Chapter 18
Chamber of Horror
The shutters on the balcony on the Temple of Vand opened quietly. The moonlight illuminated the nearer portions of the room. Mistake peered into the room before stepping into it. Eltor and MistyTrail followed her.
The room was large and obviously a library. Tall bookshelves lined each of the walls, and racks of scrolls were set in neat rows in the center of the floor. Near each of the corners of the room were desks and reading chairs. The room was unlit and empty.
Mistake moved silently to the doorway on the opposite side of the room from the balcony. She placed her ear against the door and listened for sounds of people beyond it. She heard nothing. MistyTrail moved alongside Mistake and tapped her. The Sakovan pointed to a sliver of flickering light passing through the small crack near the floor. Mistake nodded silently and pointed towards the side of the door. MistyTrail grabbed Eltor lightly by the arm and led him away from the door.
Mistake eased the door open a crack. She peered out into the torch-lit corridor. When she saw no people outside the room, she started to ease the door open wider. It creaked loudly. She held her breath for several seconds while she remained motionless. Trying anew to leave the room, Mistake edged the door open with excruciatingly slow movements. When she had the door opened wide enough to walk through, she stuck her head into the corridor and looked both ways. Seeing no one, she boldly stepped into the corridor. MistyTrail and Eltor immediately followed.
“Is there anywhere to hide while you close the door?” asked MistyTrail.
“Leave it open,” whispered Mistake. “It takes too long to close it. We would surely be detected.”
“Then we must close the shutters,” MistyTrail retorted. “Otherwise we will be telling everyone that someone has entered the temple. I will close them. Which way are you going?”
“We should go towards the rear,” interjected Eltor. “The front entrance appears to be a level higher than the rear. We need to go down two levels.”
“You think they will be at the lowest level?” asked Mistake while MistyTrail slipped back into the library to close the shutters.
“I cannot imagine that they would place the torture chamber anywhere near where normal people would go,” reasoned Eltor. “The level below the front entrance is the smartest place to start our search. Besides, that is the level of the rear entrance. Why transport slaves through the whole temple?”
“It is a good enough place to start looking,” shrugged Mistake.
Mistake led the way towards the rear of the building. They had not gone very far when a staircase appeared on her left. She looked questioningly at Eltor as MistyTrail exited the library and moved up to join the rest of the group. Eltor merely shrugged. Mistake started down the stairs.
Distant screams drifted up the stairwell. The noise set Mistake’s nerves on edge. She continued downward and halted when she heard voices talking much closer than the distant screams. MistyTrail and Eltor halted behind her. The voices started coming closer, and Mistake could detect footsteps on the level below her She turned and signaled the others to go back.
The three intruders fled silently up the stairs. Eltor checked the corridor carefully before leaving the stairwell where they had entered it a short time ago. He turned to his left and headed towards the rear of the building. After a few moments of creeping along the corridor, he came to another stairwell. He turned and started down the stairs. MistyTrail followed him, and Mistake just managed to enter the stairwell as she saw two people come around a distant corner into the corridor.
“Hurry down,” Mistake urged softly. “There are people in the corridor up here.”
“Did they see you?” MistyTrail asked worriedly.
“I don’t think so,” Mistake replied. “At least they did not appear to.”
Again the distant sounds of screaming rose up the stairwell, but the sounds were louder than the last time. Eltor passed by the landing for the next level and continued downward. He was halfway to the next lower level when he heard nearby voices. There were people coming up the stairs. He turned and pointed upward to MistyTrail and Mistake. Everyone turned around and raced softly up the stairs.
Mistake peeked around the corner and saw that the corridor went only in one direction. There was a wall blocking the way towards the rear of the building. With little choice of direction, Mistake entered the corridor and headed towards the front of the temple. She raced for the next stairway in case the people coming up the stairs decided to exit the stairwell on this level. She knew that they would certainly be seen if they didn’t hurry. Mistake led the trio into the next stairwell and stopped. They waited tensely as each of them listened for sounds. Only the distant screams could be heard.
Mistake led the way down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she checked the corridor before heading towards the rear of the building again. In the distance she could see a large door blocking the corridor. It was in the same place as the wall blocking the corridor on the level above them. She moved swiftly towards the door. As she passed another corridor branching off to her left, the screams became quite loud. She passed the corridor, her eyes locked on the distant door.
As she reached the door, she saw the stairwell that they had almost come down. She signaled for MistyTrail and Eltor to take refuge in the stairwell while she crept closer to the large door.
The door had a window cut into it with large metal bars crossing it in both directions. Mistake rose up on her toes and peered through the window. What she saw frightened her. She turned and ran to the stairwell.
“What did you see?’ asked Eltor.
“Cages,” reported Mistake. “Both sides of the corridor beyond that door are lined with cages. There are kruls walking the corridor. I am sure that Caldal is probably in one of those cages, but we cannot just walk in there.”
“How many cages?” asked MistyTrail.
“I could not count them,” Mistake shook her head. “They went on as far as I could see.”
“And this is only one side of the temple,” frowned MistyTrail. “I would be surprised if the other side was not the same. There must be hundreds of cages. How will we ever find Caldal?”
“Is the door locked?” asked Eltor.
“It is,” nodded Mistake, “but that is not the obstacle. I can have it open quickly, but I cannot make the kruls disappear.”
“Open it for me,” asked Eltor. “I will go look for Caldal.”
“Are you crazy?” balked Mistake. “Perhaps you didn’t hear what I just said. There are kruls patrolling the corridor outside the cells.”
“I heard what you said,” replied Eltor as he dug into MistyTrail’s pack and extracted a piece of the uniform that they had cut off of the legs to make it fit him.
He took the scrap band of cloth and shoved it onto his head. He stretched it almost to the point of tearing it as he forced it down over his ears. When he was done, he tried to fold the ragged edge underneath the band. MistyTrail stepped close and helped him.
“What are you planning on doing?” she asked.
“I am the only one who knows what Caldal looks like,” explained Eltor. “I know how the kruls think. As long as there is no alarm, they think little of elves. It would surprise them to find an elf in uniform, though. That is why I covered my ears.”
“But they will still smell you,” frowned MistyTrail.
“They will,” nodded Eltor, “but they are not quick thinkers. Hopefully they will not put the smell together with my looks.”
“So you are going to pretend to be a soldier?” asked Mistake.
“Can you think of any other way to see who is in those cages?” replied Eltor.
“My brother is not going to sacrifice himself in this evil place,” MistyTrail said adamantly. “We will find another way.”