Keeper of the Flame: Second in Command Series - Orrick

by Rose, Elizabeth

  “Good morning,” said Corbett, glancing back at the door as he entered the room. Nothing Orrick did ever surprised him. Orrick had tried to mentor Corbett as a child, but Corbett only wanted to be a knight. “We came to pay you a little visit.”

  “We?” Orrick looked up to see Noah following Corbett into the room. His head was down and he looked as if he’d been scolded. “Oh, hello, Noah.”

  “Hello, Orrick,” said the boy, seeming sad this morning.

  “Is something wrong?” asked Orrick, running his fingers over the wand mindlessly.

  “Noah was caught in this tower room yesterday by my steward. He was going through your things.”

  “Noah? You were?” asked Orrick.

  “Yes, sir,” he said, pouting and kicking at the rushes.

  “What were you doing in here?” asked Orrick.

  “Just looking around.”

  Orrick’s eyes flashed up to Corbett and then back down to the boy.

  “It seems someone was in the stables and overheard our conversation yesterday,” Corbett told him.

  “Our conversation?” Orrick’s brows dipped and he looked back at Corbett.

  “About the Eternal Flame,” said Corbett in a low voice.

  “Noah?” Orrick walked over and with two fingers, lifted the boy’s chin. “Were you spying on us in the stable?”

  “It wasn’t my fault,” said the boy. “She was the one who wanted to do it.”

  “She? Who is he talking about?” asked Orrick.

  “Well,” said Corbett, clearing his throat. “It seems my ward has been naughty as well.”

  “Hope?” Orrick’s head popped up. “What about her?” His heart thumped rapidly in his chest as he thought of just how naughty she’d been. He already knew she had overheard his conversation with Corbett. Not to mention, he had acted improperly as well. He only hoped that Corbett didn’t know what really happened.

  “She was in the stable listening, too,” said Noah, eyeing the wand in Orrick’s hand. “Then she followed you to the cave. What is that in your hand?”

  Orrick was happy to change the subject because he didn’t need Corbett asking about what happened after Hope followed him yesterday. If he did ask, Orrick wasn’t sure how to answer. “This?” asked Orrick, holding the wand up and turning it slowly as he studied it. “This is a powerful wand that I got from Merlin when I was just a boy.”

  “Merlin? The magician?” asked Noah with interest. “I’ve heard of him.”

  “He was far from a magician,” explained Orrick, looking at woodland animals carved into the spindle, running his finger along the smooth edges. “Merlin is one of the most famous and powerful sorcerers ever to live.”

  “Is he dead?” asked Noah with wide, blue eyes.

  “No one knows,” answered Orrick with a shrug of his shoulders. “He disappeared one day and no one has seen him since. Some say the sorceress Nimue trapped him in a cave or a tree or a different realm and that is where he still is today.”

  “Tell me more,” said Noah, climbing up onto a stool. “I like it when you tell me stories.”

  “No more stories for now,” said Corbett in a stern voice. “You have chores to do, Noah, and you have been neglecting them lately.”

  “I don’t want to do chores,” complained the little boy. “Chores are for servants.”

  “If you’re going to be a page someday, you have to start by doing chores,” said Corbett.

  “I’m not going to be a page,” said Noah, staring at the Eternal Flame. The fire sparkled in his wide eyes. “I’m going to be a famous and powerful sorcerer, just like Merlin and Orrick.”

  Orrick chuckled. “Well, I wouldn’t say I’m all that famous, although I do have a few powers.”

  “Show me some more magic,” begged Noah.

  “Nay, not now,” answered Orrick.

  “You never show me magic anymore,” complained Noah.

  “I’m off to the practice yard,” explained Orrick.

  “I like you better when you were old.” The boy pouted.

  “Well, I like it better being young,” said Orrick.

  “I want to do magic,” said the little boy. “I want to put my hand in the fire like you can and not get burned.” He reached out for the Eternal Flame and Orrick’s heart about stopped.

  “Nay,” he said, his hand slashing out to pick up the candle. He didn’t want the boy to get burned. But mostly, he didn’t want the Eternal Flame to be taken. He wasn’t even sure what would happen if someone without magic touched it. It could possibly destroy them. “Here, make magic with this if you want.” Orrick shoved the worthless wand into the boy’s hand.

  “Do you mean it?” Noah’s eyes grew wide as he held the wand up in front of him with two hands. “You’re giving me the magic wand you got from Merlin?”

  “Sure, take it. It’s all yours,” said Orrick, placing the candle on a stool behind him.

  “Have you seen Lady Hope?” asked Corbett.

  “Who? Me?” Orrick’s hand thumped to his chest. “Why?”

  “Orrick, why in God’s name are you acting so jumpy?”

  “No reason.” Orrick smiled and picked invisible lint from his sleeve.

  “Well, if you see her, tell her Lord Irwin is looking for her and it sounds important.” Corbett turned and headed for the door. He stopped when he got there and turned around. “Orrick, do you think it is odd that not only Lady Hope’s sister is here at Castle Blake, but also her betrothed? And why does she even need a ward if she’s betrothed? I don’t remember her father saying anything about sending the other two along with her.”

  “Between you and me, I don’t like Lord Irwin at all,” admitted Orrick.

  “He’s here with Lady Hope to steal the Eternal Flame,” said Noah, standing up and dramatically swishing the wand through the air.

  “They are?” asked Corbett. “Noah, don’t be making up lies about people.”

  “I’m not,” said the boy. “I heard Lady Hope talking to her sister. She can’t stand Lord Irwin. She wants to give him the flame so he’ll leave her alone.”

  “She does?” Now it was Orrick’s turn to be surprised. It was a satisfying thought to think she didn’t really like the bastard. Still, she was betrothed to the man and it didn’t matter if she had feelings for him or not. That thought disturbed Orrick because he didn’t want to see Lady Hope have to marry someone like Lord Irwin.

  “Will you be joining the men in the practice yard, Orrick?” asked Corbett.

  “Don’t you mean . . . Sir Rick?” Orrick raised a brow.

  “Sorry,” said Corbett. “I can’t keep up from one minute to the next with who you are.”

  “Well, don’t worry, because I plan on staying as Sir Rick from now on,” said Orrick.

  “Nay. I want Orrick back,” complained the boy, swiping the wand through the air.

  “Orrick is gone and he is going to stay gone forever as far as I’m concerned,” stated Orrick. “I like being Sir Rick so much better.” He reached for his weapon belt and buckled it on.

  “Come along, Noah,” said Corbett with a nod of his head.

  “Wait, I want to blow out the candle.” The boy hurried over toward the candle, but Orrick hurriedly picked it up and held it out of his reach as he blew into the air.

  “I want to light the hearth for later,” Orrick told him. “It’s always so damp when I come back at night.” Orrick walked over and lit the hearth with the Eternal Flame from the candle. The fire shot up in a loud whoosh as it burned. He then held out the candle to the boy. All right. Now you can blow it out.”

  It was a close one but, thankfully, Orrick had managed to shift the flame to the hearth, therefore making the flame left on the candle nothing but regular fire. This was proving to be too risky. After his workout on the practice field, he was going to have to find a much safer place to keep the flame.

  Chapter 13

  Hope couldn’t keep her eyes off of Sir Rick as he sparred on the field, t
aking up another challenge with Lord Irwin . . . her betrothed. She worried for Rick’s safety, since she knew what a conniving, sneaky man Irwin really was. She wouldn’t be surprised if the man stabbed Sir Rick in the back as soon as he turned around.

  “Hope, Hope, over here,” called out Grace, waving her hand above the heads of the onlookers, making her way toward her sister. Right behind her was the little boy named Noah.

  “Grace, what is he doing here?” she asked, looking down at the boy who was holding a carved stick in his hand.

  Grace leaned in and whispered to Hope so no one else would hear them. “He’s going to help us sneak into Orrick’s tower room.”

  Hope’s eyes flashed down at the boy who was playing with the stick and then back up to her fool of a sister.

  “Grace, that’s not a good idea,” Hope told her. “He’s sure to tell Orrick we were there.”

  “It was his idea,” said Grace in a low voice. “It seems he sneaks in there to play with the magical items all the time. He also said he knows when Orrick or Sir Rick are there, and right now they’re not.”

  “Really.” She glanced out to the practice field again. She noticed Sir Rick look over so she smiled and waggled her fingers at him. He did the same back, but the distraction gave Lord Irwin the advantage. He knocked Sir Rick’s sword out of his hand and was declared the winner of the round. But it was only round one and there would be another round next between the men since it was the best out of three.

  “Uh oh,” she said, turning around quickly. “Mayhap we should go since I seem to be a distraction.”

  “Come on,” said Grace, leading the way, plowing a path through the crowd. They made their way across the courtyard and into the keep, sneaking off toward the tower room. Since most of the people were at the practice yard watching the knights, it was easy to go unnoticed.

  “How can you be sure Orrick isn’t in the tower?” Hope asked the boy when they reached the bottom of the stairs.

  “Because, he was in the practice yard. Didn’t you see him?”

  “Nay. I didn’t see him. Did you, Grace?”

  “I only saw Sir Rick,” said her sister.

  “Mayhap we should wait until we’re sure.” Hope was about to turn around and leave when the boy bolted up the stairs.

  “I’m sure. Come on,” he said, leading the way.

  Hope and Grace followed him up the stairs, stopping in front of the thick, oaken door.

  “Go on, Grace,” said Hope, looking back over her shoulder down the stairs as she spoke. “Use the key to open the door.”

  Grace dug down into her cleavage and pulled out the key and placed it in the lock. She tried to turn it but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Orrick knew we stole the key, so he must have put a spell on the door to keep us from entering,” said Hope with a sigh. Grace tried the key again and Noah played with the stick, waving it around in the air.

  “Well, there’s nothing we can do. We’ll have to think of another plan,” said Hope sadly. “Take the key, Grace, so he doesn’t know we were here, and let’s go.”

  “I wish it would have worked,” complained Grace. “I really wanted to get inside and look around.” She pulled the key out of the lock and dropped it back down her bodice. The women turned and started down the winding staircase. But they stopped in their tracks when they heard the creak of the old door from behind them.

  Hope’s heart fluttered as she slowly turned around, sure she would see an angry Orrick standing in the doorway. Instead, all she saw was little Noah, holding that stick in one hand as he pushed open the door with the other.

  Hope’s eyes flashed over to Grace and they exchanged a surprised look.

  “How did he do that?” asked Hope in a low voice.

  “Who cares?” answered Grace with a mischievous smile. “Let’s go see what we can find.” Lifting her skirts, she ran up the stairs with Hope right on her heels.

  “It’s so . . . scary in here,” said Grace, stopping in the doorway, almost as if she didn’t want to enter. A fire burned in the hearth, throwing shadows on things in the room, almost making them seem alive.

  “Nay, it’s not.” Noah went inside, running over and hopping up atop the bed. “Come on in, it’s fun.”

  “What’s the matter, Grace? Changing your mind?” asked Hope. It wasn’t like her sister to be frightened. Especially since this whole thing was her idea in the first place.

  “I – I don’t know. I feel a tingle up my spine and it’s like something is telling me I shouldn’t enter.”

  Hope rolled her eyes. “Then stay here and be our guard. Warn us if you hear anyone coming.”

  “I can do that,” said Grace, seeming relived not to have to enter the chamber.

  Hope went inside and closed the door all but a crack, not wanting anyone below stairs to see light coming from the room from the blazing fire on the hearth. She stopped and looked around at the shadows dancing on the walls. It was a little eerie. The window was open partially, but the sun was no longer shining through it. Looking up, she could see dark clouds through the window, and the air smelled like rain. There was a storm approaching. She’d have to move quickly before the men came in from the practice yard.

  “Noah, can you help me?” she asked in a loud whisper.

  “Sure,” said the boy, seeming delighted that someone would want a child’s help. He put the stick down on the bed and jumped to the floor, running over to her. “What can I do?”

  “Do you remember that book we had that I was going to read to you? The one about the Eternal Flame?”

  “Aye,” he said. “Can you read it to me now?”

  “Well, mayhap. But I don’t know where Orrick put it. Can you help me find it?”

  She started to look at the bookshelf, but Noah hurried over to the bed. He hunkered down and pulled something out from under the pallet.

  “Here it is,” he said, holding the book up proudly.

  “What is it doing there?” she wondered.

  “I put it there, hoping Orrick would read it to me, but he didn’t,” Noah explained. “He never seems to want to play anymore or show me his magic, and it’s all because of Sir Rick.”

  “It’s because of Sir Rick?” she asked, interested since she heard her lover’s name. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Orrick wants to be young again, and I don’t like him that way. I like him old.”

  Hope chuckled, thinking the boy was cute. “Well, Noah, I can see how Sir Rick makes Orrick want to be young again. But we all get old even though we would rather stay young. Someday, even you will, too. There is nothing we can do about it.”

  “Not Orrick,” said the boy, sitting down on a stool, and placing the book on the table. “He chose to be old but now he is going to be young instead.”

  “Sweetheart, Orrick is very old and I assure you he isn’t going to get any younger.” Thinking the boy just wanted attention, she decided to read the book to him. She placed it on the table and ran her hand over the red, etched leather, loving the feel of the magical book. “Do you remember what the title is?” she asked the boy, hoping to help him learn to read.

  “It says ‘The Eternal Flame’,” said the boy excitedly, getting on his knees on the stool and leaning forward on his elbows on the table.

  “You’re right,” she said, opening the book. She was about to start reading, but it was getting darker in the room and sky outside was becoming black. “I’m afraid it’s too dark in here to read,” she told him.

  “Light the candle,” said the boy, pointing to the beeswax candle on the table.

  She looked back once again at the sky through the open window and felt like she should leave. She saw a flash of lightning and heard thunder rumbling in the distance. “I think we should do this at another time,” she said, closing the book and standing up.

  “No one ever wants to spend time with me,” said the boy sadly. She swore she saw him brush a tear from his eye. “Orrick used to be my friend, but he�
��s not anymore.”

  She remembered hearing that Noah was an orphan that had been left on the church steps as a baby. The boy looked so sad and lonely that she couldn’t turn him away. Glancing over her shoulder at the sky out the window one more time, she knew she should leave the room but part of her told her that she had to stay . . . for Noah.

  “All right, but we can only read a page or two and then we have to leave before Orrick or Sir Rick return and catch us here.”

  “Oh, goody,” said the boy, clapping his hands together.

  “And you can’t tell them we were here. You have to promise.”

  “I do,” said the boy, nodding forcefully. A curly blond lock of hair fell over one eye.

  “Hurry up, Hope,” said Grace, sticking her head in the door. “It looks like a storm is brewing. The wind is blowing in through the arrow slit windows in the tower so hard that the torches on the walls are almost going out.”

  “Just give me a minute, Grace. This is important.” Hope snatched up the candle from the table and headed over to the hearth. As she approached the flame, an odd feeling surged through her body. She felt like she wanted to run but, at the same time, she felt so compelled, she couldn’t look away.

  Her hand shook as she reached out with the candle toward the fire, meaning to light the wick. She wasn’t even sure the flame had touched the wick when all of a sudden the candle lit. The flame shot up higher than her. She fell back against a trunk, almost dropping the candle in surprise. Hot wax spilled onto the trunk and hit her arm as well. She cringed, waiting for the scalding feeling of hot wax against skin, but it didn’t hurt. The wax hardened instantly on her arm. Then a feeling flashed through her, starting at her hand, traveling up her arm and then up to her head. For a moment, she felt full of life, full of power . . . she felt invincible. It was the oddest thing and she had never felt this way before.

  Then the flame subsided but continued to burn brightly on the wick of the candle. She hurried over to the table, placing the candle back in the bottle that served as a holder, picking up the book and sitting down next to the boy.