The King of the West

by Pedro Urvi

  Gerd nodded. “It’s practically impossible. There are guards every five paces. I can’t have translated right…”

  The officer was looking all around. He pointed to a grove of trees and began to shout orders. Several groups of soldiers went into the trees. There was no doubt that they were searching for someone.

  “I don’t know whether it’s a murderer, but they’re looking for someone,” Lasgol said. The patrols were now spreading out across the entire perimeter of the camp.

  “They’re tracking, that’s right.”

  “We have to get out of here, and fast,” Lasgol said. “This looks like a wasp’s nest that’s been hit with a stick.”

  “You can say that again.”

  Soldiers. Many, came Camu’s warning from the east.

  Ona arrived at a run from the west and chirped in a mournful moan which meant that she had seen danger.

  “We’ve got to get out of here now!” Lasgol said. We leave. Now, he warned Camu and Ona.

  “But… have I got this right? Suppose someone’s killed General Ganzor? Who would have dared? To try something like that in the middle of his war camp is insane!”

  Lasgol was about to agree with his friend when a voice interrupted him.

  “Who d’you think it could be?”

  Lasgol and Gerd spun around to the voice at once and aimed their short bows.

  “Go easy on those bows. To have my own people catch me is all I need when I’ve just managed to dodge the Zangrians.”

  Lasgol and Gerd stared at the figure, but what with the surrounding darkness, the black clothes he was wearing and the dark scarf which covered his nose and mouth, all they could see were a pair of dark eyes.

  “Who are you?” Lasgol asked threateningly.

  “We don’t recognize our friends any longer, weirdo? I can understand that the big guy here wouldn’t after a whole year… he isn’t the brightest spark either and he’s sure to be having a panic attack right now, but you ought to.”

  Is Viggo! came Camu’s message.

  Lasgol recognized him at last. “Viggo!”

  “Viggo? Is that you?” Gerd asked incredulously.

  “Of course, it’s me. Who else do you know who’s capable of slipping into the middle of the Zangrian camp and eliminating their famous general while he’s asleep?” This was said with enormous satisfaction and pride as he lowered his scarf so that they could see his face.

  Gerd lowered his bow and hurled himself at him to give him a bear-hug. “Viggo! I can’t believe it!”

  Lasgol was shaking his head, unable to believe that Viggo was actually there.

  “Put me down, you giant!” Viggo was protesting, but Gerd, laughing joyfully, held him off his feet in a tight bear-hug.

  Soldiers come, Camu warned Lasgol.

  “We have to get out of here right away,” he said to Gerd and Viggo. “Soldiers are on their way.”

  Many soldiers, Camu added.

  “Put me down, giant! We’re going to get caught thanks to your snail’s brain!”

  Gerd set him down. “I’m so happy to see you!”

  “Let’s make a move. We can celebrate when we’re not in danger of death any longer.”

  Thanks to his enhanced senses, Lasgol could now hear and see hundreds of soldiers coming from all directions.

  Camu, run.

  I go.

  Viggo hugged his friend tightly, then slapped him on the back: “Come on, big guy, we’re off.”

  Gerd and Viggo left the forest at the speed of lightning, as if the trees were in flames and on the point of reaching them. A moment later came Lasgol, who had stayed behind to wipe out their tracks. Camu joined him, and they vanished into the next stretch of forest like shadows of the night.

  A swarm of soldiers surrounded the area where they had been only a moment before. There was no trace left of the Rangers.

  Chapter 31

  “Viggo! I can’t believe it!” Gerd said, and hugged him again with the strength of a bear, full of an enormous joy at seeing his friend again after a whole year. Luckily they were in Norghanian territory by now, and out of danger.

  “You have the body and the strength of a semi-giant from the Frozen Continent, but the brains of an ant,” Viggo complained. “Could you please put me down?”

  Gerd ignored the comment and began to spin with Viggo in his grasp, laughing delightedly as he did so. Lasgol watched them with a broad smile he could not erase from his face.

  Viggo fun, Camu transmitted. He was visible now.

  Lots, Lasgol had to admit.

  “I’ve missed you so much!”

  “I haven’t missed you at all.”

  “Yes you have!”

  “Like the prisoner misses his captor.”

  “You’ve missed me really, I know that.”

  “Put me down, you’re making me dizzy and I’m going to throw up on you.”

  “Not until you admit you’ve missed me.”

  “What are you? A big baby? I’ll rephrase that: a giant baby?”

  “Say it.”

  Lasgol could not stop smiling. The scene was tender as well as funny,

  “All right, you hairless ogre, I’ve missed you.”

  “I knew it!”

  “Put me down!”

  Gerd set Viggo on his feet and looked him up and down. “You look just the same!”

  Viggo made a face. “You look bigger and uglier.”

  “Come here!” Gerd said. He put his arms around him again, though not with a bear-hug this time.

  “Don’t break my back, I need it.”

  Gerd let him go. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” he asked reproachfully.

  Viggo rolled his eyes. “Now look here, giant. D’you really believe that when someone’s sent on a murder mission they go shouting the fact to the four winds?”

  “It’s not shouting it, it’s telling me, your best friend.”

  Viggo shook his head exaggeratedly. “You’re not my best friend.”

  “Yes I am, and you know it.”

  “Whatever the case, my friend who’s as transparent as river water” – Viggo jabbed his finger at him – “is completely incapable of keeping a secret. Anybody could get the information out of you with some trick or another and you’d put me at risk. Or even worse, you’d be scared and spill it all.”

  “No way. I can pretend perfectly well and I don’t scare easily anymore,” the big guy said, sounding offended. He crossed his arms over his huge torso.

  “Sure, and I can fly.”

  Very funny, Camu commented again, and Lasgol laughed aloud.

  Viggo turned to him. “Now then, weirdo, what are you doing here? Hadn’t you gone to the capital?”

  “Complications…” Lasgol said with an apologetic gesture.

  “In trouble again? How is it that you manage to attract all the trouble in Tremia?”

  Lasgol shrugged. “I wish I knew.”

  Camu let out a little shriek, and Viggo glared at him. “Don’t even think of it, bug,” he said with a look of distaste.

  Camu took two steps, and in a single bounce he threw himself at Viggo, who ended up on the ground with Camu on top licking his face.

  “Stop it, you bug!” he kept saying, but without making any effort to dislodge him. Ona, seeing Camu’s way of greeting him, decided to do the same, jumped on him and began to lick his face too.

  “By all the Wild Ones of the Ice! Lasgol! Take your pests off me!”

  Lasgol shook his head. “Deep down you love it really, and you know it!”

  As for Viggo, he protested from the ground, but did not move a muscle to avoid the attentions of Ona and Camu.

  Lasgol allowed the two of them to torture Viggo with their display of affection for a little while longer. Viggo complained to high heaven, at the same time trying to hide the smile that kept creeping on to his face. It was obvious that he was enjoying all the attention he was getting from the two wild creatures.

  Okay, let
him be, he’s had enough by now, he finally transmitted to Ona and Camu.

  They both moved aside, but stayed close to Viggo, as if they were waiting for another chance to pounce on him and smother him with affection. Viggo had this strange effect on people and animals. You always felt like helping him, consoling him, even though there was no obvious reason for it, if anything the opposite. But it was as if he radiated that feeling toward those around him.

  “Disgusting pests,” he protested, and his charm resurfaced, wiping out the previous feeling completely. Lasgol felt like spanking him rather than giving him a hug, but he went over to him and hugged him tightly.

  “I’m really glad to see you, nightmare.”

  “And so am I to see you, weirdo.”

  “And so am I to see the two of you,” Gerd said. He hugged them tightly, squeezing them together in the process.

  “Stop hugging me, you muscle-mountain!” Viggo complained bitterly.

  Lasgol, who was feeling the effect of Gerd’s enormous strength, shared Viggo’s feeling up to a point, but on the other hand he was delighted that Gerd was so big, outgoing and affectionate.

  “Okay, okay… it’s just that it’s so long since we’ve been together…”

  Viggo shook his arms and stretched his back and neck the moment Gerd let him free. “What a brute you are. You’re worse than a troll!”

  Gerd was smiling from ear to ear. He was in seventh heaven.

  “Let’s see, big guy, what have you been doing all this time?”

  Gerd inflated his chest proudly. “Watching the border with Zangria.”

  “Well I wouldn’t say you were making a very good job of it.”

  Gerd frowned. “Why d’you say that?”

  “Because they’ve brought half the Zangrian army to that camp. They didn’t seem very worried about the fact that the Great Norghanian Ranger Gerd was keeping an eye on them.”

  “But they haven’t crossed over.”

  “They haven’t crossed over because I just killed their mighty general.”

  Gerd looked offended. “I’ve done my job really well.”

  “Yeah, and that’s why they had to send me.”

  Gerd looked imploringly at Lasgol. “We had them under close observation, didn’t we, Lasgol?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, now there aren’t going to be any more problems for a while,” Viggo said, and put his hand on his weapons.

  “Who sent you? Dolbarar?” Lasgol asked.

  “Nope. This is a mission from Duke Orten, King Thoran’s brother. He’s in charge of making sure the Zangrians don’t attack us from behind. He’s counting on the Blizzard Army if they do, and with yours truly to discourage them.” He jabbed his thumbs at himself as if he himself were a lethal weapon of mass destruction.

  “Something of a suicide mission, don’t you think?” Lasgol said. He was worried about the incredible risk his friend had just run.

  Viggo puffed himself up like a peacock. “That’s why they gave it to the best.”

  “To the one with the least common sense, you mean,” Gerd said. He was shaking his head. “What a lunatic mission.”

  “I’m a Natural Assassin. The best, in fact. There’s no mission I can’t carry out.”

  Gerd looked distinctly displeased at this. “Don’t get so cocky, just because you were lucky in this mission. That doesn’t mean you’re infallible, or that they might not have captured you or killed you.”

  “I agree with Gerd on this. This mission was insane. A thousand things could have gone wrong and you’d have ended up tortured and strung up from a tree.”

  “Bah! That’s nonsense. Those Zangrians are clumsier than a penguin in a tavern. They’d never have caught me, not in a thousand years!”

  “You’ve got a swollen head, and it’s going to cost you dearly someday,” Gerd pointed out.

  “And you’re a mountain of fears,” Viggo countered.

  Gerd rolled his eyes. “You’re hopeless.”

  “That’s why you love me so much,” Viggo retorted, fluttering his eyelashes and looking utterly innocent.

  Lasgol laughed out loud. “Viggo, you’re a pain in the neck. Don’t you see we care about you? You’ve got to admit, the mission was suicidal. Why did you go through with it?”

  “For two reasons. First and foremost, because Orten isn’t someone you can say no to. He’s a bad-tempered cretin, as big as he’s brutish, and a very unpleasant human being. Haven’t you heard what they say about him in his fortress? He tortures and rapes, the pig.”

  “The King’s brother?” Gerd said in amazement.

  “Yup. You may be from the nobility and the brother of the king, but that doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a good human being. In fact, I’m beginning to think it guarantees the opposite, if anything. I’d far rather deal with some illiterate farmer than with a Norghanian noble. A thousand times a thousand, in fact.”

  Lasgol snorted in disgust. “Just what we needed…” He was ashamed to have someone like that controlling the realm along with his brother Thoran, whose reputation was not so bad, but everybody knew that he had an explosive temperament and was capable of anything when he burst out in fury.

  Gerd was shaking his head in disappointment. “Well now, the kingdom’s obviously in wonderful hands. Here on the border you don’t hear about these things. I’m not sure whether it’s out of fear or ignorance. I guess a little of both…”

  Lasgol nodded. “It’s not wise to speak ill of kings and nobles. That leads you to the dungeons, or worse.”

  “And the second reason, you’re not letting me finish my explanation,” Viggo went on, looking as though he could not understand why they had interrupted his eloquence, “is that I’ve got to prove I’m the best Assassin in the kingdom. Rumor has it that there are two very good ones already, Mortensen and Hiltzason. The first one is an Assassin of Nature, and the second one a Natural Assassin. People say they’re the best. I want to be better than them, to get to be the best, and that’s why I’ve got to prove it. This has been my first great demonstration,” he added proudly.

  “You’ll end up proving how a braggart gets hanged,” Gerd said, shaking his head.

  Lasgol was nodding. “You’d better be careful, or else you’re going to be the Natural Assassin with fewest completed missions.”

  “You’re both wrong. Nobody’s going to hang me, because to do that they’d have to catch me first, and that’s not going to happen. And anyway, there are several precedents of Natural Assassins who’ve died on their first mission.”

  “All the more reason!” Lasgol growled.

  “You’ve got to be careful! You’re not invincible!” Gerd added.

  Viggo put his hands on his hips. “You two are worse than the fussiest mother in Tremia. Nothing’s going to happen to me, as I’ve just demonstrated. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have shown up and just gone on my way without stopping to say hello.”

  “Well… not that either…” Gerd said, sounding hurt.

  “We worry about you,” Lasgol explained. “You’re not exactly the most sensible of the group.”

  Viggo grinned mockingly at him. “Maybe, but I’m the best in it.”

  “What d’you mean?” Gerd cried. “Ingrid’s a lot better than you.”

  “Don’t even mention her to me,” Viggo replied with a look of distaste.

  “Sure, because you don’t like her,” Gerd said.

  “I don’t like her at all, in fact I loathe her,” Viggo said defiantly, with his arms crossed.

  Gerd could not believe his ears. He turned to Lasgol. “He loathes her the way you loathe the woman you love,” he said, and shrugged.

  “Nonsense. Besides, Natural Assassins can’t have attachments. It’s bad for our lifestyle.”

  “Lifestyle?” Lasgol repeated. “Come on, you haven’t been a Natural Assassin for even a month.”

  “I need to get used to it as soon as possible. No women, no family, no ties.”

 
“And friends?” Gerd asked, sounding worried.

  “Hmmm… friends, just the right ones ...”

  “Are Gerd and I among the right ones?” Lasgol asked him, although he already knew the answer.

  “You two? Well, let me think…”

  “What do you mean, let me think?” Gerd shouted in disbelief. “We’re your best friends!”

  Viggo shook his head. “I’m not sure it’s good for me. The weirdo who gets into trouble with every step he takes, and as for you, you’re a frightened giant who’s going to bring me nothing but trouble…”

  Gerd began to gesture wildly. “I just can’t believe this!”

  Suddenly Viggo’s expression changed, and a broad smile appeared on his face. “Of course you two are among the chosen ones!”

  “We’d better be,” Gerd said, and jokingly threatened him with his fist.

  “I feel really honored,” Lasgol said with heavy irony. “It’s a privilege I’m not sure I’m going to be able to repay.”

  “No need,” said Viggo. “I’m like that, big-hearted. I like to be warm and kindly,” he added.

  Lasgol rolled his eyes, and Gerd shook his head in protest.

  “So tell me, what did I miss?” Viggo asked after a moment.

  Lasgol and Gerd told him everything they had been through. When they had finished, he was thoughtful for a moment.

  “The Zangrian problem’s resolved now, big guy. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about them for a while. Without their great general, they’ll think twice before they cross. Besides, I don’t think there’ll be many generals who’ll volunteer to invade Norghana, knowing what’s happened to the most illustrious of them. As for you, weirdo, it seems pretty certain to me that it was the Dark Rangers who tried to eliminate you in the capital. I’m glad the redhead helped you come out alive. She’s clumsy, but she’s a fantastic shot. And nice. But don’t tell her I admitted that. I don’t want her to adore me.”

  Lasgol snorted in amusement. “Yeah, Nilsa’s sure to adore you for that little acknowledgement…”

  “We need to find out who’s the leader of the Dark Rangers. They’re a serious problem. They’ll try to kill you again, and on top of that I think they’re the ones behind the attempts to kill Egil.”