Discovery

A mysterious set of stairs in the forest is found by men cutting down trees.

2.

Discovery

 

The old tree provided a fair amount of shade and Aaron stretched out wearily, sitting with his back against the trunk so he could face the door of the bunk house.    Far off in the distance he could sometimes hear the crash of a tree falling, which told him of the progress of the tree-cutting detachment.   

But other than that, and the sounds of birds chirping, the hot summer afternoon was quiet.

Aaron pulled off his boots and let his tired feet air out.     He blinked furiously to clear his frequently blurred vision, for he had slept very little the past few weeks.   

 

It wasn’t just the stress of trying to quickly fortify the valley against future invasions by the Hutcaiah Empire that had left him sleepless.

In fact, he had received so much help from King Eleazar and King Aedric that he worried very little about completion of the task.    Dwarven stonemasons would be arriving in about a week or so to begin proper stone structures, aided by the ancient Construction Golems that were relics of the former Kingdom of Northmarch.

 

His sleeplessness was not due to the primitiveness of their cabin, for he was used to camping in far cruder conditions.

No, it wasn’t these things that kept him awake most nights.   It was something that a Paladin was not supposed to have - fear.    Fear of falling asleep.    For whenever he slept, he would frequently replay the horrible magic-induced nightmares that the Hutcaiah had tortured him with during the weeks of his captivity.

He would wake up bathed in sweat, shouting or even screaming as he pulled himself out of the terrible dreams.     

Although the men sent to construct the fortifications understood what had happened to him, he still was quite embarrassed and so he managed to not sleep much.

As he was only Half-Elven, he didn’t have the ability to go into the conscious ‘Elven sleep’ like most full Elves.     So Aaron struggled to stay awake as he rested under the tree.    Maybe he could take a quick nap - no-one was around to hear him if one of the recurrent nightmares occurred.   Lysa might hear him, but of course she knew about them.   

After struggling against shutting his eyes for several minutes, the heat of the day caused his eyes to close.

Yet it wasn’t exactly a dream into which he drifted.   His mind went to his favorite thought - Lysa.    He loved her, this he had finally admitted to himself and his attraction to her was growing stronger and stronger each day.    

But it was a disturbing emotion for him.    It was a problem for him due to who he was.    His parents had been nobles serving Eleazar when they had been murdered - along with his sister- by an Earl who had opposed Eleazar as King.

Time and time again, people connected with those governing the Kingdom of Marksylvania were targets of hate or rebellion.    Assassins and poison were a concern of any nobleperson.    Oh, the people of Marksylvania were loyal citizens, but there were always enemies who would use whatever means they could to unseat those in positions of power.   

While he usually felt safe enough in Marksylvania, the events of the past six months had unnerved him.     The Hutcaiah would sooner or later learn that he had survived and returned to Marksylvania.

Since he had killed their Emperor, he would certainly be the one that they would seek to kill for revenge.

So everyone around him would be in danger of a similar fate, due to their association with him.   Lysa was especially in grave danger, for she had rescued him by posing as the Hutcaiah moon goddess, Kuyomi-Chia.   Certainly that would be considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy by the Hutcaiah.

 

How could he protect her from revenge?    The thought of losing her horified him.    For her sake, he had to convince her to go someplace safer, where they would not find her.   

How he longed for obscurity for both of them - where no-one would know them and they could just lead simple, happy lives.

His unconscious thoughts suddenly dissolved into a dream.    He was lying under the same shade tree, but when he looked up a sea of Hutcaiah soldiers were swarming across the valley.

Aaron tried to shout out an alarm, he tried to stand up, tried to reach for his sword, but he could not move.    Closer and closer they came, and somewhere he could hear Lysa screaming in fear and pain, calling for him.    His voice would not come, nothing moved, and still closer and closer the Hutcaiah soldiers came.    Mustering all of his might, he forced sound out.    His unconscious mind heard it - a horrible moaning that sent chills down his back.    Pushing his mind forward, past the sound, he began to panic.    He couldn’t move!

“Lord?!   Aaron!   Wake up!”   He snapped into consciousness with a pitiful howl, blinking wide-eyed for a few moments in confusion.

“It’s alright.”  Lysa reassured him, hugging him close to her as she knelt beside him under the shade tree.    She had the wonderfully clean smell of soap and he caught his breath, struggling to calm down.

For a few moments she just held him against her, the softness of her cotton shirt soothing him for some reason.

“It’s alright.”  She repeated gently, stroking his hair, and he hugged her back without a word.

Finally their embrace ended and he leaned back against the trunk of the tree as she sat down next to him.

“Sorry.”  He said with a weak smile, “I’m a poor sentry.  How long was I asleep?”

“I don’t know - I took my time in the bath, and when I was coming outside I saw you asleep and I could tell you were having another nightmare.    Was it bad?”

He couldn’t tell her about what he’d dreamed, so he simply nodded.

“You’ve not slept much, have you?”  Lysa asked as she sat down next to him.

“Well…” He hesitated telling her.

“I already know, Lord.   I heard you moving about at night.   This is actually quite a feat, as those human soldiers could wake the dead with all of their snoring.   But I knew you were not sleeping much.    It’s the nightmares, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and it’s rather embarrassing to have one with all those men who King Eleazar sent to help me, sleeping in the same building.   It doesn’t exactly instill confidence in a leader to have him screaming like a scared child over a nightmare.    So I’ve tried to stay awake as much as I can.”

“You can’t do that, Lord!   This construction project is very strenuous work, you need to sleep.”

“I get brief naps from time to time.”

“That’s not enough, sir!   You need rest.   Is there anything I can do?”

Aaron shrugged, “I don’t know what you could do, Lysa.    But just having you nearby to pull me out of those nightmares is a great comfort to me.”

“Lord, why don’t you just lie down and take a nap here, and I’ll stay nearby and watch over you while you sleep.”

The idea was extremely appealing to Aaron, but he didn’t want to force the poor girl to do such a boring task after he had given her the day off.

“Lysa, that’s asking too much.”   He was interrupted before he could say anything more by the sight of one of the soldiers riding up the hill from where the woodcutting crew was working.    He was riding at a full gallop and Aaron and Lysa stood up as he approached.

“This doesn’t look good.”   He told his squire as the rider jumped off his horse and ran up to them, bowing slightly.

“What’s wrong?”   Aaron asked the young man.

“Your Grace, we found something while we were cutting the trees in that little forest to the west.”

“What did you find?”

“Well, the trees are very thick there with underbrush and some of us were clearing it away so the cutters could get to more trees.    When we pulled some of the underbrush away from one section, we found a set of stone stairs leading down.    The stairway is full of leaves, branches and small rocks, so we don’t know how far down it leads, but it looks like the rocks were deliberately piled into the stairway as if to seal it off.”

Aaron looked to Lysa, “That would have to be something done by the mad wizard, Helios, who ruled this valley.   I don’t think there was any other construction here, before we came.”

“What do you want us to do, Lord?”   The young soldier asked.

“Ride back and tell them to wait.   We’ll gather up the rest of the men and come down there and see it for ourselves.    Tell them not to dig down any further until we get there.   Helios was insane and he had many nasty monsters that he created that could still be lurking around.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll tell them.”   The soldier bowed and then hurried off to do his master’s bidding.

“Well, no naptime today.”   Aaron told Lysa as they watched the rider gallop away.

***

It was just as the soldier had reported it - there in the middle of a small forest of trees on the west side of the valley was what looked to be some sort of an entrance to an underground tomb, with wide carefully carved stone steps and entranceway, though most of it was filled with stones, half-decayed branches, dirt and leaves.

Aaron, Lysa and the soldiers just encircled the entranceway, staring curiously at the oddity.

“Who would put a tomb - or whatever it is- in the middle of a forest?   The trees were thick here, Your Grace, until we began cutting them down.    If we hadn’t, I doubt we would have ever discovered it.   The trees all around it were old, sir - some maybe a hundred years old.”   Sergeant Wilkks (who had been in charge of the lumberjacks) told the young Duke.

“Helios was quite insane, Sergeant.    When we entered his vanishing tower we all wondered if that was all that he had constructed in this valley.   We had heard bits and pieces of tales of the wizard’s laboratories and holding pens for his magically mixed creations.     Those that we found in his teleporting tower didn’t really seem enough to fill all the legends about his facilities.”

“So you think these stairs could lead down into underground laboratories and a sort-of dungeon for his creations?”   Lysa asked her Lord.

“It’s possible, but the stairs also look like some fancy entranceway into a tomb.    Perhaps this is the entrance into Helios’ tomb.”

“Well it was sealed up, sir, that is obvious.”   Sergeant Wilkks said, “So someone had to do that, and that tells me that they wanted to keep it hidden.”

“I don’t know, Sergeant.”   Lysa commented, “I wonder if it wasn’t done to keep people from breaking into it as much as it was to keep something from escaping from it.     If they had wanted to hide this completely, why not completely bury it under soil?    Once the trees were cut away it is quite evident that there is an entrance underground.     To me, it looks as if they were trying to keep something from coming out.”

Her words hung heavy on the air for a moment, for everyone had heard of the many monstrous creations of the mad wizard who had ruled the valley.

“Well anything trapped in there would be dead long ago… right?”   Charlie Levont asked.

Aaron shrugged, “Charlie, the wizard used some spells that would suspend time, so who knows?”

“But it could just be the ol’ wizard’s tomb.”  One of the soldiers suggested.

“Maybe.”   Aaron agreed, “But Helios was very paranoid about keeping all of his stuff secure.    If this is just the entrance into his tomb, I am quite sure he will have set traps of some sort to protect it from being looted.    It is possible that some of the Talminor back in Westmark may know what this is.    At the very least, I think we should wait to excavate it until the airships arrive with supplies.    That will be at the end of the week.    Some of the crew may know what this is, but if they don’t, I’ll have the Water Nymph take me back to Westmark or to Tarmard and consult one of the Talminor or a wizard.”

“So we’re just going to let it set until then?”  Charlie asked; a hint of frustration in his voice, “Think of the treasure that might be buried there.”

“Think also of the potential danger.    If one of Helios’ arcane creations is imprisoned there, we may not be able to stop it with our swords and arrows.    So we’ll wait before we investigate the stairs.   That is an order; is that clear to everyone?”   Aaron glanced around him and all the men nodded, most of them not wanting to endanger themselves needlessly.

“Good - just steer clear of this area; there should be enough trees to finish the palisades without those in this area.    When the Water Nymph and Red Dragon arrive, we’ll select a group to explore whatever is hidden at the bottom of the stairs.    Don’t worry; you’ll have an opportunity to see what is down there, Charlie.”

The men chuckled and Charlie nodded with a good natured smile, but something told Aaron that the issue wasn’t completely settled with the young man.     I’ll have to keep my eyes on him, Aaron said to himself as the group dispersed to go back to their tasks.

Reviews

[Elina]

"The thought of losing her mortified him." The word mortified doesn't feel quite right, here.

That Charlie is going to be a real problem, I can already tell... ^^

[Eddie Davis]

Thanks, Elina, I suspect you are right :)

[Dhaye]

I have a little idea now about the story. Nice two chapters. I like the characters of Aaron and Lyka, too.
I enjoyed reading.

[Eddie Davis]

Thank you, Dhaye, the main two characters, Aaron and Lysa story was introduced in 'A Sovereign Hope' and then this book is the third one of a trilogy about them: Talminor, Learning to Waltz and Helios' Menagerie.