Larkspur Mittel: The Lark & Owl Trilogy

15 - Serpent's Brew

Hero jumped down to the dirt floor from the top of the ladder, and sprinted towards the ice boer cellar gate which connected the cellars of both buildings under the road. Shafts of moonlight lit her way from the high egress windows, while the rattling and commotion continued above her at the trap door.

As she reached the old gate that separated the cellars, she heard a small gasp of breath.

"Who's there!" She readied the slingshot, grateful to Boer Mam for giving her some protection.

"Hero?! It's us, Ivan and Aggie!"

Ivan stepped out from behind a stack of old peat crates. His dark skin had helped to camouflage him in the blackness of the cellar, but Hero could see that his eyes were wide and fearful. Beside him stood Aggie looking ghostly pale, awfully thin and just as frightened.

"Oh, am I glad to see you!" Hero whispered.

Ivan began to speak rapidly without pause.

"Aggie had come round, but was still in bed by the hearth in the kitchen, and I stayed with her so that Boer Mam and Old Pushba could get some rest and then a little while later, the soldiers arrived, and we were just lucky, they never came to the kitchen! Once they were all in the Long Hall we snuck out the back corridor and thru the trap door to come down here!"

"Right, well now we've got to get out!"

Hero pushed at the gate but it didn't move.

"It's no use, we've tried everything already," Ivan lifted the heavy iron lock that was normally never used and which now secured the gate.

"Boer Mam must have locked it in the last day or so, after the crow," he whispered, "she was right upset- mumbling, hiding food, locking all the doors and windows, and telling us to be on the look out for anything strange!"

Aggie meanwhile tugged on Hero's sleeve.

"What is it?!" Hero asked, while Aggie said nothing and tugged more.

They heard the pounding of more feet above them running from the long hall towards the front stairwell.

"She can't speak, something about the effects of the poison, Boer Mam said. I think she wants to know where Adelmus is."

"He's-" Hero stopped herself.

Aggie looked so poorly, she couldn't possibly tell her that her brother was in a droll tunnel covered by a horrible lark-eating creature. Their escape was more urgent, because if they didn't get out, they'd never be able to help Adelmus.

She took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself, and moved her satchel from one shoulder to the other as it was bothering her.

"He's nearby and we need to get back to him. Come, let's try the windows!"

"We'll never get through those windows- they have iron bars across the outside of them!" Ivan pointed out the obvious.

It was only then that Hero noticed why her satchel bothered her- it had grown heavy once again. The globe suddenly felt as though she carried a ball of lead, and her satchel strap cut into her shoulder. She wished she could just drop the bag and hide it away, but knowing what she now knew, she could not.

"Wait- what about a droll tunnel?," she suddenly thought, "this building is ancient, it was a trading post on the silver route, right? Surely the drolls would have thought this an important junction. Quick, let's search- look for an old fireplace or hearth, or anyplace where a fire might have been made!"

"Why a fire?" Ivan asked.

"Because at that droll house we cleaned- the droll tunnel was at the back of the hearth!"