“You killed a score of Fields’s best fighters; you defeated a carefully planned attack; and you made the Triplets look weak and ineffective. You singlehandedly turned the chess board upside down in the battle for the crown, and you say you didn’t do much. Gods help us when you decide to exert yourself,” she said.
“You can’t stay here now,” she told him, standing up. “I can’t allow your presence here to endanger Gail or the others.”
“I know,” Kestrel readily agreed. “I decided the same thing. I’ll go to Duke Listay and see if he’ll allow me to stay with him.”
“Of course he will!” the Duchess snorted. “The man will throw himself at your feet to have you stay, and to have the city know.
“I’ll help you, subtly. I’ll have to slow down the negotiations over Gail’s engagement to Lucius. That can’t be seen to happen too quickly after your abrupt arrival. Besides, I’ll have to wait to see if you survive the battle with the Triplets – I‘m not sure what the balance will be in that battle. They’ll be focused on you, exclusively. Fields is furious over the battle last night, but he’ll be even more furious because he can’t control his juvenile muscle while they seek revenge,” she said.
“May I say farewell to Gail?” Kestrel asked. “I’d like to see her before I go.”
“Of course, foolish elf,” the Duchess seemed to almost smile. “Gather your things and come with me.
“The girl will be sorry to see you leave. She was looking forward to having you stay longer, I can tell,” the woman said as she stood and walked to the door. She directed the servant to go ahead to alert the Langravine of their approach, while she and Kestrel walked at a more stately pace. By the time they reached the house and entered one of the parlors, Gail was waiting for them, her veils removed and her face anxious.
“Are you alright? Were you hurt last night?” she anxiously asked Kestrel.
“Not hurt, just exhausted,” he admitted to her as the two of them came to stand very close to one another. “It took a lot to move that river water,” he told her.
“I saw it! I saw the glow out the window! I couldn’t read the words because they were too far away, but I knew it had to be you!” Gail told him eagerly.
“I’m going to leave now,” he felt compelled to tell her, and it came out abruptly. He watched the crestfallen look on her face at the news.
“But if the Duchess allows, I’ll hope to be allowed to come visit, or meet you somewhere,” he told her.
“You won’t put this on my shoulders,” the noblewoman rebutted. “I’m not the one who went out to so spectacularly announce a new round of warfare.
“We’ll see if there’s a safe means of communicating, and if so, it will happen. If not, it’ll be for Gail’s own good,” she said sternly.
Kestrel took the young noblewoman’s hands in his own for a moment, squeezed them, and smiled at her. He had enjoyed their time together, from the mysterious first moments when the Marquise Thuringa had misled them about one another.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” he told the Duchess.
“You be careful young elf. You have a great deal of fate riding on your shoulders now. I hope it all works out for the best – for your sake, and for Uniontown’s,” she said in a kindly tone, then watched him leave the parlor.
“Kestrel, here!” he heard his name called minutes later, as he walked towards the front gate, ready to leave. Gail came running after him, carrying a cloth sack. “This is some lunch food, since you didn’t eat anything today,” she told him through her light veil as they stood on the front lawn.
“I’ve got to go back in. Good luck, Kestrel,” she called, then turned and ran back to the house.
Kestrel smiled at her concern, and he reached in the sack to pull out a slice of bread, which he ate as he left the estate and started walking towards the home of Duke Listay. His hood was made large, and deep, and dark, made heavy and spacious enough to hide his features well, so that he walked through the Uniontown neighborhood without concern in the middle of the day. When he approached the streets that were close to Listay’s fortified mansion, he found that everything was still wet, puddles were rampant reminders of the water that had been poured down upon the fire and the fighters in the middle of the night. Urchins of the street were trying to catch small fish in one particularly deep puddle, he saw.
Listay’s fortress was dark, even during the daytime. Two men stood outside the main door, watching the traffic on the street, and other men were visible inside the building, watching the two outside, as well as everywhere else.
Kestrel slowed down, and held his hands out away from his body to show that he was reaching for no weapon, as he started to walk towards the men who stood on the steps to the door.
“Stop right there, and come no closer. You’re not welcome here,” one of the men said loudly when Kestrel was a dozen yards away.
“I think I will be,” Kestrel replied, but he stopped in his tracks. “I am a friend of Stuart and Gates, and the Lady Lark. I wish to offer my services to Duke Listay,” Kestrel announced.
The men looked at him with disinterest, then one of them spit on the steps. “Go away, or we’ll have you thrown down the road,” the speaker threatened.
“Is Stuart here? I heard that Lark was captive to Fields. I’d like to help set her free. And I’d like to hear Stuart’s description of their return from the world of the Skyes,” Kestrel tried to remain calm and neutral. He could reveal himself and gain entry if he chose, but he preferred to stay discreet if possible.
“You talk too much. Go away,” the second guard said.
“Stuart would be happy to hear that Kestrel has returned. Is he here?” Kestrel asked. “I’d like to know that he made it back safe and sound.”
The first guard took out his knife and threw it at Kestrel’s feet, in an effort to scare him away. Instead, Kestrel launched a bolt of blue energy that grabbed hold of the knife in midair and pulled it into his own grip.
The men on the steps stared in astonishment, while Kestrel saw new faces suddenly staring out of the fortress windows at him.
“You dropped this,” Kestrel said, holding the knife out in front of his body. “It was a drop, wasn’t it?”
The door burst open, and Gates stood at the top of the steps.
“My lord!” he called. “Lord Kestrel!” he shouted loudly, then rushed down the stairs between the two guards and embraced Kestrel in a tight grip.
“You’re back! Of course I knew you were back after that show you put on last night! But to see you! This is the best news we’ve had in a year!” he said exuberantly.
“I’d like to come in,” Kestrel told his companion from the long strange trip through the land of the Skyes.
“The Duke’s not here at the moment, but come in, come in, of course! I’ll vouch for him,” the armsman said as he turned to speak to the sentries.
“That’s not wise,” said the guard who had thrown the knife at Kestrel.
“It’s wiser than throwing a knife at the son of a god,” Gates said. He put his arm around Kestrel, and led him inside the building’s thick stone walls.
“That’s the irony of the attack last night. Fields and the Duke were in a peace arrangement, as long as Fields holds the hostages. He chose to break that truce last night; not only did he not win, thanks to your heroics, but he wouldn’t have won anyway, because the Duke had slipped out of town during the day to check on one of his estates.
“So now, we’re not held to keeping the peace, and we’ve got you here to help us break it, eh?” the man smiled as he led Kestrel through an open gateway to an interior garden. A fountain bubbled water in the cool air, as bare plants and small evergreens softened the dark stone walls around the space.
“I want to see Lark,” Kestrel said. “I plan to set her free. Where can I find her?”
Gates grinned at him. “That’s the spirit!
“They’re held in Fields’s central block,” he informed Kestrel as th
ey stood in the garden.
“What are the chances of getting in there?” Kestrel asked.
“For you, pretty good. The Triplets don’t often go there. Fields keeps one of them with him or working for him, keeps one of them safe in the dungeon, and lets one of them go out to play. The central block is more of a working place than a visiting place,” Gates said.
“Can you lead me there tonight?” Kestrel asked.
“I will,” Gates agreed. “We’ll go there to take a look at it. When the Duke returns later this week, we can receive his approval to set them free.
“Now let me show you around,” the guard told Kestrel, as he left the garden area and started on a tour of the facility.
Kestrel kept silent. He didn’t plan to agree to wait for the Duke’s return. He might or might not go to Lark’s rescue sooner rather than later, but it wouldn’t be because he was waiting for Listay’s blessing. If he thought he could pull off the daring attack, he would do so.
They took an extensive tour of the great, solid building for the next hour, before Kestrel asked to be shown to a room of his own. Gates complied, leading him to a tower suite of small rooms.
“Take your pick; they’re all the same, and they’re empty these days,” the guide said.
“I’ll take the one in the corner,” Kestrel decided. He was interested in have a view in two directions.
There was a sound of boots on the tower stairs, and a trio of guards appeared.
“Gates, we know that you’re in command while the Duke and Stuart are away, but we don’t see the good of bringing a stranger into the House and showing him all around. That’s asking for trouble,” one of the guards stated the case.
“It’s bringing in the end to our troubles,” Gates answered. “Don’t you know who this is?” He waited through moments of silence, then reached over and pulled Kestrel’s hood down. “This is the Destroyer. This is the force that stopped the assault by the Triplets last night. This is the man who saved Stuart and the duchess and me in the mountains, and took us to another land!”
The men looked back and forth from Kestrel to Gates, uncertain of how to rebut the claim.
“Perhaps it’s too dark for them to see,” Kestrel said. The windows were small slits, designed with defense in mind, and they let little light into the interior. He raised a hand over his head, and held the palm open, then produced a small ball of energy for illumination, one of the simplest and first actions he had figured out when his powers had begun to emerge. The ball of light floated upward, and slowly circled around the room, casting a cool blue glow upon the scene.
“Tonight, he’s going to go look at Fields’s block, to get some ideas about how to save the duchess and the others again,” Gates said, as the men watched the glowing light, standing with their jaws hanging open.
“Now, you blockheads get back downstairs and watch the door,” Gates said, and the men hurriedly departed.
“Who else is held captive with Lark?” Kestrel asked curiously. “You said we’d set the others free as well.”
“Why, the others,” Gates sputtered. “That wild cat cousin of yours and the imp,” he said matter-of-factly.
“What?” Kestrel’s voice rose in astonishment. “Wren and Stillwater are being held captive? How did that happen?”
Chapter 22
“I thought you knew they were here. Isn’t that why you’ve come to Uniontown?” Gates asked.
“I promised Lark that I’d come to fight for her father,” Kestrel replied. “I told her so when we were still in the land of the Skyes.
“I didn’t know that Wren and Stillwater were here too. I thought they’d gone back to their own homes,” Kestrel said. “I’ve never known what happened to you after we separated at the gateway.”
“We came out in a sinkhole in a valley to the east of Uniontown. It was in the wilderness between Granary, Southern Shore, and Uniontown. So this was the first place we headed towards, and Fields’s people found us, curse the luck.
“Your cousin, Wren, she was all for fighting to the end, but we were outnumbered too badly, both Stuart and I agreed. So they surrounded us and escorted us back here to Uniontown, which took a week, and made us captive in their fortress. That’s where they trapped the imp; he flew in to talk to Wren – I think the two of them were still plotting to fight their way out when Fields’s people caught him in a net,” Gates explained. “They let Stuart and me go free to carry their blasted message that Fields would marry Lark, and he’d kill her if Duke Listay kept fighting for the crown.
“So we’ve been frozen into inaction ever since,” he concluded.
“What about the gods? What did they do when you returned?” Kestrel asked anxiously.
“They evaporated. Just as soon as we were out in the open air, after we climbed up out of the sinkhole, they turned into vapor and dissolved,” Gates answered.
“Better days are coming. The Rishiare Estelle will end in just a couple of more months, and they’ll return to our lives,” Kestrel told the man, though he was speaking to himself as well. He hoped that the return of the power of the gods would be enough to return the world to normal, so that threats like sorcerer-triplets would no longer upset the balance of power. Of course, he realized, he was himself a force that affected the balance of power, but he had done so in the past with the cooperation of and on behalf of the gods. That made everything different, he decided.
“Let’s go get a bite of food to eat, and then take a tour of the city,” Gates suggested to Kestrel.
“Let me unpack and rest for a bit, then I’ll join you,” Kestrel agreed. Gates left, and Kestrel sat down to rest and catch his breath, and consider what he would do.
He was tired and edgy and uncertain. Over the course of his journey to Uniontown, he had never imagined that there would be sorcerers present to oppose him as a real threat. He had always presumed that he would be able to walk into Uniontown as a demigod and impose his will to help Lark and her father, then sweep the girl off her feet. Life wasn’t proving to be so easy.
The battle the night before had worn him out. Even after a long morning of catching up on his sleep, he knew he wasn’t at his best level of energy. Tonight would not be the night to launch an attack, he told himself – he’d only tour the city, discover the location of the prison where Lark and Wren and Stillwater were held, and then begin to plan his next step.
He went downstairs without his pack or his bow, feeling better just by being free of his luggage. Gates was waiting for him in a sitting area at the bottom of the stairs, and the two of them walked down to a small canteen, where they ate and talked, before leaving at sunset.
“This is our way out,” Gates said, as they dropped down a stairwell and crossed in a tunnel beneath the city street. “We leave through other houses in the area, so that no one watching can see how many are in the house defending it,” he explained. They exited through a door that entered an alley, and began walking through the city.
The journey to Fields’s fortified site took twenty minutes, as Gates led Kestrel through the streets. They stopped at a corner a block away from the building. “There’ll be guards watching everyone that passes by, so we won’t be able to stop when we approach it,” Gates explained. “Look it over carefully.”
They then proceeded down the street, as Kestrel looked at the building and the surroundings, trying to judge how to enter the building. It was similar to the neighborhood around the urban fortress of Duke Listay – few ground level entrances, stout walls, small windows high above the ground.
When they had passed it by, Kestrel turned to Gates. “Where are the prisoners held?” he asked.
“Up at the top, in the tower,” the man replied. “You’d have to fight your way all the way up through their folks. Even for you, that would probably give the Triplets time enough to respond and get here to fight you.”
“It’ll take some planning, that’s all,” Kestrel said nonchalantly. He thought he had a plan that would work perf
ectly for the rescue of the captives, those captives in particular. They walked back to the Listay fortress, and settled in for the evening. Kestrel sat with the other guards in the courtyard, around a fire that provided warmth, and listened to them share memories of battles on behalf of the Duke, and better times. He went to bed, and slept soundly in his room in the upper reaches of the fortress.
The next day he was asked to serve guard duty in the morning, and in the afternoon he decided to pay a visit during his free time.
“I’m here to visit the Duchess, and the Langravine,” he told the gatekeeper at the home of Duchess Tyle. He pulled his hood back to make sure his identity was seen.
He was shown into a parlor, and within minutes, the Duchess and Gail were present to welcome him.
“How is your new dwelling?” the duchess asked him.
“Not as luxurious as your garden dwelling was,” Kestrel replied courteously. “But it is safer for everyone involved for me to not stay here,” he admitted.
“Guess who I saw today?” Gail burst out excitedly, removing her veils as the servants withdrew from the room.
“Who?” Kestrel obliged by asking.
“You didn’t even try to guess,” the young noblewoman protested. “You’re spoiling my fun.
“But I’ll tell you anyway. I saw your friend Lark,” she informed him, then watched the spark of interest that lit up his eyes.
“Where? Was she alone?” Kestrel asked.
“I went to the fortress where Duke Fields is keeping her, and asked to be allowed to visit,” Gail said nonchalantly.
“I was as furious with her when I found out afterwards as I was with you yesterday,” the duchess interjected, shaking her head.
A Marriage of Friends Page 25
