Authors: Monica Luke
Belon nodded, fully understanding that Aderac was the king, and that it was he and Baric who had the final decision on how the matter would be handled.
“Come,” Aderac said, once his boots were on, “Let us unveil all of what has happened.”
As he spoke, Belon got his knife and axe, and put it in his belt.
“You will stay close to me and not part from me at all,” he protectively ordered.
“Yes, honey,” he said; and began walking with Belon heavily walking close behind him.
**
When a servant walked down the hallway and stumbled across the body of the woman Augerd killed, he hurried to tell one of the inner guards, who quickly got word to Laad.
“Such woe!” he bellowed anguished when he recognized her.
“Is she who I fear she is?” Loth asked warily, truly hoping he was wrong.
“She is.”
Dreadfully, both exhaled loudly and decided instead of going to Aderac first, to go to Baric.
“Curses!” Baric cried out, then closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath, “Dare it be one thing after another, these past days and nights.”
Both nodded unable to deny that one calamity after another had plagued them.
“Have any spoken to my cousin of this?”
“No king,” Laad answered, “We reasoned it best to speak to you first.”
Baric nodded in agreement.
“I shall dress,” he then said, “And we will go together.
While they waited, as Baric dressed, one of the inner guards hurried down the hallway.
“King Aderac and Belon are coming,” he quickly warned, “And their steps are wide and heavy.”
Loth looked at Laad. “Do you reason they know?”
After giving him an odd look for asking a foolish question, Laad shook his head.
“It is the middle of the night,” he scoffed, “And I gather they are not walking heavily towards us to ask us all to go for a pleasant walk with them by the waterfall.”
Once Aderac was in front of Laad and Loth, both bowed their heads.
“Such woe,” Laad spoke first since he was highest in command under King Baric, “Such woe, great king for the loss of one of your maidens.”
“Yes,” Aderac said, his face painted with a scowl, “And the other is missing.”
Laad’s eyes went to Loth, and Loth’s to Laad.
“That was not known to us,” Laad’s reactive surprised comment.
“And now it is,” he said sarcastically, “And I want the matter of who did it handled with haste.”
Just as he finished his last word, Baric walked out the door and looked startled to see them already there.
“Cousin… such woe.” he responded gathering they knew.
“One maiden is dead,” Aderac said, as he looked back and forth at all three of them, “And the other is missing.”
Baric gave a questioning look to Laad. “Missing?”
“We did not know,” he responded quickly.
“Then let us question who does know,” Aderac asserted his authority as a king of a larger kingdom and longer on the throne of the same bloodline, as he now began to fume.
“Let us,” Baric said, as he began to walk, with everyone else close behind him.
Nothing spoken while they walked, their heads spun with thoughts of what could have happened, then when they rounded the corner and saw no guards at Elgen’s door, Belon reacted first and rushed forward.
“Just as I feared,” he said aloud, after he burst inside, “He is gone.”
“Lord Cadon?” Laad voiced, before all rushed away quickly rounding the corner to the other chamber to see if he was gone as well.
As all rushed towards the other chamber, the horde of steps rumbling down the hallway, the two guards stepped out curious who approached; then when the saw Baric and Aderac among them, stiffened and stood erect posted in front of the door.
“Move!” Belon demanded, as he grabbed the hilt of his sword and kicked the door open.
Sleeping soundly, Cadon woke startled.
“What is the cause for this?” he asked, as his eyes scanned their faces noticing a disdained look on each one.
“Your brother has escaped,” Baric revealed, “Who helped him?”
“I do not know,” he answered at once.
“Lies!” Belon shouted, then rushed towards him, grabbed him by his head and took out his knife, then put the very tip under Cadon’s chin pricking him just enough to draw blood, “Speak another and I will shove this knife into your chin until it comes out the top of that empty skull of yours.”
“Belon!” Aderac said sternly, “Put your knife away and calm!”
“Do you really believe?” Cadon asked, now scowling at Belon, but careful not to move his chin and make Belon’s knife go deeper, “That I would be in bed asleep and not with my brother if I had known he was going to escape.”
“I care not to reason what is within your touched head,” Belon’s livid threat, as he gripped his head even tighter longing to push his head down more onto his knife, “Only that it will soon roll around on the ground off your neck, if I do not sever it first.”
“Belon only son of Hagen the Strong,” Aderac’s again stern words, as he now added his lineage to let him know to heed him at once, “You will put your knife away. Step away from him. Speak nothing else, and calm.”
Reluctantly, Belon released his head; then after taking in a few deep breathes, stepped backwards.
Still scowling at him, he put his knife back into his belt before he turned and walked to Aderac, but as he faced him Aderac noticed his jaws still tightly clenched.
“You have breathed fire long enough, my wonderful dragon,” he lovingly chided, then reached up and ran his fingers through his thick semi short hair, brushing it from his face before touching it tenderly, “Now you will calm.”
As if an agitated puppy now soothed, Belon calmed, unclenched his jaw, and said nothing else.
All silently marveled as they watched Aderac calm Belon, who once so tempestuous when angry no one could; they knew that he probably would have stuck his knife deep into Lord Cadon’s chin killing him, but mere soothing words from Aderac calmed him and kept him from doing it.
“Have the guards sound the horns for the guilds to gather and search,” Baric now ordered, “At once.”
Cadon said nothing, as he looked at them from his bed.
“Get dressed,” Baric now ordered him, “You will stand before me in my court, and in front of the quorum.”
When Baric turned and walked out, Laad spoke to the two guards.
“Watch him as he does anything, even if it is to use the chamber pot. He is not to leave your sight.”
Walking two by two, they all descended the stairs; but Aderac caught a glimpse of something on the floor to his left, and stopped.
“What lies in the shadows?” He questioned, and squinted to see it better.
“Stay here,” Belon protectively said, and withdrew his sword then stepped cautiously towards it.
Anxiously, waiting to find out what was there all hushed and watched intently.
“It is a guild!” he shouted from the darkness, “Someone stabbed him in the back.”
Right away Loth and Laad rushed over to the dead guild.
“It is Ledon.” Loth recognized him, “The other high guild charged to guard Lord Elgen’s door.”
“Who could do this?” Aderac asked, becoming even more upset.
“It has to be one of the high guilds.” Belon knew, as he walked back to Aderac, “It has to be.”
“Could it be one of your guilds?” Aderac asked Baric.
Baric inhaled. He knew Belon was right. No one else could walk about on the high chamber floors other than the king’s guards or high guilds unless granted permission.
“I shall confess, I fear it must be,” Baric answered, as he began to seethe, “Gather all the high guilds ordered to guard the two lords, and question them at length.”
**
When he heard the horns, Augerd knew they discovered Elgen had escaped and probably the guild he killed who was to guard with him.
“We have been found out,” he said, as they rode, “We must ride harder.”
“We will not make it out of Worrlgen in time,” Elgen feared, “They will ride hard after us.”
Both riding harder, Elgen looked over at the woman still unconscious across Augerd’s horse.
“We should leave her,” he suggested, “So we can flee faster.”
Still certain they needed her, Augerd stuck to his idea.
“We need her more than the horses under us.” He knew, “She will keep your brother alive and us.”
“Then we should find a place to hide,” Elgen said, “… and with haste.”
Augerd looked behind him to WorrlgenHall, then ahead.
“Follow me,” he said while turning his horse, “I know where to flee.’
**
As they walked to court, one of the inner guards hurried to Aderac.
“King Aderac,” he called out and bowed his head.
“Speak,” Aderac said, as both he and Belon stopped and waited.
“It is your daughter.”
Right away, Belon rushed forward before Aderac could even open his mouth again to speak. “What is it … what …what?”
“She woke frightened from a dream and called for her maiden. When she did not come, she began crying, and has not stopped.”
Distressed, Aderac turned to Belon. “Should I speak to her of what has happened to Silinia?”
“No you should not.” Belon’s affirmation of their vow to each other, which was to be fathers of each other’s children, “We should together.”
Aderac turned to the others, who were waiting for them at the end of the hallway.
“Our daughter cries for her maiden, who no one knows if is alive or dead,” he sternly spoke, “Belon and I shall go to her. You handle the matter of betrayal from one of your guilds, and this treacherous lord.”
Hastily, Aderac walked away with Belon in tow, and after Baric looked at them hurriedly walk down the hallway, he held his breath, and turned to Laad and Loth when he realized exactly what Aderac had said.
“Were his words
our
daughter?” he asked, when he turned.
“They were great king,” Laad answered, “Just as the king has made Belon’s son his own, they now see each other’s child as their own.”
Baric closed his eyes hard, as he put his hands to his head and exhaled. He was secretly hoping when he opened them, he’d be in bed waking from an awful dream, but when he opened them realized he was still standing in the hallway.
“Our trouble has taken a greater turn than any could reason,” Baric voiced, as he looked at Laad and Loth, “… if the girl’s maiden is dead it will be Ivodgald warring with Celgon, and with Belon leading under Aderac’s command.”
Both hurrying down the hallway to go to Beladera, Aderac stopped at the threshold; then turned to Belon.
“I will speak.” Aderac, stopping so suddenly Belon almost knocked him over when he bumped into him, “I know how you can be with words when you are troubled.”