by Jem I Kelley
“Kesskran must have stolen these from Haverland,” he said.
“That or he’s discovered his own cache”
Aden said: “Let’s not forget why we’re here. Perhaps the ledger is in one of the chests.”
He tried the room key in the lock of the massive chest. The key didn’t fit. The small chest didn’t have a key hole at all, and Aden couldn’t fathom how it would open. He stood, and his gaze rested on the shelf above the chests. There were various tomes piled here, leather bound and dusty. Except for one, the one on the top, that one wasn’t dusty. Aden realised then that perhaps he stared at what he sought.
Lifting the ledger from the shelf, Aden stared at the thing, then rifled through its pages. It was a diary, though the language was unknown to him. He felt sure this was the ledger Savernake wanted. Aden stuffed the object under his prison shirt, and tucked the shirt into his trousers. A sense of exhilaration filled him. They’d got what they came for, and no-one had spotted them.
“I think we’d better go now.”
Bliss followed him from the room and Aden noticed his friend carried the artefact she’d lifted from the pile. “You’re not taking that?”
Bliss nodded. “Why not? We got two years in jail after being framed for a crime we didn't do. The Dazarian’s owe us. One of these might help us pay back Grimus Spalding for the loss of his jewels.”
A sense of alarm ran through Aden. “It’ll get us killed if the prison guards search us and find it.”
Bliss blinked. “True. I’ll take it back.”
She turned and placed it back in the box.
Aden stared at the box, his mind whirring.
“Tanest will be away until days after we’re released according to Savernake. So no-one’s going to discover any of the artefacts are missing in the meantime. They’re small too, dead easy to hide. You know, you’re right, they could help us pay back Grimus for what we’ve lost him.”
Bliss scrunched up her pretty face and spread her arms wide, “I wish you’d make your mind up.” She went to the pile of discs, picked two up and gave one to Aden. “One each,” she said. Then she paused and stared at Tanest’s bureau. She took a stick of charcoal from there and wrote in big letters in a spare patch of wall in the secret room.
‘Bliss was here.’
She replaced the charcoal, pulled the bookcase back into place over the secret tunnel and room, and gave Aden a crooked smile.
“When Tanest comes back next week, and sees that writing, and learns we’ve left the prison and that two artefacts are missing too, he’s going to be a real mad bunny.”
Leaving the room and returning to the compound was straightforward. For one thing Mareek wasn’t smoking a cigar beneath them, and for another going down was easier than climbing. When they reached the baked earth of the compound again, Aden bound the ledger with a piece of cloth Savernake had given him. He then lowered it through a set of bars at the base of the prison block, which opened down onto the cellar.
Chapter 7: A Discussion about the Chamber
The hours dragged as they waited for the chance to talk to Savernake about the secret room, the ledger and the artefacts. They volunteered to fetch the laundry regularly so as to get the opportunity to see their friend; but, Mareek chose other chores for them to complete instead.
He had them mop the corridor of the top floor of the building. Goblin prisoners dominated this wing; not the tame ones of Savernake’s laundry either. They spat at the children and insulted them.
Then Mareek had them wash the dishes in the dining hall. Wooden bowls and platters piled nearly to the ceiling, covered with the rank stains, to be scrubbed and dried.
On the third day after they’d stolen the diary ledger Mareek ordered the children to take the slops from the goblin’s wing to the refuse pit. The buckets brimmed with excrement and the contents spilt at every lurch, forcing the children to pause and mop the mess.
By the fourth day both children were miserable. This was the most intense week of chores they’d ever had at the prison yet still they’d not been given the laundry task again. Aden was exhausted, and he felt the odds of ever meeting Savernake before the day of their release, was slipping away.
When Mareek finally ordered them to the basement to fetch laundry Aden had to ask himself whether the request was real, or he’d slipped into a slumber and was dreaming. He pinched himself. The request was real and Mareek glowered at them from his toad-like face.
Aden felt his tiredness drain away as the prospect of discussing the ledger with Savernake grew in his thoughts. He hadn’t felt so excited since he’d won the sack race in the Haverland summer fair three years back and had been given a pewter trophy before an audience of hundreds.
The children left their cell, and headed for the laundry.
As Savernake spotted them he led them to his office. Aden thought the man looked subdued considering the children’s success.
“Thank you for the ledger,” he said, as all three sat. “Did you have any trouble obtaining it?”
Bliss didn’t hesitate. “Yeah we did. For a start we didn’t think we’d even get an opportunity to reach the chamber. Then when we finally did get a sniff, we managed to climb halfway up the drain-gully only for Mareek to stick his head out of the guards mess and puff a cigar. If he’d stayed there any longer either Aden or I would have landed on him.”
Savernake’s frowned and bit his lip. “You’re both brave, I hope you realise that? You’re very brave indeed. I take it the key was no problem?”
Aden shook his head and withdrew it from his pocket. He rattled it across the table to Savernake. “It worked fine.”
Savernake took the key, worked the catch in the table to release the secret compartment, dropped the key in, and pushed the compartment back.
“You didn’t tell us how weird Tanest’s chamber is,” said Aden. “The door handle almost took my skin off.”
Savernake’s eyes narrowed. “I beg your pardon?”
“It was freezing.”
Savernake stared at them as if they were mad. “The handle was normal when I last visited Tanest.”
“Was the room chilly?”
Savernake shook his head. “No. There is something of the occult in the governor’s taste in room design, I’ll give you that. Unnatural chills, I’m not familiar with.”
Bliss made a sign in the air as if to ward off dark spirits. “Well trust us, it's chilly and creepy now.”
Savernake’s brow furrowed with concern. “I’ve heard no accounts of wizardry in Dazarian, which one would expect would be required to make coldness.”
He looked closely at the children. “Are you sure you didn’t imagine this cold? Fear can do strange things.”
Bliss rolled her eyes and shuffled in her chair. “It wasn’t fear, Mr Savernake. Another thing, we saw the urn we’d heard Tanest talk about.”
“What colour was it?”
“It was browny-red, like the colour of garden pots. The runes were black as if they’d been painted on.”
Savernake sat back in his seat, face clouded in thought. He looked from Bliss to Aden, who nodded to confirm what his friend had said. Aden thought of mentioning the sense of evil he felt from the object. He decided not too as Savernake was already dubious of their account of the chill in the room.
“I feel the mystery of the urn is central to all this,” murmured Savernake to himself.
Bliss said. “The lid was off.”
Savernake blinked. “They broke the seal!”
“They must have done.”
“Damnation to us all! God knows what they might have released. I don’t suppose you saw anything inside the thing?”
“No,” said Aden. “The inside was clean, no sign of a monster or anything.”
“Any clues around the rest of Tanest’s chamber about what the urn might have contained?”
“Not a sausage,” said Bliss
“Nope,” said Aden feeling a shiver run down his back. Just wh
at did Savernake think might have been there?
Savernake ran his hand down his face, clearly troubled by the children’s news. “A conspiracy against Haverland is in progress. From your account of the conversation you overheard between this Savernake and Tanest, a few days previous, I am sure the urn is central to it all. I wish I understood in what way.”
He sat in silent thought and then looked at the children with a heavy stare.
“I have extra news for you two - too. I have learned that the new prison aviary isn’t due to Tanest’s interest in ornithology. The birds he has there lay eggs whose shells can be crushed to provide a drug called Yeccozin. I understand your imprisonment here was because somebody not only robbed you of the fire-stones you brought to the country, but that they also placed Yeccozin on you, effectively framing you?”
Aden felt a surge of anger. “And now they're making drug here? You’re kidding me?”
Savernake produced a metal snuff box from his pocket. He placed the box on the table and flipped open the lid. Inside the box nestled a quantity of fine yellow powder.
“I’ve managed to obtain this sample. Innocent looking stuff isn’t it? One good snort though, and you’ll be seeing very strange things.”
Savernake held the friends eyes. “Never experiment with anything like this. Don’t even be tempted. It’ll rot your brain from the inside out.”
Bliss thumped the table and cursed. “When we were on the drainpipe, going to Tanest’s chamber, Mareek spoke about Yeccozin. I forgot about it since then because I was worried about being caught. But he definitely mentioned the word Yeccozin.”
“Not only is it made here now,” said Savernake closing the lid of the snuff box and putting it back in his pocket, “but I've learned Tanest is trying to breed a bird capable of producing greater quantities than ever. Perhaps the drug is also central to the plot against Haverland.”
“Have you learnt anything from the diary ledger that we dropped down to you the other day?” asked Aden.
Savernake sighed and momentarily looked ancient before he caught Aden staring at him. Aden wasn’t sure just what age Mr Savernake was, but he guessed he was pretty old, maybe somewhere in his fifties. For a moment the man looked much older, it was as if the lines in his face deepened. Then the strength returned to his features, he pointed to a row of fat candles which lay on a shelf behind Bliss’s head. The candles were the width of a young tree trunk and the colour of muddied snow.
“I’ve learnt much from the diary. We’ll need more light to read its text. Bliss, light one of those candles from the torch at the foot of the staircase, and then return here.”
Bliss left the room, candle in hand and as they waited for her return Aden’s excitement at what the diary contained – grew.
Chapter 8: The Secrets of the Diary Ledger
Savernake went to the cabinet at the end of his office. With a grunt he slid the cabinet to one side. Then he kneeled and pulled a slab from the floor, revealing a hole from which he withdrew the ledger.
Bliss returned and lowered the now lit candle.
“Light the others and bring them close,” said Savernake laying the ledger on the table. “The writing in this is faint.”
The children arranged the other seven fat candles about the tome, igniting each.
“How did you make these?” asked Bliss as seven flames flickered like dancing sprites. “It would take a fair few beehives to get this much wax. I’d know because we used to have a hive on our roof garden, then granddad sold it because he kept getting stung.”
Savernake rested his hand on the cover of the ledger. Against the candle light his mass of white hair glowed.
“Candles are made from wax, yes Bliss, but not necessarily beeswax. You wouldn’t want to know how I made them.”
Savernake eased the cover of the ledger back to reveal the pages within as Bliss pulled a disgusted face. Aden stared at the faint strokes of ink on the paper before him and understood why Savernake had needed more light.
Savernake cleared his throat and moved a finger down the text.
“Not only is the writing faint, but you can note the letters are poorly crafted and hard to decipher. When one recognises enough, some of the words become known, like the word ‘shelter’. Other words on first impression appear meaningless, like ‘Pyrron’. One must then align such terms with those around them to gain understanding. Pyrron, I believe is the same as our word, Pyre. This suggests the language Tanest writes here with has the same root as ours.”
Savernake took his hands from the ledger and placed each flat on the table before him. They were wrinkled hands and Aden noticed the veins stood out like cords. Savernake pursed his lips and chose his next words carefully.
“The necessity of translation means I have read but half the pages. However, a preview of the final page leads me to a grim conclusion. The ledger is finished and the events described there, as best I believe, happened five years previous. It is not the current diary of Tanest, but an historic one.”
“Groks teeth!” said Bliss. “We went through all that and now you tell us it’s an old ledger? It won’t tell us how the Dazarian’s are going to attack Haverland?”
Aden stared at the ledger in stunned silence. The ledger was an old one? His thoughts raced as he considered ways he might be able to make another trip to the chamber and fetch the right ledger. With noon tomorrow the date due for the children’s release from prison, the chances of another trip now were slim. “It was the only ledger I saw,” he muttered.
A sense of being stupid overwhelmed him. Had there been another ledger, which he’d overlooked because he’d got caught up in the euphoria of finding the one before him? He tried to recall both Tanest’s chamber proper, and the secret room. No, he was sure this had been the only one.
Savernake spread his hands wide and sighed.
“A man who uses a diary would wish to record what happens to him in the present. Tanest would take his current ledger with him on his journey to the East, wouldn’t he? I should have as anticipated this before asking you to risk your lives to enter his chamber. A current ledger would never be there if the man himself was journeying. I’m sorry, I failed you.”
Savernake’s expression slipped, leaving him looking again old and saddened, and Aden realised how much guilt he felt. Then Savernake’s face firmed with resolution and he raised his eyes to both children.
“No matter, even an historic ledger has a value in its own right. It speaks of Tanest’s and Lord Kesskran’s past. What I have learned in here almost makes my stupidity in asking you to enter Tanest’s room worthwhile. Alongside your observations of the urn and the cold door handle, we have a mystery.”
“In what way?” asked Aden, intrigued.
Savernake sat back and composed his thoughts.
“I try to preserve an open mind. Let me explain what the ledger tells us.
“It begins with comments that they are in no immediate danger because there is food and water in plenty. They, of course, are Tanest, Kesskran and others that number about fifty. Following entries suggest supplies will expire in time and that they should learn to adapt to their surroundings.”
Savernake opened the ledger and carefully turned pages cracked with age. He found a portion of text on the fifth page. “Here is one important entry….” He moved his finger to a line a third of the way down; “And some of these words I speak now, I have guessed at. ‘Yet such abandonment as this is causal to a fate of continuous imprisonment if we cannot contrive transport away. Sails are sighted in the distance and our purpose will be to build a web to attract the flutter of such canvas. A line of pyres will be our first aim…’”
Savernake removed his finger from the writing and in the flickering light of the candles, his jaw firmed.
“At the beginning Kesskran, Tanest and others become abandoned on an island. By whom and how, I cannot guess. Prisoners of war might have been their lot, perhaps escaping from a gaolers’ ship when it crashed on unchart
ed rocks. Or the island was itself a prison and forces of unknown design deposited them on it. Having examined half of this ledger, I know their sojourn on the island lasted ten years. On the summer of the tenth year they lured a cargo ship from its route; they forced the crew to serve them and set sail. This is as much as I know, and I hope to learn much more.”
Aden considered Mr Savernake’s words; they were as heady as the candle smoke which wreathed around the three. If Kesskran had once been imprisoned on an isle, how had this occurred? And how did he now come to be Lord of Dazarian, a country of millions?
“You said the other day that Dazarian used to be a country of scattered emirates until Kesskran invaded?”
Savernake closed the ledger and sat back in his chair.
“I did. That was indeed the case. What I must judge is how his fortunes swelled from a cargo ship, to winning manpower fit to win this country by force of arms. There is something unusual about Kresskan, Tanest and their allies.”
Chapter 9 – Goodbyes
“Whatever you discover from your research with the diary ledger, I expect we will have been released by time you find out,” said Aden. “Will you return to Haverland with what you learn when you are freed?”
Savernake’s eyes clouded and the lines about his eyes deepened.
“I will let Haverland know of my discoveries. I’m afraid returning there will be difficult… and please, I don’t wish to go into such a tale of explanation now.”
Bliss snaked a hand under her prison uniform and brought forth an artefact from where it had been wrapped about her with cloth.
“We found these in Tanest’s chamber too.”
Savernake’s expression flicked from painful memories to that of sharp attention. He leaned forward, his eyes glittering as he stared at the circular artefact.
