The glow of rocks in a far corner called to them. What they faced became as clear as the greenish orange glow. If they remained within the barrier too long, one by one they would pass out. When the sorceress lost consciousness, the barrier would fade, leaving them open to the dreadful death the rocks offered. If she dropped the barrier to refresh their air, the possibility of poisonous gas overtaking them remained prevalent. And of course, the deadly power of the rocks might wash over them in that single instant.
"We don't have much choice," Ryson admitted what they all now knew. "We can't just stay here. And we can't take too much time waiting around to figure out what might be waiting for us. We have to open this door and move on."
"But what if a trap waits just beyond this door?" Stephen offered the dreadful possibility with reluctance, but it needed to be addressed. "Simply plunging forward may be as deadly as waiting."
Holli took command with a cold, determined expression. "We have no choice. We know death waits for us here, which means we can't stay. Turning back will not bring us any closer to the sphere, so that is also not a choice. We must move ahead and that means going through this door. We knew we'd have to face the delver tier eventually, and now we must do so. But we will do so with the option that offers us the greatest chance of succeeding. I doubt simply opening the door will cause us danger. It has already been shifted by the passage of force and the seal has been broken. Tun, I want you to open the door while I stand ready at the opening. The rest of you, I want you to move as far back as the force field will permit."
Nearly everyone submitted, even Tun showed no reluctance at remaining in harm's way. Ryson, however, protested.
"It shouldn't be you," he demanded of Holli. "You should go back with the others. This is my responsibility."
"I will not argue with you on this, delver," she scolded him. "You are still needed. If there is an unknown threat at this point. I am best suited to deal with it."
"That's not true."
Tun glared at Ryson. "This is no time for heroes, delver. Do as you're told."
With a cold stare of his own, Ryson was ready and willing to respond to the dwarf, but another angry stare from Holli left him reeling with the realization he could not win. He stepped back with disgust.
As Holli took the bow from her shoulder and loaded an arrow, Ryson took hold of the sword's hilt with both hands. He steadied himself for the unknown, focused on what might wait beyond. He could not see the tier below them, but a clear wind of comprehension cleared the doubts and fears from his mind. In an instant, he understood the Delver secret.
"There's no danger," he muttered nearly unintelligibly.
Holli swerved her head about to meet the delver's gaze with a demanding stare of her own. "What?"
"There's no danger," he repeated.
Holli tried to reassess her position. She looked again at the stone door and then back to Ryson. "We can open the door without danger to us?" She attempted to confirm.
"Yes," he nodded, but with no explanation as to how this knowledge came to him.
Holli's jaw tightened. She turned back to the door. Her eyes bore down upon it as she called to Tun. "Open it."
With a sudden heave, the dwarf pulled upon the handle. The stone door broke free from its hinges. It cracked under its own weight, and a large piece fell with a thud to the ground.
With the door pulled away, Holli thrust her attention through the hole. She pulled back on the bow string as her eyes darted over everything which was in the path of her vision. The bow string remained in her grip, but the arrow would not fly. She stepped closer to the opening, and again her darting eyes scanned that which waited. Slowly, carefully, she released her tension on the bow string, returned the arrow to its quiver, and the bow to her shoulder.
"You were right," she exclaimed to Ryson. "There is no visible danger, but there is an obstacle. It is as I expected, the tunnel created by the sphere passes through the wall just beyond the door. The energy which created the breach also destroyed the stairs to the next tier."
Ryson's mind quickly calculated the situation. He stepped up to take a look for himself. His sword brought a shower of light upon the rubble beneath the hole. There was little of the stone steps remaining other than broken rocks. The distance to the floor was great, but the comprehension that still no danger existed within this tier brought him vast hope. He turned back to the others as he again sampled the air with a deep breath.
"We don't have much time, but I think we can make it. I have a short rope that will help us down. I'll go first and help catch you for the last distance you have to jump. The only one I'm worried about is Dzeb. My rope probably won't hold him and I know I can't catch him."
The cliff behemoth strolled calmly to the opening. He glanced down to the next level. The distance measured well over twice his own great height.
"I will jump," he stated as casually as if he were about to do nothing more than jump over a blade of grass.
"You can make it without injury?" Ryson questioned.
"I will not be harmed," Dzeb countered.
Ryson accepted the option. He doubted the cliff behemoth could have lied if he wanted to. "Then we'll have no problem at all. If you hold the rope, you can lower us down and I can take it from there."
"It will be as you say," Dzeb agreed.
Ryson dug quickly into his pouch and pulled out a short rope. It would not cover the full distance of the fall, but it would handle most of it. He gave one end to the cliff behemoth and turned to face the opening. He made his descent with a flash of speed, moving before Holli could issue another warning or perhaps request that she go first. He shimmied down the rope in the blink of an eye. He did so with the sword still in one hand. He jumped the last span, a distance which was nearly as long as he was tall. He leapt with no fear of injury and no fear as to what might wait within this tier. As he hit the ground, he remained certain that no danger would befall him.
He leaned the sword against a pile of rubble to free his two hands. The light increased in this tier, a result of the breach. With the tunnel so near, the sword was now reflecting more than just the light directed by Jon's gems.
The light sparkled off the hardened shell of Lauren's magically created shield. The spell barrier moved with him, expanded to cover the distance, but it appeared to weaken as it stretched. It remained enclosed as it extended up to the opening where Dzeb waited with the other end of the rope. Worried that the spell might fade, he called up for them to move quickly.
One by one they descended the rope. Ryson supported them the last small distance as they jumped into his guiding arms. As Dzeb stood alone, he dropped the rope. The others cleared aside as he prepared to jump. An awe-inspiring sight to be sure. The mammoth being plunged through the air and landed with the force of a giant boulder. The ground shook, but Dzeb kept his feet. He approached them as if nothing had happened.
With all again on one level, the force field constricted to cover a smaller area. The air, however, was truly becoming thin, and they could now all recognize the threat of the enclosed space.
Holli spoke quickly of their slim options. "We must be free of the barrier. Even now our time is growing short."
Lief pointed to the hole above their heads. "What of the tier above us. It still holds gas and the glowing rocks."
"The gas should remain within the tier," Stephen responded to the concern. "And the danger of the rocks can not affect us here; it will not pass through the heavy stone that surrounds us."
"But the passage remains open," Lief persisted.
"The rocks remain in the corners. As long as we do not walk in their direct path, we will remain safe."
"The tunnel will also offer ventilation to disburse the gas," Holli offered. "We have but one concern. We still do not know what waits on this tier, and we are running out of air."
"I tell you, no danger exists," Ryson reaffirmed his earlier remark.
Holli was about to question him, but Lief called to t
heir attention once more. "Look there!" He pointed to a rock wall to his left. The word "Beware" was carved deep into the stone. There was nothing else.
"Then what do you make of that?" Holli asked of Ryson.
"It's as much an illusion as the walls we walked through in the dwarf tier. There is no danger here." Ryson replied with such certainty that the elf guard did not know how to respond. The delver pointed his attention to Lauren. "You can drop the barrier now."
A wave of relief swept across her face. Maintaining the field constantly pulled upon her. It felt almost as if her very life was draining from her. She turned her focus upon the hardened shell of air with immediacy. The shadow of purple rose again in her eyes. As her sight drifted over the very edges of the barrier, the field dissolved.
With the first break in the shell, the surrounding air burst in with a loud pop. A rush breeze brushed against their waiting faces. Those that inhaled first did so almost reluctantly, fearing a lingering cloud of poisonous vapor. Small guarded breaths brought in the most meager mouthfuls. They stood silent, waiting, as if expecting one among them to fall to the ground. And one did.
It was Lauren. She collapsed as the last fragment of the barrier disappeared, but it was not poison which brought her downfall. The air held no toxin, only the faint mustiness of time and even that was being cleansed by the recent opening in the side of the mountain. Lauren fell unconscious out of fatigue.
Ryson caught her before she hit the ground. He pulled her to a far wall and leaned her shoulders against it.
"What's happened to her?" Stephen called out as he rushed to her side.
"It is the use of magic," the two algors answered in unison.
"Such long powerful spells exhaust the soul," one continued solo.
"She will need rest," followed the second algor.
"We can revive her with our healing," they finished in chorus.
They moved to Lauren with steady assurance and motioned for Ryson and Stephen to give them room. Each placed a hand on her shoulder and on her forehead. They were careful not to scratch Lauren's skin with their long, sharp claws. A thick green membrane slid over their bulging black eyes. They whispered something, again in unison, and Lauren's eyes fluttered open.
"What happened?" she asked with a raspy voice and hollow breath. She rubbed her eyes, trying to bring her vision back into focus. She barely recognized the fact that the two algors were now at her side.
The algors stood and stepped away as if they did nothing special while Stephen responded to the sorceress' question.
"You fainted," he replied as he knelt back down next to her. "The algors revived you."
"You will need to rest for a while before you are ready to walk, but you will not need sleep now," the algors stated together.
Lauren looked with confusion to Stephen. She ignored the delver who was also now back by her side.
The interpreter did his best to clear the confused look from her face. "The algors apparently have the power to revive as well as heal. They said using the magic exhausted you."
Lauren turned her attention upon her own hands. She rubbed them together lightly in front of her face. She felt the slight ache in her muscles, felt weariness in her back, but another sensation was much more prevalent. She tried to speak, but a long yawn interrupted her momentarily. After her lungs filled with the free air of the delver tier, she spoke with a stronger voice.
"It's more than that," she described. "I feel empty inside. Not just weak, but like I've lost something."
It was Lief who responded to this statement. "You've expended most of the magical energies which your body has stored over these past few days. That is the absence which you feel. Do not fear, though. Based on what I've seen, I would guess you will collect the energy quickly. The emptiness you now notice will dissolve."
Lauren stared at the elf with a mixed set of emotions, not knowing quite how to respond. Was it not so long ago that she would have given anything to be free of the magic power that filled her? Was it so hard to remember the moments when she despised her new found abilities? As for now, the reassurance that the power would return brought her more comfort than misery. She broke her gaze from the elf to return her stare to her hands. She mumbled something about needing to rest as she felt the energies pouring back into the core of her being. This time, she indeed welcomed the magic.
"Ryson!" It was Holli who called. She stood tensely. Her eyes darted about the open space they stood upon. She stood like a coil ready to spring. Her hand again held her bow and again an arrow rested in the string. "Explain to me why we stand carelessly about within Sanctum upon a tier we know nothing about. This is foolishness." Her words were strong, but she would not fix a stare upon him. She continued to scan every direction, waiting for a threat which she was sure would materialize in any moment.
"There is no threat here," Ryson responded as he reluctantly left Lauren's side. He knew he was as much responsible for her exhaustion as anyone else. He recommended, urged her, to help them forward. As well, he could not deny the animosity she now held toward him. He would have liked to extinguish the aversion she cast upon him, but he realized Lauren would not even acknowledge his presence. He sullenly approached Holli as he made his explanation. "You can relax. The only thing that was placed in this tier was that carving." He nodded to the warning which now stood upon the stone as more of a puzzle than a threat.
"There is nothing here?" Tun questioned with anger as well as doubt. "No secret? How can you expect us to believe that?"
"I didn't say there wasn't a secret," Ryson stated, flipping an annoyed response to the hostile dwarf. "The secret is that the delvers saw no reason to put anything in Sanctum as an obstacle." Ryson turned back to Holli as he continued his explanation. "I guess they didn't see a point to it. I can only assume they figured that with two tiers above and two tiers below this one, there was no need for another trap or a barrier. I guess they took the time to carve out the warning just to make it seem like something was being placed within, but there really isn't anything else here."
"How is it you know of this now?" Holli asked without accusation, but certainly with curiosity, and perhaps even doubt.
"It was the sword again," Ryson admitted, feeling somewhat foolish talking about a magic sword. "When you moved me back from the door, I concentrated on being prepared for anything that might wait for us here. As I held the sword, it all suddenly became clear to me. I just knew that this tier held no danger. In all honesty, I didn't know about the carving until I saw it, but when I did, I understood that as well. 'Beware', it's just a trick, a trick to make someone think that there's something more horrible in here than nothing. It's like when I knew how to deal with the vampire, I just know."
"I see," Holli immediately stood down from her ready position. The bow went back over her shoulder as she placed her focus on the surrounding rock.
The tier was only slightly larger than the one above. It contained the same stone pillars, and the same rock floor. There were, thankfully, no glowing rocks and no pools of liquid exuding poisonous vapors. The door to the next tier was located upon the floor nearer to the center of the cavern. It was within sight of them all, and it was closed tight.
The only true spectacle was the breach which burst through the mountainside. It also broke through the floor of this tier, creating another entry to the level below.
Holli stepped carefully up to the gaping hole. She tested the strength of the rock with a probing foot before placing any true weight upon it. Satisfied it would hold her, she stood at the very edge. The break in the floor was the same size as the tunnel which was carved through the wall. Its circular border was at least as tall and as wide as Dzeb.
Ryson moved to her side and joined the inspection. His eyes followed the trail of the newly formed tunnel which jutted upward at a steep angle. Its edges were much like those he inspected at Sanctum's exterior, and just as he noted when standing at the tunnel's conclusion, he saw the curve in the burrow.
For some reason, the blast did not break an arrows path through the rock wall. Instead, it bent enough so that there was no straight visual path. He concluded that the curve was as much a defense mechanism as the magical force field which sealed this tunnel.
His considerations and inspections were interrupted by the soft whisper from one behind.
"I may be too quick to draw a conclusion from this, but I believe I might see an advantage here for us to take hold." It was Lief who spoke quietly, guardedly, and only to the elf and the delver. "This may offer us a great opportunity," he pressed a finger to his chin as he considered his own proposal. "If the fissure in Sanctum creates a path directly to the sphere, we will no longer have to move as dictated by the construction of the tiers."
Holli raised an eyebrow, pondering the proposal with interest. Lief, however, was not able to continue unabated.
"What are you speaking of over there?" Tun fumed with rage over the attempt at a private conference. "What is it you wish to exclude the rest of us from?"
Lief almost exploded with rage. He turned about with fiery purpose. His brow knitted as his jaw tightened. The words of frustrated intolerance came to his tongue, but he bit them back. He remembered his previous vow of trust before going off on a tirade of his own. He took long moments to swallow his anger before finally responding. "My apologies, Tun. I have struck on an idea which might assist us and I wished to discuss it with my fellow elf."
"But the delver stands with you, too," Tun retorted. "The delver who even now states that we should believe him about no danger existing within this tier."
"My thoughts did not address this tier," Lief admitted. "My idea involves the very breach which the sphere uses to emit its energy to the land above. I wonder if we might be able to use it as a shortcut to the sphere itself."
Silence greeted the elf's announcement. All eyes, save Lauren's, were upon him, and they all waited for further clarification.
Delver Magic Book I: Sanctum's Breach Page 46
