“Can’t say as I rightly know, sir. Most of us don’t use the ladders. Some of ’em are so rotten with age, you can fall and break your neck. When you’re carrying a tray or a bundle, you can’t climb up or down. So most people don’t use them.”
Tal closed his eyes for a moment, calling up what he remembered of the passages above, and had a fair idea of where that ladder exited. As he suspected, while entrances below in the citadel—primarily in the kitchen and laundry areas—were regular doors, almost all the exits above were disguised as wall panels or behind closets or through doors behind tapestries. He wondered if even the Duke even knew all these passages, though he found it hard to believe that a man as thorough as Kaspar would remain ignorant of what could turn out to be a vulnerability; but on the other hand, even the smartest people took too many things for granted, and if Kaspar’s parents had been ignorant of all these byways in the citadel, then Kaspar might be as well.
They moved on through the dark tunnel, and Tal decided he would return to these tunnels and explore on his own some time soon. Just as he would visit the dungeon and the caves as well.
The only places he would give a wide berth were Kaspar’s apartment and the rooms occupied by Leso Varen.
Tal said, “I think that’s enough. Show me the fastest way back to my room.”
“Thank you, Squire,” said the boy, not hiding his relief. “The housecarl’s going to beat me if I don’t get back soon.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell him I required your services.”
“That’s all right, Squire. It won’t do me any good. My master reckons I’ve got to learn to be in two places at once sooner or later.”
Tal laughed and followed the boy.
Tal stood silently, feeling something akin to triumph. He was in the mouth of a cave, looking across a deep ravine still shrouded in darkness as the early-morning light began to illuminate a cliff face less than a half mile away. Looking down, he felt almost giddy with delight.
A few days after returning from his mission down to the Southern Islands, Tal was called into Kaspar’s presence and informed they would be hunting for a week starting the next day. Tal had instructed Amafi to prepare his travel bags, had secured new strings for his bow from the Duke’s armory and chosen two dozen arrows. Then just before dinner, his stomach had rebelled, and Tal had come down with a murderous stomach flux, either from something he had picked up on the way back from the Southern Islands or something he had eaten that morning. Tal had spent the day in bed or in the garderobe. He couldn’t even keep water down without having it come right back up.
The Duke’s healer had come to see him, giving him a foul-tasting concoction to drink, but Tal vomited that back up a minute later. Shaking his head, the chirurgeon had prescribed bed rest and waiting it out. He had informed the Duke that Tal would be bedridden for at least three days. Kaspar then sent a note wishing Tal well and inviting him to join the party in a day or two should he quickly recover.
The afternoon after Kaspar’s departure, Tal had endured a fever for half a day. He had awoken thirsty, and the water had stayed down. He had rested for that night, and the next morning informed Amafi he would not be joining the Duke immediately. Then he decided to use the time he had to explore further the caverns and caves behind the citadel.
Dressed in black, carrying a lantern, he had slipped out that night into the lower basement of the citadel, quickly negotiating the servants’ passages and making his way to the pantry. Since the Duke and much of his household were out hunting, kitchen activity had been at a minimum, so he easily avoided the few cooks’ helpers working late at night, located the ancient caves Rudolph had told him about, and explored them. As the boy had promised, some went on for miles. His first night had been difficult, for while the fever and flux had left him, he was still feeling weak.