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Emiel led them past these without comment, but Ted turned the lantern to illuminate first one then the other.
Ragnar noted a splash of what could only have been blood staining the floor of both, then caught the sickened expression on Ted's face. His greenish tinge may have come from a reflection of the dark veined stone, but Ragnar did not think it so.
Ahead, the corridor continued on straight, unmarked and level.
The horses began to whinny and they buffeted both Ragnar and Ted in their nervousness.
"Not much further." Emiel called back to them. Ragnar stroked his horse's neck, a gelding of even temper, and it began to calm. Ted pulled at the bridle of his mare. It whuffed, snorting, and rolled its eyes.
"Vatun's beard!" Ragnar called to him. "You're just spooking it even more."
"Bah!" Ted replied contemptuously. "I know what I'm doing." His horse did not agree. It came to am abrupt halt and Ted leaned back trying to pull it forward with brute strength, an uneven contest to say the least.
Emiel came down the hall, placed his horse's reins in Ragnar's hand then roughly disengaged Ted from the tugging match he was having with the horse.
"Hey!" Ted objected.
Emiel ignored him. Instead he walked slowly and calmly up to the horse, then began to brush gently but firmly along its neck. Once it had settled he turned back to Ted. "Thaddeus." he said. "Show Ragnar the entrance to the stable."
Ted looked aghast, "Is it safe?"
"As safe as we are in this corridor." Emiel replied. "If not safer."
"Alright." Ted answered glumly.
Ragnar passed him the reins of Emiel's horse as he went by.
The corridor ran a fair distance straight and featureless before revealing another pair of alcoves set to each side. Ted walked at the front and the lantern he carried lit the way, but his steps faltered as he approached the alcoves.
A swash of blood was smeared across the stone floor ahead. Dark and thick, it coated the floor for several feet then turned into the alcove on the right.
Now it was Ragnar's turn to walk into the stalled body ahead of him. He was not taken by surprise as Ted had been earlier, but stopped, his horse head to tail with Emiel's. Ted's horse, led by Emiel, halted behind his own. They formed an uneasy line down the length of the hallway.
Ted drew upon his dwindling supply of courage and led them to the lefthand alcove. At its back the wall was drawn aside, a secret door hidden with surpassing craftsmanship. Beyond, they followed a short but wide passage which ended in a large unlocked set of double doors.
These doors were thin, made from pannels of wood. Some care had been put into their making, but little skill. Pushing them aside, Ted entered the wide high-ceilinged room beyond.
As Ragnar followed, he took a quick glance to the right to eye the track of blood. It ran to the back wall of the other alcove and ended against the blank wall.
* * *
What the room beyond the lefthand alcove had once contained Ragnar could not tell. Now it housed their mounts. It had obviously served such a purpose in the past as well, but the intricate stone work, a combination of pale granite, the ever-present dark veined blocks and a speckly greenish rock spoke of some use more grand than that of a stable.
"Are we going to just leave them here alone?" Ted asked Emiel, indicating the horses who nibbled at a generous supply of hay.
"Better than leaving them outside." Emiel said. "And we can't take them with us. I will set the lock in the hidden doors. They will be safer than us."
"Oh great." Ted said and went to retrieve his spear. "Just what I wanted to hear."
* * *
They had all taken a few things from their packs before leaving the stable. Ted still carried his spear with the lantern wired to it just below the blade, an awkward combination for an already cumbersome weapon when used indoors. He slipped a small flask into a pouch. Ragnar hung an almost empty sack from his wide belt and Emiel removed a tightly wrapped cloth bundle about the size of a dinner plate from a saddlebag.
Emiel led them, though they traveled in a close group, almost side by side. In the passage outside, Emiel stopped, then approached the blank southern wall of the lefthand alcove. He removed some small item from a chain around his neck and touched it to a space midway up the stone surface. It seemed to sink into the rock as if the stone were mud, then there was an audible click, and he turned away.
"This is the entrance to the western guardroom and the way I came in from the outside." he explained to Ragnar. "I left it open when I went to open the front doors. Now it's locked."
"Another hidden doorway?" Ragnar asked.
"Yes, this place is rife with them." Emiel replied. "I have always felt that there should be a door just opposite," he pointed to the north wall of the alcove, "but I was never able to locate a keyhole or any sign of a door."
"This place has too many secrets." Ted said over their shoulders. "Was there anyone in the guardroom?"
"No one." Emiel looked grim. "There should have been, but it was abandoned."
"When?" Both Ragnar and Ted asked at the same time. Ted made a flinging gesture with his right hand to remove the bad luck.
"I don't know. How old is that blood in the corridor." Emiel answered.
"Maybe we should check the guardroom first. There might be some clue to tell us what has happened here." Ragnar looked at the blank southern wall.
"No. I want to see if we can find someone. This is a very big place. We hadn't explored more than a fraction of it when Thaddeus and I left." said Emiel. "There are many places that our people could have retreated to."
"Yea, there are plenty of hidey holes around here." Ted added. "Let's see if we can find someone hiding in them."
* * *
(To Be Continued)