Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 (47 page)

“Keep going!” yelled Bart when Kevik paused to look back to him. He could see Bart had hold of the door that broke off and was pushing it along the surface of the water after them. There was no time to wonder what he was going to do with it as the water was now up to their chins with only another foot of space before reaching the ceiling. Urging Chad onward, they drew ever closer to the shaft.

Bart was finding it increasingly difficult to continue moving the door down the passage. The water was now so high that he didn’t have proper leverage on the floor and was beginning to lag behind. He was afraid that he might not make it in time.

Ahead of him he could see that Riyan had already reached the shaft and that Kevik and Chad were right behind him. With but inches separating the water and the ceiling, it was all he could do to continue moving forward and breathe. Finally he gave up trying to push along the floor and simply began swimming.

He kicked and paddled as he pushed the door along until he felt the door being pulled from the other side. The last few feet to the shaft he was completely submerged under the water as the water had finally completely filled the passage.

When he broke the surface, he found himself in the shaft and the water was shooting them up to the top quickly. He grabbed his rope that was still secured by the goo spell.

“Kevik!” he hollered. “Get rid of the goo.” He looked up and saw the opening coming fast. Just before they reached the top, he hollered, “Try to grab your packs. The room up there will fill with water too as it’s beneath the level of the river.” Then the water shot them out and they were literally thrown into the air before coming to land. Bart couldn’t tell if they managed to get their packs or not as he was concerned with maintaining contact with the door. But in the churning water he lost his hold and couldn’t locate it as the water continued to fountain out of the shaft with incredible pressure.

The water was a churning torrent that threw them one way then another. When he realized they would be lucky to make it out with their lives, he hollered, “Get to the stairs!” Looking around, he saw that Kevik and Chad were already entering the passage leading to the stairwell. Of Riyan there was no sign.

He knew he had to get out of there, the room was already practically filled with water and completely would be in a matter of seconds. Swimming for the passage, he almost made it when he was bumped into by Riyan coming up from beneath the water.

“Where did you go?” he asked.

“Got the packs,” Riyan replied with a grin. Then together they swam for the stairs.

The water quickly filled the room and pushed them along the stairwell. It took them almost to the top before the rising water subsided. Kevik and Chad were the first to climb out of the water and onto the stairs with Bart right behind. Riyan brought up the rear, dragging their three packs with him. He saw the rope coiled around Bart’s arm.

They made it to the top of the stairs then collapsed.

Riyan was quick to get the fire they left banked on the landing restored to life. The others came from the steps and embraced its warmth. Chad wasn’t doing too good, there was pain coming from his back. When the door struck him, it had injured his back in some way, maybe even broken something. He was fortunate that the blow didn’t paralyze him.

After Kevik and Bart helped him to the fire, Bart dug one of the potions they had found earlier out of his pack and gave it to him. “Here,” he said as he handed it to him.

Chad could barely reach out to take it as the movement of his muscles aggravated his injury and flared the already unbearable pain to such an extent that dots formed before his eyes. Kevik had to help him open the bottle before he could drink it. Then he put it to his lips and drank it down. As soon as the elixir within the bottle passed through his throat, the pain began subsiding.

Bart could see the pain in his eyes beginning to ease, along with the stiffness in the rest of his body.

“Man that feels better,” Chad said after a few minutes. In the area of his back where the pain had flared the worst, he began to notice a warming sensation that continued to intensify until just before it became uncomfortable. Not an unpleasant sensation, it was more a reassuring one as Chad new the injury was being repaired by the potion.

“I was worried about you for awhile there,” admitted Riyan.

Chad gave him a grin, “So was I.”

Then they saw the glitter of gold as Bart removed the two segments of the key and showed them to the others. He went on to tell them what he saw down below, how he had opened the door, and finally the finding of the second segment.

“So does this mean there are two more somewhere?” asked Kevik.

“It looks that way,” he replied. Then he glanced to Riyan. “It may take some time before we can discover where to find the other two segments.” Riyan nodded. “I figured that as soon as I saw the second segment.” Bart held the two pieces close together and then turned them so the map on the back was visible. “They go together,” he told the others. Indeed, they could see how the edge of the map of the original one matched the edge of the second. If you were to put them together there would be one continuous map.

“Are there any indications of where the other segments may be?” Chad asked. Since markings on the first one had led them to the Ruins of Algoth where the second segment was located, he hoped there would be something similar on the second segment that would lead them to a third.

Bart brought the second segment closer to the light of the fire and examined it closely but couldn’t make out any such markings. He finally looked up at the others and shook his head. “No, nothing.”

“Too bad,” Chad said.

The fire crackled in the silence as the four comrades sat on the ledge next to the flowing river. Bart was fiddling with the two segments and brought them together so the edges touched, he was wondering if they would fuse together or something. To his disappointment, nothing happened when they touched. Shrugging, he handed the two segments to Chad so he and the others could examine them. Then he stood up and stretched.

Riyan glanced at him and saw Bart begin moving to the passage leading back to the flooded stairwell and tunnels. “Where are you going?” he asked.

Bart paused and said, “I want to see if I can find that door.”

“What do you want that for anyway?” Kevik asked.

Turning to gaze towards him, Bart said, “It would give us something to hold onto when we went down the river.”

Kevik nodded his head in understanding. “Do you need some help?” he asked.

“Maybe your light would be helpful,” he replied.

“Alright,” Kevik said then got to his feet and joined him. His bobbing sphere appeared and they began walking down the passage together.

When they reached the top of the stairs, the light from the sphere revealed that the water flooding the lower area came to within ten feet of the top of the stairs. The door was nowhere in sight.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” Bart sighed as he shed his pack. He set it down against the wall and began uncoiling his rope.

“What do you plan to do?” Kevik asked.

With the rope now uncoiled, Bart tied it around his waist as he turned back to Kevik.

“I’m going after it,” he explained. “I would appreciate it if you could hold onto the end of the rope for me.”

“Sure,” he said. “I can do that.” He picked up the other end of the rope and stood ready.

“Once I go under, start counting,” Bart told him. “If you get to two hundred before I return, start pulling me back.”

“Are you sure you can hold your breath that long?” Kevik asked.

Bart nodded. “Two hundred and no more understand?”

“I understand.”

Tuning back to the stairs, Bart began moving down them to the water’s edge. When his foot entered the water, it sent a shiver of cold through him. He tried to disregard the coldness as he moved further into the water. Once he reached the place where it was up to his neck, he glanced back to Kevik and saw that he was ready. He then took several deep breaths in succession before diving under the surface.

“One…two…three…,” Kevik began counting.

Bart soon left the glow from Kevik’s bobbing sphere behind as he swam down into the darkness below. He knew that the door would be pressed against the ceiling somewhere, its buoyancy would see to that. So as he swam he periodically ran his hand along the stone ceiling in search of the wood.

He’s pretty sure that the door would still be in the room at the top of the shaft. That’s where he had lost track of it. Somehow he’s got to get it into the passage leading to the stairwell before his air ran out.

Deeper he went into the darkness until he felt the ceiling all of a sudden rise higher telling him he had entered the room. From there he began checking the room’s ceiling.

By this time, the effort to keep from breathing was growing increasingly harder. He knew he didn’t have much time left so quickly searched for the door.

After a few moments his hand hit something. It was the door. The water held it pressed tightly to the ceiling. He then moved to the other side and began working it to the opening of the passage leading to the stairwell.

It was hard going but he moved it several feet before he felt a tug on the rope as Kevik began reeling him back in. He let go of the door and quickly swam back along the rope’s path until his head broke through the surface.

The air that had been trapped inside burst out as his lungs began drawing fresh air into them. He started coughing as droplets of water were sucked down with his first inhalation.

“Did you find it?”

He looked up to see Riyan and Chad standing next to Kevik. Nodding, he coughed a couple more times then said, “Yes I did. It’s in the room at the other end of the passage.

Give me a minute to catch my breath and I’ll try again.” Then he glanced to Chad. “How’s your back?”

“Good as new,” he replied then did a few bends and twists to emphasize the point.

“Don’t overdue it,” cautioned Bart.

“I won’t,” Chad assured him. He looked tired, the magic of the potion again having used energy from his body in its healing.

Bart rested a few minutes then returned to the water. It took him another two times before he was able to bring the door out of the room and up the stairwell. When he broke the surface with the door in hand, the other three cheered.

Riyan and Kevik grabbed the door and brought it out to the landing where they set it down next to the fire. When Chad returned with Bart, Riyan asked, “What do you plan to do with it?”

“Quite simple really,” he explained. “We set our packs in the center of the door then wind the rope in and around them to create four loops large enough to hold each of us.

One loop will extend over each of the four sides of the door so we won’t be knocked together if things get rough. Then Kevik casts his goo spell so that it will coat all the packs and bind the rope to the door.” He could see that the others were beginning to understand his plan.

“After that it’s fairly straightforward,” he continued. “We put the door with packs and rope already secured by the goo into the water. Then we get into the water, place ourselves within the loops, and ride the river out of here.”

“What if it doesn’t go anywhere?” asked Chad.

Bart turned a grim smile towards him. “Then our adventure comes to an end.” He glanced around at the others and said, “If anyone here has a better plan, now would be the time to mention it.” When the others remained silent, he nodded. “Very well then. Shall we get it ready?”

They took their four packs and placed them in the center of the door just as Bart had said. They weren’t willing to risk the two segments of the key by keeping them in the packs, so Bart and Riyan each put one of the segments in their belt pouches for safekeeping.

Once the packs were in position on the door, Bart took his rope and looped it around so it crisscrossed through the packs several times. When he was done, a loop extended past the edge of the door on all four sides. Then he said to Kevik, “Your turn.” Nodding, Kevik cast his goo spell. The green globule appeared on top of the packs and quickly oozed its way down to the door beneath. When its movement finally stopped, Bart had each of them grip a different loop. Then with all of them straining hard, they pulled and jerked the loops. Bart grinned to himself when after all they tried to do, not one loop came undone from the goo coating.

“So we have about an hour?” he asked Kevik about the goo.

“Something like that,” he replied. “I’ve never actually timed it before, but that’s what I was told by my master.”

Bart nodded. “Good enough for me. If after an hour we’re still in the water, we’ll try to find someplace to land and redo it.” Taking his loop in hand he and the others lifted the makeshift door-raft and carried it to the water’s edge.

“Let me get in first,” suggested Riyan. “That way I can steady it while the rest of you take your position.” Riyan let go of his loop and quickly slipped over the side of the landing. Once he was in the water and had a secure hold on the landing’s edge, he indicated for them to put the raft in the water.

Moving it to the edge, they slid it into the water. Riyan immediately ducked under the surface and came up within the loop closest to the landing. Then he again gripped the landing’s edge. “Alright,” he said, “now the rest of you one at a time.” Bart was the first one to enter the water and took his position in another loop. Then he helped Riyan hold the raft against the current while first Kevik, then Chad, entered the water and took their position.

Chad, being the last to enter, had to work his way around the edge of the raft before he came to the last loop. Once he was within the loop, Bart and Riyan let go. The current immediately pulled them away from the landing and swept them downstream quickly.

The underground river turned to the right and the raft drifted to the outside of the curve. Chad happened to be on that side and when the current moved them too close to the wall, he used his feet to kick them back towards the middle.