Delver Magic I: Sanctum's Breach, Jeff Inlo [buy e reader .txt] 📗

space they stood upon. She stood like a coil ready to spring. Her hand again held her bow and again an arrow rested in the string. “Explain to me why we stand carelessly about within Sanctum upon a tier we know nothing about. This is foolishness.” Her words were strong, but she would not fix a stare upon him. She continued to scan every direction, waiting for a threat which she was sure would materialize in any moment.

“There is no threat here,” Ryson responded as he reluctantly left Lauren’s side. He knew he was as much responsible for her exhaustion as anyone else. He recommended, urged her, to help them forward. As well, he could not deny the animosity she now held toward him. He would have liked to extinguish the aversion she cast upon him, but he realized Lauren would not even acknowledge his presence. He sullenly approached Holli as he made his explanation. “You can relax. The only thing that was placed in this tier was that carving.” He nodded to the warning which now stood upon the stone as more of a puzzle than a threat.

“There is nothing here?” Tun questioned with anger as well as doubt. “No secret? How can you expect us to believe that?”

“I didn’t say there wasn’t a secret,” Ryson stated, flipping an annoyed response to the hostile dwarf. “The secret is that the delvers saw no reason to put anything in Sanctum as an obstacle.” Ryson turned back to Holli as he continued his explanation. “I guess they didn’t see a point to it. I can only assume they figured that with two tiers above and two tiers below this one, there was no need for another trap or a barrier. I guess they took the time to carve out the warning just to make it seem like something was being placed within, but there really isn’t anything else here.”

“How is it you know of this now?” Holli asked without accusation, but certainly with curiosity, and perhaps even doubt.

“It was the sword again,” Ryson admitted, feeling somewhat foolish talking about a magic sword. “When you moved me back from the door, I concentrated on being prepared for anything that might wait for us here. As I held the sword, it all suddenly became clear to me. I just knew that this tier held no danger. In all honesty, I didn’t know about the carving until I saw it, but when I did, I understood that as well. ‘Beware’, it’s just a trick, a trick to make someone think that there’s something more horrible in here than nothing. It’s like when I knew how to deal with the vampire, I just know.”

“I see,” Holli immediately stood down from her ready position. The bow went back over her shoulder as she placed her focus on the surrounding rock.

The tier was only slightly larger than the one above. It contained the same stone pillars, and the same rock floor. There were, thankfully, no glowing rocks and no pools of liquid exuding poisonous vapors. The door to the next tier was located upon the floor nearer to the center of the cavern. It was within sight of them all, and it was closed tight.

The only true spectacle was the breach which burst through the mountainside. It also broke through the floor of this tier, creating another entry to the level below.

Holli stepped carefully up to the gaping hole. She tested the strength of the rock with a probing foot before placing any true weight upon it. Satisfied it would hold her, she stood at the very edge. The break in the floor was the same size as the tunnel which was carved through the wall. Its circular border was at least as tall and as wide as Dzeb.

Ryson moved to her side and joined the inspection. His eyes followed the trail of the newly formed tunnel which jutted upward at a steep angle. Its edges were much like those he inspected at Sanctum’s exterior, and just as he noted when standing at the tunnel’s conclusion, he saw the curve in the burrow. For some reason, the blast did not break an arrow’s path through the rock wall. Instead, it bent enough so that there was no straight visual path. He concluded that the curve was as much a defense mechanism as the magical force field which sealed this tunnel.

His considerations and inspections were interrupted by the soft whisper from one behind.

“I may be too quick to draw a conclusion from this, but I believe I might see an advantage here for us to take hold.” It was Lief who spoke quietly, guardedly, and only to the elf and the delver. “This may offer us a great opportunity,” he pressed a finger to his chin as he considered his own proposal. “If the fissure in Sanctum creates a path directly to the sphere, we will no longer have to move as dictated by the construction of the tiers.”

Holli raised an eyebrow, pondering the proposal with interest. Lief, however, was not able to continue unabated.

“What are you speaking of over there?” Tun fumed with rage over the attempt at a private conference. “What is it you wish to exclude the rest of us from?”

Lief almost exploded with rage. He turned about with fiery purpose. His brow knitted as his jaw tightened. The words of frustrated intolerance came to his tongue, but he bit them back. He remembered his previous vow of trust before going off on a tirade of his own. He took long moments to swallow his anger before finally responding. “My apologies, Tun. I have struck on an idea which might assist us and I wished to discuss it with my fellow elf.”

“But the delver stands with you, too,” Tun retorted. “The delver who even now states that we should believe him about no danger existing within this tier.”

“My thoughts did not address this tier,” Lief admitted. “My idea involves the very breach which the sphere uses to emit its energy to the land above. I wonder if we might be able to use it as a shortcut to the sphere itself.”

Silence greeted the elf’s announcement. All eyes, save Lauren’s, were upon him, and they all waited for further clarification.

Lief continued his explanation to the group as a whole. “There are but two tiers left which separate us from the sphere, the algors’, and finally the elves’. Rather than stay within the confines of the tiers, we can use the breach as a more direct path.”

“Do you mean by that you would not reveal what the elves have hidden in Sanctum?” Tun questioned severely.

“No. We will still have to deal with that obstacle, but not to the same degree. If we stay to the stone steps and original doors, we will have to transverse the entire elf tier. If we use the breach, we cut our time upon the tier and thus reduce our risk.” He paused, but could not refrain from casting the slightest rejoinder upon the dwarf prince. “I will still have to reveal to you what the obstacle is. When I do, you will be happy to use any such short cut.”

Tun fumed, but it was Ryson who stated the first reluctance. “If we use the tunnel, that will place you and Holli directly in the path of the magic. The last time that happened, you didn’t do so well. It still contains poison to the elves, remember?”

“You do not have to remind me of that,” Lief acknowledged. “I am aware of the danger, I can feel it even now, but I am also aware of the danger that waits below. Trust me, I will be safer in direct contact with the magic.”

“I don’t know,” Ryson said as he shook his head. “We were only in the tunnel for a few moments and you had to find open air.”

“That is because I was probing for the magic,” Lief countered. “If you also remember, at that same time I was still in search of answers. I did not know where the sphere was and thus I opened myself to the energy. I will not do so again. I will admit that I can not keep the taint of poison from me completely, but I can guard against it. It is our best option.”

“Well, what about the drop?” Ryson pointed to the hole in the floor. “We’ll have to get down the same as before, by climbing and jumping. Won’t it be safer to use the stairs?”

“Easier, but not safer,” Lief noted. “In the elf tier, the sphere is located far from the steps. We would have to walk a great distance to reach it. The deterrent that waits is one that we would do best to shorten our path.”

Ryson scratched his head. “Well, that’s the elf tier. What about the tier below us, the algor tier?”

“It does not matter which entrance we use.” It was the algors that responded. “We can control the danger.”

Both algors pulled hand-carved wooden flutes from their packs. They held them up for all to see, as if they were as powerful as Ryson’s sword.