JollyDoc
Explorer
THE VIVIFIED LABYRINTH
The three rope bridges descended even deeper into the cave, connecting three progressively lower ledges on the wall until finally reaching a stony protrusion at ground level which rose from a rocky beach overlooking the sloshing waters of the sea cave itself. At the bottom of the vast cavern, a single wooden pier extended out into the water. A shallow-draft barge was docked there, an unlit lantern hanging from its bow. Supporting timbers and brickwork lined parts of the lower edge of the cavern to the west and south, showing where the original cave had been artificially expanded. To the north, a wide waterway provided an aquatic exit, the distant, muted sounds of the surf echoing down from that direction.
The companions made their way around the ledge until they reached the point where Glorio had told them they would find the hidden door. Ratbone felt along the stone until he found the switch. Once triggered, the wall slid aside, revealing a dark tunnel that wound away into darkness. It twisted some hundred yards or more before arriving at a dead end. On the left side of the passage two statues, each depicting a tiger-headed man, stood in alcoves on either side of a pair of double doors. Their arms were wide, as if to usher visitors forward into the room beyond. As the rest of the group stood before the doors, Ratbone, once more in his canine form, began sniffing along the edge of the wall at the end of the passage. Suddenly, to the shocked astonishment of his friends, he simply stepped through the wall and vanished. A moment later, he reappeared in his normal shape.
“It’s an illusion,” he said. “I knew something didn’t smell right. There’re another set of doors on the other side.”
As each of the companions stepped through the illusion, they saw it for what it truly was, a hazy, insubstantial figment. Beyond it, the passage continued another dozen yards before ending in a second pair of doors. They were simple, unadorned and unlocked. Herc pushed them open, revealing a large room lit by a heartily burning fire pit in its center. Cages hung on chains dangling from hooks in the ceiling, while racks, strapadoes, gibbets and other implements of torture filled the floor space. A pair of immense wooden doors stood in the wall to the north, while to the south stood several narrow cells. On the far side of the room, a screaming man was being strapped to a rack by a tall, shadowy figure. As the doors opened, the figure turned, revealing a feminine physique with golden tanned skin and well-formed curves, suggesting years of activity and work toward physical perfection. Beneath her diaphanous robes, her legs crossed over one another, while six arms, two facing towards her back, waved in a continuous dance. Three fanged heads sat atop a sturdy neck, studying every direction. All three heads smiled a predator’s grin, and in the blink of an eye, she vanished, only to reappear in the hall behind the group, standing right next to Katarina and O’Reginald. Ratbone roared, his body shifting into that of the horned, bipedal predator. Shoving his friends to the side, he bulled his way back towards the strange creature, slashing at her with his claws.
“Back away slowly,” Michael whispered from behind O’Reginald and Kat. “I have heard of these beings, and they are not to be trifled with. She is one of the asura. They are servants of the Vudrani deities. They exist to torment mortal warriors, torture evil souls, and mete out the wrath of the gods. They are said to be masters of every weapon ever crafted and innately familiar with the forms and ways of every martial art imagined. Best to let those best-suited to such pursuits handle this one.”
Taking the priest’s warning to heart, the two mages quickly headed for the torture chamber, but as they retreated, the asura blurred into motion, somersaulting and tumbling past Ratbone, around Michael, and over Herc and Valeris. Just as she completed her final flip, while she was still in midair, O’Reginald flung out his hand and hurled a spell. When it struck, the asura stumbled and fell to the ground, all of the grace gone from her body. In a flash, Ratbone was upon her, and as he pinned her to the ground and tore savagely at her, Kat struck, loosing a sonic lance which broke all three of the creature’s necks.
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“Please! I beg you! Free me!” the prisoner wailed as the companions gathered round the rack.
“Of course we will,” Michael said as he began loosening the straps. “Who are you, and how did you come to be here?”
“Velak,” the man gasped. “My name’s Velak. I was hungry. My family was starving. The Arkonas caught me stealing from one of their warehouses and they cast me down here.”
Kat looked closely at the man, her brow furrowing.
“What?” Velak asked, fear on his face. “I’m telling the truth!”
“I think not,” Kat said, shaking her head slowly. “Though you have been mistreated, and are in dire need of a bath, I still know you. It is you we came here to find, Seneschal Kalepopolis.”
The man’s eyes went wide as he sat up on the table rubbing at his arms.
“Who are you people?” he whispered. “Are you agents of the queen? The Mantis? Have you come for me at last?”
“We serve Korvosa,” Ratbone replied, “not the one who wears its crown, and we would see a new monarch sit upon the Crimson Throne.”
“How…how did you find me?” Kalepopolis stammered.
“Salvator Scream,” said Kat. “Vencarlo Orisini contacted Field Marshal Kroft, saying that he had important information. She, in turn, sent us to find Orisini. We were too late, however. He had apparently already come in search of you, and we found only agents of the Mantis in his home. A student of Orisini’s found us later, and told us of Scream. We eventually searched him out and found out about his error in judgment in sending you here. We have…an arrangement with Glorio Arkona. Now that we’ve found you, we still have to find Orisini.”
“Orisini’s here too?” the seneschal asked. “Gods help him! I am grateful for your assistance, and there is much I must tell you, but we must find Vencarlo and be away from this place. It’s not safe!”
“Of course,” Kat said, “but the labyrinth is no place for a defenseless civilian to be wandering.”
“I’m hardly defenseless,” Kalepopolis said as he bent down to retrieve the asura’s sword. “I’ll wait here. If the Arkonas wanted me dead, I’d be so already. I’m too valuable to them to be killed outright. Find Orisini, then come back for me, but make haste.”
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There was a large set of double door on the north wall of the torture chamber, and the K.I.A. agents elected to begin their search there rather than backtrack to what was the obvious, and therefore most likely dangerous, entrance to the labyrinth. Beyond the portals, a vast cavern stretched into the shadows, the true extent of the area difficult to discern due to a thick maze of wooden timbers that rose up to support the roof. A ledge wound along the eastern and northern sides of the cave, with the floor dropping away to a depth of several dozen feet. Four immense stone pillars supported the ceiling above. Where the pillars connected to the ceiling, a network of wooden braces and timbers radiated out in a wheel shape, forming four forty-foot wide discs flush against the roof. Dozens of chains hung down from the beams to attach to the pillars themselves, many of which were decorated with rows and rows of bells. Chained to each pillar at ground level was an enormous creature. Standing motionless, they could easily have been mistaken for huge, skeletal displays of long-dead war elephants. At further glance, however, their eyes could be seen to burn a smoky black, and pieces of stench-ridden flesh hung from their crusty bones. Rusty barding draped loosely over their skeletal spines, and ancient, rotten finery hung over their skulls and draped flaccidly towards the ground.
“Interesting,” O’Reginald said, stroking his chin.
“Very,” Kat agreed. “When Ratbone found the illusory wall, that hallway beyond it sloped down. Unless I miss my guess, this room should be directly below the Vivified Labyrinth.”
“So?” the mage asked.
“So,” Kat replied, as if lecturing a slow-witted child, “these pillars are massive gears. Glorio said that levers within the labyrinth could shift the locations of the rooms. I’m guessing that we’re looking at the machinery that accomplishes that feat.”
“Should we destroy them then?” Herc asked.
Kat gave the big, but none-too-bright mercenary a kind, but condescending smile.
“If we did that,” she said, “then how could we move through the labyrinth? We’d never be able to find Orisini.”
“Oh,” Herc said , his face flushing.
“After we’re done, we can always sabotage the gears so that the Arkonas can make no more of their prisoners suffer here,” Kat said. “For now, though, I suggest we backtrack and go in the way we were meant to. No better way to find a trap than to trigger it.”
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Back at the first set of doors they’d found, the companions opened them to find a plain, unadorned room. Two alcoves stood in either side, and in one, a long lever with an ebony handle protruded from the wall.
“Looks like this is the place,” Ratbone said. He grasped the lever, and looked back at his allies. “Ready?”
The others gathered together and nodded. The druid pulled the lever. Immediately, the entire room began to rumble, and the agents had to hold on to each other to avoid being thrown to the ground.
“Watch out!” O’Reginald shouted.
His warning came too late. The room began to split, with one half revolving away from the other, a section of wall sliding rapidly to separate the two. Michael stood directly in the transition zone. At O’Reginald’s shout, he tried to spring forward, but he wasn’t fast enough. The sliding wall began to scissor him. He screamed in agony, blood gushing from his mouth. At the last possible moment, Ratbone seized his arm and jerked him into the northern, revolving section of the room. The wall snapped shut, leaving O’Reginald and Katarina trapped on the southern side.
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Ratbone cursed and jerked at the lever, trying to pull it back up again, but it was firmly locked in place. Kat knelt beside Michael and quickly forced a healing draught down his throat. The priest’s eyes flickered open, and he reflexively grasped his holy symbol. White light seeped from around his fingers, and his breathing slowed and stabilized.
“Umm…guys,” Herc said. “Where are we?”
The others looked up and saw, that where previously there had been a blank wall to the north, there was now an open archway. Beyond it, a hallway ran at right angles, with a door at the end of the left branch, and a lever protruding from the wall on the right. Valeris started immediately towards the lever.
“Wait!” Ratbone shouted. “We don’t know what that’ll do. For all we know it’ll just rotate us deeper into the labyrinth. I don’t think it’ll take us back.”
‘Then what do you suggest?” the duskblade asked.
“Let’s have a look behind the door first,” the druid replied. “Maybe we’ll find something useful.”
Beyond the door, however, was simply another empty room, with another door on the far side. Ratbone stepped into the room, but as he did so, a strange symbol suddenly flared to glowing life in the middle of the floor. The druid cringed instinctively, and shielded his eyes, but nothing happened…at least not to him. Behind him, however, he heard Michael begin to scream again.
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“What do you mean ‘no’?” O’Reginald snapped as Kat grabbed his arm.
“I mean you don’t know where they went,” she said calmly.
“They’re right on the other side of that wall,” the wizard said impatiently, jerking his arm away.
“I don’t think so,” Kat said. “Remember the gears we saw. If they rotate the rooms of the labyrinth, then that chamber not only rotated on its axis, but along the axis of the gear as well. We don’t know exactly where the room is, at least not pinpoint enough for you to transport us there. If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not reappear inside a wall.”
“So what do you want us to do?” O’Reginald asked.
“Let’s go back to the control room,” Kat replied. “Maybe if I see the new position of the gears, I’ll have a better idea where the room is now.”
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When Ratbone rushed back to the others, he found Michael curled up on the floor, clutching at his stomach.
“What happened?” the druid asked.
“Don’t know,” Valeris shrugged. “There was that flash of light when you opened that door, and next thing, he was on the floor. I felt a mild rumble in my own gut, but it passed. Guess the padre’s got a weak constitution.”
Ratbone helped Michael to his feet, but the priest was still shaking.
“Can you walk?” Ratbone asked.
“I…I think so…,” Michael stuttered. “The pain, though…it won’t stop.”
There was no way out of the set of rooms the entry chamber had rotated into. They were trapped. After a minute or so, they found that both levers were again moveable, but the four companions were still dubious about pulling them, fearing they would only be taken further away from their friends. It was Michael who ultimately came up with a possible solution.
“The wand…,” he panted in between spasms of pain, “the one I…found in the Arch…it can…shape stone. Maybe we can…open a hole…down to the…gear room…,”
Ratbone nodded, understanding.
“Do you think you can use it?”
“I’ll…try…,” Michael said.
He drew the wand from his belt, touched it to the floor and spoke a word. Instantly, the stone began dissolving, forming a narrow hole, no more than a foot in diameter.
“I don’t know…if the wand…has enough power left…to go all the way…,” Michael said.
Ten feet he bored down, then twenty, and then thirty. At that point, he saw that the stone ended, and there was a short open space and then what looked to be wood.
“I think…I think we’re through!” Michael said. “I think…I see the rafters!”
“Can you widen the hole?” Ratbone asked.
“I…I can try,” Michael nodded.
He touched the wand to the floor again and began circumscribing a larger opening.
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“Just as I thought,” Kat said.
She and O’Reginald stood on the ledge overlooking the great gears and their undead beasts of burden. Each of the creatures had moved approximately one-quarter of a circle from their previous positions.
“The levers somehow signal those creatures to turn the wheels,” Kat continued. “Perhaps, based on their current position, I can figure out where the room with the others went.”
“I think I already know,” O’Reginald replied. He pointed up and Kat looked. From the maze of wooden rafters above, a large bird suddenly flew…Ratbone…
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It was a relatively simple matter for the companions to regroup in the lever room. Once they were all together again, Ratbone grabbed the lever once more.
“Everyone ready?”
All nodded, having made sure that none of them were in the transition zone where the room would be rotating. Ratbone pulled the lever. Again the floor rumbled as the room began to turn. Again the opening beyond the archway sealed, only to reappear a moment later, revealing something new. A long corridor stretched away for several yards. Both walls were decorated with row upon row of tiger heads. Each appeared to be that of an actual, once-living tiger. They were remarkably well-preserved, their gaping mouths and glaring eyes even appearing to be moist. Standing in the middle of the hallway was none other than Vencarlo Orisini.
The fencing master was clothed in moldy leather armor, and he carried a pair of kukris in his hands, while on his back were strapped three javelins. His eyes widened in shock as he saw his friends…the last people he had ever expected to see.
“Why are you here?” he gasped
“We came looking for you,” Ratbone said, and he quickly recapped the events that had brought them to the labyrinth.
“Glorio allowed you to come down here?” Orisini asked, his eyes narrowed.
“In a manner of speaking,” Kat said. “He did it to save face, allowing us to ‘rescue’ you and Kalepopolis without having it look like he just handed you over.”
“No…that’s not it at all!” Orisini shouted. “It’s a trap! He sent you down here to die! Glorio Arkona is in league with Ileosa. In exchange for handing over Kalepopolis, she has promised his family a prominent position in her new aristocracy. There is a creature roaming the labyrinth. It’s been hunting me for days. It’s called a darksphinx, and it is hideously powerful. Arkona intends for you to die at its hands, further cementing his position with Ileosa by eliminating her enemies. This is what I hoped to warn you about, to keep you away from here. Now that you’re here, though, we have no choice. We have to kill Glorio Arkona!”
“How do you know all of this?” Ratbone asked.
“Glorio told me!” Orisini said, his voice rising. “He gloated about it before he had me thrown down into this hellhole. I’ve been trying to stay one step ahead of the darksphinx ever since.”
“Then maybe we should deal with it first,” Ratbone replied. “We don’t want it coming after us after we leave.”
“It won’t,” Orisini said hurriedly. “It’s Arkona’s jailor. It won’t leave the labyrinth. We need to escape with Kalepopolis while we can. He’s too valuable to risk.”
“We will leave,” Ratbone said reasonably, “but I don’t want to leave the darksphinx alive to torture any more prisoners of the Arkonas’. I don’t see why we need to confront Lord Arkona, though. That would be very risky. Why don’t we just escape through the sea cave?”
“No!” Orisini snapped. “If we leave Arkona alive, he’ll alert the queen, and she’ll send more Mantis assassins after us!”
“I agree,” Valeris chimed in. “If we’re talking about not leaving enemies behind us, then Arkona is one big one that we should deal with before we go.”
Herc shook his head. “Never pick a fight on your enemy’s home turf if you can avoid it. Too much advantage.”
“Yes, but he doesn’t expect us to be coming back,” Kat said, playing devil’s advocate. “If this is something that has to be done, it might be best to do it while we still have some element of surprise. If not, Arkona will surely be prepared for us if there’s a next time.”
“Hold on!” O’Reginald said. “What did we come down here to do? Rescue Orisini and the seneschal. We’ve done that! Croft didn’t say anything about taking on one of the noble houses! I think that’s a little bit above of our pay grade. We can get word to the field marshal once we’re safely away, then she can decide what to do about the Arkonas.”
Several voices rose at once after that, with everyone commenting on the pros and cons of each course of action. Finally, a tenuous compromise was reached.
“It’s agreed,” Ratbone said at length, “we continue into the labyrinth and find the darksphinx. Once that’s taken care of, we can approach Arkona, and based on his reaction, we’ll take it from there.”
Orisini swore under his breath and shook his head. The fencing master was not satisfied with the plan. It was his opinion that if they went before Arkona, they would be playing directly into his hands, but he agreed to accompany the K.I.A. agents…for the time being.
“What lies back the way you came?” Ratbone asked Orisini. “This hall looks to be a dead-end.”
“There’s a hidden door at the end,” Orisini replied. “Beyond, there are a series of empty rooms and passages that do not rotate. They lead back into the labyrinth proper at the far end.”
“Lead on,” Ratbone said.
“Aren’t we forgetting about something?” Valeris interrupted. The others looked at him questioningly. He rolled his eyes, and then reached into the large back that hung at his belt and began to draw forth the possessions and trappings of Black Jack. Orisini’s eyes widened.
“I see you’re familiar with these items,” Kat said smiling.
Orisini swallowed. “There’s no point denying it, I suppose,” he sighed. “Perhaps it’s time for Black Jack to disappear for good.”
“Not just yet, I think,” Kat said as she handed Orisini his blade.
The fencing master pulled on his gloves, his boots, and draped the black cloak around his shoulders. Then he turned and started down the hallway. He’d just reached the end, and was reaching for the latch of the hidden portal, when suddenly the tiger heads on either side writhed out of the walls on long, serpentine necks in a horrific storm of scales, fangs and fur. They bit savagely at the companions, tearing into flesh and bone with their ripping teeth. Orisini triggered the door and dove through. Simultaneously, O’Reginald grabbed the hands of Valeris and Katarina and stepped across the boundary of reality, reappearing a moment later in the next room beside Orisini. Meanwhile, Herc and Ratbone went on the offensive, hacking and clawing the heads from the wall, one after the other. Once the last head lay on the ground, they followed their friends quickly through the door.
“You didn’t run into those when you came through the first time?” Ratbone asked Orisini.
“If I had, don’t you think I’d have warned you?” Orisini snapped.
Ratbone nodded, but said nothing. The room in which they currently found themselves held a ten-foot wide, two-foot tall well. Inky water filled it nearly to its rim, obscuring its depths. A stone statue of a rearing snake rose from the center of the well. Along the length of the serpent’s body were carved dozens of arms crossed over the creature’s belly…and each arm gripped a long curved blade. The statue’s serpentine head rose ten feet above the surface of the water, and gazed down coolly to the northeast with amethyst eyes.
“Well that looks ominous,” Valeris said.
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than a loud hiss issued from the statue as dozens of curved blades sprang out of the well’s base and began spinning furiously around the room, striking at all who stood around its perimeter. Orisini dove nimbly over the blades, and rolled through an archway on the far side of the room, while Valeris, the ring given to him by Glorio Arkona flaring to life, also rolled out of the path of the deadly scythes. The others were not so lucky. They all ran for the far side of the room, but not without suffering deep, wide gashes. It was not until they’d regrouped in the passageway, however, that they noticed not everyone had made it through. Laying on the floor beneath the spinning blades was Katarina, her eyes open and staring as a widening pool of her own blood spread around her.
The three rope bridges descended even deeper into the cave, connecting three progressively lower ledges on the wall until finally reaching a stony protrusion at ground level which rose from a rocky beach overlooking the sloshing waters of the sea cave itself. At the bottom of the vast cavern, a single wooden pier extended out into the water. A shallow-draft barge was docked there, an unlit lantern hanging from its bow. Supporting timbers and brickwork lined parts of the lower edge of the cavern to the west and south, showing where the original cave had been artificially expanded. To the north, a wide waterway provided an aquatic exit, the distant, muted sounds of the surf echoing down from that direction.
The companions made their way around the ledge until they reached the point where Glorio had told them they would find the hidden door. Ratbone felt along the stone until he found the switch. Once triggered, the wall slid aside, revealing a dark tunnel that wound away into darkness. It twisted some hundred yards or more before arriving at a dead end. On the left side of the passage two statues, each depicting a tiger-headed man, stood in alcoves on either side of a pair of double doors. Their arms were wide, as if to usher visitors forward into the room beyond. As the rest of the group stood before the doors, Ratbone, once more in his canine form, began sniffing along the edge of the wall at the end of the passage. Suddenly, to the shocked astonishment of his friends, he simply stepped through the wall and vanished. A moment later, he reappeared in his normal shape.
“It’s an illusion,” he said. “I knew something didn’t smell right. There’re another set of doors on the other side.”
As each of the companions stepped through the illusion, they saw it for what it truly was, a hazy, insubstantial figment. Beyond it, the passage continued another dozen yards before ending in a second pair of doors. They were simple, unadorned and unlocked. Herc pushed them open, revealing a large room lit by a heartily burning fire pit in its center. Cages hung on chains dangling from hooks in the ceiling, while racks, strapadoes, gibbets and other implements of torture filled the floor space. A pair of immense wooden doors stood in the wall to the north, while to the south stood several narrow cells. On the far side of the room, a screaming man was being strapped to a rack by a tall, shadowy figure. As the doors opened, the figure turned, revealing a feminine physique with golden tanned skin and well-formed curves, suggesting years of activity and work toward physical perfection. Beneath her diaphanous robes, her legs crossed over one another, while six arms, two facing towards her back, waved in a continuous dance. Three fanged heads sat atop a sturdy neck, studying every direction. All three heads smiled a predator’s grin, and in the blink of an eye, she vanished, only to reappear in the hall behind the group, standing right next to Katarina and O’Reginald. Ratbone roared, his body shifting into that of the horned, bipedal predator. Shoving his friends to the side, he bulled his way back towards the strange creature, slashing at her with his claws.
“Back away slowly,” Michael whispered from behind O’Reginald and Kat. “I have heard of these beings, and they are not to be trifled with. She is one of the asura. They are servants of the Vudrani deities. They exist to torment mortal warriors, torture evil souls, and mete out the wrath of the gods. They are said to be masters of every weapon ever crafted and innately familiar with the forms and ways of every martial art imagined. Best to let those best-suited to such pursuits handle this one.”
Taking the priest’s warning to heart, the two mages quickly headed for the torture chamber, but as they retreated, the asura blurred into motion, somersaulting and tumbling past Ratbone, around Michael, and over Herc and Valeris. Just as she completed her final flip, while she was still in midair, O’Reginald flung out his hand and hurled a spell. When it struck, the asura stumbled and fell to the ground, all of the grace gone from her body. In a flash, Ratbone was upon her, and as he pinned her to the ground and tore savagely at her, Kat struck, loosing a sonic lance which broke all three of the creature’s necks.
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“Please! I beg you! Free me!” the prisoner wailed as the companions gathered round the rack.
“Of course we will,” Michael said as he began loosening the straps. “Who are you, and how did you come to be here?”
“Velak,” the man gasped. “My name’s Velak. I was hungry. My family was starving. The Arkonas caught me stealing from one of their warehouses and they cast me down here.”
Kat looked closely at the man, her brow furrowing.
“What?” Velak asked, fear on his face. “I’m telling the truth!”
“I think not,” Kat said, shaking her head slowly. “Though you have been mistreated, and are in dire need of a bath, I still know you. It is you we came here to find, Seneschal Kalepopolis.”
The man’s eyes went wide as he sat up on the table rubbing at his arms.
“Who are you people?” he whispered. “Are you agents of the queen? The Mantis? Have you come for me at last?”
“We serve Korvosa,” Ratbone replied, “not the one who wears its crown, and we would see a new monarch sit upon the Crimson Throne.”
“How…how did you find me?” Kalepopolis stammered.
“Salvator Scream,” said Kat. “Vencarlo Orisini contacted Field Marshal Kroft, saying that he had important information. She, in turn, sent us to find Orisini. We were too late, however. He had apparently already come in search of you, and we found only agents of the Mantis in his home. A student of Orisini’s found us later, and told us of Scream. We eventually searched him out and found out about his error in judgment in sending you here. We have…an arrangement with Glorio Arkona. Now that we’ve found you, we still have to find Orisini.”
“Orisini’s here too?” the seneschal asked. “Gods help him! I am grateful for your assistance, and there is much I must tell you, but we must find Vencarlo and be away from this place. It’s not safe!”
“Of course,” Kat said, “but the labyrinth is no place for a defenseless civilian to be wandering.”
“I’m hardly defenseless,” Kalepopolis said as he bent down to retrieve the asura’s sword. “I’ll wait here. If the Arkonas wanted me dead, I’d be so already. I’m too valuable to them to be killed outright. Find Orisini, then come back for me, but make haste.”
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There was a large set of double door on the north wall of the torture chamber, and the K.I.A. agents elected to begin their search there rather than backtrack to what was the obvious, and therefore most likely dangerous, entrance to the labyrinth. Beyond the portals, a vast cavern stretched into the shadows, the true extent of the area difficult to discern due to a thick maze of wooden timbers that rose up to support the roof. A ledge wound along the eastern and northern sides of the cave, with the floor dropping away to a depth of several dozen feet. Four immense stone pillars supported the ceiling above. Where the pillars connected to the ceiling, a network of wooden braces and timbers radiated out in a wheel shape, forming four forty-foot wide discs flush against the roof. Dozens of chains hung down from the beams to attach to the pillars themselves, many of which were decorated with rows and rows of bells. Chained to each pillar at ground level was an enormous creature. Standing motionless, they could easily have been mistaken for huge, skeletal displays of long-dead war elephants. At further glance, however, their eyes could be seen to burn a smoky black, and pieces of stench-ridden flesh hung from their crusty bones. Rusty barding draped loosely over their skeletal spines, and ancient, rotten finery hung over their skulls and draped flaccidly towards the ground.
“Interesting,” O’Reginald said, stroking his chin.
“Very,” Kat agreed. “When Ratbone found the illusory wall, that hallway beyond it sloped down. Unless I miss my guess, this room should be directly below the Vivified Labyrinth.”
“So?” the mage asked.
“So,” Kat replied, as if lecturing a slow-witted child, “these pillars are massive gears. Glorio said that levers within the labyrinth could shift the locations of the rooms. I’m guessing that we’re looking at the machinery that accomplishes that feat.”
“Should we destroy them then?” Herc asked.
Kat gave the big, but none-too-bright mercenary a kind, but condescending smile.
“If we did that,” she said, “then how could we move through the labyrinth? We’d never be able to find Orisini.”
“Oh,” Herc said , his face flushing.
“After we’re done, we can always sabotage the gears so that the Arkonas can make no more of their prisoners suffer here,” Kat said. “For now, though, I suggest we backtrack and go in the way we were meant to. No better way to find a trap than to trigger it.”
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Back at the first set of doors they’d found, the companions opened them to find a plain, unadorned room. Two alcoves stood in either side, and in one, a long lever with an ebony handle protruded from the wall.
“Looks like this is the place,” Ratbone said. He grasped the lever, and looked back at his allies. “Ready?”
The others gathered together and nodded. The druid pulled the lever. Immediately, the entire room began to rumble, and the agents had to hold on to each other to avoid being thrown to the ground.
“Watch out!” O’Reginald shouted.
His warning came too late. The room began to split, with one half revolving away from the other, a section of wall sliding rapidly to separate the two. Michael stood directly in the transition zone. At O’Reginald’s shout, he tried to spring forward, but he wasn’t fast enough. The sliding wall began to scissor him. He screamed in agony, blood gushing from his mouth. At the last possible moment, Ratbone seized his arm and jerked him into the northern, revolving section of the room. The wall snapped shut, leaving O’Reginald and Katarina trapped on the southern side.
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Ratbone cursed and jerked at the lever, trying to pull it back up again, but it was firmly locked in place. Kat knelt beside Michael and quickly forced a healing draught down his throat. The priest’s eyes flickered open, and he reflexively grasped his holy symbol. White light seeped from around his fingers, and his breathing slowed and stabilized.
“Umm…guys,” Herc said. “Where are we?”
The others looked up and saw, that where previously there had been a blank wall to the north, there was now an open archway. Beyond it, a hallway ran at right angles, with a door at the end of the left branch, and a lever protruding from the wall on the right. Valeris started immediately towards the lever.
“Wait!” Ratbone shouted. “We don’t know what that’ll do. For all we know it’ll just rotate us deeper into the labyrinth. I don’t think it’ll take us back.”
‘Then what do you suggest?” the duskblade asked.
“Let’s have a look behind the door first,” the druid replied. “Maybe we’ll find something useful.”
Beyond the door, however, was simply another empty room, with another door on the far side. Ratbone stepped into the room, but as he did so, a strange symbol suddenly flared to glowing life in the middle of the floor. The druid cringed instinctively, and shielded his eyes, but nothing happened…at least not to him. Behind him, however, he heard Michael begin to scream again.
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“What do you mean ‘no’?” O’Reginald snapped as Kat grabbed his arm.
“I mean you don’t know where they went,” she said calmly.
“They’re right on the other side of that wall,” the wizard said impatiently, jerking his arm away.
“I don’t think so,” Kat said. “Remember the gears we saw. If they rotate the rooms of the labyrinth, then that chamber not only rotated on its axis, but along the axis of the gear as well. We don’t know exactly where the room is, at least not pinpoint enough for you to transport us there. If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not reappear inside a wall.”
“So what do you want us to do?” O’Reginald asked.
“Let’s go back to the control room,” Kat replied. “Maybe if I see the new position of the gears, I’ll have a better idea where the room is now.”
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When Ratbone rushed back to the others, he found Michael curled up on the floor, clutching at his stomach.
“What happened?” the druid asked.
“Don’t know,” Valeris shrugged. “There was that flash of light when you opened that door, and next thing, he was on the floor. I felt a mild rumble in my own gut, but it passed. Guess the padre’s got a weak constitution.”
Ratbone helped Michael to his feet, but the priest was still shaking.
“Can you walk?” Ratbone asked.
“I…I think so…,” Michael stuttered. “The pain, though…it won’t stop.”
There was no way out of the set of rooms the entry chamber had rotated into. They were trapped. After a minute or so, they found that both levers were again moveable, but the four companions were still dubious about pulling them, fearing they would only be taken further away from their friends. It was Michael who ultimately came up with a possible solution.
“The wand…,” he panted in between spasms of pain, “the one I…found in the Arch…it can…shape stone. Maybe we can…open a hole…down to the…gear room…,”
Ratbone nodded, understanding.
“Do you think you can use it?”
“I’ll…try…,” Michael said.
He drew the wand from his belt, touched it to the floor and spoke a word. Instantly, the stone began dissolving, forming a narrow hole, no more than a foot in diameter.
“I don’t know…if the wand…has enough power left…to go all the way…,” Michael said.
Ten feet he bored down, then twenty, and then thirty. At that point, he saw that the stone ended, and there was a short open space and then what looked to be wood.
“I think…I think we’re through!” Michael said. “I think…I see the rafters!”
“Can you widen the hole?” Ratbone asked.
“I…I can try,” Michael nodded.
He touched the wand to the floor again and began circumscribing a larger opening.
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“Just as I thought,” Kat said.
She and O’Reginald stood on the ledge overlooking the great gears and their undead beasts of burden. Each of the creatures had moved approximately one-quarter of a circle from their previous positions.
“The levers somehow signal those creatures to turn the wheels,” Kat continued. “Perhaps, based on their current position, I can figure out where the room with the others went.”
“I think I already know,” O’Reginald replied. He pointed up and Kat looked. From the maze of wooden rafters above, a large bird suddenly flew…Ratbone…
__________________________________________________________
It was a relatively simple matter for the companions to regroup in the lever room. Once they were all together again, Ratbone grabbed the lever once more.
“Everyone ready?”
All nodded, having made sure that none of them were in the transition zone where the room would be rotating. Ratbone pulled the lever. Again the floor rumbled as the room began to turn. Again the opening beyond the archway sealed, only to reappear a moment later, revealing something new. A long corridor stretched away for several yards. Both walls were decorated with row upon row of tiger heads. Each appeared to be that of an actual, once-living tiger. They were remarkably well-preserved, their gaping mouths and glaring eyes even appearing to be moist. Standing in the middle of the hallway was none other than Vencarlo Orisini.
The fencing master was clothed in moldy leather armor, and he carried a pair of kukris in his hands, while on his back were strapped three javelins. His eyes widened in shock as he saw his friends…the last people he had ever expected to see.
“Why are you here?” he gasped
“We came looking for you,” Ratbone said, and he quickly recapped the events that had brought them to the labyrinth.
“Glorio allowed you to come down here?” Orisini asked, his eyes narrowed.
“In a manner of speaking,” Kat said. “He did it to save face, allowing us to ‘rescue’ you and Kalepopolis without having it look like he just handed you over.”
“No…that’s not it at all!” Orisini shouted. “It’s a trap! He sent you down here to die! Glorio Arkona is in league with Ileosa. In exchange for handing over Kalepopolis, she has promised his family a prominent position in her new aristocracy. There is a creature roaming the labyrinth. It’s been hunting me for days. It’s called a darksphinx, and it is hideously powerful. Arkona intends for you to die at its hands, further cementing his position with Ileosa by eliminating her enemies. This is what I hoped to warn you about, to keep you away from here. Now that you’re here, though, we have no choice. We have to kill Glorio Arkona!”
“How do you know all of this?” Ratbone asked.
“Glorio told me!” Orisini said, his voice rising. “He gloated about it before he had me thrown down into this hellhole. I’ve been trying to stay one step ahead of the darksphinx ever since.”
“Then maybe we should deal with it first,” Ratbone replied. “We don’t want it coming after us after we leave.”
“It won’t,” Orisini said hurriedly. “It’s Arkona’s jailor. It won’t leave the labyrinth. We need to escape with Kalepopolis while we can. He’s too valuable to risk.”
“We will leave,” Ratbone said reasonably, “but I don’t want to leave the darksphinx alive to torture any more prisoners of the Arkonas’. I don’t see why we need to confront Lord Arkona, though. That would be very risky. Why don’t we just escape through the sea cave?”
“No!” Orisini snapped. “If we leave Arkona alive, he’ll alert the queen, and she’ll send more Mantis assassins after us!”
“I agree,” Valeris chimed in. “If we’re talking about not leaving enemies behind us, then Arkona is one big one that we should deal with before we go.”
Herc shook his head. “Never pick a fight on your enemy’s home turf if you can avoid it. Too much advantage.”
“Yes, but he doesn’t expect us to be coming back,” Kat said, playing devil’s advocate. “If this is something that has to be done, it might be best to do it while we still have some element of surprise. If not, Arkona will surely be prepared for us if there’s a next time.”
“Hold on!” O’Reginald said. “What did we come down here to do? Rescue Orisini and the seneschal. We’ve done that! Croft didn’t say anything about taking on one of the noble houses! I think that’s a little bit above of our pay grade. We can get word to the field marshal once we’re safely away, then she can decide what to do about the Arkonas.”
Several voices rose at once after that, with everyone commenting on the pros and cons of each course of action. Finally, a tenuous compromise was reached.
“It’s agreed,” Ratbone said at length, “we continue into the labyrinth and find the darksphinx. Once that’s taken care of, we can approach Arkona, and based on his reaction, we’ll take it from there.”
Orisini swore under his breath and shook his head. The fencing master was not satisfied with the plan. It was his opinion that if they went before Arkona, they would be playing directly into his hands, but he agreed to accompany the K.I.A. agents…for the time being.
“What lies back the way you came?” Ratbone asked Orisini. “This hall looks to be a dead-end.”
“There’s a hidden door at the end,” Orisini replied. “Beyond, there are a series of empty rooms and passages that do not rotate. They lead back into the labyrinth proper at the far end.”
“Lead on,” Ratbone said.
“Aren’t we forgetting about something?” Valeris interrupted. The others looked at him questioningly. He rolled his eyes, and then reached into the large back that hung at his belt and began to draw forth the possessions and trappings of Black Jack. Orisini’s eyes widened.
“I see you’re familiar with these items,” Kat said smiling.
Orisini swallowed. “There’s no point denying it, I suppose,” he sighed. “Perhaps it’s time for Black Jack to disappear for good.”
“Not just yet, I think,” Kat said as she handed Orisini his blade.
The fencing master pulled on his gloves, his boots, and draped the black cloak around his shoulders. Then he turned and started down the hallway. He’d just reached the end, and was reaching for the latch of the hidden portal, when suddenly the tiger heads on either side writhed out of the walls on long, serpentine necks in a horrific storm of scales, fangs and fur. They bit savagely at the companions, tearing into flesh and bone with their ripping teeth. Orisini triggered the door and dove through. Simultaneously, O’Reginald grabbed the hands of Valeris and Katarina and stepped across the boundary of reality, reappearing a moment later in the next room beside Orisini. Meanwhile, Herc and Ratbone went on the offensive, hacking and clawing the heads from the wall, one after the other. Once the last head lay on the ground, they followed their friends quickly through the door.
“You didn’t run into those when you came through the first time?” Ratbone asked Orisini.
“If I had, don’t you think I’d have warned you?” Orisini snapped.
Ratbone nodded, but said nothing. The room in which they currently found themselves held a ten-foot wide, two-foot tall well. Inky water filled it nearly to its rim, obscuring its depths. A stone statue of a rearing snake rose from the center of the well. Along the length of the serpent’s body were carved dozens of arms crossed over the creature’s belly…and each arm gripped a long curved blade. The statue’s serpentine head rose ten feet above the surface of the water, and gazed down coolly to the northeast with amethyst eyes.
“Well that looks ominous,” Valeris said.
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than a loud hiss issued from the statue as dozens of curved blades sprang out of the well’s base and began spinning furiously around the room, striking at all who stood around its perimeter. Orisini dove nimbly over the blades, and rolled through an archway on the far side of the room, while Valeris, the ring given to him by Glorio Arkona flaring to life, also rolled out of the path of the deadly scythes. The others were not so lucky. They all ran for the far side of the room, but not without suffering deep, wide gashes. It was not until they’d regrouped in the passageway, however, that they noticed not everyone had made it through. Laying on the floor beneath the spinning blades was Katarina, her eyes open and staring as a widening pool of her own blood spread around her.
Will she return or will the KIA get a new member (I hope it's the former)?
