The shutters on the balcony on the Temple of Vand opened quietly. The moonlight illuminated the nearer portions of the room. Mistake peered into the room before stepping into it. Eltor and MistyTrail followed her.
The room was large and obviously a library. Tall bookshelves lined each of the walls, and racks of scrolls were set in neat rows in the center of the floor. Near each of the corners of the room were desks and reading chairs. The room was unlit and empty.
Mistake moved silently to the doorway on the opposite side of the room from the balcony. She placed her ear against the door and listened for sounds of people beyond it. She heard nothing. MistyTrail moved alongside Mistake and tapped her. The Sakovan pointed to a sliver of flickering light passing through the small crack near the floor. Mistake nodded silently and pointed towards the side of the door. MistyTrail grabbed Eltor lightly by the arm and led him away from the door.
Mistake eased the door open a crack. She peered out into the torch-lit corridor. When she saw no people outside the room, she started to ease the door open wider. It creaked loudly. She held her breath for several seconds while she remained motionless. Trying anew to leave the room, Mistake edged the door open with excruciatingly slow movements. When she had the door opened wide enough to walk through, she stuck her head into the corridor and looked both ways. Seeing no one, she boldly stepped into the corridor. MistyTrail and Eltor immediately followed.
“Is there anywhere to hide while you close the door?” asked MistyTrail.
“Leave it open,” whispered Mistake. “It takes too long to close it. We would surely be detected.”
“Then we must close the shutters,” MistyTrail retorted. “Otherwise we will be telling everyone that someone has entered the temple. I will close them. Which way are you going?”
“We should go towards the rear,” interjected Eltor. “The front entrance appears to be a level higher than the rear. We need to go down two levels.”
“You think they will be at the lowest level?” asked Mistake while MistyTrail slipped back into the library to close the shutters.
“I cannot imagine that they would place the torture chamber anywhere near where normal people would go,” reasoned Eltor. “The level below the front entrance is the smartest place to start our search. Besides, that is the level of the rear entrance. Why transport slaves through the whole temple?”
“It is a good enough place to start looking,” shrugged Mistake.
Mistake led the way towards the rear of the building. They had not gone very far when a staircase appeared on her left. She looked questioningly at Eltor as MistyTrail exited the library and moved up to join the rest of the group. Eltor merely shrugged. Mistake started down the stairs.
Distant screams drifted up the stairwell. The noise set Mistake’s nerves on edge. She continued downward and halted when she heard voices talking much closer than the distant screams. MistyTrail and Eltor halted behind her. The voices started coming closer, and Mistake could detect footsteps on the level below her She turned and signaled the others to go back.
The three intruders fled silently up the stairs. Eltor checked the corridor carefully before leaving the stairwell where they had entered it a short time ago. He turned to his left and headed towards the rear of the building. After a few moments of creeping along the corridor, he came to another stairwell. He turned and started down the stairs. MistyTrail followed him, and Mistake just managed to enter the stairwell as she saw two people come around a distant corner into the corridor.
“Hurry down,” Mistake urged softly. “There are people in the corridor up here.”
“Did they see you?” MistyTrail asked worriedly.
“I don’t think so,” Mistake replied. “At least they did not appear to.”
Again the distant sounds of screaming rose up the stairwell, but the sounds were louder than the last time. Eltor passed by the landing for the next level and continued downward. He was halfway to the next lower level when he heard nearby voices. There were people coming up the stairs. He turned and pointed upward to MistyTrail and Mistake. Everyone turned around and raced softly up the stairs.
Mistake peeked around the corner and saw that the corridor went only in one direction. There was a wall blocking the way towards the rear of the building. With little choice of direction, Mistake entered the corridor and headed towards the front of the temple. She raced for the next stairway in case the people coming up the stairs decided to exit the stairwell on this level. She knew that they would certainly be seen if they didn’t hurry. Mistake led the trio into the next stairwell and stopped. They waited tensely as each of them listened for sounds. Only the distant screams could be heard.
Mistake led the way down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she checked the corridor before heading towards the rear of the building again. In the distance she could see a large door blocking the corridor. It was in the same place as the wall blocking the corridor on the level above them. She moved swiftly towards the door. As she passed another corridor branching off to her left, the screams became quite loud. She passed the corridor, her eyes locked on the distant door.
As she reached the door, she saw the stairwell that they had almost come down. She signaled for MistyTrail and Eltor to take refuge in the stairwell while she crept closer to the large door.
The door had a window cut into it with large metal bars crossing it in both directions. Mistake rose up on her toes and peered through the window. What she saw frightened her. She turned and ran to the stairwell.
“What did you see?’ asked Eltor.
“Cages,” reported Mistake. “Both sides of the corridor beyond that door are lined with cages. There are kruls walking the corridor. I am sure that Caldal is probably in one of those cages, but we cannot just walk in there.”
“How many cages?” asked MistyTrail.
“I could not count them,” Mistake shook her head. “They went on as far as I could see.”
“And this is only one side of the temple,” frowned MistyTrail. “I would be surprised if the other side was not the same. There must be hundreds of cages. How will we ever find Caldal?”
“Is the door locked?” asked Eltor.
“It is,” nodded Mistake, “but that is not the obstacle. I can have it open quickly, but I cannot make the kruls disappear.”
“Open it for me,” asked Eltor. “I will go look for Caldal.”
“Are you crazy?” balked Mistake. “Perhaps you didn’t hear what I just said. There are kruls patrolling the corridor outside the cells.”
“I heard what you said,” replied Eltor as he dug into MistyTrail’s pack and extracted a piece of the uniform that they had cut off of the legs to make it fit him.
He took the scrap band of cloth and shoved it onto his head. He stretched it almost to the point of tearing it as he forced it down over his ears. When he was done, he tried to fold the ragged edge underneath the band. MistyTrail stepped close and helped him.
“What are you planning on doing?” she asked.
“I am the only one who knows what Caldal looks like,” explained Eltor. “I know how the kruls think. As long as there is no alarm, they think little of elves. It would surprise them to find an elf in uniform, though. That is why I covered my ears.”
“But they will still smell you,” frowned MistyTrail.
“They will,” nodded Eltor, “but they are not quick thinkers. Hopefully they will not put the smell together with my looks.”
“So you are going to pretend to be a soldier?” asked Mistake.
“Can you think of any other way to see who is in those cages?” replied Eltor.
“My brother is not going to sacrifice himself in this evil place,” MistyTrail said adamantly. “We will find another way.”
“I am sure that both of you are elves,” Eltor smiled weakly, “but I know my family well. I am a brother to neither of you. You two should leave here and find a safe place to wait in the forest. I will find you somehow.”
“If you are going in there,” Mistake said seriously, “we are going with you. We are not splitting up.”
“Don’t be foolish,” protested Eltor. “I doubt any of us will get out of here if you don’t leave immediately. I had no right to drag you to into this. Please leave the rope for me.”
“It is perfect,” grinned MistyTrail as the other two turned to look at her as if she were stark raving mad. “You can be herding Mistake and I into the cell area. If we look like elves, the kruls will not think anything of the smell as we pass by. They will mistake you for human.”
“That would work,” Mistake nodded slowly. “That just might work.”
“No,” frowned Eltor. “The kruls will be only too helpful to find a cell for both of you.”
“You must learn never to argue with both of us,” grinned Mistake. “If you want that door unlocked, we are going with you.”
“We have skills that may save our lives,” added MistyTrail. “You alone would not stand a chance. It is all of us or none of us. Make your choice.”
Everyone was silent for few minutes while Eltor thought about what they were about to do. Finally, he nodded in agreement.
“We are going in,” decided Eltor. “I cannot be this close and give up my hope for Caldal.”
“Can you make it so the door does not lock again?” MistyTrail asked Mistake.
“I can, but I will have to leave my tool in the door,” Mistake answered. “We may not come back this way.”
“Do it,” urged MistyTrail. “We cannot afford for you to be seen working on the lock while the kruls are nearby.”
Mistake nodded and left the stairwell. She pulled the thin piece of metal from her belt and went to work on the large door. A loud click echoed through the corridor as Mistake picked the lock. She opened the door a crack and shoved the metal into the lock mechanism.
“You two will walk before me,” Eltor said softly. “I will occasionally push you, so do not be alarmed. That is how prisoners are treated here. The kruls will expect it.”
Both women nodded and crowded before the door. Eltor threw the door open and pushed them through it. The nearest kruls immediately turned to see who was intruding. Broad grins split their ape-like faces. Mistake had mentally prepared to keep her face presented as a mask of fear and revulsion. She did not have to pretend. The kruls licked their lips as Eltor shoved the two women through the door.
MistyTrail immediately gazed to the left and right as they passed the first cells. She was surprised to see that each cell held several people. There were elves and humans in the cells. Males and females were thrown together in no apparent manner. Most of the people were sleeping or just sitting and staring at the bars of the cages. There appeared to be little life in the prisoners.
Eltor’s eyes scanned each of the cells as he pushed the women before him. The kruls all turned their attention towards the newcomers. One of the kruls advanced and looked like he was going to grab Mistake. Eltor snarled at the krul.
“Away,” Eltor shouted while waving his hand to indicate that the krul should step aside.
The krul growled back, but he hesitated only briefly before moving aside. The other kruls suddenly appeared to lose interest in the newcomers. They turned away as Eltor and the women approached. Eltor drove the women steadily forward as he continued to view each cell.
MistyTrail crinkled her nose in an attempt to avoid breathing the stench. She thought it was ironic that they had worried about the kruls detecting Eltor as an elf by his smell. The air was so foul that they would not be able to smell an elf under their noses.
The corridor of cells was long, but Eltor drove the two women at a steady pace so that he had time to view the prisoners in each cell. The kruls further along the corridor looked at them with interest, but their inspection was cursory, and they soon returned to watching the prisoners. As they reached the far end of the long corridor, Mistake saw another door at the very end. The door was at a right angle to the corridor and led off to the left. She dodged Eltor’s push on her back so that she ended up quite close to him.
“There is another door leading to the other side of the temple,” she whispered. “I won’t be able to defeat the lock without my tool.”
A nearby krul, who might have heard Mistake’s whisper, suddenly growled loudly. He pounded noisily towards the trio.
“Stop,” Eltor shouted at the two supposed prisoners as he turned to face the approaching krul.
MistyTrail had already reached the end of the corridor. She was staring into the last cell with curiosity, as it was the only cage that contained a single prisoner. A single male elf sat at the back of the cell watching what was going on. His eyes stared sympathetically at MistyTrail, yet there was a look of defiance in his face. He was an older man, but his body was firm and muscular.
“Avalar,” the man said softly.
MistyTrail cocked her head in confusion after the man spoke and then she heard Eltor’s shouted command. She turned to see Eltor and Mistake several paces back with a krul approaching them. The krul was waving his arm back and forth as he drew closer to Eltor.
“No go,” growled the krul. “Back,” he added as he pointed back along the long corridor.
“This is the wrong way,” Eltor announced loudly as he turned towards MistyTrail and waved her towards him.
MistyTrail moved anxiously to where Mistake was standing. She glanced back briefly at the man who had spoken and then turned her attention towards the krul. Eltor stepped behind the two women and pushed them towards the krul. The krul nodded in satisfaction and turned away. He paid little attention to the trio as Eltor herded the two prisoners past him.
The trio walked steadily back along the corridor of cells. Some of the kruls they passed looked with renewed curiosity; others with barely concealed humor at Eltor’s mistake. Eventually, the trio reached the door that Mistake had forced to remain unlocked. She deftly retrieved her tool as Eltor herded the women through the door. They moved swiftly to the nearby stairwell to get out of the long corridor.
“What was that all about?” asked Mistake.
“I can only assume that prisoners are not allowed through the door that we were approaching,” shrugged Eltor.
“So the krul did not hear my words then?” asked Mistake.
“I do not think so,” replied Eltor. “If he did, he would have seized us. At least we got to see most of the cells. We only had a few more to go.”
“I saw the last cells,” offered MistyTrail. “There was no one our age in them. There was a strange elf in one of them, but he was older.”
“Caldal is my age,” Eltor replied dismissively. “I am sure there must be more cells running along the other side of the pyramid. We must find a way to get through that second door.”
“I doubt that door led to the other cells,” suggested Mistake. “I think it might have led to the center area of the pyramid where prisoners might be able to escape out the rear door. That is why the krul stopped us. Prisoners are probably allowed to come in that door, but never leave by it.”
“Then we must find another way across the pyramid,” Eltor sighed with nervous frustration.
“We passed a corridor on our way to this door,” stated Mistake. “There were screams coming from it. Perhaps it leads to the other side.”
“Let’s try it,” urged MistyTrail. “I do not care much for standing in this temple discussing what we should do. Let’s try the corridor and get out of here before the night slips away.”
“You are right,” nodded Eltor as he stuck his head into the corridor and checked for any stray people walking along it. “Let’s go.”
The trio slipped out of the stairwell and backtracked along the corridor to the intersection of another corridor. Screams no longer drifted through the air as they turned into the new corridor that ran across the center of the temple. The corridor was fairly short and ended in another locked door. Eltor looked through the window of the door and frowned.
“The corridor opens into a large room,” he reported as he peered through the window in the door. “I can see another door like this one in the distance, but there is much between us and it.”
“Do you see any people?” asked MistyTrail.
“None,” Eltor responded.
“I will unlock the door so we can have a look,” declared Mistake as she moved closer to work on the lock.
“You must not leave your tool this time,” Eltor said nervously. “We will need it for the door on the other side of the room.”
“Then I will not leave it,” nodded Mistake as a loud click came from the door lock. “Should we be prisoners again?”
“That worked the last time,” nodded Eltor. “Let’s try it again.”
Eltor held the door open as MistyTrail and Mistake walked through. He closed the door and immediately moved behind them and pushed them forward. The corridor was only a few paces long before it opened into a huge square room. When they entered the massive room they halted with horror stricken faces.
The entire perimeter of the room was lined with prisoners shackled to the walls. The prisoners sat lifelessly on the floor with one of their wrists chained to metal loops attached to the wall. There were over a hundred of them. At one end of the room was a huge altar. The altar and the floor around it were soaked in blood. Beyond the altar were two doorways with open doors. Eltor began scanning the faces of the prisoners while MistyTrail and Mistake stood horrified as they realized that the altar was used for human sacrifices. As Eltor moved to the right along the wall leading away from the altar, Mistake headed for the two doors beyond the altar. MistyTrail followed Eltor.
Mistake stuck her head through one of the open doorways. She was surprised to find a small kitchen. On the wall opposite her doorway was another door. She moved silently across the floor and peered through the window. A chill raced through her body as she saw rows of bunks with soldiers on them. She moved quickly away from the door before anyone saw her face in the window. Her eyes scanned the kitchen and she brightened somewhat when she saw long loaves of bread on a rack. She moved quickly to the rack and began filling her pack. A large wasooki on a spit hung over a roasting pit. She sliced off generous slabs of meat. When her pack was full, Mistake returned to the large room.
Eltor saw Mistake emerge from the kitchen and waved frantically at her. She moved swiftly, but silently, across the great room. Eltor was kneeling before one of the prisoners.
“This is Caldal,” whispered Eltor as Mistake arrived. “Unlock his manacle.”
The prisoner looked up at Mistake and offered a weak smile. His face was drawn, and his clothes were shredded and bloodstained. Mistake moved to the manacle and extracted her tool from her belt. Caldal’s wrist was bloody and raw, and he twitched painfully as Mistake worked on the lock. She bit her lip as she tried to minimize the movement of the manacle.
MistyTrail knelt beside Caldal and began casting a healing spell on Caldal’s right leg. The leg was entirely bare and showed the signs of a recent whipping. The flesh was raw with numerous lash marks that were swelled with blood still trickling out of them. Caldal groaned softly and his arm fell as Mistake succeeded in removing the manacle.
“Will he be able to move on his own?” Mistake whispered.
“Give me some time,” MistyTrail replied tersely. “I am doing what I can.”
Mistake nodded and her eyes scanned the room and landed on the open doorway that she had not yet explored.
“Do what you can for him,” Mistake whispered. “I am going to search for some clothes or weapons for him.”
Before Eltor could object, Mistake began moving swiftly across the room. She moved in an arc across the room to avoid the bloodstained floor near the altar. She approached the unexplored doorway with caution. She peeked her head into the room. The room was long and held half a dozen long tables. At the far end of the room two people sat talking softly with plates of food before them. Mistake was not sure who the colorfully dressed woman was, but she recognized the man. She had seen his face in Khadoratung driving a caravan of wagons. He had been with the same man who had accompanied the hooded magician in the Wine Press Inn. She had figured out much later that he was the mage that everyone had been talking about. He was Aakuta, the dark mage. She inhaled deeply and pulled her head from the room.
Aakuta and Lady Mystic looked up as they heard Mistake inhale deeply. They saw her face for only a fraction of a second, but that was long enough to identify her as an elf. Lady Mystic immediately rose to her feet, her eyes twinkling with excitement. Aakuta rose and quickly followed Lady Mystic to the doorway as he pulled his hood over his head.
Mistake raced across the room to where Eltor and MistyTrail were helping Caldal to his feet.
“We must leave now,” she urged. “There are people here. Hurry.”
MistyTrail stared across the room and saw the two distant figures in the doorway. She knew that they were two far away to kill with a thrown knife.
“Stop!” shouted Lady Mystic with a voice of authority as her arm rose menacingly.
Eltor threw Caldal over his shoulder and raced for the door they had used to enter the room. Mistake dashed past him to unlock the door. MistyTrail was torn between running with her friends or trying to kill the two people with a fireball. She gauged her chances of killing them both to be rather low. She raced after her friends.
Suddenly a door slammed open in the kitchen and loud voices shouted orders. MistyTrail heard the clanging of swords hitting stone and the trampling of many feet. She saw a fiery streak from the corner of her eye and dove to the floor as a fireball flew over her head.
Suddenly, a cloud of fog surrounded MistyTrail. She rose to her feet and raced forward, hoping that she would find the short corridor that led to the exit. She heard the shouts of the soldiers as they filed into the room. A loud click echoed nearby, and MistyTrail ran with her hands before her face. She felt the corner of the wall and moved into the short corridor. The fog thinned, and she saw Mistake pushing the door open and Eltor racing through it. She quickly followed her friends.
Caldal was muttering incoherently. The only words that MistyTrail could understand as she raced past Eltor was something about a chamber of horror. She pushed the thought from her mind as she reached the next intersection. She quickly checked both ways before turning to the right and running towards the next stairwell. She wondered if they would reach the library before the soldiers caught them.
* * *
Back in the chamber of horrors, the soldiers milled about in confusion. Lady Mystic turned and scowled at Aakuta.
“Why did you do that?” she said with anger in her voice. “I could have fried the last one easily if you had not jostled my arm. And where did that fog come from? Were you deliberately trying to help them escape?”
“Help them escape?” echoed Aakuta. “Why would I care what happens to some elves? As for jostling your arm, I apologize. I am used to working alone. I must learn to anticipate the actions of others.”
Aakuta’s face slowly transformed into a mischievous smile as he gazed into Lady Mystic’s frustrated eyes.
“Now that they appear to have a head start,” offered the dark mage, “perhaps their attempts to escape may prove to be enjoyable.”
Lady Mystic’s face turned from anger to contemplation.
“What fun can we have with them escaping?” she asked.
“I am not sure,” admitted Aakuta, “but it has to be more interesting than watching a simple thrashing by the soldiers. I suppose that the city will be crawling with soldiers vying to be the ones to find the escapees. How long before the alarm is issued?”
“It should be issued right now,” answered Lady Mystic with a hint of mischievousness in her voice, “but I wonder. Sounding the alarm now would merely transfer their capture to the streets instead of the temple. If we wait a short while, the kruls will get into the act. Have you ever seen what a krul does when it captures an escapee?”
“No,” smiled Aakuta. “I have never had that pleasure. What do they do?”
“Well,” Lady Mystic said excitedly, “if it is a single krul, the elves will be eaten alive, but if there is more than one krul, they will fight over them. Sometimes the prisoners are literally torn apart. It would be interesting to show you such a demonstration.”
“How long do we wait before issuing the alarm?” asked Aakuta.
“We don’t issue one,” smiled Lady Mystic. “There is no chance of them getting off the island. We will let the soldiers discover the missing elf. Whenever they finally notice, we will learn of it. Then we must wait until the kruls have picked up the scent. You will enjoy this, Aakuta.”