Soulbinder (Book 3) (7 page)

“But not before hunting down and killing all those who opposed him,” Galla said quietly. He pulled the sleeves up on his robe against the chill. “Especially the priests. Those that accepted his leadership were spared, but those who did not were killed.”

“The
lucky
ones were killed,” snorted Kendril. “Those that weren’t were tortured, or forced to watch their loved ones killed before their eyes.” He tightened his grip on the pistol. “Jovar was a monster.”

Joseph looked over at the Ghostwalker in surprise.

Kendril didn’t seem to notice.

“And some managed to escape, at least for a time,” Galla said, his voice still low. “That is what I believe this temple is. Some of the priests hid out here during the great persecution, performing the cleansing rites in secret where Jovar’s agents couldn’t find them. I suspect they had a part in the uprising that occurred against Jovar’s rule in this area, before the Battle of Archangel.”

Joseph raised an eyebrow. “They built this temple?”

Galla shook his head. “Doubtful. I suspect they found an old pagan temple, perhaps from before the Rajathan conquest, and modified it to fit their needs.”

“So why did you lie to us?” Joseph “Why not just tell us the truth from the beginning?”

“Simple. I did not know if I could trust you.”

“You didn’t want anyone in town to know what you were really after,” said Maklavir suddenly. “Including us. I imagine there might be some rather valuable artifacts in that underground chamber, things worth a lot of money to the right people.”

“But you still couldn’t risk transversing the wilds all on your own,” commented Joseph. “Not with all the bandits and Oganti raiding parties about. So in the end you had to hire someone to escort you.”

“You just figured you’d play us for fools,” finished Kendril. He raised his pistol a little more.

“I admit,” said Galla quickly, “that I did not act as wisely as I should have. I was afraid, and certain that someone would kill me if they knew what I was searching for.”

“We still
might
,” said Kendril.

Joseph threw him a nasty glance.

“I’ve told you what I know,” said Galla. He gave Kendril another fearful look. “What happens now is in your hands.”

Joseph lifted the tip of his rapier for a moment, weighing the weapon in his hand. “All right,” he said at last. “Let’s get this cover off.” He sheathed his sword.

“Joseph--” Kendril began.

“We can’t very well kill him in cold blood, can we?” Joseph gestured to the stone slab at their feet. “Besides, there’s obviously something here. Let’s see what it is.”

The Ghostwalker furrowed his brow, then looked back at Galla. “I’m watching you,” he said between his teeth. The pistol flashed back into the depths of his cloak, and he spun away.

Galla sank back against the wall, his hands shaking.

Joseph picked up the lantern. “Let’s get to work,” he said.

With a low thud, the stone crashed down against the temple wall.

Joseph and Kendril backed away, brushing the dirt off their hands. From the floor a five-foot hole yawned up at them, blackness and cold air spilling out from below.

“I don’t see any stairs,” said Maklavir as he peered over the edge.

Galla moved forward eagerly, looking down into the darkness. “No. It looks to be just a tunnel going straight down. No telling how far.”

Joseph grabbed a small stone off the ground, and tossed it into the hole.

After a second or two, it hit the bottom, echoing up from below.

He frowned. “Too far to jump.”

Maklavir walked carefully around the hole. “That doesn’t make any sense. How did they get down?”

Kara turned from where she had been standing over by the stone wall. “I think I know. Look here.” She rubbed at the dirt, revealing a dark shape.

Joseph stepped over next to her, raising the lantern. “Well I’ll be,” he breathed. “Looks like some kind of metal ring.”

“Set pretty well into the wall, too,” said Kara. She scraped some more dirt out from around it. “I almost didn’t see it at first. It’s covered over pretty well.”

Maklavir gave them a quizzical look. “I still don’t understand. What good would a metal ring—?”

“A place to attach a rope,” said Kendril from the temple’s entrance. He pocketed his flint, and lifted a branch at the same time. Its leaves were already starting to blossom into flame. “Stand back.”

Maklavir and Galla stepped back as the Ghostwalker strode to the open hole. He held the burning branch over the edge for a moment, then dropped it.

Everyone leaned in to watch as the branch fell down the hole, until finally it smashed onto a floor at the bottom, flaming cinders scattering from the impact.

“Looks like a larger room down there,” Joseph commented.

“Yeah,” said Kendril as he straightened up. “Maybe thirty feet down or so.”

Maklavir looked up sharply, glancing from Kendril to Joseph and back again. “Wait. You’re not seriously thinking of going
down
there, are you?”

Kendril gave a crooked grin. “Why? Scared of the dark, Maklavir?”

“Not the dark, particularly.” Maklavir pushed his cape away from one of the dirt walls. “Just the nasty things that run around in it.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much, Maklavir,” said Joseph. “Probably only a few bats down there.”

Kara stood back from the ring in the wall, admiring her handiwork. “You could

always stay up here, you know.”

“Why is it,” said Maklavir with an accusatory glare, “that everyone always seems so eager to ditch me?” He gave the hole another wary look. “Once again, I think I’d prefer going into the unknown with the rest of you then staying here by myself.”

“Alright, then.” Kendril turned to face the group, his face hidden in shadow from the flickering lamplight. “Let’s get some rope.”

Chapter 5

Even before Kendril’s feet touched the stone floor, his pistol was out of its holster.

He stepped away from the rope dangling behind him, and pulled back the lock on his weapon with the edge of his palm. The click echoed off the walls of the large chamber and scattered up towards the ceiling. The lantern hanging from his belt cast eerie shadows in all directions, but the light was enough to see by.

Kendril loosened the lantern with his free hand, then lifted it up to get a better look.

The room was large, circular in shape. A stone floor spread out in all directions, immaculately paved. As he turned, figures suddenly lunged out of the darkness. Clawed hands reached towards him.

He leveled the pistol and took a startled step back before it dawned on him that the eerie shapes weren’t moving.

Kendril moved a little closer, holding the lantern high.

There were statues, four of them, set into the walls of the room. Even in the scattered light he could make out bat-like wings curling out from their backs. The bodies were humanoid, but the faces were animal-like. He stepped in to get a better look when a voice came echoing down from above.

“Kendril?”

He frowned, then turned back towards the hole in the ceiling. “All clear,” he called out.

There was a scuffling at the top. A few moments later, Kara appeared, landing gracefully on the stone floor.

She stepped away, brushing back her hair and looking around. “Not very cheery, is it?”

Kendril shook his head, reluctantly sticking the pistol back into his belt. “No.” He reached out a gloved hand, and touched the stone face of one of the statues. It was carved in the likeness of a wolf’s head, snarling viciously.

Kara stepped up beside him. “What in the Halls of Pelos is that?”

“Harnathu, one of the Seteru,” Kendril said grimly. “The pagans worship him as the god of blood, war, and slaughter.”

Kara looked around them, and noticed the other three shapes looming out of the darkness. “And those?”

Kendril pointed to each in turn. “Yaganthru, goddess of secrets. Chalranu, god of darkness and the night. Indigoru, goddess of fertility and sensuality.”

The pretty redhead raised an eyebrow. “Fertility and sensuality?”

Kendril shrugged. “Sex.”

“Ah.” Kara crossed over towards one of the statues and gave it a distasteful look. She looked back at Kendril. “So how is it that you know such much about pagan mythology?”

The Ghostwalker started to open his mouth when a muffled curse came from the dangling rope behind them. They both turned as Maklavir slid to an inglorious halt, and stumbled away from the hole.

“And that’s how we have to get back up?” he asked in a miserable tone. “My cape will be utterly ruined.” He looked around the room for a moment. “Good gracious, what are those?”

“Pagan gods,” said Kara. She knelt on the ground, striking a flint into a lantern.

“Funny, though,” Kendril said quietly. “You’d think the priests hiding down here would have defaced the statues, or covered them up.”

Maklavir examined his hands carefully. “Maybe they didn’t have time. Tuldor’s beard!” He raised a hand. “Blisters.”

Kara hid a smile as the lantern leapt to life.

Galla came down the rope next, falling hard on his posterior as he crashed to the floor. He got up painfully, rubbing his sore behind. He saw the statues and jumped back in terror for a moment before he realized they weren’t real.

Two minutes later, Joseph landed at the bottom of the rope, his rapier dangling from his belt.

“Only one doorway,” said Kendril as he came up beside him. “Over there, on the east wall. A flight of stairs going down.”

Joseph nodded, staring around at the statues. “Seteru?”

The Ghostwalker grunted. “Yeah. Adds a nice touch, don’t you think?”

Joseph adjusted his belt. “Well, Galla did say this was originally a pagan temple—” He paused a moment, as if in mid-thought. “Shouldn’t there be five?”

Kendril tapped his hand uneasily on the handle of his pistol. “Belrannu?”

“The god of the underworld.” Joseph scratched his chin. “Odd that he’s not included.”

“Come,” said Galla excitedly. He lifted a lantern, and motioned to the stairs. “We’re wasting time. Our answers lie down there.”

Lanterns bobbing in the shadowy darkness, they headed towards the stairs.

“Oh, this is simply impossible!”

Maklavir batted wildly at the cobwebs entangled around him, ripping them from his arms. “Did you see those spiders back there? I swear they were bigger than my hand.”

Kendril swatted a cobweb out of the way himself, suppressing an exasperated sigh. “Yes, Maklavir, we all saw the spiders.”

He stepped off the last stair, the lantern swaying in his hand.

It was another room, much larger than the first. Rows of carved stone slabs stretched out in two rows before them, disappearing ahead into the darkness. Spider webs choked the ceilings and the spaces between the aisles. Dust lay across everything like a thick carpet.

Galla stumbled up behind Kendril. “This must be the central antechamber,” he murmured. “If there is anything of value to be found, it will undoubtedly be here.”

Kendril turned and gave the priest a suspicious glance.

Maklavir whipped his cape away from a lingering cloud of dust. “Wonderful,” he said, peering into the dark room before them. “
More
spiders.”

“Look at this.” Kara stepped out into the room, carefully avoiding a tangle of cobwebs. “There are things carved here, on the slabs.”
Kendril and Joseph stepped in closer, knocking their way through several webs.

Galla licked his lips nervously, looking around the room with both fear and excitement.

Joseph leaned forward, brushing dust off one of the stone slabs with his sleeve. “Strange,” he said. “They’re images of some kind, but I don’t know—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

“What is it?” Kara asked.

Joseph stood, tugging at the handkerchief around his neck. “The Endless Winter,” he said.

Kara stared down again at the carved pictures, half-obscured by the dirt and dust covering the slab. She was just able to make out pictures of men and women, standing in swirling eddies of snow, their hands reaching up to the heavens and their mouths frozen open in a silent scream.

Kendril stepped over to another slab, the light from his lantern playing over its surface. “This one is the Endless Winter, too.”

Galla stepped forward, passing through the rows of the slabs. “It’s a history,” he said in an awed tone. “A history of the ancient time. This looks like the fall of the Rajathan Empire, when the northern tribes descended upon it.”

“The beginning of the First Despair,” said Kendril.

Maklavir shivered. “I say, is anyone else getting a little spooked being in here?”

“There!” Galla pointed, then leapt forward. His eyes blazed with excitement.

Kendril and Joseph both turned, their hands instinctively reaching for their weapons.

Galla ran through the row of stone slabs, and trotted up several stone steps to a raised dais.

There, sitting amidst a mesh of cobwebs, was a large stone box, almost five feet long and three feet high.

Kendril strode forward, breaking through the webs as he went. “What is it?”

Galla bent down next to the stone box, his fingers working over its surface. “A box, and that means there must be something inside.” He blew hard against the side, sending a great cloud of dust rolling off. “There’s writing here. Pagan, by the look of it.”

Kendril stepped up onto the dais, his eyes darting around. “Can you open it?”

Galla reached up, feeling around the edge of the top. “No. It’s locked into place.” He unslung his pack, pulling several books out. “But there must be
some
way to open it. The writing undoubtedly holds the key.”

Joseph moved up to the bottom of the stairs. “What, like a puzzle of some kind?”

Galla nodded, flipping open the first book. “Undoubtedly. I have some books that should help me translate it.”

“You just carry those around with you in case you need them, huh?” Kendril picked one up and turned the cover around. “
Ancient Runes of the Northern Barbarian Tribes
.” He tossed it back to the ground. “I hear that one’s a real page-turner.”