Destiny: Book of Light (10 page)

Just as he was deciding what to do he slipped again. He struggled to regain grip but continued to slip. Before he knew it, he was picking up speed and falling down the stairs as if it was a slide except with bumps. He collided with whatever creature was following him and the velocity of his fall took it with him. The two were now falling together and he could still not tell what it was. Yelps were heard from the creature as if it were some form of dog, but it did not resemble one. It had spikes instead of fur like a porcupine and it's mouth and teeth were much bigger than any dog Sean could think of.

Continuing to fall Sean was taking a serious beating. He didn't think anything was broken but every now and then a blow to the head would knock him on conscious and and the spikes from the creature were tearing him up. Again he got knocked out, this time when he came round they were after coming to the end of the staircase, but they were still going.

The staircase had opened into a massive underground cavern. Although Sean was still struggling to stop his movement for a second he could not help but stop and look around in awe. It seemed endless. Light was getting in from somewhere and although faint it did a good job of showcasing the expanse. The staircase had ended, but because of the fall they seemed to have missed the path and were now sliding down a massive ledge, but Sean could see an end to it and he did not want to find out what it consisted of. He struggled to reach a knife he had in his boot. He got it and with all his force tried to jam it into the rock, but it didn't work and he dropped the knife with the effort. He was running out of time.

The creature had picked up speed, being considerably bigger than Sean and as it went over the edge a final yelp echoed through the cavern and was lost with the creature. He frantically tried again in vain to grab hold of something, but with the surface nearly perfectly flat there was no hope. He searched through his person for something he could use, his mind checking and double checking the possible use of even the most insignificant items, like shoelaces or matches. Nothing. The edge came and he closed his eyes.

He was sure of death, but it never came. He hadn't even noticed the thump of landing. He opened his eyes barely able to believe he was still alive. Looking around he realised he had landed on the only bit of a ledge he could see. Then looking out over the edge he could not make out the bottom. Counting himself more than lucky he wondered at how he could get out of there. There was little or no grip on the wall but as he felt around with his hands he noticed something. There seemed to be the smallest of levers sticking out from the wall. He thought it impossible for there to be a lever here, where he was sure no man had ever been, but there was. He considered pulling it to see what it may do, but then questioned the decision. It could do anything, and in his precarious situation all he could imagine it doing was taking away the ledge that sustained his life. But he couldn't get out of where he was so he had no choice. He pulled it.

Nothing happened for a minute and then a small rumbling began. Dirt began to fall from somewhere above him and small rocks nearly knocked him from the ledge a couple of times. Then it stopped and the wall that he'd been trying to climb lit up. A rectangular outline formed and then turned into a door and opened. Sean couldn't believe his luck.

Cobwebs seemed to consume the passage but there was an old torch by the door. It took a couple of matches to get it going but when it did, it did a good job of burning away the cobwebs. Never the less it was slow moving. Sean had no fear of spiders but he still wasn't going to risk getting bitten. After about two hours he made it to a room. It lacked the awe inspiring size of the cavern but anything this old had to be respected. The room was small with faded tapestries lining the walls. He couldn't make out what any of them represented but the importance of the room was evident. There was gold chalices and diamond jewels displayed on tables around the room and it all faced a centre table with a book on display.
Sean felt entranced by this book. There was much of interest around the room but he could focus only on the book. He felt as though there was some unknown force drawing his attention. It's cover was made from thick, solid, gold and it had an emblem of the original Sun on it. The book itself was locked though and Sean began trying to pick the lock. He was usually quite good at this, and there had never been a lock that he had come across that he could not pick. But something was stopping him from picking this lock. He'd get to the point where it should simply open but nothing happened. He looked around the room for some other clues, the torch lighting the tapestries as he did so. He noticed some writing on one.

"The book of light will not see the day, with out the key of light and a price to pay."
"A price to pay? How dangerous could a book be?" he thought.

There had been old wives tales passed down through generations of the elder magicians spell books that carried curses for anyone besides the magicians who tried to steal the secrets from their scripts. Sean never thought this to be true, he just figured the elders made the rumours themselves as a defense mechanism. Use peoples fear against them. So he wasn't phased by the phrase, but he began to look around for clues on what maybe the key of light. Brushing off dust from the tapestries he found much of the History of the planet. He decided that whoever made this place walked the soil before the foundations of the Land of Light. They spoke of creatures as if they were gods, many of which must have been extinct long ago because Sean had never heard of some of them. He found this foolish that creatures held more awe than any humans and that we used to bow down to animals on a planet that his own species owned. He also found it amusing how the elders saw it fit to give the creature Gods, human attributes. Often the head of the creature and the body of a human, or vice versa.

Brushing off yet another tapestry he came across a depiction of Arcai, the God of predators and decider of the catch. Arcai had the body of a man and the head of a Tiger, and in this depiction he was standing on a mountainside holding a key that glowed with a brilliant light up to the sky, as a hole in what seemed to be heaven broke through the clouds. In the next tapestry it was the exact same except instead of the key he held a blue gemstone about the size of a fist. There were many gemstones in the room but none were blue. He began brushing off the next tapestry which was that of the God of war, Beltos. This god was also linked to Arcai but was said to be more vindictive and indiscriminate. He was a man with a Hawks wings and eyes and was said to be one of the founding Angels of heaven. Again Sean laughed at this concept. He was very sceptical about the whole religion subject and the thought these half human half beast concepts created Earth, heaven and hell was too much. He burst out laughing. The noise echoed through the room and out into the Cavern. The extra breath he exhaled caused some more dust to be blown up from the tapestry and in turn made him sneeze which threw up even more dust. As it did so though he noticed some writing burried underneath.

"The key of light quest. Press here, only the best."

Sean pressed and the a door creaked open behind the tapestry. He lifted up and shone the torch. Another spiral staircase. Being sceptical, this time he was even more careful than the last. The stone wasn't as wet, but taking no chances he still went down on his ass. This one was much shorter than the last and after about five minutes he made it to another corridor. The torch showed Sean the treacherous path before him. There was a line painted in faded white saying "Begin, beware," and scattered out before it were remains of previous adventurers that had been killed in a variety of ways. The smell of decomposing flesh was wretched.

There was a large pit about Ten strides in front but he figured that was the least of his worries. Many of the bodies had arrows embedded in them or been sliced perfectly by what must have been blades of some sort, yet he couldn't see where any of it had come from. Traps were obviously set and he saw no reason why he should attempt to walk out there without knowing what he was in store for. He picked up a stone and threw it. It clanked down the corridor and then echoed off as it fell into the pit, but nothing happened. He figured he need more movement. There was a skeletal remain pinned against the wall about Five strides in front of him. It was balancing precariously on a ledge out from the wall. Sean picked up another stone and threw it, it hit the skeletons head and knocked it free from the body. It fell and bounced very slightly back up, and on the bounce an arrow shot out from the side of the side of the wall an impaled the skull to the other wall.

This was not good. He tried variations of throwing rocks at the remains in front of him, and with the poor lighting he could see no patterns whatsoever in how he might get across. He wasn't even sure if he'd see it if he had full lighting. He decided to go back up to the tapestries and see could he get any clues from there. After a while dusting and no leads on how he might get through the death course, as he liked to think of it, he started to get hungry. He had packed food in his backpack from the ship and had not thought of it since he left, even when he had the munchies after the fleck leaf. He sat down in the middle of the room and began unpacking his little picnic. He had salted beef wrapped up with some Tefel herb, which he placed in between two slices of dry flat bread. The flatbread was a little dry at this stage but it didn't matter, with a bottle of Venne to wash it down he was most grateful for the nutrition.

As he ate he stared around the room. He was impressed by the it, and felt a little proud of himself for unearthing this discovery. With the light propped against a table and stationary it seemed to extend the amount visible. He looked around and was taken back that he hadn't noticed how high the room actually was. And then it hit him. He managed to walk down the spiral stairs this time, after establishing it's security last time around. He came to the "Begin, beware," line and immediately looked up. Sure enough there was a ledge above him. It was out of reach though and he couldn't see a way to climb up. So he had to go back up the stairs and back down the stairs four more times carrying four tables that held jewels with him. He also put any of them he saw as valuable, along with the Book of Light into his rucksack, which now with the Jewels and solid gold book weighed him down abit but he didn't let it get to him.
After an acrobatic balancing act he got grip on the ledge and pulled himself up into a small crawl space. It seemed to lead the whole way along the death course. He was very interested in the course below, watching how far each man made it. After the pit which was as far as he could previously see, things got very deadly. Bodies couldn't even be distinguished from each other as they piled up in pits below him. He still couldn't really tell where the traps were but it didn't matter anyway. He was going to make it. Then the corpses stopped. It seemed nobody had made it any further. He was crawling for the best part of an hour until he saw the last one. A man that made it much further than anyone had even come close to. And in fact he had nearly made it, only another 50 strides or so to go. He reached the end of the crawl space. He looked down and was relieved to see a line drawn say "Finished." But he was still high up. Higher than at the point he had got up. There was water below him but he couldn't be sure how deep it was. He could risk jumping to the stone. He was sure it wouldn't kill him but he could break something if he landed wrong and down here in the depths of the world, that may kill him with nobody to help him.

He decided the water option to be best and just hope it was deep. Never the less he decided best jump feet first in case. He threw the rucksack just to the right of the pool along with the torch, and as the torch landed it lit up the dark water that little bit more. He could tell it was at least two feet or so deep. He prepared himself mentally for the jump. He figured the best way to do it would be to turn around and let himself hang from the ledge holding on with only his hands. Then to let himself fall just a little and kick off the wall turn around mid air and land in the pool.

He did this but as he was about to hit the water he was blinded by light. He was now standing on a solid surface and he could just make out the figure of someone in the light.
"
Who's there? asked Sean.
The figure spoke in a heavenly echoed voice, "I am Daltron, keeper of the caverns. I have been expecting you Sean."
"How did you know my name?"
"Your coming here has been foretold by the elders Sean. These caverns hold many secrets and each secret has a soul. These souls will chose another soul in a human to bind themselves to. They can be at any time through the age of mankind, and this secret has chosen you. All those who attempted to take control of The book of Light before you, died in vain, because only you could take it. You and you alone have been chosen."
"Why me?"
"Why would it be anyone? The book sees in you what it needs to see in someone. Only it can tell why you."
"So what is the Book of Light and how does it have a soul?
"The book of Light is a part of everything that light can touch. You will figure out how to use it as time goes by. As for the second question, I can not say. But ask yourself how do you have a soul? To get out of the caverns just follow the path on the other side of the blue door.

With that the figure disappeared and Sean was standing in the pool which was about three feet deep. He noticed a glow just under the surface and he bent down and fished out the most beautiful blue diamond he'd ever seen, or heard of. It was huge, about the size of his hand and he stood for a moment mesmerised by it.

He wondered how it was a key but then set about getting the hell out of there. He picked up the rucksack and the torch and saw the old wooden blue door just down from where he was standing. He opened it and followed the staircase that led him up to another passage. After he reached the passage and was walking on he heard the sound of stone crushing. The opening for the stairs closed itself off in stone as if the stone was a living creature.
Never before had Sean been so happy to see a cloudy room of drunken pirates. He saw Vulita in the crowd and walked up to her with the intentions of going mad at her for leading her down there, but her smile calmed him down instantly.