经过进一步的搜索,他在另一扇门后发现了一条黑暗的楼梯,精灵慢慢走下台阶。他的眼睛能适应最微弱的光线,但尽管如此,在这儿还是很难分辨出多少细节。他蹑手蹑脚地往下再往下,有时停下脚步打开一扇偶然出现的门,小心地探索门后的房间。他发现了许多侏儒的尸体,还有许多奇怪的机械碎片,但没有迹象表明这儿还有哪怕一个活着的人。
每一次他都折回楼道,继续朝下走。
当他估计自己快走到塔底的时候,忽然传来一阵微弱的哭喊,声音似乎在空心的金属中回响。“喂?”他喊道,“有人在吗?”
“救救我!”那声音急切地重复了一遍,“可是,您得小心点!”
“我这就来!”
他以最快的速度移动,再度呼唤对方,听出回应的是一名男性的声音,尽管那声音相当微弱,但显然由于希望而振作了起来。
最终,他站在了一扇银色的大门前,门框的右侧竖排着一溜按钮。声音似乎是从门内传来的。
“你是谁?你受伤了吗?”吉尔赛那斯问。
“我叫莱萨格斯……我没受伤,至少现在已经好了。我在这儿关了好几年——就连上回听见活人的声音都是几年前的事了!求求您,救我出去!”
“我试试吧,”吉尔赛那斯承诺着,尽管他狐疑地盯着那一排按钮,“你知道我该按哪个按钮吗?”
“哪个都别按!”那个声音回应道,他恐惧的尖叫吓得吉尔赛那斯从银门旁跳了开去,“我是说,您能试着,就推一下门吗?”
他照办了,令人惊讶的是,那扇门在一推之下轻易地敞开了,露出一个有金属墙壁的宽敞房间,室内的照明也是楼上见过的那种白色光线。随着一阵欢喜的啜泣,那位名叫莱萨格斯的囚徒跌跌撞撞地奔过来,匆忙地把自己的身体挡在银门与门框之间。
“这门没锁啊?”吉尔赛那斯诧异地问,与此同时,他发现对方是一名满头金发,耳朵修长尖细的精灵同胞。
“没有,可是它和墙壁结合得太光滑了,从室内没法撬开它。”
“你在这儿关了好几年?你是怎么活下来的?”
莱萨格斯默默地指了指远处墙壁上的一溜喷嘴。在两名精灵的注视下,其中一个喷嘴喷出一道细细的水流,水溅落在地面上,通过喷嘴下方的一只箅子流走。接着,旁边的喷嘴里掉下几坨绿色的粘液,它们也缓缓滴进了箅子。
“自动供应的食物与饮水,”莱斯生硬地答道,“简直惨无人道,不是吗?”
“看上去更像个意外,”吉尔赛那斯说。“你是怎么来到这儿的?”他一边问,一边领着莱萨格斯向高塔外走去。
“当时我正和两位朋友一起冒险……寻找一台能帮我们保卫奎灵诺斯特(Qualinost)的机器。我们以为这里面会有些好东西,所以就乘着几只长年效忠我家族的狮鹫飞来这里。我的一位朋友死在塔顶,被某种矛机刺了个对穿。而另一位则是被困在了一些齿轮之间——我眼睁睁看着他在我面前被绞得粉碎。”
“那你呢……?”
“我只是想找个地方休息一下。我走进这个房间,门在我身后关上了,然后我这么多年来就一直被关在这里,直到您来。我欠您一份情——是您保住了我的理性和生命。”
“我很高兴能帮到你,”吉尔赛那斯说,“不过请告诉我发生了什么事,为什么奎灵纳斯提会需要保卫?”
“黑暗骑士与太阳咏者之间仍然存在分歧这是肯定的,但是新的威胁正在形成。那些巨龙早晚要霸占我们的森林。”
吉尔赛那斯脑海里涌出一个又一个的问题,但他没有机会问出来。
“那您的故事呢,朋友?”莱斯问,“当然了,先得说说您是怎么活着走到这儿的?”
他正要回答,这时两名精灵都惊觉到有两个声音正在靠近,而且明显还在争吵。
“我说过,得在门上装把锁……我说过有了锁它的效果会更好,可是你不听!你老觉得自己什么都对!”
说这话的是位男性,可是他高八度的调门就像快被气疯了似的。
“它的确很有效啊!”对方坚持道,她的声音更为高亢,显然是名女性。“可是,谁说过会有人从外边打开这扇门啊!这一点都不公平!”
片刻之后,两名侏儒步入了眼帘,他们正顺着吉尔赛那斯刚刚下来的那道楼梯往上走。他们又矮又胖,差不多齐精灵的腰高。两人都穿着蓝色的长袍,一头长长的灰发。男人的胡须也是同样的颜色,一路拖到地上。
“我说啊,”大胡子无视吉尔赛那斯的存在,斜睨着莱萨格斯说,“你介不介意回到那座永久监狱(Perpetual Prison)里去?我们的实验还远没做完呢。”
“我介意,我太介意了!”精灵怒气冲冲地说,十指修长的双手攥成了拳。
“你没必要发这么大的火!”女侏儒尖锐地反驳道,“说到底,我们可是招待了你五年半啊。我们难道不是每天都把你喂得饱饱的?”
莱斯的脸变得煞白。“五年半?”他嘶声说着,无力地倚在了墙上。
可是两名侏儒根本没在听。“技术上说,喂他的是那台机器,不是我们,”男人提醒他的搭档,“说到底,要是囚徒还得要人照顾,那“永久监狱”还有什么意义啊!要是当初你肯让我在门上装个锁,他现在还在里面关着呢!
“别管这事了!它一直都很有效,以后也会照样很有效——除非我的名字不叫德鲁茜兰达胡迫道特拉斯提克列力克——”
“够了!”吉尔赛那斯抢白道,他想起了另一件关于侏儒的事:只要一个侏儒开始背诵他——或她——的名字,就必须立即加以打断。否则,一个名字能连续念上好几天。“关键是,你们没有权利拘禁这名精灵‘囚徒’!”
“为什么,你怎么会有这种想法!”德鲁茜(Drussi)嗤之以鼻,“你对科学没有一丝尊重吗!你对知识,对发明,对探索没有一丝尊重吗!你们两个都是无知的野蛮人!”
“我来告诉你什么叫野蛮,”莱萨格斯咆哮着冲上前去,显然打算扭断一名侏儒的脖子。他嘴里不断念叨着:“把我在一个小单间里关了这么多年……喂我吃臭烘烘的粘液……任你的侏儒同胞躺在我们周围的地板上腐烂……”
吉尔赛那斯把一只手搁在较年轻的精灵肩上安抚他。“或许我们可以谈谈,”他对侏儒们说,“你们还有其他人在这儿吗?”
“曾经有很多,”男人说,“不过,发生了几起事故。”
“以后还会有更多的事故,你个老傻瓜!”德鲁茜嗤笑道,“说得好像你能做对什么事似的,石普德拉帕库松兰德森法勒里安力克提尔兰匈——”
“我们简单管你叫‘石普德(Spudder)’怎么样?”吉尔赛那斯打断道,“那么,我是不是可以认为,你们是目前这里剩下的唯一两名侏儒?”
“目前。”石普德承认。
“我来这里是要找个人,”精灵接着说,“我在找一条银龙,听说她打算来这座塔里帮助侏儒们,我想她已经来过了,你们见过她吗?”
“西悠瓦拉?”德鲁茜问,“当然见过!”
“这是多久前的事?”吉尔赛那斯的心跳加快了,他屏住呼吸静待着她的答案。
“不是很久……几年前吧,最多。”
“但是她来过这儿!她去哪儿了?你们有和她聊过吗?”
“我们只告诉她我们不需要任何帮助。她有点生气了,然后就走了。”
“她去哪儿了?”吉尔赛那斯喊道,他感觉希望在一点一滴地流失。
“她没告诉我们——倒不如说,我们没问,”德鲁茜说,“我们眼下还有工作要做,先失陪……”
“还没完呢!”莱萨格斯宣称,“首先,你们得帮我们找条出去的路!”
吉尔赛那斯挫败得像个泄了气的皮球,几乎听不清他们在争辩些什么,最后另一位精灵总算说服了两名侏儒送他们出塔。德鲁茜和石普德领着他们走下台阶,来到一处显然位于塔基以下的,洞穴般的房间。
“我的狮鹫呢?”莱斯问,“你见过它们吗?”
“它们还在外边盘旋,或许在等你,”德鲁茜嗤笑道。“那我们要怎么出去?”他问。
石普德指着一台巨大的机器——一套带轮子的机械,前面装着一个疙里疙瘩的钻头:“这是我们的挖掘机,它能带你们穿过墙壁。”
“你们都是这么挖出去的?”吉尔赛那斯不可置信地问道。
“我们?不!想出去的人明明是你们!”
“你们有绳子吗?”他追问道,“我觉得,我宁可冒险自己爬出这座塔或者走门。”
“如果你坚持这么做的话,”石普德嘟哝道,压低声线骂了声“胆小鬼”。精灵们忽略了这句嘲讽,说服侏儒和他们一同爬上塔顶。尽管两名侏儒都坚持表示升降机运转正常,至少往上很正常,但精灵们还是宁愿相信自己的双腿。
最后,他们总算站在了活板门下边,两名精灵身上各缠着一大卷沉重的绳子。吉尔赛那斯记起这扇门是整座高塔中难得没有搭载任何机械的一处,他伸出手去推门。
“等等!”德鲁茜倒抽一口气,为时晚矣。
一把利刃从天花板中穿出,直插下来,饶是吉尔赛那斯缩手快,还是被划了道口子。
他咒骂着用另一只手拍拍伤口:“再慢一秒我的手就没了。”
“我们设了个陷阱来保护这道门!”德鲁茜强调。
“大部分陷阱是阻止别人进入某个地方的,”精灵吼道。他看着那道刀伤,伤口看上去并不是非常深,“还好,它到底没造成什么真正的伤害。”
“目前还没有,”石普德摇着头说,“不过,等到毒药起效……”
剧透 - :
Further search revealed a dark stairwell behnd another door, and the elf slowly began to descend. His
eyes were attuned to minimal light, but even so, he found it hard to make out any details in here. Lower and
lower he crept, pausing to open an occasional door and carefully explore chambers beyond. He found the
remains of many gnomes, as well as odd bits of machinery, but nothing that indicated anyone was alive.
Always he went back to the stairs, still making his way downward.
He estimated that he was nearing the bottom of the tower when he heard a faint cry, the sound echoing
through the hollow metal. "Hello?" he called. "Is someone there?"
"Help!" The cry was repeated, urgently. "But be careful."
"I'm coming!"
He moved as quickly as he could, calling out again, hearing the responses in a male voice that, though
weak, was clearly invigorated by hope.
Finally, he stood before a silver door, with a series of buttons down the right side of the frame. The voice
seemed to be coming from within.
"Who's in there? Are you hurt?" Gilthanas asked.
"My name is Lethagas ... and I'm not hurt, at least not any more. I've been in here for years—it's been that
long since I've heard a living voice! Please, get me out!"
"I'll try," Gilthanas promised, though he looked askance at the array of buttons. "Do you know which button
I should push?"
"Don't push any of them!" The voice came back, so shrill with panic that Gilthanas jumped back from the
silver door. "That is, can you try just pushing on the door?"
He did, and surprisingly enough the portal swung easily open to reveal a spacious room of metal walls
illuminated by the same white brightness he had noticed above. With a sob of joy, the prisoner called Lethagas
stumbled forward, hastily interposing his body between the silver door and its frame.
"It wasn't locked?" Gilthanas said in amazement, at the same time seeing the golden hair and slender,
pointed ears of a fellow elf.
"No, but it fit so smoothly into the wall that there was no way to pry it open from the inside."
"You've been in there for years? How did you survive?"
Mutely, Lethagas pointed at a series of nozzles along the far wall. As the two elves watched, one of these
spewed a narrow stream of water, which splashed on the floor and then flowed through a grate just below. The
next nozzle then dropped a few plops of green goo, which also dribbled through the grate.
"Automatic food and water," Leth replied, tautly. "Fiendish, isn't it?"
"More likely accidental," Gilthanas said. "How did you come to be here?" he asked, guiding Lethagas out of
the tower.
"I was on an adventure with two friends ... we were looking for a machine that would help us defend
Qualinost. We thought there would be good profit in it, so we flew here on griffins that have always been loyal
to my family. One of my friends died atop the tower, pierced by some kind of spear-machine. The other one got
tangled in some gears—I saw him mangled before my eyes."
"And you... ?"
"I was just looking for a place to rest. I stepped into this room, the door closed behind me, and then I spent
several years here until you came along. I owe you my thanks—not to mention my sanit, and my life."
"Glad I could help," Gilthanas said. "But what is it about Qualinesti that it needs defenses?"
"The Dark Knights and the Speaker of the Sun are still at odds, to be sure, but new threats are taking shape.
Sooner or later one of the Great Dragons is certain to lay claim to our forests."
Many more questions came to Gilthanas, but he didn't get the chance to ask them.
"But what's your story, friend?" Leth asked. "Not to mention, how did you survive this far?"
He was about to answer when both elves became aware of two voices, clearly bickering, and coming
closer.
"Put a lock on the door, I said ... I said it would work better with a lock, but no! You had to be right, again!"
The speaker was a male, but his tone was high-pitched and almost frantic with irritation.
"It would have worked!" insisted the other, in an even higher, apparently female, voice. "But wh said they
could open it from the outside! That's not even fair!"
A moment later, two gnomes strolled into view, coming up the stairs that Gilthanas had been descending.
They were short and plump, barely waist high to the elves. Each was dressed in a gown of blue and had long
gray hair. The male also displayed a beard of the same color that descended all the way to the floor.
"I say," remarked the bearded one, ignoring Gilthanas to squint up at Lethagas. "Would you mind stepping
back into the Perpetual Prison? Our experiment is far from over."
"I would mind, very much!" snapped the elf, his long-fingered hands curling into fists.
"There's no need to be huffy!" retorted the female gnome sharply. "After all, you've been our guest for five
and a half years now. Haven't we fed you every day?"
Leth blanched. "Five and a half years?" he croaked, sagging against the wall.
But the gnomes weren't listening. "Technically, the machine fed him, not us," the male was reminding his
partner. "After all, what's the point of a Perpetual Prison if one has to tend the prisoner? Who would still be a
prisoner if you would have just let me put a lock on the door!"
"Never mind that! It still worked and will work again—or my name is not
Drussilandahooperdaughterasticrellicre—"
"Enough!" snapped Gilthanas, remembering another thing about gnomes: When one started to say his—or
her— name, the recitation had to be stopped immediately. Otherwise, it could take several days. "The point is,
you have no right to hold this elf prisoner!"
"Why, the very idea!" sniffed Drussi. "Have you no respect for science? For knowledge, or invention, or
discovery? You're both ignorant savages!"
"I'll show you savagery," growled Lethagas, stepping forward, clearly ready to wring a gnome's neck. He
continued to mutter, "Imprisoning me in a cell for years ... feeding me with foul slime ... leaving your fellow
gnomes to rot on the floor around us...."
Gilthanas placed a calming hand on the younger elf's shoulder. "Perhaps we can talk a bit," he said to the
gnomes. "Are there more of your people here?"
"There were lots," chirped the male. "There've been a few accidents, though."
"And there'll be more, you old fool!" snorted Drussi. "As if you could do anything right,
Spudderapakoosongrandsonfatherianricktillation-"
"How about we just call you 'Spudder?'" Gilthanas interjected. "Now, do I take it you are the only two
gnomes left here?"
"For now," admitted Spudder.
"I came here on a quest," the elf continued. "I'm seeking a dragon of silver, and I learned that she was
coming to help gnomes in a tower. I think she came here. Did you see her?"
"Silvara?" asked Drussi. "Of course we did!"
"How long ago?" Gilthanas's heart quickened, and he scarcely breathed as he waited for her answer.
"Not long ... a few years, at the most."
"But she was here! Where did she go? Did you talk to her?"
"Only to tell her we didn't need any help. She got kind of huffy, and then she left."
"To where?" cried Gilthanas, feeling his hopes slipping away.
"She wouldn't tell us—or rather, we didn't ask," said Drussi. "Now, if you'll forgive us, we've got work to
do ..."
"Not so fast!" Lethagas declared. "First, you'll see that we can get out of here!"
Gilthanas was sagging with defeat, barely listening to the debate as the other elf finally persuaded the two
gnomes to see them out of the tower. Drussi and Spudder led them down the stairs until they reached a
cavernous room that was apparently underneath the base of the tower.
"My griffins?" Leth asked. "Have you seen them?"
"They're still out there, flying around. Probably waiting for you," Drussi sniffed. "How do we get out?" he
asked.
Spudder pointed to a large machine: a wheeled mechanism with a studded drill mounted on the front. "This
is our digger. It will take you through the wall."
"You have to dig your way out?" Gilthanas asked in disbelief.
"Us? No! You're the ones who want to leave!"
"Do you have any rope?" he pressed. "I think I'd rather take my chances climbing own from the tower or
going out the door."
"If you insist," muttered Spudder, adding an epithet for 'coward' under his breath. The elves ignored the
taunt and convinced the gnomes to climb with them to the top of the tower. Although both gnomes insisted the
lift worked just fine, going up at least, the elves preferred to trust their feet.
Finally, they stood beneath the trapdoor, each elf wrapped in a heavy coil of rope. Remembering that this
portal had been the one part of the tower unblemished by any sort of machine, Gilthanas reached upward to
push the door open.
"Wait!" gasped Drussi, too late.
A blade slashed out of the ceiling, slicing down to gash Gilthanas's hand as he snapped it back.
He cursed and clapped a hand over the wound. "A second later and I'd have lost my hand."
"We have a trap to protect the door!" insisted Drussi.
"Most traps try to keep people from coming into a place," growled the elf. He looked at the cut, which did not
seem very deep. "Still, there was no real harm done."
"Not yet," said Spudder, shaking his head. "But wait until the poison takes effect...."