Zane Halloway: Omnibus Edition

by P. T. Hylton

  Jacob leaned over and said in a breathy voice, “If I know Longstrain, he’ll be working along the perimeter between the two armies. He’ll be popping back and forth, picking enemies off at the edges where he’s sure to be seen and be able to claim as much glory as possible.”

  Zane stopped listening mid-sentence. Something had caught his eye. A Cragsman astride a large warhorse, trotting back and forth along the lines, giving help where needed and encouraging the troops.

  It was Nicholas. He wore a helmet, probably intending to hide the shame Zane had caused him, but, since he was one of the few helmeted Craggish, he only succeeded in drawing attention to himself.

  “There now,” Jacob said, looking toward Nicholas. “Longstrain won’t be far from the High Prince.”

  “Ferox Halloway.”

  The voice came from behind him and to the right. Zane spun, sword in hand, but relaxed when he saw Ewrkind. The elf’s face was aglow with something like joy. “How goes the battle for you?”

  Zane said, “Not well. I’m seeking a particular target, and thus far he eludes me.”

  Ewrkind glanced down at Zane’s clean blade. “My sympathies. I suggest you don’t waste your time looking for a particular enemy when there are plenty right in front—” The elf’s voice cut off as he noticed something ahead of him. “Excuse me, Ferox Halloway.”

  The elf urged his horse forward and it marched toward Nicholas’s.

  “This will be interesting,” Jacob said.

  “We need to find Caleb,” Zane said, but Jacob ignored him.

  “High Prince!” Ewrkind called in a deep voice that somehow carried over the din of the battle.

  Nicholas looked up, and his eyes narrowed when he saw Ewrkind.

  “I hear you are the best warrior among your people,” the elf said. He swung his leg over his horse and dropped to the ground, raising his broadsword as he landed. “Perhaps you’ll be worthy of my blade.”

  Nicholas’s face was a mask of fury. He turned his horse and trotted toward Ewrkind. He dismounted when he reached the elf. “You’re the chief of the elves, then?”

  Ewrkind smiled. “The Elvish have no chief, but I am first among our warriors.”

  “You fight for your captors?” Nicholas said. “And I’d always read that your were a noble people.”

  “And I’d heard you were an attractive people,” Ewrkind answered. “It seems we were both misled.”

  Nicholas frowned. “Call off your elves and I will see you are awarded a generous area of land to call your own once we burn Langton to the ground. But if you oppose me, I’ll cut you down. I seek Zane Halloway, the King’s Sword. I shall not stop until I face the greatest warrior in Opel.”

  “High Prince,” Ewrkind said, raising his broadsword, “you’re already facing him.”

  Ewrkind charged forward.

  Nicholas’s face darkened at the site of the huge elf raging toward him, but only for a moment. He raised his sword and deflected the elf’s attack. His eyes widened as he did, clearly surprised at his opponent’s strength. He snarled and pressed his own attack.

  Now Ewrkind smiled, pleased at his enemy’s speed. It quickly became evident to Zane that, while Ewrkind was much stronger, Nicholas had much more skill and speed on his side.

  “Perhaps we should intervene,” Zane said.

  Jacob raised an eyebrow. “If you’d really like to get in the middle of a fight between a Cragsman and an elf, be my guest. Me, I’m going to wait for Longstrain to show up.”

  Zane turned away from the two combatants and surveyed the battle going on around him. He’d seen much death over the years, but he’d never before seen it at this scale. Opeleans, Tavellers, Craggish, and elves all lay dead on the ground. Others laid maimed or injured, fruitlessly calling for help that was surely not to come for hours yet.

  A deep voice cried out, and Zane turned back to the battle. Nicholas’s sword dripped, and blood seeped through Ewrkind’s fingers as he held his stomach.

  “For your nation’s sake, I hope you’re not the greatest warrior in Opel.” In spite of his bravado, Nicholas was clearly out of breath, and his eyes showed a respect his words did not.

  Ewrkind groaned and glared at his opponent, staring directly into his eyes. “High Prince, you will now drop your sword.”

  Zane felt a chill run through him as he realized Nicholas’s mistake. The Craggish man had looked his opponent in the eyes. It made sense. Craggish culture was focused on showing no weakness, and not looking in your opponent’s eyes could be seen as a sign of fear.

  Slowly, as if in a dream, Nicholas let his sword fall to the ground.

  Ewrkind raised his broadsword. His hands shook, and his face was pale. But, when he spoke, his voice was strong. “You have been a worthy opponent.” He swung his blade, and, in one mighty blow, lopped off the High Prince’s head.

  Suddenly, the battlefield seemed much quieter, and Zane realized the nearby soldiers, Craggish and elvish alike, were staring at Ewrkind, their eyes wide.

  Ewrkind put a hand on his leg, clearly struggling to stay upright. He turned and looked at the elves around him. In a loud voice, he said, “Let us finish what we have begun.”

  The Craggish began to move toward the elf who’d just killed their High Prince. The elves let loose a series of war cries and rushed to defend their leader.

  Zane realized he was standing at the heart of the battle.

  He turned to Jacob…but the King’s Shadow was gone. He looked around, scanning the skies, in case Jacob had used a glide, and the ground, in case he’d fallen under a blade or arrow. He didn’t see Jacob anywhere.

  Chaos erupted as the Craggish Army began to collapse around Ewrkind. Zane marveled at their patriotism for a moment, then he remembered in the Craggish culture the person who defeated a High Prince’s killer took the throne himself. Ewrkind was in serious trouble. Every soldier in the Craggish Army would be after him now.

  It could be an advantage for the Opeleans, Zane knew. If the Craggish were all fighting for themselves, they wouldn’t be fighting as a unit. They wouldn’t be executing the battle plan.

  Zane started to move toward the elf, then he felt a blade against his neck and stopped.

  A familiar voice said, “Don’t move, and I’ll let you live.”

  Caleb.

  Hands grabbed at Zane, forcing him to the ground, while still more hands frisked him, taking every weapon hidden on his body.

  Caleb glared down at Zane, the hint of a smile on his face. “The King’s Sword. The low standards in this nation boggle the mind. Come, Zane, we have a long journey ahead of us. You’re about to make me very rich, and I’m about to make you very dead.”

  Caleb’s men bound Zane’s hands, his feet, and his mouth, and carried him through the chaotic killing field toward his fate.

  ***

  An hour later, two crewmen untied Zane’s feet and pushed him across a gangplank and onto a ship docked on the mighty Harken River. He stumbled his way onto the main deck, where he saw Caleb, suddenly looking every inch the pirate, grinning at him.

  “My friend, you are going to fetch me a very pretty penny in Tavel,” Caleb said. “I’ve told King Richard of your work, and he has many questions for you. And the abditus, too, I’d wager.”

  Zane took a deep breath. It always helped to calm him. “Caleb, I don’t know what you’ve been told, but there is no reason the king of Tavel would want me. Before I was named the King’s Sword yesterday, I was no one of political importance. I was just a ferox operating in a landlocked city about as far from Tavel as is possible within Opel.”

  Caleb threw back his head and laughed. “Very good! Very good, indeed! You were just a ferox. A ferox the king personally sent for when he wanted the head of the Ferox Society killed. A ferox who killed the most famous tanglesman of our time. A ferox who negotiated a peace with the elves and set the groundwork for them to join the Opel cause. A ferox who traveled to the Crags to help depose an unfriendly High Prince and im
plement a new regime. You’re just a ferox. And my father was just a pirate.” He poked Zane in the chest with his index finger. “Halloway, you’ve been betrayed, and there is a very high price on your head, one I aim to collect.”

  “Caleb,” Zane said, his voice a bit softer now, “you realize she will come after you.”

  Caleb laughed again. “Who? Lily?” He gestured out toward the water. “We’ll be on a ship in the river. And in a few hours we’ll be in the Gamlond Sea. I’ll be able to spot an approaching ship three miles away. We’re armed with tangles that could disable even Von Ridden’s shimmers. If Lily wants to come after me, she’s welcome to try. But frankly? Catching us unawares would be quite impossible.”

  Zane just smiled.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “They’ve taken Zane.”

  Lily whirled around, bringing her sword up and preparing to strike. Thankfully, she saw the elf Gabel just in time and stopped herself.

  Somewhere during this fight, time had come unglued for Lily. She moved through the enemy, biting at them with her sword, mostly unseen, cutting the life from person after person each with a single stroke of her blade. It was war, and it was just as she’d always imagined it. No, that wasn’t true. She’d imagined the bloodshed. But she hadn’t imagined the smell. Or the noise. Or the confusion, the inability to see what was happening more than a few yards in any direction. The strange combination of numbness and heightened awareness. She’d experienced some of this before. After all, she’d been in plenty of battles. But never at this scale. She’d never imagined death drawn so large.

  Gabel’s voice had woken her from her battle rage. She stared at him, blinking, trying to understand what it was he was talking about.

  “Ewrkind sent me to find you,” the elf said. “He thought you’d want to know. He apologizes for not coming himself, but the entire Craggish Army is currently trying to kill him.”

  Zane…the elf had said something about Zane…that he’d been taken.

  The fog quickly lifted from Lily’s mind. “Who took him?”

  “The, uh, the pirate,” Gabel said. “Tallbrain? Something like that?”

  Lily’s blood went cold. Caleb. “Tell me everything you know about what happened.”

  Gabel gave her enough information to get her started. Caleb and four men in ill-fitting Taveller uniforms—pirates, maybe?—had caught Zane by surprise, tied him, and carried him away. An elf had heard Caleb say he was going to make money from Zane. That meant he would likely be ransoming him to either Tavel or the Crags. If it was Tavel, they’d likely take Zane by ship down the Harken River and toward the Gamlond Sea. If it was the Crags, they’d carry him west over land. She needed to find out which it was, and quickly.

  Unless Caleb had holed up with him near here, maybe took him to the Taveller camp. She shook the thought from her mind. She had to assume they were moving quickly so she didn’t risk falling hopelessly far behind.

  A sudden thought came to her. “Gabel, I promised the king I’d stay with you elves. I was to be your liaison. I need to go, but—”

  Gabel held up a hand to stop her. He gestured to the dead Craggish scattered around the battlefield. “I think you can see we’re doing all right without you. Go, with Ewrkind’s blessings.”

  Lily nodded and mumbled her thanks. There was so much running through her mind that she was surprised she remembered to do even that.

  She made a split-second decision: she needed to assume they’d go by ship. Considering Caleb’s family history and the mysterious men with him, it was the safer bet. Besides, if they were going over land, she could catch up with them. If they were going by sea, her time was much more limited.

  Lily fought her way off the battlefield and took the quickest route to Harken. She headed to the riverside section of town, the place where ships docked when traversing the Harken River.

  Lily saw an old man painting his boat, and she smiled. Now was her chance to put everything Zane had taught her into practice. She would take the very social skills he’d given her and use them to save him.

  She approached the boat and called to the man. “Excuse me, sir.”

  He glanced toward her, then did a double take, his eyes widening as he stared at her.

  “I’m looking for my father,” she said. “He’s…not well. I believe he may have passed by. How long have you been out here?”

  The paint brush fell from the man’s suddenly limp hand. He backed away slowly, not taking his eyes off her.

  “Please, sir. You have no idea how important—”

  “No,” he said in a weak voice. “You keep away from me!”

  Lily suddenly remembered she was covered with dried blood. She sighed. So much for people skills. She drew her sword and climbed onto the boat. If niceties wouldn’t work, surely intimidation would.

  She got the information she needed and even convinced the nice old man to lend her his boat.

  In less than an hour, she’d managed to catch up to Caleb’s ship. She waited until it was full dark, snuck aboard using the same hook and rope technique the Longstrain pirates favored, and began her preparations.

  She was waiting in the shadows when she heard Caleb and Zane come up onto the deck. She felt a smile creep over her face.

  “It’s time to resign yourself to the fact that no one’s coming to save you,” Caleb said. “With the confusion of the battle, it will be tomorrow before anyone realizes you’re gone.”

  “Perhaps,” Zane said. It should have been impossible for him to see her in the darkness, hiding behind a heavy coil of rope, yet he looked directly at her when he spoke again. “And even if someone did realize it and did come to save me, what chance would they have of boarding the ship undetected? And, if they did somehow manage that, they would have to face your crew, which would be no easy task.” He paused for a moment, turning to Caleb. “Now that I think of it, shouldn’t they be milling around out here?”

  “Funny things, ships,” Caleb said. “They always seem too crowded or too empty.” He scratched at his chin for a moment, looking around, perhaps realizing that his crew really did seem to be missing.

  Lily stepped out of the shadows and pressed the point of her sword against his back. “Caleb, I believe your men abandoned ship.”

  Caleb tensed, but, she had to hand it to him, he managed to recover from the shock quickly. His voice barely shook when he asked, “You killed them?”

  Lily shrugged. “They’re no longer on the ship. Let’s leave it at that.” She looked at Zane. “You remembered the Captain Zachary Derk job.”

  Zane nodded. “How could I forget? I was sure you’d manage to talk yourself to a watery death before I got there. But you survived. You surprised me.”

  “Not for the last time, I hope.”

  “Ah, far from it,” Zane said with a smile.

  Lily pressed the tip of her sword a bit harder into Caleb’s back, and she felt the flesh beneath it give. Just a cut, but she wanted to let him know she was serious. “Caleb, what in the blazes are you doing? Everything you’ve done in the past few months…it’s mad!”

  “I did my duty.” There was a snarl in his voice.

  “Your duty? Kidnapping the King’s Sword? Starting a war? Betraying your king? It was your duty?”

  Zane cleared his throat gently. “I’d love it if someone could untie me. When you get a chance.”

  Lily pulled the knife out of her belt and tossed it to him. He caught it and went to work on his ropes.

  “Lily,” Caleb said, “I know you’re not going to believe this, but I’m glad you came. I was going to explain everything after the war, but now that you’re here, there’s no need to wait. We can start our life.”

  Lily gritted her teeth. If this man still believed they were going to be together, he was insane. What made it worse was that she’d truly cared about him. She’d never glimpsed the pirate heart beating in his chest. It scared her, the idea of how love had blinded her to the truth.

  “I’ve be
en promised a title and land,” Caleb said. “Respect. Security. When the war’s over, I’ll rule over a good portion of the coast. Morven and Arrow will be ours. Imagine the possibilities.”

  That last bit gave Lily pause. If King Richard of Tavel really had promised Caleb those things, he wasn’t here to settle a trade dispute or to win a bit of land in south Opel. He was here to conquer. To end Opel as a nation. Her mind spun. Tavel didn’t have enough men for such a thing, not even with the Craggish support, but yet…

  A thought occurred to her. “Caleb, you said in your letter that you got something important in the Crags. Something more than an army. Tell me what it was.”

  Caleb paused for a moment before answering. “All right. I’ll tell you, not because you have a knife to my back, but because I want to prove I trust you. My father made most of his living by commandeering Taveller trade ships, many of which were carrying Craggish spices. The Craggish High Prince vowed to put a stop to it. My father asked the king to send a letter to the High Prince, letting him know my father was working in Opel’s service. Opel and the Crags had a closer relationship back then, and the king agreed to do it. The letter talked about how both Opel and the Crags could benefit from a weakening of the Tavel trade industry.”

  “You went to the Crags to get the letter,” Lily said.

  “Yes. High Prince Gullins denied it existed, but when Nicholas took the throne, he found it in the archives.”

  Zane rubbed his freed wrists. “I’m beginning to regret ever helping that man. May he rest in peace.”

  Caleb ignored the comment. “I gave the letter to King Richard. It helped convince him that a simple border war wasn’t enough. That Opel needed to be destroyed. When the war’s over, we’ll make it public and clear my father’s name once and for all.”