by Travis Pond
During all the commotion, Braon and Pol began fighting, swords clanging. They were evenly matched as the fight went back and forth. Pol jumped up on the bar to gain the higher ground and an advantage, or so he thought. Braon blocked a strike and thrust his sword into Pols thigh. Pol screamed, dropped his sword and fell backward off the bar.
Braon lowered his sword and a large man grabbed him around the chest from behind, lifting him off the ground and squeezing him so hard, he couldn’t take a breath. As the darkness began to come upon Braon, he suddenly fell and was on the ground coughing. After regaining his breath, Braon turned and saw a crossbow bolt sticking out of the man’s leg. Braon quickly looked around for the origin of the shot, but was unable to identify the shooter.
Two more men were on the ground holding various limbs after being shot as well. Tureis was standing over the remaining four men as they lay motionless on the floor. Braon scanned the room and got to his feet. He looked around, seeing all the brutes either lying motionless on the ground, or moaning and holding their hands over various wounds. “Whoa!” exclaimed Braon. “What in the…” He trailed off as he surveyed the scene and saw Ailish standing across from him. “Where did you come from?” he asked. Ailish said nothing but instead answered his question with a big grin.
“We better get out of here fast!” exclaimed Braon. “Within a few minutes this place will be full of people wanting our heads.” They gathered their weapons and together the three of them ran for the door.
Chapter 23
- Trust -
The three of them burst from the tavern door, stopping a short distance from the building and looked around. The horses they’d left across the cul-de-sac were nowhere to be seen. “Where did Seth and Eammon go?” asked Tureis.
“Where are the horses?” asked Braon.
“Hopefully they’re together,” said Ailish. “We’d better not sit out here too long. Let’s get going!” A loud noise sounded from down the street. Ahead of them twenty men carrying torches and weapons were coming down the middle of the street, walking straight for the them.
Tureis put his hand into his pocket and grabbed the sphere. His mind opened and he could see the layout of the town as well as the people moving through the streets. He could see the approaching men and the buildings as well as the remainder of the city in the distance. “Come on. Follow me,” he said.
Tureis turned and ran towards the shop next door with Ailish and Braon following close behind. They slipped through the gap between the buildings and stopped, leaning against the back wall. “We’ve got to keep moving,” said Tureis. He paused and closed his eyes concentrating. “They’re coming…. Ready…. Now!” Tureis rounded the corner of the building and stopped at the gap between the next building.
“Where are we going?” asked Braon. “We need to get out of here.”
“We are. Just follow me and we’ll be fine,” said Tureis.
“We need to go into the woods. Come on let’s go,” said Braon.
“We need to follow Tureis,” said Ailish.
“Why? How is he going to get us out of here?” asked Braon, clearly getting annoyed.
Tureis held up a hand to quiet them. “Wait… Ready….”
Braon interrupted Tureis and declared, “I’m going this way.” When Braon turned to run the opposite direction, Tureis and Ailish ran through the gap between the buildings. Suddenly, a loud yell came from behind them. They turned around and went back through the gap. When they turned the corner, a very large man wearing no shirt and dressed in a pair of tattered pants and boots was kneeling on Braon holding a large club. Braon was struggling on the ground trying to get up, but was being prevented by the large man kneeling on his back.
Feeling the Matya surge within him, Tureis raised his arms and pushed them towards the man. The Matya flowed from his hands and hit the man square in the chest, sending him flying backwards, hitting a tree and falling to the ground. He dropped the club and slumped over, knocked out cold.
Ailish grabbed Braon and helped him to stand. Tureis now held the sphere in his closed fist, “Come on.” While helping Braon, they quickly ran around the next building and came upon a trail leading into the forest. Tureis didn’t even slow down, but immediately turned into the forest.
They continued along the trail for a quarter mile before stopping to rest on a fallen tree. Listening intently and hearing no sounds of approaching men, they began to relax. “Where are we going?” asked Braon. When no one replied to his question, Braon asked, “Tureis, how did you get that guy off me back there?”
Tureis thought a moment, “I just pushed him, I guess.”
“Pushed him? He hit a tree ten feet away! That’s some push!” exclaimed Braon.
“No one is following us,” said Tureis, changing the subject and focusing on their continued escape. “Let’s keep going.” Tureis stood and began walking up the trail, further into the forest, Braon and Ailish followed close behind.
After several minutes Tureis stopped and listened. He turned his head to the right and left before he pointed, “This way.” Without waiting, Tureis straight walked into the forest, even though there was no trail.
After several minutes, Braon asked “Where are we going? Are we lost?”
Tureis raised his hand to quiet him and continued listening. He turned and looked at Braon and whispered, “Can you hear that?”
“Hear what?” asked Braon.
Tureis put a finger to his lips and whispered, “Listen.” Ailish and Braon closed their eyes and listened. Suddenly Ailish opened her eyes and whispered, “Horses.”
“I hear them too. They’re over there,” Braon said, pointing in the direction of the sounds.
“Let’s go,” said Tureis, and he continued walking toward the sounds of the horses.
They came around some rocks and found themselves looking straight at a fully drawn bow, with an arrow ready to fly. Tureis raised his hands, “Eammon! It’s us.” Eammon lowered the bow and blew out a long breath. “Wow! You scared us. I could hear something coming this way and had no idea it was you. How did you find us?”
“We could hear the horses,” said Tureis.
“Where’s Seth?” Ailish asked in a panic.
“I’m right here,” said a muffled voice from under a pile of saddlebags. Seth poked his head out. “Did we find out what we needed to?”
“That’s a good question,” said Ailish looking at Braon. “The whole thing ended sort of fast.”
“Tell us what happened,” said Seth.
“Lets gather the horses and supplies and move further into the forest,” Tureis interrupted. “There’s a few rather angry people still trying to find us.”
“Really! I can’t wait to hear all about it,” said Eammon with a slight chuckle.
They packed up the horses and moved a couple miles further into the forest where they set up camp and started a fire. After eating a well cooked meal, Eammon sat back and asked, “So how about that story now?”
Braon rehearsed all that happened in The Ugly Jug, telling in great detail how he fought Pol and how Ailish saved him from being squeezed to death. Braon looked at Tureis and asked, “What exactly did you do to those guys in the tavern? You took care of most of them yourself and they weren’t moving after you finished. Did you kill them?”
“No. They weren’t dead, just stunned,” said Tureis. “I hit them pretty hard with that rod. Those guys will be bruised pretty bad but they’ll be alright.”
Seth was enjoying the story but seemed a bit unsettled. Finally he interrupted the story and asked Braon, “So what did we learn? What did Pol tell you?”
Braon looked into the fire, contemplating what he wanted to say. After nearly a minute Braon finally spoke. There was a slight uneasiness to his voice. “I approached Pol at the bar while he was
eating,” Braon began. “I introduced myself and he seemed to remember me. He also seemed to know I’d escaped from Thaven and he was wondering what I was doing in Purromp. I told him I wanted information about what King Hamish wanted with Seth.”
Seth was leaning forward, hanging on every word of Braon’s story, hoping for an answer. Braon continued, “The only thing he said about the bounty on Seth’s head was that the king had his own reasons and he didn’t care. He just wanted Seth and that was it. He then said he wouldn’t tell me anything else because he didn’t want to help the competition.” Braon stumbled over that last word as if he intended to say something different.
“Did you say ‘didn’t want to help the competition?’” asked Seth. “What did he mean by that?” Everyone fell silent and just sat there looking at each other.
“Sounds like he thought you were trying to capture Seth for yourself,” Eammon finally said.
Braon looked at each of them, laughed and said, “You can’t be serious. I’m not here to capture Seth, I’m here to help him.”
“Then why would he say that?” asked Ailish.
“How should I know? Maybe he thought since I’d escaped from Thaven that I wanted some sort of revenge,” said Braon. The group fell silent and stared into the fire. None of them wanted to continue this conversation. The idea that Braon was here to capture Seth seemed inconsistent with his current actions. Still... the question couldn’t be ignored.
Ailish broke the silence, “Before the fight started you screamed something at Pol. What was it you said to him?”
Braon looked up, a visible annoyance on his face. He didn’t like these questions, and he didn’t want to answer them. Taking a deep breath he calmly replied, “I said, I can’t believe you did this to me.”
“What did you mean by that?” asked Ailish, with a slight accusatory tone in her voice.
“The ambush with all those guys,” said Braon defensively. “We were just talking and then he had those guys in the bar just ambush us. Why would he do that?” Braon took a deep breath and stood up. “I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in a while,” he said in a tone laced with frustration. Braon said nothing more, he simply turned and walked into the darkness.
After a couple quiet minutes passed Seth said, “It appears the only information we gained from this is the entire Kingdom of Zummot is looking for me and we still don’t know why.”
“We’ve learned something else as well,” said Tureis. “I overheard two guys talking in the bar and they seemed to know Seth was in or around Purromp and who was with him.”
“How would they know that?” asked Seth. “We haven’t really seen or spoken to anyone, and no one’s recognized me.”
“Could someone be following us?” asked Eammon.
“I’ve been walking through all the forests around where we’ve been staying and haven’t seen evidence of anyone anywhere,” said Ailish.
Tureis spoke up, “If anyone is following us, I can’t sense them or see them anywhere.” Since leaving the Oracle, Tureis had been constantly using his sphere to see what was around them. Sepi also taught him how to sense the Matya in others and use it to locate people around them. He’d been practicing on the members of his group without their knowledge. As he sent his Matya out around them, he’d been unable to feel the presence of anyone.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Eammon.
“It’s like how I found you tonight,” responded Tureis. “I knew where to look for you because I knew your Matya and how it felt. I used that to guide me through the forest until we found you.”
“I thought you heard the horses,” said Ailish.
Tureis smiled, “I did. But only once we got closer.”
They fell silent again for several minutes as they stared into the fire at the dancing flames. Ailish spoke softly, “We also learned something else tonight.”
Seth sat up anxious for any more information, “What was it?”
Ailish looked up from the fire and cleared her throat. She looked into the forest and listened making sure Braon was out of earshot. “I was waiting for Braon to leave before mentioning this,” she said. “I also overheard some guys in the bar talking about Seth. They said the bounty on Seth is five thousand gold pieces.” An audible gasp escaped both Seth and Eammon at the mention of the gold.
“Five thousand!” exclaimed Eammon. “That’s more than my uncle makes in five years as a blacksmith. No wonder everyone in the entire kingdom is looking for Seth.”
Ailish continued, “I also learned the bounty was announced by the Captain of the King’s Guard, a man named Gavin Crosse.” Ailish paused, listening again for any sounds in the forest. “There was a guy sitting at a table near where Tureis was sitting,” she continued. “When Braon walked over to Pol, that guy sat up and took notice. I moved closer to him and listened. He told another guy that he knew Braon and that somehow Braon and Gavin Crosse knew each other. It sounded like they might be friends of some kind.”
Eammon replied with some anger in his voice, “That could explain some things. When Braon met me in Kurith he said he’d escaped going to prison in Thaven and wanted to go to Zummot to meet someone. But he was going to wait for a while and let the search for him die down first. Right after that is when you three showed up.”
Tureis held up his hand to prevent this conversation from getting out of hand, and said “Ok. I think we’re starting to get ahead of ourselves here. We need to remember that the King himself, through my father and Ailish’s father, asked us specifically to find Braon and take him with us on this journey. They seemed to trust him, despite the whole stolen horse incident.”
“What do you suggest?” asked Ailish.
Tureis thought for a moment before replying. He remembered what the Oracle had told him about trusting Braon. “I think we need to trust Braon...for now. We can’t ignore the information we have, but we need to keep it to ourselves...also for now. We need to maintain a normal interaction with him until we have a reason to change. We also need to keep a close eye on him.” Everyone nodded and fell silent around the campfire.
Suddenly they heard heavy footsteps coming through the forest. They grabbed their weapons and stood. “It’s just me,” said Braon as he entered the clearing in front of them. “Sorry to alarm you.” Braon came into camp and sat down by the fire. He said nothing, and just stared into the flames. The rest of them sat back down.
Finally, Tureis spoke up, “Tomorrow we will go to Zummot. We need to get into the fortress.”
With the most serious expression they’d ever seen on Eammon’s face, he said, “Droskyn Fortress is not a place travelers just visit. They call it a fortress for a reason...it’s heavily guarded and the guards like to kill people for fun.”
“Why do you want to go into the fortress?” asked Braon. “Everyone here is looking for Seth and you want to walk him right in the front gate?”
“Sepi said the information we needed was in the fortress,” said Tureis.
“What are we looking for? What’s the information?” asked Braon.
Tureis looked seriously at Braon and softly answered, “That’s the big question. Seppi said we’d know when we found it.”
Chapter 24
- Fortress -
The next morning came early. Tureis was up before sunrise, mentally working through what may come this day. He didn’t sleep well last night as his mind replayed over and over the events of the day. He’d thought about the information Ailish shared the previous night and still something didn’t add up, but he couldn’t figure out what he was missing. He continued to ponder the conversation they’d had around the campfire the previous night. How did Baron know the captain of King Hamish’s guard, Gavin Crosse? Was that even significant? Something told him not to ignore the information.
He thought about their pla
n to get into the castle and where they would go once inside. They would be looking for someone the Council had embedded into the fortress, someone working closely with the Queen of Zummot. Last night they had agreed that under no circumstances would they divulge their true purpose to Braon.
After breakfast, they packed the horses and began their journey to Droskyn Fortress. Rather than taking the main roads, they stayed in the forest, following game trails, maintaining a northern direction. Shortly after lunch, they came to a large open area surrounding the front of Droskyn Fortress, crowded with people visiting the various shops and businesses.
Before approaching the fortress, they tied up their horses in the forest. Tureis reached into his bag and removed the cloaks taken from the men that had attacked them along the forest road weeks before. They put the long cloaks on over their clothes and made their way to Droskyn Fortress. As they approached, Seth pulled the hood up over his head shielding his face.
In front of the fortress was a large drawbridge that spanned a very wide, ice cold river with a swift current. They stood at the foot of the drawbridge, surprised at the large number of guards standing on the other side in front of the gate. “How are we going to get past all those guys?” asked Eammon in a hushed voice.
They stood to the side of the drawbridge, observing the activities around them, wondering exactly how they would get past the guards. They were wearing the cloaks of the King’s Guard, but what if they were noticed or discovered? After all, they did have Seth, the prize of all Zummot, with them, as well as a girl; and there were no girls in King Hamish’s Guard.
Suddenly, a loud rumbling came from behind them. They turned and a large number of men, dressed in the same familiar black cloaks, were approaching the fortress. Some of the men were riding horses and others were walking to the outside. As the riders passed on their way into the fortress, one of the men shouted down to them, “Are you coming in? Gavin requested all the members of the Guard be in attendance.”