The Order of the Astronomers

A Gaming Adventure Story for Gods & Monsters

by Jerry Stratton

Copyright © 2003

http://www.godsmonsters.com/

(Caspar David Friedrich’s “Abbey in an Oak Forest”, circa 1819)

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1, published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”

8/2/2006

Hightown Market

Hightown is a small town in western Highland, about a thousand people living a week’s ride over the western side of the High Divide. South of Hightown is just “the forest”. There is nothing else south but night trolls and worse. You can keep going west along the leather road from Hightown to Black Stag, the largest city in west Highland. North of Black Stag are many smaller towns further up Fawn River, until the towns dwindle to villages and the villages dwindle to wilderness. Beyond that, according to Charlotte Kordé, lay the Long Lakes and the forest city of the Elves.

Charlotte was going to go there, she told Gralen and Sam, “someday”. This is when she would always take another drink and continue, “Someday soon.”

Charlotte, Sam Stevens, and Gralen Noslen were from Crosspoint, across the mountains. Sam was on the run from a thieves’ ring, working her way west as a caravan guard. Charlotte was trailing along. And Gralen came from Crosspoint by way of Byblion, just to the north of Hightown. Byblion had a library, perhaps the oldest library in east or west Highland. Gralen was a scholar. His best friend was Will Stratford. Will’s father lived in Hightown, and was a caravan guard-for-hire. Will had been in both Crosspoint and Black Stag many times. Last two times he even got paid as a guard himself. He even had his own longsword. Sam just had a short sword; she hadn’t even learned to use a longsword yet.

The leather road received its name from the most prominent item of trade out of Black Stag: leather. The tanners and craftsmen of west Highland are renowned for the flexibility and strength of their product. In west Highland they called it the low road, but the rest of the known world called it by their dreams of riches. North of the leather road was west Highland, and civilization. South of the leather road was the unknown. There was no reason to go there, and no one ever did. It was from the deep forests to the south that the goblin mage and his night trolls came a hundred years past in a nearly-successful attempt to conquer the north.

The four met in the marketplace in Hightown. Gralen and Will knew each other from town--they’d become inseparable, at least when Gralen wasn’t studying and Will wasn’t traveling. Will knew Sam through his dad’s guard service. She’d just signed up as a mercenary. He hoped she’d stay on as a regular, but his dad just shook his head and said he didn’t think she was that type. “Good worker, though,” he’d add thoughtfully.

Gralen invited Will. Will invited Sam. Sam and Gralen invited Charlotte and looked at each other suspiciously when they found out the other knew her.

Gralen and Will were quite a pair. Will was clearly the more muscular of the two, and was taller than just about everyone around--except Gralen, who stood nearly a half foot above Will’s six feet. But where Will was muscular and exercised, Gralen was gangly and pale.

The market in Hightown was nothing like the market in Crosspoint. There were potatoes everywhere, and onions. Lots of boxes and crates. But the exotic fruits of Crosspoint were nowhere. Crosspoint was the center of merchant routes west into Highland, north to the Celts, and south to the baronies of Great Bend. Fishermen brought fish from the sea to market, farmers their produce, and hunters their catch. Hightown, a stopover between Black Stag in west Highland and Crosspoint in east Highland, attracted to its stalls the merchants who took the leather road. West Highland merchants sold their goods to east Highland merchants, and vice versa. Then both went home.

It was mid to late autumn. The nearly full moon remained visible low in the sky in the early morning. Farmers were selling apples, apple cider, and the last harvest of roots until summer again.

The entertainment didn’t live up to Crosspoint standards either. A crowd gathered around a pair of singers, but most of the crowd was talking to each other and not listening. The entertainers--two dark-haired twins--sang in an unmistakable Great Bend lisp. One played a lute. The other, a whistle. Their song was a tale of two armies, a variation on an old tale of “the Mist and the Christ”, war between two orders back in the time of scholarly combat.

“Stop,” said Gralen. “I want to hear this.”

...so passed the Mist through Byblion Town.

“South!” he cried, and south he led
his hundred men down past the road,
into the deepest forest led
a hundred men to steal the gold
of Christ-at-Anna’s starry hold.

They marched beneath a waning moon.
Three days they marched and many a troll
fell to his army and his sword.
And many creatures long unnamed
were stirred, and fled, Mistoles' horde.

Things that fly and things that creep
with leather wings and slimy hoof,
feared, and fled, in the forest deep
before the Mist’s well-armored horde.

The third night out the noon was gone
Beneath the stars they made their camp.
One by one the stars went out,
A mist rose up, so cold and damp.

“Mist for Mistoles? An omen good,”
So cried Mistoles’ aide-de-camp.

They built a fire, tall and hot,
and heeded not the omen,
to drive the mist that chilled their hearts
to dry the damp ‘til morning.

The fire crackled to the sky,
sent fiery coals a-borning,
when from the mist they heard a cry,
a scream, and then a warning.

Groping! Groping in the dark!
The camp was in a turmoil.
Groping! Groping in the wood
But only for a moment.

The warnings died, the screaming waned,
and when they counted up their men,
A hundred men were ninety.

At morning when the sun arose
cradled in Elijah’s breasts,
It burned the mist away.
And ninety men turned East and left
the thing that gropes the wood.

They bore due east upon the breasts,
to Christ-at-Anna’s hold.
And many songs describe the war,
and many tales are told.

In some they die in forest deep,
In some their thesis prove.
But no song knows the fate of those
lost to the thing that gropes the wood.

When the singers finished, Gralen tossed them a ship and sword.

“That’s a lot of money for a song,” said Sam.

“I think there was some good information in that song,” said Gralen.

“It was told to us by zee last survivor of zee battle,” said one of the singers.

“Of course it was,” said Gralen. “Thank you for singing it to us. Did you know that the town of Byblion that Mistoles passed through is just north of us?”

“We heard the name,” said the other singer, “and zought it would be appreciated here.”

“And it was,” said Gralen. “What brings you north to Highland?”

“An aczidont,” said one singer.

“Oui, an aczidont with a duke’s daughter,” said the other.

“Say no more,” said Gralen. “Find a place to settle soon. Our winters are colder than the southern winters.”

“Zank you,” they said. “Perhapz we will zee you zoon.”

One of them winked his dark eyes at Will. They bowed and left with their instruments. Will shivered once as they left.

“What was that all about?” asked Charlotte.

“Mistoles was the last leader of Illustrious Castle before it fell to the goblins from the Deep Forest. After Mistoles died and the Order of Illustration retook the castle, they fell into ruin. Kristagna, what they called Christ-at-Anna’s, is the castle where their rivals supposedly lived. Illustrious Castle is about sixty miles north of here. Kristagna is supposed to hide great treasures and greater knowledge. Kristagna is supposedly somewhere south, in the Deep Forest. Nobody knows where, but I have some ideas.”

“But the goblin armies came up over a hundred years ago,” said Sam. “There’s no way they heard the story from a survivor.”

“Unless they or the survivor was Elfen,” said Charlotte.

“Neither of them were Elfen, clearly enough,” said Will. “Perhaps the survivor was.”

“There was no survivor,” said Gralen. “Not that they know, anyway.”

“Then who’d they hear the story from?”

“From other singers, probably,” said Gralen, “who heard it from other singers, who heard it from other singers. Most of it had altered considerably from what I know really happened.”

“If they lied about hearing it from a survivor, how do you know that they didn’t lie about the rest of it?” asked Will.

“Maybe they did,” said Gralen. “But singers always make up some story about how they heard the song from someone who was there, or even better, that they themselves were there. Remember, they’re selling a product just like everyone else here in the market. They have to make it more exciting.”

“They probably made up the duke’s daughter,” said Sam.

“Probably,” said Gralen. “More likely they just ran up too many debts.”

“How’d you like those earrings?” asked Sam.

“Probably a custom down south,” said Gralen.

“Emerald-green earrings?”

“Musicians are strange people,” said Will.

“But what did you hear in the song?” asked Charlotte. “What makes you think you know where this Kristagna is?”

“There are some books in the library that haven’t been read in a long time,” said Gralen. “There are clues. But they never fit until now. If the song is right, we might find it by ‘bearing down’ on Isaiah’s Breasts.”

“Who is Isaiah and why do we care about his breasts?” asked Will, getting a laugh from everyone except Gralen.

“Isaiah was one of the founders of the Astronomers. Isaiah’s breasts are two mountain peaks that I think I remember reading a snippet about. From the right vantage point, they look like, well, breasts.”

“Breasts to normal people, or breasts to hermit-like warrior-scholars who haven’t seen a woman in months?” asked Sam.

“There’s probably something to that,” said Gralen.

“How far south are the peaks?”

“Three days ride,” said Sam, “if the song is right.”

“That could be,” said Gralen. “I don’t know, but I think I saw it referenced in one of the books I’ve been studying.”

“Show me these books,” said Charlotte.

“I can’t, they’re in Byblion,” said Gralen. “And a lot of the books I really need were lost when the night trolls sacked Illustrious Castle. But what I’ve been able to find, I have in my notes.”

“Let’s go, then.”

While Gralen and Charlotte went to the inn, Will and Sam wandered the marketplace.

“Pretty amazing that you and Gralen both know Charlotte,” said Will.

“I’ve known her since I was a kid,” said Sam. “When I was still living on the streets.”

“Really? How did you meet?”

“I tried to steal an apple from her.”

Will looked at her.

“I was hungry,” said Sam.

“Was this a rich kid/poor kid thing?”

“She wasn’t a kid,” said Sam. “She was old enough to be my mother when I first met her.”

“How can that be?” asked Will.

“She says she’s nearly forty years old,” said Sam.

They walked on, and stopped to bargain over some bright red apples.

“She isn’t really that old, is she?” asked Will. He took a bite from his apple.

“Hell,” said Sam, “I’ve known Charlotte since I was able to walk and I swear she hasn’t aged a bit. She looks younger than I am.”

“Well, maybe not that young,” said Will.

Sam looked at him, and his eyes turned away. She couldn’t figure out if he was complimenting her or mocking her. She’d been living on the streets since she was ten years old, and it showed. Her face was pocked more than most twenty-year-old women from Crosspoint. She wore her hair short and kept her legs in pants. Charlotte wore long but loose-fitting clothing, but when some leg did show her skin remained soft and clear. Was William saying something about that? William was handsome and dashing... well, no. William was handsome. But he wore his heart on his sleeve. She decided that he was complimenting her, and held her tongue. For his part, he had no idea what torture he had barely missed with his compliment.

The Company of the Lost Stars

They met at King’s Inn at the end of the day. There are no kings in Highland. The only government is local and the church. Kingdoms, according to the church, are one of the three deadly sins that led to the great cataclysm. King’s Inn is owned by Rex King. Gralen asked Will at least once whenever they visited if he knew that “Rex’s first name is his last name in the ancient tongue?” Will usually answered, “uh, yeah, now I do.”

Charlotte and Gralen laid out the plan to Will and Sam.

“Four days there, three days exploring, four days back,” said Gralen. “The moon is nearly full now, it will be a good time to spend in the woods. We’ll have a full moon in three days, and we’ll be back before its gone.”

“Equal shares of any money or saleable items we bring back,” said Charlotte. “We’ll be like a merchant company, but our mine will be ruins and our lode the lost treasure of the Astronomers.”

“The company of the lost stars,” said Gralen. “If we can find Kristagna it should be lucrative.”

“I didn’t know you were so interested in money,” said Will to Gralen.

“The Astronomers knew many strange magics,” said Gralen. “If I can find their notes, I might be able to reconstruct some of their spells.”

“You’re sure there’s money there?” asked Sam.

“We’re not sure of anything,” said Gralen.

“I am,” said Charlotte. “No one has ever found it, it has to still be there. Unlike Illustrious Castle north of us, which has been stripped bare, Kristagna is south of the road.”

“So what were the two castles fighting over?” asked Will.

“Knowledge,” said Gralen. “Or theory. The old scholastic orders took their science very seriously. A scholastic question would sometimes be settled on the field of battle, and a dispute could erupt into war.”

“That’s crazy,” said Will.

“That’s why most of these Orders died out,” said Charlotte. “I think the only remaining orders are the Knights of the Thistle and the Knights C¾lius.”

“How do we know the Astronomers are gone?” asked Will.

“No one’s heard from them in years,” said Gralen. “No one comes from there, and no one ever travels there.”

“No one travels there for a reason,” said Sam. “Monsters live there!”

“Okay,” said Will. “I could do this. If we do find gold, I could set up my own caravan company.”

He turned to Sam.

“You could work for me if you wanted.”

“If we come back with gold,” said Sam, “I’m never working for anyone ever again.”

“We’ll need to be prepared,” said Charlotte. “Each of us will need food and water to last a week. Water we can replenish in the forest. Food we probably can replenish, but bring dry food for emergencies.”

“And arms,” said Sam. “Just in case.”

“Bring blankets and clothing. I’ll make sure we have a donkey to carry it,” said Gralen.

They started out on the following morning, after each searched the town for the equipment they thought they might need. They had staves, and rope, and lanterns and oil. Each carried dried berries, cheese, and bread, and a skin of water. They loaded everything they didn’t carry themselves onto the donkey.

“To the company of the lost stars,” said Charlotte, raising her staff to the still visible moon as they stood in the cold morning air.

“The company of the daft song is more like it,” said Will. “But if the song is right about the breasts,” he continued, “then what about the thing that gropes the wood?”

“I wouldn’t touch that line with a ten foot pole,” said Sam, tapping him on the head with the ten foot pole she was using as a walking stick. Will turned bright red.

“What’s with the blackbird?” asked Sam, pointing at a bird that was circling above them.

“That’s not a good sign,” said Will, and he cranked up his crossbow.

Gralen gently pushed the crossbow down.

“This particular raven is a very good sign,” he said.

Sam set her staff before her and began walking.

“It’s not for no reason that going crazy is called gone south,” said Sam. “Let’s go.”

With the sun still hidden behind the High Divide, the company of the daft song walked across the leather road and into the deep forest.

The Deep Forest

They were surprised to find that the forest on the south side of the road was no different from the forest on the north side. The trees were in autumn bloom with dry leaves of red, orange, and yellow covering the trees and the ground beneath the trees. The leaves on the ground crackled as they walked.

There was one difference between north and south.

“No one’s been here in a hundred years,” said Charlotte, to Sam, as they walked through the woods. Will and Gralen were strolling ahead a hundred yards or so. The donkey was with them. No one was walking in any hurry.

“No one human, anyway,” said Sam. “Unless the Astronomers are still here.”

“I can’t believe they’d still be around,” said Charlotte. “They’d have to come up to Hightown occasionally for trade. When the night trolls came through, they came far enough north to defeat the Knights of Illustration. The Astronomers must have been even more besieged.”

“Night trolls,” repeated Sam. “What do we do when night rolls around?”

“We find a secluded camp before nightfall,” said Charlotte.

“What if Will or Gralen snores?” she asked, and laughed. Charlotte laughed also.

“Smother them with a pillow, I guess,” she replied.

“Did we bring pillows?”

“I wish,” said Charlotte.

“You don’t like roughing it?”

“I love it,” said Charlotte. “I don’t normally go out like a pack animal, though. But walking in the forest, sleeping under the stars. There are wonderful animal trails throughout the forests around Crosspoint.”

“But we have no goblins around Crosspoint,” said Sam.

“We do,” said Charlotte. “But they aren’t very bold.”

“Let’s hope the goblins of west Highland aren’t very bold either.”

As the sun rose, shafts of bright sunlight shone through the leaves of the trees, illuminating dust in the air. Will and Gralen were lazily picking raspberries here and there, putting them into their bags as they walked on.

“I haven’t been this far from my father since I started working for him five years ago,” said Will.

“Your father’s a nice guy,” said Gralen.

“To you, maybe,” said Will. “He doesn’t understand me.”

Gralen stooped down and picked up some long grass, and fed it to their donkey.

“I mean, we just go back and forth, back and forth,” said Will. “Black Stag to Hightown, Hightown to Crosspoint, Crosspoint to Hightown, Hightown to Black Stag. For Christ’s sake, he’s been doing it for twenty years!”

“What do you want to do?”

“I’d like to start my own company. Go down to Great Bend. Or maybe not start the company, and just go to the bend. Or when we go to Black Stag, why not head up the river and see what’s up there?”

“There’s no money in it, probably,” said Gralen.

“Yeah, that’s what he says,” said Will. “Everything up the river comes down the river, we don’t need to go chasing it.”

They walked south silently for a little while.

“I’ve heard there are Elves up that way,” Will continued. “And Dwarves.”

“And little pixies that live in holes and smoke big pipes,” said Gralen. “You hear a lot of things if you want to.”

“Charlotte thinks there are Elves up that way.”

“She’s probably right,” said Gralen. “But not too many people visit them.”

“She’s going to.”

“She’s been saying that for as long as I’ve known her,” said Gralen. “Usually after she’s had a bit to drink.”

“That’s what everybody says,” said Will.

“Everybody?”

“Well, Sam said the same thing.”

Gralen looked at him.

“You know, you probably shouldn’t go talking about Charlotte to people you don’t know.”

“Why not?” asked Will.

“It’s odd,” said Gralen. “She’s got a secret, and secrets of that sort are often best kept.”

“But Sam doesn’t know me,” said Will.

“True, and that was my point,” Gralen replied.

“Who is Sam?” asked Will.

“A friend of Charlotte’s,” said Gralen. “She’s a tough one.”

“I don’t know,” said Will.

They set up camp that night in a small dell nestled within the hills. They set up their tent, hung their food from the trees, and built a small fire with which to cook their dinner. Afterwards, Gralen went to studying his notes and the two books he’d brought with him. Charlotte went off on her own in the woods around their camp. And Will began to practice his swordplay. Sam watched Will as he fought imaginary opponents and blocked imaginary attacks.

“Can you teach me how to do that?” she asked him.

He turned and looked at her.

“Uh, yeah,” he replied, “uhm, why would you want to?”

She looked him in the eyes, and surprisingly he didn’t look away.

“I’m never going to be the girl who lets someone else protect her,” said Sam.

“I noticed that,” said Will.

“As long as we understand each other.”

“Show me your positions,” said Will.

“My what?”

“Attack that bush with your short sword.”

“Oh.”

She hacked at the tall bush he’d indicated.

“You taught yourself, didn’t you,” said Will.

“Yes, and I do pretty well,” said Sam. “The tree didn’t lay a hand on me.”

“You can do better. Put your sword down, and follow my steps.”

He showed her three basic fighting movements.

“You’ll want to practice these whenever you can,” said Will, then he handed her his sword.

“Yours is heavier than mine,” said Sam.

“I’m not touching that line with a ten foot pole,” said Will.

“Touché,” said Sam.

“Well, you know the words, let’s see if you know the walk. This is your enemy,” he said, pointing at the abused bush. “Attack it.”

She took more foliage off of the bush.

“Don’t look at your sword,” said Will. “It isn’t going to attack you. Watch your enemy.”

“My enemy’s a bush,” said Sam.

“Always keep the sword moving,” said Will. “And pretend that the bush can fight back.”

The first night was awkward. They shared a large tent, but not large enough. Each lay out their own bedroll. Will and Gralen slept on one side, Charlotte and Sam on the other. Will and Charlotte were in the middle. They put their packs between the two sides.

“I went camping like this once when I was twelve with a girl from down the hill in Crosspoint,” whispered Will to Gralen. “I didn’t get anywhere then either.”

“Watch out for the thing that gropes the wood,” said Sam, and everyone chuckled, even Will.

“Oh, I’m quite familiar with him,” he replied. “Go to sleep.”

In the middle of the night, Sam tapped Charlotte’s shoulder until she awoke.

“Do you hear something?” asked Sam.

Charlotte tapped Will’s shoulder until he woke up.

“Something’s outside,” she said.

Will tapped Gralen’s shoulder.

“The girls are worried about something outside,” he said.

Sam tried to hit him, but Charlotte was in the way. Gralen lifted the bottom of the tent up and peered out.

“There’s some animal out by our fire pit,” said Gralen. “It’s a deer or something.”

They heard a sudden noise of branches moving.

“What was that?”

“The deer just ran away. Maybe we scared it off.”

They heard a wolf howling, and it didn’t sound distant at all.

“Or not.”

Halfway through the second day, they saw a small structure on a small hill beyond some trees. As they drew closer, they saw that it was a circle of columns set into the ground. The stone ring that the columns once held was fallen in pieces around the hill. In the center of the columns and broken stone was an altar on a round dais, with strange markings inscribed on it: slashes and straight corners, no curves at all. But it looked like it ought to be writing.

“What does it say?” asked Charlotte. “Do you know?”

“I can’t read this,” said Gralen. “But there’s one between Hightown and Byblion that I’ve deciphered, and it is a dedication to a king, or god, of the silver hand.”

“And this one says the same thing?” asked Sam.

“Who knows?” asked Gralen. “I’ve heard that these monuments lie scattered throughout west Highland. Perhaps each is dedicated to a different god or demon.”

He ran his fingers over the inscribed markings.

“Whatever it is, its been abandoned for a long time,” said Will.

“You get a nice view up here,” said Charlotte. ‘This forest is as wonderful as any back east.”

“Speaking of that,” said Sam, “don’t we have to start going east soon?”

“We should be running into a road sometime,” said Gralen.

“Or be able to see the breasts,” said Charlotte.

“We might be able to save some time by going kitty-corner, but we might also end up getting horribly lost if we do that,” said Gralen. “Though I’m thinking that on the way back we might be able to go straight north to the low road, or north-northwest.”

“We can’t hardly miss the leather road,” said Will.

The second night, Sam decided to scout the perimeter of their camp. Charlotte thought she’d seen some animal following them for an hour or so before they stopped. Sam stepped as quietly as she could--and it was surprisingly quiet to the rest of the friends. When Sam stepped into the trees, she practically disappeared.

“I hope she’s going to be all right,” said Will.

“Let’s set up the camp,” said Gralen.

Sam snuck through the trees as quietly as she could, and it was quietly enough. Hidden in the ferns only about fifty yards from camp were three human-like creatures half her size, but with splotchy white faces and two small fangs. They were watching Gralen, Charlotte, and Will set up camp. Each carried spears, and one carried a short sword of some kind.

“I think they’re night trolls,” said Sam to the rest when she returned to the camp site.

“They’re probably waiting to kill us when we go to sleep,” said Gralen.

“Where are they?” asked Will.

“Don’t look!” said Sam. “We don’t want them to know that we know that they’re there. Not yet.”

She motioned him to move behind the tent.

“Go to that side of the tent, so they can’t see you, and load your crossbow,” she said.

“Why?”

“We can’t let them go find more of their kind,” said Sam. “We’ re going to have to sneak-attack them before they sneak-attack us, or before they go for reinforcements. I need you to cover me while I go back around.”

“I should go back around,” said Will. “I haven’t taught you anything yet.”

“I know how to use a crossbow,” replied Sam, “and you make as much noise as a herd of cattle. I’ll go, you cover me.”

“What do we do?” asked Gralen.

“I’m going to sneak back to the other side of them. One of you go behind the tent and count to a hundred, then sneak up as well as you can.”

“What about the other two of us?” asked Charlotte.

“You back me up when you hear me yell,” said Sam.

Sam went back into the woods, with her and Will’s crossbow armed and ready.

“I’ll go,” said Will.

“No, you need to cover her from here,” said Gralen. “You should stay here because you can get there fastest when she yells.”

“And you’re too obvious,” said Charlotte to Gralen. “I’ll follow.”

Charlotte stepped into the forest from behind the tent.

“Let’s just finish setting up the fire,” said Gralen to Will.

“I hope she knows what she’s doing,” said Will.

“Lay your sword down as you try to start the fire,” said Gralen, “in case they’re worrying about where the other two went.”

Will leaned his sword down against a rock that was next to the space they’d cleared for the fire. Gralen looked up into the sky, and whistled once. Then he turned to Will again.

“Hold still,” said Gralen. “I’m going to do something so you can better use that crossbow.”

Gralen spoke for a few seconds in words that Will did not understand, and then touched Will’s eyes. Will blinked, and when he opened his eyes, everything was suddenly much clearer. Things he didn’t previously notice suddenly came in focus. He could see the veins on the leaves ten feet away, and could see for three times the distance he could have before.

“You can see further and better now,” said Gralen.

“This is incredible,” said Will.

He glanced slowly around the woods, and could now clearly see the goblins hiding behind some bushes over a hundred feet away.

“I see them,” said Will. “Three of them, just like she said. Shouldn’t we head over there now?”

“Wait for her signal,” said Gralen. “It’s her plan, we don’t want to screw it up.”

At the perimeter of the camp, Charlotte was not quite as silent as Sam had been. Sam realized that the creatures were getting nervous. When Charlotte arrived within about twenty paces, Sam aimed her crossbow at who she assumed was their leader, and stepped out of the brush.

“Stop!” she yelled.

Will grabbed up his sword and crossbow, and pointing his crossbow at one of the goblins, he walked quickly but firmly towards them. Gralen moved slightly to the right and walked with him. He also fished into his pockets for a small model of an arrow. When they were about forty paces, the goblins screamed and jumped at Sam with their spears.

Sam pulled the trigger on her crossbow, but in her surprise at their ferocity her bolt went wild. Gralen whistled and pointed his staff at the creatures, and began running towards the goblins and Sam. Will chose his target and shot his crossbow. The bolt hit the goblin and the goblin fell to the ground.

One of the goblins began spearing at the air as if fighting an imaginary opponent. Sam didn’t take time to be confused by it. She dropped her crossbow and drew her sword against the remaining creature, but it thrust its spear forward, barely missing her. She twisted round its attack and, off-balance, was unable to complete her counter-attack. Will threw down his crossbow and ran towards the fight.

By this time, Gralen had moved to about thirty paces from the creatures. He began mumbling, and threw something towards the fight. It burst into an arrow of light that slammed into Sam’s opponent.

A raven swooped out of the sky and clawed at Sam’s opponent, and that goblin tried to run past Sam to get away, thrusting again with its spear. Perhaps she should have let it go, as its attack drew blood before she twisted it out of the way with her sword and followed the spear down to its bearer, thrusting it into its chest and pulling it back out. The creature fell backwards a few steps, and then keeled over onto the ground.

Sam pointed her sword at the remaining goblin, which was now looking scared as well as confused, and it tossed its spear away and jumped to the ground whimpering.

“Great,” said Will. “We’ve got a prisoner. Jesus, Sam, are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” said Sam, “I think. You sure as hell were right about that raven bringing good luck,” she added to Gralen.

She touched at her side, inside her leather armor, and came back with blood.

“Shit.”

“Get her back to camp,” Will told Charlotte. “I’m going to tie this thing up.”

Will pointed his sword at the goblin.

“Go,” said Will.

The creature didn’t seem to understand the words, but it did understand the gesture. Will led it at sword’s point back to the camp and tied it up.

“Charlotte,” said Will. “How bad is Sam?”

“I don’t know,” said Charlotte. “There’s blood everywhere.”

Will went to take a look at Sam’s wound.

“It doesn’t look too bad,” said Will, “though I’m no barber. Tie it up with some strips of cloth. Use the blankets if we don’t have anything better.”

Will turned to Gralen and pointed at the goblin, tied now to a small tree.

“We’re going to have to keep a watch tonight,” said Will, “to keep an eye on this thing. We can’t let it go, and we really can’t just kill it. Too bad we can’t talk to it.”

Later, in the tent, Will asked Gralen about the legend of the silver hand, and Gralen told them the story.

“This is what I read on the stones north of Hightown,” said Gralen. “The king of the silver hand, the father of kings, ruled a great city, and his brother ruled another kingdom. Evil creatures came from over the sea, creatures that could hear any word spoken if any wind was blowing around the speaker. The wind would carry what was said to the evil ones, who could terrorize the countryside with full knowledge of their enemies’ plans and secrets. So the king held council with his brother in a place of no wind, and his brother told him of a dream he’d had: that the invaders could be defeated by forcing them to eat insect mash, insects ground into water. The king must do this himself, for if he asks anyone else to do it, he runs the risk of telling it to the wind, who then would inform the invaders.”

“So the king mashes up insects?” said Will.

“And,” continued Gralen, “he sneaks into the camp of the invaders and switches their porridge with his insect mash. When they eat it, they can no longer hear the wind. And now he and his advisors can create their stratagems without being overheard, and so they defeat the invaders.”

“Insect mash?” said Charlotte. “That’s disgusting. Wouldn’t they have noticed?”

“Well, it’s a legend,” said Sam. “Strange things happen in legends.”

“And so they lived happily ever after?” asked Will.

“Not yet. There was another problem in the land. On each May’s eve, a scream permeated the land, a scream that curdled milk, killed crops, and made women barren. Warriors lost their strength. Children and animals grew sick. The sick died. His brother helped him here, also. He said that the screams were the screams of dragons in the earth, and that the dragons could be quieted by giving them strong mead. So every mayday he had his people bury crocks of mead in the earth to lull the dragons.”

“I could use some mead right now,” said Sam.

“I take it that wasn’t the end of his problems,” said Will.

“Of course not,” said Charlotte. “These things always come in threes if they come in pairs.”

“And so they do,” said Gralen. “The king’s provisions in the castle were disappearing the night after they arrived. They would eat the first night, and then the court would have to go hungry until they received more provisions, which themselves would disappear by the morning after they arrived. The king and his court would try to stay awake to find out what was happening to the food, but they always fell asleep before morning, and when they awoke the food would be gone. His brother told him that he didn’t know what or who was taking the food, but that when he felt tired he should bathe in cold water to keep himself awake. The king did so, and discovered that a wizard was using magic to send the entire court to sleep. The king jumped out of his bath, took his sword, and defeated the wizard in mortal combat, and the court was finally able to have breakfast.”

“I’ve known people who could use a cold bath at night,” said Sam.

“What I want to know is, who is his brother?” asked Will.

“That’s a good question,” said Gralen. “Who knows? You’d have to ask the night priests, or Druids, or whoever built the monument.”

“Sleep well,” said Charlotte.

“As long as the mist doesn’t rise,” said Will.

Gralen took the last watch, and spent it studying his books to regain his spells.

“Do we have anything we’d like to discuss with this creature?” asked Gralen when everyone else awoke and began digging through their packs for breakfast.

“Why,” asked Sam, “did you learn its language in the night?”

“Sort of,” said Gralen. “The same way I could read the stones north of Hightown but not the same stones yesterday. Now I’m prepared.”

“We need to know how many more there are, and where they live, I guess,” said Sam.

“So we can avoid it like a plague,” said Will.

“We might also ask if there are any breasts nearby,” said Sam.

“Funny.”

“So ask it about castles,” she added.

“Good idea,” said Gralen.

He took something out of his pockets, pinched between his fingers, spoke some words that no one understood, and ate it.

“What the hell is that?” asked Sam.

“Ginger,” said Gralen, and then he touched the creature on the forehead.

The goblin flinched. Then, Gralen began gesturing to it. When the goblin spoke, Gralen gestured further. He pointed east. The goblin spoke and pointed west.

The others made their breakfast over the fire. They still had eggs and bacon, though they’d have to start living off of hard bread and jerky soon.

“Well,” said Gralen when he was done. “If you can trust it, it lives back west and a bit further south. There are hundreds--or at least ten handfuls--more of them. And it not only hasn’t heard of a castle, it doesn’t recommend finding the castle that doesn’t exist. Also, it wants to know when we’re going to kill it, because it wants to kill us.

Will partially untied the goblin and handed it some of their breakfast.

“You notice he didn’t turn to stone when the sun came up?” he asked the others.

“Maybe it’s a different kind of night troll that turns to stone,” said Sam.

“He doesn’t appear to like the light that much,” said Gralen.

“What the hell are we going to do with him?” asked Charlotte.

“Let him go when we get further down,” said Will. “We can’t keep him, and we aren’t going to kill him now that he’s harmless.”

“He won’t be harmless if he comes back with a hundred more like him,” said Sam.

“We wait long enough to let him go, and he won’t have time to track us down before we get back home,” said Will. “We’re not going back the way we came, right?”

The Mist

On their third day out, the mist did rise. Before the sun reached its zenith, a fog rolled in slowly from the south. Visibility dropped to a hundred paces, and then dropped further, until they moved as ghosts within the grey light that filtered through the fog. They grabbed their blankets from the packs on the donkey, and wrapped them around their shoulders and backs for warmth. Their captive was very reluctant to go further, but Will’s sword convinced it to do so.

The raven that had been so useful during the fight flew down through the mist and landed on Gralen’s shoulder.

“Looks like you’ve got a new friend,” said Sam.

“An old friend,” said Gralen. “She’s afraid of the mist.”

“The night troll’s afraid, too,” said Will. “Why?”

“It’s near time to stop for food anyway,” said Sam. “We should climb up the next hill and see how far this mist extends, if we can, and maybe see if there’s something else we should be aware of. Or even if we should just go home.”

So the next time they felt a hill rising beneath their feet, they followed it upwards.

At the peak of the hill they rose above the mist. They could see tall trees rising out of a cloud-like sea of mist, and here and there other hills jutted above the fog. The sun glimmered over the mist. To the east, the High Divide rose out of the misty sea, with two rounded, white-tipped peaks due east especially prominent.

“Well,” said Gralen, pointing to the mountains. “We’ve moved a little faster than Mistoles. There are Isaiah’s Breasts.”

But the mist continued rising as they discussed moving east, and soon the mountains and the breasts were only shadows in the fog.

“This may be a blessing in disguise,” said Sam. “We can pass east undetected by any creatures like yesterday’s.”

“Then let’s step up the pace,” said Charlotte.

Back in the misty woods, the crackling of leaves beneath their feet took on a new dimension. The sound of their footsteps and the leaves was muffled by the thick mist. But the mist also carried noises that they didn’t recognize. The chirping, and screeching, of birds or insects they never saw, and sounds like branches cracking and falling from far away.

Charlotte suddenly stopped and turned her head to the right.

“Did you hear that?” she asked.

“No,” said Gralen. “What?”

Charlotte held up her hand, motioning them to silence. Now they all heard it: a snap and a swish deeper in the forest.

“Jesus,” said Sam. “What the hell is that?”

“Something’s moving out there. Something big.”

“Did you ever notice how all legends like ours start with farmers heading into the wilderness?” said Gralen.

“We’re none of us farmers,” said Will.

“Yeah,” said Gralen. “A farmer would know what that was.”

“It’s probably just some bird,” said Sam. “Right?”

Then they all heard it: a loud crack that couldn’t have been more than forty paces away if they’d been anywhere but this sound-altering mist. A dragging noise, or slithering. And then silence. Then the same thing from a different direction.

Suddenly, a snake leaped out of the mist and wrapped itself around Will. He screamed. Only Sam kept her head. In one swift movement she unsheathed her sword and hacked at the huge snakelike thing hanging onto Will. It unraveled from Will and lashed at Sam.

“What is that thing?” asked Will.

“Don’t worry about what it is,” yelled Sam, “kill it!”

Another one lashed again, barely missing Sam. Will yelled at her to get away.

“You aren’t in any shape to be fighting something like... this... thing,” he said.

“My god,” said Charlotte, “they’re slimy.”

“It’s attached to something even bigger out there!” said Gralen. “I think it’s just an arm or...”

“Tentacle,” said Charlotte. “Like an octopus.”

Gralen sent a magical bolt to the tentacle, just as Will swung his sword around and into it. His sword dug deep, nearly cutting through, and the thing, whatever it was, slithered the way it came, back into the forest.

“Crap!” said Sam.

“Worse,” said Will. “The goblin’s gone.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about it bringing back more to attack us,” said Gralen. “It probably thinks we’re dead.”

“I’m not sure it’s wrong,” said Charlotte.

“Let’s keep moving,” said Gralen. “Just in case.”

“I think we know what everyone was afraid of,” said Sam, as they ran further east, with the mist swirling around them, Will coaxing the donkey into moving as quickly as they were.

The Forgotten Road

The mist was still thick in the evening when they set up camp on the top of a wooded hill. They weren’t absolutely sure it was evening until the fog went dark. It was the further cold in the mist that warned them nightfall was approaching. They tried to start a fire but all available kindling was too damp, so after a cold meal they huddled closely together in their tent for warmth.

“What is that screeching?” asked Will.

“Another creature of the mist, perhaps,” said Charlotte.

“I hope not,” said Sam.

“It could just be some animal,” said Gralen.

Light from the moon barely filtered through, just enough to cast faint shadows of strange flying creatures onto the canvas of their tent. They watched them, for a long time, before finally falling to sleep. Will was the last to nod off, and when he thought everyone else was sleeping he peeked under the tent, then quickly dove back into his bedroll like a child afraid of imaginary creatures. The creatures were hard to see in the misty dark, but their shadows were nothing compared to their shape, more like huge fat insects than birds.

But even he fell asleep eventually.

“I’m getting tired of wet clothing real quick,” said Charlotte after they started out the next morning.

“I thought you loved getting out into the wild?” asked Sam.

“I like to see what I’m into,” said Charlotte. “This mist is a killer.”

“How do we even know what direction we’re going?” asked Sam.

Gralen, leading the way, answered that a little bird told him.

“Can your little bird tell us how long this mist goes for?” asked Sam.

Gralen whispered to the raven on his shoulder. It leaped from his shoulder and spread its wings, fading into the fog.

“That’s a nice pet,” said Will.

“Can it do tricks?” asked Sam.

“It’s not very smart,” said Gralen. “I’ve only been able to teach it one trick: pecking the eyes out of smart-asses.”

The bird flew back through the mist and back to Gralen, chirping as it did.

“You are beginning to really scare me,” said Sam.

“He says the fog only extends a little ways further,” said Gralen, “although I don’t really know how much that means. Probably half a day.”

And the mist did begin to clear. By mid-morning it had cleared enough for them to see that the path they’d been using had become a long unused road. Even the path was long worn away. Only rarely did bits of stone mark the old road beneath it. Grass had mostly grown over them, but every once in a while a stone marker told them they were getting closer and closer to something.

“Kristagna,” said Gralen, as they passed the third one. “It has to be. We’ll be there by evening, if not sooner.”

The trees were red and orange with autumn, and the leaves crackled beneath their feet. The mist cleared completely by noon. Climbing a hill they could look west and see the mist still there, hanging in the forest and above it. As they walked further on, the mist above the faraway trees become little more than a silver sheen, and by the time they first saw the towers to the east, the mist to the west was visible only when they climbed the tallest hills.

They walked forward, and the towers of Kristagna grew larger. Slowly the castle became visible between the towers.

“My god,” said Charlotte. “Look!”

And she pointed off to the side of the old road. Half buried in the ground and grass was a small skeleton. It could have been a child’s skeleton but for the slight fangs in the skull.

“There’s another,” said Sam, pointing a few yards beyond it.

“Don’t step off the path,” said Will, as everyone stepped into the forest to follow the trail of skeletons.

“Night trolls?” asked Charlotte.

“Here’s a human warrior,” said Sam, “it’s still wearing its armor.”

“And another,” said Gralen.

“It always ends up badly,” muttered Will, “in stories.”

And he followed them into the forest just before Sam stepped out of sight.

“This was a battlefield,” said Sam. “I think we know now why the Astronomers were never heard from again.”

“Do you think the night trolls have taken the castle?” asked Will when he and the others returned to the road.

“It doesn’t look like anyone uses this road,” said Charlotte, “human or otherwise.”

“These skeletons have been undisturbed since they fell,” said Gralen. “And judging from the decomposition of the bodies and the rust on the armor, it must have been a hundred years ago, or more.”

The castle moat, when they came to it, was filled with goblin and human skeletons. The water was murky and covered in moss and red leaves. The bridge to the castle’s main entrance was lowered on the other side of the moat, but only half of it was there, pointing towards them like a jagged burnt arrow.

“So how do we get across?” asked Charlotte.

“I am not going in that water,” said Will.

Even Sam shuddered at the thought of sharing that moat with the dead who still lay strewn about.

Astronomer’s Keep

“If we can’t swim,” said Charlotte, “and we certainly can’t fly, then we need a boat or we need to build a bridge.”

“Isn’t that a raft over there?” asked Sam, and pointed across the moat.

Across the moat, mostly submerged in the water, was a makeshift wooden raft peaking up on the far shore.

“That hasn’t been here for a hundred years, has it?” asked Will.

“I don’t think we can use it,” said Gralen, “but we can probably build one. We certainly have enough wood here, and we’ve got a supply of rope.”

“Hold on,” said Will. “It’ll take us half a day to make a raft, why don’t we look around the castle first and see if there is any other way across this moat? I hate to say that I miss being out of the mist, but now that we’re in the open again I want to be inside that castle well before nightfall.”

“Okay,” said Charlotte. “Let’s follow the moat.”

“You and I will take the right,” said Will. “You two,” he said to Gralen and Sam, “take the left. And don’t wander off!”

The castle was built atop a small hill, with the moat circling round it completely. Six towers of varying sizes rose above the stone walls, and the dome of another building rose slightly into view. The silence around what was once a fully populated castle was strange.

On the far side, off to the left, a huge war engine--probably once an attack tower or ramp standing forty feet or taller--had fallen into the moat and covered most of the breadth of the water like a huge wooden wall. But it was on its side, not flat.

“I can get across that,” said Sam.

“What about the rest of us?” asked Gralen. “I don’t think I could even begin to scale that wall.”

“We tie a couple of lengths of rope on this end, I’ll carry them, tie them on the other end, and the rest of you can use it for support.”

They called Will and Charlotte over, and then, after tying four lengths of rope together to make two long lengths of rope, under Charlotte’s instruction they wrapped the rope around a tree and handed both ends to Sam. Sam carried the ropes across, carefully scaling the vertical sides of the fallen machine using her hands as much as her feet. At places the rotted wood slipped beneath her, but she always found something else to hold onto in time.

Meanwhile, the rest of them unpacked their donkey, distributing what they could and tying the rest high into a tree.

“I hope he’s going to be okay,” said Will.

“Yeah, we’re going to need him when we get out,” said Gralen.

“You can’t come either,” Gralen said, speaking directly to the raven. “Stay out here and watch for trouble. And stay out of it yourself.”

Will looked at him.

“We do what we can do,” said Gralen.

Sam tied the four ends of the rope to a younger tree on the other side, one rope high and the other low to match what Charlotte had done.

Will volunteered to go last, “just in case”, so Gralen went next, gingerly holding onto both top ropes with his hands and trying--successfully--to keep his feet on the lower rope. When he stepped off of the rope, Charlotte took a deep breath and stepped on, gripping the ropes so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“Don’t look down!” yelled Sam, as Charlotte began to lose her footing while looking down into the moat. “You’ll get across a lot quicker if you relax!”

She struggled unsuccessfully to grab the rope her feet had been on, and landed with a huge splash in the water below. She went completely under for a second, then scrambled back up by grabbing onto the sides of the fallen war engine, bringing her head above water. She spit the slimy water out, brushed the stuff off of her face with a slimy hand, and waded across the rest of the way. The water was too deep to walk, so she had to pull herself over grabbing onto the sides of the wood.

Gralen and Sam pulled the lower rope even lower.

“Grab onto it!” they yelled.

She spit, and said, “I’m already soaked, I might as well stay safe.”

The moat here was also filled with skeletons. She had to push a few aside to get across. Gralen shrugged. Sam rolled her eyes. They let the rope back up.

“Safe,” said Sam. “Just you and a bunch of dead goblins.”

Charlotte was soaking wet when she crawled up out of the moat. Her tunic and hair hung down dripping. Will came across next, agilely crossing the rope bridge as if it were a real bridge. When everyone was across, they untied the ropes and pulled them across through the moat.

“See?” said Charlotte. “We still have the rope for later.”

“Next time,” whispered Sam, “use it.”

By now it was mid-afternoon. The sun was beginning to move down towards the Great Mountains far to the west.

“Let’s get inside,” said Will.

The plant life on this side of the moat was of a different quality than on the other side. There was more yellow in the grass, and the trees were smaller but slightly more gnarled and twisted than their taller cousins in the forest. None of them held their leaves, which were scattered loosely about the ground in red, orange, and yellow, leaving the trees stark and sharp in the afternoon light. They walked around to the broken drawbridge, passing beneath one of the front towers. Will reached out and touched the stones of the tower as they went by.

“I half expected it to not be there, this is all so unreal,” he said.

“ooooOOoOoOoooooOoOOO,” said Sam. “Ghost castles.”

But the joke fell flat.

“I’ve heard a story of a ghost castle,” said Will. “Somewhere in the mountains on a high plateau is an ancient castle that appears only on nights of the full moon. The castle holds great treasures and magic, but anyone who enters to get the treasure and magic never comes out.”

“If they never come out,” said Sam, “then how do you know there’s treasure and magic inside?”

“That’s the trouble with campfire stories,” said Will. “You can’t base your life on them.”

“This castle is real enough,” said Gralen, “and it’s not a full moon.”

“It is tonight,” said Charlotte.

“I was hoping no one remembered,” said Gralen.

“Full moons are good,” said Sam. “They light things up and they make lots of shadows to hide in.”

“Sometimes those shadows seem alive,” said Will.

“That’s because sometimes they hold people like me,” said Sam.

At the front of the castle walls they walked gingerly onto the portion of the drawbridge that remained intact, and even though they were not above water it still felt unstable and dangerous until they left it and came into the long murder hall. More dead men and dead goblins lay about the hall. At the end of twenty paces two tall doors stood open onto the inner courtyard. The ceiling was gone. Once wood, it had fallen in and cracked and rotted beams lay atop the dead warriors and goblins.

When they arrived at the far doors, they found that they didn’t stand open, they had fallen completely away, possibly battered in, possibly simply falling with age, or possibly a combination. Inside the courtyard the battle had obviously continued, and many combatants remained.

“Do we want to examine the guard towers?” asked Will.

“I think what we’re looking for will be in the main castle,” said Gralen. “There won’t be money or magic in the towers.”

“If there’s anything left at all anywhere,” said Sam. “What if the whole place has been ransacked.”

“Yeah,” said Gralen. “It might be that everything is gone. But I think there’s a reasonable chance that goblins wouldn’t have taken the scholarly research, and also that they wouldn’t necessarily recognize some of the treasures of a militant order.”

“Any gold and silver will probably be gone, though,” said Charlotte, “if it could be carried.”

“Crap,” said Sam.

They looked around again at the remnants of a hundred-years-old carnage. Inside the walls, the castle itself had two towers on the right, slightly larger than the towers at the four corners of the keep’s walls, and a large dome over the front and center. The dome was painted black. The rest of the castle was stone. Two huge doors on the front wall beneath the dome were closed, a faded moon painted on the left, a similarly-faded sun painted on the right. A faded gold clock stood on the dome atop the castle.

“I swear that clock is the right time,” said Gralen.

“It can’t possibly still be running,” said Charlotte. “Even if the goblins left it alone, clocks need regular care.”

“Let’s go see what the goblins have left for us,” said Will.

He walked across the courtyard with the others following, and he pushed the main doors open. They opened with difficulty. When everybody’s eyes adjusted to the lower light, they saw a small, circular room, with thin stairs circling either side leading upwards.

“No skeletons,” said Will.

“But it was broken into,” said Charlotte.

She pointed out the broken length of wood that had once barred the door and was now in two halves on the floor.

“Do you think we can rebar these doors?” asked Will.

“It won’t be as strong as it was originally,” said Charlotte, “but if we put one of the halves across the inner bucklers, it will hold against smaller... creatures.”

“Okay, let’s bar it and see what, if anything, has been left here,” said Sam.

They barred the doors as best they could. Charlotte pushed the second half of the bar so the point of its jagged edge was partially beneath the door.

“That’ll help keep anything out,” she said. “When they push, it will apply similar force back at them.”

They took their heavy packs off and put the stuff they’d taken from the donkey onto the floor.

“Don’t leave anything important,” said Will.

“Let’s head upstairs first,” said Gralen.

They walked up the grand staircase and came up to a platform overlooking the front courtyard that they’d already walked through. From above it looked even more desolate, and in contrast to the beautiful forest beyond the keep’s walls.

Charlotte looked up at the clock.

“It has definitely moved,” she said. “And I’m pretty sure it’s at the right time. Look at the three hands: one for the sun, one for the moon, and one for the zodiac. The smallest hand is pointing at Virgo. The middle hand is pointing at the full moon. It’s amazing enough that it’s still running, but it’s unbelievable that it’s kept the correct time for this long!”

“If no one’s bothered it, why wouldn’t it be running?” asked Will.

“It’s got gears inside,” she replied, “although you can barely hear them. They collect dust; they rust; birds try to build nests above them. A timepiece like this requires constant care to keep it running. The amount of care that went into the clock, compared to the amount of care that didn’t go into the castle... I would say that I don’t think the same people could have built both, but I don’t know of anyone who could have made this clock.”

“I think the clock’s too big to carry away,” said Sam. “Why don’t we go look for treasure.”

“We can come back later to look at the clock if you’d like,” said Gralen.

“We’ll have to,” said Charlotte.

To either side they could walk out onto the battlements through open doorways. Across one of the battlements, on the front tower, they saw burn marks. The door to the tower was charred and black. The ceiling of the dome that stood over the entrance room had tiny holes scattered throughout. They walked, single file, Gralen leading and Charlotte trailing, across the battlements and towards the blackened door. Gralen gingerly pushed the door open with his staff. Inside, in a scene they were rapidly not becoming used to, were more skeletons in disarray, but few of them were goblins. Most seemed human.

“My god,” said Charlotte, “did they all burn to death?”

Gralen tapped the floor with his staff. The floor was stone beneath the soot, so he stepped inside. The others followed. There were stairs leading up, and two more charred doors.

“I don’t know,” said Will, looking at one of the skeletons, “but it seems likely.”

He gently removed a sword from one skeleton’s hand and looked it over. It was mostly just the hilt, and about three inches of blade remaining, ending in a jagged break.

“This guy’s sword broke,” he said. “Look, there’s some markings on it.”

“I can’t understand it,” he added, and handed it to Gralen.

“I’ve never seen this either,” said Gralen. “That’s interesting. It’s not the ancient tongue, and it isn’t the Druids.”

“Do you see the rest of it there?” he asked.

“No,” said Will, after looking around further. “Maybe he broke it somewhere else.”

Gralen tied the sword hilt to his belt.

“Why would he be holding it here, then,” asked Gralen, more as a statement than a question.

Will shrugged.

Sam picked up another sword, which while intact was quite rusted, the leather around the hilt flaking.

“You still going to show me how to use one of these?” she asked.

“Let me find you a decent one,” said Will. “Or semi-decent, none of these swords have been cared for in the last hundred years, obviously.”

The one he chose for her was not quite as rusted.

“You can’t use it yet,” he said, “but I think we can work it into shape later.”

She took it and, having nowhere to put it, used it as a walking stick. Will winced as she did this.

“If I’d known you were going to treat it even worse than the elements, I wouldn’t have given it to you,” he said. “Give me your rope.”

He measured off a piece of rope, cut it, and fashioned it into a makeshift belt allowing her to keep the sword on her back.

The stairs leading down looked like they had been barricaded shut, from this side, though the wooden barricade was now laced with charcoal.

“They locked themselves in here, and then burned themselves to death?”

“Maybe they locked someone else out, and then that someone else tried to burn them out,” said Will.

“Christ,” said Sam.

The stairs continued upwards as well, around the curve of the tower. The door was open, and in the room, filled with papers and flasks, everything was covered in ash. There were a couple of skeletons here as well, lying on the floor, many with tattered cloth wrapped around their skulls.

Charlotte picked up one scroll of paper.

“Careful!” said Gralen, but too late. The paper tore in her hands, into two pieces and then three. She handed one piece to Gralen.

“I can’t read it,” she said.

“It’s ancient,” said Gralen. “Many of these old schismatic orders used the ancient tongue to keep their records. Some even spoke it, forbidding what they called ‘vulgar’ language.”

He looked at another scrap.

“It looks like some sort of recipe,” he said. “Sulfur, pitch, and quicklime among other things. Well, whatever it is it isn’t going to taste very good.”

Will looked out the window at the setting sun.

“It’s going to get dark in a few hours,” he said. “Unless you think there’s something else here, let’s go to the other tower.”

“Take that flask,” Gralen said, pointing to one soot-covered flask filled with a grayish liquid. “I think it’s silver of some kind. Might be worth something. It’s hardly piles of gold and silver coin, but it’s a start. When we’ve scouted this place out I’ll came back here and see if I can get these papers without harming them.”

Across the south battlement, in the other tower, the door was long since busted wide open and when they walked inside, found more remnants from long-gone battle. But here there were also the desiccated corpses of small animals and birds. Will poked at one with his sword and it dissolved into dust. Others looked fresher. Everyone looked around and up. Nothing else was moving here. Up the stone stairs leading up around the walls of the tower was a grayish curtain hanging down to cover the entrance to the upper room.

“It’s a spider’s web,” said Will, after they walked up the stairs.

Will brushed aside the light webbing and, after looking around inside carefully, he stepped inside. The others followed him. It was the upper level of the tower. A similar gossamer net hung across each of the windows. A tiny bird struggled in one, moving back and forth to eclipse the setting sun as if it were sending them signals.

Will took a dagger from his belt and cut the bird free. It stumbled in the air for a moment and then flew off.

“Aren’t you the nice one,” said Sam.

Will shrugged.

“Sor--” started Sam, and then she ducked and jumped at the same time as something large fell from the ceiling onto her and then fell off. The dark thing scuttled towards her on the floor. Gralen batted at it with his staff, crushing it, and then another one fell onto the floor next to him. They were clearly spiders, but spiders far larger than any they had seen before. Their bodies must have been half a foot across. Will and Charlotte tried to maneuver to where they could assist, but the spiders were small and they couldn’t attack without risking hitting their friends.

Gralen tried to crush the second spider, but it scuttled out of the way and he ended up just slamming his staff onto the floor. Sam tried to hit it with her short sword as it tried to bite at Gralen, and her sword clanged against the floor as well.

“Gaak!”

Gralen jumped away from the scuttling thing as it bit at him, and slammed his staff down at it again, just as Sam did the same with her sword. Both attacks found their mark, splattering the spider onto the floor.

“These are the biggest fuckin’ spiders I’ve ever seen,” said Sam.

“It makes me wonder what else is waiting for us in this old place,” said Will.

“What’s that behind that webbing?” asked Charlotte.

There was something reflecting light against the wall, but behind a lot of webbing. Gralen, still breathing a little heavily, brushed it away with his staff.

“This is what’s waiting for us,” he said.

There were two golden heads, studded with black gems for eyes and green for earrings. The gold atop the heads was pounded into curls for hair.

“They look kind of familiar, don’t they?” asked Charlotte.

Will took one of them from the shelf they were on, and a book flopped over onto its side.

“Are they solid gold?” he asked.

“No, they’re not solid,” said Charlotte. “If they were, you couldn’t lift it nearly so easily.”

“What are they?”

“Bookends,” said Gralen.

“But who are the images of?”

“Demons? The founders? Who knows?”

“More important,” said Sam, “is ‘how much are they worth?’”

“Depends on how much gold and what the gems are,” said Gralen.

“Duh.”

“Sorry, I don’t know.”

She nodded and took the other one from the shelf.

“Gold is as gold does,” she said. “We’re going to need our bags to carry this stuff.”

Will leaned out the window he’d cleared earlier. Across the side walls it looked out over an endless forest, and to his left the High Divide loomed tall, lit by the setting sun.

“The sun’s almost down,” he said. “If there’s nothing left here, let’s go back to our packs and drop this stuff off, then go down the stairs instead of up.”

“We’ll need my lantern,” said Gralen.

They returned down the stone stairs, past the hanging strands of spider’s webbing. At the bottom more long-dead combatants waited.

“This must have been one hell of a battle,” said Charlotte.

“A last-ditch defense?” said Will.

“Hey, this guy’s got his hands on something,” said Charlotte. “Jesus, he’s also got an arrow right through his forehead.”

The skeleton’s skull, where the forehead would be, was shattered and an old arrow lay in it like a wilting flower in a flower pot.

“He was crawling away,” said Sam, “when he died. He was trying to push this...”

She carefully moved the skeletal arm away, scrawling a line in the dust as she did so, and then she wiped more dust away with her hands.

“It’s a secret trap door,” she said.

She pushed down on one of the stones in the floor, and one section of the floor shifted down slightly. Sam pushed on it lightly, and then when nothing happened pushed more firmly. It creaked, loudly, as one square flipped down, revealing a dirt stairway leading down into darkness.

“It’s held by a spring,” said Sam.

She peered down into the hole.

“And it’s awfully dark down there.”

She slid down through the trap door.

“There’s nothing that I can see. Just a tiny hallway. But it’s too dark to tell where it goes.”

“Hold on,” said Will.

He ran back to their makeshift indoor camp and grabbed the lantern. He grabbed an empty bag while he was at it.

“Damn well better be treasure,” he muttered.

When he returned with the lantern, Sam took it down through the trap door.

“It’s a long empty hallway,” she cried back.

‘Hold on, we’re coming down,” said Will.

He lowered himself down into the hole, and was followed by Charlotte and Gralen.

It was a tunnel dug out of the dirt, with stone arches buttressing it here and about ten steps down.

“Look,” said Charlotte, pointing at the dirt, “footprints, and not Sam’s.”

“I don’t think this place has been entered since the goblin wars,” said Will.

“It looks like two people running,” said Sam.

“Let’s follow,” said Gralen.

“I wonder why only two of them came down here,” said Charlotte as they walked along.

“Everyone stop!” cried Sam.

“What?”

“There’s a trap here somewhere. Look at the ceiling.”

Everyone looked at the ceiling. It was stone and dirt, like the rest of the tunnel.

“I don’t see a damn thing,” said Gralen.

She traced--lightly--her finger across dirt floor of the corridor.

“See how there’s a slight depression in the sand here? Now look at the ceiling.”

“It’s worked differently here,” said Charlotte.

“I’ll bet my share of those statues it’s set to drop a ton of rocks when this depression is stepped on,” said Sam.

They looked further down the thin hallway. The light from their lantern faded into the darkness.

“I don’t think we should follow this until we’ve explored the castle,” said Gralen.

“I don’t think we should follow it even after we’ve explored the castle,” said Will.

“I think it’s an escape route,” said Sam. “If it leads anywhere, it just leads out.”

Charlotte took some chalk from her pouch and drew a vertical line on the walls.

“So we know where the trap is if we come down here again,” she said to the others.

“Good idea,” said Sam.

They returned back out the tunnel and up the trapdoor into the tower.

They walked down the long hallway back to the grand entrance, where all their stuff was. They passed several doors on either side along the way.

“Don’t we want to check these doors out?” asked Sam.

“Let’s start from the middle,” said Gralen. “More likely to be things of interest there than out here near the guard towers.”

They rolled the statue and some of the vials that Gralen had taken from the tower into their packs, and took more supplies out. Gralen took some flasks of oil out. Charlotte brought writing materials out of her pack.

“Let me make sure my lantern’s full,” said Gralen, and he did so, stuffing the remaining flasks into his pouch.

“Let’s check these large doors first,” said Sam.

They walked through the double doors opposite the entrance. The doors themselves, like the entrance doors, were stuck, but Will easily pushed them open. They were intricately carved with interlocking circles, bands, and curves, some bands occasionally ending in serpent’s heads, and some circles enclosing many-pointed stars. Tarnished silver lay green inside the engravings.

Beyond the doorway was a long corridor, with a stone wall on the right and a wall of marble arches on the left. The white marble was covered with dust and cobwebs. Everyone looked gingerly towards the ceiling and around them.

“Anyone see any more of those spiders?” asked Gralen.

“I don’t think so,” said Sam, pushing away at some cobwebs with her staff.

She cleared one of the arches so that they could walk through.

“Look,” she said, pointing at the floor.

A once-richly colored and embroidered cloth lay crumpled beneath the archway. It had once been dark blue and embroidered in gold stars. Now the color had leached away, and the dust faded what remained. When Sam poked at it with her staff, a silverfish crawled quickly away.

“There must have been curtains here,” said Charlotte.

Tiny gems were scattered on the floor around the arches, and they each pocketed a few.

“I suspect that there were hangings of some sort here,” said Charlotte, “and that’s what these gems were once in.”

They stepped through the archway, stepping over the cloth, and found themselves inside a large room filled with columns. Light shone through cracks in the ceiling and walls, producing nearly flat beams of light cutting through the dusty air. Will ran his fingers down one of the columns. It was marble, like the marble of the arches: veins of darkness twisting and curling throughout the pale stone.

Here and there throughout the columns more skeletons lay, some armored, and they had to step carefully to avoid disturbing the dead.

At the far corner of the room was a dais of black stone, and on the stone were three elaborate white marble chairs. One skeleton lay half draped over the largest, middle throne, parts of it on the floor along with its rusted sword.

“Do you think it was the king?” asked Will.

“The Orders didn’t have kings,” said Gralen. “It might have been their leader, but it might just be that this is where the warrior fell in battle. The battle must have ranged throughout the castle.”

“All of the skeletons are human,” said Charlotte. “The Goblins must have done quite a job on them.”

“Unless they were fighting each other,” said Sam.

Next to the dais, two great arched oaken doors were partially opened. Dirt, grass, and weeds grew slightly into the deserted hall.

“This leads outside,” said Charlotte.

They stepped through the doors and were in a wildly overgrown garden. Bright purple flowers flowed from vines hanging from trees, and the trees themselves drooped purple and yellow trumpets towards the ground, weighed down by the vines. Wrought-iron posts, ten feet tall, themselves covered in vines and weeds, and shaped like tall writhing serpents, held sparkling crystal birds shaped as if they were swooping to the garden.

“Someone help me get those things,” said Sam.

“What?” asked Will.

“Hold the post steady,” she replied.

She climbed up one of the wrought-iron posts while Will held it firm, and found that the crystal robin was easily removed. Beneath it was a candle holder, covered in dirty wax.

“They’re lights,” she said.

“We should sleep here tonight,” said Charlotte. “We’ve got nightlights.”

“Too many places for things to hide,” said Will.

Sam looked up at each of the five crystal birds.

“We’ll come back later for these,” she said. “I’ll bet they’re worth something, but if we carry them around in this place we’ll break them.”

She nudged one, a little hummingbird, and it spun around on the pole.

“Let’s go back and try the other hallway,” said Will.

They walked back into the great hall, around the columns and battle, and again into the grand foyer. The other hallway, the one which led back to the secret trap door in the tower, had many doors leading off of it. While the others decided, Charlotte drew their locations as quickly as she could on her paper.

The first door on their left, a simple oaken door that opened (with some force from Will) outward, opened onto stone stairs leading downwards. The stone here was simpler than the stone of the hallway. Large, grey stones of varying shades were inset into a cement which held them together. Gralen held his lantern out over the stairs. At the bottom was another door, this one of wood bound with iron and barred with a thick wooden pole.

“Well?” asked Will.

“Let’s go,” said Gralen. “This is likely to be the most interesting part of the castle. Especially if it was never penetrated by the goblins.”

Astronomer’s Dungeon

They stepped down the thin stone stairway into the earth, Gralen leading with his lantern.

The door was barred, but when they removed the bar it was still locked.

“It feels like its barred from the other side also,” said Sam. “Hold on.”

She pulled a metal file from her pack, and tried to squeeze it in between the door and the wall.

“I’m trying to lift the bar,” she said, “but I just can’t get the leverage.”

Will tapped on the door, hard, testing it.

“Here,” he said. “Stand back.”

He shoved, hard, at the door, bursting it open. He almost tripped over debris on the other side, and then discovered what the debris was. The lantern’s light illuminated more of the now common skeletons, here partially mummified.

“It doesn’t look like they died in battle,” said Will.

“Perhaps they were simply starved out?” asked Charlotte, looking back at the burst door.

“What else is down here besides skeletons?” asked Sam.

Gralen pointed the lantern around and illuminated a long hallway running cross-ways against the entrance. The walls and floors were set with large stones, boulders of granite and occasionally dark marble, inlaid with greenish metal around the stones. The hallway was taller than the previous one, leaving a foot of space above even Gralen’s head. It was only about five feet wide. The hallway curved around slightly, but by the end of the lantern’s light was a door on each side, spaced eight or nine steps part.

The nearest door on the left had on it a carving of the constellation Libra, the scale of Justice, lacquered in bright blue. A little further, on the right, a door with a carving of Taurus, the bull. The bull was carved into the dark brown wood of the door and lacquered black.

“The scales or the bull?” asked Will.

“Let’s try the scales first,” said Gralen. “They’re closer. Be careful.”

Will pulled forth his sword with one hand and with his other tried pushing on the door. It opened, easily, into a small auditorium. Stone stairs led down, past oaken seats, to a head table flanked by dark marble statues of Libra on the left, and the great crab, Cancer, on the right. The statues were veined with white streaks and blood-red streaks. Seven high-backed oaken seats, ornamented with stars, seemed still to hold ceremony here. There were torch sconces around on all of the walls, each with a torch inside, and behind the table a much larger, empty sconce.

“Is there anything of value here?” asked Sam.

“Not unless we can haul away these statues,” said Will. “Gralen, you got any statue-hauling spells?”

Gralen was already down at the other end, examining the statues and chairs.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything special here,” said Gralen. “I don’t know. Let’s go to the next room.”

“This thing has never held a torch,” said Sam, examining the larger sconce behind the table. She pulled on the sconce.

“Don’t--” cried Gralen, but nothing happened. Sam shrugged.

“You never know,” she said.

“No, you don’t,” Gralen muttered.

The bull door on the right opened as easily as the Justice door, and with only a little creaking. Inside, a huge glass table, held four feet off the floor by an obsidian bull that still shone in the lantern’s light, was covered with maps. The bull’s eyes were hollow, giving it an eerie vacant stare. Beneath the bull’s head, on the floor, were two brilliant red rubies.

“Here are the eyes,” said Sam, picking up the two gems.

“Put them back in,” said Charlotte.

“Be careful,” said Gralen.

Sam put the eyes back into the bull’s head. They fell back to the floor, but she caught them before they hit.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” said Sam.

Will shifted his attention from what was below the table to what was on the table. The maps were brittle, and their corners cracked at the merest touch.

“These are all maps of Highland, Byblion, and Illustrious Castle,” said Will. “It looks like they were planning an attack on Illustrious Castle before they died.”

Sam pocketed the bull’s eyes.

“It’s getting late,” said Will. “I think we need to get some sleep soon so we don’t get caught napping tomorrow if anything shows up.”

“Then let’s take a quick survey of the area,” said Charlotte. “It looks like the corridor is curving around. I’ll bet it circles back.”

“Yeah, we can always come back down here later,” said Sam.

“I’m not sure I want to,” said Will.

The next door on the inner circle had an image of a scorpion on it, and the constellation Scorpio. Charlotte marked that onto her map. The next outer door was dedicated to Sagittarius, the archer. Then another fifty or so paces down and curving in, another outer door, this one left partially open. When Gralen gingerly widened the opening with his staff and shone the lantern into the hole, they saw more tattered spider webs, and skulls and skeletal hands poking above the webbing. Beyond that some thin stairs were dug out of the dirt, going up and twisting around out of sight.

“The goat,” said Gralen, pointing to the mountain imagery carved around the door frame. “I think we could easily get lost in here.”

“Let’s continue the survey,” said Will. “We’re definitely circling back around. Then we can choose which direction we want to go tomorrow.”

A little ways down and around, another inner door, this one marked as the crab, cancer. It was oak, and when Sam tapped it with her staff it sounded thick and heavy.

There was an open entrance on the outer wall which was dedicated to Aquarius, the water-bearer. From the recesses of the twisting hallway beyond they thought they heard water and perhaps other movement, and they smelled an earthy odor emanating from it. Leo the lion ferociously guarded the next inner door, inlaid with gold with precious rubies for his eyes and tail. “Beautiful,” said Sam. Another inner door, for Virgo this time, decorated not just with the constellation but with delicately painted nobility, both men and women, their chasteness apparent from the painter’s care. And then they returned back to the entrance to the dungeon.

“This one’s Aries, the ram,” said Gralen. “I don’t remember Gemini,” he added. “How many doors did we find?”

“Ten,” said Charlotte. “And something else isn’t right. Some doors are missing.”

“Well, maybe the goblins stole them,” said Will.

She paused and just looked at him.

“What?” he said.

“No,” she replied, “I mean there should be some doors where there aren’t any. Look.”

She showed them her map, and drew lines between each of the doors on the inner wall and then did the same to the doors on the outer walls.

“It’s a six-pointed star,” she said, “or it would be, if there were another door here,” and she finished the star for the inner wall, “and here.”

She finished the star for the outer wall.

“That makes twelve,” said Sam. “One for each zodiac sign.”

“Let’s go take a look then,” said Gralen. “What symbols are missing? Gemini and...?”

Charlotte counted up on her map.

“Pisces,” she said.

“Secret doors,” said Sam. “Now we’re talking.”

Charlotte turned her map around.

“This way,” she said, “to the missing inner door.”

They walked back around.

“Ram to our right,” said Charlotte, counting off the doors.

“Scales to our left...”

“Bull to the right...”

“Scorpio on the left...”

“Sagittarius on the right...”

“The missing door,” said Charlotte, “is on our left somewhere.”

“We’re switching to Gemini right here,” said Gralen. “Lots of twin imagery.”

“I don’t see anything,” said Charlotte. “Sam, can you see any indication of a door here?”

Sam looked over the wall. She traced her hands down the carvings of the twins and of Janus, and a two-headed giant. She frowned at a symmetric, mirror-image forest and mountain, and then retraced around the giant.

“Here,” she said, tracing around the lake and mountain in the symmetrical image. “This is the border of the door and the wall.”

“How do we get in?” asked Gralen.

“Let me see what I can do with it,” said Sam.

She put her pack onto the floor and dug into it for a long roll of leather. She unrolled it onto the floor, revealing a selection of small metal and wooden tools. She choose two fine metal wires, and began working them into the giants’ eyes.

After about five minutes the others began pacing restlessly.

“How long do you think this is going to take?” asked Charlotte.

“Patience,” she said, without much conviction. “They really didn’t want us in here. This is one of the best locks I’ve ever seen.”

“How many locks have you seen in this way?” asked Will.

“Your mama,” said Sam.

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

After another ten minutes, with Gralen and Will leaning against the wall discussing the merits of various bars in Hightown and Byblion, and Charlotte poring over her map, there was a soft “click” from the wall where Sam was, and she stepped back.

“Wow!” she said, “I got it! Damn, that was good!”

She smiled at them.

“I’ve never seen a lock that well made. But I got through it.”

“Great,” said Will. “Let’s go see what they were protecting.”

“Hold on,” said Sam.

She took her staff and pushed the door open. It