Lord of the Dead by C. J. Carella

Author:C. J. Carella [Carella, C. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2020-08-04T22:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Six

Hawke explored the next corridor and disarmed or simply triggered a handful of traps. At the other end was a closed door; his Enlightenment spell made it glow a deep share of red. That door was bad news. He didn’t want to just trigger the traps, either. They might do something to hurt people even at the opposite end of the corridor.

“Anybody in your group knows about traps?” he asked the Dwarf. “Alba and I are the closest things to experts we have.”

Crommen stepped up. “I do. A Battle Bard’s lore includes some knowledge of trickery and devices.”

“Good. The three of us can examine the door and figure out how to open it without blowing anybody up. And just to be safe, I will cast Gift of the Martyr on both of you.”

“I thank ye,” the Bard said.

Crommen had been the closest thing to a friend Desmond had before he left. The Dwarf didn’t seem to have a problem with Hawke, but he hadn’t been particularly warm toward him or Nadia, either. Thankfully, the Sterns appeared to put professionalism ahead of drama. In fact, all the Realms natives seemed to be better at that than the supposedly more knowledgeable and sophisticated Earthlings. Maybe because they hadn’t been brought up expecting things to always work out in their favor.

The door at the end was solid metal and resembled a bank vault. The three ‘experts’ took some time just looking at it and finding hidden dangers.

“Tripwire on the upper locking mechanism,” Alba called out.

“And a pressure plate on the ground beneath,” Commen added. “Dedicated buggers, these are.”

“Hidden needle spring on the turning handle,” Hawke said, so he didn’t feel left out. “Okay, I think I can have my animated shadow set them all off. I’ll take it from here. There is a ton of magic bound up into the door, and mundane Detect Traps skills won’t be able to deal with that.”

“As you say, Templar.” Crommen hesitated before turning around. “I do have a question for ye, and Korgam’s too far away to overhear and curse me name for asking it.”

“Go ahead.”

“What happened between ye and Desmond?”

“We had a disagreement, unfortunately.”

“He was a good lad. A bit foolish, but we all are at his age, him being little more than a bairn of nineteen years and all. Large for his size, but all humans are bigger than is good for them.”

“I thought he was in his twenties,” Hawke said.

“Nineteen. He said as much, one night we all drank a wee too much, him most of all, and we teased him for it.”

“That foolish boy,” Alba said. “But yet I’ve known many as young or younger, all of whom had far better sense.”

Yeah, but they didn’t grow up on Earth, where they teach you all kinds of stupid notions until you get out into the world and reality beats some sense into you, Hawke thought.

He’d thought Desmond was around his age, or a couple years younger. It was hard to tell, though. Some gamers were emotionally stunted and acted like teenagers well into their fifties or sixties.

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