The Broken Key (02) - Hunter of the Horde (58 page)

“Nothing,” Bart said.

“For one who talks about others acting like a fool,” Seth said as he joined them, “you seem to do your share of foolish things.” He came to stand on the opposite side of the circular area from Riyan. Bart turned towards him, a dark look coming over his face. His irritation at Seth has grown since first discovering that he and his brother had gone off by themselves.

Riyan had seen that look before and was about to say something when Bart launched himself at Seth who quickly backed away from the attack. “Bart!” exclaimed Riyan as he moved to intervene. Just as he entered the circular area, Bart left it. A flash of light abruptly filled the room.

Chad quickly put his hands over his eyes but it was too late. The intensity of the flash had taken away his sight.

“I can’t see!” exclaimed Seth.

“Neither can I!” cried out Soth.

Bart was the only one whose vision hadn’t been severely affected from the flash of light as his back had been to it. Spots danced before his eyes but he could still make out the room and those within it. Turning around, he had a question on his lips when he came to an abrupt stop. Riyan was gone.

Riyan practically stumbled and fell when he was suddenly plunged into darkness. He continued a few steps before coming to a stop. “Kevik!” he hollered. “A little light please.” The way his spells go away without warning is beginning to grow annoying.

There was no sound of any fighting, so the sudden cessation of Kevik’s light spell must have halted the impending fight between Seth and Bart. A moment passed by and still the light failed to materialize. “Any time now Kevik,” he said with growing impatience.

Silence surrounded him. “Kevik?” he asked nervously. The silence was deeper than it should have been. “Bart? Chad?” His fear rapidly grew when no one replied. He had one torch in his pack. That was one thing Bart had insisted on, that each carry a source of light only to be used for emergencies. For once, he was glad of that suggestion.

He slung his pack off of his shoulder and set it on the ground. Kneeling down next to it, he soon had the torch out and was striking sparks against the floor with flint. When one of the sparks landed on the torch, he blew gently upon it to encourage it to catch. On his second attempt, the spark ignited the flammable material encompassing the torch’s head and a flame blossomed to life.

The light from the torch revealed that he was in a small circular room with but one exit, and that he was alone. The walls and ceiling of the room was composed of plain stone. The floor on the other hand, except for a two foot outer stone perimeter, was an exact duplicate of the circular area bearing the King’s symbol from the room he had just been in.

Picking up the torch and slinging his pack once again across his shoulders, he tried to figure out how he came to be here. Bards have told tales of magical devices which could transport people across great distances. The fact that he was where he was suggested he had inadvertently triggered such a device.

He glanced at the circular area. The last thing he remembered before coming here was running to stop Bart. He had crossed over the circular area, then he was here. It would then be reasonable to assume that his stepping on the circular area had in some way caused him to come here. But why not Bart? He had already stepped on it without triggering the device. So how had he?

Stepping onto the circular area again, he hoped to be sent back. But nothing happened. Stepping off of it onto the stone perimeter, he walked around to the other side then tried entering the area from a different direction. Once more, nothing happened when he stepped upon the circular area. “Why won’t you work?” he asked it. Turning his attention to the exit, he hoped there was another way out as this appeared to be just a one way portal.

Entering the passage, he followed it for no more than ten feet before it opened onto another room. As the torch’s light began to fill the room, he saw a statue standing against the wall to his right. It was that of a double headed falcon, the same as was on the coat of arms. In the torch’s light, the statue gave off an eerie feel.

Across the room from the statue was a niche in the wall four feet from the ground.

From where he stood he could tell there was something within the niche. Certain that he knew what it was, Riyan hurried into the room.

“Stop!” yelled Bart.

They were gathered around Kevik who maintained the image of Riyan in the bowl resting on the floor before him. When they had discovered Riyan missing, Bart had Kevik immediately cast his far seeing spell to locate him. At least they knew he was alive, all they had to do now was to determine how to reach him.

Kevik figured he had to have been caught in some sort of teleportation spell. The flash of light, the fact he disappeared while crossing over the King’s symbol in the circular area, all led him to that conclusion.

While he had gathered his bowl and the flask containing the mixture necessary for the spell, Bart had tried to duplicate Riyan’s movement with no results. Then when Kevik had cast his spell, they were all relieved to find him still alive.

“How are we to get to him,” Chad had asked worried.

“I don’t know,” replied Kevik. “At least he’s alive.” They watched him pass through the short passage and then pause at the entrance to the room. The room he found himself in was small enough for the image to reveal both the statue and the niche.

“What’s wrong?” asked Chad after Bart’s declaration for Riyan to stop.

“This feels wrong somehow,” he said.

“In what way?” Seth asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Bart. “It just does.” Keeping his eyes riveted to the image in Kevik’s bowl, he watched with growing trepidation as Riyan crossed over to the niche.

The glint of gold caused him to quicken his step. The light from the torch soon revealed the niche in its entirety. A velvet pillow, or rather what was left of one, sat within the niche. Time had faded its glamour and turned the material into tattered remains. An object nestled within the tattered remains was what gave off the golden glint.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed out loud as he neared the niche. The shape and size were both consistent with the two segments of the key he carried in his pack. Just as he reached the niche, a groaning sound came from behind him.

Riyan stopped and turned to look back. The statue of the double headed falcon was vibrating. He stood there frozen, fully expecting the statue to come alive and attack him.

Instead, the statue gave out with another groan just before water began issuing forth from each of the falcon’s mouths. Then, a clanging sound drew his attention to the mouth of the passage. An iron portcullis suddenly dropped out of the ceiling and barred the only way out of the room.

He raced to the portcullis and gripped the bars. Using all his strength, he tried to lift it back into the ceiling but failed. It would take more than just himself to budge it. A trap!

A demon cursed trap! Setting his pack on the floor, he grabbed the bars of the portcullis and once again heaved with all his strength.

“Come on Riyan,” Chad urged as he watched him attempt to raise the portcullis for the second time. “Damn!” he cursed when he saw Riyan let go.

“We have to get to him,” urged Seth.

“How do you propose we do that?” asked Chyfe.

Bart thought for a second then looked to Kevik.

Kevik saw him looking at him and his face paled. “What?” he asked.

Pointing to the circular area, Bart said, “You have to get that thing working.”

“Do you have any idea how much power that thing has?” argued Kevik. Glancing to the others, he saw that they were looking to him for a solution.

“How much time do you think he has?” asked Bart. They all looked to the image in the bowl and saw that the water level was already a couple inches deep and rising. Riyan was back over at the niche in the wall and they saw him remove the segment and put it in his pack.

“He also has all the segments,” Chad said. “If he dies in there, so does our quest.”

“The segments!” exclaimed Chyfe. Everyone looked at him. “He had them and you didn’t Bart. Having the segments in his possession must have been why the portal reacted to him and not you.”

Kevik nodded. “That would make sense,” he agreed.

“But how does that help Riyan now?” Seth asked. “With that portcullis down and blocking the way back to the other end of the portal, how is he going to get back here?” Bart turned once again to Kevik. “It’s all up to you.” With the third segment in his pack, he stood there ankle deep in water that was steadily rising. If he didn’t either get out of here soon or stop the water in some way, he’d drown. Raising the portcullis was out of the question, he had already tried that and hadn’t budged it more than an inch. Maybe he could stop the flow of water somehow?

He set the torch within the niche to prevent it from becoming wet and going out. Then he turned about and splashed through the water covering the floor as he hurried over to the statue. The water issuing from the two mouths was ice cold. He ignored its icy bite and climbed up onto the statue. Once in position he put his hands over the two mouths in an attempt to stop the flow of water. Unfortunately, the mouths were just a bit too wide for him to manage a tight seal. All he did was cause the water to spray and soak him further.

“Damn!” he cursed again under his breath. Giving up on that stratagem, he left the statue and walked back over to the niche where the light provided him some comfort.

Think Riyan, think! In the flickering light of the torch, the water continued to issue from the statue.

“Look,” Bart said with hands on hips. “There aren’t a whole lot of options available to us.”

Staring into eyes that would brook no argument, Kevik said, “Alright, I’ll try. But I won’t be able to maintain the far seeing spell while I do.” Bart nodded. “Do what you have to do.”

Kevik cancelled the spell and then took a couple deep breaths to calm his shaky nerves. He turned to the circular area. So much power. His hands were actually trembling at the thought of trying to mess with it. He came to a stop when he was within a foot and closed his eyes, more to calm himself than anything else. When he thought he was ready, he opened them back up again.

He noticed Chad’s foot was standing on the edge of the circular area. “You might want to stand back,” he advised.

Chad looked down, realized where his foot was, and then backed up several feet.

Everyone else backed away as well.

“Everyone remain silent,” he said, then closed his eyes once more. What can I do? I have no spells for this. I’m just a Practitioner! He ran through the spells he knew and tried to figure a way to adapt them to this situation. His master had always told him that a magic user was at the mercy of the spells he knew. That the great spell casters were the ones who could take a spell intended for one use and apply it to another.

Goo spell, wind, energy missiles, sparks, detect magic, he considered each of his spells in turn. Identification perhaps? Maybe if he knew more about it he could better understand what to do. But to tap into such power held great danger. Deciding there wasn’t anything else he could try, he readied himself to cast the spell. Calm, that’s the key here. Can’t afford to make any mistakes.

“He did it!” cried out Chad excitedly.

I did? Kevik thought to himself just before ice cold water hit his legs. Opening his eyes, he was shocked to find a couple feet’s worth of water spreading outward from the center of the circular area.

“Good job,” Bart said as he came to stand next to him.

“But, I didn’t do anything,” replied Kevik. Then the glitter of gold caught his eye as the level of water on the circular area diminished and he gasped.

Bart turned to see what caused Kevik to gasp and saw the golden key segment sitting there. Breaking out into a grin, he exclaimed “Good thinking Riyan!” Moving quickly, he went forward and picked up the key. Half expecting to be transported to where Riyan was, he was disappointed when nothing happened.

“This was the trigger,” he said as he turned back to the others and held up the key.

“Better get off that thing before you get sent away too,” Soth urged.

Bart moved off the circular area and then looked to Kevik questioningly.

“It would stand to reason that if you possess the key, and you step onto the circular area, then it will take you to wherever Riyan is,” he agreed.

“And since it appeared here, it works both ways,” reasoned Bart. Kevik nodded agreement.

“Alright then,” Bart said as he turned back towards the portal. “Chad, Chyfe, you come with me. The rest of you stay here.” Holding up the hand bearing the ring, he looked to Kevik. “I’ll keep in touch if I have to.”

“Okay,” he said. “Be careful.”

Bart waited until Chad and Chyfe were on the portal before stepping on. As soon as his entire body crossed the edge, there was a flash and the three of them were gone.

They appeared in water up to their thighs. “Come on,” Bart said as he headed for the mouth of the passage leading from the small circular room. “Riyan!” he hollered.

“Bart! Thank heavens you found me.” Riyan stood at the portcullis as the three of them approached. Behind him could be heard the splashing of the water coming from the fountain. “I’m trapped by this portcullis.”

Bart sized up the portcullis and said, “Don’t worry. We’ll get you out.” Taking hold of the bars, he gestured for the others to do the same. “All together now.” Once everyone had a good grip on the portcullis, Bart said, “Now.” Then lifting with all their strength, they strained to raise it. It wouldn’t budge. Bart let go and said, “Riyan, give me your torch.”

Riyan hurried over to the niche and retrieved it. He returned to the portcullis where he handed it to Bart.

“Chad,” Bart said. “Give me a boost.” Pulling his knife, he indicated he wanted to reach where the portcullis had dropped down through the ceiling.

As Chad laced his fingers together and cupped his hands, Chyfe said to Riyan. “That was smart thinking about using the key to operate the portal.” Riyan grinned and nodded. “I just figured I had nothing else to lose so tried it,” he replied.