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Chapter Nine
"Talen, you're having a nightmare," I say to him.
The screaming stops as his eyes blink open. I put my arms around him and rock him gently; his body's drenched with sweat.
"It's just a bad dream," I say to him, but he looks quite frightened. Angelaria says nothing. She's still sitting cross-legged, but the look on her face makes me think something's unsettled her.
"What did you see?" she asks.
Talen turns his head; I hand him the waterskin so he can take a long drink. Once he's done, I put it away and wait for him to speak.
"I saw monsters," he says. "Men in purple gowns...only they aren't men. They didn't have normal faces but skin that extended into tentacles complete with suckers on them. They made us fight in gladiatorial pits for their entertainment."
"I dreamt of a vast pool filled with dark things. It radiated a strange green light," Angelaria states. "In the shadows, I could see you and Kian. But you seemed different somehow...as if your thoughts were not your own. Kian wouldn't respond to my questions."
"What does it mean?" Talen asks.
I shake my head. "It doesn't mean anything. It's a bad dream." I caress Talen's wet hair and take a long sniff. He always smells so good.
"I wasn't sleeping," Angelaria replies. "What we had was a vision."
"Then why didn't I have one?" I ask.
She shrugs. "I'm not sure. In any event, I'm going to need some sleep. It's your turn on watch."
I nod. "Did you learn anything?"
"Quite a bit actually."
"Like what?" Talen asks.
"Well...the ring," Angelaria begins, "is magical. It protects its wearer against fire and offers quite a bit of psionic protection. That's what the wizards of Mon Arcanos call mental abilities. It's extremely valuable. I think these things belonged to someone. Who that person is I can't say but the clothes were obviously possessed by the former owner of this ring. The ring has a few other powers but those are only useable by someone of the craft...someone like me."
"What about the boots?" I ask.
"Remember what I said about that scrap of cloth? That it defied attempts to detect it? Well my spell worked but just barely. I learnt they're also magical. As for the clothes...I don't know. You'd be taking a risk to wear any of it."
"No one would make magical boots and make them look that nice if they didn't do something really cool. We can wear them over our metal-shod feet, Kian," Talen says. "Our armor is so thin it's almost like being barefoot anyway, especially with the way the metal is shaped around our individual toes."
"But we give up being able to sense the terrain," I say.
"So?" Talen shrugs. "We don't know what the boots do yet. I say we give them a try."
He does have a point. I consider for a moment. "Fair enough and Angelaria can have the ring."
She smiles and slips the bit of gold around her finger.
I looked over at Talen and sigh. "I'll put the boots on first. If they melt me or something, then you'll know they aren't safe."
He rolls his eyes. "Would you stop trying to protect me? We'll put them on at the same time."
"You aren't going to listen to me are you?"
"Nope." Then he hands me my armor.
I stand up and start strapping the pieces of my killsuit into place while he watches. When I've finally got it all on, he grabs a pair of boots, hands them to me, and then stands up naked to put his own feet into his pair of boots. I've to admit that when the blanket drops to the ground, I pause and stare at him for a few seconds. I never get tired of lusting after my Talen.
"You're not getting back into your armor?" I ask. Please say no. I like just seeing you in your boots.
"No. I'm going to try them on and see how they feel and then go back to sleep since you're taking watch."
"You could always watch WITH me," I say.
He smiles. "We wouldn't get any watching actually done, and no one would get any sleep." He walks over to me naked and kisses me. My gloved hand falls to his cock where I gently caress it with my fingers. It jumps a little, and I have to resist the compulsion to fall to my knees and take it into my mouth.
"That tickles," he says. "Now lovah, let's put these things on and see what happens."
I love the way he says "lovah." It sounds so dirty.
"All right," I say.
I slip into the boots and tighten the buckles about my calves. Suddenly (and to my surprise) the boots adjust comfortably around my feet shrinking in size until the fit is absolutely perfect. I hop up with newfound energy. The strangeness does not stop at that point either. I feel lighter by about half even though I've not physically shed any pounds.
Talen feels it too because he jumps and bounces off the ceiling. When he lands, it's graceful like a cat falling on all fours. He stares at me in wonder. "I feel like I weigh forty pounds. This is awesome!"
"I wouldn't have believed it unless I'd seen it with my own eyes," Angelaria murmurs. She looks down at the ring on her finger. It glitters like gold always does and the silver runes seem to glisten with iridescent light on the surface.
Tired, she curls up on the blanket next to Talen who's managed to calm himself down some. He slips off the boots and tries to get some rest.
I place my back against the cold stone of the wall and wait the hours away, occasionally scuffing my new boot heels on the floor until Talen tells me to stop it. They're virtually silent, and it's kind of unnerving. After about three hours, I wake Talen but I don't go back to sleep in my spot. I just lay with my head in his lap and close my eyes with his fingers combing through my hair. Despite the ground being as hard as a rock, it's the most comfortable place in the world.
In the morning, the three of us consume a cold breakfast, and there's little conversation. I just attest our lack of anything to say to an infatuation with our new gear. I fasten my belt about my waist, and Talen suspends his cool golden sword, hilt pointed down, across his back. I lower my visor so I can control my suit and see better in the dark. Then we open the door to our room. They look to me, and I point to the left path: I don't want to abandon the keep just yet.
Angelaria directs the glowing light out into the hall.
The corridor that stretches before me looks identical to others we walked the day before. Occasionally, I search to make sure I'm not missing anything. We find many treasures that are impractical to keep with us like old paintings suspended from embedded hooks. These great canvasses show religious scenes and incredible battles between men and monsters. I wonder if they're based on real events, and how men can flourish in a world populated by such powerful- looking beasts. At the end of the hall is an arch made from differently-colored stone. It's decorated by meticulously sculpted lions and parts are chipped away probably from a wildly thrown axe.
I step past it and wait for the light to illuminate yet another stairwell.
This place is full of them.
As the light draws close, I make out indistinct lumps on the broad staircase in front of me. I increase the resolution through my visor. Skeletons lay where they've fallen, shod in dusty white corobidian armor wrapped in tabards and cloaks now soiled with blood and the dust of ages. Beautiful longswords lie cast about and covered with an ancient patina. I step gingerly over the bodies, sometimes leaping three and four steps down, alert to the fact they continue to make no sound. Furthermore, I leave no tracks in the dust behind me. None whatsoever! It's almost distracting.
Talen whistles at me. "Slow down, okay. Angelaria doesn't have our boots."
I pause when I reach the last step. I realize I've gone beyond the length of the orb's floating illumination once again and as a result I now stand before impenetrable darkness. I use the green- tinted night vision and wait nervously for them to catch up.
While I wait, I try to guess the use of the room before me. Based on what I see through my visor, it could have been utilized as a kind of training ground. I count several exits that splinter from the main room. Some look as if a vast host breached them with hammer and axe. There are more dead knights in this room than on the stairwell. Broken swords, shattered helms, and weapons are scattered about where they fell, left by whatever attacked this room when it sundered the barricades.
"There's ancient power in this room," Angelaria declares coming up behind me with the light. I turn off my nightvision. "I can feel it from the very stones."
I pop my visor. "Is it an evil power?"
She shakes her head no. "It's been polluted somewhat by the passing of evil things, but I know that it was too strong to destroy. Whatever remains here in this room is still good."
"That doesn't mean that you should throw caution to the wind, Kian," Talen says. "Let's go check out some of those doors over there."
I smile at him and step lightly over the fallen warriors. The others follow behind me, a little slower, and not as ginger with their footfalls because they're relying on me to find any traps. I close upon the nearest door and kneel down, retrieving my tools to inspect it for a trap. I don't think I'll find one, and it turns out I'm right. Satisfied, I open the door to a small chapel. I trail behind the glowing orb and marvel that the battle raged even unto this sacred place.
My mind recreates the scene as it must have been: warriors fall against the pews splitting the fine oak and their blood drips in pools onto the floor. Screams and the clangor of steel on steel fills the air. I shudder and the dream fades like so much ephemera.
At the front is an unscathed altar entirely cloaked in dust. An offering bowl set upon it lies empty; candles in silver sconces stand over the skeletal remains of a now mummified priest. There's no blood on his vestments, but I see where his brain has been removed in the same manner as the other skeleton we saw late yesterday evening.
"How horrible..." Angelaria whispers.
I move away from the body of the fallen priest and feel inside my pouch for a silver blue eye: it's a coin worth twenty copper farthings. I drop it into the offering bowl and there's a little clink in the porcelain as I turn my back on the altar. Respectfully, the three of us leave the solitude of the chapel and close the door tightly behind us.
Once again we find ourselves in the large central chamber.
"Did you get any clues as to what might have caused all of this from the items or through that spell you cast?" I ask Angelaria.
"No. The spell isn't that specific. I was lucky to be able to identify your boots as being magical. If I'd discovered more, I'd have shared it with you."
"Hmm." I scratch the stubble on my chin. At nineteen, I don't grow facial hair very well, unless you give me a few months to work at it. Talen's like me too, but his is a little darker of course. As for mine, well I'd have to dye it for others to be able to notice. Still, the scratchy reminds me that the next time I've the opportunity I need to shave.
"Why don't we try that archway over there," I say, pointing to the east.
I squint and wonder why I'd not noticed it before. From this angle, I detect a slight shimmering, and my mind fills with images of jewels that could be embedded in the masonry. I'd heard of such things being done especially in churches or other places of worship.
"What archway?" Talen asks. "Oh wait a minute...how odd that I never saw it before?"
Angelaria agrees. "It certainly looks like we could have missed it from the stairs. If we hadn't come this way, we might not have seen it at all."
This time, Angelaria edges past me and walks across the room toward it.
I fall in beside Talen, each of us trying not to disturb the remains of the knights lying on the floor. Once in front of the arch, Angelaria gestures for her light to go forward, but the globe refuses to move. Now that I'm much closer, I no longer see the glimmer. Did I imagined it? The passageway beyond is obscured by gloom.
"How strange. I don't think my spell's failing. Otherwise the whole room would be dark right now."
She reaches out with her hand and flattens out her palm upon an invisible wall. Amazed, I follow through with my hands and feel it too. It's as solid as a rock and just as immobile. When I rap on it with my knuckles, however, I create no sound.
Talen gapes in wide-eyed amazement. I step aside so that he can feel the wall too, but Talen puts his boot forward to kick it and encounters no resistance. He steps into the hallway beyond and then walks back into the room where the both of us are standing unable to pass.
"It doesn't bar my passage," he declares. "I don't know why."
Angelaria presses her lips together and stares at the both of us. Then, her face lightens as if she has an idea. Smiling, she reached out with the hand adorned with the gold ring chased with silver runes. I see a slight sparkle and she meets no resistance at all. She steps past the barrier as if it were not there. Talen joins her on the far side. "Come on, Kian," Talen says, "Feet first."
I nod and do as they tell me; my boots meet no resistance either. I walk past the barrier surmising to myself that this wall must be made specifically for someone wearing our gear.
The three of us come together on the stone floor of a passageway with no other exit except a pair of iron doors that occupy the end of its forty foot length. There's no dust in this room and the stone of the walls is plain and unadorned much like the rest of the keep. The iron doors, however, are easily ten feet tall. They bear no sign of rust, and there's no indication that they've ever been used. Both are crisscrossed with bands of some kind of copper-hued metal. I spot no handles and no hinges on this side; opening them will be a challenge. Furthermore, the seam between the doors is so fine as to be almost invisible.
Angelaria recasts her spell and illuminates the chamber. Then the three of us move forward to inspect the exit. Suddenly, I know something's wrong. The whole floor shifts under my weight, tips upward, and I've no choice but to conclude we've sprung some kind of elaborate corridor trap.
Angelaria lurches forward and slams into the iron doors which now serve as the bottom of a pit. Behind me, the archway disappears as our weight forces it to rotate upward into a space that must be designed to accommodate the shaft. I look down at her from where I stand.
"Are you all right?" I ask.
"Yes," Angelaria says. "Oh my, do you have any idea that you two are standing on the wall?"
I look and sure enough, Talen and I've been unaffected by the swinging pit, my feet still planted firmly on the stone of what used to be the floor.
Talen walks down the wall and hops onto the floor, which just happens to be the iron doors at this point. "Now what?" he asks, voice filled with disdain.
"Can you use the spell on us that you used in Soulwarden?" I ask joining them at the bottom. "You know...the one that got us out of that tight spot in the city when Kahket hunted for us amidst the ruins and everything was on fire?"
Angelaria shakes her head. "That spell won't penetrate stone. If I try it here, we'll get trapped inside the rock all around us. I thought you told me yesterday that you could detect any trap."
"Hmm. I kind of did...didn't I?" I pace up and down the walls of the room, which I think makes Talen giggle.
"That's what the barrier's for," Angelaria declares. Talen slumps down next to the wall I'm walking on and folds his face in his hands. "It was obviously put there to keep people from walking into this."
"Naturally. Then how did we get caught?"
"I can only assume that it was made passable for anyone wearing these things we found. In that way, that unfortunate person would walk into the trap and get caught. There's probably a winch or something in another room that controls the mechanism."
I look down at her from directly above. I must say that hanging upside down is rather fun. "I see. And when they caught the person wearing these garments, they got him out of here and managed to kill him and put the clothing away in the room we found. But they got attacked when they didn't expect it and were killed to the last man, probably because of the importance of the person they captured."
"Correct," Angelaria offers. "At least, that's what I surmise."
Talen rubs his temples. "I don't want to die," he says. "There has to be a way out of this trap. There has to be."
I grimace and rub my fingers over the smooth stone. I want very much to find a way out of this place, but somehow I don't think that there's going to be one.
I shall post Chapter Ten next week.