The Dread Lords Rising

by J. David Phillips

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The Stench Of Death

  A week later Davin winced as Lord Joachim walked into the room and nearly threw their coats at them. After hearing that they had disobeyed his instructions, the man had been as hot as a smith’s forge. He gave a curt command to follow, and Davin began preparing for the worst. Niam looked over and asked quietly, “What do you suppose this is about?”

  Davin didn’t want to say anything for fear Joachim might hear. He just shook his head and placed a finger over his lips. Niam, however, went right on talking. “He did threaten to send us to work in the fields,” he surmised. “If it’s privy duty, honestly you’re stronger than me, so I figure you’ll get that and I’ll do something easier.” Davin punched him in the shoulder. “I’m just saying,” Niam said sorely.

  Joachim led them out of the nearest door and around toward the stables where a carriage waited, flanked by a guard of fifteen soldiers in hard leather armor, bearing short swords and bows slung across their backs. Davin muttered out of the corner of his mouth, “I don’t think he’d have guards for us if it was privy duty.”

  When Joachim opened the carriage door, Davin and Niam just stood facing the dark interior and looked at one another. Neither wanted to get in.

  “Go on boys,” Joachim said, emphasizing the word, “boys.” Davin took a breath and climbed in. As soon as he did, he was surprised to see Maerillus and a pale but improved Jolan Kine waiting for them, chatting amiably.

  For his part, Maerillus said nothing. News of what Niam had kept secret from him still ate at Maer, so he just looked away and pretended not to be paying any attention. Niam cast a quick glance in Maerillus’s direction and then frowned. Kine noticed the uncomfortable silence but said nothing of it. The moment he and Niam had taken Betsy to Lord Joachim, Kine had recommended Betsy be transferred to Joachim’s service and protection.

  Davin suspected that Maerillus was more upset about the fact that his access to Betsy would be limited than anything that had been kept from him. Now that Betsy was going to be a member of Joachim’s staff, she might end up anywhere. This was why Davin was glad there were no girls in his life at the moment. Of all the people to get sucked into such a complicated relationship, Davin would have fingered Niam as his first pick, not Maerillus. Yet in the space of a few months, Davin had discovered that something supernatural was communicating with him, that he had special abilities and powers most people feared, that a sorcerer was targeting the people of this area, that creatures beyond his worst nightmares existed and at times wanted to kill him . . . and that a Sartor was smitten with a maid.

  Life was indeed strange.

  “Where are we going, sir?” Niam asked as Lord Joachim stepped in and gave the coach the order to go.

  Joachim turned his head and gave Niam a flat, silent stare. “Since none of you has the good sense to stay where you’re told, I decided you ought to come with us, Mr. Maldies.”

  Niam sat there expectantly, but Joachim did not go on. Kine sat beside the count and couldn’t suppress a laugh. “You’ve gone and done it now!” he guffawed. “They’re too scared to move a muscle!”

  Davin sat uncomfortably stiff in his seat. “We’re going to Kreeth’s estate,” Count Joachim said.

  Niam was the first to tense up. “Um, could you run that by me again?”

  “You heard me Maldies,” Joachim said.

  Davin watched the expression on Niam’s face change. Several heartbeats of silence went by, and then: “Well that’s just good, sir. Go there with a sick Wizard’s Hammer and fifteen unprepared soldiers why don’t we? Just like we’re going on a picnic?”

  Maerillus decided he was going to be the next one to speak up. “Niam,” he growled. “Be quiet.”

  Niam pointed at the Wizard’s Hammer. “He doesn’t look like he can handle much more than getting in and out of the privy to me,” Niam said. “And those soldiers ought to have their bows strung and arrows nocked the moment we come even remotely close to Kreeth’s property. And you already know that those tralls need to be taken down with spears!”

  Maerillus looked at Niam with a curious expression, then he looked at Lord Joachim. “He is right, sir. You didn’t see how fast the wolfstrosities moved. Or the trall.”

  The count looked from Niam to Maerillus, as if he were weighing something in his mind, but said nothing. Jolan Kine sat watching the three of them with what Davin was coming to feel was an annoyingly secretive smile. Niam was nearly ready to stand up. “For another thing, none of you have any idea of what the boxes were like, and if one of your men stumbles onto one of Kreeth’s seals, they’re going to die. You need more than a body guard to come with us if you’re going to bring this man in.”

  That must have been what Joachim had been waiting to hear, because he looked around at all of them smoldering eyes. “And THIS is exactly what the three of you go gallivanting off to face without a care in the world!”

  Niam got ready to say more, but he suddenly stopped.

  ‘Well—“ was all he could manage.

  “Well?” Joachim demanded.

  “But—,” Davin began.

  “But nothing,” Joachim told him flatly. “How many times have stories of your exploits made their ways to my ears? Exploits that very well might have gotten you three killed. Who do you think is going to have to tell my childhood friends that their sons got killed thinking they could stick their noses into places that—by their own admission—my Wizard’s Hammer and an escort of professionally trained soldiers aren’t prepared to walk into?”

  Niam muttered under his voice. “I jig and Maerillus waltzes. Only Davin gallivants, sir.”

  “Always the comedian,” Joachim flared. “This isn’t funny.”

  “And yet we’re still gallivanting off to confront Kreeth,” Niam nearly cried out.

  “Relax Maldies,” Joachim said. “It appears as if the good Mr. Kreeth has fled the area.”

  Niam glared back in thunderous silence. “And you were going to tell me that when?” he demanded.

  “Kid’s got spunk,” Jolan said to Joachim.

  The count merely grunted. “They’re going to need more than spunk,” he said.

  Before Niam had a chance to whip himself up into another fit, Kine’s voice turned serious. “From what you have told us, there have been plenty of times when only stupid luck kept you alive.”

  “Like what happened at the Vandin camp,” Joachim reminded them.

  “Or the fact that I was there when the trall attacked you,” Kine added.

  “OR,” Joachim said, “when you barely got away from Kreeth’s home without getting yourselves killed.”

  “For that matter, if Kreeth had set out any traps when you followed Gaius’s servant into the woods, you might have been killed then,” Joachim said.

  Maerillus held his hands up. “I think we surrender. You’ve made your points.”

  “Somehow I doubt that,” a stolid Joachim retorted.

  Davin cleared his throat. “We did what we thought we had to do. You were both gone, and we couldn’t find you to tell you anything.” Joachim gave Davin an unreadable stare. “We have done nearly everything you’ve mentioned to help other people, and I think any of us would do it again.”

  Joachim and Kine looked at one another, and then Jolan asked, “Is that the way it is, boys?”

  “Yes sir,” Maerillus said in a diplomatically polite voice.

  Niam shrugged his shoulders. “I could go on.”

  Davin and Maerillus both elbowed him.

  “I’m just saying,” Niam said.

  A call from outside alerted Joachim that they were almost there.

  Niam peered through the window. “The place doesn’t
feel the way it did the day we came,” Niam told everyone. “Hey, did you tell them to keep an eye out for squirrel-monster-things?”

  Kine spoke up without missing a beat. “We’ve already cooked those up with dumplings.”

  Niam made a sour face.

  “Looks like you’re not the only one who’s a joker, now.” Davin whispered.

  Joachim said, “Yes, Niam. Squirrel-monster-things, wolfstrosity things, and former mayor things.”

  “Any idea where he’s run off to?” Davin asked as the increased sunlight reaching the carriage told them that they were now crossing Kreeth’s lawn.

  “I have as many people as possible searching for him,” the count said as Niam tensed up again. “My Hammer would like to speak with him about his involvement in Seth and Sarah’s deaths,” Joachim told Niam, and then looked at all three of them, but Jolan Kine leaned forward to speak before Joachim opened his mouth.

  “And this is why the three of you will NOT go after Mr. Braun on your own. No ‘buts,’ Niam. Not this time. The former mayor might not have harmed you and Davin, but there’s no telling what else is going on.” Niam looked around as if he had been garroted, but for once, he actually said nothing.