Adwen thought he could sleep endlessly if all his dreams were filled with such sweet visions of Jane. He lingered in his sleep as long as he could, only forcing himself fully awake when the strong fists of Orick knocked on his bedchamber door. He knew it was Orick even before his friend uttered a word—no one else would dare to wake him so early in the morning.
“What do you want, Orick? ’Tis verra early for ye to wake me.”
Orick walked through the door without hesitation. Adwen knew that Orick didn’t care how early or late it was, but it still felt right to object to such a disturbance.
“I know it’s early, ’tis for that verra reason that I’ve awakened ye. While everyone else is still sleeping, I need to show ye something. Dress yerself warmly. We must go outside.”
Adwen sat up, the very thought of stepping out into the cold snow as abysmal as being pulled from his dream by the rising sun.
“No, Orick. I doona wish to lose my toes so early in the morning; ye may go outside if ye wish.”
Orick moved to the side of the bed, throwing his longest coat and breeches on top of him.
“Did I ask ye if we wished to go outside? I doona care what ye’d like to do. Ye asked me to start moving the snow away from the entryways lest we have water flooding our every hallway, dinna ye? Aye, ye did. While I was doing so, I found something ye need to see right away. Get dressed and meet me by the door ye always sneak yer lassies in and out of.”
Adwen groaned, slowly pulling one leg out of the bed and then the other.
“I’ll no longer be sneaking lassies in and out of the castle.”
Orick scoffed as he walked to the doorway. “Do ye truly believe that, lad? ’Tis a grand statement to make when it seems to me that the lass still hasna given in to yer charms, has she?”
“I am no trying to charm her, Orick. And she has fallen for me, though she willna allow herself to accept it. With time, she will. Now,” Adwen stood, pulling his pants on quickly to push away the chill that reverberated off the stone walls, “tell me what ye found, or I willna be stepping outside with ye. I am no a patient man, and I doona care for the suspense of it.”
“I think wee Cooper was right. ’Tis no ghosts that roam throughout the castle. I found a passageway of sorts; though I dinna dare to venture down it. Now, I doona wish to say another word until we are outside the castle; Cooper was awake before I left to work this morning. Though the last I saw him he was headed toward Jane’s room, the lad moves freely about the castle. I doona wish for him to hear us speaking.”
Adwen nodded, throwing the remainder of his clothes on as quickly as he could. Once dressed, he stepped out into the hallway, motioning for Orick to lead the way.
It didn’t take long to reach the back entryway. Adwen pulled in his breath, hoping to hold on to as much warm air as he could as they stepped out into the morning air. It was cool, but Adwen could see by the lack of clouds in the sky that Orick had been right to work at removing the snow from the doorways. It would all begin to melt very quickly.
As soon as the door shut behind them, Adwen spoke.
“How did ye find the passageway, and where do ye think it leads?”
Orick shook his head, trudging through the snow up ahead of him, turning around to the side of the castle.
“With the doorways cleared, I went to push the snow away from windows at the base of the castle when I noticed a row of stones jutting outward away from the wall. Scared me for a moment—I thought they’d come loose and half of the castle was about to tumble downward, but when I pressed against them, they all moved together. They were connected, ye see, and forced slightly open from the storm. ’Tis no part of the wall at all, though it looks that way. Instead, ’tis a doorway.”
“No, there canna be. How would we not know of it?”
Orick shrugged, waving him over to the place he’d described.
“I doona know, Adwen, but ’tis true enough. See for yerself.”
Adwen stepped back as Orick slipped his fingers back behind the stones, pulling them forward to reveal a staircase downward. The staircase lay no more than ten steps deep, and at the bottom it met with a stone wall blocking further passage.
“’Tis a staircase that leads to nowhere. What does this have to do with the ghosts?”
Orick laughed, reaching down to scoop up a large ball of snow. Adwen watched curiously, as Orick packed it firmly between his palms.
“’Tis no a staircase that leads to nowhere, only to a place we canna see.”
With that, Orick threw the snowball down the staircase. Both men watched the ball pass effortlessly through the stone wall at the bottom of the steps.
*
I slept fitfully, waking every few hours with thoughts of Cooper at the forefront of my mind. By the time morning came, all I wanted to do was find him so we could talk, but when I did, he already had Orick by one hand and was happily dragging him along on some sort of Cooper-invented adventure.
I called out to him as they passed me. “Hey Coop, I want to talk to you later, okay?”