by J C Maynard
Borius nodded, “That makes sense,” and adjusted the small pack he wore on his back, which contained a blanket and some vegetables. They had come up to the surface on different occasions to get food from various farmers sworn loyal to the Evertauri. “Do you need to take a break?” asked Borius.
Calleneck stood up and brushed off his back. “I’m fine, let’s keep going.” Borius nodded and followed Calleneck down the cold and dark passageway, lighting the way with a glowing orb of yellow light.
“So, Calleneck,” said Borius as they rounded another bend in the tunnel, “What brought you here? to the Evertauri.”
Calleneck thought for a while as they walked along. “Fate?”
Borius shook his head. “No such thing . . . What brought you here, Calleneck?”
Calleneck slowed his pace unintentionally as he thought. “My sister . . . Aunika. She was the first one here and now Dalah and I are part of it.”
“Why do you contribute so much to something you had little choice but to join?”
“Because I want to do something with my life.” said Calleneck.
Borius nodded and thought for a while. “You’re impressing your sister.”
Calleneck chuckled. “Aunika? No, I— . . . No it’s not that.”
“Your older sister is successful Mr. Bernoil . . . she is one of the few Evertauri to ever speak with Queen Xandria.”
“I guess.” Calleneck replied.
“Have you impressed your sister—”
“It’s not . . . I-” Calleneck shook his head.
Borius smiled. “My older brother joined the Evertauri before me.”
Calleneck continued on leading Borius through the tunnels. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
Borius Shipton nodded. “Half-brother really . . . he was killed three years after he joined, two years after I did . . .” Borius’s mind trailed off, and Calleneck could tell that many memories flooded Borius’s mind. “I joined for him. Of course it’s not my motive now, but it was then.”
After a silence, Calleneck spoke up. “Do you mind me asking how—?”
“How he died?” Borius adjusted the pack on his back. “We were on a mission together — trying to see if Xandria knew about one of Tronum’s weapons. We were in her fortress — on our way out we got caught . . . I didn’t look back when I heard him yell ‘run’ . . .” Borius shook his head. “The Cerebrian Guard killed him. He was strong though, and he knew he had to make a sacrifice.”
Borius reached out and put a hand on Calleneck’s shoulder, stopping and turning him around. Looking into his eyes, Borius spoke softly. “And should a situation come when you need to make a sacrifice for something greater than you, having already decided to choose to act for the greater good, you will be able to do anything . . . make that decision for yourself, decide what it means for you to be an Evertauri. Decide now, Calleneck, that when it matters most, when your friends and family are dying beside you and you’re scared, that you will stand strong and push to the end for everyone who can’t.”
Calleneck shook his head. “I- I’m sorry, but have I not made sacrifices enough?”
Borius stood in silence.
Calleneck’s breathing quickened. “I’ve given up everything . . . President Nebelle murdered my parents, he-”
“Madrick was doing what needed to be done because of your mistak-”
“-he took the last bit of childhood I had! How am I supposed to forgive him?” Calleneck waited for a response, but got none. “Sir Shipton, I served in this rebellion at the expense of everything I loved, all the while baring its scar on my back!” he pulled off his shirt, revealing the white scar across his shoulder blades.
Borius looked down at the ground. “It’s not perfect . . . but we all have to do what’s best for the world.”
“Can’t you see how hard that it?” Calleneck asked.
“. . . I know the price, believe me.” Sir Shipton shook his head. “You don’t know how larger this cause is than any one person . . . but I’ll be there for you — and your sisters. I have been.”
Calleneck avoided Sir Shipton’s eyes.
Borius avoided Calleneck’s eyes. “Put your shirt on, let’s keep going.”
It took a while, but the tension between the two began to dissipate, as they left their negative emotions far back in the tunnels behind them. After many bends and slopes, the two of them reached a stalactite-filled cavern that hung ninety feet high. Without warning, Borius stopped in his tracks.
“Sir Shipton,” said Calleneck, “is everything alright?”
Borius’s eyes were fixed on the distant darkness. “I sense something . . . Stay here, Calleneck.” he said in a quiet voice. Borius reached up — the yellow orb of light that hung above them vanished, and it took their eyes a second to adjust. Borius began walking alone into the dark cavern.
“Sir Shipton,” said Calleneck from far behind him, “what’s wrong?”
After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, far in the distance of the cavern, Borius saw an impossibly faint red light glowing. He walked alone toward the light for thirty yards in the dark until its shape finally took the form of a dimly glowing rose. Borius knelt beside it — the flower which grew out of a little patch of grass on the cavern floor. How can anything grow here- . . . Selenora Everrose . . . Borius’s head jolted upward and he frantically looked around, but only sensed Calleneck far in the distance. His heart raced as he looked back at the glowing rose and shook his head, whispering to himself, “Selenora is still alive . . . or maybe somewhere in between life and death . . . in limbo . . . buying time until she can-”
Calleneck called out in the dark, “Are you alright?”
Borius plucked the flower and put it in his pocket. “Yes,” he shouted back, “my mind was just playing tricks on me.” Borius headed back to Calleneck and relit the yellow orb of Taurimous above them so that they could see the path they travelled toward the goblin capital. Borius grew ever nervous with the glowing rose in his pocket.
“Sir Shipton,” said Calleneck to Borius as they continued walking in the cold and dark tunnels, “What will we do after this? For a mission, I mean.”
Borius stepped over a small stalagmite. “You ask more than I should tell you.” He paused. “Sir Nebelle would like to show off the power of the Evertauri once again.”
Calleneck’s heartbeat quickened. “Another attack like at the Great Gate?”
Borius nodded. “With permission from her father, Raelynn Nebelle has established a connection to the Ferramish government. She now lives in the Palace at Aunestauna. In order to defeat Xandria, we will need the help of the Ferramish.”
“Are we allies with them now?” asked Calleneck.
Borius nodded. “Raelynn Nebelle has been conversing with Fillian Whenderdehl at the Palace at Aunestauna — Sir Nebelle recently told me.” Borius stopped himself from revealing Raelynn’s story. But the fact that Borius did not continue had no effect on Calleneck; he knew Raelynn’s story better than Borius did. He’d sat with her on the small fishing boat as she destroyed the Cerebrian fleet at Aunestauna in a firestorm of her Taurimous; he’d housed her in his shack on a rooftop of Aunestauna. It had been so long since he realized his consciousness and Taurimous inhabited four bodies that Calleneck had trouble remembering through which body he experienced events. All four of his memories were now one, and each thought that he had in one body could carry over to any other.
“What’s our next move?” asked Calleneck.
“Port Dellock.” said Borius. “There are thousands of Ferramish prisoners there. The leaders of the Evertauri think we should free the Ferramish soldiers and destroy the port to cripple Xandria’s naval force. We should have done it long ago, but we did not know that Xandria would use that port to launch her naval attack that nearly destroyed Aunestauna . . . Calleneck, what’s that up there?”
The two of them looked ahead and saw the tunnel plunge down into an underground lake. The walls of the tunnel were erod
ed and caved in. Calleneck turned to Borius, “This is what I mentioned earlier about the underground river damming up to create a lake.” The tunnel had caved down to the surface of the water; they would have to swim underwater.
“Is there any way around?” asked Borius.
Calleneck brushed aside his overgrown hair. “Six or seven miles back.”
Borius shook his head. “Ah, it’s not worth it — you’ve swum before in lakes or rivers I assume?”
“Yes, my father used to take me.” Calleneck bent down and felt the glassy water, sending a ripple through it. “It’s cold.”
A yellow flames burst out of Borius’s hand. “We can warm up pretty easily. What do you say Mr. Bernoil?”
Calleneck nodded. “Let’s swim. It should just be about ten yards.”
The two of them, with their packs and clothes on, waded into the lake and took a deep breath before completely diving under the surface. The water was cold and dark, but Calleneck and Borius sent streams of crimson and yellow light respectively ahead of them to light their way as they swam through the water-filled cavern. Calleneck had underestimated how far they’d have to go, and his diaphragm began to convulse for air before he and Borius broke through the surface of the water on the other side. Swimming back onto the stone of the tunnel, the two used the flames in their hands to dry off their clothes and packs. When they finished, they lifted their lights up, but there was no ceiling right above them anymore; instead, it extended three hundred feet into the largest cavern Calleneck had ever seen.
Borius looked at Calleneck. “We’re here — the ruins of the goblin capital.”
Calleneck looked into the vast cavern at the crumbling ruins of immense buildings of stone, which all once were perfectly crafted by the goblins who lived there years before.
“Remember to be respectful,” said Borius. “This is a graveyard . . . where the goblins lost their last stand against Xandria.” Borius took a deep breath in and walked forward.
“What’s that smell?” whispered Calleneck.
Borius looked at him with a saddened face. “Goblin bodies are embedded with many magical properties and take decades to decompose . . .” He raised his hand and moved the yellow ball of light in his hand forward through the city. The orb of light stopped fifty yards away from them and the light from it spread out across the roof of the cavern, illuminating the whole city in all its ash and ruin.
The great towers in the underground city had fallen and ash coated the ground. A giant mound of something dark lumed in front of them fifty feet tall. The two walked towards it, and Calleneck’s heart skipped a beat when he realized what it was, and he put a hand over his mouth and nose. There, in the center of the city, were stacked the thousands of corpses of goblins.
Borius led Calleneck forward to the pile, but Calleneck felt sick, not wanting to go any closer. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, following Borius closer to the corpses. The smell seemed to creep on his skin like insects, and the silence of the cavern gave him chills. The closer he got, the more he could see the burned and bloody faces of the goblins, who all looked more human than Calleneck ever imagined them. The skin on their bodies had begun to decompose and peel away from their bones. The awful and sickening sight stuck Calleneck and caused him to vomit off to the side.
Borius stopped at the edge of the pile and put a hand on the cloak of a goblin. With a tear in his eye, he turned to Calleneck, who was recovering from vomiting. “Calleneck, this is why we fight Xandria. Anyone who had forgotten the atrocities she committed may one day come down here to see what she really is.” Borius stood up. “We need to find what we came here for. Do you know where the library is Calleneck? Or at least the ruins of it?”
Calleneck breathed heavily and shook his head, still recovering from the sight of the thousands of corpses in front of him. “Not many people have been here — we’ll need to look around.”
Borius nodded and led Calleneck away from the mountain of corpses and into the stone ruins of the city.
After several hours of tedious searching, the two had found nothing but building after building of fallen stone and rubble. Everywhere they went was charred and burned, scored from the fires of the war. Their boots were covered in ash, and every place they stepped left a footprint.
Borius sat down on a block of stone in exhaustion.
Calleneck plopped on the ground across from him. “If we’re looking for things like books or documents, they’re all going to be burned to ash by now.”
Borius wiped beads of sweat from his balding, dark head. “You may be right, Calleneck.” Another bead of sweat dripped from his cheek and fell to the ash below, but it almost seemed to disappear once it hit.
Calleneck tapped his foot, “Xandria probably got here first . . . if it wasn’t all destroyed during the Day of the Underground Fire, she would’ve searched after and found what information she could.”
The two remained silent for a moment before Borius spoke. “Unless,” he said. “Unless the goblins knew they wouldn’t be able to hold Xandria and the Cerebrain army off and they were able to hide their most valuable secrets — to protect them from falling into Xandria’s hands.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.” said Calleneck.
Borius stood up and scanned the rubble all around him. “We, as sorcerers, can make small illusions like doors and the entrances to the Nexus. But they aren’t highly complicated because we don’t have everyone working together with close attention to the minute details.”
“Are you implying that the goblins could’ve used sorcery to hide contents of the library?” asked Calleneck, standing as well.
Borius nodded. “Or the whole library . . . The goblins were highly intelligent and paid extraordinary attention to detail — they worked together like gears on a clock. With a whole city of them banding together, they could have produced a mass illusion before Xandria’s army came to destroy them—"
“—in order to hide their secrets from her.” finished Calleneck.
Borius raised his hands up and yellow like swirled into the air, seeming to whisper as it went. It kept traveling all throughout the cavern, coating every fallen and blackened structure in shimmering light. Borius spoke softly, “Reveal.”
The light glowed bright and began to descend down from the tallest structures. Calleneck could hardly believe his own eyes as huge, beautiful ceilings and intricate archways began appearing hundreds of feet above them where nothing but stone columns had stood before. The ash around their feet began to disappear as it was replaced by glistening marble floors. The sound of Borius’s Taurimous shimmered like chimes and small bells as it came down from the vaulted ceiling — the spell was being removed. Where fallen walls and crumbling structures once stood, thousands of balconies and shelves began emerging out of the light all around them, filled to the brim with unscathed scrolls and handwritten books. The enormous hall filled with warm light from candle lit chandeliers.
Borius laughed big and heartily, “Geniuses! Those cunning little alchemists! We were here in the Great Library all along!” Borius gazed in wonder at the scene of the spell lifting. “Great Mother, just look at this!”
Calleneck smiled as the yellow light revealed more and more — statues, paintings, tapestries, decorative pillars and shelves upons shelves of writings. He shook his head in disbelief. “They sure knew what they were doing . . . how are we going to search through all of this?”
Borius chuckled. “That’s a good question.”
After a half hour had passed of searching, Calleneck and Borius discovered that all the letters — what Borius was searching for — were consolidated in one circular tower of the Great Library with shelves lining the walls.
As they gazed up at the walls of letters, Calleneck asked, “How much did the goblins know about sorcery?”
“A fair amount, but they were alchemists . . .” said Borius. He thought for a moment to himself. “Calleneck,” said Borius, “look through these and tell me if you fi
gure out a pattern to how they’re organized.”
Calleneck stepped on a rolling ladder and climbed up to the higher stacks. Sifting through the letters he looked at the addresses, and opened a few. “I think they’re just organized by date, maybe date and last name.”
“Goblins didn’t use last names like we do.” said Borius.
“Then alphabetical by place the letter was from?”
Borius shuffled his feet. “Look for the section with letters from the year 784 AHL.”
Calleneck slid along the shelf with the rolling ladder and looked around, after a few minutes, he pulled out a letter and said, “Ahah! Here it is. From this letter and to the right are all from 784. Where was it sent from?”
Borius stepped up to the ladder. “I’ll look from here if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, sure.” Calleneck stepped down the ladder and held it as Borius climbed up to it.
Borius scanned the letters and whispered to himself. “Let’s see . . . 784, 784 . . . A for Aunestuana . . . yes, right here . . . Abendale, Abendale, more Abendale, Aleiria, . . . Aunestauna, right here.” Borius pulled a stack of about fifty envelopes filled with letters off the shelf and set them on a step of the ladder. Whispering to himself as she shuffled through them, “Silverbrook . . . where are you? This isn’t Silverbrook, nor is this.” Borius went through the entire stack of envelopes containing letters. “Nothing.” said Borius, shaking his head. We can’t search this entire library . . . that would take weeks. Borius picked up the stack of letters and began to put them back on the shelf when he saw the outline of a hidden cupboard on the wood behind the letters. Pushing the letters a side and opening it up, a single large envelope rested there, entitled “Silverbrook” in goblin runes. Borius reached forward and pulled it out, opening it carefully. Reading through the latest letters, he found nothing until the very last letter in the envelope which contained only a few sentences:
I will leave the Palace at Aunestuana tonight. Queen Eradine has asked a favor of me and I must do it, but it means I will have to leave the stone in Aunestauna. The stone works — it can access my Taurimous — but I have created it so that only a sorcerer like myself could use it. Tronum won’t be able to cause damage with it. But in the hands of a sorcerer, it could amplify one spell to unfathomable power. I’m keeping it for now in the Palace Vault, but when I am able to, I will give it to your leaders to fight against Xandria. For now, however, I must go. I will burn all of my notes and work as I flee the Palace tonight. Thank you for all you’ve done.
