The Unwilling Accomplice (Book 5) by Heidi Willard Read Free Book Online

with disapproving looks, but didn't stop their pillaging of the table.
    One did lean toward their companion and speak in a low voice, "they take as much to feed an elf for fifty days," he whispered.
    "Fifty days? This is my breakfast," Canto scoffed.
    Ruth and Pat stood close by watching the packing. They wore their usual clothes and Pat's sword lay at her hip. She wouldn't take any chances with Martley loose in the city.
    Princess Telana entered the hall a few minutes after them with a bright smile on her face and Anduvis the hawk on her shoulder. In her hands was the Chronos box. "Good morning, dear friends," she greeted them as she joined them by the table.
    Ruth reached out and stroked the hawk's feathery chest. "Your hawk is already well?" she wondered.
    "He is not yet able to fly, but that needs only time to heal," Telana replied. She held out the box to Ruth. "I am forever grateful for the use of this precious gift," she thanked the young woman.
    "I was glad to be of assistance," Ruth returned. She took the box and placed it in her magical pouch.
    Telana turned to the others. "Now where shall we start on this tour?" she asked them.
    "Before we begin I am curious to know if there is an update to the late-night intruder," Ned wondered.
    Telana shook her head. "Nothing as yet, but the guards are still searching. I am sure they will find this woman and we will learn her intentions. For now we should not trouble ourselves with what we cannot control, so where shall we begin?"
    "Ah'd like ta see the broken stone just so Ah know it's true," Canto spoke up.
    "I, too, wish to see what remains of it," Percy agreed.
    Telana smiled and gestured to the door. "As you wish. If you would follow me I will show you its remains."

CHAPTER 7
     
    Telana guided them into the entrance hall and down the left-hand passage. On their right after they passed the stairs were large windows and a pair of doors that looked and led out onto a garden courtyard. The square courtyard was as lavishly green as anything in the city, and could be accessed on two opposing sides. The other two sides of the courtyard were walls. On their left were doors that led into more private rooms. In front of them, like on the second floor, was a corner and a wall. Telana took them halfway through the castle and turned left into a narrow passage. At the end of the passage was a staircase that wound its way beneath the castle.
    They traveled down the stairs and into the dark depths of the castle. Torches filled with flickering blue light lit the otherwise dark and bleak stairwell. Telana paused at a landing one floor beneath the castle's main hall, and showed them a passage. It led into a maze of hallways, and servants strolled through the halls at leisure and work.
    "These are where the servants' quarters and the kitchen are located. The torches never go out because of our magic inside the flames," she explained to them.
    "They live in such a place?" Ruth wondered.
    "This is the worst of the passages. The others have window access to the exterior walls of the cliffs and that gives them natural light," she replied. "But come, we have a great distance to travel before we reach the stone."
    The companions stepped deeper into the bowels of the castle. Every fifteen feet they passed archways that framed long halls with doors on either side of the passages. Each archway signaled another drop in temperature and a further hint of must in the air. They were not only deep beneath the castle, but also beneath the hill itself.
    "For what are all these rooms used?" Pat asked their guide.
    "These halls are places of refuge for the citizens should the barrier ever fail us," Telana explained. She paused at one of the doorways and gestured to the hall. "We can fit our entire population in these rooms, and at the end of each passage is a staircase that leads to the port below the castle. There are also openings on each of the terraces that connect to these halls, and their entrances can be