Knights of Alcea

by Richard S. Tuttle

  "That too will change," smiled Wei-ra. "Balmak is a god worth learning about. Come, I will take you to the temple here. You must learn all that you can about Balmak. It will help in your future assignments."

  * * *

  Bin-lu checked the corridor carefully before slipping into his room in the diplomatic section of the palace. Rut-ki had been hiding behind the door and smiled when Bin-lu closed it.

  "I wasn't sure that it would be you," she greeted him.

  "Who else would it be?" asked Bin-lu.

  "Wei-ra entered your other quarters earlier today," Rut-ki informed him. "He did not stay long, but I would assume that he searched the room."

  Bin-lu frowned and nodded. "I had expected as much," he declared. "There was nothing alarming for him to find."

  Bin-lu sat down in a chair and was silent for several moments. Rut-ki waited patiently to hear whatever news he had to share.

  "Wei-ra is having me transferred to the Intelligence Section to work directly under him," Bin-lu eventually revealed. "He took me to the Temple of Balmak today and had me sign up for religious studies."

  "Religious studies?" echoed Rut-ki. "Why?"

  "I am not sure," Bin-lu admitted. "I am supposed to believe that he is a religious man, but I think it is deeper than that."

  "Mu-chen's file talked about the Temple of Balmak in Chi-Chan," Rut-ki reminded Bin-lu. "There must be a connection."

  "I do not believe in coincidences." Bin-lu nodded. "Wei-ra also confessed that he is highly skilled in the martial arts."

  "He could not be in my class if he was not," shrugged Rut-ki.

  "I meant to the degree that he could teach the class," explained Bin-lu. "He has removed me from the class and has promised to teach me himself."

  "Then he has confessed that the death of Mu-chen was not an accident," declared Rut-ki. "An instructor would never have made such a slip."

  "I agree," Bin-lu responded. "We must assume that Mu-chen discovered something about Wei-ra during his investigation of the rebels. That is the only thing that makes sense."

  "None of the students appeared to recognize Wei-ra when he entered the class," stated Rut-ki. "I am sure I would have noticed a flicker of recognition."

  "Perhaps Mu-chen only knew Wei-ra by name?" posed Bin-lu.

  "Or maybe Mu-chen discovered someone else who Wei-ra is protecting?" offered Rut-ki. "You must be very careful. Wei-ra may not be your only opponent in the palace."

  "That is something we must determine," agreed Bin-lu. "It is too dangerous for you to remain in the palace if that is true. For now, Wei-ra has lost interest in you, but if he discovers that you are still here, he will assume the worst."

  "I will not run from this investigation," Rut-ki declared. "If I am not to teach my class then I will discover why Mu-chen died. You cannot deny me that."

  "Nor would I try to," smiled Bin-lu, "but it is too dangerous here for you. I want you to use your travel advance to go to Chi-Chan. Do not do anything that will arouse undue curiosity, but get yourself involved in the Temple of Balmak. I will do the same here. Let us see if we can discover what this unknown god has to do with the mystery of Mu-chen's death."

  "How will we communicate?" asked Rut-ki. "If we are to work together to solve this mystery, we must talk to each other."

  "There is a supply boat that makes the trip between Ongchi and Chi-Chan weekly," answered Bin-lu. "When you get settled in, send a letter to yourself here at the palace. Include your address up there, and we can communicate weekly by letters."

  "You will be checking my mail here?" asked Rut-ki.

  "I will," replied the Knight of Alcea. "Make sure that you send a message every week so that I know that you are safe."

  * * *

  Kail was an intelligent dwarf, a thinker, not a warrior. As a student of history, he was responsible for organizing ancient scrolls and preparing summaries of them for the more-learned scholars. He was allowed to attend discussion groups where the scholars gave their thoughts on the meaning of the scrolls, but he seldom spoke himself. He had not yet gained the self-assurance necessary to debate with his masters.

  Kail was tall and lean, an odd combination for a dwarf, and that caused him to be the butt of many a joke, but the scholars respected him for his devotion to his studies and protected him from the taunts. They could not, however, protect him from his training with the warriors. Every young dwarf of Lanto was required to undergo warrior training; there were no exceptions.

  Kail felt awkward with the heavy armor covering his body. The more experienced warriors had custom-made armor, but trainees were given what was available, and they were always required to wear full armor outside the caves. There were, after all, bands of goblins in the area.

  The dwarven patrol was small, numbering only a dozen warriors including the trainee. The dwarves moved silently along the trails of the steep Southern Mountains as the leader led the way downward to the forests below. It was in the thick forests at the foot of the mountains where the dwarves hunted for food.

  Kail had not been outside the cave opening in years, and he found himself in a strange and somewhat wondrous world that was foreign to him. His eyes darted left and right as the group maneuvered the twisting mountain trails. By the bright moonlight, he saw gushing streams racing down the mountainside, and isolated trees trying to take root in the rock crevices. He saw fluffy clouds passing overhead and portions of the twisting trail below. His eyes grew large as he tried to memorize all the sights as he did with scrolls. The dwarven warrior behind him chuckled almost continually at the trainee's antics, but Kail didn't seem to notice.

  A group of bats swept close by, and Kail practically jumped off the trail. The warrior behind Kail quickly reached out and grabbed the trainee by the arm.

  "Careful, lad," the warrior chuckled. "They are only bats. Keep your mind on the trail, or you will end up at the bottom long before the rest of us."

  "Bats in the cave don't scare me," Kail said defensively, "but I wasn't expecting them out here."

  "Quiet," urged one of the other dwarves. "There may be goblins out here."

  Kail shivered at the thought of running into goblins, but he knew that his imagination was exaggerating the threat. Most patrols ran into groups of goblins, but not every such meeting resulted in battle. Most of the times the goblin bands were small and ran away from the dwarves, but occasionally the patrols ran into large groupings. Even then the dwarves usually came out on top. To die on his first patrol outside the cave would take exceedingly bad luck.

  Kail shrugged off his fear and returned his attention to the glorious sights around him. It was not only sights that caught his attention. New sounds and smells assaulted his senses. He heard a chorus of crickets unlike anything he had ever heard before. It sounded as if it came from everywhere at once. A distant wolf howled occasionally, and small night animals scurried away from the path of the dwarves. A rich aroma of pine drifted up from the forest below, and the air even felt richer as he inhaled deeply. Kail began to enjoy the outing.

  The winding trek down the mountains and into the forest took two hours of the night. When the dwarves reached a large clearing, the leader called a halt, and the dwarves set up a base camp. Several dwarves created a stone fire ring and a low fire was started. The warriors seemed to be in high spirits, and the rule of silence was abandoned.

  "We will split into four groups of three," announced the leader. "One group will remain here all night to prepare the game for the trip back home."

  The leader pointed to two dwarves. "You two will stay with Kail in the base camp. I want him to get used to the smells and sounds of the forest before setting off on a hunt."

  Kail looked disappointed, but the leader merely smiled at him in a fatherly manner.

  "You will hunt on the next trip, Kail," he said compassionately before turning to speak to those who would be hunting. "As soon as you gather enough meat to start slowing down your group, have one of your teammates bring it back here to
be prepared for the trip. Questions?"

  "What about goblin sightings?" asked Kail. "There will only be three of us in the camp."

  "Goblins seldom are seen under such a bright moon," replied the leader, "but if you do see any, sound the alarm, and everyone will head back to this camp."

  With no further questions, the leader dispersed his hunters leaving Kail and two others alone with the fire.

  "Isn't he being rather lax in his concern about the goblins?" asked Kail. "If any are sighted by the hunters, sounding the alarm will cause them to follow the party back here."

  "The alarm we use out here is not like the ringing of bells in the tunnels," smiled the warrior. "We imitate the sound of a baying wolf. The goblins have a newfound fear of wolves since the yaki turned on them at the battle of Tagaret. They tend to avoid them."

  Kail nodded silently and began to absorb the atmosphere of the forest. He was lost in the smells and sounds of the strange environment when he heard someone approach the campsite. The two dwarven warriors had obviously heard the noise sooner as their bodies had stiffened with alertness.

  A dwarven hunter entered the clearing and placed the body of a large deer on the ground. Without a word, he turned and disappeared back into the forest as Kail's two companions set to work preparing the deer for the journey home. Within a few minutes, members of the other two groups also delivered fresh kills and disappeared.

  "Come, Kail," called one of Kail's partners as he stooped over one of the deer. "Let us show you what needs to be done. This will be a good lesson for your first hunting trip."

  Kail caught on quickly and soon felt he was more than just a visitor on the trip. He began to feel like one of the group. For several hours he worked alongside the other two dwarves until suddenly all three hunting groups returned to the campsite. If was far too early in the night for the group to return to the tunnels, and Kail frowned as he wondered if goblins had been sighted.

  "Meal break," one of the dwarves said to Kail in answer to his unspoken question. "The groups will go out hunting again after a bite to eat. We will have a chance to hunt, and two others will stay with you to prepare the meat. Next trip you too will get to hunt. It will be exciting for you."

  The dwarves bantered during their meal break, obviously unconcerned about goblins in the area. They argued about who had brought back the largest deer, and commented on the size of their catch. The deer were considerably larger than what the dwarves were used to before the clearing of the darkness, and they seemed to grow larger with each passing season. The hunters were very happy with their haul.

  Kail was watching the camaraderie of his fellow dwarves when the sound of bowstrings snapped in the air. In horror, Kail watched as half the hunting party fell to the ground with arrows in their bodies. Kail fumbled to get his axe off his belt as another round of arrows flew into the dwarves. He had heard that goblins were not accurate with their arrows, but Kail no longer believed those stories. He stared uncomprehendingly at the dwarven bodies littering the campsite. All of the dwarves were dead except Kail.

  Kail finally managed to get his axe free and raised it over his head, prepared to charge at the unseen foe. He heard laughter in the forest and turned towards it, fully expecting an arrow to slam into his chest. What he had not expected was for someone to come up behind him and grab the axe from his hands.

  "Look at this one!" laughed the attacker behind him. "I don't think he is a dwarf at all. Look at how tall and lean he is."

  Kail whirled around and found a sword pointed at his throat, but what truly brought terror to his heart was the face of the attacker holding the sword. It was not a goblin; it was human.

  "Maybe he was being held captive by those filthy dwarves," responded another voice as Kail heard footsteps approaching from every direction. "We don't kill captives. It is only the dwarven scum that we seek to exterminate. Knock him out."

  The humans gathered around Kail and laughed at him. Kail tried to make sense out of what was going on, but he soon felt something heavy hit the back of his head, and his vision turned black.

  When Kail woke up, his head throbbed mercilessly. His mind was foggy for only an instant before the terror took grip of his heart once more. He glanced around the campsite before getting to his feet. Blood dampened the ground of the clearing, and the fire had burned out. The deer carcasses were still in a pile, and the dwarven bodies did not appear to have been disturbed. Kail turned away from the gruesome sight and fled into the forest.

  Kail was not sure how long he had been running, but he finally stopped to catch his breath. He tried to listen to the sounds of the forest, but his own ragged breathing was all that he could hear. Kail's head spun with fear and confusion. He had heard tales of the monsters called humans since he was a child, but he thought those stories had been proved false. He had met humans just three years ago and they seemed nice. In fact, the prophesied Garala, savior of the dwarven race, was a human. Could those humans he met earlier have been the exception to the rule?

  Eventually Kail's breathing became regular, and he started to think more clearly. He knew that he had to get back to Lanto and report to the queen so that his fellow dwarves knew about the dastardly attack, but he had no idea where he was. Even if he had memorized the trail taken by the dwarves to get to the campsite, he had run through the forest without any heed of direction. He was lost in a forest he had never seen before.

  Suddenly a noise broke the silence, and Kail felt the terror returning. The young dwarf dashed away from the sound as fast as his legs would carry him. Kail ran without regard to the sounds he was making. He depended upon speed alone to get him free of the enemy, and that made him careless. Several times Kail tripped and stumbled, but each time he rose and raced onward in a senseless dash to safety. His lungs ached and his body was covered in sweat. The strain in his leg muscles made each step an exertion, and eventually he could not rise from his final fall. As Kail gasped for breath, he became aware of people gathering around him. Without the strength to lift his face out of the dirt, Kail prepared to die.

  "It's one of the Lanto lads," a voice declared. "What is he doing out here?"

  "Set up a perimeter," Zemo's gruff voice ordered as he knelt next to Kail and tilted his head to gaze at his face. "It is Kail," he declared. "He is a student."

  "And a trainee by the looks of his armor," added another of the Dorgun dwarves. "Why is he alone, and why so far away from the Lanto hunting area?"

  "I guess we will have to ask him," replied Zemo as he turned Kail over on his back. "Give him some time to catch his breath."

  Kail gazed up at the dwarven face and tried to smile, but he could not tell if he had succeeded.

  "Easy, Kail," Zemo said softly. "You are safe here. My men have a protective perimeter around us. No goblins will be attacking us this night."

  "Fear not the goblins," gasped Kail. "It was humans."

  "What was humans?" Zemo asked with alarm.

  "Killed everyone," Kail said with effort. "Want to exterminate dwarves."

  "Did the humans attack Lanto?" asked Zemo.

  "Not Lanto," replied Kail. "Hunting party."

  Zemo rose and pondered the information for only a moment before snapping off instructions to his men.

  "Two of you are to head back to Dorgun immediately," commanded Zemo. "Tell our people about Kail and sound the alarm. Tell the king that I will be taking Kail to Lanto. The rest of you head towards where the Lanto dwarves usually hunt. Beware of anything and everything, but try to find out what you can about the hunting party. Return to Lanto as soon as you have confirmation of an attack."

  The dwarven hunting party split up and departed soundlessly. Zemo picked up Kail and carried him over his shoulder as he set off for the trail to Lanto. After an hour of carrying the young dwarf, Zemo stopped and set Kail down to take a rest.

  "I can walk on my own now," declared Kail as he looked down on the tops of the trees below.

  "Then let's get moving," replied
Zemo. "Maintain silence until we are inside the tunnels."

  Kail nodded and started up the trail at a fast pace. Zemo followed the lad closely, his hand never wavering far from his throwing axe.

  When they reached the entrance to the Lanto tunnels, the guards were waiting for them. They knew that something was wrong from having watched the approach of the two dwarves. Zemo and Kail leaned against the wall of the tunnel just inside the entrance and Zemo addressed the guards.

  "Sound the alarm," instructed Zemo. "We have a report of a human attack on your hunting party. My own men will be along shortly. Do not attack them."

  The guard nodded wordlessly and ran off to sound the alarm. As soon as Kail caught his breath, Zemo urged the lad onward. In a few minutes, Sayrak, an advisor to Queen Lywen, met them. Sayrak led them into the council chamber where the queen and her other advisors were already assembled.

  "Welcome to Lanto, Zemo," opened the queen. "Tell us of this attack."

  "The telling must be Kail's to give," answered Zemo. "We found him wandering in the woods. I have sent a party onward to check for your people. They will come here when they have verification."

  "Verification?" gasped Kail. "I need no verification. I saw my fellow dwarves die before my eyes. I heard the humans say that they wanted to exterminate the whole dwarven race. The ancient scrolls are true. They mean to kill us all."

  Chapter 6

  Snakes

  Darok, Prince of Dorgun and a Knight of Alcea, entered the meeting room in Lanto while Sayrak was addressing the queen's advisors. The dwarven queen of Lanto nodded to the dwarven prince from neighboring Dorgun without interrupting the speaker. Prince Darok settled silently onto a cushion on the floor without creating a distraction.

  "I know Kail well," declared Sayrak. "He has studied under my direction for three years now. He is a good and intelligent lad. I will not accept that he is deliberately causing trouble."

  "No one is accusing Kail of maliciously working against the welfare of Lanto," one of the other advisors responded, "but you have to admit that his hysterical ranting is causing many in Lanto to think the worst of the humans. How can we continue to serve Garala if his race is despised by our people?"