“Haven’t seen you around before. Must be new round here. Just passin’ through, huh? Well, I s’pose you have to go where you have to go. What? Oh, that big ol’ castle on the hill. People around here calls it Keep Silence now. It had another name once, but I can’t rightly remember what it was. Lord of the district lived up there bout twenty years ago. Darigus was his name, I think. No one’s seen hide nor hair of him for at least twenty years. Treasure? Where’d you get that idea? Oh. He talks too much.”
“Among other things.”
“Oh, you hush up. He ain’t never done you any wrong. Anyway, I’m telling this story. Yeah, I suppose there was a story about Darigus’s treasure. They said he had a king’s ransom stashed on that godforsaken piece of rock. I guess that’s why she came. Now don’t rush me, I’m getting to it. They said twenty years ago, a sorceress came to the castle. No one’s sure what she did, but Darigus and his whole household haven’t been seen since. She musta been really powerful though, cause Darigus had his own magician. Caedre was as good as they come. People said he was mighty fond of Darigus’s pretty daughter.”
“I heard that sorceress bewitched Darigus so’s he fell in love with her, and they killed everyone else and ran away with his treasure.”
“I thought she turned em’ all into stone, and they’re still up there.”
“My daddy said she did away with them all.”
“You’re all crazy. There weren’t no sorceress at all. Caedre got rid o’ Darigus himself. He’s livin’ with his sweetheart in the next kingdom.”
“You’re drunk. As usual.”
“So what if I am? It don’t change the facts.”
“I still say it was a sorceress like everyone says.”
“All I know is that I seen somethin’ up there at night with a light. Kear down at the mill says it’s Darigus’s daughter with a candle, looking for Caedre. Her ghost, anyway.”
“I hear tell it’s the ghost of Darigus himself, looking for his money.”
“Oh, shut up, all of you. Them lights ain’t nothing but glow-bugs playin’ chase, and you all know it. Anyway, no one knows the right of it. If there was a treasure up there, it’s long gone. Now you folk get any silly ideas out of your heads. Keep Silence is dangerous. There ain’t nothing but rats and wild things up there. And if there’s ghosts, they don’t talk none.”