[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 6] A Feast Within the Stone
The stairway descended farther than they had expected.
The footsteps of the three travelers followed the stone walls downward. Frog paused after each step to inspect the floor and ceiling, and Crono matched his pace. Behind them, Lucca listened until the open stone door closed completely, then made a mark on the small device in her hand.
“Will playing the same notes open it when we return?” she whispered.
“There will be some means of opening it from within,” Frog replied without looking back.
“And if there isn’t?”
“Then we shall make one.”
Lucca stared at the back of his head.
“That sounds like something I would say.”
A narrow corridor waited at the bottom. A red carpet covered the floor, but dampness had darkened it almost to black. The blue flames mounted along the walls gave no warmth, even when a hand came near. Beneath them stood small statues whose faces mingled the features of people and beasts.
Crono saw dried blood inside the mouth of the nearest one.
Frog saw it too, but did not stop.
At the end of the passage, the way split in three. Metal struck metal somewhere to the left. A low song came from the right. Warm light and the smell of food escaped beneath the door ahead.
Lucca’s stomach made a very small sound.
She adjusted her grip on the launcher as if nothing had happened.
Frog put his ear to the door in front of them.
Several people were laughing inside. Plates and cups touched. Someone proposed a toast to the queen’s return. They were not sounds that belonged beneath a cathedral.
Frog raised two fingers. Crono moved to the left of the door and Lucca pressed herself against the wall on the right. Frog eased the door open.
A long dining table filled the room.
Dozens of candles shone in silver vessels. Roasted birds, fruit, and bread crowded the plates. Three men in the uniform of Guardia soldiers sat beside an aristocratic couple and a little girl. Every one of them held a cup and wore a face of excessive delight.
At the far end of the table sat a woman who resembled Queen Leene.
For one instant, Crono thought Marle had returned.
Golden hair, blue eyes, and even the royal gown matched the portrait he had seen at the castle. Yet while her smiling lips moved, her eyes did not blink once.
“Come in,” the woman said without looking toward the door.
Frog’s hand settled on his hilt.
“You must be hungry after such a long journey.”
The soldiers turned their heads simultaneously. Their necks twisted farther than any human joint should allow.
Lucca whispered, “There’s something wrong with the smell of that food.”
The things that looked like roasted birds were plucked bats. The red fruit was covered not with skin, but with a thin membrane. Mold lay over the bread like sugar. Beneath the warmth came the odor of rotting entrails.
Frog opened the door fully.
“Where is the queen?”
The woman at the end of the table smiled as though she had been waiting.
“I am right here.”
“Do not profane her face.”
Frog’s voice lowered.
The woman’s smile slowly widened.
The soldiers and noble couple rose. Horns and scales pushed against their skin, splitting their clothes. The little girl collapsed like black smoke and gathered herself again as a small winged fiend.
Frog did not cross the threshold. He stepped backward.
At first, Crono thought he had been frightened. Then he saw several fine iron wires shining beneath the table. Two more steps into the room would have caught their ankles and dropped the barred cage mounted overhead.
Frog used the point of his sword to push the candlestick beside the door.
The heavy stand toppled across the wires.
Iron bars crashed from the ceiling and split the table in two. Two monsters were pinned beneath them. The rest shrieked and surged toward the door.
“Now we enter.”
All three moved at once.
Crono received the first creature’s attack on his sword and guided it into the wall. Frog’s blade rose from below and opened the monster’s side. They did not look at each other, yet one entered each gap the other created with a naturally matched rhythm.
Lucca remained outside the doorway and aimed at the small winged fiends. They moved too quickly for her barrel to follow. Instead, she fired at the ceiling. The shot shattered stone and sprayed fragments, forcing the creatures to change direction.
“I drove them down!”
Crono understood the path she had made. He leaped onto the table, turned low, and swept his sword. Two pairs of wings tore, and the little bodies fell among the plates.
The creature wearing the queen’s face retreated and searched the wall behind it.
Before its hand reached a hidden lever, Frog threw his sword. The blade pierced the back of its hand and pinned it to the stone. While the creature screamed, Frog used the table to close the distance. He caught the hilt in his bare hands and twisted. Bone broke between the hand and wall.
The false face melted.
Golden hair became black slime, and a long muzzle emerged beneath the beautiful features. Frog showed no hesitation as he pulled his sword free and cut the creature’s throat.
After the fight, Lucca pushed a small metal rod into the food. Its tip turned black.
“Poison. We wouldn’t have lasted a few minutes if we had eaten any of this.”
Frog could not take his eyes from the fallen imitation of the queen.
Crono watched his shoulders. The muscle beneath his cape had hardened. Frog was furious at the insult of using Leene’s face, yet he had not placed anger before his sword.
“These creatures cannot read a person’s memories,” Frog said.
“That is why they copied only her face and clothing. The queen would never raise a cup alone amid the hunger of others.”
Lucca examined the lever the false queen had tried to pull. Rather than opening a passage behind the wall, it was connected to a trap that would collapse the floor.
“It looks like something they use to lure living captives in here.”
She shone a light through the gaps. Old bones and rusted armor lay below.
The three returned to the junction and took the left-hand passage.
Rows of small cells lined the corridor from which the metal sounds had come. Most were empty, but the last two held prisoners. Two wounded soldiers lay in one. An old man in a gray priest’s robe sat against the wall of the other.
When Frog approached the bars, one of the soldiers opened his eyes.
“Sir Frog…”
Relief and shame mingled in his voice.
“The queen?”
“They took her farther in… beyond the high priest’s chamber. The chancellor himself led them.”
Frog’s eyes narrowed.
“The chancellor?”
“He commanded the search from the moment the queen disappeared. We were ordered to inspect the cathedral, but someone attacked us from behind as soon as we arrived.”
Lucca asked, “Was the chancellor captured too, or is he working with them?”
The soldier shook his head.
“I do not know. But Her Majesty was greatly startled when she saw him. Before she could speak his name, they dragged her away…”
He broke into a cough. Blood stained the corner of his mouth.
Frog examined the bars. The lock was large and solid, but dampness had weakened the hinges fixed into the wall. He put his sword into the gap and twisted it as a lever. It did not move on the first attempt.
Crono slid his own sword beside it and pushed in the same direction.
When they combined their strength, stone dust fell. One hinge broke free. Lucca loosened the pin of the second with a hammer, and the bars tilted inward.
After pulling the soldiers from the cell, Frog opened a small pouch at his waist. He wet dried herbs, placed them over the wounds, and bound them tightly. His hands were practiced.
“Can you walk?”
“One of us can, with support.”
The old priest offered to lead them out. He had once served at the cathedral. Several months earlier, strange nuns arrived and unusual sounds began to rise from underground. When he tried to warn the castle, they imprisoned him.
“They imitated prayer,” the old man said, his voice trembling.
“They memorized words people trusted and turned those words against them at their most fearful moment. To those who had lost family in the war, they promised a meeting with the dead and led them below.”
Lucca clenched her teeth.
“Are the stairs we opened the only exit?”
“There is an emergency passage to the bell tower at the end of the eastern corridor. It is locked, but it should open from the inside.”
Frog offered the soldiers the short knife from his belt.
“Protect the priest and leave this place. When you reach the castle, tell the commander of the knights that the queen is here.”
The soldier hesitated to take it.
“But your weapon, sir—”
“I still have this.”
Frog raised his long sword.
The prisoners headed for the eastern passage. For a while, the noise of a lock being broken came from beyond the door. Then cold wind entered the corridor. The exit was open.
The three companions went the opposite way, into the right-hand corridor where they had heard the song.
There were no signs of combat here. Paintings on the walls depicted the war between Guardia and the Fiendlord’s forces. The first few seemed like ordinary prayers for the kingdom’s victory. Farther in, the images changed. A black figure raised a cup over fallen soldiers. In the last, Guardia Castle burned.
The same sentence had been written beneath each painting.
When the king’s heart breaks, the door will open.
Lucca traced the words with one finger.
“They intend to kill the queen and throw the kingdom into chaos.”
Frog did not answer.
The song came from the room at the end of the corridor.
Through a crack in the door, they saw creatures in black robes standing in a circle. At the center was a model of the Guardia royal family. Tiny figures of the king and queen, the castle walls, and its banners had all been made in intricate detail. One monster lifted the queen figurine and held it above a flame. The others laughed in unison.
Crono saw Frog’s hand tighten on his sword.
This time, Crono moved first.
He kicked the door open and cut the arm of the nearest fiend. Frog followed and blocked the opposite side, while Lucca fired upon anything trying to escape through the doorway.
The room was narrow and crowded with enemies.
Crono’s and Frog’s swords passed close enough to strike each other. Their first several attacks were delayed by the need to avoid the other man’s movement. Frog spoke in a low voice.
“Take my left.”
Crono asked for no explanation.
When Frog stepped forward on his right foot, Crono filled the space behind him. When Frog raised his blade, Crono attacked low. An enemy evading one sword found itself driven before the other. Their coordination was not perfect. Shoulders collided; the wind of one blade cut the edge of the other’s clothing. Yet the longer the fight continued, the less they needed beyond the shortest signals to match their timing.
Lucca watched their pattern and adjusted her aim. At first the openings changed too quickly to risk a shot. Then she found the rule: whenever Crono lowered his body, Frog drove an enemy to the right.
“On three!” Lucca shouted.
At one, Crono struck the creature’s weapon upward. At two, Frog turned aside and opened a line between them. On three, a metal shot passed through that line and buried itself in the last fiend’s chest.
It fell backward with the queen figurine still in its hand.
The room became quiet.
Crono retrieved the small figure from the floor. Golden hair and a blue dress had been painted with care. It resembled Marle, but it was not Marle. It represented a woman alive in this age.
He placed it on a table far from the fire.
Frog watched him.
“Thank you.”
Nothing more was needed.
Behind the chamber, stairs led upward. The walls were drier here, and ordinary torches replaced the blue flames. The way passed above the underground prison and toward a secluded part of the cathedral itself.
The three stopped briefly to inspect their equipment and wounds.
Claws had grazed Crono’s left arm. The armor at Frog’s side was torn. Lucca’s wrist had swollen, and every attempt to raise her launcher brought pain. No one suggested turning back.
At the top of the stairs, they found a broad gallery.
There were no windows, but lamps suspended from the ceiling burned brightly. A new red carpet covered the floor, and royal crests hung along the walls. Rather than the depths of a cathedral, the space resembled an imitation of a corridor in Guardia Castle.
Frog examined marks in the carpet.
The trail of a heavy gown ran beside the prints of armored boots.
“Her Majesty passed this way.”
A golden door stood at the end of the gallery.
No guard waited before it. A bloodstained strip of white cloth hung from the handle. Frog picked it up. It was the sort of handkerchief used by the queen’s attendants, with Leene’s initial embroidered in one corner.
A man spoke beyond the door.
“Soon, everything will be over, Your Majesty.”
It was the same voice that had given Crono directions at the castle.
An excessively sweet perfume leaked through the crack.
“The king will not survive the grief of losing you twice. His army will lose heart as well.”
Frog’s eyes grew cold.
Lucca silently formed the word:
Chancellor?
Crono nodded.
A chair overturned beyond the door. A woman’s voice followed.
“You are not the chancellor.”
There was fear in the voice, but it did not break.
The man laughed.
“You understood much too late.”
Frog stood before the door.
He took his sword in both hands, but did not enter. He was listening for the size of the chamber and the positions of those within.
Crono studied the opposite wall. The decorative columns on either side of the golden door held rows of slender holes. Opening the door might release arrows or poisoned needles.
When he pointed, Lucca approached and inspected the mechanism.
“Pressure trigger. Pull the handle, and it fires.”
She drew a thin wire from her pack and inserted it beneath the latch. Pain in her wrist made the wire slip several times. Crono braced the mechanism while Lucca clenched her teeth and searched for the catch inside.
A small metallic click answered.
“Done.”
Frog took hold of the handle.
At that moment, the man inside stopped speaking.
“We have guests.”
The door opened inward by itself.
Queen Leene was bound to a chair in the center of a broad chamber. Her gown was torn and her hair disordered, but her eyes were clear as she raised her head toward the three of them.
Behind her stood a man wearing the chancellor’s robes.
He had the same narrow face, precise beard, and unsmiling eyes Crono had seen at the castle. Beneath his perfume, however, came the breathing of a beast.
The man looked at Crono and Lucca, then stopped on Frog.
“You followed the scent to the end, failed knight.”
The point of Frog’s sword lowered a fraction, then rose again.
Leene leaned forward.
“Frog, do not come closer. The floor—”
The man kicked the chair.
The queen fell onto her side.
Frog took one step, and Crono seized his arm. A circular channel had been carved into the floor inside the door. Black liquid boiled within it.
The chancellor’s face split into a long grin.
“Good.”
He laughed.
“Then all of you may witness the kingdom’s end together.”
Thick spines erupted beneath the human skin.
The door closed behind the three companions.
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