Kethril (22 page)

Shortly after lunch, she met with the king
and his most senior advisors, wizards and officers. She told them
all she could about the Rojuun, including the room where
experiments were being performed on humans. Anilyia cast the Rojuun
in as negative a light as she could. They had held her captive,
tortured her, called humans servants and committed atrocities. In
her eyes, Rojuun were true evil.

Her audience listened for hours and asked
numerous questions. She answered them all and they took her very
seriously. The king finally called a break for dinner, promising to
continue the next day.

During the formal dinner, she met two of the
princes. The third was off on military drills. They were nice
enough and fawned over her, but she wasn’t interested. She had a
fiancé plus a lover. Adding anyone else would just complicate
things. The thing that worried her the most was the fact that the
king was fawning over her as well. It turned out his wife had died
recently and he was looking for someone to share his bed with.
Anilyia wanted Tathan to rescue her again by the end of the
night.

She slept alone that night, mostly because
she needed time to think. It took a while for sleep to come.

Tathan didn’t resist as the guards led him
into the oldest section of the castle. The dark walls of the narrow
hall had spots of moss on them, showing that it wasn’t being
maintained. Lanterns placed at far intervals cast dim light. Old
rusted iron torch brackets were empty.

He became worried when they walked him past
a torture chamber with rusty devices. “They don’t use that
anymore,” one of the guards told him. Eighteen additional guards
had gathered along the way plus four wizards. Every one of them
looked nervous that Tathan of the Shadows was their prisoner.
“Nobody’s been tortured in Kethril in over three hundred years and
you’re to be treated well, which is why you’re in the abandoned
royal jail instead of the prison outside the city.”

The news was a relief to Tathan, but he
didn’t say anything. He was concentrating on every detail in the
hopes of finding something that would help him escape. A short
distance further and they were in a circular holding room with an
officer sitting behind a desk. The rest of the guards surrounded
the edges of the room.

“Tathan of the Shadows. How lovely to have
you,” The officer said in a gruff voice. His hair was salt and
peppered and there were scars on his face and bare arms. “I’m sure
you’ll be a model prisoner, won’t you?” he asked with a raised
eyebrow.

“Totally,” Tathan answered. His eyes were
scanning the walls and the iron gate leading to the cell area.

“I knew you would,” The officer replied.
“Take off all your clothes and jewelry, turn over your weapons and
put these on,” he gestured to a folded prison outfit sitting on a
small table to Tathan’s right.

Tathan looked around at all the guards. Just
because one said he was going to be well treated didn’t mean it was
true. “In front of all these men? What about my modesty?” he asked
with an impudent grin. If they were going to do something, that
would most likely get it started.

“I’m sure they’ll look away,” the officer
replied with a smirk. “Weapons, clothes and jewelry, please.”

Tathan wished he had left his jacket back in
his pack along with a few other items. Some of his best things and
a few pouches of gems were in secret, magical pockets in the
jacket, but a good wizard would be able to find them. He folded the
jacket and put it on the table next to the prison outfit. He pulled
eleven knives out and put them on top of the jacket. People always
expected ten knives so he kept eleven just to have an extra. He
took off his jewelry and clothes and stood before them naked.

“He had a sword in the grand court. I swear
it,” said one of the guards who had escorted him down.

“I still do, between my legs. The ladies
love it,” Tathan replied with a cheeky grin. It drew guffaws from
some of the guards.

“Where is your sword . . . Lifedrinker I
believe it’s called?” the officer asked, standing up and walking
around him at a comfortable distance.

“I slipped it to my cousin before leaving. I
won’t take a chance of it getting . . . misplaced.” It was a
believable explanation.

The officer stopped on the left side of
Tathan. “You had your leg tattooed with an image of it? Nice work,”
he pointed at the detailed tattoo of a sword that ran from Tathan’s
waist to just above his knee.

“Yeah. A guy in Dralin did that as payment
for something I acquired for him.”

“Acquired is the word thieves use when they
steal something,” the officer said. When Tathan didn’t respond, the
officer shrugged. “Anyway, that’s not my concern. Put on the
outfit.” Tathan grabbed the plain grey shirt and pants. When he was
done, the officer motioned for one of the guards to open the
gate.

One guard and one wizard moved ahead into
the passage, followed by the officer. Tathan came next then four
more guards and a wizard followed. They looked like the toughest
and most experienced.

The hall had five pairs of cells with solid
iron doors on either side. There was a barred opening in each so
the guards could see the prisoner before opening the door. A locked
slot was at the bottom to slip food through. The officer opened the
last door on the left. “Go to the back of the cell.”

Tathan did so. The officer closed the door
with a clang. There was no access to the lock from the inside.
Words of magic were spoken and Tathan saw the door seal together
with a glowing light. That would complicate escape. Footsteps faded
away.

He looked around at what would be his new
home for however long it took him to break out. Tathan promised
Liselle that he would go to jail, but he never made any agreement
to stay there. Lantern light coming through the barred opening in
the door was the only illumination. It was enough to see a pile of
fresh straw for a bed with a simple cloth pillow in one corner.
There was a bucket for waste and a small table and chair both made
of wood. Damp stone and the dry straw were the only smells. It was
luxurious compared to most cells.

He had hoped for a window, but they were
underground. Even if he did escape, he didn’t know where his
equipment was. He would live without his jacket if necessary, but
it would be hard. There were magic items he
really
wanted
back and his best set of lockpicks was in there too.

Tathan lay down on the straw and took a nap.
There wasn’t anything he could do right away and even if there was,
he wanted to give Liselle and the others some time to get out of
the city before he raised any alarms.

***

Footsteps outside the door woke him.
“Prisoner! Stand against the back of the cell.” Tathan did so. A
guard looked in. “Clear.” Food was pushed through the slit at the
bottom of the door after the cover was moved, followed by a wide,
short mug. The guard put the cover back and footsteps trailed
away.

The food was fresh, if simple. It was beef
stew with a lot of vegetables and tasted excellent. He sat at the
table and ate it slowly, savoring each bite. When in prison, it was
best to enjoy every meal received. He sopped the last of the stew
with some bread that had been included and then drank the
water.

After finishing, he stood and went to the
door. The view was limited, but he could see the door across from
him. “Hey,” he said quietly. Nobody answered. “Hey, is there anyone
else locked up in here?” Still there was no answer.

Tathan moved to the corner of the cell and
sat down with his pillow in his lap. He hated prison even though he
knew he deserved it. All he ever wanted in life was to explore the
world. Tathan didn’t want to kill anyone, but things had gone wrong
at times and it just happened. Silent tears began running down his
cheeks.

Now he had the pressure of taking care of
his cousin and a princess who he was in love with. Tathan also felt
responsible to Sir Danth and Vevin, each of who had problems of
their own. Life was much easier when he was alone and responsible
just for himself, but at the same time, it was lonely.

He buried his face in the pillow, quiet sobs
shaking his shoulders as he thought of how frightened he was
sometimes. There were just so many times a person could have a
sword pointed at them or magic tossed in their direction before it
became overwhelming. Tathan felt ethereal hands caressing his
shoulders and knew shadows were comforting him. He was still angry
with them, but any company felt good at the moment.

The tears didn’t last long. Life went on and
there would be more hard times along with times of joy. There
always was. He took a deep breath, lay down and fell asleep
again.

***

It was the same routine the next morning.
Tathan stood against the wall. The cover was removed and he was
told to slide the plate and cup through. Once he did so, he was
told to go back against the wall and more food was put through
again. It was a decent meal, but prison was going to get old in a
hurry.

As he was finishing, the footsteps echoed
down the hallway again. Tathan went to the wall right away to keep
things moving along. The face looked in again and then disappeared
after seeing him there. “Clear.” Words of magic were spoken and the
glow appeared around the edges of the door.

King Cranwer stepped through, still wearing
his crown sideways. One of his wizards and one of his knights
followed him. “Have you been abused or mistreated by any of my men,
Tathan of the Shadows?”

Tathan considered saying yes to be funny,
but it was unusual for a king to see to a prisoner’s comfort. “The
guards have been respectful and the food is good. The entertainment
leaves something to be desired though.”

The king laughed softly. “Well said. I will
check on you again next week.” With that, he left. The door was
sealed and Tathan was alone.

He sat down on the chair and considered his
fate. There was no way he was going to sit in a prison for any
length of time, but it would be difficult to break out. He rubbed
his hand along his left thigh where his sword was. Luckily, the
guards hadn’t known that Lightdrinker could turn into a tattoo. He
could cut through the door with it and slaughter the guards on his
way out, but didn’t want to do that since they had treated him well
and he was already in enough trouble with Liselle. It would have
been nice to keep the ring of invisibility.

There was also Anilyia to consider. He
wasn’t willing to leave her alone unless she was mad at him. He had
told her about his past and she seemed alright with it, but being
called a famed seducer of women was probably going to complicate
things. He pushed against a few stones in the walls and put his ear
against them to listen for anything at all. Everything was
solid.

Tathan’s hair had grown down past his
shoulder blades over the past couple of months. Tathan thought for
sure that they would have searched it before putting him in the
cell. He pulled a stick out of the wavy black mess. It wasn’t just
any stick, but a magical one Mother Tree of the Willden had given
him for investigating the Rojuun.

After going to the door to make certain no
one was coming, he activated it. A green light at the tip
illuminated dark areas. It would also find hidden things. He knew
it wouldn’t help him in the cell, but there was always the hope a
nine hundred year old castle would have passages that would lead to
the princess’s chambers or secret ways out of the castle.

His jaw dropped when he saw a space behind
the wall by the straw bed. Occasionally, something unbelievably
lucky would happen to Tathan that would never happen to anyone
else. Tathan never relied on that luck or even trusted it, but it
was there nonetheless. He took one look through the cell door again
and when he was sure no one was coming, he began looking for how to
access the secret passage.

The light showed three rods leading to a
stone set near the ceiling. It was too much to hope that it would
work. Tathan grabbed the chair and stood upon it to reach the
stone. He pushed it hard and a section of the wall opened. It
jerked and stuttered a few times with a slight grinding, but
nothing too loud. Tathan dashed to the cell door and looked to see
if anyone had heard. It was quiet from the direction of the
guardroom.

He put the chair back by the table so as not
to give a clue where the switch was, and then straightened up the
disturbed straw. He went to the secret passage and took a few
tentative steps inside. The air was musty and stale, but
breathable.

When the door began to close on its own,
Tathan jumped back into the cell. He desperately wanted to leave,
but decided it would be best to wait until night. Extracting the
princess during the day would be much more difficult.

***

Lunch and dinner were served with little
fanfare. Tathan forced himself to remain calm and eat slowly. It
would help digestion and give the guards time to settle in for the
night.

After finishing dinner, he set the chair
next to the wall and pushed the trigger stone. He went through the
same process of putting the chair back against the table and fixing
the straw before stepping inside. When the door began to close
again, he jumped further into the passage to get out of its way.
The wall shut and sealed itself.

Tathan examined his surroundings. The stones
were damp and moss covered indicating that no one had set foot
there in centuries. It took little mental effort to make his sword
reappear and draw it. Tathan held the stick in his left hand to
light the way. Less than a minute later, he came across another
passage to the right