Another long stretch of not working on my third book has finally come to an end. As I sincerely hoped would be the case, the daily writing prompts that I am doing have gotten me effectively out of the writer’s block that I had been having with this story, which I had not touched at all in 2-3 months. After I did my writing exercise today, I was inspired to keep the creative juices flowing, as it were, and I jumped in and finally finished Chapter Fourteen.
It would be amazing if you would give this a read and left your thoughts and comments down below. This is a rough draft so there will be typos and inconsistencies, but I would still love to hear your thoughts on the story itself.
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Excerpt
The air was stale as they made their way into the mountain and all around them was the melancholy gloom that one often finds in ancient and abandoned places. For some time their twisting paths led them through various guard houses, barracks, and armories. Nothing was left aside from the odd crumbling piece of wood or tatter of fabric. Rusted and corroded metal and crumbling stone welcomed them at every turn. More than once they had to double back either because they had unknowingly come to some dead end, at least a few likely a trap should an enemy invade the mountain from the fortresses at its peak, or collapsed passage.
The group was silent as they moved, save for the occasional word or two of suggestion, direction, or surprise at all they were seeing. Eventually, it was unclear by torchlight in the dark tunnels how long precisely, they descended out of the fortifications of the mountain and came to areas that were likely were inhabited. The passageways that they were now finding were larger and straighter. The same signs of almost incomprehensible age permeated their surroundings, made all the more acute by the slump skeletons that they would occasionally pass. In this section of the Mountain they were greeted nearly everywhere they looked off the main path by what looked to be variety of forges and workshops. Tanara had been in more than a few ruins in her time, but try as she might she could not get over the eeriness of what they were doing.
As they traveled deeper into the mountain, all began to noticed that a chill hung in the air which Throm guessed meant that at least one of the ventilation shafts was still unblocked. Soon they reached what looked to be a more residential section of the great mountain city. It was unclear why, but this section of the city seemed to be in a better shape than what they had just passed through. There was still ruin and decay everywhere, but fewer tunnel and passage collapses to figure out a way around. Several times a series of vibrations shook the mountain. Wendon told the others that he could sense great power within the mountain. The rest assumed that it was the Hand of Death and they pressed on.
At last a wide and gentle stair opened up before them and at the first turning, they came to a balcony which overlooked the main chamber of the Mountain. The center of the mountain had been hollowed out, or perhaps the hole mountain had been made thus, into a vast cavern. A few shafts of light slipped through high above them revealed an open floor at the center, at the far end of which was a high flight of steps which soared up to a huge throne of carven stone, at least half of which appeared to be broken away. Around this central area many buildings of stone, likely the various apparatuses of governing their empire and tunnels going off every which direction. Down to the right, opposite the throne, were the vast stone doors of their kingdom. Wendon and Varna shivered which led the rest to notice that the air was far colder here in the main chamber.
It took them some time to make their way down, not helped by the places where the stairs were damaged or crumbled away, which slowed their progress even more. Finally, they turned on final corner and after a final flight of stairs, they found themselves in a short tunnel, several times higher and wider than even Belkor, and perfectly smoothed. This tunnel opened into a wide lane that ran between several buildings and after a few more minutes, they found themselves in the great gathering rea of the dwarves, and they could see the high throne, which at closer inspection they could see the throne itself and been heavily cracked and more than half laid scattered on the stairs around it. After they took at this in, they finally noticed that, sitting on the steps right before the throne, was Banan Veo.
The man was studying them from his seat and his icy-blue eyes dug into each and everyone one of them, one at a time. He looked greyer and somewhat more gaunt than the first time they had met him but shortly after they noticed him, he stood up, held his arms wide and cried, “my friends! It is good to see you again and I have heard from Tengana that you have the key that is needed!”
Belker bowed deeply and shouted back, “We do indeed! How were you able to get in here?”
Benan Veo chuckled for a moment before beckoning them to come to him. When they reached him he hurried over to them, “welcome, welcome, quite a place is it not? It staggers even my imagination to think what this place might have been like at its height.”
Wendon nodded, “yes indeed, I have heard that not only were the statues and carvings around the envy of the terra, but the way they managed to angle light into the space. . .”
There was a small rumble of the ground as Wendon was speaking and this seemed to prompt their employer to clear his throat, “I have heard the same but of the moment if you will come this way, I will show you where the vault is.”
With that, the man turned on his heels and with robes flowing behind led the way around the back of the throne. There was another rumble and a gust of cold wind cut through the chamber causing them all to shiver. It took only a moment reach the back base of the pyramidal steps that the throne sat atop. Benan Veo motioned the others to move off of the stairs and when they had he spent a moment muttering in a language that sounded a little like dwarvish before switching to what might have been trollish and gesturing his hands.
Once he finished and dropped is hands, a section of the bottom ten steps, about five feet wide, slid backward until they were flush with each other and then sink into the ground. Several rumbles echoed through the chamber as that was happening. This revealed a door, etched across with ruins and a spot in the dead center that appeared to be a perfect circle carved out of the rock. All stared at the door for a long moment before Benan Veo motioned the group forward.
Tanara produced the two halves of the key from an inside pocket of her cloak and with deft fingers placed them together so that they formed one sphere. Once joined, it was impossible to tell where one began and one ended, it seemed to be carved from a single crystal. Tanara then stepped forward to placed the key into the lock.
Nothing happened for a moment, but suddenly light began to emanate from the crystal and the various symbols carved on the door in all manor of colors. The key seemed to be pulled partway into the door and, just before it might have disappeared, what was once a single slab of stone splice perfectly in the middle, including the key itself, and swung slowly outwards.
Within this sealed and secret vault was a bare stone chamber that was empty save for a plain pillar, standing at the center of the room. Upon this pillar was sad the most unsettling gauntlet any had ever witness. It was clearly sized for a hand to go into, but the out covering seemed to be made of skin, with bones running along the back of the glove to give protection and structure. Even at a distance it was clear that runes and scripts of various kinds were etched into the bones. Even with no power or skill in magecraft at all, Tanara could feel the malevolence coming off of it.
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