Izzy laughed and shook her head. “You’re never going to let Henry live that down, are you?” she asked Gareth. A smug smile, and a shake of his head was her only response. Izzy knelt down to look Teesh in the eyes. “I happen to have it on good authority that a certain chef has offered to teach you how to make those cookies you love so much,” she said, sweetening the pot.
Teesh threw her arms up in the air in happiness. “Why didn’t you say that in the beginning?!” she asked. Before anyone could answer, Teesh ran off below decks to pester her favorite Chim into firing up the oven.
Izzy stood up, and chuckled at Gareth’s shocked expression. “You may speak more languages than anyone I know, but I still know how to speak ‘pre-teen girl’,” she told him. Izzy walked over to the railing, and picked up the backpack she was taking on their trip. “Come on, let’s see if we can find a steam carriage to rent,” she suggested, and made her way down the gangplank.
Six hours later, the away team found themselves nearing the foothills of Mt. Nexus. One of those hours had been spent haggling over the terms of the steam carriage rental. The rest of the time found them bouncing uncomfortably on the hard leather seats of the steam carriage, while it ate up the dirt packed road at an astonishing 30 miles per hour.
Tralnis threw another bar of compressed sugar cane husks into the hopper. He turned around to retake his seat behind Izzy who was driving the brass and wood contraption. He was sitting next to Elizabeth who had glared at the back of Gareth’s head for the entire trip. Izzy had invoked driver’s privilege, and chosen who got to sit next to her in the front seat.
Gareth turned around in the seat to look at Tralnis. “I thought of something while we’ve been driving,” he stated.
“You mean other than the fact that no one’s arse should be subjected to these seats for more than an hour,” Tralnis interjected.
“Yes, besides that. I’ve started to think that whoever hid these tablets did it to keep them away from Wizards,” Gareth theorized.
Izzy swung the steering yoke to the side, and then back again as she avoided a particularly large hole in the road. “Why do you say that?” she asked Gareth.
“It’s where they hid the tablets,” Gareth replied. “Both the underwater and jungle temple were built far away from any Leylines. The archeological dig where they found the first tablet was the same way. Any wizard who tried to go there would be forced to draw upon their internal reserves, instead of the magic of the Leylines,” he hypothesized.
Izzy nodded her head in understanding. “And any wizard who went to near this tablet would have their head go… sploosh. Makes sense,” she agreed.
Gareth unfolded a map they had purchased at the steam carriage dealership, and took a reading with a compass. He held out his free hand, and pointed a little to their left. “The coordinates look like they fall somewhere on that face of the mountain. Those boulders over there, I think,” he stated. Izzy nodded, cut back on the throttle, and turned the yoke so they could go off road.
When they finally came to a stop at the base of the volcano, Tralnis hopped out, and rubbed his sore backside with both hands. “Would someone mind telling me why we didn’t just rent a four man dirigible instead of this torture device?” he asked rhetorically.
A large black shadow passed over them, causing him to look upwards. The “bird” gliding on the magic induced thermals was easily twice the size of their steam carriage. It looked to be made mostly of pointed beak, sharp talons, and bad attitude.
“Question withdrawn,” Tralnis muttered.
Gareth got out of the steam carriage, and nearly jumped out of his skin when it gave out a loud hiss like a giant angry cat. Izzy hopped out, and gave him a comforting hug. “Sorry, I forget that not everybody grew up with both magical and mechanical engines,” she apologized. Pointing at a brass cylinder attached to the boiler, she explained, “That’s the steam compression chamber. If you leave it pressurized when you’re not using the engine, it can lead to stress fractures along the seams.” Gareth suddenly wondered if what he was feeling was what some of his first year students did. He had absolutely no idea what Izzy was talking about, and didn’t even know enough about the topic to guess at where to start asking questions.
Elizabeth was the last to hop out, and handed out the backpacks for the rest of the team. Izzy helped Elizabeth slip her own backpack over her mechanical arm. “Thanks…” Elizabeth started to say before she stopped in mid-sentence, and cocked her head to the side. She squinted her remaining eye, as she tried to make out something coming towards them. “Izzy, you know how I have no depth perception. Look back the way we came, and tell me those are just regular sized birds coming towards us,” she whispered.
Izzy looked in the direction indicated, and saw the giant bird from earlier had friends who were curious as to what had made that loud hissing sound. She suddenly knew what a rabbit felt like when an eagle was overhead. “Gareth, now would be a really good time to make our way to those boulders you pointed out,” she suggested firmly.
Tralnis and Gareth looked back at her, and then at the rapidly closing flock of giant birds. “RUN!” Gareth ordered, and then took his own advice when the others hurried past him on the way to the safety of the boulders. As he ran, Gareth slipped the Void Rod out of its holster. He briefly cursed the universe as the rod steadfastly refused to change into a staff, no matter how much he wanted it to.
Gareth had almost made it to the safety of the boulders, when the sun was blocked out by a huge avian predator above him. He felt a strong wind on the back of his neck caused by the bird flaring its wings in the final part of its dive. Dropping to one knee, he flung up the arm holding the Void Rod in a last gesture of defiance. The black weapon struck the outstretched talon with a loud crack, right on its lowest knuckle. Gareth’s ears were nearly blown out when the bird gave a loud scream of pain and broke off its attack.
Gareth got back up, and finished his race to the boulders. He was relieved to find the others crouched at the base of the rocks where the birds couldn’t reach them. After catching his breath, and confirming the birds really weren’t able to fit into the crevices between the boulders, Gareth looked around at where they hid. He blinked a few times to make sure he was reading the inscription on the boulder in front of him correctly.
Tralnis followed Gareth’s gaze, and noticed the inscription for the first time. It was more of the strange flowing script of the language Gareth was the only one able to read. Next to the runes was the outline of a humanoid hand. “Don’t keep us in suspense, what does it say?” Tralnis inquired.
Gareth rubbed his chin in thought. “I’m not really sure. The first word is ‘emergency’ but the last word could either mean ‘entrance’ or ‘exit’. Without more words to figure out context, I don’t know which it is,” he admitted.
Tralnis waved his hands at the runes in between the first and last ones. “All right then, what do those say?” he asked.
Gareth’s mind was busy trying to infer context from the environment around him. “Oh those… they say ‘press circle to open’,” he translated. Gareth leaned closer to look at the boulder. “There’s more written below it, but it’s too worn down. I can’t make out what it says,” he muttered.
Elizabeth rolled her good eye at the lack of common sense that seemed to plague most intellectuals. She stepped forward, and pushed the outline of a hand with her three fingered mechanical hand. She did this just as Gareth managed to piece together what the second set of runes meant.
“No! Wait!” Gareth yelled as Elizabeth pushed the button. A split second later, the ground gave out below them as a large trapdoor swung open. The rest of what he said was lost as they fell into a vertical shaft leading deep under the Nexus Volcano.
Chapter 26
The vertical shaft they fell down slowly sloped so the away team eventually found themselves sliding on their backs along the shaft wall. The “wall” soon became the “floor” as the angle of the shaft shifted even more
. Halfway through their slide into the bowels of Mt. Nexus, the tube split. It sent Elizabeth and Gareth down the left fork, while Izzy and Tralnis slid off to the right.
A large hole in the tan stone walls of a room large enough to park a dozen steam carriages in spat out Elizabeth and Gareth. They went skidding across the polished marble floor to land in a heap on the far wall. Gareth sat up shakily, and glared at Elizabeth. “I figured out what those other runes meant right before you pushed the button. They said ‘WARNING - door opens down’. Don’t you think that would have been good information to have, Captain?” he snarled. Instead of replying verbally, Elizabeth folded in two of her mechanical fingers, while extending the other one out straight in a passable approximation of a popular rude hand gesture.
Once they had both gotten back on their feet, Gareth slowly turned around to get a look at where they were. Metal arms, with clear glowing crystals at the ends, were spaced evenly along the walls, bathing the room in light. Apart from the large hole in the wall they came through, the only other way out seemed to be a set of steel doors to their right.
Wanting to make sure they didn’t rush into anything, Gareth walked over to the opposite wall to inspect the tube that led to the surface. He stuck his head in, and craned his neck to look back the way he came. With his hand, he felt the extremely smooth walls of the tube. “Going back this way is out. There’s no way we could get any sort of traction on these walls. Looks like we use the doors,” he announced, after pulling his head back into the room.
Elizabeth spun on her heel, and stalked over to the door. She restrained her natural urge to just throw the doors open when she saw more of the strange writing stamped directly into the metal. “All right, Professor, what do these say?” she inquired tersely.
Gareth joined her by the door. “Like the boulder topside, this first rune means ‘warning’,” he stated. He frowned as he ran his hand over the other rune. “This one I don’t recognize. It’s similar to ‘animal’, but looks like it has the rune for ‘changed’ overlaying it,” he explained.
“Warning, changed animal,” Elizabeth said slowly. She let her mind wander, and thought about how the people who had built these ancient structures were fond of traps. She also thought about how the magic of the Leyline nexus could warp reality around it. “There is absolutely no way that could be a good thing,” she muttered loud enough for Gareth to hear. He nodded his head in full agreement. Elizabeth looked up at the doors, and saw they were hung in such a way that they only opened away from them. “Here is what we are going to do. We’ll open the door just wide enough for me to peek through. If there is some sort of deadly creature on the other side, we close the door right away,” she ordered, reasserting her authority as Captain.
Not having a better plan, Gareth said, “Let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll push the right door open an inch or two.”
“Let’s do it,” Elizabeth said. Gareth pushed the heavy steel door with all of his weight, and managed to get it open a couple of inches. He stood aside so Elizabeth could peek through the narrow opening with her one good eye. She placed her face against the cool metal of the shut door and turned her head to look at what terror lay on the other side. Elizabeth leaned back, and rubbed her eye before looking for a second time.
“What is it? What do you see?” Gareth asked anxiously.
“A duck,” Elizabeth said simply.
“A duck?” Gareth echoed, not sure he heard right.
Elizabeth straightened up, and shook her head in confusion. “That’s what I said… a duck. Look for yourself,” she ordered while pushing on the left door to make an opening wide enough for Gareth to get his whole head through.
Gareth stepped in front of the opening, and stared at the surreal scene in front of him. Just like Elizabeth had said, an innocent looking duck stood amid debris littering the hallway floor. The duck was mostly white, with a band of emerald green feathers around its neck. It took Gareth a moment before his brain reengaged, and he realized what the debris on the floor around the duck was. Scattered around were the picked clean bones of several large animals. He guessed the largest of the skeletons belonged to one of the giant birds of prey they had met earlier. “What the hells?!” Gareth swore, thoroughly confused.
The noise at the end of the hall drew the duck’s attention. It took one look at Gareth before opening up its beak to show rows of tiny, razor sharp teeth. With a sound halfway between a hiss and a loud quack, it started waddling towards the partly opened doors. The ceiling was too low for it to fly properly.
“Close the doors! Close the doors!” Gareth shouted while he tried to pull the doors shut. The heavy steel doors refused to move other than to open a little farther.
Elizabeth rolled her eye. “It’s just a duck,” she chided Gareth.
“With sharp teeth, and a really hungry look in its eye,” Gareth added.
Not bothering to reply to that bit of information, Elizabeth grabbed a hold of the edge of the door, and pulled with all of her might. Like Gareth, she had no luck pulling the doors shut. She spun around to look at Gareth. “Any suggestions, Profess-…Aaaaaah!” she started to ask before screaming in pain. The duck turned out to be able to waddle much faster than either of them had expected. When it reach them, it decided to bite the first target that presented itself.
Elizabeth stumbled into the room with the duck hanging by its bill full of sharp teeth from her posterior. After drawing her pistol, she turned around frantically, trying to either dislodge the evil water fowl, or get a clear shot at it.
Gareth was torn. He knew he should help Elizabeth, but he couldn’t help laughing at how ridiculous it all looked. He was urged into action by Elizabeth’s shout of, “Get this bloody thing off of me!” Not wanting to get his hands anywhere near those razor sharp teeth, Gareth drew the Void Rod from its holster. He waited until Elizabeth turned her backside towards him before taking a swing at the dastardly duck. The Void Rod connected with the duck’s body, and sent it sailing across the room. Elizabeth spun around, took quick aim, and emptied all six shots from her revolver into the “changed animal”. Afterwards, the air was full of feathers and the smells of gunpowder and blood.
Elizabeth looked at the remains of the duck, and smiled at her handiwork. Her smile slipped when she suddenly became dizzy, and was forced to sit down before she fell over. She knew something was very wrong when her vision started to slowly fade, while the sounds of Gareth walking towards her seemed muffled slightly. Shifting her position, Elizabeth used the brass of her mechanical arm to look at the reflection of the wound on her butt. Sickly green fluid leaked out of bite mark left by the despicable duck. “You have got to be kidding me!” she swore with less strength than she would have liked. “Just so you know, I blame you, Professor,” Elizabeth she told him.
Gareth hurried over to Elizabeth, and took a quick look at her wound. Through the rips in her leather pants, he was able to see black streaks radiating out from the bite mark. “Damn it! Why did we have to get separated from Tralnis? He said wherever he goes, he always carries around at least one dose of Dwarvish All Purpose Anti-venom with him,” he lamented.
Elizabeth reached up, and weakly tugged on Gareth’s arm to get him to lean closer. The edges of her vision were going black, and she knew she didn’t have much time left. “Take care of her,” she ordered weakly.
“No matter what happens, I’ll always look after Izzy,” he promised, a tear starting to form at the corner of his eye.
Elizabeth rolled her eye, and shook her head. “Not her, you idiot! I mean the Glorious Dawn. For some reason, the crew looks up to you. You should be her next Captain,” she said as if the words tasted terrible in her mouth. “But while we’re on the subject, if you hurt my baby sister, I’ll claw my way out of whichever hell I end up in, and drag your screaming soul back down with me,” she promised before she lapsed into unconsciousness.
One of the large stone blocks forming the wall adjacent to the doors slid noisily aside
to reveal a narrow dimly lit tunnel. Tralnis stepped out, and was followed shortly thereafter by Izzy. “See, I told you we Dwarves know a secret passageway when we see one!” Tralnis boasted. He staggered as Izzy accidently shoved him aside. She ran to where Gareth was kneeling over the still form of her sister. Tralnis followed right on Izzy’s heels.
Gareth stood up to give both Izzy and Tralnis access to Elizabeth. The Dwarf doctor leaned his head down, and put his ear to the Captain’s chest. “Her heart beat is faint, and her skin is clammy,” he announced. “What happened to her?” he asked quickly.
No longer seeing any humor in the situation, Gareth replied, “She was bit by a venomous duck.”
“What?!” Izzy exclaimed. Gareth pointed towards the feather covered carcass, and then motioned for Tralnis to roll Elizabeth onto her stomach. Both Tralnis and Izzy gawked at the strange bite marks.
“Looks like Elizabeth is lucky I have some Dwarvish All Purpose Anti-venom with me,” Tralnis chuckled.
“Tralnis, we lost your backpack when we crossed that rope bridge over the lava, remember?” Izzy reminded him. She now wished Tralnis hadn’t lunged forward to keep her from falling into the lava earlier. If he hadn’t done that, he would still have his backpack, and the medicine needed to save her sister’s life.
“Um… well… yes, that’s true but… all right you two, I’m about to let you in on a very closely guarded secret of the Dwarvish nation,” Tralnis stammered. “There were, and still are, a lot of poisonous nasties in the underground realms where my ancestors came from. To combat that, we Dwarves evolved so that our bodies produced a very special enzyme. An enzyme that breaks down, and neutralizes any sort of venom. As it turns out, this enzyme still does it job outside of a Dwarf’s body,” he told them.
Gareth and th Lost Island Page 21
