Chapter 36 Faron #2
“It needs to be done,” Faron said. “And so we do it. Let the rumors fly. Once Kanth falls, all that remains are scattered little nations, and they will bend the knee rather than face Isabelle’s armies. The protectorate is ready. Eder’s kingdom will fall.”
Sariel shook his head.
“For once, I hope you are right, Faron. Now let us be done with this odious task. I want to be gone from this nation as soon as I can. There is a foul air to this place, and it burns my lungs.”
The two traveled to the far end of the crypt, needing no torch or lantern with their blessed sight. There they found the marked coffin, its lid made of heavy stone. Faron pulled it aside, exposing a deep drop and a ladder bolted to the edge.
“After you,” he said, and grinned at Sariel.
His brother tilted Redemption vertically so it might fit, then hopped down, holding on to one side of the ladder so he might slide to the bottom.
Faron dropped after, not even bothering with the ladder.
He landed with a thud in a pitch-black tunnel of worked stone.
The ceiling was low, so that both of them had to bend over to walk.
At least it’s not a crawl , Faron thought as they traversed the tunnel to the castle.
It suddenly widened, the worked stone becoming a more naturally formed cavern.
Water dripped along the walls, leaks from natural rivers running down from the mountains.
He stretched his shoulders, glad to stand, and then followed his brother.
The cavern curled to the right but also forked straight ahead with a human-made tunnel fortified with bricks. The two chose that direction, following it for a few moments more before it abruptly ended at an iron ladder.
“Are you ready?” Sariel asked.
“Ready for anything,” Faron confirmed. “So what’s the plan? Kill the king and queen and then leave? Or just scout like Isabelle desired?”
“I would take the measure of the castle,” Sariel answered. “Beyond that, I do not know. Our vows compel us, though, do they not? Each and every one of these deviant humans reeks of stolen radiance. The people within the castle will be no better than those in the town outside.”
“If we must, then we keep our vows,” Faron said. “Better us than the soldiers outside seeing these… things.”
Sariel climbed up the ladder with his left hand, his sword held tightly against his body with his right.
“They will see enough horrors tonight,” he admitted. “Perhaps it is a kindness if we spare them more.”
Sariel emerged first, Faron after, the ladder ending in an extremely cramped room barely big enough to fit both of them.
All four walls were bare stone. Sariel tested the wall in front of him, and with enough force, it rotated slightly, creating a gap he could slide through.
The pair exited, stepping out into the end of a long corridor.
To either side of them were prison cells.
“Heavens have mercy,” Faron whispered.
The people were trapped in darkness, without torch or lantern.
There were at least a hundred of them, cramped within a mere eight cells, so that many leaned with limbs pushed through the bars for space.
They were stripped of clothing, and their heads shaven.
Faron approached one of the cells, dreading to confirm his fears.
Radiance. All of them pulsed with radiance, faint but there. Tainting them.
“Why?” he whispered, the word unheard by the prisoners over the sounds of their own snoring, whimpering, and crying. But the more he looked, the more he feared he understood. Nearly all of them were missing a limb, be it an arm or a leg.
“Why torture their prisoners in such a way?” Sariel asked, his voice soft and low.
“Because this isn’t a prison,” Faron said. “It’s a feed pen.”
Stars burned in Sariel’s eyes, and he lifted his sword.
“Then this is a mercy.”
The lock on the cell shattered at the strength of dragon bone. Sariel entered the first cell, Redemption slashing with precision. Screams followed, and blood flowed across the stone floor. Faron watched, his heart sinking into his stomach. These people. These poor people.
With the dungeon so dark, the others could not see, but they could hear the slaughter, and they shouted fearfully within their cells.
Faron drew his sword, and he told himself to be strong.
Their suffering would end. The radiance that pulsed through their veins would corrupt them no longer. He shattered a lock and went to work.
Blind, they could not fight back. Cramped together, they could not move or flee. They died, and their blood soaked the stones.
At last, all was silent.
Sariel stood in the center of the passage, Redemption resting across his shoulder. He seemed incapable of moving as he looked upon the destruction they had wrought.
“Need we see any more?” he asked the dreadful quiet. “Anyone who would do such a thing deserves to burn.”
“I know,” Faron said, breathing through his mouth instead of his nostrils to take the edge off the horrid stink. “But then we would not have our answers.”
He approached the door at the far end of the passage. Its window was covered with a slab of metal, and when he checked, he found it was barred from the outside. Faron lowered his shoulder and smashed through, emerging into another dark corridor.
“No guards,” he muttered, glancing in either direction. “How long has Kanth been rotting from within?”
“Long enough,” Sariel said, following him. “Which way leads out of this dungeon?”
“That way, I believe,” Faron said, pointing to his left, where he saw curling steps at the far end. “But… wait. Do you not sense it?”
“I sense radiance seeping from the very walls,” Sariel said. “It is suffocating. What do you sense?”
Faron closed his eyes, forcing himself to focus. He was no Calluna. Detecting the telltale shine of radiance was no easy feat to his mind, but it was still a gift he occasionally used.
“This way,” he said, ignoring the stairs leading up and out of the dungeon. “Just… trust me, all right?”
Another set of stairs awaited around the turn, and at the bottom of them, another corridor leading to a single door.
Two guards stood before it, and they startled at the sight of the brothers.
Their faces were hidden behind helmets, but there was no hiding the second set of arms growing from their backs as they lifted their swords and axes.
Faron charged both of them, unafraid of their clumsy skill.
He blocked an ax strike, then flung the soldier against the wall with a swing of his arms. A whimper escaped the helmet at the collision, which Faron ended with a thrust underneath the helmet into an exposed throat lined with garishly white scales.
The second guard howled, the noise, reminiscent of the screech of a bird, shivering Faron’s spine, and he was glad when Sariel ended it with a single slash of Redemption.
The soldiers taken care of, Faron checked the door they guarded. The top of it had once borne a barred opening, but it was sealed over with planks of wood. Faron tried it, found it locked, and then returned to the corpses to find the key.
There , he thought, withdrawing it from a pocket.
The key was strangely ornate, its handle encrusted with rubies and sapphires.
He slipped it into the keyhole, turned it, and then pushed the door open.
Light slipped into the windowless cell, falling upon a face so familiar, Faron’s jaw dropped.
The key slipped from his numb fingers. Behind him, Sariel gasped, shocked and horrified in equal measure.
Faron took a single hesitant step forward, his mind reeling. A lone word formed on his lips as his heart broke at the sight of a naked woman hanging from chains in the deep depths of Castle Kanth.
“Aylah?”