AUTHORS NOTES

Archer1eye: Hahaha! No, Sharein's not a god :) She's definitely human, although slightly... adjusted. Shard is able to make herself visible or invisible to most, although some have a 'sense' that someone is there. Shard could definitely have 'mostly' hidden herself from Sharein had she wanted to.

Ah! Yes, the greek pantheon were very childish... almost as if stories of the gods were an ancient form of 'days of our lives'? :) Now you've got me thinking of it in that way... how many gods were killed off only to 'miraculously survive and return (with missing memories or some other contrived excuse for their disappearance?) Are soap storylines really just rehashing tropes that have been around for centuries?

Hope you are happy with the lack of cliff in this chapter, but it's really just the bottom dip of a rollercoaster ;-)

Slyksylva: Oooh... Yup, worried Shard is something to be scared of.

Chapter 63

21st Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c

The two of us walked carefully forwards, dancing lights floating ahead of us and lighting our way. Malkarov instructed me to keep it far enough ahead that we were walking outside the area it illuminated, that way anything that we approached, while able to see the darklight, would not be able to see us on the other side of it. I did not tell him that I could see beyond the light as if the mine all of the way ahead was lit up. The mine made its way steadily down, walls and roof braced with wooden posts and beams. Eventually the main shaft of the mine levelled off and another hundred feet beyond that point it branched off, with a smaller shaft running off to the right.

Malkarov had me send the dancing light down the side shaft a short way, before he decided to continue straight.

"See the dropped lantern there, near the post?" He pointed out, "likely dropped by a fleeing miner."

We continued on another hundred feet before the shaft opened up into a large cavern. Mining equipment littered the floor, dropped and forgotten. An overturned wheelbarrow full of glittering ore abandoned.

"This is where they struck the copper ore," Malkarov said, "they've dug down until they reached here and now they are digging it all out," he pointed towards the far wall, "see there?"

I could, quite clearly, but I moved the dancing light over to where he pointed anyway. A copper red metallic lustre reflected at us, twinkling on the cave walls. Amongst it was a… gash in the rock, a vertical chasm about ten feet high and about three wide in the middle.

"Send your light through there," Malkarov instructed me.

We watched the light pass through the gap and walked cautiously forward ourselves. On the other side was another large cavern, at least one hundred feet long and just as wide. Its ceiling was about three men high and although there were no creatures, monsters or people inside… there once had been. Crude pick axes littered the floor in a scene mimicking the one in the cavern we were in.

"Someone was mining from this side as well?" I whispered.

Malkarov nodded, "not someone, I don't think… something. Those pick axes are much too crude to be made by a human smith. Orcs or goblins perhaps?"

I gasped, "Orcs? Already in Carn?"

He shook his head, "the southern orcs live above ground and attack Carn to take more space, but there are other orcs who live underground and don't bother humans much unless we invade the territory they consider to be theirs. This is more likely to be goblins though and those monsters are found almost everywhere."

He made his way through the gap, "let's see what we can find."

We made our way through a cavern very similar to the one we left, into a mine shaft very similar to the one we travelled through from the surface. The supports didn't look like any sort of wood I'd ever seen though and I asked Malkarov about them.

"Wode," he replied quietly.

"Wood?" I asked, confused and thinking that I had misheard.

"Wode," he reiterated, "it's both comforting and worrying. If these caverns had an exit to the surface close by, they would have used wood. This," he said, tapping the post that for all the world sounded like wood, "is dried mushroom stalks. Underneath the surface world, there are tunnels and caverns that go down, deep down. There are no trees down there, but mushrooms grow very large indeed. The intelligent creatures down here chop down the mushrooms, dry out their stalks and use them just as we on the surface use wood. That they are using wode, means that these tunnels link to the underworld."

"So… they have, or had no link to the surface, but do have a link to caverns further down?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied, "that is exactly the problem... Now they do have a link to the surface."

We had travelled quite a way down the tunnel without coming across any more signs of life until we had begun to approach another cavern. As soon as I saw movement up ahead, I cancelled the dancing lights spell and froze. Malkarov did likewise. I watched the movement for a moment until it became obvious that whatever it was ahead was not moving closer to investigate.

"There's something ahead, in the cavern," I whispered to Malkarov.

"What cavern?" Malkarov asked.

"Up ahead, past where the light was, there's another large cavern," I whispered, "something is moving up there."

"Detect Invisibility and Invisibility," Malkarov whispered and we both cast the Detect Invisibility spell. I felt Malkarov cast another spell and followed his with Invisibility of my own.

We both crept forward, coming up close to the end of the tunnel and the opening into what appeared to be a very large cavern. Both of us froze when I spotted the movement again, the cause of which was revealed to be a small green humanoid creature. It had no hair and it's skin was warty and bumpy with open sores and discolouration. It's nose was bulbous and it's ears were long and drooping, pointed at the end. It wore a tattered slip that offered only a modicum of coverage. Long, yellow nails sprouted from its bony hands and feet. Its teeth were likewise, long, pointed and yellowed. It carried in its hand a long wicked looking dagger, notched and dripping with some sort of thick liquid. It moved out of sight, across our view of the cavern.

"Goblin," Malkarov whispered very quietly, "wait to see if there are any more."

Two more goblins showed themselves, walking around the cavern.

"Can you hold your invisibility and cast minor illusion?" Malkarov asked me and I nodded in reply.

"A noise at the end of the tunnel, to attract their attention?" Malkarov suggested.

I wracked my head to think of a noise even as I summoned the magic within myself, deciding upon the first thing that came to mind.

A horse whinnied ahead of us, in the tunnel. Malkarov looked at me incredulously and I mimed, "I know," with my hands opened in front of me.

He shook his head in exasperation and whispered, "wait for them to come into the tunnel a bit. Wait for me to begin casting."

It didn't take long. The goblins were making noises up ahead and soon a goblins head poked its way into view. It's head disappeared and it said something. Tentatively five goblins appeared, grasping a variety of weapons; knives, pick axes and mallets were all grasped in green bony hands. They talked among themselves for a moment before one of them was pushed to the front, it tripped and fell into a heap a few feet away from the rest. It stood up and turned its back to us to argue with its friends. One of the group said something in a much harsher tone and the goblin turned back around slowly and started walking towards us. The other four goblins followed it as a group, about seven feet behind it. As they got closer, I realised that they were all about my height or slightly shorter. Malkarov would have towered over them as he did me.

One of the goblins in the group stopped and turned around.

"Now," Malkarov whispered harshly and began casting.

The goblins all shouted in surprise, he must have reappeared as he began concentrating on casting another spell.

I cast magic missile just after Malkarov must have cast the same. His glowing arrows shot forward, followed by my own six. I had mine split up to hit each of the goblins once, with the one turned around to take two of them. Malkarov had split his up as well. All of the magical arrows sped forward, striking the goblins and knocking them all down. They all collapsed, slumping down onto the dirty ground.

"Forward," Malkarov whispered, "be ready."

We crept forward as quickly as we dared. I summoned the magic for manipulate elements as we moved, relieved to discover that none of the goblins still lived. The cavern proved to be much much larger than I first thought. We looked around briefly to ensure that there weren't any more goblins in sight before we moved forward. What I first thought to be the cavern was actually a natural balcony of stone jutting out from the wall of the much larger cavern. The balcony was easily a hundred feet long and sixty feet wide and we realised as we approached the cliff edge on the far side that the cavern itself was actually so large that you could fit the entire town of Easthaven inside it! To our right, steps were carved into the rock wall leading around the edge of the cavern, heading down. Near those steps was a wooden, or woden? Cage. Although the ledge was not lit, a glow seemed to come up from the floor of the cavern that sat hundreds of feet below us. I could make out the movements of many, many goblins down below. I tugged Malkarov's sleeve and gestured towards the cage.

"Is that a cage?" Malkarov asked, to which I nodded in reply.

We approached carefully and I soon realised that the cage contained a crumpled mass much larger than a goblin. Malkarov cut the rope that tied the cage door closed and moved the mass, rolling it over to reveal a human. One of the lost miners?

"You have your potion of healing?" Malkarov asked me and I nodded.

"Feed it to him while I check these stairs," he instructed.

I began to pull out the potion bottle from its pouch before I stopped and realised that it would be better not to waste. Other options were available to me.

I laid my hands on the man's face, and whispered my prayer to Tenebrae. I felt the magic of my prayer, and her response! Healing energy flowed down my arms and into the man, who opened his eyes and mouth wide in a silent scream. The scream lasted only a moment before his eyes focussed and he crawled back away from me, sitting up against the other side of the cage. He was looking around wildly.

I shushed him, "I'm Sharein, apprentice to the Wizard Malkarov of Easthaven. Gar the village headman sent us down here to get you out. Where are the others?"

His head whipped around and I tried to figure out what was going on. He wasn't looking at me, but was more… looking around me. I looked over my shoulder to see Malkarov standing at the top of the stairs, in what would have been shadow. He seemed to be watching me, unaware that I could see him. Silly Malkarov.

I turned back to the man and repeated my words, a bit more sternly, "I'm apprentice wizard Sharein. Where are the other miners?"

He shuffled further back into the corner of the cage, looking around wildly.

It took me a moment and I admonished myself when I realised. I cancelled my invisibility and the miner gasped in shock.

"Right," I huffed, "now. Where are the other miners?"

"Yer jus' a girl," the man stuttered.

I huffed again, "I'm not just a girl. Where are the other miners?"

He blinked a couple of times, "dead," he whispered, voice full of pain. Tears flowed freely from his eyes, "those little bastards killed 'em. Stuck 'em with their knives and dragged 'em off."

I looked over at Malkarov and said, "he's the only one."

Malkarov frowned and strode forwards. The man seemed to summon some sort of emotional armour, for his tears stopped and he heaved himself up with a groan.

"Come along then," he said and we all headed back to the original twin caverns. Malkarov cast Light onto one of his rings, which he used to illuminate the area directly in front of us. It was just enough that him and the miner could see where they were stepping.

The groaning of wode supports gave me an idea as we walked, "what are we going to do to prevent the goblins from pouring out? There looked to be hundreds of them down there."

"We need to do something," Malkarov said, "I might be able to enchant the caverns with trap runes to set off an explosion?"

I asked the miner, "if all of these supports were destroyed, do you think this tunnel would collapse?"

Malkarov shone his light onto the walls and supports, the miner scratched his chin for a moment and nodded, "sure'n, the braces are the only thing stoppin' it."

We made it most of the way back to the cavern when we heard shouts coming from behind us. I turned around and saw a large group of goblins crowding around the bodies of their fellows. Some were pointing in our direction and others were looking up towards us.

"Goblins can probably see us at this distance," Malkarov said, "their vision in darkness is only black and white, but they can still see in pitch black darkness. Can you make them out?"

I huffed to myself a little, "they're at the bodies at the moment."

They had started to move tentatively towards us then and I updated my previous statement, "now they are walking towards us."

Malkarov nodded and pulled out some components from one of his pouches, quickly casting Elemental Explosion. A sphere of spinning wind appeared right above the goblin bodies, sucking in everything around it. The dead bodies lifted up into the air, spinning around amongst the dust. The goblins that had begun walking towards us were sucked backwards, some clawing at the ground in fear even as their feet were lifted into the air. With a groan and loud snapping sounds the woden supports snapped and flew into the windy event. Before the Elemental Explosion could even finish its work, a huge section of the tunnel collapsed! Rock soon blocked my view of the scene ahead, dust flew past us.

"Is it blocked completely?" Malkarov asked.

"Yes," I told him, "it appears so."

"Good good!" Malkarov said cheerfully, dusting off his hands against each other.

The miner just stood on the spot; slack jawed and staring in amazement into the darkness. I summoned Dancing Lights near to the cave-in so that the others could see. The miner whistled, a long impressed sounding tone.

We continued on, back into the human made tunnels and slowly up to the surface. The miner had a tearful reunion with someone who was likely his wife, but had to regretfully break the news to other families of their husband and father's deaths.

Headman Gar thanked us profusely, which Malkarov brushed aside respectfully. He told the headman (and all of the rest of the villagers, who crowded around us) of what was down at the end of their mine. The villagers looked fearfully into the black maw nearby until Malkarov told them that he had sealed the goblin mine with a cave-in. He suggested that the headman send a message to the Baron to inform him of this and to request soldiers to come and clear out the goblin town, lest they break through again. The headman agreed and sent a young man off with the only horse in the village (aside from ours).

It was getting late at that point and the headman demanded that if we weren't going to accept the little coin that they could spare, they could at least give us a hot meal and a warm place to sleep.

That was how we found ourselves asleep in front of the fire in the headman's house, with bellies full of stew. Malkarov and I were given the spots closest to the fireplace and the headman and his family surrounded us in the one room hut. I had excused myself after dinner to go for a walk around the village, "to help my dinner settle," I told everyone, but I sent out my mental message to Shard once I was clear of the village huts. I told her everything that had happened that day and she was understanding about the sleeping situation. We sat down on a small hill, overlooking the village for a while, content in each other's company in the dim light of a waning Luna. She agreed with my assessment that Malkarov likely knew of my dark sight, it seemed impossible to sneak anything past him. Maybe he was destined by Tenebrae to be the ultimate test of my ability to keep something a secret? Shard laughed at this theory and agreed that the man did appear to be unnaturally perceptive. My love didn't have any more information on my staff, confiding that she was very concerned by that development. I was slightly less concerned, for some reason I seemed to be getting used to surprises, but Shard's worry was contagious. We spent as long as I dared together, before I headed back into the village to sleep, looking forward to our arrival in Castlemere on the 'morrow.