“Want me to check it out?” Calvin offered.
“No,” Merek said, removing Serena from his pocket. “Most living creatures who enter that room don’t stay alive for long. I’m a little different, though.” He handed Serena to Seth.
“Are you sure about this?” Seth asked.
“Who can be sure about a malevolent rock?” Merek said. “Keep your guard up.”
Merek stepped into the room. He turned back to Seth and nodded. “It’s draining my life away.”
“Get out,” Seth urged.
“I have life to give,” Merek said, picking his way through the bones toward the stone.
“So do I,” Seth countered. “I wouldn’t mind getting a few years older.”
“It doesn’t make you older,” Merek said, lying down with his chest atop the rock. “It saps your life. A baby would wither and die in here, not grow. Come through the room. It’s feeding completely from me. Hurry.”
Seth raced into the room, stumbling on some bones as he hastily crossed. Once he passed through the far doorway, he turned to Merek and called, “I made it.”
“Get well into the hall,” Merek said.
Seth complied as Merek got off the rock and rejoined him.
“You look the same,” Seth said.
“I’m one of the undying,” Merek said. “I have an inexhaustible supply of life. And one like me could never carry the Unforgiving Blade. That room should have thwarted anyone who could wield it. Look! More stairs.”
Up they climbed, winding to unguessable heights within the thick walls of the pyramid. Seth wondered how quickly a normal person would have died in the room with the black rock.
“Have you ever died?” Seth asked.
“Many times,” Merek said. “And I am always reborn.”
“You remember multiple lives?” Seth asked.
“I do since you restored my memories,” Merek said. “Mine is a long history. Being reborn can play tricks with your recollections. So can long periods of inaction. Certain types of memory lapses can be regenerative, like sleep, allowing a person to rest and recharge.”
From up ahead they heard a continuous, earthy grinding. When they reached the next doorway, they found a circular room with a rock floor that sloped into the walls like a shallow bowl. Circling inside the bowl was a spherical stone ball, tall enough to reach Seth’s chin.
“I don’t trust it,” Merek said.
Seth tried to get a sense of the stone ball with his power and was surprised to hear words repeating, like a mind stuck on a looping thought.
All who enter must be crushed. All who enter must be crushed. All who enter must be crushed. All who enter . . .
Why crush people? Seth asked.
The repeating mantra halted, and the ball swerved slightly off course, interrupting its perfectly circular route. You hear me?
It must be tough having the same purpose for so long, Seth communicated.
It is my mandate, the stone replied.
Who gave the command? Seth asked.
One who reached me long ago, the stone replied.
Like I am reaching you now? Seth asked.
Much like this, yes, the stone acknowledged.
I have a new command, Seth conveyed. You can finally rest.
I can rest? the stone verified. No more crushing all who enter?
Rest, and crush no more, Seth soothed.
As you command.
The stone ball lazily spiraled to the bottom of the bowl until it settled and became still.
“The ball was going to crush anyone who entered the room,” Seth reported. “I gave it new instructions, like I would with the undead. Might be smart to keep our guard up, just in case.” Seth probed with his power. “The ball seems quiet now.”
“Let me go first,” Merek said, stepping gingerly into the room. He walked lightly to the other side of the shallow bowl and out the far doorway.
Seth followed. The stone ball never budged.
More stairs continued upward. Seth’s leg muscles were burning when at last the stairs ended at a wall of boulders. Merek stepped forward, hands running gently over the fitted stones.
“Well, we tried,” Seth said, panting from the climb. “At least we got some exercise.”
Merek looked at him dubiously.
Seth winked. “Let me check for a hidden door.”
As he had done at the bottom of the stairs, Seth mentally searched for a lock and was surprised to find one right in front of them. Drawing on his power, he willed the mechanism to unlock, but the effort was met with considerable resistance.
Planting his feet, clenching his fists, Seth concentrated all his energy on the problem. Still the mechanism defied him. Gasping for breath, Seth kept pushing, and all at once the resistance relented, as if he were in a tug of war and the other team dropped the rope. The mechanism unlatched, and a previously unseen door composed of multiple rocks swung open.
“That looked like a fight,” Calvin said.
“Something opposed me,” Seth replied.
Merek extended a hand to keep Seth from going forward. “Let’s survey the room first.”
Beyond the doorway awaited a room that looked to be inside the top of the pyramid—at least, the lofty ceiling came to a point in the center. Occupying the middle of the room was a large block of stone so black that no subtleties of texture were discernible. Part of a long knife jutted from the top, much of the blade buried in the rock.
“Now, that is a black stone,” Calvin said. “It looks more like a void than a rock.”
Seth mentally scanned the room. “The space feels empty.”
“I get the same read,” Merek said, stepping into the room. Seth followed.
The moment Seth set foot in the room, he became acutely aware of the dark well of power inside himself. He had never sensed it so distinctly. To his alarm, the darkness within was irresistibly drawing him toward the black stone. Seth walked jerkily, straining to resist.
“Are you all right?” Merek asked.
“I’m being pulled,” Seth said, unable to look away from the fathomless darkness.
“Take the blade and we’ll depart,” Merek said. “This shrine is dedicated to darkness.”
Seth
