Forever Knight (The Champion Chronicles Book 3) (22 page)

The captain was not fazed by the centurion’s anger.  Through his years on the Taran Navy, he had been on the receiving end of much worse verbal abuse.  There was little that could be said to him anymore that would affect him.  “I will not risk the safety of my ship and crew for your personal vendetta.”

“Personal vendetta?  I serve the empire.  It was the soldiers of the empire that were slaughtered.  This is not a personal vendetta.  This is the empire’s justice!  You will proceed after them.”

“I am not one of your soldiers,” the captain said calmly.  “You cannot order me around, nor do I have to follow your orders.  I am as loyal to the empire as any, and I will do whatever I can to help.  But I will not put my ship or my crew at risk.”

Farrus took a moment to calm down.  He knew the captain was right.  He was doing the one thing his commanders had always told him not to do in the face of obstacles: panic.  His overreaction to his men being slaughtered was a purely emotional response and not one of sound military discipline.  Indeed, chasing the spies right into the castle would be futile.  Even if he were able to find the secret back entrance, he would be just one soldier against an entire castle.

But he was not going to give up.  “Their ship.  Turn and chase after it.”

“And then what?” the captain asked.  “This is not a warship, nor do we have soldiers on board.  If we were to catch them, what would we do?”

“If this is a merchant ship, then that is what we shall be.  I will hide my armor and weapons, and I will take on the guise of a sailor.  When we catch them, we will have a surprise for them.”

The captain called back to the sailor manning the tiller, “Forty degrees to starboard!”

The ship immediately started turning.  Farrus gripped the deck railing to keep from falling down.  The choppy waves rocked the boat until it finished its slow turn.

The captain pointed to a spot straight ahead, about a mile down the shoreline from the castle.  “The river that cuts through the middle of their kingdom empties there.  We have a stronger wind out here than near the shore.  If it holds, we will catch them there.”

***

Conner flopped onto the rocky outcropping that he called a beach.  It wasn’t very wide and was probably covered by water at high tide.  But fortunately for them, the tide was low.  Glaerion was already on the beach and pulled him up onto his feet.

“I really think you should have used that invisible bridge spell,” Conner said between gasps of air.

“Like I said before, magic is not to be used lightly.  And we survived without it.”

Conner looked back at the waves that pounded the rocks behind them.  “This should have been one of those times.  We were lucky to survive.”

“Our survival validates my decision not use magic,” Glaerion retorted.  “You are shivering.”

“It is cold,” Conner said.  “And you are not shivering!”

“I am not cold,” Glaerion replied.  “The elf body works differently than the human.  Is that the cave?”  He pointed to an opening in the cliff face.

Conner rubbed his hands across his wet arms, trying to generate heat.  “Yes, Master Goshin’s chambers are inside the cave.  There will be blankets.”

He stood and walked into the cave.  With no light coming from the outside, the cave was as dark as night.  Glaerion stepped forward and drew his dagger.  Instantly, it lit up as if it were on fire.  But instead of the yellow light of torch flames, this light was a bright whitish-blue light. The light from the blade extended far into the distance, almost to the far walls.

“I thought you said no magic?” Conner asked.

“The blade is enchanted.  Only at the time of enchantment is the web of magic affected.  When it is used, the touch on the web of magic is virtually negligible.  Only the most powerful of wizards would feel it.  And even then, they wouldn’t know who or where it was happening.  We are safe.”

Now that he could see the cave clearly, a sadness came over him.  Once again, he thought of Master Goshin and how he died.  But he knew he couldn’t dwell on those thoughts as he had a more important job to do.  Since Master Goshin had not taken all his belongings when he left, Conner hoped that there were still some clothes of his to be found.  In a small chamber off the side of the main cave, Conner found several chests full of clothes.  He pulled off his cold, wet clothes and put on the dry clothes.  It didn’t help much now, but having dry clothes on would help him warm up that much more quickly.

“There are some for you, too.”

“I am fine.  I am not cold.”  Glaerion looked around the cave, as if he were searching for something.

“Do you feel it, yet?” Conner asked.

“I feel the Ark of Life.  It is here.  It is close.  But were are not yet close enough.  Those stairs, do they lead to the castle?”

“The lower levels of the castle,” Conner said.

Glaerion started walking briskly towards the stairs.  “This is not a well-protected area.  An invading force could easily take advantage of this lack of security.”

“The Karmons are not at war,” Conner said.  “We had this small fight with our northern neighbors, but that is over.  We don’t have to be afraid of anyone.”

“You are so naïve,” Glaerion replied with a shake of his head.  “Put one guard down here, and we would have already been discovered.  He wouldn’t even have to fight us.  He would just go up into the castle and raise an alarm.  Lucky for us, your rulers are as naïve as their subjects.”

“Well, Master Goshin lived down here.  If anyone tried to invade the castle from this cave, he would be the first to see them.”

“A permanent guard would be better,” Glaerion said.  The elf gave a slight wave of his hand towards the double doors.  “Lead on.”

Conner led the elf up the rough-hewn steps to the large double doors that led into the castle.  He gave a slight push, but they wouldn’t budge.  He pushed again, this time harder.  The doors did not move.

Glaerion stepped forward and touched the doors.  He gave a slight push and then a firmer one.  “How were the doors locked before?”

“I never knew them to be locked,” Conner replied.  “Is there even a lock?”

“There is no locking mechanism.  And if the doors were simply barred shut, there would be some give to them.  No, these doors are sealed tight.  Probably permanently.  Maybe your rulers aren’t quite as naïve as I thought.”

“Well, that’s probably my fault,” Conner said.  “Last summer, the guards saw me jump off the cliff and sneak back into the castle this way.  After Master Goshin left, I guess they realized that it was dangerous to have this as an open back door into the castle.  What now?”

Glaerion looked back at the cave entrance.  “There is no way back.  Even if we could swim out, Captain Janari is long gone.  Maybe I could climb the cliff.”

“It is steep and sheer.”

The elf turned back to the door and touched it.  He closed his eyes and put his ear to it.

“Do you hear something?”

“No.  I just hope there is no one on the other side of this door.”

“It’s unlikely,” Conner said.  “It’s the basement of the castle.”

“If they took the time to seal the door, maybe they decided to also post a guard here as well.  Just in case.”

“Maybe they sealed the door so that they didn’t have to post a guard,” Conner suggested.  “Now what are we going to do?”

“I fear we have no other choice,” Glaerion said.  He took a deep breath.  “The easy way would be the loud way and our presence would be discovered.  So it must be the hard way.  It is an old spell, one that I have not used in thousands of years, not since the war with your kind.  It is very powerful and it will drain me to complete exhaustion.  I will need to rest afterwards.  Stay close, and do exactly as I say, when I say.  Understand?”  He stepped towards Conner and said more firmly.  “Exactly as I say, when I say it.  If you don’t, you will die.”

“What about not using magic?  Won’t we risk being discovered?”

“We have run out of options so we’ll have to risk it.  With luck, the guardian of the Ark is not a wizard, so he won’t discover us.”

Glaerion turned to the door and closed his eyes.  He repeated the words of the spell in his head, just to be sure that he remembered them.  It was not only the words that were important, it was also the inflection and force in which they were said.  Normally, he did not need to waste such time, but in this case, with so powerful of a spell, he needed to be sure.  The spell he intended to use was just within the limits of his power.  But even if he did tap into the web of magic more deeply than his powers allowed, his elven senses would protect his life.  He would be incapacitated for a long time, but at least he would still be alive.

Reaching out to the web of magic was practically instinctual for him.  He could do it with just a passing thought.  But it wasn’t always that way.  Thousands of years ago, when he was just a little elfling, it took much time, practice, and patience to connect his mind to the web.  Now though, with just barely a thought, he could feel himself connected to the web.  The electricity of the power flowed through his body, a tingling sensation that set all his hairs on end.  Even the ends of his long hair curled upwards.  The power needed to be released, and as the worlds of the spell came off his lips, that power exploded through him.  He was accustomed to the power flow, but at a much lesser level.  This spell brought forth a flow of a level that he had almost forgotten about.  It had been so long since he had used a spell of this magnitude, that it caught him off guard.  But his instincts kicked in and he was able to quickly gain control.  As the last word was spoken, the power lit up inside of him, giving him tremendous energy and focus.  He grabbed Conner’s arm with a force that he didn’t know.  When Conner tried to pull away, his grip became even stronger. 

“Now!” Glaerion shouted.  “Step now!”

Conner was not sure what the elf meant, so he did not move.  Glaerion took a step forward, one hand still gripping Conner on the upper arm.  But there was a doorway directly in front of him.  Conner wanted to tell Glaerion that there was a door there, but the elf disappeared right through the closed door.  He felt a sharp tug on his arm, and he stepped forward, suddenly reminded that he was to do whatever the elf said.  And then he was walking through the door.

Conner was sure that there was nothing else in the world that could ever surprise him.  He had seen good friends die for no reason.  He had seen brave men fall in battle.  Magic was real.  Elves from scary bedtime stories were real.  And now he could walk through solid oak doors.  He kept walking, through the door, and then through the rock that was on the other side of the door.

As soon as they were past the rock, Glaerion let Conner’s arm go.  A coldness covered him, causing him to shiver uncontrollably.  He turned as he heard the thud of Glaerion’s body hitting the ground.  He dropped to one knee as a dizziness swept over him.  Pulling his arms around his body, he tried to quickly warm up.  Then he tried to wake the elf up, but he did not move.  His chest moved up and down, showing that he wasn’t dead.  But his eyes were glassy and stuck high in his head.

There really would have been no other option to get through the door.  Long timbers had been piled in front of the door to keep it from opening.  Large rocks, probably cut from inside the cave, had also been placed in front of the timbers.  With the door opening into the castle, there was no way the doors would ever be opened, even with a large battering ram.  Master Goshin’s chamber was officially sealed off from the castle.  Conner knew it made sense, as it was an open back door that anyone could have gotten through.  But he didn’t have to like it.  It was a reminder that Master Goshin was never coming back.

Conner looked down at the still form of the elf, hoping that Glaerion would not need too much time to rest.  But he couldn’t just sit here and wait for him to wake up.  He might not be able to find the Ark, but at least he could scout out the lower levels of the castle to see if they were as empty as they sounded.

***

It happened again, but this time it was much stronger, and it caused him to pause mid-sentence.  He stood staring at Queen Elissa, his thoughts suddenly interrupted by the strange feeling.  He could think of nothing else, especially what he had been telling her.

He had been having this odd feeling for as long as he could remember.  The only way he could really describe it was a tickling sensation in his brain.  Normally, it was just a very light tickle and he could easily ignore it if he was in the middle of something else.  Sometimes it would wake him up in the middle of the night, but he would just go right back to sleep.  Never had it been as obvious and intrusive as it had just been.

“Arpwin?”  Elissa had been patient, waiting for him to finish his sentence, but he just stood there, his eyes staring straight ahead.

“Oh,” Arpwin finally said.  “What was I saying?  I just lost my train of thought.”

“You were complimenting me on my dress,” she said with her wide smile, which was full of freshly scrubbed white teeth.

Elissa spun around in her long, silver dress.  The small gems that were sewn into the hem sparkled in the light of the fading sun.  Arpwin marveled at the woman that she had become.  It had not even been a year since the incident in the forest that had started this all.  And not even half a year since her father had fallen in battle and she had gained the throne.  In that short time, she had grown from a girl to woman in both demeanor and physical appearance.  As she grew up to take on the responsibility of being the ruler of Karmon, her body had completed the transformation to womanhood.  He knew exactly why the courtiers and young men of the castle constantly followed her around.