The Barrow (77 page)

Erim exited the barrow, her rapier at the ready, followed swiftly by an armed Stjepan. She made a quick circle, surveying the hillside around them, but there was no immediate sign of Gilgwyr. She started back down the stairs set in the hill at a swift pace, and as she approached the camp she could see Arduin's young squire and his now last remaining knight standing watch around Annwyn's tent. She began waving her arms at them.

In a few moments she had reached their tents and lines, Stjepan right behind her. Sir Colin had half crossed the camp to greet them, and sensing trouble he had slipped his sallet onto his head and unshouldered his greatsword, and left Wilhem Price behind at the Ladies' Tent as a last line of defense. “What's the matter?” he asked with no small amount of suspicion. He held his greatsword at the ready. “What's going on?”

“Have you seen Gilgwyr? Has anyone left the barrow?” Erim asked.

“No, I haven't seen Master Gilgwyr,” said Sir Colin, shaking his head. “The only person we saw leave the barrow looked like one of the Danians we hired on back at Woat's Inn. And he turned around and went right back inside. That was maybe an hour or two ago, there was a lot of dust coming out of the ground at the time. But we haven't exactly been watching up the hill every minute.”

“A lot's happened since then,” said Stjepan as Erim jogged off to the side to retrieve a composite horn bow and full quiver. “I regret to have to tell you that Sir Helgi is dead, he fell victim to a foul enchantment, a curse triggered within the barrow. So you are the last of his knights, Sir Colin.” Colin looked grim and ash-faced, but just nodded. “And the man left as our rearguard, the one that you saw from Godewyn's crew, he has been murdered, his throat cut by parties unknown, though suspicion falls on Master Gilgwyr.”

Sir Colin tightened the grip on his greatsword and took a subtle half-step back from the two of them, but not so subtle that they did not see it.

“Aye,” Stjepan said, nodding his head to acknowledge the motion and what it implied. “Allow no one near the Ladies' Tent until Lord Arduin has returned, especially not Master Gilgwyr. Nor us. We'll circle the camp and the barrow and look to see if he might have slipped out while you weren't looking, but I fear our search will be fruitless and that he is still inside the barrow somewhere.”

“Then go with the King of Heaven, Black-Heart,” Sir Colin said, a slight challenge in his eyes as he backed away toward the tent.

“If you say so, Sir Colin,” said Stjepan with a nod, and he and Erim turned back toward the barrow. “Well,” he said to her with a sigh. “Where do you want to start?”

A stone door fell down with a thud, revealing yet another passage.

“Gilgwyr! Come out, come out, Gilgwyr!” Godewyn yelled as he moved swiftly through the archway, a heavy broadsword in his right hand. Caider Ross and Too Tall followed, their weapons glinting in their lamplight, followed by Arduin, his war sword held before him. Leigh trailed behind, looking out of sorts, distracted, confused. They practically ran down the stone passage until they reached an intersection. Stone passageways split off to their left and right through corbelled stone arches, and in front of them the passage became a steep stone stairwell that angled down into the depths of the earth.

They stopped, their lanterns casting light in each direction but providing no illumination. “Gilgwyr, you bastard, where are you?” Godewyn cried, mopping the sweat from his brow.

Caider frowned and stepped a couple of feet into the passageway on their left. He could see it dead-end and branch left to stairs leading down, and right to stairs leading up. “More stairs over here, chief,” he said over his shoulder. “Up and down. This is starting to get tricky.”

“This is pointless,” hissed Arduin. “This is almost a maze, and we are in danger of becoming lost. If Master Gilgwyr is hiding himself somewhere, we will not find him simply running around like this.”

Godewyn looked over his shoulder with murder in his eyes.

“Chief,” said Caider quietly. “The man's got a point.” Godewyn shifted his gaze to Caider, but Caider didn't flinch. “In my gut this is starting to feel like the time we lost Malcolme and Gause and Black Gawer in the ruins of Bronrood. Time to go, chief.”

Godewyn looked at the three passages in front of them, frustration growing on his face. The rage built inside him until he could not contain it any longer.

“Gilgwyr! Gilgwyr, you miserable cur, where are you?” Godewyn bellowed at the top of his lungs. “I'll hang your miserable carcass, and curse you to Limbo! Gilgwyr! Gilgwyr! Hang all magicians!
Hang all magicians!
”

The sunlight in the entrance shaft was weaker and redder. Stjepan and Erim entered at a run and slowed to a walk when they saw that the passage was not empty. Caider Ross and Too Tall were watching over Godewyn, slumped to the floor and holding Handsome Pallas Quinn's body, mumbling to himself in a barely audible whisper. “Hang all magicians . . . hang all magicians . . .”

Leigh stood nearby, deep in thought. Arduin was by himself, his bared sword tucked into the crook of the left elbow couter of his plate harness, standing sentry and eyeing the entry to the inner parts of the barrow as he took a swig from a water bottle.

“There's no trace of him outside,” said Stjepan.

“Nor down here,” said Arduin over his shoulder. “It's just too large . . . we almost got lost. He could be hiding anywhere. There's more corpses in other burial chambers. And passages leading down and in all directions. Then there's . . .” He trailed off with a peculiar expression on his face.

“What?” asked Stjepan. “And then there's what?”

“A room. With a well,” said Godewyn quietly. “Who puts a fucking well in a barrow?”

Alarmed, Stjepan looked from Godewyn back to Arduin. “Show me.”

Godewyn entered a rough-hewn chamber, holding aloft a lantern. Stjepan, Erim, and Arduin followed him. The walls of the chamber looked earthen, like it had been carved or tunneled out of solid rock and earth, though there were what appeared to be false stone archways arranged into several of the walls, and carvings and crude, faded paintings on the walls. There were three biers of stone and rock, each with a body, though not as elaborate as the first body and bier that they had found, and slightly lower in height. Grave goods were set in urns and small chests around the walls, though they did not appear as fine or sumptuous as the main haul they'd found. Stjepan stopped and briefly inspected the bodies—the corpses of three desiccated women in barbaric jewels and golden ornaments and slowly decaying silks.

Godewyn nudged Stjepan, indicating a large semi-circular opening on their left. Stjepan took the lantern from Godewyn and approached the opening warily, slipping his falchion out of its sheath, and then stepped through.

The chamber he entered was smaller in size than the previous, and appeared to be a natural cave in the rock. Parts of it looked like the chamber might have been expanded, as though to finish it someone had roughly hewn, almost scratched, more space out of stone and earth. Erim stepped through the opening and joined him in looking about the chamber, but the others held back. Stjepan and Erim saw a circular hole in the ground toward the back of the chamber that did indeed look like the low opening to a well. The pair slowly approached it until Stjepan could peer slightly over the sides.

He stared down into the hole; it looked like it had been tunneled into the earth. From the limited light from the lamp it appeared bottomless, though he supposed that was true about all deep holes in the ground. There was an ancient iron bar set into the stone near the hole. Stjepan glanced up and he could see screw-eye hooks and other rusty implements driven into the ceiling. Erim looked as white as a sheet, and wordlessly she tugged at Stjepan's jacket. Stjepan nodded, and they withdrew to where the others waited by the entrance, and begin whispering.

“So what's a well doing in a grave?” hissed Arduin.

“That's not a well. That's an entrance,” said Stjepan. “If he did go that way, he's not coming back.”

“What's down there?” asked Arduin.

Stjepan didn't answer. He took a deep breath.

“The sun's almost down,” said Stjepan. “We have to collect our dead and seal this barrow and leave. Now.”

They rolled the large, flat oval iron plate inlaid with leering faces in copper and bronze back into place, sealing the entrance to the inner barrow.

Dark storm clouds roiled parts of the sky above them, though the growing orb of the Axe Moon,
Labra-luna
, now only a few days from being full, could be seen to the east against a field of stars. Two more bodies had been washed and wrapped in white cloth and placed in the back of the wagon. Several campfires were lit, though everyone was clustered in or near the central campfire after finishing their prayers over the dead, except Sir Colin Urwed, who still stood guard over the entrance to the Ladies' Tent, and the two women, who were inside it.

“What kind of name is Azharad, anyway?” asked Too Tall bitterly, finally breaking the silence.