Legends of Amacia Srandi: Last Bastion of the Caverias
Chapter 21: Srandi - Last Bastion of the Caverias

At exactly a half hour later, Hannibal entered the portal chamber armed and armored, followed by Harry and Samantha. Hannibal chose not to go fully armored, but had on a long electronium-alloy chainmail shirt with short sleeves beneath his long leather coat. On each arm, he wore the Draken Gauntlets in their closed-up standby vambrace form, along with greaves on each leg with armored leather boots on his feet. A broad leather belt with a roc buckle lay fastened about his waist over the leather coat and chainmail. His favorite curved dagger hung from the belt on his right hip while the Hellion hung on his left hip. The Caverias Sword lay slung across his back along with the Scepter of Shadizar Kahn. Around his neck hung the Seal of Khitia and the Caverias Seal, along with the pair of the crystal necklaces the Zinzera shaman Okoto had given him when he passed the tests in the Circle of Hammunaptra. On his right index finger, he wore the Caverias signet ring. His old tattered leather hat sat on his head, finishing his outfit, giving him a dangerous formidable air.

Harry followed right behind Hannibal, also decked in chainmail, vambraces, greaves, and armored leather boots with a leather vest over his chainmail coat. He had a backpack full of items Hannibal wished to bring on his back. A short war sword similar to the blades used by ancient Greek Hoplite soldiers hung from his belt on his left hip while a long dagger sat on his right hip. The war hammer Harry found in Skull Pass sat perched on his left shoulder, held in place by his left hand. Like Hannibal, he emanated a dangerous air.

Samantha, on the other hand, walked in behind Harry in the mechanized tiger armor she wore in Poseidia with her great axe hung strapped to her back. She had an excited, but sober expression on her face as she followed Harry and Hannibal into the portal chamber.

When Hannibal entered the portal chamber with Harry and Samantha, he stopped briefly and surveyed the scene. At the portal control panel stood Elias, Enoch, Nemesis, Tau, and Assad, who were examining the live holographic feed floating above the control panel. On the main floor below the portal platform, Hannibal saw the assembled team, which included Leila, Josephine, Anastasia, Andrew, Thomas, Ned, Cracko, Vergil, Kwahu, Tyr, and Carver. Everyone except for Elias, Leila, Josephine, and Nemesis were lightly armed and armored. The group was talking softly. As Hannibal surveyed the team, he noticed Anastasia had Morpheus’ staff in her hand along with a slender katana strapped to her back. He also noticed both Draco and Serge absent since he expected to see them when he arrived. With an imperceptible grunt and shrug, Hannibal headed across the floor to the control panel, purpose in his stride while Harry and Samantha followed with Samantha’s armored suit clunking loudly on the stone floor. This caused everyone to stop their chatter and look to Hannibal, Harry, and Samantha. They marveled for Hannibal emanated an almost savage primal purpose in his look as he walked up the ramp to the control panel, followed closely by Harry and Samantha. Leila motioned to Josephine and they joined Hannibal on the platform.

Hannibal stopped beside the console as Tau, Assad, and Nemesis stepped back to allow him to the console. “Good of you to join us,” Enoch chimed in a half a tease. “I was about to come and drag your ass up here.”

Sensing the tease, Hannibal quipped tartly with a sardonic smile, “You and what army, big brother?”

Elias chuckled, saying, “He’s got you there, Enoch.”

Enoch laughed, replying, “That he does, Elias. Sorry for the tease, Hannibal; I meant nothing by it.”

“I know you didn’t,” Hannibal said pleasantly, patting Enoch on his armored arm. “And I deserved it after embarrassing you earlier. No harm, no foul, big brother; but where are Draco and Serge? I expected to see them here.”

“Serge asked to go back to Olympus an hour ago,” Elias answered, “Apparently; he wanted to send word to the Yetis and his packs about what’s been happening with you, so I obliged him. I’m sure we will see him again at some point.”

Hannibal nodded, saying, “I’m sure we will. Serge is one of my protectors as the Roc is. I saw that with the incident in Poseidia, but what of Draco. I thought for sure he’d want to be with us when we unlocked Srandi.”

“Lord Cerrelius apparently called him back just a few minutes ago, milord,” Tau called out. “Draco apologized for having to leave so suddenly, but something came up in Drakonia he needed to address immediate. After he apologized, Lord Cerrelius used that beam of his to retrieve Lord Draco the same way he retrieved us from Poseidia. However, Draco promised that he’d be monitoring things and if something arose we needed to know about, he’d let us know.”

“Well, if Cerrelius called him back, then it’s okay,” Hannibal said soberly, “Maybe Cerrelius needs Draco to prepare their people for the Rising just as we need to do for our people.”

“That’s a distinct possibility,” Nemesis agreed, “If that’s the case, then the Rising must be much closer than we realize. You need to get the keep open now so we can finish securing Srandi.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Hannibal agreed in a matter-of-fact tone. “So Elias, where are you dropping us off and who’s already there?”

“I’m going to open the portal here in the main courtyard in front of the keep,” Elias reported, pointing to courtyard visible on the hologram. “Joshua is there right now directing the exploratory and cleanup crews. He’s been there all afternoon.”

“I see,” Hannibal replied, seeing Joshua on the steps to the main entrance to the keep. “That explains why I haven’t seen him since we gathered on the roof. Let’s not keep him waiting. You might want to let him know we’re coming. Tell him to clear the square at the base of the stairs. That’s where I want the portal opened.”

“You got it,” Elias answered, quickly sending the message to Joshua’s communicator, which he immediately answered. As soon as Joshua got the message, he had everyone clear the area where Hannibal wanted the portal opened. Once Elias saw that the area was clear, he engaged the portal, opening the portal exactly where Hannibal wanted it open. “Okay...the portal is open and stable, Hannibal,” he stated, “Good luck on opening the keep. After you go through, I’ll see if Joshua needs to use the portal before I close it. However, I will keep an eye on you through the hologram.”

“That’ll be just fine,” Hannibal replied. “Come on, guys. Let’s get this done.” With that, Hannibal walked boldly through the portal to Srandi followed by his assembled team.

Once everyone cleared the portal, Hannibal stopped and surveyed the scene, taking in the colossal immensity and hideous terrible antiquity of the fortress city. Even in its ruined state, Srandi emanated an aura of ridiculous mind-numbing ancientness mixed with an almost palatable air of raw alien power. Soft gasps and curses of amazement rose from those who had never witnessed Srandi’s titanic ancient majesty before. Hannibal felt a deep violent icy chill raced down his spine that made him shudder as he stared in mute astonishment at a titan cyclopean structure that seemed like a giant slumbering beneath his feet. The square around them covered fifty acres and was paved with gargantuan octagonal flagstones of weathered dark brown andesitic granite full of crystals. Each flagstone spanned thirty feet across and were fitted together with such precision that not even the finest of human hair could pass between them. Surrounding the square, a cyclopean megalithic wall of weathered gray andesitic granite soared four hundred feet in height. The individual stones of the wall spanned sixty feet in length and rose thirty feet high in interlocking courses. No one could tell how thick the walls were from where they stood. On the southern end of the square stood a colossal gate entrance rising one hundred fifty feet in height and seventy feet wide that housed two oppositely hinged titan metal doors that appeared to be made from an unknown gold-like alloy with all manner of symbols and images related to the Caverias line etched into its massive tarnished panels. The doors showed evidence of a catastrophic attack by heavy weapons with burns and melted places all over it, obscuring the symbols and images on it. The walls completely encircled the square, merging with the main keep on the northern side of the square.

The keep itself rose ominously over the square as its centerpiece; soaring a precipitous height of four thousand feet above the main square. Its presence emanated hideous mind-numbing antiquity and vast, raw unearthly power that seemed supernatural in its potency causing all but the most daring to shun approaching it. The impossibly massive structure loomed like a titan god ruling over the ruined city, humbling all who saw it. When Hannibal’s gaze fell on the keep for the first time in waking reality, he couldn’t suppress the awed gasp that escaped his lips. Deep icy chills raced down his spine at the raw savage antiquity and impossible power he sensed coming from the structure. “My God,” he finally whispered in utter unadulterated astonishment. “It’s...real, and far more immense than I ever imagined, even from my dreams. This place makes Acheron look like a small outpost.” The vertical wall of the keep facing the courtyard seemed to stretch out of sight into the heavens as if the structure were actually holding up the sky itself.

As Hannibal started to focus on the wall of the keep, which spanned the entire west side of the fifty-acre courtyard, he noticed the cyclopean-cut bright gray andesitic granite blocks that made up its façade were far larger than those constructing the outer walls were. Each titan block easily spanned ninety feet in length and rose fifty feet in height. They were cut and laid with perfect precision, even though the façade was heavily damaged and pockmarked with blast craters four to five feet deep spanning twenty to thirty feet across. It showed the keep had been subjected to a massive artillery barrage of unimaginable power. Yet the titan stone blocks, which were laid in alternating courses like giant bricks had held their structural integrity in spite of the insanely heavy artillery attack. Hannibal even noticed the burn marks from what he thought might have been either explosive ordinance or massive plasma rounds. Distant echoes of the siege filled Hannibal’s ears as he saw the damage to the keep. Finally, his gaze gravitated to the center of the keep’s wall just at the top of the stairs before him where a giant arched doorway twenty feet across and thirty-five feet tall sat. It appeared to be carved right through the titan building block that sat there with smaller shaped blocks three feet across forming the arch with a larger keystone in the top of the arch that spanned five feet across at the top tapering to three feet at its base. Each of the smaller stones boasted a single large rune unknown to Hannibal etched deeply into it with the keystone prominently displaying a Roc as seen on the Caverias Seal. Taken together, Hannibal sensed they may have been some sort of ward against evil, but he couldn’t tell for sure. The alien nature of the writing puzzled Hannibal greatly as at the same time, a vague familiarity with it tormented him.

When Hannibal’s eye fell on the doors themselves, a violent chill made him visibly shudder at the sight. The doors themselves consisted of an unknown gold/electronium alloy he’d never seen before that even after the tens of thousands of years of neglect seemed to still retain an eerie luster despite the many millennia of tarnish and dust. Yet, even though the unknown metallic alloy of the door greatly interested Hannibal, the bas-relief engravings captivated his attention the most, causing his déjà vu to explode. A giant copy of the Caverias Seal featuring the Roc lay engraved into the doors, covering two-thirds of the panels with twelve smaller bas-reliefs of drakens of differing types and species surrounded the Roc figurehead of the Caverias Seal in the center. Each draken figure was looking towards the Roc in the Seal as if it were their leader.

For a moment, Hannibal stared at the bas-reliefs in numbed amazement as a brief flash vision hit him showing the Roc of the Seal perched atop a colossal black pillar fifty feet across rising two hundred feet high with its wings spread outstretched in an aggressive manner while it screamed at the sky. The black pillar bore giant alien runes two feet across covering every inch of the pillar’s surface. The drakens around the Roc, some of which were much larger than the Roc likewise seemed to be roaring at the sky with the Roc as if they were celebrating a victory over an enemy. As quickly as the vision hit Hannibal, it dissipated, causing him to shake his head vigorously as if coming out of trance. The feeling he’d come home exploded in his mind and soul. “I’m home,” he whispered. “But why do I feel like this? It doesn’t make sense.”

Assad, Tau, and Enoch shook off their shock of seeing Srandi’s immensity in person much quicker than the others did. However, the sight didn’t faze Nemesis, though he did stare briefly at the keep in respectful awe of the magnificent alien immensity of the structure. They quickly noticed Hannibal staring at the doors of the keep with a pale, trembling look, and swiftly gathered around him without obstructing his view, hearing his whisperings. Assad gently rested his giant hand on Hannibal shoulder, saying softly, “Of course it doesn’t make sense to you yet, milord, but it will eventually. You know this place, yet don’t remember it. This awesome, majestic last remnant of the Caverias lineage is part of you. You can’t deny it. It’s haunted your dreams and nightmares, calling to you from across time and space to come home, and now you have. This place is in your very blood, which I sense even now burns with an unquenchable fire because you have finally answered Srandi’s plea to come home to fulfill your destiny. It lies before you within this magnificence edifice neither the Emperor nor the Kragonar could destroy. The questions that have haunted you for your entire life are about to be answered.”

Assad pointed to the doors of the keep and said firmly, “Your answers lie within the keep just up those stairs. Go, my friend; open the last bastion of the Caverias line and find your answers. The Almighty Ancient of Days brought you here to give you the answers you seek. I know you fear what you may find in there, but you know you have discover the truth, no matter how disturbing it maybe. Now is the time for you to embrace your destiny. It awaits you at those most beautiful, yet terrible doors. You know what to do.”

Hannibal looked up at Assad as he spoke words of encouragement he knew came from the Almighty Himself. The words sparked courage in his heart and his trepidation vanished as a sober smile crossed his lips. “Thank you for the encouragement, Assad,” he replied gratefully. “I needed that. I became so overwhelmed by actually seeing this place with my own eyes and not in some tempestuous nightmare, I froze for a minute. The dreams never prepared me for the sheer mind-numbing immensity of this place, nor the bizarre alien feel it’s giving me now that I’m physically here. Thanks for snapping me out of my stupor.”

“You’re welcome,” Assad answered with a sober smile. “I must admit you’re not the only one taken off guard by this place. I noticed everyone else except for Master Nemesis was likewise shaken by seeing this place in the person.”

“That’s because I’ve been here before when we first started scouting the city,” Nemesis admitted, “But this place still awes me to my core every time I’m here. The level of engineering here makes what I saw in the Black Fortress look mundane. However, we must not let the awesomeness and feel of this place stop us from our task. You need to open the keep so we can properly recon and secure the fortress, Hannibal. Only you have the keys to get in, so let’s go up there and open those doors so we can get to work.”

This order shook Hannibal back to his purpose. He nodded, saying, “You’re right, Nemesis. We haven’t the time to gawk at this magnificent edifice. There will be plenty of time for that later. We need to get inside and ferret out its secrets now.” As he spoke, Joshua walked up with Bruce. Assad and Nemesis stepped back to allow them access to Hannibal.

Seeing Hannibal’s expression, Joshua smiled and said while extending his hand, “It’s quite the imposing structure, isn’t it, Hannibal. It’s even more massive and intimidating than Acheron.”

Hannibal nodded, briefly shaking Joshua’s hand while answering, “That’s putting it mildly, Joshua. This place is beyond even what we saw at Acheron. Fortunately, this place is not giving me the evil vibe Acheron did. Strange as it sounds, I actually feel safe here.”

“I agree about the evil vibe not being present here,” Joshua agreed. “However, I wouldn’t say I feel safe here. There are still plenty of perils because of the ruined state of things around here. We’ve had to watch our step very carefully because some of the places we’ve explored still have some defensive mechanism active, which surprised the hell out of us. Then there’s the unstable physical nature of some of the ruins. We have to be very careful how we explore certain areas because of the risk of collapse. However, we’re doing fairly well in getting the place cleaned up in spite of all these obstacles, and have secured most of the city. The only place left to secure is the keep. After seeing those defensive mechanisms still active in some of the more stable structures, I’d suggest extreme caution when you unlock this thing.”

“That’s my intention,” Hannibal replied. “Wait, you say there are defensive mechanisms still active in some of the structures outside the keep?”

“Yes,” Joshua reported. “They were primarily located in the warehouse district several tiers below us nestled towards the back portion of the city. However, they weren’t that difficult to circumvent, but we did take a few casualties when we blundered into them unawares. Fortunately, no one was killed by them.”

“That’s good,” Hannibal answered, relieved by the answer. “What kind of mechanisms did you encounter? Were they booby traps?”

“We’ve encountered a number of booby traps,” Joshua stated, “There were set to kill anything entering the structure, but my guys are pretty good at detecting them so the damage to us was minimal. It seems to me these traps were set in a hurry as a last ditch effort to stave off an attack.”

“What kind of traps did you see?” Hannibal queried.

“All kinds,” Joshua answered, “but the most common type was collapse traps where a tripwire pulls a keystone that causes a large avalanche of debris to fall from above and kill whoever tripped the trap. Inevitably, these traps were set in entranceways, often sealing that entrance. That made accessing the structure very difficult, but not impossible. Once the slides were removed, we could safely access the place.”

“Did you see any other kinds of traps that were more sophisticated?” Hannibal probed, intensely curious as to what other kinds of traps Joshua and his teams had encountered.

“Well, there were plenty of pressure point spike and blade traps, along with hidden spike pits,” Joshua answered soberly, “Those were more dangerous than the tripwire traps because the pressure points were often concealed very cleverly. However, the most sophisticated traps utilized some strange type of sensors, energy fields, and disintegration beams. Those were the hardest to circumvent, but like all the others, we eventually found out how to disable them after extensive trial and error.”

“How many were lost to the traps,” Harry asked, jumping into the conversation.

“We didn’t lose anyone to the traps,” Joshua replied, “...but they did injure a couple of dozen of my guys, some seriously. Fortunately, we were able to rescue them from the traps and send them back to Antilla for treatment.”

“How about the disintegration traps,” Hannibal asked pointedly, “Your guys weren’t taken out of commission by those, were they?”

“No,” Joshua stated, “By time we encountered those traps, we were on high alert for traps and used inanimate objects to set them off. Those traps injured no one. Most of our injuries came from the spike and blade traps we blundered into, but like I said, my guys are good at detecting the traps so those caught managed to avoid lethal injuries. However, because of those disintegration traps and energy fields, I suggest you be extra careful when you access the keep, Hannibal. There is something still powering the traps in this place even after all these countless millennia of abandonment.”

“I hear you, Joshua,” Hannibal replied, patting Joshua on the shoulder. “I planned to be very careful, especially now that I’m here and can feel the machinery beneath my feet. Even though I can sense it’s operating at a very low level of power, it’s obvious enough to me there’s enough power here to keep the few traps active, along with the defensive mechanisms of the city. I’m sure there’s some pretty sophisticated defenses protecting the entrance, so I will be extra careful.”

“Good,” Joshua replied with some relief, “We can’t afford to lose you now.”

“We’re not going to lose Hannibal,” Leila called out as Josephine rolled her up in her wheelchair. “The defenses of this fortress are coded to the Caverias gene sequences. When in lockdown, the defense mechanisms will scan for the Caverias genetic code of the royal family and will only deactivate when it finds that code. It’s a failsafe Gordo built into the defenses of this fortress so the machines here don’t accidentally take out the royal family...at least that’s what I vaguely recall.”

“I remember that too,” Josephine stated, “It’s a very clever failsafe Thoth insisted be programmed into the fortress’ defenses after Bolthor turned on him. The program will only allow one of royal blood to enter the keep when it’s in lockdown, as I can clearly see it is now. Because of this, I don’t think Hannibal will have any trouble in opening it since he has the Caverias gene sequence in him.”

“That must be why we couldn’t access it,” Nemesis rumbled thoughtfully. “No matter what we did, the machine would not respond and kept that door sealed.”

“You didn’t try blasting through it, did you?” Tau asked.

“Only one time did I try that,” Nemesis growled darkly, “The moment I opened fire with my plasma cannon, the machines of this place instantly erected an energy shield around the door and what I considered to be the access panel. The shield instantly reflected my plasma round back at me and I barely had time to duck out of the way.” He pointed to what appeared to be a freshly made four-foot wide crater on the courtyard wall opposite the keep’s entrance, adding, “It not only reflected my plasma round, it energized it with seven times the amount of power the original round had. If I had not gotten out of the way of the reflected round, we would not be having this conversation. As it stands, I got a bit singed by the round because of how close it came to me.”

“Whoa,” Harry breathed. “That’s some defense mechanism. You should be extra careful when trying to open this thing then, Hannibal.”

“And definitely don’t do anything hostile towards it,” Enoch added grimly. “Since you can sense the machinery is still active in this place and with Nemesis’ report about attacking the doors, you should be extra careful, Hannibal.”

“I will,” Hannibal insisted soberly. “Thanks for telling me about how dangerous attacking the entrance is, Nemesis. That’s something I definitely don’t want to do. It seems I’m going to have to pick this lock very carefully.”

“Not if you have the key,” Leila reminded him, seeing the Caverias signet on Hannibal’s finger. “As I remember, the Caverias signet is the key to many things, including this fortress. However, I don’t have an accurate recollection of all the things Thoth included in the defenses, just that the ring on your finger is the key to many treasures and technologies.”

A broad, wry smile crossed Hannibal’s lips as he looked at Leila. “You are so right, Leila,” he crowed, “The ring did unlock your stasis chamber in Ezra’s Tower, so what’s to say it won’t unlock other secrets. I knew you were going to be useful in getting us into the keep. Just by being here, you’re starting to remember things about this place.”

“You’re right,” Leila replied. “The fog in my memory of this place is slowly thinning, allowing me to remember more about this place. One thing I know for sure is that the ring and the Caverias gene sequence are vital components in opening the keep from a lockdown.”

“I see,” Hannibal said thoughtfully. “In that case, let’s stop talking and go and see if I can crack open this place.” He suddenly looked at Joshua and asked, “Since it seems you’ve secured most of the city, how are the provisions coming, Joshua? I doubt you found anything edible in the ruins after over twelve thousand cycles of being deserted.”

“That’s true,” Joshua reported. “We did find food stores in some of the warehouses, but what we saw of them so far have long since disintegrated into dust. However, I doesn’t mean we won’t find some food stores intact elsewhere. After all, we are just starting to explore this place, but I can say we did find some weapons stashes and other non-organic supplies that will definitely be useful to us.”

“You found them where the disintegrator traps were, didn’t you?” Hannibal queried with a raised eyebrow and a wry smile.

“How’d you know?” Joshua asked with surprise. “That’s exactly where we discovered them.” Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Because that’s where I’d put them,” Hannibal answered. “Obviously, military hardware would have the most advanced defensive security around it.” He paused and turned, looking up the flight of stairs in front of him to the keep’s entrance. “But we can talk about that later, Joshua,” he declared, “I have a job to do. That door there is the main entrance, right?”

“As far as I can see,” Joshua stated, “I’ve looked pretty close at it and as long as you don’t try to force your way in as I saw Nemesis do, you should be okay.”

“I agree,” Leila stated. “The shield is the primary defense mechanism that I remember concerning the front door here. When activated, it’s designed to reflect any damage used against it sevenfold back towards whoever attacks it, as you say Nemesis found out the hard way.”

“That I did,” Nemesis agreed, “Only my enhanced speed kept me from being incinerated by my own plasma round. What I did notice is touching the door and what I figured must be the control panel is allowed as long as you don’t attack the door or try to bypass or short out the control panel. Any attempt to access the mechanism of the panel leads to a rather potent electrical shock and concussion blast that repels the violator. The voltage of the shock is sufficient to kill all but the strongest like me who are able to absorb and redirect such powerful electrical surges. It’s actually a very similar to the backup control panel that controlled access to Josephine in the core of the Black Fortress. Remember how dangerous getting through that was?”

“I do indeed,” Hannibal chimed, starting to get a feel for the security mechanism associated with the keep. “It nearly killed you when you tried to pick its lock, Nemesis. That means every means of bypassing this console will trigger a lethal defense response. It means I’m going to have to handle this thing very carefully.”

“That you will,” Nemesis agreed, “I hope at least one of those knickknacks you brought with you might be the key to opening this place, because I don’t see any other way of getting in.”

Hannibal gazed towards the door, saying, “Same here, my friend; is there anything else you saw with your close examination of the control panel?”

“It’s definitely magnetically sealed with a field even more powerful than the one that secured Josephine in the core at the Black Fortress,” Nemesis reported. “That’s how it can resist any attempt to open the panel.”

“Interesting,” Tau rumbled thoughtfully as Hannibal continued to stare at the entrance. “It sounds like the old Emperor may have stolen the tech to imprison Miss Keleb in the Black Fortress from here.”

“That’s a distinct possibility,” Assad agreed.

“What else did you see with the panel, Nemesis,” Hannibal asked bluntly. “Did you see any access ports or indentations where some key may fit?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Nemesis stated, “I saw one place in the console that indicated some sort of key was needed. I also saw it has a rather strange sensor eye too, but I could not tell if it were operational. The magnetic shield around the control panel prevented me from scanning inside the device.”

“Very interesting,” Hannibal stated distantly, “Everything about this feels so damnably familiar. The déjà vu is literally eating me alive and I can feel something calling to me from within the keep...something powerful and ancient, yet dreadfully familiar.”

“Is it of the Light?” Assad asked cautiously.

“I cannot say for sure,” Hannibal admitted as the perplexity showing on his face suddenly shifted to determination. “All I know is I have to answer this call. It’s just like the call that drew me to Leila, and it’s getting louder by the moment. I have to answer it. Come on, guys. Let’s get this thing open so I can quiet the restless spirit that’s calling to me.”

With that, Hannibal headed towards the front entrance of the keep, walking up the flight of thirty flagstone steps fifty feet across with four-foot deep treads that loomed before him. The stairs provided access to the large platform surrounding the main keep entrance rising thirty feet from the main courtyard area in a semicircular fashion. Along both the right and left sides of the stairs sat a gentle ramp twenty feet wide, allowing vehicle and handicap access to the front of the keep. While everyone followed Hannibal up the stairs, Josephine rolled Leila in her wheelchair up the right side ramp, joining the others at the top.

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