The long tunnel ended perhaps an hour later. They ran when they could, and walked, crouched, when it became too cramped. In some places the tunnel had almost caved in, the dirt ceiling sagging inwards, piles of dirt and stones on the floor. The tunnel sloped upwards slightly at first, and then circled upwards quickly towards the end.
At the end of the tunnel was a trap door leading upward.
“It’s stuck,” said Sam. “I think something’s blocking it from the other side.”
“Out of the way,” said Will.
|
A roll vs. his 15 strength produced a five, successfully bashing his way through the blocked exit. |
He shoved against the trap door in the ceiling as well as he could, slowly moving the door up until something slid off it and it moved more easily. They all four climbed up into the fresh air above. The full moon shown through the wall slats of the building that they had entered. There was little of the roof left, and the stars above shone clearly in the night sky. A huge sound of wings fluttered, and then bats flew around them and into them, and were gone out of the empty roof.
“Dammit,” said Sam, “where’s my weapon?”
“Oh,” said Will to Sam. “Here’s your crossbow.”
“Ah. Thanks.”
She paused.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Just scratches,” said Will. “Once you get over the fear, they aren’t that powerful. And the sword sure as hell helped. This was not your average abandoned castle.”
“How many abandoned castles have you been in?”
“Well, there’s Illustrious Castle,” he said.
“Judging from what we’ve read,” said Gralen, “I’m not sure you’ve really been in it, or at least in all of it.”
“Oh, God,” groaned Will. “Let’s get out of this expedition before you go planning another one.”
“I’m not planning anything,” mumbled Gralen. “I just want to get home.”
“Then let’s get out of here,” said Will.
He carefully pushed open the dilapidated door of the small building they were in. The moon had nearly set below the horizon, and the stars were alone in the sky. The building they came out of was a small, one-room shack, now tilted heavily to the side; it had been built on a terrace on the side of the mountain. Below them, they could see another terrace with more dilapidated wooden buildings. Charlotte thought that she could see the castle far down the mountainside.
“It looks peaceful enough from up here,” she said.
Wheat and rye grew wild around them. When they clambered down the overgrown path to the next terrace, they found grapes on fallen fences, hyssop growing between them, and below that nasturtium hung from apple trees, and squirrels and other small animals put their heads up at the sound of metal and humans and rushed away, apples in their paws and mouths.
Gralen guided them down the mountain, west and north. As the steep hills turned to low hills at the bottom, Gralen’s raven flew out of the trees and landed on Gralen’s shoulder, screeching.
“I missed you too,” said Gralen to the bird.
“If we had our donkey again to carry all this stuff,” said Charlotte, “I could kiss it.”
They heard a braying a few yards away.
“Pucker up,” said Sam.