by Troy Osgood
“That’s a pretty nasty looking cut,” the villager remarked. “Better go get it taken care of before it scars.”
There was fresh shouting and Jemas looked over his shoulder in the direction of the sound.
“Later,” he said turning to go. “There’s more to do. “ He took a couple steps and turned to look back at Jaccob. “Can you take care of him?,” he asked nodding towards Jaspers.
“Aye,” Jaccob answered as the younger man walked away towards the fighting.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Davey held the bag containing the skull. He could feel it moving as the head inside kept moving its jaw, the motion causing it to sway and move. He held it away from his body, in a tight grip, trying to keep it from swinging close to his body. Every time it came close, the skeleton somehow sensed it and the jaw starting opening and closing rapidly as the creature tried to bite at him. He could see the outside of the bag moving with the motion.
He walked five feet or so behind Culann, keeping the pace the other man had told him to. The Far Rider didn’t want Davey too close, in case there were traps, he had said. In one hand Culann held a long rod with a glowing tip, shining the only light in the space. He would pause it move the small amount of light so it would highlight all the walls, ceiling and floor as they walked. It was slow going. In his other hand he held one of his axes in a tight grip.
Davey wished he had a lantern or a light of some kind. The magic wand that Culann had provided enough light to see by, but just barely, and the boy was walking at the edges of that light. The tunnel was wide, but it was dark and Davey was starting to feel scared and small, the weight of all that stone around them pressing down on him. He wished he had listened to his mother, had done what his parents wanted.
There was no going back. Culann had led them down the corridor and to where the tunnel turned sharply, maybe twenty or thirty feet from the door, the light provided by a rod he had taken from his satchel. The lanterns and the rest of the gear were still back in the entrance chamber. He had looked down at Davey, told him to stay, and then retraced his steps, slowly and quietly, coming back to the entrance chamber. Skeletons were still being magically constructed. One or two at a time, but they kept coming. Luckily they were going out of the mine. Lucky for them, not for the villagers, Davey had realized.
Back at the turn, Culann had said that their presence in the tunnel was causing the magic to respond. They had to hurry to find a way to stop it. He had led the boy down the next section of tunnel, handing him the bag with the skull so he could have a hand free to hold a weapon.
They had been walking for what felt like hours to the young boy. Each step was a process. Move forward, examine the walls, floor and ceiling and then take another step. When Davey looked behind him, he couldn’t see anything. The darkness was absolute. There was just their little bubble of light, the rest was pure darkness.
“How did the Dvorkan see?,” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He had meant to ask at a normal volume, but something about the darkness and confines of the tunnel made it come out quieter.
“They kin see in the dark,” Culann answered, just as quietly.
Davey fell quiet, thinking through that, wondering what it would be like. He ran his hands over some of the carvings on the wall and was amazed that these had been done in the absence of light.
The tunnel came to an end at an intersection, new connections leading to the left and right. Davey had no idea what direction it was or where it could lead. He had become lost in the dark, his sense of direction gone without being able to see any landmarks.
Culann stood in the middle of the intersection, looking back and forth in each direction, shining his light as far down as he could. He spent a couple minutes looking at the carvings along the walls.
“Didnae want ta do this so soon,” he said finally.
He handed the glowing rod to Davey. Reluctantly the boy took the magical item. He expected the orb to hurt to look at, but was surprised when it didn’t. The wood was smooth, polished, and felt a little warm in his hand. Culann took the bag from him, putting his axe back in its sheath.
“Hold that steady.”
Culann set the bag on the ground and reached into his satchel. He pulled out a short pole of some kind of wood, without proper light Davey couldn’t see how dark the shaft was to identify the species. It was about an inch in diameter and a foot long.
Opening the bag, he picked it up by the bottom, careful to avoid the snapping jaw of the skull, and lifted. The skull fell out, rolling along the floor. Culann stopped it with the rod, which he used to turn the skull around, trying to get at it from underneath. It was hard as the creature’s constant jaw movements kept it moving anytime the Far Rider got it where he wanted it.
Muttering under his breath, Davey thought it sounded like a curse his father had told him never to utter; Culann put his foot down on the skull, holding it steady. He knelt down, holding the wooden shaft at the base of the skull, where the bones of the spine were still attached. The creature’s jaw bone, free of the bag, clacked together with the sound echoing down the empty tunnels.
Davey looked around, following the sound as it bounced around. The weird echoes produced by the tunnels made it seem like there were dozens of the creatures. It as unnerving and made him want to run. He started to shake, the light he was holding moving with him. The noise and the complete darkness were too much.
“Hey now,” Culann said looking back at the boy. “Just this one and it kinnae hurt you.”
Taking a deep breath, Davey forced himself to steady. This was why his parents wanted him to run and hide, he thought, angry at himself. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to block out the echoes. Opening his eyes, he could still hear the strange reflection of the sound but he was able to keep his focus.
Culann whistled; a sharp sound that strangely did not echo. It was short, only a couple quick notes. Standing up, taking his foot off the skull, Culann lifted the shaft.
And the skull came with it.
The jaws kept clacking, which caused the end of the shaft to move and the whole length to shake. Culann had to work to maintain a grip on it.
“Bring the light closer,” Culann told Davey, who took a couple steps forward.
Culann moved the skull on the end of the shaft towards the light, moving it so the base was visible. Davey was amazed; there was no seam or visible joint where the wood of the shaft met the bone of the skull.
“That should hold,” Culann remarked stepping back.
“What are you going to do,” Davey asked.
“Use this ta find the runestone,” the other answered. “Magical creations like the skeleton are linked ta that which created it,” Culann explained. “With the right spell, ye kin follow that link back ta the source.”
Motioning the boy to be quiet, Culann held the skull out as far as he could, gripping the shaft at the very end. He started to hum and make sounds, almost like that from a drum. It was music he was making, an odd type of music, but still music. It continued for a couple minutes with nothing happening, at least nothing that Davey could see.
He had seen Culann perform magic before and there had been an immediate effect. With this, there was nothing. He kept quiet though, knowing that what was happening was beyond his understanding and not wanting to interrupt Culann.
It went on for another minute and then Culann stopped abruptly. Davey watched as a light grew from within the skull. It was a faint green color, almost like a mist that surrounded the skull. Not bright or solid looking, it didn’t shine, confined to a shell around the skull.
Culann nodded, satisfied.
He turned moved a couple steps down the left hand tunnel, holding the skull out in front of him. Nothing seemed to happen, the glow around it staying the same. He did the same down the right hand tunnel and the glow around the skeleton seemed to brighten a bit. Not much, but it was noticeable.
Nodding, Culann stepped back into the original shaft. Holding the
skull out at arm’s length, keeping the clacking jaws away from Davey and himself, he gathered a bunch of small rocks and laid them out in an arrow shape pointing the way they had come. Done, he again walked up the left tunnel and back down the right tunnel, paying attention to how the skull’s glow responded.
“We go this way,” Culann said using the skull to point down the right side. “Stay close,” he instructed. “Yer holding the light now.”
Davey nodded, coming up to stand directly next to Culann. Holding the skull in his left hand, he pulled out a hand axe with his right. They started walking, a little faster, with Culann directing Davey where to shine the light.
Sheren had lost count of the number of skeletons. They just kept coming. From where he stood he could see two more coming down from the mine road and one from the cemetery. There was still three in the square, being herded and separated so the teams with weapons could deal with them. He was exhausted and knew that the other villagers would be more so. They had lost a couple men and still more had been wounded, all of whom had been pulled back and put into houses away from the square.
They now had more runed weapons then they had people to use them.
At least the fires were under control. For now.
He watched Mary lead a young boy away down the lane towards one of the houses. She had refused to go back home, wanting to keep looking for Davey, not wanting to believe that he had followed the Far Rider into the mine.
He stretched his shoulders, feeling overused muscles starting to cramp.
Looking around the square he could see villager’s swings slowing down, more and more becoming careless. Everyone was exhausted.
Almost everyone, he thought, watching Private Jemas taking a skeleton on by himself. The young soldier was battered, cut in a couple of places with a real nasty one on his face. But he didn’t stop. He stayed in the thick of it and had saved a couple of villager’s lives.
He looked around, trying to find someone that was free, someone that could come and help him deal with the skeletons that were coming this way. There was no one. He spotted one of the older boys, Gerrick, and was about to set him at the end of the mine road to watch the approach when new shouting came.
It wasn’t any of the men in the square; it wasn’t even a male shout. It was female.
Cursing, Sheren ran towards the sound. It was coming from one of the lanes leading off the square. He paused at the end looking down the length of the lane. It led straight from the square to the cliff’s edge and he could see two women running towards him. Behind them came the shape and sounds of a skeleton.
It must have walked along the cliff edge, he thought, wondering how they had missed this one coming down the road. How didn’t matter, he knew. Getting it away from the villagers was all that mattered.
“Turn,” he shouted at the women. “Between the houses.”
It took a minute for what he had said to register, but finally both women ran into the small space between adjacent houses. He could hear them breathing heavily, crying, but thankfully they weren’t screaming.
He ran forward, stopping alongside them.
“Be quiet,” he snapped, not looking, keeping his eyes on the skeleton. “As soon as it’s past and after me get inside here,” he ordered not caring whose house they were going to enter.
Sheren thought about running forward and attacking the skeleton, but the lane was thin and he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to swing the hammer as hard as he needed to. No, he wanted to fight it in a more open area. He took a step backwards, towards the square.
“This way,” he shouted towards the skeleton, moving backwards. “Come on.”
He was at the edge of the square and the skeleton was lined up with where the women were hiding.
“Come on,” Sheren shouted trying to keep the creature’s attention.
The skeleton seemed to pause; the arms that had been outstretched seemed to lower a bit. It turned slightly, towards the women, some noise or something else calling to it.
“NO!,” He shouted as loud as he could, hitting the broad side of his hammer against the wall next to him. It created a loud thumping that he continued as the skeleton started moving towards him again.
He stepped out into the square and stopped. The skeleton, bone scrapping on bone and the horrible jaw clacking sound, followed. He waited, letting it get closer and closer. The arms were outstretched, the fingers reaching for him.
He lifted the sledge hammer up, holding it over his shoulder and waited.
The skeleton moved close enough and he swung.
Culann reached out, running his hand along the right wall of the tunnel. It was faint, but there was a definite curve to it. That, along with the slight downward angle they were walking, gave him an idea of where the skull was taking them.
They had passed a couple other intersections with the magically enchanted skull used to find the direction they wanted to do. At each of these, Culann would pause and make another arrow out of loose stones, all pointing the way they had come.
He was impressed with Davey Tobiason. The boy seemed to have found some inner strength. He was keeping pace, doing what he was told. Culann still wished he was not here. Even though they had come across nothing, or indications of anything living within the old Cradle, there was no telling what they would face when they finally found the runestone.
If there had been something in the Cradle, it would have found them by now. The damned skull was still doing that jaw clacking, non-stop, echoing through the tunnels. The way the sound bounced around and carried, it was hard to concentrate.
He glanced back, trying to estimate how far they had come. It was hard with the curve of the main tunnel, but he thought they were somewhere below where they had started. There was not much of a slope, but it was there. Continually curving and heading down, with enough distance from the starting point, it was possible.
They walked another hundred feet or so, with the tunnel curving sharper and tighter, almost twisting in on its self now. Culann started to notice a faint light ahead and around a corner. There was also a humming sound coming from the same place, barely noticeable. He paused, holding his arm out to stop Davey.
The boy looked up at him and Culann put a finger to his lip.
Slowly, carefully, he set the skull’s head on the shaft down on the ground and drew his other hand axe from its sheath. He looked at Davey and pointed down. The boy appeared shocked, unsure. Was Culann leaving him here? Davey glanced nervously behind him and down at where the skull was, the jaw clacking making it move, rolling along the ground. He took a deep breath, calmed himself and looked at Culann. He nodded. He could do this. It wasn’t like Culann was going far, he still had the light and he knew how to find his way back.
Culann moved forward, carefully. There was barely any light, most of it back with Davey. The rod didn’t spread its light out far and he was approaching the edges of it. The faint light ahead didn’t help any. The darkness closed in on him and he moved a step at a time. For the entire time they had been walking through it, the tunnel had been smooth and clear. No broken stones, no pieces fallen from the ceiling. There was no way to tell how long this Cradle had been abandoned, but that there was no damage at all was surprising.
The tunnel came to an end, turning abruptly into a space beyond where the light was coming from. It was brighter here, at the corner, but still not enough to truly see by. It shined, but that was it, just the glow. It was white, spilling out of the opening and into the tunnel.
He paused for a minute, listening. He could still make out the sound of the skull’s jaw but it was distant and not overpowering. The faint humming was louder and coming from beyond the opening, which was an arch separating the end of the tunnel from whatever was beyond. He ran his fingers over the arch and could feel etchings and marks carved into the surface of the stone. It also had a different feel then the surface of the tunnel, smoother and more polished.
Culann wished he had more time to study the
opening, as well as more light, but the villagers were counting on him. He didn’t have the time to be careful. He glanced up the tunnel towards Davey; the rods light a small globe in the otherwise deep darkness. The boy was barely visible but he was there, standing strong. Taking a breath, calming himself, preparing for anything, Culann stepped fully in front of the opening.
Davey saw Culann disappear. One second he was facing the white light and then he stepped forward and was gone. From where he stood, Davey could barely see Culann to begin with and that was only because of the weird light coming from the end of the hall. Without that, there would have been no way to see the other man.
Panic came over the boy. He wanted to run. He knew, thought, he could find his way back. The darkness was closing in.
He let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.
Forcing himself to calm down, Davey watched the end of the hall, waiting.
It seemed hours later when he saw Culann step into the hall and head towards him. The Far Rider was visible for a little bit before disappearing into the blackness. Concentrating, Davey could make out the man’s form, darker then the surrounding, as it came closer and closer. Davey had to remind himself that it was Culann and not some terror from the dark.
At last he stepped into the light.
Culann was smiling. Not a happy smile, but a satisfied one.
“Come wit’ me,” he said bending down to pick up the skull.
Davey followed as Culann retraced his steps. The pace was quicker and they didn’t stop to look at any of the carvings on the walls. Davey could see that the hallway turned a sharp corner and it was from this opening that the weird white light was coming from.
Culann held out his hand, stopping Davey at the edge of the opening and the light.
“Donnae need this,” he said taking the rod from Davey.
With a whispered word, the light was extinguished. He put it back in his satchel and set the skull down, leaning it against the wall. The creature’s jaw moved, causing it to slide down and fall over. Culann ignored it.