The Song and the Serpent

“The walls are getting lower,” Adan’s voice echoed in the vast chamber.

Kian looked up and nodded.

They had left the water behind several paces before. The gradual, upward slope of the passage was bringing them higher up. The walls of the maze were half the height they had been before.

The light above became brighter, the low humming became louder, and the walls became shorter.

As they rounded the bend of a sharp turn, they came to stop. Kian inhaled sharply.

Adan saw the passage stretching straight out ahead of them, sloping up until it was level with the walls. Beyond that point, Adan could see what looked like the bare branches of an old tree.

The faint light that had illuminated their path seemed to come from somewhere behind the gray branches.

Without a word, Adan and Kian walked slowly up the path. As their heads rose higher than the stone walls they became aware of the size of the chamber above.

The light that radiated from the tree revealed an endless labyrinth of pathways stretching as far as they could see. The walls of the cavern were too far for the light to touch. A curtain of darkness surrounded them on all sides.

Adan and Kian approached the old tree.

From its empty branches, to its gnarly trunk, the tree looked as dry as a desert. The sprawling roots cradled the earth around it, and sank into the rock of the maze.

The humming sound, once quiet and distant, was now clear and distinct. The very air shimmered with the tone. It sounded like the ring of a large bell immediately after being rung.

Adan walked closer to the old trunk, and looked behind it. There was no lantern, no fire, and no window shining light from behind the branches. In fact, as Adan looked at the light and the tree more closely, he realized that the tree had no shadow.

”The light—” he whispered. “It’s coming from— from the tree.”

”And that sound,” Kian said. “It sounds like part of a song. Have you ever heard it before?”

“No.” Even as Adan said it, he felt it wasn’t true. He felt as if he had heard this tone before, but where?

But how could I have heard it before? He thought. It’s just a single continuous note.

He stood still in front of the great, luminous tree, listening to the deep ringing. Something about the sound stirred his memories. Happy moments from his childhood flashed through his mind, but without the longing pain that usually accompanied his childhood memories.

Try as he might, Adan couldn’t remember a certain moment or point in time where he heard this sound or note, yet the feeling of warm familiarity remained.

They both stood silently listening for an unknown amount of time.

“Adan,” Kian whispered at length. “Don’t move suddenly, but someone’s watching us.”

Adan’s body was instantly rigid. ”Where?”

”On the path ahead of us.”

Adan’s eyes flicked up, away from the tree.

He nearly jumped when he saw the figure of a short man standing only twenty paces away. The man stood motionless on the path ahead of them.

He was a stocky man with dark hair and beard, and a chainmail coat that glittered in the light of the tree. A broadsword hung at his belt, but his hands rested at his sides as he watched them.

”Who are you,” Kian asked.

The man was silent.

“What do you want with us?”

Watchful silence.

Kian took a step forward. “Do you know what this place is?”

The man nodded.

“Can you tell us?”

Silence.

Kian took another step forward. “We simply wish to pass through the maze. Can we pass by peaceably?”

”Your garments do not reflect your allegiance,” the man spoke for the first time.

Kian opened his mouth to speak, but closed it after a moment.

“You are not servants of the Evil One, or you would be unable to stand here as you do,” the man spoke again.

“The Evil One?” Kian asked. “You mean Sithril?”

“But his mark lies heavy upon you both,” the man said.

“What mark? What do you mean?”

”You desecrated his temple,” the man said. “He will not forget. His grudges can last for centuries.”

Kian was silent again. He had no answer.

Somehow, this stranger seemed to know their recent history.

“I thought the men of Undelma were deluded,” Kian said. “I thought they had invented their god, or that they worshiped the great serpent in the temple.”

”The servants of the Evil One are worse than deluded,” the man intoned. “They know too much. They are not dangerous because they are mad, they are dangerous because they are right.”

“And you?” Adan asked. “What are you?”

”I am the Guardian of the Morkil,” the man spoke with such clear conviction, that Adan felt compelled to believe him, though he didn’t understand what the man meant.

Kian took another step forward. “Then I ask again, may we pass?”

The man nodded. “I will lead you through.” He turned and began walking down the path. “Follow.”

Adan looked at Kian, only to see Kian giving him the same puzzled look.

“Do we trust him?” Adan whispered.

Kian glanced at the map in his hand. “He’s going the right direction, according to the map, anyway.”

Adan watched as the figure of the armored guardian began to descend back into the maze.

”He doesn’t seem to mean us harm,” Adan added.

“Do we have any other choice?” Kian asked. “We can’t go back.”

With reluctant steps, they followed the man at a distance as the three of them left the white light of the tree.

Adan glances back at the dying trunk and branches one last time, listening to the clear note shifting the air. He was still unable to place where he had heard it before.

What a strange place, he thought, before turning and following the guardian down the path. The walls of the maze rose up around them again as they descended back down into the labyrinth of passages.

The stranger stayed ahead of the Kian and Adan as they traversed the second half of the maze. As the white light faded and grew more distant, they could continually see his armor gleaning just ahead of them, passing out of sight around the twists and turns of the passage. Kian watched the map to make sure they weren’t being led astray by their guide.

“I hope we don’t run out of light,” Adan whispered as they walked. “I doubt our torches are dry enough to relight.”

The hours crawled slowly by as the light grew fainter and fainter.

Adan could feel exhaustion creeping through his limbs. He longed to stop tromping on the stone floor and sit down to rest his sore feet.

Adan and Kian’s water skins were only half filled by the time they reached the last few turns of the Morkil.

“I think we’re nearing the end,” Kian said, squinting at the map. The dim light made it hard to read.

“I was hoping we would see daylight by now,” Adan whispered.

Kian nodded. “We may have another long, straight tunnel to travel through first, just like before.”

Adan nearly groaned at the prospect. He wanted to rest, but not in this place, with strange guardians wandering about the maze.

They rounded three more turns in the passage before coming face to face with the high wall of the cavern. In front of them, a small crevice in the wall led beyond, away from the maze. The guardian stood by the crevice, but as soon as they appeared, he ducked into the small opening in the wall.

Adan and Kian hesitated as they saw the black crevice.

”We can’t relight the torches yet, can we?” Adan asked.

Kian shook his head. “Still too wet.”

Adan took a deep breath and stepped into the dark crevice, putting out his hands to feel his way in the dark.

To his surprise, once he put his head inside, he could see a dim glow of light above. He looked up to see a steep incline leading to see an opening in the rock and… the moon!

The moon!

“We’re through!” He exclaimed to Kian, climbing up the incline.

Kian was right behind him, scrambling to reach the opening to the outside world.

They clambered out and breathed the cool night air. A full moon shone above in a sky with a handful of small clouds. The moonlight illuminated the rocky slope on which they stood and the tops of evergreens below them. They could see the white peaks of other mountains rising around them, crowned with snow on the highest points, but in front of them, a deep valley created a gap that they could easily travel through.

Adan looked around and saw the guarding a few feet away, his armor glimmering in the moonlight.

“We made it through,” Kian whispered, looking around. “We can travel down and through that pass, and easily leave the mountains behind us.”

He looked to the guardian who had led us through the second half of the maze.

“Thank you for accompanying us,” Kian said, “and for seeing us through the rest of the maze.”

The man nodded, acknowledging his thanks.

There was a quiet pause.

“What will you do?” Adan asked.

The man looked at him. ”I return to my charge, and await the Restoration.”

“Restoration of what?” Adan asked.

“Of all things that will be made new.”

With that, the man turned and walked past them, back into the small crevice in the rocks.

“When will that be?” Kian asked.

The man paused at the opening.

“That is not revealed to me,” he said without turning around.

When he had disappeared into the opening, Kian leaned over to Adan.

“I don’t think he was an ordinary guardian,” he whispered.

Adan almost chuckled. “What gave you that idea, his cryptic way of speaking or the fact that he seemed to know a lot more about us than any normal man would know?”

“What do you suppose he is then?”

Adan shook his head. “I don’t know, but I suppose if there are evil spirits in the world, there must be good ones too.”

Kian nodded.

Adan’s mind wandered back to the strange tree they had seen in the maze. He could still recall the way it seemed to glow, and the note of music that emanated from it.

“We need to move,” Kian said after a pause. “Let’s see if we can get down to the treeline and find a place to rest.”

Adan nodded. His aching body and his heavy eyelids cried out for rest. Judging by the position of the moon, they had a handful of hours before dawn.

They carefully made their way through the rocks and boulders, steadily working down the slope toward the line of evergreens.

Once they had reached them they searched among the dark, looming boughs for fallen branches.

In a short time, they had built a roaring fire and dried their robes and other belongings. They drank more of the water from their water skins and ate a large portion of the dried meat and bread they had packed. Warmed by the blaze, they both lay down on beds of needles, and allowed themselves to drift off to sleep.

The next morning found them trekking down the mountain slope at a quick pace. The bright sun rising to their left had awakened them as it rose over the peaks surrounding the valley. The fire had died in the night as they slept, so they simply gathered their belongings, drank another draught of water, ate more bread and venison, and started down the mountain.

By mid morning, they had reached the valley floor, which was carpeted by ferns and other shrubs that Adan did not recognize. The evergreens grew denser, shading them from the morning sun above and the boulders and rocks became less frequent.

After another hour of travel through the forest, they heard the sound of running water.

They followed the sound until they came to a stream several paces wide which seemed to be running generally south, out of the mountains. They agreed to follow the stream as long as it continued running south, hoping that it might empty into a large river, further south.

“It may also possibly empty into the Red River, which would lead us straight to Farel,” Adan pointed out.

Kian agreed, and after filling their water skins from the stream, they followed it south, walking along the east bank.

By midday, they were nearly through the valley and the stream had widened after being joined by other mountain springs and creeks.

Adan and Kian agreed not to stop for midday rest or meals. Reaching Farel in time was more important than their hunger or exhaustion. They would only indulge in the necessary food and rest to keep themselves going.

In the afternoon, they crested a small hill and came to a sheer drop about fifty paces high. The stream to their right plunged over the edge of the precipice in white cataracts, plunged into the valley below and formed a pool at the base of the cliff.

Beyond the pool, a small collection of huts sat on the river bank. Logged timber homes with thatched roofs were huddled together in the clearing below, and beyond the small village, Adan could see cleared land with gardens and pastures for several acres. The river sliced through the pastures and open fields as it flowed further south. A collection of small boats sat on the bank of the river near the huts.

Adan and Kian squatted down on the ridge and watched the village for several moments.

“Do you see anyone?” Kian asked.

Adan shook his head. “Not a soul.”

The village was quiet and empty. No one could be seen outside the huts or even out in the gardens or pastures.

“Is it abandoned?” Kian asked.

“It can’t have been empty for long,” Adan said, pointing at the clean gardens and lush vegetable plants. “Those don’t look like they’ve been abandoned. They would be overgrown with weeds.”

“Maybe there’s some kind of gathering in one of the larger buildings.”

Adan stood. “Either way, we should get down there and find out.”

”Let’s proceed carefully,” Kian said. “We’re dressed like warriors from Undelma, not that they’ll recognize us, but I don’t want to alarm them.”

Adan nodded and they turned left following the ridge line until they came to a place where they could make their way down the slope more easily.

Adan watched the village as they descended the slope. Nothing stirred as they made their way down to the grassy floor.

They carefully walked across the open space, intentionally not putting their hands on their sword hilts.

“Hello?” Kian called out as they approached the first hut. “Anyone here?”

No response.

“We come peacefully!” He shouted, holding his empty hands out in gesture of peace. “Is there someone we can talk to?”

Still no response.

“I don’t like this,” Adan whispered. “Something’s not right.”

They slowly walked through the small village, waiting for someone to appear. But the collection of homes remained as silent as the grave.

Several of the doors to the homes were left open, and whenever they looked inside they saw signs of a hasty departure: Food, clothing, and most small belongings gone, but tables, chairs, and empty beds left behind.

Pens and stables that had once held livestock were left empty as well, with gates and doors left open.

“Do you think Hugo’s men had something to do with this?” Kian asked.

“I don’t know,” Adan replied. “I see no signs of violence. Everyone seems to have just left with no clear purpose. Hugo may have had something to do with it, but it doesn’t seem like his men were here.”

“What if they received news and fled to Farel?” Kian asked.

“Then they would have likely taken the boats,” Adan said.

Kian nodded. “True.”

They made their way through the empty village until they came to the west side, where the boats sat along the river bank.

”Well, they may not have taken the boats south,” Kian said. “But we will. It doesn’t seem like they’ll be needing them, wherever they are.”

Adan nodded. Traveling by boat would be much faster than on foot, and they needed all the speed they could muster.

Together, they picked a long, slender boat that would travel lightly on the water, and slung the bags with their food and water skins inside.

Then, with one last look around the empty village, they each grabbed an oar, pushed off from the bank, and began paddling down the river, both praying that they would reach their home in time.