The Hidden Realm: Book 04 - Ennodius (19 page)

ENNODIUS

The descent down the steep side of the gorge was difficult for Ascilius. Because the saturated ground beneath the trees was covered with slick leaves and knobby roots, he constantly slipped and stumbled, his invisible hands and feet adding to his difficulties. Behind him, Elerian had advantage of being able to see his golden shade with his magical third eye. His light steps took him easily down the hillside without the least difficulty.

Halfway down the slope, the trees ended and the devastation of the dragon began. From that point on, the two companions made their way down the precipitous slope in the open, walking between the black stumps and fallen trunks of trees burnt up by Eboria’s scorching internal fires. The wanton destruction of so many ancient trees both angered and saddened Elerian.

“It will take a hundred years for the trees to return here, and centuries more for them to reach their former grandeur,” he thought wrathfully to himself. “For all her beauty, Eboria is as evil as the Goblins,” he decided, recalling the destruction caused by the Goblins that he had witnessed in Fimbria.

In front of Elerian, Ascilius now sank up to his ankles in mud, for the rain had softened the bare ground between the burnt up trees. His heavy footsteps splashed liquid brown earth liberally all over his lower legs. Elerian, whose booted feet barely sank into the soft ground, drew as far away from the Dwarf as he could while still maintaining the invisibility spell that hid them.

When, the two companions finally reached the bottom of the gorge, they walked across a narrow bank to the edge of the Catalus. The river was swollen into a torrent of brown water by the steady rain of the past two days and the mud that had washed off the bare hillsides.

“Even dragon fire could not force me into that water,” said Ascilius with a shudder. “We should walk down to the bridge down river. It is not more than five miles away.”

“Five miles there, and five miles back. That is more than two hours,” Elerian pointed out. “We dare not stay out in the open that long, for Eboria may return at any moment. Let us search instead for something along the riverbank that might support your weight.”

Ascilius could not swim a stroke, but the two companions had used this same trick to cross a river before. Grumbling to himself, Ascilius walked slowly south along the riverbank, reluctantly helping Elerian search the shore. It was not long before they found the remains of a fire-blackened bough as thick as a young tree that looked as if it would support Ascilius and the two packs. Despite its weight, Elerian and the Dwarf easily carried it to the edge of the river, the limb disappearing from sight at the touch of Elerian’s fingers.

Elerian tied their packs to one of the charred stubs projecting from the invisible branch before stepping into the strong brown flow of the river. Easily pulling the end of the weighty bough in after him, he held it steady against the current, watching with his third eye as Ascilius’s golden shade waded into the waist deep water near shore.

Groping around with his hands for the invisible branch, Ascilius suddenly felt his feet slip on the slick river bottom. A sudden push from the current swept him off his feet. He just managed to grasp a protruding branch with his strong right hand before disappearing beneath the cold, rushing waters of the river.

The Dwarf’s weight violently twisted the end of the bough in Elerian’s hands to the right. He watched helplessly as their packs disappeared beneath the surface of the river, but his greatest concern was that the limb would be torn from his grasp by the force of the current. With his third eye, Elerian watched as the silver river spun the dead black branch around until Ascilius’s end was facing the far bank. Bracing his feet against the slippery river bottom, Elerian tightened the grip of his long, strong fingers on the slick surface of the scorched bough.

“If I lose my grip, Ascilius will be swept away and drowned,” he thought grimly to himself as he fought the relentless pull of the current that seemed intent on wrenching the branch away from him. Because of his struggle with the river current, Elerian now found it difficult to maintain the integrity of his invisibility spell, for it was difficult to compensate for sudden movements, both his own and those of the branch. If the dragon returned now, turning her eagle eyed gaze on the river, she was sure to glimpse either parts of his upper body or sections of the limb as they briefly emerged from behind the cover of his spell. 

Suddenly, to Elerian’s relief, Ascilius reemerged from the turbulent water of the river, pulling himself onto the invisible branch with his powerful left arm. His right hand still maintained a death’s grip on the stub he had seized when he first went under. Ascilius was now straddling the limb with his back to Elerian, both strong legs and arms firmly wrapped around the invisible branch.

 “Just when I thought I could not be any wetter and colder, I am proved wrong again,” he spluttered grumpily, after spitting out a large quantity of river water.

 “At least you are not drowned,” said Elerian dryly.

Seeing with his third eye that Ascilius was now firmly attached to the limb, Elerian gave a powerful push with his sinewy legs. The thick bough shot out into the current, carrying Ascilius and Elerian with it. His left hand firmly wrapped around the charred remnant of a small branch, Elerian slipped easily through the water next to the buoyant limb. Thrusting strongly with his legs and free hand, Elerian pushed the heavy branch through the murky, cold waters of the river. Briefly closing his third eye, he quickly examined the blue, cloudless sky above them, but, thankfully, it remained empty.

 It took all of Elerian's strength to keep the branch moving diagonally across the river, for the swift current constantly threatened to send the bough spinning. Ascilius was little more than dead weight, hugging his end of the branch with his strong arms as if it were an old and dear friend.

They were carried a quarter mile downstream before Elerian was finally able to push the limb into an eddy after they swept around a bend in the river. When the branch bumped up against the stony shore, Ascilius scrambled out of the water, easily pulling the limb after him out of the grip of the current. Elerian breathed a sigh of relief as he waded out of the water. Pushing the heavy bough through the turbulent, cold river would have brought a strong man to the verge of exhaustion, but Elerian felt only slightly winded, filled with a pleasant glow brought on by his exertions and the satisfaction of pitting his strength against the wild water behind him. A sudden image suddenly appeared in his mind of Anthea, blue eyes gleaming with excitement and her slim form supple as spring steel. As he stooped and untied the invisible, sopping wet packs, a sharp pang of regret suddenly swept through Elerian that she was not by his side.

“What a stalwart companion, she would make,” he thought to himself as he straightened up with a pack in each hand. With a sigh, he reluctantly pushed away Anthea’s image, for their danger was still great. After withdrawing his ring’s invisibility spell from the limb, Elerian looked toward Geminus. He felt vindicated for insisting that they swim across the river when he saw that they were now less than a mile from the city gates. Guessing that Ascilius was out of sorts from being in the water; however, he did not press the issue, merely thrusting Ascilius’s invisible knapsack into the Dwarf’s right hand.

After settling their wet packs on their shoulders, the two companions climbed up the barren west side of the gorge, which was not nearly as steep or high at this point as it was near the fallen bridge upstream. Once they reached the top, they walked to the road that ran north to south along the west bank of the river. Scorched black in places, it was easily twenty-five feet wide, made up of large, flat pieces of granite fitted tightly together on top of a bed of crushed rock. The massive trees that had lined both shoulders of the road had been reduced to little more than blackened skeletons by Eboria’s fiery breath.

With Ascilius leading, the two invisible companions began to run toward the city gates, for they were anxious to gain the protection of the mountain before the dragon returned. They constantly scanned the bright blue sky overhead as they ran, but there was still no sign of Eboria.

“We shall make it after all,” said Ascilius in a relieved voice when they were only a few hundred yards from the gates of the city.

At that moment, Elerian looked up and saw a flash of green high in the sky above them. The long, lean body of the dragon was stooping down on them at terrific speed, like an enormous bird of prey. Always fearful of intruders stealing from her hoard of gold, Eboria had returned early from her hunt. Beneath the golden cloak of Elerian’s invisibility spell, her third eye had immediately detected the pale golden shades of Elerian and Ascilius as they approached the city gates. 

“Faster!” shouted Elerian urgently to Ascilius. “Eboria is right above us.”

 Redoubling their speed, the two companions ran up the broad ramp that led up to the main gates. Elerian had a quick glimpse of massive, half-melted steel doors twisted off their hinges, and then, they were inside the mountain. Without slackening their pace, they dashed down a passageway that was at least twenty-five feet wide and twenty high. Elerian ended his invisibility spell since it no longer offered them any protection. In the dim light filling the passageway, their golden shades would be plainly visible to the dragon's shadow sight.

As they ran, Elerian had brief glimpses of polished walls and an arched ceiling overhead. The passageway, which was about sixty feet long ended at another set of gates which were wide open and had a twisted, half-melted appearance like the outer gates. Beyond the second set of gates was a great hall lined with rows of massive pillars that supported a high, vaulted ceiling. As Ascilius and Elerian entered the hall, the Dwarf lit a small mage light to illuminate their way, for the floor of the hall was treacherous, strewn with smashed wagons, scorched weapons, and dented armor. Minding their footing, Ascilius and Elerian sprinted across the chamber, finally dashing through another set of massive, open doors on the far side.

Ascilius’s dim light showed Elerian that they were now running down a large passageway. Barely sixty feet into it, they ran across a second tunnel about thirty feet high and forty wide that intersected their passageway at a right angle. As he crossed this second tunnel, Elerian saw that it curved away out of sight on both his left and his right. On the far side of the intersection, the arched passageway they were following ran straight away from them.

“Straight ahead,” shouted Ascilius, his furiously churning short legs carrying him down the tunnel at a tremendous rate of speed.

“Nothing like the threat of being roasted alive to bring out one’s best efforts,” thought Elerian to himself as he followed Ascilius, his light steps carrying him effortlessly over the debris strewn floor of the passageway. Behind him, Elerian suddenly heard a tremendous roar, made horrific by its volume and low cavernous notes that seemed to make the very floor vibrate with its power. The scrabbling of steel hard claws on stone came clearly to Elerian’s ears when the sound died away. Eboria was now right behind them, and the situation suddenly seemed hopeless.

“What have we got ourselves into?” Elerian wondered grimly to himself. “The monster behind us could crush an entire army if it was minded too.”

Elerian had barely formed the thought when Ascilius suddenly spun on his right heel, dashing through an arched entranceway on the right, an opening about ten feet high and twelve feet wide. They had come to a second intersection, but the intersecting tunnel was much smaller than the first one.

“Too small for Eboria,” thought Elerian hopefully to himself as he ran after Ascilius.

They were barely a hundred feet into the smaller passageway when a massive form suddenly appeared in the arched entryway behind them. Fortunately for Elerian and Ascilius, Eboria was too large to fit more than her head, neck, and a bit of her shoulders inside the tunnel. As the dragon spread her enormous jaws, Ascilius, who was still slightly ahead of Elerian, abruptly dove into an open doorway on his left. As Elerian leaped after him, he saw a flash of crimson light and felt a brief, searing blast of heat on the left side of his face and shoulder. An instant after he passed through the doorway, red flames roared by behind him, and the air around him suddenly became hot and stifling.

Ascilius and Elerian threw themselves flat on the ground, seeking cooler air near the floor. On hands and knees, they crawled deeper into the room they had entered, away from the doorway.

“We will be cooked alive, like bread in a stone oven,” thought Elerian to himself as he and Ascilius crept through the withering, searing heat around them. The air scorched their lungs, and the stone under their hands and feet began to warm. Then, abruptly, the flames roaring by the doorway behind them died away. Ascilius, who still led, bumped his head into a stone wall. Turning slowly around, he sat down with his back against it, his breath coming in great gasps, torrents of sweat coursing down his craggy face.

Elerian, who was in a similar state, sat down next to him on the Dwarf’s right. The room they were in must have had some source of fresh air, for Elerian noticed that the air around him was already noticeably cooler. An unpleasant metallic smell lingered in the room, however, as if he sat at the brink of a large furnace. Looking around the chamber, which was illuminated by Ascilius’s small mage light, Elerian guessed that it might once have been a storeroom, for it was lined with empty shelves.

 “Someone stripped this room and left the door open,” thought Elerian to himself, amazed at their good fortune. “If they had locked it, Ascilius and I would be nothing more than charred cinders now.”