The road through the Pass is the main artery for trade between Madoc and Cardri and is wide enough to accommodate three wagons side by side. The surface of the road, while not perfectly smooth, is firm and level with minimal ruts and potholes.
As they leave the entrance to the Pass behind and follow the road around the bend, the panoramic view of the gorge unfolds before them. They pause a second to take in its grandeur. On either side the gorge rises up to dizzying heights with the river cutting through the middle. Cascading down the side opposite that which the road meanders along, several waterfalls add additional splendor. The road follows the river for nearly a mile before beginning it’s ascent up to the higher elevations. With many a twist and turn, it occasionally vanishes from view only to reappear once more further up the mountainside. Straining their vision to its utmost, they can barely make out where the road ultimately disappears into the cloud cover further down the gorge.
“We’re going there?” James hears Miko exclaim incredulously.
“It’s not so bad,” he reassures his friend. “Caravans come this way all the time, so I’m sure we will have little difficulty.” Nudging his horse forward, James continues down the road forcing Miko to keep up with him or be left behind.
Before the road begins its ascent from the river, they come upon a fellow traveler driving a wagon loaded with goods. “Excuse me sir,” James says as he comes abreast of the wagon.
The man turns his head toward the pair. “Yes?”
“How far is it to the other side of the Pass?” asks James.
“Two days on horseback,” the man says. “Most caravans make it in about four to five days, depending on the load they’re carrying.”
“Is there any place along the way to stop and eat?” Miko asks the man.
“No son, there isn’t,” he replies. “However, there is a way stop near the top where travelers are able to rest for the night before making the descent on the other side.”
“Thanks, mister,” James says.
“You’re welcome,” he replies.
James nudges his horse and they resume their quick pace once again, leaving the man and his wagon behind.
“Are we going to spend tonight at the way stop?” Miko asks, once they have pulled away from the trader.
“I would think so,” James replies. “If we make it that far before it gets dark that is.”
Once the ascent begins, the road climbs at a steady, though at the moment, not an overly steep pace. It continues running along the right side of the river, following the water’s path as it flows through the gorge. At times the river roars to life when making its way through an area of rapids.
As they progress deeper and deeper into the Pass, the mountainside to the right of the road becomes increasingly vertical as its vertical slope increases. Waterfalls grow plentiful as the warm summer weather melts the snowpacks in the upper elevations. At one of the larger ones James notices that someone had built a culvert or drainage system beneath the road to allow water to flow under it to the river without eroding the surface.
Being a city boy, Miko had never seen waterfalls like these and is quite impressed by their beauty and power. He pauses by one as he dismounts to fill his depleted water bottle. When he places the bottle in the waterfall, he quickly snatches his hand back when the fall’s water hits his skin.
“What’s the matter?” James asks, startled at his reaction.
Miko turns and looks at James, “It’s cold!”
Laughing, James explains, “Of course it’s cold. The water is coming from snow melting high up in the peaks.”
“Oh,” he replies, feeling slightly embarrassed at not having known that. He grits his teeth and places his bottle back into the falling water and fills it. Then he secures it back to his saddle and remounts. Looking at his hand, he finds that his fingers are a little red from the coldness of the water. He’s intrigued by the water cascading down the side of the mountain and watches it until they have traveled far enough that it disappears from view.
They continue along the road, passing the occasional wagon or traveler as they progress further up the mountain. It isn’t long until they begin to hear a steady, loud roar coming from up ahead.
The mountainside on their right abruptly falls away, revealing a tall narrow gorge with a majestic, powerful, three tiered waterfall. The water, after collecting in a pool at the base of the falls, crosses under a bridge and cascades down the mountainside to the river below.
The sound of the falls is deafening as they cross the bridge spanning its outflow. Its thundering reverberates through them as they pause a moment to marvel at this wonder of nature.
“Ain’t that something?” James hollers at Miko as he tries to be heard over the roar of the falls.
“Yeah!” he hollers back. While they sit there on the bridge marveling at one of nature’s wonders, the spray from the waterfall feels good as it helps to alleviate the heat of the day.
“James, look!” exclaims Miko as he points to the pool at the base of the waterfall.
Taking a closer look, James spies three deer drinking from the pool. He nods his head, acknowledging having seen them, then indicates they should continue down the road. As they leave, Miko turns his head several times trying to capture in his mind the marvel of the waterfall and the deer below until the scene finally disappears behind trees and rocks.
The travelers encountered are few and far between, all being either on individual wagons or part of small caravans. None are very talkative as they have far too much on their minds, what with worrying about conditions on the other side of the mountains, and whether or not they will find safety there.
The further into the Pass they go, the more the road climbs away from the river. Though still able to hear the rapids as water crashes over rocks below, it has been steadily growing fainter and fainter as they progress to the upper elevations.
Upon reaching where the road widens into a scenic overlook, they decide to stop for a short break to give the horses a chance to rest and have a quick bite to eat. After getting off his horse, Miko moves to the edge of the overlook and gazes down to the river below. Having never before looked down from such a height, he is almost overcome with a sudden fear of heights. Assailed by vertigo, he backs away quickly until there are several yards of road between him and the edge.
“You okay?” James asks as he hands him a portion of their rations.
Taking the food, Miko nods his head affirmatively, “It’s just that we are so high. I didn’t realize we had climbed so far.”
“It is deceiving,” James admits. “While you are climbing, it doesn’t seem like your ascent has been all that dramatic, until you look down. Then it sort of hits you all at once. I remember it happened to me once when my family took me to Yellowstone.”
“Your family took you to go see a yellow stone?” asks Miko confusedly.
“Not a yellow stone,” corrects James, “but a place called Yellowstone. It’s a place where people go to get away for awhile and have fun.”
“Oh,” replies Miko.
After the break, they remount and travel for another hour before coming to a section of the mountain that levels out for a ways into a plateau. The plateau extends for several miles from the gorge until it ends and the mountains resume their rise. About a quarter mile off the road further back on the plateau sits a large structure, looking in ill repair. It stands four stories high with windows only in the uppermost section of the walls. A large door looms open and is slightly ajar.
“Must be an old keep,” James guesses. “Maybe a garrison was once stationed here.”
“Could be,” agrees Miko. “It doesn’t look as if anyone has been in there for a long time. Wonder if it’s haunted.”
“Don’t tell me you believe in ghosts?” James asks, slightly amused.
“Of course not,” asserts Miko. “It’s just that the place looks creepy.”
“I would love to see what is inside,” admits James, and then lets out a big sigh. “But we better make the best time we can, while we can. No telling how long we will have before we run the danger of encountering the Empire’s armies once we get through the mountains.”
“Good idea,” agrees Miko, slightly more enthusiastic than the occasion called for, “we better hurry along.” With that he kicks the flanks of his horse and quickly continues down the road, putting distance between himself and the old keep.
Grinning at his friend, James quickly hurries to catch him and then together they continue down the road. The plateau area with the abandoned keep is quickly left behind.
The rest of the afternoon passes fairly quickly with more waterfalls, though none as spectacular as the three tiered one earlier. About mid afternoon, the sun falls behind the high mountain peaks to the west and the air begins turning chilly. It’s not too terribly uncomfortable at first but over the next hour, the temperature drops rapidly. Soon they pull on the jackets bought earlier in Trademeet.
“I see what you mean,” Miko tells James as he puts his jacket on.
“About what?” he replies.
“About how cool it gets up here after the sun goes down,” he explains.
“My grandfather taught me to always be prepared,” says James. “He used to say ‘It’s better to bring a jacket you’ll never need than to need the one left at home’.”
“Wise man your grandfather,” comments Miko, now warm and comfortable.
“Yeah, he was. But you know, when they are giving you these little gems of wisdom, you seldom see the value of it at the time and often see it as being a big nuisance.” James sits in thought for a while before breaking out in laughter.
Miko looks at him and asks, “What’s so funny?”
“I was just remembering when I came to realize the value of that particular gem,” he says as he begins to explain, but then pauses for a moment.
“And what happened?” Miko prompts him.
Smiling at the memory, James says, “Well, it was summertime and we planned a trip out to the coast, San Francisco was the name of the city. Now, my grandfather was telling me that I should bring my jacket, that I may need it. But it was really hot where we were and I couldn’t see the need of it. We arrived at the city and decided to go see Alcatraz, that’s an old prison situated on an island in the middle of the bay. I got on the ferry that was going to take us over there, and froze.”
Smiling, Miko is enjoying hearing about James’ little goof up.
“I told my grandfather that I was cold,” he explains. “But he just smiled and called it a lesson learned. We stayed there on that island for what seemed like a long time and I froze the entire time. I was miserable, my nose was running and I was shaking. When we finally returned to the mainland, I made a beeline toward this guy who was selling hot clam chowder and grabbed me some.”
“I’ll never forget that experience and I will never be caught again without a coat, not if I can help it.” Finished with the story, James rides along in silence for a while, silently reminiscing about home.
Shortly, he begins noticing the smell of wood smoke. He looks around for a plume of smoke that could indicate a forest fire, but doesn’t see anything. The smell steadily increases as they continue, when he suddenly realizes that they must be approaching the top of the summit and what he has been smelling is the smoke from many campfires.
Cresting the top of the Pass, they come to the way stop and are surprised at how many people are camped there. A contingent of soldiers is also there, seeming to be keeping order.
As they approach, one of the soldiers breaks off from his fellows and approaches, holding up his hand to have them stop. “Sorry, but the way stop is bursting to capacity with more coming in all the time,” he explains. “You two will need to camp a little further back down the road.”
“Why?” James asks. “What’s going on?”
“Refugees from the fall of Saragon,” the soldier explains, indicating the people at the way stop. “They’ve been pouring through the Pass for the last day or so. We made a temporary camp here for them and will keep them here until we know what is to be done with them.”
“Why not allow them to go on into Trademeet?” Miko asks.
“Those are the Captain’s orders and he didn’t explain himself to me,” the soldier replies.
“No problem,” James tells him. “We can camp a little further back down the road tonight and then continue on over in the morning.”
“Sorry,” he says, “but we got orders that no one is to be allowed down the east side of the Pass until further notice.”
“What?” James exclaims. “Why?”
Looking like he’s tired of explaining the same thing over and over, the soldier says, “Like I said before, that’s the Captains orders and he doesn’t explain them to me.” The soldier, having said all he intends to, turns around and heads back toward the camp that has been set up at the way stop.
“Now what are we going to do?” Miko asks.
James gives Miko an exasperated look and says, “Would you stop asking me that!”
“Alright, alright,” he replies.
“Let’s go back down a ways and find a campsite,” James says. “Maybe we can think of something.”
Going back down the road, they find a widening of the road with enough room for them to make their camp and not be on the road. James sends Miko to gather firewood before it gets dark while he stakes out the horses and gets them ready for the night.
Miko makes three scavenging trips before collecting a sufficient store of firewood to last throughout the night. James gets the fire going and has dinner started before the light completely fades. While sitting around the fire eating dinner, two men appear from the direction of the way stop and approach their campfire.
“Hello,” one of the men says.
“Good evening gentlemen,” James replies, then waits to see what they will do.
They approach a little closer to the fire and James can see that they are eyeing their food hungrily. He says to them, “Would you two care to share our fire this evening? We have enough to share.”
“Yes, we’d like that,” the other man says. “But we actually came to see if you could spare some for our families. You see we fled Saragon when it fell with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”
“Certainly,” James says, “if you don’t have too many,”
The taller of the two men almost breaks down and cries while the other says, “Thank you very much.” Turning to the taller man he says, “Silas, go and bring ‘em over.”
Silas nods and heads back toward the refugee camp. The man says, “My name is Bellon, I was a farmer before the Empire’s army sacked our city.”
“How did you get out?” Miko asks.
“When the Empire overran the walls, it was total chaos,” Bellon explains. “People were running in every direction trying to get out. My grandfather used to be a smuggler way back when he was a younger man and once showed me an old smuggler route into the city that he said no one, not even the Governor knew about. Silas and I found it and used it to get our families out past the walls. The tunnel came out in a pile of old stones a dozen yards from the river, almost two miles north of the city.”
“We were past the enemy lines and ran all night and all day, hiding whenever we heard someone approaching. We did that until we saw some of our soldiers coming from the City of Light. We waved them down and told them where we were from and what had happened. They told us to head here, saying we could find refuge and safety.”
“Remarkable story,” James says. About that time, Silas returns with the rest, two women, an older boy and two smaller children. All have the lost look of those who have had their lives torn asunder.
James stands when the ladies approach and says, “Welcome to our campfire. You are welcome to stay here the night if you wish. We don’t have a lot of food, but what we do have we will gladly share.” Turning to Miko, he says, “Get the rest of the food out of the bags and pass it out, they look as if they could use it.”
The two families situate themselves on the ground around the campfire and wait for Miko to distribute the food. As it happens, there is enough to go around, maybe not enough to stuffing their bellies, but sufficient to still their hunger.
“By the way, my name is James and this is my companion, Miko,” he says, indicating Miko.
“We sure thank you for this, James” Silas says. “The kids were getting awfully hungry and the food that the soldiers were distributing had run out by the time we made it to the front of the line.”
“I don’t think the soldiers had planned on this many making it here,” Bellon says. “They said a caravan was on its way from Trademeet but wouldn’t be here until later tomorrow or possibly the day after.”
“We passed a large caravan coming this way early in the morning,” Miko tells them. “It will most likely be up here sometime late tomorrow.”
“That’s good news,” Silas says.
“James and I plan on going on through the Pass to Madoc in the morning,” Miko tells them.
James gives him a look that says, ‘Don’t tell strangers our business’. Miko has the good sense enough to blush at his mistake.
Silas’ wife says, “You mustn’t go there!”
Holding his wife’s hand, Silas says, “I agree, it’s not a good place to be right now.”
“Well, we don’t plan on going anywhere near Saragon,” James says.
“Still, the Empire’s men are terrible foes,” Bellon states.
“Why are they so terrible?” Miko asks with apprehension.
Bellon looks at him and says, “They kill just for the pleasure of it. If they can capture you, you become their slave and they take you back to their Empire to sell you at auction. When Saragon fell and we were running through the streets to get to the smuggler’s route, we saw the slavers taking people, tying their hands behind their backs and stringing them in slave lines. If they were too old or an invalid, they just slit their throats, leaving them to lie in the street and bleed to death.”
Bellon’s wife puts a hand on his arm, and when she has his attention, shakes her head and indicates the children. “Oh, sorry, maybe this is not the time or place to be talking about such things,” he says.
“I think I get the idea,” James says, understanding. “But there is not much we can do, we have to go.”
“If you must go,” Silas says, “then stay as far to the north away from Saragon as you can. No one was sure if the Empire would stop at Saragon or push further north.”
“We will, I promise,” he assures them and then turns his attention to the vacant eyed younger children. “Now who would like to hear a silly song about a bunny?” he asks.
They kind of perk up at that, at least the younger two do. One of them says very timidly, “I do.”
So James begins to sing. “Little bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest…” While he sings, he pantomimes the little bunny hopping along with the rest of the cast of characters.
For the remainder of the evening he sits and sings all the old silly songs he once sung as a child and even throws in a couple of poems. The children sit in rapt attention and after the first two songs, begin to smile a little and even clap along. The adults, seeing life returning to their children, begin to clap along as well with tears in their eyes.
Eventually, James’ voice begins to crack and he has to stop for a while. Miko, surprisingly, begins a song about a lord who can’t find his slippers. It’s a silly song, but obviously one that the children have heard before because they begin to sing along with him after the fist chorus.
The rest of the night is full of singing and silly tales. For a time at least, the memories of what happened and what their futures might hold are forgotten. All that mattered this night was that they had brought joy back to the children.
The following morning when the sky begins to lighten, even before the sun rises over the mountain peaks, James and Miko make ready to get through the Pass.
Silas, Bellon and their families gather around, shaking hands. Silas’ wife even goes so far as giving James a kiss. “Thank you so much for last night,” she says with tears in her eyes.
“I wish you all well,” James says as he mounts his horse with Miko following suit. James reaches into his shirt and pulls out a bag of coins and tosses it toward Silas who catches it. “Take this and start a new life,” he says.
“We can’t accept this,” Silas says and makes to hand it back.
“No, you keep it,” James says, refusing to take it. “Money I have plenty of, what good is it if you can’t use it to help out your fellow man.”
“How can I ever repay your generosity?” Silas asks.
“Before the year is out, help two people who are less fortunate than yourselves,” James explains. “Also, ask them each to help two people within a year. Start a chain of giving, who knows where it might lead.” When all is ready he mounts up as does Miko.
“We will,” says Bellon, the rest of the adults nod their heads in agreement.
James reaches down and shakes hands with Bellon and Silas, “Good bye now, and good luck.”
“May the gods speed you on your way,” Silas says.
“And be careful,” his wife adds.
With a final wave, James and Miko turn to head back toward the summit and over into Madoc. Behind them, James can hear one of the little girls begin to sing, “Little bunny Foo Foo…” With a tear beginning to well in his eye, he hurries along toward the way stop.
They don’t get far before they are once again challenged by a soldier, a different one than the day before. “Travelers are not allowed beyond the way stop,” the soldier tells them.
“We can take care of ourselves,” James assures him.
“Be that as it may, my orders are clear. No one and I mean no one is to be allowed to endanger themselves by traveling into the Madoc area.” He stands there and bars their way, staring at them.
“What if we just ride around you and go anyway?” he asks.
“Then the soldiers further east will stop you,” the soldier explains. “If you persist after that, they will arrest you and place you in jail for your own safety until you realize that it’s not safe for you to go there.”
“Damn!” James mutters under his breath. Turning his horse around, he heads back toward the west. As they return, they find that Silas and Bellon have already returned to the refugee area with their families.
James glances at Miko who is looking at him with a questioning look on his face. “Don’t ask me!” he says to him.
“I wasn’t,” Miko replies innocently. “I am simply waiting patiently to find out what we are going to do now.” Smiling, he continues to look at James.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I certainly don’t want to waste the time backtracking all the way to Trademeet and then going north through the Dragon’s Pass. That will add days to our travel time.”
“Why don’t you use that compass thing of yours,” suggests Miko.
“It might just be time to do that,” James agrees. “Good idea.”
Miko beams at the praise as they return to the spot where they spent the night before. There they dismount and James removes the compass from his backpack.
He sits as far from the road as he can with his back to the rock wall. Motioning Miko over he says, “This may take a while, so make sure I am not disturbed. And remember, we don’t want anyone to find out I can do magic, alright?”
“Alright,” agrees Miko as he takes position a little closer to the road.
James settles down and holds the compass in his hands on his lap as he begins to tap the magic. He concentrates on finding a way through the mountains that he and Miko will be able to travel, which will avoid the soldiers patrolling the road. He concentrates harder and harder and then feels the magic surging forth when he releases it to begin hunting for a way. To James, it feels as if the magic is expanding from him in a spherical radius, causing ever increasing amounts to be drawn from him, searching every nook and cranny of the mountain for the elusive path.
The spell continues to draw large amounts of power from him and after just a short time, he begins feeling the effects. His head starts to throb and his breathing becomes more labored. Yet still the spell isn’t finished, has not yet found a path through the mountains.
Suddenly, the flow of power eases as the powers begin to merge and flow in a more singular direction like a pack of dogs that’s caught the scent of a fox. Then all of a sudden it was over and the needle of the compass turns to point westward down the road, back toward Trademeet.
Opening his eyes, James sees where the compass is pointing and sighs.
Miko hears him and comes over asking, “Did it work?”
“Yes,” James replies, “but it’s pointing back the way we came.” He shows the compass to Miko.
“Is it directing us toward Dragon’s Pass?” Miko wonders.
“I don’t know,” he replies, “though we may have little choice.” Getting up, he has a sudden dizzy spell and briefly loses his balance. Miko sees him faltering and puts James’ arm around his shoulder. After taking a few steps and several deep breaths, he begins feeling better. He then removes his arm from around Miko’s neck. “I’m okay now, it’s passed.”
“Too big a spell again?” he asks.
“I think so, but I seem to be better able in handling the effects.” He mounts his horse and they turn to follow the direction indicated by the compass.
Several hours later and still following the compass, they once again come to the plateau where the old abandoned keep stands. When the keep comes into view, the compass swings and points toward it.
“Great!” James hears Miko exclaim when he realizes where the compass is pointing. “Somehow I knew we’d be going in there.”
“I had my suspicions too,” James admits. Thinking the way may be further down the plateau and not the old keep, James angles them to go around its left side. But when they begin to pass the entrance, the compass turns and continues pointing toward the open front door.
He shows the compass to Miko with a grin. Shrugging, he turns his horse toward the entrance and dismounts when they come to it. James peers through the slight opening made by the door being ajar, but isn’t able to make out anything in the dim light filtering in.
Turning back to Miko he says, “Let’s secure the horses around back and then investigate. We don’t want anyone coming by and helping themselves to them while we are in there.” They walk the horses around to the back where they find a fallen tree to secure them to. James takes his backpack and they return to the entrance. They stand there for a second when he says to Miko, “Wanna go first?”
“No,” replies Miko, a little scared.
“Alright then, I’ll go first.” James steps up and slowly makes his way through the doorway, passing into a poorly lit room. He makes his glowing orb and the light from it reveals a large room with several doors and two hallways leading from it. The compass indicates they should take the hallway directly opposite the door.
He makes his way across the room to the hallway. As he enters, the light from the orb reveals something large lying across the floor not three feet from where he stands. As he moves closer he discovers it to be a dead body in the latter stage of decomposition. The clothing on the man, at least he thinks it was a man, is in pretty bad shape but looks as if they used to be of good quality.
Miko sees the dead body illuminated by the orb and gasps. “James, we shouldn’t be in here,” he says with a tremor of fear in his voice. “Let’s find another way.”
“Don’t be scared Miko,” He says reassuringly. “It’s only a dead body.” He leans down and grabs a stick and then begins poking through the dead man’s clothes. “Most likely this was a merchant traveling through the Pass that ran afoul of bandits and they dumped his body in here. See, look, there is no purse on him, nothing at all of value.” James uses the stick and turns the head. “And look,” he says indicating the back of the head, “it’s cracked like someone hit him in the head with something hard.”
“Maybe the bandits are still here?” Miko says worriedly, looking around.
“Not likely,” he replies. “If they were still using this place, they would hardly have left a dead body rotting in the hallway. They would have dumped it out back where they wouldn’t have had to walk over it and smell it.”
“I suppose you’re right,” admits Miko, though still not sounding very reassured.
“So relax, we’re going to be okay,” he assures, trying his best to calm Miko.
“If you say so,” Miko replies halfheartedly.
Leaving the body behind, they continue down the hallway, passing two doors before coming to a halt before the third.
“Why are you stopping?” Miko asks.
“It’s indicating that we need to go through this door,” he explains. He tries the handle but finds it locked. He hands the compass and glowing orb to Miko before throwing his weight against the door. With a crash, the door bursts in, breaking off a two foot section of the door jamb in the process. His momentum carries him a little ways through the door where he stumbles and falls as his foot fails to find purchase on the floor. He rolls down a flight of stairs coming to rest at the bottom. Bruised and scraped but otherwise unhurt, he gets to his feet.
From the top of the steps he sees Miko illuminated by the glow from the orb in his hand looking down at him. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah,” replies James, “come on down. But be careful, I might have broken a few of the steps during my fall.”
Being extra careful, Miko takes it one step at a time, having to skip over one due to it being in such bad shape that he doesn’t think it will support his weight. He finally makes it to the bottom.
By the time he’s reached the bottom, James has taken a cursory look around the room. It’s a small room, only about ten feet by maybe twelve. The only exit is the door at the top of the stairs. The room itself is empty except for the dust that has accumulated over time.
He retrieves the compass from Miko and sure enough, it’s still pointing the way. Only this time it’s indicating the direction they need to go is through the wall. Pointing to the wall indicated by the compass, he says, “It says that we are to go this way.”
“Another secret door like in Lord Colerain’s estate?” suggests Miko.
Nodding his head, he replies, “I think so, give me the orb for a second.” Holding out his hand, Miko passes him the orb.
He does a thorough inspection of the wall and fails to find anything that looks like it could be a trigger to open the secret door. He then moves to the adjoining walls, searching for some trigger or other mechanism that could possibly open a secret door.
Miko looks around as well and notices a design on the floor, partially hidden by the accumulated dust. “James, look at this,” he says as he points it out to him.
James comes over and kneels down, taking a closer look. Brushing away the dust he discovers that it is a square shaped stone engraved with a design of a circle within a circle within a circle. He presses on it but nothing happens. Getting to his feet, he has Miko step on it while he goes over and pushes on the wall but nothing happens. “Maybe there are others we need to release first,” he theorizes. “Look around for any more similar designs.”
They look around and Miko discovers another one on the wall about midway up the stairs. This one is just a single circle. Excited, James says, “If there is one with three circles and another with just the one, then there may be another with two circles. And hopefully by pressing them in the correct order, it’ll enable us to open the secret door.”
“Makes sense,” agrees Miko.
They continue to look but fail to find two circles, one in the other. “I don’t think there is one here, James,” Miko says after they’ve searched for a while.
“There has to be,” he insists. “It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.” He continues to look around, getting on his hands and knees to closely examine the floor inch by inch.
“But we’ve examined all the walls and floor over and over,” Miko goes on. “There is no such design here.”
Stopping and standing up suddenly, James looks at Miko, “You’re right. We have searched all the walls and the floor, but we haven’t looked at the ceiling.” He turns his gaze up toward the ceiling and sure enough, there is the design with two circles, one inside the other. “I knew it!” he exclaims excitedly.
“Miko, go and press firmly on the single circle,” James tells him.
Miko cautiously makes his way up the stairs and presses the circle, “Now what?”
“Toss the piece of the door jamb that I broke off down to me,” he replies.
Miko looks around and finds the broken door jamb, he tosses it down to James.
Catching it, James raises it up toward the double circle in the ceiling. Holding it steady, he puts the end against the design and presses firmly. Miko by this time has made it back down the stairs.
James lowers the broken door jamb and lets it drop to the floor. He walks over to the triple circle on the floor and presses firmly on it with his foot. Suddenly, a section of the wall begins to swing inward, creating a three foot wide by five foot tall opening.
He brings the orb close and discovers the opened door has revealed a narrow passage which looks to have been carved out of the mountain.
As James stands there looking down the passage, the door slowly begins to swing closed. Finding no way to keep it open, he backs out of the way and lets the door close. Turning back to Miko, he says, “Let’s go back up and get our things from the horses.”
“You mean we’re leaving them up there?” Miko asks incredulously.
“Our way lies through there,” James says, pointing toward the secret door. “And I seriously doubt if the horses will be able to make it. Besides, can you think of a way to get them safely down that broken flight of steps?”
“No, I can’t,” Miko admits as he glances over to the steps in question.
“Okay then, so let’s go and get what we are really going to need and hide the rest, just in case we manage to come back this way again.” He walks over and carefully climbs back up the stairs, trying to place his weight evenly so as not to cause another step to break. Miko waits until he has made it to the top before following.
They walk back through the hallway, past the corpse and through the front door. Around back they find their horses and mule just where they had left them. James grabs the jackets, throwing Miko’s over to him who grabs it and puts it on. They take everything off the horses and mules, tying them loosely so that if they don’t return, they will be able to break free.
In several trips, they manage to haul all their equipment and the tack down into the little room at the bottom of the stairs, secreting it under the steps. As they are bringing in the last load, James sees the supply caravan they had passed the day before trundling past along the road on its way to the refugee camp.
He stashes the last of the equipment under the steps and says, “Unless someone comes down here, our stuff should be safe.”
Miko nods agreement, “It’s too bad we have to lose the horses.”
“I know, but we have money to buy new ones and we’re pressed for time,” he says. Taking out his traveling scribe case, he places it on the stairs and opens it.
“You’re not taking that with us are you?” Miko asks.
“No,” James responds, “I just want to take the notes I have written.” He removes the note filled parchment and rolls them into a tight roll, placing them in his backpack. Closing the case, he places it with the rest of the equipment under the steps. He turns to Miko and asks, “Did you get the money?”
Miko pats one of the bags he has over his shoulder and says, “Right here.”
“Okay, looks like we’re ready,” he says. “Go push the circle by the stairs and we’ll get going.”
Miko climbs up the stairs and pushes the circle on the wall, James again uses his makeshift stick and pushes the double circle on the ceiling, then goes over and steps on the triple circle on the floor. The secret door swings open and James takes the lead, holding the glowing orb in his hand as he passes through the doorway and into the tunnel.