Chapter Fifty Four – The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep by Kelly D. Tolman

Posted by admin on October 5, 2009

The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep is a fantasy novel describing the adventures of Colter Halfspear as he becomes a man and an initiate of magical powers.

Time seemed to stand still in the study.  We ate, we rested, we slept, and we searched, but we had no way to mark the passage of days or hours.

During this time I discovered that Davmandius had created Golgaron as a sort of weapon practice machine, but that the statue grew in intelligence and ability over the winters until he had a life of his own.

“Davmandius was a great weapons master,” said Pascalli. “His skill became so great that many came from all lands to learn from him.  In order to share that skill he poured all of his knowledge into Golgaron, until he had created an unstoppable killing machine, and the perfect practice partner.  You will practice each day with him now.”  He gave me a wink.  “And let the old man have a rest.”

The library contained a number of books detailing techniques for applying elemental magic, combat and strategic information, as well as mathematics, history and scientific experiments.  As I feared, Pascalli kept me studying for hours on end.  The tedium of constant study, practice, and study nearly drove me mad.  We had packed enough food for several markets, but had not used much of it since arriving at the underground city, choosing instead to live off the edible fungi, moss or animals.  A natural spring and a sort of indoor latrine were available in a small adjacent room, and Pascalli seemed perfectly content to remain imprisoned until we found some sort of answer.

My thoughts often returned to Dina, and to the city above.  I longed to be plowing my own fields, and to hunt beside her again.  She was the kind of friend you find only once in a lifetime, perhaps twice if you are lucky.  I ached for our journey to be ended.

“There is nothing in these books that I do not already know,” said Pascalli in exasperation.

“Then obviously the secret Golgaron is guarding has nothing to do with them,” I retorted.  We were both ornery from the confinement.  I had meant the remark to be sarcastic, but Pascalli cracked a smile for the first time in a long time.

“I do believe you are right,” he said.

“Uh, I am,” I asked.

“Davmandius was trying to protect this place from me,” said Pascalli.  He gave a furtive glance to Golgaron, and added, “Or people like me.  He had no idea about Asmordreda, although I imagine he would want her kept out as well.  Which means that whatever he was protecting had to be something utterly powerful, something magical.  There would be no point guarding these books from wizards, I have a similar collection at Gratterskeep.”

“Golgaron, do you know what it is you are guarding, or where it is?” I asked.

“No, master,” he replied.  “I was brought here and commanded to guard.”

“Search the room,” suggested Pascalli.

“You search it,” I retorted.  “I’ve already done that, in detail.”  For emphasis I showed the book on the nature of water I was supposed to be studying.

“It’s not in there,” he said grumpily.

“There is nothing here but books,” I replied.  “Besides, if he meant the secret to be guarded from you, then shouldn’t you be looking for it?  I wouldn’t even recognize it if I found it.”

“Right you are Scratch, my boy, right you are.  You go ahead and enjoy your reading.  I’ll have a look around.”

As intrigued as Pascalli seemed with our new companion, I was put off a great deal by the wide berth he gave Golgaron, and put off even more by the fact that no matter what I asked the great statue immediately complied.  I was completely unused to servants, and I had the uncomfortable feeling that the statue expected me to know a great deal more about my position than I did.

“Golgaron, what exactly did Davmandius order you to do?” I asked.

“He brought me here and said, ‘stand and guard my secret.  Do not let the forces of darkness take it at any cost.’  Then he left,” answered the statue.

“Sounds like a wizard,” I said sardonically.

“Indeed,” replied Pascalli.  “A most worthy puzzle.”

“Where does that leave us?” I asked.

“Right here,” laughed Pascalli.  “The same place you’ve been for several markets.”

“I mean, what then in this place could Golgaron possibly be guarding, and note that he said secret, not secrets, so whatever it is there is only one of it,” I said.

“Of course, so it is not, as we determined, the books,” continued Pascalli.  “Though I think you would do well to keep studying them.”  I wilted, but the hint of a wink in his eyes let me know he was only half serious at the moment.  “What else is there?”

“Some shelves, a table, two chairs, and of course Golgaron,” I listed, yawning.

“Right,” agreed the wizard.  “Also, of course there is the room itself.”

“Right,” I agreed, but only half-heartedly.  We had been through a similar debate already, and I was bored to the point of insanity.  “I don’t think it’s these chairs, they look comfortable enough, but after a while it’s easy to find the hard spots.  The table is out too, nothing there but solid wood.  That seems to narrow it down to either Golgaron or the room itself.”

“Or something Golgaron knows,” said Pascalli.

“He already said he doesn’t know the secret,” I replied.

“Perhaps he doesn’t know that he knows,” said the wizard wryly.  “Davmandius poured a great deal of knowledge into him, and he has seen much that has changed the world.”

“So you think he’s the secret.  He’s been guarding himself for thousands of winters and didn’t know it?”  Some part of me found the thought amusing.

“No, I don’t,” said Pascalli. “It is possible.  I admit that I did not know what happened to Golgaron, I wasn’t even sure he still existed until we came here, but his existence before the breaking was hardly a secret.”

Pascalli seemed to grow thoughtful again, and I was nodding off into my book.  “Time for more practice,” he suggested.  “You are getting sleepy.”

My muscles resisted.  I had not worked so hard in a long time, and I dreaded the exacting drills that Golgaron imposed.  Sparring with the statue could be physically brutal as he fought without fear and without tiring.

“You learn quickly, master, but your thinking is too narrow,” he said.  “Knowing and understanding your forms is crucial, but you must learn to approach combat in a broader sense.  It is not enough to combine moves into fluid movement with an exact chain, but you must plan your kill from the very first feint.”

“What do you mean?  How can a feint kill someone?”

“The feint does not kill,” he replied.  “You feint, or you thrust, and it forces me to move.  I have very few options with how I can parry or dodge.  You already know those options, so you calculate the strength of your thrust and then calculate my positioning in order to avoid that thrust.  Then calculate the positioning you will need for your next move, and so carefully you draw me into a vulnerable position.”

“You are talking about mere fractions of centimeters in split seconds,” I replied.  “That’s impossible.”

“It was possible for Davmandius,” he said flatly.

“It is also possible for me, though I admit I am not as good as my brother,” said Pascalli.  Something in his tone hinted that he was not just speaking of weapons.

“If Davmandius was always thinking ahead, then couldn’t this all be some trap,” I said.  “Couldn’t he have just left Golgaron here guarding nothing at all?  Maybe that’s the secret.”

“Possible, but unlikely,” agreed Pascalli.  “Davmandius would not lie.  Nor would he employ his most trusted servant to guard nothing more than a lie.”

“Then let’s try a different tactic,” I said.  “Think back to when Davmandius was around.  What did he have, or was rumored to have, that you would have wanted, or that he wouldn’t have wanted you to have?”

“I think a better question would be what did he know that he didn’t want me to know,” said Pascalli.

“Same thing, but have it your way,” I replied

Pascalli merely looked annoyed.  “Fair enough.  I would say that there are two things we wouldn’t want me to know about.  One would be that he knew how to defeat those who opposed him, utterly.  The other would be that he had found something even more dangerous than me, which he wanted to keep hidden from the world because he was afraid he could not control it.  Golgaron is neither of those things, so that rules him out.”

“That leaves us looking for a powerful weapon designed to destroy wizards,” I said, again falling into sarcasm.

“Or the key to such a weapon.”  Pascalli’s eyes brightened as he spoke.  “There was a rumor, a bit of research we all took as nonsense by a young and rather inexperienced wizard about something he called ‘The Key to the Stars’ that was supposedly an incredible source of power.  Nobody really took him seriously, but Davmandius had a way of rooting out the most obscure knowledge.”

“What is the key anyway?” I asked.  “Do you know what it looked like?”

“All I know is that it is an object designed to forcefully channel the energy of the heavens into a wizard’s control,” said Pascalli.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted.

“The most potent kind of magic is the magic that the gods wield,” he said, assuming his lecture tone.  “That priest of Tylos who healed you did so using that magic, but only because Tylos willed it so.  The key to the stars is supposed to call that magic and force it to your will, allowing for unimaginable power.  But the key was supposed to be a contained in a chamber, a small room activated by certain controls.”

“So maybe this is the room,” I said.

“No, it doesn’t fit anything I read about his research, and surely you would have felt that kind of power.  More likely a critical controlling component is here,” he said.

“Or the key to a key to the key,” I said.

“What?”

“What if the critical component was somewhere else, and all that could be found here was the knowledge of that component, which could then be taken to the chamber?”  I impressed myself with my own deduction.  “Golgaron, come here.”

The statue came and stood beside me.  I fished out my rings and held them up to his breastplate.  On it the crest of Darnuth Keep was engraved, an inverted triangle with diamonds at the points of the base and a circle at the tip.  I held the rings up, and one diamond in each matched the diamonds in the crest.

“The final token is the medallion,” said Golgaron.  “You will need to defeat her to get it.”

“No wonder she did not return,” said Pascalli.  “You did not have the rings as she expected.  At some point during your battle she must have guessed what the crest means.  Davmandius obviously expected Golgaron to defeat anyone who entered here.  I wondered why we hadn’t seen the crest anywhere else in the palace or even in the city.  In any event, we hold the keys, and she is likely waiting for us in the chamber itself.”  With a wry smile he added, “Never keep a lady waiting, Scratch.  We’ve tarried here long enough.”
Copyright 2008 Kelly David Tolman

On to The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep Fantasy Novel Chapter Fifty Five

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