Garam shook his head with certainty. “Your interpretation of my anxiety is ill conceived. And I will not subscribe to your indifference concerning our situation.” Garam continued to pace. “Captain, the guardian is real and is watching us. We will not pass through these tunnels before you recognize it. I only hope that you will believe before it’s too late.”

  Seeing that it was impossible to deter his companion, Aaron gave way to his own fatigue. “Very well, then, Garam,” he replied, yawning. “You keep watch these next few hours and then wake me. I will watch the remaining hours of the night to allow you some sleep… it is apparent that you need it.” Then Aaron rolled up his cloak for a pillow and gave in to exhaustion.

  ****

  Garam was not so easily persuaded against the sense of danger. As the others slept he kept vigil on the fire, making sure that the flames were high and bright, in a vain attempt to dispel the shadows. He continually peered down the corridor marked by the warning, certain that at any moment some creature or presence would emerge from the darkness to overtake the group. He was certain that, before they entered the long, dark hall, the guardian would block their way. The only hope, he remembered, was to remain together. But how could that avail, he thought, when the others don’t have the same sense of danger that I do?

  The night continued to pass slowly in the damp, smoke-filled room. The vent in the ceiling, though allowing much of the billowing smoke to exit, was not sufficient to ventilate the entire chamber. A faint cloud of grey haze formed just above their heads. Garam threw the last of the burnable wood onto the dwindling fire, sending up a shower of embers and renewing the energy of the flames. As the others slept, he sensed even more the presence of some malevolent creature bearing down on him. Panic rose like gall in his throat and he railed against the others as they slept.

  “Fine,” he whispered to himself, “let these others perish in this dungeon!” He turned to escape when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught the movement of some shadow. It drifted in the darkness just at the edge of the firelight. He could hear the whisper again, and his throat felt parched from the fear that welled up within. He searched left and right, desperate to see the hidden monster in the dark. Nothing. Slowly he crept toward the passage…he must take a closer look.

  Behind him, the restful breathing of his sleeping companions did nothing to calm his frayed nerves. He drew his axe from its strap, holding it with both hands as he continued to move closer to the passage opening. He placed the small, glowing illumine-stone onto a ring in his helmet, giving him the opportunity to wield his weapon and still have the advantage of the light. One cautious step after another he crept down the diminutive passage which was no more than five feet wide, and began making his way toward the motion that he thought he saw.

  Ahead, in the darkness beyond, Garam saw the glint of a reflection—perhaps the sparkling of some metal object reflected the red light of his glowing stone. He was no more than thirty paces down the passage when he heard the sound of a whisper behind him! Turning, he thought he saw movement. His heart pounded in his chest as he desperately tried to talk himself out of the panic that fought against his dwindling courage. He wanted to cry out, to seek the aid of his companions, but fear silenced him and he took off, running wildly away from their small encampment.

  Down the hall he fled, hearing, now, the sound of footsteps echoing behind him. His panic took him farther and farther along the passage and into the darkness. What was once the whisper of breathing now sounded like guttural laughter as the spectral creature mocked him in his flight.

  “Gaaaarrraammmm…”

  He heard it calling his name, taunting him. A spark of courage, then, flickered in his heart and he stopped. He turned around to face his pursuer.

  Garam saw the dark assailant, which looked like a misshapen phantom. An ethereal figure, eyes blazing like blue steel, glowed in the dimly lit corridor. The monster seemed to be of the substance of the shadows itself, blending quickly with the surrounding darkness, impenetrable to the light that shone from Garam’s stone. It reached toward him with hands wielding dark claws that looked as if they had the power to rip flesh from bone.

  “What are you?” Garam demanded.

  “I am the guardian!” the creature spoke with a voice that seemed to deepen the darkness around him.

  Garam trembled as he mustered his words. “Be gone, vile wraith. Be gone or my axe will have its fill of your hide!” He sounded more courageous than his heart felt, but he couldn’t back down now.

  The creature replied with mocking laughter. “I am shadow and death. You cannot destroy me for you are not the one!”

  Without another word, Garam lunged at the wraith, swinging his axe high over his head. But where his axe should have cleaved the creature in two, he passed right through as though he had only struck the wisp of a cloud. Garam fell to the ground. His small, glowing stone tumbled down the corridor and left him in darkness. Turning, he saw the creature reaching down with its long talons. It picked Garam up by the throat with an inhumanly powerful grip, lifting him off the ground. Garam swung his arms and batted at the creature, but every blow passed through the monster. Garam’s eyes widened with desperate fear. He was powerless against the creature.

  With a grip like an iron vice, the wraith laughed at Garam’s vain struggle. “Now comes the end.”

  3

  A Darkness Revealed

  “Captain!” Braden shouted, his voice reverberating in hollow echoes down the tunnels.

  Aaron leapt to his feet at Braden’s shout, instinctively reaching for his sword. He found the dwarf dashing from door to door, anxiously looking down each hall and shouting for Garam. “What’s going on?” Aaron demanded, as his heart pounded in his chest with the excitement of the moment.

  “It’s Garam… he’s gone!” Braden spoke, his voice quivering in desperation.

  “Gone!” he said. “What do you mean he’s gone?”

  “I mean, gone!” Braden said anxiously. “There is no sign of him anywhere.”

  The noise of Braden and Aaron woke Lorik, and he jumped to his feet. “What’s all the commotion?”

  “Garam has disappeared,” Aaron replied as he quickly strapped his sword to his side and began to gather the provisions into his satchel.

  “Where would he go?” Lorik asked.

  Aaron breathed a heavy sigh, reluctant to tell the other two about his conversation with the dwarf. Realizing, however, that they would not be satisfied without some explanation he spoke. “Last night,” he began, “Garam was quite convinced that we were being stalked by some form of shadow creature—a wraith. From the moment we set foot in these tunnels he was certain that something was watching us.”

  “Well,” Lorik said, “I’m sure that we all could feel that way in this damp dungeon.”

  “True, but for Garam, it was more than just nerves. He seemed possessed by the idea that some creature was pursuing us,” Aaron replied.

  “What if he was right? Perhaps he was taken by a wraith and drug off into some antechamber in these ancient catacombs. How are we ever going to find him?” Braden openly wondered.

  Aaron was unsettled by the situation and didn’t like the thought that Garam might have been correct. Since he had dismissed the dwarf’s anxiety as nothing more than an irrational fear, he felt a great sense of responsibility to his aged companion. He looked up at Braden, “We begin to search for him.”

  “Which way?” Braden asked. “He could be down any one of these corridors.”

  “We’re not going to aimlessly wander through these tunnels,” Aaron said. “We will take the passage that was marked by the warning of the guardian. Garam’s interest in it tells me that this is the way he would go. And if there is a guardian in these dark halls, then that might be the direction to follow. In any event, I suspect that the way out of here is through there,” he said as he pointed to the passage with the dire admonition.

  “Great,” Braden said. “It would stand to reason that the one tunnel we might need is the one with the darkest, most ominous warning.”

  Aaron turned to Lorik. “You’re a skilled tracker,” he said. “I need you to pick up his trail.” The three companions gathered their gear and stepped into the dark, foreboding hall.

  With only one illumine stone left, the passage was dismally lit. The reddish glow from the small orb offered little light, just enough to see a few paces in front of them as they crept along the ancient passage and listened for any sound of their lost companion. The signs of Garam’s journey down the corridor were obvious. His boot prints clearly marked his passage and was easily seen in the old dust that blanketed the floor.

  “It’s my guess that Garam came this way not more than an hour ago. These footprints in this dust are barely touched by the draft that seems to constantly blow through here.” Lorik hesitated for a moment. “I just don’t see any sign that Garam was abducted. There are no other prints in this passage.”

  The tunnel turned and twisted through the granite, passing like a serpent through the hard stone so that they could no longer see the glow of their dying campfire behind them. Around a corner the three men spied what appeared to be a distant flicker of light. Cautiously they approached, peering into the darkness before them, their own steps echoing along the cold stone passage. Their anxiety only grew when they discovered that the light ahead of them was merely the reflection of their glowing stone on Garam’s axe. The weapon rested forgotten against the rock wall with small stone fragments scattered about the blade. Above the axe, etched like a scar in the granite wall was a fresh crack where Garam’s axe had hit.

  “Well,” Lorik said, “whatever happened didn’t happen without a fight.”

  “At least we know we are on the right track,” Braden added.

  Aaron, however, was more concerned than ever for the missing dwarf. He couldn’t imagine Garam forgetting his weapon and could only guess that the dwarf was overpowered by the unseen assailant or overcome with fear. “Let’s not linger,” Aaron said. “We don’t know what Garam is facing and we must not waste time.” He turned toward Braden. “Take his axe; we may yet have the opportunity to return it to its rightful owner.” He stepped out quickly with Lorik and Braden fast on his heels.

  Around another corner, as the passage continued to twist and turn, they stumbled upon Garam’s helmet and the illumine stone. Braden bent down to pick up the artifacts, “He must be gone,” Braden whispered. “A dwarf would never leave his gear behind.” Braden handed the headpiece to Lorik.

  They continued their journey down the corridor, winding through the stony earth. Hours passed when, around another bend, a faint glow began to illuminate the distant tunnel. The shimmering, golden light grew brighter with each step, flooding their eyes with an intensity that they hadn’t seen since they first stepped into the dank underground passage. They approached with extreme caution, unsure what to expect. Lorik and Aaron had their swords drawn; Braden held Garam’s weapon at the ready as they approached the light.

  The passage opened into a large, luxurious hall with light seeming to cascade all around. High above, over one-hundred feet, the arched ceiling was decorated with vast scenes of an ancient realm. Mosaics of great castles looked down from above with colorful banners flying high over golden towers. Tall, broad pillars reached up from the floor like massive stone fingers, carved with ancient pictures and wound with golden wreaths spiraling up to the top. On the walls, ornate woven tapestries hung with illustrations of mighty heroes, untouched by time. Around the room, marble statues of mighty men, covered in scintillating armor, kept silent vigil as they held high their mighty swords. Other wall hangings and stonework decorated the massive room with scenes of mighty dwarves wielding great axes standing alongside warrior-men and elves holding longbows. The three companions were amazed at the sight of such a room. It seemed as if time had never touched the exquisite chamber.

  Yet, for all the décor and artwork that filled the ancient hall, what drew Aaron’s attention was what he saw in the middle of the room. A large carved basin filled with crystal clear water dominated the center of the chamber. As the three men approached they noticed that they could see to the very bottom of the pool, hundreds of feet deep. The basin was wide and shaped in a perfect circle. Rising up from the water in the exact center of the pool was a tall, stone obelisk carved out of the same grey granite which formed the entire underground network. Emanating from the pinnacle of the stone monument like a fountain was a brilliant shower of light which rose up into the air and spilled its illuminating glow throughout the room. They could see no source for the light, it seemed to the three companions that the light simply was.

  “Captain!” exclaimed Lorik. “Have you ever seen such a sight?”

  “No, Sergeant, I can’t say that I have.” Aaron was just as astonished as his sergeant, unable to fathom the display.

  Braden stood in awed silence, staring up at the spectacle with a look of fear and delight.

  Aaron’s strong sense of duty and responsibility brought him back to the matter at hand. He looked at his fellow travelers as they marveled at the pillar, and the light that issued from above it. “Lorik!” he commanded.

  The sergeant snapped back to attention and faced the captain. “Sir.”

  “We’ve gawked enough at this. Garam is missing and we must discover which way he went. There are tunnels leading out of this room, find the one that he used!”

  As Lorik looked around, he counted seven other passages that emptied into the large room. “It might take some time, Captain.”

  Aaron thought for a moment, he appreciated his sergeant’s patience as it steadied his own nerves. “Then get to it. In the meantime, Braden and I will take a closer look at this pool.”

  The three of them ate a quick lunch, washed down with water from their flasks, and began their tasks. Lorik quickly went to work and began with the first door left of the passage they came through. Groping around the floor and looking at all possible signs of passage, the sergeant was near to a bloodhound when it came to tracking. His keen eyes, trained through years of experience, would not miss a mote of dust out of place or a discarded thread of hair. The large, round room, however proved to be a challenge even to his practiced eye.

  As Lorik busily examined the various tunnels that exited the room, Braden and Aaron cautiously stepped around the water’s edge. The rim of the massive basin was smooth as glass, unmarred by any crack or blemish in the stonework and untouched by the decay of time. The water was still, crystal clear, and cold to the touch. No apparent spring fed the pool as it shimmered in the dazzling brightness of the light above it. Aaron gazed in awe upon the construction and pondered what society could have possessed the skills to create such a place.

  “What a wonder it is,” Aaron whispered to himself as he circled around the large pool.

  “What’s that, Captain?” Braden asked.

  He had almost forgotten that the dwarf was still with him. Aaron turned and looked at his companion. “Nothing,” he said, “I’m just amazed at the sight of this room… of all that I’ve seen. I’ve never believed the ancient myths of the Elder Days, but I’ve seen too much to dismiss them any longer.”

  “Indeed, Captain,” Braden replied to Aaron, “it is possible that there are mysteries far beyond our knowledge that are nonetheless true.”

  “Well,” Aaron responded with mock surprise, “you’re a philosopher as well!” He looked down at his dwarf companion. “Can you also decipher these markings upon the floor?” Aaron pointed to a spot on the granite floor that was marked with several deep inscriptions of gold. The writing was in the same style as that of the plaque which guided them to the large, circular room, but Aaron couldn’t make sense of any of the symbols.

  Moving to join the captain, Braden stared long at the markings. “These are ancient,” he said, “but as for their meaning, I don’t know.”

  Both Aaron and Braden stopped their investigation when Lorik shouted, “I’ve found something!” His voice echoed in waves against the stone walls of the room. The other two dashed to where the sergeant stood, looking down the length of a long, dark corridor. “Captain!” he exclaimed, “Garam was taken through this tunnel.”

  “Taken?” asked Braden.

  “Yes,” replied the sergeant, “I don’t think he went willingly. These scratch marks in the dust show that someone was dragged through this area.”

  Braden leapt across the fallen timbers, not waiting for the other two. With Garam’s axe clutched in one hand and the glowing stone in the other, the dwarf disappeared down the corridor, leaving his two companions behind. The sound of his boots beat against the stone floor like two hammers, reverberating with synchronous echoes. Aaron and Lorik paused for just a moment before they quickly rushed after their frantic friend.

  They turned a corner and were immediately swallowed up in the pitch-black of the hall. The fading light of the chamber behind them no longer aided them. If not for the illumine stone, both men would be lost in the encroaching darkness of the catacombs. Somewhere in the shadowed distance ahead they heard the pounding of Braden’s steps. Aaron held the stone aloft to shed light in the passage as he and Lorik pressed on.

  ****

  “Help me… please!”

  Braden heard the hoarse plea of desperation and then what sounded like a splash coming from the darkness before him. He ran forward several more paces when, by the glow of the stone, he saw the reflected shimmer of a large pool with Garam struggling in the midst of it.

  Braden rushed into the lake, splashing through the freezing water. Garam fought against an unseen adversary, clutching at his throat as if some mighty hand were trying to choke the life out of the dwarf. “Let go!” Braden shouted, not knowing what was happening to Garam. He grabbed Garam and tried to drag his companion out of the icy lake. To his shock and fear, something unseen was fighting against his efforts.