The Unwilling Accomplice (Book 5)

by Heidi Willard

  "If you will excuse me, dear cousin. I have duties to attend to in the port," Ransan commented, and strode out of the banquet hall.

  "You must excuse Lord Ransan. He is very straightforward in his speech, but a competent administrator of the port. We have never had the port run as smoothly as under his command," the king commented.

  "I am sure he grieves at the loss of his cousin, and the topic is a sensitive one for him," Ned suggested.

  The king stroked his chin and furrowed his brow. "Perhaps, but enough with the past. Let us celebrate your long-awaited return, Edwin, with some of our delicacies. Servants, the food!"

  At the king's words the food was brought into the hall, platters and platters of covered dishes. Each guest received their own covered dish and the servants pulled away the lids to reveal a small bit of greenery with an ounce of meat and a serving of chocolate that would have fit into a thimble. Many of the companions were disappointed, and Canto was disgusted.

  "What is this?" he growled.

  "Our delicacy. Each piece comes from the far reaches of the world. The meat from the herds to the south, the greenery from the marshes of your own homeland, and the dessert is a specialty of the islands to the west of our continent," the king explained.

  Fred no longer had to wonder how the elves kept their figures. They starved themselves to achieve those hour-glass shapes. The feast was quickly devoured, and soon thereafter the companions returned to their rooms hungry and worried the hospitality of the elves would starve them to death.

  CHAPTER 6

  Fred retired and through sheer force of will ignored his rumbling stomach and slipped into sleep. At midnight he was awoken by the sounds of horns. Fred shot up in bed and looked around him wondering if a stampede of bullfalo were barreling down on him. He quickly realized the noise came from the window. Fred swept aside the covers and went to the window. The city was ablaze with the blue light from elven hands as people flitted through the streets. Their shouts carried up to the castle, but he couldn't make out the words because they were spoken in Elvish.

  Fred's attention turned to the door where he heard a clamor of steel. He grabbed his transformed staff and hurried into the hall. Elven guards were positioned at every corner, and Ned was deep in conversation with one of them at the top of the stairs a few yards down the corridor. Ned noticed Fred, spoke a few more words to the guard, and hurried over to his young apprentice. Their other companions hurried out of their rooms in various states of disarray and with their weapons in hand. Ruth was transformed into her gargoyle form.

  "What's all the racket for?" Canto growled.

  "It seems the city defenses have been breached," Ned told them.

  "An army?" Percy guessed, but Ned shook his head.

  "Nothing so dramatic, but something far more bold. The guards at the bridge were manning their posts three hours ago when a stranger in a dark cloak emerged from the forest. The person pulled aside their cloak to reveal a beautiful woman who enchanted them and forced them to open the barrier. She passed through and slipped into the city."

  "Three hours ago, and only now alerting the city?" Percy wondered.

  "The guards were only just now freed from their enchantment," Ned explained.

  Fred furrowed his brow. A beautiful woman who had the power of a castor. "A beautiful woman?" Fred repeated.

  Ned grimly nodded. "Yes, and I agree with your thoughts, my young apprentice. Martley has followed us from Kite."

  "Martley? What's she got to do with anything?" Canto questioned them.

  "She was disguised as a soothsayer in String and told me I needed to beware of men in white cloaks," Fred told them.

  Percy raised an eyebrow. "Was this before you were attacked?"

  "Yes," Fred replied.

  "Then we may have some thanks to give to her for the warning, little as it helped," Percy commented.

  "Whatever her intentions she has invaded the city, and that cannot be forgiven" Pat pointed out.

  "Aye, and was needed to be welcomed in to do it," Canto reminded them. "That makes her something more than just another pretty face."

  "I must concur. She must have had a reason for the way she entered. It was a great risk to reveal herself," Percy agreed.

  Ned stroked his beard and nodded. "Yes, she, as Ruth and I, could not enter the city without the barrier being pushed aside. We must assume she is very gifted in magic, and not merely proficient at disguising herself."

  "She is such a powerful castor and yet you still do not know who she is?" Pat questioned him.

  Ned shook his head. "Not the faintest. Her abilities and appearance are not at all familiar to me."

  "Could she be the castor who tried to kidnap Fred in String, and meant to fool us with the warning?" Percy suggested.

  "No," Ned replied. His answer was so firm that all in the company turned to him. Ned cleared his throat. "The person who attacked Fred was certainly a man," he added.

  "Then we are at a loss as to who she is, and what her intentions are," Percy sighed.

  "I don't think she means to hurt me, or any of us," Fred spoke up. All eyes turned to him, but he didn't waver from his comment. "She warned me about the man who attacked me and she tried to keep me from going to the Valley of the King."

  Pat scoffed. "So she makes herself out to be a guardian while helping as little as possible," she commented.

  Fred furrowed his brow. "That's just it. I think she's been helping me since Galaron. There was an old woman there who I don't think was an old woman, and she gave me the key to the trapdoor to lead us through Ruth's home and outside, and there was an old woman at Tramadore after the battle who gave me the comb for Fluffy."

  Ned stroked his beard. "Most mysterious. I wonder if you, Fred and Pat, recall that we were assisted on our way at the very beginning by an old woman in a cart?"

  Pat frowned. "The one who drove us into the first town after we found Fred?" she wondered.

  "The very one," Ned agreed.

  "But how could she know about Fred before he arrived at Galaron?" she pointed out.

  "That is a question only she can answer. We will have to keep a sharp eye out for our follower and see if we are able to converse with her on the subject," Ned suggested.

  "And Fred should be kept to his room," Pat added.

  Fred frowned. "I'll be fine," he argued.

  Pat scowled back at him. "We don't know what her intentions are toward you, so the safest place would be the castle and your room," she insisted.

  "She doesn't mean to hurt me. If she did she would have done so a half dozen times already," he protested.

  Ned held up a hand and smiled at the pair. "I agree with Pat that Fred should be on his guard, but Fred would be safest with us. I will keep him by my side at all times outside the castle," he promised. Pat frowned, but didn't protest the arrangement.

  Fred was none too pleased. "I can handle myself," he argued.

  "Against a common foe I believe that, but we are dealing with an uncommon foe and measures must be taken," Ned insisted. Fred opened his mouth to continue his protest, but Ned shook his head. "No more arguments, my apprentice. Let us all return to our beds and sleep away what little of this night remains."

  The companions returned to their rooms, but Fred entered his and forsook the bed for the window. He leaned against the sill and looked out on the city. The guards wandered from street to street, but he knew they wouldn't find her, not when she was capable of transforming into whatever disguise she needed.

  "Who are you really?" he wondered. The air didn't answer, so he turned back to his bed and slept fitfully the rest of the night.

  A knock on his door awoke Fred from his sleep. He creaked open his eyes and saw the sun had risen, but the light was the weak brilliance of a half hour after sunrise. The knocking insisted he rise, so Fred tossed aside the covers and shuffled over to the door. He opened it to find Ned on the threshold of his room with a bright smile on his face.

  Ned swept
into the room and over to the bed where he turned to Fred who still stood by the door. Fred slowly shifted so he partially faced his energetic master. "Good morning, my apprentice. I trust you slept well after that little surprise last night," he commented.

  "Ugh," Fred replied.

  "Excellent! I hope you don't mind the early rising, but we have a long and interesting day ahead of us. Telana has promised to take us for a tour, and the city is so large and has so much worth seeing that it takes a full day to appreciate its beauty," Ned told him.

  "Ugh," Fred answered.

  "Good, then I and the others will meet you in the dining hall in a few minutes. We hope to gather enough provisions to satisfy our appetites, but nothing is guaranteed unless you hurry." With that friendly warning of starvation Ned hurried out of the room and shut the door behind himself.

  Fred stumbled through clothing himself and in a few minutes was downstairs with his friends. A banquet table full of breakfast foods sat against one of the feasting hall walls, and Ned had produced a basket from his cloak into which Canto and Percy were stuffing the food. The servants watched with disapproving looks, but didn't stop their pillaging of the table.

  One did lean toward their companion and speak in a low voice, "they take as much to feed an elf for fifty days," he whispered.

  "Fifty days? This is my breakfast," Canto scoffed.

  Ruth and Pat stood close by watching the packing. They wore their usual clothes and Pat's sword lay at her hip. She wouldn't take any chances with Martley loose in the city.

  Princess Telana entered the hall a few minutes after them with a bright smile on her face and Anduvis the hawk on her shoulder. In her hands was the Chronos box. "Good morning, dear friends," she greeted them as she joined them by the table.

  Ruth reached out and stroked the hawk's feathery chest. "Your hawk is already well?" she wondered.

  "He is not yet able to fly, but that needs only time to heal," Telana replied. She held out the box to Ruth. "I am forever grateful for the use of this precious gift," she thanked the young woman.

  "I was glad to be of assistance," Ruth returned. She took the box and placed it in her magical pouch.

  Telana turned to the others. "Now where shall we start on this tour?" she asked them.

  "Before we begin I am curious to know if there is an update to the late-night intruder," Ned wondered.

  Telana shook her head. "Nothing as yet, but the guards are still searching. I am sure they will find this woman and we will learn her intentions. For now we should not trouble ourselves with what we cannot control, so where shall we begin?"

  "Ah'd like ta see the broken stone just so Ah know it's true," Canto spoke up.

  "I, too, wish to see what remains of it," Percy agreed.

  Telana smiled and gestured to the door. "As you wish. If you would follow me I will show you its remains."

  CHAPTER 7

  Telana guided them into the entrance hall and down the left-hand passage. On their right after they passed the stairs were large windows and a pair of doors that looked and led out onto a garden courtyard. The square courtyard was as lavishly green as anything in the city, and could be accessed on two opposing sides. The other two sides of the courtyard were walls. On their left were doors that led into more private rooms. In front of them, like on the second floor, was a corner and a wall. Telana took them halfway through the castle and turned left into a narrow passage. At the end of the passage was a staircase that wound its way beneath the castle.

  They traveled down the stairs and into the dark depths of the castle. Torches filled with flickering blue light lit the otherwise dark and bleak stairwell. Telana paused at a landing one floor beneath the castle's main hall, and showed them a passage. It led into a maze of hallways, and servants strolled through the halls at leisure and work.

  "These are where the servants' quarters and the kitchen are located. The torches never go out because of our magic inside the flames," she explained to them.

  "They live in such a place?" Ruth wondered.

  "This is the worst of the passages. The others have window access to the exterior walls of the cliffs and that gives them natural light," she replied. "But come, we have a great distance to travel before we reach the stone."

  The companions stepped deeper into the bowels of the castle. Every fifteen feet they passed archways that framed long halls with doors on either side of the passages. Each archway signaled another drop in temperature and a further hint of must in the air. They were not only deep beneath the castle, but also beneath the hill itself.

  "For what are all these rooms used?" Pat asked their guide.

  "These halls are places of refuge for the citizens should the barrier ever fail us," Telana explained. She paused at one of the doorways and gestured to the hall. "We can fit our entire population in these rooms, and at the end of each passage is a staircase that leads to the port below the castle. There are also openings on each of the terraces that connect to these halls, and their entrances can be sealed behind the escaping citizens." She indicated a stairway that lay on the left side and at the front of each hall for as the stairs leading from the terraces.

  "Have you ever needed to use these passages?" Percy wondered.

  "Yes, though not in my time," she replied.

  "How long is your time?" Pat diplomatically inquired.

  Telana paused and glanced over her shoulder with a smile on her face. "I am young compared to others, but I have lived for three centuries."

  Ned chuckled at the surprised faces of the younger members of the group. "Have you forgotten that elves are known for their long life?" he teased them.

  Canto scoffed. "What's a life when there's nothing to do?" he mumbled.

  "We have our gardens to keep, and my father has not been idle with his centuries. He has seen much and knows a great deal," she argued.

  They soon reached a landing where stood a strange door. There was no handle or lock, and on either side stood a guard. In their hands were not lances or swords like the other guards, but staffs etched with runes. The guards eyed everyone, even Telana, with suspicion. Telana diverted the steps of the companions so they stood before the guards and she spoke a few words in Elvish. The guards relaxed their tense stance and opened the door by tapping the tips of their staffs against the wood. The door swung open and Telana led her guests into a long hall like the others, but unlike the others there were no doors. It was a straight route to the far end where stood another door and two more guards with staffs.

  "What did you say to them?" Ruth wondered.

  "The secret words to enter my father's collection of rare artifacts. The words are only known to those in the royal family and those who guard the door," Telana explained. "He keeps his most treasured and dangerous items here where they cannot be used for evil." They reached the new door and repeated the process, but with a different set of words.

  The guards opened the door, and instead of a hallway there stretched a wide, cavernous, windowless room with a domed ceiling. At the very end lay a simple locked door. Long carpets covered the floor, and among them stood pedestals and glass cases filled with oddities. There were manacles hewn from an ancient wood, stones etched with runes like the staffs of the guards, and busts that watched the visitors with eyes that moved.

  "You may look at anything you please, but I warn you that nothing should be touched," Telana instructed them.

  The group fanned out and admired the strange collection. Each piece had a plate with the name of the item, but not the use nor history. Fred stopped in front of a pedestal that held an open metal clamp. He could see a faint hint of a magic aura around the object. He stepped closer, and peered at the metal and the runes etched on the inside of the band.

  "Careful there, boy," a voice warned him. Fred spun around to find Ransan standing three feet from him. The elf had a half-grin on his face and his cold eyes glared at the young man. "Edwin wouldn't appreciate your touching that. That is a piece especially dangerous to
castors."

  Fred didn't like the unfriendly warning in the elf's voice, and straightened to his full height. "Why is that?" Fred asked him.

  Ransan stepped past Fred to stand on the other side of the pedestal. His eyes brushed over the clamp as he ran a finger across the top of the pedestal around the object. "This was made by a dwarven craftsman at the request of an elf lord who disliked castors. At a command from the person who holds it the clamp will throw itself upon the top of a castor's staff and seal the magic in the wood, preventing the castor from casting any spells." His eyes flickered upward to Fred and he chuckled. "It can only be released by the same person who gave the command, so the castor is at the mercy of the clamp's master."

  The others noticed the new arrival, and Telana walked up to stand before him with a deep frown on her face. "Cousin, what are you doing here?" she questioned him.

  "You forget that my port duties extend to the underground rooms, my dear cousin. I was merely making an inspection when I noticed you and your company enter this room," Ransan explained. His eyes swept over the group with clear disdain. "I would think you would have better sense to allow outsiders into this chamber. They may steal something as Canavar tried to do."

  "You are the only one who would fear such a threat, Ransan," Telana countered.

  He smirked. "I don't fear the outsiders, my dearest, I merely-well, I have much greater experience with them and that has taught me to be cautious," he argued.

  "There is no difference in my eyes," she countered.

  "I would not anger your beautiful eyes over a trifle, and apologize for my truthfulness," he replied.

  She frowned. "I would hope no others would consider such rudeness as truth," she replied.

  "In rudeness there is at least truth. I would not put on a false face to please those who are unworthy of my pleasure," he argued.