The Crystal Legacy (Book 2) (19 page)

The strain has drained her, he thought, yet she still has a look of grace.

“Memlatec, our most trusted and protective wizard, how good it is to see you,” Eleatsubetsvyertsin strained to whisper. “We requested you come to grant you our forgiveness in not telling us that Saxthor lived all these years. We accept it was for his protection. We request, indeed command, that you continue to protect him on this, his most critical mission. We remember wizard war stories from our childhood and fear for civilization should the Dark Lord march from Dreaddrac again.”

She drew in a long, shuddering breath. “Crown Prince Augusteros is too weak to rule long in Neuyokkasin. He hasn’t returned here since reaching adulthood at the imperial court in Engwaniria. We think it must fall to Prince Saxthor to save the kingdom. Stand by him in this, his greatest peril, as you stood by me when we had to replace our brother on the throne to save the dynasty. We thank you for your devotion, loyalty, and guidance.”

With that, the queen smiled at the wizard and slipped into a deep sleep. Prince Consort Augusteros thanked Memlatec as well and saw the wizard to the door. Memlatec walked slowly down the hall. He wondered if he’d done the right thing in not telling their majesties about Saxthor to protect him. Right or wrong, there was no changing it then. Enormous strain had worn out the great queen. The strain of governing and a broken heart from the loss of both her sons had been too much.

Red Ruby of Courage

“The Talok Tower shouldn’t be far beyond that hill,” Saxthor said to Bodrin as they led the group. From behind him, he heard, “Finally.”

“Should we attempt to locate the jewel tonight, or camp away from the ruins and go there in the morning?” Bodrin asked.

“I fear with all the watchers and medrax we’ve encountered, there might be something looking for us in the tower. We don’t want it to surprise us in the dark. We’ll remain hidden at night and search for the jewel by day.”

“I’m sorry the message was so upsetting last night,” Bodrin said.

Saxthor nodded and kept walking, knowing Bodrin beside him, understood. They walked along in silence. He knew he should share the bad news, since his mother was like a second mother to Bodrin, but he couldn’t talk about it. He didn’t change his pace. He just kept walking, looking straight ahead.

“Mother may be dying, and I’m not there with her,” Saxthor said some time later. It was matter-of-fact. He was barely able to say it, his voice broken. He was careful to share the news only with his closest friend.

“I’m so sorry; she’s been like a mother to me, too,” Bodrin said softly. Both walked on side by side, as they’d gone through life. The presence of each soothed the other.

By nightfall, the four came to a wooded hillside overlooking the clearing surrounding the tower’s moat. They camped in the woods that night without a fire and watched the ruins from a distance.

“Anyone see any signs of things coming or going?” Saxthor asked.

“Nothing yet,” Tournak said. “The local people avoid the tower. Before we left the kingdom, I heard they believed the ghosts of dead soldiers haunted it.”

Next morning, the trekkers hiked across the clearing to the moat filled with stagnant water. Dark, slimy algae floated in it with duckweed among the timbers and rubbish that had fallen in over the years. They startled two ducks eating the duckweed, which then flew off to the south.

After looking around, Saxthor turned to Tournak, “What do you think of this?”

“Looks deserted, that’s for sure.”

“Let’s go in; the sun will be coming up over the trees in a bit, and I need the sunlight,” Saxthor said.

The four checked around the ruins for signs of occupants and then followed Saxthor. Rotted drawbridge planks floated in the moat. The huge support timbers were still solid, and the four passed over the stagnant water. Saxthor was first in the tower.

“Check around the place before we camp here,” Saxthor said. He turned, and with sword drawn, began searching the various rooms for anything that looked suspicious. When they met again, they discussed their findings.

“The tower is five stories high, but the upper floor is unstable. The roof leaks; its beams are rotting, too,” Saxthor said. “The troops stored arms on the top floor for use from the roof battlements, apparently. There’re rooms for the garrison that stood watch on the roof. Each floor has a great central fireplace that feeds the smoke up through the tower’s center. Stone steps circle the tower walls, going to the different floors. The officers’ quarters would’ve been on the third floor. The first and second floors were for the troops, judging from the more cramped spacing.”

“Yeah, most soldiers would’ve been on the lower floors to react to attack faster,” Tournak said.

“The cellars contained the bulk supplies and extra arms,” Bodrin responded. “I’ve searched through the tower for signs of anyone living here but found none.”

Bodrin and Tournak had searched the fortified buildings attached to the tower and inside the moat. “The support buildings housed the garrison’s camp followers,” Bodrin said, grinning at first and then blushing when he gazed at Tonelia.

“There was little sign of recent habitation,” Tournak said “We’ll continue to search and watch, while we wait for your directions, Saxthor.”

“I’ll be on the battlements waiting for sunlight. It’s a cloudy day and the sun’s just not cooperating.”

*

Tonelia looked around, settled on the second floor, and began cleaning up to make it tolerable, even if just for that night. When there was enough space cleaned and swept, she started a cooking fire. Then she found the cooking pot and started down stairs.

“Come on Delia, there must’ve been a well for such a tower in case of a siege.”

Delia wagged her tail and stood at Tonelia’s side.

“It would’ve been inside the tower.” She tapped the cooking pot and looked at the attentive dog.

“Go find water, Delia. Of course, I don’t believe you know what I’m talking about, but you’re good company. You’ll alert me if something is wrong.”

Delia and Twit preferred to stay near Tonelia when she was cooking. Twit watched Tonelia talking to the dog and rolled his eyes.

I can’t imagine why people eat what she burns, but it draws juicy bugs for an easy meal, Twit thought. This conversation with the dog is too much. The bugs aren’t worth it. Twit flew off to keep an eye on Saxthor.

Wagging her tail, Delia trotted off down the stairs.

“That’s a good start, since water doesn’t flow uphill,” Tonelia said, following Delia down into the cellars. “These basement rooms go on and on. I guess they had to support five floors of soldiers when this was a thriving outpost.”

The cellars turned into a maze. Tonelia tried to follow Delia, but the dog was thirsty and went ahead of Tonelia, who was poking her nose in every cellar room. “With all this junk and rubble, there has to be something useful in the supply rooms.”

Delia came back with a wet mouth.

“Where’s the water girl?”

Tonelia followed Delia down a corridor and turned twice before coming to a room containing a well. Tonelia looked down at the water. “How’d you get water from the well?”

As the thought crossed her mind, Delia went to a bucket and drank. Her splashing drew Tonelia to it. When Delia finished, Tonelia poured the bucket’s water down a drain.

“Wonder if that goes out to flush the latrines.”

She drew fresh clean well water for her cooking. With Delia again at her side, she started back up through the corridors to the cellar steps.

She was almost back at the first floor, when something occurred to her. If no one was in the tower, how did the water get in the bucket? She thought of it all the way to the second floor.

Saxthor was by the fireplace, munching dried fruit.

“Saxthor, Delia and I just went to a well in the cellar. She was drinking out of the well’s bucket.”

Saxthor watched Tonelia as she went about preparing the food.

“What’s so unusual about that?”

“You see, the water was already in the bucket when I got there.”

She heard Saxthor rush past her to the stairs and down them. She shrugged her shoulders. “He must’ve suddenly remembered something he was supposed to do.” Delia wagged her tail, watching the pot.

Bodrin and Tournak were chatting as they ambled back to the tower after searching the outbuildings.

“Bodrin! Tournak!” Saxthor called from the tower doorway.

They rushed over to him.

“What is it?” Bodrin asked.

“Tonelia noted that someone has drawn water from the well in the tower’s cellar yesterday or today. Better check out the cellars again. When you finish, come to the second floor.” Saxthor looked up again, but it was still too cloudy to use the ring, so he returned to the second floor room.

“Tonelia, where are you?” Saxthor called. She must have gone in search of food or supplies, he thought. “Hope you didn’t go back to the cellars.” Bodrin and Tournak soon came up the stairs, where Saxthor was refilling the cooking pot water.

“Where’s Tonelia?” Bodrin asked.

“Didn’t you run into her scrounging for supplies in the cellars?”

“No, there was no one down there,” Tournak said.

“Tournak, search the upper floors for Tonelia, and bring her back here when you find her,” Saxthor said. “Bodrin, you and Delia come with me. We’ll search the cellars again. Tonelia is in the tower somewhere.”

The men fanned out and searched the building, but there was no sign of Tonelia anywhere. They checked and rechecked, even searching the support buildings as a last resort. They found no sign of the girl. As the light faded, they met back at the second floor before trying another quest.

“We’ve hunted over and over; there’s no sign of her. If we can’t find her in the daylight, how’ll we find her in the dark?” Tournak asked.

“We have to keep searching!” Bodrin said. “She’s here somewhere.”

Saxthor drew Sorblade; it had a faint glow.

“There’s something evil in the tower after all. It’s at some distance, but it’s here.” Holding the sword out before him, he went to the steps, raising and lowering the sword. The glow was slightly greater when he lowered it.

“Draw your swords, and come with me. Tournak, you’re a wizard. Stay close behind me. Both of you bring torches, but stay back so that I can see changes in Sorblade’s intensity.”

The three men descended the tower stairs in the dark, with the low light of Sorblade’s runes leading them. They went down through the first floor and then to the cellars, where the runes glowed stronger.

“Delia, where is Tonelia?” Saxthor asked.

Delia seemed to sense what he wanted and started sniffing. She searched the floor, looping around and around.

“Delia is circling, following some scent, but it ends in the room,” Saxthor said. “Tonelia was here, but something picked her up. She wasn’t walking on the floor. We’ll have to go room by room and check the intensity of Sorblade’s rune-glow. Bodrin, stand by the door with your torch. Tournak put out your torch so there’s less light, and we’ll follow the sword.”

Saxthor and Tournak searched through the cellar rooms, checking the changes in the blade’s light. In the third room, the light became intense.

“Bodrin,” Saxthor said, “come here, and stand in the doorway.”

In the torchlight, they saw the room contained some old packing crates and straw on the floor, but otherwise it was empty.

“There’s nothing in here,” Tournak said. “Could it have passed through here and gone to another room?”

“It’s in here or nearby,” Saxthor said. “Stay with me. I’ll circle the wall and see if there’s a hidden passage.” Saxthor went all the way around, but the light stayed almost the same. “Let’s try the next room.”

Tournak started for the door. Saxthor lowered his sword as he was leaving. Sorblade’s glow strengthened.

“There’s a trap door in the floor!” Saxthor turned back. All three men grabbed sticks and brushed the floor’s straw to the walls but saw nothing.

“This tower sits on low ground. With the moat just outside, any opening below this cellar level should flood with groundwater,” Tournak said.

“Think as a wizard, not as a man, Tournak,” Saxthor said, trying to reason through possibilities. “It’s in this room; it’s not in the walls, it’s in the floor. There has to be a trap door.”

“The crates, we didn’t mover the crates,” Tournak said.

Bodrin shoved one against the wall. The other two men shuffled crates away from the room’s center. When Bodrin lowered the remaining torch over the floor, there was a straw sticking up from between two floorboards. Nearby was a small indentation in one board. Bodrin pointed. “There!”

Saxthor reached down to the indentation and started to lift a suspected trap door, when a green spark arced from the crack. It popped Saxthor and knocked him back against the wall.

“Tournak, what was that?” Saxthor asked.

“It’s a warlock weld used to lock the trapdoor against all but he who created it. We must draw it off,” Tournak said.

“Can you do that?”

Tournak took a stick from the floor and touched the board’s indentation repeatedly. Each time it arced, and the stick’s tip glowed red.

“It’s self-charging. We can’t drain off the lock’s power.”

“Do something!” Bodrin said.

“Memlatec taught me a neutralizing spell, but that was long ago.”

Tournak pressed his fingertips to his temples, scrunching his face. He was concentrating as hard as he could, but the more the stress and pressure to remember, the more flustered he became.

“Think hard!” Bodrin said. “We have to find Tonelia before it’s too late.”

“Memlatec said that neither man nor evil could destroy Sorblade. Wonder if this spell counts as evil?”

Saxthor wrapped his coat around the sword’s hilt and touched the floorboard’s indentation. A huge pop followed; the sword flew up in the air. Delia cringed by the chamber door as the trap door flew open in a puff of smoke. Saxthor grabbed Sorblade, still unharmed, and headed down exposed steps beneath the cellar floor. Sorblade’s intense rune-glow illuminated a tunnel.

“What’s this? Why isn’t it flooded?” Bodrin asked, following Tournak and Saxthor down the stairs.

Saxthor was apprehensive, proceeding with care. “This should all be under water.”

“A wizard has sealed the walls, preventing water seepage,” Tournak said. He was feeling the walls. “See the stone’s green haze?”