falls from its form like water from a cliff. I am holding a very old rope.
Another large rock catches my eye, but the reason I am drawn to it is that it is not a rock. It’s an anvil. This find proves my guess that this was once a forge.
I pick up a hammer that hangs on one of the racks. It’s a small one, the kind I’m used to. The kind I’d bend metal with instead of bones.
The way the hammer fits into my hand is comforting. Nostalgia fills my breast, even though I was holding one almost identical only a week earlier. It’s hard to believe that Nathaniel and I had gone hunting a few days ago, and now we are fighting and running for our lives in the midst of the Wolfpack Mountains.
As I study the ancient forge, I am reminded of my father. It’s such an old livelihood; one that has passed down through my father to me. The forge represents to me all that I have learned, all that I have yet to learn, and all the legacies of my father. My father who still lives and breathes somewhere inside Nringnar’s Deep.
Wrath boils through me and images of violence and chaos overtake my mind. Who does he think he is? Thinks he can kill whoever he wants, take whatever he wants, and get no consequences?! I’ll show him… I’ll give him the worst consequence he’s ever seen. Forever afterward my enemies will hear my name and flee, and none will ever reside in the hands of such darkness again!
As my thoughts rage, my hands ball into tight fists and my knuckles turn white. My teeth clench and my jaw tightens. My heart quickens and my blood boils until the hammer hits the anvil with such force that the old wooden handle shatters and the head of the hammer flies dangerously close to my shoulder. A loud clang bursts over the mountainside.
Then I calm.
Only after this am I able to find sleep in the bedroll Gunther so generously offered me.
Percival wakes me as the sun is setting. “You didn’t show any sign of waking, so I thought I’d help you along,” he says.
“Thank you,” I say quietly. “I just hope I’m not too late already.”
“What do you mean?” asks Percival.
“He never said when he was going to kill the Jarl. It was going to be public, but he didn’t give a time. I just hope it wasn’t today.”
“Who is ‘he’?”
I think and respond, “I don’t know. A commander of some sort of the Tygnar army. I never heard his name.”
I eat something quickly and then say, “Well, I’d best be gone. Do you know where the dungeons are?”
Percival shakes his head, but Darius says, “Under the right wing of the Keep, I believe. I’m not sure exactly where.”
“Thanks,” I say, though it was little help. I glance at Percival and say, “I’ll see you later, then.”
“I’ll be here, Kadmus. I won’t leave without you. I know you will succeed.”
Percival’s faith in me lifts me. It’s the doubt I have in myself that sows my failure.
Jailbreak
It’s easy to find my way back through the waste passages. I merely follow the flow of water backwards, up the small incline. Soon I come upon the metal grates, and I let myself inside the Keep.
The grates are loud as they open and shut. Thankfully there’s nobody down here to hear it.
As I proved while out hunting, I’m not the stealthiest of all men. Fortunately there aren’t many guards, and I don’t encounter any until I get to the level below the circular room. Then there’s only one, but he’s asleep on the floor, leaning against the wall.
Darius had said that the dungeons are under the right wing but first I decide I will need a few weapons. The armory just above the dungeons will be my first stop, so I must go up and through the circular entrance hall, and then down another hall.
People are talking in the circular hall. I don’t have the courage to even peek around the corner, so I stand very still in the shadow just inside the arch.
“Hralfar would be happy to know that his Keep is so nice and clean again,” says the first voice. I recognize it as the Tygnar commander. “Pity to see so many bodies spoiling it.”
“Why don’t I let him know?” says the second voice. “And that the trolls have been well fed?”