The knight stood at the entrance to the tomb, watching the battle unfolding outside. Fires burned as far as the eye could see and columns of thick, acrid smoke rose high into the air. A monstrous black-scaled dragon flew through the smoke and landed a short distance from the tomb entrance. Familiar Crimson-robed figures leapt from the beast’s back, and a man wearing a black mage’s cloak floated to the ground.
“Accadus,” Yepert exclaimed as he recognised the young man striding towards them.
“He must be here for Asphodel,” Sophia added, drawing her bow.
Panic filled Luxon. Retrieving the sword would have been hard enough without all the distractions, but now that the enemy was coming it would be even more difficult. He took the small book from his pocket and quickly scanned the relevant pages.
Ferran stepped forward and summoned his tourmaline sword to life.
“Luxon – you, Yepert and Hannah get in there and get the sword. We will hold Accadus for as long as we can. Go!”
Luxon nodded and, together with Yepert and Hannah, ran back into the antechamber.
*
The chamber was oval in shape and lined with hollow alcoves in which stood statues made of solid gold. The metal shone in the light cast by Hannah’s magic. Each statue was that of the same warrior, a sword held in front of them and a crown on his head. A mosaic of incredible intricacy made of precious stones decorated the floor. Luxon looked around, desperate for a clue to take them deeper inside the tomb.
“Over here,” Hannah called. “Something’s different about this statue; the sword it’s holding is different than the others.”
Sure enough, the blade in the statue’s hand was of a more intricate design. Luxon thought back to his experiences on the Isle of Magic. The sword looked identical to Asphodel. Without hesitation, he stepped forward and pulled the sword. With a creak, it moved downward until it was at the statue’s side. A loud clank reverberated about the antechamber as the statue slid to the side and revealed another passageway.
“Come on, we have to hurry,” Luxon said leading the way through the newly revealed doorway.
They now found themselves in a vast chamber. As Luxon walked into it, huge chandeliers hanging from the ceiling burst into life, bathing the chamber in bright white light. Statues of long dead heroes loomed over the them; each was made of gold. Hannah took Luxon’s hand as they took in the incredible sight.
“The wealth of the Golden Empire. Markus inherited it all when he conquered it,” Luxon said in awe. The value of the objects in the chamber was beyond imagining, and the archaeological importance was priceless. He would have given anything to have come to this place as a scholar rather than as a wizard on a desperate quest. Off to the side, Yepert’s eyes were fixed on the statues.
“It’s incredible.” he gasped.
Luxon forced himself to focus on the task at hand, his heart aching from the desire to explore and catalogue every precious item in the place. He took the book from his cloak pocket and flicked through the pages. He stopped at the pages marked Trials and scanned the text.
“The first is the trial of strength,” he muttered. “A series of traps and devices that shall test the strength and abilities of those seeking the sacred blade.”
“Not much to go on,” Hannah said, directing her magelight deeper into the chamber. The light reached the far side of the chamber, revealing more items and statues, but no exit.
“Hey, look at this.” Yepert beckoned.
Luxon and Hannah hurried over to him. At the base of one of the statues was an indentation, and within that a button.
“There’s text engraved here.” Luxon rubbed the indentation to clear the dust that had settled on it over millennia. The text was in Old Delfin, a language not spoken for many centuries. Luxon thought back to his studies – one of his favourite subjects had been Old Delfin history. Fortunately for him, the books on the subject had been written in the old style.
Luxon read the inscription out loud: “He who touches this shall begin the trials of the Great King and the Lord Niveren. May his light guide your way. Those with foul intent turn back now for all you shall face is death.”
*
Ferran crashed to the ground, his tourmaline blade flying from his grip. Accadus came striding towards him. Shock had flashed through the Nightblade’s mind as the young man swatted him, Kaiden and Sophia aside as though they were nothing. Kaiden and Sophia were on their knees, knives held to their throats by the Crimson Blades.
With a groan, Ferran rolled onto his front and crawled towards his discarded sword. Pain lanced through him as Accadus kicked him savagely in the ribs. He curled into the pain as Accadus knelt over him.
“Where is Luxon?”
Ferran glared at the young man who had betrayed Caldaria and his people. Rolling on to his back, he spat contemptuously. “Claiming Asphodel, and then he’ll come and kill you, traitor.”
Accadus sneered and with casual grace lifted Ferran from the ground with magic.
“I could snap you like a twig, little man. Lord Danon has made me more powerful than you can imagine. Even Luxon won’t be a match for me. Keep these three under guard we can use them as leverage against Luxon,” Accadus commanded as he tossed Ferran aside. Next, he pointed to two of the Crimson Blades. “You two, come with me. I’d rather stop Luxon before he gets his hands on the sword.”
With that, Accadus and the two assassins moved deeper into the tomb. The race to claim Asphodel was on.
*
Luxon pressed the button. The sound of ancient gears clanking into life and stone panels shifting filled the air. Then the chamber began to shake violently. Hannah cried out as the floor began to move.
“Hold on to me!” Luxon shouted as he stabbed Dragasdol downward into the stone at his feet. Hannah held his hand tightly, while Yepert grabbed hold of his cloak. Rapidly, the floor descended in a circular motion deep into the earth. As it did so the sound of ancient machinery coming to life grew ominously louder.
“Look!” Yepert shouted, pointing above them. Three figures were looking down at them. Two wore crimson, the other all black.
“It’s Accadus!” Hannah shouted over the noise.
The figures leapt from the room above, their cloaks billowing out behind them as they fell.
“We’ve got other things to worry about!” Luxon cried. The sound of machinery grew louder as they descended. Now he could see why. Whirling blades of metal whizzed around the edge of the hole into which they were descending. In the centre of the platform rose a stone pillar, and with a crack, two huge scythe-like blades fell into position and began to rotate.
“This is the first challenge. We have to survive the blades as the platform descends. Here!” Luxon yelled as he channelled his magic into his friends. “I’ve enhanced your reflexes. Stay alive!”
His eyes widened as one of the spinning blades rushed towards them. Using his magic, he pushed Hannah and Yepert out of harm’s way, before throwing himself onto his stomach. The deadly blade skimmed over him, narrowly missing his head. Another blade rushed towards him, this one built into the platform itself. He rolled to the side, again avoiding death by mere inches. Scrambling to his feet, he could see Hannah throwing herself out of the way of a spinning blade and Yepert running for his life from another. As the platform descended, the spinning blades increased in speed, and the intricacy of their movements grew more complicated.
At the far side of the platform, Luxon could see Accadus glaring at him. A whirling blade zipped by, forcing him to leap to the side. Accadus, too, was dodging the deadly metal with an ease that surprised Luxon. His old rival moved with supernatural speed and agility. A scream sounded from his left and was quickly cut short. One of the Crimson Blades had been too slow to avoid one of the blades. Only a red smear was left of the killer.
Panic filled Luxon as he spotted the other assassin moving towards Hannah, knife drawn. She was too busy concentrating on avoiding the deadly traps to notice the Crimson Bl
ade approaching. Luxon shouted a warning, but the sound of the blades and grinding of the descending platform were too loud for her to hear him. He watched as Hannah ducked a blade and spotted the assassin. She stumbled and lost her footing, falling into the path of the whirling scythe. Luxon tried to run in her direction but was sent sprawling by a telekinetic push from Accadus. The black-clad mage advanced towards him, hatred in his eyes. He was hell bent on destroying his enemy.
Luxon staggered onto his feet and countered with Dragasdol. Lightning shot out of the tip of the staff, forcing Accadus to raise a magical shield to deflect the attack. Luxon looked at Hannah. The assassin raised his knife, ready to plunge it deep into her chest. He could hear her scream over the chaos. But just as the assassin was about to bring the knife down, Yepert tackled the killer to the ground ,sending the knife whirling away to fall off the side of the platform. Yepert was no match for the assassin who now straddled his chest, two hands wrapped tightly around his throat. Luxon dodged another blade, trying to focus enough to launch an attack at the assassin. He raised his staff again, but was once more forced to defend himself from Accadus, who unleashed a volley of fireballs his way. Luxon swatted the fire away with Dragasdol just in time to see Hannah deliver a kick to the assassin’s face. The blow knocked the Crimson Blade off the gasping Yepert, who then used his magic to blast the assassin off the platform.
Suddenly, the platform stopped with a jolt, knocking them all off their feet. The platform tilted until it reached a ninety-degree angle. With a cry, they slid off and fell into another chamber. With a crash, they landed on top of a pile of bones. There were hundreds of remains, the victims of the trapped platform. Luxon clambered onto his feet and hurried over to help up Hannah and Yepert.
“What about him?” Hannah asked. Her forehead was cut, but aside from that, she was unhurt. With a gesture, she used a healing spell to close the wound.
Accadus lay unmoving at the base of the pile of bones. His left arm was bent at an unnatural angle.
“We leave him. We have to get to the sword,” Luxon replied, taking Hannah’s hand and jumping down the rest of the bone pile. Using levitation, he floated them down to the ground. Once at the bottom he did the same for Yepert. As they reached the bottom, more chandeliers burst into life to light the way.
“Thank you, Yepert,” Luxon said taking his friend’s hand in his. “Thank you for saving Hannah.”
Yepert blushed and rubbed his bruised throat.
“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get the sword and figure out how to get out of here. I don’t think I want to try going back the way we came.”
The walls shook, and more dust fell from the ceiling. Even being so far under the ground, they could feel the impacts of the dragon battle raging above.
“C’mon, we have to hurry before the dragons bring this whole place down on top of us,” Luxon said, leading the way.
They now found themselves in a long passageway, with more images on the walls. As before, the images told the story of the Ten Champions and how they helped King Markus conquer the Golden Empire. Epic battles mixed with landscapes and scenes depicting the champions carrying out deeds that were now legends. The passage curved to the left slightly until it came to an abrupt end. An archway led to another huge chamber. The sound of a fast-moving wind greeted them as they stepped through and onto a narrow platform. They could see the far side of the chamber, but between it and them was a vast chasm.
“Oh great,” Yepert groaned. “How are we supposed to get to the other side?”
“The second trial is the trial of courage, a magical challenge that will test the bravest of heroes,” Luxon said recalling the book.
“If it’s magic related, we need to think of a spell that can get us across or perhaps …” Hannah replied her tone thoughtfully.
“Or perhaps what?” Luxon said raising an eyebrow.
Hannah smiled and walked to the edge of the platform. Crouching, she placed a hand out over the space. Wind rushing upwards swept over it.
“Think about it. If you were designing a trap, then you would set it so that it would be most effective at causing people to fall foul of it. The most obvious solution is to try and use magic to leap the gap, or to transmute into an animal and fly over it. The trial’s description even mentions magic, suggesting that it requires its use to succeed. What better way of putting off non-mages from attempting to raid the tomb? Also, the designer would rely on that thinking and even encourage people to try that solution, and thus trick them into falling into the trap,” Hannah explained.
Yepert scratched his head, confused. Luxon, however, chuckled. Her logic was sound.
“To leap across or fly using magic is what the trap designer would count on, meaning that part of the trap is some sort of countermeasure to such magic. Let me try something.”
Finding a small stone, he held it out in front of him and focused. Using levitation, he floated the stone across the chasm. Halfway across, a tremor ran through the chamber as a tile in the ceiling slid aside to reveal a crystal not dissimilar to the ones found in Caldaria. The crystal began to glow white and as the stone floated underneath it a beam of energy lanced out, vapourising the stone in a flash.
“Woah! Good job we didn’t try the flying approach.,” Yepert cried. “But, er, how are we supposed to get across?”
Luxon rubbed his chin in thought. The tomb shuddered again as the battle above continued. He watched as more dust fell from the ceiling. As it fell, he noticed that some seemed to settle on something in the centre of the chasm. He snapped his fingers.
“It’s not an impassable chasm at all. It’s an illusion. Look,” Luxon said, pointing to where the dust appeared to be floating. “It’s landed on something solid. This chamber must be under some illusion spell to make it look impassable. Let’s try this.”
He stepped to the edge of the platform and focussed his magic. He thought back to his training under Thanos, and recalled the dispelling spells he had been taught. Such magic was useful when going up against Illusionists and Alterationists. Such mages relied on their ability to deceive and alter people’s perceptions of reality. By using a dispelling spell, such magic could be countered. He raised Dragasdol and channelled his power. The spell spread out from the staff, sweeping over the chasm as it did so, and parts of the gap began to glow. He focused harder, putting more effort into the spell until the illusion spell broke. Six platforms appeared that led across the gap. They were close enough together to allow a person to easily hop from one to another.
“Well, I’ll be …” Yepert exclaimed.
Luxon led the way across the chasm to the other side.
“I wonder how many people have made it this far?” Hannah shuddered as she thought about the pile of bones in the previous chamber. To survive the first deadly trap to then either be vaporised or fall into the seemingly bottomless pit below was a horrible thought.
*
With a groan, Accadus came to. Pain screamed up his arm, almost making him to cry out. Instead, he bit his lip and remembered what Danon had taught him.
Embrace the pain. Suffering is what makes us strong.
Accadus closed his eyes and focused on the pain. Whereas a mage would be unable to concentrate enough to use their magic, a person trained in the ways of the N’gist used pain as a source. The magic of the light used serenity, but the magic of the dark used chaos. Channelling the agony, he tapped into his magic.
With a sickening crack, his arm snapped itself back into shape. He could feel every damaged nerve, every fracture repairing. This pain was strangely satisfying. Feeling in his arm returned quickly, and he flexed the fingers of his left hand to test the repair spell. Satisfied, he got to his feet and dusted himself off. Ahead he could hear the voices of his enemies echoing down the long passageway. Fury gripped him, he narrowed his eyes and stalked after them. He would not fail his master.
*
The new chamber was ornately decorated like the others, but in its cent
re stood a tall block of stone with tall, brightly lit torches at either side. Luxon walked over to it; he could sense power emanating from it. As he got closer, text carved into the surface of the stone began to shine as though it was welcoming him.
“What does it say?” Yepert asked.
Luxon placed his palm against the surface of the stone. To his surprise, it was warm to the touch, despite being kept in the dark tomb for millennia. The stone throbbed like it contained something desperate to flee its confines.
“It’s the final trial. The one of wisdom. It’s a riddle.”
Hannah took Luxon’s hand in hers and studied his face. He had an look of intense concentration. She’d known him for almost six years, and in that time he had aged dramatically. His body still looked young and fit, but his eyes belied the truth. His time in the Void had changed him drastically. Every moment in that place was like a decade in the real world. He’d been trapped there for only a few days, but to him it had been centuries. Then he had seen his mother slain right in front of him and almost fallen victim to the dreaded Void Sickness. From what he had told her of his time on the Isle, she was sure that he had experienced even more trauma. How he still stood so strong, she hadn’t a clue. If she were in his shoes, with the weight of the world on her shoulders, she doubted that she’d be able to carry on. He had a strength that wasn’t immediately obvious, but it was a strength that could achieve the impossible. She loved him more than anything else.
“It cannot be seen; it cannot be smelt; it cannot be heard; it cannot be felt. It lies behind stars and under, and empty holes it fills. It comes first, and it follows after; ends life, kills laughter.” Luxon said, snapping Hannah out of her thoughts.
“What could that mean?” Yepert queried.
Before Luxon could reply, Accadus stepped into the chamber. Murder was in his eyes.
“Darkness, you fool. The answer is darkness.”
Quest for the Sundered Crown (The Sundered Crown Saga Book 3) Page 17
