Powerschool14




Chapter 14: The Feast




The gnome was brought down through the castle premises to a small, damp dungeon by the two guards, Durahan and Dorakil. While they were carrying him down the cold steps, the green man screamed and kicked wildly in all directions, he cursed the king and cursed the bodyguard, but the two servants were not intimidated, opened the lair with a creak and tied Amunis with thick chains the wall. They put a small key into each lock on the chain and turned it around until it clicked for the third time.


"That would be done!" Durahan gasped and spat on the paved and hay-lined floor. Through a small window at the top of the wall, cool wind penetrated and the gnome began to shiver slightly.


"Hey, you there!" he cried, "Can't you close the hole up there? I'm freezing!"The two grinned at each other and without further ado they tore Amunis' clothes, a linen shirt, suede pants, sandals and a beautifully decorated dagger with a name engraving. Dorakil took a closer look at the shiny silver blade:


"Aha, you come from the Carakerk house! So a thief!" he recognized when he noticed the inscription.


"Must be a very good one, huh?" added Durahan jokingly.


"Certainly, Certainly!" hissed the gnome almost in a hoarse voice, "But why did you undress me?"


"So that you will freeze even more!" Dorokil threw in and grinned happily, "I'll be able to use it!" he added after looking at the knife for a few more seconds. He dug an apple out of a small leather pouch on his belt and held it under the gnome's nose. The color of the shell was dark red and in some places still yellow-green.


"Is for you!" said the long-nosed man patronizingly, stretching out his hand even further.The gnome leaned forward and darted for the apple, but the chains held him back and so he stopped just before the fruit. The chains rattled and after a brief swear, the guy stuck his tongue out of his throat and licked the apple. Amunis had putrid breath and yellowish rotten walkers. Immediately the horrified Dorokil withdrew the fruit and anger returned to his face:


"What do you think you are, you stinking worm!" he scolded in a threatening voice, “You will pay for that!” He raised the dagger into the sky and was about to bring it down on the green when the wise Durahan took his hand:


"Let go of him because he's not worth dying!"


"You're right!" After a brief hesitation, the latter joined the old one. He cleaned the Apel on his coat and cut it with the knife from Amunis' possession. He tossed the one piece to Durahan:


“Catch!” The old one did this and now Dorakil bit into it too. Then they left the room.When the door with the barred window slammed shut and locked, the boy grumbled again, igniting his hatred:


"Bastard!" They left the dungeon halls as quickly as they had come and jogged up the small spiral staircase into the big tower, which was about ten meters wide and round from one side to the other. It towered up to sixty meters into the foggy, dark night sky and its windows were made of several small, square glasses, between which golden joints were drawn, and from them came the bright glow of the festival, which was still in full swing. As they walked up the stairs with a quick step, their armor clanked a lot and they also breathed mightily. At the moment it was still cold, but everything in the ballroom was heated with large chimneys on the north and south sides. A scarlet carpet with gold fringes was unrolled to cover the cold black marble floor.Something, and only now did they notice, had been strange in the dungeons. After making jokes with the gnome, the gnome had been strangely calm and stared at a point behind them for a brief moment. The two looked at each other startled.


"I'll go see!" Dorakil decided in a serious voice, hopping rather than going down the stairs. Durahan watched him go a little longer, then turned back to the looming festival. Avenur was present and spoke animatedly with the guests again, after all there was a lot to tell about the exciting night. He was holding a wine goblet in his left hand and Korona's hip in his left hand. King Gerd Efmadul sat a few meters away from the tables and looked with a strained expression on the dancers and jugglers who were playing their games in front of his nose. Ladies in brightly colored robes whirled and tossed their handkerchiefs in the air. The court jester did somersaults, somersaults and annoyed people with card tricks.At the moment the ruler was more focused on thinking than on the funny people in his halls, because matters with Korona and Avenur still bothered him. The two seemed to be an inseparable couple and he had to be seriously worried because he knew the bodyguard hated him and was at his court to be with the princess. Or he was keen on his throne. Should they marry he, the king, die, they would rule! But before he could devote more time to his thoughts, he found a fatal devotion, the guard disturbed him:


"The rebellious gnome has been locked up, Your Majesty!"


"Thank you, Durahan, good! You can enjoy yourself now!" and with that he flicked at a couple of young girls who were prowling about in fluffy clothes and hairdos.


“Girls,” he said solemnly, “you can serve this man here!” The one with the most striking make-up grabbed Durahan's earlobe, pulled him behind them and suddenly disappeared behind a red velvet curtain.Suddenly, music was played from a nearby balcony and almost everyone went to the dance floor. After a few seconds everyone was dancing as the Scots did and swinging their legs.




When Dorokil took the last step of the stairs, he stared at an empty, dark corridor ahead of him. A slight whisper from the gnome could be heard, as if it were talking to the wind. Without a second man, it seemed as if the shadows would open and want to swallow him. Except for the cell in which the gnome was trapped, the others stood open and the doors were gently moved by the wind. Soft, squeaky noises and the creaking of the doors grew louder. Sometimes the prisoner's chains rustled and cool breezes ran through the corridors. For some reason the torches on the walls were being blown by the wind and some ash was being blown onto the floor. Carefully he gathered his courage and went to the first door.Before he opened it, he started a little eavesdropping and put his ear to the rotten wood. When there was no particular sound to be recognized, he swallowed, because he had expected an enemy to whom he could set such a trap, but nothing happened. With just a touch of his fingertips, he gently pushed the gate open. Through a crack he could see the interior of the room, straw on the floor, a small barred window above and chains on the wall. Roughly hewn stone as the basis for the walls was in the whole castle, only in the official living rooms the building blocks were a little polished. The next door was on the left again because the dungeons were parallel. The door of this dungeon room was completely open and had been forced to stand open with an iron stake stuck in the floor. It was a very special room because the instruments of torture such as the iron maiden, the rack and the forge for the iron mask were stored here.There was also a gallows in the corner, silent and motionless, and Dorakil remembered that the execution of people had been forbidden for twenty years. Probably some were hung here anyway, quietly and secretly in the lower chambers. He had also heard of secret passages under the dungeons, which were often used in the past, but no longer used today. Dried blood traces could be seen on the cool stone floor. They had tried to wipe them away, but they probably didn't succeed and so it was decided to just let them go. A little disgusted, he averted his gaze and opened the next door, again with a beating heart. Here was a pile of bones in which chains disappeared. It could be that someone here died in prison because he was starving. Here, too, everything was full of cobwebs and dust. Nevertheless, the moss grew in at one point. It was the place where the feces had been dropped from the toilets and onto the floor.Due to the constant rain and fog, the excrement became damp and therefore offered the ideal breeding ground for plants and so it was not surprising that the ferns grew here. Under no circumstances did he want to look inside at the gnome, because there was something eerie and creepy about this mumbling.


When he was about to turn to go, suddenly a tall, slender man in a white, flowing robe was standing in front of him. He walked a little stooped and leaned on a gnarled stick with a small, blue crystal on top. His hair was wavy, silver gray, quite long, and his beard was also quite considerable. Under a few strands, which ran directly through his face, two dark eyes glared at him from deeply furrowed eye sockets.


"May I introduce myself?" asked the white one, "I am Avaluhn, the court magician of your king and only here at your castle for some time!" For a brief moment there was a considerable silence and Dorakil had to collect himself.Where did this wizard come from all of a sudden? He had appeared out of nowhere in front of him, as if he were emerging from a cloud of mist.


"Dorakil ...!" he finally stuttered and bowed briefly. When the formalities were over, Dorakil 's face returned to its usual calm. The gnome, who startled briefly at the first words, now pricked up his ears.


"What are you doing here?" asked the guard in a sharp tone. A smile played on Avaluhn's lips:


"Why should I tell you guys?" he teased and looked, no, bored for a way out, because he hadn't expected the gatekeeper to react.


"Good," said the latter, accustomed to orders, "then I just have to report this to the king!" He now knew