Heir of Dust and Wind

Chapter 25 - Unexpected Discoveries

Trygve couldn't believe his ears at first.

Ava had struck a bargain. He cursed - loudly - and made the sorceress flinch, but right now he didn't care. How many times had he warned her not to strike a bargain unless her life depended on it?

Whatever appreciation he had felt towards the librarian vanished the instant that those words were out of Ava's mouth. Cunning little creature. Orla had no doubt exploited Ava's inexperience and her good hearted-nature. Only the stars knew what folly she'd manoeuvred herself into by trusting the Goblin like that.

"What did you promise her?" Gainor asked quietly from his position on the stairs.

He looked terribly pale and stricken. The lively spark that had been in his eyes when had explored the upper level of the house had vanished in the instant that the Ava had mentioned the dungeons and her bargain. It seemed as if the mentioning of the word dungeon had rendered him completely frozen on the spot, not daring to make even one step closer.

Ava swallowed nervously. She looked even more exhausted than she had before, Trygve thought. Her face was more ashen than pale now and there were beads of sweat forming on her brow. He clenched his teeth so much that it hurt.

He should have known the signs right away. This wasn't merely the effect of the magic she had performed to fulfil the quest. This was the pressure of universal magic which urged her to keep the word that she had given to the Goblin. The longer they waited, the worse it would get.

"I ... Orla suspected that Dunstan had prisoners when the dark forces overtook him," she said. Her voice was hoarse and heavy. "She made me promise to check if any of them had survived."

"But that's impossible," Gainor blurted desperately. "Nobody can survive in a place like this for so long, not even Dracaeni, certainly not Goblins."

"I agree, " Trygve said grimly.

But as certain as he was that there were no survivors in the dungeons, he knew that they would have to go there anyway. The magic wouldn't budge, Ava's pitiful condition revealed as much.

Trygve tried and failed to see even the tiniest bit of reason behind Orla's request. So far, whether he had liked or disliked her plans, there had always been logic to what the Goblin had suggested. Now, however, he was at a total loss.

Although he knew that the magic of the dungeons was quite peculiar, they had been designed to keep even the most powerful of magical beings captive, after all. As prisoners could be exchanged for ransom and were therefore a possible source of revenue, the dungeons had also been created in a way that they could pass from one ruler to another, should a territory be conquered. The prisoners would then become the new sorcerer's bounty to deal with as he saw fit. Still, this didn't mean that the beings held captive could survive without food and water indefinitely.

While he was still brooding over the senselessness of their task, Ava started to speak again.

"According to some reports from the final days of the war, Dunstan kept his prisoners in a magic stupor, so they would need less looking after," the sorceress explained. "She believed that the ritual could have broken the spell."

"And was use does your librarian have for those prisoners?" he asked and watched Ava practically shrink at his harsh words. 

Trygve clenched his hands into fists, trying to control his anger. His being angry would be no use to any of them and now that the deed was done, there was no point in exhausting the sorceress even more.

"I ..." Ava opened her mouth and closed it again. "I guess she didn't want them to suffer anymore", she continued, but sounded insecure.

His nails were now digging painfully into the flesh of Trgve's palm in an effort to snap at her again. She hadn't asked. She had simply assumed that the Goblin would be as good-hearted as she was herself.