Samar was the next one to fall unconscious to the ground. Ithelas knew that this gas was slowly poisoning them. He started casting a prayer to invoke his magic. He had to make a tremendous effort of concentration, since it is very difficult to control the magic if at the same time one is experiencing pain or evil of any kind. Control of magic requires absolute serenity. Before losing consciousness too, he managed to complete his spell.
Suddenly he began to feel much better. The magic would protect him from the effects of unbreathable air. Erion and his father coughed profusely. They hadn't lost consciousness yet but they were completely incapacitated. The cleric had to move fast. On a table in the room he saw that there were powders, similar to cooking flour. It seemed, rather, that they were the bones of an animal that had been repeatedly ground. He had seen similar materials in other laboratories. They were used to make potions.
“This will do,” the young man thought.
He took the jar and started throwing small handfuls into the air around the room. Soon after, a good part of the room had a bit of that powder floating. Ithelas stopped and carefully looked. There it was! The movement of the dust in the air allowed him to verify that there was an inflow into the room by a small flap that was well hidden in one corner of the room. He quickly sought some rags and as he did not find them, he ripped the sleeves of his shirt and made them two small balls. He then moved to a table closer to the trapdoor and, after climbing it as best he could, put the pieces of cloth to block the flow of gas entering the room. With some difficulty he got his way.
Although the situation wouldn't worsen, there was still a significant amount of gas in the room. He went to the spiral staircase and saw that both the accesses up and down were blocked by a trapdoor. He decided it would be less dangerous to try the top hatch first. He could open it without problems, since it was not locked. As he discovered it, he saw that there was a fence that prevented the passage. It was closed but fortunately, it would let the gas out of the lab.
He returned to the group. He helped his father and Erion to move to the opposite corner of the room to the trapdoor. Then he did the same with the unconscious bodies of Mithir and Samar. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small bag that had several herbs. He selected some oval leaves and placed one under the tongue of the magician and archer. Finally, he gave another pair of leaves to his father and Erion and told them to do the same.
“Sucking this leaf helps the lungs to exhale any foreign agent,” he explained.
A while later Thost and Erion were much better. Ithelas poured some water on the faces of his unconscious companions and Samar opened her eyes. She felt very nauseated and she couldn't help vomiting. Mithir then regained consciousness and was even worse than Samar.
The cleric decided he should do something more for them and consumed an additional portion of his magical energy to complete a cure for everyone. They both felt a lot better after this. It had been necessary. The poor things wouldn't have been of much use in that state. In addition, he hated seeing his friends suffer; he hated to see anyone suffer.
Erion reviewed the trap without touching Ithelas' improvised coating.
“You're probably wondering why I didn't find this trap,” Erion said, apologetically.
No one had really asked why, and weren't accusing him of the accident that they had just suffered. But they let him continue.
“I must tell you that I will not be able to detect all the traps in advance. Some are so well hidden that I simply won't be able to see them. For example, look at that wall. There is the library door. From this room you could see it clearly, but from the library we could not find it,” the young man said.
“Erion, don't worry. We each do what we can. And for the moment I must say I am quite impressed with your skills,” Ithelas said, conciliatory.
“Thanks. In any case, this flap was not a gas trap which is operated with a spring. The gas enters constantly in this room. And it allows it to keep a highly toxic level of concentration in the air despite that there are small leaks from that narrow chimney. This probably means that the people that frequently cross this room have no major problems with this poisonous gas,” said the young man.
They cast a closer look at the laboratory. It didn't seem to have been used very recently, but it was not abandoned many years ago either. There were all kinds of reagents in different shelves, and a myriad of flasks, pipettes and stills of all sizes. It was a fantastically equipped laboratory. Mithir dreamed of one day having such a laboratory.
Erion approached the staircase and reviewed the top flap. After a while he managed to open the gate. He poked his head out and then went down.
“From the outside we saw two towers of similar height and configuration. Both were arranged in the south of the castle, one on the east side and one on the west side. I would say that that trapdoor leads to the west tower. I have seen that the spiral staircase continues up to higher levels. The four levels above us have several windows, as we saw from the outside.”
“Did you see any soldiers?” Thost asked.
“No. Not in this tower. Moreover, the east tower should be in that area,” he said, pointing to the other side of the room. “My conclusion is that there is no access to the tower from this level of the castle. Therefore, there must be access from the outside or from the parapet. In other words, I bet that the soldiers do have access to the other tower and possibly some are guarding it,” the young man explained.
“Interesting. On the one hand, the castle is guarded by the troop. But then work has been done to isolate a wide area of the castle from the area that the soldiers have access to, probably because of the nature of the inhabitants. At this time it is playing to our advantage because we could access this area, avoiding patrols,” Mithir said gesturing, while his brother reproduced what he said.
They all recalled the moment when the servant was about to raise the alarm, and how close they were to absolute disaster. In any case, they should continue without further delay. They used the moment to drink some water and took a look in the laboratory, but didn't find much. Ithelas managed to open a drawer that seemed closed, under one of the tables. In it he found what he believed to be four different potions. He didn't know its effects, however. He put them in his bag.
It was the moment of truth. Erion approached the trap of the spiral staircase leading to the lower level. He revised it for a while before attempting to open it.
“It's connected to a trap,” the young man said at last. “Move to that corner of the room, I'll try to deactivate it.”
Erion took out his picks and slid down the side of the hatch trying to locate the point where the device was attached to the door. When he arrived at one of the corners he noticed something and stopped. It was there. He was sure. There was a linker that would trigger something if he tried to open the hatch. He had to try to force it back to disengage it. He took another of his tools that was more difficult to handle but it was also longer. With it he could reach the correct place at the other side of the hatch. He began to move the mechanism; it was of good quality, this would be difficult. Then he heard a click he did not expect. He knew what it meant. He rose slightly and jumped giving an acrobatic somersault towards one of the walls, away from the stairs. Four arrows shot out from somewhere in the ceiling and went to dig into various points around the hatch. One grazed him and made a slit in his pants. He had barely avoided the trap.
Suddenly, he felt a sting in his leg, where the arrow had scratched him. He beckoned to Ithelas.
“Something's not right. It's just a scratch, but it's starting to hurt horribly,” the young man said.
Ithelas reviewed the wound carefully and frowned.
“The arrows must be poisoned. And it is a very dangerous and aggressive poison. Take this potion that neutralizes poison and drink it immediately,” the cleric ordered.
At the same time, he applied a compression on the leg to hinder the progression of the poison in the body. Then he cleaned the wound an
d put on it a kind of tube he carried in his bag of herbs. He began to suck through the tube. He managed to take some liquid out of it. Then he cleaned the wound again. He applied an ointment and covered it with a bandage. The cleric went to the trapdoor and took one of the arrows. He left it on a table and tried to identify the poison by sniffing and checking its color and texture.
“I've never seen this poison exactly, but it seems to be jerpex,” Ithelas said.
“What is that?” Erion asked.
“I'm afraid that it's in the family of scorpions with the most potent poison known south of the continent,” Samar explained.
“Right. You were lucky not to have taken a direct hit. It would have killed you in less than three seconds. I've done everything I could for you. We can only wait and cross our fingers. If the poison did not penetrate into your bloodstream, you'll find yourself perfectly well in a few minutes,” the cleric explained.
“And otherwise?” Erion asked worried.
“Well, let’s not think of that scenario,” Ithelas said.
It was the longest ten minutes of Mithir's life. He couldn't imagine what he'd do without his brother. In the last six years they had faced some important dangers together. But he could not remember ever having such a critical situation.
Thost and Samar tried to make conversation, talking about what they would do with their share of the treasure when they were back at home. There was still much to do, but it was the way they believed they could distract the others, especially Erion. However, the young man did not think anything of it. In fact, for some reason, he wasn't worried. He sensed that his end had not arrived; he still had plenty to do.
Time passed, and the pain in his leg was subsiding. Finally, he stood. The ten minutes had expired. Mithir snorted, very relieved. Ithelas separated the bandage again and found that the wound had improved dramatically. Now it looked like a common scratch and the blackened color of the skin had disappeared. Everything was fine; they could continue.
Erion demanded he continue leading the group, despite the insistent complaints from the others, especially Mithir. No one could convince him. He returned to the hatch and pulled the arrows out, one by one. He didn't want anyone to get scratched by them accidentally. Then he opened the hatch and used a small hand mirror to see what was in the room. The spiral staircase continued to the lower level, and there it ended. The room had no furniture but several statues. It was dark and Erion could barely make out the shapes, with the little light that came from the lab.
“Ithelas, light a torch,” he requested.
The cleric did as he was told and passed the torch to Erion. The young man approached the opening of the hatch and could see that the room had only one door, which was locked. He dropped the torch to the lower room and was able to verify that there was nobody there. The entire group descended after Erion. The young man placed the torch in a holder on a wall.
Erion took a deep breath. They were in the basement of a castle lost in the other corner of the world, with no one to help them. And he knew, for sure, that a dangerous vampire was there, probably steps away from them. They had to proceed with extreme caution. Their lives would depend on it. That room seemed the only way out, and they wanted to ensure they could return to it fast. The strange place was virtually empty. The only furniture that was in it was a wooden chair with thin legs. Probably it wouldn't hold the weight of one of them, though perhaps maybe the magician's or the elf's.
Erion reviewed the door and tried to open it. It was locked, but only with a conventional lock that did not prove to be a problem. By opening it, he saw that it led to a dark hallway. Mithir cast a spell on his cane and held it to Erion, who used it to illuminate for just a moment. After checking it out, he came back into the room and closed the door.
“It's a hallway. It has five other doors on this side, four on the opposite side and a larger one at the bottom. Everything seems to be completely dark at this level, so we need light,” he explained.
“It's time to do a quick recognition work,” Ithelas said, invoking a new enchantment.
“I can help,” Mithir said, as he cast another spell.
They both left the hall and stopped only briefly in front of each door and then they returned. Ithelas came in pale.
“The two middle doors on the other side of the aisle have a magical protection,” the magician said. “I have not detected other auras.”
“Behind these two doors there are several undead, maybe four or five. They are powerful, especially one. Behind the door down the hall there are many, many undead. They aren't so powerful, but there may be more than thirty of them,” Ithelas said very seriously.
“Ok. I'll try to check the other rooms, avoiding what you have seen. Wait here and stay tuned for if I call you,” Erion said.
Nobody wanted to let him go alone. They all insisted on going together but Erion's arguments weighed heavily.
“The best way to avoid the danger is to find the box without waking the vampires,” the young man said, assuming that they would find more than one, after what they had learned in the bestiary. “Now we have daylight, and they should be resting. No one can move as silently as me and, if you come with me, we run the risk of being heard. You will cause problems instead of helping,” insisted Erion.
In the end they had to give in, and Erion left alone. They left the door ajar and Samar waited, her ears tuned, very attentively. Erion stepped out into the corridor. It was dark, very dark. But he decided to move through it without any light. He slid, placing his back against the wall while he walked very slowly. He was already regretting his brave gesture. Now he was alone against the worst danger he had ever faced. A drop of sweat was coming down his face and he was breathing heavily. Suddenly he noted something on the wall. It was the first door. He opened it very gently. He was praying that the door would not be noisy and it wasn’t. He was in. Erion closed the door, again very slowly, and lit his torch.
The room was a kind of study devoted to astronomy. The furnishings were similar to the ones upstairs. On the walls different nocturnal maps were hung, representing different stars and constellations. There were a couple of well-lit tables and, on one of them, various types of telescopes and other astronomical tools. There was also a small bookcase full of books exclusively on constellations and stars, all much worn.
After looking for the box unsuccessfully, Erion moved back to the corridor. Repeating the process he got to the next room. It was like a small museum. The hall was crowded with display cases of various sizes in which coins, seal rings and a small scale were exhibited. Most of the coins were silver or bronze. Erion realized that the gold coins he had seen in the library upstairs should belong to the same collection and were probably the most valuable objects of it. These downstairs ones had a much lower economic value. It was obvious that there lived, or had lived, someone with great passion for numismatics. While he was searching through the room, Erion was very careful not to make any noise. At the same time he tried to be attentive to any noise that came from the outside, but everything seemed to remain calm.
The young man went to the next room. It was a study. There were two tables on opposite corners of the room that would have been ideal to write letters or read. The rest of the walls of the room were covered with large shelves almost completely filled with books of all kinds. It was like a subsection of the library upstairs. He also didn't find the box here, nor anything that seemed of particular value.
The next door led to a map room. It had maps of all types and colors, all carefully framed. Most of them were hanging on the walls. In the center of the room there were a couple of display cases containing some particularly old ones. There was a table in a corner to check maps, with magnifying lenses of different kinds and scales. Erion opened the display cases in the center of the room, and after folding carefully what was in there, placed it in his bag and left the place.
He was back in the dark corridor, at the very end of it. His friends were on the oppos
ite side. It was again very dark. He was in front of the last door on the left side of the aisle which was made of very resistant steel. Just a couple of steps away, behind him, there was another door in the center of the hall. It was larger than the others. Erion heard then multiple ugly noises coming from there. He could hear what sounded like someone or something scratching the door, and also grunts and other unnatural noises which froze his blood.
He was not safe there. He had to finish his checks and move on. And quickly. He tried to focus on the door in front of him. It had a small rectangular window with a grille. This allowed him to look out to see what was on the other side without opening it. It was a dirty, dank hallway without any ornamentation. It seemed as if a completely different area of the building started there. Erion didn't think that the treasure was that way. It didn't seem a very suitable area to preserve valuable objects for a long time.
“However, it would be better to go and check,” the young man thought.
Erion abandoned the idea after checking the hinges. They were pretty rusty. If he tried to open, although doing so with the utmost care, it would make a lot of noise. It didn't seem to be the wisest course of action. He crossed the hall back toward the other end. He avoided the rooms where they expected to find enemies and headed towards the last one he had yet to check. It was almost opposite the room where the rest of the group waited.
Erion gulped. That room was just beside the room that Ithelas confirmed to have several powerful enemies. Would they also be vampires? And even worse: would the room he was about to enter connect to the room with the evil creatures? There was only one way to know. He focused again on the task. He was now sweating a lot and his knees were literally shaking.
The door had a beautiful design mixing wooden pieces of different shades; it was very elegant. It didn't have any traps, nor was closed. He went inside. He was in a beautiful and cozy lounge, with multiple artworks. The young man breathed relieved when he noticed that there were no other doors there, or that is what he then thought. It seemed like the room they had found on the top floor and Erion thought that they had probably taken some of the upstairs furniture to decorate it, because they were of the same type. The room also had paintings of a similar quality but these had darker themes, such as landscapes at night, a black dragon attacking a city or a battlefield strewn with corpses. Although the scenes were less gentle, the quality of the paintings was remarkable and he could get good money for them.
He returned to the room in which the group waited impatiently and told them everything he had seen: no sign of the treasure, no trace of the box.
“We still have to explore the last door, the hallway you talked about,” Ithelas said.
“I seriously doubt that the treasure is there,” Erion said. “Trust me.”
“But then, where is it?” Samar asked.
“We have to face the inevitable,” Thost said. “The vampire may have saved the treasure near the crypt, where he can better protect it.”
“It's possible,” Erion confirmed. “In any case, we have explored all the other options that make sense. We're assaulting his crypt.”
The young man's words were ringing in the air. It was the moment everyone had feared and they were now about to have to face it. Trying to control the panic that at moments seemed willing to take over, they began to prepare. Ithelas had made a kind of porridge in the valley by crushing several garlic and mixing it with a little flour and oil. They rubbed their bodies with it, especially in the neck. Samar checked her arrows and left them separated in two different groups. Everyone had a small wooden stake at hand on their belt.
They quietly left the room and went to the first door. Erion began checking it, while Ithelas put a string of garlic hanging in the other two. The young man confirmed that there weren't any traps and that it was not closed, but he still couldn't open it. As Mithir had stated, the door was sealed with magic. The young magician used the same spell that he had needed some time before to open the lab and pounded it with his cane, rattling the wall slightly. The crypt was open.
They were in a stone room in the middle of which there were five large sarcophagi arranged like the vertex of a pentagon. Long candelabra that reached the ground lit the four corners of the room with a dim yellow light.
Without wasting any time, Mithir and Erion went ahead to the first sarcophagus followed by the others. Each one took an end of the lid that covered it and started to move it sideways, slowly. It was really heavy. When they had uncovered half of it, they saw that a beautiful girl around her early thirties was lying there. Her skin had a strange and unnatural color. Thost, who awaited the opening of the lid, did not hesitate a moment and thrust the wooden stake in his hand in the heart of the girl. She suddenly opened her eyes. They were terrible eyes, full of fury. She opened her mouth and muffled a groan and that was when they saw two huge fangs sticking out. The vampire reached up, as if trying to grab them, and then fell limp in the coffin.
They moved to the second sarcophagus. Mithir and Erion repeated the maneuver with the lid but, as they displaced it slightly, a hand with slender fingers grabbed the wrist of the looter from the inside. The hand was ice cold and left Erion stunned for a moment. The young man pulled hard on the lid and the monstrous creature stood up immediately. Fortunately Thost was ready with his stake and drove it furiously on the chest of the vampire, which was destroyed instantly.
While this was happening, the lids of the other three coffins opened at the same time and three wrathful vampires were coming out of them. The first approached Samar and gave her a tremendous slap in the face. The elf stumbled and fell down a couple of steps back, bleeding from her sore mouth. The second vampire moved decisively towards Ithelas, while the third had grabbed Thost from behind. They moved very fast, with great agility. The knight tried to escape but the vampire was stronger. The beast opened her impious mouth, showing her fangs, and nearly drove them hard in Thost's neck. At the last moment she withdrew her mouth as she smelled the garlic cream, but without releasing the knight.
The situation seemed hopeless when Ithelas cast his spell. The whole room lit up with a bright light as if they were on the coast of Bor on a summer afternoon. The contrast with the poor lighting in the cellar had blinded them for a moment. Thost noticed as the beast released him. The three vampires threw the most horrifying screams they had ever heard. A horrible fishy stench filled the room.
Thost saw enough to guess the position of his opponent and nailed the stake urgently. Mithir rushed to Samar's aid, who had been in a bad position. Erion took his hand crossbow, and raised it pointing to where he had seen the vampire running toward the cleric. He blinked constantly, trying to get used to the light. He could make out the silhouette of the undead trying to cover her face with her hands. Erion saw his chance and shot. The arrow buried itself in the chest of the vampire, who fell to her knees. But he wasn't finished with her. She still moved.
After helping Samar to her feet, Mithir cast his projectiles spell, impacting with all of them the vampire who had been kneeling. After the last of them the monster fell to the ground and then went up in smoke. They knew what that meant. They had not been able to end her. The evil creature would wander in a gaseous state looking for a safe place in the castle and, hours later, recover her form and energy.
The daylight spell was over. The last vampire stopped covering her face. Her skin, pale and smooth before, was torn as if she had leprosy in an advanced stage. It was really unpleasant. She was furious. She moved quickly to Erion when they saw an arrow nailed in the middle of her chest. She stopped, saw the arrow and then looked at them and laughed again. So the magician made a gesture that imploded the arrow, destroying much of the upper body of the monster, who also became smoke and disappeared.
The two would not be back in at least a couple of hours. This gave them some time. Everyone looked at Samar. She still seemed dazed and blood was pouring out of the corner of her mouth because of the blow, but this had not prevente
d her from reaching her target. They heard a loud noise outside. They ran. There was no point staying there because neither the box nor the treasure were in that room.
The big door down the hall, like of the other two rooms that they had avoided until now, were open. Through the front door they could hear many strange and unpleasant sounds: roars, groans, screeches, clicks. A lot of forms began to emerge over the threshold. First, four horrible corpses appeared. Their bodies were damaged, corrupted, but they had strange musculature. It was almost as if the muscles were in the air. They had no hair and their skin was very thin, almost nonexistent, and gray.
“Kaltas!” Ithelas exclaimed. “Don't let them touch you,” he added.
Just behind the kaltas came a large group of skeletons. They were armed with swords or axes, and most wielded shields; some also helmets. Behind the skeletons there were several zombies. Their bodies were partially decomposed. Some lacked a body part and had big tears in their flesh. They still had remnants, pure rags, of some clothing that they might have worn in life. Some were carrying sticks and others were empty-handed. In total there were about twenty-five undead walking slowly towards them.
Ithelas threw his hand to his chest and pulled out a large amulet, showing the figure of a golden sun. After removing it from his neck he held his hand in front. His face had a determination as they had never seen before. Samar, who had always regarded him as a brother, thought then that she'd never seen him so attractive. The cleric recited his prayer in a loud voice.
“Beasts of darkness,
Dwellers of hell,
Worshipers of evil,
Hear my command.
By the power granted by Oris to the Sun God
I command you to go back into the abyss of where you come.”
The amulet began to flash and they heard as the undead covered their eyes and screamed. Then, most of the skeletons began collapsing, their bones breaking and separating. Soon after, their bodies had been reduced to small piles on the floor. Only two skeletons survived. The large group had been reduced by half, but they still had a dozen enemies moving towards them.
While Ithelas said his prayer, Mithir had been preparing a spell, which he completed almost at the same moment when the cleric finished his prayer. A fireball shot out against the group of enemies and exploded, causing a huge roar that slightly shook the foundations of the building. The flames reached the entire compact group of enemies; however, they did not stop. Four of the zombies had their bodies wrapped in flames and fell to the ground. The two remaining skeletons didn't survive either.
Samar immediately drew her bow. An arrow pierced one of the kaltas of the front line, but it didn't end it. Erion did the same with his crossbow, but didn't reach any of his targets. Thost had advanced a step with respect to the group and waited with his sword and shield.
Despite the slow progress, the group of gruesome enemies had covered half the distance between them. Aware of this, everyone began to take small steps backwards to gain ground and time, preserving the advantage they had with their ranged attacks, and meanwhile preparing their next shots.
Mithir repeated a second fireball attack. The young magician knew it was time to empty their firepower if they wanted to survive. The explosion made, again, a huge roar, ending with the remaining zombies and the kaltas that Samar had attacked. They still had three kaltas left, who were very close. They saw two more kaltas appear in the doorway and, just behind them, two strange figures, like blackened silhouettes.
Ithelas prepared a spell and as he concluded it, a huge war hammer appeared floating in the air just in front of the kaltas that were almost beside them. Samar decided to switch to a more aggressive tactic and, taking one of her special arrows, shot at close range at one of those standing next to them, blowing it up a moment later. Erion fired his crossbow on one of the kaltas and reached his target, but without finishing it off. Thost moved half a step and, being careful not to get too close, attacked the kalta with his sword, but the enemy managed to dodge the attack.
That's when the putrid stench of kaltas hit their noses. Everyone started to feel horrible nausea. They could hardly contain their stomachs. If they had eaten something they would probably have vomited. The flying hammer hit a blow on one of the kaltas, moving it away slightly. The other, who was very close to Thost, pounced on him and managed to scratch his arm. Under normal conditions, the knight probably could have stopped the blow with his shield, but the nausea he felt had diminished his reflexes. The scratch produced an effect that surprised Erion and his brother, but not Ithelas. Thost froze, petrified. He couldn't move. Meanwhile the other two kaltas and the shadows had covered much of the distance between them. The situation was complicating.
Ithelas cast a new spell, and as he completed it, touched his father's back, who gradually regained his movement as if someone who is waking up from an unpleasant nightmare. Mithir cast his images spell and this time three other Mithirs were in the room to be added to the real one. Samar shot a kalta that was approaching from behind with one of her special arrows and again it blew to pieces. Erion knew he had to take risks to help Thost, who was in a vulnerable situation. He took his short sword and tumbling, surprised a kalta that was about to hit the knight. Nailing the sword in the side of the monster, he finally shot it down. The flying hammer hit the last kalta of the front line, killing him.
Meanwhile the two shadows and the last kalta had arrived with the group that was trapped down the hall. They all retreated through the door behind them and that overlooked the room through which they had originally come. However, they didn't do it in time to close the door. The kalta came in right behind them. To their surprise the two shadows came at the same time, through the wall as if there was nothing there.
The horrible stench made them all unwell. The kalta launched two claws against Mithir. The first destroyed one of his images and, unfortunately, the second hit another image that turned out to be the real Mithir, who ended up paralyzed and useless. The two shadows pounced on Thost, who had huge problems to contain them. He managed to avoid the blow of the first, but the second touched his arm through the shield, as if he wasn't wearing it. With the cold touch of the black figure, Thost felt his strength fading. All of a sudden, his chain mail and sword weighed significantly. He was much weaker. Suddenly, what they feared most happened. In the opposite corner of the room they could see clearly a young man with elegant but vintage clothes. They had no doubt that he was a vampire.
CHAPTER 9: LIFE OR DEATH