“Let’s finish this level first before heading for the next.”
“Yes, sir.” Continuing down the hallway, Reneeke came to where it ended at another hallway moving perpendicular to theirs. Down to the right, this new hallway ended with a pair of doors, one to either side. To the left, the hallway extended for a good thirty feet before the first doorway appeared. Relaying the information to the others, he waited until Charka instructed him to investigate down to the right first.
The doorways where the hallway came to an end sat directly across from each other, and like the others, didn’t have doors. Reneeke thought that odd until the notion occurred to him that had the doors been constructed of wood, they would have succumbed to rot long ago. Given the age of Sythal, such was a very good possibility.
Coming to the doorways, he shined the light through the one on the right first. The room beyond was small and devoid of anything of interest. Turning to the other, a brief scan revealed it was just as barren.
“There’s not much in here,” he commented to Charka upon returning to the hallway junction whereat the others waited.
“Sometimes it’s like that,” the Troupe leader replied. “There have been trips in the past where we’ve come away with only Hymal’s gold for accompanying him here.”
“At least we have the three disks,” piped up Jaikus.
Charka nodded. “Yes, indeed.”
Moving down to the left this time, Reneeke made his way toward the doorway thirty feet away. When he had gone ten feet past the junction of passageways, the lantern’s light revealed something past the doorway that protruded from the side of the wall. Directing the beam toward it, he discovered the protrusion to be a face.
Constructed of stone, the face stuck out several inches from the wall with a diameter of a foot and a half. It was human, sort of. There was an odd slant to the eyes, and the ears seemed a bit bigger than they should be, as was the nose. Its mouth was open and appeared to be a hollow cavity.
Giving the room only a cursory examination before continuing to the mask, Reneeke shone the light within the mouth. “There’s an opening here,” he explained to the others. “It looks like it extends for over a foot before coming to an end.”
“We’ve come across these before as well,” said Charka. “I would be extra careful from this point on.”
Glancing back to his leader, Reneeke asked, “Why?”
“They are quite often found in the proximity of a trap,” explained Lady Kate.
Charka nodded. “More times than not we’ve discovered.”
Backing away from the face, Reneeke stared uncertainly at it. “What should I do?”
“Avoid the mouth for starters. Keep as far from it as possible as you make your way past. If nothing happens before you reach the other side, it’s safe.”
“And if it does?”
“That’s part of being a Springer,” piped up Seward.
“Good luck, Rene,” Jaik said to his friend.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Reneeke sidestepped to the wall opposite the face. There he pressed his back against its hard, cold surface and began to shuffle his feet as he started working his way past.
Eyes glued to the mouth opening, heart racing, expecting at any moment some dreadful, painful fate to befall him, the young Springer worked his way down the hallway until he was directly opposite the face. For a brief moment he stood frozen, transfixed by the imminent doom weighing down upon him. But then his feet started working again and carried him past.
“I made it!” he hollered back to the others.
“Yes,” replied Seward, “we see that.”
“Great job, Rene,” Jaikus praised from his position at the rear.
“Great job?” Seward asked as he turned to him. “He didn’t do anything other than walk down a hallway.”
Jaikus met the man’s eyes and would have liked nothing better than to close them for him.
“You really are annoying sometimes,” commented Lady Kate.
Seward broke off the gaze with Jaikus to give her a crooked smile. “It is but part of my charm.”
“Charm of a snake,” Jaikus murmured under his breath.
“What was that?” asked Seward.
Once again being the focal point of the man’s attention, Jaikus murmured, “Nothing.”
“Can we continue now?” asked Charka.
“Certainly,” replied Seward.
Charka eyed his man disapprovingly a second before signaling Reneeke to continue.
Following along beside Lady Kate, Jaikus asked her, “Why does Charka put up with him?”
“His father was a cartographer,” she explained. “And aside from being able to read a map with ease, Seward has an unusual ability where the area of a building is concerned. Practically every secret room we have uncovered has been due to his ability to tell when there is less space being used than there should be. After we make sure a level is safe, he goes back through it and determines if there is a hidden area or not.”
“How?” asked Jaikus.
She only shrugged. “He’s never been able to satisfactorily explain it to me. Claims he just ‘knows’, that his years as a youth working at his father’s elbow instilled it in him.”
“So what happens when he thinks there is a hidden area?”
“We search for the opening mechanism.”
Further discussion was curtailed when a shout from Reneeke announced he had found something.
He stood at the end of the hallway. Before him loomed an opening wider than the doorways previously encountered. “It looks like some kind of hall.”
The others came up behind him and saw by the lantern’s light that the “hall” was quite large, large enough in fact so that the home Jaikus had grown up in could comfortably fit within, with room to spare. Two staircases located against the walls to the left and right rose toward a balcony that completely encircled the upper reaches.
“A ballroom perhaps?” suggested Reneeke.
“Perhaps,” said Charka.
There were five other doorways spaced around the room, each granting access to parts unknown. Vacant recesses dotted the walls in fifteen foot intervals where statuary or other items could have been placed for display. A pair of torch sconces haloed each of the recesses.
After a brief visual examination, Charka announced that the room would most likely be safe. “Snares in such a place would run the risk of catching the unwary as well as the unwanted.” Even though he felt it was safe to enter, he still had Reneeke lead the way.
Seward removed two torches from his pack. Then using flint and steel, he lit the brands and placed them in torch sconces near where they emerged from the hallway. The light did much to dispel the darkness filling the room.
Jaikus came to his friend. “How is it going?”
Reneeke gave him a nervous smile and shrugged. “I still live. So, not too bad I guess.”
“Let’s check out those other rooms.” Charka directed Reneeke toward the closest.
“I’ll come with you,” offered Jaikus.
“We’ll all go,” asserted Seward. “If we start getting separated in a place like this, someone is apt to come up missing.”
“True,” agreed Charka. “We stick together.”
“Understood,” replied Jaikus.
The first doorway led down a short hallway and ended at another small, empty room. They checked two more and found similar areas, each holding nothing of interest. The fourth doorway entered onto a room a third the size of the hall. Its walls were as dark as night and seemed to absorb the light coming from the lantern. In the center of the room was a dais rising two feet from the floor. A pair of steps led to the top. Reneeke directed the lantern toward the top of the dais and saw a square, stone block. The block was not black like the walls of the room. Instead, it looked to be constructed of the same material as was the building. The dais, and the stone block resting upon it, were the only items of interest within the room.
“Better check it out,” Charka told his Springer.
As Reneeke moved toward the dais, Jaikus asked Lady Kate, “Ever come across anything like this before?”
She shook her head. “No. This is something new.”
Upon approaching the dais’ steps, Reneeke paused to pass the light across the surface of the dais, and of the stone block. Both appeared rather nondescript. Hesitantly, he moved his foot to the first step. Quickly putting his weight upon the step, he jerked his foot back, fully expecting something bad to happen. When nothing did, he tried the second one. When still nothing happened, he took the steps up to the dais top and came to a stop.
A feeling came over him, something that was completely alien to him. Unsure what it could be, he was, however, fairly certain that the feeling emanated from the stone block. “I feel something.”
“What?” asked Lady Kate. Things magical and weird were her bailiwick.
Reneeke glanced over his shoulder toward her. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
She came forward until she stood at the dais’ edge. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Neither did I, until I stood up here.” He pointed to the stone block. “It’s coming from that.”
“Is it a good feeling, or bad?”
“Do you mean, like, does it make me afraid?”
She nodded.
He thought for a moment. “I…it, uh…” Then he shook his head. “I wouldn’t call it either, actually. Merely a strange sensation.”
“Don’t move any closer to it,” Charka told him. To Lady Kate he asked, “What do you think?”
Not taking her eyes from the stone block, she said, “We should leave it alone. If he feels something, then it is either magical in nature, or spiritual. In either case, it would be best not to tempt fate.”
“Spiritual?” queried Jaikus. “Like a ghost?”
“Perhaps. A cleric might be able to make a more accurate assessment if such were the case. But, seeing as we don’t have one…”
“Can’t magic users cast spells to learn about items?”
“If I felt the situation warranted it, I could,” she replied.
Suddenly, everyone in the room felt a momentary pulse radiate from the dais. Jaikus was just beginning to think that the odd sensation of the pulse must be similar to what Reneeke was feeling when darkness surged outward from the dais’s surface. His friend quickly vanished from sight as the darkness rose to engulf him, forming a shimmering dome that completely enshrouded the area above the dais.
“Reneeke!” he shouted.
“Pull!” yelled Charka as he and Seward yanked on the rope attached to the young Springer. The line snapped taut and budged no further. Jaikus and Lady Kate were quick to take up the rope and lend their aid. Yet despite their added strength, they were unable to bring Reneeke from the darkness.
Jaikus feared for his friend. “We have to get him out of there!”
Then in an instant, all tension on the rope vanished. Snapping back like a coiled serpent, the rope came free as the darkness which had risen to swallow Reneeke, returned back into the dais.
“Where is he?”
When the darkness vanished, Reneeke was gone.
Chapter Eight
Making a dash for the dais, Jaikus was abruptly brought to a halt when Charka grabbed him about the chest.
“Let me go!”
“He’s gone, son.”
Jaikus struck him across the chin in an effort to loosen Charka’s grip. “I have to get to him.” Squirming, he had almost wriggled from the Troupe leader’s grasp when he heard Charka say, “Ready?” To which Lady Kate responded, “Yes.”
Then he was free, but only for a moment. He took all of one step toward the dais before Lady Kate’s Webs of Binding encased his lower half in their sticky, immobilizing mass.
“No!” As he toppled over, he broke his fall with his hands, then used them in an attempt to crawl forward, but the webbing adhered him tightly to the floor.
“Son, listen to me.”
Twisting, he turned to look back with tear-laden eyes.
“He’s gone.”
“No. He can’t be!”
“Yes, he is.”
“We can get him back!”
“You don’t know that he went anywhere,” reasoned Charka.
“That’s right,” added Seward. “For all we know, that blackness could have simply dissolved him into nothing.”
Charka eyed his man with unvoiced retribution. “You let me handle this.”
Seward merely shrugged.
Returning his attention back to the lad on the floor before him, Charka said, “Kate will see if she can determine what that thing is, and maybe even a way to get your friend back. If that is even possible.”
Casting a hopeful gaze toward the magic user, he asked, “Will you?”
“I shall do my best,” she affirmed.
“But first, you are going to have to calm down,” the Troupe leader insisted. “I am not going to lose both of you. Not if I can help it.” He paused a moment to let that sink in. “No one goes near that thing until she says it is safe to do so. Understand?”
Wracked with worry and fear, it was hard for him to see the logic in doing nothing. But he quickly understood that Lady Kate may be the best shot they had of finding out what had happened to his friend.
Miserable, yet resigned to waiting, he nodded. “Yes.”
Charka nodded to Lady Kate who then dispelled the webbing binding Jaikus’ legs. He watched him rise, ensuring his remaining Springer wouldn’t do anything foolish, then signaled Lady Kate to begin.
Jaikus remained sitting on the floor. With knees brought up to form a rest for his chin, he wrapped his arms around them tightly for comfort. He watched Lady Kate as she cast her first spell. At any other time, he would have been greatly intrigued by the workings of magic. But now, all he could think of was that Reneeke was lost, or maybe even gone forever. Either way, it was his fault. He had been the one to drag Reneeke into being an adventurer. And if his friend never returned… Jaikus couldn’t bear to contemplate such a thought. Lady Kate would be successful, and they would be reunited!
“Jaik?”
The sudden immersion in darkness had completely unnerved him.
“Charka?”
Not even the barest hint of light could be made out.
“Lady Kate? Seward?”
Reaching outward with his hands, he sought the comforting feel of another human being. But all he encountered was the cold, hard surface of the stone block that rested upon the dais. Had he gone deaf as well as blind? If so, the others should have taken charge of him by now. Yet they hadn’t.
Checking his waist, he found the rope to still be there, with a little over a yard hanging from where it knotted about his middle. Feeling the rope’s end, he discovered that it had been severed cleanly. He couldn’t feel so much as a single, frayed strand.
“Jaik!”
Shouting at the top of his lungs, he was rewarded with an echoing of his cry. “At least I’m not deaf.” By the sound of the echo, he was in a large, enclosed area. Back home near Running Brook, there had been a series of caves high in the hills that he and Jaikus often explored. Their voices had echoed there in a similar manner.
Concentrating less on sight and sound, he focused more on his sense of smell. Detecting the odor of earth and mustiness reminiscent of the caves back home, he nodded. Somehow, he had been relocated. It was the only explanation. Unless he had gone mad, a supposition to which he gave little credence.
In his pack was the bundle of torches acquired at Bella’s, as well as his flint. Kneeling down on one knee, he took off his pack and rummaged within until feeling the hard surface of the flint. Praying to see sparks, he took out the flint and scraped it across the side of the square stone.
A line of sparks appeared in the darkness. Seeing them greatly eased his sense of unsettledness, for it meant he wasn’t blind. Reneeke then removed
one of the torches from his pack and worked to set fire to its business end. Several strikes of flint later, the combustible material ignited.
As the torch grew to full brilliance, Reneeke stood and looked around at his new surroundings. Though he still stood upon the dais, he was no longer in the hall, that much was certain. Rather, this new locale was located, as he had earlier suspected, within a large, underground cavern.
Gazing about his new environs, he saw another of those stony faces carved into the cavern’s wall not far from the dais. Ones that Charka said often indicated the presence of a trap. Fortunately, the cavern grew wider as it extended outward from where he stood, and the face’s vicinity could readily be avoided should further exploration be required.
The cavern itself wasn’t remarkable in any way, at least not the corner of it illuminated by his torch. Rock growths dotted the floor as well as cascading down from the ceiling. The floor was uneven as a cavern’s should be, though there was a narrow area moving away from the dais that looked slightly worn down, quite possibly due to the passage of many feet.
How did he get there?
The answer to that in some way dealt with the dais. Being the only similarity between where he had been, and where he was now, it had to mean something. Reneeke put the fear he felt aside as he considered the problem.
He had been there with the others one moment, then here in the dark the next. Magic? Had to be. Bards often spoke of devices used to travel far distances in a blink of an eye. They were rumored to be rare and powerful, and not to be trifled with. It was also said that such devices were jealously guarded by those who created them. That thought brought him no peace of mind. Alone as he was in an unfamiliar place, the last thing he wanted to think about was having to fend off an attack of some kind.
“I have to do something,” he murmured to himself. Recalling the earlier shouts for Jaikus, he worried that perhaps he had inadvertently alerted someone, or some thing to his presence. He scanned the darkness surrounding his small radius of light. Should he remain where he was in the hopes that the others could find him? Or would he have to make his own way back? As he struggled to determine which course of action would best suit the situation, he again started to feel that odd sensation he had felt when first he climbed onto the dais before arriving in the cavern. Nervousness filled him as he didn’t know what it could mean.
Jaikus and Reneeke Join the Guild Page 10