Chapter 7 Part 6

The silvery stairway gave off enough light for the five curious occupants to see that there were stone walls on both sides and behind them. The staircase was wide enough for them to walk, two abreast, but it would not allow much room otherwise. They instead descended single file. They descended about two hundred meters by Ruk's estimate, when they came to another gate that swung open as they approached.

Suspiciously they passed through and found themselves in a small stone room. The room was bare except for a design engraved in the floor. As they took in the rest of the room, the gate through which they had entered was not to be found. There was, however a door on one wall. Ruk confidently walked up to it and pulled on the handle. The door opened to reveal a large chamber beyond.

"You should be a little more careful," Ultrecht said to the minotaan as he passed through the doorway. "There could have been a trap on that door."

Ruk winked back and Ultrecht lifted a single eyebrow in surprise. Ruk was notifying him of skills not publicly known. Ultrecht nodded slightly. As a sailor, Ruk had probably done many things he would rather not talk about. Ultrecht respected the minotaan's privacy. No one would hear of it from his lips.

The chamber in which they stood was very large. For all practical purposes it appeared to be a hollowed out mountain. The ceiling was so far above their heads, that clouds could be seen drifting about in the room. And yet as high as the ceiling was, the room was not very wide. It took only a little over a minute and a half to walk to the other side.

Near the center of the room, was a monstrous diamond. The thing was as large as a man's head. Ultrecht was practically drooling with greed. The value of the stone was beyond imagination.

Ultrecht put his arms around the jewel. "It's mine! Do you hear?!" he screamed at the others, "mine, mine all mine!!"

Had it not been for Armegon and Avery breaking into a fit of laughter, Calista would have thought Ultrecht had gone insane.

"I wish we could take this back," Armegon sighed. "It’d put an end to any financial problems."

"I don't think we want to," Avery said as he backed away. "The gem seems to be a part of the design on the floor."

Armegon joined the ranger. "It does," he agreed. "Let's try to get a better vantage point on this." Armegon spied a ramp that formed a helix up the side of the chamber. He walked up a few dozen meters and looked back down. The stone was the center point of a large four armed spiral that radiated outward. The arms moved about and around the chamber and disappeared into four small alcoves set in each wall.

"That’s really a shame," Ultrecht said as he caressed the faceted gem. "I can think of many things to do with this."

Avery followed one of the spirals to an alcove in the wall.. Sticking his head inside, he looked upwards. "There’s a shaft," he reported, "that goes straight up. I’m not sure how far, but there’s a shiny object at the far end. Also there’s a small tripod in the alcove. It may be a brazier of some kind. This could be a ceremonial chamber."

"I can see that," Armegon said from his perch above them. "The alcoves hold a burning light source and the shafts are chimneys. The shiny thing is probably a damper."

"We could climb further up and find out," Ruk suggested.

"Anything’s better than just waiting around," Calista remarked impatiently.

"Now, now," Ultrecht nagged playfully, "we can't afford to overlook something useful. We can't go on until we’ve checked everything here out."

Calista accepted his advice. From what she knew of her companions, Ultrecht, Avery, and Armegon had been doing this kind of stuff for decades. "I just want to help Sam," she apologized.

"We all do, dear," Ultrecht replied.

"Avery," Armegon yelled down. "We need a point of reference."

The ranger waved and then slowly turned around. He paused several times and frowned. "I can't get a direction," he complained. "Cal," he approached the girl. "Let me borrow a shallow cup of water."

"A compass?" Ruk asked. Sailors and rangers were both professions that depended on navigation and orientation.

"Right," Avery replied as he took the cup Calista offered him. Again he pulled the needle from the hem of his sleeve, and unstopped a wine flask. He passed the flask to Ultrecht who lightened its weight somewhat. Avery shoved the needle gently through the cork and then carefully placed the cork in the center of the filled cup. The cork spun slowly for several long moments. When it finally stopped, Avery nudged it with his finger. It spun again for a few more moments until once again it stopped.

"I was afraid of that," he announced.

"What is it?" Armegon said as he walked up.

"There is no magnetic field here to get a directional fix." Avery replied.

Ruk had an alternative. "There’re still stars and the suns. We can get directions from that."

"I agree," Avery said, "but, that doesn’t help us inside a structure like this."

"Then we’ll have to do without," Armegon said. "We've marked passages before. I'm not too proud to do it again."

"Mark passages?" Calista asked Ultrecht.

In answer, Ultrecht took a piece of chalk from a pouch. "We mark numbers on the walls as we go. It allows us to keep track of when and where we have been."

"There’s obviously only one exit from this chamber," Ruk said looking up at the helical ramp. "Since we know where that door leads," he gestured at the door to the small room they had arrived in, "I suggest we start climbing."

There were no objections. Avery led the way to the base of the ramp. Ultrecht reached out with his chalk and wrote the number one on the wall. He nodded to Avery and the ranger led them upwards away from the floor.

The ramp seemed to be cut into the sides of the chamber walls. With each complete circle, the chamber would get a little wider. Soon they were high enough to see the entire pattern of lines on the floor surrounding the diamond. Calista remarked how the walkway seemed to be a part of the pattern itself as they got higher and higher. Armegon commended her on this observation by saying that she was absolutely right and that her discovery could be an important part in solving the puzzle of the chamber's purpose.

They had climbed quite a distance when they came to a side passage. An alcove with a set of closed double doors was framed by two pillars and an arch. Avery halted their passage. "Do we check this out or continue on?"

"Can’t afford to not check it out," Armegon asked rhetorically.

Ruk handed Avery his ax. The minotaan inspected the door critically.

Avery eyed the action suspiciously and Ultrecht whispered in his ear. "Ruk used to work for a locksmith." This seemed to satisfy the ranger who was notoriously against the thieving profession. There had been many occasion when a partner's moonlight activities had been explained away somehow.

Ultrecht was not sure Avery believed him all the time, but the ranger never called him out on the matter. It was Ultrecht and Armegon's belief that Avery would tolerate the presence of a thief so long as the practice of theft was avoided. After all, he had associated with Keeneye who was an admitted ex-thief.

Ruk momentarily announced that the door was neither trapped nor was it locked. He then opened the latch and pulled the door open. It swung outwards with a squeak of disuse. Its mate drifted open slightly, and Ruk reached out and gave it a shove as well.

Revealed behind the doors was a small stone room similar to the one they had arrived in. The exception was that this room was not bare. In the center of the room was a round raised dais. Markings on the floor were of concentric circles radiating outward from the dais. There were also many small neatly cut holes in the floor. The holes were about two feet deep, and three to four inches in diameter. There were four holes in all in the circles, and a fifth in the center of the dais.

Against one wall was a pair of large chests. Ruk immediately announced that the chests were locked. He added that they might also be trapped but he could not be sure.
Ultrecht inspected the chests and confirmed that there was indeed a trap on them, but that it was a mechanical alarm triggered from inside. He and Armegon conferred for a few moments while Avery and Calista inspected the dais.

Armegon announced that they could learn what was inside the chest without disturbing the lock or the alarm, but that he would need a few moments to prepare.

In the meantime, Avery and Calista had discovered that the dais was made of silver, but that it had been painted to hide that fact. Avery pointed out some chips in the paint that revealed the valuable substance beneath. With a long dirk, he scraped along the inside of the hole in the center to see how deep the silver ran. The whole disk seemed to be solid. They estimated at least two tons of silver. "This place is loaded with value," Calista commented admirably.

There was a noise at her back. Alarmed she turned around. Armegon was siting on the floor with his legs folded. He held a small thin dagger and was boreing a hole in the side of the chest.

He slowly put two holes in the side of the chest carefully making sure not to penetrate too deeply inside. Then he carefully peeped inside and began to describe what he saw. "This," he said as they all gathered around, "is what’s inside. There are four shiny cones. Silver by the look of them," he said. "They’re about a foot or so high at the apex."

He then repeated the process for the second chest. This time a glass rod about five feet in length lay nestled in a velvet interior. The rod was topped with a black orb of some unknown material. "I’d guess," Avery suggested, "that that’s one of the rods that fits into one of these holes in the floor. Probably the one in the dais."

Their curiosity sated, they filed out of the room. Ruk closed the door behind him. They had decided not to disturb the room. Not only did they not know what it was used for, but they likewise had no place to carry any of the valuables they had discovered had they wanted to. Ultrecht simply stated that silver was too cumbersome for its value, and to get at the rod, would require breaking the seal on the chest. If they did so, even if they could bypass the alarm, it would be proof positive of their presence, and it could very well make them some bitter enemies as well.

The ramp continued upwards for several more hours. Ultrecht had began by writing a number each complete time around the perimeter of the chamber, but as his chalk was getting used up, as were a good deal of numbers, he had recently ceased his markings. Armegon had suggested only making marks at passages or doors, but since the room with the dais, they had found none. The only thing of any interest that could be seen as they approached the cloud layers was a series of windows.

The humid air was drifting in from outside through the open windows. They paused at the first set, a row of seven openings, to get their first view of the outside. The haze made visibility poor, but they could see enough to tell that they were fairly high up and that they were not far from the top. A grill iron bars prevented an external view, but it appeared as if there was a similar walkway on the exterior as well.

The cloud bank drifting through the window prevented them from seeing anything farther than twenty paces or so. That being the case, they did not waste any time, but continued on their upward voyage.

It was rather abruptly when they climbed above the clouds to find that they were less than a hundred feet from the top of the chasm. They hurried the rest of the way and found themselves on a large platform that made a left turn into the rock. The trail led into a recess and within the tunnel was a large gate. Again the writing was incomprehensible, but the decorative sculpting was that of a unicorn in chains.

"This must be the place," Armegon said morbidly as Ruk inspected the gate for safety's sake. After a moment, the minotaan reached out and pushed the gate open. The heavy door swung slowly open to reveal the outside world as seen from above the clouds. The sky was not very bright, and instead of the expected blue, it was a milky unblemished white.

"Overcast?" Avery asked to himself.

"I don't think so," Armegon said gazing up into the sky. "I think that’s the natural color of the sky."

They stood on a ledge that was about five meters wide, and seemed to circle the entire peak. The rock was very smooth, and Ultrecht commented that it was almost as if the whole mountain had been carved from a larger one. Avery wandered off on one direction while the others took in the sight. The peak of the mountain was about another hundred meters or so above them, but the ledge could be easily traveled upon.

Leaving Calista with Ultrecht and Armegon, Ruk followed the ranger as they explored the ledge. Calista watched the two go as Armegon and Ultrecht were discussing the color of the sky. Once again they were talking about things she herself did not understand. She was getting a little peeved about that. She was going to have to ask them to start explaining those things to her so that she could take part in the discussions.

She listened to them as they stood near the edge. The mages were going on about something called nitrogen and oxygen and the colors of those things. She was completely startled when Avery tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped inwardly and spun about. Calista proceeded to educate the ranger on the lack of manners sneaking up on someone displayed. She did so at the top of her lungs.

Avery simply stood there and let her vent her anger. Of course, she was anxious. Sam meant more to her than just about anyone else. When she calmed down, she grew aware of the looks she was getting from the others and apologized sheepishly.

Avery just patted her on the cheek. "That's okay," he said. "No one would’ve expected Ruk and I to come from that direction. You had every right to be startled."

He was right. They had snuck up from behind. Apparently they had completely circumnavigated the mountain face, and in just a matter of moments.

Avery reported his findings. Just as Calista had expected, the ledge did go completely around the mountain. He also noted that there was no sign of a sun in the sky nor could he find a trace of shadows anywhere. It is almost as if the sky is like a luminous source. The light is uniform from all directions. "The only shadows’re those beneath our feet," he said.

Avery, with Ruk's aid, also reported that they had noticed four openings in the side of the mountains all on opposite sides. He told them that he had climbed up to one of the openings and found that it was the top of the air shaft that they had seen earlier at the bottom of the chamber. When Armegon mentioned the shiny object, Avery told him that it was a large round mirror set at an angle in at the top of the shaft. He told them that the mirror was aimed at a volcano off in the distance. He also said that the other openings seemed to be pointed at other structures off in the distance.

"We do seem to be presented with a puzzle," Armegon said. "I don't think those shafts are chimneys anymore. No matter what we thought at first, no one would be likely to put a mirror in a chimney flue."

"You're probably right," Ultrecht said. "So what do you think they are?"

"Skylights?" Armegon asked. "I really don't want to speculate."

"You can discuss the uses of the mirrors and air shafts at a later date," Ruk said. "There will be plenty of time as we travel."

"Ruk's right," Avery said. "We need to decide what to do."
"Well we know we need to find the unicorn," Calista said. "I suggest we start on that since it’s a definite goal."

They all looked at one another. "She’s absolutely right," Avery said. "Let's get to the bottom of this mountain and see what the world looks like beneath those clouds. There’s a descending ramp around the edge of the mountain over there." He and Ruk headed off in the direction he had mentioned and the other followed.

They descended the mountain via the helical ramp on the outside just as they had ascended via the ramp on the inside. When they emerged beneath the clouds, they were greeted to a vision of stunning beauty.

"Amazing," Armegon said flabbergasted.

"Incredible," Ultrecht agreed.

"Am I going crazy, or is that frozen tundra?" Avery asked.

"That," Ruk said, "is tundra, and over there is a jungle." Ruk pointed off to the left.

"And over there," Calista said pointing to the right, "looks like sand dunes."

"Look how radical the changes are," Avery exclaimed. "I looks like someone cut two different paintings in half and stuck opposite parts together."

"That’s without a doubt the weirdest thing I’ve seen in a long long time," Armegon said.

"As old as you are," Ultrecht said with a chuckle, "that’s saying a lot."

Armegon smirked. "Don't fall off the cliff, Ultrecht."

"Would you believe," Ruk said as he came walking back towards them from the bend ahead, "that there’s an ocean on the other side?"

"Well let's not just stand about gaping at the scenery," Calista said. "Let's get going."
They all resumed their downward trek.

"Y'know," Armegon muttered as he walked at Ultrecht's side, "she's getting kind of bossy."

When they reached the bottom, they found that they were on a plain. Armegon commented that it was very odd for there to be a mountain jutting up in the middle of prairie lands like this. Avery responded by reminding him that so far, nothing about this world seemed normal.

"So where do we go from here," Armegon said.

"Well, with no directional references, we’ll have to use line of sight landmarks to map our way around," Avery said. "We’ll have to keep a map and record distances between landmarks."

"Are you going to use this mountain as a central point?" Armegon asked as he rummaged through Ultrecht's pack for paper and pencil.

"I think that would be best," Avery said. "Unless all mountains we come across are solitary and made like this one, we shouldn’t have any trouble distinguishing it."

"I don't think we’re going to run across too many more like this one," Ultrecht said, "even in this crazy place."

"Fine," Armegon said. "Okay, where to first?"

Avery pointed off in the direction of the ocean. "There seems to be several leagues of land between here and the water. I think I saw a smoke plume up the shore a little bit. Let's make for that. If we can find a dwelling, we can get information."

"That sounds good to me," Ruk said as he hefted his ax. "Let's go."