“Fat chance of finding one,”she said disappointingly. “Still, you could teach me or test me tosee if I have the potential.”
“No,” Fredrik said too loudly.Softer, he continued, “I don’t feel safe using it, Niki. I wouldnot forgive myself if I taught you and you blew up. After we getsettled in Cidal, we will put feelers out for tutors, but in such away that will not lead back to us.”
“You just don’t want me beingas powerful as you,” she berated, “ . . . or more powerful. Well,if you won’t teach me, I’ll just find someone who will.”
Niki went and lay down on a blanket togo to sleep, covering herself with her old cloak, a white cloakwith gold trim and a sunburst upon the left breast. Within momentsshe was asleep. Fredrik sat staring at her for a long time. She wasa very beautiful girl with her flaming red hair and pert nose, butsometimes he wished he were traveling alone. She never seemed tolisten to reason and never missed an opportunity to punish him withsilence at some unseen offense he was supposed to have committed.Eventually, Fredrik went to bed still mystified about the ways ofwomen.
The next day the pair wound their wayback to the coastal highway and towards Cidal. There was verylittle traffic on the road and the people they passed did no morethan acknowledge the couple. Several days later they reached theoutskirts of Cidal and immediately proceeded to a less traveledstreet. Like most towns, there were some abandoned houses andFredrik picked the one that seemed to be in the best shape and yetout of the way. They did pick up a few strange glares entering thehouse, but most people were afraid to say anything to strangers.Still, they could not stay here long before somebody reported theirpresence in the house to whoever passed as the authorities inCidal.
After they got settled in, Fredrik wentout alone to see what the town was like. Cidal was in much bettershape than Forgum as no army had yet ravaged it. There was a fairamount of people and the businesses seemed to be doing rather well.Fredrik visited some of the inns, always blending in and keeping tothe shadows, and picked up the local rumors. There was a localorganization of mercenaries, which probably accounted for the factthat Cidal had not been plundered yet. The most important piece ofinformation was of the Black Devils who had left town this morning.They had obviously killed an old sea captain and taken over hismansion while in Cidal. Fredrik learned the name of the sea captainand hurried back to Niki. Within moments, Fredrik and Niki wereback out of town in the woods where they dressed in their finestoutfits. Fredrik was dressed in gray flannel breeches with a finewhite shirt whose wrinkles were covered by a gray flannel vest.Niki donned a violet silk dress with white frilled sleeves and alavender sash around her waist.
Once suitably attired, the pair strodeinto town with Fredrik leading the train of six horses. This timeeveryone turned and stared at them as they walked along the coastalhighway. Niki walked right up to a group of mercenaries that seemedto include an officer or at least someone whom the others deferredto. The men all stared at her and she had to push back images ofdrooling dogs else she would ruin her entrance.
“Excuse me, kind Sir,” shecooed, “but we are just in from Trekum and I am seeking my uncle,Amos Alrecht. “Could you possibly direct me? We’ve had such adreadful journey with the wagon burning and all and I really wishto make an early night of it.”
The smiling faces all grew dim at themention of the old sea captain and most of the group melted away.The authoritative man remained and appraised her. “Your uncle, yousay?” he asked. “Old Amos never mentioned any kin tome.”
Niki had to strain her neck to look upat the man. “Well, that is quite a minor problem, Sir. I can assureyou that I am his niece as I am sure he will also attest, but thatis no concern of yours. I am merely asking for directions to hishome so I might settle in with my brother.”
The man appeared suitably rebuffed, buteventually nodded. “All right, Mistress Alrecht, I can show you tohis home, but you won’t be finding old Amos there, I’mafraid.”
“Well, if he is not in, I amsure he will return soon, Sir,” she smiled. “He is, after all,expecting us.”
“It is not that he is out,Mistress,” the man frowned. “Old Amos was killed a few days ago byBlack Devils. They claimed he was a sorcerer. When we found out, itwas too late to do anything for Amos and it didn’t make much senseto start a war with the Black Devils over something that could notbe undone.”
The man lowered his head sheepishly;obviously ashamed of letting the Black Devils have their way withinhis domain. Niki collapsed in the street and Fredrik let go of thehorses and rushed to her aid. He frowned up at the mercenary, butnodded at the man. “It’s all right, Sir,” Fredrik added. “Similartragedies have occurred in the South as well. I’m sure you and yourmen would have done something if you had known before it happened.Could you have some of your men grab our horses and help us to hishouse?”
The man was only too eager to helpAmos’ kin after not avenging his death. Fredrik and Niki allowedthe men to fawn over them and see them safely put into Amos’mansion. The head mercenary introduced them to the servants andscowled at any objections to the youngsters moving in. By the timethe mercenary left, the servants were satisfactorily cowed toaccept their new Lord and Lady.
Chapter 7
Escape
Arik and Tedi rose at first light andsurveyed the area they had chosen to camp at the night before.“It’s a good thing we didn’t try to roam around last night,” Tedicommented, looking over the cliff to the sea. The promontory theywere on was about eighty feet above where the waves crashed intothe rocks below. The view was spectacular with long vistas ofbeach, both north and south. This was clearly the highest point forsome distance and afforded glimpses of the coastal highway fartherinland where the trees were sparse enough to see through or theview was not blocked by the plateau itself.
Arik fixed breakfast while Tedi stoodinhaling the strong salt air. After a quick breakfast Tedi cleanedup the campsite while Arik checked out the surroundings. “Hey,Tedi,” Arik called. “I think I see something coming down thebeach.”
Tedi ran over and looked northward. “Idon’t see anything,” he remarked. “It’s too far to see anything,anyway. Maybe it’s just someone out for a morning walk.”
“Could be,” Arik mutteredstraining for a better view, “but not unless they’re on horsebackand it looks like two people. Wait, they’ve stopped.”
Tedi looked once again, trying to makeout what Arik was looking at. “I don’t know about seeing people orhorses,” he commented, “but that looks like the area where we leftthe beach yesterday.”
“Yeah, well, they are, too,”Arik said hurriedly as he watched the tiny dots disappear into theforest. “I think someone might be tracking us. If they are onhorseback, they’ll catch us for sure.”
“How do you know they are onhorseback?” Tedi asked. “I can’t see anything at thatdistance.”
“By the relative size of thetwo dots,” Arik answered. “I think one of them got down for somereason and led his horse. I could be wrong, but can we afford totake a chance?”
Tedi thought for a while and said,“Horseback won’t help them that much on the trail we tookyesterday. It was hardly more than an animal trail and not oftenused, at that.”
“Unless they swing out to thecoastal highway,” declared Arik. Arik swung his eyes back to theonly major road in the area and froze. “Tedi,” he whispered. “Lookdown at the road.”
Tedi joined his friend and looked wherehe was pointing. A large group of riders was gathered millingaround, not traveling. “The trees are in the way,” Tedi frowned. “Ican’t quite make out who they are or how many of them there are,but I am beginning to not like this.”
“I like it even less,” addedArik. “It looks like more than ten, but worst of all, one of themis almost assuredly a woman.”
“Okay, let’s keep calm,”instructed Tedi. “If they knew right where we were, we would havebeen dead on our blankets this morning.”
“You have a great way ofmaking me feel calm,” Arik qui
pped. “We can’t outrun them if theyhave even one fairly decent tracker. We can’t go out to sea or tothe road. A couple of them are coming in from the North. We reallydon’t have much of a choice on which way to go.”
“We do have the option ofstaying right here,” declared Tedi. “This place is prettydefensible.”
“I don’t think I’m ready tostart killing people even if they turn out to be Dark Riders,”frowned Arik.
“Well, you better get ready,Arik,” Tedi scolded. “If they come for us, it won’t be to take ushome to our fathers. Even if the witch is with them, Dark Ridersdon’t openly track someone just to ask questions. Oh, she may asksome questions before she kills us, but you better believe thatwe’ll end up dead no matter what. The Dark Riders don’t normallyleave anything alive behind them.”
Arik stood staring at the millingriders on the road for several minutes. “Okay,” Arik finally said,“we’ll shoot if we have to, but staying here is suicide. We maykill some of them before they get us, but there are too many ofthem for us to win. We will head south trying to avoid them. If itcomes to a fight, we’ll fight, but we’ll hide and avoid it if wecan. We may kill fewer of them with this plan, but how many of themare dead will matter little to us if we are dead, too.”
Tedi nodded his head in agreement andthey both began gathering their gear. Quickly, they startedsouthward down the steep path. When they reached the bottom, Arikstopped suddenly. “I have an idea,” he declared excitedly. “Followme.”
Arik broke through the forestundergrowth with no regard to hampering the trackers and headed forthe sea. When they reached the beach he was panting, but he did notstop. Arik waded right on out in the surf while continuing south.“Is this your good idea?” asked Tedi frantically. “We drownourselves and deny the Dark Riders their fun?”
Arik stopped and smiled. “Okay, nowthat they are convinced that we hope to erase our tracks the sameway we did at Lorgo, we walk north through the water until we reachthe rocks below the promontory to our north. We can circle thebluff behind them and cross the coastal highway.”
Tedi smiled at the idea until he lookedtowards the rocks that he had seen the surf crashing on from upabove earlier. “You want us to cross those rocks?” Tedi blurtedout.
Arik nodded. “Have you ever spent thenight with Dark Riders?”
Tedi didn’t even bother to answer, butstarted wading towards the rocks. The rocks were slippery andcoated with some type of green slime wherever they had remainedsubmerged for long periods of time. The salt spray here was intenseand soon the boys’ eyes were smarting. Several times they slippedand were submerged. Once Arik had to grab Tedi by the collar tokeep him from being swept away or dashed on the rocks. Slowly theboys made their way to the base of the promontory and rested on therocks. The effort of forcing their way through the surf had tiredboth boys. “Why did you head here instead of continuing around theNorth side of the rocks?” asked Tedi.
“Two reasons,” panted Arik.“One, we have to be sure that the two riders we saw along the beachhave already passed before we try to get behind them and two, lookat the cliff face. It is hollowed out enough that we can stay hereand rest and we can’t be seen from the shore either to the North orthe South. Three, I could use the rest.”
Tedi chuckled and leaned back againstthe cold stonewall. The boys wiggled as far back as they could goso they could remain dry. “We can stay overnight back here if wehave to,” remarked Tedi. “I think it is about high tide now. Thisfar back would only get wet on a moon tide.”
“If we get some sleep now,”commented Arik, we can move out at low tide and it will be dark.Wherever our pursuers are they will be camped for the night and weshould be able to avoid them fairly easily.”
Tedi agreed and the boys were tiredenough to doze off.
* * * *
“Where are they now?” askedGarth laying his bow on the seat of the wagon.
“They are sleeping at the footof the cliff,” Kalina stated. “They are hoping the Dark Riders willpass them by and I think they might. Then they plan to cross overthe road and lose the Dark Riders.”
“Nice if it worked,” Garthsaid simply. “The problem is the Dark Riders are not totallystupid. They will realize that they have been duped and that willlead them back to the cliff. It sounds like the boys have adefensible position, but they also have no reconnaissancecapability. If they decide to leave their hole while the DarkRiders are near the cliff, they will be visible.”
“We could lose them before wecan react to save them,” summarized Kalina. “This is notacceptable.”
“I agree,” Garth declared ashe started moving. The bandit grabbed a coil of rope off of thewagon and retrieved his bow. “I want you to get the wagon about ahalf mile into the woods west of the coastal highway just north ofthe cliff. Avoid the Dark Riders at all costs. If you are not therewhen I need you, I will move directly south from that spot until wemeet.”
“Where are you going, Garth?”she demanded.
“Me,” he laughed. “Why, I amgoing hunting. There are a couple of pigeons on the rocks, and Iunderstand they are in season.”
* * * *
Wolinda screamed at the men, “What doyou mean, they didn’t come this way? Are you trackers or slackers?You told me they came south. You said that they hadn’t left thewater and now you’re saying that they didn’t get this far. Explainyourself.”
The head Dark Rider stepped between thetwo scouts and faced Wolinda. “What they are saying is that theboys headed back north, Mistress. They must have done it very soonafter they entered the water or we would have caught themalready.”
“Now you’ve become a tracker,Klarg,” spat Wolinda. “I thought these two fine specimens were thetrackers.”
“Enough, Wolinda,” Klargcautioned as his men gathered around. Klarg was dressed like therest of the Dark Riders in dark brown leathers with spurs on hisboots and bands of metal spikes on their leather gauntlets, but hewas also a massive hulk of a man. His imposing figure towered overthe hardy witch. “My men wanted to check the area where the boysentered the water, but you were adamant about them heading south.You have no one but yourself to blame for this delay.”
Wolinda was stunned. She led this teamand the stupid Dark Riders should know better than dispute herauthority. She could destroy every man here with her power andtheir leader hadn’t even addressed her as Mistress. “You shouldhave better control over your emotions, Klarg. I may be forced topunish you if you continue in this insolent manner.”
“Do not be a fool, Wolinda,”Klarg asserted, “and do not take me for one, either. You are incharge of this expedition and we have followed you withoutquestion, but it is the Dark One whom we both serve. If youractions jeopardize this mission, I would be within my rights toeliminate you, witch or no. I also have nineteen men to back myplay. If you managed to kill all of us, you would still fail inyour mission as you did back in Lorgo. And I’m sure you know thatfailure is death. My men and I are willing to follow your orders toaccomplish our task, but do not blame them for your actions. If wemust backtrack to capture these boys, let’s be about it withoutrecriminations. If you are acceptable to our agreement, we areready to serve.”
The color drained out of Wolinda’sface. She burned with the desire to kill every one of thesemaggots, but Klarg was right. Without them she was likely to failand one did not fail the Dark One. “Lead the men north, Klarg,” sheordered.
Klarg slapped his fist to his chest ina salute. “I hear and obey, Mistress.”
* * * *
Arik and Tedi awoke to the sounds ofhorses not far off. Quickly, the boys sat up and tried to determinewhich direction the horses were coming from. It was already darkout and the water was at low tide, but the sounds echoed off thewalls of their little hideaway and determining direction wasimpossible. The boys hefted their duffel bags and readied theirbows. Arik slid down the rocks a way and tried to pick up thesounds again. It had gone deadly quiet and he stayed perched on therocks waiting without movement. When he fi
nally heard a sound, itwas the sound of men wading through the water from the South.“There are men coming through the water,” Arik whispered. “We needto move now or we will be trapped.”
Tedi was already at Arik’s side as thetaller boy started edging across the rocks to the north. As theboys stepped into the water, they could hear shouts coming frombehind them. Arik could distinctly hear a man bellow the order,“Take nine men with you over the top and cut them off.”Frantically, Arik tried to run through the water, but succeededonly in kicking up more water.
“We aren’t going to make it,”Tedi shouted. “They will have us between them.”
“Just keep going,” demandedArik. “Don’t ever give up.”
As the boys struggled through thethigh-high water, ten horsemen galloped up the southern incline andacross the plateau towards the northern path that led down to theother side of the rocks. The charge to encircle the boys quicklyturned to chaos as the first four riders succumbed to a ropestretched across the path at neck height, right where the pathstarted down the northern slope. The rest of the group of DarkRiders reacted quickly enough to avoid the unseen rope, butconfusion reigned as the forward riders turned their horses asideand the following riders smashed into them. While it might havebeen expected that several riders would fall from their saddlesduring such a collision, no one could mistake the sound of abowstring singing as those riders fell.
“Bowmen towards the sea,”shouted one of the Dark Riders. “Dismount and takecover!”
One of the Dark Riders dismissed theorders and charged towards where he thought the bowmen must behiding. A black shape hiding behind a bush near the cliff’s edgehurled a Lanoirian Star, which struck the rider’s forehead. Thehorse continued to carry the dead rider and plunged off the cliffstriking the rocks below.
Garth took stock of his situation. Twoof the lead riders were down and unmoving. Two were down, butwrithing in pain. Three had fallen to arrows and one had chargedover the cliff. That left two healthy Dark Riders trying to killhim and two who would regain their wits and functionality all toosoon. Garth strained to see the two healthy riders, but the foolwho had charged had distracted him and now they were well hidden.Garth crawled slowly along the edge of the cliff towards the twofallen riders who had hit the rope. He caught a momentary glance ofone of the healthy riders doing the same, but heading for thepoint. He froze for a second to make sure that the other man hadnot spotted him and then continued on.
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