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      Copyright (c) 1992, 1993 Charles Tryon / All Rights Reserved
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			T h e   T o w e r s

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7:  The Star

   "We must be careful to check to see if there is any hidden access to a
lower level or basement here," Conrad said as he scoured the floor of the
first room.  They had returned to the first level of the tower, thinking
it best to go from the bottom up to try to avoid missing anything.  "There
could be secret doors here."  Careful searching however, revealed no
secret trap doors in the floor.
   GreyEagle watched the silent mage as he carefully ran his fingers over
the crumbling stonework.  He kept his distance from the others as he
searched.  So, he did have a tongue, she thought as she remembered the
spell he had cast earlier.  He had shown no inclination to use his sword
or daggers though, even though he still carried them.  GreyEagle shrugged
and continued to search the room.  She was just glad that he had been
there.
   As he searched along the stairs leading to the second level, Ormec
discovered a loose stone in one of the darkened corners.  Behind it, he
found a small casket with an ancient rusty lock.  He brought it down to
the others to show them.  Conrad was immediately interested and pushed the
others aside to get a closer look.  However, as he examined the lock, it
crumbled and fell off in his hands.
   "I guess I would call that a successful pick" he said with a smile.
   Opening the casket they found two potions, one of which they recognized
as a potion of healing, as well as a twelve-pointed star, made of what
appeared to be pure platinum.  It had a symbol engraved on each of its
points, one of which matched the symbol over the entrance of the tower.
Conrad carefully turned it over in his hands.  It was obviously a fine
piece of work.  He held it up to the light and it reflected the sun
brightly.
   "I'd say that this is worth more gold pieces than any of us have seen
in a long time."
   "I've seen a lot of gold in my time," Ormec snorted.
   Conrad raised an eyebrow as he looked at the dwarf.  "Not like this,
I'd wager."
   "Well then," Ormec volunteered, "since I found it, I guess I should
hold on to it for now, that is until we get a better idea of what it is."
Sucaba and Trouble looked dubious, but did not protest.
   They found nothing of interest on the second level.  By the time they
reached the third level, Sucaba's web had already dissipated.  The room
there had evidently been used as a living space for the orcs, as straw
pallets were strewn about, mixed with pieces of bone, wood and various
useless pieces of junk.  Most curious of all though were the twelve orc
bodies which lay there.  Examining them, they found no obvious wounds or
other indications of how they had died.  As GreyEagle examined the dead
orcs, her face turned ashen, and she said nothing.  Perhaps this was the
work of the dark creature, sucking the very life out of them?  She
shivered, remembering Schimray's description of the monster, knowing that
one day she would have to face it.  She wanted to flee, to hide from it,
and pretend that she had never heard of it's existence.  Surely there were
others more powerful than herself to fight such a menace.
   Still, Schimray had told her that it was not to be found in this tower,
which calmed her fears some.  There were other battles to be fought,
magical powers to be discovered.  She clutched at the amulet still under
her tunic, and breathed deeply, trying to calm her racing heart.  The
bodies of the dead orcs had already been picked over by their comrades and
other than the mysterious nature of their deaths, there was nothing else
of interest to be found in the room.  With a shudder, they all climbed the
last set of stairs, glad to escape.
   The last room was shorter than the others, with a ceiling only ten feet
above them.  Other than the dead bodies of the orcs and the two slain
prisoners, the room appeared completely barren.
   As they spread out to search, GreyEagle wondered why Schimray was so
interested in this place.  She had seen much better fortified towers, and
ridding the world of a few orcs didn't seem like much of an
accomplishment.  She kicked through the dust on the floor, tired of the
place and just wanting to be done with it.
   "We should bring out the bodies of the slain prisoners," she said,
kneeling down beside the body of the boy.  "The others will most likely
wish to give them a decent burial, or at least as close to one as can be
afforded here."
   "It is of no concern to us," Sucaba sneered, without even looking
around.  "Let them take care of their own dead."
   GreyEagle began to protest, but at that moment, the silent one began to
excitedly wave his arms at Ormec.  They all pressed close as he carefully
traced his finger around the outline of a shallow depression in the wall
which exactly matched the twelve-pointed star they had just found.  Ormec
excitedly pulled out the star and tried fitting it into the depression.
It fit perfectly, but nothing happened.
   "I think the twelve-pointed star is a key of some sort," Conrad said.
"We should keep it.  There is no need to tell Schimray about it."
   Sucaba grabbed for the star.  "Let me see that!"  Taking it in his
hands, he sat down in a corner and began to paw through his belongings.
He found a small wineskin, unstopped it and inserted a bent owl feather
into it.  He dropped some sort of gem or pearl into the container, as well
as a pouch of powered stone of some sort, and began stirring it.  Once he
had thoroughly cleaned the star with water from another skin, he drank the
wine solution and mumbled in an odd language as he ran his fingers over
the star.
   "This key is indeed magical," he said finally.  "Its use is to teleport
between towers.  We can use this now to go to another tower."  Looking up,
something on one of the other walls caught his eye.  Quickly walking over
to the wall, he brushed away the dust to reveal a second indentation,
identical to the first.  He ran around to the remaining walls to discover
that each had a star shaped indentation identical to the first.  With
great anticipation, he placed the star into the indentation in the wall he
stood before.  His shoulders dropped in disappointment when again, nothing
seemed to happen.  He flipped the star over and tried again.  Still
nothing.  He went around to each of the indentations in turn, and each
wall failed him.
   "I don't understand," he said finally, the disappointment heavy in his
voice.  "This should work.  Perhaps there is another spot like this one?"
He continued to search along the walls, looking for clues.
   "Before we start playing around with the star and teleporting," Conrad
warned as he watched Sucaba fiddling with the star, "don't you think we
should at least be rested up.  Rather embarrassing to find oneself in the
middle of some other tower with no spells, eh Sucaba?  And if we did, we
wouldn't know where in the world we were.  I think I'd rather travel back
overland.  We can find from Schimray where the next tower is and know what
we are getting ourselves into.  Besides I want to have a night out in the
town celebrating our success here."
   Sucaba ignored Conrad's warnings, but after a while, he finally gave up
searching, having come up with no more clues than he had started out
with.  Taking a last look at the star, he slipped it into an inner pocket
in his cloak.
   "In any case," he said, "the star will be valuable to Schimray, if he
seeks to have these towers.  We should not keep this.  It is, in essence,
part of the tower.  I will hold it for now."
   "Not so fast Sucaba," Conrad burst out, his face turning deep red.
"The star is treasure that Schimray has said we may keep.  Our deal with
him was to keep the locations a secret, and provide a map of each.  If he
wants to buy the star from us, then I will consider it.  Teleportation
seems to be a very useful and rare thing, and his offer should keep that
in mind!  If you receive the star as your own personal treasure, you may
do with it as you please."
   Sucaba stood looking at Conrad for a long moment and said nothing.
"Time will tell," he said finally, and turned his back on the gnome.
   "We will not give the star to Schimray," Ormec said heatedly.  "It's
ours!  We all risked our lives to get the star," he said with a slight
grimace, remembering how easy defeating the orcs had been.  "If he wants
it he can may us an offer."  Ormec turned around and looked at the others
for support.  "As I said before, I found it so, I will hold on to it."  He
looked intently at Sucaba and held out his hand.
   Sucaba wheeled around to look at Ormec, the fire in his eyes flashing
as the others had never before seen.
   "We will split up treasure in the morning in an equitable manner, after
we determine what is magical," Sucaba said, desperately trying to hold in
his fierce temper.  "I ask to hold the item until then.  Perhaps I can
attain more information about it.  My magics have not fully faded."
   GreyEagle suddenly became afraid that the situation would explode.
"Ormec," she interrupted, "remember that the star is probably of no
magical value outside of the towers, since it seems to be designed to
transport back and forth between them.  After all, a key without a lock is
nothing more than a useless hunk of metal.  I think that we should at
least tell Schimray.  Perhaps he will not even be interested in it, or if
he is, he should be willing to pay a fair price for it."
   Ormec's hand went to his axe and he pushed GreyEagle aside roughly.  He
stood glaring at Sucaba, trying to decide what to do.  Finally, he backed
down.  With his face still beet red, he spun around and walked out of the
room.
   The others went around and collected the various weapons and other
things which they had found and brought them all to the first floor.
Sucaba displayed a bronze chalice which he had retrieved from the altar
earlier.  Conrad examined it for a moment and decided it was worth about
two gold pieces.
   "I don't want to show my naivete here," Conrad said, frowning at the
mages, "but can't one of you spell casters find out if any of these items
are magical?  We also might find if there are any magical fields here in
the tower."
   "I will test for magic items in the morning," Sucaba said gruffly.
   Conrad pointed his chin in the direction of the prisoners.  "Since we
do not have specific times to do anything by, we might consider assisting
these people back to their town.  They may reward us for our efforts.  I
know they have nothing here, but one of them may have a wealthy relative
that is glad to see them returned.  Other than that, do we head back to a
town, or off to the next tower?"
   "We must return with all due haste with the map to Schimray," Sucaba
answered angrily, cutting off Conrad's questions.  "Schimray will then
give us directions to the next tower.  These filth may accompany us there
if they wish.  This is not a caravan."
   "Does anyone even know where they are from?" asked Ormec, a little
surprised by Sucaba's vehemence.  He didn't look like he was happy with
the thought of just leaving them there at the tower, defenseless, starving
and half naked.
   "The prisoners told me that they are from a small mining town on the
other side of the mountains," cut in GreyEagle, looking intently at
Sucaba.  She was too weary to argue with him, but yet, she felt
responsible for the people.  "They told me that they could offer us a
small reward if we would escort them home.  We cannot just leave them here
as they are defenseless and without supplies."  As she looked around at
the others, she thought to herself, now we will see the true test of
character.
   "I agree with GreyEagle in wanting to help these folks home if it was
not a great burden on us," said Conrad, adding his support.  "We can at
least let them pick over the orc's equipment to protect themselves with.
I have no use for such crude items.  Is there a town on the way?" he
asked.  "We might be able to drop them off there."
   "Fine," said Trouble, looking at the prisoners in disgust.  "Let's go
back to Schimray then.  These low-life can find their own way back from
there.  I will not be bothered with them" As usual, the silent one offered
no suggestion as he stood by watching the others.
   There was still a fair amount of daylight left, so GreyEagle informed
the others that she was going to go back down to where they had left the
horses and bring them back with the supplies.  Ormec looked like he wanted
to get away from the others for a while and volunteered to go with her.
   The two of them walked in silence.  GreyEagle had enough of her own
concerns and she did not want to disturb Ormec as he sorted out his own
thoughts and feelings.  As they walked, she was sorry that his joy of
victory had been spoiled by the fight over the star.  She was not sure
what to say to him, especially since she supported Sucaba's plan to return
the star to Schimray, at least in intent if not in how he had handled the
situation.
   They quickly reached the encampment and began to pack things up.  As
GreyEagle was packing up the food and supplies, it suddenly dawned on her
that the food was starting to run low, and that they might be hard pressed
to make it back before it was gone.  She bit her lip, fighting back a
sense of panic.  Bringing along the prisoners wouldn't help the situation
any, and the pickings would likely be slim as far as hunting along the
way, so long as they were near the desert.  She decided to keep the
knowledge to herself, as she was sure that the others, particularly Sucaba
and Trouble, would press harder to leave the prisoners behind if they
realized the food situation.  She hated to be devious, but sometimes the
situation demanded extremes.
   When they arrived back at the tower, GreyEagle dug through her things
to try and find some clothes and things for the prisoners to wear.  Ormec
and Conrad offered to help, but they were so much shorter than the humans
that they didn't have much to offer.  They managed to salvage some things
off the dead orcs, and were able to wash them out a bit at a nearby
stream, though the stench still lingered.  Between GreyEagle's searching
and Conrad's skills with needle and thread, they were able to come up with
something which would pass for clothes.
   Ormec bit his lip as he looked at the sorry condition of the
prisoners.  He reached into a pocket deep within his pack and pulled out a
handful of silver coins.  He proceeded to count them out, ten for each of
the prisoners.  He looked at each piece as he counted it, holding it so
that the light reflected, as if trying to set their beauty in his memory
before saying good-bye.
   "Just checking, to make sure they're good," he said, giving GreyEagle a
nervous grin.  Trying to smile, he handed the coins to the prisoners.
"Here.  You'll need some money when you get to wherever it is we're
going."  GreyEagle sighed as she watched Ormec.  Ten silver coins was not
much compared with what she was sure he had with him, but then, it was
more than any of the others had offered.  Unfortunately, they would not be
able to be able to eat silver coins on the way home.
   When GreyEagle asked the two men in the group, Mathur professed to
having moderate skills in fighting, and Thos looked like he might learn.
She went back into the tower and pulled out the two suits of chain mail
which they had collected there and both of the men picked out weapons from
the heap.  The armor still reeked of orc, and she would have to clean
them.  In any event, the two men were still too weak to even wear the
armor, so she decided to pack it away for later.  Hardly a great army,
GreyEagle thought as she looked at them standing there in front of her,
but at least they might be able to defend themselves if they are
attacked.
   It was with heavy hearts that the surviving prisoners buried their
dead.  Gloria was still too afraid to even go back into the tower, so
GreyEagle and the two men took up the task of bringing the bodies down.
They followed the stream a short distance into the mountains, far enough
that they thought that they would not be disturbed by anyone coming to the
tower, to a small grassy hollow.  The ground was not deep there, so they
could not dig a proper grave, but they did as well as they could, and
heaped up a mound of stones.  Gloria said nothing the whole time, and the
little girl did not appear to comprehend what was happening.  When they
were finished, Mathur and Thos led Gloria and the child back.
   GreyEagle remained by the mounds for a while after the others had
left.  She had been so close -- another few seconds and perhaps they would
not have died.  She knew though that there was nothing she could have done
differently; she had already replayed the battle over and over again in
her mind, but that still didn't quiet the regrets.  The dark creature was
not here at this tower, but yet, she could already feel its influence,
reaching out its black fingers and leaving death and pain in its wake.
She turned to go back to the others.  No matter what the risk, no matter
what the motivations of the others were, she knew she had to go on.


   The next morning they spread out the various things which they had
found earlier on the floor of the first room.  Sucaba cast his spell over
the whole lot in order to detect any magical items.  As they had expected,
the only items which indicated any magical powers were the two potions
from the cask and the star.
   They drew straws to see who would get to keep the magical items.  The
unknown potion went to Trouble, who, after looking at it closely, shrugged
his shoulders and stuffed it into his pack.  The next item to go was the
potion of healing, which fell to Ormec.  He happily snatched it up and
stuck it in his pack, making sure that it was easily accessible.
   There was great silence as they drew straws for the star.  Ormec,
having already received the potion, held the straws for the others to
pick.  Sucaba's eyes were ablaze as he looked at Ormec and drew his
straw.  He swore under his breath when he saw that he had missed it.  The
others also drew, each one disappointed when they discovered their bad
luck.
   GreyEagle and the silent one were the last to draw.  She slowly picked
one straw and drew it.  She was almost relieved when she discovered that
she had missed the lot.  The star frightened her, and she was not willing
to use it.  Besides, she thought, she would just have to give it up to
Schimray when they returned, so then she would be out anyhow.
   By this time, since the others had been eliminated, the silent one knew
that he had the star.  He sauntered over, and without a sound picked the
last straw.  He casually walked over to where the star lay, picked it up
and started up the stairs.  The others, curious as to what he might do,
and wondering if he might have more success than they had, followed him up
to the upper room.
   Reaching the top floor, he examined the star intently, polishing its
surface with the sleeve of his robe and peered deeply into it.  A furrow
appeared between his eyebrows, his face was intense with concentration as
he seemed to try to draw the star's secrets from it by sheer willpower
alone.
   Suddenly his concentration broke and he looked up at the wall where he
had found the first impression.  As usual, what the man knew remained a
secret as he walked to each of the walls and carefully traced the
impressions in them with a finger.  He turned to Sucaba, and intently
studied the other mage.  After a moment he nodded, removed his pack and
placed the star inside.  Then, with a single fluid movement, he slung the
pack onto his back and walked down the steps and out the tower door with
the others following him.
   With the dividing up of the magical items taken care of, Sucaba stomped
off back into the tower to draw up the map to take back to Schimray.
GreyEagle was just as glad to see him go.  Ever since the incident over
the star, a dark cloud had passed over his countenance and she had almost
become afraid of him.  While she agreed with Sucaba, and had supported his
desire to return the star to Schimray, it was obvious that the others did
not.  GreyEagle was afraid lest Sucaba do something rash in order to get
the star back.
   After a time, he returned with his map.  He seemed to have cooled off
somewhat, though GreyEagle was sure that she could still feel the tension
as he began to prepare his things to leave.  Once he had packed up his few
things, he called Horton down from the roof and scratched his head.  The
prisoners standing there gaped in awe at the dragon.  Sucaba ignored their
stares as he swung up to the back of the dragon.  He carefully rolled up
his map of the tower and inserted it into a scroll tube, sealing the tube
with wax and stored it in his pack.  Then he silently sat there, his eyes
fixed on the silent one.
   As they are getting ready to leave, GreyEagle looked back at the tower,
standing there empty, and it suddenly struck her that they had done
nothing to prevent more orcs from taking up residence there again once
they had left.  "Now that we've cleaned out the tower," she asked, looking
to the mages in the group, "does anyone have anything to secure it so that
no-one else takes it over?  What's to prevent someone else from moving in,
now that we have kindly emptied out the orcs for them?"
   "That's Schimray's problem," said Trouble.  "We have done our job."
   "Yes," Sucaba said, after thinking for a moment.  "This is a service we
can provide Schimray with while we are here.  At the very least, I will
hide the planks, and we can put the barricade back."  Giving Horton a
kick, the two of them flew back to where the planks lay across the moat
and pulled them back.  He then walked over to the barricade and pushed it
back into place.  The two of them then returned to where the others in the
group stood.
   As he dug through his pack, GreyEagle noticed he had a devious smirk on
his face.  He silently pulled out a scroll and carefully opened it,
pausing a moment to make sure he had the maximum effect.  He held it up
and read three words off of it in a forceful commanding tone.  Suddenly,
both the scroll and tower gave off a blinding flash of light and she sound
of distant thunder rolled through the mountains.  For just a moment, they
were blinded, but when they could see again, there was nothing left of the
scroll but ashes fluttering away in the wind.
   "There," said Sucaba with a twisted smile at GreyEagle, "I have sealed
the tower.  We may leave now.  Other powers will watch our tower."  With
that, he waved his hand in the now familiar pattern, and he and Horton
vanished from sight.  The prisoners jumped back in surprise, their mouths
open, and the little girl hid her head in her mothers arms and began
crying again.  Her mother turned to her, speaking in soothing tones to her
and nodded at GreyEagle that they were ready to start.
   GreyEagle shuddered as she helped the woman climb up on her horse.
This was what she had been hoping for, but now she was somehow frightened
by it.  She quickly slung her pack over her shoulders, putting the tower
and whatever force now guarded it behind her.
   With that, they began the trip back down the mountain to the edge of
the desert.


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Greetings all!

  If you are just picking up here for the first time, you should be able
  to find back chapters (via. ftp) in the directory /pub/frp/stories/towers
  on ftp.cs.pdx.edu.  I will also honor Email requests for back chapters.
  Please make sure you include a valid Internet address, and I will try to
  get back to you within a day or two.

  If anyone is interested, I've scanned in some B&W illustrations I've
  done for the story.  Pictures are at the same ftp site, or send me Email
  and I can send them to you.

  As always, I welcome any comments on the story.  I hope you enjoy
  reading this half as much as I have enjoyed writing it!


--
Chuck Tryon
    work: bilbo@kodak.com                                Your Servant,
    home: bilbo@Bah.Rochester.NY.US                      B. Baggins
 ______________________________________________________________________
   Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else.