Chapter 16

At first light, Varden had all his things gathered together and ready to get off the ship. Drake had everything of his together as well. His Brother Ryan had decided to go along with them to be with his brother. Varden had heard Drayden moving around in her room and knew that she would be ready as soon as the ship docked. The big surprise was that Titus had come to them when the land was first spotted and asked if he could come along as well. It was an easy decision since Titus had bonded with the rest of them. Varden felt they needed all the help that they could get if they were to defeat a powerful dragon like that.

As the ship docked, they quickly departed to their surprise the shipyard was wracked. They saw three sunken ships in the harbor around the docs. All the buildings along the waterfront were destroyed. As they walked through town, they couldn't believe all the devastation, but they could see that they were starting to rebuild everything already. What surprised them most was that they noticed that even the stone road was destroyed. Varden knew instantly that it was the dragon that was responsible for everything.

When they finally made their way to the small farms, they took a close look at them and noticed that all life had been stripped away in the houses had been completely flattened to the point nothing was left standing and the devastation was complete.

As they reached the town there were signs of a major battle had taken place all over the town but for the most part, the town was in good shape that look like they were able to fend off whatever came through.

The church had several broken windows as well as the main stained-glass window. The inn had two rooms that were completely torn away from the rest of the building. All the rest of the buildings in town only had minor damage. When they got to Argus's castle, they noticed a flash of a shield surrounding the top of the castle, then it quickly disappeared and then shortly flashed again. Varden knew that was part of the way that Argus protected his castle. As they approached the gate the guard was waiting on them and said, " Argus is waiting on you. Please quickly follow me."

He led them up the stairs to the south wing of the castle. Varden noticed a few things had changed around the castle. The biggest thing he noticed was that the lighting was a lot dimmer even though he still couldn't see where exactly the light was coming from. As they traveled down the long haul Varden carefully looked at everything, he had never been this far down the hall, and he really wanted to take it all in. They've finally made it to the room work Argus was waiting for them.

Argus took a look at Varden and said, " I need you to take off your armor and bring it back to me here." Then Argus turned to his guard and told him to take Varden to a changing room where he could remove his armor wait form and then bring them back to him. As Varden just waited there for the guard to return with his armor he looked but it was just a large empty room, and he was glad when the guard finally returned. As he looked at the armor it looked just like new, all the dents were bent back in place and all the holes were filled in. He quickly got dressed again and rejoined the others. When he entered the room, he noticed Argus and all his students were gathered around what looked like to be a small stone well. They seem to be pouring their power into the well. Varden wanted Argus to hurry but he knew better than to interrupt. In a few minutes, Argus got up turned to Varden, and said, " Okay let's go."

On the way out of the castle, Varden started to introduce Ryan and Titus, but Argus stopped him and said, " I know who they are and where they came from."

Varden noticed the castle had some changes and looked more fortified than it had looked before. Varden wonders if the changes had taken place because of the attack on the town. So whatever Argus and his students were doing, it really helped and was working well. On the way to the castle, Argus told the others about the attacks that happened to the town. As they reached the castle Varden had a purpose, and you knew just what he had to do. He also knew he had to do it quickly because his father's life depended on it. This thought stood out in his mind above everything else and nothing or no one would stand in his way to stop him or even slow him down.

As they walked through the gate, they all knew that something was different, but no one could tell just for sure what it was. It had been a while since they had been here, but it was not that many days. Just before they reach the main gate and opened it, they heard a voice come from behind them. They turned to see Cara and Wolfram coming through the gate. When the two got close Wolfram said, " We thought we wouldn't catch you."

Varden took a close look at the two, and he noticed that they were out of breath and sweating badly. Meaning that they've had to run a really long way.

"I'm so glad that you caught up with us. I don't know if you would have found as once we made it inside. And we need all the help that we can get." Said Varden

Varden quickly made the introductions and filled them in on everything that happened on his journey, then he stressed the importance of them joining his party now.

Wolfram quickly said, " I can only speak for myself, but I would be glad to rejoin you."

Cara was more than happy to get another chance to travel with her teacher again along with her friends.

Varden asked, "Does anyone know how to get to the dungeon level of the castle?" His question was kind of pointed at Wolfram.

At first, no one said anything, then Argus spoke up and said, "Well we should check the cells, they are the lowest thing in the castle that we have seen so far."

As they reached the inner door Varden stopped suddenly as a cold chill ran down his spine. Wolfram, who had been talking to Titus and Ryan walked right into Varden and fell down he almost broke his nose. Drayden walked up to Varden and touched him, and he instantly woke from his daze. This really troubled Drayden in two ways; first is that she loved him and couldn't bear to see anything happen to him, and second, if they were going to stand a chance in their mission, they needed him to be the one to see the whole thing through.

Varden started walking like nothing had happened at all. They made it all the way to the stairs before anything else happened. As they reached the second step Varden's foot broke through the step and went into a pit of little fire-breathing beetles. As he came down on a few of them there was a loud pop and an awful smell that seemed to come from everywhere. In three seconds, there was a swarm of them attacking Varden. They were up to his knee before he managed to get his leg out of the hole.

As they watched the hole it was like a flow of black liquid fire that came pouring out of the hole. Everyone pulled back from the hole and the beetles that were attacking Varden had to be cut away from his armor before they dug in and made it to his shin.

It seemed like the harder that they tried to remove them off his leg the more fire that they blow and as a few of them were helping Varden the rest were trying to stop the one slot of them came from the hole. Attacking them with a hard weapon was not working for everyone that was cut or crushed there were 50 more coming and the smell seemed to draw them. They know that fire would not work so they didn't even try it. Argus quickly cast a lightning bolt into them and a group of them were pulled together because of their metal bodies. There were 10 to replace every one that had been stuck together. The group was quickly overrun and driven back by the beetles. As they were turning the corner Wolfram tripped on his own feet and as he fell into Drake, he cut loose his water skin that sprayed water as it hit the floor soaking one of the beetles that instantly exploded.

Now at least they knew what they had to do. Varden took aim and threw his water skin in the hole. There was a tremendous explosion, and it was raining beetle parts then a terrible sound came from deep down. All of the beetles turned around and headed back into the hole. As they watched the beetles make their escape. They noticed that others were closing the hole with molten rock and by the time the last beetle was in the hole was closed. It was still glowing from the heat, so they carefully walked around it.

Drayden tried to cure Varden's leg but since the beetles were magical in nature and such strong magic, she was unable to cure him, but she did what she could to keep it from getting any worse.

As they reached the bottom of the steps, they noticed that things had changed from the last time that they were there. All of the cells were left open from when Argus blew them that way, but now there was a big trail in the dust that had not been there before. Now it seems like there has been a lot of traffic since the time that they were here.

As they followed the trail in the dust, they were careful to walk there they walked in I few places it looked like they had jumped over spots, so they all did the same. The trail led to a large cell that looked like a fight had taken place. They walked to the center of the cell then the trail just stopped all of a sudden and was gone.

They carefully moved to the center of the cell when the floor tilted and dropped them down 60 feet down into pitch-black darkness and a very hard floor. The lanterns had extinguished from the fall and knocked them all out.

As Varden awoke face down in the dust in total darkness he fumbled around and found his lantern. The lantern was in bad shape but once he found his flint, he was able to light it. As he started looking around, they noticed the tracks were down here as well and at least the dust had cushioned their fall so no one was killed but it had not helped that much.

The first one he checked on was Drayden. He needed her up and around in case someone was hurt. He noticed she was completely grey and covered in dust. As he made his way to her, he noticed that her leg was twisted around funny. He could tell just by looking at her that it had been broken in at least two places. The first was at the knee, the worst break was at her hip.

She awoke as a wave of pain hit her and she let out a scream. She immediately started healing herself as soon as she came fully to her senses. While she was healing her leg Varden when to check on the others.

Titus had landed on Drake and Ryan but still managed to break his wrist, and right arm, right leg, and the large toe on his left foot.

Cara had split her chin open and somehow, she managed to wind up with her own dagger embedded in her thigh.

Wolfram dropped onto some old bones from a victim of the trap a long time ago and the rusty old sword went through his shoulder. Making him totally unable to move without a lot of pain.

Drake and Ryan both had multiple broken ribs from Titus falling on top of them.

Varden looked hard for Argus and was not able to see any signs of him. As he was searching for Argus, he suddenly tripped on something and as he looked there was nothing there. He went back to where he tripped, then suddenly Argus appeared and then quickly disappeared again. In a minute he reappeared for a moment then quickly disappeared again.

Varden looked around and found several lamps but most of them had been smashed beyond the point of being able to work. He scavenged the parts and was able to put together 2 more lanterns so that gave them a total of three. That was good enough, everyone needed to stay close anyway and that was their plan.

When he finished, he made his way back to Drayden and told her what everyone's condition was except he didn't know everything that was wrong with Argus because he flashed in and out too fast to see exactly what was wrong with him.

All Varden had wrong with him was his chest plate got dented, and he had managed to knock out a tooth. The Tooth was hurting but the most pain he had was coming from his leg that the beetles had attacked.

Drayden does her best to hurry the healing of herself so that she could start on the others. As soon as she was good enough that she could put weight on her leg enough to stand she started to help the others. Based on what Varden had told her she went over to Wolfram first as he was by far the one in most need of healing.

Drayden just looked at him and it brought tears to her eyes. She braced herself and called Varden over it he was going to have to remove the rusted sword from Wolfram's shoulder. There was no way that she was strong enough for the task. Drayden put Wolfram into a trance so that he would not feel any pain. She told Varden to pull it evenly and smoothly straight out so that wouldn't do any more damage. She had Titus come over and hold Wolfram from behind. When they were both ready, she told Varden to go ahead and do it with an even pull. The sword came out and was tossed aside. Drayden immediately started healing him and closing the wound; it all went very quickly and cleanly. When she was done, she awoke Wolfram so that he could help with the others.

While Drayden was curing the others Varden started looking around the room. He could tell that many men and women had fallen prey to this trap. At least that is what he gathered from all the bones that were scattered around the room. He noticed that the room was a 60-foot by 60-foot room that was 60 feet high, at least that's the way it looked from the light that they had. He had no way to tell exactly how far they fell the light didn't reach the ceiling. As he studied the walls he could see where they were all scratched from the rotation of the ceiling. Next to the door that was the only other way out, were the letters that said, "Maze." Written below was, "You must survive the maze if you wish to leave."

Varden looked down the hall, it went 30 feet then it opens up to the right and the left. There was a skeleton hanging from the wall with a huge spear that pinned it to the wall. As he took a closer look, he noticed that it wasn't an ordinary spear, it had been made by and for giants. It was far too long and too heavy for a man to lift. Varden knew what this meant that their work traps inside the maze and they were very deadly. Varden had been through dangers and mazes before but never anything like this he knew that this was a lot more deadly than he had ever faced before.

Varden wanted to be careful, but he wanted to study the trap. This was something Drake usually did but since he has to wait his turn to get cured Varden thought he might as well learn a little. When Varden looked at the dust on the floor he saw the footprints lead up a little then he could see a square that must have moved and then where the spear must have lifted him off the floor. Varden didn't want to risk setting off the trap if there was more to it, so he just went back to check on the others.

As Varden joined the others they were all gathered around Argus, and he was at least visible most of the time now. Drayden was kneeling over Argus and Varden saw her about to faint. Drayden said, "I have done all that I can do for now; all the smaller stuff will have to wait till I get some rest and recover some of my strength and magic power." Then Drayden gently shook Argus and called out his name.

Argus opened his eyes but was still in kind of a daze and he was still turning invisible and then back to just a flicker now.

Varden asked Argus, "What is wrong with you?"

Argus answered, "When I fell and hit the floor several of my potions broke and mixed together and this is the effect of that."

Varden asked, "How long will it take to wear off?"

Argus said, "It depends on how much of each of the potions got on me as they mixed. So, it could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks."

Varden wondered if the effect would cause any trouble with him using magic.

Argus replied, "No, it won't affect my spells at all except I won't be able to turn invisible until the potion wears off completely."

They all took a few minutes to rest while Varden explained what he had seen. Varden asked Argus, "Do you think there is any other way to get out of here?"

Argus carefully looked around then up at the ceiling and finally said, "The only way out is through the maze. I see a magic barrier in here and the ceiling will not move from this side."

Varden nodded his head and said, "Well then I guess we have no choice then, we go through the Maze." Everyone just looked at him and he knew that he really didn't have to say that, but it was too late now.

Drake searched the room. He knew that they needed to move fast but being careful at this point. He was not taking the time to search for treasure, it was more of a search for traps and hidden doors the treasure could wait for some other time. It was more important that he kept searching since they had seen so many traps, and they all knew that the dragon knew that they were coming for him. Drake told the others that all the bodies in the room had been stripped of everything valuable and it was done thoroughly, nothing was missed. That meant that another thief had been here and that was a good thing. That meant that there might be clues of how they get through the maze, or some of the traps disarmed already. They all breathed a little easier knowing that they could see the tracks and at least that was something. It was going to be at least safe to walk where they saw the footprints in the dust.

Drayden was resting as much as she could but when the rest of the party was ready to move, she kept up, she didn't want to be the one to slow things down.

They started down the corridor the trail did make things easier and a lot faster they could see that it had avoided things so they could too, and Drake didn't have to search everything the only problem was that they kept moving not allowing Drayden to get any more rest. The corridor turned the corner and opened up into three different paths. The first was to the right and they could see down it was open as far as the light could see into the darkness. The second when straight ahead of them for 90 feet then turned to the left. The third path led to the left and that was where the tracks led off in.

Varden started off to the left and Drake stopped him and said, "How do you know that is the way we should go?"

Varden replied, "This is the way that the tracks lead and I think we can use all the help that we can get. Besides we can tell that they were good at their job. Not that you are not but since we have no way of knowing which way to go one way is just as good as the other." Drake could see his point so with no other words they followed the path to the left. It went straight for a while then to the right then back to the left. They were careful to turn where the tracks had turned and to avoid the areas where they could tell that the tracks had been avoided. They could tell that the one making the path had taken a lot of time to search for traps. Turning right a few times and left they even saw spots that he had doubled back they noticed that he had been marking the way on the walls so that he wouldn't check the same path twice. After turning right, they came to a skeleton that looked like it was pointing the way. Varden saw it laying on the floor with two large sacks of treasure they could tell that all the searching that it had been doing must have taken too long along with the fact that the treasure that it had carried must have been too much and it had either starved or died of thirst.

Drake searched the remains, it had carried a dagger, and its armor was well worn they could tell he had been through many battles. He had a ring on his left hand. It was his leg that had finally stopped him from being broken, having no one to help him this is what happened. This really struck home with Varden there were many times he set out on his own. In his right hand was a note that read, "To whoever finds this note. Please grant a dying man's last request which is to take my ring back to my wife and let her know what happened to me and that I am trying to get back to her. For that, I would give you everything that I have left. On the back of this note is a map that leads you to where I put the biggest and most expensive things. But not only that I also give you the knowledge that I have gathered here. First is that all the other paths are dead ends, this is the only one that leads out. I found out too late and I was way too overburdened in the end. It slowed me down and I ran out of supplies and light. As the light dimmed, I slipped up and got caught in a trap and broke my leg. Now I write this note in my own blood before the torch goes completely out. I had made it through lots of adventures before this had happened to me. Please let her know that my last thoughts were of her." Under the note were a name and an address as well as a little map to show where they lived. When they turned the map over there was a map of this area of the maze where he had hidden his treasure.

As they followed the map to the hiding place. Drake thought this was saving them time that it might have taken looking for it. Varden just wanted to find the end of the maze and the dragon so that it would be over, and his family would be safe. When they reached the hiding place, they opened it and put everything that they didn't need to carry or that would slow them down along with anything that they didn't need which want much since they collected much except for the treasure that he had with him. The only thing that they kept was the ring to return to the widow.

At this point, Varden checked the lamps just to see how much time they had before they were in his shoes. Well since they were only using 3 lamps now instead of 6 they wouldn't use as much oil but they had to have them burn brighter using more oil to lighten up the rooms and they lost most of the oil in the fall. So, it came down to the fact that they had about 12 hours of light left.

Varden didn't think that was going to be enough time for them to escape the maze. Then he realized something it was getting colder ever since they had fallen down it seemed to be steadily getting colder. What really brought it to his attention was before they could have taken off anything that was cloth and used it to make torches but now with it being so cold, they didn't dare do it.

First Varden asked the others if they had noticed that it was getting colder. As the others thought about it, it did seem to be getting colder. Varden asked Argus, "Is there anything that you can do about the cold or the light?"

Argus knew that it was going to come down to him eventually. He had Varden blow out one of the lamps and drain out the oil into the others. Then Argus rubbed his hands together then slapped them down on the wick. It started to glow dull at first then brighter and brighter till it was brighter than all the lamps. Argus said, "Thus will glow for 3 hours and I will be able to do it once more after that the wick will disintegrate."

Varden was able to put out the other two lamps and save them for later he hoped that it would be enough time to get through the maze and back outside. Varden had one hope and that was the cold might help them out. Since the dragon was an ice dragon the colder it got the closer, they were getting to it. He hoped it would be enough, the temperature change was very small, and extremely hard to tell just which was colder.

Varden asked the others if they could tell which way the cold was coming from. Since it was such a slight change it was really hard to tell just where the cold was coming from, it took a while, but they all finally agreed which way the cold was coming from, and they went off in that direction.

It was extremely slow going, the dust that had helped them so much before now was in their way and made searching a lot slower. It took Drake a lot more time to search through all the dust to carefully get to the floor and not set off any traps and to find all of them.

They could see why the other one had run out of light and since he was alone things went from bad to worse. and they were just looking for a way out not searching for treasure.

As they ran into three dead ends everyone's spirits were getting very discouraged until Drake found a handle embedded in the wall. Drake checked it and a section of the wall was exposed as a door. The door was huge and was made in such a way it would take 2 giants working together to open it. The door was 60 feet wide and 20 feet high.

Varden tried with all his might to open it and he almost popped off his armor, but the door still wouldn't move an inch. Everyone pinched in together and gave a huge yank but all they did was knock the dirt loose from the lever and the door. When the dirt settled on the floor, they noticed writing on the door saying, "You must all work together to be free of the maze."

Varden asked Argus, "What is that up there for? And who would be helping with the maze?"

Argus answered, "This must be part of young giants training and this had been put here to let them know that they all had to work together in order to finish."

They all knew that they had to get the door open and were looking for any ideas that they could use. Drayden suggested that they clear away all the dust from in front of the door then they might see a way to get it open or under it. As they cleared away the dust, they noticed a track on the floor and a small wheel at the bottom of the door. When they had all the dust and dirt cleared away, they noticed that a small rock had wedged itself under the door keeping it from moving. It took all of Varden's strength to pry the stone free and with a lot of effort he was able to remove it. They still had to move the lever to get the door open but at least now it could.

So, everyone gave their hardest yank and was able to get the leaver to move and the door started to open. As the door started to open a huge gust of freezing bitter cold air hit everyone. Another gust came along blasting the dust everywhere and shooting the door open. It knocked everyone off their feet and slammed them against the far wall.