Elenis (The Witch of Laverlock)

Chapter 23 The Hidden Crypt

Justin watched as Elenis left his solar, he would have preferred to escort her back to her room but there were other pressing matters to attend to.
Walking to the wall behind him he lifted his hand on the cold stone hearing it start to give way until it opened. Taking a nearby torch he walked through the dark tunnel until he reached a fork, walking to the left side he came upon some steps leading downward into a cavern. He walked the series of tunnels until he came across an archway that opened out into a lighted circular cavelike structure. His men were present along with the men he had recently captured.
Placing the torch carefully against a wall he walked to the center of the structure eyeing the men with distaste.
They were on their knees, their hands and feet were shackled as his guards pointed their swords at them. He walked toward the burly man and looked him in the eyes.
"My lord we did not know the woman was the one you sought."the man stated fearfully. He had witnessed the overlord's wrath on several occasions never expecting that he would be the recipient of it.
"How many times do I have to remind you Gunther that you are not to trifle with women and children." Justin addressed the man calmly but his fury was starting to rise. He had hired mercenaries and lawless men to guard the perimeter of the northern side of Laverloch, his prime purpose was to keep unwanted guests from entering his domain. They seemed to have breeches their terrorist and moved west.
"What were you doing to the west of the lands?"
"We were in Warwikshire for a spell, we spotted them on our journey north." Gunther replied. "It was a mistake."
"Admittedly, but a grave one you imbecile!" Justin bellowed. The weapons on the wall, mostly knives and small swords suddenly came away from the wall suspended in the air they pointed toward the men on the ground.
Gunther and his men looked at the weapons with with fear. "My lord it was not intentional"
"What was not intentional about robbing a noble woman and tying her against a tree. You left her to die there. Tsk tsk tsk. That was a very wrong move on your part."
Lady Sarah emerged from the shadows and stood beside Justin, he could feel the excitement in her at what was to come.
"My lord have mercy!" Gunther pleaded.
"You should have thought about that before you decided to harm the lady and her companion. She wants retribution."
With a wave of his hands, the weapons flew to their mark aiming for the neck of the six mercenaries. Their screams only lasted a moment as each one fell to their deaths, their blood pooling on the floor of the cave. "Now she has it!"
"Take their bodies, and burn them, I want no trace of their carcass remaining." He ordered his guards. The men started to haul the dead bodies through another passageway leaving a trail of blood as the bodies were dragged away.
"If it had been another woman instead of the lady Elenis, would you have done the same?" Sarah asked.
Justin turned to her "They were in breach of a command."
"Surely throwing them into the dungeon would have been enough" she added
"Don't tell me you did not enjoy the carnage" he goaded.
She laughed. "I won't deny it however they could have been spared"
He only grunted as he went to retrieve the weapons from the ground and carefully laid them on a stone table..
"Tell me , if she asks you to return me to my brother would you?" Sarah stayed where she was watching him curiously.
"Don't tempt me for she need not have to ask it of me."
"I could always fly away" Sarah teased.
"For as long as you are within my domain your shape shifting is inevitable, once you leave it will no longer be of consequence." He turned his attention to Sarah "I have never forced you to stay, you are free to leave whenever you wish"
"I know that" she smiled. "Shall I summon the twins to your chambers."
"Not tonight" he replied moving toward the opening, he lifted the torch from the wall.
Raising her brows in surprise "Your certainly going out of your way to impress the lady, this is a rare feat."
He left the chamber making his way through another side of the tunnel that would lead to his private chambers.
....................................................
Elenis was tossing and tuning in her sleep when she heard her name being called. She rose thinking it was Caedmon but he was fast asleep beside her. Rubbing her eyes she blinked looking about her when she spied Wulfric lying near a side wall close to the hearth. His chest was bare, a blanket carelessly tossed beside him.
Taking one last look at Caedmon she walked to the table and was about to pour herself some water to drink when she saw Lucious standing by the door. The boy did not speak only gestured toward the door as he looked at her. Curious she went toward the child but his spirit passed through the door. When she opened it she saw the child beckoning for her to follow. Grabbing a wrap from the chair she quickly closed the door and followed the boy. He was keeping pace with her as he decended down the steps. They reached the dining hall where she was some guards were sleeping on the wooden bench. Grabbing a torch she followed the specter until they reached the solar.
The door opened, she hesitated at the doorway before entering, hearing it close behind her she turned around and found Lucious on the far side near a stone wall.
"What are we doing in Fitzhugh's solar?" She asked the boy.
"This is not his solar, this belonged to the former overlord. Touch the wall, I want to show you something" lucious went through the wall.
Elenis was left with no ther choice but to put her hands on the cold stone. She was no longer surprised by the boy's presence or what he told her to do. He was clearly a spirit sent to guide her. The wall soon gave way and to her astonishment opened wide enough to allow her through. As soon as she walked in she found a cavelike tunnel and luscious wiaiting for her. She followed the boy.
"Where are we going?" She asked hearing the echo of her voice bouncing off the walls.
"You'll see" was all he said as he walked through the tunnels that led to a fork. He took the tunnel to the right and she followed him until she found a series of steps.  She saw luscious decsend but she remained standing at the top. The boy turned to her sensing her distress.
"I want to show you something Elenis, you will have to trust me"
His innocent face was devoid of malice, it only held a longing that made her continue the journey. As soon as they reached the last step there were another series of tunnels that led to an open chamber. Lifting the torch within the darkened room she spied a rectangular stone slab at the center of the room.  A stone sculpture of an angel stood on the other side of the rectangular slab, it's face held the expression of grief as it looked down. Lucious was sitting on top of the stone edifice he was looking at her with an expression of one who had just come at the end of his journey.
"What is this place?" She asked curiously holding the torch up to see what was around her.  The chamber was made of stone which had been smooth ended. She saw a peg where she rested the torch and walked to the rectangular stone slab.
Something was carved on top of it but it was already in ruin. There were markings all over the sides of the slab mostly written in Latin.
She bent low to touch the markings trying to read what it said.
"This is where they put her" luscious finally said.
"Put who?" She looked up at the boy who was perched on the shoulder of the angel.
"My mother. The elder Fitzhugh's wife" he stated flatly, there was no emotion in his voice .
"You mean...." She gasped "But you were still born, how could you........."she was astounded by the revelation, her mind racing with a multitude of questions.
Lucious jumped from the shoulder of the angel and landed on the ground, his fair hair glistening against the torchlight "I can be anything, a child of eight" before her eyes Lucious transformed into a grown man of not more than an score "Or a grown man, if I had lived this is probably how I would have looked"
Standing abruptly Elenis took a step back and stared at the vision before her. The man had a similar coloring and look to Justin. "You were his half brother" Elenis stated in shock.
"Yes," the man said in a voice as deep and as familiar as Justin's "This is how he looked, my father, before he grew old and sickly."
He took a step toward her but stopped when she took a step back "why did you bring me here?"
"I wanted you to see where my mother was buried. He took her down here."
"You father did this for her" Elenis said.
"No, Justin did.  He took her from the higher ground behind the chapel and buried her here."
"But why?" She was completely baffle led.
"I don't know, perhaps because she had his mother killed, he wanted her to be forgotten."
Elenis sighed "Where are you buried?" She asked finally feeling disappointed that Lucious was in reality a part of the whole twisted situation, a soul lost instead of an angel sent to guide her.
"Beneath her... Maybe I really don't know. When his mother cursed me and my mother that's when I died in her womb but I couldn't leave this place. It was only when Justin left Laverloch that I was able to leave. "
"Can he see you?" Elenis asked in wonder.
"No."
"Then why is it that I can? If we share the same energy, why is it that only I can see you Lucious? Have you tired to reach out to your brother?"she asked curiously.
"Yes , over the years I tried to let him see me but he cannot see or hear me. When I joined him at the joust and stood beside you it was I that told you to choose. I knew you heard me when you called out the other knight's name. Did  I frighten you?"he seemed triumphant.
"You know you did" she started rubbing her arms feeling the chill of the chamber bite into her skin.
"It wasn't intentional I just needed to reach out to someone who could hear me." He paused walking toward her until he was but a foot away.
"Why?" She was mesmerized by the haunted expression he carried in his eyes.
"I need redemption Elenis for I am lost. I wander aimlessly with no purpose. It's cold and lonely. I should have had a warm body to fulfill me, instead I was made a corpse before I even got that chance. You must help me." He whispered as he bent toward her face "Do you want to see how she died?"
"Your mother?" She asked .
"Nay, the witch" seeing her nod hesitantly he continued "Look into my eyes"
When she did look into them, she found herself back in the tumbled down shack where she last left Morgana. The room smelt of sage and lavender, a boy was being rocked in a chair by a young girl.suddenly the door to the room burst open and the young girl screamed while the infant started to cry in her arms. Two soldiers came forward and dragged her out of the room. She started to kick at them and scream but her voice was chocked. She saw four men mounted on steady while many soldiers surrounded the shack.
Her arms and feet were shackled then dragged once more behind a horse where she was a tied to a rope. One of the soldiers mounted the horse and dragged her across the woods. Shackles bit into her ankles and wrists as she was marched into town. People surrounded them, some of them started throwing stones at her body, her flesh was being cut by the stones but despite the agony of her bleeding wounds her screams were unheard.
She spied her father among them men and called out to him. He seemed to have heard her and approached but instead of removing the shackles he removed his cloak and put it around her. She screamed all sorts of profanities at him but the voice was not her own.
Needing to escape she tried to look about her for a way but it was impossible as the guards came and took her to the platform. One of them kicked her until she fell to the ground, cutting her knees and elbows. She felt the sharp sting of pain but that was mild compared to the horror that faced her on the platform. They dragged her up the steps and tied her to a thick wooden post. She could smell the oil that they poured beneath her. One of them threw a torch and the flames blazed around her. She could feel the heat surround her as the flames started burning her flesh. The rage that built inside her was insurmountable. She heard herself cursing the men in Gaelic.
"Elenis!"
She heard her name but the searing pain from her burning flesh was too much. Strong arms wrapped themselves around her and she was back in the chamber, Lucious was gone but in his place stood Wulfric, he was holding her in his arms, a look of alarm on his face.
Pushing herself away from him she stood breathing heavily as she tried to recover from the horror of what she had just witnessed.
"What are doing here?"she asked him recovering from her ordeal.
"I should ask the same of you" he frowned as he looked around "What is this place?"
Catching her breath she stilled her mind until it fell into calmness "Tis where the overlord's wife is buried. That is her tomb." She pointed to the stone slab.
"How did you find it?"he asked curiously. He seemed edgy as he glanced around him.
"How did you find me?" She countered.
"I heard you leave the room, I followed you until the solar and entered this chamber  but I got lost until I heard you screaming." He gave her a guarded look. "We should return to your chambers"
Nodding she took the torch on the wall and led the way out. They returned back to their chamber in silence, she returning back on the bed while he removed his tunic and returned back to the floor to bed down.   He did not want ask her anything, her pale face was a testimony of her fear.
Laverlock was indeed a strange place, a place they needed to leave as soon as possible.