Brian S. Pratt's Worlds of Fantasy Box Set

  The road through the Pass was the main artery for trade between Madoc and Cardri and wide enough to accommodate three wagons abreast. The surface of the road, while not perfectly smooth, was firm and level with minimal ruts and potholes.

  As they left the entrance to the Pass and followed the road around the bend, the panoramic view of the gorge unfolded. They paused to take in its grandeur. On either side the gorge rose up to dizzying heights with the river cutting through the middle. Cascading down the opposite side, several waterfalls added additional splendor. The road followed the river for nearly a mile before it began the ascent up to the higher elevations. With many a twist and turn, it occasionally vanished from view only to reappear once more further up the mountainside. Straining their vision, they could barely make out where the road ultimately disappeared into the clouds.

  “We’re going there?” James heard Miko exclaim incredulously.

  “It’s not so bad,” he reassured his friend. “Caravans come this way all the time, so I’m sure we will have little difficulty.” Nudging his horse forward, James continued down the road forcing Miko to keep up or be left behind.

  Before the road began its ascent from the river, they came upon a fellow traveler driving a wagon loaded with goods. “Excuse me,” James said as he came abreast of the wagon.

  The man turned his head toward the pair. “Yes?”

  “How far is it to the other side of the Pass?”

  “Two days on horseback,” the man said. “Most caravans make it in about four to five, depending on the load they’re carrying.”

  “Is there any place along the way to stop and eat?” Miko asked.

  “No son, there isn’t,” he replied. “However, there is a way stop near the top where travelers are able to rest for the night before making the descent on the other side.”

  “Appreciate the information,” James said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  James nudged his horse and they resumed their quick pace, leaving the man and his wagon behind.

  “Are we going to spend tonight at the way stop?”

  “I would think so,” James replied. “If we make it that far before it gets dark that is.”

  Once the ascent began, the road climbed at a steady, though at the moment, not an overly steep pace. It ran along the right side of the river, following the water’s path as it flowed through the gorge. At times the river roared to life when it made its way through an area of rapids.

  As they progressed deeper and deeper into the Pass, the mountainside to the right of the road became increasingly steep as its vertical slope increased. Waterfalls grew plentiful as the warm summer weather melted the snowpack in the upper elevations.

  Being a city boy, Miko had never seen waterfalls and was quite impressed by their beauty and power. He paused by one as he dismounted to fill his depleted water bottle. When he placed the bottle in the waterfall, he quickly snatched his hand back when the water hit his skin.

  “What’s the matter?” James asked, startled at his reaction.

  Miko looked at James, “It is cold!”

  Laughing, James explained, “Of course it’s cold. The water is coming from snow melting high up in the peaks.”

  “Oh,” he replied, feeling slightly embarrassed not to have known that. He gritted his teeth and placed his bottle back into the falling water, and filled it. Then he secured it back to his saddle and remounted. Looking at his hand, he found that his fingers were a little red from the icy water. He marveled at the water as it cascaded down the side of the mountain. He watched it until it disappeared from view.

  They passed the occasional wagon or traveler as they progressed. It wasn’t long until they heard a steady, loud roar from up ahead.

  The mountainside on their right abruptly fell away, revealing a tall narrow gorge with a majestic, powerful, three tiered waterfall. The water, after collecting in a pool at the base of the falls, crossed under a bridge and cascaded down the mountainside to the river below.

  The sound of the falls was deafening as they crossed the bridge that spanned its outflow. Its thundering reverberated through them as they paused a moment to marvel at this wonder of nature.

  “Ain’t that something?” James hollered, trying to be heard over the roar of the falls.

  “Yeah!” he hollered back. While they paused on the bridge, the spray wafted over them and it felt good, cooling them from the heat of the day.

  “James, look!” exclaimed Miko as he pointed to the pool at the base of the waterfall.

  Three deer drank from the pool. They both enjoyed the sight of the deer, but it was time to move on. As they left, Miko turned his head several times to capture the beauty of the waterfall and the deer until the scene disappeared behind trees and rocks.

  The travelers they encountered were few and far between, all either on individual wagons or part of small caravans. None were very talkative as they had far too much on their minds, worrying about conditions on the other side of the mountains, and whether or not they would find safety.

  The further into the Pass they went, the more the road climbed away from the river. Though still able to hear the rapids as water crashed over rocks below, it had been steadily growing fainter and fainter as they progressed to the upper elevations.

  Upon reaching where the road widened into a scenic overlook, they stopped for a short break to give the horses a rest and to have a quick bite to eat. Miko moved to the edge of the overlook and gazed down to the river below. Having never looked down from such a height, he was almost overcome with a sudden fear of heights. Assailed by vertigo, he backed away quickly until there were several yards of road between him and the edge.

  “Are you okay?” James asked as he handed him a portion of their rations.

  Miko took the food James offered. “It’s just that we are so high. I didn’t realize we had climbed so far.”

  “It is deceiving,” James admitted. “While you are climbing, it doesn’t seem like your ascent has been all that dramatic, until you look down. Then it sort of hits you all at once. I remember it happened to me once when my family took me to Yellowstone.”

  “Your family took you to go see a yellow stone?” asked Miko confusedly.

  “Not a yellow stone,” corrected James, “but a place called Yellowstone. It’s where people went to get away for a while and have fun.”

  “Oh,” replied Miko.

  After their break, they remounted and resumed scaling the pass. They came to a section of the mountain that leveled into a plateau. The plateau extended for several miles from the gorge until it ended and the mountains resumed their rise. About a quarter mile off the road further back on the plateau sat a large structure in ill repair. It stood four stories high with windows only in the uppermost section of the walls. A large door loomed open, slightly ajar.

  “Must be an old keep,” James guessed. “Maybe a garrison was once stationed here.”

  “Could be,” agreed Miko. “It doesn’t look as if anyone has been in there for a long time. Wonder if it’s haunted.”

  “Don’t tell me you believe in ghosts?” James asked, slightly amused.

  “Of course not,” asserted Miko. “It’s just that the place looks creepy.”

  “I would love to see what is inside,” admitted James, and then let out a big sigh. “But we better make the best time we can, while we can. No telling how long we will have before we run the danger of encountering the Empire’s armies once we get through the mountains.”

  “Good idea,” agreed Miko, slightly more enthusiastic than the occasion called for. “We better hurry along” he urged. With that he kicked the flanks of his horse and continued down the road, putting distance between himself and the old keep.

  Grinning at his friend, James hurried to catch him. The plateau area with the abandoned keep was left behind.

  The rest of the afternoon passed with more waterfalls, though none were as spectacular as the three-tiered one. About mid-afternoon, the
sun fell behind the high mountain peaks to the west and the air turned chilly. Over the next hour, the temperature dropped rapidly. Soon they pulled on the new jackets they bought in Trademeet.

  “I see what you mean,” Miko said as he put on his jacket.

  “About what?”

  “About how cool it gets up here after the sun goes down.”

  “My grandfather taught me to always be prepared,” said James. “He used to say ‘It’s better to bring a jacket you’ll never need than to need the one you left at home’.”

  “Wise man your grandfather,” commented Miko, now warm and comfortable.

  “Yes, he was. But you know when they are giving you these little gems of wisdom, you seldom see the value of it at the time and often see it as being a big nuisance.” James sat in thought for a while before he broke out in laughter.

  Miko asked, “What’s so funny?”

  “I was just remembering when I came to realize the value of that particular gem,” he said as he began to explain, but then paused for a moment.

  “And what happened?” Miko prompted him.

  Smiling at the memory, James said, “Well, it was summertime and we planned a trip out to the coast. San Francisco was the name of the city. Now, my grandfather was telling me that I should bring my jacket, that I may need it. But it was really hot where we were and I couldn’t see the need of it. We arrived at the city and decided to go see Alcatraz. That’s an old prison situated on an island in the middle of the bay. I got on the ferry that was going to take us over there, and froze.”

  Smiling, Miko enjoyed hearing about James’ little goof-up.

  “I told my grandfather that I was cold. But he just smiled and called it a lesson learned. We stayed on that island for what seemed like a long time and I froze the entire time. I was miserable, my nose was running and I was shaking. When we finally returned to the mainland, I made a beeline to a seller of hot clam chowder and grabbed me some.

  “I’ll never forget that experience and I will never be caught again without a coat, not if I can help it.” Finished with the story, James rode along in silence for a while, reminiscing about home.

  Shortly, he noticed the smell of wood smoke. He looked for a plume that might indicate a forest fire, but didn’t see anything. The smell steadily increased as they continued, when he realized that they must be approaching the top of the summit. He had been smelling smoke from many campfires.

  Cresting the top of the Pass, they came to the way stop. They were surprised at how many people were camped there. A contingent of soldiers was also there, keeping order.

  One of the soldiers broke off from his fellows and approached, holding up his hand to have them stop. “Sorry, but the way stop is bursting to capacity with more coming in all the time,” he explained. “You two will need to camp a little further back down the road.”

  “Why?” James asked. “What’s going on?”

  “Refugees from the fall of Saragon,” the soldier explained, indicating the people at the way stop. “They’ve been pouring through the Pass for the last day or so. We made a temporary camp here for them and will keep them here until we know what is to be done with them.”

  “Why not allow them to go on into Trademeet?” Miko asked.

  “Those are the Captain’s orders and he didn’t explain himself to me,” the soldier replied.

  “No problem,” James told him. “We can camp a little further back down the road tonight and then continue over in the morning.”

  “Sorry,” he said, “but we just got orders that no one is to be allowed down the east side of the Pass until further notice.”

  “What?” James exclaimed. “Why?”

  The soldier, tired of explaining, said, “Like I said before, that’s the Captains orders and he doesn’t explain them to me.” Having said all he intended to, he turned around and headed back to the camp.

  “Now what are we going to do?” Miko asked.

  James gave Miko an exasperated look. “Would you stop asking me that!”

  “Alright, alright,” he replied.

  “Let’s go back down a ways and find a campsite. Maybe we can think of something.”

  They found a widening of the road with sufficient room to make camp and not be on the road. James sent Miko to gather firewood before it got dark while he staked out the horses and got them ready for the night.

  Miko made three scavenging trips before he collected a sufficient store of firewood to last throughout the night. James got the fire going and had dinner started before the light completely faded. While sitting around the fire eating dinner, two men appeared from the direction of the way stop and approached their campfire.

  “Hello,” one said.

  “Good evening, gentlemen,” James replied, and then waited to see what they would do.

  They approached a little closer to the fire. James saw that they were eyeing their food hungrily. He said to them, “Would you two care to share our fire this evening? We have enough.”

  “Yes, we’d like that,” the other man said. “But we actually came to see if you could spare some for our families. You see we fled Saragon when it fell with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”

  “Certainly,” James said, “if you don’t have too many,”

  The taller of the two men almost broke down and cried while the other said, “Thank you very much.” Turning to the taller man he said, “Silas, go and bring ‘em over.”

  Silas headed back toward the refugee camp. The man said, “My name is Bellon. I was a farmer before the Empire’s army sacked our city.”

  “How did you get out?” Miko asked.

  “When the Empire overran the walls, it was total chaos,” Bellon explained. “People fled in every direction trying to get out. My grandfather used to be a smuggler way back when he was a younger man and once showed me an old route into the city that he said no one, not even the Governor knew about. Silas and I found it and used it to get our families out past the walls. The tunnel ended in a pile of old stones a dozen yards from the river, almost two miles north of the city.”

  “We were past the enemy lines and ran all night and all day, hiding whenever we heard someone approaching. We did that until we saw Madoc’s soldiers coming from the City of Light. We waved them down and told them where we were from and what had happened. They told us to head here, saying we could find refuge and safety.”

  “Remarkable story,” James said. About that time, Silas returned with the rest, two women, an older boy and two smaller children. All had the lost look of those who have had their lives torn asunder.

  James stood when the ladies approached. “Welcome. You are welcome to stay here the night if you wish. We don’t have a lot of food, but what we do have we will gladly share.” Turning to Miko, he said, “Get the rest out of the bags and pass it out. They look as if they could use it.”

  The two families situated themselves on the ground around the campfire and waited for Miko to distribute the food. There was enough to go around, not enough to stuff their bellies, but sufficient to still their hunger.

  “By the way, my name is James and this is my companion, Miko.”

  “We sure thank you for this, James,” Silas said. “The kids were getting hungry and the food that the soldiers distributed ran out by the time we made it to the front of the line.”

  “I don’t think they had planned on this many making it here,” Bellon said. “They said a caravan was on its way from Trademeet but wouldn’t be here until later tomorrow or possibly the day after.”

  “We passed a large caravan coming this way early in the morning,” Miko told them. “It will most likely be up here sometime late tomorrow.”

  “That’s good news,” Silas said.

  “James and I plan on going on through the Pass to Madoc in the morning,” Miko told them.

  James gave him a look that said, ‘Don’t tell strangers our business.’ Miko had the good sense to blush at his mistake.

  Silas
’ wife said, “You mustn’t go there!”

  Holding his wife’s hand, Silas said, “I agree, it’s not a good place to be right now.”

  “Well, we don’t plan on going anywhere near Saragon,” James said.

  “Still, the Empire’s men are terrible foes,” Bellon stated.

  “Why are they so terrible?” Miko asked with apprehension.

  Bellon looked at him and said, “They kill just for the pleasure of it. If they can capture you, you become their slave and they take you back to their Empire to sell you at auction. When Saragon fell and we were running through the streets to get to the smuggler’s route, we saw the slavers taking people, tying their hands behind their backs and stringing them in slave lines. If they were too old or an invalid, they just slit their throats, leaving them to lie in the street and bleed to death.”

  Bellon’s wife put a hand on his arm, shook her head and indicated the children. “Oh, sorry, maybe this is not the time or place to be talking about such things.”

  “I think I get the idea,” James said, understanding. “But there is not much we can do, we have to go.”

  “If you must go,” Silas said, “then stay as far to the north away from Saragon as you can. No one was sure if the Empire would stop at Saragon or push further north.”

  “We will, I promise,” he assured them. He turned his attention to the vacant-eyed younger children. “Now who would like to hear a silly song about a bunny?”

  They perked up at that, at least the younger two did. One of them said very timidly, “I do.”

  So James began to sing. “Little bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest…” While he sang, he pantomimed the little bunny hopping along with the rest of the cast of characters.

  For the remainder of the evening he sang all the old silly songs he once sung as a child and even threw in a couple of poems. The children sat in rapt attention and after the first two songs, began to smile a little and even clapped along. The adults, seeing life return to their children, clapped along as well with tears in their eyes.

  Eventually, James’ voice cracked and he had to stop for a while. Miko, surprisingly, began a song about a lord who couldn’t find his slippers. It was a silly song, but one that the children had heard before because they sang along with him after the first chorus.

  The rest of the night was full of singing and silly tales. For a time at least, the memories of what happened and what their futures might hold were forgotten. All that mattered this night was that they had brought joy back to the children.

  The following morning when the sky began to lighten, even before the sun rose over the mountain peaks, James and Miko made ready to get through the Pass.

  Silas, Bellon and their families gathered around, shaking hands. Silas’ wife even went so far as to give James a kiss. “Thank you so much for last night,” she said with tears in her eyes.

  “I wish you all well,” James said as he mounted his horse with Miko following suit. James reached into his shirt and pulled out a bag of coins, tossing it toward Silas who caught it. “Take this and start a new life.”

  “We can’t accept this,” Silas said and made to hand it back.

  “No, you keep it,” James said, refusing to take it. “I have plenty of money. What good is it if you can’t use it to help out your fellow man?”

  “How can I ever repay your generosity?”

  “Before the year is out, help two people who are less fortunate than you,” James explained. “Also, ask them each to help two people within a year. Start a chain of giving, who knows where it might lead.” When all was ready he and Miko mounted up.

  “We will,” said Bellon. The rest of the adults agreed.

  James reached down and shook hands with Bellon and Silas, “Good bye now, and good luck.”

  “May the gods speed you on your way,” Silas said.

  “And be careful,” his wife added.

  With a final wave, James and Miko headed toward the summit and into Madoc. Behind them, James heard one of the little girls begin to sing, “Little bunny Foo Foo…” With a tear beginning to well in his eye, he hurried along toward the way stop.

  They didn’t get far before they were once again challenged by a soldier, a different one than the day before. “Travelers are not allowed beyond the way stop.”

  “We can take care of ourselves,” James assured him.

  “Be that as it may, my orders are clear. No one, and I mean no one, is to be allowed to endanger themselves by traveling into the Madoc area.” He stood and barred their way, staring at them.

  “What if we just ride around you and go anyway?”

  “Then the soldiers further east will stop you,” the soldier explained. “If you persist, they will arrest you and place you in jail for your own safety until you realize that it’s not safe for you to go there.”

  “Damn!” James muttered under his breath. Turning his horse around, he headed back toward the west. As they returned, they found that Silas and Bellon had already returned to the refugee area with their families.

  James glanced at Miko who was looking at him with a questioning look on his face. “Don’t ask me!” he said.

  “I wasn’t,” Miko replied innocently. “I am simply waiting patiently to find out what we are going to do now.” Smiling, he looked at James.

  “I don’t know. I certainly don’t want to waste the time backtracking all the way to Trademeet and then go north through the Dragon’s Pass. That will add days to our travel time.”

  “Why don’t you use that compass thing of yours,” suggested Miko.

  “It might just be time to do that,” James agreed. “Good idea.”

  Miko beamed at the praise. They returned to the spot where they spent the night. They dismounted and James removed the compass from his backpack.

  He sat as far from the road as he could with his back to the rock wall. Motioning Miko over he said, “This may take a while, so make sure I am not disturbed. And remember, we don’t want anyone to find out I can do magic, alright?”

  “Alright,” agreed Miko as he took his position a little closer to the road.

  James settled down and held the compass in his hands on his lap, beginning to tap into the magic. He concentrated on finding a way through the mountains that he and Miko would be able to travel, one which will avoid the soldiers who patrolled the road. He concentrated harder and harder and then felt the magic surge forth when he released it. To James, it felt as if the magic was expanding from him in a spherical radius, causing ever increasing amounts to be drawn from him while searching every nook and cranny of the mountain for the elusive path.

  The spell continued to draw large amounts of power from him. After a short time, he started to feel the effects. His head throbbed and his breathing became more labored. Yet still the spell wasn’t finished. He had not yet found a path through the mountains.

  Suddenly, the flow of power eased as the powers began to merge and flow in a more singular direction like a pack of dogs that caught the scent of a fox. Then all of a sudden it was over and the needle of the compass pointed westward, back toward Trademeet.

  Opening his eyes, James saw where the compass pointed and sighed.

  Miko heard him and asked, “Did it work?”

  “Yes,” James replied, “but it’s pointing back the way we came.” He showed the compass to Miko.

  “Is it directing us toward Dragon’s Pass?”

  “I don’t know, though we may have little choice.” Getting up, he had a sudden dizzy spell and briefly lost his balance. Miko saw him falter and put James’ arm around his shoulder. After a few steps and several deep breaths, he began to feel better. He then removed his arm from around Miko’s neck. “I’m okay. It’s passed.”

  “Too big a spell again?”

  James nodded. “I think so, but I seem to be better able in handling the effects.” He mounted his horse and they turned to follow the direction indicated by the compass.

  Several hou
rs later and still following the compass, they arrived at the plateau where the old abandoned keep stood. When the keep came into view, the compass swung toward it.

  “Great!” James heard Miko exclaim when he realized where the compass pointed. “Somehow I knew we’d be going in there.”

  “I had my suspicions too,” James admitted. Thinking the way may be further down the plateau and not at the old keep, James angled them to go around its left side. But when they passed the entrance, the compass turned and pointed toward the opened front door.

  He showed the compass to Miko with a grin. Shrugging, he turned his horse toward the entrance and dismounted. James peered through the slight opening made by the door being ajar, but couldn’t make out anything in the dim light.

  Turning back to Miko he said, “Let’s secure the horses around back and then investigate. We don’t want anyone coming by and helping themselves while we are in there.” They walked the horses around to the back where they secured them. James took his backpack and they returned to the entrance. He paused a moment then asked Miko, “Want to go first?”

  “No,” replied Miko, a little nervous.

  “Alright then, I’ll go first.” James stepped up and slowly made his way through the doorway, passing into a poorly lit room. He made his glowing orb and the light from it revealed a large room with several doors and two hallways that led from it. The compass indicated they should take the hallway directly opposite the door.

  He walked to the hallway. As he entered, the light from the orb revealed something large lying across the floor not three feet from where he stood. As he moved closer he discovered it was a dead body in the latter stages of decomposition. The clothing on the man, at least he thought it was a man, was in pretty bad shape but looked as if it had been of good quality.

  Miko saw the dead body illuminated by the orb and gasped. “James, we shouldn’t be in here,” he said with a tremor of fear in his voice. “Let’s find another way.”

  “Don’t be scared,” he said reassuringly. “It’s only a dead body.” He leaned down and grabbed a stick. He began to poke through the dead man’s clothes. “Most likely this was a merchant traveling through the Pass that ran afoul of bandits and they dumped his body in here. See, look, there is no purse on him, nothing at all of value.” James used the stick and turned the head. “And look,” he said indicating the back of the head, “it’s cracked like someone hit him in the head with something hard.”

  “Maybe the bandits are still here?” Miko said worriedly, looking around.

  “Not likely,” he replied. “If they were still using this place, they would hardly have left a dead body rotting in the hallway. They would have dumped it out back where they wouldn’t have had to walk over it and smell it.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” admitted Miko, though still not very reassured.

  “So relax, we’re going to be okay.”

  “If you say so,” Miko replied halfheartedly.

  Leaving the body behind, they continued down the hallway, passing two doors before coming to a halt before the third.

  “Why are you stopping?”

  “It’s indicating that we need to go through this door,” he explained. He tried the handle but found it locked. He handed the compass and glowing orb to Miko before throwing his weight against the door. With a crash, the door burst in, breaking off a two foot section of the doorjamb in the process. His momentum carried him a little ways through the door where he stumbled and fell. He rolled down a flight of stairs and came to rest at the bottom. Bruised and scraped but otherwise unhurt, he got to his feet.

  At the top of the steps he saw Miko illuminated by the glow from the orb looking down at him. “Are you okay?” the boy asked.

  “Yeah,” replied James, “come on down. But be careful, I might have broken a few of the steps during my fall.”

  Being extra careful, Miko took it one step at a time, skipping over a few broken ones. He finally made it to the bottom.

  It was a small room, only about ten feet by maybe twelve. The only exit was the door at the top of the stairs. The room itself was empty except for the dust that had accumulated over time.

  James retrieved the compass from Miko and sure enough, it was still pointing the way. This time it indicated the direction they needed to go was through the wall. Pointing to the wall indicated by the compass, he said, “It says that we are to go this way.”

  “Another secret door like in Lord Colerain’s estate?”

  Nodding his head, James replied, “I think so, give me the orb for a second.” Holding out his hand, Miko passed him the orb.

  He did a thorough inspection of the wall and failed to find anything that looked like it could be a trigger to open the secret door. He then moved to the adjoining walls, searching for some trigger or other mechanism that could possibly open a secret door.

  Miko looked around and noticed a design on the floor, partially hidden by the accumulated dust. “James, look at this.”

  James knelt to take a closer look. Brushing away the dust he discovered a square shaped stone engraved with a design of a circle within a circle within a circle. He applied pressure to it but nothing happened. Getting to his feet, he had Miko step on it while he pushed on the wall but nothing happened. “Maybe there are others we need to release first,” he theorized. “Look around for any more similar designs.”

  Miko discovered a second one on the wall about midway up the stairs. This one was a single circle. Excited, James said, “If there is one with three circles and another with just the one, then there may be another with two. And hopefully by pressing them in the correct order, it’ll enable us to open the secret door.”

  “Makes sense,” agreed Miko.

  They looked but failed to find two circles, one in the other. “I don’t think there is one here,” Miko said after they had searched for a while.

  “There has to be,” he insisted. “It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.” He got on his hands and knees to closely examine the floor inch by inch.

  “But we’ve examined all the walls and floor over and over,” Miko went on. “There is no such design here.”

  Standing up suddenly, James looked at Miko, “You’re right. We have searched all the walls and the floor, but we haven’t looked at the ceiling.” He turned his gaze upward and sure enough, there was the design with two circles, one inside the other. “I knew it!” he exclaimed excitedly.

  “Miko, go and press firmly on the single circle.”

  Miko cautiously made his way up the stairs and pressed the circle, “Now what?”

  “Toss the piece of the doorjamb that I broke off down to me.”

  Miko found the broken doorjamb, and tossed it down to James.

  Catching it, James raised it up toward the double circle in the ceiling. Holding it steady, he put the end against the design and pressed firmly. Miko by this time had made it back down the stairs.

  James lowered the broken doorjamb and let it drop to the floor. He walked to the triple circle on the floor and pressed on it with his foot. Suddenly, a section of the wall began to swing inward, creating a three foot wide by five foot tall opening.

  He brought the orb close and discovered the opened door revealed a narrow passage which looked to have been carved out of the mountain.

  As James looked down the passage, the door began to close. Finding no way to keep it open, he backed out. He turned back to Miko. “Let’s go back up and get our things from the horses.”

  “You mean we’re leaving them up there?” Miko asked incredulously.

  “Our way lies through there,” James said, pointing toward the secret door. “And I seriously doubt if the horses will be able to make it. Besides, can you think of a way to get them safely down that broken flight of steps?”

  “No, I can’t,” Miko admitted as he glanced to the steps in question.

  “Okay then, so let’s go and get what we are really going to need and hide the rest, just in case we manage to
come back this way again.” He carefully climbed back up the stairs, trying to place his weight evenly so as not to cause another step to break. Miko waited until he had made it to the top before following.

  They walked back through the hallway, past the corpse and through the front door. Around back they found their horses and mule just where they had left them. James grabbed the jackets. They took everything off the horses and mules, tying them loosely so that if they didn’t return, they would be able to break free.

  In several trips, they managed to haul all their equipment and the tack down into the little room at the bottom of the stairs, secreting it under the steps. As they brought in the last load, James saw the supply caravan they had passed the day before trundling along the road on its way to the refugee camp.

  He stashed the last of the equipment under the steps and said, “Unless someone comes down here, our stuff should be safe.”

  Miko agreed. “It’s too bad we have to lose the horses.”

  “I know, but we have money to buy new ones and we’re pressed for time.” He took out his traveling scribe case and placed it on the stairs, opening it.

  “You’re not taking that with us are you?”

  “No,” James responded, “I just want to take the notes I have written.” He removed the note-filled parchment and rolled them tightly, placing them in his backpack. Closing the case, he placed it with the rest of the equipment under the steps. He turned to Miko and asked, “Did you get the money?”

  Miko patted one of the bags over his shoulder and said, “Right here.”

  “Okay, looks like we’re ready. Go push the circle by the stairs and we’ll get going.”

  Miko climbed up the stairs and pushed the circle on the wall. James used his makeshift stick and pushed the double circle on the ceiling. He then went and stepped on the triple circle on the floor. The secret door swung open and James took the lead. He held the glowing orb as he passed through the doorway and into the tunnel.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  _______________________