Chronicles of Ilandri - Volume 1

Deaf Ears (Pt.3)

The road he walked was heading due south through the richer houses and up ahead it appeared to stop abruptly but where it seemed to stop was in fact stairs, which came down one flight, turned a right angle and came down another flight onto the eastern end of the white square. Stood looking at the square it would not be apparent where the name originated, since the stone slabs that paved it were dull grey. This was however the square where the city guards paraded for all their ceremonies. When the square is full of guardsmen, all wearing their white cloaks, the origin of the name is entirely obvious. Nathaniel walked straight down the middle to the far side where the steps to the hall of remembrance were. The hall shared a similar architecture to the older buildings, with its colonnades, arches and grand statues of early guards and heroes of the city.

Inside it was cold and quite eerie. Nathaniel's steps echoed around him as he strode down the length of the gallery. On the walls were carved the name of every man in the guard who had died, most during service. Although it was considered the most noble and honourable post in the city, the lifespan of a guard seemed shorter than most. Ollorath had seen quite a few wars in its history and the guard was always at the forefront of defending the city or leading the armies to battle. At the far end of the gallery was a small wooden door, much shorter than an average man. It was quite tight to open and squeaked horrendously sending the sound echoing off the walls all around. It was finally open though and Nathaniel stooped down and peered in. It was pitch black and there was no torch to light the way.

Once he had acquired a torch he held it out in front of him as he descended the tight spiral stairs that descended into the crypts below. There were several layers of crypts and the stairs seemed to descend into the bowels of the world. The higher levels were the oldest, having been built first, and so it was not far that he had to venture downward to find the level he believed his decomposing tower captains would be found. The royal crypts were also under the hall and there were passages underground to connect them, but after the fall of the kingdom, no one had ever really gone to the royal crypts.

It was colder down there in the depths of the crypts and it grew colder and damper each level he descended. On perhaps the eighth level down, he was not sure as he had not counted, he entered the long ominous crypt. The light from his torch did very little to illuminate his surroundings, but he could see the first sarcophagus looming ahead of him in the shadows. It held a carved statue of its holder lying on top, as did the sarcophagus placed on the opposite side of the room. He knew that he could be in the right place since the whole room would bear the same carvings. The room was filled gradually clockwise on each level so if both the first and last sarcophagus had the carving he could be sure that they all would. He went down a level to conduct the same test, knowing that if the captain's did have a carving then they would have been one of the last few that did.

He descended a further floor, where he found carvings on the sarcophagus on his left but not on his right. This was the level he needed, so he walked the room clockwise, shining his torch over each one as he passed. He walked the length of the room and began back on the other side. At what felt like a little under halfway the statues stopped. Nathaniel took his torch close to the stone coffin, examining it to find the inscription. The words had faded a little over the years but the date seemed to be about right. The exact date the republic was formed, Nathaniel was unsure of, but he knew the approximate figure. He then looked around the neck to see if it bore the key on the carving. To his disappointment there was nothing to be found on that one or the one next to it. Nathaniel retraced the whole room and none of them bore any markings of the key.