Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus
Chapter 2
"You just won't believe the view from up here!" Salmoneus said as he finished climbing the last step of the staircase to the roof.
As all of the friends made their way onto the roof of the castle, Xena noted four large cauldrons positioned a few feet away from the edges of the roof, one cauldron for each of the four directions.
"What are they for?" Gabrielle asked Salmoneus pointing at the cauldrons.
"It's another of my ideas. I call them hot tubs. A couple can come up here and soak in the hot water of the tubs and enjoy the view. Just think. Come up here at night and soak in luxuriously hot water by the light of the stars."
Xena gave a loud snort. "This valley at night would be freezing."
"Well that's why the water is heated." Salmoneus said pointing to a stack of wood off in the corner.
"Salmoneus don't try to con me. I used to be an ex-warlord remember? Those 'tubs' were used to heat oil and dump them on people storming the castle."
"Well I don't know what the old residents of this castle used them for but I am using them for hot tubs." Salmoneus said as he turned and made his way toward the staircase leading down into the building.
Autolycus was cautiously looking over the edge of the roof. "Hmm, smooth edges. The walls have no obvious handholds. No place for a grappling hook to catch on to, unless it was able to catch on one of the cauldrons. It might be tricky trying to break into this place." Autolycus did not notice that Iolaus had walked up beside him.
"Is that all you ever think of? How easy will it be to break into some place?"
"Hey! I'm a professional in my field. It's what I do!" Autolycus said as he glared at the smaller man beside him.
Iolaus just shook his head and then said. "Hurry up and let's catch up with Salmoneus. This place is huge and I don't want to get lost here."
"Oh the great hunter admitting that he does not have a good sense of direction?" Autolycus sneered.
Iolaus did not bother to answer him but just went to the staircase where Hercules was already starting down following Salmoneus
Autolycus glanced down the sides of the castle one last time with a thoughtful air and then made to follow them.
Gabrielle looked over the valley one last time. "It is beautiful up here but there's something about this castle that gives me the creeps."
Xena glanced sharply at Gabrielle. "You feel it too? I think it's time that Salmoneus tells us just how and from whom he got this castle. Come on."
Xena searched to find where Gabrielle had gone to. They had stopped and questioned a servant that they had found to find out where Salmoneus and the rest of their friends had gone to after coming down from the roof and while Xena had talked to the servant, Gabrielle wandered off.
Reaching the ground floor Xena heard the sounds of her friends talking from a room off to the side. She smiled when she heard Gabrielle's voice but then frowned when she made out what Gabrielle was saying. "If Xena sees that painting she is going to go into a rage. Where did you get it anyway?"
"It was in the castle when I got here. Who is it of?" Xena could hear Salmoneus ask.
"You don't know who that is?" That was from Autolycus.
Xena made the doorway and stood behind her friends. The room was obviously some kind of meeting room. There was a large wooden table that ran the length of the room and at the end of the room hanging on the wall was a full length portrait painting that everyone was looking at and commenting on. Xena examined the painting from where she stood behind everyone. It was a painting of a bearded man wearing black leather. In one hand he held a bared sword and the other was raised in a fist. Whoever the artist was he caught the smug arrogant look of Ares perfectly. "What is that doing here?" Xena growled startling everyone in the room.
"Xena! You scared the life out of me! As I was just telling Gabrielle, the painting was here when I got here. Would someone please tell me who it is?"
"It is Ares, God of War." Gabrielle quietly said.
"Really? I always thought that Ares would look scarier than that." Salmoneus said studying the painting more closely.
Xena grabbed Salmoneus by the scruff of his robe. "I think it is time you told us where you got this castle from and why did you want us to visit."
"Take it easy on the robe! Its pure silk you know. The reason I wanted you all to visit was because it will be great advertisement for my new hotel. Stay where Hercules, Iolaus, Xena and Gabrielle stayed the night. It should really bring the people in. Don't you think?"
"What am I here for?" Autolycus said, a little miffed because he was not mentioned.
"I am going to pay for you to try and break into some of the rooms. Then I can advertise that my place is so secure that even the 'King of Thieves' had trouble getting into it."
"What makes you think that I would have trouble getting into the rooms here?"
"Enough!" Xena said shaking Salmoneus a little. "How did you get this castle? And from whom did you get it?"
"A business associate told me about this abandoned castle and we talked about how it could be made into a money making concern." Salmoneus squeaked.
"So this business associate must have been a good friend of yours to recommend this castle to you. Right?" Gabrielle asked suspiciously.
"Well it is odd that you mention that. The guy once accused me of cheating him on a deal but he must have decided that he was wrong because he put me on to this great deal." Salmoneus said with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Yeah a great deal. You said something earlier about a library and a mystery room. What did the scrolls in the library have to say? And what is this about a mystery room?" Xena asked the dangling Salmoneus.
"I'm not a scholar so I did not read any of the scrolls in the library but there are dozens of scrolls in there. I will show you the mystery room now if you will put me down?"
Xena sat Salmoneus back on his feet and they all followed him as he lead the way back into the corridor and to a set of double doors that they had not previously entered before. Xena mentally mapping the castle figured that the room was in the exact center of the castle. Salmoneus threw the double doors open wide and with a dramatic gesture said, "Welcome to the mystery room of the hotel Salmoneus!"
As the friends entered the room, they could see that it was completely bare except for a four sided black obelisk sitting in the exact middle of the room surrounded by four large candlesticks in each of the four directions giving off a flickering light. Something about the candles and the light they were giving off made Gabrielle very nervous. Studying them for a moment she realized that all though there were no drafts coming into the room, all of the candles were flickering together in sequence. Placing her hand on her wrist she counted as the candles flared brightly and then dimmed slightly in a pattern.
Autolycus made his way over to the obelisk and was examining it in great detail. It had characters carved into its surface and then had what appeared to be molten gold poured into the letters making them gleam from its dark surface. "I'm surprised that you haven't broken this up and got the gold out of it yet." Autolycus said over his shoulder to Salmoneus.
"It would ruin a perfectly good customer drawing device to damage this magnificent artifact! Besides, I have tried. You can't even chip it with the strongest tools." Salmoneus finished weakly.
"The candles are flickering in time to a heartbeat!" Gabrielle suddenly gasped.
Everyone turned and stared at the candles. Xena concentrated and then nodded. "Yeah, they are flaring as though they were keeping time with a slow heartbeat." Xena reached out and touched one of the chest high candles and then jerked her hand back. "Those candles are ice cold! Where did you get them?"
Salmoneus looked sheepish and then admitted. "They were lit when I got here and they have never shown any signs of burning down any more than they are now."
"And you didn't think this was trifle odd or even possibly dangerous?" Xena asked stunned.
"Well it's not hurting anything and they will make a great tourist attraction." Salmoneus said as he moved away from Xena to stand beside Gabrielle at the door.
"Have you tried to blow out the candles?" Gabrielle asked him.
"Yeah. They don't go out."
"Where is this library you were talking about?"
"Right over here." Salmoneus said as he walked around the obelisk to a small door that was painted the same color as the walls making it nearly invisible.
Opening the door he showed them in. The library had shelves with scrolls sitting on them and was lighted, Gabrielle was glad to see, by normal burning candles in holders on the walls.
Gabrielle smiled as libraries were some of her favorite places to be but then the smile faded. There was something not quite right about this library. All of the libraries that Gabrielle had ever been in all had certain things in common. The dusty smell of leather parchment, the peaceful feeling of quiet solitude, the creamy tan look of the leather scrolls. This library was quiet all right but the smell was all wrong. It had a sour smell that tickled at a memory in Gabrielle's mind but she could not place exactly what it reminded her of. Walking over to a shelf, Gabrielle randomly picked up a scroll and almost dropped it. It did not have the comforting feel of old leather like she expecting. It felt somehow oily and slick. Examing the scroll more closely, Gabrielle could see that it was yellow and cracked in places. Even the rods of the scroll looked odd. They did not have a wooden look to them but more of a gray/yellowish tint to them.
Xena quickly made a round of the room checking for danger and found nothing unusual. "Are you going to be all right in here?" She asked Gabrielle. "I want to take another look at that strange obelisk."
Gabrielle nodded distractedly.
Hercules added. "And I want to take a look at those odd candles."
"Someone should test what Salmoneus said about that gold inside those letters not being able to be dug out." Autolycus added as he turned and went back the way they came in. Salmoneus immediately followed the 'King of Thieves'.
Iolaus looked to where Xena was standing, hesitating at the doorway. "Go on, I'll stay in here with Gabrielle while she reads."
Xena was starting to get nervous. There was an air about that Obelisk that reminded her strongly of Ares but there was only a slight feeling coming from it that Xena associated with Ares presence. If Ares had a hand in creating the obelisk it was a long time ago and Xena had the feeling that Ares had not been in recent contact with it.
Hearing a noise coming from the library that sounded halfway between a sob and a scream, Xena raced past Hercules who was trying without success to pull one of the candles from it's holder and past Autolycus who was trying without success to pry a gold letter from the obelisk into the library.
As she entered the library she could see a obviously upset Gabrielle being comforted by Iolaus. The scroll Gabrielle had been reading was lying on the floor where she had dropped it. As soon as Xena entered the room, Gabrielle quickly moved out of Iolaus's arms into hers. "Oh Xena it's horrible!" She sobbed.
Xena looked over at Iolaus, who just shrugged. "She was reading the scroll and then she dropped it and backed away from it as if it was a deadly snake or something. I asked her what was wrong and she started to cry.
Xena stroked Gabrielle's hair. "It's all right. Tell me what's wrong."
"Those scrolls are made out of people!" Gabrielle sobbed into Xena's shoulders.
"What!"
"The scroll I was reading told how the warlord who lived here used to capture children from a nearby village and then use their skins to make scrolls. I knew that the scrolls had a funny smell to them and as soon as I read that I realized where I had smelled it before." Gabrielle sobbed.
Xena took a strong sniff of the air. "It smells like bodies that have been in a tomb for a long time or an old battlefield." Xena confirmed.
Gabrielle from her place at Xena's shoulder nodded her head.
Iolaus looked at the dozens and dozens of scrolls sitting on their shelves in shock.
"Xena I want to leave here now!" Gabrielle said looking up at Xena's face.
"Gabrielle it's getting late in the day. We would never make it down off of the mountain by nightfall. It's terrible what has been done here but it was a long time ago. Let's just get you out of this room and find you somewhere you can rest for a while."
"Rest? I don't think that I will ever be able to close my eyes again." Gabrielle said with a grimace.
"Come on. You'll be fine. Just put out of your head what you read and forget that this room even exists." Xena said steering Gabrielle toward the doorway.
Hercules, Autolycus and Salmoneus were at the doorway having just arrived.
"What happened?" Salmoneus asked looking at Gabrielle.
"Let's just say that she found something out about your little library here and if you ever hope to get any customers for your hotel Salmoneus, you better hope that it does not get out." Iolaus said as he passed him.
Salmoneus grabbed Iolaus by the arm and Iolaus waited until he saw Xena and Gabrielle leave the room before turning toward Salmoneus. "What is this about something that may keep customers from my hotel?" Salmoneus asked him nervously. Iolaus could see Hercules and Autolycus looking at him curiously over Salmoneus's shoulder.
"Those scrolls in there? They are made out of the skins of children. The previous owner of this castle was a warlord who butchered people and used their skins for the scrolls."
Salmoneus's face went completely white. "I will take the scrolls out and burn them! Or maybe I should give them a decent burial?" Salmoneus turned and gave Hercules a helpless look. "What is the proper way to deal with something like this?"
Hercules who was looking sick to his stomach, just shrugged. "I don't think I have ever heard of something like this before. I'm not sure what would be the proper way of disposing of them."
Autolycus looked around at the flickering candles and through the open door to the library where the scrolls sat on their shelves. "Poor Gabrielle! To find that you are holding and reading something that used to be a person!" Autolycus shuddered. "She's so sensitive and gentle; this will upset her pretty bad!"
Suddenly the four candles around the obelisk flared brilliantly and then faded back to their usual heartbeat rhythm. Autolycus looked around wide eyed at the candles and then turned his attention back to his friends to see the same look on their faces. "Let's get the Tartarus out of this room!" None of the four men ran from the room but the room still quickly emptied. As Hercules who was bringing up the rear left, the double doors swung slowly closed on their own and a deep booming laugh was heard in the now empty room.