by Paul Sobol
Coming around a slight bend in the tunnel they came upon another cavern. By the number of stalactites hanging from the ceiling and stalagmites rising from the ground, like huge demented teeth, they could tell the cavern was ancient. It was also a good sign they were getting closer to a source of water.
Suddenly the air became unbearably cold.
From the tunnel they had just exited came a low mournful sound. Whatever approached was getting louder and seemed to be in some haste to reach them, its rasping breath laboured and coming in short gasps. Nothing could be seen at first but then a low carpet of mist began to spread out from the tunnels mouth. The temperature got noticeably colder and within moments the large cavern was filling with cloudy mist. Athenais shouted for the others to move towards one of the rear tunnels, but before the group could cross the distance they were under attack.
Out of the darkness shambled a creature out of nightmare. Tattered black cloth hung loosely over a skeletal form barely held together by flesh stretched thin over ages. The wraith-like figure, seeing its prey so close, made a desperate lunge for the nearest target. Incandescent fingers of bone reached towards living flesh that, at a single touch, could steal the very life energy from its victims.
Unfortunately for the wraith, its target was Archer.
Before the life-stealing creature could close the distance, Archer threw two daggers and drew a sword, ready to stand and fight. Screaming in pain as the steel daggers passed through its body, the wraith instantly resumed its attack, clearly undeterred by the weapon-master or her weapons. From behind the half-elf someone hastily muttered a spell and magic filled the cavern.
The wraith, having survived in the tunnels for what seemed like centuries on other lost life-forms, hungered for the taste of human flesh again. Animalistic desire overrode its usual cognitive functions as the wraith ignored the sparkles of magic that blossomed between itself and a potential feast. Pain lanced through its body and for a brief moment of hesitation it felt a real stab of fear, but the hunger drove it onward and past what little sanity it may have held onto.
With supernatural speed the wraith attacked again. Athenais stretched forth his hand and shouted words of power, creating a shimmering barrier which stopped the wraith. Howling in frustration the life-stealer watched helplessly as its prey escaped down one of the tunnels. In desperation the wraith drew on dark powers of its own, powers it had almost forgotten existed, and attacked the magical barrier. In the darkness the clash of positive and negative energies was blinding, but having died a long time ago the wraith was without sight and thus immune to the awesome display of scintillating colours as ancient magics destroyed each other.
The barrier slowly weakened and unable to withstand the constant attack of dark energy suddenly gave way and shattered. Free to follow its escaping prey the wraith sped down the tunnel in pursuit of its meal.
“That was no ordinary wraith,” said Archer, “The touch of steel is usually enough to deter them from further attacks. It even seemed willing to go up against my blade.”
The group had finally stopped to catch their breath several caverns later. It had been a nightmarish run through narrow passageways and stalagmite-encrusted landings. Shadows thrown against the walls as they passed often caused more fear and panic as they believed yet more monsters waited in ambush, but when no attack materialised they shrugged the anxiety off and continued on.
Athenais had eventually caught up with them. Using telepathy he had been successful in directing the groups’ headlong flight down the correct tunnels. As they rested he quickly erected a series of protective wards in the tunnel behind him, knowing that it would not hold the wraith for long but at least would give them some more time to escape.
“I agree,” replied Athenais, “Wraiths are shadows from the demon realm. Twisted, evil life-stealing creatures, it should have been destroyed, if not severely injured, when I cast that Starburst spell.”
“Before we entered the tunnel I was able to cast a spell of my own,” Father Benedict said, “and if it truly were a thing of evil my spell of Banishment should have sent it fleeing.”
“We can’t keep running,” Silver said, “we have to find a way to destroy it.”
“I’m not sure we can. Attacking it magically will only weaken it. We would have to trap it, and eventually without nourishment it will grow weak and fade away. The problem is we don’t have enough time to cast a binding spell of that magnitude.”
“How long do you need?” Archer asked.
“Several minutes at least,” Athenais replied.
“Start weaving that spell!”
Sitting cross-legged on the ground she quickly gathered her power and began a lengthy incantation. Speaking the final verse a small wisp of light gathered in front of her. Eyes closed, and seemingly in a meditative state, she sent forth the wisp up the tunnel they had come from. Repeating the incantation she had gathered yet another wisp. It too followed the first up the tunnel.
Athenais, with the help of the three other magicians, had managed to create a smooth space on the wall on which to inscribe the binding spell. Like using an invisible brush Athenais motioned with his hand and shallow grooves were magically chiselled on the stone. Soon the basic outline of the spell had been ‘carved’. The next series of grooves became thinner and more complex, creating an intricate pattern of circles and geometric shapes. Within the spaces created by the shapes appeared archaic rune symbols. Softly, Athenais spoke the necessary words of Power required to activate the runes, and as each syllable was spoken its corresponding rune began to glow.
“It’s coming, you don’t have much longer,” Archer said.
Eerie flashes of light coming from the tunnel sent shadows flickering around the cavern, and as the Wraith came into view it let out another low desolate moan. The wisps sent by Archer still flittered around the 'undead' creature. Every time they struck they created small motes of smoke, but the wraith no longer seemed to be bothered by them, in fact, as the wisps attacked again and again their own inner light grew weaker. With a wave of her hand Archer dismissed the creatures of light which disappeared in tiny bursts of sparkling energy.
Hastily incanting, Athenais gestured towards the Wraith. A halo of silvery light surrounded the creature of darkness, stopping it from approaching further. Railing against the binding spell the Wraith let out a piercing cry that sent shivers of fear coursing through the blood of those standing before it.
Athenais nearly faltered in his casting, but skilfully managed to maintain control of the energies he’d summoned and resumed the incantation that would bind the Wraith indefinitely. He felt powerful dark magic assailing his spell in response, but with the help of his companions the Wraith’s attack was rebuffed.
As the binding spell neared completion, both the Wraith and the carved sigils burning with an intense silvery fire, and as the last few syllables were spoken a small vortex appeared on the wall. Inexorably, the Wraith was slowly pulled towards the vortex which closely resembled a silver tornado. Despite its strength and final desperate efforts to escape, the creature was finally pulled into the wall. The silvery fire vanished and the cavern was once again plunged into a semidarkness. The runic inscriptions continued glowing faintly, and everyone let out a relieved sigh that the binding was ultimately successful. The life-stealer, unable to escape, would eventually consume itself as it fed upon its own energy.
After the group had rested a short while they prepared to resume their quest, but before leaving the cave Athenais cast one final spell. With a wave of his hand the magical seal on the wall vanished, replaced by a fool-proof illusion of the surrounding stone. Only another powerful magician would be able to detect the cloaking spell, should they happen along, and hopefully would have enough sense to realise what was trapped within.
Chapter Twenty
For several more hours the group traversed the tunnel network. After the days’ events nobody felt in the mood to talk, thus they continued on in silence, followi
ng the directions of their guide until they finally came upon something that was neither tunnel nor cavern.
The floating globes of light from each magician rose higher in the air to better illuminate their surroundings. The air here was no longer stale but smelled heavily of moisture as if near a lake or an underground sea, and although there was no breeze the air still felt cool and refreshing.
Several feet from where they stood the stone floor ended and an inky darkness stretched out for what seemed a vast distance. Like standing on the edge of a huge precipice the group slowly made their way forward. The darkness receded, and before them was not the expected chasm but a huge body of water; its surface mirror smooth, undisturbed and fathomless. It seemed unnatural for so much water to be completely motionless, not a single ripple could be seen, until Athenais directed them to look closer.
Heeding his warning to not disturb the water, the four magicians got closer to the surface, and true to his word they noticed the faintest of ripples. At first they thought it was a random occurrence but after a short while Winter made the astonishing discovery. “It’s perfectly symmetrical!”
“What is?” Archer asked.
“The ripple. Notice how when it reaches the edge it is perfectly perpendicular so that the corresponding wave sent back is identical. Even the timing is amazing.”
“Spoken like a true Elementalist. I swear you have a unique gift for noticing the insignificant,” said Archer teasingly.
“This is truly something special. I agree most people would find it uninteresting but the complexity is astounding. I bet this entire lake, or whatever it is, is a perfect circle, right down to the micrometre. Somewhere out there has to be something that is causing the disturbance, like, a drop of water.
“If I do some quick calculations,” Winter went on and muttered a series of numbers under her breath, “the drop of water occurs every 314 seconds. Amazing. I bet if we had some highly calibrated instruments we would find the time to be exactly 314.159265 seconds.”
“Maths wasn’t my strongest point,” Archer replied, getting bored with the entire subject, “what’s so important about that particular number?”
“It’s one hundred times Pi, which is a unique number relating to circles,” Winter replied. “Someone has gone through a lot of trouble to create this. No way could it be natural.”
“For what purpose? To astonish every Elementalist that happens to come by?”
“Well, from what Athenais said – not to disturb the water, I would hazard a guess that to disturb the water would cause something to happen. The drop of water has set up some kind of rhythm in the lake; it may be creating a secondary effect like an oscillation or vibration in the air or the stone. If that should cease I would imagine it might set off some kind chain reaction, much like a snowflake causing an avalanche.”
“A drop of water is holding back an avalanche?” Archer said incredulously.
“Not quite an avalanche,” piped in Athenais, “but Winter is indeed correct. The ripples bounce back and forth, cancelling and reinforcing each other as they collide, and in its’ own unique way has created a pattern of vibrations. It took my companions and me a long time to figure out that pattern and how to modify it. If not done correctly something bad will happen.”
As Athenais neared the water’s edge he took out his little journal and flipped through several pages. Muttering under his breath the others could only make out a jumbled series of numbers. Reaching into one of his pockets he took out a small, perfectly spherical stone about the size of a pea, and whilst still reciting numbers dropped it into the water.
For what seemed a long time nothing happened. The initial shockwave sent by the dropped stone had disappeared into the darkness. Everyone stood still, hardly making a noise, waiting in silent expectation of some calamitous event about to occur.
At first Silver thought he heard something, like distant thunder on the horizon, but a glance towards Archer confirmed his suspicion that he was not the only one to have heard the noise. Again the low rumble was heard, and after a short while re-occurred but a little louder.
“Look at the water!” Winter exclaimed. All eyes turned downward and instantly knew what had caused her to cry out. The water was no longer a calm mirror, but a mass of agitated ripples growing not only in number but also intensity. It wasn’t long before the thundering noise rose to a deafening crescendo, but rather than abate it continued on seemingly without any intent of stopping. With the turbulence in the water came also a disturbance in the air, and soon the small group was buffeted by ever-increasingly stronger winds.
Winter waved her hands and a sphere of calmness surrounded the group. The roar of the wind died down but the effects could still be seen on the water which by now was a raging, frothing maelstrom. “If we make our way to the middle,” said Athenais, “we will be able to continue on.”
The others shared a quick, worried glance. Seeing as how Athenais seemed unconcerned with the rather violent elemental turn of events, Winter once again levitated the group and sent them flying over the turbulent water. As expected the unnatural lake was one giant swirling vortex, and if not for the protective bubble they would have been sucked down into oblivion.
Hovering near the centre all they could make out was a mass of swirling water disappearing downwards; the eye of the watery twister pitch-black. Despite appearing to flow down a giant drain the water level remained constant, almost as if the water wasn’t really going anywhere but something underneath was creating the vortex to let them in. They looked towards Athenais as if silently asking, what now?
“Isn’t it obvious? We go down!”
The bubble with its five occupants slowly descended into the darkness. The raging torrent of water surrounded them, plunging the five into total darkness and deafening silence. Aimlessly they drifted down, and with no points of reference there was no telling how far they travelled.
“Winter, how fast are we falling?” Archer asked.
“We’ve reached freefall. I can speed us up if you want but it could be a bumpy landing should anything come up unexpectedly.”
“No this should suffice,” added Athenais, “we should reach the bottom in a few minutes.”
The wait seemed longer than originally predicted, but when falling through absolute blackness all perspective of distance and time is distorted.
Suddenly the darkness gave way to brilliant light, and beneath them an endless vista stretched out. Looking beneath their feet they could make out a tall snow-capped mountain. It appeared to be their destination should they continue their descent, but Athenais motioned for Winter to change course and head for a distant range of mountain peaks.
Across desolate snowfields and ice-swept glaciers they travelled, passing through low lying clouds and over the occasional blizzard. The inhospitable landscape below was a frozen wasteland that hardly seemed able to sustain life, yet as they raced over the tundras they spotted large shaggy beasts that appeared to be some kind of yak but several times larger and completely white.
As the snow slowly gave way to patches of brown and eventually green the group sped over low hills dotted with trees and hardy bushes. The foothills then gave way to a tall mountain range, and in the snow-clogged passes and valleys they saw herds of caribou and smaller nimbler deer. Athenais, consulting his journal, pointed towards a group of black-rocked mountains. “Ancient volcanoes, their empty lava tubes offer the best protection from the weather. I named them the Black Hills. It’s where we camped for a while whilst searching for the Ice Keep.”
The Black Hills, once they landed on one, was aptly named. Ages old volcanic magma lay cracked and scattered like so much shattered black glass, making it very difficult to walk on. The group carefully made their way to a nearby lava tube that Athenais said was the site of his old camp.
Smooth obsidian coated the floor and ceiling of this long twisting passageway which sloped slightly down. They half crawled, half slid their way several meters into the natur
ally formed cave. The tunnel widened and thankfully flattened out which made walking a lot easier. There were now signs that the cave had once been occupied; carved glyphs and wards were placed around the area, and when the group approached they suddenly began to glow. “We placed these wards a long time ago. Good to see they’re still active,” said Athenais who walked around the room and spoke several short incantations, “at least now we have some decent protection.”
To those on the other side of the wards it appeared as if the old magician had disappeared, but as they crossed the magical threshold he reappeared. “Should anything come down this way it will appear as if the cave is empty. There are also several wards to deter things from venturing too far; it wouldn’t do to have them stumble upon us while we slept.”
“What is this?” Silver pointed to a strange artefact in the room.
“Ah! I had forgotten about that,” exclaimed Athenais as he made his way towards a strange pedestal, “it was something I had created to help in our search for the Keep.”
What looked to be part of the black glass structure was in fact a separate sphere perched on top, and as he lifted the orb it began to glow with an inner bluish light. “Originally I created it to help scry vast distances in the hope of catching sight of the castle. It had great potential, able to map areas as it flew overhead, but after a while we had about given up hope. We theorised that the Keep might be disguised or at least hidden from sight so as to prevent such scrying techniques. I suppose it eventually gave up searching and returned.”
“What do you mean?” Silver asked.
“At first I would send this orb out and through it I could see the lands. Over time it became too taxing so I modified it to record what it ‘saw’, and later on I could view the images a lot quicker. Just after the incident that killed my second companion I must have sent it off one last time. Eventually it must have returned at some point.”
