Chapter 42 - Explorers Part 3

“And as long as there was a chance, turning back wasn’t an option.”
The whetstone scraped once along the edge of Jax’s hatchet.
“Then the smell reached us.
“It rolled through the tunnel thick enough to taste. Half the line started retching. Goblin tunnels always stank, but this was different. Every swallow felt as though something slick had coated the back of my throat.
“We knew what it meant. The lair was close.
“We pulled treated bandanas over our mouths and noses. They’d cost more than any strip of cloth had a right to, but no one complained about the price anymore. As the tunnel widened, orange light began flickering across the stone ahead.
“We tightened formation. Lincy and the Warriors took the front, the Mages and Hunters stayed behind them, and the guards watched our backs as we moved toward the light. No one spoke. Every drop of water sounded like a footstep, and every shadow seemed ready to move.”
Across the fire, Elias had stopped chewing, the remains of his supper forgotten in his hand. Arien found himself leaning forward as well. Beyond the wagons, the forest had disappeared into darkness, and for a moment Arien could almost imagine the mouth of some vast underground chamber waiting just beyond the firelight.
Jax let the silence hold for a moment before continuing.
“Then the tunnel opened.
“The lair stretched beyond the reach of our torches. Dozens of fires burned across the cavern, and we still couldn’t see where it ended.
“Between them sprawled something that almost resembled a settlement, if a settlement had been built from everything other people threw away. Sagging tents of stitched hides leaned against heaps of bones and rotting refuse. Totems rose from the filth, decorated with animal skulls and more than a few human ones.
“Goblins were everywhere, crouched around the fires, scrambling over rocks, and moving between the tents. Some had blowpipes or short bows, others carried stones and knives made from bone, chipped stone, or stolen steel. They didn’t form any kind of line. They just screamed at us, waved their weapons, and made gestures that didn’t need translating.
“Mike kept us at the tunnel mouth. None of us wanted to step into the cavern and give them room to surround us, so he had the archers open fire.
“A few goblins fell. For a heartbeat, the whole lair seemed to go quiet.
“Then every one of them started screaming.
“Some fled deeper into the cavern. The rest rushed us beneath a storm of stones, darts, and crude arrows. Most struck our shields, but enough found gaps. A rock caught Usna above the temple, and Mike took two darts in the same arm.
“We answered with arrows and Ben’s stone projectiles. I remember one of them punching through two goblins at once. The survivors scattered back among the fires.
“We pulled deeper into the tunnel, bound the wounded, and caught our breath.
“The goblins didn’t leave us alone. For the next few hours, they kept testing our defenses with darts from the darkness, stones from hidden ledges, and sudden rushes that ended the moment we raised our bows. Once, they even crawled through a side passage and came at us from behind.
“They never committed enough to win. They only made sure we couldn’t rest.”
Arien frowned. “Then how did Marika’s group lose? She had three Academy mages with her.”
Jax gave him a long look. “Because goblins don’t need to kill you in the first attack. They wait until the Mage runs low on mana, the archer’s arm starts shaking, or someone takes a poisoned dart. Then they try again.
“Marika had half our numbers and none of our experience. One person goes down, and someone has to drag them or stay behind to protect them. Another gets hurt, the group slows, the formation opens up, and that’s when goblins start finding gaps.”
Arien fell silent. The stories about the Academy had made its students sound nearly invincible. Apparently, the goblins had never heard them.
“Underground, time becomes difficult to measure,” Jax continued. “Our torches burned lower, we replaced them, and still the attacks kept coming. “By the time we heard someone coming through the tunnel behind us, I couldn’t have told you whether three hours had passed or six.”
Elias leaned forward. “More goblins?”
“No. Rust and the guards we’d left behind came around the bend without a scratch on any of them.”
Usna shifted against his shoulder. “Jax, how much longer? We need to be moving before dawn if we want to reach Terensa in daylight.”
“Unless you’d prefer another night beneath the trees,” Rufik added.
Jax sighed. “All right, all right. I’m getting to the end.”
“We gave the reinforcements a moment to catch their breath, then went back in with everyone we had.
“The goblins were waiting. Stones rained from above the moment we entered the cavern, and another group spilled from a side tunnel behind us. For a few moments, there was nothing but shouting, shields, and bodies moving through smoke.
“But this time, there were too many of us. We pushed forward before they could split the formation and broke through their ranks.
“I won’t bore you with every swing. We won. By the end, perhaps fifty goblins lay dead, and the rest had disappeared into tunnels none of us were foolish enough to follow.
“Marika was still missing. We spread through the lair, searching every tent, alcove, and side chamber. Then Rust called out.
“We ran toward his voice, expecting he’d found Marika. By then, none of us really expected her to be alive.”
Jax lowered the whetstone.
“What did he find?” Elias asked.
“A Portal.”
For a heartbeat, neither boy spoke.
Arien leaned closer. “What did it look like?”

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In Terry’s stories, no two Portals had ever been the same. Some were stone arches filled with blue light, others windows opening onto another reality or white vortices suspended in empty air.
Jax glanced at him. “Like a hole punched through the world. A black circle hanging above the ground, with the air warping around its edges. I didn’t like standing near it.
“For a few moments, none of us spoke. We had gone in looking for Marika and found the kind of discovery every Explorer dreamed about.”
“Treasure?” Elias asked.
“Treasure. Rare materials. New Abilities. Enough Guild credit to drag a bronze-ranked party out of caravan duty.” Jax’s mouth tightened. “Someone mentioned the reward for reporting it. Someone else asked how much mana was leaking from it. Then one of the guards wondered aloud what might be waiting inside.”
Across the fire, Usna lowered her eyes.
“Within a minute, everyone was talking over everyone else. Guard it. Report it. Enter before another party arrived. Claim whatever was inside before the Guild took its share.
“Marika’s name disappeared from the conversation.
“Ben and Rust examined the Portal while the rest of us argued. After a while, Ben stood and said there was barely any mana leaking from it. Rust agreed. They couldn’t be certain, but both believed it was probably low-level.”
He gave a quiet, humorless laugh.
“Everyone heard low-level. No one paid much attention to probably.
“Guild rules said we should guard the Portal and send someone back to report it. A few people supported that. The rest argued that by the time the Guild arrived, another party might claim the right to enter, or the Portal might close on its own.
“And the longer we talked, the more reasons we found to do what we already wanted.
“Finally, Mike struck his shield with the pommel of his sword and told everyone to shut up. Then he called for a show of hands on whether we should report the Portal or enter it.
“Most voted to go inside. Even the guards.”
Elias looked at him. “And you?”
Regret flickered across Jax’s face before he answered. “My hand went up with the rest. I was tired of guarding caravans and sleeping beside muddy roads. I wanted to prove I was worth more than that.
“Winning the vote only started another argument. Most Portals admit no more than ten people at once, and suddenly everyone had a reason they deserved one of those places.”
“Who went in?” Arien asked.
“Seven members of our party and three guards, including their commander, Jesper. The plan was to determine what kind of Portal it was and return before anyone ventured farther.”
Jax paused.
“I stayed behind.”
Elias blinked. “You voted to enter, and then they left you outside?”
Usna smiled across the fire. “Is that how you remember it, Jax?”
He rolled his eyes. “Usna had taken a rock to the head and was still unsteady. Things between us were already… complicated, so I stayed with her.”
“I told you to stay,” Usna said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have had anything worth returning to.”
“Yes, very romantic.” Jax turned back to the boys. “Horey remained with us too. Later, he claimed something had warned him not to enter.
“At first, waiting was easy. Someone passed around water, and one of the guards joked that the others would return before we finished arguing over how to divide the loot.
“After the first hour, the jokes stopped.
“The cavern seemed to stink worse now that we were sitting still. Smoke from the goblin fires mixed with rot and old blood, and our bandanas were already damp with sweat. The Portal hung in front of us without making a sound, the air trembling around its edges. Every few moments, someone looked toward it, expecting a familiar face to emerge.
“By the second hour, the goblins had begun creeping back. We saw their eyes between the tents and heard them scratching through the side passages. A few arrows drove them away each time, but they always returned a little closer. They knew we were waiting for something. Perhaps they knew it wouldn’t come.
“After the third hour, one of the guards lost patience. Before anyone could stop him, he walked straight into the Portal.
“The darkness swallowed him.
Elias shifted closer to the fire. “So someone has to die inside, right?”
“That was one possibility,” Jax said. “The other was that the Portal allowed more than ten. It happened sometimes, but not often enough to comfort anyone.
“The remaining guards wanted to leave immediately. We persuaded them to wait, though by then none of us spoke about treasure anymore.
“Horey wanted nothing to do with the Portal. He took two guards and a torch and resumed searching the chambers farther from the cavern. A few minutes later, he called for us.”
Jax’s fingers tightened around the handle of his hatchet.
“He had found Marika. Or rather, her body.”
The fire cracked, sending a trail of sparks into the darkness.
“The goblins hadn’t eaten her or torn her apart. I’ll spare you the rest. There are monsters that do worse things than kill, and experienced female Explorers sometimes carry an artifact meant to keep them from being taken alive by such creatures.”
Elias frowned. “Why only female Explorers?”
Rufik’s hand stopped above the pieces of his game.
For once, Arien was glad Elias did not understand. Across the fire, Usna’s fingers had closed around the medallion beneath her shirt.
“You don’t need that answer tonight,” Jax said. “We brought Marika back to the cavern and covered her body. After that, waiting beside the Portal became a lot harder. Several more hours passed before we finally gave up on seeing any of the others again and started preparing to leave.
“Then Finy burst out of the Portal.
“He hit the ground hard and tried to scramble away from it on his hands and knees. Dirt streaked his clothes, pine needles clung to his hair, and cuts covered his face and arms as though he had run blindly through a forest.
“But it was his eyes I remember the most.
“I had seen Finy track monsters through pitch darkness without his hands ever shaking. Now he stared at every shadow as though it might move. His whole body trembled, and he kept muttering something none of us could understand.
“When I reached for him, he screamed and folded himself into a ball.
“Usna was the only person he would let near. It took her a long time to coax him back to his feet, and by then the guards were done waiting.
“We burned the goblins’ storehouse and left the caves as quickly as we could. As we went, I looked back once. The Portal hadn’t changed. There was nothing standing inside it.
“Even so, every instinct I had told me not to turn my back on it.
“The goblins didn’t follow us. We reached Gravhall without losing anyone else.
Jax set the whetstone beside his boot.
“Seventeen dead.
“One mind broken badly enough that he took his own life later.
“All because a nobleman’s daughter wanted an adventure and a band of common fools wanted to become heroes.
“Marika. Student of the famed Academy.”
For several breaths, no one spoke. Usna reached over and rested a hand on Jax’s forearm.
“After that, Usna and I stopped taking jobs that sounded like stories. We chose the kind that paid and let us come home alive. That’s why we’re still here.”
He looked at Arien and Elias.
“Remember that. Common folk like us aren’t the heroes in stories. We’re the casualties whose names no one remembers.”
“That’s the truth of it,” Rufik said, beginning to gather the pieces of his game. “And remember, son: whenever someone offers you a deal too good to refuse, run in the opposite direction. I once told you about the time—”
“What happened to the Portal?” Elias interrupted. “Did anyone study it?”
“We reported it as soon as we returned. Two weeks later, the Guild sent a party and closed it.”
“And what was inside? What did they find?”
“That information was classified.”
Elias’s face fell. “But there must have been something. Treasure, or—”
“Seventeen people died, and you’re still thinking about the treasure?”
The boy lowered his head. “Sorry. I was only curious.”
Jax’s expression softened.
“Don’t apologize. I asked the same question when I got back. For months.”
Usna’s fingers tightened slightly around his arm.
“If she hadn’t made me stay behind, I would’ve gone through with the others.”
Elias said nothing more. He looked genuinely sorry, but the longing had not left his eyes.