Chapter 21: Still Treasure Hunters

Darren finished his food quickly and left out the middle entrance. Sara swallowed her last bite and looked at Milar. “Where’s he going?” Milar stretched out on a bench and tried to soothe his aching muscles. “Probably to make sure the monastery is clear of wolves.” Legerra took another bench. “Yeah, it shouldn’t take too long. Try to relax and rest.”

Sara shook her head. “I can’t. There’s a ton of energy in the necklace.” Acerin looked up. “Could I see it?” Sara hesitated, but pulled it over her head and held it out to him. Acerin’s hand met the chain, energy flashed briefly, and he drew back in pain and anger. “It won’t let me take it!”

“Larauc’s Necklace is an older artifact.” Darren walked back in through the right entrance. “Besides the fact that only women can wear it, older relics have some affinity for the wearer. Healers, people with pure hearts, only those kinds of people can even touch it.”

Acerin looked down again, pulling his hood over his face. Darren glanced at the teenager leaning against a corner. “Acerin, true power isn’t found in objects.” Acerin looked up. “Then what is it found in, Darren?” Darren smiled. “Finding that out is half the fun.”

Fraydon sat cross-legged on the floor, her back against Milar’s bench. “Wasn’t that guy’s name Larauc? How is his necklace holy?” “Larauc is who this monastery worships. When the wolf-man came here and assumed the shape of one of them, he didn’t think that the name meant anything, even though he kept hearing it as monks cried out in fear. He thought Larauc was another monk.” Darren smiled. “Evil isn’t always smart.”

Sara fingered it, thinking. Finally she said, “But Darren, why were you surprised when you saw the necklace?” Darren held up his sword. “The sword reacted with something, but I didn’t know what or where it was. I figured you found the necklace down below and was able to use it on the fake Larauc.” Sara paled. “Darren…the necklace distracted the wolf-man with light, then came to me. I thought it was your voice I heard.” Darren shook his head. “I didn’t have much time to think of anything with all the wolves rushing at us.”

Sara looked around at the others shaking their heads. “Well…I don’t know who…or what…gave me the necklace, but it saved my life.” Darren walked over to the hallway leading to the basement. Thendat sat up. “Where are you going?” Darren caught Thendat’s gaze and held it. “I go to pay my respects to the dead.” Sara waited for a few seconds, and then followed him down the hallway.

Fraydon sighed. “You think she’s just following him for his company, or because she wants to do the same thing?” Thendat shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe she just wants to find out where the necklace came from.”

Legerra sat up on his bench and looked from one to the other. “Wait a minute…she likes him?” Thendat, Fraydon, and Milar looked at him. “You couldn’t tell?” He looked at the ground. “No…I couldn’t.” Acerin looked up, smirking. “Thought she was sweet on you, eh?” Legerra whirled, pointing a finger at Acerin. “And I suppose you’re an expert on the subject?” Acerin shrugged and looked down again.
~
Sara walked through the hallway, listening to the footsteps ahead of her beat a steady rhythm as they turned the corner and went down the stairs. She wasn’t going to make herself obvious, but neither was she going to hide. She reached the top of the stairs and stopped.

Darren had already gone through the doors, down the hall of statues, and was in the room where Sara fought the fake Larauc. She got halfway down before she heard the music. Raw fear took hold of her, numbing every nerve in her body. It was the exact same tune the organ had been playing in the cathedral.

When she could move again, she ran as fast as she could towards the music, stumbling to a stop at the doorway to the altar room. Darren floated cross-legged in the air, back to the door, whistling the tune, slower than normal. Sara shivered, but was somewhat relieved by the fact that he wasn’t changed.

As she watched, shadows started to move. The air cooled until she could see her breath, and shadows began to move. Specters gathered in the room, watching with her as Darren kept whistling. The ghosts of the slain monks gathered and stood waiting. Darren sensed another living being and turned to Sara. “You shouldn’t have come…you shouldn’t have to see this.”

Sara couldn’t turn away. Darren bowed his head in sorrow. “I hoped that I wouldn’t be the one to do this…” He floated to the ground and stood at the doorway next to her. Sara couldn’t move, couldn’t look around, and couldn’t even blink. Slowly the ghosts of the dead monks began circling the altar.

Darren watched with Sara as the slaughter began. Sara would have gasped if she could’ve made any noise. It was the memories of each monk being preserved forever in Darren’s mind. She looked at him. By doing that…he shows them that he cares…But it was still horrifying to watch each monk die in a different way, all tortured and pain-filled.

When it ended, she ran from the room. Darren could hear her sobbing all the way to the courtyard. He sighed and walked out. I really didn’t want her to see that…but she’s going to have to come to terms with it eventually. The world is a horrible place, and there’s not always a happy ending.

He climbed the steps and walked out the hallway into the courtyard. Fraydon stood, hands on her hips. “What did you do?” Darren didn’t look at any of them. “She saw what I saw.” Noticing their shocked looks, he shouted “I had no choice in the matter! I couldn’t make her leave or stay.”

He sat down against a wall and pulled out the book they’d taken from the Pilosh Library. Fraydon waited a minute or two, and then threw up her hands in frustration. “Well? Aren’t you going to go comfort her?” Darren closed the book and looked pointedly at her. “No.” “Well, why not?” Darren looked away. “I won’t always be there to comfort her.”

Fraydon walked over and stood directly in front of him. “But you’re here now. And what she needs is comfort now. At least let her know what happened.” Darren said nothing and walked around Fraydon to the center of the room. When he got under the hole in the roof, he leaped out and disappeared. Fraydon sighed and sat down on a different bench. “Stubborn pessimistic fool.” The bench tilted her off onto the floor and she sat up, shaking her fist at the ceiling. Acerin snickered from his corner.
~
Darren jumped from the roof of the monastery to the bell tower, standing on the very top and looking around. A glint of reflected light caught his eye from a mountain in the distance. Straining to make it out, he noticed the light moving slowly away. His eyes narrowed. Don’t test me, woman. He crouched until he almost sat on the tower. Alright, I’ll play your game. But once, and only once.

He leaped from the tower, covering the distance easily, leaving a trail of fire. He landed on the mountain where the light used to be, noticing it leaving a trail as well. Sara kept jumping from mountain to mountain, and he followed, his trail eclipsing hers. Catching up to her was easy enough; she wasn’t used to using the magic like he was.

Darren mentally shrugged as he slammed into her, pushing her just enough off course to send her tumbling down the mountain. She started it! He slid down on the small patch of snow, causing a small avalanche. A few large boulders broke loose and he stood off to the side as Sara regained her balance.

Her eyes flashed as the boulders came at her. White fire lashed out from her hands and sliced them cleanly in half multiple times, reducing them to tiny pebbles that made quite a bit of noise as they rattled down the mountain. Darren nodded from his position higher up, impressed. But he almost didn’t see the fire come towards him. At the last second, he dodged to the right, noticing the hole it tore through the ground. Whoa. Hell hath no fury…

He dodged again, this time jumping onto the light and jumping to others as they flashed towards him. He kept dodging as he made his way forward towards Sara. When he was close enough he flew forward and knocked her on her back again. Now she was so mad she could barely aim at him. Spears of ice formed and flew at him, most missing and the rest he stopped before they got close.

Darren observed her emotions carefully. That's enough. The next wave of ice was blown apart with a wave of his hand and he threw her over his shoulder into the snow, jumping and pinning her down with his weight. She struggled and even tried to blast him off, but he deflected the magic until she stopped. Darren didn’t get up. “Control your emotions. Control, not release.”

Sara measured a certain amount of sarcasm into her voice. “Thanks, Darren. I’ll remember you said that the next time you go berserk and destroy buildings again.” Darren winced but didn’t move. “I never said I was proud of that, Sara. You know that. Cheap shots don’t become you.”

Sara was still angry, that much was obvious to him. He sighed and floated backwards off of her, sitting on a large stationary boulder. “What do you have to be angry about?” “You! You showed me all the death and dying those monks suffered! Wouldn’t you be angry if you were forced to watch against your will?”

He caught her gaze and held it. “Yes. I was. I don’t watch it because I want to. I watch it because I have no reason to continue fighting except for people like them. Those people who seek immortality and find it...you won’t find them, because after a while they all lose sight of a purpose in life, and they kill themselves. The smarter ones fight impossible battles, and some come out alive and heroes. That gives them more purpose, though. Eventually, to keep that feeling, they’ll fight more and more…some become nothing but duelists, searching the world over for harder challengers. So yes, I am angry because I’m forced to watch it, but I understand why I have to. You didn’t have to watch it. You came of your own will.”

Sara said nothing. Darren’s boulder began rolling uphill slowly at his command. “You don’t have to go wherever I go. You can take care of yourself now. You are free to leave, to stay, and to do what you want within certain limits. What you saw cannot hurt you. It can only strengthen your resolve to help people like that. Your anger will pass, as did mine. What you do with the emotions that remain is your choice.”

The boulder hit the peak and he stood up, riding it down the other side of the mountain and out of Sara’s sight. She lay in the snow for a minute, quiet and thinking. Then she got up and trudged to the top of the mountain, jumping to another mountain from there, still thinking.
~
Sara wasn’t back yet when Darren landed on the ground in front of the monastery, cloak flapping and dust flying, a dramatic entrance appreciated by none of the rest of the group. Fraydon stepped forward, arms crossed. “You two were gone for a while.” Darren rolled his eyes. “Why thank you for the advice on how it looks to you…again. I don’t remember asking, but thanks for giving it. Ask Sara what happened; you know she won’t lie to you. Or maybe she will. Either way, get your minds out of the gutter. Oh, and Legerra…”

Legerra stopped scanning the horizon and looked at Darren. “Yeah?” Darren’s smile was more of a smirk. “Don’t try to ‘comfort’ her. For your own sake.” Legerra’s tone turned bitter. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Now that I know she likes you, she’s all yours.” Darren tilted his head to one side. “Oh? I hadn’t noticed.” Thendat stared open-mouthed. “You honestly thought that the whole thing was just a close friendship?”

Darren glared at him, his words biting and sarcastic. “Hey, I have an idea! Next time we go on a journey for the king, I’ll let you be the leader. That way, you can take credit for all the mistakes and you can assume all responsibility while everyone else does whatever they want! That might give me some time to actually observe other people instead of trying to figure out where we’re even going the next day.” Thendat backed up, raising his hands. “Darren, relax. You’re stressed. You need a break.” Darren sighed. “Yeah, well…we’re short on time. We might as well check out the book now.”

He laid the book on the ground and opened it. “We know it’s somewhere to the north-east…but that’s vague. The exact location is in riddles.” Fraydon got down on one knee to look at the book. “Darren, even these riddles are vague. ‘Seventh tree on the right?’ ‘Branchless branch?’ ‘Land of many rocks?’ Even with magic, it would take us weeks to find it!”

Darren shrugged. “How is hiking for a month different than searching for a month?” Fraydon thought about that, and shrugged as well. Sara landed much the same way Darren had, cloak flapping and stirring up dust. She avoided looking at anyone, saying “Where to now?” Milar coughed. “We don’t know yet. We’ve got riddles to solve first.” Sara pointed to the first word in every riddle. “Have you considered this?” Thendat looked down at the book. “Seventh…branchless…tree…in…land…of…death.”

Acerin chuckled. “Land of death? That’s a bit overused, don’t you think?” Darren smiled. “Thankfully, in Shirn it’s not. There’s only one place that it could be…the Valley of Death.” Acerin’s chuckling grew louder. Darren glanced at him, still smiling. “Yes, I know it’s a cliché, but we can’t really do anything about it.” Acerin stood up straight, pointing to the north-east and yelling “Quick! To the Valley of Death!” while laughing harder. Darren sighed in frustration. “Look, it’s not my fault the author was too lazy to think of a real name for it! Let’s just go there already.”

Darren led the way, some time still left before the sun set. Acerin turned to Sara, wiggling his fingers in a comical fashion. “The Valley…of Death!” Sara cracked a small smile and started walking. Acerin shook his head in amusement as he fell into step. “The Valley of Death…”

- posted by Nick @ 5/08/2004 10:07:00 AM