SC Book One, Life's Bazaar; Chapter Nine: Descending Into the Hold, Part One
Date: still the 6th of Harvest Plenty, 506AF
Place: Drunken Morkoth Inn, Cauldron, Islandia (my name for the world)
So that was an interesting day. I had a lot of fun delving through the dungeon, but my plan to take rear guard back fired. Cut off in the back was not fun. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the tunnel hadn’t been so narrow. I was useless in the back. I don’t think I’ll want to do that again.
At least we found the gnome’s rat familiar. He seemed like such a sweet rat, it’s sad he’d been prisoner for so long. Sadly, we didn’t find much of anything in our wanderings. I did find this neat little key. I think I’ll put it with my other keys. Oh! And this rock with paint on it that might have been part of one of the wall murals.
I think Shiore might like me, though! She actually listened to some of my ideas, unlike Zip, who was being a giant pain all day. Although I was seriously worried about him when he got so injured in the fight. I hated leaving him like that, but the others needed help finishing the skulks off (those shadow creatures are called skulks; see drawing). I’m just glad Nardakk had spells of super healing.
Shiore also gets my jokes, though. Ayame didn’t get my jokes, so it’s okay that she’s not into me. I wonder if Shiore would go to dinner with me.
Speaking about Zip, he’s being very closed and broody. I tried to engage him in conversation while mending his shirt before bed, but he was a little curt with me. Not sure what’s going on in his brain. I hate when he gets like this.
Hopefully tomorrow will go well. We’re going to find the Malachite Hold and rescue the prisoners, if all goes well. Although I may have to punch my brother in the head if he doesn’t knock it off.
Okay, gotta go. Ayame’s getting annoyed that I still have a candle lit. Honestly, with your eyes closed you’d hardly -
Dip turned over in bed, not quite ready to get up, and cuddled the pillow, pretending it was Shiore. A muffled jingling sound alerted him to something moving in their room. Twisting under the covers, Dip heard the jingling again.
No one else seemed to be moving in the dark room, but Zip stirred groggily next to him in bed. Confused, he tore off his sheets and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. The jingling tinkled again. He looked at his feet. Tied in a bow around his ankle was a ribbon fastened with little merry bells. Dip wiggled his feet. *jingle jingle jingle* Chuckling, he proclaimed happily, “I’m so pretty!”
This had to have been in retaliation for last night. Dip had woken up in the middle of the night, bored, and decided to avail himself of whatever Ayame had in her pouches. Her things had seemed so interesting. But he’d tripped on his way back to bed and woken her up. Understandably grumpy, she’d tossed a pillow at his head. Apparently she needed to bell him as well.
Untying the nicely done bow - the kind only girls seemed to know how to do - Dip crept up to Ayame’s bed. He stood over her, watching her sleep a moment, a wicked smile sneaking across his face.
*JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE*
Instead of starting awake with a shriek as Dip had expected, he got a face full of pillow, nearly knocking him on his rear. Giggling, Ayame wound up for attack number two, but this time Dip was ready and ducked, stealing her second pillow and retaliating with an attack of his own.
They had the Great Pillow Battle of the Drunken Morkoth Inn, each using tactics that would have granted them medals of honor if there had actually been an army raised for the Great Pillow Battle. After a few minutes, though, they naturally woke Zip with their war cry giggles meant to reduce the enemy to fits of terror. “Shut it, will you?” he grouched, glaring at them with bleary eyes. “Some of us cast a bunch of spells yesterday.” Tirade over with, he flopped face first back onto the bed and shoved a pillow over his head.
Dip and Ayame shared a guilty look - or tried to, as they nearly burst into laughter again. “Oops.”
“Should probably head to breakfast anyway,” Ayame said, grabbing her clothes and heading for the changing screen. “We’ve got a big day today.”
“Right. I’ll meet you down. I want to make sure Zip gets up.” He heard his older twin groan faintly in protest at this. “Plus, I want to finish mending this sleeve first.”
Ayame was dressed and gone before Zip even roused himself out of bed. “Rise and shine, sunshine.” Their mother used to say this to them when she was in one of her weird moods in the morning. This morning, Zip gave his brother no reaction. Dip shook his twin until he heard him groan. “Gotta get up. Got an adventure to go on and people to save.”
Zip threw off the sheets as Dip hustled about getting ready. Soft tinkling indicated that Ayame had decided to bell Zip as well. He set about relinquishing himself of the girl’s gift. “I know that. It’s not easy being a magic user, you know - I don’t do early mornings well.”
There was something more in his twin’s tone than just exhaustion, but Dip forced a natural sounding chuckle as if that were the case. He often played ignorant of his brother’s moods. “I’ve been aware.” Concern niggled him, however and he frowned, turning to give his brother his full attention. “Doesn’t help if you’re restless when you sleep, either.”
Zip ran a hand over his face. “What?”
“Is spell depletion the only thing making you grumpy this morning, or is it something else?” Zip blinked, his expression neutral. “You were having bad dreams again, weren’t you.” Not surprisingly, this time Zip looked away and said nothing. As if that would change what I already know. Dip narrowed his gaze. “Figures,” he muttered. He waited a moment longer for Zip to say something, explain and unburden himself, but like always his brother remained annoyingly silent. “Fine, when you’re ready come down.”
“I’ll be down in a few.”
“Sure.”
Everyone was already eating by the time Dip entered the dining area. Nona mostly curled herself against Nardakk, but occasionally ate small bites from someone else’s plate. Ayame was the first to notice him.
“Aren’t you missing someone?”
Dip shrugged, trying to act like it was no big deal. He really didn’t want to get into explaining his brother’s problem. He didn’t understand it anyway. “He said he’d be right down.”
True to his words, Zip arrived at the dining hall a few minutes later. It took all Dip’s self control not to heave an annoyed sigh. Not again… Zip took a seat at the table, adjusting the page boy cap on his head to shadow his eyes. Although he wanted to grab the hat and toss it into the fire, the warrior kender restrained himself. He understood how much the hat meant to his brother, but all Dip ever saw in the hat was a way for Zip to hide from his problems. And it meant he was thinking about him.
“Cold this morning?” Ayame asked as she took a bite of toast.
Zip’s brow wrinkled, apparently not expecting the question. Rather, it seemed to distract him from his brooding and Dip could have hugged the winged girl. “Not particularly, although it is autumn, isn’t it?” He glanced around the table. “It is autumn, right? I mean…” He clamped his mouth shut and shifted his eyes away uncomfortably, meeting Dip’s eyes then shying away again. Dip wanted to roll his eyes and slap his head. And it had been Zip warning Dip not to draw attention to the fact they weren’t from this world.
“I just asked because of the hat.” Ayame patted her own head, as if Zip would forget where a hat belonged.
Zip flushed, his fingers brushing the brim as if he’d already forgotten he’d worn it. “I like my hat.”
Dip frowned. His brother didn’t like the hat, the hat was a crutch, an addiction, like another drink for an alcoholic. And Zip had to know how his brother felt about it, Dip argued with him often enough. The fact that the older twin refused to look at him indicated that he damn well knew Dip’s feelings about it; he just chose to ignore him. Lifting his mug, he muttered into it in Kenderspeak, “You just like pitying yourself.” Whether Zip heard him or not, he didn’t respond.
Shiore studied him, a small smile forming. “Well, I think you look very cute in it.” Dip halted drinking, raising his eyebrows and gazed between the elf girl and his brother. She doesn’t… No, she’s just being nice. Surprised by the compliment, Zip actually let out a shy smile.
Gently she nudged her brother and said something to him in Elven. Wrast blinked, as if he’d been elsewhere during the conversation and only just realized that Zip had shown up. The next words he spoke surprised Dip, as they came out as broken Common. “Yes. Cute.”
Dip nearly spat out his drink in shock, but swallowed as he watched his brother turn a bright shade of pink. He wondered if the elf understood the words he had spoken, but thought he might when he saw the warrior also sported tiny spots of color on his cheeks.
Shiore’s gaze was already on him when Dip glanced at her. He smiled as if in thanks. I see what you did there. Her grin widened. The girl was definitely more intuitive than he gave her credit for.
Once breakfast was over, they made their way back to Ghelve’s Locks. Although the admittedly little questioning they did about the Malachite Hold produced no results, Shiore felt confident that the entrance to the Hold must be somewhere within Jzadirune. “Why would they use the gnome sanctuary as a place to ferry the prisoners, forcing Keygan to be complicit in their schemes so they could use his shop to access it, if they couldn’t easily transfer them from Jzadirune to the Hold? There must be an entrance down there.”
Zip agreed with Shiore’s logic. Why else would the slavers use Jzadirune if it didn’t connect to their hide out? Sure, it was one thing to force the local locksmith to forge master keys for all his locks to make kidnapping easier. Maybe even leave a minion there to watch him to make sure he didn’t try to betray you and fetch local authorities, but that skulk in Keygan’s shop wasn’t just watching the gnome, he was guarding the only entrance to the gnome sanctuary. And why guard an abandoned complex unless it led to a hidden lair.
Armed with this conviction, they returned to the shop.
Zip watched the elven warrior as they made their way there. Wrast didn’t seem as brooding as he did yesterday, but neither was he light-hearted. Although Shiore had prompted Wrast during breakfast, saying “Doesn’t he look cute?” Zip felt the response was genuine. It gave him hope.
He jogged to catch up with him. Not sure what to say, he started with an apology. “I’m sorry for being so nosy yesterday. It was obvious it was something you didn’t want to talk about.” He tried to keep his tone light, hoping he’d realize he wasn’t fishing for an answer now.
Wrast remained silent, but he’d glanced his way momentarily before staring ahead, gaze focused inward, so Zip knew he was thinking. “I’m just not used to having people care about it.”
Zip frowned. This was the biggest revelation about Wrast’s past that he had ever gotten to date. It sounded like the man had lived a hard, lonely life. Shiore was only an adopted sister, one probably encountered and bonded with in his travels, later on in life. Had he grown up alone? What had his life been like? Who was Wrast? Did his gruff demeanor, which the kender knew hid a softer heart, turn people away? Zip itched to know. He tried to catch Wrast’s eye. “We’re all friends now, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we care?” We are at least, friends, aren’t we?
“I’m not used to so many people.”
Zip chuckled weakly. “I guess I can’t help being nosy. I grew up with six sisters. We were always kind of in each others’ business.”
The darkness clung to Wrast’s eyes, deepening and hardening the lines on his face. He looked away, but Zip thought the darkness was due more to sadness than to anger. Before he could apologize again, the elf lengthened his stride and left Zip behind. Left him with his mouth hanging open and no words to fill the space. A heavy weight fell on him, making it harder for him to take that next step forward.
A gentle hand warmed his arm and Shiore’s brown eyes connected with his hazel ones. “It’s not what you said.”
Not what I said? Whatever else that upset him, he thought about it because something I said. But Zip said none of these thoughts. He had no words to answer her that would not come out as self deprecating. More than anything he wanted to know this man, wanted to know him in ways he never wanted to know the other men he’d entertained in his bed. They meant nothing to him beyond a good romp and a distraction from his own heartache. Wrast was different. For once, Zip wasn’t attracted to just the man’s good looks. The elf was gorgeous, to be sure, but something else had Zip pining for him for more than just sex.
Yet he couldn’t seem to crack the man’s exterior. What was worse, he seemed to be bringing up old demons and putting a wall between them in the process. I’ll never get to know him at this rate. An old kender saying went, Keep your mouth shut when you trip over your words, as you may end up with a mouth full of feet. “And feet aren’t tasty,” his mother would add. Well, he’d been putting his foot in it this whole time.
Ayame hadn’t said anything stupid or embarrassing, or upsetting. By that thread, Wrast would surely end up liking Ayame better. He certainly seemed comfortable with her yesterday.
And then there was his dream. Figures that Dip would notice his twin’s restless sleep. The warrior could sleep through an earthquake, but when it came to Zip he seemed to be alert to his every movement, to his every thought. Zip rubbed his left shoulder. Of course he has help with that. Zip didn’t want to admit to his brother that thoughts and dreams of him still plagued him, but just because he wouldn’t admit it didn’t mean his brother wasn’t all too aware of it. Perhaps his brother had a right to be concerned, but Zip just couldn’t seem to shake off the memories. And now when someone else has come along…
That’s it. That’s what it is. He reminds me so much like him. The face of a young human boy flashed across his mind, sweet of disposition, soul hurt and so very uncertain. Dante. Zip had eased that hurt, but in the end it had been he who was left hurting.
Maybe it’s just not worth it. Maybe it’s better not to even try. Not when it can hurt so much…
“It’ll be okay,” Shiore interrupted his thoughts. Her fingers clasped around his and gave them a squeeze. “You’ll see. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
Zip blinked at her, unsure what just happened. Had he said something out loud? The girl seemed to speak directly to his thoughts. It was as if she could read him like an open book. Obviously his surprise showed on his face and she shied away a bit, brushing a lock of hair behind her pointed ear like a nervous tic. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“It’s okay.” It had been kind of her to say, regardless of how she gauged him. “You’ve got that wacky body aura reading abilities,” he joked, remembering from the other day how she just “sensed” the skulk’s presence.
He must have put his foot in it again, as Shiore seemed to flinch and flush guiltily. “It’s… not exactly like that.”
Although he peered at her inquisitively, he did not ask for an answer and she did not give him one. They continued their walk to the gnome’s lock shop in silence.
Everything within the shop had been scattered around the place when they unlocked the door. While the front door was exactly the way they left it the afternoon before, inside was a much different story. It looked like the place had been torn apart. The door opposite the shop entrance had been kicked open.
“This couldn’t be a robbery,” Shiore stated, wringing her hands. “The front lock was in perfect working order.”
“Or the thieves had a copy of Keygan’s key,” Zip reminded her. The elf girl frowned. “Whoever was here was obviously looking for something.”
Nardakk grunted. “How would we know if anything had been taken?”
The orc had a point. With everything from the displays tossed about, who could say what might be missing? Shiore quietly tiptoed around the debris to the open door. “Hello?” She stuck her head in. “It’s just a workshop.”
“Perhaps they came from underground,” Ayame mused as she glanced around the room.
No one waited for them on the other side of the curtain and the passage down to Jzadirune was neither open nor barred. If the looter had ascended from below, they had left no noticeable traces that they had. Zip checked for footprints and found none of those, either.
The mystery, while distressing, currently was no relevant to their quest. There was nothing they could do about it and no pertinent leads, and the fates of the abductees were of a higher priority. Since Starbrow had been found in the six sided room, Shiore felt this could mean the way down was nearby. “We should start our search there.”
“First.” Dip removed a hammer and chisel from his pack. “I want a mask.”
Nona climbed one of the masks as they were once again welcomed to the gnome sanctuary, the permanent message spell activating once they were close enough. While Dip chiseled away at his chosen mask, Shiore tried to yank her own from the wall. Not surprisingly it didn’t budge. As for Dip, it took quite a bit of hammering and chiseling and even hanging off of it and pushing with his feet against the wall before finally it broke free of the wall.
“Oof!” He landed on his back, knocking the wind out of him, but a moment later he leapt to his feet and cheered. The fall barely registered for him. “Haha! I’ve got a gnome mask!” Zip rolled his eyes as he watched his twin dance a little jig around the room, clutching his prize, but he couldn’t help but smile a little at Dip’s exuberance.
Heading into the skulk room, they noticed that the two dead bodies from yesterday had been moved. “Do you think they got up and walked away?” Ayame asked, a little unnerved. “I mean, the dead rising has been known to happen.”
“Maybe they bury their dead,” Shiore suggested, examining the blood smears on the ground. The blood, a day old, was now dry, but it had definitely spread out a bit more since they last time they’d been in here.
“Must have been dragged off,” Zip observed. But what had dragged them off - other skulks or something else - they couldn’t tell.
It didn’t matter, ultimately. The fate of two dead skulk corpses was of little consequence with up against dozens of prisoners sentenced to be sold as slaves. With little issue, they continued on to the secret closet and back into the six sided room they found Starbrow and the mimic. Zip pondered that when next they met the mimic, they’d have to see if they could ask his name. After all, if they could decide that the drunken morkoth at their inn was named Kevin, that the mimic should have a name as well. At least they’d actually spoken with the mimic.
Although there were two doors that lead from the room other than through the secret closet, Shiore felt that the passage down to the Malachite Hold would be through a secret door. “I’m positive, according to the map, that this door with the ‘N’ rune would connect with the great hall at this end of the passage, and the forest room at the other end, with the aquatic spider bath in the middle.”
Ayame raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You mean the same map that was useless and got us lost half of the day?”
Shiore waved the comment away. “It just took me some time to figure out how it worked. Obviously the gnomes didn’t want the locations of secret passages getting out should someone come across the map accidentally that shouldn’t have it, and of course the tunnels were all recently added.”
“What about the other door?” Ayame countered.
Shiore turned the map. “It looked like it eventually goes to an octagonal room. But I’m telling you, the way down will not be on this map. The gnomes would not have wanted outsiders to know how to get to the Malachite Hold. And since this room was used for something as important as holding Starbrow, the passage down must be here.”
“I agree!” Dip spoke up, puffing out his chest heroically. “We’ll find the passage!”
“You only agree because you like her,” Zip whispered in Kenderspeak as they examined one section of wall for secret notches.
Dip blushed. “Not true. She made a sound, logical argument.”
“And she’s pretty.”
Dip glanced at the elf girl, methodically running her hands over a different section of wall. She was very pretty. But that’s not why I agreed. Although he conceded that it was at least partially true. Not that he’d admit that to Zip.
After a while, when they still hadn’t found anything, Shiore sighed with frustration. “It should have been here!” Heaving an even bigger sigh, she continued with, “Maybe we should go back to the mask room? There could have been a secret staircase down in there.”
With nothing better to do, they followed Shiore’s suggestion and traipsed back into the mask room. When the welcome message sounded once again as they began to search for secret doors, Dip started to think how it might not be cute anymore. How could the gnomes handle this thing going off all the time?
“It is getting a bit annoying, isn’t it?” Shiore said as she stood next to him.
Dip stared at her. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. You’re like a mind reader!”
Shiore jerked back as if Dip had come at her with a knife. “Um, yeah.” She chuckled weakly and wandered off to another section of wall. Dip watched her go in confusion. “Was it something I said?”
Before too long, Nardakk called out that he had found something. Once he had everyone’s attention, he pressed something in the wall that only he could see and part of the wall moved aside. “I think I’ve found a secret passage way.”
“Yes,” Shiore said with an amused smile. “You’ve opened a door.”
“That’s what gave it away to me, too,” he replied, chuckling.
Everyone crowded around the open passage, Dip ducking under the taller group members to get a better view. Shiore stuck an arm through the entrance, a sunrod burning brightly in her hand. The hall went out about forty feet and was filled with dust and cobwebs. The ceiling, like much in the complex, barely cleared Nardakk’s head and the walls were covered with frescos depicting dour gnomes clad in chain shirts and helms, and brandishing hooked hammers. It was the oddest secret chamber Dip had ever seen. Nothing in it, not even any doors, and yet it was hidden by a secret panel. Why would the gnomes want to hide an abandoned hallway, even if the walls were done up in a very heroic fashion? “It just makes no sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Shiore agreed.
Zip peered into the hall with great intensity, as if something would jump out at him if only he stared at it enough. “There are probably secret passages off from this one.”
“Probably,” she agreed. “But look at all this dust built up. It’s obvious no one has used this passage in a long, long time. The skulks didn’t drag their victims through here.”
“There are no footprints at all,” Nardakk agreed. “I don’t think the skulks knew anything about this hall.”
“But,” Dip sputtered, seeing where their line of logic was heading, “the rooms that might connect to here could have been. You never know.” More secret doors - hidden in secret doors! It was like those dolls that nested inside one another. What were they called? Dip had never encountered secret passages inside secret passages. He inched into the dusty hallway, wanting to answer the questions of what, why, how, where, and maybe even who.
“You may be right, but it would be silly to waste our time checking out every inch of this place. People need our help. It would be prudent to follow the path the kidnappers used, and that’s following where their footsteps lead and there are no footsteps here.”
Dip shuffled back out the passage. Damn her logic! People did need them. Well, maybe we can come back and explore later. Content with that idea, he was able to follow his companions back to the skulk room without looking over his shoulder longingly - well, not more than once, anyway.
“Let’s take that tunnel in the other direction.” Shiore pointed to the path that lead from the secret closet to the Great Hall, but that also continued on the other way to an unknown destination. Dip perked up at the idea of finding something new in this place at last.
The tunnel might only have been a little shorter in this direction than the other way, but not by much. Nardakk still made the going slow, but he was getting the hang of traversing it and had adapted enough to make their walk a little quicker. Dip also did not make the mistake of being last in line. This time Nardakk had the honor of rear guard. It was much more fun being up front.
Place: Drunken Morkoth Inn, Cauldron, Islandia (my name for the world)
So that was an interesting day. I had a lot of fun delving through the dungeon, but my plan to take rear guard back fired. Cut off in the back was not fun. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the tunnel hadn’t been so narrow. I was useless in the back. I don’t think I’ll want to do that again.
At least we found the gnome’s rat familiar. He seemed like such a sweet rat, it’s sad he’d been prisoner for so long. Sadly, we didn’t find much of anything in our wanderings. I did find this neat little key. I think I’ll put it with my other keys. Oh! And this rock with paint on it that might have been part of one of the wall murals.
I think Shiore might like me, though! She actually listened to some of my ideas, unlike Zip, who was being a giant pain all day. Although I was seriously worried about him when he got so injured in the fight. I hated leaving him like that, but the others needed help finishing the skulks off (those shadow creatures are called skulks; see drawing). I’m just glad Nardakk had spells of super healing.
Shiore also gets my jokes, though. Ayame didn’t get my jokes, so it’s okay that she’s not into me. I wonder if Shiore would go to dinner with me.
Speaking about Zip, he’s being very closed and broody. I tried to engage him in conversation while mending his shirt before bed, but he was a little curt with me. Not sure what’s going on in his brain. I hate when he gets like this.
Hopefully tomorrow will go well. We’re going to find the Malachite Hold and rescue the prisoners, if all goes well. Although I may have to punch my brother in the head if he doesn’t knock it off.
Okay, gotta go. Ayame’s getting annoyed that I still have a candle lit. Honestly, with your eyes closed you’d hardly -
Dip turned over in bed, not quite ready to get up, and cuddled the pillow, pretending it was Shiore. A muffled jingling sound alerted him to something moving in their room. Twisting under the covers, Dip heard the jingling again.
No one else seemed to be moving in the dark room, but Zip stirred groggily next to him in bed. Confused, he tore off his sheets and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. The jingling tinkled again. He looked at his feet. Tied in a bow around his ankle was a ribbon fastened with little merry bells. Dip wiggled his feet. *jingle jingle jingle* Chuckling, he proclaimed happily, “I’m so pretty!”
This had to have been in retaliation for last night. Dip had woken up in the middle of the night, bored, and decided to avail himself of whatever Ayame had in her pouches. Her things had seemed so interesting. But he’d tripped on his way back to bed and woken her up. Understandably grumpy, she’d tossed a pillow at his head. Apparently she needed to bell him as well.
Untying the nicely done bow - the kind only girls seemed to know how to do - Dip crept up to Ayame’s bed. He stood over her, watching her sleep a moment, a wicked smile sneaking across his face.
*JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE*
Instead of starting awake with a shriek as Dip had expected, he got a face full of pillow, nearly knocking him on his rear. Giggling, Ayame wound up for attack number two, but this time Dip was ready and ducked, stealing her second pillow and retaliating with an attack of his own.
They had the Great Pillow Battle of the Drunken Morkoth Inn, each using tactics that would have granted them medals of honor if there had actually been an army raised for the Great Pillow Battle. After a few minutes, though, they naturally woke Zip with their war cry giggles meant to reduce the enemy to fits of terror. “Shut it, will you?” he grouched, glaring at them with bleary eyes. “Some of us cast a bunch of spells yesterday.” Tirade over with, he flopped face first back onto the bed and shoved a pillow over his head.
Dip and Ayame shared a guilty look - or tried to, as they nearly burst into laughter again. “Oops.”
“Should probably head to breakfast anyway,” Ayame said, grabbing her clothes and heading for the changing screen. “We’ve got a big day today.”
“Right. I’ll meet you down. I want to make sure Zip gets up.” He heard his older twin groan faintly in protest at this. “Plus, I want to finish mending this sleeve first.”
Ayame was dressed and gone before Zip even roused himself out of bed. “Rise and shine, sunshine.” Their mother used to say this to them when she was in one of her weird moods in the morning. This morning, Zip gave his brother no reaction. Dip shook his twin until he heard him groan. “Gotta get up. Got an adventure to go on and people to save.”
Zip threw off the sheets as Dip hustled about getting ready. Soft tinkling indicated that Ayame had decided to bell Zip as well. He set about relinquishing himself of the girl’s gift. “I know that. It’s not easy being a magic user, you know - I don’t do early mornings well.”
There was something more in his twin’s tone than just exhaustion, but Dip forced a natural sounding chuckle as if that were the case. He often played ignorant of his brother’s moods. “I’ve been aware.” Concern niggled him, however and he frowned, turning to give his brother his full attention. “Doesn’t help if you’re restless when you sleep, either.”
Zip ran a hand over his face. “What?”
“Is spell depletion the only thing making you grumpy this morning, or is it something else?” Zip blinked, his expression neutral. “You were having bad dreams again, weren’t you.” Not surprisingly, this time Zip looked away and said nothing. As if that would change what I already know. Dip narrowed his gaze. “Figures,” he muttered. He waited a moment longer for Zip to say something, explain and unburden himself, but like always his brother remained annoyingly silent. “Fine, when you’re ready come down.”
“I’ll be down in a few.”
“Sure.”
Everyone was already eating by the time Dip entered the dining area. Nona mostly curled herself against Nardakk, but occasionally ate small bites from someone else’s plate. Ayame was the first to notice him.
“Aren’t you missing someone?”
Dip shrugged, trying to act like it was no big deal. He really didn’t want to get into explaining his brother’s problem. He didn’t understand it anyway. “He said he’d be right down.”
True to his words, Zip arrived at the dining hall a few minutes later. It took all Dip’s self control not to heave an annoyed sigh. Not again… Zip took a seat at the table, adjusting the page boy cap on his head to shadow his eyes. Although he wanted to grab the hat and toss it into the fire, the warrior kender restrained himself. He understood how much the hat meant to his brother, but all Dip ever saw in the hat was a way for Zip to hide from his problems. And it meant he was thinking about him.
“Cold this morning?” Ayame asked as she took a bite of toast.
Zip’s brow wrinkled, apparently not expecting the question. Rather, it seemed to distract him from his brooding and Dip could have hugged the winged girl. “Not particularly, although it is autumn, isn’t it?” He glanced around the table. “It is autumn, right? I mean…” He clamped his mouth shut and shifted his eyes away uncomfortably, meeting Dip’s eyes then shying away again. Dip wanted to roll his eyes and slap his head. And it had been Zip warning Dip not to draw attention to the fact they weren’t from this world.
“I just asked because of the hat.” Ayame patted her own head, as if Zip would forget where a hat belonged.
Zip flushed, his fingers brushing the brim as if he’d already forgotten he’d worn it. “I like my hat.”
Dip frowned. His brother didn’t like the hat, the hat was a crutch, an addiction, like another drink for an alcoholic. And Zip had to know how his brother felt about it, Dip argued with him often enough. The fact that the older twin refused to look at him indicated that he damn well knew Dip’s feelings about it; he just chose to ignore him. Lifting his mug, he muttered into it in Kenderspeak, “You just like pitying yourself.” Whether Zip heard him or not, he didn’t respond.
Shiore studied him, a small smile forming. “Well, I think you look very cute in it.” Dip halted drinking, raising his eyebrows and gazed between the elf girl and his brother. She doesn’t… No, she’s just being nice. Surprised by the compliment, Zip actually let out a shy smile.
Gently she nudged her brother and said something to him in Elven. Wrast blinked, as if he’d been elsewhere during the conversation and only just realized that Zip had shown up. The next words he spoke surprised Dip, as they came out as broken Common. “Yes. Cute.”
Dip nearly spat out his drink in shock, but swallowed as he watched his brother turn a bright shade of pink. He wondered if the elf understood the words he had spoken, but thought he might when he saw the warrior also sported tiny spots of color on his cheeks.
Shiore’s gaze was already on him when Dip glanced at her. He smiled as if in thanks. I see what you did there. Her grin widened. The girl was definitely more intuitive than he gave her credit for.
Once breakfast was over, they made their way back to Ghelve’s Locks. Although the admittedly little questioning they did about the Malachite Hold produced no results, Shiore felt confident that the entrance to the Hold must be somewhere within Jzadirune. “Why would they use the gnome sanctuary as a place to ferry the prisoners, forcing Keygan to be complicit in their schemes so they could use his shop to access it, if they couldn’t easily transfer them from Jzadirune to the Hold? There must be an entrance down there.”
Zip agreed with Shiore’s logic. Why else would the slavers use Jzadirune if it didn’t connect to their hide out? Sure, it was one thing to force the local locksmith to forge master keys for all his locks to make kidnapping easier. Maybe even leave a minion there to watch him to make sure he didn’t try to betray you and fetch local authorities, but that skulk in Keygan’s shop wasn’t just watching the gnome, he was guarding the only entrance to the gnome sanctuary. And why guard an abandoned complex unless it led to a hidden lair.
Armed with this conviction, they returned to the shop.
Zip watched the elven warrior as they made their way there. Wrast didn’t seem as brooding as he did yesterday, but neither was he light-hearted. Although Shiore had prompted Wrast during breakfast, saying “Doesn’t he look cute?” Zip felt the response was genuine. It gave him hope.
He jogged to catch up with him. Not sure what to say, he started with an apology. “I’m sorry for being so nosy yesterday. It was obvious it was something you didn’t want to talk about.” He tried to keep his tone light, hoping he’d realize he wasn’t fishing for an answer now.
Wrast remained silent, but he’d glanced his way momentarily before staring ahead, gaze focused inward, so Zip knew he was thinking. “I’m just not used to having people care about it.”
Zip frowned. This was the biggest revelation about Wrast’s past that he had ever gotten to date. It sounded like the man had lived a hard, lonely life. Shiore was only an adopted sister, one probably encountered and bonded with in his travels, later on in life. Had he grown up alone? What had his life been like? Who was Wrast? Did his gruff demeanor, which the kender knew hid a softer heart, turn people away? Zip itched to know. He tried to catch Wrast’s eye. “We’re all friends now, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we care?” We are at least, friends, aren’t we?
“I’m not used to so many people.”
Zip chuckled weakly. “I guess I can’t help being nosy. I grew up with six sisters. We were always kind of in each others’ business.”
The darkness clung to Wrast’s eyes, deepening and hardening the lines on his face. He looked away, but Zip thought the darkness was due more to sadness than to anger. Before he could apologize again, the elf lengthened his stride and left Zip behind. Left him with his mouth hanging open and no words to fill the space. A heavy weight fell on him, making it harder for him to take that next step forward.
A gentle hand warmed his arm and Shiore’s brown eyes connected with his hazel ones. “It’s not what you said.”
Not what I said? Whatever else that upset him, he thought about it because something I said. But Zip said none of these thoughts. He had no words to answer her that would not come out as self deprecating. More than anything he wanted to know this man, wanted to know him in ways he never wanted to know the other men he’d entertained in his bed. They meant nothing to him beyond a good romp and a distraction from his own heartache. Wrast was different. For once, Zip wasn’t attracted to just the man’s good looks. The elf was gorgeous, to be sure, but something else had Zip pining for him for more than just sex.
Yet he couldn’t seem to crack the man’s exterior. What was worse, he seemed to be bringing up old demons and putting a wall between them in the process. I’ll never get to know him at this rate. An old kender saying went, Keep your mouth shut when you trip over your words, as you may end up with a mouth full of feet. “And feet aren’t tasty,” his mother would add. Well, he’d been putting his foot in it this whole time.
Ayame hadn’t said anything stupid or embarrassing, or upsetting. By that thread, Wrast would surely end up liking Ayame better. He certainly seemed comfortable with her yesterday.
And then there was his dream. Figures that Dip would notice his twin’s restless sleep. The warrior could sleep through an earthquake, but when it came to Zip he seemed to be alert to his every movement, to his every thought. Zip rubbed his left shoulder. Of course he has help with that. Zip didn’t want to admit to his brother that thoughts and dreams of him still plagued him, but just because he wouldn’t admit it didn’t mean his brother wasn’t all too aware of it. Perhaps his brother had a right to be concerned, but Zip just couldn’t seem to shake off the memories. And now when someone else has come along…
That’s it. That’s what it is. He reminds me so much like him. The face of a young human boy flashed across his mind, sweet of disposition, soul hurt and so very uncertain. Dante. Zip had eased that hurt, but in the end it had been he who was left hurting.
Maybe it’s just not worth it. Maybe it’s better not to even try. Not when it can hurt so much…
“It’ll be okay,” Shiore interrupted his thoughts. Her fingers clasped around his and gave them a squeeze. “You’ll see. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
Zip blinked at her, unsure what just happened. Had he said something out loud? The girl seemed to speak directly to his thoughts. It was as if she could read him like an open book. Obviously his surprise showed on his face and she shied away a bit, brushing a lock of hair behind her pointed ear like a nervous tic. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“It’s okay.” It had been kind of her to say, regardless of how she gauged him. “You’ve got that wacky body aura reading abilities,” he joked, remembering from the other day how she just “sensed” the skulk’s presence.
He must have put his foot in it again, as Shiore seemed to flinch and flush guiltily. “It’s… not exactly like that.”
Although he peered at her inquisitively, he did not ask for an answer and she did not give him one. They continued their walk to the gnome’s lock shop in silence.
Everything within the shop had been scattered around the place when they unlocked the door. While the front door was exactly the way they left it the afternoon before, inside was a much different story. It looked like the place had been torn apart. The door opposite the shop entrance had been kicked open.
“This couldn’t be a robbery,” Shiore stated, wringing her hands. “The front lock was in perfect working order.”
“Or the thieves had a copy of Keygan’s key,” Zip reminded her. The elf girl frowned. “Whoever was here was obviously looking for something.”
Nardakk grunted. “How would we know if anything had been taken?”
The orc had a point. With everything from the displays tossed about, who could say what might be missing? Shiore quietly tiptoed around the debris to the open door. “Hello?” She stuck her head in. “It’s just a workshop.”
“Perhaps they came from underground,” Ayame mused as she glanced around the room.
No one waited for them on the other side of the curtain and the passage down to Jzadirune was neither open nor barred. If the looter had ascended from below, they had left no noticeable traces that they had. Zip checked for footprints and found none of those, either.
The mystery, while distressing, currently was no relevant to their quest. There was nothing they could do about it and no pertinent leads, and the fates of the abductees were of a higher priority. Since Starbrow had been found in the six sided room, Shiore felt this could mean the way down was nearby. “We should start our search there.”
“First.” Dip removed a hammer and chisel from his pack. “I want a mask.”
Nona climbed one of the masks as they were once again welcomed to the gnome sanctuary, the permanent message spell activating once they were close enough. While Dip chiseled away at his chosen mask, Shiore tried to yank her own from the wall. Not surprisingly it didn’t budge. As for Dip, it took quite a bit of hammering and chiseling and even hanging off of it and pushing with his feet against the wall before finally it broke free of the wall.
“Oof!” He landed on his back, knocking the wind out of him, but a moment later he leapt to his feet and cheered. The fall barely registered for him. “Haha! I’ve got a gnome mask!” Zip rolled his eyes as he watched his twin dance a little jig around the room, clutching his prize, but he couldn’t help but smile a little at Dip’s exuberance.
Heading into the skulk room, they noticed that the two dead bodies from yesterday had been moved. “Do you think they got up and walked away?” Ayame asked, a little unnerved. “I mean, the dead rising has been known to happen.”
“Maybe they bury their dead,” Shiore suggested, examining the blood smears on the ground. The blood, a day old, was now dry, but it had definitely spread out a bit more since they last time they’d been in here.
“Must have been dragged off,” Zip observed. But what had dragged them off - other skulks or something else - they couldn’t tell.
It didn’t matter, ultimately. The fate of two dead skulk corpses was of little consequence with up against dozens of prisoners sentenced to be sold as slaves. With little issue, they continued on to the secret closet and back into the six sided room they found Starbrow and the mimic. Zip pondered that when next they met the mimic, they’d have to see if they could ask his name. After all, if they could decide that the drunken morkoth at their inn was named Kevin, that the mimic should have a name as well. At least they’d actually spoken with the mimic.
Although there were two doors that lead from the room other than through the secret closet, Shiore felt that the passage down to the Malachite Hold would be through a secret door. “I’m positive, according to the map, that this door with the ‘N’ rune would connect with the great hall at this end of the passage, and the forest room at the other end, with the aquatic spider bath in the middle.”
Ayame raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You mean the same map that was useless and got us lost half of the day?”
Shiore waved the comment away. “It just took me some time to figure out how it worked. Obviously the gnomes didn’t want the locations of secret passages getting out should someone come across the map accidentally that shouldn’t have it, and of course the tunnels were all recently added.”
“What about the other door?” Ayame countered.
Shiore turned the map. “It looked like it eventually goes to an octagonal room. But I’m telling you, the way down will not be on this map. The gnomes would not have wanted outsiders to know how to get to the Malachite Hold. And since this room was used for something as important as holding Starbrow, the passage down must be here.”
“I agree!” Dip spoke up, puffing out his chest heroically. “We’ll find the passage!”
“You only agree because you like her,” Zip whispered in Kenderspeak as they examined one section of wall for secret notches.
Dip blushed. “Not true. She made a sound, logical argument.”
“And she’s pretty.”
Dip glanced at the elf girl, methodically running her hands over a different section of wall. She was very pretty. But that’s not why I agreed. Although he conceded that it was at least partially true. Not that he’d admit that to Zip.
After a while, when they still hadn’t found anything, Shiore sighed with frustration. “It should have been here!” Heaving an even bigger sigh, she continued with, “Maybe we should go back to the mask room? There could have been a secret staircase down in there.”
With nothing better to do, they followed Shiore’s suggestion and traipsed back into the mask room. When the welcome message sounded once again as they began to search for secret doors, Dip started to think how it might not be cute anymore. How could the gnomes handle this thing going off all the time?
“It is getting a bit annoying, isn’t it?” Shiore said as she stood next to him.
Dip stared at her. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. You’re like a mind reader!”
Shiore jerked back as if Dip had come at her with a knife. “Um, yeah.” She chuckled weakly and wandered off to another section of wall. Dip watched her go in confusion. “Was it something I said?”
Before too long, Nardakk called out that he had found something. Once he had everyone’s attention, he pressed something in the wall that only he could see and part of the wall moved aside. “I think I’ve found a secret passage way.”
“Yes,” Shiore said with an amused smile. “You’ve opened a door.”
“That’s what gave it away to me, too,” he replied, chuckling.
Everyone crowded around the open passage, Dip ducking under the taller group members to get a better view. Shiore stuck an arm through the entrance, a sunrod burning brightly in her hand. The hall went out about forty feet and was filled with dust and cobwebs. The ceiling, like much in the complex, barely cleared Nardakk’s head and the walls were covered with frescos depicting dour gnomes clad in chain shirts and helms, and brandishing hooked hammers. It was the oddest secret chamber Dip had ever seen. Nothing in it, not even any doors, and yet it was hidden by a secret panel. Why would the gnomes want to hide an abandoned hallway, even if the walls were done up in a very heroic fashion? “It just makes no sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Shiore agreed.
Zip peered into the hall with great intensity, as if something would jump out at him if only he stared at it enough. “There are probably secret passages off from this one.”
“Probably,” she agreed. “But look at all this dust built up. It’s obvious no one has used this passage in a long, long time. The skulks didn’t drag their victims through here.”
“There are no footprints at all,” Nardakk agreed. “I don’t think the skulks knew anything about this hall.”
“But,” Dip sputtered, seeing where their line of logic was heading, “the rooms that might connect to here could have been. You never know.” More secret doors - hidden in secret doors! It was like those dolls that nested inside one another. What were they called? Dip had never encountered secret passages inside secret passages. He inched into the dusty hallway, wanting to answer the questions of what, why, how, where, and maybe even who.
“You may be right, but it would be silly to waste our time checking out every inch of this place. People need our help. It would be prudent to follow the path the kidnappers used, and that’s following where their footsteps lead and there are no footsteps here.”
Dip shuffled back out the passage. Damn her logic! People did need them. Well, maybe we can come back and explore later. Content with that idea, he was able to follow his companions back to the skulk room without looking over his shoulder longingly - well, not more than once, anyway.
“Let’s take that tunnel in the other direction.” Shiore pointed to the path that lead from the secret closet to the Great Hall, but that also continued on the other way to an unknown destination. Dip perked up at the idea of finding something new in this place at last.
The tunnel might only have been a little shorter in this direction than the other way, but not by much. Nardakk still made the going slow, but he was getting the hang of traversing it and had adapted enough to make their walk a little quicker. Dip also did not make the mistake of being last in line. This time Nardakk had the honor of rear guard. It was much more fun being up front.