Maylin's Gate (Book 3) Page 9

"Of course, human," General Demos's tongue flickered as if tasting the air. "Remember, you aren't the only one extending your trust."

  He nodded and turned in a slow circle. "These cabins should be full of people." He glanced toward Moira's cottage. "And, no smoke is coming from Moira's chimney. The place looks abandoned."

  "The air here tastes wrong," General Demos said.

  "Tastes wrong?"

  "We use our tongues as a sixth sense," General Demos said.

  A sixth sense? He found himself intrigued but couldn't afford to stop and ask questions. "Let's go. Maybe Moira left a note." He pushed ahead winding his way through the snow until he reached Moira's porch.

  "I'll wait a safe distance behind," General Demos said.

  He lumbered up the short steps and froze on the snow-covered porch. Adrenaline pumped through his legs and his stomach turned to knots.

  Moira's door stood ajar. Splintered wood hung loose from the frame and shadows draped the interior.

  He shot a glance over his shoulder and waved for General Demos.

  In a blur of motion, General Demos flew up the steps and paused beside him. The general crouched in a defensive position with blade drawn.

  His jaw fell open. How in Elan's name had the man moved with such speed?

  General Demos's tongue flickered in short bursts before stepping through the open door. "Human, come look."

  He stepped forward and paused inside the splintered door frame.

  The interior of Moira's cabin stood in shambles.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Portal

  Light poured from the cave entrance high on the Trinity Range's central peak.

  Danielle loosed a warning screech and extended her talons. She beat back her wings and fluttered inside the entrance. Her talons skittered against the smooth stone and she came to a stop beside two wide-eyed knights.

  Arber closed in behind her and shifted into a sparrow before darting through the entrance.

  Jeremy leaped from the saddle and yanked it free.

  Shields appeared around two knights guarding the entrance. The lead knight swiveled to face her while unsheathing a shard blade.

  Jeremy stepped between her and the battle knight.

  The lead knight's jaw fell open. "Jeremy."

  Jeremy smiled. "Evening Ronald. Do you plan on carving a hole in the royal princess with your shard blade?"

  She shifted into human form and turned to face the knights.

  A slow blush crept up the battle knight's cheeks. "Of course not. I...." The shard blade winked out and the shields disappeared.

  The battle knight, Ronald, dropped to a knee before her. "I apologize for giving you a fright Your Highness. I meant no harm."

  Beside her, Arber shifted into human form and stepped before her like a tavern bouncer ready to strike.

  She rested her hand on Arber's shoulder. "It's okay." She slipped past the guardian and stood before the battle knight. "You should never apologize for doing your duty Knight Ronald. It's I who should apologize for pouncing on you unannounced. Rise and be at ease."

  Ronald stood and sheathed his blade.

  "Where might I find Master Brees?" She said.

  "Master Brees?" Ronald said.

  "The obsith shaman," Jeremy said.

  A kernel of recognition sparked in the knight's eye. "Ah yes. I'm sorry. I've been on duty less than an hour, but I believe he's in the excavation with Sir Alcott."

  "Thank you Knight Ronald." She nodded to the shield knight standing behind Ronald. "And you too Edgar. We'll find our way."

  The battle knight's shoulders eased. "Yes, Your Highness. If there's any way I may be of service, you've but to ask."

  "Thank you. Good evening to you both." She tipped her head to the stone-silent shield knight before walking to the cavern's rear.

  She paused before the door her team discovered during her last trip across the range. A trip she'd rather forget.

  Memories of Alana and Maura came flooding back. Maura had served on the warden's council and tutored her during her academy years.

  She had grown up arm in arm with Alana and her friend's death still haunted her. Both women had lost their lives because of her poor choices.

  "Let it go." Arber's baritone voice came from behind as if reading her thoughts. "They're both at peace."

  She half-glanced over her shoulder and stepped through the door.

  Ancient writing covered every square inch of wall space. Soft light bathed the room where she and her team had discovered the Book of Order. Oil lamps hung from brass poles sprinkling the room's perimeter. Coal fed braziers at each corner heated the room.

  Around the room, scholars sat on high-backed stools. They copied the strange words onto scrolls of heavy parchment.

  Scaffolding surrounded the shallow pit where the Book of Order once rested on a stone lectern. A stone lectern that now appeared missing.

  A long-lashed Ayralen woman with green eyes and full lips appeared before her. "Your Highness, we weren't expecting you this evening." The woman tucked away a clipboard and curtsied low before her.

  Jeremy and Arber gawked at the woman like some priceless sculpture.

  She glanced between them and whispered. "You can both put your tongues back in your mouth now."

  Jeremy glanced between her and the woman. The shield knight's face turned a deep shade of crimson. "I...I don't know what you mean."

  She smiled. "You two act like you've never seen a pretty girl." She turned to face the woman and raised her voice. "Please. There's no need for such formality."

  The woman turned a pair of intelligent eyes on her. "Can I help you? If you're looking for Sir Alcott, he's —"

  She held out her hand interrupting the woman. "What's your name?"

  A blush spread across the woman's cheeks. "I apologize Your Highness. My name is Collette Bellenger. I work with Sir Alcott."

  The revelation came as no surprise. Alcott liked them young and pretty. "Collette, I'm looking for Master Brees. He's..."

  Collette's expression took on a dreamy, faraway look. A smile curled the young beauty's lips.

  "I'll take it you know him?"

  Collette's blush deepened. "I wouldn't say that I know him. I know of him. Would you...?" Collette paused holding her gaze for a long moment. "Never mind. I last saw Master Brees and the lady guardian speak with Sir Alcott several hours ago."

  "You were about to ask something?" She said. "What was it?"

  "It's silly." Collete's gaze drifted to the floor. "I shouldn't bother a princess with something so trivial."

  "If I can help answer some question, just —"

  Collette's eyes glimmered with excitement. "Would you mind introducing me to him? I'm all thumbs when it comes to meeting men, and Master Brees seems so fascinating."

  Did this woman think she had nothing better to do than play matchmaker? "I'll see what I can arrange," she said using a brusque tone. "Where can I find Brees?"

  Collette set the clipboard on a nearby table. "He's in the excavation." She pointed toward the scaffolding. "I'll take you."

  "I'm sure we can find our way," she said her words coming short and brisk.

  "It's no trouble at all. I love going into the excavation. I learn something new every time."

  She wanted nothing more than to shove the girl down the hole head first. Why was she letting Collette's infatuation with Brees bother her? She plastered a thin smile on her face and nodded. "If you insist."

  Collette grinned and hurried toward the scaffolding. "It's this way." Collette pointed to a ladder peeking above the lip of a square hole. A hole matching the lectern's width to perfection.

  "Collette." An ancient withered voice came from across the room. A scholar near eighty seasons bent over a scroll with brow furrowed. "I'm wondering if you might help me with a translation?"

  Collette stared at the elderly man as if he'd asked her to cross a bed of nails. "Can I do it later? I need to show the princess where to find t
he shaman."

  The scholar's head shook causing his jowl's to shake like a bowl full of lard. "I'm afraid it can't wait. All our work depends on the correct interpretation of this passage." The elderly man glanced between her and Collette. "Unless you'd prefer we stop working?"

  Collette's shoulders sagged before turning to face her. "Your Highness, would it be okay if you found your own way?"

  "That's fine Collette," she said. "You're clearly needed here." Satisfaction oozed from her every word.

  "Just keep going down until you can't go any further," Collette said. "You'll find Master Brees at the end of the hallway."

  She smiled with genuine appreciation. "Thank you Collette." She glanced over her shoulder and motioned for her companions.

  Arber and Jeremy moved in beside her hovering like a pair of overprotective nannies.

  "I'll go first," Jeremy said.

  "That's okay Jeremy," she said. "I think the spooks have already been exorcised from this place." She hooked her feet in the ladder's top wrung and descended.

  Arber and Jeremy came behind and the three moved deeper inside the ancient ruins.

  She climbed lower moving past layers of half-frozen mud and stone. She paused on the ladder and peered downward.

  Yellow light shone a few feet below but the ladder extended further into the shadows.

  Her stomach swirled and she leveled her gaze on the ladder rungs ahead. She stepped lower until light from an excavated tunnel bathed her.

  Trowels, picks, and shovels littered a narrow passageway. Stone coffins lined the walls then disappeared around a corner. A teenage boy appeared hauling a wheelbarrow loaded with pottery. The boy paused and nodded in her direction before resuming.

  She moved lower past two similar passageways. Each appeared more ancient than the one before. She held firm on the ladder and peered up.

  Jeremy hung on the ladder above her and Arber above him. Jeremy gave her a short nod and paused.

  She climbed lower until she reached the bottom several hundred feet beneath the ruins.

  A floor built from symmetrical bricks laid out before her. Oil lamps, hanging from brass poles, gave off ample light along the narrow corridor.

  She stepped clear of the ladder. Jeremy then Arber moved in beside her.

  "What is this place?" She said.

  Arber knelt and touched the brick. "Whoever built this place understood masonry. This stone looks like expert hands carved it."

  "I think the creatures guarding this place meant to keep us away," she said.

  "This place feels wrong somehow," Jeremy said. "My senses are screaming at me to run and not look back."

  Like icy fingers tickling her spine, a chill washed over her. "Let's go find Brees and we can leave," she said. "I have the same feeling." She walked ahead following the passageway.

  Unblemished stone, like an artist's untouched canvas, lined the curved passageway.

  "Why do I feel as if we're walking in a circle?" She said.

  "I think we are," Arber said. "I get the feeling the architects designed it like this on purpose."

  She crept forward and the smooth stone gave way to strange symbols and markings. She couldn't read any of the words yet the script pulled on a memory.

  The writing stretched along both walls from floor to ceiling.

  "Danielle wait," Arber said.

  She froze and goose bumps flared across her arms and legs. "What's wrong?"

  Arber rubbed one of the engraved symbols. "I recognize this."

  "You can read it?" Jeremy said stepping in beside Arber.

  "No. I don't understand it, but I've seen it before."

  Realization blossomed in her mind and her flesh crawled. They should leave this place. They didn't belong. Something primal inside her begged her to go, but her curiosity won out. Sir Alcott hadn't reported any beasts lurking in these tunnels. She had to reign in her overactive imagination.

  She fished in her belt pouch until she found the item she wanted. She stepped up beside Arber and held Trace's key beside the symbol Arber touched.

  "It's a perfect match," Jeremy said.

  "Let's find Sir Alcott," she said. "Maybe he has a translation."

  She, Arber, and Jeremy followed the passage until the writing gave way to ancient drawings.

  "Look at this," Jeremy said.

  The drawing depicted a red dragon in flight. Flames spread from its mouth and a rider sat atop its back. The rider clutched the pommel of the dragon's jewel encrusted saddle. Time had eroded the rider's face.

  "Had I not seen them with my own eyes, I'd believe this drawing a fantasy," she said.

  Arber moved a dozen yards further and stood before another drawing. "Danielle, you need to see this." Tension laced Arber's words.

  She moved ahead and stopped beside Arber. "What is it?"

  Arber pointed to the drawing. "See for yourself."

  The drawing depicted a scaled creature clutching a rope tied around its neck. A long scaly tail protruded from the creature's backside.

  Beside the creature, the artist had drawn a human. A second rope secured the man who wore a tattered loin cloth. The man's eyes bulged while groping at the rope.

  Both ropes led to the hand of a creature. The humanoid creature stood twice the size of the baerinese and human slaves at its lead. A menacing mask covered its face and anger flashed in the figures eyes.

  Her skin crawled and she the hallway spun around her.

  "That's fantasy," Jeremy said.

  "I don't think so," Arber said. "That's a baerinese man and a human."

  "I'm not talking about the baerinese man or the human," Jeremy said.

  "Why would it be fantasy?" She said. "Everything else in the picture is real." She pointed back down the hall. "And so is the dragon."

  Jeremy pointed to the demon-like creature. "If creatures like that ever existed, they are long since gone. Otherwise, we would all be dead or in chains."

  She fingered the silver key and slipped it inside her belt pouch. Trace's words rolled around in her mind warning her not to pursue the key's origin. "Let's go," she said. "I don't want to look at it anymore."

  She walked ahead her footsteps echoing from the stone floor and walls. She followed the passageway relieved to find the walls empty of further drawings.

  Voices, muted by the sound of hammering, came from the passageway ahead.

  "We're almost there. I hear them up ahead." She rounded the passageway.

  Sir Alcott's broad frame clogged the corridor ahead.

  She relaxed and tension drained from her muscles.

  Sir Alcott pointed to the base of the passageway's interior wall. "That's it Roddy. Give it one more swing and I think we'll have it."

  A spindly man with thin gray hair swung a sledgehammer that should've sunk him like a boat anchor. A hollow thud came from the wall and the wiry man set the hammer aside.

  "Very good Roddy." Sir Alcott clapped the aged man's shoulder almost toppling him over. "You've done it." A toothy grin split Alcott's face. The scholar appeared oblivious to her approach.

  "Sir Alcott," she said lowering her voice so as not to frighten the man.

  Sir Alcott jumped and stumbled backward.

  She darted forward and gripped the scholar's arm. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you."

  Sir Alcott clutched his heart and laughed. "You gave me quite the scare. No matter my dear. No matter." Sir Alcott regained his balance and straightened his tunic stained with dust and mud.

  Roddy grinned revealing tobacco-stained teeth.

  She glanced between Roddy and Sir Alcott. "What are you doing down here?"

  "We're excavating the ruins, of course." He peered around the passageway. "Look around you Danielle. I thought the Book of Order was the discovery of a lifetime." Sir Alcott's head shook causing his gray beard to sway from side to side. "That was merely a warm up for what we've found here."

  "I understand you’re excavating, but shouldn't you have at leas
t a few knights with you? What if something happens down here?"

  Sir Alcott blinked and stared at her like she'd just stolen his dessert. "We're perfectly safe. These passageways have stood undisturbed for thousands of years."

  "I'm not worried about the architecture," she said. "Don't you remember what happened to me in the room upstairs?"

  "I'm not alone." Sir Alcott pounded Roddy's back. "I have Roddy with me and he's tough as nails. I can assure you of that."

  She flashed a nervous smile toward Roddy before returning her gaze to Alcott. "No offense to Master Roddy, but he can't be younger than sixty-five seasons, and —"

  "He's seventy-one this spring and not a day older," Sir Alcott said. "But we digress." He pointed toward a stone door built into the passageway. "We're on the brink of understanding Danielle."

  "Sir Alcott, where's Master Brees?"

  "The passageway you followed forms a perfect circle," Sir Alcott said. "That alone is no small engineering feat, but this door is the literal polar opposite of the door you entered. Down to the inch."

  "What does that have to do with anything?" Jeremy said.

  "Maybe nothing lad. Maybe everything." Sir Alcott thrust his finger skyward. "But it is a curiosity."

  "What's behind the door?" Arber said.

  Sir Alcott grinned. "A question unknown for which an answer will soon be supplied."

  "Sir Alcott, about Brees —"

  Sir Alcott waved her away. "In just a moment my dear I'll answer all your questions." Alcott faced Roddy. "Roddy, if you'll please peel away the door."

  The wiry man slipped his fingers inside a crevice running the door's length. Roddy's arms strained and his back went rigid.

  She gawked at Roddy and turned a hard glare on Sir Alcott. "You can't be serious." She whipped her head toward Arber. "Can you help him please?"

  Arber shifted into a gorilla and bent to fit inside the cramped passageway. The guardian wedged meaty fingers inside the frame and joined Roddy at the door.

  Wisps of yellow energy floated above Roddy's arms and the door rumbled.

  "He's a battle knight?" She glared at Sir Alcott.

  "Of course he is. You didn't think I'd come into these passageways unarmed did you?" A wry smile turned up the scholar's beard. "That's it Roddy. Another heave should do it."