Trail of the Gods: The Morcyth Saga Book Four (42 page)

When the door finally clears the door jamb,
a puff of stale air wafts from the room. They continue pulling
until the opening is wide enough for them to squeeze through.
Taking the orb back from Aleya, Jiron holds it out into the room as
he looks inside. “Looks like someone lived here,” he says.

Moving through the doorway with the other
two right behind, he finds three well preserved beds along with
chests at their ends.

“The fact that the door remained shut all
this time must have aided in the preservation of this room,”
explains James.

Aleya comes over to one of the chests and
moves to open it.

“Stop!” cries James, but is too late. She
opens the lid and he braces himself for something bad to happen.
When nothing does, he opens his eyes and finds her staring at
him.

“What?” she asks.

“There is no telling what could happen in a
place like this,” he explains to her. “Best to leave things
alone.”

Giving him an exasperated look, she reaches
in and pulls out a set of robes. From the cut of them, they look
like ceremonial priest robes. She holds them out to him and says,
“Looks like this place might have been a temple.”

Coming over to her, he takes a closer look
at the robe. It’s rather plain but of very fine quality. Looking
within the chest, he discovers the robe was all there is. “Come
on,” he says to them, “we still need to get out of here.”

Aleya lays the robes on the bed before she
follows them back out of the room.

Continuing down the corridor to the right,
they arrive at a junction just past the room they left. The
corridor ahead is blocked with rubble from a cave-in and is
impassable. To their left, another corridor moves off into the
darkness.

Moving down this new corridor, they go about
fifty feet when on their right, a set of ornately decorated double
doors appears. When James’ gaze first settles upon the doors, his
feelings of foreboding increases. Aleya seems to feel something as
well.

“Wait,” James says as Jiron moves to open
the doors.

Stopping, Jiron turns and glances back at
James. “What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Not sure, exactly,” he replies. “It’s just
that there’s something about this place that gives me the
willies.”

Looking at him in concern, he asks, “Do you
want me to open these doors?”

Nodding, he says, “We have to. The way out
could be in there.” As Jiron reaches for the handle, he adds, “Just
be careful.”

“I will,” he assures him. “I’ve come to
trust your feelings.” As his hand comes close to the door handle,
he pauses just for a second. The worries James has about this place
are beginning to affect him as well. Then he reaches out and takes
hold of the handle to the right door and pulls.

Where the previous door had been all but
rusted closed, this one moves easily on silent hinges. As the door
begins to open, light from within the room fills the corridor.
Jiron shuts the door quickly when he sees the light coming out and
turns to James. “What should we do?” he asks, worried.

“Open it slowly,” he tells him. “I don’t
feel magic or anything like that, and I seriously doubt if anyone
is still inside.”

“Then where’s the light coming from?” he
asks.

“Open the door and find out,” Aleya tells
him. “Or stand aside and let me do it.” She begins moving toward
the door when Jiron holds out his hand to stop her.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly pulls open
the door. Aleya has an arrow knocked and even James has
unconsciously pulled a slug from his belt. As the door opens, the
light from within again spills out into the corridor and James
cancels the orb as he no longer needs its light.

They gasp when the door finally opens enough
for them to see what lies within. To their right and left are two
rows of three wide columns stretching all the way to the ceiling. A
large open space lies between the two sets of columns.

Four large braziers are evenly spaced,
forming the points of a square within the open space between the
two rows of columns and from these is where the light is
originating. A flame burns atop each of the braziers, casting
sufficient light to illuminate the entire room.

Within the square formed by the flaming
braziers is a raised circular pedestal, five feet in diameter.
Rising two feet off the floor, it dominates the room.

“What is this place?” breathes Aleya from
behind him.

“I don’t know,” replies James. “Considering
the robe you found in that other room, it could very well be a
temple of some sort. This could be the room where the priests would
perform their rites.”

“How are the flames still burning?” Jiron
asks. As he begins moving into the room, James grabs his arm and
stops him.

“I should go first,” he says.

Nodding, Jiron moves aside as James passes
him on his way into the room.

He moves slowly and cautiously toward the
closest of the burning braziers. They are about a foot in diameter
and when he comes closer can see they’re partially filled with what
looks like some kind of oil. The braziers themselves are stone and
their base runs all the way to the floor. Turning to the others, he
says, “It’s possible there could be a storage tank with the oil
somewhere and they’re being fed from it through pipes.”

“It must have one massive storage capacity
for them to still be burning after so long a time,” Jiron says as
he comes to stand next to James.

James just nods his head as he moves toward
the dais. He comes to a stop and gasps when he sees what’s
inscribed upon the face of the dais.

“What?” asks Jiron before he too,
notices.

Aleya comes to them and asks, “What’s
wrong?”

Upon the dais is a symbol they’ve seen
before, three dots forming the ends of a triangle with lines
running between them, yet not touching them.

“Then that would mean this was once one of
his temples,” Jiron says.

“It would have to be an old one,” he
replies.

“Who’s temple?” asks Aleya. “What are you
talking about?”

Pointing to the dais and the symbol
inscribed upon it, James says, “Dmon-Li. One of his warrior priests
that we ran across a while back had been bearing this symbol.”

“But what can it mean?” Jiron asks. “Why
would this temple have been abandoned?”

Looking to him, James replies, “We really
don’t know that for sure, do we? The lights here would indicate
something has been going on, though just what I can’t for the life
of me figure out. But whatever the reasons, we’ve got to get out of
here, and right now.”

Turning around James makes a beeline for the
door. Once outside, he again creates the orb as he presses on down
the corridor away from the room with the dais. The light coming
from the room suddenly goes out when Jiron closes the door behind
him.

Now he understands why this place has
bothered him so much since they arrived. The presence or maybe the
old signatures of evil which must have been practiced here still
resonate within the halls.

“What’s wrong?” Aleya asks when she stops
James by taking hold of his arm.

Turning to look at her, he says, “Dmon-Li is
the god whose warrior priest has been pursuing us,” he explains.
Casting a quick glance to Jiron, he returns his gaze back to her as
he adds, “For reasons we can’t go into right now, suffice it to say
it would be extremely bad for us to be found by them.”

She studies him for a moment before nodding
her head.

Jiron rushes past James as he once again
takes the lead. “Just cursory looks from here on out,” James says
from behind him. “We no longer have the luxury of satisfying our
curiosity.”

“I hear you,” he replies.

The corridor ahead of them suddenly ends at
another corridor cutting across the one they’re in. Jiron
automatically turns to the right and continues moving. Shortly they
come to a set of winding steps on their left going down. “I think
this is the way we came up,” he announces, pausing for only a
second.

“I think you’re right,” agrees James.

Leaving the steps behind, they continue down
the corridor and come to a branching corridor to the right. Jiron
pauses a moment and glances back to James.

Shaking his head, he says, “This just leads
down the other side of the room with the dais in the middle.
Remember the doors that were on the other side?”

Nodding, Jiron turns back and continues
moving down the corridor. Another thirty feet and it opens up into
what James is beginning to realize as ‘anchor’ rooms, rooms of
similar design lying at the corners of a level. He always had them
in his dungeons, but never really thought they would be used in
actuality.

Another corridor exits the room to their
right. Passing by two pedestals with statues of demonic creatures,
they quickly cross the room to the other corridor. Once the room is
behind them, they go down twenty feet before yet another corridor
branches off, again to their right.

“Just keep going,” says James. “I think
there will be another stairway leading off the room at the
end.”

“Now how do you know that?” Aleya asks.

James shrugs and says, “Just sounds
reasonable. It’s how I would have done it.”

She shakes her head and continues following
Jiron.

Sure enough, they pass two more right hand
branching corridors and come to the fourth ‘anchor’ room. This one
is completely bare. Across the room from where they enter lies the
stairway James foretold.

Aleya looks back at him and he gives her a
grin. “Always trust his instincts,” Jiron says.

“I can see that,” she says.

Moving across the room, Jiron takes the
stairs and they wind up to the next level. When they reach the top,
James says, “Wait!”

The others stop as they turn their attention
to him. “Do you feel that?” he asks. He holds his hand out in front
of him as a smile comes to his face.

“A breeze!” Jiron exclaims. “That means a
way out!”

“Exactly,” agrees James, nodding his
head.

The light from the orb shows the room to be
just like the ‘anchor’ rooms from down below, only this one has but
a single corridor running off to the right. Several faded and
tattered tapestries adorn the walls.

Not taking the time to closely inspect them,
they cross the room and enter the corridor. Jiron leads them down
fifty feet before it branches, with passages going either to the
right or continuing straight ahead. He pauses a moment until he
determines the breeze is originating from the corridor to the
right. Pointing to that passage, he glances back at the others and
says, “It’s coming from this direction.”

James nods and says, “Lead on.”

Turning down the right corridor, he
continues fifty feet or so before coming across an area of the
corridor which has been blackened by fire. Three skeletons lie in
the middle of the floor, all are wearing what at one time could
have been an exact match to the robes found in the room below.

Coming to a stop, James examines them a
moment and then takes a good look at the corridor itself. “It looks
like fire killed them, but there’s nothing here to burn,” he
says.

“Magic?” suggests Jiron.

“Maybe,” he says. “A temple such as this had
to have made its share of enemies, I’m sure.”

“What, you think the priests were eradicated
by someone?” asks Aleya.

“Possibly,” reasons James. “It’s the only
explanation which seems to fit.” A glint from the midst of the
three corpses catches his eye and he leans forward for a closer
look.

“What are you doing?” asks Aleya nervously.
Her nerves have been on edge ever since they first entered this
place and being around the dead priests hasn’t calmed them down
any.

Taking out his knife, he begins moving the
rags and bones away, “There’s something here.”

“You shouldn’t disturb the dead,” she warns.
“It isn’t good.”

James suddenly stands up with a chain
dangling from the point of his knife. An amulet is attached to one
end of it.

Coming closer to take a better look at what
he found, Jiron suddenly gasps when the face of the medallion comes
into the light. He glances to James.

“I thought so,” he says. Holding it up, they
all see the three points with the lines running between them. “The
sign of the warrior priests, or at least something to do with
them.”

Taking it from his knife, he takes a closer
look and says, “I once had an amulet exactly like this one that I
bought from a merchant in Cardri.” Removing it from his knife, he
places it within the pouch at his waist. “I’ll not lose this so
readily this time,” he announces.

“Why take it?” asks Aleya.

“Never know if it’s going to come in handy
or not,” he tells her. To Jiron he says, “Now, shall we
continue?”

“Yeah,” he replies. “Let’s get out of
here!”

As they continue past the dead priests,
Aleya says, “You know, if that is the sign of these priest, why
didn’t everyone have them?”

“Maybe it was only given to a priest once
they achieved a certain level of the temple hierarchy,” suggests
James. “Simply having one may have afforded them some privilege or
it could’ve been a sign of rank or trust as well. We may never find
out conclusively.”

The tingling sensation of another doing
magic suddenly comes to James. It isn’t very strong and it feels
like it’s far off, probably the mage up on the surface hunting for
them. Whatever the reason, he doesn’t mention it to the others, he
can tell Aleya remains quite agitated about being in here. No sense
giving her more to worry about when nothing can be done about it
anyway.

They come to another junction of converging
corridors branching off to the right and left, or they can continue
on straight. Shining the light from the orb down the left corridor
reveals another impassable cave-in. To the right the corridor
extends further into the dark, as does the one continuing on
straight.