(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to Coral Tawnies and krikanalo for reviewing! The support is appreciated :)
Now that the 'OC' can be selected as a character for fanfics, I'm going to add that to the characters list for the story, which will now read 'Violet B., Klaus B., OC,' so that Arlo can get recognition as one of the major protagonists of 'The Frightening Fortress'.
Chapter Twelve
Klaus was scared.
The keep at Bladeridge Castle was a tall, circular building, lined with thick stone walls. Inside, the four volunteers found the keep to be unpleasant, despite the fact that it sheltered them from the storm. The windows were small and the ceilings were low, so the building felt dark and dingy, as the only real light source was a few wooden torches burning on stands in the corners of the room.
In front of the volunteers was a corridor that seemed to run along the diameter of the building, with rooms leading to either side. To Lemony's right was a spiral staircase, that led both up and down, much to Violet's surprise, as they were on ground level.
"If mother and Sunny were being kept in here, where would they be?" Klaus asked quietly, worried that there might be some of Count Olaf's associates lurking around the keep.
"I'd guess down," Lemony said. "If there are dungeons, and it looks like they are, I assume Olaf will use them."
"Should we go and look, then?" Arlo said, as he heard the first crack of thunder boom outside.
"Yes," Lemony said. "Follow me, and stay quiet."
Normally, it would be difficult to stay quiet in the keep of a castle, as such buildings tend to have large, open rooms, and all sounds of movement would be amplified tenfold by the echoes. Luckily, the storm drowned out most of the noise as the four volunteers crept down the tight spiral staircase to the floor below. Lemony took the lead, followed by Klaus, Violet and finally Arlo. All four of them were both literally and figuratively in the dark as they descended the staircase, as there were no windows underground, and they had no idea what they were going to find at the bottom of the spiral staircase.
Lemony was the first to spread out into the room at the bottom of the stairs to find that it looked almost identical to the corridor on the floor above. The only difference was that he was not alone on the lowest floor of the keep.
"Lemony Snicket," said the man standing ten feet from Arlo's chaperone, and Lemony was worried for a moment, until he realised that he was no longer disguised, and that everyone knew his identity. The man who had said his name was indeed one of Count Olaf's comrades, although Arlo and the Baudelaires had never seen him before that stormy afternoon. He was moderately tall and had short brown hair, but the feature that stood out to the three young volunteers was that he had two hooks in the place of his hands, making him look very dangerous indeed.
"Fernald," Lemony said matter-of-factly, standing his ground. "It's been a few years, my friend."
"You shouldn't be here," the hook-handed man, Fernald, said. "Unless you're agreeing to Olaf's demands."
"You should know by now that I'll do nothing of the sort," Lemony said, signalling to the Baudelaires behind his back to make a dash down the corridor. "I'm here for Beatrice and her daughter."
"I guess some things never change, do they, Snicket?" Fernald said, smiling. "They're not here," he said dismissively, which Lemony regarded as an outright lie.
"You've certainly changed," Lemony said. "Once a noble volunteer, now a treacherous villain. You betrayed us when you let Anwhistle Aquatics burn."
"Betrayal?" Fernald scoffed. "You talk to me of betrayal, you and your oh-so-noble siblings! We've all done wrong in our life, Snicket."
"Your right," Lemony said, pulling out a knife from his pocket. "I've done wrong before, and I'll do it again if you don't tell me where Beatrice is!" Lemony held the knife out towards Fernald, who seemed intimidated for a moment, taking a step backwards before stiffening his resolve.
"After a fight, are we, Snicket?" Fernald taunted, although Violet couldn't see why he was so confident.
"Don't you remember what happened the last time?" Lemony replied, causing Fernald to look down at his hooks uncertainly.
"Years may have passed, but the memory never fades," Fernald said slowly. "And nor are you forgiven for your actions that day."
"And you're not forgiven of your actions that day, either," Lemony replied coldly. "Now, where is Beatrice?" he demanded, but Fernald had had enough.
"You don't deserve to know," he snarled, lunging at Lemony as their argument turned to violence.
You might have thought that Fernald would have learnt pay attention to all four of the intruders, but his attention was so sidetracked with Lemony that Violet, Klaus and Arlo weren't troubled as Lemony fled up the stairs of the keep, with the infuriated guard following him without hesitation, leaving the three young volunteers alone in the underground corridor.
The corridor was longer than they had first thought, extending far beyond the base of the building above them. There were at least ten doors on either side of the dark, damp corridor. Despite being underground, Violet could still hear the thunderclaps from the sky above as Arlo took his first few tentative steps to the first door on the left.
"It's locked," he said frustratedly, testing the handle before giving the door a good kick for good measure.
"You do know that you could use the keys, right?" Klaus said, reaching over to a hook on the wall near where Fernald had been standing, on which there hung a ring of keys, which he presumed would be for the doors of the rooms on either side of the corridor. Reaching up, he took the keys down from the wall carefully, and handed them to his sister.
"I guess the hook-handed man neglected to keep them on his person," Violet said, smiling as she walked to the first door. There was a lot of keys on the keyring, and it took at least six or seven attempts to rind the key that fit the first door, but eventually the thick wooden door unlocked and the three young volunteers pushed up open slowly. However, the room was small and square with thick stone walls, but was entirely unfurnished, and felt colder, darker and damper than the cold, dark, damp corridor that they had previously been standing in. Certainly, there was nobody in that small room.
"There's nobody here," Arlo said for no-one's benefit, a phrase which here means "stating a fact that both Violet and Klaus already knew."
"I think we should hurry up and try other doors," Violet said nervously. "Before Fernald comes back."
"Do you think Lemony is alright?" Arlo asked after Violet mentioned his chaperone's pursuer.
"Hopefully he is," Klaus said. "But it doesn't matter to us now. What matters now is that we have the keys, and mother and Sunny could be in any of the rooms in this corridor."
"Right," Violet said, smiling. She finally felt as though her family could be reunited again, maybe even within a few more minutes. "Let's get to work," she said, taking the keys from the metal lock of the first door and hurrying along the corridor to find the next door, desperately trying every key in the lock.
Beatrice Baudelaire woke from another fitful sleep to the sound of raised voices outside. It was hard to hear what was being said, as there were the sounds of a thunderstorm from above ground. She thought that she heard the muffled voice of one of her captors, Fernald, through the thick oak door of her cell, but she couldn't make out a word that he was saying. She sat up slowly from her bunk that she had lay on, no longer knowing what time of day it was. It had been months since she had last seen the sun. She struggled to push her long scraggly hair from her face, looking around for Sunny, who was fast asleep on her bale of hay, despite the storm outside.
Confused, she wondered what was going on outside of her cell as the loud voices disappeared, replaced with the scuffles of frantic movement, which soon faded away to echoes. Beatrice stood up from her bench and knelt down next to Sunny, trying to coax her from her slumber as hushed voices sprung up further along the corridor, along with the rattling of keys.
Could this be the rescue that she had dreamed of?
Olaf had told her his plan; she was a bargaining tool to be used with the volunteers. If they wanted her back, they would have to part with the sugar bowl. It didn't really surprise her that the volunteers had taken long to act, but nor did it surprise her that when the volunteers finally made their decision, the council would've voted for a rescue mission instead of relinquishing the sugar bowl to the Firestarters.
"Sunny," Beatrice said softly, trying to wake her youngest child slowly, when the sounds of footsteps getting nearer was enough to wake the youngest Baudelaire anyway.
"Tired," Sunny said, rubbing her eyes with her tiny hands as she stared around the room that she was in, which looked exactly the same as it had done when she had last seen it, a few hours before. Beatrice smiled down at her daughter, who looked up at her, confused. In the moths since their capture that day at the Stricken Stream, Sunny had grown up quite a bit. Beatrice only realised it at certain times, such as when Sunny was talking. More and more, Sunny had been making comments that she had actually understood. In those last few months at the Baudelaire Mansion, Beatrice had to ask for the help of her older siblings to understand what Sunny was talking about, most of the time. But now, here at Bladeridge Castle, she felt as though she could connect better with her youngest daughter, who was making her transition out of infancy.
It made her sad to think that the rest of her family had missed some of the important landmarks in Sunny's growing up. There would be no going back for the two-year-old Baudelaire.
Beatrice's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sounds of someone desperately trying to get into her cell, and she could her the fumbling sound of someone trying to hurriedly fit a key into a lock. She could remember days of her youth where she had stood in such a position herself, and was glad that it was no longer her turn to be under such pressure. Sure enough, she heard the figure - an unrecognisable male voice - swear in frustration as he struggled with key after key. Reaching down to pick up Sunny, the two Baudelaires sat together on the hard wooden bunk on the opposite side of the dimly-lit room to the door, waiting silently for whoever was trying to get into their cell.
Eventually, a key slipped into the lock that seemed to work, and Beatrice heard the tell-tale clunk! as the lock slid open. The door creaked on its hinges as it swung open slightly, enough for a head to peer round the door into the cell. Beatrice had never seen the person who peered around the door to her cell before, although it had been almost two decades since her last involvement in V.F.D., and this person didn't look two decades old. It was a boy, or young man, of around fifteen or sixteen years of age, with long, unruly black hair that seemed in worse condition than her own, with a pair of sea green eyes staring out at her from through the mess. Beatrice couldn't help noticing that he was absolutely soaked. He wasn't exactly what she was expecting for her rescue party, but he seemed pleased to see her nonetheless.
"Mrs. Baudelaire?" he asked, whoever he was, excitement evident in his voice.
"Hooyu?" Sunny asked, just as confused as her mother, but she didn't have to wait long for an answer.
"Sunny!" another voice called, and this one was immediately known to both Baudelaires in the room. Sure enough, Violet Baudelaire's face appeared round the door, looking just as drenched as the boy next to her, and smiling just as brightly.
"Violet!" Beatrice exclaimed, too shocked to tell whether she was happy or alarmed that her daughter was a part of the rescue team. "What are you doing here?"
"There's no time to explain," she said, opening the door fully and stepping into the dingy room that had held her mother and sister for so long. They were looking thin, weathered and hungry, but they were family, and Violet knew that everything was going to be alright. "We need to leave, and quickly," Violet said, taking her mother's hand and leading Beatrice and Sunny out of the corridor.
Outside, Beatrice could see that Violet and her accomplice had not been alone in their endeavours, as she was reunited with her joyous son, Klaus.
"What are you doing here?" she asked him, asking the same question that she asked Violet.
"There's no time to explain," Klaus said, giving the same answer as his sister.
"You can explain on the way," their long-haired accomplice said, and Beatrice realised for the firs time that there were no adults on the rescue team. "We need to get moving," he said.
"Where are the adults?" Beatrice asked, feeling anxious.
"Let's say that they're preoccupied," her children's accomplice said. "We'll meet up with them outside. Now, let's go."
Violet took her mother's hand and led her down the corridor towards the staircase, with Klaus carrying Sunny and Arlo running on ahead, as the Baudelaire children were now accustomed to him doing. Hew never seemed to run out of energy. As the five of them approached the foot of the stairs, they saw a shadowy figure coming down the other way towards them. Violet, Klaus and Arlo paused for a moment, fearing it to Fernald, but soon sighed with relief when they saw the figure walking towards them, despite the weary look on his face and the bloodied knife in his hands.
"Lemony?" Beatrice asked, for even the Baudelaire mother knew the person who met them at the bottom of the staircase.
"Beatrice?" Lemony said, although I'm not entirely sure to this day why he was asking, as he already knew who the woman holding hands with Violet was.
"Let's keep moving," Arlo said firmly, ushering his chaperone back up the stairs quickly, before another conversation began. Usually it would be unwise to order about your chaperone, a mistake I learnt about very quickly in my own apprenticeship, but it can be acceptable in some circumstances, and it turned out that this was one of them. Lemony didn't complain at Arlo's demand, and turned heel, walking back up the staircase that he had just come down. He knew as well as anyone that speed was of the essence for a successful escape from the frightening fortress that the volunteers found themselves in.
"We'd better be careful outside," Lemony said as he reached the exit of the keep, gesturing to the other to follow him outside. Nobody questioned him, and he slowly pushed open the door and stepped out into the storm.
In all the time that had passed inside the keep, the volunteers were sure that their adversaries - a word which here means "Count Olaf and his associates" - would have prepared themselves for the emergence of the volunteers from the keep, but all six of them were shocked at what they saw when they stepped out into the muddy courtyard.
Standing twenty yards from them was the villainous Count Olaf, who seemed absolutely livid, and the Baudelaires did not need to guess why. Behind him stood two of his associates, the bald man with the long nose who Lemony had duped earlier, and another person that none of the Baudelaire children had seen before. This person was extremely large and extremely fat, and all of the volunteers found it difficult to tell whether this person was a man or a woman. But regardless of that person's gender, the two associates were not what grabbed the attention of the volunteers. What grabbed their attention was the person that they were holding.
Within the grasps of the villains was poor, unfortunate Jacques Snicket.
"Haha!" laughed Count Olaf cruelly as he saw the volunteers step out into the storm. "You thought you could get away with your cunning disguises, but we found you out!"
"You reveal our disguises," Lemony said, looking down at his sodden delivery man's disguise. "We revealed ourselves."
"That's not how I heard it," Olaf said, glancing back at the bald man with the long nose, who shrugged uncertainly. "The small details don't matter, anyway. What does matter is that you volunteers thought that you could deceive me and get away without the Baudelaires without giving me the sugar bowl! If you hand the sugar bowl over, then I'll let your brother go, and all of you can be on your way," he bargained.
"Never!" Beatrice called out, surprising Count Olaf, who raised his single eyebrow at the volunteers.
"'Never', I hear you say?" Olaf scoffed. "You're in no position to make demands, volunteers! Look at you! It's you, your kids and Snicket against us. Do you really think that you can win?"
"You're forgetting someone," Arlo said, stepping forwards to confront his enemies.
"Is that young Thursday?" Count Olaf laughed. "Last time I saw you, you were just a toddler! Your mother-"
"Don't you dare bring my mother into this!" Arlo interrupted, angrier than Violet had ever heard him.
"I could tell you things about your mother that would make your blood boil, kid!" Olaf snapped, but Arlo was too angry. He charged at the villain, who struck out at him, sending Arlo flying into the mud. Suddenly appearing calmer and more sinister, Count Olaf returned his attention to the volunteers.
"I need the sugar bowl, volunteers," Olaf demanded. "Or Jacques here has to pay the price!"
"No!" Violet and Klaus cried out in unison, but Lemony remained calm.
"We don't have the sugar bowl, Olaf," he admitted slowly.
"Well then, it'll have to be Beatrice and her daughter!" Olaf grinned. "No sugar bowl, no Baudelaires!"
"But-"
"No buts!" Count Olaf interrupted. "I want Beatrice and Sunny before I count to ten, or Jacques gets it!" he added threateningly, revealing the harpoon gun that he must have taken from his bald accomplice, and pointing it at Jacques Snicket, who had nowhere to run. "One!" Olaf added dramatically.
Lemony was stuck. He had to save his brother, but he didn't want to admit that two months of work had been for nothing. Standing in the courtyard of Bladeridge Castle, he was faced with a dilemma.
"Two!"
Another bolt of lightning struck overhead as Violet and Klaus looked at each other uncertainly, not knowing what to do. But they had to do something, or another unfortunate event would occur in their life.
"Three!" Count Olaf called out loudly, so that it could be heard over the sound of the torrential rain, and the two elder Baudelaire siblings started walking slowly towards the villain holding the harpoon gun. They noticed that that there was only one harpoon left in the deadly device, for although they did not know it, the rest of the harpoons had been fired at their gliders when they descended into the castle earlier in the afternoon, although none of the harpoons had gotten anywhere near their targets.
"Four!"
"You don't have to do this, Olaf," Klaus said nervously, continuing to walk towards the deadly weapon.
"Yes, I do," Count Olaf grinned. "You aren't obeying my orders, so punishment is deserved! Five!"
Arlo pulled himself up from the ground and stood next to Violet and Klaus as they walked right up to the notorious villain. He was certain that the three of them could overpower him, but none of them dared to make the first move.
"Six!" Olaf said, staring at Violet, Klaus and Arlo in turn with his shiny, shiny eyes, which looked as though he was telling a very amusing joke, rather than aiming a deadly weapon at a helpless man. Behind the three young volunteers, Lemony had begun to move towards Count Olaf with Beatrice and Sunny, and this gave the Baudelaire siblings courage, as Violet rested her hand on the cold, wet metal of the harpoon gun.
"Seven!" Count Olaf snarled, glaring at Violet. "Don't tempt me," Olaf threatened, increasing the pressure on the trigger.
"Eight!" Count Olaf called out, but he never got to nine. In even the most unfortunate of lives, there are often one or two strokes of luck, even if they come in disguise, and it was at this point that the three Baudelaire siblings received one such stroke of luck.
Suddenly there was a massive bang! as lightning struck against the top of the keep, blinding everyone momentarily and causing chaos in the courtyard. The two accomplices of Olaf let go of Jacques, trying to reach Beatrice and Sunny. They charged through Violet, Klaus and Arlo, knocking the three children to the floor, covering them in mud. Lemony dived at Count Olaf, desperate to stop the wicked villain from firing a harpoon at his elder brother. But Beatrice and Sunny had nowhere to go when Olaf's two associates reached them, and with all of their allies having issues of their own, there was nobody to stop them from being dragged to a large, black car that was waiting nearby, and being thrown onto the back seats.
"Mother!" Violet called from the floor, but nobody heard her.
"Sunny!" Klaus cried, and although a few people did hear him, everyone else was too busy with other matters to care.
But everyone heard Lemony cry out, and turned to look at him on the floor, staring in horror and disbelief between the arrogant grin on Count Olaf's face to the harpoon embedded in Jacques Snicket's stomach.
"Jacques!" Lemony cried, heaving himself off of Count Olaf to see Beatrice and Sunny trapped in the back of Count Olaf's car. Momentarily he was distracted with saving the Baudelaires' mother, and he sprinted towards the long, black car. Olaf, however, had other ideas, grabbing Lemony's ankle, causing him to fall, before standing up himself.
"So long, volunteers!" he laughed wickedly before dashing to his car, flinging open the door and getting into the driving seat.
"No!" Lemony cried. "Get out!" he said frantically, grabbing Olaf's arm, trying to pull him from the vehicle, but Olaf kicked him in the stomach, slammed the door, and put his foot on the accelerator. To his credit, the youngest Snicket sibling was not one for giving up easily, and he ran after the car as it made its getaway, struggling to find a purchase on the muddy ground. Only once the car drove through the gatehouse and gained traction from the wooden surface of the drawbridge did Lemony admit that all was lost, crying out in desperation.
"Beatrice!" he cried, throwing his trilby hat onto the ground next to him in anger. If you had been able to see Lemony at that time, you wouldn't be able to tell if he was crying of if it was just the rain, although I suspect that it was the former of the two suggestions.
"Beatrice!" he called again at the black car that was disappearing along the muddy road into the thunderstorm, but Count Olaf's car was already moving quickly in an aberrant - the word "aberrant" here means "very, very wrong, and causing much grief" - direction.
(Serious) Author's Note: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)
P.S. There's only one chapter left in this story, and I hope for it to be completed by Wednesday, August 28th. I hope you're looking forward to reading the ending as much as I am looking forward to writing it :)