Chapter 6: Baysil the Lame, Cleric

They camped that night in the mouth of a small box canyon. He'd urged that they push on, though already the afternoon sun was casting long shadows among the rocks.

"We'll be better able to handle anything we run into in the morning when we're fresh," Darrick had argued, and the others had agreed with him. "No telling what we might find, or what might find us."

Baysil took the first sentry watch, unable to sleep now that they were so close. Not far off the monastery loomed against the night sky, a rectangular block of gray stone with squared off towers at its four corners. Its edges and corners revealed no sign of their age at this distance. Before the sun had set they had even been able to make out the entrance, a square alcove whose inset doors had gleamed pale silver in the gloomy twilight.

The stars gleamed and danced, and somewhere a lonely wolf called to its mate. Finally tired enough so that he thought that he might sleep, he woke Bartan to take his place and rolled up in his blankets. He still lay awake for a long time, thoughts racing, before sleep claimed him. His dreams were confused, a mixture of elation, terror and guilt that he had trouble recalling in the morning's gray light.

He forced himself to alertness as they approached the ancient building, watching behind and to both sides for any sign of danger. The stone blocks of its walls might have been quarried only decades ago, rather than centuries. Something stirred as they drew near, and he heard the flapping of wings. Whatever it was that nested on the flat roof flew the other way, and they caught no glimpse of it. An eagle, or perhaps only a large raven.

Broad steps led up to the portal alcove. The door itself was double, two slabs of some silvery wood, close grained and bound together with broad iron bands that showed only faint traces of rust. The opening they blocked was as large as the alcove itself, ten feet high and ten feet broad. They were set back that same distance from the face of the building, and centuries of exposure to the weather had not weakened them. There was a latch, a massive lever of bronze, but it refused to yield to their tugging.

"Elm, you take a look at it," Darrick commanded. "See if there's a lock, or some other catch."

Baysil watched as the Halfling examined it, finding no sign of a key hole. He took out a flask of oil, using a scrap of rag to squeeze some of it into the crevices around the latching lever. He treated the hinges the same way, testing them with the point of his dagger.

"Not much rust. Let the oil soak in a bit, and try again."

To Baysil, the wait seemed an eternity. At last Anji and Bartan gripped the lever. They pulled down on it with all their weight, but still nothing happened. Then they tried lifting, and the lever moved! Down and up, and down again, until at last the lever swung free. The great door stirred.

"Too easy," Elm muttered, so low that only Baysil heard. "They've been closed no five centuries."

The doors opened inward to darkness. A heavy layer of dust was everywhere, and cobwebs festooned empty sconces on corridor walls. Ahead of them, a high arched hall the width of the doorway stretched away into the darkness, and he could see no doors leading off from it. They lit torches and moved forward.

Behind them the doors swung inexorably shut to a gust of wind that howled down the corridor. Their torches guttered out, and they were plunged into darkness.

"Look out!"

"Help!"

The darkness was filled with the clash of metal and cries of alarm. A dizziness took Baysil and he turned to flee, only to crash painfully into a wall. The tumult died away, leaving silence behind.

A scrape of flint against steel brought a speck of light. It grew into a flame, trembling as a shaky hand held it to a torch. The light grew as the torch was used to light another, and he looked around at a sorry scene.

"A fearless band of adventurers, indeed," he laughed ruefully.

Furdick was helping Anji to her feet. The side of her face was swollen and red where she had banged against the wall, and he looked little better.

"Somebody stepped on me!" Elm snarled, bending to help Kletta. She shook his hand away and got to her feet. Beyond her, Kargh inspected his axe to make sure it had taken no harm.

"That was no ordinary panic," Darrick stated firmly. "It started before the door swung shut. There used to be such things as defensive spells, set to confuse attackers. We may have triggered one by our presence in this hall."

"How would such a thing be set?" Burdock asked interestedly. "Would it be embodied in some object?"

"Perhaps. Or else in the very stones of the building."

Baysil looked along with the others, but there was nothing he could see that might have triggered such a thing. Darrick studied a section of the right hand wall carefully, pushing and probing skillfully.

"Something's not right about this wall," he muttered. "Elm, you take a look at it."

"Some kind of a secret door, all right. Ah! That does it. Get ready, all of you. No telling what's behind it."

A broad section of wall swung back. A large room was revealed, lighted by a shifting glow from eight or ten man sized beetles.

"Missiles!" Darrick shouted as the creatures scuttled toward them.

Tarr's spell stopped several of them as they surged forward. Anji's crossbow clacked, as did the lighter weapons of Kargh and Furdick, the first time they'd been used since the cave of the Goblins. Bartan's bow sung its deadly song, and sling bullets thudded home. Another volley of missiles was loosed. A few of the beetles kept coming, searching almost blindly for their attackers. Darrick slammed the door shut just in time to stop them.

"We don't want to fight them if we don't have to," he answered Kargh's startled curse. "Those are fire beetles. Man eaters. They'll take an arm or leg off you if they get too close."

Beyond the closed door, faint sounds of crashing and scuffling gradually quieted. When all was still, Darrick eased the door open and peered inside.

"It's all right. They're all dead."

Baysil counted eight of the fire beetles, the smallest one three feet long and more than half that wide through the body. Angered by the sudden attack, they had turned on each other when no other enemy could be found. The room was still well lighted by the glowing organs of the monsters, which would continue to give off light for several days if treated properly. The Company busied themselves fashioning pieces of beetle shell into makeshift lanterns. These lights would not be put out by gusts of wind!

There was another door in the far wall. They approached it carefully, alert for any danger. Anji heard nothing from behind it, and it opened easily when she pulled on its handle. The lights from their lanterns failed to reveal the extent of the room beyond, but Baysil got the feeling that it was very large. His thoughts were interrupted by the beating of heavy wings. Gross bodied creatures with dangling snouts swarmed around the lights, diving at them on leathery wings from the shadowy rafters.

"Stirges!" Bartan warned, loosing an arrow at one and drawing his sword. Sling bullets and crossbow bolts knocked down several of the furry horrors, but the rest still attacked. Baysil fended off one with his shield, swatted another out of the air with his mace. Shouts of pain and fury mingled with the shrilling of the stirges.

"That's all of them!"

A few of the creatures still flopped about, but the stomp of heavy boots crushed them into foul messes. Baysil tended a nasty wound on Bartan's neck while Darrick tended to Kargh's wounds.

He wondered what this hall had been used for by the monks who had lived here. The wall that stretched away to his left had several doors in the section reached by the light of their torches. To his right, a blank wall met another wall at a square corner, and straight ahead he could barely make out another wall whose shadings hinted at the presence of several more doors. Each of the doors he could see had two panels, repeating the square motif that seemed to prevail in this building.

Staying close together for mutual protection, they looked the room over carefully, staying well clear of the doors for now. Bits of lumber and old rags that might once have been rich tapestries littered the floor, but all they found was a pile of rough pottery urns in one corner. These were covered by a thick layer of droppings from the stirges that had roosted among the rafters.

"Ugh!" Kargh grunted in disgust. "The things are heavy, too."

The urns were sealed by a layer of wax so old that it was almost like stone itself. Elm chipped away on one and was finally able to lever up its lid. Inside were over two hundred silver coins, most of them as bright as the day they were poured into the urn. Willing hands helped to open the rest.

"Almost three thousand pieces of silver!" Furdick marveled. "We're rich!"

"If we make it back to Shurrud with these we'd have almost enough to re outfit ourselves," Kargh growled. "We'd do better to find gold. More value for the same weight. We can't burden ourselves too heavily, or we'll never make it back. We've done enough for one day. Let's get this stuff back to our camp."

"But we've just got started!" Bartan protested, echoed by Elm. "There could be treasure behind any one of these doors."

"Sure there could, and if there is we'll find it. Right now we're battered and bruised, and we've been in a fight. I say, get out, and come back when we're fresh."

"He's right," Darrick agreed. "This place has been here for more than five centuries. It'll still be here tomorrow."

Carrying the urns of silver coins, they returned the way they'd come. There was a sudden scurrying of rats as they passed the bodies of the fire beetles, but no other sign of life. Outside, Baysil was amazed to see how early it was. He felt as though they'd been inside the monastery for a full day, and yet it was only a little past noon.

The next morning he awoke to find Kargh shaking him gently.

"Roll out. Fresh meat, if we hurry."

"Right."

They woke the others, who followed Kargh down to the stream. In the soft light of dawn a family of wild mountain sheep gathered to drink. A ram, two ewes, and three lambs. One ewe dashed away unhurt through the hail of missiles, but Baysil was well satisfied. This was enough meat to feed the whole Company for more than a ten day.

"Let's get started!" Elm urged when the sheep had been hung up and butchered.

"Not a chance," Anji answered. "First we take care of this meat, whether anything else gets done today or not. We can't afford to let it spoil, unless you'd rather have broiled fire beetle or fried stirge."

"We eat nothing that comes from the monastery," Darrick commanded. "Most such creatures feed on each other, or on a kind of fungus that grows only in deep caverns. Their flesh can poison you, drive you mad."

"This silver is valuable," Kargh mused, not really listening to what the others were saying. "But even this little is too heavy to carry any great distance. We must find gold. Gold and gems. Silver is too heavy for its value. It should be hidden here until we can return with pack animals and wagons."

"Even more than treasure, we need better armor and weapons," Darrick answered. "Treasure is good, but strong armor and weapons of power will be needed to bring most of us home alive and well."

Sobered by his words, they continued with the task of drying and smoking all of the meat that they couldn't eat immediately. By a little after noon the task was completed. They ate a light meal and headed back toward the monastery. The doors opened more easily for them this time, and they entered. Baysil braced himself, and when the doors slammed shut behind them he was ready. He fought off the wave of dizziness, holding steady his fire beetle lantern.

"Everyone all right?" Darrick asked.

They were, and he cautiously opened the secret door. The fire beetles were only gnawed upon fragments of shell, and the room was still. They crossed to the other door, opening it carefully. Still no sign of hostile life.

"Check that door." Darrick pointed to the next door along the wall to their left. Elm listened.

"Voices," he reported. "Arguing. Sounds like armor."

"Get ready. Elm, Kletta. Open those doors and stand clear."

The doors swung wide, and the two Thieves sprang aside. Tarr cast her spell of sleep and the creatures beyond the door collapsed in untidy heaps. Two were still standing, and a hail of missiles reached out for them. One of the creatures was struck several times, falling. The other staggered, but didn't go down. It mouthed a spell, and suddenly only Baysil and Kargh remained standing. Kargh sprang forward, swinging his axe, but already the creature was raising a wand toward them. It shouted a word of command and something struck Baysil's shield, spinning him around and numbing his arm. Kargh's axe struck, and struck again.

"That's all of them," Kargh snarled, leaning on his bloody axe. "Kick our friends awake, and we'll see what we've found."

His head whirling from the swift action, his arm hanging momentarily paralyzed at his side, Baysil bent over his companions. He shook them awake and they crowded around their opponents.

"What are they?" At first he'd thought that the creatures were Dwarves, but then he took a closer look at their faces. "Some kind of Goblin?"

"I would say so," Bartan agreed. "Mixed breeds, like most of them. I would guess at a strong strain of Dwarf. No offense meant, Kargh."

"None taken." He glowered at their victims. "We'd better cut their throats. We don't want to leave them alive behind us."

"Do it!" Darrick nodded grimly.

This messy job over, they stripped and searched the bodies.

"Hey, this one's got a spell book!" Burdock bent over the one Kargh had carved with his axe. "And this is a wand of some kind!"

"It hurled something that hit my shield." Baysil showed him where the face of his shield showed a fresh gouge of bright metal.

"Did the creature say anything, or just point it?"

"It shouted something." He tried to reproduce the Goblin's cry.

"Let me try it." Burdock repeated the syllable, pressing a knob on the side of the wand with his thumb. Nothing happened. He tried again, accenting the syllable differently. On his third try the wand jumped in his hand. Something spanged off the wall in front of him, bouncing off the ceiling and another wall before spending its force.

"Easy with that thing," Bartan warned. "What did the other robed one have?"

"Another spell book, and a ring," Tarr replied, tucking them in her pouch. "And a couple of potions."

Darrick tested the flasks the way he had the one in the Goblin cave, and put them away with a satisfied smile. "Another potion of fire resistance, and one to increase speed of movement."

"Are those magical?" Elm asked.

"Not exactly. They act on the way your body works to produce their effects. There are other potions that are magical, though."

"Here are some of those arrows with the special points," Bartan announced. "And these two shields are special."

Baysil watched as the shields were tested. One was of the same metal as the arrow points and Anji's sword. The other was harder, of the same metal as the point of Furdick's spear. Both were lighter and handier than a shield faced with iron.

"Give Kargh the best one, and Bartan the other," Darrick ordered. "They need them the most, since they're in the front rank. That should make their armor about the equal of Anji's."

"Hey, look at this!" Elm held up a leather bag that jingled when he shook it. "This time we got us some gold!"

"And here's a pot with more gold in it," Kletta chimed in.

They counted it into rough piles, finding that they had over five hundred gold coins. Anji watched with an amused smile, idly poking at a block of loose stone with the point of her sword. She gave it a harder poke, and bent to examine it more closely.

"Darrick, look at this. It's not stone at all. It's clay, finished to look like stone."

About a foot on a side, the block was heavy. Too heavy for baked clay. Darrick bashed it lightly with his mace and it shattered, spilling out more golden coins.

"About three hundred more," he announced. "All right, bag it all up and we'll see what else we can find."