The Forgotten Kingdom

Chapter 6

    The day dragged on for Desmond, his thoughts going back to his meeting with the mayor every so often. Despite his mother’s insistence, he felt he couldn’t sit around all day doing nothing, and so he cleaned the house and the loafing shed, fed the animals, and tended the garden.

    Other than Desmond’s father returning from market, and a similar reaction to his mother, the day was uneventful, but the tension from the mayor’s interest weighed heavy on Desmond and it kept him up long into the night.

    He found himself laying in bed, staring at a dark ceiling, when he heard the unmistakable sound of a closing door. He was sitting up before he even realized what he’d heard. Not bothering to get dressed he hurried to the door of his room and looked out of the doorwat, just barely seeing someone’s head disappear down the stairs.

    Elsabeth.

    Why was she sneaking out?

    “Elsabeth where are you going?!” He called out. He heard her pick up speed and it finally hit him.

    The brick.

    The outpost.

    And he was practically n***d.

    With a silent curse he hurried back into his room to get dressed.

    “Why can’t she ever just leave anything alone?” He grunted as he forced his boots on. “She’s going to get herself arrested at this rate,” he said as he tugged his shirt on and hurried out of his room. When he got downstairs, he was met by his mother in her nightgown.

    “Desmond what’s the matter, why are you shouting?”

    “Elsabeth snuck out.”

    “She what? What for? Where is she going?”

    “Probably the forest because-“

    “That scorched brick?” His mother inhaled sharply. “I’ll go and get your father, he went to check the goats from all the shouting, you get your sister and we’ll be right after you.” She said, walking towards the back door. He wanted to tell her there was no reason to follow, but he was more concerned with catching up with Elsabeth. He hoped his father could convince her they didn’t need to help him.

    Besides, he was the only one that actually knew where the thing she was looking for was. Of course, he realized, that only meant that Elsabeth was more likely to get lost in the woods at night. He remembered one of the loggers mentioned fire wolves.

    That thought pushed him to move faster than he really should have been going, he wasn’t terribly coordinated and ended up falling over when he had to make a sharp turn.

    “Ouch…” he grumbled, rising on shaky legs, feeling the burn in his lungs from having pushed himself so hard. He was genuinely surprised he hadn’t seen a sign of Elsabeth yet. He didn’t think she’d gotten that much of a lead. It seemed the forge was the difference between leaving someone in the dust and being bent over trying to catch your breath.

    “Desmond?” Came a familiar voice. He looked up, surprised to see Argent there in uniform.

    “Ar… Argent? What… are you… doing here?” Desmond panted between words.

    “Are you okay? I thought you were in trouble. Did you manage to get away?”

    “Get away?” Desmond asked, finally managing to stand straight.

    “Yes… I was guarding the gate when your sister said you were being attacked and…” Argent seemed very confused, “You look okay to me.”

    Desmond felt a fire burn inside him, melting away the tension in his muscles. “I can’t believe her! She’s trying to sneak out of the village to that outpost they found.”

    Argent’s cheeks heated up, “I didn’t… I’m sorry, at least the gate’s locked? We can probably make it back before she climbs it-“ Argent froze when he reached into his side pouch. “Uhm… small problem… I think she took the key when she bumped into me.”

    “She… she picked your pocket? So that means…”

    “She’s outside the gates.”

    The pair hurried as fast as Desmond’s tired legs would allow them and arrived at an open gate, that Argent insisted be closed before they went after Elsabeth. Rather than argue about how much time they had, Desmond waited for Argent to close the gates and caught his breath.

    “If she gets lost out here…” Desmond panted out.

    “We’ll find her. I promise,” Argent said firmly as he made sure the gate locked. “Besides… we need her now or we’ll never get back in the village.” That thought didn’t do anything to comfort Desmond.

    “Should we split up?”

    “No.” Argent said firmly, “If you come across anything, I can’t protect you if there’s a whole forest between us.”

    Desmond didn’t know if he should be offended or thankful, he certainly wouldn’t have any way to defend himself if they came across even an agitated squirrel, much less a bandit skulking in the woods. He cleared his throat, before heading down the path he’d taken towards the logger’s camp, thankful for the full moon that illuminated the path.

    “Why is she out here in the first place?”

    “I’m not sure I should say… she wouldn’t even be out here if I had kept my mouth shut,” Desmond said with a sigh.

    “I don’t think keeping things from me is gonna help me help you,” he said.

    “You’re right,” Desmond sighed. “There’s a brick I found and - is that a torch?”

    The pair stopped dead in their tracks, looking at a pole at least as tall as Argent with a torch burning at the head. It was one of many along a path heading into the forest.

    “I… don’t feel good about this,” Argent said, looking around.

    “This is where I found the brick,” Desmond said looking down. He could see the faint shape of the path in the ground, someone must have unearthed it after he’d found the first brick.

    “This looks like the kind of thing that Elsabeth would follow,” Argent said, looking to Desmond for a moment, before following the torch path. The flickering lights of the torches threw shadows that did little to comfort Desmond. He found himself moving closer to Argent as they followed along the seemingly endless path.

    “Who do you think lit these torches?” Argent asked.

    “What?”

    “The torches. I doubt it was Elsabeth… do you think there’s someone already here?”

    “I hadn’t even thought of that,” Desmond said, looking between the torches. The shadows they cast seemed even more ominous now than they had before.

    “Do you hear that?” Argent asked, stopping, c*****g his head just slightly.

    “No, I don’t hear anything.”

    “I think we’re close to the river… do you think this path leads to the other side?” Argent asked as he resumed his lead along the path.

    “I… suppose it could. I can’t imagine anyone building anything in the Eternal Forest. I thought the trees were supposed to be too strong to cut down, and too wild for even a Kore to tame.”

    “Those are just legends,” Argent said as they got to the riverbank, where a few logs had been felled into a crude bridge, before pointing at one of the trees on the other side of the river. “But those trees are the same ones that grow on this side of the river.” He finished by pointing at the bridge.

    “I guess you’re right,” Desmond said, taking an experimental step on the bridge, pleasantly surprised to find it was sturdy. He took the lead now, following the torches deeper into the Eternal Forest. Some part of him reminded him of the fire wolves again. He was thankful for Argent’s presence.

    Just as it started to feel like they were never going to stop following the torches, they came upon an overgrown gate that had fallen over. Past that, there was very little that looked disturbed. It looked like a very small town, or an outpost of some kind with only five buildings and a set of stables. Three of the buildings looked like houses, and of the two remaining one looked much larger.

    The whole place felt strange, the brickwork was unlike anything Desmond had ever seen, and the buildings had strange markings carved above the doors – signs, he presumed. It was hard to really make much out without proper lighting. If he had to guess, he’d say that whatever the purpose of this place, it wasn’t for staying long.

    “I see footprints,” Argent commented, pointing at the ground, the ground was little more than patted down dirt, bleached by the sun. Desmond didn’t see how Argent could tell which footprints to follow, there were a lot. Probably from the recent discovery.

    “Come on, let’s go,” Argent said, heading towards the smaller of the two buildings. When they found the entrance, Desmond was unsurprised to find the doors were already open. Unfortunately, the wooden flooring made it impossible to tell where Elsabeth had gone.

    “You check down here, I’ll go upstairs,” Argent said, heading towards a set of stairs on the far side of the building.

    “Are you sure those are safe?” Desmond called after him. Argent didn’t pause in his stride.

    “If they aren’t, we’ll know she’s not up there.”

    Desmond groaned at that response, before looking around. It almost scared him to be there. The windows let in ample light from the moon, but there were still a number of dark, shadowy corners for any manner of creature to hide in. Including Elsabeth if she didn’t want to be found. He tried to put himself in her shoes as he looked at what little remained in the room.

    The room was dominated by a large counter, which had a large wall of shelves behind it. He approached the counter and looked behind it, but from what he could see there wasn’t anything else there. He looked around, spotting two exits to the room he was in. That frustrated him. If he picked the wrong one, she could slip right by him.

    “Elsabeth can you please just come out from wherever you’re hiding?” He shouted. Immediately after he heard a crash coming from the direction of the farther door. Deciding it best to take a chance, he hurried to open it.

    On the other side of the door was a room with a broken desk with a chair behind it, a large window that let in moonlight, and on the other side of the room was a smashed jar. And a door that was still moving from being opened recently.

    “Scorch it all…” Desmond grunted, before hurrying through the door. He was disheartened to find that it led into a large, almost windowless room, with shelves as far as the room stretched. It would take him hours to search the entire place. He turned around and headed towards the stairs, figuring Argent would be of use here. He moved as fast as he could up the stairs, calling for Argent. The space he entered at the top of the steps was mostly barren, except for the faded, balding carpet laid out on the floor. He couldn’t tell what color it was meant to be in the dull moonlight, especially with the untold years it sat here fading.

    “Argent?” He called again, only seeing one door, he made his way towards it. When he opened the door, he found Argent standing in the middle of the room, not seemingly doing anything. “What are you doing?” Desmond called, approaching him.

    “Desmond come look at this, its beautiful,” he said, his gaze fixed on the high ceiling. Despite the request, Desmond couldn’t help looking at the ruined furniture on the ground. It reminded him somewhat of Mayor Hyram’s furniture, except for the state of ruin it was in. In the center was a bed with two long posts on one side, and the other two had fallen inwards. They were connected with drapes, if it weren’t for their being transparent, he likely wouldn’t even be able to tell it was a bed.

    He hadn’t realized that he’d made it to Argent’s side until he saw the other’s arm pointing upwards. Following his arm, Desmond saw what was fascinating him. The ceiling was painted with a mural of the night sky, except the stars painted were glowing brighter than anything he’d ever seen. There were strange clouds of deep purple and vibrant blue interspersed among the stars. The borders of the mural were etched in a softly gleaming gold.

    “What the-“

    “Wait, it gets better,” Argent whispered.

    As if on cue, a streak of brilliant light flashed across the painting. Desmond couldn’t wrap his head around it, but after seeing that he began to notice the gentle pulsing of the stars, the lazy swirls in the clouds, the movement of the whole painting. Not a painting. It couldn’t be. He was watching magic. It was so different from what he’d seen of magic in the past, a show of strength from Mayor Hyram, or an intimidation tactic. This was just… beautiful.

    “Isn’t it amazing?” Argent asked, his voice low, as if speaking any louder would scare off the miracle they were witnessing.

    “Yes…” Desmond admitted, having forgotten why he’d come looking for Argent in the first place. Why they were here at all.

    The sudden scream reminded him.