Brian Rathbone - Regent

Brother Vaughn stood as still as stone and listened, his head turned one way then another. "May the gods have mercy," he whispered, and he pulled Sinjin and Trinda back the way they had come.

"We can't go back that way," Sinjin said louder than he had intended.

With a sharp look, Brother Vaughn pressed a finger to his lips and pulled them with him. When they reached the part of the hall where they had been trapped, Sinjin nearly shouted in relief. The hall was now clear in both directions, and unexplored darkness lay ahead. Not even slowing, Brother Vaughn kept the group moving at as brisk a pace as the light of his fading herald globe would allow. Soon it would go dark, and they would be lost. Brother Vaughn hadn't said that, but Sinjin knew it; he could read it in the old monk's posture. Still, moving into unexplored parts of the keep piqued his sense of adventure-if only their light would hold.

"So foolish of me not to bring a fully charged herald globe or some other source of light," Brother Vaughn said as their progress continually slowed while the unnatural sounds filling the keep grew louder. Then he drew a sharp breath. Sinjin followed the small circle of light that surrounded the herald globe as Brother Vaughn slowly moved it over bold runes that covered a tile floor.

"It needs more," Trinda complained.

Brother Vaughn ignored her, and Sinjin nearly clamped his hand down over her mouth to keep her quiet. The sound of demons continued to grow. Looking over each rune and mumbling to himself, Brother Vaughn cursed. Holding the herald globe out, he cast soft shadows over doorways cut into an elaborate, multifaceted room, shaped almost as if someone had cut a gemstone away and left this cavity. Stepping forward, he cast out the light to the far doorways, and he stopped suddenly when the tile beneath his boot sank down with a grinding sound followed by a sharp snap. Sinjin looked up as dust fell from above, and it sounded as if the ceiling were collapsing. Indeed the stone above them was moving, but before they could do anything, it stopped.

"This room is a trap," Brother Vaughn said.

"What kind of trap?" Sinjin asked, wondering if they would be crushed.

"I think it's a riddle, but I can't see all of the runes, and I'm not quite sure."

"It needs more," Trinda observed. Sinjin opened his mouth, but she didn't give him a chance to make his snide remark, instead, she snatched the herald globe from Brother Vaughn's hands. "Let me have it. I have some."

Trinda closed her eyes. To Sinjin's amazement, the globe began to glow more brightly through her fingers.

"That's enough," Brother Vaughn urged in a low voice.

Trinda's eyes opened. At first she appeared calm, but then her eyes slowly went wide, the light growing brighter all the while. Brother Vaughn reached for the globe, and power leaped across the open air with a crack. He jerked his hand back. Moments later, Trinda made a popping noise with her lips. She turned and handed Brother Vaughn the now glaring orb. Holding out his hand to shield the light, he accepted it.

Trinda turned to Sinjin, locked eyes with him, and shrugged. "I don't have any more." Then her eyes rolled up into her head, and she collapsed into his arms. Unprepared, he barely caught her and was trying to hoist her onto his shoulder when he heard a low growl-this one not distant. Brother Vaughn turned toward the sound, and the light drove the demon backward, but the growling continued from the shadows.

Brother Vaughn mumbled rapidly while scanning the now brightly illuminated runes. "What's lighter than a feather, worth more than gold, more precious than air, and cannot be seen?"

Silence hung between them for what seemed a long time. The riddle reminded Sinjin of how his mother had explained astral travel, how she said her spirit had flown free of her body and had moved as if it weighed nothing. "A soul," he said. After casting a surprised look, Brother Vaughn stepped onto a new tile in the floor. Nothing happened.

"Excellent," Brother Vaughn said, already scanning more tiles. "What never stops moving but is always in the same place?"

Brother Vaughn's movements had cast part of the room back into shadow, and the growling grew more intense. Turning to face the demon, Sinjin watched in horror as the beast stepped into the light, its eyes now adjusted. Its first step had no effect, but the second sent the ceiling tumbling another notch.

Brother Vaughn leaped to another tile with a wheel carved into it. Sinjin followed, Trinda still draped over his shoulder, and he nearly took a bad step onto the wrong tile, but Brother Vaughn steadied him.

"What's heavier than air and flies with no wings?"

Sinjin tried to think of an answer, but the demon leaped closer to them, stepping on two separate tiles, both of which sank down. Sinjin fell to his knees. Locking eyes with the demon, he saw panic in its eyes, but that fear turned to anger and hatred. "Just go," Sinjin said.

"I can't figure it out," Brother Vaughn said, but Sinjin pushed him, and off balance, he had to make a choice in mid step: water. The ceiling held, but Sinjin pushed again, seeing the demon preparing to attack. "But I don't even know what the riddle is," Brother Vaughn said in a high voice when Sinjin pushed again.

Neither was prepared when the demon lunged.

Flying sideways, Sinjin realized that he'd been hit by the demon. Clinging to Trinda, he waited for impact, knowing they would eventually hit something solid. What they slammed into was Brother Vaughn, who cried out and tried to guess which tiles to step on as he was thrust forward. The grinding sound of stone on stone resounded again, and clouds of dust fell from overhead. Screaming, Sinjin thrust Trinda ahead of him and jumped with all the power he could muster. Feeling the stone closing in on them, he landed roughly and had poor footing when he made his final push. The stone slammed down and caught the toe of his boot, which he struggled to pull free. It was then that he saw the other demons glaring at him over the rubble. The falling stone had only partly obstructed the hall, and the demons were already clearing the way.

Trinda climbed to her feet and cast him an accusing glare. "You hurt me."

"I was trying to keep you alive," Sinjin said, but it didn't look as if Trinda believed him. At that moment, he didn't care. Brother Vaughn helped him stand, and with the herald globe wrapped in his robes, they moved deeper into the unknown at a near run, the light still seeming overly bright, especially with the howls coming from behind. Nothing more was said about the incident. Trinda seemed embarrassed and retreated even further within herself. Sinjin watched her closely, not wanting her to suffer. Though she annoyed him at times, Sinjin realized that all he really wanted was for her to be happy, and the fact that he could not bring her that happiness was what really made him uncomfortable. After a while they slowed.

Once he caught his breath, Sinjin said, "My mom had trouble the first few times she accessed Istra's power, and I'm not sure if she has ever become truly comfortable with it, except for the things she says just come natural. I think maybe that's how your singing works."

Brother Vaughn raised an eyebrow when Sinjin met his eyes, but then he just smiled, nodded, and said nothing more. Trinda looked at him sideways and shrugged. Sinjin had no more time to speak before the light revealed a chasm whose jagged edge made it appear as if the earth waited to swallow them. Brother Vaughn unwrapped the herald globe. The light danced from dainty, crystalline structures that looked like flowers with glass daggers as petals. They dotted the walls of the ravine. The dark rock they clung to drank in the light rather than reflecting it, which made the brilliance of the crystals stand out in greater contrast. Before them lay a bridge of sorts that formed a pathway across the chasm, but the closer Sinjin looked, the less he liked what he saw. The drop down to the top of the span was farther than he was comfortable jumping, and he wasn't sure they would be able to climb back up-here or on the other side. No solid surface topped the span. It was just a pile of stones that sloped downward on either side and into the darkness.