by Isaac Winter
“No,” I mumbled. It was better than nothing, but it didn’t stop the knot of dread twisting itself around my stomach. “Well, I’ll take this first platform. You can swing over to the next. But what about Fel? And what about the fourth platform?”
This was Crane’s way of reminding us that we were one member short. I grimaced as grief racked through me again, closing up my throat. None of that now. Crane wanted us to fight. To come apart. I took a deep, steadying breath and pushed those thoughts far away.
“Fel can use the hook when I’m done with it,” Tris said, getting quite the shocked glance from the stocky dwarf. “And as for the fourth...there’s your dragon, right?”
My hand shot up to Auri’s snout, immediately holding him close. “He needs to be with me.” The idea of him getting impaled by spikes, fire, or some other disaster was too horrible to imagine.
“Come on, Laurie,” Tris groaned. “He can fly. He’s got the best chance of any of us here. Send him over to the other platform. I’m sure he wants to stay alive as much as you do. He’ll be fine.”
I whistled a breath in through my nose and nodded. She was right. Dammit, I hated when she was right. As much as I didn’t want to leave him, all he had to do was fly over there. Easy enough. And then whenever we disarmed the traps, we could all go through the door together.
“Go on then,” I coaxed him. He fluttered his wings and soared across the room as I held my breath. No geysers of flame. No spikes. No traps. He alighted on the northern platform, blinking at me.
The platform didn’t descend.
“Dammit,” Tris cursed. “He’s not heavy enough.”
“Come here, Auri!” I beckoned, and he returned to my side. “Any other bright ideas?”
Tris glared at me and was about to retort when Fel cut in. “Let’s get ourselves to the proper platforms first. Then we can worry about the fourth one.”
“Fair enough.”
Tris brandished her DIY grappling hook, eyeing the rafters above us. “Here goes nothing,” she said as she flung the contraption upward.
It bounced off the ceiling and hit a ceiling beam, but didn’t catch. She reeled it in and tried again.
Clunk-clang! The metal hung latched onto the beam and held tight. Tris gave a few cursory tugs on the rope to see if it would hold. So far, so good.
“Well, see you on the other side.” She said with a mock salute. “East platform here I come!”
She leapt into the air, putting all her weight on the rope and the grappling hook. The beam groaned but didn’t move. She sailed through the air like a pendulum, letting go right before smacking into the wall. Tris landed on the platform but her ankle turned under her and she crumpled, dropping the rope. It swung back toward us.
“I’m fine!” She called.
I grabbed the rope as soon as it came near, the jute rough against my palms. I motioned to Fel. “You next?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he stared at the rope in my hands, then up to the hook attached to the ceiling beam. A nervous chuckle escaped. “I might, er, be too heavy, you see. It creaked an awful lot when Tris went across, and I weigh nearly twice that...”
“You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you?”
Indeed, he looked positively queasy.
Fel huffed and crossed his arms. “Of course not. But if its all the same to you...” His gaze fluttered to the ceiling again.
“Fine, I’ll go,” I gripped the rope tighter in my hands. I didn’t want to take the perilous journey either, but I was a lot smaller than Fel. If the hook was going to give way, I’d have a better shot. I only had to push my fear down first.
Visibly relieved, Fel’s shoulders slumped. “You have my thanks.”
“Hold the fort down over here, will you?” I grinned, trying to ignore the hammering of my heart. “Over there, Auri!” I pointed and the dragon went ahead of me, perching on the platform.
“Here goes nothing.” I breathed, and leapt into the air. The rope cut into my hands but I didn’t dare let go. The room flew around me as I sailed toward the platform. It came closer, and closer, then the rope ran out and I started swinging backwards again. “No,” I groaned, my muscles screaming as I clung to the rope.
“Go on then!” Fel shouted, giving me a push as I returned to the doorway. I yelped and flew forward even faster than before.
1...2...3...
I let go of the rope as I sailed toward the wall, my body in freefall for a fraction of a second. I landed on the platform with a yelp, Aurelius fluttering away to avoid my fallen form.
I let out a breath. I’d made it.
Thank god.
My hands were still shaking and my heart going a million miles a minute, but I was safe, at least for the time being.
Auri alighted on my shoulder, still projecting images of food. One track mind, that one.
The platform sunk down till it was flush with the floor, and another facet of the cage opened.
“All right Fel!” I called. “Get on the southern platform, that will be three!”
He stepped forward, the platform depressing under his weight. Three sides of the golden cage unlocked, but the northern doorway still remained closed.
“We really have to get on all of them?” Tris asked.
“Looks like it.”
I had an idea. “Hey Auri, can you carry something for me? I promise I’ll feed you later with all the treats you can handle, but I need this one favor ok?”
He looked at me, wide red eyes blinking.
I hefted Fel’s library book out of my bag, holding it up to him. It was nearly as heavy as he was, but it was the heaviest thing I had with me. If the dragon and the book weren’t heavy enough to depress the platform, I didn’t know what I was going to do.
“Think you can lift this, boy?” I asked.
“Hey, now!” Fel cried, nearly stepping off the platform before he stopped himself. “That is an antique!”
“Got any better ideas?” I asked. I didn’t want to damage the book anymore than he did, but it was our best shot.
“At least put it in your bag, please?” Fel pleaded. I sighed, taking off my shoulder pack and putting the book back in it.
“You know if we fail, it’s gonna destroy all my items.”
“Then take out the stuff you really need...”
“You’re impossible,” I grumbled. “Come on, boy. You can do it.”
Aurelius latched the handle of the bag between his teeth, fluttering his wings hard. It took a moment, but slowly, shakily, the bag rose off the ground. “You okay there, Auri? Think you can make it?”
He made a beeline for the platform, taking a high altitude so the bag didn’t drag the ground. I could tell it was taking a toll on him, though—my stamina sapped away at the same time his did, lowering as he slunk closer and closer to the ground.
The bag dropped on to the platform with a thunk and Aurelius rolled over onto the wood, staring at me with a panting mouth and eyes asking for approval.
“Good job, Auri,” I clapped. “Thank you.”
He squawked happily as the platform sunk beneath his feet.
Tendrils of orange light spilled out from each corner of the room and into the center as the final wall fell. The chest now sat unguarded, except for the part where there was a moat of endless blackness around it.
Only one problem: the door still wasn’t unlocked.
That’s when the platforms opened like a trapdoor and dropped me, my dragon, and my friends into the chasm.
30
Laurie
I was going to die.
That was the only thing I could think as I fell, and fell, and fell. I couldn’t see anyone else, much less my hand in front of my own face. Wind whipped around me and my hair flew into the air, my clothes billowing around me.
A burst of flame illuminated the column for only a second.
My dragon.
“Auri, some light!” I yelled, flailing through the air.
He coughed up
a fireball again, just in time for me to look down and see the tangly mass of vines below.
Oooof. I landed on the vines, their tendrils elastic as they cushioned my fall.
> Traegoria Keep: Level Two Complete.
Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.
“Fel!” I screamed when I’d caught my breath again. “Tris!”
“I’m here!” Tris yelled from somewhere near me. It was still pitch dark down here, but I felt the slimy tendrils of greenery all around us. It smelled like a greenhouse, and had the humid feel of one too.
I wiped off the sap from my hands and struggled to stand. The vines made a thick enough net for me to regain my feet, but it was like trying to walk through a bouncy castle.
Cool green light spilled through the chasm as Tris activated one of her seeing orbs, and I could finally assess the damage.
Tris and Fel had also fallen into the vines and appeared to be no worse for wear, besides a little out of breath. The tangled canopy undulated, slippery and slimy like a snake. I fought the pangs of motion sickness as I looked around for my bag.
It hung limply from an upstanding branch, but it looked like it still had everything in it. Thank goodness.
I stumbled over to that side of the room, but each step was like wading through mud. I fell more than once, face-planting into the slimy tendrils. What the hell was this stuff?
> You have found: Adaptive Luciferous. Some researchers call it the “smart plant”, as it reacts to human contact. The slimy secretions contain a potent hallucinogenic and is sought after by many on the black market. The vines adopt swarm-like behavior, able to move and react as a unit.
> Skill Herbal Knowledge is now: Level 3.
You can identify mid-level herbs and unlock advanced effects.
I swiped away the messages. That was all well and good, but what was their weakness?
I called to Aurelius, reaching through our psychic link.
No answer came.
I looked around frantically, searching for any signs of my dragon.
Nothing.
Panic weaved its way through my gut like a snake, cutting off the flow of blood and air.
Auri! Where are you!
The connection was silent.
Tris squirmed in the vine’s grasp, hacking and slashing at the tendrils. They wrapped around her arms and legs, constricting like a snake, and the more she fought, the more vines wiggled their way toward her. “Fel!” She screamed! “Laurie!” A vine covered her face and muffled out her voice.
I forgot all about my dragon for a second as I watched the vines attack Tris. I tried to shuffle toward her, but vines wrapped themselves around my ankles, too.
Right, they had some kind of swarm mentality.
“Stop fighting!” I shrieked through the haze. “You’re just upsetting them more!”
Fel’s muscles bulged as he strained against his attackers. Tris was nearly covered in greenery now, and her face grew red in the light. She was suffocating.
Auri! I called out one last time, desperate. A wayward vine caught me around the throat, and one around the eyes...this was it. This was how I would go.
A terrible shriek rent through the air and a blast of heat bloomed against me. The vines shriveled and shrunk, releasing me just long enough to get my arms free.
The vine against my neck gave way and I could see again. The chasm danced in a cascade of fire, and the high-pitched shrieking sounds continued as the vines retracted further.
This was our chance!
I leapt out of the way of a grasping vine and toward safety, my eyes fixed on a single point of light in the distance. If I could just make it there...
Flames lashed out across the pit again, and this time I could see the source.
Auri!
My mind bloomed with sensation as the connection restored and a rash of notifications flooded across my HUD.
He was back.
I nearly stopped in my tracks to stare at him, mouth agape. He was nearly double the size he’d been before, with long spines sprouted along his back and a wingspan that stretched across the chasm.
For a moment, I thought it might have been another dragon. A different dragon, perhaps. But when he turned his scaly head and his eyes met mine, I knew this was my Auri.
> Your Familiar has leveled up!
Aurelius, lvl 2 dragonling
I had to save you, he projected, and my breath caught as I realized he’d projected real words at me. Before it was only vague pictures, scents, or sensations.
You can talk now? I sent through our link.
Run! Was the only response I got.
Oh, right.
I whirled around to look at my friends, still extricating themselves from the mess of foliage. The vines were shrinking back into a single bud near the middle of the room, but the effect wouldn’t last forever. New, baby tendrils shot out, ready for action.
We had to get out of here, and fast.
“Come on!” I yelled, waving to them. “This way!”
Fel stomped through the weeds, stumbling a few times before he reached us. He mumbled something about “goddamn dragons” and put his hands on his knees, glad to finally be on solid ground.
One down, one to go.
Tris still struggled her way through the morass, a firm look of determination on her face. She stumbled and fell again and again.
“I’ve got to go help her,” I said before I knew what I was doing.
“What? But you just got to safety—”
“Don’t worry about me. Get to the next level. Find Crane. I’ll catch up.”
“I’m not leaving you now, Laurie. You have had my back, now I will have yours.”
My heart swelled with gratitude. If we could just get one more jet of flame…
A sharp pain cut across my chest, like someone sticking a needle into every pore.
> Your Familiar is Drained.
I tried to call for fire again and felt the same rack of pain across my body.
Aurelius tumbled out of the sky, wings hanging limp. “No!” I cried, rushing forward. Now both Tris and Auri needed my help. I couldn’t let either of them die!
Fel followed my lead, forging ahead into the rapidly encroaching vines. Without the dragonfire to keep them at bay, they proliferated around us, ready for another onslaught. Auri tumbled into my arms and I clung to him, nearly falling over.
He was nearly bigger than I was now, and it felt like holding a particularly clumsy baby. Fel forged ahead and grabbed Tris’s hand, pulling her away from a grasping weed.
“Let’s go!” I cried, pointing to the exit.
I hefted my burden through the mess, sidestepping and shoving off the vines that came my way.
A rush of strength came over me, perhaps from adrenaline or perhaps from the gravity of the situation. Either way, I made it away from the tangles and thorns. I even grabbed my bag off an outstretched branch and threw it over my shoulder.
All was as it should be.
Sort of, anyway.
The light at the end of the tunnel shone brighter now, beckoning. My stamina gauge had hit rock bottom, spurred on by my own tiredness as well Auri’s weakness. I didn’t know how to heal him, or if I even could, but one thought dominated my mind: keep moving.
“Almost there,” Fel cried, probably to encourage himself as much as me. I didn’t need to Analyze him to know that we were all running on empty. The Keep didn’t allow any respite, that was for sure.
Light spilled out of the door at the end of the walkway, illuminating our silhouettes against the cold dirt walls. I almost wanted to sit down right here and take a nap. Deal with the other levels later, however many there were. But we had a job to do. A mission to accomplish.
I hadn’t promised Cael for nothing.
As I touched the handle of the glowing door, I saw another ping:
> Traegoria Keep: Level 3 Complete.
> Please wait...
The light swirled around us li
ke a spin cycle and I suddenly felt dizzy. I leaned against the wall for support, waking Aurelius. He squawked and stretched his wings, letting out a high-pitched yawning sound. I kept one hand firmly anchored on him, one on the wall, as the door and the rest of our surroundings melted away.
Tris, Fel and I watched in horror as the scenery shifted and changed, almost like someone had been running a green-screen this entire time. I felt the hard press of stone against my feet, my hands.
My vision refocused, and I could see for the first time where we truly were.
Skulls and bones lay scattered about, an errant rat or two chewing on the remains. The air hung heavy with a foul stench, a rotting stench. I wrinkled my nose as the smell just about bowled me over. We weren’t in a maze, a platform puzzle, or a carnivorous vine pit anymore.
We were in a tomb.
31
Laurie
Congratulations, everyone. I see you’ve foiled my little puzzles.
I whipped around, looking for the source.
“Crane!” I growled, my hands balling into fists.
You’ve done well, but I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve.
I couldn’t see it, but I could just hear the sleazy grin plastered on his face.
“Come out and fight like a man!” Fel yelled, beating the butt of his hammer on the ground. “Enough of this!”
Hmm...
The voice wrapped around us like a cloying mist.
Where’s the advantage in that? I mean, I am the most powerful being in the Veil, sure, but who’s to say you’ll fight fair?
Tris scoffed. “You’re one to talk!”
Now, now, indulge me a little longer. You have my word. I will be waiting for you on the other side. But do hurry, there’s not much time…
The voice faded out, sending a shiver down my spine.
