Staff of Shigmar: Chapter 13, Part 2

9 June 2026

Good day to all our readers! We return with another installment from the second book of our epic fantasy, Staff of Shigmar, following our heroes back into the tomb, where they find what they have lost, before entering the next realm. . . . (21 April 2015) We remind all readers that this book, Staff of Shigmar, as also the first book, is free for download from Smashwords! Glossary links: Book 2, Book 1

Chapter 13, Part 2

As Klaybear stepped through the portal back into the tomb, the weight of the wethi on his shoulders lightened suddenly.

“Where’d he go?” Tevvy asked, but then his mouth fell open as the kortexi stepped out of the portal behind Klaybear. “How?” he spluttered.

Klaybear and Thal turned and saw Blakstar; both grinned.

“What happened?” Thal asked.

“How did you get here?” Klaybear asked at the same time.

Blakstar shrugged. “I do not know,” he replied, taking his sword from Thal and sliding it, with a steely hiss, back into its sheath. “After Potwedi grabbed me, I remember there was a flash of brilliant white light, and I was suddenly released. I stood in the light on my feet, how, I do not know, but I heard a voice speaking to the Lord of the Sea, telling him that he had broken the conditions of the test, and that he would be confined to his squid form for an age for what he had done. Then all was silent, and I saw a gray shimmering somewhere ahead. I walked toward it, and stepped into this room right after you did.” He looked at Tevvy. “Who’s gone?”

Tevvy still stood looking at the kortexi, mouth gaping. “Wha-huh?”

“A wethi we found on an island in the water realm,” Klaybear replied.

“Island?” Blakstar asked, looking puzzled.

“Yeah,” Tevvy said, finally able to speak, “the island to which you opened a archway. I wonder what you were thinking as you opened the door?”

The kortexi looked puzzled. “This room,” he said, “didn’t I send you here?”

They shook their heads.

“We stepped through onto a beach,” Thal said, “you started to come through, but then the tentacles grabbed you and dragged you back, leaving your sword behind.”

Blakstar’s brow wrinkled, then his face brightened. “I remember,” he said, “I remember thinking that this room was strangely bright, and the floor didn’t feel like stone, and then I lost the sword, and you know the rest.”

Tevvy snorted and shook his head.

“Anyway,” Klaybear said, “we reached the island, and we soon saw a great flash of light out to sea, which must of been the light you saw, followed by an earthquake, a tidal wave, and then the wethi, apparently drowned by the wave. We revived him, but he had completely lost his mind. Odd thing, though,” Klaybear paused, “at first I thought he was you, and when I saw he wasn’t, I thought he looked familiar.”

Thal nodded. “He looked familiar because we had seen him before,” Thal noted, “in the fire realm; it was the same wethi.”

“Yes,” Tevvy said, “you are right!” Now it was Tevvy’s turn to be puzzled, “what does it mean?”

Klaybear shrugged. “Must be part of the test.”

“Yes,” Thal nodded, “it was part of the test, although an incidental part in the water realm, since it seems to me that our virtue, and fidelity, in your case . . . ,” he indicated Klaybear, and he looked at Blakstar and stopped: the kortexi had gone pale, and he turned suddenly away. They heard him sniff softly.

“Where next?” Blakstar asked without turning back.

Thal thought for a moment, tapping his chin. “Ice,” he said after a moment.

“What makes you say that?” Tevvy asked.

“Well,” Thal replied, “we have been to three of the five elemental planes, first earth, followed by fire, then water, so logically, ice must be next, then air.”

“Because,” Klaybear added, seeing Tevvy’s next question, “earth, water, and air are the three central and primary elements, fire and ice are secondary elements. We visited the primary element, earth, then a secondary, fire, then primary, water, so next should be ice.”

“Exactly,” Thal said, moving over to the arch and reading what was now written there:

“Right in the first word,” Thal said, pointing, “which means, empty of heat, or cold.”

“Why not just say, ‘cold,’” Tevvy asked.

“Because even the coldest northern regions, the polar cap,” Thal replied, “have some heat. Granted, there is very little, but here the writer wanted to convey the idea that there is no heat whatsoever. So, empty of heat, reflecting all light, stiffening moving water into clear stone breaking into a thousand pieces of silver light.”

“Another test of endurance,” Blakstar noted, “which will be more difficult than the fire realm.”

“The protective orthek is easier,” Klaybear noted, “and it lasts longer.”

“We will have to keep moving,” Blakstar went on, “and we should eat nothing but meat.”

“Why meat?” Tevvy asked.

“Haven’t you noticed how after you have a feast mainly of meat,” Blakstar replied, “how warm you are afterward? Or why people from the desert eat almost no meat?”

“We never eat much meat,” Tevvy replied.

“And how many of the awemem live in the far north?” Blakstar went on.

“Okay, I get it,” Tevvy said, “you don’t need to say it again.” He looked around the room, eyes traveling to the crates by the wall. “Maybe there are some heavy wool cloaks in there,” he said, pointing at the crates.

Blakstar went over to the crates, and opened the one they had not looked in. “Not wool,” he said after a moment, “but the furry hides of some animal I do not recognize.” He lifted up one of the heavy fur coats, white streaked with gray, holding it up for the others to see. “This one looks tall and thin, so it must by for Thal.” He tossed it to the maghi, and pulled out a smaller coat, tossing it to Tevvy. He tossed the next one to Klaybear, then laid the last one aside. “There are also tall boots, heavy hoods, and mittens made from the same animal.”

“I don’t wear boots,” Tevvy objected, holding up the boots the kortexi handed him. The boots had thick black soles, made from the skin of another animal, with what looked like shards of bone embedded into the sole.

Blakstar rolled his eyes. “You will if you don’t want to lose any toes to the cold.” He removed the bundle of mittens, with rough black skin, like the soles of the boots, on the palm side, with thick fur on the back, and he passed the smallest pair to Tevvy. The hoods went down to their shoulders and had a flap that tied across most of the face, leaving only a narrow slit for the eyes. The hoods also had another narrow flap above the eyes, looking like a thin, dark bill. Blakstar also found pants made from the same, furry hides; he passed them around to the others. “These go on first, followed by the boots, coat, hood, and mittens.”

“What about our armor?” Klaybear asked.

“And our packs?” Tevvy added.

Blakstar looked first at Klaybear. “I think we should wear our chain suits, but not the plate mail, that way, we will have some protection; I don’t think the plate armor will fit over the fur clothing.” He turned to Tevvy. “Anything liquid in our packs will freeze if we carry them on the outside of the coats, and if we carry them beneath the coats, we will not be able to access the packs without removing the coats. Check the inside of your coats, there should be a large pocket for your water skin, to keep it from freezing, and there should be pockets on the outside where we can carry meat rations, or you can use the pouches on your belts,” he pointed to the belts worn by the others, “as long as you remove anything liquid.”

“I don’t like this,” Tevvy noted, shaking his head, “all of my best supplies are liquid. How could I have put the madman to sleep, if I didn’t have my belt pouch?”

“We’ll have to depend on Thal and Klaybear,” Blakstar replied, “and their ortheks.”

“Which will be hard to perform,” Thal said, “wearing all of this.”

Klaybear shrugged. “Well, if it is like the fire realm, we will only need to survive.”

“We should still carry our weapons,” Blakstar said. “They can serve as useful tools, say, to build a shelter from packed snow if we get caught in a blizzard.”

Tevvy snorted. “A snow house? How will that keep us warm?”

“You’d be surprised how warm it is inside a snow cave,” Blakstar replied.

“It would keep us out of the wind,” Klaybear added, “which can be worse than all the ice.”

As they dressed in the furs, Tevvy noticed first that the air in the room was getting colder. “How is this possible?” he asked.

Thal looked around and pulled on his hood. “Must be the teka of the place.”

“Very useful,” Blakstar said, pulling his furry mittens up to his elbows over the sleeves of his coat, “since it will help prepare us for the cold beyond the arch.” He adjusted his belt, making sure that his sword was easily accessible, then pulled the hood over his head. “Don’t breathe too deeply: intense cold can freeze your lungs, suffocating you as quickly as if you were drowning.” He tied the flap over his face, then pulled it down so that Klaybear could touch his skin.

“Nemfagwheri,” sang the green kailu as he touched each of them, including himself, and each felt his body warm. Klaybear then went to the arch, touching the symbol for ice, with one glowing finger; the others waited for him to put on his mitten and hood, then stepped through the gray shimmering.

As in the previous realms, they stood on a circle of dark stone, and this circle was surrounded by mountains of dirty ice, a dull gray light emanating from the ice itself. The air was cold, so cold, that even though they were breathing air from under the hoods they each wore, so that it was warmed by the heat of their bodies, it still cut their throats like knives. They immediately saw the wisdom of the kortexi’s words about shallow breathing. They learned immediately that standing still was not possible, as the soles of their thick boots would freeze and stick in place after only seconds. The direction of travel was their next problem, as they could see, at first, no path out of this circle, until they had walked around it twice. Tevvy noticed the archway, nearly covered with ice; they heard cracking and rumbling sounds all around them, although if any ice cracked and slid onto the stone circle, it was absorbed by the mountains of ice surrounding them. Talking was difficult and painful; the sound of their voices echoed and multiplied around them, causing the ice mountains to crack and chunks of ice to tumble down, nearly crushing them twice as they searched for the path. So when Tevvy found the path, Blakstar nodded to Klaybear and whispered, “mace,” and the kailu broke open the archway with a few carefully placed blows of his mace. They passed through quickly, for as soon as Klaybear broke open the archway, the ice from above started to flow over it, covering it again only moments after they had passed through.

Seeing this, Tevvy whispered, “I don’t like this,” and the echoes from his whisper caused icicles clinging to the ceiling of the path to crash onto the floor. The others nodded and frowned, telling the awemi without words to keep his mouth closed. The surface of the path changed from being rough and uneven to smooth and slippery, and back again. They discovered how treacherous this could be when Tevvy stepped from the first rough section onto the first smooth section, his boot sliding, carrying him forward as he waved his arms like windmills to keep his balance, catching himself on the smooth wall. He looked a warning back at his companions, and his face changed suddenly to a look of surprise. He looked down at the hand and mitten touching the wall and saw, to his horror, that in the few seconds his hand had been on the wall, the ice had begun to flow over his hand. He struggled to pull his hand free, being careful not to touch the wall with his free hand. Blakstar was close behind him; the kortexi pulled out his sword and struck the ice with the edge of pommel stone just above the trapped hand, pulling Tevvy’s hand free when it cracked. The others covered their heads, Blakstar leaning over Tevvy, and half the icicles fell. When Blakstar stood up, Tevvy looked at the spot where his hand had been stuck and staggered back into the kortexi, seeing a hand beneath the surface of the ice. He pointed, face looking fearful, and the others saw what he had seen.

“We must be careful,” Thal whispered slowly, barely making a sound.

Tevvy shook his head. “Nightmare,” he whispered softly, eyes still wide with fright.

Come back Thursday for another installment from our tale and discover what happens as our heroes continue and conclude their journey through this realm of ice. For those who wish to read on, get a full ebook copy from Smashwords for free! If you prefer print, purchase your copy from the link provided. Good reading!