What I got a couple of hours later, apart from the drenching by the storm, was something else entirely. Mikato sensed its approach first which was just as well as I'd not wanted to have fought it cold or otherwise. At his warning I'd left the gulley and started to circle round to the rear of the plateau. What I saw made me stop dead. Standing perhaps 50 feet from me was the largest spider I've ever seen. I'm not talking here about common or otherwise tropical spiders but something out of a horror movie, its thorax was a good 6 feet in diameter and a good 3 feet thick, with a head of similar proportions. Its legs were at least 30 feet in length, although their span was probably only 30 or so. It stood on the edge of the plateau sensing the air. As I took a step forward it turned slowly towards me, its mandibles clicking as it did so. I drew my sword and stood up. It regarded me for a moment then said "You Cordwe-ah? I here help Cordwe-ah. I Stah-ik-ah-i-hak. I come Dierdre. You lens me. See true."
Mikato had meanwhile come up next to me. I asked him if he'd caught that. He replied that he had, and didn't sense any immediate danger. There appeared to a conflict though between its base instincts and its conscious mind. I summoned the pattern and it backed off several feet, when I looked through it I could see why. Both its aura and its body had the partial imprint of the Logrus on them. Somebody had been fiddling here, to make it more intelligent and to give it "reality" I dropped the pattern and walked forward slowly, my sword lowered and my left hand outstretched. It stood there agitated four of its legs raising then lowering as if it couldn't make up it's mind. I extended my perception attempting to gauge the scope of it's mind, sensing a mixture of fear and lust. As I made contact with the nearest leg I punched into its mind. Somebody had indeed been here before me, and quite recently, new thought pathways were still in the process of forming and strengthening. As I scanned a female figure with black hair in silver armour appeared. "I expected as much. Interfere here and you'll die. It'll be several days before Stahikahihak's new mind is fully developed. She will not attack unless you provoke her or she feels threatened. She is still very much the innocent child and I advise you to treat her as such. We will talk more in time. She will not remember this intrusion."
I withdrew my mind and slowly sheathed my sword.
It took about and hour to explain to Stahikahihak what we needed to do, by which time she had started to complain about the weather. The storm was in full flood now, the wind driving thick water droplets through the thick grey soup that had enveloped the plateau as the afternoon wore on.
The question was how low was the cloud base? I raised the pattern and dropped the lens slowly over the edge. It wasn't until I reached 100ft from the castle gardens that I could actually tell how high I was, and even then I could just make out the castle silhouetted in the grey gloom. With visibility this poor we wouldn't need darkness to get into the castle.
I boosted Mikato onto Stahikahihak's back then climbed up myself. It's very disconcerting watching a 20foot long leg approach bearing a sticky thread. Surprisingly her touch was quite delicate and it only took her a couple of minutes for her to secure us. She then moved to the cliff edge and we started to descend. It's an experience like nothing else I've done, hurtling vertically down a cliff face, and we reached the foot of the cliff in a little over 5 minutes, Stahikahihak leaping the last 20 feet or so to land on a pair of completely unprepared guards. I'm glad I hadn't tried to take her on on the plateau.
The problem was she now had a meal and it took me a couple of minutes to attract her attention and get her to release us. Once down I tried to impress on her that she needed to return to the plateau but don't know whether I succeeded; I didn't have time to stop and debate the matter with her. Mikato and I hurried through the gardens towards the kitchens, having to kill another pair of guards to gain entrance.
Entry secured, and not wishing to take Mikato with me I sent him to go and wait for me on the bluff. He slipped away back into the grey gloop enveloping the castle and gardens.
I made my way through the kitchens and along to the stairwell that accessed the catacombs. There were four guards waiting at the top, which put up a short but stiff resistance. I didn't have time to hide the bodies and hurried onto and down the stairs.
I was expecting trouble at the bottom and it didn't take long in materializing. There were six of them all with swords and shields and this was not a battle I was going to win either quickly or with a sword alone; this called for different tactics. The first guard was somewhat surprised therefore, when I used him as a pivot to kick his closest compatriot bowling ball style into the remaining four. He was even more surprised, when his feet left the floor and he sailed into the cavern wall. He didn't get up again.
Two of the "skittles" had avoided the "ball" and took the opportunity to rush me. Both landed blows, that had I not been in armour would have resulted in wounds, despite my avoidance techniques. They both paid for their efforts, as I tripped one into the other sending them both sprawling. The next guard found himself used first as a shield, then as a pivot, and finally as a flying ram. He failed to rise from the last action.
The guards were now down to four, although more spread out, and one of them seemed to be taking charge, directing the others to close from opposing angles. Unfortunately they were a little slow on the uptake, resulting in another thrown guard. At this point what I initially took to be reinforcements arrived, but as my last victim struggled to his feet, he was cut down by a sword blow from the new arrival; who then revealed itself to be a shape shifted Charity. With things now definitely on the turn I drew my own sword, somersaulted the two guards who'd organized themselves to close me down, and struck one of the pair in the neck as I passed over head. As the guard who'd been shouting orders ran for the stairs, another gangly looking demon raced across the room after him. I turned and cut the remaining guard down. There was a shriek from above then a few moments later to sound of a body hitting the floor.
With the guards out of the way I headed for the cell block followed by a transforming Charity and the raptoresk demon who turns out to be Alfred in his demon form - much preferable to the Gnome form if you ask me. There was a momentary interlude as the two guards tried to prevent my access, which made little difference other than shortening their existence by several years. I flipped Charity the keys and told her to let Allagahn out, whilst I went to check on the accessibility of my fathers prison cell; just in case somebody had worked out I'd been here a couple of nights ago. They hadn't.
Ordering the others into the cramped cell I entered and felt for the Cabra Lighthouse trump, if I'd used Dworkin's study I'd either have had to fight my way back through the castle or use a second trump from there. I'd risk just the one. Powering the trump initially, I then activated it and formed the gate. I could feel the storm howling on the rocks. We were going to get wet.
Allagahn was in no real state to travel, but we had no choice. I would have preferred not to take the lighthouse keepers boat, but circumstances force that on us too. It was not an easy crossing and it took us over an hour in the gathering gloom. By the time we reached the headland we we all soaked - since I couldn't use the environmental facilities of my suit in Amber I'd reconfigured it to allow air circulation, which in storm conditions also meant getting wet.
The next hour saw us traverse the headland and enter the city via the south beach and docks. Another hour saw us at the base of the East stair, which was more heavily guarded than I hoped. The others were not in favor of any form of fight so we were forced to detour through the city to a point below the observation point on the bluff, where we could attempt a cliff climb. Charity put her shape shifting skills to admiral use and carried not only Allagahn to the top but a climbing rope and grapple as well. I felt the signal on the rope that indicated it was secure and began to climb.
I was perhaps 50 feet up when there were a couple more jerks. I continued to climb. I'd made about 20 feet when a demon's body hurtled past me from above; they'd obviously run into more trouble. With nothing else to do I continued to climb. Another 30 feet and another body. I looked to my left and saw Alfred, now back in Gnome form but sporting claws, ascending slowly. I continued doing likewise.
When I reached the stair, the others, now joined by Mikato were waiting for me. I retrieved the rope, stowed it, and we made our way to where their horses were waiting. Strangely they expected one to be there fore me as well. Alfred was going to run along side us in raptor form but I told him not to be so stupid and forced him to ride double with me.
It had passed midnight when we reached the dark and shuttered inn, and it took quite a lot of banging and bell ringing to raise him from his slumbers. He was not best pleased. A payment of triple his usual rates changed his tune somewhat, especially when he found out there were four of us. As we bathed, we were joined by the female who I'd observed on the bluff, who seemed to know the other three. Her name was Sorcha and she'd been traveling with the others for some days. It transpires the Dierdre is her mother. Having bathed we changed into dry clothes and ate, I also managed to procure the horse traded by the others two days before. It didn't come cheap.
Due to the imminent arrival of the 13th Hour we had chosen to rise late and take advantage of the cover that the inn presented. As we breakfasted we discussed recent events. It transpires that Charity freezes during the 13th hour like the rest of the world. This is a strange and somewhat baffling development and makes my need to speak to this Dierdre entity more urgent.
The others agreed that going and talking to Dierdre is a worth while next step, although finding Dworkin seems to be preferable. the trouble is none of us have met him and none of us has his trump - I'm not sure that any actually exist. Without his psychic impression it is impossible to track him, as we might end up finding a pattern ghost or shadow Dworkin, rather than the real one.
To this end we headed for Ashan, where I knew the Herrigburn was waiting. Whilst it's not quite as easy to Hellride on a ship as on a horse, it can be maintained for longer as ships don't need to rest.Our arrival was delayed by the need to go shopping for clean clothes, provisions, and wet weather gear, which has depleted my funds somewhat.
When we finally did make it on board something told me things were not right. When the captain greeted me I knew he was hiding something but was forced to play along. A trap is only a trap if you're not expecting it. The problem was I wasn't expecting Benedict.
Having disarmed me he then requested I accompany him on deck to retrieve my companions, who apparently had been immobilized by Llewella. Given I was in no position to argue I complied.
Once we were all safely gathered in the Captain's cabin the two "Elders" set about finding out who was who and exactly what we'd been doing. Both Charity and I chose to be evasive. it didn't make too much difference as it seems Benedict and Llewella have been waiting for my return - they need me to take them to Carnelian. They've never been there and therefore suffer the same problem we do in locating Dworkin. Their problem would of course be different if Fiona weren't blocking trump access to the castle or if Brand wasn't about.
The problem is I have no reason to want to return to Carnelian. I want to meet this Dierdre entity. From bits a pieces the others have said she appears to have been turned into some form of Logrus entity by the Serpent, and is working on his behalf to foil Brand's plans and keep Rodian and his Children locked up and restore the Pattern. This latter action is somewhat contradictory to the actions portrayed in my fathers diary, but then he may only be reporting what he perceives to be the truth at the time.
If I accept that what the others have said is correct, then the Dierdre entity probably knows more than she has so far revealed. If it is Dierdre then she should at least be able to find Dworkin for us, given that she appears to have attempted to extract each of use from our home shadow. Which brings me to something that's been nagging me for a while, why did she try to do it in the 13th Hour? Why not do it immediately she was able? Is there some specific reason for this action? Is it that doing things in the 13th Hour prevents detection by Brand? If this is true then if trump works during this time maybe I have a short cut to get where I want to go.
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| Supporting Cast - Cordelia | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |