Ascendant (33 page)

Winter
evenings, when he lay in bed after putting out the candle, watching the fire
slowly dying down to embers and feeling the cold creeping in, Koren considered
how lucky he was to be inside, safe from the nasty weather, with a bed, and
warm clothes and blankets, and a fireplace, and hot food waiting for him in the
morning. He would not, he had realized after the second snowfall, have survived
the winter on his own in the wilderness. The few supplies his parents had left
him with were not enough for him to have made warm clothes, and construct a
shelter, and assure enough food to last until springtime. As miserable as
winter was in Linden, it was colder in the north, and without the royal
carriage to whisk him from LeVanne, he would not have been able to walk much
further south, not on his own, and with having to stop along the way to hunt,
fish and forage for food. That thought had caused Koren to cry himself to sleep
one particularly gray, cold and dreary night. When his parents had abandoned
him, Koren had foolishly thought at first they had been careful to leave him
with the means to survive on his own. He now knew they had not cared whether he
lived or died, only that they were well rid of him, forever.

That was a
hard thing for a boy to realize, alone on a cold and dark night.

As the Winter
wore on, Koren and Ariana continued to search the ancient scrolls for hints of
where they might find the Cornerstone. Some days, Koren genuinely was eager to
tackle the puzzle of what had happened to the Cornerstone. Most days, however,
what he cared about was being in the royal palace, where he had a break from
his duties, and where it was always warm, and well-lit by lamps and large
windows, and there was always plenty of delicious food at Ariana's table. And
there was also an opportunity to spend time with Ariana, with her smile, and
her perfumed hair, and the way she tilted her head, and her voice that was
music to Koren's ear, and the way she delicately bit her thumbnail when she was
reading, and the way the curly locks of her hair kept falling forward around her
face, and she would either toss her head, or brush the hair out of her face,
tucking it behind her ear, and-

And Koren
needed to concentrate on reading.

Reading the
dusty old scrolls so far had done nothing but make Koren sneeze, until Ariana
found a scroll about plans for expanding the castle, hundreds of years before
the battle when the Cornerstone was lost. The plans showed there was a wide
vault that ran almost underneath the Cornerstone
’
s chamber. The vault had originally carried
water, but the plans showed the vault had been blocked at both ends, and
abandoned. Maybe, Ariana had said excitedly, the enemy had cut a hole in the
floor, lowered the Cornerstone into the vault, and then replaced the floor!

When the
princess and the servant boy found time to search for the Cornerstone, they
looked for a way into the old vault. Mostly, Koren searched on his own, when he
wasn
’
t running
errands for the wizard. When Ariana was able to join him, she had to bring
along her personal guard, a gentle, older man named Duston who had retired from
being a soldier. Duston
’
s
job was to keep Ariana, and her dignity as a princess, out of trouble.
Including, avoiding scandals such as her sneaking around the castle with a
handsome young boy. Duston had a daughter of his own, older than Ariana, and,
although he took orders from Carlana, he felt the young princess needed freedom
to be a girl. So, unless she was actually in danger, Duston pretty much let
Ariana do what she wanted, under his supervision.

After two
months of exploring the back walls of storerooms, and crawling in tight spaces
between walls, Koren found what he thought must be a way into the old vault. At
the end of a narrow crawlspace, there was an iron gate, with a lock corroded
with centuries of rust. Koren met Ariana and Duston there one cold winter
evening, after the princess had supposedly gone to sleep.

Koren pulled
tools out of a leather bag.
“
The
lock is rusted shut, but one of the hinges is broken. I brought a hammer and
chisel to knock the other hinge open.
”

Ariana picked
up the hammer, and looked at the gate.
“
Won
’
t that make a lot of
noise?
”
She
gave the hammer to Koren.

“
Yup, but the guard above
us is wearing iron-soled shoes.
”
Koren pointed at the low ceiling, and put a finger to his lips.

Ariana could hear,
faintly through the rock, the clicking of a heavy man
’
s shoes on a stone floor.
They counted; the guard took eighteen steps in one direction, turned, and took
eighteen steps back.

“
You go back outside, and
warn us if the guard stops.
”

“
Us?
”
Duston asked skeptically.

“
Uh,
”
Koren said uncertainly,
“
I can
’
t hold this gate by
myself.
”

“
Please, Duston.
”
Ariana pleaded, in the
little girl voice that she had been using to manipulate men since she was
barely able to walk.
“
It
won
’
t hurt
anything. Besides, I
’
m
the crown princess, this gate belongs to me, doesn
’
t it?
”

Duston
scratched his short gray beard while he thought.
“
Your mother, the Regent, may disagree with
you there, young missy.
”
He winked and smiled.
“
But
she
’
s never
going to know, is she?
”

“
OK!
”
Ariana said with a grin,
and walked back down to the entrance, which was behind stacked crates in a
dusty storeroom. She counted
“
..sixteen,
seventeen, eighteen, turn, and, one, two-
“

Koren tapped
the chisel with the hammer, knocking the hinge pin upward slightly. He tried to
tap in rhythm with the faint sounds of the boots above.

“
Seventeen, eighteen,
Koren, stop!
”
Ariana whispered.

“
Almost there.
”

The guard
resumed his patrol, and Koren resumed tapping with the hammer, in time with the
footfalls.
“
Almost
there, Duston, hold the gate up a bit.
”

“
Ugh, it
’
s heavy for my old bones,
hurry it up, if you can.
”

Just as the
pin came out, and the gate sagged against the wall with a clanging sound,
Ariana called out a warning.
“
The
guard stopped walking!
”

Koren sit
still, his heart pounding. If they were caught, he could be in serious trouble.
As the crown princess, all Ariana had to worry about was a scolding from her
mother. Koren might be banished from the castle. He sighed with relief when he
heard the guard above resume patrolling.

“
Come, on.
”
Koren called out,
squeezing around the broken gate, and sliding down into the old vault. The
crown princess was right behind him.

“
Yuck!
”
Ariana said in disgust,
lifting her shoe off the floor.

“
Tsch.
”
Duston exhaled in dismay.
“
I
’
ll need to be cleaning
those shoes before morning, lest your mother notice you weren
’
t snug in your bed all
night.
”

“
The floor is wet. Must be
water still seeping in from below. Be careful.
”
Koren led the way, holding his torch out in
front of him. The flickering flames cast eerie shadows on the curved walls of
the old vault.

“
How much further?
”
Ariana asked, trying to
step around the slimiest of the puddles. She would ask Nurellka to clean the
shoes.

Koren looked
up.
“
We should
be right under the hallway that leads to the Cornerstone chamber. But I don
’
t see any signs that
someone cut a hole in the roof. Look, the stones fit so close together there
isn
’
t any
mortar between the blocks.
”
He held the torch near the floor, and scraped slime away with his foot.
“
And there aren
’
t any marks like there
should be, if a heavy object was dragged down here.
”
Now that they were in the
vault, he could see it was barely wide enough to hold the Cornerstone. It had
looked so much larger on the old scrolls.

“
Let
’
s keep going.
”
Ariana suggested.
“
The other end can
’
t be far.
”

The floor of
the vault sloped downward, and the puddles grew deeper as they walked further
into the vault. Koren had to brush spider webs away with his torch. Finally,
they came to the end of the vault, a solid stone wall. If the Cornerstone had
ever been there, it wasn
’
t
there now.

Ariana could
sense Koren
’
s
disappointment.
“
Maybe
it
’
s behind
this wall?
”

“
There
’
s something carved into
the stones here.
”
Koren said. He wiped the grime away from the stone with a rag.
“
Oh!
”

“
What is it?
”

Koren snorted.
“
It says
‘
Nestor was here, the
Cornerstone is not. May you who read this inscription have better fortune
’
. And there
’
s a date, but I can
’
t read it.
”

“
Nestor was the second
Trehayme king of Tarador.
”
Ariana exclaimed. She reached out and traced the carving with her fingers.
“
My ancestor wrote this
with his own hand.
”

“
We
’
re not the first to search
this vault for the Cornerstone.
”

“
No,
”
Ariana laughed.
“
Did you think we would
really find the Cornerstone?
”

Deep in his
heart, Koren thought they would find the Cornerstone, that somehow it was his
fate to find it. In fact, somehow he had been certain he would find it.
“
Yes, I guess so. You didn
’
t? Then why search for it?
”

Ariana
shrugged.
“
It
’
s more fun than doing needlepoint.
”
She stuck out her tongue.

“
Don
’
t be discouraged, young
man, you got a lot further than I did, back when I was your age, and searching
for the Cornerstone myself.
”
Duston held his torch close to the inscription, and traced Nestor
’
s name with his finger in
awe.

Koren shook
his head. Finding Nestor
’
s
mocking inscription had taken all the fun out of searching for the Cornerstone.
“
Let
’
s go, it
’
s cold down here.
”
He grumbled.

It was not
until a week later that Ariana had another opportunity to invite Koren to lunch
in her library. The table was laden with delicious treats, but Koren saw that
Ariana had books and scrolls piled on top of a desk.
“
How about this one?
”
Ariana suggested.
“
It
’
s a record of how the
original castle was expanded-
“

“
This isn
’
t about that stupid
Cornerstone again, is it?
”

“
I thought you liked
looking for the Cornerstone.
”