by KD Sarge
Read previous installments: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
After a time sitting in the dark by the dripping stone, Srivasi sighed and lit his wand again.
“Warn a fellow,” Dasid grumbled. He sat with his head leaned back and his eyes closed. He looked very young and very dirty. No, that wasn’t—well, yes, he was dirty. But his eyes looked bruised from lack of sleep, not dirt. He’d been stuck in that room at least a day before Srivasi dropped in, so he must be hungry too, though he didn’t complain.
Srivasi knew well that at Dasid’s age, he himself would have been a whiny, sniveling mess who probably would have demanded to be carried by the poor adult who found him.
“Your turn for the water,” Dasid murmured. The curved rock was full. Srivasi drank the water and replaced the rock. The drops were coming a little faster now. Srivasi leaned his head back and wondered why Jhi Bo didn’t come.
She was trying, he was sure. She just—had a lot of places to look. And, probably, monsters to fight. She knew many things, but he didn’t think she could read Aduli, or answer a number of other questions he’d seen… Too late, Srivasi knew he should have just stayed in that first room, just pulled up a cushion and waited. She would have come soon…and maybe they’d still be lost and going in circles, but he’d have Jhi Bo with him, and that was worth a lot. Not least because she always had some food on her…but mostly because she’d have her sword, and her marvelous self, and it was so much easier not to feel alone and scared with Jhi Bo there.
It was so much easier with her taking the lead. Just follow Jhi Bo, stay behind the warrior…it was comforting. Srivasi didn’t want to make another mistake, and lead the child and oh, by the way, himself, into a monster’s reach.
Maybe if he waited, she would catch up soon. This corridor seemed safe—well, all of the corridors seemed safe. Nothing happened as long as they didn’t open any doors.
It would be better to wait. To rest, drink more water, maybe sleep…he let the wand dim a little. Then he wriggled, trying to make the stone under his backside a little more comfortable. A yawn overtook him. Srivasi threw his arm over his face to hide it as was polite, but Dasid yawned too. The boy muttered about his britches getting wet and moved to sit on Srivasi’s other side. After a moment he wriggled too and ended a few inches closer.
Srivasi hid his smile. He was no kind of adult to make the boy feel safe, but still he was presumably better than no company at all. He leaned his head back and let the wand fade a little more.
They could rest and wait for Jhi Bo. Going back now wouldn’t help; they might miss her if she’d taken a wrong door. Some of the doors must just lead in circles—like some of the right doors—or she would have found them by now. Unless she had opened a door that held something—Srivasi shook his head. No. Jhi Bo would come.
Beside him, Dasid’s head rolled and landed on his arm. Srivasi yawned, closed his eyes—and the boy let out a bone-shaking snore. Srivasi shook his head, straightened, and reached for his book-bag as air whistled through Dasid’s teeth. Sounded like the boy was a bit stuffed up…the snore came again. Srivasi groped about in his bag until he found the bestiary. Six volumes…natural animals, celestial creatures, elementals, Abyssal inhabitants…he found the answer to the next door, then kept reading because why not?
Eventually Srivasi put his arm over the boy’s shoulders, letting him lean a little more comfortably. The snores quieted as the boy slept at an apparently better angle for breathing. Srivasi closed the book and leaned his head back once more.
A tug, a shift—Srivasi felt the book in his lap move and clutched at it. Mustn’t drop the book, Master Gharis would—
A tiny cheep, a clink—Srivasi opened his eyes on darkness and scuttling noises. And something tugged at the book.
Srivasi snatched it to his chest, grabbed for his wand as he lurched to his feet.
Blinding light, rainbows at the edge of his vision, Dasid swearing behind him—but no book thief. Srivasi lifted the wand higher and squinted and blinked.
Nothing. Walls. Doors. Water glinting on the rock. More glint—Dasid breathed a reverent, “Cor!” as he reached wonderingly for a crystal that lay by the water rock, catching and breaking the light into sparkles.
“Did you do this, Whiskers?” Dasid asked, cradling the crystal in both hands. It nearly filled his palms.
“No. It was probably dropped by the book thief,” Srivasi growled. He snatched up his bag to check it. If he’d lost one book…but here was the rest of the bestiary, and the Fwenye book of tales, and—
“What thief?” Dasid asked. “Why would anyone steal books?” The boy still stared into the crystal, tilting it so it broke the light in crashes of color.
“Why would…steal…book…” Srivasi shook his head. Took a deep breath. The boy didn’t know any better, that was all. If he had any idea the riches that could be found in a book…well, he wouldn’t be so fascinated by a shiny rock, that was all. Srivasi finished his accounting of his sadly attenuated travel library, and the books were all there, in their place. All but the one under his arm, the one with the answer to the last set of doors.
If this spot held book thieves, perhaps it would be better to wait elsewhere? He would remember this time to mark the right door. Srivasi put the book back in its place then walked to the set of doors they hadn’t passed through yet.
“Here, what do you think you’re doing?” Dasid called.
“Don’t worry, I know the answer.”
“Don’t you do it! Don’t you play their game!”
“I just want to look! What if it’s the last door? What if it brings us back where we started, and we find Jhi Bo and Gerda?”
“What if it’s the last door and there’s a dragon on the other side, tired of waiting for his dinner?”
“Come on, it’s much too small for a dragon.”
“Do not do it, Whiskers.”
“Well, we certainly could just sit here until we starve,” Srivasi allowed, coming back. If the boy didn’t want to go on…well, it shouldn’t be that hard to convince him he did. Srivasi thought about sitting next the boy, but that would probably make the aches in his legs worse. “So. How’s the weather down there?”
“Looking sparkly.” The boy tossed the crystal in his hand. “What is it, do you think? Sapphire? Blue diamond—hold on.” Dasid reached out and took Srivasi’s wand arm, pulled the light closer to the crystal. “Look at that! See how the colors chase as the light moves? Blue, pink, gold—what a stunner! How much do you think it’s worth?”
In truth? This was what held his attention? Srivasi looked at the crystal. It was pretty. It caught the light, and broke it into colors, and…it was a shiny rock. “Oh, perhaps enough to buy an inn, and hire an excellent cook,” Srivasi said. “To always have good food and never have to cook…that would be worth a fortune to me. For breakfast I would have sweet rice wrapped in seaweed. For—”
“Rice!” Dasid interrupted. “Seaweed! No, pancakes, and honey, and bacon. Save your fish food for the fish!”
“I’ve had bacon,” Srivasi said. “It is…a strong taste. I liked it, though. What about your breaded catfish?”
“You don’t eat that for breakfast. Who goes fishing before breakfast?”
“Honeycake, then? With clotted cream?”
“Curse you, Whiskers,” Dasid growled, wrapping his arms around his stomach. “Now all I can think about is food!”
“We could try the next door,” Srivasi said. “Perhaps we’ll find mushrooms or something?”
“It’s still not bacon,” Dasid grumbled, but he got up. “Well, come on, friend Whiskers. Maybe we’ll be very lucky and find some butter to fry those mushrooms, too.”
Srivasi marveled at the resilience of youth as he followed the boy. At the door, he tapped it with his wand and spoke a soft word. Dasid’s eyes widened as he watched a dot of ink grow and run into a sigil. Jhi Bo would know it was his sign.
“So, you could have marked our trail all along?” Dasid asked.
Srivasi scowled and yanked the door open.
“Cor!” Dasid said. “Finally!”
Stairs leading down, deeper into the maze, weren’t normally something Srivasi would celebrate, but he understood the urge. Instead of more doors, they’d found stairs. Change had to be good, didn’t it?
“Mushrooms, here I come!” Dasid said, ducking under Srivasi’s arm. “Or maybe another shiny. Do you suppose?”
“Oh, possibly.” And Jhi Bo thought Srivasi was ridiculously optimistic!
The stairs were much different from the other halls. Narrow, the ceiling was lower—and the stairs were shallow. Made for children, maybe?
Yes, because small children would have survived that maze. Srivasi shook his head at his own thoughts.
Dasid whistled softly as he trotted down the steps, stopping when he reached the edge of the light to let Srivasi and his wand catch up. While he waited, he tossed the found gem in the air, catching it again like it was a ball. Bits of color flashed and vanished, flashed and vanished.
Srivasi moved as quickly as hours sleeping on stone would let him. Not because of Dasid’s impatience, but because of his own. This wasn’t fun. It wasn’t interesting. Too many doors, not enough books…
Ahead the stairs turned, looked like. Srivasi could vaguely see a wall, and an opening…maybe it would finally be the way out? Though why the way out should be down here—
Around that corner, light appeared. Dasid didn’t see, tossing and catching the gem. Srivasi hurried down to him but caught his arm before he walked on. The light was moving. And the sound, as if a thousand pebbles striking—
“…what’s that ticking?”
Going back was too far. There was nowhere to hide. Whatever it was—
Around the corner in a wash came a tide of creatures. Short, wide, multi-legged…clawed. Some carried softly glowing rocks in their claws, light that caught on smooth black—armor?—and tossed colors back. Srivasi couldn’t pick out forms to count them, but there were many, and they had all stopped and they had eyes on stalks that were all, every one, focused on Srivasi and Dasid on the stairs.
“Cor…” Dasid breathed.