Never seeing daylight, never breathing fresh air, and being worked to exhaustion each day, and beaten for mere recreation, had killed many and driven others insane. For Royce, Manzant was only part of his prison, the latest incarnation. The real walls he had been building up brick by brick for years. Escaping Manzant was impossible, but it was ultimately easier than escaping the prison of his own making.
Nim had started him on the path, and later Arcadius and Hadrian had guided his way, but it was Gwen who had finally unlocked the cell door. She shoved it open and stood just outside calling, assuring him it was safe. He could smell the fresh air and see the brilliance of the sun. He was almost through, almost out—almost.
The whispering came from near the pool.
He thought everyone was asleep. They had traveled a long distance that day over hard terrain. No one had called for him to stop, but he had seen them stumbling—all except the dwarf. The little rat never seemed to tire but continued to scurry, and more than once, Royce had spotted a little smile behind the mustache and remains of his beard.
He had almost killed Magnus that first night they had spent at The Laughing Gnome. The thought had danced teasingly on his mind. That was before Myron came back from dinner and got all chatty. Royce would not admit it to anyone, but the dwarf was useful, and on surprisingly good behavior—which showed even more good sense. More than that, he discovered he no longer had the desire. Like everything else, the dwarf’s crime had been made trivial by Gwen’s death. Both love and hate were banished from him. He was a desert, dry of all passion. Mostly he was tired. He had one last job to do and he would do it, not for the empire, not even for Hadrian—this was for Gwen.
He got to his feet silently, out of curiosity more than concern. The whispering was definitely coming from the party—not some intruder. He spotted the princess lying on her side, wrapped in twisted blankets. She was jerking and thrashing again, that creepy robe glowing different colors, fading out and lighting up. He had no idea if the robe was causing her to dream so violently or if her dreams sparked the robe’s response. He did not see how it was any of his business and moved on.
At first, he thought it might be Magnus and Gaunt whispering. He frequently spied them traveling together and talking when the rest were too far to hear. Drawing closer, he discovered the source—it was Elden. He could see the huge reclined form up on one elbow under the blanket. His conspirator was on the far side and blocked from view. Wyatt lay a short distance away. He too was awake and watching.
“What’s going on?” Royce whispered to the sailor. “Who’s Elden talking to?”
“The monk.”
“Myron?”
Wyatt nodded.
“Is it normal for him to talk to strangers like that?”
Wyatt looked at him. “He’s talked more to that little monk in the last three days than he has to me in the last decade. They were doing this last night too, and I swear I heard Elden crying. I once watched while a ship’s surgeon put a red-hot poker to a wound on his thigh. Elden didn’t make a sound, but last night that little monk had him weeping so bad his eyes were red the next morning.”
Royce said nothing.
“Funny thing, though, he was smiling. All day long, I saw Elden grinning from ear to ear. That’s just not like him.”
“Best get back to sleep,” Royce told him. “I’ll be waking everyone in another hour.”
Royce stopped again.
Hadrian could see him over the heads of the others from his position at the rear. This time, Royce knelt down, placed the lantern on the ground beside him, and scraped the dirt. Alric approached and stood slightly to one side.
The party spent most of that day, like the one before, traveling in a single column in the narrow corridor. Overhead, water dripped, soaking their heads and shoulders; likewise, their feet felt pickled from wading through ankle-deep pools.
“What is it this time?” he heard Degan mutter with disdain. “He’s stopping every twenty feet now. This is the problem with monarchies and the whole feudal system, for that matter. Alric is in charge by no other virtue than his birth, and the man is clearly incompetent. He lost his own kingdom twice over in a single year, and now he is in charge of us? We should have a leader who is elected on merit, not lineage. Someone who is the most talented, the most gifted, but no—we have Alric. And the king in all his minuscule wisdom has chosen Royce to guide us. If I were in charge, I would put Magnus out front. He’s obviously far more gifted. He’s constantly correcting Royce’s mistakes. We would be making twice the time we are now. I’ve observed that people respect you.”
Hadrian noticed Gaunt was looking at him. Up until that moment, he had not known who Gaunt was speaking to.
“No one says it, no one bows or anything, but you are highly regarded, I can tell—more than Alric, that’s for certain. If you were to support me, I think we could persuade the others to accept my command of this group. I know Magnus would.”
“Why you?” Hadrian asked.
“Huh?”
“Why should you be in charge?”
“Oh—well, for one thing I am the descendant of Novron and will be emperor. And second, I am smarter than that oaf Alric, by far.”
“I thought you said you wanted a system based on merit, not lineage.”
“I did, but like I said, I am far better suited to the task than he is. Besides, why else am I here if not to lead?”
“Alric has led men into battle, and when I say led, I mean it. He personally charged the gates of Medford under a hail of arrows ahead of everyone, even his bodyguards.”
“Exactly, the man is a fool.”
“All right, it might not have been the smartest choice, but it did show courage and an unwillingness to sit back in safety while sending others into peril. That right there gives him credit in my book. But okay, I see your point. He might not be the smartest leader. So if you want someone with brains and merit, then Princess Arista is your clear choice.”
Degan chuckled, apparently taking his comments as a joke. When he saw Hadrian’s scowl, he stopped. “You’re not serious? She’s a woman—an irritating, manipulative, bossy woman. She shouldn’t even be on this trip. She’s got Alric wrapped around her finger and it will get us all killed. Did you know she tried to free me from that dungeon all by herself? She failed miserably, got herself captured and her bodyguard killed. That’s what she does, you know. She gets people killed. She’s a menace. And on top of that she’s also a wit—”
Degan struck the wall with the back of his head, bounced off, and fell to his knees. Hadrian felt the pain in his knuckles and only then realized he had hit him.
Gaunt glared up, his eyes watering, his hands cupping his face. “Crazy fool! Are you mad?”
“What’s going on?” Arista called back down the line.
“This idiot just punched me in the face! My nose is bleeding!”
“Hadrian did?” the princess said, stunned.
“It was… an accident,” Hadrian replied, knowing it sounded feeble, but not knowing how else to describe his actions. He had not meant to hit Gaunt; it had just happened.
“You accidentally punched him?” Wyatt asked, suppressing a chuckle. “I’m not sure you have a full understanding of the whole bodyguard thing.”
“Hadrian!” Royce called.
“What?” he shouted back, irritated that even Royce was going to join in this embarrassing moment.
“Come up here. I need you to look at something.”
Degan was still on his knees in a pool of water. “Um—sorry ’bout that.”
“Get away from me!”
Hadrian moved up the line as Wyatt, Elden, and Myron pressed themselves against the walls to let him pass, each one looking at him curiously.
“What did he do?” Arista whispered as he reached her.
“Nothing, really.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You punched him for no reason?”
“Well, no, but—it’s complicated. I’m not e
ven sure I understand it. It was sort of like a reflex, I guess.”
“A… reflex?” she said.
“I told him I was sorry.”
“Anytime today would be nice,” Royce said.
Arista stepped aside, looking at him suspiciously as he passed.
“What was all that about?” Alric asked as he approached.
“I, ah—I punched Gaunt in the face.”
“Good for you,” Alric told him.
“About time someone did,” Mauvin said. “I’m just sorry you beat me to it.”
“What do you make of this?” Royce asked, still on his knees and pointing to something on the ground beside his lantern.
Hadrian bent down. It was a leather string with a series of stone beads, feathers, and what looked like chicken bones threaded through it.
“It’s a Trajan ankle bracelet,” he told them. “Worn for luck by warriors of the Ankor tribe of the Ghazel.”
“The ends aren’t torn,” Royce said. “But look how they are bent and twisted. I think it just came untied. And it is partially buried under the dirt, so I am thinking it’s been here awhile. Regardless, we are in their neighborhood, so we’d better start moving a bit more cautiously. See if you can keep the chatter down to a minimum.”
Hadrian looked at the bracelet and caught Royce by the arm as he was about to move forward again.
“Here,” he said, keeping his body positioned to block the view of the rest of the party. He placed Alverstone into Royce’s hand.
“I was wondering where that went.”
“Time to re-claw the cat, I think,” Hadrian said. “Just be a good boy, okay?”
“Look who’s talking.”
The party moved forward again. Hadrian did not return to the rear. He thought it was more likely they would encounter Ghazel from the front, and he also did not relish the idea of returning to Gaunt.
The corridor widened until they could walk three abreast. Then abruptly the passageway ended. It stopped in a small room where the far side narrowed to no more than a crack. In the center was nothing more than a sizable pile of rocks.
Gaunt shook his head in disgust. “I told you he was incompetent,” he said, pointing at Alric. “He was so sure this was the right passage, and here we are days later standing at a dead end.”
“You said I was incompetent?” the king asked, then looked to Hadrian. “No wonder you hit him. Thanks.”
“What about us?” Gaunt asked. “How many days of food do we have? How much time have we wasted? We’ve been down here—what? Three days now? And it took us two days from Aquesta. That’s five days. Add five days to get back and even if we were to leave right now, we will have been gone ten days! How long do you think we have until the elves reach Aquesta? Two weeks? We’ll blow most of that time just retracing our steps.”
“I did not hear you suggesting a different choice,” Arista said. “Alric picked as best he could and I don’t think anyone here could have chosen any better.”
“How surprising—his sister is defending him.”
Mauvin stepped toward Gaunt and drew his blade. The sword picked up the light from the lanterns on its mirrored surface and flashed as Mauvin raised the point to Gaunt’s neck. “I warned you before. Do not speak of my king without respect in my presence.”
“Mauvin, stop!” Arista ordered.
“I’m not going to kill him,” he assured her. “I’ll just carve my initials in his face.”
“Alric.” She turned to her brother. “Tell him to stop.”
“I’m not certain I should.”
“See! This is the oppression I spoke of!” Gaunt shouted. “The evils of a hereditary authority.”
“Somebody shut him up,” Royce snapped.
“Mauvin,” Hadrian said.
“What?” Mauvin looked at him, confused. “You punched him!”
“Yeah, well—that was then.”
“Lower your blade, Mauvin,” Alric said, relenting. “My honor can wait until we are through with this.”
Mauvin sheathed his weapon and Gaunt pushed himself away from the wall, breathing heavily. “Threatening me doesn’t change the situation. We are still at a dead end and it is—”
“It’s not a dead end,” Magnus stated. He stomped his boot twice, got to his knees, and placed his ear to the ground. Then he looked up and glared at the pile of rocks. He got back to his feet and began throwing the rocks aside. Beneath were several pieces of wooden planking and, below them, a hole.
“That was hidden on purpose,” Wyatt said.
“This doesn’t mean we are in the right passage,” Gaunt argued. “I don’t remember the monk ever saying anything about going in a hole. There’s no way to tell this is the right way.”
“It is,” Myron replied.
Gaunt turned on the little monk. “Oh, so you’re keeping information from us, is that it? Or are you merely incompetent and just forgot to tell us about this part of the journal?”
“No,” he said meekly. “There’s nothing in the journal about this.”
“Then surely you are more pious than I thought, for Maribor himself must be giving you information he keeps from the rest of us.”
“Maybe,” Myron replied. “All I know is that’s Edmund Hall’s mark.” He pointed. “See there, carved into the stone.”
Royce was first to it and, holding his light above the floor, revealed the etched inscription:
EH
“E.H.,” Gaunt read. “How do we know that stands for Edmund Hall?”
“You think there’s a parade of people coming through here with those initials, do you?” Royce asked.
“That’s the exact way he wrote his initials in the journal,” Myron explained.
“What about these, Myron?” Royce asked as he pushed more rocks away to reveal more etchings. These were much brighter—fresher than the EH.
Myron glanced at them for only a moment before saying, “I don’t know anything about those.”
Hadrian stepped up, blew the dirt away. Then he turned to Arista and Alric. “Didn’t the Patriarch say he sent other teams?”
“Yes, he did,” Alric agreed. “Three of them, I think.”
“According to the empress, they all failed,” Arista added.
Hadrian glanced at Royce. “I think we know about the third group he sent, but they didn’t come this way. Still, I’m guessing these are the initials of either the first or the second team.” He looked at Royce again. “If you were going to handpick a group to come down here, and you could choose anyone, who would you pick to lead such a group?”
“Breckton, maybe,” Royce replied. “Or possibly Gravin Dent of Delgos.”
“Well, we know they didn’t pick Breckton, and look at the first initials, GD. Now when was the last time anyone saw Gravin? He wasn’t at the Wintertide games this year.”
“Not last year either,” Alric said.
“He was at Dahlgren,” Mauvin said.
“Yes, he was!” Arista confirmed. “I remember Fanen pointing him out and saying what a great adventurer he was and how he worked mainly for the Church of Nyphron. He called him something… a—a—”
“Quester?” Mauvin asked.
“Yes, that’s it!”
“Now let’s think about that,” Hadrian said. “They would need a scholar, a historian. Dent was at Dahlgren. Wasn’t there someone else too? That funny guy with the catapult, what was his name?”
“Tobis Rentinual?” Mauvin asked. “He was a real nut.”
“Yeah, but do you remember him saying something about how he named the catapult after Novron’s wife, because of all the research he did into ancient imperial history?”
“Yes. He said something about having to learn a language or something, didn’t he? He was all boastful about it, remember?”
“That’s right.” Hadrian was nodding. “Look at that second set of initials, TR.”
“Tobis Rentinual,” Mauvin said. “It even looks like how he would draw his letters.�
��
“What about the others?” Alric asked.
Hadrian shrugged. “I’m really only guessing at the first two. I have no idea about the others.”
“I do,” Magnus said. “Well, one of them, at least. HM, that’s Herclor Math.”
“Who?” Hadrian asked, and looked around, but everyone shrugged.
“Of course none of you would know him. He’s a mason—a dwarf mason—and a good one. I would recognize his inscription anywhere. The Maths are an old family. A Math even worked on the design team of Drumindor. His clan goes back a long way.”
“Why did they initial the stone?” Wyatt asked.
“Maybe to let anyone who might follow know they got this far,” Magnus replied.
“Why didn’t they mark the bloody three-choice passage?” Mauvin asked.
“Maybe they planned to,” Arista said. “Maybe—like us—they didn’t know if they picked the right one, but planned to mark it on the way out, only—only they never came out.”
“Maybe we should carve our initials too,” Mauvin suggested. “So others will know we were here.”
“No,” Arista said. “If we don’t come back out, there will be no others to follow us.”
Each of them looked toward the hole with apprehension.
“At any rate,” Royce said, “this looks like the place. Who’s carrying the rope?”
They tied three lengths of rope together, and with Hadrian on the line, Royce climbed in. They fed out two-thirds of it before Hadrian felt the line stop and Royce’s weight come off.
He waited.
They all waited. Some sat down on whatever flat spots they could find. Elden remained standing. He had an unpleasant look on his face as he eyed the hole. Despite Arista’s comments, the dwarf busied himself carving each of their initials into the stone.
Heir of Novron Page 48