Chapter 9
Varden awoke to the sound of knocking on the door. He was beginning to love that sound when he quickly slipped into some clothes and opened the door. He thought it would be Drayden that would be knocking like she had done every other day but instead, it was a bartender.
The bartender said, " Drayden went to the church to check on something, and she asked me to wake you now." Then he turned and left Varden could tell that the bartender didn't like doing this and wasn't used to waking people up by the look on his face. Varden thought that he didn't like him doing it either he would have preferred that Drayden had done it as usual.
Varden woke up Drake and they got dressed and put on their armor and then went to the church. They knocked on the door and a priest showed them to a waiting room.
In a few minutes, Drayden entered the room with Wolfram. They were talking and Wolfram had a strange necklace of plants around his neck.
As they got close Wolfram said, " Varden I just want to thank you for this time to save myself and my friends. I heard what I did, and I can't deny anything but at the time I was not in control of myself I further realize that you did not have to save me after the fact."
Varden said, " You're welcome but we better get started for Argus's Castle if we want to get an early start."
As soon as they reached Argus's Castle the guard came running out and said, " The wizard is waiting on you in the practicing room. You are supposed to hurry up and get in there."
They proceeded through the gate Wolframs stopped just short before the gate.
The guard said, " You must go too."
Wolfram only entered the gate; he couldn't feel his way through he didn't want to be held in place again. This time there was no ill effect and he just walked right through.
When they got to the practice room Argus had One of his students at his side. Argus introduced her, " This is Cara, my best student! She will be joining us for a while."
Varden took a close look at Cara. She was dressed in a floor-length dark purple robe. The robe clung to her curves and showed just how large her chest was. She was of average height and weight. She also was somewhat attractive but only appeared that way when standing next to Drayden, at least that was the way he saw it. Although Drake was just about drooling just looking at her. She had long soft flowing bleach-blond hair and soft dark blue eyes. All in all, she was very sexy but was mostly hidden by the hat robe, and glasses that she wore.
Varden asked, " Why is she coming along?"
Argus replied, " She needs some real-world experience before she goes on her own."
Almost no one had a problem with her joining them. Drake didn't like her joining because it just meant that they would have to split the treasure another way. She was inexperienced, and someone would have to babysit her all the time just to keep her out of trouble. He knew that if there was going to be trouble, he knew that she was the one that would wind up in it. But he didn't mention anything because he knew it would do no good. Argus was bringing her along and she would be his responsibility to watch and take care of.
On the way to the castle, Drayden and Cara walked behind the others talking the whole way. Drayden was able to talk to her about men and things of that nature that she had never been able to talk to anyone about before. Not that Cara had that much experience with men since she spent most of her time reading books. Drayden was shocked about some other things that Cara said, but she made sure that she paid close attention to everything that she did say. Drayden thought that this was the first time she was ever able to talk to another woman about these types of things. The only time she was ever able or had a chance to talk to anyone was when she was in school training to be a cleric. But men weren't really a topic that they were able to talk about, or something that they wanted them to talk about.
While the women were talking the men were making plans on what to do once they got to the castle.
When they got there Argus turned to Cara and said, " For your final instruction before we get started, just remember that you can only use so much magic in a day. Your body can only handle so much power. So only use what you need to use, and nothing more. You will have to rely on others to take care of most things and you will only be able to help. Not take the lead." Then he explained a few more magic things in a code so that the others could not understand what she was being told.
When he finished, they went into the last tower again. But it looked like it was completely cleaned out from the dead bodies to the dust in the room where the eggs had been. They went from floor to floor in every room was empty and cleaned out when they made it to the 10th floor and opened the door the image appeared and said, " Well you have proven yourselves valiant fighters. It's a shame you force me to kill you."
Just then the wall behind them and the wall in the room opened and a tremendous gust of wind came out from behind them. Everyone was blown off their feet. Drake fell into Varden knocking him off balance, who fell out of the hole but managed to catch ahold of the ledge before he went too far. He was barely able to hang on with his fingertips. When Drayden saw him, she let out a scream just before the wind died. Cara was blown out of the hole as well, but Varden saw her start to fall and grabbed ahold of her arm before she was blown completely away.
When the wind died, they quickly pulled the two of them up and back into the room. Varden was unhurt but Cara had a dislocated shoulder from when Varden caught her arm saving her. While Drayden healed Cara, Drake used the time to search the room. Drake didn't find anything, so they decided to leave the tower.
They made their way down the tower and to the main gate.
They gathered around the castle's front door and Argus said, " Well this is what we have prepared for, I hope that you all are ready."
They stood there for a moment just looking at the size of it all. The entrants were 40 feet wide and 30 feet tall.
Varden asked, " Well Wolfram just what do you know about this place?"
Wolfram answered, " Behind these doors is a large square room with three doors, one is in each wall. We went to the right and then up some stairs. I can't remember any more than that right now but once we get into the rooms and I see more I am hoping to remember everything. I will tell you everything I know without holding anything back."
Varden looked at the doors, they were nothing like all the other doors that they had been through already they were covered elegantly with landscapes, mountains, and forests. But the only thing that stood out in his mind was how huge they really were. And the fact that they were closed brought up a question of how they got closed and who closed them.
Varden asked, " Does anyone have any ideas on how to get in?"
Wolfram replied, " The door was open when we were here before."
When they tried the door, they found it was locked. Drake tried to pick it, but it was too well built for that. Next Varden tried to force an open, but it went even budge an inch. While they tried to force said they tried to pick the lock and the only thing left was magic.
Argus told Cara, " Try to open this door."
Cara seemed to gather her power, then she whispered something that then went over to the lock and touched it and it opened easily with a click.
Argus said, " Well done Cara. But next time just let the magic flow through you. You are just there to guide the power and to help to tell it what to do. If you get in its way you become resistant to the power in your body and pay a price for its resistance."
Cara looked at him and nodded her head and thought carefully about what he had just told her.
The door opened into a hundred-foot square empty room. This room was absolutely clean and completely empty. There were fresh burning torches on the walls for light, and on the floor, there was a huge painting of the giant king sitting on a throne. As they looked around the room, they saw the walls were painted with different scenes of forest and mountaintops.
Suddenly it hit Varden that someone or something must be keeping the room clean and replacing the torches. He didn't know who or what it was that sent a shiver down his spine.
Drake searched the room or at least as much as he could reach since the ceiling in the castle was over 30 feet in the air. Drake was able to check about 7 and 1/2 feet. When he had finished, he had found a key under the loose stone that made up the eye in a painting. The key was small and made of silver and it had the letter T engraved on it.
The room had a door on each wall, and they were 20 feet wide and 25 feet tall. Each door had elaborate carvings on them. The door on the left and the one on the right had the same carvings on them. The one in the center had a lot more symbols carved in it.
Varden asked, " Well which door should we go through first?"
After a few minutes, they decided to go to the left. They opened the door and looked in and saw that it was a long hallway. The hall was 20 feet wide and 150 feet long, and on the right side about 50 feet down there was a door on the left side there was an opening at the end of the hall.
As Drake searched his way down the hall, he got about 40 feet down on the left-hand side and found a loose stone. Drake slowly pushed it in, and a door slowly opened. They went in and the room that was 100 feet long by 50 feet wide had a thick coat of dust on the floor. The room appeared to be some kind of hidden closet.
In the room was a large table that stood 12 feet up from the floor and at the center of the table was a chair pulled up to it. They were able to use a chair to climb up onto the table. They felt like little kids climbing on the furniture. Once they got up on the table, they saw there was a large, folded cloth. They couldn't tell what it was because when they tried to pick it up it just fell apart.
Drake searched the room and found a scrap of paper in the dust he couldn't tell what was written on it because to him it was just some strange symbols, so he turned it over to Argus. Argus read it and said that it was an inventory list of what was in the next room and as Drake checked he found the outline of what would have been a secret doorway, but no matter how hard he looked he couldn't find the way to open it.
Argus suggested that the trigger might be too high for Drake to reach which might be the reason he can't find it. So, Drake stood on Varden's shoulders and found it and once he found it the door easily opened.
As the door opened a gold ring came rolling out of the doorway, it rolled for a few feet then fell to the floor. The ring was an ordinary ring except for the fact it was made for a giant and was the size of a bracelet for a normal man.
Drake found some dried food and some bottles that were out of reach even when standing on the chair and Varden's shoulders, not to mention that they were too big to move.
As Drake stepped out of the room into the hall after completing his search. He was hit by a large fuzzy feeler. It took him by surprise and pushed him back but didn't do any damage to him.
They prepared for battle and Argus got a good look at it. The monster was made completely of metal, and it had two feelers on its head and a big spiked hammer at the end of its long tail, and its 4-foot beetle-like body. They saw it hit the metal table leg with its feeler and the leg instantly turned to rust then using its tail it hit it once and the leg shattered. The creature quickly started eating the rust and as they watched it the creature grew in size and like a bug laid an egg. Within minutes it hatched and started eating the rust.
Argus told them, " These are metal-eating monsters, and they should keep their mettle away from the creatures including swords and armor."
Just then the first creature swung a feeler At Varden. He blocked it with a shield, and nothing happened because it was made from silver.
They both turned and went after Varden the second one swung at him, and he was able to jump back out of the way just in time to miss it.
Varden, Drayden, and Wolfram back the way out of the way because they wore metal armor. Varden felt kind of helpless because he wasn't used to running away from trouble.
Cara gathered her power, then she waved her hand and threw some powder in the face of one of them. It didn't do anything but make the creature mad.
It hit her hard with its feeler and knocked her backward. Wolfram caught her as she fell, and they both managed to get out of the way of the tale that came at them.
Argus drew on his power enough that you could tell that he was glowing even in daylight. He cast the spell and crossed his arms and slapped them together and touched both of the creatures. The creatures started to glow then disintegrated into nothing and not even their dust was left behind. When Argus had finished, he almost passed out. Varden caught him as he stumbled backward.
Varden asked him, " Are you all right?"
Argus said, " Yes. But sometimes magic takes a lot out of me and sometimes it's more than I can give."
While Drake was searching the rest of the hall Argus used that time to rest and recover.
Drake told them, " At the end of the hall is a stairway going up."
They decided that it was time to head back to town, they were all getting very tired from all the nonstop climbing, walking, and fighting.
When they reached the courtyard, they were surprised by six giant bees. They each were 2 feet long and 1 foot wide.
The first one dive-bombed Varden. He quickly dove out of the way just missed being struck by the stinger.
The second went after Drake he spun and chopped the head off the bee the stinger scraped along with his armor and as the body died, they still saw the poison being pumped out of its body.
The third bee went after Wolfram. Wolfram did his best to block the stinger, but the bee drove its stinger through the shield that he had and pinned it to his armor. The bee flew off leaving its stinger and poison sack pinned to Wolfram's armor.
The fourth went after Drayden but she was ready for it and slammed her mace into its head which made the bee miss her and do a nosedive into the ground.
The other two started to fly off. They didn't want them to go get help, so Argus mumbled his spell and drew back his imaginary bow, and let loose an arrow of light that struck one of the bees and made it fall dead to the ground.
Cara had watched Argus carefully then did just as she had seen Argus do and brought down the other one.
Varden through his sword and skewered the last one.
Drake searched the bodies but there was nothing to find.
Nothing else happened on the way to town so Drayden and Cara were able to talk more. When they reached town Argus and Cara went into his castle. Wolfram went back to his room at the inn. Drake went into the bar to find the thieves that he had been talking to. That just left Varden and Drayden together.
This was the first time today that he had been alone with her, and they were able to talk. Varden asked her, " Do you want to watch the sunset? Or anything?"
She turned and gave him a coy little smile and whispered yes.
Such a loving feeling came over him, so he looked deeply into her eyes and took her by the hand. He could feel the passion everywhere running throughout his whole body and he knew he had better stop this before it even got started. They both turned away at the same time, it was as if they could read each other's minds.
They walked over to the same spot that they'd been sitting at the night before. They just sat there for a while and held each other while the sun slowly sank onto the horizon. Varden pulled out his dagger and carefully carved their initials into the tree that they were sitting under surrounded by a heart. Then he put his arms around her and pulled her in close and then they shared a long and passionate kiss.
After the passionate embrace was over, they held hands as they walked back to the inn. They kept holding hands all the way to their rooms where they kissed once more and said their goodnights. Varden thought back to when they were going up the stairs, he had noticed the woman in red was watching him intently, but since she hadn't bothered him, or said anything to him yet he was just letting it be.
Varden didn't wait for Drake to come in, he went to bed and wound up falling to sleep with a feeling of being content and happy, feeling better than he ever had before. All through the night, he had a hard time sleeping, thoughts of Drayden kept racing through his mind.