The Dragonstone

CHAPTER 50

Garlon!" Alos flinched back, preparing to flee. And Ferret clutched at Delon's arm as the distant echoes of the far-off wraul faded to silence. "The 'alim," she breathed, "he said the maze was demon haunted."

"Let's go," whined Alos, "back to Aban."

"Nay, Alos," said Arin. "Our way lies yon." She pointed into the maze.

"But you heard Ferret," cried Alos. "It's demon haunted."

"That could be but a falsehood planted by the Fists of Rakka," said Arin. "Even so, something within the maze howls. Aiko, what says thy tiger?"

"She growls of death, Dara," replied the Ryodoan. "Whatever is in there, it is fatal."

One arm now around Ferret, Delon nodded. "I for one believe it. And as to what it might be, a Hel-spawned demon is as good a guess as any." With his free hand he gestured at the ruptured land, crimson in the setting sun. "What else could that be but a demon-laden, blood-drenched Hel?"

"Your vision of Hel is different from mine," said Egil. "But, Hel or not, demon or not, something is down there tonight."

"See!" declared Alos. "We're all agreed. Let's turn back."

Arin merely shook her head.

Egil glanced at the oncoming twilight. "Well, whatever it might be, I'd rather not meet it in the dark. I say we camp here on the plateau for now and follow the way down into the maze in the morning, seek the temple in the light of day."

Alos groaned. "What makes you think this is the way to the temple?"

"If it were not," said Egil, "the 'alim would not have sent us here."

His hands flapping all 'round as if searching for a drink, Alos quavered, "Maybe he was lying. Maybe this isn't the way at all."

"Nay, Alos. We must have faith in what he said."

"Ha! And just why do you think we can trust him?"

Egil canted his head toward Aiko. "A tiger told us so."

The Fjordlander then turned away from the brink and started back toward the kneeling camels. "But that same tiger told us that death waits down there," Alos called out to the others as they followed Egil back. Then the old man glanced at the crimson labyrinth behind-"Eep!"-and hastily scuttled after them.

They made a tiny charcoal fire on the barren stone and heated water for tea. And as they waited for it to come to a boil, Delon turned to Egil and said, "So your vision of Hel is different from mine."

Egil nodded. "Yes. My Hel is frigid, bleak, ice-laden. It is dark and freezing cold, with no protection from the bitter winds, no shelter of any kind. There is no heat to be had; no comfort of a fire. Souls abandoned there are doomed to endless wandering across the frozen 'scape, with bottomless crevasses and mountains of ice barring the way."

Alos held his trembling hands out toward the tiny charcoal glow. "No heat to be had, eh? Rather like this camp, I would say."

Egil smiled. "Much worse, Alos. Much worse." The Fjordlander then shrugged. "If there is a Hel, that is." Egil turned to Delon. "I take it your Hel looks somewhat like the labyrinth."

Delon nodded. "As you say, if there is a Hel. I've always believed Hel is rocks, schist, boulders, endless canyons shattered through stone. No water. No plants. No animals. Just hard, hard rock… nothing soft… no place to lie down and sleep. And like your Hel, it is dark, and souls are fated to wander forever looking for a place to rest, a place of comfort, but not finding any."

Ferret shook her head. "Hel is a place of endless howling winds, the dark air filled with hurtling, slashing sand. The land is covered everywhere with stabbing thorns dealing piercing wounds that never heal."

Ferret turned to Alos. The old man seemed to shrink within himself. "To my way of thinking, Hel is black, no light whatsoever, and filled with pits, chasms, and things hunting." Alos shuddered, then added, "Maybe things like whatever howled."

All eyes turned to Aiko. "I do not believe there is a Hel, nor a Paradise for that matter." She gestured about. "There is only this and nothing more. Dead is dead, with nothing after."

Alos glanced up at her. "Then how do you explain ghosts?"

Aiko turned her impassive gaze toward the oldster. "I do not believe in spirits."

Alos stabbed a quivering finger in the direction of the labyrinth. "Then how do you explain whatever it is we heard howl?"

"If it is an akuma-a demon-then it is no ghost, but something very much alive." Aiko touched the hilts of her swords. "And things alive can be killed."

Silence fell among them awhile. Finally Delon turned to Arin. "And what do you believe, Dara? About Hel, that is."

Arin looked over at the bard. "If there is a Hel, then I would think it a great emptiness, a void, an abyss, with absolutely nothing therein, no light, no dark, no substance, no force, absolutely nothing whatsoever. And there is no one in this emptiness, this void, but thine own self. Canst thou think of a punishment worse?" She looked 'round the circle, but no one had a response.

And then the water began to boil above the charcoal fire, and soon talk turned to other matters as they drank hot tea and ate a cold meal on the edge of an endless maze.

As they had done all along on the trail, each took a turn at ward. And in the dead of night during Delon's watch there echoed from the bowels of the labyrinth afar another ghastly howl, one which startled all the sleepers awake, and they were long in regaining slumber.

Arin stood the final watch, and she soothed Egil when he was visited by his nightly ill dream, this one of Lutor being slowly pulled apart.

Dawn lay on the horizon when the Dylvana lit another charcoal fire and set a kettle for tea; when the water came to a boil, she wakened the sleepers. As the others relieved themselves and readied for the day, the Dylvana walked to the perimeter of the precipice and looked at the pathway down. She stood a moment on the lip and sipped tea and chewed on a bit of waybread. And then she attempted to ‹see› in her special way. To her right something faintly glowed among a cluster of jagged boulders. Keeping an eye on the nebulous tracery, she stepped along the rim to the pile, and there between two of the huge rocks, hidden in a manner she could not fathom, she found another path leading to the verge and downward.

Her thoughts echoed the 'alim's warning in the archive: "Not all paths are what they seem. Search well; choose wisely." Arin took a sip of her tea and looked back at the other path and then again at this new one. Which, I wonder, is the true way to follow?

Arin extended her exploration a goodly distance in both directions along the perimeter, but no other paths did she find.

"Two paths?" Egil looked at her in consternation. "Where is the second?"

"Beyond those jagged boulders," replied Arin.

Ferret gazed toward the cluster then leftward to the way they had seen last night. "Which one should we follow?"

"The one at the rocks, I should think," said Arin.

"Oh?" said Alos.

Aiko glanced at Arin and nodded in agreement. "The path at the boulders is hidden, as is the temple."

"Exactly so," said Arin. "Too, this new path may have a charm upon it."

Delon touched the amulet at his neck. "Let us go see."

"If it has a charm upon it," said Delon, looking at the narrow trail, "it's not one of invisibility."

"Perhaps it's a ward of some kind," said Ferret, standing at Delon's side. "Perhaps one that is not meant for us, but for foes of the temple instead-the Fists of Rakka, for one."

"You mean it hides the path from them and only them, or perhaps turns them aside?"

Ferret looked at Delon and nodded. "Aye. That or the like… if charms can do such things."

All eyes turned to Arin, but she shrugged. "Were I a Mage, mayhap I could say yea or nay."

"This is what the 'alim meant," said Aiko, gesturing leftward at the other way, "when he said that not all paths are what they seem. He was warning us away from the obvious."

"That is my belief as well," said Arin.

Alos cocked a skeptical eyebrow but remained silent.

Egil looked at the others and then at the sun, now poised on the rim of the world. "Let's not waste the daylight."

As they returned to the camels, Arin said, "I shall lead the descent."

Both Egil and Aiko protested, especially the Ryodoan, saying that if danger came, a warrior should take the brunt.

But Arin was adamant. "This path has a charm upon it, one we do not know, and among this band only I can ‹see›. And should it change in any manner, 'tis I who can best decide what it portends."

"But, love-" Egil began, yet, with an upflung hand, Arin stopped his words.

"Once we are down within the labyrinth, where I ween the way is wider, then Aiko or thou canst lead. But as we descend along the charmed way, 'tis mine to do."

Egil glanced at Aiko, and she blew out a long breath, then stiffly said, "As you will, Dara. As you will."

Swiftly they laded the camels, and amid hronks of protest mounted up and got all the animals to their feet. Each towing a beast, they moved toward the precipice, Arin in the lead, Aiko immediately after, then Egil, Alos, and Ferret, with Delon bringing up the rear. They paused on the verge and looked out over the endless canyons plunging deep into the crimson stone.

Delon sighed and said, "Of all our philosophies, why is it only I who believe we are about to step into Hel?"

In the lead, Arin urged her camel forward and started down within.