Lillandra

The innkeeper's eyes widened when Arai told him his plan. "You're joking," he said.

"Not at all. We're going to explore this castle, to see what secrets we can find. We'll be back tonight. You'll look after our things until then?"

"Of course, but..." The man looked at them helplessly. "You don't know what you're doing! I told you last night, didn't I? Nobody has ever returned from that place alive...not since Nharlek died, anyway, if he did die. The monsters--"

"Will not be a problem," Arai finished, tapping the pommel of his sword. "Trust me, we know what we're doing."

"I shouldn't have told you about the castle," the distressed innkeeper said, running a hand through his hair. "Len forgive me." He looked at them sadly. "I hope you can make it back alive."

"We intend to." And with that, they left the inn, making their way up the street and out of town, in the direction of the high hill upon which sat the castle the townsfolk called the Haunt.

It had been too dark and stormy last night for them to see the castle, but they could see it now that the sun had risen and the weather had cleared -- in fact it was impossible to miss. It was a massive castle, dark and forbidding, with several high towers. It looked something like a giant spider, perched on the rim of the valley.

They had a long walk ahead of them, and it was almost all uphill. Arai, having equipped his armor, took the lead, while Lillandra and Shell followed cautiously behind him. The elf girl looked especially uneasy.

"Maybe we should have left her at the inn," Lillandra said to Arai.

"A monster-infested castle is nothing compared to what we'll face in the Scarred Lands. I warned her that traveling with us would be dangerous, didn't I?"

Lillandra sighed and looked ahead. "The magia is very thick here, and especially around that castle. It's no wonder this sorcerer chose it for his lair."

Arai looked at the castle thoughtfully. "Why do some places have more magia than others?"

She shrugged. "It has something to do with the environment. It tends to collect in places with unusual geographical features -- high mountains, cliffs, waterfalls, volcanoes, escarpments, sinkholes, caves -- and in places where man has altered the natural environment in some way. Cities, castles, cemeteries, quarries, canals, that kind of thing." She regarded the castle on the hill. "Old places, places with a lot of history, always have a lot of magia."

"And monsters?"

"And monsters."

"What kinds of monsters will we find up there, do you think?"

"I couldn't begin to guess. Mountains breed ape-men and rock-bears, forests breed tanglers and man-traps, and volcanoes breed dragons. In places like this, where the environment has been disturbed by man, you can get any kind of monster at all." She looked at him seriously. "We should be prepared for anything."

"I agree," he said. But he wasn't terribly worried; he had Silus, after all, and Silus was bane to monsters and magic alike.

"What causes monsters to appear?" Shell asked suddenly, coming up behind them. She must have heard part of their conversation.

"Magia," Lillandra answered.

"Yes, but why?"

"Has no one ever told you?"

She shook her head.

"Ah." Her voice acquired a teacherly tone. "I've explained to you the steps involved in casting a spell. Compression, confinement, calculation, and casting. A witch or a wizard draws magia out of the air, holds it in place, performs a calculation, and releases it in the form of a spell."

She nodded.

"Well, in some places, magia grows so dense that it compresses and confines itself on its own. But without a sorcerer there to perform a calculation, to shape it and direct it, that mass of magia becomes a monster instead -- a chaotic thing, a deformed thing."

"Oh."

Arai, who had never really thought much about where monsters came from, was grateful for the explanation as well; he had never heard this before either. It made sense.

It was hot and humid day. The weather was clear when they set out, but by the time they arrived at the gates of the castle the skies had once again grown dark, and another thunderstorm was rolling in over the valley. There was no rain this time, at least, but the lightning was frequent and the thunder was loud, and Arai was anxious to find shelter.

The castle's gates hung open; there was nothing to prevent them from going inside. Arai drew his sword and went in first, with Shell behind him and Lillandra bringing up the rear. But the Night Queen stopped just as they stepped over the threshold, into the castle's dark and gloomy interior.

"What is it?" Arai asked.

"There's some kind of spell at work here," she said, frowning.

"What kind of spell?"

She furrowed her brow. "Some kind of lock? I'm not sure. It's an unusually complex spell, whatever it is, and there's definitely some kind of inhibiting element, but I can't tell what it's doing." She finally shrugged. "I don't think it's any danger to us."

"If you say so." He motioned for Shell to come forward. "Stay close to me."

She nodded and went to him, her eyes darting around all over. "Where do you think we'll find this Eagle's Wing?" she asked.

"I have no idea," Arai admitted. "The upper floors, maybe? What do you think, Lillandra?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," she said distractedly. She was obviously still mulling over this spell, whatever it was.

They proceeded into the castle, into a grand, open area with a mezzanine. It was too dark to see, so Lillandra got out the Candle of Hours and activated it.

The interior was very dirty -- there were huge cobwebs in the corners, and rotted tapestries hanging from the walls. The detritus of the outdoors had drifted into this main room, through the open doors, and there was moss on the floor; part of the castle appeared to have been flooded at one point. It smelled earthy and worm-ridden; it made Arai think of a tomb, or an open grave.

"I don't see any monsters," Shell commented quietly.

"Keep your eyes open," Arai said. "Let's head in."

They passed through the grand room and into a series of long, winding corridors. Outside, the storm was now raging, the thunder exploding with cracking, concussive force. It must have been very close.

They explored a few side rooms, but found nothing interesting within them -- just old, rotten furniture, more rotted tapestries, and a couple of suits of Addish armor, each one draped with spiderweb-capes. Arai inspected some of the armor, to determine whether it might be worth anything, but the suits were filthy and rusted out.

Lillandra was preoccupied. "What's wrong?" Arai asked her quietly.

"This place," she muttered. "There's spells woven into the stone. Old spells, powerful spells. Some of these calculations are incredible. But there's so much magia in the air, so much magical activity...I'm having trouble figuring out what it's all for."

"Nharlek's work?"

"Some of it, maybe, but most of these spells are ancient. They're probably as old as the castle itself."

Arai and Shell continued to lead the way, with Lillandra behind them. They were passing through yet another long corridor when the Night Queen suddenly stopped.

"Now what?" Arai asked.

"I thought I saw something."

Arai raised his sword. "A monster?"

"I don't know," she said doubtfully. "It didn't seem like--"

And suddenly, to Arai's shock, a huge, black creature, vaguely humanoid, dropped out of the ceiling, directly in front of Lillandra. It was heavily muscled, with long arms and a humped back, and it was covered in black fur. A series of thin, hairlike spines jutted out of its back, making it look something like a dog with its hackles up. There were several objects affixed to its muscled back -- wooden figures, talismans, and suchlike, woven into its fur.

Lillandra screamed at the sight of it and dropped the Candle of Hours. The creature seized her, wrapping one long arm around her waist, and pulled her into the shadows on the wall. Both of them disappeared, vanishing into the blackness; Lillandra's scream was abruptly cut off.

It happened so quickly that for a moment Arai simply stood there, astonished. What the hell had just happened?

"What was that?" Shell asked, wide-eyed.

"Some kind of monster."

"What did it do to Lillandra?"

"I don't know." He went to the wall, into which Lillandra and the monster had disappeared, and tapped it with the tip of his sword. It was solid.

"Where did they go?" Shell wondered. "Through the wall?"

"Through the shadow, I think."

"Is that possible?"

He shrugged. "Some monsters have strange powers."

"What were those things stuck to its back?"

"I don't know."

She bit her lip. "What are we going to do?"

"We have to find her."

"Do you think she's still alive?"

"An ordinary monster would have attacked us, tried to kill us. This one wanted her alive for some reason."

"Maybe it's saving her for dinner."

"Monsters don't eat. You know that."

"Why, then? Why did it take her?"

"I have no idea. But we're not going to learn anything just standing around. We have to find her." Lillandra was, technically, his mortal enemy, but he couldn't just let her die -- he needed her to reverse the spell she had cast on his friends. And he might need her help getting back to Velon.

Were those really the only reasons, though? He frowned, thinking about it. He had spent the last two months in Lillandra's company, and although they were always arguing, she had almost felt like a friend at times, or a comrade at least, and she had saved his life back in Ada, when Erek had been about to stab him. Didn't he owe her something?

He stopped himself there. The Night Queen? A friend?

He shook his head. He could sort out his feelings later; they had more pressing concerns.

Shell picked up the Candle of Hours. "Can you get that thing working?" Arai asked. Without the light, it was very dark in the corridor.

"I'll try." She fixed her eyes on the tip of the twig, and after a moment it began to glow very softly. It wasn't enough light to see by -- Arai finally had to assemble a makeshift torch, out of rags and rotten furniture -- but Shell was pleased.

"I did it!" she exclaimed, staring at the light. "I'm doing it! It's easier, I think, because there's so much magia in here."

"Let's get going."

She jogged to catch up with him. "Where do you think this monster makes its lair?"

"We'll try the upper floors. If we can..." He trailed off there, because he had just felt a strange rumbling under his feet.

Shell felt it too. "What was that? Thunder?"

But it wasn't thunder -- it was the floor itself, giving way beneath them. One moment they were standing in the corridor, and in the next, they were falling, tumbling over loose bricks and plummeting into the floors below. Arai caught a glimpse of Shell's panicked face in the torchlight, but then he lost his grip on the torch, and everything went black.