Gryffon was sitting on his throne and a man stood next to him, speaking into his ear. Layna strolled closer, forcing herself not to run. As she drew near, she recognized the man as Charles. He had traveled with her and Gryffon during their adventures and she felt a closeness to him, though since she and Gryffon had ascended to the throne, he had chosen not to keep their company. Layna understood that it wasn’t their company itself that he avoided, but rather everything else that came along with it. She oftentimes wished she could go back to being just a maid and not have her every move watched and dissected by thousands of prying eyes as well.
He now ran a children’s home for the displaced youth from King Nathair’s reign. Last she’d seen him was during the brief time she’d spent in the ruins of Hardonia with Natalya. He had brought a group of his charges to help with its rebuilding. She hadn’t realized that he’d returned already.
“Charles,” she exclaimed happily, shifting Phoenix on her hip so that she could embrace the old man.
He returned the hug with gusto, but wore a serious expression. “Layna,” he greeted her in his gruff voice, “It’s been too long.”
“Indeed,” she replied, stepping back to look him in the face, “But I don’t think that you’ve come just for a social call.”
“No, unfortunately not. I was just tellin’ Gryffon here - sorry - His Majesty,” Charles corrected himself but both Gryffon and Layna waved off the formality, “That I came across somethin’ very disturbin’ out in the woods.”
He took a deep breath, steeling himself to continue. Layna’s worry grew; Charles had been the one who had told stories of woodland nymphs, dire bears, and all manner of other beasts in the woods. What had him shaken so?
“I missed a rabbit,” he began and Layna waited patiently, “but somethin’ else got it. An’ that somethin’ else was like nothin’ I could ever of imagined. It had the body of a man, but horribly disfigured. It was oozin’ pus from sores on every inch of its body, its fingernails had grown into long claw-like appendages,” he hooked his hand in threatening motions and raked at the air, “and worst of all, its eyes were bloody bright red.” He gulped. “It caught the rabbit with its bare hands and was gnawin’ it apart, eatin’ the little beastie alive while the poor thing was screamin’ like you woren’t believe.”
“Some kind of sickness?” Layna asked, her forehead creasing in worry. They certainly didn’t need an outbreak on their hands as well as everything else.
“I don’ know. But you can take a looksee for yourself.” He stood up straight, looking proud. “It attacked me but I was able to subdue it and bring it in for you to look at. I thought it’d be somethin’ worth your while to check into.”
“It certainly sounds that way,” Layna acknowledged, laying a hand on his upper arm. “Thank you.”
“It’s quarantined in the old dungeon where the healers and mages are taking a look at it,” Gryffon reported. He glanced down at Phoenix and added, “And they also looked Charles over and assure me that he’s not carrying any sort of infectious contagion, or else they wouldn’t have let him in here.”
“Do you think this is something connected to Telvani?” Layna asked, directing the query to Gryffon.
He shrugged. “We know he was working on something, but this? What purpose would it have? Creating a plague to kill off the people he wanted to control? It doesn’t quite sound like him.” He looked thoughtful. “Although it does have the stink of blood-magic about it, so I wouldn’t rule his involvement out just yet either.”
“Perhaps it is just some new illness,” Layna suggested hopefully. If it was to be between a sickness and blood-magic, she’d take sickness.
“Can we see it now?” Gryffon looked past Layna and Charles towards where one of the royal mages was standing. The man nodded and started moving towards the door. Gryffon looked at Phoenix worriedly. “Just in case, maybe we should leave the baby up here.”
Layna nodded. She hated to be parted from the babe for even a moment, but it would probably be better than bringing her to see a monster.
They left Phoenix with Amelia back at the nursery and the three of them followed the train of guards towards the dungeon. The old dungeon was the section which Layna had termed too unfit to house prisoners, and she felt a twinge of guilt that anything should have been put in here. When she set eyes upon the beast, however, her guilt evaporated. It was the most grotesque and frightening countenance she had ever laid eyes upon.
It paced back and forth in the cell, glowering out at them with its red eyes, snarling every now and again. Layna probed it gently with her magesight, automatically connecting to Gryffon’s power. Its aura was a mixture of red and black, the poison in its blood pumped around through its veins with every heartbeat. But there was no discernible point of infection, no clue as to what exactly was causing it. There was a definite feel of magic about it, but again, nothing that would explain what had happened to it.
One of the guards suddenly gasped and put a hand over his mouth, nearly losing the contents of his stomach. All eyes flew to him. When he had regained control of himself, he spoke. “I know who that is,” he said softly, swallowing hard.
“Well, who is it?” Gryffon asked when a few moments had passed with the guard simply staring at the thing in disgust.
“Lord Telvani,” the man replied softly.
“What?” Gryffon exclaimed.
“How do you know?” Layna asked, appalled at the thought. Granted they had just spoken of the possibility of his involvement…but to have it actually be him?
“Either that or it killed Lord Telvani,” the guard amended, and explained, “The amulet around its neck. The lord took to wearing it all the time the last few weeks of his being here. He wouldn’t take the thing off for anything.”
“Lord Telvani,” Gryffon repeated, astonished. He moved slightly closer to the thing and peered in, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to make out some recognizable feature. The creature stopped its pacing and watched him warily, the red eyes following his movements. They had sent search parties out looking for the man after he escaped from the palace, but he hadn’t turned up anywhere in the city or in the surrounding areas that they had looked. It had been as if he disappeared off the face of the planet.
Suddenly it lashed out at him and Gryffon backed up a pace and shrugged. “I can’t tell, but if it is…”
“What in the world did he get himself into?” Layna finished the sentence for him.
*
Natalya patted the horse’s mane underneath the metal faceplate it wore. All the fanfare that came along with riding among the Queen’s Knights of Phoenix was a bit much, but she did understand the importance of making sure that they exuded a strong presence in order to allay any fears that the people may still have about the snakes in the government. It appeared that her own hometown, Hardonia, had been the only one where Lord Telvani had the chance to use his Faithful among the Knights to perform heinous deeds in the name of the Queen. So luckily their reputation was not tarnished too badly. The same could not be said for Natalya’s heart.
The Queen had felt horrible that Lord Telvani had ordered the massacre of every person within the walls of her hometown to cover up Lord Morven’s boasting. Rather than quietly snatch the talented in the night as he had been ordered to do, the lord had found it amusing to announce during the festival that he would be taking the girl – Natalya’s younger sister, Alina. This is what had prompted Natalya to leave the town to go after her, which had ironically saved her own life. She had been convinced that if she could just get to the Queen and tell her what had happened, everything would be alright.
Only she had gotten entangled in an elaborate plot against the King and Queen and had needed to travel with her companion, Hunter, to the tribe to the north who they discovered had been responsible for the attack. Once they returned the baby, the monarchs were able to break out of the spell that held them, and Natalya’s optimism had been returned.
That was when
she had found out about the slaughtering of her townspeople, her parents included. Though she had made peace with the tragedy, her heart still felt as though it had a huge hole, and the search for her sister had really only just begun. Contrary to Natalya’s hope that all would be well as soon as she had an audience with The Queen, the woman had not known about Telvani’s collection of the talented, and therefore did not know where her sister had been sent. But she had put together a special group of her Knights, and put Natalya in ‘charge’ of them for the explicit purpose of finding these missing people and rounding up the last of the people once in the Order.
She found her mind wandering towards other directions, not wanting to think too hard about Alina and end up upsetting herself in front of the Knights. She wondered what Hunter was up to. She had grown accustomed to traveling with him and had hoped that he would have chosen to accompany her on the rest of her quest. Unfortunately, he had decided that he had to go back and rescue the mysterious woman who had given them the means to escape with the baby. I don’t know why he cares about some faceless woman in prison, she thought bitterly, and immediately felt ashamed. Just because she was jealous that someone else would get to enjoy his company…But why did she care, anyway? She was still mad at him for keeping the secret of Hardonia. He had known all along what had gone on there and had chosen not to share it with her.
Natalya reined in her horse and pulled out a rolled up map from the saddlebag. The Knights closed in around her, forming a protective circle, and she sighed irritably and tried to ignore them. Unfurling the map against the horse’s neck, she found the point that marked the crossroads they had just passed and she counted the number of finger-lengths until their destination.
The Queen had not been able to tell her where Alina had been taken since Lord Telvani had been carrying out his own secret agendas behind her back, but she had given her a list of possible Order fortresses and she and the Knights were currently checking them all out. So far, they had searched three of them and found only a handful of escaped prisoners, but no signs of kidnapped children. Natalya was beginning to worry. She had been so sure that once she spoke to the Queen, everything would be alright, but that hadn’t been the case. And now, it had been weeks since Alina was taken. Who knew what atrocities had been done to her. The Queen and Lady Katrina had uncovered several documents suggesting that others had been taken from other towns as well, though none of the other towns had been so completely demolished afterwards.
Natalya felt tears welling up in her eyes and she roughly wiped her face with the back of her sleeve. All the Knights were purposefully looking in other directions, and she scowled. Now she knew how the Queen felt, constantly attended. It was rather annoying.
She rolled the map back up and stuffed it unceremoniously into the bag, urging her mount forward. The Knights fell into step around her. One of them, a young man by the name of Jeremy, came to ride next to her.
“Think we’ll find anything interesting at this one?” he asked, a bit too excitedly for her liking. She understood his youthful eagerness, but in light of events that had happened to her, she felt her own enthusiasm wavering. She was content to find nothing interesting but her sister. She tried not to let her mood rub off on him though.
She forced a smile. “I don’t know,” she answered in a light tone, “I thought the last one was pretty interesting. We got to bring two criminals to justice.”
“Yeah,” he agreed in a whining voice, “but they came so peacefully.”
Natalya laughed despite herself. “And you would have preferred them not to?”
“Then I’d get to show you how good I am with my sword,” he grinned at her with a suggestive look. The eyebrow tilt that accompanied this statement was so comically dramatic that she couldn’t help but smile – this time for real.
She shook her head, still smiling. Despite his joking tone with her, he was quite the ladies-man. She had witnessed him sweet-talking several of the maids at more than one of the manors they had stayed at. She was appalled, but impressed, at how often it worked. She was a bit young for him to be seriously pursuing her, but she was not so naïve that she couldn’t still play the game. At the moment, however, she was not in the mood.
“I just hope that we find something to lead us to my sister,” she sighed now, her thoughts swinging back to reality.
“We will,” Jeremy reached over and patted her on the arm. “You’ve got the best group of men riding with you a girl could ask for. We’ll find her.” He gave her a lop-sided grin. After a moment of silence, he dug around in his saddlebags. He lifted something out and handed it to her. “Here,” he offered.
Natalya looked at the item in his outstretched hand. It appeared to be a long necklace of difference colored beads. “What is this?”
“It’s a worry-bracelet; my sister makes them. When you’re worried about something you’re supposed to rub one of the beads and put all your worry into it so that the beads carry around the burden instead of you.” He shrugged, looking a little embarrassed, and quickly glanced around to see if any of the other Knights were within earshot. “I’ve always thought it was a bit hokey myself…” he trailed off, shoving the beads towards her.
She took them with an affectionate smile. “Thank you,” she said sincerely, “that’s very kind of you.”
He smiled; a genuine smile, not one trying to impress a lady. “Here, let me help you.” He took her hand and draped the beads around it three times to make it snug enough on her slender arm. When he had finished adjusting them, they fit nicely; she could wiggle her hand upside-down without them falling off.
She rubbed one of the beads between her fingers and thought of Alina. They would find her. She was sure of it.
When they reached the next manor on their list, they were immediately greeted by a welcoming party at the end of the long drive-way snaking up to the house. Their approach had been detected.
The staff was cordial, and the lord of the manor seemed open in his answers. He seemed to be sincere, in Natalya’ opinion, of having no desire to harbor any such criminals as those they were searching for. He gave them free range of the house.
Natalya followed Jeremy down into the cellar, looking around the room carefully for the signs of secret rooms and trapdoors they had been told to watch for. The first few storerooms yielded nothing, and Natalya followed the Knights tramping back up the stairway.
Halfway up, her foot accidentally clomped down on a step rather harshly, and it made an odd echo. All the Knights immediately stopped their movement and Natalya backed down a step, stamping her foot on the previous one again. It connected with a solid sound. She tapped her foot on the step above it again, the one that had made the odd noise, and was rewarded with a hollow sound. The steps above this one sounded hollow as well.
The Knights swarmed back down the stairs, holding their weapons drawn towards the cowed servants who had led them there, and surrounded the stairwell.
“How does it open?” demanded Jeremy, who had taken it upon himself to be the leader of their group of searchers.
The servants looked around at one another with frightened looks, but no one spoke up. Natalya joined the Knights in searching for the secret handle. Sometimes it was a candle-holder that needed to be pulled, a pressure plate in the wall, or simply a hidden string that needed to be pulled to unlatch something. A few minutes of searching still revealed nothing, and Jeremy turned back to the servants once more.
“Someone is going to tell me how to open this,” he stated, fixing them each with an intense stare and gauging their reactions.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” one stammered from the end of the line.
Jeremy stalked over to the man and stared him down. “How long have you been here?” he asked him.
“Four years, sir,” the man answered.
“Four years,” Jeremy repeated, “and you don’t know that there’s a secret passage underneath these stairs? You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth!” The man looked genuinely convinced of his words.
Something caught Natalya’s eye and she moved forward towards it. She could feel the eyes of Knights and servants alike watching her. The wine rack on the opposite wall held many different varieties of the stuff in seemingly random assortment. But on the bottom row, there were five of the same all right next to one another. She bent down for a better look.
There was a light covering of dust on all of them, all of them but one. Natalya grabbed hold of one of the dusty bottles and tried to pull it out to examine it. It didn’t budge. She tried again, but it was quite firmly attached.
“Those are the lord’s special bottles, you can’t touch them!” the servant who had introduced himself as the valet in charge of the wine said frantically. He seemed to boss around the other servants quite freely, and Natalya could easily imagine how no one else had ever happened upon the secret entrance if he was the one who knew of its existence.
She moved her hand to the one without the dust and gently tugged. It moved a few inches and stopped. For a moment nothing happened, then several of the Knights moved hurriedly out of the way as part of the staircase swung upwards to fold in on itself.
Another staircase, this one leading downwards, was revealed, and the Knights immediately sprang to action. The valet tried to flee, a clear admission of his guilt, but Jeremy grabbed hold of him roughly by the arm, forcing him to stay put. Natalya waited with Jeremy and the servants at the top of the stairs for the other Knights to return. Shouts rang out below and Natalya could see Jeremy fairly twitching to get in on the action.
It wasn’t long, however, before they returned, dragging behind them two unpleasant individuals who glared haughtily around.
“Names?” Natalya asked them, pulling out the list of escaped prisoners to compare their answer to. The glares both whipped around to land on her and she stared coolly back. “Names?” she repeated and the Knight holding the woman, who happened to be closer to Natalya, shook her rather roughly to get her to respond.
Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Page 2
