by Shannah Jay
THE MAGIC SWORD Shannah Jay 48
11 THE SEARCH BEGINS
Left alone, the three youngsters sat on the bed in a row.
‘I don’t know where to start looking,’ Ronan confessed. ‘I mean, surely I’d have noticed the scabbard if it were here at Castle Nezrim?’
‘Not if it wasn’t meant to be seen,’ Shayla said thoughtfully.
Kerril got up and began to move around the room, now staring out of the window, now adding more charcoal to the brazier, and once fiddling with the hasp on Ronan’s chest of belongings. ‘Shouldn’t we start looking now?’ he asked, as time passed and Ronan still sat there frowning down at his feet, while Shayla stayed quietly beside him.
The other two looked up and Ronan went to open the door and listen. ‘We can’t go yet. People are still around.’ He latched the door carefully again and sat down with another sigh.
Silence for a few minutes, then Shayla asked thoughtfully, ‘Do you two know anything about magic?’
Ronan shook his head.
Kerril shrugged. ‘I’ve read quite a bit about it.’
‘Tell us what you know,’ Shayla ordered at once.
‘Well—only some people can call up magic powers—and they’re either good magicians or bad ones.
But something happened in Azaray which drove away all the good ones,’ he snapped his fingers as he realized what. ‘It was Pavros—’
‘Shh!’ Ronan and Shayla both spoke at once and Kerril stopped speaking to stare at them in surprise.
‘You mustn’t speak his name,’ Shayla explained. ‘Tevis and Hallie both told us that. And anyway,’ she glanced uneasily around her, ‘I felt a cold breeze when you said it.’
Ronan nodded. ‘So did I.’
Kerril looked around fearfully. ‘Sorry. Anyway, he chased away all the good magicians when he helped our uncle to take power! So there are no good magicians left in Azaray now, no one to help us against you know who.’
‘Is that all you know?’ Shayla asked.
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Kerril wrinkled his brow and tried hard to remember more. ‘Well, the same book also said those who can call up magic have to be trained, if they’re to do it properly, so they’re usually apprenticed to a wizard when they’re quite young. But there are others, not good enough to be apprenticed, who can use a little magic—not enough to become magicians, but enough to help themselves in their daily life.’ And he rather thought he was one of those, though he’d never told anyone.
He stared at the other two, feeling as solemn as a midnight owl. ‘If we’re of the royal family, we must have some magic in us, don’t you think? Even if it’s only a bit. Do you suppose we could use it to help us? I mean, if there’s a magic sword to protect the family, then maybe we can—you know—sense it. If we concentrate hard.’
Shayla nodded approval of this. ‘I think that’s a good idea, Kerril. Well worth a try.’
They both turned instinctively to look at Ronan, seeking his approval.
He nodded. ‘I think you may be right, Kerril. We’ll have to see if we can sense anything.’ He frowned.
‘But I’ve been thinking—and the only place the scabbard could possibly be is in Lord Nezrim’s bedchamber.’ He was getting used to saying ‘Lord Nezrim’ instead of ‘Father’ now, and much preferred it. ‘He keeps all his valuables there and not only is the door locked when he’s away, but the maids are forbidden to enter to clean it.’
Kerril’s face fell. ‘Then if it’s locked, we won’t be able to get inside, either.’
Ronan smiled, not a broad grin like Kerril’s, but a careful smile, as if even now he still felt it necessary to hide his feelings. ‘I might just know a way to get in.’
‘Oh, good. And if this lord of yours is away in Azaray, surely now would be a good time to search?’
Ronan stood up. ‘Yes. But I think we should take with us what we’ll need for our journey. We may have to get away quickly afterwards and anyway, it’d be silly to come back to this end of the castle.’ He went to get his cloak off a wooden peg on the wall, then rummaged through the chest and tossed out two more cloaks, one only a short summer cloak and both well worn. ‘That’s all I have, I’m afraid. I should have asked Nella for warmer cloaks for you two. I must get used to thinking ahead. A fine king I’ll make if I don’t learn to plan properly.’
Kerril grinned at him. ‘Well, you’ll make a much better king than I would. I’d really hate to be one.’
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‘I think you’ll make a good ruler, Ronan,’ Shayla said quietly. ‘You have an air of command about you already.’
He flushed a little, saying, ‘Thank you!’ in the new, deeper voice he’d developed recently. He felt a warm glow at the other two’s support. The idea of being the rightful King of Azaray terrified him—but it excited him as well. And it felt—right. Yes, that was the word. It felt right to undertake this quest because he was the king. He knew that.
***
In Azaray Pavros stiffened suddenly and stared around him. Somewhere in the kingdom a person who possessed magic powers had spoken his name aloud. He closed his eyes and concentrated, but couldn’t sense who it was—or exactly where the person was, either.
That annoyed him so much he thumped the table with one clenched fist. He’d grown used to keeping Azaray clear of all other magicians, used to frightening people so much they didn’t even try to use simple everyday magic. Rage flooded through him and a glass jar on one of the shelves shattered into tiny pieces as his anger washed around the room.
Downstairs his apprentice shivered and prayed that this dread master would not call for service. The last apprentice had died suddenly when he angered Pavros. This one hadn’t wanted to become an apprentice at all and had spent the whole time since being brought here living in terror of doing something wrong—which fortunately seemed to amuse Pavros.
Upstairs the wizard concentrated hard again, but could still get no clear impression of who had spoken his name aloud and unfortunately, the person didn’t do it again.
After a few moments he began to cast a spell, intoning the words in his deep voice and gesturing with his hands at the appropriate moments. If that person mentioned his name again, he would get a shock—
and Pavros would be able to trace him quite easily.
***
Ronan led the other two out of his room with a whispered order to keep very quiet and they crept down the twisting stone stairs in single file.
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Everything was shadowy now, with most wall lanterns extinguished for the night. Kerril, who came last, kept glancing behind him uneasily. He didn’t like shadowed passages in strange castles. When the shadows moved, he kept feeling as if someone might be creeping up behind them. He knew it was only air moving the torch flames, but that didn’t make any difference to how he felt.
When a large dog came running up to Ronan with a soft woof of inquiry, he calmed it with a word and sent it back to its bed. Once, he pushed the other two round a corner without a word of explanation, except for a hand sign to keep quiet. They all stood pressed together as a guard strolled by.
It was Kerril who noticed their shadows stretching across the entrance to the side passage. He concentrated hard, willing the man not to notice that. To his relief the guard continued to walk steadily away.
When the sound of footsteps had died away, Kerril tugged at Ronan’s sleeve and pointed to their shadows on the floor with one shaking fingertip.
Ronan heaved a sigh of annoyance at himself.
Shayla closed her eyes for a moment, muttering, ‘How could we have been so careless?’
If the man had been more alert, Ronan decided, he’d have noticed those shadows. Lord Nezrim was away in Azaray, though, and everyone in the castle had relaxed, as they always did in his absence. If Ronan ever became King, he would make sure that his guards kept alert all the time. Very alert indeed.
; The only place to be carefully watched when Lord Nezrim wasn’t there was the entrance gate. The guards seemed terrified that something might come out of the Shadows to attack the castle. They said that when you rode along the road to Azaray, the strange heavy mist reached out sometimes as if to snatch at you, and Ronan didn’t think they were saying that to frighten him. No, they were truly afraid of the Shadows.
He wasn’t. He’d have risked anything to get away from here, would even have stepped right into the Shadows, if necessary.
In the meantime he’d better concentrate properly on the task in hand and be glad the guards were being careless. With a bit of luck, no one should notice them as they searched for the scabbard.
***
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In the True Vale, Hallie observed what was happening with her magic senses, hoping desperately that the three young people would succeed in their quest. She’d done everything she could to set them on the right track. Now, like Tevis and Nella, she could only wait and see how they would cope.
If they weren’t strong enough to win the throne, they wouldn’t be strong enough to keep it. Fond as she was of them, she didn’t dare give them too much support. Better they failed early on in their quest if they were going to, before they had involved too many other people.
But somehow, she couldn’t believe they would fail. They were Ronan’s children, after all, born of the true line. The sword could sense that, even from its imprisonment. It was yearning for Ronan, desperate to help him regain the throne. She could sense that so clearly.
But the sword could do nothing until it was set free.
Nor could she.
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12 THE SCABBARD CALLS
Ronan led the others along some more shadowed passageways to the private chambers of the family.
There, by the light of one flickering lantern, he stopped and fumbled in the soft leather pouch hanging from his belt, bringing out a twisted piece of wire. He began to fiddle with the lock of a heavily carved wooden door, trying to open it and frowning when it didn’t yield easily.
Kerril watched anxiously, seeing the growing worry on his brother’s face. Without realizing what he was doing, he took a step forward, wishing he could help. Open! He prayed inside his head. Please open!
We have to get in!
Suddenly, there was a click, a sharp sound which seemed loud in the quietness of the passageway.
Kerril held his breath. Had the wire turned the lock? Yes! He could see by Ronan’s expression of triumph that it had. He clenched his fists at his chest and clamped his lips shut, because he felt so happy he wanted to throw up his hands and yell in triumph. Had his wishing helped a little? He thought it had and even a small contribution made him feel better about himself.
Shayla, who had been looking sideways at Kerril just before the door opened, thought she saw a flicker of light behind his head. She glanced round thinking someone was coming towards them with a lantern, but there was no one in sight, so decided she must have been mistaken.
With a wave of one hand Ronan gestured to the others to follow him and they all slipped into the suite of rooms where the lord and his family lived.
‘You live in such comfort here,’ Kerril breathed, awed by the luxury. Lord Bezroll scorned all such softness and kept comforts to the minimum, even in his own chamber.
‘Ha! You don’t think I spend much time here, do you?’ Ronan asked sharply. ‘I didn’t come here at all when I was younger and as I grew up, I was only brought here to serve the rest of them. Lord Nezrim always said I was too stupid to be worth talking to.’
Shayla could hear the bitterness in his voice and could tell how such taunts had hurt him. Well, they’d all three had difficult childhoods, hadn’t they? She hadn’t been very happy, either, and she guessed Kerril must have been bullied a lot, he was so timid. What sort of people had that made them? Were they fit to THE MAGIC SWORD Shannah Jay 54
be the royal family of Azaray now? She shook her head, dismissing that thought. They were a lot fitter than Sevris the Cruel, that was beyond doubt.
Once everyone was inside, Ronan turned and dropped an elaborate wrought metal bar into a socket to secure the door. ‘I can’t use the wire again,’ he whispered. ‘That lock was much harder to open than I’d expected and it softened the wire.’
Since no one was allowed here in Lord Nezrim’s absence, there were no torches or lanterns lit and the only light came from the two moons shining through the tiny leaded panes of the window slits.
Kerril edged closer to Shayla, feeling very uneasy, for it seemed as if something evil was sitting watching them. ‘I don’t like it here,’ he muttered.
‘Neither do I,’ agreed Shayla.
‘I’ve never liked coming here,’ Ronan admitted. ‘Lately it’s just been to get scolded and sometimes beaten for an imaginary fault. They seem to like beating me.’ He paused as he said that, for it had long been a shame to him to be treated like this, though Nella and Tevis had both assured him it wasn’t his fault.
‘And I’ve never even been into Lord Nezrim’s inner chamber, not once,’ he went on. ‘It’s through there.’ He pointed and they turned to stare at the heavy wooden door, which was even more elaborately carved than the outer one.
‘Can you feel anything coming from inside?’ Shayla asked. ‘I mean, if the magic scabbard is there, surely we should be able to sense it?’
Ronan tried to concentrate, but found it difficult because whenever he looked towards the door, his mind felt as if it were filled with buzzing insects and his vision kept blurring. What was making him feel like this? ‘I can’t seem to think properly,’ he muttered after trying in vain to concentrate. ‘And,’ he made an effort to walk forward, but to no avail, ‘I can’t even move towards that door.’
Shayla tried to move towards it and gasped as her feet refused to move, too. ‘Do you think—could there be some spell on the door? If so, that’s probably to hide the scabbard, don’t you think?’
Kerril looked down at his legs, which seemed leaden all of a sudden. By making a huge effort, he managed to shuffle forward half a step, then came to a halt. ‘I can’t move properly, either!’
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They stared at one another in dismay.
Ronan tried his hardest and managed one small faltering step in the direction of the door, then came to a halt, feeling as though his feet were glued to the floor. The buzzing inside his head seemed to have grown louder. ‘I can’t even think properly, the noise is so great.’
Kerril tried again to step forward and found himself unable even to twitch his feet this time, but though he could hear a faint buzzing noise, it was only a minor annoyance to him. ‘What do you mean when you say “the noise is so great”?’ he asked.
‘That loud buzzing,’ Ronan said, rubbing his forehead. ‘Surely you can hear it?’
‘It only seems faint to me,’ Kerril said.
‘It seems quite faint to me, too,’ Shayla agreed.
‘Well, there’s got to be some way to get through it,’ Ronan muttered, his words coming thickly, as if it was an effort to speak at all. ‘We can’t let them defeat us before we’ve even begun.’ He concentrated hard, sweat standing out on his brow and managed to shuffle another hand-span forward. Groaning, he prepared to try again.
‘Wait!’ Kerril grabbed his arm. ‘Three in one, the legend says.’ He closed his eyes and concentrated on what he was sensing rather than what he was seeing. ‘I feel as if I want to touch you, both of you.’
Shayla held out her hands and her brothers each took one. Instantly they all felt more in control of themselves.
‘The noise has died down quite a bit,’ Ronan said.
‘Try moving forward now,’ Kerril said. ‘All together.’
This time, with their hands linked, they managed to take one slow step after another until they came to the door.
When Ronan let go of Shayla’s hand
to open the door, however, his body spun round and his foot moved as if to walk away. She snatched his hand and he was able to turn back to the door again.
‘It’s very powerful,’ he whispered. ‘What must it be like inside the chamber?’
‘Three in one,’ Shayla repeated. ‘Kerril was right. That’s the secret. Whatever we do, we must keep hold of one another.’
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They waited for Ronan to fumble with the door with his free hand.
‘It isn’t locked!’ he said in surprise. When he pushed it open, it swung back easily on its hinges, with not even a squeak of protest.
Walking through the doorway was very difficult indeed. Even linked together they could only shuffle forward slowly and they all felt huge anxiety building up inside them.
‘Move, move, move!’ Kerril chanted suddenly and began to drag them forward in time to his chanting.
When they got right inside, the force lessened suddenly, as if they’d passed through an invisible barrier.
‘Keep hold of each other!’ Shayla warned as she felt the lads’ hands relax in hers. ‘We don’t know what’s waiting for us in here.’ She kept an eye on Kerril, who had sagged against her, looking exhausted.
It was definitely his efforts which had made the difference. He must, she decided, have a real gift for magic.
‘Best we stand still and simply look round before we move again,’ Ronan said. ‘We have plenty of time. No one will be coming in here or even passing the door at this hour of the night.’
They nodded and did as he suggested.
The room was quite large and furnished in great comfort. Soft animal skins lay on the bed and floor. A tapestry with a battle scene on it graced one wall. There were carved armchairs near the fireplace and two big chests on either side of the room. But the most striking feature of all was a carved panel of wood over the fireplace.