by Mary Vee
Gilbert turned to his left and saw Matthias. He looked to his right where Ben had ridden. He wasn’t there.
“Excuse me, Sir Robert, servant Katia is ready to serve your midday meal.”
The regent rubbed his temples to soothe a headache. “Thank you, Captain Timon. Send her in.” Sir Robert sat up in his chair.
Katia walked across the marble floor, bowed, and set the tray on a nearby table. “The kitchen included a warm drink and soothing herbs to ease your pain in addition to warm soup, bread, and fruit.”
“How did the kitchen know? I didn’t say anything.”
“Captain Timon told us you didn’t feel well, earlier today. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Sir Robert sipped the drink and closed his eyes. “Not unless you have a report from King Gilbert.”
Timon stepped forward. “Lord Regent, I just received word from my scouts who questioned a suspicious man and a woman traveling south on the main road. Apparently, King Gilbert detoured into Malum. The couple escaped before further questioning could be done.”
Soup sprayed from Sir Robert’s lips. “Malum? Why, pray tell, would he go to Malum?” He rubbed his temples. “Timon, find the man and woman and bring them to me. Find out why they fled. Oh, and Timon, assemble four knights. Have them meet me here.”
The captain snapped to attention. “The only ones left are the lesser trained knights. The best were…”
“Yes. I know. Bring whoever is left.”
Captain Timon pressed his right fist to his chest and left.
Sir Robert broke off a hunk of bread and ate. “Katia, I’m curious how you came to be a part of this staff. Your parents don’t work here, do they?”
She turned to tidy the table. “No, they don’t. King Cyrus and Queen Letha found me when I was little and brought me here. My parents had abandoned me.” She swallowed hard then raised her head. “They welcomed me and gave me a place to live. I’m grateful to be a servant in Aerlis.”
He looked toward the window. “King Cyrus and Queen Letha deserve all the credit for my success too. No one gave me a chance until King Cyrus asked for my help one day. My heart aches for King Gilbert's safety.” He turned back to her. “But that will not be the case for long. I would rather risk my career by disobeying his order than to have danger cross his path.”
She pushed in a chair and straightened a curtain. “Would you like me to leave your tray?”
“Yes, I’ll snack while I work.” Sir Robert stuffed a fig in his mouth then nearly swallowed it whole when two guards burst into the room.
Katia bowed and turned to leave as four guards escorted a man and woman dressed in ordinary citizen garb through the Great Hall. “We found them, lord regent.”
Katia’s eyes widened. She gasped and looked sharply away from the two then dashed toward the door without bowing.
Chapter Nineteen
“Bring those two forward.” Sir Robert ordered. He thrust his arm at the couple.
The man and woman glared at Katia. They tried to break free, but the guards held them in place.
“Sir Robert, this man and woman claim to have seen King Gilbert. They’re slippery ones. We nearly lost them to more than one escape attempt.”
Sir Robert waved them forward. “Haven’t I seen you before?”
The woman laughed. “You probably saw us at the coronation. Everyone was there.”
He didn’t appreciate her candor. “Why did you resist the guards?”
At the sound of his gruff question, they bowed low. The man raised his head slightly and cleared his throat. “my lord, we ask your forgiveness. We were in a hurry to report our news of King Gilbert. Had we realized the guards were acting on your behalf, we would have cooperated.” The man turned to the guard and bowed even lower. “Sir, please forgive us for impeding your mission. We truly desire to serve Aerlis and will help in any way.”
The guard grunted.
They turned back to Sir Robert. “Lord Regent, how may we assist you?”
“My guard tells me you’ve seen King Gilbert. Tell me what happened.”
“We shared our lunch with the king yesterday. During the conversation, he said his team would go to Malum and search for lost scrolls from the empire. I think he believed the documents contain information that would restore Aerlis to peace. He seemed convinced this detour would provide a faster answer to the kingdom’s problems than wasting days riding to Vista.”
Regent Robert sipped the herbal drink given to him for his headache. “Why would he tell you about any lost scrolls? I’m a knight, having lived my entire life here, yet I hadn’t heard of any lost scrolls prior to this conversation.”
The man and woman squeezed their hands together symbolizing their solidarity. She looked at him then regent Robert. “Lunch conversations tend to open the soul and reveal inner thoughts. The soup warmed our spirits causing us to share news about family and where we planned to travel. That was when he told about his journey. Surely you can understand.”
“Of course. How foolish of me.” He didn’t believe their reasons and didn’t want to waste any more time with them. “I’m sorry to have detained you. You must be anxious to be on your way.” He turned to the guard. “Please escort them out of the castle. Make sure they’re returned to their horses.”
The guard bowed. “As you wish, Lord Regent.”
The man and woman bowed. “You’re most gracious. We hope to meet again.”
Sir Robert nodded. “Guard, on your way out, see if Timon returned. If he has, tell him to see me.”
He didn’t have to wait long. A group of knights, dressed in full armor, entered the hall with Timon in the lead. “Lord Regent, may I approach?”
“Good, you’re back. I need to speak with you. Come forth.”
The captain saluted. “Here are the knights you requested.” He pointed to the men with him.
Sir Robert raised his finger to his lips. He waited until the couple left the room. “Timon, I have my suspicions about that man and woman. Have them followed.”
He saluted. “Yes, my lord.”
“And, order these knights to find King Gilbert. Tell them to keep their distance. They are to provide extra protection for him without his knowledge. The king will have my head for disobeying orders. He will thank me later. In the meantime, we’ll have to work hard to defend Aerlis with the few remaining men we have left.”
“It will be done.” Timon saluted and left.
A scuffle took place in the corridor. The four knights standing in the Great Hall drew their swords and ran out the door. Sir Robert rushed after them. “What’s going on?” He drew his sword and nearly ran into guards racing past the doorway toward the grand staircase. Leaders bellowed orders fanning troops in every direction.
Timon ran down the corridor. “Regent Robert, the man and woman you questioned slipped away from the guards, ran up the grand staircase, and disappeared.”
“How do they keep getting away? And what do they want in the castle?” Sir Robert marched into the atrium. “Form a search party. Those two must be found at once.”
Gilbert looked again. Not only had Ben disappeared, but also his mare. “Matthias, I don’t see Ben.”
The chancellor quickly turned and rode toward him.
“Promise, take me to Ben’s last position.” The destrier sprinted to the right a short distance and stopped. Gilbert slid off the horse and looked at the ground. “Where did he go? Why didn’t he call out?” He turned to Matthias who neared the scene.
Ben couldn’t have been kidnapped. Not in the middle of an open field where brush and grasses covered the Sharon. He rushed through pockets of brush, dreading the discovery of his friend’s body. “Matthias, do you see him?”
“No, sire.” Matthias dismounted and walked a short way.
Gilbert returned to where Promise delivered him. He bent low, pushing blades of grass apart and searched the earth for clues. He shaded his eyes and looked in the distance. “Wasn’t he right here?”
> “I see hoof prints but not any footprints.” Matthias broadened his search. “I’ll look over here.”
Together, they moved in a slow, circular pattern searching the field. Gilbert stumbled upon an area of raised ground. He reached down and pricked his fingers on the thorn of a thistle. “Matthias, come here.”
“Did you find a clue, sire?”
“I found soft earth everywhere except here. Feel the rocky soil under the thistles?”
Matthias pressed his fingers on the ground. “All fields have areas of rocky soil. How does this help?”
Gilbert scanned the plain. At first, he didn’t know the answer other than this was where Ben had disappeared. “If someone kidnapped him out here in the open, we would have noticed.” It didn’t make sense. He groped the soil.
“What are you thinking, sire?”
“This might be wrong, but what if a hidden chamber lies beneath us? One with treasure and…”
“Scrolls? Anything’s possible, I guess. But how did Sir Ben get there, and why didn’t he call out to us?”
Gilbert got on his hands and knees. He pushed on rocks. “What if something around here served as a release, and he fell through a trap door? Or maybe he found a secret entrance on his own, went in to check it out, and the door closed before he had a chance to report? There must be a release somewhere.”
Matthias pulled his robe out of the way and poked at the ground with his sword. “Sire. You might want to see this.”
Gilbert crawled to the site. Matthias slid weeds aside, held them back, and revealed an odd colored rock.
Gilbert rubbed his hand over the surface then attempted to pick it up. “What a weird shade of green. It isn’t jade or emerald. I don’t know what this is. Do you?”
“I’ve not seen it before, nor has my research on minerals and gems included such a specimen.” Matthias looked back at the horses. “Ah. Yes. Perhaps Good Knight tipped the rock at the proper angle to engage a release mechanism.”
They tried to slide the rock to one side then the other and couldn’t get it to move. Gilbert stood. He walked a few steps back to where they first split for the search then faced Matthias. “If Ben’s horse tipped the rock while walking from the woods to the east, it had to move or tip back this way.” They both grabbed the rock and pressed. Click. Their knees shook as the ground trembled beneath them and opened.
Gilbert jumped to his feet. “Promise, Charger. Come.” The horses trotted to their masters’ sides. The opening exposed a dark stairway. Wide steps descended into the earth, and the gradual decline appeared safe for the horses. “Come, Promise.”
Matthias grabbed Charger’s lead rope and stepped into the stairwell. Gilbert followed him with Promise. On the sixth step down, his foot wobbled on a rock or lever embedded in the way. The door whooshed closed. “Not again.” Darkness blanketed them. Gilbert tapped his shoe against each step, searching for the edge. “Matthias, let me know when you reach the bottom.”
“Yes, sire.”
A voice echoed from deeper in the tunnel. “Hello! Lord Chancellor Matthias and King Gilbert, is that you?”
A whisper of light seeped into view, growing brighter until Ben, Good Knight, and Pokey appeared. “We need to practice your detective skills. What took you so long to find me?” Ben didn’t wait for an answer. “Since the door closed me in, I found this torch and lit it with flint from my tinderbox. I went ahead and explored the immediate area. This place is huge.” Ben lit a second torch and handed it to Gilbert.
Black oozed from the walls. Gilbert reached out to touch the surface, but Ben pushed his hand away. “Don’t touch it, sire. That stuff is sticky, not to mention nasty smelling. I found out the hard way.” He waved his hand in front of his nose.
Gilbert held his torch into the corridor. “Did you find the scrolls?”
“No. I checked the corridor to the right.” Ben turned north into another corridor. “I didn’t explore far this way yet. It took a while to find a torch and flints. This one goes a long way with many passages branching off.” He stopped.
Gilbert walked a short way down the new corridor. “What do you think, Matthias?”
“We did what we came down here to do, sire. We found Sir Ben, and he is well. You need to decide what we do next before choosing a direction.” Matthias looked back the way they came. “I vote for finding an exit.”
“We’re in the ruins, Matthias. I understand your concerns. I have my doubts about the scrolls existing after what has happened too. But what if they are here and we leave? Aerlis would suffer for a longer time. Let’s search for a short time. If we find nothing, we’ll leave.”
Matthias didn’t respond. Gilbert didn’t really expect him to. He followed Ben down the main corridor. “The man and woman said to go to the sixth door.”
At the next fork, Ben reached his torch into the hall to the left then straight into the main corridor. “I walked this way earlier and found some doors about fifty feet ahead.”
The horses’ hoofs clomped on the floor while following them around the corner.
Ben walked several steps then used his torch to reveal an alcove. “Here is the first door. I’ll look inside.”
The hinge creaked as it opened. Gilbert followed him inside. Rows of shelving like a library reached from floor to ceiling. But these shelves didn’t have books. They contained something deadlier.
Much, much deadlier.
Chapter Twenty
High-quality weapons lay on the shelves, organized and stacked. Gilbert walked through the aisles and touched a few. “There’s enough here to supply a small army. Every shelf in this row is stacked with nothing but longbows.”
“There’re quivers over here,” said Ben. “Each stuffed with new arrows.”
“Sire, Ben, come look at the crest on these.” Matthias stood several rows down holding a shield. “The crest has two K’s entwined. And look on the sides. There is a snake stretched along the edge.”
Ben ran his hand over the ornate painting. “Those aren’t snakes. They’re dragons. These weapons wouldn’t belong to any army from the empire. What do the K’s mean?”
“Keeper of the Kingdoms Order. I saw the letters in a dream.” Gilbert took a shield and looked at the design. “This is a secret organization whose goal is to keep the three kingdoms of the empire unified and safe.” He set the shield back on the shelf. “We need to find the scrolls. Leave the horses hidden in here where we won’t have to worry about them. If we need a quick escape, they’ll be easy to find. Let’s go.” He led the way down the corridor expecting the other two to keep up with him.
“Wait.” Ben’s footfalls rushed toward Gilbert.
Matthias held his hand against his chest, his breaths puffed in and out. “He’s going to be the death of me someday, Sir Ben.”
The corridor echoed every sound. Gilbert signaled for their quiet.
Six doors farther on the left, he reached for the knob. Nervous sweat moistened his palm. He wiped his hand on his tunic before pushing the heavy wooden door open a crack. Finding the scrolls here would change everything. The citizens would rejoice when they learned he found the secret to ridding the kingdom of dragons. They would love him as they did his father.
Inside the room, a blast of grinding wheels and hammering steel overshadowed voices shouting orders. Gilbert stepped inside and stood on a balcony overlooking a large work area. Workers dressed in grease-coated rags and chained to their posts fashioned military equipment. Ben and Matthias moved in beside him. They crouched down and studied the activity. “Why are they doing this?” Gilbert whispered.
Matthias signaled for them to leave. They stood stunned in the corridor. Ben pointed back to the door. “They’re making enough weapons to supply a huge army, sire.”
“I see,” Gilbert said. “We have to act quickly if we hope to rescue those scrolls before we’re seen. Tell me the rest of that poem.”
Matthias stroked his beard and eyed the corridor. He whispered the remaining verse
s:
“Great sacrifice required
To right the stain
Proved the only answer
For true freedom. We claim.
Surrendered
In morning’s first light
Discover solace by
Relinquishing the fight.
When heard the knock upon a door
A treasure will untwine
Vast mysteries sent from above
New direction you will find.”
Matthias stroked his chin. “We don’t even know what the great sacrifice is.”
Ben looked back at the sixth door. “Maybe it has something to do with the weapons we saw earlier.”
“I don’t understand,” Gilbert said. “Finding the ruins confirmed what the couple said. This is the sixth door. There was no treasure in that room or any scrolls.”
Ben turned his head to the side and signaled their silence. His eyes suddenly widened. “Someone is coming. We need to hide.”
“Try that next door,” Gilbert whispered. “Hurry.”
As they reached for the doorknob, a soldier, clad in armor, stomped into the hall. “Intruders! Intruders!”
Gilbert jiggled the knob until it flew open. They darted inside. Silently, but quickly, he shut the door and lowered the bolt. His heart raced as he scanned the room. “Ben, where is Matthias?”
“I thought he was in front of you, sire.”
Guards shouted from outside the door. “Here’s the intruder. Stop there, old man. You can’t escape.”
Gilbert raised the bolt only a little way before Ben forced it back in place. “You can’t open the door.”
“Move out of the way. We have to save him.”
“You’ll put all of Aerlis on the chopping block by opening that door, sire. Remember, you are the king.”
“Then you go. You’re a knight. It’s your duty to save him.”
“And who will be here to save you? Matthias knew the cost when he sacrificed himself for us.”
