Chapter 1 Part 5

They followed Ruk down the new tunnel with Avery bringing up the rear. The stocky ranger kept careful watch at their backs. They did not want to have to fight the number of those things that had been clinging to the roof back there.

"Calista was right," Avery said as they walked. "They could have gotten the drop on us, but..."

"I may not be able to spank you," Armegon said irritably, "but I can sure as heck ring your bell. She’s already picking up bad puns without you encouraging her."

"But she’s right." Avery pointed out. "They could have. Unless of course the fall would have hurt them."

"So you think we might’ve stumbled onto their sentries?" Ultrecht asked. "If that’s so I’m sure there’ll be more to meet us when we go back."

"Maybe we won't have to go back the same way," Armegon said hopefully. "Or maybe they are seasonal creatures and are dormant right now."

"I doubt it," Avery said. "For them to be seasonal we’d need seasons. And I haven’t seen any evidence at all to suggest that this realm has any other seasons."

"Then Ultrecht is probably right. There’s going to be a lot more of them waiting when we go back," Ruk said over his shoulder. "Let's hope this light is coming from outside and we won't have to go back."

Ruk led them out onto a balcony. The light was indeed coming from outside. The balcony was built into the slope a great distance up the side of the volcano, and faced the central mountain off in the distance. "Nice view," Ultrecht commented.

Armegon was not listening. He was more interested in the massive structure that occupied the center of the balcony. It consisted of a large meter high tetrahedron composed of some crystalline material on a smooth, black cylindrical pedestal. Above the structure on the ceiling was a highly polished circular mirror slightly off to the rear and angled to face the object. The onyx base was perfectly round except for a similar mirror affixed to the side facing the open balcony.

"Ultrecht," Armegon called the mage's attention to the contraption. "Have you ever seen the likes of this?"

Ultrecht examined it for several long moments. He walked all the way around it and then tapped lightly at the material with a finger. "It would appear to be a mechanism of some kind, possibly for prismatic magic shunting."

Ruk stepped back alarmingly. "It's a magic item? Is it active?"

"No," the human mage assured him, "it’s quite dormant. In fact I can’t sense any residue of magic at all. I’d say that either it’s never been used, or it’s been a very long time since it was used last."

"What would it take to crank this thing up and see what it can do?" Ruk asked.

"Ignorance," Armegon answered. "Only a fool activates a magical item he knows nothing about."

Avery leaned over to Ruk. "He isn't saying that you are a fool," Avery corrected. "He is just urging caution for now, but in an hour he will be itching to do the same thing himself whether we know more about it or not."

"Where is Calista?" Ultrecht asked as he searched the room.

"Over here," the young woman said. She appeared suddenly from thin air. "There’s an old tapestry here the same color as the walls. If I step behind it, it looks as if I disappear. Isn't that neat?"

"Don't scare me like that," Ultrecht said irritably. "What else have you found?"
Calista held forth another crystal. This one was much smaller; it was about the size of her fist. The new crystal was a rosy pink colored octahedron It looked like two small pyramids stuck bottom to bottom. "I found this and a drawing."

"Drawing?" Avery asked.

Calista pushed aside the tapestry. Ages of layered dust fell to the ground at her touch and created a thick gray cloud. For several long moments, vision was totally obscured and breathing was almost impossible. When the cloud dispersed out the balcony opening, things cleared and everyone recovered.

"Cal," Armegon said slowly through gritted teeth. "Please don't do that again." The girl shrugged sheepishly.

Ultrecht took the crystal and examined it while Avery studied the drawing on the wall. "I think this might be important," the ranger said after a moment. Ultrecht passed the crystal back to its finder and joined Armegon and Avery at the wall.

The drawing was roughly a map of the world as near as they could make out, though its accuracy was undetermined, the general directions and approximate distances did agree with the map Avery had constructed at the village. The map seemed to concentrate on five separate locations leaving the rest of the world obscure. Fortunately two of the places were places they had seen.

"According to this drawing, this volcano is this point," Avery said pointing to an area to the left side of the drawing. "In the center where this diamond shape is located is where that mountain we arrived in is located."

"That appears to be a drawing of a three dimensional object," Ultrecht said as he bent closer. "It appears to be a ten sided solid--a horizontal pentagon with five triangular faces converging to a point above and five below."

Armegon also inspected the drawing. "There is a similar sketching here at the volcano," he announced. "It is a tetrahedron." He glanced over his shoulder at the mechanism in the center of the balcony. "Whoever created this region was obsessed with geometry and crystals."

"And with prismatic magic," Ultrecht added. "I’d even say that the builder knew far more than I ever dreamed was possible."

"I think," Armegon continued, "that he concentrated on it to a fault, though."

"Right," Ultrecht agreed. "He concentrated so heavily on it that he effectively cut himself off from the rest of magic. Prismatics are a strong magic type, but as we’ve seen the exclusion of other magical types severely weakened the magical flux in this realm."

"What are they taking about?" Calista asked Avery. Ruk also looked confused.

"They are just rattling on," Avery said. "It’s not important. You've seen them do it before," he reminded her. He did not feel like trying to explain the laws of magic to Ruk and Calista. Let Ultrecht or Armegon do that some other time.

Calista stepped near the edge of the balcony and gazed at the crystal she found. It was very pretty in the light. She decided to keep it and slipped it into her pocket.

Back at the drawing, Armegon was looking at another area near the top of the map. This time the map showed a flat rolling land form with a giant cliff. There were tiny pictures of icicles and a drawing of a cube.

On the far right of the map showed a similar drawing of overlapping hills and a palm tree. "Desert," Ultrecht offered. There was another rock face and the sketch next to it was that of a pentagon within an inverted pentagon.

Near the bottom of the drawing was another structure rising up from a thick growth of trees. The sketch at this place was a triangle within an inverted triangle. "This is fantastic," Armegon murmured. "It’s obviously important, but I can’t make out what it’s trying to say."

"Make a copy of it and let's move on," Ultrecht advised. "I can't think of any reason to stay here."

Ruk was peering back down the tunnel they had come up. "I can," he replied. No one argued with him.

"Unless someone can figure out another way out of here," Avery said putting words to thoughts they were all thinking, "then we’re going to have to try to run that gauntlet."

"That’s a thought that I’d rather not think about," Armegon muttered, "but he’s right. We don’t have much choice."

"How do we keep them at bay?" Ruk asked. "We know they aren't afraid of light. They attacked Armegon and me readily enough."

"They seemed to avoid Ultrecht and Calista," Armegon recalled. "I wonder why?"

"Now that you mention it," Ruk agreed. "After Ultrecht made his appearance, they ceased their activity altogether. I’m sure they were awakened by the activity if not by the light."

"Maybe that’s the answer?" Avery snapped his fingers. "The difference is the light."

"But, we had light as well," Ruk pointed out.

"But it was dropped and then almost went out," Avery corrected. "Also many forms of life that dwell in deep waters or underground generate their own light chemically. It is called cold light. The predators of those realms often attack such light. That may be what happened back there. But Ultrecht was carrying fire. All creatures know what fire is and most unintelligent ones fear it greatly."

"I see what you are getting at," Calista said. "Then all we have to do is light five torches and each one of us carry a torch."

"It could be just that simple," Armegon smiled. "Yes, I think that could be it, because the attack didn’t come until I dropped the torch."

Half an hour later, they had constructed five torches. Ultrecht had laced the pyres with a substance containing powdered magnesium. He claimed that it would make the torches burn hotter and brighter. "If nothing else, they’ll give us plenty of light and make decent weapons as well."

Each person took a torch, and they followed Ruk back into the tunnel. The big warrior carried his huge ax in one hand and the unlit special torch in the other. Behind him, Armegon carried his special torch and a normal one lighted.

When they got near the chamber, Ruk held his special torch back and Armegon lit it. The torch flared brightly and Ruk stepped back into the maze. Armegon passed the normal torch back after lighting his own special torch and followed Ruk. The others did likewise.

Like a collection of bright stars, the five torches burned for several long moments. Then as the chemical additive wore out, they settled down to normal burning. The creatures of the cavern gave them plenty of room. It seemed that Avery's deduction was correct.

Though they were attracted to the light, they greatly feared the fire. And though the way back was not any longer, the suspense made the trip seem to take more time than it had the first time around.

Soon, however, they were back in the dusty corridor. They again donned the face cloths to filter their air. Ruk kept the pace slowly so as not to stir up enough dust to choke the torches out. It took some time, but soon enough they were back in the round room. The stairs leading down that had been their original entrance and the stairs leading upwards into the unknown were the only directions they could choose from.

Since we know from whence we came," Armegon suggested. "I recommend upwards."

"Do you reckon this is trapped?" Avery asked Ruk as he knelt at the foot of the upwards leading stairs.

The minotaan studied it closely for several moments himself. "Possibly," he agreed. But if it is, it’s a trap beyond my understanding." He pounded on the lower step with a massive steel encased fist. It shook slightly but otherwise held firm. "No," he decided. "I don't think so. The trap we saw on the other steps was relatively simplistic and primitive. It’d be inconsistent to think that they would use such a shoddy trap down there if they had the means to make something advanced. Since I can't find anything here, I’d venture to guess that there’s nothing to find."

"Unless the other trap is there to make us reason that exact conclusion," Ultrecht suggested.

"Please!," Armegon said exasperatedly. "Let's not start second guessing ourselves now."

Ruk shrugged. "There’s one way to find out then," he said and he started up the stairs.

"He's right," Avery agreed and followed.

The others followed as well, but to be safe, they spaced themselves by about five to ten steps each. That way if one tripped a trap, the others had time to react.

Armegon was actually surprised when they reached the top of the stairs uneventfully. Since he was bringing up the rear, he had paid a lot of attention of what was behind them, for security's sake. He was, therefore, totally unprepared for the sight that greeted him when he stepped out on the upper landing.

There before them was the core of the volcano. In its center was the largest crystal of quartz that anyone had ever seen. The thing was hundreds of meters tall, or deep was perhaps a better word since they were near the top looking down. The ledge they were on circled the core of the volcano and was wide enough to allow them to walk two or three abreast. That was not their first action though, as the sheer size of the crystal before them demanded their attention. It took several long minutes before they began to address the rest of their surroundings.

The walkway curled around the crystal and at one point the wall of the cave gave way to a recessed alcove. There was a pedestal there and a tiny ring about six inches in diameter with four spokes angled upwards and inwards as if pointing to an invisible junction above the center of the small ring. Embedded in the center of the pedestal at the center of the ring was a small gray disk.

"Now this is interesting," Ultrecht said. "It is pretty obvious that something is missing from this pedestal, but what?"

"A crystal ball?" Avery asked humorously.

"Hey," Armegon interrupted as he joined them. "Did you see that torus?"

"A what?" Calista asked.

"A ring," Avery answered.

"What torus?" Ultrecht ignored the ranger and girl.

"The torus near the base of that crystal." Armegon jerked a thumb over his shoulder indicating the monolithic crystal in the volcano's core.

Ultrecht peered over the side of the ledge. Down near the bottom was a brightly yellow colored ring easily a hundred feet in diameter, just a little larger than the diameter of the crystal itself. Ultrecht glanced back at Armegon. "Gold?"

"That’s what I would guess,"" Armegon agreed. "Only gold could hold its luster out in the open for this long."

"I wonder what it’s for?" Ultrecht murmured aloud. He turned around to say something else, when his eyes suddenly grew wide. Armegon too spun and was shocked at what he saw.

Standing at the pedestal in the alcove, Calista had been fiddling with the small ring and the supports. She had taken Avery's joke of a crystal ball literally and had recalled the small crystal she had found in the other room. She took it from her pocket and held it above the structure. It appeared as if they were made for each other.

"Cal! Don't!!"

It was too late. Even as Avery, who had been turned away to speak to Ruk, turned and dove towards the pedestal, Calista's hand descended. Even as Armegon's shout rang across the ledge, and Calista tried to halt her action, it was too late. The octahedral crystal fell neatly into place and as the antapex touched the gray disk beneath it, there was a deep sigh emitted from the very rock around them. There was a moment of silence and everyone froze where he was. No one dared to move.

Slowly a moan rose from below hearing ability and the ledge grew brighter. A popping sound and a sizzle erupted from the depths of the core. Armegon and Ultrecht both looked over the ledge and grew afraid. Huge bolts of lightning arched back and forth from the core crystal to the gold ring. The crystal itself began to glow slightly and the radiance continued to build. The buzzing rose to a deep hum that grew in volume. Quickly things were escalating out of control.

Armegon made a brilliant suggestion. "Let's get out of here!!"

With torch in hand, they followed Ruk back down the stairs. So fast did they descend, that no one paused when they returned to the landing. Ruk spared the side tunnel a quick glance only as he continued downward.

On, on they ran until they once again reached the bottom. Ruk did not even wait to get to the bottom of the steps. As soon as he was close enough to jump to the floor, he leaped over the side of the steps and darted back up the lava tube. Armegon, Calista, and Ultrecht were hot on his heels. Avery paused only long enough to retrieve his rope from the foot of the stairs. He reasoned that they could live without the spikes.

When they emerged from the base of the volcano, Ganatar, the unicorn was waiting. "What did you do?"

All eyes turned to Calista. "If I told you once," Armegon began, then reconsidered. "Never mind."

"I think some kind of mechanism was activated," Ultrecht said.

"I'll say," Ruk was staring into the sky.

The others gazed upwards as well. Barely visible was the balcony they had first discovered. Now that they knew it was there, it was not so difficult to see. What was really interesting, however was a fantastically bright crimson beam that arched out of the balcony and stretched across the sky. From where they stood, they could not see where it went, but Avery mentioned that it was pointing in the general direction as the central mountain.

"I think that that was exactly what we were supposed to do," Ultrecht said in awe. "An ether pump?"

"What?" Ruk asked.

"I think that gizmo is, for lack of better description, pumping magic into the realm," Ultrecht explained.

Armegon picked up his pack. "Then if that’s true, we should not have any problem getting back across the lake."