by Chuck Black
We mounted, and I looked at William, Rob, and Barrett to my right. I smiled as I remembered our adventures together. They smiled, as if also remembering. Talea rode to my left, and Cullen and Keely, along with the other two city prefects, were beside her. I was amidst warriors on a noble mission, and I was honored to be with them.
“Lead on, Sir Cedric,” William said with a broad smile.
“The honor is yours, Governor.” I bowed from my mount.
He smiled and then sat tall on his steed. “Move out!” he commanded, and we launched into the kingdom on a mission of restoration.
As we rode, we talked of our missions and our new responsibilities. I sensed uneasiness in all but Cullen. His wholehearted ambition to serve the Prince seemed to overcome any lack of self-confidence, which was an encouragement to all of us. Cullen was an excellent addition to our company. If there was any apprehension in him, it was due to not knowing what had happened to family members he left behind.
I did not mind the length of our journey, because at its end William and I would part ways, and I was saddened at the thought. I knew no other kindred spirit like him, and I did not relish saying good-bye.
After many miles and much conversation, I realized that Talea had remained quiet through it all. I glanced her way, and William followed my gaze.
“Talea,” William addressed her. “You have a rather challenging task ahead of you since Cedric here seems to find trouble wherever he goes. You must do your best to keep him out of it.”
Talea smiled at him. “I’m sure it will be challenging indeed.” She quickly resumed her quiet demeanor.
I glanced at William, and he raised an eyebrow. I shrugged and thought how much she reminded me of most of the Silent Warriors … only prettier and smaller. Keely maneuvered her horse next to Talea and found a friend there, for which I was grateful.
At Chandril, we left Barrett and his men and traveled northeast. We rode many days and finally arrived in the region of Cameria. It was a green and lush land with many forests and lakes. From the moment we arrived, I sensed greater apprehension in Cullen. This was unusual for a man of his confidence and caliber. He was obviously concerned about his family, but in addition, this land was his home, and he knew, as we all did, that his people had suffered greatly under the Dark Knight.
Most of the citizens welcomed us with open arms, both within the cities and without. They had tasted the evil deeds of Alexander Histen, Lucius’s pseudonym for his role in Arrethtrae, and had been severely oppressed. Only those who had enjoyed positions of power and authority from Lucius resisted, and they were quickly routed, for Lucius and most of the Shadow Warriors were now in the prisons of the Wasteland. As is the case with all tyrannical, oppressive governments, only the leaders had prospered. This was clearly evident on the weary faces of the people and in the dilapidated condition of most of the cities’ streets, shops, and homes.
The knights who accompanied the prefects were given leadership positions, but I also encouraged each prefect to find trustworthy and respected citizens and assign them to positions of authority. The knights’ jobs were not just to rule but also to gain the trust and respect of the people. In each city, the Code was reaffirmed as the principle doctrine to govern each heart.
William traveled to each of the cities since he would ultimately be responsible for the entire region. Only one city remained: Elttaes. We had been delayed at Kroywen since it had been the largest and the most difficult in which to establish the new rule. It was also where William chose to reside because of its centrality to the other four cities. Cullen and his men departed for Elttaes before we were ready to leave Kroywen. He was anxious to return to the city to discover what fate his family and friends had endured. Unfortunately, no city, village, or farm had been spared the treacherous deeds of Lucius or his evil men. But I was not too concerned for Cullen—he was from this region, and we had thus far been well received. I said my farewells to Rob, and then William, Talea, and I and our twenty-five men rode on to Elttaes, nearly a day behind Cullen.
Elttaes was more than a day’s journey away, so we set up camp that evening near Lake Pensing. The next morning as the men broke camp, William and I walked together, enjoying the vibrant beauty of the lake and forest and each other’s fellowship.
“Well Cedric,” William said with a smile, “did you ever imagine that two poor fishermen like us would ever find such adventure in life?”
I laughed. “My biggest dream as a young man was to own a fishing boat, but now we are joint heirs to an entire kingdom.” I shook my head, still not quite believing it all. “Only a child would dare to dream of such things, my friend.”
“Do you remember our willow-stick swords that we fought with to save the maiden in distress?” he asked.
“Yes … along the banks of the river near Leinad’s home …” I could almost make myself believe I was there.
William and I walked onto a large jagged rock outcropping that extended a few paces into the crystal-clear waters of the lake. As a boy I would have loved to jump from it and into the cool water below. We stopped and soaked up the beauty of the lake. The shadows began to shorten, and the morning song of a variety of birds was sweet to hear. It was a quiet moment of total contentment—a moment infringed upon only by the realization of our near future. Both William and I knew that our time together was short. For the first time in our lives, we would be separated. As we looked far across the lake, I knew we both ached.
“You have been more than a brother to me, William,” I said, though I could not look at him. “You helped me find hope when it was difficult to do so.”
William did not face me either, but spoke to the lake. “Your friendship is more to me than life itself, Cedric. You have been my compass of wisdom … I will miss you more than I can say.”
I finally turned and placed a hand on his shoulder. He placed his hand on my forearm, and the powerful bond of brotherhood that only two Knights of the Prince could feel passed between us.
“Cedric. William.” I heard Talea’s voice call from a short distance away in the forest behind us.
“This way,” I called back.
Talea joined us on the outcropping and spent a moment taking in the beauty of the lake. The seriousness of the mission disappeared from her countenance, and her eyes sparkled like a child’s.
You are still a mystery to me, Talea, I thought.
She broke her gaze and turned to me. “The men are nearly ready.”
“Very well … We will depart for Elttaes immediately,” I replied.
Talea turned her head slightly as if to listen for something.
“What is it, Talea?” William asked quietly.
“We are being watched,” she said in a whisper.
We inconspicuously began searching our surroundings. Except for the lake before us, trees obscured our view in all directions.
“There!” William exclaimed in a hushed tone as he pointed toward some trees off the lakeshore. We followed his finger and saw the slightest bit of motion receding into the trees and over a rise in the forest. We drew our swords and pursued. I was amazed at Talea’s sense of awareness.
“Was it a person or an animal of some sort?” I asked as we ran through the trees.
“I couldn’t tell,” replied William.
“It is a person,” Talea said.
We made it to the rise in terrain and stopped to regain sight of our fleeing spy. Talea took off again slightly left of our original course, and we too saw the occasional movement that was broken by the trees before us. We pursued for some distance until we came upon a small hut that was nestled in a quiet recess of the forest. We approached cautiously, scanning the surroundings for any sign of danger.
“Is anyone here?” I called, supposing that at the most only two or three could live in such a small hut. I did not relish the thought of entering the hut, for not everyone in the kingdom was yet a friend of the Prince. And who was to know if all of the Shadow Warriors had truly been
imprisoned? There was no reply.
“It looks abandoned to me,” William said.
I looked at Talea, but she made no comment. She was studying the house intently.
“We will investigate, but be careful,” I said and moved toward the door.
We entered the small hut. Though hardly livable, it was immediately apparent that someone had occupied it for some time. Talea and I investigated a larger room while William entered a smaller room off to our left. Our swords were drawn, and we were on full alert. A moment later I heard William speaking softly. We moved toward the open doorway.
“It’s all right, miss. We are not here to harm you,” William said.
A frightened young woman stood in the corner of the room with her hands clenched about the handle of a long-knife—which was pointed at William. Her eyes darted toward us as we entered and then back to William. Her fear was stark, and I pitied her. She was frail and thin and probably quite attractive, but fear and malnutrition had robbed her of her beauty. She was breathing hard and looked as if she was at the end of her strength. Talea and I approached no further as William tried to assuage her apprehension.
“Please put the knife down … We want to help you.” William spoke in soothing tones.
“I don’t believe you … You killed my father. Get away!”
“We did not kill your father, miss. We are …”
“All of Histen’s men are murderers—stay back!” she yelled.
William was four paces away. He slowly sheathed his sword.
“I promise I will not hurt you,” he said, showing his empty hands as he inched closer. He suddenly froze though when the woman turned the knife and pressed its deadly blade against her own abdomen.
“I will not let you torture me too!” she said in a panicked voice.
William held up his hands. “We are not Histen’s men. We are Knights of the Prince. We have come to help you, not hurt you! Please don’t harm yourself!”
The woman hesitated as she tried to process William’s words. “You are lying! There are no Knights of the Prince in Arrethtrae—they were all taken away, and we were left to suffer under Histen!” Tears began to fill her eyes. “My sister … my brother. They left us here … to die!”
William inched a little closer. “No, that is not true. The Prince has come back, and Histen is defeated. Look … look at my breastplate. It is the mark of the Prince, not Histen!” William said passionately. “Give the knife to me, and I will show you that what I speak is true.”
The woman was obviously struggling between fear and hope. She seemed to want to believe but did not dare. She glanced at me, then at Talea. Talea smiled reassuringly, and the woman’s face softened slightly, teetering on the edge of hope.
William resumed his careful motion toward the woman. “It’s all right … Put the knife down, and I will get some food and water for you,” he said tenderly. William was now only a pace away, and the woman’s grasp on the knife relaxed. Exhausted, she yielded herself to what likely seemed an uncertain fate. She allowed William to place his hand on hers and pull the knife away from her body, all the while staring into his eyes. She peered at him, as if waiting for an evil transformation of his kind face, but she did not see it. Reassured, she collapsed. William caught her in his arms, and she melted into his embrace, incoherent and nearly unconscious. Her journey through the years of tribulation was over.
THE COST OF FREEDOM
William carried the young woman to a ragged bed and laid her on it. He raised her shoulders and head to give her some water to drink and a small bit of cornmeal cake. Both contained traces of the Life Spice. After some time, we returned to camp. William carried her part of the way, for she was too weak to make it completely on her own. Once back at camp, William could hardly leave her side, for the men-in-arms brought back all her fear. She had lived with fear too long to trust more than one, and William was that one. We learned that her name was Kendra. We delayed another day to allow her time to regain more strength, for she was in no condition to travel just yet.
“Sir Cedric,” Brenton called to me. He was the captain of the knights with us.
“Yes, Sir Brenton.”
“Our camp is set again. Is there something I can have the men do to keep them occupied?”
Brenton was a good man to have as captain. The men respected him, and he was an efficient leader.
I thought for a moment. “If any of the men want to hunt, we could use some venison. Just tell them to be back by late afternoon. Otherwise, the day is theirs.”
“Yes, sir,” Brenton replied as he withdrew.
Talea and I checked on Kendra and found William at her side. She had eaten but still looked weary, even though it was just late morning. William walked the few paces to us.
“I think she needs to rest some … I’ll watch over her,” he said.
“Has she talked to you at all? Who is she, and where does she come from?” I asked.
William shook his head. “I don’t know. She’s still too disturbed to say much. She’s nearly dead from starvation,” he said as he looked her way. She had finished a bit of soup and lay down on a blanket spread on the ground.
“We’ll come back later,” I said.
Talea and I walked away and left William to his charge. We checked back with Brenton on the activity of the men for the day. When there was nothing left to do, Talea and I stood alone somewhat awkwardly.
“Care to take a ride?” I asked.
She looked at me the same way she always did, as if to question my motives. “I suppose so.”
We mounted and took a casual ride around Lake Pensing. The lake was large with many vantage points of great beauty. Our horses walked side by side.
“I feel compelled to tell you how important your father has been to me,” I said after we had ridden in silence for some time.
She smiled. “I wish I had known him while I growing up.”
“He mentored me and prepared my heart for the words of the Prince. He is a noble man, Talea,” I said. “When I was a child, he was like a grandfather to me. His heart is kind and so full of zeal for the King.”
“Mother talked of him every day,” she said. “It was hard to know that we were separated by the Great Sea and that I couldn’t see him. Yutan did a great deal for me though … much as a father would do.”
I stopped our horses and looked at Talea.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I just realized that you are quite a few years older than me,” I commented with a half smile on my face.
“The concept of age is foreign to me,” she said. “I have lived my whole life where age is irrelevant. So if you are trying to insult me, you are wasting your time.”
I chuckled. “Talea, I’m teasing you.”
“Oh?” She looked quizzically at me.
We resumed our ride. I was curious as to how she seemed to see right through people yet couldn’t tell when I was teasing.
“Talea, how did you know we were being watched by Kendra when we were at the lake?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I suppose it is something I learned from the Silent Warriors.”
“You have helped me a great deal as ambassador already. I cannot read people as you do … Thank you.”
She looked over at me. “Are you teasing me again?”
“No, of course not.” I was becoming aware of an interesting limitation in Talea’s abilities. “How is it that you can’t read me?”
She immediately turned away and did not answer for some time. “I don’t know …” she whispered.
No wonder she continually questions my motives, I thought. For some reason I was as much of an enigma to her as she was to me. I found some comfort in knowing that I was not an open book to her like most people seemed to be.
The rest of our ride was pleasant and filled with talk of the mission that lay ahead. That evening we joined William and Kendra around a small fire. She looked somewhat renewed and even smiled
slightly when we approached.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Much better, thank you,” she replied politely.
Kendra cradled a cup of hot soup in her hands as she sipped the broth. I wondered what her story was but wasn’t sure I should ask. Talea and I sat down on a nearby log.
“Have you lived here your whole life?” I began with a non-intrusive question.
She looked at me and then to the ground. “No, just a few years actually … just since the scynths came.”
Talea and I looked at each other as we remembered our encounter with a scynth onboard our ship years ago.
“Scynths?” William asked.
Kendra took a deep breath. “Yes, after my brother and little sister disappeared, things changed quickly. We lived in Elttaes. My father was not wealthy, but we had a comfortable life. One day, my brother came home excited about a story he’d heard about evil knights and a good Prince coming back to life after He’d died in Chessington. My parents and I considered it silly fantasy, but my little sister was taken with it. There was talk of some Code and a Dark Knight … It all seemed too strange and unbelievable. My brother began to tell others and tried to live by this Code. I saw him change, but I still didn’t believe his strange stories, and neither did my parents.
“Before long, our city was split between those who believed, like my brother, and those who didn’t. Then, when Alexander Histen came to power, everything changed. He sent horrible men to rule our city. The new prefect of Elttaes prohibited the telling of the story and began to imprison those who talked of it. In fact, my brother was in prison the day I woke up and couldn’t find my little sister anywhere.”
Kendra paused and looked very sad. “That was the day Elttaes was devoured by evil.”
I felt a chill creep up my spine.
Kendra continued. “We searched everywhere but soon realized that many people were missing, not just my sister. Father went to the prisons, but many of the prisoners, including my brother, were gone too.”