Wool of the Prince-- Chapter 21

Chapter 21

~895 words

After much ado about tents and supplies, rumors and sheep-sitters, Jay, Shep, and the trolls started up the mountain. The trek was long, painful, tedious, and boring. A description of the rocks could go on for pages. Suffice it to say that the rocks were very gray, and that sometimes they were enormous boulders, and sometimes they were tiny pebbles. The sky was cloudy the whole way up, and sometime towards the end, it started to snow small little flakes that formed shapes like ghosts in the wind.

It was snowing as Jay first spotted the great monolithic pillar that was the spire. It was quite a sight, with the snow whistling through the air, hurdling like tiny meteorites all around the spire. The structure itself must have been over a hundred feet tall. It looked like two spikes that had been twisted around each other to form one great edifice that stuck out from its surroundings like a tiger in a field full of bunnies. It had the same menacing feel as well: Jay’s whole body seemed to pull at him to run away from this danger and hide. But he ignored this tug from his body and stalwartly pressed forward.

The closer they got to the spire, the more unnatural it looked. If a building could feel absolutely wrong this one did. When Jay made note of this, Shep just grimaced and said, “That might mean we’re in the right place. Whatever’s in here isn’t going to be friendly. It might be rare. It might be dangerous or valuable.”

“If it’s so rare and valuable,” muttered Godfrey, “Why put it ‘ere in this place? It’s as conspicuous as all get out.”

“Good point,” Shep said.

Jay was silent, watching the spire loom ever nearer.

When they reached the base, Shep reached out to touch the metal. “Cold,” he said, yanking his hand away and stuffing it back into its glove. He knocked on it, and it rang like a bell. Shep listened, knocked again, and said “Shadow steel. I’m sure of it. Although where they got this much of it? I haven’t the slightest.”

Jay fought through his hazy memories to remember where he had heard that term before. “Shadow steel? I know I’ve heard of it… I can’t think of where though.”

“It’s the strongest metal in known existence. Unless we’re talking about magic, which is a whole other side of the penny,” said Shep.

“Oh! I remember now! You said that the dragon—Argos’s dragon—had scales made of shadow steel. I thought it was a fictional metal then.”

“It’s rare enough to almost be fictional.” Shep knocked on the spire again. “That’s why the existence of such a massive structure made out of it is so unbelievable.”

“This thing must be worth a fortune,” marveled Gilfred.

“Think of all the black dragons you’d have to kill to get this,” said Godfrey.

Shep smiled a tight smile. “I’m sure there are easier ways of obtaining shadow steel than killing mythical dragons, but where one would get such a quantity… Even using magic, this would take a great deal of energy.”

“Right,” Jay interrupted. “But is there a way in?”

“We’ll have to see about that.”

They hiked around the great base of the spire. The snow was up to Jay’s calf which made it very hard to walk, and very tiring. “We should have brought snowshoes,” he said.

Eventually, Godfrey spotted indents in the snow that told them they had been around the whole thing. “But there’s no door! How do we get in if there’s no door?” Godfrey leaned against the great mass of metal, seeming to ponder things over in his head. Jay took off his gloves to inspect for frostbite.

“Maybe there’s a special way to get in. Like those circles on the island.” Gilfred leaned against the structure too.

Jay, feeling a little left out, put his hand on the smooth, cold metal. It shattered. Slices of pain shot through Jay’s mind, and his body crashed against the spire, fracturing the metal more. The shards of shadow steel fell like rain, and in their wake was a hole. A perfectly-shaped, door-sized hole. Jay was too much in pain to notice this though. The metal felt like broken glass, but thinner and meaner. Jay’s crimson blood dripped, a harsh difference from the white of the snow.

Shep rushed forward. “Jay are you— oh no. Let’s get you inside this… thing. Can you stand?”

Jay nodded, still staring at his hand. Tears started forming in his eyes, and between these and the immense pain that throbbed red through his head, he could hardly see where he was going. Somehow he managed to get inside the spire.

He was sitting. Shep was saying something. It sounded soothing, but there was a little edge to the voice. Fear. Shep was scared. This started to make Jay afraid, and he started breathing harder. Shep spoke even smoother and put something into Jay’s mouth. He chewed automatically. The leaf was slightly bitter but not unpleasant. He felt a tugging at his down. An image of metal shards pulling free from his hand flashed through his mind, along with an image of two worried red faces with short little tusks watching him. Then he could feel a cool bandage being wrapped around his hand.