The group of invisible invaders hustled through the dirt streets as quickly as they could, dodging horses, carts, and pedestrians. The streets were teaming with people and creatures of multiple races. Humans, orcs, goblins, and ogres strode purposefully on some errand or task, ambled about seemingly at random, or were just standing about.
Large numbers of people and creatures stood outside or walked into and out of the numerous inns and taverns lining the streets. A wave of raucous sound assaulted their ears every time the door opened to one of the establishments.
The keep had two large towers built at each front corner, so the group used those as reference points as they wove their way down the muddy byways and between buildings.
“Everyone still with us?” Josh asked his small raiding force.
They each gave an affirmative, and the group soon reached the secondary wall surrounding the fortress. There was only one main gate with a small, thick sally port several yards away. Both were firmly shut and locked.
“What do we do now?” Phil asked.
“We’ll have to wait until they open the gate, I guess,” Josh answered, though not liking the idea of having to wait. “Ted, how much time do we have?”
A disembodied voice answered behind him. “Quite a bit, I do believe. As long as we don’t do anything overt, it will last for hours.”
“All right then, let’s go wait over there in the shadow of that building just in case.”
They waited in the dark shadow of a closed general store for about forty minutes before a cart loaded with foodstuffs came rolling up to the gate pulled by two mules.
“Here we go everyone, stick close,” Josh told his invisible party as he led them away from the building.
They followed closely behind the wagon as the gates opened, and two guards stepped out to inspect the load. The two guards looked over the sides of the cart, shifted around a few of the crates, and waved the driver through. The gates closed behind the wagon with barely enough room for the stealthy infiltrators to get through.
The mules’ plodding steps pulled the cart around the side of the keep, where it came to a stop at a wooden door built into the thick granite wall. The fortress was grey and cold, and it lacked any of the opulent designs of fairy tale castles the young adventurers had pictured a castle should have.
Every corner was square and sharp. The entire structure was built for strength, defense, and practicality with no effort wasted on aesthetics. The expertly carved stones fit together almost seamlessly. The doors and gates were built of hardwood and banded in iron. The driver stepped down from the wagon and pounded on the wooden door.
“Who is it?” a loud, rough female voice demanded through a small port near the top of the door.
“It’s me, Marge, Horace. Open up now, and rustle up some help to unload the wagon,” the driver called back through the door.
The door opened inward forcefully, and a heavy-set woman wearing a bonnet, apron, and wielding a wooden spoon practically leapt through. The smell of food and warm air wafted out from the open door.
“Where have you been? You were supposed to have been here two hours ago!” she shouted, and clouted Horace on the shoulder with the spoon. She narrowed her eyes and gave him a sniff. “You’ve been drinking again, I can smell it!” she accused and whacked him with the spoon again.
“OW, stop that, woman! I’m a grown man, and I’ll drink what I want, when I want!”
“Not when you’re on duty and have a job to do! You’re lucky I didn’t run out of anything to make the lord’s supper, or we’d both be in for it. Now get that stuff in here. I’ll fetch a few kitchen boys to help you unload it.”
The boisterous woman stalked back into the kitchen and called out three names with a loud bellow. Within seconds, three young boys between ten and twelve darted through the doorway, dodging the wooden spoon she wielded like her personal scepter. The group had to wait until Horace and the bustling kitchen boys were busy enough to allow them to sneak past. Their opportunity came when it required the entire staff to pick up a crate of potatoes and take them down to the cellar.
As soon as they were through, the party ducked into the kitchen. The kitchen was warm, bordering on downright hot. Two iron stoves and a huge fireplace provided the heat and fire for cooking. Four large tables sat in the middle of the kitchen with an assortment of pots and pans hanging from hooks above them. Cabinets, looking like standing wardrobes, lined the walls and held more kitchen utensils, dishes, and spices. Two huge sinks were built into one wall and were stacked high with dirty plates and dishes.
Two other women were toiling in the sweltering kitchen, scrubbing pots and wiping down the tables. Three more doors were located in the kitchen. One was open and led down to the basement, while two others stood closed on the other side of the room.
The gang quietly crossed the kitchen and selected a door at random. Josh looked back over his invisible shoulder to make sure no one was looking in their direction. He cracked the door open and peered through. Beyond the portal was a large dining hall. The walls were made of the same plain stone, but hanging tapestries and embroidered cloth gave them some decoration. A long, polished table sat in the middle with over twenty padded chairs lining its sides.
Josh closed the door gently and followed the wall to its corner where the other door was located. Checking once more to ensure no one was paying any attention, he cracked the door open and peeked through. The door opened to a dimly lit hallway. Torches in sconces flickered, providing the only illumination. Soot stained stone formed a black teardrop above each torch.
Josh looked back into the kitchen once again before opening the door wider and leading his group through. He could still feel a hand on his shoulder, so he was confident that everyone still followed.
“Everyone still here?” he whispered to be certain.
“Yep, still here,” everyone reported one at a time.
“Whoever is last, close the door gently,” he instructed.
Ted closed the door, ensuring that no one was coming or looking their way. The party crept down the dimly lit hall that was fortunately empty at the moment. A brighter glow showed a larger chamber just ahead.
The passage opened up into what appeared to be a large audience hall. More tapestries, hangings, shields, and other objects adorned the walls. At the far end sat a carved throne of polished red granite on a raised dais. Immediately to their right was a large set of double doors allowing entrance to the audience chamber. Straight ahead, the dim hallway continued, the end of which was lost in shadow.
“Where to now?” Ted asked.
“We’ll keep going straight,” Josh replied in a whisper. “We need to find some stairs. I doubt Drew is being held at ground level. Most likely, he is locked up in a tower or a dungeon.”
They continued down the hall, this end even gloomier and more poorly lit than the section they just came down. At the end of the hall was a sturdy wooden door. Josh carefully tried the handle.
“It’s locked,” Josh whispered.
Chase moved forward. “Let me try,” he said confidently, pushing past Josh in the narrow corridor.
Chase reached into a pocket sewn onto the outside of his right thigh near the knee and pulled out a small leather case. He flipped it open and felt inside for the lock picks he wanted. He jabbed the metal frame around the keyhole a couple of times, like his mom often did when coming home on one of her late nights out, before he was able to get his pick and probe into the mechanism. He levered the picks around for a couple of minutes before cursing in frustration.
“This would be a lot easier if I could see!” he hissed irritably. “Hey, you guys back up a bit. Stop right there,” he ordered as his hand came into view.
He worked his picks around inside the keyhole for another couple of minutes before he was rewarded with an audible click and was able to ratchet the bolt back.
“There, got it,” he exclaimed a little too loudly.
Josh retook the lead
and led them into the small landing beyond the door. Any semblance of choice was taken from them when they realized their only option was downward or back the way they came.
“It looks like the stairs only go down,” Chuck said, pointing out the obvious.
Phil looked at the walls and stairs in confusion. “Huh, that’s odd. My direction sense is telling me that we should be directly under the tower.”
“Maybe there is a different entrance somewhere else that leads to the stairs going up,” Gabe suggested.
“Must be. I think we should go down and hope Drew is down there. If he’s not, we’ll just come back and try to find the stairs to the tower,” Josh pointed out.
“Down it is then,” replied Felicia.
The party tread carefully down the stairs, often relying on the shoulder of the person in front of them to catch themselves from stumbling. Walking down stairs without being able to see your feet was far more difficult than they had expected. As they descended, they could smell the air getting staler, and the walls became damp and slick with moisture. The stairs were almost completely dark. The lit torches were so far apart, large sections of the spiraling stairway were lost in darkness.
“Do you think anyone’s down here?” Ted asked quietly.
“Probably not more than a jailer and one or two guards if anyone,” Phil replied, trying to sound more certain than hopeful.
They reached the bottom landing and the end of the stairs with a feeling of relief. The stairs ended in a long, gloomy corridor lined with doors as far as they could see. Judging by the sparsely placed torches, the hall was about a hundred yards long with doors every ten feet. If the intervals remained constant, that made roughly sixty cells.
“Let’s split up so we can cover both sides of the corridor at once,” Josh suggested.
“It’s no use; we’re going to need light. I can’t see very far into the cells,” Felicia complained.
“Grab a torch off the wall. Ted, you’ll need to back up until we can see,” directed Josh.
Josh and Felicia each grabbed a torch from a nearby sconce. The flame disappeared into their circle of invisibility until Ted backed up enough that the two torchbearers’ arms and part of their upper bodies were visible. Josh and Felicia held their torches aloft and peered through the small, barred window set in the top center of the cell door. The torch cast just enough light for them to see the back wall of the small prison cells.
They all kept step with each other as they made their way down the corridor, peeking into the cells and softly calling Drew’s name. It took several minutes to investigate every cell, but none of them held their missing friend. Their hopes of finding him quickly evaporated as they reached the end of the corridor and looked into the last two cells.
“Darn it, there’s nobody here. All of these cells are empty,” Felicia said dejectedly, her shoulders slumping in disappointment.
“Wrong on the first count child, and your second observation shall be remedied shortly,” a soft yet malevolent voice declared from behind them.
With a gasp of surprise, the party spun to face the voice that seemingly came from the wall at the end of the corridor. Only now, there was no longer a wall there. Where the wall had been, the passageway continued another twenty feet and was occupied by a dozen crossbow-wielding guards led by a hooded and cloaked figure. And the party was visible again.
“Ted, can you do something?” Josh whispered to the young wizard, but he did not receive a reply.
“I have restrained your young mageling to keep him from doing anything foolish,” the hooded figure explained. “You will set your weapons down at once, and surrender peacefully.”
It was not a request, and one glance at the cocked and ready crossbows made everyone realize that any kind of resistance was futile and likely deadly. Even without the threat of the guards, the man in the robes gave off such an aura of evil and power, they doubted they would have had a chance to resist with any hope of success.
They all wisely chose to lay down their weapons. Three of the guards lowered their crossbows, stepped forward, and collected all of the grounded weapons, as well as any knives or daggers they had on their person.
Lord Darkrell glided confidently forward and faced the immobile Ted. “I believe you most likely have my book.”
Ted regained control as his muscles relaxed. “Tell me where Drew is, and I’ll give it to you.”
“Young man, you are hardly in the position to set conditions. However, your friend is safe and far more comfortable than you shall be, since I actually have a use for him. Now, if you would be so kind as to take my book from your satchel and hand it to me. Otherwise, I will have one of my men retrieve it from your corpse.”
Ted sighed and slipped off the small leather pack that he kept the book and a few other assorted items in and pulled out the ancient volume. He felt a heartrending loss as the evil lord’s bony fingers clutched the precious tome that had allowed him to learn and cast powerful magic. It felt like all the strength he possessed fled his body with the loss of the book. Now he was nothing but a small, weak, smart boy again.
“Chain them up and post two guards at the top of the stairs,” Lord Darkrell commanded his guards before striding off down the passageway and disappearing.
Without a word, Gabe, Ted, and Felicia were forced into one cell while Chuck, Josh, and Phil were pushed into another. The guards clapped manacles around each of their wrists and secured them with heavy locks. The manacles were made of thick iron and securely bolted to the wall with barely enough slack to allow them to drop their hands to their sides.
They waited until they could no longer hear the retreating sounds of their captor’s footfalls on the stone floor before speaking.
“At least we know Drew is all right, if you believe what Lord Dark-and-Scary said,” Josh commented, hoping that Lord Darkrell was telling them the truth.
“What do you think he’s going to do with us now that he has the book?” Gabe asked, more afraid than he ever had been since this whole thing started.
“I have a better question,” Felicia mused. “Where the heck is Chase?”
CHAPTER 14
Drew stood alone in his small room, staring out of the narrow window at the stars that managed to poke through the clouds, bored out of his mind as usual. His solitude was broken as the door opened without so much as a courtesy knock. He spun about and watched as Lord Darkrell practically skipped into the room, almost giddy with excitement. Drew recognized the tome he clutched tightly in his gaunt hands.
“Where are my friends?” Drew demanded, praying that his captor had not recovered the book from their corpses.
“Do not concern yourself. They are enjoying my hospitality, though not to the level of comfort you are. So long as you cooperate they will continue to do so, and perhaps their current living conditions can even be improved,” he said enticingly and shoved the book into Drew’s hands.
“Fine, but I will only help you if you promise me they will not be harmed.”
“I am not a sadistic man. I take no pleasure in pointless pain or death. I simply do not allow such silly sentiments to block my path to what I desire. So long as I get what I want, I have no qualms in letting you all go your own way. I imagine you all wish to simply return to your world, which is precisely my goal as well.”
Drew did not know if he truly believed him or not, but he had little choice but to hope that Darkrell kept his word. He sat down at the table, opened the book, and started flipping through the pages. After several minutes, Drew turned back to the beginning of the book and studied it more carefully. He read each of the pages as Lord Darkrell watched eagerly. His growing impatience was almost palpable.
“What is the problem? Have you located the spell yet or not?” the dark lord growled.
Drew gazed at the book in confusion. “It’s not here. I went through the entire thing twice, and I don’t see it.”
Lord Darkrell tore the book away from him impatiently and starte
d reading it himself. “If you are toying with me, boy, I will make you sorry.”
“I swear, it’s not in there!”
The agitated lord peered intently at one section, pressing the pages down hard against the table. “There, it looks as though some pages have been removed!”
Lord Darkrell’s eyes narrowed as he thought for a moment before he sprang up from the table with a curse, darted through the door, and stalked purposefully down the stairs.
“What happened to Chase? He was just here a little while ago!” Felicia said, frustrated.
“What’s the matter, miss me already?” Chase’s voice asked through the door.
“Chase! What happened to you? Where did you go?”
“I hid and followed them for a little ways. I think I know where they are keeping Drew. There were stairs going up but they must have been hidden like the wall down here hid all those soldiers. There, got it!” he cried excitedly as he unlocked the cell door and swung it open. “Chase the magnificent does it again!”
A shadow fell over him as the sharp point of a blade pricked him in the back through his leather armor.
“Aw, crap.”
Chase turned his head and stared into the blank face of Captain Lucien. The mercenary prodded the young rogue into the cell and quickly stripped him of weapons and armor. He chained Chase to the wall next to Gabe, exited the cell, and bolted the door.
“Way to go, Chase the magnificent,” Felicia said mockingly.
“Hey, you all got caught before I did! Besides, I found out where they’re keeping Drew.”
“A fat lot of good that does us, thanks to your not-so-successful jail break. I don’t suppose you have a back-up plan?”
“As a matter of fact, I do have a contingency plan for such a situation,” Chase told her superiorly. “Do the chains allow you to reach the front of your shirt?”
“Yeah, why?” she asked, puzzled as to how that would allow them to escape.
“When the guard comes in, I want you to lift your shirt and flash him.”
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