Napoleon of Another World!

Chapter 23 - The Fall of the Castle

"To me, you're taking an unnecessary risk Daemon." Scalia said for the hundredth time. "What was the need for you to come too?"

"Do we really have to talk about this again?" the young man answered with a sigh. "You should have figured it out by now. I'm certainly not the kind of commander who sits safely behind the lines waiting for others to do the job for him. Besides, I didn't feel like leaving you alone with this dandy."

"I find your lack of trust in me deeply offensive." Adrian blatantly replied. "I thought I had amply proved my reliability to you."

"We'll talk about it when this is over."

With the legionnaires fighting each other and the confusion reigning in the village, reaching the base of the Castle walls had been child's play.

Seen from below, the fortress seemed even more imposing and menacing, and Scalia could not but feel a little relief at the thought that they would be able to conquer it without having to scale those ramparts under a rain of arrows.

"So then? Where is this secret passage?"

"Right here." Adrian said pulling lightly on the head of a gargoyle.

There was a slight tremor, then part of the stones of the wall came down revealing the entrance to a tunnel.

"Ladies first."

"Ladies, my foot! I don't trust you if you haven't figured it out yet. You go first. And if I see even the shadow of a soldier along the road..."

"Yes I know. You sink your teeth into my throat."

"I see you understand."

"Stop it and let's go before anyone notices us."

Adrian used his magic to summon a globe of light, then the three ventured inside just before the entrance closed behind them.

For a while, they walked along a corridor dug first into the walls and then directly into the earth, maneuvering among narrow holes, overhangs and even an underground river, until after almost an hour they arrived at what appeared to be the labyrinthine ruins of an ancient building, so large and majestic that even that on the surface would pale.

"Don't forget to never lose sight of me. One gets lost in here with disconcerting ease."

It was enough to look at the bodies and skeletons lying on the ground or leaning against the walls to understand that Adrian wasn't exaggerating.

"So these are the ruins of the ancient palace. It's much bigger than I expected."

"Ancient chronicles speak of a great cultural center that would have existed here more than a thousand years ago. It was probably a holy city dedicated to one of the Old Gods."

Daemon felt strange; for some reason he felt like he'd been there before, which was obviously impossible. But despite this, he couldn't help but perceive something familiar in those ruined vaults, the crumbling walls and the mosaics now almost completely gone.

"Here we are." Adrian said when they reached the foot of a stairway carved directly into the rock. "The exit is right up here."

They climbed the ladder for several minutes, while the foundations of the Castle gradually replaced the natural rock, until they arrived in front of the exit of the secret passage hidden behind a wall.

Before pulling the torch that served as a switch, however, Adrian turned to look sternly at his companions.

"I warn you. You may not like what you are about to see."

The door opened into a kind of prison consisting of six small cells closed by wooden grates; the stench was terrible, and the ground was covered with straw and strange colored feathers, long and bristly.