(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to Theonewhoweaveswords and krikanalo for reviewing the last chapter! :)
I apologise for the lack of updates in the last week, as I've been writing Hunger Games fanfiction. Feel free to check it out if you're interested. To make up for the lack of updates, this chapter is the longest yet :)
The action starts to pick up in this chapter, so I hope you all enjoy reading it :)
Chapter Eight
Violet was tired.
It was almost ten in the evening when the five of them finally got out of the car, and it took all of their energy to unpack Lemony's car, and to put up their two small tents, where they promptly fell asleep.
When Violet woke in the morning, she dressed herself quickly and was the first outside of the tent in the early hours of that October morning, when the sun had only just risen. The forest was dense and filled with deciduous trees - oaks, birches, elms and the like - so the woods had an orange glow that morning. Alone in the crisp, fresh air, Violet wrapped up in her coat and went for a short walk. The tent was situated in a hollow within the woods, barely a hundred yards from the road, yet completely invisible to any passers by.
Violet slowly walked through the trees to the smooth, paved road, where she could look straight down towards Bladeridge Castle. On that morning, she had never laid eyes on - a phrase which here means "never seen" - Bladeridge Castle before, and was immediately intimidated by the sight half a mile down the road. Slowly, she walked along the road towards the castle, and soon the trees began to thin out before giving way to short grass two hundred yards from Bladeridge Castle. She stopped at the edge of the woods, staying in the shadow of the trees in the early morning sun, as she observed what her comrades and herself were up against.
The land in front of Violet was largely flat, with hills springing up on both sides of her. From the peaks, she could see a narrow ridge that joined the two hills, forming a horseshoe shape that surrounded the castle, leaving Violet feeling trapped, even though she was far from the fortress. The flat grassland stopped abruptly just in front of the castle, dropping into what Violet presumed to be a large ditch, which could only be crossed by a single drawbridge at the end of the road. As for the castle itself, Violet could see its thick stone walls towering above the ditch, twenty or thirty feet high. A gatehouse, which was even taller and more intimidating than the walls, guarded the drawbridge, making the lone entrance virtually impregnable, a word which perfectly describes Violet's lack of belief with the notion of going in through the front door. Behind the gatehouse stood the keep, the central building of the castle, almost double the height of the surrounding buildings. Somehow, Violet had a feeling that if her mother and younger sister were indeed inside, then that would be where they would be. Intimidated but not yet too disheartened, Violet turned away from Bladeridge Castle, walking the short journey back to her camp.
When she arrived back at the camp, she found a few of her compatriots - "compatriots" is a fancy word for "friends" - to already be awake, and she saw Arlo sitting next to his chaperone in the heat of a small cooking fire they had set up. Thankfully, there was little foliage in the wood used, so there was no smoke giving away their position to any of their enemies that may be lurking nearby.
"Where'd you wander off to?" Lemony asked her as she sat down with them, handing her some food.
"Towards the castle," Violet replied. "It looks like it'll be difficult to infiltrate."
"We don't need to infiltrate it," Lemony replied, which surprised Violet somewhat. How else were they going to get her mother and sister back?
"Why not?" she asked.
"We're only here for reconaissance," Lemony explained, "which means that-"
"-I know what it means," Violet snapped tiredly. "But who is going to try and rescue them, then?"
"Probably us," Lemony admitted. "But not yet. I understand that you must be worried about your family, but rushing in could result in nothing but our own imprisonment. We must make sure that we are safe before attempting any rescue missions."
Annoyingly, Violet understood that Lemony was talking sense. If they were caught, what use would they be to the cause? The other Baudelaires would still be in danger, and only they had lost out. Their own safety had to come first.
"So when do we start?" Violet asked. Now that the journey was over, she felt as though it would only be so long before her relatives would be moved away to another heavily defended location, or worse.
"Our first mission should be tonight," Lemony replied. "In the meantime, we have to make sure that we have everything we need here at the camp. Gather up firewood, find a safe water source for cooking water and bathing, make sure the tent remains hidden and so on."
"Jacques has taken the car and gone looking for somewhere to buy food," Arlo added, who had been quiet until that point in the conversation. "The drive to Tedia, the nearest town, is too far away to make regularly. We need somewhere else to buy all our regular supplies from."
"But while we wait for his return," Lemony said. "We have more important matters, such as breakfast. Toast, anyone?"
The day seemed to pass slowly as the five volunteers sorted out their small camp. That morning, Violet and Klaus collected firewood and cooking water from a small stream in the woods a couple of hundred metres away, coming back for lunch with plenty of supplies. Jacques returned early in the afternoon after his fruitless search, a phrase which in this context means that he didn't find anywhere to buy essential supplies. That afternoon, the two Baudelaire children spent their time lounging around at camp after a tiring morning carrying heavy loads, while the Snicket brothers pored over their maps of the area, formulating a plan of action for the task that awaited them. These two men were as determined as anyone to find a way into the castle.
Arlo had spent most of the day alone, as he disappeared into the woods shortly after Jacques' return. Arlo was a good hunter; in the Verdant Valley, over a hundred miles from the nearest town, Arlo and his family had to learn how to get their own food. Hunting in the valley was easy, as Arlo had his snares; trusty metal contraptions that he had devised himself to help him with his work. In these woods near Bladeridge Castle, it was just like the old days again. All Arlo had was his knife and the element of surprise.
It was early evening by the time that Arlo returned, wearied and sweaty by his travails.
He arrived back almost empty-handed, excluding a lone rabbit for all his work. Unfortunately for Arlo, he was irritated to find that he had actually missed dinner, and that his offering of food wasn't actually needed. At the time that he arrived back, the Snicket brothers and the Baudelaire children were busy in conversation, discussing their plan of action for the evening.
"It's clear that we need to find a good vantage point to view the castle from," Jacques pointed out as Arlo joined the conversation. "We need somewhere that isn't too close, to avoid us bring spotted."
"I was a decent distance away from the castle earlier," Violet said helpfully. "Nobody spotted me then."
"However, there's no way of seeing over the Walls into the castle from that position," Lemony said disappointedly.
"We could look down at the castle from Blade Ridge," Klaus suggested eagerly. "I was looking over some of the maps of the area earlier, and it seems that there is an easy route up onto the ridge."
"Do you think we'll be close enough to get a good view from there?" Violet asked. "It looks quite high up."
"It is high up," Klaus explained. "The maps show the elevation difference to be almost five hundred feet."
"That doesn't matter," Arlo said, smiling. "I've brought a pair of binoculars with me, so we'll be able to see everything clearly."
"Very well, then," Lemony concluded. "I guess we'll be going to Blade Ridge tonight."
It took another hour before they were ready to leave. Lemony, who seemed to be the authority figure of the group, had originally planned for just himself and Arlo to undertake the reconnaissance mission, but Violet had insisted that she should go. With some persuasion from Arlo, Lemony allowed her to join them as they left Jacques and Klaus back at the camp. The sun had begun to set over the woodland, and once the trio had climbed onto the slopes of one of the two hills on either side of the castle, the bitter wind made all three volunteers suffer in the cold. It wasn't below zero, but it was close.
Violet, who had expected such things from an autumn evening, had come prepared, wearing a long, hooded coat that matched the colour of her name. Maybe it wasn't the best choice of clothing if she wanted to be unnoticed, but she hoped that the dimming light of the sunset would make her stand out less. Plus, they were watching the castle from a safe distance, there was little chance of anything going wrong that evening. Lemony was also dressed for the occasion, a phrase which can here be used to describe the long coat and trilby hat that he had chosen to wear for the evening's expedition. However, Violet couldn't help but be surprised to see Arlo wearing a long, black coat, too. It seemed as though he was never cold to her. Even at the top of Mount Fraught, he only wore a t-shirt. She couldn't help but think that it suited him, though, as the three continue their trek up the hill.
Considering its height, Klaus had found a quick route up the hill for them, and Violet found herself at the summit within an hour. From the vantage point, she could look back at the camp that she left behind. For the first time, she realised how good their location was. Even from altitude, their two tents and remains of a cooking fire were barely visible through the trees. She couldn't see either Jacques or Klaus, and presumed that they were inside the tents. She wasn't overly keen on living in tents - she could still remember the stressful night in a tent with Arlo in the Hinterlands during the summer - but Violet understood that it was what was necessary if she wanted to help get her parents back. She knew that it wasn't going to be a pleasure cruise, and she had still wanted to help. Her suffering here, she thought, was far less than the suffering of Sunny and her mother.
Violet reminded herself of this as she pulled up the hood of her coat, trying to fend off the biting wind, slowly averting her gaze to followed the dusty, tarmac road near their base towards the castle at the end of it. In the evening sun, Bladeridge Castle looked even more menacing than before, with the setting sun setting behind Blade Ridge, silhouetting the frightening fortress. Looking beyond the curtain wall, she saw many small buildings surrounding the keep, making her mission feel more like a lost cause than Violet had previously thought possible. In a castle of that size, there would be no end of hiding places. She could remember when her parents once took her and Klaus to see a ruined castle near to the city. At such an impressionable age, the castle had looked massive to an eight-year-old Violet, and she could remember Klaus exploring it in its entirety, finding no ends of hidden rooms and hiding spots. Even though Violet had grown a lot in the six years since then, the castle in the valley below her on that October evening seemed even larger to her than the one that her parents had taken her to all those years before. To say that Violet found this sight disheartening was an understatement. She spent several minutes staring out at the view while Lemony and Arlo rested, before Lemony finally spoke.
"I guess we'd better get started," Lemony said. "I'd like it to still be light when we arrive at the ridge."
And with that, Lemony set off from the summit, walking along a narrow path that sloped downwards for fifty metres or so before flattening out and narrowing, turning into a sharp, narrow ridge; the Blade Ridge, with its steep scree slopes on either side. Once again, it would be an understatement to say that Violet was nervous as she took her first tentative steps onto Blade Ridge.
Violet quickly found out that the worst part of travelling along Blade Ridge is that you are completely exposed to the elements, a phrase which here means "completely at the mercy of the wind." The ridge has a dusty path covered in loose stones, but the footing isn't enough to help you combat the violent gusts that have nothing to target but you when you walk along the dangerous, three-metre-wide ridge. Violet was beginning to think that this was a bad idea. Even Arlo, who she had always known to be strong and stable, was having difficulty staying on his feet when the unexpected gusts arrived.
Slowly, the three volunteers managed to work their way along the ridge until they reached the point that it was closest to the castle. Once there, they all lay down on their front, leaning over the edge of the narrow ridge, looking down towards the castle. Lemony had suggested lying down to make the three of them harder to spot, but night was drawing in and the chances of them being spotted were so remote anyway that it was an unnecessary precaution. Arlo quickly fished his pair of binoculars out of the large rucksack that he seemed to take everywhere with him, and handed them to Lemony. His chaperone took the binoculars eagerly and peered down at the castle below them. Violet watched lemony as he raised his eyebrows at whatever he could see, before furrowing them in concentration, and then finally sighing, putting down the binoculars defeatedly.
"What is it?" Arlo asked curiously. "What can you see?"
"Take a look for yourself," Lemony replied, tossing Arlo's binoculars back at him.
Arlo caught the binoculars and peered through them down at the castle for a few moments before taking them off again, confused.
"What is it?" this time it was Violet who was asking, and Arlo was the one handing over the binoculars.
Violet took them eagerly and used them to have a proper look at Bladeridge Castle for the first time. Night was falling, and it was difficult to see much in the twilight, but Violet could see enough. For the third time in this chapter, I must say that it would be an understatement to say that what Violet saw was a disappointment.
Looking through the binoculars, Violet saw absolutely nothing going on at Bladeridge Castle. There were no people milling around outside, no lights in any of the buildings. It was eerily quiet.
"There's no-one there," Violet said slowly, her shocked voice barely above a whisper. "Didn't Olaf say that he was waiting her with them?"
"Yes," Lemony nodded. "Something is going on, for sure. In a building of this size, I'd expect at least some sign of activity. It's either deserted or has minimal inhabitants, I think."
"There's probably just very few people guarding the castle," Arlo said. "After all, I doubt Olaf expects open confrontation. I'm sure he feels invincible within those castle walls."
"If he's actually there," Violet added.
"I'm sure that he is," Arlo replied positively. "He wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of trying to bargain with us just to lie, would he?"
"I guess not," Violet said, but she wasn't really sure. She wondered whether this whole thing was a decoy of sorts, to take attention away from another important location, but she didn't voice this theory. Instead she asked another important question.
"Well, what are we going to do now?" she asked.
"I'm going to stay here for the night and watch the castle for any signs of Olaf or his associates," Lemony said decisively. "I made sure that Arlo brought a flask of coffee with us, so I'll be able to stay up most of the night. Hopefully I can learn of something that will be of use to us."
"What about us?" Violet asked, unsure what she was expected to do. The sun had now set completely, and temperature atop Blade Ridge was beginning to drop.
"Well, I expect Arlo to help me with my investigation," Lemony said matter-of-factly, to which Arlo nodded. "However, you can do as you please, Violet. I wouldn't advise against travelling back to camp in the dark, but if you wish to sleep, I'm sure that you could use Arlo's rucksack as a makeshift pillow, if you like."
Violet sighed. She wasn't sure how she had expected this trip to turn out, but certainly not like this. She had hoped that they would have found out at least one thing; a starting point for the investigations into the activity at Bladeridge Castle. But now, in the dark on Blade Ridge with a cold night ahead of her, Violet thought that maybe the best thing that she could do would be to sleep.
Maybe her situation would have improved by the morning.
(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)
P.S. I will try to make updates more regular in the next week. Hopefully I can finish the last five chapters of this story by the end of next week :)