David Zindell - The Lightstone

'People are supposed to come here and meditate,' Daj told us. We stood at the center of the deserted chamber, staring at a tapestry of various Elijin and Galadin on the far wall. 'But no one ever comes.'

'Why not?' Maram asked him.

'Because it's said that Lord Morjin seeks his sacrifices from the most faithful and finds them in the sanctuaries.'

Such tales, I thought, were an excellent way of keeping the sanc tuaries empty – so that Morjin could reserve them for his private use.

With Maram standing watch in the doorway, we moved over to the tapestry, and Liljana held it away from the wall. Behind it was a door, barely perceptible as such: a crack ran horizontally through the black rock just above the level of our heads, while two others cut lengthwise framing a large basalt slab. If pushed against, I thought, it would revolve and open onto the secret passage.

I pushed against it now, but it was like pushing against a solid wall, and the door did'nt move. and Daj said to me, 'You have to know the password.'

'I presume you know what this is?' Kane said to him.

'Yes, there's a door like this at the other end of the passage – in Lord Morjin's rooms. One time, I hid there and watched him use it. And then followed him here.'

'Brave boy,' I said, nodding my head in acknowledgement of his feat.

'Yes, you're a brave little spy,' Kane said, grinning savagely. 'Well, let's see if Morjin has kept the password. What is it?'

'Memoriar-damoom,' Daj said softly. 'I don't know what it means.'

'It means,' Kane said, translating the ancient Ardik, ' "Remember Damoom." '

He stood directly facing the door and spoke the word clearly, louder this time. And from within the door came a clicking sound as of a lock being slid open.

As Maram hurried across the room to view this marvel, Kane's grin grew larger, and he said, 'In the Age of Law, many locks were made thusly. Song stones, keyed to a word or a voice, turn at the touch of the right sound and set the locking mechanism in motion.'

Now he set his hand against the edge of the door and leaned his weight into it. The part that he pushed against swung inward smoothly while the left edge of the slab revolved out into the room. Beyond the opening lay a dark tunnel.

'So,' he said.

He started straight into the tunnel, followed by Daj and me. But when it came Maram's turn to step forward, he hesitated and said, 'Ah, I don't like the look of this at all.'

'Come,' I said, turning back toward him. 'Where's your courage?'

'Ah, where indeed, my friend? I'm afraid that almost all of that coin has been spent.'

'There's always more,' I said to him.

'For you, perhaps, but not for me. After all, I'm no Valari.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, I mean that for you Valari, courage is a birthright. You breathe it in as easily as others do air.'

'No, you're wrong, Maram,' I told him, shaking my head. My belly churned as if I had swallowed a nest of writhing snakes. 'Courage never gets to be a habit. Each time… it gets harder to find. As it is now for me.'

'For you?'

'Yes,' I said, glancing at Kane and Liljana. And then I looked straight at Maram.

'Without you by my side, I don't know how I'd ever be able to do this.'

'Do you really mean that?'

I clasped his hand in mine and smiled at him. 'Will you come with me this last mile?'

He hesitated another long moment before slowly nodding his head. And then he sighed out 'All right, then, I'll come. But this has to be the last time.'

Then he, too, stepped into the tunnel, followed by Liljana, who had so arrayed the tapestry that it fell back over the door as we pushed it shut. Darkness swallowed us; for a moment we stood nearly blind beneath the black shroud of night. Then I drew my sword. Daj stared at the glowing blade in wonder, but seemed too afraid to ask by what miracle it gave light. All that he said was: 'The last time I was here, all I had was a candle. But this is better.'

He started off down the tunnel, with me, Maram, Liljana and Kane close behind. The dark tube of rock seemed empty even of rats. We walked quiedy, but the scrape of our boots echoed off the bare rocks. After a while we came to a place where another tunnel joined ours. Daj told us that he thought it led to another sanctuary somewhere on the seventh level. Or perhaps, he said, it gave out onto the passage that led to Morjin's Porch on Skartaru's east face. Along that way was to be found Morjin's Stairs, which led down to Argattha's lower levels and the secret escape tunnels there that Morjin still kept open.

'Do you know these tunnels?' I asked him.

'Well, I know about them,' Daj said. 'But I was never able to find out where they were.'

We walked on for another two hundred yards and came across two more of these adjoining tunnels. And then, after turning left, toward the east, our tunnel ended abruptly in what seemed a wall of solid rock.

'He's sealed it off!' Maram whispered when he saw this. 'We're trapped!'

I smiled as I brought my sword up dose to the wall to reveal the cracks running through it, outlining a door – the door that must open onto Morjin's private chambers. I pressed my ear to the cold rock and listened for any sounds from the room beyond it

'What do you hear?' Maram whispered, pressing close.

'Only your breath in my ear. Now be quiet.'

I continued listening for a murmur of voices, the slap of boots against stone, silverware clacking against a plate – for anything at all. But the rock was as quiet as a skull. The only sound I heard was the drumming of my heart up through my ear.

'All right,' I said, turning back to look at liljana and Kane. 'Is everyone ready?'

Both of them had their swords drawn, as did Maram and I. I gripped Alkaladur's hilt more tightly as I faced the door and said, 'Memoriar Damoom!'

There came a clicking from within the rock of the door. I placed my hand on the edge of it; it felt wet as from dripping water, but I realized that it was only my sweat.

Slowly, I pushed against the door. It opened directly into a cloth that I discovered to be another tapestry. I squeezed out from behind its clinging folds and stepped into a well-lit room.

'This is it,' Daj said, joining me there. 'Lord's Morjin's room.'

I knew that it was. All at once, a sickly-sweet odor as of incense mixed with decay made my stomach chum. As the others moved out from behind the tapestry and then pushed the door shut. I looked out at a large, richly furnished room. Intricate tapestries, like the one hiding the door behind us, completely covered the room's four walls so that not a square inch of bare rock remained exposed to remind Morjin that he had chosen to live inside a mountain. We stood with our backs to the room's west wall. To our left, along the north wall, was a heavy bronze door cast with roses and other flowers – the door to the rest of Morjin's palace. Straight ahead stood another door, like in size, but it showed a great, spreading tree beneath a bronze sun.

Daj said that it opened upon the passage that led to the throne room.

Before starting toward this door, I quickly took in the room's other features. Above the great bed along the south wall was hung a blue-black canopy embroidered with thousands of tiny diamonds. These were set in the patterns of the constellations' stars. On either side of the bed were gilded chests and wardrobes; three long mirrors, framed in ornate gold, were set into the east north and west walls. The ceiling was a chessboard of white and black wood squares, while the floor was covered with a single carpet woven with the shapes of knights on horses, winged lions and ferocious beasts. As before, when Morjin had brought me to this room through the doorway of nightmare and illusion, I looked down to sec that I was standing on the head of a fire-breathing dragon. 'Look, Val!' Maram whispered to me as he nudged my side. 'That's a touchstone, isn't it!'