Evil Within

by Richard S. Tuttle

  "Are you well enough to fight?" the king asked Sandar.

  "I am not ill enough to die," replied the Arin soldier. "What do you need from me?"

  "Unless I am mistaken," the king whispered, "some riders will be entering the meadow from the far end soon. If they are Borundan soldiers, and I expect that they are, we will fight them here. You and I are to take up positions behind the brambles and defend ourselves. Can you handle a bow?"

  "Much better than a sword," answered Sandar.

  "Must we fight them?" asked Jared.

  "If they are soldiers," King Caedmon nodded, "they are trying to find us. It is better to meet them at a place of our choosing than on a narrow trail in the forest. You will not have to fight, Jared. Just stay close to me, and keep your head down."

  King Caedmon held his finger to his lips and waved for the other two to follow him. He backtracked to the edge of the brambles and found a spot that afforded a clear view of the length of the meadow. He pointed to a spot for Sandar to position himself, and then moved well to the left of him so that they were not too close together. When he was in position, he signaled for Jared to get down on the ground.

  The distant sounds of the riders grew quickly louder and soon the king could see the column enter the far end of the meadow. They were indeed Borundan soldiers, and there were more of them than the king had expected to see. His eye twitched as he counted the riders entering the meadow.

  "Twenty five," he said softly to Sandar. "The most important ones will be the riders that try to force their way through the brambles. None of them must get to us."

  Sandar nodded silently, and Jared stuck his head up to peek over the brambles and look at the distant riders. King Caedmon nocked an arrow and waited.

  The riders moved quickly across the meadow without concern for what was on either side of them, and the king figured that they knew the local trails. If he was correct, the Borundans would come completely across the meadow before turning onto the track that Kenra had been following. That would bring them within two-dozen feet of the king's hiding place, and he didn't want to let them get that close before drawing their attention. King Caedmon stood tall and let the first arrow fly while the riders were still a fair distance away. He heard Sandar's bowstring snap a second after his.

  The Arin king got off a second shot before the Borundans started shouting and pointing towards him. Their run across the meadow had been disrupted, and the soldiers scattered to avoid getting caught in a clump. It was at this point that the Borundan officer should have been barking his orders to the soldiers, but the officer was dead, felled by King Caedmon's first shot.

  One of the soldiers took it upon himself to rally the rest of the men. He pointed at King Caedmon and shouted for the men to attack. Most of the soldiers obeyed without thinking and charged directly for the king and Sandar, but several of them veered off to each side to flank the king. As those side groups turned to exit the meadow, the arrows of Kenra and Gunnar assaulted them. The exits from the meadow were narrow and only afforded enough room for a single rider at a time, and the two princes denied the soldiers a chance to exit.

  The Borundans trying to get at the king and Sandar found the bramble barricade impossible to cross. As the Arin warriors continued to fell soldier after soldier, some of the Borundans began to realize the futility of their charge. Four of them turned and raced away from the brambles and sheathed their swords. Jumping from their horses, the Borundans pulled their bows and prepared to duel with the Arinites while their comrades continued the attack.

  King Caedmon and Sandar were forced to duck as the incoming arrows soared over the brambles, but Gunnar and Kenra were free to continue their attack and began targeting the riders near the brambles.

  Horst had been assigned to make sure that none of the Borundans escaped with word of the location of the battle. Seeing the four soldiers in the middle of the meadow without their horses proved to be too much of a temptation for the Odessian prince. He silently rode into the meadow behind the archers and drew his twin scimitars.

  The air was thick with Borundan shouts and the cries of the wounded. Riderless horses whinnied and pranced about. Bowstrings snapped and arrows thudded into trees or flesh. The four Borundan archers did not hear the Odessian warrior racing up behind them until it was too late. Horst rode through the line of archers with his scimitars extended to each side. Two Borundan heads dropped to the floor of the meadow before the soldiers' bodies fell. The other two archers hurriedly nocked arrows, but Horst spun around and charged directly for them.

  One of the Borundans dove out of the path of the Odessian horse, while the other tried to draw his bowstring and target Horst. The Odessian's scimitar sliced through the man's arm and sliced open his chest. As the horseman pivoted to attack the final archer, he saw the Borundan fall with an arrow in his back. Horst quickly scanned the meadow for an enemy to attack, but there were none. Bodies and riderless horses littered the meadow, and silence reigned. The Odessian prince slowly rode across the meadow and halted among the debris bordering the brambles.

  "Is everyone all right?" he called to the king.

  "We're fine," King Caedmon replied. "Check on the others."

  Jared rose and stared at the king. King Caedmon had blood seeping from his neck where an arrow had sliced open the flesh. He gently placed his hand over the wound and closed his eyes. King Caedmon felt the hand and wanted to turn and look at Jared, but he also felt the pain of the wound for the first time and understood what Jared was doing. He remained motionless.

  "I will get the horses," offered Sandar as he saw what was going on.

  Gunnar and Kenra entered the meadow and began gathering arrows, while Horst went around and checked the dead.

  * * *

  Kerzi halted the wagon at the northern gates of Dulga. Soldiers were in abundance and an officer approached Kerzi while soldiers inspected the cargo of cork that the merchant had just purchased.

  "Where are you going?" asked the officer.

  "We are taking cork up to Laborg," answered Kerzi. "I hope to pick up a shipment of weapons there and bring it back."

  The officer nodded and gazed at Talot and Monte.

  "Just the two warriors?" he asked.

  "At this time," nodded the old man. "I will probably hire more for the return trip. Cork is not something most bandits treasure, but weapons are valuable."

  "Where did you come from?" questioned the officer as the soldiers finished their inspection.

  "Tarent," replied Kerzi. "We had dropped off a load of weapons there and then brought some nuts here."

  "Did you see any large groups traveling the Tarent-Dulga Road?" asked the officer.

  "None that caught my attention," Kerzi shook his head. "I tend to daydream a bit on the road. It gets boring after so many years of traveling. Is there some serious problem with bandits around Dulga? I ask because I have never seen so many soldiers here before."

  "Bandits do not thrive around Dulga," the officer replied sharply. "You may go, but if you see any large groups of foreigners, you are to send one of your warriors to alert the army. Move along."

  Kerzi and his warriors rode through the gates and headed north on the Dulga-Laborg Road. Borundan soldiers were everywhere and each group looked at the wagon as it passed.

  "King Caedmon was correct," Monte said softly to Talot. "He would never have survived this sort of inspection."

  "It is worse than you think," the Lomite nodded towards the left side of the road. "Look at the patrols heading into the woods. I think the Borundans have already discovered the tracks where we split up. Those soldiers are being sent into the wilderness after someone. They are not just arbitrarily ordering the men to search the woods alongside the road."

  "How can you tell?" asked the Caroomite archer.

  "The officer we just passed was pointing to spots on the map," answered Talot. "They have narrowed their search to a specific area of northern Borunda. Those troops are being sent in to encircle
the area and then narrow it until they find our friends."

  "We must not let that happen," Monte replied anxiously. "What can we do to help them?"

  "Nothing," replied Talot.

  * * *

  General Wikner and General Ortega sat stoically as King Garrick lashed out at them. Prince Zinan and Naveena stood several feet behind the king watching.

  "You are telling me that a bunch of Arinites waltzed into the royal palace and freed King Caedmon from under your noses?" shouted the king. "Can you explain how that happened?"

  "We do not know if they were Arinites," General Ortega answered calmly. "We don't even know how many men it was. As to how, I fear, King Garrick, that there must be someone within the palace staff working with your enemies."

  "A traitor?" snapped the king. "Explain."

  "They obviously knew exactly where the Arin king was being held," replied General Ortega, "and Caedmon must have been waiting for them. Their ploy was to stage an accident in front of the palace in the small hours of the morning. That trick did pull the patrols off their posts, but only for an extremely short period of time. There is no way that they would have had time to search for the Arin king, and at that time of the morning, one would expect Caedmon to be sleeping. If he had been, the perpetrators would have been caught."

  "I have already been through this with the generals," Naveena said as she approached the table. "I do not think we have a traitor in our midst. I think King Caedmon got a message out during the coronation describing his location and the time off day to strike."

  "He tried to hand off a note," interjected Prince Zinan, "but we intercepted it. You know that, Naveena. Why are you covering for the traitor in our midst?"

  "I know that you intercepted one of King Caedmon's messages," smiled Naveena, "but you underestimated your foe. He found a way to get a second message to his allies before they left."

  "What makes you so sure that it was not a traitor?" the king asked.

  "Even if there was a traitor among us," explained Naveena, "that person would have to know the identities of the group sent from Arin. He would have to know when to meet them and where. He would then have to wake King Caedmon and get him ready to flee. All of this means that there would have to be a decent method of communicating with Arin, I don't believe there is one. It would actually be much more complex and dangerous than King Caedmon handing off a second note, and his attempt to pass off the first note was so obvious that it was unbelievable."

  "It was obvious?" questioned the king.

  "He carried a large book to the coronation," smiled Naveena. "He made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was placing a paper into the book during the ceremony, and he left the book on his chair as he left. He meant to make fools of us, King Garrick, and he succeeded."

  "Are you calling me a fool?" glowered Prince Zinan. "Is that the whole point you are trying make here?"

  Naveena's point had been meant to show Prince Zinan and King Garrick that they were not infallible and still needed her very much, but she worried that she might have overplayed it.

  "Not at all," smiled Naveena. "That would accomplish nothing. I am just trying to stop us from wasting time searching for traitors that do not exist. We need to focus our energies on recapturing the Arin king."

  "And how do we do that?" asked King Garrick, his fury beginning to lessen.

  "General Wikner has thousands of men around Dulga closing in on him," Naveena replied, "and General Ortega has an elite force heading east out of Koar. They can explain the situation better than I."

  "Naveena has stated it rather well," offered General Wikner. "We believe the group headed east towards Dulga, not towards Koar as we would have expected."

  "That makes no sense," frowned the king. "What makes you believe they are heading for Dulga?"

  "A patrol was ambushed and killed on the Tarent-Dulga Road," answered General Wikner. "The bodies were stripped of their uniforms and buried so that we would not find them or identify them. The uniforms were then spread along the road from the ambush site to Dulga in an attempt to make us think the killers went to Dulga, but they underestimated us. We found the spot where they camped, and we know they are heading overland to Odessia."

  "All right," nodded the king, "but why the troops from Koar. Surely, they cannot reach the area before Caedmon reaches Odessia?"

  "They just might," offered General Ortega. "They are an elite group, and they have trained in that area before. King Caedmon will have to cross the badlands, and that is not an easy task. It will be all the more difficult for him with General Wikner's troops hunting him from Dulga."

  "The Dulga-Laborg Road turns northward after Dulga," interjected General Wikner. "If the Arinites try to turn to the east, we will capture them easily. I have thousands of men out there. If they turn south, or even fail to keep moving north, we will capture them."

  "And if they turn west," smiled General Ortega, "they will meet my elite force from Koar. Their only chance is to keep running north as fast as they can, and that is an extremely dangerous way to navigate in the badlands. I would not want to be in their position."

  "What about the Arin army?" asked Prince Zinan. "Why have they moved into Capri?"

  "I think it is a distraction," answered General Ortega. "I think they mean to trick us into believing that they are there to escort their king home. If we did believe that, we would not be searching in the east."

  "Fair enough," nodded King Garrick. "Find King Caedmon, generals. I want him back."

  "There is a chance he may make it to Odessia," warned General Wikner. "Even with thousands of men on his trail, he does have a head start. I have teams angling in on him and that will lessen his lead, but I can't be sure that we will catch him in time."

  "I want him back," the king declared adamantly. "See to it."

  King Garrick spun and left the room. General Wikner shook his head and also left. As General Ortega was leaving, Prince Zinan stepped between him and the door.

  "Does your elite group truly have a chance of catching him?" asked the dark prince.

  "A chance," nodded the general, "but nothing more than that."

  "What makes them elite?" inquired the prince.

  "They are a group that we trained to patrol the Odessian border," answered the general. "We call them the Scorpions. They know the badlands better than any other group in the army. The problem is the distance they have to travel just to get into the game, and crossing the badlands takes a great deal of time. It would be easier if General Wikner's men captured King Caedmon, but truthfully, I don't think that is going to happen."

  "That is what I surmised by listening to him," sighed Prince Zinan. "What could be done to speed up your Scorpions?"

  General Ortega hesitated a moment before answering. "It would be risky diplomatically, but if the Scorpions traveled north of the badlands, they could get there sooner. They might even arrive before King Caedmon made it across the badlands."

  "Why would it be risky?" asked the dark prince.

  "To travel north of the badlands is to enter Odessia," answered the general. "The Odessians might not take kindly to such a transgression."

  "That depends on how much the Odessians know about what is going on," mused the dark prince. "Would the Odessians normally attack such a group if it strayed over the border?"

  "No," answered the general, "but if they were caught, they would be stopped and directed to leave Odessia by the shortest route possible."

  "Order them to do it," decided Prince Zinan. "Can you get word to them?"

  "No," smiled the general, "but those are the orders that I already gave them. I was fearful that you might not approve, but I saw it as the only way to accomplish our goal."

  "You make me curious, General Ortega," Prince Zinan said as his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What else have you ordered them to do that you think I might not approve of?"

  The general fidgeted nervously, but he answered truthfully. "I ordered them to pursue King Caedmon
into Odessia if it was necessary. I understand that my orders might upset the Odessians, but I fear the repercussions of King Caedmon returning to Arin even more."

  "I have underestimated you, General," smiled the dark prince. "Let the Odessians complain. I want Caedmon captured or dead."

  General Ortega bowed respectfully and departed from the room. Prince Zinan turned to leave and saw Naveena leaning against the wall.

  "Must you listen to all of my conversations?" he asked.

  "It does keep me informed," replied Naveena. "What happened in Capri?"

  "I went up and brought the king back," shrugged the dark prince. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

  "And the princess?" asked Naveena. "Will she be coming here soon?"

  "I do not think so," smiled Prince Zinan. "She had a terrible accident while I was there. She fell from a very high tower and landed on some very nasty rocks."

  "If she had help," frowned Naveena, "I hope it was physical and not magical."

  "What difference does it make?" shrugged the dark prince.

  "A great deal of difference," sighed Naveena. "How many times must I explain it to you? Use of the Talent in such ways will destroy you. Use simpler means to accomplish your goals."

  "You worry too much, Naveena," Prince Zinan said dismissively. "Nothing is going to destroy me. Why are you more concerned about a Caprian princess than the escape of King Caedmon?"

  "King Caedmon is of no concern," answered Naveena. "He just doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Prince Antion does. The whole purpose of capturing the Arin king was to lure his son to Tarent, and when that happened you were off trying to control Garrick. You should have been here."

  "You were here," Prince Zinan pointed out. "Why didn't you do something?"

  "Your power is stronger than mine, Zinan," admitted Naveena. "I could no more subdue Prince Antion than I could subdue you."