The Seven Sins - Joslinne Morgan (unputdownable books txt) 📗

us straight up the mountain. I am not going to circle around for hours until I find a path I don’t know and take the long way to Sèntrài.”
“It’s not the long way!” Pike insisted. “It’s the scenic route.”
“You never cease to amaze me how far you can get from the point, dear Pike.”
“You don’t know what’s in there! There could be bats, cougars, bears…and did I mention bats? One of them could be hiding from us right now, just waiting for the right moment when we suspect nothing, and then they’ll descend upon us and drink our blood, turning us into mindless zombies forced to live in darkness for the rest of eternity!” he was hyperventilating now. His rosy cheeks had turned breathless red.
“My dear, dear Pike,” Phantom shook his head. “You have read one too many horror stories. All that stuff is made up. No bats are going to suck out your blood, this tunnel is perfectly safe. I practically lived here not long ago.”
Pike glanced from Phantom to the cave and from the cave to Phantom, unsure as to whether go with the feeling in his gut or the reassuring words of his traveling companion. It took him a minute, and in the end he decided to trust Phantom.
“Oh fine,” he said, spreading his hands in defeat. “I give up.”
A ghost of a smile hung about Phantom’s lips.
“Alright then, let’s go.”


In the same way he had never been interested in women who didn’t closely resemble his mother, Pike was never fond of anything that lacked a homry atmosphere. Needless to say, the cave made him uncomfortable, and the thought of hiking up a few thousand miles to the very top of Drüel Mountain did not quite appeal to him. Phantom had assured him that no carnivorous lizards were going to suck out his eyeballs, and Pike was ready to trust his friend.
But then again, when could Phantom ever be trusted?
The idea was unsettling, and Pike chose not to dwell on it. Instead he looked to the task of staying alive long enough to reach the end of his goal. Or rather, Phantom’s goal. Pike was just along for the ride.
“I would feel much better, I think, if I knew what was going on.” He panted, placing his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath during a brief pause. Phantom made no comment.
“It would certainly provide some motivation,” Pike insisted as they started up again.
“Yes,” Phantom agreed.
“PHANTOM!”
“What?” Phantom glared. “Oh fine. We’re being followed by the Seven Deadly Sins.”
“The SINS?”
“You asked.”
“But…but what could they want with us?”
“First of all, it’s not us, it’s me. And probably not me either, they want the mirror of Disillusion.”
“Well, why don’t you just GIVE it to them?”
Phantom passed a hand over his eyes.
“Because, that is exactly what I am trying to avoid having to do.” He spoke as if trying to explain things to a slow child. “The sins are controlled by some Lord Valdrick – or whatever he calls himself – and he is sending them to do his dirty work for him.”
“So,” Pike was confused. “Why does Lord Val-something want the Mirror?”
Phantom shrugged.
“Probably because I stole it from him.”

“What are you doing?” Phantom demmanded a few hours later as Pike plopped down on a flat-top rock.
“I can’t go on,” Pike moaned. “Just continue without me.”
Phantom rolled his eyes.
“Ok,” he said, and turned. The cave was dark, but a growth of giant glowing mushrooms known as Geni kept everything but the farthest corners free from shadows. Phantom turned back to Pike, who was still trying his best to catch his breath. “It’s not that much farther, if you get up and move we’ll be at our first stopping point in another hour or so.”
“Let me rest first, then we’ll discuss actually getting up and moving somewhere.” Pike titled his head back to rest against a stalagmite that served as a back for his rough formation of a chair. Phantom sat down on a mushroom to rest his own limbs as he waited for his companion to recoup. The top of the fungi was covered with a light dusting of power that was greatly coveted in some regions as a deadly poison. Phantom’s eyes gleamed as he produced a small penknife from his pocket and a little vial hanging from his belt on a braided scarlet cord. Using the knife, he scraped some of the precious powder off the top of the Geni and placed it into the mouth of the bottle. Once the vial was filled he replaced it and the knife, then wiped his hands to get off any of the extra residue. By the time his task was finished, Pike announced he was officially ready to move on.
“This way,” Phantom gestured to an opening on the side of the cave. Pike squinted behind his spectacles and peered at the entrance.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes,” Phantom said, and started forward. The cave was favorable for shorter persons. Even Phantom, who was just barely five feet tall, had problems with his head brushing the roof of the cavern. Pike went the first few steps with no problems, for he was an entire three inches shorter.
“Who dug this cavern? Dwarves?” he asked grumpily, bumping his head on a low-hanging stalactite.
“It is a natural formation,” said Phantom, ducking low to avoid sharing the same fate. “Even most dwarves would have a hard time getting through.”
“Trust you to know that. Ow!” Pike rubbed his skull. The roof was getting lower, and Phantom was having to stoop. “Ow, ow, ow! What gives?”
Phantom didn’t answer but rather continued forward.
The cavern was began to shrink smaller and smaller as they advanced. Soon they were both crawling on their stomachs, and Pike was having a hard time squeezing his plump form through the narrow passage. Phantom, being slender as a whip, was even beginning to doubt himself.
Pike began to panic.
“It can’t possibly get any smaller!” he exclaimed, panic building in his voice. “We’ll get stuck! We’ll be buried alive!”
“No, we won’t!” Phantom hissed, able to swivel his head just enough to glare at the man over his shoulder. “We’re almost there. Just a little bit more.”
The cavern pressed in on them from all sides, squeezing the very breath from their lungs, it seemed. And it was so dark and stifling, the rocks chewed up their hands and scraped against their faces until they were sure that they were leaving drag marks.
After what seemed an eternity, Phantom’s head poked out, scattering small rocks and bits of dirt. He squirmed and wriggled until he was able to scramble completely out.
“Help!” came Pike’s panicked voice. “I’m stuck!”
Phantom turned back to the hole and grab the man’s arms, tugging with everything he had in him. Pike whimpered and moaned, muttering something about needing to be greased out, when at last with a rip of fabric and a squeal of protest, he was out and standing with Phantom on the ledge.
“Wow,” he said, his voice echoing oddly. They had entered an entirely different section of the cave that was wider than the other one by far. The ledge they were standing on was elevated off the ground. Neither could calculate how far, for they could not see the ground. The roof scraped low over their heads, but if they fell it was a long way to the bottom, if the fall itself did not kill them first the impact as they hit the ground (if indeed there was one) would also prove fatal.
“Great, how do we get down?” Pike asked.
“I don’t know,” Phantom said quietly. “I didn’t think this far…” he trailed off.
“What is it?” Pike demmanded. Phantom pointed wordlessly to the space in front of them. A stone slide about three feet wide that dipped dangerously at one point stretched out as far as they could see. It was made up entirely of green and gold bricks. The surface was slick, as if coated with ice. Pike bent over it and put his hand to the stone.
“It’s cold, like marble,” he said, and looked up incredulously. “Are you certain this cave was not dug by dwarves?” he looked back to the slide. “I wonder where it ends.”
“Only one way to find out,” Phantom stepped forward and placed his boot between Pike’s shoulderblades and gave him a slight shove forward. The little man’s eyes flew wide as he tumbled and landed flat on his stomach. The slide went straight down, and so did he, at a frightening speed.
Phantom watched him disappear from view and listened for the cracking of bones or any other sign indicating his companion had hit the bottom. After a moment’s wait there was still nothing, and he determined that the only way to find out was to try it for himself. He sat down at the top of the slide, hands resting on either side. After taking a deep breath he shoved himself forward and started his descent.
At first, the slide only went straight down, and after a while it began to get a bit tedious. But then Phantom came to a series sharp turns with which he had to maneuver his body so as not to fall off the edge. Up ahead, he could see the point where the slide splitted into two different sections, one of which was completely gold and the other which was completely green. He wondered which to choose, but he needn’t have bothered, because the slide chose for him. The next time he looked up he was sliding down the green path, and the gold path was well far behind him.


While Phantom was sliding down the green slide, Pike was sliding down the gold one. He hadn’t noticed, of course, because his eyes were shut tightly and his fists were clenched as he waited for the end.
The end never came, although he thought for a brief second that it had when the slide came to a sudden halt and he dropped. Wind whistled past his ears and made his baggy clothing flap, he probably could have flown had he put his mind to it. The drop seemed to last hours, but for all he knew it could have been only a few seconds. At last, he landed on top of a pile of something hard.
He opened his eyes slowly. First the right, then the left. He had not, as he suspected, landed on top of the bones of past trespassers. Instead, he had landed on a heap of gold coins! Perhaps he was dreaming, or maybe he had died after all and landed in Heaven. Either way, he was perfectly content. He sat up and looked about. There were more than one pile, and they were all at least ten or twenty feet high. It was not just gold, either, it was jewels and rich clothes, silver goblets and string after string of pearls. It was was diamonds, opals, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and aquamarine. Pike’s eyes widened and he rubbed his hands together. All this wealth, his for the taking!
He looked around for something with which to carry some of the stuff, but all he could find were either little jewel boxes that were much too small or were golden trunks filled with treasure and weighed a ton. He was hovering on the brink of dismay when he had a sudden thought. Taking the leather bag that was slung over his shoulder,