The High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain
“No child,” Brienne said. “At least, not that we know of. These were made by the oldest of the old who once settled these lands. They dwelled here long before the Sacor Clans, but what they called themselves no one, except perhaps the Eletians, knows. We call them Delvers. The tombs were not entirely built by the D’Yers—portions were formed from natural niches and caves in the bedrock. But before the tombs, during the time of the great ice, we think the Delvers lived in them. The caves must have provided shelter from the cold and predators.”
One of the drawings was of a large catamount-like creature with long curving fangs.
Their own little cat gazed at them thumping its tail impatiently on the dusty floor. When it saw it had their attention, it walked to where the stone face met the corridor wall and vanished.
How’d it do that? Karigan wondered. She’d once thought of the cat as a ghost kitty, but it had felt so real rubbing her leg…
Fastion crutched over to the wall. “There is a fissure here. Your position and the angle of light only makes it look solid. Come see.”
Karigan and the remaining Weapons clustered around what was not more than, to Karigan’s mind, a narrow crack in the wall. Fine for a cat, but a human being?
“It will be a squeeze,” Brienne said. “I shall test it first.”
Except for Karigan, Brienne was the slimmest of the group. The others, all men except for Cera, had broad shoulders and chests. Brienne removed her sword, felt her way into the fissure, and squeezed in. She did not even take a lamp with her. Karigan admired the sergeant’s grit and was glad it wasn’t she who had to chance getting jammed in some dark fissure.
It was not long before Brienne reemerged unscathed. “It is tight in the beginning, but widens. It comes out behind Queen Lyra’s bed.”
There was murmured consternation among the Weapons. “Do the caretakers know about it?” Lennir asked.
The Weapons prided themselves on knowing every crack and corner of the castle, but were now learning they had not discovered everything just yet. Karigan wondered if the castle played tricks on people; changed its configuration now and then; revealed and concealed its extent at whim.
“Perhaps, perhaps not,” Fastion replied.
“A tapestry conceals the outlet,” Brienne said.
Karigan was still working out the idea of Queen Lyra’s bed. Surely this was a quaint way of referring to a funerary slab. Surely.
But now the Weapons started to file into the fissure, and Fastion placed a hand on Karigan’s shoulder and guided her toward it.
“Brienne will be in charge on the other side,” he said.
“What? Aren’t you coming?”
“Yes, of course, but in the tombs she outranks me. Above is my domain.”
It was all really too much for Karigan to digest in her current state. The Weapons were beyond her, and she left it at that.
Fastion practically shoved her into the fissure and she found she had to shuffle sideways to fit. She held the sword vertically against her hip and moved cautiously so as not to jar her already battered body. Still, her cheek grazed a jagged rock and she probably added a new bruise to her shoulder before the passage widened. Light glowed ahead and she surged toward it like a swimmer seeking the water’s surface. She emerged into a large chamber, Brienne holding aside the tapestry. Fastion hopped out of the passage next, dragging his crutches behind him.
Brienne dropped the tapestry back into place. Whether or not the caretakers knew of the passage, the Delvers had, for Karigan glimpsed stick figure people and beasts incised into the stone around the opening before the tapestry swept back over them.
“I sent Lennir and Beston to Heroes Avenue to investigate what’s happened at the main entrance,” Brienne told Fastion in a hushed voice. “Offrid and Sorin I’ve sent to the village, and I’ve ordered the rest to scout for intruders.”
Fastion nodded.
“Village?” Karigan asked.
“Shhh,” Fastion said. “We don’t know how near the intruders are. The village is where the caretakers live.”
“You two are with me,” Brienne said. “We’ll visit the kings and queens and perhaps intercept the intruders and the book.”
Visit the kings and queens, Karigan thought sourly. Visit dead people.
Only now did she take in her surroundings which were lit by lamps at low glow, leaving much in shadow and to the imagination. When Brienne said the passage ended at Queen Lyra’s “bed,” she hadn’t been using a quaint figure of speech. She’d been precise. A canopy bed, to be even more precise.
Beautiful blue velvet curtains draped down from the canopy and were tied to each bedpost with gold cords. Beneath the matching covers a figure reclined against silk pillows, jewels on boney fingers and a tiara on its head sparkling in the light. A perfectly braided rope of silver hair flowed down the figure’s shoulder. The flesh was shrunken to skull and bones like parchment, and Queen Lyra gazed out from her bed with a perpetual, skeletal grin.
Karigan did not know if it was some secret method of embalming that preserved the dead in these tombs so well over hundreds of years, or the cool, dry environment, or some alchemy of the two. She didn’t care. All she knew was that she hated the tombs. She really did.
The white cat reappeared from beneath the bed and jumped up onto it.
“Shoo!” Brienne said, whisking the cat off. “Agemon would be most displeased to find clumps of white hair on the queen’s bed.”
Karigan groaned inwardly when she heard the chief caretaker’s name, and she hoped they would not encounter him this time.
The rest of the chamber was fitted out like a bedroom, complete with dressing table, armoire, and washstand. There was even a chamber pot stashed under the bed. Though tables and furniture were cluttered with personal items, such as combs and jewelry, no trailing cobwebs hung from the canopy bed; no dirt or grime clung to any surface. There was even a book on a chair next to the bed with a marker in it. Apparently Queen Lyra liked to read.
When Fastion observed Karigan absorbing everything, he said, “Many wish to take with them the comforts of home after death. The dying find it easier to accept their journey to the heavens knowing they’ll be surrounded by things they loved in life. The queen’s husband, King Cedric, preferred to spend the afterlife with his favorite horses.”
He pointed to a slab of granite just to the side of a fine Durnesian carpet inscribed with the king’s name and that of fifteen horses.
“They’re all under the floor?” Karigan asked.
Fastion nodded. “According to the chronicles the caretakers keep, it was quite a trial to entomb the king and his horses.”
Karigan did not ask if the horses were already dead or brought down alive. She did not want to know.
Brienne peered out of the chamber, looking for trouble. “The way is clear,” she said in a low voice. “I see no living souls.”
Brienne, Karigan knew, was not being facetious.
She followed Brienne out of Queen Lyra’s chamber, with Fastion taking up the rear. She dreaded what other burial displays lay ahead. Her only hope was that they’d find the intruders quickly and get this journey into the tombs over with.
THE HOUSE OF SUN AND MOON
The main corridor was more brightly lit than Queen Lyra’s chamber, revealing the Halls of Kings and Queens in all its grandeur, reminding Karigan of the west wing of the castle where the king’s offices and private apartments were. Rich carpeting softened footfalls, paintings of battles and landscapes hung from the walls, and polished suits of armor stood at attention next to statues of carved marble. Finely crafted furniture that had probably never been used was clustered in comfortable groupings, as if awaiting a social gathering, and tapestries of exquisite embroidery depicting wars and victories, and legends and hunting triumphs, hung from ceiling to floor.
Where there was no other art or draperies covering the walls, glittering mosaics depicted the gods, and goose bumps raised along Karigan’s flesh as
They came to a library nook overflowing with books. A pair of cushioned chairs faced an unlit hearth.
“Queen Lyra insisted on a library,” Brienne told Karigan.
Karigan wished the fire was lit. The cold of the tombs, while not freezing, was penetrating, which accounted for the fur-lined cloaks the tomb Weapons wore year round.
Colorful banners and pennants hung from the barrel vaulted ceilings, blunting the effect of stone. This main corridor did not appear to house the dead, but glimpses down adjoining passageways and into chambers revealed sarcophagi and funerary slabs, or wall crypts both sealed and unsealed. The latter seemed to be found down more primitive, narrower corridors. And were fully occupied.
Everything, like Queen Lyra’s chamber, was immaculate—not a single spider had a chance here, and Karigan was sure the tomb cats took care of the rodent population. Just as on Heroes Avenue, the air did not smell of musty old bones or rot; fresh currents of air wisped into her face. Cold and dry. Good storage for corpses.
She marveled just at the lamps, trying to imagine how much of the population’s taxes went for whale oil to light the tombs for dead people who could not appreciate it while the Green Riders must be sparing in their use of the pittance they were allotted every year.
Not only that, but she couldn’t begin to fathom how much work it took to keep the lamp chimneys and ceilings above free of soot. For heavens sake, there were even chandeliers! She shook her head, boggled by it all.
They prowled the main corridor searching for trouble. The first sign they found was a bust of a king smashed on the floor, then the sound of weeping. Brienne charged down the corridor with Fastion swinging behind her. Karigan hurried to catch up.
The Weapons turned into a chamber filled with numerous, occupied funerary slabs, but Karigan’s gaze was not drawn to those desiccated corpses swathed in wraps, but to the fresh corpse on the floor lying in a pool of blood—he looked to have been killed by a sword thrust to the belly. A girl on her knees wept over the man. Both the girl and man were garbed in subdued grays and whites, their flesh unnaturally pale from never having seen the sun. Caretakers.
“Iris,” Brienne said, placing her hand on the girl’s heaving shoulder. “Did you see who did this to him?”
It took several moments to soothe the girl, who wasn’t more than twelve.
“I…I was coming to read to Queen Lyra,” the girl explained between sobs, “and I found Uncle Charles here.”
Brienne stroked the girl’s hair, then knelt beside the dead man, placing her hand against his face.
“He’s cool,” Brienne said, “but not cold enough to be long dead. The intruders are still here, somewhere.”
“What is this?” a voice demanded. “What’s happened?” They whirled at the sudden appearance of a caretaker in the chamber’s doorway. Karigan recognized the long white hair, the smooth face, and specs. Like the girl and dead man, he wore robes of muted colors.
“Agemon,” Brienne said.
“What has happened here?” He adjusted his specs in an agitated way, as if not believing what his eyes showed him. “What happened to Charles? I…I don’t understand.”
Brienne took his arm and said in a quiet but firm tone, “Agemon, there are intruders in the tombs.”
He wrung his hands. “I knew nothing good would come of it—I knew it!”
“Come of what?” Fastion asked.
“The king sending all our Black Shields above.” Agemon knelt by Charles and shook his head. “Preparations must be made. I must—”
“Not now, Agemon,” Brienne said. “Fastion and I need to ferret out the intruders so they can’t harm anyone else.”
“Yes, yes,” Agemon murmured. “Do what Black Shields do. I shall tend the dead.”
Brienne took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as though schooling her patience with the caretaker. “You will go to the House of Sun and Moon and remain there. Karigan will look after you till we return. Do you understand?”
Agemon finally took notice of Karigan. “She looks ready for the death surgeons,” he said. “The king should not have taken away our Black Shields.”
“Do you understand?” Brienne asked, with an edge to her voice.
Agemon waved her off. “Yes, yes. House of Sun and Moon. We’ll await you there.”
Brienne gazed at Karigan expectantly.
“I understand,” Karigan said. She hoped Brienne and Fastion found the intruders quickly so this ordeal would soon end. The two melted down the main corridor, which left her with Agemon, Iris, and the fresh corpse. For some reason, fresh corpses did not bother her as much as the old ones.
Agemon turned to her. “I remember you. The black uniform does not fool me. Yes, you were in green. Yes, yes. Touched the First Rider’s sword. Defiled it, you did. I do not believe you are a Black Shield. It is not possible.”
“Now—” Karigan started.
“Oh, no. Just not possible. You will not leave the tombs this time. You have broken taboo.”
Karigan was so tired that she lacked Brienne’s patience. The last thing in the world she’d ever allow to happen to her was becoming a caretaker, stuck in the tombs for the rest of her life. “Wrong,” she said, and on a hunch, she drew Brienne’s sword just enough to clear a portion of the blade of the sheath.
Agemon looked down at the floor. “I’m…I’m sorry. I will not doubt you again.”
There was a band of black silk wrapped around the blade just below the guard, which designated the sword’s bearer as a swordmaster. Most swordmasters entered the king’s service as a Weapon, like Brienne, accepting duty either in the tombs or above ground. Without it, Karigan would be clearly identified as a fraud. She had hoped that since Brienne was a swordmaster, the extra sword she lent Karigan would have the silk and, to her vast relief, it did.
Karigan let the sword slide back into its sheath. “We are going to the House of Sun and Moon,” she said, “just as Sergeant Quinn ordered.”
“I…I just want to cover Charles,” Agemon said.
“Do so quickly.”
Agemon scurried to the back of the chamber and delved into a bureau. He withdrew a linen shroud.
Convenient, Karigan thought. But not surprising.
As it turned out, Agemon wanted not only to cover Charles’ body, but to position it just so and tuck the shroud neatly around him as though making a bed.
“We’ve no time,” Karigan said, tugging on his sleeve. “You will have to see to him later.”
Agemon looked upon the shrouded body with regret, adjusted his specs, and held out his hand for the girl, Iris. “Come, child. The Black Shield wants us to leave. We’ll come back later and care for him properly.”
Karigan swallowed hard at being called a Black Shield, feeling more than ever like a fraud.
Iris grasped Agemon’s hand and together they stepped out into the corridor, leading Karigan into a branching passage where there were yet other chambers of the dead. What a grim place for children to grow up in, she thought, but Iris strode beside Agemon unafraid and unaffected by her surroundings.
Where did the children play? Did they play? How were they schooled? Did everything in their lives center around the dead?
The last time Karigan was in the tombs, she was told that every now and then the Weapons attempted to move caretaker families above ground where they might carry on a normal life, but the families did not adjust well, for it went against everything they believed in about not seeing the sun. For them, death was part of everyday living, and it was ingrained in them to tend the dead.
“Will Uncle Charles go to the heavens?” Iris asked Agemon.
“Yes, child. The Birdman will take him. Once we’ve done the rites, all will be well.”
Iris brightened at this assurance. “I shall miss him, but I am glad he’ll be with the gods.”
“I wonder what music he would like at t
Iris started giving him suggestions. It sounded like they were planning a party, not a funeral. Karigan rubbed her temple and tried to stay alert for the intruders, but nothing besides the three of them moved.
Soon Agemon halted at what looked like a chapel excavated right out of the bedrock. It was not large, but was carved with the signs of the gods and death and the heavens. Lamps glowed behind two stained glass windows, one depicting the rising sun and the other showing the crescent moon surrounded by stars. Statues of Aeryc and Aeryon gazed at one another across the doorway.
“Is this it?” Karigan asked. “The House of Sun and Moon?”
Agemon nodded.
“Stay here,” she said, and she stepped inside to make sure intruders were not hiding within, but she found only six curving benches of burnished oak and lit candles on the altar. Behind the altar was a mosaic of Aeryc and Aeryon holding hands, and throughout the chapel was the recurring motif of sun and moon. There were several wall crypts, the most prominent of them housing King Hardell the Third and Queen Auriette. All of the integrated Aeryc and Aeryon symbols made sense, for Queen Auriette had been a princess of Rhovanny before marrying King Hardell.
Karigan ushered Agemon and Iris inside and took up a position near the entry, dropping onto one of the benches. She was so weary. Agemon, on the other hand, produced a cloth from nowhere and started polishing the mosaic. He set Iris to work shining the silver and gold goblets on the altar—not that they didn’t already sparkle.
Let them work, Karigan thought. It would keep them busy and out of trouble.
She leaned her head against the cold, smooth stone wall and dozed off.
In her dream, spirits of kings and queens, princes and princesses, arose from their Earthly husks on funeral slabs and swirled down the corridors. Their forms seeped from crypts and coffins like formless smoke. Skeletal hands scraped against the lids of sarcophagi and pushed them aside.
The spirits marched and floated toward her, some remaining insubstantial, others in full royal regalia.