“Only your duty, sir,” the Telian replied with a nod.
“My duty?” the old man asked, pulling himself somewhat more upright as he spoke. “I trust that is something I have never failed to do, Sir Darian.”
“I'm certain of that, my lord. Which is why I have no doubt of your doing it now.”
“What exactly is it that you see as this duty of mine?”
“To answer the call of your king,” The young knight replied, his eyes locked on those of the old man.
“King Palnar...” Lord Jannus began.
“It is not King Palnar to whom I refer, sir,” Darian interrupted, “but Calmon Rallin King of Solarin.”
For several moments, the old man stood silent.
“Calmon Rallin is dead,” he said at last. “He was killed during the war.”
“No, sir,” Ian replied. “That he was not.”
“Sit down,” the lord replied, waving his hand at the table. “All of you, sit down. Dallin, wait outside and see that we're not disturbed.”
“As you wish, my lord,” the steward said with a bow before leaving the chamber.
“I assume you're Ian McFaren,” the old man asked as he sat down, his eyes turned to the dwarf.
“I am, sir,” the bard nodded.
“Who are the rest of your companions, Sir Darian?”
The knight quickly introduced each of them to the old lord.
“You certainly travel in interesting company, my young friend,” Lord Jannus said thoughtfully before taking a deep breath and letting it out with a slow sigh. “What makes you believe that Calmon Rallin is alive?”
“Only the fact that he is, my lord,” Ian replied. “He, along with other members of the royal family, had been living in hiding since the war, until they were kidnapped by Duke Saress...”
“Saress is alive, as well?” the old man interjected.
“He is, sir,” Darian replied. “Although, he's not who he used to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can discuss that later, my lord,” Ian replied. “At the moment, the important thing is that the royal family is in Innalas and that King Illfas has recognized Calmon Rallin as King of Solarin.”
“And, so he should,” the old man said softly, his eyes gazing into nothingness. “He's the lawful heir. You're certain he's alive?”
“We rescued him from Duke Saress ourselves,” Kilren replied.
“I see...” Lord Jannus slowly replied, before leaning his head down and covering his eyes with his hand. “It seems that fate hasn't finished with me yet. It has cruelty yet in store for these old bones.”
“We thought you'd be pleased to hear that the royal family lives,” Darian said.
“So I am,” the old lord replied, raising his head and gazing at the Telian. “But consider it from my point of view, Sir Darian. I've offered my fealty to two different kings. I must break one oath in order to fulfill the other.”
“Yeah,” Kilren agreed with a nod. “For a man of honor, that's not much of a choice.”
“Choice?” Lord Jannus replied, turning his eyes the lieutenant. “I have no choice, young man. No choice at all. King Calmon is my natural liege-lord, as his sires were of mine for generations. When I gave my oath to King Palnar, I believed the House of Rallin destroyed. Such was not the case and I am bound to the King of Solarin by oath, by blood, and by birth.”
“So, you'll help us?” Darian asked excitedly.
“There was never any question of that, Sir Darian,” the old man replied, rising slowly from his seat as he spoke. “Even if I still served the King of Mikral and you were his sworn enemy, I still would have done my utmost to offer you, the adopted grandson of my old ally, what aid I could. However, as the King of Solarin lives, and is my sworn master, I may be able to do much more than I had hoped at first. I'll return in a moment, there's something I have to attend to before we continue.”
Having said this, Lord Jannus bowed before turning to quickly leave the room. Just minutes later, he returned wearing the tabard of Solarin over his armor and carrying a large, folded white cloth in his hands.
“I haven't worn this for nearly twenty years,” he said, glancing down at the garment, “but I thought I had better put it on under the circumstances. For one thing, although I can – and do – offer my sword to my king, I can't command my men to do the same. This is something each of them will have to decide for himself. Dallin,” he cried, raising his voice, “come in here for a moment.”
Immediately, the faithful domestic entered the chamber, pausing for a moment as his eyes fell on his lord before quickly striding across the floor.
“Yes, my lord?”
“Assemble the men in the courtyard below the balcony,” the old man said with a smile. “I need to speak to them.”
“At once, my lord,” the man replied with a bow, instantly turning to fulfill the command.
Minutes later, Dallin entered the room to inform his lord that the men had been assembled and were waiting to hear him speak. Handing the cloth to Sir Darian, Lord Jannus asked the young knight to follow him and stepped out onto the balcony.
“My faithful friends,” the aged lord said, gazing down at the mass of men who had gathered below. “I find myself in a difficult pass. This young man is Sir Darian, Telian Knight and Knight of Solarin. He has brought me word that Calmon Rallin still lives and is, in fact, King of Solarin. That being the case, I have no choice but to offer him my service and my sword. With this act, I have become a traitor both to King Palnar and the kingdom of Mikral. It is my sworn duty, however, to stand by my king and the king of my sires. On the other hand, this duty does not extend to you, my friends. Each of you must decide for yourself whom you will serve. There is no right choice in a situation like this, nor is there a wrong one. Each man must answer to his own heart and his own conscience. I'll give you an hour to come to a decision.”
“An hour, my lord?” the sergeant burst out laughing, instantly joined by most of his companions. “We don't need a minute. We're with you, Lord Jannus, as I'm sure you knew before you ever spoke.”
“I admit, I had hoped such would be the case,” the old man smiled, turning and taking the cloth from Darian.
He unfurled a large banner bearing the symbol of Solarin and began tying it to the edge of the balcony.
“Dallin,” he said, glancing over his shoulder, “pull the flags of Mikral down and replace them with those of Solarin that we packed away so long ago.”
“At once, my lord,” the steward replied with a bow.
“Well, my friends,” the old man said, turning to the party with a smile, “now that we've chosen a course of treason, we had better decide exactly what our first step along that path is going to be.”
Chapter 11: To Arms
“Actually, my lord,” Ian said, turning to follow the old man back into the hall. “We've already taken a few steps.”
“Have you, indeed?” Lord Jannus asked, taking a seat at the head of the table.
“We have, sir,” Darian nodded, sitting down at the side of the aged lord. “King Calmon has declared war on Mikral, in response to King Palnar's attack on Innalas and the fortress of Lord Andor, which stood guard over the last of Solarin's lands. We've been sent here to incite a rebellion, in order to force King Palnar to divide his forces and fight a war on two fronts. Before we sought you out, we convinced the villagers of Rakklin to join our cause. When we left them, they had already besieged the castle of Lord Merclan.”
“That was a valiant move for an army of peasants,” the old lord replied with a gentle smile. “Although, I'm not sure it was wise. Merclan isn't particularly skilled in the arts of war, but he'll be able to hold his fortress against an army of what he would consider rabble. In truth, I'm somewhat surprised that he didn't sally against them immediately.”
“Most of his men had already marched for Innalas,” Gregor explained. “Not to mention the fact that we captured nearly thirty of the horses he had left before
we besieged his stronghold.”
“That does make a great deal of difference,” Lord Jannus replied, “and it may give us a sincere advantage. Although King Palnar allowed me to retain enough men to defend my lands, he's never involved either me or my soldiers in any of his countless wars. He was content to accept my tribute of grain and gold every year and, other than that, to leave me to myself. As a result, I have all my men at my disposal. Even though, I readily admit, they're not as many in number as I could wish. Who was left in charge of the siege and what was their plan?”
“Lord Andor restored the knighthood and lands of his grand-sires to Willrak Galford,” Darian replied. “We left him in command and it was his intention to maintain the siege until word reached him from us, or until Lord Merclan surrendered. His main objective was simply to make sure the lord couldn't send for help.”
“An admirable plan,” the old man nodded. “Had they attempted a direct assault, they would likely have been slaughtered. Willrak is an excellent young man. I'm glad to see that he's inherited his grandfather's wisdom. His own father... Well, no good comes of chastising the dead. He was a good man, whether or not we always saw eye to eye. In any event, I think our next course of action is clear. I'll marshal my forces and join the siege. Although I'm quite certain Lord Merclan will never surrender to Sir Willrak, he may very well hand the castle over to me. Especially as I'll be fielding a far more martial force than an army of peasants. Speaking of which, how are Sir Willrak's forces armed?”
“Not very well,” Kilren asserted. “More than a few of them are armed with scythes or pitchforks.”
“Just as one would expect,” Lord Jannus nodded, “but that's hardly fitting equipment for our enterprise. We'll have to improve our armaments.”
“How can we do that?” the Telian asked.
“I have a small selection of extra equipment,” the lord replied, “and Lord Merclan's stronghold may supply us with a little more. Although, I'm sure most of his own is on its way to Innalas already. We're going to need to lay our hands on a great deal more than we have now if we're going to arm an army.
“Fortunately, Lord Grimmas ordered a large supply of weapons and armor from the smiths in Casfar just weeks ago. I know,” the old man continued with a mischievous smile, “because in his last letter, he couldn't keep himself from boasting, both of its quality and its cost. His order was meant to be completed within the next week or so. Sadly, it doesn't look as if it will be delivered after all.”
“What?” Darian asked, gazing at Lord Jannus with a confused look on his face. “Why not?”
“Because, my young friend,” the old man replied with a smile, “You and your allies, along with a handful of my own men, are going to requisition it.”
“I'm not going to steal weapons and armor,” the knight replied vehemently, “or anything else for that matter.”
“Yeah,” Kilren sighed. “Here we go again.”
“It's not stealing, lad,” Ian explained, “it's requisitioning. Just like it was with the horses.”
“Sir Darian is a horse thief?” Gregor laughed.
“No, I'm not!” the Telian snapped. “We left payment for those horses. In fact, I wanted to ask the owners to sell them to us, but too much was at risk for us to take a chance on them saying no.”
“Sir Darian,” the old man smiled, “far too much is at risk now, as well. If we're going to have the slightest chance of successfully rebelling against King Palnar, which I admit we likely don't, we're going to have to have better equipment.”
“We should at least leave payment for it,” the knight replied.
“I don't have enough gold on hand to do that,” Lord Jannus explained. “However, Lord Grimmas paid the smiths in advance, so they won't be out anything. I can settle the score with him before all is said and done, provided that both he and I are still alive, of course. He's a faithful servant of King Palnar and my desertion will likely come as a blow to him, although I'm certain he'll agree with my motives.
“In any event, we would need to do our best to keep that equipment out of his soldier's hands even if we didn't need it desperately. For the moment, he has become our enemy. We're well within our legal rights to raid a storehouse and requisition the equipment of our foes during time of war. Had King Palnar wanted to prevent that, he shouldn't have declared war on our kingdom.”
“I suppose...” Darian replied halfheartedly.
“If you'd prefer,” the old lord said, “you can come with me and leave the requisitioning to our friends here.”
“No, sir,” the knight replied, shaking his head. “It's my duty to see it done. As much as I may not like requisitioning, I like killing far less. Both are part of war, however. The sooner we bring this one to an end, the better.”
“I couldn't agree more, Sir Darian,” Lord Jannus nodded.
Less than an hour after this discussion, the band was on its way to the town of Casfar, with a number of Lord Jannus's soldiers and wagons following behind them. In spite of Darian's objections, the male members of the party, with the exception of Ian, were all attired in tabards of Mikral. At first, the knight flatly refused to comply with this common-sense-precaution until Lord Jannus, as his superior officer, asked him to reconsider.
This request greatly agitated the feelings of the young Telian, until the aged lord explained that this simple subterfuge could save the lives of the town guards, who they would likely have to slaughter if they rode into town dressed as soldiers of Solarin. Putting the lives of the innocent before his own pride was something Darian found easy enough to do. In order to free his conscience from any remaining sense of wrong doing, he prayed for guidance from the Eilian and was rewarded with a sense of peace that assured him that this mild deception would be overlooked for the sake of the greater good.
The city of Casfar was somewhat larger than Tagril and, as such, almost certainly had a larger garrison. However, it was Darian's hope that they would be able to ride into town, requisition what they needed and ride out before anyone had time to respond. He felt the odds of that were slim, but he detested the idea of killing men who were merely doing their best to prevent thieves from robbing a blacksmith’s shop.
Kilren rode at his side at the back of the party as he mulled these unpleasant thoughts over. Ian, Jalek, and Gregor were at the very front of the band discussing strategy while the two maidens traveled along in between, wrapped in a conversation of their own.
“Have you made any progress?” Erana asked, gazing over at Gwendolyn with a smile.
“I think so,” the human maiden replied, “but it's really hard to tell with Darian. I mean, he did kiss my hand yesterday morning...”
“Did he?” the elf asked excitedly.
“He did,” Gwendolyn replied, nodding her head slowly, “but it was really kind of... odd...”
“How so?”
The human maiden explained to the fair elf exactly how it had been odd.
“You're right,” Erana laughed, “that was odd. Still, him spending that much time thinking about you has to be a good sign.”
“I'd like to believe you were right,” the sorceress sighed, “but he hasn't seemed to be thinking about me much since then.”
“Well, no he hasn't,” the elf admitted. “Still, we've been fairly busy since yesterday morning. He's had a lot on his mind. Especially since we had no idea what Lord Jannus might do. Things will calm down in a few days’ time and his thoughts will once again return to you. Just wait and see. After all, he's still making sure you don't end up alone with Gregor, isn't he?”
“Yes,” Gwendolyn nodded. “Yes, he is. In fact, he's come up with the perfect way to make sure we're never alone together. He's stuck by Gregor's side for the last day and a half. There's absolutely no way we could have been alone, because Darian's always with him. Which is why last night they even took watch together. Without me, I might add.”
“I noticed that,” Erana interjected.
“Foolishly,” the human
maiden continued, “I imagined that he might try to keep me by his side at all times. In retrospect, however, I can see how blindly optimistic that was.”
“It might have been a little optimistic,” the elf replied, unable to keep herself from smiling, “but he's not by Gregor's side at the moment.”
“No, he's not,” Gwendolyn agreed, glancing over her shoulder to look at the young knight, “but that's only because I'm nowhere near Gregor. If I rode up to him, though, you can be sure Darian would join us in seconds.”
“Which is exactly my point,” the ranger replied. “You're what motivates him. It's not that he can't get enough of Gregor's company, it's that he doesn't want you getting too much of it.”
“Maybe,” the human maiden sighed again. “I just wish I knew what he was thinking.”
“Kilren...” Darian said, his eyes wandering over the surrounding countryside.
For several seconds, the lieutenant waited for the knight to say something more, before realizing that he may have forgotten he was speaking.
“Yes, Darian,” he replied, hoping to bring the Telian's mind back to the present.
“Kilren,” the knight said again.
“Yes,” the lieutenant replied.
For nearly a minute, nothing else was said.
“Kilren...” Darian began once more.
“Look, Darian,” the lieutenant laughed, “if you're just going to sit there calling my name again and again, I'm going to stop responding. Let me know when you actually have something to say.”
“Kilren...” the knight said after several seconds of silence.
“I'm not falling for that again.”
“No,” the knight replied, shaking his head, “I'm just trying to think of how to word the question.”
“Let me know when you figure it out.”
“As you know, I can't lie.”
“That's not a question.”
“I'm coming to the question.”
“I have my doubts,” Kilren asserted.
The Lords of Areon (The Chronicles of Areon Book 3) Page 19