by Eric Vall
As we climbed out of the wagons, Lord Vallen, Nike, and Aaliyah rushed outside, and Vallen embraced Naomi for a moment before he stepped back.
“Is everyone alright?” the lizard leader asked as he looked over the group.
“We’re fine, brother,” Naomi replied with a hint of annoyance.
“Yes, all is well, my lord,” Alyona agreed and smiled. “It was indeed the Bileu Forest we needed to find.”
“We should go inside to continue our discussion,” Laika suggested as she glanced over her shoulder.
I looked past her to see several of the Kana citizens had made their way closer to the castle. They didn’t seem angry that we’d ignored them, but many looked curious about our venture outside the walls.
“Laika’s right.” I nodded. “We don’t need a crowd while we talk about this. Let’s go inside.”
Vallen gestured toward the open door, and we all walked inside. Then he scurried in behind us and shut the door before we sat down in the great hall. It felt like all his paintings and sculptures watched us as we settled into the chairs, and Abel strode into the room and leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.
“So, you made it to the forest?” Vallen prodded.
“Yeah, it was definitely barren,” I confirmed as I kept a watchful eye on the young guard. “Except for the doppelbeasts.”
“Doppelbeasts!” the lizard leader repeated with wide eyes.
“They were guarding the Bow of Wellston,” I said.
“So, that’s what the riddle meant,” Nike mused as he narrowed his silver eyes. “King Rodion is quite clever. And one looked like you, I presume?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “One mimicked me, and two mimicked Polina and Trina.”
“Three of them?” Vallen gasped.
“I didn’t like it,” Marina pouted.
“You figured out how to tell us apart,” Polina soothed her.
“We knew you would,” Trina said with a grin.
“Fascinating,” Vallen murmured. “And you weren’t afraid?”
“No,” I scoffed. “I told you it didn’t matter what beast showed up, we could handle it. And we did. Once we killed them, we found the Bow inside a large tree.”
“So, you did find it!” the lizard leader squeaked. “Can I see?”
“No,” I growled before I cleared my throat and tried again with some diplomacy. “No, my lord. It is much too dangerous to be handled. It must be hidden forever. No one should have it.”
“Where can we hide it forever?” Vallen narrowed his yellow eyes. “That seems like a large task.”
“For now, it’s in my spatial storage,” I replied.
“My lord?” Miraya nearly whispered. “Could I speak to you for a moment?”
“Um, sure,” I answered, and I knew my confusion was written all over my face. “Like, right now?”
“Yes,” the spirit confirmed as she rose from her seat and gestured toward the hallway.
“I’ll be right back,” I informed the group.
Several pairs of bewildered eyes watched me walk over to the hallway where Miraya stood, and the spirit wrung her hands as concern etched across her features.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I don’t know about what is up,” the spirit replied carefully, “but I don’t want you to be offended by what I say, my lord.”
“You won’t offend me,” I reassured her. “Just spit it out.”
“I worry about the Bow staying in your storage for too long,” she murmured after a pause.
“Why?” I cocked my head to one side, and she chewed on her lip before she answered.
“Your spatial storage is still an extension of you,” the spirit sword explained carefully. “It is a pocket created by your magic that only you can access, so it is a part of you. That’s why you hear its voice when it calls out to you. I worry the Bow will continue to tempt you, as you mentioned before, and the longer it has access to you, the harder it will be to ignore.”
“You think it would keep trying?” I asked. “I haven’t even said no or anything. I’ve just ignored it.”
“I’m not certain, of course,” Miraya replied. “But I do believe it’s quite likely.”
“Then it needs to stay far away from anyone,” I grumbled. “We have to find somewhere away from everyone who could be tempted. I understand magic, and I’ve been able to fight it off so far, but it would be much harder for someone without magic or self-control. So, let’s tell the others that it can’t stay with me, but not exactly why. Okay?”
Miraya nodded, and I turned around and walked back into the great hall.
“Change of plans,” I announced. “We need to find a temporary location that we can heavily guard with magic until the permanent hiding place is decided. Any ideas?”
Alyona tilted her head to the side in a silent question, but she didn’t say anything.
“Ah, why are we changing?” Naomi asked as she narrowed her amber eyes at me.
“Because we should,” I replied shortly. “Do you have a place where we could protect it?”
“Obviously not the catacombs,” Aaliyah interjected. “We learned that lesson already.”
“Well, not the catacombs I built,” Naomi countered. “But we have an older set of tunnels that extends past the rear side of the castle. They could work, right, Vallen?”
“Yes, I believe so,” her brother agreed as he began to pat himself down in search of the keys. “I just need to find the key. Where did I put that darn set?”
“Is there only one key?” I asked.
“Yes,” Vallen replied as he pulled a ring of keys from inside one of his layers of clothing. “I have it here. The old catacombs haven’t been opened for decades. The lord of Kana is the only one who holds the key to the entrance.”
“Good,” I said with a nod. “Let’s go check it out.”
We rose from the chairs, and Naomi, Vallen, and Abel led us down a hallway behind the living quarters. It seemed the young lizard guard accompanied Lord Vallen almost everywhere he went. Soon, we arrived at a wooden door with a large metal lock that dangled from the latch. The lock was clearly old, and Naomi blew on its face to clear away the dust from the keyhole.
Vallen lifted the lock to insert his key, and the lock responded with a piercing squeal as everyone jumped to cover their ears. Even Vallen grimaced at the noise that reverberated down the hallway.
“I’m so sorry,” the lizard leader said. “I told you, it’s been decades since anyone even tried to open this door.”
I nodded, and he pushed a skeleton-style key into the lock and tried to turn it, but the key didn’t budge.
“Ah, wrong one,” he muttered.
Vallen fumbled with the keys on the ring before he shoved another one into the keyhole. This time, when he turned the key, we could hear the gears as they clicked into place. Then the shackle popped open with a loud click that echoed throughout the hall. He pulled the lock from the latch, and the door creaked open. Dust drifted to the floor from the top of the door, and cobwebs stretched from the bottom of the door to the top stair.
“Yeah, I’d say it’s been a while since anyone was here,” I chuckled as I peered past them down the stone steps. “Are you sure you know your way around down here?”
“I do,” Naomi replied and lit a fireball in her palm. “Follow me.”
I shrugged and followed her down the stairs into a dark tunnel that smelled old and musty, and the lizard mage used her fireballs to light the torches on the wall as we walked. I wasn’t sure if she did that to help us see or so we could find our way back to the entrance. Either way, these old tunnels were quite different from the others.
This maze of tunnels wasn’t nearly as complex as the new one, and the sand that cascaded down the walls seemed to fall in larger groups. More sand piled up on the floor, and we kept tearing through cobwebs to follow the path.
“Is it safe down here?” I asked.
“I think so,
but no one has used these catacombs since our grandfather was the lord of Kana,” Naomi answered over her shoulder. “Our parents didn’t really like to use it, and then we found out I had been born with magic, so they let me create the new ones as part of a project. They wanted to build a legacy together, rather than just pass down what was already here. I didn’t care about all that at the time, though. I was just happy to use my magic.”
“I see,” I murmured.
As we walked down the path, only a few tunnels branched off the main one we were on. Rather than the winding maze of paths we’d seen before, this one seemed more like an office with evenly spaced halls to its other areas, and I knew it would be pretty simple to figure out how to get around here.
“This seems less complex,” Nike observed as if he’d read my thoughts. “There aren’t as many off shooting tunnels.”
“Wouldn’t that make it easier for someone to find the Bow?” Ravi pointed out. “We don’t want to make it easy. The Sundex tunnels were really hard, and they still managed to get to the cavern.”
“Maybe we could cast a disorienting spell somewhere near the entrance,” Alyona suggested. “Then anyone we weren’t expecting would become confused.”
“Good idea,” I agreed. “We can do that on our way out. We don’t need to be lost and confused down here.”
“We aren’t lost,” Naomi huffed. “I know where I’m going.”
Alyona stifled a giggle and took my hand.
We arrived at a fork in the path, and Naomi took a left that directed us away from the castle. We continued to walk underneath the city, and I wondered how easy it would be for someone to dig their way down instead of going through the tunnels.
“How far underground are we?” I asked as I stared up at the ceiling.
“Oh, probably fifty feet or so,” Naomi answered. “Why?”
“Just making sure it was too deep for someone to go digging,” I replied.
“I think so,” the lady mage said with a half-smile.
Then we turned right at another opening and stepped into a large cavern. It was plain, no fancy stones on the floor or jewels on the wall. It was inconspicuous, which would be helpful in concealing the Bow. I noticed a heavy wooden door opposite the tunnel entrance, but the rest of the cavern was bare except for a few dark torches that hung on the walls.
Naomi and I tossed fireballs onto the torches to light the room. I could see the door a little better, but it just looked like a dark wood slab with a single brass knob.
“What’s this?” I asked as I strode to the door and twisted the knob.
It didn’t budge.
“Locked, apparently.” Naomi smirked.
“Well, we need to figure out how to unlock it, so we can make sure this room is covered completely,” I shot back.
“What if it’s just a closet?” she asked as she joined me at the door.
“What if it’s not?” I argued. “I don’t want to risk it.”
I knocked on the door, and the sound echoed on the other side. I smirked back at her as we both recognized the sound as another tunnel, rather than a small room, and I knew she couldn’t argue with that.
The lizard mage put her hands up and stepped backward.
“We need to figure out where it leads,” I said. “Do you know another tunnel that would reach the other side?”
“I believe a couple of them do,” Naomi replied and tucked a lock of magenta hair behind her ear. “I can’t remember which one, though.”
“Okay, that will be our next step, once we secure a place for the Bow,” I decided.
“What if we put up some kind of case on the wall?” Miraya pointed at the bare wall to the right of the tunnel entrance.
I walked over to examine the area. It was a slightly indented section of the sandy wall, and if we hung up the Bow, we could put a cover over it to make it look flush with the wall. Even someone looking for it might miss it if we did it right.
“Sounds good to me,” I agreed. “Let’s do it.”
Alyona, Miraya, and Naomi began to discuss their magical tactics to create the case that would hold the Bow. They started to mutter the words of a spell, and then golden threads began to knit themselves together in mid-air. It looked like someone had drawn lines in the air in front of them, and the threads wound together in a tight knot as they formed straight lines and created a box shape just big enough to fit the bow inside. Within a few minutes, a gold framed glass case hung from the wall, and the women held the door open as they waited for me.
“We’re ready for it, my lord,” Miraya said.
I took a deep breath and opened my spatial storage, and as my fingers grazed against the wood of the Bow of Wellston, the familiar rush of power hummed throughout my body.
Now is the time.
Take what is yours.
The world belongs to you.
I can help you if you let me.
I gritted my teeth, grabbed the weapon, and pulled it out into the open.
Vallen and Abel gasped at the sight of the Bow, and I grunted as I strode over to the case and hung the Bow inside. Before anyone could say anything else, I shut the door and listened for it to click shut. Then I leaned with my back against the door for a moment and listened for the Bow.
I could feel its attempts to draw me back in, but the voice was gone, and the temptation was considerably easier to ignore. Miraya was right about getting it out of my spatial storage. I didn’t need that thing to follow me around for one more second.
Then the three women murmured a few more words, and the glass door shimmered for a moment before it changed into the same color as the sand around it. I took a step back to view their handywork. It almost looked like another mirage, and it camouflaged the Bow’s case perfectly. Even from the side, it was hard to tell the case was on the wall.
“It’s not enough,” I muttered as a chill passed through my body. “They figured out the Sundex. They could figure this one out, too. We need something else.”
“What do you suggest, my lord?” Miraya asked.
“I think we need to somehow cover the entrance to the cavern as well,” I replied with a frown. “Do you know how to do that?”
“Of course, my love,” Alyona replied and took my arm.
We walked over to the entrance, and the others followed as we looked all around the arched opening for ideas.
“If we used a seal here, it might work,” the princess mused as she placed her hand on the wall. “Just like the seals on the portals keep the demons in, we could put one here to keep people out. Well, most people, at least.”
“Most?” I questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, a mage could eventually--”
Alyona was cut off by a loud rumble that shook the whole tunnel. Clouds of dust rained down from the ceiling, and then suddenly, the entrance to the cavern collapsed. I grabbed Alyona and Miraya and yanked them into my arms, and then I fell backward and slammed into the tunnel. Giant chunks of the hard, wet sand crashed to the ground, and a plume of dust filled the air.
Everyone started coughing to clear the dust and sand from their throats as they waved the debris from the air, and I spat the dry dirt from my mouth as I stood up. The princess and the spirit hadn’t landed next to me, and I looked around anxiously to make sure they hadn’t been hurt.
“Is everyone okay?” I called out over the noise and reached out to feel for the women who had just been standing next to me.
I felt Miraya’s hand slip into mine, and when I lit a fireball in my other hand, she looked around with wide eyes.
“What was that?” she gasped.
“The walls on either side of the entrance collapsed,” I muttered and looked up at the pile of debris, and then I stood up and pulled the spirit up next to me.
“We’re good!” Trina yelled back as she and her sisters trotted closer to me.
“The princess and I are fine,” Laika muttered, and she brushed the sand from her leathers and Alyona’s robes.
It seemed Laika and I both had kept my fiancée out of harm’s way.
“We’re fine, too,” Aaliyah grunted, and the lioness grabbed Ravi’s hand and pulled her over to me.
All the women looked dirty, but a status check confirmed no one had actually been hurt so far.
“Nike?” I searched the settling dust for my fellow noble.
“Here,” he boomed before he stood up from the base of the rubble and waved a hand. “I had to push him out.”
“Oh, heavens!” Vallen cried as he stood and wiped the debris from Nike’s robes. “You saved my life! But where is my sister? And Abel?”
“Ah, good question,” I muttered.
The dust finally settled, and I could see up and down the tunnel. I scanned the area around us, but there was no sign of the lizard mage or the guard.
“Surely, they’re not under that pile of rocks.” Aaliyah frowned as she peered closer at the rubble and kicked one of the chunks so it crumbled under her foot.
“Lady Naomi!” I bellowed. “Abel!”
“We’re in here,” Naomi’s voice carried weakly through the debris.
“Are you alright?” I yelled back, and Vallen scurried closer to the former cavern entrance.
“Oh, gods!” the lizard leader moaned.
“Yes, we’re fine,” Naomi answered, though her voice was muffled. “We were looking at the locked door, so we weren’t near the collapse, but I can’t see a way to unlock this thing so we can get out.”
“Okay, I’ll just move the rocks,” I said as I began to call on my stone power.
“Wait!” Nike grabbed my shoulder and pointed to the top of the debris pile. “Look.”
I peered up to the top and noticed that small sections of sand continued to pour down onto the rubble. The rocks were piled up against the ceiling, and it was impossible to tell if they were holding it up at this point.
“Shit, it could cave-in even more,” I muttered. “We can’t move them yet.”
“I could try the same spell Lady Naomi used on the other catacomb walls,” Alyona suggested. “It would strengthen the walls to avoid another collapse, but it will take some time.”