The Lord Son's Travels (31 page)

“He’s
one of us, Mike.
 
How else would he
know the Dorothy thing?
 
And here’s
how he greeted a bunch of villagers he tried to poison.”
 
She repeated the song lyrics the mayor
of Nest-of-Ravens had told them.
 
Now Mike was frowning.
 

“That
makes at least three of us here.
 
Shit.”
 
He poured himself
another cupful from the pitcher Manty had left behind.
 
“And one of us is psychotic.” Mike’s
expression was thoughtful.
 
“If
this guy is responsible for bringing me here, why didn’t I arrive with
him?
 
I mean, how did we get
separated?”

“He
screwed up,” Elenna offered.
 
“Same
with me.
 
I guess whatever they
did, they’re still learning.”

“But
he's gone back and forth a couple of times at least.
 
They can do that.”
 
Elenna and Michael stared at each other, daring the other to hope.

Elenna
murmured, “Who are ‘they’?”
 
The
second part of her statement was unspoken, but understood by all.
  

Adrien
was the first to reply.
 
Thoughtfully, he muttered, “Skranteen has to be responsible for you
coming here.
 
No one else in all of
the Eastlands has that kind of power.”

“Evendor,”
Brendan interrupted.

Adrien
considered this.
 
“No, this does
not seem the sway of the Lady of Evendor.
 
Its too much of a coincidence that these strangers appeared at the
moment Skranteen is rising again in power.”

So
Skranteen has brought in these strangers to use in some way,” Brendan declared.

“Though
somehow a couple of us got lost on the way.” Mike added.

“But
at least one guy hooked up with that nice Skranteen and picked up on his
ideas,” Elenna continued.
 
She
turned to Mike.
 
“And I’m guessing
this guy has some engineering background and maybe a little ROTC training.
 
He’s made real working handguns.”

“Oh,
shit!” Mike exclaimed.
 
“You sure?”

“I
have one back at our camp.
 
I
didn’t make it, you didn’t make it, and I don’t think Smith or Wesson opened up
a new showroom here lately.”

Mike
flopped back in his seat with a frown.
 
“That would be the strange weapon he carried.
 
Here I thought I found a nice quiet place to kick back,
drink beer and play tunes all night.
 
What are you guys planning to do?”

“Stop
him,” Elenna replied immediately.
 
“Any other realistic options?”

A
gentle knock on the door interrupted their discussions.
 
Manty leaned in, and announced in a
shamed voice, “Your pardon, my Lady, my Lords, my master wishes to know if he
can offer you any other services tonight.”

“Closing
time,” Mike explained.
 
Adrien told
the barmaid that they were quite well and no other attentions would be
needed.
 
“I’ll close up, Manty,”
the resident Bard offered.
 
Gratefully she nodded her thanks and exited again.

Mike
stood up and began gathering their empty glasses.
 
“Its late for the Dancing Cat,” he explained.
 
“Rondell likes to close up early.”

Elenna
leaped up to offer her assistance.
 
Adrien glanced at Brendan, then announced they would be waiting
outside.
 
When the true nobles were
gone, Mike shot Elenna an sympathetic look.

“What
did you do on the other side?” Mike asked casually as he gathered up their used
glasses.
 

Elenna
stopped mid-swipe through an ale spill.
 
“I was at Lehigh.
 
Junior in
Geological Sciences.”
 
She pursed
her lips involuntarily.
 
Words she
used to say everyday now rarely spoken.
 
Mike nodded in recognition of her feelings.

He
replied, “I was a philosophy major at Moravian College, but I sort of dropped
out to find myself.
 
I had a band,
all the normal slacker things.”

“So
did you?”

He
tilted his head, confused.
 
“Did
what?”

“Find
yourself?”

‘“Yeah.
 
Here.”
 
She laughed at the bemusement in his voice.
 
“Do you miss it?”
 
She nodded.
 
“What do you miss most?”

“Besides
my family, friends, and potentially happy future?
 
Starbucks.”

Mike
laughed heartily, shaking his head.
 
“All the big things you can’t let yourself think about, but the little
crap pops up in your head all the time.
 
I end up humming stupid commercial jingles.”

Elenna
leaned forward on the table, chin resting in her cupped hands.
 
“I spent a whole day once with the
Rocky theme running over and over in my head.”

“If
that isn’t the seventh circle of hell…” Mike shook his head, amused.
 

She
asked, “Where do you say you’re from?”

He
shook his head, “I don’t.
 
I keep
my mouth shut, and they stopped asking.
 
I think they assume I’m an escaped fugitive from justice, but they leave
me alone with my tunes so I’m fine with that.
 
You of course are of the upper class now, my Lady.”

Elenna
rolled her eyes.
 
“That was not my
idea.”

“Well,
you wouldn’t want to be the only Indian surrounded by the big chiefs.
 
Royalty and all.”

Elenna’s
confusion only lasted a minute.
 
Then her face reddened, “What…”

“Even
the ignorant stranger knows the name Adrien.”

“Shit,
I slipped,”
 
Elenna exclaimed.
 
She frowned dejectedly.

“Don’t
worry, your secret’s safe with me.
 
He’s not even worth any reward money anymore.”
 
He pulled his chair up closer.
 
“What are you doing with him anyway?
 
You’re not…” He raised his eyebrows
suggestively.

Elenna’s
resulting expression was undeniable.
 
“Not a chance.”

“So
why are you with them?
 
It sounds
like they’re planning a rough trip, wherever you’re going.”

“I
agree with what they’re doing, and I can handle rough.”

Mike’s
voice grew more serious as he lowered it.
 
“Elenna, why are you mixing yourself up in their problems?
 
This isn’t our place.
 
Let them stir their own pots.”

“If
that Lord of the Southlands is who we think, it is our problem,” she
answered.
 
“They’re so screwed if
he’s going to use our technology against them.
 
I can help.”

“What,
go and whack him with your big sword?” Mike shook his head, laughing.
 

Elenna
glared in return.
 
“Yes with my big
sword.
 
And any other weapon I can
scrounge up.”

He
stopped laughing and eyed her with a strange new expression.
 
“You can swordfight now?”

“I
can totally kick your ass.”

“All
right, Xena,” he shook his head in amazement.
 
“You go save the world.
 
I’ll stick with my quiet existence here in the rolling hills
of BFE.
 
We can’t all be
heroes.”
 
He picked up the tray of
dishes to take to the kitchen, signaling the time for a change in subject.

Elenna
arose from her seat.
 
“Let me see
your guitar.”
 
He nodded happily at
the suggestion.
 
As they crossed
the hall to his makeshift stage, he described the arduous process of building
the instrument, and the mesmerized audience at its inaugural performance.
 
Elenna perched on the corner of a table
and listened to his speech with a faint smile.
 
She wondered what it would be like to be so content in this
new land they had found.
 
His
protests aside, she could see Mike happily spending the rest of his life
here.
 
She knew she would never
find any kind of home in this crazy place; her only hope lay on the other side
of who knew what – maybe battle, maybe not.
 
She took a deep breath and listened as Mike started picking
out a simple tune.
 
Then she joined
in when she recognized the song.

Chapter 30

The Lords waited in the bar's entrance
hall, Brendan relaxing in a comfortable stuffed chair as his friend gazed out
the window.
 
Both kept to their own
thoughts in a silence only known by the closest of companions as easy.
 
The rest of the household was still due
to the lateness of the hour.
 
Brendan was beginning to think of gathering up Elenna and heading back
to camp when Adrien first broke the peace.

“Bren…”

“You
don’t trust him.” Brendan smiled at the utter reliability of his friend’s train
of thought.
 

Adrien
turned around.
 
“Do you?"

“I
can think of ten like him in your father’s Court.
 
Handsome and sweet-mouthed around the ladies, surely, but as
useless as a maiden around a weapon.
 
He won’t improve our company, but he’s no danger.”

“Not
to any man, no.”

Brendan
laughed.
 
“You think he will woo
away our lady?
 
I’ll say that’s
true, he’s a charmer.”

“No,
Elenna couldn’t tolerate his foolishness for long,” Adrien mumbled, his mind
already veering into a new direction.
 

“What?”
Brendan inquired, seeing his frown tighten.

“This
Lord of the Southlands did not find a following on his own.”

Brendan
leaned forward.
 
“You are sure he’s
a puppet of the West?”

“He
has to be,” Adrien replied.
 
“Where
would he get his troops?
 
No man
here in the Eastlands would follow a stranger.”

“If
they didn’t know he was a stranger…”

Adrien
shook his head.
 
“No,” he returned,
“this Lord answers to the West.”
 
His frown signified a deeper thought had occurred.
 
Brendan waited patiently.

Finally
Adrien continued, “By what magic could Skranteen bring this Lord here?
 
Or this Michael, or Elenna?”

“Skranteen
was strong…” Brendan started.
 
Adrien shook his head.
 

“Not
that strong, and not after the Time of Victory.
 
Skranteen acquired something to gain that sort of power.”

Brendan
blinked.
 
“You don’t mean…”
 

“Perhaps
what was lost has now been found.”

The
banner of Allé-dôn was a simple design compared to the grandiose symbols of its
neighbors.
 
Four crosses,
signifying the four swords of the Neda Alia, met at their points in the center
of a diamond shape; the heart of the nation of Allé-dôn.
  
This jewel was Evenral, the
“light of righteousness” in the old speak.
 
No one knew anymore whether Evenral was a gift to the early
pioneers or was found somewhere in the land.
 
Some legends spoke of its finding, others its presentation
by the elves, Evendor, or other benefactors.
 
All the stories agreed it gave amazing powers to whoever
could hold it in his hands.
 
For
centuries, there was only one Bearer in Allé-dôn at a time – the Lord
King.
 
Then through betrayal by his
beloved mistress, Alan Lord King, Adrien’s ancestor of many generations past,
lost Evenral into the hands of the Pale Lord of Skranteen.
 
Since then, its recovery has been one
of the top goals of the citizens of Allé-dôn.
 
Most especially interested throughout the history of this quest
were ambitious young men with great amounts of courage or stupidity.
 
It had been a long standing rule of the
land that only a Lord King would be a Bearer, and a Bearer would then be Lord
King.
 
The man who brought it back
to Allé-dôn would be the undisputed ruler of the land, regardless of previous rank
or politics.
 
This quest had consumed
many of the finest young men of the Kingdom.
 
The people of Allé-dôn were a level-headed lot; there were
not many prophesies afloat among the people.
 
One of the few spoke about the recovery of Evenral:

What was taken must
be returned

An honor great will
then be earned

Seek boldly in far
strange lands

For help will come
from the Lady’s hands

He will learn when
boundaries fade

A royal will be by
steel made

Everyone
learned this rhyme by heart as children; every boy dreamed he would be the one
to return as the Bearer from his adventure.
 
Young men brag about their perfect plans to each other; all
young men except Adrien, who had never mentioned the stone at all until the
night he first spoke to Brendan about his plans.

Brendan
continued.
 
“According to the
legends, Evenral was taken generations ago.
 
Why would the Lord of the West use it now?”
  
      
“Perhaps he just learned to
control its magic.
 
Some of the
Legends talk about unique abilities of the Bearer.”

Brendan
examined the set of his companion’s grim eyes and voiced his worst
suspicion.
 
“You intend to go to
find Skranteen to take back Evenral!”

Adrien
didn’t respond.
 
Brendan gestured
angrily. “That’s suicide!
 
If the
Pale Lord can control the stone's powers, you’ll never walk away with it!”

Adrien
shook his head. “If he can control Evenral, there’s no army in the Eastlands
that can stand against him.
 
Only
an Allé-dônian can claim it from him.
 
If we take his source of power, we can then stop his armies from
continuing these invasions."

“So
the legends say,” Brendan argued.
 

Adrien
shrugged.
 
“We’ve followed the
legends so far.”

Brendan
tapped his pipe on the arm of his chair, loosening the plug of smoke weed he
had just deposited within it.
 
Then
he lit it and took a deep drag.
 
“You’ll also become the rightful Lord King.”

Adrien
reached for a new plug for his pipe.
 
“So the legends say.
 
My
father wouldn’t dare argue with that.”

“Great
plan if it succeeds,” Brendan admitted.

Adrien
shrugged.
 
“It must succeed.
 
We don’t have many other options.”

They
smoked a few more plugs in silence, savoring the quiet of the darkened
halls.
 
Finally, Adrien weighed the
balance of Elenna’s desire to visit her fellow countryman with the worries of
the troops if they were much later.
 
It was time to go.
 
He
tapped Brendan on the arm, who regretfully tapped out the remnants of his
smokeweed and rose from his comfortable seat.
 
They followed the strains of music wafting to the common
room.
 

When
they cracked open the door bizarre sight awaited them.
 
Michael was furiously striking the
strings on his guitar to make a horrible racket.
 
The sound didn’t seem to bother him; he was singing along
merrily to the squeals of his instrument.
 
Brendan almost couldn’t suppress his distress when he turned to the
other member of the makeshift band.
 
Elenna was sitting on the floor next to him, and was using the handle of
two wooden serving forks to beat on a couple of overturned cooking pots in
front of her.
 
Her legs stuck out
on either side of the sorry instruments, and he noted with horror that she had
pulled off her boots to let her bare toes cool off in the overheated room.
 
She was merrily howling along with the
cacophony.
 
If he didn’t have prior
experience with her real singing voice, he would have happily wished her a
mute.
 
She hit maybe every one out
of four notes in what they evidently believed was a song. Adrien had turned his
mouth into a narrow line drawn across his immobile face.
 
The ride home wasn’t going to be
pleasant, Brendan suspected.

They
finished their song, ending with a laugh, apparently not noticing their audience.
  
“Acoustical Zeppelin is an
acquired taste, huh?”
 
Michael
admitted sheepishly.
 

“You
play that for these poor people?”
 
Elenna laughed.
 
“They must
be in desperate need of entertainment.”

Michael
shook his head, laughing, “I can’t play it without a drummer.”
 
He glanced her way shyly.

“Elenna,
it's time to depart,” Adrien cut in.
 
Surprised, she turned in the direction of his voice.
 
She hadn’t heard them come in into the
chamber.
 
Elenna knew Adrien well
enough now to know her visiting time was over.
 
She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts, then
nodded and turned to Michael.
 
She
smiled at him; one that didn’t reach her eyes.
 
“I gotta go,” she said, laying her pretend drumsticks down
on the ground.

He
watched her carefully, trying to forget the warriors waiting impatiently in the
back of the room.
 
“Are you sure?”
he asked softly.

“What?”
she said, cocking her head.

He
blushed.
 
“You don’t have to
go.
 
You’re welcome to stay here at
the inn.
 
I can find a place for
you… and.. we can hang out and hash over old Star Trek plots or something to
pass the time.”
 
He noticed the
men’s expressions had darkened even farther and cringed.

She
considered this for a minute, then shook her head with certainty.
 
“Thanks for the offer.”

He
shrugged, glad he had at least tried.
 
“I’d go with you, but I don’t think I’d be all that useful.
 
Maybe whack somebody with a guitar.”
 

Elenna
smiled at his wistfulness. “Thanks for the jam session, dude.”
 
She rose to her feet; glancing to her
companions in the back of the room, and realized she wasn’t going to get any
privacy to say her goodbye to Michael.

He
realized it too.
 
“Bye, my
Lady.”
 
He reached out to take her
hand and gave her a hug.
 
She
returned it and added a quick kiss on his cheek.
 
Finally she backed away with a wistful gleam in her
eyes.
 
He grinned half-heartedly.

“If
we find a way home, I’ll come and get you.” Elenna promised.
 
She gave him a light-hearted tap on the
arm.
 
He reached up to gently touch
her hand.

“I’ll
be here,” he replied.
 
For a second
they could only stare at each other, groping for words.
 
“Elenna…” Brendan started.

She
dropped Michael’s hand.
 
“I
know.”
 
She took a step back.
 
“Goodbye,” she said with finality, and
turned around.
 
Without looking
back she strode from the room, passing between her companions without a word to
either. They nodded to Michael as a final salute.
 
After they had followed her from the room, Michael dropped
into her abandoned seat, silently contemplating the empty room.

The
innkeeper had taken their horses to the barn while they were inside.
 
Elenna stared up at the moon while the
men resaddled their rides.
 
When
they pulled the horses to the road, she climbed up in front of Brendan without
a word.
 
He couldn’t read her expression
in the faint moonlight.
 
They left
the village in silence.

“We’ll
reach the city in four days,” Adrien declared, disturbing the silence when
Elenna thought she would be left in peace for the rest of the ride to
camp.
 
His tone was conversational,
but she could sense the annoyance underneath.

“We’d
best send scouts for the most discreet entry to the capital,” Brendan
replied.
 
“We don’t want to face
any battle yet until we’ve joined with enough of the King’s men.”

The
lady in front of him remained silent.
 
The men bantered a few more casual statements, wondering when she would
join in.
 
Instead she kept her eyes
on the road ahead.
 
Finally they
gave up and let her have the peace she obviously desired.