Richard Baker - The City of Ravens

"The Armory," the Warlord replied as they hurried through the darkness. "Many of Sarbreen's dwarves died in this place, defending the priceless weapons stored here from the pillaging horde of orcs and goblins. They died in vain."

At the end of the hall they passed through a great gate of wrought iron, sundered long ago by some terrible magic that peeled back the iron plate like soft putty. Dozens of moldering skeletons lay scattered nearby, along with a few scraps of rusted armor and the shards of broken weapons. Hathmar, the drow swordsman, led them onward through a number of small, winding passages that wandered between stone living chambers, rooms graced with shattered statues and tattered banners. "Living quarters of the weaponsmiths," the mercenary captain explained, "also looted long ago."

"Be careful, but hurry," warned Jelan. "We were followed from the Ladyrock, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Hawk Knights are on our trail. Keep your voices low, and be ready to douse our lights if we spot any light behind."

They came to several broad halls that had collapsed into rubble, with great rockfalls spilling out onto the floor from the walls and the ceiling. At one time the rooms must have been noble and majestic, each sixty or seventy yards in length and perhaps half that in breadth, but now they were cluttered with mounds of debris. In single file Jelan and her companions picked their way between the rockfalls, slipping and clattering over the wreckage.

"Revel halls," said Hathmar Blademark. "Take care, the Dragon Hall is close by."

At the far end of the collapsed halls they found a broad alcove or antechamber filled by a great dark well. A set of stone stairs wound down into the pit, circling around and around.

"Dim your light," said Jelan. "We do not want to advertise our presence to anything that might wait below."

Yu Wei complied, masking the glowing golden ball his magic had conjured. Then they groped down through the darkness, each with his or her hand on the shoulder of the person in front, the drow leading the way with his superior dark vision.

After several hundred steps they reached the bottom of the well and filed out into a high, sharply arched hall. The Tuigan and the Nar ran out ahead, weapons ready, but no dark-lurking monster waited; the vast chamber was empty.

"The Hall of the Dragon," Illyth whispered to Jack. "I never thought to see this place with my own eyes! It was the public meeting place of Sarbreen's guilders and masters, the seat of the city's government."

"I didn't realize you were so well versed in Sarbreen lore, dear Illyth," Jack replied.

"Fully half of the adventurers whose careers I studied explored Sarbreen at one time or another, and a number of them died in these depths. I suppose it just stuck with me."

Jack nodded, concealing his nervousness at the notion of people just like them meeting terrible dooms in these darkened dwarven halls, and turned his attention to the chamber itself. Dark galleries ran along the walls, providing room for hundreds of dwarves to watch the proceedings on the floor of the hall. Now nothing but a soft wind sighed through the high balconies. At the far end of the hall, a great stone dragon was carved in bas-relief forty feet tall. Its noble features grimaced in a terrible battle challenge.

"The Stone Dragon of Sarbreen!" Illyth breathed. "Jack, this is the stuff of legend! No one has seen this place in a hundred years and returned to tell the tale."

"That is not entirely true, my lady sage," Jelan said, sauntering closer. Yu Wei, Amarana, Hathmar, and the others stood guard warily, watching the numerous dark tunnel mouths that opened into the great chamber. "I myself have been here three times in the last six months in attempts to reach the Wild Mythal, but this barrier-" she gestured at the massive relief on the chamber's far wall-"has frustrated me every time. It is my hope that Jack can help me here."

Jack glanced up at the formidable structure. "I have no great skill at digging, but if you wish, I will take pickaxe in hand and do what I can."

"If only it were so easy," the Warlord said. "Beyond that wall lies a rift or passageway descending into the true underdark beneath the very deepest dwarven works. Yu Wei's divinations clearly show the way to the Wild Mythal, but to reach it we must pass through the doorway concealed in this wall. And that barrier has frustrated all the efforts of mighty wizards and priests both. It will not yield to me."

"But you, Jack Ravenwild, are a Ravenaar born and bred, infused with the chaotic energies of the device this barrier protects," Yu Wei intoned. "We believe you can open this passage."

Jack sighed and followed Jelan's gaze. He was inclined to allow the Warlord to stand frustrated before this wall until the end of time, but that was why Jelan had brought Illyth along. Clearly, this was not the time to challenge her.

"What do I have to do?"

"Come here," said Yu Wei.

The Shou wizard stood at the feet of the great image. The dragon was head-down, as if it had been frozen in the act of descending the wall. Serpentine coils and vast batlike wings shadowed the upper portions of the bas-relief, lost in the darkness high overhead, while the creature's fierce claws gripped a great orb ten feet across at the bottom, just beneath its open mouth and noble countenance.

"This sphere in the dragon's claws marks the doorway, but no opening spell at my command can part it, and more destructive spells are defeated outright."

"The wall is blank stone. What do you propose?"

The Shou scowled. "If you know an opening spell, attempt it. Perhaps the stone will accept your magic where it refused mine."

Jack shrugged and did as Yu Wei suggested. He stepped close and murmured the words to his passage spell, reaching out to caress the cold stone of the sphere-shaped surface. For a long moment he felt nothing. Then, abruptly, a streamer of emerald energy caressed him, dancing up from some wellspring far below his feet and winding left and right to stay in contact with him, no matter where he went. He gasped in shock and opened his eyes to look on the spiraling magic with his human vision. He saw nothing at first, although he could still feel it nearby. Then he realized that Yu Wei stared silently at something in front of them.

In the center of the stone sphere, beneath Jack's hand, a blot of darkness edged in green-glowing magic had appeared. Emerald energy whirled and darted around the aperture, which rapidly widened to fill the blank stone between the dragon's claws.

"Jack, you opened it!" said Illyth. She hugged her arms around her shoulders, excited despite the circumstances.

"Indeed," said Yu Wei. The wizened sorcerer turned to the Warlord. "My lady, we should make haste. The aperture may not remain open for long."

Jack simply gaped. He hadn't even finished the spell… or so he thought. Could he have cast a spell without even realizing it, simply by concentrating on the feel of magic from the floor beneath his feet? What else might happen if he tried to channel the power he could sense?

"Excellent!" said Myrkyssa Jelan.

She checked her arms and armor, then joined them by the doorway. The others in her party-drow swordsman, Shar priestess, Tuigan warrior, and the others-followed quickly. Jelan looked at Hathmar and inclined her head; without hesitation the drow ducked into the dark opening, scouting the path ahead. "Now we shall see what the dwarves chose to conceal."

"So where does it go?" Jack asked.

"Down to the deeps," Yu Wei answered. "My divinations show a-"

"Silence!" hissed Jelan. She pointed at the stairwell behind them. A flicker of yellow light danced on the walls. She doused her own light. "Everybody, through the door! Someone is following us!"

Jelan glanced at the dark doorway, then took Jack by the elbow and guided him toward a deep niche in the wall guarded by a mighty stone statue of an armored dwarf.