he was out of the crevice he had to know where he was. So taking his pack, he pulled out one of his candles and his flint.
Kneeling down close to the floor, he scraped his flint along its surface to produce sparks. It took him a couple tries before one fell upon the candle’s wick. Then blowing ever so softly, he managed to encourage it to ignite the wick.
The budding flame revealed that he was in a small room, barely ten feet by twenty. The area around the crevice opening was riddled with cracks, as well as the wall down which the water ran. He held aloft the candle and saw a hole in the ceiling at the top of the wall which was the source of the water. Where it might lead would forever remain a mystery as the hole was far too small for him to pass.
What the purpose of the room had at one time been, he couldn’t guess. It was bare and empty with no markings on the wall. A layer of dust covered the floor, marred only with the tracks of rats. Glancing around the small room, he found a single doorway that looked to be the only way out.
Before exploring where the doorway led, he did his best to wring out the water from his pack, and the Cloak. The clothes he had on were damp, but no longer soaked. They had dried somewhat during his climb through the crevice.
He removed his tube lantern and an extra candle before returning the Cloak to his pack. The extra candle he placed in a pocket for easy access, and the candle which was already lit, he placed within his tube lantern. Then with pack again across his back, and tube lantern in hand, he stood up and walked to the doorway.
Shining his light through the doorway revealed a narrow, dust filled hallway extending away into darkness. A secret passage maybe? The amount of undisturbed dust on the floor would suggest this area hadn’t seen traffic in quite some time. He started to move into the passage then came to a stop.
He took a moment to remove a white cloth from out of his pack and place it over the end of the tube lantern. Now only a soft glow pervaded the darkness. This had a twofold benefit. One, he could still see while not overtly advertising his presence. And two, if this was in fact a secret passage, then the chance of seeing light coming though a hidden opening or spyhole was greatly improved. The only drawback was that the distance he could see down the passage was minimal. Resuming his forward motion, he entered the passage.
The narrowness of it barely afforded him enough room to walk without scraping shoulders on the walls to either side. The glow from the cloth shrouded tube showed them to be plain stone, unadorned except for the occasional patch of cobwebs stretching from one side to the other.
He followed the passage for a brief moment before coming to a junction. Another narrow passage joined the one he was in from the right. After trying to ascertain which would be the better way to go in the glow of the cloth covered lantern, he removed the cloth to provide better lighting. Unfortunately the added light failed to reveal any difference between the two passages. Both continued past the reach of the tube lantern’s light, and the floors of each held an identical layer of undisturbed dust. Deciding to continue straight, he replaced the cloth at the end of the lantern and resumed his progress.
After going no more than five feet, he saw the glint of something metallic ahead on the floor. When he came to it he discovered the glint to be a reflection of the lantern’s light coming from a silver coin. Bart recognized the coin as one having been widely used for decades. Picking it up, he put it in his pouch and continued on.
The passage continued for a while before another intersected his again. This time, the passage came from the right, and a moment of removing the cloth and shining the tube lantern’s light down it revealed stone steps going up. Ten feet from where he stood, the stone steps ascended up out of sight. Deciding his best chance of escape lay that way, he replaced the cloth over the lantern and turned down the new passage toward the steps.
It was a steep, narrow, and winding path the steps led until they ended at another passage moving directly away from the mouth of the stairwell. Leaving the steps, Bart began following this new passage. As the others below, this one too had been undisturbed for some time. Bart got to thinking that perhaps the knowledge of this secret area, if secret it was, might have been forgotten over the years.
As he followed the passage, he kept his eyes and ears alert for any sign of a way out. Fifteen feet from the mouth of the stairwell, he saw a light ahead. At that point, he slowed his progress as he closed the distance to it.
The light as it turned out was sunlight shining through a very narrow opening in the right side of the wall. No more than six inches by one, the opening probably wasn’t large enough to be noticeable from the outside.
A barely noticeable breeze was blowing through. The fresh air was a relief after the mustiness of the lower passage. Putting his eye to the opening, he saw that it faced a large inner garden.
The opening was a good twenty feet above the garden which led him to believe he was on the second floor of the castle. The garden itself was completely encompassed by the castle, a place where those of the castle could go to relax and meet without being observed by the common man.
Three ladies sat in chairs near a fountain. What they were saying went unheard as they were too far away. Bart continued to peer from the opening for several more minutes before continuing down the passage. He still didn’t have a way out, and from where he figured himself to be based on what he saw through the opening, he wasn’t very close to the outer edge of the castle.
Not far from the opening overlooking the inner garden, he spied another area with light. This time, it was on the left side and extended in a four foot vertical line. A door was Bart’s first thought as he hurried toward it. When he reached it, he found that he was correct. About midway up the vertical line of light, a wooden sliding bar locked the door into place. He was sure that if he slid open the bar, he could pull the door open. The light didn’t have near the intensity of the sunlight which had shone through the opening he came across earlier. It must be coming from a candle. And a lit candle meant someone had to be there.
Bart first tried to peer through the crack but couldn’t see much more than a picture hanging on the wall across from him. It was probably a guest room of some sort. No sound came to him as he peered through the crack. It could be that someone had just stepped from the room. But he decided the chance wasn’t worth the risk. If he continued along and found no better way from the secret passage, he would come back and try it.
Moving on, he continued down the passage. In the course of the next five minutes, he came across another secret door similar to the one he had first encountered. Only this time he could hear someone moving around on the other side. A moment’s peering through the crack of the secret door revealed it was one of the castle’s servants going about her work. Leaving the door behind, he continued on.
He had until nightfall to find a suitable exit from which to leave the hidden area. Until then, he would continue to explore in the hopes of finding one which would afford him a good chance to escape. If one didn’t present itself, he would take his chances with what was available.
Chapter Sixteen
“We should wait until dark,” objected Kevik. “If by three hours after sundown he hasn’t shown, then we should try locating him.” He and everyone else but Seth had returned to the inn after talking with Bart via the rings. Seth remained near the castle gates to keep an eye on things.
“But you have two flasks of mixture left,” countered Riyan. He and Kevik were arguing over whether they should use one of his two remaining mixtures of the far seeing spell to locate Bart.
“While that is true,” stated Kevik, “Bart could be holed up somewhere dark. In which case, we would have wasted the mixture for nothing.”
Chad was as worried for Bart as Riyan. But he was siding with Kevik on this one. “I agree with Kevik,” he said. Then as Riyan turned to him he added, “Suppose we find him in serious trouble, what could we do about it anyway? Storm the castle?”
Riyan stewed as he knew his friend was right. “Still…”
“Wait until dark,” Chyfe said. “Bart is very resourceful.”
“That’s right,” agreed Soth. “And at night, we will have a better chance of helping should it be needed.”
“Very well,” he said. Turning to the window, Riyan stared out at the castle.
Ten minutes later, still staring out the window toward the castle, he saw Seth appear out of an alley, racing hell bent towards the inn. “Uh oh,” he said as he turned to the others. “Seth’s returning and it doesn’t look
