“There was that one area,” the second man said after a moment’s silence. When the first and third man turned toward him he continued. “Remember about a month ago? It was up here on this level.”
“Oh, right,” the first man nodded. Turning to Bart, he said, “Pruss told us to stay away. He didn’t say why.”
“I heard they had a crew up there with sledges and picks,” the third man stated.
“Pruss?” asked Chyfe.
The first man turned to him and explained, “He’s the one in charge down here.”
“Is he down with the others?” asked Riyan.
Shaking his head, the first man replied, “No. I think he’s out at the camp.”
Bart glanced to Riyan and could see that he was thinking the same thing. This could be where they needed to go. Turning back to their captives, he asked, “Can you take us to it?”
“We’ve never been there,” the first one stated.
“But I’m sure you have a pretty good idea where it lies,” Bart said.
The first man nodded. “A fair notion,” he said.
“Alright then, on your feet” Bart said as he indicated for the men to stand. Once they were on their feet, he said, “After you.”
The first man licked his lips and then turned to head down the passage from which Bart and the others had come. Around the corner he led them with Bart and Kevik following closely. The other two porters were behind them with Riyan, Chad, and Chyfe bringing up the rear.
They continued to follow the passage until they were within twenty feet of the room containing the mural. The first man stopped at one of the branching passages and turned to Bart. “It’s this way,” he said, indicating the new passage.
Bart nodded. “Alright, lead on,” he said.
“I…I’ve never been down there,” he said.
The second man piped up and added, “Pruss told us that any man found down here would be killed without question.”
“Well, we’ll make sure no one kills you,” Bart assured him. “Now,” he said and motioned for the man to precede him, “lead the way.”
He didn’t look very enthused about entering, but what choice had he? Moving forward, their captive entered the passage. Bart followed right behind with Kevik and his staff to provide light close to hand.
“I don’t know what you fellows hope to find down here,” the man leading them said. “They took everything.”
“That’s right,” agreed one of the two in the rear.
“Perhaps,” replied Bart.
The passage showed signs of people having passed this way at some point in the recent past. Dust along the floor was disturbed, as well as spider webs hanging in disarray.
Several side passages and rooms abutted the one they were traveling along. Some showed further evidence of grave robbing with corpses again lying in undignified heaps. Chests had been smashed open and a few held shelves now barren, whatever had been kept upon them gone.
“Are you sure you’re going the right way?” Bart asked the man leading them.
“Not entirely, no,” he replied. “Like I said, I’ve never been down here. I did however hear one of the sledgers they brought down here comment that he and the others had worked for a day to get by an extremely sturdy iron gate. He claimed that the blows from their sledgehammers barely dented the metal.”
Bart glanced to Kevik who explained, “The metal could have been magically enhanced to withstand blows.”
The man in the lead glanced back to Kevik and said, “That’s what he thought too.”
“Interesting,” was the only response Bart gave. In his mind however, wheels were turning. A magically enforced gate? That could only mean one thing. The final segment of the key had to lie somewhere on the other side! He glanced back to Riyan and could see by the crooked smile and the glint in his eye that he was thinking along those same lines.
No torches lit the way down this passage. Without Kevik’s light, they would be in complete darkness. Fortunately, the glow from the tip of his staff provided ample illumination.
Continuing to follow the passage, they soon came to where the doors and branching passageways ended, and still the passageway continued on. Not far after the last doorway, they came to where a massive gate had once barred the way.
“I can see why this would have taken some time to get past,” Bart observed when the light from Kevik’s staff revealed it.
It actually wasn’t so much a gate as a series of eight evenly spaced, six inch thick bars that ran from the ceiling to the floor. A hole large enough to allow a man to pass had been battered into the obstruction on the left side. Only the two bars on the far right showed no sign of damage, the others were bent all out of alignment.
“They must have worked at this for a long time,” observed Chyfe.
As Riyan was nodding agreement, Kevik uttered magical words. A second later, all eight of the bars glowed blue.
“As we thought,” Kevik said to the others. “Magic.”
“Right,” said Bart. Turning to their captives, he asked, “What else did you hear about this area?”
“Nothing,” the man leading them replied.
“We swear,” another asserted. “We’ve told you all we know.”
Bart gauged the truthfulness of what they were saying. Finally deciding they would have no reason to lie, he said to Chyfe and Chad, “Tie them up.”
“But,” the man who led them here began to wail, “you can’t leave us here!”
“Don’t worry,” Bart assured him and the other two. “We’ll pick you up on our way back and make sure we leave you where others are sure to find you.”
Chad and Chyfe tore lengths of cloth from the clothes of their captives and proceeded to secure their arms and legs.
“What if you don’t return?” another of the men asked, barely containing the fear of being left to die.
Bart turned to the man and said, “You better hope we do.” Then to Chad and Chyfe he added, “Gag them too. Can’t have them calling for help while we’re gone.”
“But…” one of the captives began to say before a wad of cloth was stuffed into his mouth and tied off with another strip of cloth.
Once the three men were secured and not likely to get free, Bart said, “Alright, let’s see what lies beyond here.” Ignoring the muffled cries of the men begging them not to be left behind, he went to the bars and slipped through to the other side. With the others right behind, he began moving further down the passage. The cries of the bound men gradually diminished behind them.
The passage continued as it had before the bars, with no doorways or branching passages. For a hundred feet they walked in silence before arriving at a set of steps leading down. Bart paused prior to stepping upon the first step and turned back to the others. “From the looks of it, there hasn’t been as much traffic through here as in the other passage we were in earlier,” he stated.
“Do you think there might be traps?” asked Riyan.
Bart nodded. “Possible, though unlikely. Step where I step and keep at least a step between you, just in case.” With that, he turned back and began making his way slowly down the steps.
Seventeen steps descended into darkness before ending at the beginning of another passage. This one was narrower by half than the one at the top of the steps. It was barely wide enough for two men to walk side by side. Plain though the walls were, they seemed to be constructed of a darker material than those on the level above.
Coming to stand upon the last step, Bart hesitated a moment before continuing on. Running his hand over the darker material, he noticed that it felt smoother than it should.
“This place has a feel to it,” Kevik said from over his shoulder.
Removing his hand from the wall, Bart glanced back over his shoulder to the magic user. “What kind?” he asked.
