Rocalla's Saga: Arrival

8: Under the Cathedral —

1054 Riika 15

“Well, let me see,” Dierdra says.

Left alone deep in the underground ruins of a past civilization, I hand Dierdra the torch so that she can poke her head through the recently opened hole. With our one source of light in her hand, she investigates the far side of the wall. During that time, her head and upper body block most of the light, and I am plunged into near total darkness. The occasional flickers of torchlight through her hair cast eerie dancing spots in the large room, like fireflies on a late summer night.

“Wow, I guess you weren’t expecting that,” Dierdra remarks as she pulls herself back into the room. “How long do you think he’s been there? Assuming it’s a he; it’s hard to tell from a skeleton.” The torchlight makes her red hair appear vibrant in the relative darkness of the old circular room.

“I don’t know, a long time I imagine,” I say. “Father Krohen seems to know who it is, although I can’t imagine how.”

“So what do we do now? Shall we remove some more bricks to get a better look, maybe even crawl through?”

“Perhaps we should wait until Father Krohen returns.” In truth, I do not know what to do. Trained to be an observer, I am oddly uncomfortable finding myself so close to a major discovery. I feel conspicuous, and my feeling of isolation is renewed and heightened. In the last couple of months, I have become comfortable in Mandelbroggen, as I became more familiar with the city. Now, once again, I am unsure of myself, a stranger in a foreign land.

“So we just wait?” Dierdra asks.

“No, let’s examine the wall while we are waiting. Something seems odd about the location of these remains. And Dierdra, thanks for being here.”

She gives me a questioning glance, then responds. “Sure. So what are we looking for?”

“Compare this section of the wall to the rest of the room.” We explore together, both of us looking at the bricks and examining them with our hands as Dierdra holds the torch.

“They all look the same,” she says.

“Yes, they do. The bricks by the opening look just as old as the rest of them.” We make another circuit of the room, then Dierdra stops, takes a step back, then a step forward again.

“Rocalla, look there, see how the wall in that area is flat. Then look at the rest of the walls, how they gently curve in until they arch over to form the domed ceiling.”

The effect is subtle, and it is difficult for me to see it at first, but she is right.

She continues, “The flat area is in the shape of an arch, like a portal or passageway that has been bricked up and sealed off.”

“You’re right. It looks as though someone took some old bricks and tried to hide this passage. But where could they get the ancient bricks from?”

“Let’s see if we can find some.” Dierdra leads the way into some of the unexplored side passages, taking the torch with her. I follow to avoid being left in the dark.

The first room to our left is smaller and has no other outlet. We look through it and decide to move on.

The next room we check is large, like the one where Father Krohen left us. It is also somewhat damaged, as the foundation to the cathedral runs through the last third of it. Again, no other outlet is apparent. Out of curiosity, I decide to explore the foundation cutting straight through the room. The cathedral blocks are unlike the old bricks, cut from large pieces of a tan colored stone. “They broke right through this old structure when they built the cathedral. It seems odd that they would build one thing right on top of another,” I say.

“I guess the ruins were in the way,” Dierdra says.

As I stand contemplating the stone, my place in Mandelbroggen, and the imminent arrival of Father Krohen and company, Dierdra moves along the wall to the left. “Hey, Rocalla, there’s an opening over here.”

Where the cathedral foundation meets the left side of the room, there is a gap, no more than a meter wide. It appears to be an opening to another room that was cut off by the cathedral wall. Dierdra goes over to investigate.

“It’s a passage to another room, but it’s almost blocked. It gets even narrower before it opens out. I think that we can get through, but it will be tight.”

“All right, let’s try it,” I say. Dierdra goes first, the torch in front of her. The floor is uneven here, and the going is slow. Toward the end, she has to turn sideways and slide along the wall.

“It’s another room, but it’s almost ruined. The wall cuts through more than half of it, and the rest is full of debris.”

In another minute, I squeeze through and have a look myself, although I twist and bump my bruised knee in the process. The room is pretty much as Dierdra describes it. The floor is covered with broken bits of brick and stone; only the first meter or so is clear enough to get a glimpse of the original floor. Dierdra is standing on top of a low mound of rubble that rises to a huge pile along the room’s walls. I decide to stay where I am, on more level ground, and save my knee from further abuse.

“Well, there are plenty of old bricks here,” she says. “Most of them are broken, but I’ll bet we can find some whole ones.” Dierdra begins digging around in the pile in front of her. For the next several minutes, the only sound in the room is that of brick scraping against brick, with an occasional “Here’s one” or “Here’s another one” coming from Dierdra. Finally, she stops moving bricks and looks at something else.

“What’s this?” she mutters. I carefully move across the uneven floor to get closer. “It looks like a leather purse. Wow, there are some coins inside. See, two gold, a few silver, and a couple of copper.” She hands the coins to me. “It’s our first treasure.”

I take a look at the coins. They are coins of the Pyrusian Empire, recent ones. While thirteen to twenty years old, they are by no means as ancient as the underground ruins in which we are standing.

“Good job, Dierdra,” I say as I hand the coins back to her. “You’ve made quite a discovery.”

“It won’t hurt our expenses either.”

“You can keep them.”

“No, we’ll share. We’re a team and we found them together.”

“You found them,” I say. Nevertheless, I am deeply touched that Dierdra has referred to us as a team. It helps me feel better about my place here in Mandelbroggen.

“We should probably be getting back now,” I say. “I don’t know how long it will take Father Krohen to return with his fellow clergymen.”

By the time we get back to the room from which we made our discovery, there is a group of six men gathered. All are wearing clerical robes, all but one of them in the same color of brown. Father Krohen is near the hole, and another priest is busy peering inside. When we arrive the man who is instead wearing a black hooded robe of fine linen looks up at us and then addresses Father Krohen. “What are they doing here?” he asks. A large cross of finely worked gold hangs from a golden chain around his neck.

“They are the women who made the discovery, your excellency,” says Father Krohen.

“Why were they here in the first place?”

“They were interested in seeing the ruins, and learning more of the history of the city.”

“So you were sharing your archaeological studies then.” He pauses for a moment. “They should not be here.”

“They are my guests, and since they made the discovery, I wish for them to be invited to stay, your excellency. Bishop Genhgën Rul, I introduce to you Miss Rocalla Rastama and Miss Dierdra Laak.”

I curtsey to the bishop, “I am pleased to come into your presence, your excellency. I am Rocalla Rastama, a Teidhwa Zariinyeida Traveler.”

Dierdra follows my lead, although her curtsey seems awkward and forced. “Dierdra Laak, your excellency.”

“You are far from home, Miss Rastama,” the bishop says.

“For now, Mandelbroggen is my home, your excellency. But you are correct, I am far from the land of my birth.”

“Here in North Plessia, tattoos are used to mark criminals.”

“In the Bhayanna Archipelago, they are a sign of honor and accomplishment, your excellency.” I hope that he does not notice the wavering nervousness in my voice.

“And what accomplishment does yours signify?”

I hesitate momentarily. “I am a Zariinyeida priestess.”

The bishop glares straight at me in silence, but I hold my head firm and do not look away. After a minute, he turns to Father Krohen. “Let me see what you have found.”

The priests clear the way for the bishop and hand him a lantern. His head disappears into the hole for several minutes as the others wait in silence. Then he comes out again.

“We need to get a better look. Can you remove enough bricks for us to get through without caving in this whole wall?”

“I believe we can, your excellency.” It is Father Hafhmar, the short, talkative priest who met us in the cathedral.

“Then get to it, but see to it that the body is not disturbed.”

“Yes, your excellency.” With that several priests get to work removing bricks as fast as they can, as Father Krohen attempts to guide their work. His efforts at restraining their enthusiasm meet with little success, and in their haste there are several occasions in which parts of the wall come crashing to the floor. Dierdra twirls her hair around her finger as she and I stand back and watch. Even with all of their effort, it takes over half an hour to clear a reasonable space in the wall.

“Okay, that will be enough. Hand me a lantern,” says Bishop Rul. He takes a lantern and walks through the opening, hesitating briefly to look at the remaining bricks before ducking through the hole. Once he has gone through, the others follow cautiously. Dierdra and I take up the rear.

We are standing at the end of a long wide passage leading into the distance. The skeletal remains are attached with heavy chains high on the left wall of the tunnel. Slumped over, hanging by its wrists, the skeleton’s knees just touch the floor. Its flesh is gone, and only tattered remnants of cloth remain. An elaborate jeweled cross hangs from its neck by a gold chain. There is nothing else visible from our vantage point, save a pile of dust on the floor below the decayed body.

The priests and bishop look and point, but do not touch the remains. They mutter quietly to each other, speaking Franhkallan. After a while, Bishop Rul speaks up and makes some declarations. Dierdra whispers in my ear, “He says he is sure that it is Bishop Narvaan Kel. The body is the right size, and he recognizes the cross and what remains of the clothes. Now they are trying to determine what happened.”

“Well, I’m sure he didn’t lock himself up down here,” I whisper back.

Dierdra nudges me and nods down the passageway. She starts to walk and I join her, carrying the torch.

“Where are you two going?” Bishop Rul asks.

“To see where this passage leads, your excellency,” I answer without stopping.

“Father Dortag, accompany them,” he orders. A lean, elder priest moves with surprising agility in our direction.

The passage is about six meters wide and close to three meters high. Made of old brick, the walls are similar to those of the ruins, although the bricks are a bit larger and darker brown. About thirty strides down the passage, we come upon a substantial mound near the left wall. Dierdra reaches it first.

“It’s another skeleton,” she says.

“Indeed it is,” I say.

“We must inform the bishop,” Father Dortag says.

“We will, when we go back,” I say. We examine, but do not touch, the remains while the priest mumbles some prayers. This skeleton is lying on the floor in a fetal position.

“Its hands are over its stomach area, as though it had been stabbed,” Dierdra says.

“That’s possible, but it is difficult to tell, with the body so gone.” The old priest merely mumbles louder. “Let’s see what else we can find.”

We continue down the passage another twenty strides or so, where we come to a wall built of blocks of light-colored stone that fills most of the passage, forming a barrier crossing the space at an angle from left to right. In the leftmost section of the pale gray wall is an arched passageway, one-and-a-half meters wide and just over two meters high. The passage is well constructed of smooth stone blocks.

“What do you make of this?” Dierdra asks.

“It looks like the foundation of some huge structure,” I say.

“It must be the base of the castle wall.”

“We should turn back now,” Father Dortag says. I did not even notice that he had followed us again.

“Not yet,” I say. I enter the narrower passage, taking only about seven steps before coming to a heavy wooden door, bound with iron. As I stand looking at the door while holding the torch, Dierdra steps forward and tries to open it.

“No, stop!” says the priest.

“It’s locked,” says Dierdra. “I can’t budge it.”

I look at it carefully. “I don’t see any locking mechanism. It may be locked or barred from the other side.” After contemplating the door for a few more minutes, we turn and start walking back to where the others are standing.

“Thank you,” says the old priest.

We spend some time at the site of the second body, then return to the place where the dead bishop is attached to the stone. I approach Father Krohen to speak to him. “We found another body about halfway down the passage,” I say.

“Chained to the wall?”

“No, lying on the floor.”

“More unattended dead. We will take care of it.”

Bishop Rul and the others spend a very long time looking over the dead bishop’s hanging remains. Bishop Rul also dispatches a trio of priests to examine the other body. Dierdra and I can only stand to the side and wait. My knee is starting to throb again, and I wish that I could sit down. Eventually, the living bishop makes an announcement, and everyone begins to file out through the opening in the bricks, back through the Sikorallan ruins, toward the cathedral. We take our place near the end of the line.

When we return to the main floor of the cathedral, the interior is dim. As the others proceed toward the building housing their living quarters, Father Krohen invites us to follow.

“It is late, we should be returning to the inn,” I say.

“It is perhaps later than you think,” he says. “It is almost dusk. If you try to leave the island now, you may be arrested for breaking curfew.”

“They would actually arrest us?”

“Quite possibly. You will be our guests for the evening. Come and join us for supper, and then we will find you a guest room in which to stay.”

“Thank you.”