In the Land of Stories Old

Chapter 37

By the time all of the raiders’ ships had been cleared and the Princes Vinci had worked out how to lower the ancient gate to keep any more from coming in, the interior of the cavern had gone from gloomy to dark and a few stars could be seen coming out in the now indigo sky showing overhead. A faint ring of blue magic lay on the water encircling the tainted ship, and rusted old lanterns burning with blue fire were hanging along the length of the pier and up to what had probably once been a loading area for cargo. The lanterns’ light cast strange shadows over a web of stone steps and landings that looked to have been carved into the dark stone, some of which led up into smaller caverns that looked as though they’d once been used for storage. The whole arrangement spoke to regular trade having once come into the castle from the gated cavern, and the tellingly worn stone of the steps said that trade had most likely been regular for many years. It was quite the wonder to everyone, but most of all to the captain and crew of the Northern Rover, who had never come across anything so ancient in their lives.

With everything secured for the night and a paper-bird message sent off to his wife by Prince Consort Merlin to inform her they would be returning within the hour, the seven princes started up a wide flight of smooth-worn stairs accompanied by Captain Roberts; Roddy Nilsson and his small daughters had been left on board the Northern Rover for the night, as no one was certain what might await them in the dark passages leading up to the castle. The main stairs wound upward as though curving around the side of a tower, leading Pino to guess that there might be a large stone reservoir within the unexplored lower levels of the castle. He frowned as he ran his hand along the stone wall, however. “This stone has been smoothed, but I cannot think how, or why,” he muttered. “There are no cracks or seams, no chisel marks, no signs of erosion by water or molten rock…it is almost as though the stone grew this way.”

At the head of the group and holding a burning blue lantern, Merlin shook his head. “I’ve seen nothing about this area in any of the records we have, and although the book I found among Fear’s possessions speaks of the entrance in the northwestern cliffs, and the existence of the pier, just the brief glance I had through it told me it was a passed-down account. Most likely from a family whose distant ancestors had once engaged in sea trade with the Black Castle.”

“Which means the records which have already been found are not nearly ancient enough to record the history of this kingdom,” came from Hans. “Ah, it appears we have reached the top.”

“I can’t say my legs are sorry to hear that,” Captain Roberts said. “Although these stairs aren’t nearly so taxing as the path that leads up from the town.”

“No, that they are not,” Jack agreed. The stairs had leveled off onto a smooth, wide space, and an alcove to one side contained a somewhat bewildering arrangement of chains and gears—bewildering to everyone except the Princes Vinci, of course, who immediately descended on the alcove with their own lantern and began examining the mechanism while Merlin and Jack looked at the actual door. It too was wide and smooth, with cleanly beveled stone edges and two carved round depressions which each held a fairly obvious handle, and to either side of it were iron brackets obviously meant to hold torches or other sources of light. Pino had hurried over to examine the door as well, mostly the edges of it, but he quickly returned to his brothers. “I am very interested to see how this can move without making a noise that could be heard all the way down to the docks.”

“Rollers,” Kio threw over his shoulder. “It is sitting on stone rollers, no doubt—I would not expect such a thing to be made from metal or wood, not with the type of stonework we have already seen.”

“And it almost certainly opens out, not in,” Noki mused. “In fact, it is possible it will swing wide, blocking the path up from the town.”

“And thereby protecting the castle gates while they are open and busy, yes,” Pino agreed. “Arthur, you and Jack will push on the handles while we work the mechanism and Merlin stands ready in case either the door or the gears give way—or any part of the wall itself, although I do not believe that will happen. Keep your hands away from the edges of the door, and everyone else stay well back.”

Everyone did as he asked, and with a surprisingly small grinding sound and not very much pushing from Arthur and Jack, the huge stone door began to swing out from the side of the mountain…and suddenly they were looking out at a shallow sort of courtyard which people using the path often stopped in to tidy themselves before continuing up to approach the castle gates. The door, which was somewhat less thick than might have been expected, did indeed completely block the path, and appeared to fit into the other side of it a little too neatly for it to be mere coincidence. Noki examined that spot and shook his head. “I would guess that from the other side this looks to be a mysteriously appearing short wall of raw stone with a bench inexplicably perched in front of it.”

“The hinge mechanism locks it in place at this spot, but not so well that someone pushing from the other side could not move it if they were strong enough,” Kio agreed. “The bench, it is most likely the ‘handle’ for opening this door from the outside.”

“We’ll find out in the morning, I suppose,” Merlin said. “We certainly can’t leave it open tonight, someone might come up from the town and see it.” That got him a few questioning looks. “No, I’m not going to tell the magistrate yet, or anyone else. Because we have to leave the Black Isle again sooner rather than later…and if we leave through this passage no one will know for sure who stayed behind and who didn’t.”

“Good idea,” Arthur said; they’d been worried about leaving Snow, Elana and Serena behind with only two guards, a handful of elves and the mostly worthless Dowager King between them and anyone who saw the absence of the Fearless Seven as an invitation to attack the castle. “Noki, come on, get out of there—dinner is callin’ me.”

Noki smiled and shook his head. He still had possession of the triplets’ lantern. “I will stay on the ship tonight, I think. I want to see how the mechanism works to close the door again. And that way if you cannot open the door from the other side tomorrow morning, there will be someone on this side who understands how the mechanism works and can let you back in. Merlin can send me a message to let me know if my help is needed.”

Merlin nodded. “I can do that. In fact, it’s possible I can send an elf down to you, now that we know where the door is at and what it leads into. I’ll test that idea once we get into the castle.”

“I will wait here for a short time, then, before going back down,” Noki agreed, and retreated back to the alcove. “If this works as I suspect it does…yes, give those handles a pull and then move out of the way!”

Arthur and Jack did as he asked, and to their surprise—although apparently not to his—the door began to slowly roll back into the side of the mountain all by itself. “Fascinating,” Pino said. “The tension on the chain pulls the door back in once the hinge lock is disengaged. Whoever built this had an amazing knowledge of both engineering and stonework—listen to how quietly the rollers move over the ground.”

In short order the door had closed itself up again, and unless you knew exactly where to look it simply wouldn’t have been possible to recognize that there was an opening there. Arthur ended up nearly dragging Pino and Kio away from it, in fact, as they were both keen on examining the method by which the door had been camouflaged. The castle gates were two bends in the path up from the hidden door, and the man on guard there did not appear to have heard a thing. He greeted them with a bow, standing aside to allow them to enter, and beyond him in the antechamber Snow was waiting with Briar beside her. Merlin greeted his wife with a bow as well—much as he would have liked to sweep her into his arms and kiss her senseless, they had company present so propriety said he couldn’t—and then took her arm once she’d welcomed Captain Roberts back to the Black Castle, bidding Briar to come with them and informing the guard that the gates should be sealed for the night, as Prince Noki was remaining on the ship. He wasted no time in leading his wife to the smaller dining chamber they often used for planning and such now rather than eating, Pino splitting off from the group to go fetch Elana and Serena, and once Snow was seated and everyone else was taking a seat of their own Merlin turned to Briar. “Obviously, one more for dinner tonight, and a room for the captain for the night as well,” he said. “But first, we need to see if you can get to Prince Noki from here, Briar. We found the passage the raiders have been using to get up here, it leads up from a hidden cavern meant for ships to dock in, and even has a gate which was apparently meant to keep unauthorized ships out. The door is stone, made to look like part of the mountain, and it’s behind the stone bench in the little freshening courtyard that’s down from the gates. Noki is spending the night on the ship, just in case we have trouble working the mechanism from this side tomorrow morning, but he agreed to wait behind the door for a time to see if you could reach him there.”

Briar grinned and bowed. “Certainly, Your Highness, I would be quite interested to see this discovery. I should just be a few moments.” He popped out, and then popped back in not even five minutes later with an even more delighted grin on his face. “Your Majesty, you will be pleased to know that this found door is the old sea trade entrance to the castle, and now that we know where it is the storerooms there can most certainly be put to good use. I have already sent Prince Noki back down to the ship, and have informed him that we will bring down the makings of a good dinner for himself and Captain Roberts’ crew shortly. He says there are two small children aboard as well?”

“Sadly, yes,” Merlin told him, taking his own seat. “They and their father are the only survivors from Breyholm, a small island near to Odinson. Mr. Nilsson will be taking his daughters to the Palace of Seven Princes, where Pino has asked him to live as a caretaker for a time, but we didn’t feel it was a good idea to bring them up tonight, not knowing what dangers the passage might hold.”

“Of course. They have lost everything, I presume?” Merlin nodded. “I’ll set someone to work on that, then, and arrange a room for them while they’re here.”

“Perfect. And I’d like it if at least one of you joined us while we tell the queen what we’ve found out about the problem we went out to investigate. It’s very much larger and more serious than we’d anticipated, I’m afraid.”

“I’ll have Thistle sit in,” Briar agreed. “He’s got the best handwriting, he can make a written account of this meeting so that all the details are preserved.”

“Thank you, Briar,” Snow said, and the elf disappeared again with a bow and a pop. She sighed. “How bad is it?”

“Bad enough to end the world, if we can’t find a way to stop it.” Merlin covered her hand with his. “Captain Roberts had an idea, but…you’re not going to like it.”

“Of course I’m not,” Snow told him, turning her hand so she could entwine her fingers with his. “But I believe I’d like the end of the world a lot less.”

fanfiction In the Land of Stories Old