An Excerpt from The Stone - Fortress Ruins

An Excerpt from The Chronicles of Quat: The Stone

by Bryen O'Riley

Fortress Ruins

Tad returned his mother’s letter to his pocket and resumed his watch of the motionless scene.

“So, do you think there will be a sign or something? How are we supposed to find the Stone among all those other stones?” Chet was nervously prattling in Tad’s ear as Tad scanned the ruins for life.

They were paused at the edge of the clearing, concealed by the forest. Tad couldn’t get the picture of the people drawn onto the rock lying face down before the Stone out of his mind. A stone couldn’t kill them. Right? There didn’t appear to be any guards but perhaps that had only been the case when the fortress was still standing.

“Shh!” Tad twisted his torso to give Chet a fierce glare before surveying the ruins once more. Chet always rambled on when he was nervous. It had to be the worst nervous habit that ever existed.

Tad discovered that one of the strings from his shirt had somehow gotten into his mouth and that he was chewing on it. He heard Chet heave an irritated sigh when he pulled the soggy end from his mouth. Chet thought it was childish to chew on clothing. But was it all right chattering on about nothing when silence was essential?

After several minutes of study, Tad had to conclude that nothing alive was among the rubble. Of course, something still could be but they had been careful and quiet, apart from Chet’s excited whispers, as they approached. If something lurked within the ruins, it had had no warning from them and would have no reason to remain hidden. That didn’t mean that nothing lurked in there but their waiting would serve no purpose. Something that chose to remain hidden for as long as they had watched and waited wouldn’t be showing itself in the length of time he was willing to watch the ruins. Tad and Chet didn’t have the luxury of time. They were nearing the end of their store of food, their patience with each other, and their commitment to a questionablyworthwhile quest. What they had come for all this way lay within their grasp. He wasn’t going to put this off any longer. They must find the Stone and so must enter the ruins.

“We actually found it!” Chet whispered excitedly.

He was motioning to something in the clearing and Tad saw that the very precise location of four great trees located exactly at the four directional points. Spaced exactly in between the trees were four enormous rocks, making a ring around the entire fortress. Chet was right. This had been clearly marked on the map. This must be the fortress that held the Stone. They had finally found it.

“I didn’t really think it existed until we found that map,” Chet nearly bubbled, “but here it is. At last! I can’t believe it, can you?”

Tad laid a finger over his lips as he tied Dend to a tree. Chet followed suit. They took as many weapons as they could easily wield and quietly slipped into the clearing.

Why am I doing this? Tad couldn’t suppress his mutinous thoughts as they approached the ancient rubble. I still don’t know what this stone is or why it is important. His mother’s letter had required him to Seek the Stone and to Believe it. Why? She had said, “You will succeed or everything dear in this world will end.” Was she insane? Why should he wander around an illegal and dangerous forest on a mere hint from her when she refused to answer nearly all of his questions outright? Am I crazy? Why am I doing this?

But he was doing it. He was at that very moment jogging warily toward a stone with unknown powers, guards who might want to kill him, and any number of dangerous beasts stalking the woods around them. He had to be crazy.

“Tad! Look out!”

Tad had been watching the ruins not the woods. Chet’s warning came just in time for him to pivot and dive out of the way of a wolf that was leaping for his throat. Where had that come from? He grabbed his untested spear and set himself for the next move as the animal spun and leapt again. He saw the sturdy, loyal form of his friend nocking his arrow from the corner of his eye.

The snarl that ripped from the wolf’s throat was savage as Tad squatted low, grounding the spear for strength and stabilizing it with his body. The tip ripped into its side and the animal screamed in pain, its gnashing teeth just where his neck used to be. From his place underneath, he grabbed its back and yanked it further onto his spear but not before the animal drew rivers of blood down his back. Chet’s arrow found its mark in the heart and a moment later the creature was dead.

Tad heaved the wolf to the side and straightened, feeling the flesh on his back burn with pain. He retrieved his spear from the animal’s body and wiped it on the fur while Chet retrieved his arrow.

“You okay?” Chet asked him, cleaning his arrow the same way.

Tad nodded, hoping blood wasn’t seeping into his loose, and now torn, shirt. “This is definitely the place. Let’s hope that was the only watchdog.”

Chet didn’t chatter and Tad didn’t chew on shirt strings as they continued their approach to the ruins. They hefted their weapons and moved at a martial pace.

From the map, they both had an idea of where the Stone should be. It was pretty simple. If one drew a line from each huge tree and stone to the one on the exact opposite side of the ring the lines would all cross in the exact center of the ring, which was not the exact center of the fortress but easy to figure out, especially with the fortress no longer obstructing the view of the ring.

Tad stopped Chet just outside of the ring made up of the four trees and stones that surrounded the fortress. He didn’t know what he was looking for but, if he were defending the Stone, the ring was an obvious point of intent to enter and therefore a good opportunity for another attack of some sort.

Tad considered the stone and tree to either side of them but they looked completely normal. He scanned the clearing and the forest they had just left and saw nothing to worry him. He scrutinized the ruins before them and couldn’t find anything to raise his alarm.

“Be ready for anything,” he warned Chet and together they passed the large stone and tree.

Immediately fire sprouted from the stone and tree beside them and rushed together in a line of fire only on their section of the ring. Tad managed somehow to avoid catching fire, whether he was just quick enough to get past it or his clothing just wasn’t as flammable he didn’t know. Chet’s clothes did catch on fire.

Chet screamed and fell to the ground, rolling.

Tad rushed to him, pulling off his mantle. Tad beat at the flames with his mantle and Chet rolled, screaming the whole time, until, finally, the fire was out. Chet’s clothes were badly burnt but he wasn’t more than a little singed. He was shaken though.

“Where did that fire come from?” he asked over and over.

Tad shook his head. “Let’s find this stone and get out of here.”

They both ran toward the center of the ring, jumping or climbing over fallen walls rather than finding a clear way between them. It wasn’t terribly far but soon they were both panting.

As Tad got closer to the platform, he began to feel a faint pulse in the earth. When standing next to the platform, he could have tapped his foot to the beat that was echoing from the ground into his feet. What sort of power did this stone hold?

At the center point of the ring was a cracked platform. It was ornate and had somehow withstood the same amount of crumbling that the rest of the fortress had endured. The top of the platform had eight grooves running from the circular indention in the exact middle of the platform straight out toward the trees and stones sitting at directional points which made up the ring around the fortress.

The platform was empty. The Stone was gone.

Tad and Chet didn’t speak for several moments as they stared, unbelievingly, at the place the Stone should have been. Tad felt the deep scratches from the wolf on his back, the tender skin on his hands that had gotten too close to the flames that had burned Chet’s clothes to cinder.

The Stone was gone?His mind moved through the thought like molasses. He felt a suffocating weight take hold of him. They had traveled this far. They had threatened life and limb to enter this death trap. And the Stone wasn’t even here! It was hard to breath—

Really. It was hard to breath. Tad glanced at Chet and saw he was doubled over gasping for air. Tad grabbed him and pulled him away from the platform, hoping that the suffocating feeling was emanating somehow from it.

The suffocating feeling lessened a small amount, barely noticeably, and yet this gave Tad hope. He stumble-pushed Chet further from the Stone. Chet’s gasping seemed worse than Tad’s own, and he worried that his friend wouldn’t make it to the ring.

At the ring, Chet was barely conscious and Tad was falling more than he was moving forward. Even so, Chet had enough of his wits about him to shy away from the invisible line between tree and stone that had nearly consumed him with fire earlier. There was nothing for it but to push Chet through and hope.

As soon as Chet’s body went through the ring, fire sputtered from the rock and tree. For some reason, it didn’t take. Something was keeping the fire from catching. Tad sailed through the ring and, immediately upon passing that invisible line, he was able to breath once more.

Tad and Chet lay there for a few moments, their gasps giving way to heavy breathing and then to labored breathing at which time Tad pulled Chet to his feet.

“Let’s get out of here.”

The boys jogged as briskly as they could manage to the forest and mounted their horses, swiveling their heads the whole time to try to catch the next attack before it overtook them. It never came.