30. Perl
30
PERL
F ew men live in Ismagaar. The frozen lands to the north of the Azurian Empire are a dangerous mysterious place.
Starlight Tower is desolate, halfway between Feildal and Ilguard, the two distant settlements on the northern coast. The smaller villages that dot the icy wastes between are homes to few except fishermen and those who wish to study the strangeness of the north and the truth about what lies across the starlight sea.
However, if one is not scared of the creatures that dwell in these lands, and one can bear the cold, this is the perfect place to hide. Or to keep things one wants to hide.
Perl arrives in a small rush of wind and a twinkle of lights. The fresh bite of the air and the feel of the frozen ground beneath his boots are familiar. His true home is not in Ismagaar, but for certain activities, he prefers this quiet place over his home in the dazzling ice court of Vylenor across the Starlight Sea.
Perl’s boots crunch on the ice as he walks towards the tower where his hidden secret resides. When he gets close enough that the tower knows him, the door opens.
Golden light spills out onto the snowy ground making it glitter like gold. A familiar sight, but as he walks up the steps, Perl senses something is wrong.
Inside the tower, on the lower floor is a wide stone room. A fire roars in the large hearth. A kettle is set upon it whistling a greeting as Perl walks in. Behind him, the door glides closed. But the room is in disarray.
Perl left several books on the table, brought down from his library upstairs. The books are gone, along with the parchments that were with them, covered in Perl’s spidery handwriting.
Someone has been here. Someone with enough power to find this tower and breach its defences. It can only be her. That Hevelikar bitch has finally found her way in. Perl can only hope she has not taken more than his books. He turns back to the tower’s door, checking its wards with a wave of his hand. The crack in them pulses with a strange unknown magic.
Perl races to the back of the room. He checks the wards on the door that leads to the upper floors. They seem to have held. He can feel the magical attack that had been used. Strong. Strong enough to open the front door. But not strong enough to break through the powerful wards that secure the route to the upper floors.
He hopes his reading is correct.
Perl’s heart is beating fast as he casts the charm he needs to open this door. He races up the stone steps behind it, up and up, past the library — he can check that later — up to the top floor. And the room that contains his greatest treasure.
He checks the wards. No sign of any magical attack here. It seems his intruder did not make it through to the upper floors. His treasure should be safe inside. Perl casts a charm and opens the small hatch in the centre of the door. He peers inside.
His prisoner is safe. Perl sags with relief.
The prisoner sleeps on the stone floor, manacled to the wall. He’s tall and well-built. Quite beautiful. A warrior’s physique.
And Kerik does, indeed, look very much like his brothers.