CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE:

  HITTING A WALL

  After all the companions gathered around and looked down into the secret passageway, Elias grabbed his shield from his back.

  “I will go first. If anything dangerous is down there, I am best equipped to face it before you,” stated the knight calmly.

  “I will follow next, Elias. You will need light,” added Maldrin, gripping his staff tighter.

  As Garrick and the others moved down into the unknown behind the knight and wizard, practically every other stair was broken, but they were able to reach steady ground quickly and without any injury. When only silence greeted them at the bottom, Maldrin lit up the passageway even more. Once the darkness faded away, Tal emerged from one of the wizard’s pockets and crawled from his arm to the top of his staff. Then she sat down and looked out.

  Before the companions was a long, brown brick hallway that was falling apart. It ran straight ahead, and from where they stood it looked like there might be another stairway at the end leading up.

  Keeping hold of Onyx as he knelt on one knee, so that the mystic wolf did not instantly rush ahead, Garrick looked down the passageway a moment longer, hoping it wasn’t as decrepit as it seemed.

  “Okay, Onyx, but be quiet,” whispered the mercenary.

  “I will send Azure as well,” spoke Cerelene, caressing the falcon’s wing lovingly.

  Then together the mercenary and elf maiden released their animals. Seeing Azure and Onyx reach the end of the hall and move up and out of sight, Garrick and Cerelene called the the falcon and mystic wolf to return. Then they all walked slowly down the echoing passageway as one.

  Once they were halfway down the passageway they suddenly heard a loud roar. A moment later, bricks fell from the ceiling and walls, and the companions suddenly tumbled to the floor.

  “Firebaugh,” whispered Garrick, as he rose to his feet.

  “We are close, my friends,” announced Ondibar in a solemn voice. Then the passageway began to tremble again.

  “Move! Move!” yelled Garrick as more and more bricks began to fall around them. The passageway they walked was finally starting to collapse after hundreds of years and he knew they didn’t have much time.

  As the companions dashed toward the stairs ahead, Cerelene and Deelah made it first. Then Garrick and Elias.

  Ondibar ran as he had never run before. Maldrin grabbed Tal from the top of his staff and didn’t look back. When the old wizard turned around, out of breath after he and the dwarf made it to safety, he saw Anya, still running, as the passageway continued to break apart even faster. And it showed no sign of slowing.

  Though he gasped for breath, Maldrin raised his staff toward the cleric, then quickly brought it to his chest as he heard Deelah cry in horror, seeing her sister too far out.

  Instantly, Anya flew toward Maldrin as both the roof and wall crumbled where she had just been. Seeing that the old wizard was spent from physical fatigue, Elias quickly stepped in front of him, and caught Anya as the passageway completely crumbled before them only a few steps from the stairs.

  “Thank you. Thank you both!” gasped Anya, as Maldrin slumped against his staff and Elias set the cleric on the step behind him.

  “I thought we were going to lose you, sister!” cried Deelah, as she hugged Anya and then hugged Maldrin and Elias quickly.

  After hugging the cleric as well, Cerelene looked out at the rubble that was where they had just come from.

  “There is only one way now,” replied the elf maiden. Then she looked at Garrick and Ondibar. “Firebaugh is close. If I am not mistaken, he has just returned to his lair.”

  “Yes, Cerelene,” agreed Ondibar, as Garrick moved up the staircase. “Our first major battle of this quest is just around the corner.” Then they all walked up the stairs after Garrick.

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  The staircase the mercenary led them up was nothing like the one they had just come down. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Whereas the staircase from Cloud Veil was a short descent, the companions walked higher and higher into the mountain. How high they did not know, but when they saw Garrick stop they breathed a sigh of relief.

  When they all got to the mercenary, he looked worried.

  “Our battle may be just around the corner, Ondibar...” agreed Garrick, echoing the last words of the dwarf. Then after Maldrin called a brighter light again from his staff, Garrick finished, “but we must get through this first.”

  Standing before the companions as they stood at the top of the stairs was a wall where a door should have been.

  As the others remained quiet in their worry, Garrick did his best to keep calm and think.

  It did not make sense, thought the mercenary. If this was King Jonagall Ironhearth’s secret passageway as they had thought, why build it from the outside of The Cloud Shroud Mountain to a dead end?

  “The dwarf king was certainly eccentric,” replied Cerelene, breaking the silence and petting Azure on her shoulder.

  “No. If this is a secret passageway, then the tunnel leading to the treasure room is just behind here!” said Garrick, gritting his teeth.

  “Perhaps his son walled it off once he became king?” asked Anya. “Or another heir?”

  Not wanting to be kept waiting, Onyx frantically sniffed the wall and a moment later began scratching at it. Garrick patted the mystic wolf. Then after pulling Onyx back, he looked over at Deelah.

  “Any thoughts?” asked the mercenary.

  “I am sorry, Garrick, if there is no lock...” said the thief, biting her lip and shaking her head.

  “Ondibar? Have you seen anything close to this while searching the mountain?” continued Garrick, trying his best to hide his disappointment.

  “No, my friend. This is new to me,” answered the dwarf, stroking his beard as he looked at the wall. Then he looked down at Onyx, who had returned to scratching the wall.

  When Garrick looked at Cerelene the elf maiden shook her head. Then before Garrick could ask him, Maldrin spoke. “The book only spoke of the hidden passage. Nothing of how it worked.”

  Seeing that Onyx had returned to scratching the wall, Garrick pulled him back again. Then as Onyx sat back with a whimper, Elias put his shoulder against the wall.

  “Perhaps it will take brute strength as it did with the stone cover that led us here,” wondered the knight.

  “This wall is too thick for all of us combined, Elias. The dwarf king did not spare any expense when he made this,” replied Garrick, shaking his head.

  Looking at the empty, square wall that lay before him, Maldrin put his hand on Garrick’s shoulder. “I will use the Shatter spell again,” spoke the wizard through a tired voice. “That is our only option.”

  “No. You are spent and the noise would alert the dragon for sure. We are too close,” replied Garrick, as Onyx returned to scratching at the bottom of the door.

  Not wanting Garrick to have to pull the mystic wolf back from the wall again, Anya knelt down beside him and stroked his black fur.

  “Onyx, I am sorry, but you would have to scratch for centuries to get through to the other side,” replied the cleric gently. Then she saw something.

  “Wait. Maldrin! Shine the light down here!” yelled Anya. As the wizard pointed his staff at the corner of the wall where Onyx was scratching, the cleric pointed and asked excitedly, “What is that?”

  Once Garrick pulled Onyx back again, he and Ondibar looked down.

  “It is a small lever,” replied Ondibar, eyes wide.

  “I am sorry, my friend. You were trying to tell us the whole time,” said Garrick, dropping to a knee and rubbing the mystic wolf’s large head.

  “That is funny. If this area was lit as it would have been normally, you could see it plainly,” replied Elias.

  “Think, Elias,” answered Cerelene joyfully.“There is no reason to fully disguise the entrance on the way back in.”

  “The lever is not only small, it is stuck, as you can only imagine after not moving these long years,” said Garrick, trying to get a good grip.

  “Stand back, mercenary. This was built for dwarven hands,” declared Ondibar, stretching his arms out wide. Then once he grabbed the lever tightly, the dwarf heaved. When it looked like he might have to give up, the lever lifted and the wall in front of the stairs raised up, loudly, after being unmoved for centuries.

  When Garrick and the others stepped through, they were in a narrow tunnel, barely tall enough for most of them to stand up in. Across from them was a small room. It was falling apart, but it still stood firmly enough. To the left, the tunnel was much like the worst of the old dwarven kingdom, shattered and unwalkable. To the right and far down, the tunnel led to a giant room teaming with gold and jewels. Like the room near them it was falling apart, but still looked sturdy enough.

  As the companions looked down the tunnel at the treasure room, they saw the giant tail of a red sovereign dragon lift up in the air and slam down. Once the tail lifted up a second time, it fell down hard upon the gold, but this time it moved no more.

  Garrick looked at all his companions, at the ones he led in a quest that now seemed even more impossible. They were tired and weary, but they had made it not only to The Cloud Shroud Mountain, but also past Cloud Veil. Most impressive of all, they were mere steps away from a second Holy Stone of Elion. As the others looked at Garrick, he pulled the Holy Amulet out from behind his shirt and let it drop over his chain mail.

  “We have made it. The dragon slumbers. We need rest as well,” announced Garrick, walking across the tunnel into the small room. When the others followed him in, he turned and spoke.

  “Remember, Firebaugh is a sovereign dragon. He is intelligent and cunning. He does not act only on instinct as the lesser dragons do.” Then Garrick’s face became fierce.

  “Even so. Tomorrow we will show Firebaugh that he is flesh and blood. Tomorrow we make his lair into his burial chamber.”