Chapter 28 Chapter 23 A One-Second Attempt for Justice

"Die dog, this is your last meal here," said one of the two guards standing outside Wulfgar's cell.The guy spat on the food and pushed the plate over. Wulfgar didn't respond as if he hadn't heard him at all.He couldn't believe he'd been killed in such an unknown little land after escaping Luskan's carnival.It was a blow to him, and maybe he brought it on himself.No, he didn't hurt women, of course, but in recent months, since he slapped Catti-brie in the face in Icewind Dale and left Drizzt and other friends, his behavior has been far from what he admits in his heart. value.Didn't Wulfgar and Drizzt slay monsters for the same crime Wulfgar committed? Didn't they also follow giants who apparently ambush merchants into the vast expanse of the Spine of the World? They spared the giants ? Forgiveness?Does Wulfgar deserve it?

These thoughts hit the heart of the big man. In Luskan, he escaped because he was innocent. Now, he has no confidence and no feeling about escaping justice and morality. However, if they really Want to kill him, why not punish him for the crimes he committed? There are so many to choose from. He noticed the conversation among the guards patrolling the halls as they passed: "A dirty kid—from that, hey, you know." "Madame Meralda must be in pain, so big!" Wulfgar froze, sitting for a long time in the dark with his mouth gaping open in surprise.Now he is no longer feeling nothing, on the contrary, he began to gather all the confusions together to think.He knew from earlier conversations with the guards that Lord Feringal and Lady Meralda had only recently married, and that she now had a child, obviously not Lord Feringal's.

Wulfgar laughed out loud at the absurdity of almost the whole thing.He became the unfaithful lady's plausible excuse to Lord Feringal for her pregnancy. "Bad luck," he muttered, but he knew it wasn't just bad luck.It was the dark past brought to him by Rose and Errtu that led him to make this series of wrong choices in this dark cell. Enough is enough, it's time for him to resist.Not for those crimes, but for being true to my heart. She couldn't sleep peacefully, or even close her eyes.Feringo, her husband, left her and went back to his room, because she refused his further advances of courtship by claiming that she was uncomfortable, which of course was not true, in fact, his flirting made her very comfortable , it would have been a pleasant one if it hadn't been for the thought of children and savages locked in their cells.

Meralda found herself beginning to like Feringal, a gentle and rather nice man.Yet she was still a little hesitant to face this new discovery, to recognize his good looks, and his attractiveness, though that part had been buried a little by the years he had been under the influence of his domineering sister.Meralda saw this, and she knew that she could bring out the best in Feringo and live well with him. However, the woman finds that she cannot forgive herself.Her foolishness brought the child, which also drew the wrath of her husband.And perhaps the imminent execution of the innocent savage, the man who rescued her from under Morik, who was about to be brutally murdered, would hit her even harder.

After Wulfgar was caught, Meralda tried to rationalize her thoughts, reminding herself that the man was indeed a robber who robbed passing carriages, and she also told herself that the barbarian had probably killed many people, perhaps even raped other women. But Meralda herself knew that these thoughts were untenable.Although he had robbed her carriage, she had done her justice to him.Her lies had led to this, and the man was going to die, and what he had done wasn't enough to warrant his punishment. Meralda lost herself in the dark, thinking that she was the worst person in the world.At a later time she scarcely noticed that she was moving in one direction, and with bare feet and candles she was making her way to Temigast's room, relieved at the door by the sound of the sleeping old man, She stomped in.As steward, Temigast held all the keys of the castle on a great iron ring.

Meralda found the iron ring on a hook on the overseer's desk, and quietly took the key away, glancing at Temigast, lest he be woken by the little noise.Quietly, she left the room without waking the old man, and went through the hall and the servants' room to the kitchen.There she saw the door on the ground leading to the next level, locked so strong that no man, not even a giant, could open it unless he had the key. Meralda groped, trying all the keys one by one, until at last she unlocked all the locks and bolts.She paused, concentrated her thoughts, and tried to come up with a complete plan.Then she heard the laughter of the guards in the next room, and she saw through the crack in the door that they were playing bone.

Meralda walked to the storeroom door, a hatch leading directly outside the castle.There's not much room for that, especially in times like these when the tide is high, but it's the way it is.As usual, it was unlocked, and the woman carefully opened the trap door.Sliding down a dirty sewer, she walked barefoot through the sewage, holding her skirt with both hands so that no visible marks were left. Wulfgar was awakened by the sound of keys opening the door, and noticed the flickering lights in the corridor.The savage, who had lost all sense of time in the darkness, thought it was the morning of the execution.And he was taken aback when he saw Lady Meralda standing in the doorway looking at him.

"Can you forgive me?" she asked quietly, looking over her shoulders nervously. Wulfgar just looked at her in surprise. "Didn't think he'd hire a mage to find you," the woman explained "I think he's going to let this go, and I'm going to be—" "It's safe," he finished for her. "You thought your child would be safe." Now it was Meralda's turn to be surprised. "What are you doing here?" Wulfgar asked. "You could have killed us," she replied. "I mean when we're on the road, or after you've done what you're accused of doing."

"As you say, the truth," Wulfgar reminded. "You could have killed Lane and let your friend do what he wanted," Meralda continued. "I owe you at least that much." To Wulfgar's surprise, she turned the key.Climb up the ladder and go left, through the warehouse," she explained pointing to herself, "that's how close I was. ’ After leaving another candle behind, she turned and ran away. Wulfgar gave her time to leave, not wanting to follow her, because he didn't want anyone to suspect her if he was captured.He pulled down a candlestick on the cell wall, picked the lock as quietly as possible so that it looked like it had been picked, and climbed down the ladder across the corridor into the kitchen.

Also, he heard the sound of guards playing bones in a nearby room, so he couldn't break the lock as he had just done.He locked the door again.Let them think he escaped with the aid of magic.After passing through the corridor, just as Meralda had told him, Wulfgar squeezed his way through the hatch and found him standing on a perch on the damp rock at the bottom of the castle.The stones are polished smooth by sea water.Wulfgar could not hope to walk on it, and there were no other obvious passages, and if there were, they were now completely submerged by the tide. Wulfgar jumped into the icy water.

Meralda, hiding in the kitchen, nodded approvingly when she saw Wulfgar carefully concealing her help.She locked the warehouse with the same quietness, wiped away the footprints left by her bare feet, and carefully put the key back into Teggsler's room.Later, when she returned to her bed, she felt less guilty. A biting wind blew across the water, but Morik, who had just dressed up as a servant, was still sweating.He stalked in the shadows of the stone wall beside the drawbridge leading to Castle Oak. "Why did they build the castle on the island?" the thief murmured. Of course, his current situation was more troublesome than answering this question.A guard leans against the wall above the castle gate.He was most likely asleep, but Morik couldn't find a way to get near him.The drawbridge is illuminated by torches that burn all night, and there is no shadow to hide on the deck.Morik must swim across. The little man looked suspiciously at the dark water.After swimming over, his camouflage will be completely destroyed. Even if he can keep his camouflage, Morik is not a good swimmer, and now, he doesn't know what kind of monsters there will be underwater. Morik realized that there was nothing he could do with the time left in Wulfgar.He decided that he would go to the execution ground in the morning, but maybe only to say goodbye to the Savage, and there was no way he could save the big Savage without endangering himself. No, he decided, he wouldn't even go to the execution ground. "What good does it do?" he murmured.If the mage who captured Wulfgar was there, he might even recognize Morik. "I'll remember the good times we had together. Farewell, my big friend," Morik said sadly. "I'm now Luskan--" The sound of the water being stirred interrupted Morik's thoughts.A large black figure crawled up the bank from the water, and Morik's hands were clasped on the dagger at his waist. "Morik?" Wulfgar asked, his teeth chattering with the cold. "What are you doing here?" "That's exactly what I wanted to ask you!" exclaimed the burglar, surprised and delighted. "I, of course, was about to start rescuing you," the rogue added proudly, bending down to pull Wulfgar up. "I'll explain that later, for now, let's get on the road." Wulfgar had no intention of arguing with him. "I'll send all the guards to catch him," Lord Feringal promised angrily when Wulfgar had escaped the next morning, when he had planned to execute the barbarian. The guard backed away, afraid Feringal would take his anger out on him, and indeed, the man's expression looked murderous.Meralda tugged at his arm. "Calm down, my lord," she said. "Calm?" Duke Feringal shook off her hand. "Who let him go?" he yelled at the guards. "Let him take Wulfgar's place." "No one," Meralda replied before the trembling guard could speak.Feringal looked at her suspiciously. "Don't punish anyone for me," the woman continued. "I don't want to see someone bleed because of me. It just makes things worse." The young lord calmed down a little, sat back in his chair and stared at his wife, the woman he wanted to protect most in the whole world. After a moment of reflection gazing at the beautiful, innocent face, Feringal nodded his assent. "Search everywhere," he ordered the guards, "including the dungeon under the castle. Bring him back alive." The guard with beads of sweat on his forehead quickly bent over and retreated. "Don't be afraid, my dear," said Lord Feringal to Meralda. "I will rehire the mages to search. The barbarians will not escape." "No, my lord," Meralda begged. "Don't hire mages or anyone else." She caught everyone's attention, including Priscilla and Tiggsler. "I'm fed up," she explained. "Things have already happened, I don't want to think about it again. Stop thinking about the past, let him die in the mountains, we should think about the future now, and plan when we will have our own children." Feringal continued to stare at her.Slowly, very slowly, his head nodded, and Meralda leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief. After witnessing all this, Teggsler believed even more in his opinion, there was no doubt that it was Meralda who let the barbarians go.The wise old fellow, he had become suspicious when he saw the woman's reaction when she saw Wulfgar being led past her.He decided to say nothing, which would only cause pain to his lord.Regardless, the child will be disposed of. But Tiggsler didn't feel much relieved, especially after he saw Priscilla's expression.She was the most suspicious, and Teggsler feared she was jealous of what Meralda referred to as the inheritance of "their own children."While Tiggsler decided to say nothing, Priscilla Oak seemed only to take pleasure in making others miserable.The future that Meralda mentioned may not be so clear.