James Maxey - Greatshadow

“I’m the second survivor of this mission,” he said.

“How can you know this? Are you a seer as well as a mind-reader?”

“No,” said Relic, as his head lowered once more, returning his outline to his hunchbacked profile. “But you cannot imagine the trials I’ve endured to reach this moment. There is nothing left for me to fear. Not even Greatshadow.”

“So tell me about the trials. Tell me who you are. Why should I keep listening to you?”

Relic shook his head. “I must remain an enigma until we achieve our goals. Greatshadow can pluck thoughts from the minds of others. If you knew my true identity, he might learn it as well. I’m the one enemy he should fear above all others… because he doesn’t even know I exist.”

“Why are you his enemy? Why do you hate the dragon so?”

Relic clenched his gnarled fist. “This too, must remain my secret. But know that my hatred for the beast is deep and righteous. Turning back is unthinkable. I cannot live any longer in a world that contains Greatshadow.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “I’m really getting tired of your mystery man act. Just answer her questions.”

Relic ignored me.

Infidel shrugged. “Fine. I’ve lived with your mystery man act this long, I can put up with it for another day.”

“And your fears? Can you put them behind you?”

She pulled back her shoulders and clenched her fists. “Dragons are cold-blooded. That’s the only blood I’ve got now. So cold my heart’s just a block of ice, incapable of fear, or doubt, or remorse. Timid little Innocent has long since been devoured by the monster.” She cracked her knuckles, as all emotion drained from her face. She looked like a machine once more. “Let’s go kick Greatshadow’s scaly ass.”

After everyone had rested, we pressed deeper into the palace complex. The rooms we passed through were mostly barren. After all this time, I suppose items made of wood or cloth would have turned to dust, but it was curious that there were no ordinary objects made of stone or ceramic, which would have endured. The emptiness hinted that the people who had dwelled here had time to pack before they abandoned the place. On the other hand, it was tough to ignore the gems and gold embedded in the countless mosaics. Certainly, if people had time to pack up their dinner plates and chamber pots, they would have taken their valuables as well.

With Aurora gone, everyone was sweating profusely. The narrow passageway we followed descended at a rather sharp angle, and stretched for what must have been at least a mile. It made me wonder what the ancients had been digging for.

“It doesn’t make sense,” the Menageries grumbled. They were once more in their human forms, walking in mirror symmetry; as one miniature Goon swung his left foot forward, the other moved his right.

“What doesn’t make sense?” asked Tower.

“We’re heading toward a temple, right? This doesn’t seem like a good location to attract followers. Why put it so deep inside a mountain?”

“Muhskuh wuh thuh,” said No-Face.

The Menageries chuckled, a sound like chattering chipmunks.

“What did he say?” I asked.

The mosquitoes were worse then, answered Relic.

“Obviously, they were a mining culture,” said Zetetic. “You don’t produce the gold and gemstones we’ve seen simply panning in streams. These people spent a lot of time underground.”

Relic nodded. “There was spiritual significance to the depths as well. The trees sink their roots deep into the soil. The ancients deduced that the earth was the origin of all life; the ground was regarded as sacred. Digging into the earth produced precious metals and priceless gems, further evidence that the divine dwelled beneath the surface. The deeper they dug, the greater the treasures produced. Temples were built as deep as possible so that the gods could better hear the prayers of the priests.”

Father Ver shook his head. “How sad to live oblivious to the truth.”

“A truth contained in a book your own church didn’t discover until a mere thousand years ago,” said Zetetic. “You have plain evidence men existed long before then. Does it strike you as unfair that your Divine Author condemned so many generations of men to ignorance by hiding the book?”

Father Ver started to answer, but Tower raised his gauntlet. “This is the wrong time and place to debate this. According to the map, we’ve reached the entrance to the temple.” He glanced at Relic. “I assume you can verify this?”

Relic nodded. We were in a long narrow room filled with arches covered with pale blue tiles. At the end of the hall there was a circle of stone, nearly fifteen feet across. Relic pointed to the stone and said, “That stone rolls aside. Beyond is a spiral stairway built of human bones leading down seven hundred seventy-seven steps. At the bottom is a natural cavern filled with gleaming crystals hundreds of feet tall; this was the most sacred spot in the kingdom.”

I perked up. “If Zetetic is right, and the veil between the spirit world and the realm of the living is thin in temples, could I escape? Could I come back to life?”

Relic didn’t look at me as he led the others toward the stone door. He replied mentally, saying, You’ve already escaped the pull of the spirit world, Blood-Ghost. Abandon hope; you will never be alive again.

“You know, you could sugar coat that a little. There’s no need to be rude. You still need me as your spy, remember?”

For all the information you’ve so far gathered, I believe my circumstances would be materially unchanged without you.

I punched him in the back of the head with a phantom fist. It passed right through, but I felt a teeny bit better.

We reached the end of the hall. I’d seen this type of door before, a giant disk of stone sitting inside a matching groove. The ancients were marvelous engineers. Though the stone weighed several tons, no doubt it was so well balanced even a child could move it.

The disk was ringed with cup-sized indentations. Tower placed his hands into the holes, then flexed to roll the stone aside.

The door didn’t budge. Maybe it wasn’t that well balanced after all.

“It’s locked,” said Relic.

“I see,” said Tower. “How do we unlock it?”

Relic ran his gnarled hand along the blue tiles that decorated the arch surrounding the stone. He found the one he was looking for and pressed it. It slid aside, revealing a shaft about six inches wide. He thrust his skinny arm into it. “There’s a lever that releases the…” A muffled SNAP caused his sentence to go unfinished. He pulled out his hand, opening his fingers to reveal the rusty remains of an iron rod. He sighed. “Not all ancient artifacts are as well maintained as the War Doll.”

He looked back over his shoulder and motioned that Infidel should step forward. She placed her hands into the same holes Tower had tried. The muscles of her back bulged in sculpted relief as she strained to move the door. Whatever mechanism held the stone resisted even her magnificent muscles.

“This looks like a job for a ghost,” I said, poking my head into the wall to examine the lock mechanism. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make heads or tails of the jumbled of rusted gears and levers embedded in the wall. I drifted through the door completely, into the stairwell on the other side. I discovered that it no longer contained a staircase; the seven hundred and seventy-seven steps of bone must have crumbled to dust, though I could see the spiral holes in the wall where they’d once been anchored. Far below, in what must have been the temple, there was an eerie orange light that looked like boiling lava. The heat was unbearable.