‘At the very end of this tunnel is the Great Treasure Chamber where my father stored all the precious jewels, coins and gemstones,’ Roana replied. ‘I think it is this treasure that the Sedahs must want most to take back to the Emperor’s court. That would be a good place to start searching.’
At that moment, Lord Mortimer was thinking about Princess Roana as well. His top lip curled in a vexed sneer.
‘Lord Mortimer,’ cried Queen Ashana. ‘Is it not wonderful that Princess Roana is alive and free?’
‘Indeed,’ he replied. ‘Splendid!’
Two Sedah guards thumped on the door.
‘Would your royal highness care for some supper?’ chuckled one, fancying himself a funny man. ‘Roast pheasant is off the menu today but we have plenty of pig slops.’
A pail of swill was passed through the opening.
‘My dear fellows,’ called Lord Mortimer, rising languidly from his reclining position. ‘A word if you please.’
‘What is it, Fancy Pants? Not happy with the service?’
‘I would speak with Lord Lazlac,’ Lord Mortimer requested lazily.
‘Yes, but would Governor Lazlac speak with you? I think not,’ chortled the joker. ‘Better off just eating up your pig swill like a good boy.’
‘Perchance it would be best if you conveyed my request to Captain Malish,’ Lord Mortimer replied. ‘He understands the repercussions of displeasing Lord Lazlac … if you do not.’
The joker looked momentarily nervous.
‘Well, Mr Fancy Pants, the captain is very busy, but I’ll let him know you’d like a chat.’
Lord Mortimer returned to his reclining position, fanning himself nonchalantly with his hand.
‘My lord, why do you wish to speak to that barbarian Lazlac?’ enquired Queen Ashana, trying to hide her nervousness.
‘As the barbarian says, I am not content with the service,’ smiled Lord Mortimer.
A few minutes later the guards returned, this time with Captain Malish in tow. Lord Mortimer raised himself and wandered to the door.
‘Well, Mortma, what can I do for you?’ asked Captain Malish shortly.
‘I would speak to Lord Lazlac,’ replied Lord Mortimer in a low voice. ‘I have news he will find very informative.’
‘News? From down in this rat hole? I doubt it, Mortma,’ spat Captain Malish. ‘Governor Lazlac is currently very busy.’
‘The news,’ whispered Lord Mortimer, ‘is to do with the Royal Princess Roana. You fools have been unable to track her down, remember? You thought she was taken by an Octomon, remember? You have been outwitted by a simpleton child. I, however, know where to find her.
‘You do remember the deal? I was to deliver you King Radnor and the land of Tiregian, and in return I was to marry Princess Roana and rule as her consort, as a representative of Emperor Raef.’ Lord Mortimer glanced over his shoulder at the grieving widow, his cousin by marriage, Queen Ashana.
‘However, things have not gone quite to plan. You lost the princess, or pretended to. Meanwhile, I have been stuck in this hellhole. Now I have found the princess and I demand to marry her immediately. I will be a hero and negotiate a peace deal with your Master. The people of Tiregian would welcome me with open arms – cousin to the king, married to the royal princess and seeming to save them from the dreaded enemy. Now I know where Princess Roana is and I demand Lord Lazlac keeps his side of the bargain.’
‘Do you indeed?’ purred Captain Malish. ‘Governor Lazlac does not take kindly to threats, or to those who make mistakes. That brat of a princess was lost because you gave us incorrect information and a faulty map. Dozens of our men witnessed her being taken by an Octomon. Do you really think that the Governor will believe that she miraculously survived and that you have somehow found out information about the brat from down here? I think not.’
‘She is here!’ Lord Mortimer protested, then lowered his voice again. ‘I have seen her with my own eyes. She was here in the tunnel with a group of urchins. They are searching for the Sun Sword of Tiregian. I saw her.’
‘There, there, Mortma,’ smiled Captain Malish maliciously. ‘I think it is all getting too much for you down here. You are starting to hallucinate. Perhaps I should recommend to the Governor that you all get some fresh air and exercise up in the palace gardens, and perhaps you need some better food. This pig swill obviously disagrees with you. We don’t want to lose any of our precious prisoners, now, do we?’
Captain Malish drew away from the portal. ‘Attention, men, let’s march.’
‘No,’ shouted Lord Mortimer. ‘I must speak with Lazlac. I insist!’
The three Sedah soldiers ignored him and continued their brisk march back to the guardroom.
Lord Mortimer ground his teeth and started to pace the cell like a caged animal.
‘What did he say?’ asked Queen Ashana anxiously.
‘He is going to ask Lazlac if we can have better food and the occasional stroll in the palace gardens,’ replied Lord Mortimer through clenched teeth.
‘Oh, that would be lovely,’ replied Queen Ashana wearily. Willem and Marnie exchanged anxious glances. They did not trust the supercilious Lord Mortimer.
Ethan, Lily, Roana and Saxon prowled down the tunnel. Each held a flaming torch that they had borrowed from the passage walls. Aisha padded beside them.
At the end of the long tunnel was another thick timber door on massive iron hinges, reinforced with wide iron bands. It was barred with a large black padlock.
‘It is locked,’ cried Roana in disappointment.
‘Perhaps we can smash the lock,’ suggested Ethan unenthusiastically.
‘I have a better idea,’ replied Saxon with a cheeky grin. ‘We could try these.’
Saxon produced a large ring of keys with a flourish.
‘I pinched them,’ he explained. ‘They were hanging on a rack of hooks just inside the guardroom, with a big label saying Eastern Tunnel. I thought they may come in handy! The guards were so busy arguing over their card game they didn’t even notice.’
‘Sax, you were supposed to be extra careful to keep the princess safe, remember?’ admonished Ethan impatiently.
‘Well, let’s hope one of the keys opens the chamber,’ breathed Lily fervently.
Saxon compared the keys on the ring to the padlock. He tried a couple of larger keys and then on the third attempt the padlock clicked open.
‘Thank you, Saxon,’ cried Saxon. ‘You are a genius!’
‘You most certainly are,’ agreed Ethan. ‘And an accomplished thief! What would your father think!’
The children pushed open the door. Inside was an enormous cavern, stacked with chests, crates and boxes of twinkling, winking treasure. Gold cups lay sprawled on the floor as if dropped at the end of a festive banquet. Bracelets, crowns and necklaces tumbled out of overflowing chests. Coins, rubies, sapphires and diamonds glittered in piles.
At first glance the chamber was a chaotic jumble of gems, treasure and gold. At second glance, they saw that the chamber was divided. Roughly one-third of the chamber was in fact quite ordered. Boxes, crates and chests had been packed with precious things and neatly stacked. The rest lay tumbled on the floor like a pile of children’s toys.
‘It looks like the Sedahs are packing up this mess – though they probably made it in the first place,’ quipped Lily. ‘There must be thousands of gems here. How will we ever find the gems from the Sun Sword?’
‘Easy,’ laughed Roana.’ We need to check one gem at a time, just like moving the rocks.’
Lily grimaced. ‘It will take us hours to go through all these chests. I hope we don’t get any visits from the Sedahs. That would be nasty.’
‘You’re right,’ Ethan mused. ‘It would be nice if we could have a bit of notice if the guards decide to pay us a surprise visit. What we need is a warning device. Perhaps we can rig one up partway down the tunnel in the shadows. Something that will make a lot of noise if anyone comes. Like a chest of coins balanced on to
p of a door, and a thin string rigged across the corridor that would pull down the chest if anyone tripped over it.’
‘Good thinking, Ethan,’ cried Saxon. ‘You are a complete genius! Like me!’
Ethan and Roana rigged up the guard alarm, while the others started methodically searching through the packed chests.
Four hours later, the children had fingered hundreds of gems, coins and precious stones, but nothing fitted Roana’s descriptions of the gems from the Sun Sword.
Lily yawned, stood up and stretched, feeling restless and frustrated. Her fingers felt for her Merrow pearl, which she played with thoughtfully. Her eyes wandered around the chamber, skimming over the precious objects. Something caught her eye.
Over by the door was a pile of plump sacks. Their plain brown ordinariness looked extremely out of place among all this glittering splendour.
Out of curiosity she wandered over to the three sacks. The tops were sewn tightly shut. Lily wiggled her fingertips into a tiny crack in the top of the sack. A golden kernel of dried corn gleamed in the crack.
‘That’s odd,’ wondered Lily aloud. ‘Why would corn be stored in the Treasure Chamber?’
‘Mmmm,’ replied Saxon, engrossed in rifling through a large chest of bright gold coins.
‘Corn?’ asked Roana, busily emptying a casket of jewels. ‘Corn would be in the food cellars.’
Ethan stopped searching through his chest and came over to look at the three sacks.
‘It is an odd place to store something as common as corn, although it is sometimes called peasant’s gold!’ Ethan observed.
‘Unless of course you were trying to hide something really valuable inside it,’ Lily said, her eyes shining, as she tried to loosen the rough string with her fingers.
Ethan ran over to the wall, where some beautifully engraved and bejewelled daggers were hanging. He brought two back and handed one to Lily. They each dug the dagger into the side of a sack and sawed it open. A waterfall of gleaming gold kernels poured out, spilling across the floor and doorway. Ethan tipped up the end of each sack. Nothing but corn.
Ethan and Lily looked at each other in disappointment.
‘I was so sure the corn could only be here to hide something else,’ Lily murmured.
‘Let’s try the last one,’ Ethan suggested.
Together they plunged their daggers deep into the sacks. A river of corn spilled across the floor, forming a wide lake. They plunged their arms deep into the sack, up to their elbows in grain. And together they felt something hard, buried in the remaining kernels. They scrabbled excitedly and pulled it out.
It was a small wooden box, its lid ornately carved with hideous monsters and gargoyles. Lily fingered an unusual black and red carving in the centre of the scene. It looked strangely familiar. Her heart thudded with excitement.
‘A carving of two crossed cutlasses with an eye above them – we saw this on the Sedah ships. It is the mark of Emperor Raef!’ Lily exclaimed breathlessly.
Ethan and Lily examined the box, holding it up to the light. Saxon stopped rifling through gold coins. Roana came over from her chest of gems.
‘But the box doesn’t seem to open,’ Ethan said in frustration.
The box was quite small, easily held in two hands. The sides had many panels of smooth glossy wood, each about the thickness of a thumb. It had a thick base of plain dark wood about the same thickness as the ornate lid. The strange thing was that there seemed to be no catch, no lock, no keyhole, no visible opening. It seemed like a solid piece of ornately carved timber. Yet when Lily shook it there was a faint rattle as something moved inside it.
Each child took a turn to poke, prod and press at the many panels. When it was Roana’s turn to take the box she gasped in shock. The box seemed alive under her fingertips. Her fingers seemed to burn and tingle as she held the box.
‘I think … I think this might just be something,’ she stuttered in excitement.
She pushed and prodded at the central carving of Emperor Raef’s mark. Surely that must be the key to the puzzle, just like pressing the sun symbol had been the key to opening the secret entrance to the palace storerooms in the underground tunnel.
‘Perhaps we can open it by force,’ suggested Saxon, itching to snatch the box from Roana and pull the lid off by sheer strength. ‘We could use one of the ceremonial axes to chop it open.’
‘No. That might damage whatever is inside,’ Ethan argued, taking the box from Roana. ‘If it is some of the gems from the Sun Sword we don’t want to crack them or chip them. There must be some trick to opening it. We just need to figure it out.’
A loud crash sounded down the corridor. The sound of hundreds of coins rained down onto the stone floor. Muffled curses and shouts alerted them that someone had tripped the coin trap.
‘Quick. Someone’s coming,’ hissed Ethan, jumping up with the small box still unopened in his hands. ‘Where can we hide?’
‘Come this way,’ Roana whispered, grabbing her pack and running towards the rear of the Treasure Chamber. ‘There is a secret way that leads to my parents’ private chambers.’ She ducked behind a towering row of shelves containing small caskets and jewellery boxes.
The others ran behind her, each carrying their packs. Behind the shelves was a stone wall, with a flaming sun carved high into the stone. Without even pausing, Roana reached up to press one of the rays. The stone wall grumbled and groaned, then slid away, revealing a dark doorway.
The four children slid through it silently with Aisha. As Roana pressed the handle which closed the stone door, they heard a loud crash as the main door to the Treasure Chamber flew open and seven Sedah guards stormed in.
The guards hit the lake of corn and slipped and slid, limbs flailing. The first four guards sprawled onto the floor, bruised and shocked.
Before the secret stone door slid completely closed they could hear a familiar voice – the harsh voice of Captain Malish.
‘Search thoroughly. Whoever has broken into the Treasure Chamber is still here. I can smell the smoke of their torches. Leave no coin unturned. They are here somewhere and we have them trapped!’
In total silence the children started to climb – a narrow, spiral staircase that wound up and up and up. In moments everyone was short of breath, their hearts thumping and lungs burning. But still the steps climbed up, carved out of solid stone.
At last the stairs ended in a tiny circular landing, the walls made completely of smooth stone blocks. There was not a crack or a chink to be seen. Saxon, Ethan, Lily and Aisha flopped down on the top few steps. Roana lifted her torch and carefully searched the masonry.
Over on the right, high above her head, her fingertips found a tiny crack. She pushed and wriggled. Once again the solid stone, carved from the deepest heart of the earth, magically cracked and separated, silently revealing a narrow aperture. Roana quietly doused her torch and gestured for the others to do the same.
Aisha stood on guard, her hackles raised, a low growl threatening to rumble forth. Ethan hurriedly placed his hand warningly on her collar to keep her quiet.
Everyone blinked in the sudden darkness, until gradually their eyes became used to the blackness.
Roana groped through the narrow aperture. Her hands found a soft heavy hanging – a beautiful tapestry that had been woven by the ladies of the court. Roana remembered it well. It was a scene of a beautiful young maiden in a forest, a full moon glowing in the starry night sky and a pure white unicorn with his bearded head lying contentedly in her lap. The girl was reputedly a study of Queen Ashana as a young maid. Roana carefully lifted the hanging from the bottom, peeking under it just above the floor.
The room was half lit by the glowing embers of the fire, and the pale silvery moonlight which came in through the windows. Roana could make out the shadows of her parents’ familiar furniture. In the centre of the room was a massive four-poster bed, with carved posts and heavy velvet curtains. Roana froze. Someone was in the bed. Someone was sleeping in her parent
s’ bed! She flushed with bubbling hot anger.
She signalled to the others to wait quietly, then she crawled out under the heavy tapestry. Hardly daring to breathe, she crawled over to her parents’ bed. Sprawled across the wide bed was a man. This must be Governor Lazlac. Roana’s heart froze with horror. She turned away, tears of frustration, sadness and hatred spilling from her eyes.
As she surreptitiously wiped them away, something caught her eye. A dull glimmer of gold, coiled like a snake on the bedside chest. Roana crept closer for a better look. There on the chest was a gold pocket watch, an enamelled snuff box, a jumble of coins and a fine, delicate lady’s necklace – an amethyst heart locket surrounded by tiny seed pearls.
Roana gasped involuntarily, causing Lord Lazlac to stir and roll over. She reached out her hand carefully, and slowly extricated the locket from the pile of treasures.
Roana crawled back to the tapestry and, lifting the corner, signalled to the others to follow her. They each crawled through the gap. Roana pointed to a doorway over on the right, past the huge gaping fireplace with its ornate marble mantle, and past a large roll-top desk.
Lily and Aisha set off at once, followed by Saxon. Lily glanced up at the soaring domed ceiling above them. In the silvery light she could see it was painted as the sky, with the rosy sun in the centre. Fluffy clouds held fat, smiling cupids. At the edges the blue faded to deep indigo, scattered with sparkling stars and an exotic crescent moon.
As he passed it, Saxon glanced down at the huge roll-top desk, scattered with rolled parchments, maps, letters and orders. The flickering light from the fire was stronger here and he could see the contents of the desktop quite clearly. A brass contraption let off a warm, waxy smell. Saxon touched it. Underneath, a stub of candle had been snuffed. A small dish swung just above where the flame should be, its bowl filled with blood red wax. Beside it lay a wooden-handled stamp – a seal.
Roana knelt to press the hidden knob which would close the secret door once more and hide their entrance. Ethan couldn’t help himself. Still carrying the small wooden box, he crept over to the bed for a look at the face of the man that dared to sleep in a dead king’s bed.
Quest for the Sun Gem Page 18