The Secret of Azuron (The Sword Empire Book 1)

by J. R. Kearney

  "I'm tired," Elliott had said several times, the further they progressed the more lean he placed on his branch.

  "Can't you just sell the book instead? A magic book would sell for good coin by my reckonin'," the novelty of the book slowly waned on him.

  "Perhaps. Come on it's not so bad, at least it's not dangerous."

  "I've cut meself twice already, the Elder's gonna ask how I did it."

  "You hurt yourself all the time, I'm amazed you don't do it more often, the way you hassle them Arens."

  "You take truth in Clancey's tales more than anyone, name once when he stumbled upon a treasure without some danger guardin' it. Never is when, who leaves treasure for someone else to simply find, if only people were so foolish. You dunno what kind of spiders are crawlin' about 'round here," Elliott looked around in angst.

  "No," he supposed, "but we're close, according to this map we are anyway. The clues we need are all in this book I bet, if that's true we'll never know."

  He folded the map and let the picture turn to plain parchment once more.

  "You know we only brought one spare candle in the belief this treasure would be simple to find." Said Elliott, Landau agreed it was an ignorant assumption, it would barely suffice to get them home.

  A drop of water fell plum on his neck, they looked up to the high canopy to see a drizzle of rain begin to break its way through.

  "You didn't think about this did you?" Elliott said. "If it's rainin’ the Elder's gonna want to know where we are, last time Melly was caught sneezin' the Elder locked her up in the room for a week."

  "I know that's not true," he said, pulling his jacket over his head, as they sat against the trunk of a huge tree to give them shelter.

  "It is too true, Elder said he didn't want her infectin' anyone."

  "You make it sound like she was a prisoner," said Landau. "If the rain is the worst thing we run into then I count ourselves lucky."

  "Hardly luck I think."

  Elliott wiped the water from his face and gave a forced sniffle as though Landau would give some sympathy.

  "Come on, let's head back I'm bored."

  "You're unbearable is what you are. If finding this symbol isn't hard enough, then your whinging sure is."

  Alas the rain turned from a drizzle to a shower, and the trek ahead burdened his hope, and he wondered whether to continue, before a haunting yet beautiful voice echoed faintly through the woods.

  The boys were quiet. It was soothing if it wasn't strange. A moment's silence passed by before again another voice cried out, only slightly higher, wailing though melodically.

  "Sounds like a choir," said Landau.

  "Choir, why would a choir be daft to come out here in these woods?"

  Elliott's words were background while Landau listened for the voices to carol once more, they were faint but he could hear them.

  The boys scampered south towards the noise which started to build strength, various voices gradually entered the chorus of song. Elliott found it hard to keep up, but Landau was too determined to slow down, he could hear them all around him now.

  "Elliott do you see them?" he asked frantically. "Hello," he shouted, but the voices went un-interrupted, and continued their soft melody. "Where are they?"

  With hands on his hips Landau gathered his breath, beside him Elliott was perturbed by where they were, whatever Sirens hid in the trees had sent them astray, though louder was their cry they still couldn’t spot them.

  Landau screamed for their attention once more before he noticed something, steadfast in anticipation it would happen again, though Elliott was puzzled by what distracted him. Towards a nearby tree he moved closer.

  "What are you doin'?" Elliott asked clueless, but Landau's eyes fixated on a branch sticking out low from the tree, watching it intensely.

  Within seconds a raindrop plummeted towards an outward leaf, on impact the leaf let out a low harmonic hum, a second later the leaf above that let out a slightly higher sound, soft despite them being so close.

  "It's the trees," Landau realized. "The trees are making the noises, listen!" he told Elliott who found a tree of his own, holding his ear close to a leaf, a raindrop pounded it to unleash a warming call, soft as a female minstrel it made him smile.

  "A musical forest?" Elliott suggested in bewilderment, such a thing they never imagined.

  Landau maneuvered to another leaf, the water's impact was more piercing than the last, motioning to another tree where the leaves volume incremented once more.

  "The songs get stronger down this way, come on," he gestured towards a reinvigorated Elliott.

  They scurried further south, along an overgrown trail the sound from the leaves echoed louder the further they proceeded, stopping often to hear if they were closer or further. The fact the forest surrounded them made it hard to distinguish, Elliott protested one way while Landau went another, a strong womanly chime pulled him from his bearing before another changed his direction again. Both of them were drenched yet hardly bothered, Landau raced ahead where the leafy voices definitely flourished clearer than before, almost instrumental. He paused for a moment, his head a blur, for each piercing choir call caught his gaze. The rain began to wane, and the raindrops became few and the sounds ringing in the distance were now faint; he tried to hear a louder sound call him but the rain soon subsided. He looked upward in hope the rain would endure so he could hear more, but the singing had gone, and he’d lost Elliott along the way. After a moment Elliott's faint murmur could be heard drawing closer, they stood exhausted with hands on knees, trying to gather their breath. A small ray of sunlight endeavored to break through the clouds above them, it was less likely the music would return.

  "What did you find?" Elliott asked, looking to see if he could spot anything of significance. "What were you hopin' to find?"

  "I don't know, I got caught up in the chant," he admitted, suddenly aware of his foreign surroundings.

  "We're in a right old mess now then, don't suppose them trees will sing us back home."

  Landau plucked free the map once more to reveal their location, unnerved to see they had travelled further south than intended, the icon of the book continued to glimmer on the map, but still edged that of the marker.

  "I don't get this map," Landau said in dissatisfaction, surrendered to the idea of returning home empty handed. The trek back was going to be difficult, the only reprieve was the flash of sunlight prominent through the clouds. Elliott took the map to examine where they were, when a butterfly softly flapped its way onto the map's edge, unlike any he'd seen before. He stood still, scheming how to acquire it without agitating the map, a mixture of yellow and blue, different than any that occupied the streams of Porthos. Landau looked at the determined eyes of Elliott who wanted nothing more than to catch it, but before he could pounce the butterfly flew away, though it wasn't alone.

  Several others fluttered about now that the rain had alleviated. Persistent to bring back something from his venture, Elliott followed the butterflies aimlessly in circles, hoping one could descend to a more obtainable height. He hadn't wandered far when Landau heard his name being yelled from behind a thicket. It was no worrying cry, instead Landau discovered Elliott standing before a peculiar sight.

  Elliott found his butterfly, only it rested among an assortment of over a thousand other butterflies, scattered upon the vines of the mountain wall, clamored together as if taking refuge from the earlier rain. Landau could not believe his eyes, the sheer quantity displayed quite the collage of twitching color, incredible to behold. The girls back home wouldn't believe this, even if they described it in every detail. Elliott reached out his finger in an attempt to attract one, softly prodding the butterfly to entice it. Suddenly it drifted away, and the swarm of others fled from the mountain with it, the sudden wave forced the boys on their backs, safeguarding themselves in fear of an attack.

  Instead their attention soared towards the canopy where the rainbow display of butterflies riddled the
sky, frantically their colored wings flickered against the glint of sunlight and added to the beauty. The boys laughed in bewilderment.

  "That's amazin'!" Elliott shouted, though it needed no saying, and they lounged there watching them fade away in all directions.

  Landau hoisted himself forward much easier than Elliott attempted. In the absence of the butterflies a small archway camouflaged with loose foliage revealed itself in the mountain wall, on the other side a small enclosure existed through the vines.

  "Would you look at that," Elliott's blinks were few. They hopped on their feet and hoped that this was the answer they were looking for.

  The passage was not ideal, perhaps once it appeared grand but rubble and fallen debris from the forest had made it virtually impassable. It was accessible enough for the two boys, who squeezed through to find themselves within a small alcove, surrounded by the mountain. The forest within still grew, but was stale and weathered, almost frozen in time; what bewilderment the boys experienced just before was slowly replaced by anguish. Landau could tell a presence hadn't been here in a very long time, and it unsettled him.

  "I don't like this place," Elliott whispered for some reason, staying close to Landau's side. "There's no temperature here, I feel neither hot or cold."

  "The ground here, it's not wet," Landau observed, despite it raining only moments ago, the thought was drowned out by the crunch of a wooden log under Elliott's boot, seemingly strong it was brittle, and the sound echoed throughout the enclosure. Elliott shuddered and stared desperately at his friend.

  "Landau you said if I thought there was any danger we could leave, this feels like that time, I don't feel right about this place," he pleaded.

  Bugs emerged to crawl from the log Elliott had damaged, strange looking vermin they had never seen before, slow and inconspicuous they appeared, but they were mounting in numbers, and the surrounding silence amplified their tiny, slimy bodies.

  Elliott tugged furiously at Landau's sleeve, the bugs were gradually edging towards them. Beetles and slugs, weevils and worms all coupled in a uniformed manner, spiders and ants burrowed from beneath the ground to join their company, and slowly closed in on them. Landau shuffled away, and retreated further into the conclave with Elliott. Behind a brittle shrub a small cave revealed itself, etched into the side of the mountain. The crawling vermin frightened them, from all directions they honed in on the pair, and the two bolted inside the mouth of the cave, looking for something to fend them off, but once inside the bugs stopped pursuing them, and strangely they retreated back.

  The boys stood there in a huff.

  "What are those things?" worried Elliott, "looked like they were hungry for us. How are we goin' to get past them now?" he said, annoyed Landau hadn't heeded his caution earlier.

  "No insects I've ever seen before."

  "I've seen fisherman use plenty of grubs for bait, but never like that," Elliott said with discern.

  "We seem to be safe in here," he guessed before they turned their attention behind them.

  The cave was dark, narrow or wide they couldn't tell, save for a soft blue glow in the near distance, faint enough for them to be uncertain what lay between.

  "I've had enough of this Landau. I hate this place. We've been here long enough, it's past noon and I don't wanna be here when the night comes, I won't do it," his mind decided.

  "I admit this isn't what I expected. Let's just explore this cave a little." Elliott tried to interrupt with a counter argument, "Then we can go," Landau promised.

  Peering down the tunnel Elliott wasn't pleased, the flame in their lanterns had extinguished, and the mouth of the cave and the soft blue light were all they had now to see.

  "Keep your hand on the wall and move slowly," Landau advised.

  Elliott had one hand on the wall, the other clenched Landau's collar. The darkness before them was immense, what was a narrow tunnel seemed a chasm in their minds, the wall itself felt unusual, natural in some sections, in others it was smooth with small grooves of odd angles, carvings of some kind of which they could not regard.

  Closer they edged toward the mysterious glow, to realize it emanated from a blue gemstone embedded in the wall, creating its own light. Fascination consumed Landau who evaluated its glimmering surface.

  "I wouldn't be touchin' it if I were you," said Elliott, but biting his bottom lip Landau laid a cautious hand on its surface before carefully he pried it from the wall.

  He held the glimmering stone ahead of him, its generous light revealed a diverted path where they noticed identical stones in the walls ahead, unsure of their purpose but increasingly ecstatic of their value.

  "There must be a good dozen of these things here," Landau said in counting as he waved the stone around to see the narrow tunnel before them.

  "Do you think that's the treasure?" Elliott queried.

  "I've never seen anything like them," shining the gem towards the far end of the narrow passage.

  Such a find urged him to proceed further, thinking it a precursor to a larger gain, even Elliott stood close with newfound curiosity.

  Attentively they moved on, Elliott clasped a stone of his own to offer them more light, the tunnels were free of peril it seemed but no certainty could Elliott savor. The tunnel stretched on for a disconcerting length and before long it felt cold, not the chill of an icy breeze, but an entity more piercing.

  Around a jagged corner the boys turned and were affronted to a tremendous round cavern, the light Landau held was overpowered by a tantamount display that bulged from the towering ceiling to illuminate a giant hall beneath the mountain. Debris littered the floor, not from destruction or desecration, but deterioration. The natural cave walls were replaced by smooth, polished stone, with intricate engravings throughout, now carpeted with layers of dust. Monuments surrounded the walls, though most had crumbled and fragmented and were difficult to discern who they once portrayed. The center of the cavern consisted of three rows of descending stairs that encircled a round stage, much like a small amphitheatre.

  The purpose of this place escaped them.

  "Do you see anything?" Landau asked Elliott, it was a tremendous amount of space to explore yet soon it became evident that this was as deep as they could delve.

  "If you mean treasure then no," he replied while he sifted through debris.

  "This place feels old," said Landau. "I've never seen anything so ancient before. I imagine dwarves of old used to live here," though Elliott was quick to intervene.

  "I don't think anyone's ever lived here. I mean where's the beds, where's the throne for the king to sit on, there's no chairs at all for that matter?"

  Elliott was right, only wooden wreckage and tattered cloth littered the floor among a tangle of vines and cobwebs.

  "The whole place feels dwarven though, I mean dwarves live in the mountains right? I can't imagine who else could have been here. What's the reason for this place?"

  "Maybe a treasure was here once, the map is old after all," Elliott said. "Just quietly I'm glad we're alone, how do we know dwarves are friendly?"

  A frustrated sigh is all Landau could reply before Elliott removed his shoes to quell the mud from beneath his feet. In the corner of Landau's eye, a remote light appeared, and not from a gemstone, it twinkled through a hole in the wall, different from the more delicate ones that tiled the mountain wall, this was poorly crafted with an inferior stone. The light of his gemstone reflected off something metal; Landau raised his light to the crack in the wall and squinted through it to discover another small enclosure.

  Before he could tell Elliott, the wall became unstable against his weight and crumbled, collapsing toward Landau who scarcely avoided the collision, the impact of the crashing rock thundered through the cavern, and created a dust cloud that lingered in their stale surroundings. Desperately Landau held the gemstone as he coughed, if something was lurking in the shadows they surely had captured its attention. It didn't matter, even if the crumbling wall didn't, the scre
ams coming from Elliott would definitely have done so.

  Elliott was lucky to have avoided the rubble, yet the collapse dislodged a broad vine from the ceiling, bringing with it some cobweb covered debris. Disposed on his back a small spider scurried up his chest, Elliott knocked it away in fright with the nearby rubble, and toiled to get up, but his legs were entangled beneath the burdensome plant.

  "Are you okay?" Landau worried his friend was hurt, his legs were trapped underneath, and he wriggled them ferociously to free himself.

  "What was that?" Elliott shouted.

  "The wall just gave way, I hardly touched it. Dwarves should be shamed if that’s their level of craft. Are you sure you're not hurt?"

  "I told you there'd be spiders Landau - I hate spiders," Elliott's distress was evident. "Quick pull me out."

  He attempted to haul Elliott free but the vines were slippery, and the touch of them left a dusty residue on his hands and smelt awful.

  "I'll go find something to pull you free," Landau said, Elliott in the meantime frantically looked about, thinking himself easy prey, wondering where that spider wandered off to.

  Landau stepped into the room that had been hastily sealed, and before long he determined the reason. Across the ground were scattered bones, old and rotted; he covered his mouth in fear of breathing in their very decay. Pieces of armor lay rusted and littered the stone floor, toward the end of the room a strange rock formation ejected out from the ground, and bulging from the rock was a sword, embedded in the stone, with only its hilt exposed.

  Standing before it Landau pulled out the map, only to remember he had no candle. In vain he held his glowing gemstone underneath the unfolded parchment, and with fortuity the map unveiled its magical colors. The book icon overlapped the symbol which wasn't some foreign insignia as first thought, it depicted a sword wedged into a stone. This was clearly where the map indicated a treasure prevailed, with a sigh he surrendered to the knowledge it had long gone, if it even existed. He groaned in their hopeless effort before he found a sharp nearby stone and returned to Elliott's side.