T Lain - City of Fire

That observation made both Alhandra and Regdar relax a little, but Naull secretly wasn’t certain. Secrustia Nar’s reputation was infamous in some texts she’d read, especially near the end of its days.

“Let’s get started, then,” Regdar said.

Travel through the canyon went slowly. Naull imagined Krusk moving through it alone, hopping, skipping, and sometimes running. She looked around Regdar’s shoulders at the many caves and pits in the canyon walls. It seemed a terrific place to hide from enemies.

They ate quickly, giving Windlass and Stalker just enough time to rest. Regdar named his steed after the inn; Naull thought it an overly generous name for the nag. They walked the horses through narrow passes but rode them more often than not. Both Krusk and Regdar felt certain the gnolls would be right behind them.

“Surely they need to sleep, too,” Naull said.

Krusk shrugged and said, “We were a day ahead of them in the desert, but they caught us.”

“We have to keep pushing,” Regdar concluded.

“Whoever this black knight is, she’ll be pushing them,” Alhandra said. She’d made sure Krusk related his description of the gnoll’s human leader to the rest of the adventurers.

Naull shuddered. When Krusk spoke of the woman who led the attack on his companions, she heard the hate in his voice, and the fear.

Regdar reined Stalker to a halt.

Naull peered over his shoulder and asked, “Why are we stopping?”

“Krusk stopped.”

Naull swung down off the brown horse and saw the barbarian looking up at the sky and at the west wall of the canyon. It looked like the rest of the rift; rough, rocky, and barren. There were a few holes in it, but nothing to set it apart from any other stretch of rock.

Krusk pointed.

Naull squinted up into the light. The sun had barely dipped below the west wall, where it glared unhelpfully right over the lip and into her face. Still she thought that perhaps she did see something.

“It looks like… is that a cave up there?”

Regdar and Alhandra dismounted and retreated from the west wall, shading their eyes. Drawing out the papers Krusk had allowed her to hold onto, Naull studied them. The first part of their trip was clear: Come to a certain point in the canyon and there would be a cave leading west. The papers said nothing about the cave being more than fifty feet up the canyon wall.

“This can’t be it,” she said.

Krusk didn’t agree. He pointed toward the lip of the eastern wall. They all looked and saw a rock formation that resembled five teeth jutting up from the wall.

“No, no…” Naull disagreed. “There are supposed to be six of them, and they’re supposed to be taller, and curved, almost like bolts of lightning or fire. Pillars of fire—there!” She pointed to one page that had a crude diagram.

Regdar looked over one of her shoulders and Alhandra the other. The fighter shrugged in half-agreement, but Alhandra pursed her lips and shook her head.

“Like you said, Naull, it’s been what… centuries? Don’t you think one of the ‘pillars’ might have fallen? And don’t those look like the bases of pillars? The tips—the flames—probably wore away.”

Nodding, Naull agreed, “Of course. I didn’t think of that. What about the cave, though? This route was for trade caravans. Who’s going to haul a wagon up the side of mountain?” she asked the others.

The paladin considered for a moment, then ventured cautiously, “Centuries… thousands of years, perhaps. Could this canyon have deepened, or widened since then? Maybe there was a river, or a stream, even—or there could even have been an earthquake.”

Nodding agreement, Naull folded the papers and put them away.

“I suppose so,” she said, “but who’s going to climb up to make sure?”

The two armored figures looked at each other. Finally, Regdar shrugged and started taking off his armor. Alhandra stopped him and pointed.

Krusk, still wearing his chain shirt and with his axe slung over his back, was already climbing. Digging into the stone with his big hands and feet, he was nearly fifteen feet up the wall.

“Leave it to Krusk,” Naull chuckled, shaking her head.

Alhandra smiled, too. Regdar, surprisingly, took out his bow.

“Might as well cover him,” the fighter said.

Moving to Windlass, Alhandra retrieved her own bow and strung it. Naull simply limbered up her fingers. If anything came out of the cave or down into the chasm, she didn’t want to trust to her crossbow.

Krusk moved slowly up the cavern wall, occasionally stopping entirely. They watched at first eagerly, then warily as he made his way up the cliff face. Twenty feet… twenty-five… thirty-five.

If he slips now, Naull thought, we’ll have to scrape him off the canyon floor with a stick.

Sure-handed and sure-footed, as well as amazingly strong, Krusk didn’t slip. He reached the bottom lip of the cave mouth and pulled himself over. Moments later, he lowered a knotted rope almost to the canyon floor.

Regdar went up first, then Naull. Alhandra wrestled with her conscience, trying to decide what to do with the horses. Finally she led them around the next bend in the canyon and stripped them of their gear. What she couldn’t carry, she hid in a shallow pit and covered with a rock. She emptied a waterskin onto a bowl-shaped stone hidden by shadow.

“I hope we won’t be too long,” the paladin said minutes later as Regdar helped her into the cave. They drew up the rope and Krusk tucked it back into his small pack. “Or that the gnolls don’t find them.”

Her voice sounded pained. Naull didn’t say anything, but she saw Regdar reach up and pat Alhandra’s shoulder. He looked over at the wizard.

“Well, what now?”

“According to the directions, we just head in. Krusk? Anything to add?”

The half-orc stopped for a moment, thinking, then he recited in a sing-song voice, “The passage leads down, down and around. Do not turn, do not vary. When you reach the floor, the key shows the way.”

He blinked and looked at the others.

“All right, then. Naull, I guess we’d better use some light.”

Krusk went into the cave first. He didn’t need light to see, but the humans did. Alhandra brought out a small lantern from her gear and lit it. Naull debated lighting a torch as well, but she could always cast a light spell if they needed it. Walking behind Alhandra and in front of Regdar, she could see fine.

The passage descended, as the notes indicated it should. It was rough going at first, but as they proceeded farther into the darkness, the passage actually widened and the descent became smoother. Before they’d traveled a hundred yards, the passage was so wide they could easily walk three abreast.

Something about the darkness stopped them from spreading out. To Naull, the whole place felt eerie. Krusk moved at the edge of the lantern’s light, but the three humans stayed close together. When they passed the first side passage—a narrow opening to the right—Naull wrinkled her nose at the foul smell.

“I hope there aren’t orcs in here,” she said, then clamped her mouth shut.

Her voice echoed in the darkness.

They passed turn after turn, passage after passage, always descending, always following the main tunnel. Naull lost track after they ignored more than three dozen side passages and her legs started growing weary. As they passed yet another shaft, this one to the left, she paused to examine the map and announced, “I think we’re almost there.”

Looking around, the party saw that a short distance ahead, the passage opened up on the left hand side. Instead of two walls and a ceiling, they saw a wall to the right but the ceiling and left wall were gone. Alhandra held up her lantern, but they couldn’t see much in its dim light.