Chapter 15 A Major Mistake
The shades swooped down on us. I held up my dagger, hoping the silver would help protect me. We still had Reggie’s protection spell, which gave us a plus on rolling against magical attacks.
Ray tossed Geoff one of the holy water bottles, and they both began spraying the water as the shades suddenly froze. The moment droplets hit one of the shades, they backed off with a shriek. I had a sudden idea.
“Toss me one of those bottles,” I said.
Geoff handed me his. I sprayed one of my arrows heavily with the holy water, then fit it into my bow and shot toward one of the shades that was hanging out in the corner over the sarcophagus.
The shade shrieked again and partially faded.
The other one sped toward Brynn and Thornhold.
Ray dashed over with his holy symbol as Brynn’s sword passed through the shade, barely affecting it.
He thrust the symbol out and the shade backed away.
Meanwhile, Geoff had grabbed another arrow from my quiver and sprayed it for me.
“Another,” I said, taking it and fitting it to my bow. I aimed carefully and shot at the shade I’d hit first. It gave out a loud cry and vanished. Two more arrows, on the shade trying to maneuver around Ray’s holy symbol, and it vanished.
“That wasn’t too bad,” I said.
“Spraying those arrows was genius,” Geoff said.
“It just made sense. Okay, they’re gone. You said your party never made it beyond this point?” I asked.
Geoff shook his head. “I don’t know if the necromancer is in the sarcophagus, or if he’s even in the dungeon. Hell, he could very well be a member of the undead and be wrapped up like a mummy.”
“Ray, be ready with the holy water.” I joined Thornhold and Brynn at the ornate coffin. “Boy, I bet this thing cost a pretty penny.” I stood, poised with my dagger. “When you open the lid, I’ll stab—act first, ask questions later.”
Brynn and Thornhold manned the top and bottom, taking hold of the lid and heaving it off. It clattered loudly on the floor. But before I could swing my dagger, I noticed that the sarcophagus was empty.
“What? Is he invisible?” I poked the tip of my dagger around the interior, but there was nothing to stop it.
The sarcophagus was empty. Except…near the center, I spotted something gleaming out of the pale satin padding.
I gingerly poked at it with the blade and the clink of metal on metal reassured me that, whatever it was, it wasn’t alive.
“Where is he?” Brynn asked, looking around the room. “I don’t see him anywhere.”
“I don’t either,” Thornhold said, backing away to stare at the sarcophagus. It was on a pedestal, but when he tapped his axe against it, it sounded dense—with no hollow areas. “There’s nothing underneath the coffin except stone. I’d almost guarantee it.”
“What happened, then?” I asked.
“I’ll bet you he heard us tramping around upstairs and fled,” Reggie said. “We made plenty of noise.”
“Maybe.” I paused, reaching out to pick up the key. It was heavy, a dark greenish-black metal with scrollwork on it. It was warm in my hands, and hanging on a chain. There was something about it—something that made me unable to look away.
“What is this?” I asked.
“Hand it to me,” Reggie said, a strange note in his voice.
I stared at him, unwilling to give him the key. He wanted to take it, I could see it in his face. He was going to take it from me. He reached out, a dark, eager look glimmering in his eyes and I jumped away.
“It’s mine!”
Before he could steal it, I flipped the chain up and over my head, feeling the weight of the key settle against my chest. As everyone shouted, I realized what I’d done and tried to pry the chain off, but the key wouldn’t budge.
It rested against my cloak as through it was melded to my clothing, my skin, my soul.
“What the hell?” Frantic, I turned to Reggie. “Help me get this off!” I clawed at the chain but it wouldn’t move.
Reggie hurried to my side and reached out to touch the key. There was a sizzle and a spark and he yanked his hand away, shouting. His fingers were red and blistering.
“Damn it, that hurts!”
“What happened?” Thornhold raced over, his eyes wide. “Why did you put that on?” he asked me, almost accusatory.
“I didn’t realize what I was doing. It was…it felt like Reggie was going to attack me and I couldn’t let him touch the key,” I said, holding out my hand. “Let’s see your fingers.”
Ray pulled out his first aid kit. “Sit down and give me your hand,” he said.
Reggie obeyed. “I wasn’t going to steal it from you, Erenye.”
“I know that now, but while I was holding it, all I could think about was keeping it safe.” I felt incredibly guilty. Somehow, I’d hurt Reggie.
Ray stared at the key for a moment. “That key has a powerful aura. I can’t tell if it’s malign, benign, or just neutral, but it’s magical.
” He leaned forward, examining the key without touching it.
I felt a little odd, given it was resting between my breasts, but Ray wasn’t a perv and if he could figure out what this was, then all so much the better.
“What are you getting?” Geoff asked. “My gaming group knew there was some sort of artifact in this dungeon, but we didn’t know what we were looking for. We hadn’t made it through this dungeon fully by the time I came in.”
Brynn poked around the inside of the sarcophagus. “There’s nothing else here, and this room has no other exits from what I can see.”
“I think you’re right—this key is the artifact,” I said. “I don’t know what it does, but for now, I seem to be stuck with it. I hope to hell it doesn’t do anything like life leeching.”
“I don’t think so,” Reggie said, looking up from where Ray was dressing his burns.
“How’s the hand?”
“He’s got some strong first degree burns—maybe light second degree.
I think, as long as we keep them clean and medicated, they should be all right.
We have antibiotic ointment in the kits, but we need to be more cautious in the future.
” Ray finished cleaning the burns, then spread the ointment over them and wrapped them in clean gauze.
“I wonder…There has to be some sort of storehouse in the game with extra supplies, don’t you think? We should ask Liesel,” I said. “She might know more about the key, too.”
“Maybe she can help Geoff, too,” Thornhold said. “And she might have a stock of meds that will help more with Reggie’s hand.”
“Okay, let’s head out. Do the creatures respawn?” Brynn asked.
“Not until we leave the dungeon. They might respawn after—I’m not positive but I think I remember something about that in the contract we signed.”
We gathered up everything we could salvage—my arrows that were still unbroken and anything else we might have dropped. As we headed up the stairs, I glanced back at the sarcophagus, then down at the key hanging around my neck.
To be honest, I was frightened. I couldn’t get the chain—and, therefore, the key—off my neck.
I didn’t know what it was, or where it might lead to.
I had no clue what I’d gotten myself into, and unfortunately, I had dragged everybody else with me.
Hoping that the key didn’t lead to some portal into hell, I followed the others as we headed up to the entrance.