Prisoners of the Keep

by Susan Bianculli

  I was pretty sure I remembered Caelestis saying the gates operated by themselves under their own rules, but what if a pre-req for the gate had to be that there was something special about you? My heart soared at the thought, and I wondered if I had fairy blood. Or maybe even magic? Then the rest of words Jason said hit me, and I wondered what he meant by ‘find her for myself’. Did it mean that he would try to get revenge for my rescuing Heather’s stuff?

  My thoughts were interrupted by Arghen’s return with the riding lizard. Saffron, some distance away on the other side of the fire circle, raised his head and widened his nostrils at the appearance of Arghen’s mount. The golden horse eyed the black and green dranth, as Arghen called it, warily, and pawed the ground with one hoof in displeasure. But Saffron did nothing more than that. The Under-elf placed his bedroll and saddlebags on the ground by the fire, then laid his spear next to them within easy reach.

  He said in a cordial tone to Jason, “So that is why She wants me to check up on you. Interesting. Please tell me now the whole of your story.”

  “You mean, you heard us talking? But we were barely whispering!” The look on Jason’s face was chagrinned.

  I blushed in embarrassment, too, to have been caught talking about Arghen behind his back.

  Arghen was unruffled as he set up his bedroll. “Whispering to you, perhaps. When we pay attention, Surface- and Under-elves can hear things like careless whispers with our sharp hearing.”

  “Uh, right. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.” The chagrin now crept into Jason’s voice.

  “However, you are correct in one thing, Jason. You do not know me so there is no real reason to trust me yet, except that I do tell you true that I come from the Goddess Quiris. This you can tell by the symbols I proudly wear.” Arghen indicated with a wave of his hand his tunic and the pendant around his neck.

  The symbols were representations of a long silver spear superimposed upon Caelestis’ winged circle, and I felt more reassured upon seeing them. Then I remembered Caelestis’ last gift to me.

  “Hey! I have something like that!” I said as I pulled out the winged circle pendant she’d given me.

  Arghen examined it closely, and gave a single nod to me. “This just confirms for me that you are the object of my quest, Paladin.”

  I tucked my necklace under my armor again, feeling pleased.

  Arghen said to Jason, “But to reassure you, Jason, know that I will never go against Quiris’ wishes, because I am Her Champion and am sworn to Her service. And what She wishes is for me to aid ‘the unusual white and gold’, which is Paladin here. Please, your story?”

  The Under-elf made himself comfortable on his bedroll, and looked expectantly at Jason. So did I.

  Jason, under our combined scrutiny, said, “So, okay, I was chasing this chica—uh, a girl—down in the real world because, well, never mind why. So somehow something happened involving lots of fog and bright lights, and boom! We ended up here. Though I ended somewhere different than she did, but I didn’t know that at first. After I was sure I had lost her, I tried using the GPS on my cell phone to find my way out of the woods, but the damn thing didn’t work. I walked around a while and came across this smelly old lady on her knees whose long, greasy grey hair was tangled in a thorn bush. She asked me in a weak, cracked voice to help her out, but her clothes were full of holes and she was filthy looking. I didn’t want to touch her in case she gave me bed bugs or lice or something.

  “So I told her ‘Sorry, grandma, but you’re on your own,’ and started to leave. Then a strong, loud voice said ‘stop’. I stopped and turned around to see who had said that. This chalk white woman dressed in armor and calling herself the lesser goddess Quiris stood right where the old bruja had been, and told me I’d failed the test.

  “‘Test? What test?’ I said, but then she said she’d just given me a test that I didn’t know about. Well, I called her loco and warned her to stay away from me. I mean, who knew what a creepy looking lady like that could do to me, right? And I was right! Because if she isn’t a goddess like she says she is, she sure has some freaky comic-book type powers.”

  Jason blushed bright red at a memory just then, and he rushed on. “So, anyway, she finally gives me some clothes to get dressed in, and only after I beg her does she give me some weapons to protect myself with. She then tells me that I should go and find an Analise Baxter from my world, because somehow this chica Analise has a better handle on what goes on over here than I do. And then Quiris has the nerve to vanish on me! So I started wandering, ran into Paladin here, and the rest you pretty much can guess.”

  While Jason talked I’d glanced over at Arghen and saw that though he’d frowned when Jason had called Quiris crazy, he mostly looked puzzled. I figured he was having trouble understanding everything Jason said. Then I’d realized that if Arghen was puzzled, I should be too. I put on a baffled look and kept that expression on for the rest of Jason’s explanation.

  But I was particularly curious about one part of his story. “Wait, what? ‘Gives you some clothes’? Why? What happened to the ones that you’d had on?”

  He turned bright red again. “Ah, well, you see ….”

  Arghen and I waited.

  Knowing that we weren’t going to let it go, Jason blurted out, “Okay, so I’d told her I didn’t believe she was a goddess, and then she pointed her finger at me, and the next thing I knew I was butt naked! And my knife had been taken away!”

  I let out a burst of laughter before covering my mouth.

  “It’s not funny!” Jason growled.

  I straightened out the corners of my mouth and said, “You’re right; it’s not funny to you.”

  Jason gave a short sharp nod, but then scowled hard at me when he realized what I had said. A chill ran down my back at his look as what he’d said suddenly clicked. He’d had a knife on him while chasing me in the Park? My skin crawled, and I wondered if he’d have used it on me if he’d caught me.

  To change the subject I made a show of yawning. “So, Jason, since it’s your turn for watch now, I’m going to grab some shut eye. You should too, Arghen, because we need to leave in the morning.”

  I hoped this would prevent the two males from talking while I slept. I didn’t want Jason knowing just yet who I was. Realistically I couldn’t hide from him for long the fact that we were the only two Humans in these realms. And as soon as he found that out, he’d figure out that I was the Analise he was looking for. I needed to come up with a plan of telling Jason who I was without him trying to hurt me when I did.

  But Arghen shook his head. “No, Paladin. Jason has sustained an injury this night. I feel he should sleep to recuperate as he can. I will stand watch.”

  I blushed—the Under-elf was right, of course. “No, I will stand watch first, Arghen. You grab some shut-eye. I’ll wake you later and you can take a turn then.”

  To my pleased surprise Arghen, after hesitating for a moment, agreed. He took off the rose, and as he stowed it away in a carved wooden box I saw that it had, improbably, a silver thorn on it. He got ready for bed as Jason did, and I resumed my interrupted watch.

  CHAPTER 9

  I had planned a decently early start the next morning sometime after the sun had been up a while. My plans were thrown out the window when Arghen’s frantic cries woke me at dawn. I bolted upright and saw that the Under-elf was half-dressed and flinging things out of his saddlebags to the ground. His amber eyes were shut tight, and he ignored Jason’s repeated offers of help. I shaded my eyes with one hand and looked eastward to where the sun was just rising among glorious peachy pink clouds. It was already getting bright here on the plains, partly due to the iridescent rocks glimmering everywhere in the growing light, but it wasn’t that intense yet. I absently noted two things: that Jason was wearing his armor, and that he had on a different shirt than yesterday. He must have exchanged his blood-stained one for something fresh during his watch.

  “What’s with him?” I called over t
o Jason as I rolled out of my bedding.

  Then my brain caught up with the fact that it was Jason on watch, and not Arghen.

  “You were supposed to sleep until morning,” I half-accused as I walked over to them.

  Jason said with exasperation, “I woke up with my head hurting sometime ago. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, so I told Arghen I’d take over. As for what’s wrong, I dunno—he won’t talk to me! All he keeps shouting is something like ‘rose’ and ‘wraps’ and ‘magic’, and I can’t understand the rest.”

  Just then Arghen uttered a cry of relief and pulled out what looked to me like a pair of wrap-around dark sunglasses. Jason and I stared as he settled them over his eyes with a grateful sigh. The lines of pain on his pale-skinned face smoothed away.

  “What … where did you get those things?” asked Jason in an unbelieving tone while they sealed themselves to the Under-elf’s face.

  “Get what?” asked Arghen.

  “Those things you’re wearing right now on your face?”

  “Oh. This ‘eye-wrap’, for so She named it, comes courtesy of the Goddess Quiris.” He hesitated a moment, then confessed, “We Under-elves cannot easily bear the great light of the sun. She gave the eye-wrap to me so I could endure it without pain. With this device I can do Her work anywhere at any time.” He then finished with reluctance, “You may as well know. Without this, I would be near-blind on the surface during the light hours. It is important that I never be separated from it.”

  “Had you never been to the surface before last night?” I inquired.

  “Some Under-elves live on the Surface world as well as in the Sub-realms. All Under-elves who live up here wear eye-wraps just like these,” he evaded.

  He went to his dranth who was standing with its eyes shut and slid a much larger, second pair from where they hung around the monster’s neck up onto its face. I was amused—the lizard-thing looked silly wearing them. I waited for Arghen to finish answering, but he only came back to his saddlebags to repack them and avoided looking at me.

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” I said in a flat tone.

  He paused mid-pack and sighed. “Yes, Paladin. I was a dweller of Sub-Realms; the subterranean realms. I had never been to the surface world before last night.”

  “Then there are a lot of things you don’t know about up here, right?” I pressed.

  He looked up at me, humble. “I did not wish to be a burden to you with what I do not know. Since you now are aware of my recent emergence from the Sub-realms, I will attempt to not hamper you with my ignorance.”

  I put my hands on my hips. “Arghen! If you are really here to help me, then it would be better for me to know what you can and can’t do, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, Paladin. I cannot cast magic as I believe I have no talent for it, but I can wield many weapons well. I have been training for war since the tender age of fifty cycles.”

  “Fifty–cycles? Do you mean years? How old are you?” I was astonished, and even Jason regarded him with incredulity.

  “I am almost an adult, if that is what is worrying you. I am one hundred and five cycles of age; or rather seasonals, as is said up here.”

  “Seasonals—like you count by the seasons or something? You mean you’re like twenty-five?” Jason asked.

  Arghen looked confused. “No, I am one hundred and five full turnings of the seasons.”

  “Full turnings of the seasons—Jason! He does mean years!”

  Jason and I gasped and turned to look at one another. The Under-elf had been born when our great-grandparents were young!

  Arghen considered our reactions for a moment, and then his face lit up in understanding. “Ah, that is right. You Humans are very short lived, are you not? You only live to be something less than one hundred seasonals—what you called years, I believe? Are you adults?”

  Jason replied, “I’m close. I’m seventeen years old. But,” he said as he hooked a thumb at me, “I dunno about her.”

  I replied guardedly, “I’m fifteen.”

  Jason raised his eyebrows as Arghen looked at both of us with a concern in his amber eyes. “I did not realize there was that much difference between our races. At your ages you both would be still considered very young children were you Elves of any kind.”

  Jason asked me, “So, why is someone your age going off by yourself on a mission where you could get hurt?”

  To Arghen, who’d looked quizzically at me because of Jason’s words, I said, “Yeah, well, I’m not an Elf child. So don’t start treating me like one simply because now you know I’m younger than you thought.” I turned to Jason. “My Goddess chose me for my mission, you’re not that much older than I am, and I’m not exactly alone, am I?”

  “But you were when I met you,” he argued.

  “That doesn’t matter! I knew I would be getting help, and that’s all you need to know!”

  That wasn’t the time to reveal myself to Jason, I felt, and I hoped my sharp tone would put him off.

  Changing the subject, I asked, “How are people feeling this morning?”

  “My head still hurts, but it’s better than yesterday,” said Jason.

  “I have a headache the size of the cavern I exited from last night because I was not prepared for the rise of the sun,” Arghen added.

  “We can’t travel with you both having headaches, so let’s see if food will help fix that.”

  “You do breakfast. I did dinner last night,” Jason reminded me.

  “Ummm, I haven’t had much experience with cooking anywhere. You sure about that?” I warned.

  “You mean to tell me you don’t know how to cook on the road, and you’re traveling around on a horse to god-knows-where?” he asked with surprise.

  I replied with a lame, “Just because I do some things doesn’t mean I can do others, like cooking.”

  Jason eyed me suspiciously but chose to say nothing. I sweated as I turned to the food and tried to guess what to do. One half edible breakfast later Arghen declared that his headache had subsided to the size of his skull, and Jason stated that perhaps he had been too hasty in insisting that I make breakfast—at least, without his supervision. We cleaned up the campsite and packed to leave.

  While settling his war spear in its saddle holster, the Under-elf asked, “Where is your horse, Jason?”

  “I don’t have one,” Jason replied.

  “What? Oh, so you must have been riding with Paladin, then. Well, that is no problem. My dranth may be shorter than her horse, but it still can carry double. Let us split up the journey to make the burden even lighter on the mounts. You can spend part of the day on mine and part of the day on hers until we can get you your own riding animal.” Arghen then turned to me. “If that is all right with you, Paladin?”

  I was caught by surprise at the Under-elf’s words and felt my face redden. I shrugged noncommittally.

  Jason exploded at me. “WHAT!? You mean you made me walk all afternoon yesterday when you could have let me ride with you on that great big beastia?”

  My face flamed redder, and I turned away from him because I didn’t know what to say. He strode over to me and spun me around so that I faced him.

  “Why would you pull a stunt like that?” he yelled in my face.

  I yanked my arm out of his grip and yelled back, “You’re a stranger! Why would I let you on my horse? That’s insanity! You could have tried to do anything to me, and I might not have been able to stop you!”

  Jason paused. “Humph. Yeah, okay, fine. I guess that makes sense. But you could have at least let me have a turn from time-to-time, couldn’t you?”

  I thought fast. “And give you the opportunity to steal my horse the moment you were alone in the saddle? Are you crazy?”

  He grunted, clearly not satisfied but unable to fault my reasoning.

  “If you are both quite done?” Arghen interjected.

  Jason hesitated, but gave in with ill grace and swung himself up on the d
ranth behind Arghen. I noticed that he was pretty graceful about it and wondered if it was because he could ride something, like maybe a scooter. Then I remembered that he asked me about motorcycles and dirt bikes when we first met, so yeah, probably he could.

  We left the field of iridescent rocks and started heading upwards into what looked like the kind of normal territory you’d see on the foothills of a mountain—well, what looked normal to me, anyway. We took a break mid-morning, scanning the immediate area for anything dangerous before dismounting and drop-reining our mounts. I walked towards the others in as slow and careless a manner as I could to hide the soreness in my legs.

  As we stretched our muscles and slaked our thirst from the water skins, Arghen suggested, “Perhaps we should find Jason a horse sooner rather than later.”

  Jason said, “But I don’t have any money. How can I buy anything?”

  I chimed in with, “And while I have enough to cover the price of a horse, I don’t know the area. There might be a village or something nearby, but we wouldn’t know it unless we stumbled across it by accident. So where would you suggest we find a riding animal?”

  Arghen frowned. “Hmmm. I forgot. Of course you would not know. We will just continue to ride on unless something else presents itself.”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jason give me a curious look. I ignored the unspoken question on his face by walking to where my mount waited. I hoped that way to prevent him from asking anything I didn’t want to answer.

  But I wasn’t that lucky, because Jason said, “Hey, wait up, Paladin! I’m supposed to be riding with you now!”

  I called back over my shoulder, “All right. I’ll just get Saffron ready first.”

  I ignored the pains in my legs to mount up. I wondered how I was going to keep Jason from grilling me, and how I was going to avoid any other conversational slip-ups.

  “Okay, Jason, come on over. I’ll help you up,” I finally had to call out.