David Wells - Cursed Bones

The journey to the hidden keep took several days along a path selected by Trajan to be both direct and little used. What it turned out to be was an overgrown game trail. On the second day, two dozen tree rats attacked by surprise, but they all targeted the last man in line, swarming over him, driving him to his knees and killing him in a matter of seconds.

Everyone watched with a mixture of fear and revulsion, stunned by the sudden speed and overwhelming violence of the attack, until a number of tree rats turned toward them and hissed in challenge, guarding their next meal.

They moved with more care from then on which slowed them down but also prevented them from blundering into the clearing in front of the cave mouth leading to the fortress entrance.

Trajan signaled-four Regency soldiers-everyone went to a knee. He pointed to three of his men and signaled for them to circle the clearing and attack from a different angle, then waited for them to reach their position before silently ordering his remaining two men to follow him into battle.

All six charged into the clearing without a word, closing the distance to the four soldiers before they could fully process what was happening. Overwhelming force, coupled with the element of total surprise produced predictable results. Trajan reached his intended target first, swinging his bone club up and under the side of the soldier’s jaw, lifting her up off the ground and twisting her head around with such force that her neck snapped, killing her before the blood spray from her shattered jaw could reach the ground. The remaining three died almost as quickly, two managing to get their swords half drawn before Trajan’s men reached them.

Trajan and his companions entered the fortress cautiously, but the place was dead and still. At the main entrance, Isabel saw the remains of a battle she’d fought in days past. Four corpses lay crumpled around the entrance, decomposing just enough to lend a sickly scent to the musty air, all dead by Isabel’s hand. Several more killed by others were scattered about, left to rot where they fell. In the center of the room was one of the witches, the greatest stench of decay coming from her corpse.

“So this one is definitely dead,” Isabel said. “If we assume the ghidora killed the one Hazel sent it after and Phane killed Clotus, that leaves ten.”

“We should make a thorough search of this place,” Trajan said. “If more of the witches fell here, I want to know of it.”

“You know this place better than anyone,” Isabel said. “I recommend we stick together in case we run into more soldiers.”

“Agreed,” Trajan said.

The place was surprisingly large and Trajan did indeed know it well. He led them through an exhaustive search of the entire fortress, which proved to be a heart-wrenching experience for both him and Ayela. Hundreds of Trajan’s soldiers were dead, killed in pitched battles that took place in the halls and barracks. Soldiers fought without full armor, sometimes even without boots because the attack had been so sudden, the enemy had breached the gates so quickly and poured into the fortress in such force that the defenders didn’t have time to mount anything but the most hasty of defenses.

From the carnage, it was clear that the Regency soldiers had been ordered to leave no one alive. The dead had suffered various types of wounds, but each and every one of the fallen had another wound, a narrow-bladed dagger puncture to the heart. Even their own dead had been stabbed in the heart and left to rot.

The corpses were piled highest near the outer door of the king’s chambers. Isabel had to watch her footing as she climbed over the four-foot pile of bodies. Within, they found more dead, including one of the Sin’Rath who had fallen just inside the king’s door and died from a cut to her throat.

The king’s chambers were large, cold, and dark. It took nearly an hour of searching to discover the three hidden doors leading out. They would have stopped long before finding the first one, were it not for Trajan’s insistence that they keep looking.

“I know my father well enough to know that he has at least two hidden passages,” he said. “Keep looking until you find them.”

The first passage they found led to a series of more passages that seemed to permeate the entire fortress, shadowing the main passages and allowing access or a view into many important rooms. As well as Ayela knew the secret passages in the fortress, she had to admit she’d never been in these passages.

The second hidden door led to a long tunnel leading into the dark, a cool breeze picking up the moment they opened the door.

The third passage was locked from the inside, an oddity that made Isabel wonder. Further inspection revealed a peephole looking into the room from the hidden passage beyond.

“We should see what’s behind there,” she said.

“Agreed,” Trajan said, motioning to two of his men. They picked up a table and used it as a battering ram to break the door open, thunderous echoes rolling away into the passages of the fortress with each strike. It took some effort, but they eventually succeeded, breaching the door and pulling it apart.

Beyond was a passage that led deeper into the mountain. After a few hundred feet, they came to a wide spot with a fifty-foot-deep pit barring their way. On the far side was a drawbridge operated by a winch with a hand crank.

“If you and Prince Trajan would stand back, I can cross and lower the bridge,” Hector said.

Trajan frowned but followed Isabel back the way they’d come far enough for Hector’s magic to work. By the time they returned, the bridge was in place. The corridor, roughly hewn from the mountain and having only rudimentary supports, continued for another hundred feet, opening into a small round cave with three hallways leading out. Two led back toward the part of the fortress occupied by the House of Karth, but the one directly across from them led farther into the mountain.

Another fifty feet and they entered a large irregular cavern lit by a vein of naturally luminescent crystals running through the ceiling. The place was a scene of squalor and filth. At least a dozen creatures had lived here, sharing this single living space, wallowing in each other’s excrement. The stench was nauseating. The flies, revolting.

“This is where the Sin’Rath slept,” Ayela said.

Trajan turned away from the room. Two of his men vomited.

“I’ve seen enough,” Isabel said, covering her mouth and nose.

“There may still be a witch here,” Trajan said. “We must search these chambers, no matter how distasteful it is.”

“Well then, let’s be quick about it,” Isabel said, drawing her sword and heading to one of the exits, with Hector falling in behind her.

They searched for over an hour, covering an extensive network of passages and rooms, some locked, some open, others without doors. From this network, the Sin’Rath could view and hear most of the important rooms in the fortress and had access to many of the more important areas via secret passages that connected with the other networks of passages but that locked from the inside.

Isabel was especially interested in one room they found. It opened onto a balcony encircling a pit below. On one wall of the pit was a stout door locked from the outside. A hole in the ceiling of the cave allowed a stream of daylight to fill the well of the pit while plunging the rest of the room into shadow. It looked very different from here, Isabel thought.

They found a few passages leading to the surface but they were all still locked and barred from within, so they decided to keep looking, reasoning that the Sin’Rath had escaped by some other route.

While the search revealed nothing new, it did serve to reinforce the absolute nature of the Sin’Rath’s treachery. For Trajan and Ayela, it felt like mockery. The Sin’Rath had been in control of everything … for their whole lives. They’d been watching, waiting … planning how they would use each member of the Karth line in their schemes.