At last! Bart thought to himself. Just as he started toward the hallway, he heard a voice say, “You’re late!” Glancing back, he saw the officious man talking with another who struck Bart as being somehow familiar. The paler skin of the man marked him as being from Byrdlon.
The man whom he was talking with replied, “Would have been here sooner but that damn hunter had to make a stopover to make sure his mules were alright.”
The officious man glared at the other, then turned back toward the hallway. “Follow me,” he said. “We have much to discuss.”
Bart remained a couple feet from the mouth of the hallway as the two men approached. When they passed him, recognition came. It was the man who they had run across north of the crossroads just south of Hunter’s Reach. He had mistaken them for that hunter Burdy. Now what could he be doing here? Curiosity piqued, Bart followed them.
The hallway through which they passed held lit oil lamps ever fifty feet. Bart kept a discreet distance behind the two men as they progressed deeper into the castle. They finally passed through a doorway on the left side and closed it behind them.
Bart looked at the closed door and cursed. There was no way to open the door without attracting the notice of those on the other side. If the door had opened to the outside and exposed to the elements, then perhaps they might have believed the wind had blown it open. But since they were inside, such a probability was unlikely. Moving closer, he put his ear to the door and listened. Muffled voices could be heard coming from the other side, but the thickness of the wood hindered his ability to understand what was being said.
Frustrated at not being able to hear, Bart decided not to waste time satisfying his curiosity and to continue his search for the library. Finding out about the crest and the coat of arms took priority. Moving away from the door, he began exploring the hallways for a way up.
During his search, he would at times have to flatten himself against the wall to avoid coming into contact with others who were using the hallway. Once he even had to quickly duck into a side room when a group of four servants appeared in the hallway ahead of him and were coming his way.
When at last he found the stairway up, he took them quickly to the second floor. The hallway where the stairwell ended was better illuminated, with lanterns embedded within the walls spaced every twenty feet. With one way being as good as the other, he turned to his right and began searching for the library.
The first door he came to was ajar. He paused a moment to look through the opening and found an unused bedroom, most likely intended for guests. Not being what he wanted, he continued on. The next three doors yielded more unused rooms similar to the first, the fourth opened onto a hallway. Servants moved along its length upon various errands in sufficient numbers to preclude Bart from navigating safely through them. Before he moved on, he caught a whiff of an unmistakable odor coming from further down the servant filled hallway. Somewhere not far from where he stood was an indoor jakes. He thought that in a place such as this, they were a necessity, but he’d hate to have a room near one due to the odor. Moving on, he continued his search for the library.
At times, the hallway would have alcoves. Some were relatively small recesses bearing the bust of a man, while others were large enough for a person to step within, one even held an ornately carved chair. He followed the hallway around a corner and had gone a ways when he came to one of the larger alcoves. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something that brought him to a halt. It was a tapestry, and hanging as it was behind a full sized statue of a woman bearing a vase, he almost hadn’t seen it.
Woven within the tapestry’s design was the River Man’s family crest. At first he wasn’t sure why this particular tapestry had piqued his interest. After all, he had passed dozens of similar tapestries hanging in hallways during his search. Then understanding came.
It was the design it bore was the crest, but not exactly. The part of the crest which he and the others believed to be the coat of arms from The Crypt was missing. It was exactly the same in every other respect.
Bart stepped around the statue and moved forward to give the tapestry a closer examination. The edges of the tapestry showed signs of age; a tear here, fading there. Clearly this had been in existence for quite some time. He pulled it a little ways from the wall to see what was behind it. He let it go when he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Bart hadn’t really expected to find anything, but you never know.
He started to leave the alcove when he heard footsteps approaching. They were coming from down the hallway through which he had come. Still invisible, he peered down the hallway and froze.
A score of armed men were approaching. In front of the armed men were four others. One was a man in his early to late twenties, dressed in light leather armor of the finest quality. At his hip hung a sword, and he walked with an unmistakable air of command. Behind him strode two others, civilians by their dress. But it wasn’t the man with the air of command, the civilians, or even the armed men which had him worried. Rather it was the one wearing a magic user’s robe that led the group.
In his hand the magic user held a ball of purplish light that shot forth micro bursts of lightning every few seconds. His attention was fixed upon the ball of light, except for the occasional glances he cast down the hallway before him.
“It’s close now my lord,” the magic user said.
‘What?’ thought Bart. ‘What is close?’
The man whom the magic user addressed as ‘my lord’ was the one with the air of command. Bart watched as the lord placed his hand upon the hilt of his sword, his eyes scanning to and fro as they steadily approached.
Bart held his breath as the party approached the alcove. He saw the lord glance within as he came abreast, but invisible as he was, Bart remained unnoticed.
The magic user came to a sudden stop two paces beyond the alcove. The purplish ball of light in his palm was giving off a steady crackle now as dozens of micro bursts continuously leaped from its surface. The magic user glanced to his lord and nodded.
“Fan out and find the intruder,” the lord said.
That’s all Bart needed to hear. Still invisible, he leaped from the alcove and shoved the nearest guard. Knocking him off balance and into the others, Bart fled down the hallway.
“Stop!” the lord commanded. But Bart ignored him and kept on running.
“Where is he!” one guard shouted.
Before Bart reached the corner where the hallway turned to the right, he heard the magic user begin intoning arcane words of magic. He weaved back and forth knowing that his attempt to avoid whatever was coming was most likely futile. Then all of a sudden, the walls began radiating a bluish glow.
“There he is!” a guard yelled just as his lord shouted, “After him!”
Bart bounded around the corner and fled to where he knew the stairs down to be. Up ahead, a servant exited from a room and glanced in his direction. The girl’s eyes widened and a scream of fear echoed as she raced back in the room.
She saw me! A quick check showed the Cloak was still in place, yet she had seen him. That’s when he realized it wasn’t the walls that were glowing blue, but himself. The magic user had somehow revealed him!
Behind him the first of the guards was turning the corner. A shout for him to stop came once again which he pointedly ignored. Putting on even more speed, he raced for the stairway to the lower level. When it finally appeared before him, he saw six guards blocking his way. Two of them had bows.
“Halt!” one of the guards ordered when they saw him coming. The two with bows quickly had arrow to string and were drawing their arrows back to fire.