Loremaster - A Progression Fantasy Adventure, page 41
Back in the room, Morgana stood up. Raising her left hand, Rowan could just make out a black stick clutched in her grasp. As he watched, she stepped forward, the stick blurring as it struck the dummy’s face, a cracking sound ringing through the room.
Like lightning, Morgana moved backwards, the sound from her previous strike still audible as she thrust her right arm forward, her hand glowing a verdant green as plants sped from her fingertips and lashed at the dummy, cutting deeply into the wooden frame.
Circling, Morgana continued to strike at the dummy, never resting for even a moment as she ducked and weaved around the wooden construct. After a full minute of this, she collapsed, her breathing hard as she took a break from her assault.
In front of her, the dummy had already begun to heal, the scars and cuts from her plants and the black baton slowly filling in with wood as the magic within took effect. For a moment, Morgana just sat there, but with a groan she reached over and grabbed a book that Rowan had not noticed before. Flipping it open, she began to read, her breathing still harsh as she recovered from the exertion.
Eyes moving away from Morgana, Rowan took in the rest of the room. Apart from the torches on the walls, the room was remarkably sparse. A desk sat at one end, burdened with books. Though he could not make out the titles from his current position, Rowan recognized some of them as being textbooks from the library, having looked at a few of them on the recommendation of Kanna.
Beside the desk and books, the rest of the room was empty save for Morgana and her training dummy. A remarkably unremarkable room that was only notable for its current resident and how out of the way it was.
Movement from the corner of his eye brought Rowan’s attention back to Morgana, who had squared up against the dummy again. A moment later, the sound of her attacks filled the room once more.
In this manner, Morgana continued, alternating between attack and study as she trained in solitude.
For his part, Rowan sat and observed, doing his best to figure out why she was here. Although training was an everyday thing at the academy, it was usually done during normal hours and in the specially set up rooms for practicing and studying. Not after curfew behind two locked doors in a forgotten wing of the castle.
It was not as if she was unable to train elsewhere either. Rowan had seen Morgana training at both the training field and the gym before, and she was a frequent visitor to the library as well, although she never remained to study as he did. So why was she holed up in here after midnight?
The question burned in his mind, but Rowan had no clue how to go about discovering the answer. After all, it was not as if he could just go up to her and say, ‘Hey, Morgana. I saw you heading out for a late-night practice session and tailed you secretly before watching you like a creepy stalker for twenty minutes.’
Rowan shook his head. Yeah, no. She would tear him apart, and unlike the training dummy, he did not have any magic to stitch himself back together once she was done with him.
Figuring that he had seen enough, Rowan decided that it was about time to head out. Even if he was pretty safe in the darkened passage, there was no guarantee that Morgana wouldn’t grow paranoid and decide to check to make sure she was truly alone. After all, this was the girl that had hidden herself behind two locked doors just to train. There was no telling what went through her mind.
Withdrawing from the door, Rowan slid it closed, holding the handle so as to not allow the latch to brush over the door frame. Gently, he shut it, intending for it to close as silently as it had opened. That was not the case. With a sound that, to Rowan’s ears seemed almost ear-splittingly loud, a chime rang out through the air, similar to the ones shopkeepers employed.
In reality, the sound was faint, just barely loud enough to echo through the hallway, which explained why he had not heard it when Morgana had shut the door in the first place. Magic in the handle perhaps, which would explain why it had not been triggered when he had picked the lock to open it.
Regardless of the reason for the chime, the sound it made was still more than loud enough to alert the fae girl to his presence, and Rowan heard her jump to her feet in the room beyond, doubtless coming to see who dared to spy on her.
Fuck. Rowan glanced down the hallway. What had once seemed like a rather short hall now seemed to stretch out into infinity, the door at the other end impossibly distant. Morgana’s footsteps on the other side of the door he was standing beside were not close, but it would not take her long to reach it, and there was no way he would be able to reach the end of the hallway in that time.
Flattening himself to the wall, Rowan did his best to meld into the shadows, his hands pressed hard against the rough stone as he sought to meld with it. At that moment, he desperately wished he had a full body version of the spell Fiin had used to reach into the wall back in the Thimp dungeon.
Unfortunately, he had no such thing, and the footsteps were growing closer. Moving slightly to the side, Rowan sought a darker patch of shadow, hoping that what he had felt earlier really was what he thought it was.
Just as Morgana’s footfalls went silent, Rowan felt the friction against his palm disappear, the stone turning smooth beneath his hand all of a sudden. Giving it a hard push, a moment later, he felt the rest of himself slip sideways as well, the wall spinning as it sucked him inside, spilling him into darkness as he fell forward into the dark abyss beyond, the wall shutting closed behind him.
Outside in the hallway, a click sounded as the door opened, revealing Morgana’s wrathful face to the world. Brushing a strand of stray hair out of her face, she raised her hand, casting a spell that illuminated the entire hallway in harsh light. Nothing was revealed, and she frowned, her gaze falling upon the door at the end of the hallway. After a moment, she turned, heading back inside as the door shut behind her, another soft chime ringing through the now empty hallway.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The interior of the wall was exactly what Rowan had expected it to be: dark as a tomb. A hasty light spell fixed that, and the floating orb illuminated his new surroundings.
A long passage stretched forth before him, the darkness utter and complete in the stony confines of the castle. Thick-caked dust lined the floor and walls, untouched for years by the looks of things. Letting go of the breath he had been holding for the past minute, Rowan exhaled, doing his best to stay quiet. The wall looked thick, but sound carried, and he did not want to awaken anything that might have made a home in this dark place.
Taking a step forward, Rowan winced as a soft crunch rang out. A quick look at his boot revealed the source of the noise—a small skeleton, likely a rodent of some sort that had died long ago.
For a moment, Rowan considered going back the way he had come, but he abandoned that idea almost immediately. For one thing, he had no idea whether or not Morgana was waiting for him in the passage behind him, and for another… well, he simply didn’t know how to get back.
The wall that had spun around to deposit him inside this tunnel was just what he had hoped it might be, a trigger for the secret passage that lay behind it. But the stone on this side was smooth rock with no extraordinary features. Or at least none that were immediately evident. Opening it back up could take a considerable amount of time, if it was even something that could open at all.
However, secret passages such as this were not unknown to Rowan. Nobles and wealthy merchants alike favored them back in Taureen, seeming to think them impregnable and undiscoverable. Alas, many forgot that, even if they had the builders who constructed them killed, there would always be killers who liked to know why they were being paid to wet their blades. Inevitably, word got out, and the thieves of Taureen had learned how to navigate the passages hidden through bookshelves, behind walls, and within dried out wells, just as easily as they did the alleyways they called home.
The one thing that every hidden passage had in common was that they were all built for a purpose, usually escape, and each and every one led somewhere. While Rowan did not know what the purpose of the tunnel he found himself in now was, so long as it was not the way that professors took when dropping off the bodies of misbehaving students, he would probably be all right. Purpose or not, the tunnel had an entrance, which meant it was time for him to find the exit.
Thus motivated, Rowan set off, keeping the sphere of light conjured in front of him as he navigated the pitch-black darkness. Dust stirred around him, disturbed from its slumber by the tread of his boots, the footsteps loud in the emptiness of the tunnel.
Five minutes passed, which soon stretched to ten, the tunnel continuing to stretch out into infinity before him. Despite this, Rowan did not hurry, his gaze vigilant as he swept the tunnel for traps. More than one of his fellow thieves had died to tripwires hidden in the dust, or arrow volleys triggered by pressure plates in the floor, and he had no desire to die such an ignoble and lonely death.
At last, after roughly fifteen minutes by Rowan’s estimation, he came to the end of the tunnel. Similar to where he had entered, the wall was smooth, the stones cool to the touch. No, not just cool, Rowan realized, freezing. The cold of the stones bit into his hand, causing him to yank it away, breathing hotly upon it to induce circulation as he took in the rest of the surroundings.
Apart from the smooth stones, the only other thing of note at the end of the tunnel was a lever. There on the wall next to the smooth stones, it hung, carved in the likeness of a horned bull. Inspecting it, Rowan checked for traps, but could see no obvious ones. The rest of the area yielded nothing else either, traps or otherwise
Satisfied that there was no hidden mechanism to open the door, Rowan placed his hand on the lever and pulled gently. The lever did not budge. Frowning, Rowan pulled again, sharper this time. This time, the lever moved slightly, but only slightly. There was still no sign of anything actually happening.
I didn’t come this far to be defeated by a damn lever. Placing both hands on the lever, Rowan wrenched it downwards, the iron bull unable to resist the full weight of his body pushing down on top of it.
With the grind of rusty metal, the lever slid downwards, and at the same time, the wall in front of him began to move, the stones separating one by one, sliding to the side to reveal a small doorway and a thicket of branches.
Branches? Stooping down, Rowan pressed through the door, his hand going to the branches to separate them. As he did, a cold feeling pressed down on his head and neck, and it took all of Rowan’s strength not to yelp, instead frantically retreating as he brushed whatever it was that had landed on him off his head.
Snow. It was snow that had caused the sensation just now, Rowan realized as he stared at the white powder that glittered on the floor of the tunnel. Which meant that the reason the stones had been freezing was because the end of this passage led not into the tunnel, but outside.
Hoping that, wherever he was, it was still inside the castle—as he did not want to explain to the guards at the gate why he was outside the academy after curfew—Rowan once again forged through the small doorway. He pushed the branches aside, ignoring the snow that fell as he checked out the scene beyond the bush.
With a small sigh of relief, Rowan recognized the small courtyard he was in. It was one of the open-air ones, not far from the Hafgufa dormitory. He and Dugan had spent a few afternoons here, whiling the time away under the autumn sunshine.
No such scene existed before him now, the courtyard a gleaming tapestry of white amidst the darkness.
Checking to ensure no one was nearby, Rowan crawled out from behind the bush. Behind him, the stones shifted, grinding back into place as the passage was sealed once more.
The walk back to the dormitory was quiet, and Rowan made sure to keep it that way. On more than one occasion he was forced to backtrack by the sounds of approaching footsteps, hiding in shadows or behind suits of armor as professors walked the hallways.
Several close encounters later, Rowan finally arrived back at the Draigwyn dormitory. Luckily for him, Morgana was nowhere in sight when he entered, and nor were any other students, the majority having gone home for the holidays, and the remaining smart enough to have already gone to bed.
Wearily, Rowan followed their example, kicking off his clothes and climbing under the warm covers. A lot had happened tonight, but he could process it in the morning. Right now, he needed sleep…
It was nearly noon when Rowan awoke, the sun bright outside his window. Droon was already gone, his bed neatly made as always. Rather than follow his example, Rowan left his own bed covers where they lay, abandoning them in his quest for the bathroom.
His quest complete, Rowan embarked on a new one, this time to the cafeteria for some food. The last time he had eaten had been dinner the night before, almost eighteen hours ago, and his stomach was crying out for sustenance. No longer the type to ignore the cries of an empty stomach, Rowan hurried through the halls of the academy, setting aside the matter of thinking for the moment. Hidden training and secret passages could wait; hunger was the immediate issue.
Twenty minutes and one empty plate later, Rowan departed the cafeteria, his mind finally turning to the events of last night.
So... It turned out that Morgana’s secret was that she was training privately? That was far less exciting than he had hoped, even if it was being done in a secluded room, under cover of night, and after curfew.
Despite the somewhat odd conditions she was training under, in the end, it was still just training, something completely normal at the academy. Hell, even he himself liked to train privately, away from the likes of Varna or any of the uppity nobles who sneered at his poor form or lacking technique.
While Morgana’s decision to train in solitude was slightly more puzzling, given that unlike him her technique was flawless and her abilities first rate, that was her prerogative. Had she not been sneaking out after curfew to do so, it would not be notable in the least, not like the hidden passage he had found.
The hidden passage… Now this was a big find, and Rowan’s thoughts whirled as he deliberated on the significance of his accidental discovery. Faebrook had a hidden passage in it, and if his experience with nobles was correct, then where there was one, there were bound to be more. There was no doubt in his mind about that. The only real question was whether or not locating them would be worth the time and effort it would take to do so.
Rowan drummed his fingers against his cheek, his eyes distant as he considered the matter. No matter which way he sliced it, it was hard to argue that devoting time and effort towards the locating of secret tunnels would help with his studies or training. Realistically, even his excursion last night had been time that would have been better spent catching up on sleep back in the dormitory.
However, a life purely devoted to studying was driving him stir-crazy, and it was not as if he needed to spend all his time searching for potential entrances to other corridors or tunnels. No, all he had to do was keep an eye out, maybe go for a few long walks through the academy while paying special attention to the walls, floors, and carefully positioned bookshelves, paintings, and bushes. And that really wasn’t so big of an ask. In fact, he was doing it now.
Looking away from the half-clothed nymph statue that acted as the centerpiece for the fountain in the courtyard before him, Rowan’s eyes moved to the nearby bushes, then a stone frieze, and lastly a hanging tapestry, clinging tightly to the wall so that it might better conceal the secrets behind it. What were those secrets? More than likely, the same stonework that existed to either side of the tapestry, but that was for him to discover...
It turned out that the tapestry’s secrets were as normal and non-descript as Rowan had imagined, and he allowed it to fall back against the wall, checking once more to make sure that no one was nearby as he contemplated what to do next.
It was obvious now that, given the existence of the first passage, there was no way he could restrain himself from looking for more. And with that decision made, Rowan turned his mind towards the benefits he would gain if he decided to go through with his new plan.
As far as hidden passages went, the tunnel he had found last night was fairly pointless in its scope, merely providing a faster way to traverse from the northern side of the castle to the south. With both entrances being positioned in out of the way areas, in most cases, it would take nearly as much time to use the passage as it would to just head to his destination normally.
The real value in the passage he had found last night lay in its existence. While this one was of little use to him, others might be much more useful. It was only a matter of finding them.
Rowan smiled as he imagined the possibilities. The most obvious ones were tunnels that could take him outside the grounds of the academy. Though, given their importance and the security risks they posed, those would also be the most likely to be watched. Apart from tunnels leading outside, there should also be hidden backdoors to rooms such as the headmistress’ office, various locations throughout the academy such as the different house dormitories, and perhaps even one to the storeroom.
For safety reasons, Rowan instantly decided against searching for passages that might lead to anywhere dangerous, and that he definitely should not be going to such as the headmistress’ office. Lira Kess seemed like a nice enough principal for the academy, but he had little belief in the idea that she would be pleased to see him pop up in her office unannounced and uninvited. Quite the opposite, in fact. And given her prodigious magical abilities, well, it was probably best to let that sleeping dog lie.
The same was probably true for the academy storeroom where items from dungeons and other treasures were kept. If a secret passage leading there did exist, then it was in his own best interest that he did not locate it.
The rest of the academy was fair game, however. Secret passages were a convenient tool, and one that would be convenient to have in his repertoire. If there were any in the academy, he would find them.
