Soul Under the Mountain (Legend of Reason Series) (33 page)

"Do you know what's on the other side of the door?"

"The visions always end abruptly and I can never see beyond a certain point. I always wake from the fear."

"But you said you have seen the void, right? Is that what is on the other side?"

"I can only assume so, Rommus. But I have seen the void many, many times, and I am not afraid of that. There's something else in my visions that terrifies me. I have to admit, I am terrified right now. I don't have any doubt that whatever it is I see in my visions is absolutely real and waiting for us on the other side."

"You mean Demeos; the guardian of the void."

"I guess. Like I said, I don't know what's on the other side."

Rommus nodded as they walked toward the distant door. "You don't need to fear the void. I have been there before. I had always assumed that it was a place where there was nothing; a place where entry or exit was impossible. But the Triultti told me that there are other places in the void where things do exist. It's not all inescapable blackness."

"I know it's not all empty. If you think about it, it
can't
be empty; otherwise there would be nothing to make up whatever the void is. There's got to be something there.
"

The enormous statues slid slowly by as they walked. The distance to the door was
deceiving, as it seemed that no matter how
far
they walked, it never got much closer. Alr
eady they
had walked nearly half the
length of Brinn, and the far wall was still far away.

But eventually they reached the stone wall. The door was even larger than Rommus had guessed from a distance, but he was correct about guessing the material. Like the Columns of Inshae at the gateway into the Land of the Gods, it was carved right from the mountain. All of the edges were cri
sp and flawless. No chips marred
the surface, and no veins of darker or lighter colored rock
ruined
the perfection. In fact, it was so perfect that Rommus doubted the hands of man had carved it. He assumed that gods-and not Mages—were responsible for the construction.

When they reached the wall they knew they had a problem. The doors were a carving, and not
actual doors. Even if they were real, they certainly weighed more than several buildings combined, and would be impossible to push open. Rommus ran his finger down the crack between the carved doors, and he felt solid stone.

"These aren't really doors, Song. They can't be opened."

"That can't be. These are the doors I saw in my visions. I know it."

"Well, as you can see, it's just a carving. Without a hammer and chisel, we're not getting through here."

Song ran his hands over the stone, hoping to see something more than dusty rock. He examined it carefully, looking over every inch for some kind of flaw or a trigger to trip some grand mechanism. He tapped it in many place, listening for differences in the sounds.

There was a carving that looked like a flower at the center of each door
,
at about chest level. After inspecting each of them, Song
moved on to the decorative moldings on the left side of the doors. Rommus investigated the other side.

After a while, Song yelled over to him. "Rommus! Come here."

Rommus jogged over to see what Song had found, and
arrived to see him blowing dust out of letters carved into the stone. He was familiar with the look of the words, but most he had never seen before. It was clear that the language was Old Medoran, and Rommus only knew a little.

"Can you read it?" Rommus asked.

Song examined the
words
carved into the molding and nod
ded. "Yes, I know all the words."

"Well what does it say?"

Song read the
inscription
out loud:

All mankind must heed this warning:
The guardians of the deep lie beyond the doors that only
hands of god
and man may open.

Rommus rubbed his chin in thought. "
Hands of god
and man. That reminds me of the
Song of the Valley
poem. It says something about earth moved by hands of gods and man."

"Yes, it does say that," Song said. "I wonder what it means."

"I took it to mean that the circular lake of the Itherians was drained by both the gods and by man to turn it into the valley that the poem talks about.
For whatever reason, the gods and men needed to work together to accomplish the task. I assume there was a great level of importance for draining the lake if it required gods and men to do it."

Song nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But why would the gods need man for anything? Couldn't they just drain the lake with their power?"

Rommus traced the letters as he thought. "Perhaps there are certain things that are so important that neither god nor man
alone
can have the final say in the matter. I have learned that there are safeguards placed on everything. There are ways that humans can kill gods if it ever becomes necessary. It happened to Arius and I replaced him. Perhaps there are situations where gods and humans have to agree to set things in motion. That poem and that valley
itself
ended up being very important, since it set things in motion for you to go back in time and found Medora. It also played an important role in defeating the Triultti and saving Medora in our time.
"

Song nodded as he looked for any more words hidden in the stone. "That makes sense to me. But some might call that blasphemy. To elevate humans to the level of gods to make important decisions is an idea that would not be widely accepted."

"I don't really care what's accepted
, Song
; I am trying to figure out what I can do to save the people. I have met the other gods, and yet I still have to admit I know nothing about them. If my ponderings are considered blasphemy, then so be it."

"Yeah, I agree. And we have very little to go on. It's not like the gods have written out what truth we are supposed to subscribe to. All we have are ancient poems and words carved into stone."

Rommus tapped the stone door with the handle of his knife to listen for anything hollow.
"And let's not forget that carving words into stone does not attest to their validity. Any man can cut rock with chisel, but he cannot
create truth where there is none."

Song nodded.
"Very true, Rommus. That is a point I shall remember
for my whole life
.
For any greater being than man must surely value the churnings of reason in the
human mind
over blind allegiance to an unknown power.
"

"Very wise words, Song. See to it that you apply such reasoning to government as well. It is no less absurd to swallow whatever poison offered to us by those who lead us simply because we must respect their position of power. Always question. Always hold your leaders accountable for their intents and their deeds.
"

"Your words ring clearly in my mind, Rommus. I will never forget them and I assure you I will apply these ideals when it becomes my time to lead. But for now, we have this door to deal with. We must discover how to open it, and then we must decide if we
should
."

Rommus shot him a glance. "Why wouldn't we open it? That's what we came here to do."

"Yes, Rommus, but you were sent here by a god. Is it your duty to follow him?"

"Questioning the gods does not mean I do not believe, Song. I truly believe that Terinopus was helping to protect me and
the rest of the gods when he told me how to get my powers back. I cannot risk being assassinated by the gods of darkness, so I have to go on this mission. I was inspired by a god, but this in my choice."

"Okay, but there is also the warning. The inscription warns us about what is beyond this door. If we open it to go
in
, there is no telling what may come
out
."

Rommus gripped his chin. "I didn't think about that. I wouldn't want to unleash some terrible doom on the world. But, there is always doom of some kind lurking in the world. We have some serious problems to overcome, and on the other side of this door is some kind of answer. We don't really have much choice. We have to open it."

"Okay, how?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you could summon some magic or something. Don't you have any ideas?"

Song chuckled. "Magic? I am little more than an accidental amateur. However, the inscription says that hands of god
and
man are able to open it. You are both god and man, Rommus. Perhaps you have the power within you."

Rommus stared at the massive doors for a moment before walking over to
the carved split between them. His own mind laughed at him as he thought about pushing open solid stone doors that were only a carving—but stranger things had happened. He pulled in a deep breath and heaved with all his might, but the mountain in front of him refused to budge.

Then he got an idea. It was just as ridiculous as Song's idea, but it was worth trying. He
walked
to the right and placed both hands on the
carving of the flower on the
right door. He waved Song over and gestured for him to
do the same o
n the left door.
Even though he knew he was no longer officially a god, it was worth a try.

"Hands of god and man," Rommus said.

The sound of thunder cracking rumbled through the underground chamber as the mighty doors swung inwards. The rock had separated cleanly, and a bright blue light shined between the doors. With the light came a piercing sound that annoyed but did not hurt his ears. Both of them looked away from the light as they pushed, not wanting to be temporarily blinded in the darkness. The doors moved easily, and felt only as heavy as an ordinary door.

When Rommus opened his eyes the magical light seemed to have dissipated like mist. It rolled on the air briefly before completely extinguishing along with the piercing ring. When the light had gone out, darkness could be seen on the other side. There was no hint
of anything inside the doorway at all, and Rommus thought that he was perhaps staring right into the heart of the void.

But some light poured in from the chamber behind him. A few steps in, he could see stairs. He looked to Song for a moment to see if he wanted to go on, and then they both took a few careful steps beyond the enormous stone doorway.

At the top of the stairs was a single silver tile set next to other tiles made of mountain stone. When he stepped on the metal tile, torches all over lit by themselves. It was not the ordinary orange glow of fire, but instead a dimmer, purple color that lit everything and yet still left everything in
soft
shadow.

The stairs went on and on, deeper and deeper under the mountain. For a long time, Rommus thought that there would never be an end to them, and he briefly considered the idea that he was tricked into some eternal trap between realms. But eventually, far beneath the city of Brinn above, the stairway came to an end.

At the bottom was a huge circular room, lined with the same magical torches t
hat lined the stairs. A ghostly
glow illuminated the room as the purple light flickered and danced. There was no pop or hiss from the torches, and the room was as silent as death. It created an odd feeling, and it truly made Rommus feel as if he had crossed over into the worlds beyond.

The circular room was ringed with doorways. At first glance, Rommus estimated probably 30; although he did not officially count. Each doorway was carved from the surrounding stone, but unlike the doorway at the top of the stairs, there were no doors at all.
Instead, the doorways were entirely black holes with nothing but seemingly infinite emptiness beyond.

At the center
of the room was a circular alta
r of some sort. Hovering over the center of the stone alter was a massive
, round
ruby
jewel
. The purple light shimmered in its surface, and bounced occasional rays across the room. Beneath the floating
jewel
, carved into the sto
ne alta
r was an intricate diagram made of straight lines and odd symbols. The lines were filled with brilliant, polished gold, and the light playing across its surface was a truly dazzling effect.

As they cautiously approached, the ruby
gem
began to glow with a scarlet light. A grinding sound could be heard as the altar began to turn, aligning the gold patterns on its surface with different doorways. Rommus suddenly realized that if he wasn't careful, he might lose his bearings, since every door was identical—including the one they came th
r
ough. He looked behind him to see if the stairs could still be seen through one of the doorways
, but they all were black as pitch. He had a guess as to which one would lead them back to the surface, but it was only a guess.