Chaos Storm (The Flight of the Griffin Book 2) (20 page)

'Come off it, Quint. I've already got a huge bruise; it isn't funny. I bet boys in Bedlam grow up with odd shaped heads!' They dragged the sweep to his pile of dirty sheets and after gagging him, tied him up. They tried stuffing him up the chimney, but after a few tries they realised he was too heavy and settled on hiding him behind a large wooden cabinet. Satisfied he wouldn't be found easily and couldn't get free if he woke, they each took up a candle and left the room to explore.

They had already seen most of the floor they were on, it was devoted to the kitchens and staff quarters, and the room where they'd left the sweep didn't look like one Morgasta would use either. The corridor outside the room was tiled with large slabs of stone. They guessed it was a servant's passage as there weren't any pictures or decoration and a strange damp musty smell filled the air. They hurried along towards the end, found a narrow stone staircase, and made their way up.

This floor was completely different. Woven matting with faded patterns ran down the centre of the hallway covering heavy wood floorboards, there were even a few paintings on the walls. It was nowhere near as grand as the King's palace in Deniah, but then the Barbarians were nothing like people back in the Realm.

The building was mostly silent with just the occasional sounds coming from distant rooms. As they made their way on they only had to hide once as someone passed by.

The palace was barely occupied, as room after empty room confirmed. Some were filled to overflowing with crates and boxes holding nothing of any obvious value, certainly not crystal skulls, whilst others were bare of any furnishing at all.

They began to feel a little more positive when, on the third floor, they entered the largest room they had found so far. It was obviously Morgasta's throne room. High windows that made up one wall were draped to either side with heavy black curtains. Pardigan gazed out at the dark city, and down to the river, the glow of the arena the only bright light within the city and the city of Mayhem appeared to be equally dark beyond on the far bank. He turned back to where Quint was studying the weapons that covered the opposite wall, the one through which they had entered. It was an astonishing sight, a collection of every conceivable type and style of weapon. Swords, spears, knives, pikes, bows and crossbows were the identifiable ones, but they found many more that were completely baffling.

'Come on, let's look at the throne,' said Pardigan approaching the large ornate chair at the far end of the room. 'She likes skulls anyhow, but these aren't made of crystal, they're real.' He sat down and ran his hand over the grinning human skulls that made up the armrests to either side.

'Pardigan, come on! Stop messing about. Have a look behind it and let's get going, she'll be back soon!' Quint was tapping the wall, looking for a secret cupboard or door as Pardigan reluctantly got down to see if the base of the throne had a false drawer, but there was nothing. Without letting Quint see, he took a small pin from his pocket, set it on the throne's cushioned seat and grinned at the thought of the Warrior Queen sitting on it. He toyed with the idea of hanging round invisibly to watch what happened but reluctantly dismissed it, they needed to find the skulls and go.

There was nothing in the throne room, so they crept back into the outer hallway and began glancing into the rooms to either side, but they held nothing of interest so made their way up another flight of stairs. This one was wider and had thicker woven fabric stretched across the wooden treads.

At the top, they found themselves in a long corridor that stretched as far as they could see in both directions with doors leading off to what looked like hundreds of rooms. With a sigh, they began opening doors and peering inside rooms again.

'I'm getting fed-up with this,' moaned Pardigan as they came out of yet another empty bedroom. 'It's like searching for a pebble in a pond. Every handful of mud we turn over could be burying it deeper!' Quint looked at his friend's face in the flickering candlelight and grinned.

'Pebble in a pond! Where did you get that from?'

'Well you know what I mean. The skulls could be hidden in any of these rooms, and we've just dismissed it because they're not sitting on a tray in the middle with a big sign hanging over them saying, 'Here are the crystal skulls!”

'Yeah, I know what you mean,' said Quint grinning. 'So what do you suggest?' The sound of footsteps out in the corridor abruptly stopped the conversation. Quint moved to the door and pressed his ear up against it. Pardigan joined him, a long knife appearing in his hand.

'Where did you get that?' said Quint in a surprised whisper.

'The wall of the throne room,' replied Pardigan,' here, you take it.' He handed the knife to Quint and pulled a slightly smaller one from his cloak. Quint shook his head. 'What?' hissed Pardigan. 'They were all over that wall in that throne room and just begging to be taken, weren't they?' The footsteps were getting closer.

'I think it's just one person, are you ready?'

'I'm always ready,' replied Pardigan with a grin. Quint shook his head, threw open the door and they ran out into the darkened corridor. What greeted them wasn't exactly what they had expected. Candlelight illuminated the features of a small man with a shiny baldhead surrounded by a halo of long grey hair, dressed of course in bedlam black. The candle wobbled in its holder as the shock of their appearance registered, then the little man screamed, and the candles went out. The boys collided with him, and they all fell heavily to the floor. After a short struggle, the little man became limp. They could feel him trembling beneath them.

'Uuurm… Quint?' whispered Pardigan.

'What?'

'I think we know him.'

Quint searched the darkness for where he judged Pardigan must be, laying across their captive's legs. 'What do you mean we know him? Who is it?'

'It's that nutter in Barnham Bolt, the King's agent.'

'Oh, is that who he is!' Came another voice. A glow globe suddenly blinded them all and Mahra peered down at the tangle of arms and legs on the floor. 'I caught him sneaking about near the top of the house, I couldn't get a close look at him, but I didn't think he worked here, I thought he was a thief.' They stared down at the little man as he struggled under the weight of both Pardigan and Quint. Quint removed his hand from where he had clamped it over the captive's mouth and the little man immediately tried to bite it.

'Hey!' hissed Quint pulling back.

'Horrible children, nasty vicious boys!' hissed the agent. He scrambled to his feet and began dusting himself down. 'The King shall hear of this!'

'If you talk any louder then it'll be the Queen who hears you, not the King,' said Quint as he dragged him into the room where he and Pardigan had been hiding. When they were all inside Mahra pulled the door closed.

'What are you nasty little children doing here?' spat the agent, pushing his face close to Quint's, forcing the fighter to step back. 'Well? Tell me… tell me.'

'Excuse me, but it was us that captured you, not the other way round!' said Mahra, pulling the agent away from Quint. 'You tell us what you're doing here first and how you got here so quickly.' The agent looked smug.

'Spying - it's my job. Maybe there's a way through the Bolt even in winter, eh? Here seeking plans for the Barbarian invasion, so I am…' He opened his eyes wider as a thought occurred to him. 'Have you seen any?' From being hostile a moment before, he was now behaving as if they were conspirators, working together all along.

'No. No plans,' said Mahra, casting a questioning glance at Quint. Quint just shrugged, and Pardigan was giggling, twiddling his finger round his ear indicating that the agent was obviously quite mad. Mahra questioned him warily. 'We're looking for two crystal skulls that we know the Queen has hidden somewhere… have you seen anything like a crystal skull in the palace?'

'Might have!' said the agent changing character once again. He jumped back and hopped from one foot to the other with a big smile on his face. 'Might indeed have seen something… might know where some crystal skulls were taken.' Quint grabbed him and the big grin dropped from his face.

'We don't have time to play games, Mr… Elisop, wasn't it? Now, please tell us where the skulls are so we can all be friends.' He put the trembling agent down and watched expectantly as Elisop the agent glanced nervously from one face to the other, then reaching some kind of decision, wiggled a finger, indicating they should all come closer.

'Saw them take those skulls out of here. In a big box, they are. I watched the Queen put them in the box this morning… then the chaos priests took them away.' He began hopping about again, once more smiling happily. 'They're in the temple probably… almost certainly, in fact.' He stopped hopping and looked questioningly at Quint… then at Mahra and finally at Pardigan, then in a snivelling voice said, 'Nasty people, chaos priests… shall I show you the way?'

'We have to get out of here and over to the temple,' said Quint, ignoring Elisop.

The noise of doors banging and a commotion of voices calling and shouting could be heard from somewhere in the lower floors of the palace.

'Aaah, the Queen is back,' smiled Elisop. Gathering his cloak theatrically about him, he nodded to them and hissed, 'I must spy!' He made for the door and the others watched as he slipped out.

'Let him go,' said Quint shaking his head. 'Come on, Pardigan we have to get moving. Mahra, you fly out, we'll meet you across the square as soon as we can.'

Slipping out of the room, Mahra headed back to the upper levels while Quint and Pardigan retraced their steps towards the small servant's staircase. There was no sign of Elisop, even when they crept past the now noisy throne-room. They were halfway down the last flight of stairs when there was a loud shriek from above, followed by screaming, cursing, continued wailing and the shouting of angry guards.

'Ahh, I forgot about that,' said Pardigan grinning.

'Forgot what? What did you do?' They ducked behind a pillar as two servants came rushing past.

'I might have put a pin on the throne.'

'Oh, Pardigan, you're so childish sometimes… you dozy fool,' said Quint shaking his head. 'We would have had a better chance slipping out if you hadn't announced our presence like that. Quick, this way…' They ran down the last flight of stairs and along the passage retracing their earlier steps… 'In here.' The just made it into a doorway as four big armoured warriors rushed past and up the corridor.

Cries of
'The Queen has been attacked!'
and
'Intruders, intruders!'
filled the air. Quint shook his head at Pardigan and then gazed about the room. They were back in the first room they had been brought to, which was confirmed by a strange moaning sound coming from behind the cupboard. The two friends looked at each other, and Pardigan shrugged as more shouting filled the corridor. The door slammed open and Elisop pushed in. He took one look at the boys and started to hop about pointing at them.

'Stupid boys, it was…' but Quint cut him off with a wave of his hand.

'Not me… him,' he pointed at the retreating Pardigan. 'If you're going to get upset then do so with him, 'cos I'm getting fed up with him as well.'

'
We're going to get caught!
' hissed Elisop his eyebrows dancing up and down in alarm. 'First rule of spying and you're about to break it.' He shook his finger at Pardigan. 'You never get caught! Especially here… do you know what they do with people they catch here?' The moaning came from behind the cupboard again, and Elisop jumped back. 'What's that noise?

That's the sweep, and maybe our way out of here,' said Quint as an idea struck him. He grabbed the little agent by the sleeve and dragged him spluttering over to the fireplace.

They covered Elisop with soot, rubbing it into his hair, and then over his face until the little beady eyes burnt out of a face the colour of night.

'You horrible children!' he hissed. 'I do not look like the sweep; this is a foolish plan. It may have escaped you, but he is probably a tad taller than I am… most people are.' He tried to dodge the sweep's hat that Pardigan was trying to cram down upon his head.

'This is the only way Mr. Elisop. I bet a spy of your cunning and intelligence can pull this off.' The little agent stopped struggling and stared intently up at Quint.

'Of course I can pull it off, I am Elisop the spy!' He grabbed the hat and started for the door in a cloud of soot, leaving a dark, cloudy trail in his wake with Quint and Pardigan trying to keep up.

They made it all the way to the kitchen and almost through it before they were stopped.

'Oy! You can't come in 'ere like that!' The kitchen boy that had halted them was beside himself with panic. 'Cook will boil you alive bringing all that dirt in here, go on back…
out… out!
He flapped his hands at them to drive them back.

'We need more sacks for the soot,' said Quint pushing on past the boy.

'We gotta get out and get the sacks, this is the way, isn't it?' asked Pardigan snatching a pie from the table as they passed.

'
Oy!
You can't take that. Cook'll… she'll…' The boy glanced about, close to panic, but they were still edging closer to the pantry, the last room before the door to the street, but then the cook loomed up ahead of them marching through the doorway. Her hands flew into the air, and she shrieked,
'Aaaaaghh!'
She grabbed for a suitable weapon, a rolling pin from a shelf and pushed the round-bellied kitchen porter who had been following her, and he toppled backwards over a sack of flour. The sack exploded with a
'woomf'
, and the pantry became a world of confusion, then pandemonium ensued as the air filled with white choking flour. People were running in all directions while three blacker shapes tried to edge their way through and into the kitchen beyond. The boy was trying desperately to make his excuses in a loud trilling voice, while all about, kitchen workers were screaming. Struggling to regain his feet, the fat porter tried to catch hold of the intruders as they dodged past him but he fell spluttering to the floor empty handed and the cook tripped over him, still screeching at the top of her lungs.