Pacing within the library, he refilled his glass with brandy and tried to think of how he could find his answers without breaking a promise. He paused at the window and looked up at the bright moon as if it held the answers he needed, but it did not.
This house had stood on this land for two and a half centuries. He suspected that the sacred grove had been here just as long as had the other gardens, groves, and orchards. There must be records somewhere.
Orion settled behind his father's desk and began rifling through the drawers, and found nothing but ledgers, parchment, quill tips, ink…nothing of significance that offered any answers. Settling back into the worn leather chair, he studied the room, then the books on the shelves. “There have to be records. Or secrets hidden away here somewhere,” he mumbled to himself.
Would they even be in here or was the information he needed secreted away with his mother and aunts?
“The vault!”
Orion stood so suddenly that he suffered a moment of dizziness then took the lamp from the desk, strode out of the library, and down the long corridor until he reached the end of the hall. Slowly, he opened the door and stared down into the dark abyss. One could not venture below without lighting the torches along the wall or taking a lamp. As a child he had been too scared to go down alone, afraid that the stairs led down to Tartarus and would be filled with torment and suffering, but also wondering if there were Titans imprisoned below.
Their ancestors had come from Greece, and each child had been taught the history of what others considered mythology. By the time Orion was ten, it did not seem unreasonable that their family could have a staircase that led to Tartarus, though his cousin Simon Cardwell hoped to find dragons.
Then, one night when all the families were in residence, and each boy was feeling brave, the cousins decided to journey below. They were armed with lanterns and swords as they crept down the stairs. Once they had reached the bottom, the boys carefully made their way to the center of the room, formed a circle with their backs to the others, lifted their lanterns and held out their swords ready to slay anything that may try to harm them. They were also overwhelmingly disappointed.
“Wine!” Damon exclaimed. “This is where they keep wine?”
There had been, and Orion assumed there still was, a rather impressive amount of wine housed on shelves in a vault that seemed to run rather deep.
“But what is in there?” Pierce asked.
They had all turned and noted another arched entry. Except this one was filled with metal, including the metal door. Pierce approached and tried to open it, but it was locked.
For years they speculated on what could be behind that door and each time they were at Nightshade Manor on holiday, they tried to enter at least once, but were never successful. Eventually they gave up and until tonight, Orion had nearly forgotten about its existence.
He didn’t know for certain but was confident that the answers he sought were behind that metal door.
He lifted the lamp and slowly made his way down the stairs and into what he and his male relatives had decided to call a crypt because it was a much better name than cellar or underground room. Though arguments had been made to keep referring to it as a dungeon.
Orion crossed the expanse until he stood before the metal door.
He had asked their father about the room when he was younger and was told that only the most precious of items and secrets were kept within the vault and that he and the others were too young to have access. Father had promised that one day, when they were older, he may grant them entrance. But every time they asked, they were still too young.
Orion wondered if his father would claim the same now even though he was a gentleman of five and twenty.
He stepped forward and tried to open the door. As he suspected, it was locked.
Orion assumed that his father, the head of the Drakos family, held the key. As it was his brother, Pierce, who would one day inherit, it was likely he’d also be the one making certain that nobody else ever entered the vault.
Orion returned to the stairs and marched back up, determined to find that blasted key. It must be in the library.
Once again, he rifled through his father's desk. Looking in every drawer, underneath each ledger and piece of paper, hoping to find a false bottom or secret compartment. He then searched the bookcases, but there was no key to be found.
Where would his father keep it? Was it in his set of rooms and with his personal belongings?
Would Pierce know where it was? Once again, Orion strode out of the library and went in search of his older brother, who he found in the billiards room with their twin cousins Ajax and Ares Norcott. Orion did not want to let on that he was there for any specific information. Instead, he wandered in casually, poured himself a glass of brandy, settled into one of the chairs and watched the game. As cousins often do, they bickered, taunted, joked, and competed. Orion held his questions until the game was finished and the three settled into the chairs beside him.
He shook his head and smiled. “Remember how we used to sneak down into the crypt and try to get into the vault.” He chuckled. “I was just thinking about that tonight. Have any of you been in there?”
“Simon still hopes there are dragons inside,” Ares laughed.
“I asked Father once,” Pierce said. “He told me that the key would not come to me.”
Orion frowned. “You are the heir. Who would it go to?”
“Maybe they lost it. This place is centuries old,” Ajax suggested.
“He told me that it was for the Custodian of Nightshade and that we’d all learn who that was when the time came.”
