Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione (23 page)

The Knights of the Prince battled bravely, but they were clearly outnumbered, and fresh reinforcements were still emerging from the dungeon. Kendrick sensed the tide was turning against them. He wondered how long his comrades could hold out.

Suddenly the sound of many horses’ hooves came pounding like a storm charging across the plains.

“Kendrick!” Winston shouted in despair at the ominous sight of the unknown warriors pouring through the gates.

“Make way, Winston,” Kendrick shouted back as a smile spread across his face. “They are the King’s!”

The ranks of the knights parted, and Bronwyn’s promised force of more than four hundred Silent Warriors charged straight through to engage the Shadow Warriors. The castle yard soon rang with the clash of swords from two diametrically opposed forces. Both were fighting for the souls of men and women—one to imprison them and one to free them. Bronwyn and Ra engaged in the middle of it all, and the sound of their swords seemed to resound above the rest.

To Kendrick, the battle seemed to rage on forever. In the torchlight, he saw Ra disengage from Bronwyn and put two of his warriors against him instead. He didn’t understand why until he saw Ra making his way toward another. Kendrick desperately fought toward Landor, but Ra reached him first.

The fury of Ra’s blows upon his former Vincero Knight was unlike anything Kendrick had ever seen, and Landor could only defend and retreat. His face was a mask of fear before the wrath of his former master.

Kendrick was nearly to Landor when a Shadow Warrior engaged him and prevented him from coming to the aid of his friend.

“You brought this to my castle!” he heard Ra say to Landor as he blasted blow after blow onto his sword. “No one betrays Lord Ra and lives—no one!” He made one more vicious cut that tore Landor’s sword from his grip and left him helpless.

“No!”
Kendrick screamed against the inevitable.

Landor looked past Ra to Kendrick, but there was nothing Kendrick could do to stop Ra’s blade. It penetrated deep into Landor’s abdomen. Kendrick felt as though it pierced his own heart, and an unstoppable fury rose up in him. In two lightning cuts he fell the Shadow Warrior that was keeping him from the lord of the castle.

Ra turned to engage Kendrick. “I find it difficult to believe that one such as you could bring such a battle to my castle,” he sneered.

Kendrick did not honor him with a spoken response. He just
launched a volley of furious blows, forcing a surprised Ra into retreat. Twice, Kendrick nearly landed a cut on the Shadow Warrior. Ra recovered with a vertical slice that Kendrick only partially thwarted, his shoulder armor deflecting the sword away from his head.

Kendrick made an arcing cut across Ra’s body that he expected Ra to block. Ra stepped back instead, and the momentum of Kendrick’s sword carried him too far to the left to counter another vertical cut from Ra. Kendrick continued his turn until his back was to the Shadow Warrior and dropped to one knee. Knowing that Ra’s cut from above would be too powerful to stop, Kendrick grabbed the flat of his sword with his gauntleted left hand midway down the blade and held it directly above his head as one would a sparring stick. Ra’s blade crashed upon him, but Kendrick’s double-handed protection held firm.

With one hand on his hilt and the other still grasping the flat of his blade, Kendrick immediately spun about on his knee and thrust with all of his might into the chest of Ra. The sword pierced the Shadow Warrior’s armor. Ra’s own sword fell to the ground. His eyes bulged out, and he glared at Kendrick, his face only inches away.

“Impossible!” he gasped.

“You forget,” Kendrick said, “I serve the Prince who makes all things possible—even the destruction of evil strongholds!” Kendrick withdrew his sword. Ra collapsed to the ground and gasped his last breath.

A strange hush fell upon the castle. All fighting stopped, and all eyes turned upon Kendrick. He looked up at the faces of the combatants and knew the battle belonged to the Prince.

“It is over—Ra is dead!” Kendrick shouted. “Lay down your weapons.”

All around him, Kendrick heard the clink of swords slowly being dropped. Then he heard Landor cough. He ran to his fallen friend and knelt beside him.

“Landor.” Kendrick gently lifted Landor’s head.

Landor coughed again, and blood began to trickle from the corner
of his mouth. Pain wrenched Kendrick’s heart, for he knew there was little he could do to stop the inevitable.

“Bronwyn!” Kendrick shouted, hoping against hope that the Silent Warrior could help. Bronwyn came and knelt opposite him, then shook his head slowly.

Landor grabbed Kendrick’s surcoat and pulled Kendrick close to him.

“I must … tell you something …” He coughed once more and winced at the pain it brought him.

“Be still, my friend,” Kendrick urged.

“No … listen to me.” Landor inhaled with great effort. “I need one thing from you before I …” Landor closed his eyes and could not finish the sentence.

Kendrick supported him with his left arm. “Anything, Landor, to my very life.” His vision blurred with unfallen tears.

“I … need you to forgive me …” Landor coughed again. “Or kill me now.”

Kendrick stared down in confusion, wondering if the pain had addled his friend’s thinking. “Landor, there is no offense to forgive,” he said. “You have twice saved my life and brought victory to this great battle. I owe you a great debt.”

“You don’t … understand.” Landor fought for another breath. He shook his head from side to side as if to refuse Kendrick’s words. “It was … it was I … who killed your wife and young son.”

Kendrick froze as his world slowly crumbled around him, the broken pieces of his life rearranging themselves into an image he never expected.

Landor tightened his desperate grip on Kendrick again and pulled himself up to Kendrick with extreme effort. “I led the raid that day … I ordered my men to kill everyone and take your riches. But when I saw the … bodies … their blood upon the stone floor, I …”

Kendrick turned his head away from Landor and clenched his jaw tightly. He wanted to cover his ears and pull away as his own memories
of that day pounded down upon him again, but Landor would not let him go.

“Lord Ra made me into a monster. All of the years of evil my hands brought to so many had eaten my soul to … nothingness. But on that day, I could no longer bear … the evil I had wrought.”

More blood flowed from his lips, and he choked on it as he struggled for another breath. Then he seemed to rally a little as he told about that day.

“I fell to my knees and wept beside them, knowing my soul would be condemned forever. I ran from Lord Ra and went to die in the desolate places of Arrethtrae. When you first came to me that day in the mountains, I thought the demons of my past had come to haunt me. Instead you brought the story of the Prince and of His forgiveness and great compassion. The truth of such a great love echoed in the well of sorrow I had dug for myself, and … I had to know more. In spite of my pain … your pain.”

Landor paused, fighting for breath, his eyes glittering in the torchlight. “I would die a million deaths to bring back your wife and son. I thought perhaps if I could save your life or give my life for you that it would go away … but it remains …”

He fell back, gasping, and reached for Kendrick’s hand, clenching it with white knuckles. “That is why I ask you to forgive me … that I might die in peace. Or else pierce me through with your sword that I might die with your pain.”

Kendrick felt as though his own blood had emptied from his veins, and the weight of his own body seemed multiplied a hundredfold. He didn’t know how to respond or even what to believe.

Landor’s grip on Kendrick’s arm began to loosen as the strength drained from him. He convulsed in pain, and his breathing became short and interrupted.

Kendrick sat still, not daring to move. The vengeance he had craved in the past fought to rise within him, but the words of the Prince would
not be moved from his mind or his heart. He stood in the fray of a warring heart. One side screamed for revenge … the other whispered mercy.

Landor grabbed Kendrick’s hand, which was still wrapped around the hilt of his sword. “Quickly, Kendrick. There is time to execute your vengeance before death steals it from you! I welcome the sting of death, for perhaps it will end the pain of my soul.”

Kendrick turned back to look upon Landor, and his inner war ceased. He lifted his sword and laid the hilt upon Landor’s chest.

“My sword belongs to the Prince—not to Lucius.” Kendrick released his grip on the sword and lifted Landor partly off the bloodstained ground beneath. “Be at peace, my friend,” he said softly. “I forgive you!”

Landor’s eyes once again filled with tears, and his countenance became peaceful. With the last of his strength he reached up and touched Kendrick’s cheek. “If.” Landor coughed and strained for his words. “If I could live again and have a son, I would wish him to be you.”

Landor’s hand fell to the ground. His eyes closed, and Kendrick felt his body relax.

“Landor!” Kendrick lowered himself close to his friend.

Landor opened his eyes partway. “The pain is gone, my son … for I believe.”

His final breath came, and Kendrick gently lowered his body to the ground. He stayed beside his friend for a moment until he felt the steady hand of Duncan on his shoulder.

“He rescued us each,” Duncan said quietly. “And now you have rescued him.”

Kendrick stood and beheld a scene of victory and surrender.

The battle of Bel Lione was over.

SET THE CAPTIVES FREE!

Some of the Silent Warriors set immediately to treating the wounds of Kendrick’s knights while Bronwyn and the rest of his men bound the Shadow Warriors and prepared to depart.

“Where will you take them?” Kendrick asked Bronwyn.

“There is a place prepared for them where they will not be able to influence Arrethtraens anymore … at least not for a long while.”

The two men looked at each other for a moment.

“Thank you, Bronwyn,” Kendrick finally said.

The Silent Warrior’s lips slowly curved into a broad smile. Kendrick was stunned. He hadn’t thought this stern commander was capable of such a jovial expression.

“No, Sir Kendrick, thank
you
!” Bronwyn nodded and turned to leave.

He and his companions walked through the castle gates and disappeared once more into the realm of secrecy.

Winston and Duncan appeared at Kendrick’s side. “The castle is secure. Three hundred twenty-three of Ra’s knights and guards and some
other castle workers are under guard in the games arena. Sir Casimir is dead, but the other two Vincero Knights are being held separately as you asked.”

Kendrick nodded. Uncertain about how to handle the Vincero Knights, he had determined they would be taken to Chessington for the council to decide their fate.

“What now, sir?” Winston and Duncan waited for the next command.

Kendrick’s eyes narrowed, and he turned his head toward the warrior guardhouse in the shadows at the back of the castle yard. “Now I fulfill my promise. Come!”