“Okay then. Follow me.”
Eager and excited, Jaikus entered the secret passage.
Reneeke had Arno follow while he brought up the rear; chest tucked under one arm.
“Why don’t you leave that here?” their captive suggested.
He shook his head. “This isn’t getting out of my sight until it is returned to Master Tuppin.”
Arno eyed it appraisingly. “Valuable?”
“I suppose. Don’t really know for sure how valuable.”
The passage continued for fifty feet before opening onto a small room. Six rectangular stone slabs, three rows of two made up the floor. There was no other egress but where they stood. Jaikus paused at the entrance a moment then glanced back to Reneeke.
“Remember in Sythal? How we had to step on certain stones to continue?”
Reneeke nodded.
He gestured to the room’s floor. “I bet this is the same deal.”
“What do you mean?” Arno asked.
“Step on the stones in the correct order and the way opens,” Reneeke said. “Step on the wrong ones and something bad happens instead.”
“How do you know which ones to step on?”
“That’s the trick,” Reneeke said. He then pulled a small rope out of his pack. He handed one end to Jaikus with a grin. “Here you go, Springer.”
He gave Reneeke a dirty look. “Thanks.” Taking the rope, Jaikus secured it around his middle.
“Good luck.”
Ignoring Arno’s blessing of fortune, Jaikus studied the floor before them. Now he wished he would have paid a little closer attention to Seward when he went looking for traps. All the stones looked identical. He tried putting his foot on the left-hand slab. Once he had a little bit of weight on the slab, he wiggled his foot and the slab shifted. Trying the right-hand slab, he felt the same.
“Be ready, Rene.”
“I got you, Jaik.”
He felt a tug on the rope as Reneeke took up the slack. He set his foot on the left-hand slab and gently transferred more of his weight. Once he had all his weight on the slab he felt more than heard, a click. When nothing immediately happened, he lifted his other foot and set it on the slab next to the first.
“So far so good.”
Glancing over his shoulder, he nodded then returned his attention to the second set of stone slaps. Left one or the right? He stood on the left one of the first set, maybe he should try the right one of the second? Or would that make too much sense? Indecision warred within him until he finally stepped forward to the left-hand slab.
Again, he gently transferred his weight and when he had nearly transferred it all, the slab gave way. As he toppled forward, Reneeke pulled on the rope and he was jerked backward to fall upon his backside on the first stone slab. A moment later they heard the slab shatter when it hit the bottom.
“I’d try the right one next time,” Arno suggested.
Jaikus sighed and inwardly rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”
Returning to his feet, he went to the edge of the pit and looked down. The bottom was shrouded in shadow.
“I don’t think there would be anything down there, Jaik.”
“Might be.”
“The traps in Sythal reset whereas this one fell away. There won’t be a replacement slab being automatically added.”
Jaikus nodded at the logic and went to step on the right-hand slab. He transferred his weight with no problem and soon stood upon it.
“One more to go, Jaik.”
The first two went left-slab then right-slab. Did that mean the last should be the left? Or did it go left-right-right?
Jaikus tried the right one. Gradually transferring his weight, he heard a click and then a rumbling. A section of the wall directly in front of him began sliding down into the floor. As the top portion of the section dropped below eye level, the light from the torch entered the room beyond.
“I see a chest!” Then… “Two!”
Reneeke had Arno proceed him across the stone slabs until they stood with Jaikus. Once the wall had completely descended into the floor, Jaikus stepped into the newly formed opening
A room roughly fifteen feet by twelve lay on the other side. Two chests sat next to each other facing them. There were no doors or any other way to continue on from this room.
“We may have found their treasure room.”
“To think, this had been here all the time,” Arno said.
Jaikus glanced at him smugly. “Just took some brains to figure it out.” He made to remove the rope but Reneeke said, “Better keep it on. Just in case.”
“Okay.”
He entered the room and stood before the first chest.
It looked sturdy. The wood of its construction appeared to not have lost any of its strength over the years. Jaikus moved to the side and tried kicking it like Reneeke had back in Sythal. But the chest proved too sturdy and withstood his attempts to breach it. The other chest looked just as formidable.
“Try lifting the lid.”
Reneeke nudged Arno in the back with his sword. “Maybe you’d like to try that?”
“No, thank you.”
“Then be quiet.”
Jaikus contemplated the chests for several moments before saying, “We need more scrolls and magic items.”
“True, but as we don’t have them, we need to figure how to proceed with the items at hand,” Reneeke said. Then he grew thoughtful. “Jaik, watch Arno. I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get a few things.”
Nodding, Jaikus pulled his sword.
Reneeke set the chest down in the passageway just outside the room with the floor slabs and traps. Then he removed a torch from his pack, used the one Jaikus held to light it, then hurried back down the passage.
Several minutes later, he returned with two swords from the fallen bandits in hand.
“Here,” he said as he handed one to Jaikus. “We can try prying the lids off with these.”
“Why don’t we just pick the lock?”
“Do you have lock picks?”
Jaikus shook his head then produced his knife. “Have this, though.”
“Another thing to consider,” he said as he gestured to the open pit where a slab of stone had earlier been. “Might be trapped.”
“Uh, yeah. Good point.”
“Let’s each stand to a side and slightly behind,” Reneeke explained. “Then slide the blades beneath the lid and pry upward. Should come loose I’d imagine.”
They took position and slid the blades beneath the lid.
“Ready?”
Jaikus nodded.
Together, they pried the blades up and the lid swung open. Arno broke out laughing. “It wasn’t even locked.”
Then a cloud of green spray was expelled outward from the front of the chest.
Arno quickly back-stepped several feet to avoid it.
It arced through the air and landed on the floor before the door. Where the liquid hit, sizzling could be heard. In moments the floor became pock-marked.
“Acid,” Jaikus said.
Reneeke glanced to him and nodded. “Had we stood before the chest, we’d be dead.”
“Should be safe now.”
“I agree.”
They looked in and saw a velvet pouch sitting atop a pile of gold coins.
“Would you look at that,” Jaikus said in awe. He reached in and took the pouch. It held a single, heavy object. Jaikus opened the drawstring. Upending the pouch, an oval stone the size of a man’s palm spilled out. It was green with arcane inscriptions engraved on one side.
“What do you think this is?” He held it for Reneeke to see.
“Magical most likely,” Reneeke guessed. “Better put it back in its pouch until we learn what it is.”
Jaikus nodded and returned it to the pouch, pulled the drawstring and slipped it into his pack.
Reneeke claimed the gold coins of which there were seventeen.
Taking up the swords, they positioned themselves behind the second chest. Then as before they used the swords. This time, the lid did not come up so easily. It took some straining but they managed to break the lock. A click sounded and a needle emerged two inches from the keyhole.
“Poisoned?” Jaikus asked.
“Stands to reason.”
They flipped the lid open and found four uniform stacks of ten silver pieces. Jaikus made to take the silver but Reneeke laid a cautionary hand upon his shoulder.
“Wait a moment, Jaik.”
“Why?’
“Doesn’t it seem odd that in one chest the coins are in a loose pile, yet in the other they are stacked so neatly?”
Shaking his head, Jaikus said, “Not really.”
“Let me check this out.”
Jaikus shrugged and stepped back.
Reneeke knelt next to the chest and eyed the stacks, then the bottom and inner sides of the chest. Something did not feel right. Using one of the swords, he inserted the blade within the chest and pressed upon the bottom. When nothing happened, he knocked over one of the stacks. Again, nothing happened.
He knocked over a second stack, then when he put the tip of the sword beneath the edge of the bottom coin on the third stack, he met resistance. It didn’t move like the others.
“Got something.”
Jaikus moved closer. “What?”
“Haven’t a clue.” He saw how Jaikus stood directly over the chest to see what he was doing. “You might want to step back, just in case.”
Realizing that bad things can go vertical as well as horizontal, he stepped back several paces.
Once Jaikus was out of harm’s way, Reneeke moved the sword to the fourth stack and managed to tip it over with ease. Three stacks now laid spilled across the bottom of the chest while the fourth remained erect and uniform.
Inching away from the chest until he could go no further and still manipulate the remaining stack with the sword, he then set the tip against the bottommost coin. He tried pushing it to the side, but it wouldn’t budge. Inserting the tip between the coin and the bottom of the chest failed to yield any results either.
A quick inspection of the coins further up in the stack revealed that about midway, the coins would shift. He thought that altogether odd. Finding the lowest coin that would move, he set the tip of the sword beneath the one above it and using the edge of the chest as a fulcrum, lifted the coins.
They hadn’t risen more than the width of a coin before a white cloud of powder exploded outward.
“Poison!” Reneeke hollered and he scooted across the floor toward the door, rolled and got to his feet. Jaikus beat him from the room and they fled down the passageway.
The cloud expanded to completely fill the room and some drifted out to the slab/pitfall room. When it looked as if the cloud would not come any closer, they stopped.
Reneeke looked to Jaikus. “Do we really want those coins?” He could see the answer in his eyes.
“Of course,” Jaikus replied. “We just need to wait for that to settle before we return.”
“If it’s poison,” Arno said, “just touching it could prove fatal.”
They looked to the room. Everything was coated in a fine layer of white.
“But the key to the locked door could be in there,” Jaikus argued.
Reneeke turned a serious expression upon him. “Is it worth your life?”
“We’ll be careful, Rene. I promise.”
They waited nearly a half hour before they dared to return. By that time, the air had cleared but the powdery stuff coated everything.
Jaikus returned to the chest alone as they figured the less in the room would be the less that the powder would be disturbed or kicked into the air. He used a cloth to pick up the coins within the chest being ever so careful not to allow any of the white powder to contact his skin.
The lower half of the third stack, the one where removing the top section of coins had triggered the trap, was revealed to be fake. The coins were not coins, just a tube made to resemble a stack of silver coins. Removing the top half of the stack triggered the trap and the powder had been expelled from somewhere within the chest and out through the tube.
Once he had collected the coins, he couldn’t help but think that there had to be more to this than just a few coins and that rune stone. He used the cloth and reached in to grab the fake stack.
“Ah, Jaik. What are you doing?”
He glanced to Rene. “Just checking something out.”
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
Waving away his concern, Jaikus grabbed hold of the fake coins and pulled. When nothing happened, he tugged harder and the bottom of the chest came free. Below was a small compartment area, half of which held a bladder that had contained the powder. The other half lay empty.
“Nothing,” he announced, then set the bottom back within the chest.
He went to the other chest to see if it, too, had a false bottom. But try as he might, the bottom was firmly attached and wouldn’t budge. After coming to his feet, Jaikus left the room. “No key.”
Reneeke shook his head. “Maybe not, but we did get some decent coins. And that rune stone has to be worth something.”
“Can I suggest something?”
They turned to Arno.
“Seeing as how the busts in the other room had to be rotated to open a secret door, could it be possible that the chests may need to be rotated as well?” He glanced to Jaikus. “After all, there was no key and if you believe the key to be here, then it stands to reason that there must be another hidden room.”
“Rotate the chests?” Jaikus questioned, then turned to look thoughtfully at them. “Why not?” Turning back to Reneeke, he said, “Want to give me a hand?”
“We really should get this chest back to Master Tuppin.”
“Come on, Rene. When are we going to get a chance like this again?”
Sighing, and thinking about tossing Arno down the open pit, he nodded. “Okay. We’ll give it a go. But if nothing comes of it, we leave.”
“Deal.”
Jaikus took the chest on the right, Reneeke on the left. Using cloths so as not to touch the powder, they gripped the sides. Jaikus gave Reneeke a nod and they turned them clockwise and a grinding noise sounded as one of the walls began to sink into the floor.
“See!” Jaikus cried. “What did I tell you?”
Jubilant, he brought his torch close as the wall continued its descent into the floor. Once it was over halfway opened, the passageway on the other side came into view.
“Sometimes a person will leave some less valuable items out where a thief can readily find them,” Arno explained. “Put a minor trap on them and the thief will take them thinking he’s taken all there is while the real hoard lies elsewhere.”
The passageway extended away from the room into darkness.
“Come on, Rene. Let’s see where this goes.”
With that, Jaikus passed through the opening.
Reneeke had Arno follow and then he brought up the rear with the chest tucked beneath one arm. They left behind the room with two chests.
Chapter 15
Undisturbed dust once again indicated that this area had long been deserted. For the first twenty feet or so, the walls were stone same as the building. But then they progressed to where the walls were not quite finished. The one running adjacent to the main complex was of stone, but the other side was only partially completed.
In places the stones for the wall had only been set halfway up. The rest of the way to the ceiling was naught but dirt and rock with supporting beams. Stones sat loose on the floor as if waiting for workers to return so they could be placed. From that point on, old wooden beams were set in place to prevent the ceiling from collapsing before the masons could finish it.
“Odd, don’t you think?”
Jaikus turned to Reneeke and nodded. “Wonder why they didn’t finish it?”
“Who knows?”
>
Turning back to the passage ahead, Jaikus continued on.
Finally, the torchlight revealed an end to the passage. An opening appeared ahead, one as roughhewn as the walls surrounding it. Twin timbers set to support a crossbeam framed what had been intended to be a doorway. Jaikus approached cautiously.
The room beyond had barely been dug from the earth; twenty by ten, it wasn’t very large. Seeing as how sides were of uneven uniformity, it was possible the room had yet to be dug to its intended dimensions.
A form laid sprawled on the floor at the far end. It was robed and had two arrows protruding from its back.
“I guess we know why this was never finished,” Reneeke said.
Miscellaneous excavating and stone working tools laid scattered about the room. Other than those, the room was empty.
Jaikus went and searched the figure. It was mummified and its robe disintegrated upon contact. Lying as it was on its chest, it was difficult to determine what it was. It looked human. After patting down the figure from head to toe and not finding anything, Jaikus flipped him over. His eyes danced when a flash of silver emerged from beneath the robe. Attached to a leather thong was a key.
He took the key, turned to Reneeke and with a big grin, held it up. “I knew it!” A search of the rest of the mummified priest turned up nothing.
“The question I have, Jaik,” Reneeke began, “is why didn’t his killer take the key?”
Shrugging, Jaikus got to his feet. “Maybe they didn’t realize he had it.”
“Maybe.”
Leading the others, Jaikus returned along the secret passages, passed through the altar room and headed toward the locked door. Visions of wonders beyond imaging ran through his head. Anything could be behind that door.
Reneeke followed with Arno between them, the chest again tucked beneath one arm.
At the door, Jaikus put the torch down and held out the key. Excitement made his hand shake as he brought it to the keyhole.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if the key didn’t even fit?”
Jaikus shot Arno a look of annoyance then returned to the task at hand. He slid the key into the lock; it slid in smoothly. Once it had been inserted to its full measure, he turned the key. A clanking sound followed and the door popped open less than a finger width.
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