Chapter 7

The next morning Varden woke up to the usual knocking on the door. He slipped on some clothes and answered it. It was Drayden there to wake him up.

She started to turn around when he shot the door and caught her by the arm. She still didn't look at him.

He said, " I'm sorry! Look you know how I feel for you, and sometimes I just get caught up in the moment. I am truly sorry, and I apologize, I know. I shouldn't have done that by I just couldn't help myself either."

She said, " I know, and I really did want to continue to, but I had to stop you before we went any farther."

Varden said, " I am still sorry, and I should have kept myself and better control. I don't want to risk losing you, or ruining the team, or getting any, or all of us killed. Not to mention we need you to be able to heal us."

Then she turned around and kissed him. And after the kiss, Varden told her that they would be ready in a few minutes. She turned around and went back into her room.

Varden went over to Wolfram's room and knocked on the door. When Wolfram answered the door Varden told him to get ready they would be leaving soon.

Varden went back to his room and woke up Drake. They got dressed in their armor and grabbed their equipment and when they were ready, they left their room Wolfram was awaiting outside their door for them.

Varden suggested that Drake take Wolfram to the traders for some armor and other things that he would need and meet Drayden and himself at Argus's castle. Drake realized that Varden didn't trust Wolfram and didn't want him to find out which room was Drayden's. Drake took Wolfram to the traders as Varden suggested. After they left Varden knocked on Drayden's door.

She asked, " Where are the others?"

Varden replied, " They went to the shopkeepers to get Wolfram the things he needed and some better armor they're going to meet us at Argus's Castle. Besides I didn't want Wolfram to know where your room was at least until we trust him."

They kissed just once and then left to go to Argus's Castle. After they left the inn Varden took her by the hand, and they held hands all the way to the castle.

There was a guard posted and waiting for them. When they got close, he asked, " Where are the others?"

Varden told him where they were and that they would be along very shortly.

The guard told them to go directly to the training room where Argus will be waiting for you there. When they reached the door Varden got ready to knock when he heard Argus tell them to come in.

As they entered the room Argus was talking to his students he said, " Well at least you've learned the last spell. As for the one I just showed you, it isn't that much different from the one that you have just learned. You will have to do it right or my little helper will not let you out of this room until you do."

As Varden took a look at the little creature he was sure that he had never seen anything like it before. It mostly looked like a vicious biting ball that had spikes sticking out all over its body. He was sure it was designed that way to keep you from trying to pick it up. Its four legs were not very long but they seemed to make it able to jump as high as it wanted to. Its long vicious tail seemed to give it perfect balance so it didn't matter what you would try, the best option would be to stay away from it. The little creature was very happy at this snapping its teeth and wagging its tail it was excited to have a new task set.

They left the room and started for the gate. And as they were getting close to the gate, they saw Drake and Wolfram coming up the road.

Varden asked Argus, " Can you tell what is wrong with Wolfram?"

Argus said, " I can't tell for sure what it is so we better be careful of him he might be dangerous."

As Drake and Wolfram reached them, they all started for the castle. When they got there Varden asked, " Well which tower do you want to go into next."

They decided to go to the northwest corner first. They made their way to the tower and as they got close, they could see the back of the castle. There were some oversized stables Varden wondered what sort of thing they would put in a stable. What would be big enough for a giant to be able to ride or even use as a work animal?

They went up to the door, Drake checked it in and when Varden opened it a giant came running out of it. Everyone grabbed their weapons and prepared for the worst when Varden said, " Wait we must try to talk to it first."

Varden said, " Hi." The giant just stood there and looked like he was preparing to do battle.

Argus shook his head and said, " Let me handle this." He made the sign and spoke of praise of the country and of the hillside.

The giant still didn't do anything, but he did look like he had calmed down some. Argus asked him, " What problem do you have?"

The giants said, " My name is Boron. I have trouble. Other giants are gone. I look not find." The others looked at Argus.

Argus said, " His name is Boron, and he is having trouble finding the other giants."

Varden said, " Ask him how long they have been gone." Argus asked the giant.

The giant said, " Five winters have passed."

Argus asked, " Do you know what happened to them?"

Boron answered, " No, Me was gone. Me go."

Varden Asked Argus, " What did he say?"

Argus replied, " It all happened five years ago, and he was gone when it happened and now, he wants to go."

They had not noticed it before, but the drawbridge was down, and the gate was open and that was the way the giant left.

They just stood there and watched him go. They entered the tower and Drake checked the door and it was locked. Drake tried to pick the lock, but it was jammed and after a couple of minutes, Varden asked him what the trouble was. Drake told them that the lock was jammed, and he was not able to get it to come open.

So Varden forced it to open. When he pushed it open, he fell to the floor. The door wasn't only locked it had a trap on it as well.

As Varden fell an arrow flew over him and hit Wolfram in the arm and from behind them another arrow came out and hit Drake in the back from behind. Both of them instantly fell to the floor. Varden got up and carefully pulled out the arrows.

Drayden quickly went to work on healing them. She started chanting and then she touched their wounds, a black slime came from their wounds then they slowly closed and disappeared. They both thanked her as soon as they were able to get back to their feet.

Drake asked Varden, " What was that, why don't you ever get hurt?"

Varden replied, " Just lucky I guess."

Drake just gave a sneer Varden asked, " Why didn't you tell me it was trapped? Then no one would have gotten hurt.

Drake didn't know what to say.

Drake checked the room and found the secret vault. In the vault was a scroll. They opened it and read, " IF YOU WANT THE TREASURE YOU HAVE TO SOLVE THE RIDDLE." Below that it said, "IF YOU GIVE THE RIGHT ANSWER A MAP WILL APPEAR AND IF YOU GIVE THE WRONG ANSWER THE MAP WILL BE GONE FOREVER. " Under that, it was written, "THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS?" Besides the word was a blank line for you to write on.

They each thought about it for a while Drake came up with the answer of money. Argus came up with magic. Wolfram said friends. Drayden said, family. Varden said, love. They all went back and forth and finally came up with the answer of love.

They carefully wrote the word love in the space provided and as soon as they finished writing the parchment began to smoke and when it had finished a map was revealed. The map was of the tower that they work in it showed halfway to the second floor there was a place on the stairs where there was a secret door.

They finished searching the room and before they started up the steps, they looked at the map again and followed it to where the secret door was supposed to be. Drake easily found the secret door and the map explained how to open it. The map also listed the trap and explained how to disarm it. So that made things very easy for Drake. When Drake opened the door, he saw there was a large sack filled with gold and jewels. They left it where it was and shut the door, they figured that it would be safe there until they came back for it. But they made sure to hold onto the map, so they knew exactly where to look to find it again.

They went on to the second floor. Once again, the door was locked Drake struggled to get the lock to open and after a few attempts, he managed to get it. Then he stepped back and let Varden know it was okay to open it. He opened it slightly and looked in he saw five half-bird and half-hideous-looking women. Varden carefully closed the door making sure not to make a sound then told the others what he witnessed.

They all prepared for battle. Argus explained, "These are called harpies and they are extremely dangerous. And make sure you watch out for their singing they could put you in a trance. "

Varden opened the door, and all five harpies started to sing all of them except for Varden were instantly put in a trance. They all just stood there enchanted by the song. At this point, harpies could have done whatever they wanted to them and they were just in there, but to Varden, all it sounded like was horrible screeching.

Varden went into the room all by himself to attack them, he knew he had to get them to stop singing to release his friends.

Three of the harpies had swords as weapons, the other two just attacked with their claws. The thing that surprised Varden was that the trance that his friends were under made them attack him as well.

The first harpy swung it soared at Varden and he blocked it with a shield. He used his sword and managed to chop its head off.

The second harpy swung and hit his right arm and cut it open.

The third harpy hit his side and cut through his armor but didn't do much to Varden other than give him a scratch.

The fourth harpy scratched at him and managed to slice his right leg open.

The fifth harpy tried to scratch his chest but only put little marks in his armor. He was just lucky that it was as far back as it was, or it would have hit his face.

Argus tried to stab Varden in the back with his dagger but the armor was too thick and it didn't make it through his armor.

Drayden hit him in the head with her mace and put three holes in his helmet, but the spikes didn't go any further.

Drake swung his sword and cut halfway through Vardens left arm.

Wolfram swung wrong and when he hit, he managed to break his sword.

Even though Varden was slightly dazed from Dradens hit he swung hard and chopped a harpy in half. Then hit Drake in the chest with his return swing, sending him flying. He didn't want to hurt him but needed to keep them away from him. Drake flew into the others knocking all four of them down.

Varden had to be careful because, at this point, he only had the use of his right arm now.

The third harpy swung hard and cut through the armor and into Varden's chest.

The fourth harpy clawed his wounded leg and almost knocked him down. He stumbled but managed to stay on his feet.

The third harpy swung its sword at the same time Varden was swinging his. Varden cut through the sword and deep into its chest laying it wide open.

The fourth harpy scratched his side and ripped it wide open, he let out a screen with the pain.

The fifth harpy got ready to scratch him when Varden kicked it sending it flying backward it let out a shriek in pain.

Argus and the others climbed to their feet and started heading back to Varden.

Varden stabbed through the fourth harpy, and it quickly dropped to the floor.

The fifth harpy went flying at Varden; he held up his sword and sliced it in half.

As soon as the last of the harpies were dead the others started coming to their senses. When Varden noticed the others coming to their senses he dropped to the ground.

When Drayden was okay, she looked around and noticed Varden lying on the floor. At first, she thought he was dead, she ran over to him and was quickly joined by the others. They asked if he was dead, she was frantically checking him over. She told the others that he was not dead, but he was critically wounded, and it was going to take some time to fix him. She said sternly, " I will need to be left alone while I cure him this will take on my concentration. Why don't you all go outside and guard the door so that I'm not interrupted." So, they did as she asked and left the room, and guarded the door.

She started with the most serious wounds first trying to get them to stop bleeding. It looked like the wound in his arm was the worst, so she took care of that one 1st. Moving from wound to wound she healed them, but it took so much of her energy. She was not used to anyone being in that bad of shape. When she had finished with all his wounds she started to panic when he still didn't wake up. Finally, she went to kiss him and noticed his head was bleeding and there were three very distinct holes in his helmet.

She pulled his helmet off and then started feeling his head. She thought to herself the only thing in this room that could have made those holes was her mace. But she couldn't remember anything that happened so how could her mace have hit him?

Drayden kept herself together until Varden finally woke up. Drayden called the others in. Once everyone was there, they asked Varden what happened. Varden explained how the harpies put them in a trance and they ended up attacking him. He went through the battle only leaving out the part when Drayden nailed him with the mace.

Once he finished Drake said that his chest had been hurting and he didn't know why. He looked at his chest and it was severely bruised. It was painful but nothing that bad and was nothing for Drayden to fix. But she would not hear of not getting him well just in case.

After she fixed Drake's chest Drayden fell to the floor she was exhausted and really needed to rest and recover.

Drake searched the room and in a pile of bones that must have been their past victims. He discovered 8 small pouches, they all had a variety of gems and a few coins, and on the other side of the room, he found a small set of golden dishes which had been used to eat off of at some time.

After a little rest, they made their way to the third floor. Since it was empty, they went to the fourth floor. They made it halfway up the steps when they ran into an invisible wall. The barrier seemed to be from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, it wasn't letting them go any farther.

Varden tried with all his might, and it wouldn't give an inch. He tried to cut it but all the blade would do is bounce off.

Drake searched the surrounding walls to see if there was a way to turn it off but found nothing.

Drayden and Wolfram just stood there watching unsure what to do so they just tried to stay out of the way.

Finally, Argus stepped up and said, "Amateurs." Then he studied the barrier and shook his head, cast a single spell, and looked like he just wiped it away. The barrier glowed and then dissolved before their eyes. With it out of the way, they continued to the fourth floor.

As Drake was searching the door, he discovered a trap; he told the others to stand back, he was going to try and disarm it. They all stood back, giving him plenty of room to work. When he had it disarmed, he told Varden to go ahead and open the door.

Varden opened it enough to peek in when an arrow went flying out and glanced off of his shield and hit Drake in the center of his chest. Knocking him to the floor. Varden went over to him and carefully pulled out the arrow and said, "I thought that you said that you had disarmed the trap."

Drake said, "I did there had to be two traps on it."

Drayden started healing Drake, but it took a lot longer and she was dizzy after it was over. She was careful not to show any signs to the others, she didn't want to appear weak. She didn't want to admit that it was all becoming too much for her.

When he was better Drake got up and searched the room. But the room was empty except for the traps.

They made their way to the fifth floor. And after Drake searched it Varden opened enough to look in. As soon as the door opened a crack it was pushed open slamming into Varden and knocking him down. A tiger had been waiting for something to open the door. As soon as it was free and out of the room it jumped over them and took off down the stairs. Varden got up and thought that he never expected something to do that. Then he started wondering, it seemed like the things that are in these rooms had been placed there.

Drake searched the room, and he found a small, jeweled dagger near the wall in the corner.

When they finished with the room, they started up to the sixth floor. As they got about halfway up, they ran into six zombies.

As soon as Drayden saw them, she held up her holy symbol and started chanting 4 of them turned around and headed back up the stairs. Drayden fell to one knee but maintained her composure.

Varden swung with all his might and cut both of them in half and they both dropped to the floor.

Drake checked the bodies they both had a small pouch. They just put them away for now, they would check what was in them later. They continued up to the sixth floor Drake told Varden it was okay, and he opened the door the room was empty, and as Drake was searching the room Drake set off a trap and fell into a pit of spikes that were made on the floor of the room. Drake broke his leg and his arm and had three spikes go through both legs.

Varden and Wolfram pulled him out and Drayden set out to heal him. This took a lot longer than she had thought she was getting very tired, and she didn't know how much more she could do. Everyone noticed this was taking everything out of her and they started doing everything they could to let her rest.

After Drayden was done healing Drake and rested a little, they went up to the seventh floor. The room was empty, and Drayden was very glad that it was she was able to rest the whole time that Drake was searching for things.

When he was finished, they made their way to the eighth floor. When Drake said it was ok Varden peeked in and saw 30 zombies milling around in the room. Varden quickly pulled the door closed and told the others what he had seen.

Argus said, "I got this one. When I tell you to. Open the door wide and stand back."

When Argus was ready, he signaled Varden to open the door. Argus cast a huge ball of fire in the center of the room. It knocked them all down and set them all on fire. Half of them were ripped apart from the explosion. The rest were slow-moving, and most didn't make it to their feet. The fire was burning so hot that it peeled the flesh off the bones, and it was not long till the last one was lying on the floor unable to move. All they could do is wait till the fires died down to enter the room. Drayden found it great, she still needed a lot more rest and no one got hurt for her to have to heal.

Once the fires had died down, they were able to go in and check the room. They found a large chest that hadn't gotten too badly burned. It was filled with Gold and silver, When Drake had gathered the treasure from the zombies, they loaded that into the chest as well. They left it there and secured the room so they could come back and get it later.

They made their way up to the ninth floor. Drake did his job and checked the door and when he said it was okay Varden opened it. As they entered it the image of the Dragon appeared.

The image said, "Well my young nemesis I see you have not taken my advice yet. I also see that you have a powerful wizard with you, or you would never have been able to get past my barrier. Well, now I am sending something to destroy the town." After it said that a lightning bolt flew towards the door.

Varden and the others dove to the floor. The lightning bolt flew over them, bounced off the wall, and went down the stairs. With an evil scowl, the image dissolved.

They searched the room and it was empty they went up to the 10th floor in that room was empty as well.

They talked while Drake searched the 10th floor for what to do. They decided that going back to town now would be the best thing. So, they gathered their treasure with Argus's help making the chest lighter really sped things along. As soon as they had their treasure collected, they left the castle.

As they went through the meadow the sun started setting and the moon came out it was a full moon. When the light of the full moon hit Wolfram, he started to change into a werewolf. He was about half changed when he took his sword and shoved it deep into Drayden's back. She let out a terrible screen that she dropped to the ground. Wolfram then ran off into the woods. Varden hearing her screen and watching her fall yelled out her name and started after him.

Argus and Drake grabbed Varden's arms he threw them off as if they weren't even there. Argus yelled, "STOP! We have to tend to Drayden! Not chase after that thing!"

Varden stopped dead in his tracks, turned around then went over to Drayden. He said, " Don't leave me! You can't die! I love you!"

As he held her, he could feel her slipping away. He picked her up and started running through the woods towards the town where he knew he had to take her back to her church, it was her only hope.

When he got her halfway through the woods, he felt her die in his arms. He dropped to his knees and started to cry.

After a while, the others caught up with him. Argus said, " Now look son I know how it feels. I lost a loved one once, but we must carry on." Argus put his hand on Varden's shoulder to try and comfort him. But it did little good.

Argus and Drake left him there and carried the treasure onto the castle.

After a while, Varden thought about what to do with Drayden's body, remember the church and how close she was to it he knew he had to take her there.

So, he picked her up and carried her as gently as he could. His heart was breaking with every step that he took. He didn't know what he was going to do without her. When you reached the church, he knocked on the door. The head priest answered it. He said, " Hurry bring her in there still might be time."

Varden followed the priest once they got her in a room Varden said, " I don't understand she's already dead. There's nothing you can do for her."

The priest said, " Don't worry about that just bring her this way."

Varden carried for into a back room the priest told him to lay her down on the table and go back and wait in the other room. While he was waiting, he wondered what they could be doing for her.

In 4 hours, Drayden walked out of the room. Varden ran up to her and tried to kiss her. She simply pushed him away and asked, " What are you trying to do?"

He just stood there stunned by what she said.

The priest called her back into the room and started talking to her. Varden had a hard time controlling himself. The thought of her being alive after losing her and now having her back. His heart was overflowing with joy.

When Drayden came back out, they left the church and went back to the Inn. As they were walking Varden tried to take her hand. She pulled away and said, " The priest told me that I had to end any romance that was happening. Because with the faith that I have, there must be no other person in my life if I'm going to be strong and worthy of the power that I've been given."

Varden walked her back to the inn. Then he started going toward the woods after Wolfram, he wanted him to pay for what he had done.

When he heard the others yelling from the inn for him to return, there would be no way that he could find him in the dark. But at this point, Varden really wanted to get his hands on Wolfram.

But he realized that it was foolish to enter the forest at night alone, so he returns to the inn. They all went to bed so they could get an early start the next day.