Rojuun (10 page)

After a minute, they separated. “I’m sorry,
Cousin.” Tathan wiped his eyes with a sleeve. He looked at the
creature. “I don’t trust you, Vevin, but I’ll give you a fair
chance. Agreed?”

“Of course Tathan! I don’t know why you
don’t trust me, but I promise I won’t betray you,” the creature
reassured him with a sharp-toothed smile.

Tathan nodded. “Let’s go explore the lower
levels.”

The next level appeared to be empty storage
rooms. They ignored them, going down to the level below. It looked
to be a cave that had been used as more storage. There were smaller
caves off to the sides, but they led nowhere.

Liselle turned to Vevin. “There doesn’t seem
to be anything further down. Are you sure there was magic and some
sort of creature down here?”

He pointed at the eastern wall. “Oh yes! We
just need to go through the hallway to the stairs.”

She looked in that direction. “What hallway?
I don’t see anything.”

“The one behind the wall. It leads to a
lower level,” Vevin said matter-of-factly.

“Oh. You can see through walls?” Liselle
asked.

“Of course! Can’t you?” Vevin seemed
surprised that anyone couldn’t.

Tathan rolled his eyes and walked over to
the secret door he discovered in his searching. It bothered him
that the creature knew exactly where to go next. Tathan’s instincts
were yelling at him to get away, but for some reason he couldn’t
understand, those same instincts were telling him that trusting his
cousin was more important even if she might be wrong.

“There’s a secret door here,” he explained
to them. “It’s well concealed but basic. He pulled a torch bracket
and watched as a section of stone began moving away from the wall.
“See? There it is.”

Then the stone stuck. Tathan sighed.
“Centuries-old secret doors don’t always work of course.” He walked
over to the door and tried to move it enough to be able to get
through. It wouldn’t budge at all. “I don’t know how we’re going to
get through.”

Vevin placed his hands at the edge of the
stone. He used his leg to leverage against the wall, pushing just
as Tathan began to say, “It’s jammed . . .”

The stone moved the rest of the way with a
loud scraping sound. Vevin turned to them, pleased with himself.
“If you use a little leverage, you can pry things open.”

“Uh huh,” Tathan agreed dubiously. He walked
past Vevin into the secret entrance. Moving that stone had taken
more than leverage. Upon entering the hallway, Tathan felt a warm,
moist draft coming from nearby stairs. “There’s a warm draft coming
from below and it’s humid.”

“Oh that’s wonderful!” Vevin exclaimed. “I
like warm and humid.”

“Good for you,” Tathan responded dryly.
“Let’s take a look then.”

The dark stairway went down more than a
hundred steps. There was moisture and lime deposits on the rock
walls and stairs. He turned back to caution the others to be
careful. When he did so, he noticed that Vevin’s silver eyes were
glowing in the dim light of the flames. It was an eerie sight,
which unnerved Tathan a little more. “Uhh . . . watch your footing.
It’s slick.”

At the bottom of the stairs was a small
chamber with arched steel doors set in the west wall. Whatever was
on the other side would be just underneath the storage rooms they
had come from. Tathan studied the doors. Moisture had caused them
to become rust covered. In a few places, rust had created holes.
The door handles were covered with rust as well.

“Are they locked, Tathan?” Liselle
asked.

He crouched down in front of the locks,
looking for any sign of a trap. By the amount of rust on the doors,
even if there were a trap it wouldn’t be functional. He reached out
and tried to open them, but they wouldn’t budge.

“It looks like they are. The locks inside
are most likely rusted as well. It doesn’t look good,” he
admitted.

“I could give it a try . . .” Vevin
offered.

“No, let me take care of this. I’ve dealt
with rusty locks before,” Tathan said, pulling a leather toolkit
out of his vest. He unrolled it on the ground in front of the door.
There were a number of small metal devices in it. Then he pulled a
small flask out of another pocket. “Oil,” he explained as he dipped
two of the metal devices into it. He worked the oil-covered tools
into one of the locks. A moment later, there was a click and tumble
within the door.

“Well, I had to use a little more force than
usual, but it was much easier than I expected,” Tathan said,
putting the metal devices back.

“Oh my! I will have to remember not to let
you near my treasure, Tathan!” Vevin said.

Tathan chuckled as he rolled up his toolkit
to put it and the oil back in his vest. He braced his feet and took
hold of the handle. The door budged, but rusted hinges let out a
tortured cry.

“Ahh, I’ll make sure the hinges to my
treasure are rusty so that I hear you coming,” Vevin chuckled,
winking at Tathan in return. Liselle giggled at the exchange.

Tathan glared playfully at them, but inside
he was seething at such a stupid mistake. He pulled the oil back
out and put a little bit on the hinges. They still made a lot more
noise than he wanted, but it wasn’t quite as tortured.

Tathan extinguished his flame to avoid
giving away his position, the other two would be enough. The wall
was rough and damp as he moved inside. From ahead, Tathan could
hear running water like that of a stream. He waited in silence for
a moment. There was no feeling of danger, so he motioned the others
inside. “I can’t see far into the cave,” he whispered.

“There isn’t any danger in this cave. It’s
the cave below it which has something in it,” Vevin whispered back.
“It looks like there’s just an altar and a stream here.” His eyes
were glowing brightly now that it was almost completely dark. At
some point, he had extinguished his flame as well. Liselle’s blue
flame was the last.

“You
can
see in the dark then?”
Tathan asked.

“Of course! Can’t you?” Vevin didn’t even
try to whisper that time.

Tathan sighed. “No. I can’t see in the
dark.”

“Oh! Here, let me help.” Vevin’s purple
flame appeared again, splitting into twenty that settled along the
ceiling of the cave. They illuminated everything with an eerie
purple light. “There you are!” Vevin did a little dance.

Tathan sighed and looked around. It was a
natural cave, but eight stone buttresses braced the ceiling to keep
the building above from falling. The air was thick with moisture
and he could smell the moss growing on the walls. A stream ran
along the southwestern side, disappearing into the floor. In the
middle of the cave was the altar Vevin had mentioned.

“Oh! I do like it!” This time Vevin jumped
into the air and did a few somersaults interspersed with the
dancing. “I could make this home if it has a bigger entrance.” Then
he stopped. “We need to see what’s below us first. Shall we?” he
asked them hopefully.

Liselle walked toward him. “You
want
to live in a cave, Vevin?”

“Oh yes! It’s a wonderful cave,” he
exclaimed. “It’s warm and humid and there’s a stream running
through it too. We just need a big entrance and it will be
perfect.”

Tathan walked toward the altar. “Why do you
need a big entrance Vevin?”

“Well, you always need a big entrance if
you’re going to live in a cave.” Vevin rolled his eyes, making a
wave run around the liquid-silver.

Tathan sighed again. There was something on
the altar. He examined the base for traps or hidden danger. Then he
stepped on the moss covered step leading up to it and discovered
bones.

“A skeleton?” Liselle asked, coming up
behind him. “I’ve never seen one before. Is it dangerous?”

“Only if it’s moving and trying to kill
you,” Tathan said in all seriousness. “This one seems to be truly
dead though.” It wasn’t a formed skeleton, so much as assorted
bones lying on the altar. There may have been clothing or other
things on it at one time, but if so, they had decayed.

“There’s a ring on one of the fingers.”
Liselle pointed at a finger bone in the middle of the ribs.

When she reached for it, Tathan put a hand
out to stop her. “If it’s been here this long when all else has
decayed, then it’s probably magical, perhaps even cursed.”

“It’s not cursed,” Vevin said as he walked
past, casting an uninterested glance at the bones.

Tathan folded his arms. “How do you know
that?”

“Because it’s not cursed,” he said with a
shrug that implied Tathan was being silly. Then he went over to
examine the stream.

“We probably shouldn’t touch it anyway.”
Liselle gestured to the body and altar. “It was obviously an
important person. The Gods might become upset if we disturb it.”
When Tathan didn’t answer, she turned to see him staring at
her.

“You’re one of those.” he said.

“One of what?” she responded in
confusion.

“One of those ‘Don’t take things off of dead
bodies because it’s bad and might be wrong’ type of people,” he
said.

“What?!” Liselle held her arms out in
exasperation. “You said when we burned the warriors that we should
respect other people’s customs. Shouldn’t we respect the skeleton’s
customs?” she challenged, pointing at the body.

“That’s different.” Tathan held a finger up
in the air. “I’m sure customs were observed when it was placed
there, so that’s all taken care of. Now there’s just a skeleton
with a valuable ring sitting in an abandoned cave in an abandoned
city, so it’s acceptable to procure it,” he finished with a
decisive nod.

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t like it if someone
took something off of my parent’s bodies.” She brushed that memory
aside. “Vevin!” Vevin took an unnatural leap back to the altar.
Liselle asked, “Is it acceptable for us to take the ring, or is it
sacrilege?”

Vevin reached out and slid the ring off the
finger bone, which cracked and fell to pieces at the movement. He
handed the ring to her. “The bones don’t need it. It would be
sacrilege for it never to be used again.”

She looked at the ring in her hand, then at
the bones, and then at Tathan. “Well, there you go. It’s not
sacrilege.” Liselle put it on the ring finger of her right
hand.

Tathan gasped and reached out to stop her,
but was too late. He stood there waiting to see what would happen,
eyes wide.

Liselle looked down at the ring. It was
beautiful. There was a round diamond set into the top with a ruby
on each side. The ring itself was gold with interwoven designs.

Nothing happened. She didn’t turn inside out
or start speaking in tongues. The ring fit her perfectly, which was
normal since magical rings tended to fit their wearer
automatically.

“Can you take it off?” Tathan asked.

She took the ring off then put it back on.
“Yes. I don’t feel any different when it’s on. I think it’s
safe.”

He took her hand and studied the ring. “I
think the designs are some sort of rune, unlike anything I’ve ever
seen before.”

“You seem to be seeing a lot of things
you’ve never seen before, Cousin,” she said with a teasing
smile.

“Yes, I suppose so,” he agreed with a
chuckle. “Promise me that you’ll be more careful when dealing with
magic or unknown things, Liselle.”

“I will, Tathan. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.” He smiled to let her know he
wasn’t angry. “Also, be careful not to show that in civilization.
It’s worth a great deal of money, not just because of the magic,
but the gold and gems as well.”

“Oh, alright. I will.” She looked down at it
with new admiration.

“Aha! I found the way down, and it’s very
big!” Vevin exclaimed from the north of the cave. He was, of
course, dancing in excitement.

Chapter
10

The ramp that curved down into darkness was
large enough for a wagon. The rock walls were natural with
reinforcements similar to the cave.

Vevin did a spin. “I get to go first this
time. It is my home after all!”

“Alright. You go first,” Tathan agreed.

Vevin waved for the lights to follow him
into the tunnel. It took a lot longer than they expected to reach
the bottom where they found a pair of steel doors lying on the
ground in rusty pieces. Vevin jumped over them and the cousins
followed.

The group walked into a larger cave. Vevin’s
purple flames moved to the ceiling, casting their illumination over
the new area. The cave was much bigger than the previous one and
there was a design covering the entire floor.

“Oh my! This is extraordinary!” Vevin traced
the lines through the air with his finger. “This is a rune cut into
the floor. The magic is gone from it, but it must have been very
powerful at one time.”

“That
is
a rune isn’t it?” Tathan
said in amazement.

“Tathan, Vevin.” Liselle pointed across the
cave. “There’s someone standing on the other side, I think.” The
figure’s arms rested on the crossbars of an enormous sword, which
was point down against the stone floor.

Vevin waved. “Hello there!”

Tathan buried his face in his hands. His
companions were terrible at being stealthy.

Liselle put a hand on Vevin’s arm. “I don’t
think that person is going to be friendly to us, Vevin. The black
armor he’s wearing looks scary.”

There was disappointment on Vevin’s face.
“Oh really? You don’t think he’s going to take my new home and hurt
me do you?”

“I don’t know Vevin. This might be
his
home,” Liselle said. “We can go ask him, but let’s be
really careful, alright?”

Tathan dared to lift his face out of his
hands.

“Alright.” Vevin brightened. “We’ll go talk
to him. Yes! That’s what we’ll do.” He waved at the figure. “Hello!
We’re coming over to talk to you now!”