Shades of the Past: The Morcyth Saga Book Six (44 page)

He works his way through until he reaches the
far side. As he exits the crevice, Jiron points out the two exits.
James takes a moment to inspect the delicate carvings on the walls
but can’t discern any sort of drawings or picture. Kind of reminds
him of wallpaper you might find in a doctor’s office, just
something used to break up the plainness of the wall.

“Check the one on the right,” James says,
pointing to the one that’s closed. “I’ll check the other.” Moving
across the room to the open door, he can’t get the memory of his
grandmother’s cinnamon rolls out of his mind. Each time he thinks
his stomach growls again. It’s been so long since he’s had food
from home, he didn’t realize how much he misses it.

Reaching the door, he opens it further to
find a hallway clear of debris extending away from it. Glancing
back to where Jiron looks to be working on the lock of the other
door, he decides to see where this goes while Jiron is busy.

Holding his orb high, he passes through the
doorway and enters the hallway. Not far down he comes to another
door on the right.

“
Ahhh!”

Back in the other room, Jiron cries out in
surprise then the sound of a thud echoes down the hallway. “James!”
he cries out.

Racing back down the hallway, he pulls a slug
out of his belt and has it ready when he runs into the room. Jiron
stands with his shoulder against the door. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
Crossing the room quickly, he comes to his side.

“There’s something on the other side of this
door,” he says.

Alarmed, James asks, “What is it?”

“A headless torso,” he replies. “Just like
one of those we encountered back in the swamp.”

Not even wanting to think of the
ramifications if those things are wandering around down here with
them, he pulls out the medallion bearing the Star. He holds it
before him and says to Jiron, “Open the door.” The last time they
encountered these things, the Star had blazed forth and destroyed
the undead creatures. “Better to deal with this now than run the
risk of it joining with others.”

Nodding, Jiron takes hold of the handle of
the door with one hand while he draws a knife with the other.
“Ready?” he asks. When he receives an affirmative nod from James,
he yanks open the door.

Braced for immediate attack, James is
surprised when the door swings wide and reveals nothing but an
empty corridor. He glances to the medallion in his hand which has
remained quiet, no light emanates from it.

Jiron looks at the empty hallway in surprise,
then bolts down it in search of the creature. “It may have moved
away,” he exclaims.

James follows after and keeps one eye on
Jiron and another on the Star which has remained quiescent.

The hallway doesn’t extend very far before
they reach an area where it has collapsed and the way is
impassable. “It was here!” Jiron exclaims.

“Are you sure you weren’t imagining it?” asks
James.

“No,” insists Jiron. “I opened the door and
it reached for me.”

“Well, it’s not here now,” he says.

Jiron moves to the dirt and stone blocking
the hallway and feels it to see if it’s real. Finding that it is,
he turns back to James with an odd look on his face.

James shrugs. “Could have been a trick of
shadows,” he reasons.

“Maybe,” concedes Jiron.

Coming forward he pats him on the shoulder
and says, “Come on. There’s another hallway leading from the other
door.”

“Alright,” says Jiron as he follows James
back to the room and then over to the other door.
But it had
seemed so real!

They enter the hallway and move down to the
door James found before Jiron cried out. The hallway continues
further on past the door and into darkness. With Jiron’s recent
experience in mind, they both make ready for battle as Jiron opens
the door.

Swinging open the door slowly, they brace for
attack but only find a hard packed dirt wall on the other side.
Shutting the door, Jiron turns and leads the way further down the
hallway.

“There’s got to be another way to the surface
somewhere,” he mutters as he moves away from the door. James nods
behind him in silent agreement.

Further down they come across another door on
their right. Only attached by one of its hinges, it sits askew in
the middle of the hallway. Dirt that has completely filled the room
beyond the door has spilled through and practically obstructs the
hallway. Climbing over the mound of dirt, they discover the rest of
the hallway is all but destroyed. The floor above had
collapsed.

“Damn!” exclaims James from his position on
the mound of dirt behind Jiron.

Holding aloft the orb, Jiron inspects the
obstruction for a possible way through. “We’re in luck,” he says
pointing to the top of the obstruction. “The cave-in opened a way
up to the floor above.”

“Be careful,” advises James as Jiron begins
working his way up the pile of stone and dirt. He starts to follow
when Jiron’s foot dislodges a stone which falls and almost hits him
in the head. Deciding to wait until he reaches the top, James holds
his position.

When Jiron hollers down that he’s made it,
James begins climbing up. The unstable rubble makes climbing
difficult, the rocks shift under him and twice he starts sliding
back down when they give way. Taking it slow, he finally makes it
to the top and finds that they are in another room.

Jiron reaches down a hand and helps him the
last bit until he’s standing in the room. The ceiling of the room
has collapsed in two places, one of which has left an opening.

Broken stone lies strewn across the floor of
the room. A single closed door appears to be the only way out other
than the hole in the ceiling.

James considers the hole in the ceiling while
Jiron moves to investigate the door. Holding his orb high, he sees
there’s an open area beyond the hole in the ceiling. “If we can get
up there it would bring us closer to the surface,” he observes.

Jiron pauses at the door and turns to face
him. Glancing from the floor to the ceiling he says, “That’s a good
twelve feet at least. How would we get up there?”

Shrugging, James replies, “Not sure.”

Turning back to the door, Jiron pulls it open
to find what used to be a stairway leading down. But the stairwell
has long since collapsed and the way is no longer passable. “This
way is blocked,” he says as he turns back to where James is trying
to figure a way up to the hole.

“Maybe we should take a short break while we
work on how to continue,” suggests Jiron.

Glancing at him, James nods his head. “That
might not be such a bad idea.”

Moving over to one side where the rubble
isn’t nearly so thick, they clear a space and sit down against the
wall. Jiron removes two pieces of dried beef from his belt pouch
and hands one to James.

“Thanks,” he says. Taking the beef, he bites
off a piece and gazes around the room. “You know, there’re some
good sized pieces of stone here,” he states. “Might be possible to
make a pile high enough for us to reach the edge of the
opening.”

Jiron nods at the idea. “Would be better than
backtracking to find another route,” he agrees. Then he asks,
“How’s your wrist?”

“Still hurts,” replies James. “Don’t worry,
I’ll still help build the pile.” He feels a hand on his shoulder
and turns to see Jiron looking at him.

“That’s not what I was meaning,” he says.
“Just concerned is all.”

“I know,” James assures him.

They sit and rest until they’ve finished
their dried beef and drank a small portion of their depleting water
supply. “Ready?” Jiron asks. When James nods his head, they get up
and begin to work on building a pile to reach the hole.

At first they work together on the larger
chunks of stone to build the base. James’ hand prevents them from
using the largest pieces but he’s at least able to assist Jiron in
moving some of the medium sized ones.

Stone after stone, they move each to beneath
the opening and the pile steadily rises. They even remove the door
leading to the clogged stairwell and add it to the growing pile to
add stability. When all but the small stones that would be of
little use are gathered, Jiron climbs to the top and finds he is
still four feet from the opening. The pile of stone isn’t stable
enough to allow him to jump that far even with the use of the door.
The top stone upon which he stands continuously threatens to slip
off the pile at any second.

“Maybe we can work some stones out of the
wall where it’s broken,” suggests James.

“Good idea,” replies Jiron as he works his
way down from the pile.

James takes out his belt knife and walks over
to the wall. Large chunks of stone are imbedded within the dirt.
Using his knife, he begins working the stones out from the wall.
When they are loose enough, Jiron takes them to the pile.

This process takes well over an hour before
Jiron once again climbs the pile in an attempt to reach the hole in
the ceiling. Once on the top, he stretches to touch the edge of the
opening. His fingers are only six inches away this time. The rocks
upon which he stands continue to shift and rock in a most unstable
manner. Deciding to risk it, he jumps.

His hands grab the edge of the opening as the
rock pile beneath him disintegrates. The force of his jump
dislodges the carefully arranged pile of rocks causing half of it
to slide and spill across the room’s floor.

James holds his breath as he watches him
hanging there in the hole. Adjusting his grip, Jiron starts to pull
himself up until his feet disappear over the edge. “I made it!” he
hollers back down.

“Thank goodness,” breathes James with
relief.

A few seconds later, the rope Jiron keeps
coiled around his middle drops down through the opening. At the end
of the rope he has made a loop. “Here,” he says. “Put your foot in
the loop and I’ll pull you up.”

“Okay,” replies James and then climbs the
pile of stone to reach the rope. Once at the top, he takes the rope
in his good hand and sets his foot in the loop. “Pull it up,” he
hollers when he’s ready.

The rope begins to be slowly drawn upward
until the slack has been taken up. Then he holds onto the rope
tightly as Jiron gradually pulls him up off the disheveled rock
pile and toward the hole. He can hear Jiron’s grunts each time he
pulls him a little bit further. When his head passes through the
opening, he takes his good hand and pulls his upper body over the
lip.

Jiron lets go of the rope and grabs him under
the shoulders. In one strong tug, he pulls him completely over the
lip and onto the next level. James cries out as the rough edge
scrapes along his chest as he’s being dragged out of the
opening.

Rolling on his back, James uses his uninjured
hand to pull up the front of his shirt. The two orbs left in the
room below wink out as another springs to life next to him. Looking
at his chest, he finds three long scrapes several inches in length.
Two are simply red, the third is beginning to well blood.

“Sorry about that,” apologizes Jiron.

James glances at him as he lowers his shirt.
“They’re not bad, just stings a little,” he assures him.

“That’s good.” He takes the rope and unties
the loop he made for James’ foot before coiling it once again
around his waist.

The light from the orb reveals they are in
another hallway, the hole they climbed out from divides it in half.
They can either continue down the side they are on or try to cross
over the hole some way to go the other.

James sits up and takes his orb in his hand.
He notices Jiron looking at him with his hand out. Suddenly,
another springs to life in Jiron’s hand.

“Thanks,” he says. “Just stay there and rest
a moment if you need to, I’ll head down here and see where this
leads.”

“Alright,” replies James from where he
remains sitting with his back propped up against the wall. “Can’t
be too far from the surface now.”

Jiron nods in agreement. “If we find a way
out, let’s hope the mages have left,” he says. “Can you sense
them?”

James concentrates for a moment then shakes
his head. “Either they are far away or aren’t doing anything
magical.”

“Good. If you can’t sense them, then they
shouldn’t be able to sense you either.” Holding up the orb, he nods
to it.

James just shrugs his shoulders.

“Be back in a second,” Jiron says as he
proceeds down the hallway. Twenty feet from where he left James the
right side of the hallway is blocked by dirt that spilled in
through a window in the wall. He only pauses to examine the window
for a moment then is about to move on when he feels a barely
perceptible breeze.

Standing still, he works to ascertain from
which direction the waft of air originated. He comes to realize
it’s coming from the top left corner of the window. Holding aloft
his orb, he inspects it closer and discovers a small opening in the
dirt through which the air is moving.

After a quick glance back to where James sits
with his orb on the floor next to him, he reaches up and pushes on
the dirt surrounding the opening. It doesn’t take much pressure
before the dirt begins falling away. He works at it until he has
made an opening two feet in diameter.

Holding the orb behind him, he climbs higher
on the mound of dirt and looks through. There’s a definite space on
the other side of the window. When he dislodges more of the dirt,
he can hear it fall down the other side. Excited, he hurries back
to James.

James sees him running back toward him and
gets to his feet. “What?” he asks.

Indicating back down the hallway with a nod
of his head, he says, “Found a window that may lead somewhere.
There’s a slight draft passing through from the other side.”