Knights End

by Brad Clark

  “Should we find Hargon, now?” Conner asked.

  Marik glanced back at the courtyard, but Hargon could no longer be seen. “That will have to wait. Those horses were dead tired. The scouts have been pushing the horses too hard for too long. When the battle comes, they need to be fresh. The strength of a Knight is only as good as the strength of his steed.”

  “Now it’s you who’s sounding like a leader.”

  Marik let out a grunt and left to trot down the stairs and head towards the stables leaving Conner alone atop the wall.

  For a brief moment, Conner thought about going after Hargon, but the solitude of the wall drew him to stay. He could still hear typical castle noises, but he easily tuned them out. Looking upon the open valley that led to the forest, he could not believe that there would soon be a battle waging in the peace and tranquility of the mountains. Much blood would be shed, and the fate of the world would hinge upon the outcome of the battle.

  He shivered, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  ***

  “It wouldn’t hurt if you wouldn’t fight me,” Hargon said between clenched teeth.

  Hargon had a firm hold on Marila’s upper arm and was not going to let go. She tried to squirm away several times, but his grip was too strong. If she really wanted to, she could attack him with her sharp nails, but that would also expose herself to the rest of the castle.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

  He had marched her quickly across the courtyard. Although it exposed them to being seen, it was the only way to get from the caverns to his chamber in the main part of the castle. Besides, the courtyard was bustling with activity, and no one would notice, or even care what he was doing. Soldiers were training for the coming battle. Many of them were teaching unskilled men and boys to help in the fight. Those who weren’t training were doing the menial work to keep the castle going and everyone fed.

  After pushing her through the double doors that led to the main hall, he directed her to a stairwell that led to a lower level where his apartment was located. With a mumble of the words of a spell, the door opened just as they arrived.

  “Remember this place?” Hargon asked. “This is where you tried to steal my necklace.”

  Marila tried to force tears to come, but her eyes remained dry. For some reason, she also couldn’t get her illusion to cry, either. The emotion of terror had initially caused her to cry, but now, she didn’t feel the same fear. A feeling of acceptance of her fate had fallen over her, making her somber and quiet.

  Hargon let her go, and he marched over to a large pitcher of sweet wine. He filled a large goblet and drank it deeply.

  As soon as he put the goblet to his lips, Marila bolted for the door. She gripped the door handle and gave it a hank, but it didn’t budge. She took the handle with both hands and began desperately pulling on it.

  When Hargon finished the goblet, he poured himself another. To Marila, he said, “The door is sealed by a spell. It cannot be opened unless the spell is canceled or countered. So, unless you can touch the Web of Magic and cast a spell to cancel mine, I think you are stuck here.”

  She turned and leaned her back against the solid door. She still wanted to cry, and tears still did not come.

  “Are you ready to answer my questions?” Hargon asked.

  “Are you going to kill me?” She replied.

  Now that his initial thirst was quenched, and the effects of the sweet wine were tingling his senses, Hargon only took a small sip from the goblet. “That is a good question. If you answer all my questions honestly, then, no, I will not kill you. You have my word on the that.”

  “What does your word mean?”

  Hargon laughed. “That is an even better question! I was once the ruler of the greatest nation this world had ever known. The Taran Empire spread from one side of the continent to the other, and I was its sole ruler. I had all the power and luxury that an emperor could have. I had more to give that could ever be given. And with all that, I still had my word. It is how I kept my power, at least until my brother poisoned me and stole it. To you, my word may mean nothing, but to me, it means everything.” He lifted his hands to show his comfortable chamber. “Other than this simple room with simple furnishings, it is truly all that I have left.”

  He took a step towards her. “So, I give you my word. You tell me honestly who, or what, you are, and I promise you that I will not kill you.”

  “Will you let me go?”

  Hargon’s smile widened to show his white teeth. “That is a promise I will not make. I am not a monster or a murderer, but I am not stupid. I will not have you running away to give all our secrets to your Deceiver.”

  She shook her head violently. “He is not my Deceiver. He tried to kill me. I will never go back to him!”

  “Come, sit on my couch, and you will tell me all you know. Tell me the story of how the Deceiver tried to kill you.”

  Marila did not move.

  “I am not going to hurt you. Unless you lie to me. Then you will regret every lying word that comes out of your mouth.”

  She still did not budge.

  “As emperor, I had privy to all the most hideous ways to torture a person. I’d seen men put in so much pain that they screamed for two days straight. I know the value of such methods, and I also know that they do not always work. The problem with torture, of course, is that it can get messy and I would rather not mess up my apartment. So, we can go the messy route, or we can go the easy route. That is up to you.”

  Her eyes fell onto the couch. A moment later, while he patiently waited, she stepped forward and sat on the far end of the couch. The cushions were soft and comfortable, something she did not expect. She ran her hand across the top of the cushions, feeling a softness that she had never felt before.

  He took a deep drink from his goblet. “This couch is my one luxury. It was actually taken from Lord Neffenmark’s chambers when we arrived. Fortunately, Queen Elissa was too busy with all her activities to notice the couch went missing. Her apartment was filled with plenty of fine furniture, so I figured I deserved it, so I took it.”

  “It is comfortable.”

  Hargon sat down on the other end of the couch. “Are you sure you don’t want some wine.”

  Marila shook her head. She had seen what it did to people, and she didn’t care for that to happen to her. She wanted to be able to think clearly and straight.

  “Suit yourself!” With one final gulp, he finished the rest of the wine from the goblet. “Is your name really Marila?”

  The question caught her off-guard. She was expecting him to ask her who she really was, and she had not yet decided how she was going to answer. It was an easy question, so she went ahead and answered.

  “It is what my name sounds like when spoken in Commoner. Marila is close enough.”

  “So, Commoner is not your native language? What is?”

  She shrugged. “It has no name, I guess. It is what all of us speak. When we are young, we are also taught to speak Commoner.”

  “Why?”

  “Why are we taught to speak Commoner?”

  “Yes.”

  She shrugged.

  He smiled. “All my emissaries are taught three languages. Taran, obviously, since that is their native language. Commoner, because that is a language that most everyone can speak. And the third is the native language of the land they will be going to. Do you know what an emissary does?”

  “No.”

  “Well, in most cases, an emissary is sent to another kingdom, or nation, or empire, to start a trade route, or to negotiate peace, or to simply say hi. But, in some cases, these emissaries have another mission, and that is to spy on the nation for me. I want to know how powerful they are, their strengths, weaknesses, and anything else that can help me win a war against them. That is why you are taught Commoner, Marila. It is because you are a spy. Is that right?”

  She kept her gaze on him, trying to tell herself, and him, tha
t she was not a spy.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You can admit it. I already know the truth.”

  Her gaze dropped.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere.” He stood and refilled his goblet.

  “Where are you from? You look Karmon, but I don’t think you are from Karmon. There is a small nation called Daggog that I conquered many years ago that you could be from. Are you a Daggogian?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “When did the Deceiver recruit you? Before or after he attacked South Karmon?”

  Marila realized that for as bright as Hargon seemed, he missed who she really was. He clearly picked up on the fact that she was a spy, but not that she was actually from his realm. She considered whether or not she should tell him that much, but she feared that if she held it back, he would figure it out and then begin to hurt her. She regretted not telling Queen Elissa right away. If she had done so, she was sure that she would have been unharmed. Maybe the Queen would have imprisoned her, but at least she wouldn’t have been tortured. That was something that she was sure Queen Elissa would have opposed to.

  “Well?” His calmness went away when Hargon was forced to press for an answer. The force of his voice brought an immediate response.

  “After,” she replied as truthfully as she could.

  “What was your mission?”

  “I was sent here to locate your necklace,” she replied, again doing her best to stick to the truth as much as possible.

  Hargon touched it through his thick robes. “You did locate it. But that could not have been your only mission, for you came back.”

  She tried to keep her newly found emotions in check, but she let a loud sob escape. “I failed. I failed to steal the necklace, and the Deceiver tried to kill me. I left him and had nowhere to go.”

  Hargon shook his head slowly and clicked his tongue. “Oh, you poor thing.”

  He moved across the couch and put an arm around her shoulders as her single sob turned in a series of uncontrolled sobbing.

  “So, you failed as a spy, and you felt the best place to go was to go back to the place that you spied on?”

  “The Deceiver is pure evil! I see that now, and I needed to get as far away from him as I could. This castle has defenses that might actually stop him, and it’s the safest place I could be!”

  His hand moved to the back of her neck, and he squeezed it with sudden and angry force. She let out a screech, which only caused his anger to burn stronger. Before she could react or fight back, he pushed her from the neck, sending her tumbling across the room.

  She looked up at him from the floor and no longer saw the handsome man that she had initially met. His robes were swirling around him, and the air in front of him seemed to shimmer.

  “I told you that if you lied to me, you would regret it.”

  Hargon’ lips moved, but she could not hear the spell that he was invoking. She braced for the worse, expecting death to come. She just hoped that it would come quickly.

  Chapter Nine

  “You imbecile!” Lord Martin growled and charged forward.

  Rufus, unafraid of the fat lord, stood his ground. He was, and always would be a soldier, which meant that part of his duty was to stand and let those over him yell, berate, curse, and do whatever they wanted. He was okay with it for now, as he knew that those who stood taller fell the farthest and the hardest.

  With a calm bearing, Rufus simply replied, “If I had gotten any closer, I would have been discovered. Your orders were clear about that.”

  “I needed to know what they were talking about! I cannot make my plans without having all possible information!”

  Lord Martin turned his back to Rufus and rubbed his chin. With each passing hour, the start of the battle became closer. With no sign of the Deceiver’s army, there was no way to know when it would start, but it was inevitable. He needed to be out of the castle before the fighting began, else there would be no chance of getting out at all. The walls of the castle were strong, but so were those of South Karmon. The Taran army was strong, but they failed to hold back the Deceiver’s army. The Karmon Knights were nearly unbeatable and proved it on the outskirts of Tyre. But, they couldn’t save the city. They could only hold the goblin horde off long enough to allow the people of Karmon to escape north to this castle. Between the goblin horde and the other beasts that the Deceiver would throw at them, there was no defense that the Elves or Karmons could throw up that could stop them.

  His desperation was causing his heart to pound hard in his chest. He leaned against a plush chair that had been pilfered from one of Neffenmark’s many apartments. Closing his eyes, he tried to calm his short and shallow breathing. He needed to hold on to the chair to keep his balance. At this moment, if he let go, he would fall to the ground.

  “The key is this Marila lady,” Rufus said. “I am sure of it. There is something about her that doesn’t fit. She just shows up after wandering the mountains for several days? No one knows who she is.”

  Lord Martin gripped the chair tightly and kept his eyes on the ground to keep from toppling over. Between clenched teeth, he snapped, “Of course I know who she is. I have been in politics for all my life, and I know a spy when I see one!”

  “Then why don’t we go straight to Queen Elissa?”

  “You are surely an imbecile! That is precisely what we need to do, but with Marila in tow! We cannot go to the Queen when Hargon has her, now can we?” He turned his head to look at Rufus and saw a blank look staring back at him. Risking falling over, Lord Martin stood. “I have already gone to the Queen to address my plan for getting our people out of harm’s way, and she rebuffed me. She clearly is not listening to logic or basic reasoning, so we must provide her with clear and obvious evidence that staying here is worse than heading north to the Great Mountains. Marila is the key. With a spy in our midst, the Queen will quickly realize that our safety has been compromised, and the only option for survival is to escape these walls. But, first, we must get our hands on Marila. That is where you failed and why you are an imbecile!”

  Rufus crossed his arms and waited for Lord Martin to finish his rant. He would have left Lord Martin a long time ago if there were any other options. There was little that he despised more than the Karmon Knights and the nobles who ruled the kingdom. He only tolerated Lord Martin because there was an end-game that saw him rising to power above those who once had ruled over him.

  “What now?” Rufus asked.

  Taking a deep breath, Lord Martin straightened up and turned towards Rufus. His heart had slowed, and he was sure he wasn’t going to topple over. “We appealed to the Queen, the first and most obvious person to bring our appeal to. That has failed, so we go down one step. We go to Hargon and convince him that it is time to let the people of this kingdom survive. As a former emperor, he will surely understand the need to save the citizens of this kingdom.”

  “He has Marila.”

  “Yes, and he also probably knows by now that she is a spy, which means we don’t have to convince him of that. With him on our side, we won’t even need the Queen. He has more power than she does, so if she tries to stop him, then poof!” He waved his hands in front of him as if he were casting a spell. “He does some spell stuff. We’ll need some muscle to show our own power and that we have a strong following. That is how politics works. It’s only through power and the show of force that things get done.”

  Lord Martin stepped over to a small chest that was on the ground and fidgeted with the lock for a moment before he was able to open it. He pulled out a handful of gold coins and showed them to Rufus. “Take these and buy us our following.”

  Rufus shook his head. “Maybe once the war is over those will mean something. Right now, though, they are meaningless. The rations that are being given out are meager. Double those for these men, and they will come willingly.”

  Lord Martin smiled and closed his hand around the gold coins. He would have to think about
packing them in chests that could easily be transported because once the decision was made to leave the castle, it would be a mad rush to leave.

  “You will need more than a handful of those when this is over, though,” Rufus added. “Your mercenary army will not work for food alone. You must promise them a chest-full each, and then they will have something to look forward to.”

  “Fine. Promise them whatever you want.”

  Rufus raised an eyebrow. “If you promise something that you cannot deliver, they will become quite angry.”

  “In the end, either I will have the power of the Queen, or we will all be dead. Whatever you promise, if we survive, I will deliver.”

  “Give me about an hour and then meet me at the main hall.”

  “Main Hall? Why there?”

  “That is where I saw him enter the castle. His chamber is not far from there.”

  “Oh? How do you know where his chamber is?”

  Rufus smiled and shrugged. “It is what I do.”

  ***

  Conner trudged down the steps watching Marik berate Sir Olynn for the condition of the horses. It wasn’t Sir Olynn’s fault, and he knew it. The young knight took the verbal thrashing with a professional, stoic demeanor. Everyone was on edge, and even though it wasn’t right for Marik to place blame, he needed to blow off some steam. He would regret it in about ten minutes and then humbly ask Sir Olynn to forgive him for his outburst. Worse, though, Conner noticed the way the Elves looked at one another while Marik berated Sir Olynn. They surely did not understand the pressure that everyone was under, and he could tell that the Elves were casting judgment on Marik.

  His thoughts were confirmed when Glaerion came up to him and said, “Sir Marik is being quite rough on that poor Knight.”

  “Marik is just letting his frustration show,” Conner replied.

  “I thought you Karmon Knights were not supposed to show that kind of emotion?”

  “I’m not a Knight so I wouldn’t know,” Conner retorted with some hidden bitterness.