CHAPTER FOUR
The door opened into a stone-walled chamber, humid and dark but surprisingly warm. A lit brazier in the center of the room cast everything in a flickering orange light. Two human figures were chained to the far wall, hanging by their arms. One looked to be a middle-aged human knight- he wore the tattered remains of a scarlet tunic emblazoned with a golden phoenix. His hair was brown, with grey at the temples. The man's face had once been handsome, but it was swollen and bruised, and leaning forward- not moving. The knight was obviously dead, because a sword was impaled through his chest, pinning the body to the wall.
Beside him hung a young woman, silent but still alive. Her face was streaked with tears, but she had long ago lost any strength to weep for her dead companion. Her long blonde hair was matted down, and her tanned skin showed the marks of a gruesome beating. The prisoner hung, chained by the wrists, clad only in a scarlet phoenix tunic.
Cerasa looked a the beaten woman and her impaled companion and scowled. "Lurati, close the door, but stay there and listen. Tell us if you hear anything out in the hallway."
The others crowded into the small interrogation chamber while Lurati went to guard the door. Cerasa went over to the young woman. "Can you speak?"
The girl opened her eyes and nodded weakly.
"We're going to get you out of here," Cerasa said. She set down her coffer and swung the black sword with both hands, cutting the girl's chains. Henna rushed to her side, cradling her head.
"Who are you?" Cerasa asked.
"I am Wilaine, his squire." She glanced over at the other knight and choked back a sob. "Was his squire."
Henna then spoke aloud a quiet prayer to her Goddess. The fires in the brazier dimmed and flickered a moment, then the room seemed to be bathed in a white light.
Wilaine sat up then, as if some new strength had come into her. "Thank you," she told Henna.
"Why are you here?" Cerasa asked.
The bedraggled girl lifted herself to one elbow, and her piercing blue eyes looked into the faces of each of her rescuers in turn. There was a strength in her, a pride that had not yet been quenched, despite the torments she had been through. It was as if Wilaine could look into the hearts of the others and seek out any evil within. Then, the paladin turned her eyes sadly towards the dead knight.
"We are knights from a distant land, sent here on a quest to retrieve a magical golden orb."
Myrella raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.
"Our land," Wilaine continued, "lies under the grip of a dragon's rule, like yours. For a hundred years, we have paid tribute the the fire drake, Pala the Red. From her lair inside a volcano, Pala demands our tribute. Those who fail to pay suffer her wrath. Much of our once-fair land is now a charred desert."
"Then, one of our magicians read a portent in the stars. He told us of a legendary orb of dragonkind that would allow us to defeat Pala and free our land. He told us that the orb could be found here, in the fortress of another dragon, Rhaega the White. So a small company of the knights set out, and I was allowed to accompany them."
"We suffered many hardships on the journey, but when we were only a day's travel from a town on our maps called Bryn, the White Dragon set upon us. Rhaega's breath decimated our column- we were used to battling fire, not ice. The dragon's fear-aura spooked our horses, and the dragon shredded many of our knights with her teeth and claws. But we wounded her, and I daresay we might even have slain her, except the dragon was not alone. She had a mighty force of goblins and hobgoblins that did her bidding."
"The humanoid soldiers came at us out of the forest in the midst of our battle against the dragon. They outnumbered us four to one, and we were broken and fled."
"My knight was wounded, and I tried to help him from the field. But we could not escape. Hobgoblins captured us and brought us here. They tortured us, trying to learn why we were here, and where we were from. My knight withstood them to the end. I think the hobgoblins believe we are rebels from within Rhaega's own domain, not knights from a distant land."
"Last night, our captors flew into a rage and slew him. That is his own sword that killed him, and I think they left him like that as a warning to me. I think they plan to return and put me to the question next. I fear I would not be as brave as my master was."
Gingerly, Wilaine got to her feet and went over to the body of her mentor, where he still hung against the wall, transfixed by his own sword. "Goodbye, my lord," she said, closing the knight's eyes. She grasped the sword and wrenched it free.
The blade was straight and unblemished, and it glowed red in the firelight. "I swear, I will not forsake my quest, and your death shall be avenged."
Myrella shrank back a little, but Lurati nodded her approval. Cerasa looked from Wilaine's sword to her own, then to Henna's white blade.
"I noticed the same thing," Wilaine said. "There is something about these three swords, some kinship, it seems." She held up her red sword. "This has been kept by the Knights of the Phoenix for generations, and Henna's sword I also recognize. From tales of old, I remember it. But the black sword is a mystery to me. There's no doubt the fates of these three blades are entwined, though no tale speaks of it. The look of the black one make sme uncomfortable, but now I think I see the reason."
"In the city above us dwells a sorceress-queen. It is she who holds the golden orb of dragonkind, and by its power she has bound Rhaega to guard the source of her power- the glowing tablet."
"Yes," Cerasa said. "I read that on the pedestal."
"You can read the high tongue?" Wilaine asked.
Cerasa nodded. "You'd be surprised at the things I've learned from the travelers who stop at my father's inn."
"We've got to destroy the tablet," Wilaine said.
"There was more on the pedestal," Cerasa said. "Breaking the tablet will free the demons from the ice."
Lurati sighed. "Then all of us will not make us out alive. One of us, at least, will have to remain behind, to break the tablet."
"I will," said Wilaine.
"No," Henna said. "She cannot do that by herself. The dragon is still out there. Alone, Wilaine would not last long enough to destroy the sorcerer-queen's tablet. The rest of us must stay as well, to hold off Rhaega."
"Even if we manage all that," Cerasa said, "we'll never escape the demons once we have freed them." She looked a little sadly at all the wealth she'd never get to spend.
"Don't be so sure," Lurati said, twirling her axe. "We're not dead yet."
Myrella stepped forward. She had fastened the skull of Aris atop her staff from the dragon's horde, binding it there with strips of cloth. "I wouldn't worry about the demons."
"Why not?"
Myrella looked at the skull leering down from her staff. She pointed at Cerasa. "Because, we have the Black Sword. As long as we have that, the demons will not harm us, we Five Maidens of Bryn."
