Chasing Shadows (Saving Galerance, Book 1) (23 page)

Her heart started up again in fear, understanding that they
weren’t far from their destination. She knew she should do something now, try
and slip off the horse and run away because there was no possibility of escape
once he got her inside. However, he was holding onto her too tightly, and her
head was swimming too fast.

As they entered into the courtyard, heading towards the
stables, Norabel looked out to the castle. There were two men nearby, standing
in the shadows near a side door. For a moment, she thought about calling out to
them for help, but she didn’t know if it would do any good. Then she realized
with a start that one of the men was chief Auberon himself. Her eyes glazed
over to the other man, and what she saw she didn’t quite believe. He looked
just like the man she had seen at Ashlin’s cabin. But it couldn’t have been!
Her eyes must be playing tricks.

Her head throbbed in pain, and she shut her eyes. As they
came closer to the two men, she could hear slips of their conversation.

“Yes! Now!”

“I understand Brin. You should go.”

“Good luck.”

Fletcher turned the horse and brought them closer to the
stables. Though her body was begging her to give into sleep, she struggled to
hold on to consciousness. Opening her eyes, she tried to look around for anyone
that might be willing to help her. In the distance, she thought she saw Emmett’s
mop of messy blonde hair, but he was turned the other way, and she couldn’t be
sure it was him. She tried to call to him, but all that came out was the gurgle
of tacky blood in the back of her throat.

Arriving at the back of the stables, Fletcher hopped off and
grabbed ahold of her. Her stomach lurched as she felt his hands dig into her
middle as he slipped her off the side of the horse. When she felt her feet hit
the ground, she tried to break away. She caught him off guard and was able to
slip out of his hold for a second. She tried to yell out for help once more,
but before she could get anything past her throat, her body was slammed into
the side of the wooden stable wall.

Darkness quickly invaded her world, sending her off to sleep
before she crumpled down to the floor in a defeated thud.

*

Mason stared out past his team to the night outside. They
were all waiting in his living room, silently feeling the tension grow. The
hour was growing late. Too late. They were supposed to have left by now. Yet as
the minutes ticked by, Norabel was nowhere to be seen.

“You
did
tell her she was coming,” Archer asked,
tapping his fingers impatiently on his lap.

“She promised me she would be here,” Mason said, tearing his
eyes away from the window.

“I think something’s wrong,” Logan stated. “This isn’t like
her.”

Ashlin walked up to Mason and put a soft hand on his
shoulder. “Do you think she chickened out?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Are you kidding me?” Logan exclaimed. “Chickened out? After
she broke into the castle twice before, which is more than I can say for any of
us.” He shook his head and pointed his finger at the front door. “No, if
Norabel says she’s gonna be somewhere, then she’s gonna be there!”

“So where is she now?” Archer challenged, getting up from
his seat.

“In trouble!” he answered frantically.

“You don’t know that,” Mason pointed out.

“Mason,” Ashlin said, flicking her head towards the window. “We
really need to get going.”

“Wait! Can we really go without her?” Archer questioned.
“Isn’t she the one that knows where everything is?”

“Technically yes,” Ashlin admitted. “But I think I can
manage by what she’s told me. And I think that it’s better we go without her
now than to keep waiting.”

Mason nodded. “You’re probably right.”

“No, she’s not right!” Logan countered. “You’re not seeing
this situation for what it is!”

“Well you better enlighten me quickly,” Mason said, “Cause
we have to get going.”

He tried to make for the door, but Logan jumped ahead of
him. “If you do this,” he said, pointing to the open street behind him, “then you
will be abandoning her. You’ve got two choices, Mason. Either you try and
muddle through with your plan without her, or you put off revolution for one
night and choose to save your oldest friend.”

Mason stared at him, his hand absently fingering the hilt of
the sword at his waist. Then, shaking his head, he announced rather quickly,
“She should have been here. She’s not. So we’re leaving. And there’s an end to
it.”

He pushed past his brother and out the door.

“You coming?” he asked, looking to Logan from the corner of
his eye.

Logan glanced past his brother to the west, where Norabel’s
house laid. He knew without a doubt that she was in trouble. He knew that they
should be riding over there right now to try and save her. But, if he left,
then their team would be down two people, and he would not only let his brother
down, but he would leave the whole team open to imprisonment and hanging.

Silently apologizing to Norabel, he nodded to his brother,
saying, “Yeah. I’m coming.”

Their Harbinger team silently crept through the village,
moving like shadows drawn to the great stone beast in the center of it all. When
they were finally within sight of it, they circled around until they could see
the side wooden door that led into the stronghold’s kitchens.

“You think that’s the one?” Archer whispered into Ashlin’s
ear.

“This is where she said it’d be,” she pointed out, taking a
step away from him. Looking to Mason, she waited for him to make the decision.

“Come on,” he said, waving them forward. “Let’s go.”

The four of them sprinted out from the shadows of the road,
moving swiftly across the stone courtyard. When they all gathered in front of
the door, Mason held his hand up, counting down from three to let them know
when he was going to bust the door open. When the last of his fingers went
down, he rammed his shoulder into the door. From within, they could hear the
sound of metal clanking to the floor, and a moment later a chain followed.
Mason tried the door again, and this time it opened.

He peeked inside to see a dark kitchen. No one appeared to
be nearby. He turned back to wave the rest of them through. They closed the
door behind them with a quiet thump. Turning to their left, they noticed the
pantry hallway of food and the Pax flag that lied at the end. Following
Norabel’s instructions, they brushed aside the flag, opened up the doorway that
led into the stone wall, and filed inside the narrow tomb one by one. Mason lit
a small torch to light the way, and they followed the passage until they
reached a fork.

“Which way?” Mason asked, turning back to Ashlin.

Ashlin looked around him to where the stone passage branched
up and to the left, and straight ahead.

“I don’t remember Norabel saying anything about it branching
in two,” she whispered. “I guess we could always try the left…hope it brings us
up to Auberon’s rooms.”

“Great!” Archer whispered furiously. “That’s just great.
We’re gonna guess our way to the top. When we get out of here, I swear I’m
gonna give that girl a piece of my mind!”

“Complaining isn’t helping,” Logan pointed out.

“You’re not helping,” he retorted sullenly.

“You both aren’t,” Ashlin cut in. “Now quiet, before someone
hears us!”

Taking a sigh, Mason waved the torch to the passage on the
left. “Alright,” he whispered. “We’re going up.”

Inching along sideways, they spiraled up the passageway,
climbing higher and higher. Mason saw no sign of the stone door that led in
through Auberon’s closet, but he kept forward, hoping that it was nearby.
However, after a minute or so, the passageway stopped, leading to a dead end.
Mason moved the torch along the wall, making sure that there was no place for
his fingers to go through, and then turned back to the group.

“Either we missed it, or we went up the wrong spire,” he
told them. “Because I think we’re at the top of this one now.”

“Okay! That is it!” Archer exclaimed. “I don’t care who
sees; we need to get out of this tomb and see just where in this wretched
castle we are!”

“He’s right,” Ashlin agreed. “We need to get our bearings
before we go wandering around these tunnels again.”

“Alright. Hoods up everybody,” Mason announced, lifting up
his own hood to cover his face in shadows.

Reaching for the metal torch mount at the top of the wall,
Mason pulled down on it, revealing a few inches of light between the stones.
Opening the door slowly, he poked his head around the Pax flag to see what lay
ahead. There was a torch burning on the wall above his head, and he found
himself on the top of a stairwell. At the bottom was a platform with two doors
on either side of the circular stone walls, and the stairs curved down from
there, leading to more rooms.

Seeing no one around, he stepped out, whispering for the
others to follow.

“So, where are we?” Archer asked, twisting his head around
in search for a window. However, with no way to look out, they still couldn’t
tell where they were in relation to the rest of the castle.

“I guess there’s no chance they might have labelled this
tower anywhere,” Archer joked.

Mason crouched down on the floor and took the pack from
around his back. Opening it, he took out a small box with the time-delayed
Snapper tube fitted on.

“Okay,” he said, looking up at his team. “Here’s what we’re
gonna do. I’m gonna light this here, and then we’re going to take this
stairwell down to the bottom floor. From there we can get our bearings, and
then try to find the nearest entrance back into the tunnels.”

They nodded, and Logan took out a pouch of Snapper, holding
it out to his brother from him to light the end of the slow-burning tube. Once
Mason lit it, he quickly slung his bag over his shoulder and got up to his
feet.

“Our one hour of time starts now,” he reminded them.

Moving quickly and quietly, they headed down the stairwell,
holding their breaths as they passed each door. When they finally got to the
bottom, they were faced with another fork in the road. They could either go
left or right, yet there was no sign that told them what lied in either
direction. No longer being inside the tunnels didn’t seem to do any more good,
for they were just as lost outside than in.

“I say we go right,” Archer offered. “We went left the last
time, and that didn’t take us where we wanted to go.”

“Fine,” Mason whispered, growing frustrated. “We’ll go
right.”

He turned that direction, but had to quickly jump back
behind the wall as a patrolling guard was walking down that way. Mason held his
hand up, telling everyone to wait there. They could hear the sound of the
guard’s footsteps as he walked closer towards them. Mason put his hand on the
hilt of his sword, preparing to knock the guard out cold should he come around
the corner. However, when he was no more than a few feet away, his footsteps
stopped, and then started back down the hallway. Mason peeked from around the
corner, watching as the guard disappeared down an intersecting corridor.

“Quick,” he whispered, dashing out past the wall and racing
down the hallway. As they ran, they checked several doors, trying to find
another passage that led upwards into another spire. They still had not found
one when they heard the footsteps of the guard growing louder and louder.

“We need to hide,” Ashlin told him. “Find an unlocked door!”

Mason reached out for the door nearest to him but, giving it
a jiggle, found it was locked. Ashlin raced ahead to next one, and immediately
the door swung open when she tested it. It was dim inside, and without
bothering to scout it out any, they all ran in, closing the door swiftly behind
them just as the guard rounded the corner. They waited in silent darkness as
they listened by the door, hoping they wouldn’t hear the sound of running
footsteps. At first it was quiet, but then they heard the slow-measured click
of boots coming down the hallway.

Mason pressed his ear to the door as he heard the guard
passing by. However, instead of continuing on, the footsteps suddenly stopped.
Mason quickly placed his hand on the doorknob so he would be able to feel if
the man was trying to open the door. The knob remained still in his hands, and
Mason stopped breathing so that he would be able to listen better to what was
going on outside. Through the wood, he heard the faint sound of sniffing,
almost like a dog scouting out a scent. Mason quietly took in a sniff as well
and realized what the guard was smelling…fish!

Glancing to his side, he saw that Archer was right there
next to him, trying to listen through the door as well. It was his fishy scent
that the man was smelling!

Frantically waving his hand, he caught Archer’s attention
and mouthed the word, “Go!”

Archer’s face twisted in confusion, wondering what Mason was
doing.

“Get back!” he mouthed.

Finally Archer obeyed, backing up a few spaces and taking
his fishy odors with him. Pressing his ear back to the door, Mason heard the
sound of the guard walking away and turning down another hallway. He breathed
out a silent sigh of relief and stepped away from the door.

Taking in his surroundings, he realized that it wasn’t a
room they had entered into, but a poorly lit hallway. There was a door at the
very end of the corridor, and only one torch had been lit near it. Upon closer
inspection, he realized that there were other torches that lined the hall, but
they had all been blown out save for the last one.

“What do ya think?” Archer asked, looking down the dark
corridor to the light at the end. “Should we see what’s behind that door?”

“It might lead up,” Ashlin commented.

“Or it might lead us to a room full of men,” Mason added.