Chapter 4

The bond of 1 and faith of 4... What!?

Chapter 4

The Story and Treasury

 

The name of a story I heard long ago echoed through the halls of the castle. Everyone was quiet and listening. All of which were confused. Ari walked up to me and asked what I was talking about.

“How do you know that story?” Tamillia asked. I looked over at her, she knew that story?

“A girl named Alys told me 4 years ago” I said, our party seemed to be going into a strange silence.

“Alys...” Tamillia thought a moment, and then shook her head. “I don't know the name” she said.

Attention was once again put upon me; I walked off pushing my way through the crowd and back to the halls. No one followed me back, only Reno who was closely behind me. If the story was involved with Karil how exactly did this help? The story, Alys told it to me. Soon, the full memory came into play and the image of what was before me was gone. I was back in prison facing trial as was 4 years ago. Right after mother disappeared and I stole some bread, the day I became a thief.

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4 years ago...

 

“Get in!” the guards ordered us, I was 15 then. Mother had disappeared a while ago; this was my punishment for scavenging for food. “Into the carriage, go!” they poked sticks at us like we were sheep and they were the herding dogs. This transport held 7 people, most of which were petty criminals who stole or punished for their poverty. Most of them were older men and some were women with babies. The herding was over with and the transport set off. While on the road, we were ordered not to speak. Any sound made and we were to be executed. “This world has no room for the rats” the guard said with a sly grin. He was looking to stab someone with that sword of his. I was one of the youngest, other than the babies, and remained quite the whole length.

“I hear they are gonna burn us!” one said, the guard smacked him in the head and he sat back down. His words were enough for us to predict what would happen, but none of us wanted to face that reality. I don't think at least.

“It will be ok” said the woman with a baby, at first we thought she was speaking to us, but her attention was on the child. The guard didn’t take a swing at her, perhaps because she carried a baby or he was a generous human after all. One in the same, I suppose. I rocked back and forth in my seat; the men around me glanced but never kept eye contact.

Once the ride had made its end we were ordered to get out of the carriage. “Stand and face” the called. We did as they said, we stood and faced them. The women were taken elsewhere and we men were left at our roll call. “Names” he said. They went down the row asking for a name, something to be called by. I didn’t think it would really matter since we would all have the same name in the end, ‘rats’. He finally got to me; I took a deep breath deciding over which last name to use. My mother’s might get me killed, because she was a thief. My fathers would probably get me out of here unhurt, because he was a knight himself. The man hit me for not speaking right away. I found myself with a quick decision and without any thought at all I choose my mother.

“Aris Torium” I said, after realizing my mistake I quickly regretted it. I was surly dead now.

“How old are you?”

“15” I answered without hesitation. The man smiled and made me step forward, was I going to die?

“Take this one to Hahns” he said, I was practically thrown at his feet. From there I met with a strange man who called himself the shark. I wasnt dead, and they were actually training me to become a thief.

“Learn from these guys, keep that you're working for us a secret. Once you can steal properly you may have yourself a job” Hahns said to me. It felt like a joke, this prison was teaching me how to be a criminal in order to reclaim freedom. Talk about ironic.

Shark was one of my teachers, I learned to pick pocket, unlock doors with bone, steal from guards and deceive the guards. At some point or another I became better at stealing than even Shark and began to steal more often from the other inmates. I found a path that lead outside and would sometimes take in the nice clean air. I soon had planned on escaping from this place.

“Your Aris aren’t you” a girl asked me, I didn’t recognize her at all. She was skinny, her hair blonde and her clothing torn just like ours. She was an inmate at this place too.

“Who are you?” I asked rudely.

“My name is Alys, I was just wondering. Hey, do you know the story of bandits?” she asked, it felt surreal to me. Why would I want to know a story at a time like this?

“Never heard of it, what do you want?” I asked. She sat down next to me; the other inmates fought with each other or set fire to various objects and yelled to one another.

“Well, seeing as we have nothing better to do, want me to tell you the bond of 1 and the faith of 4?” she offered. I grinned at the amusing tale.

“Why would I want to hear a tale that makes little sense” I asked. She shook her head and lay down.

“The bond of 1 is the leader of these barbarians, see he was mean and cruel but one day wanted to back a difference. 4 other people went along with his plan to bring revolution to the world. It’s said his bond of 1 was because only his faithful 4 followed along, the bond was one way” she made shapes with her hands. I was very uninterested in the story; she shot up suddenly and curled over. “I may not make it passed tomorrow, so do this one favor and listen to my story” she pled.

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes, see since you're working for the prison and all they wouldn't have selected you to die tomorrow. The point is all the prisoners are given a certain time period to remain here. That ended for me tomorrow, I won't be in this world much longer”

“You know I work for the guard?”

“Don't worry, I won't tell. You're already better at stealing then Shark, but I guess if he were the best he wouldn't have gotten caught.” Alys smiled. She told the story of barbarians that traveled to the east in search of gold, what they found was a valley. “Left of Maerilin is a Tower, its underground. Thousands of feet under”

“How are you supposed to find it then?” I asked

“Origan has the answer” she said with a wink. She stood up and turned to me. “Since this is probably the last time we will see each other, hang in there ok? Also, the tower in Maerilin, a man with the last name of Origan left a clue in his treasury”

 

When I woke from my memory/dream I faced reality. What did any of that mean, Karil Origan? “So where is his treasury?” I asked. Reno woke me up.

“It was like you were in a trance yesterday” she said.

“Yeah, I was thinking about that mystery. I think I have a clue we can work off of”

“A clue to where the mine is?” Reno asked and I nodded. I wasnt entirely certain what that story had to do with the mines, Origan could be Karil’s last name. That would certainly match the KO on the map.

“If that note had anything to do with the Karil’s mine we may have a clue” I responded. I looked outside, the day was almost gone. The sun tainted the sky in a bloody orange color. I made my way into the secret room looking for more clues. Something that the queen hadn’t seen would work.

Inside the secret room it was dark, Reno stayed outside while I adventured around. The hallway was long enough; I asked over all the boards and looked under all of them. Nothing. The walls were too thick to hide anything inside them. I went back to the book case; all the books were pulled out. I put my hand over the shelves and pushed down hoping to pull them out. After a few tries I was close to quitting. One thing caught my eye, on the side of the bookcase on the left side the wood stuck out for a few inches. I pulled it out and inside was a key, pulling it out I noticed it was very rusty and dusty. With all curiosity I kicked the top shelf until it came off, I kicked the second one, the third one, four, with all the noise seemed to draw some attention. Footsteps walked through the halls to my room; I thought it was strange since my room was far away from the main castle. The boards fell to the ground and revealed the back of the bookcase.

“What’s with all the noise?” Zane asked peering into the room. I bent down to look over at the corners; they were bent and nailed poorly in place. I knocked on the back, hollow. There was defiantly space between the bookcase and the wall behind it.

“Aris, we can hear you all the way at the court” my sister said, only she and Zane had come to see what the matter was. I grinned at the wood board in front of me.

“Where are the tools?” I asked Zane, he gave me a questionable look. I walked passed them and looked into the hall. Some other members of the court were coming, one being my father.  I suppose it was weird for me to suddenly be back and acting so strangely. That’s the sort of thing I felt my father’s look read to me.

“Aris what are you doing?” the queen, Ari was standing in front of me now. Reno followed closely behind and observed.

“Do you have a metal pole anywhere?” I asked, soon, after letting my own words sink in, I realized how strange and stupid that sounded.

“A pole?” the whole court must think I’m mad.

I turned away from the queen and walked down the hall, anything long and skinny would do. The hall was filled with nothing but art work and vases, far more class then it had remembered. After a few minutes of walking around, I found the armory. I peeked in; my second oldest brother Richard was polishing the swords. Walking in I didn’t make a sound, I planned on stealing it away. I picked it up with care, a small but long dagger and walked out again. By the time I reached back to my room the queen and her royal court were gone.

“They left?” I asked Reno who sat on the bed.

“Yeah, after they called you a strange thief” Reno replied. I went back to work. I pulled out the dagger and cut around the backing of the bookcase. Soon it loosened up; I wiggled out on of the corners and pulled it out. Ripping the board out only made a creaking sound, and then soon it crashed on top of me. Revealing a hidden door, I pulled out the key and inserted it inside the keyhole. It unlocked and I pushed it open. Inside was the treasury of Sir Origan.

Walking through I made sure to close the door. A small torch lay on the ground in front of me. Only a small dim light shined through the cracks of withered stone. The treasury was bare, all the gold pieces missing and chests robbed. Someone got here before me, and then put the key back in the bookcase. I walked further along the edge of the room hoping to keep myself balanced over the unfamiliar area. After a while of walking, I ran into a table with a map on it. I lend over and tried to read the faded out ink.

 

Listen, my dear,

            The world I seek has buried itself under the earth. I have longed for my treasure to be found. Leaving it to you will be no easy task though, I wish I could tell you outright where to find it. However, I cannot let my treasure fall into the hands of another. Please follow these clues I leave you and you will find a fortune of millions.

           Karil

I lend back, Karil must have barred it and left clues. “That’s what he could have meant by ‘destroyed’” I said to myself. After I continued to look at the map, it was marking where I stood again. “What is the point of these maps?” Looking around I noticed something. It could be because the room is bare and it was left behind, just like the other map to find the secret room. I walked around the dim lightened room and stood under where the light was the strongest. It looked like it was coming from above, but the lights source was unclear.

I began to walk back to the door that let me in, I found a keyhole. With interest I put the key I had into the hole and it opened. I pushed through, another narrow hallway. It was full of paintings, pottery, sculptures and armory. I finally got to the end of the tunnel and went through another door. This one led me to the court. I was looking down on them from above, they talked about the treasury and that I might be able to find it.

“He was able to steal that gem without even opening the door” one said.

“We don't know that, he could have opened it and locked it again” another commented.

“That’s impossible, there’s only one way in and it’s always guarded”

“So he knocked them out?”

“No, no one reported that. They said when the queen entered it was gone and they informed us that the trade was to end”

“That means no agreement with that queen then?”

“Who knows” my father stepped forward. I lend in closely holding onto a piece of the wall.

“That idiot son of yours, what is he doing back here?”

“No clue, you're highness?” father asked, the queen seemed to be in deep thought. She was very pretty, wonder why I hadn’t noticed until now.

“Hey!” Reno said in my ear.

“Ah!” she surprised me and I let go of the only thing supporting. I came crashing down from the ceiling and landing on the desks of the court members. Needless to say everything hurt and they all screamed in panic.

“What where you doing up there?” father yelled, I tried to respond but couldn’t get up. “You could have walked through the door”

“Yes, next time walk through the door!” one of the courts old men said. “Nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“so-err-y” I said, father helped me up and I began coughing. Blood turned up in my hand and I wobbled to my feet. Everyone looked up; the door had closed thanks to Reno. No one could figure out how I got up there, there were no windows and nothing to climb up.

“Go get my physician!” the queen demanded. I lend over hers trying to stay upright. I fell down a few times, Reno got scared and hid from me. My head was bleeding on one side and I wiped it off. Everyone was so loud the pounding in my head struck like a mallet. I looked to the floor and noticed something. All their talking made it hard to focus my sight, it was too blurry. I loaded up all the strength to shout.

“Shut your mouths!” I yelled, silence as my voice echoed. I coughed a little, my eyes focused, a key hole. I sighed and pushed off the desk, landing on the floor. I pulled the key out of my pocket and inserted it into the hole. Inside was a scroll in a glass bottle. My heart raced and I became really week. “Ari!” I shouted and threw her the bottle and fell to the ground. My vision faded and I closed my eyes. My heart slowed down and soon I couldn’t feel it beating. I honestly thought I was dead.

Author's Note

review me please!! Sorry if it bored you...