“Magic,” said Melfelfa.
“What’s down there?” asked the princess.
“Down there Grumpidygrunch.” Melfelfa seemed angry at it whatever it was. “Water we get here; Grumpidygrunch bucket take and smash. Sometime he sleep but us thirsty. Kill you Grumpidygrunch I sword you to the take.”
“Oh I think I know what he’s saying,” said Alexa.
Merrill interrupted the princess. “I know what he’s saying. There’s a monster down there that won’t let them get at their water source, and he wants us to kill the monster. But you already know the location of the sword. Alexa there’s magic down there and we are not equipped to combat that, besides the fact that there’s a monster.”
Several of them looked up at her with pleading eyes and the princess was not one to let someone in need continue to be so if she could help it. There was silence as the princess considered.
“I’m going down to take a look and I’ll decide if it’s a monster or not. Besides everything is a monster to these little guys.”
“Alexa you will do no such thing,” commanded Obed. “As a knight I outrank you.”
She smiled. “Yes but I am the princess.”
Obed grunted. “I knew she was going to say that. We are not going down there.”
Melfelfa kicked Obed in the ankle to show his displeasure. Merrill grabbed the rope that was attached to the bucket and dropping it into the water he started to climb down, knowing by the look on Alexa’s face that there was no talking her out of it. She followed him down and then Obed followed her. They swung the rope and landed on a rock beside the pool. A gorgeous landscape with rays of light from an unknown source casting sparkles into the multilevel waterfalls which led to the pool, green moss grew on the rocks and the air smelled so fresh that it was sweet. A light breeze originated from a side tunnel. Reddish-purple tubular blooms of honeysuckle were off to the side getting just the right amount of water from the splash of the waterfalls.
“I don’t see anyone,” said Obed.
Alexa cocked her head. “Be quiet Obed and listen. Do you hear that? Someone’s snoring down that tunnel.”
Someone or something was down that tunnel sleeping, likely the Grumpidygrunch. Merrill placed an arrow against his bow, again wishing that he was with Stone. He approached the tunnel and the light was dim in there, the sound of the beast’s snoring now somewhat louder, echoing off the walls. Why this was their business was beyond him. He then had an awful thought. What if it was a dragon? It didn’t sound like a dragon but still.
Alexa entered the tunnel and they followed. “We’ll try to talk him into leaving and see what happens.” Merrill moved ahead of the princess.
Suddenly the three of them ran back out of the tunnel, being pursued by the beast with a huge club that looked like a piece of a tree. It was twice as tall as the princess, had two tusks sticking out of its face and when it roared spittle and white froth were ejected, spraying quite a distance in front of him. It was a savage beast and there was no talking to it. It kicked Obed in the back and sent him flying into the pool of water, Merrill caught the thing with three arrows but it only made the beast angry, charging him and knocking him off his feet with a blow from his club.
Alexa pulled out her dagger and threw it into where she thought its heart would be located and she could now see blood dripping into its tan muscular chest; it screeched in pain but didn’t go down, attacking the princess it knocked her down and was now on top of her, attempting to bite into her face with its huge mandibles, snapping shut a short distance from her nose, its breath reeking of something that had been dead for a week. Obed ran and swung his sword hard and with precision, the Grumpidygrunch lost its head and the princess squirmed from beneath it.
Merrill picked up the severed head and was surprised to see that it was still alive and tried to bite him; it snapped shut several times, and obviously a lot of strength remained. Its body staggered around as it searched for its own head. Merrill threw the monster’s head up and out of the well out of its reach and heard screams. The headless body finally fell and after staring at it for a time Obed dragged it into the cave and away from the water source to keep the water from being poisoned by its ugly carcass.
The atmosphere was jovial as they climbed up and out of the well. The head now had its eyes closed and its mouth open as all the life had finally drained out of it. One of the little fur balls was digging a hole as fast as any goffer could in preparation to bury the head.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
RYXA REMAINED SADDENED by the loss of her eggs but at least they had been empty and hadn’t contained dead baby dragons. She sat on the two eggs that remained intact, her pensive dragon face in her hands and her elbows resting on her stomach. The male baby was very vocal and active but the female was content to sleep most of the time inside her egg and that was a little worrisome; the idea crossed Ryxa’s mind that she might be sickly, although when she was awake she sounded spry enough. A dragon’s physiology was a magical thing and not fully understood by anyone, not even dragons.
Ryxa got off her eggs and peeked in at the baby boy. “I believe I’ll call you Daganth after my great-great grandfather. Do you like Daganth?”
“It’s nice,” said Daganth.
She went and stared out at the puffy white clouds with the mountains peaks in the distance; she would love to get out there and stretch her wings but at the moment had no one to watch the eggs. It looked wonderful out there and a moderate breeze was appreciated as it hit her, bringing the scent of a pterocrit though she wasn’t hungry.
Daganth was standing inside his egg trying to walk, making the egg roll around in the nest. He started to run and when the egg hit the side of the nest it flew out, wobbling and rolling around as his mother turned. She ran over and peeked into the hole and the little guy looked back at her.
“Get me out of here,” said the baby dragon. “I can’t open my wings there’s no room.”
Ryxa shook her head. “You can’t hatch yet because you’re not big enough. Only when you’ve filled up the egg can you come out.”
“What does that mean?”
“You need to grow bigger before you can come out.” Ryxa placed the egg back in the nest and thought it felt as hard as a boulder; she desperately hoped that Marcus would be able to get him out of there when the time came. She returned to the mouth of the cave and stuck her head out, looking left and right, seeing a pterocrit in the distance and heading in her direction. She thought they were some of the dumbest creatures to take to the air, thank goodness there were lots of them around. As she continued to watch it flew right into the cave with her. Pterocrits were a favorite meal for dragons and obviously it wasn’t smart to enter a dragons den, but having eaten one that morning she couldn’t eat another and so kicked it back out into the wind.
“What was that?” said the baby dragon.
Ryxa continued to track it as the pterocrit circled around and it appeared to be heading back towards her cave. “Oh this one is really stupid. Here it comes again.” She launched a fireball at it to scare it off, and as the fire dissipated in front of it the monster bird flew through the remnants of the fire and again entered the cave. “You are one stupid pterocrit. Dragons eat pterocrits you foolish thing, now get out of here.”
“Squawk!” the pterocrit screeched as it was being chased around the cave, finally heading back out into the blue sky with a kick to its rear end.
Ryxa screamed as she noticed that it had one of her eggs it its talons as if flew off.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CYRUS SET OUT ON HIS HORSE and headed west; he would spend a few days by himself and decide whether or not he wanted to be a knight, but he was already fairly certain that he didn’t. It was a dangerous life and once one became a knight he would have no choice but to do whatever the king commanded. He had considered taking Raina with him, forcing her to spend some time with him but had decided against it, at least for the time being. Of course Marcus would be a
fter him but it was a big world and he imagined that he wouldn’t be so easy to find. He was quite sure that if Ryxa spent some time with him that she would choose him over that stupid wizard.
He rode for a day and a night, stopping occasionally to eat and feed and water his horse. He moved through a small section of desert, wavy red sand dunes and the atmosphere was extremely hot, fortunately two hours later he rode out of it. He drank from his water bladder and then yawned, having to admit that it felt great to be free, to go wherever and do whatever he wanted, and so far he hadn’t bumped into a single soul. Cyrus looked back at the dunes and behind one was a circular building that looked to be made out of stone. His curiosity was peeked and so he rode toward it, it must have been on the other side of the dune as he had passed it. He halted the horse and looked down, seeing that a scorpion was feeding on a lizard it had killed but when he turned back the building had vanished. Had it been a mirage? He studied the landscape for a time, puzzled because it had looked like a genuine structure, had definitely looked solid but now was nowhere to be seen.
“It was either a mirage or a magical thing,” he said to himself. With his hand on the pummel of his sword he had the horse turn as he again headed out of the desert. After a short time he was again out of the desert landscape; he turned back toward the dunes and there it was again, the circular building seeming as genuine as it had been the first time he set his eyes upon it. Should he waste more time and attempt to approach it once again? Might there be something wonderful inside?
Cyrus got his horse to trot towards the building, this time determined not to take his eyes off it and as he got closer and closer it certainly appeared to be real and didn’t vanish this time. He disembarked from his horse and slowly walked toward it, pulling his horse as he went. He reached out touching the smooth stones, no question that it was real. It was some sort of enchantment that when one looked away it vanished, or at least concealed itself. If it was hiding something it was likely to be something good, magical perhaps? Unfortunately might be some sort of behemoth in there as well, ready to kill and consume him. Stone had warned him about going out on his own with no one to have his back.
Cyrus went around the circular edifice and realized that there was no entrance, how odd. No windows either, must be awfully dark inside but of course there could be many sconces. Might there be a certain rock to push that would open a secret door? He had heard that such things existed. He circled it again, this time feeling the stones as he made his way around once again, guessing that there might even be an invisible door but after pushing as many rocks as he could manage but still no luck. Cyrus was tempted to simply abandon the idea and be on his way but couldn’t quite bring himself to move on. Treasure, magical weapons, might even be a good place to live but unless he got in there all would remain a mystery. Whatever it was he had never heard stories about a mysterious building that no one could enter.
Cyrus stroked the side of his horse’s face. “What do you think? Something good in there fella?”
The horse just happened to whinny but he took it as a sign nonetheless.
He took the horse’s reigns and stuffed a part of it into a section where a piece of rock had dislodged, hoping that it would hold the horse in place as he stood up on his saddle, but still he remained about three hands width from being able to reach the top. It was risky to climb and leave the horse unattended, if the animal ran off it would be a hell of a walk back to Leeander. He also hoped that there wouldn’t be scorpions up there to sting him or something else unseen just waiting for him. Cyrus balanced on his saddle and jumped, best not to overthink the situation, grabbing onto the edge of the structure he pulled and squirmed his way up and almost feel into the abyss, trying hard to maintain his balance, teetering one way and then the other.
“That was close.”
There were steep spiral stairs leading down almost certain death if he tumbled from his current location, the steps so steep that he wouldn’t be alive when he reached the bottom. Carefully he took his first step down on the stairs, sconces lit up the area far below but nothing could be seen. Perhaps at one point in time it had been occupied but hopefully it wasn’t any longer. Less than half way down he shouted. “Hello?” Immediately wondering if it had been smart, perhaps notifying a monster that he was on his way down, slowly pulling his sword he continued. All he was wearing was leather armour with chainmail over it.
At the bottom he discovered that there were vast tunnels all slanting further down, four of them in all leading in different directions; all lit by white sconces that he assumed were of the magical type. He listened intently but heard nothing, his bones might never be found if he died in here. He was tempted to call out again but didn’t, if the place wasn’t built with magic it would have taken a hell of a long time to build. Cyrus wished he had his horse but that was impossible. Dare he explore one of those tunnels? Nothing risked nothing gained he supposed. He headed into the tunnel facing him, placing his sword back into its sheath, deciding that he didn’t need it at the moment. After he had walked about a league the tunnel commenced to curve to the left. In time he came to a wooden door that had an image of a butterfly carved into it, but as he got closer he realized that the image was in fact made up of perhaps twenty-five real butterflies that had been motionless.
“Butterflies?” He wondered who or what was behind that door? Should it be a sorcerer he might not be happy to have an unwelcome visitor. The butterflies left the door and approached him, flying erratically as butterflies do and as soon as he swatted at them they attacked with short bursts of speed, cutting small nicks into his face making him bleed. He killed three of them in between his hands, and when he did so they turned into a yellow dust, slowly tumbling to the ground but the ones that remained continued to attack; his face was becoming more and more bloodied. The nicks in his face burned something awful as he killed two more of the conjured insects, one wound was a little too close to his eye for comfort so he retreated back down the tunnel.
Once Cyrus reached a certain distance they stopped the attack as if they were unable or unwilling to move beyond a certain point. He wondered if the tips of their wings might not be poisonous. Might he just drop dead? Except for the discomfort of the small cuts he could feel no other ill affects; he knew that sometimes spells weakened over time so perhaps at one point they had been poisonous.
“You give butterflies a bad name you little bastards!” Cyrus shouted at them. He reached out and killed another one, which made them more aggressive but still they didn’t go beyond that point. It took him awhile but he managed to kill all of them. As he walked towards the door he felt peculiar, slumping to the floor he discovered that he didn’t have the strength to move.
CHAPTER THIRTY
MARCUS RAN AS FAST AS HE COULD out of the castle with the black hole following close behind; it would have been amusing had he not feared for his life. He ran into the courtyard, tripping and falling before launching another bolt of lightning but there was no effect on whatever it was. He was sure it was an attack by another wizard and thought he might be done for; having no idea how to stop it. The sorcerer stood up threatening it with the wand, lunging at it but there was no reaction. It was an enchantment with no consciousness and he may as well threaten a tree.
And again his wand vibrated, this time he looked at it.
Words appeared on the side of the wand. “It means you no harm Marcus. It’s a portal.”
Darius and Raina ran out and were happy to see that Marcus was okay yet the strange thing still floated nearby, as if a piece of the air itself had been cut out. The king’s raven flew down landing on Darius’s shoulder, curious about the goings-on. When Adorok was alive there were many peculiar goings-on but never this strange. Perhaps the power of a TarCranian wizard manifested too much magical attention, like a bullseye to an arrow.
“What’s a portal?” said Marcus, staring up at the black hole. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
“A portal is a doo
r that magically leads somewhere but where I cannot say. I’ve never seen one quite like this before.”
Marcus scratched his head. The idea that a door was chasing him was not something that he would have ever imagined. He was definitely not going into that thing. The black hole dropped on the ground in front of the wizard; Marcus looked down into it but it was so dark there was nothing to be seen, like midnight inside a cave with no source of light. He was tempted to stick his hand in but decided against it because what if something pulled him in. Or there might be some sort of beast down there ready to bite it off, and to use one’s natural curiosity as a weapon would be smart. The idea of using curiosity as part of a trap was intriguing. He didn’t think he would be able to resist the urge forever.
Raina stared down at it. “What is it?”
Marcus shrugged. “The wand said it’s a portal. I’d like to stick my head down there and have a look but I don’t dare.”
“There could be anything waiting,” said the king.
Marcus took a few steps back and the hole followed him, remaining low to the ground, going over a large rock the size of the wizard’s hand; the rock vanished, must have fallen into the cavity. He didn’t know what to do about it because while sleepwalking he could easily fall into it should it continue to just hang around, anyone might fall into it and never be seen again. Marcus couldn’t just let it follow him but what if he couldn’t stop it. And then everyone heard a squawking from within the hole, getting louder and louder, then the sound of wings flapping. And suddenly a green magpie flew out and landed at Marcus’s feet, squawking loudly as if trying to tell him something.
“Marcus it has a note in its claw!” exclaimed Darius.
Knight of the Sword (of Knights and Wizards Book 3) Page 10
