A Warrior's Return (14 page)

It appeared, as if they were stripping the
temple of its artifacts and documents, while in active search for
their ultimate prize. Talaric saw several of the blue clad priests
being tortured, no doubt to give up the temple’s secrets.

The woman goddess had unmistakable Orlandian
markings that did not even look Egyptian and then there was the
whole snake thing going on.

Ronan caught up, “I do not feel good about
this Talaric!”

Talaric paused and laid a hand on his
friend’s chest, “Just remember that He who resides in you is
greater than anything you see before you.”

Talaric working on a hunch started climbing
the cavern wall followed along by a nervous Ronan. The temple
appeared to have two different stories to it and as Talaric had
expected there was a construction terrace that ran along the length
of the cavern that connected with the second story of the temple.
It didn’t seem to have been discovered yet.

There had to be over two hundred people
below working like ants emptying the contents of the temple to be
packed up and shipped out. They were European in appearance and
identified as such by the scattered languages being echoed around
the cavern. It didn’t look like they’d been here long either and
they were moving fast, as if in fear of being caught by
someone.

The two men made their way to the temple’s
second story and cautiously eased through the second tier of
smaller pillars. More dead priests.

At present there was no one else in the room
that had been stripped of everything it seemed, but the painted
hedonistic artwork adorning the walls. Talaric was about to leave
the room and go deeper into the temple, when Ronan tapped him on
the shoulder and pointed.

One of the priests wasn’t dead. He was
crawling slowly toward a wall, when he reached it he reached out a
hand and touched an artwork scene, which briefly lit up. The wall
shimmered.

Ronan and Talaric exchanged a look and then
leaped into a unison of action. Dragging the priest, who had
succumbed to his wounds back into the room a bit both men then
approached the flickering wall and stepped through it into the
space beyond. They were in a narrow solid walled corridor that led
across the front of the temple.

There was a vague looking light at the end
of the hall about thirty feet away. Talaric stepped into the small
alcove that the narrow hallway opened up into. The room was lit up
by the glow of light emanating from two elliptical windows on the
wall to their left. It dawned on both men where they were. They
were in the head of the statue standing over the stair entrance way
into the temple.

Ronan hurriedly mumbled a prayer and looked
around nervously, but it was hard to see anything in the semi
darkness. Talaric about fell over an obstacle in the middle the
small room and caught himself against it to keep from falling.

Using a pen light he could see that the
object was a sarcophagus of sorts. He started to push hard on what
appeared to be the lid of it and was rewarded by the protesting
creak of stone on stone. He could hear Ronan moaning slightly in
the background. This entire mission had seemed to unnerve the
normally silent and enigmatic Ronan.

The lid gave quickly and suddenly pushed
wide. Using the pen light Talaric looked inside. These were no
doubt the remains of the self crowned serpent queen of antiquities
past.

An attempt at mummification had been made,
but it hadn’t succeeded very well. There were even the skeletons of
several snakes coiled up laying beside her. She had no doubt wanted
her pets to accompany her on her short voyage to hell.

This place was entirely disturbing on many
levels. Underneath an ancient scrap of cloth Talaric could see
something that glowed. Cautiously he reached inside the
sarcophagus.

“No don’t! There could be some foul curse
attached to it!” Ronan whispered harshly looking very pale.

Talaric looked up and tapped his chest,
“Remember that He who is inside of you is greater. No curse or evil
spell can ever overwhelm Him. We are in no danger and if we are we
already know our destination anyway so what’s to worry about?”

“Surviving to see tomorrow!” Muttered Ronan
under his breath, as Talaric pulled the faded fabric back to expose
the glowing object.

It was in the shape of a triangle and was
mounted on a necklace. It glowed blue and it constantly shimmered.
Its surface rippled like oil in water.

Talaric broke the glowing triangle free from
the necklace cord and straightened back up with it in hand. It felt
warm in his hand and as he straightened with it the room came alive
with color, as the painted artwork and murals lit up around the
room.

There were scrolls all around the small
room, no doubt the most treasured keepsakes of the long dead queen.
Any museum would have given all that they had to display what was
stacked up in little piles of glittering intricacy and beauty, but
all Talaric was reminded of was the age-old precept, ‘you can’t
take it with you’.

Having light to work by both men quickly
looked through the scrolls, which were remarkably well preserved.
Talaric could only understand parts of what he read, but he got the
understanding that this place had been built after the great flood,
but close to it in proximity of time frame.

The self-styled queen had found the amulet
that he now had and had gained insight from it. Using it she had
become a powerful ruler over a small kingdom. She had been born
some two hundred years after the great flood, but had lived almost
six hundred years.

There had been a rebellion in her kingdom
and she had been attacked by other kingdoms and that was where the
account ended. Talaric looked around in frustration, all very
useful to know the history of this place, but that didn’t help him
with his problem.

There was too much here to go through and so
little time.

Less time than he knew. The glow of the room
was radiating out of the blue sapphire faceted eyes of the
figurehead casting a thousand pinpricks of blue light out upon the
cavern at large.

Even the coldhearted killers, who had
invaded this underground sanctum dedicated in commemoration to the
lusts of the past, felt a moment of fear. It appeared as if the
giant queen had awakened at the ransacking of her estate and
intended to repay the trespassers dearly for their
transgression.

After their momentary panic of fear faded
and their discipline took back over orders were screamed out to
find the source of the light.

Talaric looked up from the pile of scrolls
he was rifling through at the sound of pounding on the walls of the
alcove and hallway. They had found them, but how?

His eyes drifted to the oval orbs of the
giant statue and he knew how.

“The light! The light has betrayed us! I
told you there was a curse on it, but you wouldn’t listen to me!”
Ronan accused angrily.

“Get a grip on yourself man and look for
another way out!” Talaric snapped, as he continued to look for what
he needed, even as the thumps on the walls got more concerted.

Cracks began to appear, even as plaster dust
wafted down to cloud heavily into the air.

“I found a way!” Ronan screamed excitedly
pointing at the opposite side of the alcove away from the
glistening eyes.

A spiral staircase they had overlooked led
upward.

“Good! Now help me!” But Ronan was already
climbing the stairs.

Talaric glanced down the hallway and saw a
block of stone shoved out of the wall. Light spilled into the dim
hallway. It would be only a matter of seconds before they had a
hole large enough to crawl through and invade the space.

The scrolls he was rifling through contained
all matters of interesting past historical information, but none of
it was seemingly relevant to what he needed to know. He couldn’t
decipher most of it anyway.

He could be holding the very scroll that he
needed right now and not know it. He needed more time!

But he had none.

Another block fell out of the wall beside
the first one. He had to go; he made his way toward the stairs. His
feet were on the first stair tread, when he saw something from
across the room from where he had been searching through
scrolls.

It was an old weathered box that was badly
decayed and had parts of it missing. On the box was a symbol that
was almost worn away and barely discernible, but he recognized
it.

How could he not after all it was his own
family’s coat of arms. Parts of the Ta’lont crest were gone, but
enough remained to verify it for what it was.

Jumping from the stairway Talaric lunged for
the box and pulled his pack off as he did. He dumped everything out
of his pack only taking the time to shove his big pistols into the
waistband of his pants. He then shoved the entire box, which was
surprisingly heavy into the pack and slung the pack back over his
shoulder and made for the stairs.

There was a crash as a whole section of wall
fell and soon after bullets began to ping off the spiral stairway
that Talaric hurtled upward. Reaching a dark loft area Talaric
yelled for Ronan, but heard nothing.

He ran down a narrow hallway that lit up as
he ran down it. They were more stairs at the end of it and he
vaulted up them. No one had come this way in a very long time. Dust
rose with each step and he could only see evidence of Ronan’s
tracks in the dust.

Abruptly the hall ended at a pair of double
doors that were elaborately engraved with what else but naked women
and snakes.

The old queen could have done better with
her pick of an interior and exterior designer. Ronan was there at
the doors already and Talaric avoided looking at him afraid that
his temper would explode at the man for abandoning him like he had.
He had already decided that Ronan was off the team and free to make
his own way in the world.

Ronan didn’t meet his eyes either as he
said, “The doors they will not budge. I think you have to place the
amulet here.” He said pointing to a place in the center of one of
the doors that had a triangular cavity, which had lines radiating
out from it into the rest of the doors artwork.

Talaric took the triangular amulet out of
his pocket and placed it in the hole that seemed designed for it.
The artwork of the door lit up and there was a click. Talaric
pulled on the handle that was shaped in the figure of a cobra
head.

The doors swung open to reveal a large room.
This must have been the queen’s private chambers. Gold and gems
gleamed everywhere in great supply, but that wasn’t all that was in
the room.

At a loss for words Talaric breathed out,
“Oh dear God have mercy!”

While Ronan’s face went completely slack
with dread, “We’re in hell!” He whimpered.

The room was as ornately done up as any
palace chamber ever had been, but it was completely crawling with
snakes.

A cobra near Ronan’s feet abruptly reared up
and made to strike. Talaric quickly grabbed Ronan and pulled him
out of the way, but as soon as he touched Ronan the snake
relaxed.

He let go for a moment and the cobra rose
back up threateningly, but then relaxed back to the floor when
Talaric touched Ronan’s hand again.

A bead of sweat ran down Talaric’s face as
he grabbed a hold of Ronan’s hand, “Whatever you do don’t let go of
my hand!”

“What?” Ronan quivered out unbelievingly, as
he watched Talaric step forward bringing him along with him.

It was hard to find a bare spot on the white
marble floor inlaid with gold and gemstones. Each step came with an
almost unavoidable occurrence of stepping on a snake.

They were everywhere!

This truly was a nightmare.

The meaning of nightmare was redefined, as
Talaric felt a snake coil up his leg. Talaric very gently reached
out and grasped the sand viper by the head and pulled it free of
him.

It made no attempt to strike at him, as he
dropped it back to the floor. It had to be the energy being given
off by the amulet that was calming the snakes.

Sweat dribbled off of Talaric, as he made
his way across the floor toward an open door on the other side of
it. He had to almost wade through in places and quite a few times
he stepped on snakes, but not one of them retaliated back. Ronan
was losing it though.

A big python came up over his back and
loosely coiled around the front of his neck. Screaming insanely he
tore his hand free from Talaric’s to grasp at the thick snake coil
about his throat.

He was struck at least a hundred times in
less than ten seconds. Ronan was dead from the sheer volume of
venom before he collapsed onto the floor. Talaric grimly picked up
Ronan’s pack and kept making his way to the door, pulling off
wayward snakes as he went and dropping them back to the floor.

It took everything he had to walk and not
run. He made it to the doorway and was relieved to see the hall
beyond free of snakes. He checked to make sure that he didn’t have
any still clinging to him or in his packs.

Satisfied that he was snakeless he opened
Ronan’s backpack up and dug out a big piece of plastic explosive
and stuck a detonator in it. He then pushed the plastic overtop of
the blue glowing amulet, which he then tossed into the center of
the room.

Figures appeared at the other side of the
room and despite their tough demeanors Talaric heard a few shocked
shrieks of terror. They hadn’t seen him and he disappeared down the
dark hallway tossing plastic explosives as he went. The descending
hallway curved around and down to the first floor level where
Talaric stepped through a shimmering wall into a room that had
already been gutted of its treasures.

He walked straight into the main floor of
the temple. Everyone was either too distracted by what was
happening on the second and third floors or too busy in their work
of boxing stuff up to notice him as he walked right through their
midst.