by Dean Cadman
“Well, maybe you will get the chance to see it when we visit Helveel on our way to Lamuria,” Lusam said, turning away before Renn could see his grin.
“I thought we agreed it was too dangerous to enter Helveel, lad, and we were going to bypass it completely,” Renn said sternly.
“No… you said it was too dangerous. I said it wasn’t. I think your exact words were along the lines of: “We will see.” So, now we have another good reason to call in at Helveel on our way past,” Lusam said, barely able to contain his humour. Renn refused to be baited, instead he just grunted, then replied.
“We’ll see.”
Alexia, not getting the joke, simply changed the subject. “How long do you think you two will be in there?” she asked, nodding towards the huge temple.
“I suppose that depends how long it takes us to find the book room. Providing, of course, that it’s even in a room like the last one. But I suppose the sooner we start looking, the sooner we might find it,” Lusam replied.
“Finding the book room is one thing, but don’t forget how long you were unconscious the last time you touched one of those books. It was at least forty minutes—I was worried sick,” Neala added.
“I suggest you both go now then. Those agents can’t be much more than a couple of hours behind us. And that’s if they didn’t take a gamble and levitate up the mountainside a little when we weren’t looking,” Renn said, removing his sword and shield. “Hopefully, those undead-agents will give us a little forewarning of their arrival anyway,” he said gesturing to his sword, which currently wasn’t showing any signs of detecting the presence of any undead.
“Okay, good luck. We’ll try to be as quick as possible,” Lusam said, walking in the direction of the huge temple, with Neala following at his side.
“Good luck to you too,” Renn called out after them both.
The sheer size of the building played tricks with their minds as they approached it. From where they had first seen the building it looked huge, but it didn’t look too far away. In reality, everything about the building was far larger than they thought it was, so when they finally reached the stone stairs and looked back towards Renn and Alexia, they were little more than specks in the distance.
Each stone step was enormous, and far too large for any man to use. Each one was taller than Lusam, and twice as deep as he was tall. Trying to climb each step would have been almost impossible, so instead they simply walked up the steep slope at the side of the staircase. Two gigantic doors greeted them at the top, each one with a decorative inlay depicting a dragon. Lusam looked over his shoulder at the staircase behind him, and from here he could clearly see the score marks on each stone step. ‘Score marks made by the talons of hundreds of dragons,’ he thought to himself, now beginning to understand the reasoning behind such enormous stairs and doors.
Fortunately for them, one of the huge cracks that ran through the building was located directly at the top of the staircase to the left, which was lucky, because Lusam didn’t relish the thought of having to try and open those huge doors. He constantly slipped in and out of his mage-sight, testing for any potential traps. He doubted there would be any here, given the fact that this was once the headquarters of the Guardians—the most powerful magi ever to have existed—not to mention the presence of their dragons.
Lusam and Neala walked through the gigantic crack in the wall, and found themselves at the other side of the great doors in a vast chamber. The floor was littered with rubble and debris, most of which looked like it used to be either statues or ornamental decorations made of stone. It was surprisingly light inside the huge room, and when Lusam glanced up he saw why. High above them was the remains of the huge dome they could see from outside. Far from being opaque—as it appeared from outside—instead, it flooded the room with multicoloured light as the sun shone through the numerous coloured glass panels, reminding Lusam of the equally beautiful but much smaller glass dome in Mr Daffer’s shop.
The light flooding through the glass dome was certainly spectacular, but nothing in comparison to what was below it. Covering the entire ceiling was another incredibly detailed painting, similar to the one they had seen in Helveel. This time, instead of a domed temple, it showed a beautiful white marble-clad building, with a huge tower rising high above it, and all enclosed by massive circular wall. There was also something that resembled a glowing gem set in the sky, just above the massive tower. Lusam thought it might represent the sun, but given the immense detail in the rest of the picture, he couldn’t understand why it should look like a gem instead of the sun. He nudged Neala and pointed up to the masterpiece that was the ceiling above them.
“Whoa! That’s amazing,” Neala said breathlessly. “I wonder where that building is?”
“I don’t know, but it definitely looks amazing,” Lusam replied, as they slowly continued to the centre of the room. Lusam borrowed one of Neala’s knives and used it to locate the direction of the book. It pointed to the east section of the building, but unfortunately there was no way to determine if the book was above or below them. Lusam took a gamble and started looking for a staircase that led downwards. It only took them a few minutes to find a wide stone staircase that led down to a basement below the main room. Lusam created a light orb and they continued down the stairs.
The stairs went down several more flights, but when they finally reached the bottom, they entered a huge darkened room, not dissimilar to the one in Mr Daffer’s basement. Lusam was still using his mage-sight intermittently to check for any possible traps, and immediately recognised the walls in the basement as being the same as the ones in Helveel. He formed a small weak fireball in his right hand and sent it towards the wall. As expected, the fireball was absorbed by the wall, as its magical red surface rippled around the huge room.
“I guess they only had one architect for these places,” Neala said sarcastically.
Lusam laughed and replied, “Well, I guess if it isn’t broken…”
Lusam created another couple of light orbs towards the far end of the room, banishing the darkness, and revealing nothing but a large empty room. There were more corridors leading away from the main room here than there had been in Helveel. ‘Possibly to house a greater number of residents,’ Lusam thought to himself.
“So, any suggestions which corridor we should try first?” Lusam asked, shrugging his shoulders.
“Yeah… whichever one the knife points to,” Neala replied, rolling her eyes and shaking her head a little.
“Oh yeah, good idea,” Lusam said sheepishly. He cast his locator spell on the knife and wasn’t surprised at all when it pointed to the second corridor along—the same one as in Helveel.
“See, I told you they only had one architect,” Neala said with a beaming smile. Lusam really loved that smile, and he’d missed seeing it over the last few weeks whilst they had all been running for their lives. It reminded him just how much he loved her. He didn’t know if it was because he was feeling a little nostalgic—being in a place so similar to Mr Daffer’s basement in Helveel—or the fact this was the first time they had been alone in weeks, but he realised he hadn’t told Neala he loved her in far too long.
“I love you, Neala,” he said smiling at her. Neala’s smile widened further, as she took a step closer to him.
“I love you too, Lusam,” she said, kissing him gently on the lips. He wanted nothing more than to spend some time alone, here, with Neala, but he also knew his friends outside were in danger and needed them to hurry. He gave her one last kiss on the forehead and sighed softly.
“I suppose we better go find this book then,” he said, holding out his hand for her. She took his hand, and they both headed for the second corridor.
The corridors were also longer than the ones in Helveel, confirming Lusam’s theory of more sleeping cells. They passed several open doors, and the cells looked almost identical to the ones they had spent so much time in during their stay at Mr Daffer’s shop. One thing that wasn’t the
same, however, was the amount of damage they began to see the further they travelled down the long corridor. It started with a few small lumps of stone that had been dislodged from the ceiling, but soon turned into partial blockages of the entire corridor. Whatever forces had caused the destruction of Coldmont above ground had also affected it far below ground as well.
Lusam had been speculating as to the possible causes of the destruction suffered by Coldmont ever since he first set eyes on it, and was about to ask Neala what she thought when the floor beneath their feet began to tremble. Instinctively he erected a shield around them both, and held Neala close to him. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling all around them, coating his shield so they couldn’t see. They could hear masonry falling both in the corridor, and throughout the underground chamber. Lusam had no doubt that the same would be true on the upper floors as well. A large chunk of stone fell and hit his shield, bouncing harmlessly off its domed surface and coming to rest against the wall by their side. The sudden impact sapped a chunk of magical power from Lusam’s reserves, but he maintained his shield until the tremor had passed. He remembered vividly Renn’s broken and twisted leg when he had failed to maintain his shield under similar circumstances only a couple of days before. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake again.
The ground stopped moving underfoot, and the sounds of falling debris began to subside. Lusam kept his shield up and waited for the dust to settle a little before moving on. He rapidly increased the size of his shield a little, then reduced it again in quick succession. Like a dog shaking off a wet coat, he dislodged the dust clinging to the outside of his shield, allowing them both to see once more beyond the confines of his shield.
“Well, I guess that answers the question of what destroyed Coldmont,” Lusam said quietly, not daring to make too much noise in case it somehow brought the entire ceiling down on them.
“Yeah, I guess it did,” Neala replied, looking very nervous. “I suppose that’s why there were so many rocks on the path coming up this mountain too. If the ground shakes like that, it’s bound to cause lots of rockslides.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but I think you’re right, it would certainly dislodge a few rocks.”
“Oh no… what happens if it does that while you’re unconscious? I don’t have a shield to protect either of us,” Neala said, almost panicking. Lusam had no idea how to answer her question. He couldn’t guarantee another tremor wouldn’t occur, neither could he offer her any solution other than hope.
“We’ll be fine, Neala. That was the first time we’ve felt it since we entered these mountains, what’s the chances of having another tremor in the next forty minutes or so?” he said smiling at her, trying his best to convince her that his logic was right. It did absolutely nothing to convince her of his prediction, when moments later another tremor shook the ground. This time it was far less aggressive, only dislodging dust from above them, rather than stonework. Neala gave him a stern look of disapproval. He simply raised his eyebrows and shrugged. Once again he shook off the dust from his shield and they continued towards the end of the corridor.
A few moments later they reached the far end of the corridor. They expected to see a stone door with the familiar five-pointed star carved into it, but instead they saw a mound of rubble and a dark void behind. Lusam tried to send his light orb above the rubble and into the dark void, but as soon as it crossed the threshold it was extinguished. He tried several times, but each time with the same results.
“Wait here, I’ll take a look inside,” Lusam said, carefully making his way up the mound of rubble.
“Don’t go inside without me,” Neala said from behind him.
“I’m not going inside. I just want to see if I can see anything from up here.” The pile of rubble seemed more stable than it looked, and Lusam was soon at the top peering into the pitch black room beyond. He moved his light orb as close to the opening as possible without it actually entering the room, but still no light penetrated the darkness inside. Gritting his teeth against the possible pain, he gingerly reached his hand towards the opening, half-expecting to be jolted backward by the force-field he had felt once before. Instead of a force-field hitting him, the room seemed to sense his presence within it, and the familiar blindingly bright light came to life inside the room. Lusam shielded his eyes against the glare, gradually allowing vision to adjust to the intense white light. Once it had, he peered into the room. There before him, on a pedestal identical to the one in Helveel, sat another Guardian book.
“It’s here!” he said excitedly. “Come on up.” He offered Neala his hand, pulled her to the top of the rubble pile, and then they both slid down the other side into the book room. Lusam approached the pedestal, and was about to take hold of the book when Neala spoke.
“Wait!” she said, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him so tight he could barely breathe. “I love you, Lusam. Please be careful.”
“I love you too, Neala,” he said kissing her lips tenderly, then he gently pushed her back to arms length. “Remember not to touch me while I’m unconscious. The force-field could send you into that rubble pile and bury you alive.” Neala nodded to him, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Lusam smiled at her one last time, then stepped up onto the pedestal platform and opened the book. Neala watched helplessly as the light burst forth from within the book and Lusam froze in position, just like the first time she had witnessed him open the book in Helveel. Only this time, what she didn’t see was the small trickle of blood that came from his ear and dripped onto his shoulder furthest from her view.
Chapter Seventeen
Renn and Alexia took their positions at the remains of the stone archway. They had watched Lusam and Neala safely enter Coldmont from a distance, and neither of them could quite believe the actual size of the place. It became truly apparent when they saw them both standing next to the huge steps, and later the gigantic doors that led into the temple beyond.
Renn had scanned the horizon for an alternative route out of there, but the area around Coldmont was so vast, it simply appeared to melt into the clouds beyond the mountain top. He estimated that it would take the best part of a day to walk the perimeter and check for alternative routes—time they didn’t have. It seemed their only alternative was to fight.
“How many arrows do you have left?” Renn asked.
“Four,” Alexia replied, obviously already aware of her limited numbers.
Renn nodded slowly, thinking about what strategy best to use in the coming battle. After a few minutes of silence he turned to Alexia and said, “As far as I can tell there are ten of them, including the undead-agents. We have to assume they don’t know Lusam is inside Coldmont, or the number of arrows you have left. If they did, they could simply use the undead-agents as a shield against your arrows, and march right up here, knowing that Lusam wasn’t here to shield us against their attacks. I don’t think that will be the case however—or at least I hope it won’t.”
“So, what do you think they’ll do then?” Alexia asked nervously.
“I’m not sure, really. Their biggest concern has to be you and your arrows. So their main priority has to be depleting your stock of arrows. They’ve been taking all the arrows they can each time you’ve killed one of them. I think it’s safe to assume that even though they don’t know how many arrows you have left, they’ll know that you don’t have enough left to kill them all…” Renn said, trailing off into deeper thought.
“The way I see it, it’s going to be a fine balance between resources, information, and misinformation,” Renn added a moment later.
“What do you mean?” Alexia asked, confused.
“Well, we don’t want them to know we’re alone here, or how many shots you have left, right?”
“Right, but how can we achieve that? If they see us, they’ll know Lusam isn’t with us,” Alexia replied.
“Then we don’t let them see us. Well, not at first anyway. I think we should hide behind one of these pi
llars, stay completely hidden, and wait for them to come to us.”
“That sounds dangerous to me. What if they surprise us and we end up having to fight all ten of them at close quarters? We wouldn’t stand a chance!” Alexia said, concerned at his plan.
“I doubt they could surprise us. We’ll definitely know when they’re approaching,” Renn said, tapping the blade of his sword with his finger. “Let me ask you a question. If you were their commander, and you came across this stone gateway—one that you couldn’t possibly see what was waiting for you on the other side—what would you do?”
Alexia thought about it for a moment, then smiled at Renn.
“I would send one of my undead-agents through the gap to see if it was a trap,” she said confidently.
“Exactly! And if we’re a few paces from the stone archway when we kill it, they won’t know how it died, or who killed it,” Renn said smiling back at her.
Alexia’s eyes went wide, as she said excitedly, “Wait a minute!” She then ran along the ridge above the path for a short distance and peered over the edge. She expected to be able to see the path, but instead found that it was obscured by the man-made wall. The wall had been purposely built at a slight angle to overhang the path, making it impossible to attack anyone from above. ‘It doesn’t make any sense! Why would people capable of constructing such an incredible temple overlook the simple advantage of being able to attack potential invaders from above?’ Alexia thought to herself. She knew that the giant stone archway had once had some kind of gates in place, because she could see the massive corroded iron brackets still attached to the blocks of stone, where they had once been hung. The gates had long since decayed to dust, or possibly been blown over the edge of the mountain by some huge storm, but evidence remained of their past existence nonetheless.
“Is there a problem?” Renn asked from the side of her. She hadn’t even noticed him approach, and that was the second time today he had managed to sneak up on her without being noticed, something not many people could do. ‘He’s certainly light on his feet for a big man,’ she thought to herself.
