by Dragon Lance
Kaz snorted wryly. “Even noble Solamnic knights have their physical limits. There may be a healer in the village, and I have yet to see a sign of a Solamnic patrol.”
That bothered Kaz. When he had been in the general area last, the knighthood had patrolled the land with consistency. They ranged for miles around, far beyond the location where Darius and his fellows from the south had been mauled by the supposed dragon. Yet not only had that massacre gone unnoticed, but also goblins seemed to be wandering freely about in fair-sized bands.
What was happening at the keep? What was happening to Grand Master Oswal and his ambitious nephew, Bennett?
Darius was talking. “The decision is yours, minotaur. I do not claim a clear mind at the moment.”
Studying the young knight’s sickly visage, Kaz knew that Darius was understating his condition. That settled the situation as far as he was concerned.
“A few minutes of rest and then we move on. If there’s a healer in that village, Darius, or even someone with more skill than I at cleaning and rebinding wounds, you will be taken care of immediately, or they’ll learn how angry a minotaur can become.” At the knight’s anxious expression, Kaz smiled widely, displaying all of his teeth. “Rest easy, Darius. I’ll only frighten them.”
Though not entirely reassured, the human let himself be led along. The village proved to be nearer than they first thought. It was only a little after dark before they reached it. Most of the buildings were in sore need of repair, and refuse lay rotting in the streets. The place stank of unwashed bodies, yet mysteriously there seemed to be no one about. Kaz would have been of the opinion that the village was abandoned had he not noticed a dim light down the path. Their route, which ran through the center of the settlement, led directly to it.
“I see an inn,” Kaz whispered. Darius nodded wearily.
As they followed the path, the minotaur became aware of the fact that, though the village seemed deserted, unseen eyes watched from virtually every building. With his free hand, he began to softly stroke the handle of his battle-axe. Next to him, he felt the knight tense. As injured and beaten as he was, Darius, too, felt the presence of watchers.
Whatever name the inn once bore, it had faded away so badly that the sign was unreadable in the torchlight. Kaz hesitated only long enough to assure himself of his grip on his companion, then pushed the door open. Without waiting for any reaction from those who might be inside, he stepped through, Darius practically dragged along by his momentum.
“I come in peace,” he announced in a stentorian voice – and immediately thereafter blinked, noticing that there were only three figures in the room, and one of them was lying on a nearby table in a position indicative of death. The other two figures were known to him, which provoked a surprised expression on his face.
“Kaz!” A nimble little figure rushed forward and hugged the minotaur.
“I’m very much alive, Delbin, but you won’t be for very long if you don’t let go!”
The kender leaped back, that omnipresent grin aimed at the huge figure he had thought was dead and gone. “It’s good to see you, Kaz! How did you survive? The minotaurs abandoned us when they saw you get washed down the river, and I guess they went to claim your body, but Tesela thought that they would never find it because the river becomes really deep and wild a little farther south. In fact, if we ever get down that way I wouldn’t mind —”
“Take a breath, Delbin,” the little one’s companion said in amusement. Tesela, a beatific smile across her face, moved away from the prone figure and greeted the minotaur. “We searched for you ourselves for a few days, then the kender said that he had to journey to Vingaard to speak for you, since if you were dead, then you would never be able to complete your quest.”
Kaz, brow creased in puzzlement, glanced at Delbin. The kender, suddenly shy and speechless, mumbled, “You’re my friend, Kaz.”
Despite himself, the minotaur gave his small companion a short, encouraging smile. Delbin beamed.
“I was traveling in this direction anyway, so I stayed with him.” Tesela eyed the kender. “Aside from a few occasions where people’s belongings somehow ended up in his pouch, things went without incident, praise to Mishakal.” For the first time, her glance fell directly on Darius, who tried in vain to bow. Tesela’s expression turned to one of great concern.
“Get him over there,” she said, pointing at another table. “Forgive me, knight, for being so preoccupied that I did not notice the extent of your wounds.”
“I take … n-no offense, cleric, but what about … that other?” Darius gasped as they helped him onto the table. “Milady, continue with him, please. I can wait.”
Tesela looked sadly at the other man, a haggard old beggar. His hands were clasped across his chest. “He is beyond my powers, Knight of Solamnia. He was beyond my powers when he came to me, the poor, frightened man.”
“Frightened?” Kaz asked, his eyes on the corpse.
“Frightened.” Tesela began removing the battered remnants of Darius’s armor. “You actually walked around in this pile of scrap?”
The knight looked both embarrassed and insulted. “This suit is almost all I have in the world and the only remembrance of my family. Our estate is now as barren as these lands, and I am the only one to survive the war.” He swallowed hard. “Until my companions and I were attacked, it served me quite well.”
The cleric inspected some of the wounds. She touched her patient near the lower left ribs, and Darius cried out. “By the Three, woman! Do you intend that I join the old beggar in the beyond?”
“I have to know a bit about what is hurting you before I pray to Mishakal,” she snapped. “Mishakal trusts her clerics to know what they are doing, so you had better let me continue. Depending on your injuries, I may have to pray over you for as much as a full day, although I doubt you are that badly off. And Mishakal also does not give something for nothing. She is not to be taken for granted, knight.”
“I apologize, milady.”
Kaz leaned over and looked at Tesela. “Is there anything that I can do?”
She glanced up at him. “You might get something to drink for yourself, and then take a rest. I don’t doubt you’ve taken most of the burden today.”
The minotaur looked around. “Where is the innkeeper?”
“Gone. At least a week. I doubt he’ll ever come back. People do that here, I’m told. Just walk off and leave everything. I guess even these souls have a breaking point.”
“What do you mean?”
She took her medallion in her hands. “I’ll tell you later. If both you and Delbin wouldn’t mind stepping into another room, it should make my task easier.”
Kaz grunted assent and walked over to the counter, Delbin trailing behind. The kender had remained silent for too long. Now he was brimming over with questions.
“What happened to the knight, Kaz? Did you meet any other people? It seems that everyone fears strangers, especially knights. No one’s gone near the keep for weeks, they say. Why d’ya suppose that is?”
The kender quieted momentarily as Kaz handed him a mug of something drawn from a barrel under the counter. They both drank a deep draft, then grimaced at the sour taste.
“Bad,” Kaz muttered and put the mug down. He pulled out his water pouch and drank from it. The water, which came from a stream he and Darius had passed earlier in the day, was brackish, but it still tasted better than the unidentifiable liquid from the barrel.
“The people, Delbin – I sense their presence. They watched as we walked by. I felt it. They are frightened of something.”
“Tesela says they are, and she oughta know, because they’re surely afraid of her. That old man was only the third one to come to her since we arrived here five days ago. Death was ready to claim him, Tesela said. He was afraid she would demand payment or hard labor from him before doing any healing. He was also afraid she might send him away or beat him like —” Delbin hesitated and looked over toward the room w
here Darius lay — “like one of the knights had already done.”
“What?” Kaz cursed silently. “Come in here with me,” he added, indicating a door that probably led to a back room for storage.
Such was the case. Kaz found a box that smelled slightly of rotting oak and sat on it. It creaked but held. Delbin found a small stool and planted himself with great eagerness.
“Go on,” Kaz said grimly.
Delbin’s story confirmed the rumors the minotaur had been hearing. In this territory, the knighthood’s actions had grown to resemble the very cruelties that had led its founder, Vinas Solamnus, to turn on his master, the emperor of Ergoth. Solamnia now faced ruin and panic. The knights of Vingaard Keep, heart of the Orders, no longer even pretended to patrol the land, and now goblins and other vultures were stealing into the area to raid those too weak or too listless to defend themselves.
“This is madness; this is evil,” Kaz whispered angrily.
Delbin cocked his head. “Are you still going to Vingaard Keep? It could be dangerous, but if you go, I’m going, too, because I was worried about you, and when I thought you’d died, it was awful. Don’t you dare die for a while, promise? Say, I should write down what happened to you!”
The kender reached into his pouch and pulled out something out that in no way resembled his cherished book, although it was made of paper. It was a scroll, to be precise.
“Hmmph! Look at this! It’s got funny writing on it, Kaz – and it mentions you!”
“Let me see!” Kaz tore the paper from the kender’s hands and read the scroll. “My name’s on it. ‘… has been found guilty of the dishonorable and heinous crime of murder, and thus, by order of the emperor’s council, this oath breaker is proclaimed criminal in all lands. Those who bear this document are servants of the emperor of the minotaur race and have been granted whatever power necessary to obtain the capture or execution, if necessary, of the murderer. Cooperation with the bearers of this proclamation is requested.’ Very polite and formal.” The minotaur crumpled up the paper in a sudden rush of fury and threw it at his companion. “‘Emperor’! An ogre toadie still clinging to power! How did you get this, Delbin?”
The kender’s eyes grew wide. “That’s what I wanted to tell you! The short minotaur, the leader – remember how he threw the spear?”
“I could hardly forget, Delbin.” Kaz frowned. “Only, I remember something else. They seemed to be fighting amongst themselves. …”
Nodding in excitement, Delbin cut him off. “That’s right, Kaz! One of the other ones came up behind him, and when he saw what the shorter one had done, he hit him hard. They fought, and another of your people, I guess it was a female, stood nearby watching. The shorter one had a knife, and he tried to cut the bigger one’s throat with it, but the bigger one finally got his arm around the shorter one’s neck and twisted his head. I guess he broke his neck. The female, she came over and helped him throw the body into the river, and then they ran off together into the woods. A little later, I found a nifty-looking pack on the riverbank, and I thought it was yours, only there was nothing in it but some food and that scroll. I guess I forgot all about it till now.”
A fight among his relentless pursuers? A fight that left Greel dead? Curious.
A loud crash from the front of the inn brought Kaz to his feet. He burst into the main room and saw Tesela moving toward the door. One of the windows, which previously had been shuttered, had been broken open by a large and very heavy rock.
“What happened here?” the minotaur demanded.
“I think that the townspeople want your companion,” the cleric said quietly, indicating the unconscious Darius. “The knights are not loved here.”
“We have to stay the night, healer.”
“I know.” She glanced outside, but there was no one there. Closing the door again, Tesela walked over to the window and managed to fix the shutters. “I need more time with him. Why don’t you two get some sleep? We’re safe. I don’t think these terrified villagers can cause much trouble, other than throwing a few stones and running away.” She glanced at Kaz. “All the same, I think we should be away from here before sunrise.”
“Agreed.” Kaz watched her return to her meditations. Grabbing a curious Delbin by the scruff of his collar, he retired to the far end of the room. Kaz deposited the kender on one bench and, after removing his axe from its harness, stretched out on another bench nearby. He closed his eyes just as the kender decided he could remain silent no longer.
“Where’d you get that neat axe?” Delbin whispered. “Is it of dwarven make? How come it shines so brightly? I bet it’s magic! Who gave it to you? Or did you win it in a fight?”
The prattle went on and on until the kender looked more closely at his friend and decided that Kaz had fallen asleep. Delbin itched to see what Tesela was doing or to explore the village outside, but he had promised the human that he would behave himself, and now Kaz was here and he would expect only the best of his small companion. … The kender fell asleep only seconds later, snoring lightly.
Kaz opened his eyes a fraction. Delbin could be predictable at times, and the minotaur knew the kender must have been exhausted. Carefully Kaz’s fingers stroked the handle of the battle-axe. Tesela might think they need fear little from the locals, but Kaz had learned that even the most apathetic group could be turned into an angry mob in an instant if given an excuse to vent their frustrations.
Closing his eyes slowly, Kaz allowed himself to fall into a half-sleep. All around, he could sense something happening, but at the same time, he could not discern what it was. It was a respite of sorts, therefore, but not a restful sleep. There would be time for real sleep when the matters of Solamnia, Vingaard, and his own dilemma were settled.
*
Kaz woke with a start as he detected the sounds of a pair of feet moving lightly across the inn floor. Kaz gripped the axe and raised his eyelids a crack. The healer was standing by the inn’s entrance. She seemed to be looking for someone or something outside. Kaz rose slowly and, without disturbing Delbin, joined her. In one huge, clawed hand he held the axe.
“Did you hear something?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t … know. It might have been just the wind, but …” Tesela had lost her mask of confidence, and once more she seemed to be an ordinary, frightened person. She had probably heard nothing more than one of the locals daring to spy on them. Probably …
Something heavy bounced off the roof of the inn, shaking it to its foundation. Delbin rose, blinking. Outside, a violent wind tore objects loose. There was another sound, but the howl of the wind rose to smother it.
“What’s happening out there?” Kaz snarled.
“What is it, Kaz? Is some kind of tornado? Do you think it’ll tear the inn down, and if it does, shouldn’t we get out of here before —”
“Take a breath, Delbin,” Kaz muttered automatically. He nudged Tesela aside and peered out into the gloom. It was still not yet dawn, but the moons were not visible, either.
Somewhere nearby, Kaz heard the crash of wood and a very human scream. Tightening his grip on his battle-axe, he tore out of the inn and followed the dying arc of the noise. Around him, he could hear the inhabitants of the village as they scurried to cower in their homes.
“Fools! Cowards! One of your own is dying!” His words had no effect. These people had little spirit.
Kaz stumbled. A building that had suffered a mysterious disaster was suddenly before him … as was something else, something very large, very powerful, and very vicious.
The thing that was in the process of reducing the building to splinters rose, revealing itself to be more than twice the minotaur’s height. As Kaz retreated hastily, he heard a beating noise, identical to the flapping that had passed over him days earlier – the beast, he had no reason to doubt, that had killed an entire band of knights save one.
The beating of the wings was in his ears, and Kaz knew the creature was practically right on top of him. If he
was to die a victim of a dragon, if a dragon was what it truly was, then the minotaur wouldn’t die without striking at least one great blow.
Even as Kaz whirled, his dwarven axe swinging in a vicious arc, massive talons passed over his head, missing by mere inches. The skillfully crafted battle-axe struck harshly against the flank of the behemoth and bounced off with a loud ringing sound. Kaz stumbled around, waiting for the next attack, but it never came. The creature was flying away as if Kaz were nothing but a momentary obstacle.
Kaz felt the edge of the axe head. It was chipped.
“Come back here, dragon … or whatever pit-spawned creature you are! Face me!” What the inhabitants of the village might think, he did not care. He only knew that he wanted that thing.
It did not return, but Kaz realized that the monster, dragon, or whatever it was had come from the north and now was returning in that direction. If it kept to its present path, it would fly over Vingaard Keep itself. …
Kaz cursed and swung the damaged axe into its harness. Ignoring the whispers and whimpers rising from within the various houses and huts, he rushed back toward the inn. Whether alone or not, he knew that he had to reach Vingaard as soon as possible. Vingaard Keep was the key to everything. There he would find the answers he was seeking …
… and possibly a dragon as well.
Chapter 9
Kaz burst through the doorway of the inn, looking much like a demon from the Abyss. Delbin gave a squeak, and Tesela’s hands clutched tightly around the medallion she wore. Darius still slept, but he seemed to twitch momentarily as the minotaur strode over to the human cleric.
“You have a horse, Tesela. Can it carry me?”
“Carry you? Why?”
If Kaz could have seen himself, he might have hesitated, for the cleric and the kender gazed upon the frenzied eyes of a berserker. His eyes said he would accept only one answer, regardless of the consequences.
“Can … it … carry … me?” he repeated through clenched teeth.
Tesela nodded, pale. “I – I think she should be strong enough, but —”
