Chapter 13 - A Secret Passage
Chalice awoke to a flickering light. It was coming from the door crack of her bedchamber. She had been having a wonderful dream about a huge banquet in a grand hall with everyone she knew around her. She wished she were back in the dream. Her stomach rumbled loudly and she knew she needed to eat. Slowly, carefully, she got out of bed and groped for her lambskin. Sliding it on, she left the bedchamber to find the fire still burning in the next room. The room was huge and the fire provided the only light to guide her.
I have to find food, she thought as she let her nose guide her. She could still smell the remnants of dinner. A long hallway opened on the left side of the dining room and stretched into the darkness. It was dimly lit by the wall lamps that dotted the corridor along its length. She could detect the scent of a kitchen nearby and saw light from underneath a doorway ahead. She was still a little tired and weak, but strong enough to walk.
Arriving at the door, she could hear the clanking of pots and pans as they were being scrubbed and scoured by the kitchen maids. She raised her fist to knock, then stopped. Down the corridor, just a few a paces to the left, firelight glimmered out of an open door and she heard faint voices coming from the room. As she approached, the voices became louder. She recognized them.
She entered what appeared to be an enormous study, similar in design to that of Maehbecks’ house, but much longer and wider. A roaring fire blazed on the hearth at the end of the room and the clock on the wall above it read midnight. She could hear the clear voices of Ben, Jor, and Sieren issue from a closed door on the right. She thought she might ask Sieren if she could have a midnight snack, but hesitated before knocking as soon as she heard the topic of conversation.
“This is not a daietych,” she heard Ben say.
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know, but it has no velarium. It is pure obsidian.”
“What is obsidian?”
“It is a dark, crystalline material that the Chinuka shape into tools. It is very strong.”
“So, it’s just an obsidian stone?”
“No, it is not just that either. It contains some kind of power and a lot of it, a sort with which I am not familiar. This stone was not made to do what the daietycha do. It was made to hold something.”
“It’s a container?”
“It appears to be. When I trace it, it glows red hot from within its center, but I can’t read it. It is not a power I can control. It is of a different essence, I think. I will need to take it to the Readers. There may be one of them that studies the elements that will know what it is.”
“And the dagger?”
“It is made of the same material, but what its purpose is, I can’t say. I’m hoping they will know more when we get to Portalis. There may be something in the library there that can help us as well.”
“How are you planning to get there?”
“By boat … but there’s a complication.”
“What’s that?”
“I will have a whole village of people with me.”
“A whole village?!” Jor laughed. “Yes, that does complicate things, doesn’t it?”
“Ben, why are you going to have an entire village with you?” Sieren asked curiously and Ben started in about their plans to go to Chainbridge to free the prisoners. As he spoke, Chalice studied the room around her. At the other end, near the fire sat a beautiful darkly polished cedar desk and a raised relief globe on a tall stand to the right of it. The length of the room was almost completely given to bookshelves with sliding ladders. In between the bookshelves on the walls, polished wooden panels supported candelabras that were nailed into place.
A bit of light would be good, she thought. She decided that a candle would do and strode over to the wall.
“So, how are you going to do this Ben? Do you need help? If so, we can send our men. There’s no need for you to do this on your own.”
“Thank you, but no. That many people might attract unwanted attention and it won’t be necessary. I used to teach at Chainbridge. I know that place like the back of my hand. I know a secret entrance, too, and I know exactly where the prisoners will be. It’s the only place in the whole fortress that will hold them. It’s just a matter of going in at night, disabling the guards, if there are any, and freeing the villagers. We can lead them back out the passage. It should be easy.”
“If you say so. We trust you, Ben, but … once you are all out, how are you going to hide, much less guide a whole village of people to Portalis?”
“Hiding them is easy. It is a simple matter of bending light. Transporting them … well, that is another matter. There is no velarium in the ground anywhere nearby, so I can’t make a transport. This is another reason why I am here. I will need your help once again.”
“But how … oh, I see! You want to use our merchant ships at the dock in Auvergny.”
“If that is alright with you.”
“Of course! You can have as many as you need.”
When Chalice had reached the candelabra, she reached up and tugged one of the candles. It wouldn’t budge. She pulled harder, to the left, up and then to the right and suddenly let go as the whole candelabra shifted on its own. She thought she had broken it until she heard a soft click and saw that a portion of the wooden wall panel to the left opened up. She pulled the panel back and peered down a winding staircase into darkness.
A secret passage! she thought. Sieren had told them about this. She glanced up and found another candelabra on the opposite wall. She rushed over and grabbed a candle from it, which slid out of its socket with ease. Making her way to the fire, she lit it and went back to the secret door.
Suddenly, she heard Sieren from the other room: “The papers you will need to procure the ships are in the study, Ben. Follow me. I’ll get them for you.”
Chalice heard their footsteps approaching the door. She realized then that there was no way she would be able to explain what she was doing. For them to find her there, sneaking around the castle with a lit candle in front of a secret passage would be an insult. So, she did the only thing she could do. She jumped into the doorway and slowly closed the wooden panel until she heard the soft click of the candelabra shifting back into place. Then, she turned to descend the staircase. She was too curious not to explore what lay beneath. She heard the others in the study and quietly stepped with care.
The stairs seemed to spiral forever which made it hard as her muscles were still shaky and weak. When she finally reached the bottom, the room below appeared to be a study similar to the one above. The light of her candle did not reach the other end, but she could see bookshelves, a small closet, and a long, polished wooden table that stretched down the length of the room. On the table lay scattered papers and what appeared to be a collection of maps.
She approached the table cautiously. As she moved closer, the candlelight reached the other end of the room where she could make out a door to a bedchamber and another staircase that led up, she supposed, to another room. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she glanced down at the table top and saw a huge drawing of a meadow and a stream, surrounded by trees, cradled in a small dell between two hills and a towering rock cliff. She shuffled the paper to the left to see those that lay beneath. One had what looked like a measured layout of a huge city and the other was what appeared to be a diagram of a network of small tunnels and large corridors. There were markings and names written all over the papers.
Suddenly, she heard faint footsteps coming from the top of the staircase and her heart skipped a beat. Here they come again! Panicked, she peered back down at the papers and names flashed in her mind as she frantically read them — Portalis, Narvoq, Xiron, Chaeopira, Gesheriq, and Barenthren.
“We think you should see them, Ben. It’s important,” the deep voice of Jor echoed from above. They were getting closer, she realized, and there was no time to esc
ape to the staircase at the other end. She cursed herself for being such a curious fool and swiftly bolted for the closet. She opened it quietly and quickly ducked inside just before their candlelight reached around the last turn of the staircase.
The closet was small, but there was just enough room for her to stand. Realizing that her candlelight would give her away, she blew it out immediately and slid behind a cloak hanging from a hook. She placed her ear as close to the closet door as she could and listened. She prayed that they wouldn’t open it. Then, she heard footsteps entering the room.
“Here they are,” Sieren said. “We thought this would be the best place for them. This is the map that reveals the location of Portalis. This one concerned us the most.”
There was a long silence and then she heard Ben say: “Yes, well almost. You have to know the general location already to be able to decipher it, but yes, I see what you mean.”
“Here are the others that detail the layout of Portalis itself as well as the underground cities connected to it.”
Again there was a long stretch of silence as she heard the shuffling of papers.
“Yes, these are quite thorough. What is this?”
“This, we believe, is the diagram of the Maaldan palace because the one underneath it, here, is a map of the islands.”
“But Ben,” Chalice heard Jor cut in, “what is interesting about this diagram of the Maaldan palace is this. You see? Just here.”
“What is that?” Ben asked.
“We don’t know, but there is obviously something huge located right on this spot, just outside the castle wall, important enough to be marked on the map.”
“Where did you get all of these?” Ben asked.
“We confiscated them from a Searcher who needed a place to stay for the night. When we interrogated him, he said that they had been in his family for generations.”
“Hmm … a Searcher? For the cup of power? Are you sure?”
“That’s what he said. Why?”
“These maps belong in the Archive.”
The Archive? What’s the Archive? Chalice wondered silently.
“This is how I know,” Ben continued. “You see this inscription on top? That is a special sign of the Readers. And here is the serial number, right here. This tells me that these were once catalogued there. This is another thing that worries me. How can these have been taken out?”
“I don’t know. I just put them down here so they would be safe and so you would have access to them if you ever came to visit again. I’m sure you’ll want to take them with you now that you’re returning to Portalis.”
“No. Our journey ahead is too dangerous. If something went wrong, they could fall into the enemy’s hands. It’s a good thing you confiscated them before they did. Thank you! They can stay here for now. They will be safe enough. This castle is a fortress, so I’m not worried. I’ll come back for them later.” Ben paused, then said: “I would like to write down these serial numbers, though.” Chalice heard a shuffling sound and the scratching of a quill on paper. Then, Ben spoke again. “Sieren, Jor, if you find any other maps or documents with these marks, please keep them down here, alright?”
“Of course!” Jor answered.
“Alright, time to go back up,” she heard Sieren say. “Our tea will be ready by now and we need to get those procurement papers prepared for you.”
“After you, darling,” Jor said.
Chalice heard them leave the room and ascend the staircase back to the study. She waited an extra minute just for good measure and then let out a long, relieved breath. They were gone. Slowly opening the closet door, it suddenly occurred to her that there was another problem. It was pitch black and she couldn’t see a thing! She moved very carefully, groping her way to the staircase at the other end of the room. She had no idea where it led, but she was sure that if she took the other one, she would find Ben, Sieren, and Jor in the study, talking until the early morning hours and she couldn’t wait that long.
She made her way slowly up the staircase, groping carefully along the sides, until she found a door. She felt for a latch, similar to the one she had seen at the other end, and gently shifted it to the left. It moved silently until she heard a soft click. The door panel opened a crack and all she could see beyond it was darkness. She crept as silently as she could into the room, in case it was a bedchamber. She didn’t want to wake anyone this late. Then, she suddenly recognized the open door, the flickering light, and the bed where she had just been sleeping. It was her room! The other staircase led back to her room! Then it struck her — not her room, Ben’s room.
Of course. It was for his use when he came to visit, she realized. It only made sense that he would have to have direct access to a secret study that he could use — a secret study where Sieren could hide maps of Portalis to keep them safe.
What a fiasco! she thought. Placing the candle into her bag, she decided to leave the room once again in search of food. This time, she would just stop at the kitchen and not let her curiosity go wild again. This time, she told herself, she would stay on track – no detours, no interruptions, just straight to her target. She was determined and as soon as she passed through the doorway, she jumped with a start.
“Chalice! My dear, what are you doing out of bed?” Sieren exclaimed. She had been standing just outside the study speaking with a kitchen maid. “You shouldn’t be up,” she said as moved brusquely down the hallway to meet her.
“I’m just so hungry.”
“Of course! You must be famished. I will have Sasha bring you a tray.” She moved toward Chalice and offered to take her coat. Chalice acquiesced, as they both re-entered the bedchamber where she found herself once again in bed. She noted how motherly Sieren was, taking her coat and boots, placing them aside with her bags, and tucking her in.
“I’ll go tell her now to bring you a tray. You stay in bed.”
“Okay, goodnight Sieren.”
“Goodnight, darling.”
Chalice couldn’t help but feel a little pang of guilt after having sneaked so furtively around her home. Well, it was true that she hadn’t intended to, but all the same, she felt it was a little dishonest.
If it hadn’t been for my stupid curiosity! she chided herself.
After a few minutes, Sasha arrived with a tray of food, that she set on the bed next to Chalice. She lit the lamp on the bedside table, wished her a goodnight, and left the room. It was the honeyed ham and roast duck that the others had had that evening. There were vegetables, peas, warm bread with butter, and a large glass of milk. She dug into it rapaciously, as if she hadn’t eaten in months. The nourishment immediately gave her strength. It was just the sustenance she needed and when she was finished, she lay back on the pillows with a full belly, closed her eyes, and was again fast asleep.