The Dark Monolith: Heroes of Ravenford Book 3

by F. P. Spirit

  The tiles, about a yard square each, were evenly spaced about two yards apart. and stretched all the way across the pool of acid. Each tile had a lightly scripted, flowing symbol inscribed on top of it. Donnie stepped nearer to the edge, bent forward, and squinted at the hovering tiles. After a few moments, he turned to Glo. “Aren’t those the elemental runes of the Titans?”

  Glo had been thinking the same thing. He nodded to Donnie. “I believe so.”

  Seth stood next to the lever with his arms folded, wearing a smug expression. “Well, we’ve found our way to the other side. Can one of you geniuses detect a pattern? Glo? Elladan?”

  Elladan glanced at the halfling and laughed aloud. “You hear that? He wants us to translate Titan for him. No one has spoken Titan in ages.” Elladan paused a moment and gave Elistra a sidelong glance. “Unless...”

  Elistra fixed the bard with a withering stare. “No, Elladan, I do not speak Titan. If I did, then why wouldn’t I have translated those runes on the wheel upstairs?”

  The wheel upstairs? Of course. Glo’s eyes moved from the bard to the seeress, his lips spreading into a thin smile. “But we do have a translation—Titan to Dwarvish, and Dwarvish to the Common tongue.”

  Elladan tilted his head to one side and eyed Glo curiously. His face suddenly lit up as the realization hit him. “The two other wheels—Glo, you’re a genius!”

  The three of them stood there grinning at each other, but their relvelry was cut short by a derisive snort. Seth stared at the trio, his arms still folded and his lips twisted into an ironic smirk. “Yeah, yeah, you can start a fan club later. So, do any of you masterminds remember how those wheels lined up?”

  Glo opened his mouth to speak, but Donnie beat him to it. “I think I can help with that.”

  All eyes turned to the slight elf as he doffed his backpack. He reached inside and pulled out a large piece of parchment as the others all gathered around him. Donnie slowly unrolled it, revealing a clear representation of the three wheels from the top floor of the monolith. Even better, all the symbols were lined up.

  Elistra gazed fondly at the slight elf. “Donatello, I could kiss you right now!”

  “No!” Glo, Alana and Ruka cried almost simultaneously.

  The others turned to stare at the threesome. Glo felt his cheeks burning, while both Ruka and Alana turned a bright shade of scarlet. There was an awkward silence, until the wizard finally stammered, “What I meant to say is, ‘Seth is right.’ This is no time to be congratulating each other.”

  Seth fixed the elf with a wide smirk. “Sure, that’s what you meant.”

  Glo glared at the halfling for a moment or two, then turned his attention back to the portrait of the wheels. His eyes moved from it to the tiles and back again.

  “Can I have this?” Glo asked the elven artist.

  Donnie gave him a brief nod and cautiously handed the parchment over. “Just be careful with it.”

  Glo responded with a quick smile, then moved closer to the edge of the cliff, motioning for the others to follow. Elladan and Glo held either side of the wide parchment, while Elistra and Aksel stood behind them. The four of them pored over the portrait, comparing it to the lettering scripted on the tiles just a few feet away.

  Aksel stepped back and gazed out at the hovering tiles. “So this is obviously another puzzle. There’s probably some phrase that spells a path across the pit.” He paused a moment, absently stroked his chin. “Since Larketh was a Dwarf, it’s most likely something in his native tongue.”

  “You mean something like ‘I’ll have a pint of that’?” Donnie quipped.

  Seth fixed the slight elf with a scathing stare. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s the phrase Larketh used.”

  Aksel cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him. “Ahem. I was thinking more in lines of those inscriptions across the entryways upstairs.”

  Glo raised a single eyebrow. Now that was genius. Why didn’t I think of that? Glo’s eyes flickered between the portrait and the tiles, examining them up, down, and even diagonally, but nothing appeared to spell out any of the Dwarvish inscriptions they had found. He did catch bits and pieces of words here and there, some even in the Common tongue, but nothing that spelled out the inscriptions they were looking for. After a while, his eyesight began to blur. Glo reached up and rubbed his eyes, then turned to Elladan. “Do you see anything?”

  Elladan glanced back at him and slowly shook his head. “Nothing that makes any sense.”

  By now, Seth had lost all patience. He stood with his hands on his hips, his eyes sweeping from Glo to Elladan to Aksel. “Well, we can’t just stand here all day. I guess we’ll have to do this by trial and error.” Before anyone could stop him, the halfling spun around and strode to the edge of the cliff.

  “Are you sure about this?” Aksel called after him.

  “Piece of cake,” Seth responded, as he peered out at the nearest tiles. “Kind of reminds me of a game I used to play as a wee lad...”

  “You’re still a wee lad,” Donnie responded immediately.

  Seth tilted his head forward and eyed the elf with a wicked stare. “Shut it, Donnie.”

  Donnie let out a short, closemouthed laugh. “Sorry. Reflex response.”

  The sudden sound of a musical chord drew everyone’s attention to Elladan. The bard’s eyes were fixed on Seth, a half-smile on his lips. “How about a rousing tune before you leap head-long into this?”

  Seth’s mouth warped into a thin smirk. “Well, I was going to use my feet...”

  Elladan let out a short laugh, then played the song of inspiration. It did indeed lift everyone’s spirits, but despite that, Glo still found himself worried for his halfling friend. He cleared his throat as he anxiously eyed the glowing green pool of acid below. “How about we give you a bit more protection on top of that. Just in case...”

  Seth’s eyes fell on the wizard. “Works for me,” he said rather nonchalantly, but Glo noticed the slightest hint of moisture in the halfling’s eyes.

  Glo nearly welled up himself—though it remained unsaid between them, he had grown rather fond of Seth over these last few months. Glo fought back his emotions, and began the hand motions of the spell he was going to cast. A few seconds later, he released it with the words, “Donec A Diam.”

  A column of sparse green energy rose from the ground around Seth and rushed up to the top of the halfling’s head. It quickly disappeared, but left a momentary greenish glow around Seth’s body. That, too, abruptly faded. Glo eyed the halfling with a thin smile. “At least now if you fall, you have a chance of escaping the pool unscathed...”

  “Thanks,” Seth said simply. There was no mock gratitude in his tone, nor did he follow it with a smart remark. Glo started to wonder if the halfling was alright.

  “Be careful, then,” Aksel admonished him.

  “When am I not?” Seth responded, the telltale smirk returing to his lips.

  Glo breathed a sigh of relief. Now there was the Seth they all had come to know and love. The halflling swiftly spun around, and without hesitating, leapt across the two yards to the first stone tile. He deftly landed in a crouch, prepared to jump again if necessary. The onlookers held their breath, but nothing happened. The tile did not waver in the slightest, hovering firmly in place over the bubbling acid.

  The only response was in the pool below—a clay golem surfaced nearby and shambled through the glowing green liquid toward the stone tile Seth knelt on, its long arms reaching far above its amorphous head. Luckily, the tiles were just out of the golem’s reach.

  Elladan called Seth’s attention to the spectacle below. “Looks like you’ve got an admirer down there.”

  The halfling carefully shifted his body around and peered down into the pit. The clay creature was now directly below him, its long arms still reaching up in vain for t
he stone tile above. A wide smirk spread across Seth’s face. He cried down to the creature, “Sorry, no autographs today.”

  The golem merely groaned in response, blindly grasping at the tile Seth sat on. Seth slowly got up and stepped to the center of the small slab of stone, gingerly scanning the surrounding tiles.

  “That’s an ‘L’ you’re standing on,” Glo called out to him.

  “What do I have next?” Seth responded, his head still spinning between the tiles.

  This time Elladan answered, his eyes continually shifting between the small stone tiles and the portrait of the wheels. “A ‘D’ to your left, an ‘O’ behind you, and an ‘A’ to your right.”

  Seth rubbed his hands together again. “Alright then, let’s try ‘O.’” He carefully stepped to the edge of the tile then launched himself over the pit again. The onlookers held their breath, but the halfling easily landed on the next tile. Once again, the small stone slab did not waver, hovering in place over the green bubbling pit below. The clay golem followed the halfling and parked itself underneath the next tile, now reaching for this stone slab instead. Seth stood back up and scanned the new set of tiles around him.

  “What next?” he called over his shoulder.

  Glo translated for him this time. “‘R’ to your left, ‘G’ in front of you, and ‘S’ to your right.”

  Seth’s eyes swept across those three tiles a few times, before turning around and facing the others. He shrugged his shoulders, an ironic smirk on his lips. “Ideas anyone?”

  Glo exchanged glances with Elladan, Aksel and Elistra. No one seemed to have an immediate answer. The little cleric absently stroked his chin, his brows knit together in concentration. “‘R’ and ‘S’ are the most common letters...”

  “I vote ‘S,’” Donnie interjected cheerfully. “Maybe it spells out Lost in the caverns.”

  There were a few snorts and snickers in response, but Glo merely spiked an eyebrow at the slight elf. The combinations ‘Lor’ or ‘Los’ made far more sense than ‘Log,’ but Glo had no idea which of the two was correct. He turned his gaze toward Elistra. “Any feelings on this?”

  The seeress tilted her head upward, her eyes momentarily glazing over as she tried to divine the answer. After a few moments, her eyes shifted back down to him. “It definitely spells out a specific phrase—but as to what that phrase is, I cannot tell.”

  Her insight was met with a derisive snort. “Well, that was helpful,” Seth called from his precarious position over the pit.

  Elistra gave the halfling a wan smile. “Sorry, psionics is not an exact art.”

  No one seemed to have a good answer one way or the other. Seth spun his head from his left to his right a few times, then finally reached a decision. “Guess I’ll try ‘S’ then.”

  The companions watched on anxiously as the halfling stepped to the edge of the small stone slab, and abruptly launched himself across the empty space toward the adjacent one. Seth landed deftly on the tile with the ‘S’ on it, but as soon as his feet touched it, the entire thing began to shake. Glo’s breathe caught in his throat, a nervous gasp escaping his lips. He was not alone, the entire party accompanying him. Meanwhile, Seth performed a nervous “dance” on the shifting slab, doing his best to maintain his balance. The tile continued to wobble, its motions increasing, making it more and more difficult for the halfling to stand. If it didn’t stop soon, even the agile Seth was sure to fall. As the left side of the stone slab dipped down again, Seth suddenly crouched and launched himself backwards off of it.

  “Seth!” Aksel cried in fright.

  Glo felt his heart skip a beat as he watched the halfling flip through the air. Time seemed to slow as Seth spun backward, end over end, sailing over the bubbling acid. He arced through the air, landing back on the ‘O’ tile with his hands and knees simultaneously, barely skidding to a halt before reaching the other edge.

  “Phew.” Glo expelled a lungful of air from his mouth. He hadn’t realized he had been holding his breath the entire time.

  In the meantime, the shaking tile finally stopped moving. A moment later, it fell straight down into the acid below. Greenish liquid sprayed up in all directions, splashing on the clay golem that had just moved out of its way. Steam rose all around it as the greenish liquid quickly ate away the edges of the little stone slab. Finally, the small amount that was left sank into the pool, disappearing from sight.

  “That was close!” Donnie exhaled sharply.

  Seth fixed the elf with a withering glare. “Ya think? Next time you pick a letter, I’m going the opposite way.”

  “Sorry.” Donnie responded, his shoulders slumping and his head sinking down as he turned away. “I was just trying to help,” he murmured under his breath.

  Alana reached over and placed a steel-encased hand on the slight elf’s shoulder in an attempt to console him. Meanwhile, Seth got up, dusted himself off, and then spun around to face the tile to the left.

  “Guess it was ‘R’ then,” he said with an ironic smirk.

  The companions watched on anxiously as Seth leapt across the chasm between tiles again. He landed squarely on the ‘R’ slab in a crouch, his body tensed as if ready to leap again immediately. Luckily, this tile remained motionless like the first two. The only movement was below him, where the clay golem continued to shadow his movements. After a few moments, Seth stood up, his eyes sweeping the area. He was at the leftmost edge of the tiles now, his only options jumping either forward or backward.

  “And now what’s next to me?” he called out to the others.

  It was Elladan’s turn to respond. The bard scrutinized the two tiles, his eyes swiftly shifting between them and the portrait of the wheels. “There’s a ‘B’ in front of you and a ‘D’ behind you.”

  The halfling’s lips bent into a thin smirk. “Well, ‘Lorb’ just makes so much sense.”

  “‘L-O-R-D,’” Glo murmured to himself.

  “Didn’t one of those inscriptions begin with Lord?” Aksel eyed Glo curiously, mirroring his thoughts.

  “Lord Larketh is the Divine Master of all Constructs,” Elistra said, her eyes glazed over as she recalled the exact phrase that Elladan had recited to the group when they first entered the monolith.

  Seth tilted his head and stared at Glo incredulously. “I thought you said you couldn’t find any translations?”

  Glo threw up his hands and shrugged. “Well, there weren’t any in Dwarven. Nor are there any in a straight line. How as I supposed to know it twisted around in a circle?”

  Glo felt a small hand on his shoulder. He spun his head and saw Elistra gazing up at him, her eyes filled with sympathy. “Lord is obviously in Common. So what if the phrase is in Dwarven, translated into Common, and phonetically spelled out with Titan runes.”

  Glo spiked an eyebrow as he mulled over her theory. “Isn’t that just a bit convoluted?”

  “Have you looked around recently?” came Seth’s reply. He turned to see the halfling waving his hands around the chamber, indicating the crazy monolith they stood in.

  Glo bowed his head, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. “Point taken.”

  Elistra leaned in close and wrapped her arms around his waist. He shifted his eyes and saw the understanding expression on her face. “There’s no use in berating yourself. Perhaps it would be better to solve the phrase now that we know what we are dealing with?”

  A thin smile spread across Glo’s lips. Elistra was right—this was no time to pout over his previous oversight. He bent over and gently kissed her on the forehead, then carefully unwrapped her arms from around his waist.

  Glo motioned to Elladan to join him, then pored over Donnie’s diagram with renewed vigor. The two elves feverishly scanned the tiles fanning out from where Seth currently stood, painstakingly discovering the next ones in an ever-growing chain. The t
rail they uncovered wound circuitously around the little stone slabs, but when they were done, the duo had mapped out a clear path across the tiles using the Dwarven inscription, translated into Common, and then into Titan, as Elistra had theorized.

  Elladan wiped the sweat from his brow and cried out in triumph, “Phew. We got it!”

  Glo, equally excited, spun around, grabbed Elistra around the waist and hoisted her up into the air. “You’re beautiful!” he shouted exultantly, spinning her around him. He then drew her back down, and kissed her passionately on the lips.

  Seth waited impatiently for the two elves to figure out the rest of the puzzle. It was not exactly pleasant out here, the acrid smell of the pit below wafting up to makes his eyes water. Over on the ledge, Glo and Elladan conferred excitedly. While he waited, Seth snickered to himself. Lord Larketh is the Divine Master of all Constructs. Larketh definitely did not have self-confidence issues. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Elladan cried out, “We got it!”

  Seth watched on with amusement as Glo picked up Elistra and spun her around in the air. Then, much to his surprise, Glo brought her down and kissed her.

  Well, that was something, Seth thought wryly.

  Ever since he met him, Glo had prided himself on his keen intellect, and his ability to think logically. Yet Seth immediately noticed the effect the merchant’s granddaughter, Xelda, had on him—even if Glo didn’t notice it himself. Even more recently, Seth observed the way both Ves, and later Kailay, made the elf blush and get all flustered. But then Elistra came along, and it was more than obvious that the two were attracted to one another.

  Seth still didn’t completely trust the seeress, but he appreciated the effect she was having on Go. The wizard had definitely mellowed, and was far less stiff than when Seth had first met him. Glo finally put Elista down, and turned to face him. Seth noted with amusement the seeress standing behind the elf, her fingers going to her lips, a satisfied smile spreading across them.