Delver Magic I: Sanctum's Breach by Jeff Inlo (read novels website .TXT) 📕
"Yes, yes," Consprite said quickly. He turned a pen in his fingers. "This is very true. We would not waste time or effort in the less lucrative areas. Any delver worth his salt would surely give us a great advantage." He looked up with a nod of acceptance. "I heartily approve."
"I oppose the measure," Cofort said sullenly. "I do not trust delvers. They always require large payments and no one can ever really tell if they do what they say they do. No one can follow them, no one can check up on them."
"I realize that delvers are expensive," Consprite admitted candidly, "but that's because no one can do the job they can do. I realize that it is difficult to check on
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“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.
Before midnight, the storm outside Sanctum broke. The rain lessened, reduced from a constant drizzle to a flickering wave of showers and mist. It finally ceased all together, leaving behind soaked trees and small puddles within the rock of Sanctum’s crust. The wind died down from northwestern gusts to a warm southerly breeze, and the clouds rolled clear to the east giving way to the shining multitude of stars.
Matthew marveled at the sight. The white hot specks filled the sky in a way he had never witnessed before. As the storm clouds passed away, the heavens seemed nearly painted solid with their fiery glow. Away from the lights and smoking chimneys of Connel, even the faintest of stars pierced their impression upon the jet black sky. The wet grass, pine needles, and leaves, mirrored the sparkle from above. To the reader’s delight, the starlight, both original and reflected, chased away the dark gloom that had preceded their arrival.
Matthew stepped clear of the shelter in the trees that had kept him, Mappel and the eight remaining algors dry through the storm. He stepped into the open at the base of Sanctum. Away from the leafy coverage of the surrounding trees, he peered upward beyond the mountain’s peak to the heavens where the stars greeted him.
He thought of his faith, thought of the ten that sought the sphere. He prayed silently for the safety of those within the rock before him. He prayed for the success of the mission, prayed as he had prayed many times that evening, but that was during the gloom of the storm, when the clouds served as a partition between him and the heavens. Now, the skies were clear. The sparkling light that now surrounded him convinced him that these prayers would not be ignored.
With the end of the rain, the sounds of the forest multiplied. The patter of falling water drops continued as the trapped rain water began to drop from soaked tree leaves. The dripping rhythm was now accompanied by the music of insects, birds and animals that relinquished their shelters. The harmony of crickets foreshadowed the lyrical whistles of the night birds. Twittering raccoons and squeaking bats joined in the chorus. The stars above twinkled to the symphony as if content spectators during a late night concert.
The natural music was disturbed only by the din of mumbled voices and shuffling from the shelter behind him. Matthew knew Mappel was conferring with the algors, but he let them be. If his voice was needed, they would call for him. If not, better he take this time to appreciate the true
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