There are lines coming from the smaller ones leading directly to the larger one in the courtyard outside. Must be showing a power grid or some such Must be showing a power grid or some such, he reasons.

He looks around further, but doesn't find anything else of interest. Casting another glance at the bronze plaque, he leaves the room and comes back to the broken section of hallway. This time he steps out upon the broken section with more confidence.

When he's almost across, a section of the floor cracks and falls away beneath him. Crying out as he falls, he reaches out and manages to catch hold of a section of the broken floor. Hanging there, he tries to keep his hands from slipping and dropping him down to the floor below.

"Hang on!" he hears Jiron yell as he bolts up the stairs, easily jumping the missing sections as he comes to his aid. Coming to where he's hanging precariously, Jiron kneels down and holds out his hand. "Take it!" he says as he stretches his hand further toward him.

Afraid to lose his grip with the other hand, James shakes his head and says, "I can't!"

"Yes you can," Jiron a.s.sures him as he tries to stretch his hand even further toward him.

James tries letting go and grab Jiron's hand but in so doing, causes his other hand to slip. With a cry, he plummets ten feet down to the rubble below. Landing awkwardly on the broken stone, his side is punctured by a sharp rock and severely cuts open his side. Crying out with pain, he grabs the wound as he tries to stop the blood from flowing.

Jiron gets up and rushes down the stairs to his side, but Miko is the first to reach him. "James!" he exclaims when he sees the blood oozing from under the hand he has clinched to his side. Not knowing what to do, Miko stands there in indecision.

He lies there, holding his side as best he can until Jiron approaches. Looking to him he says, "I knew I couldn't hold on with one hand."

"Sorry," Jiron says as he kneels next to him. "Let me look at it." Lifting his shirt, he sees sc.r.a.pes going from just under his armpit to his waist. One cut looks deeper than the rest and is oozing blood, but it is already beginning to stop.

Putting the shirt back down, he says, "I don't thing you're going to bleed to death, but it's going to hurt for a while."

"Feels that way," James says as he puts his hand back on the wound, continuing to apply pressure.

"Did you find anything?" asks Miko.

"There was a bronze plaque in the room up there," he says, gesturing to the room. Grimacing from the pain, he gingerly puts his arm back down. "On it was a diagram showing the five pyramids and how they're linked to the main one here."

"And?" Jiron asks, urging him to continue.

"And, there may be another plaque, hopefully, that may tell us something else," he explains to them.

"You're in no shape to be searching for some plaque that may not even exist," Miko says.

"No," agrees Jiron, "but I am." Getting up, he looks to James and asks, "Just what am I looking for?"

Shrugging, James says, "I don't know, but you'll probably know it when you find it."

"Alright," he says. Then to Miko, "Stay here and keep an eye on him until I get back." When he sees him nod, he turns and hurries from the room.

James starts to get up and says, "Help me up, will you?" He reaches a hand to Miko who grabs his arm and helps him to his feet. Grimacing with pain as his side is stretched and pulled with the effort to stand, he finally gets to his feet. Then, as he stands there, he has Miko go over and retrieve his walking stick for him.

He takes the stick and begins to carefully move through the rubble choked room to the doorway leading outside the collapsed building. "Let's move outside while we wait for his return," he says.

Miko helps him along and once they've left the building, they find a block of fallen stone to sit on.

They're not waiting long before Jiron returns in a hurry. The look on his face indicating he may have found something.

"You find it?" James asks.

"I think so," he replies. "In a building over there," he says as he points back the way he'd come. "I found a bronze plaque similar to the one you described."

"What was on it?" James asks.

"I couldn't really make it out," he explains. "There were lots of lines and boxes, I'm not sure just what it was trying to show."

Leaning heavily upon the staff, he gets up off the stone and says, "You better take me there."

"Is it on the ground floor?" Miko asks, worried about James having to climb unstable stairs again.

Nodding, he says, "Yeah, it is."

"Good!" Lending James a hand, Miko helps him as they follow Jiron over to where he'd found the plaque.

The building wherein it lies looks to have been but a single floored structure and still to be in fairly decent shape. Jiron leads them up three stairs to the entrance of the building where they enter through the doorway.

"It's over here," he says as he takes them through another doorway into an adjacent room.

When James enters the room, he immediately sees what Jiron was trying to describe. Having designed many dungeons for his role playing games, he instantly recognizes what he's seeing. It's a layered map of different levels.

"This is showing the layout of an underground complex," he explains to them, as he steps up closer to the plaque. "Here," James says, pointing to a set of squiggly lines, "this looks like it could be stairs leading down."

"Does it show what's in there?" Jiron asks, not able to see it for what it is.

Shaking his head, James says, "No, this is just a map of the layout, nothing more." He turns his head to look at Jiron and says, "We're going to need to get in there."

"How?" he asks. "I found no entrance to a lower level during my search."

"Hmmm..." James says as he turns back to study the plaque some more. He points to a section and says, "This here looks to be where the entrance lies." He points to a pyramid shaped symbol and continues, "And I bet this is the main pyramid over there in the courtyard."

He studies it some more as Jiron and Miko watch him. Suddenly he turns to Jiron and asks, "Did you find what looked like an empty pool or possibly a fountain while you were searching?"

"Yeah," he says. "It's over there a ways," he explains as he points to where it lies.

"That is the entrance," he states.

"You sure?" he asks, not really believing him. "How can you tell?"

"Practically one hundred percent," James replies. "Here, look," he says as he points to a circular formation near where he said the entrance is.

"I see," Jiron says, still not convinced.

James turns from the plaque and says, "Show me where it is."

With Miko helping James along, Jiron leads them out of the building and over to where the dried up pool is.

The outer edge of the pool stands two feet high and about six inches thick. The interior is bare, just the flat stone of the bottom showing.

James slowly walks around the pool as he examines it. "Here, look," he says as he points out five triangles evenly s.p.a.ced on the top of the outer edge. "I'd bet anything that these are the five small pyramids."

Excited, Miko cries out, "And look in the center, that must be the main one." They look to where he's pointing, and sure enough, there lies a pyramid that's proportionally larger to the ones on the outer wall of the pool, as the main pyramid is to the ones on the perimeter.

"But what do we do now?" Jiron asks.

"Not sure," he replies. He begins to closely inspect the designs, pushing and pulling at them but nothing happens. Then suddenly, the plaque he'd seen in the upper room flashes to mind. What if it wasn't showing the skull pyramids at all? What if it was in fact showing the designs on the edge of the pool?

What did it show exactly? he asks himself, as he pauses a moment to recall the details. A power grid, that's what it reminded me of. Maybe it's a lock only a mage can open. he asks himself, as he pauses a moment to recall the details. A power grid, that's what it reminded me of. Maybe it's a lock only a mage can open.

He turns to the others and says, "I think I may know how to gain access to it, but you both better step back, just in case."

"What are you going to do?" Jiron asks.

"Not sure," he says, "just watch."

After they've moved back, he turns again to face the pool and begins to concentrate. In his mind he pictures a sphere of magic hovering above each of the outer triangles. He opens his eyes when he hears Miko gasp behind him.

Five red, pulsating spheres are hovering above the five triangles. Nodding in satisfaction, he again closes his eyes in deep concentration. He needs to get this just right and when he's ready, he completes the spell.

Opening his eyes, he sees a thread of energy shoot out of each of the spheres and connects simultaneously above the triangle in the center of the pool. When they connect, the combined beam seems to be drawn down to the larger triangle engraved in the bottom of the pool. The ground begins to shake slightly as the pool slowly begins to rotate.

Maintaining the spell, he watches as it continues to turn and is startled when a bottom section of the pool drops down into the ground. At regular intervals, more sections drop down into the ground as it continues to turn. After turning halfway around again, the pool stops. Where the bottom of the pool had been, now lies a spiral staircase descending down into the complex beneath the ground.

James releases the spell, halfway expecting the pool to begin closing again, but is relieved when it remains still.

He creates his glowing orb and steps over the edge of the pool. "Shall we, gentlemen?" he asks over his shoulder as he begins to descend the stairs. Miko and Jiron come over and follow him closely as he descends the stairs down into the darkness below.

Nervous, he continues down until he reaches the bottom where a corridor extends away from them. The air is stale, as if it has been bottled up here for a millennium. The light from the glowing orb reveals carvings upon the walls, people going about unknown tasks.

The first room they come to is on the right and a brief glance within shows it to be empty, the walls having the same designs as the corridor had.

"What was this place?" Jiron whispers, nervous about disturbing the silence.

"I don't know," replies James as he continues further down the corridor. "But we better be careful. Whoever set that trap that ensnared us might have others down here as well."

Miko looks around nervously as he continues following James closely.

At the end of the corridor they're following, they find another one running perpendicular to the one they're in. James shines the light to the left and right but only sees more corridor going in either direction.

He turns to the right and makes his way slowly down it. After twenty feet, the corridor makes a ninety degree turn to the right and after another five feet, opens up into a room.

This room holds a large table that's in remarkably good condition for its age. Six chairs sit around it. The walls of this room are plain stone, no image marring their surface. A doorway in the wall opposite where they entered is the only other exit from the room.

"Looks like a meeting room," guesses James as he enters and comes over to the table.

"Or a war room," suggests Jiron.

James nods his head and says, "Maybe."

Miko stays close to James as he walks around the room, looking at everything. "What are you looking for?" he asks.

Shrugging, James says, "Not really sure. I'm hoping to find something or some way to turn off the barrier so we can get out of here. This place gives me the creeps." And the constant p.r.i.c.kling of magic has become decidedly annoying.

"What's in that other room?" Miko asks, indicating the doorway they haven't gone through yet.

"Let's see," he says as he moves in that direction.

A solid wooden door stands open and they pa.s.s through into another room, this one having shelves of books upon them. When James touches one, it crumbles into dust.

"Must've been here a long time," Jiron says when he sees the book crumble.

"Perhaps," James says, "or it could be the result of being exposed to magic for a long time." He turns to Jiron and admits, "I'm not sure."

Not finding anything of use here, they return past the 'boardroom' and hurry along the hallway until they come to the intersecting corridors. Continuing straight this time, they follow the section they haven't been in yet.

Forty feet down, they come to a door on the left while the corridor continues past. James tries the door but it doesn't open. He turns to Jiron and says, "Locked."

Moving out of the way, he watches as Jiron comes and inspects the lock. Pulling out a knife, he sticks the point within the lock as he begins manipulating the locking mechanism. Suddenly, a 'click' can be heard and he swings the door open.

On the other side is a flight of stairs leading down. He starts to move down them when James stops him. "Let's continue with the search of this floor first before we continue down," he says.

Knowing James to be the expert here, he nods his head as he follows James further down the corridor.

Another fifteen feet and the corridor turns to the right and the p.r.i.c.kling sensation begins to grow. James slows his speed as he moves cautiously closer.

"What?" asks Miko when he sees him slow.

"I feel magic ahead," he whispers back to them.

"Bad?" Miko asks fearfully.

Shrugging, he replies, "Don't know." A little further more and the corridor again turns to the right where it ends after another ten feet. It opens upon another room.

As they move closer to the room, the p.r.i.c.kling becomes more intense, like ants crawling all over his skin in spiky shoes. When the light from the orb illuminates the interior of the room, they can see another of the pyramid of skulls, similar in size to the ones on the perimeter.

James catches his breath for he can almost see the magic moving upward from this pyramid. "I think we're under the main pyramid of skulls that was in the courtyard."

"What makes you think that?" Jiron asks.

James steps into the room and replies, "I can feel, almost see, the magic flowing upward from this pyramid. It would just make sense for the magic to be going up to the other one." He turns back to them and adds, "My guess would be that this is the source of the magic keeping the barrier in place."

"This pyramid here?" asks Miko.

Shaking his head, he says, "Probably something further down, I would imagine. Though, who knows?" He reaches his hand toward the flow of magic and pulls it back suddenly when his hand begins to burn like he'd stuck it in a fire.

"d.a.m.n!" he curses.

"What?" asks Miko excitedly.

"That burned," he says as he looks at his hand but doesn't see anything out of the ordinary.