Chapter Nineteen
Felinstone castle came into view. The sky was clear, and the sun almost set. The castle looked impressive when partially silhouetted against the dimming light, and where it met the lake, it did so on top of a small cliff edge. On the other side, a winding path led up the mound, heading towards the entrance. The great hall of the castle, used throughout history as a meeting place, was thousands of years old and much greenery had established itself on the neglected square foundation, and each wall met a small round tower. The residential quarters, newly attached, were only around two hundred and years old, as was the square, turreted tower on the farthest side, overlooking the woodland.
Several closely barred openings were situated just above the water's surface in the dugout cliff's edge. These were the dungeon windows. During the heart of winter, as the wind whipped water crashed through the bars, it soaked any occupants and drowned many. It was ironic that such an evil monument could look so serene. Tarya, Beverly and Guss began to ascend the winding path. Everyone was silent, even the sound of nature itself was non-existent.
The great hall looked almost untouched, though there were many dust webs now. Much of the broken furniture that had met its end during the revolution lay scattered and untouched. Tarya couldn't decide whether that made it more eerie or if it would look so no matter what condition it was in. Few spoke of the castle and, in many ways; it literally was a giant monument to the hundreds of lives that had been cut short within its walls.
"Make no mistake about it," offered Guss, "this castle is nothing but a memory tomb. I'd also avoid straying too far from us, let's all stick together. There may be the odd trap still active."
"Trap?" Asked Beverly, whilst cautiously looking around.
"Hmm, Aygor became exceptionally paranoid towards the end of his life and during balls or events, he insisted folk didn't stray from the hall." Above the elevated throne in the centre of the hall, hung a portrait of a man, Beverly assumed it was Aygor. He was a stocky looking chap with a dark, fluffy beard and piercing green eyes. The full, long beard must have be a popular trend amongst these people, she'd not really seen anyone clean shaven.
"I take it that's Aygor?" Guss and Tarya both looked to the portrait.
"Ay, it is." Tarya simply replied. "Not really sure why we never took that down. After the revolution we just left - never returned."
"So no-one has been back since, at all?"
"Doesn't look like," said Guss, scanning the room again. "I can't imagine there'd be a reason anyone would want to come back."
"Not even to mourn the dead, or possibly look to bury anyone?" Guss looked at her, bemused.
"When someone is dead, it doesn't take long for them to return to the earth. Their bones may last years and years, centuries even, but it only takes several days for the rest of them to reduce to equanime and feed the orb. We remember our dead through our planet. Bones merely hold us together, we place no value in them. We don't bury either, we cover in leaves or grasses and flowers until the process is complete."
"What do you do with the bones then?"
"Bear in mind, it's not that often anyone dies – ordinarily. Some folk choose to use them for decoration, others encrust them into jewellery. Animals too will find uses for bones if no-one wants to take them for anything.
Interesting, thought Beverley. "So, we might come across some?"
"Not unless you go digging or break through a wall. They fill the cavities of this place. They just got thrown into a hole, or hidden out of the way. If you were to venture into the west wall off the hall, you'd find many." He added as they went through a door at the back of the hall.
The building was consistent with most others on their orb, simply constructed from stone and wood. It struck Guss how bleak it was behind the scenes though, even compared to most other dwellings. It was only carpeted in certain areas and curtains were a rarity.
They'd ascended a spiral staircase and reached a corridor leading to what he presumed were the bedrooms. He watched as Tarya entered the middle one. This was probably the only area of the castle few had ever seen; it had been strictly out of bounds, unless you were otherwise summoned, though very few had ever admitted they had been, if any had been at all.
Upon entering the bedroom, he'd concluded this must have been where she slept, though it too was meagrely furnished, save for a few tapestries. It consisted of a very large four poster bed, two chests of drawers, two wardrobes and a desk. He walked into the room which had two other rooms leading off it.
"I'm guessing this was your old room?" Said Guss.
"It was."
"What's the plan of action then?" He added. Tarya's chest had begun to contract so much she could barely breathe, let alone speak. She scanned the room for a few moments trying to pretend she was just thinking. She was really taking her time and hadn't anticipated this level of reaction. It was like he was there in the room with her and she was paralysed again - frozen for fear of saying something or doing something wrong. Guss and Beverly gave one another a knowing look and decided to give her more time.
She'd started scrolling through her memory banks on the way over. She needed to find a key memory to start hunting the walls. She was back as far as the birth of her son, Mikos. When she awoke from the coma she had been in, she was not long due to give birth. She knew that very soon she would come to a gap in her memory. She needed to go back further. Find the reason she was placed in the coma in the first place and trace the walls from there. She went passed the vast fog to find her prior memory.
In her minds eye she saw a small boy stood quivering amid a mass of folk. Tarya was trying to figure out who he was, and assumed he was a child of one of the kitchen workers. It was clearly the first time he'd been made to serve at one of Aygor's enforced social events. This one happened to be a formal ball.
Aygor was scanning the crowd and seemed more agitated than usual. He finally located the boy carrying the salver and snapped his fingers. The boy instantly obeyed and carefully approached the throne. Beads of sweat were now clearly visible on his forehead, but, as he began to climb the stairs, his shaking became uncontrollable. He tripped up the final few steps to the throne sending the drinks hurtling through the air; landing at Aygor's feet.
The commotion instantly attracted everyone in the room. A few gasps could be heard, but most stood silent and still. A few even held their breath.
A woman came crashing through the crowd, clearly driven by panic and motherly love. Tarya recognised her to be an old friend, Teran. She'd had no idea she'd been working in the kitchen, possibly for decades. Two guards towards the front of the crowd quickly restrained her; more for her protection than anything else.
Aygor, affronted at the insult to his dignity, rose, unsheathed his sword and marched purposely over to Christoph who was now crawling backwards along the floor as quickly as humanly possible.
Tarya knew that the only intention of the vile man she had been forced to marry would be the removal of the boy's head. She quickly rose, and with all the speed she could muster, charged Aygor down.
The boy was petrified. Doone ran from the crowd, flung him over his shoulder, grabbed his mother, and the crowd quickly helped manoeuvre them to the back of the room and out of sight.
The last thing Tarya remembered was something very hard smashing into the side of her skull.
She ran out of the room and retraced her steps back to the great hall. She placed her hands on the wall that she assumed would have a good view and thought of the memory again. She had no idea what had happened after this. Guss and Beverly had managed to keep up with her. She chanted something quietly and her hands shone purple, not the usual blue. Her equanime seeped around the stone brick and it seemed to absorb it. She was deep in thought.
"Why is it sometimes purple and not blue?" Asked Beverly
"That's what happens when you use sorcery? It activates differently as it's primed to interact directly with something else.
"I thought sorcery was banned?"
"This technically would be classed as alchemy, the processes for both can overlap, but as this is primarily relating to accessing the state of a particular object, it can be classed as alchemy." He was interrupted by an unfolding scene.
Before their eyes, billions of small droplets of equanime left the stone to re-create the final few scenes from Tarya's memory. The small droplets re-created the entire room within the stones view.
"This is incredible," murmured Beverly quietly. Before her eyes an elegant, masked ball appeared to be underway. Aygor was sat on the throne, he didn't look happy. Tarya was sat slightly forward of him in an elegant, though not as throne-like chair, that was situated a tier below him. There was a seat on the other side too, but it was not occupied. She wondered who it was for.
She was distracted as the commotion began. It was very similar to Tarya's memory, though Christoph looked a lot younger than Tarya remembered. She wondered if her superseding memories had clouded her perception of him. Then she began to wonder if that happened a lot with memories.
It was now at the point where Christoph was crawling backwards. Tarya walked up to the memory of the little boy and took a closer look. He was terrified and shaking, scrambling for his life. She was still studying him as an equanime image dispersed on her back. She realised Aygor had gone to swing his sword at him. She watched as Doone then grabbed Christoph and ran off.
Beverly and Guss had followed the memory image of Tarya has she'd used her full body weight to charge Aygor down. They'd both landed on their sides on the ground as he'd managed to fling her around when she made contact. He quickly rose, retrieving his sword. She was just trying to pull herself round when he smashed the handle of his sword right into the side of her head. She crumpled back to the ground, but was not rendered unconscious, though this is where her memories end.
"Sorry", Tarya said, finally breaking her silence, "we are going to have to follow the memory to wherever they take me as I've no other starting reference."
"I wasn't here at the time of this incident," Guss explained, "I'd just heard the rumours, so I'm afraid I can be of any help either."
Aygor picked up Tarya, who was much disorientated, off of the floor with one hand and dragged her over to the wall. She looked as though she weighed nothing and he was a very stocky fella. He pressed her against the wall and began shouting at her, though they couldn't hear what he was saying. She didn't appear overly aware of what he was saying either. Beverly glanced around the room. The guests at the ball looked a mixture of terrified, appalled, some were crying, and many had turned their faces away – the guards too. She estimated there to be around thirty guards to maybe a hundred and fifty guests. They were all huddled as far back as they could be with a clear line of guards at the front. Everyone was uncomfortable in one way or another. Even though she couldn't hear a sound, she imagined the only audible thing would have been Aygor at that point. She looked back to where he held Tarya. She looked as though she was going to pass out as he dragged her across the room again, this time to the stairwell that led from the back of the hall. The memory began to tear apart. Tarya ran and placed her hand on the stones at the base of the stairwell and the new stones took over, she needed to keep a hold of the memory and track it to the end. They followed the memory up the stairs and into the bedroom, Tarya was quick to trace the movements with the stones.
Tarya found a stone in the corner that seemed to have a good view of the room and continued the memory. Aygor had plonked her on the floor near the window by the dressing table. She was still semi-conscious at this time; he looked livid.
He removed the cloak he had been wearing for the ball and wore just his trousers and a loose corded shirt with his dark brown, hairy chest protruding. He sat down on the side of the bed and watched her for a while as she struggled to rise or do anything, a bit like a fish out of water.
"What is he doing?" Asked Beverly.
"My guess is he's wondering how he can punish her?" Said Guss.
"Like she hasn't been punished enough!" Beverly exclaimed.
"For humiliating him like that, in front of everyone, don't be daft."
"He wouldn't get Lyden or anyone else to punish you?" She asked Tarya directly.
"No," said Tarya. "I'm his, or I was, his property. He never let anyone else touch me, not without his express overseeing at the time. I can only recall three instances in our entire history together whereby he let anyone else touch me and he was always there, one of which was Lyden's original charge.
After a few more moments. Aygor stood and rolled up his sleeves, he'd obviously made up his mind. He walked up to her and stamped on her chest, really hard, one could imagine the sound of ribs cracking. Then he landed a few more heavy blows to her head, making sure to pummel the same place over and over. There was a lot of blood splatter. Beverly looked to their Tarya as she stood tracking the scar that circumvented her eyebrow.
"Is this how you got that scar?"
"Possibly. It could well be. It all blurs into one."
After a few more moments, Aygor stripped her bare and found a black, lacy negligee to place on her. He cleaned the blood up, meticulously and, ironically, carefully placed her on the bed. He then disappeared through the door to the left of the bed.
"What's in there? Asked Guss.
"You don't want to know." Was all she replied.
He came out a few minutes later wrapped in chains. He then proceeded to tie Tarya's limbs, one to each bed pole. He then just left her, lying there, still bleeding out slowly, but they could all see her equanime synapses working and sending small blue signals around the affected area. Beverly was amazed she could have survived this. At the very least part of her frontal lobe and parietal had been damaged, and a small part of it was exposed.
"Now what said Guss, can we speed up the memories?"
"I'm just trying to remember and think of a logical way we can do this."
"Is there a way you can speed it up to the next movement or something?" offered Guss.
"That's a good idea, I can't imagine there being much movement." Tarya placed her hand to the wall, chanted, and her eyes shone purple again. After a while, Aygor came back in. The sun had risen and gone down twice since any activity had happened and it had only taken a few seconds to move onto Aygors arrival. He came in, merely looked at her then left. She sped it up again. After a few seconds a woman came in. Tears began to stream down Tarya and Guss' faces.
The woman walked to Tarya and began to sob as she cleaned her up and dribbled some water into her mouth. After she had sat with her for a while she left. She came and left twice a day for at least the next few weeks. Aygor had popped in along the way too, but clearly only to check she was still there and whether or not she was alive.
"Dear smokey, how long was I unconscious for?" Tarya mused as though trying to lighten the mood.
"Who is that woman?" Beverly asked.
"She was a good friend to us all. I had no idea she'd done this. She never ever told me." Guss and Tarya held hands as they watched her enter again. Beverly was slightly surprised by this display of affection, though pleased she was seeing some.
"She was my other half, Carla." Said Guss after a while. "She died during the revolution... She almost made it out," he quivered the words out through a river of tears. Tarya placed her arm around his back. He turned to look at her. "She had told me she'd done this on occasion for you, but she never wanted you to know, and I couldn't recall when the times were that she'd done it. Aygor had asked her to do this, but she'd have done it in a heartbeat anyway had she'd known."
"I know," Tarya replied. "She was very special." They watched her come and go a few more times, in mere seconds.
"If you were a human," Beverly eventually added, "you'd more than likely be dead, especially having had no medical intervention whatsoever. If you were my patient, you'd likely be noted to be in a coma and I honestly wouldn't know if you would pull through or not. They can last months, years, some never even wake, though I may also have been able to treat you to a point."
The same rituals seemed to continue for several weeks, until Aygor had not been present for several days. Prior to this he'd been seen at least every other day, if not every day, just to quickly glance and check on her.
One day, not long after Carla had left, Lyden entered the room. It was clearly him. He walked up to her and looked around for a few moments. Then he opened her eyelids and studied each eyeball for a few moments before resting on the side of the bed.
"What on earth is he doing?" Queried Guss.
"My best guess is Aygor was away somewhere, probably on one of his trips to terrorise his outlying territories, that won't be hard to work out. He'd more than likely asked Lyden to check if I was still there and still alive." They were distracted again by Lyden.
Lyden moved his hand down the side of her face before sniffing her hair. All three of the spectators winced. He was creepy at the best of times. He sat on edge of the bed for a few moments before running his long, thin fingers down the profile of her body. Then, he abruptly left.
Time moved on again and Carla had devotedly been in twice more. After her morning visit, the following day, Lyden returned, this time, he made himself more comfortable.
"I've a feeling this may to be it," remarked Guss. As they watched Lyden begin to play with himself on the edge of the bed. "Guess we know what Lyden is into, no wonder he never showed any interest in anyone romantically. They all had a pulse."
"Oh don't," said Tarya grimacing as she studied her still form.
Lyden was building up when it looked as though he had a second thought. He ran his once, busy hand down the cold chain that attached Tarya's hand to the bed and continued down her arm. He then climbed to straddle her and gently caressed her breast before placing his tongue into her mouth as she lay there, totally unaware.
Tarya ran through the door opposite to the bed and all a Guss and Beverly could do was listen to her heave and wretch. The sight of him being intimate with anyone was curdling both of their stomachs too. Beverly followed to hold Tarya's hair for her.
After she'd cleaned herself up, they came back out. Lyden was in full swing on the unconscious woman and Guss had long turned his back. It was a small mercy there was no sound.
"Let's just get this recording." Tarya removed a deep teal rock from her sirenscene stone and reversed the memory of the stone to just before Lyden had entered. Then she placed the teal stone on the wall stone and activated both. The memory began to play and Tarya sped it up until just after Lyden had left the room again.
"What's that stone?" Asked Beverly.
"It's a Mormo," explained Guss, "their eyes are closed and they reside in the centre of certain types of larger rocks. When we experimented with what they could possibly do, it was discovered their eyes were closed and they stored nothing. We later found out they could be used to store other memories. They can record our own too, but obviously now we need it to record this one."
"Your orb is amazing, I can see why you want to protect it so badly" said Beverly as she watched Tarya double-check she had the recording on the stone.
"It's done, let's get out of here. Hopefully we have enough time to inform Lyden of the change of plan." As she left, she wrapped her coat tightly around herself in a very protective way and another tear escaped. Beverly had never seen her so vulnerable looking, unconscious state aside.