Arc 1: Chapter 36: The Tunnel
The boat glided across the murky waters of the lake. The overcast sky, and the ever present mist of Caelfall, cast the world in a dreamlike veil. Quiet, still, and depthless.
Catrin’s eyes locked on the shadow of the castle looming from the depths of the lake ahead, enthroned within its drowned field of ruined, shattered buildings. She rowed this time, while I watched the depths of the mist, wary of ambush.
“I don’t hear those sentries from before,” I noted. I recalled huge, winged things clinging to the sunken buildings.
“They’re night beasts,” Catrin said. “Might not run into them.” I didn’t miss the hopeful note in her voice. “They’re not all the baron’s got in his kennels,” she added. “The Falconers are chimera breeders.”
I glanced in the general direction of the sun — I couldn’t see it through the overcast sky or the thin veil of mist. The castle was a black monolith dominating the lake, the capstone to the shattered sprawl.
Did the Onsolain really cause all this? I ran my eyes across the ruins. Hard to believe this had once been the site of a small kingdom in its own right, this stagnant swamp and its marshy surrounds.
It didn’t matter. Orson Falconer had made his own choices, and he’d chosen to be a monster. Even if he hadn’t been present in the chapel, he would have made plenty of similar tragedies with the war he sought. His actions had brought this about.
Once we reached the castle, there wouldn’t be time for idle talk. Something else had been lingering in my thoughts as well.
“What Edgar said,” I began. “What I said back at Irn Bale’s house, about you and the preoster…”
“Doesn’t matter anymore,” Catrin interrupted without ceasing her rowing.
“It does. It was cruel.”