The Keep's Core

Chapter Twelve

Half an hour later they had reached Hero's previous point of penetration. To do so they had to bypass a further half-dozen fearsome falls, where the floor would have slid away beneath their feet; they had to avoid pivoting slabs of stone which would slam down from the walls if a foot should fall in the wrong place; and they had to tightrope across a great chasm on a bridge of stone which in places was less than six inches in width.

They had received adequate warning of each of these hazards in the shape of Thinistor's smudges of red dye strategically daubed on the walls; but the latest obstacle was one which spoke eloquently if mutely for itself, explaining why Hero had chosen to go no farther on his own.

For now they had come to a place where the floor of the tunnel suddenly fell away vertically to a depth of some eighty feet, but this pit of its own was not what had stopped the younger dreamer. Casting one of his torches into the depths after first lighting a second from its flame, David Hero lighted up the floor of the pit. The torch had fallen speedily, landing with a strangely heavy thump and going out almost immediately, but not before the adventurers had seen the many white bones that littered the pit's bottom-the bones, and the coils of rope on which they lay and with which they were intermingled.

"You can see why I went no farther," Hero said, holding his torch high to light up the ceiling. "See there? That thick bar of metal that crosses the ceiling from wall to wall? And do you see the frayed ropes that hang from it? What do you suppose happened here?"

"Hmph!" Eldin grunted. "Isn't it obvious? Over the years a good many adventurers have found their way in here. They've thrown their ropes up over the bar and attempted to swing across-but their ropes snapped and they fell to their deaths."

"All of them?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Can you honestly see any adventurer worth his salt trying to swing across there on a weak rope?" Hero shook his head. "Oh, no. There's something very fishy here. And see, there's old Thinistor's warning on the wall."

Eldin looked as directed, and sure enough there was the wizard's smudge of warning red. The burly dreamer scowled. "It's simply his warning of a hazard," he grunted. "Just like all the others we've seen."

"But that's just it," Hero insisted. "All of those other hazards were hidden, more or less, but this one is clearly visible. Or is Thinistor warning us of something we can't seer

"There's a way to find out," grunted Eldin. "Here, give me one of those grappling-hooks of yours."

Hero took an iron hook from his belt and passed it over. Eldin tied the end of a slender but extremely strong rope to the hook, whirled it round his head and expertly released it. The iron soared up and over the bar, was pulled back by Eldin until its tines caught fast. "There you go," he said with some satisfaction. "All ready to swing."

"As were all the others," Hero frowned. "Here, I've an idea. Let's see what happens if-" and he searched the floor around his feet until he found a large, jagged rock, fallen from the ceiling in unknown ages past. Carefully, he cut the rope and tied the rock to its end with a firm knot. Then, with a great push he sent the weighted rope swinging out over the chasm. Like a pendulum, the stone should have swung away and returned to Hero's hands-but it did not!

At the halfway point, as if caught and pulled from below by the hand of some invisible giant, the rock plummetted downward trailing strands of snapped rope.

"What in the name of-?" the dreamers whispered in unison.

Hero found a smaller stone, whipped his hand back, then forward, shot the projectile out across the chasm. Instead of shooting straight across to the other side, the pebble curved sharply downward, accelerated, slammed into the scattering of bones below. It failed to bounce.

Eldin's eyebrows beetled as he lowered them in a frown. "As the stones approach the center, so they-"

"-get heavier!" Hero finished it for him. "And so did our friends down there." He pointed at the dark depths below, where bones lay scattered in white and shattered disarray. "When they tried to swing across, they grew too heavy for their ropes!"

"Magic!" Eldin snarled, his fear of the supernatural visible in his wide eyes and bared teeth.

"I don't think so," said Hero. "At least, not the sort of magic you mean. This is something the First Ones left behind them."

"How do you mean?" Eldin asked.

"Well, you know how a northstone always points to the north? I think there's something down there, buried in the heart of the keep, that pulls things into it in much the same way. Except that it pulls harder."

"Hmph!" Eldin grunted. "A damned sight harder, I'd say! So how did old Thinistor get across?"

Now it was Hero's turn to frown. "Let's not forget he was a wizard," he said.

"Aye, but if this is something the First Ones left behind, surely its power would supersede his?" At times Eldin could display alarming powers of logic.

Hero scratched his head for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "He walked across!"

"Eh? Walked? Are you feeling well, lad?"

"Across the bottom!" the other sighed. "He climbed down on a rope, walked across, climbed the other side!"

"And he didn't get heavier on the way down?"

"We can soon find out." Hero hammered a spike into a crack in the floor, tied a rope to it, tossed the thin coil over the lip. Lying down, he held his torch out over the rim and gazed into the depths. In the flickering torchlight he could just see that the rope had reached bottom.

"What does that prove?" Eldin asked.

"Well," Hero answered, hauling on the rope which came up easily enough, "the rope itself hasn't got any heavier, has it? So neither will we when we climb down. I think the pull increases toward the center. That's where all the bones are."

"But you can't be sure ..."

"No, but I'm willing to go first. Here, hold the torch. When I get to the bottom I'll light another." And passing Eldin the torch, he grasped the rope and swung himself over the rim and out of sight.

After a while, when the rope went slack, Eldin called out: "Are you all right, David?"

"Fine!" came the answer. "Come on down." And a sudden flaring light from below confirmed Hero's safe arrival at the bottom of the pit.

Eldin immediately threw down his torch and lowered himself over the edge. A minute later he stood beside his younger friend and stared along the length of the pit across the scattered bones at its center to the sheer wall at the other end. "Here we go," said Hero, stepping out gingerly toward that far wall.

Eldin followed and with each step, as they approached the center of the pit, so they felt weight settling invisibly on their shoulders, their limbs, every part of their bodies. "Uh!" said Eldin, "I feel as if I were carrying three men!"

Hero, ahead by two paces, answered: "Where I am it feels like five! And look-!" Eldin looked in time to see the flames of his friend's torch dragged downward and snuffed out as they crawled along the stock of the torch toward Hero's fingers.

"Those flames," Hero grunted, "might just have had the right idea. In fact-" he got down on hands and knees, "-I think I'd better crawl before something snaps!"

Eldin, too, got down on all fours. His very clothes now felt as if they were made of lead; and the bones of the pit, as he pushed them out of his way, were heavy as boulders. Now the dreamers were panting, sucking at air which seemed compressed and hard as iron. Literally wriggling forward on their bellies, they dragged their chins in the dust and bones, cutting knees and elbows as their weight became that of ten men and more.

"Whatever you do, don't stop!" Hero gasped. "Or you'll be here forever." Then, silent except for their panting, gasping, wriggling and clawing, they gave their all to fighting their way out of this region of monstrous magnetism.

After what seemed like hours, finally they could get back onto all fours, and moments later climb weakly to their feet, until at last they leaned on trembling legs against the sheer wall of rock at the far side of the pit.

"I could sleep for a week," Eldin sighed while Hero lit a torch.

"Me, too," the other agreed, "-which is all the more reason to get moving again. We'll climb this face, take a bite to eat and a quick swig of water, and press on immediately. I've a feeling there's not much farther to go."

"To what?"

"To whatever it was kept old Thinistor up here in the Great Bleak Mountains all these years," Hero answered. He handed Eldin the torch, attached a small grappling-hook to a coil of light, strong rope, whirled the hook round his head and let it fly up and over the rim of the looming wall. At their feet, the coil of rope unwound itself with a hiss, and moments later-

They began to hop about and yelp, covering their heads with their arms as the rope fell back in loose loops and the hook came clattering down out of darkness. It missed Eldin by inches and Hero caught it on the bounce.

"If at first you don't succeed-" Hero muttered in what he hoped was a placating tone; but Eldin simply snatched the hook from him and scowled blackly.

"Here, you hold the torch," he snarled. "I'm damned if I'll stand here and be pounded to death by ill-tossed grappling-irons!" With a great heave, he shot die hook into the air. It caught at once and he gave a jerk on the rope, sinking the hook into the floor of the passage eighty feet above. "There!" he said with satisfaction. "Now you can climb."

"After you," said Hero promptly. "You're heavier than I am. You go first and anchor the rope for me."

"Oh? And what if it slips when I'm halfway up?"

Hero shrugged. "You threw it," he blandly replied.

With a snort and an oath Eldin gave the rope a second tug, then grunted as he braced his legs against the wall and started to climb. Hero watched him in open admiration, and in less than two minutes was able to follow on when the older man called down to him and announced his safe arrival at the top ...

After hauling up the rope the pair sat down on the cold stone floor, ate some dried meat and drank a little water; but while Eldin would have been content to rest a while longer, his younger companion was eager to push on. "Come on," Hero said, getting stiffly to his feet. "The sooner we've done with this the better. We're low on ropes, irons and torches, and our food and water's not much to mention. I'd hate to get stuck in here."

"I suppose so," the other grudgingly agreed. "But look, what's that up ahead?" They both stared into the darkness ahead, a darkness partly illuminated by the flickering light of their torch, which seemed reflected now by some vast and polished surface.

As they moved forward so the glow grew brighter, until indeed they could see that the tunnel was sealed by a great plate of shining metal that extended from ceiling to floor and wall to wall. It was inscribed with glyphs utterly alien to (he eyes of the adventurers; and yet it seemed to them that there were elements of all dreamland's writing and hieroglyphics hidden in these cryptical etchings of the First Ones.

Greatly daring, Eldin stepped forward and banged on the metal door-for that was surely what the great plate was-with a heavy fist. The door shed clouds of dust and gonged hollowly, setting up echoes that reverberated for a long time in the confines of the passage.

Meanwhile Hero was peering at the walls and muttering ominously at something he found there. "What's wrong now, lad?" Eldin rumbled. "More of Thinistor's red paint?"

"Red, yes," Hero answered. "And white! The contrary old ... wizard! How are we to read that?"

"Why, we're to go on!" cried Eldin, "-but carefully!"

"Which means that there has to be a way in," the younger dreamer grunted, "if only we can find it."

"See the crack in the walls, floor and ceiling?" said Eldin. "The door doesn't just block this corridor-it extends into the very rock!"

"A sliding door?" Hero asked.

"Perhaps. Or maybe one that opens inward," the other replied. "Well, then, if we can't push it open-" and they leaned their shoulders mightily against it, "-perhaps we can slide it to one side, uh" and they tried that too. But the door would not budge.

They sat down in the dust and shared a sip of water; and as Eldin munched morosely on a piece of dried meat, so Hero rapped facetiously on the door and cried: "Open up in there! I, David Hero, command it!"

And with a hiss and a rumble the great silver panel instantly slid up into the ceiling, leaving the two comrades to spring to their feet in a blinding blaze of light that spilled like the fires in the heart of the sun out from beyond the raised portal.

"This is it," Hero cried, crouching down and shielding his eyes from the awesome glare. "We've done it. We've reached the core of the keep!"