* This is the second installment of a short story I wrote in 2009. If you are enjoying this serial, please ‘like’ and ‘share’ it. Thanks again!
To read Wizard Test - Part I, click HERE.
Nearly sixty yards into the cave, Tarsysk’s eyes caught a glimpse of unusually smooth stone above his head. He stopped, and after close examination, found the tell-tale rune letters of a minor holding spell set above a well-hewn doorway. It seemed strange that a wizard of Teldrin’s renown might leave such a simple trap to guard the entrance to his domain. Tarsysk decided to take a second look around the doorway, hoping the torchlight would catch any other anomalies in the rock. When he was confident there were no other immediate dangers about, he put his mind to the puzzle. He thought back to his studies on the mechanics of magic. Holding spells, like most enchantments of their kind, required a specific trigger to loose its effect. When casting the spell, the second syllable of the command word was essential for activation. Tarsysk scanned the letters above the doorway and quickly identified the triggering rune; a triangular shape located in the fourth position of the spell-word. The fourth position trigger allowed the spell to be activated within a given area, say, whenever someone crossed the threshold of a doorway. Others might have missed the subtle change in the spell-word, but Tarsysk had been studying the mechanics and wording of simple magics day and night for over two years. He was not about to let himself fall prey to his own sloppy syntax.
Setting his torch to the side and taking a small hammer from his belt, he carefully tapped at the triangular rune until it crumbled and fell to the cave floor. After a moment of self-reassurance, he replaced the hammer, picked up his torch and took one step through the doorway with just the slightest hint of doubt clawing at the back of his mind. After walking almost 20 more feet down the corridor, he exhaled.
It often took moments such as these to remind Tarsysk why he wanted to learn magic in the first place; the application of knowledge, the problems, the mysteries, and of course…the power. He often fantasized about hurling spheres of mystical fire, wind walking through the clouds on a cool autumn day, and discovering long forgotten bits of mystical knowledge. Perhaps, the endless hours of study were finally beginning to make sense, as though he were delicately pulling the veil away from an invisible world he’d only imagined a few years earlier. The daydream soon dissipated and Tarsysk felt himself tumbling back to reality. Though the application of elementary eldritch theory was gratifying, he was never one to dwell on small successes. He knew the only difference between himself and some bumbling cave burglar, frozen in time by simple hedge magic, was a well-educated guess. Now was certainly not the time for self-aggrandizing; not with nearly a mile of pitch black tunnels left to explore. He shook his head and continued his trek.
The journey continued to be slow and painstaking. With the limited illumination his torchlight granted, Tarsysk was forced to take but a handful of paces at one time before stopping. He listened for any sounds in the black, more than once mistaking the echoes of his own footfalls for something gruesome clacking in the dark. Occasionally he felt the floor decline and the stale air grow colder as if he were descending into the heart of an ancient crypt.
The path between the cave walls widened and opened into some sort of grotto. Tarsysk stopped and thrust his torch ahead, finding only the persistent silent gloom. Nevertheless, his eyes narrowed and the shadow of smile fell across his face.
At least the old man’s map is accurate.
But that small comfort didn’t last long, as he thought about how to keep his bearings within the widening cavern. If the map stayed true to scale, the cave room would be approximately 10 yards across and nearly 15 yards deep. There was no way to tell how high the ceiling was, and Tarsysk couldn’t help imagining it covered in blood bats just waiting patiently for the right moment to fall upon him.
Blood bats don’t nest this far north, coward!
He pointed his torch toward the right edge of the tunnel and slowly followed the wall.
After a few paces, Tarsysk recognized the edge of a door frame in the rock. The map depicted a narrowing passageway beyond this cavern and it seemed likely that miners had dug out this spot and built a sturdy frame at this point of egress for structural support. The portal was open, much like the previous doorway adorned with the “holding” enchantment, but it seemed oddly angled in the rough stone that surrounded it. He moved his torch across the opening from right to left and noticed another door frame just a few feet away. Making his way in front of the portals toward the eastern side of the cavern, Tarsysk found a third door nestled there. All three appeared to allow for passage south, deeper into the cave, but the map displayed no information as to which was the proper door to use. In fact, the map showed only a single passageway extending from this spot.
Tarsysk slowly waved his torch in an arc across his body. He examined the three doors from left to right and wondered, briefly, which portal would be his end. He actively pushed the macabre thought from his mind, knowing full well that fear would only paralyze him. Without stepping into the doorways, themselves, he carefully examined the outer edges, looking for any markings that might distinguish one dark entrance from the others. After a few minutes he identified a set of runes above each doorway. He took a step away, with the center door less than ten feet in front of him. With only torchlight, there was no way to see all three sets of runes at once, so he went about scribbling the letters of each set on the back of his map using a small piece of writing coal from his backpack. Though each set was different, they were arranged similarly; five rune letters resting atop each roughly hewn door jam. They were in no order that Tarsysk could identify. In fact, he couldn’t even identify some of the runes. It was like trying to read a foreign language. He realized he had no real idea what any of it meant, and his legs began to shake.
Image: Freepik
To be continued in Part III…