Haven Keep (Book 1) (45 page)

Ky laughed. “Old women’s tales.  A decision has been made.  Be careful that you do not stray too far to the other side.”

“No decision has been made.”  Lowerth was still outwardly calm.  “A new Lord of the North cannot be chosen until the new moon.  I will return then.”  Lowerth’s gaze fell on the other chiefs.  “Think hard on what you do.  Your children and your clans will remember for generations your names and what you do here.”  He turned to leave.

Flenn decided it was best he leave too.  It would not be safe here for Berkler and him once the Orlenc clan left.  The stairs seemed taller now, steeper.  Reaching the top took an eternity, as if climbing out of a pit.

Flenn could hear Ky call after him.  “Be careful on your way home.”

Outside Oded was waiting patiently.  He must have seen something in Flenn’s expression.

“It did not go well then?”

“The clans have turned against Baiden.  It is treason.  We must go quickly, while we are still able.”

“Do any stand with us?”

“The Orlenc do.  As for the rest, I fear it will be war.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Von leaned against the rough stone wall beneath the iron gates.  Haven Keep.  Somehow he understood this place was safe.  Safe from all the dangers and cares that existed outside these stone walls.  He did not know how he knew, he just knew.   The vyr were still outside, but they were not coming in, for some reason and by some unknown power, they could not.  There was something strange about Haven Keep.  It was peaceful, calm, tranquil, but that was not all.  It was familiar.  He had dreamed of this place, sure, but there was more to it than that.  It was as if he had come home.   Home to a place he did not know he belonged, but he knew he wanted to stay.

After too many days of strain and effort Von finally allowed his body to relax.  The adrenaline pumping through his veins drained from him like flood waters receding back into the fountains from which they came.  Von’s muscles ached from overuse and exhaustion, a fact that reminded him of how tired he was, how much exertion he had put his body through.  He could finally permit himself to rest now.  It was finally safe to.  He let out a deep breath as the tension left his body.  The soreness remained, now just a dull pain, dampened by the effects of Haven Keep.

The banging on the doors eventually subsided and so did the cries of the vyr.  Von felt for sure the monsters had gone.  Isk and Jen appeared calm and content, though they still panted from their long run.  The dog’s demeanor gave Von the confidence the vyr truly were gone.  Their repeated crashes against the gates were a protest of their quarry’s escape, not an attempt to get in.  The creatures knew they could not.

The rectangle courtyard they stood in was covered in snow.  Cold grey stone walls rose around them, towering into the sky.  No one had set foot in here for years, but the masonry was in perfect repair.  Even the massive archway behind them, with its great iron doors showed no signs of age nor erosion.  The battlements in the corners had stood for generations, but could have been completed yesterday for all the wear they showed.  With as many winters as this place had seen, the ice and snow should have pulled the walls down, or at least caused cracks and fissures.  Even in the valley the continual melting and re-freezing of the ice caused the best stone work to crack and split.  Here there were no signs of aging.  No signs this keep had stood since before the creation of the empire.  Probably for generations before that. 

Numerous small buildings lined the stone walls of the courtyard, some stone, some wood.  Those buildings showed as much wear as the keep itself.  The structures varied in design and size.  Von thought they  could be shops or stables, maybe a guardhouse or two.  As far as Von could tell, they ranged between one to three levels.   Some were large, some were small.  Some were even open to the courtyard, with just a slanting roof built up against the walls of the keep.  The closer Von looked the more he was convinced some of the buildings were stables.  It would be difficult to tell exactly what each building was used for without actually going inside each individual one.  Maybe not even then.  He doubted there would be anything within those
structures for the horses to eat.  This place had been empty a long time, those buildings were probably empty too.

Wide stairs ran up the side walls to the battlements.  Towering structures large enough to allow massive siege engines to be placed atop them.  They sat empty now, but could easily be refilled, the defenses restored.  The tops of the walls were wide enough for five men to ride abreast on horseback.  An army could dash itself to pieces against these walls.

The center of the court yard was clear except for the snow.  All the buildings hugged the walls or were built right up against them.  At the far end of the courtyard, about one-hundred  paces away was the main keep.  Built of grey stone, just as the walls, but it rose even higher.  Three times as high at least.  A square castle, with battlements of its own at each corner, though smaller than the ones on the outside walls.  Easily it was the largest building Von had seen in the north, dwarfing Baiden’s Great Hall.  Four steps ran almost the length of the front of the keep and led up to a large terrace and iron doors that matched those at the entrance of the keep.

Von could see, even with his limited experience, this was a great stronghold.  With enough supplies the right fighting force could defend this place for a long time.  Years if need be. They were safe here.  It indeed was a haven.  Only it could turn into a prison too, with a besieging army outside.  Or with the vyr.

That was something they could worry about later.  Right now they needed to get what they came for, whatever that was.  Kaiden would know.  He should know where to look, or at least have an idea.  And then there was Soren. 
Where had he come from?
  He was supposed to be dead.  Von wanted answers, but he needed rest more.  He felt like collapsing on the hard cobblestone floor underneath the wide arched doorway.  If he let himself, he would probably not get up again.

Kaiden broke the silence.  “Soren, how..?  I saw you fall.  I felt the vyr die.”

Sweat beaded on Soren’s brow.  He did not answer right away, instead he removed his cloak and tossed it to the side. Underneath was a thick fur covered shirt. 
His bear skin shirt?
  No, the dark hair was soft and long, too long to be a bearskin, like the one he was known to wear.  The one said to give him the strength of a bear.  There were not many who still held to those old beliefs.  Men often spoke of  Soren and his strength and prowess in fighting as well as hunting.  However men described Soren, Von had always thought a bear might not be too far off, even with his wiry frame.  After seeing what he had just done against the vyr Von no longer knew what to think.

“My sword pierced the vyr to the heart,” Soren began slowly.  “As you know we fell into the abyss.  We did not fall far before we hit a lower ledge.”  Soren paused, as if recalling things he would rather not remember. “The weight of the vyr crushed me and drove my sword deeper into its body.  In its death throws it struck wildly at me, flailing and clawing, sending us over the ledge.”  Soren’s breathing was heavy, but even and relaxed.  “I don’t know how many more times we hit rock or stone.  I fought to keep the vyr’s claws and teeth away from me.  The vyr fought for I don’t know what.  It must have known it was already dead.  We slid and tumbled down a steep
incline, almost a bluff.  There was no light.  I could not see the bottom, or if there was a bottom.”

Von wondered how Soren could have survived such a fall.

Soren’s head was down, then he looked up, meeting the other men’s gazes.  “Finally the vyr was still.   I tried to keep it underneath me to soften my fall.  I awoke on a flat rock overcropping.”  He shook his head.  “I do not know how long I lay unconscious.  It could have been minutes or hours, but I do not think it was longer than a day.”

“And now you wear the vyr skin as a trophy?”  Kaiden asked.

“Of sorts.”   Soren had a wry smile. “I know most young men do not hold to the old ways.  If you were my sons I would have had you hunting bears in their dens as soon as you were capable.  Which would have been years ago for the both of you.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just this.  The greatest armor a warrior can wear into battle is the strength of the bear.  Or so I once thought.  Now I have something greater.”

Von was beginning to understand.  Soren held to the old traditions.  The old tales claimed a man could gain the strength of a bear by hunting it down and killing it in its own lair.  By wearing its hide, or bear skin, as it was called, he would become a berserker.  A legendary fighter from the frozen lands of the north. Feared on the battlefield and nearly uncontrollable. Berserkers were said to go wild, taking wounds that would kill an ordinary man and continue fighting, overpowering their enemies with sheer force and the overwhelming might of their battle frenzy.  Soren might be the last berserker left.  Von had heard of others, from other clans, but he had never met any, nor talked to anyone who had.  Soren was a dying breed, but that didn’t mean there was no credence to his beliefs.   If the dragon kings possessed magical weapons, as Von now had evidence was true, why could the other stories not be true as well?  As incredible as it sounded, maybe Soren actually could harness the strength of a bear, and now the vyr.

“Are you telling me your berserker shirt actually works?”  Kaiden asked disbelievingly. 

“Young men scoff at what they do not understand.”

Von was convinced.  “He isn’t talking about a bear, Kaiden.  You saw what he did out there.  That is no bear skin he is wearing.  Look at it.  It is from the vyr you said yourself you saw him kill.”

“So it is,” Kaiden said, “so it is.  At another time I would like to hear more of this, but for now we have a Halfen traitor to ask a few questions.”

“I say we execute him.”  Von harbored no love for these men.  None of them had gone south in the attempt to help Evenfelle.  Now they showed even further their treachery.  They deserved nothing less than the death of a traitor. “He has committed crimes that demand justice.”  It was Von’s right to execute that justice.  Kaiden and Soren might not know who he was yet, but Von did not care.  He wanted the Halfen to pay for what they had done.  All of them.  His anger almost caused him to tremble. 

Soren put a hand on Von’s shoulder.  “Let us not be so hasty, my young friend.  We can
learn much from this man.  If he does not wish to talk to us than I have ways to see that he does.”

“There is no need for that.”  The Halfen man tried to sound calm, but Von could see the fear in his eyes.  More than fear.  It was terror.  Combined with the recent occurrences involving the vyr the man must feel his situation was more than dire.  “I can tell you whatever you want to know.  More.  It is Ky.  He is the traitor.”

“You did not have to follow him.”  Von was furious.  This man would not even admit to his own actions.

“Ky told us Baiden was in league with an army from the south.  That they would be soon marching on us.  That we needed to strike first.”

“Impossible,” Kaiden growled.  “We did not learn of this army from the south until just days ago.  How did Ky know of them before we did?  You are lying.”

“I don’t know,” the Halfen man protested.  “He had visitors from the south.  Men with strange accents.  They brought gifts and treasures.  Cray sent them away, but soon after Cray’s death they were back, and Ky was friendly to them.  Friendly with them.”

“Who were these men?  What did they say to Ky?”

“I don’t know.  Ky spoke to them in private.  With Jubben.  It was soon after that he started preparing us for war.  He said it was to defend ourselves.”  The man looked at Von then back to Kaiden.  “You saved my life, if you untie me I will tell you everything I know.”

Kaiden hastily untied the mans feet, but left his hands bound.  “Now we will listen to what you have to say.  First tell us who you are.  What is your name?”

“I am Yaris,” the man said and slowly stood.  “I’m just a tradesman.”

Von looked at him closely for the first time.  He was of middle height for a north man, which meant taller than average.  His shoulders were broad and matched well with his thick neck.  His dirty blonde hair and beard were neatly twisted into small braids.  He stood with and air of confidence despite the look of fear in his eyes.

“I deal in mostly furs and leather,” Yaris said.  “I don’t know much about these creatures you have been talking about, but that fur that your friend is wearing would fetch a pretty price.”

Von had little patience left.  “We don’t care about furs,” he snapped.  “Tell us of Ky.”

Yaris cowered at Von’s fist.  Von did not even realize he’d made one until the man shied away.  “I”m sorry my lord.  I did not mean to offend.”

Kaiden bit off a laugh.  “You must have scared him fairly well for him to call you lord.”

Von was not sure he had scared the man enough.

“You have no need to fear us as long as you are truthful.”  Kaiden chuckled under his breath then smirked.  “And there’s no need to call Von ‘my lord’.”

Yaris gave Kaiden a puzzled look then his gaze passed to Von.  Von met the man’s gaze and saw the knowing look in his eyes.  Yaris knew who he was.  That meant Ky did too.  They must have learned from Jubben.  Von warned Yaris with a glare to keep his mouth shut.  He hoped Yaris was intelligent enough to understand.