by Charles Lamb
Alex passed out the refilled water skins and then began preparations for a meal. While he did that, the other three worked at getting themselves settled in for the night, although none actually knew if it was day or night outside.
He wondered if the twins had been able to complete their tasks, or even access the castle itself. He had to rely on their ingenuity and creativity and hope they were ready when the time came. His last thought before retiring was: What I wouldn’t give for a cell phone right now.
----*----
Kelby and Leena were just settling in for the night. The two hadn’t seen each other all day and spent this quiet time catching up. Leena seemed outwardly pleased at Kelby’s new status, and that it had given her the ability to access those areas of the castle previously unavailable to them.
Privately, Kelby could see the jealousy that always seemed to come between the two. It was that same jealousy that had driven Leena to come to Nyland in the first place. Leena had been very successful in placing the packages she was responsible for, but seemed to be selling herself short.
With only one task remaining for the twins, they agreed on a plan of action for the early morning, and bid each other a good night.
----*----
Alex awoke from a less than restful sleep, opening his eyes to complete darkness. They had extinguished the torches before retiring, and he hesitated to relight them for fear of waking the others. Gently, he reached out with his senses, trying to feel each of his companion’s state.
Cassie was closest and he was happy to find her resting peacefully. He suspected that the healing potion Abrianna had given her just before they all retired contained a sleep aid as well. Then again, he had always heard that sleep was the best medicine.
Moving to Abrianna, he suddenly felt her presence reaching out to him. Confirming that she was also awake, he projected what he hoped was warm, caring feelings before moving to Leander.
His friend was still asleep, but from the tension still in his body; Alex guessed he was not in a relaxing sleep. Projecting a calmness into the man’s dreams, Alex could feel him begin to relax and he heard Abrianna start to move about in the darkness.
Alex assumed she was using her own senses as she maneuvered herself past the two sleeping forms and settled down near Alex in the darkness.
“I felt you,” she declared in a hushed voice. “You are developing a very sophisticated touch,” she added, a tinge of pride in her tone.
“And I sensed your hand in Cassie’s slumber. Sleeping potion?” he replied with his own tinge of humor.
“Perhaps,” she replied with some humor of her own.
“Can you sense the dragon?” she asked after a moment.
“No, not yet. I have reached out a couple of time, but so far I just see a maze of tunnels,” Alex replied, a bit frustrated.
“Do you think the mermaids are ready?” she asked, changing the subject.
“I have to believe so. Kelby may be a hardheaded troublemaker, but I doubt she takes failure lightly. If we pull this off, she gets the revenge she is looking for,” Alex replied thoughtfully.
“Someone want to light a torch?” Alex heard from a half-awake Cassie.
Without a thought, Alex fired up both while he moved to check on her. With a watchful Abrianna at his shoulder, he infused more healing energy into her leg, pretending to check her bandages. With an exchange of glances, he passed the limb over to Abrianna for final inspection.
“I think we can take these off,” she commented absently as she started to remove the cloth wrap. Once she was finished, Abrianna had her test it while standing and walking in a circle.
“Good as new! Thanks Brie!” Cassie declared as she hugged her cousin.
“Great, now you can carry your own stuff!’ Alex added as he hugged his fiancée.
With not more than a light meal, the four packed their things and started the search for the dragon’s lair and Lady Amelia.
----*----
Alex could sense the dragon’s lair just beyond the run in the tunnel. They had been searching the tunnels for several hours, eventually going up several levels in the mountain with Gundor Stronghold atop it. He had them extinguish the torches to prevent any telltale glow they might provide. He had to silence Kinsey as the wolf continued a low growl at the scent he was sure she had picked up from ahead of them.
With everyone in check, he guided the party forward in the darkness, assuming Abrianna was using her senses, as was he, to move them forward. As he approached where the tunnel gave way to the dragon’s lair, he could see light ahead.
Stopping and checking to be sure Kinsey was in check, with Cassie holding on to her, he started forward again. Where the tunnel emerged into the lair, all four halted as they came face to face with the slumbering red dragon Alex and Cassie had encountered in the Dragon’s Teeth.
Waving everyone back, out of view, he stopped out of sight of the dragon and prepared to use his senses once more. Just before he closed his eyes, he could see Abrianna had already begun her own reconnaissance of the chamber. As he started, he felt the others’ eyes on him.
Alex let his mind wander back into the room, where he felt the overwhelming presence of the sleeping dragon.
“She’s in the pit,” he heard Abrianna whisper.
Trying to take in the entire chamber quickly, he found the pit Abrianna referenced, and inside, at the bottom he sensed Cassie’s mom, Amelia. He could tell she was awake, and reading something in the dim light. Returning his attention back to the dragon, Alex let his senses roam over the creature.
As he was doing so, Alex felt Cassie’s movement and he followed her as she crept to the entrance to the chamber. He was sure she was looking for the pit Abrianna mentioned. Alex knew the hole was not visible from her vantage as the dragon blocked their view, but dared not speak for fear of waking the dragon.
Moving his senses back to the dragon, he was much more confident now than the first time he had encountered the beast. Ben had spent a considerable amount of time and effort on preparing him for this moment. Alex was awash with emotion as he absorbed all he could from the dragon’s presence. It was an impression of something very old and very angry.
He next tried to reach into the dragon’s mind as Ben had tried to teach him. If he could influence the beast’s thoughts, he might be able to manipulate its actions. What he found both surprised and shocked him.
“Alex, it’s awake,” he heard from Cassie as he sensed the dragon’s detection of his attempts.
“Come here!” Alex heard in his mind. Acknowledging the jig was up, he opened his eyes, and with Leander and Abrianna following, he passed Cassie and entered the chamber, while motioning for her to stay put.
“What are you doing?” Cassie hissed as he passed her and walked over to face the dragon.
“He’s talking to the dragon,” Abrianna answered for him as she stopped Cassie from following. Alex stopped and turned, again motioning for them to stay where they were. He then turned back to face the Red Dragon that it lay before him, only now its eyes were open and fixed on him.
“Why are you here?” Alex heard the dragon ask, but not with his ears. He rationalized they were in some sort of telepathic conversation. Ben had indicated that those who could speak to dragons did so without another being able to hear them. From Abrianna’s comment to Cassie, she suspected she had been able to catch the dragon’s side of things.
“You have a hostage, a woman in the pit there. We would like to take her home,” Alex projected into the dragon’s mind.
“She is my charge. If I protect her, my eggs stay safe,” the dragon replied without moving.
Things had moved so fast the last time that Alex had seen the dragon that he didn’t have an opportunity to really assess the size of the beast. It was huge! The head was twice the size of the Lindworms they had battled in the tunnels, and the body bigger than a bus.
Alex couldn’t help but scan the chamber around them, trying to see how the creatu
re had been able to squeeze into this lair. Soon enough he spotted a large opening it the ceiling up and to his left where the dragon must have entered.
“And what if I return your eggs?” Alex asked finally.
With a swiftness he didn’t think possible for such a large creature, he suddenly found himself nose to nose with the dragon. He heard both Abrianna and Cassie gasp as he waved a charging Leander back.
“You can return them, undamaged?” the dragon asked as it hissed a heated breath out both nostrils. Standing now, the dragon’s back traveled half the height of the chamber and its long neck craned down so its head remained at Alex’s level.
“If I do, you will release the Lady unharmed, take them and leave?”
“I have not seen them in over 200 years, but will know them on sight. Do not pretend you can deceive me,” the dragon hissed in his head while exhausting more smoke from its mouth and nose.
“You haven’t answered my question,” Alex repeated, sounding far braver than he was feeling.
“You have a bargain, Wizard. Yes, I recognize you from the Dragon’s Teeth. You bring me my eggs and the woman is yours.”
“And what will you do with your eggs?” Alex asked, almost as an afterthought. He stood before the dragon for several seconds before it finally replied.
“Fear not, Wizard. If you return my eggs, I will take them and leave. It is obvious you have much to learn about dragons, but know we are good to our word. The time of dragons has not yet returned. I fear the elves have much more meddling to do before we can return to the realms,” the dragon finished.
Alex wasn’t entirely relieved by the reply; it sounded more like a warning.
Chapter 26
Kelby and Leena rose early, before most of the other staff, and began the search for the dragon’s eggs. They had been able to complete all the other tasks Alex had outlined for them but this. In part, they had been prohibited from accessing the parts of the castle that Tantalus called home. In reality, they had hoped to come across the eggs’ location while performing their other activities.
Leena had been the one to discover the means of reaching the floors Tantalus occupied without detection. Kelby had attempted accessing the rooms there several times via the hallways, only to run afoul of the Tantalus guards posted there. Even with her flirt turned on high, the men feared death more than they desired her.
To complicate matters, there was a dedicated staff on the levels Tantalus used as his residence, and they were not allowed to leave at night. They were only rotated out on a weekly basis, and that was still days away. The Master of House Drakon was always present to inspect new servants to ensure none was of concern to his personal safety.
Leena’s discovery of an elevator system used by the kitchen and household staff to deliver food and linens had been a boon. By using the manually operated system, they would be able to secret themselves upstairs before the regular staff arrived for their morning duties.
Part of their mission was to place a few of Alex’s packages in strategic locations there as they had done in the other parts of the castle. Fortunately, these were not as large as some of the others and the two women carried them easily.
Leena led Kelby down through the kitchens to the small room that contained the service elevator. There was a small wooden door covering what amounted to a wooden box suspended by ropes. The two sisters closed themselves in the small room and prepared to lift each other into the upper floors. Both had dressed in common household attire, hoping to blend in with the floor staff should they be seen.
“You crank me up first, and then I can crank you up from there,” Leena explained as she entered the box while pointing to the crank nearby.
The elevator was only large enough for them to go up one at a time anyway, so Kelby agreed Leena should go first while she operated the crank that lifted the box attached to a rope pulley system. There was an indicator by the crank that let the operator know when the box had reached each floor.
Kelby stopped at the floor Leena specified she had been sending things intended for Tantalus, and waited. Once Leena had verified all was clear, she sent the box back down and then operated the crank at her end to elevate her sister.
It was still dark when the two left the small room that housed the elevator. Peering out the doorway, Kelby checked to see if the hallway was clear, and then both sisters exited the room. The hallway lighting was still low with only interspaced candles, since the morning chambermaids had yet to light the wall sconces.
Kelby had hoped this part of the castle resembled the other areas she had explored. She quickly realized that Tantalus had been given the less opulent floors, most probably used by staff and lower-class visitors. The frustration she felt at having to search for their objectives was tempered with the delight she experienced over the slight the Vassal King had paid the Master of House Drakon.
Kelby had no idea what these packages were that Alex had them hiding, but if he hadn’t insisted they were important, she would have skipped the whole thing for a chance at killing Tantalus. The thought of the packages brought her back to the task at hand. The twins had been moving quietly down the passage together when Leena stopped short, pulling her sister to one side.
Down the hall, they could make out two guards, standing to either side of a door on their right. The guards seemed to be half dozing as they used the wall to hold themselves upright. Kelby imagined that the duty must be considered the most mundane assignment deep in the protection of castle walls.
There was only one thing on this floor that warranted a twenty-four-hour guard, and that was the dragon eggs. Leena pointed to the small linen closet, a small half-height chest, opposite the two men and then the package she was holding. Alex had been very explicit in his instructions that none of the packages were to be placed with the eggs, however one should be as close as possible to any guards.
Backtracking, they found another linen closet, as they were spaced along the hallway for easy access by the room occupants. They each pulled out a small stack of folded linens, secreting their package in between. They then turned and brazenly headed down the hallway, to all appearances, chambermaids beginning their morning duties.
As they neared the chest closest to the guards, Leena stopped and opened the top, placing her stack inside, while slipping the package to the bottom where it would remain hidden. Kelby paused, giving the men a shy smile before she turned away, preventing them from getting a good look at her face.
Once Leena was done, the two continued quickly down the hall until they were out of sight of the guards. By now, the morning sun had just started to creep into the castle windows, warning the twins that their time was almost up.
At an intersection in two hallways, they found a large set of double doors; they took this to be Tantalus’s room. Here they placed two packages, one in the linen closet as before and one behind the tapestry hanging next to the doors to the room.
Their work competed; they quickly returned to the elevator room, entering just as the morning staff began to emerge from their rooms to begin their day. Kelby quickly lowered Leena into the kitchens, where she emerged in time to greet the laundry lady delivering clean linens.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you enter,” the woman said, clearly surprised to find Leena already in the room.
“No worries. I just sent a load up. Would you like me to handle that,” she said while pointing to the stack of bedding the woman had in her arms.
“That would be lovely!” the woman replied, knowing it would relieve her of cranking the load upstairs and waiting until someone collected the delivery,
Leena relieved the woman of her load and watched her leave, closing the door behind her. She quickly cranked the bedding upstairs, until the indicator displayed the floor where she knew an impatient Kelby was waiting.
She got a surprisingly quick reply and rapidly cranked her sister down before anyone else appeared to use the device. Kelby exited the box without a word and the two
beat a hasty retreat back to their quarters to change.
“I don’t know what those things are but they better be worth all this trouble!” Leena complained as she finished dressing before heading to the kitchens.
“Alex said they were a game changer, whatever that is. Ok, how do I look?” she said as she turned in front of her sister. With her new duties assisting the Lady of the castle, the woman had insisted that Kelby dress better than the chambermaids. As such, she had been given some discarded clothing from the Lady’s closet… a more honest person would have agreed they were things that were now far too small for her.
“Like a royal whore,” Leena said sarcastically as she left the room.
“Perfect!” Kelby replied with a smile as she headed in the opposite direction.
----*----
“Alex, what was all that?” Cassie asked as he led the group out of the dragon’s lair and back into the tunnels.
“He made a deal with the dragon.” Abrianna replied. With that, Alex stopped the others and turned to face them in the torchlight.
“Yes, rather than try and steal your mom, possibly getting her or us killed, I made a deal,” he replied.
“What kind of deal?” she asked suspiciously.
“We give up her eggs, and she releases your mom,” Alex said simply.
“But we don’t have her eggs,” Cassie replied sarcastically.
“Not yet,” he answered with a smile. He then bent slightly to kiss her cheek before spinning in place and continuing to lead the group out of the tunnels.
The four, plus Kinsey, continued their tour of the tunnels, with Alex stopping every so often, closing his eyes, and searching the way ahead for the path up and out of the mountain. It wasn’t too long before they could all make out a distinct change in the route they were taking.
“Alex, these are masonry walls,” Leander pointed out.
“Yeah, I think we are in the lower dungeons,” he replied cautiously. As if to substantiate his guess, they began to come across wooden doors, set into the walls and bolts drawn shut.
