After they finished eating and everyone had rested, Bart explained to the others he planned to go and look at the room where the water came from. He told them to wait on this side of the pit until he returned. Taking the lantern from Chad, he jumped to the other side of the pit and began walking to the room. Behind him, the glow from Kevik’s bobbing light appeared.
There was still a trickle of water making its way down the passage from the room. He walked through the door and into the room. It was large, the light from the lantern failed to reach its uppermost reaches. In a couple areas there were steady trickles of water coming from the dark heights of the room. All but one of the trickles made their way down the sides of the room. The other one however fell freely and splashed on the floor.
He inspected the door and the frame. He discovered how once the door was shut, it would create a tight seal with the doorjamb. This would allow the water trickling down to begin filling the room for the next intruder. He admired the work that must have gone into putting this particular trap into effect.
After a quick search to make sure there was no other exit, he left the room and made his way back to the others. He left the door open so the water could escape.
“That was a pretty clever trap,” he told the others upon his return. Hopping over the pit, he saw they were ready to continue the exploration.
“Clever enough to almost get us killed,” Riyan said.
“I know,” replied Bart with a grin. “Impressive.”
He set out back the way they had come with the others following along behind. From that point they began the systematic search of what they’ve begun to call the Labyrinth. They called it that because of the many turns and branching passages.
Every time they would come to a junction, the first thing they checked for was the presence of copper coins. If some were present, they would take the passage that didn’t have any as yet. Each time they crossed through the junction, they would add a coin. So if they came to one they already had gone through, there would be two passages marked with coins. One passage would be marked with one coin, which would indicate from which direction they had originally entered the intersection. There would also be a two coin passage indicating the direction they had gone that first time. Then when they took a third way, they would set three coins down, and then four if they happened to pass through a junction where four ways to go were possible.
Their search led them down one passage after another. Truly this place deserved the name, Labyrinth. Finally, they came to a room at the end of one of the smaller, branching passages. It held two chests sitting across from each other at either end of the room.
“Stay out in the hallway,” Bart said to the others as he made to enter the room. Carrying the lantern with him, he moved slowly and carefully to the chest on the right.
“Be careful,” offered Kevik.
“Don’t plan to be otherwise,” replied Bart. He worked his way closer to the chest and stopped five feet away. The memory of the last time when the floor opened up was still vivid in his mind.
Taking his pack which was still tied to the rope, he began tossing it onto the floor in front of the chest. When that failed to produce a reaction, he tried the area next to the chest and then finally began hitting the chest itself. Still, nothing happened.
“Maybe this one doesn’t have a trap,” suggested Chad.
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Bart replied.
“We’ve come across others before that failed to go off,” said Riyan. “Maybe it’s the same thing here.”
“That might be,” nodded Bart. He set the lantern on the floor so the light shone brightly upon the face of the key hole, then he took small steps toward the chest. The face of the chest was nondescript, it looked like all the others. He checked near the keyhole for any markings that the chest maker might have put there to indicate a trap was present, but it was clear.
He thought to himself that this chest might actually be safe. After removing his two picks, he knelt down before the lock and began working on it. As he worked, he took his time and finally the lock clicked open. Breathing a sigh of relief, he replaced the picks back in the rolled leather and put it in his shirt before lifting the lid.
Bracing himself, he lifted the lid. Again, nothing happened. Inside he found a small book with red bindings centered in the bottom of the chest. He turned his head to where the others were waiting and said, “There’s a book in here.”
He reached inside to pick it up. Just as his fingers touched it Kevik asked, “Are there any markings on it?”
That questioned may have saved him from being blinded. He turned his head towards Kevik to reply as he lifted the book from the bottom. He said, “No, there isn’t…” then a spray of liquid shot from the back side of the chest and hit him in the side of the head just behind the ear. When the liquid hit him, he cried out and jumped backwards.
“Bart!” exclaimed Riyan as he came close. The smell of smoldering hair permeated the room. He quickly got his water bottle and began pouring it over the affected area. When the last drop was poured, Bart’s hair in that area looked singed. The skin was a bit red underneath and the top of his ear sported a blister, but other than that there was nothing serious.
“If that had hit your face…” Chad began.
“It would have blinded me,” replied Bart. He felt the affected area and then allowed Riyan to inspect it.
“I think you’ll survive,” Riyan told him. “It doesn’t look as if anything permanent was done.”
“Thank goodness,” he said. He held up the book that was in the chest.
Kevik came closer and took the book. “It doesn’t look magical,” he stated. He looked it over, gave the front and back careful consideration, but didn’t open it.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Bart asked.
“Not yet,” he replied. Then suddenly the book began to glow blue, telling the others that he was casting his identification spell. The others waited until the glow faded then looked to him expectantly.
A grin came over him as he stared at the book.
“What?” asked Riyan.
He glanced up at them and said, “There are two spells within this book. Both are new to me.”
“Can you use them?” Chad asked.
“Perhaps,” he said. “I will need to study them for some time, but first I’m going to copy them into my spell book.”
“Not right this second though,” Riyan said.
He shook his head. “No. I’ll do it when I am not otherwise occupied.” Opening his pack, he placed the book inside with the two spell books already there.
“Still one more chest,” Bart said as Riyan gave him a hand up.As he turned and began using his pack tied to the rope to test for pits, he overheard Chad asking Riyan, “Why would they put such a thing here?” He meant the little book.
“To encourage thieves to keep pressing their luck,” Bart replied for Riyan. He tossed the pack and pulled it back only to toss it yet again. “If you had something of extreme value, say the key we’re looking for, you would want to kill off any thief that found their way in here before he got to it. Right?”
“Absolutely,” replied Kevik. “Better to lose less valuable items.”
“Correct,” Bart said as he threw the pack again. “Now, the best thing that could happen is for the thief to die before he even gets to the treasure you’re trying to keep hidden. That’s what this place is designed for. A thief would hardly continue to trip the various traps you have spent such time in constructing if every time he opened a chest, there was nothing in it. You have to put the carrot before the mule if you want the mule to walk into quicksand.” He grinned. “That’s a saying my father used to use.”
Finished with testing the area with the rope and pack, he tossed it over to the others and began slowly working his way towards the other chest. “That’s why it’s worthwhile to open each chest we come to.”
“But at the same time you risk serious injury and d
eath,” argued Riyan.
Bart paused and glanced back to him. He shrugged then said, “Such is the life of a thief.” Turning back to the chest he resumed his slow, methodical progress. “Think on this too. If the thief was to find enough of the smaller treasure, he might feel the risk no longer was worth it and leave. After all…” he paused a moment as he concentrated on the floor before him. Not finding anything, he took another step. “…if someone has the wherewithal to build a complex like this, he surely can afford to lose a few trinkets here and there.”
“I think I get what you’re trying to say,” Riyan said.
“Good,” Bart replied. He finally arrived at the side of the chest. “Could you move the lantern closer for me,” he said to Chad.
“Sure,” Chad said. He then went and picked up the lantern and set it down where Bart indicated. After it was on the floor he returned to where the others were watching.
He knelt down before the chest and was running his fingers lightly along the front. “I don’t think so,” they heard him mumble to himself. He took out two picks again. Only this time he didn’t remove the two he usually did. These were slightly longer with long flat heads.
He placed the head of one into the seam on the right side of the chest between the front and the edge binding, then did the same with the other on the left side of the front. Slowly, he began working the two tools into the seams. When the two heads were completely inserted within the seams, he began prying the front cover. After only a moment of effort, the front side of the chest popped open to reveal a handful of gems glittering inside.
Bart glanced back to the others and grinned. “The top is a fake,” he explained. “No matter how much you work at it, there’s no way to open it. In fact,” he paused while he pointed to the keyhole, “if you were to try to pick the lock, that would trigger the trap.”
Reaching in, he removed the gems and handed them to Riyan who put them in his pack. He replaced his tools back with his other picks and slid the rolled leather inside his shirt. Standing up, he indicated the passage leading from the room and said, “Shall we?”
Bart led the way out and they resumed their exploration. After a search down a dead end loop, they turned back and began following another of the main passages, one they hadn’t been down before. Not too long after they entered the passage, another smaller one branched off to their right. Thus far, the smaller ones seemed to have yielded treasure of one kind or another.
Turning into it, they followed it down until it turned to the left. There it came to an end ten feet past the turn. The light from the lantern glittered off of a pile of coins and jewels sitting in the middle of the floor at the end of the passage.
“If that isn’t a blatant declaration of a trap being present, I don’t know what is,” Bart said as he glanced at the others.
“Are you going to try and get it?” Riyan asked.
Bart turned back to him and nodded. “We could use the money. Stay here.” Turning back to face the treasure, he began using his pack-on-the-rope to test for pitfalls. When none were detected, he set the pack down and slowly moved forward. Everything his father ever said to him screamed that this was trapped. No one ever left treasure lying out in the open like this unless it was being used as a lure.
Whoever built this place has so far used vastly different, ingenious traps for every circumstance. He still couldn’t believe that water one. Whoever had devised it certainly deserved a bonus.
He stopped when he was three feet from the pile. Holding up the lantern, he scanned the walls but didn’t find anything unusual. The area of the floor around the treasure appeared as it should, which only made him all the more nervous. Something here has to trigger something. It has to!
Crouching down, he ran his hand over the surface of the floor between himself and the treasure. After a minute of careful examination, he found nothing out of the ordinary. He crept forward a little further, close enough for him to actually be able to touch the treasure.
He removed his belt knife, not the new one but the older knife he’s had for years and moved its tip towards the edge of the pile.
“Find anything?” Chad suddenly hollered to him.
Chad’s question startled him and the knife point accidentally dislodged three of the coins from the pile. He froze as he expected something nasty to develop, but nothing did. Turning back to Chad with an angry expression he said, “Keep quiet!”
With a guilty look upon his face, Chad replied quietly, “Sorry.”
Bart took a deep, calming breath then returned his attention back to the pile. The three coins that had fallen lay next to the pile and he picked them up. They were regular gold coins similar to those they had found earlier. He placed them in his belt pouch before moving his knife back towards the pile. It’s possible one of the coins or gems could in some way be the trigger. It took a rather special type of triggering mechanism to use an item so small, but he’s heard tales of it being done.
He slid the point of the knife carefully beneath a coin. When enough of the blade was beneath it, he lifted the coin very slowly from the pile. Once it was free and nothing happened, he put the coin into his pouch. Then one by one, he repeated the process and put the liberated coins and gems into his belt pouch.
After ten minutes of this, the others realized he was going to take awhile and made themselves comfortable against the wall of the passage where it made the turn.
Bart’s back was beginning to ache by the time there were only seven coins and three gems left in the pile. He was amazed he made it this far without anything happening. It was possible though, that whatever trap was here could have become deactivated over time, that does happen.
Moving his knife forward once more he went for the largest of the three remaining gems and slid the knife’s point beneath it. Before the tip had even reached halfway beneath the gem, it met resistance. Bart couldn’t help himself but grin. There was a trap and it would be triggered by the removal of this gem. Unfortunately the gem happened to be the largest one of the pile and therefore worth a lot of coins.
Two of the remaining coins were positioned beneath the gem, the rest were not. He quickly picked up all the remaining coins and gems but the two that were under the trapped gem. Glancing back at the others he said, “I found the trap.”
“Can you disarm it?” asked Riyan.
“I’m not sure,” he replied. Then he showed them the sizable gem still there on the floor. “It’s attached to that one,” he said. “If you were to take the gem up off the floor, it would pull the cord it’s attached to and that would set off the trap.”
“Can you cut it?” asked Kevik.
“Often traps such as these will go off if it’s cut,” he explained. “It might be a good idea if you three were to go back and wait out in the main passage until I’m done.”
“Just leave it if you think it’s too risky,” Riyan told him. “It’s not worth your life.”
He had already thought about that. Unfortunately there’s this little matter of a death mark hanging over him and he’ll need all the coins he can to get it removed. He seriously needed that gem. Plus he hated to walk away from a challenge.
“I’ll be okay,” he said. “You just wait out there for me.”
“Alright,” Riyan said. “If you’re sure?” When he received Bart’s nod, he and the others left the smaller passage and returned to the main one. Kevik’s bobbing sphere appeared to give them light while Bart retained the lantern.
Once they were gone, Bart unrolled the leather pack containing his lockpicks. For this he would need a more specialized tool than the ones he’s been using. Another invention of his father’s, he removed a three inch tool. In the middle of the tool was what his father called a vise grip. It was designed for situations such as this. You placed the cord or whatever the triggering mechanism was, provided it was thin and narrow like a string, within the vise grip. Then you tightened the grip until the trigger was held tightly. After that you would be able to
cut what you were after from the trigger safely.
The first thing he did was to very carefully move the two coins beneath the gem ever so slightly away from each other. He needed a gap between them wide enough through which to slip the tool. Once he had the space, he got down on his belly and very gently maneuvered the tool beneath the gem between the two coins.
When he felt it was in the correct position, he gradually worked the tool sideways until he felt the triggering cord slip into the vise. Then ever so carefully, he turned the screw at the end of the pick and closed the vise on the cord. He had to be careful for the cord was incredibly old and was likely to break under the slightest pressure.
As soon as the screw was turned as far as it could go, he took out another of the tools. This one was a five inch narrow rod with a blade shielded by a small piece of hardened leather on the end. This was actually the first time he ever had occasion to use this particular instrument. His father had said that when he came up with this one, he ruined many a pick case before he learned to put a cover over the blade.
After removing its cover, he slid the rod under the gem next to the pick holding the cord. Then he began cutting the cord above the pick holding it. Very slowly, one strand of the cord at a time, he sawed through it. When he felt the tool cut the last strand, he braced himself but nothing happened.
He lifted the gem and saw his pick still there holding the cord between its vises. Flipping the gem over, he discovered the cord had been attached to the bottom of the gem by a small metal staple. The holes that the ends of the staple made in the gem would lower its overall value. However, a creative jeweler could set it in a necklace or other ornamental item where the back would be covered by something else. After that, only an expert jeweler would be able to tell.
Quite happy with himself, he pocketed the other two coins that the gem had been resting upon. His knife-pick he replaced back in with the others. That only left the vise-pick. He did not want to leave without it. With the way things were, he may never see another one again. But if he removed it from the cord, it would trigger the trap.
“You okay in there?” Riyan’s voice came to him from the passage.
“Yeah,” he hollered back. “Be just a minute.”
“Alright,” came the reply. “Hurry up, Kevik’s bobbing light is beginning to drive me crazy.”
Bart grinned for he found the constantly bobbing light annoying too. Why anyone would create a spell like that was beyond him. Then he returned to the problem at hand. The vise-pick.
Coming up with an idea, he pulled out the long string he had in the bottom of his pack. Then he secured one end of the string around the screw at the end of the vise pick. After that, he picked up his pack-on-a-rope and the lantern then began walking backwards to the other passage. As he went he played out the string until finally arriving in the main passage with the others.
“What’s that for?” Chad asked when he saw the string.
“I’m recovering a tool,” he explained. “But it’s going to trigger the trap when I do.”
“So you got the gem?” Riyan asked.
Bart patted his belt pouch and nodded. “Now all I need to do is get my tool back.” He took the end of the string in hand and then began gently pulling on it. The last thing he wanted was for the string attached to the screw to come off or break.
Then suddenly, the strain that had been building on the sting was gone. He could hear the metallic clinking of the tool as it bounced along the floor of the passage.
“Bart!” hollered Riyan. “The ceiling’s coming down!”
He looked above him and saw where a stone block, the width of the smaller passage opening, was falling at him. Jumping back out of the way, he quickly pulled the string. The tool bounced along the passage as it headed for the rapidly closing opening. Then just before the stone settled to the floor, the tool emerged from beneath the falling stone.
With a thump, the stone settled against the floor, completely blocking the mouth of the passage. “That was close,” commented Kevik.
“I would hate to have been in there when that stone began to fall,” observed Chad.
“Me too,” agreed Bart. Untying the string from the screw, he put the string back in his pack and the vise-pick in with the others. After that he distributed the coins and gems to the others. He kept the largest gem, the one that the trigger had been attached to, for himself.
“Need a break?” asked Riyan.
Bart shook his head. “No, let’s keep going. The sooner we’re done with this the better.” Taking the lantern, he stepped out and once again they began combing the passages for the key.
They didn’t come across anything other than more crisscrossing passages and dead ends. Neither treasure nor rooms, just passages. After awhile they began coming to areas they have already been to, and even with the coins placed on the ground at the junctions, they’ve begun to get turned around.
Finally they came to the end of a passage with a door. “Man if this isn’t it I say we call it a day,” Riyan said. The past hour of wandering through passages has left him tired and discouraged.
“I think there is still one more area off that way,” Bart said pointing behind them and to the left, “that we haven’t been to yet. We passed by a passage with no coins on the way here.”
“Okay fine,” Riyan replied. “Check here and back there, then we call it a day.”
“Agreed,” said Bart. In fact, he was becoming rather tired as well. Sighing he said, “Stay here,” then went to the door. He went forward to do his pack-on-a-rope trick again. But same as the last dozen times, he failed to find anything. Of course he knew that the one time he didn’t do it would be the time he runs afoul of one.
Moving to the door, he grew cautious as he recalled the water behind that previous door he opened that almost killed them. He glanced behind him to tell the others to back away, but they had already done so.
Turning back to the door, he approached and began to notice how there were specks of soot on the door and the surrounding walls. Fire? How would there have been a fire here? Unless the trap somehow dealt with fire?
Then he began examining the walls leading away from the door and saw how they too held evidence that fire once raged through here. The specs of soot finally ended twenty feet away from the door.
“What is it?” asked Riyan. They had been watching him closely examining the walls.
“Soot,” he replied. Glancing down to them he said, “This whole end of the passage shows signs of there having been a fire here.”
“Fire?” asked Chad. “How is that possible?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied.
“Better leave the door alone then,” suggested Riyan. “No sense in risking it.”
But then Bart’s suspicious nature kicked in. What if this area had been treated like this in order to convince a thief not to try the door? After all the other traps a thief would have come across by this time, he would be getting rather paranoid about a stone passage with soot lining the end. He had almost walked away from it himself.
He turned back to Riyan and said, “I’m going to open the door.”
“Are you crazy?” Riyan asked him. “It’s not worth it. We can always come back if there is no other way.”
But Bart was already moving back to the door as he ignored Riyan. He checked the door again and found it locked. The lock was rather complicated, more complicated in fact than most locks he had come across down here. Despite it’s complexity he had it opened in just a few minutes.
After putting the lockpicks away, he took the handle of the door and opened it. The smell of lantern oil hit him a split second before gallons of lantern oil poured through the door and engulfed him.
Kevik was the first to realize what was happening and only his quick reflexes saved Bart from a horrible death. In the blink of an eye, he cast his goo spell and completely encased the lantern where it sat a few feet behind Bart. When the oil hit the lantern, the goo kept it up
right and airtight. Otherwise the burning wick in the lantern would have ignited the lantern oil flowing out of the door into a fireball.
A string of expletives erupted from Bart at his own stupidity. The signs were there, he had just misinterpreted them. Now his clothing was soaked with lantern oil, and the fumes were making him cough.
He turned around and saw the others staring at him. They had backed up quite a bit to avoid coming into contact with the oil. “Don’t say anything,” he said.
Riyan shrugged, “I’m just glad Kevik reacted as fast as he did. I didn’t even realize what was happening before he had already reacted.”
Kevik grinned. “You have to react fast when you’re a magic user. Slow magic users tend not to survive very long.”
Bart nodded. “I see that.” He glanced to the goo coated lantern, the light coming from the burning wick within cast a green pall to the passage as it made its way through the goo. “I think you can get rid of that now,” he told Kevik.
“You sure?” Kevik asked. “Fumes are still present that may be ignited.”
Bart glanced to the lantern and could see the flame was dying out from lack of oxygen anyway. “Fine,” he said. “Wait until the flame dies out.” Bart then heard Riyan groan as Kevik’s bobbing sphere appeared to give them light.
“Isn’t there some other spell you could use?” Riyan asked.
“Sorry,” he replied. “This was the only light spell I’ve learned. At the time I thought having a light like this would be petty neat.”
“Seeing as how you are the only one with a light,” Bart said to Kevik, “how about checking out that room.” He indicated the room from where the oil poured out. “Don’t worry,” he added when he saw Kevik grow nervous, “I’ll come with you.”
“Alright,” Kevik agreed and began walking forward. Riyan and Chad accompanied him.
The oil fumes were very strong and they covered their nose and mouths with cloth to avoid breathing the worst of it. Inside the room, they found that it wasn’t really all that large, merely five feet square and ten feet high. A small round opening in the ceiling must be where they would pour in the lantern oil after resetting the trap.
“Pretty effective,” Bart commented as they left. “Open the door and the oil would be ignited by whatever source of light the thief had on him.”
“Unless he had an annoying bobbing light,” said Riyan dryly.
Bart chuckled.
By this time the flame in the lantern had died out and Kevik dispelled the goo spell. He picked it up and carried it with him as they quickly left the oil coated passage. When they made it back to the junction of passages, they came to a stop.
“I need to get this washed out,” Bart said indicating his oil soaked clothes. “My eyes are beginning to sting from the fumes.”
“What about that last area we have yet to check?” Riyan asked.
“Do it tomorrow,” he said. “There’s no way I can work traps and such as I am now.”
“Alright,” Riyan said. “Back to the surface.” In order to better find the area where they still needed to search, at every junction they came to, he took the coins that had been placed there to mark their passing and formed them into arrows pointing the way back to the unexplored area. That way on their return, they would have only to follow the arrows.
It took them some doing but they finally found the stairs leading back up to the kitchen. “It’s still light out!” exclaimed Chad. “I thought we had been down there longer.”
They went to a nearby window and looked out. From the position of the sun it looked like they still had a couple more hours of daylight left. Leaving the kitchen behind, they quickly made their way back to the hall where they found their horses safe and sound.
Bart went outside and to the small pool where they watered their horses and began to strip. He was quickly naked and used dirt to work the lantern oil out of his clothes. When the others showed up and saw what he was doing, he said, “Better dirty clothes than ones full of lantern oil.”
“But you’ve fouled the water,” complained Kevik. “What are we and the horses supposed to drink now?”
Giving him an irritated look, Bart said, “I’m sure there are other places around here. Go find one.”
“Come on,” Riyan said and then he and the others took the horses in search of water. As they left Bart behind, they heard a splash as he entered the water and began scrubbing the oil out of his hair and off his skin.
Chapter Twenty-Three
_______________________