Soul Render (Soul Stones Book 1)

by T. L. Branson

  On one hand, she had a point. He had concealed the truth from her. He had lied to her. But why should he have told her those things? Like she would have believed him if he had told her. Why did she believe the elf? There was no way to tell if he was lying either.

  On the other hand, she lied to Will, too. He found it very difficult to feel bad about lying to her when she did the very same to him. This whole time he thought they were connecting, bonding. Instead, it was all a lie. Even if parts of it were true, Will couldn’t begin to wade through it all.

  And now she expected him to trust her? To place his life in her hands? Will only dropped the issue so that they could complete this task. The elf and his “lady” had the answers he needed. Will didn’t care what happened to Priscilla.

  That’s what he told himself anyway.

  “If this cave is as unknown as the elf says, then it’s not likely to have any light down there,” Will said, trying to distract himself.

  Priscilla spun on him and stole his dagger from its sheath at his side. She held it out and flicked it upward. “Take off your cuirass.”

  “Whoa, calm down,” Will said, holding up his hands. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “Just do it,” she said, turning her wrist over nonchalantly.

  As soon as Will removed it, she came at him with the dagger. She cut off a long strip of his shirt along the bottom then handed him the dagger back.

  “You can put it back on now,” she said.

  “What was that for?” Will asked.

  “We’re going to make a torch,” she explained.

  Priscilla took the strip of shirt and walked over to the nearest pine tree. She set the shirt down and drew her sword.

  “This is a poor use of your blade, but you’re all I’ve got,” she said to the sword and then started hacking at a branch. When it came off, she took it and wrapped the torn cloth around one end.

  “Hand me one of your empty waterskins,” she ordered.

  Will dug one out of his pack and handed it to her. She held it up to the tree where the branch had come off and collected the oozing sap into the waterskin. When she was finished she handed it all back to him.

  Skirting the lake took hours. They followed the water’s edge, but it was far larger than it appeared. It didn’t help that the temple was located at the farthest point from this unseen waterfall as it could be.

  Silence dominated, the air buzzing with tension. Walls went up between them, neither of them daring let the other one in again.

  For the first time in nearly a week, Will pushed Priscilla out of his thoughts, his mind drifting to Riley and Ocken. He wondered where they were. Had they made it to Derton? Were they still there, or had the caravan moved onward? Did they go back to Shadowhold or on to another city, possibly even Celesti?

  In his preoccupation, Will hadn’t noticed that Priscilla had stopped walking and he ran right into her.

  “Watch where you’re going,” she snapped.

  “Maybe next time you should give me some warning when you’re going to suddenly stop,” he retorted.

  She scoffed. “I wouldn’t have to if you’d get your head out of the clouds.”

  “Whatever,” Will said, rolling his eyes. “Why’d you stop in the first place?”

  “Thanks for proving my point,” she said. “Open your eyes. Look around.”

  She stopped because there was nowhere else to go. They stood at the foot of the Frostpeaks, the lake to their right. The lake went deeper into the mountains, but there were no roads or trails leading there.

  “So, now what?” he asked. “We swim?”

  “Gods, no. Not if I can help it. We do not know what’s in that lake, and I don’t plan on finding out the hard way,” she said. “We’re going rock climbing again.”

  “Hope we have a better go of it this time,” Will said. “Just be careful, Priscilla.”

  “Priscilla? So it’s going to be like that?” she asked.

  “Trust is a privilege, not a right,” he said. “And I thought you hated ‘Red.’ ”

  She took a deep breath and let it out, then she turned around and started to climb.

  They only went up about ten feet before continuing to follow the edge of the lake. Progress was slow, as they often had to climb higher or lower depending on the obstacles in their path.

  The end of the lake drew nearer, and with it came a steady, thunderous roar. Quiet at first, like a light rainstorm, growing louder with each step forward. A mist rose up from the lake, coating the mountainside with water.

  The lake narrowed until it was only about a hundred feet wide before it plunged down into the unknown. The mountain itself receded around the falls, millions of gallons of water eroding it away over the millennia. To the left of the waterfall, the rocks sloped down into the opening, providing them with a staircase of sorts.

  They reached the edge of the falls and Will stuck his head over the edge to get a better look at what lay below. The water fell several feet, flattened out on a ledge, and then plummeted more than a hundred feet more. Darkness obscured the floor of the cave.

  The path that led to the bottom jutted out about twenty feet before sloping downward. It was so narrow they had to go one at a time, their backs pressed against the wall. The ledge was barely the size of Will’s foot. He shimmied along the wall until the rock formations widened.

  They descended several feet following the natural decline of the rocks when the slope reversed direction and went back up. The rocks beneath them continued to descend, but a significant gap stood between their path and the one below.

  Will turned around, got down on his stomach, and eased his feet over the ledge. Hanging on with nothing but the tips of his fingers Will still could not reach the bottom.

  It didn’t look far, so he let go and pressed himself against the slope of the wall to slip another few feet. Once he was down, Priscilla followed. He grabbed her waist and eased her down. She snorted at his touch, but didn’t speak.

  Leaping from rock to rock, they continued down into the cave until they reached a sheer drop. There was no way down on this side of the falls. They backtracked a short ways and determined the only way to continue was to cross the falls where it flattened out.

  They couldn’t swim across, that would have surely resulted in their swift deaths. There were no rocks to jump between, those having long been eroded away. Their only option was to go behind the falls.

  Another narrow ledge greeted them. This time, Priscilla went through first. Will waited for her to appear on the other side before bothering to enter, should this path also provide a dead end.

  When she didn’t appear after a few moments, a pump of adrenaline coursed through Will’s body.

  “Priscilla!” he called out.

  No response. The roar of the falls drowned out his voice.

  “Priscilla!” he tried again.

  Still nothing.

  A small rock crashed into the stone wall behind Will. He whipped around but didn’t see anyone. Another rock hit him on the pauldron. Will followed the rock’s trajectory and found Priscilla on the other side of the falls a ways forward. He hadn’t seen her emerge. She waved him over.

  Will moved behind the falls and carefully edged across the narrow ledge. Mist from the water coated his body in seconds. The wall, slick with water, was treacherous. One wrong step and he could be dragged under the weight of rushing water.

  A few heavy heartbeats later, Will too emerged on the other side of the falls.

  “You could have hit me in the head, you know?” Will chided when he rejoined Priscilla.

  “Oh, poor baby, want to cry to mommy about the mean girl throwing rocks at you?” she said, mocking him, then added, “I did try to call for you, just so you know.”

  “Come on, let’s keep moving,” he said, ignoring her.

  The remainder of the trip was a breeze, the gradual descent of the rocks placing them several hundred feet away from the falls by the time they reached the
bottom.

  From there they followed a path that cut back along the water’s edge and led to a cave behind the falls. They followed it and entered the dark opening behind the waterfall.

  The dim light they had in the main cavern from the opening above them disappeared. Will pulled the rudimentary torch Priscilla had made out of his pack, poured the sap over it, and lit it with some flint.

  A narrow passageway appeared before them, sloping downward. They moved along its path and turned as it cut to the right. Will placed his foot down, but only his heel found solid ground. He wobbled off balance before throwing himself back into Priscilla.

  “A little warning next time?” she said.

  Will didn’t deign to respond and held the torch out over the edge.

  The path opened into some kind of shaft. Will couldn’t see the bottom. He kicked a few small stones over the edge. Five seconds passed before a soft clatter echoed from below.

  The path split. To the left, it led deeper into the shaft, and to the right it ascended back toward the surface. Both paths wrapped around the circular opening, hugging the walls.

  Assuming they didn’t want to go back up, they took the path to the left and delved deeper into the unknown. The trickle of water and a chill breeze told Will that water from the falls found its way in the shaft through some unseen opening.

  After some time, the ledge ended, though the shaft continued to plunge downward. An opening in the shaft wall led to another narrow passage.

  The ceiling of the passageway hung low, barely high enough for Will to walk through without having to stoop. Moss coated the rock wall, the air thick with moisture. Will found it stifling and hard to breathe.

  The path twisted and turned during its descent, then leveled out and continued straight. It turned to the left and then continued down again before leading back out into the shaft. The path abruptly ended, though the floor of the shaft was now visible. Sharp rocks like teeth jutted from the ground, a skeleton impaled on one of them.

  I almost ended up like that guy, Will thought.

  Upon closer inspection, Will noted a ladder descending the remainder of the way to the bottom of the shaft. He handed the torch to Priscilla and put his foot on the topmost rung and tested it with his weight. It creaked and groaned, but otherwise held firm.

  Will moved down the ladder one step at a time. Wood cracked and snapped, the sound echoing all around them. Then he was falling, a rung giving way beneath Will’s feet. The fall was short, but his feet could not find purchase. He landed on his back, the fall knocking the wind from his body.

  “Are you okay?” Priscilla asked.

  Will didn’t immediately answer. He couldn’t. She started to climb down.

  “Wait,” Will said with a wheeze.

  She paused and climbed back to the top.

  After a moment, Will recovered his breath and said, “The ladder isn’t safe. Toss me the torch and I’ll help you down.”

  She dropped the torch and he caught it before it hit the ground. Light illuminated the ladder. The bottom seven rungs were damaged and splintered. Will propped the torch against the wall and signaled for Priscilla to come down.

  She reached the last rung and was still several feet above him.

  “Climb down and put your feet on my shoulders,” Will said.

  With a little maneuvering, she managed it and then climbed down his back.

  “How are we going to get back up?” she asked.

  “Hopefully there’s another way out of here,” he offered with a shrug. “If not, it’s still climbable, just not very safe.”

  Will retrieved the torch and they proceeded forward. The path turned into a narrow bridge made out of stone. Reaching the other side, the path cut back and down.

  Along the wall at the bottom stood a doorway made of wood and stone. They walked through it and found themselves in an open room. Pots littered the floor. A wooden table and chairs were upended.

  It appeared to be some sort of entry, a place where a sentinel might have stood watch a thousand years ago. At the far end of the room was another doorway. The door lay flat on the floor before it. They stepped over it and through the open arch.

  Steps led down through a narrow passage, then turned left and opened into a larger hall. To the left, the stairs continued to lead downward. To the right, a pile of dirt and rocks blocking a passage that once existed there. Another door stood closed directly opposite them. Will tried the handle, but it was locked.

  He continued to fiddle with it, to no avail. Priscilla shoved him out of the way and slammed the hilt of her sword into the handle and it broke off. She pushed the door open, bowed, and extended her arm for him to enter.

  Will stepped into the room. It was a storage closet, or used to be. It was empty now. Nothing in there and no way to continue forward. He left the small room and followed the stairs down. Stone arches dotted the passageway, reinforcing the walls. One had crumbled and large chunks of broken stone littered the path below it.

  Another door stood open at the bottom. They walked through it into another, larger chamber than the first. A small door, similar to the one they just entered, was directly across from them. To the left was a larger, double door. There were no handles. Will and Priscilla heaved against the door with all their weight, but the door wouldn’t budge.

  The smaller door opened without effort, so their path was chosen for them. Another set of stairs descended even deeper.

  How far down does this go? Will thought. He was tired of all this walking. He needed a nice warm bath to soak his feet for a week.

  The stairs ended and they entered a passage containing an old burial place. Row after row of alcoves lined the walls containing skeletons. Every so often, instead of skeletons, there were suits of armor standing erect holding swords, axes, halberds, and the like. They walked through the twists and turns in eerie silence.

  “This place gives me the creeps,” Priscilla said.

  “Yeah,” Will agreed, absentminded.

  A stone depressed as Will stepped. He froze. A soft click echoed through the passage. Priscilla grabbed him, and pulled him back just as an axe came swinging down from one of the statues.

  “Thanks,” Will said with wide eyes and his heart beating wildly.

  “You really need to watch where you’re going,” she said, half in jest, half serious.

  Priscilla tried to take over the lead, but Will wouldn’t let her. He promised to be more observant going forward.

  The passage led into another wider chamber. This one contained more bodies of the dead, but in addition to the small alcoves, several braziers hung from the ceiling. He dipped the torch into one and it lit, still having some remnants of oil in it.

  The extra light revealed the chamber was larger than he thought. The walls contained images carved into them. Some of the images were little more than swirls, while others appeared more intricate.

  Will moved around the chamber and lit all of the braziers. There were no exits save the passage they came through. They split up to examine the room.

  Small holes, about the size of a fist, lined the walls. Below one of them sat a skeleton, still clothed in ages old leather and rusted metal. One of his arms was missing. Dried blood smeared the wall.

  Next to the hole, Will noticed another one of those carved images, a line with a half circle above it. It was rudimentary, but it reminded him of the symbol of his goddess, Lotess.

  “Hey, check this out,” Will called to Priscilla.

  “What happened to him?” she asked, indicating the skeleton.

  “Looks like he stuck his arm in this hole, and lost it,” Will said. “That’s not what I wanted to show you. Look here, next to the hole. Isn’t that the rising sun of Lotess?”

  “Eh, could be,” she said, squinting. “I don’t know. What do you think it means?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said, shaking his head. “Are there any more of these?”

  They moved around the room again and discov
ered basic symbols of all twelve gods and goddesses. Next to each symbol was one of those fist-sized holes.

  “There’s no door in here,” Will said. “One of these holes must contain a switch or lever that opens a passageway.”

  “Yeah, but which one?” Priscilla asked. “We don’t want to end up like our friend here.”

  She had a point. They couldn’t just guess at random. They only had four hands between them, and Will didn’t fancy either of them losing even one hand. Obviously, the skeleton man chose wrong, so that was one less hole to try.

  “What was the last thing the elf said before he left?” Will asked. “Something about Merva?”

  “He said, ‘Merva will show you the way,’ ” she replied. “Do you think he knew about this? I thought it was just some blessing for good fortune.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Will said with a sideways smile.

  Will walked over to the hole that contained Merva’s symbol, a key. He started to put his hand in, but Priscilla grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” she said, a mixture of fear and worry on her face. “Maybe it’s something else?”

  “What else could it be?” Will asked. “We’ve checked everything else. There’s nothing here.”

  “Fine,” she said, letting go.

  Will held his breath as he inserted his arm all the way in.

  “There’s some sort of lever back here,” Will said. “A handle. I think I need to pull it forward.”

  Will heard a soft click and then he screamed.

  20

  Priscilla gasped.

  Then Will started to laugh and pulled his arm out of the hole, unscathed.

  “Not funny,” she said, glaring at him.

  “That’s the oldest trick in the book, and you fell for it,” Will said, keeling over with laughter.

  “I’m not talking to you,” she said, folding her arms and turning away from him.

  “Oh, come on, it was just a joke,” he said, forcing a smile while scratching the back of his head.

  Stone grating on stone made him turn just as a wall slid backward revealing an opening leading into another chamber. They stepped through and the stone wall slid back into place behind them.