by Ronan Frost
Chapter Two
I lay there a time, my head spinning, unable to break the heavy spell of inertia, yet battling the fear of remaining within my master’s private quarters a moment longer. Feeling a deep sense of disconnect from the world I pushed against the wall and wiggled from beneath the shelves. On my elbows in the darkness of the room the only light was the rectangular outline of the door from the candles beyond in the hallway. Hunching my shoulders, I made for the door, holding the indentation of the door handle with two hands, easing it open ever so quietly, sliding it open only enough for me to slip out into the hallway.
A strong pair of hands seized my shoulders.
“Got you, you rat!”
Master Masakage had been standing in ambush.
I flailed and shrunk instinctively, and somehow I was free. Masakage, left holding only my sleeveless jacket, tossed it aside furiously and pounced at me again but I was already running, stumbled, and on my feet again. I felt his claws of fingers pluck at my back as he dove desperately at my heels.
“Get back here, I’ll flay that miserable skin from your bones!”
The base part of my mind powered my instinctive flight leaving my conscious thoughts reeling, the churning froth of his manic pursuit propelling me past reason and logic. If only he would give a chance to regain myself I would stop, and simply give myself in. In the castle I had spent most of my childhood I easily found a path through the twisted network of corridors and stairs, staying in the narrow places where I had the advantage over my taller pursuer. People turned, startled, as we raced through, the cries of “Stop him!” reaching their ears too late, their reactions slow. Master Masakage would have some explaining to do after this if he were to keep his reputation as the unassuming scroll-master of accounts.
I slammed up against a door, rattling it upon its tracks: if I’d had any bulk to me I’d have gone straight through the flimsy paper and wood screen. I slid the door open, Masakage’s running footfalls pounding closer. I darted inside, straight into the belly of a portly man. I rolled aside just as Masakage careened through the door and the two came together, the air driven from the man’s lungs with a surprised ooooof!
Shouts railed after me as I dashed towards the central stairs, bounding up two at a time as it wound flight by flight upwards. I had gained some distance and my pace slowed, my breath heaving, throat parched dry in terror. I looked back down. Masakage was two flights down, no longer shouting. My steps faltered and stopped, but as he drew closer the silent fury in his eyes flashed upward at me.
Stop! I wanted to shout. Stop and I will give myself in!
But I could not speak, and again I started fleeing again, turning my head and dashing up the sparsely lit stairs. The higher I went, the darker it became and I continued to the very top of the castle. The smell here, intensified in the darkness, spoke of unimaginable age, heavy with mingled dust of hundreds of years and the heady stench of long habitation.
I shouldered the door to the rooftop and suddenly I was outside, a roof of stars overhead. Those same stars I had gazed upon but a short time ago seemed to belong to another life entirely. To my surprise there were no guards here and in that moment of solitude the silence was serene. Clouds scudding overhead gave the illusion of movement to the full moon heavy in the sky. From this height the chorus of frogs inhabiting the chills waters of the moat was a distant and soothing chorus.
I knew there was no way out; the castle gate would be locked and guarded. I looked at the parapet wall.
I was up and over the edge before I could think, dropping over the far side, keeping my fingers hooked over the top edge of the wooden frame. My feet found a narrow ledge in the wattle and daub wall no wider than my toes and I fought for purchase just as Master Masakage came crashing through the door and emerged onto the rooftop, breathing heavily.
My hands were by my side now, I knew he could not see me, yet I felt ridiculously exposed. The cold dampness of the fibrous wall bled through the thin material of my vest and moisture seeped into my socks. Bruises and welts to my shins, evidence of my headlong blind run, started to ache. I dared to look over my shoulder, feeling the yawning gap of incredible height. I was above the shadowy crowns of even the loftiest of trees, the ground impossibly far away in the flat grey light; it seemed the houses clustered on the hillside surrounding the castle were like a growths of moss about the trunk of a tree.
My hands were suddenly sweating. The void below was dizzying, intoxicating in its power and simplicity, forcing my senses to narrow until I heard no other sound but the roar of blood in my ears, felt no other touch but the wall at my fingertips. I took a shallow breath, closing my eyes, not daring to move.
I heard the creak of armor as guards came running from another section of the rooftop, and a challenge as they came across my master.
“You there! What are you doing here?”
“Where is he?” hissed Masakage. “The boy! Where did he go?”
“What boy -?”
“Fools! You, search over there, in those shadows, he must be here somewhere.”
His tone held command and demanded respect; the guards knew better than to argue. There were sounds of footsteps as they spread out. I heard master Masakage call out to the wind.
“You are here, boy, I know it.”
I could not move.
Master Masakage paced the length of the wall. “Coward! Come and face your misdeeds. You have betrayed us all!” As he searched, his voice came closer then further away. “How did you know? She told you to flee, didn’t she? I know you - you wouldn’t have the gall, you’re too gutless to do it yourself.” Under his breath he added softly, “Not like that impertinent bitch.”
All of a sudden he was very close. If he had leaned over the edge he would have seen me trembling.
“Reveal yourself now, and I shall be lenient. You have nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, no one to care for you but me. I know you are loyal. Do your duty!”
He lavished emotion upon his last word such that it rang in my ears. Duty.
“Come out and I will spare both of your lives. Remain there, and I swear, she will pay.”
My head felt empty of thought, ringing with two opposing words; duty and freedom. My guilt now was doubled; the beautiful, innocent girl who would pay for my stupidity, and my failure to my master. The gentle breeze eased for a just a moment, and in that conspiring silence I heard master Masakage whisper to the guard at his side.
“As soon as you see the boy, do not hesitate - skewer him through.”
I was well used to the beatings; my back bore the many overlaid cicatrices from master Masakage’s cord, yet this time he had deathly intent. My guts clenched, daring not to think of how it would feel to have cold steel driven through my body. Would that be worse than the terror of that awful drop?
A cold licked at the nape of my neck in a manner that was somehow familiar. Then I knew.
It was back.
A cold race of gooseflesh pricked my entire body as I felt it hovering in the air behind me, an invisible presence but with a touch so very real. The voice was a small boy’s, whispering so close it tickled the small hairs in my ear.
“Jump,” it said.
Fear caved the brittle shell of my chest, swamping the core of my being. I felt hands shove squarely at my chest, and the next thing I knew I no longer touched the wall.
My arms pin wheeling, I pivoted backwards over my heels and wordlessly fell into that black void.
The wind roared as I gained speed and my mind emptied of reason and fear; there was no past, no future, only the now. My feet caught and I was spinning. As I fell the wattle and daub walls of the uppermost structure gave way to massive stones, angling outwards the nearer the ground I fell, plunging now head first, the inky blackness hiding the ground. Instinctively I curled, my back hitting the waters of the moat with a mighty splash I only half-heard before my head was immersed and my ears roared with bubbled turbulence.
Deep underwater, I stopped
moving. I had no bearings, no clue as to which way the surface lay. Still in shock, my conscious mind returned, realizing that my lungs were emptied and burning with the drive to breathe. I started kicking blindly, thrashing at the waters, but I knew not if I was moving, or indeed, if I were struggling deeper.
Suddenly my head broke the surface and I gasped before bobbing back beneath the waters again, flailing. Driven by blind panic my hands slipped upon the algae slick stems of weeds against the bank, ripping and pulling until finally I found the edge and hauled my upper body free. I felt as if the ghost I had just seen upon the wall were here, he had followed me and hovered at my back in the darkness. The fear and shock made my chest heave; here in the wet and dark I was at the mercy of the spirits of the dead. I had to get clear of the water and its cloying embrace. My legs buckled as I tried to stand and I fell heavily into the mud.
I lay still, exhausted and trembling. The roaring in my ears slowly drained, sounds of the world slowly coming back. The frogs were much louder here, almost thunderous. My breathing slowed.
I realized I was free, and I had survived.