“I do not need to be escorted,” Alaezdar objected.
“No, I suppose you don’t. This is your home. Just the same, Azrull, follow him home.”
Alaezdar looked at Tharn, but Tharn said nothing and only nodded to let Alaezdar know that he would be okay. Azrull took the flat of his sword and put it to Alaezdar’s back and nudged him away, smiling as he did so. Alaezdar turned and faced Azrull and put his fist in front of his face.
Azrull, instantly enraged by the defiance, kicked him between the legs and dropped him to the ground. Alaezdar curled up in agony.
“Stop!” Tharn shouted. “That is not necessary!”
“I agree,” Krostos added. “Let him be, Azrull.”
Azrull sheathed his sword and offered Alaezdar a hand up, but he just shook his head, crawled away from Azrull and slowly rose back up to his feet. He started to say something, but Tharn spoke over him.
“Go home, Alaezdar. Tonight we will have a pleasant time at the dance.”
Alaezdar turned and walked away. As Azrull started to follow, Tharn put a hand on his shoulder.
“Leave him be. He is not going to hurt you. Besides, what can he do? He has no weapon.”
Azrull started to respond, but Krostos stopped him. “He will be fine, Azrull. Let him go. I need you here near me anyhow.”
“What offer do you have for me, Krostos?” Tharn quickly asked, wanting to get this day behind him.
Krostos pulled him aside, out of hearing range of Azrull, who was still pacing back and forth in anger as he watched Alaezdar walk off.
“The king will listen to me,” Krostos told Tharn. “If I tell him your shipment will be double the next time to make up for this season’s shortcomings, he will believe me. However, you really need to come up with that, or else I will be the one who is in trouble. Now, there is only one person in the world who I can trust will do as I ask, and that would be you. I know this governorship of the village hasn’t been exactly perfect, but you have been doing an outstanding job with the illusion that this place really is just here for the benefit of producing outstanding crops for the northern kingdoms while you are excavating and shipping out the iron ore from the mines to produce Goblin Touched steel for us. It really is beautiful, my friend, how the two of us founded this place thirty years ago and came up with the idea that we would sell this toxic steel to make swords for our kingdom under the guise of a peaceful farming community. Now, we are just about done, but when we have just about reached our ultimate goal, you are coming up short. To be honest, it seems to me that you have lost sight of our mission.”
“In a way, I have lost sight,” Tharn admitted. “I still want to remain here, but I am not so concerned with the Goblin Touched Steel as I once was. But since I am still loyal to the king, I will do what I can. What more can I say to you?”
“Give me a hostage,” Krostos said. “I will take one of your beautiful women to be one of my servants -- and you do have many -- but I do have my eye on one in particular. Do this and when you double your quota next year, I will return her to her home, if she wishes.”
“I can’t allow that,” Tharn said, shaking his head.
“Then I will order soldiers to maintain a post here to make sure you obtain your quota, and they will be here within a few weeks. Is that really what you want?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then what do you say?”
“Who do you have in mind?”
Krostos smiled. “Remember that sweet young girl I pointed out to you yesterday?”
“Aaelie?”
“Yes…Aaelie, she is a sweet girl. I like her. She will do fine for me at Triel.”
Tharn put his hands to his face and rubbed them up and down.
“This can’t happen,” he muttered underneath his hands. “How do you expect me to just turn her over to you and have her understand what is going on?”
“Quite honestly, Tharn, that isn’t my problem. That is why you rule this village. You are the one who needs to take care of such matters. Just turn her over to me tonight near the end of the dance and I will make sure that she is well taken care of and returned safely next year, if you reach your quota.”
“Why is this quota so important now? Before, it was merely a loose goal to obtain with no retribution for falling short, and now you show up as if it has always been standard that I follow through with the quota. Why the change?”
Azrull now stepped in between the two.
“Not for your concern,” he said. “The Ambassador needs to get ready for tonight. I suggest you do the same. Have the girl ready so that we can leave directly after the dance. I will finish loading up the ore and I’ll have all of my soldiers out of here before sunrise and you will have nothing to worry about until next year’s quota.”
“Just have her ready, Tharn,” Krostos said and Azrull led him away.
***
Dusk arrived and villagers crowded at the fountain square where the musicians were setting up to perform on an elaborately decorated stage above the tiles that workers had painstakingly laid down to create a marbled dancing area. Lanterns were placed in multicolored tents and were glowing with their brilliant colors as they surrounded the perimeter of the main pavilion in the center of the village. Large poles with flags of all the kingdoms swayed gently in the breeze in another circle within the perimeter which marked the dancing area. Just outside of that was a large ceremonial bon-fire pit.
A group of near adult boys dumped seasoned firewood into the pit on top of the dry kindling, and then lit the fire. They joked and chided each other and were giddy with the excitement of the lighting and the festive mood of the evening. All of the booths, every tree and every bush had a lantern placed near or upon it, so that Valewood was alive with brilliance on the evening festival.
The villagers were beginning to wander in groups towards the center of the village. Conversations took on hush but excited tones as the final day and final evening of the festival was near its end. Tomorrow there would be no more representatives, no more working the booths, no more harvesting. Only a full day’s rest was on the agenda for the next morning. The harpists, flutists, and drummers on the stage began to play their enchanting melodies. Initially no one responded, just continued in their conversations, but soon they did begin to sway and respond to the music. Alaezdar stood within the outline of the trees and watched his fellow villagers finally begin to take partners and dance to the Vale folk songs. They formed small circles and held hands and sang, spun in circles and clapped their hands to the music. As he watched, he could faintly hear the rippling waters of the Sippling River in the distance.
He thought about Aaelie, and wished she were with him, but was also glad that she wasn’t. He wanted to belong to this community, but also knew that he could not. He knew that he would eventually leave because Rager’s House of Renegades would soon be closing in on this new home of his. It would only be a matter of months before men like Talon Blade, Scar Blade and Torn Blade would be on his trail and closing in like a fox on a wounded rabbit that had stayed out in the open to protect its young, still in their hole.
He knew that if he became too attached to these people, a wounded rabbit is what he would have to become in order to save these villagers. He would have to expose himself at the cost of his own life to save these people from a problem that was not theirs.
He worried that familiarity and time would eventually cause him to let his guard down, and that concerned him greatly. Alaezdar looked behind him and saw only the darkness of the forest. One dancing group then gave a short shout from in front of him and Alaezdar came out of his thought and turned away from the darkness of the forest.
Might as well have fun toni
ght, he said to himself, and he walked towards the circle. Rager’s House of Renegades would not be here on this night. He supposed the Goblin Tribes could cross this river, but everything seemed so peaceful on the other side of the river. This though alone did cause him some hesitation, but Gartan the Dark had admitted that he did not know if Valewood was the village that would be attacked, only that the attack would be on the night of the purple sunset. He walked back to the village and as soon as he got to the circle, he saw Morlonn, Rivlok, Aaelie and Kunther and a few others their age. Kunther saw Alaezdar first, raised his hand excitedly and beckoned him to join them.
“Alaezdar!” Kunther, obviously feeling the effect of a few ales already, clapped him on the shoulder as he approached. “That was so much fun today at the sword fighting tournament. Thank you for letting me be involved.”
“No problem. It was actually Tharn’s idea. You should thank him.”
“I will,” he said. “You know what is great about being in that tournament? I have had a lot of attention from older girls in the village who normally wouldn’t talk to me… even if I was milking their cows for them.”
“Oh, really?” Alaezdar said.
“That is all he has been talking about all evening,” Morlonn added. “Glad you came out, Alaezdar. What took you so long?”
“Always one more thing to do when you work for Tharn. You know how it goes,” he said and looked at Aaelie, but she would not return his gaze.
“Yeah, actually I do,” Morlonn said. “In fact, I have one of them to attend to right now. I am going over to the fence and get ready for the fire show.”
He clasped Alaezdar on the shoulder, winked and ran off.
“I am so bored,” Rivlok said as he stared out over the crowd. “This is the only excitement we get out of this tiny little rat hole.”
“Why do you talk like that?” Kunther asked. “I hate it when you get like this, Rivlok.”
“Don’t worry about him, Kunth. He gets this way every now and then,” Aaelie said and looked at Alaezdar, but dropped her smile. She then turned from him and looked out at the dancers.
She won’t even look at me, Alaezdar thought to himself, and this made him want her even more. He knew it was a game, but in the faint light, her long wavy brown hair, tied tightly in braided circles into a bun like a crown, made her more beautiful than he had ever seen her. Her neck and shoulders were exposed. Her dress showed her cleavage and fit her tightly at the waist, but loosely down to her legs.
He was certain that he had not seen a more beautiful woman. He continued to stare at her and looked away only once and saw that Rivlok was staring at him resentfully. When their eyes met, Rivlok took Aaelie by the waist, spun her around and forced her into the crowd who were dancing removing her from Alaezdar’s eyes.
Alaezdar watched them dance for a few minutes until the song ended. The musicians paused and smiled at each other and announced that they would begin playing again after a few rounds of ale. Alaezdar chatted with Kunther and then looked at Aaelie. Catching her gaze, he watched as she frowned at him, spun around, and walked away.
He didn’t like her reaction and feeling the need to talk to her, he decided to start towards her, but he had only gotten a few steps when Tharn, who had just arrived, grabbed his shoulder and caused him to stop in his tracks.
Alaezdar turned and shook his hand off his shoulder, but saw that Tharn was giving him a concerned look, as a parent might look while stopping a child from playing in the fire. Alaezdar understood and he nodded, but he turned around again and chased after Aaelie regardless of his friend’s wordless gesture.
“Aaelie! Wait. Will you stop this time?”
“What is wrong with you?” she snapped without turning around and quickened her pace.
“What do you mean?” he asked and ran in front of her and stopped her by putting his hands on her shoulders. He tried to look into her eyes, but there were too many dark shadows from the torchlight and he could not see her face clearly enough to gauge why she was reacting so.
“You didn’t want to talk to me today when I called for you,” she said.
“I was busy!” he protested.
“Well, if you’re too busy for me, then too bad. I know other people who aren’t too busy.”
Alaezdar shook his head and began to smile. She looked at him, but could not contain herself any longer and she too laughed.
“You’re too serious, Alaezdar. Come on,” she said and grabbed his hand and began to lead him away from the dance, but Tharn approached and stopped them.
“Alaezdar, I need to talk to Aaelie. Alone.”
“So do I!” Rivlok said as he stormed up in between the three of them.
“You don’t understand,” Tharn said. “This is important, and I don’t think Aaelie wants to hear what I have to tell her with you two here.”
“Well, whatever it is, you are just going to have to include me in,” Rivlok said and put his hands on his hips.
Tharn sighed. It might be best if they knew, he figured, because maybe they would be mad enough to do something that he himself was too afraid to do. Young men full of passion often did the wrong things, thinking with egos before thinking clearly. He had been like that once, long ago. Most of the time, he had made poor decisions, but he was beginning to think he was making poor decisions of late anyhow.
“Aaelie, Rivlok, Alaezdar,” he started after taking a deep breath. “Ambassador Krostos wants to take Aaelie with him to the kingdom of Triel where she can learn to be a servant to him and the king.”
“What? That can’t happen!” Rivlok said.
Aaelie covered her face.
“Why?” she asked, her eyes beginning to tear. “I won’t go. You can’t make me!”
“Unfortunately,” Tharn said. “Ambassador Krostos can make you. There is no one to stop him. You have no father, your mother is an old lady…”
“You can stop him!” Rivlok protested. “You are in charge here. You make all the decisions. Just tell him no. Please, Tharn, don’t let this happen.”
“It just isn’t that simple. Look. Here he comes now. Just talk to him, Aaelie, dance with him for a few dances. You’ll find that he is a kind, strong man of power. You can benefit from his graciousness.”
“No! I can’t, and I won’t!” she screamed at Tharn and hit him in the chest before she ran away towards the woods.
Rivlok saw the Ambassador coming and ran towards him with his knife pulled out. Alaezdar chased after Aaelie.
“No, Rivlok!” Tharn yelled.
Warrior Azrull, who walked beside the Ambassador, glared at Rivlok. Azrull was dressed in formal attire and had no combat gear on with the exception of his sword, strapped to his side. When he saw Rivlok coming at him, he withdrew his sword and stood in front of the Ambassador.
“Don’t come any closer, kid!” he yelled.
Rivlok, seeing that he had no chance, stopped in front of Azrull, just out of reach of his sword, and began yelling at the Ambassador. “You will not take her from her home, I promise you that!” he yelled and waved his knife in the air.
“Calm down, young man,” Krostos said. “I will take good care of her.”
“No, you won’t because she is not leaving”
“Put down the knife, boy,” Azrull said, looking around and noticing a crowd had formed. It seemed that every villager was there at that moment to witness what was going on. Many were beginning to mumble and some even tried to get Tharn’s attention by asking him what was going on.
“I will not,” Rivlok yelled. “You are going to have to kill me if you want Aaelie!”
“I will do that, and it looks as if I
will have to do it in front of everyone you know.”
“You do that and you are going to have to deal with all of us!” someone shouted from the crowd.
Hearing the crowd getting anxious, Azrull lifted his sword a little higher, backed up and put his left hand gently on the Ambassador’s chest pushing him back slightly.
“Let’s go, boy,” Azrull said and raised his sword, taunting Rivlok to come at him.
Rivlok grimaced, raised his knife and took a few steps forward just as there was a loud, snapping hiss and a booming crack above them all. The crowd looked up and saw one of Morlonn’s fire rocks flying through the air above them. It exploded when it hit the empty cow field on the other side of the square.
Some of the villagers ran away in fear while some oohed and aahed the spectacle.
That was enough distraction for Rivlok to charge after Azrull and try to plunge his knife into the warrior’s chest after catching him slightly off guard. Azrull’s experience in combat saved his life as he turned slightly from the knife to cause Rivlok to miss his mark. Rivlok still managed to slam into Azrull and they both fell to the ground.
Tharn, still quick and strong for his age, grabbed Rivlok and pulled him off Azrull before he could regain his composure and strike again.
“Run! Now!” Tharn yelled and he kicked Azrull in the ribs and then ran off behind the fleeing Rivlok.
***
Alaezdar chased after Aaelie and finally caught up with her at the edge of the forest. She said nothing, but grabbed his hand and led him deeper into the forest towards the river. They ran away from the people, the sounds, the torches. They ran deep into the dark, but Aaelie ran knowing her way in dark as if it was light. She led him past the eastern gate to the river, and they crossed it, they saw Morlonn fidgeting with his catapult, but he didn’t even raise his head to stop them. She led Alaezdar past the gate and clear from the trees and now the harvest moon was shining on them and reflecting off the river as well.
The Warrior's Bane (War for the Quarterstar Shards Book 1) Page 11
