by Jenner, M
Turning to Galandrik, Kern said, “It has to be sleep! ‘Visons’ are dreams, and ‘suffer from lack’ – of sleep!” Kern leaned back in his chair and looked very smug.
“Good answer,” Galandrik agreed.
“Answer is sleep,” Kern said, looking triumphantly at Redvine.
The cage door clicked open and Ty stepped out. “I knew that, easy,” Ty said, looking at Kern.
“Oh, you need a harder one?” Redvine asked with a smile.
“Ty! Keep that big gob shut!” Kern said as he stepped into the cage. The door clicked once more. Redvine leaned back and lifted his feet up onto the table.
“Third and final question,” he said, with glee in his voice. “Two bodies have I, though joined as one; the stiller I stand, the quicker I run!”
Ty looked at Kern, who looked just as puzzled as Ty felt, then at Galandrik. “Two bodies that stand still and run?” he said, puzzled.
“What about rivers?” Galandrik suggested. “They are bodies – of water – and they run.”
“No, it doesn’t make sense,” Ty said, rising to pace the room. “The stiller I stand the quicker I run? What about those animals with….no, still doesn’t make sense,” he pondered.
“I am going to give you a countdown,” Redvine said, pulling an hourglass from his pocket and placing it on the table. “In two minutes the game will end, and your ranger friend here will stay if your answer isn’t correct,” he finished with an evil grin.
“Two minutes?” Galandrik protested.
“It took your friend less than that to get the last two combined,” Redvine smirked.
“Come on, Galandrik, think!” Ty said.
“I did think. River, remember?” he answered. “Okay, okay, give me a minute – stands still and runs…two bodies…” Galandrik placed his head in his hands. “Think, think,” he muttered. Finally he looked at Ty and said, “I think we need to go with river.”
Ty looked at the hourglass; only a few seconds remained and he knew ‘river’ was their only option.
Ty turned and looked through the bars of the cage. Kern gestured for Ty answer the question, concern etched upon his face. Twisting back around, he looked at the remaining sand dripping through, racking his brain for any other answer to the riddle.
Galandrik said anxiously, “Ty, the sand’s about to run out.”
Ty gave himself a shake and said, “Right, here goes. The an… No! Wait! That’s it, hourglass! Two bodies have I, though joined as one, the stiller I stand the quicker I run – that has to be the answer.” Galandrik nodded in approval.
Ty looked at Redvine. “The answer is hourglass.”
The cage door clicked open and Kern stepped out, visibly relieved. “Thanks. I really didn’t think you had me then.”
“Well played.” Redvine rose, a faintly disgruntled look on his face, and turned to exit the room. “Please help yourself to the contents of the chest, and you are free to go,” he said over his shoulder as he left.
The group looked around the room and saw, where the entrance door had been, a large chest. Ty searched it for traps then opened the lid to reveal freshly minted weapons – a long-sword, a double-headed axe, and ornately made daggers – a purse with five gold coins, and some basic adventurers’ equipment.
Galandrik hefted the axe. “Fine double axe, this; looks like it’s an orc-seeking one by the colour.”
Kern looked at the long-sword. “Yes, indeed; mine is the same make.”
Ty spun the daggers in the air; catching one by the tip, he launched it at the door, where it thudded in. “These seem nice too. I think they’re snake venom too, magically poisoned by the tiger snake. You never need to apply the poison yourself, because every strike does poison damage magically.”
They shared out the five gold pieces, taking one coin apiece then rolling the dice for each of the other two pieces. Much to Ty’s disbelief, Galandrik won them both. Lastly, they grabbed the equipment – torches, rope, flint and tinder, and rations – and divided as evenly as possible.
Kern pulled the door open to reveal another corridor. Ty led the way down the corridor, searching for traps as he went. After a long walk and a few twists and turns, they came to a large square room. At the far end of the room were two doors, and in front of those doors stood two giant paladins, complete with full plate armour and two-handed swords which they rested their gauntleted hands on. The three adventurers entered the room cautiously.
“Are they real?” Ty asked in a hushed voice.
“I don’t know, but they look it,” Kern replied.
“So did Redvine’s death,” the dwarf added.
“They are real, and they are bloodthirsty, and they will kill you if you attack,” Redvine said from behind.
All three spun around. “Redvine! Got a few more questions?” Kern hissed.
“No, but you have,” Redvine said, walking past the trio. “In front of you are two paladins and two doors. One of these doors will lead you safely out, and the other will lead you to your deaths. The trouble is, you have only one question to ask only one of the paladins,” Redvine explained.
“Simple!” Ty said, walking forward.
“BUT,” Redvine continued, “one paladin will always lie and the other will always tell the truth. Remember: One question and one question only, and may the God of Luck be with you.” Redvine walked past them and out up the corridor.
“Easy, just ask if the door is good,” Ty said.
“But what if he’s lying?” Kern answered.
“Do the opposite then,” Ty replied.
“Yes, but how do we know?” Galandrik added. “He might not be lying.”
“Ask him if he’s lying? No, we still won’t know.” Ty scratched his head and sat on the floor, watching Sleeper chase his tail next to him.
“If we ask one if the other is lying?” Kern said, thinking out loud.
“No, that still won’t work because we still wouldn’t know if he was telling the truth,” Galandrik said. “Besides, we only have one question.”
“This is too confusing. Let’s just pick a door, it’s an even chance,” Ty said.
“He said death!” Kern argued.
“But, does anybody really die?” Ty joked, mimicking Redvine’s voice.
“Very funny.”
Galandrik looked at the paladins closely; his head came to just above their waists. “I thought paladins protected the good, not the evil,” he said, eying the paladins’ great two-handed swords. No one had an answer for that observation.
Three hours went by as the three companions sat against the wall and pondered every possible question they could ask find out which door led to safety. Their tempers had all flared more than once, and each of them had a splitting headache.
“Let’s just pick a door!” Ty exclaimed, not for the first time. “It’s an even chance and we have been lucky in the past.” He stood up and stretched, then walked over to the paladins.
“Yes, but what if our luck has run out?” Galandrik replied.
“Then we fight death,” Ty said, shrugging. “The way I see it’s fifty-fifty. Galandrik has been lucky lately, let him choose,” the thief added.
Kern got to his feet. “It’s a massive gamble, though,” he said, stretching.
“Are you a real paladin?” Ty said, looking at the one on the left.
The paladin slowly moved his head to look down at the halfling. “Is that your question?” he asked.
“No!” Kern quickly barked.
Galandrik stood up to join the other two. “What if we asked the paladin if he would go through the door?” he suggested.
“But he could be lying. What about if we ask the paladin what the other one would do?” Kern replied.
“But he may still be lying,” Ty argued.
“Yes, but then if we did the opposite of the answer, it would be right,” Kern said, his voice getting a little more enthusiastic.
“How could it, if he is lying?” Galandrik said, shak
ing his head.
Ty added, “And what if he’s telling the truth?”
Kern bent down and drew two doors in the dirt floor, each with a stick-figure paladin in front of it. “Let’s say left is a liar and right tells the truth, and the left door is good, right door is bad,” Kern began. “If we asked the truth paladin, ‘What door would the other paladin tell us,’ the truth paladin would tell us the bad door because he’s telling the truth, so we do the opposite. If we ask the liar paladin, ‘What door would the other paladin tell us,’ he would lie and also say the bad door, so again we do the opposite! It has to be right,” Kern said, standing up.
“I still don’t understand,” Ty said, shaking his head.
“Trust me,” Kern smiled and walked to the left paladin. “I have a question,”
“Better make it a good one,” the paladin replied.
“What door would the other paladin tell us leads to safety?”
With a tiny hint of a smile the paladin answered, “He would say the door behind him.”
“Then we would like to leave through the door behind you,” Kern said assuredly.
“You choose wisely, ranger,” the paladin said, grabbing hold of the handle and pulling it open. Kern turned to Ty and winked as they hurried from the paladin room.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Shalamia
The corridor went for only a few hundred yards, twisting and turning, before it began gradually turning into a tunnel, the walls getting rougher and the floor increasingly damper and uneven. Ty walked with care, making sure he never rolled his ankle. Sleeper was in his backpack, and Ty could hear the dragon’s snores.
“He’s getting heavy,” Ty announced into the silence.
“Who is?” Galandrik asked.
“Sleeper. They grow quickly! I’ll need a bigger backpack soon,” Ty said, rearranging the straps of his pack. They came to a fork in the tunnel, and they chose to go left; after the paladin doors, it seemed a lucky omen. The tunnel slowly inclined as they walked for ages, stopping once to eat. They finally came to a circular room, empty apart from a few barrels, crates, and boxes. On the east side of the room was a doorway.
Ty peeked through the doorway; it was an old store cupboard. More boxes and crates were piled up inside and the stench was terrible. Ty held his nose. “Nothing in here,” he said to his companions. As he turned to leave, he noticed an old piece of paper flapping next to his knee. He leaned over and held his hand out, and felt a slight breeze.
After Ty started moving the boxes out of the way, he noticed that a section of wall had been patched up with wooden slats, and concealed by the boxes and crates. “Come quick, I think I’ve found something,” Ty shouted.
Kern and Galandrik stopped their search of the other room and came to stand in the doorway.
“What is it?” Kern asked.
“I think there’s a way out here; there’s a draft coming through and some light.” Ty removed the last box and passed it to Kern. He used his dagger to pry loose a few of the wooden slats, and looked behind them. “Yes, it’s an escape route,” he said. “I have seen loads of these; it’s a rope going down to another level.”
Ty examined the rope and the wooden beam above that anchored it. “Looks all safe. I’ll go first.” Ty grabbed the rope and stepped out, wrapping his legs around it. The wooden beam creaked a little under his weight, but held firm. He slowly lowered himself out of sight.
After sliding down some twenty feet he landed in a round alcove. Peering out, he saw a massive round room, with pillars spanning upwards and out of sight. On one side of the room, fallen rock formed a ramp which led up to an opening, through which he could see daylight beyond. Looking up, he saw another opening far, far above. The room seemed to be shaped like a cone or an inverted funnel, and he was standing in the wide base.
It wasn’t long before Galandrik and Kern joined Ty, and they all stood peering around the room. “What sort of place is this?” Ty wondered.
“It looks almost like an old volcano; it gets narrower as it goes up,” Kern replied.
“The base here must be five hundred steps wide! It’s truly massive,” Galandrik said, stepping out into the room.
“Something lives here, by the look of things,” Ty said, pointing out a pile of carcasses as the three of them walked around the edge of the massive room towards the slope leading up. “Maybe it’s the dragon’s den,” he laughed.
“I thought dragons slept on a pile of gold, not bones,” Galandrik replied.
“Typical if the one we found liked bones instead of gold!” Ty chuckled.
They made their way carefully up the slope to a circular exit; looking down, they could see Tonilla in the distance. The many street lanterns made the town sparkle against the moonlit sky. To the south of Tonilla they could see a massive camp with thousands of tents and camp fires. The view was remarkable, Kern thought to himself. The wind was cold and damp, and he knew they were high up in the mountains.
“Is that Nuran’s war?” Ty asked.
“Yes, I should imagine so,” Kern replied, squinting to see, “protecting Tonilla from the advancing orc hordes.”
“It sure is a delightful sight,” Ty said. “Not the war, I mean, just the scenery.”
“I’m hungry,” Galandrik said, rubbing his belly.
“I see some things never change,” Kern said with a laugh, putting his arm around his dwarf friend.
They went back down into the big room and found a nice spot to rest for the night. Galandrik started setting out Redvine’s gifted rations and Kern laid a fire. Ty gently placed his backpack on the floor, saying, “We’ll wake him soon enough. Let him eat, then get a good night’s sleep; maybe in the morning he can lead us to the mother dragon.”
Galandrik shared out some bread and fruit and they all began to eat, feeling content that their mission was almost accomplished. They had barely finished their first few mouthfuls when Ty felt a cold blade at his throat. Out from the darkness behind the pillars stepped Svorn and six guards, each with a crossbow pointed directly at one of the party.
Kern grabbed his hilt of his sword. “Don’t even think about it!” Svorn said, lifting one hand; all the crossbows were raised with intent. Ty felt the pressure of the blade under his chin, and slowly stood up with his hands held above his head.
Bok stepped from behind the pillar still holding the blade to Ty’s throat. “Didn’t think you’d see me again, hey little worm?” he said, grinning through black rotted teeth.
“Oh, hello,” Ty said brightly. “Last I saw you, you were slightly less dressed – and if I remember rightly, it was you who had the ‘little worm’.”
Bok jerked the blade away, then smashed the hilt against Ty’s temple, knocking him over into a slump. Bok slowly walked towards Kern. “Oh, I have been waiting to speak to you,” he began, but Svorn cut him off.
“Leave it, let us get the chests and then you can kick and punch them until your black heart is content.”
Looking over at the unconscious Ty, Kern saw that his friend’s body was covering the backpack. “We don’t have the chests,” Kern said.
“I think Bok may have had the right idea after all,” Svorn smiled.
“The lizard men stole them,” Galandrik added.
“Search them!”
As the guards stepped forward, a roar was heard from above and the room seemed to grow darker. Everyone looked up. “What was that?” Bok asked.
“Fuck knows,” Svorn answered, just as the roar sounded again.
Swooping from above, an enormous dragon came into sight, swirling down through the small opening, twisting in flight. Massive wings flapped to control the landing, and the dragon thundered down onto the stone floor in front of the ramp. Her wings folded back and her head arched forward; with her mouth wide open and razor sharp teeth on display, she gave another deafening roar.
The guards stepped forward, along with Svorn. “Spread out,” he shouted, “three left and three right, on my command,” he commanded
, raising his shield. Bok disappeared behind them, vanishing into the shadows; Kern and Galandrik picked up Ty and the backpack, then stepped back to the comparative safety of the next pillar.
The dragon took a step forward. “Who enters Shalamia’s home?” she boomed, a trickle of smoke wafting from her nostrils.
“We wish you no harm, Shalamia,” Svorn replied.
“No harm, but you all raise weapons against me?” the beast replied, her voice echoing around the cavernous room.
“We will drop them if you let us pass,” Svorn stuttered.
“But you haven’t answered my question. Why are you in my home?” she asked again, as she slowly looked around the room.
“We were searching for someone, and his track led us here.”
“Did you find him?” the dragon said menacingly, stepping forward, and the guards all took a hasty step back.
“No, we were just leaving, then, sorry if we intruded.” Svorn was practically babbling in his effort to placate the dragon.
Shalamia looked steadily at Svorn, then turned her head towards one of the guards. Svorn could see the man’s crossbow shaking. “Solider, be at ease; steady there, Jardon,” he said in what he hoped was a calming voice.
The dragon moved her head forward in Jardon’s direction, smelling the air around him, and gave a snort. With that Jardon stepped back and tripped over the leg bone of some long-devoured cow. His crossbow fired and struck Shalamia below the eye.
The dragon drew herself up on her back legs and roared. The noise was like thunder in the room and the floor shook. Then she brought her head forward and roared again. This time flames flowed from her mouth to engulf the guard, and he screamed in agony as he lay thrashing and burning.
“Attack!” Svorn ordered.
The rest of the guards fired their crossbows then dropped them to run at the dragon with swords raised. A few of the blades struck home and the dragon spun, her tail smashing into a pillar behind her and sending shards of rock flying. Once again flames erupted from her mouth, and three guards were engulfed, screaming as they burnt to death in a matter of seconds.