I’m not out of this place yet, however. And now I’m probably going to run into the worst set of hench-monsters this side of Masters of the Universe.
But I still have my sword, and for once I don’t feel bad about using it. Especially if I might be able to use it on the thing which made it do the awful things which haunt my dreams.
The Thegn could end up getting it back in a way he really didn’t want, providing I can kill it. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the sort of creature who would give up existence easily. Like most things in the Yeavering, there’s probably a trick to it.
I creep down a passage. Light comes in from a crack overhead, and the walls are caked in sand. The scent of the sea is strong, blown in by the breeze outside.
Is all of this fortress as draughty?
A deep voice echoes distantly to where I’m moving forward. Could it be a way out? I have no way of knowing, and I’m certainly not going to be able to climb out of this place, so I follow my ears, hoping they lead me somewhere, anywhere but this strange corridor which gives me the creeps even more than the weird throne area.
The echoes resolve into a deep grumbling voice, which starts and stops like a poorly aspirated motorcycle engine. It is gettinglouder until finally, there is a gap in the monotonous passage, and I see a set of steps leading down.
Sword in hand, I carefully place one foot after another on them, descending as quietly as I dare. The voice has stopped, and I shift my grip on the hilt, making myself ready to deal with whatever is at the bottom.
Finally, the spiralling stairs open up onto a flagged floor. I press myself hard against the stone wall and risk looking around.
I’m in a long gallery, bordered on one side by more sand-covered stone wall and on the other by a long series of arched windows, open to the elements and with a view over the sea. Here and there are pieces of furniture, salt stained, peeling, as if they’ve been dredged up from the deep. I’m at the top end of the gallery, and in the corner nearest to me is a heap of what looks like both bedding and seaweed.
Is somethinglivinghere? Or at the very least, sleeping in this windswept ancient place? What would possibly want to be here or reduced to living here?
Before I can work out an answer to the questions I’m posing, I hear a familiar sound. Hooves ring out on stone flags, and I spin on the spot, ready to face the Dunnie.
“Warden!”
“My lady!”
He gallops towards me with the most tremendous clatter, sparks flying up from his shoes, and I’m caught up in his warm, fragrant embrace, his muscular form lifting me from my feet and his lips on mine.
My big bad Brag is here, and it’s time we dealt with the Thegn once and for all.
HAZEL
“Did he hurt you?” Warden growls when he finally releases my lips. “The Thegn?”
He’s running his hands over my body and shoving his fingers into my hair
“No, unless you call bringing me to this crappy place and letting the Shellycoat dump me next to some dead fish.”
“This place smells like dead fish,” a creature standing behind Warden says.
Before I can stop it, the sword is pointed directly at it. The thing has dark-red eyes and feather-like antennae on the top if its head, which twist towards me. It wears a strange, thick cloak draped over its shoulders and which drags on the floor.
It reaches out and touches the very tip of the sword.
“Interesting.” He looks at Warden. “Did you know your female carries the Sword of Spindlestone?”
“What…who is this?” I say in a half-crazed whisper, my nerves at their very edge.
“This is Linton. He is the Bluecap who is mated to your sister.”
“This is what my sister ismated to?” I gaze at the Bluecap who is now inspecting a rickety set of drawers with bow legs.
He’s handsome, in his own way, I suppose. Not sure I could get past the blood-red eyes, personally. But then Kaitlyn always had eclectic tastes.
“I have filled your sister’s belly. She is to birth very soon,” Linton says without looking at me. “I’ve come to get you before it happens or she says I’ll have to sleep in thespare room, whatever that is.” He pulls out one of the drawers and it disintegrates in his hand.
He gives the cloak a flap, and I realise it’s not a cloak at all, but a set of wings. My sister is mated to amothman.
