The Copper Promise (8 page)

‘The mead is good, anyway,’ he said. Frith looked less than convinced, picking up a slice of ham and turning it over in his fingers, but Wydrin was already dragging the plate of blue lobster towards her, a silver fork held in one fist as if to harpoon it.

They sat and ate for a time, the drinking and chewing and swallowing filling up the need for conversation, until they could consume no more. Sebastian took a last gulp of the glorious mead and, setting down the tankard, mouthed the traditional prayer of thanks to Isu. Looking up, he saw Gallo staring at him, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

‘You still do that, then,’ he said, pointing to the badge of Isu on Sebastian’s cloak. ‘Still praying to your chilly mountain gods.’

Sebastian rubbed the crumbs from his fingers, suppressing a sigh. He and Gallo had never agreed on the subject of Sebastian’s faith.

‘Enough of my little quirks, Gallo.’ Sebastian cleared his throat. ‘You’ve yet to explain how you’re here, what you’ve found, or how you’ve existed in the Citadel all this time. I’m sure you have some stories you’re dying to tell us.’

‘We need to know what you’ve found,’ put in Frith, leaning over his plate. The Lord of the Blackwood had eaten slowly and carefully, cutting up each piece of meat and using all the correct cutlery. ‘Have you seen a chamber, somewhere far beneath the central structure of the Citadel, containing a pool or a lake?’

Gallo nodded hurriedly.

‘Yes, I have seen evidence of such. But let me tell it from the beginning, my friends. I understand I have a lot to explain.’

Wydrin belched into her hand and waved at Sebastian to pass another bottle of the rich red wine.

‘You talk, we’ll drink,’ she said cheerily.

And so he did. Gallo told them of arriving in Krete, drunk on adventure and desperate to explore the Citadel, how he had paid off the Kretian Council with the money he and Sebastian had collected and hired a guide with what remained. Sebastian felt a flicker of annoyance at that, as Gallo passed over his betrayal as though it were a small thing. He told them how they had entered the Citadel with the aid of his explosives, and how he had lost his guide.

‘How did you manage that?’ asked Wydrin.

‘There was a terrible creature hidden in the ceiling.’ For the first time a shadow passed over Gallo’s face. ‘It reached down with inhuman arms and pulled poor Chednit up into the shadows. I didn’t see what happened to him but I heard the screaming, and I saw the blood.’

Sebastian stiffened, horrified to see his friend in such pain.

‘I’m sorry, Gallo.’

Gallo nodded mournfully, staring down at his plate.

‘Chednit was a good sort. Brave, even if it was braveness for the sake of coin.’

‘Nothing wrong with that,’ said Wydrin.

‘He told me we should wait for you, Sebastian. He wanted another sword arm in that dark place. Perhaps he was right.’

‘What happened then?’ The light from the lamps cast Frith’s scarred face into sharp relief. There was a hunger in his eyes that Sebastian did not like.

‘I wandered, lost.’ Gallo did not raise his eyes from the table. ‘For the longest time. My supplies ran low, my water ran out, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn back, not after … not after what happened to Chednit. Not after taking my good friend’s money. It was dark, but I eventually found places that were lit, like this one. I soon discovered that the map made no real sense, and so I moved listlessly from room to room, searching for something, anything, to make this adventure worthwhile. Eventually, just as I thought I would die of thirst, I found it.’

‘What about those strange little men in bandages? Very pale, dusty, sleep in glass tanks?’ Wydrin broke in, holding up her goblet and swishing the wine around for emphasis.

‘What?’

‘We were attacked by a group of these beings,’ said Sebastian. ‘They tried to force us from the Citadel, and told us they were fighting a war. They called themselves Culoss, I believe.’

Gallo smiled, although it looked false.

‘The Citadel is full of wonders, but these I have not seen.’

‘Let him continue,’ demanded Frith.

‘I lost track of time. I could have been wandering for days, weeks even. Just when I thought I would die down here and never feel the sweet kiss of sunlight on my face again, I found a room containing a number of huge, clay jars, each nearly as tall as a man and all sealed with a blue wax. It took a great deal of work to get the lid off the first jar, and by that time I was very weak, but when eventually I broke the seal I found a cache of wonders.’

‘Like what?’ asked Frith.

‘Treasures beyond counting, and enough gold to get even
your
blood flowing more quickly, your lordship.’ Gallo grinned, although the humour was lost on Frith’s stony expression. ‘And secrets, more of them than I could count. There were maps to enchanted rooms such as this one, where the mages would come to eat their fill every day and never have to lift a finger for fetching or cooking. It saved me from certain starvation.’

‘What of the treasure?’ said Wydrin. Her green eyes were wide, and Sebastian fancied he could almost see golden flecks glimmering there, reflections of a thousand gold coins. ‘Where is it all?’

‘Too much to carry, my Copper Cat,’ Gallo said, ‘but I did keep this bow for myself.’ He indicated the fine longbow that had saved them. ‘And this was too special to leave behind.’ He drew a dagger from the belt at his waist and held it up to the light. It was an exquisite thing; the grip was covered in fine red leather and traced with golden wire, while blue sapphires and fire-bright rubies glittered on the narrow crossguard. Even the blade was enamelled gold and etched with strange runes, but for all its finery it was fearsomely sharp. Gallo laid it against a side of beef and the flesh parted as though the dagger were white-hot.

Wydrin was entranced.

‘It is beautiful.’ Sebastian could see her imagining how it would look hanging at her waist, perhaps in place of one of her own claws. ‘And there are more like this?’

‘Swords and daggers beyond counting, as well as crowns, coronets, necklaces and rings set with gems as big as your thumb, a thousand—’

‘What of these maps?’ asked Frith abruptly. ‘Did they show the location of a great lake?’

Gallo frowned again. There was something in that frown that looked a little forced to Sebastian and that made him uneasy.

‘No, my white-haired friend, but there were other rooms with other jars, not far from here.’

‘Can you take us there?’ said Frith.

‘Hold on a moment, what about the treasure Gallo has already located?’ said Wydrin. ‘I say we go and gather as much as we can now, before the Culoss come back.’

‘It might be useful to catalogue what is here,’ said Sebastian. ‘We can add to the map, share our information.’

To his surprise, Gallo shook his head and stood up.

‘Why go over old ground, when there is so much more to explore? Now that you are all here with me, this will be three times as enjoyable.’ Gallo flashed that grin of his again, and Sebastian couldn’t help returning it.

‘All right, but I’m not leaving this room without taking something to eat on the way.’ Wydrin unrolled a small sack from a loop on her belt and began filling it with bread rolls and honeyed pastries. ‘Sebastian, how do you feel about carrying a few bottles of that wine?’

The jars were every bit as impressive as Gallo had described. Frith, ignoring the dull ache in his leg, hobbled over to one and placed his gloved fingers against it. The jar was only a head shorter than himself, and wide enough in circumference for him to have climbed inside it and sat quite comfortably, had he been able to perform such a feat with a crippled leg. It was made of red clay, covered with an intricate pattern of swirls and circles. The longer Frith looked at them the more he thought that they had a meaning beyond decoration, but if they did, he doubted even a lifetime of staring would reveal it. The lid was sealed over with blue wax, smooth and somehow unpleasant to the touch, even through the leather of his gloves. He circled the jar, looking for clues as to what might be within.

‘Have you seen these books?’ said Sebastian. The big knight was standing by the wall, looking up at the library arrayed there, his face alight with wonder. And in truth, it was an extraordinary sight. The room they were in was small, but the ceiling was very high, and each wall was lined with bookshelves right up to the very top. They were clearly ancient, their spines crooked, and a good few of them were encrusted with mould. The books were of all shapes and sizes; a true treasure-trove of knowledge. Even the library at Blackwood Keep was not as well stocked, and Frith’s father had spent years gathering his collection from all over Ede. At the thought of his father and his cosy, cared-for library, a shadow passed over his heart. No doubt the books were all gone by now, sold on to collectors across Litvania and beyond.

‘They are strange, though,’ said Wydrin, who had joined Sebastian by the bookshelves. ‘Look, how would you reach those ones at the top? There are no ladders. And here –’ she tried to pull one of the volumes from the shelf, disrupting a small civilisation of dust, but a thin metal chain had been poked through the spine, preventing it from being removed. She gave it a tug, only to discover that the chain passed through all of the books on that shelf, holding them all in place. ‘What is the point of a library if you can’t read the books?’

‘It hardly matters,’ said Gallo. He was pacing around the room, staring at the jars. ‘Are you not anxious to see what other secrets are held in these jars? They are not easy to open, I promise you, so best get to it.’

Frith saw Wydrin raise her eyebrows.

‘You can make a start, Gallo,’ she said. ‘Nothing’s stopping you.’

Gallo laughed, and held up his hands with the palms facing up.

‘And deprive you of the discovery? I wouldn’t dream of it.’

Frith looked up at the rows and rows of books, and dismissed them. It would take an age to look through them all, even if they could get the volumes down from the shelves. The jars were a faster prospect, and if Gallo was correct, they could well contain the information he needed.

‘He’s right,’ he said, pulling a dagger from his belt. ‘Start removing the wax.’

Wydrin gave him a poisonous look, but came over all the same.

It took them a good while to get into the first jar, just as Gallo warned; the wax was thick and ancient, dried so hard it was almost stone. Wydrin suggested just pushing the jar over so that it smashed against the flagstones, but Gallo spoke up against that quickly, and Frith agreed. They had no way of knowing what was inside, and they could be destroying something delicate with their impatience to get at it. Frith was thinking of the maps that could be in there, so frail and thin by now that a careless fingertip could cause them to crumble into dust, taking the location of the mages’ secrets with them.

Eventually, Wydrin managed to get a large chunk of the wax off by pushing the edge of Frostling under an overhanging lip and wiggling it about, and after that it was easier. Beneath was a fabric seal covered with the same odd writing they had seen here and there all over the Citadel. Wydrin pushed the tip of her blade through it and tore it open with a loud ripping noise. A puff of dust made them all cough, and it was followed by a terrible stench.

Wydrin pressed the back of her hand to her nose, frowning.

‘It smells like something died in there.’

Gallo paced impatiently around them.

‘Come along then, have a look. It’s bound to smell a bit off. Thousands of years have passed.’

Frith reached up and pulled the fabric back, looking eagerly down into the depths of the jar, so long hidden, but it was too dark to see anything clearly. The glinting of gold or jewels was conspicuously absent.

‘It looks empty.’ He was unable to keep the frustration out of his voice.

‘Here.’ Sebastian picked the jar up in both arms and tipped it forward. It was heavy, but it was barely a strain for the big knight. After a moment a pile of what looked like red and brown rags fell out onto the stone floor, and the smell of corruption and rotten meat increased tenfold. Sebastian grimaced as he set the jar down.

‘If this was treasure once, it is no longer.’

Wydrin bent to the rags and poked them with Frostling.

‘I don’t know what this is,’ she said after a moment. ‘But I don’t think it was ever treasure, Sebastian.’

Frith knelt next to her and removed his leather glove. He saw her glance at the ruined tips of his fingers, but he ignored the curious look and touched the pile of stinking matter. He felt no rough weave as he would expect to feel from a piece of cloth. It was tough and irregular, like leather, or dried meat. There was lots of it, enough to fill his arms if he tried to carry it away, although the gods only knew why anyone would want to do that. He stood, angry at this further distraction.

‘This was a body once, or part of a body.’

Wydrin took her blade away hurriedly.

‘Why would the mages store a dead body in a jar?’ asked Sebastian.

‘It hardly matters,’ said Gallo. The three of them turned to look at him. The young blond man was agitated, pacing back and forth. There was a thin layer of sweat on his brow, despite the relative cool of the chamber. ‘Open the other jars, and quickly now. If there’s nothing here we should move on. Quickly.’

‘Perhaps first we—’

‘No!’ His interruption was almost a shout, and Sebastian actually took a step back.

‘Open the jars.’ And then he seemed to remember himself. The flashy smile made another appearance. ‘Please.’

They did as he asked – more quickly now that they knew the method to get them open – but each contained only the same as the first. When they opened the fourth and final jar, there was a great rumble from beneath their feet, so violent that the dried remains jumped and shivered on the flagstones. Gallo was breathing hard and staring down at the ground as if he expected it to rise up and swallow him. Sweat was running down his cheeks.

‘What was that?’ said Wydrin. The chains that held the books together were trembling, and then one by one they snapped, throwing up little puffs of metallic dust. The rumbling died away, but as Frith opened his mouth to answer, the door on the far side of the chamber flew open and a Culoss came charging in, his mouth open wide with shock. He was followed by three more.