Black Hollow

Chapter 7 - It's the Little Things

At first, Kerry thought her eyes played tricks on her, that what she saw was merely an illusion due to the stone walls. However, the further she walked, the more certain she became that not everything was as it should be. Not only did the hall appear to get narrower, the ceiling also seemed to get lower, the surrounding stone caving in on her almost as if the further she walked the more the hall would crush her. As she stared down the end of the hall where Arden led her, the far end resembled a tiny pinprick of light that only a mosquito could fly through. “What the hell are you leading me into?" she asked, her voice shrill even to her ears.

Arden reached out, taking her arm as he tried to calm her. “It's all right. I promise. It's just a security measure. Nothing will harm you in here."

Kerry took a couple of deep breaths as she tried to focus on Arden's words, her fear threatening to topple her nerves, setting her stomach into a queasy spin. She took comfort in his touch, focusing on the warmth of his hand as she tamped down on her fright. As soon as it appeared, she had herself under control again. She nodded, and he released her arm causing Kerry to suddenly miss his touch. She had only met this man a couple of hours ago, and already she drew comfort from his small gestures.

Arden gestured at the surrounding walls. “The spell on these walls makes them shrink into a tiny opening that can only be passed through with our magic," he told her. “In order to enter the vault, you need to be with either Quinn or myself. My magic will shrink us so that we can enter. Once inside, you'll be normal-sized again once I release my magic hold on you. I promise. No harm will come to you."

“What happens if I stray beyond your magic?" she asked, and she knew she sounded like a crazed person. What he told her defied logic, but then again, didn't all magic? Hell, did she even believe in magic? What she had witnessed so far today still had her mind reeling.

“You'll remain the size of a bug until we find you again," Quinn said with a casual shrug. “Finding you, of course, will be the hard part, so if I was you, I wouldn't wander too far out of his range. Only his magic will return you to normal, since his magic it was that shrunk you."

“You did this to my sister?" Kerry asked, turning her attention back to Arden. “How do I know you didn't shrink her and leave her?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, and she regretted uttering the question immediately. She could trust Arden, she knew in her gut, but still, someone had kidnapped her sister. What if she was being silly and misplacing her trust?

Arden held out his hand, waiting for her to take it. “Take my hand, and you won't be able to stray past our magic. I promise you, your sister went into the vault, and I brought her back out. I did nothing to harm Brandie, and I swear, no harm will come to you if you do as I say. You wanted to see the vault. This is the only way."

Kerry kept staring at the tiny hole in the distance, ignoring Arden's extended arm and offered hand. What if something went wrong, and she tripped and fell out of his magic bubble? What if she sneezed, for crying out loud, and he walked too far away before noticing she had stopped?

“Oh, bloomin' hell, I'll go first," Quinn said, annoyed. “Just watch me. I'll keep talking, and you'll be able to tell when I'm on the other side of the entrance." He walked away from them as he spoke, continuing down the hall toward the vault. As he walked, however, Kerry noticed his voice changed to a higher frequency, until it sounded like an irritating buzzing in the distance. The light shining through the entrance darkened for a brief second, and then Quinn's voice returned to normal. “Here, I'm inside now. Perfectly normal in size and sound."

Kerry swallowed the dryness of her throat as she stared down the hall.

Arden shook his offered hand once more. “I promise, you'll be safe. Just hold my hand and don't let go until I tell you it's safe."

With a deep breath, screwing up her courage, Kerry reached out and took Arden's hand, his grip firm, powerful. His touch distracting her from the impossible that was about to happen. She nodded once and then allowed him to lead her down the hallway toward the vault. As they walked, the hall stopped getting smaller, the walls no longer moving in on her, and the ceiling staying right where it should be. She glanced around, unsure what was happening as she continued to walk beside Arden toward the entrance, only now, the opening seemed the right size, perfect for her to simply walk through, and she did. She stepped through the entrance, which seemed no different than any other doorway she ever passed through and into the vault. Only now, everything inside seemed monstrous compared to her, as if she were a tiny doll in a human's world.

“You can let go of my hand now," Arden told her. “Everything will balance out as I release my magic. Promise." She felt him squeeze her hand once, the strength in his grip a comfort to her razzled nerves.

With a deep breath again, she released his hand, and before she had completely let go, she stared at a room full of cast-iron pots as large as small cars, each filled to overflowing with gold.

“There really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," Kerry said in disbelief as she stared at the dozens of cauldrons in front of her.

Out of the top of each pot shot a large rainbow that went up through the stone ceiling and disappeared. The vault itself was a giant cavern of rough-hewn granite with stalagmites dripping from the ceiling, and a dirt floor underneath. There were no other entrances or even windows to look out at the world. The only way in or out of this cavern was the tiny hole in the wall behind her. How the leprechauns even got the gold into the vault or how the thief thought he could get it out was beyond Kerry. The pots were huge. No way any ten men would be able to lift them, much less carry them out.

Arden chuckled as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, yes, there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," he said as he smiled over at her. “As we said, sometimes stereotypes hold just a bit of truth."

She turned to him, still not believing everything she saw. “But how would they even get the gold out of here?"

Arden shrugged. “That's what we hired your sister to discover. The only way I can think of is to shrink them, which would mean the thief is a leprechaun."

Kerry turned back to the gold, her arms at her sides as she just stared, dumbfounded. “What's on the other side of these walls?" she asked, trying to think like her sister. What if the thief wasn't a leprechaun, but just your run-of-the-mill crook? They'd have to break into the vault the old-fashioned way.

“More earth," Quinn answered. “The vault isn't in the building; it's in the ground. The other part of the magic of the hall is that it doesn't reveal that you aren't moving to the back of the building, but rather, you're walking down into the Earth. This room is buried deep in the bowels of the Earth. No one would even be able to dig their way to it."

“Now do you see why we didn't tell anyone we hired your sister?" Arden asked. “The only ones who can get in or out of this vault are leprechauns, because only we have the magic to shrink down to the size of the entrance. The theft has to be being planned by one of our employees." He sighed as he dropped his gaze down to the ground. “One of our family."

Kerry felt a tug at her heart as he uttered that last statement, his voice full of hurt more than anger. The betrayal was made more bitter by the fact that it had to come from someone they trusted and called family. “I'm sorry," she offered. “I know that has to suck, but if the only way in or out of here is through that entrance, then they had to pass your security team to get this far. Surely, there's a video of who is making the attempt."

“No one that we've noticed so far," Arden said with a shake of his head. “Ruck hasn't noticed anything, either, and he monitors our security feeds." He shrugged. “Of course, the thief could have very well shrunk himself already and avoided detection."

She tilted her head, the wheels in her mind still spinning. “Can the ogres get in here?"

This time it was Quinn who answered. “Not without one of us using our magic to get them through the entrance." He slid his hands in his pockets. “It has to be someone behind the teller booths or in the records room."

“What about other leprechauns?" she asked. “Surely, you don't all work here."

“True," Arden agreed. “There are a few who work as cobblers in other parts of the world, especially back in our home country, but I haven't heard of any of them traveling here."

“The last people to cross the oceans were Paddy and his group, and only Paddy works here," Quinn said. “And he's too drunk most of the time to even show up for work."

“What about those who came with him?" she pressed, doing her best to exhaust every avenue of query as she knew her sister would. “Could they be after the gold?"

Arden shrugged. “I honestly don't know. Even if they were, they'd still have to get inside, and there's no way to do that without passing Nunk or the others."

With her hands on her hips, she glanced around the vault searching for answers that were as buried as the gold. “So who's the treasure hunter?" she pondered out loud. And who has my sister?