A Gathering of Armies

by Christopher Williams

Heather belatedly realized she still held the letter in her hand. She looked down, shrugged, and held the letter in the direction of the duke.

  Duke Felix worked his way through the crowd toward Heather; it took him several moments to reach them, but then he held out his hand for the letter.

  Heather handed the letter over, Duke Felix read it several times, and then he handed it back.

  He turned his back to Heather and moved back toward the center of the floor. “I have many times corresponded with the High Priest. I know his handwriting, and this letter is genuine.”

  The crowd erupted in a roar; multiple conversations, shouts, and cries made discerning anything impossible.

  Finally, King Almarin held his hands up wide, calling for quiet. Slowly the crowd began to heed him.

  “I am your king,” he began, but he had to stop as the crowd began shouting over him.

  This time the crowd quieted as Duke Felix held up his hands. “Yes, you are our king, but we choose our god over you every time.”

  “You are being deceived,” King Almarin shouted. “This is exactly what that fool Darion wanted.” He stopped speaking as the crowd began shouting again.

  Clement stepped forward and held up a hand. Both the king and duke turned toward him. He bowed his head to King Almarin and then to Duke Felix. “I would like to take the emissaries back to their cells,” he said once the crowd had quieted again. “There is no need for them to remain here anymore.”

  The king just glared at Heather for several moments and then turned his back. Duke Felix was a bit more kind; he nodded his head once before focusing on the king.

  With both sides allowing them to leave, Clement led Heather and Warren through the crowds, out the door, and back to the small building where they had eaten dinner. The whole way he didn’t speak a single word.

  When they were once again sitting around the small table, Clement held his hand out to Heather.

  She looked at him in surprise, unsure of what he wanted.

  Clement smiled. “I would like to look at the High Priest’s letter,” he said.

  For the briefest of moments, Heather hesitated. She had visions of Clement burning the letter, but then she agreed, handing over the letter Dalin had written to King Almarin. She wisely held onto the second letter, the one that Dalin had penned to King Travis. Clement would not be able to destroy both of them, well, not at least without a fight.

  Clement smiled causing Heather to blush. She hadn’t realized her thoughts were so transparent.

  “I promise that I will not harm the letter, and that I will return it to you in a moment,” he said.

  Heather nodded and handed over the letter addressed to King Almarin.

  Clement took the letter and read it through several times.

  “Are you also familiar with the High Priest’s writing?” Warren asked.

  Heather jumped. Warren hadn’t said anything since they left for the meeting with the kings.

  Clement shook his head. “I was fortunate enough to receive a letter bestowing the church’s blessing on me, but I would not presume to say that I can recognize the High Priest’s writing.” He read the letter through once more and then handed it back to Heather.

  “Who is Duke Felix?” Warren asked. “He didn’t seem concerned about questioning the king.”

  Clement sighed deeply. “Duke Felix is just below the king in power. When King Rezon died without an heir, the nobles had to select a new king. King Almarin barely won. Duke Felix was almost the king.”

  “The king of Natesh is weak,” Heather said to Warren. “There is a standing army, but it’s small. Most of the soldiers are bondmen pledged to the nobles. The king summons them, but there is little he can do if they refuse to obey.”

  “You know something of Natesh,” Clement said. He was watching Heather with a not exactly friendly expression.

  Heather smiled. “I did not mean to insult you, but I was instructed on neighboring kingdoms while I was being trained as a Guardian.”

  Clement nodded. “In case you had to fight against them.”

  “Of course,” Heather agreed quickly, causing Clement’s face to darken. “It was a necessary precaution.”

  They sat at the table waiting for news of what was happening between the king and his nobles, but time passed and no one came. Finally, Warren stood and stretched.

  “What are you doing?” Clement demanded.

  “I can sit there no longer,” Warren replied. “I need to lie down for a bit.” Without waiting for an answer, he moved over and lay down on the floor, up against the wall.

  He didn’t look comfortable and Heather settled for leaning back in her chair and placing her feet up on the corner of the table. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was better than nothing.

  They expected a messenger, someone to relay to them what was happening between the king and his nobles; in this they were disappointed. When the door finally swung open, it was not a messenger, but Duke Felix himself.

  The duke was accompanied by several other nobles that Heather didn’t recognize, but, judging by the way Clement jumped to his feet, they must have been important. She followed his lead, but Warren remained lying on the ground. If his snores were any indication, then the duke’s arrival hadn’t woken him up.

  “Duke Felix,” Clement said, indicating the chair he had just been occupying. “Please.”

  Duke Felix nodded his head at Clement and then fixed his eyes on Heather. “You’ve caused a great deal of concern in our kingdom.”

  Heather remained standing but she smiled at the duke. “I assure you that was not my intention.”

  Duke Felix shrugged. “Regardless, you’ve turned this kingdom upside down. King Almarin didn’t even wait for the dawn, instead he and his guest, King Travis, are heading to his estates along the Savage River.”

  Heather didn’t reply. She wasn’t sure what to say. Did the king’s leaving imply good tiding for her mission or ill?

  Clement wasn’t so shy. “Duke Felix, will you go to the High Priest’s defense?”

  Duke Felix didn’t look to Clement, instead he kept his eyes trained on Heather. “I will,” he replied, after the longest of pauses. “How can I refuse his commandment?”

  Heather exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding.

  Duke Felix smiled. “Yes, I will come to Telur’s aid, and most of the soldiers of Molain and Natest will follow me.” He leaned close, the smile disappearing and his eyes took on a threatening, menacing look. “If this is a trick, I will personally kill you, and it won’t be slow.”

  Heather was taken aback. “Trick?” she asked meekly.

  “Yes, if this is some sort of deception, then I will personally end your life. Do you understand?” he asked.

  Heather only nodded. Her pleasure at the soldiers of Molain and Natesh coming to Telur’s aid was only slightly dulled by the threat on her life. Besides, most likely she would die in the battle to defend Telur, so Felix’s threat wouldn’t matter.

  Chapter 24

  They spent the remainder of that day in the guardhouse. Around dusk, the rain quit falling, leaving a soaked landscape all around them.

  “Perhaps tomorrow will be clear,” Keenan said, peering out the small window.

  Flare nodded but said nothing. Too many conflicting emotions battled within him at the moment, and besides, there was still the Zalustus apparition; he still couldn’t call it a dream.

  “Are you all right?” Keenan asked.

  The question pulled Flare from his silent contemplation of the day’s events and he looked up. “What?” he asked dumbly.

  Keenan’s forehead wrinkled in worry and he didn’t repeat the question immediately. After a moment he repeated the question. “I asked if you were all right.”

  Flare nodded and tried to smile; the effect was not flattering. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

  “You’ve barely spoken today at all, and you seem completely distracted,” Keenan replied.
>
  Surprised, Flare hadn’t thought about how he’d been acting. The last thing he wanted to do was admit his true worries to Keenan. Instead, he cast around for what made sense as a reasonable lie and he realized there was a ready-made reason for his distraction; the fact that it wasn’t the real reason made little difference. “I’m returning home,” he said. “I’m returning to the place where I grew up and wasn’t exactly welcomed. I’m returning as one of the most feared men; the subject of Kelcer’s prophecy. I guess you could say that I have a lot on my mind.”

  “Uh-huh,” Keenan said, clearly not believing Flare’s excuse. “It sure took long enough for all this to start bothering you.”

  For a brief moment, anger swelled up within him, but it went away almost as quickly. Flare shrugged. “Believe me or not.”

  Keenan held his hands up in mock surrender. “Fine, I believe you.”

  Strangely, Flare found himself not believing Keenan anymore than Keenan had believed him. The anger rose up again, not as bad as before, but it was still there.

  “You want the first or second watch?” Keenan asked.

  Flare shook his head. “Neither. We don’t need to stand watch here.”

  “Are you sure?” Keenan replied. “Because I don’t trust the elven guard. They might sneak up on us in the night. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep without a watch.”

  Flare shrugged and lay down on his bed. “Fine, stand watch then, just don’t wake me.”

  The last thing he did before he dropped off to sleep was to place a ward on the small room. If anyone entered, he would most certainly wake up.

  Flare woke early the next morning to the sound of Keenan’s snores. Despite what Keenan had said last night, it appeared that he could sleep just fine even if there wasn’t a watch.

  As quietly as he could Flare climbed off the bed, grimacing as the bed squeaked under his shifting weight.

  He paused once he was standing, and checked to make sure that Keenan still slept.

  The prince of Tizen was still asleep and Flare found that surprising; most warriors could sleep lightly, coming awake at the first sound, but Keenan slept on. Most likely, Keenan had stayed awake late into the night, trying to keep alert. That, or the comfortable bed had lulled him into a deeper sleep than normal.

  Flare hurried over and glanced out the window; a cloudy, but still rainless day, greeted him. Perhaps Keenan had been right, perhaps they would have an easy day of traveling.

  Still moving as quietly as he could, Flare moved to the fire and began stoking the coals. Despite his best efforts, a subtle change in Keenan’s breathing told Flare that he’d woken the other man.

  Flare glanced over to see Keenan blinking at him through blurry eyes. “Good morning,” he said cheerfully.

  “Is it raining?” Keenan asked. He sounded neither cheerful nor alert.

  “Doesn’t look like it,” Flare answered. Small fingers of flame began to lick around the edge of the wood he’d added to the fire. “Let’s get some breakfast and then we can get started.”

  They left the guardhouse shortly after sunup and began following a trail that went in the general direction of Solistine. The ground, bushes, and trees were all covered with water from yesterday’s rain and the water, coupled with the uneven trail, made walking slippery.

  They walked in silence. Flare wasn’t sure if Keenan was just tired, or perhaps a bit upset about his refusing to stand watch last night. Either way, he didn’t much care. Perhaps it was the headaches from his most recent trip to Sha’al, or perhaps it was unease at returning home after so long, but Flare was edgy and irritable. He’d grown up in this forest and would have expected the prolonged hike to calm him, but it was having just the opposite affect. He was confused by the Elven Guard’s actions and that worried him.

  Throughout the morning, the sky gradually cleared and the sun even made an appearance. The forest began to dry out and both their moods began to rise. It was impossible to walk in the Eternal Forest in the sunshine and not have one’s spirits buoyed.

  They stopped for lunch in a small grove of trees. The trees leaned inwards, making a canopy that kept the sun out. It wasn’t hot, but they enjoyed eating some of the stolen hollenstren bread without the sun in their eyes.

  The afternoon went much as the morning had. They made good time, but were both a tad anxious as to when the Elven Guard would make their presence known.

  They set up camp in a small clearing just off of the trail. They had barely spoken throughout the day and they started a fire, retrieved water from a nearby lake, and warmed more of the hollenstren bread without a word being exchanged. The silence was abruptly broken by Keenan.

  “Can I assume that you will take a watch tonight?”

  There was a slightly bitter tone to the words, and Flare considered taking offense; he dismissed the idea quickly enough though. “Of course,” he answered, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

  Keenan looked slightly mollified. “Do you want the first or second watch?” he asked.

  Flare didn’t answer right away. In fact, he just sat there with his eyes wide and feeling totally confused. The need was back; the need to return to Sha’al; but that couldn’t be right. It was true that his head hadn’t hurt much over the afternoon, but returning to the realm of the dead this soon was the recipe for one hell of a headache.

  “What is it?” Keenan demanded. He was suddenly alert, his hand resting on his sword hilt. “Is something wrong?”

  Flare shook his head, still confused by the return of the need so soon. It had never happened this quick before. True, the length of time varied, but he still wouldn’t have expected it for at least another week. Keenan was still watching him and Flare was sure that he suspected something was amiss. He smiled the best smile he could. “No, everything’s fine. For one moment I thought I saw something in the shadows,” he lied. He shook his head. “It was nothing.”

  Keenan nodded once and then looked around. Clearly he didn’t believe Flare was telling him the truth. The gods only knew what he suspected.

  “I’ll take the first watch,” Flare said. He glanced in the direction of the lake where they had gotten the water they’d used for dinner. The sooner I can get to that lake, the better.

  Flare waited until several hours into his watch to turn his steps toward the lake. Keenan had been suspicious of Flare’s poorly told lie. He’d suspected that Keenan had even feigned sleep for a while, apparently hoping to catch Flare in some grand deceit. So, Flare had stood a normal watch, moving around the small campsite, walking in the shadows and bushes that ringed the small clearing, and even sitting down for a while on a small boulder just at the edge of the firelight.

  If Keenan had been pretending to sleep, Flare was fairly confident that he wasn’t pretending any longer. Keenan’s breathing was slow and regular and he even snored occasionally. It wasn’t an overly-loud fake snoring, but rather a quiet drone.

  Finally, he decided that he’d waited long enough and he got up and quietly walked to the lake. It wasn’t so much a lake as it was a small stream that a beaver had dammed up. The stream had overflowed its boundaries and now covered several acres. The water in the middle of the lake didn’t look overly appealing, but Flare didn’t need to go that far in. The water on the edge easily came up to his knees and it would be all that was required to send him once again to Sha’al.

  He stood there for a moment, dreading this journey. Undoubtedly, when he came back, his head would feel like it was about to split open.

  Sighing, he stepped into the water, going out far enough that the water came mid-way between his knees and his waist. Then, he held his breath and dropped below the surface of the water. This time, he didn’t wait at the bottom, instead he immediately pushed off of the bottom, breaking through the water.

  Once again, his surroundings had changed, but in a manner unlike anything he’d experienced before. He emerged from the water, coming up out of a small pool made of stones. The pool was man-made
, and it resided on a large flat roof.

  Flare looked around, but seeing no one else, he climbed up the steps and walked to the edge of the roof. He swallowed hard as he looked out over a vast city. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen or imagined. The city that stretched out below him made Telur look like a small farming village. Massive buildings and large towers stretched far out into the distance. Despite the vastness of the city, it had a feeling of emptiness, of a place long abandoned.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” a voice asked from just behind him.

  Flare jumped and spun around. He’d been so enthralled by the city, that he’d missed the sound of approaching footsteps.

  A man stood before him. He was tall and thin, middle-aged with dark black hair. He had a well-groomed beard and he wore regal, black robes. A gold chain hung around his neck and he seemed to be measuring Flare.

  “I’m sorry,” Flare said. “I didn’t hear you approach.”

  The man nodded and motioned on past Flare, to the city below. “I said it’s amazing, isn’t it?” His tone was cultured and he spoke clearly, with a deep voice.

  Flare nodded, but kept his eyes on the man. “Yes. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” He paused and then asked the question he was dying to know the answer to, “Where is this place? I mean, what is the name of this city?”

  The man smiled. “It was known as Baden. Truly it was one of the most blessed cities ever built by man.”

  “What … What happened to it?”

  “It was destroyed long ago, in the Great War.”

  Flare had never heard of Baden, nor of a Great War, but he supposed it could be one of the Wars of the Races, but he’d never heard it called the Great War before. Flare didn’t reply, unsure of what to say.

  “It was my home, until the goblins destroyed it.”

  “I’m sorry,” Flare said.

  A ghost of a smile played across the man’s face. “I suppose that’s why I always pick this spot when I’m summoned to train one of your order. Although, I must say it has been a long time since I was last summoned.”