Hi Everyone! Sorry this update is so late. I also re-wrote chapter 3 on Sept. 2nd.
Thanks again for reading and for your all your comments. Cheers!
When they approached Dustman's Cairn, Lily felt an odd chill run down her spine. Serves me right for reading that damn book last night, she thought. Within the ring of standing stones was a dark circular pit about 20 feet deep. The bottom was slightly muddy from a recent rainstorm and held the bones of a few unlucky creatures that had fallen in. An old stone stairway led down into the shadows to an ancient iron entrance door.
As they stepped into the first room of the cairn, Vilkas unsheathed his greatsword and scanned the area for enemies to confront, dead or alive. He wrinkled his nose. This place had the smell of must and rot. Lily pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and crouched down, her bow at the ready.
"Careful, someone has been in this room recently," Vilkas warned. In the dim light of the torches, he could see the room had been ransacked. Urns and pots were smashed and overturned, while debris were scattered on the floor. A couple of immobile draugr lay on the ground where they had been disrespectfully tossed from their iron coffins.
"Be on your guard," Vilkas said. He led Lily toward the stone doorway that would take them deeper into the cairn.
"Wait, there's a chest over here," Lily whispered. She tried the lid but it wouldn't budge. She set to work on it with lockpicks. Click-click. Click-click.
Several minutes later….
Click-click…snap!
"Shit!" Lily hissed in frustration.
"Just leave it," Vilkas said.
"I'm getting it…just give me another minute," she insisted.
"We haven't got all day!" Vilkas warned.
The sound of broken lockpicks snapped at Vilkas' nerves, but the lock finally gave way. Lily pried the lid open.
"What is it?"Vilkas asked.
She tossed him a health potion from the chest. "It may be the Silver Hand's supplies. There are shovels, lanterns and a few silver weapons in here. Hmm…" She unrolled a parchment.
"They were kind enough to leave us their map," she said, tossing the paper to Vilkas.
Vilkas studied it for a moment and said, "If the Silver Hand hasn't found the shard yet, it may be here in the main burial chamber." He pointed to a large room at one end of the map.
"How do you know?" Lily asked.
"We retrieved pieces from other burial sites over the years," Vilkas answered.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did Ysgramor's axe get broken in the first place?"
His irritation with Lily faded upon hearing one of his favorite topics. Vilkas loved history and lore, especially when it concerned the Companions.
He spoke with authority. "Nobody knows for sure. The details have been lost to history. But Wuuthrad has a strong enchantment on it and the mage who's been helping us track the shards said only another weapon of immense power could have shattered it."
"So, some great clash of legendary weapons? Would have been fun to be a fly on that wall," Lily mused.
"Aye. Evidence points to some great battle. Our blacksmith Eorland says he found the residue of some unknown metal on the shards," Vilkas added.
They made their way through an arched doorway and then down a dark, twisted passage. Moss and spiderwebs covered the damp stone walls. The cairn appeared to have been hewn straight from the rock. Knowing they were surrounded by tons of stone on all sides gave the place an even more oppressive feeling.
Vilkas listened for the telltale sound of enemies as they proceeded though the passage, but all he heard was Lily sigh.
They continued further into the passage and there it was again...That irritated little sigh.
"Ysmir, what is it now?" Vilkas asked. He turned to face Lily. She was hunkered down in the shadows with her bow in hand. Only her nose and mouth were visible beneath her hood.
"Must you clank so loudly? You'll literally wake the dead in here," she whispered urgently. "If you could walk a little slower, couch down a bit…"
"I do not sneak." Vilkas insisted, scowling.
"Don't knock it until you've tried it. Sneaking can be a life-saving maneuver," Lily said. She received a glare in response.
They came to a place where the tunnel sloped ominously downward. Vilkas could see that it led to a doorway about 20 yards ahead. The sickly light from a few candles flickered from within. With his keen eyesight, Vilkas spied a tripwire a few feet in front of this entrance.
"There's a trap up ahead," Vilkas warned.
"I see it." Lily said, raising her bow and arrow.
"Don't waste your arrow, from this distance you'll never hit-"
Before he finished his sentence, Lily fired her shot. The arrow sped forth and snapped the tripwire, releasing a trussed up log that swung ponderously from the ceiling.
"Pretty crude," she said. "Do you think the draugr left that for us or the Silver Hand?"
They made their way down the tunnel towards the mysterious room, careful to duck under the log-trap. Vilkas felt his skin prickle with gooseflesh as he stood at the doorway and peered into the chamber. Carved into the walls of the room were alcoves upon which lay the bodies of the dead. Most of the corpses were dusty and shriveled. A few looked a bit too heavily armed and armored for his liking. Vilkas became uneasy as he saw that this was not just a single chamber, but a series of connected rooms with doorways on all sides. He was about to look at the map again, when he heard the dreadful sound of shuffling. A draugr appeared in the doorway to his right.
The creature was clad in rusty armor of ancient Atmoran design. The ensemble was complimented by a wicked looking axe of dark metal with an edge that gleamed sharp and deadly in the dim candlelight. The draugr's skin had shriveled on its face with the ages, leaving gruesome hollow eye sockets and a morbid rictus smile. Time had ravaged the creature, yet it still had a luxurious red beard.
Red-Beard snarled at the sight of Vilkas. It shouted "RO DAH!" and Vilkas swayed on his feet for a moment under some unseen force. Two of the draugr's brethren now rose from their alcoves, hissing and snarling as they joined the fray. Vilkas roared in defiance and swung his longsword at these interlopers. Skyforge steel struck the sword arm clean off the first corpse, causing a clatter of bone and sword to hit the floor. His second swing removed the head of this unlucky draugr. Its partner hissed, backed away from Vilkas, then dropped its rusty sword and ran. It was a curious display of self-preservation from one already dead. Vilkas smirked. With the two weaker draugr out of the way, he could now concentrate on Red-Beard. The bearded draugr growled and charged forward, intent on cleaving Vilkas in two with that dark axe. Metal rang out as Vilkas raised his longsword and blocked the first attack. Red-Beard screeched in fury. The dark axe swung at his head a second time, and again Vilkas blocked it with his longsword. As Red-Beard rushed forward once more with axe raised, Vilkas kicked him in the chest, causing the draugr to stumble. In the seconds that the creature was off-balance, Vilkas swung his longsword in a deadly arc that cleaved Red-Beard in two, right through his midsection.
Vilkas caught his breath for a moment after the battle. He looked down at the corpses and was satisfied that for the moment, these particular draugr would not rise again.
His brow creased in irritation as he noted there were no arrows in the bodies and none on the ground around him. He turned towards the tunnel and glared at Lily, his anger rising. "A little help would be appreciated, unless you were planning to cower back there all day!"
"I would have been glad to help, if you'd move your metal ass out of the doorway." Lily retorted. "I couldn't get a clear shot with you blocking me!"
His anger cooled…slightly. "Next time, say something instead of just standing there."
Years of hunting with Aela had taught him to be careful of an archer's line of sight. But he was used to fair warning. "Get out of my way icebrain!" was usually sufficient.
Vilkas pulled out the map and studied it.
"There are more areas like this up ahead before we reach the main chamber. Be ready to face more draugr. We'll likely find the Silver Hand waiting for us as well. This way," He commanded, motioning Lily to follow him through the left doorway.
"Through this door," Vilkas ordered, pointing towards an iron bound wooden door at the end of the hall.
"Wait, what's this one then?" Lily asked. There was a nearly identical wooden door set in the stone wall to their left side. She tried the door handle and found it locked.
"Leave it. According to the map it's nothing, a small storage chamber perhaps." The moment he mentioned "storage chamber" Vilkas regretted it.
"Storage chamber?" Lily's expression lit up.
Vilkas groaned inwardly as Lily took out her lockpicks again. The tinkling and snapping sounds grated on his nerves for some time until the door gave way.
"There's a locked chest in here!" Lily exclaimed.
"Ysgramor's balls." Vilkas grumbled, running a hand impatiently through his dark hair.
Minutes seemed like hours to Vilkas as lockpicks clicked in his ears. He spoke. "By Ysmir what's taking you so long…I begin to understand why the Thieves Guild let you go."
Lily paused her work to glare up at him. "You think you can do better?" She challenged.
Vilkas swung his greatsword so fast it was a blur in front of her, chopping the lock off the chest in one sweep. She looked up at him with wide eyes.
"I couldn't stand waiting any longer," He said.
"Fine," Lily said. "Your way is a lot messier though." She paused to brush splinters of rotted wood off of her leathers and out of her hair.
She tossed out several rotted pieces of linen from the chest, then retrieved a bottle. She uncorked it and took a whiff.
"I think this is a Chameleon potion, a strong one from the smell of it."
"Then we just wasted a lot of time for nothing. Let's go," He said tersely.
They ventured deeper into the Cairn, through more dusty rooms and dark tunnels until they came upon a large, cavernous chamber. There were no alcoves with draugr here. The large room had several stone benches all facing a dais with a throne. Vilkas tensed as he noticed it was occupied.
It wasn't a draugr, just a skeleton sitting on the stone throne in a reclining position. However, bones could be animated by dark magic, a favorite hobby of necromancers. Lily and Vilkas approached the bony figure cautiously with their weapons drawn.
The bones remained comfortably seated on the throne, immobile.
"That's either the laziest undead ever or just a normal skeleton," Lily said, sheathing her bow.
"Aye," Vilkas agreed. His eyes scanned the room. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. It was as if someone was watching them.
"What's this?" Lily asked as she walked past the benches to the far side of the room. There was an archway leading into a small side-chamber. Lily stepped through the arch to investigate. A portcullis slammed down behind her, trapping her inside.
"Now what have you done?" Vilkas asked in irritation, striding over. "Let me look around and find a way to get you out."
"Take your time, I think I see another chest in here," She answered.
Vilkas sighed at that. There must be a lever or switch out here. His eyes scanned the walls of the chamber.
Lily was just about to try her luck on the lock of a large and promising wooden chest when she heard voices.
"Well, well, what do we have here…one of the illustrious Companions come to pay us a visit." A woman's voice taunted.
"Time to die, dog!" A male voice shouted.
Lily rushed to the portcullis and gripped the bars so tight her knuckles turned white.
She watched with dread as Vilkas was surrounded by a band of warriors, four men and two women all armed and armored. The weapons they brandished shone brightly in the candlelight. It was the Silver Hand.
Stuck behind the bars of the portcullis, she could not aid him. Lily's heart was in her throat.