Chapter Twenty-One #2
The cluster of men was a confusing mass of flailing limbs, flashing weapons, useless magic, blood, shrieks, and pleas for mercy that were ignored.
Broken weapons lay scattered on the floor, and several were struggling to rip off the ones that had snared them.
Tivar was brought down to the ground, and a vine wrapped around his neck.
The thorns had all turned into jagged, glass-like shards that ripped flesh.
For a moment, Tivar’s eyes met Lumi’s, and his fake older brother finally showed something like real fear as he opened his mouth in a silent scream.
Before the vine cut into his neck. His head sagged back, and another wrapped over his face to hide it.
A man shrieked as he was squeezed until he cut off.
Two particularly thick vines from opposing sides grabbed the wings of a man and pulled.
Lumi had never heard the sound of wings being ripped from a body until then, and he never wanted to hear it again or the scream the man let out.
Feathers flew. Blood splattered the floor, and another stabbed itself right into the man’s back to burrow through his torso, heedless of the others wrapped around him.
The men’s dying sounds finally stopped.
The rest cut through the bodies, reducing them to scraps of flesh.
Swords were broken and seemed to disappear.
Tivar’s skull exploded as a particularly thick one burst from it through an eye socket.
The jagged, blade-like thorns gleamed with blood, and the vines slithered through the blood and flesh streaking the floor to wrap around chunks.
They started dissipating even though the things growing from the wall had no mouths to eat with. Feathers vanished. Bits of Tivar’s skull and brain matter started disappearing. Crossbows, arrows, and bits of clothing and armor were devoured too.
Several vines slithered out through the doors to grab the body of the man who’d flown down to block the steps. Jaki had killed him. The corpse was dragged in, and several vines immediately jumped on it to crush and tear until he was in pieces.
The vines inched over every piece of matter. Tivar’s tail. Something that looked like teeth. Butchered limbs. Soon, all that was left was blood, and the twisting, hungry mass finally paused.
Jaki shifted, and Lumi’s mind stuttered over a prayer to Elira. They were the only ones left.
The vines suddenly turned to water and splashed to the floor. The blood was pushed along the surface from the force, and even the jagged pieces they’d sprouted melted. The water, like a living thing, flowed toward the walls, pushing the remaining blood along. Ounce by ounce, it drained away.
All that remained was a damp gleam on the floor, and it was like no one had ever been torn to shreds in the room.
They were safe.
The only sound that remained was Lumi and Jaki’s low, rough breathing. Jaki let the lightning fizzle from his hand.
“It worked.” Lumi sagged against the wall. “Dear Elira, it worked.”
Jaki turned his pale face to him. “What? You knew?”
“The words above the door. We-we were so focused on the wall at first, we didn’t see it. I noticed. They’re small.” He closed his eyes. “I figured if I went in, something would happen to the rest, or if I replaced the Crown. It was our only hope, but nothing happened at first, and I thought-”
His voice broke. He’d thought his half-cooked plan based on mere words had been an utter failure, and Tivar clearly hadn’t cared about taking it back from the tomb.
The words could have been added merely as a command to stay away with no magic to enforce it.
“You thought the room was trapped?” asked Jaki.
“Yes. It just took a few minutes for it to work. We’re fine because we’re related by blood. Go look.”
Jaki pulled him along, clearly not willing to go more than a few feet without him. In the first room, they looked at the wall above the door. The letters were small but clear.
“You were more interested in the markings, and you didn’t see it,” said Lumi.
Tivar had been another distraction, to put it lightly.
“‘Watch for my gift. It comes from the rift. My sins were washed in the flood. Only those who may enter are of my blood.’ The others came in, and it sensed they don’t share blood with Rinder. ”
“Thank Elira you saw it.”
“I guess, if Tivar read it, he didn’t believe it. After all, it could have just been nonsense to make people afraid to enter in case there was a trap.”
Jaki took a deep breath and dropped his sword before grabbing Lumi in a hug. Lumi squeezed him back, desperate to hold onto him. He was really there. Tivar was gone, and he couldn’t take Jaki. The vines hadn’t attacked them.
For a moment, he wondered if he’d actually cracked and gone completely insane. Maybe it was all a dream and a fantasy his mind had conjured to protect itself from the knowledge.
“Is this real?”
“It’s real. I promise. He’s gone.” Jaki drew back only to cup both sides of Lumi’s face. “We don’t even have to go to war now. Not like I’d planned. We’ll leave the Crown here like it should have been left when Rinder died.” He gently kissed Lumi’s lips. “It’s over.”
Over. Before, it would have meant they were dead, and Iceland was lost for good.
Jaki gripped his shoulders for a second before he took his sword, and they entered Rinder’s room once more to peer into his tomb. Jaki stared at the Crown, with the healthy gleam Lumi remembered from before.
“I didn’t think there’d be a bed of white roses,” said Jaki. “It’s like the poem.”
After years of only seeing poor plant life, the flowers almost appeared unreal. Each rose was stark white like newly fallen snow, and their petals were broad and rich. Not a single blemish marred the edges. Rinder’s skull, wearing his Crown, barely made a dip in them.
“Some are in his skull too,” said Lumi. “He must have had the tomb built long before his death, and Elira placed the roses there as a cradle for his head. He was supposed to wear the Crown once he was laid to rest.”
As long as it stayed, Lumi was sure it would remain alive while Iceland slowly recovered and thrived once more like it should have.
It would take time for things to recover, and it needed proper uniting, but like Jaki said, it was over.
Jaki turned to look around. “That lantern shouldn’t be lit after so long without sunshine.
Norian crystals needed recharging. “After what we just saw, I’m not going to question a lantern. Perhaps it was preserved too.”
“If outlaws or anyone has ever been in here, we wouldn’t know it. Those…ice vines or whatever you’d call them…I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like animals picking a carcass clean and devouring the bones.”
He gripped Lumi’s hand and pulled him toward one wall.
On the floor, little slits were visible once they were close enough.
That was where the water and blood went, and if anyone else entered, the ice vines would come out.
Lumi wondered what they’d see if they took a pick to the wall and broke it away.
Maybe it was better not to know.
“The High Mage,” whispered Lumi. “He would have died if he’d come in.”
Jaki’s forehead creased. “Dear Elira, to think I could have led an innocent man in here.”
Lumi glanced behind him to check the High Mage’s body. He was still there and dead with the arrow in him. “The vines didn’t take him. Perhaps some intent is sensed and required.”
“Well, it’s not like we’re about to experiment.”
“How could he have made a trap like this?”
“Maybe Elira did it. If the Crown was to stay with him, and someone was willing to rob his tomb, they could destroy the Kingdom. This was to keep people away.”
Perhaps. Lumi wondered what would happen if family took the Crown. Would they be attacked? He really didn’t want to know.
“So much history has been lost, we’ll really never know everything that happened,” said Jaki. “The best answer we’ll get is that Elira did it.”
“And we should be happy with what we have. Erm, how are we going to explain his body?”
Jaki hesitated. “We can tell the truth.”
Lumi cocked an ear. “You expect them to believe us saying vines came from the walls and attacked?!”
“What else are we going to say? Outlaws were hiding in here? They’d expect bodies.
There are none besides him. They won’t think we killed him because we have no reason, and we brought no bows and arrows in.
What about the rope ladder? Someone got up there and secured it.
If we climb up, we’ll probably find other things back there in the space. Supplies, bedrolls.”
Lumi took a deep breath. “Fine. Let’s bring him up.”
A couple of the guards were brave enough to go down, climb the ladder, and look. Sure enough, they brought out supplies, including waterskins, slices of stale horsebread, and a half-eaten, metal bowl of porridge. Lumi imagined one of the men had used his fire magic to heat it.
The food, relatively new and certainly not anything that had been left up there for ages, convinced the rest who had appeared doubtful about the whole thing. There was also no way out of the tomb except the front doors.
The oddest thing was one of the men who’d gone said there were no words near the door.
Jaki raised an eyebrow. “Do you need spectacles?”
The man frowned. “Show me where this little poem is.”
“Yeah,” said another. “Show us.”
Lumi and Jaki had to go down there with them. The one who said nothing was there gaped at the wall.
The poem was there plain as day.
“I swear it wasn’t there before!”
The others agreed. They’d seen nothing.
“Perhaps it only shows up if someone related enters,” said Lumi.
The others were already hurrying back up the steps. “Then we’re not supposed to be here!”
“I’m never stepping foot inside here again. I don’t care if you sack me, Your Majesty.”
“You only have to go into the room with Rinder’s-” Lumi cut off as boots pounded away.
Lumi and Jaki were left alone with a lantern.