“Stand close,” said Pug and he held out his hands. Each man gripped Pug’s forearm, one to a side, and suddenly they were in another place.

CHAPTER 5

LEGACY

Amirantha gawked.

Jim also was astonished by the scale of the room in which he found himself, but managed to retain a small shred of decorum. Pug motioned for them to follow and led them deep into the vault.

Vault was the only word to describe the room, for the ceiling rose up into a gloom that prevented the unaided eye from perceiving its height. Massive columns rose to support the unseen ceiling, and row upon row of shelves were lined up in orderly fashion. The aisles between them, with the intersecting spaces separating them, provided a chessboard of areas. At each intersection a slender stand was erected, a graceful ironwork that bent over in a swan-neck fashion ending in a hook, from which hung a small crystal bound by a metal chain. The crystal provided illumination, just enough to allow those in the room to see to the next lamp.

“Amazing,” said Amirantha, as he regarded row upon row of books.

Jim echoed his tone when he said, “I’ve been in the Royal Archives in Rillanon, but this dwarfs them in scope. How many volumes, Pug?”

“I’m sure I have no idea,” said the magician. They moved between row after row of shelves, some vanishing up into the gloom, with ladders set on rails along the wall. “Perhaps the librarian can tell you?”

“This is Sarth?” asked Amirantha.

“That Which Was Sarth,” corrected Pug.

“I don’t follow,” said the Warlock.

Turning with a wry smile, Pug said, “Before the invasion of the Emerald Queen’s army, the Ishapians abandoned their abbey near the town of Sarth.”

“I still am not clear as to the odd name,” said Amirantha, following Pug down a long narrow passage between vaults.

Pug stopped and said, “The Ishapians have a prophecy, or perhaps ‘had’ is a better word. It said that a great upheaval would come upon the land and after the destruction of the west, all that would remain would be ‘That Which Was Sarth.’”

Amirantha looked at Jim, then Pug, and said, “Was Sarth destroyed during the Emerald Queen’s invasion?”

“Essentially,” said Pug, “though the old abbey itself was relatively intact. How would it have fared had the brothers still occupied it…?” He shrugged.

“So, they made the prophecy come true,” said Amirantha, as Pug resumed walking.

As the Warlock and Jim joined him, Pug said, “Perhaps. Or perhaps there’s another destruction headed our way, and this place, ‘That Which Was Sarth,’ is what is destined to survive.”

“Exactly where are we?” asked Amirantha. “I assume underground, as I have not noticed anything remotely like a window in the last two vaults.”