Chapter 11
Just when Tathan thought things couldn’t possibly get odder, something new would throw him for a loop. A millennium and six centuries would be enough to make Tathan break an oath. He knew that for a fact. The knights of today were a joke. Most were controlled by kings or priests and were used for political purposes, not purposes of honor.
There was a cool draft coming from the vault, which struck Tathan as unusual because vaults were shut off from any source of air. A few steps in revealed the cause of the draft.
A rough tunnel tall enough for a man to walk through reached from the forest to the back of the vault. Not an ounce of treasure was left, unless one considered the nuts and harvests of forest rodents to be treasure.
“Powerful wards and runes protect those doors,” Sir Danth said, his voice filled with raw irony. “And only fifty paces of simple rock protected the back wall of the vault.” He began to laugh. It was a hollow, haunted laugh. “They even took the pedestal the crown was on!” Sir Danth walked over to the nearest wall to bang his helmet against it. The laughter became uncontrollable.
“Oh, Tathan! Should we do something?” Liselle clutched her hands in front of her, looking at the poor knight.
“No. Sometimes a man just needs to bang his head against a wall for a while.” Tathan put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Let him be. The helmet isn’t taking any damage. I can’t say the same thing for the wall.”
Vevin danced to the tunnel. “This will be a perfect entrance if I dig it out some more! There was another set of doors on the north side of the last cave that I could use for a new vault.”
Liselle watched Sir Danth with pity. “That sounds nice, Vevin.”
“Do you think Sir Danth will let me have this as my home now?” He did a hopeful dance.
Tathan noticed Vevin had different dances for each mood. “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care anymore, Vevin.” Tathan pointed at Sir Danth. “You may have to patch up the hole he’s making in the wall by banging his head against it though.”
“Tathan, we should do something to help him,” Liselle pleaded.
He studied Sir Danth for a moment. “Sixteen hundred years of guarding an empty vault alone? If he’s still banging his helmet tomorrow, we’ll talk to him.” He linked his arm in Liselle’s. “Let’s see where the tunnel leads to, shall we?” Without waiting for a response, he dragged her to the tunnel.
“Let me know what you find!” Vevin shouted after them. “I’m going to go look at those other doors to see if they lead to a vault.”
“Scream if something tries to kill you,” Tathan called over his shoulder.
“I will!” Vevin danced away.
“Neither one of them is human you know,” Tathan said to Liselle as they walked down the tunnel.
“I know Vevin isn’t, but Sir Danth seems to be . . . Isn’t he?”
“Humans don’t live for sixteen hundred years, Cousin. He may have been human at one time, but not anymore.”
Realization dawned in her eyes. “Oh . . . I hadn’t thought of that.”
They reached the end of the tunnel and looked around. The entrance was on the side of a verdant hill leading down to a small valley, which had a stream running through it. Above them was the edge of the ruined city. To the north, the stream fell over a cliff.
Liselle pointed to an animal trail going through the trees at the level of the tunnel. “It appears forest animals have used the tunnel as shelter over the years. I think we can get to the cliff without going all the way down to the stream.”
“Let’s go have a look then.”
It was a short walk to the cliff. A blanket of thick trees covered the valley thousands of feet below. Liselle held onto Tathan’s arm as she peered over, a big grin covering her face. The stream turned to mist as it fell past birds soaring above the valley. Snowcapped mountains rose to the east far in the distance.
Tathan had known the Willden Forest was vast, but not to such a degree. They had just traveled through it for ten days and it still stretched north for as far as the eye could see. He turned to the left and saw that the cliff curved north, gradually lowering down to the forest on the western side. The road they traveled must continue on that way.
Liselle pointed toward a lake far to the northeast near the base of mountains. “What’s that over there?”
“I don’t see anything.”
“There’s a structure on this side of the lake next to the mountains. It looks small from here, but I swear it’s there.”
Tathan saw it then. The structure looked like a fortress built into the mountainside. He couldn’t tell if there was any life inhabiting the place, but it had to be as big as a city to see it from where they were. It was odd to see a fortress built up against one of the biggest mountain ranges bordering the largest forest in the world. No one knew how wide the Caaldith Mountains were, but Tathan knew they were at least hundreds of miles wide at this point. “It must be another ruin like this one. There was obviously a civilization around here . . . one millennium and six centuries ago?” he suggested with a chuckle.
She nodded. “Probably the Kingdom of Morhain. Maybe we can ask Sir Danth about it.”
“If he’s done beating his head against a wall.”
“Tathan!” Liselle whacked his chest with the back of her hand. “That’s not nice.” It was hard for her to glare past the amused grin she had. “Let’s go back and see how our friends are doing.”
He followed her, still chuckling. It was nice to chuckle and smile again. A long time had passed since he had done so. Tathan looked around at the trees and stream as they walked. It was a rich forest with varied trees and wildflowers. Moss grew on rocks and fallen trunks. Insects and small critters went about their business with no regard to the two humans in their midst.
Tathan’s sword suddenly swung in a great twisting arc as he leapt into the air. He jumped down the hill to avoid the attack he sensed. He rolled to lunge back at his attacker.
Rojuun Page 19