Pandora's Box: Land of Strife: Pandora's Box Series, Book 1

by S. Y. Lee

  “Keep your eyes ahead. You don’t want to miss it,” Elin shouted back. The wizard sounded strangely excited.

  Eva frowned and crossed her arms, making sure her legs were clamped tightly around the saddle as she let go of the reins. At first, she thought she saw a glint of light reflected off a stray droplet of water, but as she strained her eyes, many more glints started to appear out of nowhere before them. The sunlight slowly blanketed the trio and as it began to stretch out onto the canyon in front of them, something invisible was refracting the light. Confused, Eva rubbed her eyes and glanced over quickly at the Elin, who kept staring ahead.

  It seemed like the sun was responding to her curiosity and that it was rising faster as its rays continued to spread westward across the divide. By the time Eva understood what she was witnessing, she realized that her mouth was gaping in awe. She was speechless.

  “Magnificent, isn’t it?” Elin shouted, as if reading her mind. The wizard cracked the reins of her horse and galloped ahead, laughing as she did. The hoofs of her horse thundered against the transparent surface like they were hitting pavement. The old man had also stirred his horses to move forward, although at a much more casual pace.

  "Hurry, child!" the wizard bellowed as she neared the middle of the canyon. Eva took a deep breath, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and urged her horse onward at full speed. Once she was on the bridge, she looked to her right at the majestic waterfall, then to the left, where the beautiful and luscious lands were waking up to a new morning. It was an awe-inspiring view. It was then that Eva remembered what Elin had called it. This was the Shining Bridge.

  Chapter 53

  She had never seen guards like these before in real life. They wore dark armors instead of uniforms, and carried spears and swords instead of stun guns and nightsticks. If she needed any more confirmation that she was no longer in Sydney, this was it. As she got closer to the entrance to the city, Caitlin started to become nervous. She didn’t have any form of identification on her and even among the other people she had come across, she knew she looked weird and out of place.

  She didn’t need a mirror to know how disheveled her appearance was and she tried to smooth out the uneven patches in her short brown hair. Apart from the cape she was wearing and the bow in her hand, Caitlin stood out physically as well. Even in Sydney, she always had, but that was in a big metropolitan city where everyone tries to carve out an identity for themselves. Here, conformity appeared to be the prevailing idea as most people wore similar clothes and colors, with minor variations. She also hadn’t seen any women with short hair, or any men taller than her.

  Her concerns were allayed when she saw that the guards weren’t paying much attention to the people entering into the confines of the city. They only stopped people exiting, and they seemed to be looking for somebody in particular. Keeping her head down and eyes fixed on the dirt road beneath her feet, Caitlin walked in past the guards behind another woman who was carrying a child over her shoulder. Caitlin managed a smile at the toddler when he made some unintelligible sound and wriggled his fingers, then she broke away to the side where she paused to study her surroundings.

  She noticed an odor in the air which everyone else ignored. They must be used to it, she thought. However, it was the entire setting around her that made her feel sick. The city looked old. Everything from the buildings and infrastructure, to the people and the clothes they wore, it was as if she had been transported to a different time where savagery and steel meant more than democracy and education. There were no teenagers with phones or cars and buses. She saw some kind of water mill to her right and it was possibly the most advanced piece of technology in sight.

  She stopped a young woman who looked around her own age. “Excuse me. Where is this? I need to get back to Sydney.”

  “Sydney? Never heard of it. This is Thermine, of course. What’s wrong with you?” the woman answered. She started to walk away and brushed Caitlin’s hand off when the Australian attempted to grab her arm to ask her more questions.

  Crestfallen, Caitlin turned her attention towards a stall across the street from her where they were selling soup or stew. With her stomach growling, she lumbered through the street, nearly knocking into several pedestrians. There wasn’t much of an aroma coming from the food nor did it look particularly appealing, but she hadn’t eaten in a while and she was salivating as she stood a few feet away from the stall while people ate directly out of clay bowls.

  There was a problem. She had no money. And, she didn’t recognize the copper coins changing hands as a patron paid for his meal. The stallkeeper, a gaunt, middle-aged man, noticed her and shooed her away. She assumed that she looked like a penniless person who was begging for food.

  She didn’t know what else to do and just stood there, staring blankly at an empty square table in front of the stall. In her mind, she was already sitting on one of the stools around it as she slurped the hot stew someone had brought her. Yet, there she stood. Without food, lodging, or any idea how to get home.

  Then, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

  Chapter 54

  He didn’t know where to look as they walked. Looking down at the endless grass made him lose focus and feel dizzy. He tried looking up at the sky and the mountain, but they were just as unyielding as the grass. Nothing seemed to change as they kept walking. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since they had started trekking again when Karine said they need to go to Servane, but he was tired.

  As he did yesterday, Leo brought up the rear of the short line. He closed his eyes and kept walking. There was a little part of himself that was fearful that he would stray off course and lose his three companions, damned to walk this pasture alone until his legs gave out for good. But it seemed there was little chance of that happening for as long as they were stuck in this evergreen purgatory.

  For a long time, all he heard was the rustling of their soles against the grass. That too, soon turned into an infuriating monotony and Leo wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, not that it would help. Up to this point, he had been dreading going to Servane. From what Karine had described, it wasn’t somewhere he wanted to be, especially if nobody was allowed to ever leave the mountain. It was a place of necessity and he was only now starting to come to terms with it. They needed to get to the mountain if they were to live. Anything else could wait, he thought.

  He wasn’t sure if it was because he was finally mentally prepared to seek refuge at Servane, but not a split second after that, he crashed into the back of David as the man in front of him stopped walking. Leo opened his eyes as he staggered backwards and saw why his companions had stopped. The mountain, which moments ago was a distant object, as it had been for two days, was suddenly right before them. Less than twenty steps away, Servane stood and the grass ended, like it had been there all along.

  Winding steps were carved into the side of the mountain. As far as they could see, there was no sign of any humans, elves, dwarves, or otherwise.

  “What now?” David asked.

  Karine looked back at them from the front and walked over to Leo. “Are you okay?” she asked. She held his face in her hands and stared into his eyes. He was exhausted and dazed as they all were, and she slapped him gently on his cheek twice to get his attention. The pain in his face, though not intense, jolted him awake and Leo took in a deep breath and blinked as his vision came back into focus. He saw the look of concern in the elf’s crystal blue eyes and he pulled her hands away from his face.

  “Yes. I’m just…” he said softly.

  “I know. We all are. But this place might be dangerous, and you need to be on your guard and ready to fight if it comes to it,” Karine said.

  “Yes, I understand.” Leo nodded and placed a hand on his sword. Somehow, he felt his strength returning to him. He wondered if Karine had done something to him when she touched his face. She continued to hold his gaze for a few moments until she was certain that Leo was alright. Then, she turned back to the mounta
in.

  “Let’s go. Stay close to each other and be prepared for the worst,” Karine said to the twins, pointing at the axe by David’s side. Sarah felt left out because she was the only person without any weapons or ability to fight. She knew that Leo could handle himself after he had taken out the guard back at the Marble Keep, but she wasn’t sure if David would be able to hold his own in a fight. Sure, he had gotten into a few brawls as a kid and there was that incident that had gotten him kicked out of the soccer academy, but this was different. The stakes were likely life or death.

  “I’m ready,” David said. He held the axe with his right hand and clutched his sister’s hand tightly with the other.

  Chapter 55

  “Young woman, how much for the raforzl pelt?”

  Caitlin turned around to see a tall and skinny man who would have stood out in the busy streets of Sydney, not to mention the dilapidated city she was presently in. He tweaked his long and thin mustache as he enunciated his words, like a villain would in a cartoon or a comedy.

  “What?” It was all she could utter.

  For the first time in days, she was being approached instead of the other way around. This man was strange, which might have been an understatement given that he was wearing what she would best describe as a technicolored outfit. His shirt and pants consisted of various brightly colored and irregularly shaped patches sewn together, while he wore a vertically striped cape that was tied in a bow around his neck.

  “The pelt. How much? Raforzls are rare enough to be seen, much less to be skinned. It looks like some coins would be better suited for you than hanging on to that pelt. Name your price.” He jingled a cloth pouch in front of her face. Estimating from its bulge, it was obviously full of currency that Caitlin could use. She could get a meal, then a room at a hotel or inn somewhere. She missed sleeping in a bed.

  She didn’t know what the brown pelt on her back was worth or what a raforzl was for that matter, but the stranger seemed intent on buying it off her back. Sure, it had kept her warm for a night and could possibly come in handy in the future should her luck not change for the better, but her stomach begged to differ as the faint aroma from the stew stall filled her nostrils.

  “Fifty,” she said, showing the tall man five fingers on her right palm.

  He stared back at her for a long time, continuing to rub his mustache between his thumb and index finger as he did. He was a creepy man and Caitlin wanted to look away, but she knew that it would be perceived as a sign of weakness while haggling, so she held his gaze.

  “Twenty,” he responded finally.

  “How much is in there?” Caitlin nodded at the pouch of coins.

  “Seventy,” the man quickly said.

  “Take out twenty-five, and I want the pouch.”

  “Thirty.”

  “Take out thirty, and I want the pouch. Final offer,” Caitlin countered and stuck out her hand. She had a hunch that he was lying about the amount of coins in his hand. His response had been too quick, and in that brief instant, he had looked away unbeknownst to himself, but Caitlin had caught it. It had been an involuntarily reflex borne of lying.

  The man hesitated. “Do you know who I am?”

  “No. Does it matter? A trade is a trade. You could be a king or a court jester. What difference does it make?” Caitlin was deliberately trying to throw him off by mocking his appearance. His smile grew wider, although his eyes belayed a different expression. Working as a bartender, Caitlin had become quite adept at reading people’s expressions and the subtle hints in parts of their faces which they couldn’t control.

  “Fifty,” he said.

  “Fine. Just count out twenty and hand me the sack. That should be right, I trust you,” Caitlin smiled. The man froze when he realized that he had just been outwitted by the young woman he was trying to con.

  “Well?” Caitlin continued to hold out her hand, inching it closer to his face. “Unless you’re not a man of your word.”

  He could have just reneged on the deal or walked away. Unknown to Caitlin, he could even have snatched the pelt off her back and ran off with it. There would be no chance of her catching him. But sometimes, people are bound to a code that they need to adhere to, or their entire belief system collapses. This unyielding conviction sometimes means taking action against their own interests, just like this moment for the man.

  “Deal,” the man said reluctantly. He opened the pouch and slowly fingered twenty gold pieces out of it, slipping the pieces one after the other into a pocket in his pants. Caitlin tried not to look surprised, but she hadn’t been expecting gold coins. She thought he was offering the same copper coins she had seen being exchanged in the stall. But seeing the gold, it was difficult not to grin.

  Her glee added insult to injury as the man scowled and dropped the pouch into her open palm. It was heavier than she had imagined and she quickly drew it in close to her chest.

  “Thanks! How about a bowl of stew? I’m buying!” Caitlin beamed.

  Chapter 56

  The stone steps went around the mountain in an upward spiral. The steps were wide enough for two people to ascend side by side, as Karine and Leo led the way with their swords drawn. David and Sarah followed closely two steps behind, allowing their companions some space in case there was an ambush waiting for them. David gripped his axe tightly in both hands across his body, ready to frog leap Leo if any enemies showed themselves. Of the four, only Sarah was unarmed, and he was prepared to protect her at all costs.

  It should have been a tough climb for them after the relentless walking they had done, combined with the lack of sustenance, but the moment they had set foot onto the mountain, they had each felt a jolt of energy coursing through their bodies, from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads. By some means, presumably magical, their strength had been restored and they were each raring to go. Fatigue and hunger had been washed away in an instant, replaced with vigor and excess energy bursting at the seams of their bodies to be expended.

  The other side of the mountain, the side that had been previously obscured from their view by the landform itself, was shrouded in an impenetrable, dense fog. Light was barely visible through the fog, and they could see nothing past it, even though Karine insisted that a river was there, according to a map she had once seen. Occasionally, a tiny, dark blur could be seen floating through the fogged sky until it disappeared. They might have been birds. But if they were, they had to be flying blind.

  The group continued up the mountain until they had rounded it five times. Then, Leo saw Karine’s ears twitch and he knew that they were soon about to come upon something or someone that resided on the mountain.

  Coming around to the back of the mountain for the sixth time, the steps turned sharply inwards into a large opening. It was a cavern that was hidden from view. It couldn’t be seen from the direction they had come from, and the thick fog concealed it from the other side. Flames burned strongly in stone-carved braziers that lined the walls of the cavern and voices could be heard from inside.

  Following the path, the foursome entered the cavern and for a few moments, even the elf was dumbstruck at what they saw. It was a secluded world by itself. Grass and trees grew everywhere and houses and huts were carved into the inner walls of the mountain. At the epicenter of the enclave, stood a tall building that looked like a stone teepee. There was even a thin plume of smoke escaping through a hole in its roof. Leo’s eyes followed the trail of smoke, as it kept rising until it dissipated. He could see the clear and open sky above them. The inside of the mountain was hollow.

  As they ventured in further, Karine stopped and they all stood still and gawked at their surroundings. All around, they saw various races and creatures. There was a human plucking at weeds in her garden. An elf sat on a rocking chair in front of a house, carving a block of wood in his hands with a small knife. At some sort of outdoor bar, a scruffy dwarf sat across from a brown humanoid of some kind, as they chugged from their mugs. It looked most
ly like a human, though it was very skinny with a visibly pronounced hunch in its back. It had a long chin and its ears were sharp, like an elf. When Sarah inquired what it was discreetly without pointing at it, Karine said it was a troll.

  There were many more residents inside the mountain, including a pair of giants, real giants, not like large man Leo had bested in combat back at the tournament. That seemed an eternity ago. These proper giants were nearly twice the size of the man Leo had fought and he now understood why Sam had dismissed his opponent back then of just being “taller than most people.”

  The giants were lying on their sides and playing a chess-like game on the ground with large stone pieces that were as tall as the humans. Nobody paid the four newcomers any attention, even with their weapons brandished. Life went on, as it were, and Leo sheathed his sword, not feeling the need to defend himself. If anything, they were the ones who looked hostile in this picture.

  This wasn’t quite what they had expected. Servane was more than a refuge. It was an oasis inside a mountain. There was a sense of tranquility about the place, as a butterfly floated through the air in front of the four of them, almost on cue. Sarah reached out to catch it, but it easily evaded her grasp and flapped away.

  Leo started to walk towards the teepee-looking building, which stood out among the other structures. If there was someone in charge here, they would be inside. There was a big wooden door on the side of the coned building and Leo examined it as he approached. The wood was a natural dark red, not seen anywhere around them, and there was beast of some kind carved into it. It had the upper body of a bull with fierce long horns and it held a giant axe in its hands. The lower body resembled a man, although its feet were hoofed. Its eyes were hollowed out and it bared its sharp teeth in a menacing snarl. He hoped it was just a decorative depiction, rather than an identifier of what resided within.

  Leo looked over his shoulder and was surprised to see that none of his friends had come forth with him. Karine and Sarah were still wary of the last time they had entered the main building of a community. That hadn’t ended well.