by V C Sanford
“Castillo won’t take it straight to my uncle, he’ll take it to Samsara first. Samsara will either keep it and cheat Lord Baldric, or stall him until he figures out why the medallion so important.
“Alex, your uncle was never honest with you anyway. I think he sent you on this quest expecting you to fail. That was his first mistake.” She grinned and removed a portion of rolled up parchment from her pocket. Inscribed in minute detail was an ash rubbing of the medallion, showing both front and back. Next to each rubbing, she’d made notes, little observations and reminders to help them along the way.
“He didn’t count on your paranoia,” Alex replied. “No one else thought to make drawings of the medallion.”
“That was his second mistake. Leaving us alive was his third.” Rhii shuddered and pulled her cloak tighter against her body. “Besides, it’s not paranoia when Castillo is involved. I can still feel him drawing his dagger along my neck. He knew it too.”
“Do you think the picture on the medallion is of the old keep that burned down,” Nikiva asked.
“Yes. Once there were four towers. Take a closer look at the rubbing, the north tower had a flag on it.”
“A flag, what’s that got to do with it?” Maxx inquired.
“Maybe nothing, …maybe a lot. I always certain Ammaonth’s coat of arms was a dragon and sword entwined. What if I was wrong? Think about it, a small boy might see a flag with a picture of a wyvern, and believe it a dragon?”
“It’s possible…yes,” Nikiva answered. “They do look similar. Do you think the medallion is only a clue, pointing the way to something much more valuable? That means there might be more to the story than your uncle told you.”
********
The roof had caved in and the walls had several big cracks, but the stone steps were clean and free of ash and other debris from the fire. Then Maxx noticed that the mortar around several of the stones at the base of the tower was lighter in color, proof that someone had tried to repair the damage. They had also repaired the entrance, a new iron-banded door was in place, complete with an intricate looking lock.
“Do you think you can open it?” inquired Alex.
“I can chop my way thru, “Maxx replied.
“Give Rhianwen a chance first, Nikiva says she’s really good with locks. After last night, I like the idea of a locked door at our backs.”
The boys stepped back, allowing the tiny Shii-Lakka girl access to the door. She knelt, studying the cast iron lock carefully prior to her attempt at picking it. The soft click, accompanied by a barely audible sigh of self-congratulation, signified how quickly she’d been able to remove that minor obstruction to their entrance.
“Watch out for traps,” Maxx called over his shoulder, signaling for the girls to space themselves behind him. “Step where you know I’ve already stepped. Sometimes these old stairways are rigged to drop out from under anyone stepping in the wrong spot.”
“Thanks,” Nikiva muttered sarcastically, “another thing to worry about.” Despite their skepticism, both girls attempted to mirror his steps as they made their way up the winding staircase.
Alex, following just behind her, thought it more likely the stairs would fall because of his weight, than that of the slender girls. He noticed that many of the pavers were discolored and cracked from the intense heat of the fire. Several of the stones were brittle as if extensively or repeatedly burned and many pieces were fractured in place, held together by a combination of mortar and ash.
“This fire wasn’t an accident, someone coated the steps with oil or resin to make it burn hotter, and spread. You can see the bristle pattern of the brush they used to apply it. An accidental blaze would have died out without fuel once it had consumed all the burnable material. This one literally climbed up the stone stairway to reach the floors above. Maybe my mother’s theory was correct, it does look like someone wanted Ammaonth dead.”
The first two floors had suffered the most damage, the flames had consumed everything burnable, leaving ashes and melted lumps of metal behind. The third floor was different. The oak framework bore occasional scorch marks, but no hint of catalyst marked the stones. One room showed signs of recent use, the floors were swept clean and several woven tapestry rugs hung on the walls for additional warmth against the wind that blew a chill throughout the old tower. An ornate bed with eiderdown mattress, ink-stained desk, a couple of cushiony chairs and a fire brazier for warmth made the room feel homey. Remnants of old meals could be seen, as well as ashes and partially burned wood from two or three different fires. It was evident that someone had used this room often, and from the lack of dust, not too long ago.
“It’s waiting just like the cottage,” Nikiva said. “It’s like they went to buy supplies and never returned.”
“People disappear every day, think of all the bones in the warrg canyon. But we can’t assume they’re not coming back. This rooms as good a place as any to start looking.”
“It’s not very large, so it should not take us too long to search,” Rhianwen pointed out as she started pulling out drawers in the old desk. “I don’t see anything that even resembles a dragon or a wyvern.”
Nikiva smiled fondly at Alex who was methodically searching behind one of the large tapestries featuring two dragons flying above a castle. “If this is the right tower,” she said. “And if you translated it correctly, it won’t matter if the treasure was lost in the fire.”
“That’s a solidly made desk Rhianwen…look for a hidden catch in the carving,” Maxx interrupted. “Rich people are fascinated with secret compartments.” He ran his hand along the molding around the door. “And check out the parquet on the floor, maybe one of them is loose.”
The girls looked at each other and smiled, then everyone began to search for anything that seemed remotely out of the ordinary. Alex gave up on the tapestries and decided to concentrate on the floor, dragging his dagger along the cracks, hoping to trip a hidden catch.
“Wait, he called, I think I may have found something.” There was a loud bang, and a small puff of dust rose up from between the floor tiles.
Startled, Nikiva fell back against the wall, her hand clutching the edge of an elaborately carved stone mantle as she struggled to keep her balance. As she fell, the weight of her body shifted the small dove carved into the side to one side. There was a faint chunk and a grinding noise, then the wall beside the mantle swung open on concealed hinges, revealing a staircase leading down into the darkness. Carved into the lintel above the door was a tiny wyvern!
“Our first treasure!” Alex declared, proudly showing off the small bag of coins he’d found in the hidden compartment beneath the floor tile, then his mouth fell open as he realized what Nikiva had accidentally discovered.
********
“Well, do we go in, or not?” Alex asked as he joined the others gathered around the dark opening. He peered down the stairs into the unending blackness. “It’s too dark to see where it leads. We’ll need lights, several of them if we’re going to explore.”
“We don’t have a lot of oil left in the lantern, Maxx surmised, but I think I can rig up a torch from the tapestries and a leg off that small broken table in the room next door. We have our packs with us and everyone is carrying water. Besides, Tweet just disappeared into the passage.”
Nikiva decided to stay out of the boy’s way, instead of looking thru the small cache of coins that Alex had found. She knew a simple cantrip to call up light, but maybe it would be better to not mention it. Maxx might think she was demeaning his offer. Men were touchy about such things.
It didn’t take him long to fabricate two torches. Alex took one and passed the second to Nikiva before he entered the dimly lit passage. He took two steps, brushing a cobweb away from his face. The light from the glowing torch lit up the narrow corridor, causing thousands of spider webs to dance in the shadows from the breeze blowing thru the open door. Other than the pawprints in the dust left by the exploring Mir-cat, no one had passed tha
t way in years. “I’ll go first, followed by Nikiva, and Rhianwen. Maxx, grab Tweet and keep him with you. That way we can make sure he won’t set off any traps.” And be sure that the steps don’t collapse until after the girls have passed.
“Hold your hand against the right wall and let your fingers brush against it, that way if we come across any side passages you won’t miss them in the dark. I’ll keep a watch on the left side. I can see reasonably well in the dark, but to be certain I’ll drag my fingers the same way. It can’t hurt to be extra careful seeing how overconfidence got us into so much trouble back in Zanaad.”
“Yeah, Alex conceded, but that involved a mother and a daughter, one very angry banker, and the city watch. I don’t see how you can compare the situations.”
“It’s the first thing that popped into my head. It was a major mess, and we were overconfident going into it.”
“Well, just don’t mention it to the girls. I don’t think that it will seem quite so funny to them.”
“Don’t mention what?” Nikiva asked. She wedged one end of a small bench she and Rhianwen had found against the far wall, keeping the sliding mechanism from closing. “This should keep the door open behind us, we might have to come back this way in a hurry.”
“Don’t mention how dirty it is in here, or Rhianwen will have us cleaning it before you come in,” Alex interjected before Maxx had time to make some type of smart remark and get them both into trouble.
“We’re not that bad, are we?” she inquired.
Alex and Maxx decided it might be better if they just kept quiet.
*******
“I wonder what kind of spider spun these webs,” Alex said, sheepishly brushing strands away with his torch. Unlike many people living in the downs, his mother had been a stickler for cleanliness. They might have gone to bed hungry, but they were always freshly bathed. It was almost funny, he’d bravely confronted a pack of starving warrgs… but the idea of a tiny arachnid brought chills to his spine.
The group had been descending steadily since entering the ancient stairway, deeper and deeper into the depths below the burnt-out building. Tensions were high as each passing moment led them further from the safety of the familiar lands above. By the time they reached the last step and stopped to rest in the small antechamber at the foot of the stairs everyone’s nerves were frazzled. The stone-walled room was circular and manmade, not natural, with one doorway opening into a narrow hallway that led off in two directions.
“My aches have aches of their own,” Alex sighed as he dropped his pack against the nearest wall and slid down beside it.
Nikiva was grateful. “So nice of you to consider a poor girl’s fragility, Rhianwen and I lost feeling in our legs about a thousand steps ago.” She yawned and stretched. “I need rest… and something to eat, lots of both.” Tweet hovered just overhead, alert and attentive to the mention of the possibility of food, any thought of exploring immediately forgotten.
“We’ve been lucky so far. I spent most of the climb debating our chances of surviving the long drop to the bottom if those old staircases had collapsed while we were on them.”
“Well, I’m not climbing back up until we are certain there is nothing here to find. For all we know Castillo is still slinking along behind us, just waiting for us to find the treasure like we found the medallion.”
“You think?” Maxx snapped. “So, which do we go now, O wise one? I’ve been looking but so far I haven’t seen anything that even hints at a drassted wyvern.” The usually confident Duaar appeared anxious as he slowly rotated the handle of his axe in his hand.
Alex sighed. “I don’t have a clue. We don’t know where Castillo is. We all assumed he returned to Samsara or my uncle, whichever one is pulling his strings right now. But we could be wrong. It’s frustrating, we’ve come too far to turn around now.”
Neither choice looked promising. The left passage showed signs of structure deterioration, including several rather large sections of the ceiling that had collapsed sometime in the past. They decided to check out the right passage since there was no obvious damage. Not that they could see very far in either direction. The stone of the hallway was cut from some type of black semi-porous rock that absorbed almost all the light from their makeshift torches. The narrow passageway continued onward for some time, seeming to get darker as they went along. Soon the light from the torches grew so dim they left most of the floor unseen, both before and behind them.
Rhianwen didn’t like the uneasy feeling the dark hallway gave her. No one had walked this hall in ages. Dust covered the floor and she could feel the remains of broken spider webs across her face as she walked along behind the others. There were lamp brackets set into the wall at intervals, but no lamps were to be found. Someone had removed them, along with anything else of value when the keep was abandoned. No one was prepared when the passageway ended suddenly in an ancient looking brick wall, an apparent but quite unexpected dead end.
“Well expert, Alex mocked, what do we do now? I seem to remember you telling us all, ‘I’ll lead, Duaarien delvers never get lost.”
“Who’s lost?” Maxx retorted. “I know exactly where we are. Why the tunnel ends this way is another matter. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Something made them block it up.” Alex looked around as if he expected that thing to appear at any moment.
“Let’s go back,” Nikiva coaxed, hoping to forestall further discussion. The boys could spend hours puzzling over the reason for a dead end. “Maybe we missed something. Perhaps there was a secret door or passage along the way.”
“She’s right.” Alex turned and started back up the corridor without waiting for the others to follow him.
Maxx ignored him. “Alex is being a jerk. Building this passage would cost a fortune. Why stop in the middle of nowhere? There’s got to be something we’re missing.”
“I’ve no ideas, Nikiva offered. It’s possible they were still building when the fire started, and just quit.”
“Not a chance, Maxx stated. This stonework is much older than Alex or even his grandparents…hundreds---maybe thousands of years older.”
“It does look like the stonework in Cabrell, down in Old Towne,” Rhianwen added.
Maxx continued to study the end of the corridor. There was something about it…something that didn’t fit, …just a feeling he had. Oh, well. Alex wasn’t waiting. He had to hurry, if he left him alone for long he was sure to blunder into something that would get them all hurt. Shrugging in resignation, he turned away, then stopped. The shadow!
Maxx allowed a grin to show for just a second, then his usual stone-like expression returned. He stepped away from the door and took a good look at it from a distance. Kneeling on the floor he drew his fingers lightly along the center of the tunnel. While at first glance all the stone blockwork seemed the same, by running his hand along the floor he could tell there was a faint indentation in the stone of the floor leading up to it, as though many feet had traveled up and down the tunnel over a long period of time.
“Step back away from the wall,” he ordered smugly. Then he swung the back of his heavy axe head at the wall. The mortar in old stonework crumpled, a few well-chosen blows opening a gap big enough for them to climb through. The corridor continued behind the broken wall.
“I knocked! Nobody’s home, he quipped snidely, think we ought to wait?”
Neither girl thought to dignify Maxx’s comment with a reply.
“Nikiva, would you fetch Alex back? He can’t have gotten far working his way back up the tunnel. Rhianwen, you stay here and let me check it first. Once I’m sure it’s safe, I’ll call out for you to come ahead.”
Nikiva agreed, knowing Maxx could hardly contain his own curiosity. Luckily Alex heard the stones falling, and was returning on his own, Tweet flying above his head.
Maxx enjoyed his best friends’ chagrined expression for a moment, then stuck his head through the opening. Spotting nothing dangerous, he squeezed through the hole,
followed closely by Tweet and the much taller Alex. There were the sounds of things being shifted around, and a yelp from Alex as he struck his knee against something in the dark, and then Alex stuck his head back out the hole to let Nikiva and Rhianwen know everything was safe inside.
“The torches aren’t helping much,” he said. “It’s so dark I can’t make out anything but shapes. Even Maxx is having a little trouble.”
“In that case, I may be able to help,” Nikiva answered, rummaging through her pack of spell components, she removed a silver coin and started rubbing it back and forth between her palms, muttering some strange sounding words as she did. “It won’t last long, maybe two candle-marks at the most, but it will be much brighter than the torch if this works.” The small coin began to glow dimly, then gradually increased in intensity until the area around the crumpled wall was lit as brightly as a summer day.
Ignoring the astonished look on Alex’s face, she passed the brightly glowing Ryl to Maxx, who in turn passed the smoking torch back to her. Everyone held their breath as Maxx held it up inside, lighting up the chamber beyond and allowing them all to get a good look around the mysterious room.
Chapter 18
Once a workroom or study of some sort, the room was littered with a lifetime’s collection of paraphernalia and assorted trophies from someone’s life. The remains of a once opulent teak bedstead filled the center of the room. An antique styled ceramic brazier and an oversize desk took up most of the right side of the room. Atop a stack of books sitting on the desk was a lamp which had seen better days, the glass chimney was cracked, and the linen shade was in tatters. Maxx lit to see if it was worth taking along. It smoked for a moment then glowed with a steady warm light.
Whoever had used the room had appreciated books. Of different colors and sizes, they were stacked haphazardly on every available surface of the workroom. Besides the desk, the walls held an assortment of shelves overflowing with even more of the heavy, leather-bound tomes as well as a collection of vellum scrolls.