Call of Kerberos: Twilight of Kerberos, The - Jonathan Oliver Page 0,37

they could see the six towers rising to the surface far above. Fragments of scorched bone and broken skulls were scattered across the floor, but it was not these that had evoked Dunsany's exclamation. There were three entrances into the chamber, besides the one through which they had entered, and each one was piled high with bones.

The smell of burned bone intensified as Silus approached one of the arches. The skeletons piled there - like a jumble of blackened twigs - had been fused together by the fire that had consumed the flesh that had once clothed them. Silus reached out to touch the edge of a leg bone and the whole pile shifted suddenly as it crumbled, a small avalanche of dry remains tumbling into the room.

"What in the name of Kerberos happened here?" Father Maylan said.

"A massacre." Silus said.

"Perfect! So, we discover a new race, only to find that it has already been killed off?" Kelos said. "Who'd want to be an adventurer?"

"It beats languishing in a Vos prison," Jacquinto said. "Trust me."

Beyond the archway, Silus could see through to where a flight of stairs descended.

"We could clear a way through this," he said. "Maybe we'll find some clues as to what happened here."

He unsheathed his knife and started to cut a path through the brittle skeletons. It wasn't a particularly difficult task as the majority of the bones crumbled as soon as he touched them. Black flakes rained down on him as the pile shifted and creaked. He paused for a moment but the mound of the dead held and he continued to tunnel towards the stairs.

The crew looked at each other, then at Silus sawing away, and - after only a brief hesitation - followed him through the charnel mound.

The quantity of bodies didn't lessen any as Silus approached the top of the stairs. The glow of his lightstone revealed yet more skeletons crowded into the scorched tunnel sloping away from them. Some were wrapped around their companions, as though the creatures had been seeking solace in their final moments. Others, towards the top of the pile, had arms outstretched and heads thrown back. Silus imagined them scrabbling across a pile of their already dead brethren, only for them to be annihilated by a roaring wall of flame.

"Do we really want to find out what did this?" Dunsany said from behind him. "I mean, I've seen the old battle fields in the Anclas territories but this... gods, it's just..." His voice caught for a moment and a sob escaped his lips. "Horrible."

Kelos put a hand on his friend's shoulder and Dunsany covered it with his own.

"I think that whoever did this is long gone," Silus said. "There's no more threat here. Just a tomb."

"It could be haunted." Ignacio said, from further behind him. "Places like this are always haunted."

"No, I feel nothing." Father Maylan said. "This place is just... dead."

Descending the stairs took them longer than Silus had anticipated. The bodies were packed in more tightly around them here and it was hard to see where each step fell. Twice Silus had to tell the group to back off so that he could work out the best route through.

As he was pulling bones away from the wall of the tunnel he heard a sound like a whisper and looked up.

A skeleton hung spread-eagled above him, its empty eyes seeming to observe him with contempt. Silus thought that he could see a glint of something deep within one of the sockets. The glint resolved itself into a more definite form, as a spider crawled from the hollow and skittered across a cracked cheekbone. With a dry rattle, the skull shifted slightly to the side, almost as though the dead creature were cocking its head at him.

Then, with a sound like the breaking of a thousand dry branches, the walls of bone shifted.

Silus ducked as a cloud of desiccated remains erupted around him, the vicious dust scouring his throat and making it difficult to breathe.

"Get back!" He shouted. "It's coming down!"

But Silus didn't have a chance to see whether his friends fled to safety, as he was swept away on a wave of bone.

The clattering avalanche that enveloped him sounded like the chattering voices of the dead. Wicked shards scratched his face and the lightstone was knocked out of his hand as he tumbled head over heels. And then, there was nothing below or above him as he fell into empty space, only to land with a thud