Revelation (Seeds of Humanity: The Cobalt Heresy) (26 page)

The journal continued, but the entries became shorter and less detailed, as if Sherwyn had lost something I couldn’t put my finger on. The last entry read as follows, and it was as follows:

What a fool I am. I thought myself to be rid of the curse which I brought upon myself, but I have only strengthened it. My wife is dead, and I have buried her in the garden she so dearly loved. I know that the child is responsible, and that it was never truly mine or even Isabella’s, but I cannot bring myself to do that which must be done.

In shame and cowardice, I have locked it away in the vault far beneath the house. I once thought myself capable of undoing great wrongs in the world, but I find that I lack the will to do that which I know must be done. This tragedy, which I have brought entirely on myself, is not what I envisioned as the end of my life…yet I suppose it is a fitting legacy which I will leave behind.

The third parent of the monster trapped in my vault is coming, and it wishes to take the child. I will not allow this. I have prepared my home with a series of traps which will ensnare my ‘partner’ in this crime against innocence as soon as it enters the house. I will then trigger the spell which will purge my house of those responsible for my failure before it can regain its freedom.

“Well,” I said looking up after I closed the journal, “there’s a monster in the vault.”

Pi’Vari, who was leaning against the doorjamb, rolled his eyes. “There is
always
a monster in the vault.”

“This one is the spawn of a supernatural being of significant power,” I continued, ignoring Pi’Vari’s attempt at humor. “I don’t know anything about it except that the reason this house appears to have been so badly damaged is that its former occupant and master sacrificed his own life to destroy the parent when it came to collect its offspring. I have to assume that the parent was destroyed, but the offspring is trapped in a vault somewhere beneath the house.”

“And that key opens what, exactly?” asked Pi’Vari with a look that said he didn’t anticipate liking the answer.

I shrugged my shoulders, “The vault, as far as I can tell.”

“Ah,” my herald said, as though that explained all of life’s great mysteries, “of course it does.”

There was nothing else of note in the ruined study, so we returned to the hall and tried the remaining doors, which were all locked and even Baeld failed to open them.

“These must have been magically sealed when he trapped the creature,” I concluded aloud. “Even in the house’s state of disrepair, they won’t open without magical coercion.”

Pi’Vari shook his head. “It would not be advisable, in any case,” he explained, “as the integrity of the house is possibly maintained by whatever residual magics are at work here. If we are meant to go to the vault, then the previous occupant should have left the way open to us.”

I had to agree with him, despite my desire to explore the home of an obviously powerful wizard. I wasn’t treasure-hunting, but I didn’t think I would get such an opportunity again—at least not in the near future—and I had no idea what I could learn from the bones of this Sherwyn’s collection.

We pushed on and explored the house, finding no open doors anywhere on the ground floor which was puzzling. The occasional stone block came crashing down near our position, reinforcing a sense of urgency which I had no doubt my companions shared.

“You did say this vault was
beneath
the house?” asked Pi’Vari with a hint of sarcasm.

I nodded. “The access must be located on the outside of the house, like an old storm cellar,” I suggested, then realized they might not know what a storm cellar looked like. “We should check alongside the house for any large doors leading below ground level,” I added.

We returned to the main door and I admit that I was pleasantly surprised to find that it opened without much encouragement. I didn’t believe for a second that it was a random gust of wind which had caused it to slam shut, but it was possible that it had closed as part of the trap Sherwyn had sprung on his unwanted guest, and that particular part of the trap might still function after these five years.

The snowstorm was as I remembered it, and within moments my fingers were tingling and numb. We wound around the house, following the left wall and finding nothing along the front of the building, which truly was massive. It had to have been twenty thousand square feet per floor, and there appeared to be at least three full floors plus the peak, which would have made it four floors to my mind.

We followed the left side of the building and still saw no doors leading below the house. The windows were all boarded up, and the wood used to board them was blackened, presumably from the fire.

About a quarter of the way around the back of the house we found a waist-high, rock wall which appeared to have contained a garden. Close to the gap where a gate most likely had hung was a tombstone, and even through the snow I could make out the name ‘Isabella,’ which made me want to be done with this place as quickly as possible.

There was a rear door to the house, and next to it was what we had been looking for: a cellar door. There was no apparent lock, so Baeld opened it and we proceeded down the steps and once again into the darkness.

The cellar was filled with barrels and kegs arranged neatly along the walls, and there were even various root vegetables hanging from the low rafters. Finally, at the back of the room, I found what could only have been the door to the house vault.

It was made of what appeared to be plates of iron which had been riveted together like a nineteenth century ship, which struck me as odd since I had not seen that style of metalworking during my time in this world. There were no handles or apparent hinges, but in the center of the door was a keyhole, and I opened the box containing the obsidian key to see if it was a match.

It looked to be the right size, and when I inserted it and gave it a turn I was rewarded with a click followed by a low-pitched thrum which persisted for a few moments before dissipating.

The door popped forward with a hiss and then swung slowly outward until it had opened just enough for Baeld to squeeze through, which was apparently all the further it would go.

There were more stairs on the other side of the door, and these ones wound down like they were inside a giant, cylindrical tower buried beneath the house. We made our way to the bottom of the steps, of which I counted over a hundred, and found a door which was identical to the one above.

The key fit this one as well, and when this door opened it revealed a long hallway with a curved ceiling. We moved down the hallway which was easily a hundred feet long and came to a smooth, black surface which did not match any of the other materials in the house, except for the key which I held in my hand.

I didn’t need my Third Eye spell to tell me that this wall was magical, and I didn’t need a rocket scientist to tell me that the key was probably involved in getting at whatever was inside.

“Before I start messing with this thing trying to get it opened,” I began but stopped when I was greeted with an unexpected metallic echo of my words. After the echo had stopped, I lowered my voice and continued, “I need to make sure everyone’s ready for a fight when I finally do.”

Dancer twirled his spear in his hands before striking the butt against the stone floor, while Pi’Vari shrugged and revealed that he had already untied the pouch containing the magically explosive grenades. Baeld looked like he was always ready for a fight, so I turned back to the wall and tried inserting the key into the wall.

At first nothing happened. I tried a few more locations with similar results, and literally scratched my head for a second before realizing what I was doing. I decided to try feeling the glossy surface for irregularities which might give me a clue as to where the key might go.

As soon as my fingers touched the reflective surface, there was a ripple like what a dropped pebble would cause on a placid lake. I withdrew my hand reflexively before remembering that Sherwyn’s recording said that ‘the final barrier will only open for one of us.’ That struck me as odd until I realized he must have been referring to the robes, staff and Spell Key. Somehow, this surface must have been keyed to respond to their presence but only when physically touched by their wearer.

It didn’t seem like such a great security system, but I clenched my teeth and placed my entire hand on the wall, which caused it to vibrate, creating even larger ripples. I put my other hand on the wall and felt energy passing harmlessly through my body. The ripples radiating from each of my hands collided with each other until the wall literally began to fall apart in front of me.

The ripples gave the illusion of a liquid surface, but the wall was actually composed of tiny, black, beads not much larger than a grain of sand. When they collided in the opposing waves caused by my hands they fell to the floor and collected in a pile, which spread from where I was standing toward both stone walls until nothing was left of the vertical, black surface.

In the span of no more than ten seconds the wall had been reduced to a long, neat pile of black sand and the contents of the circular chamber beyond were clearly visible.

There were two pedestals located at opposite ends of the room, along with a larger pedestal in the center of the chamber. The pedestal on the left held a huge book, while the pedestal on the right had a dark case on top of it which looked to be made of some kind of smoked glass.

But the pedestal in the middle of the room was the one that caught my attention. It was three feet tall, like the others, but was much wider at the base. Resting atop it was a small, rectangular, iron box with six levered handles which appeared to lock the lid in place.

We moved cautiously into the room, which was lit by a line of four inch thick, glowing sky blue stones at the joint of the walls and ceiling. Dancer appeared to take an interest in the central pedestal containing the iron box, while Pi’Vari moved toward the one holding the book.

Baeld remained at my side, with his greatsword held in his massive hand and his armor reflecting the sky blue light emanating from the stones in a dazzling display.

I moved toward the rectangular box and saw that Dancer was staring at it closely, but something didn’t seem right.

“Dancer?” I asked, and when he didn’t reply I called on the magic of the Spell Key as I raised my hand.

Baeld moved to interpose himself between Dancer and me, which was a good thing because at that very instant Dancer leapt onto the iron box and then sprung through the air with his spear pointed directly at me.

His spear found Baeld’s armor instead and bit deeply into the black-skinned giant’s shoulder. Baeld brought his sword up too slowly to catch the little man in midair, and by the time he had reacted to Dancer’s successful strike the little man had withdrawn his spear and leapt off to the side, where Pi’Vari was just now noticing our developing problem.

Baeld charged toward Dancer but the little man was too quick for him and he slashed at Pi’Vari’s leg with his spear, opening a huge gash across my herald’s hamstring which sent him screaming to the floor like a puppet that had lost its strings.

I completed activating the Spell Key, and it seemed like I was watching the fight happen while I waited impatiently for the spell to assemble itself. In what could have taken no longer than four or five seconds, the spell was ready to be fueled and fired—but during that time Dancer had already put Pi’Vari on the ground and was in the air about to deliver his second strike to Baeld.

I fueled the spell, knowing that it was entirely possible that Dancer could be killed by the magic I was about to unleash, but I had no other choice. Something inside this room had taken control of the little man and was intent on killing all of us.

The spell erupted from my palm and once again my arm spun backward with the recoil, but this time there was no horrible popping sound. In fact, the only sound that registered was Pi’Vari’s continued screaming at sustaining such a vicious wound to his leg.

The magical blast was aimed directly at Dancer, and it followed my conscious direction in the fraction of a second it flew through the air toward its intended target.

The little man brought his spear up at the last instant and turned the blade sideways, which actually appeared to shield him from some of the energy. How much protection he gained wasn’t clear, but that little spear of his was just full of surprises.

The portion of the spell which did manage to get past his surprisingly effective parry struck Dancer in the upper chest, the force of which sent him crashing into the wall. His head struck the wall immediately after his torso, and the accompanying pair of crunching sounds made me wince.

But he didn’t appear to be fazed by the impact as he braced his feet against the wall, preparing to meet the charging Baeld, who had nearly closed the distance before the little man was able to get his feet under him.

Baeld had dropped his sword somewhere along the way and his arms were slightly spread, as he clearly anticipated another leaping attack and meant to trap Dancer in midair.

Dancer did leap with his spear aimed at Baeld’s torso, but he failed to react in time. While he was able to once again lodge his spear in Baeld’s chest, Baeld managed to grab the little man’s leg just before he rolled off to safety.

Baeld’s grip was too much for a quick, desperate mule kick Dancer tried, and the black-skinned giant swung the little man’s body around in a complete circle before smashing his torso into the iron box on the central pedestal, knocking the coffin-like container from its perch and onto the floor with a dull clang.

I wasn’t sure that Dancer would survive the devastating impact, and I cursed myself for not preparing more carefully. Baeld pried the spear from the little man’s hand before releasing his limp body from his crushing grip, apparently satisfied that Dancer was no longer a threat without it.

I ran to Dancer’s side and knelt beside him. He was still breathing, but the damage was severe including a broken femur and at least a few broken ribs from impacting the iron box. I wasn’t certain that whoever had controlled the little man no longer did so, but I closed my eyes and began to cast my simple healing spell anyway.