A Soldier's Life

Chapter 132: Glimmer of Hope

We had been in the library for most of the day with the snow not letting up outside. The night was settling outside, and the stained windows of the library were darkening. They were not even real windows, just massive blocks of semi-transparent stone, probably quartz. The fire was burning merrily in the center of the ancient elven library, constantly supplied by men breaking apart old bookshelves. Fortunately, everything was dry and burned well with minimal smoke.

The specters kept arriving but much slower, one every half hour or so. Castile was confused and spoke aloud, her concerned voice echoing in the large room, “Specters should not be able to range so far from where they died.”

Konstantin was inspecting the library’s outer wall and answered her, “If you watch them, Castile, they are going about their daily lives until something interrupts their routine. If we had not attacked the first spirit of the girl picking flowers, the others might have left us alone. Well, the non-soldiers, anyway.”

Castile shook her head while flexing her recently healed frostbitten hands before the fire. “It just concerns me. If all the specters can wander anywhere in the city, then we could be rushed by thousands at once at any time.”

Scholar Favian was sitting by the fire going through stacks of books Benito and Felix were bringing him as the shelves were dismantled. If he thought a book was trash, he put it to his left in the burn pile. If it was useful, he stacked it to his right. He added his input, “Specters should take a lot longer to reconstitute after being disrupted by runic weapons. My guess is the ley line underneath the city is feeding them somehow. It is probably a nexus, an intersection of ley lines. It also makes it much more probable there is a dungeon somewhere within the city walls.”

Another specter entered through the wall, and Adrian moved to deal with it, Konstantin quickly supporting him. Castile rose with the urn to permanently end the threat. It was becoming routine now, and everyone felt somewhat safe except for the fact the exit was completely blocked by snow. Castile returned to the fire, “There is definitely a nexus under the city. My aether recovery has increased.” I had not noticed or felt any difference myself.

Konstantin walked back to the fire, “We should explore the rest of the library. This is just the main room.” It was not the first time he had mentioned it in the last few hours. He was smart enough not to wander off on his own without permission. He also had not sheathed his runic weapon the entire time and was always moving to attack new specters when they wandered in. His runic weapon was the only one that sparked when connecting with the specters. It was like his weapon was taking pleasure in striking the undead.

“We will wait to see if Scholar Favian finds anything useful first,” Castile replied patiently, the same response she had every time Konstantin mentioned exploring.

Konstantin looked around at the massive room, almost the size of a football pitch. “There are tens of thousands of books, Castile. It could take him months to find anything. At least let me see if I can find any access down to the sewer system, so we have the option to move under the city if the summoner sends something after us, we cannot handle,” Konstantin requested.

“At least it will not be full of elf shit,” Mateo added, getting a laugh, but I shook my head as I knew what Konstantin was going to say next.

“And see. I already have a volunteer to help,” Konstantin’s smirk had Mateo groaning.

Delmar had collected everyone’s food, inventoried it, and told Castile, “Castile, we have four days of food here, five if we stretch it, more if we start rationing now. I agree with Konstantin. The sooner we find other exits, the better off we are going to be.”

Castile relented, “In the morning. Let’s make sure everyone has dry clothes and is rested.” Half the men walked around in their underclothes, waiting for the heavier fabrics to dry near the fire. It was a terribly slow process. As the light from the quartz windows faded, I laid down on my bedroll. Half the men had dropped their bedroll at the tower before we ran, so I counted myself lucky.

I was mentally exhausted from the lack of sleep and fighting all day. Fighting the specters was like striking training dummies, and I had probably killed over two hundred today. If I had not had the healing spell form, I probably would not be able to lift my arm. Brutus couldn’t even hold the sword I had lent him; his forearm and shoulder were too sore and cramping. Linus told him he couldn’t afford to use a healing potion on him as we were down to just two of the lesser healing potions.

My bedroll was next to the Scholar who was sitting in a chair by the fire. He was exhausted as well but too excited about paging through the viable tomes, humming and hawing as he went. Maveith was also nearby and not in the mood to play checkers. I closed my eyes but found sleeping difficult. I decided I would not use the amulet or an oblivion pill with danger so close. My survival instincts were telling me not to sleep at all. I heard the other men tossing and turning nearby as well.

Maveith shook me awake, the large goliath standing over me, “Eryk, it is time for us to be on watch.” I sat up and looked around. Somehow, I had fallen asleep and didn’t even dream. I always dreamed when I slept and could usually recall most of what happened in them—usually, I was plagued by nightmares.

“I thought we were guarding the Scholar,” I asked groggily.

“I will be fine. You won’t be far away anyway.” Scholar Favian said from his nearby chair, dismissing me. He was intently focused on the book he was paging through and didn’t even look up.

I stood and looked around. Benito and Delmar were by the entrance, huddled in cloaks. Konstantin and Firth had their backs to the fire, facing the open end of the library. Blaze and Donte were hanging by the eastern wall, giving us a total of six men on sentry duty. At the fire, Lirkin was heating a large cast iron cauldron. He looked at me and answered my unasked question. “Found it buried under one of the piles of books. Spent two hours cleaning it and boiled a few runs of water.” He tapped the side, “Looks like we were not the only ones to camp in the library, the smith’s mark is in Telhian.”

The five-gallon cauldron was being used to melt snow and boil water. As I dressed in my armor, I asked Lirkin, “Did you dream last night?”

He looked at me perplexed but went into deep thought. “No, not that I can recall. But I usually don’t remember my dreams. Why do you ask?”

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“Just curiosity. I usually dream, but nothing last night. Not even sure how long I slept,” I said casually.

Maveith answered me, “Four hours. The watches are four hours, according to Delmar, and we are on the second watch. We are to replace Benito and Delmar at the door.”

Lirkin offered his meal preparation efforts, “Have some weak tea, rice, and hard bread.” I got my cup from my pack, and the hot tea was welcome for the warmth it spread inside me. The fire might be half a dozen feet across, but the temperature dropped rapidly once you were more than ten feet away from it.

The allotment was a lot smaller than I had expected, just a cup of salted overcooked rice and a slice of stale bread. I still ate it greedily as my stomach was growling with impatience. The food was gone too soon, and I knew every meal would be similar while we were trapped in here. Maveith got a double portion, but it would not be enough to sustain him either.

We walked to the entryway, and Benito jumped when I said, “Relief behind you.” Benito turned and handed me my sheathed black blade.

Delmar poked his head out of his own cloak, his breath forming dense clouds in the frigid air, “Things have gotten quiet. Haven’t seen a specter in two hours, but stay alert.” He handed Maveith his blade and went to get some rest. Sharing runic weapons was unusual, but it was necessary with only five blades in the company. Firth also had the elven dagger and had used it but had not passed it off to anyone. I planned to get it back when we were free of the elven ruins—if not before.

Delmar and Benito gladly went to the fire to get warm, and we pulled our cloaks tight around us. A glowstone lit the chamber beyond. The archway we had entered was now completely blocked by snow, and it was almost eight feet to the top. Maveith fought with a club, and Delmar’s blade looked small in his hand, but he knew the importance of it.

We didn’t talk for most of the watch as I listened to the snowfall change. Maveith heard it, too. “It is getting much colder outside. The wet snow is changing to lighter snow but will accumulate quicker.” I just nodded as the cold was still penetrating my cloak. I started to focus on the clouds of my exhaled breaths to pass the time, seeing how far I could send them.

Maveith spoke after a time, “I have never seen this much snow before.”

“It is called a blizzard,” I said, using the English word. “Blizzard,” Maveith tested the word. “Sounds ominous and fitting for this circumstance.

“Still glad you came with us?” I asked lightheartedly.

Maveith gave the question serious thought, “Exploring the elven ruins is thrilling. Being chased by an angry and powerful elven summoner is not as exciting.” I chuckled at his honesty.

I reached down and picked up a book. The book crumbled in my hands. I guess these books closer to the entrance had more exposure to the weather, allowing mold to grow on them. Remus and Brutus came to relieve us. Brutus winced as I handed him the black blade. He was still sore from swinging his blade thousands of times yesterday. I had healed my own damaged muscle tissue with my spell form.

“Castile wants to talk with you,” he said, taking over the duty at the archway. The red-haired Remus took Delmar’s blade from Maveith. We left them trying to keep the warmth inside their cloaks. I was not sure why we were guarding the entrance to the room.

Castile sat on a bench, paging through a large elven book, and I sat beside her. Each page was a painting of a magnificent city with elves walking the streets. I waited while she finished and placed the book down between us. “Konstantin is going to explore the rest of the library. He wants you and Mateo to go with him.” She spoke softly so no one could hear us.

I sighed in a long exhale, “You want me to leave the potions.”

“You are not going with him; just Mateo is,” she said heavily. “I wanted to ask you a question. How much food do you have in your dimensional space? You do not have to take it out, but I need to know.” She had spoken softly, and no one was within twenty feet of us.

This was it. How much was I going to reveal? I went through it in my mind what I had left: three gallons of honey, almost twenty gallons of rum, thirty gallons of water, fifteen pounds of salt, five pounds of peppercorns, fifteen ration bars, and ten pounds of standard legion rations. I also had the two elven packs I had yet to search. I slowly said, “Enough for one person for three to four weeks.”

Castile nodded, obviously disappointed I did not have an entire pantry. Things were going to get bad fast as the food ran out. With the snow, we had no way to get more food. She was quiet for a time, and I sensed despair from her. I suggested a course of action, “Delmar is right. The only way out is to find the dungeon. The summoner may have buried us under ten feet of snow, but he cannot spy on us either. If anyone can find a dungeon that has been missing for fifteen hundred years, it is Konstantin.” I also suggested, “It is frigid by the entrance. Can I suggest we pull those sentries closer to the fire?”

Castile considered, her tone changed to confident and authoritative, “Konstantin, you and Mateo can explore but no more than four hours. Adrian, tighten the watch closer to the fire and bring the glowstones to Eryk to charge them.”

Mateo was given a bow with five runic arrows, and no runic blade. Konstantin and Mateo then left to explore the library, which I assumed was a large complex. I recharged the glowstones, marking up the perimeter of the camp. Then, I joined everyone else, making firewood from the shelves and bringing books for Scholar Favian to sort.

Rice and jerky stew were served as our lunch, and it was an even smaller ration than breakfast. Lirkin was rationing food as directed, and no one was complaining yet, but everyone was realizing what a terrible spot we were in. I do not think Castile made the wrong decision. If we had not entered the city, we would have frozen to death in the snow on the march.

After just two hours, Konstantin returned, running into the chamber with Mateo, “I have ten or more specters right behind us!!” The men moved quickly to form a wall, and the four men with runic blades prepared for the charging specters. Over a dozen specters of children came through the walls in pursuit of Konstantin.

Firth barked at Konstantin as he entered the fight, “I knew you were terrible with kids.” It didn’t get any laughs. Castile was ready with the kettle of souls, and the fight did not last long.

Konstantin was breathing irregularly. Castile was waiting for him to report. Mateo informed us, “He got struck twice. There may be five or six more specters, but they must reconstitute themselves.”

Since Konstantin could not speak, Adrian asked Mateo, “What did you find?”

“Lots of smaller libraries and studies. A few isolated specters. When we finally found stairs going down, they were not to sewers. It was some type of large shelter complex. One of the rooms had hundreds of elven bones, mostly of children. Only a few of the children chased us, but there were hundreds more,” Mateo reported. He also had that look that indicated that he never wanted to work with Konstantin again. A look I knew well.

Scholar Favian approached, “We should be searching the smaller libraries. This was just a general library. Fascinating books, but the thousand books I have looked at so far had nothing useful.”

Konstantin rasped, “I think the underground complex extends under the entire city. The civilians took shelter there when the Legion attacked. The poison gas killed everyone above and below ground, Castile. There will be hundreds more specters—but I think we can travel under the city to search for the dungeon.” Konstantin’s voice was exhausted. Konstantin nodded his head at Mateo in appreciation of his efforts.

Mateo looked unhappy but unsheathed a new thin blade on his hip. They had found another runic weapon. An elven forged blade. This got murmurs in the company. If we could find more, then everyone could defend themselves.

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