Into the Abyss

The long tunnel wound its way through granite, and occasionally man, or rather, demon-made brick walled areas. Eventually the tunnel that Jehenna’s group would take came. So without further ado, her wagon set off down their tunnel. Two guards on horses going ahead; behind her wagon trailed Lenamare’s wagon, then a wagon loaded with food for her group, then Master Trisfelt and the four children, followed by two wagon loads of peasants and another food wagon. Riding along beside and interspersed with the wagons were mounted guards. In total they had ten soldiers, including the two leading the way. Jehenna really hadn’t wanted to take the peasants in her group, but there had been no graceful way to back out of taking them, and still preserve Lenamare’s selfless image.

To Jenn it seemed as if they’d traveled an entire day underground with only the torches held by the guards and her and Master Trisfelt’s Mage Light lighting the way. Eventually however, Jenn thought she could perceive some light that they weren’t making themselves ahead... Sure enough, within a few moments they reached a large granite doorway where a torch had been lit by an advance scout who had gone ahead to ensure the route was clear. The doorway was about twelve feet high and fifteen feet wide. There were double doors apparently made out of stone and placed at a sloping angle, so that the top was closer to Jenn than the bottom.

The scout turned from the spy hole in the giant doors and nodded to Jehenna that all was ready. Slowly Jehenna traced a pattern in the air in front of the doors and chanted “Omiestes, Crim faltos, sig viernon et sofos... Open Sesame!”

“Open Sesame?” Jenn asked as Jehenna finished to spell.

“Don’t ask me. Some silly code word Lenamare uses on these doors. I guess he got it from some demon one time. I really have no idea, nor do I care.”

With that there was nothing much more Jenn could say, and by this time the giant doors were raising upwards and outwards. Daylight came flooding into the tunnel, temporarily blinding everyone. Cautiously the mounted guards moved outside to inspect the vicinity of the doorway. After looking around for a few moments they motioned for the wagons to come forward.

As the wagons rolled out into the sunlight, Jenn glanced at the position of the sun. It was three quarters of the way across the sky. That meant they’d been in the tunnel for only about four hours. Goddess, how it had seemed longer. Nevertheless, here they were. They were in a thin area of the same forest she’d found the soldier in, only about a two and a half hours ride from the that spot. According to the map she’d seen yesterday it was now only a six hour journey to the mountain pass that would take them eventually to Freehold. As it was, they had a journey of about ten days through the mountains ahead of them. A lot of riding, but as Rupert had said, better than Exador.

∼

Back in the keep, Lenamare began to relax a little. He’d shifted the wards back to their normal balance, and Exador hadn’t noticed anything. As was to be expected, his incredibly believable illusions of soldiers manning the wall completely fooled the army outside. It had been a long two days, he needed a little relaxation. He sat back in the padded chair in his office and poured himself a glass of wine. The illusions needed only the barest fraction of his mighty intellect to maintain, and the wards were completely on automatic.

The wards had been the hardest part of the last two days. Trying to design and build the mechanism that would allow Lenamare to adjust and maintain the wards all by himself. With the masters and students who constructed it gone, only Lenamare’s ingenious device in the warding chamber kept it going. True it would only be able to support the wards for about thirty six hours without the people who constructed it; however, that should be more than sufficient time to give his people a head start. True when he discovered the deception, Exador probably would track the people. He’d probably even manage to find a good number of them.

That, however, was unimportant, what was important was that it would appear to the Council that Lenamare had tried his best to save his entrusted vassals. The only other thing that mattered was that Jehenna get away with the book, so they could rendezvous later. Actually, only that last was truly crucial to his plans. In any event, a day of peace and quiet would be nice for a change, no inferiors to bother him, and Exador firmly entrenched outside with no way in. Ah, the joy, he thought as he slowly spun around in his chair.

Chapter 26