Keeping her head bowed and her eyes fixed on the two orcs guarding the door, Natalia walked across the opening with her sword in hand. The two orcs didn’t move when they saw her, they stood motionless at the door as she approached. Natalia wondered if she might be moving faster than most humans or orcs; regardless, they didn’t react until she was on them. Before the orcs could reach for their weapons, Natalia lopped off their heads in a single cross-cutting stroke. Not bothering to glance back, she grabbed the door handle and pushed in. Turning, she saw Solomon sprinting after her, the orcs and soldiers in the opening finally realizing what had happened. She closed and bolted the door behind Solomon. They managed to drop the solid beam into its iron brackets, barring further entry, just as the clan outside reached the door. The orcs would now have to break through the thick wood panels if they were going to get inside at this entrance.
Natalia half-expected Solomon to rave at her for her decision, but to her surprise, he said coolly, “Follow me, quickly now.”
They descended the stairs just inside the castle’s rear entrance. The shouts and pounding dropped away as Solomon led Natalia into the dungeons under the castle keep. Taking an unlit torch from the iron holder bolted to the stone wall near the bottom of the stairs, Natalia chanced a spark of magic to set the burlap-wrapped end ablaze.
“Anders?” she said, holding the torch out in front of her and hearing the name echo into the hollow dungeon.
“Ivan?” Solomon said a little more loudly.
For a moment Natalia and Solomon paused to listen, but their words went unanswered so they stepped farther into the dingy castle basement. A weak crackling voice sounded just over the rasps of their own breathing. Natalia heard a faint, “Help.” They rushed through the gaps between cells, lighting each cell with their torchlight to see who was locked inside.
Natalia and Solomon searched until they found the source of the cry. Natalia exposed a man in chains lying on the floor with an untouched bowl of water lying just out of his reach. “Ivan,” she said sliding over to him and examining the prisoner. One look at his sunken features told her this wasn’t the noble rider she’d known; this was a prisoner on the brink of starvation, essentially left for dead. The man’s skin sagged around every bone, gravity pulling at his last waning strength. She briefly entertained breaking his chains and setting him free, but she knew he wasn’t strong enough to escape. He was dead already and didn’t know it. She looked to Solomon and he shook his head. Giving the prisoner his freedom, Natalia’s sword ended his suffering.
“They’re not down here,” she said, walking briskly from the tragic scene. “We’ll need to keep looking throughout the castle.”
“They’re coming for us now,” Solomon said. “You heard the pounding against the back door. They know we’re here. That door we came through, it only leads two ways, up or down. They’ll figure it out quickly once inside.”
“There’s another way out of here, though, isn’t there?” Natalia asked.
“The stairs to the main floor, but they lead right into the center of the castle. We’d likely run into guards, orcs, and possibly Merglan himself,” Solomon said, shaking his head. A calm came over him, though, as he looked into Natalia’s green eyes, “But it’s the only way.”
“Come on, Sol,” Natalia said, holding his gaze. “Lead the way.”
Solomon jogged across the dank room to another set of stairs. Natalia could hear his breathing become more labored as they climbed. She wanted to move faster to beat those who were searching for them. They would soon be on their way down, but she wouldn’t leave Solomon behind.
Nearing the main floor, Natalia extinguished her torch and dumped it into an iron cage bolted to the wall. Daylight shone as they reached the top of the stairs. The empty hallway lined with towering rectangular windows offered them a view of orc milling in the courtyard beyond. The door to the keep burst open in the neighboring entrance hall and she could hear shouting.
“Hurry,” he whispered and hustled to a hallway connecting the entrance hall and another enormous room sealed with double-wide doors. Stepping into an adjacent stairwell, she and Solomon started up more stone steps toward the second floor. Natalia looked back to see a line of orcs funneling into the dungeon. Tucking around the corner, she continued to tiptoe after Solomon as they neared the second floor.
“That was close,” she whispered.
“We need to keep moving. Their search down below won’t take long,” Solomon said.
“But they don’t know where in the castle we’ve gone to,” Natalia said. “We could be anywhere.”
“Inside,” Solomon corrected. “We could be anywhere inside.”
Coming to the landing, Natalia poked her head out from the stairwell and looked down the hallway. The expansive corridor was empty, lined with torches and oversized paintings of kings and other people of importance.
Stepping out into the hall, Natalia stared at a painting to her right, “Where do we go now?”
“Maybe Merglan’s keeping them in a chamber room? I suggest we open doors as we go,” he said starting past her and moving toward the first door to the right.
Natalia looked at a portrait of a young man with a crown on his head. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and a strong jawline etched with a trim blond beard. The black and red robes of nobility flowed across his shoulders and out of the frame. She cleared her throat and said, “Hey, Solomon, this looks like you, but younger.”
“There’s no time for joking around,” Solomon barked as he focused on their task. “Get to searching.”
Natalia knew he was right and moved quickly to the first door on the left side of the corridor. Turning latches, Natalia continued to push through, examining furnished rooms that looked as though they’d been abandoned for years. They worked quickly, calling for Anders and Ivan as they went. As they neared the end of the hallway, she heard orcs grunting and charging their way up the stairs. The last room at the end of the hall provided their only chance to escape, all of the other rooms led nowhere. As the orcs’ marching got louder, Natalia grabbed Solomon by the arm, and stepped inside the final chamber, closing the double-wide doors behind them.
Once inside the room, she looked to either side, hoping to see a brace to bar the entrance as they’d done at the castle’s rear doorway, but she couldn’t find one. Natalia looked up, arching her neck to see the ceiling and circling to face the expanse before them. The room was enormous. Light shone through the massive stained-glass windows lining the wall to her left, illuminating a row of columns lining each side. She ran across the width of the room, searching for an exit or somewhere to hide. Seeing that several of the pillars were broken, she and Solomon hurried toward the fragmented blocks of stone scattered on the floor. As the sound of their pursuers reached the entrance, Natalia ducked behind a large section of downed pillars. Solomon crouched next to her just as the orcs kicked open the doors and charged into the room.
Solomon tugged at her sleeve. She looked at him, following his finger as he pointed toward a small exit on the wall behind them. The narrow door wasn’t far from where they hid, but once again there was nothing to hide behind if they moved in that direction. He motioned that they must go there. Natalia shifted, moving her hand to the floor. When she placed her palm on the ground, she felt a gritty film. Charcoal marked the palm of her hand and she noticed for the first time the black burn marks along the floor. She looked at the ballooning black stain on the floor as it extended out toward the wooden door that was their destination. She quickly examined deep gouges cut into the stone floor. Four horizontal paired marks, and then four more spaced a few yards apart. She knew of only one creature that had claws that could scar stone so deeply. Dragons. Solomon tapped her shoulder and nodded, moving to a crouch and poised to run. Natalia waited for the old man to lead. When he didn’t go right away, she looked at him.
He whispered, “You first!”
Natalia took that to mean she could reach and open the door much faster than he could. Once he got there, they could lock it shut before the orcs had time to react. She rolled from her seated position, getting her feet under her. A short breath later, Natalia sprang out toward the narrow doorframe.
She slipped through without hearing any reaction from the orcs and left the door cracked open for Solomon. Peeking out, she looked to see how far he was from reaching her when she heard an orc shout. She expected to see Solomon hustling toward the small doorway she’d passed through, but didn’t see him at all. Natalia watched the orcs run, pointing to the far end of the room, opposite where she had gone. Natalia cursed as she saw the old man running away from her along the side wall toward the stained glass. Looking ahead of him, Natalia saw a small depression like the one she stood in just below the right window. Judging the distance, Natalia thought she could reach it before the orcs did.
Natalia made to run toward Solomon, but stopped. Along the opposite wall, orcs and soldiers began piling into the room through the main double-wide doors marking the second floor corridor she and Solomon had entered from. Natalia moved back into the shadow of the slim doorframe, knowing she couldn’t cut through that many orcs in time to help Solomon. She stood with her back pressed against the wall, tears welling in her eyes. She wanted to scream and rush out with all her magic blazing, but even if she did, it wouldn’t help Ivan or Anders now.
What the hell, Solomon? she shouted silently. You fool! You stupid old fool! Natalia felt even sadder as she realized the old man had gone the opposite direction on purpose. He’d known what he was getting into when he came with her. She cursed him for forcing himself onto her mission, then pushed off the wall and continued up the tightly winding staircase to the next floor. On the landing, Natalia hesitantly peered into the hallway. Empty to either side. She bent over, placing her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath through her tears. She knew she couldn’t wallow in the sorrow for long. She had to make Solomon’s sacrifice worth something. She had to find the others.
Gathering her courage, Natalia stepped warily out into the open. Torches along the third floor hallway provided dim lighting. At the first door, she found a quiet bedroom, untouched with years of dust on the furniture. Quietly, she moved to the next door. Another bedroom, but his one had fresh bedding and the chairs around a decorative table appeared to have been used. She called out, “Ivan? Anders?” but heard no reply. Clothes lay in a pile next to the bed. She instantly recognized them. “Ivan,” she called again, louder this time as she walked deeper into the room.
As she reached the center of the room, Natalia felt the overwhelming sense that Ivan was there, but he wasn’t responding. She searched the entire royal chamber for any other signs of her friend, but his clothes were the only evidence of him having been there. As she looked around the room, Natalia knew Ivan was there, but she just couldn’t see him. Suddenly Natalia saw the light from the mirror glowing within her cloak. When she pulled it from her pocket, she saw Nadir’s face looking back at her.
“Natalia, we’ve figured it out,” he said.
Confused and frustrated, she replied, “What do you mean?” She walked to the ornately decorated table in the middle of the room. A small wooden box lay on top. She glanced at it, wondering why she hadn’t noticed it before. Something about it seemed different, then her attention turned back to the mirror as Nadir spoke.
“We’ve learned how you can alter Merglan’s inhabitance crystals!” Nadir shouted over the mirror.
Natalia placed her palm over the mirror, looking to the door and half expecting it to fly open with orcs. Bringing the mirror back up to her face, she held her finger across her mouth to shush Nadir. “Be quiet for a moment,” she whispered and moved toward the door. Through the crack she could hear voices in the hallway.
Natalia backed up against the wall near the door and listened to the approaching footfalls. Still holding the mirror, she pressed it against her stomach trying to snuff out its glow. She heard Nadir’s muffled voice say, “Natalia, what’s going on? I can’t see your face.”
