Ossendar: Book Two of the Resoration Series (65 page)

He slowly made his way over the bridge. Even though the structure did not move or give any, he was still concerned with the strength of the individual stones, so he tested each of them before he put his full weight down. It was slow going, but he gradually made his way up the slope of the arc, and then down the far side. At last stepping off of the bridge to a stone path that matched the one on the opposite side of the gorge. “It's safe, but come slowly and one at a time.” He called out.

Philip was the first to join him, arriving white faced and sweating, despite the cool cavern air. Whether he was afraid of the bridge, or because he had to walk it in complete darkness, Flare didn't know. He breathed easier, once he stepped off of the bridge. Flare grinned at him, and Philip returned it.

“Okay, Atock. Come on over.” Flare shouted, his voice echoing in the cavern.

Several moments later, Atock strolled over the bridge, seemingly unconcerned. He walked at a normal pace right up until he stepped off of the bridge. “Okay. Let's see where this goes.”

Breathing easier, they left the bridge and followed the stone path. It led over rough natural stone that mirrored that of the other side, and ended in an archway. They cautiously entered the archway, and found themselves in a narrow passage, similar to the ones they had been traveling since entering the catacombs. It was narrow and low, and hacked from the rough stone.

The passage twisted and turned and led generally downward for almost half a mile. Small passages, that looked to be little more than cracks, broke away from the main tunnel. The guardians stayed on the main corridor, and did little more than glance down the side passages.

A bitter disappointment settled in on the guardians. After crossing the gorge, hope had blossomed again that they might be nearing the end of this long trek, but this side of the gorge looked to be identical to the other side. Melancholy weighing them down, they walked on.

About a half mile from the gorge, they stumbled into a large cavernous hall. It was several hundred yards long and easily sixty or seventy yards wide. Massive pillars held up the ceiling, and were placed in two long rows running the length of the hall. The size of the room was awe inspiring, and the guardians stopped long enough to eat. They were all hungry, as they had wasted time exploring the small rooms early in the day.

Both Atock and Philip sat and ate in silence. Flare chuckled silently, thinking that the two of them looked like sulking children. It wasn't really funny, though. Their spirits were sinking. “You know,” He said suddenly, determined to say something to lift their spirits. “I think that these rooms are a good thing; a good omen.”

Philip continued to stare at his stale bread and salted ham, but Atock looked up, his brow wrinkling in confusion. “What? What do you mean a good omen?”

“Well,” Flare said leaning back against the wall. “The way that I see it, all the changes we have seen over the last couple of days, have to mean that we are getting close.”

“Hope so, or we might just run out of water.” Philip said, raising his head. “Not to mention the torches.”

Flare could have hit him. Leave it to Philip to ruin his plan. “Don't worry. It'll be fine.” He said with a fake smile, trying to show a sense of faith that he didn't have at that moment.

Atock smiled, although it looked a bit forced. Philip didn't even bother trying; instead he just lowered his head back to his food.

Flare sighed, and took another bite of his stale bread.

They left the large hall by the main passage that was on the opposite end from where they entered.

The passage ran straight for a couple hundred yards, with several small side passages splintering off. Flare led them around a sharp corner to the left, and then back around another corner to the right, and then he stopped dead. The passage dead ended into another deep gorge. They stood on a platform that hung out over the darkness. Flare looked up first, and then leaned over the edge, trying to see the bottom. He whistled softly, “Not what?”

“I guess we go down,” Philip answered, pointing to the edge of the platform.

Flare moved closer, and now could see steps leading down along the edge of the gorge. A momentary sense of vertigo hit him, as he looked down the steep stairs. The stairs were narrow, with the steep mountain on one side, and the deep gorge on the other. “Down that?” He looked closer at the mountain side of the steps; there was absolutely nothing to hold on to. He swallowed hard and then nodded, and Philip moved to the steps and started down. Apparently, these steep steps did not bother Philip the way the bridge had.

Philip led the way, followed by Flare, and lastly by Atock. At first, Flare counted the steps, but he soon lost count as step was followed by step. Several times, he looked out into the darkness, hoping the bottom was near, but if it was, he still couldn't see it. He never looked long into the abyss; instead he quickly pulled his eyes back to the steps. They traveled down and down, the steps seeming never-ending.

Flare was still focusing on the steps, when Philip spoke, “Looks like we found the bottom.”

Flare looked up eagerly, and relief washed over him as the rough stone bottom of the gorge came into view. Philip's torch cast shadows around the large uneven floor. Both ends of the gorge were buried in rubble, but an arch opened off of the far side of the gorge.

With Philip leading the way, they slowly made their way across the gorge floor. The cavern had a long abandoned feel to it, and the guardians threw nervous looks around as they walked. A spider the size of a small dog scurried across their path, completely ignoring them.

Philip froze, while Atock and Flare both drew their swords.

The spider took no notice of them though, and continued onward toward the end of the gorge to their right and soon disappeared into a pile of rubble.

Atock re-sheathed his sword, but Flare kept his sword out. “Do you think there are more of those things?” He asked shuttering, still watching the rubble where the spider disappeared.

Atock looked back over his shoulder smiling, “You afraid of a little spider?”

“No.” Flare answered, still not looking away from the rubble. “But I am afraid of that monster.”

Philip nodded, swallowing hard. “I'm with Flare. Let's get moving.” He moved quickly through the arch, followed closely by Atock.

Flare moved to follow. Nearing the door, he glanced back, and whipped around swinging his sword. “Atock! Philip!” A dark shape was skittering across the floor towards him. It was another spider, this one bigger than the one they had seen earlier. His sword slammed down onto the head of the spider and the spider's eye exploded, as the sword nearly cleaved the spider's head in half. It collapsed to the ground, frantically twitching.

Flare, quickly walking backwards, could see more of the furry shapes moving towards him. In fact, the floor looked like it was moving, crawling towards the guardians.

“Gods!” Atock's voice called out from just behind Flare.

“Back! Back!” Flare shouted, pushing the other two towards the passage.

The wall of approaching spiders stopped at the still twitching spider. One of the spiders in the front, the largest that Flare had seen yet, moved forward and began trying to drag the dying spider towards the rubble pile. Another spider moved forward quickly, and began trying to pull the dying spider in another direction. Within moments, the spiders were fighting frantically amongst themselves.

They didn't wait to see who won, but instead they fled through the arch. They moved into the new passage at a slow run. Concerned about the spiders behind them, they still knew better than to run full tilt through the tunnels. They barely noticed the passageway for minutes, as they looked first forwards and then backwards again. Finally, they stopped, still breathing hard. Philip continued to stare back down the tunnel in the direction of the spiders.

The passage they found themselves in was different than the others they had followed. The passage had obviously been cut through solid rock, with the walls and ceiling still showing the ancient cut marks. The floor was smooth but not level, and it appeared that the floor had been worn down by countless feet passing through the tunnel. Several metal sconces for torches hung on the wall at shoulder height, they looked rusty and ancient.

They only rested for a short time, as they all wanted to get as far from the spiders as possible.

They traveled for almost an hour, walking through the winding passage, when the slope of the path noticeably steepened. It headed down at a sharp angle, and several times they slid, almost losing their footing.

“What's that sound?” Atock asked, surprised. The sound was familiar, but he couldn't quite make it out.

Raising his head and trying hard not to slide, a smile broke out on Flare's face. The sound had been getting louder for some time, but gradually, and he hadn't paid it any attention, until now. “That's water dripping.”

“Water?” Atock repeated, the sound of hope clear in his voice.

Flare, his smile getting bigger all the time, hurried down the slope of the passage. It was difficult to keep his balance, so he sat back on his butt and slide down the slope, using his hands and feet to slow his descent. The slope ended abruptly on a level landing. The sudden change in the passage caused him to lose his balance and fall forward, landing on his hands and knees. Atock and Philip landed roughly right behind him. The torch that Flare held in his left hand went flying.

Flare knelt on the floor for a moment, trying to catch his breath.

“Listen!” Philip said, grabbing Flare's arm. “The water is definitely louder.”

“Come on! Let's check it out.” Flare said, scrambling to his feet. He moved forward and picked up the fallen torch.

Philip and Atock followed closely on his heels. They followed the passage as it curved around several sharp turns, the sound of the water getting louder. Finally, the passage opened into a large but narrow cavernous room. The room was obviously formed naturally, and the water streaming down the right side of the wall was the culprit. The water followed a narrow chute about halfway down the wall, and then the water gushed out to cover the lower half of the wall in a gorgeous waterfall. The water then followed a groove in the floor, kind of like a trough, along the floor and disappeared into a hole on the far side of the room.

“Thank Adel,” Philip said, rushing forward to dipping his hands into the water. He promptly yanked his hands back out of the water.

“What is it?”

“It's ice cold.” Philip said, still grinning and looking back at the other two. Then, he leaned forward and dunked his head into the icy water.

Atock flopped down beside the water. “I'm exhausted.”

Flare nodded, realizing how exhausted he was as well. Gingerly, he sat down next to Atock. “Let's camp here, tonight. We'll get rested and start again tomorrow.”

Philip was too busy splashing in the water to listen, but Flare heard what Atock asked. “What happens if we don't find the sword?”

Flare blinked, the excitement of finding the water wilting a bit. “Of course we'll find the sword.” He reached out and squeezed Atock's shoulder. “Just have faith.”

Atock nodded, but didn't say anything.

They made camp near the waterfall, taking delight in the ice cold water. It did have a peculiar taste and smell. It kind of reminded Flare of eggs that had gone bad, but the smell hardly slowed them down as they gulped it down and even bathed in the frigid water.

It wasn't until later that evening, that they discovered a side affect of the mountain water. As it turned out, they each had to visit their impromptu privy as the water cleaned each of them out. Atock had to go back a total of three times before Philip and Flare lay down to sleep. The whole time Atock shot grumpy glances at his two smiling comrades.

Even though the water was a natural laxative, it still had the affect of lifting their spirits. For the first time in days, they laughed over dinner, even the fear that the spiders had caused earlier in the day faded away, and they found themselves looking forward with hope.

Flare lay down first, as he had once again volunteered for the middle watch. He folded both blankets before he put them on the ground. It wasn't much of a cushion, but it was better than lying directly on the hard ground. He hadn't needed to cover up with the second blanket for the last two nights. That was actually sort of strange, as he would have thought that the temperature would have kept going down as they got deeper into the mountain.

As he lay there, his mind starting to drift off into sleep, he heard Atock curse and head off again to the latrine. He smiled, and then was fast asleep.

Atock nudged Flare awake, rather roughly, actually, when it was Flare's turn to stand watch. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, he never realized how much he loved his bed in the palace at Telur. “Everything quiet?” He asked, yawning.

“Yeah.” Atock grunted. “I wore a path to the latrine, though.”

As tired as he was, Flare didn't have the energy to smile. As hard as his blankets were, lying on top of the hard stone, they still were awful inviting. He climbed to his feet, a little grumpily, and stretched his sore muscles out. It wasn't that he wanted to stand for his watch, but he simply didn't trust himself to stay awake.