“It was just another pressure plate beneath a floor stone,” Seward explained. “There are three. I marked each with a bit of charcoal. Make sure you don’t step on them.”
The dart that had laid Jaikus low was now nestled safely within a bit of rolled leather at the bottom of Charka’s pack. He informed his two Springers how thieves back at the Guild often paid for samples of hitherto unknown substances.
“Poisons, you mean?” Reneeke asked.
“Yes, lad. Poisons. And considering the way it brought your friend down, this one should fetch quite a bit.”
Ever the killjoy, Seward added, “Unless they already know about it.”
Charka shrugged. “Still, it won’t hurt to bring it back.”
Reneeke took the Springer duty as Jaikus was still in no condition to adequately perform the function. Rope now tied about his middle, he stood before the stones marked with lines of charcoal. He made sure to avoid them as he navigated the trapped area and continued down the passageway.
The first thing he became aware of, was the circle of refracted light Jaikus had seen shortly before being struck by the dart. It glittered in an explosion of rainbow color that gradually increased in luminosity the closer he came.
Unlike Jaikus before him, he didn’t fail to pay attention to the floor as he went. Good thing, too, as he came across another two stones that shifted beneath his feet. In neither case had he put any great amount of weight upon the stones, and thus, avoided tripping the trap. He signaled the stones’ position to those that followed, then continued on.
Reds, greens, blues, every color imaginable seemed to be part of the dazzling circle. It wasn’t until coming to within ten feet that he saw how the circle was composed of a myriad of tiny gems, and that it surrounded another stony face. This one, however, was different. Its eye sockets were vacant cavities, as was the mouth.
Intent as he was on watching the floor and viewing the display of color, he failed to realize they had reached the end of the corridor until he was almost upon it. Reneeke glanced back to his leader. “Dead end,” he announced.
Charka came to stand next to his Springer and contemplated the gem encircled face before them.
“I would advise against removing any of those gems,” Lady Kate warned.
“Magic?” Reneeke asked.
“Yes.”
“Is there another hidden way to uncover?”
Lady Kate nodded. “It looks that way.”
Reneeke gazed at the face on the wall. Every face previously encountered had been identical from one to the next. The fact that this one was not could in no way be a coincidence.
As if they were thinking the same thing, Charka said, “Accessing the next area must have something to do with the face.”
“I thought that as well,” Reneeke commented.
“Maybe we should put a gem in its mouth or something,” Jaikus suggested.
“Don’t be foolish,” Seward argued.
“I agree,” Charka said. “Such a course of action would provide little in the way of results.”
“No,” Reneeke said as he turned to his friend. “Probably not.” Then he glanced toward Lady Kate. “But maybe something else…”
“Such as?” she queried.
“If I’m not mistaken, two of those items in your possession that were recovered from the bottom of the shaft bore the etching of irises? And wouldn’t those same items fit perfectly within the empty sockets of the face?”
Unshouldering her pack, she said, “You may be right.” Once she had it opened, she reached in and pulled out a small, velvet pouch. Untying the golden, velvety thong keeping it closed, she poured the two marble sized objects onto her palm.
“Yes, indeed,” Charka said. Glancing from the face, to the two items, then back again, he nodded. “They would fit perfectly.”
Jaikus looked confused. “How did they get down at the bottom of that trap?”
The Troupe leader shrugged. “Could have been a thief who acquired the items, yet ran afoul of the trap before being able to use them.”
“If that’s the case,” Seward began, “then the third item, that uh, orb, may fit in the mouth.”
Lady Kate reached into her pack and removed the crystal orb whose heart was aquamarine. Stepping close to the face, she held the orb before its oral cavity. It was a perfect fit.
“But the question is, should we?” Turning her attention toward Charka, she added, “These items, the eyes and the orb, are imbued with magic. Setting them within the face could start something we would be in no position to stop.”
“Or, by doing so, we could gain access to a treasure trove,” he argued.
“That is true.” Lady Kate continued to meet the Troupe leader’s gaze. “Is the reward, worth the risk?”
“We don’t even know if there is anything worthwhile to be had,” Reneeke stated. “For all we know, we could be opening a long lost prison of some demonic monster that upon release, will kill us and then lay waste to the world.”
Seward shook his head. “Boy, you’ve been listening to too many bards.”
“I am simply saying that we should proceed with caution,” Reneeke explained.
“I agree,” Jaikus chimed in. “With being cautious that is.”
Lady Kate still held Charka’s gaze. Moving the orb closer to the face’s mouth, she asked, “Shall I?”
There was only the briefest hesitation on his part before Charka nodded. “Yes.”
Then she glanced to Reneeke who shook his. “It’s a bad idea. Better to leave with nothing, than die a rich man.”
Seward nodded when her eyes came to him. “It’s what we are here for. Let’s see what happens.”
Then she turned toward Jaikus. “I say no. So it is now two for it, and two against.” She gave him a grin. “It’s all up to you.”
“This ain’t up to him,” Charka argued.
“His life hangs in the balance as does the rest of ours. He will be allowed his vote.”
Charka scowled, but knew it would do no good arguing with her once her mind was set upon a course of action.
Jaikus saw Reneeke shake his head for him to declare negatively. But then Charka said, “Boy, if you say yes, I’ll forget all that’s gone before. When we return, I will do everything in my power to see that you are allowed to join the Guild.”
He couldn’t believe it. Glancing to Lady Kate, he asked, “Does he mean it?”
“Oh, yes. I’m sure he does.”
Reneeke shook his head vehemently. “Don’t you do it, Jaik.”
A Guild member! Dashed hopes were made new. How could he do otherwise? “Sorry, Rene. Let’s do it.”
“So be it.”
Lady Kate slowly moved the crystal orb toward the mouth. When it was but a hair’s breadth away, a force from within the face’s mouth drew the orb out of her hand and sucked it into the opening. Such unexpectedness startled her, but when nothing further developed, she calmed.
Next were the two round objects with irises etched upon their surfaces. This was against her better judgment. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come up with a valid reason not to go through with it. Moving the two objects before the face’s eyes, she again felt a force reach out and pluck them from her hand, only to draw them into the empty sockets.
Aquamarine began to swirl deep within the orb that now resided within the mouth of the face. The color within began to spiral.
“It didn’t open anything,” Jaikus observed.
She shook her head. “No, it didn’t.” Unable to take her eyes from the color fluxation within the orb, she slowly pulled her wand from out of her sleeve.
“Then what…?”
A sudden burst of color from the gems surrounding the face cut short his inquiry. Taking a step backward in apprehension, he cried out when a wave of color exploded outward from the gem-shrouded face, then was drawn back into it. He gasped when he saw the eyes move. The irises turned upon him and he knew that the face understood he was there. T
hen they passed from him and took in each of the others in turn. Charka was the last, and when the eyes left him, the mouth began to speak.
The orb was no longer present within the mouth. Stony lips moved with perfect fluidity as words of a long dead language issued forth.
Lady Kate was quick to react. Speaking arcane words, her hands moved swiftly in accompanying gestures as she cast a Spell of Understanding, and the face’s words were no longer incomprehensible.
…or you will surely perish as had Nevinixi in the last days of Koetha. Let darkness arise and light to fall, before death comes to call.
As the last vestiges of the word “call” faded away, the gems around the face once more flashed in brilliance, this time expanding outward to completely envelope the humans before it. One moment they were engulfed by intense color, and the next, found themselves standing in a dark room.
Shocked to say the least, Reneeke turned about but found nothing but a stone wall behind him.
Charka drew his sword, as did Seward. Seeing the pair with blades in hand, Jaikus followed suit. “Wh…where are we?” Jaikus asked, his tremulous voice cutting through the silence of the room.
“Be quiet!” Charka commanded, his tone indicating that he wasn’t about to put up with being disobeyed.
Four pillars in the middle of the room rose to form the points of a square. Centered within the pillared square was a golden statue that easily stood a head and a half taller than any of them. Its hands were outstretched to either side with palms up. Upon the right palm rested a diamond the size of a man’s fist, on the left was a crudely formed stone of blackest night.
Set around the room were a dozen pedestals, each bearing a bowl made of precious metals and decked out with gems. When Reneeke panned the lantern’s light toward the nearest of the bowls, its light was refracted back by the myriad of gems contained within.
“We found it!” Charka cried.
“Yes, we did,” Seward agreed.
Moving toward the bowl of gems which Reneeke’s light illuminated, he reached in and scooped out a handful. Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and more were gripped within his fist. That single handful could ensure a man lived to the end of his days in grand style. And there was more, oh so much more, still within the room. “”We’re rich!”
At sight of the treasure, Jaikus lost what nervousness their sudden translocation had produced. Sheathing his sword, he quickly joined Seward next to the bowl. About to reach in, he felt Reneeke place his hand upon his shoulder and pull him back. Glancing back, quite ready to berate his friend for undue caution, Jaikus’ retort died on his tongue when he saw the expression on Reneeke’s face. His friend wasn’t looking at him, but at Seward. Turning his gaze upon the focus of Reneeke’s attention, he gasped and backed quickly away.
“What?” asked Seward. Then he glanced toward the hand holding the gems, it was the color of gray ash. He looked on in growing fear as the grayness steadily darkened toward black. “Cursed!”
It wasn’t only his hand that had been affected, but his face as well.
As Charka cried “Scroll!” and raced forward, the whites of Seward’s eyes began to darken, and the pupils flattened into ovals.
Gems fell to the floor as the hand grasping them spasmed. Seward looked in abject terror at the hand as its transformation from gray to black quickened from one heartbeat to the next. Then in a voice a full octave deeper than it should have been, cried, “What’s…happening to me?”
“Don’t touch him!” Lady Kate shouted to the others. Scroll now in hand, she came forward and held it out so Seward could grasp the other end. As soon as his fingers tightened around the parchment, she spoke the activation word.
A burst of white light exploded outward from the scroll, its energy being immediately drawn into Seward’s hand. Jaikus watched in wonder as the surface of Seward’s skin grew luminous as light traveled beneath his skin from the hand, up his forearm, until finally disappearing beneath his tunic. A heartbeat later, the sub-dermal light appeared throughout the rest of his body, giving his skin a subtle, luminous glow wherever it was exposed. When the luminosity reached his face, he collapsed.
Charka was there to catch him and laid him out upon the floor. “Is it working?” he asked.
“Hard to tell,” she explained. “What has hold of him is far more powerful than anything we’ve previously encountered.” There was a second scroll in her hand.
The two Springers looked on in horror. Neither of them, even in their darkest dreams, could ever have envisioned something akin to what they were witnessing unfold before them.
“Hang in there, Seward,” Reneeke encouraged. But it didn’t appear as if the power of the scroll was going to be sufficient to counteract whatever it was that afflicted Seward. Patches of darkness began fighting off the encroaching luminosity faster than it could spread. Areas that once had glowed with the power of the scroll, were gradually returning to their darkened state.
“Use the other one,” said Charka.
“It’s our last,” Lady Kate warned. “I told you before we left that we needed more of these.”
“I don’t care.” His man was dying. “Do it.”
Lady Kate nodded. This time, she placed the scroll beneath Seward’s tunic so it would touch his skin before activating it. Light flared again. Instead of the luminosity the first scroll had produced, the second application caused Seward’s skin to glow a ghostly white.
Battles of light and dark waged across the surface of Seward’s skin, only this time, it appeared as if the light was winning. Areas of darkness fell beneath the onslaught of light and didn’t reappear.
“It’s working,” Lady Kate announced.
Seward’s skin slowly began regaining its normal, healthy appearance. Even his eyes returned to normal. The final part of his body to be free of the curse, was the hand where it had begun. Once the scrolls had run their course and he had been completely restored to normalcy, Lady Kate administered a few drops of a healing potion to give his body a boost in repairing any lingering damage.
She glanced up from her patient to Charka and the two Springers. “I wouldn’t touch anything in here if I were you.”
Jaikus swallowed hard as he nodded. Reneeke simply said, “I didn’t plan to.”
Charka wasn’t at all happy. Bowls of gems, enough to last several lifetimes of extensive debauchery, were simply waiting to be harvested. And none of it could be touched!
Looking down at the still comatose Seward, Reneeke asked, “What was it, exactly, that happened to him?”
“Stupidity,” Charka replied. “All this wealth made him forget the cardinal rule of adventuring.”
“And that would be?”
“Never assume anything is safe. Usually, he’s rather smart about such things.”
Gesturing to the room about them, Lady Kate added, “Quite often, places like these are warded by curses. They act fast and are almost always lethal to the one who runs afoul of it.
“Seward was lucky in that we never start an adventure without scrolls blessed by priests to counteract the curses of their evil counterparts.” She then flashed Charka a glance. “Usually, we have more than just two.”
“Time was short and we had to get our Springers before rendezvousing with Hymal.”
“Time wouldn’t have been short if you and Seward hadn’t tied one on the night before,” she said accusingly.
Jaikus interrupted what was sure to be a rehashing of an old argument by asking, “Will Seward be okay?” Bringing everyone’s focus back to their recently afflicted comrade, he said, “Reneeke and I can carry him if we need to.”
Lady Kate gave him a smile. “Thank you for the offer, but I think he will come around in a little bit.”
“In the meantime…” said Charka, “let’s take a look at where we are.” To Lady Kate he added, “Cast your Spell of Detection on the room, if you please, so we may see where the hot spots are located.”
“You can do that?” Jaikus questione
d.
She merely nodded. “Keep an eye on Seward until I’m done.”
“Sure thing.”
Coming to her feet, Lady Kate moved as close to the four columns as she could without entering the area between. Then as arcane words flowed from her, she slowly rotated until she had faced every part of the room. Upon coming full circle, she raised her hands.
Jaikus watched as her hands clapped three times, and then heard her exclaim, “Ey-uhd.” Instantly, blue lights flared into being throughout the room. Each of the bowls and their contents glowed brightly, as did the diamond and dark stone resting upon the statue’s hands.
Charka nodded. “At least we know.” Glancing around the room, he frowned as everything of value glowed blue, indicating they were cursed in one way or another. It was at that time that another detail of the room, one that had been overlooked before, finally registered. The room lacked an egress. There was no way out!
A slap brought his attention back to his man upon the floor. Having struck him across the face in the hopes of awakening him, Laky Kate now gently shook his shoulder.
“Seward?” she asked. About to strike him again, she saw his chest suddenly rise and fall as he took a deep breath.
Eyes popping open, they settled into a half-open state. “Am I dead?”
“Yes, you are,” she replied with a grin. “Or at least, you almost were.”
Very weakly, he raised his hand and was greatly relieved to see the normal skin tone.
“It took two scrolls,” she explained, “but I think you will recover.” Then taking his hand, she squeezed gently and asked, “Can you feel this?”
He nodded. “Yes. It’s a bit tingly, kind of like it feels after having fallen asleep and is trying to wake again.”
“That’s good.” When he tried to sit up, she placed a hand upon his chest to keep him down. She didn’t have to exert much pressure to have her way. “Lie down and rest while you can. You are weak as a kitten.”
Seward ceased his attempt to rise, grinned, then laid back down. “If you say so.”
“I do.”
Glad to see Seward recovering from the curse’s effects, Reneeke brought the lamp over to where Charka now stood gazing at the statue of the naked, golden man.
“Seward’s going to be all right,” he said.
Charka nodded. “Glad to hear it,” he replied without moving his gaze from the statue.
“It’s just like the miniature one we passed earlier.”
“Almost. This one has its arms raised.”
“Do you think it represents a god of some kind?” asked Reneeke.
“I haven’t a clue,” he shrugged. “I’ve never seen the likeness before.”
“It could have been meant to represent nothing more than just a man,” offered Jaikus. Having come up behind them, he too took in the golden man.
“We have a problem, lads,” Charka told his Springers. “There appears to be no avenue by which we can leave this room.”
Jaikus quickly glanced toward each of the four walls. Each appeared quite solid with no evidence of doorway, or any other form of egress. “How are we to get out?”
“Same as we came in,” Reneeke answered. “If magic was the means by which we arrived, it stands to reason that magic should be the means by which we depart.”
Charka nodded. “Quite possibly.”
“I wish we could have heard the entire message given by the face,” Reneeke said. “The parts we missed may have divulged the means of our escape.”
“What did it say, exactly?” Jaikus asked. “Something about death, wasn’t it?”
In a close approximation to the voice of the face, Reneeke said, “…or you will surely perish as had Nevinixi in the last days of Koetha. Let darkness arise, and light to fall, before death comes to call.”
“Obviously, there is a chance of our perishing. If only Lady Kate had cast her spell quicker.”
“What about that part where ‘darkness arises and light falls’? Could that refer to the end of the day when the sun goes down?” Jaikus looked to his friend, more than to Charka, for an answer. Years of habit were difficult to overcome.
“It doesn’t feel right,” his friend replied with a shake of his head.
“I agree,” said their leader.
“Or the curse?” Jaikus asked. “Seward turned awfully dark after scooping up those gems.”
“That wouldn’t make much sense, Jaik. The people who built this place wouldn’t want to go through being cursed just to leave. No, there must be another meaning.”
“Or none at all,” Charka added. “It wouldn’t be the first time when the sole purpose of an age-old message like that was to mislead intruders.”
“You mean, give them the wrong clue so they make a fatal mistake?” Jaikus asked. He was shocked by such a revelation.
“It’s been known to happen.”
Reneeke paid their conversation little heed. He loved a good riddle, and this sure was a dilly. The part ‘before death comes to call’, seemed to indicate that if they didn’t figure out what darkness must arise and which light fall, they wouldn’t live to see the outside world.
Light…Darkness…
Those two words had to be the key to getting out of there. He just knew it. The room offered little in the way of clues. Aside from the golden man, there were only the four columns, and pedestals bearing the cursed bowls full of gems. No inscriptions, pictographs, or any other markings were in evidence anywhere. The room, for all its grandeur, was rather plain.
Charka wandered over to where Seward lay. “How are you doing?”
“Aside from the fact I’m ‘weak as a kitten’, to use Lady Kate’s words, I’m feeling good and glad to be alive.”
“I thought you were a goner for sure.”
“So did I when I saw my hand.”
“That should teach you to help yourself to another person’s treasure.”
Seward gave him a grin. “At least before Lady Kate has said it to be safe.”
She harrumphed. “Like you are ever going to be so cautious.” Glancing over to the two Springers, she saw that Reneeke had entered the column area and stood very close to the side of the statue as he gazed up toward the golden man’s left armpit.
To Charka she said, “You better go see what trouble your Springers are about to get into.”
“What?” he asked as he turned to look. As soon as he saw where Reneeke stood, he shouted, “Get away from there!” and stalked forward.
“They pivot, Jaik,” Reneeke said, just before Charka’s outcry.
Seeing their leader en route to administer a good tongue-lashing, both lads stepped away from the statue.
“What in the name of all the gods do you think you are doing?” Gaze directed upon Reneeke, his ire at the perceived lack of judgment was quite evident.
“Trying to figure a few things.”
Charka eyed him quizzically. “Such as?”
“For one, both of the statue’s arms are hinged.” When he saw that their leader failed to understand the significance, he added, “The arms can move up and down.”
“So?”
Reneeke directed Charka’s gaze to the hands of the statue. “If you will notice, a diamond has been set within the statue’s right palm, while in the left is a stone of blackest night.” He paused a moment to let that sink in. “One is light, one is dark, and the arms upon which they rest move up and down. Or in other words, they rise and fall.”
Nodding, Charka replied, “I see where you are going with this. But both the diamond and the stone are cursed, same as the gems.”
“True, the stone and diamond are cursed, but the arms are not.” Which was true, the glow from Lady Kate’s spell had not been apparent on any part of the golden appendages. “We should be able to raise one and lower the other without risk of meeting a fate similar to what Seward experienced. In doing so, darkness will rise and light shall fall.”
“Providing your assumption is correct.”
>
“True.”
Charka contemplated the situation. “If you are wrong, simply touching the arms could curse the one making the attempt.”
“I don’t think that will happen.”
“Are you willing to take that risk?”
Reneeke glanced over to where Lady Kate sat with Seward.
“Understand lad, that if the curse afflicts you, we have no more scrolls to counter it.”
“I know.” Then he shrugged. “But this is what a Springer does, right? Be the one to tempt fate?”
Jaikus was not happy about the course of action his friend was contemplating. Turning to their leader, he asked, “Isn’t there anything else we can try?”
“None that readily comes to mind,” Charka replied. “Your friend’s logic is sound.” Then he glanced to Reneeke. “But before you try, we should examine the walls of the room in greater detail. There may be a switch, or something else, that might open a hidden way.”
“Time thus spent would also allow Seward to further recuperate,” added Lady Kate from her position at Seward’s side.
“I’m not that bad off,” he objected.
Laying her hand upon his chest, she applied gentle pressure before saying, “Fine, then. Get up.”
He tried to rise, but the minimal pressure her hand exerted kept him down. Struggle though he may, Seward could not produce enough force to overcome her efforts. Finally giving up, he resigned himself to further rest.
She merely chuckled and took her hand from off his chest.
Charka led his two Springers to the nearest wall. Gesturing to their right, he said, “You two check that way. Be careful, and if you find something, anything, let me know immediately.”
“Yes, sir,” Jaikus replied.
Over the course of the next half hour, the three of them combed the walls for any sign of a way to leave the room. During that time, Lady Kate’s detection spell ran its course, causing the blue glows throughout the room to vanish. When at last the three secret door seekers came together at the opposite side of the room, Charka was forced to admit that Reneeke’s idea about moving the statue’s arms would have to be attempted.
“I don’t like it,” he said, once he and his Springers had returned to where the other two waited. “Too many dire things could happen.”
There was silence for a moment before Reneeke asked, “Do you want me to do it?”
Charka glanced to Lady Kate. “Any suggestions?”
She shook her head. Then to Reneeke she said, “Good luck.”
“Thank you.”
Leaving the others, he made his way to the statue of the naked, golden man. First, he moved to the arm on the left, the one with the black stone. Very cautiously, he placed his hands against the underside of the statue’s forearm, and pushed. The arm moved a fraction of an inch, then came to a stop. He tried using more strength, but the arm simply would not budge any farther.
The thought that perhaps the other side had to be moved first prompted him to leave the left arm and crossed over to the right. This time, he grabbed the forearm and pulled down. Again, just like the left arm, it moved only a miniscule distance before coming to a halt. Reneeke even tried lifting his feet from the ground, causing his entire weight to hang from the arm, yet even that failed to accomplish anything. He finally let go.
“I can’t get them to move,” he hollered to the others.
“Maybe your theory was incorrect,” Charka replied.
Reneeke was certain that it wasn’t. Then an idea occurred to him. “Jaik, come here and give me a hand.”
Moving to his friend’s side, Jaikus asked, “What do you need?”
“It could be that the arms must move simultaneously. You push up on the left while I pull down on the right.”
Not looking very thrilled at being in such close proximity to the cursed item resting within the statue’s palm, Jaikus moved to do as requested.
Reneeke grasped the arm once again. When Jaikus was ready, he said, “Now.”
He pulled down, Jaikus pushed up, and the arms moved.
“It’s working,” he said and strained all the harder. Jaikus did the same. Together, they managed to move the arms twenty degrees before they would move no further. As Reneeke let go of the arm, he heard a grinding noise coming from behind him. A section of the wall was slowly sinking into the floor. They had found the way out.
Chapter 11