The Labyris Knight

by Adam Derbyshire

  “I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.” Octavian retaliated, continuing to wriggle fiercely as he tried to free his arm from his baggy tunic. The gypsy’s mind raced. There was a way out of this but it was too dangerous to consider. If he lost control? No he could not risk it, even in these dire circumstances. He wrenched his arm around but his hand was stuck against the chain. It was so close but the chain was just too damn tight! If only he could free his hand and grab something useful at his belt.

  “When I ask you old man, take a really big breath in.”

  “I get it.” Kerian replied sarcastically. “And then I suppose if we both blow really hard; we can put out the flames? Oh be serious Octavian.”

  “I’m always serious.” The gypsy replied. “On three then. One… Two… Three.” There was a brief struggle as the two men tried to readjust themselves and the pendant wobbled erratically, then nothing but the slow clanking of the chain.

  “Did you bother to breathe in?” Octavian asked. “Because if that was your best effort?” Kerian closed his eyes, fighting back a bitter retort. His head was spinning now, a combination of the earlier blow he had received, the fact he had been hanging upside down all this time and possibly the effects of breathing in the vapour given off by the bubbling gold below.

  “Once again.” Octavian prompted. “One… Two… Three.” Kerian sucked in the biggest breath he could and instantly felt Octavian’s arm wriggling frantically behind him in a desperate attempt to slip free. There was an increased tightness of the chain across the warrior’s chest then an exclamation of joy from the gypsy.

  “I’m not sure what you are planning to do next but before you do anything, I beg you, please don’t lose Colette’s pendant.”

  “I never got that far in the plan.” Octavian confessed. “Hang on, I’ll try and reach it.” Kerian felt himself pushed this way and that as his companion tried to get into a position to catch the necklace before it fell. There were a lot of gasps and grunts then a despondent sigh. “It’s no good! I just can’t reach it.”

  “Don’t… drop… that… pendant.” Kerian warned, his tone edged with the implied threat of violence. He tried to angle his head again and made out Octavian’s flush face, the man had his tongue out and appeared deeply in thought.

  “Can’t you just grab the chain with your teeth?” Kerian asked. Octavian stopped what he was doing and gave Kerian a dark stare before he resumed wriggling. The gold bubbled and gurgled in anticipation as the men descended ever closer.

  “Hang on… Almost got it.”

  “Got what?” Kerian enquired. Octavian’s new satchel slid into view, its movement jerking as the gypsy lowered it carefully between them. The lid of the satchel caught for the briefest of moments, giving a glimpse into the darkness of the bag as it moved past, allowing a scent of mulled spices and warm bread to rise towards them. Octavian’s tongue reappeared as he tried to position the bag beneath the swaying pendant.

  “Nearly… almost there.”

  A loud boom echoed through the amphitheatre causing the chanting to stop. The high priest pulled on the lever operating the pulley system, the chain halting its downward progress with a grinding jolt. The shock of the stop jerked the two captives as their descent halted. Octavian felt his neck flex and clenched his teeth in horror as the pendant slipped from his ears and fell out into space.

  “No!” Both captives cried out, watching the necklace sparkle in the flames as it fell in slow motion before their eyes. Kerian’s heart appeared to stop beating as he watched his future end, whilst Octavian groaned as a fortune in ransom slipped from his grasp.

  The pendant bounced on the rim of the open bag, spinning like a pirouetting ballerina as it twirled around the opening. Both men held their breath as the necklace teetered, first one way and then the other, threatening to tip over, away from the bag, before the long golden chain following after it, slipped into the open satchel, its combined weight and downward momentum sufficient to drag the prized jewel in after it with a final seductive wink of reflected light.

  The crash came again, making some of the audience stagger to their feet and turn towards one of several entrances leading into the auditorium. The huge priest moaned and gestured with his hands, requesting his undead supplicants investigate what had dared intrude on their ceremony. It watched as several moved to obey, then seemed to become confused as louder noises followed. The priest turned away from the lever in obvious agitation, stomping over towards the entrance, intent on making its demands clearer to the skeletal shrivelled creatures milling there, leaving the captives with little doubt that if the creature’s features had not been set in gold, its face would have been a thunderous scowl.

  “That’s our chance.” Octavian gestured, nodding towards where the priest had been standing.

  “What do you mean?” Kerian replied still dazed at how close he had come to losing his precious gift.

  “The lever is unattended. If we can get to it, maybe we can activate it and drop free.” Kerian shook his head as louder sounds of disturbance came down the passageway.

  “And fall free to where exactly?” the warrior asked. “Our destiny has merely been postponed. The source of our gilded overcoats still remains actively bubbling below us.”

  “But if we swing and build up enough impetus, hitting the lever should disengage it and release the chain, dropping us down past the rim of the well.” Octavian replied.

  “That’s all well and good.” Kerian said sarcastically. “But how do you intend to build up this said momentum? I don’t think any of the walking dead below will volunteer to give us a push!”

  “We have to swing together.” The gypsy replied. “Like in a circus. But it will take team work.” Kerian laughed aloud at the absurdity of the situation.

  “I am well aware of your idea of team work.” He snapped.

  “Do you want to get out of here or not?” Octavian shot back, not waiting to receive an answer. “Now let’s get this thing moving before the big ugly one comes back.”

  The two men wriggled and rocked, desperately trying to get the chain to swing. The thick links clanked and rattled and to any onlookers it must have appeared like the two men were struggling fish caught on a line. As they worked to move, both captives stared intently towards the entrance, where several more mummified creatures had now shambled over, including two large golden mummies that took up guard duty at either side of the entrance through which the priest had ventured, intent on discovering what was going on. The noise was getting louder, indicating that whatever the source was, it was heading their way and getting closer, despite the surge of monsters trying to leave the room.

  “This is ridiculous.” Kerian panted, beads of sweat dripping down his face and his heart pounding loudly in his chest at the exertion required so far. “We aren’t getting anywhere.”

  “Don’t give up now.” Octavian replied. “Not now, we are too close.”

  More creatures shuffled by below them, arms outstretched as they tried to remain upright, some dragging shattered limbs, others trailing lengths of loose brown bandages behind them as they moaned and wailed to their shrivelled colleagues.

  Kerian noticed a slight swing of movement and initially thought it was his imagination, the power of his mind suggesting that he had achieved the impossible when it was clear there was no way they were ever going to escape from this place. The chain swung the two men to the left and then in the action of a pendulum wobbled them back again.

  “That’s it!” Octavian shouted over the din from the mummified crowd below. “Keep swinging. It’s working.”

  Kerian did not offer a reply; he was too amazed at the slight breeze washing across his skin, helping to cool his heat-exposed flesh. He tried to exaggerate the swing, gritting his teeth and bending his body in time with his companion as best as the chains allowed them to do, making the wobble into a more fluid swing.

  Back and forward they swung, the arc getting longer and
covering more distance at each motion. Unearthly screams started to rise from the passage and the unmistakable sounds of a skirmish echoed from down the corridor. One of the golden guards turned as if summoned by one of the groans coming from all around and headed off into the darkness after its master, followed by several shambling corpses.

  “Push!” Octavian screamed. Kerian gritted his teeth trying to ignore the dizziness that was now washing over him as he put his body to the task, observing the lever moving closer and closer with each swing.

  “How exactly are we going to grab the lever?” Kerian suddenly remarked. “I have no hands free and it is getting awfully close.”

  “I don’t know!” Octavian replied, as the world tilted beneath him and the bubbling cauldron slid past their view. “Just use your head.”

  Two skeletal corpses shuffling along the far side of the well paused in their movements and gazed up at the swinging captives, following their arc with clicking brittle bones, their heads moving from side to side in grim parody. A stick thin arm, still encased in stained bandages pointed shakily at the prisoners and then issued a shrill call of alarm. The sacrificial two were attempting to escape.

  “I think we have to hurry.” Octavian warned, as the remaining guard looked up with its frozen face, eyes focusing on the clanking chain before slowly working down its length and locking on the swinging pair at its end. It reached up, screaming and drew the biggest sword Octavian had ever seen. A weapon clearly forged for the giant it belonged to.

  The guard started to push through the crowd of shuffling mummies still mindlessly following their departed priest, pushing aside one so hard its spine snapped dropping its still wriggling body to the floor, lifting another free to throw it clear across the room to hit the edge of the well and drop in to the bubbling gold beneath, still fighting the oncoming tide of dead.

  “Yes…” Octavian confirmed as the swing took the golden guard back into view, just as he cleaved a brittle skull with his gleaming weapon and smashed another mummy into quivering pieces for daring to block his path. “…We definitely have to hurry.”

  “Almost there.” Kerian replied, as the end of their latest swing resulted in him having to turn his head or risk smacking his face against the lever. “One more swing should do it.” The two men flew back across the room, their heads missing a wild swing made by the guard’s sword before they reversed their direction, dicing with death for a second time as the guard leapt up making a futile grab at their mode of travel.

  Kerian closed his eyes as they crashed into the lever, freeing the mechanism. Lengths of chain started clattering loudly through the pulley, resulting in an avalanche of metal falling from the ceiling, moving backwards and forwards as it plummeted towards them. Octavian prepared for the drop to the floor, thinking in his mind that they only had one chance to fall safely, when the chain snagged on the lever snapping the two men to an instant stop that left them hanging painfully, still wrapped in the chain.

  “Well that’s not exactly how I planned it.” Octavian confessed.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” Kerian replied meekly.

  The gypsy started to pull at the slack chain, yanking it through with his free hand, link by link, all too aware of the monster bearing down on them. The golden giant seemed to know its prey was in no position to flee or defend itself and dragged its sword along the stone floor, raising sparks that matched the ones now rising from the golden cauldron as length upon length of chain snaked directly into the molten pot.

  “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” Octavian repeated to himself, still pulling desperately at the chain to feed himself more slack and loosen their bindings, but the chain he was pulling was hot from landing near the bubbling gold.

  The giant mummy clambered up onto the platform on which they had landed and charged across the stone with a scream, intent on dismembering them. Kerian looked up towards the face, frozen forever in agony and felt his resolve drain from his body. He could not free himself and the creature was swinging its sword with a determination that could result in only one possible ending. The sword lifted up high then swung in, edge glittering, cutting through the air straight towards Kerian’s vulnerable form. He closed his eyes tightly and felt himself drop to the floor just as the sword smashed the lever they had been suspended from into jagged pieces.

  Kerian threw himself clear, scrabbling to regain his feet as the monster slashed the air with its blade, gouging chunks from the floor and walls as it tried to turn its weapon on the small creatures at its feet. An overhead swing smashed into the floor as Octavian and Kerian leapt aside, both men running in opposite directions, determined to confuse the giant as they weaved between its golden stomping feet.

  “This way.” Octavian yelled, indicating a darkened passageway behind them that appeared quiet in comparison to the milling monsters. “I think the horses are down here.” Kerian turned trying to understand how the gypsy knew to head that way, could he smell the horses or something? Then he spotted the fresh hoof prints on the floor and nodded in agreement. It made sense! He ducked as the guard’s sword swung in again, so close he felt the air from the blade on his face. Darting to the left, then the right, directly into the path of a smaller mummy, missing its outstretched clawing hands and open mouth, only to watch the creature explode as the guard’s deadly backswing obliterated it.

  Octavian faced similar opposition as more shuffling monsters closed from the other end of the platform, some ghouls even dropping from seats high above in their manic attempts to recapture the escaping sacrifices, risking shattering their fragile forms on the hard stone as they landed. He shoved one of the mummies, sending it into the path of another, then grabbed the loose bandages of a third to loop around the neck of a fourth shuffling corpse, resulting in the mummy dragging the protesting undead creature behind it.

  The scent of musty spices rose thickly from the corpses, making the gypsy sneeze at the cloying smell. He darted to the side, moving ever closer to the passageway and tripping another mummy as he went. The giant sword swept in low causing the gypsy to jump or risk being chopped clean in half. He staggered and fell into the shadowy corridor, just as Kerian ran in alongside him, the reverse swing of the monster’s sword missing them by inches. They both stumbled into the darkness, Kerian cursing his lack of vision whilst acutely aware of the sounds of the lumbering monster pursuing them.

  Octavian ran into the portcullis first, crashing into the iron gate with a grunt and a curse, too busy looking back at the gigantic shadow chasing, to note what was right before him. Kerian shuffled up alongside, running his hands along the wall like a blind man.

  “Find the lever.” Octavian ordered. “We need to get through the gate.” The heavy sounds of footsteps crashing to the ground behind them made the two men search faster despite the low light.

  “Ah Ha!” Octavian shouted aloud. “I’ve got it.” A clanking noise sounded as the portcullis started to rise. Not waiting for the gate to open fully, Octavian dropped and rolled under the portcullis, Kerian swiftly following him. The gate continued to open as they hurriedly backed away from it into a narrow corridor that was even darker than the last. Heavy snorting rose behind them.

  “Toledo? Is that you?” Kerian asked. The horse snorted in response, pawing the ground impatiently. “We really do need a light in here.”

  Sounds of shuffling in the darkness and further movement on the other side of the corridor appeared to indicate that Octavian had found his horse too. Within moments, a spark was splitting the darkness, followed by another that caught on one of the torches they had secured earlier, allowing a pale light to flicker feebly into life.

  “Our supplies.” Kerian remarked with a smile as soft illumination revealed their passageway was actually a long narrow alcove where both the horses and Dorian the donkey were hobbled near an old water fountain that babbled lazily. A pile of items on the floor also held a surprise. “And my sword! Our luck is finally turning. Quickly, untie the mounts
, we need to be far away from here.” Louder snorting sounded behind them, followed by the rasp of metal on stone, as Kerian bent to retrieve his blade.

  “Steady Toledo.” Kerian put his left hand back into the shadows behind him to reassure the stallion and found himself touching something cold and hard. His horse added further confusion by bolting past him on the right, spooked; knocking the other mounts and getting them snorting and agitated within the confines of the passage. Octavian dropped his torch in the confusion, plunging the whole area into darkness again. Meanwhile, Kerian’s hand still remained resting on the cold hard object behind him which appeared to be inching steadily closer, snuffling heavily as it did so.

  “Hang on.” The gypsy tried to reassure his colleague, unaware of the horrors running through Kerian’s mind. “All I can say is I am glad you shut that portcullis. Imagine what it would be like if we had left the gate open?”

  “Octavian. You found the mechanism. Therefore, you were the one who needed to shut the portcullis.” The breathing came louder, the cold object beneath Kerian’s hand shifted again, as if trying to squeeze towards him down the narrow confines of the passage.

  Octavian nursed the torch back into health and swung around from his two mounts, raising the burning brand high, only to come face to face with a pale faced Kerian and the looming horror of the giant golden mummy squashed into the passageway behind him, its mouth agape and its sword raised high as it tried to ease sideways towards them. Kerian’s companion dropped the torch in shock, retreating in surprise, astonished at how quickly the mummy had crept up on them.

  “Kerian, look out!” he whispered in warning, gesturing with a shaking hand.

  Kerian was already acting, spinning and bringing the blade he now wielded straight up to parry the restricted downward swing of the monster. The two weapons smashed together, the sheer ferocity of the attack forcing Kerian back down the passageway towards Octavian and the horses.