Brinks In Time:The Legend of Valendri's Relic

by Tom Rogal

  Biverin asked, “Was them jumping from their bridge to ours part of the plan?”

  Neeza yelled, “No, just keep going!”

  The mages made it into the next staired hallway, thankful it was not laced with traps. Gerran had hoped there was some kind of pattern to the traps being set, but the elves were probably proud of the randomness. At least they left clues. The next room was interesting. Against one wall was a pile of large boulders that an archer could easily hide behind, and in the middle of the room was a crystal ball. It was dull, as light had probably not touched it in ages.

  The group was about to advance until Gerran yelled, “Hold it! This is a trap room! I need to figure it out.”

  Haldirin said, “Okay, but hurry. Neeza and I will keep them at bay, but we won’t be able to do it forever.”

  Gerran nodded as him and the rest of the students began to examine the room. Neeza and Haldirin meanwhile fired at any Ettui that showed up coming down the stairs. At least they were bottlenecked so they just had to concentrate firing on one spot. Yet, just because it was a convenience, it didn’t mean they could keep it up for over a thousand troops. Sooner rather than later, they would tire out.

  The room was much different than the others. Those at least tried to hide the fact it was a trap. This one was proud to say it was one, which worried him. He did notice four smaller orbs in the corners as well, as he examined the room closer. All were dull like the main one. The floor had symbols on small tiles with a larger one on the tile in front of the middle orb. What could it mean?

  Lindaris commented, “Come on, Gerran. This should be easy.”

  “I wish. These are ancient elvish tricks. These were designed to be original and tricky.”

  He began to look around the walls and the floors for some symbols that might help. Nothing. Not even a script of elvish writing was found. There was one thing he could try. He grabbed a rock and tossed it onto the largest tile on the floor. Again, nothing.

  Neeza and Haldirin were doing their best, but more were coming down and faster than they could hold them off. One finally made it through into the room, crashing through on the tiles. Gerran watched with interest, but still nothing happened. As the Ettui stood up, he saw Haldirin aiming a spell at him and dashed for the stone shields. As he went to his right, the orbs on the corners brightly lit; Aiming toward a hidden orb in the ceiling and down onto the central orb. A beam from the central orb connected with the Ettui, causing it to shake violently. The tiles turned a light blue. After the Ettui fell dead, the lights extinguished. The other mages watched in horror, though Mimerck seemed most impressed.

  Vindar asked, “How are we going to get past this?”

  “That’s it!” exclaimed Gerran. “Neeza, let another Ettui soldier in. We need to drive it toward the small tiles. It makes perfect sense. The purpose of this part of the mountain was to eliminate as many of the enemy with traps, right? What better trap than one that needed sacrifice to get through it?”

  Neeza saw what he meant, “Then, while the orb is hitting the Ettui, we should be able to all reach safely across until the Ettui dies because it can only hit one at time.”

  “Got to hand it to those elves. They really find some twisted new ways to kill their enemies,” commented Lindaris.

  “Everyone get ready!”

  The other mages waited, ready to get the Ettui in position if necessary. Judging by the example, they had ten seconds to get to the next hallway. Certainly doable, but it would be close. The Ettui would have had no issues making the distance with their speed. Mages were never known as the fleetest of foot. They had no choice, though. If they stood their ground the Ettui were bound to overrun them. It appeared like everyone was ready. Neeza and Haldirin waited for the signal. Gerran nodded.

  Two Ettui came rushing down the stairs. Haldirin dispatched the first one and missed on purpose for the second one. Neeza backed off out of view and got into position.

  Neeza chanted, “Iczera flirroma!”

  A sheet of ice formed on the floor. He led it all the way to the trap tiles. Because of the color of the floor, it blended in almost flawlessly. Haldirin ran in just as the Ettui did. Not seeing the ice, the Ettui slipped and slid all the way on the floor. All the mage students fired their stun spell at it to make sure it landed in the desired spot: the small tiles near the center. The orbs in the corners began to glow bright.

  Gerran yelled, “Now!”

  The students sprinted toward the floor. As the center orb began absorbing the Ettui’s life force, the students crossed over it. Haldirin stumbled near the beginning of the tunnel and was last to reach it. Unfortunately, the stun spells killed it much faster than anticipated. After eight seconds, the Ettui was dead, but Haldirin still was on the other side. He thankfully stopped just before going on the floor.

  Neeza, who just barely made it across, yelled, “Haldirin!”

  He could hear a large group of Ettui coming down the stairs. Well, he always knew that he would go defending his boss, but he had always hoped it would be later in his life. Neeza had to do something. He remembered from Gerran’s test that a rock did nothing when it hit the zone. Neeza began firing at the ceiling, forcing at various points large chunks to fall and hit the ground. Haldirin watched curiously, trying to figure out his boss’ logic.

  “Use the stones! We’ll cover you while you cross!”

  He finally understood what Neeza was requesting. He fired a couple stunning fireballs at the hall’s entrance before jumping on the first stone. He had trouble balancing as the chunks were uneven and shifted due to his added weight. As he made his jump on the third, the first group of Ettui entered the room.

  Lindaris and Dyenarus both stepped up and chanted, “Firammii morza!”

  The fireballs each hit the group, killing all but two of them. The last was dropped just short of the tiles by Biverin, who winced after casting his defensive spell. Haldirin advanced three more stones before the next wave came. The students all fired their stun spells, doing their best to skillfully fire in between Haldirin as he moved. A few of the Ettui landed on the tiles but it was nowhere near long enough for him to stop jumping on the stones.

  The next wave came as Haldirin reached the eighth stone. These were smarter. They saw what was going on as the mage struggled with his balance.

  Dyenarus yelled, “Take out the stones behind him!”

  The mages began casting their spells on the stones as the Ettui leapt closer to Haldirin. Their act did stop most of them, but two managed to stay in pursuit, jumping on the stone shields. He was able to make it to the last stone just as one of the Ettui jumped on his previous stone. Haldirin lost his footing and nearly fell off his rock. As he looked forward, he could see the students and Neeza urging him on, but the distance was too great for him to jump. The Ettui on the stone shields jumped toward Haldirin.

  Lindaris saw it coming out of the corner of his eye and fired a spell toward the ground. He may not be a fully graduated mage yet, but he knew what would happen if he fired at the Ettui and missed. Firing on the ground caused most Black Magic spells to reflect the energy outwards, giving it more area of effect.

  As the spell hit the ground, it did just as Lindaris had thought it would. The energy that kicked up hit the Ettui, knocking it off course. That same energy also knocked over the rock that Haldirin stood on. The mages held their breath as both their friend and the Ettui were falling toward the ground.

  Haldirin hit the ground, expecting to feel the pulsing life-stealing light take his life force. Yet, he felt nothing. He did hear his party yelling at him profusely to hurry. He looked back to see the orb absorbing the Ettuiis life force. Time felt like it was moving slowly, but he realized he only had seconds to get off the tiles. He raised his body up and ran as hard as he could toward the mages.

  The students grabbed him just as the orbs went dull. That was too close. They were all breathing heavily as they saw the next wave of Ettui make its way into the room.

  Hald
irin ended up being the one to say, “Let’s keep going.”

  They all stood up and ran down the hall back toward a lower bridge.

  Orznaii ordered his soldiers to keep up the work. He saw what was going on from here. The explosion was nothing but a diversion. Something meant to drive his forces to make a mistake. The earlier Ettui who first entered fell for it, but as he got the order out to continue going slow, he would only be hopefully looking at a loss of fifty soldiers.

  Now, what to do about those mages? He was not expecting to see anyone else, but he supposed that with the heavy ship traffic now going this way, it wouldn’t take the elves long to figure out that they would come back here. It was very clever of them to send mages. He doubted if the elves would have been able to reclaim the Relic without help because of the Valendritaii. He understood it was a risk for him and his forces as well, but the Ettui were more numerous than the elves; more now than they could have ever imagined. Lord Keth, his superior, now on a secret mission, would be pleased when he returned with the treasure. Before that, though, he needed to neutralize the mages, and he had the perfect idea.

  The Ettui troops had finished rolling numerous projectiles, waiting. When the mage made their way back onto the bridges, destruction would rain upon them.

  ***************************

  Dyenarus led their group along with Gerran across the bridge. It was longer than the previous ones, mainly because the room became wider the further south they traveled. Neeza and Haldirin brought up the rear. They just couldn’t keep up with the younger mages. Neeza suddenly stopped midway across and looked up. Something wasn’t right.

  The Ettui weren’t moving. They just stood on the bridge doing their infamous chant. It echoed loudly in the hollowed part of Mount Hrithgorn. Twelve stories up, he could see their leader finally as he stepped onto the bridge. Orznaii paced across among his soldiers, never taking his eyes off Neeza. Distance didn’t play any factors as their eyes became locked.

  It was for this reason he never saw the first of the boulders take out a small portion of the bridge to his left. The impact nearly caused Neeza to fall off, but Haldirin was there to catch him. Stones that missed fell past them, but they could tell it hit or clipped one of the bridges below them. This was not good. If they couldn’t reach the sanctuary, they would be trapped. The Ettui could leap across, but not them. Telekinetics could only do so much. Lifting more than one person at a time left a mage strained and unfortunately, a mage couldn’t telekinetically lift itself without using Dark Magic, the forbidden magic.

  Vindar yelled, “We have to move!”

  Gerran said, “Not this way. The passage caved in. After 1,000 years you can’t expect even a well-built structure to not show signs of deterioration.”

  They were definitely in a bind. There was only one place for them to go and that was down. He also knew there was only one way to get there. He was going to be sore after today.

  Neeza yelled, “Jump to the below path! Now!”

  The mages timed their jumps so they didn’t miss the bridge below them. It was a twenty foot drop, so they all landed hard. They recovered in time as the bridge above them received a bombardment of boulders, destroying a part of it as it fell toward the current one they were on. It barely missed Condarin and Biverin as the impact weakened that section.

  Before he could stand up, the weakened section cracked as they dropped two bridges down. They were only a couple bridges away before the talisman. Caution had to take a high priority from here on out. Neeza leapt to the lower path, again landing hard. Instead of stopping, his momentum made him roll right over the edge. Figures. Of all the places he would land, it was in a section that the railing was eroded completely away. He dropped past the bridge Condarin and Biverin landed on to the one below. He was able to grab on to what little remained of the railing as he could hear the rocks being reduced to nothing underneath him from the talisman.

  Joakon was now on the bridge right above where Neeza had tried to get a good angle to jump. Sadly, the best spot to leap already had a small chunk taken from it, making the jump a very dangerous one. A few boulders whizzed past them as Gerran and Lindaris joined them.

  Joakon yelled, “We have to get Neeza! There isn’t any bridge where he is. Just the talisman.”

  Gerran saw their leader's predicament, and he also knew who would be responsible for doing it. Being one of the strongest in telekinetics put him on the front. He looked to his right. The bridge leading to the sanctuary was within sight. The large arched entrance was the first sign that their goal was within reach. He began to focus on Neeza.

  Neeza was trying his hardest to pull himself up, but the drops had taken a physical toll on him. The other bridge was too far away with nothing below him but the talisman. He saw what it did to the Ettui. Now that he was nearly in the same situation, he began to think that was not the way to go. At least it would be quick. Much better than Ettui torture to be sure.

  His grip slipped and he began to fall. Yet, as he neared the talisman, he hit something solid. One of the boulders ricocheted off the wall and with a great stroke of luck, landed just beneath him. He could feel the talisman crushing the rock beneath him. In a matter of seconds, it would be over. I’m so sorry, Mierena.

  When he felt the rock slip from under him, he thought he was a goner. But he could see the rocks still coming from the top. He also saw the mages using a combined effort to save him. Gerran was doing a bulk of the work with him, but the rest formed shields around him and the bridge to make sure they were all protected while they got him. Gerran finally got him over the bridge’s railing, letting go of his telekinetic grip.

  Mimerck walked up to Neeza to help him up and said, “You’re not dying yet. Remember, you still owe me some money.”

  That was more like Mimerck, who was surprisingly quiet for most of the chase. Perhaps even a renegade mage captain who cared more about gold than of life did have an understanding when the situation was perilous. One wouldn’t have been able to say that if they experienced the boat trip here, but that was in his arena: the sea. In a mountain, the dangers were numerously different than on the water.

  Neeza stood up as the students made sure he was okay. Condarin cast a quick healing spell on him that helped with fatigue and healed minor wounds. That felt good. One could never appreciate the gratifying feeling a healing spell had unless one really needed it. The soothing, cooling effect it had rejuvenated him plenty. He was still incredibly sore. No spell existed to heal that.

  He looked up once more. Orznaii was still staring at him. The look he gave him hinted that that he was impressed by Neeza and the student’s defense of his attack. Mostly he was probably only angry that they survived the assault. The Ettui didn’t like failure.

  Gerran finally said, “Okay, this way. This next set of halls past that arched entrance should take us below the talisman and allow us to safely cross the last bridge. Just one more leap.”

  They all leapt down to the last bridge. It suffered some damage, but it was minimal. The direction of the current one was on the opposite side to where they were throwing the boulders. They made it to the next set of hallways, which did lead directly underneath the talisman. To slow their enemy down, Lindaris destroyed the archway to block the path. They hated damaging the historic architecture, but they had their own well-being to be worried about.

  They passed through another archway and turned right into what looked like the entrance to the elvish stronghold. Even Lindaris was impressed.

  “Wow.”

  A large door of stone and gold was ahead of them. Pillars made in a similar fashion led a trail toward it. The remains of what must have been a carpet were still evident, though most of it was destroyed. Each pillar had a lit torch on it, high in the air.

  Vindar said, “Magnificent! The entrance to the Hrithgorn Stronghold, also known as The Gate of Huiilumal. It is even more beautiful than I heard it described!”

  “And here we are, seeing it in the fles
h,” added Condarin.

  Everyone began to explore except Mimerck and Neeza, the mage leader more because he wanted a few minutes of rest.

  “I’m surprised. I thought if anyone would want to try and find the quickest route to your elf gold, you’d be leading the exploration.”

  There was no laugh or clever quip from the mage captain, just a deaf silence. That alone had Neeza feeling uneasy.

  Mimerck finally commented, “Something feels wrong here. What can open a door of that size? And for that matter, you ever wonder who lit these torches? Seems like it would need to be something tall.”

  He hadn't considered that. Elves were the tallest of all the species. Still, there is no reason why the torches there were lit . . . that was unless . . . by the gods!

  “Everyone, fall back!”

  It was too late. Two trap doors opened up swallowing Biverin, Joakon, Gerran, and Lindaris, while the other got Condarin, Haldirin, and Dyenarus. Vindar tried to grab Condarin as she fell, but the door closing shortly after made that choice impossible. He banged on the hollowed floor, but to no avail.

  “What’s going on?” asked Vindar.

  Neeza tried to explain, but as Vindar neared the floor gave out underneath Mimerck, Neeza, and Vindar. They were sliding down a smooth rock path going down. By the gods, all they could do was pray that the end of this trap didn’t result in their deaths.

  8

  LINDARIS

  The four mages seemed to go down the tunnel forever. The whole time they wondered where they were headed. Was there something dangerous at the end? They didn’t want to think like that, but they couldn’t deny that whatever was at the conclusion of the drop could be something that would cost them their lives. It appeared they would find out soon. Lindaris could see a light at the end or at least it was something very white.