Chapter Fourteen
The Deep Places
A massive cavern had opened up before me and there was light. Actually there was a lot of light, but it was bluish light like what my sword gave off.
It emanated from columns of veins of a liquid looking substance that the surrounding rock strata of the cavern was saturated with. It was indescribably beautiful!
The liquid blue substance actually appeared to be moving through the surrounding rock slowly.
“What is it? I asked wonderingly.
“Trinial. It is how we survive in Lanoria, without it we would never survive much less thrive.”
I glanced at Raya. “Your eyes and hair how?”
“The Trinial provides us everything in absence of the sun except heat. Its light feeds the plants we live on as well as the animals. Essences of the Trinial are in both the plants we eat and the water we drink. The Trinial gives us a hardiness to survive the harshness of life underground. Exposure to the light and essence in our blood causes our eyes and bodies to radiate light so that we can see to find our way around in the dark.”
“Your ability to see in the dark means you can’t see in daylight?”
“Yes, what is a blessing down here is also a curse that keeps us chained within the darkness of our caverns never to see the light or feel the heat of the sun again.”
In the expanse of the caverns I saw people moving and signs of habitation everywhere. “How many of you are there?” I exclaimed.
“Thousands.”
“Thousands!” I exclaimed back in reply astonished.
Who would have ever thought that such a thing was possible. Stairs had been cut out of the native rock and I started down them into the cavern. I held my sword in hand not out of fear of being attacked, but more out of a need for extra illumination.
Even though the light given off by the florescent glowing columns of trinial was sufficient to light up the cavern it still didn’t put off enough light for my eyes to see adequately to walk across the rough terrain safely.
Some kind of alert must have gone out because the pathway I walked through on the jumbled cavern floor was suddenly congregated with the dwellers of this realm. From the way some of the younger ones looked at me I could tell that they had never seen an uplander before. I was perhaps the first visitor this underworld realm had welcomed in a long time.
How did these people get to be here and once here why had they allowed themselves to stay too long and become locked away here?
Making our way past artfully crafted stone dwellings and interested spectators alike we came to a stone building separate from the rest, which was built into the wall of the cavern itself. An old man stood out in front of the door.
He was somebody important I could tell. The others hung back a ways and I sheathed my sword out of respect. I could see well enough now anyway.
“A fine blade Sir, to be sure! Now all that is to be wondered at is how such a marvelous sword was made from our own life-giving element a continent away from us. A mystery for another day to be sure. Come stranger and let us talk together.”
He turned to the side and indicated the doorway behind him. His eyes left me and settled on Raya, “As for you Raya I’m not sure whether you should be disciplined or praised for your role in all this. You can be sure though that I will deal with you accordingly!”
Raya’s head dipped down in shame once again before she turned and disappeared into the crowd. I had been watching him closely and I saw a tick of pain in the corner of his eye caused by his harsh words to Raya. He cared for her.
He caught my knowing gaze, “The young have excuse by their lack of experience, but she has none.”
He turned and entered through the doorway. Now what did he mean by that?
I stepped inside and received a further surprise. The interior was even more well lit than that of the exterior. There were balls of the glowing trinial element on pedestals throughout the room and while the furnishings were sparse what there was looked comfortable.
“Please have a seat Zevin.”
“News travels fast down here.” I commented.
His aged brows crinkled good humouredly as he said, “You’ll find that it is next to impossible to keep a secret underground. Tell me is it any better keeping one above ground?”
I chuckled softly and shook my head, “No I’m afraid not.”
“Just as I remembered it to be then. Well I’m sure you are full of questions. Tell me what is it you want to know first?”
I looked at him for a lack of words to express the multitude of questions I had, “I don’t know where to begin. There are so many.”
“Well then let us start from the beginning. How we came to be here. We are the mingling of two peoples. The North and the East. Both were brought to this darkened abode by the West’s treachery and the sorcerer’s thirst for power. Are you familiar with the recent sad history of Assoria?”
“Somewhat.”
“Tell me what you know.”
I told him the story of it that I had been told by Zalisha.
He nodded at my ending of the past events. “An accurate story. Now I shall tell you of what was not known at the time or since then concerning these people you see here. The Northern army on its way south through the mountain passes as you know was ambushed, but it was not destroyed completely. During the second night of fighting the survivors of the first days attack found a cave opening. All night long the Northern warriors filed into the narrow cave opening. Over five thousand warriors who were wounded elected to stay behind and insure that our escape was not noticed the next day. They filled the cave opening and removed all evidence of our passage into the underground labyrinth that lies beneath all of Assoria. There were one hundred and twenty thousand of us when we rode south on our quest of unfounded vengeance against the East. Over ninety thousand of us died in the first day of fighting. Of those of us who survived only seventeen thousand of us made it into the cave.”
“You were one of the warriors?” I asked incredulously.
He smiled softly and nodded wryly, “Another benefit of underground living or perhaps a curse. I’m not sure which. I was a warrior in a position of command.”
He paused for a long moment appearing as if lost in the memories of the past.
“We stumbled around in the dark for days and we all became hopelessly lost. We had never intended to stay underground for so long, but try as we might we could not find a way back to the surface. After two bitter weeks of trying to find a way back to the surface we made the decision to go deeper into the caves. After a month there were barely 7000 of us left alive.
Living underground may prolong the span of one’s years, but it is rare to ever live to experience such longevity. There are all kinds of dangers to overcome or simply survive from down here. Cave-ins, poisonous gas eruptions and hungry monsters. We were about to give up when we found a cavern similar to this one. It served as a sanctuary of sorts for us and it gave us time to get our strength back and explore our surroundings more fully. Years passed by before we finally found a way back to the surface only to find out to our dismay that we couldn’t reenter the light of day without becoming blinded. It was a very bitter discovery. Gone were all our hopes of returning to our families and our chances of fighting for our now vulnerable kingdom. We retreated back down to our underground chambers and continued on with our lonely existence not sure of what our purpose was. We made a discovery when one of our explorers reported the sounds of digging at the far end of a remote cave system. We investigated further and to our dismay we found literally thousands of slaves at work underground. They were Easterners and they were literally being worked to death by their overseers a blend of both Western sentries and the sorcerer’s own men. We made contact with some of the slaves and from them we learned of what had happened on the surface since our absence from it. They told us of the North’s subjugation and then of its vanishing cities. They told us of the onslaught that had befallen the Eastern cities and the great disaster that had befallen Lancosa. The slaves had been taken prisoner from the Eastern cities. As the cities fell their inhabitants became the slaves in the sorcerer’s mines. The sorcerer they told us was in search of the blue element trinial that supports our entire life system down here. I’m not sure how, but the sorcerer manipulates the energy from the trinial element to wield it as a weapon. The slaves were being pushed to exhaustion, because the sorcerer had almost run out of the trinial he needed to finish destroying the Eastern Kingdom and the trinial had grown scarce in that area of Lanoria. We organized an escape for the slaves. The slave handlers were completely taken off guard by our sudden presence and we were able to smuggle out all the slaves without even raising the alarm on the surface. We destroyed the sorcerer’s equipment and there was a great explosion, which caved in the mining area and the caves and tunnels leading up to it were completely filled with debris. We have kept watch, but to our knowledge the sorcerer has never tried to mine for the trinial again. He either believes there is none left or he doesn’t have the resources it would take to mine them. We welcomed the Easterners into our caverns and they became strong as we did and together we became one people. Before their arrival we had few females left alive among us and while there weren’t many female slaves there were enough that our people could continue. We still have a shortage of women to men. Every young girl has at least ten suitors trying to claim her hand. It’s not helped any by the fact that males seem to be favored somehow as the predominant offspring underground. In spite of that issue we have grown and even thrived as a people in our harsh underground environments. And now you have come. The descendent of a great man, with a sword of power to match. Tell me how it is you think we can be of help to you in your struggle to overcome the combined strength of the West and the sorcerer and save the above ground remnants of both the East and the North?”
I sat for a moment overcome by the story of these people’s tale of survival. I decided to start from the beginning. I told him of our people, the visions that my brother had of the people of Assoria and how they were coming true so far. I told him of my Creator and how we wanted to share His words with all the people of Assoria above and below ground.
I told him of our great victory over the West and the opportunity presented to crush the West once and for all and then I stopped talking. Not because I want to, but because I felt that I was supposed to.
The old man had closed his eyes during my story and now he opened them. “You went north didn’t you to get the support of the Northern army?”
I nodded and began as if to explain, but he held his hand up. “Don’t bother I know what you found. It disgraces me to know how far my old people have sunk to. They are little better than the Western Kingdom in terms of honor and respect for human decency. And now you see the opportunity presented by us underground people to muster the army that you failed to procure in the north.”
It was the truth as bad as it sounded and I nodded.
I felt craven inside to ask so much of a people that had already suffered so much and had managed to become content in their existence in this underground world.
“Even if we were to help the East in this great battle the fighting would go on for longer than a night. As you have seen we are helpless in the light of day, as we will go blind if we gaze into the brightness of the day too long.”
“What if I could help you with that problem and another problem you have as well.”
His old glowing eyes flared slightly and his posture straightened almost imperceptibly, “Explain!”
I told him about the Northern king’s offer of their younger women as warriors for the fight at Kartasa, which had basically been a form of population control on the kings part.
“They’re going to be here within a week. They could make fine wives for your unmarried men. Additional wives could be gotten from the Western refugee women and the East when the fighting is over.”
He gave me a speculative look from twinkling eyes, “An intriguing offer. One that our young men would no doubt heartily agree to, but that still does not answer how we can fight a battle that will last into the daylight hours?”
“I’m not sure I can, but I’d like to try to fix that for you regardless of whether you help us or not in the fighting. I’ll need some help gathering the materials needed. Do you have a forge?”
The old man rose with the speed of a man much younger than his almost one hundred and fifty years.
“Follow me!”
I followed his quick pace out of the shelter. People scattered to the left and right to make room for the fast-moving old man. I scrambled up and over the harsh terrain after him.
To say that he was pretty spry for his age would have been to put it lightly. Finally we arrived at a series of dwellings. There was an actual fire in what I recognized as a blacksmith shop.
“Here it is will it do.” He asked.
“Yes, with a few adjustments.”
“They will get whatever you may need.” He said as he promptly sat down on a rock to observe me apparently.
No pressure.
I addressed my helpers, who stepped forward. “I need these minerals and crystals.”
I listed them out and explained it to them until it was clear to them what I needed.
“Can you get them for me?” I asked, but they were already gone to accomplish the task. I started disassembling the forge to make a new one and within moments there were extra hands helping me.
These people didn’t even know what I was doing, but they trusted their leader that I could see. It took a couple of hours, but the new forge, which was more contained than the older one, was completed.
My materials had arrived and were laid out before me. I nodded my acknowledgment that they had brought the right stuff back. Gavin’s hobby had always been working with metal and it had been mine for a while as well, but the last several years I had taken a different form of hobbying.
Glassmaking.
I loved the colors and the unique creations that a little work could produce. It was funny how the Creator could use the little things that one would never think as being significant to do great things with. At least I hoped so.
I had never actually done what I was attempting. I turned back to my packed audience. Sweat was rolling off of me even though the air was cool in the cavern.
“I need a volunteer.”
The mass of my audience shifted forward as one.
“It involves staring directly into daylight.” I pointed upward toward the surface for added weight.
My audience looked suddenly uncertain and hesitated, but Raya didn’t. She smoothly walked forward to stand in front of me.
I swallowed slightly and motioned to a woman holding a bowl I had asked for earlier to come forward. The bowl had wet clay in it, “Close your eyes and stay completely still. You’re probably going to lose a few eyelashes, sorry.”
Her face quirked slightly into a smile, “You’re worried about my eyelashes?”
“Yes.” I responded completely serious and the smile fell from off her face, when she realized I was completely serious.
She closed her eyes as I held a glob of clay up to her eyes. Firmly but gently I pressed the clay into the hollows of her eye sockets and across the bridge of her nose and back toward her ears.
You wouldn’t think I would have had a problem remaining completely objective with so many people in attendance, but I was! Her soft full lips were slightly open as she breathed through her mouth so she didn’t move her nose.
Her mouth was begging to be kissed.
‘Remain objective Zevin! Objective!’
I glanced away from her face and saw a twinkle of humor on a lot of the gathered faces. I couldn’t help but blush slightly; my infatuation wasn’t that obvious was it, but apparently it was.
I stayed busy. I finished with the clay and I led Raya over to an open fire and had her face it.
“Just stay there for a moment and let the clay dry a little. I allowed a little bit of awkward time to go by and then I gently peeled the clay mask away from her face. Several of her eyelashes pulled off with the clay and I mourned the loss of each one of them. Her eyes opened and I quickly looked away.
The temptation to gaze into those pools of living color for forever was just to overpowering. I carried the clay mask to a table and I pulled out my sharpest knife and began to carefully carve out where her eye sockets were, but being careful to leave the clay on the edges. I motioned to a man standing by with a box of wet sand that had been leveled flat. I gently placed the clay mask on the damp sand.
The blacksmith helping me knew what I was doing now and he took over. He placed another box of pressed dampened sand overtop the other box and pushed down on it gently. Carefully he pulled the boxes apart and removed the clay mask to reveal a perfect impression in the damp sand and I nodded my approval.
He took the boxes over to a second forge and began pouring molten metal into a channel that had been cut in the sand in order to reach the void left by the clay mask impression, while I started to make the glass.
It took a while, but I finally had the glass to the temperature and consistency that I wanted it. My audience was completely engrossed as was I.
I had made more glass than I had needed, but it was easier to do it that way. Using the clay cutouts as forms I poured out the lenses of the mask and let them to cool and harden. The blacksmith was ready with the cast mask.
He had already taken off the rough spots and it was a finished piece he handed me.
“Great job!” I commented and his face creased into a big smile.
The men of Lanoria were as big or bigger than I was. The blacksmith was large in every way and yet he displayed a gentle and artful touch to his work that I appreciated.
The glass lenses had cooled and with a little sanding they slid into their slots easily. They stayed put thanks to a glue I had put on the metal rims we had fastened them to, which was made of plant resin. An adjustable leather strap, which hooked on to the two ears of the mask, was fitted onto it.
The mask was done.
I hoped it worked, because if it didn’t I would be responsible for being the one, who burned my lovely temptresses alluring eyes out.
I held the finished mask out toward Raya and she stepped closer. I fit the mask to her face and adjusted the leather strap around the back of her head securely beneath her hair. Her glowing eyes lit up the smoky orange tint of the glass lenses intensely making the glass look like it contained the essence of a priceless gem. The mask fit perfectly on her face.
“It’s hard to see clearly.”
“Good! It wasn’t meant to be seen through clearly in this low light environment.”
I turned to the people’s leader and asked, “Where can she test it?”
He lifted a hand towards the cavern ceiling and I looked up not understanding. Raya was already running away though. She had pushed the mask up some so she could see.
Watching her climb with the surety and grace that a mountain goat would have was a nervous experience as I was afraid that at any moment I would see her fall to her death.
She reached a hidden plateau near the ceiling of the cavern, which she ran along in full view of the anxiously watching crowd of thousands, who had gathered below.
No wonder these people were so fit climbing up and down rock walls like that! What she had done in mere minutes would have taken me hours to accomplish and that was assuming that I didn’t slip and fall to my death in the process.
I saw her pull the mask down and secure it in place and I whispered a silent prayer. She pulled on a rope and immediately a portion of the cavern ceiling opened up and rays of broad daylight shot into the cavern.
The watching people immediately shielded their eyes from the intense light with their hands, even as they tried to peer through them to see what had become of Raya.
I knew the exact moment when Raya standing fully in the sun’s light opened her eyes. Her whole body jerked and her hand flew to her mouth. For a moment she was still and then a burst of laughter peeled out past her hand as it echoed her sheer joy at what she was seeing.
She reverted to her native language in her excitement as she called down to the crowd of witnesses below. I could guess what she was saying because the crowded throng of people below erupted into their own expressed joy.
As for me I was thrilled that it had worked, but I couldn’t get past how much Raya affected me as she stood highlighted by the sun’s light from behind her as she jabbered away excitedly to those gathered below.
It was like she had the power to stop the beating of my heart in my chest, but instead she was causing it to beat a thousand times faster than it ever had before.
I felt a hand squeeze my shoulder and I looked to the side. The old leader had come up alongside of me.
“Thank you Zevin Ta’lont for giving my people back the daylight and a future to go along with it! Our warriors are yours to command and may we be successful in revenging the wrongs of the past together!”
I met his eyes and said softly, even as people jumped up and down around us excitedly unmindful of our serious conversation.
“Thank you for the honor of leading your warriors into battle. I’m not sure there are any finer warriors that exist in this world than those gathered here. It will be my honor to fight alongside of them.”
He nodded and squeezed my shoulder and we both looked back up at Raya who was dancing in the sunlight.
“I may have given you the ability to once again enjoy the light of day, but it is my most earnest desire that your people come to know the words of my Creator, who made both the day and the trinial, so that they might believe in their hearts and minds the truth, whether we are successful in battle or not.”
His wise old eyes turned back to me, “I believe it will be so.”
I was about to look back at Raya’s jubilant dancing form when he spoke again, “Tell me Zevin do you plan to go back to your homeland if we are successful in this battle and in defeating the sorcerer?”
I thought about his question carefully before replying.
“I do miss my homeland, but my father felt that I should make my destiny here in Assoria.”
“I wonder then if I could persuade you to carve out your destiny with us, in particular the peoples of Lanoria?”
“Maybe.” I said feeling my way softly as I glanced back at Raya, who was making her way back down to the cavern floor.
“If she was yours would you stay?” The old man asked as softly as I had answered.
“Yes I would.” I said.
He studied me for a minute seeming to read something of importance in my eyes and face.
“She comes with a grave responsibility. You see she is a princess. Only a king would be worthy of her.”
Shocked I glanced toward Raya, but she was lost in the crowd. How was she a princess?
“Is she your daughter?”
“No, but I care for her as if she was. I am not a king. I am a warrior and an old one. I need a younger warrior to take my place and a princess deserves a king. How about it?”
I looked at him incredulously, “You hardly know me to offer me so much!”
He shrugged his shoulders, “You are a descendent of a man who was worthy enough to be a king, if ever there was a man and by your actions and my judgment I can see that you are the same kind of man. It is enough.”
I looked out over the jubilant crowd of people lost in a world all of their own. Was this what my father had seen for me?
Was this what the Created wanted me to do?
The door before me was open. It was now up to me to walk through it or not. Suddenly I remembered what the old woman had said to me.
I turned back to the old leader, “I’ll try.” I said earnestly.
“That’s all we can ever do Zevin is to try.”
Suddenly Raya was back before us and I had the distinct feeling that she was not going to be pleased at having been given away.
“I’ll handle this Zevin.”
The leader stepped away from me and stepped into the crowd, which parted before him. He climbed up on a boulder projection from the floor so he could be seen by all those gathered in the cavern that easily numbered into the thousands.
A hush fell over the audience as they caught sight of their leader.
“What a great day is before us Lanorian’s! These are amazing and dangerous times, but we as a people are used to danger aren’t we? We have survived against all odds as a mixed people and have even thrived far from the light of day. A miracle to be sure! I have asked myself why? Why have we survived? What is our purpose? What can our future possibly be? And now that answer has come! Thanks to this man an answer to our future has finally come, through a series of extremely unlikely events. I believe he is not responsible solely for the course of his actions that has brought him to us. He has spoken to me of his Creator, which verifies the rumors that we have heard. I say that it would be wise for each of us to listen to what he has to say concerning his God, with each one of us discerning by ourselves whom we will serve and worship as the power behind the very breath of our daily lives. This man has given us the ability once more to walk in the light of day and leave our dark caves if we wish to. For most of you this will be your first time. For some of us it’s something cherished that we have been kept from for over a century! This is not all this man has done for our people!”
He then explained about the Northern and Western women. I have never felt such open eyed looks of gratitude by men before.
“This man has only asked one thing of us. It is a dangerous thing. Some perhaps many of us will die if we agree to do this thing. He has asked us to join the remaining Eastern city to the south in its last chance for not only survival, but ultimate victory over our common enemy. Should we help them or should we hide in the dark recesses of Lanoria content with what we have been able to carve out for ourselves and let the misdeeds and treachery’s of the past bury themselves?”
A deafening roar of “No!” erupted from the packed cavern.
It was a mighty sound that must have echoed back and forth down the labyrinth of the cave systems of Lanoria for miles.
“What say you then? Are you saying that you wish to march fourth from these very mountains out into the light of day to smash into the rear of the enemies might and crush them with our resolve to see that our honor and that those who have died before us be avenged?”
“Yes!” Came the resounding chorus, whose echoes resounded throughout Lanoria as before.
“I say we not only crush the enemy, but that we pursue them to their proud cities and tear them down to the ground for their villainous treachery and then I say we root out the sorcerer from wherever he may be hiding and stone him with the rubble of those cities!”
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Was the impassioned chant that echoed on and on from those gathered as they shook their fists into the air with violence.
He held up his hands to quiet them down. “Who will lead us on this quest?”
“You will lead us!” Came the scattered replies from an audience suddenly unsure.
“Me? I am an old man! I must surely die soon. I say it should be a younger man. There are many fine warriors among you, but which of you has much experience in fighting a human foe?”
There was utter silence as the people looked among themselves.
“There is one here that does have experience in war and leadership.”
He gestured to me.
“He has already shown himself a warrior of consummate skill in defeating one of our greatest warriors ever and he did it in the dark without even the ability to see as we do. He is not just an ordinary man of extraordinary circumstances though. No, he is of the very seed of the man who saved all our ancestors from ruin and brought us here to Assoria. What better man is there to lead us once more to victory over those that hate us?”
As one the audience pivoted to me extending their fists shouting, “No one!”
The old leader wasn’t finished yet though. “I believe you have made a wise choice in making this man your leader into battle, but consider this that I am about to tell you. After