The Lost Endeavour

by Georgina Makalani

  “And then what?”

  “The people want their rightful king.”

  “Do they? Once the important men of the land are supplied with new wives, the best the kingdom has to offer, they will remain loyal to the man who provides.”

  “It is the crown that provides.”

  Ende laughed, a booming sound that ricocheted off the buildings.

  The sword master shook his head and walked away. He was almost back at the practice halls when he stopped, sure that something lurked in the shadows. Yet when he looked closer, there was nothing there. What had been sent after the king? And if it refrained from taking him, what might it take instead? Forest shivered again at the thought of Salima. She was much stronger than he had ever imagined. She might be just what some strange creature searching for power would want. And it had been sent after the king. She shared his blood, and that might be enough.

  He was about to turn on his heel and return to the room, and to the woman who might have a way to protect her, when there was a scream from inside the practice halls. He raced forward and pulled the door, only vaguely aware of someone running with him as he searched the dimly lit space. The tall windows usually allowed daylight to light the space and avoid the need for torches during the day, but despite the hour, the room was dark and the air unnaturally hot.

  “Hello!” he called out.

  Someone had been inside, for the scream had reached across the courtyard, high and desperate.

  “Sir,” a shaky voice whispered, and a hand rested on his shoulder. He glanced around at the soldier, wondering if this was the man who had followed him in or a man who had been inside the room all along.

  He pointed to the room before them, and Forest stopped. Something dark marked the floor. The usually pale grass-woven mats looked as though something had been spilled across them. Perhaps a sack of something, for there was a larger lump in the middle of the space.

  “Why can’t I see anything?” he murmured.

  A torch flared to life behind him, and he wished it were dark again. Someone, and he couldn’t even guess at whom, had been pulled apart. The remains of a torso lay in the middle of the floor, blood both pooled around the pieces and spattered across the mats and walls.

  The soldier beside him made a noise of trying to stop his lunch returning. They had all seen war in some form. But Forest had never seen this. He looked down to notice part of a limb at his feet. He couldn’t tell if it was arm or leg, but he squatted and put his hand to it. Still very warm. This had just happened. They had heard the scream. Long deep cuts covered what might have been the torso. The head was crushed.

  He looked up at Ende, who stood behind him with the torch.

  “Do you think this is the darkness she sensed?” Ende asked.

  Forest shook his head. He had no idea what might have caused this. He had once seen the mark on another, but it was too long ago. And it had been three scratches across an arm. Not this.

  He looked up then to the strangely shrouded windows. He looked at Ende, then back to them as he stood. Did whatever had done this need the shadows? Was this a message? And if so, for whom?

  “Papa?” Salima’s voice called from the doorway, but before he could find a way to stop her coming, the torch was thrust into his hand with such force it nearly knocked him over. And then Ende’s voice carried from the doorway as he pushed her outside.

  Forest handed the torch to the soldier and followed Ende out. The man stood in the courtyard, his arm around Salima’s shoulders, and Forest wanted to squeeze between them. She would have to know at some point who and what she was. He wasn’t ready for that to be anytime soon, despite what might be lurking in the shadows.

  The soldier appeared not long after. “I’m not waiting in there alone,” he said.

  “Then go for more help,” Forest directed.

  He bowed his head and disappeared at a run towards the barracks. What help anyone could be, the sword master couldn’t guess.

  Chapter 20

  The noise of the room was overwhelming, and no matter what he did, the regent couldn’t get the attention of the people. Despite his cries for silence and their want for his attention.

  He glanced around, wishing the mage would appear from the shadows, but he was nowhere to be found. This might very well be his own fault, but he wouldn’t be admitting that to anyone.

  Thom tried to focus on a single person, to get their attention and so hopefully bring the focus back to where it should be. Him. Not that he knew where to begin to explain what had occurred or how they could stop it. He locked eyes with Ende, staring at him over the head of the child, and found himself taking a second look. The sword master’s daughter was pressed against Ende’s side, his hand firmly on her shoulder. The sword master stood beside Ende, the child’s hand in his. Were they friends?

  He didn’t think Ende had made too many true friends during his time in the capital all those years ago, and no one had seen him since before Ter-essa’s death.

  Thom studied the child then, as though seeing her for the first time. There was something familiar in her, and yet he couldn’t place her. Then his view was obscured as the sword master moved and Ende put his fingers to his lips.

  A sharp whistle cut through the air, and the room dropped into silence.

  “Thank you,” the regent said, stepping forward to the edge of the platform. “I understand that you are all…” He stopped as the people in the room focused on the tall slender man. Ende. He scowled. “Are you responsible for this?” he asked, allowing the hatred to show in his voice.

  “The visitor,” a soldier said clearly, indicating Ende, “and Sword Master Forest were talking in the courtyard when the victim screamed.”

  “Have we determined who he was?” the regent asked, ignoring the grin across the room that showed too many perfect teeth.

  The soldier shook his head.

  Another man made his way through the crowd. “My son is missing,” he cried, looking through the crowd around him. “I have searched, but…”

  The sword master paled. Did he know, or was he guessing? “He wasn’t due for a lesson for two days,” he stammered.

  “He wanted the extra practice; he wanted to make you proud,” the older man said, his voice cracking.

  The sword master closed his eyes and nodded once. The man who believed his son the victim teetered back and forth, and another man stepped in to support him. Thom was sure Ende was strong enough that he could have held the man up with one hand on his own. But he didn’t move from the child.

  All Thom needed now was for the witch to reappear. Not that he thought she would, but the idea of her made him rub at his arm. There was something far more unnatural about her than he had considered when he had pictured her as his wife. He might have to select someone from the coming group for himself. A young bride might be just what he needed to help cement himself as the rightful ruler of this world.

  Murmurs moved through the crowd, but most eyes were on him. He cleared his throat. “We have some understanding of the events,” he said softly, although he had no idea at all as to what was going on. “I think I should see the place for myself.”

  The murmuring increased.

  “Do you think that necessary?” someone asked.

  “Your mage might have more idea.” Ende spoke softly, and yet his voice filled the room.

  “Where is the mage?” someone else asked.

  “Is there magic involved?”

  “Something unnatural,” the sword master said before looking around and swallowing down his regret.

  The regent wasn’t sure that he really wanted to see what was out there in the practice halls. If only it had been the boy he so desperately needed gone.

  “I have seen something similar before,” the sword master said, his stare vacant.

  “Truly?” the regent asked, stepping down to stand before him while trying to ignore Ende moving between him and the girl. It was a subtle movement, but one all the same. Agai
n, he found himself looking at the girl.

  “On an arm,” the sword master murmured, moving three fingers across the skin.

  The regent studied the man’s arm. “It is not possible,” he whispered.

  “What is it?” someone asked.

  He shook his head. He had no idea what had been present when he had last seen Mariela, but the idea of the described marks reminded him of her. It was after she had left the capital, and it was as though she shouldn’t have been there. He had walked into the mage’s workshop and been caught by surprise. Three deep scratches sliced into her arm. And he hadn’t seen her again.

  He looked up at the sword master. “You saw her,” he said, feeling like a lost boy himself.

  The sword master looked somewhat confused for a moment, as though they were talking of someone else, and he glanced at Ende without answering the question. Thom was starting to wonder if he really had seen Mariela that day.

  “A child,” the sword master said, and Ende nodded. “A small boy who had roamed out by the river.”

  Murmuring moved through the crowd again.

  “Just the one mark?” the regent asked.

  The man nodded again, but his attention was on Ende. Thom wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake him, but he was too aware of the room full of people wanting answers. “Was the man in the practice hall similarly marked?”

  “It was hard to say,” Forest said.

  “I need to see,” the regent said, waving people from the room, although they didn’t move. He made his way out of the throne room and towards the courtyard. The soldier who had found the body followed him, and he wondered if this man could be trusted. He wasn’t one Thom would have sent out with the major to find the boy. And they were yet to return.

  The sword master pushed ahead of him and pulled out a large brass key. He inserted it into the door. The regent wondered if the room was locked at other times, or if it was open for the young men of the capital to practice whenever they wanted. Perhaps if the young man inside had thought to ask his friends to join him, he would not have found himself alone with a killer.

  The stench of blood and death reached the regent as the door swung open, and he tried not to gag. He might not have seen the battlefield like these other men, but he was a man—a royal one, at that—and he needed to at least look like he could hold himself.

  No matter what he thought lay in the dark room ahead of him, he wasn’t ready for it.

  “Surely whoever did this would be covered in blood,” he murmured once he was standing inside the room. Several soldiers stood around him with torches. He looked up. “Why is it dark?”

  “Someone has covered the windows.” The soldier beside him held the torch higher, although it did little to tell him what covered them. He nodded to show understanding, tried not to look at the remains of the body before him and headed back out into the air. He found the sword master and Ende standing together looking out across the courtyard. The child was no longer with them.

  “You didn’t want to see?” Thom asked.

  “We’ve seen it,” Forest said. “It stays with you.”

  The regent nodded despite himself. He feared the sword master might be right. Even with the poor lighting, it was too clear just what had happened. “It was fast?”

  “The boy screamed; we entered and found…” The sword master held his hand out towards the door.

  The regent nodded. He could still smell the blood, and he wanted to be further away. Could something do this to the king? He hadn’t heard back from the mage on that front yet. Maybe whatever he had sent after the boy had developed a taste.

  “Did that answer your questions?” the sword master asked.

  The regent shook his head. “Could it be that the young man upset someone, was in debt…” He stopped at the incredulous look on the sword master’s face. “You have seen this before. Tell me the details.”

  Forest looked at Ende first. Thom wondered why, after all these years, the man had decided to return now. And he had barely changed in the sixteen or seventeen years since he had seen him. He was unsure if it had been that long. Maybe there was something a little unnatural about him. But his own men had seen him when the killing had occurred. He tried not to sigh.

  “It wasn’t much, although the boy’s death couldn’t be explained. He was found by the river, but did not drown. The only marks on his body were three deep cuts across his arm. It was thought to be an animal attack; there was nothing else, and we couldn’t identify the animal that might have created such a mark.”

  “You have seen this yourself,” Ende said, and the regent looked up at the intense gaze, eyes much darker than he had thought they were. Maybe the man could be in two places at once.

  “Have you?” the sword master asked.

  “Once, but the person lived. Or so I thought.”

  “Who was it and where?”

  “That I can’t remember.” Ende narrowed his eyes, and the regent knew he didn’t believe him. “I only remember the marks were on a forearm. And when I noticed them, thinking how deep and painful they appeared, the person covered them with the other hand.”

  “Did you see them again?”

  He shook his head.

  “Where?” Ende asked, his deep voice commanding.

  “Somewhere in the castle.”

  “When?”

  “Long ago. Fifteen years.” The regent looked them over for a moment and then turned back to the room he didn’t want to re-enter. He sucked in a deep breath, took the torch from the soldier beside him and headed back into the room. He wasn’t sure it was a good idea to head in alone. But if it was the creature the mage had sent, he hoped it was on his side. Although if the mage was behind this, did that mean he was responsible for Mariela’s disappearance?

  Thom stopped by the body, trying not to breathe as the bitter coppery scent overwhelmed him. He held the torch out. There was little left of the boy, but some scratches sliced through the clothing across his torso. They were similar to what he was sure he had seen on Mariela’s arm that day. Across one leg, torn free of the pants that had covered it, there was another. Was this frustration—a beast unable to take what it had been created to take?

  He shivered and looked around the room. The strange light filtering through the covered windows drew his eye upwards. Something was smeared across the windows, all of them, something dark that didn’t stop the sunlight, but made a dark halo of light. He wondered if the boy had entered the space to find it like that, or if it had been done after. He shook his head. There hadn’t been the time. It had all been very fast. It was waiting, whatever it was, in the hall. Who was it waiting for?

  Chapter 21

  “The soldiers come,” Eilke said.

  Ed turned to Dray, but he was looking at Belle. She was staring down at the table. The room looked as it always did, although the stars above had changed to sunlight pushing through the leaves of tall trees. Belle took her father’s hands and nodded once.

  “You need to say goodbye to your friends,” Ed said, trying to draw her attention. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt very uncertain. She pushed up from the table, her father following.

  “I am to go with them,” she said.

  “No,” Ed stammered, looking to the soldier again for some confirmation that this was not her decision. But Dray only watched her.

  “Why not?” she asked, glaring at him, the fire back in her eyes. He had longed for that look, and yet he wasn’t sure what to do with it now. “It might be my only chance at a life,” she said, her focus still on him and him alone. “We have nothing to return to in the Grassland. Your focus is Ana.”

  “I want to find her,” Ed said quickly, “but not at the risk of losing you along the way.”

  She smiled then, but it was sad. No matter what he said now, she was going.

  “What if you end up marrying some old man?” he asked. “Or if he is cruel?”

  “What if he is young and handsome?” she returned, and
Ed felt his face burn. She was right. What was he making her stay for? He had nothing to offer her.

  He bowed his head and ran a hand around a knot in the surface of the table.

  “You are the king,” the wind whispered in his ear. He looked up again to see she had already left, and he pushed at Dray to move so that he could follow her.

  “Maybe we should come too,” Ed called after her as she met with her friends. Some of the girls whispered amongst themselves.

  “Is it safe?” Dray asked.

  “For them or me?” Ed returned.

  “Something is trying to kill you.”

  “And it hasn’t yet. I need to…”

  Dray looked at him with almost the same intensity as Belle had.

  “What do you need?” she asked then, stepping away from the group of girls. “To be king? To save Ana?”

  “I…” he started, but the words wouldn’t form. He still had no idea of what he should do. No, he told himself, that was a lie. He knew what he should do; he just didn’t know if that was what he wanted or how he would achieve it. Although, he’d had the discussion with the chief after the creature had disappeared. He was the king, and it was time he started to act like it.

  He wouldn’t have the same options as Belle, living a normal life, his choice in a family. And he wasn’t sure if that was what he wanted or not. He did understand that he was to be King, and he would have to find a way to the throne. He glanced back at Eilke standing by the building.

  “You will come too?” he asked.

  “I shall lead the tribute to the Seat.”

  Ed nodded slowly. They still had time; he just had to work out what to do with it. The Near Folk had asked him what he wanted. They had offered him help. And yet he didn’t know what that would be. “You won’t leave the forest,” he said.

  Eilke smiled, but made no other movement.

  “We will travel with them,” Ed said to Dray.

  “To what end?” Belle asked, clearly exasperated with him.