Darkstone - An Evil Reborn (Book 4) (21 page)

“They won’t begin for another week or two, but already there is lots of traffic on the roads coming and going. A body can lose one’s self in the crowded roads of the common people,” he said. “Not something to worry for the likes of you, Prince.”

Vishan laughed. “I guess not.” But then he wondered if he could just walk out of the castle? Wouldn’t that be a surprise?

He nodded at Ovyr, thanked the cook and stepped out into the courtyard. Guards were posted around the perimeter as always. Vish thought he’d take the bold approach and try the front gate.

“With all due respect, your highness, the Baron has given us strict instructions that you are not to leave the castle.”

“And if I just walk out?”

“It’s our lives if you do.”

Vishan looked at the man. He could tell he was serious. The other guard moved to join his partner between Vishan and the gate. That took care of the obvious. He walked around the courtyard a number of times. He remembered running in the training ground at Peshakan. They would likely stop him. But he had never seen anyone on the stone steps in his tower. He’d run up and down those.

If Ovyr gave him the right information, the roads would be clogged with people for weeks. He’d wait a week and a half then. No tracks would be found if he took the main roads out of town.

He ran up and down the stairs to his rooms three times before he made his way back to the map room. The route of escape needed to be planned and planned again. Vishan wouldn’t let his unfamiliarity with the local area be a disadvantage.

The afternoon didn’t produce Fateem, so he’d have to wait for another kiss. He cleaned up the map room and left his false notes stacked on the edge of the table. The map routes needed more time to be tattooed into his mind.

The cook had prepared the same meal that the family ate, except his would be hotter and fresher. He took a plate with him to his rooms. The cook plied him with extras and Vishan gladly let her. He had learned as a boy that if you treated a servant like a human being they would be more than willing to help you. He got more sweet rolls that way.

He opened his trunk and gathered what food wouldn’t spoil and put it in a pillowcase he’d found in his wardrobe along with extra sheets. He examined the sheets and found that someone had painstakingly taken out threads that would weaken the cloth if he used sheets as a rope to descend from his window.

Fenakyr didn’t take any chances. The baron expected Vishan to meet a foul end, but that wouldn’t happen. He dropped into bed exhausted after beginning to read Peleor’s sorcery books. He wouldn’t rely on his wits and an inches-long sword alone.

~

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” Fateem said, as Vestya and she walked into the map room. Vish had continued to learn the maps and had begun to test himself with devising alternate routes.

“It’s okay. I think I made progress. I gave more thought to the readings and I think there is a very strong chance that the cave is on the northern flanks of the mountains closer to central Serytar. Look here.”

He provided the rationale he had rehearsed the previous afternoon. Fateem went right along with his misdirection and showed more excitement.

“This is wonderful!” she said and kissed him on the cheek. Vishan wanted to take her in his arms, but the looks of distaste from Vestya stopped him.

“Vestya, look at what we found. Perhaps after we are wed, we can make the trek and take Fateem with us,” Vishan said. Fateem’s eyes widened with mock horror and then she grinned. Vishan had to blink to get his mind back on track.

“I don’t like riding, exploring or the sun. Even bread and water won’t make me travel into Serytar. That’s where big ugly light-haired brutes come from.” Vestya made a face, shivered and put her nose back into another novel—new by the look of it.

“Did you buy a new book yesterday?” Vishan said.

“Book? She bought all of the new arrivals in the bookshop. Ten, I recall?” Fateem put her finger to her smiling lips.

Vestya pursed her mouth. “Eleven.”

“Ah,” Vishan said. “A shopping expedition. Those are the kind you like to go on. Travel to the town square and back in the boiling sun. It’s a wonder you made it back.”

“I don’t have to put up with this. Come with me, Fateem.” Vestya swept from the room.

Fateem kissed Vishan, long and lingering. “I must go,” she put her finger to his lips, this time. “This afternoon, back here.”

He sat down trying to recall how long that kiss lasted and looked out the window. The baron rode out with four of his guards after Ovyr helped Fenakyr mount. The groom looked at Vish in the window and winked.

Everything was ready except to accumulate more food and wait. The more sorcery study, the better. He now had the maps memorized.

~

Vishan had taken to getting nighttime snacks from the kitchen. Fateem joined him on their final night in the castle and pulled a bundle of clothes and a leather valise from the large larder.

He walked past the guard that generally stood at the base of the stairs and asked him what the weather would be like tomorrow. He waved his hand and the man’s eyes became glassy. Vishan hadn’t tried that spell before and his book told him that it wouldn’t last long.

He motioned Fateem past him and urged her up the stairs. She didn’t hesitate. Vishan expected Fenakyr to show up at the most inopportune time. He snapped his fingers and the guard’s eyes focused.

“Thanks,” Vishan said. “I hope it’s nice as well. Good night.”

“And yourself, your Highness.”

Vishan padded up stairs. He was committed now and he tried to quiet his nerves. He would escape with a beautiful woman. The smile on his face couldn’t be erased as he thought of Fateem.

He reached his door and took a deep breath.  Someone was in his room. Fateem or Fenakyr? Arms wrapped around him in the darkened room.

~~~

Chapter Seventeen

~

“W
e did it!” Fateem whispered,
as she kissed him.

Vishan let go for just a bit and held her tightly. He couldn’t believe that she held him to her body.

“You’re wearing armor!”

Vishan could feel his face burn. “It’s a self-preservation habit. We’re not out of the castle yet.  We wait for a few hours.” Vishan shut the door and sealed it with magic. He pulled the rope from his trunk and ran his hands along its length, tightening up the threads. He used a spell to reinforce lashings. The cuts on the rope had disappeared.

He took out his own supplies. The only books he’d take with him were Peleor’s and Fateem would have to leave most of her own Darkstone library. He wrapped everything up in the two blankets on his bed and sat on the floor.

“I’m so nervous,” Fateem said. Excitement made her eyes shine, but her fidgety hands and shortened breaths revealed that she was on edge as much as he.

“Now,” Vishan said as he unsealed the outer window.

“But there’s nothing on that side of the wall.” Her brows furrowed. “I thought you’d charm the both of us and we’d walk out of the castle.”

“Think of it as a swim to freedom. You do swim don’t you?”

“I do,” Fateem nearly lifted her chin, but then she frowned, “But it’s cold and wet.”

“A small price. I’ll enchant your things and mine, so they’ll repel water and float.” Vishan said. He did that next and poured a little water over the pillowcase filled with food. “See?” It beaded off.

“You are a much more resourceful sorcerer than I am,” Fateem said. “I’m a bit surprised by all of the power that you’ve shown in our escape so far.”

“I’ve had more practice.”

He threw open the window and tied the rope to the bed. “Our weight will pull the bed frame to the window, but as you can see it’s wider than the window frame and we’ll descend without a problem.”

Fateem put her hands to her face. “I can’t. I’ll fall.”

Vishan hadn’t counted on Fateem’s fear. “I’ll go down first. You throw down the supplies and then I’ll come back up for you.”

“All right,” she said wiping a tear from an eye. Even crying she looked so appealing.

Vishan had to struggle as he swam across the moat with all of their belongings still wearing his chain mail protection, but soon Vishan stood at the window with his arm around Fateem’s waist. “Here we go.”

“I’m ready,” she said, closing her eyes.

He made it down with Fateem clutching onto him so tightly he could hardly breathe. They eased down into the water and Vishan whispered a spell, releasing the knot around the bed. He tugged and the rope fell down around them. He hoped no one heard the splash.

“Let them figure out how we left. With a little luck they’ll waste time checking the moat,” Vishan said quietly as they floated to the moat’s edge. He helped a rather sodden Fateem out of the water and they quietly padded into town.  Vishan made sure they left no tracks.

Vishan had to wake the innkeeper up to retrieve his horses. He gave the man a full drek tip and told the man not to tell anyone they were headed east towards the road to Serytar.

As they rounded a hill and lost sight of Hustafal in the moonlight, Vishan let out a muffled whoop. Fateem joined in.

“I’m free!” She stretched out her hands as their horses plodded along.

They continued on until the promise of dawn began to tell the world that the sun would soon light the day. Vishan checked a signpost that pointed south towards Baku. He couldn’t go home again. The thought saddened him, but he looked across at the dark haired woman, nearly asleep in her saddle. Maybe Baku wasn’t home anymore. He smiled as they continued to pass farmers on their way to their fields. All along their path, their tracks were being obliterated by the pre-dawn processions to farmlands all along their route.

He stopped at a little copse and led Fateem and their packhorse deep inside. He put up a screen of branches and put the supplies they hastily tied up in blankets into proper panniers on the packhorse. He laid the blankets down on the ground and removed his chain mail shirt. Despite the poking of little branches and rocks, both of them traded consciousness for blissful slumber.

Vishan awoke in a frenzy. The sun nearly approached midday. He shook Fateem awake.

“We have to leave.”

Fateem looked into his eyes. “No, we don’t. Come here, my Prince. Let me show you some appreciation.” She pulled him down onto the blanket next to her and they didn’t leave the copse for another few hours.

~

Vishan had never been so happy. They held hands as they rode. Love had taken over his mind and his soul. Fateem kept him close every night. They talked of what they could possibly do after they retrieved the Darkstone. He still didn’t have the heart to tell her that he didn’t believe they would find anything, but he truly valued her happiness. If he took her to Besseth without making the attempt, it would be something between them for the rest of their lives.

He recognized that he was smitten and Vish didn’t care. They reached the ruins of Onkyr after six days from Hustafal. They kept an eye on the road and had to leave it from time to time to avoid patrols of one kind or another, but not during dawn or dusk when farmers crowded the small tracks they took.

They held hands, looking up into the mountains. “Somewhere up there, within our gaze, is the door to the Darkstone,” Fateem said. She leaned against him. “Where do we start?”

Vishan had a few ideas from the better maps that he had looked at. “See the big valley?” He pointed. “To the right, a bit. There used to be a road on two of the maps that ran up a valley. That one is a likely candidate.”

Fateem pouted a bit. “We never were able to plan properly after you insulted Vestya. But it was worth it.” She smiled after all. “You really scared her!”

“I meant to. I was serious. I didn’t intend to treat her as a real wife under any circumstances. I consider my tirade a little bit of her abuse paid back.  I only wished that I could do the same to Fenakyr,” Vishan said, sighing.

“Does it even matter now?” Fateem said, her face glowing with happiness.

“It’s time to go.” Vishan said and gave her a kiss before they mounted up. Their searching wouldn’t end until Fateem would finally have to admit there couldn’t find the final resting place of the Darkstone. The mountains looked close but it took them a day and a half before Fateem recognized a road. Trees had grown to obliterate most of the graveled track that ran along the bottom of the hills. 

They explored three little valleys on the first day and went a bit of the way up the big one, but their progress ended at a set of cliffs. No guardians to lead them further since they could see that the mountain continued to go up not far from the cliffs. They rode along the foothills of the mountains for three days.

Vishan took them up the eleventh steep little valley. Dusk would soon overtake them on their second day. They were just about out of alignment with a view of the ruins of Onkyr. He wondered when he should break the news that there wouldn’t be a tomb in these mountains. He had to get off of his horse and use his stub of a sword to clear the brush that covered the entrance to the valley. At the bottom of a cluster of bushes, he definitely saw traces of gravel and crushed rock mixed into the dirt. This one looked more promising than the others. Upward they went until a saddle leading out of the valley confronted them. Two big rocks protected the saddle on ether side. Guardians? They dismounted and had to lead their mounts upward as the remnant of the road swayed back and forth up the saddle.

“We’re here!” Fateem cried out as she crossed the saddle out of Vishan’s sight. He pulled his horse and the packhorse up and over, looking out over a great dish of a meadow, surrounded on all sides by cliffs leading to mountaintops.

“The door can see the city, so we’ll have to go to the meadow’s end and look backwards.” Vish said as he helped Fateem back onto her horse.

They crossed the meadow in less than half an hour and looked back. The meadow looked like a massive bowl and between the boulders, Vishan could see the ruins of Onkyr. His methodology of combining all of the descriptions of the Emperor’s final resting place might just have worked.

He began to search one side of the cliff at the end of the meadow and Fateem looked on the other. Vishan cleared out some brush to find a rock face, but something didn’t seem right. He remembered the testing room at the Sorcerers Tower. He sensed the same kind of wrongness.

He called to Fateem. She rode over to him and couldn’t see anything different about the rock face. Vishan took the saddles and supplies off of their horses and made sure they ate their fill before doing anything else.

“Ugh, this awful food will last for centuries,” Fateem said.

Vish laughed. “Perhaps you can leave some for the Grand Emperor’s remains. He can’t eat phantom rations.” Vishan jumped to his feet and put his hands on the rock face. “It might be here, Fateem!” He ran his fingers along the face for four or five paces, and then he felt a very straight crevice.  He touched the rock again, but it didn’t feel like it looked. Illusion, of course. His excitement rose with the discovery.

Vishan ran his fingers along the face with his eyes closed to get a feel for the ward. He took a deep breath and uttered an incantation that, hopefully, reversed a hiding spell.

Fateem gasped. She grabbed her bags and ran to the now-visible door. Vishan opened his eyes and he stood in front of a black stone facade of perhaps three or four paces wide and the same high. Whatever carvings had been crafted onto the rock had worn off over the centuries. The illusion hadn’t kept the surface from falling prey to the whims of weather. The door to the tomb shouted antiquity to Vishan.

“Here!” Fateem said. She pushed on a knob, now barely a bump on the rock face. Nothing happened.

“An unlocking spell. My simple spell revealed the doorway. Perhaps a simple spell to let us in.”

He couldn’t believe that he stood in front of the Great Emperor’s tomb. He thought it just a tale and yet, Fateem believed and her faith brought them all the way here. What would confront them on the other side? A cursed corpse? Undead demons ready to rise and rip their bodies apart? Nothing Fateem had read actually described the tomb.

Vishan tapped into his power and uttered the spell. “Try again, Fateem.”

She pushed the knob and it depressed. The door didn’t open, but it had been shut for over a thousand years. Vishan put his shoulder to the door. He felt the slightest scrape and pushed harder and harder until it began to grind. The door slid on sand as it continued to move. He had it open wide enough for them to squeeze in. They soon stood in the dim light.

Fateem squealed and didn’t wait for him. She didn’t even drop her bags, as she rushed into the room. He followed her into the gloom. She spelled a sorcerer’s light and they both saw an open sarcophagus. She dropped everything and rushed to the bier. Bones defined the shape of a human. Vishan didn’t know if it was a male or female.

Fateem counted the ribs. “Woman. The Great Emperor was a woman!” She covered her mouth as she laughed.

She guided the light closer. Skeletal hands clutched an egg-sized black stone. To Vish’s eyes, it seemed to open into an eternal world of darkness.

“The Darkstone,” she said in an awed whisper, eyes shining, as she reached for the jewel.

~~~