Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) (17 page)

His eyes focused on the door as it was fully opened.

That door didn’t open like it had been shut for a hundred years, let alone seven hundred,
he thought suspiciously.

He shook his head away from such thoughts. As curious as the observation was, it was unimportant in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that mattered at that moment was getting through the ruins and to the throne room where the Sword of Kirakath resided.

Caleb turned his eyes to the room that stood before them. The sight before him was truly surprising.

Is this really a mountain?
It did not look like it on the inside. That was for certain. Despite the fact that it was inside a mountain, it seemed more like a giant stone room with an outer appearance of a mountain than anything. In fact, it was as if the mountain was hollow there.

“Let’s go,” he said as he began to walk forward through the large room. With the help of the light that came through the open door, he was able to see that there was nothing in the room between the door that he had come through and the two iron doors that were a quarter mile ahead.

“Why didn’t you tell me that your sword was magic?” Katie asked as she walked alongside him. “Why do you hide so much from me?”

“Now’s not the time to talk about this,” Caleb said quietly.

“And when will the time for that come?” she asked with a sharp glare. “You won’t explain anything.”

“I only explain what matters,” Caleb said without even glancing towards her.

Katie sighed at his words. It seemed that a certain level of distrust would always remain between them.

In silence, they walked through the empty room, reaching the iron doors within a few minutes.

Taking a deep breath, Caleb grabbed the doors by the metal large rings that hung from them at chest height, and pulled them open. They opened up even more smoothly than the outer door of the ruined city.

What lied on the other side of the doors truly threw him off.

Basking in sunlight, a castle of dark gray stone stood before them. As he looked to see where the sunlight was coming from, he saw a tall tower rising up from the castle. He could not actually see where the sunlight was coming from though. There were no noticeable holes or windows in the mountain, at the very least.

Looking closer to where he was, he saw that a bridge separated them and the castle

As they began to walk across the bridge, Caleb could not help but notice how effectively the mountain hid the castle.

“So that’s Castle Draesa,” Katie said quietly. “I’ve heard stories about it, but I never imagined that it would look quite like that.”

“It’s impressive,” Caleb agreed as he walked alongside her. His eyes occasionally glanced to the tall grass on the ground at each side of the bridge. It was nearly as tall as he was.

He barely heard Katie say, “He doesn’t stop for anything, does he?”

At that moment, he could not find it in him to care about her words though, so he pressed forward regardless.

Chapter 19

Caleb took a deep breath as he looked at the entrance hall of Castle Draesa. It was completely bare, having been emptied sometime in the years since its vacancy. The only thing that broke the monotony of the dark gray walls was the occasional door.

“The great hall should be up ahead,” Katie said as she pointed to the large doors that were at the end of the hallway.

“Where would the throne room be?” he asked after a few seconds.

“Before you spoke with Lance, you had never heard of Draesa,” Katie said thoughtfully. There was no question in her words.

“Is that surprising?” he asked curiously.

“Yes, it is,” Katie said with a heavy sigh. “This is Draesa, the City of Rebellion. The bards tell grand tales of the Lord of Draesa’s short-lived rebellion against the Calian Empire. It’s said that more lives were lost during that incident than any other point in history… on this side of the Shield Mountains, at least.”

That would explain why she said that there was something superstitious about this place then,
he thought.
But wait…

“Didn’t you say that you didn’t know why this place wasn’t in use anymore and that you didn’t know what happened to this place?” he asked, his voice taking on a hint of accusation to it.

“That’s what I said,” Katie agreed without a hint of guilt in her eyes. Annoyance, however, was brimming below the surface. “The bards don’t tell of Draesa’s fall. In fact, its fall isn’t even detailed in the history tomes. No one knows what happened. It’s one thing that makes it such a superstitious place.”

“And how, pray tell, does that answer my question about the throne room?” Caleb asked with a raised eyebrow. He did not want a history lesson, after all. History was not well known by any but the most well off, and Caleb could not see how it could possibly benefit him.

“A few minutes aren’t going to make that big of a difference. No knowledge is pointless,” Katie said angrily. “But fine, be that way. The throne room is said to be in the bottom floor of the keep. That’s the tall tower we saw a few minutes ago, in case you didn’t know.”

“Actually, I didn’t know,” Caleb said seriously. “Why do you assume that I know anything about castles or history? I was supposed to be a hunter apprentice for almost another year. Then, I’d be a hunter in a small village with no reason to ever go far from home. I shouldn’t be here.” His fists clenched at his words. “But I
am
here. I’m somewhere I don’t belong because I have to be here. Still, that doesn’t suddenly make me care about history, the design of castles, or magic swords.”

Words failed to come to Katie at that moment. It felt as though the wind had been knocked from her, despite the fact that Caleb remained calm while he spoke.

“Let’s go to this keep of yours,” Caleb said when he saw that his companion had been struck speechless. “I want to get this over with as soon as possible.”

Katie slowly nodded, unsure of what else she could do.

Caleb began to walk forward, not even waiting for Katie to snap out of her momentary confusion. By the time that she finally did, he was already at the doors at the end of the hallway, his hands on the door handles.

As he pulled them open, she reached them.

“This must be the great hall,” she whispered quietly, looking around him through the doorway.

Like the entrance hall, the great hall was completely bare. The great hall, however, was rather large and was originally intended for banquets and such. As a result, it was shorter but a great deal wider.

 “This is definitely the great hall,” Katie said, her eyes darting around. “It’s pretty empty, but-”

“I know what it is,” Caleb interrupted. “Even a village boy like me knows what a great hall is. I might not have ever met a bard, but my father did tell me a few stories.”

Though he had expected her to be annoyed at being interrupted, Katie kept an impassive look upon her face. “Your father was a soldier, right?”

That question caught him off guard.

“Yeah, he was,” he said, recovering from the surprise. “How do you know that?”

“The man that held us captive back at his camp said that he served with your father,” Katie said, her eyes focused on the floor. “Did your father ever mention Jon or Correll Staerk?”

“No,” he answered immediately, feeling as though he had just eaten a spoonful of cinnamon. Of all the men that he had killed, those two were the only men that he knew the names of. “My father would not have wasted any words on cowards like them.”

“I suppose not,” Katie said, neither disagreeing nor agreeing with him. “It just goes to show you that there are all sorts of men in this world. There are men like your father, who was honorable. And there are men like
them
, who are despicable cowards.”

“What’s your point?” Caleb asked stiffly. He did not like the prospect of discussing his father. The loss was still too fresh for that.

“My point is that you need to decide what kind of man you are,” Katie said simply. “You stand in a place where you should not be, by your own admission. You are coming to get a sword that has been left untouched since before your great grandfather was even a twinkle in his father’s eye. And what are you going to do with a sword that, by your words, is very special? You’re going to hunt down a force of men that were easily able to massacre a village.”

“I’m a hunter’s apprentice,” Caleb said quietly. “Hunting is all I know, so you can be sure that I’m going to hunt them down. And you can be just as sure that I’m not going to spare a moment’s thought about what kind of man I am. That’s not a question that concerns me at all.”

“But-”

Caleb turned towards her, his eyes piercing through her impassive exterior. “Before you tell me that I
need
to decide what kind of man I am, try looking in the mirror. What kind of woman are you? You sit on the wrong side of the law. You’re bound by so many secrets that I can’t even begin to guess who you truly are. And you’re so insecure about your secrets that you lash out at me for keeping small secrets.”

Though Katie looked abashed by Caleb’s words, she stood her ground, meeting his eyes with her own. “That doesn’t make my words any less valid. Yes, I do have problems, but they are
my
problems, not yours.”

“And my problems are not
yours
.” Caleb retorted.

“Yes, they are,” Katie said quietly. “You have a death wish. You’ve made that clear. If we continue along the path you have chosen, we’re both going to die.”

Though he would have liked to disagree with her, he found that he could not do so and maintain his honesty. “You have the choice to walk away.”

“I owe you for saving my life. I’m not going anywhere,” Katie replied as she walked forward, headed towards the doors that led from the great hall to the courtyard.

No wonder Hector said it’s impossible to understand women.

Shaking his head away from those thoughts, Caleb followed after her.

He managed to reach her just as she pulled one of the doors open, revealing the courtyard. He was forced to squint, suddenly going from the dimly lit castle to the bright courtyard.

His eyes darted around the courtyard once he managed to adjust. It seemed that the only thing of note in the castle yard was the tower that stood at its end.

“Broken stones,” Katie commented so softly that he almost didn’t hear her.

He suddenly became aware that quite a few of the stones slabs that lined the ground of the courtyard had been broken cleanly in half. Others had entire chunks missing from them.

That’s a little strange.
He could not find it in him to actually be concerned by the strange occurrence though. Sure, that was the only part of the castle that really seemed to be damaged, but it was over seven hundred years old and had been left unoccupied during most of that time. It was not really
that
odd in the grand scheme of things.

“Let’s see what’s in the tower,” he said as he began to make his way to the castle across from them.

Katie followed after him silently. It seemed that she realized he could only be single minded when he was that close to his goal.

It only took a few minutes to reach the tower and for Caleb to pull the metal doors open.

As soon as the doors were open, Caleb and Katie both went wide eyed. The doors had taken them to a hallway, but that was not what had their attention. The doors to the throne room were on the other side of the hallway, and they had been knocked down. From the way that they had rusted and were bent out of shape, it appeared as though they had been down for a long time.

Only Katie was focused on the doors still, however.

Caleb’s eyes were focused on the single throne that stood at the end of the throne room. A longsword was resting across the arms of the throne, glinting from the sliver of light that was allowed into the room from the open doorway.

Without hesitation, Caleb walked across the hallway and through the doorway.

Katie tried to follow immediately afterwards, but she was suddenly thrown back.

Caleb, a few feet past the doorway, looked back and gasped in shock. Katie was lying on her back in the doorway of the keep, and something had appeared in the doorway of the throne room. It was a transparent barrier with a light blue tint to it.

He took a step to it an extended his hand out to touch it, but he stopped when he heard a voice.

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you. It has a nasty little kick. I’m sure your friend can attest to that.”

Caleb’s eyes quickly went to Katie, who was slowly sitting up. He then looked over his shoulder and saw a human-like figure walking towards him.

So that’s what he meant when he talked about a specter of the past.

Walking from the throne towards Caleb was a ghost-like figure. It appeared to be wearing a cloak over a suit of plate and had a sword at its left hip, but that’s about all he could tell at that moment.

A feeling that could only be associated with fear encompassed him at the sight of the spectral being. Griffins were something he could accept. Ghosts were not. Sure, they were both beings of legends, but he had never had any reason to suspect that ghosts were real.