Caverns of the Deep: Under the Mountain, #5

By Jeanette O'Hagan

Seven Gates, locked and warded, stand between life and starvation.

As belts are tightened notch by notch, Watcher Retza and Lady Zara seek to find the seal and open the Gate. 

Meanwhile, Delvina, shapeshifter Zadeki and Danel race to return to the Caverns in time to help their friends.

Danger and betrayal stalk the tunnels and shadows grow darker in the deep caverns beneath the mountain. Will Zadeki, Zara and the twins (Retza and Delvina) find a way to save the Glittering Realms and secure a better future?

Set in the world of Nardva, Caverns of the Deep is the fifth and final book in the Under the Mountain series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: By the Light Books
• Release date: Jun 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9780648164098

Book preview

Copyright

Caverns of the Deep: a novella

By Jeanette O’Hagan

Story 5 in the Under the Mountain series

Cover design: Jeanette O’Hagan © 2019

Typesetting and Layout: Jeanette O’Hagan

Copyright Jeanette O’Hagan © 2019

http://jeanetteohagan.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book and cover image may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval, without permission in writing from the author and publisher.

All events, characters and entities portrayed in the stories are fictional and any likeness to any persons living or dead, events and entities are entirely coincidental.

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (CIP) available National Library of Australia

ISBN-13: 978-0-6481640-9-8

Published through By the Light Books

By the Light Books

PO Box 2520, Brookside, Qld 4053

Email: [e-mail]

Note: This e-book follows Australian style conventions for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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Table of Contents

Copyright

Table of Contents

Dedication

Caverns of the Deep

Author Note

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Other Publications

Dedication

To Elsie who shared our adventures in Mt Isa and Zambia.

Caverns of the Deep

Zara walked towards the tall ebony gate, the first of seven leading outside. The hair prickled on the back of her neck. She didn’t need to turn around to sense the many eyes of her former captors watching her. She took a steadying breath and placed one foot in front of the other. The first gate some fifty tanis distant beyond the control panel stood firmly shut despite all Nebam’s efforts. Long strands of cobwebs waved in the downdraft of a nearby ventilation shaft. Glimmerlight shimmered on thick layers of dust and grunge. Though many footprints led to the panel, few led beyond.  Zara averted her eyes from a mound of rags jammed in a crevice some way off the pathway.

A shadow passed over her. She caught her breath at the huge bat circling near the roof of the vaulted cavern. The silver streaks identified the creature as shapeshifter and Kinleader, Telsima, keeping watch on her.

The fate of the realm rested on her slender shoulders. Her baba, the deposed Overseer, had always said the outside was a place of untold evil and danger. The Sea Dragon King’s sole purpose was to destroy them. This was why her da-baba had sealed the mountain off from outsiders. Perhaps it had been true. Maybe it still was true, though Head Watcher Gilarth and the new Overseer Havilah said otherwise. Zara no longer knew who to believe. Yet with only one Glimmer Heart still working and the farm caverns devastated, food would soon run out. They were all slowly starving. Getting help from outside was now a matter of survival. Which meant someone had to open the Gate.

’Remember, Lady Zara, the opening mechanism should be in the control panel,’ Secondwun Nebam called from the safety of the archway behind her.

‘As you’ve said.’ She stared at the waist high bronze panel now a few paces away, willing it to give up its secrets. Its design was similar to the Glimmer Heart’s control panel that powered the realm.

‘When the mechanism triggers, you’ll have mere moments to get away.’

‘Yes, Secondwun,’ she snapped. He’d already repeated the instructions and warnings a thousand times. What mad impulse had made her agree to this? Just because the glimmer crystals were now attuned to her, didn’t mean whatever wards and traps her grandfather had placed on the Gate would spare her. But she had to try, if only to prove herself to these prickly toolwuns that she did care about the fate of the realm. But mostly for her brother Jesson ... and maybe Retza. 

Zara ran her moist hands down her skirt. Another step and she drew level with the bronze panel. She took a deep breath and gagged at the foul air. In a few places the layers of dust coating the control panel were thinner, as though scraped away by curious hands. Shadowy and mysterious carvings were etched across its surface.

Her skirt brushed against the panel and it emitted a sudden soft hum. Her skin tingled at the static in the air. A moment later a pale blue light winked on beneath a glass-sealed display on the sloped surface of the pedestal.

‘Once the light activates you have three minutes before the first trap is triggered and arrows shoot out of the walls and from the roof.’ Nebam‘s gruff instructions echoed from behind her,

‘Why not trigger the trap, take cover until the barrage is over and then move toward the gate?’ Retza asked.

‘Because there is not enough time to do anything useful before the mechanism resets,’ Nebam growled. ‘Now, stop asking stupid questions.’

Zara flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. Retza had a point. ‘I could easily walk to the ebony gate in ten minutes.’

‘Take one step beyond the pedestal, and the trap will trigger. You’d be skewered before you get halfway. Two and three-quarter minutes, Zara.’

Terrific. This was a very bad idea. A horrible idea. A spine-tingling, you-are-going-to-die idea.

She rubbed the grimy glass with her sleeve and peered at the lettering beneath. 

INS*RT *EA* *O PR**EED.

Her brow wrinkled as she puzzled out the missing letters. ‘Insert seal to proceed.’

She didn’t have the seal, didn’t know what it looked like. She only had to touch the Glimmer Heart and it responded to her, so maybe this would be as simple. She slid her hands over the panel, looking for clues.

The humming grew louder, more insistent. A blue light started flashing. Letters flickered on the panel. ‘Warning, warning. Insert the Overseer’s Seal of authority to proceed.’ Ghost fingers whispered down her arms. 

‘Two minutes left,’ Nebam called out. ‘You need to hurry, girl.’

Think, Zara, think! Apart from the flashing display, the sloped top of the control panel seemed smooth. Except for the trace of a handprint that would fit Gilarth’s huge paws.  She peered closer. Not a print, a shaped indentation.

She placed her hand in the depression before she could change her mind. A tickling sensation ran along her palm and fingertips.  A soft whir and a small hidden tray slid open, revealing a round slot and a button. No doubt the place to insert the seal.

‘What next?’ she called back to the spectators standing at a safe distance near the archway.

‘First time we’ve got this far,’ Nebam responded.

A good sign then. She could do this. The mad tap of her pulse settled into a steadier rhythm. A cylindrical, round hole. She poked the tip of her index finger into the hole. A tight fit. What next? She pressed the knob. A discordant click, a tiny stinging prick on her finger pad, and the pulsing light settled into a steady purplish beam. Was that it?

‘Good, good. Now see if the gate opens.’ Nebam’s voice took on an upbeat note.

‘Be careful, Zara,’ Head Watcher Gilarth added.

Zara firmed her shoulders and stepped towards the tall ebony gate. Something brittle crunched beneath her boot. She didn’t want to look down, didn’t want to know what she’d stepped on, didn’t want to imagine its likely origin.

She had deactivated the traps, hadn’t she? She took another step forward, her legs like slurry. 

A broken arrow shaft caught the muted glimmerlight. It stuck out of a pile of dirty rags and ...  She shuddered and looked away. The smell of old death clung all around her. This wasn’t a littlewun’s game. She could die here, just like that poor toolwun. Her breath came in gasps and her legs locked.

‘Blasted girl, don’t stop now!’

Bootsteps with a limping step ran toward her. ‘Slow and steady, Lady Zara.’ Retza’s gruff voice came from behind her.

‘Retza!’ She twisted around, her brow furrowing. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘In case you need our help,’ Retza said. He gripped a rectangular metal sheet as tall as he was.

Her cheeks warmed. ‘Well, don’t get in my way. I don’t want to die because of ... of your gammy knee.’ But she did feel stronger with the young watcher beside her.

A wry grin crept across Retza’s face. ‘Don’t mind me.’ He waved her on.

Zara clamped down hard on her mounting terror and counted off the paces. One, two, three, four ... On ten, the control panel emitted a soft pinging sound. Was it supposed to do that? On twenty, the light reflecting off the gleaming ebony gates deepened to blood red and started flashing.

Not good. Not good. Not good.

‘What now?’

‘Get back here!’ Nebam screamed. ‘The trap’s activated.’

‘Hurry,’ Havilah shouted over the escalating alarm.

A clunk, clunk, clunk came from the walls and roof, followed by a whirring creak. Zara’s heart rammed against her breastbone, a trapped cave bat desperate to escape. Unlike the Crystal Heart, the gate hadn’t responded to her touch or heartbeat. At least Jesson was safe with the old Scrybe Barekia. Whatever happened, the rebels would care for him. She touched the crystal pendant lying on her breast. No one else had survived the death about to shower down on them.

‘No time.’ Retza pushed her to the floor and pulled the metal sheet over them.

#

Retza pulled the sheet over them not a moment too soon. Arrows rained down, pinging off the makeshift shield and clattering on the stone floor like stones tumbling against the sides of a barrel grinder. Ping, ping, ping, pingety, ping. The barrage continued for several minutes, but at last silence settled in the cavern.

Retza’s limbs went limp with relief and he licked dry lips. The shield had worked. He pushed it to one side. Arrows lay in great drifts on the floor and heaped up around them in small piles.

‘Are you injured?’ Gilarth called out.

‘No, no, we’re fine,’ Zara said, her sapphire-blue eyes dark in her chalk-white face.

Retza stood and offered her a shaky hand to help her stand. Her sweet caramel scent took some of the foulness out of the air. Was that it?

Zara stepped back and stared toward the ebony gate just five paces away. ‘We can reach it before the trap resets.’

‘Not enough time. Get back here!’ Nebam said, voice shrill.

Zara’s back and shoulders stiffened. ‘We’ll lose what progress we’ve made.’

Ever since the second cave-in, the Secondwun seemed to have misplaced his emotional ballast. But he’d been working on this problem longer than any of them, he would know how long things took.

‘Come, Lady Zara, best do as he says.’ Retza waved his arm for her to go first.

After a short hesitation, she lifted her chin and picked her way toward the archway. The arrows made the floor treacherous, rolling and sliding beneath their feet.

At ten strides, a soft rumble came from beneath them. Retza could feel it trembling under his boots and the air seemed to sizzle around them. His arm hairs bristled. Was the trap resetting already? He grabbed Zara’s hand. ‘Hurry.’

Zara slipped on an arrow shaft and stumbled, ‘Ow, my ankle.’ She put weight on it and fell back down. ‘I ...  I can’t walk.’

Retza crouched and lifted Zara up in his arms, ignoring the sudden stabbing pain in his injured knee. He staggered towards the others.

Gilarth burst into action, striding toward them. 

With a sudden sizzle, lightning zapped down from the cavern roof. The big watcher fell, sending arrows clattering and skittering across the floor. He sat up, a dazed look in his iron-grey eyes.

Retza took a couple of steps and another bolt zapped down so close it tingled through his boots. He swallowed hard. Not just one ward, of course, but many. The Gate had shut the realm from the outside for over two hundred years. There was no way he could make it to safety carrying Zara.

As though hearing his thoughts, she wriggled from his hold and stood on one foot. They huddled together, stranded halfway between the panel and the first gate. The rumble grew louder.

‘What now, Secondwun?’ Retza called. ‘Should we wait?’

‘You can’t stop there. Run and hope to blazes you don’t get hit.’

The silver-streaked bat swooped over them. ‘I can see a pattern in the pavers,’ Telsima said. ‘I’ll show you the path.’

Retza nodded. ‘Go on.’

‘Go left, now three steps straight, now one to the right.’

They followed Telsima’s directions, Zara leaning on him and he on her. Sweat slid down his forehead and his limbs trembled with the strain and missed meals. His knee burned. The long rosters of decreased rations and the time trapped in the cave-in were taking their toll on his strength.

‘Straight another two squares.’

The floor shook under Retza’s boots. What other joys did the long dead Overseer Hezikah have for them? Rows of square flagstones began to tilt down toward each other. Retza’s boots slipped and Zara’s grip tightened on his arm.

‘Almost there. A pace to the left and four in front.’ Telsima hovered above them.

‘Hurry.’ Gilarth stood and brushed away a couple of arrows hanging off his breeches. He jumped over the blue stone, balancing against the increased tilt of the floor. As they stepped closer, he grabbed their arms and dragged them with him past the bronze panel. Other hands stretched out from the archway and helped them across the threshold.

A screeching, grinding noise accompanied the slithering clatter.

Retza twisted round, his eyes wide. The scattered arrows slipped and fell down the widening gaps between the stones.

‘What’s it doing?’ Zara asked.

‘Resetting, rearming.’ Nebam pulled at his scrappy ginger beard, grey eyes anguished. ‘We think it reloads the arrows.’

With a thud that echoed through the tunnel, the flagstones tilted back together again.

Retza chewed his lip with frustration. They’d been so close to succeeding. The control panel had responded to Zara’s touch, but it was clear more was needed. The Overseer’s seal.

‘This is too dangerous.’ Gilarth winced as he pulled arrows from his clothing, some tipped in blood. ‘Without Retza’s shield Lady Zara would have died.’

Nebam thrust out his chin. ‘We have ten days before the food from Tamra arrives outside the Gate. If it’s not open by then, our options are grim.’

‘Danel and Delvina should return from the Lonely Isles with answers,’ Retza said.

‘After so long and no messages ...’ Nebam’s voice faded.

Retza’s chest felt hollow. His sister—his twin and best friend and all the family he had left—had to return.

Havilah clapped her hands. ‘Let’s focus on what we can do. Zara did give you more time, Nebam. And Retza’s idea of using shields worked. Use it. Once we reach the ebony gate, force it open.’

Gilarth folded his arms. ‘Let me send teams out to look for Temple’s Rest and the seal.’

The great bat swooped down towards them, seemingly on a collision course with the archway. At the last minute, its shape wavered and changed, legs lengthening and wings becoming arms, shifting into the slender figure of Kinleader Telsima. ‘Josenif can help you search.’

‘Right,’ Havilah said. ‘Nebam and Zara work on the Gate. But Nebam, don’t put Zara’s life at risk, especially given her connection to the Crystal Heart. Gilarth, find Temple’s Rest and Uzza. Hopefully, Thirdwun Danel and the delegation will return from the Lonely Isles with the answers, but we’d be unwise to rely on any one solution.’

Surely, Danel, Delvina and the others would be back soon, though there was still no news since the party left Redhaven for the Lonely Isles twenty-four days ago. Bad enough to be without protection of solid stone above one’s head, but to replace the stone beneath one’s boots with fickle water seemed like madness. Retza’s stomach squirmed. He only hoped his twin and their friend Zadeki were safe.

#

‘No, absolutely not!’ The Mariner Habbiah’s neck veins stood out like ropes as he stared down his daughter.

Delvina hoped he never looked at her like that. She pulled her borrowed Tamrin cloak closer to shield her from the drizzle of rain and icy wind.

The White Rose rocked on choppy waves and above them, storm clouds raced across the sky, partially obscuring the pale crescent of Argenti in the east. Across the bay, the saltbush was still smoking from their encounter with Avardin’s forces. Perhaps she should join Zadeki and Danel lounging against the railings several paces away, or better yet, go below decks and leave father and daughter to spar in private. Though surely everyone aboard ship could hear them.

‘Baba, please listen. I need to do this.’ Ariel’s honey-brown hair whipped about her slivery-white face and slim shoulders.

‘We have to leave with the tide. Princess Avardin’s forces will resend her rabble against us soon enough. It’s not safe to stay on the island.’

More to the point, time was running out for the people of the Glittering Realms. Delvina and Danel needed to get back to the mainland. She bit down on exasperated words already repeated, and edged along the railing.

‘I know, Baba.’ Ariel twisted her hands in her billowing skirt. ‘But we can’t let Avardin win.’

Habbiah folded his arms, his legs spread wide to counter the constant roll of the ship. ‘How do you intend to stop her? She is now the Regent with both the watchers and the rebel ebed under her command.’

‘Not all the ebed, not all the watchers either. And she intends to kill the prince.’

‘You don’t know that.’

Ariel thrust out her dainty chin. ‘It’s a good guess. She murdered the Grand Technician, then blamed the Forest Folk and killed Gentle Bikan. It’s obvious now. Princess Avardin seized power unlawfully by isolating each group and setting them against each other. Isn’t that so, Delvina?’

Delvina’s cheeks flamed. ‘Um ... yes. She’s a treacherous snake.’ Avardin had enticed her with lies, pretending to be her friend while all the time plotting to kill her true friends, the Forest Folk.  And she had almost succumbed. She gave a guilty glance at Zadeki, who returned it with a sad smile.

‘It’s true,’ Danel stepped across the deck, his voice tired and his head half-swathed in soot-smudged bandages. ‘I would stay behind to help.’ He shrugged. ‘But we have to get back. Our people’s situation is dire.’

‘The daughter of deceit seizes power and bends the rules to her benefit.’ Zadeki leapt off the railing, towering over Danel.

Mariner Habbiah waved his hands as though shooing away an annoying fly. ‘I don’t doubt it. There were rumours that the Sea Dragon King chose his old friend Iulien as regent because he mistrusted his niece’s motives. Think on this. Samwin and the other ebed can blend in on my cousin’s estate and hope for the best, but Avardin has named and banned us. To stay is a death sentence.’

‘Only if she takes us.’ Ariel stood her ground. ‘And once she has repaired the White Ships, don’t you think she’ll come after us? Redhaven won’t be safe for long, Father, unless we stop her here.’

Zadeki nodded. ‘She plans to take the wide land from my Kin and the Tamrin, overturning her grandfather’s treaty with us.’

Mariner Habbiah swung around to face Zadeki, arms akimbo. ‘And will you stay and fight, young shapeshifter?’

Delvina stopped moving. Would Zadeki stay with Ariel? He’d said he wasn’t interested in the Vaane lass, and she believed him. Still, could the shapeshifter resist a new adventure?

‘We gave a promise to help and protect the mountain dwellers. Besides, such a decision is up to the Kinleader and the