by Bill Albert
The second room she entered was obviously a master bedroom. There was a huge four poster bed in the center of the room and two dressers and mirrors. The closets were open, and she found very finely tailored male and female clothes. There was a wider variety of colors here from deep blue to red, but no extremes.
She checked one dresser and was again surprised by the number of jewels inside. In a small bag on the floor, the only thing that looked out of place, she found a handful of coins. She set the bag back from where she’d found it and moved on.
On the second dresser she found a small green brush lying on top. She looked in the mirror and realized just how messy and tangled her hair was.
She wasn’t even sure if she had a brush to call her own anymore and thought how nice it would be to have the kind of life this family had. She thought of Maura and the life she knew then quickly put the brush down on the dresser and left the room.
Moving quickly, she went to the end of the hallway. It was a bathing area with a large bath and several small basins. Towels and wash cloths filled the shelves and the entire room smelled of flowers.
Of the three rooms left to check out she started with the one nearest the bath. This was very brightly colored and had a small bed in the center. There was a dresser, but the drawers were empty and there was no sign that it had been recently inhabited. She left the room.
Without listening she entered the middle room. By the size of the bed and the clothes she discovered that this was a young boy’s bedroom. Breathing heavily, she opened and closed a few drawers on the dresser and quickly swept through the closet. She stopped and put her hand to her chest as she took a few deep breaths. She saw the size of the clothes draped over a chair and thought how they would have fit her brother nicely. At least, she reminded herself, at his size on the day he died. Suddenly overcome with emotion she darted from the room and slammed the door tight.
She was almost running when she burst into the third room but came to an immediate stop. Though there was no one in this room she felt the presence of the owner the most. By the dresses hung in the open closet, the size of the bed, and other various items around the room she knew this had been the daughter’s room. A daughter whose age was not very far from her own. Her emotions were running in circles and she forced herself to concentrate on the search. She slowly returned the flame sword to its sheath and went in.
There were several items on a small desk in one corner. Some were handwritten notes to a woman named Ellis signed with hearts and flowers from her boyfriend and an unfinished note to him. She sat down at the desk and looked at all the items.
There were several small clay sculptures of horses on one side of the desk. They weren’t very good representations, but she felt that they contained great sentimental value to their owner. At one corner of the desk sat an ink well and quill next to several sheets of paper. There were several scribbles and notes on the pages concerning lists of presents to get for a birthdays and family gatherings. She read each one carefully and slowly and imagined all the people Ellis cared for. She read a poem that had been written for her parents and Gallif put her head in her hands and breathed deeply.
Soon she stood and went to the closet. There was a very fine cotton dress hanging on a hook inside and she pulled the dress and held it against her. It was just a bit too short for her, but she wondered what kind of events this dress could be worn to. Family gatherings? Anniversaries? She walked to the mirror and looked at herself in the reflection. She smiled at the look Luvin would have given her if he had ever seen her in a dress like this.
A small shelf near the mirror caught her attention and she saw another green hairbrush. She picked it up and looked at the strands of bright red hair entangled in the brush. She dropped the dress and brushed her hair as she stared at herself in the mirror.
Could she have ever lived this life? Could she have grown up this way with this kind of style? She remembered her conversation with Rayjen about what she wanted most. She had thought, hoped, that she could find it at the school, but knew it wasn’t so. She was used to being on her own with lots of people coming and going and she had accepted that this was the way things were. She had trouble admitting it, but deep down she knew what she wanted most was to belong somewhere.
The owner of this dress belonged here and as Gallif looked at herself in the mirror she hoped this girl was safe. If she wasn’t then heaven help the person, or thing, that endangered her.
She heard footsteps and was quickly reminded of why she was in this house. She dropped the brush into her backpack and left the room.
She met Tome and Kavelle in the hallway.
“There were some rooms on the other side,” Tome said. “Most of them looked like guest rooms, one was a small library, but there wasn’t anything or anyone there.”
“These were the family rooms,” Gallif said after a deep breath.
“Any clues as to where they might have gone?”
“None at all. That’s the odd thing,” Gallif continued. “It doesn’t look like they left at all. The closets are full, no clothes missing, personal belongings like letters and hairbrushes still here. There is also a considerable amount of valuables in easy to find locations.”
“There’s no sign of any kind of security here, either. Odd that someone with this much money around wouldn’t have a few guards anywhere.”
“No sign of any servants at all,” Kavelle added.
“Let’s check out the rest of the top floor,” Tome ordered and headed further down the hall.
The other wing of the house was at a right angle from the one they were in. There was a triangular shaped room connecting the different parts of the house. On this level was an enclosed porch with several tables and chairs and large glass windows facing out. Outside were more trees and bushes creating an elaborate garden that extended nearly three hundred meters to a wall. Off to one side, along the wing of the house they were about to enter, sat several carriages and carts.
They moved slowly as they crossed the porch and Gallif looked out and studied the surrounding area. She noted some movement in the trees, but it was so widespread it had to have been from a slight breeze picking up. There was nothing unusual in the garden that gave any sign of aquilus. She looked further to the right and saw that the trees on the other side of the house and garden were still. Then she glanced down at the carriages and carts below.
“Oh, no,” Gallif whispered in shock. She strained forward against the window to get a better view and make sure she had not been mistaken.
“What is it?” Tome asked as both he and Kavelle joined her at the window.
“The carriage down there, the third one, can you see it?”
“Barely,” Tome admitted.
“That’s the coach I rode in after the night encounter. Arca and Linea, the dwarves that brought me through the forest, own that coach.”
Tome acknowledged her concern and said they should keep moving. Gallif drew her flame sword from its sheath as they went into the next wing.
The top floor of this wing was an open area with a stage at one end and three rows of wooden benches facing it. It was large enough that there could be a play, or a dance held here at any time, but they found nothing of any importance or even of interest here. At the far end was a flight of stairs leading down.
The ground floor of this wing was the cooking and cleaning area of the house. There was a door at each end. One led to the triangular connection room and was open. The other, heading outside, was closed.
There were large hand cranked washers along one wall with shelves and cupboards for linens and various bolts of cloth. The opposite wall had a well-stocked kitchen and several small servants’ quarters. While Tome and Kavelle checked the kitchen Gallif quickly opened the doors to the servants’ quarters hoping for signs of Arca or Linea. Three of the rooms had clothes and belongings that indicated hobgoblins lived in them. Three more had signs for dwarf habitation. The windows were covered with cloth and kept dark
, but there was nothing specific to indicate Arca or Linea. The final room contained signs of kobold inhabitants. There was the distinct smell and clutter in the room.
Gallif joined the others in the kitchen.
“The rooms are all empty,” she reported. “They’re also just like upstairs. Nothing looks disturbed. It’s as if the inhabitants just left.”
“The food is neatly packed away,” Kavelle said. “Some of it is starting to go bad, but it couldn’t be sitting here for more than a day.”
They quickly moved into the bottom story of the triangular connection room. This was a game room. There were various trophies on shelves along one wall and Gallif stopped to look at the shiny statues and carved plaques. She clenched her teeth as she noticed several father-daughter game awards and moved on as the jealousy taunted her.
There were four very large rooms in this wing and it slowed their progress. One room was a library and they quickly checked for any secret panels but found none. Gallif was a bit amused that almost half of the books in the room were cookbooks in various languages. There was a rather elaborate desk with notes to recipes for all kinds of dishes along with some valuable rings.
Kavelle moved on and Gallif and Tome lingered for a moment. She watched him pause near the desk and flip through some of the items carefully. He left everything and swung suddenly in her direction. Caught in her stare, he froze, and then came face to face with her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. She tried to answer but stumbled as he realized why she had been watching him. “My old habits are long since gone,” he said. “A promise to stop was the only way I could get my father’s forgiveness.” Without another word he left the room.
Gallif could not understand why Tome’s history as a criminal had shaken her faith in him so much. She had never been bothered that Luvin had stolen his fair share of items, but she was upset that there could be a dark side to this man.
After a half hour of searching they regrouped in the entryway they had started in.
“Nothing,” Tome said from a point a few steps up from Gallif and Kavelle. “Not a sign at all as to what happened. They are just missing.”
“Maybe they weren’t here,” Kavelle speculated. “Maybe they have just gone on a day trip or something.”
“And taken all the servants with them?” Gallif said critically.
“It’s not impossible,” Kavelle said. She knew there was a great flaw in her idea, but hoped her voice covered her doubt.
“There’s still that other building to check out,” Tome said quickly to avoid a confrontation between the two. “The barn, or cellar, or whatever it was.”
In single file they walked to the kitchen and the opposite side of the house. They slowly opened the door and looked out at the area between the house and the other building. There was also a gravel covered road and signs that several large objects had been moved back and forth between the buildings. The other building itself was only a single story and couldn’t have been bigger than thirty feet in width. There was a wind now as well and the trees were swaying gently. The sun had started to descend, and the shadows of the house cast along the area. Though it was shaded, it was not difficult to see.
“Do you smell anything?” Kavelle asked with a touch of sarcasm.
“Wind’s blowing away so there is nothing,” Gallif said ignoring the tone of her remark.
“We might as well go, then,” Kavelle said.
She started forward and Tome gently pulled the door open further when Gallif’s hand suddenly stopped it. She shook her head and leaned forward staring at the ground near the other building.
“Of course,” she said. “How could we be so stupid?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kavelle protested.
“See there? On the ground by the door to that building?” Both Tome and Kavelle looked in the area she described. “Swords, short swords and a small club,” Gallif said. “Doesn’t it seem odd that though they were quite wealthy there wasn’t a single weapon in this house?” Gallif asked them. “Even if there had been a security team living outside there would be something.”
“You think they were lured outside?” Tome asked.
“It would answer a few questions,” Gallif said.
“Good girl,” Tome smiled at her.
“It still doesn’t tell us by whom,” Kavelle tried to take some of the attention away from Gallif.
“Somebody who didn’t give a damn about what was in the house,” Gallif said as if it were obvious. “Leave a fortune here intact and just take the people.”
“Or whatever is in that building,” Tome pointed across the path.
One by one, weapons in hand, they stepped outside.
NINETEEN:
WAVES
After they left the house, they stood silent outside for several minutes. Tome and Kavelle did their best to watch the area for any hints of danger but they could not match Gallif’s abilities. While they caught some obvious signs, like the complete lack of bird calls, Gallif was picking up hundreds of telltale sounds and smells.
“Where are they?” Tome asked.
“Everywhere,” she whispered and, without having to look at them, she could tell that they had been frozen by her words. Tome took a half step forward to be next to her and very slowly nodded his understanding. “There is no way for us to get to that other building, or out of this estate for that matter, without combat.”
“Sometimes I think she’s making this up,” Kavelle said after she scanned the grounds and saw nothing.
“Feel free to head out by yourself,” Gallif nearly spit back at the other woman.
“Let’s check out the northwest corner of the grounds first,” Tome said ignoring them both. “I spotted something there.”
Kavelle started to question him but Tome stopped her with a quick look back. Gallif nodded. She knew exactly what he was doing.
“You know where we meet if it happens,” Tome said
Tome took a good long look at the area and then started walking. They had just made it to the end of the parking area when the first group of six aquilus jumped from behind some sculpted bushes and came after them with their swords wailing.
Without thinking each of the three humans held their weapons high and ran at the aquilus. The aquilus stumbled at the advance and skidded to a stop. They weren’t used to their targets fighting back.
Kavelle swung hard with her mace and was the first to down an elf. Gallif could tell Kavelle was smiling. Tome made several slashes with his long sword and finished his own combatant. Gallif also ended her opponent and quickly did the same to a second. Kavelle was cut in her side, but the armor prevented her from bleeding profusely. Tome saw one of the remaining elves going for Gallif’s back and struck it down before it could do any damage. Kavelle parried a few blows and extinguished the sixth elf.
“Follow!” Tome ordered and started running.
Gallif and Kavelle quickly followed and they ran along a row of small evergreens. These trees were still quite young and at their highest reached just up to their waists. They knew they couldn’t get much protection here and needed to go into the deeper thicker trees. They came to the end of the evergreen row and were about to head for the cover of older trees when they came face to face with more elves.
These elves were obviously not expecting them and four of the seven were taken out before they knew what was happening.
Kavelle was a few feet further away from Gallif and Tome and two of the elves centered on her. The two hits from their swords were powerful enough that even the casting couldn’t completely protect her. She stumbled back from the pain and only slightly hit one of her aquilus. Tome followed her attack to its conclusion, and she regained her footing fast enough to take down the second.
Gallif took on her elf single handed and jabbed at it twice. The damage of the sword and the flame was enough to slow it down and she stopped it completely with a third swing.
“There!” Tome shouted.
>
Not far from them were a series of stone sculptures and benches set in a circular pattern. In the center was a stone building that looked like a small temple and Gallif hoped they could find cover there.
As she catapulted herself over a bench she briefly looked back and saw more attackers quickly coming after them. She cursed when she saw it was not only the aquilus they would have to face this time, but orcs as well. This also wasn’t just a small group of them.
They crouched inside the circle behind the benches and pillars. The orc and elf mob jumped up and over the benches giving them a chance to catch several off guard. A second and third wave came over the benches and soon they became lost in the melee.
Gallif glanced to her left and saw Tome dealing with three very strong and dangerous orcs. Two of the orcs and as many aquilus were coming after her and she had no idea where Kavelle was.
She parried an attack from the larger orc and continued in a complete circle to strike its side. It growled and barked at her in pain but stayed on its feet. She felt a dull solid thud on her right side and knew that she had been hit with a club. She swallowed hard and clenched her teeth as she turned to see an elf that had squeezed between the two larger orcs. She made a lightning slash at the elf and, even though the sharp blade didn’t connect, the flat side caught it in the chest causing a considerable burn. Much to her surprise the elf’s dirty green cloak also caught fire. It howled in pain and ran off.
One of the orcs tried to take advantage of her injury and hit her in the side. She stepped forward within the swing and butted against the orc. She twisted her leg behind it and used her momentum to trip it over. It dropped onto its back and she impaled it with the flame sword.
She withdrew the sword and looked at the third attacker. It sliced its long sword wildly through the air and took a few steps back. She followed and out of the corner of her eye she saw that Kavelle had finished off the burning elf. The orc Gallif was facing took a step back and knocked against a three-foot-tall statue of an angel. With one hand it picked up the statue and threw it at her. She ducked but felt a brief shiver at just how close it had come to hitting her.