My Royal Pain Quest (The Lakeland Knight series, #2)

by Laura Lond

  “Yes, this is him,” I answered. “Hello, Morgard.”

  “Well, now I’ve seen it all! The two of you showing up together on my doorstep! I thought Grugden here was drunk! Wanted to send him straight to the kitchen, haha!”

  “May I have quick a word with you in private?” I asked, before he’d blurt out too much and make Kellemar either alarmed or suspicious or both.

  “Of course!” he agreed with enthusiasm. “I am dying to hear what all this is about! But first,” he turned to the prince, “I want to have what His Highness has brought me. I’ve been waiting too long.”

  The prince looked at me for advice.

  “Go ahead,” I nodded. “That’s what we’re here for.”

  Kellemar reached into his inner pocket, produced the leather case and offered it to Morgard. The chieftain snatched it from his hand. He opened the case, and his eyes lit up with greedy delight.

  “Yes!” Morgard grabbed the shard and turned it over. “Yes, this is it! Ha! Excellent, Your Highness! I will even forgive you for making me wait until the very last day!”

  Kellemar once again looked at me, puzzled. I saw he was about to ask a question, so I interfered again.

  “Uh, Morgard?”

  “Yes, our little private talk,” he nodded. “I remember. Come inside, everyone.”

  We entered the gate. The inner yard was just as disorganized as the fortress itself, cluttered with everything from carts to tools to rusty weapons.

  “Grugden, take His Highness and this other fellow to the main hall, let them wait there,” Morgard ordered. “Guard them well. Prince Kellemar is a very special guest. Follow me, Lord Arkus.”

  I felt a little uneasy about separating from Kellemar, but I knew the beast wouldn’t make it here so fast.

  “I won’t be long,” I said, mostly to Cassandra. Then I remembered what happened when I had last said these words to her, and it made me cringe. Hopefully, this time there would be no surprises.

  “So!” Morgard said, rubbing his hands, when we entered some small room. “I’m all ears, haha! First off, Grugden tells me they had the smoke on, how did you get through? Who told you the remedy?”

  So there was another remedy. That’s good to know.

  “I have means of obtaining information,” I smiled. “And not all of us have gotten through unharmed. The prince was knocked out. I used no remedy on him.”

  “Ha!” Morgard plopped on a chair. “You do know stuff! So you had his memory wiped, and then?”

  “Told him I was his best friend.”

  “Aaaaahahahaha!” The chieftain kicked his legs in the air, roaring with laughter. “His… his… Arkus, you’re killing me! That’s brilliant, whatever you have in mind! So that’s why you weren’t at each other’s throats!”

  “Precisely.” I paused, letting him catch his breath. “There is something I don’t know though, and I need your input here. Will his memory return?”

  “To tell you the truth, I don’t know that myself. They usually don’t live long enough to find out, haha! My guys set the smoke up and then go pick up whoever they find knocked out or wandering empty-headed.”

  “Hmm. I see.”

  “Why, is that important?”

  “Somewhat. I can’t tell you all the details of the scheme I’m working, but it is in my current interest to see him safely home. Alive and well.”

  “Oh.” Morgard grew serious. “We might have a problem here. I wasn’t exactly planning on letting him go.”

  I was afraid of that.

  “May I ask why?”

  “You’ll see, I’ll show you everything. It has something to do with this little thing here,” he gave a loving pat to the leather case still in his hand. “I bet you don’t know much about this one, no matter how sneaky you are.”

  “You’re right about that,” I admitted. “All I know is that the prince was bringing you a mirror shard.”

  “Yes. Secret knowledge, you see. I paid a fortune for it. Shall I show you right now? I can’t wait to try it…” Morgard sat clutching the case, his impatience clearly written across his face. “Ah, no, we will celebrate first! I can wait a bit more.”

  He rose and gave me a clap on the shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about the prince thing, I’m sure we can work something out. The League has regulations about such conflicts of interest. This is too great of a day to worry about anything! I want to celebrate! I’ll order a feast. You are invited, together with your best friend the prince, haha!”

  “Thank you, Morgard, this is most generous. I don’t think I care for the menu though.”

  “Now why does everyone think all we do is eat human flesh here, for breakfast, dinner, and supper? Could you eat only chicken all day, every day? No? Don’t worry, it will be what you’d call a normal meal, with a variety of dishes. Even salads. Will that suit you?”

  “A salad will be all right, yes.”

  Morgard was quick about getting the feast organized. He took me to the main hall—a large gloomy chamber with two long tables—where Cassandra and Kellemar had been waiting and ordered his servants to bring food. He said his cooks worked at all hours and always had something ready to go. Since the servants didn’t have to worry about table cloths, napkins, fine tableware or any other such nonsense, it took them less that fifteen minutes to have the tables covered with pots, bowls, and platters, some steaming, others not.

  “Don’t eat anything that looks like meat,” I whispered to Kellemar, taking a seat across from him.

  He gave me a surprised look. “Why?”

  “Just do what I say. You’ll thank me later.”

  I saw Cassandra taking a position behind my chair, obviously intending to serve. I wouldn’t have that.

  “Morgard, I wish my manservant Archibald to join us at the table as well. Would that be a problem?”

  “No problem at all,” the chieftain replied, “I don’t have strict rules here. Sometimes I dine with my servants myself when I’m bored. The thing is though, they always get spooked when I say, ‘I want you for dinner,’ hahaha!”

  I smiled, out of politeness, ignoring Kellemar’s slightly raised eyebrows. Morgard caught the prince’s expression and choked with laughter again. He obviously found Kellemar’s cluelessness most amusing.

  “So, Your Highness!” the chieftain went on, doing his best to look serious. “It’s a great honor to have you here. How is King Ramian these days?”

  “My father is fine, thank you,” Kellemar replied. “He sends his regards.”

  Morgard snorted but managed to keep himself in check.

  “Does he? That’s very civil. And how was your journey here? I want to hear all about it.”

  “Unfortunately, there is not much to tell. It was rather uneventful.”

  Morgard picked up a turkey leg and hid his grin behind it. I gave him a displeased, I-think-you’re-having-too-much-fun look. He eased off and switched to talking about hunting, one of his favorite subjects.

  “I might get to hunt some serious game this season,” he said, working hard on that turkey leg. “Perhaps you would want to join me. My men keep reporting seeing this strange beast in the valley, they even call it a monster.”

  The monster, yes. That might be a card I’d have to play later.

  As I sat carefully picking at my plate of salad, I thought the situation over. Despite Morgard’s assurance, I wasn’t quite certain we would be able to “work something out.” I’d better have a plan of escape ready, as soon as I could. We still missed key pieces of information, but I assumed after the meal Morgard was going to reveal the secret of the mirror shard and what he intended to do with Kellemar. Right now, I couldn’t figure out why he would possibly want to keep him here—or kill him. Vengeance? I didn’t recall Morgard having any conflicts with King Ramian. Further blackmailing? Possibly. If that was the case, I could warn the chieftain that he was walking a fine line. He couldn’t milk this cow forever. Ramian had already gone far enough, agreeing to send a
valuable item and his son. Push him a bit more and he could snap. He had a good army and enough allies to come down here and level the place. In fact, it was rather surprising he hadn’t done that.

  My thoughts were interrupted by Kellemar suddenly throwing down his fork.

  “Arkus, you treacherous wicked schemer!”

  “Ah, his memory’s back!” Morgard squealed in glee and burst into another fit of wild laughter.

  Kellemar jumped to his feet, knocking over his chair, glaring at both of us.

  “I hope you’ve enjoyed this farce,” he said through his teeth. “Now that the game is over, and my business here is done, I wish to leave this despicable place.”

  “Not so fast.” Morgard grabbed a servant standing near him, pulled him closer and wiped his hands on his clothing. “Since you’re no longer in the mood to feast, let’s go see whether the mirror shard works. If Ramian sent me a fake one…”

  “He did not!” Kellemar’s face burned with indignation. “He sent what you demanded, and whether it ‘works’ or not is none of our concern!”

  Morgard gave a sly wink. “I bet you are curious to see though. Neither you nor your father have any idea what this mirror is.”

  I could tell that Morgard was right, but Kellemar’s pride proved stronger than his curiosity.

  “I don’t care to know! We’re leaving!”

  “We?” Morgard asked, arching a brow.

  “Yes, this snake here,” he nodded in my direction, “and I!”

  “But this snake here wants to see what the shard does,” I said.

  “At any rate, I’m not releasing you yet, Highness.” Morgard stood up. “Are you coming or do you want to be dragged?”

  Kellemar found the sense to spare himself further humiliation.

  “Fine.”

  Morgard led us out of the hall, through a number of confusing corridors and down steep stairs. We stopped before a massive metal-encased door. As he pulled out a key, I guessed we were about to enter his treasury. I was probably right, but the treasures weren’t many, if any at all—just a couple of medium sized chests in a corner. The lids were closed, so I couldn’t tell. In the middle of the room stood a low table. Stepping closer, I saw a large broken mirror on it. Mirror shards, some larger, some smaller, were arranged together, the way they used to be, forming an oval shape with just one gap left. That’s where Kellemar’s shard was supposed to go—and ours, only Morgard didn’t know that yet.

  “As you see, yours is the last piece that completes the puzzle,” he said, closing the door behind us. “Yes, I have gone through the trouble of collecting all fifteen of them. Spent a fortune on it, too, as I’ve already told you, Arkus. But it will be worth every penny. I’ll get a thousand percent return on investment here. Two thousand, or a million, haha! Watch this.”

  He pulled the leather case out of his pocket. I braced myself for what was coming.

  Morgard opened the case, took the shard and placed it in the gap. It nearly closed it, but not quite. A small, narrow gap remained—precisely in the form of the shard I had tucked away somewhere in my bag.

  “What?!” The chieftain looked up, instantly furious. “It’s not the whole thing!”

  Kellemar shrugged. “Well, obviously it’s not the last piece, there is another one missing. Nothing I can do about it. Can I go now?”

  “No, you can’t!” Morgard leapt to him like a tiger, his true nature now evident, no more hahas. “Ramian did this on purpose! He broke a piece off and kept it! And he’ll pay for it! Dearly!”

  “He did no such thing! Get your dirty hands off me!” Kellemar yelled as Morgard grabbed him.

  I had to think quick here.

  “Calm down, Morgard,” I said, intercepting his fist that was about to slam into the prince’s face. “I want him unharmed, remember? Ramian isn’t stupid. He has already risked enough by sending his son here. Why would he trick you this way? What would he possibly achieve by it except making you mad and getting Kellemar killed?”

  Morgard considered that.

  “For once, the snake speaks the truth,” the prince said, complimenting me with a glare. “My father has sent the shard he had. We have no knowledge where the other one is. Up until this moment, I had no idea the others even existed.”

  “Well. Your father will have to find it. Until he does, I’m keeping you here. I suggest that you write him a letter. Sorry, Arkus.”

  The prince stared at him. “But this is ridiculous! How is he supposed to find it?”

  “That’s his problem, not mine.”

  That was not good at all.

  “Morgard, with all due respect, this might not be the best solution,” I said. “Ramian won’t have a clue where to start. You have collected fifteen, you must know it’s not an easy thing, even with the secret knowledge you possess.”

  “Tell me about it,” the chieftain grunted. “But I’m at my wits end with this one. I have searched everywhere. I was convinced this was the last one. I am out of resources, I could use some help, and I’m using Ramian’s.”

  It was then that I made a somewhat rash decision. Oh, how I regretted it later. I should have played along, pretended to agree, told Morgard I’d leave in a day or two, and then escaped with Kellemar using the berries. But I didn’t think of that. All I could see was, Morgard wouldn’t release the prince until he got the shard, and Ramian would never find it. I thought I was solving everything when I said,

  “All right. Suppose I helped you to get this last shard. Will you let Kellemar go when you have it?”

  Morgard turned to me, disbelief struggling with greed in his eyes.

  “Now, I hope you are serious, Arkus. I hope you’re not trying to invent something just to get the prince out. The only way I will even consider it is if I’m holding the shard in my hand. No empty promises. No tricks.”

  “Of course not. I get you the shard, you release the prince. Deal?”

  He studied me. “I release him a week after I have the shard.”

  This strange condition should have made me suspicious as well. Alas, it didn’t.

  “Do I have your word?”

  “Yes.”

  I opened my bag I still carried around, found the mirror shard, took it out and handed to Morgard.

  ***

  Chapter 12

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  Morgard grabbed the shard.

  “Well, Arkus, aren’t you full of surprises!” He laughed. “I should have known you’ve got something to do with it!”

  “Indeed,” Kellemar hissed. “Always plotting, aren’t you?”

  I shrugged. “Comes with the profession.”

  “No matter.” The chieftain hurried back to the table. “Now you’ll get to watch a real miracle.”

  He carefully placed the last piece of the mirror in its spot. The oval shape flickered, and the sixteen shards merged together. The mirror was whole.

  “Aha!” Morgard cried out, elated. “Wait, that wasn’t the miracle yet!”

  He rushed to the chests, opened one of them and pulled out a large golden platter. Putting in on the table next to the mirror, he held the mirror up.

  “Do me a favor, Your Highness. Reach into the mirror, take the reflected platter, and pull it out.”

  “I will not,” Kellemar snapped.

  “Do it or I’ll break your arm.”

  Morgard certainly knew how to persuade. We all watched in awe as the prince stepped closer to the mirror and slowly reached out his hand to its surface. Instead of touching it, the hand went right through. Astonishment written on his face, Kellemar closed his fingers on the reflected platter, lifted it, and took it out of the mirror, as if through an open window. Now there were two identical golden platters on the table.

  Morgard beamed in triumph.

  “See?! What do you say to that?”

  “Most impressive,” I answered. “Now I understand why you wanted it so bad.”

  I understood something else as well, or perhap
s I should say guessed at that point, but I had a strong feeling my guess was correct. A bad feeling, too. Because in that case it was very unlikely that Morgard would ever release Kellemar.

  “Does one have to be of royal blood to be able to do this?” I asked.

  Morgard looked startled. “Why, yes. How did you know?”

  “Just a guess. The way you insisted on him doing it gave me a hunch.”

  “One can’t be too careful around you, Arkus,” the chieftain grinned. “You’re too smart.” He turned to Kellemar. “Try again.”

  The prince didn’t argue this time. He reached out his hand again—but it stopped as the fingers touched the surface. The “window” wouldn’t open.

  “I can’t… It’s not working.”

  Against all expectations, Morgard didn’t fly into a rage.

  “I thought so,” he nodded. “There are all sorts of rules and limitations on what you can pull out, how often and such. They are the strictest regarding gold.”

  I figured that was a good thing. Otherwise, whoever owned the mirror would have devalued gold in no time.

  “Morgard, we have an agreement, right? One week,” I reminded.

  “Right, right.” He wouldn’t meet my eye. “His Highness will help me multiply as many useful things as he can for seven days. Then he can leave.”

  I didn’t believe him. For now though, I chose to say nothing.

  “If you think I’m going to work for you…” Kellemar began.

  The look Morgard gave him was pure menace. “Yes?”

  The prince swallowed. “You can’t expect me to pull stuff out of this thing for seven days straight.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, I need to rest, eat… It’s just unrealistic.”

  Morgard grinned. “I’ll spoon feed you. And you will have breaks. Now, let’s not waste time. See if you can do this one.”

  He pulled out a dagger and placed it before the mirror.

  “Arkus, do you want to watch or should I tell my servants to show you to your room?”

  “I’ll watch for a while.”