Through the Flames (19 page)

In all honesty, he could not find it in him to say anything but that last part though. After all, he had not frozen up. He had gone straight in and tried to attack it. His lack of tact had almost gotten Katie killed though.

“Don’t apologize,” Caleb said as he rose to his feet. “Just try not to do it again. That wasn’t exactly easy.”

He barely suppressed a frown at that last part. It
had
been easy. Lying was not something that he liked to do. In fact, his father had always told him that it was wrong. Still, he could not bring himself to explain what had actually happened. It was too strange for even him to fathom.

Caleb took a deep breath as he walked over to the griffin’s corpse. He firmly gripped the hilt of his sword and pulled it from the beast’s back, revealing the blood covered blade.

Once the sword was free, he removed the knife with a little more effort and looked towards Katie. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I am,” she said with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

Nodding, Caleb pulled a piece of cloth out from the inside of his tunic and wiped both blades clean. Once they were clean and sheathed, he tossed the cloth to the side.

“Let’s go,” he said as he began to walk towards their destination once again.

* * * * *

“This is Draesa?” Caleb asked quietly, his eyes focused on the large stone doorway before them. It was carved straight into the mountainside. Like the two large stone doors that it framed, the doorway was made of faded white stone, making it appear to have seen quite a few years.

“Yeah, I think so,” Katie answer, her eyes focused on the massive doors. “The legends say that Draesa was built during the wars between the Calian Empire and Tiberia.”

Caleb glanced at his companion suspiciously.
How would she know anything about this place? She was just a pickpocket.

“Why is the city no longer in use?” he asked, genuine curiosity entering his voice.

“Draesa hasn’t been in use since two hundred years before the Arcadian Rebellion, so I’m not entirely for sure,” Katie admitted. “I never heard what happened to the city, but there’s something superstitious about the place.”

“And it doesn’t bother you that there is something superstitious about it?” Caleb asked idly, trying to figure out how to get the large stone doors open.

“I’m not superstitious,” she said as she studied the doors.

“That’s good to hear,” Caleb remarked as he drew his sword from its sheath, immediately catching Katie’s attention.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he began to walk towards the doors.

“Watch and see,” he said as he stopped directly in front of the massive stone doors. And then, he stabbed the sword into the small gap between the doors.

Katie’s eyes widened considerably at the sight of the action. “What are you doing?” she asked in shock.

“Just watch,” Caleb said as he grasped the hilt of his sword with two hands turned so that his left side was facing the doors. Before Katie could process what he was about to do, he pulled on the hilt, using the sword to pry the right door open.

Katie was absolutely floored as the door slowly opened. All the while, Caleb’s sword gave no sign of snapping, despite the fact that no sword should have been strong enough to pry such a heavy door open.

Unless….

“That sword is magic,” Katie said quietly, surprised by the revelation.

“So I’ve been told,” he said as the door opened enough to allow him to slip through it. At that point, he could tell that there was no way to use his sword to pry it open any farther. He would have no leverage if he tried to.

“Help me out here,” Caleb said, motioning towards the door.

Understanding immediately, Katie slipped past him into the ruins. Through the sliver of light that was allowed through the narrow opening of the door, she could see a stone floor, but her focus was entirely on the door.

“On three,” Caleb said as they both braced against the door, reading to push it open when needed.

“One… two… three,” he counted, throwing all of his weight against the cold stone door as he spoke the final number. With Katie’s assistance, the door completely opened, moving slowly but surely.

His eyes focused on the door as it was fully opened.

That door didn’t open like it had been shut for a hundred years, let alone seven hundred,
he thought suspiciously.

He shook his head away from such thoughts. As curious as the observation was, it was unimportant in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that mattered at that moment was getting through the ruins and to the throne room where the Sword of Kirakath resided.

Caleb turned his eyes to the room that stood before them. The sight before him was truly surprising.

Is this really a mountain?
he thought as he took in the sight of the room that stood before him. Despite the fact that it was inside a mountain, it seemed more like a giant stone room with an outer appearance of a mountain than anything. It was as if the mountain was hollow there.

“Let’s go,” he said as he began to walk forward through the large room. With the help of the light that came through the open door, he was able to see that there was nothing in the room between the door that he had come through and the two iron doors that were a quarter mile ahead.

“Why didn’t you tell me that your sword was magic?” Katie asked as she walked alongside him. “Why do you hide so much from me?”

“Now’s not the time to talk about this,” Caleb said quietly.

“And when will the time for that come?” she asked with a sharp glare. “You won’t explain anything.”

“I only explain what matters,” Caleb said without even glancing towards her.

Katie sighed at the blond’s words. It seemed that a certain level of distrust would always remain between them.

In silence, they walked through the empty room, reaching the iron doors within a few minutes.

Taking a deep breath, Caleb grabbed the doors by the metal large rings that hung from them at chest height, and pulled them open. They opened up even more smoothly than the outer door of the ruined city.

What lied on the other side of the doors truly threw him off.

Basking in sunlight, a castle of dark gray stone stood before them. It appeared to be rectangular in shape with a tall tower standing at its center, and it was standing at the other side of a bridge that connected the front gates of the castle and the doors that he had just opened.

Caleb’s eyes immediately shot up, surprise filling them as he saw the open sky. It seemed that a large tunnel had been dug into the mountain, and the castle was built at the bottom of it. It hid the castle with ease.

“So that’s Castle Draesa,” Katie said quietly. “I’ve heard stories about it, but I never imagined that it would look quite like that.”

“It’s impressive,” Caleb commented as he began to cross the gray cobblestone bridge, walking towards the castle. His eyes occasionally glanced to the tall grass on the ground at each side of the bridge. It was nearly as tall as he was.

He barely heard Katie say, “He doesn’t stop for anything, does he?”

At that moment, he could not find it in him to care about her words though, so he pressed forward regardless.

Caleb took a deep breath as he looked at the entrance hall of Castle Draesa. It was completely bare, having been emptied sometime in the years since its vacancy. The only thing that broke the monotony of the dark gray walls was the occasional door.

“The great hall should be up ahead,” Katie said as she pointed to the large doors that were at the end of the hallway.

“Where would the throne room be?” he asked after a few seconds.

“Before you spoke with Lance, you had never heard of Draesa,” Katie said thoughtfully. There was no question in her words.

“Is that surprising?” he asked curiously.

“Yes, it is,” Katie said with a heavy sigh. “This is Draesa, the City of Rebellion. The bards tell grand tales of the Lord of Draesa’s short-lived rebellion against the Calian Empire. It’s said that more lives were lost during that incident than any other point in history… on this side of the Shield Mountains, at least.”

That would explain why she said that there was something superstitious about this place then,
he thought.
But wait…

“Didn’t you say that you didn’t know why this place wasn’t in use anymore and that you didn’t know what happened to this place?” he asked, his voice taking on a hint of accusation to it.

“That’s what I said,” Katie agreed without a hint of guilt in her eyes. Annoyance, however, was brimming below the surface. “The bards don’t tell of Draesa’s fall. In fact, its fall isn’t even detailed in the history tomes. No one knows what happened. It’s one thing that makes it such a superstitious place.”

“And how, pray tell, does that answer my question about the throne room?” Caleb asked with a raised eyebrow. He did not want a history lesson, after all. History was not well known by any but the most well off, and Caleb could not see how it could possibly benefit him.

“A few minutes aren’t going to make that big of a difference. No knowledge is pointless,” Katie said angrily. “But fine, be that way. The throne room is said to be in the bottom floor of the keep. That’s the tall tower we saw a few minutes ago, in case you didn’t know.”

“Actually, I didn’t know,” Caleb said seriously. “Why do you assume that I know anything about castles or history? I was supposed to be a hunter apprentice until I turned eighteen. Then, I’d be a hunter in a small village with no reason to ever go far from home. I shouldn’t be here.” His fists clenched at his words. “But I
am
here. I’m somewhere I don’t belong because I have to be here. Still, that doesn’t suddenly make me care about history, the design of castles, or magic swords.”

Words failed to come to Katie at that moment. It felt as though the wind had been knocked from her, despite the fact that Caleb remained calm while he spoke.

“Let’s go to this keep of yours,” Caleb said when he saw that his companion had been struck speechless. “I want to get this over with as soon as possible.”

Katie slowly nodded, unsure of what else she could do.

Caleb began to walk forward, not even waiting for Katie to snap out of her momentary confusion. By the time that she finally did, he was already at the doors at the end of the hallway, his hands on the door handles.

As he pulled them open, she reached them.

“This must be the great hall,” she whispered quietly, looking around him through the doorway.

Like the entrance hall, the great hall was completely bare. The great hall, however, was rather large and was originally intended for banquets and such. As a result, it was shorter but a great deal wider.

 
“This is definitely the great hall,” Katie said, her eyes darting around. “It’s pretty empty, but-”

“I know what it is,” Caleb interrupted. “Even a village boy like me knows what a great hall is. I might not have ever met a bard, but my father did tell me a few stories.”

Though he had expected her to be annoyed at being interrupted, Katie kept an impassive look upon her face. “Your father was a soldier, right?”

That question caught him off guard.

“Yeah, he was,” he said, recovering from the surprise. “How do you know that?”

“The man that held us captive back at his camp said that he served with your father,” Katie said, her eyes focused on the floor. “Did your father ever mention Jon or Correll Staerk?”

“No,” he answered immediately, feeling as though he had just eaten a spoonful of cinnamon. Of all the men that he had killed, those two were the only men that he knew the names of. “My father would not have wasted any words on cowards like them.”

“I suppose not,” Katie said, neither disagreeing nor agreeing with him. “It just goes to show you that there are all sorts of men in this world. There are men like your father, who was honorable. And there are men like
them
, who are despicable cowards.”