Trail of the Gods: The Morcyth Saga Book Four (26 page)

Handing his pack which contains the box to
Jiron, he has him put it into the bottom of the boat. Jiron is
about ready to get in when he tells him to wait until the others
are in position and gripping the rope.

“You ready?” he asks them.

“Go ahead,” Illan shouts down to him from
where he’s anchoring the rope.

Nodding to Jiron, he waits while he gets
into the boat, then climbs in after him. He indicates the two oars
secured to the bottom of the boat and tells Jiron to take one. “Use
it to keep us from the walls as best you can.”

Jiron removes one and indicates he’s ready.
To the ones on the stairs, he hollers, “Okay!”

Slowly, the boat begins to move out into the
rushing torrent on its way to the outflow. The light from Jiron’s
orb begins to illuminate the entrance to the outflow. “Man, we’re
not going to fit in there!” he cries out to James. The opening
looks even smaller than it did before. Water crashes on both sides
of the opening sending fountains of spray up into the air, soaking
them in ice cold water before they even get close.

When they’re within several feet, they
discover that they will in fact be able to make it through, though
the ceiling of the tunnel will be but inches from the top of the
boat. They’ll have to practically lie down in the bottom of the
boat to keep from hitting their heads.

As the bow of the boat begins to enter the
tunnel, James looks back to those on the stairs holding the rope.
The light from Illan’s torch illuminates him and Uther who stands
just below him from where it lies on the step above. Foot by foot,
the tunnel swallows them until the light from Illan’s torch can no
longer be seen.

“Hold on!” Illan cries out to them as they
continue letting out slack for James and Jiron to move even further
into the tunnel. He looks behind him and sees there’s only about
another ten feet before they run out of rope. Still, James’ signal
has not appeared.

Uther’s hands have begun to bleed from where
the rope is cutting into them, but still he holds on. “Can’t hold
on much longer!” he cries up to Illan.

“Yes you can!” he hollers back. Suddenly, an
orb appears before them.

“That’s it!” Illan cries out. “Hold it
steady while he does what he needs to.”

Keeping the rope still is much harder on
their muscles than controlling it as the slack had been let loose.
They hold it there for five minutes before Fifer yells up to Illan.
“The eye ring! It’s sliding loose!”

“How long?” yells Illan back to him.

“Seconds!”

“When it goes, let loose or you’ll lose your
arms!” he yells to the others.

“What about James and Jiron?” cries
Uther.

“There fate will be in the hands of the
gods!” he hollers back.

Suddenly, the orb disappears just as the eye
ring lets loose. They let go of the rope and watch as it gets
sucked into the tunnel. “Good luck James,” Illan says quietly to
himself before they begin climbing back up the stairs.

As they inch their way along the tunnel, the
boat continuously scrapes the sides and ceiling of the tunnel.
Water periodically sloshes into the boat from where it hits the
sides, and the bottom has already filled with two inches of water.
When Jiron mentions it to James, he tells him the added water isn’t
that bad, that it will enable them to ride lower in the water and
hopefully not scrape so much.

It seems they’ve been a long time within the
tunnel before James finds what he’s looking for. Suddenly, the
light from the orb reveals a gap in the ceiling above them. When
the gap reaches the middle of the boat, James releases the magic
and the orb appears back with the others, signaling them to hold
fast.

The boat abruptly stops its forward progress
and James takes the orb as he inspects the cavity in the rock
above. It’s about two foot in diameter and several more feet deep.
The light from the orb shows it is just a vertical opening with no
place to set the box and crystals.

He feels Jiron tap him as he shouts to be
heard over the sound of the rushing water, “You better hurry, not
sure how long they’ll be able to hold us here!” Lying on his back,
he has one of the oars pressed to the side of the tunnel in an
attempt to hold them steady.

“I know,” he hollers back. Picturing in his
mind what he wants to do, he lets the magic flow as chips of rock
begin to fall from one side of the top of the cavity, three feet
above the rushing water. A hole begins to form as more and more of
the rock is broken away. It takes a couple minutes to clear a spot
large enough and level enough for the box.

“Hand me the box,” he hollers to Jiron who
takes it out of the pack and gives it to him. Setting the box
within the just cleared opening, he checks a final time to make
sure all is as it should be with the spells and the crystals. When
everything checks out fine, he takes the warning crystal and the
defensive one out of his pouch and sets them next to the box within
the cavity. He activates their spells and then removes two small
spikes and a small hammer from his pouch. Then taking the pack, he
wedges it into the cavity next to the box, effectively blocking the
opening.

Using his small hammer, he pounds one spike
through the pack into the bottom of the opening, and another
through the pack into the top of the opening, thereby preventing
anything from inadvertently falling out.

“Ready?” he asks Jiron as he comes out of
the cavity and lies back into the bottom of the boat.

Jiron removes the stabilizing oar from
against the wall and flips himself over until he’s lying on his
stomach. Glancing to Jiron he nods.

When he gets the nod, he cancels the orb
signaling the others to let them go, and they’re suddenly rocketed
through the tunnel. Lying on their stomachs with their heads facing
the bow and holding onto a bench for dear life, each prays to
survive this wild ride.

The boat continuously strikes not only the
ceiling but the walls as well, the continuous jolting makes James
nervous. His eyes suddenly widen as a crack appears in the side of
the boat near him as one of the boards begins to splinter. He looks
in horror at the crack and when the boat again strikes the side of
the tunnel, the crack widens as the board beneath it breaks as
well.

From up ahead, he can hear the sound of the
water begin to change. Another strike against the side and he hears
a crack from the rear of the boat and suddenly his feet are
drenched as water fills the boat rapidly.

“James!” cries out Jiron as the sound ahead
of them gains in volume.

“Just hold on!” he cries. “This is going to
be rough!”

Suddenly, they’re airborne as they’re
propelled over the waterfall. James holds his breath in
anticipation of striking the water. When they do, the boat
completely disintegrates.

A piece of the destroyed boat stabs him in
the arm as he’s thrown into the water. The iciness of it takes his
breath away as he breaks the surface, gasping for air. The pain in
his arm is tremendous and when he feels with his other hand, finds
a piece of wood has completely passed through and is sticking an
inch out both sides.

“James!” he hears in the dark, his orb
having disappeared when he hit the water and broke
concentration.

“Over here!” he hollers as he treads water.
Another orb springs into being and he sees Jiron swimming toward
him. Not far off is half of the boat floating upside down in the
water. He starts swimming as best he can with one arm toward
it.

Jiron sees what he’s making for and angles
his way over to reach it. He reaches the remnant of the boat first
and takes hold of the side as he begins bringing it to James. When
he meets up with him, he holds it steady as James works himself up
onto it. “What happened to you?” he asks when he sees the piece of
wood sticking out of his arm.

“Piece of the boat got me when we hit the
water back there,” he explains. Legs still submerged in the water,
he at last has a secure hold on the boat with his good arm and
isn’t likely to sink again into the water.

“Let me look at it,” Jiron tells him. James
winces in pain as he inspects where his left arm near the shoulder
has been punctured. “Doesn’t look like it hit the bone, just went
through the muscle.” He looks James in the eye and says, “You know
it needs to come out. If you move around too much with it in there
it’s going to do more damage to the muscle.”

“Okay, do it,” he says as he grits his
teeth.

Jiron takes the piece of wood and slides it
back out the way it had come in. James cries out from the pain and
almost slips off the overturned boat before Jiron grabs him and
steadies him.

When the piece of wood is out, he throws it
into the water and then tears off a piece of James’ shirt which he
ties tightly around the wound to prevent anymore blood loss. “You
should be fine, it came out cleanly,” he tells him.

James can only nod as he becomes nauseous
from the pain. Now weak and shaky, it’s all he can do just to hang
onto the boat with his one good arm.

“How do we get out of here?” Jiron asks. The
light from James’ orb doesn’t illuminate very far and all he sees
is water.

“If we move away from the waterfall behind
us,” he explains, “we’ll eventually come to where the water leaves
the cavern and flows to the river outside.”

“How far is that?” he asks.

“I don’t remember exactly,” he replies.

“Just hold on and we’ll get there,” he tells
him.

Nodding, James holds on tighter as Jiron
begins kicking with his feet, moving them further away from the
crashing of the waterfall.

When they’ve progressed enough that the
sound of the waterfall begins to diminish behind them, Jiron hears
the sound of teeth chattering beside him. Glancing over to James,
he can see that he’s shivering badly from being in the cold water.
“You okay?”

“N-n-n-o-oo,” he says, trying to control his
chattering teeth. “J-just c-c-c-old.”

Cold himself, he’s even more worried about
his friend. He at least has the benefit of moving to keep his body
temperature up. “Kick your feet,” he suggests. “That might help
keep you a little warmer.”

Shortly, splashing can be heard from where
James begins kicking his feet. Suddenly, he cries out as he loses
his one armed grip on the remnants of the boat and slides into the
water.

Jiron lets go of the boat and quickly moves
to help him keep afloat. James feels cold to the touch as he
assists him in getting up on the boat again. Holding the boat with
one hand, he uses the other to pull James back up to where he can
again grab and hold on.

“Sorry,” he apologizes to James. “You just
hold on while I try to get us out of here.”

James tries to respond but the dunking in
the water has left him so cold, he can’t even talk.

Jiron begins swimming even harder, he needs
to get James out of the cold water before he dies. From up ahead,
the orb’s light reveals a small island. Not very big, but large
enough to accommodate them and allow James to get out of the water.
Turning the boat slightly, he moves them in the right direction.
The boat runs aground as it comes next to the island. Grabbing hold
of James, he helps him get to his feet and onto the island.

James is pointing back to the boat and says,
“B-b-b-b…”

“Get the boat?” Jiron asks. When he sees
James nodding vigorously, he glances back and sees the remnants of
the boat beginning to slip away from the island. Moving quickly, he
takes hold of it and pulls it up onto the island next to them.

Coming over to James he sees him lying there
shivering. “F-f-f…”

“Fire?” he asks. “You want me to make a
fire?”

James nods his head.

Looking around the island all he finds to
burn is the boat and they’ll need that when they leave the
underground lake. “There’s nothing to burn but the boat,” he tells
him.

Shaking his head, James says,
“S-s-spark!”

“Spark?” he asks and James again nods his
head.

Not completely understanding, he takes out
his flint and begins striking it against a rock. After the third
time when sparks appear, a flame roars to life out of thin air.
Hair smoking from where the fire had connected with his face, he
falls backward in startlement.

Getting himself back together, he sees James
has his eyes closed and is inching his way toward the fire. “How’d
you do that?” he asks.

James gives a slight shake of his head and
keeps his eyes closed. When he’s close to where the fire is
burning, he stops and begins warming up.

Jiron comes close to the wonderfully warm
flame as he thaws himself out. He had begun to be about as cold as
James and even felt his teeth start chattering.

They sit around the flame for several
minutes before James’ teeth stop chattering and he opens his eyes.
Sitting up, he scoots a little closer to the fire.

“Better?” Jiron asks him.

“A little,” he replies, the warmth from the
flame has calmed his chattering jaw. “But I can’t keep this up too
much longer.”

Jiron just looks at him questioningly.

“I’m using pure oxygen to sustain the fire,”
he explains. “Remember back in Councilman Rillian’s office when I
had used up all the oxygen and we couldn’t breathe? Well the same
thing is happening here. Since this cave is enclosed, it’s not
going to have an unlimited supply. It should have plenty for
awhile, but once we’re warmed up a bit, I’ll have to stop. Then
we’ll need to get out, fast.”

“I hear you,” Jiron says. “Just where is the
exit from here.”

Pointing back to the sound of the waterfall
they sailed over, he says, “We came from that way and if I remember
right, the way out is further away from it, past this island.”