CHAPTER XX
Between a Rock and a Deep Place
The flap to my tent had barely settled into place behind us when it was jerked open again by a wild eyed, demon possessed, and very angry Ruby. Sybal had knelt to help me take off my greaves, but was suddenly jerked out of the tent by her ears before she could even lay a finger on the first buckle. Thinking it very wise not to step out of the tent, I peeked out the flap.
I’d seen a cat fight or two between my sisters on the farm, but the way these two were going at it, beat the hell out the tussles I’d witnessed in the past. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen too many fights amongst men that had been this brutal. It was taking everything Able had to hold Sapphire back, and from the look on her face, I wasn’t too sure who she was pulling for. Ruby got the upper hand by pulling Sybal plumb off her feet. The move had been skillfully performed, and Sybal had not seen it coming. Ruby simply ducked beneath Sybal’s flailing arms, grabbed her by the ankles, and yanked. In a flash she was straddling Sybal across her chest and arms, using her weight advantage to keep the woman pinned down.
Ruby began raining down closed fisted blows on Sybal’s unprotected face, and several landed so hard, they knocked the spunk right out of smaller woman. Even the squirrel was attacking the downed elf. I stepped out of the tent to break it up the moment I heard Sybal calling out in submission. I’ve done this a time or two in the past as well, and knew one had to be very cautious when interfering with someone who was as upset as Ruby.
As expected, when I bear-
I didn’t see Able try to restrain me as I walked over to join them, but within moments I realized my mistake. I was met with a united front of angry stares and scornful looks. The damn squirrel even bared his teeth at me. Then Ruby slapped my face so hard, my ears were still ringing well after the three of them marched past me and went into a tent. Luckily, the squirrel only got a mouth full of steel when he tried to bite my ankle. It fled from me before I could stomp him right good, and all I got for the effort was a flash of bushy tale as it joined the others.
I turned towards Able for consolation, but Able was nowhere to be found, and I could have sworn I heard muffled laughter coming from somewhere in the darkness. Sapphire, and Sybal emerged from their tent to resume the watch, but neither of them even glanced my way. Disconcerted, and desperately needing to rub some salve on the places where the armor had chafed me, I returned to my tent, lit a candle, and began to undress.
Undressing was not an easy task, and as much pain as I was in, I desperately needed Able’s help. I was cursing up a storm when the curtain opened, and Ruby stepped in. “Well, close your mouth before you attract the flies in here,” she commanded. “I would have scratched at the door, but since your flap was gapped open wide enough for the whole world to see in, I didn’t think it was necessary. Turn around, and let me help you get that off. Turn around, and don’t be getting any of your ideas either.” What else was I suppose to do? I turned around. Nether of us spoke as she deftly removed my armor pieces, and since I was confused by her sudden change in mood, I thought it was prudent to not push my untrustworthy luck.
“You presume too much, sir,” Ruby warned me when I began to shuck my trousers. Mortified by her chastisement, I froze. She’d helped me out of my shirt, so how the hell was I supposed to know she wasn’t going to help me out of the rest of my clothes? Embarrassed, and expecting her to storm out of the tent, I actually flinched when the cool salve on her fingers touched a raw place on my back. The salve instantly eased the pain, and the more she applied to the chafed places, the better I began to feel. Thinking that all was forgiven, I began entertaining thoughts about enticing her into kissing me again. When she had me turn around, thoughts of this nature vanished completely. I was unnerved because she was staring right at my crotch, and then she broke into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. To make matters worse, Able stuck his head in to see what was going on. Seeing Ruby, he withdrew it, but not before he too burst into a fit of laughter. Glancing down, I cringed, and I too couldn’t stop myself from exploding into laughter. I hadn’t removed my codpiece yet, and it stood out like a hunchback in an empty street. It was wrong. I covered myself with both hands, but the damage had been done, and Ruby hastened out the tent with tears streaming down her face.
Where will I find a cavern dark enough to mask my monstrous shame? These thoughts and more plagued me as it drew close to the hour when everyone would start to get up. Able had ragged me the entire time he stood watch with me, and had he not been so quick on his feet, I think I would have really run him through with my sword. I was dreading the next few hours, and I would rather have been beaten with a blacksmiths anvil than have to face the three women when they emerged from their tents. When the moment of truth arrived, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, or maybe it was worse. Either way, it was unsettling, and though I acted like I was perfectly happy with the way they acted towards me that morning, I was also still left thinking troubled thoughts at the absence of their mockery.
We traveled for a day and a half without encountering anyone upon the road. Deciding we needed to increase our progress by staying on the road, Able made a few more changes in how we traveled. Though it was dangerous, he and Sybal began walking far ahead of us. This enabled them to scout the lay of the land, and if need be, warn us when to get off the road when they saw someone traveling towards us. If we encountered a village, or a town, I was sent in to learn all I could of the area, obtain the latest news, and purchase supplies if we needed them.
During my absence, they would skirt the area, and meet up with me on the road just beyond the populated area. Sometimes the road went through fields were people were working, and we would have to circle far enough around them to avoid being seen. This slowed us, but not as much as we had been slowed traveling in the wilder regions. He also started keeping track of the days by marking notches on a stick, similar to the way merchants kept track of their sales by using a tally stick.
By midday we came to a fork in the road that went north and south, but Able’s map
couldn’t help us as to where either fork went. The south fork seemed to be a bit
more traveled. “The south road probably goes to Caer-
By evening, we came upon a fork in the road that was more agreeable to the direction we wished to go. The road continued going off to the north, but the fork branched off towards the east. Able suggested we take the east road. We traveled the road for less than an hour, and had to stop for the night. The next day the road again forked to the north and south, and Able was beginning to get very frustrated.
Fortunately, we came upon a trader who knew the area, and was capable of giving me directions. While the others hid, I was able to learn that if we stayed east, cutting through the moorlands, we would eventually come upon the king’s highway leading to Taunton. “These are dangerous times,” he’d warned, “there’s unrest in the kingdoms, talk of war with the elves, robbery by highwaymen, and raids by barbarians. Tis not a good time to be wandering the roads, minstrel, so don’t be put out if folks be treating you unkindly. They be scared and desperate these days. The overlord’s taxes be crushing their backs, men and boys be taken from their farms to fight for the nobles, and I’ve heard some say strange creatures have been attacking areas that have been left unprotected as the king moves troops north.” His information was far from heartening, and when we parted ways, I was beginning to have serious doubts about this adventure.
We left the road, and began walking through meadows of intense beauty. By noon, the sun had been blotted out by clouds, and a stiff breeze began to blow. We took a cold meal at the edge of a dense forest where mists swirled, and shadows loomed. It was spooky. Able kept eyeing the forest nervously, and I could tell he didn’t want to go within its creepy interior. Resigned to the fact that there were no other alternatives but to enter the forest, he led us into the mists. “Keep together,” he ordered.
Our visibility was becoming obscured to the point we could barely see the person in front of us. “Able,” Sybal called, interrupting Ruby’s lesson, and bringing us to another halt. “You are beginning to stray off course. I think you’d better let me lead us for a while. If this wind gets any stronger, we might need to find shelter. I also think we should tie a short rope from one person to the next so we do not become separated.” Able agreed, and Sybal took the lead. The wind was becoming fierce, and some of the stronger gusts made me grab Able by his shirt to keep him from being blown off his feet. I lost all track of time as we walked, and I guess it was nearly an hour before Sybal stopped again.
We grouped around her so she wouldn’t have to shout over the howling wind. “Able, there is a building up ahead. Do you want to check it out?” Able nodded his head, and Sybal lead us through the swirling mists to where she’d spotted the structure. The moaning wind was giving me the creeps, and even the ox seemed skittish. When the building came into view, its eerie opening did not look welcoming, and even Able seemed tentative about approaching it.
The structure wasn’t a building, but an enclosed vaulted archway of granite with wide stone steps leading down. “Zeke, come with me. You three stay here, we’ll be right back,” Able shouted over the wind. He cut two stout staffs from a nearby tree, and lit a torch he’d taken from a pack on the ox. He handed me the torch, and a staff.
“Whatever you do, drop the staff and not the torch if you need to draw your weapon. Use the staff to test the ground in front of you as you walk. We don’t want trigger any traps now do we?” I wanted to tell him that if I didn’t go into the creepy place to begin with, I wouldn’t need to worry about traps, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. He was overflowing with excitement, and I was just hoping my boots didn’t overflow with piss.
Able drew his sword, and began tapping the first step with his staff. We tested every step as we descended into the gloomy depths, but nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Many times I was forced to burn thick strands of ancient cobwebs, and twice bats swarmed us when the light disturbed their rest. We never saw rats, but we could hear them scurrying back and forth in the shadows below us. The steps seemed to go on forever, and gradually we left behind the sounds from above. Every noise we made sounded too loud, and every sound we heard made us jump.
The wide stairs ended in what appeared to be an atrium. We explored the atrium, and found it to be nearly four rods in length, and a rod in width and height. On the other side of the atrium, and barring our entry to what lay beyond it, was a burnished bronze door. A cross was emblazoned on the door, and on each side of the cross were inscriptions. The inscriptions were symbols or letters written in a language I had seen before, but was unable to read. To the left of the cross was inscribed the letters ἄλφα, and on the right, ὦ μέγα.
“I believe this is written in the language of the Romans or Greeks, but I am not sure,” Able claimed after closely examining the symbols. We tried to open the doors, but they wouldn’t budge, nor could Able discover a device that would trigger them into opening. “Well,” he said in frustration, “It’s no use, and we need to return to the others before they become worried. I think it will be safe to weather out the storm down here, and get some rest. The steps are wide, and I think we could even coax the ox into coming down them.” Nodding, though I didn’t savor the idea of spending any more time down here at all, I followed him back across the atrium, and back up the stairs.
Not far from the entrance, we encountered a very worried Sybal coming down the steps. “I was worried something had happened to you,” she claimed when we ascended to where she waited. “Tis a good ways down, but there is a nice area below where we can ride out the storm.” The twins were overjoyed to see us, and once Able explained his intentions, we began the descent. The ox was more than willing to get out of the storm, and we had no problem getting him to go down the stairs. When we entered the atrium, Able was happier than a hog at sloppin’ time, and eagerly began showing everyone what we had discovered.
Sybal stood before the doors studying the writing. “Able, the writing says the beginning, and the end. It is written in…” Before she could finish, she was cut off by a deep rumbling sound that came from behind us. I was immensely impressed with how quickly I drew my sword, and noticed the others were quickly reacting as well. The rumbling was followed by a grating sound that made my skin crawl.
“What’s going on?” Ruby asked in a voice that quaked as bad as my knees. “Come!” Able yelled over the noise. Slowly he advanced towards the stairs. “Hold your torches high so I can see,” he cried. I lofted my torch, and Sybal did the same, but the torches would only cast their flickering light for no more than a rod. The atriums length was now a disadvantage as we crept forward, and the once friendly light from our torches cast shadows that danced around us like lively wraiths. “I don’t like this.” Able cried out, and increased his pace. When the staircase came into view, we knew we were doomed, and though we broke into a run, it was far too late to react.
CHAPTER XXI
The Crypt
“We’ll be trapped in here alive!” I heard Sapphire scream in panic. The steps had tilted up and back, joining with the step above them to form a steep sloping slide. Protruding from the underside of the steps were wicked looking spikes, and as the shifting completed, the obtruding spikes began to move up and down making the steep slope a gauntlet of death.
“Come on, we might be able to climb to the top if we’re careful,” Able declared, “Just watch where you step.” We all hesitated to follow, and Able was nearly a quarter rod up the slope before he realized we were not behind him. He hollered over his shoulder for us to follow him, but except for Sybal, we were all too scared to move. Sybal put away her sword, but kept her torch, and using one hand as she climbed the slope. She followed Able’s example of using whatever spike popped up as a handhold, and was soon gaining on him. Her courage provoked us into action, and we needed no further urging to follow them.
Since it was the chivalrous thing to do, and not wanting to be deemed ungallant in the face of death, I urged the twins to go first. But before they could start up the slope, Able and Sybal began hollering for us to stay where we were, and began descending the slope at a rapidly undignified rate. The gauntlet of doom had intensified its anger, and was now determined to skewer or cleave the panicked pair with spears that came from the walls and massive axes that began to swing from the ceiling.
Sybal escaped the deadly barrier, and was shaking like a leaf beside me as we watched the nimble Halfling dodge and weave the lethal obstacles. In horror, we watched helplessly as a bronze tipped staff impaled him. I had to restrain Sybal from rushing to his aid, fearing the loss of them both would surely mean the death of us all. The staff pulled free from his back and retracted into the wall causing Able to lose his balance. He fell onto one of the jutting spikes, and screamed in agony as the metal tip plunged into his flesh. I was deafened by the agonized screams that erupted from the three women. Sybal began fighting me like a thing possessed, and I tried desperately to get her to understand my reasoning.
I could not hold her when Able shouted for help. His pleading eyes, and outstretched hands were too much for the elf, and she stomped down on my foot so hard, I thought one of the spikes had come up from the floor where I stood and pierced me. The pain caused me to release her, and she ran back up the lethal slope determined to save the Halflings life.
When the spike pulled free, Able’s shirt turned crimson. He managed to stand, but before he could come to his senses, another spear pricked him in the leg. He began to fall upon the very same bloody spike that he’d fallen onto before, but Sybal made it to him in time to prevent it. Working together they managed to evade and escape the slope of death without further injury. Cheers erupted when they were safely out of danger, and we all gathered around to help Sybal lay him on a blanket on the ground. Sybal no sooner began to assess his injuries when the floor began to heave and ripple beneath our feet.
“Bloody hell,” I yelled out when the grounds sudden movement buckled my knees and
caused me to stagger into Sybal. It took me a moment to realize that the atrium was
becoming filled with a light much brighter than that which our two torches could
produce. Able and Sybal’s open-
The light was coming from just beyond where the bronze door had opened inward. The lights intensity made it impossible to see what lay beyond the door, but I was not inhibited from seeing that something was rising up out of the ground beneath the doorways mantle. That something was a sturdy, dark skinned, winged woman that had horns protruding out of the top of her forehead.
“Damn, damn, damn,” seemed to be the only thing I could utter as I drew my sword. She rose from the ground until half of her naked torso was exposed. She resembled a human in most aspects, and the bejeweled short sword she was touting in her hand, indicated she didn’t seem too worried about how many of us she was going to have to face. Straight black hair fell about her body down to her waist. It gleamed murkily in the light, but failed to conceal a pair of the nicest breasts I’d ever laid eyes on. Well, it’s not like I’ve been privileged to have seen that many, but from what I was seeing, they were definitely the cats meow.
“You two stay here, and protect Able,” Sybal ordered. We rode out another sudden
ripple of the ground beneath our feet, and then Sybal yanked out her own sword. “Come
on Zeke, let’s not let this demon of the nine hells work any more of her mischief.
Damn, I wish I had my bow. Yiiiieeeee!” Sybal’s battle cry permeated the air, and
before I could run through all the reasons I didn’t want to make acquaintances with
an evil spirit, no matter how good her bosom looked, Sybal was running pell-
“Bloody hell,” I murmured under my breath as I ran to catch up. The winged fiend never moved as we closed in, but she had succeeded in raising the rest of her naked body out of the ground. Mercy and I’d thought the top half was pretty damn distracting. Within two rods of reaching her, she started to flutter her wings, which brought her to a hover a few feet off the ground. Within a rod of reaching her, I noticed her white gleaming eyes were absent of an inner colored core, and that her body seemed to be fashioned from the very earth itself.
She raised her arms, and began chanting as we closed the distance. Her soft husky voice brought back memories of Sabrina, but the distracting memory vanished as shards of broken granite, and small pebbles began flying at us.
“Damnation!” I bellowed as the sharp projectiles penetrated areas of skin that weren’t protected by my armor or shield. I assumed Sybal was agreeing, because she was screaming out something in her native tongue that I probably didn’t want interpreted. The she devil was playing hard to get, for as soon as we were about to come within swinging distance, she flew up above our heads. The ground stopped heaving when she took flight, and so did the shards of rock that had been pelting us.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it. The squirrel came to a stop behind Sybal, rose up on its hind legs, stretched out its two front legs, and shot forth some tiny rays of light. The rays struck one of the hellion’s wings causing her to flounder, but only momentarily.
The unexpectedness of the squirrel’s antics nearly caused me to have my head taken off when the sizzling fiend darted in to take a swing at me with her sword. I was still ogle eying the little runt when she attacked me, and I barely managed to thwart the blow with my shield when she swung. I tried to swing back, but my clumsy counter strike almost hit Sybal as she turned to engage it.
The brilliant light was now our enemy, and the flying devil was using it to her advantage by making us have to look towards it when we attacked. Another flash of light came from the squirrel, and Sybal threw a well aimed dagger that crippled the creature’s wing. The creature managed to fly nearly a rod away from us before making an awkward landing. When her feet touched the stone floor, she began sinking back into the ground. We rushed towards her, and before she could fully disappear, I tried to hit her again.
My swing missed completely, but fortunately a thrown dagger from Sybal did not. The dagger hit the woman in the shoulder, before we could swing again, the demon was gone. Sybal voiced her displeasure when she realized that two of her best daggers were gone with the fiend as well. Back to back, we waited, but the creature didn’t resurface to attack us again.
The light began to fade out as we waited, but the bronze door still remained open. Since neither one of us had come with a torch, the fading light was a new danger. “Come on.” Sybal urged, “Let’s get back to the others in case she’s planning to surprise us by attacking them next. I don’t want to get caught in the dark. By the way, why didn’t you let us know you could use magic?”
“Um, I don’t know anything about using magic, Sybal.” She shot me a quizzical look, and I could see the doubt in her eyes. “Well if you didn’t cast those spells, who did? You going to tell me the squirrel did it?” She asked sarcastically. “Um, I know it’s hard to believe, but yes, the squirrel did it.” At first she rolled her eyes at me, but when I didn’t waver, her expression changed from skepticism to astonishment.
“Are you serious?” I kept nodding my head, and though Sybal still seemed doubtful, she dropped the issue until we reached the others. “He’s in pretty bad shape,” Ruby lamented as she held a torch over his still form so Sybal could look at the bandages. “We’ve done the best we could. He doesn’t have any of that salve left, so we just packed the wounds with cloth.”
Able was either unconscious or asleep, and he appeared to be oblivious to our conversation. His face was ashen, and the cloths covering his wounds were soaked in blood. Sybal thought for a moment, and when she asked her next question, I thought she was talking to the twins, but she was looking down at the squirrel that was trying to hide beneath Ruby’s hem. “Can you heal him?”
“We’ve never tried to do anything like that…” Ruby began to say, but Sybal silenced her by shaking a finger at her as she continued to peer down at the animal. Everyone looked down at the squirrel questioningly, and waited expectantly. The squirrel poked its head out, and then tentatively came out from beneath Ruby’s robe. It jumped up on Able, and nosed the bandages as if studying the wounds. No one said a word, but I could tell the twins were extremely baffled.
“Well?” Sybal demanded. “His name is Scamper,” Ruby called out to Sybal hesitantly. “He seems to like the name.” The squirrel again shook his head up and down at Ruby’s remark. “Well, then Scamper it is. Scamper, can you do anything?” Scamper shook its head side to side to indicate he could not, and I thought Ruby was going to faint. “So you can understand everything we say?” Sybal demanded again. The up and down shaking of the squirrels head left me as stunned as the others.
“What’s going on here,” Ruby managed to say after overcoming her initial reaction to the situation. “You’ll find this as hard to believe as I did, but it appears your pet is intelligent enough to cast spells, and understand what we are saying. I have no idea how this is possible, nor have I ever heard of such a thing, but Scamper helped us when we fought that winged demon. Look, we can figure this out later. Right now we have too many other worries, and our situation demands we focus our attention on getting out of here.”
Sybal looked around nervously, reminded that the winged fiend could make another appearance at any moment. “I know it will be uncomfortable for Able, but lay him on the two shields we saved. That creature can come up from the ground, and I don’t want her sticking her sword in Able’s back if she decides to come up beneath him. Zeke, you watch him. Ruby, you guard the ox, and keep watch. Sapphire, you and I will see if we’re capable of using our magic to heal Able. You, Sir Scamper, are going up that slope to see if the entrance is blocked. Well, what are y’all waiting for?”
Sybal’s smooth transition into the leadership position went unchallenged, and we hurried to carry out her orders as if they had been given to us by Able. The spiked shields proved to be a challenge, but Ruby came up with a good idea, and we used rolled up blankets to balance the crude platform before laying Able upon it. Sybal walked over to the slope with Scamper, and urged him to go up.
We watched breathlessly as the squirrel tentatively made his way up the slope, but either he was too light to trigger the deadly traps, or we could only hope that the traps had become inoperative. Not waiting for the outcome of Scampers search, Sybal returned to Able’s side, and began trying to instruct Sapphire on how to channel her energy to conduct a healing of Able’s wounds. “I can only heal very minor wounds, but what I want you to do is try to merge with me as I harness the energy to perform the action. Hopefully, you will be able to learn what energy I use during the casting, and perform the action yourself. Ready?”
Sybal had Sapphire place her hand over hers when she placed her palm on Able’s forehead.
Sybal seemed to enter a trance-
Affirmation of magic had been as unsettling to me as had been the truth regarding the existence of Hobgoblins, faeries, and demons. The religious stories of the Roman’s, Christ God, were filled with tales of miraculous happenings, but for some reason, the Romans had stopped believing that it was possible for anyone else to perform these miraculous works. They made exceptions to this belief by only allowing their high ranking Priests to control its use, and persecute anyone else who dared attempt to use it without their management.
I was beginning to feel that the persecution of those who wanted to use magic was because the Romans wanted absolute control over anything that could threaten their authority. It was also the ideology of the Romans, and other invaders, to not only persecute magic using beings, but eradicate beings that they felt were a danger to the society in which they wished to create. Not knowing any better, I had accepted these beliefs and ideologies, but now I was becoming unsure. As I watched the two woman work, I made an oath to never again take anything for granted.
The squirrel returned, and since Sybal and Sapphire seemed unaware of anything going on around them, I decided to figure out what it had discovered. “Scamper, can we get out of here?” My hopes plummeted as the squirrel shook his head slowly side to side. “You didn’t set off the traps, so do you think if we try to go up again that we will set them off?” Scamper shook his head yes. “Hmmm,” I groaned under my breath.
Before, I could think of another question, Able began to thrash and moan. Curious, I watched in anticipation. I wondered if I would see a flash of light, or some other indication that the magic spell had been cast. Nothing happened, so when Sybal and Sapphire released Able I thought they had failed in their attempt. Able was squirming around as if he was having a troubling dream, but I could not tell if he was any better. I was about to ask Sapphire, but she suddenly slumped over, and collapsed upon Able’s chest.
CHAPTER XXII
???
We nearly forgot the danger around us when Sapphire collapsed, but Sybal was quick to chastise us for our negligence, and her harsh reprimand rekindled our alertness. Sybal’s tone softened as she explained to us Sapphires condition, and her words helped relieve some of our tension. “Don’t worry, all she needs is rest. Spells of this nature take a toll on the spell caster, and she’ll be all right in a little while.” In the silence that followed, I told Sybal what I had learned from Scamper regarding his exploration of the slope and entrance.
“Damn, with so much going on, I had completely forgotten about that. Thanks for reminding
me Zeke, though I’d have preferred a little good news,” Sybal joked half-
I lit another torch while Sybal talked, and the loss of the extra light from Ruby’s dying torch made the area around us very dismal and sinister. “We can’t waste any more time. If we have to, we’ll tie Able to the ox, but we have to begin trying to find a way out of here. It seems our only option is to search beyond the door, so let’s get moving before something else happens.
Able still looked terrible, but he claimed he could ride the ox if we helped him up. His lack of enthusiasm worried me, and having come to know him since Haven’s Rest, I knew he must be in a bad way if he showed no interest in exploring this place. We arranged the bundles so they would help stabilize him, and since there wasn’t enough room for the shields, we decided to leave them. “Sapphire, you lead the ox. Zeke, you’re our rear guard now. Ruby, you stay a little behind me holding the torch, and pay close attention to what’s above us as we walk. There is no telling what lies beyond that door, and it seems someone has gone to great pains to ensure that whatever is in here remains undisturbed. Well, let’s go.” We made our way to the doorway, and Sybal used her free hand to poke the floor with a staff as we entered the hallway.
The hallway was unadorned, and only a rod in length. The heavy footfalls of the ox made it hard to hear, and Sybal became concerned about the noise. She brought us to a stop, and fashioned crude cloth bindings for the ox’s hooves, which helped, but not all that much. The hallway led us to a burial chamber that contained a lone granite coffin. Covering the hood of the coffin was a mourning cloth cover, and candelabrum. The emblem that was on the door was embroidered on the cloth cover, with the exception that the cross was a bold red color. Items that must have been significant to the person buried within the coffin were arranged around it spherically, and most of the items appeared to be of a religious nature. (This chapter, as well as following chapters are still being edited. Updates coming within the month.
CHAPTERS ?? thru ??
The Wayfarers
CHAPTERS 16 thru 20 -
By David Michael Dean
Mortal Conquests Of The Dark Ages
