Chapter 32 / A Test of Faith
A rumbling in the deep and shifting of stone reported another explosion as dust and loose rocks fell from the ceiling.
"That one sounded further away," Elsa noted as they rose from the low tunnel and stretched to her full height.
A few steps away, Anna slapped and jiggled her flashlight until it came to life and lit up the dark hallway in front of them. "Better for us, come on," she said as she waved the beam of her light forward and gestured for Elsa to follow.
Elsa lit up her own flashlight, then fell in step beside Anna. "Do you still think we're on the right track?" she asked as they pressed ahead.
"I hope so. We found the passage beyond the city, through the canyon and in the hidden oasis, right?" Anna replied.
"Right, but other than that we haven't even seen any other signs of- oh," Elsa was interrupted when she something crunched beneath fer foot.
She stepped back and cast the beam of her light on the ground before them. A large collection of ancient skeletons and bones laid around them in all manner. Some wore the tattered robes of monks while others were still clad in chain mail armor.
Anna kicked a skull away from her feet. "Yeah, I'd say we're on the right track," she remarked.
Elsa knelt down and examined the macabre scenery. She noted that a few skeletons were pierced by spears while others were punctured by a number of bolts that still remained embedded in their corpses. Eyeing the walls on either side, Elsa spotted numerous slits and holes of varying sizes.
She knelt down and hefted a nearby rock in her hands as she held up her hand to Anna in caution. "Step back, Anna," she warned.
Anna looked at Elsa quizzically for a brief moment before she realized her intention and retreated a safe distance away. Elsa backed away until she was next to Anna, and then tossed the rock underhand towards piles of skeletons. The rock bounced and slid along the rough hewn floor until it settled on a pressure plate.
The grinding of ancient machinery rang out as in the next moment, a myriad of long spikes shot out from either wall while a barrage of bolts whistled through the air and slammed into the opposite side
"Whoa," Anna muttered. "Good call, Elsa."
"There's bound to be more. We should watch where we step," Elsa cautioned.
The grinding halted as the spikes fully extended and the mechanisms shooting the bolts ran empty. The spikes had stopped a short distance from the center of the hallway, forming a narrow path lined on either side by deadly pointed ends.
Elsa tossed another rock, disturbing the bones strewn about as it slid onto another pressure plate. It sank, and the hidden mechanism groaned and protested before falling silent. The spikes did not retract, and no further bolts spat out.
"Guess that's all then," Elsa murmured. "I'll go first."
Carefully, she shuffled sidelong into the narrow path, passing by as slowly as she could so as not to impale herself on the protruding spikes nor trigger another trap.
"Oh, Elsa. Be careful," Anna fretted nervously.
Soon enough, Elsa made it through to the other side free of the spikes. "I'm through, now your turn. Just take it slow!"
Anna proceeded forward, shuffling and sidestepping along while muttering to herself, "it's okay, just go slow. Nice and slow." She shifted another skull aside away from her feet she while she continued along. "Oh, excuse me. Don't mind me, I'm just passing throu- oh my god!"
Once clear of the spikes, Anna exhaled deeply in relief and bent down to gather her breath.
"Are you okay?" Elsa asked.
"Mmhmm! Super!" Anna gave a thumbs up and smiled brightly. Despite their grim surroundings, nothing seems to have dampened her spirits. "Let's keep going. Carefully," she added.
Elsa nodded as they set off again, walking slowly while scanning the floors, walls, and ceiling for signs of any other traps. They rounded a corner without incident and found themselves staring down a long corridor, at the end of which lay the entrance to a sort of antechamber.
"Hmm," Elsa frowned in thought.
"Well, that's suspicious," Anna chimed in.
They inched forward, testing each stone with one foot before committing and stepping forward. Despite the cool subterranean air, Elsa and Anna were sweating in concentration. They approached a section of flooring that held telltale scratch marks that lay perpendicular to the walls and suggested some type of linear movement. Here, they paused again and Anna kicked a nearby rock over the scratched flooring. It slid along the floor and came to a rest without activating any trap mechanisms.
Anna cocked her head. "Very suspicious," she muttered.
Suddenly, an explosion rang out much closer, detonating with a resounding blast that echoed through the corridor and shook the earth around them. Elsa and Anna stumbled into each other, holding on for balance as rocks loosened and fell from the ceiling.
"Holy crap!" Anna yelled as the earth settled and stilled around them. However, as it did, ancient gears and cogs were audibly loosened and came to life.
The scratched portion of floor split down the middle and retreated into the walls, revealing a deep pit filled with spikes that were pointed angrily upwards. A few more skeletons lay impaled upon them, greeting Elsa and Anna with grimacing visages of death.
"Great," Elsa muttered. "Think we can jump it?" she asked, gauging the distance between them and the other side.
"Don't think we have a choice," Anna replied as she backed up and readied herself. "I'll go first this time."
Elsa stepped to the side, allowing Anna room to sprint forward and leap easily over the spiked pit. She landed on the other side, then turned and gave Elsa a thumbs up.
"Come on! It's an easy jump," Anna said as she waved her over.
Elsa retreated a few paces, huffed in and out a few times before sprinting towards the gap. At the ledge, she leapt off with her leading foot, propelling her body through the air and landing on the other side with Anna.
"Piece of cake," Anna stated.
Just then, more gears began grinding against each other followed by the sound of an unfurling chain from above them.
"Anna! MOVE!" Elsa cried, shoving Anna out of the way and diving to the side next to her.
A large, vertical metal grate studded with spikes slammed into the floor behind them. It stood nearly as tall and wide as the hallway and covered the way behind them. More chains bounced and rattled as the spiked grate began to lurch forward, pulled along by tracks embedded in the floor.
"So much for being careful! RUN!" Anna shouted, pulling Elsa to her feet.
They sprinted ahead, abandoning caution as the spiked grate was pulled forward and lurched after them. Ahead, a large slab was gradually lowering to the floor, covering the entrance to the antechamber. It was already a quarter of the way down and if it closed, they would be trapped between the slab and the spiked grate.
"Faster Anna, go go GO!" Elsa yelled, looking behind her.
The slab was now halfway down. Putting on as much speed as possible, Elsa and Anna raced down the corridor. The spiked grate was scratching, sliding, and sparking along the floor as it steadily gained on them.
"Crap crap CRAAAAAAAP!" Anna cried as the slab reached the final quarter before it sealed completely. She dived forward, landing roughly on her front before then flipped over onto her back. "Elsa!" she cried.
A second later, Elsa dropped down into a slide as her momentum carried her through the door just in time. She came to a stop on the other side and glanced behind herself, noticing that her blonde braid had loosened slightly and still laid in the threshold. With only inches left before the slab sealed the door shut, Elsa reached in and pulled her hair out at the last second before the door was closed.
"Whew," Elsa sighed in relief and smoothed her hair.
Another moment later, the spiked grate crashed into the other side of the thick stone, echoing and ringing through the corridors.
Anna sat up and clutched her chest as she caught her breath. "Oh man, that was intense," she panted.
Elsa rose to her feet first then helped Anna up. She examined the darkness of the room around them and patted her belt until she found her flashlight. Clicking it on, she cast the light over the entrance they had come through.
"No way back now," she muttered.
Anna cursed and mumbled as she knelt and patted around in the darkness for her flashlight. "Great, I must have lost it back there," she said.
"We still have mine, at least," Elsa said as she waved the beam of her light onto Anna. "You good?"
"Uh huh," Anna smiled. "Still got all my parts, you?"
"Pretty sure," Elsa nodded and dusted herself off. She walked past Anna, leading the way forward as she explored the antechamber.
The room was small, and rectangular in shape. Behind them laid the sealed entryway, and ahead the antechamber connected to a secondary chamber that appeared to be much larger. Flanking either side of the way into the next chamber were two large statues that stood tall and silent as if guarding the entrance. Each stone sentinel was a knight, fully clad in plate armor with a cloak wrapped around their shoulders. They each held a sword, pointed down in between their feet with both of their hands resting on top of the hilt. Their heads were uncovered and their faces were expressionless as they gazed downwards forever in watchful silence. One knight was long haired, coming to a rest above his shoulders while the other had short hair.
Elsa's eyes widened in recognition of the figures. They had seen depictions of them enough times in the history books they read.
"Anna, do you know who these are?" she asked without taking her eyes off the statues.
Anna walked over to Elsa's side and gazed upwards. "That's… Sir Galahad," she said, pointing to the long haired knight.
"And Sir Percival," Elsa added, pointing to the short haired knight.
"Those are our boys alright," Anna beamed. "Well, let's go see what they've got for us!" she said as she skipped on ahead.
They passed through to the next chamber and found themselves in a large, circular room. In the center on a raised platform, a large statue of a man seated upon a throne presided over the chamber. A crown rested upon his head and his stony expression frowned as if in pain. He was haggard looking and dressed in simple robes, save for his legs which were wrapped in bandages. On either side of the statue, two cold braziers sat, still filled with kindling and firewood.
"What do you suppose this place is?" Elsa asked, as she peered up at the statue and cast her light over the man's stony visage.
"Hmm," Anna scratched her head in thought. She approached the base of the statue then peered down to the braziers. "I'm not sure, but look! We can light these up," she said as she knelt and withdrew a match from her satchel.
She struck it against the heel of her boot and held it to the dry kindling which eagerly lapped up the flame. Within seconds, the brazier was lit with a roaring fire and another curious thing happened. As the fire crackled to life, tiny flames shot out from beneath the brazier in different directions, burning along small tracks of fuel. One flame shot towards the second brazier, which blazed to life almost immediately. All around them, flames raced along tracks towards the circumference of the room and up the walls, lighting torches in wall sconces. Soon, the entire room was alight from the glow of crackling firelight.
"Cooooool," Anna murmured, gazing all around the room in wonderment.
Elsa turned slowly, looking all around the room in curiosity. She clicked off her flashlight, as her focus settled on Anna. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, giddy with excitement as she turned all around the room. Her teal eyes reflected the firelight, and for a long moment, Elsa simply looked at Anna with a serene expression.
"Very cool- woah!" Elsa started, and was interrupted when the ground beneath her feet began to buckle and rise. She hopped to the side, and the place where she had been standing moments ago was now an upright cylindrical surface that stood about waist high.
"Uh oh," Anna muttered as the entire chamber groaned and shifted. "Is this another trap?" she asked nervously.
All around them, four statues slowly rose from the ground. They rotated slowly as they appeared, settling in a position facing the center of the room when they reached their full height. Each new statue was spaced equally apart, along four points around the circular room directly in front, behind and on either side of the seated man. The four statues were all different; one was a man holding a tall lance in front of him, one depicted a woman holding some sort of platter, one depicted two boys standing side by side holding candelabras aloft in front of them and the last was of a young girl, holding a simple cup.
"I don't think so…" Elsa murmured as she examined the new statues. She turned to the cylindrical surface that had risen from the ground and looked at it more closely.
On top were three rings, each one smaller than the last starting from the largest ring that lined the edge of the cylinder. There were deep grooves carved into each ring.
"I think it's a test," Elsa stated.
"A test?" Anna asked, standing beside Elsa. "What sort of test?"
"Look at him, recognize him?" Elsa pointed to the seated figure in the center.
Under the firelight, Anna could make out his features much more clearly. "Crown on his head… so he's a king or monarch of some kind. He looks… hurt, and there's bandages all over his legs…" Anna muttered, then snapped her fingers in realization. "The fisher king!"
"And the other statues, see them? The objects they're holding?"
"A lance, a platter, two candelabras and… the grail! These were the artifacts that were presented to the fisher king!" Anna exclaimed. "But… what test? What are we supposed to do here?"
Elsa pursed her lips and furrowed her brows in thought. She examined the room again, and under the firelight she could see that another series of rings surrounded the platform they were standing on much like on the cylinder that had risen from the ground. She looked between the rings on the ground and the rings on the cylinder and an idea came to her.
"I have an idea…" Elsa said as she walked over to the cylinder and laid her palms on the outermost ring. She gripped the grooves and gave it an experimental turn clockwise. To her surprise, the stone ring rotated easily, and at the same time it did the outermost ring on the floor before the statues rotated as well. The room rumbled deeply as the ground shook and seemed to rearrange itself.
"A ha!" Elsa exclaimed.
"Whoa!" Anna leapt back in surprise. "How did you do that?"
"Come take a look at this!" Elsa called, gesturing Anna over. As she walked up to her side, Elsa pointed to the mechanism. "This thing rotates the floor somehow, the rings on this correspond with the rings in the floor."
"Okay, so it's sort of like a puzzle!" Anna brightened.
"Exactly!" Elsa agreed, then walked down to look at the rings in the floor more closely. Anna followed behind.
"Look, there's tracks in the floor here," Anna said, pointing to a square indentation in the ground closest to the center. It was the same size as the base of the statues adorning the perimeter of the chamber. Next to it, were three other indentations of the same size that all rested in front of the fisher king.
Elsa realized then that the floor was etched with similar tracks, seemingly placed in random spots around the chamber. Some were interlinked, while others were disconnected from one another.
"I think we're supposed to… move these statues," Elsa said as she took in the intricate network of tracks surrounding them.
"Move them? Move them how?" Anna asked.
"By sliding them along the tracks in the floor, and then I think they're supposed to go here," Elsa pointed to the four empty indentations before the king. "I think we're supposed to present the artifacts to the king like in the story."
Anna paused for a moment, examining each of the four statues in turn before settling her gaze on the king. In a moment of clarity, she slapped her forehead.
"Oooooh, of course! Sir Percival was invited to dine with the fisher king in his hall, and then during the dinner the four artifacts were presented to him and the king!" she said excitedly.
"First it was the lance, then the candelabras, then… the grail and then the platter!" Elsa paused and looked around the room.
"But these tracks are all over the place, how are we supposed to move these statues?" Anna frowned.
"I think that's what the mechanism is for," Elsa said, climbing up the steps to regard the cylinder again. "We have to align the tracks, then… slide them along I guess."
"Good, because I don't think I can lift those things," Anna quipped
Elsa placed her hands on the outer ring of the cylinder again and gave it an experimental turn. "Okay, let's see..."
The action corresponded with the outermost ring rotating the chamber, sliding along in time with her movement. Next, she rotated the middle ring, which did the same to the middle ring of the chamber, and the case was the same with the inner ring.
"Okay… I think I've got the hang of this," Elsa said. "Anna why don't you head down and be my eyes? I can't see all the tracks clearly from up here."
"Aye aye, cap!" Anna saluted then skipped down. She paused at the base of the statue holding the lance and walked along the circumference of the ring just before it. "This one should be easy! You just have to align the tracks in front of each statue!"
"Got it!" Elsa gave a thumbs up and rotated the outer ring.
The ring Anna was standing on lurched and shifted suddenly, causing her to stumble. "Whoa! This is fun!" she giggled gleefully as she braced herself against the statue.
"Tell me when to stop!" Elsa called.
Anna hopped off the rotating ring and stood by the statue, kneeling and focusing on the section of track that was steadily moving towards her.
"Little closer… little closer… little closer… " Anna instructed, making a come hither gesture with her hands. As the track lined up with the base of the statue she held up her hands to stop. "Stop! You've got it."
"Okay, next one," Elsa said.
They continued this same process for the middle ring, though it was a tad more complicated since the tracks ran along its circumference were misaligned from the outer ring. It appeared like a labyrinth at first, but as Elsa continued to twist and turn the rings, the tracks snapped into place. All that remained was the final, inner ring.
"Last one," Elsa muttered.
Anna was bouncing on the balls of her feet on the inner ring closest to the throne. "This is exciting," she said giddily.
After a few more minutes, all the tracks were aligned and all that remained was to move the statues into place. The sisters walked over to the statue with the lance that faced the front of the throne.
"This thing is probably really heavy," Anna muttered.
"We'll push it together," Elsa said, standing to one side of the statue while Anna stood on the other. "Ready?"
"Ready," Anna nodded. "Push!"
They braced themselves against the ground and gave a hard push, and to their surprise, the statue slid forward quite easily. So much so that Anna nearly tripped when the statue moved far more easily then she had expected.
"Huh, that was easy," she muttered. "Heh, gotta love that medieval engineering."
"Far be it from me to interrupt your celebrations, but uh… we still have to get it to the center," Elsa teased. .
"I'm just saying…" Anna replied.
Together they pushed the statue with the lance along the tracks until it came to a rest in front of the king, to his left side.
"One down, three to go," Elsa remarked, dusting her hands.
After a great amount of effort, the remaining statues were moved into place before the king. In order from his left to right it went; the lance, the candelabras and the grail. They were presented before the fisher king in the order they had been in the story. All that remained was the statue with the platter, which they were pushing along the tracks.
"Here we go, moment of truth!" Anna exclaimed as they slid the final statue into place.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. Elsa climbed the steps and examined the cylinder again, while Anna stood at the base of the throne with her hands on her hips.
"Well… that's underwhelming," she muttered and kicked the statue with the platter. "Elsa? Anything?"
Elsa toyed with her braid as she went from looking at the king, to the cylinder then to each of the four statues in turn. "I don't know, it should be right," she said.
Anna groaned and stomped her foot. "Come on! Do something! I didn't come all this way just to get blue-balled by a bunch of statues!" she yelled, kicking the statue repeatedly.
Whatever Anna had done worked, because as she finished her tirade, all four statues sank slightly into the ground at once. As they did, unseen mechanisms clicked into place. Slowly, the raised platform that the throne stood upon rotated until it completed a 180 degree turn.
"Ha HA!" Anna exclaimed and pumped the air with her fist. Directly ahead of them on the opposite side, a section of wall was sliding away to reveal another, tertiary chamber that had remained hidden. "Secret door! YES! Teamwork!" she held her hand up for a high-five.
Elsa chuckled to herself and smiled at Anna, high-fiving her sister. Anna laughed brightly and grinned goofily, the same way she always did when she was excited or beaming with happiness.
"Well come on! Let's go!" Anna exclaimed and skipped over to the next chamber.
Elsa lingered a moment longer, allowing herself to smile warmly for a moment longer before she too, followed behind Anna.