Chapter 11: The Yawning Abyss

“Here it is,” Caden said, “the same symbol as on the map.”

They had left the main chamber of the observatory, heading into a series of backrooms towards the rear in search of the door that was shown on the parchment. It wasn’t exactly hidden, it was clearly marked on maps that had been left lying around the pyramid, and no attempt had been made to conceal it. It was a simple marble door in a nondescript hallway, engraved with the sigil that Caden had come to associate with the ‘sunken star’, a snake that was in the process of devouring its own tail. Still, he suspected that the magi had no need for secrecy. If they didn’t want trespassers, then they had far more potent means to ensure that no visitors ventured where they were not wanted.

“Another lock,” Kadal said, directing Caden’s attention to a second clockwork mechanism. This one was holding a sliding bolt shut.

“Good thing we came prepared,” he said, sliding his dagger out of its sheath. It cut through the metal with ease, Caden pushing open the door on creaking hinges to reveal stone steps that extended far below ground, steeped in shadow.

He raised his staff, preparing to perform the incantation that would light up the figurehead, but he was once again preempted by the ingenuity of the Alfar. Beams of sunlight illuminated the stairs, filtering in through shafts in the ceiling that opened automatically, motes of floating dust reflecting the glow. The two companions shared a glance, then began to descend.

The staircase led them deeper into the earth, the air cooling somewhat, just as it had in the caves. Their footsteps echoed off the stone walls, the pair eventually arriving on level ground again, Caden holding up his map as he tried to work out where they should head next. Before them was a narrow corridor hewn from the solid bedrock, illuminated by those same light shafts that poured through open holes in the ceiling at regular intervals. There were stone doors leading to vaults on either side of the passageway, identifying runes engraved into them, each one potentially housing more secrets and arcane artifacts that had been squirreled away by the magi. Now was not the time for exploration, however. Caden was here for a single, solemn purpose.

“Stay behind me,” he said, Kadal having to duck to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling as she followed after him. “The vault should be at the end of this corridor. Look out for that same symbol, the snake eating its own tail.”

They proceeded cautiously, Caden scanning for pressure plates and enchantments as they went, but it seemed that the corridor was free of any traps. They soon arrived at the right door, this one barred by a locking mechanism identical to the one that had been used on the entrance to the observatory. With the use of his enchanted dagger, the way was soon clear, Caden preparing himself for what lay beyond.

Over the threshold was another long corridor, lit by more light shafts. It was suspiciously devoid of any features, the walls, ceiling, and floor made from bedrock that had been polished flat. He cast another cloud of glittering particles into the air, his suspicions confirmed. Hidden in the floor were trap doors, pitfalls that would plunge the unwary into a deep shaft, where they would suffer a painful and lonely death. Drawing moisture from the air, and cooling it, Caden was able to form an ice sheet over the trap doors that would let them walk right across without triggering the mechanism.

“It worries me that there have been no magical traps or challenges so far,” he muttered as they slowly made their way to the door at the other end of the passage. “If the magi were such skilled sorcerers, surely they would have devised some magical means to prevent their secrets from being stolen? This feels ... too easy.”

He stopped again as he noticed another trap, the shimmering cloud of silvery particles revealing a section of the ceiling that would be dropped to crush those who walked beneath it. The crack between it and the true ceiling was so slim as to be imperceptible, more proof of the Alfar’s mastery over masonry. There was a pressure plate in the floor that would trigger it to fall, Caden melting the clockwork mechanism with a wave of his staff.

As they approached the door, Caden extended an arm to stop Kadal, his eyes scanning the barrier. This one was more elaborate than the rest, hewn from a block of black marble, veins of white trailing through it. It almost looked like the night sky, in a way. There was that sigil again, the snake devouring its own tail, chiseled into the stone.

A series of glowing symbols appeared on the marble, shining blood red, Caden recognizing them as Alfar runes.

“Can you read it?” Kadal asked.

“This is the rune for ‘pass’, and this one is ‘speak’,” he mused as he examined the shimmering text. “It seems that some kind of password is expected of us.” He pulled some pieces of folded parchment from his pocket, beginning to leaf through them. “Come on,” he grumbled, “there has to be something here...”

“Uh, Caden?” Kadal asked, pointing to the door. The glow was becoming brighter, somehow angrier. “Something is happening...”

“Damn it,” he grumbled, dropping one of the scrolls in his haste. “I don’t think we can break through. Marble is a brittle stone, but this door is imbued with a powerful magic.”

The runes on the door vanished, the two companions sharing a worried glance. Was that it?

The hallway soon filled with the sound of mechanical grinding, Caden taking a few steps away from the door. Some kind of Alfar mechanism had been activated by their failure to provide a password. Before he could raise his staff in an attempt to find out what manner of trap had been triggered, there appeared small gaps in the stone walls to either side of them. As they began to retreat, the gaps formed a series of doors, three on each side of the passage. The Alfar had hidden them well, ever the skilled stonemasons.

The six doors slid into recesses, opening to reveal shallow, shadowy compartments. Inside each one was what looked at first to be a suit of armor made from shining steel, like those that one might see displayed in a blacksmith’s shop, or hanging in an armory. They were taller and wider than a man, more akin to the stature of a reptile, but distinctly human in their shape.

Their helmets had a visor that was molded into the grimacing visage of a man, covering the face completely save for two holes for the eyes, the cheeks protected by two hanging guards. Atop each one was a brush dyed blood red, perhaps made from horsehair. The cuirass was similarly designed to resemble the musculature of a man, tapering into a skirt made from studded leather that came down to the knees. The arms and legs were encased in metal, flexible bands on the shoulders, knees, and elbows providing some range of motion. They ended in sabatons at the feet, the finely-crafted gauntlets that encased the hands allowing each of the fingers to move independently.

It wasn’t until one of them began to twitch that Caden realized something was terribly wrong. It lifted its helmet, a pair of red eyes smoldering like hot coals through its empty sockets, turning to peer at him from the shadows. With an unnatural, jerking gait, it stumbled out of the compartment and into the passageway proper. Through the gaps in its armor, Caden could see innumerable gears and mechanisms turning, its clockwork innards animated by some ancient Alfar enchantment. As the other five sprung to life, stepping out to join their comrade, Caden saw that they were clutching weapons in their hands. Short swords of strange craftsmanship, two-handed axes, polearms.

“C-Caden?” Kadal stammered, her eyes darting between them. “What should we do?”

“Stand behind me!” he barked, raising his staff defensively. These things were awash with magic, but their weapons were not enchanted, and he doubted whether they could cast spells. They were not alive, they had no souls, they were merely mechanical constructs.

The six golems began to approach, Kadal hissing to him as they backed away.

“Give me a weapon!” she insisted. “Let me fight by your side!”

“Gods damn it,” he grumbled, reaching for his belt. Slowly, hoping that it would not spur the machines to attack, he unsheathed his enchanted knife. “I need not remind you how dangerous this weapon is,” he added, gingerly handing it off to Kadal.

“I know how to handle a knife!” she snapped. “Do not worry about me, worry about ‘them’.”

The first of the golems stepped forward, its clockwork guts whirring and clicking as it raised its sword above its head, the motion far more fluid than Caden had expected.

“Look out!” he yelled, raising the haft of his staff to block the blow as the construct brought the blade down towards his face. It was far stronger than a man, only a rush of energy from Caden’s staff preventing his knees from buckling under the strain, the creature cocking its helmeted head as it seemed to reconsider. Jerking and twitching, it pulled its sword back, its entire torso rotating at the waist as it whirled the blade through the air like a windmill. Caden blocked it again, the strike knocking him off-balance. As he recovered, taking up a defensive stance, the six golems began to advance.

Kadal took up position to his right, holding the enchanted knife blade-down, her frill rising to expose her eyespots.

“I am glad to be fighting by your side this time,” she said, sparing him an appreciative glance.

“I could say the same,” he replied. “These things are not truly alive, Kadal, show them no quarter. I fear that they will not stop until they are utterly dismantled.”

He would have to be careful with his magic in these close quarters, he might inadvertently injure Kadal if he did not remain focused. This fight was different, however. Ever since his battle with the Borophage, his mastery over the staff’s dark influences had been complete, and its power now felt like an extension of his very being more than something to be wrestled with.

Using his stave as a quarterstaff, he parried another blow from his mechanical assailant, its swiftness and strength once again surprising him. Its hide was made from steel, not skin. He would need to devise a way to penetrate it, as though he were dueling a knight from his own kingdom.

There was room enough for three of the things to stand shoulder to armored shoulder, Caden narrowly avoiding a strike from a polearm as a second construct pressed the attack. To his right, Kadal was contending with an axe-wielding adversary, the heavy blade cracking the stone at her feet as she leapt clear of the strike. She was as agile as ever, moving faster than any human could have hoped to, muscles like liquid iron flowing beneath her shining scales.

With a mechanical grinding, her opponent lifted the weapon, sending it whistling through the air. She ducked under the blow as the blade embedded itself deep in the rock wall to her right, the reptile lunging forward. She brought the enchanted dagger to bear, the vein of sapphire glinting as she slashed the golem across its belly. The blade sliced through its steel plating with the ease that Caden had come to expect. It would have been a killing blow had her enemy been made of flesh and blood, but it had no entrails to spill. It barely reacted, pulling its battleaxe free of the wall, and knocking Kadal back with a vicious strike from its haft.

“Don’t slash. Sever!” Caden shouted as he parried another sword swing. “They can’t fight if they don’t have arms!”

He modulated the mass of his staff, swinging it like a club, intercepting the next of his opponent’s attacks. The blow knocked its gauntleted hand aside, and he followed up with another crushing strike that caught it in the face, snapping its head back in a way that would have broken the neck of a normal person. It stood there for a moment, twitching as the gears that made up its innards whirred, its head slowly returning to its normal position. The sculpted steel that made up its visor was dented, but it seemed none the worse for wear. Caden was going to have to hit them harder than that if he wanted to bring them down.

The one wielding the polearm lunged at him again, the blade grazing Caden’s cheek, missing him by a hair’s breadth. The constructs were always marching forward in lockstep, slowly pushing the intruders back down the corridor, away from the marble door. Their gait was so strange, like clockwork toys, their sudden, jerking motions making them hard to predict.

The sword whistled through the air, the flared blade striking the wall to Caden’s left with enough force to chip the chiseled stone, forcing him to take another step back. They had to go on the offensive, or these things would corner them in the stairwell.

Caden hooked the beaked figurehead on the end of his staff behind his assailant’s leg, pulling it off-balance, sending it toppling to the floor. It was far heavier than it looked, the impact shaking the stone beneath his feet. Without missing a beat, he raised his staff above his head, the muscles in his arms and chest bulging as he imbued them with magic. His staff grew heavier, its mass increasing to that of a war hammer, Caden bringing it down on the felled construct’s chest. The armored plate that made up its torso dented inward as though an anvil had been dropped on it, the sound of metal on metal reverberating through the corridor. The thing began to rise again regardless, starting to climb to its feet. It felt no pain, he hadn’t even dazed it.

With a roar of frustration, he lifted his staff again, but two more of the constructs moved to take its place. One stepped over its prone companion, swinging a hammer at him, the steel head bouncing off the stone floor as it narrowly missed him. Caden was forced to retreat, already muttering a spell under his breath.

To his right, Kadal danced out of reach of her opponent, the sound of grinding metal echoing as it lunged at her with its axe. This time, she struck at its weapon, the magic-imbued blade cleaving the leather-bound haft in twain. The heavy axe head clattered to the ground, the construct examining the severed pole with its crimson eyes, whatever simple intelligence the Alfar had given it struggling to decide on a course of action.

Kadal moved quickly, severing the arm that held the haft at the elbow, the steel armor and clockwork providing no resistance against the enchanted blade. The limb dropped to join the axe head on the floor, Caden glimpsing the complex gears and rods that allowed it to move. Undeterred, the thing reached for Kadal with its remaining hand, its metal fingers outstretched. She chopped them off with another whirling strike, removing its hand with the next, then stepping in to drive the knife towards its neck. Only when its helmeted head was sent toppling from its shoulders did the thing finally relent, the red glow of its eyes dimming beneath its visor, its body slumping to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Kadal’s victory was short-lived as its companions stepped over it, forcing her back with more flashing steel. One of them swung a sword, and her reflex was to block it with her blade, the enchanted knife slicing through the metal like butter. The construct didn’t seem to care that its sword was broken, continuing to swing it regardless.

Caden finished his incantation, sending a bolt of lightning flashing towards the nearest golem. It shuddered as the electricity melted a glowing hole in its chest piece, arcing between its internal workings. He could see the spinning gears through the breach, glowing red with heat, but it was not enough to stop the thing. It rewarded him with another sword strike, this one glancing his upper arm as he dodged out of its path, blood soaking his tunic.

More of them turned their red eyes in his direction, drawn either by his blood or his magic, he couldn’t be sure of which.

The head, that was the key. The one that Kadal had killed had stopped moving when its head had been removed. Preparing another swing, Caden willed strands of magic to weave between his muscles, his staff growing so heavy that he could scarcely hold it aloft. The staff’s power dulled the pain in his arm as the nearest clockwork creature advanced, Caden waiting for the right moment...

As the golem with the molten hole in its chest raised its sword, he swung, pouring momentum into the strike. He could feel his bones fracturing under the impact as the bronze figurehead made contact with the construct’s helmet, tearing it from its shoulders with such force that it bounced off the wall on the other side of the passage, narrowly missing another of the golems. The headless body ceased its movement, the sword falling from its grasp as its fingers went slack. Before it even had time to slump to the floor, one of its companions roughly shouldered it out of its path, sending it crashing into the wall.

He heard a cry of alarm from Kadal, turning his head to see her grappling with her opponent. Its broken sword had been knocked out of its hand, and it had caught Kadal’s arm, its metal fingers tightening around her wrist to prevent her from using her knife. As she brought up her other hand in an attempt to pull it away, it grabbed that too, a yelp of anger and pain escaping her lips as the two wrestled. For all of her inhuman strength, she could do little against this mechanical beast, it was like trying to fight off a siege engine with one’s bare hands.

Caden rushed to her aid, lifting his staff over his head, increasing its mass and momentum as he swung it. It impacted the top of the golem’s helmet, crushing the ornate brush and collapsing its head into its torso like a turtle retracting into its shell. Its body ground to a halt as shattered metal was forced into the gears in its chest, jamming them, the red glow of its eyes fading. It released its grip on Kadal, and she darted clear just as it was pushed to the floor by the construct behind it. They just kept coming, they were incapable of feeling fear or doubt.

In his bid to save Kadal, Caden was opened up to an attack, the golem with the war hammer swinging the weapon into his side. Even with magic fortifying his body far beyond human limits, he felt his ribs crack as he was lifted off his feet, sent tumbling across the floor. He heard Kadal’s yell of anger, but she was locked in a duel with another opponent, she could do nothing to help him.

Fortunately, the golems were not swift, and Caden had time to get his bearings before the hammer-wielding construct got close enough for another strike. He rose to his knees, blocking the next blow with his stave, very nearly buckling under its weight. Not even Kadal had been this strong when she had challenged him in the desert.

He deflected the next strike, the hammer cratering into the floor beside him, sending pieces of shattered stone flying through the air. As it raised the weapon again, unrelenting, he focused his magic into its steel head. The weapon grew heavier and heavier, the golem starting to tilt backwards, seemingly unable to account for the change in weight. It staggered back, bumping into its companion, its arms swiveling in their sockets as the hammer impacted the ground behind it.

Taking advantage of the opening, Caden rose to his feet, the bronze falcon at the end of his staff glowing like molten metal. He commanded heat, focusing it on the inner workings of the golem, the metal starting to soften. Now that the weight of its hammer had returned to normal, the construct resumed its attack, but it soon faltered as the gears that powered it turned to slag. It was only a matter of melting enough machinery that it could no longer fight, its body seizing up as though it had been frozen in place.

Beside him, Kadal was still dueling with her opponent, which was leveraging the long reach of its polearm to keep her at bay. Before he could help, the next golem stepped around its disabled friend, its sword flashing. He only just had time to deflect it, the thing pressing the attack as it advanced on him. Wood clashed with metal, the golem moving in ways that no human could, able to completely rotate at the waist and shoulders. He couldn’t predict where the next attack would come from, and so he was kept on the defensive, forced to react.

He suddenly slipped on something, his stomach turning as he fell to the ground. It was one of the patches of ice that he had created to cover the pitfall traps. In all the commotion, he had completely forgotten about them. The golem took full advantage, beginning to harry him with blows, Caden doing his best to block them. On his back like this, he had no leverage, he couldn’t get clear.

The blade of its sword glanced off the haft of his staff, embedding itself in his shoulder, Caden loosing a growl of pain even as he numbed his nerves with magic. It had gone deep enough to chip bone, another stab of agony rocking him as the golem withdrew the blade, now slick with his blood. It felt no triumph, no satisfaction, it merely prepared its next strike with all the callousness of a trebuchet launching its payload. He couldn’t concentrate on his magic with this thing pummeling him, he couldn’t do anything other than try to stop that blade from finding its mark again.

The golem planted its sabaton on his belly, crushing him beneath its weight, holding him there. Caden tried to bat at its leg with his staff, but he had no leverage, he couldn’t do anything besides annoy it. Muttering an incantation frantically, he aimed his staff at the thing, gritting his teeth as it put what felt like the weight of a carthorse on his midsection. Recognizing what he was trying to do, it batted the staff aside, only magic saving it from flying from his hand.

His eyes widened as it drew back its blade, intending to drive its sharp point into his throat. There was a blur of mottled scales as Kadal darted in from his right, pulling her blade from the helmet of her opponent, who was now slumped against the wall. She crossed the distance in the space of a moment, the enchanted dagger whistling as she extended her arm, severing the construct’s right hand at the wrist. It caught her in the face with a back-handed blow from the left, sending her staggering backwards. Her long tail wound its way around the thing’s ankle, Kadal swinging her hips, pulling its leg out from under it.

Caden rolled out of its way as it stumbled, its foot lifting off his belly, feeling the cold ice beneath his hands as he scrambled clear. Kadal leapt through the air, launching herself onto the thing’s back, hissing a war cry as she grappled with it. She wrapped one arm around its neck, her tail coiling around its waist for purchase, clinging to the golem as it reached back in an attempt to grab her. The furious reptile dodged its one remaining hand, her frill flaring as she drove the blade of her dagger into the side of its helmet, burying it up to its ornate hilt.

The construct slowed its struggling, its limbs jerking to a stop, the crimson glow that emanated from the empty sockets of its visor going dark. Kadal jumped down from its back as it fell, slamming face-first into the floor, shattering the ice. The impact triggered the pitfall, the trap door opening, Kadal dancing away as the heavy suit of armor was sent crashing into the depths.

Caden rose to his feet, leaning on his staff, one hand clutching his bloody shoulder.

“Are you alright!?” she demanded, skidding a little on another sheet of ice as she rushed to his side. She began to hug him, then thought better of it, looking him up and down. “You are hurt!”

“Nothing ... a little magic ... can’t fix,” he grunted. He was already starting to heal, drawing energy from the felled golems. While they weren’t alive, the magic that animated them was no different from that of a plant or a beast, he could use it to power his spell. Torn flesh knitted back together, fractured bone healing, his mind becoming sharper as the fog of pain began to abate.