Von Wilding looked to Sai. “Only you can do this,” he said, looking hopeful.
“I don’t port to where I can’t see. I might get stuck inside of something and kill myself. I killed that Shamble Priest by porting him into a tree. And I don’t know what is on the other side of that door.”
“Von Drakk Manor,” answered Ikalos.
Von Wilding continued, “It’s the only way. This one is magically blocked, and he still thinks it’s the only way out.
“It could kill me,” argued Sai.
“It’s the only way I can see,” he said. “If it was me, I’d do it.”
“But it’s not you, its me.”
Marie asked Ikalos, “How thick is the door?”
“One foot,” he answered, holding his hands two feet apart.
Marie continued, “Presumably, the door can’t be more than two feet thick and there must be space for it to swing open, so if you port to the other side and keep within the parameters, you should be fine.”
“But I don’t know,” grumbled Sai. She thought of Hatch, the mission, Esmerelda, and the others. If they were really trapped, she was the only one who could get them out. She went and touched the door, trying to get a sense of how thick it was. “I’m going, but if the door won’t open in a minute you’ll know that I’m dead.”
“Thank you,” said Von Wilding, taking her hand in his and squeezing.
Sai blinked out.
***
She found herself on the other side of the door, beside what looked like a great crumbling mausoleum covered in gothic architecture. She tried to step away, but realized her foot was caught. The very tip of her boot had merged with the marble stone and she had to cut it away to free herself. Turning around, she took in her surroundings. She was in a vast ivy-strewn graveyard. Monuments and tombstones went as far as she could see to her left and right. The names were almost unreadable on some of them, and besides Von Drakk, there were Von Holokin, Von Maal, Von Pellier, Von Daanen, and Von Siedrir. She didn’t know the names but was intrigued by the variety in the Von Drakk graveyard. Directly in front of her, through a wide stand of gloomy trees, less than a quarter mile away, stood Von Drakk Manor.
She had spent so long getting here, and now she could not pull her gaze from the evil place. Towers and vines jutted out from above the trees like rotted teeth. Black windows along a long gray wall were dusty and blank, but still they seemed to leer at her, daring the adventure to continue. She saw no movement, no sign of either life or the undead, but the irrepressible feeling of being watched made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Birds suddenly lifted up from the balustrades and circled one of the lonely turrets and swirled in a circle about the moon.
No, those weren’t birds, they were bats.
A scream broke the stillness and Sai remembered what she had come here to do.
Chapter 14: And Then There Were None
Sai pushed on the mausoleum’s door and it easily swung open. The most curious thing to her was that Von Wilding had also swung the door open on his side, but there were two doors, each going in opposite directions. It was a dizzying trick of glamour, but what else could explain such a bizarre thing other than that Ikalos’s magics had done it?
Marie stepped forward, “Is this it?”
“It is,” said Sai somberly.
Only Ikalos remained within the tunnel. He glanced out hesitantly.
Sai asked, “Are you going back to your hole in the rock, or will you come with us and do some good in the world again?”
Ikalos gingerly stepped to the threshold of the door. “Perhaps I should wait here, in case you need assistance later?”
“What kind of assistance?” asked Von Wilding.
“Perhaps if you get hurt and need more healing. It won’t do for us all to be captured and tortured and bitten by the vampire.”
“Thanks a lot,” grumbled Sai. “If that happens, I think it will be too late.”
“You never know,” Ikalos offered.
“So you will wait here?”
“Yes.”
A sudden sound made all of them jump as someone came around the corner of the mausoleum. It was Chev and Esmerelda. “We found you!” she cried.
“Little cap’n here, wouldn’t take no for an answer. Said she knew ye were close by,” said Chev.
“We won’t be separated again. Promise me,” said Esmerelda, latching herself around Sai’s leg.
“I can’t promise that; besides, this is dangerous, you should wait here with Ikalos.”
The little girl went wide-eyed at that revelation and cast a cruel glare at the old Riftling. “It’s your fault that the Drowning happened and life is like this here!”
“What?” he choked.
“You did this. You unleashed terrible forces and changed the Downs into the Moor and now the Nether has sway here stronger than anywhere but the Midnight Tower,” she accused.
Ikalos shrunk back from her words.
“How can you ever make things right again?” Esmerelda asked.
“I don’t know. I chose to forget rather than dwell on my mistakes,” he sobbed.
Von Wilding broke in, “What’s the Midnight Tower?”
“That’s my question,” Sai said.
Esmerelda looked perplexed. “That’s where the Midnight Queen lives, of course.”
Von Wilding shook his head. “That’s not our concern right now. We should go. I need to find Princess Citrine, not lament over the past.”
Sai agreed. “Chev, stay here with her.”
“I’m coming with you. I won’t be separated again,” said Esmerelda, her tone as sharp as a sword stroke.
Marie relented, “Come on then, but you need to be ready to run if I say so. Did you learn any offensive spells while training to become a witch?”
“I learned how to curdle milk.”
“That’ll do it,” chuckled Von Wilding.
“Well I watched them do a purple lighting blast. I think I could try and do it too,” Esmerelda said.
“Just don’t experiment on any of us,” joked Von Wilding.
“Chev. How about you?” asked Sai.
Chev nodded and picked up a crossbow. “Reckon, I’m coming along too then, won’t do to be left here all alone.”
“Well, I’m staying,” said Ikalos, still in the doorway.
“Good,” muttered Sai, over her shoulder. “But if you really want to make a difference, you’ll come up with a spell to remember what you have forgotten, so we can fix things.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said as he sat down. Then he leapt up. “Wait! I just remembered.”
“What?” Sai asked.
“This. It will help protect you from the undead and wicked mind spells that vampires are fond of using on their victims,” Ikalos said. He held out a necklace with a small blue crystal. Sai frowned but let him put it around her neck. But she didn’t want it wagging around while she would be moving, so she tucked it between her shirt and vest.
Ikalos continued, “It is the talisman of life. If anyone is using a mind spell against you, just touch it and it will break the enchantment.”
“How would you know if someone was using such a spell?” Marie asked.
Ikalos shrugged. “I don’t know that.”
Von Wilding laughed out loud at that, but then checked himself, realizing they were on the very doorstep of Von Drakk Manor. “Sorry,” he murmured.
They strode through the tombstones, careful to not step on any of the graves lest they disturb a sleeping ghost or demon. At the edge of the graveyard was a rusted fence and gate that hung off-kilter on broken hinges. They gingerly passed through it, and as they got closer to the Manor, Sai could see that the front door wasn’t black—it was simply open. Inside was dark as a night without stars. She didn’t see any guards or any signs of life.
“Keep your sword handy,” grumbled Sai.
“I ain’t got a s
word, just this trusty crossbow.” Chev patted the weapon and a bolt shot out, whisked past Sai and Marie, and hit a post on the front entry of the Manor. It quivered in the thick wood with an audible vibration. “Uh, sorry.”
“You old fool! You could have killed one of us,” said Sai.
“At least I know it works,” he responded.
“You walk in front then,” ordered Sai.
There was no commotion, no indication that any enemies had noticed the bolt jutting from the entry post.
As they neared, more features of the manor came into view. Moss and ivy clung to the outer walls like a second skin. The half-hidden statues of gargoyles, dragons, and worse. An oppressive sense of decay hung over everything. Amidst scattered leaves were bleached bones. Sai thought it better if she didn’t point them out.
Up a short span of stairs, the great door hung open, daring them to cross to the other side.
They watched and waited, and nothing rushed out to greet them with gleaming steel or bared teeth.
“Maybe they’re not home?” offered Chev.
“I’ll find out,” said Sai as she ported to the doorway and looked inside. It was very dark inside, but a few fading sunbeams lit up chambers farther in. Cobwebs and dust as well as a few leaves were scattered within the entryway. “It doesn’t look like anyone has been here for a very long time.”
Von Wilding proclaimed, “We have to search it from top to bottom to be sure. I’m convinced that Princess Citrine, and possibly Princess Amethyst, are held prisoner inside.” He swung his sword and dagger.
“All right then I guess we better go in,” said Sai.
They all entered through the door, and it slammed shut behind them.
***
Lightning flashed, giving them a hint of the massive interior chambers. Covering the walls were old tapestries from the elder days of triumph. Bookcases with moldering tomes lined the other open spots while dusty silken divans were spread throughout as if this place once expected to host large dinner parties.
“Was that the wind? Did it slam the door shut?” asked Marie.
“I felt no wind,” said Von Wilding. He tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
“I guess we’re committed,” said Sai.
Fumbling through the dark, they found candles and lit them to push back the claustrophobic gloom. They ventured further into the manor and soon found themselves at a crossroads of sorts. Stairs led up, stairs led down, and another hallway continued.
“We best hurry,” said Von Wilding.
“How do you suggest we do that?” asked Sai.
“Marie and I should go down, that is the likeliest place a prisoner like Citrine will be kept, you two search the ground floor, and you, Sai, go look upstairs.”
Chev and Esmerelda looked to each other. “We’d feel better all sticking together,” he said.
“The sooner we get this done and get out, the better. You two stay here, I don’t want you walking into any traps like the rest of us.”
“I’m with Chev for once,” said Sai. “Seems awful dangerous splitting up. Hatch meant for us to stick together.”
Von Wilding grimaced. “All right then. We stay together, but I think this would go faster my way.”
They continued as a group, searching through the rooms on the ground floor, finding nothing of interest, just molded furniture and rotting books. Rats fled from the light, but beyond the vermin there was nothing.
“Now we should look upstairs and down,” said Von Wilding.
Chev hesitated and said, “Maybe now, me and the girl should stay here and keep watch. You two go on downstairs and Sai can look up there.”
“By myself?”
Von Wilding cracked a smile and said, “You are the most capable of escaping anything that is thrown at you.”
“True, but that doesn’t mean I should have to.”
Marie offered, “You still have Hatch with you, don’t you?”
She popped open the satchel and looked down at miserable Hatch.
“Ribbit.”
“He’s fine, but you cannot count us as two.”
“I wasn’t. I just guessed that he gave you comfort,” said Marie.
Sai blushed. “Goddess knows why, but yes he does.”
“We all have that,” said Marie, taking hold of Von Wilding’s hand. “Let’s get searching and get out.” She led Von Wilding down the stairs into the pitch black, while Chev and Esmerelda would watch their backs on the ground floor rooms as Sai looked up the stairs.
***
Von Wilding held his weapons at the ready. “Careful now,” he whispered.
Marie nodded, her frying pan held up, ready to strike. Von Wilding tread carefully with his short sword and dagger, since a longsword was too unwieldy, even inside the wide halls of the mansion. The stairs creaked as they went down to a landing, the stairs curving in a new direction. Above their heads hung portraits of the Von Drakk family from days long past. Their faces were somber and glaring, as if even the long dead were insulted at this trespass.
Sconces along the wall held candelabras, but these were covered in cobwebs and dust.
“It doesn’t look like anyone has been down here in a very long time,” said Marie.
Von Wilding shook his head. “That doesn’t mean anything to the undead. This could be a glamorous illusion for all we know.”
“I wouldn’t call it glamourous,” remarked Marie, running a finger along the rail and wiping away a long trail of dust. Then she started with a gasp.
“What is it?”
“The eyes on that portrait were looking at me.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“I swear they moved,” she insisted.
He watched carefully for a moment, then led her the rest of the way down the stairs. At the bottom, the cold flagstones had beetles scurrying for cover from the light of their lantern. A single skull lay on the floor in front of them. Beyond all of this, a long hallway offered many doors on either side of them.
The hairs on Von Wilding’s neck rose, and a new sensation rippled up his spine. He stopped Marie just before she set foot on the flagstones. “Me first,” he whispered.
He tapped the nearest flagstone with the tip of his sword and huge sections of the wall smashed into each other, turning the skull that had lain there to dust.
Then, as the walls slowly moved back into position, they revealed a throng of skeletal warriors standing in what had been an empty hallway. Their teeth clacked maniacally, and the hollow cries of the doomed echoed from their empty eye sockets. They rushed at Marie and Von Wilding with rusted swords and baleful, hungry glares of evil.
***
Chev and Esmerelda remained at the bottom of the stairs that Sai had ascended. Chev took some small comfort that they could see outside the mansion through the windows on their left-hand side, thinking that if some terrible danger came, they could still escape to the outside.
A soft cry for help came from somewhere in the distance.
“Was that Sai?” asked Chev.
“I don’t think so. It wasn’t upstairs; it sounded like it was that way,” she said, pointing down the hallway.
The soft cry of help came again, soft and weak.
“Suppose we should stay here and tell the others when they get back? That’s the sensible thing I think.”
“No, we should help. Come on.”
They gingerly went down the hallway, Chev with his crossbow loaded and Esmerelda shining the candlestick like it was a wand.
They passed by a kitchen, but it was empty of everything but spiders and broken dishes.
“Help.”
The next room was the dining hall. It was equally empty, but the third they came to looked like a library with even more books than had been in the entry parlor. A billiard table and a few lounge chairs were spread around the central fireplace and the huge head of a moose was mounted on the wall above it.
Everything was covered in webbing and dust.
“Doesn’t look like much now, but I’ll bet this was grand once,” remarked Chev.
Esmerelda grunted, and they took a step inside to see around the corners a little better.
“Welcome,” came a voice.
“Who said that?” whispered Esmerelda, clutching Chev’s hand.
“I did,” came the voice, louder this time.
“I don’t see anyone,” responded Chev.
“I’m right here. Look up.”
Chev and Esmerelda took a single step forward, searching the room for a presence.
The moose head turned to look at them and bared its teeth with a loud, “yaw!”
They screamed and ran from the room, as the fireplace behind them suddenly erupted in a blaze of heated doom, casting long orange light that pursued them out of sight.
***
Sai was irritated. Why must she be the one on her own? Sure, she thought herself capable, but that didn’t mean she should be abandoned.
A ribbit from within her satchel reminded her that she wasn’t completely alone. She wished Hatch were here as himself.
The air wasn’t as musty with fungus when she reached the upper level, though the scent of rust and decay was still very strong. The wooden floors creaked beneath her soft tread, and she wondered if that was because it was old or because it was a warning system for the vampire. Shadows seemed to move and dance at the edge of her light, and she wondered if ghosts were playing with her.
Farther on down a long hallway, she thought she could hear a scuffle. Then it was behind her. She whipped about but saw nothing in the gloom.
She turned to face the threat as something chased up the stairs after her. It was Esmerelda.
“Something got Chev!” she panted. “We walked past a door and he put a hand against it and it turned and he fell inside. I couldn’t open it.”
Sai scanned the darkness in all directions. She didn’t believe in coincidences. “Stay close to me, we’ll get out of this.”
They crept on softly, then Sai wondered at a curious thing. “How did you find me in the dark, without your candle?”
The Glauerdoom Moor Page 10
