Germanius nodded his head, “It was a fine blow just as it was going for its blade, right where you could put it down without killing it,” he said. “Maybe too deep and too close to the big blood veins in the leg but we’ve got what we need and prisoners are never easy to deal with when you’re a small party. Check his belt pouch, he’s probably got some silver or gold and we might need that before we’re done here in on the mountain. Them creatures deal in precious metals and we’re not in Elekargul anymore.”
Sorus rummaged around the creature’s belt for a moment and felt it stiffen in resistance, but then it slid down against the back wall and closed its eyes. Its breathing became shallower each moment and by the time the young brewer pulled a small pouch that made a satisfying chink sound from its belt it was clear the creature would be dead in a matter of moments. “Should we just let it die?” he asked as he looked down on it.
“We tried to bandage it,” said Jon with a shrug. “We can’t stay here and take care of it or they’ll be hundreds of them down on our head soon enough. Germanius is right; we use that thing you found, see what’s in the back of the cave there, and move on.”
Sorus stood for a moment longer and stared at the unconscious creature and the moment of the attack came back to him with terrible intensity. He remembered his sword when it cut down the first goblin as it turned to look at him with surprise the only expression on its face, then he turned to his right and saw the dragon child as it rose up from its position on the straw mat, a sword in its hand, and he stabbed forward with the tip of his blade as he had practiced so many times while he dreamed of knighthood. He remembered as he watched the other boys lucky enough to be chosen as squires while he still lay on the sick bed and wished he didn’t have to be the one with the weak constitution, that it was he who learned to be a squire, learned to be a hero of Elakargul. Then, after he sunk his blade into the thing’s leg, which had the same resistance as that goblin boy’s stomach down the hill, like a stab into a mass of straw, the flash out of the corner of his eye as the larger goblin came at him and Germanius struck it down with a casual swipe of his sword. “Will I ever be able to kill something so casually,” he thought to himself and then tried to imagine what he must have looked like to Jon and the grizzled knight while he stabbed the dragon child in the leg. “I wonder if they think about everyone they’ve ever killed,” he continued to muse to himself for a moment longer as the slow breath of the creature seemed almost ready to stop but then, just when he thought it was done, another ragged gasp came from the poor thing.
“Come along, Sir Sorus,” said Germanius. “We’ve got work to do and you’re going to have to figure out a name to take.”
Sorus looked at Germanius his eyes opened wide for a just a moment as he suddenly realized that his boyhood fantasy was a reality. He was a knight of Elekargul as pronounced by another knight. Somehow it wasn’t as great a moment as he imagined all those times.
“Not what you were expecting,” said Germanius and put his arm around the boy and smiled with the amazingly full set of teeth the veteran still had in his head.
“No,” said Sorus and shook his head. “I imagined it different but I guess it’s probably always pretty much like this.”
“It’s always different,” said Germanius. “I’ve knighted seven boys before you in my years and not one was the same. Someday you’ll be knighting boys and then you think of me now and again, won’t you?”
Sorus nodded his head, “I’ll never forget you Sir Germanius. I don’t think I could have done it without you.”
“Now, don’t get sentimental on an old fart,” said the knight with a smile. “This night is far from done and I smell dragon meat not far in our future. It’ll likely kill us all but you wouldn’t be the first boy knighted and killed in the same day. Not by a long shot.”
“What are you two talking about,” said Jon as he suddenly emerged from around the corner of the cave. “I untied the goblin boys. No sense letting them starve to death in the cave or get eaten by a bear. Where’s that key you found?”
“Right here,” said Sorus and pulled out the silver device. Jon looked at it for a long moment.
“I couldn’t find that notch of yours,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, “so the honor is yours. Just remember if there’s a dragon behind it then we let Sir Old Fart go first! Right?”
“Right,” said Sorus with a smile and Germanius let go a great guffaw. Sorus heard a scramble behind them as the goblins fled the cave but then began to look closely at the wall as he tried to find the little indentation he noted just a few moments before. It took him five frustrating minutes to find the thing but once he did the little silver key thing fit into it like a custom made lance in the hands of a veteran knight of Elekargul. Nothing happened for a long moment as the three stared at the silver thing glinting in the notch of the wall. Then there was a deep sort of grumble of a sound as the cave began to shake like in an earthquake.
Most of the volcanoes in the region were west of Elekargul in the territories of Doria and the orc realms, but there were still plenty of earth tremors, and Sorus knew enough of what they felt like not to be too frightened. Still, it was unnerving to be inside a cave under tens of thousands of tons of rock when an earthquake was going on all around you. It didn’t last long and the three men looked at each for a moment with eyes wide in the dim light of the fire.
“Did you see anything move?” said Jon and looked at Germanius, who shook his head and turned to Sorus, who in turn shook his own head and looked around. “Maybe it was back a bit,” said Jon and turned deeper into the small cave, “where we tied up the goblins.”
In a moment the three moved towards the rear of the cave and found the cause of the strange rumble. A large stone stalactite that ran from the ceiling almost to the floor along the wall had swiveled or twisted somehow to reveal a wide passage behind it, with a set of perfectly cut stairs, both wide and smooth, that led downwards, not into darkness but into light as evenly-spaced light stones were embedded into the wall to provide fine illumination for the trip down.
“I’ll be a two-legged dolphin,” said Germanius with a look of astonishment at the passage. “I been around a bit and ain’t never seed nothing like that afore.”
Jon Gray stared at it as well. “I have,” he said. “It’s Old Empire made for sure. Sorus, maybe you should head back and tell the people in town what we found.”
“The hell with that Jon,” said the boy, “and call me Sir Sorus if you don’t mind.”
Jon nodded his head, “You can call me fish for brains but that’s dangerous stuff down there, darklings, brain suckers, black things, if you come with us it won’t be pleasant.”
“Sir Fish for Brains,” said Germanius and clapped Jon on the back.
Jon laughed out loud as did Sorus. “Ok then,” said the young Tanelornian as he put his hand on the hilt of his sword and moved to the front. “Follow me.”
Chapter 8
“I don’t know why you trust that dragon child,” said the ghoulish creature as it licked its lips with an impossibly long tongue and fingered the open sores along its left side with the two digits that remained on its right hand. Before it, on a throne made of the thick bones of several creatures, or possibly of one many ribbed beast, sat Lord Whitebone in a regal and lush purple robe. “The creature clearly works for the lizards of Darag’dal, that unctuous Melharras, and his overly sly sidekick. It will betray us and use the Staff of Sakatha for his own ends once we raise the master.”
“You servants of the Lady of the Abyss are not capable of independent thought,” said Whitebone with a shake of his head and he gave a strange sigh. How he managed such without any air in his lungs remained a mystery to the ghoul lord but one he did not ponder greatly, being without a heartbeat himself. “The only one of you that shows any capability towards rational thinking is Tenebrous and I understand he is, once again, in trouble with she who has ruled for all eternity.”
“Do not speak his name,” said the ghoul as it scratched at other sores, this time on its leg. “The sooner she returns him to the Deathlands from whence he came the sooner I can take back my rightful place beside her throne.”
“The internal strife within the Abyss bores me,” said Whitebone as he somehow managed a tired expression on his skeletal face. “I understand the child of the dragon’s motivation just as I understand your motivation Thantos, the motivation of the lizards, the motivation of your mistress, and the motivations of the cockroach that
