“If we go back up, as likely as not we’ll fall through again,” he explains. “Plus, they’ll never find us here unless they stumble upon the opening. Which, in the dark is unlikely.”
“How do you know there’s even a way out?” Miko asks.
“I don’t,” he replies. “But the dead had to be brought here somehow.”
“The two chambers we fell in were connected,” Jiron says. “Stands to reason there would be a way out.”
James moves closer to Miko and says soothingly, “Just stay close and we’ll make it out, okay?”
Miko nods his head.
James moves to the opening of the burial chamber and takes the lead. Before leaving, he glances over his shoulder and says, “Follow me and stay close.”
Jiron nods his head and Miko says, “Don’t worry about that.”
He turns back toward the opening and leaves the burial chamber.
Chapter Fourteen
A small crude path extends from the burial chamber. James steps out and follows it as it passes by another chamber. They can see the hole in the roof where Jiron had fallen through and the rubble on the floor from the collapsed ceiling as they make their way past the opening.
“Wonder why they dug it so close to the surface?” Jiron muses.
“Probably wasn’t when this had been done,” James replies. “Over time, when the walls of the canyon had eroded away by wind and rain, the distance between the chambers and the surface gradually diminished. Now there’s only a thin layer remaining, which we broke through. No telling how long this has been here.”
They continue past more of the chambers, all feeling incredibly old, the air musty and stale. James is glad it’s still breathable. As they pass one chamber, Miko hollers out when he sees something shining within.
James backs up and lets the orb’s light shine into the room, and they see several gold coins lying on a bier next to a corpse. “You going to take them?” James asks him.
Shaking his head, Miko says, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Why?” he asks.
“Robbing from the dead is wrong,” he says. Then he glances to James and says, “Everyone knows that.”
Giving him a slight smile, James nods his head as they continue down the dug out pathway, leaving the coins where they found them. They come to where the way splits to the right or left, James takes the right.
After passing three more chambers of the dead, the passage abruptly ends. “Looks like they just stopped digging here,” he guesses. Turning around, he leads them back to where the passage had split, this time following the left fork.
When they pass the next chamber, something else catches his eye. Stopping, he returns to it and finds a corpse lying there with a sword across his chest. The sword, which at one time had been finely crafted, has now been eaten away by rust. The man had been laid out in his armor, obviously a warrior of some sort.
Returning to the passage, they continue down past several more chambers when again, the passage diverges. Either straight, or to the right. Being methodical, James again turns right.
This passage extends quite a ways, winding to the right and left as it comes to different chambers. All of the chambers are in the same crude style, some of the occupants are wrapped in cloth, while some are laid out as if sleeping. All of them have the look of having been here an awfully long time.
The interesting thing about the dead here, is that some are fairly well preserved while others are almost rotted away to skeletons. Maybe different embalming techniques for the different social classes. But if that is the case, why are they all together? Never heard of different classes being mingled together. Interesting.
As they move through the catacomb, Miko begins relaxing. He doesn’t lose his nervousness, but the panic he originally felt upon entering has long since subsided.
The passage they’re following abruptly ends again, so they again turn back. Coming to the juncture of passages, they turn right.
They follow this passage down past six chambers until it suddenly ends at a crude stairway going up. “This is encouraging,” James says as he begins to ascend the stairs.
“I hope it leads out,” Miko says from behind him.
“Me too,” agrees James.
Coming to the top of the stairs, they enter a small room, with more biers of the dead. This room looks to be constructed slightly better than what they saw down below. Where the area below had looked to have been just dug out of the earth, here it looks more constructed. The walls are more uniform, though still consisting of dirt and earth.
The biers here aren’t just dug out of the walls. Instead, some are lined with linen and wood. The dead here looks to have been better preserved than those below.
“This area looks newer than the other,” observes Jiron.
“Yeah,” agrees James. He moves through the chamber to the opposite side where a doorway leads to a connecting hallway. The hallway is wider and slightly higher than its counterpart below. “We may be getting closer to the exit,” he announces.
“That would be wonderful,” he hears Miko exclaim behind him. He can’t help but smile at him.
Moving along the hallway, they pass more chambers. These contain more gold and other valuables for the dead. In one, he sees gripped in a corpse’s hands that are crossed upon its chest, a finely wrought golden chalice. The Holy Grail? He smiles at the thought. I doubt it!
Continuing on, they come to where the hallway they’ve been following intersects another. Now faced with three choices, they pause a moment.
“Which way?” he asks, glancing back to his friends.
“Doesn’t matter,” Jiron says.
So James turns again to the right and follows the hallway. After passing by several chambers, it opens up onto a large chamber, the largest they’ve yet seen.
A large sarcophagus rests in the center of the chamber and a chest sits at the foot of it. He moves into the chamber to inspect it more closely.
“What are you doing?” asks Miko from where he stopped at the entrance.
“Just taking a better look?” he replies.
“Why?” he asks. “Let’s get out of here!”
“Just a moment,” James replies. He moves to the sarcophagus and holds the orb over it as he examines the artwork. His eyes are drawn to the chest and he really wants to open it. If this had been a role playing game, he’d not even had hesitated. But he dares not risk it, he remembers the last time they opened a chest and the results.
The room itself is fairly unadorned, a lone tapestry which has long since fallen to rot hangs on one of the walls.
His curiosity satisfied, he leaves the room and they move back to the juncture. Turning again to the right he follows the hallway down past burial chambers until it ends at a stone door set in the wall.
He gasps when he sees what is upon the door. The Star of Morcyth. “This must be a burial chamber for a priest of Morcyth,” he says. Taking out the medallion, he puts it into the recess of the Star on the door and the door begins to open.
Before he replaces the medallion back within his shirt, he notices a subtle glow emanating from it. He shows it to the others. “Never saw it do this before,” he says.
“Maybe it’s like back when we were trapped in the place with the skull pyramids,” suggests Miko.
“Perhaps,” James agrees, “but I’ve yet to encounter anything bearing the Star of Morcyth to be harmful.”
He moves through the doorway, holding the medallion out before him and enters a large chamber. A single sarcophagus rests upon a stand in the center of the room, the Star of Morcyth engraved upon the top.
The medallion flashes in his hand and the room seems to begin to glow with a soft, warm light. Next to him, he hears Jiron suddenly gasp. He looks toward the sarcophagus and sees a light begin to form next to it.
“James…” Miko begins to say as he tugs at his arm.
More curious than fearful, James continues to watch a
s the light turns into a ghostly apparition.
The ghost is a man in robes, hovering there next to the sarcophagus, and upon its breast is a medallion similar to the one James is holding. It’s face, hard to make out but looks human, is facing them.
James steps forward and says, “Greetings.”
The ghost nods its head and replies in a far off sounding voice, “Greetings, fellow priest of Morcyth.”
James glances at the medallion he’s holding and replies, “I’m not a priest.”
The apparition reaches out, almost touching the medallion he’s wearing. “The glow only comes from his priests, it manifests for no others,” the ghostly voice says.
“Who are you?” James asks.
“I am no longer,” the ghost explains. “I wish no longer to be.”
“Why are you here?” he asks the ghost.
“To guard, to watch, to bar, to wait,” the ghost replies.
“Guard what?” James asks.
“That which must not be found,” he says. “That which must never leave.”
“What must never leave?” he asks.
“The fire, the scourge, the ending,” moans the ghost.
“I don’t understand,” James says.
“Stolen it was,” the apparition says. “Stolen by us, never to leave. No, it must not be found!”
James glances back to his friends who look back at him nervously. Returning his attention to the ghost, he says, “Who did you steal it from?”
“The name that shall not be spoken,” the ghost wails with great anxiety.
“What would happen if it is found?” James asks.
“Death! Much death at the hands of his followers,” cries the ghost.
Suddenly, the ghost begins wailing. The wailing increases to such intensity that they’re forced to cover their ears. When the wailing stops, the ghost cries, “One has come!” Again the intense wailing.
“Hope is lost!” it wails and begins moving in an agitated manner.
“What?” yells out James. “Who has come?”
“One who belongs to him that shall not be named,” cries the ghost. “He shall find it!”
Suddenly, in his mind, he understands. Abula-Mazki has entered the catacomb.
The ghost moves suddenly and comes to stand but inches from James. “You must take it!” it wails to him. “Take it and hide it!”
“Where is it?” James cries out to the ghost.
“Above us,” the ghost replies. “You must find the Room of Stars.” He moves to the side of his sarcophagus and placing a hand upon it, says, “Within here, is the key.” Beginning to wail again, the ghost begins shimmering until finally dissolving into nothingness.
When the apparition is gone, they glance at each other.
James walks over to the side of the sarcophagus and tries to remove the stone slab covering it. “Help me!” he hollers back to the others.
Moving closer, they both grab a hold of the stone slab and with all three working together, manage to raise one side. Pushing the slab away from them, they begin to slide it across the sarcophagus where it drops over the other side, smashing into the floor.
Within, they see the body of the priest whose ghost had just spoken to them. Upon his breast is a golden key, three inches in length with a large diamond at one end. Reaching in, James picks it up.
“Come on!” he says as he runs from the room.
“What’s going on?” Miko asks him as he follows.
“Didn’t you hear what the ghost told us?” he asks.
“All we heard was wailing,” Jiron explains.
“He said that there is something here that the priests of Morcyth had been hiding from someone,” he tells them. “He also said that a follower of that someone is now here. I think Abula-Mazki has found the entrance to the catacomb and is now within it, hunting for us.”
“The priest told me I must find the ‘fire’ and keep it from him. It’s above us in the ‘Room of Stars’, whatever that means.”
“What happens if he should get it?” Jiron asks.
“The priest said ‘Death! Much death at the hands of his followers’. I don’t think we have much choice.” James hurries back to the junction and again takes the right.
He follows the hallway and comes to a set of stairs leading up. Taking them two at a time, he reaches the top and enters the hallway at a run. The hallway is constructed better than the ones below. It has worked stone for sides as well as frescoes and tapestries.
Rushing down the corridor, he comes to a door in the right wall. Upon the door is a faded picture of a diamond. He pulls out the key and finds the diamond on the door is a direct match to the one on the key. Placing the key in the lock, he turns it and opens the door.
The room on the other side is octagonal, with upraised sarcophagi upon the other seven sides of the room. Upon each is emblazoned the Star of Morcyth.
“This must be the room of stars,” he announces. Turning to Jiron, he says, “Keep watch here and if anyone comes, let me know.”
“You got it,” he says drawing his knives.
“Come with me,” he says to Miko as he drags him through the door and into the room.
The medallion on his chest begins to glow once more, the Stars on the sarcophagi begin to glow as well. The glowing of the Stars reveals that another Star has been engraved upon the center of the chamber floor.
James grabs Miko and they move to the center of the room.
“Why do I have to be here?” Miko asks as they approach the center of the Star.
“Quiet,” James tells him. Upon reaching the center, he takes the medallion and holds it up high. A high pitched note begins to be heard coming from all around. It grows steadily louder and louder.
Jiron is now bathed in the light coming from the Stars as he stands out in the corridor, watching in awe at what’s transpiring within the room.
Suddenly the note stops and all is silent, then the sarcophagi doors begin to open. When the doors are fully open, a warrior steps out of each and comes toward James. Each is heavily armored, bearing a longsword and a shield. The shield is embossed with the Star of Morcyth.
All but one stops when they come to within three feet of where he stands. Miko quakes in fear as the largest of the seven comes even closer. This warrior stops a scant foot and a half from them.
“That the Star should shine here once more is dire indeed,” the warrior says.
“One has come who serves he that should not be named,” James replies, hoping to get it right.
“Yes,” the warrior says. “I can feel his presence as he approaches. The Fire is no longer safe here.”
“I must retrieve it,” James says.
Shaking his head, the warrior says, “Only a son of this world may touch it. All others must surely perish.”
“But…” James begins to say.
Then the warrior raises one of his hands and points at Miko. “He must be the one,” he says to Miko’s horror.
Miko backs away and says, “N…n…no way.”
“James!” he hears Jiron call from the corridor. “You better hurry!” Then the clash of battle can be heard as Jiron engages with the enemy.
“Miko, you have no choice!” James says. “We can’t let it fall to Abula-Mazki!”
Suddenly they hear a grinding sound as the back of one of the sarcophagi begins sliding into the floor. The circle of warriors part, creating a way for Miko to move toward the passage revealed behind it. “Go,” the warrior says, “therein lies the Fire.”
“We’ll go together,” James says as he takes Miko by the hand.
From the corridor, they continue to hear Jiron fighting. Miko looks to James, the fear evident in his eyes as he slowly nods his head. Together they walk to the revealed passage and pass through the sarcophagus.
The passage only goes ten feet before opening up to a small room. A three foot pedestal sits in the middle of the room and upon it is a red ruby, easily the biggest ruby James had eve
r heard of. It has to be at least three inches in diameter. Coming closer to it, they can see light moving within it, like the flickering of a flame.
Miko looks to James and says, “What do I do?”
“I’m not sure,” he admits.
Miko comes closer to the Fire and hesitantly reaches his hand out to it. When nothing happens, he picks it up.
James studies his friend, worried, but doesn’t see anything happening to him.
Miko closes his hand around it and turns back to James, “It’s cool to the touch.”
“Put it in your pouch and let’s go!” he says.
Miko does as he says and they return to the Star room. The lead warrior says, “Go and protect the fire.”
“We shall,” says James. As he makes to leave, the warriors rush past him and out the door, engaging the enemy.
At the door, Jiron almost runs into them, both of them coming to a quick stop. “Who are those guys?” he asks him.
“Not really sure,” James says. He looks down the corridor and sees them fighting most effectively against the soldiers. “Let’s get out of here while we can.” One more glance back at the fighting and he sees the warriors have mowed through the soldiers like a scythe through wheat.
They begin running down the corridor in the opposite direction when James suddenly feels an intense prickling sensation. Abula-Mazki!
A feeling of evil and revulsion rolls over them like a wave. James is almost reduced to vomiting from the feeling of it.
“What was that?” Jiron asks.
“I’m not sure,” James replies once he’s regained control of his stomach again.
From up ahead, they hear movement. Holding the orb up, its light reveals a corpse shuffling around the corner ahead of them, others following behind. “He’s raised the dead against us!” James cries out.
“James!” hollers Jiron. “The Star!”
Holding the Star of Morcyth high, the light again comes from it. The dead only shy away from it, it slows them down but fails to stop them entirely.
“It’s not working!” shouts Miko when he fails to see the dead dissolve like the torsos had.
“The magic of Abula-Mazki must be sustaining them,” replies James. Turning to Jiron, he says, “Only one thing to do.”
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