The Nightstone

by Wil Ogden

  “Don’t yet,” King Allaind said. “I can’t say I’m pleased with you at the moment.”

  Sheillene glanced back towards the guards on the floor. “My apologies, Your Majesty. I have an important missive for Prince Reginald from his father. It cannot wait.”

  The king gestured for her to approach the prince. Prince Reginald stood and reached out across the table. Sheillene set the missive in the Prince’s hand. The Prince then broke the seal and sat down to read the letter.

  “Perhaps if you would spend a couple days a year taking your spot on the royal guard, the other guards would have a better chance of recognizing you.” The King said.

  “I will endeavor to do so at some point, Majesty” Sheillene said.

  “Now’s as good a time as any,” The king pointed to a spot behind and left of his chair. A man wielding a long-bladed spear stood behind and right of the King. Sheillene stepped up and walked around the table. She strung her bow before taking a watchful stance behind the King.

  Pantros and the others took their seats at the long dining table.

  “I must leave,” Reginald said then stood and bowed to the King. “My father has died. I must return to Relarch.”

  The King stood as well. “I am sorry to hear of your father’s passing. I knew him for many years as a friend.”

  The man between the King and the Prince also stood and offered sympathy.

  The prince then walked off the stage and out of the dining hall. A large group of men who had been sitting near Pantros got up and followed the Prince.

  “His knights?” Pantros asked.

  “Yes,” David replied. “I should go with them.” He excused himself and followed the others into the hall.

  CHAPTER 25: KEHET

  Try as he might, Kehet couldn’t feel comfortable as a guest in the King’s Palace. Beldithe had convinced him that it would only be polite if he introduced himself to the local king. The king had insisted not only that Kehet stay, but that he stay in a suite next to the royal family’s suites. For four days he’d had to sneak out into the city to avoid the constant attention of the princess. She wasn’t trying to seduce him; she was just trying to convince him to show her his Unicorn form. He obliged her several times over the days.

  The meals, due to his presence as well as the presence of another foreign prince, were all elaborate feasts. Kehet didn’t miss the meals. Since the King went through all the effort to produce a feast, it was only polite for him to attend.

  When, on Kehet’s fourth night eating with the King, the Prince of Relarch excused himself from the high table, the dinner essentially ended. Within minutes the hall was empty aside from the royal family and the King’s Guard. A small group stood just inside the dining hall. Two of the men in the group were among the largest people Kehet had ever seen.

  “Does this mean Prince Reginald is the King of Relarch now?” Kehet asked. “Is he now Reginald the Second?”

  The king nodded. “He’s Prince Regent until the coronation, and then he will be Reginald the Second.”

  Kehet took a moment to think about the fact that he’d been sitting between two kings. Then he had the realization that both kings were probably just as awed to be sitting next to a god.

  The king then said, “I only hope that he can make it out of the city safely.”

  “I was told this gathering of Vulak is unheard of,” Kehet said.

  “And they’re closing on Melnith.” The king’s archer stepped into the conversation. “The Prince may not be able to make it to Relarch today or anytime in the near future.”

  “I knew their numbers were growing, Sheillene, but I hadn’t heard they were moving this way,” The king said. “I assume your Hunter’s Guild is passing news along.”

  “Yes,” Sheillene, the archer, said. “We use an enchanted quill system to keep our bounty postings current between our guild halls. Occasionally they can be used for spreading news. We don’t really want that to become their primary use, however.”

  “Yes,” the king replied, “but, don’t you think this is the kind of information you should tell your king as soon as possible?”

  “I’m here,” Sheillene said. “This is as soon as possible.”

  “I see,” the king said. “I should summon my generals.” He called over a servant and told him to get his generals to the palace. He then looked over at the motley group by the door. “Your friends, will they be helpful or are they just tagging along to get a chance to visit my palace?”

  Sheillene took a moment of staring at her friends before answering, “I think they’ll be helpful. Thomas is always a good source of knowledge, and the smaller of the two large men is a Novarran General. The man in black is probably the cause of the Vulak invasion. The woman is his sister and the giant is, well a giant, and he can handle himself pretty well in a fight.”

  The queen stood and excused herself. The Abvi prince, Aven, moved closer to the king’s conversation as did the king’s daughter, Princess Adria.

  “You don’t need to stay,” The king said to his children. “This is likely going to be a boring conversation.”

  “I will be King someday,” Aven said. “We don’t often have a reason to plan for war, I should learn at every opportunity.”

  “I’m staying with Sheillene,” Adria said. “I’ve been Archery Champion too, that qualifies me to be here as much as her.”

  “You just want to be here with Kehet,” Aven said. “He’s not going to change for you in the dining hall.”

  “No,” Adria said, “I’m here to learn from Sheillene just as you are here to learn from father.”

  “Kehet?” Sheillene asked. She looked straight at Kehet. “You’re the Unicorn god?”

  Kehet nodded. “So it seems.”

  “He doesn’t have all his memories,” King Allaind said. “He’s still as sharp as I remember.”

  Sheillene chuckled, as did Adria. Aven didn’t even crack a smile. Kehet had no doubt the prince got the joke. The man seemed to have very little sense of humor.

  Sheillene then asked, “Where has he been?”

  “Even I don’t know,” Kehet said. “Beldithe is telling me what I should know, but she can be mischievous and I don’t really know how far to trust her.”

  “You always trusted her completely, if the tales are true,” Sheillene said. “Of the gods, she is your closest ally. The two of you are the gods who interact most with the people. She can always be found at her temples and you have a long history of meddling.”

  Kehet didn’t know what she meant by meddling, so he asked her to be more specific.

  She replied, “There is a fight coming with the Vulak. The other gods may aid their followers, give them courage and possibly even heal their wounds after the battle, but you will probably be out on the field, killing Vulak with the mortals.”

  “My love lives in this city,” Kehet said. “If it comes to defending it, I would see no other honorable choice but to fight.”

  “And you have a mortal love?” Sheillene said. “Gods take mortal lovers, not loves. Again, you have a reputation for being different than the other gods.”

  King Allaind waved his hand towards Sheillene’s friends. “We have all been trying to help Kehet remember his past, but we have more pressing matters. You said your dark clothed friend over there could be the cause of all this. I think that is a far more important topic of discussion.” He gestured to Sheillene’s friends to join them by the high table.

  Once they approached and finished with their bows of respect, the King asked, “Sheillene, could you introduce your friends?”

  She walked to the man in the black shirt, “This is Pantros Phyreshade, the one you’ve heard of. The woman is his sister Tara. The man in the blue hat is Thomas, but you knew that too. He is Tara’s husband. The largest man is Marc Williams, a swordsman who sometimes plays a bass guitar. The last is Bryan Aaronson, also the one you’ve heard of, who has since earned the rank of General in Novarra. He’s also pretty handy
with a damned big sword.”

  “So, Pantros,” The king said, “This is all your fault?”

  “My fault?” Pantros replied, “I wouldn’t go that far, Your Majesty. The events that brought about the Vulak invasion were in motion long before I became involved. From my understanding of things. When I came into possession of the Nightstone Key, I have only brought about the best possible outcome so far.”

  The king appeared thoughtful for a moment. Kehet was curious what a Nightstone Key was but felt it would be a question to ask later, if the answer didn’t come on its own in the meantime.

  King Allaind said, “The Nightstone could certainly produce a far larger problem than a Vulak Army if it were in the wrong hands. No one wants to deal with the denizens of Hell. Do you have the Nightstone with you?”

  “I do, Your Majesty.” Pantros pulled a pouch from his shirt and produced a very large dark, glowing gem. “I don’t know who I can trust with it, I should assume I can trust you but I was hoping to make it to Vehlos and see the Archmage about it.”

  “I can have the Archmage come here,” The King said. “He’s not a subject of mine, but for him such travel is trivial. I’ll have to get a Sorcerer over here to send the message by wind, but he should be here by this time tomorrow. Until then I’d have you keep the stone and I will move you to more secure quarters than the guesthouse.”

  “Why do I have the sinking suspicion I’ve just been placed under arrest?” Pantros asked.

  The King smiled a little. “The cells below the palace are the most guarded place in the city. The rooms are quite nice since we only use them for nobility when they get into unpleasant circumstances.” The king motioned to two guards. When they approached, he instructed them, “Keep this man under close watch. Let nothing happen to him. He will be staying below in the big cell, but he is to be allowed to go anywhere on the palace grounds, under close guard. His name is Pantros; treat him as a noble.”

  “The King of Thieves, Your Majesty?” one of the guards asked.

  “The same,” The king said.

  “The thieves have a king?” Kehet asked.

  Several of the people in the room chuckled. “No.” It was Sheillene who explained, “It’s a fictional title describing his prowess, not his relationship to the other thieves of the world. There are only two kings in this room, you and His Majesty. I apologize I don’t know your particular address.”

  “I’m a prince, not a king,” Kehet said. “I don’t know my address. Some call me Majesty, if you insist on using one with me, that will do, but I have no need for such things. Just a couple weeks ago, I thought of myself as simply Charles the blacksmith’s apprentice. King Allaind has met me before and I’ve met a few others who have known me over a thousand years ago. They just call me Kehet. I suppose you may do the same.”

  §

  Three of the King’s Generals joined them and, after introducing the officers to Kehet and Sheillene’s friends, the King moved the meeting to a planning room. A table with a model of the kingdom stood in the center of the room. It was enchanted to always represent the current view of the kingdom and it could be enlarged to focus on a specific spot, but only the king could control it.

  The king spent several minutes silently moving the perspective of the model around. Views of several Vulak groups passed across the tabletop.

  Malithe, a general with blonde hair so long she had to tuck it as a loop in her belt, spoke out, “They’re not terribly organized.”

  Kehet asked, “They don’t look like more than a bunch of Vulak moving in towards the city, but can we be sure they are not acting in coordination?”

  “We can’t be sure,” Bryan said, “but, they don’t share any banners or markings. Whatever is causing them to share a goal does not have a complete grip over them.”

  “I suspect even they do not know the scale of the invasion,” Malithe said. There are no map tents, no intense planning, just moving as quickly as is reasonable, towards Melnith. There are already a couple thousand just beyond bowshot. The siege has begun.”

  “So, how do we prepare?” The King asked.

  “Have everyone start hoarding water,” said Shera, a general with silver hair cut above her shoulders. “Fill every barrel in the city. They will try to damn the river upstream of the city.”

  “Amateurs,” Bryan said. “The Vulak are amateurs, so they will probably try to cut off the water. A better strategy would be to dam the river downstream of the city, flooding is far more devastating than forcing us into rationing our water. How soon do you think it will be before they start defiling the river upstream?”

  “They won’t,” The third general, a bald man named Wun, said. “They need the water as well if they have any plans to stick around for more than a couple days. But, if they do, I understand the touch of a Unicorn’s horn will purify water. I imagine the Unicorn God can purify quite a bit of water.”

  Kehet knew that what the man said was true. He didn’t remember learning it, but he somehow just knew. Kehet nodded, agreeing. “I could purify a few leagues of river. Defilement is not a threat to us.”

  “Do we know how many Vulak are coming?” The long-haired general asked. “Maybe we should send some soldiers outside the city and take the Vulak down as they arrive.”

  “How big is the Abvi Army?” Bryan asked.

  “I’ll let Malithe answer that as well,” The king said, nodding to the long-haired general.

  Malithe Nodded, “I am the senior ranking general in the city. There are two hundred and fifty thousand Abvi in the city and a few thousand others. Of those, one in ten is part of the militia reserve. We don’t have more than a handful of regular army here. Most of our forces are in border keeps and patrols.”

  “And they didn’t report this invasion coming?” Bryan asked.

  “We got two reports of Vulak movement,” Malithe said. “We sent reinforcements to those posts. We haven’t heard anything from the other posts along Vulak territories. That’s not unusual to go a season or two without communication, but seeing the size of these forces, it’s not a good sign.”

  The king spun the view on the table and sped through the countryside to view a stone tower. Nothing seemed out of place, but nothing moved. Kehet couldn’t see anyone in the view.

  “There should be two dozen soldiers at that post. At most, ten would be in the tower, out of sight. There should be three manning the parapet.” General Wun said.

  “I know that post well,” Shera said. "The Vulak would have come through a pass three hundred paces north."Let’s see the pass, if you would, Your Majesty.

  Before the scene reached the pass, Kehet could see the fate of the Abvi was not good. Several bodies, both Abvi and Vulak littered the ground around the opening of the pass.

  “The Vulak are in a hurry,” Shera said. “They don’t leave their dead to rot in the sun, but though I see three Vulak dead for every Abvi body, it looks like the Vulak won the fight.”

  “Why do you say that?” Pantros asked.

  “The Abvi have had their ears removed,” Shera said, he voice seething and low with sadness. “Vulak take ears as trophies. Some of them survived to claim the ears.”

  “Let’s see,” The King said. He scrolled the scene, following a trail left by the Vulak. It took him several minutes, but when he stopped, everyone in the room gasped. Thousands of Vulak marched in a column toward Melnith.

  “I don’t think meeting them outside the gates is a good idea,” Bryan said. “I think we need to prepare the walls, get arrows up there along with anyone who can pull a bow. How many trebuchets are in the city?”

  “Why would we have siege engines in a city?” Wun asked.

  “They’re particularly handy for throwing oil soaked bales of hay at the enemy,” Bryan said. “Or pitch, or even rocks.”

  “Barbaric,” Malithe said.

  Marc stepped forward and said, “I too would prefer a toe-to-toe fight. When it comes down to win or lose in battle, it’s one thing to
fight honorably and die honorably for yourself. When you’re fighting for the lives of everyone in the city, is it really the honorable path to fight only with your own honor in mind? There will always be lines of honor and morality that no soldier should cross, but having trebuchets aimed at enemy soldiers is not of those.”

  “I’m beginning to question how the Abvi all but wiped out the human race so many thousands of years ago,” Bryan asked. “It’s looking more and more like they just waited for us to die of old age.”

  “That’s exactly how we did it,” Malithe said. “We like to summarize that we won the war, but it took us ninety years. We won because we sterilized the humans by poisoning every water supply on the continent. When the war ended it took a couple hundred years before the Abvi could even breed again, but a couple hundred years isn’t even as a decade would be to a human.”

  “And you call me barbaric,” Bryan said. “I don’t suggest that method in the coming fight. I’d like to live to see us win and though I may be young for a General, I doubt I have ninety years left in me.”

  “The trebuchet’s sound like a good idea,” Malithe said. “I’ll send someone to fetch some Matderi engineers.”

  “We do have magic,” Wun said. “We have at least a hundred students at the Sorcery School and a dozen instructors. They should be able to throw lightning around.”

  “The Vulak might have sorcerers too,” Shera said. “Magic is rarer among Vulak than Abvi, but it is not non-existent.”

  “I know some magic users that might be able to help as well,” Kehet said.

  “Water mages are useless in combat,” Shera said. “And Tempests are notorious for not taking sides until there is a clear definition of good and evil among the combatants. They will side with the force for good, but that doesn’t mean they will decide the Abvi are less evil than the Vulak.”

  “I’m not talking Earth or Water magic,” Kehet said. “I speak of the banned arts. I speak of the Wizards.”

  “There are no Wizards,” The King said. “The trait was wiped from every living creature on the planet during the purge. If a Wizard is born, they are drowned. Fire magic is too chaotic, too dangerous.”