by F. P. Spirit
“Guess that’s our destination,” Glo observed dryly, with a nod toward the arched doorway.
“From the size of those doors, I hope the giant isn’t home,” Donnie quipped.
“If he is, we’ll be sure to feed you to him first,” Seth said as he carefully stepped off the platform. He planted one foot, then the other, but the bridge didn’t move. Seth jumped up and down in place, but the bridge appeared soild. He turned to the others and said, “Seems sturdy enough.”
While the others disembarked, Seth strolled over to the side of the bridge. “I wonder,” he mused aloud.
Aksel eyed him curiously. “Wonder what?”
Without anwering, Seth pulled a copper coin out of his purse. He held it in his open palm and stuck his arm out over the side of the bridge. Seth then turned his palm over, letting the coin slide off of it. Glo pulled up next to Seth just in time to see the coin disappear into the mists below.
Down in the air chamber, Elladan, Alana and Elistra waited for the others to return. Alana was clearly the most impatient of the three.
“I should have gone with them,” she declared with a fierce scowl.
Elistra eyed the lady knight with keen curiousity. “Why didn’t you, then?”
Alana didn’t answer at first, her face flushing slightly. “It’s—personal.”
“Oh, I see,” Elistra responded with a soft chuckle. Alana glared at the seeress, her cheeks reddening even further.
“See what?” Elladan asked, curious as to what the seeress had divined.
Elistra turned to him, placed a hand to the side of her mouth, and said in a confidential tone, “She’s afraid of heights.”
“Am not!” Alana huffed, turning her back on them and storming away from the railing.
Elladan and Elistra could not contain themselves, both laughing aloud. Alana spun around, an accusing expression on her face. She opened her mouth to retort, but suddenly halted.
“What’s that?” she said, her eyes focusing beyond them.
Elladan spun around, following the lady knight’s gaze. His keen eyes caught sight of a small, shiny object falling from above. It quickly fell past them and out of sight into the mists below. Elladan spun back around and exchanged a bewildered look with the seeress and the lady knight. “I think it was—a coin.”
Aksel eyed Seth as if he were crazy. “What was that for?”
“Just testing out a theory,” the halfling responded mysteriously.
Everyone but Ruka leaned over the edge of the bridge, searching the mists below for the coin Seth had dropped.
Glo cocked his head to one side and squinted at the halfling. “And that theory is what, exactly?”
Seth’s lips twisted into a thin smirk. “Wait for it...”
About two seconds later, Donnie yelped, “Ouch!”
The slight elf jumped back from the edge of the bridge, rubbing the back of his head. Lloyd placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “What happened?”
“Something hit me!” Donnie said, spinning around in search of his invisible assailant. At the same moment, Seth knelt down and picked a small, shiny object off the bridge. He held it up for everyone to see, a wicked smile across his lips. “There you are!”
Donnie’s gaze fixed on the object in Seths hand, his eyes going wide. “Noooo!”
“But how?” Lloyd asked, his expression incredulous. The young man peered over the railing, glancing up, then down.
Glo was equally perplexed. He turned to Aksel. “Maybe some kind of portal?”
Aksel appeared as mystified as Glo. He threw up his hands and shrugged. “Maybe.”
Lloyd shook his head, his face a mask of confusion. “This place gives me a headache.”
“Tell me about it,” Donnie agreed, still rubbing the back of his head.
The companions moved out across the bridge. When they reached the large doors, they found another chakra lock. “Good thing we don’t need all the discs,” he said dryly, holding out his hand to the others.
Glo, Lloyd, and Aksel all reached into their belts and pulled out one of the chakra discs necessary to open the lock. All three deposited their disc into the halfling’s waiting hand, and then stood back while he inserted them into the lock mechanism. While they waited, Aksel brought up an interesting point. “I wonder if Elistra’s disc could be used on these locks somehow.”
Glo arched an eyebrow—it was something he hadn’t thought of before. “That’s a good question. Her disc did clear the way to the third floor all by itself.”
“Maybe we could try it on the next lock?” Donnie said with a shrug.
Aksel pursed his lips and nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
At that moment, Seth finished inserting the discs and the large doors swung open. Beyond them lay a long, sparsely decorated room, with a plain stone floor. At the far end stood a podium with a gold-colored object hovering above it. As they drew closer, Glo saw that it was an eighth of a sphere. Seth let Donnie check the pedestal for traps then gave it the once over himself. It was all clear. Glo reached out and removed the piece of sphere from the podium, turning it over on all sides. It was completely smooth. “Well, seven more of these and we’ll have a sphere.”
Donnie leaned in for a closer view of the piece. “Bet you when we’re done, it fits into that podium in the center room.”
Seth let out a derisive snort. “Ya think?”
Aksel’s eyes moved back and forth between the duo, then he let out a deep sigh. “Are you two ever going to learn to get along?”
A wicked grin spread across the halfling’s features. “Probably not.”
Donnie placed his hand on his hips and feigned being insulted. “But I’m such a nice guy. “Everybody likes me!”
“Except for certain husbands,” Glo answered before anyone else could speak. “Oh, and boyfriends... and brothers...”
Donnie put both hands up in front of him. “Okay, okay. I give. I give.”
Ruka folded her arms across her chest and regarded the slight elf with a suspicious stare. “Quite the reputation there, slugger.”
Donnie spun toward her, a hurt expression crossing his face. “Me? I’m just a misunderstood artist.”
“How so?” Ruka asked, still appearing rather skeptical.
“I see beauty in all things, especially the fairer sex. It would be a crime against art not to grace my canvas with them,” he told her with clear passion.
Ruka’s cheeks turned bright red. She glanced down at her boots, trying to hide her embarrassment. Seth, of all people, came to her rescue. “If you two are done—does it seem weird to anyone else that there are four element rooms and only one eighth of a sphere here?”
Glo exchanged a curious glance with Aksel. “Now that you mention it, yes, that is weird.”
Aksel’s eyes slowly swept the room. “So you think there might be a second piece around here somewhere?”
“There’s one way to find out.” Seth turned to Donnie. “You take one side and I’ll take the other.”
The pair thoroughly searched the room. Before long, Donnie found a secret compartment in the very back, just behind the podium. There was another electrical trap attached to it, but Seth easily disarmed it. Inside the compartment was another eighth of a golden sphere.
Donnie shook his head in wonderment. “Wow, this Larketh guy really didn’t trust anyone.”
Seth handed the second piece to Glo. The wizard held up both pieces, and slowly brought them together. The moment they touched, they instantly merged into a quarter sphere with no seams of any kind.
Donnie leaned in close and whistled. “Neat trick there.”
Glo silently agreed.
Water
Water began pouring out of the large holes at the top of the room
; A short while later, Aksel, Donnie, Glo, Lloyd, Seth, and Ruka rejoined the others down below. Donnie gave the others a vivid description of the mists, the bridge, the giant doors, the room they found, and finished with the golden sphere pieces.
Elladan let out a soft whistle. “Ya gotta love this Larketh guy.”
“Actually, you don’t. You really don’t,” Seth practically spat the words, then spun around and stomped out the exit.
Elladan turned to Glo, his face a mask of confusion. “What’s with him?”
Glo raised a single eyebrow as he watched after the retreating halfling. “I’m not sure.”
“Let’s find out,” Aksel said, walking out the door after Seth.
They followed the halfling back into the main room, catching up with him in front of the dais. Aksel strode up next to Seth and quietly said, “You want to tell us what’s going on?”
Seth spun around, mixed emotions playing across his face. “You really want to know?” His eyes flickered around the group. “Well, I’ll tell you. Wizard or sorcerer or psionicist or whatever this Larketh was, I mean, who does this?”
He waved his hands around the vast chamber. “Who sets up a whole building with elaborate rooms and weird traps and hides these strange keys all over the place where almost no one can get to them?”
Seth paused for a moment to catch his breath. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’ve known people who hide away their treasures. They keep them in nice, secure places, with plenty of traps around to protect them. But this place—” Seth’s eyes swept around the room once more “—this place takes it to a whole new level.”
When Seth was finished, silence pervaded the chamber. Glo stared at the halfling with a raised eyebrow, not quite sure how to respond. In truth, he had discussed this very phenomenon with his father. The older mage had warned him that wielding arcane magic did not come without a price. The more power a wizard achieved, the more distrustful they became, seeing enemies and rivals at every turn. Those mages tended to surround themselves with warning spells and elaborate traps.
Living in the relative safety of Cairthrellon, Glo had dismissed his father’s warning outright, thinking it merely another attempt to scare Glo and slow down his studies. Now he realized that Amrod was right. Maltar’s house was a prime example of a paranoid mage’s sanctum. Larketh, on the other hand, had indeed taken it to a whole new level. Glo opened his mouth to speak, but Elistra beat him to it.
“Larketh was a very paranoid individual...”
Seth snorted contemptuously. “Ya think?”
Elistra let out a short, tight-lipped laugh, then continued. “...but not completely without reason. Remember, although he was a Thrall Master with unparalleled control over his constructs, there were three other Thrall Masters equally as powerful as he, if not more. I suspect that this monolith, with all its puzzles and traps, was meant to keep someone like them out, rather than anyone else.”
“From what I’ve read, they weren’t exactly one big happy family,” Elladan said in support of her premise. Elistra gave the bard a brief smile, then turned back to Seth. The halfling listened quietly as Elistra continued, his arms folded across his chest.
“As Elladan intimated, although the Thrall Masters worked together in their bid to conquer Thac, it was not of their own free will. The Thrall Lord was the one who forced them to band together, and he was more terrible than all of them. So in the end, they bent to his will, although not in all things.”
When Elistra finished, Seth remained silent, but he did not appear quite as aggravated. Glo took the opportunity to add to her words, telling the others what his father had shared with him about the pitfalls of being an arcane magic user. When he was done, Elladan clasped him on the shoulder. “Well, then, you have a head start.”
Glo stared at the bard uncomprehendingly. “How so?”
Elladan ushered a hand around the chamber. “When we’re done here, all this can be your lair.”
Glo cast a glance at the bard and saw that he was grinning from ear to ear. The wizard burst out laughing, as did nearly everyone else.
Seth’s entire demeanor had softened—he now wore his usual half-twisted smile. “Yeah, Glo, I think you’d make the perfect crazy wizard, holed up underneath this black stone monstronsity.”
Before Glo could retort, Elistra swooped in and grabbed him by the arm. “As long as you give me a key so I can come and visit.”
Glo blushed in spite of himself, but attempted to cover his embarrassment with humor. “Oh, I will, to be sure. In fact, you can all have keys. Heck, this place is big enough that you can have whole rooms.” He turned to Seth. “You can have the air chamber.”
Seth fixed him with a scathing stare. “Gee, thanks.”
Aksel cleared his throat, holding up a single hand. “Ahem, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. We still have at least three element rooms to go. Seth might find a ‘more dangerous’ room he likes better.”
The halfling turned his dagger-like gaze on Aksel. “Very funny.”
“The room above the clouds was nice and quiet,” Donnie pointed out with a shameless grin.
Before Seth could retort, he was interrupted by Elladan. “Oh, that reminds me, when you were up there, did one of you happen to lose a coin?”
Glo, Lloyd, Seth and Ruka all stared at Donnie and burst into laughter.
“It’s not that funny,” the slight elf declared, absently rubbing the back of his head.
A short while later, Glo stood over the dais and placed the quarter sphere into the indentation. It was a perfect fit. He removed it and handed the partial sphere to Elladan, asking the him to place it in his portal bag. Elladan gladly complied. When he was done, Aksel addressed the group.
“Well, now that that’s confirmed, what element do we want to tackle next?”
Donnie reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a shiny silver ring. “How about we try water? I just happen to have this nice ring of underwater breathing, and Ruka here takes to water like a fish.” He reached over and put an arm around the teen’s shoulder. Ruka gazed up at him, her face turning slightly red. She immediately recovered, elbowing the him in the side.
“Flatterer,” she said with a smirk.
Donnie grimaced and bit back a yelp.
Elladan was hard pressed to hold back his laughter. His eyes danced as he addressed his elven friend. “You’ve been holding out on us there, Donnie. Where’d you pick up that little trinket?”
Donnie waved a hand nonchalantly at the bard. “Oh, I came across it quite awhile ago. Just never had any reason to take it out until now.”
“You mean ‘lifted’ or was given to you by one of your admirers,” Elladan gently corrected him.
A sly grin broke out across Donnie’s face. “Maybe...”
Seth squinted suspiciously at the slight elf. “Anything else you’ve got hidden away you’d like to tell us about?”
“Nope!” came the immediate response.
“Water it is, then,” Aksel declared, before anyone else could speak.
The water corridor stood directly across the main chamber from the air room. Aksel led the companions in that direction, passing under the archway with the circle containing three consecutive spirals over three wavy lines. At the end of the corridor stood a locked door with another chakra key mechanism on the wall next to it. Glo, remembering their conversation on the bridge above the mists, turned to Elistra. “Do you think your disc can open one of these locks by itself?”
Elistra wrinkled her nose and tilted her head to one side as she mulled over his words. “Hmm. I don’t really know. Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out. Give me some room, please.”
As Elistra closed her eyes, the others stepped back from the seeress. She began to hum, just as she had when retrieving the others’ discs, t
hen reached up and placed her index and middle finger on her forehead. A few seconds later, the multi-colored disc formed in her hand. Elistra handed the single disc to Seth. The halfling stared at it for a few moments, then glanced up at her skeptically. “So, which indentation do you expect me to put this in?”
“Do you really want an answer to that, Seth?” Glo asked with a dry smile.
The halfling tilted his head forward and glared at the wizard.
“Whichever one you feel like,” Elistra responded before Seth could fire off a response.
Seth glanced at the seeress, his dark demeanor disappearing as quickly as it came. “Okay then.” He turned toward the plaque and ran the disc over a few indentations, reciting the words, “Eenie, meenie, miney, mo...”
“For the gods sakes, Seth, just pick one already!” Aksel cried impatiently.
“Spoilsport,” Seth retorted. His hand was currently over the green indentation, so he shoved the disc in there. Nothing happened at first, then, abruptly, there was a flash where the disc lay. A moment later, there was a pair of flashes in the indentations above and below the green one, and another multi-colored disc appeared in each of those. That was immediately followed by two more flashes above and below those with two more discs appearing. There were two more final flashes, and the last two indentations were filled. All the lights went on, and the door opened.
Elladan stared in awe at the panel. “That was cool.”
Glo exchanged a glance with his fellow elf and grinned. “Very.”
Through the open doorway stood another alcove. Beyond that, Glo could see a large pool of water. Seth pulled out the original disc, and all the copies disappeared. He handed it back to Elistra and then led the way inside. Before them was another chamber similar in size to the air room, but this one was shaped like a hemisphere. Once again, this room was very well lit, but the source of illumination was obvious this time—those glowing tiles they had seen before were spaced at regular intervals across the curved ceiling.