The door to possible freedom was opened.
The survivors creapt up the long staircase. Hope woke in them. At the top was a big square platform, and that was all. As far as they could see it was just a flat platform. In the little light, as they had only one torch with them, no way of getting anywhere was to be seen. The hope they had didn’t last for long.
Most of them sat down tiredly and hurt. Some walked to the edge of the tower to look down. A few logs still burned and the view would have been beautiful from up high if the situation had been different.
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
Still the fight continued. Enhillion was bruised all over. He couldn’t manage to hit Yulnagar a single time, but continued evading desperately.
And then the battle suddenly ended. Yulnagar swung the mighty black blade, Enhillion countered it nimbly with his sword that shattered in the impact.
At last the lad lost hope of winning. Enhillion turned and started running to the tower. Yulnagar stood for a moment and then disappeared.
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
A light appeared! Real light. A ray of the sun. It wasn’t much, but for the eyes of the prisoners is was blindingly bright. After their eyes got used to it they looked for the source. The ray was coming from the roof of the cavern, nearly straight above their heads. Only a shallow gap could be seen from that angle.
They all smiled sadly, even Durelin. They were both relieved to see a light after long imprisonment in the dark and pained by the truth, the endless walls of the cave formed a dome that would be impossible to climb.
Madness gripped Boromir. Seeing no other alternative he ran to the edge and prepared to jump to his death. This was too much for him, he’d rather die fast and be over with the horrors. Luckily before Boromir jumped off, he tripped on a rope nobody noticed before. The rope’s one end was attached to an iron hoop by the edge, the other end seemed to go up into the darkness. ”Torch! Quickly!”
Shasta ran up to Boromir holding their only torch, ”What? What happened?”.
”See this?” The rope was indeed attached to the ceiling, not far from the gap where sunlight entered the cave, but not close enough. ”Come here! I think I found our savior!”
Boromir was congratulated with many laughs and smiles.
Diamond tugged at the rope and found it steady. ”Should we try?”
”I don’t think I’ll be able... And I’m not the only one wounded here”, sighed Morgan, who’s arm was bandaged over a broken body.
”He’s right. I might be able to get there, but can’t leave anybody down here”, Rune confirmed their problem, ”The rope is much too long and nobody knows what is to be found on the other end”.
Durelin, who got quickly bored with the talk, walked a small way to the side and found another rope, a whole coil of it. Other items also lay there, a few clay jars and kettle, but they were of no significance to Durelin. He took the rope and walked back to the gang. ”Found this. Wanna try find out how to use it?”
Everybody looked at him and then turned away their eyes. Boromir sighed and explained, ”Thank you, but this won’t be of any help. First, we can’t get the rope to the other side and don’t know if it is long enough. Secondly, two ropes wouldn’t be of any help, especially to cross such a wide chasm”.
”Yeah, yeah. But couldn’t that Kitanna just help us to get to the other side? Huh?” This time Durelin pointed out the obvious.
Or it would have been obvious if Kitanna had been anywhere in sight. She wasn’t.
They shouted her name and when no answer came, cursed it. The Shade had flown off to her freedom as soon as she saw the light coming from the roof, if you had been imprisoned in the cave from the beginning of the world, you wouldn’t have blamed her.
”That’s how they usually do, when you start trusting them, they aren’t there...” Durelin enforced his logic.
Hope left a few, and a few decided that soon it would be time to care about only your own life and try the rope as it was.
Nobody waited for the genious idea that came from Xyzzy, ”You know, that’s quite a lot of rope you have there. If we cut three bits from it and wind them around yourselves and the rope that leads to freedom, you’ll be able to get to the other side without fear of falling. The angle of the rope isn’t that steep. I think that it wouldn’t need much effort to pull yourself up that using this technique”.
The idea was brilliant indeed, though not everybody understood it. Xyzzy took the rope and explained again. ”If you tie the rope in a circle like this around the rope leading to the opposite side and climb into the circle, you won’t be able to fall... Unless either of the ropes snaps. To make things even easier, you could tie several circles around you. One under your shoulders, one at your belt and one under your knees”.
People started nodding and soon agreement was complete.
Of course, a problem arose. ”And how do you get the ropes back down here. Sure one person can use them, but I doubt they’ll slid here by themselves”, said Rikae with great concern.
”Oh, that too! We’ll just have to hope that the rope Durelin brought will be enough for the circles and to attach them together and to somewhere here that somebody can pull the circles back when needed”, Xyzzy shouted excitedly.
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
It seemed to work. Xyzzy was chosen to go first, as it was his idea, and he was so certain about it working. The knots tied to keep the ropes together seemed to hold, Xyzzy knew what he was doing. The hard part was climbing in and out of the contraption. After practising several times, Xyzzy set off. He pulled at the rope above him and worked with his body to keep the contraption move steadily up and not down. He was suprised of how hard it was, though his only fear was that the ropes would snap.
Xyzzy got to the other side and found out that the rope actually went over onto a ledge and was attached to a similar iron hoop on the wall. The pleased engineer climbed out of the contraption and smiled even wider when he saw that the rope that was attached to the contraption was long enough to reach to the tower. Xyzzy gave the rope a tug that told Boromir to pull the contraption back down.
Grudgenly and successfully Durelin went up next. Then Shasta. Morgan had great problems getting into the contraption, as he felt weak and his arm pained him very badly, but he too managed.
The rest went up without any nasty suprises. Only Mac and Rikae were still on the tower.
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
Enhillion climbed the staircase up the tower, he was hurt and exhausted. He really hoped that Yulnagar would really leave him alone now.
False hope.
”Stop”, said Yulnagar and walked down at Enhillion.
Enhillion didn’t see a choice, he stopped.
”You fought well. And for that I am willing to make a deal with you”.
”Making a deal with you? I’d rather chose death”.
”Really?”
The Vampire looked up at the King, and then down again.
”Even if the death is not only yours?”
This put Enhillion off guard. Indeed, he was now responcible for the life of the Men. He winced at the thought. Biting his lip, he said, ”I’ll hear what you have to say”.
Yulnagar would have smiled, ”Good. Now listen...”
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
Rikae was chosen to go last. She waited nervously while Mac climbed into the contraption over the chasm.
Lomiella watched from the other side and as soon as she saw Mac. When he was in the middle of the rope, she shouted, ”Oh Mac, come quickly, because I could sooner bear to see you fall down into the chasm than in the arms of Rikae”.
Mac turned his head and looked at Lomiella, ”But could you bear to see me fall down the chasm?”
Before Lomiella though of an answer, Rikae interrupted with a shout, ”You! What do you want of Mac?
”Mac, tell that woman to stop talking to me like that!”
Mac didn’t feel very comfortable, hanging over darkness on a few ropes.
”How dare you speak to me like that! Come now, Mac. Let’s leave that crazy woman down there”.
”What?” Rikae grabbed the rope which led to the contraption and pulled at it.
The contraption swayed and Mac shouted in alarm, ”Stop stop stop! Rikae dear, please, don’t make me fall to my death”.
”That you would deserve! But not from her hands!” Lomiella began jumping in annoyance.
Rikae only laughed, ”Hpmh! If you want him, come and claim him!
”Now come down here Mac, and I’ll go first to make sure that that spoled brat won’t touch you”.
Grasping the rope with both arms and legs, Mac was indeed in distress, ”I’m not sure I want to be touched by you either, Rikae dear. Oh, please calm down.
”And you, Lomiella dear, calm down”, Mac said trying to crawl up.
”No you don’t!” yelled Rikae and pulled on the rope harder.
”Enough! I’ll cut the rope and you’ll stay down there if you don’t let me free immediately”, shouted Mac to Rikae and took out the knife he had hidden in his boot.
Rikae gasped, ”You wouldn’t!”
”I will. If you don’t let go of the rope. Now”.
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
”What are you doing? Hurry! Yulnagar is coming!”
Startled, Rikae jumped around to see who stood behind her. It was Enhillion. ”Don’t ever come up to me like that. And can’t you see that we’re rather busy here”.
”No, I don’t. Hurry up, hurry up”, Enhillion said while flailing his hands around.
Rikae gave him a nasty glance, and the same to Mac. Then she let the rope free.
Mac thanked his luck and quickly scrambled up to the platform.
The angry Seer followed hurriedly and soon she was shouting with Lomiella. Mac had sneaked off while the women were cursing.
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
At the hoop on the wall Boromir had found a piece of parchment. It was attached to the wall with a dagger that was driven into a crack. Nobody remembered to bring a torch from below, so they couldn’t see what was written on the parchment.
From the platform led a narrow path to the gap from where sunlight entered the cave. Walking it was a longer and harder task than they expected, but they managed.
Light struck their eyes. Real light from the sun. They had survived. Grass flowed all over the mountain they stood on. A forest could be seen not so far away. The sun shone and a few small clouds passed over them. Further lay a small lake. It was beautiful.
Boromir lifted up the parchment:
I congratulate you, human. When I first saw you, I had no fear of failing, but it seems that you are made of stronger stuff than we Vampires. This is my little parting gift, I’m dead now, as you know, killed by my own Lord. The choice was yours and you chose right.
I could have left you to die in this cave. But why? What would I get for it? It was never my intention to kill you. The reason of this madness for me was only the continuation of the Vampire race, nothing else. And now that we failed, no more Vampires are to be seen, ever. We cannot use you anymore and so you are free. I thank you for your friendship. From here you’ll be able to walk out, on the other side of this note there is a map Ossiriand showing this location.
-Firithhyando
-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-
Enhillion sat on a stump of a tree. The night was calm, calmer than the endless silent times underground. He watched as the moon moved through the silky clouds. It had rained a moment ago. Everything was so green, nature thrived. He looked sadly at the ripples moving slowly across the lake. Nature thrived. But the Vampires were gone.
During the time when he last sat on the beach, years had past. Everybody he knew had died. Lossenatar. Numundo. Firithhyando. And he lived. He had to live, that the Men would live. The mission Yulnagar had gived him. He had to do it. Anymore there was no choice.
The moon shone bright.