Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 (11 page)

The other two watched as he disappeared into the hole. A couple seconds later they heard him holler from where he came to land down below, “Come on down!” Chad glanced to Bart who grinned. “You first,” he offered.

“Alright,” agreed Bart who cautiously approached, then entered the hole. Once he slid to the bottom, he found Riyan there already working on getting the lantern lit. By the time the wick was burning and illuminating the passage, Chad had joined them.

With the lantern in one hand, Riyan moved down the passage to the right until he reached the spot where he had found the coin. Turning back to the others he pointed to the floor. “That’s where I found the coin,” he said. The lantern’s light revealed his footprints from his earlier time down here.

Bart nodded and then looked closely at the walls. He saw how they showed the unmistakable signs of human construction. “This place is old,” he observed.

“How old do you think?” Chad asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “But giving that none of us are familiar with the markings on the coin, I doubt if anyone’s been down here for several hundred years.” Then he glanced at Chad. “Maybe longer.”

“There could be anything down here!” exclaimed Riyan.

“True,” Bart agreed. “But I would advise caution. There’s no telling what safeguards the previous occupants could have put into place.”

“You mean traps?” Chad asked.

Bart nodded. “Exactly.”

A worried look came over Chad as he glanced towards the floor of the passage leading away.

“Don’t worry,” said Bart. “I doubt if there would be anything in the middle of the passage.”

“But let’s be careful anyway,” Riyan added. Taking the lead, he moved down the passage to the right. They didn’t get very far before coming to where another narrower passage branched off to their left. When they reached it, they found that it curved back around further to the left.

Riyan brought them to a halt and glanced back at the others. “Which way?” he asked.

The excitement of the moment making him almost giddy.

“Take the smaller passage to the left,” suggested Chad. “It’s narrower so may not be a main passage.”

Nodding, Riyan entered the new passage. Barely wide enough for a grown man to pass through without scraping his shoulders, it continued to curve back around to the left until it was running parallel to the passage they had just left. As the passage finished the curve and straightened out, they saw where it ended at an open entryway leading into what had to be a room.

In his excitement, Riyan hurried to the entryway and passed through to the other side.

The room he found himself in was only about fifteen feet by ten. A stone sarcophagus sat in the center of the room indicating they were in a burial chamber. The walls were plain, unadorned stone similar to that which was used in lining the passages.

“Wow,” Riyan breathed under his breath as he came to stand next to the sarcophagus.

He ran his hand across the top as he took in the ancient inscriptions engraved within the stone.

“We must be in an ancient catacomb,” Chad observed, eyes lighting up. “They often bury gold and jewels with the dead.”

Bart nodded. “Let’s get it open,” he said indicating the sarcophagus.

“Do you think that’s wise?” asked Riyan. “I mean, stealing from the dead is supposed to be bad luck.”

Shrugging, Bart replied, “It’s up to you. We could always come back if there’s nothing else down here.”

“Yeah,” agreed Riyan, “that might be a better idea. If there was a chest or something in the room with it, that’s one thing, but to take something from the dead itself?” A shiver coursed through him at the very thought.

“Then let’s go find something else,” urged Chad.

“Wait a second,” Bart said as something caught his eye from the other side of the sarcophagus. He moved around the sarcophagus and reached down to pick up another of the coins. He grinned as he held it up for the others to see.

“It’s exactly like the other one I found,” Riyan exclaimed.

“Yes it is,” nodded Bart. He put it in his pouch and then indicated for Riyan to lead the way from the room.

Once they passed through the narrow passage and were back in the main one, he turned and continued down they way they had previously been heading. It wasn’t long before the passage they were following ended at a ‘T’ junction. Riyan paused momentarily to shine the light from the lantern down the left, then to the right. Both directions extended further than the light could reach. Riyan decided to take the right.

The new passage was exactly like the one they had just left, and it too ended in a ‘T’

junction not too far down. This time however, the passages to the right and left were narrower, just as the curving passage leading to the room with the sarcophagus had been.

Again he chose the right and hurried along. The narrow passage extended straight ahead for a short span then turned abruptly to the right. As Riyan turned the corner, he saw an entryway to another burial chamber. Moving forward, he passed through into the room and gasped.

No sarcophagus within this room. Rather, within the walls on the right and left sides of the room, were stone biers. Laid out upon each of the stone biers was a corpse. Both of them had been dressed in armor, yet time had reduced the armor to nothing more than rust. Skeletal faces looked out from within the helms they wore.

But it wasn’t the sight of the dead that made Riyan gasp. Rather it was the chests that sat on the floor beneath each of them. “Oh man,” he said with renewed excitement.

Moving forward to the chest on the right, he set the lantern down as he gripped the lid.

But try as he might, he couldn’t get it open. The chest was locked. Behind him, Chad was trying the other chest only to find that it too was locked.

Riyan stood up disappointed and said, “It’s locked.”

“So is this one,” Chad said.

Bart took off his pack and set it on the floor. He opened it and pulled out a rolled piece of leather. Holding it up, he glanced to Riyan and grinned. “I may be able to do something about that.” Leaving his pack on the ground, he carried the rolled piece of leather and moved to the chest where he knelt down before it. He then untied the thong securing the piece of leather and set it on the ground next to the chest.

Riyan watched as he unrolled it. Within were small tools ranging in size from two to four inches in length. “What are you going to do with those?” he asked.

“You’ve never seen lockpicks before?” Bart asked.

“No,” replied Riyan.

“Can’t you be arrested for just having them in your possession?” asked Chad.

“So I’ve heard,” he replied. Taking out two of the tools, he inserted their tips within the lock and began working the tumblers inside. After a few moments, he felt the ‘click’

that always accompanied the unlocking of the lock. He then replaced his tools in the rolled leather before taking hold of the lid and opening it.

Inside was what had to have once been several weapons but were now nothing more than piles of rust. Riyan held the lantern close to better see the interior in the hopes of there being treasure. After sifting through the rusty remains, they came up with nothing.

“Try the other one,” suggested Chad.

Bart nodded and picked up his lockpicks and crossed the room to work on the other chest. Then just as before with the first one, he felt the ‘click’ and lifted open the lid.

Inside this chest were the rusted remains of weapons, similar to the ones that had been in the first chest. But this time, there were several stacks of the coins they found earlier.

“There must be twenty or so of them!” Riyan exclaimed excitedly. After pulling them out and counting them, they discovered there were twenty four. Riyan divided them among himself and the others. Each put eight coins in their packs.

“Wonder how much they’re worth?” Chad asked as they were leaving the tomb.

“If you consider just the copper used in making them, not much,” explained Bart.

“But due to their age, certain people would be willing to pay more for them.”

“Excellent.” Riyan gave them all a grin as they returned to the ‘T’ junction. He then crossed over to the other narrow passage and began making his way through. After going straight for a short span, the passage turned back to the left and they came to another tomb with two biers, one on each side of the room.

Just as in the previous room, the dead were arrayed in rusted armor and a chest sat on the floor beneath them. Again, the chests were locked and Bart used his lockpicks to get them open. This time they found thirty of the coins and two small gems among the rusted remains of ancient weapons. They got quite excited about the gems until Bart explained they were rather common and wouldn’t bring much gold. Riyan didn’t care, he was having the time of his life.

They left the room and returned to the ‘T’ junction where they turned and followed the wider passage back the way they came. Once they returned to the first ‘T’ junction of the two main passages, they continued on past the passage leading back to the hole out to the surface.

They came to another ‘T’ junction with two narrow passages leading right and left to two more crypts. These also each held two stone biers upon which the dead were laid out, with matching chests below.

The first room of the new pair yielded eighteen of the coins. Riyan was slightly disappointed at not finding more. “You can’t expect more treasure with each room we come to,” Bart said. “Frankly, I’m surprised to have found what we already have.”

“I know,” replied Riyan.

They left the room behind and went to check out the room on the other side of the

‘T’. When Bart went to pick the lock of the first chest, he paused.

“What?” asked Chad.

Bart tapped an area near the lock. It had a marking on it that didn’t blend in perfectly with the overall design of the chest. “I didn’t see this on the other ones,” he explained.

Riyan moved the lantern closer and saw what looked to him little more than scratches. “So?” he asked.

“This may indicate a trap of some kind,” he said as he turned to glance up at them.

“Why would you think that?” asked Chad.

“Just something my father told me one time,” he replied. “You see, chests such as these that are trapped, often have some marking on them telling the owner what kind of trap it holds.”

“That’s stupid,” scorned Chad. “I mean, wouldn’t that give a thief an idea that something is not right?”

“Yes,” agreed Bart. “But most chest makers who specialize in traps always put an unobtrusive mark on it so they’ll know what it is and how to disarm it. Just because I know it’s there, doesn’t mean I can disarm it.”

“But why would they do that?” Riyan asked.

Sighing, Bart stood up and turned towards them. “Suppose you commissioned a chest for a specific purpose and with a specific type of trap. And suppose further that once you got it home you accidentally closed the lid and locked it before whatever you wanted to put in it was inside. How are you going to get it back open?”

“I would think the chest maker would have given the owner instructions on how to open it,” said Chad.

“Oh they do,” agreed Bart, “but there are stupid people out there who forget, lose the instructions,
etc.
So chest makers put markings on each chest that holds a trap so if they are called out to open a trapped chest, they will be able to do so.”

“I guess that makes sense,” said Riyan.

“How do you know so much about this?” Chad asked.

Bart gave him a look, shook his head as he rolled his eyes, and then knelt back down in front of the chest.

“He’s got lockpicks,” Riyan informed his friend. “Who has lockpicks?”

“Thieves?” replied Chad.

“Or sons of thieves,” added Bart. “Now be quiet and let me work on this. You two may wish to wait out in the passage, just in case something goes wrong.” Riyan nodded for Chad to join him as he moved out of the room and waited at the entryway. They watched as Bart first examined the outside of the chest very closely before scrutinizing the area around the lock. After a few tense moments, Bart placed the tips of his thumbs on either side of the keyhole and pressed. Then he turned to them and grinned, “I got it.”

The other two hurried back into the room and saw a needle protruding from the keyhole. “It was a ‘Prick of Poison’ as my father would call it,” he explained. “It’s designed to prick the finger of the thief and deliver a poison of some kind. Some poisons become ineffective over time, while others grow more potent.”

“Is it unlocked?” Chad asked.

Bart shook his head. “Not yet.” Turning back to the chest, he removed the same two tools he used on the previous chests from his lockpicks and very carefully began working around the needle. Once he had the lock picked, he opened the lid.

Riyan moved closer to see what treasure may be inside. “You’ve got to be kidding!” he exclaimed when he saw the usual fare of rusted weapons and a scattering of the coins.

“What’s the point of putting a trap on this garbage?”

“Vanity maybe” replied Bart. “Or it could have been for some other reason. Who knows?”

“Seems a waste of time to trap this sort of stuff,” Chad agreed with Riyan.

Riyan knelt down in front of the chest and said, “Maybe there’s a secret compartment lining the bottom or top.” Bart moved aside and then collected his lockpicks as he went to work on the other chest. Running his fingers along the inside, Riyan hunted for anything that might indicate something was hidden.

Remembering a tale told by a bard about treasure hunters, he tapped the bottom of the chest and the top. After several minutes of fruitless searching, he was unable to find anything. “Ten coins!” he exclaimed as he collected them. “Ten lousy coins!”

“It’s better than nothing,” offered Chad.

Riyan glared at him then came to his senses. “You’re right,” he said. “It’s just that I was expecting something a bit more…”

“Expensive?” his friend finished for him.

“Something like that, yeah” Riyan nodded.

Just then, Bart raised the lid of the other chest. “More coins,” he told them. He did a quick count and said, “Twenty three.”