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The Lost Stars ChronicleChapter 43: The Forge
The body of Aros seemed to get heavier every step Shainya and Reno took down the narrow, winding hall. They continued on doggedly, struggling, refusing to give up. The Twin Pendants of King Kris were grasped tightly in Reno’s left hand, their shining metal sides clicking together in a lopsided chiming tune. All at once Reno tripped and he dropped the Pendants. When he stooped, he found himself face to face with Luxus.
“Luxus!” he shouted, “Go back, it’s too dangerous!”
Luxus shook his head vigorously in defiance.
“No!”
Reno didn’t have time to argue. He simply wrenched the Pendant’s out of his little half-brother’s hands and continued onward. The deeper beneath the Neverwood they buried, the hotter it got. Soon all three of them were stripping off layers of clothes from themselves and Aros. Suddenly the passage came to an end, and they found themselves in a room with no way out except the way they had came. They were all dulled with fatigue, but Shainya was the first to recognize what it was.
“It’s a forge!” she cried, them gasped as the heat rising from the floor tinged her lungs.
Shainya was correct. It was a forge. On the rear wall was a fireplace, stones charred black, it giant maw gaping and hungry for flame and timber. To the right were tools of all sorts, hammers and tongs and pliers and bars, all rusty from disuse. And in the center of the room, it’s mass almost bigger than Luxus, was a anvil. It was pitch black, and two object sat upon it, objects that hadn’t moved for four thousand years. They were the molds for the Twin Pendants. As Shainya and Reno eased Aros to the floor, Aros awoke with a cough and a gasp.
“Where are we?” he moaned.
“The birthplace of the Pendants.” Reno replied.
“How will we kill them?” piped up Luxus.
Shainya wiped her brow and said, “It’s hot as dragon’s breath in here…”
Reno looked at her dully, and then his eyes lit up.
“Dragon’s…”
He fumbled about in his pockets, and withdrew a small vial.
“My very last. It’s Gwuabut, the stones dragon’s swallow to create fire in themselves.”
Reno uncorked the vial and threw it with all his might into the furnace. Nothing happened. Aros pulled himself up and drew out two other vials.
“Remember when we blew up the Broken Mast Inn?” he smiled, “Try these.”
He handed them to Shainya, who tossed them in as well. The furnace flared, and instantly all four of them had the air sucked from their lungs as the instant fire devoured it hungrily, flames licking like a mad creature. A howling filled the air, and Reno had to shout to be heard.
“Aros, come on! This is it!”
Reno thrust a Pendant into his brother’s hand and they both edge toward the fire. Then, with a glance at one another, they threw the Twin Pendants of King Kris into the flames. For a second, the Pendants hung in the air, as if refusing to be defeated. But then, the flame had them. The affect was not as instantaneous as Reno, Aros, Shainya and Luxus had expected. No big explosion, no flash of light. Reno and Aros could even see the two Pendants through the flames, laying next to one another, their surfaces gleaming in the heat.
Then, they began to loose their shape. The chains that had been always looped around the Pendants shriveled like dry grass, the links buckling under the heat. Then the round Pendants themselves began softening, silver lining and gold body smelting into one ore. Images of evil bombarded them as they were battered against the walls of the passage; BloodVaine, sealing Reno and Aros in the Pendants and tossing them overboard; Lord Void, directing the killing and maiming of others to acquire the Pendants, Burtrand Storm-Rider, his whole self consume for the lust of the priceless Pendants. As the Pendants began to disintegrate, the Temple began to shake.
“Let’s get out of here!” cried Sir Dractor, “Down the passage after the others. The other way is definitely too long!”
Pushing the somewhat witless Gib and the rather confused Malder along, they set off at a fast clip down the corridor the others had disappeared along. Soon, they too were in the forge. Shainya, Reno, Aros, and Luxus, having lost all cloaks, coats, capes, and extra layers of winter clothing, were running towards them out of the boiling hot furnace.
“There’s a side passage back here!” yelled Anardan from the rear.
They turned around and dashed into it. It was a staircase, that led upwards into the ceiling of the Temple and the cavern. They climbed upwards. The ground was shaking beneath their feet. Reno and Shainya, now the people in the rear, were nearly crushed as the mouth of the stairs collapsed behind them. Sir Dractor swept Luxus up onto his shoulders.
“I hope this staircase comes out somewhere,” he mumbled, “Particularly somewhere good…”
The staircase kept climbing. They had obviously climbed higher than the height of the cavern, and were no longer in the Temple, but above it, headed towards the green earth of the Neverwood. The ground continued to shake, occasionally throwing them against the circular walls of the spiraling staircase, and once knocking down Bjarn, so that he tumbled backwards into Aros, Voolmark, and Malder. But they all just scrambled to their feet, and rushed on.
Eventually they reached the end of the stairs. They had all slowed down, and were exhausted. The stairs opened up into a small cave, just barely tall enough to stand in (Sir Dractor was too tall as it was, and had to put down Luxus). It was a longish cave, that opened up to a nondescript part of the Neverwood, and was lined all along the top with bats, and along the bottom with guano.
After ascertaining that there were no creatures in the cave more deadly than bats, they collapsed on the guano-covered floor, and fell asleep. In the Neverwood, it was about as safe a resting place as you were ever likely to find, and none of them had the energy to go much farther anyway.
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