The Great Northern War (The Portal Wars Saga Book 2)

by Wisher, James E

  The throne room door opened and Borden strode in. “He’s gone.”

  If there was one thing Wolfric liked about Borden it was his complete lack of formality. He was also one of the few that knew Otto had helped him plan the removal of his father from the throne. Unlike Kelten, Borden had little use for Father’s maneuvering and subtlety. While Wolfric had no issues with either of those things, he knew they couldn’t solve every problem. Some problems required steel and blood.

  “Good. Are the palace guards giving you any trouble?”

  “They aren’t thrilled about their commander losing his position, but no one has questioned my orders yet. Anyone that does will find themselves on the street with Kelten.”

  “Agreed. People need to accept that I’m king now not my father. The sooner they do that the better. You sent the letter to Commander Trask?”

  “First thing this morning. He wasn’t happy either but agreed to drop the investigation.”

  Wolfric nodded. “Have someone keep an eye on him. I don’t want any nasty surprises.”

  “Maybe we should just kill them both.”

  “If it comes to that, fine, but the king’s death rattled the people. Should the watch commander and the captain of the palace guard both fall as well, only months later…” Wolfric shook his head. “I might be king, but I can’t rule if I lose the confidence of the people and the nobility. The deaths of more prominent people, especially right after I gave them orders they didn’t like, would invite too many questions. Should they defy me again or move against the throne, that’s another matter.”

  “As you wish. There are a few petitioners this morning. Do you want to see them or should I have them return tomorrow?”

  “I’ll see them. No sense giving the impression that anything’s changed.”

  Borden nodded and headed for the door.

  Wolfric slipped his robe back on and adjusted his crown. It was time to listen to some complaints and show off his wisdom. He smiled to himself. Maybe he should be one of those kings that led the army personally.

  At least he wouldn’t die of boredom.

  Chapter 44

  Kelten sat in the dark corner of a tavern no one bothered to name and sipped weak ale. Four days had passed since he was dismissed from his position as Captain of the Palace Guard. His civilian tunic felt strange and he missed the weight of his mail coat. He’d gambled everything and lost it all. He had no idea what the future held for him and no particular desire to find out. He had coin enough to hold him over for a few months at least, assuming he was careful. Maybe he’d get a job guarding caravans come spring.

  A bitter laugh drew a few curious looks, but this wasn’t the sort of place that people asked questions and the curious soon returned to their drinks. To go from a protector of kings to a protector of produce, quite a step down. There were plenty who would laugh at his fall. He had earned derision for his actions. His duty had been to the living not the dead.

  He sighed and took another sip.

  A man in a dark cloak slid into the seat across from him. Kelten had been so distracted he hadn’t even noticed the stranger approaching. That was a good way to get his throat cut.

  “You look like something I stepped in on my way here and scraped off my boot.”

  Kelten blinked. “Trask? What are you doing here?”

  “Keep your voice down.” Trask looked around, but no one was paying them the least attention. “I’m risking my job even talking to you. Word came down from the king that we were to drop our investigation into the assassination. Officially I have, but my people still keep their eyes open. Allen and his friend have surfaced at last. I can’t go after them, but you can. What more do you have to lose?”

  Kelten scowled. He’d take considerable pleasure beating the miserable tavern keeper to a pulp. “Where is he?”

  “Back at his place if you can believe it. He opened last night like nothing happened. Someone must have gotten word to him that the watch wasn’t looking for him anymore. Like you said, I think I have a leak in my office. But that’s my problem. What are you going to do?”

  “Talk to Allen. One way or another I will find out the truth.”

  Trask nodded. “I was hoping you’d say that. I’ve ordered all patrols to avoid the area tomorrow between noon and three. You can make your move then. I’m sorry I can’t do more.”

  “There is one more thing you can do. I need a sword.”

  Trask shifted around and leather scraped on metal. He pulled his sheathed blade out from under his cloak. “Here, it’s standard issue to the watch and the most common design sold in Garen.”

  Kelten hefted the sword and smiled his first genuine smile in weeks.

  Allen leaned on the bar and smiled to himself. It was good to be home and even better to escape Eric and Erin’s dingy little flat. The place was a tight fit for two people and four was ridiculous. When Sin had finally informed him that the hunt had been called off his sigh of relief had been loud indeed. Ulf had simply shrugged and said he’d seen worse. For that, among many other things, he pitied his friend.

  The real shocker had come when Sin revealed the king himself had ordered the watch to drop their search. Deep down he suspected Lord Shenk must have had a hand in it, but as far as Allen knew, their employer hadn’t been back from the front in weeks. Given that he could travel by magic and had no reason to tell Allen about his comings and goings, Lord Shenk could have visited a dozen times.

  As he was happily surveying his recovered domain, someone knocked on the front door. It was barely after noon and they didn’t open for hours. Who could be bothering them this early?

  Allen touched the mark Lord Shenk had put on the back of his neck. If he had returned, they’d best not keep him waiting.

  “Ulf? Would you get that?”

  Ulf stood up from the pot he’d been tending and walked silently to the door. He slid the bolt open and the instant he did, the door crashed into him, sending the slender man sprawling.

  Captain Kelten strode through, a sword bare in his hands. He kicked the door shut and put the tip of the blade to Ulf’s throat. “You will answer all my questions or your friend dies.”

  Allen stared in disbelief. “You again. What demon lord did I offend that he should sic you on me?”

  “I know you were seen in the company of the assassin Lothair and that a wizard fitting Lord Shenk’s description captured you all.” Allen’s stomach twisted. This couldn’t possibly end well. “Was he involved in the king’s murder?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Kelten pushed the tip of his sword harder into Ulf’s throat. “That is not an acceptable answer. Try again.”

  “Look, yes, Lord Shenk captured the three of us. After a thorough questioning, he made Ulf and I a proposal, work for him putting together a spy network and live. Or hang. It wasn’t a hard choice. He let us go but kept Lothair along with a pair of Straken spies. What happened after we left, I can’t say and don’t want to know.”

  “Why would Lord Shenk trust you when you were working for the enemy hours before?”

  Allen turned slowly and lifted his hair off the back of his neck. “See that mark? It’s magic. Lord Shenk can use it to find us anywhere in the world and kill us. Let’s just say betraying him wouldn’t be in our best interest.”

  “Lord Shenk couldn’t have been acting alone. Who was with him?”

  Allen turned back, keeping his hands visible. The nearest weapon was his sword and it was hanging from a hook at the end of the bar. Even if he could reach it, Ulf would be dead before he could do anything.

  “If you mean the soldiers that were trying to kill us, I didn’t get a formal introduction. There were five of them dressed in unremarkable mercenary gear, lots of leather and steel.”

  “Describe them.”

  Allen racked his brain. He’d been focused on other things at the time, like staying alive. He’d only paid attention to the man that threatened him, and that was Lord Shenk. “The leader
of the mercenaries was maybe forty, scruffy beard, a little shorter than me with a broken nose. He had a rough, scratchy voice, though that might have been from yelling orders during the fight. I believe Lord Shenk said his name was Hans.”

  At the mention of that name, a light went on for Kelten. Allen had made a career of reading people and that man had just learned something that interested him. Hopefully it wouldn’t be something that got Allen killed when Lord Shenk found out he let it slip.

  “Lothair was still in chains when you were released?”

  Allen nodded.

  “What about the other prisoners? Tell me about them.”

  “I didn’t know them well. From what I heard I judged they were Straken spies and when they were hanged as such a few days later it was confirmed. I swear I knew them only as customers. Had I known their true allegiance, I never would have sold them information.” He withheld a silent “probably” since if they’d offered enough coin, Allen certainly wouldn’t have thought much about their plans before taking the gold.

  Kelten was silent for so long Allen finally asked, “What happens now?”

  “Nothing, everything, I don’t know. Don’t follow me.” Kelten bolted for the door and was gone.

  Allen walked around the bar and helped Ulf to his feet. “We need to install a door with a peep hole.”

  “Or hire a doorman.” Ulf touched his neck where the tip of Kelten’s sword had left a small crease. “What do you think he’s going to do?”

  “I don’t want to know. Just pray he doesn’t come back or mention to Lord Shenk everything we told him. Either of those is liable to end poorly for us.”

  Kelten remembered nothing about his journey from the tavern to his flat. He threw his borrowed sword on the table and slumped into his lone chair. It all made sense to him now. How the assassin had reached the king, why Wolfric wanted to end the investigation, all of it.

  Hans was the key. Kelten had met him a few times. He was one of Wolfric’s most loyal supporters. There was no way he wasn’t keeping his master informed about Otto’s plans. That meant Wolfric was aware of and probably approved of having his father killed. Whether you called it regicide or patricide, it was still murder. How could he have done it? The late king was the kindest man Kelten had ever known and Wolfric never showed any sign of wanting power, at least not in Kelten’s view.

  Father and son did quarrel after Garenland was cast out of the compact. Kelten didn’t know the details, but there were rumors that Wolfric didn’t approve of his father’s weak response to the Straken invasion. Considering that the first thing he did after being crowned king was deploy the Northern Army, it wasn’t impossible to imagine he’d believed he was doing the right thing by removing his father.

  Kelten couldn’t judge Wolfric’s motives, only his actions. He was clearly involved with his father’s murder, along with Otto, Hans, and his men. They needed to be held responsible for their actions. Not that there was anyone in a position to punish them. Who exactly did one complain to when the king broke the law? You could even argue that since the king decided what the laws were, he couldn’t break them.

  No, if Wolfric and his conspirators were going to pay for what they did, it was up to Kelten and whoever else he could convince to aid him to make things right.

  He smiled. A weight had lifted from his chest. All the stress and anxiety he’d felt over not knowing the truth was gone. What he’d learned was horrible, but now he knew what he had to do. He would probably die doing it, but that didn’t matter. The right thing was worth dying for. Justice was worth dying for.

  But he had to act quickly. With Otto and Hans at the front, Wolfric was alone and vulnerable. He had no hope of besting the wizard, but if he could defeat Wolfric and expose his crimes, all the nobles would rally to the cause of hunting Otto and the others down and seeing them pay.

  Wolfric was the key. Kelten still had people loyal to him in the palace guard. It wouldn’t take many of them to capture an unblooded boy.

  Kelten leapt to his feet. The night shift was off duty and a handful lived outside the palace.

  It was time to get started. It was time to put things right.

  Chapter 45

  The worst thing about their overwhelming victory, at least as far as Otto was concerned, was the prisoners. They’d taken a ton of them and now they needed to feed and guard them. He was fairly sure that Wolfric only wanted them to go easy on civilians, not soldiers, but General Varchi was in charge and he’d decided to interpret the king’s command as widely as possible.

  Which was strange considering earlier he’d seemed to resent them. Perhaps he was just being difficult to punish Otto and the wizards for their large part in the army’s success. Tempting as it was to simply execute the prisoners all while the general slept, he wasn’t ready for that confrontation yet.

  Day after day the army crawled ahead at a snail’s pace while scores of units traveled east and west to forage for supplies to keep them all fed. Worst of all, they’d already had the first snow of the year. Only a dusting, but it was enough to remind them of what was coming. At their current pace, it would be a miracle if they got within sight of Marduke before they were buried in snow. At best they’d have two shots at the city. Fail and it was back to Garenland for the winter.

  Much as he disliked the idea of retreating, they’d accomplished far more than Otto had dared hope when the war began. At a minimum, they’d eliminated any threat from Straken for years. And even if they failed to take the capital, when the Northern Army returned in the spring, they’d face a far smaller opposing force. No, whatever else happened, Otto couldn’t consider the campaign anything but a success.

  And it might be even more than that if his hunch proved correct. Lord Karonin, when she told him about the armory in Garenland had kind of hinted that there were more. He took it as a challenge that she hadn’t told him exactly how many more or where they were. His theory was that one might be hiding in Straken. Since he didn’t have anything better to do while they were slogging toward Marduke, he figured he might as well look for it.

  Otto urged his horse over beside Hans’s wagon. “Do you need something, my lord?”

  “I’m going to do some scouting and I can’t guide the horse at the same time.” Hans brought his wagon to a halt, Otto tied his horse to the back gate, then climbed up beside him. “I’ll still be able to hear you, so if there’s trouble let me know.”

  “Understood.”

  Otto closed his eyes and sent his vision soaring. Usually he didn’t focus on the ether when he went searching, but today he needed to if he wanted to find his target. When he shifted his perception, the ether appeared, brighter and richer to his magical vision than when he was seeing through his physical eyes. This was close to what he experienced when he became one with the ether.

  The colors, swirls, and lines were terribly distracting. Searching for an enemy position with all this going on around him would have been pointless. He assumed if there was an armory in Straken, it would have a different marker than the one in Garenland, but just to be sure he focused on the rune Lord Karonin had shown him in the tower all those months ago.

  Even at this distance he could vaguely sense it to the south. As he feared there was nothing closer with that mark. How was he supposed to separate all the background energy from what he sought?

  As he considered the problem, he turned a slow circle. Three-quarters of the way around he stopped and stared. A straight streak of energy flashed past. Otto followed it as far as he could but ran out of threads before he got to the end. Still, that was far enough to realize what he saw was something traveling through the portal to Marduke.

  The moment he recognized it, he knew how to find the armory, assuming there was one here. The ether around him was chaotic and random swirls. When a wizard worked the energy, it took on an ordered, regular appearance. That was what he needed to search for.

  Determined now, he kept his senses focused on anything straight or geomet
ric. It took over an hour, but he finally found it. At the foot of a mountain, as far east as his extended senses would reach, he found a sealed area where his sight couldn’t penetrate. That had to be what he was looking for.

  He flew down for a closer look. The space warded against his entrance was about a hundred feet square at the base of a sheer cliff. He’d wager his sword that an illusion disguised an entrance of some sort there. He marked a clear spot fifty feet from the ward and snapped back to his body.

  “Anything happen while I was gone?” Otto rolled his shoulders and worked his neck from side to side. Whenever he was out of his body for any length of time, he ended up stiff.

  “Nothing, Lord Shenk. You’d think they’d send raiders to harass us or something.”

  “They don’t have the men to spare. For Straken, the capital city will be all or nothing. There was nothing moving besides us for twenty miles.”

  “I wish they’d try something. Using that armor is addicting. The power is unlike anything I’ve ever felt.”

  “Interesting. Perhaps you’re getting a small taste of what wizards feel when we work magic. It’s called the Bliss.”

  “That’s a fine name for it. Small wonder that wizards enjoy magic so much if that’s what you feel.”

  “I’ve located something interesting. If there’s trouble, you know how to use the coin. I’ll return after camp is set tonight. Place the coin in a clear space in my tent and make sure no one enters. Understood?”

  “Yes, my lord. If I may ask, what did you find?”

  “I’m not sure yet, but it’s old and magical and therefore interesting.” Otto focused and became one with the ether.

  Chapter 46

  Otto followed his marking thread back to the cliff wall he was certain hid another armory. When he emerged from the ether he held his breath and listened. Aside from a few chirping birds, he could have been alone in the world. If this armory was anything like the one in Garenland, there would certainly be some sort of trap protecting the entrance. Hopefully it worked like the first one and he’d be able to open it with no trouble.