Victor's Spoils

Aedric's group enters the private quarters of the mad wizard Helios

24.

 Victor’s Spoils

 

He was alone on the Chessboard, and this brought Aedric into a near panic.   What if the others were not restored to him?    Snoe and the others dead!   The thought was too much for him and he sank down to his knees.

“Please, merciful Yesh!” He cried out to his God, but as he was speaking, behind him on the home squares of the white team, there was a flash of purple light and his seven companions reappeared, restored to full health.

Their excited calls reached him and he arose just in time to catch his wife as she leapt into his arms with a squeal of joy.

He spun her around as she kissed him passionately and the others ran over to join in the celebration.

 

“Well done, Your Majesty!”   Valmiai congratulated him.

“How did you defeat him?”   Snoe asked him after she finished their kiss.

“I took a chance.” He told them about finding the anti-magic amulet then continued, “When I saw Snoe die after trying to use her magic stones, it reminded me that I had that amulet in my pocket.   I wasn’t sure if it would neutralize the Death Knight’s magic.”

“The amulet’s magic comes from the Gem of the Oscinate.” Valmiai answered, “And that comes from a greater demon, so you guessed wisely."

“Thank Yesh for that.”  Aedric squeezed his wife close, “Watching everyone die, especially my wife, was the most horrible thing I have gone through in my life.”

“Well, we’re all well and fit now!”   Mutt said with a sigh, “I don’t think I will ever play chess again!”

“I don’t mean to interrupt our celebration, but we need to keep moving as we don’t know how long the tower will last.”   Allea reminded them and they all agreed.

At the opposite end of the room was another door and they went to it.

Aedric hesitated before opening the door, “It occurs to me that while we have defeated the chess challenge, we really don’t know what other traps and wards Helios might have for us.”

“Valmiai, do you have any idea?”   Gamel asked the Inion Sidhe lady.

“No; our group didn’t get this far.    All I can tell you is that Helios had two obsessions - chess and creating new forms of life.   I doubt any of his creations would still be alive in this tower, but if he created several of them, perhaps they reproduced.”

“What would they have done for food?”   Mattleos asked.

“That is a good point, Lord Matt.  Hopefully that will prevent any of them from surviving.   Unless he put them in a frozen state like the chess pieces.”

“Oh, great.”   Aaron groaned, “Yesh knows what might be waiting for us behind this door!”

“Valmiai, tell me something.”   Snoe asked the lady, “The Black Queen - did you recognize her?”

The Inion Sidhe lady nodded sadly, “Yes, she was Moralea, one of my sisters who failed in our Quest.   Oh, how I wish I could free her from this tower.”

“Perhaps we will.”   Aedric responded, “We can hope that we will get the chance to find and free them all.”

“But not that Death Knight.”   Snoe added and they all agreed.

“Well, let’s see what new adventure awaits us.”   Aedric said, and with a deep breath, he pulled on the handle of the door.

It opened with a slight squeal from old hinges and revealed a winding staircase leading upwards.

 

“Looks like we climb.”  He told his companions, and the young King led the group cautiously up the stairs.

After winding around twice, they came to a landing with another door.    It was made of pure white wood, lacking a handle, and etched into the wood were Elven runes that glowed bright purple.

“Let he who is victorious against me open this door.”   Allea quickly translated.

“I’d say that would be Aedric, as he defeated the Black King.”   Mattleos said.

“We should be certain, first!”   Snoe exclaimed as her husband reached for the door.

“The door is white, which was the color of our team, and the runes are purple, which was also our color.   Even the use of Elven runes hints that it is meant for an Elf.”   Mattleos stated.

Aedric looked back at his wife, “Don’t worry, I think it is alright.”

Before anyone could say anything else, he pushed against the door.   There was a slight clicking sound and the door swung open without any sound, revealing a fascinating room.

It looked like a typical wizard’s study, but with some striking differences.    One half of the room was filled with strange metal tables, glass bottles of odd shapes on metal stands or hanging from chains from the ceiling, and there was what they first thought was a wine rack filled with bottles.   

 But closer inspection revealed the bottles to be filled with odd colored fluid, and a good number of them had what appeared to be blood inside them.   The room was vast and a large bookcase covered the better part of a wall.    It was dusty and smelled unused for many years.    A large work table faced the metal tables and bottles.   Upon it was crumbling pieces of paper and several old leather scrolls.   

Yet what drew their attention was what was behind the metal tables and glass bottles.    Against the far wall of the circular tower were three rows of huge glass tubes, set up on end.   Each of them seemed to be about seven feet long and perhaps four feet wide.   

Aedric counted four rows of eight.   Each of the glass tubes were flat on the bottom and looked as if they were full of some sort of light blue fluid, but the outside of each tube seemed to have ice or frost on it.

 

“Search for Helios’ spellbook.”   Aedric told the women as he and the men went over to examine the large frozen glass tubes.

 

As they drew closer to them, indistinct shapes could be seen inside of each tube.

“There are living things in there.”   Mutt said nervously.

“Or things that were once living.”   Aaron added, peering through one tube, “They are frigid to the touch.”

“Perhaps some of Helios’ experiments?”   Gamel suggested as they walked around them.

As he rounded one corner, to glance at the rear-most row of the tubes, Mattleos stopped suddenly and called for the others to join him.   He pointed to a shattered tube, with glass strewn all over the floor.    There was no liquid remaining, but where it had spilled left a blue stain on the stone.

“Did one of them burst?”   Aaron wondered.

“Or maybe whatever was inside escaped.”   Mutt theorized and his idea seemed to carry some weight, for there were blue stains on the stone floor, which looked as if they were faded footprints, leading away from the shattered glass.

They followed the path of the prints to another staircase along the far wall, leading downward.

“Well, whatever it was, went down those stairs.”   Aedric said after glancing down the stairwell, “The stairs are dusty, including the stained portion, so whatever made those tracks didn’t do it recently.”

“I don’t think Helios’ book is here.” Allea told them while she scanned over the bookcase, “All of the books are titled, and none are spellbooks.”

“What are they, then?”   Aaron asked.

“Mostly books on animals and plant life, some more scholarly than others.    There are a few on alchemy and one open on the table deals with protective circles and wards to use when summoning demons.”

“Oh, wonderful!”   Mutt murmured.

“I wonder what creatures are frozen in these tubes.”   Mattleos pondered.

“Perhaps it is where Helios keeps his chess pieces.    Thirty-two tubes - with one broken- would be the number of chess pieces in the game.”  Valmiai said.

“Are the tubes all full?”  Snoe asked the men and they studied them for a few minutes.

“Except for the broken one, it would appear something is housed within them.”   Aedric told her, “We can’t tell what they are, but I’d say they are humanoid in basic shape.   It looks like they are wearing some dark clothing or maybe they are wrapped in black bandages like a mummy.   That is about all we can make out through the murky, frozen glass.”

“I wonder if we could free them.”   Allea pondered.

“How?”   Gamel asked, “One of these could hold that Death Knight… or something worse!”

“As much as I would love to free my sisters, I fear harming or killing them through not knowing how to revive them.   So, regrettably, I’d suggest that we ignore them for now and try to find that spellbook before the tower disappears and kills us all.”   Valmiai’s words chilled them, so after making completely certain that Helios’ spellbook was not to be found in the room, they decided to take the back stairs and see where they led.

 

***

 

They descended the stairs quickly and found that the blue footprints began to fade and then disappeared before they reached the bottom.   The stairs went down and down, further than the other stairs.    It ended at a large stone doorway, but the door had apparently been ripped off its hinges and laid in the entrance to the room, splintered into many pieces.

Without saying a word to one another, the group drew their weapons and crept into the large basement room.

“If this tower teleports from place to place, how could there be a basement level?”   Mutt whispered to them as they entered the room, and this mystery did not help them feel more secure.

 

It was clearly a Mage’s chamber; larger than the upstairs room, but filled with more sinister items.    Aside from three walls filled with bookcases holding old tomes, the dirt floor of the room was mostly filled with a large five pointed star inside two circles with magic writing around it, all etched into the dirt floor with what appeared to be white chalk.  

But the circle had been broken at a point close to the doorway, and nearby - just inside the broken circle- were strewn some bones of a large humanoid creature - possibly an Ogre or Bugbear- that looked like it had been ripped apart.

But there were other bones to be seen.   For at the center of the pentagram was a smaller pile of bones, along with the tattered, decaying remains of what looked like a yellow wizard’s robe.   

“Something terrible happened here.”   Mutt whispered and they all sensed this as well.

None spoke for a long time, but finally Allea whispered, “He had something imprisoned here.   I’d guess a demon.”

“I’ll bet whatever broke free upstairs, came down these stairs into this room and accidentally disturbed the protective magic circle that Helios had put here to imprison the demon.”   Gamel commented as they all stared at the scene.

“I just hope it’s long gone.”   Mutt whispered.

“It should be.”  Valmiai replied, “This all happened some time ago.   I had heard that Helios wore yellow robes - if that is true, then it is probably his remains in the center of the circle.”

“He was probably  down here doing something.   The demon was imprisoned here and the Ogre - or whatever it was that escaped- stumbled into the room and disturbed the chalk.”   Gamel knelt down by the bones, “It killed the Ogre first, then apparently Helios.   Maybe he was trying to evade it, and it dragged him into the center of the room to kill him.”

Snoe shivered as her brother speculated on the scene, “I don’t know what happened, but I do know I’d love to get out of here as soon as we can.”

“Don’t worry; there is nothing evil here now.”   Aedric reassured her, and Aaron and Gamel nodded in agreement, as all three Paladins could sense the presence of evil.

“Is it safe to explore the room?”   Mutt asked, “Can we cross through that magic circle?”

“Yes”, Allea replied, “It is useless now.   It is just a design on the floor.”

“Still, let’s find that book and get out of here as quickly as we can.” Mutt suggested, and they all shared his feelings of unease.

They split up and examined the entire room.    No-one touched either set of bones, but peered at the shelves of books.

“I think I’ve found it!”   Allea said excitedly, after only a brief time searching, “It is certainly a wizard’s spellbook, for everything is handwritten, and it looks like it was written over a long period of time.    Wait a moment… yes, here he mentions in a note, ‘my tower’, and there are several chess references.    This has to be it!”

 

Everyone looked at each other excitedly, but Valmiai went over to the girl and glanced over her shoulder, “You need to be certain, child!   Absolutely certain.   Look through the book quickly, the spell will be entitled, 'Lui ros egio' or 'Spell of Demon casting' "

Allea nodded, and began quickly scanning through the spellbook while the others nervously waited.

Gamel glanced around the perimeter of the broken magic circle and against the far wall, set into the floor was what looked like a square stone platform about 10 feet in diameter and covered with Elven runes.

“I wonder what this is.”   He said aloud, and Valmiai looked up, and then came over to him.   When she saw it, she gave a surprised exclamation, “It is a teleportation platform!”

“It is?”  Gamel asked.

“Yes, it looks to be an ancient one - like the Inion Sidhe used, and even the Faesidhe who stole it from us.   It will take those who stand on it and chant the spell, to any of the other platforms.”

“I know of one… I think.”   Snoe said, “My mother said that there is one just inside the Faesidhe forest near Westmark, which they used once.”

Valmiai nodded, “I know of that one, you are correct, child.”

“Could you use it?”   Gamel asked her.

She smiled alluringly at him, “Oh yes, and we could quickly return to Westmark with the book in this manner, but we would have to leave our horses here.”

“Absolutely not!” Snoe exclaimed, “They’d be killed by some of the creatures out there - if they haven’t been already!”

“Remember, child, time passes much slower inside the tower than outside.   They should be safe for now.”   Valmiai assured her.

At that moment, Allea let out an excited squeal, “I found it!   This is the spellbook!”

She had barely uttered the words, when suddenly the whole tower began to shake as if it were in the middle of a terrible earthquake.   From somewhere above them, they heard the distinct sound of large glass objects breaking.

A loud male voice that sounded the same as the voice that spoke before the chess game began, filled the air.

“THIEVES!   YOU HAVE DEFEATED MY WARDS AND FOUND MY PRIZED POSSESSION, BUT NOTHING MORE SHALL YOU TAKE FROM THIS TOWER.   ESCAPE AT ONCE OR DIE IN THE RUBBLE, FOR BEHOLD, THIS TOWER SHALL BE LEVELED TO THE GROUND!”

Stone began creaking and the bookcases toppled over.    They could hear the pop and crack of walls giving way above them.

“Quickly, to the teleportation platform!”   Valmiai yelled to them.   

 

They all rushed to the stone platform and the Inion Sidhe lady pushed them all close together.

“Squeeze closer!” She screamed at them, “We’ll only have time for one trip!”

“The horses!” Snoe cried, but she knew they could do nothing for them and she buried her head into Aedric’s shoulder.

The ceiling began to collapse around them.

“Hold on!” Valmiai yelled.    She chanted a few words, and then the platform turned a brilliant green color.    It grew brighter and brighter, and just as the ceiling collapsed with a roar, there was a flash of green light and the terrible sensation of falling.

Snoe and Allea screamed as they fell out into the snow, everyone tumbling on top of each other.    They were on the platform in the ruins of the Faesidhe fort, just west of Westmark.   In the west, a brilliant red sunset told them they had arrived at the end of a clear winter day.

“You did it!”  Gamel exclaimed, turning toward Valmiai, but to his shock, she wasn’t there.   He looked around in surprise and everyone else was present.

“She’s gone!”   He told the others, a deep sense of dread in his heart.   Had she not teleported with them?

“Come on, we’ve got to get moving.”   Aedric said to his group, “We’ve got the book, but we’ve got to get it to the Underdark as quick as possible.”  

As everyone got to their feet, Aedric patted Gamel on the shoulder, “Don’t fear; she is quite powerful, I don’t think she would fall that easy.”

“I hope you’re right.”   The Drow knight mumbled, trying not to feel pain at the thought of her loss.

Moments later the seven were racing out of the woods toward the gates of Westmark.

Reviews

[Elina]

"It was made of pure white wood and etched into the wood were Elven runes that glowed bright purple and lacked a handle." There's a bit of confusion with the "and lacked a handle" bit at the end. It makes it sound as though the Elven runes are lacking a handle, rather than the door.
"...was strewn some bones of a large humanoid creature..." The "was" ought to be "were," due to the plurality of "bones."
"He probably was down here doing something." You could change this to "He was probably down..."
"...the Ogre - or whatever it was- that escaped, stumbled into the room..." You'll want to change the order a bit. "...the Ogre -- or whatever it was that escaped -- stumbled into the room..."
"...entitled, “Lui ros egio” of “Spell of..." Not sure, but should the first "of" be "or?"

[Eddie Davis]

As always, thank you Elina, for your mastery of grammar and proofreading. You are an extremely big help to me.

[Elina]

It's my pleasure!