Mystaya skidded smartly to a halt, then stood waiting for them to get off as if she was some professional taxi horse of some kind. Keel dismounted, patting her neck, but Ki did not want to, staring at the door’s crest with a wretched feeling in his gut and a faintness in his skull. Noticing Ki’s hesitation, Keel reached up and just as he had dragged Ki onto the horse in the first place, now he forcibly pulled Ki off. Ki nearly fell, but Keel steadied him, pulling off his own cloak and wrapping it around Ki, almost in afterthought. Mystaya nudged Ki, then trotted off into the maze of boring buildings, from which curious looking drakoon had begun to appear like bees from hives, staring at them. Keel made a face, then pulled one of Ki’s arms over his shoulders then supported him up to the doors, which opened from within.
Inside, it was very dark. A drakoon who Ki assumed to be the magic door opener watched them with lambent eyes as they went by him without a word, Marl the cat leading the way through a door, then onto a very long looking set of stairs. Lanterns lit the stairwell, but much more poorly than a human building would have been. Everything was stone. There was no decoration, unless one counted the spears placed in occasional arms racks. Ki had never seen a more depressing place. Keel tried to smile at him reassuringly.
“Qyt wen fe yz.” said Keel. “Qoai.”
It will be okay. Ki silently translated. Come.
There was no way, he thought, to convey how much he really did not want to go anywhere in the castle at all. But Keel was hauling him forwards, so rather than be indignantly dragged to the horrible fate Ki was imagining, he took his first step onto the never ending staircase of hell. It was hard going, especially when his leg still panged nastily every time he took a step, the sewn skin tugging uncomfortably. Time went by slowly as they walked up the stairs, Keel helpfully stopping once in a while. They came out eventually on a wide landing, then walked down a new hallway lit by arrow slits. Outside it was raining and the hallway smelled pleasantly of the sea.
They exited the hallway, entering another deeper one, then to Ki’s horror, Keel opened a double set of doors with the same crest as the entrance door carved into it, pushing Ki in in front of him, closing the doors behind. Ki looked ahead, seeing what had to be an even steeper, longer staircase than the first one, this one sporadically lit somehow by a warm purple light. Wondering if there was some glass or amethyst filter involved, Ki curiously limped to one of the sconces and behind him Keel went still, watching him keenly. Ki stopped before the sconce which had the shape of a snarling dragon-form drakoon’s head, mildly confused at the sight of what seemed to be small glowing balls of deep purple amethyst crystal laying in pools of clear liquid.
One of the stones flickered and a bit of flame jumped across its surface, then the other flickered too. Cocking his head, Ki looked closer, something telling him not to get too close, then jumped when suddenly the crystal balls burst into full flame, the fire somehow purple, the fire almost becoming an inferno as Ki watched. Behind him, Keel laughed out loud though whether the sound was because he thought Ki’s reaction was hilarious or because he was happy, Ki could not tell. Ki backed away, back to the door beside Keel, staring as sconce after sconce up ahead suddenly flared into life.
What are those things?! Ki thought, terrified. Keel abruptly grabbed him by the arm and then, horribly, he started to run, Ki stumbling to keep up as the insane drakoon grinned from ear to ear, the sconces flaring even higher as they passed. By the time they reached the top Ki was panting like an express horse after a long run and was wondering if he had torn a stitch in his leg. Keel looked exhilarated and he half dragged Ki into a room that voided everything Ki had previously been thinking about his species, for it was even more magnificent than Spiira’s temple in Serenity.
In base, it was made of the same boring stone as the rest of the castle, but the resemblance stopped there, for the entire floor glittered with two massive mosaic floor maps, comprised not of glass, but real lapis lazuli, jade, jet and quartz. The detail was absolutely staggering. One of the maps seemed to be of Rimer, while the other was simply of a continent or island surrounded by water. Bits of gold and silver lined the edges of the maps, which shone spectacularly in the light cast by yet more of the creepy sconces, which seemed to infest every square inch of the walls. There was an area of normal stone between the maps, leading across the wide room to another purple lit staircase, this one leading up and out of sight. On either side of the door to the staircase was an intricately carved pillar, one that looked like a man dressed all in furs, the other a woman dressed in finery befitting royalty, a black onyx dragon twining around each, pure white stone making up the dragon’s teeth, while the largest citrines Ki had ever seen made up their eyes.
Ki felt a tug on his hand and looked down; Keel had kneeled down, face to the floor as if in reverence. This place was sacred then; Ki crouched down a little, staring at the pillar with the man carved into it. He had seen him before and now that he really looked, there was a horse carved in with the man, its eyes made of gigantic deep blue sapphires. He looked around, noting that the torches were still flaring, throwing weird shadows racing across the floor. It was rather unnerving, this place. It was beautiful in every way, but Ki could not quite explain the ghostly prickling he could feel on the back of his neck. Gripping Keel’s cloak a little tighter around himself, Ki looked back across the room and felt his heart go still, for there he saw a stranger who looked more familiar than he had any right to be...
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