Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 (13 page)

Their camp wasn’t situated near the opening to the underground area. Instead, they had crossed the stream and camped a hundred yards away. Not having their camp near the entrance was Riyan’s idea. He didn’t want someone to stumble upon their camp and then discover the entrance, at least not until they were through exploring it for themselves.

When they were finished with breakfast, they carried all their equipment with them to the underground area. “Wish we could block this off somehow,” Chad said as he worked his way down to the passage below.

“I know what you mean,” replied Riyan. None of them wished for a repeat of the incident with the bear.

“Don’t know how we could,” added Bart as he entered the hole in the ground and slid down.

Riyan already had one of the lanterns lit and was looking down to the left hand passage where they had yet to explore. “Hope we find something interesting today,” he said.

“Me too,” agreed Chad. He then took off all his equipment and bedroll and laid them on the passage floor. “I’m not going to haul this around again today.” The others removed their equipment as well. All each of them took with them were their packs which they slung across their shoulders. Bart also brought the other lantern just in case. None of them wished to be down here without a light in the event something happened to their other one.

“All ready?” Riyan asked with renewed excitement.

“You bet,” Chad replied. Bart nodded.

Setting out, Riyan took the lead and moved down the passage. He didn’t go far before another curving narrow passage branched off to their right. Without hesitation, he entered the passage. It continued to curve back to the right until it was running parallel to the main passage. The narrow passage went straight for a few more feet before ending at an entryway to another crypt holding a sarcophagus.

“Just like the other one,” observed Chad.

Riyan nodded and entered the crypt. A quick search turned up nothing so they left the room and returned through the curving passage back to the main passage. Then they turned to the right and continued down for a ways before coming to another ‘T’ junction.

He glanced down to the left and right but couldn’t see any difference between them.

Riyan decided to take the left passage and moved into it. It didn’t go very far before they came to yet another ‘T’ junction. To their left and right, narrow passages branched off just like the ones they discovered the previous day.

They explored them and turned up two more of the rooms with the stone biers within the walls on either end. The chests below the biers contained a sum total of fifteen of the coins and another small gem. Once finished with searching the two rooms, they returned to the main passage, and this time took the right at the ‘T’.

“This place seems to be laid out according to a pattern,” observed Bart. “The bier rooms are in pairs, while the rooms with the sarcophagi are by themselves with a curved passage connecting them to the main passage.”

“That’s been true so far,” agreed Chad.

Continuing down the passage, they came to where another main passage connected to theirs on the left. When Riyan shined the lantern’s light down it, the light revealed the ceiling of the passage had caved in.

“That didn’t happen too long ago,” Riyan told the others. “The dirt’s still fresh.”

“Could’ve happened during the earthquake,” suggested Chad.

Nodding, Riyan glanced to him. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“Wonder what was down there?” Bart asked. “We should have thought to bring a shovel.”

“If we come back here another time, let’s remember to bring one,” said Chad.

Riyan nodded then turned back to the main passage and continued on. Twenty feet or so after they left the blocked passage behind, they came to a flight of steps descending into darkness on their right.

“Alright!” exclaimed Riyan when the lantern’s light revealed the steps.

He started moving into them when Bart said, “Let’s finish up here first.” Riyan turned to him and was about ready to argue the point. For in all the sagas he’s ever heard that tell of treasure hunters, the deeper one goes, the better the treasure gets.

But then he realized there’s no point in hurrying it along and nodded. “Okay.” They spent the better part of a half hour finishing the exploration of this level. Two crypts holding sarcophagi and six bier rooms later, they returned to the stairs leading down. Two of the chests in the bier rooms had the Pricks of Poison trap which Bart readily disarmed. He told them that once you know what’s there, it’s pretty simple to take care of it. Riyan had his doubts about that, but trusted in Bart’s skill.

Their packs were now fifty three coins and three gems heavier when they finished searching this level. At least one of the gems was slightly larger than the others that they found and should bring more coins.

Riyan took the lead again as they descended to the next level. They descended twenty steps before the stairs ended at a passageway moving to their right and left. Here the stonework was of much better quality. The walls of the passage looked as if more care had been put into their construction than what they saw up above. Also, sconces that once must have held torches are spaced along the walls at ten foot intervals.

“Looks like we’ve entered a better area,” Riyan said.

“Or it was built later than the one above,” added Chad.

When Riyan glanced back at them, they could see the grin that’s spread across his face. They also noticed how his eyes were practically dancing in anticipation.

“Relax,” Bart told him. “The last thing we need to do is get in a hurry in a place like this.”

“I’ll try,” he said but the tone of his voice belied the statement.

Moving down to the right, they followed the passage until it turned abruptly to the left. Not far past the corner, another passage, slightly smaller than the main one they were in branched off to their right.

Riyan shined the light down the new passage and saw at the edge of the light how it opened up onto another room. “May have something here,” he said and moved forward.

The room at the end of the short passage was rectangular in shape, stretching to the right and left. Two large tapestries that hadn’t survive the passing of time well, hung upon the walls. The fabric had deteriorated so badly, that whatever they at one time depicted was no longer discernable.

In the center of the room, two stone biers sat six feet apart. Lying upon each were the skeletal remains of warriors. The skulls were encased in helms and armor covered the rest of the body. Their hands gripped the hilt of the swords that lay upon their breasts.

Bart entered the room and moved to the skeleton on the right and briefly examined its sword. The blade showed extensive damage by rust as did the armor.

“No chests here,” said Riyan unhappily.

“That’s true,” said Bart. Then he had Riyan follow him with the lantern as he closely examined the biers upon which the dead lay. “However, there are other means by which people store their valuables than simple wooden chests.” The biers were more than just simple blocks of stone. They were carved with figures locked in battle.

As Bart ran his fingers across one of the figures, he felt it shift under his touch.

“Aha!” he exclaimed.

“What?” asked Riyan as he moved in closer to see.

“May have found something,” he told him. “Back off a little and give me some room.”

“Sorry,” he said and then backed up a foot. Chad came over and stood beside him as they watched Bart feel around the figure.

Bart was sure that if he pressed the figure it would release a catch holding open a secret compartment. But he also remembered his father telling him how in situations such as he now found himself, devices like this invariable were trapped. The problem was that he didn’t know how to disarm it.

He stood up and turned around to Riyan. “I wish you would have brought your staff down here with you.” It’s currently sitting up on the upper level with all their other equipment.

“Why?” he asked.

“I think I found how to open the compartment,” he explained, “but it may be trapped.

If I had your staff, I could do it from a distance.”

“No problem there,” Riyan told him, “I’ll just run up and get it.”

“Alright,” Bart nodded.

As he turned to leave, Chad grabbed his arm and said, “Hurry.” He grinned at his friend and said, “I will.” Then he hurried from the room and took the lantern with him. In short order, Bart and Chad were left in the dark.

They waited there for what seemed like hours, and when Chad began to express worry about what may have happened to him, the passage leading to the crypt began to lighten. Soon, Riyan rejoined them with staff in hand. “I’ll be sure to keep this with me from now on,” he told the others as he handed it to Bart.

Bart took the staff and said, “It might be safer if you two waited out in the passage.

Leave the lantern on the ground first though.”

Riyan set the lantern on the ground near Bart then he and Chad left the room. They came to a stop several feet from the entryway, just far enough out of the room to still be able to see what happened.

Once Bart saw that they were safely out of the room, he too stepped back as far as he could and still be able to place the end of the staff on the figure. Then he lifted the staff and held it at arm’s reach. He positioned himself a little to one side as he moved the end of the staff to lie against the figure. Holding his breath, he depressed the figure with the end of the staff.

No sooner had the figure been depressed then a liquid squirted out from two different places on either side. The liquid shot out and landed a good two feet from the bier. When the liquid hit the stone floor, it began to eat away at it.

Bart turned back to the others and said, “Acid.”

“If you had pressed that with you finger, it would have hit you,” Riyan said as he moved back into the room.

Handing him back his staff, Bart replied, “That was the whole idea of the trap I’m sure.” He glanced to the stone where the liquid hit and saw that the corrosiveness of the acid ate away almost a quarter inch of the stone’s surface before it began to fizzle out. He thought to himself, That would have hurt.

Turning his attention back to the bier, he noticed that over a foot long section of its side had popped out a little bit. Moving closer, he took hold of the edge and pulled the piece of stone. As it turned out, it was a long drawer filled with the deceased’s belongings.

“That is cool,” Chad said as Bart pulled the drawer out. It finally came to a stop when it was two feet out and no amount of pulling would budge it further. Making sure not to step in the acid on the floor, Chad and Riyan moved closer to see what was inside.

Within the drawer lay a weapon wrapped in cloth. The cloth lay in tatters, and when they unwrapped the dagger that was inside, found the blade to be brittle.

Another sack lay alongside the dagger. Within they found twenty of the coins, plus five coins of another type. These were slightly larger and silver in color. “Are those silver coins?” asked Chad.

Riyan picked one up. “Looks like it,” he replied. “But they’re heavier than what we use now.”

Bart took one of the silver coins and nodded. “I’d say it’s about one and a half times the weight of the coins in use today.” The design on the two sides of the silver coins matched what was on the copper coins.

They removed the coins and left the dagger. Then Bart moved on to the other bier in the room. A quick search located another movable figure. Using the same strategy he employed on the first one, he pressed the figure with the staff. Again, a spurt of acid and a similar drawer popped open.

Within they found a set of daggers and what may have been a book, but time had destroyed them beyond use. When Riyan touched the book, its pages cracked and disintegrated under his touch. The drawer wasn’t without treasure as they found another ten silvers and thirty coppers. There was also a gold necklace nestled in among the coins.

Riyan held up the necklace and showed it to Bart. “Think this is worth anything?” he asked.

“If it’s real gold, yes,” he replied.

“Don’t know why it wouldn’t be,” Riyan said as he put it in his pack.

Once their booty was stowed in their packs, they left the room and continued down the passage to the right. Fifty feet further down, they came to a larger entryway on their left. When they reached it, the light revealed a much larger room than any they’ve come across so far.

The room was quite large. Three columns were spaced evenly down the center of the room, moving from the entryway where Riyan and the others stood, to another entryway in the wall directly across the room from them on the other side. To the left and right of the columns sat three stone biers, six altogether. They were identical to those that had been in the previous room they found on this level, except that the armor the dead were wearing was slightly different. These too were ravaged by rust.

“This must be someplace special,” said Chad.

“It would seem so,” agreed Bart.

The walls of the room bore carvings of men in battle from one end to the other. Riyan took a closer look and saw that what the men were fighting wasn’t entirely human. “Look at this,” he said to the other two.

Bart and Chad came to stand by him as he pointed out the creatures the men were fighting. They were roughly the same size and shape as the fighters. Bipedal humanoids, but that’s where the similarity ended. Their faces were bestial, small horns sprouted from their foreheads, and a long scaly tail touched the ground behind them.

“Ever seen anything like this before?” asked Riyan.

“No,” admitted Bart. “But burial chambers such as these often have murals and such depicting the dead in a heroic and favorable light.” Chad nodded.

Bart then set about trying to find the hidden catch that would open each of the drawers in the six biers. The first one he came across, he did the staff trick again to open it. Only this time when he depressed the figure with the staff, nothing happened other than the drawer popped open a little bit. No liquid this time.