Theus slowly edged forward, sliding his feet carefully as the current pressed against his back. He passed the stationary granitine, then stepped cautiously up onto the first of the steps in place, and then the second.
He was largely out of the water, leaning forward to feel the stone that he was supposed to sit on. He balanced his staff and pack with one hand, while the other helped him maneuver, and then he slipped into a sitting position and began to be pressed by the current behind him.
Theus started to slide forward. The stone floor of the new chamber slanted slightly downward; it was slick and smooth, and he picked up momentum quickly. He was soon alarmed by the speed with which he flew along in the darkness.
And then the glowing granitines suddenly joined him in the headlong sprint. They accompanied him as the chamber floor rose and dipped slightly, or twisted and turned from time to time.
And suddenly, just as he was accepting the ride and starting to find it exhilarating and enjoyable, he rounded a turn, saw bright light ahead, and shot out of the cave. He flew through the air for a moment, then splashed into a shallow pool, lit by the reflected red light from a setting sun.
He had arrived in Limber.
Chapter 15
Theus sat in the basin of water, feeling the shower of water from the cave splash down on him, and he looked around. He was sitting among large stone structures that were seated in a mountain valley, with peaks rising far overhead in every direction and the red western sky was behind him. He heard a series of splashes, and turned momentarily to see the four granitines land in the basin behind him.
The buildings he saw appeared to extend off in the distance. He saw a large, wide road that drew a straight line leading south away from the water-filled, white stone basin he sat in. Along the road were uncountable buildings, testifying to the grandeur and immensity of the city he had entered.
Yet it all sat empty, and all of the buildings showed signs of decay and disuse. Weeds grew in some seams between blocks of stone, a few columns had toppled over, and some roofs had collapsed.
“This is Limber?” Theus asked in awe. He stood up and stepped forward, out of the spray of the water that was striking him.
“This is the city of the Father, the city where once there were a great many people, the city where the temple once was daily filled with worshippers,” Rocky confirmed.
“I did it; I reached Limber!” Theus exulted.
“With a great deal of help,” Crystal pointed out.
“Voice, I’m here!” Theus shouted aloud.
“And there are no other people here, none anywhere in the city?” Theus asked.
“You are the first to arrive in centuries,” one of the granitines confirmed.
“So, what should I do now? Voice, what do I do now?” Theus asked out loud.
“Who is this Voice you talk to?” Gem asked.
“He is the guide who had been telling me things to do and places to go for several months,” Theus answered. “He told me to come to Limber. He says that I will have to fight the black magicians,” he added in a lower voice.
“You’re not a very good white magician; how can you fight the black magicians?” Sandy asked.
“Coming here will help me fight them,” Theus answered uncertainly.
“I’m here. For the moment, that’s all that matters,” he said more confidently.
The light in the city was mostly coming off the peaks of the mountains in the east, reflections of the sun as it set in the western sky. The sky overhead was growing darker with every passing minute.
“Where should I spend the night?” Theus asked. “I want to eat, and I want to get dry and warm.”
“We should take him to the temple,” Crystal spoke to the other granitines. “He can rest there, and be ready when he is called.”
“To the temple!” the others cried in agreement, and they all moved forward, rolling up to the walls of the basin, then over them and out into the city.
Theus followed, and was led out into the wide boulevard, and then down the center of the road for several minutes, until the group of moving stones veered to the left.
The building they approached could only be identified as a temple. It was faced in white stone, with heavy, wide dark columns that lined it on all sides. The central doorway was massive, and still held colossal metal doors that were sealed, while numerous human-sized doors were open on either side. Theus followed the granitines as they rolled up the short set of steps to the temple, then entered one of the side doors.
Inside the temple was without any light, until the granitines began to glow brightly. They bustled on through the antechamber, and entered a side door, then led Theus down a hallway, and into an empty room.
“Here, we think this is a good room for you,” Crystal informed Theus. He put down his staff and his pack, then removed his sword and his knife.
“It’ll do,” he agreed. “And in the morning I’ll have to get someplace where I can sit in the sun to warm up,” he commented.
The room grew suddenly dim. Theus looked up from the pack he was opening, and discovered that Rocky and Sandy had ceased to glow brightly to illuminate the room, and instead had begun to exhibit a ruddy red glow. As he looked at them, he began to feel warmth.
“We can provide some heat for you,” they announced.
“Thank you,” Theus said enthusiastically. “That feels wonderful!”
He sat contentedly and ate a meal while the warmth from the stones warmed his body and also his clothes.
He lay back on the floor when he was done with the food, and propped his head on his pack. He was tired. He’d come through a long and uncertain day of travel, and now he was at his destination, though he didn’t know what to do.
He could sleep, and worry about it in the morning, he decided. And so he quickly fell asleep.
Chapter 16
Theus work up early the next morning, arising because his room had grown too warm from the granitines’ ongoing efforts. He caused his hand to glow, to add his own light as a supplement to the reddish light the stone guides were providing.
“Shall we go out and see the city?” he suggested.
The quartet of creatures filed out of the room and down the hall, leading Theus back to the open space where the temple fronted the street.
“Voice, what should I do? You said I’d learn things here, and you said something about a weapon,” Theus tried to recollect the predictions his guide had made over the course of his recent adventures.
He waited for an answer, and looked around the city in the meantime. The sun was rising in the east. The mountains to the east of the city were hardly elevated very much above the level of the city, so that Limber was afforded a good view of the eastern horizon, and Theus could see the sun rising, already streaming its rays in hues that were yellow and golden. The parts of Limber that he could see were inspiring, sights that indicated there had been great commerce and vitality in the city once upon a time.
“How could this city have ever been beaten?” Theus softly asked himself, imagining what it must have been like when it was alive with humanity.
“There were so many plagues,” Gem replied. “There were the deadly illnesses and the infestations.”
“And don’t forget the assassinations,” Rocky pointed out.
“And the blizzards in the last winters,” Sandy said.
“And then the earthquakes and the upheavals; our poor city,” Crystal summed up. “It suffered so terribly.”
“My mother’s family came from Limber,” Theus told his companions.
“Of course! That makes sense. That’s why the Father would be willing to allow you to come,” Crystal said brightly.
“Would you show me around?” Theus asked.
And so began a day of tourism, of getting to know the city, as the small group wandered about the city, from location to location. As they went, more granitines popped up into view, curious to know about the human that had come to the city, the
first in centuries.
The number of granitines that traveled with Theus grew as more of them learned about him, and by midday over a score were on the move, sometimes making it difficult for Theus to walk into the palace or the market or the library or the court building.
“How many of you are there?” he asked in a slightly exasperated voice at midday.
“Three hundred and two,” Crystal replied. “Would you like for me to call them all together for you to see?”
“Heaven, no!” Theus quickly replied. “It’s hard enough to get around now.”
He sat down atop a fallen column on the edge of an empty plaza and ate his lunch, while the stone creatures mostly sat in place, or a few of them slowly meandered about. The sun was shining, and the city felt warm and strangely welcoming.
“I almost think the buildings are happy to have a person here again,” Theus said idly to Crystal. He could imagine a lunch time crowd at the plaza, similar to the lunches he had enjoyed in Great Forks, where apprentices had eaten food from vendors, while businessmen had strolled through, and a market had drawn shoppers.
“They are; we all are. We hope your appearance means that the city is going to come back to life someday soon,” Crystal agreed.
“You should go visit the temple now, and study it well. You will need to know it intimately very soon,” the Voice spoke to Theus unexpectedly.
“The temple?” he asked.
“We’d love to show you the temple,” Crystal said brightly. “We’re going to the temple, everyone,” she announced to the crowd.
The crowd of granitines broke into a flurry of movement and noise, then they started racing ahead of Theus in the direction of the great boulevard that led to the temple location.
He followed the herd to the temple, and then found with amusement and appreciation that every one of the creatures turned into a beacon of illumination, bringing the brightness of day light to the interior of the temple, in every hallway, room, and corridor he inspected.
The main sanctuary was a vast hall that contained a stylized miniature mountain in a central space, one that had a ramp that allowed worshippers to climb to the top and then climb back down, while four levels of balconies ringed the room on all sides to allow more worshippers to look at the mountain and observe ceremonies.
When his tour of the facility was finished, Theus went back to the room he had slept in the night before. Most of the granitines scattered, except for the four from the journey through the cave, who stayed with him.
His clothes were dry, the room was warmer, he had food to eat, and he hadn’t used his energy for white magic at all that day. Theus felt good.
He hadn’t learned anything urgent or surprising. The Voice hadn’t given him anything to consider, do, think about, or worry upon. He was surprised, but willing to wait.
He readily fell sleep, and slept without dreams.
And then the Voice awoke him in the morning with an ominous warning.
“There are black magicians in the city Theus. They come to ransack the temple. You must defend it!” the Voice spoke shrilly in his ear.
Theus sat up, wide awake and in shock.
“Granitines!” he shouted. “Wake up!”
“How did this happen? How did they get here? Why didn’t you tell me sooner? What are they looking for? How do we stop them?” he fired off question after question to the Voice.
“What is it?” all four of his companion granitines lit up, and moved in close to him.
“There are black magicians in the city. They are coming to the temple. We have to fight them,” Theus said. He stood up and grabbed his sword and his staff. “Let’s go see what’s happening and where they are.” He lit up his own hand, then stepped out the door and began to run down the hall.
He heard sounds, and then all four of the granitines were racing along beside him.
“What is happening? How do you know this?” one of his stocky companions asked.
“The Voice, the Voice that speaks to me. It just awoke me with the news. Can you check with the other granitines to ask them if they’ve seen the black magicians in the city, and where they are?” he asked.
“We will send out a message,” Crystal replied. Theus heard and felt the deep notes of the strange language throb through the stones of the temple, into the bedrock that the city rested on.
He reached the front of the temple and stepped outside. The sun was fully above the eastern horizon. There were no signs of any magicians moving in the city. Theus stepped back into the shadows of the doorway, and tried to collect his thoughts.
“What would they come to the temple for? What is there here that they would want to steal?” he asked the granitines. “Where is it in the temple?”
“There is the great mystery, a weapon that the Father himself has placed in the temple for safekeeping. He used it once in the ages long past, in a great war, and he said he hoped it would never be needed again,” Gem reported.
“What is it? Where is it?” Theus asked, ready to pin down the answer.
“We do not know. We have never seen it,” Sandy answered.
A new granitine came into view, racing across the street and directly into the temple door.
“They are very near; I have seen them,” the granitine reported.
“How many are there? What do they look like? What should we do?” Theus asked, suddenly feeling fear for the first time. The adrenaline of the moment was fading away, and he was growing aware of the reality of the situation.
“There are six of them. They walk with confidence,” the granitine replied.
“Call all the granitines you can. Tell them all to come to the temple, but do it stealthily,” Theus suddenly had a notion. “Make them hurry.”
He peered out into the street again, and saw a movement, then the group of six dark figures suddenly came around a corner.
“I’m going to show myself to them, and draw them into the temple,” Theus told his companions. “In the meantime, get all the others here. Bring every granitine inside the temple, and we’ll trip them up and pick them off here in the darkness. They’ll have to make lights so they can see, and we’ll be able to fight them. Can granitines crush people?” he asked, wanting confirmation that his plan would work.
‘Yes, we can,” Crystal agreed, as one of the others began to send out another of the deep messages to rally all the granitines to the temple.
Theus looked out and saw the magicians were closer, when they suddenly stopped and appeared attentive, as they heard the granitine message being broadcast. He stepped out into the sunlight, and raised a shouted exclamation from the magicians as they spotted him. One of them raised a hand and pointed it at him, while he quickly ducked back into the doorway.
A bolt of light flew at the doorway and struck the stones, causing a shower of sparks and an explosion, while Theus retreated deeper into the temple entry, then stopped.
He had his full supply of energy available, and he was going to use it, he decided. He grasped his energy and made himself invisible. It was a drain on his energy, but an important part of his strategy.
He stood and waited. “Spread out and stay discreet; don’t let them realize you’re alive until it’s too late for them,” Theus told the granitines.
“How do we hide being alive?” one of them asked.
“Just,” he paused, “just stand against the wall like you’re ordinary rocks, the kind that don’t talk or move or glow,” he explained.
“As soon as they see us they’ll know we’re granitines. They’ll attack us,” Gem’s voice protested.
“They’ll think you’re just stones if you hold still. They won’t know the difference,” Theus hissed. “Be quiet – they’re here,” he hissed one last admonition, as the shadows of the magicians darkened the doorways, and then the evil men entered.
“I don’t like being here; it doesn’t feel safe,” one of them told the others.
“Stop complaining. Just start ripping the place
apart; you heard what Donal said we’re looking for – don’t give up until you find it, and kill anyone you see. I don’t know who we saw in the doorway, but we won’t leave him here alive,” the evident commander directed.
The group split into two groups of three, and started to the left and the right, with those on the left heading straight towards Theus’s spot.
He held his sword ready. He didn’t want to fight three; he wanted to fight two. Given that he was invisible, he thought he could defeat two before they knew what had happened, whereas three would take longer, and quite possibly give one of them time to use his magic against Theus. Or, he could try to split up the threesome, and then take them on.
Each of the magicians suddenly raised their hands, and glowing balls of light floated up into the air over their heads. For a distracted moment as he followed his prey, Theus wondered if he could do the same – detach the glow that he had learned to carry in his hand and raise it outside of his flesh. It would be better than a glowing hand that he raised and lowered, sometimes detrimentally to his view of the place he wanted to illuminate.
His three nearest targets walked past him, and into the hallway that skirted around the outside of the sanctuary.
“I sense something,” one of them said in a low voice as he passed Theus.
Theus’s eyes widened, and his grip on his sword tightened, as he prepared for battle. Something had given him away.
“Maybe there’s some trace of the old, dead god left here,” the leading magician answered dismissively. “It’s nothing to worry about. Once we’ve ripped this place apart, there won’t even be a whimper to worry about.”
The building rumbled with a low frequency noise for a second. Limber was unhappy, Theus was sure. He would help give the god some vengeance on the evil magicians who planned to desecrate his temple.
Theus followed the priests into the hallway. They weren’t looking backwards, checking for dangers behind them, he noted. They were confident in their own power, hopefully over-confident.
He ceased his invisibility as they passed a doorway, then regrasped the power to use for the ventriloquism trick he possessed. He threw his voice into the hallway ahead of the trio, just whispering a soft shushing noise, then immediately threw his voice into the room they were passing, calling softly “in here”.
Unpredictable Fortunes (The Memory Stone Series Book 3) Page 15
