Two Heirs (The Marmoros Trilogy Book 1) (17 page)

As soon as David touched the amulet, the halo of flames burst out around him as before.
However, to the astonishment of the watching crowd, he did not fall to the ground in agony but appeared to smile grimly as he grasped the amulet firmly in his hand.

Through David’s eyes another room swam into view. It was not a room he recognised but it was opulently furnished and obviously part of a building of significant size and importance. The ducal palace in Paelis, he surmised. He was not the only occupant of the room. There was a small man, dressed as a clerk at a desk in one corner, staring in open mouthed horror at the scene before him.

David looked down at the body he was currently occupying. It was dressed in the court robes of a high official and currently wreathed in the same halo of flames as his own body back in the village. “
Amateurish, very tawdry
,” he thought. As the flames were patently causing no damage to his host’s body, he switched them off with the mental equivalent of an impatient flick of the hand. There was a snarl of rage from his host who switched to a direct mental attack on the invasive mind instead. Immediately David felt the mental strength of the attack and hurriedly raised the level of his own defensive shields. The man was not a natural telepath but had been trained in the use of artefacts such as the amulet the captain was wearing.

Another part of the fog in David’s head cleared and more memories popped up to the foreground. He knew that he was not a natural telepath either but his years of training with the monks of Platos burst into his mind with blinding force. Almost effortlessly he switched from defence to attack and he felt the defensive shields of his host’s mind start to crumble. He increased the power of his attack and, one by one, he stripped away the levels of shielding until the body whose eyes he was looking through, collapsed to its knees and then rolled onto its side in agony. Then the whole scene blacked out and he was back in the village to find everybody staring at him in silent amazement.

“Are you all right, milord?” Feynor asked him.

“Yes, I’m fine but where the hell is Platos?” he enquired vaguely.

“Uh, Platos milord. I don’t really know. It’s not a place I’ve ever heard of.”

“No, never mind. You wouldn’t know it.” David pulled his thoughts back to the present. “Tell me, is your man alright?”

“He’s a little bit singed, milord. But he’ll live,” Feynor replied.

“Good, then get him out of here and gather the other officers. I want them all in the council meeting in ten minutes.”

David looked down at the amulet that he had obviously ripped off the captain’s neck during the mental battle. “And take the captain away.” he ordered. “You can put him in with the other prisoners. He’s of no value to me now.”

There was a large tent behind the councillors’ wagons where the council would normally meet in private and Falaise intercepted him as he headed in that direction.

“David, what just happened there? I thought you were going to be burnt alive,” she said quietly.

“No I’m fine, Falaise. Really. It looked worse than it was. Those flames were just an illusion.”

“But they were real enough to burn your man.”

“He wasn’t prepared for them and didn’t know how to protect himself. Look,” he caught her hand and turned her to face him. “It’s sweet of you to worry about me but I was never in any danger. Well not much anyway.”

“Sweet of me,” she exclaimed, pulling her hand away. “Don’t get the wrong impression, Lord Held. Ours is a purely business relationship. I have a feeling that our people are going to need you… alive.”

“Yes… uh well… I’m glad that we’ve cleared that up then. I’ll explain what I’ve discovered
when we have everybody together inside.”

David ordered his men to ring the council tent to ensure that the discussions could not be overheard and then lifted the flap to allow Falaise to precede him into the tent.

Bardsley rounded on him as soon as he was inside. “Why are these men here? Only councillors are allowed in this tent.”

“They are officers in my company, my lord, and they are here because there is a serious problem. Both the council and I are going to need their advice before this meeting is over,” David replied.

“What problem?” he demanded.

“The captain wasn’t lying. He may have been boasting but he wasn’t lying. Duke Henry did learn of the attack two days ago and by now, he has almost certainly sent troops to find us.”

“How did he find out about the attack?” Falaise asked. “You said they did not have time to release a bird.”

“They didn’t need to, my lady. They used this,” David replied, tossing the amulet onto the table.

“I suspect that Duke Henry has recently appointed a new chancellor. Certainly this chancellor is a… a powerful magician who can use artefacts like that amulet to read the thoughts of the wearer. The chancellor learned of the attack by reading the captain’s mind shortly after the attack took place and would have gone straight to the Duke.”

“And how do you know this?” Wynter asked.

“I know this because I have some talent in the use of such devices,” David admitted. “I used it to pay a visit to the chancellor which he is currently sleeping off. When he wakes up, I would imagine that he is going to be even more pissed off with us.”

“Pissed off with you, you mean,” Bardsley said. “We’re not involved in this. You’ve brought nothing but trouble to this village since you arrived.”

“I’m sorry but you are involved. It was your boys that the Duke’s men took in the first place. I now believe that it was done on the orders of this chancellor rather than the Duke himself but that changes nothing. He wants those boys back and he is sending more troops to get them.

“Now I don’t know where the nearest garrison is to us but if they left barracks yesterday morning, that puts them two days nearer to us than I would have liked. How quickly can the village move?”

“I spread the word informally a few days ago, as you suggested my lord,” Falaise replied. “We can be packed up and ready to go in twenty four hours.”

“That’ll be mid-afternoon tomorrow,” David commented. “The Duke’s men will have had nearly three days start on us. Where will they be coming from? Does anybody know where his nearest garrison is?”

“The nearest garrison is in Stadenbridge, milord,” Ash volunteered. “I asked the new recruits. They came from Paelis which is where the Duke’s main force is, but the nearest garrison is Stadenbridge.”

“And how far is Stadenbridge from here?”

“It’s about a hundred leagues southeast of here milord. There’s a track that follows the river down to the point where we attacked the caravan two days ago. It’s not a good track. It’ll take foot soldiers nine or ten days to get here with the supply wagons but they could send horsemen on ahead to find us and slow us down.”

“Do we know how big the garrison is in Stadenbridge?”

“Only from the new recruits, milord. They didn’t pass through Stadenbridge on their way here but they reckon there’s normally about thirty riders and twice as many foot based there.”

“Most of whom will be on their way here by now. Okay, we will obviously have to sit down and plan our course of action but the immediate priority is to get the village mobilised. I suggest my lady, that
we take a ten to fifteen minute break and everybody gets out there and starts spreading the word that the village is moving tomorrow. Those who are ready early, I will start moving out in the morning but I want even the stragglers ready to go by this time tomorrow. I would also suggest that the herds will need to be culled. The weakest animals will have to be killed and butchered. We can’t afford to be held up by a flock of sheep.”

“Where do we tell them we’re going?” Perborn demanded.

“I don’t know yet,” David replied. “That’s what we have to sort out. But we can do that when we reconvene once the village has started preparing to move.”

“I agree,” Falaise said. “My lords, each of you go to your own people now. Tell whoever you need to tell and get them to spread the word. We will meet back here in fifteen minutes.”

As the councillors hurried out of the tent, David turned to the assembled officers. “Right, which one of you has brought the maps?”

“I have them here, milord,” Bern replied.

“Okay, let’s sort out the best map of this region and spread it out on the table here. Now, where are we and what’s the quickest way off Duke Henry’s land?”

“Across the River Staden, milord. That’s the river we could see just before we ambushed the Duke’s men. The river forms the northern boundary of Paelis with both Keldis and Westron. Once we’re across the river, we’ll be relatively safe, at least for a while. There’s not a lot of love lost between the three Dukes and it’s unlikely that Duke Henry will risk an incident by sending his troops across the river without seeking permission first.”

“Then it seems quite clear. We have to cross the Staden as quickly as possible and certainly before the Duke’s troops arrive.”

Ash sucked his cheeks in. “Not as easy as that, milord. There are several places where a horse and rider could swim across, or even wade across in the dry season. But wagons… there’s only two places they could cross the Staden and one of those is Stadenbridge.”

“And we’d run straight into Duke Henry’s troops on the way there. So what’s the other place where we can cross?”

“The free city of Highport, milord.”

“Free city? Tell me about it.”

“Highport is a major commercial trading centre. It lies on the direct route from Kell to Paelis and is the highest navigable point on the River Staden. Because of that, it attracts trade from all three dukedoms. It also lies exactly on the boundary where all three dukedoms intersect and it has been the cause of many disputes and even wars in the past. Nowadays, its strategic importance as a trading centre is so great that it has been designated a free city, independent of any of the dukes and that independence is enshrined in a charter granted by the High King himself.

“Having said that, the lord high thingummy in Highport, Maxten I think he’s called, is excessively careful not to offend any of the dukes. There’s no certainty that, by the time we get there, we’ll find the city open to us.”

“But what alternative do we have?” David asked. “There’s no point in turning back deeper into Paelis. That’s only postponing the inevitable. Whichever way we go, we’ll leave a trail so wide a blind man could follow it. If we go east towards Stadenbridge, we have to dodge round or fight however many troops are coming to find us and when and if we get there, the town is guaranteed to be hostile and closed to us. Highport is the only viable route.”

By this time the councillors were starting to drift back in. David waited impatiently until they were all present and then repeated his analysis of the options. They huddled together anxiously for a few seconds before Falaise spoke. “That would appear to be the only logical choice, my lord.”

“But what happens if Duke Henry gets word to Highport and they close the gates on us?” Litestone queried.

“Then we will have to persuade them to open the gates for us,” David replied. “I assume there is some sort of local defence force in Highport but there really is no other way to go.”

“And assuming that we get through Highport, where do we go then?” Wynter asked.

“I suggest we go west towards Waymeet,” Foxley put in. “Duke Charles of Westron hates Duke Henry. He would protect us there.”

There were murmurs of agreement from the other councillors when Jeren, who had been silent throughout the discussions until then, suddenly got to his feet. “No, my lords. We will not turn west towards Waymeet.”

There was complete silence in the tent for a second as everybody looked at him in astonishment. It was Bardsley who recovered quickest and spoke first. “You have no say in this Lord Jeren. Against my better judgement, I have accepted your mother as Regent and as a member of this council, but you have no vote on this.”

“On the contrary, Lord Bardsley, it is you who has no vote on this matter. You, together with the other members of this council were appointed to advise my father, Lord Brantyen. Since his untimely death, your role is to advise me or until I come of age, my lady mother as Regent. You do not actually have a vote on anything. You only have advice to offer and in this instance it is advice which I am rejecting.”

Bardsley was slowly turning purple with rage and the other councillors were looking decidedly shaken at this pronouncement. Even Falaise was standing with a mixture of awe and admiration on her face for the young man who was now dominating a council of his elders.

“You won’t get away with this, you little upstart,” Bardsley spluttered and then subsided as David signalled Feynor and Jorgen to go and stand behind him.

“Please sit down Lord Bardsley and listen to what I have to say. I value the opinions of every member of this council, including yourself. In fact especially yourself because you are a contrary voice to most of the others and for that reason, I do not wish to lose you as a member of this council. But I have a vision, my lords.

“Since we were forced from our homeland in the Great Treachery, we have been attacked and bullied so many times. We have paid our taxes to every lord whose land we cross and still we have had to pay ‘tribute’ or ‘protection money’ to groups of bandits and robbers within those lands. The noble lords accept our taxes but they do not protect us because they do not care about us. And we have not defended ourselves because we are weak.

“Why, my lords, why are we weak? I will tell you. We are weak because we believe we are weak. We had the heart ripped out of us when we lost our homeland through an act of despicable treachery and we have never fought since because we don’t believe we can; because we have nothing worth fighting for. Well we are weak no longer. We now have the nucleus of a mercenary army that will fight for us. Lord Held has already won a great victory for us by defeating Duke Henry’s men and rescuing our boys. If we start to believe in ourselves again, we can fight alongside Lord Held and his men; we
can
defend our families, we
can
protect our rights and we
can
reclaim our birth right. And that, my lords, is precisely what we are going to do. That is my vision. We are going home. To Marmoros.”