Chapter 9
The Guards
When I came to the gate separating the outer castle from the inner castle, I saw the guards. The moment they saw me, it were as if they had been by a wall of fear and cowardice. They began shaking, their spears or pikes were held towards me, ready to guard the castle at all costs.
"Go away! What business do you have here?"
I looked to the stacks, and saw Bartimus. The day was going away, and the sun was no longer visible from within the castle. So I walked over to Bartimus and asked, "How long have they been like this?"
"Oh! Your back!" His voice croaked from dehydration. ":Could you please be so kind as to give me some water again?"
"Shouldn't they have gotten you water at some point today?"
"Oh they used to, until today. I could really use some water."
"I don't have any water, but I have some juice."
"I don't care." I poured some juice into his mouth. He gulped and when I pulled it away, he sighed. "Hey, could you get me out of here?"
"But you're a prisoner, and obviously a thief. I don't think your story was a good one. Borrowing?" I scoffed.
"A man has to make a living, doesn't he? Why don't you think about getting me out of here."
"Okay, I will." I lied.
"Well, I'll just be hanging here. Heh, get it, hanging?"
I walked away went towards the guards. They shivered all the more. "Why are you here?!"
"I come bringing a prisoner." I replied.
"Where is he? I don't see 'em?" The one on the right spoke in a low, cowardly voice which intoned all of his fear.
"He is in this bag. He is a kobold."
The one guard screamed and yelled, "Go get the captain!" The other guard ran away through a door in the arch.
"I am only a wizard who has come back from the Caves of Chaos with my fellow adventurers. I thought that maybe this kobold bears important information you could…"
The guard screamed "W-w-wizard! Don't hurt me!"
"I won't hurt you." I took a step forward and the guard ran away through the stone arch screaming.
I looked around and saw the door the first guard ran through was open. So I decided to go through it.
Once inside I was in a seven foot wide, stone hall way, with an arching ceiling six feet tall. There were torches hanging on the right and left sides, sitting in iron stands in symmetrical and opposite places on the walls. Down the hall, twenty feet away, there were five guards. Three were guarding the door, their faces hidden in shadow. There was the one who had deathly afraid of me, and assumed the one, wearing shining, helmless armor, his hair short and dark brown. He had grey eyes and and large mustache hiding his mouth.
I assumed this man was the captain. He looked at me and asked, "I hear there is a wizard casting spells and letting kobolds loose in the castle. Is this true?"
"No sir. While I am a wizard, and people are acting strangely, as if enchanted by some spell, I have only come bearing a kobold prisoner from I and my friend's venture into the Caves of Chaos." I motioned towards the bag I had hung over my shoulder.
"Nicely done. Guards, take the kobold." The one guard guarding the door took the brown bag, and held it away from him, and he left the room.
"Get him away!" The fretful guard screamed.
"Get yourself together man!" The captain said. "I am Captain Peters. What is an elf doing in these parts and how did you get in?"
"My name is Irigorn Dagel. I am simply passing by. However, this does not make the fact that your gate into the inner castle is unguarded. I also know that people all over the Borderlands are either acting afraid, delusional or simply staring ahead blankly. There was one man in the Red Dragon who thought that he was the King." I explained.
The Captain told the remaining guards "Hold this half-wit still. And you, go tell the other guards to round up Jenkins and bring him here. Tell them to escort him until I tell them not to." He then cleared his throat, watching the guards do their duty, then turned to me and asked "And, do you have any explanation, Wizard Dagel?"
"I have a theory, that an enchanter is enchanting the population, how he has been able to cats so many spells at once, I am not sure. Perhaps he has introduced it through some kind of substance."
At that moment two armed guards dragged Jenkins, the other guard who was scarred of me, into the room, they restrained his arms, while they brought him before the Captain. The Captain said, "Bring these men to the Cleric. The Wizard and I will be following."
So we left the guard hall way, passed through the newly guarded gate, and entered the church across the street. We entered the church, and a cleric asked the situation. I explained to the cleric about the people in the city, and the guards. The cleric said, "SO, an evil wizard has cursed us. Hmm. Let me see if I can help these men." He whispered a spell under his breath to the one guard. The guard remained unaffected. So he cast another spell, which seemed to take effect.
The guard no longer shivered with fear and asked, "Where am I? Why am I here?"
The cleric said, "I do not have any more spells to help the other one. Take him to the dungeon until tomorrow." The cleric shooed away the guards, until only the Captain, the ex-half-wit guard and I remained. "Such a spell cats from a wizard, could not take effect on the city as slowly as it has. SO, it must have been introduced to the population in their food or water."
I turned towards the guard and asked, "While you were in the stupor, what did you see?"
The guard replied, "Nothing. I don't remember, I took a drink at the fountain, then I was here."
I remembered the clay jar in the fountain and immediately connected the dots. "I know of this fact. And I have just had an idea. When my friends and I were on our way to the Red Dragon, we passed by the fountain. We saw a red, clay jar, with a red liquid coming out of it. I believe the fountain to be the source of the substance."
The Cleric nodded and said, "The elf speaks logic. Captain, I suggest you post armed guards at the fountain, to tell people to get their water form else ware."
"Good idea." The Captain took off.
"Now, Wizard, I suggest you leave." The cleric motioned towards the door and so I left.
