Darkness

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Darkness Chapter 7   Bread & Shadows



The corridor ended in a square, stone stairway with a series of landings, each lit by a torch. The boy, because of his earlier exhaustion and being carried by the redheaded demon, had forgotten about how many flights or landings there were. He took each flight carefully, as if expected to find someone waiting for him around each bend or level, to return him to the wizard.

Even though the castle was very dark, with the help of his night vision inherited from his Elfin mother, the boy could tell when he reached the main floor of castle for he found more and more fancy furnishings.  Then he entered a very large dining hall with a huge long ornate wooden table around which there was 22 matching wooden chairs. One wall of the dining hall was covered with huge paintings of various hunting scenes and aristocrats frolicking in the woods. One lone portrait hung over a immense dark cold fireplace. It looked almost exactly like Darkness but, apparently, it was a woman for in the picture she wore a very low cut dress. Most likely, he decided, it was a picture of Darkness’ mother. Actually, he found it hard to believe that the heartless twisted wizard ever had a mother.

In most castles, the dining hall was normally located somewhere near the kitchen. The boy noticed that there was a nice current of warm air, possibly coming from the kitchen ovens, which meant he must be very near the domain of the servants. So, now, he needed to be even more cautious lest he be discovered. He moved very slowly, trying to keep himself hidden and concealed in the shadows. All the while, the half-elf looked for a way out.  At the same time, he listened for the sounds of people and their movement. So far, things have gone almost too easy for him, which meant he needed to be even more alert. If he were caught, he was very sure that the twisted wizard would see to it that he would pay a dreadful price for daring to flee from him.

He jumped suddenly, startled, when he heard laughter and female voices up a head. He approached silently and carefully looked around corner, not far from him two female servants one older and one younger, who were working in front of a large kitchen hearth pulling loafs of fresh bread out of the oven then replacing them with unbaked loafs. The delicious smell of fresh bread made the boy's mouth water. The presence of the cooks told the boy that dawn couldn’t be that far off. He had to be out of the castle, somehow, before the sun came up then be far enough away so that he could go to ground and conceal himself until they, hopefully grew tired of searching for him, if they every did? Something told the boy that the dark wizard and the redheaded demon would not easily give up their search for him.

The boy kept still, flat, and silent against the wall just outside the kitchen. Meanwhile, he studied his surroundings and noticed another archway which lead to a room right next to the kitchen. Looking in it, he found a long narrow room, which was brightly lit by torches, and he quickly discovered it was a heavily stocked pantry. At the opposite end of pantry, he could see a door that might, possibly, lead to freedom. But first, he had to get by the open doorway that connected the pantry to the kitchen. The half-elf youth waited patiently until the female cooks had turned away, busy with their chores, then he quickly slipped by them. Before he opened the door at opposite end of the pantry, the boy stole four more things, which he thought might be very useful in his escape to freedom. He took a large empty water skin from a hook on the pantry wall that he would need to fill at the first opportunity.  Then, from one of the shelves he stole a small cloth sack of dried raisins. And, of course, he couldn't resist because of the smell, taking two large loafs of the fresh, steaming bread from the dozens or more laid out on a table to cool. He took a quick mouthful of the warm bread along with some of the raisins and chewed them at the same time then, quickly, placed the remainder of the bread and the raisins in his large leather shoulder bag, before tying the empty water skin to his cord belt. Noiselessly, he opened the door, and found himself in a courtyard on the ground floor of the castle. Across the courtyard, he saw the stables where the demon had earlier helped him down from his huge black horse.

Instead of going directly across the courtyard toward the stables, he snuck, carefully, around the edges of the courtyard, concealing himself in any convenient shadow, until he at last reached the stables. For there was a chance, he feared, that someone might see and try to stop him. Just outside the stables, the half-elf discover a 6-foot square stone walled structured with a roof. A large bucket hung on rope from a wooden pulley attached to a handle. As the boy got closer he heard the soft gurgle of fresh water as it welled up like a spring from the earth below. Obviously, the well was used to water both people and animals. Looking carefully around him for any signs of guards or other people, the boy quickly, and quietly, lowered the bucket then brought it up filled it to the brim with fresh sparkling water, before he filled the large, stolen water skin to its full capacity and tied it back on to his belt.

The boy entered the dark stables. instantly his night vision once more intensified. He thought when he was younger that everyone could see in the dark like him 'til  he learned otherwise, that it was the result of his fairy blood. Hanging on the stable wall just inside the stable door on a bent iron hook was a very old, small, rusty training sword, not much bigger than a long dagger. But it was still better than nothing at all for protection so the boy took it and shoved into his belt. It was a wonder, with all the weight he was carrying on his belt, his makeshift pants didn't fall down around his ankles.

The stable was very quiet except for the normal stirring of the various livestock and the noisy nervous movement of a couple ducks, a dozen or so chickens, two dirty orange cats and one very ancient snoring hound with a crooked tail. But it was most unusual that the stable didn’t have one or two human attendants to see to the care of the animals and the horses for the castle .



The boy giggled softly to himself when he saw a woman's sidesaddle hanging from the ceiling and he wondered with Darkness’ very feminine nature, did he actually use a sidesaddle like a woman? Even if it wasn’t actually true, it was very amusing picturing the tall, slender wizard riding a horse like that.

The young half-elf decided to search the stables for another exit, for, instead, of taking the animals through the courtyard and over the drawbridge, some castles had hidden, secret exits from the stables, which lead to several nearby pastures or fields, where the livestock could graze. Castle drawbridges were almost always strongly and well guarded, so the half-elf preferred to find another way out if possible.



All of once, he was aware of a loud, raspy screech like someone sawing wood or some poor animal dying horribly. It was coming from the first stall. Looking inside, he saw two very young sleeping stable attendants tightly clutching each other for warmth, deeply asleep, and snoring loudly.

Carefully, the boy moved quietly by the occupied stall and onto the next one. He immediate heard a familiar whinny. It was the demon’s big, black horse. The horse stuck his head over the stall gate and blew softly as if he were greeting the boy, and the boy reciprocated by gentle stroking the animal’s soft nose. Just for second, he thought about stealing the animal but the horse was much too large for him and it would very likely rebel against being taken away from his demon master anyway. The boy ran his hand down the huge animal’s long sleek, black forehead and whispered good-by as he moved down to the next stall, which held a half dozen drowsing sheep.

The further he went into the large stables he got, his night vision slowly faded away for a number of large bright oil lanterns hung along the back wall. The lanterns providing just enough light to see a dozen or so empty stalls and a number of hay, feed, and grain storage areas as well as various other supplies stacked along the walls.

He started to move on to the next stall, which held a somewhat elderly, but still handsome, skittish and shy, gray stallion, but the boy was abruptly distracted by strange, frantic horse noises coming from the last stall. A barely visible small, blonde horse-like creature moved wildly about, as if it endeavored to attract his attention. Letting his curiosity get the best of him, he went to investigate. When he got to last stall, he found it empty. Did he imagine that he saw some blonde creature running about the stall? The boy felt a harsh draft of frigid air flow against his face from the back of the stall and then he saw it. The draft originated from a small, narrow, dark tunnel over which there hung a heavy wooden iron bound grate. It was raised and held in an open position by several heavy iron chains and a pulley. The dark tunnel was barely eight feet tall and five feet across, Perhaps, that’s where the creature he saw disappeared.  Conceivably, it just might be a way out if his luck continued to hold out.