The truth be told, he was as drunk as he had been in weeks, but a grand idea had struck him.
“Have you gone mad, Master Oarly?” King Jarrek asked over the murmurs of disappointment and disapproval.
“He’s just drunk,” Lord Gregory said.
“No, lads,” General Diamondeen called out as Oarly’s brilliant plan came clear to him. “Oarly’s got it right.” He went on to tell them what he and Oarly saw while roaming the mine tunnels under the southern foothills during the day. Then, as he told them what the observations meant, what Oarly had so cleverly figured, both King Jarrek and Lord Gregory burst into laughter. It was an insane idea, but it was the best plan that either of the two formally educated military battle strategists had ever heard.
“I suppose I owe you an apology, Master Dwarf,” Lord Gregory said to Oarly after the laughter died away.
“No, Lord Lion,” Oarly spoke more of his drunken wisdom. “You owe your wife a trip to Dreen. The plans are made, so now you can go with her on the morrow.”
Everyone in the pavilion, and the entire encampment, had heard Lady Trella the night before, and each and every one of them murmured their agreement.
Strangely enough, Oarly’s plan of attack was so solid that Lord Gregory actually felt he could leave the situation behind and enjoy the trip through the mountains with his wife.
Chapter Forty-Three
Swimming in the darkness, out to the base of Lakeside Castle’s wall was terrifying. Both Hyden and Mikahl felt extremely vulnerable as they swam, mostly underwater, beneath a windy gray sky where the moon was bright enough to backlight the clouds. Talon circled above them as they went, but there wasn’t much the hawkling could do to help. Every time they came up for air they expected arrows to come flying down, or shouts to ring out. Luckily no one noticed them.
The long night of clinging to the wall, and paddling in place, was tiresome. Thankfully they found the oddly chiseled keystone before the sun was fully risen. A dozen feet below the marker, under the surface of the water, was the promised tunnel. They emerged into a dark sizable chamber. The faint glow of daylight refracting through the water was detectable, but it wasn’t enough for them to see by. Mikahl started to draw Ironspike, but Hyden stopped him.
“Watch this,” Hyden said proudly. He cast his plum-sized orb of light into existence, just as Phen had taught him. It appeared, hovering just above his palm, and emitted a warm yellow glow similar in radiance to an oil lantern. “The sword’s power will draw attention, Mik,” Hyden told him, as he willed the orb to hover up to a place just above his head. “Don’t use Ironspike unless you absolutely have to.”
“So you can cast a spell?” Mikahl shook his head at the wonder of it.
They took in the big stone-walled chamber they were in. The dark, slick-looking block walls were covered with a thick moldy moss. A few rusty torch sconces hung precariously from the sides of an open archway big enough to drive a wagon through. The water they were standing in was very deceptive. From the archway it appeared that the whole floor was just a shin deep pool of water. The hole they had swum up through was undetectable. An unsuspecting person walking across the span would fall right into it. Hyden didn’t figure many people were roaming the lower levels of Lakeside Castle’s dungeon, though.
“Why is the archway so big?” Mikahl asked.
“What did you Westlanders keep down here?” Hyden shrugged.
“This stuff is centuries old, Hyden,” Mikahl said. “I never knew if King Balton used the deeper dungeons for anything or not. I doubt it. The upper levels held a murderer or two, awaiting the headsman, when I was growing up, and at least one breed giant in the early days of the breed war, but I’ve never been down here.”
“Since it’s your castle, you get to lead,” Hyden indicated the big archway. “Keep your sword ready, but don’t draw it unless you have to,” he reminded. “As soon as I get a dry string on this bow I’ll have an arrow ready to loose.”
“I doubt there’s anything down here,” Mikahl said hopefully.
At the archway, the floor stepped up into a long hallway that paralleled the outer wall of the castle. On the left, spaced about every twenty paces, were alarmingly large rusty iron doors. None of them appeared to be locked, and most of them were open. One was hanging askew. The bottom portion of the iron had been bent into a fold, and the upper hinge pins had been pulled out of the block wall. When they passed that one, Hyden stopped and looked into the cell.
“By the gods, Mik,” he said. “Whatever they kept down here was huge.”
“Aye,” Mikahl agreed.
The hall eventually came to a junction. They could either keep going forward or turn left and go deeper under the castle. “Which way do you think?” Mikahl asked.
“Think about what’s above us, Mik,” Hyden suggested. “Now that I’m not shivering and waterlogged, maybe I can concentrate. I’m going to have Talon check the tower to see if that’s where they’re keeping Rosa.”
Pael’s tower wasn’t hard for the hawkling to find. When Hyden found Talon’s vision, the bird was already perched on its sharp peak, preening himself in the morning sun. With Hyden’s urging, Talon circled the structure cautiously then landed on the sill of one of the upper arrow slits. The room was empty, save for several bird cages that lined the walls, and a pile of dirty clothes on the floor.
The hawkling started to fly away, but the pile of clothes stirred. Through Talon’s eyes, Hyden saw that under a tangled mop of filthy hair was Princess Rosa. She was sleeping, if restlessly, but at least she was alive. Without waking her, Talon leapt back into flight.
Hyden let go of his extended vision. He’d thought about making his and the High King’s presence known to her. Surely she would remember Talon, but he decided that getting her excited and full of hope, when they were still a long way away from being in a position to help her, would serve no purpose.
“She’s there, just like you said,” Hyden said.
Mikahl was several yards down the left hand branch of the hallway, looking around in the dim reaches of Hyden’s magical light. As he returned to the junction, the satisfied grin on his face told Hyden that Mikahl had heard him.
“If we’re at about the same level as the surface of the lake, then we are at least five stories below the main floor of the castle.” Mikahl looked from one tunnel to the other. “I guess this way.” He started them deeper into the structure.
“I’m following you,” Hyden said as he made an arrow mark in the mold on the wall. It pointed back the way they came from.
They roamed the dungeon for several hours. Hyden lost track of how many marks he made. They’d come up three separate staircases so far, and the cells on the level they were currently on were not nearly as large as those below, but they were still big.
“We were just here,” Mikahl said with a frustrated huff. Hyden’s mark was on one of the other walls pointing off to the hallway across from them.
“We go left,” Hyden said.
“Are you sure?”
“Just…” Hyden stopped his voice short then whispered, “Did you hear that?”
“No.”
“Shhhh,” Hyden hissed. “Listen.”
They both strained their ears into the darkness. Apparently some of the keen senses Hyden shared with his familiar were beginning to stay with him when they were apart. Mikahl couldn’t hear anything, but Hyden was sure he could hear a long low groaning. After he heard it again, he started off toward the sound, leaving Mikahl no choice but to follow.
Hey took a few turns that Hyden didn’t bother to mark, and found another stairway leading up. The sound was coming from somewhere on the floor above.
“I don’t hear anything,” Mikahl whispered.
