Return of the Stormcriers

CHAPTER 13 - FLIGHT FROM RIFTWATER

   "In here," Anthony hissed, opening a plain wooden door off the side of the hallway and ushering them through. An unremarkable room met them on the other side of the door. Dusty furniture filled the floor space and a long forgotten brick fireplace cultivated spiderwebs along the back wall. Anthony quickly closed the door behind them.

  Will ran to the wall on the left hand side of the room and began to run his hands furiously along its rough surface. He muttered to himself as he looked for something that was as of yet hidden from Matt's view. Will gave a quiet grunt of discovery as his hand found its target. The harsh grating sound of sliding metal emanated from the wall near the fireplace causing Matt to cringe, he was certain their pursuers would hear. The sound came to an end almost as soon as it began, stopping with a final clang of metal striking metal. Wordlessly Anthony crouched and climbed inside the fireplace and dropping out of sight.

   "Go, quickly," Will urged Matt as he and Sylvia hastened to follow Anthony. As they neared the fireplace Matt could see that the metal bottom had slid aside, revealing a hole in the floor with an old wooden ladder leading down into the darkness below. Sylvia lowered herself down the ladder with Matt close behind her. Will brought up the rear, pulling another hidden lever as he went, closing the trapdoor above, sealing them in darkness.

    The ladder continued for what felt like eternity. With no light it was impossible to judge how far above he was of whatever floor they were descending to. He dared not make a sound as he climbed, praying that the guards would not hear them if they entered the room. The rungs of the ladder creaked and groaned in protest under their combined weight as they climbed, causing fear to rise within Matt that the old wood would break beneath their feet.

  After several long moments he heard Anthony's feet touch down on stone floor, followed seconds later by Sylvia. Within moments he was standing beside her. The absolute darkness of wherever it was they stood was suffocating, he could not see even an inch in front of his face. The room could be anywhere from a tiny cramped chamber to an expansive grand hall and he would have no idea. Somewhere beside him he heard a fourth pair of boots hit the stone as Will dismounted the ladder. The crushing silence was broken by the sizzle of a starting fire as Will whispered something that he could not quite make out. A torch in his right hand threw harsh flickering light on a four way intersection of a plain stone hallway that stretched out before them in every direction for as far as the torchlight revealed. Anthony lit a second torch off of Will's burning one before leading the group down the left hand passageway of the hall. Once again, Will brought up the rear.

  Was that magic? Matt wondered incredulously. It must have been, the fire had started too quickly, immediately after Will had whispered. A chill crawled up his spine. For the first time in his life he had been in the presence of magic. The instinctive fear that he had been brought up to feel around sorcery began to creep over him in a slow wave but he shook it off. This was not magic being cast by some witch in the forest, this was Will.

  How is his magic any stranger than my Stormcrier powers? Now that he thought about it he had no good answer. Was magic feared merely because it was different, and not seen as commonly on Verden as stormcrying? Or was there something inherently dark about the arcane arts. Were there actually witches who cursed lost travelers, or had that begun as a tale told to children to keep them from wandering off? Over the years had it gone from ghost story to legend as so many others had throughout time. Perhaps there were older, more historically rooted reasons that the people of Verden feared magic. He would have to ask Will when they, if they, he corrected himself, were able to get far from the castle.

    "How many people know about this?" Matt asked aloud, quietly as they walked. It was the first time he had dared to speak since they had permitted him to escape with them. A part of him worried, as unreasonable as it sounded even to himself, that if he drew any attention to the fact that he was still with them they would force him to leave their company.