But, no snakes would be really nice.
The stairs spiraled, leading them to a large open room. Quinton blew gently on the magical ball of light above his hand, sending the bright energy orb floating towards the middle of the room, lighting the entire area.
“Hmm, it appears to be a dining room,” said Cyrnic. The room had six large rectangular tables with twenty chairs at each table. “Fascinating,” continued Cyrnic. “I had no idea that the order’s numbers had grown so large. The texts regarding the order were very vague about how large it truly was. Over a hundred mages lost during the conflict, such a pity.”
“What are we looking for now?” asked Nathan.
“Along the walls of the hall there should be openings to further rooms,” said Cyrnic.
Inspecting the walls, the group found five doorways. One of the doorways led into a kitchen and another lead into a storage area.
“Let break into smaller groups. If this structure held enough room for over a hundred mages, it is likely rather large. Nathan, you and Ava take the corridor on the left. I will go with Quinton and Sharon down the one on the right. We will meet back here. Be very careful where you walk,” said Cyrnic.
Nathan nodded, separating into smaller groups made sense. “Come on, Ava,” he said as he created a glowing glob of his own to light their way. The corridor went straight for 20 feet then turned right. They continued following the corridor.
As they walked, Nathan noted the stale air. The dark, narrow hallway had an oppressive feel to it. The corridor turned to the left, then went straight for another 20 feet before turning left again. Then, once again, the narrow hallway turned to the left. Three left turns in a row? We are going in a circle, Nathan thought to himself. The hallway continued. So they kept walking. Again, they turned left. Something weird was going on.
“Ava, have you noticed anything strange about this hallway?” asked Nathan.
Ava blew out a big breath of air. “You mean besides the fact that we are lost in a continuing circle. I haven’t even seen the way back. We are in a maze.”
Nathan nodded, he had feared that as well. “Let’s slow down. Keep your hand on the left wall, I will keep a hand on the right wall. Maybe we can find something out of place.”
“I hope so, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a maze. On the other hand, at least the company would be good,” said Ava.
Nathan smiled. “Yes, if I am going to be trapped in a stone maze deep underground in the middle of the jungle, I can’t think of a person I would rather be trapped with.”
Ava grabbed Nathan and pulled him towards her, giving him a blood-stirring kiss and running her hands down his chest. She then broke the kiss off and stared into his eyes. Her eyes, bright and shining, sparkled in the soft magical light reflecting off the corridor walls. “Get us out of here alive and you will get more time to kiss me.”
Nathan’s pulse raced, his heart pounded. Ava’s passionate kiss awoke something inside him. Suddenly, the idea of dying in a mage’s maze was not an option. He would get them out of there if it meant digging their way through the stone walls. Shaking his head to clear his mind of the thoughts Ava had inspired, Nathan focused on the task at hand. “Right, let’s get out of this maze, find those damn tomes, and get out of this jungle.”
“I thought you might say that.” She was realizing feminine wiles were powerful motivators. And what a fun way to motivate, while keeping dark thoughts at bay. Kissing! Who would have thought?
They continued to walk down the narrow hallway, this time each touching a wall and looking carefully at the floor and ceiling as they went. Down the hallway, then left, down the hallway and left, the repeated pattern was becoming very frustrating. Suddenly, Nathan’s hand slipped. A section of the right wall was deeper than the rest. They stopped moving and Nathan moved his hand into the missing section of wall, letting his magical light illuminate the discovery. A small narrow gap went off to the right. The area was so narrow Nathan had to remove his bow and quiver from his back and turn sideways to m
ove forward. Slowly they shuffled sideways through the narrow opening until it open up into a large room. The room was empty, but Nathan could see another opening at the far end of the room.
They were halfway across the room when they heard a loud snapping sound. The floor collapsed beneath them and they fell down into a dark pit. Nathan instinctively grabbed Ava as they fell. When he hit the ground he pulled her on top of him, diminishing the effects of the hard fall on her body. Unfortunately, his own fall was not softened. Nathan felt the air squeezed out of him as he was sandwiched between the hard ground and Ava.
“Ooof, that hurt. Are you okay?” asked Ava.
Once he regained his breath, Nathan moaned softly. “I’m not sure. I either twisted or broke my ankle during the fall, and my back is a little messed up.”
Nathan looked around him. The pit floor was covered in old bones and a skull. He didn’t want to think about why. “Okay, going to get off me soon?” he asked her.
Ava crawled off him. “Well, if you hadn’t pulled me on top of you, your fall wouldn’t have been so hard,” she said as she started rummaging through her satchel of medical supplies.
“You landing on top of me wasn’t so bad. It was your big bag of rocks landing on me that really hurt. Next time we make you magical weapons, let’s make something that doesn’t weigh so much; maybe something soft.”
“Don’t be such a baby. You’ll live, and my rocks have been very helpful, thank you. Here, chew this,” Ava said as she handed him a strange-looking chunk of root.
Nathan examined the root before putting it in his mouth. “What is it?” asked Nathan as he bit into it.
“Qualp root, it will help with the pain,” replied Ava. She then took Nathan’s boot off and examined his ankle. “Swollen but not broken, it’s an easy fix,” she said before placing her hand over the wounded ankle and healing it with her magic.
Between the magical healing and the qualp root, which tasted a lot like cinnamon, Nathan felt much better. He started to get up, when Ava pushed him back down.
“Hold on tiger. Let me finish inspecting your wounds, before you get up,” said Ava. She then ran her hand along Nathan’s back. Using her magic, she could tell that he had some minor bruising but nothing more severe. Again, she used her magic to reduce the swelling. She then ran her hand lower and gave his butt a quick squeeze.
Nathan gave her a funny look. “That part of your medical examination?”
Ava gave him a small wink. “I was just checking for bruises. Now you can get up. We need to figure a way out of this pit.”
Nathan looked up, the floor of the room they had just fell from was over 20 feet high from where they stood. Getting back up there would prove problematic. Nathan looked around the pit and spied a small opening in one wall. A small tunnel led out of the pit. “Well, I guess we follow that tunnel. Trying to get up these walls could take forever.”
“Lead the way, fearless leader, son of the great and mighty northern warrior, Soron,” replied Ava.
Nathan shook his head. “Who have you been talking to?” he asked.
“Cyrnic told me all about your father. How he saved your grandfather’s clan, then fled the north and ended up rescuing a princess. A very brave and heroic man your father, what happened to you?”
“Hey, that princess is my mother, and I can be brave and heroic. I eat your cooking, that should get me a metal for bravery,” retorted Nathan.
“Oh shut up and get in the dark scary tunnel,” demanded Ava with a smile.
“Yes, my queen,” said Nathan as he started to crawl into the tunnel.
Ava gave his butt a smack as he scurried into the tunnel. She chuckled. “Nice butt, indeed.”
They crawled through the tunnel until it deposited them into a larger cavern. Nathan gave Ava a hand up, and then started looking around to see if there was another tunnel.
Before Nathan could finish his examination of the cavern, he hear a loud thump and Ava screamed. Nathan turned to see what had happened, only to find than an enormous spider the size of a man had Ava pinned to the ground. Nathan quickly drew his sword and attacked the beast. He thrust his sword into the monstrous spider’s body, killing it and then pushing it off of Ava. From her position on the ground, Ava pointed up. “More coming,” she yelled as she scrambled up to her feet.
Nathan looked up. The ceiling of the large cavern was a collection of spider webs. Several of the oversized arachnoids were coming down towards them.
“That explains the bones,” quipped Nathan as he sheathed his sword and grabbed his bow. As quickly as he could, he started firing arrows up into the spiders.
Ava soon joined Nathan by throwing her rocks at the hideous creatures. A huge splatting sound could be hear whenever she hit one. But for every spider they killed another seemed to appear. Nathan looked around in desperation, if they didn’t do something quick, they would be in real trouble. He spotted another tunnel on the far wall. “Quick, let’s try another tunnel,” he said before running towards the wall.
Ava ran behind him. “Great, another tunnel. Please be no more spiders!” said Ava as she slid into the tunnel behind Nathan.
…
Quinton, Cyrnic, and Sharon made their way through the other corridor. This one had a large set of stone stairs that they followed. At the bottom, they found a long hallway with doors running down both sides.
“I’ll bet these are the sleeping quarters,” said Cyrnic.
Quinton opened one of the doors and looked inside. Sure enough, the room had a bed and a small desk on the opposite wall. “Yep, bedrooms,” confirmed Quinton.
“We should inspect every room,” said Cyrnic. “There could be valuable clues about the Red Order.”
Sharon wasn’t totally excited about the idea of rummaging through dead mages’ living quarters, but the sooner they found something useful, the sooner they could get back out of this creepy old underground building. “I’ll take the doors on the right,” she said.
The first room Sharon inspected had nothing of note in it, a closet with musty old robes and some crumbling parchment on the desk. The second had nothing as well. The third room seemed empty until she accidently bumped the desk on her way to leave. A thumping sound grabbed her attention. Pulling out the drawer once more, she still found nothing. Her curiosity peaked, she looked closer at the drawer. It was shallow compared to the size of the desk. She carefully reached behind the drawer. Her fingers touched cold metal. Sharon could feel the sharp edge of a blade. Some sort of weapon was hidden in the desk. Pulling the drawer completely out, she looked inside, she couldn’t see much inside the dark room, so instead she lifted the back of the desk, making the weapon slide out the front. When the weapon dropped to the floor, she lowered the desk and inspected the weapon. It was a sword. The sword had an interesting design. It had a comfortable metal and leather grip and a double-edged blade with an inscription running down the length of the blade. Sharon wiped of some of the dust from the blade until she could read the inscription, Protector. I could use some protecting, Sharon thought to herself. She decided to take the small sword with her.
After inspecting the rest of the rooms, the three gathered in the hallway.
“Find anything useful?” asked Quinton.
“I found this sword hidden in a desk. Other than that, nothing,” replied Sharon.
Cyrnic lifted his hand to show them a book. “I found this. One of the Red Order member’s diary.” Cyrnic practically beamed as he spoke.
“That’s a good thing?” asked Sharon.
“It could be an amazing thing. Who knows what secrets it holds. I cannot wait to sit down and read it,” said Cyrnic as he put the book into his satchel. “Now all we need is the tomes, and this mission will be a smashing success.” Cyrnic turned and led them to the door at the end of the bedroom hallway. The door opened into a large open space. It was another empty corridor, but this one had two large bronze doors on the other end. Cyrnic smiled, and turned to Quinton and Sharon. “I t
hink this might be it.”
As Sharon started to step into the new room, Cyrnic put his arm in front of her, blocking the way. “Wait, take a closer look at the floor,” said Cyrnic.
Sharon looked down. The floor was large stone tiles, through the dust, Sharon could make out that each tile seemed to have a glyph carved into in. The entire floor was a combination of different glyphs. Kneeling down, Sharon blew the dust off the tile in front of her. The glyph was a picture of a fire carved into the large square stone. Curious, she moved over three feet and blew the dust off the next stone. The glyph was the sun. Sharon turned to Cyrnic. “What do they mean?”
“This is a puzzle room, the entire floor is one large puzzle. Follow the correct tiles, and we can walk unabated across the room. Step on the wrong tile…” said Cyrnic.
Sharon looked up at Cyrnic. “Step on the wrong tile and what?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t know, to tell you the truth. But, you can be sure it will be something bad.”
“That is comforting,” said Quinton. “How do we figure out which tiles to step on?”
“Good question, good question. Give me a minute to think, maybe something I have read about the order will guide us on our way,” said Cyrnic. Closing his eyes, Cyrnic thought back on all he knew about the Red Order.
Cyrnic’s eyes popped open. “Carefully dust of all the tiles in the first row. What are they?”
Quinton and Sharon finished blowing dust off the remaining tiles.
“From the left wall to the right the tiles are: mountain, stars, hour glass, fire, sun, and a rose,” said Quinton.
Cyrnic smiled. “That is it. The hourglass is the first tile.”
Sharon looked at the tile with the hourglass, it didn’t look any different than the other tiles. She turned to Cyrnic. “How can you tell?”
“There is an old poem that was popular among the order. It was a motto of sorts for some of its members.” Cyrnic recited the poem to them.
On the sands of time we walk
The Missing Mage Page 20