The Dark Device, Chapter 31

Amates 31, 1277. Past the double doors, where we found some answers, and a little bit of a surprise.

“Tela! Can you hear me?”

Ki’s voice sounded muffled. Like he was yelling out of a deep well or from the bottom of a canyon.

“Blink if you know what I’m saying.”

That made no sense to me at all. I would’ve scowled at him, then shooed him away, but I couldn’t figure out where he was. It was dark and thoughts felt a little thick. I shook my head, which felt like I was sunk in mud up to my ears, but I managed. After that I blinked, which really meant I opened my eyes, then blinked.

Ki was kneeling next to me and hovered over me like a mother hen or a physician. Probably a little of both.

“Tela?” he asked again.

I tried to ask what had his tail up in a knot, but the words came out wet and jumbled. Like having a mouthful of soup and trying to talk. Instead, I rubbed the side of my jaw, then managed to sit up off the floor with some help from Ki. After that, the world, such as was, came into poorly lit and gloomy focus. I tried to say something again. This time I managed real words instead of slobbering burbles.

“What?” I scowled at him. “Yes, I hear you,” I grumbled.

The thoughts running around in my head were like runny scrambled eggs. I rubbed by face before I said anything else.

“Mikasi and Nicodemus? Are they all right?”

Ki smiled while he leaned in to check my eyes.

“They’re fine. That spell trap hit the fang weaver, not us. Burned it up like paper in a bonfire. The light from the spell was more than your eyes can handle. You still have your goggles?”

“Yes.” I took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Even I could tell that I needed to tuck in my cranky, because it was starting to show. “It just seemed more important to shut the doors at the time.”

“Always the protector,” Ki said wryly. “Next time, put them on, please? You can’t help anyone else if you’re in no shape to do that.”

I gave him a sideways glance at that and pursed my lips. He wasn’t wrong, but I had a small headache pinching me.

“All right.”

Standing up was more effort than success, but with Ki’s help, I managed. He kept a hand on my shoulder until I was steady. Talking was still a bit more effort than it was worth, so instead I just nodded my thanks. After that, I rubbed the side of my head and looked around.

The only light we had was the Sun Orb and Ki’s parrot-shaped light spell. Together, that still wasn’t a lot of light to see by, but it was enough. Mikasi had my Sun Orb with him while he wandered the far side of the room. Ki’s glowing parrot circled lazily overhead.

In the flickering light, the room was draped in shadows and dust. The room was almost round, shaped like an octagon with a vaulted tan ceiling. It reminded me of a theater. Exhausted Sun Orbs covered in dust, dangled from chains overhead. They were suspended over a spiral staircase that headed down to another floor.

Dark shapes lived near the walls on the far side, close to where Mikasi wandered. They looked like tables with what appeared to be thin drawers underneath them. Brown, grease-like stains smeared parts of the top and sides. That could have just been a trick of the light, but they looked real, and ominous enough, to me. Tall cabinets stood on either side of the tables.

“This isn’t like any observatory or lighthouse I’ve seen,” Ki asked in a low tone. “What is this place?”

“The tables and these cabinets make me think of an alchemist’s workroom,” Mikasi said from across the room.

He stepped carefully around a pile of rags, stained brown, covered in centuries of dust, and frayed with age. Once he reached a cabinet, he tugged open a door to peer at the glassware inside.

“It might also be a surgeon’s workshop,” he added with a somber tone and worried glance back at us.

I blinked while my eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light. Details about the tables grew sharper. They looked about the right length for a surgeon to use in an emergency. But that idea didn’t sit right for me. It was something about the way the stain spilled over the wood, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Both, I think. After all this time, it’s hard to tell. But I’m not sure that all those stains are blood. Blood splatters in a very particular way.” I glanced between the tables, cabinets, and the spiral staircase. “Those tables were also added later.”

Ki glanced over at what caught my attention.

“Late period, but not long before the Great Collapse. Especially with those dovetail joints. They certainly don’t match the decor.” He frowned at me. “What are you thinking?”

I glanced up at the vaulted ceiling, then around at the walls. Each wall of the octagonal room had a floor to ceiling panel covered in elaborate carvings. Some sort of scene. I crossed over to the nearest one that was at the left of the doors in. Ki wasn’t far behind me.

“What I think is that those tables were hauled in here for an emergency. A big one. I don’t think they’ll help us figure out where to go from here.”

On the wall was a landscape. Bridges, people, carts, all frozen in time while they went about their day in the underground city we were in. Even better were the words inscribed below the panel in late Ancient Order dialect that read ‘Bathrogg Station’. At least that cleared up once and for all where we were.

The carving was impressive down to the finest detail, from bridge railing to clothing. I wanted to put my hand against that wall so badly. Just to feel the shape and texture of the polished wood. Get a sense of history and maybe feel a connection to the woodcarver all those centuries ago. It was a masterpiece.

But the idea that we weren’t that far ahead of the Crimson Company or their lich benefactor loomed in the back of my mind. We needed to figure this out and move on. Besides, the wood might be fragile. I needed to be very careful, since you can’t study crumbled wall panels.

Also, I was willing to bet hard coin they could be laced with traps or some other mechanism. There was a good reason why this profession hadn’t killed me yet, even if some days it comes close.

“Which I think is down,” I added. “Because if this is an upside-down lighthouse, down makes the most sense. But not that staircase.”

Ki shook his head. “Of course. Too easy.”

A sharp metallic snap behind us got our attention. We whirled around to find Mikasi next to the spiral staircase with a broken wooden rod in his hand. I had no idea where he found it. The stick looked like something had bitten off the end with a passion. Savaged wood was bent and splintered off at the end. Nicodemus crouched nearby, hackles bristled all the way to the tip of his tail. Mikasi was as white as a sheet.

“Trap,” he said and pointed at the stairs. “Snap blades.” The inventor wiggled the broken stick in the air for emphasis.

I glanced at Ki. “Way too easy. But I think these panels might be the way out.”

He looked back once more at Mikasi, raised his eyebrows, then studied the wall panel closest to us.

“Could be. It wouldn’t be the first time the Ancient Order hid a message in a mural.” He leaned in and squinted at the wall. I could almost hear his mind working. “Wall murals often get crusted over with mold after centuries, not that Ancient Order artists cared about this. But this is an engraving, not a mural. Why the wood?”

“Better detail?” I pointed at the wall panel. “I’m pretty sure that’s the bridge we crossed to get here. Which means those are the doors into this room right there in the panel, dead center.”

“I don’t think it’s just for better detail,” Mikasi said from near the central staircase. “Those are a lot of surgeon tables that were added. If it was for an emergency, maybe the panels were brought in, too?” He shrugged. “Like they wanted to save them from whatever was happening?”

I swapped a glance with Ki.

“They were running for their lives,” Ki said as he looked back that the panels. “They wanted to save these panels from what? A disaster?”

I shook my head.

“Invaders, or something like it. Bathrogg Station was under attack. The people of Talabrae’s Deep were running from down here in the Deeplands after the Great Collapse, or at the end of it. There’s no way to get these panels out.” I pursed my lips. “Maybe with magic?”

Something about that didn’t sit right with me. The panels weren’t resting against the wall as if just left there. They were upright and attached to the walls in a neat trim order. Understanding reached up and slapped me in the back of the head.

"Ki, they didn’t bring them here to save them,” I said slowly. “Even if these had some religious significance, something bad happened here and people were in a hurry. When do people take the time to organize and attach portraits to wall in an emergency? These panels are here for a reason.”

“Concealed doors?” Ki suggested.

I scratched the back of my neck.

“Maybe? But the panels are the key here. Look at the panels. I mean really look. These panels are a giant map. This is why there was just a water clock on the doors in here. That water clock was a thief trap. A dodge. We didn’t find a lock because this entire room is the lock.”

“Oh, by the tides,” was all he managed to say. “We’re standing inside the lock,” Ki repeated slowly, wide-eyed.

“It’s a way to tell who’s a friend and who isn’t!” Mikasi exclaimed. “Cesibus wrote about these. He even designed a few. I’ve studied them, but I never thought I would see a real one.” He hurried over to the closest wall panel. “We just need to follow the map and look for any ‘hidden latches’ along the route. This is a map of this city, so I would think that would be windows and doors. Anyone from here would know what to look for. Outsiders wouldn’t.”

He put his hands on his hips and scowled at the panel.

“So we need to think like someone from Bathrogg Station and pick the right doors, I suppose. Maybe, think like Cesibus? That might work, too.”

I glanced over at Mikasi and watched him while he searched the wall panels with a frantic, eager intensity. In seconds, he uncovered five door-shaped ‘switches’ in the engravings.

“Ki, this is why they were after Mikasi. This right here.” I said in a low voice. “They knew this was here.” I shook my head. “No, that’s not right. The Crimson Company had no idea.”

“Baron Marius,” Ki replied in a flat, low tone.

“The same,” I replied. “That lich either heard of this place or read about it. But he knew just what to expect.”

“What if he knows because he’s been here before? Or was here back then?” Ki asked quietly.

I gave him a sideways look.

“Not something I want to think about.”

Ki didn’t press me on the topic, and I was glad of it. Debate about the baron could happen later when he wasn’t a constant threat. Maybe also after I had set him on fire at least once. We let the conversation drop and instead helped Mikasi search the panels.

The inventor’s idea paid off. No sooner had we started than there was a muffled click from Mikasi’s direction. I glanced over to see that he had pressed a small door, no larger than two fingers, near the bottom of the wall panel in front of him.

“I think I found the right door out.”

A low tumble of ancient gears groaned to life.

“You were right,” Ki said, posture tense while a vibration rippled through the floor.

I just nodded in reply and fought to keep my balance. It would have been nice to hang onto a table, but the furniture in the room wasn’t any better off.

But my suspicion had been right. I just didn’t know how right I was and if Cesibus had designed this, I questioned the man’s sanity.

Just then, the entire room rotated to the right like the giant tumbler of a combination lock.