The Mists of Sorrow: The Morcyth Saga Book Seven (68 page)

No sooner does Miko, who’s the last to reach
the building, presses himself against its side than the expected
guard makes his appearance further to their right. Emerging from
between two of the smaller buildings, he turns and walks along the
face of the one to his right. Then he disappears a few seconds
later as he rounds the corner and begins working his way back.

Run and wait. Once it’s clear, they run
again. Step by step they make it closer to the temple’s entrance.
They possibly could have done this without the diagram, but they
would have left a wake of dead guards behind them. And with that
many gone, it would have been almost impossible for someone not to
notice.

Once they’ve made it to the corner of the
building directly across from the double doors which are the
temple’s entrance, Jiron gathers them close. “A guard will appear
in one minute from around the left side,” he explains. “He’ll move
across the front of the temple toward the left then turn and go
around to the back. Once he disappears around the corner, we have
less than a minute to get to those doors and through before two
other guards will appear from there,” he says as he points to the
building on their right, “and there,” he concludes, pointing behind
them.

Waiting there for the guard to appear, James
feels the prickling sensation continue to gradually increase.
Whatever they are doing entails quite a bit of magic.

Finally the guard makes his appearance. Six
pairs of eyes watch him as he turns and crosses in front of the
temple. Then, when he reaches the corner and turns to follow the
other side of the temple, Jiron says, “Now.”

Even before the guard completely disappears
from sight, they are racing across to the doors. Taking the steps
two at a time, Jiron reaches the top and pauses before the doors.
He turns back and scans the temple grounds. Not seeing anyone else
moving about, he takes the handle of the right door. Giving it a
slight shove, he begins pushing the door open.

From within the murmur of voices comes to
them. It sounds as if many men are chanting. Peering inside, he
finds a large room with a vaulted ceiling. Lit torches line the
walls at ten foot intervals giving off plenty of light. Besides the
way they came in, there are four other exits leading from the room.
Two are doors, both of which stand closed. The other two are the
beginnings of hallways that extend further into the temple.

Not seeing anyone, they move inside quickly
and close the doors.

James begins to pull out the diagram of the
temple given to them by the Slavemaster but Jiron shakes his head.
“I have it memorized,” he asserts.

“You sure?” asks James.

“Definitely,” replies Jiron. “We take the
hallway to the right.” He points to the hallway off to their right
that runs along the inside of the outer temple wall.

Glancing to the diagram, James sees that
Jiron is indeed correct. “Okay, let’s go,” he says. Moving along
the side of the hall, they make for the opening of the hallway.
James refers back to the diagram again and sees that the first of
the areas with annotations is the room at the end of this
hallway.

He shows the diagram and the annotations to
Jiron as they reach the hallway. Jiron nods then scans the hallway.
The right side has no openings as it’s the temple’s outer wall. The
left wall has two openings before they reach the end. At that point
the hallway opens up onto the room with the annotations. Just what
the annotations mean they have yet to decipher.

Jiron has the others move just within the
hallway then wait there while he hurries forward to check the two
openings on the left. He moves down to the first one and finds
another corridor branching off. Fortunately it’s currently empty.
At the second opening he finds a dark room, just an alcove really.
Like the corridor before it, it’s empty as well. He then returns
back to the branching corridor and makes sure it’s clear before
signaling the others to hurry past and join him.

Then with the others following close, he
moves down to the end of the hallway. The chanting they heard upon
first entering the temple pervades the corridors. It doesn’t sound
very close, in fact it’s hard to tell just where it is coming from.
One thing’s for sure, it isn’t coming from the room ahead of
them.

The room they’re approaching is well lit and
they can easily see within it long before they reach it. From their
vantage point within the corridor, the room looks deserted. He has
the others wait while he moves to the end of the corridor. Peering
into the room, he finds it empty.

It’s a room that stretches about forty feet
away from the corridor and is close to thirty feet wide. The walls
are plain and unadorned. Another corridor exits the room through
the wall to their left. In the middle of the room sits a pedestal,
roughly four foot high. Sitting upon the top of it is a statue of a
bent and gnarled humanoid form. The statue stands two feet in
height and its back is to Jiron so he’s unable to get a good look
at the face of it from his vantage point.

Other than the corridor wherein he’s
standing, the only exit from the room is the corridor to his left.
There’s something about this room that bothers him, then
realization hits him. He waves for the others to come forward and
when they join him he points to the other corridor on the left and
says, “I don’t think we are supposed to go that way.”

James brings forth the diagram and looks at
it. “You’re right,” he says. “According to this there should be
another way directly across from where we’re standing.” He shows
the diagram to the others.

“Then that means we know what those
annotations on the diagram mean now,” Miko observes. When the
others look to him he clarifies, “They probably tell us how to
locate and activate a secret door.”

James nods his head. “I think you’re right,”
he says.

“Okay then,” Jiron says as he glances to the
others. “Scar, Potbelly.” Pointing to the other corridor leading
from the room he says, “You two keep an eye down that corridor over
there.” As they cross the room to get into position, Jiron says to
James, “I’ll keep watch here while you find that secret door and
get it open.”

James nods his head. “Right.”

“Ahhh!” Miko suddenly exclaims as his knees
almost buckle.

James turns to him. “What happened?” he asks
concerned.

Miko turns sorrow filled eyes toward him and
says, “I think they’ve begun killing the slaves Jiron saw them
bring in here.” Then again he feels a life ending prematurely.

“You going to be okay?” he asks as he sees
the pain again in his face.

“No,” he replies. “But what choice is
there?”

To Brother Willim James says, “Stay with
him.” After he receives a nod from him, he moves into the room and
crosses over to where according to the map the secret door has to
be. On the way over he passes by the statue and notices that it is
looking directly at the place the secret door must lay.

The visage of the creature is truly demonic,
even down to the two small horns sprouting from its forehead. Only
giving it a cursory glance, he hurries to the wall. Once there, he
begins a quick search for any loose stones or sections that might
activate the triggering mechanism. After several minutes of
fruitless searching, he comes to the conclusion that it must be
elsewhere.

Turning back to the pedestal and statue, he
gives it a quick once over. He runs his hands first over the
pedestal, then when he finds nothing, turns his attention to the
statue.

“Someone’s coming,” Scar says from where
he’s watching the other corridor. He and Potbelly move to either
side of the opening and flatten themselves against the wall.

From his vantage point in the middle of the
room, James can see two of the temple guards making their way down
the corridor toward the room. Moving quickly, he moves to the side
of the room out of the view of the approaching guards, and quickly
makes his way next to Potbelly.

Both Potbelly and Scar draw their knives and
wait. The approaching footsteps grow louder as the two men draw
closer. When they emerge from the corridor, Potbelly and Scar
strike fast and hard. Both guards fall without a sound.

“Anyone else?” asks Jiron as he remerges
from where he, Miko and Brother Willim had ducked back down the
other corridor to keep from being seen.

Scar glances back down the corridor and
shakes his head. “No,” he replies.

“Alright,” Jiron replies. Then to James he
says, “Hurry it up.”

Nodding, James returns to the statue. He
begins trying to move the various appendages of the demonic figure.
He pushes and pulls the arms, head and torso. Then one of his
fingers encounters a slightly loose gnarled bump on the creature’s
back. “I found something,” he says.

“Don’t stand there talking about it,” Jiron
says. “Get it open.”

He presses the gnarled bump but nothing
happens. Another quick examination reveals two more bumps that are
slightly loose, one on its stomach and another on its back. He
presses all three simultaneously and is rewarded with an almost
silent grinding noise as a section of the wall begins to rise into
the ceiling.

James moves to the entrance and looks
through. “There’s another corridor extending away,” he says,
“exactly as the diagram shows.” Brother Willim and Miko move to
follow him as he steps just within the new passage.

“Nice going,” Jiron praises James. Then to
Scar and Potbelly he says, “Bring those two dead guards into the
secret passage with you.”

“Right,” Scar says. Then he and Potbelly
each take one and begin dragging them toward the new opening in the
wall.

“Hurry it up,” Jiron says to them. “We don’t
know how long it’s going to stay open.”

“Then give us a hand,” Potbelly says.

Crossing the room to them, Jiron grabs hold
of each of the dead bodies and helps to drag them into the secret
passage. They no sooner have them inside then the secret door
begins to close. When it finally settles once more to the ground,
they are plunged into pitch darkness. The chanting which had been
present ever since they first entered the temple is no longer
audible. The chanters must be in some other part of the main temple
not connected with this secret area.

In the darkness they see a glow coming from
Miko. It’s the glow of the Star of Morcyth from where it resides in
his belt pouch. “I think it senses the presence of Dmon-Li’s
priests,” he says.

“More likely the dark rites they’re
performing,” suggests Brother Willim.

“Will they be able to detect it if we do
magic?” James asks him.

“I don’t think so,” he replies. “With what
they are doing, it’s going to drown out anything we do, unless
you’re planning on something big?”

“Hardly,” James says. Then his orb blossoms
to life on the palm of his hand. To Jiron he says, “Lead on.”

Moving down the corridor, James follows
after Jiron and takes another look at the diagram. He sees that the
corridor they’re heading down turns to the left sharply just ahead,
then just after that, turns back to the right. From there it moves
forward less than ten feet until coming to an end. Then on the
right side is a long, narrow room with another set of
annotations.

They continue down the corridor, and true to
the diagram, they follow the route until they reach the final turn
where it goes back to the right. “Hold up Jiron,” James says.

Coming to a stop, Jiron glances back to
him.

James points to the door on the right at the
end of the hallway. “Beyond that door is a long narrow room,” he
explains. Holding up the diagram, he adds, “And there’s another set
of annotations across it.”

“What do you suggest?” he asks.

“Just be careful,” he replies.

Giving him a nod, Jiron then moves toward
the door. Placing his ear against it, he listens for any noise
coming from the other side. Turning his head back to the others, he
whispers, “It’s quiet.” Placing his hand upon the handle, he pushes
and the door moves inward an inch then stops.

“If there’s anyone inside,” he says to
James. “Your orb will give us away.”

James cancels the orb and plunges them into
darkness. “Good thinking,” he says.

The only reply he hears is the all but
silent creaking of the door as Jiron pushes it open. When no light
comes through from the other side, Jiron says, “Alright James, give
us some light.”

When the orb appears and dispels the
darkness, the light reveals the room before them to be another
plain room. The walls are simply the same stone blocks that make up
the rest of the temple’s walls and floors. No pedestal this time.
Nothing but a long, plain room. Pushing the door open all the way,
he looks in while remaining in the corridor.

“Hand me the orb,” he says. “Want to get a
better look inside before we enter.” James hands him the orb and
then he extends his arm past the doorway allowing the light from
the orb to illuminate most of the room. Peering around the doorway,
he sees that the room extends further away than the light from the
orb can reach.

“It’s empty,” he says after a moment’s
scrutiny.

“Maybe the annotations don’t mean anything
here,” suggests Scar.

“Willing to bet your life on it?” Jiron asks
as he turns his gaze on him.

“Not really, no,” Scar replies.

James moves forward and takes a look. “What
do you think?” Jiron asks him.

“I don’t know,” he says. “Looks pretty
normal.”

“I know,” he replies. “That’s what bothers
me.” He starts to step into the room when James places a hand on
his shoulder.

“I may need to lead here,” he says. A
barrier envelopes him after he removes his hand from Jiron’s
shoulder. Something about this room has a very Indiana Jones feel
to it. If it weren’t for the annotations on the diagram, he
probably wouldn’t be feeling nearly so nervous. But they have to
mean something.