Shard Knight (Echoes Across Time Book 1) (20 page)

“Let it go already. You sound like an old woman.” Keely stood and brushed the snow from her leather leggings. “We’re alive aren’t we? I’ve had closer calls tree jumping back in the Heartwood.”

Danielle took a deep breath, and the anger ebbed. The team needed her to keep a level head. “These mountain storms pass through fast. It won’t delay us long. Let’s get some rest.”

Alana investigated the rear of the small cave. “Did anybody notice the engraved border etched around the entrance? I couldn’t make out any detail.”

“I’ve traveled through the Trinity Range a half dozen times, but I’ve never seen this cave before. It’s always covered with snow,” Arber said. “I saw the etchings, but I couldn’t read them either.”

Danielle scanned the small cave. “Is it just me, or does this place feel odd? It’s like someone went out of the way to make this cave appear natural. It’s too round.”

Brendyn snorted. “It’s a cave for God’s sake. There’s no grand mystery. I’m just glad it’s here.”

“I agree with Danielle,” Maura said. She ran her hand along the rough surface of the cave wall. “It does feel odd. Besides, that engraved border wouldn’t exist in an ordinary cave.”

“It’s a conspiracy.” Brendyn said in a mocking tone. “We stumbled on an ancient secret.” He shook his head, slouched against the cave wall, and sunk to the floor. “I’m going to get some rest while you play investigator.” He folded his arms and closed his eyes.

“This looks strange.” Arber pointed to a dark crack near the rocky floor.

A long thin crevice ran eighteen inches across the rear wall of the cave.

Danielle knelt and inspected it. “It’s a near perfect straight line. It looks man-made.” She lowered her palm within an inch of the space. “I feel air. Warm air.”

Brendyn cracked open an eyelid and stared at the group. His feigned attempt at sleep fooled nobody.

Alana rushed over and knelt next to Danielle. “She’s right!”

Danielle scanned the cave wall. “I don’t see any other cracks.”

“I know one way to track the source of that airflow,” Keely shifted into a tiny white mouse and scurried away disappearing into the crack.

“Well that was stupid,” Brendyn said. “Why can’t we wait here until this bloody storm passes?”

“I thought you were asleep?” Alana said. “Aren’t you the least bit curious?”

Arber shifted into a snake. “I’m not letting her go in there alone.” He slithered forward disappearing under the wall.

Sweat trickled along Danielle’s spine, and she removed the moss coat allowing the crisp air to cool her body. “I agree with Brendyn. If they don’t come back, we’re stranded.” She lowered herself to the cave floor and pressed her lips to the crack. “Arber and Keely come back!”

Heavy silence filled the cave as the group waited for a reply that didn’t come.

“Look!” Alana pointed to the dark crack in the cave wall.

Hairline cracks streaked the wall where the gap started, and the rumbling sound of rock scraping rock echoed through the cave. Pieces of sharp rock crumbled and fell from the deepening cracks crisscrossing the wall.

Danielle leapt to her feet and readied her staff in a defensive position. Thorn covered vines and branches twisted around her into a suit of living armor.

Dust clouds billowed around the team while Brendyn and Maura readied their armor and staffs.

Alana shifted into a snow leopard and sat back on her haunches prepared to strike.

The hairline cracks widened into large gaps forming the outline of a door.

Danielle scattered seeds in front of the door and extended her arm. A green aura surrounded her hand as she held it out palm facing downward. “Arber! Keely! Can you hear me?”

The scraping sound stopped, and the dust settled revealing a stone door swinging inward away from the team. Alana roared, and the cave amplified the bone chilling sound.

The hair on Danielle’s neck stood on end, and hard goosebumps raised on her flesh.

The door stopped moving and Keely, in her human form, jumped backward and shrieked when she saw the team ready to strike. “Hey! It’s me!” She held out her arms in a defensive posture. “I told you I’d be right back. Are you trying to kill me?”

Arber towered behind her. “The room’s clear.”

Tension drained from Danielle. She relaxed, lowered her staff, and released her power. “Keely you can’t go running off like that!”

Keely ignored the rebuff. “You guys have gotta see this. Let’s go!” She waved the group into a pitch black room where the smell of dank, musty, stale air drifted through the doorway.

Pitch blackness showed nothing of the room’s interior. While the guardians could improve eyesight in animal form, wardens couldn’t see through the darkness without normal light.

Danielle sent power into her staff. An orb of bright green light blossomed at its tip cutting the surrounding darkness, but left a large swath of the room layered in murky shadows.

The light from the heartwood staff showed a smooth man-made stone floor beneath the team’s feet.

“Maura and Brendyn, can you help light the room?” Danielle forced more energy into her staff increasing its brightness.

Maura and Brendyn complied sending energy into their staffs bathing the room in green luminescence.

The square room, now awash in flickering green light, revealed a dozen lumpy mounds of human bones scattered in a random pattern around a large square room. The strange engravings that marked the cave entrance appeared on every square inch of wall space.

Danielle gasped, and her eyes scoured the room for anything moving.

Arber knelt before a pile of bones nearest the group. “These are human remains, and he wore steel armor.” Arber picked up a sword. “The blade is still razor sharp.”

“What’re these warriors doing halfway up a mountain entombed in a forgotten room? It doesn’t make sense.” Alana said.

“Punishment?” Maura said.

“I think they were guards,” Arber said.

“Whatever they protected, they died to keep it safe,” Brendyn said.

Keely knelt examining the sword then pointed toward the room’s center. “What’s that dark hole?”

Danielle zigzagged past grisly skeletal remains and stopped at the edge of a short stairway.

The stairway descended to an odd shrine lining a shallow pit. Centered in the shrine, a raised lectern stood. Atop it, an ancient book sat closed covered with a thick layer of dust.

The group stood frozen staring at the thick book from atop the stairway.

“There lies the item worth the lives of a dozen souls,” Brendyn said.

“I think we should leave it alone,” Maura said.

“I agree,” Brendyn said.

“But, aren’t you the least bit curious?” Alana said.

“Let’s run through the checklist shall we?” Brendyn held up his index finger. “We’re halfway up a remote mountain trapped in a hidden cave by a raging blizzard.” He held up two fingers. “In this hidden cave we found and opened a secret door meant to remained sealed and undiscovered.” He held up three fingers. “In the hidden room, an ancient book sits alone untouched for hundreds of years where a dozen people died protecting it. Call me a little paranoid, but I’ll heed these warning signs.”

“I can’t believe I’m about to utter these words, but I agree with Brendyn. I love adventure, but that book and this room give me the chills,” Keely said.

“The knowledge contained in that book could save lives,” Danielle said. “We should take a look. We don’t need to take it with us.”

The group waited for Arber’s opinion. He stood lost in contemplation staring at the book with a furrowed brow. “These dead soldiers.” He motioned around the room. “Their armor and weapons don’t look Ayralen. Even ancient Ayralens never wore steel like that. These people were Meranthian soldiers. Why would Meranthian soldiers die to keep this book hidden?”

“If a Meranthian is keeping secrets, there’s good odds it’s information we could use,” Brendyn said.

Arber nodded. “I think we should see what’s in the book.”

“I change my vote. I agree with Arber,” Brendyn said.

The team awaited Danielle’s decision. As the expedition leader, she made the final call.

Danielle let out a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s take a look.” She descended the short stairway and stood before the lectern.

The crew remained in place keeping a safe distance from the shrine, lectern, and book.

“Be careful Danielle. The book could crumble to dust when you open the cover,” Alana said.

Danielle leaned over the thick book and blew away a thick layer of caked-on dust. “I can’t decipher the book’s title, but the lettering looks like the same language etched on the walls.”

“It’s not a language I’ve ever seen, but I’m no scholar,” Arber said

Danielle ran her fingertips along the smooth worn cover. “The cover looks wooden, but it’s a grain I’ve never seen.”

“What do you mean? Let me take a look,” Brendyn said. He descended the steps and examined the cover. “That’s odd. I’ve never seen this species of wood either.”

“It must’ve gone extinct at some point,” Maura said.

“Just like the language filling the book,” Brendyn said.

“There’s one way to be sure,” Danielle held her breath and peeled the cover open.

Danielle gasped, and her eyes widened in shock. “There’s a drawing covering the first page.” She couldn’t stop her voice from quivering.

Brendyn shook his head as the color drained from his face. “This shouldn’t exist.”

“What do you see Danielle?” Arber said.

Danielle’s heart hammered. The drawing changed thousands of years of Ayralen history. “It’s a picture of Lora. She’s holding hands with Elan and smiling at him. They’re touching a large glowing orb. He’s leaning in to kiss her.”

Loud gasps preceded stunned silence from the assembled team.

Meranthians considered Lora a heathen at best and fictitious at worst. Merric Pride labeled Ayralen shard magic a myth, and the Ayralen assembly preferred it that way. The Assembly had long believed that once Meranthia discovered the full extent of Ayralen shard magic, their king would declare Ayralen a threat to Meranthian sovereignty and invade the Heartwood. Like most Meranthian monarchs, Ayralens believed Merric Pride feared recognizing shard magic outside that granted by Elan. Doing so would cast doubt on Elan’s divinity.

Schools across the Heartwood taught a far different story about Lora and Elan. Ayralens never viewed Lora as a God. They recognized her role as the Ayralen matriarch, and she joined the people of the Heartwood under a united assembly. Lora died as the last Ayralen to understand nature magic and could control its flows. That knowledge disappeared with Elan and Lora’s death.

Ayralens believed Elan lived during Lora’s time as her equal and had enslaved thousands through brute force. He preached hatred, intolerance, and taught that peace came through domination and control. They held him responsible for the end of magic’s limitless reign among humanity. Elan’s tyrannical thirst for power caused the shattering of the orbs controlling the flows of magic in Meranthia and Ayralen. Elan’s contemporaries had created a fictitious religion propping up his stature among Meranthian descendants.

Danielle jerked her hands from the book and took a step backward.

The team took turns looking at the picture.

“Just because there’s a picture of Lora and Elan doesn’t mean it’s real,” Brendyn said.

Danielle forced a laugh. “Look around you Brendyn. Do you believe that? Somebody powerful went out of their way to make sure nobody ever saw this book.”

Brendyn’s face flushed. “I don’t know what to believe.”

“The book’s an important discovery. We need to take it to Ayralen scholars for translation,” Arber said.

“I’m not touching it,” Keely said. “Let’s just close it and pretend we never saw it.”

“This discovery goes far beyond challenging our beliefs,” Maura said. “This book could hold lost secrets of magic, and it’s irresponsible to leave it rotting.”

Danielle nodded. “You’re right Maura. We can’t leave it here.”

“I’ll take it. I talked us into opening it.” Arber said.

“No. I’m the team leader. It’s my responsibility,” Danielle stepped forward and lifted the book from its cradle of dust.

Behind the team, rattling bones and clanging armor echoed off the stone walls.

Danielle spun as a robed skeleton came to life a foot behind Alana. “Alana! Look behind you!”

Alana shifted into a red striped forest tiger, but before she could pounce, the skeleton extended its bony fingers. The skeletal hand swirled with black mist and touched Alana.

Alana’s body convulsed, but she remained locked in place by the ghoulish touch. She shifted into human form as the dark mist congealed around her body.

Throughout the camber, bone piles stirred to life. Tattered robes hung from several skeletons while others carried sword and shield. A skeletal warrior, surrounded in an aura of shifting black mist, ambled toward Maura.

Maura’s armor sprouted to life, and the skeleton rushed toward her with blade raised. As the dark mist covered the vines surrounding her, they wilted and died leaving her exposed. Maura screamed in panicked horror as the skeleton raised its blade and whipped it across her neck with blinding speed. Maura’s head toppled from her body and bounced like a ripe melon skittering across the stone floor. Shard energy escaped her body forming a green and yellow glass shard next to her corpse.