NexLord: Dark Prophecies (10 page)

The door opened behind him and Aerin turned
to find Mara.

"What's wrong, Aerin?” she asked him,
puzzled.

"I have something to ask you
about
if you have a minute."

Mara shrugged.  "I have time for
you, Aerin, don't worry."

"Well it's not really about me, it's a
question one of my new friends asked me and I didn't know the
answer."

Mara gave him a half smile of encouragement
so he continued.

"You have talked to me about friendships, so
I thought you might know the answer to this question.  My
friend, ah...
Dono,
asked me
this…
if you made a promise to a
friend and
afterward
make a
separate promise to another friend, and then later you find out
that due to something you had no control over you cannot keep both
promises, what should you do?"

Mara considered him a moment with her
deep-set eyes seeming to look into his very soul.  "Well,
would one of these friends be in great need?"

Aerin nodded.

"And the other promise, is it of equal
need?"

This time,
Aerin replied, "No."

Mara shrugged.  "Then it's easy,
you keep the promise to the friend in the greater need."

Aerin looked nervously at his
feet.  "But what if the other friend doesn't understand
the reason you're breaking a promise?"

"If they are truly your friend, and you broke
the promise for a noble cause to another friend, they will
understand.  If not then they really aren't your
friend."

Aerin nodded.  "Thank you, Mara,
that helps... I'll tell Dono tomorrow.  Well, thanks and…
ah, good night."

Mara moved slowly toward the
door.  "I need to speak with Yearl about something; I'll
be back in a few minutes."  At the
door,
she turned and paused with the door open
and spoke again.  "Aerin, you tell your friend to be very
careful,” and here her voice took on a hard edge.  "Good
friends don't get their friends killed."

Aerin gulped.  "I will, Mara."

She nodded, "Be safe, Aerin."  Then
she closed the door behind her.

Aerin immediately went and got a piece of
paper from Mara's bag, and then sat with a quill at the table.
After dipping the pen in the ink and thinking for a moment he
penned a quick note, which read:

   Dear Mara,

I think you are my friend, but as I made a
promise to another friend and he is in need, I must break my
promise to you.  Please don't send me to an orphanage,
but whatever awaits me on my return, I must go
now.  Please forgive me.

Your friend, Aerin

He left the note on the bed and then pulled
his only sweater on over his head.  After checking the
hallway, through the barely cracked open door, Aerin made his way
to the end of the hall and the exterior stairway.

Once he had passed through the door Mara
walked into the hallway from the opposite way and went straight to
the room.  She read the note swiftly and a small smile
played across her lips as Aerin quoted some of her own words back
to her.  She moved to the window and made a quick gesture
toward the gate with her forefinger.

Aerin did not go around to the front of the
Inn
but instead used a small tree
to climb up to the wall and jump down into the street to where Dono
was impatiently waiting.  The two boys retraced their
path, Aerin following Dono. The route to the church was somewhat
difficult; things looked different in the darkness, so it was good
that Dono was there to lead Aerin.  

One thing helped, Aerin didn't fear the long
drops as much since the darkness made it hard to see the street
below, yet he had to watch the placement of his feet more
carefully.  He kept his mind on Lor, the way his friend
had moved, trying his best to learn from the
expert.  They soon arrived at the
Church.  Torches were attached to the outside of the
large doors casting shifting shapes on the stone
flooring.  The strange triangle symbol in the stonework
seemed to twist and bend as the shadows and light moved across.

Dono went over to the edge and gazed down on
the entrance to the church.

"Anything?" Aerin asked, crouching down
beside Dono.

"No."

Aerin looked over the large structure of the
church and felt a shiver of fear; the many carved faces in the
stonework seemed much more sinister and alive than they had in the
light of day.  "Maybe Lor already left while we were
gone?"

"Maybe, but my heart tells me he’s still in
there.  What should we do?  It's been a long
time now since he went in."

Aerin considered.  "If he was
coming out I think he would have already.  We can go to
the city Guardsmen and tell them our friend went in and hasn't come
out, but I don't know how seriously they'll take us since we're
just kids.  We could tell them about the dead man," Aerin
finished, his voice
lower
at the
end.

"No, I don't want to go to the Guards!"

"Then I don't see any other choice besides
going in ourselves," Aerin said with a sigh.

"All right, are we going to stick with that
story about being interested in joining?"  Dono
asked.

Aerin considered for a moment and then
answered: "I don't think so; we'd best just try to slip in
unnoticed at this point and see what we can see.  Lor
probably gave them that story and he's still in there."

Dono was shaking slightly.  "What
if..."

"Shut up, don’t even think
that!  He's fine, I'm sure of it, we'll find him."

"All right, let's get this over with before I
wise up and run away," Dono decided.

They made their way to a place a few blocks
away where they could get down to the street level and approach the
Church.  When they reached a dark corner near the church
entrance Dono put a hand to stop Aerin and whispered, “Take off
your shoes, they will echo too much on the
stone
if we need to hide or sneak around.”

Aerin nodded and they both hid their shoes in
the shadows of the rough stone corner.

Glancing upwards, Aerin noted that the church
seemed much larger when approached from street level; there were
ten stairs up to the landing before the large double
doors.  The boys waited until no one was on the street
and then quickly slipped from the shadow of a doorway and crept up
the side of the stairs along the edge of the church.  At
the top
landing,
Aerin
instinctively avoided walking on the dark brown stone mark of the
triangle and dot. 

From inside the
church,
the sounds of a low mumbling hypnotic rhythm
leaked out to disturb the still night.  Flickering
torchlight lit the wide hallway that beckoned them further into its
throat.  The hall widened out as it progressed and the
backs of hooded men could be seen sitting in
pews.   A large statue stood at the far end of the
inner sanctuary and faced the throng, it depicted a man who stood
with uplifted arms and he looked down upon the mortals below with a
cold gaze.

As they entered the church Aerin felt a wave
of awe and reverence for the deity depicted by the
statue.  He tried to shake off the feeling because he
suspected it was the power of the believers, not the actual
deity.

Dono pulled Aerin's arm and pointed silently
to a smaller door off the main hall.  Aerin nodded and
they scampered across the stone floor and tried the door, but it
was locked.  Aerin started to move away, but Dono's hand
disappeared into his sleeve and emerged with a stout piece of bent
baling wire.  He inserted it into the lock and began
feeling around.  Aerin watched the hall and fortunately
no one seemed to be coming.  The scraping of the wire in
the metal lock seemed overly loud to Aerin and he was sure someone
in the main hall would notice, yet the mumbling continued
unabated.

There was a particularly loud ‘clack’ as the
lock turned.  Dono quickly opened the door and Aerin
followed him inside.  They closed the door as quietly as
possible.

"Where do you think this
goes?"  Aerin whispered.

"I don't know, I don't usually hang around in
churches," Dono whispered back.

Suddenly approaching footsteps could faintly
be heard echoing dulling in the stone
hallway.  Frantically the boys looked for somewhere to
hide.  There was a low table along one side of the
hallway with a white and red tablecloth draped almost to the
ground.  Dono flung the cloth open and the two small boys
got under quickly.  Without a moment to spare they let
the cloth drop back down into place.  Unable to see, the
boys heard the footsteps get louder as the two churchmen rounded
the corner.  They were speaking as they went
past. 

"What Malachai says is true; we must keep the
faith strong!  Unbelievers have no rights under the eyes
of
Mumand
."

"Aye brother, Malachai speaks with
Mumand's
voice."

They
continued
passed
and were soon gone.

Aerin slipped out and Dono reluctantly
followed.

Dono looked at the corridor
ahead.  "What now?” he whispered.

Aerin shrugged and pointed the opposite
direction of the departed churchmen.  Dono nodded and
they headed that way.

A few turns later they heard voices coming
from behind a doorway.  Aerin tugged on his ear to signal
they should listen at the door.  He could almost hear the
mental sigh of resignation as Dono accepted the
idea.  They both crept up and placed their ears against
the coarse wood.
  
Aerin smelled
a waft of men’s cheap cologne as he pressed up against the
door.

"...should be disposed of, and quickly," a
male voice exclaimed passionately.

A second voice, this one of smooth silk,
answered calmly.  "No... I have
uses
for a fresh young one like this... the rascal must
be taken to a place of preparing and converted."

"As you wish Sar Malachai, I will attend to
that immediately.”

"Bide a moment, brother Gallow.  Do
either of you have any questions?"   

Dono waved frantically for Aerin to remove
his ear and get away, but Aerin kept his ear to the wood and held
up his hand in a 'wait' gesture.

The third man's voice spoke for the first
time and he seemed very excited: "What of our holy mission
tonight?  Must we postpone in light of this
intrusion?"

"No, it was just a curious child. It changes
nothing, all is in our control.  It would take us a month
or more to achieve a time when all parts would come together so
perfectly once again.  No, we go forward as
scheduled.  Bring your Saintly brothers to the Roan
chamber; there they shall receive
Mumand’s
final instructions.  I want no
mistakes; the Trelic
heir
must be
removed tonight."

"It is Mumand's will," the excitable voice
agreed.

"Indeed, remind the faithful to move swiftly
once the gates are open; we must rely on surprise to achieve our
goal. Once the Guardsmen are reinforced we will have little time to
complete our mission."

The excited churchman responded with
righteous indignation, "We are guided by Mumand's hand, they cannot
stand before us!"

"May Mumand guide you all," the silky voice
intoned,
"Remember
when the watch
calls three be prepare to move swiftly and silently.  The
gates will open before the echoes of his voice die."

"But who is to open the gates?” the excited
man asked. 

"We have faithful men in the guise of
Guardsman; they will open the gates at the proper
time.  Brother Gallow, it is time for you to go down and
brief the creatures that Mumand has sent us for this holy
mission.  Have them take the child out through the
sewers."

Dono's face was nearly purple; he held his
hands together in silent supplication for Aerin to move before the
churchmen reached the door.  
This time,
Aerin nodded and crept away quickly with
Dono. They just made it around the corner of the hall when the
door opened behind them.

Dono's eyes were the size of Kingdom gold
pieces and he was looking frantically for a place to hide, but this
stretch of the
corridor
was
completely empty.  Aerin stood near the edge of the
hallway and listened.  Luck was with them, they heard the
footsteps of the two men retreating down the hall away from their
position.

Dono's breath released in a rush as they
heard the footsteps growing quieter.

"You nearly got us caught!” he hissed.

Aerin put a finger to his lips for silence
and then slipped around the corner of the hall after the departing
churchmen.

Dono reluctantly
followed.   They tiptoed past the closed door where
they had listened to the silky voice of
Malachai
and then hurried to catch up to the men ahead of
them.

The men came to an opening on their right and
one of them proceeded down the spiraling
stairwell
while the other continued ahead in the
corridor.  After a moment of
indecision,
the two boys crept down the torch lit stairs
after the one who had descended deeper into the bowels of the
church.

As they descended the stairs Dono felt the
freedom of Strakhelm's streets growing more distant and the stone
of Mumand's grip growing tighter.  He thought he heard
something behind them, but the young red head didn’t see anything
when he looked back over his shoulder. 

Aerin stopped to peek around the corner at
the priest who currently stood at a rusty
iron-bound
door.  Because Dono was still
looking
backward
he ran into
Aerin.  The only thing that saved them from discovery was
the fact that the man was rattling a large key ring at the time and
it masked the softer sound of the boy's collision.