• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

He proceeds down the corridor until he comes to where another corridor crosses the one they’re in. Remembering the way from last time, he takes the corridor to the right. They don’t go far before coming to the three skeletons of the dead priests lying on the floor. The whole area of the corridor has been blackened as if by fire.

Jiron steps over the skeletons and continues down the corridor. He stops when he realizes James isn’t following him. Looking back he finds him standing before the skeletons, staring at them. He starts back toward him when he hears James exclaim, “I got it!”

“What?” Jiron asks as he rejoins him by the skeletons.

Reaching into his pouch, he removes the amulet he acquired here the last time. Emblazoned with the symbol of the warrior priest, he holds it up and shows it to Jiron.

“So?” he asks. Puzzled as to why James is standing there with a wide grin, he waits.

“Don’t you see,” he says as he shakes the amulet slightly, “this is the key!” He looks to Jiron as if that should explain it all. When Jiron shrugs that he isn’t following him, he adds, “The dais. This is what triggered the teleportation.”

“Still not sure I’m following you,” admits Jiron.

“Do you remember me telling you about my time in the City of Light before it fell?” he asks. When he sees Jiron nod he continues. “Ol’ One Eye was sure interested in this when he found it in my possession, said it ‘changed things’. I didn’t understand it at the time but it makes sense now.”

“Also, back in Mountainside when we were taken into the jail back when Tinok and Cassie were still with us, the officer there was mighty interested in it as well. I think it’s no small coincidence that the dais sent us here. After all, this is where it belonged.”

“So…” Jiron begins as he tries to work this out. Shaking his head he says, “I still don’t understand.”

Holding the amulet up before him he says, “This is a portal key! It activates the magic in the dais. That’s why we ended up here, it’s keyed to the dais below. When we jumped on the dais back in that other place, it sensed this key and sent us here.”

“But, why didn’t we come here first then?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” he admits. There his reasoning breaks down. He considers it for a minute then says, “But the fact that I found the amulet here and that we were ultimately sent here has to be connected in some way. It could be that each key is set for a specific temple and will always return the wearer to that temple.”

He can see the doubt in Jiron’s eyes. “Of course,” he tells him, “the only way to test the theory is to take another ride through the portal.”

Jiron laughs at that. “I don’t think so,” he says shaking his head.

“I agree,” James states.

“Can we go now?” asks Jiron.

With a nod of his head, James indicates for him to lead on. As he follows Jiron, a memory of what he told Aleya during their last visit when she had asked about the amulet: “Maybe it was only given to a priest once they achieved a certain level of the temple hierarchy,” he had suggested. “Simply having one may have afforded them some privilege or it could’ve been a sign of rank or trust as well.” If that is the case, then only the higher ranking priests would have access to the portal, which would make sense.

Jiron continues to lead until they come to where another corridor converges with the one they’re in. James shines the light of the orb down the left to reveal the cave-in they ran across last time. Knowing they are on the right path, Jiron continues straight ahead.

Twenty feet or so they come to another cave-in. A space just large enough for a man to crawl through has been cleared at the top of the obstruction. The last time they were here, they had crawled through that hole and found themselves out among the trees on the mountainside. Taking a look at the ground on this side of the cave-in, they find impressions in the dirt from where they previously rested until it had grown dark outside.

Jiron immediately goes to the opening and crawls a short way through before stopping.