Stone and bone, p.26
Stone & Bone, page 26
part #4 of All Things Impossible Series
He nodded and smiled back. "That'd be wonderful, but we don't want you to do much magic anyway. I know it has to tax your body." He tied the elven cord onto the handle of another old cellar trapdoor.
He heaved on the cord and the stone slab gave way only to reveal a fairly intact wooden cover below. Mora grabbed the handle and pulled. The handle wrenched off the wood in her hand, and the rest of the door crumbled down into the darkness below.
She grinned. "This might be it. We might find the thing, right now. We could be the heroes!"
"And we don't even know what we're searching for."
He stuck his upper body through the hole and came back with a small wooden chest. "You're right. This could be it."
"Should we get the others?"
"Y- No." He started to whisper, "If this is the thing, don't you want to know what it is?"
"Of course."
Kelin glanced over his shoulder. Tom was most conspicuously not there. The human wondered what the vampire might do to him if he had the object. Of course, he'd have to open the box anyway just to find out.
"Well, go on," Mora prompted.
"Uh..." He thrust the chest at her. "Is there any magic or anything around this?"
She hummed to herself for a moment. "I don't think so."
He flipped open the latch to reveal some ancient spoons and forks, belt buckles, beads, and even a preserved pair of rope sandals. At least, they looked preserved until Kelin tried to touch them, and they collapsed into dust.
"Oh!"
"I just hope he wasn't after ancient footwear."
Kelin forced a grin. "Probably not. But, there's something else in here." He lifted a string of beads, but as soon as he had it an inch from the ground, the string disintegrated and the eight beads bounded like children at play in every direction. He recovered one of the dark blue beads, dusted it, and held it up to the light.
"Do you think this is it?" Mora breathed.
Kelin rotated the bead into the moon in his dirty fingers. "Beautiful. I think it's Ahtome's. It certainly looks like the statute back in Malfax. Look at all that detail - the artisan must've carved this with a needle!" He chuckled. "Feels like we were there years ago." He offered it to Mora. "Here, look at it."
"Ahtome?" She didn't raise her hand to accept the bead. "Oh no, I'm too afraid I'll break it."
He grinned ruefully. "I already did, but I'm sure Ahtome understands it was an accident. Here, take it."
"No." She retreated a step. "There's still magic in that."
"Then it's good magic. There's nothing to fear here - except what perhaps Tom is seeking, but I don't think it's this. These monks must have been pleasant enough fellows, it's not like this place is an old temple to Sennha."
She laughed a little. "Of course not."
Kelin's face darkened. "Der and I just have poor luck with those soul eating ne'er-do-wells, too. We haven't yet met a worshiper of his that hasn't tried to kill us." He winked. "So far, we've come out alive and they haven't."
"What do you mean poor luck? You seem to have the opposite."
"Yes, you've seen what Der did in Hughling, and Tom too. Well, last autumn Der, another friend of ours who is an elf, and I killed two fell priests between the three of us. We heard that cult went crazy after their leaders' deaths, and that's why the king routed them."
"The leaders in Thealith, but not Urael. Your king has no jurisdiction there."
Kelin set the rosary beads reverently on the ground. "What do you mean not in Urael?" He sighed. "Of course the cult would thrive there too. Wait."
"I think-"
He held up a hand. "Let's think about this. The cult would be unified across the borders, and they'd want revenge on Thealith! They could have their fingers in this very war! Oh, it makes sense! That spy - Corran - mentioned a wizard, and those priests had wizardly powers!" His boots scraped the rock as he took off running. "Jakkobb! Captain!"
He found the knight-captain standing at the edge of the large ravine behind the monastery's refectory. The waist deep foliage made the steep drop a natural trap.
Kelin bolted his body to attention. "Sir!"
"What is it, lad?" Jakkobb remained eyeing the abrupt crack in the earth.
"I have a thought! Sennha's cult wants revenge on Thealith. Corran said they had a wizard, I bet it's a fell priest! Why else would a wizard be involved?"
The knight exhaled carefully and glanced down to him. "Yes, that sounds something the cult would attempt, but as you said at first, it's just a thought. The kingdoms have enough reasons - excuses, pardon me, on their own."
Kelin shifted his weight anxiously. "I know, I know, but it sounds right."
"Yes, it does, but we couldn't prove it. Even if it was true, and if we had evidence, we'd be too late. Look, I don't want this war to happen any more than you, and I'd like it to be a conspiracy of Sennha's and we could end it with destroying the cult entirely - but that's not how life works."
"Yes, sir." He ducked his head.
"These kingdoms are willing enough on their own, with or without the cult."
"But why, sir? They should know better."
Jakkobb chuckled darkly. "You'll often find that people don't act as intelligently as they actually are."
* * *
Mendelin's star glowed overhead in the heavens. For as long as the story had been around, musicians had asked the prince's star to grant them musical skill. In the back of her mind, Der wished she could play an instrument. Below it, she watched a large red star began to climb.
"You see how the demon star rises to the left of the prince's star?" Tom's voice was soft behind her. He spread out his cloak to sit upon.
"Yes."
"It was a traditional belief in Pallens that bad omens and evil often approach from the left."
"Why did they believe that?"
He shrugged. "I don't know; I wasn't around in the Empire."
She nodded. "No sign about the heart?"
He thrust his head back into his hands. "None. Perhaps it has already been claimed. You don't know, but I destroyed any record I could find of it, three hundred years ago."
Der's eyes drifted over the ruins. "You know, it's still pretty green here, and thick too. There must be a spring or something nearby."
Tom shrugged. "And this helps us, how?"
"Well, if we're going to be here, I at least need water."
Suddenly, a child-like voice burst through the flora. "I found it! I found it!" Der and Tom looked around, but it was impossible to see the little dragon.
A golden blur streamed out from the brush as the chubby little dragon ran at the fastest hopping run his legs could carry him. He barreled into Der's leg. Little shoots of flame blew from his mouth as he panted.
She inched away from the creature, leaning forward to stay out of the fire's reach. "You found what, Goldie?"
He popped his shiny face up. "The monastery!"
Tom and Der exchanged a glance. "Excuse me, little one?" Tom blurted. "It's all right here." He waved his hand in a wide arc.
The dragon shook his head. "No. I found it." He waddled around to face the way he had come. "Through there. It's really scary!" He took off at a stumpy hop toward the thick foliage again.
Der shrugged and rose. "Well, we haven't looked outside the ruins yet." She followed the dragon, but couldn't squeeze through the small breaks in the brush. So, she shoved her way into the thicket, and grumbled in frustration when it was too solid to pass through. She drew her sword.
Tom almost smiled to himself at the sight of the girl using the Pallens sword as a machete.
Meanwhile, she muttered to herself, "I can't believe I'm using this sword for this." She hacked at the tangling vines and weeds. The sword sliced through them with a sigh. Halting for a moment, she ran her thumb along the edge, careful not to cut herself. It was as sharp as ever.
"Almost there!" the dragon chirped from somewhere ahead.
She brought her arm back and attacked the vegetation again.
"Whoa! Stop, stop, stop!"
Stepping forward, she nearly lost her balance as the ground beneath her foot suddenly sloped away. When she was sure of her footing, she peeked over the edge.
"Tom!" She jumped and waved her hands above her head. "To me!"
She knew he heard her, but he didn't look up. With his left hand, he split a stone fragment larger than his head, and then slowly stood and started walking. His voice was cold. "What is it?"
"Um, the dragon was right. He found the monastery." The little dragon curled around her boots, staring down over the edge.
He sniffed as he neared them. "What do you mean? Its ruins are right over there."
She shook her head quickly. "No, it's here." She pushed aside the foliage. His eyes widened and his mouth slid open. Below them, a thick pond motionlessly occupied the hollow between the hills. In its reflection, a dominating black marble structure loomed as if it had just been built. Towering square pillars on either side of the forty-foot doors were decorated with battles and intertwining dragons. Blood red stained glass walls framed the pillars and the black doors.
Der licked her lips. "Uh, Tom? What kind of monks lived there?"
"I've always thought it was the good kind, but... I never expected this. I wonder if other explorers saw this. You know, I rather like it."
She glared at him. "I don't."
He dropped his head. "We've been looking in the wrong place all along." He bunched a fist. "We're close. I can feel it."
"This scares me, Tom, and I don't frighten easily. First, it was gods telling wizards not to get involved, and then you say that this thing is too dangerous."
"I am aware."
"And now, we've found an image of the sanctuary of hell!" She drummed her fingers on her leg. "How would we even get in?"
He shrugged and leaped over the edge. After a long, graceful fall, he slipped through the surface of the water with no splash. The ripples sank inward to the center of his entry point, and the baleful reflection of the monastery was hardly disturbed.
Behind her, she heard the rapid approach of Jakkobb and Kelin. Goldie tightened his grip around her ankle. She pointed down to the pond. "Look at what Goldie found, sir."
Jakkobb drew in his breath sharply. "Oh. Damn."
Tom finally bobbed to the surface, after too much time had passed for anyone trying to hold air in his lungs. He cursed darkly, and ripped off a swimming snake furiously biting his arm. He harshly lobbed the creature back into the water. "Drowned and poisoned, what next?"
"You didn't believe that was going to work?" Der called down.
He shook his head. "No, I thought there may have been a clue at the bottom of the pond. Only blasted snakes, and maybe a few leeches."
She opened her mouth to comment about fangs and bloodsuckers, but looked at his expression and bit her tongue. Goldie squeezed his talons protectively into her clothing as Tom marched up the incline.
"I think we should walk away," Kelin said softly. He gazed down, beneath the perfectly smooth surface of the pond at the black temple. "I know that sounds like something I would've said a year ago, but this new warrior doesn't believe anything good may come of this."
"Please, do." Tom drew himself level with them, but remained standing in the air. "I only need Der."
"We go where she does," Jakkobb said evenly.
"How could we get inside?" Kelin asked.
"I'd like to know how we are going to get out before we go in." The captain crossed his arms.
"I found something!" Mora, back inside the ruins, waved a thin, rectangular stone above her head. Tom snatched it out of her hand in the next second, while the others were just taking their first steps. He hissed and dropped the tablet. Spike narrowed his eyes over the vampire's shoulder.
Mora picked it back up and twisted it toward the bright moonlight. "I can't read it." She tilted it toward Kelin when he stepped beside her. "Is that elvish?"
He shook his head. "No, it's not. I can't make it out."
Der grabbed the stone tablet out of her hands. "What do you mean you can't read it? It reads, 'To clerics, beware, only those of worth may enter and break the seal.' "
"Very good." Jakkobb smiled grimly. "Except you forgot one thing."
"What's that?"
Spike stepped beside Der silently, and nudged the dragon with his nose. Goldie climbed into his forelock with his chubby legs kicking the whole way. The unicorn didn't seem to mind and started to back away slowly.
Jakkobb snatched the tablet. "You don't read any ancient languages."
Her mouth fell open. "But, I can read it clearly! You mean you can't?"
He held the stone away from him, looking askance at it. "No."
"It's a miracle," Mora said, astonished.
Tom held his forehead, his entire body trembled and he bared his teeth against a force no one else felt. "Yes, I know, and it's giving me a headache. Now, Der, did you read the whole thing?"
She shook her head. "There are two lines more."
"Finish it." The words shredded through his fangs.
" 'What is sealed is not crystal, but stone. Where one goes, the other will follow.' " She looked up in confusion. "Well, that doesn't make any sense-"
* * *
Der blinked and when she reopened her eyes, she felt suddenly very short as she found herself staring upward at the dark monastery. The ruins were gone. The tablet was gone. She saw Jakkobb, Mora, Kelin and Tom. She wiped her forehead; it was already sweating. Heavy air pressed down on their shoulders, and the heat clung to them like wet clothing.
Orange light drifted down from the sky. Slowly, as one, they looked up. Fire rolled lazily in the storm-shaped clouds. They watched as the clouds twisted and churned in orange, yellow, red and their centers were white and green and blue. The clouds themselves looked more like black smoke than thunderheads. The sky was alight from horizon to horizon, with no break in the fiery heavens.
"Where are we?" Der yelled, shading her eyes upward.
"I don't know!" Jakkobb hollered back, one arm shielding his face to the heat. The burning clouds began to spin above their heads. He slammed his visor down. "Run!" He cleared the first of the petrified logs. At the height of his jump, he saw the Dead Forest extending all around in every direction forever.
An arm of fire plummeted to the ground. They slipped against the blackened, sandy ground as they pumped their legs as hard as they could. Der buried her eyes in the smaller door to the side of the grand entrance to the monastery, and didn't dare lose any steps checking over her shoulder at what was falling toward them.
The fireball slammed into the ground where they had been standing, and the explosion rocked them to the earth. Der and Jakkobb bounced back to their feet immediately. Kelin pulled Mora back on balance, and kept a hold of her hand. The captain pointed. "The monastery, go!"
He looked up to see another arcing fireball. Behind them, he could see the fires of the first attack dying out already - there was nothing to burn here.
Tom reached the door almost instantly, and looked back at the party and the sky. It writhed like a bag of snakes, and several giant tendrils were twisting out of that bag. It was beginning to literally rain fire. He spun and kicked the door, but it was resistant even to him.
* * *
Peyna leapt to his feet and ran to the door. He cursed heavily in his native tongue. He could hear the horses and the shouts in the forest, but most of all he felt the forest itself screaming. In these lands where humans had dug themselves in, the woodsong was muted, but he could still hear it. The physician pushed open the door, closed his eyes and listened. He also listened to the animals, and the birds screeching.
She wasn't cured, but with Peyna's constant attention she was finally awake and the fever quelled. The physician did his best, but he could only put the magic inside of her to sleep. Trying to remove it would kill her, he'd explained to Erastus, because it would require more magic introduced into her system to pull it out. Instead, he coached the girl and was trying to teach her to use it and rid herself of the infecting power. However, the child was too young. The physician knew he had only prolonged her death.
Chloe pulled the blanket up to her chin. "What's going on, Thalon?"
The boy, sitting crossed leg at the end of the bed, shook his head. "I don't know. Trouble."
"Raiders!" Peyna snapped the door of the cottage shut loudly.
Erastus raised his head. "Oh, Amiery's staff, we're lost."
"No, we are not. The human race might be, but we, in this house, are not." He reopened the door and stepped outside. Turning to face the cottage, he waved his hand once over his head at the small building. It wavered in the air like a giant heat wave and then vanished completely. Peyna took a step forward and disappeared from sight.
He closed the door behind him. "I have cast a glamour over us, which is a spell that hides or distorts sight. We will not be seen." He sat down at the table. When he turned away, Thalon handed Chloe a knife from his boot.
She fingered her blade below the blanket. "We're safe then?"
"Yes," the elf answered.
Erastus slowly began to set the table for their meal as if nothing was wrong. His trembling hands betrayed him. Outside, he heard their whoops and yells drawing nigh the cabin. In fact, they seemed to be stopping at the door. A plate slipped from his fingers and the crashed echoed like thunder.
The elf's eyes snapped wide and he hopped to his feet.
"Unless they have a wizard," Thalon said softly. "Like their spy said."
Peyna scowled. "Indeed they do, I feel his magic. Damn! Why? Why here?" Then, his gaze slid over to the girl...
"We're not safe, are we?" Chloe gripped her knife tighter.
"I can fight." Thalon twirled his long knives in his hands and jumped off the bed.
The physician glared down at the child. "You're seven, lad." He stuffed the bar down across the door as if he didn't want to touch the wood.
He held up his blades for everyone to see. "Who else around here is going to help? Until my father gets back from the village."
"Well, we certainly don't need whatever information he's gathered now."
