The Storms of Arlow (The Kingdom of Dragons Book 1)

IV - Puzzled

As they ventured farther and farther, Rhenor was starting to wonder if they were even beneath the village anymore. It seemed to him like they just kept going in one direction, currently following the stream, but maybe the turns were so gradual he hadn't even noticed. Kaz hadn't said anything about this either, so Rhen assumed, since the other man knew more about this cavern, there was nothing to worry about.

Although, did Kaz really know more?

Rhenor didn't think Kaz was tricking him. He could see the fear and worry in Kaz's eyes every time the ground shook, which turned out to be often. Rhen wasn't sure if that was because they were getting closer to the source or if the earthquakes were just getting more and more frequent. That distinction would have been nice to know, but there was no way to know.

Though, what was clear was that whatever this artifact was, someone was very eager to keep it hidden. The sheer number of traps and snares they'd had to avoid so far was alarming.

Well, at least to Rhenor it was alarming, Kaz seemed relatively unbothered. Maybe because he'd managed to spot all the traps Rhenor had almost walked into. Rhenor himself noticed a lot of them now that he knew to expect them, but he'd be dead by now without Kaz warning him. He might not see himself as an adventurer, but he had one of the most important skills for exploring ancient places.

Rhen scowled at the small metal pressure plate he had almost stepped on just now and walked around it, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "Do you have any ideas what is going on with these traps?"

"None. Who could have possibly had the patience to install all of these by hand?" Kaz proceeded to shake his head as if he were disapproving of said hypothetical person's life choices. "I mean—"

"No, not what I meant," Rhenor stopped him. "I mean why are there so many? It seems very unnecessary."

Kaz blinked at him and then hummed. Apparently, this hadn't occurred to him. "Well, whoever put them here is not leaving anything to chance. We are still alive, after all, so they haven't done their job yet, despite how many there are."

Rhenor frowned at him at that, and Kaz cleared his throat. "Uh, sorry, not trying to imply that they will kill us eventually."

Rhen let out a huff, but he supposed the other man was right.

"I suppose this must be why this cavern has such a bad reputation. No doubt anyone local who had tried exploring it had been killed by one of these traps," Kaz continued, his eyes lighting up in excitement. That look disappeared a second later though, without Rhenor having to point out the problem with such a reaction. "Um, those people dying is a tragedy, of course. I'm just happy to solve that mystery. This place could have been haunted."

Rhenor flinched, blinking. "That's...a real thing?"

"Oh, yes!" Kaz exclaimed with excitement, apparently not noticing Rhen's alarm at all. He even threw out his arms as he said this, which ended in a pained grimace due to his bitten forearm. "Ghosts, specters, skeletons.... But no need to worry. They are only ever summoned by necromancers. Well, mostly. There have been records of some spirits managing to cross over into our plane of reality on their own."

Rhenor almost reached for his bow out of instinct. Kaz looked at Rhenor again, a smile on his face. It was almost comforting.

"Not to worry, they are very rare since magic use is outlawed. I'm confident there aren't any here."

Rhenor would do his best not to jump at shadows, but he was getting paranoid now. Why had he had to ask about this?

Kaz was now giving him a sad, sympathetic face. "I didn't mean to scare you."