Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1

by Brian S Pratt

Overview

Shepherd's Quest begins a story about three lads from the small town of Quillim: Riyan Borenson, Chadric Kelon, and Bartholomew Agreani. When Riyan stumbled upon an ancient burial tomb, he and the others soon discovered they had found the fabled King's Horde. A place reputed to hold a vast fortune.

However, before they could gain access to the King's Horde, they must first recover the segments of the key that will open the sigil inscribed portal. One key they found within the ancient burial tomb in the hand of a long dead thief.

Somehow they must find the segments of the key and open the Horde before word gets out. For should others learn that they have found the fabled King's Horde, less scrupulous men will be after them to claim the Horde for themselves.

Their quest for the rest of The Broken Key ultimately leads them to a place located deep within hostile goblin territory, a place where even the goblins fear to go.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595428250
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/09/2007
Series:	Broken Key
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.79(d)

Read an Excerpt

With Bart still in the lead, the group moved into the branching passage. They followed it for a few feet before the lantern's light revealed a sharp turn to the right. Moving forward, they turned the corner and came to an abrupt halt. The passage ended a short distance ahead where a chest sat against the end of the passage.
"That's suspicious," Bart announced.
"What do you mean?" asked Chad.
"Why in the world would anyone put a chest in such an accessible spot?" he asked.
Kevik glanced to the chest and said, "We are in a hidden area."
"True," admitted Bart. "But this just doesn't seem right."
"Are you going to open it?" Riyan asked.
Bart sighed. "We have to. It could hold what we came here searching for though I find that unlikely in the extreme." He glanced to the others, "You should stay back." While the others remained where the passage turned, he moved forward. His senses were telling him that this wasn't right, but what else could he do.
He took a single, careful step at a time towards the chest. His father had told him of situations like this where chests were placed in catacombs and other places as a lure to the unwary.
Almost his entire concentration was directed to the floor before the chest and where he's placing each foot. He worked his way gradually closer until he felt an ever so slight shift beneath his foot and froze. It was a pressure plate of some kind, he was sure of that. He had a few guesses about what it would do when he removed his foot, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
He brought his other foot, which was still hovering in the air a couple inches off the ground, back down next to theother. Then he slowly crouched down into a squatting position. Beginning to slowly rock back and forth on the balls of his feet, he braced himself. When he finally rocked backwards to the right angle, he leaped with all his strength back towards where the others were standing.
As soon as his feet left the floor, a section of the floor stretching from one side of the passage to the other, and extending from two feet behind the point where his feet had been to just before the chest, opened up.
"Catch him!" Riyan shouted as he raced forward and caught Bart by the arm as he came to land. His leap had cleared the trap opening by a solid foot and he quickly steadied himself.
"Thanks," he said to Riyan.
"What happened?" Kevik asked.
"Sprung a trap," Bart replied. He turned around to face the others and said, "This place could prove quite deadly."
"Yeah," agreed Riyan as he stared at the pit, "I can see that."
"Who's got the rope?" Bart asked.
"I do," replied Chad. He opened up his pack and pulled out the coil of rope. "What do you need if for?"
As Bart took the rope he said, "To see if there are any more traps over there." He nodded over to the two areas of the floor on the far side of the pit, situated to either side of the chest.
The pit as it turned out was fifteen feet deep. When Riyan took the lantern to look into it he found the sides to be sheer all the way down and the bottom looked to be covered in long spiny spikes. The floor that had fallen in was actually hinged to the floor on their side. The gleam of bones among the spikes said this trap had caught the unwary before.
Bart tied the rope to his pack and moved to the edge of the pit. He swung the pack like a pendulum until he had enough momentum then released the rope so the pack would sail over the pit and hit the floor on the right side of the chest. The other end of the rope was firmly held in his hand so he could retrieve his pack after it landed.
When the pack hit the floor next to the chest and nothing happened, he hauled in the rope. Then he did it again, this time having his pack land on the left side of the chest. As soon as the pack hit the left side, the floor tilted towards the pit at a forty five degree angle.
"That's why you never assume it's safe," Bart said as he pulled his pack back in. "First you encounter the pit. If you survive that, and you're foolish to believe the pit was the only trap, you jump across. The thief would then have a fifty-fifty chance of landing on the solid side. If he landed on the other, he would lose his balance when the floor tilted and would plummet down to the spikes below."
"Nasty," said Chad.
"I'm sure that was the intention," he said. Bart didn't untie his pack from the rope when he opened it to get his lockpicks. "Might need it again," he told them.
"You're not planning on opening that chest are you?" asked Kevik.
"Yes I am," he said. He then took the other end of the rope and secured it around his middle. Then he handed the rest of it to Riyan. "Make sure that if I fall you stop me before I hit the bottom."
"I thought it was safe," said Riyan, indicating the floor on the right side.
"The trigger might have rusted over the years," he explained, "or it could be set to only go off when the weight of a man is on it. In case a thief did what I just did with my pack."
"Oh," Riyan said, then he nodded. "I get you."
"Hold on tight but give me enough slack to reach the other side."