Prison of Darkness
Notes: This is just a short transitionary chapter, kind of like the deep breath you take before going under water. If anyone wants to see the graphic I made for this story, you can find it at: pics[dot]livejournal[dot]com/tanyareed/pic/0009ws8f
Disclaimer: Castle is not mine. Chapter 13
XXX
Kate felt almost cheerful as she found herself standing in the ruin of a house. It was basically a shell with no roof and empty windows with the sun pouring in.
A shower, a lovely talk with Martha, and a sleeping pill had done wonders for her. The food she had eaten in the inn before the brawl was still in her stomach, and her hair and teeth were both properly brushed.
It was funny how just being clean could change your attitude. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans this time and some sneakers to give her feet a rest from Nahla's boots. Her face still felt tender, but most of the swelling had gone down, and the Polysporin had taken the sting from her knuckles.
The first thing she noticed was the sunshine. The second was the broken and discarded things lying across the floor. The table was upset, and there was a splash of something that could have been blood. The stain was old and faded.
Kate knelt to get a better look but still couldn't be sure. From her new vantage point, she could see something pinned down by the edge of the table. Looking closer, she saw it was a sad eyed doll with tattered clothes and a missing arm.
In fact, everything about the small home was sad. Kate wondered what happened to the people who had lived there.
She walked quietly across to the door, taking care not to disturb anything. She felt the hushed sense of respect she usually only felt at funerals.
The door was crookedly hanging in its frame, barely connected and waiting to fall. Kate carefully moved it, making a gap just big enough for her to slip through.
Outside, it was early morning. The sun illuminated the ruins, washing them with light.
She was standing in what used to be a village. It hadn't been a very large one. She counted about twenty-one houses. There were livestock pens and barns and sheds. All of them were in the same state of disrepair as the house she had just left.
Despite the sunshine, the place gave off a feeling of deep sorrow, and the houses looked as if they were bowed down with grief. There were missing and collapsed walls and roofs and doors. Paint peeled. Fences leaned. Neglect had eaten away at everything.
Where was she?
Kate was reluctant to look around the graveyard she found herself in, but she needed information. If the ring on her hand was still working, Nahla should be nearby.
A sudden, terrifying feeling gripped her. What if years had gone by this time? What if Nahla had come to this village, lived, and died? What if Castle was already dead?
Kate gritted her teeth and pushed down panic. Letting fear take over would not help anything. She would just have to search the village for her friend. If Nahla wasn't there, then she'd find a way to Rithisak on her own. She realized that Castle's magic was still working. He had to be alive to dream her here.
That last thought calmed her. Feeling a little better, she walked to the next house and peered in a window. One of the walls had fallen in and all Kate could see was rubble.
She walked to the next and saw the same kind of mess she had seen at first. Belongings were flung across the floor. Things were both broken and discarded. Kate was starting to get the feeling that the place hadn't been deserted voluntarily. She wondered what had happened here.
She slowly and methodically checked the village, her cheerful mood turning to one of sadness. The old faded stains were frequent, and Kate became more and more sure that they were blood.
She stopped to pick up something in the overgrown grass of a yard when a noise caught her attention. Up until then, everything had been eerily silent. The quiet creaking noise stood out starkly against the hushed background. It could have been a sound naturally made by the old village, but Kate didn't think it was. The back of her neck tingled in warning.
She stopped in mid bend and slowly rose. Her senses were on alert as she turned, and she remembered suddenly that her sword was under her bed at home, a long, long way away. Her knives had been left in her pack, which was in some town that could have been on the moon for all of Kate's knowledge of the geography of this place.
Once on her feet, she turned quickly, tensed for an attack. What she saw had her breath rushing out of her lungs in relief.
There was a small rundown barn, whose roof was sagging but whose door was still sturdy. The doorway was open and leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed was Jacek.
"I've been looking for you," she called quietly, disturbing the solemnity of the place.
"We didn't have to look for you. You were making more noise than a wood troll."
Kate didn't know what a wood troll was, but she assumed it was noisy.
"Leave her alone. This place is deserted. Who would have heard besides us? A bird?"
Nahla squeezed past her cousin to come out into the sunshine. She was yawning, and her clothes were slightly rumpled.
Kate ignored Jacek and spoke to her friend. "How long have I been gone?"
"Our adventure at the inn was the night before last."
"The night before last? How close are we now?"
"We should get there today."
"In about three or four hours," Jacek corrected.
That was close. By the end of the day, she could have Castle with her again, safe and in one piece. Or they could both be dead.
Turning her mind from darker thoughts, she said, "I'm sorry I left you fleeing that mob on your own."
Nahla grinned. "That was exciting, wasn't it?"
"You could call it that. I'm glad you got away okay."
"Jacek's good at that kind of thing. You still look a little worse for wear."
"The fight was only three or four hours ago for me."
"You're clean, though. I'd give anything for a good, long bath. I soaked in a stream this morning, but it's not the same. And I left my clean clothes behind in the fight."
"I left my stuff too."
"You should never lose sight of your pack," Jacek said sternly.
Kate rolled her eyes at him, making Nahla laugh.
"So, where are we?" Kate asked. "What happened?"
"Rithisak," Jacek growled.
"He did this?"
"Jacek says that when he took over the abandoned keep, he got rid of all the villagers. He killed them, sold them, tortured them, kept them as servants. He destroyed everything."
"It's horrible."
"It's like the houses are crying."
"Don't let your imagination run away with you," Jacek told her. "Terrible things happen to people. That's just the way it is. We should get going."
He shut the door behind him, which Kate thought was a curious and oddly polite thing to do considering all the devastation around them.
As they started out of the village, Nahla asked Kate, "What happened to your sword? Did it get left behind in the brawl?"
"Don't ask."
"So, you're planning to go into the Prison of Darkness unarmed are you?" This was Jacek.
"She won't be unarmed," Nahla said, unbuckling her sword belt. "Here, Kate."
Nahla was much better with the blade than Kate herself. "Then you'll be defenseless."
"Take it. I've got a couple of spells I can use. Plus, I have a knife in my boot."
Kate took the blade with reluctance, hoping she hadn't just signed her friend's death warrant.
The sun continued to shine and, as they moved further and further away from the village, it was harder to believe anything bad could happen.
Jacek remained cranky and distant, but Nahla told of their adventures getting away from the mob. Kate only half listened as she concentrated on putting one foot after the other and not thinking about what was ahead.
They saw the prison long before they reached it. It was a tall, dark, menacing, and imposing structure that reminded Kate of spooky movie castles.
They had not seen one person since leaving the ruined village.
"I take it people don't usually get out this way," Kate said conversationally to Nahla.
"Rithisak doesn't like to have people too close...unless they are useful to him," Jacek answered her.
"You have to be careful, Kate." This was Nahla. "Remember, Rithisak wants you too. He can do the ritual without you, but it will be stronger with you."
"I remember. If we're lucky, he won't even see me. Do we know how we're getting inside?"
"That's my department. I've had access to all that information because Mother is training me to be the village Mystic after her."
"You know a side way in?"
"Yes, and a little of the layout."
"How are we going to find him?"
"I honestly don't know. We'll have to wing it."
"I hate winging it," Jacek told her.
"So do I," Kate admitted.
"Well, we do have some other inside information," Nahla continued. "We know there are one hundred and fifty servants, some in indentured servitude but most hired on. We know where his ritual chamber is and his personal rooms."
"Maybe we'll be able to kill the bastard in his sleep," Jacek commented to this.
"I don't think we'll be that lucky," Kate said.
"Yeah, me neither."
XXX
Rick was jarred awake by the sound of his door banging open. He fought to clear his head as his captor came in. This time, the man in the robe wasn't alone. There were two men with him, as alike as peas in a pod. They were light haired and their eyes were focused on the floor. Servants, apparently.
"Well, Richard Castle," the robed man said, "the day has come. Your Shadow Walker powers will become my Shadow Walker powers."
Rick sat up, saying, "I thought you couldn't do it because the power was divided or something."
"I said I wouldn't be as powerful if the power was divided. Unfortunately, I now do not have a choice. There is only a three day window about every four years, and I don't want to have to wait that long. I'm no closer to figuring out the mystery, and so I'm done trying." Rick opened his mouth to speak but was stopped when the other man raised his hand. "Go with my bookends, Mr. Castle. They will scrub and comb and primp you for the ritual. Don't try to escape. I will find you. There's nothing that says you have to be whole for it. You just have to be alive."
For once, Rick had no smart comeback or comment. He had been there long enough that the thought of being clean almost made it worth dying for. He got to his feet and the servants moved to one on each side of him.
"Don't bring him to the chamber until he is presentable," his captor said before leaving him alone with the twins to worry about what would happen next.
XXX
They were still about what Jacek estimated was an hour away from the Prison of Darkness when Kate noticed that Nahla was looking for something.
"What are you doing?" she asked curiously.
"I'm looking for the entrance."
"The entrance?"
"Yeah. The entrance to the prison."
"It's here?"
"The back entrance that no one knows about is. Lill was pretty sure even Rithisak didn't know about it."
"Then how did he find out about it?"
"He stumbled on it when exploring a part of the keep shut off for years."
"Is it safe?"
"He went through it a few times. I guess it's neglected but well made."
Kate grimaced. Neglected probably meant lots of spiders. She didn't really care for spiders. She wouldn't do a Castle girly scream at the sight of one, but they made her flesh creep a little. It was probably all those legs.
"So, what are you looking for? Jacek and I can help."
"Well, Lill described a rock that was near the entrance. It's sort of shaped like a dog...if you squint funny. It's about knee high and hidden by long grass..." which explained why she detoured to peer at every grass clump. "From there, you walk about fifty steps to the south. The entrance is made to look like forest debris. It was a rotted wooden door when he found it, hidden under years and years and years...maybe even a hundred...of growth. Lill replaced the door and artificially, with magic, made it look like it did before. Now, it's locked and you have to find a switch to open it."
"Did he say in which way it looked like a dog?"
Nahla shook her head. "Not when I was there, anyway."
Jacek had started looking even before the women stopped talking. He was going around, moving long grass with his foot.
"Did he say how close to the prison this dog rock was?" Kate asked.
"About an hour or forty-five minutes, depending on your strides. I've been looking ever since Jacek said we were around two hours away. I didn't want to miss it."
"With three of us looking, we won't miss it...unless...Are you sure we're on the right side of the prison?"
"He said coming from the east, following a track that had once been a road. He said it was off to the side, a bit on the left." She finally saw what Jacek was doing. "Jacek, you're looking on the wrong side."
Jacke gave her a dirty look but didn't comment. He did, however, cross to the other side of the track.
Their progress was a lot slower after that. They searched every clump of grass from the side of the path to ten feet away. Kate was just starting to get a sinking feeling that they'd missed it when her friend said a pained, "Ow!"
Kate looked up to see Nahla hopping around, holding her knee.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes," she said with a groan. "I just forgot to look where I was going and ran into this...Kate, Jacek, does this look like a dog to you?"
Kate left the place she was looking to hurry over to Nahla. She was fast but Jacek beat her there.
The rock was round, but it had some strange lumps and bumps. That one could be a nose, and she supposed that one could be an ear.
"One lying down, I guess," Kate admitted after a minute's scrutiny. "Jacek?"
"If a five year old drew it."
"That's good enough for me!" Nahla said.
She looked at the sun and looked at the path, then pointed in a direction and looked questioningly at Jacek. When he nodded, she started off, counting quietly to herself.
Kate and Jacek shared a look and fell in behind her. When she was done counting, they fanned out, scuffing the dirt and grass with their feet, searching for the hidden wooden entrance.
It was Kate who found it. The dirt and stones felt strangely different when she scuffed her feet across them, so she bent down for a closer look. She rubbed at the debris with her hand. It moved to show dull wood about a half an inch underneath.
"It's here," she called to the others.
Nahla came over and started waving her hands in a strange pattern over the place Kate stood. After a few passes, she started saying words in a language Kate didn't know.
When she stopped, she looked down at the ground expectantly. Nothing happened. Nahla frowned and avoided looking at Jacek. She looked at Kate instead.
"Try again," Kate suggested, remembering Nahla was only a novice.
"Okay."
This time, Nahla closed her eyes and her brow drew together in deep concentration. She did the hand patterns more slowly and pronounced each word carefully.
Kate was watching the ground and almost jumped when the dirt beneath her feet began to move.
"What's happening?" she said as the dirt and grass started creeping away from her feet.
"The door is showing itself. Don't be frightened."
That was easy for Nahla to say. Watching dirt move by itself might be normal for her, but Kate hadn't believed in anything she couldn't see or touch until...how many days ago? Kate was distracted from the squirming earth by a strange thought. How many days had passed for her since Castle got shot? For Martha, Alexis, Ryan, and Esposito, it had been less than a week For Nahla and Jacek, it had been somewhere around a month. For Kate, it was so much more complicated.
"Kate? Kate, are you okay?" Nahla's voice broke Kate out of her thoughts.
"Yeah," she said, shrugging away panicky feelings. "Are we ready?"
The door had completely revealed itself.
"The spell was supposed to unlock it too, so we should be able to get in," Nahla told her.
It was a simple wooden door with some kind of metal hinges. It had a sturdy handle, also metal. Jacek was already bending down to pull it. The door came open easily for him, but Kate wasn't sure if it was the door itself or his strength. The open door revealed stairs leading down that tapered off into darkness.
"It's awful dark down there," Kate commented.
"I'll make that light I made in the alley a couple of days ago," Nahla told her. "It will be fine."
Since she was the one with the light, she led the way. She wiggled her left fingers as she started down the stairs, and a ball of light appeared over them. Kate saw her shudder.
"I hate spiders," she announced.
"Just get going," Jacek said.
She flicked a glare at him over her shoulder. "You're not the one who has to blaze a trail through an hour's worth of cobwebs."
Kate went second, her hand going for her gun. She felt Nahla's sword belt instead. Wanting to feel some cold metal comfort, she slid her hand across the pommel and laid her fingers lightly against the grip.
She could hear Jacek behind her. His heavy, even tread was a comfort in itself. She didn't completely trust him where Castle was concerned, but she knew enough about him now to be grateful when he was at her back.
The stairway was damp and smelled of earth. The walls were dirt, but the stairs were stone. Very old stone. They were pitted and cracked from the ages. Kate thought they might once have been white, but they were dingy and gray under the pale light above Nahla's hand.
The stairs were narrow. If Kate wanted to touch the walls on either side, she would have been able to do so with her elbows bent. She didn't, of course, because the wall was covered with bugs and cobwebs and other things Kate didn't quite want to look too closely at.
The cobwebs were all around. They hung down the wall and tried to tangle in Kate's hair from the ceiling. Some even brushed at her face like a lover.
The stairs were short, at least. Kate had been watching her feet to make sure she wouldn't fall and was surprised to suddenly find herself at the bottom of the staircase.
The corridor in front of them was just as narrow as the stairs had been and Kate was glad she wasn't claustrophobic. It also had a low ceiling. Kate had a sudden flash of being inside a coffin, but she pushed the image away.
Nahla held the light up over her head, illuminating the way. It was just a long narrow tunnel filled with nothing but dirt and age.
"I think they used magic to reinforce this," Nahla said. Her voice echoed loudly in the small space.
"As long as it doesn't fall down on us," Kate told her.
"It shouldn't."
"I'd rather hear it won't."
"It's a long walk to the prison," Jacek said pointedly.
"All right, I'm going." There was no mistaking the cross tone in Nahla's voice.
The young woman started forward, her hands timidly parting strands of cobwebs. Kate followed her, eyeing the broken cobwebs with disgust. This was definitely not going to be the best hour of her life.
XXX
The people at the front desk were slack. He could tell that when he entered and they were talking quietly instead of working. It didn't matter if it was one in the morning. That was no excuse for not remaining diligent. They would deserve everything the press would soon be saying about them.
The employees looked up as he came in. He smiled his most friendly smile and waved. The pretty one smiled back as he headed for the elevators. It was so easy. All he had to do was act as if he belonged.
It was too bad they didn't know about the key card in his pocket—the one belonging to the maid who screamed so much when she died that it gave Michael a headache.