Dark Quest (15 page)

He bumped into Duke Moran as his fellow council member was leaving the Palace. “Duke Moran, what happened in there?”

“Ah, Duke Whitley. I don’t really know. We were sitting in Council when Regent Nelson came in with a bunch of his kids. He tried to sweet talk every one into moving the coronation to today. He only got a few votes, but all of a sudden I felt my own hand being raised. It was like I had no control over it whatsoever. Another hand went up and the vote was over. I really don’t know why I voted for him. I wanted to wait for Secor. I just hope I did the right thing.”

“Why don’t you join me for dinner? I could use some company tonight. And should your hand mysteriously reach for your wallet when the bill arrives, I’ll understand.”

“It’s not funny, Duke Whitley. I really don’t know why I did it.”

“It’s okay, Duke Moran. Tomorrow we can start dealing with the consequences of the vote. Tonight I want to forget about it.”

Zanar was disappointed. There would not be much slaughter this time. The Temple of Thun, God of War, was located on the outskirts of Cleb, far from the downtown bustle of merchants and shopkeepers. At least this would allow him to pick up some more time for the delay in Lorgo. They had been watching the temple for several hours and there had not been much activity. The light in the upstairs window flickered and disappeared. The guard had probably fallen asleep and the candle burned out.

Zanar signaled to his thirty men and they began their approach to the rear door of the temple. The Black Devil put his ear to the door and heard nothing. He opened the door and stepped into the hallway. The building was completely dark. No flickering lights could be seen on the first floor. Zanar sneered as he thought that it must be a slow month for warriors. This would soon change, as he was going to leave some Sordoan military fabric at this Targan temple.

Zanar led his Black Devils up the stairs to the library doorway. He cautiously tried the handle and it turned easily. He cracked the door open and peered through the slit. The guard was not at his desk. He pushed the door open a little further and spied a cot against the far wall. The large mass on top of the cot told Zanar all he needed to know. This guard would die in his sleep.

It was very dark in the room and Zanar would have to light the candle or his men would be tripping over each other. He signaled to one of his men to kill the guard on the cot as he crossed the room to the window and the candle on the table below it. He fumbled for a striker to get the candle going again and cursed the fools behind him. He could hear them already falling over each other. He quietly called out to his men, telling them to stay where they were until he got the candle lit. He heard no reply.

Zanar wheeled around and saw the bodies lying on the floor. Something whizzed past his ear and struck the wall. He quickly toppled the nearest bookshelf and ran for the stairs. He tripped over one of his men’s bodies and sprawled into the corridor. His men were running down the stairs to the rear door, trying to escape whatever lurked in the shadows.

Alex stood outside the rear door swinging his sword. The Black Devils were coming to him single file and he was creating a pile of bodies just outside the building. There were more Rangers at the front door of the temple and they were also refusing exit to the robbers. The Rangers, which had been hidden in the library, were chasing the bandits down the stairs and toward the exits.

Zanar looked around and saw his force being decimated. The temple was a trap and all of the exits were sealed, or so his enemy thought. Mordac’s prohibitions didn’t count for much when Zanar’s life was on the line. Zanar hurled a fireball at the figure blocking the rear door. The illumination from the Fire Ball was blinding. Zanar could see black suited men coming down the staircase and turned to unleash another deadly fireball.

Alex saw the flaming projectile tossed at him and threw himself to the ground. The fireball hit the pile of Black Devil bodies and burst into flames. Alex rolled away from the searing inferno, the stench of burning flesh caught in his nostrils.

One of the Rangers on the stairs leaped into the air and threw himself to the first floor, colliding with the burglar who was tossing the flaming balls. Together they slid along the floor until the bandit’s head struck the wall.

Alex grabbed a bucket and extinguished the fallen robbers. He made a quick count of the bodies and entered the temple. The Rangers inside the building had put out the fire on the staircase and counted the bodies inside. When Alex compared numbers he was assured that no bandits had escaped. The only live one was unconscious.

“I want this one bound and gagged. Blindfold him and stuff something in his ears, and then throw him in a sack. I want him able to breathe, but incapable of anything else. Someone get the priest and thank him for his help. Tell him Thun has smiled upon us this night. The rest of you get these bodies into the wagons they brought. I want to find out who these people are.”

The trap had been a success, but Alex was concerned with the use of magic. His ten men had faired well enough, but he was concerned about his other teams.

John Secor, Oscar, and Fergy galloped towards Tagaret. Every so often they would pass Red Swords along the trail. The Red Swords would fall in behind, but they would not keep up the pace. There were horses waiting for the three riders at intervals along the road, but the Red Swords could not push their own horses too hard.

As they rounded a bend in the road, explosions tore the air. Trees splintered at their trunks and toppled across the road. Fergy called out to reverse their direction and the three riders fought to control their horses. Before they could coax their horses to retreat, trees splintered in the other direction and the roadway was blocked in both directions. Fergy dismounted and grabbed John from his horse, calling for Oscar to follow. The road was blocked east and west and the river lay to the north. Fergy hauled John down the incline to the river and pressed him against the muddy bank.

“Keep your head down, Your Highness. If we can hold them off for a while our men will catch up to us.”

“Stop calling me ‘Your Highness’. My name is John and I don’t plan on raising my head anytime soon.”

Oscar crawled down the bank and joined his fellow travelers. “We were just due to come upon another group of Red Swords, so it will be awhile before help arrives. What do you make of it, Fergy?”

“I’d say they planned it well. No doubt they knew we were coming and they knew about the escorts. Their plan will give them the maximum amount of time to finish us off. If that wasn’t bad enough, their use of magic will almost guarantee that they will accomplish their goal.”

Alex heard the explosions and called a halt to his caravan. Assigning two men to guard the wagons, he silently led the rest of his men forward. He could see half a dozen dark figures in the woods north of him, creeping towards the road. Smoke was rising from two points near the road, a little east and a little west of the figures. It was hard for Alex to tell what was going on. It was still dark and he couldn’t identify the figures. They could be bandits, or it could be men of the Army trapping some bandits.

Alex silently put his men in position to attack or aid the dark figures and tried to figure out what was going on. Riders approached from the west and dismounted. There was a lot of shouting and calling between the new arrivals and some people whom Alex could not see.

Suddenly, the dark figures started hurling flaming balls at the new arrivals and the riverbank. Alex saw one of the new arrivals fly through the air. He also saw the red bars on the man’s shoulders. Alex yelled at the top of lungs, “Rangers, attack!”

The dark figures tried to turn toward the sound of his voice, but nine arrows were already flying through the air. In seconds the battle was over. Alex shouted, “The battle is over! King’s Army coming out of the woods!”

Alex and his men grabbed the bodies of the attackers and dragged them out onto the road. The Red Swords climbed over the trees and came to join the Rangers. Oscar recognized Alex’s voice and led his companions to the road.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes!” Oscar embraced Alex. “And I thought you didn’t care anymore.”

Alex looked over and saw John Secor and Fergy. He couldn’t suppress a chuckle when he looked at John’s fine suit covered with mud. Fergy stepped up and scolded Alex. “It’s not very proper to make fun of His Highness, Captain.”

Alex was speechless. At first he thought Fergy was joking, but the appearance of John in Targa with a Red Sword guard dispelled any thought of a joke. A voice came from the east where the trees blocked the road. “He’s not kidding, though he is not correct, either.”

Colonel Gregor climbed over the trees and joined the group. “Men, get these trees off the road. We’ll be spending the rest of the night here. Set up camp and get some fires going.”

Oscar faced the colonel, “What did you mean when you said Fergy was not correct?”

“Targa already has a new King, King Austin. He managed somehow to get the Council to agree to an earlier vote. The problems don’t end there, however. He has gone mad. He told me that Lavinda doesn’t exist. In the next meeting he laid into the Sordoan Ambassador so harshly that we had best be preparing for war. He also arrested Lord Habas and has a warrant out for Jenneva.”

“Colonel,” asked Alex, “What is happening? My Rangers stood by me because they were with me the whole time. The Red Swords with you do not possess such knowledge. The warrant on me distracts an awful lot of talent away from these temple robberies. The warrant on Jenneva and the arrest of Lord Habas trouble me even more. My men trapped the bandits raiding a temple in Cleb earlier this evening. Some of the men had black skulls on their arms and at least one of them used magic. The same is true for these attackers here.”

“Right,” added Oscar. “Is it just a coincidence that our magicians are removed from circulation at a time when the Kingdom is being attacked by magicians? Is it just fate that we have the Army of the Kingdom divided over the fate of one of their own?”

Colonel Gregor frowned. “Are you saying that all of this is planned for a certain purpose?”

“Yes,” stated Alex. “We found pieces of Sordoan military uniforms on our captive. Someone is willing to start a war to gain access to books and that someone is using King Austin.”

By now the bulk of the Red Swords were arriving and the Rangers with the wagons came out of the woods. “Did you say that you had a captive?” asked Gregor.

“Yes, I did, but he is dangerous. He hurled fireballs at us and we have him neatly covered up. We also brought the dead bodies with us for identification.”

The colonel went over and viewed the bodies. “We need to get them to Tagaret for inspection and the live one for interrogation. Ferguson, I want a detail of men to take these wagons to the capital. Before they leave I want a word with all of the men. Alex, where are the rest of the Rangers?”

“They are spread out all over the country, Colonel. Each group has charge of a temple that has not yet been attacked. I fear for them as they do not know of the magic used by these bandits.”

“I fear for your safety, Alex. I cannot even guarantee the standing of my own men in regards to your warrant. With your men all over the country it is sure that they will come into contact with Regular Army units. They will be interrogated as to your location. And how in the world did you find out which temples had not been attacked, or don’t I want to know?”

“Colonel, I am sure that you would not want to know about anything so trivial as a robbery of the Gordo Pass garrison. My men have agreed to say that I was killed in a goblin attack. As for my men even coming into contact with the army, I am sure that you underestimate them, Sir.”

The colonel smiled. “Well, what am I to do with you, Tork?”

“Well, Sir,” grinned Alex, “if you had me, then it would be a problem for you to solve. As it stands, there are more important things to deal with. You mentioned before that King Austin said Lavinda didn’t exist anymore. As far as I know, there were only two people who ever believed that it was destroyed -- Sarac and Mordac. If Sarac is still off somewhere that we can’t comprehend, then Mordac has somehow gained the ability to manipulate King Austin. If that is the case, the entire nation is in peril, not just one man.”

“Worse than that,” Oscar chimed in. “Duke Nelson was at the meeting in Lavinda two years ago. He would not mistakenly think that Lavinda was destroyed. No gentlemen, King Austin is Mordac. I remember Sarac changing form before my very eyes. He was very believable in both forms and I could not guess which was the real image. I fear the real Duke Nelson is dead or kidnapped.”

The Red Swords who were near the conversation started murmuring. Soon the whispers reached to the outer ranks of soldiers. The Red Swords were furious. Their King had been brutally murdered; the murderer had seized the Throne and accused one of their own for his crimes. The Colonel’s fear of his own men turning Alex over to King Austin vanished.

Colonel Gregor climbed up onto the fallen trees. “Red Swords, hear me. We have been deceived and a black sorcerer has stolen our beloved Kingdom. I intend to get it back.”

The Red Swords cheered and raised their swords in clenched fists.

The colonel waited for order to prevail. “We can not take back the Crown by force. General Clark remains loyal to the new King and I will not have a civil war. We will need all of our fighting men to save our Kingdom from Sordoa. We will not kill each other. We are returning to Tagaret. We will share our knowledge only with those we know we can trust. Tork’s Rangers are with us. Duke Dalek and Duke Whitley are with us. The magicians Lord Habas, Jenneva, and Egam are with us. We are unsure of everyone else. Gather as many Red Swords to me as you can, but choose wisely. One word to the wrong person and we may all hang. Am I clear?”

The Red Swords roared their approval.

“Okay. We do not have a plan yet, but we will. My door will be open for any suggestions. We must know who is with us and who is against us, so we will have a code word to identify knowledge of the false King. That code word will be ersatz. Get some sleep, we leave in the morning.”