Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 08

"You're the first ones!" Sto exclaimed as Tibs and his team walked up the steps. "I'm so glad for that. I can't wait for you to see what I've done."

The cleric by the entrance was an older woman. Older than any Tibs had seen there, either before Sto was attacked, or even in the town. He'd expected only the young ones to have this healer duty; as part of their training, with the older ones acting as teachers. It was how it had been with the Runners when Tibs was sent here. They didn't need guards to ensure they stayed. The clerics Tibs had tried to speak with all believed in Purity in a way that made him stop trying.

She looked them over with an attentiveness not matched by the guards on either side of the door. A man and woman, in the green and black of Harry's people, who looked more bored than anything else. Her so pale eyes narrowed on settling on Khumdar and she signed in resignation before placing a hand on his shoulder.

Tibs sensed essence flow, knowing it was purity only because it was the only element she could manipulate. No one but him had more than one element. He couldn't perceive the details of what she did. Only that the essence entered Khumdar where she touched him, and concentrated on his injuries. He knew it spread throughout the body from experiencing this kind of healing, but he couldn't make that out among Khumdar's darker essence.

Khumdar straightened, no longer needing the staff for support. "I thank you, My Lady of Light," he said with reverence that surprised Tibs, until he noticed the amusement in his eyes at how she narrowed her eyes at him even more.

He was the only one needing healing, so she nodded to the guards and Tibs followed Jackal into the dungeon.

"If you give me a nickname," Tibs warned, "I will stab you. I'm still stuck with the one Bardik gave me."

"It is the name of her family," Khumdar replied. "Of the Light is one of the families duty-bound to come to dungeons and heal."

"How do you know that?" Tibs was distracted by the walls in the hall leading to the first room. Something was different about them, other than the hall was wider now. The lights were in the same places, the stone was the same earth-red color that matched the outside and was only slightly darker than the eye color for those who had Earth as their element.

"Oh, Tibs," the Darkness cleric replied, amused. "I know a great many things."

"Just all those secrets you accumulate." The walls shifted to gray as they approached the trap room, and Tibs decided his impression was from being away so long. Or maybe from the previous changes being obvious each time Tibs came in.

"Of course, that too." Khumdar still sounded too amused for Tibs's liking.

"That's been improved," Jackal said, standing at the entrance to the room. "Looking nice, Dungeon."

The trap-room was now a room, and no longer a smoothed-out cave. The walls were interlocking flat stones, just like the floor, going up maybe three times the fighter's height. Unlike the floor, the tiles on the walls had designs on them, and Tibs recognized those that used to be on the floor. As he wondered where the spears would come out from, he realized that the three walls he could see were identical in how the tiles on them were arranged, and he thought they matched where the triggers were located on the floor.

Then he noticed how many of the tiles had gaps where the spears could come from. Knowing where the spear came from would be more difficult, but the observant rogue could use the walls to make out the path across the room and avoid triggering them.

At least until they no longer needed to use a set path.

He took out the amulet and extended his senses. His range now reached to the other side of the room, which made it about double the last time he'd been here. Until the lake and now, how far he could sense water hadn't been something he'd paid attention to.