“Everyone has been rendered unconscious again,” Riyan said, as he and Chad came and stood beside him. A few seconds later, Seth arrived with Soth right behind him. “Tents were empty,” he said.
“Good,” commented Bart. Glancing up to the man still climbing the steps, he figured the man still had a good ten minutes or more before he reached the top. “Wonder how many are up there?” he said.
“Kevik still has those flasks of his far seeing potion,” offered Soth.
Bart turned to him and said, “You’re right!” He started to move toward the mine then stopped. “Seth,” he said as he glanced over his shoulder to him, “you and your brother stay here and make sure no one wakes up.”
Seth nodded and then began moving among the bodies lying upon the ground. Nudging one with his foot, he made sure the man failed to respond, then continued on to the next.
With Bart in the lead, the others headed up to the entrance of the mine. Kevik and Chyfe were no longer in sight, they must have moved further into it.
“What are they mining here?” asked Riyan. It didn’t look like a regular ore mine. “Could it have been gems?”
“Maybe,” replied Bart.
As they drew closer to the entrance, they could see a bright light shining deep within the mine. It wasn’t hard to recognize it as light from Kevik’s staff spell. When he reached the entrance, Bart hollered, “Kevik, Chyfe! Everything alright?”
“Yes,” came Chyfe’s reply. “Just looking around.” He and Kevik then began returning to the entrance.
“The mine goes on for some distance,” Kevik stated as they rejoined the group.
“Didn’t see anyone in there,” added Chyfe.
Bart nodded. “Kevik, we need to know what’s going on at the top of those steps,” he told the magic user. “Could you do one of your farseeing spells and find out?”
“Sure,” he replied. “Just give me a moment to set it up.” He then removed his pack and placed it on a nearby boulder. Taking out his bowl and one of the two remaining flasks of mixture, he began preparing to cast his spell.
After pouring the contents of the flask into the bowl, he allowed the mixture a moment to settle and the surface to smooth. Then he spoke the arcane words of the spell. As the last word flowed from his lips, the surface of the mixture began to shimmer. Color and light danced across the top before settling into an image depicting the man on the steps.
“Can you move it further up?” asked Bart, indicating his desire to see more of the area at the top.
“I’ll try,” replied Kevik. Concentrating, he managed to get the image to slowly scroll in the desired direction.
As more of the area at the top of the steps came into view, they saw an encampment. Two single floored structures sat in the middle with an array of tents radiating out from them. Off to the left was a stable with several horses.
A wooden stockade surrounded the encampment from one end of the cliff’s edge to the other. Within the stockade were a score or more men in uniform, their exact nature was hard to determine. But one thing was for certain, this was no ordinary miner encampment.
“What’s going on here?” Bart asked to himself.
Riyan glanced to him and both could see the question reflected in the eyes of the other. Then both turned to look at one of the crates stacked nearby. Riyan moved from beside the boulder and walked over to it.
The lid was securely attached and it took but a moment for him to use the blade of his knife to pry it open. When it came loose, he pulled it off and was surprised at what he found within. Turning back to the others, he said, “It’s a bunch of junk.”
“What?” asked Bart. Hurrying over, he and the others left Kevik alone by the boulder. When they came to see what was inside, they too were surprised. Inside the crate was rusted armor and swords. None of which could be construed as being worth anything.
“Grave robbers?” asked Chyfe.
Bart reached in and moved aside the old rusted chain mail armor lying on top of the contents. Beneath he found more of the same. “I can’t believe they’d get anything for this junk,” he stated. “It’s worthless.”
“A collector maybe?” suggested Riyan.
Bart shook his head. “I’ve known many and none would be interested in equipment in such a state,” he replied. Letting go of the armor, he allowed it to fall back in place as he turned his gaze toward the mine’s entrance.
“Hey!” Kevik hollered from where he was still looking at the image in the bowl. He never took his eyes off of it as he waved for the others to join him.
Riyan was the first to reach his side. “What is it?” he asked.
Kevik pointed to the image and said, “Look.”
The gate in the stockade wall was opening and four wagons began entering. There were a score of accompanying guards as well as another dozen civilians. From the looks of them, they may be additions to the work force here at the bottom.
“Reinforcements?” asked Chad.
“I don’t think so,” Bart replied. As they watched, the civilians accompanying the wagons began loading a stack of crates into the first wagon. “I think they’re here to collect what has been brought out of the mine.”
Then they saw five of the newcomers begin heading toward the top of the steps leading down. “This could make things interesting,” Chyfe said.
Bart nodded agreement. Turning to Riyan he said, “Go tell Seth and Soth we’re about to have company. Have them start getting the bodies out of sight. We don’t want to tip them off something’s wrong any sooner than we have to.” Then as Riyan hurried from the entrance toward the camp, Bart turned to Kevik. “Keep an eye on things.” Then to Chad, “Stay here with him.”
“You got it,” replied Chad.
With a final glance to the image in the bowl, he gestured for Chyfe to join him as he too, headed for the camp.
“What are we to do?” asked Chyfe. Glancing up the side of the canyon, he could see the five men already beginning to work their way down.
“I don’t know,” Bart admitted. “With the force up there, we’d be sitting ducks if we tried to climb the steps.” Then he indicated the river. “Would be nice to have a boat or raft, but as it is, we’d have to swim.”
“I doubt if we could make it very far,” commented Chyfe. Despite the relative calm of the water, it would be a long way to try to remain afloat before they could get away. Too long to avoid detection by the men descending the steps.
Up ahead, Riyan had already reached the tents and was met by the twins. Bart could see Seth had something in his hand and seemed pretty excited. He was showing it to Riyan.
“…tell you this has to be the place!” asserted Seth. Then he looked up as Chyfe and Bart joined them. In his hand he held the scabbard of a longsword. Holding it out to the new arrivals, he said, “Found this in one of the crates.”
Bart took the scabbard and his eyes widened. For emblazoned near the opening where the sword would enter, was the coat of arms for which they had been searching. He immediately understood the significance of what they had found.
Beside him, Chyfe gasped as he too came to recognize the coat of arms. “We’re too late!” he exclaimed. “They’ve taken the segment.”
“Not necessarily,” Riyan said. Patting his pack wherein the other three segments lay he added, “So far, we’ve needed one of these to gain access to where another was hidden.” He turned his gaze to Bart. “They may not have recognized the door leading to it as such.”
Bart nodded. “You may be right,” he agreed. Then he glanced upward to the men descending the steps. “Either way, we need to deal with this current situation.” Moving toward the nearest unconscious man, he said, “Get these men out of sight before they get any closer.”
“But what about the segment?” asked Riyan, as he moved and took another of the men by the arm.
“One thing at a time,” Bart said.
Moving quickly, they dragged the men into the tents. All the while, they continued to cast glances to the five
