Chereads / The Dead & Divine / Chapter 10 - THE WAR ROOM

Chapter 10 - THE WAR ROOM

The plan to find the mapmaker found him. Victor convinced Edwin to join their cause since getting out of that place was the only thing on Edwin's mind. The rays of dusk sunlight beamed through the gothic stained glass, spilling the dining hall with a kaleidoscope of colours and occasional flares of outside lightning danced around the room.

The long table centred in the room was surrounded by twelve high chairs, with only six being occupied by the Noble Warlords. The air was abuzz with political conversation over plates of gold, filled with the largest meats and foods.

The broom in Victor's hand gave a thwack by each sweep on the floor. The black hood was pulled over his head because General Leerstrom sat at the table. Two soldiers stood guard at the hall's large door, owling over the few slaves left to serve in the room.

Edwin stood against the heavy stone wall near the lonely iron door at one side of the room. He stood there as if waiting to serve the nobles. Other slaves swept the floors and tended to the orders of the Warlords sitting at the table.

Victor purposefully swept in Edwin's direction. They knew what they were doing as Edwin stepped away from the wall beside the iron door as Victor drew closer. The guards watched Edwin with a hawk's eye as he closely manoeuvred his way around the Warlocks, invading their personal space intentionally while picking up finished plates of food.

Victor looked at the iron door that was slightly open, intentionally so by Edwin.

"Get away from there!" a guard commanded while quickly walking to the table, looking at how the Warlords unpleasantly shifted in their chairs as Edwin leaned over them to grab used silverware.

"Get away from us, slave," an uncomfortable Warlord irritably cussed, shooing Edwin with his hand.

Victor took the distraction as an opportunity to enter into the iron door, untraced.

Edwin blinked up to see that Victor went through the door.

"I'm very sorry, I'll be taking this away," Edwin explained, holding the silver plate in his hand as the guard pulled him away from the Warlords.

"Move on, now," the guard said, releasing Edwin from his cold grip.

Edwin walked with a smug smile to the iron door, proud that the distraction worked.

Victor got startled as the barred iron door swung open behind him, closing with a dull clack against the stone wall. They were in an arched Hallway, enclosed with plain stone brick walls and dimly lit wall torches. The scenery from the dining hall to the connecting corridor sudden change into darkness.

"I'll lead you to the War room," Edwin said, staring over Victor's shoulder into the space of the corridor with a watchful eye, "but I'll have to leave you alone when entering the restricted wing," he announced, "I'm not allowed there anymore."

Victor's fixed gaze and slacked jaw made Edwin sigh.

"I'll give you directions, I'll tell you where the guards usually stand," he said.

"Now, come."

Victor peaked around the corner of a stone wall, trying to figure out how he'll navigate his way to the War room between the servants and soldiers patrolling the corridors. Edwin managed to sneak him into the restricted wing but had to go back to the dining hall to distract the people.

Victor's hands were clammy, he just got out of the sight of a guard and needs to make his next move quickly, hearing how the fast steps of the guard echoed closer.

He looked across the hallway he peaked into, seeing the distant moonlight shine through what seemed to be an arched corridor leading to upper parts of the Keep, and the wind blew through the glassless windows beside it. Edwin told him to find it because that's his way to the War-room. The only problem now being the corridor intersecting with the one he must walk through, and the damned guard coming his way.

In his resilience, he blew his cover by the shortest moment when he darted through the corridor, sprinting with speed towards the destination.

When the guard turned into the corridor, he saw nothing. Only the wild flickering of torchlight and the wind howling into the glassless arch windows in the distance, he thought he was out of his mind, brushing off the boy he thought he saw. Little did he know that a boy climbed through those windows.

Victor has not realized how deep in the Keep he was, standing on the steep buttress supporting the structure. He looked down from the narrow buttress, witnessing the height of the distance to the courtyard beneath. If he would slip, his death could come sooner.

He started shaking, cursing the weather under his breath. The light rain made for a difficult situation as the moon lit up the world with gloom.

He scanned the structure, searching for the rose window Edwin told him about. He shielded his eyes from the rain and pulled his hood onto his head, finally seeing the rose window built into a wall between gothic towers. That's where he should go, a few panes on the rose window were out. Edwin told him all the details, and he was grateful for it.

He looked down at the rows of flying buttresses, realizing that he needed to leap his way onward. He took a deep breath, slowly balancing himself to his feet. He leapt unto the next buttress, grabbing quickly at the stone pinnacle edged into the buttress.

Slowly again, he came to his feet, jumping at the instant of thunder tore through the skies. When he jumped, he missed the buttress, barely catching hold of it with his arms.

Pulling himself up onto the buttress, the slippery stone defeated his efforts to come to his feet. He pulled himself on with immense effort, sitting on the buttress, pressing his lips together with an exasperated sigh. He was a giant leap away from the roof connecting to the War room's rose window.

With a fatal leap, his body forcefully cracked against the gothic patterns of the wall when he hit the edge of the dark tiled roof, causing his head to smack against it. Blood started running down from his nose. He struggled to grip at the roof, throwing his arms out to find grip. In what felt like a lifetime's struggle, he managed to swing his leg up and pull his body onto the roof.

He looked up into the dark clouds with a bloody nose, "What am I doing?" he laughed to himself as the rain showered coldly onto his skin.

After carefully stepping to the large transept gable with the rose window built into the wall supporting it, he stood before the large window. The physical structure consisted of a series of radiating patterns, glazed with stained glass between. The window was very high, but looking up he saw the gap between the patterns where glass should be. He climbed the intricate stone outlines between the stained glass until the gap in the window was facing him.

He felt the irritating trickle of blood dripping from his nose and wiped away the blood from it. The whistling wind was defeated when he pushed his upper body through the gap, hearing the muffled voices echo through the beams of the rib vaulted ceiling. The Warlords have just gathered together. He hurried to crawl through the gap, grabbing onto the transverse rib beam of the ceiling's supportive structure. The rain and thunder were quiet now, and the many beams and rib vaults of the ceiling helped cover Victor from being seen, but as the Warlords sat down at the oval military table on the floor. Victor crawled from beam to beam, getting closer to their conversation.

The war room was quite large, boasting its architectural structure and intricacy. The table had a political map spread out upon it, having the regional map of Yorthandan State and another drawn upon it.

Sedric and the five other Warlords started planning the attack. Victor listened attentively, hearing every word they say. His attention gets slightly broken when a slave servant opened the wicker door of the War room. It was Jane, shakily bringing goblets of rum to the Warlords.

Victor's eyes widened, "Why is she so scared?"