The Chalice

by Paul Latham

  Another creature slammed into Velar from behind sending him sprawling into the sand. Tucking his sword beneath, he rolled to his back and found the shryke standing over him talons sweeping down. Velar drew his leg up, pulled his dagger from his boot and plunged it upward into the shryke's body. The creature staggered back, and Velar flipped his sword around and thrust it forward. Screaming, the shryke fell and rolled into the darkness.

  "Velar!" Shilandra screamed.

  Pushing to his feet, He turned. Two shrykes flanked Shilandra and the horses. Akeil spun and kicked and caught one in the chest. Velar ran and jumped, surprising the other from the side. Letting his sword fall, he gripped the shrykes mane, planted his feet against its hindquarters and pulled as he brought his dagger up and across the shrykes throat. Black blood erupted over his hand. The creature fell, and Velar rolled free and clambered to his feet only to find another charging up the bank of the dune.

  "Your sword!" Shilandra said as she thrust the weapon under his arm. The shryke loomed over them. Velar gripped Shilandra's hand over the handle of the sword and locked his elbow down over her arm. The shryke impaled itself on the upthrust sword but momentum carried it forward onto Velar and Shilandra.

  The creature squirmed in its death throes as Velar struggled to push it off. He could hear Shilandra's muffled screams beneath them.

  "Hold on, Knight," Coka called. "We'll get him off."

  The shryke began to roll to one side as Coka pulled and pushed and pried the beast with Velar working from underneath.

  "There we go," Coka chimed as Velar quickly rolled away and reached to grab one of Shilandra's waving hands. With a pull she came free of the black sands, coughing, sputtering, cursing.

  "Are you alright?" Velar asked.

  "Yes, I'm fine," she panted. "You couldn't have just taken the sword, could you Velar."

  He shook his head. "No time."

  Coka whooped and danced. "Eight!" he shouted. "Nobody's ever gotten eight. I'll be up all-night skinning"

  "The rest won't come back?" Velar asked.

  "With this slaughter?" Coka laughed maniacally. "This'll scare them out of the desert." He burst into one of his more raucous melodies as he meandered to his pack to retrieve his tools. "Eight in one night!" he suddenly screamed to the stars. "I'll be a bleedn' legend!"

  "Never mind our part in it," Shilandra muttered as Velar helped her to her feet.

  "Our way is paid though," Velar said.

  "There had to be a better way."

  "Eight!" Coka shouted.

  "What if our hunter wants to go home with his booty?" Shilandra asked.

  Velar frowned. "We have an agreement."

  "And you trust him."

  Velar shrugged.

  Shilandra shook her head. "Your trust is an odd commodity, Velar," she said. "You give it to some but wouldn't sell it to others." Turning, she walked to her horse.

  Velar watched her back then shifted his gaze to Coka then back again.

  For the first time since he had met her, he was inclined to agree.

  Chapter Fifteen

  "That's it," Coka said, nodding to the mountains that had boiled up from the horizon. "That tallest peak there. Go straight for it and you'll find the place."

  "You're not going with us?" Shilandra asked.

  Coka extended his lower lip and shook his head. "No need."

  "You were paid to take us to the Canyon."

  "And I have," Coka insisted. "It would take a clear idiot to miss the place from here and I know your lord knight there ain't an idiot. We're out of the shrykes range and I need to get west. You don't need my company no more."

  Velar nodded.

  "Mi'lady," Coka sneered. "A pleasure it was."

  "Good riddance, filth," Shilandra spat.

  "Lord Knight." Coka reached out his hand. "Anytime you want to hunt, I'll partner with you. Fifty-fifty."

  "Thank you," Velar said as he shook the offered hand.

  Coka nodded, smiled his hideous smile, turned his horse to the west and soon disappeared among the dunes.

  "I don't like this, Velar."

  "I think we can make it by nightfall," Velar commented almost to himself as he gazed at the distant mountains.

  "How are we supposed to get back?" Shilandra said. "We have to travel through the exact same lands with the same dangers."

  "We can make it across the area Coka marked as the shrykes' range in a day. Coka forced us to spend the night within so he could hunt."

  "That bastard."

  "So, it's simply a matter of timing."

  "And what we find ahead."

  Velar nodded.

  "Still worried, Velar?"

  Again, Velar nodded, his eyes still fixed on the mountains.

  "But that hasn't slowed me down yet," he said and spurred Akeil forward.

  * * *

  They approached the Canyon as the sun rolled onto the horizon.

  The walls loomed tall and unnaturally straight with stone arches carved at intervals curving from one wall to the other. Rubble and rock lay strewn throughout.

  "By the Landing," Shilandra breathed. "It's exactly as it was described."

  Velar looked to Shilandra then into the darkness of the Canyon. He started forward.

  "Velar, wait," Shilandra hissed.

  Velar pulled up. "What?"

  "Do we just walk in?"

  Velar held up a hand. "Would you prefer I make up some sort of ceremony? Say a few words?"

  "Well?"

  "Shilandra."

  "Velar, do you realize where we are at?" she whispered. "Do you realize what's in there?"

  "Why are you whispering?"

  "I'm not whispering," she whispered.

  "It's time to finish this," Velar said and started forward.

  "But-"

  Velar passed the first arch. The darkness concealed the depths of the Canyon.

  "All I meant was that shouldn't we take some sort of precautions?" Shilandra said as she trotted her mount up alongside Velar.

  "Against what?" Velar said, as he scanned the second arch. Blockish glyphs and decaying images painted with dark pigments covered its surface. Between the arches lay rubble and weathered square stones. Structures existed at some point perhaps built against the canyon walls, but little remained.

  “We have no idea what waits."

  "We'll come to an entrance to a small chamber," Shilandra said. "And the Chalice is below that chamber. I know that much."

  Velar nodded.

  At the tenth arch Velar paused long enough to image light. The dancing blue bubble weaved and swirled above them.

  "Can you make out these writings on the arches?" Velar asked.

  Shilandra shook her head. "I'd need my books. The picture language was only used on temples and significant structures."

  They rode on in silence until the end slowly appeared before them in the shallow blue light. The Canyon ended in a glyph covered wall that towered above them. Velar looked left and right. No obvious openings. Just wall. Velar dismounted and approached the wall. Shilandra followed.

  “I don't understand,” she said. “There should be a way through.”

  Velar lifted a hand and reached slowly for the wall. He could feel something. It felt like he pushed through water the closer he got the wall. He retreated slightly, and the effect lessened.

  “Velar?”

  He took a step back and looked at the glyphs and carvings. More of the same from the pillars but they did seem to spiral towards a center. He took another step back and another. He let his light trace the parade of glyphs until he came to the center.

  “I see what you are doing, Velar, but what does it mean?”

  He didn't answer. He ran his hands over the patterns on the wall and found the points where energy ebbed and flowed. The energy followed the spirals to a locking point at the center. He could feel it like a small ball of pressure. It felt fragile. It would not take much imaging to break the lock.

&nbs
p; “This is it,” he said, stepping back. “This is why it's remained hidden. If you are not sensitive to the energies of imaging, then you would never know. It's just the end of the Canyon.”

  “What do you mean?” Shilandra asked.

  He gestured back into the Canyon. “This isn't hidden. Or rather it's hidden in plain sight. The size of the ruins and the depth of the Canyon are so obvious. But then you get to the end where something should be and it's just a wall. It's brilliant.”

  “I don't understand.” Shilandra said evenly.

  Velar nodded. “Take the horses back. I don't think the wall will fall but be cautious and be ready to run.”

  “What? You can't destroy it!”

  He shook his head and turned to her, smiling. “I can't destroy it. It was never here in the first place.”

  She blinked at him but took the horses by the reins and tried to lead them away. Akeil resisted until Velar touched his shoulder and pushed.

  “Evil beast,” Shilandra muttered.

  Velar returned to the wall.

  The subtlety of it amazed him. If he closed his eyes, he could see the delicate tendrils of power that ranged from glyph to glyph until they found the knot at the center. He pulled off his gloves and slowly lowered his hands down to cup the knot.

  Destruction is simple.

  The tendrils of light flexed and resolved themselves from the knot in his hands. He felt the spiral shrink away from him and the wall dissolved first into a frame work of blue lines and then into nothing.

  “Blessed spirits!” Shilandra cried. She dropped the reins and ran to his side. “How did you know?”

  A small rectangular door bored into the face of the rock opened before them. More glyphs with some relief carvings surrounded the darkness.

  "This is it," Shilandra breathed, her eyes wide and her breath shallow.

  Velar approached the doorway, pulling on gloves and gauntlets. He pressed his light forward into the small chamber beyond. Velar stepped through the opening. The floor appeared to be covered with sand and the ceiling domed. The walls stood rough and bare. A hole near the center of the floor lead down to where the Chalice would be.

  Hopefully.

  Or hopefully not.

  A chill rolled through Velar's body and twisted his gut into knots. What was he about to do? The implications towered above him boundless and infinite. Recovering the Chalice would no doubt give the Chancellor the power to rule all the lands. But did he have the right? Should some ancient artifact from a dead civilization hold so much sway?

  Colmar said return alive and he would be satisfied. He could do that. He could turn and leave now, tell the Chancellor and Jocaris that the Chalice wasn't there, and they would be forced to search somewhere else. The Chalice could stay lost. The current balance of power could continue or fall to more conventional means.

  But Gelai had Shilandra's notes.

  But Gelai wanted the Chalice neutralized as an influence.

  Or did she?

  And agents from Eshlex at least knew the general location. It would only be a matter of time. And now the wall was gone. The next to get at least this far would have a much better chance of success.

  Duty.

  Honor.

  His duty was to the Chancellor. He had sworn on his honor.

  Velar slowly approached the pit and pushed his light down through the opening.

  "Can you see anything?" Shilandra whispered.

  Shadows. Reflections.

  "Not much," Velar said. "I'll have to take the light down with me."

  Shilandra nodded.

  "There's a rope in my pack," Velar continued. "I'll need it to get back up."

  "I'll go get it."

  As soon as Shilandra returned, Velar looked to her, nodded, then stepped over the pit and fell into the sand piled to a peak beneath the opening.

  The blue orb bobbed and swirled and came to hover just above him as he slid to the stone floor and scanned his surroundings. The edges of the massive room lingered somewhere well beyond the radius of his light. Pillars of crystal as thick as large trees stretched from floor to ceiling and stood scattered haphazardly through the area he could see.

  Where to go?

  Velar looked over his shoulder. Ten paces away stood a wall. Velar frowned. Teacher would say something about questions answering themselves.

  Velar turned and started forward moving away from the wall.

  Where would it be?

  He paused beside one of the pillars and pressed his fingertips against its angular surface. Cold. Unnaturally so. And darkness within. Depth and dimension like the night sky arching across the southern plains. There was a pulling energy but little flow.

  A noise from the darkness diverted his attention. Velar turned and pushed the light out further.

  Rats?

  The sound came again, whispering like delicate chimes in a spring breeze.

  Velar drew his sword.

  "Velar?" Shilandra queried from above.

  "I'm fine."

  Movement and sound. Velar edged slowly around the nearest pillar with his sword extended forward. It appeared low to the ground and large. Snakelike with shimmering scales and a bulbous head. And it was blind. Black growth blossomed from deformed sockets.

  It can't see, Velar thought. Perhaps a bit of an advantage.

  The creature paused and raised its head. Velar saw its nostrils dilate as it slowly turned towards him.

  Then again.

  Lowering its head, the creature slithered gracefully between and around the crystal columns. Velar backed away several steps then bolted in a direction perpendicular to the serpent's path. Rolling around a column, Velar saw the creature with its head in the air again, sniffing, tasting.

  His options seemed pathetically few. He could try to outmaneuver the beast, perhaps find the Chalice and race for the exit. Or he could kill it.

  The creature glided towards him. Velar backed away from the column. The creature lunged forward as Velar twisted around the column his sword high above his head. Planting his feet, he brought the sword down on the snake-thing's back and felt the surge of panic as the blade snapped. Velar looked at the broken sword in his hand then at the thick crystalline scales of the creature.

  His sword.

  The beast circled the column and slammed into Velar's side knocking him to the ground. He tried to roll to his feet, but the creature loomed over him, maw wide, greenish saliva drooling from its lower jaw. Pushing to his hands and knees, Velar scrambled away, pausing to look back only when he could crawl behind a column.

  It hovered over the broken sword Velar had dropped when the creature hit him. It nosed the weapon, then opened its mouth only slightly and let saliva drip down over the sword. An acrid smell filled the chamber as the sword dissolved and the creature put its muzzle into the ooze to feed.

  Velar bolted away from the column. He had to find the Chalice and get out. Weaving between the columns he found another wall. The place appeared longer than wide. He hurried down the wall glancing at each crystal pillar. The creature ate metal. The Chalice must be protected somehow. Inside one of the pillars would be an obvious choice.

  He heard the thing behind him, its scales rattling against stone and sand.

  Where would the Chalice be?

  Towards the center.

  Velar left the wall and dashed at the interior of the chamber.

  Light ahead. White light. Overpowering his blue orb that bobbed and danced as it strained to keep up. This was it, this had to be it. Without looking back, Velar knew the creature loomed close.

  "Velar?" Shilandra's voice echoed in the distance.

  He saw it. Cones of intense light focused and revolved around a dark object that hovered shoulder-high above the ground. Velar ran for it ignoring a worried voice in his head that cautioned about set energy. Bounding forward he enveloped the object in his arms and fell forward rolling to the ground.

  . . . and found himself on a battlefield.
>
  Hot winds blew dark clouds across a low sky. A red mist swirled and laced its way through the mounds of dead and dying warriors. Moans, screams of agony, reaching hands, pleading eyes, the stench of spilt bowels and fermenting blood. Velar turned, reaching instinctively for his sword only to find the empty sheath.

  "You," a voice said.

  Velar spun to face the man. He stood tall with a dark, flowing beard and long hair. Blood streaked his battered armor and soaked the head of the mace he held almost passively in his hands.

  "You are the one," he said with a leering smile.

  "One what?" Velar demanded.

  "A young one," the warrior said.

  Velar felt a wave of warmth pass through his chest and head.

  "And a talented one at that," the warrior continued. "My luck holds."

  Velar saw a sword, apparently intact, laying near the hand of one of the dead. He lunged for it, but the warrior appeared before him, gripped Velar's lower jaw in a massive hand and pulled him to his feet.

  "No time for nonsense, boy," the warrior said. "Go for the beast's eyes. Hear me? The eyes . . . "

  . . . the serpent hovered over him, drooling onto his breastplate. The metal sizzled, liquified and Velar felt the skin beneath start to blister and peel. His back arched in pain and he bit down a scream as he cocked his knee and fumbled for the dagger in his boot. He tried to roll away, but the beast's snout pressed into his chest as it sucked at the ooze. His hand found the dagger. Wrapping one arm around the creature's head Velar stabbed blindly with the dagger. The pain clouded his mind and his vision, and he wanted to sleep. The pain would be gone. The Chalice would be gone, and he could sleep.

  Suddenly, the point of the dagger slid into something soft and liquid exploded on Velar's hand. The creature hissed and pulled away. Velar sat up and struggled to release the buckles that held on his breast plate as the beast coiled in its death throes.

  The breast plate fell away in the smoldering pieces. Velar pulled at his undershirt, tearing it off his body and screaming as several layers of skin came with it.

  "Velar?" Shilandra shouted in the distance.

  His pounding heart sent pulses of pain though the raw wound that covered his chest and abdomen. His breathing came harsh and shallow through a parched throat. A greyness, tinted red, clouded his vision.