by James Fuller
“Master Ursa - Talena sent me to find you. She needs to talk with you,” a male servant informed him from the doorway and Ursa excused himself from the never-ending conversation.
Ursa entered Talena’s small room; it had once been a storage closest, but had been set up as a quiet room so the young wizard could rest. She sat on the edge of the army cot, staring at the grey stone floor, and did not even lift her head to look at him when he entered.
“You wish to speak with me?” Ursa asked, closing the door behind him, giving them privacy. He turned back and noticed the wet droplets splattered across the stone beneath her. “Talena, are you all right?”
“I do not know if I can keep doing this,” She cried, trying to stifle her tears.
“What are you referring to?” Ursa asked, wondering if she too was beginning to feel the ill-effects of being confined within the hot, smoke-filled castle.
Talena looked up at him, her eyes rimmed scarlet with tears, “Solmis’ plan,” She whimpered. “I know so much that I cannot tell… so many fates, so many lives, and so much rests within my hands. It is all too much for one person to be in control of.”
Ursa sat down beside her and rested a consoling hand on her back. He could only imagine what she was going through and how it might be affecting her. “I can only imagine what you must be going through, Talena, and I am sure that would only be a fraction of what you truly are. We must believe in Solmis’ plan. He was hardly a man to take matters such as this lightly.”
“What if he was wrong?”
“What if he is not?”
She looked at him, her lips trembling with thoughts and words she wanted to say but could not, “ What if more damage than good comes from all this?”
Ursa chuckled softly as he too had often wondered that very thing when faced with hard decisions. “That is a very well used question, one that no one will ever be able to answer. We have to trust in what we do and the choices we make, be they the right ones or the wrong ones. Sometimes we will never know, but what more can we do?”
Talena sighed in defeat. “They need our help.”
“Who does?” Ursa asked concerned.
Talena swallowed hard, forcing her emotional battle aside. “The Princess and the others - they have been captured by now, they need our help.”
Ursa could feel his face ashen. “What are you telling me?” He managed to get out.
“The only heir to Draco has been captured and she and the others need help or they will die.” Talena explained, her eyes tinted with fear at the anger flaring in Ursa’s eyes. “If she dies, thousands upon thousands will die because of it and the world we know will change…irrevocably.”
Ursa’s lips quivered involuntarily as he suppressed his startled anger. “Where is she?”
“They made it near where Meath has been taken.” Talena replied nervously, fearing the wizard’s retort. Ursa stood, his features hard and bitter. “I am sorry, I am so sorry!” She cried. “I do not want to do this, I cannot do this anymore.”
Ursa’s demeanor was firm. “Get a hold of yourself!” He snapped, not holding back the venom in his words. “We will see this through, no matter how hard it is on any of us,” his tone steely. “Do you understand me?” Talena nodded and wiped the tears from her face. “Now come with me.”
“Ursa, how is the she doing?” Jewel asked, seeing Ursa come around the corner with increasing haste.
“I have to leave the castle!” Ursa bellowed out as he skidded to a stop.
“What?” Lady Jewel replied in shock. “There is no way out, Ursa. You know we are trapped, if there were a way out we would have exploited it already.” Jewel stood from her seat, seeing the urgency in Ursa’s eyes. “What is it? What do you know now?”
“Queen Nicolette is in grave danger and needs help.” Ursa told to her.
“What of the Queen?” Rift bellowed before anyone had a chance to speak. “Where is she; what is a matter?”
“You have our attention, Ursa. What news do you have?” Lady Jewel asked.
“Draco’s only heir has been captured by slavers!” Ursa told them, his mind racing, seeking escape possibilities.
“What!” Rift bellowed out jumping from his seat. “How do you know this? Where is she?”
Jewel turned a stern eye on Talena, who meekly hovered behind Ursa. “I am assuming this, too, is part of Solmis’ grand vision?”
“Unfortunately, it would seem so.” Ursa replied.
“How could you not have told us this earlier?” Jewel demanded angrily, her eyes not leaving Talena. “How could you allow the only heir to our Kingdom fall into this kind of trouble, when you knew full well we might have been able to prevent it!”
“I… I…you do not understand…” Talena stuttered out fearfully.
“What I understand is I see treason in front me!” Jewel hissed out, her temper unchecked. “Do you know what happens to traitors to the throne? I should have my guards skin you alive and hang your body from the wall!”
“Enough!” Ursa ordered sternly, stopping Jewel before she could say anything else and drawing the eyes of everyone in the room.
“You would defend her?” Rift asked bewildered. “Clearly this could have been avoided, had she told us sooner!”
Ursa took a deep breath to steady his own aggravated nerves. “I do not like the situation any more than any of you. My own son has been abducted and, as far as I know, may be lost to me forever. But I know enough of visions to know that if certain aspects do not come to pass, then great and terrible changes may take place. I also must trust in Master Solmis - he was a wise and cautious man and would not have made any of these choices lightly, regardless of the stakes.”
“Queen Nicolette and even Meath can still be saved.” Talena reminded them all.
Jewel scoffed. “I am sure there was, before we were in the middle of a siege!”
“No, no!” Talena protested. “There is still away! There has to be, this is how Solmis told me things would be, that we find a way!”
“There are only two ways out of this,” Jewel hissed. “One involves throwing open our gates and charging out to meet our Creator, and the other has yet to be determined, but likely to the same ending. Even if there was a way to sneak a small group out safely, than what? Once the fires outside die down, the enemy will be at our front steps again and we will need all advantages we have left. Losing two Wizards would be tantamount to signing our lives over to the hordes waiting to...”
Rift began pacing in frustration. “I need to get out of this castle, the Queen needs me.” He muttered.
“Rift, please.” Jewel began.
“NO!” Rift barked back to her. “I have failed my blood-oath twice now not being there to protect her Highness. I will not fail her again!”
“What are you going to do, Rift? Throw open the gate and charge the enemy?” Jewel asked, truly feeling sorry for the man. “To what end, Rift - your death? Ours?”
“Death or redemption are the only two ways to free me from my shame,” Rift explained, his voice nearly flat.
Jewel ran her hands through her graying, smoke greasy hair and sighed. “Look, if there was a safe way out of here that would not put everyone within its walls at risk, or a way to get everyone out, I would consider it, but until such a way is found I am putting an end to this madness. You are all dismissed.”
Frustration fumed in Ursa as he took his leave and headed back towards his room with Talena and Rift in fast pursuit.
“What is the plan now, wizard?” Rift asked bluntly once they had reached Ursa’s room.
Ursa stormed around his room for a moment, deep in thought and noticeably frustrated. He fumbled through papers and objects, not really looking at them; he needed his hands to be doing something while his mind worked through futile possibilities. So much was at stake, so many things set in motion, so many questions unanswered. None could be resolved from where he was now - sacrifices had to be made.
“I know you are sche
ming something and if it has got to do with Nicolette, I demand to be included - she is my responsibility first and foremost!” Rift said seriously.
“I am thinking, damn you!” Ursa barked out through a cough.
“I will go down and get some fresh water,” Talena said and was just about out the door when Ursa stopped her.
“What did you just say?” Ursa asked.
Talena stopped in her tracks, worried she had done something wrong. “I said I would go grab some fresh water for our sore throats,” Talena answered and Ursa’s eyes lit up with possibility.
“What are ye thinkin’ wizard?” Rift said again, knowing that Ursa had a plan in the workings.
“Where do we draw our water from?” Ursa asked, though he already knew.
“From an underground river that feeds into the sea from the northwest,” Rift answered with a raised eyebrow. Ursa smiled.
The trio made their way to the bottom level of the castle, where a group of men pumped water continuously from wells into large basins to be used for all. Since the siege, there were thrice as many people working than normal and still they could not seem to stay ahead of the demand for water.
Ursa grabbed the nearest man and spun him around. He blinked, instantly recognizing the man as the father of the boy he had helped on the way to Dragon’s Cove. The man’s eyes flashed with recognition and stopped working the pump. “Glad to see you made it, how does your son and wife fair?” Ursa asked him.
“It is you! I must thank you again for what ya did for my boy - he is doing much better,” the man stammered out, disbelief plain in his tone. “He would have died without your kind help, sir.”
“I am just glad I could help him.” Ursa said with an earnest smile.
“Well sir, I really do need to get back to work before I get into trouble,” the man replied, looking over his shoulder at a man who was watching them, an annoyed scowl forming on his face.
“Do not worry about that, we need your help,” Ursa told him and the man glanced back over his shoulder again at his overseer, who was starting to make his way over.
“I will once I am off my shift. I really must continue,” the man stammered again nervously, knowing he was already in for a verbal tongue lashing.
“What in blazes is going on here?” The burly man who appeared to be in charge barked out at them. “It is not time for a break, Jed.”
“I am sorry, Trent, I was just…” Jed began to stammer but Ursa cut him off.
“That is none of your concern, unless I deem it your concern!” Ursa snapped at the man.
“Why you son of a…” Trent started but was quickly cut short when he saw the intensity flare in Ursa’s eyes and his posture straightened.
“I would mind your tongue if I were you!” Rift ordered. “Master Ursa does not take kindly to such talk about women,” Rift finished, trying not to laugh at the expression on Trent’s face at the recognition of the name.
Ursa could see the fear and shock on the Jed’s face. “This man is not to blame,” Ursa pointed to the poor farmer. “He was helping in an urgent matter of the Kingdom and possibly all our fates.”
“Yes, yes! I am so sorry for my impudence, Master Ursa! I did not know it was you, for I have never had the pleasure of meeting you before,” Trent stammered out apologetically - that drew a few chuckles from some of the workers who had never seen their foreman startled in this way.
“Well, now you have, and now that you are here I can use your help,” Ursa said, wanting to get to the point of the matter.
“Anything you need, Master Ursa!” Trent replied eagerly to make up for his grave insult.
“How far down do the wells run?” Ursa asked, going over to one of the wells and looking down.
“Well…roughly thirty to forty paces, into an underground cavern. We got pipes running down the wells, deep into the river down there to get the freshest water,” Trent explained. “Why do ye ask?”
“How big is the cavern underneath?” Ursa continued.
The man thought hard for a moment. “Well, I would reckon fifty paces wide and maybe ten high in most places, but that is just from what we have seen - we can only see so far down there.”
“What in the Keeper’s Maze you thinkin’ wizard?” Rift bellowed out, starting to put the pieces together.
“Where is the way down into the cavern?” Ursa asked Trent who now looked at him dumbfounded.
“It is small and tight and your big friend here would barely fit, do not know why ye would wanna go down there, nothing but water either way,” Trent answered.
“I would not expect you to understand. Now…just show me.” Ursa told him eagerly.
The man looked at him suspiciously with a raise eyebrow. “Has this been approved by Lady Jewel?”
“Well of course it has, you fool!” Rift barked, making the man take a step back. “If we need to evacuate the castle, we need to know every option we may have!”
“Through the underground cavern? That would be suicide!” Trent bellowed out. “There is no way out of this castle down there.”
“We have to keep our options open, and just because you cannot see a way does not mean we cannot!” Ursa said, growing more impatient every second.
“All right, follow me then.”
They stood at the end of the tunnel that led down the fifty paces to the underground river, from which Dragon’s Cove drew its water. Trent had not been exaggerating - the tunnel was barely large enough to squeeze Rift through and in some spots they had to pull him though. Once they had reached the end, there was only a small ledge at the opening big enough for them all to stand on; the walls of the cavern were almost perfectly smooth from centuries of erosion. The way heading towards the sea slowly sloped down to where the water touched the roof. In the other direction, the roof was just tall enough for Rift to stand at his full height.
“So, what is your plan?” Talena asked, not seeing anything they could do here.
“I had been hoping for a ledge of some sort.” Ursa replied, his mind racing.
“If we use our Gifts with the help of the other wizards we could shift the cavern wall and make one possibly.” Talena said.
Ursa was already shaking his head before she finished. “It would not work, that kind of shift might cause a cave-in and weaken the ground underneath the castle, causing the whole thing to come down on us - plus, were not going out to sea.” Ursa said, staring off down the cavern towards the east.
“What? That is insane, even for you wizard - we cannot swim upstream. The flow of water is too fast and the undertow would surely suck us under to our watery graves!” Rift said in disbelief.
“It could go for miles before it has an opening out, if it even has one,” Talena put in, totally bewildered by Ursa’s train of thought.
“When we want out, we make an opening.” Ursa replied without missing a beat. “I am hoping it goes for several miles so that we are far enough away from the enemy camps when we come out.”
“But you just said if we shifted the rock that it would cause a cave in?” Talena asked confused.
“If we are away from the castle, we need not worry about that.” Ursa remarked still deep in thought.
“Let us just go the way of the sea, than we can just swim to shore and be on our way.” Rift huffed, not liking either of the ideas.
“No, we cannot go the sea way. The enemy will have the shoreline for miles in every direction and with the smoke we would be lost out there – we may not even find our way to shore. Even if we could, death is all that awaits us there.” Ursa reminded them. He leaned down and touched the water, calling upon his powerful innate Gift to freeze the surface for several arm spans in each direction. “Just how powerful is that staff of yours?” Ursa asked, looking up at Talena.
“We must start construction immediately…in the cavern!” Ursa proclaimed to Lady Jewel, after outlining his plan.
“We do not even know how far it goes - you said so yourself. You only went arou
nd the first bend.” Jewel replied, concern in her tone and a slight irritation that Ursa did this without her knowledge. “We only have so many supplies, and we will need them when the smoke clears and war continues, if you have not forgotten.”
“If we start to lose this siege, this will be our only hope of getting everyone out alive. We have the time, we have the men, and we have the supplies. We can build a walkway along the edge of the cavern while the smoke keeps us in here and the enemy out there.” Ursa explained to her, not wanting to waste another moment with pointless arguments.
“I have to agree with Master Ursa, my Lady.” Dragon Cove’s advisor finally added sheepishly. “If the castle falls, this may be our only hope of survival.”
“This castle has held against dozens of armies before!” General Malcolm barked back.
“Not against an enemy such as this!” Rift countered.
“What is this? Is the great Rift backing down from a fight? Have you gone soft?” Malcolm taunted.
It took all of Rift’s strength to not reach over and cut out the General’s tongue. “Would you rather see everyone butchered, for the sake of your pride?” Rift growled back. “Maybe I will go ask how many of our residents want to take that risk on your pride.”
“The point is not whether we can hold or not.” Ursa cut in, stopping the argument before it got out of hand. “The point is…what if we cannot? What is our plan then - are we to just give up and die?”
“Start building,” Lady Jewel finally sighed in defeat. “Ursa, I want you and Talena to go down the cavern as far as you must, until we are far enough away from the enemy to make an opening or you find one. Use as many men as needed and use all the supplies you must.” She knew better than to argue with the wizard - she was exhausted.
“Thank you, my Lady.” Ursa said as he and the others left to recruit men for the task.
“Why are you so unsure about this, my Lady?” Her advisor asked once Ursa and the other were long gone.
“It is not that I am unsure, it is the fact that if we are already thinking of an escape, then we already know we cannot win.” Jewel replied as frustrated tears rolled down her cheeks. How she wished her husband could be handling this. “I will be in Lord Marcus’s room, if you have need of me.” She whispered and walked off.
