The Astronites II: Avast Voyage

Chapter Nine: The Chamber Cell

Oldear was particularly quiet when High Auctor Oraclian Homsooth entered its venerable halls once more. He dispelled Eln's chill from his body like a wet bird shaking its feathers dry.

"Velcome back, High Aucter," groaned the towering, hunchbacked Lord Benjamin Benbeit, the landlord and loyal caretaker of Oldear University.

"Thank you, Lord Benbeit," Oraclian said as he unbuttoned his purple overcoat and placed it over Lord Benbeit's extended, misshaped right arm that always looked like it was frozen in the middle of swinging a punch.

"Any news since my departure?"

Lord Benbeit moaned in the negative. "No zer . . azide frum one inzident. . . ."

"As I suspected," Oraclian sighed, rubbing his hands together. "Was it the Celver boys?"

Lord Benbeit moaned. "I don't remember zer—"

"Pish posh, Lord Benbeit," Oraclian interrupted. "This is your noble house, and everyone who resides here is your guest. If the Celver boys were trampling through your vegetable garden again, the disciplinarian will have more stern words for their families at the next parent-teacher conference."

The Oldear students' mistreatment and bullying of Lord Benbeit was an unfortunate tradition that endured in the university for years. Whether it was ridiculing him for his physical abnormalities, his inability to read and write, or his general demeanor, the students always concocted new ways to mock Lord Benbeit without him ever knowing. Lord Benbeit never knew that the graffiti he wiped off the stone walls read, "Boogeyman Benbeit," or that certain class clowns would imitate his limp and speech impediment whenever his back was turned.

Despite Lord Benbeit's desire to provide the Oldear staff with a clean university and proper facilities for their work, none of the professors or teaching assistants ever intervened on Lord Benbeit's behalf when it came to defending his honor and noble name. When Oraclian became High Auctor, he swore to himself and the Oldear deans that the harassment would finally come to its miserable end.

"Zey are juzt boyz," Lord Benbeit rejected. "Zey will grow out of it."

"A punishment deferred is a pardon conferred," Oraclian explained. "You tend to the fortress, Lord Benbeit, and I will tend to its teenage inhabitants. Now . . ." He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "Are they gathered?"

Lord Benbeit moaned and nodded his head. He escorted Oraclian through the empty central thoroughfare. Their footsteps echoed louder than normal. The hour was late, and even the knowledgeable robins and sparrows had tucked themselves into their ivy homes and walled-bush nests for the night. The only sound that accompanied Lord Benbeit and Oraclian throughout the university was the crackling of the great, cabled lanterns that hung in the limestone corridors.

But even so, the lanterns didn't guide Lord Benbeit and Oraclian all the way to their destination. The lower they descended Oldear's stairwells, the scarcer light became.

The lanterns were substituted by long-necked candles, and the hallowed halls were replaced by underground passages and tunnels that echoed the plop-plop-plopping of dripping water and the faint whispers of an eerie draft. The farther they proceeded, the more they ventured into bedrock and iron ore of Mount Magna and Summa Summit, between which Oldear was built.

Lord Benbeit approached a round steel door that didn't belong to the mountains. With the strength of ten men, he lifted the massive handle and engaged the unlocking mechanism. He grunted and wheezed as he heaved the door open.

"We won't be long," Oraclian notified him. "You know the procedure."

Lord Benbeit bowed and ushered Oraclian into the chamber cell before exhausting himself once more to close the steel door and lock it.