(Book 1) The malediction of the Undertaker

Chapter 29: Map and the key

Diana spends her late afternoon next to Taker, holding his hand, she can't believe how many injuries he has, his left eye was gouged out, his back broken and numerous wounds on his chest and arms. For a few days everything has gone wrong, the death of her father, the death of the queen, the sacrifice of Taker and now he is being cowardly attacked. The room is perfumed with violets, a few flowers are placed on the dresser of majesty, the candles light up the room. Pat arrives in his ally's room, sees his friend and sees Diana next to him, still in tears, he closes the door and approaches her, he sits next to Diana watching Taker sleeping.

"I want to know what happened two days ago. Why does he have fresh wounds on his back?" He asked Diana knowing that she had been with him in the forest the day before his attack. She looked down remembering what happened in the burrow, seeing him tied up and being scratched and bitten by Markus and other spiders as punishment. "He sacrificed himself." She says to Pat who doesn't understand what she means, he frowns, looking at her curiously as she sniffles.

"Markus stole Tigress from Arag, their creature master, apparently Arag wanted to punish Markus, me and tigress. and then..." She stopped to blow her nose and wipe her teary cheeks. "He intervened not wanting to see us suffer so he sacrificed himself for the three of us." She said crying. Pat is impressed with the courage Taker has shown.

She looks at Taker, takes a breath of air. "The bite is Markus' punishment and the two big wounds are Tigress's and me's punishment. That's what I guess." She added, Pat suggests that Diana go and rest at her place, Diana leaves the room and goes back to her house while Pat checks Taker's left eye, and his injuries, he was ready to leave when he sees the two cards placed on his desk, he grabs them and looks at them, he wrote: underground?, Labyrinth?

Maybe Kinsey knows, Pat also takes the key with him and goes to Kinsey's room, he knocks on her door, waiting for her to answer and when she does, he enters. He closes the door watching her stare out the window, she's dressed in a beige dress of its own, her hair up in a bun, her slight wounds starting to disappear from her face. "I'm sorry to bother you tonight Kinsey but I need to show you something." Said Pat going over to the table putting down the two cards and the key that Asgoth found near Taker's body.

"First, tell me everything you know about these cards?" He asks Kinsey, she manipulates the cards, turns them in the directions she wants and Pat realizes that her form is a maze. "These two maps are linked, this one is Mendal Castle and this one is the basement of the castle." She said as she finished manipulating the maps, she put them on the table. Pat looks carefully at the maps, especially the underground. "It looks like a big underground." Said Pat noticing that there are several floors in the underground, Kinsey nodded.

"The Lord is right, it's a maze, a lot of spiders are in this basement to protect the top floor." She said pointing to the last floor, the one that is in the depths of the underground. Pat takes the key and shows him, Kinsey is surprised the key is here, the key is human bone. "This key opens the top floor." She said taking the key in her hands, Pat frowned. So this asshole attacked Taker. Pat thought. "You know what you can find on this floor" he asked looking at her, his arms crossed but Kinsey shook his head sadly.

"Unfortunately Mendal didn't speak what he was hiding on this floor." She said sadly thinking that Pat was going to get angry but she looked him in the eyes and saw him smile, he took her face in his hands before kissing her forehead. "You helped me a lot, thank you." He said before taking the cards and the key and leaving the room. It's the first time she hasn't been beaten because she didn't know something.

~!~

Pat returns to Taker's room, very happy to have useful information about Mendal. "Taker! you were right!" He said putting the key and the cards on his desk talking to Taker even though he couldn't hear. "It's a dungeon in the kingdom of Mendal and it hides something in the depths of the dungeon." He said turning to the bed where Taker was lying then stopped talking, smiled sadly at the sight of his injured and sleeping friend, would so much like him to wake up to celebrate with him. He walks over to the bed, puts his hand on his chest which rises and falls slowly due to his slow breathing. "We're going to make this jerk pay," he swore.