“Yes!” Riyan exclaimed in excitement as he ran forward.
Kevik could see that they were getting excited about what was engraved on the doors. “Is this important?” he asked.
“Very,” replied Riyan. He ran his hand across the engraving. At one time it must have been brilliantly colored, but now only specks of the color remained. He turned back to Kevik and asked, “Have you ever seen this before?”
Shaking his head, Kevik said, “No. Should I have?”
“I wouldn’t think so,” Riyan told him.
Bart tried the door on the right but it wouldn’t budge. The one on the left was just as immobile. “Going to have to find another way in,” he announced as he backed away from the doors. Gazing upward he looked at the windows staring out from the second and third floors.
“Are you going to climb up there?” Chad asked.
“Not unless there’s no other way,” he replied. Moving out, he began to move around the building hoping to find another way in other than the windows above. As luck would have it, there was another doorway around the back whose door was missing.
The doorway opened up onto a long hallway that looked as if it ran the length of the building. Other doorways sat at intervals along both sides. Light passed through some of those doorways giving the hallway an eerie feeling. Aside from the excitement the three friends were feeling, there was also an undercurrent of trepidation. They haven’t forgotten the implied threat of the totems.
Riyan took the lead and was the first to enter with Chad right on his heels. Dirt covered the floor and leaves were scattered from one end to the other. There were even a couple bushes growing in areas illuminated by the sunlight that streamed in from the adjoining rooms.
“Not very promising,” Riyan commented.
“It’s been open to the elements for a very long time,” countered Chad.
“True,” nodded Riyan. He worked his way down the hallway and paused when he came to one of the doorways to look into the room. Other than a small animal they startled, the only thing they found was more dirt and debris that had been blown in by the wind. Few of the doorways actually held doors and only one stood shut but yielded quickly to Riyan’s boot.
Through another of the doorways they found a short hallway ending at a staircase leading up. The rest of the rooms held nothing of interest. One looked like it had at one time been used as some animal’s den, bones and such littered the floor.
Disappointed, Riyan led them up the stairs to the second floor. Again just as the first, they found rooms that held nothing other than dirt, leaves, and a few struggling bushes that were trying to make it in the debris the wind had deposited beneath the windows over the years. Another staircase had been discovered that led up to the third and final floor.
Disappointment was all that the third floor held for them. They did find a few bird’s nests built in a couple of the rooms, but they didn’t even have eggs. “Nothing,” Riyan stated as they finished searching the last room.
Bart went to the window and looked out over the ruins of Algoth. Other buildings similar to the one they were in stretched for a quarter of a mile before the forest once again claimed the land. “This could take awhile,” he commented.
The others came to stand next to him. “What are you looking for?” Kevik asked. “If you were to tell me, perhaps I could prove more helpful.”
“What we are looking for will most likely be found in the building the lord who use to rule Algoth called his own,” Bart explained. He continued gazing out and saw a building larger than the others. Where the rest of the buildings were predominantly one and two stories, with a scattering of three stories here and there, this one was easily five stories tall and twice as wide as the largest building out there. It also held a centralized position among the buildings, sort of like a hub. Pointing, he directed the other’s attention to it. “There.”
Riyan saw the building and nodded. “That could be it,” he agreed.
“We still have several hours of daylight left,” Chad commented.
Bart turned towards him and asked, “Your point being?”
“I don’t think it wise to linger here after dark,” he replied. “Whatever the totems warned of might be more active once the sun goes down.”
“Or it might not,” countered Bart. “Besides, where are we to go? Maybe the goblins have an inn just the other side of the totems where we could stay.” He shook his head. “No, we’re stuck here until we decide to leave.”
“Your friend is right,” Kevik said to Chad. “We have nowhere else to go.”
Riyan glanced from one to the other then said, “No sense in lingering here. We should head over there now and find a place to hole up before night comes.”
The others agreed with him and they were soon heading out of the room and down the stairs. Once back outside the building, they mounted their horses and rode in the general direction of the central building.
As they made their way through the ruins, they passed many remnants of buildings long fallen to ruin. A few structures had withstood the passage of time well, showing only minor cracking and crumbling. All were overgrown with vines, some even sported bushes and small trees growing out of the cracks in the walls. Over time, they too will add to the erosion of Algoth. On several buildings they passed, they noted the dragon-sword coat of arms that had been on the front doors of the earlier building they searched.
The large centralized building quickly made its appearance above the ruins ahead. Of all the buildings, it had withstood the ravages of time and weather the best. Its walls showed only minor cracks and still looked strong.
Here more than any of the others they’ve come across, the coat of arms was most prominently displayed. The two large double doors that marked the main entrance each had the coat of arms inscribed upon its surface. Twice as large as any they’ve yet seen, the coat of arms seemed to project power and prestige.
“If this isn’t the place,” stated Riyan, “I wouldn’t know where else to look.”
“You got that right,” replied Chad.
They came to a stop before the double doors and dismounted. Nearby grew a tree and it was to its branches that they secured the reins of their horses. They shouldered their packs and approached the doors. Kevik took the two packs he had taken from his and his master’s last campsite when they fled the battle and set them on the ground.
Riyan noticed that he was opening them and transferring the contents of one to the other. He took out a large book with what looked like magical writing inscribed upon its cover and placed it in the other pack. Along with the book he removed two potion bottles and several other miscellaneous items. When he finished, the one pack was much lighter yet still contained a few things. That one he secured back onto his horse. Then he turned and saw the others watching him.
“Spell book?” asked Riyan.
“My master’s,” he explained.
“Really?” Riyan asked. “What’s in there?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “He never confided its secrets to me. Besides, it isn’t wise to open another’s spell book. Such an action often comes with serious repercussions.”
Bart nodded. “I believe it.”
“There will come a time when I have gained the knowledge and experience to open it safely,” explained Kevik. “Until that time, it shall remain closed.” He took his master’s staff, guess you could call it his now, and moved to join them at the doors.
“Understandable,” Chad said.
Riyan and Bart turned back to the doors and approached. Riyan grasped the handle of the door to the right and pushed. To his surprise, it opened. Pushing harder, he worked against centuries, perhaps millennia, of disuse and shoved the door open far enough for him to be able to pass through.
He moved through to the other side and entered a very large hall. The ceiling reached upwards for at least three floors, and on the far side of the hall were two winding staircases that went up to the second floor.
Bart nodded, “It must have been something in its heyday.”
“Yeah,” agreed Riyan.
Four statues of men were placed in various points around the room. Smaller busts of men were sitting in wall niches along the walls. The walls themselves appeared rather plain, but when Chad inspected them closely, found traces of faded paint. There were also remnants of old couches, chairs and tables which were all but gone.
“Where should we start looking?” asked Chad.
“I hardly think it would be sitting out in the open,” replied Bart. “In all probability it will be in a hidden room.”
“Hidden room?” exclaimed Chad. “How are we to find that?”
“First order of business is to search every nook and cranny of this place,” Bart explained. “What we are looking for are sections of walls wide enough to house a secret room or passage. Once we’ve located those, then we begin trying to discover which one actually does.”
“Your father taught you this?” Riyan asked.
“Not exactly, no,” Bart replied. He turned to Riyan and asked, “Do you have any of those coins with you?”
Riyan nodded and after removing his pack and searching it, produced a handful of the copper coins.
Bart took one and held it up so the symbol was facing the others. “Anything with this or the dragon-sword coat of arms on it could indicate something of interest,” he stated. “So be on your guard and keep your eyes open.”
Kevik looked at the symbol a moment. “Is this what you’re after?” he asked.
“You’ve seen this before?” Riyan asked.
“My master had a coin with this symbol inscribed upon it,” he explained. “Never said where he got it though.”
“Maybe he got it from here?” suggested Chad.
“Possibly,” shrugged Kevik.
“There’s still over an hour of daylight left,” Bart said to the others. “I suggest we split up in pairs so we can cover more ground.” He glanced to Riyan. “I’ll take Chad and search the lower two floors while you and Kevik search the ones above.” He waited until Riyan nodded before continuing. “Don’t open or touch anything. Get me first if you find something of interest.”
Riyan and Chad both understood that he was talking about the possibility of traps. “You got it,” agreed Riyan.
“Good,” he said. “Let’s meet back here in the hall a little before sunset.”
“See you then,” said Riyan. To Kevik he said, “Let’s go.”
As he and Kevik headed for the stairs, Kevik asked, “Why does he want us to get him before we open anything?”
“There could be traps,” Riyan explained. “He has a knack with such things.”
Kevik glanced at Bart and nodded in understanding.
They headed to the staircase on the right and started up. It was made of stone, or perhaps marble, so had kept its strength through the years. Once up to the second floor, they quickly found another staircase leading up to the third floor where they were to begin their search.
Beginning with the first room on the third floor they came to, they began their exploration. The room held little of interest, a single window looked out to the west over the ruins. A breeze was felt as it made its way into the building. What furniture once was inside has long since fallen to the ravages of time and the elements.
Riyan sifted through the debris scattered across the floor with the toe of his boot. The only thing he turned up was moldy old leaves and dirt. “Maybe the next one,” he said.
“We’ll see,” Kevik said from where he was looking out the window. “It’s quiet.”
Riyan came and stood next to him as he too looked out over what was left of Algoth. Nothing stirred but the wind through the trees. Try as he might, Riyan couldn’t even find an animal moving anywhere.
Turning to Kevik he said, “We need to search as much as we can before it gets dark.”
Kevik glanced at him and nodded. “You’re right.” He then followed Riyan as he moved away from the window and made for the room’s exit.
The rest of the third floor was pretty much the same. Only one room held anything that could be considered of interest. It was a faded mural of knights riding horses across grass covered hills. The sun was shining and the whole scene inspired confidence and majesty.
Riyan noted how on the shield of the man leading the knights was the dragon-sword coat of arms that they have seen on several buildings including the doors to this one. He pointed it out to Kevik. “This must have been the lord of this area.”
“Or an ancestor,” Kevik offered.
“Could be,” he replied.
They then returned to the stair they had discovered earlier that led up to the fourth floor. Once they ascended the stair, they once more began searching all the rooms. These were a bit smaller than the ones on the floor below. It almost seemed like they were administrative offices, which was likely the capacity in which they were used.
Within one office that looked much like all the others, they found the rusted remains of a broken sword lying under a layer of leaves and dirt that had accumulated near the open window. Two inches of jagged metal was still attached to the hilt. A little more searching found the rest of the blade across the room. “Wonder how this came to be?” Kevik asked.
“Can you find out with your identification spell?” Riyan asked.
“Perhaps,” he replied. “But keep in mind, my version of the spell is very basic and it won’t reveal much.”
Riyan held out the two pieces. “Give it a try,” he said.
Kevik nodded and took the two halves. “You will need to be quiet as I cast the spell,” he explained. “The slightest distraction may break my concentration.”
“Alright,” agreed Riyan.
Kevik searched the room for a relatively clean spot on the floor before sitting down. He laid the staff on the floor next to him while he placed the two halves of the sword on the floor before him.
He held his hands over the broken pieces of the sword, closed his eyes, and spoke a magical incantation. Riyan watched as the pieces of the sword began to glow an off blue.
In Kevik’s mind’s eye, a scene began to play:
Hammers struck metal as the blade took form under the skill of master craftsman. Then the scene blurred, and when it clarified…It felt like a hundred years had passed since its forging. It hung at the waist of a man in armor. Again the scene blurred… The sword was being wielded in battle, the distinct clang of metal striking metal was heard before a blow took it broadside midway from hilt to tip that broke the blade in two.
When the spell finally ran its course, the blue glow vanished and Kevik opened his eyes.
“Well?” Riyan asked.
Kevik related the vision to him.
“Was that all?” Riyan asked again.
“Yes,” replied Kevik. “I told you it wouldn’t have given much information.” He took hold of his staff and with a hand from Riyan, returned to his feet.
“On the contrary,” Riyan told him, “I think it gave some good information.”
“Like what?” Kevik asked as they left the room to head to the next.
“For one thing, since we found both pieces of it in this room,” explained Riyan, “it would be safe to assume that the battle that broke the blade took place in this building.” As they entered the next room and began searching through the debris littering the floor he asked, “Did you see who or what the one wielding the blade was fighting?”
Shaking his head, Kevik said, “No. A more experienced magic user would have been able to learn more from the blade, unfortunately I’m just an apprentice.”
“Still, it’s useful information,” Riyan assured him.
“Thanks,” he said.
Riyan was searching through the piles of debris littered about the room when the light suddenly dimmed. He glanced to the window and said, “Uh-oh. The sun just hit the tops of th
e trees.”
Kevik hurried to the window and saw that the shadows had grown long. “We’ve been here longer than I thought,” he said. Turning around, he gazed at Riyan. “It’s almost dark.”
“Let’s go find the others,” Riyan said as he ceased rooting through a pile of dead leaves near the window. With Kevik following close behind, Riyan hurried down the two flights of stairs. When he came to the winding staircase that led down to the floor of the large hall, he looked out and saw that Chad and Bart had yet to return. Taking the steps quickly, he descended down to the ground floor.
“Should we go look for them?” asked Kevik.
Shaking his head, Riyan said, “Better not. They’ll return shortly.”
Kevik nodded and went out to where the horses were tied to the tree while Riyan remained within the hall.
After Kevik left, Riyan realized just how large and empty the hall really was. “Bart! Chad!” he cried. “It’s time to go!” When the sound of his cry died out, the only reply was silence. He went to the window and saw the shadows growing longer. “Come on guys,” he said under his breath, “we don’t want to be here after dark.” Glancing around at the lengthening shadows, his nervousness that had been absent while he and Kevik searched the upper floors, returned.
Bart had decided for them to search the second floor first as he didn’t really believe they would find anything of note there. And after searching for an hour or so through the rooms up there, he confirmed his suspicions. Nothing.
So he and Chad had returned to the bottom floor and went through things piecemeal. Bart started by searching the statues and the busts in the wall niches for possible secret compartments. Nothing again.
Then he led the way with Chad right behind and started searching through the rooms adjacent to the hall just within the entrance. The first couple of rooms yielded nothing but leaves. One room boasted a rather scraggly bush that had begun growing in one of the piles of leaves and other dead plant material beneath one of the windows.
“Looks like an inside garden,” joked Chad when they saw it. His smile quickly disappeared when Bart failed to see the humor in the situation. They checked the bush room thoroughly then went to the next.
“Do you think Riyan understands the gravity of the situation?” Chad asked him.
Bart entered the next room and saw a faded mural on the wall. As he went over to investigate, he asked, “What do you mean?”
“He thinks this is all one big holiday,” Chad explains. “I wonder if he realizes the consequences that we face.”
Bart glanced back at him. “You mean like us dying?”
Chad nodded. “Yes! Exactly. I don’t think that possibility has even registered with him yet.”
“You haven’t exactly been much help in that respect,” Bart said. Turning back to the mural he began running his hand along the wall. “What was it you said? ‘What price adventure?’ You haven’t exactly shown what I’d call the proper appreciation for the gravity of the situation either.”
“Well, that’s beginning to change,” he said. “The run in with the goblins has curbed my enthusiasm for this whole venture somewhat.”
“Yeah,” replied Bart distractedly. “Near death experiences will do that to you.”
“I just hope he calms down a bit before he winds up getting himself, and us, in some real trouble.”
“He will I’m sure,” Bart said. Not finding anything such as a pressure plate within the mural, he turned back to Chad. “Just as soon as the boredom sets in.”
“We’ll see,” Chad said.
Having given that room a thorough search, they moved on. Once out of the room, they headed down the hallway to the next doorway. Room after room, hallway after hallway, they worked their way through the ground floor. They had found a couple spots that could possibly have hidden a secret room or stash of treasure, but the cursory look Bart gave them turned up nothing.
Somewhat discouraged, they continued the hunt. They found themselves back at the large hall at the entrance and entered the last hallway they had yet been down. The first several rooms they checked turned up nothing, but then they came to one that was slightly different. This time there was a sturdy wooden door set in the left wall at the other end of the room.
“This might be something,” Bart said. He crossed the room to the door and tried to open it only to find it locked. He pulled his lockpicks from his pack and set to work on it.
While Bart was working to unlock the door, Chad went to the window and looked out. “The day’s almost gone,” he observed.
“We’ll search here and maybe one more room then return to the hall,” he said.
“Sounds good,” agreed Chad. He kept looking out the window towards the ruins until he heard Bart say, “Got it.” Then he turned and joined him in front of the door as he started to swing it inward.
When the door swung open they found that beyond the door was a short narrow passage extending fifteen feet away from the door. The light coming in through the window in the other room gave just enough illumination for them to see the chest sitting against the far wall.
“Well, well,” said Bart. “What do we have here?”
“It looks like a chest,” replied Chad.
“Of course it’s a…” he began to say to Chad then stopped when he saw Chad grinning. “Very funny,” he said not at all amused, which only gave Chad an even bigger reason to smile.
They entered the short passage and approached the chest. When they were almost to it they heard a creaking noise behind them and saw the door beginning to swing shut.
“The door!” yelled Bart.
Chad saw the door closing and raced back toward it but was too late.
Wham!
The door swung shut with a bang and plunged them into darkness. “Damn!” cursed Bart. It took him a minute to get his tube lantern lit, it being the only source for light they had brought with them.
When he shined the light at the door, he groaned.
“What?” asked Chad.
“Look for yourself,” he replied.
Following the beam of light, Chad saw where it illuminated the door. “So?” he asked, not entirely sure what Bart was referring to.
“There’s no lock or handle on this side,” he explained. Turning to look at Chad he said, “We’re locked in here.”
Chapter Nineteen
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Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 Page 18
