“You should pay more attention,” she said. “I changed before I started riding again, it only took a few moments. It is not good to ride in wet clothes on the march.”
Chagrined, Sebastian ducked behind a tree to peel off his wet clothes and exchange them for dry. Coming back around, he found Krystelle draping her clothes on the nearby brush. Following her lead, Sebastian hung up his own. Quarter of an hour later, they were back on the road.
“Sebastian, come and ride with me awhile,” said Adelwolf.
They rode together in silence for a while before Sebastian summoned the courage to ask his question. “Why did you let me ride so long in wet clothes?”
“Why do you think?”
“Truly sir, I don’t know.”
“Rest assured it was not out of malice. There was something I wanted you to learn. You do a very good job of taking care of your gear and your horse and those are very good things for a soldier. Equally important is that you remember to always take care of yourself, especially if you intend to join Gabirel’s ranks when we reach the Dazhberg.”
“Me, join Gabirel?”
“I think it might make a good home for you. You should give some thought to it, I think you would do well there.”
“What’s it like? Being an apprentice to Gabirel, I mean.”
“I suppose it’s mostly a lot of hard work,” said Adelwolf. “It’s been a long time since I was a squire. Krystelle could probably tell you more, she was released from the squires into the ranks of the Sword-masters after the Challenge this past year.”
“The Challenge?” Sebastian could hear the capital in the way Adelwolf said the word.
“Ah yes, you would not know what that is. The Challenge is a tournament where Gabirel’s Masters determine which squires are prepared to leave their training, as well as judge advancement across the ranks. Ask Krystelle about it when you have the opportunity.”
“I don’t think she has much interest in telling me about Gabirel,” said Sebastian, stealing a look back at the woman. “I don’t think she likes me very much.”
Adelwolf looked over at Sebastian, “I wouldn’t assume too much about what Krystelle Mora does or does not have interest in if I were you. I can’t say whether she likes you or not, but it’s been good to see her with you. I don’t think she’s done much laughing since her mother left, but that’s a story for her to tell you when she’s ready. In the meanwhile, I’d like to hear more of your story Sebastian.”
“My story? There’s not much to tell.”
“Nevertheless, I’d very much like to hear you tell it.”
Krystelle and Cenric gave the two of them space as they rode that afternoon, Sebastian unfolding the story of his life for Adelwolf. He told the old man about what it was like growing up on his uncle’s farm and the impact his uncle had on him. Caleb had been a good man, fair-minded and hard-working. He’d raised Sebastian as a son and tried to instill in him a solid work ethic and sense of personal honor. A practical man, he’d never quite known what to do with Sebastian’s daydreaming and thirst for adventure.
Eventually the conversation turned to Sebastian’s birth parents. He knew very little about them, only that his mother had shown up one stormy night at her brother’s farm, infant boy in tow. Caleb had taken them in and shortly thereafter she fell ill and died. He and his wife had raised Sebastian from that day forward.
Sebastian grew silent talking about his mother and they continued for awhile with only the sound of the horse’s hooves in the dirt and the birds singing in the trees. “And your father?” Adelwolf prompted.
Sebastian did not say anything, struggling with his thoughts. “I don’t know much about my father,” he said at last. “Uncle Caleb would never talk about him. He’s always been this dark figure in the shadows. He haunts my dreams sometimes. I see him there in the distance. He has no face in my dreams, but I know it’s him. He’s been getting closer and the dreams have been getting more frequent ever since this all started. What do you think that means?”
“It could mean a great many things. Were I you I’d not dwell on it too much, but look to your future.”
Throughout that afternoon, they continued a conversation that ranged across many topics. The history of Gabirel and how the Order had come into being, instructions for Sebastian when he came before the council to petition for admission, even a few stories about Adelwolf’s time on the council. Sebastian came away from the day feeling that he’d found a mentor of sorts, and possibly even a friend in Quiren Adelwolf. His uncle had been a man of few words and singleness of purpose as a farmer. Adelwolf provided entrance to a larger world.
Late in the day, Sebastian asked a question that had been bouncing around in the back of his mind. “Sir, who is Gerlach Pwyll and how does he have so much strength in magic? I thought the Ban prevented it.”
“I wondered when we would come to that. The full tale would take more time than we have and there’s much tragedy involved. The answer to the second question relates very closely to the answer to the first. In short, Gerlach Pwyll is one of the half-elven.”
“Half-elven?”
“His father was an elf while his mother was human. His father, Anthelme Pwyll was a very important person in elvendom, but when the debates were raging over the sacrifice the elves would have to make on behalf of us all to enact the Ban…”
“Sacrifice?” Sebastian interrupted.
“Too many threads to explain it all. Suffice it to say that the elves were required to leave this world for the Ban to take effect. Anthelme opposed that sacrifice, along with a small group of like-minded elves who chose to stay behind as an exile when the rest departed. Eventually he met a human woman, fell in love and Gerlach was born. But Anthelme never got over his bitterness at being left behind and that bitterness passed onto his son.”
“So Gerlach Pwyll is doing all this out of revenge for the Ban?”
Adelwolf nodded, “That is part of it, yes. We can only guess at his full motivations.”
“But what does any of that have to do with his magic.”
“Cenric,” Adelwolf called. “Can you explain to Sebastian here the difference between human and elven magic?”
“I can, Master Cormac taught me all about it” said Cenric, urging his horse to join them, Krystelle Mora close behind. “I didn’t understand it all, but I know that we use magic differently than elves. Magic comes from the world elements and elves can tap into that. It’s part of who they are. They are much closer to nature than humans are and so magic is just, well, part of who they are. If they tried to stop using magic they would probably all just die. That’s why they all had to leave. You can’t keep elves from using magic. Humans have to use spells and power words and incantations to control the magic. It’s not natural for us and not even everyone can learn to use it. Two people can use the very same spell and it will work for one, but not the other.”
“How can that be?” asked Sebastian.
“No one knows!” said Cenric.
Adelwolf pulled back alongside. “While that is true, I’ve always thought that everyone who can use magic must have more than a little elf in their ancestry!”
They broke off the conversation then, giving Sebastian a lot to think about. He had never really understood magic before, but Cenric’s explanation combined with everything Adelwolf had said over the course of the day had him reconsidering everything he’d believed. One thing he knew was that he planned to petition for entrance to the ranks of the squires at the Dazhberg at the earliest opportunity. For all of that, when sleep finally came that night he still found himself pursued by the dark figure of his father. A figure that was closer now than ever before.
#
Two full days of travel later, the four came over the last rise overlooking Cinaeth. The old fortress was situated on a promontory overlooking a natural harbor. Moss grew between the cracks of the grey stone, turned almost black with soot and mold and time. More than a century before, these shores had be
en the site of frequent visits from the slavers of Cale Druenenn. Cinaeth had been constructed to guard against further raids. Abandoned after the Dragon Wars, Cinaeth had fallen into disuse, until Gerlach Pwyll had taken it over.
Strangely, no record existed to indicate the fortress had ever been breached through the bolt hole discovered by Krystelle Mora’s agents. In fact, there was no rumor or hint that the hidden passageway even existed. It was Adelwolf’s belief that the secret tunnel had been constructed during the Dragon Walls when Cinaeth was under constant threat of siege and the secret had not carried forward when the fortress had changed hands.
Just outside the fortress walls stood an ancient cemetery established before the Cinaeth had been built, when the plateau was the home of an ancient city. The city itself had long fallen into ruin, its stones carted away to build the fortress and homesteads for nearby ranchers. Over time, the cemetery had become a common burial ground for the area and the tunnel entrance was supposed to be located within one of the tombs.
Due to the proximity to the cliff, the ancients had chosen to bury their dead above ground in marble and stone mausoleums. Tradition held that a year and a day after burial the remains were pushed to the back of the vault, making way for internment of the next corpse. A great many of the crypts were derelict and falling slowly back to the earth, where the stones had not simply been hauled away for other construction. It was said that the dust from old bones throughout the cemetery was used to create mortar during the raising of Cinaeth and the fortress itself was haunted by the disturbed spirits, leading its masters down into insanity and cruelty.
Under the cover of darkness, Adelwolf and his small band made their way into the cemetery through the south gate. According to the map Krystelle had procured, that was the nearest entrance to the passageway leading into Cinaeth. The area near the east gate was still in use and the crypts themselves were fairly well maintained there. Sebastian shivered as they walked down the boulevard between rows of darkened tombs.
The half-moon provided enough light for them to make their way through the cemetery lanes and allowed them to just make out the names chiseled onto many of the tombs. “Ah, here it is. Ferdinand Re. this should be the entrance to the tunnel according to the map.” said Adelwolf, turning to Cenric, “Help me here, lad. Can you cast a finding spell to locate the trigger mechanism for the door?” Nodding, the boy closed his eyes tightly, wrinkling his forehead in concentration with his arms stretched out towards the nearby tomb.
Sebastian saw it first. One of the stones near to the ground glowed faintly with the energy from Cenric’s spell. “There!” Adelwolf moved quickly to press against the edge of the block. It edged out of place with just a bit of pressure, revealing a small handle recessed in the stone. Pulling the handle, Adelwolf stepped away. With a deep rumbling, the front of the tomb swung down into the man-high crypt, revealing a set of roughly cut stairs leading into darkness.
“Cenric?” Said Adelwolf, motioning again to the boy. Cupping his hand around the end of a recently acquired staff, Cenric blew gently on the plain wooden ball mounted there, causing it to glow with an ethereal inner light. Adelwolf, Krystelle, and Sebastian followed the pale light of the staff as Cenric descended into darkness.
It was less than a mile from the graveyard’s eastern edge to Cineath’s curtain wall. What should have been a brief walk stretched into eternity in the dark, winding passage leading from Ferdinand’s tomb. To keep his mind off the darkness pressing from all sides, Sebastian let his thoughts wander, expanding on the tales Adelwolf had shared with them the previous day about Cinaeth and imagined the life of a real Ferdinand Re, Lord of this castle during the Dragon Wars. Determined to defend his holdings, but ever cautious, he commissioned the secret tunnel to provide himself an escape route should the forces of the Dark Wizards invest Cinaeth. In Sebastian’s mind, the story turned as dark as his surroundings as Ferdinand was driven mad from the graveyard spirits and sacrificed his own family on the walls. Although his story was fictitious at its core, there was something that rang true to Sebastian. He had no way to know that the story he imagined was very close to the truth.
Rounding a sharp corner, the four came to the tunnel’s end, where an iron ladder was bolted to the brick foundation blocking the end of the passage. “Your man’s drawing shows this ladder opening into a small chamber just off the inner bailey. There is no hint of the room’s purpose. We must be cautious,” Adelwolf told the others. “I will go first, then Krystelle. Cenric follow with your light. Sebastian, I want you to come up last to guard our backs.”
Cenric and Krystelle scrambled up the ladder after the aged warrior; Sebastian waited his turn, grasping and ungrasping his sword hilt with a sweaty palm. Reaching the circular opening at the top, he pulled himself through and found himself with the others in a mostly empty store room. A few barrels and crates were stacked haphazardly along one wall. Layers of cobwebs and dust showing that this chamber had fallen into disuse.
“Sebastian, Cenric. Move some of these barrels to hide the opening. Once we have the Sunstone we will need to leave in haste. Krystelle, use some of those rushes to disguise what we’ve done.” As the three moved to obey, Adelwolf cracked the door to the bailey, giving himself a view of the courtyard. He pulled the door shut and turned back to the others.
“The courtyard is empty for now. There is no telling for sure where Gerlach Pwyll will be holding the Sunstone. I believe there are two possibilities. Either it will be in the North tower or within Pwyll’s personal chambers. Krystelle, take Sebastian with you to the north tower. The door is just across in the far corner of the courtyard. There are no guards in the bailey, but there will be at the top. I doubt you will be able to talk your way past them, but you must not allow them to sound an alarm. I will take Cenric with me to Pwyll’s chambers in the main part of the keep. If you find the Sunstone in the north tower, you must seize it and flee to the Dazhberg. Do not wait for us and do not come back for us. Get to the Dazhberg. We will join you as we are able. If it is not there, use your judgment as to whether you can aid us.”
Krystelle shook her head, “I do not think we should divide ourselves. It doubles our chance of discovery.”
“Normally I would agree with you. In this, we must be right the first time. We do not have the luxury of scouting out all the places he may have secreted the stone. There are a hundred places within the keep he may be keeping it, yet I believe his chambers and the tower are the most likely. You must defer to my wisdom in this.”
Krystelle frowned her disapproval, “What you say makes sense, but I do not have to like it. What do we do if the door is barred? You will have Cenric and his magic, what of us?”
“Ah, I wondered when we might come to that.” Reaching into his cloak, Adelwolf pulled out a small leather bag and handed it to Sebastian. “This should do the trick. Wedge this where you think it will do the most good and light the cord hanging out. Once you do, I’d advise you to find shelter.”
“Wha…what is it?” stammered Sebastian.
“Not magic, if that is what you’re thinking,” said Adelwolf with a wink. “Merely a mixture of ores that have explosive properties when exposed to fire.” At that Sebastian held it out a bit farther, looking at the pouch like it was a snake in his hand. “Oh, it’s quite safe, I assure you. That is, until you apply fire to it.”
Not convinced, Sebastian tucked the pouch into his belt. “What if we’re seen crossing the courtyard?”
“I have an idea about that,” said Krystelle, pulling him out through the door.
#
Moments later, Sebastian found himself crossing the bailey with the young woman. It was deep in the third watch of the night and the courtyard itself was deserted. Whispering meaningless phrases, they kept their heads close together in imitation of a pair of young lovers on their way to a midnight tryst.
Sebastian opened the door to the north tower with one arm, keeping the other wrapped around her waist. His heart swelled. It
was just like one of his stories! Passing into the tower, she pulled from his embrace and drew her sword and dagger, starting up the tower’s spiral stair. Following close behind, Sebastian drew his own sword.
Originally, the north tower served a double purpose, watching for new raids from the sea and as a beacon to signal distant outposts. Pwyll had no fear of attack nor did he maintain the outer garrison, leaving the north tower as the center-most secure point of the keep. Combined with the knowledge that the Sunstone’s energy would be replenished through exposure to the sun’s rays, Adelwolf had speculated it was the best place for Pwyll to secure the stone.
Peering around the corner at the top of the stairs, Krystelle took stock of the pair of guards Pwyll had posted there. Armored in polished leather, they were positioned on either side of the oaken door. Pulling back she whispered to Sebastian, “Follow my lead. Remember, to them we’re just a pair of young lovers.” Concealing her weapons in their sheathes beneath her cloak, she led Sebastian back to the top.
She grabbed Sebastian’s hand and used her body to block the guard’s view of his sword as she pulled him around the corner, giggling. Coming into view of the guards she drew up short, Sebastian just behind her. “Oh!” She put her free hand to her mouth.
Seeing them, the big guard on the right grinned. “Out for a little play, are you? You’re a lucky one to make a catch like her. Well, you can’t do that ‘ere. Find another stairwell somewhere!”
His fellow looked Krystelle up and down, “You are a comely wench. Maybe you’re too fine a lady for this one? Maybe you just send him away?”
Fluttering her eyelashes, she swayed toward the guard, capturing the attention of both and holding it. “In faith, maybe I just should…” coming close she laid one hand on his cheek. Her free hand came out from beneath her cloak to plunge her dagger into the unsuspecting guard’s chin. Before he could react, Sebastian lunged at the second guard, dispatching him with relative ease. “Remind me never to make you angry,” he said.
Eligium- The Complete Series Page 7