The Cleric Quintet: Canticle

Catalyst

 
Pikel just shook his hairy head and continued stirring the cauldron's contents with his huge wooden spoon as Cadderly considered Ivan's grim news. "Can you finish the crossbow?" Cadderly asked. "I can," Ivan replied, "but me thinkin's that you should be more worried about yer own fate, boy. The head-mistress was not smiling much when she found her tapestry in my kitchen-not smiling a bit when she saw that Pikel had spilled gravy on one comer."
Cadderly flinched at that remark. Headmistress Pertelope was a tolerant woman, especially of Cadderly and his inventions, but she prized her art collection above all else. The tapestry depicting the elven war was one of her favorites.
"I am sorry if I have caused you two any problems," Cadderly said sincerely, though the honest lament did not stop him from dipping his fingers into a bowl that Ivan had recently used for cake baking. "I did not believe . . "
Ivan waved his concerns away. "Not a problem," the dwarf grunted. "We just blamed everything on yerself."
"Just finish the crossbow," Cadderly instructed with a halfhearted chuckle. "I will go to Headmistress Pertelope and set things right."
"Perhaps Headmistress Pertelope will come to you," came a woman's voice from the kitchen's doorway, behind Cadderly. The young scholar turned slowly and winced even more when he saw that Headmaster Avery stood beside Pertelope.
"So you have elevated your mischief to theft," Avery remarked. "I fear that your time in the library may be drawing to an end, Brother Cadderly, though that unfortunate conclusion was not altogether unexpected, given your heri..."
"You must be given the opportunity to explain," Pertelope interrupted, flashing a sudden dark glare Avery's way. "I am not pleased, whatever excuse you might offer."
"I had ..." Cadderly stuttered. "I meant to ..."
"Enough!" Avery commanded, glowering at both Cadderly and the headmistress. "You may explain about Headmistress Pertelope's tapestry later," he said to Cadderly. "First, do tell me why are you here. Have you no work to do? I thought that I had given you enough to keep you busy, but if I thought wrong, I can surely correct the situation!"
"I am busy," Cadderly insisted. "I only wanted to check on the kitchen, to make certain that I had not missed anything in my cleaning." As soon as Cadderly glanced around, he realized how ludicrous his claim sounded. Ivan and Pikel never kept an overly neat shop. Half the floor was covered with spilled flour, the other half with assorted herbs and sauces. Fungus-lined bowls, some empty and some half full of last week's meals-some from meals even older than that-sat on every available space, counter, or table.
Avery's brow crinkled as he recognized the lie for what it was. "Do make certain that the task was done correctly, Brother Cadderly," the headmaster crooned with dripping sarcasm. "Then you may join Brother Rufo in his inventory of the wine cellar. You wffl be informed of how Dean Thobicus will proceed concerning your greater transgression." Avery turned and stalked away, but Pertelope did not immediately follow.
"I know that you meant to return the tapestry," the stately older woman said. "Might I know why you saw the need to appropriate it at all? You might have asked."
"We only needed it for a few days," Cadderly replied. He looked to Ivan and indicated the drawer, and the dwarf reached into it and produced the nearly completed crossbow. "For this."
Pertelope's hazel eyes sparkled at the sight. She moved across the room and tentatively took the small weapon from the dwarf. "Exquisite," she muttered, truly awed by the reproduction.
"My thanks," Ivan replied proudly.
"Oo oi!" Pikel added in a triumphant tone.
"I would have shown it to you," Cadderly explained, "but I thought the surprise would prove more pleasurable when it was completed."
Pertelope smiled warmly at Cadderly. "Can you complete it without the tapestry?"
Cadderly nodded.
"I will want to see it then, when it is done," said the headmistress, suddenly businesslike. "You should have asked for the tapestry," she scolded, then she glanced around and added under her breath, "Do not fear too much for Headmaster Avery. He is excitable, but he forgets quickly. He likes you, whatever his bluster. Go, now, to your duties."
* * * * *
Barjin crept from cask to cask, studying the angular man at work sorting wine bottles. The evil priest had suspected that his victim, the catalyst for the chaos curse, would come from the cellar, but he was no less delighted when he found this man unexpectedly at work here on his very first trip up the rickety stairway. The door to the lower dungeons was cleverly concealed-no doubt by the thirsty groundskeeper-in a thickly packed and remote comer of the huge chamber. The portal probably had been long forgotten by the priests of the library, allowing Barjin easy and secret access.
Barjin's delight diminished considerably when he worked his way far enough around the room to cast some detection spells on the man. The same spells had been ambiguous on the groundskeeper- Barjin had not known for certain whether the old wretch would suffice until the warding glyphs had blown him back from the bottle, but the spells were not so ambiguous concerning Kierkan Rufo. This man was not possessed of innocence and would have no more luck with the magic bottle than did the groundskeeper.
"Hypocrite," Barjin grumbled silently. He rested back in the shadows and wondered how he might still find some use for the angular man. Certainly visitors to the wine cellar were not commonplace and Barjin could not allow anyone to pass through without extracting some benefit.
He was still contemplating things when a second priest unexpectedly came skipping down the stairwell. Barjin watched curiously as this smiling young man, hair bouncing about his shoulders under a wide-brimmed hat, moved to confer with the angular worker. Barjin's detection spells had not yet expired and when he focused on this newest arrival, his curiosity turned to delight.
Here was his catalyst.
He watched a bit longer-long enough to discern that there was some tension between the two-then sneaked back to the concealed door. He knew that his next critical moves must be planned carefully.
* * * * *
"Should we work together?" Cadderly offered in an exaggerated, bubbly voice.
Kierkan Rufo glared at him. "Have you any tricks planned for me now?" he asked. "Any new baubles to show off at my expense?"
"Are you saying that you did not deserve it?" Cadderly asked. "You started the battle when you brought Avery to my room."
"Pity the mighty scribe," came the sarcastic reply.
Cadderly started to respond, but held his tongue. He sympathized with Rufo, truly an attentive priest. Cadderly knew that the headmasters had pushed Rufo aside after Cadderly's success with the wizard's spellbook. The wound was too fresh to mend it here, Cadderly knew, and neither he nor Rufo had any desire to work together.
Rufo explained his logging system for the inventory so that their lists might be compatible.
Cadderly saw several possibilities for improvement but again said nothing. "Do you understand?"
Rufo asked, handing Cadderly a counting chart
Cadderly nodded. "A good system," he offered.
Rufo briskly waved him away, then continued his inventory, working his way slowly around the long and shadowy racks.
A flash of light in a distant comer caught the angular man's attention, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared. Rufo cocked his head, took up his torch, and inched his way over. A wall of casks confronted him, but he noticed an opening around to the side.
"Is anyone there?" Rufo asked, a bit nervously. Torch leading the way, he peeked into the opening and saw the ancient portal.
"What is it?" came a voice behind him. Rufo jumped in surprise, dropped his torch at his feet, and upset a cask as he danced away from the flames. He was not comforted when the crashing had ended and he looked back into Cadderly's grinning face.
"It is a door," Rufo replied through gritted teeth.
Cadderly picked up the torch and peered in. "Now where might that lead?" he asked rhetorically.
"It is none of our concern," Rufo said firmly.
" Of course it is," Cadderly retorted. "It is part of the library and the library is our concern."
"We must tell a headmaster and let him decide the proper way to investigate it," Rufo offered.
"Now give me the torch."
Cadderly ignored him and advanced to the small wooden portal. It opened easily, revealing a descending stairway, and Cadderly was surprised and delighted once more.
"You surely will get us into even more trouble!" Rufo complained at his back. "Do you wish to count and clean until your hundredth birthday?"
"To the lowest levels?" Cadderly said excitedly, ignoring the warning. He looked back at Rufo, his face glowing brightly in the near torchlight.
The nervous Rufo backed away from the weirdly shadowed specter. He seemed not to understand Percival companion's excitement.
"The lowest levels," Cadderly repeated as though those words should hold some significance. "When the library was originally built, most of it was below ground. The Snowflakes were wilder back then, and the founders thought an underground complex more easily defended. The lowest catacombs were abandoned as the mountains were tamed and the building expanded, and eventually it was believed that all the exits had been sealed." He looked back to the enticing stair. "Apparently that was not the case."
"Then we must tell a headmaster," Rufo declared nervously. "It is not our place to investigate hidden doorways."
Cadderly shot him an incredulous stare, hardly believing the man to be so childish. "We will tell them," the young scholar agreed, poking his head through the dusty opening. "In time."
* * * * *
A short distance away, Barjin watched the two men with nervous anticipation, one hand holding tight to the security of his cruel mace. The evil priest knew that he had taken quite a chance in calling up the magical light signaling the portal's location. If the two men decided to go and tell their masters, Barjin would have to intercept them-forcefully. But Barjin had never been patient, which was why he had come directly to the Edificant Library in the first place. There was a degree of danger in his gamble, both in coming here and in revealing the door, but the potential gains of both actions could not be ignored. If these two decided to explore, then Barjin would be one giant step closer to realizing his desires.
They disappeared from sight around the barricading casks, so Barjin crept closer.
"The stairs are fairly solid, though they are ancient," he heard Cadderly call back, "and they go down a long, long way."
Appearing skeptical, even afraid, the angular priest slowly backed out of the concealed area. "The headmaster," he muttered softly and turned abruptly for the stairs.
Barjin stepped out before him.
Before Rufo could even cry out, the evil priest's spell fell over him. Rufo's gaze locked fast to the evil priest's dark eyes, held in place by Barjin's hypnotic stare. In his studies of wizardry, charms had always been the charismatic Barjin's strength. His adoption of Talona had not diminished that touch, though the Lady of Poison's clerics were not normally adept at such magic, and Kierkan Rufo was not a difficult opponent.
Nor were Barjin's magically enhanced suggestions to the enthralled Rufo contrary to the angular man's deepest desires.
* * * * *
Cadderly creeped slowly toward the open door, never taking Percival gaze from the enticing blackness beyond the meager limits of Percival torchlight. What wonders remained down there in the oldest rooms of the Edificant Library? he wondered. What secrets long forgotten about the founders and initial scholars?
"We should investigate-we'll be working down here for many days," Cadderly said, leaning forward and peering over the stairs. "No one would have to know until we decided to tell them."
Despite his consuming curiosity for the mysteries before him, Cadderly kept enough wits about him to realize that he had been betrayed as soon as he felt a boot against His lower back. He grabbed the flimsy railing, but the wood broke away in his hand. He managed to look back for just an instant and saw Rufo crouched in the low doorway, a weird, emotionless expression on his dark and hollowed face.
Cadderly's torch flew away, and he tumbled into the blackness, bouncing down the stairs and coming to rest heavily on the stone floor below. All the world fell into blackness; he did not hear the door close above him.
* * * * *
Kierkan Rufo went right from the wine cellar to his room that night, wanting to confront no one and respond to no questions. The recent events were but a blur to the charmed man. He vaguely remembered what he had done to Cadderly, though he couldn't be certain if it had been real or a dream. He remembered, too, closing and blocking off the hidden door. There was something else, or someone else, though, in the picture, hovering off to the side in the shadows just out of reach of Rufo's consciousness.
Try as he may, poor Rufo could not remember anything about Barjin, as a result of the enchanting priest's devious instructions. In the back of his mind, Rufo retained the strange sensation that he had made a friend this night, one who understood his frustrations and who agreed that Cadderly was an unworthy man.