Chapter Seven
Confrontation
"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
The Green Lantern Oath
Kate once again mounted the stairs to the officer's quarters, a steaming coffee mug in each hand, almost gratified to hear the sound of the trap door to the cupola snap shut from the base of the stairs, she was satisfied she would not be trespassing further upon Lord Castle's private meditations.
She felt badly enough for misjudging him as it was, though she'd come back up as much to avoid the tension between Ryan and Esposito as to make her peace offering. It had been a long time since she'd seen the normally jovial Esposito so clearly uncomfortable in his own skin. Obviously some sort of "meeting of the minds" had taken place outside and it had ruffled his feathers.
Castle's head snapped around when she tapped on the doorjamb.
"It cools off quickly out here at night," Kate offered, extending one of the two mugs to him and his eyes seemed to brighten in gratitude, "I thought you could use something to ward off the chill."
Castle took the mug from her hands, his fingers brushing hers lightly, a spark passing between the two of them for the brief second of contact before he accepted the mug from her and put it to his lips, breaking the connection as he hummed contentedly, his sorrows seemingly forgotten for a moment.
When his blue eyes met her green ones, it was as if two long-lost souls met for the first time and finally seen each other as they are, not what their separate worlds had tried to force them to be.
"Thank you, Kate," Castle whispered glumly, "I know I haven't been much fun to be around."
"You had your reasons," Kate offered, "I can't even imagine what you're going through."
"She's all I have, Kate. I can't lose her," Castle whispered. "If whoever this is has harmed her..."
Kate could see rage flash briefly in his eyes as he trailed off, a brief hint of what would be unleashed upon whomever this was if they'd harmed a hair on his little girl's head. If Alexis was truly lost to him, she knew that rage would consume his soul, much like hers and her father's had a long time ago. She would not wish to be standing between him and the architects of this act of treachery should that occur.
She edged him into one of the chairs by the map table, sat next to him and dropped one of her hands to cover his while they sipped their coffee. This single moment of companionship was the only thing she could offer him. By the next afternoon, they would reach the Tralgar ruins with the heart of Hollander's Woods not far beyond and their thoughts had to be clearly focused on their objective if they were to have any hope to succeed.
Kate had pored over her father's journals from that period after talking to Montgomery to search for clues. Her father had definitely been focused on... something connected to that incident thirty years ago, but it was clear from his writings at the time that he couldn't put his finger on it... there was always a piece missing. Then her mother had been murdered and turned both of their lives upside down, sending him into a self destructive downward spiral he'd only recently managed to crawl out of.
Her father had broken up a ritual by dragon cultists at the site of one of the most destructive dragon attacks in the last century within days of it's anniversary, returned every few years near the same date, only to be taken out of play ten years ago. Now, nearly one hundred years to the day of that attack, a gifted magical prodigy was kidnapped so soon after the stars were once again coming into the same alignment. Whatever group was involved might be gearing up to try again.
In her own mind, Kate knew that ritual her father had broken up thirty years ago must factor into Alexis' abduction somehow. The look in his eyes when she told him whom she was going this deeep into Hollander's Woods with had sent shivers down her spine. That they were only a few hour's ride from the site of that ritual, not to mention its proximity to a former dragon's lair with a history of dragon kin activity could not be coincidence. In her own mind the puzzle pieces seemed to be falling into place.
James Beckett paced in his office. He knew that his daughter was walking a dangerous path when she'd asked to peruse his journals. He'd heard about the caravan attack of course, the body covered in rose petals - just like the sacrifices had been on those altars thirty years ago - which had drawn the attention of the only other person who had been there at the time and was still alive. He hadn't told Katie, but the boy, Ricky Rodgers had changed his name to Castle not long after coming of age to put the incident behind him, shortly before the power that had manifested in him had forced him into the tower of Magi instead of the city guard as the boy had hoped.
He had personally performed the ritual to bind that power shortly after the incident, spell had likely weakened in the years since his fall from grace. He feared his daughter was walking into something she didn't understand and might not be able to overcome. Even after thirty years he still didn't quite understand what the Kobolds had been trying to accomplish in Hollander's Woods that night. Necromancy was not typically in their skill-set, not without at least an elder dragon to guide them.
Jim removed his sword, Dragonsbane from the mantle, took a knee before the battle standard of Heironeous and prayed, seeking guidance from the god to whom he had once devoted his life, then abandoned in favor of strong drink when his beloved Johanna had died. He only hoped he had not strayed so far from the path and that Noble Heironeous would still listen to his plea as he threw himself upon his mercy and begged for forgiveness.
The bulk of his prayers were not for himself, however. They were for Katie, Richard and his young daughter. He hoped his prayers would be enough, but if more was required, he would strap on his tarnished armor, sally forth and do his best, whether Heironeous chose to forgive him or not.
His daughter was out there.
The departure from the last maintained redoubt was much less tense than the other two had been. Castle and Beckett had spent much of the previous evening talking about what little he knew about that night, as well as where they would go next. They had a lot of ground to cover and not much time to do so.
From what Castle had learned in his research of the official reports and Kate from her father's journals, they had only a scant few days before the hundredth anniversary of the Tralgar attack and the Time of Troubles was upon them. It was unspoken, though readily apparent between them that they had to find Alexis before the ritual he had interrupted as a boy could be reenacted, whatever that might be.
Once the beginnings of a plan were sorted out, they'd moved on to more personal topics, clearing the air between them of old misunderstandings and past wounds to find they had much in common. After talking until they'd run out of words, they retired to their separate sleeping bags downstairs and surrendered to a good night's sleep.
The group woke the next morning, prepared a brief breakfast and then departed the redoubt for the ruins of Tralgar, Castle and Beckett's horses side by side, the two of them stealing glances at each other from time to time when they thought the other wasn't looking.
Lanie rode only a single horse length behind them, with Ryan and Esposito taking rear guard. Her eyes missed nothing as Richard Castle and her friend rode, apparently blissfully unaware of her scrutiny. By the expression on Lanie's face and the look in her eyes, she seemed pleased.
"About damn time," Lanie whispered quietly to herself, silently blessing their newfound friendship, hoping it would blossom into more, but secretly pleased that at least Kate had finally found somebody worth her time.
From what she could hear, it was clear that the two knuckleheads behind her had managed to sort things out between them too, if Ryan's chatter about how proud he was of his little girl was any indication. Lanie Parish had a sense about people, which told her that Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito had a lot more in common than either of them initially thought. Circumstance may have made them partners, but given time, they might become friends. 'Provided Jenny Ryan doesn't kill Javi first,' Lanie mused to herself. 'That one is a real firecracker.'
The final redoubt was only a few hour's ride from the Tralgar ruins, it had originally been part of the village's outermost defense perimeter but was under the treeline and far enough away from the village proper to have gone unnoticed during the attack a hundred years ago. As such, it was likely the only part of the village still standing.
As they rode into the crumbling remains of what had once been the village gate, none of them had proven unaffected. Of the group, only Castle and Ryan had seen full scale warfare close up. Esposito had been in battles and skirmishes aplenty, but not destruction of this level. All of them were moved.
Lanie dismounted her horse and led it to the marker erected by her order nearly a hundred years ago, her expression a study of deference and respect as she carefully brushed aside the ivy wrapped around it. At her muttered prayer, nearly a century of lichen parted beneath her fingers and fell away revealing the thousand names of the dead buried beneath it. Fifty-six of whom had been young children below the age of ten.
"Tread lightly," Lanie spoke softly as the empty brazier at the marker's base flared to life, "this place is hallowed ground."
As they neared what had once been the center of the village, they were actually surprised to find the keep looming above them. It was apparent that there had been at least some attempt to rebuild it, though only the first three stories seemed to have been completed before the project was scrapped. Both Castle's and Ryan's eyes appraised the concentric circles of neatly arranged heavy stones that had at one time been slated for the upper two floors of the tower - now covered over in vines and lichen - for their defensive possibilities.
Ryan carefully eyed places from which he could use his bow, Castle noted where he could place protective glyphs and wards to fill in any gaps in the defense and they both liked what they saw. A large scale assault would be difficult to mount as the concentric rings of stones would break up any attacking formation. The builders had obviously been wary of assault during the aborted reconstruction efforts and had placed the heavier building materials accordingly. A detail which had been left out of the records during the ensuing decades.
"This place must have been abandoned in a hurry," Esposito noted, "no way a decent stone mason would have left this much unused building material lying around if they'd had time to move it."
When all eyes turned on him, he shrugged sheepishly, "I apprenticed for a mason one summer, those guys account for every pebble on every job."
"This arrangement was no coincidence." Castle noted darkly. "whatever happened here, the Dwarven construction crew had been concerned enough to set up a defense perimeter before they bugged out."
"Lets get the horses bedded down," Kate offered, "we'll need to take a look around before it gets dark. Something doesn't feel right about this place."
The day proceeded without incident as the small group went about the business of securing the tower and their defense perimeter. Castle levitated a heavy stone and dropped it over the opening in the stairwell of the unfinished third story of the tower to prevent an interloper from sneaking in from above while the rest set about securing both ground floor entrances to the tower.
As the day wore on, they seemed satisfied with their efforts to secure the long abandoned partially rebuilt tower, which would serve then well enough in their efforts to locate Alexis. As daylight faded, they stoked up the fire inside the hearth and set the watch. It was going to be a long night.
A few hours later
A loud clamor rang out within the tower as the outer ring of Castle's wards were breached and began wail. Castle leaped from his cot fully dressed and grabbed his armor as did their companions did they same. When they piled out into the night to meet the threat, they were met with dark shapes that slipped from the forest and around the various heavy stones.
Too many for their own good and unable to form proper ranks in the uneven ground, the Kobolds came on. Castle, Beckett and Esposito were on them with the clashing of steel and mithril. Ryan and Beckett had found their way onto the high ground and each set loose a hail of arrows, unerringly catching kobolds in the eye or the throat.
Esposito was using his sword and shield to good effect, but he marveled as Castle's presence on the field. Where he employed brute force and heavy armor, Castle practically flowed through the thick of battle, seamlessly transferring from melee to spell-casting in a way the soldier had never seen employed on the battlefield before. It was clear to everyone that, though, the obstructions were keeping the Kobold force from fully exploiting their superior numbers, there were still too many of the dragon-kin to be fought head-on.
"Castle there's too many!" Beckett shouted from her perch.
"Then it's time to even the odds!" Castle shouted back, pressing his open palm to the nearest Kobold and cast shocking grasp. As the dragon-kin twitched and spasmed, Castle tugged it closer, yanked off it's ill-fitting helmet and drew a sigil onto the stunned creature's forehead with its own blood.
Without pause, Castle kicked the still-twitching creature into a tight knot of his compatriots where it promptly exploded in a shower of blood and gore, killing all of the others but two, who staggered back into their ranks where they promptly exploded, setting off a chain reaction that tore into the Kobold reinforcements until the spell called virulent walking bomb, lost effect.
In the momentary quiet that followed as the Kobolds fell back, the neighing and nickering of frightened horses could be heard.
"The horses!" Ryan shouted as the Kobolds melted back into the forest. "They're driving off the horses!"
By the time they got to the corral they had set up for their mounts, the horses were gone, scattered into the woods, likely headed back up the road as fast as their legs could carry them.
An hour later, after their vain efforts to retrieve the horses, the entire group filed back into the tower and barred the door. It was clear to Lanie that all was not well as she looked them over and tended the various cuts and scrapes they had.
"The attack was a ruse to distract us so they could run off the horses." Ryan spat, "they could have overrun us any time. Even with the obstructions it was clear they had the numbers to wear us down."
"I'm with him," Esposito said, surprising them all, "they want us right where we are and it's clear they don't want us dead yet, but why?"
Both of them looked at Castle. "I've been trying to figure that part out myself since before we left," he added. "why kidnap Alexis? If it was revenge, why not just kill her, or kill me before we got this far? I have no idea what they want from me, but I aim to find out."
"What do we do now?" Esposito asked, "we certainly aren't getting out of here in a hurry, and there won't be another patrol for weeks."
All eyes turned to Beckett.
"We do what we came here to do," Kate stated. "We find Castle's little girl and we figure the rest out after that. Mystery aside, we have a duty to protect the citizens of New Amsterdam. If there's a threat here, we have to find out what it is and warn Lord Weldon."
Esposito nodded, squaring his shoulders. He had sworn an oath to protect and defend and would do so to his dying breath.
"How do we find her?" Lanie asked, "It's not like whomever took her left a note saying 'this way to my secret lair' or something."
"With this." Castle lifted a very faintly glowing locket from under his shirt, "I had it made shortly after she was born and kept it in a safe place for just this sort of circumstance. I never thought I'd need it for more than sentimental value after she was grown. She was always more into the research side of sorcery, not battlefield magic."
"Is it supposed to glow like that?" Kate asked.
"It's attuned to Alexis' life force." Castle answered, "The closer it is to her, the brighter it glows. It's how I know she's still alive and she can't be too far away."
"Okay," Kate replied, "since we have proof of life, we proceed as planned and rescue Alexis. When that's done we fall back here, get her ready to travel then it's a running fight back down the road back to New Amsterdam. We can put the word out and return in force to deal with the real threat."
At everyone's nod of assent that the plan was set, including Esposito's reluctant one, Kate turned to Castle.
"Castle, you and Ryan go back out to reset your wards and traps." Kate commanded, "everyone else try to get some rest when you aren't on watch. We bloodied their noses good and proper, but provided they don't return tonight to finish the job, we're gonna have a long day tomorrow and we'll need to stay frosty."
**Author's Note** The plot thickens...
