Miko hears him and comes over asking, “Did it work?”
“Yes,” James replies, “but it’s pointing back the way we came.” He shows the compass to Miko.
“Is it directing us toward Dragon’s Pass?” Miko wonders.
“I don’t know,” he replies, “though we may have little choice.” Getting up, he has a sudden dizzy spell and briefly loses his balance. Miko sees him faltering and puts James’ arm around his shoulder. After taking a few steps and several deep breaths, he begins feeling better. He then removes his arm from around Miko’s neck. “I’m okay now, it’s passed.”
“Too big a spell again?” he asks.
“I think so, but I seem to be better able in handling the effects.” He mounts his horse and they turn to follow the direction indicated by the compass.
Several hours later and still following the compass, they once again come to the plateau where the old abandoned keep stands. When the keep comes into view, the compass swings and points toward it.
“Great!” James hears Miko exclaim when he realizes where the compass is pointing. “Somehow I knew we’d be going in there.”
“I had my suspicions too,” James admits. Thinking the way may be further down the plateau and not the old keep, James angles them to go around its left side. But when they begin to pass the entrance, the compass turns and continues pointing toward the open front door.
He shows the compass to Miko with a grin. Shrugging, he turns his horse toward the entrance and dismounts when they come to it. James peers through the slight opening made by the door being ajar, but isn’t able to make out anything in the dim light filtering in.
Turning back to Miko he says, “Let’s secure the horses around back and then investigate. We don’t want anyone coming by and helping themselves to them while we are in there.” They walk the horses around to the back where they find a fallen tree to secure them to. James takes his backpack and they return to the entrance. They stand there for a second when he says to Miko, “Wanna go first?”
“No,” replies Miko, a little scared.
“Alright then, I’ll go first.” James steps up and slowly makes his way through the doorway, passing into a poorly lit room. He makes his glowing orb and the light from it reveals a large room with several doors and two hallways leading from it. The compass indicates they should take the hallway directly opposite the door.
He makes his way across the room to the hallway. As he enters, the light from the orb reveals something large lying across the floor not three feet from where he stands. As he moves closer he discovers it to be a dead body in the latter stage of decomposition. The clothing on the man, at least he thinks it was a man, is in pretty bad shape but looks as if they used to be of good quality.
Miko sees the dead body illuminated by the orb and gasps. “James, we shouldn’t be in here,” he says with a tremor of fear in his voice. “Let’s find another way.”
“Don’t be scared Miko,” He says reassuringly. “It’s only a dead body.” He leans down and grabs a stick and then begins poking through the dead man’s clothes. “Most likely this was a merchant traveling through the Pass that ran afoul of bandits and they dumped his body in here. See, look, there is no purse on him, nothing at all of value.” James uses the stick and turns the head. “And look,” he says indicating the back of the head, “it’s cracked like someone hit him in the head with something hard.”
“Maybe the bandits are still here?” Miko says worriedly, looking around.
“Not likely,” he replies. “If they were still using this place, they would hardly have left a dead body rotting in the hallway. They would have dumped it out back where they wouldn’t have had to walk over it and smell it.”
“I suppose you’re right,” admits Miko, though still not sounding very reassured.
“So relax, we’re going to be okay,” he assures, trying his best to calm Miko.
“If you say so,” Miko replies halfheartedly.
Leaving the body behind, they continue down the hallway, passing two doors before coming to a halt before the third.
“Why are you stopping?” Miko asks.
“It’s indicating that we need to go through this door,” he explains. He tries the handle but finds it locked. He hands the compass and glowing orb to Miko before throwing his weight against the door. With a crash, the door bursts in, breaking off a two foot section of the door jamb in the process. His momentum carries him a little ways through the door where he stumbles and falls as his foot fails to find purchase on the floor. He rolls down a flight of stairs coming to rest at the bottom. Bruised and scraped but otherwise unhurt, he gets to his feet.
From the top of the steps he sees Miko illuminated by the glow from the orb in his hand looking down at him. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah,” replies James, “come on down. But be careful, I might have broken a few of the steps during my fall.”
Being extra careful, Miko takes it one step at a time, having to skip over one due to it being in such bad shape that he doesn’t think it will support his weight. He finally makes it to the bottom.
By the time he’s reached the bottom, James has taken a cursory look around the room. It’s a small room, only about ten feet by maybe twelve. The only exit is the door at the top of the stairs. The room itself is empty except for the dust that has accumulated over time.
He retrieves the compass from Miko and sure enough, it’s still pointing the way. Only this time it’s indicating the direction they need to go is through the wall. Pointing to the wall indicated by the compass, he says, “It says that we are to go this way.”
“Another secret door like in Lord Colerain’s estate?” suggests Miko.
Nodding his head, he replies, “I think so, give me the orb for a second.” Holding out his hand, Miko passes him the orb.
He does a thorough inspection of the wall and fails to find anything that looks like it could be a trigger to open the secret door. He then moves to the adjoining walls, searching for some trigger or other mechanism that could possibly open a secret door.
Miko looks around as well and notices a design on the floor, partially hidden by the accumulated dust. “James, look at this,” he says as he points it out to him.
James comes over and kneels down, taking a closer look. Brushing away the dust he discovers that it is a square shaped stone engraved with a design of a circle within a circle within a circle. He presses on it but nothing happens. Getting to his feet, he has Miko step on it while he goes over and pushes on the wall but nothing happens. “Maybe there are others we need to release first,” he theorizes. “Look around for any more similar designs.”
They look around and Miko discovers another one on the wall about midway up the stairs. This one is just a single circle. Excited, James says, “If there is one with three circles and another with just the one, then there may be another with two circles. And hopefully by pressing them in the correct order, it’ll enable us to open the secret door.”
“Makes sense,” agrees Miko.
They continue to look but fail to find two circles, one in the other. “I don’t think there is one here, James,” Miko says after they’ve searched for a while.
“There has to be,” he insists. “It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.” He continues to look around, getting on his hands and knees to closely examine the floor inch by inch.
“But we’ve examined all the walls and floor over and over,” Miko goes on. “There is no such design here.”
Stopping and standing up suddenly, James looks at Miko, “You’re right. We have searched all the walls and the floor, but we haven’t looked at the ceiling.” He turns his gaze up toward the ceiling and sure enough, there is the design with two circles, one inside the other. “I knew it!” he exclaims excitedly.
“Miko, go and press firmly on the single circle,” James tells him.
Miko cautiously makes his way up the stairs and presses the circle, “Now what?”
“Toss the piece of the door jamb that I broke off down to me,” he replies.
Miko looks around and finds the broken door jamb, he tosses it down to James.
Catching it, James raises it up toward the double circle in the ceiling. Holding it steady, he puts the end against the design and presses firmly. Miko by this time has made it back down the stairs.
James lowers the broken door jamb and lets it drop to the floor. He walks over to the triple circle on the floor and presses firmly on it with his foot. Suddenly, a section of the wall begins to swing inward, creating a three foot
