Chapter 105 - The Trap is Sprung

Ieaun paused as he heard those words and a chill ran down his spine.  The woman in the mirror continued "They're down in the dungeon, one of the traps has been triggered and someone is fiddling with it.  Get down there and deal with whoever is down there - if it's the girl, bring her up here and kill her!  Do not fail me again"

Ieaun took a deep breath, his mind flashing back to the last words the witch had said to him when they discussed his problems with his vision "remember, however bad the future seems, it can be changed if you have the courage to do so."  Then she had dropped her voice and whispered "and you are prepared to pay the price."

In an instant he knew what he had to do and what it would cost to change the future.  He walked across to the staircase down into the great hall and descended slowly as Nicodur turned and came towards him.

As Nicodur closed the distance between them he began to weave his hands in a complicated fashion and coloured lights coalesced around them.  Ieaun responded by pulling his wand out, ready to fend off whatever spell Nicodur was casting.

Coloured fog burst from Nicodur's hands, shooting straight towards Ieaun, who concentrated hard on casting the appropriate counterspell before the fog was able to wrap fully around him.

He then responded by shooting flames directly at Nicodur, hoping to catch him off guard.  Behind Nicodur, the mirror was still open and the woman behind it had settled herself in a chair to watch, almost as if this were a show put on for her benefit.

The flames were of no effect, Nicodur shrugging them off as if they were simply a light show.  

The duel continued, with spells flying back and forth, but Ieaun knew that he would tire before Nicodur - he didn't have the centuries of practice nor as much magic as a powerful fae could summon, but he knew that every minute he could keep Nicodur occupied was time for Elenie to get to her mother and get out...

Down in the dungeons, Elenie had finally managed to disarm the fire trap between her and her mother's cell.  As she slipped the last part of the trigger mechanism aside the trap cracked audibly and smoke rose from the vents.

Rather more cautiously now, Elenie approached her mother's cell, checking the walls and floor at each turn for any more traps.  The way proved to be clear now and finally she stood in front of the cell door; it was, of course, locked, but after some fiddling and a few sparks of magic, Elenie was able to get it open and face her mother properly for the first time in years.

As she emerged unsteadily from the cell, Dorilys began to cry "Elenie, is that you?  After everything I've done to you, you're here?  I'm so sorry, I've failed you in so many ways all your life, you should have left me here to rot."

As Elenie tried to quiet her, she continued "You should never have come here, it's all a trap for you, he wants to kill you.  You shouldn't have risked it for me when I've failed you as a mother and ignored you all your life."

Eventually her words trailed off into sobs, and Elenie was able to speak; "Calm down.  I know it's a trap but I wasn't going to just leave you in his hands no matter how badly you failed as a parent.  We're going to get you out of here and find a way to stop his interference with our family."

"You said that Nicodur wants to kill me, do you know why?  He had plenty of chances to do that when I was a child and he clearly had other plans then, do you know what changed?  Was it because I got away?  Because other fae intervened?  Or has something else changed since then?"

"I don't know, my memories since I came here are so blurred, but not long ago he was outside the cell laughing at me and saying that I was worthless, a failure and only good to lure you to your death.  He kept asking me how it felt to know that I had failed my child and would now lead her to her death..."

"Never mind, what matters now is that he wants me dead and I'm not going to let that happen, nor am I going to allow him to keep you to use against me in the future.  We have unicorns waiting outside for us and they can take us far away as soon as we're out of this place."

Elenie gave her mother a quick, awkward hug "Come on, we need to get out of here.  There's a tunnel back there which I came in by - these foxes dug it to help me."

As they turned to follow the passage back to the tunnel, Elenie became aware of the sounds percolating down from above - magic spells blasting to and fro.  

"Ieaun!  No!"  Turning she began running towards the sounds, forgetting the dangers both of the dungeon itself and what would be waiting for them above.  As she ran, followed by her mother, another trap sprang to life and they just managed to avoid it.

Swearing in frustration, Elenie began the painstaking task of disarming the trap, knowing that every minute she spent on this was a minute longer that Ieaun would be battling whatever lay above.

Back above, in the great hall, Ieaun was beginning to tire and Nik's expression turned gloating as he continued to fire spells.  In the mirror, the woman was openly laughing as Nik easily parried Ieaun's efforts.

Escaping from the dungeon, Elenie and her mother ran into the great hall in time to see the dying stages of the magic fight.  Ieaun's wand began to sputter as he flung one last spell at Nik.

As Elenie stared in horror, her feet seemingly immobile, Nik cackled as he parried the spell and broke through Ieaun's defences, turning him to a solid gold statue.

Elenie burst into tears as the Grim Reaper appeared in the room, pointing his finger at the statue, he intoned solemnly "IT IS TIME"

Ieaun's spirit appeared, drawn from the statue to lie unmoving on the floor.  As Elenie wept and watched the Grim Reaper take her beloved husband, she dimly heard a voice coming from the mirror "Good, now kill the girl!"

Nik turned from admiring his handiwork and began summoning a spell, but as he cast it towards Elenie, the fox sprang in front of her and took the full force of the spell.

As the spell hit the fox, she shimmered briefly and disappeared, leaving only a whisper in Elenie's mind "Look after my cub for me".

Just then, as Nik moved to begin casting another spell, a great roar shook the entire castle and they all looked up, startled, to see flames lash against the upper windows of the great hall.  Elenie recovered from her shock quicker than Nik and, reaching into her bag, she threw an elixir at him. 

As Nik crumpled to the floor, knocked out by Elenie's elixir, the woman in the mirror shrieked her displeasure "Nooo, how dare you, you little brat, you will die for that"

At that moment, the main door creaked open.  Elenie and Dorilys turned, expecting more enemies, but instead Evie stood there.  "Quickly, grab Ieaun's remains and run!"

As they obeyed her, Dorilys seizing the statue and Elenie the small urn which was all that remained of Ieaun, they heard coming from the mirror behind them "Get over there and stop them!  I want that girl dead!  And bring back Nicodur in chains - he has failed me for the last time!"

Chapter 104 - The Dark Castle

Elenie and Ieaun had gone through a portal from Winterdream's icy realm and emerged in a bleak, depressing land.  Everything seemed to be in shades of grey and black, only occasionally "enlivened" by occasional dark reds which weren't really any better than the blacks and greys; half the plants seemed to be dead or dying and the weather was grim and miserable.  As dusk began to fall, they crested a hill and found themselves looking down on a castle.  

They rode on for a while, winding their way carefully through the hills and keeping a careful eye out for any signs of life.  After a while, they came to a small deserted park and Ieaun suggested that they pause here briefly.  

"That castle we saw up ahead?  That's the one in my visions, which means we need to be ultra careful now."

"We've found it at last?  That's where he's holding my mother prisoner to set a trap for me?"  Elenie took a deep breath and looked around; "It's getting dark, I'm not sure I want to try sneaking in there at night; what do you say to sleeping here overnight and approaching the castle in the morning?"

"I think that's probably a good idea, it seemed quite dark in the visions and I have the feeling it was night, or close to night, so anything we do differently is good.  I'll try and see again tonight and in the morning we can talk about the details and try to find other points where we can change what I saw."

They pitched a small tent and, leaving the unicorns on guard, crawled in to try and sleep.  

The morning dawned all too soon and brought with it an eerie red glow.  As the two of them emerged from the tent, they found that they had visitors waiting for them; a red fox and her cub.  Elenie crouched down to allow the fox to sniff her hand and realised that she recognised her - it was the fox they had rescued from wolves back in one of the forests they had ridden through earlier in their quest.

"I told you that you would see me again.  I have not forgotten that you saved me and my cub from the wolves and I have come to help you with your quest."

Elenie gravely thanked the fox for coming to their aid now and straightened up to talk to Ieaun about their plan for getting into the castle.

"I've been thinking about the details in my visions and, after seeing the castle itself, all of them start with you entering the castle through the front gate and then cut to you facing Nicodur in what looks like a great hall of some sort.  From what I know of castles the great hall is often the first room you come to when entering the main door so I think it's imperative that we don't enter the castle through there - we need to try and avoid the great hall if at all possible."

"Ok, so avoid the main door and the great hall.  What about where my mother is being held?  We need to find that without going through the main door or great hall."

"From what I saw, she's in some sort of cell where there are no windows.  The most likely place would be in the dungeons, but there wasn't much to identify the area - just a cell off a corridor, lighted by flaming torches."

"Right, so we get into the castle by a back way, search the dungeons and hope we find her there.  Otherwise we're going to have search the entire place whilst avoiding the great hall where you think my evil stepfather is."

"Something like that, but Elenie, I promise you, if it's at all within my power I won't let him kill you.  No matter what it takes."

They struck camp and mounting the unicorns, rode slowly towards the castle.  As the sun rose higher, the eerie red light began to fade back to more normal shades, but the place remained just as bleak and apparently lifeless.

Having come close to the castle, they decided it would be best to approach by foot from hereon; the unicorns wouldn't be able to enter the castle in any event and riding any closer would just make them larger targets to be detected.

At this point, the fox barked sharply to get their attention.  When Elenie looked down at her she said "I think this is where I come in.  If we can find a suitable spot I can dig a tunnel into the dungeons, and don't worry, it won't take me nearly as long as you might think."

Elenie turned to Ieaun; "What do you think?  Hopefully digging a tunnel will be something he won't have thought of when he laid this trap for us..."

"It seems like a good shot, you go with the fox, and I'll take a scout round the outside of the building to see if I can find a back way in; although I think your mother's in the dungeons, I can see a number of towers which would also be good places for imprisoning someone."

The two of them embraced and separated, Elenie following the foxes, while Ieaun carefully approached the side of the castle to look for another way in.

The mother fox led Elenie around one side of the castle and underneath a bridge to a small graveyard where she began to dig a hole with the assistance of her cub.

Elenie watched as the hole grew larger and deeper, and the foxes disappeared into the depths of it.    

Eventually, the foxes came out of the hole, which was by now somehow larger than Elenie herself.  The mother fox barked "There you go, one tunnel down into the dungeons.  Are you coming?"  as she dived back into the hole, leaving Elenie little option but to follow her.

The tunnel was long and winding, sloping steeply down most of the way, but after some time Elenie and the foxes emerged into a long corridor underground.  It was dark and lit only with blazing torches, just as Ieaun had described from his vision and Elenie felt her heart jump in hope.  

She followed the corridor along, accompanied by the foxes until she saw an occupied cell up ahead.  Recognising her mother, despite her rags and generally battered appearance, she began to run towards the cell door.

As she ran, she heard a cry "watch out!  There are traps!" but just slightly too late as fire sprang up around her.

She sprang backwards immediately, fortunately avoiding any serious damage.  As she jumped back from the flames, they died down as quickly as they had appeared, revealing a trap which had lain hidden until she had run across it.

Elenie crouched down and began to examine the trap, then carefully began to fiddle with the mechanism to see if she could find a way to disarm it.

Her first attempt however only succeeded in triggering the trap again and she had to rapidly pull her arm back in order to prevent herself from being burned.  She looked around the corridor, but there had been no turnings until the one up ahead beyond the fire trap and she knew that somehow she would need to get past it.

Back above ground, Ieaun had scouted around the outside of the castle and had found only one way in without going through the main gate - a bridge across from some higher ground to the upper levels of the castle.  Looking around the area he decided to explore the upper levels.

Having crossed the bridge, he had gone through a small tower room, and across another walkway to the main building.  Going through the door however, he found himself in the upper level of the great hall, where below him he could see Nicodur talking to a face in a mirror.  As he turned to leave, he heard a woman's voice shriek "They're here, find them!"