A quick inspection of the Keep’s other entrances confirmed that they were each protected by a barrier identical to the one before the main door. The wards were translucent and iridescent, like the gossamer of insect wings, and just as thin. Gently, they swayed and billowed as if subjected to some invisible, arcane wind. It contacted the threshold and entryway on all sides. I could see no gaps or spaces between it and the stonework that would allow anything through without first passing through the barrier.
Carolus had warned of such magics. No matter how innocuous or simple they may appear, the effects of trespassing such wards could be costly and varied with the worse promising painful death. And none could tell precisely what trap had been lain without “A wizard’s discernment sifting the mind and soul” as the old man would say.
“No one is to touch the magic until Carolus can dispel it,” I announced. “Spread out. I want at least two men posted at every exit: no one is to escape without us knowing. Don’t try to be heroes; give a yell if you see someone.”
We didn’t have to wait long for Enzio and Carolus to come riding up, the former looking at out stalled progress with puzzlement. Carolus had chosen to wear his heavy black robes. Silver runes were embroidered around the hems of the sleeves, the purpose was supposedly to protect the wearer from certain spells. The hood obscured most of his face, leaving only his white beard visible where it emerged from the shadow filled interior.
“Caedmon, what’s happened? Why is the keep not ours?” Enzio asked.
“Magic,” I answered, gesturing to the door.
“So, the stripling has some tricks after all,” Carolus said with a harsh chuckle.
He dismounted his coal-black horse, no infirmity one may expect of someone with advanced years could be found in the wizard as he swung his leg and dropped down. Pulling down his hood as he approached the door, I heard him began to whisper under his breath. The air rippled in the wake of his hands tracing arcane sigils in the air. He stopped just shy of the barrier; it seemed to react to his presence, undulating and billowing with greater distress, as if the arcane wind had turned to a gale.
Colors bloomed and shifted with Carolus’ gestures until he suddenly seized a green strand. Pulling it like a loose thread, it seemed to unravel from its chromatic brethren, eventually coming to rest in Carolus’ palm.
“There is no thing to fear here: it is but a hollow warning, a pretty barricade and nothing more. Caedmon, let them face your might,” Carolus said with a grin, crushing the glowing thread in his grasp, dispersing it like a fine powder in the wind.
I suspected with little doubt that Carolus was made content by seeing and measuring this unknown spellcaster. The man’s ego would scarcely stand to be rivaled, and, High Father forbid, superseded.
Nodding, I advanced to the magic barrier and leaned my halberd against the wall a little off to the side. With a quick breath, I reared back and gave a kick that would rival the greatest battering ram built by mortal hands.
The barrier shattered like brittle glass in an eruption of blinding light, but my steel sabaton continued, solidly connecting with the keep’s doors. Wood splintered and metal protested with a sheering screech as they flew inward, orphaned from their hinges.
Nothing stirred inside the vestibule but the settling dust. Glancing deeper into the unlit main hall, I couldn’t see anything laying in wait, but no good ambush would be so easily spotted.
“I’ll stay with Enzio; fetch us when you secure the baron,” Carolus said.
“Very well. Men, with me,” I gave in response, taking possession of my halberd once more.
With some of our allies searching the town or guarding the other entrances, the group delving into the structure was largely diminished. Given the enclosed space, a smaller force might be more well suited to the task at hand.
Our weapons were at the ready crossing into the main hall. Darkness clung to the recesses of the room, but as we progressed to the openings at the far end of the chamber it became clear that there was no danger waiting for us there. With a gesture, I ordered some men to check the hallway leading to the left while the rest stayed with me, checking the right.
It was eerie moving through the silent halls that were seemingly devoid of any life. Surely the baron hadn’t been able to slip away before we reached him. Yet, as we continued, I began to worry why there was no opposition.
Not far along from the main hall, we came to a series of closed doors lining both sides of the hall. One opened into a kitchen that seemingly had been abandoned in the middle of a meal preparation: a fire still flickered in the stove and hearth. The other unbarred doors revealed rooms of no consequence, mostly storage or empty servant quarters. One door, however, was locked.
“Stand aside,” I ordered the man who had reported it.
I put my hand next to the handle and pushed. There was momentary resistance until my affliction mark pulsed on my chest like a searing heartbeat. Suddenly, the lock failed with a metallic tink. The door flew open without the mechanism’s support to reveal several servants taking refuge inside.
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One of the servants, and older woman with gray hair, stood before the others brandishing a large clever no doubt taken from the nearby kitchen.
“Ye best stay back and spare these folks if a reaver the likes of you has any honor in his bones!” She spat, raising the weapon.
“We are not here to plunder; our fight is only with your baron,” I said, lowering my weapon.
She searched the visor of my helm with scrutiny, trying to find something to trust in the seeming giant before her—apparently to no avail as she held the clever tighter.
“Is your master still here?” I questioned, having to stoop to see inside the doorway.
“We’ll not tell, lest the wrath of the Empire fall on us when it crashes upon ye,” she spat.
Oh, how I wished on occasions such as this to have Enzio’s affliction instead of my own. Strength alone was rarely the key to winning hearts and minds.
“Very well, then stay here and trouble not my men,” I said, standing to my full height once more. Before looking away, I saw a countenance of bewilderment on the elder servant. “Let them be,” I ordered the men, hoping to show that we were not their enemy.
Putting the lot of them to the back of my mind, I continued the search which brough us to the foot of a narrow spiral stair. A sigh of frustration escaped me: these always posed a challenge for one of my stature. Turning my body sideways, I slowly ascended, my shoulders pressed against both sides of the twisting passage. Bits of stone and mortar were scraped away as I passed until, eventually, I reached the top.
My arrival was met with a sudden clunky twang. Scarcely had I registered the sound before I was struck in the chest by a blow that shook me for a moment. Looking first down at the ground, I saw a blunted bolt, and then up, noticing the crossbowman who had fired it.
I felt my breastplate, and there was a fresh dent roughly above where my heart would be. Two more guards rushed forward while their friend reloaded.
The hall was narrow—too narrow to swing my halberd. Instead, I waited until they closed in, driving the haft of my weapon through the left one’s foot and the floor beneath, spearing it to the ground. To answer the man’s howl of pain, I levered the weapon forward, using my fist to bash his open face. With the squelching sound of blood and broken bone, he collapsed to the floor, his foot still pinned.
Meanwhile, the right man swung. Rocking the shaft of my weapon, I batted the blade aside, throwing him off balance. Not letting him recover, I dealt a swift left haymaker. Bone and armor crumbled in a splatter of blood as he went crashing to the ground.
Jerking my weapon free from the first dead man’s foot, I charged the crossbowman just as he started to level his weapon for another shot, droving the halberd’s spike into his vulnerable throat. I shook him free, leaving him to clutch the streaming wound as he gurgled his last breath.
They apparently weren’t giving up the fight just yet. “Expect more resistance,” I called to the men behind me as I stepped past the third corpse.
Movement at the end of the hallway made me pause for a second before I managed to recognize the men I had send down the opposing hallway.
“Anything to report?”
“Not much; a few servants, and an ambush at the top of the stairs,” the lead man answered.
“Same as us. Have you searched this floor?”
“No, Caedmon.”
“Then let’s make this quick. You lot check that side, and all of you that were with me, check these rooms here. I’ll press on.”
They quickly got to work searching out anyone trying to hide from our assault, as I turned to the third, unexplored branch of the floor. The T-shaped junction terminated quickly with a steel door, very different that the largely wooden doors we’d come across so far.
Faint candlelight flickered from within, visibly peak through under the sill—giving away the occupants inside. Walking over, I slammed my fist against it, “Baron Fremont! Open this door, surrender yourself, and none of your household shall be harmed.”
“Ha! You imbecilic brigand! I’ll not open this door until the might of the Empire comes storming Granforle to see you hanged. We’ve already sent a rider to Bridmanh requesting their garrison!” Came the boasting reply.
Despite his threat, I smiled. It was happening just like Enzio and Carolus planned.
“Then you leave me no choice,” I said.
Just like I’d done with the barrier at the door, I reared back and gave a kick that hit the door like a canon, sending it skittering across the floor. The room was smaller than I expected, but it was filled to nearly overflowing with supplies.
“By the High Father!” a man shouted in shock at the sudden noise and violence.
I turned to see a man, no doubt the baron, standing off to my left, his mouth agape. To the right, I spied the wizard Carolus had sensed, dressed in similar dark robes etched with silvery runes like the old man’s. I eyed him carefully, though he was weaving no magic at the moment. Behind the Baron, I saw a Lady, likely the baroness, who was shielding a small girl. Near them stood a man in crimson robes, and a fourth man who wore more simple attire. The robed man was the town’s priest; I’d seen enough of their iconography in my early days, and the last man was the steward if I had to venture a guess.
“Loken, do something!” The baron shouted at the wizard.
“I’ll give you one warning to stay your tongue, mage!” I threatened, raising my weapon to level its spike at his head. With its size and my reach, I was well within range to strike him.
He slowly raised his hands, and I let out a silent sigh of relief.
“You coward! You swore service to me!” The baron spat.
“Silence!” I shouted at the noble. To the wizard I ordered, “Lower your hood.”
They complied, revealing a man, cleanshaven and no older than Enzio or myself.
“You’ll have to be bound and gagged,” I said.
The wizard, Loken, nodded knowingly, like he expected as much. Quickly finding some rope and cloth from the pile of supplies, I bound his hands behind his back, and tied the strip of cloth around his head, making it difficult for him to speak, and cast spells.
“Now, you’re all coming with me,” I said, pushing Loken towards the door. He stumbled a bit but caught himself and kept walking.
“I’ll not obey you—” The baron began to protest before I grabbed his neck, lifting him into the air.
He wasn’t a particularly thin man, but to me he was next to weightless. “—I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in the matter.” I released my grip and he fell to his knees, gasping for air. “Follow me,” I ordered the others, grabbing the baron’s collar and dragging him from the room.
“Make sure they don’t try anything,” I called out to the men who had come to investigate the crash of the door.
Soon, they all had armed escorts, save or Loken who I permitted to walk ahead un-accosted so long as he behaved. I continued to drag the baron despite his increasingly pathetic attempts to break my grasp.
The day was won: our first victory.