The Scrolls of Skava

The Ruby Keep - Part 3

     “Seein’ as neither one of us can read a word,” added the other, and the two of them burst into cackling laughter while the teamsters began to despair.

     “We were told, on the very highest authority, that they’d be here!” cried Thomas, a cold lump forming in the pit of his stomach. “They must be here!”

     “Well, if they’re anywhere they’ll be in the library,” replied Jasper. “That’s where all the books and papers are.”

     “A library!” cried Thomas in renewed hope. “Take us there at once!”

     “Please,” added Diana, giving the wizard a warning glance. “We’d be very grateful if you’d help us.”

     “Why, we’d be glad to,” replied Garnet, bowing low. “If ye’ll follow us...”

     The two old men led them out of the room, and as they walked Arroc tapped Shaun and Thomas on the elbows and gestured for them to fall back a couple of steps, so they could talk without the two old men hearing. “They’re lying,” he whispered. “There are at least seven other people somewhere in this castle. They carried us inside.”

     Shaun nodded. “Say nothing,” he said. “We’re clearly at their mercy here. If we pretend to be fooled, they may let us go.”

     The trog nodded but scowled unhappily as they followed the two old men deeper into the heart of the Ruby Keep.

☆☆☆

     “Here we are,” said Garnet when they reached the library. “We never come in here ourselves, but if what yer want’s anywhere in the castle, it’ll be in here.”

     They looked around the huge room in near despair, staring at long shelves packed with books, papers and scrolls. “It’ll take weeks to search through all this lot!” protested Dennis.

     “Have you got something better to do?” asked Shaun.

     “Maybe there’s a better way,” said Thomas, though. “Resalintas said that the scrolls might have had spells cast on them, for protection for instance, so a Reveal spell ought to show them up. When I cast the spell, pick up anything that’s glowing and put it here on the floor. Okay?”

     “Right,” agreed Shaun. “Ready when you are.”

     The wizard cast the spell, and a couple of dozen objects in the room began to glow with a cold blue light, some of them so brightly that it was hard to look at them. The others hurriedly ran about, picking them up from the shelves and tables and carrying them back to where Thomas was waiting, and he was pleased to find that they could eliminate most of them right away. Some of them were too large. Leatherbound books, for instance. Much too bulky to be the scrolls they were looking for. Others weren’t any kind of literature at all but statuettes and ornaments which he carefully placed to one side, wondering, as he did so, what kind of magic was on them. It occurred to him that he was probably handling some very valuable, powerful and dangerous magical artifacts, and that not only might they net him a very fair price at the next city they came to, they might also blow the lot of them to premature judgement at any moment.

     When the spell’s duration came to an end and the objects stopped glowing, they were left with only two possible candidates. Elegantly carved wooden caskets, precisely the sort of containers that Resalintas had said the scrolls would be in, and he tingled with excitement at the thought that they might finally have the objects of their search within their grasp. He picked one of the caskets at random and tried to open it.

     The hinges were rusty and stiff, but he slowly managed to force it open with a loud creak and a pop as some small obstruction gave way. Having gotten it open, though, he was disappointed to find that it was empty, and so after checking it for false bottoms and hidden compartments he put it aside and picked up the other.