“I am happy to share what I know in exchange for a meal. Most of what I can relate I gathered through the gossip of maids, guardsmen and overheard conversation, but I will fill in the gaps as I can. I think you will find it quite a tale and hopefully enough to pay for this feast.”
Barton nodded to her with a smile and began to produce food. Alan retrieved her water skin from her saddle and Daniel managed after a moment to sit down but not too close to the storyteller.
Lissette, in the mode of all good story tellers, took a sip of water and a small bite of cheese. Her lack of haste allowed her to frame her story in her mind and more importantly kept the three waiting long enough to ensure her audience would be rapt. After another slow sip of water she said, “Since we have shared food and obviously all are here in this hideaway for similar reasons, let us drop the pretense. Barton, you and Daniel are obviously the cause of the turmoil and I will do my best to fill in parts you may not know.” Lissette turned to Alan, as if the other two had no interest in the story and began her tale.
ELEVEN
“Being a dungeon guard at Castle Kleinhurst is not the first step in climbing the ladder to knighthood. In fact, it is just the opposite. Dungeon guards in most castles are men who repeatedly fail at one task or another. Often simply staying sober is a task they fail to surmount. Being the worst man at swords and shields, spears, pikes, or even mustering on time, can make a man feel worthless. Men who feel worthless usually drink too much, and become depressed and mean-spirited. A mean-spirited man somehow always seems to qualify as a dungeon guard.
So when the groggy, hung over guardsman on the morning shift made his cursory rounds of checking cells and prisoners, it wasn't done with the clarity and sense of purpose that the Baron might have wished for. In fact, it wasn't until the guard came back to collect the morning bowl of water and slop that served as breakfast for prisoners, that he noticed something was wrong. He didn't notice that the bowls were in the same place where he left them. But he did notice when the gruel sloshed over his hands and wristbands. It only took him a few seconds to realize that the bowls were supposed to be empty. Now a person who is competent or curious might have slid the cover off the viewing hole and looked into the cell, but not this guard. He had been at the bottom of his profession for eighteen years and the only explanation in his mind for full bowls was dead prisoners. So it was nearly an hour after sun up when he returned with another man and a cart to clear the bodies from the room.
With the turn of the key in the rusty lock, the door swung open on its protesting hinges and they found a cell filled with sunlight and nothing else. It took their eyes a few seconds to adjust to the bright light and another few seconds to realize what they were seeing or more accurately, were not seeing. The real delay came as they tried to decide which of them would have to inform the head jailer and how they could be sure neither of them would take the blame.
The guard on duty that morning was named Rove, and no one knew or cared if that was his first or last name. Years of practice had taught him to sag shoulders and lower his head and appear as unthreatening as possible when he delivered disturbing news. He was doing his best shirk and cower when he knocked on the headman's door. Geoff was sitting behind his table when he heard the knock and took a deep breath before responding that whoever was disturbing him should come in.”
"Sir," Rove said as he stood in front of the table, "there's something amiss in one of the cells and I think you should take a look, sir." He cringed as his boss slowly lifted his head looking at him with great disgust and a proper measure of threat.
"Just tell me what it is, Rove. I'm not dragging my tired bones down and back up those stairs because you found an extra dead rat in one of the cells," he said. "Just spit out what you saw and be clear and quick."
This is what Rove had been afraid of, he wasn't sure how to describe a hole. "Well sir, the cell what had old Barton and the young one in it yesterday is emptier than it should be," he stumbled. Rove was desperately trying to figure out how to say what he had seen without saying anything that would get him in trouble again.
"Rove, I swear that if you do not come to the point and tell me what brought you here to disturb me, in quick fashion, I will have you out cleaning the moat as that is the only job I can think of that requires less brains than the job you are barely hanging on to now."
If it was possible, Rove shriveled even further. His big dirty hands were fingering the worn edge of his tunic as if rubbing it would somehow make all this disappear. "Sir, when I went to pick up the breakfast slop bowls they hadn't been touched. So, naturally, I figured them what was in the cells had killed one another and went to fetch another man and a carrier to haul the bodies off. But when we opened the door the prisoners was gone."
The possibility of prisoners disappearing really didn't enter into Geoff’s mind, and his experience as head jailer quickly led him to another conclusion. "I told you that drinking was going to get you into trouble again, did I not, Rove? Now think about it, man, how are prisoners going to escape through a locked door?"
"Well sir, if it were me, I would've crawled out through the big hole in the wall."
This was new, Geoff thought to himself, Rove must have finally addled his brain. "All right, Rove, I'm going to go down there and take a look and if there ain't no big hole in the wall and the prisoners are hiding in the corners you're going to spend the rest of the month fishing chunks out of the moat." With that said, Geoff rose ponderously from behind his table and motioned for Rove to lead the way.
When Geoff appeared before the captain of the guard, an hour later and dripping with sweat, he stood straight and stiff-backed, as formal as he could make himself appear. "Captain Tayler, I need to report that two prisoners have escaped, Sir."
Bryant Tayler had been captain of the guard for nearly fifteen years. He'd been raised to the position by the previous baron and his attention to duty and firm hand had kept him in the position ever since. He took nothing lightly, even reports as preposterous as this. "And tell me how they escaped," he said with his fingers peaked in front of his face and a skeptical look.
"Sir, somehow they managed to bore a hole half a span wide all the way through the outer wall." Even as Geoff said the words he cringed at the sound of them. And the look on the captain of the guard's face did nothing to help. "Sir, I know it sounds crazy but there's a big hole in the wall and the prisoners are gone." Five minutes later they were both standing in the cell. The captain of the guard was letting a handful of sand trickle through his fingers when he turned back to the jailer.
"Awake, asleep, drunk, sober, or rolling with a wench, you'll find every mother's son who has touched or walked by this cell since the last time someone was supposed to have checked it and you have them outside this door before I lose my temper. Do you understand?"
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The Baron was breaking fast across the table from his chief adviser, Jason, when one of the Baron’s personal guards knocked on the door and entered the room. Standing at full attention he advised them that the captain of the guard wished an audience on an urgent matter. While the Baron was stuffing a piece of bread lathered with butter and dripping honey into his mouth, he waved for the guard to bring the captain in. Captain Tayler strode to the front of the table and saluted at full attention.
"What is this urgent matter, Captain Tayler?"
"Baron, sir, the old man Barton and the young one thrown into the cell with him yesterday have both escaped." The baron and his advisor had both stopped eating and were now focused completely on the captain. "The news is worse, Sir, as there is a three foot wide hole bored completely through the wall of the castle. The stone appears to have been changed to sand with some powerful magic. I've questioned everyone in the dungeon who even came near the cell in the last 24 hours, and no one heard or saw anything. I've assembled search parties and they are awaiting your o
rder, sir."
"Send them out immediately, Captain, and be waiting for me at the dungeon entrance as I wish to see this hole for myself." The captain saluted, turned on his heel and hurried out.
"So Jason, how is this possible?" The Baron asked his adviser. "Could magic have been used in the castle walls without you knowing of it?"
Jason had been listening to the exchange attentively and had been considering the question before the baron asked it. Jason Goldsmith had been the baron's adviser for twelve years. He had been a confidant and acquaintance before this baron had come to power. He had risen high in this world for a Halfling and appearing to most people as a human had made it much easier. He had been born with human ears and eyes that gave only a hint of the almond shape. People feared him because he was close to the Baron. They knew he had some magical abilities and even suspected him in the death of the baron’s father. While his magical ability was not strong, his sensitivity to magic and those who could wield it was. That perception, mixed with intelligence and cleverness, had moved him from the half quarters to the castle and made him the second most powerful man in the land. He rose from the table to his full six feet and, twitching his head to remove a strand of hair from his eyes he said, "Baron, I suggest we examine this hole for ourselves before we jump to any conclusions."
The baron swallowed what he'd been chewing and washed it down with wine from the chalice before him. He wiped his hands on a cloth nearby and rose to his feet.
By the time the baron and his adviser reached the dungeon the captain of the guard was standing by the doorway to lead them down. The silence was broken only by the sound of their hard leather shoes on the stone floor and stairs. Though they'd been told there was a three foot wide hole in the wall, seeing it stopped them both in stride. Jason took the lead and walked over to the hole placing his hands first on the edges and then into the sand. When he turned to the Baron, his face was as passive and unreadable as he could manage.
"Baron, this is the work of powerful magic. I've never sensed anything like it before. I know of but one spell that could accomplish this and it would take at least a half a dozen powerful magicians several days to do and they would have to have been no farther away than the other side of the moat. Since there have been no reports of such a gathering, something new has come into play."
"What do you mean something new?" The Baron asked.
"Exactly that. There is no way this could be done by any means I've ever heard of. No one could do this without me feeling it. No one could do this at all, but even as he said the words, the Baron's adviser felt a tiny feather of a memory begin to tickle the back of his mind.
Lissette paused for another bite and sip of water and saw her audience leaning forward waiting for her to continue.
“The initial scouts found where Barton and Daniel left the moat and headed to the city. Following their trail was easy until they had quit dripping. Even so it was clear they had disappeared into the town. The report back to the captain of the guard told him as much and suggested that the men could still be in the city, but the scouts recommended that they continue searching the outskirts to see if they could pick up the trail. The captain sent them and two more scouts to search the perimeter of the city and report back with anything they found. In the meantime, he assembled all but the barest cohort of guards kept at the castle. Divided into squads of five the guards were sent into the city and told to search everywhere and in every building and every cellar.
I had been breaking fast in my quarters when I heard the footsteps running in the hall outside my door. Through the windows I could hear guards scrambling and gathering in the courtyard, so I sent my maid to find out what was afoot. By the time the maid reported back that prisoners had escaped, I had changed into riding clothes, and had determined to execute my desperate plan. My position as a guest at the castle was in name only. My maid always accompanied me unless I went riding, and then usually I was accompanied by a castle guard. But with all this turmoil, I thought this might be my chance to escape.
The maid thought nothing of my determination to take some air. She was eager to be relieved of her watchdog duties, for the rumor mill and gossip in the castle was too rich to ignore. I moved with the well-practiced outer calm of court, from my rooms to the stables, and ordered my horse saddled. When the groomsmen looked at me with concern, and looked to the guards standing by, I understood immediately. ‘Never you mind, Bob,’ I said as kindly as I could, ‘my escort isn't ready yet so please take care of these good guardsmen first and I will wait.’ I smiled and allowed Bob to relax, relieved of the conflict of priorities. Who came first, five guardsmen in a hurry or the Baron's Lady, was a decision he was not prepared to make. Either way could be wrong and with so much going on, wrong could be fatal.
With the guardsmen taken care of and away, he quickly saddled my mare and helped me onto the horse. Just as I settled into the saddle, five more guards came in and I saw my opportunity.
‘Take care of the guards, Bob, I'll wait for my escort in the courtyard out of everyone's way and let you get back to your business.’ Bob smiled at me in appreciation and turned his attention back to the guards. I walked the horse into the confusion of the courtyard and watched. As fast as they could be put on horses and given instructions the guardsmen were galloping off toward the city. In the span between one group riding off and the next getting saddled up, I walked the horse under the portcullis and across the drawbridge. Once the horse’s hooves hit turf on the far side of the moat I eased into a cantor.
My heart was beating a mile a minute. I was afraid to look back at the castle for fear that somehow looking back would cause them to notice me. A ridiculous idea but there was no point pushing my luck just in case. I rode south toward the tournament grounds at a normal pace feeling like everything was in slow motion. Once clear of the city, I turned more westerly headed for the only haven I knew.”
Lissette took another sip and a deep breath. "So gentlemen, you have stirred a hornet's nest and I am not the only one curious as to how you made your escape."
TWELVE
Her story had not surprised Barton; he and Basil had anticipated such a reaction from the Baron. So the four sat in a circle facing one another, and the horses grazed in the background.
Barton broke the silence before the first thread of awkwardness could spin itself into their awareness. "I imagine it will take the most part of the day to search the city, and the scouts will have at least six trails to follow. It is my intent that we should wait here until dusk before we continue deeper into the woods. Lady Lissette you are welcome to remain here or join us and I suggest you reserve your decision until we answer your question regarding the escape."
“Six trails?” Her question carried a hint of understanding even as she asked it.
“A little help from Basil,” he replied, “since the Baron only trusts his own men for the scouting parties, and even many of them can be bought to misread signs, it will be past dark before he is full aware of our direction. On the other hand, if his scouts are also looking for you, he may guess the woods as your destination and we may stumble into them. So I believe dusk is plenty early to leave.”
Daniel rubbed an earlobe as he watched Barton. It seemed to him they had gone from telling no one to telling everyone and he wasn't sure he understood Barton's change in attitude. Barton saw the reaction and anticipated Daniel's question.
"Daniel, Lissette is similar to Alan in that she, too, is a halfling. In this case, her father, Aethelfrith, was a human noble and her mother an elf. I believe the Lady has some magical abilities and those and her nobility, are part of the reason the Baron wished to make her his." Barton smiled at the Lady and said, "As if her beauty would not have been enough."
"Barton, your complements should be saved for a more appreciative audience,” she replied with a hint of a smile. “I am sorry to have added danger to your flight,” she said sincerely, and with a small sigh continued, “There is no nee
d to refer to me as ‘the Lady’. It appears fate has brought us together and until each of us is in a position to go our separate ways, I will believe in safety in numbers. But," she said smiling, "you still haven't answered my question."
As Barton began to spin the tale, her face remained mostly unreadable with, Daniel noticed, the occasional twitch around her eyes or her mouth as she stifled her desire to comment or question before the tale was finished. When Barton concluded his reprisal of the events Lissette stared at him for a moment and then at Alan who gave only the slightest shrug, and then turning more she asked, "So, Daniel, is this true?"
Daniel looked at all three and then met Lissette's eyes. "Everything Barton has told you happened pretty much the way he described it. For my part, I have no idea what's going on but it seems that since I arrived here I can do things I never did before." Daniel found himself in a quandary. Part of him was afraid not to point out that he was probably in a coma, but another part of him was getting tired of explaining it, and Lissette seemed to be becoming a little more beautiful every time he looked at her. Her presence, and even more her eyes, were muddling his thinking even more.
Elves- the Book of Daniel Page 11
