From what I could understand Orka wanted my help in opening the door. But the chamber it hid teemed with danger that we would have to deal with to awaken the founder. Orka was prepared to take all the risk in the world to marry Lori.
“So, will you help me?” Orka said, his eyes gleaming expectantly. One thing was clear. I was not going to gain anything by helping Orka. The risk would be for both of us, but the reward would only be his. I wondered if there was any way I could decline without coming off rude. “It’s okay if you do not want to help,” Orka said observing that I was quiet. He sighed, crestfallen.
“Do you know what exactly the danger inside the chamber is?” I asked.
“There is no way for me to know,” Orka said. “But I guess the swords on the door are meant to help us deal with it.”
I rubbed my chin.
“Look, I am not a good fighter. In fact the last time I was given a sword, I chickened out. I want to help you, but I don't think I can be of any use to you. I hope you understand?”
Orka pressed his hands together in a plea.
“I would have gladly asked someone else to help, but they always mock me. They will never listen to what I have to say. They chase me away if I dare show them my face. Look, I do not want you to fight what is inside the chamber. I will do that myself. I just need your help in opening the door.”
I imagined what if Orka fell into serious trouble inside the chamber. I would be compelled to help him. I would feel miserable if things went south and he died.
Orka was staring at me intently. There was a small bubble of hope in his eyes and if I said ‘no’ to him now that bubble would burst. He might decide that marrying Lori and having a normal life—at least by Skhite standards—was not for him. Would he kill himself? That was a very unpleasant thought. Plus, I owed it to Orka, because if he and Lori had not been in the Forbidden Tunnels I could have never found the way out.
I exhaled as I made up my mind.
“I will help you.”
The bubble of hope in Orka’s eyes spread and enveloped his entire being. Orka hugged me.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he said tearfully.
“Don’t thank me yet,” I told him, “first we have to get the job done.”
Orka nodded, wiping his eyes.
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“Would you like to go with me now?”
“Now?”
Why not? I had been having trouble sleeping anyway. And some sense might dawn on me by the morning and I could change my mind. If I had to give the green light to the craziness, now was the time.
"Sure."
We got moving, Orka leading the way. Most of the families of the Skhites were fast asleep. Though occasionally we would come across someone awake and have to exercise extra care while getting past such a chamber. While the Skhites would not mind seeing me, they would be outraged at Orka, who was quite the outcast.
Guards were patrolling the passages too. I would have been easily spotted had I been alone, but Orka could predict each and every movement of the guards beforehand. The years of sneaking around had made him a master of stealth.
Finally we reached a point where Orka halted. With nimble fingers he removed a couple of stones from the wall, exposing a hole through which I could see a different tunnel on the other side.
“The Forbidden Tunnels mostly run parallel to the normal ones,” Orka explained. “Now, you go through.”
First I put my head and my arms through, which was easy. But I had to really squeeze my shoulders and my torso, grunting in the process.
“Quick!” Orka said, “I hear footsteps. Someone’s coming.”
Finally, after a good deal of effort I succeeded in pulling the rest of my body through. Orka passed me the stones and then he crossed to the other side in a smooth, almost graceful motion like a contortionist, even though his body frame was bigger, leaving me in awe. Did he have bones in him?
Orka then took the stones from me and blocked the hole so that we were suddenly in complete blackness because the light coming from the normal tunnel was now obstructed.
“How are we going to see and move around?” I asked Orka.
“Do not worry,” Orka said. I heard him fumbling. He produced sparks hitting flint stones and soon we had a flaming torch. “Come now. Keep your eyes on me. You will be surprised how easy it is to get lost in these Forbidden Tunnels. They were built by the old dynasty to keep away enemies.”
I followed Orka. I took his advice seriously, and made sure to always keep his large physique in sight. We trod for an entire hour. Orka said the door that he had seen was located in a well hidden tube that could only be reached by traversing a number of passages. There was no shortcut, or at least none that he knew of.
The massive door was situated in a cavern. There were two swords attached to the door by their scabbards. Orka pulled out one of the swords, and I took the other. There was a paragraph inscribed on the wood of the door in runic symbols, possibly the warning that Orka had quoted earlier.
“Just help me open this door,” Orka said, “and then you can… go.”
Orka dragged the last word as though he had only now realized there was no way for me to leave the place without his aid. He looked at me with abashed eyes.
“I-I,” Orka stuttered, “I should have thought about this.”
“It’s okay,” I told him. No point returning empty handed after coming so far. “Let’s go and deal with whatever is in there. Let’s awaken the founder and you can know about your heritage.”
“Are you sure of this?” Orka said. “Our lives may be at stake here.”
“Listen,” I said, “let’s just get going, shall we?”
Orka bobbed his head. Together we pushed against the door. After some initial resistance the door swung open. The chamber was so spacious that Orka’s little torch struggled to illuminate the entirety of it. The hall was mostly bare. On the opposite end, faint steps led up to a smaller door situated at a height.
Orka gestured at the smaller door with his flare, making sparks drift upwards.
"I feel like this is not the first time I am seeing that door. I remember climbing down those steps with my wee feet when I was a child.”