“Well, you must decide then soon,” Dorsun said. “I will fight for you as I pledged to do to the druid.”
“Why?” Horace asked, turning to look at the Kesh fighter.
“Because they are moving again and they are headed this way,” Dorsun said pointing behind him.
“Damn,” Horace said.
“Push harder,” Salina implored the men as they struggled against the base of the statue trying to get it to move.
Will strained, but managed to speak despite his exertions, “Are you sure, Cedric?”
Cedric was also pushing but not as hard and answered, “The marks on the stone are clear to me even with all the dirt piled around it.”
“Can you try your magic again?” Salina said
Khan was frail but pushed with both hands and kept his feet set while his staff leaned against the back wall. “It is no use, it will not open.”
The men finally stopped, and Will asked, “How can we move it by hand if the wizard can’t get it open with his magic?”
Since the question was rhetorical, no one answered and instead the men plopped down on the stone floor and rested after their third attempt to move the statue and its base thinking the body of Andrew Vandersot, and the Shield of Ulatha, would be there just waiting for them.
The fire was dying down outside the small, stone structure and Cedric asked Khan, “Can you cast more of those fire balls?”
“I can, but you saw how they attacked the gate,” Khan said. The group nodded, all remembering how the Kesh wizard had pumped fire into the wolves, wave after wave. Luckily for them, it had been a hot and long summer and the dead brush ignited creating a raging inferno. The smoke almost overcame them, but a bit of magic that the Kesh wizard learned from Elister brought a strong gust of wind that he used to blow the smoke and flaming embers out and away from them causing yet more fires. The wolves had retreated a good distance and waited nearby for the conflagration to die down.
“When that fire goes out, they’ll be at the gates again,” Will noted.
“And, I don’t think they will hold,” Salina spoke the obvious. “Can you check again, son?”
Seeing how distraught everyone was, Cedric nodded then said, “Yes ma’am.”
He went to work at the base cleaning dirt off it and using a rag to dampen and then clean the corners searching for more marks or clews to how the supposed crypt opened. Khan spoke softly to Salina, “Polite child.”
“Thank you,” She responded.
“You know we could really use that dragon of yours,” Will said looking directly at Targon.
Targon sighed having heard this line of reasoning in the past. In fact, he was often times arguing and using the same logic against the old druid in attempting to gain the use of Tyra, the green dragon, more often. Unfortunately, Elister was most protective of her and would not allow her to leave the forest. He said it wasn’t safe for her or anyone else encountering her, whatever that meant. “Will, we’ve been over this before—”
Will cut him off, “I know, I’m just thinking wishfully.”
“Me too,” Cedric said from behind the statue, barely audible.
“You don’t look so well,” Will said looking past Targon at the Kesh wizard.
“Who me?” Khan answered.
“Yeah, you. Do you feel alright?” Will asked.
Khan nodded, “Yes, but we will most likely die here tonight.”
“Khan!” Salina said, motioning over her shoulder at where Cedric should be, though he was out of sight he was not out of hearing.
“I heard him, Mom. We’re dead tonight. Got it.”
“That’s not true,” Salina protested. “Now Khan, you take that back and tell my son, no, tell all of us that we’ll make it through the night.”
Khan shook his head, “Do not ask me to lie.”
“Khan!” Salina protested again.
“Ask Targon,” Khan said simply, too tired to argue or even secure his staff and it was rare to see the Kesh wizard without it.
“Well?” Salina asked.
“What?” Targon responded.
“Khan said to ask you,” Salina said. “What do you know that we don’t?”
Targon shrugged, “If you’re asking me about the topic of surviving the night, then I think Khan is referring to the fact that together, he and I could kill perhaps a few dozen wolves in short order. We aren’t dealing with that anymore. There are hundreds of them, and their number keeps growing and I have no idea why.”
“I think we do know why,” Khan said.
“What do you mean?” Targon asked.
“You are one of those Zashitors, as the druid calls you. A Ranger in the common tongue, are you not?”
Targon shook his head, “Listen, I have no idea what a Ranger is or a Zashitor and I’m most certainly not one of those.”
“The druid calls you by those names often,” Khan said truthfully.
Salina agreed with the Kesh wizard, “You are a Ranger, Targon. You are a good one too.”
“You don’t even know what that means,” Targon said. “I am a simple woodsman living in Ulatha and minding my own business until the nine hells fell down upon us.”
“You sound like Cedric now,” Will noted seriously.
“I’ve been reading to him,” Cedric said from behind the statue continuing his work.
“We’ve been reading together,” Targon explained.
“That explains much,” Khan said. “Your vocabulary has improved. Cedric, do you think you can read to Dorsun when we return.”
“I thought you’d say if we return,” Cedric answered.
Salina scoffed then stood over Khan with her hands on her hips, “Do you see what you’ve done to my son now? It’s insufferable I tell you.”
Khan shrugged and then stood and walked to the rear of their makeshift prison to secure his staff. Returning to the front he stood in front of the flimsy gates and said, “I will do my best.”
Will laughed out loud and it was odd listening to it compete with the roaring flames that were still consuming the flammable debris outside. Once finished he said, “You made a mistake for once, Kesh, and you actually showed a glimmer of hope in your words.”
“How so?” Khan asked.
“You said we’d die tonight, then you asked Cedric to read to that Dorsun fellow when we return. So which is it, we die, or we live?” Will asked.
Khan summoned his magic and stuck his staff through the gates sending the largest ball of fire they had ever seen, much further than they had ever witnessed, and watched it hit a congregating group of grey wolves. At least a dozen of the ferocious predators was set on fire and the others scattered, howling in both pain and anger at the unexpected attack. Turning to his companions he said, “We will live.”
“Okay,” Targon said, standing and grabbing his bow and reaching for an arrow from his quiver. “We have work to do.”
“Wait a second,” Cedric said. “Try pushing now.”
Will sighed and said, “I don’t think I can even stand right now.”
Targon, however, laid his bow on the nearby bench and simply pushed against the pedestal and the entire base moved backwards while Cedric cried out in surprise and scurried away from the moving statue. “What did you do?” Targon asked.
Cedric wiped his hands with the damp rag and said, “I found a hidden latch, but used my hand on it when I think it was designed for a foot.”
“Almost got trapped there didn’t ya?” Will asked.
“Yes,” Cedric said, “There’s not much room between the back wall and this statue once its been opened. Do you see the shield?”
Targon answered quickly as Cedric was still out of visual range of the opening. “No, I see a dark set of stairs that look treacherous. We’ll need light to navigate.”
“Khan?” Salina implored.
Using his staff and murmuring the arcane word for light, the gemstone atop his staff glowed brightly and the magic-user lowered it to shine upon t
he interior steps that were now exposed by their efforts. “They do look dangerous.”
“Let me see,” Salina said and even Will made the herculean effort to stand and walk over to the peer inside. Seeing the narrow steps, but not the floor below she asked, “Can you shed more light, Khan?”
Khan responded, “I can do you one better,” and the wizard took a dagger that was stuffed in his belt and touched it to his gemstone saying, “Peredavai sveti!” The dagger suddenly illuminated having taken on the magical aurora of the gemstone. Tossing it to the side of the stairs it fell a good twenty feet before landing on a stone surface where it clanged and came to rest.
“That was stupid,” Salina said, unusually blunt for her normally tactful demeanor.
“How so?” Khan asked.
“What if there was a pit, or some fissure that didn’t end so close to us? You would have lost your dagger.”
Khan nodded, “I did hear an echo when Targon spoke and I assumed the floor was out of range of our visual acuity, but you are correct. I would have lost my dagger had the floor not been there.”
Cedric stepped in and laid a hand on his mother’s shoulder, “Mother, I understand you’re worried about father, but we’re doing the best we can. Let the Kesh use his talents as we use ours.”
The men stood in silence while the fire burned outside, and the wolves continued to howl. The noise wasn’t overcoming, but they knew they needed to do something soon. After a moment Salina nodded but looked at the floor and said, “I owe you an apology, Khan. I was rude and I shouldn’t have been. I’m still upset about my husband, Bran, being tricked into this devil’s oath. Do go on.”
“Alrighty,” Will said, sounding again like Horace. “What say you if you go first?”
Targon turned to see that Will was addressing him. Without a word he picked his bow up and slung it on his back and stealthily navigated the narrow stairs. After a few seconds he yelled up. “Come down single file and be careful to stay in the exact center.”
The group had a natural order in which they did things and it didn’t always require them to communicate it vocally. Salina went next followed by Cedric right behind her. Will only looked at the Kesh wizard and then descended and Khan came last ensuring that there were no wolves that needed zapping by his hand. Once down he held his staff up and Targon had retrieved his dagger for him and held it out. Khan said, “Keep it for now, we may need its light.”
Targon nodded but handed it to Cedric who took it willingly. In no time Cedric had found the lever with the counterweight but he couldn’t get it to move. “Can you and Will try?” He asked Targon.
Targon looked at it and nodded and both he and Will tried to push the lever down to no avail. Khan came closer, looked at it and said, “One of you need to lift up on the counterweight first before the lever will move. It is latched securely.”
Targon eyed the man and asked, “How do you know this?”
“We have similar counterweights in many of our structures in Kesh,” Khan explained. “This one is of similar design, but it has not been maintained properly and the bottom of the counterweight dropped prematurely causing the latch to stick.”
“So lift up here?” Targon motioned at the hollow space where stones and what looked to be sand bags at the bottom hung from an iron chain.
“Yes,” Khan said.
Lifting, Targon said, “Try now, Will.”
Will pushed and the lever snapped as it slipped some gear or socket that no longer was tensioned since Targon had released the pressure. With a large grinding sound the pedestal slid back into place plunging them into relative darkness and quiet as the sounds of flame and the howls of wolves were distinguished.
“Tell me now why we just did that?” Will asked, stepping into the light of Khan’s staff which glowed brighter than the dagger that Cedric held.
“We needed to escape the wolves, otherwise we will die.” Khan said.
Will tilted his head slightly and lowered his voice, “I thought you burned a bunch of them and said we’d live.”
“I did and down here we live.” Khan answered, a look of confusion on his face.
Salina interrupted, “Let’s find this shield first and then we can plan how to get out of here.”
The group looked around and found themselves in a room that was rather much larger than the stone structure above. There were no benches however and no other sign of any tomb, grave, or coffin. After sweeping the walls, they met back in the middle where Cedric said, “I don’t get it. Why have these stairs if it leads to a large, empty chamber?”
“Who said it was empty a thousand years ago?” Khan asked.
The group nodded in agreement and Targon pointed at Khan and almost whispered, “Good one.”
Khan was about to ask what he meant by that since his face showed confusion, but Cedric said, “Look over here.”
The group walked over to the wall opposite the end of the stairs and Cedric began to inspect the floor with his hands by kneeling on all fours. Salina objected to this, “Cedric, you’ll get yourself all dirty down there and we’ve no way to clean you up. Get off the floor and stop touching it.”
Cedric ignored her by continuing to search and touching the dirty floor, but he did say, “You sound like Agatha, Mom.”
“That’s gotta hurt,” Will said.
Targon shook his head and added, “I’m not sure I’ll ever understand you city folk.”
“And I am not sure I will understand Ulathans in general,” Khan finished.
Salina placed her hands on her hips and looked at the three men with eyes that could kill. They quickly lowered their heads and directed their gazes to the floor. By doing this Targon noticed something, “Hey, I think Cedric is on to something?”
“You see it, Targon?” Cedric asked.
“Easily, now that I’m looking at it.” Targon swept his gaze back and forth. “Khan, lower your staff again, more light on the floor.”
Khan complied and asked, “What is it?”
Will added, “Yeah, can you explain to us simpletons in laymen’s terms?”
Khan gave Will an odd look, but Targon didn’t notice and Cedric stood suddenly and stepped back, holding the dagger down low as well and saying, “The floor is worn smooth right up to the wall here but not elsewhere.”
“What does that mean?” Salina asked, squatting but keeping her hands and knees off the floor.
Targon explained, “Many people walked down the stairs and then kept going straight through that wall.”
“Impossible,” Will said.
“Of course that is not possible,” Khan said, “so the wall must not have been there when they were walking.”
“Right again,” Cedric said, turning to inspect the wall which looked too solid. “I don’t see anything to show me how this wall moved.”
“Who said it moved?” Will asked, beating Khan to the question.
Khan, not to be deterred, added, “The wall could have been constructed last and after the processions came and went. Well after, in fact.”
Cedric turned to look at the Kesh magic-user and asked, “Is there anyway for you to be more optimistic?”
Khan shrugged, “I thought I was very optimistic when I declared that we would live… for now.”
“You did indeed say that,” Will chimed in. “Though you left off the part about for how long we’d live.”
“Long enough,” Khan said, looking back to the wall and raising his staff. “Stand back, young Cedric.”
Cedric complied and Khan began to murmur and mutter his strange and arcane words while his staff made various motions directed by his hand and the light atop the gemstone pulsed and waned in response to his commands. “Otkroi!” he finally commanded in a loud voice.
The wall began to push back and then it moved to the side and Cedric cried out in triumph as he pointed to the scuff marks on the floor that the moveable wall hid once it was in place. “I knew it.”
“What’s that light?”
Salina asked, peering down what looked to be an endless tunnel.
An ebony hued ball of light began to coalesce and as it did so, it started to move towards them, slowly at first and then gaining speed equal to a man who was running at a sprint. The shape formed into what looked like an apparition, a ghastly ghost of some kind. “Are you doing that?” Will asked Khan, tapping the man on his shoulder for good measure.
“No,” Khan said.
“It looks angry,” Will said, “Quick, shut the door.
Khan nodded in agreement and the companions stepped back while the wizard commanded, “Zakroi!”
The door moved slowly back into place and they weren’t sure if it would close in time. At the last minute, it shut with a thud and the group breathed a sigh of relief. A sigh that lasted a half-second until the ghost moved into the room by traveling straight through the wall.
“Maybe we do die tonight,” Will said.
Chapter 12
Phantasm
The electrical discharge went straight through the ghost and hit the far wall nearly taking Targon’s head off with it. The ghastly poltergeist was in the center of the room as it finished coalescing into its native form. The apparition took on the shape of an elderly lady, but her skin was dried, and her facial features were sunken in showing her jaw, cheek, and skull bones. The entire figure floated a good foot off the ground, and it glowed a sickly cross of green and dark ebony.
It turned to looked at its attacker and seeing Khan it pointed a bony finger at him saying in an eerily voice, “You, wicked Kesh.”
Khan started to summon fire and Salina yelled at him, “Khan, no, we’ll all burn in this place if you hurl fire at her.”
“You did this to me,” the apparition said, its floating now starting to glide towards Khan. “You will die for this.”
“I had no idea we were this unpopular, even a thousand years ago,” Khan said, helplessly.
The creature lunged at him and he backpedaled until he hit the east wall. With no where to move, the ghost took its hands and wrapped them around his neck. The effect was immediate as Khan started to shake as his life force was literally pulled from him. “Stop it,” Salina yelled.
Cursed Cleric Page 14