The Delving by Aaron Bunce

Author:Aaron Bunce [Bunce, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780999202692
Publisher: Autumn Arch Publishing
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Seeing Ghosts

Thorben considered the dark tunnel, and then the ancient dwarf, just as the door flew off its hinges. Gor’s massive shadow squeezed through the ruined doorway and into the small building.

Before Renlo could stop him, Thorben took a step down the steep slope, and then another, his boots sliding uncomfortably against the thick ivy. He reached the bottom of the steep slope at a run, his side and legs aching with every step.

I will sleep for a dozen moons if I get out of this alive, he thought, and cradled his side. Not even the boys, or Dennah’s screaming will wake me. I will never complain about lumps in our mattress again.

The strange, dark ivy rustled under his feet as he set off slowly down the passage. The doors loomed just ahead, their surface shining with veins of gold, silver, and blue.

Something…a buzzing tickled his hip and Thorben instinctively brushed at his clothes. Images of large, chitinous bugs popped into his mind, their bodies fat and grotesque, their legs too numerous to count. They were there in every cave and tomb, waiting in the dark, scuttling from shadow to shadow in search of anything to eat. In his experience, size didn’t deter them.

He patted his shirt, his trousers, and then waved the torch in a circle. If one of the tiny beasts had been on him, it had evidently skittered away. Good riddance. Shivering from the thought, Thorben moved towards the door.

The stone portals weren’t just smooth, but appeared flawless, like undisturbed lake water in the early morn. His eyes crawled over the stone, hiccupping on a shape etched into the massive slabs. Thorben had to move to the side, testing different angles with the torch, but the glare subsided, and he couldn’t suppress a wide grin.

“This is it!” he yelled, a jubilant and almost child-like spike of excitement bubbling up inside. For a rare moment, he forgot about the danger, Gor’s indifference to life and death, the pile of dead delvers stacked by the entrance, and Hun’s murderous raid on the innocent travelers.

He heard the others sliding down the slope behind him, tromping on the strange vines, the light from their torches magnifying his own. The buzzing tickled his hip again, and he swatted at the spot. He smashed it with a fist for good measure.

“The dwarf on the chair, Renlo says it is a relic–” Gor said, tromping up behind him.

“Do you see it? Tell me you see it!” Thorben interrupted, moving right up to the glossy stone.

“Yes, Owl. It is magnificent,” Iona said, the broker appearing right next to him, Jez at his side. The carving of the eye was massive, extending into the body of both doors, the star-shaped pupil embossed with what looked like gold. Lightning bolts extended out the top, glowing a subtle and eerie blue in the light. He pulled the torch away, and the stone pulsed for a moment, the color remaining before going dark once again.

“You did it, Owl! You found it…our treasure.

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