Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

slowly shook his head. 'There has to be another way.'
    'No,' said John simply. 'We've run out of choices, Rupert. The Infernal Devices are all that's left.'
    'Then God have mercy on all our souls,' said Rupert.
    John, Harald and Rupert sat in silence a while, staring into the fire rather than face each other. They knew that shortly they would have to make their way to the South Wing, there to draw the forbidden swords from their ancient scabbards, but not yet. Not quite yet. They stared at the sinking flames of the guttering fire with quiet desperation, each lost in his own thoughts. Rupert found himself remembering the Coppertown pit, and the worm he found there, but most of all he remembered the magic sword that had failed him.
    Rockbreaker. Flarebright. Wolfsbane.
    Rupert started to shiver, and found he couldn't stop.

    In the silent, deserted hall that marked the boundary of the South Wing, the Castle grew a little darker.
    There were blazing torches, and oil and foxfire lamps, but none of them made much impression on the glloom that filled the air like a dirty fog. Rupert stood in the hall's north doorway, staring dubiously at the closed double doors on the opposite side of the vast, echoing chamber. Somewhere beyond those doors lay the Armoury and the Infernal Devices, perhaps the only hope left for the Forest Land. Rupert frowned, and shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. The hall was the beginning of the South Wing, and he didn't like it at all; it reminded him too much of the Darkwood.
    Rupert had made a point of arriving before the others, partly because he needed some time to himself, but mainly because he wanted a damn good look at the newly discovered Wing before he ventured into it. A great many rumours had accumulated about the South Wing in the thirty-two years it had been missing, and all of them were bad. Over a hundred parties had sought to plumb the secrets of the lost Wing at one time or another, but the only ones that came back had been those who'd failed to find a way in. And now Julia and the Seneschal had found a way in, and returned to tell of it. Rupert looked about him, and shook his head slowly. From what he'd seen of it so far, the South Wing should have stayed lost.
    One of the lamps suddenly guttered and went out, and the shadows grew that much darker. Rupert
    stirred uneasily. Rather than give in to his nerves, he strode determinedly into the hall and took the lamp from its niche. A quick shake revealed that the lamp had run out of oil. Rupert smiled dourly, and relaxed a little. The hall didn't seem quite as large and forbidding now that he was actually inside it, but there was still something disquieting in the silence, and the utter stillness of the air. Rupert was suddenly aware of soft dragging footsteps behind him, and he spun round sword in hand to discover the Seneschal glaring acidly at him from the north door. Rupert smiled apologetically, and sheathed his sword again.
    'Sorry, sir Seneschal.'
    'Oh, don't mind me,' said the Seneschal, leaning heavily on his stout walking stick as he limped into the hall. 'I'm just a servant, after all. No one else pays me any mind, so why should you be any different? I mean, I'm only the man who single-handedly discovered and destroyed the barrier that kept people out of the South Wing. But does anybody listen to me? Stay out of the South Wing, I tell them. It's not safe in there, I tell them. But does anybody listen? Do they [sic] hell as like. I'd have a nervous collapse, if I could only find the time.'
    'Has somebody upset you, sir Seneschal?' asked Rupert diffidently.
    'Ha!' said the Seneschal, bitterly. 'Upset! What is there to be upset about? I've only been dragged from my bed and escorted to the Great Hall by half the Royal Guard! When I finally got there, a Neanderthal with dragging knuckles and the lowest forehead I've ever seen curtly informed me that I had been granted the signal honour of leading the Royal family back into the South Wing, starting Now. No Please, or Would you mind?' The Seneschal slumped his shoulders, and looked tired and defeated and put upon.
    He was very good at that; he'd had a lot of practice recently. 'Never mind I haven't had a free moment to myself since the refugees arrived. Never mind I've been run ragged chasing up and down the corridors looking for somewhere to put them all, because the King keeps changing his mind. Now he wants me to lead him to the Armoury, at an hour in the morning when any man