TWENTY-FIVE - Esmarine

Riordan shows Esmarine an ancient secret about Xantom.

“What did you hear?” Vanderford asked.

“Nothing, I swear!” Esmarine pleaded.  “I only just got in here a few seconds ago… I had to hide, because someone was chasing me.  A man.  I accidentally saw him doing… something… with the Queen.  She was moaning and he was behind her, I don’t know if he was hurting her, or�"”

“Who was it?” Vanderford asked.  “Did you see his face?”

“I didn’t see anything.  I mean, I saw through the door that she was bent over and he was behind her, but it was dark.  I couldn’t make out any details.  Then he started chasing me and I came in here.  I promise, I didn’t hear anything.  Please, I didn’t mean to�"”

She trailed off.  They weren’t moving towards her any longer.  Instead, Riordan and Vanderford exchanged a glance.  Clearly they knew something that she didn’t.

“What is it?” She asked.  “What am I missing?”

“It’s not important,” Riordan said.

“Back to the matter at hand, girl,” Vanderford said.  “If you were truly only trying to hide, why did you come into this room?”

“It was open.  Most of the other doors were locked, and this one just opened.  I didn’t even know where I was… I dropped my torch somewhere in the halls.”

“You can trust the girl, Vanderford, I know her,” Riordan said.  “If she says she doesn’t know anything, she doesn’t know anything.”

Vanderford looked at Riordan strangely.  What is he thinking?  I hope he isn’t going to hurt Riordan… I don’t know Vanderford very well.  I don’t know what he might do.  “How do you know her?” Vanderford finally asked.  “The only thing I know about her is that she’s always turning up when she’s not expected.  She showed up outside the King’s Chambers before we exiled the Atherton boy yesterday.  Then she interfered with two guards trying to retrieve the boy’s siblings in the Outskirts…”

“I heard about that,” Riordan said.  “She’s the one who told me the King was taking the kids in.  If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have come to you.  But I assure you, she’s not a spy.  The boy, Atherton, was a friend of hers.  That’s why she went to the Outskirts.  She knew about his siblings and she didn’t know that Xanthus was going to save them, so she went to take care of it herself.  Zultan and Castiel just happened to get there before her.”

This seemed to calm Vanderford.  “You were friends with Atherton?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she started.  “He was�"”

He held up a hand to silence her.  He turned to Riordan.  “Atherton, if he’s still alive, is with our friends.”

Friends?  What is he talking about?  Someone in the Barelands??

Riordan’s face changed to one of understanding.  “You sent him to the caves.”

Vanderford nodded and turned back to Esmarine.  “I watched Atherton do something most sane men would never do.  He stood in front of Xanthus, looked him right in the eye, and told him he was a terrible King.  I’ve never seen it before, at least not before he passed their sentence.  I had to hand it to the kid.  He had guts.  I think Xanthus respected him for it.  What the King saw in Atherton, I saw too.  Before he was exiled, I gave him a knife and told him to head for the cliffs.  If he managed to survive without being attacked by a Bareland Beast, Draven will have found him by now.  Surely he and the others will find some use for him, and keep him safe.”

“Others?” Esmarine asked.  She had hardly been listening since the first mention of the caves, and this Draven person.  “Atherton might be alive?!”  She could barely contain her excitement.  She couldn’t help it, tears sprung to her eyes.  “Tell me you’re telling the truth.”

“There’s a chance.  But there’s no guarantee.”

“I don’t care.  I’ll take it.  Atherton could be alive.  Saxon and Sephora will be so happy when I tell them�"”

“You can’t tell them,” Riordan said.  “I know they’re only children, but if they said something… Well, I don’t think the King would be too pleased to find out that people are surviving Exile, and living together.”

“What can I tell anyone?  I can’t talk about the King taking in Atherton’s brother and sister, I can’t talk to them about Atherton being alive… I’m sure I can’t tell anyone I found you in the Passing of the Seventh.  Pretty soon I won’t be able to talk anymore without accidentally revealing some big secret!”

“It’s very important, Esmarine,” Riordan said.  “I know it’s hard, but you have to understand… it’s for the good of everyone.”

“Let her talk,” Vanderford said.  “It doesn’t matter anyway.  The King has bigger problems to worry about than whether or not the exiled people are still alive.  He has a whole city to feed, and no food to do it.  If anything, maybe we could get the King to let Draven teach us how they’re surviving.  They aren’t having any problems gathering food or living outside the city.  So the answer exists.”

“Then we’ll tell the King.  When he gets back, if he hasn’t found anything, which he won’t, that will be your job,” Riordan said to Vanderford.

“The problem is, the King won’t be coming back.”

“What do you mean?” Esmarine asked.

“Things aren’t safe in this city.  If I’m right, Thaddeus is the man who chased you, and he’s planning to take over control of the city.  I’m almost certain he has a plan in place to make sure Xanthus never returns from the Hunt.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Riordan said.

“I figured there was no point bringing it up until I knew for sure.  But Esmarine confirmed it.  He’s with the Queen… it’s over.  And once Thaddeus has control, there’s no talking to him.  He has his own way of doing things… and that way doesn’t include listening.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” Esmarine asked.

“We have to solve the problem first and ask permission later.  We have to get into contact with Draven and his group.”

“That’s why we’re in here, Esmarine,” Riordan said.  “This passageway goes underground from beneath the castle all the way across the Barelands to the cliffs on the opposite end of the Dome.  That’s where we’ll find out how to survive.”

“Why aren’t we going there right now?” Esmarine asked.

“Because Seven was a fool,” Vanderford said.  “Before he died, he sealed the passageway shut.  We’ve been trying to figure out how to open it, but until we do, we can’t even get into the tunnel to start heading towards the cliffs.  We have no way of making contact without heading out into the Barelands and risking being killed.  The last person we sent to make contact never returned.”

“Show me the passage,” Esmarine said.

“There’s no point,” Vanderford said.  “It’s sealed shut.”

Riordan put a hand on Vanderford’s shoulder.  He tensed at first, then relaxed.  “Let’s show her,” he said.

The two men led Esmarine into the secret passageway.  Vanderford led the way as they walked down the long, stone spiral staircase.  It felt like walking into forever, spinning down into the darkness.  Her heart pounded.  I’m about to see something that nobody even knows exists.  I know more secrets about Xantom than anyone who lives in the city.  As frightening as it was, following a near-stranger into the depths of the castle, it was exciting.  Esmarine felt her face twist into a smile.

Finally they stepped off onto damp dirt.

We’re below the castle right now.  In a secret tunnel.  This is incredible.

Vanderford lifted his torch to light the cavern they were standing in.  The ground stretched out in front of them and then ascended again towards the outline of a tunnel.  The dull glow from the torch flickered up through the dirt to reveal a large blockade of rocks up against the entrance to the tunnel.  “That’s where we’d be going if the last King hadn’t closed the path.  We used to get all of our supplies and food through here, but put a stop to all that.”

“Why would he do that?” Esmarine asked.  “Did he want everyone to die?”

“We don’t know,” Riordan said.  “If anybody knows, it’s Willoughby.  He was the only person Seven would talk to in his final days.  He waited on the King day and night.  But we haven’t been able to broach the topic with him to find out.  We’re not even supposed to know this is here.”

“Is that why you told Tadghan that you should have killed Willoughby?” Esmarine asked.

Vanderford gave Riordan a look.  “She knows Tadghan, too?  Why don’t you just introduce her to the whole Order, already?!”

“She overheard a very short conversation between the two of us last night, but that’s it!  She doesn’t know anything else.”

“It’s not like there’s that much more to know!  We might as well just tell her everything, from the very founding of Xantom!” Vanderford fumed.

“Now you’re being ridiculous,” Riordan said.  “Stop talking before you give her any ideas.”

“What is the whole history of Xantom?” she asked sweetly.

“See what you’ve done?” Riordan laughed.  “Now she’s never going to stop until we tell her.”

“That’s never going to happen,” Vanderford said.

We’ll see about that.  I’ll just ask Riordan about it later, when you aren’t around.  He can’t resist me when I’m being sweet.

Vanderford handed his torch to Riordan and tried pulling on one of the massive stones.

“Just… can’t get it… to budge…” he strained every muscle in his body trying to pull the rock out of its position.

“Stop it,” Riordan said.  “You’ve tried that already.  If you keep at it, you’re just going to hurt yourself, and then you’ll be as useless as I am.”

“Nothing could ever make me as useless as you are,” Vanderford snapped.

Riordan didn’t react, but Esmarine could tell that that hurt him.  Vanderford didn’t say anything else, but continued trying to move the stones.

“I’m going to take Esmarine home before we’re discovered,” Riordan said.

“Good idea,” Vanderford grunted.

“Please be careful.  Don’t hurt yourself.”

Vanderford continued straining against the stones, making absolutely no progress that Esmarine could see.  “If Seven were still alive, I’d kill him for this,” he muttered to no one.

Riordan had already begun walking back up the stone staircase and waved for Esmarine to follow him.  They climbed up and up and up.  The staircase seemed even longer going this direction.

“How long is he going to stay down there?” she asked.  “Will you go back for him?”

“He’ll come up on his own.  He just needs to be alone right now,” Riordan said.  “He needs to get those frustrations out of his system.  Once he’s worn himself out, he’ll be back to normal.”

“Does he do this often?”

“I don’t know how often he does it anymore.  He used to go down there every day to try to budge one of those rocks loose.  If he could get just one, I’m sure the rest of them would be a lot easier.  And then we’d have a safe passage to our friends in Exile.”

They reached the top and stepped out into the Passing of the Seventh.

“I suppose you have a lot of questions,” Riordan said.

“How was Xantom founded?”

“I can’t tell you that.”  Then he smiled.  “You’re never going to stop asking, are you?”

“No.”  She smiled too.  “Okay, how can we find out if Atherton is still alive?”

“Since we can’t get the passage open, we’d have to go out into the Barelands and try to trace his path.  Which I might add, is incredibly dangerous.  There’s also the possibility that even if we do break through the rocks and open the passage, that he’s still out there and didn’t find his way to the cliffs.  So we wouldn’t even know if he was alive.  There’s just no easy way to tell.”

“I know he’s alive.  He has to be.”

Reviews

[Frank]

"He had guts". This is using the vernacular in a period piece, does it work, or would he say 'courage'. Its difficult the balance between using archaic language and modern.

I've just read chapter 25, you write well, no errors I can see, grammar is good. Without reading the whole 25 chapters it is difficult to comment on the novel. I wish you well.

[Justin Xavier Smith]

Thanks! It's hard for me to comment on why that isn't an error without spoiling the remainder of the book. But I understand why it feels off. Thanks for reading! I hope you're intrigued enough to read more