Treasures - Book 4 The Frencolian Chronicles (complete)

Chapter 25

All four moat bridges to Kings Castle remained closed throughout the night. The reports Sir Dorai received from his men, posted to watch, were encouraging.

Nothing was amiss or astir. The morning faded into noon and still, there was nothing. Dorai rode around Kings Castle moat, checking with his men. Each report corroborated with the previous; there were no soldiers in the towers, no one on the gates, and none on the battlements.

"Kings Castle looks deserted, Sir," a knight stated the obvious.

Dorai's intuition warned him to be ready for trickery. Maybe there were other exits from the castle, secret ones. His mind went to the chart.

Returning to the main gate, he ordered his men to search the houses along the road.

"Enter all the rooms, cellars and gardens, search everywhere; look for signs of trapdoors, anything unusual."

Early in the search, he was directed to a house, some way from the main gate, inhabited by a widow, her son, his wife, and three grandchildren. In the tiny back yard, the searchers spied a dry well under cover in a small arbor. There was a steel ladder down the inside wall of the well and the soldiers informed him the well was very deep. It was empty, the bottom bone dry.

Perhaps this is the answer to the dotted 'W', Dorai thought. He had his men fetch a torch and he descended the ladder. The bottom of the shaft was square, lined with great slabs of stone. Ascending the ladder, Dorai decided to question the occupants of the house.

"Morna, my mother-in-law, has been sick for almost two years. She doesn't even rise from her bed now. Her mind is almost gone and our doctor says she won't be here for many more days. We are preparing ourselves," the woman told Dorai. "We've lived in this house since I married Morna's son, Gibson, 10 years ago. I was fifteen years old. Gibson's father was a soldier for King Leopold, but he was killed by an accidental fall from his mount, just after Elliad proclaimed himself king."

Dorai had his own thoughts and suspicions as to how the soldier had died, but he kept his peace and listened to Rose.

"Gibson is a tent-maker by trade and is away working in a warehouse just outside the city. The league of tentmakers has been very busy making new tents because King Elliad bought them out completely, he took all the new and used tents they had in stock."

Dorai felt pleased; at least Elliad was keeping his word about going into exile. He'll live in tents? That will be a change from our Kings Castle, he told himself.

"I need to speak with Morna, your widowed mother-in-law," he told Rose.

"I don't think you'll get very much from her, she raves on so," Rose muttered with her head down.

"Just one more question, Rose," Dorai asked, "how often did King Leopold come to the house here?"

"How do you know about that?" Rose asked, her face aghast.

"We're still searching for King Leopold's body and we believe there might be a passage from your house to the castle. The king came here often didn't he?"

"It was spasmodic; he could come at any time. It was mainly at night, very rarely in the day. Mother said we must never tell anyone." She bowed her head again before saying, "Before her mind wandered, Mother said that King Elliad had threatened her and we weren't to speak of it. But Elliad didn't know about the well, he thought King Leopold visited our house to be with Gilroy..."

"Tell me, how close was your father-in-law to King Leopold?" Dorai asked. Rose blinked and tightened her mouth.

"Come now," Dorai spoke soothingly, "We're all working together now, Rose, not against each other."