Gareth and th Lost Island (28 page)

Teesh threw her arms up in the air in happiness.
 “Why didn’t you say that in the beginning?!” she asked.
 Before anyone could answer, Teesh ran off below decks to
pester her favorite Chim into firing up the oven.

Izzy stood up, and chuckled at Gareth’s shocked
expression. “You may speak more languages than anyone I know, but I
still know how to speak ‘pre-teen girl’,” she told him.  Izzy
walked over to the railing, and picked up the backpack she was
taking on their trip.  “Come on, let’s see if we can find a
steam carriage to rent,” she suggested, and made her way down the
gangplank.

Six hours later, the away team found themselves
nearing the foothills of Mt. Nexus.  One of those hours had
been spent haggling over the terms of the steam carriage rental.
 The rest of the time found them bouncing uncomfortably on the
hard leather seats of the steam carriage, while it ate up the dirt
packed road at an astonishing 30 miles per hour.

Tralnis threw another bar of compressed sugar cane
husks into the hopper. He turned around to retake his seat behind
Izzy who was driving the brass and wood contraption.  He was
sitting next to Elizabeth who had glared at the back of Gareth’s
head for the entire trip.  Izzy had invoked driver’s
privilege, and chosen who got to sit next to her in the front
seat.

Gareth turned around in the seat to look at Tralnis.
“I thought of something while we’ve been driving,” he stated.

“You mean other than the fact that no one’s arse
should be subjected to these seats for more than an hour,” Tralnis
interjected.

“Yes, besides that.  I’ve started to think that
whoever hid these tablets did it to keep them away from Wizards,”
Gareth theorized.

Izzy swung the steering yoke to the side, and then
back again as she avoided a particularly large hole in the road.
 “Why do you say that?” she asked Gareth.

“It’s where they hid the tablets,” Gareth replied.
 “Both the underwater and jungle temple were built far away
from any Leylines.  The archeological dig where they found the
first tablet was the same way.  Any wizard who tried to go
there would be forced to draw upon their internal reserves, instead
of the magic of the Leylines,” he hypothesized.

Izzy nodded her head in understanding.  “And
any wizard who went to near this tablet would have their head go…
sploosh.  Makes sense,” she agreed.  

Gareth unfolded a map they had purchased at the
steam carriage dealership, and took a reading with a compass.
 He held out his free hand, and pointed a little to their
left.  “The coordinates look like they fall somewhere on that
face of the mountain. Those boulders over there, I think,” he
stated.  Izzy nodded, cut back on the throttle, and turned the
yoke so they could go off road.

When they finally came to a stop at the base of the
volcano, Tralnis hopped out, and rubbed his sore backside with both
hands.  “Would someone mind telling me why we didn’t just rent
a four man dirigible instead of this torture device?” he asked
rhetorically.  

A large black shadow passed over them, causing him
to look upwards.  The “bird” gliding on the magic induced
thermals was easily twice the size of their steam carriage.
 It looked to be made mostly of pointed beak, sharp talons,
and bad attitude.  

“Question withdrawn,” Tralnis muttered.

Gareth got out of the steam carriage, and nearly
jumped out of his skin when it gave out a loud hiss like a giant
angry cat.  Izzy hopped out, and gave him a comforting hug.
 “Sorry, I forget that not everybody grew up with both magical
and mechanical engines,” she apologized.  Pointing at a brass
cylinder attached to the boiler, she explained, “That’s the steam
compression chamber.  If you leave it pressurized when you’re
not using the engine, it can lead to stress fractures along the
seams.”  Gareth suddenly wondered if what he was feeling was
what some of his first year students did.  He had absolutely
no idea what Izzy was talking about, and didn’t even know enough
about the topic to guess at where to start asking questions.

Elizabeth was the last to hop out, and handed out
the backpacks for the rest of the team.  Izzy helped Elizabeth
slip her own backpack over her mechanical arm.  “Thanks…”
Elizabeth started to say before she stopped in mid-sentence, and
cocked her head to the side.  She squinted her remaining eye,
as she tried to make out something coming towards them.
 “Izzy, you know how I have no depth perception. Look back the
way we came, and tell me those are just regular sized birds coming
towards us,” she whispered.

Izzy looked in the direction indicated, and saw the
giant bird from earlier had friends who were curious as to what had
made that loud hissing sound.  She suddenly knew what a rabbit
felt like when an eagle was overhead.  “Gareth, now would be a
really good time to make our way to those boulders you pointed
out,” she suggested firmly.

Tralnis and Gareth looked back at her, and then at
the rapidly closing flock of giant birds.  “RUN!” Gareth
ordered, and then took his own advice when the others hurried past
him on the way to the safety of the boulders.  As he ran,
Gareth slipped the Void Rod out of its holster.  He briefly
cursed the universe as the rod steadfastly refused to change into a
staff, no matter how much he wanted it to.

Gareth had almost made it to the safety of the
boulders, when the sun was blocked out by a huge avian predator
above him.  He felt a strong wind on the back of his neck
caused by the bird flaring its wings in the final part of its dive.
 Dropping to one knee, he flung up the arm holding the Void
Rod in a last gesture of defiance.  The black weapon struck
the outstretched talon with a loud crack, right on its lowest
knuckle.  Gareth’s ears were nearly blown out when the bird
gave a loud scream of pain and broke off its attack.

Gareth got back up, and finished his race to the
boulders.  He was relieved to find the others crouched at the
base of the rocks where the birds couldn’t reach them.  After
catching his breath, and confirming the birds really weren’t able
to fit into the crevices between the boulders, Gareth looked around
at where they hid.  He blinked a few times to make sure he was
reading the inscription on the boulder in front of him
correctly.

Tralnis followed Gareth’s gaze, and noticed the
inscription for the first time.  It was more of the strange
flowing script of the language Gareth was the only one able to
read.  Next to the runes was the outline of a humanoid hand.
 “Don’t keep us in suspense, what does it say?” Tralnis
inquired.

Gareth rubbed his chin in thought.  “I’m not
really sure.  The first word is ‘emergency’ but the last word
could either mean ‘entrance’ or ‘exit’.  Without more words to
figure out context, I don’t know which it is,” he admitted.

Tralnis waved his hands at the runes in between the
first and last ones.  “All right then, what do those say?” he
asked.

Gareth’s mind was busy trying to infer context from
the environment around him.  “Oh those… they say ‘press circle
to open’,” he translated.  Gareth leaned closer to look at the
boulder.  “There’s more written below it, but it’s too worn
down.  I can’t make out what it says,” he muttered.

Elizabeth rolled her good eye at the lack of common
sense that seemed to plague most intellectuals.  She stepped
forward, and pushed the outline of a hand with her three fingered
mechanical hand. She did this just as Gareth managed to piece
together what the second set of runes meant.

“No! Wait!” Gareth yelled as Elizabeth pushed the
button.  A split second later, the ground gave out below them
as a large trapdoor swung open.  The rest of what he said was
lost as they fell into a vertical shaft leading deep under the
Nexus Volcano.

The vertical shaft they fell down slowly sloped so
the away team eventually found themselves sliding on their backs
along the shaft wall.  The “wall” soon became the “floor” as
the angle of the shaft shifted even more.  Halfway through
their slide into the bowels of Mt. Nexus, the tube split. It sent
Elizabeth and Gareth down the left fork, while Izzy and Tralnis
slid off to the right.

A large hole in the tan stone walls of a room large
enough to park a dozen steam carriages in spat out Elizabeth and
Gareth.  They went skidding across the polished marble floor
to land in a heap on the far wall.  Gareth sat up shakily, and
glared at Elizabeth.  “I figured out what those other runes
meant right before you pushed the button.  They said ‘WARNING
- door opens down’.  Don’t you think that would have been good
information to have,
Captain
?” he snarled.  Instead of
replying verbally, Elizabeth folded in two of her mechanical
fingers, while extending the other one out straight in a passable
approximation of a popular rude hand gesture.

Once they had both gotten back on their feet, Gareth
slowly turned around to get a look at where they were.  Metal
arms, with clear glowing crystals at the ends, were spaced evenly
along the walls, bathing the room in light.  Apart from the
large hole in the wall they came through, the only other way out
seemed to be a set of steel doors to their right.

Wanting to make sure they didn’t rush into anything,
Gareth walked over to the opposite wall to inspect the tube that
led to the surface.  He stuck his head in, and craned his neck
to look back the way he came.  With his hand, he felt the
extremely smooth walls of the tube.  “Going back this way is
out.  There’s no way we could get any sort of traction on
these walls.  Looks like we use the doors,” he announced,
after pulling his head back into the room.

Elizabeth spun on her heel, and stalked over to the
door.  She restrained her natural urge to just throw the doors
open when she saw more of the strange writing stamped directly into
the metal.  “All right, Professor, what do these say?” she
inquired tersely.

Gareth joined her by the door.  “Like the
boulder topside, this first rune means ‘warning’,” he stated.
 He frowned as he ran his hand over the other rune.
 “This one I don’t recognize. It’s similar to ‘animal’, but
looks like it has the rune for ‘changed’ overlaying it,” he
explained.

“Warning, changed animal,” Elizabeth said slowly.
 She let her mind wander, and thought about how the people who
had built these ancient structures were fond of traps. She also
thought about how the magic of the Leyline nexus could warp reality
around it.  “There is absolutely no way that could be a good
thing,” she muttered loud enough for Gareth to hear. He nodded his
head in full agreement. Elizabeth looked up at the doors, and saw
they were hung in such a way that they only opened away from them.
“Here is what we are going to do. We’ll open the door just wide
enough for me to peek through. If there is some sort of deadly
creature on the other side, we close the door right away,” she
ordered, reasserting her authority as Captain.

Not having a better plan, Gareth said, “Let me know
when you’re ready, and I’ll push the right door open an inch or
two.”

“Let’s do it,” Elizabeth said. Gareth pushed the
heavy steel door with all of his weight, and managed to get it open
a couple of inches. He stood aside so Elizabeth could peek through
the narrow opening with her one good eye. She placed her face
against the cool metal of the shut door and turned her head to look
at what terror lay on the other side. Elizabeth leaned back, and
rubbed her eye before looking for a second time.

“What is it? What do you see?” Gareth asked
anxiously.

“A duck,” Elizabeth said simply.

“A duck?” Gareth echoed, not sure he heard right.

Elizabeth straightened up, and shook her head in
confusion. “That’s what I said… a duck. Look for yourself,” she
ordered while pushing on the left door to make an opening wide
enough for Gareth to get his whole head through.

Gareth stepped in front of the opening, and stared at
the surreal scene in front of him. Just like Elizabeth had said, an
innocent looking duck stood amid debris littering the hallway
floor. The duck was mostly white, with a band of emerald green
feathers around its neck. It took Gareth a moment before his brain
reengaged, and he realized what the debris on the floor around the
duck was. Scattered around were the picked clean bones of several
large animals. He guessed the largest of the skeletons belonged to
one of the giant birds of prey they had met earlier. “What the
hells?!” Gareth swore, thoroughly confused.

The noise at the end of the hall drew the duck’s
attention. It took one look at Gareth before opening up its beak to
show rows of tiny, razor sharp teeth. With a sound halfway between
a hiss and a loud quack, it started waddling towards the partly
opened doors. The ceiling was too low for it to fly properly.

“Close the doors! Close the doors!” Gareth shouted
while he tried to pull the doors shut. The heavy steel doors
refused to move other than to open a little farther.

Elizabeth rolled her eye. “It’s just a duck,” she
chided Gareth.

“With sharp teeth, and a really hungry look in its
eye,” Gareth added.

Not bothering to reply to that bit of information,
Elizabeth grabbed a hold of the edge of the door, and pulled with
all of her might. Like Gareth, she had no luck pulling the doors
shut. She spun around to look at Gareth. “Any suggestions,
Profess-…Aaaaaah!” she started to ask before screaming in pain. The
duck turned out to be able to waddle much faster than either of
them had expected. When it reach them, it decided to bite the first
target that presented itself.

Elizabeth stumbled into the room with the duck
hanging by its bill full of sharp teeth from her posterior. After
drawing her pistol, she turned around frantically, trying to either
dislodge the evil water fowl, or get a clear shot at it.