Chapter One
Keros was tired, he'd laboured long into the night this day happy to tend his beds as the sounds of music drifted from his Lords residence, the Rosan embassy within Gran Breton. Stretching his back he collected his tools together & began the trudge back to the sheds at the rear of the residence where he slept amongst the cuttings & compost, it wasn't much but it was warm & nobody troubled him with difficult or awkward questions.
Almost at the inner gate he stopped, he was sure he'd seen something or someone crouching behind the Laburnums, holding the hoe nervously in front of him he crept forward as quiet as he could mange, he new the gardens like the back of his hand so no noise was made as he stepped across the gravel path on to the grass beyond.
There, a reflected glint in the, now waning, moonlight, if that was some snotty nosed street urchin come to steal apples from his garden, well, he'd be pretty damm cross anyway. Stepping behind the bush to late he realised it was no youth hiding behind the bush but a man, a thief by the look of it, clutching something tight to his chest.
Dithering, unsure whether to run, scream or both, Keros realises that the fellow is not paying him any attention but instead staring at something across the lawn, peering across the lawns Keros is appalled to see a horrifying, well something with arms & legs but clearly no human stood in the gateway to the tiered gardens beyond, its head scraping the rose decked trellises above the gate.
His legs refusing to move, shaking with fear, the thief long forgotten, Keros is stunned as a second figure is silhouetted against the moonlit sky as it sails over the high wall, the figure, clearly human thank god, rolls to its feet & charges towards the back of the thing in the gate, before however he can reach it, it vanishes amongst a blinding flash of light & flame,
"You filthy swine" screamed Keros, "my poor roses"
Within seconds, several other figures sprint through the gate, including his master, the Lord Alaerka, all looking positively armed & dangerous. Before either Keros or the stunned thief can react, they are both accosted by the party who demand that Keros &, well, whoever this miscreant was, accompany them to the palace as witnesses to this most hideous crime, stunned, Keros allows himself to be lead along like a lost puppy to some inn, god forbid, opposite the tormentor's tower, Lord Korvin.
Shortly thereafter Keros finds himself bemused, & it must be added, terrified, amidst an argument as to what these people should do next, there is much talk of Korvin, undead creatures & demons ! Quaking in his boots, Korvin, along with the thief & Alaerka, are bustled towards the Queen Gundren's palace. The priest of Willowstar, Merlynar as he says his name is, offers a friendly hand however Keros is to scared to respond. Reaching the gates a row ensues as Lord Alaerka demands & is refused entry, as others join the argument & tempers rise, Keros can take the strain no longer, as a guard turns towards him, presumably to kill him, Keros screams in terror & swings an ineffectual blow with his staff at his killer to be.
Within minutes, Keros, Alaerka, the thief & his kidnappers find themselves stripped of anything resembling a weapon or garden tool & ensconced in a prison cell, feeling threatened by the looks of his would be captors, both within & beyond the cell, Keros subconsciously fingers the steel & tinder in his pocket, before however he can go further the cell darkens & grows cold, the manacles with which they are all festooned simply fall from their wrists. Horrified Keros watches as a figure materialises before them all, screaming inside he recognises the man from the images seen on the banners of the soldier's who patrol the pock filled streets of the citadel, it is the legendary Archibald, father to Queen Gundren & King of Rosengrad.
As the door is pushed aside the apparition leads the prisoners forward into the depths of the palace however things only get worse as the Queens advisor, Chancellor Fallock appears at the head of a staircase leading up towards the Queens personal quarters, worse still however Keros can see two of the monstrous things seen in the park towering behind Fallock, with no where to run or hide Keros turns toward the priest of Willowstar, hoping he can save Keros's pitiful life from these heinous creatures.