"Don't worry!" Aela said with a genuine smile of satisfaction. "This passage is not known by anyone else in the castle but me."
"Thanks to Noor, the girl has not lost her candor, despite the ordeal she had gone through," thought Rinna, seen the joy and enthusiasm that Aela expressed.
It had already been a few weeks since they had found Aela all alone in the vastness of the forest. Gradually, Rinna had been putting together little fragments of Aela's story.
"But if she is not more than a lucky refugee from the Triad exodus, where did she get such intriguing bracelets?" asked herself intrigued. Hence, her interest in entering the castle and see if there was still someone or something to throw light on the girl.
Rinna's interest was not pure curiosity.
Since the days that had passed from their encounter, Aela had demonstrated innately the ability to sense the thoughts and behavior of those who surrounded her. To the guild of priestesses of Magyar, it was a gift. She had guessed Balin had been about to light a fire without even having gotten his flint.
"May I help you?" had offered the girl. "Let me do it for you!" she had said to the dwarf when he had not even risen from his site with that manifest intention.
Balin had been perplexed, not quite understanding how the girl had been able to read his mind. Rinna meanwhile, observed the situation and waited to confirm her suspicions.
On another occasion, the girl entered her tent, carrying a small blanket, which Rinna was about to fetch. In itself, these two events could have been the work of chance, but there were other details that an expert as she was did not overlook.
Yet on another occasion, Aela had taken a couple of sparrow eggs from a basket that was in the corner of their tent, which Balin had deftly fleeced from a nest atop a tree. She was about to leave the tent when Rinna asked: "Where are you going with those eggs, honey?"
"The little fox is hungry," had said the girl. "It has been days since it hasn't hunted anything.
"What fox?" had asked Rinna.
"The fox that is outside," said the girl as if nothing while she went out.
Rinna leaned out of the tent to see with astonishment that indeed a fox was eating the two eggs from Aela's hand.
How did she know there had been a hungry fox out of the tent? The woman had asked herself in wonder. How could such a wary animal have approached her so confidently and naturally?
These and many other little details had given much to think to Rinna and the dwarf. That quality was so natural to the girl that she was not even aware of it.
"It's around here!" indicated Aela very confident, as she walked along the narrow and dark passageway that made its way into the castle.
Aela assured her companions that she knew how to get in and out of the castle without anyone noticing. Everyone in the palace knew she did, but no one had ever discovered how. That was another of the girl's skills. She could be present in one place and almost pass completely unnoticed. Not that she disappeared. Simply and innately, she eased the minds of those present to pass ignored.
"Let's go!" indicated the girl to Rinna and Balin, leading them through a dark passageway, illuminating their way with a torch that she had always kept ready outside her secret entrance to the castle. The tunnel was long and narrow. The walls dripped moisture, and the floor was slippery. The soft rumble of Rinna's staff when she struck it to the ground was the only sound heard, alongside the echo that it caused.
"We are almost there," said Aela. "We'll be getting out through a door hidden by a column, which gives entrance into a room used to store old furniture and obsolete weapons. "There won't be anyone there!" she said with absolute certainty.
The passage finally ended in a wall. The girl put her hand through a narrow slit, triggering a mechanism that released with a short faint click; a bolt that held closed a well-concealed door.
Stealthily, the girl pushed the door cautiously, poking her head into the room. She waited until her eyes adjusted to the darkness, not wanting to take the torch out, in case there was someone in the room. As she predicted, there was no one.
"This is my little sword!" Aela exclaimed with undisguised joy, taking a nice carved sheath that was leaning on the wall next to the door. "I left it here last time I went out. I only took my hunting gear when I went hunting to the forest," she explained.
The girl removed from the sheath a small sword forged for her. It was shorter than a regular sword, but it was evident it wasn't a toy but meant to do whatever a sword was supposed to do.
"And you know how to use it?" asked Balin, amazed. "A child to be aware of!" he said maliciously. "Maybe it's me who needs protection," laughed the dwarf.
Rinna smiled pleased. She felt glad to have encountered that spirited girl.
The girl hung her sword at her waist belt, and beckoning Rinna and Balin to follow her, walked through a series of twists and turns that maybe she alone knew, so abandoned those passages were. There were cobwebs everywhere and pervasive musty smell.
Not long after, they heard the clashing of pots common to the daily activity of a kitchen. They also heard low voices commenting on something.
"Sshhh!" motioned the girl, taking her index finger to her lips to indicate silence. Rinna laughed to herself, enjoying the sagacity of her pupil.
"What a clever and lively lass," thought Rinna, very pleased. "If I confirm my suspicions, she should be trained. Thank goodness no one else found her," the old woman sighed.
This time, Balin took the initiative to look out into the room. They were inside the castle, and now he had to ensure first and foremost, the safety of her protégée.
Two women talked rowdy while preparing a stew that gave off an exquisite scent.
"The lady likes it very seasoned," said one.
"Yes. Very peppery," commented the other.
"Could that be why she has those so weird grayish eyes? Wondered the woman who seasoned the stew?
"Shut up, you idiot. That could cost you your life!" remarked her companion. "That's none of our business."
The furtive visitors decided to go along searching for the chamber of Princess Rosala.
"How am I going to tell them about Aenor?" Aela wondered while feeling an excruciating pain that crossed her chest? She had to make an effort to keep from crying. "How I miss you," the girl thought about Aenor with infinite sorrow.
"There it is, finally," Aela said, pointing to a beautifully carved door that remained ajar. "Come on!" Aela said excitedly only to be tackled with force but with kindness by Balin.
"Wait for, kid!" said the dwarf. "We don't know who might be in there."
Indeed, a couple of bulky female warrior, recognizable by their contours even though their gender went unnoticed due to the heavy leather breastplates they wore, left the room followed by a strange woman.
Aela gasped in horror at recognizing the woman, as the same ghostly figure she had seen when the burning of the village, and then again when escaping from the tent, she had been kept captive.
The woman suddenly halted and turned to where the trio of outsiders was hiding.
Luckily, they had taken refuge in a dark corner protected by a large arcade. There were no windows nearby, so the place was bleak. That helped them to go unnoticed.
That singular woman looked around. Her eyes were almost translucent, with pupils of a transparent gray. Rinna could foresee a strong and powerful evil that emanated from that exotic woman. Balin crouched and put his hands over his head. Aela was the only one who remained calm, despite the terror that that woman inspired. This stance was not lost to the expert eye of Rinna.
The three stood motionless until the woman stopped looking around, and went on her way escorted by her two bodyguards.
After making sure they were completely alone, the party left their hiding place to get into what it looked like a tea chamber. They went in and noted that all its contents had been violently turned over and messed out without contemplation. The sun streaming in through the large windows allowed Rinna, whom to almost nothing went unnoticed, to understand that there was nothing to find out in that room.
They crept out of the room to go to another one located at the end of the corridor. The door of the room faced a large balcony that jutted toward an inner garden, partly covered with clothes of all kinds, which hung from the branches of the trees. Someone had thrown all those clothes messily from the balcony. They entered the chamber to see the same mess they had found in the previous room. Clothes and objects appeared thrown everywhere. There was a table flipped over at a corner, and some paintings and images appeared torn out. A large, shattered mirror hung sideways from a wall.
The drapes that once made up the canopy that surrounded the bed lay torn on the floor. The curtains that once covered the large windows had all been ripped down as well.
"This was Prince Odober and Princess Rosala's chamber," pointed the girl.
Balin went ahead to open a door that stood to one side of the room, only to see that it gave access to the place they had been previously.
"Nothing," mentioned Balin briefly.
"There is no sign of the occupants," commented Rinna.
Balin walked cautiously through the spacious room, turning to another door that was at the end of a short passage wich communicated with yet another stay. The group headed there, always with caution. Through the door, they could hear voices talking distractedly. Suddenly the small door opened to admit a couple of female warriors, similar to those that had previously escorted the strange woman.
Both groups, taken by surprise, looked at each other. The warriors drew their swords. However, Balin had already recovered from his bewilderment, and displaying agility not consonant with his stocky body, managed to overthrow the one that was closer to him, hitting hard with his foot the woman's knee, causing her to lose balance. He immediately applied pressure with his fingers on the neck of the Amazon, who lost her consciousness. The other warrior sword in hand rushed towards Rinna. The woman was preparing to defend herself with her staff when she felt a movement behind her. Quick as a cat, Aela had drawn her sword and readied to face the warrior who was twice her size and strength. The surprise of the warrior at the attack by such a young girl paralyzed her for a moment, giving Rinna enough time to strike an accurate blow to the warrior's head with her staff, putting her out immediately.
The girl stood up with her sword upward, waiting for the blow from her failed opponent. Aela cocked her head to note that the dwarf was at her side.
"You're too fast, Balín!" exclaimed the girl admired. "How do you do it?"
"That was very unwise of you, my dear young lady!" replied the dwarf. "Didn't you see that this woman could have cut you in two?" said the dwarf with great concern.
"Don't worry, my little friend," replied the girl charmingly. "I also know how to defend myself," gestured the girl with a smile while sheathing her shiny sword.
"We must be more careful," gestured Rinna, giving a reproachful look at Balin. He understood it and lowered his head, acknowledging his lightness to forget that his main priority was to protect the girl.
They entered the new room, noting that it was smaller than the previous one.
"This was Aenor's room," gestured Aela, who this time had been left last as a precaution.
Rinna and Balin turned to notice the change in the tone of their ward. Tears rolled down her cheeks. They had forgotten that she still had fresh memories of the tragedy.
"We came here to collect the footsteps of your old life," Rinna said softly to the girl. "You must never forget your little friend, but you must continue as a tribute to her and for yourself," said the woman. "Maybe, it was not prudent to have come. I think we should leave. We have already seen there are none of the inhabitants of the castle," she mentioned.
Suddenly, they heard voices in the next room, remembering that they had left two women lying on the ground. A bustle formed on the other side of the door, and a throng of steps walked to where they were. With time running out and without thinking twice, Aela ran to the door that led to the main corridor and left the room. Rinna and Balin, again taken by surprise by the speed of the girl, had no choice but to follow her.
They ran down a wide corridor that bordered on one side with the interior garden of the castle. From below, a troop of warriors climbed a staircase to try to block their path.
Without delay, Aela headed to the end of the corridor. A narrow staircase led down to one corner of the garden. It was the back stairs used by the servants to get down from the main chambers to the ground floor of the castle. Big horned heads of deer, aurochs and wild boar adorned the walls of the passage. Old iron armors, which perhaps could tell bloody histories of past times, stood alongside several doors that faced the hallway.
"Over there!" exclaimed a portentous male voice, while the runaways reached the ground passage.
A party of soldiers ran in their direction. Some arrows launched by a pair of archers from the upper corridor whizzed near their heads. The general alarm spread throughout the compound. Soldiers were everywhere.
Aela headed to a garden at the back of the castle. A big noria stood at one side of the garden. The device fed water to the building, brought from a nearby river through a long-paved canal that finally poured into the wheel. The same force of the water that made the wheel roll triggered a pumping mechanism that allowed the arrival of the precious liquid to the upper parts of the castle. The channel went into the fortress through a vaulted tunnel. A portcullis prevented access from the outside.
For Aela, the castle kept no secrets. She knew every nook and crack.
"This way!" shouted the girl to her companions.
"How are we going to leave if we go straight to the trellis?" Balin asked.
"By climbing, how else?" said the girl as if that was the most obvious way. "The grille can be lifted and fits into a slot on top of the wall. It has a mechanism of checks and balances," explained Aela. "I'll climb and open it," she said, smiling despite the arrows that rained down on them.
Aela tried to climb the trellis, greeted by a hail of arrows that nearly hurt her.
"Rain is what you want?" blurted the dwarf while making a gesture with his hands, as if he were drawing back a curtain while mumbling some unintelligible words.
The waters from the channel began to evaporate rapidly to form a thick fog that partially hid them from their attackers. The fog was so thick that it was practically impossible to walk and move through it. The arrows fired by the archers slowed down when crossing the mist to fall unharmed a few meters ahead.
Aela looked stunned, unable to believe her eyes.
"Go on, sweetie," gestured Rinna. "We have no time to lose."
The girl started her ascent through the gate, finally reaching the top and disappearing through a narrow gap that opened between the thick walls. Suddenly, the gate began a slow rise, leaving a frill of water as it went up.
"Come on!" pointed Rinna to the dwarf without waiting for the gate to end its lift up. An arrow missed the dwarf by little, crossing and leaving a hole in the sleeve of his tunic.
"Something is lifting the spell!" said Balin. "I cannot keep it!"
The fog dissipated as quickly as it had formed to make way to the strange woman they had seen before, standing in front of her warriors. Dressed all in black and with her long red hair and glassy eyes glowing with an eerie glow, she extended her arms forward, and with a gesture like that of Balin, literally dispelled the fog away with her hands.
Balin tried a new resource. He held his right hand towards the channel, to cause the velocity of the water that ran through it to increase. The wheel spun so fast that vast quantities of water poured over the strange woman and her legionaries. The overflow knocked down the surprised soldiers. However, the exotic woman stood unscathed.
Balin and Rinna had almost reached the long tunnel when a mysterious black shadow began to form around the woman. The shadow moved so fast that it managed to catch up and cover the dwarf.
Balin took his hands to his throat as he started to choke.
Aela got off the wall and helped Rinna to drag Balin as far as possible from that shadow, while the dwarf tried desperately to absorb the precious air that shied away from his lungs.
Aela felt the arousal of an infinite rage, late expression of all her accumulated pain. She turned to face this strange apparition, digging deeper with contempt and thinking on how to make that witch free his friend of that mysterious grip.
Suddenly turning her gaze, the girl looked a kind of emanation that rose from Rinna's body, which shone with a radiant glow. The intangible emanation soon struck a sort of a struggle with the blackness that held the other witch.
Balin felt the air returning to his collapsed lungs. Aela approached his friend, not knowing what to do.
Balin took advantage of the struggle between the two women, and with unusual agility, climbed over the fence. Meanwhile, the black shadow of the strange woman and the white and ethereal emanation that had arisen from Rinna started to fade. The struggle had exhausted them both.
A violent sound shook the surroundings, whence the massive gate fell off, hitting the ground hard and blocking the passage between the interior and the exterior of the castle.
That allowed Aela and her companions to get through the grille and escape to the forest.
Turning her head to see if someone came in their pursuit, the girl managed to see the enigmatic red-haired woman holding a sinister smile, while her eyes shone with a glow of evilness.