Quest's End: The Broken Key #3 (22 page)

Woven within the tapestry’s design was the River Man’s family crest. At first he wasn’t sure why this particular tapestry had piqued his interest. After all, he had passed dozens of similar tapestries hanging in hallways during his search. Then understanding came.

It was the design it bore was the crest, but not exactly. The part of the crest which he and the others believed to be the coat of arms from The Crypt was missing. It was exactly the same in every other respect.

Bart stepped around the statue and moved forward to give the tapestry a closer examination. The edges of the tapestry showed signs of age; a tear here, fading there. Clearly this had been in existence for quite some time. He pulled it a little ways from the wall to see what was behind it. He let it go when he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Bart hadn’t really expected to find anything, but you never know.

He started to leave the alcove when he heard footsteps approaching. They were coming from down the hallway through which he had come. Still invisible, he peered down the hallway and froze.

A score of armed men were approaching. In front of the armed men were four others. One was a man in his early to late twenties, dressed in light leather armor of the finest quality. At his hip hung a sword, and he walked with an unmistakable air of command. Behind him strode two others, civilians by their dress. But it wasn’t the man with the air of command, the civilians, or even the armed men which had him worried. Rather it was the one wearing a magic user’s robe that led the group.

In his hand the magic user held a ball of purplish light that shot forth micro bursts of lightning every few seconds. His attention was fixed upon the ball of light, except for the occasional glances he cast down the hallway before him.

“It’s close now my lord,” the magic user said.

‘What?’ thought Bart. ‘What is close?’

The man whom the magic user addressed as ‘my lord’ was the one with the air of command. Bart watched as the lord placed his hand upon the hilt of his sword, his eyes scanning to and fro as they steadily approached.

Bart held his breath as the party approached the alcove. He saw the lord glance within as he came abreast, but invisible as he was, Bart remained unnoticed.

The magic user came to a sudden stop two paces beyond the alcove. The purplish ball of light in his palm was giving off a steady crackle now as dozens of micro bursts continuously leaped from its surface. The magic user glanced to his lord and nodded.

“Fan out and find the intruder,” the lord said.

That’s all Bart needed to hear. Still invisible, he leaped from the alcove and shoved the nearest guard. Knocking him off balance and into the others, Bart fled down the hallway.

“Stop!” the lord commanded. But Bart ignored him and kept on running.

“Where is he!” one guard shouted.

Before Bart reached the corner where the hallway turned to the right, he heard the magic user begin intoning arcane words of magic. He weaved back and forth knowing that his attempt to avoid whatever was coming was most likely futile. Then all of a sudden, the walls began radiating a bluish glow.

“There he is!” a guard yelled just as his lord shouted, “After him!”

Bart bounded around the corner and fled to where he knew the stairs down to be. Up ahead, a servant exited from a room and glanced in his direction. The girl’s eyes widened and a scream of fear echoed as she raced back in the room.

She saw me! A quick check showed the Cloak was still in place, yet she had seen him. That’s when he realized it wasn’t the walls that were glowing blue, but himself. The magic user had somehow revealed him!

Behind him the first of the guards was turning the corner. A shout for him to stop came once again which he pointedly ignored. Putting on even more speed, he raced for the stairway to the lower level. When it finally appeared before him, he saw six guards blocking his way. Two of them had bows.

“Halt!” one of the guards ordered when they saw him coming. The two with bows quickly had arrow to string and were drawing their arrows back to fire.

Bart came to a quick halt. Behind him, the guards with the lord and magic user were approaching fast. He stood there and raised his hands. The gesture of surrender caused those at the head of the stairwell to relax slightly. But that was just what Bart was hoping they would do. With a quick leap to the side, he shouldered into one of the doors to the unused rooms he had inspected earlier. Knocking it open, he was soon to the other side and had the door shut and barred in the blink of an eye. The bolt keeping the door shut was rather simple and wasn’t designed to keep out determined men. It wouldn’t last long.

Casting a quick glance around the room, he spied a heavy chest sitting against the wall. Moving quickly, he pulled the chest over to in front of the door just as the first pounding came from the other side.

“Open this door!” a voice demanded.

“I don’t think so,” Bart said more to himself than them. As the pounding came with increased ferocity he moved to the room’s window, opened the shutter, and looked out. The drop to the ground below wasn’t beyond his capabilities to survive unharmed. But seeing as how the window opened up onto the courtyard where hundreds of men were drilling, it might not be the wisest route for him to take.

Bam! Bam!

The pounding on the door grew more intense then suddenly ceased. Knowing he had no other choice, Bart again looked out the window. He removed his Cloak and stuffed it quickly into his pack. That’s when he noticed that the Cloak was the only thing glowing blue. With it now in his pack, he no longer stood out quite so badly.

Outside the window was a narrow ledge running the length of the building. He began moving out onto it when…

Wham!

…a blow of incredible power struck the door. The bolt holding the door shattered as the door and the chest braced against it were blasted into the room.

Bart quickly made his way onto the ledge and began moving away from the window. He hadn’t made it very far when one of the guards appeared in the window behind him. “He’s on the ledge!” the guard cried.

Those down below heard the guard’s shout and looked up to see Bart moving along the ledge. Drills were abandoned as everyone turned to watch the unfolding drama.

“Archers!”

Bart glanced back and saw the guard was yelling to those who were practicing in the courtyard below. The guard then pointed to Bart, his meaning crystal clear.

Thwock!

An arrow struck the wall next to Bart. He knew he didn’t have much time. His mind raced for a course of action that would save him. Then he had it. If he could make it to where he was thinking before they took him, he might just be able to live another day.

Thwock! Thwock! Thwock!

With arrows beginning to strike the wall around him, as well as one embedding itself into his pack, he shuffled along the ledge to the next window. Behind him, guards were emerging from the window to follow him along the ledge.

Upon reaching the window, he kicked open the shutter and left the ledge with a leap. Three arrows sailed through the open window a split second after him.

“He went back inside!” a guard on the ledge yelled.

Racing for the door, Bart opened it just as guards began emerging into the hallway from the room he had originally entered. The lord and magic user were among them. “Stop where you are!” the lord commanded.

Bart paid him no heed as he raced down the hallway. Servants who had been attracted by the commotion were milling about until they saw Bart emerge and start racing toward them. With a scream, they fled at his approach.

He had to get to the hallway where he had smelled the jakes. If there was any way out of this, it was through them. His father had once joked about the time he had used them to escape a particularly tight situation. He said Bart’s mother hadn’t allowed him in the house for a week afterward. Bart hoped these were similar in nature to the ones his father had used.

Suddenly, a roaring sound came from behind him and he threw himself to the floor. A searing ball of flame flew through the space where his upper torso had been but a second ago. Its passing left his clothes and hair smoking.

Once it was past, he leaped back to his feet and raced forward. Just ahead lay the hallway down which were the jakes. Two servants emerged from the hallway and he bowled into them, knocking them down.

He somehow retained his balance and lurched into the converging hallway. The odor of the jakes was barely perceptible, but there. Moving down, he saw the door which hid the jakes from view. Behind him, guards had appeared at the mouth of the hallway and were charging in pursuit.

Bart ran the short distance to the door of the jakes and threw them open. Two wooden seats sat over an open pit that, if it was built similar to the one his father had used for an escape, would enable him to reach the bowels of the castle. If he hadn’t of been fleeing for his life, he might have enjoyed the pun more. He entered and shut the door behind him. Throwing the simple latch to give him a few more seconds, he threw up the seats and paused.

The nastiness of what he was about to do finally hit home. But when the guards started pounding on the door, he swallowed his gorge and moved to enter the jakes. They were six feet by two and a half, barely wide enough for him to enter. Descending away into darkness, he couldn’t tell how far below the bottom was.

Trying to ignore the slime that coated the interior of the stone shaft, at least he hoped it was slime, Bart gripped the side of the jakes and climbed into them. He lowered himself until he was hanging as far down as he could go. Breath came in gasps as the smell was nigh on overpowering.

There were no handholds in the sides of the shaft, most likely intentional to prevent anyone from gaining entry to the castle in this manner. He tried bracing himself against the sides, but the slime coating was too slick, and he couldn’t get a purchase.

Bam!

Above him, the door to the jakes burst open. Having no other recourse, he let go of the upper lip of the shaft and began sliding down. Bracing himself against the sides with his hands and feet, he was able to slow his descent. Funky gunk oozed between his fingers as he slowly descended, all the while, he kept his eyes riveted to what was transpiring at the top of the jakes.

“My lord!” a guard exclaimed. “He’s not here.”

“What?” the lord replied.

It didn’t take long before a light appeared at the top of the jakes and a guard’s face appeared. “He’s in there milord,” said the guard.

“Allow me, my lord,” the magic user said.

When Bart saw the magic user peer down the shaft, he knew he was in trouble. As soon as the first arcane word was spoken by the magic user, Bart stopped all attempts at slowing his fall. Letting go of the sides of the shaft, he plummeted into darkness.

Above him, the words of the magic user followed him down until an intense red light appeared. Bart saw death coming towards him as another fireball shot down the shaft. There was nowhere he could go.

Though it seemed like forever, he fell for only a few more seconds before emerging from the narrow shaft. A moment of freefalling then his feet connected with water. The momentum of his fall had him submerged in the blink of an eye. No sooner had his head gone under, than the fireball exploded upon the surface, an intensely bright blast that lasted for only a second.

The water was deep, about nine feet with a mild current that pulled at him. Kicking hard from the bottom, he broke the surface and took in a ragged breath. The air was oppressively hot and smelled of charred human waste, the stench was almost overpowering. He must be in an underground waterway that took the outfall from the jakes to the lake.

In the darkness of the sewer, he began to detect a very faint light coming from downstream, around a bend in the channel. Where there’s light, there may be a way out. Swimming with the current, he headed for it. With any luck, those in the castle above would believe the fireball had killed him. But he had long since learned that one couldn’t trust to such things. A man tended to make his own luck. He needed to get out of there before anyone thought to come see if he was in fact dead.

As he swam with the current he grew ever more certain the light he was seeing was in fact sunlight. Drawing closer to where the water once again emerged to the outside world, his hopes of a quick escape were soon to be dashed. For just before where the waterway emerged into the open, a wall of thick iron bars set six inches apart blocked the entrance. Bart ceased swimming as soon as he saw them. Instead, he allowed the current to carry him forward as he sought another way out.

Both sides of the waterway were stone and rose sheer all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling had been left rough when they hewed the tunnel, but it was solid without any openings through which he might escape.

The current carried him to the bars where he took hold of them and contemplated his situation. He tried moving the bars through brute strength, but he couldn’t budge them. Then he checked beneath the water to see if there was an opening. After several dives beneath the surface, he concluded that there was no way out at this end. Looking back at the dark interior from which the water issued, he realized that he was trapped.

It had been a couple hours since their return from the wine merchant’s shop. They had spent the time gathered in Riyan’s room going over what they knew, and what they hoped Bart would discover.

Chyfe had come up with the suggestion that maybe they should hunt for ruins similar to those found on the island near Catha. “Until we gain information that points in a certain direction,” he concluded, “I don’t know what else we can do?”

“Soth and I could make discreet inquires about town,” offered Seth.

Riyan nodded. “If anyone was to do it, it would have to be you two,” he said.

“I haven’t seen anything that could remotely be considered old enough to date from the time of the King,” Kevik stated.

“Neither have I,” agreed Chad. “Maybe we could ride around the countryside and look?”