by Wilson Harp
Orias hesitated before deciding that Mirari had shown she could handle herself. He carefully went up the stairs and looked at the bodies of the crossbowmen. Each wore the leather bracelet marking him as a cultist. The man who had opened the door did not wear a bracelet. Orias had been careful to look.
The wizard slowly made his way up the stairs and started looking through the rooms. They were empty of enemies, but each room had been thoroughly ransacked. Expensive items and books were tossed haphazardly into piles along with the mundane furnishings of the tower. The fourth floor contained a laboratory and a single room that served as Heran’s bedroom. Orias opened the door and saw three bodies on the bed. He walked over and recognized Heran. The bodies had been there long enough to start decaying. Orias examined them closer and discovered each man had his throat cut.
Footsteps in the hallway caused Orias to turn and face the door. He readied his most powerful spell in his mind and waited. Mirari came into the room, blades still in her hand. She was soaked through and dripping water.
“What happened?” Orias asked.
“He got away. I chased him down into the cellars. They had broken through a wall that led into a drainage way. He ran out of the hole and I followed him. He came to a wide channel of water and just ran across it. I thought it was a shallow stream, but on the first step I plunged into the depths. I came up sputtering, and by the time I caught my breath he was out of sight.”
“You did well. He must have been enchanted somehow. My magic didn’t affect him at all. I don’t think he found what he was after here, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was still here, still searching.”
Mirari looked at the men on the bed. “Is that my father?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. It looks as if they were killed sometime last week.”
Mirari went over to look at the darker toned man lying dead on the bed. “I can’t tell what he looked like; the rot has already stolen his appearance from him.”
“Here is a painting of him,” Orias said picking up a small porcelain frame from where it had been tossed on a pile of clothes. “The artist was good and captured his look well.”
“I don’t remember him from my childhood; I was too young. I always imagined him the way my uncle looked, but he looks different—more handsome. I can see why my mother would be attracted to him.”
Orias handed her another small portrait. “Here is Alinor. Do you remember her?”
Mirari stared at the picture. “Yes, I do remember her. She is as beautiful as the image in my mind.” She set the two frames down on a table near her. “What were they after?”
“Likely your mother’s journals. It’s the only reason I could see that he sent them to you.”
“He surely had other items of magic here, so this might have been just a simple, if ambitious, theft,” she replied.
“If that were the case then the spellbooks would be gone, and there are four enchanted staves in this room that would have been removed. No, the journals are the only thing that makes sense.” Orias’ eyes fell onto the painting of Alinor. She was wearing a golden locket around her neck. “At least that’s the only thing that Heran would have had that they were looking for.”
“They took a ring off of his hand. They broke his finger to take it off.” Mirari said as she was examining the bodies.
Orias started pacing in the room as he talked. “Master Jelric gave each of his apprentices a token of appreciation. The five men he gave signet rings. He gave lockets to the three women. Each of the items was of the finest craftsmanship from elven artisans. They were designed to hold powerful enchantments. When the others formed the Council of Ravens, I understand that they joined their rings and lockets together in some way. Hereth mentioned it to me when he visited once, but I didn’t really want to talk about the Ravens. I wish I had now.”
“You are thinking that the Ravens are being targeted? For these pieces of jewelry?”
“Maybe, I need to talk with someone first to see if a suspicion is true.”
“Whom?”
“Nobody, a bard. But he has little bits and pieces of information sometimes.”
Mirari looked around at her father’s room. “What do we do now?”
“We go back to Black Oak. We will go to the inn and gather your things. Then we will go to my tower. I’ll work on deciphering the journals, and I’ll send out word to a few friends to find more information. I need to find out if Hereth’s ring was taken off of his body.”
“What about my father’s tower?”
“The ruling council in Gen will need to sort through that. Gather what you want, and we will notify them on our way out of town. The council hall is near the Wandering Orchid.”
Mirari looked around, but the only thing she took were the two portraits of her parents. They quickly left the tower and shut the front door behind them.
“You go to the inn and get your stuff together. I will go report this to the council,” Orias said.
With a quick nod, Mirari hurried through the busy streets to the Wandering Orchid.
It took a good hour for Orias to finish explaining to the council what had happened. He returned to the stables to find Mirari packing her horse with her baggage. She was wearing the billowy dress he had first seen her in.
“Any trouble?” Orias asked as he saddled his mount.
“I had to have a cup of tea with the innkeeper as she kept giving apologies for the attack. She also insisted that I get out of my wet, smelly leathers and have a proper bath before she sent me out again. But other than that, no, it went smoothly.”
“Good, we should be in Black Oak before dark. I’ll see you settled into one of the guest rooms when we get there.”
------------------------------
Orias and Mirari mounted their horses and headed off towards Black Oak. From a high window in the inn, a man watched them leave. He was irritated that he couldn’t get the girl alone, because he just knew she had the locket and the journals. He knew where they were heading, though—that little town of Black Oak where that country bumpkin wizard had a tower. He could wait on them. He had three rings and one locket already. The journals would be useless until he had them all.
Let her keep them safe for the time being, he thought
In fact, he hoped the wizard would be able to decipher the code. It would save him the trouble. The man fingered the sapphire pendant at his neck. It kept magic from affecting him, but the girl was good with her blades. Too good. He would send word to Antralis tomorrow and find out who she was and who had trained her.
After years of work, he was close to bringing Cathos back to this world. He was close to being rewarded by his Master for his loyalty. He wouldn’t let the bumbling luck of this low-end wizard and young girl make him lose focus.
Into the Dark
Donal leaned back in his chair and watched the innkeeper move from table to table. The morning quickly passed, and Croft hadn’t spoken to the woodsman past his general greeting. The news Donal had wasn’t for the innkeeper so it shouldn’t have irritated him to be ignored, but for some reason it did.
“Donal, you finally caught up with me.” The melodic voice of Calaran was followed by the elven bard himself. He was walking down the stairs of the inn into the common room.
“You knew I have been wanting to talk to you,” Donal said. “You were at the Washing Woman just minutes before I got there. You knew I was on my way.”
“I do apologize for that, but I had an appointment on the other side of the city that I couldn’t be late for.” Calaran sat at the table across from the woodsman. “I had to speak with Princess Drinella, and you know how royalty are.”
“So you know about Cathos?” Donal whispered the question.
“Yes, the night that I saw the bracelet I knew it was too much of a coincidence.”
Donal looked over to where Croft was cleaning the candlesticks behind the bar. “Did you tell Croft to not press for information
? Is that why he hasn’t said ten words to me in the hour I’ve been here.”
Calaran nodded before turning to the innkeeper and calling out to him. “Croft, could you bring us some breakfast. Bring some for yourself as well.”
“So we let him know what has happened?” Donal asked.
“I believe that would be for the best. He will be able to help us piece together things we might otherwise have overlooked.”
“Did you hear about Heran?
Calaran shifted in his seat. “Yes, I spoke with a few of the councilmen in Gen about it. I went through his tower, and very few things had been taken.”
“We need to speak to Orias.”
“And this Mirari girl who is at his tower. I believe she may be Heran’s daughter.”
“She is,” said Croft as he set down the plates of eggs and ham. “Medrick said that she is the daughter of Heran and Alinor.”
Donal whistled low, and Calaran shook his head.
“I assume this means that Orias now knows that Alinor and Heran were married,” said the bard. “That might make it more difficult to get him to talk with us.”
Croft sat at the table and looked at Calaran. “I don’t think that will be a problem. He was the one who found Heran’s body.”
“That’s what the councilmen at Gen said,” the elf confirmed.
“I understand that there was some sort of lost love situation between Alinor and Orias. If that’s the case, then he would want to help Alinor’s daughter most likely.”
“Maybe,” said Donal. “Orias is completely self-absorbed, but if he thinks he might be able to get into the Alinor’s good graces again, he might help her daughter.”
“Alinor has been missing for fifteen years, Donal. I wish I could find her—then at least one of the Ravens would be able to help us,” Calaran said.
“I know Heran is dead, and Hereth died a few years ago, but what about the rest?” Donal asked.
“Kelsper and Celia died while Grallus was still king. Alinor went missing years ago. The rest are dead. Heran was the last one alive.” Calaran started eating his breakfast while the other two men sat and thought about what he had said.
“This has to do with Cathos, doesn’t it?” asked Croft.
“Yes, it does. What do you know about Cathos, Croft?” asked Donal.
“He was a powerful… necromancer if you believe the stories. He and his cult were defeated by the Ravens around twenty years ago.”
Donal nodded. “That is what most people have heard. Cathos was a necromancer, but he sought to become a lich. His growing magical power and his attraction of followers finally allowed him to take the final steps towards his goal. He became immortal. A lich is a creature that exists halfway between life and death. His power was immense, but eventually he was defeated and sealed in his tomb.”
“He is still alive?” asked the innkeeper.
“He is,” answered Calaran. “He is sealed in his tomb, but he is still alive.”
“So he could escape again?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, but only because someone who was there would have to describe how he was sealed in.”
“Who was there?” asked Croft.
“The Ravens were there. They were the ones who performed the magic to seal the tomb. In addition there was King Grallus, Prince Patrus, Lord Marshal Noem, Seeress Elspereth, Bishop Taevis, Brother Cassil, Donal and myself.”
“How many of those are left alive?”
“King Patrus, Alinor, Brother Cassil, Donal and myself.”
Croft sighed and sat back in his chair. “So what do you do now?”
“Hope that the cult doesn’t get to Alinor before we can find her,” said Donal.
Croft jumped in his seat as the door to the common room swung open. Horas walked in wearing a new shirt of chainmail and was followed by Val and Karl in their solid leather vests. Each of the young men had his shield slung on his back and wore a leather helmet. Bernadette came in just behind them followed by Medrick. A new heavy leather coat was well fitted to Bernadette along with a metal helm.
“So that’s what you spent your silver on, is it Bernadette?” Croft asked when the young company of adventurers started towards him.
“Some of it. I also rent a nice room from Kemis over his cooperage, and I have some held back for a rainy day.”
“I bought a good horse with my share,” said Karl.
“This nice chain shirt took almost all of my savings,” said Horas as he sat down at a neighboring table.
“I assume Medrick used his for magical equipment and the like,” said Donal. “What did you spend yours on Val?”
Val glanced over at Bernadette and was about to answer when Cassie and Lendin came into the common room from the kitchen. Horas broke into a big smile at seeing his best friend and the very pretty serving girl. His smile faltered as Cassie looked at him and slid over to take Lendin’s hand in hers. Lendin looked surprised but didn’t pull his hand away.
Karl laughed. “This just isn’t your day Horas!”
The others looked at him silently.
“What? No, it’s funny. That girl staying with Orias threw him onto his back this morning when he tried to get friendly with her, and now Cassie is holding hands with Lendin. That’s funny, isn’t it?”
“Karl, maybe we should make sure Mikel doesn’t need help in the stable,” suggested Val as he pulled his brother towards the front door.
The common room was quiet as the brothers left. The door finally shut, and Horas looked back over to Lendin. “I was going to ask if you wanted to go with us, but I guess you have plans for today.”
“Yes, I do. But… but not here. I am going into the foothills with Calrus and Gilfras to hunt some wild goats. We’re going to sell the horns to a merchant coming from Gen next week. I stopped by to ask Croft if he wanted any goat meat.”
Croft stood and walked over to where Lendin and Cassie were. “Let’s go talk to Magda about what she thinks about a goat focused menu.”
Cassie followed Croft back into the kitchen while Lendin stepped over to his friends. “Good luck out there, Horas. You take care of them out there. I’ll buy you a mug when you get back.”
“Thanks Lendin,” said Horas as he stood up. “You take care of what you have to do. We’ll bring back something for you.” The two friends hugged before Lendin went back into the kitchen.
“Medrick,” said Calaran, “is your master available for some company today?”
“He always has some experiment in process, but I’m sure he would be able to see you today.”
“Excellent,” said the bard as he stood from the table. “Donal, let’s go see our old friend. Be safe in your journeys, young ones.”
------------------------------
Donal looked at his half eaten breakfast with a sigh and then rose to join Calaran near the door. Horas watched the elf and older woodsman leave the inn. He looked back at Bernadette and Medrick.
“Well, enough wasting time here. Let’s make sure the horses are being taken care of and head to the woods,” he said.
When Horas and the others joined Karl and Val by the stables, Karl approached Horas. “Val explained why I might have upset you. I’m sorry, sometimes I don’t think before I talk.”
“Don’t worry about it, Karl. Just keep that mace handy and smack some goblins tomorrow. That’s what this is about, right?” Horas patted the big man on the back.
A smile spread across Karl’s face. “Kill the goblins and bring back their treasure. You sure know the basics of adventuring, Horas.”
The friends settled into some light banter as they checked their gear for a final time and headed on foot down the road. It was early evening when they reached the ruins of Long Branch and set up camp. Horas and Bernadette listened carefully as Karl, Val and Medrick told of their experience in the goblin mine. The evenings were turning chilly as autumn settled in, and frost covered the ground when they woke in the morning. Horas made a quick fire and woke t
he others. When they had eaten some bread and cheese and warmed themselves with some hot tea, they headed into the hills to the north.
The group arrived at the narrow passage up to the entrance to the goblin mine before the sun reached noon. The narrow crevasse only allowed them to travel single file and left them dangerously exposed to ambush from above, but they made it to the small clearing at the top with no difficulty. The party moved quietly to the small stand of stunted trees and brush that would obscure them from the entrance. Karl and Val moved carefully to the cave opening and looked inside. There was no sign of the goblins, and Karl waved back at Horas.
“Medrick, go ahead with your magic,” said Horas as Karl motioned that the entrance was clear. Medrick cast the light spell on the front of Horas’ shield and the top of his own staff. With Horas leading the way in and the young wizard in the back of the group, there should be enough light for everyone to see. Medrick had suggested since the goblins were only used to the dim light of low cooking fires, the sudden and bright light would confuse and maybe even blind the foul creatures.
As the light from Horas’ shield illuminated around the corner of the corridor, the group of adventurers could hear the slapping of goblin feet rushing up towards them. Just as Horas reached the bend, the first goblin flung himself forward. Horas’ axe chopped sharply at the airborne creature, taking its head from its shoulders. Val darted to Horas’ left while Karl yelled and went to his right. The three men formed a tight wall with their shields and hacked, stabbed and crushed their way forward. Suddenly the goblin assault stopped, and the party was standing in a corridor choked with dead goblins.
“They want us to follow them further down the passage. They have an ambush point set up just inside that wide area up ahead,” said Karl. “That’s where Val and I got jumped last time.”
Horas slowly moved forward motioning the others to stay back. When he cleared the goblin bodies, he motioned Karl to move up next to him.