Chapter 55 — The Castle Ledger

Chapter 55: Chapter 55 — The Castle Ledger

Chapter 55 — The Castle Ledger

Bennet entered the small plane carrying three empty ledgers.

He stopped on the mountain platform and stared across the valley. The Knight castle stood below them, close enough to reach before midday, and beyond its western wall sunlight shone on the sea.

"You neglected to mention the water," he said.

"There were several other things to mention," Christopher said.

Joan remained at Dragonwatch. This crossing included Christopher, Godfrey, Bennet, Walter, Owen, Gilbert Webb and Ellis Ward. The two apprentices carried food and tools. Mabel had marked the plants she wanted left alone and stayed behind with her patients.

They reached the castle before noon.

Bennet saw the dead dragon beside the eastern wall and forgot to open his ledger.

The pause lasted less than a minute.

"How long is the body?" he asked.

"We didn’t measure it," Walter said.

Bennet handed one end of a cord to Ellis.

They measured only from a distance. The pressure around the body made both apprentices pale, and Godfrey refused to let them approach the blue-black stones visible beneath its ribs. Bennet recorded the corpse, the wounded scales and the faint sparks among the stones without assigning any value to them.

The ordinary arsenal occupied the rest of the day.

Dust lay thickest near the walls, but the centre aisle showed faint tracks left by their earlier visit. Bennet crouched beside one and measured it against Walter’s boot before accepting the explanation. Ellis opened shutters along the southern wall while Gilbert checked the ceiling for loose stone, and grey daylight spread through the chamber one narrow strip at a time.

They counted racks rather than individual blades. Walter and the apprentices inspected samples from each group while Owen recorded repairs. Most bowstrings had rotted. Leather grips and shield straps would have to be replaced, though many spearheads and swords survived beneath their dark coating.

The result was still enough to arm more fighters than Dragonwatch possessed.

Walter selected a spear from the middle rack and leaned his weight against the shaft. The wood cracked near the head. He chose another from a sealed bundle; that one bent and returned straight.

"Metal survives better than wood," he said. "We bring the heads. New shafts can be cut at Dragonwatch."

"And the swords?" Bennet asked.

"Every blade is inspected before it reaches a hand. A clean surface does not mean the tang is sound."

Bennet added the warning beneath his count. Gilbert and Ellis began separating the marked pieces from the rest, laying them on canvas instead of dragging them across the floor.

"We take what can be cleaned quickly," Godfrey said. "Leave the rest stored."

Bennet marked twenty swords, forty spearheads and a stack of sound shield bosses for the first load. Wat could clean the blades and fit new shafts without being buried beneath months of unnecessary work.

The magical armory came next.

Godfrey and Christopher entered first. The storage formation remained steady, and when Christopher found no change with Dragon Eyes, the others followed.

Fifteen complete sets stood beneath the new canvas covers.

Bennet numbered them again in his own hand and added their weapons. He made no attempt to price them. Godfrey examined the plain grey plate at the back of the room and tested one gauntlet with a thread of Aura.

The metal tightened around his hand. Pale light covered his forearm for a moment before he released it.

"Better than anything I carried in the war," he said.

Christopher looked along the covered frames. "Then we keep all of them."

Godfrey returned the gauntlet to its place. "Until we know who should wear them."

Walter walked between the frames without touching them. "Fifteen suits will not arm an army."

"They may keep fifteen people alive against one," Godfrey replied.

"Nobody receives a set because the count happens to fit," Christopher said. "We inspect them first."

Godfrey gave a single nod. Walter looked once more at the covered armor and followed them out.

The treasury took most of the following morning.

Its broken lock lay where Godfrey had cut it. Owen brought a new iron bar from Dragonwatch and fitted it across the inside brackets before they began counting.

The oldest coins carried faces Bennet did not know; their kingdoms no longer mattered, though the weight of the silver and gold did.

They found bullion, old military pay chests and ordinary gems packed in narrow cases. The wealth could fund supplies, livestock and workers when Dragonwatch next sent someone south.

"How much?" Christopher asked after Bennet filled several pages.

"I can give you a poor answer today or a useful one after I weigh it."

"Give me the poor answer for now. I only need to know what choices we can afford."

Bennet looked around the chamber. "Dragonwatch is no longer short of coin."

He opened one military chest and removed coins from three layers rather than trusting those on top. Several had been clipped along the edge. Another chest held silver bars stamped with the winged lance, each wrapped in cloth that crumbled when touched.

"Old coin will draw attention," Bennet said. "Bullion is simpler, but a large amount still raises questions. We take enough for the journey and ordinary purchases. The rest stays here."

"Can Northgate change it?" Christopher asked.

"Some. Griffin City can change more. The capital will ask fewer questions because wealthy houses move bullion every day."

Godfrey picked up one bar, weighed it in his palm and returned it. "Then we do not arrive with a wagon full of silver."

Bennet’s mouth tightened. "I had not planned to announce it with bells."

It was the nearest he came to snapping at Godfrey. The knight let it pass.

They resealed the chests and closed the new bar behind them. Godfrey checked the corridor twice before leaving.

The library occupied the upper eastern wing.

Its double doors bore the winged lance seen throughout the castle. Dust covered the floor, but the shelves remained dry. Books, metal tablets and sealed scroll cases filled the chamber from wall to ceiling. Several reading tables stood beneath pale stones that no longer gave light.

Bennet opened the first ledger he found and frowned at the old script.

"Can you read it?" Christopher asked.

"Some names. Some numbers. Not enough to trust myself."

They searched by pictures and repeated symbols.

One shelf held maps of the small plane. Another contained drawings of dragons at different stages of growth. Walter found manuals showing lance formations and mounted charges. Mabel would want the cabinets filled with medical diagrams and sealed recipes.

The maps drew Bennet away from the ledgers. He cleared one table and unrolled three sheets beside each other. The first showed the castle, road and orchard. The second extended west to the coast. The third marked valleys and ridges farther inland with symbols none of them could read.

"If the scale is consistent, the sea is less than half a day’s walk from the castle," Bennet said.

Christopher placed a finger near the mountain gate. "And Dragonwatch is nowhere on these."

"Because the map ends at the portal." Bennet studied the old lines. "This place was supplied from within as well as from outside. Those squares near the southern stream may be fields."

Godfrey rolled the farthest map closed. "Maps first. Speculation later."

They copied the legible landmarks and left the originals in the library.

Godfrey stopped at a row of narrow black cases.

Each held a breathing method.

Some were marked for ordinary military use. Others carried noble crests that had vanished from modern records. The methods were complete, though the older language would take time to translate safely.

Godfrey read what he could and set three cases aside.

"Better than the military method I know," he said.

"Can the apprentices use them?" Christopher asked.

"After I finish reading them. A missing word in a sword manual cuts a hand. A wrong word in a breathing method can do worse."

Another case carried the winged lance. Christopher felt his blood stir when he touched it.

Godfrey noticed and covered the case again.

"That method waits until we know exactly what it is," Godfrey said.

Christopher let it stand.

The library also held records of forged-Knight potions, unfamiliar medicines and compounds meant for dragons. Every ingredient was unfamiliar to Christopher. Without an alchemist, the recipes were ink and hope.

Bennet filled another page with shelf locations.

"We will need weeks to catalogue this properly," he said.

"Then we will spend the weeks," Christopher replied.

They inspected the remaining accessible rooms over the next two days.

The workshops held forges, armor racks, formation tables and tools. The medical wing held instruments but no medicine Mabel would trust without study. The kitchens contained dead stores and ovens large enough to prepare whole animals. Water still ran through one stone channel from higher on the mountain.

Below the command level, they found dragon stalls, broad ramps and storage rooms built for harnesses. Higher rooms overlooked the courtyard and the coastal road. Several towers remained closed behind damaged doors. They marked them and moved on.

Some rooms held little worth the effort. One long gallery held rotted banners and empty stands. A records office contained tablets fused together by damp. In a stable wing, harness leather collapsed when Walter lifted a buckle. The castle had preserved much, but it had not waited untouched for them.

The hall bearing the lance and wings waited until the last afternoon.

Inside, a long stone case rested beneath a faded banner. The pressure around it was sharper than the dead dragon’s lingering weight. Christopher’s eyes burned when he tried to look through the lid.

"Leave the case closed for now," Godfrey said.

The castle already held more than they could use, so Christopher moved on.

Before returning to Dragonwatch, they carried selected ordinary weapons, tools and copied shelf markings to the portal mountain. The magical armor remained protected, and the treasury stayed locked.

Bennet stood on the platform and looked back at the castle.

"Dragonwatch needs more people before we can use any of this," Christopher said.

"Trained soldiers must come first," Godfrey replied.

"Farmers and craftsmen with them," Bennet said. "Coin feeds nobody until someone turns it into grain."

Christopher took in the old road, the distant orchard and the rhinoceroses grazing beyond it.

Dragonwatch could now afford another journey south. Before anyone left, they would decide exactly who the fortress needed and how many mouths its stores could carry through winter.

The gate closed behind them.

The selected weapons and tools remained beneath Dragonwatch until Bennet finished recording them.

Bennet placed both crates inside a locked room near the buried control chamber. Godfrey added a second lock and assigned no permanent guard directly outside it. A guarded door invited questions. The entire underground route already had protection.

Christopher put off writing to his grandfather.

They knew too little about the castle to move its most valuable contents. The treasury already held ordinary gold, silver and gems. Dragonwatch would keep the weapons for its own defense.

The third expedition carried food for seven days.

Christopher, Godfrey, Walter, Owen, Mabel and Bennet crossed together. Simon and Adam remained in the buried bastion. Ivo commanded Dragonwatch, supported by the other apprentices and Avenholt’s retainers.

Gilbert Webb and Ellis Ward came only to help carry supplies between the portal and waystation. Neither continued to the castle. Walter left them guarding the stored samples and old road shelter with strict orders not to wander toward the rhinoceros herd.

The journey took less time because they knew the route. They avoided the damaged road, passed the orchard and gave the herd’s grazing ground a wide circle. The rhinoceroses watched from beside the river without approaching.

At the castle, the dead dragon still lay beneath the open sky.

Bennet paused before it again, then opened his ledger.

"You already measured it," Walter said.

"I estimated it."

"Is it shorter today?"

"It is the same length."

"Then your estimate survived."

Bennet ignored him.

They established their base in the entrance hall. The outer doors remained open, providing light and a clear retreat. Mabel checked the stored water channel and found no change. Owen marked three rooms with sound ceilings for supplies and sleeping.

Bennet separated the week’s food into two stores. One remained in the entrance hall. The other went back to the waystation with the apprentices. If animals entered the castle or a fire spoiled one supply, they would not lose everything.

Walter set a simple cord alarm across the gate after sunset. The dead dragon discouraged large beasts, while the cord would warn them about anything smaller entering the camp.

Godfrey also required a return signal through the portal every second day. Simon and Adam would know the expedition remained safe without crossing themselves. If the signal failed twice, Ivo would seal the buried route and wait. He would not send the settlement underground searching blindly.

Godfrey set the first rule: nobody entered a new section alone.

The second rule came from Bennet: nothing left its original room until recorded.

The third came from Mabel: no one opened a bottle, jar or sealed packet near the sleeping area.

Christopher added no fourth rule. Three already covered most ways they could die through carelessness.

They climbed past the offices on the second level and returned to the long gallery. The lance-marked doors remained open. The focused pressure still waited beyond them.

Godfrey entered first.

The hall ended at the sealed case they had avoided earlier. It was built into the floor and shaped for a weapon longer than a spear. A clear crystal lid had darkened with age, concealing whatever rested inside.

No lock appeared.

Christopher opened Dragon Eyes. Energy ran from the case through the floor toward a deeper part of the keep. The strength of the lingering imprint made his eyes ache.

"Connected to something below," he said.

Godfrey left the case closed. "We find the room it belongs to first."

A door behind the case led upward.

The stair was wide enough for three armored men. Carvings covered its walls: dragons in flight, riders standing beneath them and armies arranged around towers. Several scenes had been deliberately damaged. Faces were cut away. Mage towers were split by deep chisel marks made after the stone was carved.

"Someone hated these pictures," Owen said.

"Someone hated part of them," Bennet replied.

At the top, they found the command level.

The first room contained a map of the small plane. Its central table showed mountains, rivers, fields, mines and the castle. Several regions carried red marks. One northern valley was crossed out entirely. The portal mountain appeared at the western edge.

Bennet copied the map rather than attempting to move it.

"The plane is larger than what we saw," Christopher said.

The visible valley formed less than a quarter of the marked territory. Forest extended east toward another mountain chain. Lakes occupied the south. A broad northern region contained symbols resembling beasts.

"Which areas are safe?" Walter asked.

No legend survived in a language they could read.

The next chamber held signal devices and dark viewing crystals. Christopher used the pendant near one. It produced a blurred image of the castle gate, then died.

"Observation system," Godfrey said.

"Can it be restored?"

"With knowledge we don’t have."

Owen found crystal sockets beneath the table. All were empty.

The Dragon Knights had taken or consumed their portable power before defeat. The small plane still fed preservation formations and the gate, but the castle’s active systems had little remaining energy.

Bennet found a narrow drawer beneath the viewing table. It contained flat metal markers engraved with locations from the map. Several matched the portal, castle and quarry. Others showed a lake, a forest tower and a northern enclosure filled with clawlike symbols.

Walter wanted to know whether the markers controlled the viewing crystals. Christopher placed the castle marker into a matching slot. For one breath, the crystal showed the courtyard and the dead dragon from above.

The picture vanished before anyone could study it.

"Useful if restored," Godfrey said.

"Useful enough to make restoring it a priority," Christopher replied.

Bennet marked the system below food production and above the unknown workshops.

They continued.

The residential wing contained human rooms and larger open halls connected to exterior terraces. The human rooms had beds, desks and weapon stands. The dragon halls had no furniture, only stone basins, drainage channels and broad entrances opening toward the sky.

One terrace overlooked the courtyard and the dead dragon below.

Deep claw marks crossed its edge.

Mabel found a smaller room containing children’s furniture. A wooden practice sword lay beneath a bed. Its grip had been wrapped for a child’s hand.

Christopher imagined the Dragon Knights only as soldiers because their fortress preserved a war. The small room reminded him that some had raised families there.

In the next room, lines scratched into a doorframe recorded a child’s growth. The final mark ended abruptly years before adulthood. A small metal dragon sat on the desk, one wing bent.

Christopher left it untouched.

The ancient war had become easy to imagine as armies, towers and dead commanders. These rooms showed what disappeared between the battles. Families had prepared to remain inside the plane. Whatever evacuation or final defense occurred had separated them from their ordinary lives.

Godfrey allowed the group only a short pause. Sympathy did not make an unsearched corridor safe.

At the end of the residential passage stood a pair of black doors. Unlike the outer bastion seal, they had no pendant recess or blood channel. One door rested partly open.

The pressure came through that gap.

Godfrey looked inside.

"Command hall," he said.

The room beyond was long and dark. Pillars lined both sides. A raised platform stood at the far end, but collapsed banners and dust hid its details.

Something pale sat upon the platform.

Christopher stepped closer.

Godfrey stopped him with one hand.

"We enter together tomorrow."

"It is still daylight."

"We have searched new rooms for six hours. Owen is tired, Mabel has a headache, and your eyes are red."

Christopher touched the skin beneath one eye. Godfrey was correct.

They left every door and object as they found it.

Back in the entrance hall, Bennet organized copied maps while Owen drew the command level. Mabel checked everyone for the effects of the pressure. Walter took first watch.

Christopher slept badly.

The castle’s silence differed from Dragonwatch’s. Dragonwatch creaked, leaked and carried voices through crowded barracks. The Knight castle held enough space for hundreds and contained only seven living people. Every footstep returned from empty halls.

During the second watch, something moved across the outer courtyard. Walter woke Christopher in time to see three small deerlike beasts drinking from a basin near the gate. They fled without approaching the dead dragon.

Life entered the outer castle when hunger overcame fear. That made the walls feel abandoned rather than cursed.

He had seen enough of the pale shape to recognize ribs beneath ancient armor.

The person seated in the command hall had died there and never been moved.

Near midnight, a faint red light appeared on the upper level.

Walter woke Godfrey without sounding an alarm.

The group climbed together. The light came through the partly open black doors.

It pulsed once, answering the pendant beneath Christopher’s tunic.

Then it went dark.

The dead commander had waited until Christopher entered the castle.

Whatever remained of his message was beginning to wake.