Refuge: Kurt's Quest (27 page)

He walked away from the chamber and toward his
comrades.  But the subtle laughter in the back of his mind made him wonder if
he was just fooling himself.

*     *     *

[There is something ahead, friend Kurt,] came
the transmission from White Paw.

[Danger?]

[I don’t think so,] sent the wolf, showing the
pair of bronze doors that appeared on a wall.  The doors shone with a bright
light, and the symbols of suns and trees were pictures in relief on the metal.

“That’s the entrance to a shrine,” said Garios,
looking at the mental picture.  “It might behoove us to visit it before we pass
on.  There might be aid for us in there.”

“Then let’s go visit it,” said Kurt, waving
everyone forward, watching the path that the wolf had taken away from the main
route.  “We could use some down time in a safe place.”  He had hoped that the
half hour they had taken would have led to partial recovery, and while he and
Jackie were both up to full strength, the same could not be said for the
others.  Drake was in good health, but fatigue lived in his eyes.  Fatigue so
deep that he looked as if he would pass out with every step. 
At least he’s
got some clothes on, even if they don’t quite fit him.
  The clothes had
been made to fit a large, muscular Nord, not a much smaller English Physicist.

Garios looked even worse.  He was still
dripping blood from a leg wound that had soaked through his bandage.  Only the
innate toughness of his species was keeping him on his feet. 
We need to get
there in a hurry.  But we accomplish nothing if we confront them in no shape to
fight.

It was a short walk to the shrine.  The doors
were even more beautiful up close than as seen through the eyes of the wolf. 
They appeared to be made of gold, but what gold.  They glowed with power, the
energy radiating off the metal, but there was no feeling of threat from that
force.

“It’s solid Mithral,” cried Garios in glee.  “A
fortune in the metal.  Enough to equip an army with fine armor and weapons.”

“And why does it glow?” asked Jackie.  “Does it
give off energy as one of its properties?”

“No,” said the Dwarf, shaking his head. 
“Though it does hold magical energy like few other substances.  That is the
power of the Gods, infused into the metal.  It repels those which should not be
here.”

“So all of us should be able to go through,”
said Kurt, glancing at Xeonides, the Halfling.

“The Thief should have no problem,” said the
Dwarf, laughing, despite the glare the Halfling sent his way.  “He’s chaotic in
nature, and lawless, but not really evil, and definitely not a worshiper of
death.”

“And that I am not,” said Xeonides, crossing
his arms over his chest.  “I love life.  Good food, good drink, and pretty
wenches to share it with.”

“Even if the means to gain those luxuries come
from uncooperative others?” asked Kurt with a chuckle.

“Most of the people I get, donations from,
already have much more than they need,” said the Halfling, who had proven his
intelligence in the past fights by staying out of them.

“Let’s see if you can walk through the doors
without being vaporized by the holy power,” said Garios, gesturing toward the
doors.

The Halfling swallowed hard, not looking
comfortable at the prospect of risking destruction, despite his protests.

Garios laughed and walked toward the doors,
which brightened as he approached.  Kurt was about to order the Dwarf back,
wondering if the Priest had misinterpreted the power in the doors.  But at ten
meters the door began to swing open, and Garios looked back with a smile before
striding forward into the room.

Kurt was next through the door, shielding his
sensitive eyes from the bright glow until they adjusted.  He noted that Garios
was walking without a limp now, his shoulders straight, obviously getting some
benefit from the energy around him.  Kurt felt nothing, and cursed that part of
his gift.  It was all well and good to not feel the effects of magic aimed at
harming him, but it would have been nice to feel the effects of beneficial
spells.  Remembering the fireballs he and Jackie had withstood less than an
hour before, he knew he was whining about something that was of overall benefit
to himself and his fellow Immortals.

The rest of the party crowded into the twenty
meter square chamber, White Paw coming in last, his nose sniffing furiously,
before he started dancing around the chamber like a puppy.

“It is a shrine of the Gods of Life,” said
Garios, looking at the simple altar that sat against the wall opposite the
doors.  There was a statue of a beautiful Ellala woman in relief on the wall
above the altar.

“Arathonia,” said Kurt, recognizing the woman
immediately.  He had seen her in dreams many times.  “She is not of your
pantheon, is she, Priest?”

“No,” said Garios, shaking his head.  “I serve
the Gods of Law.  But Law and Life are most often allied in the battles of the
Deities.  Just as Death and Chaos are often allies.  Most times I can access
the energies of life, as I do when I cast healing spells.”

“So you would be able to work healing magic in
here?”

“What need is there?” asked the Dwarf, looking
at the Immortal with an expression of confusion.  “Can you not feel it?  This
place will heal everything that bothers us, just because we are here.”

Kurt shook his head.  He could feel nothing. 
Garios looked at him with dawning recognition.

“You do not feel it, at all.  I am so sorry, my
friend.”

“It’s a good trade,” said Kurt.  “Since I can
heal almost any injury as instantly as makes no difference.  Just as long as
the rest of you heal.”  He looked around the shrine, confused as to why it was
here.  “What is it here for?  This shrine, I mean.  There’s nothing here to
warrant it.  No worshippers.”

“But there are evil artifacts here,” said the
Dwarf, reaching up and running a hand over the altar.  “And they were put here
by the Gods that did not want them to see the light of day.  If Death or Chaos
ruled this place, the path would be open all the way.”

“But all the evil creatures?” asked Jackie, looking
at the statue of the Goddess.

“The Gods of Life can still bind them to a
place and time,” said Garios.  “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if we encounter
some creatures of good before we find what we’re looking for.”

“Hopefully our enemies will encounter them
first, and either be stopped, or at least weakened.”  Kurt wasn’t sure what a
creature of good would manifest as.  He remembered the unicorns the Ellala of
Fenris’s kingdom had ridden, and the Griffons of the Mo’oricans.  And the Gold
and Silver dragons.  The Neo Wolves would be considered creatures of good, or
at least of law.  That there were more powerful beings he was certain, but
could not figure out what they might be.

“There might be angels down here,” said Garios,
as if reading his thoughts.  “Creatures of heaven, just below the Gods in
power, or lesser breeds that are still strong.”

“And what will they do if we approach them?”
asked Jackie, running a finger over the wall by the statue.

“Most probably attack us,” said Garios with a
shrug.  “They are here to prevent that which is buried here from leaving, and
we would be considered intruders that might accomplish such, if not stopped.  Not
fair, but there it is.”

Jackie’s fingers stopped, and she appeared to
play with something on the wall.  Without warning the altar slid the other way,
revealing a space below that contained some objects that glowed with the same
kind of energy as the chamber.

“By the Gods,” said Garios, looking into the
treasure trove.  “These may help us immensely, both here and beyond.”

The Priest held up a recurve bow of glowing
wood, with what appeared to be ivory inlays.  The Priest held it with both
hands and mumbled the words of a prayer.  He opened his eyes with a smile on
his face.   “Fenris.  You might want to carry this.  It’s a bow of the God
Fiorin.  I think it fires arrows of lightning.”

The Ellala was there in an instant, grasping
the bow in one hand while rubbing the other lovingly across the wood.  Fiorin was
the patron God of woodsmen and hunters, though this bow was never made as a
hunting implement.

“I thank you, my good Dwarf,” said the Ellala,
a wide smile on his face.  He pulled back on the string, and a glowing blue
arrow appeared out of nowhere, strung and ready to fire.  He slowly relaxed the
string, and the arrow disappeared, much to the relief of everyone present.

Garios next lifted a robe of red and blue, with
stylized planets and stars worked cleverly into the fabric.  Another prayer,
and another smile.  He looked over at Drake and motioned for him to come
closer, then tossed him the robe.  “It’s a Robe of Mithras, the Life Goddess of
wind and rain.  Who is, by the way, the Patron of mages and mathematicians.  So
it should be right up your ally.”

“What does it do?” asked Drake, holding the
robe in one hand as if he were afraid of it.

“That is for you to find out,” said the
Priest.  “But be not concerned.  It will be only beneficial to you.  She is a
good Goddess, and not a trickster.”

James grunted and pulled the robe over his
head, making sure that it sat as it should on his body.  “Damn,” he said with a
smile.  “I feel, connected,” he said, nodding his head.  “It’s like my mage
sight has been enhanced many times.  I can see energy everywhere.”

“Then you shouldn’t have any trouble gaining
enough power for your spells,” said Garios with a smile, turning to reach back
into the cubby for the last object, a longsword in a jeweled sheath.

“I don’t use a sword, and everyone else has a
weapon suited to them,” said Garios after saying his spell over the sheathed
weapon.  “This blade is sacred to Stephana herself, a Goddess of my Pantheon.”

“That would be a blade of great worth to a
warrior,” said Gromli, looking expectantly at the sword.

“Who is Stephana?” asked Jackie, getting looks
of incomprehension from all of the natives.

“Of course you don’t know all of our deities,” said
Gromli, glancing over at her, then back at the weapon.  “She is the Lawful
Goddess of War, she who succors the warriors who defend the weak.”

“Then it is a blade you should have, Sir
Gromli,” said the Immortal, pointing from the blade to the Nord.

“I agree,” said Garios, standing up and
carrying the sword to the Nord knight.  “May it serve you well, as you serve
your king and his people.”

“Nothing for me,” said the Halfling Thief,
walking up to the cubby and looking down.  “Dammit.  So far I have gotten
nothing from this adventure.”

“Nothing but your freedom, Thief,” growled
Gromli, looking away from his shimmering new blade to glare at the Halfling.

“There are no Chaos artifacts here, Xeonides,”
said Garios, turning his own baleful glare on the small humanoid.  “Why do you
think such as they would reside in such a place?”

“Just wishful thinking,” said the Thief,
looking away.

“Tell them what God you worship. Thief,”
growled Garios.  “Tell them,” he shouted when the Halfling refused to speak.

“I worship Biliadus,” said Xeonides in a half
whisper.

“Louder.”

“Biliadus, the honorable Goddess of Thieves.”

“The honorable Goddess,” spat Garios.  “She who
aids those who take the property of others in the night.  Who takes the food
out of the mouths of children, and coppers out of the pockets of the poor.”

“I have never taken coppers out of the pockets
of the poor,” screamed the Thief, rounding on the Dwarf.  “I have never stooped
so low as to steal from those who would miss it.  I only steal from the
wealthy.”

“And give to the poor,” said Kurt with a laugh.

“Hells no.  Their wealth went into my own
pockets, then back into the pockets of the community when I spent it on food,
drink and wenches.  I have, revitalized, many a community that some scummy
noble was driving to ruin.”

“You are still chaos incarnate, and the enemy
of my God,” said Garios, turning his back on the Thief.

“As long as he uses that chaos against our
foes, I have no problem with who or what he worships,” said Kurt, holding his
hand up to kill any more argument.  “The Goddess wanted him with us, for
whatever reasons she had.  She wanted all of us here, for whatever reason.  I
am sure that somewhere ahead he will prove his worth.”  Kurt walked up and laid
a hand on the Halfling’s shoulder.  “And I’m sure a just reward is waiting for
you.  If not, I’ll pitch in a hundred gold pieces to your reward.”

“Bah,” said the Halfling, a smile on his face. 
“A thousand might cover it.”

“Does everyone feel rested?” asked the
Immortal, feeling well himself, if a little hungry.

“One moment,” said Garios, pushing the stud on
the altar and allowing it to roll back into place.  “This type of altar has
another function for weary travelers.  One I had almost forgotten.”  The Dwarf
stared at the altar top and said the words of a prayer under his breath.  The
top of the altar shimmered for a moment, then was filled with bowls of food,
fruits, breads, roasted meats, and pitchers of liquids, cold drops of water
rolling down their sides.