Valley of the Ancients: Book Three of the Restoration Series (15 page)

Chapter 9

Early next mid-afternoon, Heather helped Dagan up the steps in front of the library. The old man wore a long cloak that gathered tight around his neck, hiding everything but his head. He leaned heavily on an old wooden staff and slowly climbed the steps.

Heather patiently helped support the old man's weight. To her eyes Dagan looked like he always did, but he had assured her that he would look much older than normal to everyone else.

They reached the top of the stairs and stopped. Dagan wheezed heavily, making an excellent show of trying to catch his breath.

"Is that all acting or are you about to have a fit?" Heather asked quietly, trying not to grin.

Dagan paused for the briefest of moments, right in the middle of a particularly deep breath, but he remembered and continued the wheezing quickly. He glared at Vuardit;Is that Heather though. "Behave yourself, young lady."

They continued toward the main entrance of the library and the going was much easier now. The ground here sloped upwards, but as least all the steps were behind them.

Pausing momentarily, they both stared up at the monstrous building that loomed above them. She had seen the building but this was Dagan's first up close look at it.

"Don't just stand there with your mouth hanging open," Dagan mumbled sideways at her, "let's get inside."

Glaring sideways at the old man, Heather ground her teeth together. Her mouth most certainly had not just been hanging open.

Passing through the eight inch thick wooden doors, they paused again inside the entrance gallery. This time, however, it was Dagan that stood with his mouth hanging open. To be fair, there were plenty of reasons for the old man to be taken aback. The walls were lined with impressive paintings and tapestries, scattered around the floor were numerous highly detailed statues, and the marble ceiling was vaulted way above their heads. Dagan didn't stare at those items though, his attention was focused on the enormous relief along the back wall of the gallery. It appeared to have been carved somewhere else, then someone had cut the thing into massive pieces, carried them here, and reassembled them.

Heather wasn't overly worried about Dagan's staring. She got the feeling that was the normal response for someone seeing this room for the first time. They probably shouldn't gawk for too long, though. "We need to start moving but we can go slowly."

Dagan turned his head slowly to look at her and she began to get worried. The old man had an awe struck look on his face. His mouth was slightly ajar and his eyes were wide.

"Are you okay?" she asked. She gave another little pull and got him moving, albeit rather slowly.

He blinked several times and looked back at the relief. "It's amazing. I've never seen anything like it."

Not exactly the words she wanted to hear. "Should we change the plan?" If he couldn't get the secret door open, then perhaps they should cancel this and regroup.

Dagan didn't answer right away. "No. I don't think so," he said finally. He looked over at her. "You don't see any of that, do you?"

"Any of what?"

"To my eyes there are some rather interesting wards placed on that relief."

"Can you handle them?"

"Of course, but I think that what I see is only the first half."

Her forehead wrinkled in confusion, "What do you mean?" They were nearing the relief now and Dagan watched it intently.

"I think the wards have to be removed first, but then I think we'll need Cassandra's help. It's ingenious. I think they deliberately used a sorcerer and a magician."

Heather glanced around, not wanting this conversation to be overheard. "Explain," she said simply.

"It makes perfect sense," Dagan said in a patient tone. "The biggest threat to the treasure room was from the Church, so they used a sorcerer and a mag ^istu

"Couldn't they just hire someone?" Heather asked, as they passed through the secondary entrance into the library proper. She led them towards the back through the enormous number of bookshelves.

"Perhaps, but sorcerers such as myself are rather scarce. I would imagine they would have some difficulty in finding someone with the necessary abilities."

With her head tilted down Heather grinned, wondering if the old man might just be overestimating his own worth. Then again, one did not get to be the king of Telur's sorcerer for nothing.

It took a while at their slow pace but they finally neared the back wall. Aaron already stood there, apparently busy inspecting some old books nearby. No one was around, so they didn't try very hard to hide.

"What took so long?" Aaron asked, looking relieved to see them.

"Had to go slow," Heather answered. She nodded at Dagan, "I had to help the old man along."

Aaron grinned, but Dagan scowled at the both of them.

"Have you seen any of the others?" Heather asked.

Aaron shook his head. "No, but they're not due yet."

They didn't have to wait long before the others began to gather. Atock was the first to arrive. He looked around and then moved over and joined the other three.

"Any problems?" Heather asked.

"No. No one even looked at me twice."

The other three followed quickly. Mikela arrived first and she was followed closely by Cassandra and Enton arriving together.

So far they hadn't seen anyone and this part of the library seemed deserted, but Heather didn't want to try the fates. "Okay Aaron, lead on."

Without a word, Aaron headed off farther into library. Heather had them follow in groups of one and two. Just in case someone was still around, she didn't want to raise their suspicions.

Aaron stopped just short of the back wall. A lone door broke up the endless stone of the wall. He waited until Heather arrived and then motioned over at the door. "The other day, there was a guard on this door." He shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe they only guard it when it's being used."

Heather shrugged and motioned him on.

Aaron stepped away from the last rows of bookshelves and approached the door. Taking a deep breath, he turned the handle and stepped through. It didn't quite smell as bad as the other day but it was pretty close. More importantly though, the room was empty. Turning, he looked around one more time and then motioned the others over. This time the others came over in one big bunch.

"Gods," Dagan muttered. "What's that smell?"

Aaron shrugged apologetically. "I think they repair books here." He motioned to the two long tables that filled the majority of the room. They were partially covered with old, half-mended books.< ^e weds,&qu/p>

"Doesn't matter," Heather said quickly. "We're just waiting here until they clear the library." Another little piece of knowledge the guard captain had given them was that after closing the library, the guards verified it was empty, and then locked it up. They only patrolled outside the library, not inside. Once it was closed and the guards gone, it would be simple for them to move around. The problem was getting to that point.

"Are you sure that you can do this?" Heather asked Dagan, starting to feel the first pangs of worry. If the old man wasn't up to his part, then things were going to go bad very quickly.

In answer, Dagan scowled at her and waved his hand at the back wall. "Everyone against the wall." For a moment no one moved, "Go on. Get next to the wall."

Bringing up the rear, Dagan paused and set his wooden staff down on the floor. He laid it parallel to the wall and then stepped back and leaned against the stone of the wall. He was silent for a moment, just staring at the staff and then he looked up smiling. "Done." He announced cheerily.

"Done?" Heather repeated, a little less confident. "Done with what?"

"As long as we are on this side of that staff, then no one will see us." Dagan answered, pointing to the staff on the floor. "Anyone who enters this room will see a wall even with that staff. They will not see us."

Heather and Mikela shared a worried look. A look that Dagan caught, making him scowl at the two ladies. "If you don't believe me then why don't you take your chances out there?"

Both ladies opened their mouths to answer, but neither did. Several voices were could be heard outside the door.

"Quiet! All of you." Atock hissed quietly.

He had barely finished speaking when the door opened and a guard stepped in. He was a young man who hardly looked old enough to need to shave. He glanced around the room, bent down and looked under the long tables, and then stepped back out closing the door behind him. "Clear!" they heard him call out.

Heather released her breath. She hadn't even realized that she had been holding it. She turned to Dagan, smiling. "Good work."

"Naturally," was Dagan's somewhat smug reply.

They waited in the smelly room for nearly an hour and a half, until Dagan said the library was empty. He used sorcery to tell when all the guards were gone.

Emerging from the small room, the library looked totally different than just a few shorts hours ago. It was dark with just a little moonlight filtering in from the high up windows.

Atock looked up at the windows that were so far over their heads. "How is this place lit up so well during the day? It has to be more than just the light through the windows."

"Magic," Cassandra and Mikela answered in unison.

"Quiet," Dagan hissed. "Aaron lead the way back to the gallery."

Aaron paused, glancing at Heather. He waited for her nod before he moved out.

Cov ^">

Upon reaching the entrance gallery, they spread out in a semicircle staring at the relief.

"Now what?" Enton asked.

That was a very good question,
Heather thought. Silently, she turned to Dagan. He took the hint.

"First, I need to undo some very complicated wards placed on the relief." He motioned vaguely towards Cassandra. "After that, it'll be up to her."

"Me?" Cassandra repeated dully. She looked from the relief to Dagan and then back to the relief. "What am I supposed to do?"

"If I'm right," Dagan said slowly, "Once I remove the wards, you'll have to deal with the magic spells. I think that a magician enchanted that relief and then a sorcerer put wards on top of the magician's spells."

Cassandra looked thoughtful but the others all looked lost. "Clever," Cassandra said after a moment.

"Care to explain to the rest of us?" Atock asked.

"If Dagan's right, then it would take both a magician and a sorcerer to get through this secret entrance. If a magician tried to open it with the sorcerer's wards still in place," she didn't finish the sentence, but let their imaginations do the guessing.

Looking a little pale, Mikela cleared her throat. "Does that mean I could have accidentally set something off with the reveal spell?"

Dagan grinned and nodded. "You are lucky to be here, my dear."

"How long will it take?" Atock asked. Practical and to the point, it was like he hadn't just heard that one of his comrades nearly set off a trap.

Dagan studied the relief for several moments. "I'm not sure. Everyone be quiet and let me get started."

They all watched him, not sure what they should expect. Dagan stared at the relief, that's all, he just stared. He didn't move or look away. He focused on the stone relief and barely even seemed to breathe. Gradually the others moved away from him. They spread out across the entrance gallery and some took a seat on the marble floor.

Nothing changed for over an hour, except the room got a little bit darker. Finally, Dagan slumped. He looked exhausted, his face red and covered with sweat. He was grinning at them, though, as they rushed over to him. "Done," he said simply. He turned his attention to Cassandra. "All of the wards have been removed. It should be safe for you to," he cut off and wiggled his fingers at the direction of the relief.

Cassandra's eyebrow arched up at that. Heather wasn't sure but she got the feeling that the old man had just insulted Cassandra in some way.

Without saying a word, Cassandra moved over and studied the relief.

Dagan had stood there like a statue doing whatever it was he had done, but Cassandra did things a little differently. She paced back and forth in front of the relief for nearly ten minutes. N ^th=" buot saying a word, not doing anything else besides studying the relief.

Finally, Cassandra opened a small pouch that hung on her belt and began tossing powder on the relief as she spoke. She spoke quietly. The others could hear her but couldn't make out the words. She stopped speaking and the relief and the air around glowed a golden color. Cassandra removed a small stone from another pocket and tossed it into the golden cloud. There was a loud popping noise and the golden cloud disappeared leaving the relief wrapped in what appeared to be glowing red ropes.

"What's that?" Heather asked.

"Silence!" Cassandra snapped. "There must be absolute silence while I work."

Heather's eyebrows rose at the command in Cassandra's tone but she chose to remain quiet.

"Mikela, assist me." It was not a request and Mikela sprang forward to help. The two women put their heads together and whispered.

Atock sighed heavily. "Magicians," he said to Heather, albeit very quietly.

The two magicians spent nearly the same amount of time working on the relief that Dagan had. They quietly spoke at the relief, sometimes the others could nearly hear what they were saying and it always sounded foreign. They put things on the relief, powders and such, and they even wrote on the floor and the wall beside where the relief hung. Finally, Cassandra turned to face the others. "Done."

"Really?" Heather asked. "I thought it would be open when you were done."

Cassandra glowered at the other woman for a moment and then walked over to the relief. Reaching down, she took a hold of the relief in the very middle and easily swung it away from the wall. A narrow set of stairs descended into the darkness.