-- The Escape from the Castle of the Star from Elissa's point of view -- Abram
1st Day of the Apocalypse:
The actual shift change for the guards wouldn’t take place for another few hours after our initial escape, but we had already spent at least one of those hours just getting to this room down the hall, which seemed like a dead end. There just had to be a secret passage somewhere! Rowena Winterbrook had specifically said “secret passage at the end of the hall.” We all had heard it.
When someone is telling you the way to escape a dungeon the night before your public execution, it is not something you pay attention to lightly. It certainly was a surprise to hear these directions from our dead mother’s handmade, when we had been told by Brice Welderman, one of our father’s guards still loyal to our family, it would be him devising our escape. But that was over two weeks ago, which meant he was probably dead by now.
Finally, we found some lose stones in the south wall of the room, revealing the secret passage, which to my utter disappointment, was only three feet high and three feet wide. So, who is going to go first and who is going to go last?
Willa, being the half-orc bastard that she is, was definitely going first. Besides she was over six feet tall and still pretty damn quick on her feet. Not to mention the fact she can see in the dark. Josiah, wanting to make sure he was in on all the action, jumped in behind her. Then, Lucas, merely not wishing to be the last, quickly jumps in behind Josiah. Simon grabs me and says, “Your next,” since I was just standing around like a blubbering fool still grieving over my dead twin, my other half, and not really caring if I lived or died at this point. Elias went after Simon because we needed someone intelligent, like Oberon, to go last and get rid of our tracks and replace the stones as if they’d never been moved.
I never knew Willa could actually scream like a girl, but the way that HUGE rat surprised her from a whole in the wall, I probably would have screamed, too. Actually, it did scare me because I had no idea at the time what was going on and then Elias starts cramping every one wanting to squeeze past to get to the fighting. With Willa and Josiah screaming and fighting the monster rat in the front – which Willa quickly kills and quiets down – Simon and I screaming at Elias in the back to stop pushing because he’s hurting us, reassuring him he really cannot get past and he’s only going to get us all killed. Besides, the rat is already dead. It is a wonder we didn’t have half the castle fully aware of our location.
Josiah informs us Willa is badly injured, but can go on, so we all start moving ahead again, all a little more shaken up than we were before. (Except for me, who doesn’t care either way.) I never liked to see anyone hurt, but nothing could hurt me worse than the pain in the deep, dark, black, dag-nasty whole in my heart. When we get to the crypt, Oberon goes to Willa and casts some spell over her – chanting in an old tongue. She looks scared, but her expression quickly turns to relief when the spell takes affect. Her wounds heal . . . . .with no bandages or medicine.
Great Age of Faith, I sure could drain a goblet of wine right now.
At this point, Elias starts shooting off his mouth about wanting to take this spear from the statue at the center of the crypt. Lucas joins in wanting to raid all the tombs. I’m thinking “go figure” but Oberon keeps to his values and reminds every one it is wrong to desecrate the dead and Lucas agrees. I am thankful and nod. It is a cool looking spear, though.
We all start to move on to the Elder Crypts. We come across Cuthwolf’s tomb, written in Thorcian and continued south. As we go, those of us who can read, see Marshall, Rowland, Sigmund, Abigail and Brenda. Passing through a south door, we see more tombs: Defray, Rowland and a dead end. Being we find no Percival’s tomb and no fork in the tunnel. We cut back and go east.
A foul stench grows stronger as we come upon two doors and a sarcophagus, with Fletcher Muld, the brother of Sir Waylan Muld who died protecting our father on the road. We notice it is partially open. Actually, it’s more like partially closed, like someone intended to close it, but did it hastily enough they failed to complete the job. We all agree to check it out.
In the tomb is actually Sir Waylan’s body. Oberon, with his strange abilities, identified him as being dead for about six weeks.
Realizing now, there are three doors. . .we check them all out, and nothing, nothing, nothing. So we go down the hall to what seems like a storage room. Oberon, Simon and I sense the rats, but before we can say anything, they attack. Elias, Willa and Lucas are taken by surprise. (I was too excited to right down any battle details. . . .)
We find 508 silver pieces, four smoke sticks and discover a stack of boxes blocking the way to a secret corridor. Wait, there is also a corpse with a copper ring still on the finger. Removing it, we read the inscription, “to my dearest Fletcher.” Thus, the missing corpse is accounted for and Oberon takes an instant liking to him. After packing Fletcher’s corpse on his back, Oberon leads the way through the East door and finds Prince Percival’s Tomb. Whew! I was getting worried there for a while.
Josiah finds the secret door here in the east wall by pushing a stone and ‘wa-la’, the door opens. Hopefully, this leads us to the Elder Crypts. The door leads to a passage way which is 10 feet tall, narrow, but still plenty of room for everyone. Slam! Oberon gets trapped under a portcullis. With Willa heading up the front, she’s now on her own. Josiah leads up the back, but if something were to attack, we’d have to fight it one at a time. Just as I suspected, we get attacked by dark mantels. I knew I recognized that smell...
--by Danielle McCabe
