“You think little of your magic Maiden. My wounds are sealed and my strength is almost as it were before my battle with the beast. You saved me; my life will I forfeit for the task. This undertaking is naught but a small thing. Let me enter the chamber and bring back all its content.”
Amari fingers the hilt of Katana while thinking. “If you say this task is worthy of you, then so be it. However, mind your body. If it pains you, stop.”
The elf nods in agreement.
The Maiden picks up a twig from the ground. “Here hold this Fin.”
The elf takes the stick, not sure what to do with it.
Amari passes her hand over the end, and it bursts into flame. It is an ancient magic fire. Neither growing hot nor consuming the wood. “This will burn and light your way until I command it to cease. Stand ready, as I will lift you in the same manner as Dian and Natsha.”
Fin can feel a pressure and a warmth that surrounds his body. In moments, his feet dangle off the ground. He is giddy at the sensation of flying. Not actual flying he muses, but close to the feeling.
He sails up to Natsha, who reaches out to take him. “Come here little one.”
She places him in the crook of the tree. Lifting her tunic, it exposes a length of rope wrapped about her body. She grasps the end stuck in a loop and unwinds several turns.
Fastening a make-shift harness, she has Fin put his arms in the coil. Lifting him with no effort, she lowers the elf down to Dian, who is waiting with outstretched arms.
Straddling the cavity, she smiles at the elf and lowers him into the hole. He points the magic torch down to light his way. His feet, body and head disappear into the hollow. The glow of the torch shows him descending.
Up above, Natsha continues unwinding the rope about her middle. “I only have a few more turns Dian. If he has not reached the bottom, then I will release my end so you can continue lowering him further.”
As the last turn of the coiled rope leaves her waist, and before she can let go of the end, a distant shout can be heard from within the tree.
“I have reached the top of winding stairs. It appears to go even further down into the earth. I am going to undo this rope so I am not tethered and can move about.”
“No!” Yells Dian down into the darkness. “If something were to befall you Fin—I cannot pull you back out.”
“Fear not warrior sister. This be my task, fraught with danger or not.”
The rope goes limp. She pulls several lengths, but there is no resistance. She stops and feeds the rope back down into the hole. It must be there when he is ready to tie it about himself.
“Fin…Fin!” Dain screams into the blackness.
No answer, as he has indeed loosened the rope and is descending the stairs.
“What is going on up there?” Amari yells.
Natsha leans over the edge and looks down. “That crazy elf took the rope off and is descending some stairs according to Dian. She calls to him, but he does not answer.”
Amari closes her eyes and tries to see inside the tree with her powerful vision. Her mind cannot venture even past the course bark under her hands. “This wood is pulsing with magic, and I cannot see within. I have no sight if anything befalls our new ally.”
As if the tree was alive, the wooden key just above their heads pops from the hole and falls to the ground. The trunk and the four adjoining trees quiver and vibrate.
Amari yells back up again. “Natsha, you and Dian come out of there quickly. I am afraid the spell of the opening has finished its time. The trees above are starting to twist back together.”
Natsha looks up over her head and watches as the four trees slowly inch closer together. “What about Fin below?” Natsha yells back down. “He will be crushed, and we cannot do anything to help him.”
“We will deal with that in a bit. If he indeed traveled lower, even into the earth itself, he may be safe. Tell Dian to come where you are.”
Natsha peers back to the joining of the trees and the closing hole; she sees Dian watching her. “Come back up here quickly. Amari says the tree is closing.”
“What about the elf?”
“Nothing we can do now—hurry!”
Dian works her way back up to Natsha. As her head crests the rim of where the four trees are joined, Natsha can feel herself being lifted and lowered back to the others.
As Natsha is half-way down, the four trees begin to wind back together faster and faster.
Dian is hanging onto the outside of one of the trees as not to be caught when the trunks come together. A sudden jerking of one and it throws Dian from her perch. She clutches at the air and cannot right herself, as she tumbles headfirst toward the hard ground.
Amari yells to Natsha, who is still several meters up in the air—“sister!”
No thoughts or further words pass between them, but Natsha understands. The comforting lifting pressure stops and she falls. As she hits the ground, Natsha lets her legs buckle, tucks her body and rolls. The shock of hitting the ground is absorbed throughout her frame.
At the same time, Dian’s downward plummet is stopped, and she hovers upside down. The ground just inches from her fragile face.
“That was close,” she breathes.
The Maiden Witch spins Dian’s body and then lowers her to a soft landing on her feet.
“Thank you both,” she says to Amari and to Natsha. She helps Natsha to her feet. “Are you ok?”
“Yes, I have fallen from higher places. It took a few of those tumbles before I learned the proper way to land without splintering my legs. When I realized what Amari had to do to save you, I was ready for the fall.”
The sound of bark on bark stops as the upper parts of the tree is once again twisted together.
“Poor little elf” Gareth says. “He will be remembered. What is our plan now Maiden? We still do not have the amulet to guide us to what we seek.
Amari turns to Natsha and Dian. “You said Fin was about to descend winding stairs. Then he must be well below the level of where the four trees twist together and cover the cavity. He might be safe somewhere below. The torch will continue to give him light.”
“How do we get him out? Truk asks.
“I will show you,” Gareth says while pulling Helixx from his side and standing closer to the tree. Flexing his arms and taking a solid stance, he draws back and swings his sword as if it were an axe. It slices neatly through the bark and into the soft wood below. He turns and smiles at the others while still grasping the hilt of the elemental earth sword.
“That will not work,” Holl-tu says while rubbing his hand on the side away from where Gareth’s sword has bitten into the tree.
“Why will it not? Look what my first blow did. I can make short work of this tree and free the elf. This is what we should have done in the first place to gain access.”
“You would think so? Pull your sword away from the tree.”
Gareth removes Helixx from the cut. As the enchanted earth blade moves away from the tree, the slice in the wood and bark closes up. Not even a slight mark to where the blow was made is left.
“What magic is this? I thought nothing could defeat this blade?”
“Yes magic it is. Amari tried to see the elf within and could not as there was magic about this wood. You could swing and chop until you dropped dead away, but never win through in order to bring this mighty tree down. It will continually heal itself. This is old earth magic, long before man placed one foot in front of the other.”
Gareth returns the sword to his side. “Then all hope is lost in freeing the wee creature. He is the only one who possessed the touch which opened the wooden portal!”
“There has to be another way to get in there. Can we not dig under?” Dian asks.
“No,” says Holl-tu. “This is a Wizard’s Oak. I should have realized what it was when I saw the twisted trunks. The magic within extends well into the earth and its roots. The hole you dig would never be deep enough.”
Truk ta
ps the tree with his fist. “Then our quest is halted until we can retrieve the Greek Amulet?”
No one says anything. They stand next to each other and look at the oak…perplexed. One by one, they circle the huge tree, hoping to devise a plan on how to open the portal again.
Even Amari is mystified. She has no magic spell that will work here.
Holl-tu gives them a short history of the Wizard’s Oak and how it came to be. To his knowledge, nothing can win past the magic embedded in this wooden barrier. “This earth magic has been around long before man walked this land.”
Much later, as the warriors are still there facing the tree, a small man-like creature comes from behind and stands beside the Maiden. No one save Amari notices he is there.
She looks to the elf at her side and smiles while patting his small shoulder. “How was your journey little one?”
“Tiresome Maiden…I am glad to be in the sun again.”
On hearing the elf speak, the others gather around him. Natsha gives him a bone-creaking hug. Gareth pats him on the back, almost sending the small one tumbling over if not for Holl-tu catching him.
“Sorry Fin,” Gareth says. “I am glad you are here, but how did you escape the tree?”
Fin walks over to the massive trunk, and touches the tree and says. “I felt rather than heard the tree closing above. I ran to the top of the stairs. The opening was shut and not a hint of light shone where once there was sky. I thank the Maiden for the wondrous torch that neither consumed itself nor went out.”
“You are most welcome brave one.” She says.
“Retracing my steps down again, I had to crawl on hands and knees through some of the earthen tunnels. At the end of one of the passages, I found a stone alter. Upon it were these objects.” He pulls the magic flute from his belt, and from his tunic pocket—the amulet. He still carries the burning branch Amari gave him in the other hand.
Amari wraps her hand around his tiny fist holding the torch. She purses her lips and gives the flame a soft blow; the torch goes out, sputtering as it dies.
Fin drops the branch on the ground.
Dian moves next to Fin and touches the elf’s shoulder. “Lanz told us that the flute is held within glass. How did you win past that without damaging the flute?”
“Tis a strange thing. I could see the flute inside the dust covered crystal box. When I tried to brush the dust from its surface to gain a better look; the glass shimmered, then just disappeared.”
“Do you not see?” The Maiden says. “The key was not that round totem you wore, but in truth—you. Only you could unlock and enter the tree portal where we could not. Your touch alone removed the protective glass without breaking it and possibly damaging the flute from ever being used. You were meant to find and return what we sought. Please continue warrior.”
“I searched the other tunnels, but most were just dead ends. Although, I did find one passage that ended in a chamber that contained the remains of several of my kind. I can only imagine they may have the ones who built the maze of tunnels and passages I crawled through.”
“Could you tell how they died?” Holl-tu asks.
Fin thinks on it for a few moments. “There were no wounds or violent death marks. It could have been age or the lack of proper air. I felt light-headed a few times, but I was only underground for a short time. They would have been down there longer, and the weak air would have made them go to sleep…I suppose.”
“It is sad.” Amari says with a tremble in her voice. “No one knew they are there; except for you. There may be kin somewhere that would like to know they have been found.”
The elf shakes his head. “It will be difficult removing the bodies at best. I could barely squeeze through some of the tight spaces. Your large forms would never fit down there.
My village is not far from here. I will go and tell of what I discovered. Some may know of them who are missing. Two other elf villages are much further away. I will have someone send word. It could be they have been down there for hundreds of years—any kin would be dust now?”
“How is it after all the blind dead ends you were able to free yourself from the grave below?” Gareth asks while tapping the tree with his sword.
“As things work out, it was the last burrow I ventured. The passage went on for a considerable way. The tunnel ended at a wooden ladder. It was set in the passage floor and went down. With nothing to lose—I ventured further below. At the bottom was another passage that went on for a short way. It led to a ladder going up. I lost my bearings and did not know which way was east or south. The ladder going up ended at a rough wooden door. Pushing it open, I came out another tree.” He points behind the others. “It was that one over there.”
They all look to see an open bark covered door in the side of a tree trunk a stone’s throw away.
Amari puts her hand on Fin’s shoulder. “You said that a life-debt was owed to us for saving your life. I would say that was repaid for finding these items here.”
He holds the objects up and she takes the flute and brass amulet from the elf.
“We release you to go back to your people little one. The name Finwë Elensar will be sung in the Chronicles of the Warriors who fight for the Light.”
“Hear…hear” the others shout.
The elf looks up at the face of the Maiden. “My task was to find what was lost. My Bloodoath is to give my spirit to you and your cause. Only then with the debt be repaid.”
“I cannot fault your debt Fin; join us, I am sure you will be a worthy warrior.”
“Yes, he can go in low below the swings of our foes and chop at their ankles.” Gareth says while laughing.
Natsha gives the big man a slap to the back of his head. “That was mean Gareth!”
“It is alright. “What he says has some measure of truth. I have brought down many an adversary by starting at the knees and working my way up their bodies, always finding chinks in the armor. Once they fall, I am the taller to deal the final blow.”
Gareth stares hard at Fin, as if seeing this small elf can give as well as take. He bends down to bring his face nearer to Fin. “I would be honored little warrior if you would rode on my shoulders during our journey.”
“The honor would be mine wielder of the Earth Kcaj. Now my faithful steed, hoist me up.”
This brings a round of laughter from everyone, including Gareth.
The Maiden tells the others to gather their gear and make ready to travel.
Once the Amari is sure everyone is ready, she holds the amulet in front of her. She hands the flute to Dian. “My sense is telling me you have played one of these before.”
“Your inner voice speaks true Maiden. It was before the curse set upon me by your kin. I would go from village to village, and play a Shawm and Cittern for five pence or a pfennig. It would be enough to buy food or meager lodgings.”
Dian takes the flute and turns it over in her small hands. “It is not unlike the Shawm I played, except this one has fewer note holes. I am at a loss to what tune will awaken the amulet?”
Holl-tu comes up behind Dian. “Play anything. We will see if any of the notes stir the device.”
Dian nods her head to the wizard and brings the ancient flute to her lips. Taking a breath, she blows into the end while placing fingers over some of the holes. A harsh sound echoes across the fields. The brash notes hurt everyone’s ears.
“Dian please,” says Truk. “It sounds like you are slaying a pig!”
“Sorry—it has been ages since I held one of these. I am a bit unpracticed. Let me try again.”
She gathers another breath and tries softer this time. The note is not so abrasive. The tone following is quite nice and seems to soothe the mind. Thinking of an ancient tune, Dian plays this time without a wrong note. The tones seem to hang in the air. Like learning to walk as a child, the skill of playing the flute comes back to her. She smiles between puffs on the reed.
All the while, Amari, Holl-tu and the elf sitting on G
areth’s shoulders are watching for anything happening with the amulet. The round silver talisman with the clouded gray crystal set into the center—does nothing.
“Try another tune Dian,” Says Gareth.
Holl-tu raises his hand. “Wait, I remember something from years ago. It was a time well before any of you walked this earth. We sorcerers knew of an ancient Greek Wizard named Arvas. He cast many an amulet and trinket. This talisman may be one of those by his hand. Do you know any Greek melodies Dian?”
“I know of only one wizard.” Dian thinks on the series of notes which comprise the tune. She takes another deep breath, puts the instrument to her lips and begins to play.
Part way through the melody, the amulet center stone clears for a brief moment, and a red pulsating line appears. As she continues with the melody, it disappears.
“Dian,” Amari says aloud. “It was there somewhere in the last series of notes. Go back and start again, but slowly.
Dian draws a breath and starts over. Somewhere around the eighteenth note, the jewel clears and the red line appears.
“That’s it sister! It was in the last two or three notes. Play them again—one note at a time.”
Dian does as requested. On the third note, the cloudy stone clears and the thin red line stays visible longer.
“That is the one. Keep playing that same musical note Dian.”
While she plays, Amari is holding the amulet in front of her. She turns around in a circle several times. The red line stays pointed in the same direction, no matter which way Amari turns.
The Maiden points to the west—“that way!”
Chapter 17 – What lies below
The path the Greek Amulet leads the warriors is not in a straight line. It weaves to the left and right numerous times; over hills, through rivers and streams; always pointing west.
As they travel, Amari makes a note of the device in her hand. “The red line grows shorter as we travel. I suspect when we come closer to our goal it will disappear entirely.”
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