"Our party from Quashan' circled north around Alderan only a few hours ago. We expected to meet the column on the north side of the city, but we found nothing. His Highness sent our detachment north and another east to find the encampment. His aim was to proceed to the city outpost. Why aren't you with the column? Did something happen?"
Adrina explained as best she could what happened after Emel had left the column.
Emel swept Adrina up in his arms. Caught up in the reassurance of his touch and the warmth of his embrace, Adrina pressed her lips against Emel's. For a moment Emel returned the passion of her kiss, then he stood stiffly and turned away from her.
"No doubt Captain Trendmore is our traitor," Emel said, "and more likely than not, he ordered the column to turn north at the sea instead of south. I never should have left you… This is all my fault. I didn't listen to what the lady said and look what has happened."
"It wasn't your fault."
"What about my father's accident?"
"Emel, I don't think you could've stopped it even if you had been there. Now is not the time to dwell on the could-have-beens."
"Indeed," said a voice from behind Adrina. Startled, she turned to see a strange small man and a boy. They were seated in the shaded part of the rocks behind her, and she had not seen either before.
Emel immediately drew his blade and stepped between Adrina and the stranger. "Proceed with caution friend, I'd just as soon run you through as not. What are you doing here?"
"Same as you," said the strange short man as he stood. "We were drawn here."
"Stay where you are," warned Emel.
The stranger took a step toward Emel. His hands were raised and it seemed to Adrina he was unarmed. "Here is where the paths cross. The many become one for a short time," so saying, the man reached out his hand to Emel.
Emel lunged forward, his blade arched high, and then it plunged deep into the man's side. Adrina's scream came too late.
Vilmos stepped protectively across Xith's prone form and waited for the assailant to make his next move. He was angry and magic raged unchecked through him.
"We are friends, not enemies," Vilmos said, eyeing the two. He had seen the young woman somewhere before but couldn't place where. The face, the hair, the green eyes like jewels were all familiar.
The man raised his sword defensively. Vilmos felt himself losing control of the magic.
"Put away your weapon," Vilmos said.
"Emel!" yelled the man's companion. To which he responded, "Stay out of this, Adrina. I will let no one harm you." Emel turned back to Vilmos. "Tell your companion to get up none too quickly. Or I'll run him through again."
"Trust is a two-way path. Put away your weapon," said Xith, using the Voice to calm. Then he grabbed Vilmos' hand and said, "Control! Remember that anger and that hatred for another time…"
Xith gasped for breath. "The stones… in my bag, you'll find a sack with five stones, bring… it to me…"
Vilmos brought the small bag of stones but never looked away from the one who had attacked Xith.
"You are… swift… with a blade," Xith said through gasps, "we may soon… have need… of your skills."
Voices called out from the road now, "Emel, are you all right? We heard shouting? Do you need help?"
"Answer them. Tell them you are fine. Tell them you will be along presently…"
"We are fine," Emel shouted. "We will be along presently."
"There isn't much time. Gather round, gather round. You too, young princess." Xith winced from pain. "Vilmos, the stones."
"Are you dying?" Vilmos asked with the utmost seriousness.
"Your apprenticeship is hardly at an end. He barely grazed my side."
Vilmos looked down at the shaman's saturated robe.
"Even small wounds bleed and the pain is not in my side, it is in my head. Our friend there has had quite a trial. I shouldn't have attempted to connect to his mind without blocking the flow of feelings. Never have I been so overwhelmed by anything…" Xith winced again. "I needed to find out what he knew. Just as I needed to know about you, Princess Adrina."
"You heard everything we said before?" Adrina asked.
Vilmos turned to regard the young woman. Momentarily he was caught up in her great brown eyes.
"Seated there in the shadows, it was hard not to. Do not worry, your secrets are safe with me. As I said, and as my companion, Vilmos, said, we are friends. We were drawn to this place for a reason. Each of us has a part in changing the many paths, for here the paths converge."
"How do we know we can trust you?" Emel asked.
Adrina asked, "What of Prince William? Is that him?"
"Emel Brodstson, even the lady of the night knew the way of your heart," replied Xith.
Emel's face flushed red.
"No," Xith said turning to Adrina, "that is not Prince William… If I probed correctly, our friend's name is Seth. He traveled here across the West Deep from a place called East Reach… They were ambushed and only a few survived."
Xith adjusted Vilmos' hands and moved the healing stones. "The rest of his memory was rather disjointed, but as the other there is human and he isn't, I can only assume that some sort of struggle took place on this very beach, and here he lost his only other companion. We will know more when he regains consciousness, but for now we have more important things to concern ourselves with."
"What do you mean not human?" Emel exclaimed.
Adrina put her hand on Emel's shoulder, but he brushed it away. Xith said nothing. He only stared.
"By the Father, it is you!" called out a voice from behind them.
Vilmos turned to see an aged man dressed in a dirty black robe. One side of the man's face was swollen and bruised.
"How long has it been, ten… no twelve years." The man's expression became sullen. "Returned from under-mountain just as you said. I didn't want to believe it when I heard it yesterday morning."
Xith regarded the elder for a moment and then said, "You, Jacob, do not look well, and here I'd heard you were now King's First Minister."
Jacob said, "I should have known I'd find you at the heart of all this."
Xith smiled now, apparently at the other's expense. "I am merely one of the fools on the board. I hope I know my part and move accordingly."
"Father Jacob, you know him?" asked Adrina.
"Of course I know the…" Xith put a silencing hand to his lips and Jacob spoke no more.
"Do you wish to inquire about my lineage now?" asked Xith of Emel who still had his sword drawn, "Or do you wish to know of the fall of Alderan?"
Princess Adrina's eyes went wide. She turned to Emel and glared at him. "Fall?" she asked.
Father Jacob waved Emel's weapon away. Emel sheathed the sword then said, "All is well in Alderan."
"All appears well in Alderan, because that is what was meant. Do we argue now, or do we ride for Alderan?"
"We ride," said Adrina.
Chapter Twenty Three
The group waited in the forested hills to the east of Alderan. Father Jacob sat beside Xith. "Yes, we will listen."
Vilmos, Emel and Adrina sat likewise. They formed a loose circle around the shaman.
Xith cleared his throat, turned his eyes around the circle, and then said, "The Alliance of Kingdoms is all but broken. King Jarom has been flooding the upper southlands with men loyal to his cause for many months. Where he doesn't have soldiers, he has spies. His spies are everywhere and his reach is long. He has also been paying the bandit kings to maintain their campaign in the North."
Father Jacob and Adrina nodded fast agreement.
Xith continued. "In all but name, Jarom is the absolute ruler of the four kingdoms of the south. Only King Charles was brave enough to oppose him and while this was true up until a few short weeks ago, it is no longer true. The Kingdom of Sever is now without king and its heir, its heir—"
Adrina interrupted, "What of my brother?"
Xith regarded Adrina and then c
ontinued, "King Jarom fully expected King Andrew to answer King Charles' call for aid and for the safekeeping of Charles' son, Prince William. King Jarom may be quite surprised to find only a prince, but then again, Prince Valam's death—" Adrina's face flushed white. She began to tremble and Xith expected her to say something or to burst into tears, but she didn't. "—will allow him to usurp all lands south of the Trollbridge, all the lands of the South. Already troops march on Quashan'. With the cities' commander gone and the garrison sent north, the city will easily fall. If it does all the lands of Man will be under his rule in short order."
"I was just in Quashan'," Emel said. "The whole of the garrison was in company."
Xith turned frank eyes on the untrusting young guardsman. "If King Jarom can pay off a Chief-Captain of Imtal Garrison right under the king's nose, surely he can likewise persuade a Quashan' garrison commander or one of his captain's or even one of his under-captains to relay an incorrect order."
"What can we do?" asked Father Jacob. "A great force must have laid siege to Alderan. We have no more than forty riders."
"Fifty six," Emel said.
Princess Adrina's downtrodden expression turned upward briefly.
"I suspect Alderan was taken without a fight from the inside," Xith said. "For all we know, they marched straight into the city under Kingdom standards and the citizens greeted them openly."
Xith took a long swig from a water bag. His throat was dry and overworked. The ride to Alderan had gone smoothly, but not quietly. "Once Prince Valam is dealt with the forces in the city will turn their sights on joining the march on Quashan'. This is what we must count on."
"Are your men ready?" Xith asked.
Emel nodded. Xith joined Father Jacob deeper in the midst of the trees and there the two spoke in hushed tones.
Fifty-six ridesmen anxiously waited near the edge of the forest for the dusk shadows to deepen. They had been waiting in the trees for several hours now.
Adrina scratched absently at the mosquito bites on her arms, hands and face. The City of Alderan seemed deceptively quiet. Emel's closeness to her was reassuring, but she was still ill at ease. She glanced to the strange wise man that had told her to stop calling him Watcher. "My name is Xith," he had told her.
The conversations with Xith had left Adrina filled with dread, especially his seemingly casualness about the fact that Prince Valam would most probably be dead when and if they found him. Adrina hadn't burst into tears then, though it had taken considerable effort not to. Now she could only remember fond thoughts of her only brother—big as a bear and with a heart twice any normal man's. It was in Valam's shadow that she used to walk the streets of Imtal and his dreams of seeing the world that filled her young mind with thoughts of fantastic adventures.
"Are you all right?" whispered Emel in Adrina's ear.
Adrina nodded snapping out of her reverie.
"Good. You and Father Jacob will wait here until we return. If we're not back by sunup, leave. Make progress north as fast as you—"
Adrina cut Emel off with a hiss. "I'll not stay here and worry through the night. Where you go, I go. Remember the words of the lady?"
"Only death awaits in Alderan," returned Emel.
Adrina glared at him. "You expect me to turn away when every hand counts? I am as good with a blade as you are, perhaps better."
"Besting me on the practice field is not the same thing, Adrina," Emel said coldly.
Xith returned. "Keep your voices to a whisper," he said.
Adrina started to speak. Xith raised a silencing hand. He wavered his gazed, his eyes shining as he stared out into the darkening land. "Everyone back and stay down," he said, "not a sound anyone…"
Soon figures carrying shielded lanterns appeared from the dark shroud. Behind them came horses and riders. Behind the riders, heavily laden wagons. Behind the wagons, more horses, more men. From her vantage point, Adrina began counting them as they passed. She stopped as the numbers swelled over two hundred.
Adrina found it unsettling that she heard only the occasional squeaking of wagon wheels to mark the group's passage. Riders were leading their mounts whose hooves were apparently padded. The weapons and armor of the soldiers she saw were also apparently padded, for as they passed, the normal clink-clink of metal scraping metal was absent. The group was traveling southeast, southeast to Quashan' just as Xith had said they would.
The southeastward passage continued for more than an hour, and then for an hour afterward nothing. No shielded lights pierced the darkness and no sounds pierced the uncanny silence.
Out of the corner of her eye, Adrina saw Xith raise his hand and suddenly the press of bodies around her was absent. The small band of Kingdom ridesmen was suddenly sweeping toward Alderan City. Split into three tiny groups, they would strike the city from the north, east and south. The intent was to make the enemy remaining in the city think they were under attack by a large force. Adrina didn't know exactly what Xith hoped to accomplish by this, for surely the defenders would discover very quickly that only a few dozen men were carrying out the attack.
Adrina felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around surprised to find it was Emel. She stared at him in momentary disbelief. "You didn't go with the others?"
"Xith asked that I remain, and I have." Emel didn't seem happy about the prospect, but Adrina was—Emel wouldn't die with the others.
Adrina's smile faded when she saw Xith's glowing eyes upon her.
"Vilmos, Adrina and Emel you'll ride into the city with me," Xith said, in a quiet voice. "Only Father Jacob is to remain behind. He'll watch our new companion, and he knows what to do should we not return. To your mounts, our route into the city should be wide open soon. Hurry now, there is no time to waste."
The Kingdom ridesmen attacked the city's watchtowers from three directions. Xith, Adrina, Emel and Vilmos made their way to the city from the south.
Adrina was surprised to hear the sounds of a raging battle coming from the northern sectors of the city now. One thing she had neglected to consider, as Emel had pointed out, was that Alderan was a Kingdom city and had been a united city even before there had been a Kingdom. Apparently, those in the city thought the King's army had come to liberate them. No true Kingdomer would sit idly if they thought the King's army was storming the city.
Under this shroud of confusion, the four crept into Alderan. After they had safely passed the city gates, Xith signaled them to stop and gather round.
"We make for the city center." Xith spoke very softly. "Even now all routes to the keep will be guarded. If for some reason anyone gets separated, watch your way with care, but head for the keep at once. Remember, all through streets are set up like the spoke of a wheel. They all lead to the center hub, and the keep."
Xith paused, then looked to Adrina. "To get into and around the inner keep unseen, we'll need your help."
Adrina stared blankly at Xith.
Speaking for Adrina, Emel said, "She's never been to Alderan."
"Down to the last detail, Imtal Palace was fashioned after Alderan's keep," Xith explained. "Only the old sections of the palace though. The maze of passageways used by the King's family should all be unguarded. Surely you've walked them a thousand times…" Xith's voice trailed off.
Adrina smiled, she could walk those passageways in her sleep. Then she frowned. "But—" she began.
Xith cut her off saying, "Once safely inside and set upon the path, you and Vilmos will remain behind. Emel and I will proceed from there. Do not worry, if the prince lives, we will find him. Getting out of the city will be the problem…"
As anticipated, the southern sectors of the city were nearly deserted. The four, now on foot, blended into the shadows of cobbled streets as best they could. Emel clearly had not wanted to leave Ebony behind, but eventually he had. Twice they had made their way past patrols without mishap. Fortunately both patrols had been racing north where the battle for the city raged.
Intermittently Adrina's eyes flash
ed on the small form of the boy, Vilmos, who walked beside her. He seemed a likeable lad, but a bit young and surely inexperienced. She could see open terror mirrored in his eyes and more than once he had reached out his hand to hers to find comfort. Adrina too found comfort in his touch and in the rapier still in its sheath, which she clutched with her right hand.
Emel had the lead, and at about ten paces ahead, Adrina could only glimpse his form as he passed the infrequent lights of the darkened city. Somewhere behind them Adrina knew Xith lurked. Many times Xith had disappeared down a side street to reappear beside them at the next intersection or the one after that.
Adrina gulped for air and her heart skipped as Emel suddenly appeared out of the darkness.
"Patrol," he hissed, "they head south, not north."
Emel flashed his eyes at Xith. Xith waved them into a nearby alleyway.
Huddled in the shadows of the alleyway they waited. Soon, Adrina heard heavy footfalls, and then she saw torchlight and shadowed faces. The patrol stopped at the intersection of the street and the alley, directly in front of the horrified onlookers. Adrina heard harsh whispers and angry voices. The members of the patrol were obviously displeased about being sent to watch the city's southern gate while the battle raged elsewhere.
From her vantage point in the shadows, Adrina could see much more than the outlines of faces. Light from their torches reflected dully off their armor and the swords withdrawn from their sheaths. The angry man who seemed the leader of the patrol was bearded and though rather gaunt, just from the tone of his voice and the way he stood, Adrina was sure he was capable with a blade and hardhearted. He was arguing with another man who wanted to return to the north. Both men's words were becoming increasingly belligerent.
To Adrina's horror, the leader of the patrol set upon the other man. In one swift move, he brought the point of his blade to the other's throat and plunged it inward. Adrina screamed, which would have brought sure discovery, if Emel hadn't clasped a hand to her mouth just prior. As it was, her muffled scream mixed with the horrible gurgling sounds of the dying man as he sought to speak a few last words.
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