"Well, don't be angry with me, Mr. Brag! She's not without her beauty, that's true! But does she have a soul? Practice tells you so, Mr. Chevalier!"
The hunchback, unaccustomed to being treated as an equal, simply stammered and let himself be led out into the narrow corridor leading to the tower where unruly subjects were kept and where the castle treasury was located.
"Here we can talk without fear of any unruly ears being turned toward us," the tall man stated calmly, when they had left the chaos of the common room behind.
"Who are you, sir?" – the hunchback finally managed to choke out. – And how do you know my name?
"You may call me Sil of the Severed Part!" the mustachioed man bowed his gangly figure. "At least I'm currently serving as steward to His Lordship Prince Odrzywol, though I think the real reason that ox keeps me is so he can laugh at my antics. So I'm a fool, young man, that's what I am!" he laughed, twirling his mustache mischievously. "These days, it's safest to be a fool! Especially next to a degenerate like Odrzywol!
" "You don't like your prince, sir!" Brag chimed in, just in case.
"Yes, I don't!" the man calling himself Sil snorted. He immediately calmed down, however, and continued more quietly: "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, chevalier! Not that!" He pulled the hunchback into the darkness of the corridor. "I saw how you looked at that blond-haired girl! You want her, don't you?" He paused and studied Brag for a moment, on whose face, despite the dim light, he could see spots of red. "All right! Don't get carried away! It's normal! You're still young, so you're thinking of love!" He nodded. "Then you'll get rid of all that extravagance. A practitioner tells you so!" He fell silent again and looked around carefully. "If you help me with a certain undertaking, I'll make sure she's yours today.
" "But how will you accomplish that, sir?" the hunchback asked with disbelief.
"You can rest assured about that!" the lanky Sil assured Brag with such conviction that Brag believed his words.
"So what do you demand, sir?" the hunchback pricked up his ears.
"I want you to go down with me to the distant dungeons and fetch a certain item!" "The mustachioed man said in a hushed voice, simultaneously pushing Brag toward the stairs.
"But, sir!" the hunchback defended himself. "I've never been to the dungeons! What good is someone like me to you? You need someone there to help you defeat the Dark Forces!
" "I already told you, chevalier, that's exactly what I need!" the hunchback growled. "I've been waiting years for a day like today."
The man's yellow eyes suddenly turned into narrow slits, and his face suddenly transformed into a predatory mask, not much different from the heads of sand vipers. But Brag, walking ahead, didn't notice.
"They're not on guard today!" Sil said as if to himself. "It's a holiday in the castle! That's good! Just as long as I don't fall into the hands of those nasty cavers! But with him, I'm in no danger!"
The hunchback listened to the quiet whisper coming from behind him. He didn't quite understand what the thin man was talking about. Besides, the man frightened him a bit. However, he took his promise to win Jolanda very seriously, and now, as he walked down the stairs, that thought preoccupied him most.
Indeed, the stairs leading to the dungeons were unguarded, although normally, at least on the side facing the strongroom, there was always a guard. The castle servants, in fact, detested this duty, and the hunchback often listened to the grumbling of the guard on duty in the dungeons. Over time, it even became customary to assign guarding the strongroom as punishment. Strange incidents did occur, and the guard often failed to return from the dungeons. However, in Dale, the underground was rarely discussed, and even the most courageous in the castle tried not to mention it. And now Brag and his companion were venturing deeper and deeper into the dark corridors, which emanated menace. Sil, however, seemed to know perfectly well where he was heading. He never hesitated when they reached a fork in the road. At one point, when they were far from the place where the bravest of the guards were approaching, the mustached man suddenly stepped forward and signaled the hunchback to slow down. In the barely flickering light of the torch held above his head by the steward, Brag noticed shadows flitting up the stairs.
"They're just ghosts!" Sil reassured. "You don't have to stand on them; they won't harm you! Watch your step, gentlemen, and avoid moving shadows!" he finally instructed, giving the signal to continue.
They set off down again, though the stairs had meanwhile widened and slowly, almost imperceptibly, transformed into a walkway descending slowly.
"We're almost there!" Sil said back.
"What are we looking for, sir?" the hunchback asked timidly, not expecting an answer.
"A certain Stone!" the thin man replied, to Brag's utter surprise, stopping in a small, egg-shaped alcove. "Here we will rest! For the most difficult part of our journey awaits us soon. And in the meantime, I will tell you a little, chevalier! For as I see, although you are the son of the great Zend, you know little or nothing of the world beyond Dala.
" "No one wanted to talk to me!" the hunchback whined pitifully, hiding his face in his stained hands.
"That will change after all!" Sil raised his thin hand, as if summoning to witness the immense powers that watched the world from afar. "And from tonight on! I promise you this, chevalier!" The steward stroked the young man's disheveled hair, and the young man, sensing this, looked into the man's face.
The force of that gaze made the mustachioed man's soul whimper, and it took a long moment before he managed to force the next words from his constricted throat.
"You see, chevalier!" he said slowly. "The world doesn't end with Dali! Nor does it end with all of the Upland. Far beyond the Brown Mountains and the Dyed River lie the wild wilderness of the Upland, and further northwest still, the populous Upland, where houses are dotted with colorful flowers, for they know no war. And even further west, at the gates of the Ocean, lies the hundred-gate Megana—the capital of magic, where in mighty towers of white stone dwell wizards of unimaginable power. It was from there that your father once came, and there, chevalier, your fate will surely one day be fulfilled." The steward looked into the hunchback's black eyes, and a shiver of dread ran through him again. What fate were those eyes preparing for the world? He preferred not to know!
"Did you ladies know my father?" the hunchback asked in a low voice.
"Did I know him?" Sil laughed hoarsely. "You see, chevalier! Our poor Upland doesn't like magic!" He's afraid of her! There might still be some village witch! As long as she doesn't get too close to the settlement. There are no real magicians here at all! And your father was a magician, the likes of which are few even in Megan. He taught me true magic! He was my master!" Sil gasped, as if the memory were piercing his soul. "It was he who, before his death, revealed to me the secret of the Depth Stone! We are going for it, Brag, son of Zend. In the Middle Lands, the magicians from before time placed the five foundations that build this world. Each of these things gives its owner incredible POWER, but only a few can wield them! Only those with a natural gift of Power are capable of possessing them. As if out of spite, one of these objects was placed in Dale, in the depths carved by the great goblins from the Brown Mountains before the Zagórzans arrived here.
" "What do you ladies intend to do with this Stone?" The hunchback leaned his crooked back toward the steward. The hunchback unexpectedly covered his face, as if afraid of the hump's proximity. A spasm of surprise crossed Brag's face. "What are you afraid of, sir?" he asked. "Me?
" "I'm not afraid of anything!" the mustachioed man sharply denied, straightening proudly. "The stone will be my payment for his wife and daughter to His Highness Prince Odrzywol. The payment he deserves!" The steward's face darkened again, and an inhuman hiss parted his mouth.
Brag, however, had no time to be frightened by his companion's appearance. Suddenly, just behind him, the hunchback felt a presence. One glance was enough to determine that the creature approaching him certainly had no friendly intentions.
The hunchback had once seen a small mud snake that had wandered into the castle courtyard. Now, behind him, its oversized relative was hurtling toward them at incredible speed. Great knots of powerful muscles propelled the snake at a speed unattainable by humans. There was no time to escape! They had to defend themselves.
A sword blade flashed in the thin man's hand. The hunchback carried no weapon, so he stood with his legs slightly apart and his fingers spread wide, waiting for the attack.
"Use the Force!" he heard the same call as in the Goat Witch's cave. He felt the steward's fingers on his hump and a sudden tingling sensation spread throughout his entire body. He remembered the flash of white light this time. He didn't lose consciousness entirely, as he had the first time.
Fire spread through the rocky corridor, consuming everything in its path. The monstrous snake charred in an instant, and the powerful strands of muscle turned into a sizzling mass of burnt flesh. A foul stench spread around him, nearly taking the hunchback's breath away. He glanced behind him. The gangly steward seemed unharmed. He slowly brushed the dust from his cloak.
"What happened?" Brag finally gasped. "Where did this fire come from?
" "It's your hump!" the mustachioed man replied calmly. "The Power is hidden within it! Have you noticed, chevalier, how afraid everyone is to touch it! For them, it's death!
" "I didn't know!" the hunchback hid his face in his hands. He was terrified! He, who was being tossed around by everyone in the castle, possessed the Power.
And the Power that could kill. Proof of this lay just a few steps away in the form of a large lump of blackened, stinking flesh. Suddenly, he lifted his head proudly! No one would toss him around again, not in Dale, nor anywhere else.
"Let's go!" he commanded, unexpectedly even to himself.
And surprisingly, the steward, without protest, followed him! And Brag walked as if he knew the way. Indeed, somewhere on the fringes of his consciousness, a vague memory of a place he had been a long time ago, lingered. The gangly mustachioed man smiled grimly. This was exactly what he was counting on! For the awakening of the hunchback's Power! Without it, they would never have been able to find the Vault of the Stone.
They came upon it a moment later.
Brag first stopped, fidgeting and turning on his heel. Then suddenly he leaped to one of the walls and touched it with his twisted back. Something in the rock thundered, roared, and finally, moved by an incomprehensible force, it opened in both directions, revealing the interior of a large room.
At a massive table, on a small stool, a gray-haired man sat, watching them. Only after a moment did Brag realize he couldn't see them. No one could penetrate such a thick layer of cataract. The Vault's keeper was blind, though despite his disability, he seemed to penetrate their minds more thoroughly than if he had looked them directly in the eye.
"You have come for the Stone!" a booming voice boomed, though the old man's mouth remained closed. "It is there!" – A bony hand moved towards the table, where a grayish piece of rock lay. – Let him who has the POWER take it!
Brag wordlessly approached the table and took the Depth Stone. It immediately settled in his hands, and the hunchback felt a warmth spreading through his body. The face of a man, as clear as day, appeared before his eyes, as if he were speaking to him. But the words didn't register! He knew this was something extremely important.
"You'll come back here again, boy!" the old man's hoarse voice echoed inside the hunchback's head. "You'll come back to your own doom or the world's! Then you'll understand! Now go! "
Brag rose from the knees he'd knelt on when he'd taken the Stone.
"Let's go!" he ordered.
The crypt wall sealed itself immediately after their departure. A moment later, nothing marked the location of the rock chamber.
The return journey, even though they were climbing uphill, seemed devilishly easy to Brag. He easily leaped several steps at a time, clearly increasingly frightening the gangly steward.
When they finally reached the corridor the hunchback was already familiar with, Sil abruptly stopped the young man and hissed,
"Remember, chevalier, the Stone is mine! Give it to me now!" A predatory hand extended toward the hunchback.
"And your promise, sir?" Brag closed his hand with the Stone inside and straightened his hunched back proudly.
"I swear to you, chevalier," Sil's voice softened, "that this very night Yolanda will turn her heart to you! But now you must give me the Stone!"
Brag unconsciously thrust his hand forward. Something deep within him told him to listen to the gangly man. To his surprise, the steward covered his hand with a thick cloth before taking the gray Stone. Later, when the object was in his hands, he scanned his entire body with visible fear, as if searching for any signs of change. He noticed nothing, however, and with an expression of triumph, he moved forward.
The common room was no less noisy than when they had left. The only sign of the feast's progress was the numerous legs sticking out from under the tables, those who had clearly finished participating. Surprisingly, Stogniew was still on his feet and shouting drunken remarks at Prince Odrzywoł, who held the chatelaine in his powerful arms. Jolanda clearly no longer minded the giant's aggressive caresses. His exposed left breast and the smile plastered on his face were visibly proof of this.
The hunchback closed his eyes, fearing another wave of heat would erupt from his hump. His companion, however, didn't look at him. With a slanted face, he approached the main table with mechanical steps.
"His Highness the Prince!" he said in a thick voice, but no one paid him any attention.
Odrzywół was still holding the breast of the chatelaine, who was giggling lustily. Only a hard slap on the table from the steward's thin hand made the prince take notice of the intruder.
"It's you, Sil!" he stammered, waving his arms uncoordinatedly. "What do you want? I didn't summon you, you fool!
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