The Blinded Journey

by Jeffrey Quyle

  He was closer, but not close. She had moved, and the grounds of the palace were so vast that she had been able to move and maintain a still-large distance from where he was. He decided to reverse course and move back towards the gates of the palace once more, because it seemed possible that Flora was moving in that direction, hopefully returning so that she could help him be admitted to the palace as well.

  The heavy bags of coins seemed to grow heavier as he walked, and both his shoulders began to ache, but he hurried so that he could be in place by the time Flora arrived at the gate. As he went, he passed other gates to the palace, all guarded by men in uniforms. None of the other gates were as large or sumptuous as the main gates had been, but all seemed to have some traffic passing through them.

  The suns were beginning to fall towards the horizon, the green sun less evident than it had been the day before, as it came closer and closer to disappearing from sight completely.

  As Kendel approached one small gate, he saw a pair of people depart from the palace after appearing to place some coins in the hands of the guards on duty. The pair wore capes with hoods, hoods that were pulled up to cover their heads even though the day wasn’t cool. Kendel thought that their behavior was odd, and his attention was drawn when he saw the pair begin to walk hastily away from him, and several nearby bystanders suddenly ceased to pose as loungers, but began to move quickly and methodically. Four of the bystanders went to the gate and suddenly descended on the guards there, pressing them to the ground.

  There were groans and gasps, and many of the other people in the street suddenly pressed themselves into doorways or through alleys or against walls, emptying the streetscape quickly.

  It looked to Kendel like some police arrest activity out of a television show, and he wanted no part of it. He pressed himself into the mouth of an alley to get our of the way, but struck the brick wall of the alley with his knee at an unfortunate angle, making him utter a mild curse and bend down to rub his injured joint.

  He’d hit the wall hard enough to somehow dislodge a brick from the wall, and he saw that there was a hollow space behind the brick’s spot. He replaced the brick, then looked out in the alley and saw that the guards at the gate had been lifted up and were being hustled into the palace grounds. Meanwhile, the hooded couple were scurrying down the road without looking backwards, unaware of the drama behind them – and unaware that another group of apparent police were now following the two escapees.

  And then Kendel saw one more thing that made the whole scene suddenly become very relevant and very important to him. One of the fugitives turned to speak to the other, and Kendel saw in the profile that the speaker was a female, clearly identifiable as a very buxom female despite the robe she wore.

  Kendel had found Agata and Parker.

  Chapter 37

  Agata and Parker had apparently bribed their way out of the grounds of the Chacer palace in the heart of Headterre, and were fleeing while being pursued. They were moving quickly, faster than Kendel could move if he tried to haul his heavy bags of salvaged coins. But he had an idea of how to solve that problem.

  He bent and removed the loose brick he had knocked free, then poured his two bags of money into the empty space inside the wall. With the brick replaced he stood and began moving quickly to try to catch up with the chase that was underway.

  Kendel had no idea of what he would do if he caught up to the chase, or what he would do if his quarry was captured by the police that were chasing them. But he knew he needed to follow and see and try to understand. He was going to have to talk to Agata and Parker sooner or later, preferably sooner, and he had them in his sights at that moment.

  His quarry was momentarily out of sight, but the hindmost of the chasers who were behind them were still visible. Kendel began to run, taking advantage of the emptiness of the street in the immediate vicinity of the gate to start at a fast pace. With that opportunity he quickly closed the gap and caught sight of the two Sunob escapees as they and their trackers all reached an intersection where their small parade made a turn to the right.

  Kendel instinctively reached for the energies within himself and released them in sequence as he hurried to catch up to the moving chase in front of him. He called upon the blue energy, and then the green, and he focused them in his hand so that he’d be able to discharge them at a moment’s notice.

  He was still several steps behind the last of the police tailers who turned around the corner, but he hurried and charged around the corner himself, only to suddenly find that the man he had been following had ambushed him, clamping a large, beefy hand heavily on Kendel’s shoulder.

  “Who are you?” the man asked.

  Kendel instinctively reached up to grab the hand that held him, and as he did, his hand effectively discharged a jolt of the green energy into the policeman.

  Kendel saw a momentary flash of green light spark in the eyes of the man, then the eyes closed, and the man collapsed.

  Kendel spun forward in astonishment and kept moving forward as he realized that he had suffered very little backlash, just a trace echo of the painful power he had delivered. He had delivered it with direct contact, not by sending over a distance through the direction of his spirit, and so he had delivered the power effectively, without the infliction of self-injury.

  The ability to do so was a revelation, one that a part of his mind tried to evaluate while the majority of his attention returned to focus on the people who were in front of him and moving rapidly along a large and busy street.

  The pace was fast, and seemed to be growing faster. Perhaps Parker and Agata had realized that they were being pursued and were growing desperate to escape.

  The men in pursuit seemed to be determined to keep their quarry under surveillance, but not as eager to capture them, at least not yet. The pursuers all wore similar clothes, making them easy to identify for Kendel.

  And so he began his hunt for the unwary pursuers. He kept his own pace at a steady speed that let him move up to within easy reach of each of the men on the chase, and when he did, he used his new-found ability to disable them each with a simple clasp on the arm or shoulder. He sent them all falling into unconsciousness one by one, until there was only one left in the chase, and Kendel laid him on the ground just as the man was about to round a corner.

  That left Agata and Parker free, and it left Kendel free to find them and contact them. He felt elation at the happy development, and then he felt pain. As he rounded the corner that his two Sunob targets had rounded, he caught a glimpse of a swiftly moving wooden staff, and he dove to the ground, trying to gain safety from the threatening attack.

  “Parker, no!” Agata’s voice hissed. “That’s not one of them.”

  “Well then, where are they?” Parker stood above Kendel, his staff already pulled back over his shoulder to be ready to strike the next victim to step within his range.

  “They won’t come,” Kendel answered from his recumbent position, looking up at the two.

  “What?” Agata was confused.

  “I picked them off, one by one. They won’t find you. If you’ll follow me, I’ll help you get out of here and send you on your way,” Kendel propped himself up on his elbows as he looked up. He still held the energy in check in his fingertips, ready to grab Parker’s ankle and administer a dose of the power if needed.

  And as he thought the thought, the realization struck him that Parker’s body had been his body. The leg he saw as a target had for many weeks been the leg that had carried him from adventure to adventure.

  “Oh lord,” he breathed in astonishment.

  “What is it?” Parker asked. He stepped away from Kendel, still holding his staff in a position prepared to strike.

  Kendel scrambled up to his feet as the other two watched him cautiously.

  “I’m glad I found you,” he began. “I have a message for you,” he explained.

  There was a moment of awkward silence. Parker and Agata looked at one another.

/>   “A message for us? From who?” Agata asked.

  “Prince Lumen,” Kendel answered.

  Both faces registered expressions. Agata’s was hopeful pleasure and surprise. Parker’s was disdain and surprise.

  “A group of refugees escaped from the palace in Sunob,” Kendel began. He knew he would gain their attention with the names he would offer to them. “Lord Beches has gone crazy, and is killing and threatening all the best people left. He was going to execute Sir Elline, and the ladies Grace, Vivienne, and Sophie.

  “They all escaped from the palace, and they took a few others with them, then they fled all the way to Four Borders, and found refuge with Prince Lumen. He asks for you to please come back and join with them all to plan to set Palatenland free from Beches,” Kendel told almost everything he had.

  “And I believe you will want to go back,” Kendel looked directly at Agata. “They brought your father, King Ardur with them,” he caused Agata to gasp.

  “And they have water from a magic spring that they say may be able to cure him,” he added the last twist, causing Agata to give a cry.

  “This can’t be true!” Parker immediately protested. “The story is preposterous.”

  “Beches blamed the ladies of the court for allowing the princess to sneak away to freedom,” Kendel explained. He hoped the story would create a sense of guilt in the pair; he knew that it had made him feel guilty. “He meant to execute them for their role in your escape.”

  “They had nothing to do with it!” Parker spoke heatedly.

  “Lady Grace would be happy to see you again,” Kendel told Parker. He believed it was true, that Grace would be happy to see Parker again, even though Kendel felt a certain sense of queasiness for using Grace’s name in such a fashion.

  “They don’t blame you; they know how bad Beches is,” he added.

  “You seem familiar, and I don’t trust you,” Parker said bluntly. “We should leave this whelp and be on our way,” he said as he turned to Agata.

  “I’ve never seen him before,” the princess replied. “But his story is fantastical; it’s hard to believe.”

  “I have money to help you return to Prince Lumen,” Kendel tried a practical approach. “You’ll be able to ride a coach all the way across the country. It’ll be a fast trip, and an easy one,” he bit his lip. The trip would be easy by the standards of the day, but only in that sense, though that was all that mattered.

  “Give us the money and leave us then,” Parker challenged him.

  “I don’t have it here with me. It’s hidden,” Kendel answered.

  “Go and get it,” Parker ordered.

  “How do I know you won’t run away?” Kendel countered. “Come with me.”

  “Why are you trying to escape from the palace?” Kendel changed the subject.

  “There’s a bounty,” Parker said bitterly.

  “We were going to be sold back to Beches,” Agata agreed. “The master of the stables was our friend and supporter against the idea of collecting the reward, but someone poisoned him, and then the other advisors convinced the king there was no harm in selling us to Beches for the money.”

  “Silver was poisoned?” Kendel remembered Ingman’s claim that his father, named Silver, was the stables master.

  “He must be from the palace; he knew his name,” Parker pounced quickly.

  Agata held her hand up to silence her squire.

  “He doesn’t seem like an obvious villain,” she judged Kendel. “Let us do this,” she proposed, “for we must make some decision. I will walk with him to see this money he claims to have, and you walk separately from us, so that if it is a trap, you will be able to escape.”

  “My lady, no,” Parker objected. “If we must go, then I will walk with him, and you will trail behind. Your escape is more important than mine,” he said stoutly.

  “So be it,” Agata agreed. “Take us to this money.”

  “And if I give it to you, you will return to see Prince Lumen, and your father?” Kendel asked. “You pledge to do so?”

  “Maybe,” was all Parker would commit to.

  “My friend,” Agata spoke gently. “We need to consider our fortunes. “We’ve traveled a dire and dangerous road for many weeks and haven’t made it to our goal. We’ve been harassed and harmed from the outset, and I don’t have faith that your strong arms alone can carry us through to success,” she gave a heartfelt sigh.

  “I believe we should consider this offer. I don’t believe this man is lying, but neither do I fully believe that our friends from Sunob are at Lumen’s estate. But Lumen did give us safety and comfort,” she told Parker.

  “Not so safe – remember those monsters?” he answered instantly.

  “They were not there for you and I,” Agata replied patiently. “They were there for the others,” she referred to Kendel and Flora and Genniae.

  Parker harrumphed.

  “I will do whatever you wish, my lady,” he agreed.

  “And I will ask one more favor,” Kendel asked, looking from Agata to Parker.

  “Now what?” the squire asked in exasperation.

  Kendel paused for a moment, as he remembered living in Parker’s body, having some sense of Parker’s thoughts and emotions. The squire was very uncomplicated, and very stubborn. Once he concluded he knew something, he was unlikely to change his mind, and he had clearly already made up his mind that Kendel was untrustworthy.

  “I’d like to have your staff,” Kendel said. He’d been thinking of the staff since he’d recognized Parker emerge from the palace exit, and he was determined to have it. The staff would make a huge improvement in life for Kendel, allowing him to wield the powers of Miriam and the witch painlessly and efficiently; it was the staff that had been seized from the home of the second-sun witch, and it was a staff that was accustomed to handling the use of power. In the battles that he expected to face in the future – he was sure there were many battles to come – having an easy and effective and pain-free way to release the energies would be critical. Whereas for Parker it was only a staff, nothing more and nothing less.

  “Why?” the other boy asked in a puzzled tone.

  “Just because,” Kendel answered, “I like it. I’ll give you enough money to buy yourself a new one, one with metal tips if you want.”

  “Let’s get moving, and worry about this later,” Agata urged.

  Kendel was agreeable. He’d get the staff in the future, one way or another. “Let’s go,” he directed. “We’ll have to go back close to the palace; I hid the money there so that I could chase you. Is that a problem?”

  “Back to the palace? I knew it was a trap!” Parker once again was against trusting Kendel.

  “I’ve got a few coins in my pocket,” Kendel said hastily. “Enough to maybe get some new clothes, so that we can change our look, be disguised.”

  “You’re going to change my look?” Agata asked curtly. Kendel couldn’t tell whether the tone of voice revealed doubt about the ability to hide her figure, or a dislike of the implication that her looks needed to be changed.

  She was a pretty girl, he told himself, studying her face. She deserved to be recognized and courted for her beauty as much as her figure. She really deserved to be noted for her strength of character, a part of him replied; she’d been through much, as she had said herself, and yet she was still willing to take the initiative to do something like escape from the palace.

  “Not for the better,” he answered. “I’d much rather see the real you than a disguise,” he tried to speak kindly.

  “Don’t speak such to the princess. She is much and far above the likes of you,” Parker didn’t like Kendel’s compliment.

  “My protector, he seemed to say such things with a good heart, do not fear,” Agata hushed Parker once more.

  “Let us draw ahead of you now,” Parker suggested. “Pick up the pace stranger,” he told Kendel.

  “Why are you so slow?” he asked as Kendel hobbled on his injured knee.
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  “I have injuries,” Kendel answered. “I’ve had a hard path trying to find you.” He prided himself on his understatement.

  They began to walk down the busy main road of the city, as Kendel looked for shops selling clothes, and finally spotted one.

  “Let’s go in there,” he pointed across the street. “We can buy new clothes.”

  The storefront proved to be something like a pawn shop, giving all three of the members of the group opportunity to find adequate alternative clothes, and even a sword for Parker, making him feel more secure and more willing to consider giving Kendel the walking staff when the time came for them to part ways, or so Kendel hoped.

  They layered clothes upon Agata and gave her a bundle to carry in front of her as further disguise, then prepared to depart the shop.

  “We’ll be close to the palace gate you used,” Kendel explained. “That’s where I happened to be when I spotted you, so I hid the money there.” He saw Parker prepare to protest, but a glance from Agata silenced the squire, and the group set in motion, Agata trailing the other two.

  They moved cautiously, watching for signs of more police or guards who might attempt to capture them, but they rounded the corner without harassment and were once again on the street that ran along the exterior of the palace wall.

  “I hated being in that place, but it made her comfortable,” Parker confided to Kendel. “I finally persuaded her to try to escape when I told her I overheard a plan to turn her in for Beches’s ransom.”

  “What didn’t you like?” Kendel asked, thinking of Flora inside the palace.

  “You know the place,” Parker replied. “They all smile to your face, but you can’t trust any of them. The whole court is full of people scheming and trying to gain power, money, control,” he added. “It wasn’t like that in Sunob, not when King Ardur was on the throne,” he shook his head.

  “It won’t be that way when Agata is on the throne again,” Kendel tried to comfort Parker. “And if Ardur is healed at Lumen’s estate, he can return to take the throne back.”