Good news was, Sorin did his job well. He was a formidable warrior no matter his form. And he was one of the most intuitive, smartest people Ere had ever encountered.
He knew the castle and its surroundings like the back of his hand by now. He also discovered a hidden tunnel that led deep into the bowels of the earth beneath it. He was never able to follow it to its destination because there were always too many of Guinevere’s soldiers guarding the entrance to the tunnel.
And also because of magic.
There was strong magic bespelling the place. The entire castle and the grounds within an extensive radius.
Ere would never have forgiven Sorin if he ventured into such sorcery alone. Sorin had a good idea what the tunnel led to, however. If the swirling mists and ominous rumbling echoes were any indication.
This night, they had stayed behind at the festivities after the royals left for a specific purpose.
Ere noticed the effect on Morgan when she clasped hands with Rui and Wolfe. He kept a close eye on her ever since and saw what no one else perceived:
Her eyes were no longer blank.
Though she still pretended to be the automaton she was before (clever woman), Ere saw the flickers of intelligence in her eyes. He and Sorin followed them discretely when the royal party departed their thrones.
Guinevere and Arthur had disappeared down a darkened corridor into the bowels of the castle, escorted by several of the queen’s guard, but Sorin indicated that it was not in the direction of the mysterious tunnel.
The queen had plenty of secret chambers and tunnels throughout the castle where she performed any number of nefarious deeds. Ere shuddered to think what she did with Arthur, for each time he saw the king, the man looked more haggard and worn than before.
Ere noticed early on that the king had no guard of his own, and if he did, they obeyed Guinevere’s command. There were no torches lit along the way to show where they were headed, and a dense fog covered the stone ground they walked upon, even inside the castle.
Morgan, however, took a different direction, flanked on each side by a hulking guard twice her size.
From days of surveillance and intelligence gathering amongst the workers at the castle, they knew exactly where her chamber was. Or rather, her prison. Guinevere’s guards kept the king’s sister under lock and key always. She was only “let out” when the cunning queen had a specific use for her.
Ere and Sorin had been waiting in the lightless recesses near her chamber. As they drew near, Sorin easily and silently dispatched the queen’s goons, while Ere clamped a hand over Morgan’s mouth when she involuntarily opened it to scream.
Thankfully, the red witch quickly caught on that they were helping her and took them through yet another secret tunnel to exit the booby-trapped labyrinth that was the castle. All she asked was for them to take her to the dragon-slayer.
Ere didn’t pause to ask questions. He’d connected most of the dots already.
But Merlin, the red dragon, was unexpected. That he was Arthur and Wolfe’s sire was even more unexpected.
How Guinevere figured in all this was still a mystery. Ere hadn’t yet pinned a motive on her besides sheer ambition and psychopathy (which he was unfortunately very familiar with. No one beat his dead ex-Mistress Medusa in that department).
“Here.”
They all stopped before the entrance of a small cave, hidden mostly by surrounding shrubbery.
“This will take us beneath the castle to the other side,” Morgan informed them.
“Wh-what’s on the other side?” Ere asked, out of breath as usual.
“Above ground, there’s a great hill,” Morgan said. “Beyond the hill is a vast forest called the Dark Woods.”
“I already don’t like the sound of this,” Ere muttered.
No one paid him any attention.
“Below ground, the tunnel from this cave winds through a labyrinth. It leads to Merlin’s prison within the Dark Woods. An underground cavern guarded by those monsters you have a knack for killing, warrior.”
She speared Wolfe with a dirty look, obviously disapproving, clearly on the side of said monsters.
“They eat children,” he grunted in self-defense.
“They are not ev—”