After over a couple of hours of journeying through the forest, Tobias gestured for Hannah and Matthew to stop. Matthew thought it must be about 8 p.m., though without his watch working he did not know for certain. But he knew he was very tired and that it was getting a little chilly.
He looked at the trees around him; their leaves were rustling a little in the breeze. He also saw that there was a clearing ahead, which Tobias approached slowly, making the noise of an owl twice as he did so. Matthew heard the same noises in response. Tobias motioned them forwards.
Out of nowhere, about ten men then appeared. They seemed a mixed bunch of young and old but were well armed with swords and cross bows. One of them looked different: he was dressed like a soldier and seemed to be the leader. He came forward, looking at Matthew and Hannah with an unhappy look on his face.
‘Yes, Curt. But you know Hannah,’ said Tobias before the other man could speak.
‘This will be no visit to woods, picking mushrooms, Hannah,’ said Curt, who Matthew could see was shorter than he but much, much stockier. He also had a big scar on his forehead. ‘There is a good chance we will be caught.’
‘Yes, I know, Curt,’ said Hannah. ‘Tobias has already warned me. But you are not the only ones unhappy with the Baron. We have a right to be involved as well.’
“We?” thought Matthew, now realising the enormity of what he was involved in.
‘All right. But we’ll make no allowances for you. Any trouble and you look after yourselves. Who knows what the Baron will do if he catches this boy? Right, enough talking. Let’s go,’ said Curt. ‘It’s going to take at least an hour to get in the Castle.’
With that they went to the end of the Clearing. Curt by name, curt by nature, Matthew thought as he saw the Castle looming up in front of them in the light of the full moon. It seemed to grow out of the forest and was on a hilly island surrounded by a small river. There was a bridge to the left of it and a road at the front which connected it to the mainland through the shallows of a part of the river. This road came and passed by the right of where they were hidden.
The Castle itself consisted of one tall but not too narrow turreted tower with a sloping roof in the middle of the island. There was a lower one behind it and several smaller ones surrounding it going down the hill, their walls extending down into the river. Where the Castle opened to the road there seemed to be some people moving about who Matthew assumed were sentries.
‘We’re going near the bridge. There’s a secret tunnel there, which will take us into the castle, not far from the dungeon,’ Tobias whispered to Hannah, as they descended from the clearing down into the wooded left bank of the river. Curt and his men were in front with Matthew, Hannah, and Tobias at the back. It was quite steep going down and in the dark Matthew had trouble finding his footing in the tangled undergrowth.
As they got nearer to the bottom, Curt suddenly motioned for them to stop and crouch down. Below but coming in their direction on a track along the river, Matthew could make out a couple of horsemen through the trees in the light of the moon. They were armed with swords but were talking to each other quite loudly and did not seem to be very cautious. It would be easy to ambush them, Matthew thought. He then realised he was getting a little carried away with himself – he couldn’t ambush a paper bag.
After they had passed, Curt motioned for everyone to move again. They walked parallel to the track below. Then Curt stopped them again and went down past the track with a couple of his men to somewhere near the river’s edge. Matthew could see through the trees that they were quite near the bridge to the Castle. He was feeling nervous but knew that he would have felt even worse had he backed out of coming.
Curt returned. ‘I’ve found it. Let’s go. But be careful. If someone is looking at the track from the Castle they might see us in the moonlight.’ He then led them down to the entrance.
‘Curt used to be a soldier at the Castle when the old Baron was in power, so he knows all the secret ways,’ whispered Hannah to Matthew as they quickly went down and passed over the track into some bushes.
Curt was crouched down holding onto a stone slab on its side, which was obviously the tunnel’s entrance door. He motioned for them all to descend down a ladder into it before doing so himself and closing the entrance. He then lit a lamp and got to the front again leading them into the darkness of the tunnel.
Matthew could see that it was not very high and he had to crouch down a little. It was made of bricks but there were some small drips from the river above which occasionally landed on him in the echo of the tunnel. It seemed longer than he thought it would be and after about ten minutes of going down and then up again they seemed to come to its end. They stopped and Curt turned out his lamp. Before this, he gestured for everyone to be absolutely silent.
He then began to climb up the ladder at the other end. Matthew thought he caught the glint of a dagger in his mouth as he was doing so. Matthew then heard and saw the very faint light of a trap door opening. Curt disappeared up the ladder, then came down and gave the signal for them to follow him.
Matthew waited his turn and when he got to the top of it, Curt helped him up. Matthew still could not believe what situation he was in: about to risk his life in the Castle of an evil Baron who knew magic in another world to save the grandfather of a girl he had only known for two days or so.
Hannah and Tobias were the last to come up and when they did so, Curt replaced the trap door. They were in some kind of small room just about big enough for them all, containing old boxes. The trap door they had come out of was in a low wooden platform, which had barrels on it.
Curt went to the room’s door. It was not open. One of the other men approached it, taking something which to Matthew looked like a bended piece of a wire coat hanger from his pocket. He put it in the lock and moved it around until there was the click of the lock opening.
Curt, Tobias, and the other men then slowly and quietly drew their swords and readied their cross bows. Even Hannah got her dagger out. Matthew felt a little useless without anything and just gulped with fear. Curt slowly opened the creaking door, which to Matthew sounded very loud. Curt looked in either direction to make sure no one was outside and then headed left out of the room into the corridor.
It was lit at regular intervals by some torches on the dark stone walls. They all tried not to make any noise but if anyone were around they probably would hear them, though Matthew. Soon, they came to a meeting of corridors. Curt gestured for them to wait until he had a look to see if there was anyone around. There was not and he led them straight on. He then seemed to go at a faster pace, like he was near the dungeon.
They came to another set of corridors but this time the ones on the right had some stairs going down. Curt slowly led them down. But at the bottom, he hesitated. ‘They’re coming!’ he whispered urgently as he motioned for them to go back up.
They did so as quietly as they could and retreated round the corner they had come. They then hunched themselves against the wall. But they could hear the noise of several soldiers coming up the stairs. Matthew thought they sounded rough and in a boisterous mood. There was no way the soldiers could miss them, he thought with a shudder, as he heard them come up the stairs.