Abased - The Exiled Warrior

Chapter 10.2 - Gifts

Once they had finished eating, Sapphire, accompanied by the woman and man in white, led Alam, Tajar and Clarisai through wide, high ceilinged passageways, deeper into the mountain. They stopped in front of a towering double doorway made of stone. It was easily three times Alam's height. The hinges were brass. Where the two doors met, a wide brass plate connected them. There was no keyhole, or handle, to be seen.

Sapphire said something lispy that sounded vaguely familiar to Alam's ears, but was not any word that he recognised. A loud clank sounded from the stone doors. Without being touched, the two doors opened towards them, creaking on their huge hinges.

"Light," Sapphire commanded.

The woman and man in white carried torches and bottles of oil past the opening doors and towards two braziers in the centre of the room.

"Woah," Tajar breathed in wonder.

The torches lit up a white tiled, rectangular room. It was small compared to the massive room they had slept in, but it was still large by any other standards. At the far end of the room, on a raised dais was a bed surrounded by wooden boxes bound in brass. In the centre of the room an ornate table, circled by high backed chairs, and set with metal plates and cups of glass, stood between the two braziers.

But what caused Tajar's astonishment was around the walls. Suits of armour stood on display; shield of various size and style were mounted on the walls; and two large racks of weapons - on opposite walls from each other - held a huge array of weapons: spears, swords, axes, bows, maces.

Alam, Tajar and Clarisai followed Sapphire into the room.

"You may borrow any weapon or armour except what is on the bed," she said.

As he entered, Alam noticed that dust and cobwebs covered everything, masking the lavish room. The closer he drew to the table, the more forlorn it appeared. The table cloth was faded and in taters, the plates, which must have been silver, were black from lack of polishing.

"What is this place?" he asked.

"Just take what you need so we can leave," she replied.

"These bows are so old that the strings are brittle and the wood is dry and cracked," Tajar said.

"I can fix whatever bow you choose, but I suggest you also borrow something for close combat." She took the bow from him and turned her back on them.

"When was the last time anyone was in here?" Alam asked.

"In spring when I collected the bow and axe that I gave you."

Alam looked up at the bed on the dais. A suit of plate armour, coated with dust, and marked with rust, lay on the bed as if a warrior had fallen asleep on it long years ago and had not moved since.

"These are incredible," Tajar exclaimed. He had pulled a curved sword out of its cracked leather scabbard and was examining it in the flickering light. "I like this one a lot." He sliced it through the air.

Sapphire looked over her shoulder. "Then you had better treat it with more respect than the bow you lost. That is no kitchen knife. He who wielded it was..."

Her voice trailed off. Instead of finishing the sentence she looked at the bed and then turned her head back around to face away from the others.

"He was what?" Clarisai asked gently.

When Sapphire did not respond Clarisai prompted. "Special?"

"Very," Sapphire answered quietly. "Now hurry up and choose. There is no time to waste." She handed the bow back to Tajar. It was in perfect condition.

"How did you do that?" Tajar gaped.

"Close your mouth and choose quickly," she replied.

After a few minutes Alam had picked an open-faced helmet that did not restrict his vision; a beautiful shirt of armour made of overlapping metal scales that was remarkably light; a round shield painted red, and a hand axe with familiar looking serpentine designs. It was smaller than the two handed one he had left behind in the Asaevka camp, but it was sharp.

Tajar chose a long chain shirt, a helmet with bull's horns, the bow Sapphire had repaired, a quiver of arrows, a spear, a round brass shield, a dagger, and the curved sword he had been admiring earlier.

"Will you be able to walk under all that gear?" Clarisai laughed.

"With these muscles?" Tajar flexed his biceps. "I won't even feel it. Now I just need to choose between this short dagger that is more balanced, or this curved one that looks better next to the sword."

As Tajar explained the benefits of each dagger to Clarisai, Alam quietly walked up the four steps of the dais to the bed.

The suit of armour laying on the bed was not empty. A man's corpse, shriveled and dry, lay within it. The breastplate was heavily crushed in the centre of his chest. The corpse's lifeless hands held a magnificent sword.

Surely that is the most perfect weapon ever forged.

Despite its age, the blade shone in the fire light as though it had just been made. Although it, like everything else in the room, was blanketed in dust; no rust, notches, or scratching marred it's perfectly straight lines.

"What are you doing, Alam?" Sapphire demanded.

"Nothing, just looking."

"Come here! Now!" Even without the ring on his finger Alam felt the force of her persuasion hit him. He had turned towards her and had taken the first step down the dais by the time he was able to shake off her influence.

"We must go now. Time is crucial." She marched out of the room, followed by the woman and man in white.

"Are you taking anything, Clarisai?" Alam asked.

"No. I hope I will not need a weapon."

"So, now what are we doing?" Tajar mumbled to Alam as they and Clarisai fell into step behind Sapphire.

"That is a great question." Alam raised his voice. "Sapphire, what exactly are you wanting us to do?"

"We will travel through some dargu caves until we reach a particular cavern. I have something I must do in that cavern. You simply have to eliminate any dargu we come across along the way, and protect me once we reach the cavern."

"Hang on. This isn't feeling right," said Alam. "We are supposed to believe that you have gone through all the trouble of seeking us out, bewitching us, and giving us weapons months ago so we can help protect you against a few dargu? After claiming that you can wipe out our entire clan with ease, you are suddenly needing the protection of a couple of clansmen? You have your own soldiers. Why not just use them?"

"Because my guards did not bring her," she pointed to Clarisai.

"'Her?" Alam asked as he turned to look at Clarisai.

Her bloodshot eyes looked puzzled. "Me?"

"Wait a minute," said Tajar. "So you gave us the weapons so we could survive; we survived so we could find Clarisai; we found Clarisai so we would bring her here; and we brought her here so she can help you?"

Sapphire stopped walking, faced Tajar and caressed his cheek with the back of her fingers. "Handsome and clever. What an attractive combination. We are here, by the way."

They had stopped outside a metal door that had not one, but three heavily locked, wide metal bars across its width. It was a normal height door, which, after walking around the high ceilinged, wide corridors and rooms, seemed small and out of place.

"Why me?" Clarisai asked with shock on her face as the woman and man in white slid the metal bars away from the door.

"Lines of fate, my dear. Yours cross mine." She turned to Alam and Tajar. "It is time to see those muscles of yours at work, starting with opening this door."

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-Y. V. Qualls