Terror
at the Hotel Salmoneus.
Chapter 4
Xena sitting at the table heard Gabrielle's voice yell her name and looked up at the painting of Ares as Gabrielle came hurling through it ripping it into shreds. She barely had time to leap from her seat and catch the falling Gabrielle in her arms. As she caught the falling bard, it hit her that Gabrielle was not wearing any clothing. Looking back at where the painting used to be, Xena saw a deformed creature standing in the dark opening looking at the dirty shaking bard in her arms. The creature leered at Gabrielle for a moment before it pulled its head back into the dark passage and was gone. Two thoughts slammed into Xena's mind.
One: Gabrielle had been in mortal danger and Two: that creature was what was endangering her. Xena turning to her right to sit Gabrielle down and found Autolycus standing beside her with his arms open to take the young woman. Xena threw him a warning look and turned to her left and found Hercules standing there with his arms open too but he had ripped the tapestry down from the wall and had it in his hands to cover Gabrielle. Xena gratefully handed Gabrielle over to him and he quickly covered her naked form. Xena with her war yell leapt onto the table and with a forward flip launched herself into the dark hole where the painting used to be.
"Xena! Wait for me!" Hercules yelled as he gently sat a shivering Gabrielle wrapped in the tapestry on a chair and then climbed up into the secret passage.
A stunned Iolaus, Salmoneus and Autolycus looked dumbfounded at one another for a moment. Autolycus was the first to regain his senses. "Oh yeah Salmoneus! I can see the advertisement for your hotel now. Come to Hotel Salmoneus. Guests are just dying to get in. Hot and cold running maniacs for your convenience."
Salmoneus just frowned at Autolycus while Iolaus rushed to Gabrielle's side.
"Are you okay?" He asked her worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine, dirty, cold and scared but fine." Gabrielle said huddled in the tapestry.
"Uh, that thing didn't, um, hurt you or, um anything did it?" Iolaus asked her awkwardly.
Autolycus immediately dropped to his knees beside Gabrielle's chair and studied her face.
Gabrielle slowly eased her hand out from under the tapestry and patted Iolaus on the hand and then reached over and touched Autolycus on his arm. "I'm really okay guys. That thing was planning on doing some horrible things to me but I got away before it could."
Autolycus let out a breath that he didn't even realize that he was holding. "Whew! Then I have something I have to tell you."
Gabrielle looked at him curiously. "What?"
"You are really filthy." Autolycus said with a grin as he took his finger and wiped a clean stripe down Gabrielle's nose. He looked at the dirt and cobwebs on his finger and said, "Couldn't you find a cleaner way to get away from a hideously deformed maniac?"
This brought a smile to Gabrielle's face. "Sorry I couldn't clean up before I dropped in. Oh, and I ruined Ares portrait too. What a shame."
Iolaus smiled with relief to see Gabrielle joking about her recent danger. "Let's get you upstairs to your room so you can clean up and get dressed."
"Oh I don't know. I think the Amazon Queen is quite fetching in her Amazon tapestry robe." Autolycus said with a smirk.
Gabrielle glanced down at what she was covered with. "Is that what this is? I think I agree with Iolaus. I will feel better after I get cleaned up and dressed."
Autolycus with a low bow, "then let me escort you to your room while Iolaus stays here in case Hercules and Xena get back."
"Oh yeah, like I am going to let you escort Gabrielle back to her room alone while she is undressed? I don't think so!" Iolaus said getting to his feet.
"What? Like you don't think that I can be trusted with Gabrielle? I will have you know that I have known Gabrielle for a long time and think of her as a sister." Autolycus said rising to his feet and facing Iolaus.
Gabrielle watched the two men argue for a moment and then getting to her feet she walked out of the room with as much dignity as an Amazon queen wrapped in a dirty tapestry could.
Autolycus and Iolaus continued to argue for a few moments more, until they realized that Gabrielle had left, and then they both rushed out of the room to catch up with her, glaring at each other all the way. Salmoneus looked around at the wrecked meeting room sadly, until he realized that he was now alone in a room where a maniac had appeared. He then ran out of the room to catch up with Iolaus, Autolycus and Gabrielle.
As Autolycus and Iolaus left the meeting room, they almost ran into Gabrielle standing just outside the doorway tapping her bare foot against the stone floor. "Are you two going to stop acting like a couple of 'fish wives' and stop arguing every two seconds or not?"
"Sorry Gabrielle." A contrite Iolaus said looking guiltily down at the floor.
"Yeah, me too." Autolycus said and then with a grin, "but Shorty here started it!"
Iolaus glanced up sharply at Autolycus for a moment and then grinning and shaking his head he offered him his hand. "Truce?"
"Truce!" Autolycus said grabbing a hold of Iolaus's arm in a warrior hand shake.
"Thank the Gods for that! You two were really starting to get on my nerves!" Gabrielle said with a smile.
Salmoneus picked that moment to run out of the meeting room and slide to a halt. "Thought you might need someone to show you the way back to your room." He said unconvincingly.
As the friends started down the hallway leading to Gabrielle's room they came across the servant that Xena had asked to make sure that Gabrielle would not be disturbed, cleaning the hallway. The servant looked at Gabrielle and then looked back at the door to her room. "I thought your friend said that you were taking a nap? How did you get out here?"
Autolycus pushed to the front and asked the man. "Are you saying that no one has been through that door since Xena talked to you?"
"Xena? That would be the woman dressed in dark leather, carrying the really big sword?"
"Yes."
"No one sir has been in or out since then. I have been working in the hall all this time and I saw no one." The man answered still looking confusedly at Gabrielle. "How did you get so dirty?"
Salmoneus walked past the man to stand at his back and made frantic gestures for Gabrielle to tell him nothing. The man sensing Salmoneus behind him turn and found Salmoneus smiling at him. "She sleepwalks. Yeah that's it. She sleepwalks. Tobas, I know that Melerin and Cheara keep a big cauldron of hot water in the kitchen for cleaning purposes. Would you mind running down and getting a clean bucket of hot water for Gabrielle to get cleaned up with? Oh and some towels?"
Tobas nodded his head. "Yes sir." He shot one more curious look at Gabrielle and the door to her room and then hurried off to the kitchen.
"You should have told him about the maniac that is running loose through the castle Salmoneus!" Gabrielle said to Salmoneus.
"Do you know how hard it is to get good help? Besides, Xena and Hercules went after the creature. I'm sure by now they have it chained up somewhere. Telling the servants about the creature would only scare them and they would leave the castle. Its almost dark and they would never make it off of this mountain safely."
Gabrielle frowned at Salmoneus but said nothing more. Going to the door of her room she entered, quickly followed by Autolycus, Iolaus and Salmoneus.
"What do you think that all of you are doing?" She asked them.
"You heard the man. He said that no one entered or left this room. That means that there must be a secret entrance to this room that Mr. Ugly used to snatch you. We are going to check this room out and not leave you alone." Autolycus said looking around the room.
Gabrielle rolled her eyes but at the same time she was secretly glad that she would not have to be alone in the room.
Gabrielle looking around the room found her favorite top laying on the ground shredded. A few paces further she found her skirt and then her boots. "What am I suppose to do for clothing?"
Salmoneus gestured to a corner of the room. "I had the stable boy bring up Argo's bags."
As Gabrielle went over and retrieved Argo's saddlebags, Autolycus and Iolaus continued to knock on the walls and check behind the tapestries that decorated the room.
Hearing a knock on the door, Salmoneus opened it cautiously and looking out saw Tobas with two large steaming buckets of water and some clean towels under his arm standing there. "I figured that as dirty as the lady was, I ought to bring two buckets." Tobas said as he entered the room and sat the buckets down near the bed.
Over at one of the walls of the room Iolaus yelled out to Autolycus. "I can't figure out how that creature managed to get in here."
"Creature?" Tobas asked, looking up sharply in Iolaus's direction.
Salmoneus quickly placing his arm around Tobas shoulder ushered him to the door. "Iolaus thought he saw a rat in here." He explained as he left with Tobas, shooting an angry look at Iolaus as he shut the door behind him.
Gabrielle looked at the two buckets of hot water and then at Iolaus and Autolycus, who looked back at her. "Well?"
"What?" Iolaus asked.
"Look guys, there is no way that I am going to wash up and then get dressed with you two standing there!" Gabrielle said clutching the tapestry around her a little tighter.
"Now Gabrielle, that creature found a way in here and attacked you. I and Autolycus would not be able to live with ourselves if we were to go outside and he attacked again while you were getting cleaned up." Iolaus said
"Not to mention the fact that Xena would kill us if that happened." Autolycus added.
"We will turn our backs while you bathe and get dressed. Okay?" Iolaus asked her.
Gabrielle looked unsure. Uncomfortable with the thought of them being in there while she bathed but at the same time disliking the idea of being alone in a room where she had been attacked.
"Promise?"
Autolycus put his hand over his heart. "We promise that we won't turn around until you say that it is all right."
Gabrielle reluctantly nodded her head. "Okay then."
Iolaus and Autolycus promptly turned their backs. Iolaus looking down at the ground and Autolycus after turning, found himself facing the full length mirror across the room. He could see Gabrielle clearly reflected in the mirror. He was just about to take a few steps to the side so he couldn't see Gabrielle but just then Gabrielle with her back to them threw off the dirty tapestry that she had been wearing. Autolycus found himself rooted to the spot. His eyes followed Gabrielle's legs until they reached, to Autolycus's mind, one of the best looking butts he had ever seen.
Iolaus glancing over to Autolycus saw a stunned look on his face and looked over to see what he was looking at. When he saw the mirror and Gabrielle's reflection he silently slapped Autolycus on his arm. Autolycus jumped a little and turning his head he mouthed the word, "What?"
"Autolycus!" Iolaus silently mouthed back, gesturing angrily at the mirror.
Autolycus gave one of his best 'I'm innocent' looks and nodded at the mirror as if to say, "how could anyone be expected to resist that."
Iolaus glancing at the mirror again was stunned himself as Gabrielle turning slightly to dip a towel in a bucket of hot water, gave both men a full side view of herself.
Iolaus gulped nervously and mouthed the word, "Wow!"
"Gabrielle had really grown up since the last time he had seen her." He thought to himself.
Both men continued to watch Gabrielle as she quickly washed herself and then washed her hair in the second bucket. At no time did she turn to fully face them but they were quite happy with the back and side views that they got. Pulling out a new top out of the saddlebags to replace the one the creature had ripped to shreds, they could hear Gabrielle muttering to herself about what she would do if she ever got her hands on the creature.
As Gabrielle finished getting dressed and bent over to pick up her staff from beside the bed where it lay, Iolaus reached over and slapped Autolycus's arm again.
Once he had Autolycus's attention, Iolaus placed one hand flat in front of himself and with the other he held two fingers out and placed them on the first hand. Making it look like a person standing, he then turned his hand as if the person was turning around. Iolaus then pointed at the mirror and then at themselves.
Autolycus frowned as he tried to figure out what Iolaus was trying to say and then suddenly he understood that Iolaus was saying that when Gabrielle turned around she would see the mirror and know that they had been watching her. He nodded and together he and Iolaus took several quick steps to the right so that he and Iolaus were no longer in front of the mirror.
Gabrielle straightening up turned around and then frowned. She could have sworn that Autolycus and Iolaus had been closer to her than they now were. Shrugging her shoulders, she called out to them that they could now turn around.
Autolycus turning around smiled real big at her and said. "You clean up real well Gabrielle."
Gabrielle frowned again as she noticed that Iolaus would not look her in the eye and seemed to be blushing slightly. "He must have been as uncomfortable with me bathing in the same room as him as I was." She thought to herself.
Looking across the room Gabrielle's eyes suddenly went wide and she yelled. "The mirror!"
Iolaus gave a guilty little jump and Autolycus just looked in the direction of the mirror and said, "I forgot all about that mirror being there. What about it?"
Gabrielle walking past the two men to stand in front of the mirror said. "You remember what Salmoneus said when I asked him if he got a good deal on mirrors?"
"He said that he did. So?" Iolaus asked as he walked over to stand beside Gabrielle.
Autolycus with realization dawning on his face walked over to stand at her other side said. "But he said that he didn't buy this mirror. That it was already here when he got the place."
Iolaus with a still puzzled look on his face again said. "So?"
Gabrielle replied. "He then said that he had tried to move it to the head of the bed but it was attached to the wall someway and he couldn't move it."
Iolaus, his face finally clearing with understanding said. "The secret way into the room!"
Iolaus started pushing on the mirror to no avail, when Autolycus tapped him on the shoulder.
"Let someone who knows about secret doors and locks give it a try."
Iolaus stepped to the side and leaning on the wall felt a rock at his elbow give way and sink back into the wall.
Suddenly the mirror recessed into the wall slightly and slid open with a metallic hiss.
Iolaus with a smirk walked over to the new opening in the wall and quickly stuck his head in and then pulled it back. "Beginner's luck!" He heard Autolycus mutter under his breath.
"It looks like there is a passage going off toward the right." Iolaus said as he cautiously stuck his head back into the dark opening. Stepping fully into the passage he looked to his left and called out. "There is a shelf to the left with some scrolls.
"Not more scrolls!" Gabrielle muttered unhappily.
"No wait! These scrolls are your normal run of the mill kind made out of leather." Iolaus said as he left the secret doorway and handed one of the scrolls to Gabrielle.
Gabrielle gingerly took the scroll and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that Iolaus was right. It was just a normal old scroll. Opening it, Gabrielle quickly read what was written on it.
"How many more of them are there in there?" She asked Iolaus
"About 6 or 7" He answered.
"Bring them out into the room where I can read them please!" Gabrielle asked him.
A short time later, Gabrielle was sitting on the waterbed surrounded with old scrolls reading while Iolaus and Autolycus debated among themselves whether they should explore the passageway or go back down to the meeting room.
"It all makes sense now!" Gabrielle said in an excited voice as she finished the last scroll.
Hoping off of the bed she ran over to where Iolaus and Autolycus were looking at her. Grabbing their arms she said. "We need to find Hercules and Xena. They have no idea what they are up against!"
As Gabrielle ushered them to the door, Autolycus asked. "What are we up against?"
"I'll explain as soon as we find Hercules and Xena." Gabrielle said pushing them out of the door into the hallway.
As Gabrielle, Autolycus, Iolaus and Salmoneus entered the meeting room they watched as Hercules leapt from the hole where the painting used to be and turned to help Xena down. Xena merely raised one eyebrow and with a forward flip landed beside him. "I still say that my chakram got him that last time! I know that I saw it hit him in the neck!"
"Xena if you had hit him in the neck with your chakram, he would be dead now!" Hercules said reasonably.
"I think that's the problem. He is already dead, well not really alive anyway!" Gabrielle said from the doorway.
Xena turned from where she had been talking to Hercules and with a shout of "Gabrielle!" she ran across the room sweeping Gabrielle up in a huge bear hug. She crushed Gabrielle to her chest so tight, that Autolycus winced in sympathy. Finally releasing Gabrielle from the hug, she held Gabrielle at arm's length and scanned her body from head to toe. "Did that thing hurt you? What did it do to you? What did it try to do?" Xena asked in a barely controlled voice.
"Xena! I'm fine. Really!" Gabrielle said in a voice breathless from Xena's greeting.
"Let's all sit down and I will tell you what happened and what I have found out about the creature." Gabrielle said gesturing at the chairs.
Autolycus noticed that Xena took the chair nearest the secret passage. "Almost like a cat sitting near a mouse hole waiting for the mouse to appear." He thought to himself. He also noticed that even though Gabrielle stayed at Xena's side, she kept as far away from the opening as she could but still be in touching distance of Xena.
Gabrielle told them all about waking up and hearing a noise and then being knocked out. She told them about the dungeon she woke up in and what the creature did. It was at this point that they all heard a loud cracking noise and looked over at Xena to see her holding the broken arm of the chair she was sitting in. She had broken it off when Gabrielle told how the creature had run its hand over her body. Autolycus, from where he was sitting, raised an eyebrow as he watched Gabrielle lightly stroking Xena's hair to calm her down. Looking around the room, he noticed that he was the only one in a position to see that action. To everyone else, it looked only as though Gabrielle had her hand on Xena's shoulder. After a few moments Gabrielle continued with her story. When she got to the part where she picked the lock and escaped, Gabrielle felt her face flush with pride at the smiles she received from Xena and Autolycus.
"I knew that you were an exceptional pupil. If you ever want to stop wandering around with Xena, I could make you the Queen of Thieves." Autolycus boasted.
"Yeah, like she would want to stop traveling with Xena and take up with you? Why would she want to be the Queen of Thieves, when she is already Queen of the Amazons?" Iolaus snorted.
Autolycus just ignored Iolaus and gestured for Gabrielle to continue with her story.
Gabrielle finished her tale about wandering around the maze of secret passages and always finding the creature at her back and how she came to be leaping out of Ares' portrait. She then, for Hercules and Xena's sake, told about going upstairs to clean up and how Iolaus and Autolycus found the secret passage up there. Iolaus felt a slight shiver of fear at the frown that passed over Xena's face hearing that he and Autolycus had stayed in the room while Gabrielle bathed but relaxed slightly as Gabrielle assured her that they had acted like perfect gentlemen. Even though he tried not to, he found himself looking away guiltily when Xena glanced at him with her piercing blue eyes.
Gabrielle reached the point in her story where they had found the scrolls and she read them.
"The scrolls were the personal diary of a warlord named Annilus." Gabrielle paused when she saw a look of recognition pass over Hercules' face.
"We read about him, when I and Iolaus went to the fighting academy, when we were kids. He was supposed to be an unstoppable warrior about 100 years ago. He just disappeared one day and no one knows what happened to him." Hercules said with a frown.
"Well I wish that I didn't but I do now!" Gabrielle said stepping away from Xena's chair slightly. Raising her hands she went into full 'bard mode'.
"Annilus was one of Ares' first chosen ones. He was a brilliant general but also an honorable warrior. He always gave women and children a chance to leave a battle site before he attacked and when he won, which he always did, he would never allow his men to molest or harm the women or children. Even though he was not as blood thirsty as some warlords, Ares treasured him because of his fighting ability and his brilliant strategies. One day Ares decided that sooner or later, Annilus's mortality would overtake him. Even if he never lost in battle, he would die of old age so Ares set out to make Annilus immortal. He wanted a general that would fight for him forever. Unfortunately for Ares, Zeus had decreed that Ares could not use Ambrosia or the fruit of the Tree of Life, to make his immortal warrior. Zeus thought that this would stop Ares and his mad plan but it didn't."
Gabrielle paused for a moment and Salmoneus rushed out of the room, to return in a few moments with a goblet of cider for her to drink.
After taking a deep drink, Gabrielle began again.
"Tricking Athena into letting him study some of her scrolls, Ares read of a philosopher that had a theory on why men died of old age. The philosopher decided that the reason men die is because there bodies are like vases holding their souls. When the vases get old and worn out, holes appear and the soul leaks out causing the body to die. So the philosopher theorized that if you could take the soul out of a man and store it in something more durable, then maybe the man could live forever. Ares decided to test this mortal's theory.
He had a castle built. One that appeared small on the surface but actually was huge underground. With room to house not only Annilus entire army of that day but also the armies that Ares saw in the future. He had the finest miners dig out a rare black stone that was harder than anything ever seen before. Craftsmen worked on it until it was perfectly smooth and then Ares had sorcerers from all across the land inscribe words of power on the stone. He then had enchanted candles made. The candles were to insure that Zeus could not put a stop to his 'eternal warrior'. The candles affect Gods and Demi-gods by drawing the gods into trying to pull the candles out. The longer the god holds on to the candle the more power it draws out of them and uses to feed the soul in the stone!" Gabrielle paused a moment to take a breath. She watched as Hercules looked at his hands.
"Are you saying that this warlord's soul is in the stone in the mystery room?" Salmoneus said with a skeptical look on his face. Suddenly Salmoneus eyes took on a gleam of greed.
"This is perfect! Think of the people who will travel from all over the word to see this ancient artifact of power! Come to Hotel Salmoneus and see the soul stone of Annilus! I'll be rich!" Salmoneus paused for a moment and then asked, "Uh, just one thing. What's this got to do with the creature?"
Gabrielle frowned at Salmoneus and then began to speak again. "Finally the day came. Ares brought Annilus to the castle and told him what he was going to do. Annilus wanted nothing to do with it. He tried to flee. I guess the thought of never-ending battles did not appeal to him. Anyway, Ares caught Annilus and had him put into the room where Xena and I are staying. There Annilus wrote out everything that was happening to him and when he found the secret room that the builders put in. He stored the scrolls there and decided to try and escape again through the secret tunnels. He must not have made it." Gabrielle finished sadly.
Iolaus shook his head. "I must be missing something. What does this have to do with the creature?"
"Iolaus I am surprised at you! Our souls are not just something that keeps us alive. They are also what make us human. Take the soul away and you get, you get, well you get a soulless monster." Gabrielle began to wring her hands.
"The scroll in the library, the one that upset me so much?" Gabrielle asked as she started to pace back and forth. "It tells how something went wrong with the warlord who lived in this castle. How he went from being an honorable man into being a cruel and heartless man. He started to torture woman and children. He became interested in only other people's fear and pain. He lost interest in planning battles and only wanted to cause pain. His men left him and the ones that stayed behind were tortured and killed when he ran out of women and children. It was where the scroll started to list some of the things he had done and it got to the part about skinning children to make scrolls that I could no longer read it." Gabrielle voice started to crack with emotion.
Xena quickly leapt to her feet and put her arm around the woman to comfort her.
Gabrielle after a moment looked up and still saw some confused looks on the men's faces.
"Don't you get it? Ares caught Annilus trying to sneak out. He performed the ritual to take out his soul and store it in the stone. Maybe he rushed the ritual or something, I don't know. But Ares didn't get what he wanted. Oh, Annilus's body would not die but there was nothing of the man left inside either. Instead of a brilliant immortal warrior, Ares got a creature that fed off the fear and pain of others. To give Ares the benefit of the doubt, maybe he tried to stop the creature and found that the safeguards he put in against Zeus stopped him as well." Xena interrupted Gabrielle by snorting loudly at the thought of Ares trying to fix a problem he created.
"Or maybe Ares just gave up in disgust and left the creature to fend for itself. Again, I don't know but that is what we are up against. The creature is the body of Annilus and it can't be stopped until the soul trapped inside the stone is reunited with its body!"
Everyone one remained quiet as they digested the story Gabrielle had just told them. The sudden appearance of the servant Tobas caused them all to jump slightly, even Xena.
Tobas looked around at the obviously nervous people and then glanced at the hole where the painting of Ares used to be. "Um, my Lord Salmoneus? Melerin asked me to tell you folks that dinner is ready. Can I ask what is going on?"
Salmoneus leapt to his feet and putting his arm around Tobas's shoulder he lead the man back to the doorway. "Going on? Nothing is going on! We were just discussing some more rooms that we found behind the painting that was hanging on the wall. It looks like we will be able to house even more guests when we open for business. Go tell Melerin that we will be in for dinner in a moment and that we will dine in the main dinning room."
Tobas looked at Salmoneus with his mouth hanging open slightly. "The main dinning room? You know the one right off of the kitchen?" Salmoneus prompted him.
"Yes my Lord. What is this about new rooms? Will I have to clean them as well?" Tobas asked him as he tried to turn to look back into the meeting room.
"Uh, no! We may have a bit of a rat problem with the new rooms and I don't want anyone going into them until we can get someone to get rid of the rats. Don't worry about it now. Just run along and give Melerin my message.
Tobas looked far from reassured but nodded his head and left.
Salmoneus turned around to find everyone glaring at him.
"What!"
"Salmoneus! You have to tell the servants about the creature and get them out of here!" Gabrielle growled at him.
"Now Gabrielle, we have already discussed this. The servants would just panic and hurt themselves getting off of this mountain in the dark. Let's keep this quiet and Xena and Hercules can get rid of this creature and the servants need never know about it."
Salmoneus looked over at Xena and received a look that should have split stone.
"And what if me and Hercules can't get rid of this creature before one of the servants gets hurt or killed?" Xena said in a low dangerous voice.
Salmoneus edged toward the door with his hands raised in front of him nervously. Reaching the doorway, he dropped his hands in defeat. "All right! Right after we eat dinner we will tell the servants about the creature. And then what? Where can we put the servants where they will be safe until morning?"
"Eat! We need to get them out of here now!" Gabrielle said angrily.
Salmoneus was about to answer Gabrielle when Xena spoke instead. "Gabrielle, in this case Salmoneus is right."
"Of course I am! I am?" Salmoneus asked surprised.
"When we tell the servants about the creature they are going to be frightened and nervous. That is going to make them hard enough to keep them together and safe but frightened, nervous and hungry? They may panic. Besides all of us have gone all day without food. You need to eat something. Especially if we are going to take turns standing guard" Xena explained to Gabrielle.
"We could take all the servants and camp outside the castle in the fields. That way we could see the creature coming from far off!" Iolaus said as he got up and made his way toward the door.
"It gets freezing this far up in the mountains at night Iolaus. The winds howl around this place and there are several young kids working here with their parents. The stable boy and Melerin and Cheara's daughter who helps makes the beds and cleans the rooms. I don't want to take young kids out in weather like that!" Salmoneus pleaded with Iolaus.
"Then we will have to pick a secure room in the castle and stand guard till morning." Gabrielle said as she walked past Salmoneus.