“What kind of problems?” someone asked curiously, mirroring Lorcan’s own thoughts.
Kali humored her, “Their Council members are all under mind control of one who is currently going mad from a spell-gone-wrong. The evil man was dabbling in the forbidden arts and wound up turning himself into a raving beast. Unfortunately for them, he’s bringing down those he’s controlling as well.”
“When will we get to see the results of our spell?” asked a man eagerly, changing the subject. Lorcan found it difficult to identify all of the Elders simply by their voices, although he was getting more and more practice. This one sounded like Teverick.
Though Lorcan was curious to hear more about the other problems the Lost Ones were dealing with, he too was also more curious about those which may have been caused by his people. The way they were talking about what had been done to the child did not sound benevolent.
“Due to the design and purpose, it may take years before we have confirmation of its success. As you might imagine, there will be no observable symptoms for some time from our vantage.” There was a strange undertone in Kali’s answer, indicating that whatever its design was, it was not exactly what she had wanted to do. “But I have no doubt that it was successful. The wait will just make it that much more satisfying to see the results, don’t you think?”
“And you’re sure they won’t detect the spell emanating from the child? They did discover your scrying.”
“I’m sure of it,” Kali answered confidently, “we buried it so deeply within her, they won’t ever have any clue that she’s enchanted at all, much less detect the spell that she is spreading to all those around her. And once everyone in the palace is enchanted with it, they will then pass it along to everyone they come across, and so on and so forth, and soon everyone in the Lost Lands who has an ounce of the Dark King’s blood in them will be unable to pass it on. We will stop the spread of the Dark King’s seed by cutting it off at the root!”
“We’ll finally be rid of the Dark King’s curse!” Maliki exclaimed.
Lorcan was horrified. What had they done? Their tone made it clear that whatever the spell’s purpose, it was not for the good of the child as they had told the tribe, but rather to carry out whatever twisted agenda they had. Something that would result in the complete annihilation of anyone in the Dark King’s bloodline. Lorcan listened to the rest of the conversation below, but it consisted mostly of reassuring one another that their plan had worked.
He crept down off his perch, disgusted, and debated what to do. The only person he would trust with this was Gareth, but he was still unconscious. He pondered his options. He could, of course, do nothing; but that was not an attractive choice. He could not stand the thought of the Elders doing who-knows-what to the people in the Lost Lands simply because of their own refusal to give up their hatred of a man long-dead. He didn’t believe that people were only the sum of their ancestry. People made their own choices. Eradicating the Dark King’s seed would not eliminate the evil in the world.
There was always Katya’s friend…Lorcan felt the twinge of jealousy again and pushed it aside. His own insecurities were hardly relevant in light of the Elders’ misrepresented intentions. This time the Elders had gone too far. Lorcan had been caught up in the excitement of the Arrival, as was everyone else, but if the Elders had revealed just what this baby meant, their plan may not have had such a positive acceptance. The rest of the tribe had been led to believe, as Lorcan himself had, that the baby was the blessed one who would help usher in the new era, and that their taking of it was necessary to relieve it of its ills in order for it to fulfill its destiny. Not that it would be used to help the Elders play the role of gods and put some sort of curse on the child. It was disgusting.
Lorcan went back and forth with the idea of going to the imprisoned man, and finally decided to sneak to the window of the cell. He would just see if Gareth had woken yet…
“Psst!” he whispered into the darkened room. He heard the sound of someone shuffling around and footsteps drew near the opening. Lorcan glanced around him quickly, making sure there was no one to witness the exchange.
“Who’s there?” a man’s voice asked warily from the darkness.
“My name is Lorcan,” he answered, “I’m a friend of Katya’s.”
“It appears Katya’s friends in the tribe haven’t treated her as such,” the man commented a bit harshly.
Lorcan bristled. “I got her out of prison, didn’t I? Just because you got yourself caught again isn’t my fault!”
The man’s voice softened, “Oh, you’re the young man who helped get her out.”
“That’s right,” Lorcan said proudly. More than you did for her.
“What can I do for you?”
Lorcan hesitated. He didn’t really know. “Is Gareth awake yet?”
“Who’s Gareth?”
Lorcan sighed impatiently. “The old man who is in the cell with you. He’s been unconscious since the night Katya got out.”
There was a pause and the sound of movement. “No, he’s still out. Is this Katya’s father?”
“What?” Lorcan asked, confused. “No, he’s not her father.”
“He didn’t have a little girl who was exiled because of her mark?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t know…listen, there’s something going on that isn’t right.”
The man simply waited for him to continue.
“I think that the Elders have done something to the baby that you stole…I mean rescued,” Lorcan amended, adjusting his thinking to the truth of the matter, rather than what the Elders had wanted them to think.
“Like what?”
“They put some sort of spell on her to cleanse the taint of the Dark King from the world.”
“How would she do that?”
“I don’t know, but whatever it was, the Elders were planning to use her to spread it to the rest of the Lost Ones.”
The man sucked in his breath. “So that’s why they wanted her to be returned.”
“What do you mean?” Lorcan asked, annoyed that this man seemed to have information that he didn’t. “How did you know that?”
“Katya was told to warn the King and Queen that it had been the Elder’s plan all along to return their daughter to them. That’s why we think it was so easy for us to get out, and that there was hardly a search for us afterwards. I had hoped that we had gotten her out before they finished whatever it was they were doing to her, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.”
“The King and Queen?”
“Of Gelendan,” the man said, and Lorcan recognized the name for part of the Lost Lands. “The baby is the Princess of this land?” he asked incredulously. He thought back to the Elders’ talk about spreading the enchantment to the palace, which now made a great deal more sense. “Wait a minute, what do you mean, it was easy for you to get her out?”
“I knew it was too easy that Natalya and I had been able to sneak in and escape with the baby without much of a fight,” the man replied, “there was hardly even a search party sent.”
“The Elders told us they returned her themselves, and that you left.” Lorcan snorted, finding it not at all difficult to believe the truth of this stranger’s words in the wake of all he’d learned about the Elders. “Of course, they also seem to be spreading the rumor that you got attacked by Katya and are currently in critical condition.” He peered in through the window at the extremely healthy-looking man. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case either.”
Lorcan knew he was speaking traitorously of the Elders in front of the outsider, but he didn’t care. He was too angry over all the lies.
“The King and Queen need to know what was done,” the man said.
“How can we warn them?” Lorcan asked, and the stranger was silent for a moment. He had the impression that his sincerity was being measured. “I just found out what they’re really doing and don’t agree with it,” he snapped.
“Can yo
u get a message to the King and Queen?”
Lorcan contemplated. “No,” he admitted finally, defeated. It was beyond his abilities to either get the message that far, and definitely to do so without the Elders detecting it.
“We’ll need to figure something out,” the man said and Lorcan tensed at the demanding tone. He was the one who had just told him what the Elders’ plan was. And Hunter was the one locked in a jail cell.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Lorcan told him, adding with a pinch of sarcasm, “Sit tight.”
CHAPTER 6
The search of the castle had proven largely unhelpful aside from the documents that could not yet be understood, and Natalya had suggested to Sir Ruawn that they speak with the townspeople about the place. They were currently riding into the town square, met with untrusting stares and worried curiosity. As they rode down the street, people seemed to suddenly remember that they had business in the opposite direction and hurried away from their procession. The streets cleared as quickly as if there had been a sudden storm.
Sir Ruawn cornered one of the merchants in front of his shop. “What’s been going on in the castle?” he asked pointedly.
“N-n-nothing, I don’t know what you mean,” the man stumbled, clearly frightened out of his wits.
“You don’t know anything about monsters being created in there?”
The man’s lack of surprise – but intense fear – revealed the truth without his answer. He busied himself with tidying up his wares and tried to ignore them. Sir Ruawn, seeing that they would get little out of this man, moved on to another. He asked the same question several more times, and got several of the same answer, though slightly modified.
All said that there was absolutely nothing going on in the castle, and yet every single one was terrified at the mention of it. They finally found an old man whose old age made him bold, and he hailed them from across the street.
“Yer the ones frightenin’ everyone by askin’ ‘bout the castle are ye,” he stated rather than asked.
They nodded.
“No one here’ll tell ya nuthin.” He informed them. “They’re all too scared of the Death-bringers. For good reason.” His withered face cracked into a maniacal grin and he barked out a hoarse laugh. “Lord Farthen released one just ta show us what would happen if we talked.”
“What happened?” Natalya asked.
The old man locked his gaze with hers, his eyes bulging out amongst the dark and sunken-in skin around them giving him a horribly creepy look. Natalya tried not to break the stare-down, but soon had to look away. “The Death-bringers are Lord Farthen’s newest project. That beast has been dabblin’ in blood-magic fer ages, keepin’ us all silent with his threats an’ fear. Now, he’s doin’ in on people. Turned ‘em inta wild blood-thirsty crazy monsters. An’ he set one on us just to show what they could do.” He swallowed, his gigantic Adam’s apple bobbing up and down his wrinkled throat. “It killed six people before he sent his guards down in to stop it. And the worst part,” he leaned in closer to Natalya, lifting a gnarled finger to make the point. “Was watchin’ it eat the dead. We couldn’t do nuthin’ but stand by an’ watch as it tore our friends apart. The blood-red eyes staring us all down and darin’ us to make a move fer it.” Natalya’s memory was drawn involuntarily back to the incident at the castle and she swallowed hard.
“Do you know what happened recently?” Sir Ruawn asked.
“Been some strange activity lately,” the old man replied thoughtfully, releasing Natalya from his intense gaze, “another big fine lord came in to visit some time back, then a bunch of carriages and carts left all in a hurry-like. The castle staff was all sent home and told not to come back until they were called for. We haven’t seen much since then up there, but no ones willin’ to go look.”
“Any idea what the lord came for?”
“Nope,” the old man said, apparently having lost his interest in talking to them. “I tolds ya all I know.”
Eventually they convinced a few of the other townspeople to part with some information after the old man filled them in on the reason for their reluctance and they were able to assure people that Lord Farthen was not going to set another Death-bringer on them.
“There was another lord that visited, he might be able to tell you more,” one woman whispered to them, glancing around her worriedly and pulling a shawl around her face.
“Do you know who he was?” Sir Ruawn asked.
“Oh, aye,” the woman nodded, “he kept saying ‘don’t you know who I am?’ like he was somethin’ special. I doubt there’s anyone in town who doesn’t now know his name.”
“And what was it?”
“Lord Morven,” she said, her eyes darting this way and that. Natalya sucked in her breath.
“What was he doing here?” he prodded.
“He visited the castle and came out with a young woman.”
“What did she look like?” Natalya interjected excitedly. It could be Alina!
The woman met her eyes briefly, no doubt startled by her conviction, and immediately clammed up.
Sir Ruawn soothed her. “Whatever was going on in the castle was not authorized by the Queen, and this Lord Morven you speak of is currently under investigation and wanted for questioning. Any information you can provide us with will help to get him to a position where he will be unable to make any threats, nor carry out any he may have already made. The castle is currently empty, we have gotten rid of the rest of the – experiments – he was working on, so they are no longer a threat.” He paused and glanced at Natalya. “The young woman’s life, the one who he left the castle with, is also in danger.”
The woman wrung her hands. “She was young,” she nodded towards Natalya, “even younger than you, and similar coloring.” She looked closer. “In fact, she looked a lot like you,” she commented in a questing tone.
“My sister,” Natalya whispered, unable to keep the pain from her voice.
A spark seemed to light in the woman’s eyes and she straightened her back. “He took her down the south path out of town, but before he did they stopped at The Old Lantern.” She stood and motioned for them to follow. “Jasper is sure to have noticed them. Come on, we’ll go ask him what he knows.”
She led them down to The Old Lantern, which turned out to be a tavern, and marched straight up to the bartender who eyed their approach warily.
“Bethany,” he greeted her shortly.
“Jasper,” she returned, “These people need to know about the lord that was in here the other day with the young woman. It appears that the girl is in danger, so we need to tell them anything that might be able to help them locate her.”
“Beth…” he drew out her name in a warning tone.
“Don’t you ‘Beth’ me, Jasper! Now listen here; we’ve been covering up for the dealings in that gods-forsaken castle for too long now. The Queen’s not going to stand for it any longer, and neither should we. We need to tell them what we know.”
Jasper sighed, defeated. “The lord said they were headed south, but didn’t say where to. He asked for a place to buy supplies and I sent him to Nathan. He might be able to tell you more about where he was heading from what he bought.”
“Did the girl seem alright?” Natalya asked worriedly.
He looked at her and cocked his head to the side. Natalya wondered if he noticed the same resemblance that the woman did. He answered slowly. “She looked in good health,” he answered, and Natalya sensed there was a ‘but’ coming.
“But?” she prompted when he wasn’t forthcoming with it.
“But she didn’t look like she was all there in her head, you know? All staring off into space and vacant eyes.”
“How did he treat her?” she asked tentatively, fearing the answer.
Jasper shrugged. “Indifferently. Didn’t say much of anything to her, just dragged her around on his arm like.”
“Anything else you can tell us?”
“No,” Jasper shook his head vigo
rously and gave Bethany a withering look.
“Can you tell us where to find Nathan?”
The woman spoke up, “I’ll show you.” Jasper looked relieved to be let off the hook and he went back to drying mugs, keeping his eyes glued to the task.
Nathan’s reception was only slightly warmer, out of the prying eyes and ears of the patrons of the tavern. Unlike Jasper; he was somewhat more at ease.
“Aye, I remember them,” he confirmed when they asked if he had sold items to a visiting lord with a young lady on his arm. “Lord said they’d be traveling a while and he bought a bunch of items, including some real rare stuff I get from the Ferryn Plains shipped down here. Lord Farthen likes me to carry it, but he’s usually the only one who buys it.”
“Any idea where they were headed?”
“Only that they were traveling south, but since there’s only one road that goes that direction for some ways, it’s possible you could still catch them before they branch out to wherever they’re headed.”
“Thank you,” Sir Ruawn acknowledged hurriedly, and they left the store.
“We need to leave immediately,” Natalya announced excitedly.
“Indeed,” the Knight agreed, but was reserved. “But I believe we also need to get these documents to the King and Queen as soon as possible and let them know what we’ve found.” He nodded once to himself in decision. “I will send several men to deliver the documents while the majority of us make haste after the quarry.”
That decided, they hurriedly made the proper arrangements to deliver the documents and news of what they had discovered at the castle to the monarchs and set out to track down Lord Morven and her sister.
She was so close now. She could feel it.
*
Layna blinked sleepily awake, turning her head to find Gryffon snuggled up next to her, his face peaceful and happy in sleep. The lines of worry that had creased his countenance of late smoothed by slumber. She stroked his cheek softly and he moved under her touch, turning his head to kiss her fingertips.
Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Page 9
