by Clark Bolton
Autbek tried to quickly come up with a good reply will thinking at the same time it would be best not to lie as Solimek could possibly detect that. “I did my lady, I’m very concerned about someone and so had cast a spell to help me locate him, but to no avail.”
“Really?” The lady said with some interest. “Very well then.” She then looked at Solimek questioningly.
“The Councilor is not to do enchantments near his lordship, my lady, nor do I advise it be allowed in the presence of his children.” Solimek stated slowly and somewhat menacingly toward Autbek.
“I shall of course consult with my father to confirm this, Solimek.” The lady said. “Thank you!” She then nodded to the Comusa as if dismissing him.
Grudgingly, Solimek withdrew leaving Autbek with three ladies, a footman and a distant scribe. “Thank you, my lady, I do think he wishes well.” Autbek said trying to make light of the situation though his heart was pounding and his throat was dry.
The lady smiled and replied, “You are looking for Fesmbol, Councilor, I’m afraid I have not as of yet met my new half-brother.” She seemed unhappy with the fact she had a new relative.
Autbek kindly replied that he was and then asked to impose on her by handing her the letter to the baroness Imeldacy. Relieved that she was happy to do this for him and her new brother he found himself again leaning against the wall near the turtle sculpture.
“That went well.” Castor said as he kept an eye out for others who might be passing by.
Autbek shook his head in relief. “You couldn’t find Fesmbol?”
“No, and she became most interested when she overheard me asking for him.” Castor replied. “When your name was mentioned she insisted I take her to you. Apparently you’re famous in the palace now.” He announced with a glare.
“Yea, no thanks to you. Now let’s get out of here.”
“I’ve been thinking about something.” Castor said as he watched Autbek peek around the corner to see if it was clear to leave.
“Oh, what’s that?”
“You have forgotten about someone.” Castor said with concern on his face. “Lusric, he is still missing and so are the librarians.”
Autbek admitted to himself he did not want to think about it. “Tenric says he was detained, and I suppose the librarians have been also or more likely are hiding somewhere like Haspeth.”
“Do you believe the Comusa simply detained him?” Castor asked as he crossed his arms.
“What are you getting at, and can’t it wait?”
“I’m suggesting I have a peek in the dungeon to find out.”
Autbek closed his eyes and groaned, it then took him several moments of soul-searching before replying. “Do you have any idea where?”
“Yes, but I’ll need something first.” Castor said. “That anti-scrying spell, I need you to cast it on me as I may need to do a few illusions.”
Nodding his head finally Autbek relented and so had his friend stand next to the turtle sculpture after which he cast the same spell he had been using to mask scrying of his room whenever Berdtom requested it. In theory it would work as Castor had suggested it would and so with luck Solimek would not detect Castor’s spells.
“Hope he did not just detect this casting!” Autbek said as Castor headed out for the dungeons. It occurred to him that he maybe he should have gone with the boy, but since he had the impression that Castor had snuck down there before he talked himself out of it. I’d just slow him down, he told himself.
The first locked door took Castor several minutes as he kept getting interrupted by passerby’s and had to do it with his thief-tools rather than a spell since he had never master one for the purpose. It wasn’t illusion based anyways so he had figured it wasn’t worth the effort to try as he had a whole list of others he wanted to learn in front of it.
Closing the door behind he immediately noticed that this side contained a key which he figured only meant one thing; someone was down below at this very moment. He had explored this passage down to the dungeon before, when it had not been locked, and when no one had been around. It seemed to lead to a section of the dungeon just below the lords part of the palace and possibly connected with other parts as he had found a maze of oddly constructed rooms and passageways on his last visit.
He was not surprised when at the bottom of the fourth flight of small stairs he saw light ahead. Stopping to listen for a couple of minutes he determined that there were at least two people down here and they were not talking much. As he approached the first intersection up ahead he could guess that whoever was down here was off to the left in some room and that the way he wanted to go was straight ahead. Sure enough, as he peeked around the corner he caught sight of at least one man who was for the most part out of sight within a well lite room.
Carefully crossing the intersection he began peering into darkened rooms in search of Lusric or someone else imprisoned down here until it became too dark to search. Castor then cast a glowing lights spell that sent several colorful spheres of light floating out a short distance in front of him. After a few more minutes of searching by the glow of the spheres he got the impression he had passed into an unused section of the dungeon. The dust on the floor seemed to confirm this so he turned back.
Returning to the first room which had been occupied he observed carefully for a few minutes until he convinced himself there was only two men within and that a closed door on the other side of the room was likely were he needed to go. He quickly concluded then that there was no way to sneak past these men so he figured he was going to have to lure them out.
Selecting a spot on one of the larger landings on the stairs he had first come down he pulled out his enchanted chalk and proceed to sketch on the wall. He was sure he could conceal himself here now so long as he didn’t move and the guards didn’t search the area closely. When he completed his sketch of a brick wall he turned and called loudly down the stairs.
He deepened his voice as best he could and tried hard to make it sound like someone in authority was calling the two men below up to the palace. When he heard replies coming from below he ignored them as he brought his sketch to life so that now he looked effectively to be on the other side of a brick wall. Moments later the two men ascended the stairs, allowing him to slip down and enter the room where they had been.
The door here was also locked but he was getting familiar enough with the type of lock it contained to open it pretty fast and so he was able to open and slip through and shut it behind him well before the guards returned. He then found himself in a poorly lit corridor with several closed doors and he was immediately aware of the strong order of garlic.
That could mean only three things, he told himself. One was that someone was cooking down here, which he sincerely doubted, or someone was trying to stave off decay of a corpse and at the same time keep the smell of death at bay. The third option involved the undead and he had yet to encounter that use of garlic or knew anyone who had.
It did not take him long to figure out which of the doors had a stash of peeled garlic behind it as all of them contained small slots in them and only one reeked. The door was not locked and so he slowly opened it. It was too dark to make out much so he closed the door behind him and produced the glowing spheres again.
Castor shrugged to himself when his eyes fell upon an expected form. A wool blanket had been sown shut around the form of a man or a woman and was lying on mat of straw. It was hardly the first time he found the need to handle such a bundle and so he hardly hesitated to begin cutting through the leather cords that kept the blanket in place over the victim’s face. From an early age he been recruited along with other Dakish children to loot the corpses of the recently deceased for whatever alms their family had left on them.
“Good thing Autbek isn’t here.” He hissed softly as the garlic that had been placed on the corpses eyes and between the lips feel away as he spread the blanket apart. “Lusric, where are you?” He mumbled as he beheld the face of on
e of Tenric’s librarians.
On closer examination he determined there was a large gaping wound through the man’s mid-section and so satisfied he had learned what he could he took a few minutes to stitch up the corpse again. The job he was doing wouldn’t likely be good enough to fool anyone who moved the body out into the light he figured, but it would fool them if they didn’t look to close.
Back tracking to one of the other doors he peered through the slot and was hit immediately by the stench of death, and this time without garlic. Guessing whoever was in this one had died after the librarian he quietly opened the door and sent his floating spheres in. He had mixed feelings when he determined that it was Lusric’s body on the pile of straw this time. The body had not been covered in a blanket yet but efforts had been made to position enough straw to soak up the blood.
“Same way.” He muttered to himself as he turned over the stiff body to find another gaping hole. One more, he thought as he closed the door before moving on to the next one. He found his door locked and no odor of death or garlic emanating from it. Listen carefully he determined that whoever was in there still breathed.
“Whisper only!” Castor whispered through the slot as he kept his eyes on the door between him and the two guards, then he asked, “Who are you?”
“Can you help me?” Came a weak reply. Castor immediately knew by the accent that it was the other of Tenric’s librarians.
“Maybe!” He answered as he paused to think for a while. He was pretty sure he was not going to be able to get this old man out of there and past the guards without a fight. And then he would have to justify his actions to whomever chanced upon them should they achieve the palace level above.
The librarian sounded in pretty poor shape though Castor couldn’t tell for sure. He was sure that the man was not apparently close to death and since he very much didn’t want the man to know who he was he ignored the many questions from the man and his begging to be freed.
“I’ll get help.” Castor finally promised. “But first tell me did the Comusa kill Lusric?”
“Yes.” The man sobbed.
“I’m sorry.” Castor replied. “But you must not tell anyone I’ve been here. I’ll be back with help as soon as possible but it may take some time.” Hoping this would cover his tracks until he was back in the palace he stood up and returned to the door that lead out.
He could think of only two options to get himself out. The first would be to extinguish the torches in the room where the guards sat and then run like hell past them in the dark. He could do the extinguishing with a cantrip he was sure.
The other option he figured would be to just sit and wait for an opportunity to sneak past but that could take many hours. By then he was pretty sure someone like Autbek would come looking for him. That would be bad, he told himself, so peering through the small window in the door he prepared to try and extinguish the torches but then he thought to make sure his disguise was in place.
He didn’t have a mirror with him but figured he could do with out to the point where he would be unrecognizable should he encounter the guards later. When a sudden whiff of garlic hit him again something else came to mind. Turning he made his back to one of the open rooms where he had seen a bucket with some water in it. Here he positioned several glowing spheres on the edge of the bucket so he could see his reflection, and then he looked over at Lusric’s body.
Neither of the guardsmen could remember much about the creature that burst through the door but both were sure it had once been the younger of the two men the Comusa had killed. “Doom!” was all the creature had yelled before the torches failed, and it had done that twice they claimed to their captain; once when the door had been thrown open without warning, and then they heard it again as they raced for their lives up the stairs. Both asked to be reassigned outside the palace, and from this day forward always asked the cook to spare them any garlic.
Chapter 11
It was after noon before Castor and Autbek returned to the mages wing where Haspeth anxiously awaited them. “What happened to a bloody quick trip?” He demanded to know.
When they filled him in about the death of Lusric and the librarian Haspeth stopped his complaining. He then informed them he had only seen Tenric once all morning and Sterncast too and other then a brief meeting with Eifled he had seen no one else.
“We found Berdtom and let him know.” Autbek said sadly. “He will make sure Tenric is told so we don’t have to explain how we found out.” He looked at Castor to try and gauge how the kid was holding up. Pretty good he decided as he watched the kid lay down on the bed and shut his eyes.
“So you never found Fesmbol?” Haspeth finally asked.
“No he never showed.” Autbek replied. “Lady Sema seemed happy about that fact, which makes me wonder if Fesmbol will be around for long.”
“Yea, they eat each other you know.” Haspeth stated with some conviction. “My dad used to tell us kids stories about lords like them.”
“So do the lords eat the ladies or the ladies eat the lords?” Castor asked sarcastically with eyes still closed.
“Both!” Haspeth said defensively.
Autbek furrowed his brow for a moment then shook his head to clear away the infantile thoughts Haspeth had put there. “We need to get ready and we need to start now!” He announced.
“For what exactly?” Haspeth asked.
“The Comusa for one. They had us … or me anyway cornered like a rat and I could not come up with one defensive spell. If Castor hadn’t shown up with Lady Sema it might very well have been me he found dead down there in that dungeon.”
“Wow.” Haspeth breathed. “Well what about the librarian then? Do we rescue him?”
“No, that’s up to Berdtom, and unless he asked for it we’re not getting involved.”
“So what do we do?” Haspeth asked as he looked down at Castor who appeared to be sleeping. “Oh he’s a lot a help!”
“Let him sleep.” Autbek exclaimed. “You and I are going to the library to find what we can that might be useful against the Comusa, or at least hide us from them.”
As the two of them started to walk out Castor suddenly spoke up. “What about the blue-girls, O’t?
The question stopped Autbek in his tracks. There was a scheduled class for them in a few hours and he realized now the timing could not be worse. “I suppose we’ll have to tell them in person.” He announced and then headed on toward the library.
“Berdtom wants us to plan an escape route and have defensive spells ready at a moment’s notice.” Autbek explained to Castor and Haspeth as Eifled sat in the background. They were all sitting in one of the rooms in the library now, which was no problem for any of them to gain access to as the mages wing was deserted. Tenric and Sterncast were the only others around and they were both locked together in Tenric’s office and made it clear to the rest of them that they were not to be disturbed.
“Don’t forget those offensive spells I found.” Haspeth added as he pointed to a small stack of scrolls.
“I won’t.” Autbek assured him as he thought about a route out of the palace that was likely to be available to them and secret enough to allow them to escape unnoticed. He concluded that unless Castor knew of one there was no such way out.
“What about a place to hide, O’t?” Castor asked. “Sometimes that works best.”
Both Autbek and Haspeth looked at the boy quizzically. “Well I suppose a sneak-thief ought to know these things!” Haspeth said in all seriousness. “Where do you bloody think we should bloody well hide?”
“Cellar I suppose.” Castor replied as he thought deeply about it. “I could rig up an illusion down there in one of those half-collapsed rooms and with some anti-scrying wards it would be about impossible to find us for a day or two.”
“A day or two?” Haspeth whined. “In a cellar with rats and worse, doesn’t sound like a plan to me!”
“Best one so far gentlemen and lords.” Eifled interrupted. “I’ve
sent for some scrolls on the Comusa, O’t, they should get here today but please don’t ask their origin.” Eifled had for the most part been busying himself with crates of scrolls that until today had been off limits, but also had been paying close attention to their conversation it appeared.
Autbek furrowed his brow as he nodded his understanding. Eifled was a man of many resources Berdtom had assured him, and this Autbek could attest to now. Trying not to spend time on pondering where and why Eifled would have such information he turned his attention back to more pressing questions.
“Class with the girls starts in about an hour.” Autbek announced. “I don’t plan to have a class actually but I figure we need to get the girls prepared as best we can. It’s possible someone is going to drag them into this mess so we need to at least warn them.”
“We should hide them in the cellar with us.” Haspeth said with an unconvincing innocent grin.
Onaleen had her impatient younger sister help her once again untie and then tie again the half-dozen colored bows that adorned her dress as she desired to look her best for class. “Not too much is it, Dorseen?” She asked as she examined herself with a small hand-mirror.
The younger girl pouted at first then smiled. “I think your lord will like, Ona’, but isn't it kind of plain.”
“He’s not my lord.” Onaleen scolded. “Anyways I’m going to class not a ball and the other girls won’t be dressed fancy either.”
“Then why did we soak and braid your hair, and asked mom for her perfume?” Dorseen asked sarcastically. “Or could it be you like the teacher … what’s his name … master O’t.”
“It’s Autbek Lairestor Runeholden, Vis Mage-Councilor of Astrum, fourth squire of the town of Runeholden!” Onaleen said rhythmically then suddenly realized her sister was mouthing the titles silently along with her while rolling her eyes. “Oh … shut up!”
Dorseen bit her lip and chuckled, then mischievously ask. “I will if you show me some magic!”