by Sam Ferguson
Dimwater nodded. “Shall I go to lend him a hand then?”
Marlin shook his head. “No, with Lepkin convalescing, I would prefer you stay here. There are still other enemies that will be looking to attack the temple if they perceive a weakness.”
Dimwater nodded then she tilted her head to the side. “Do you remember who Al said arrested Lord Lokton?”
“Senator Bracken,” Marlin replied.
“Lepkin told me that Senator Bracken was also at Roegudok Hall, talking to the dwarf king.” Dimwater bit her lower lip. “Lepkin was attacked on his way here from Roegudok Hall,” she said. “That’s why he called for me.”
“What are you getting at?” Marlin asked.
“Don’t you think it strange that Lepkin was attacked just after meeting Senator Bracken, and then the senator arrests Lord Lokton without much of an investigation?”
“Well, Al said that all of the witnesses to the murders were unaccounted for,” Marlin countered with a shrug.
“That is an interesting coincidence, don’t you think?” Dimwater asked.
Marlin nodded. “You think Senator Bracken has thrown in with one of the factions seeking to overthrow the king?” Marlin asked.
“If he has, that would help me understand why Erik would lay waste to the seats of white.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Erik led his horse to a fir tree near the road towering over a small, babbling brook. He dismounted and let his horse wander to the water for a drink. After he surveyed the area he also went to the stream and cupped his hand in the cold liquid. Keeping his eyes up to scan his surroundings he brought the water to his mouth and slurped several mouthfuls before going back to stretch out under the fir tree. He removed his sword and set it beside him as he extended and retracted his right leg. The muscles were tight and sore from riding long hours. Suddenly his knee popped, bringing with it a sharp, momentary sting followed by a wash of relief that soothed the whole leg as he let it fall back to the dirt.
He looked back down the road he had been travelling, still half expecting Al to be charging up from behind to catch up. He saw no one. He understood why Al was angry with him, but he still couldn’t slow his pace. He knew he had to reach the senate before the tribunal decided his father’s fate. What else could he do? Sure Al had known his apprentice, but Erik had never thought the two of them close before Al erupted at him like some miniature furry volcano. It didn’t make much sense to him, but he knew better than to try to make sense of other peoples’ emotions.
His horse bayed contentedly and pulled away from the stream to nibble and tug at blades of grass mingled with bits of clover. Erik watched the beast’s neck glisten in the afternoon sun as it grazed. For a moment he wished that life could go back to the way it was before Lepkin had made him fight those other apprentices. Life was so much simpler when Erik’s worst task of any given day was washing windows with Janik, or helping to clean Kuldiga Academy’s stables. Now he was alone and confused. Fate had dealt him an unusually cruel role, he felt. How could he play the part of Lepkin? How could he pretend to measure up to Lepkin’s true abilities? He didn’t even know the proper protocol for the senate, let alone what Lepkin might say or do in this situation. Yet, his father’s life depended on him figuring it out.
“You promised to be with me,” Erik muttered as if Al could hear him. He understood why Al had remained in Buktah, but he was still angry with the dwarf for abandoning him. “Well, at least I can count on Braun,” Erik assured himself. He knew Braun would never surrender his father to anyone without a fight. The problem was that Erik had never been to Drakai Glazei. How would he be able to find Braun? He thought on it for a moment as he pulled a strip of dried meat from a leather pouch on his belt and chewed on it. At first he was disheartened, but then he realized that he didn’t have to find Braun. All he had to do was make his way to the senate’s tribunal. Braun was sure to be there. Erik swallowed his bite, coughing a couple of times as a stringy piece of meat got stuck in his back teeth before finally dislodging and going down his throat.
His eyes watered and he coughed a couple more times as he fought to catch his breath. He put the rest of the dried meat away and quickly went to the stream for another drink to help calm his throat.
That’s when he saw it.
A flash of black, out of the corner of his right eye. He turned his head, but nothing was there. He searched the clumps of bushes on the other side of the road. Was it an animal? His horse raised its head and its ears went erect, turning this way and that. Something was near.
Erik slid his hand to his sword, but grasped only air. His eyes went back to the bottom of the tree, and saw his sword laying against the trunk. He jumped up and ran to the tree, where he left his sword, but a sharp pain in his left thigh dropped him to the ground. Dirt flew up around his face and into his open mouth. He spat and wiped his mouth as he rolled onto his right side and looked down. An arrow stuck out the side of his left thigh. The shaft was broken, no doubt from him stumbling onto it. Blood ran down what was left of the arrow and pain radiated through his entire leg. He frantically looked around for his attacker, but he saw no one.
His horse startled and bucked suddenly before galloping off through the brook and away from Erik, carrying all of his supplies away with him.
Erik forced himself through the pain, trying to stand. His leg would not hold him upright, but somehow he managed to crawl to the tree and lay hold of his sword. He clumsily threw the scabbard free and held the blade out in front of him.
“Face me as a man!” Erik shouted, putting on his best courageous face. His eyes darted about, looking for his hunter. Rustling came from above. Erik looked up just in time to roll away from something as it dropped from the tree branches. A powerful kick slammed into Erik’s ribs as he continued to roll away from the tree.
“I am not a man,” the attacker said slyly.
Erik looked up to see a beautiful, nearly naked woman. Her raven hair seemed to cascade over her bare shoulders to meld with the dark, long tattoos typical of the Blacktongues that Erik had seen before. Like the others of her order she wore a simple leather loin cloth. However, while her male counterparts only wore their weapons aside from the loincloth, this Blacktongue also had a bizarre kind of leather shirt that covered and protected her chest while leaving her flat stomach exposed.
Erik struggled to push himself up, but could not force himself through the pain in his thigh. The Blacktongue sniggered wickedly and sneered down at him with a contemptuous shake of her head. “I expected more from you,” she teased. She set the tip of her bow in front of her bare feet and slowly drew another arrow from her quiver. “I have been sent to ask you something,” she said. “Where is the book?”
Erik glared at her and clenched his jaw. “In my pocket, come and get it,” he lied.
The Blacktongue brought her bow up and loosed her arrow before Erik could blink. It seemed to him as though a fire had erupted in his arm as the arrow blew through his left shoulder.
“Agh!” he squealed as he dropped to the dirt on his back. He whimpered and squirmed, noting that the arrowhead had gone through his shoulder. His left hand burned when he closed it, and felt worse when he opened it. All he could do was writhe in protest, crying out in pain.
“I have all day,” the Blacktongue said. “I need the book, then, your pain will be over.”
“Then you will kill me,” Erik sputtered through spittle.
“Yes,” she said. Erik froze when he felt her hand on his chest, pushing him flat against the ground. He tried to bring his sword up to bear, but he found the Blacktongue was kneeling with her left knee on his right forearm. He struggled for a moment, but his injuries only burned all the more as he futilely wrestled against her.
“I won’t tell you,” he said.
“Well, we will see about that,” she replied. She turned her cold, gray eyes to his and smiled. She leaned down, her mouth close enough he could feel her breath on his lips. “I have ways of ma
king people talk,” she promised.
Erik twisted his trunk, trying to move her off of him, but to no avail. Her strength was more than he would have guessed from her small frame. That, as well as the two arrows protruding from his left side had him pinned. “You don’t understand what the book is,” Erik said.
“It is a key to unlock a gate,” the Blacktongue answered. Her free hand brought a wickedly curved black dagger up to Erik’s face. “Tell me where it is, and I will end your torment.”
He used the only weapon he could think of to combat against her. He called his power up, hoping he could use it somehow. Erik looked into her dead eyes and shuddered as he felt her intentions. He found no compassion, no sympathy, no hope. Her soul was as hollow and dead as her charcoal eyes. Erik turned his face away, but she forced him to look at her again by placing the dagger on his cheek and prodding him. He felt anger rise up within him. It was unlike anything he had experienced before. A burning, hot fire seemed to rise in answer to her cold, barren soul.
She pressed the dagger tip into his cheek and opened a small hole. “Tell me where it is,” she said
“No,” Erik said. The fire burned hotter inside until he could feel it burning in his heart. “NO!” he shouted. At that instant a great light erupted from his mouth, blinding the Blacktongue and causing her to recoil, covering her eyes. Erik seized on the moment and squirmed away from the assassin. He gripped the sword and felt his anger flow out through his arm and into the sword. White flames encircled the blade and reached out from the top to lick at the Blacktongue.
She jumped back and looked at him. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw closed tightly. She replaced her dagger and reached for another arrow. As her arm bent back to the quiver, a hammer slammed into the side of her skull with a resounding crack! Her body fell disjointedly to the side, dead.
Erik looked to his left and saw Al riding as fast as he could toward him.
“Are you alright?” Al shouted.
Erik looked back to the dead Blacktongue. His vision started to blur. The flames on his sword dissipated as quickly as they had come and his strength left him. “Al,” Erik whispered with a hint of a smile crossing his lips. He slowly fell back to the ground. He just caught sight of a blurry, bearded face standing over him before he closed his eyes.
*****
“There you are,” Al said quietly. “You had me a bit worried.”
“Where are we?” Erik asked. He tried to blink the darkness away and wipe his face. “I can’t see,” Erik said.
“Of course not, it’s pitch black in here,” Al gruffed.
“What do you mean?”
“I brought you to a cave,” Al explained. “You had lost a lot of blood, and the Blacktongue had tipped her arrows with a paralyzing agent. So I brought you here to fix you up and make sure we weren’t followed.”
Erik nodded as though he understood, but he was still pretty foggy in the head. Only when he tried to push himself up did he remember what had happened. He groaned and fell back down as pain ripped through his shoulder followed by warm liquid oozing out across his upper arm.
“Don’t move, you idiot!” Al chided. “You’ll rip the sutures out.”
“I never saw her in the tree,” Erik said.
“I know boy,” Al said comfortingly. “Blacktongues are like that.”
“This one was different,” Erik countered. “We saw everyone in Buktah before they attacked. We had time to prepare.”
“Not much time,” Al interjected.
“But I never even knew she was there,” Erik said. “She was like a ghost.”
“Truth be told,” Al started. “She was in Buktah also.”
Erik shook his head. “Then why didn’t she attack there?”
“I think she knew her best chance would be to come at us when we thought we had passed through the danger.”
“If you saw her in Buktah, why did you let me go on alone?”
Al put a hand on Erik’s good shoulder. “Forgive me boy, I had no choice.”
Erik snorted.
“I saw her there. So, I thought it would be easier to flush her out if it looked as though we would split up and go separate ways for a while.”
“You used me as bait?” Erik stammered.
“Sort of,” Al said. “I didn’t know which one of us she would go after. But I never left your side.”
“Except for the funeral,” Erik pointed out.
“No,” Al said with a shake of his head. “I walked away from you, but I kept you in my sight. More importantly, I kept her in my sight. I left you in order to stalk her. Once I realized she was going after you, I followed.” Al came over and thunked Erik with a meaty index finger. “I had thought that you would see through my act,” Al teased. “With you being able to tell when others are lying and all.”
Erik’s scrunched his brow and studied Al’s face. “You mean the whole thing was an act?”
Al shrugged. “Not all of it. I was a bit shocked by your behavior, and I was angry that my apprentice had been killed, but I would never abandon you to face the senate alone.” Al smiled. “I gave you my word, Erik.”
“But, you hit me in the alley.”
Al pursed his lips and tugged at his beard. “I’m sorry about that, but I had to make sure to put on a convincing show for the Blacktongue in order for her to believe we were going to go our separate ways.”
Erik scanned Al with his power and realized that the dwarf was telling the truth. He had not abandoned him, as he had previously thought. Erik frowned and shook his head. “Then why did you take so long to stop her?” Erik asked.
“She was crafty, perhaps more so than any other foe I have tracked, and I have fought goblins and trolls boy!” Al took his hand back and stood up next to Erik. “She got away from me. It’s not something I am proud of, but that is what happened. I was about three hundred yards behind you for most of the way until about twenty minutes before the last hill where the trees started to thin out. Somehow, she slipped away from me then. I searched everywhere for her, but I had to be careful not to alert her to my presence. I didn’t want to risk scaring her off and missing our chance to confront her.”
“Well, then I guess I should be glad you arrived when you did,” Erik said.
“When I heard your horse bay, I thought the worst. I came as quickly as my steed would carry me, but even then I had to be careful. I wasn’t sure where she was, so I stayed under cover as best I could until I saw her descend from the tree.”
“Did you see what I did?” Erik asked, shifting the subject.
Al groaned. “That I did boy, that I did.” He kicked a pebble out through the mouth of the cave. “Do you know how you did that?”
“No,” Erik admitted. “I thought I could use my power to turn her, like I did with Master Lepkin, so I tried to look into her soul.”
“Bet that was about as pleasant as swallowing a baby porcupine,” Al put in.
“Something in me reacted to her. I don’t know what it was, but it felt like a fire.”
“Well,” Al said after a moment of silence. “The important thing is you are still alive. We will rest here tonight and then I will take you in to Drakai Glazei. I have already made contact with Braun, he will meet us outside the tribunal before we go in.”
“How did you meet with him already?” Erik asked.
“It is very early in the morning,” Al replied. “About three hours ago. I went into the city while you were unconscious, after you were stable of course.”
“You left me alone?” Erik said.
“I had no other choice. I had some things to help with your bandages, but I needed to visit an apothecary in order to counter the poison the Blacktongue had used. If I hadn’t, you would be permanently paralyzed from the neck down by morning.” Al stopped talking and turned to pat Erik on the chest. “Don’t worry, the apothecary is a friend of mine. She’ll keep things quiet.”
“You seem to have friends everywhere,” Erik noted.
; “One of the benefits of being a dwarf, you live long enough to meet lots of folks.” Al patted Erik’s chest one more time and then hopped onto a smooth, flat slab of rock. “Get some sleep,” Al said. “Tomorrow you have a big day.”
Erik nodded and moved his good hand over to touch the bandage on his left shoulder. “I hope you have a good plan,” Erik said. “I don’t think I will be in fighting shape for a while.”
Al chuckled aloud. “You planning on fighting the senate?”
Erik reached out and placed his palm on his sword. “If I must,” he said flatly.
Al stopped chuckling and stroked his beard. Tomorrow was going to be a very big day indeed.
*****
“Sit upright,” Al said under his breath.
“I’m fine,” Erik replied sharply. “My leg hurts.”
“Deal with it,” Al gruffed. “These people have a certain expectation of Master Lepkin, and you have to make sure that everyone here sees you as completely able-bodied,” Al said. “There are people everywhere that gather information. If the senate were to find out you are severely injured…” Al stopped short as a couple of uniformed guards approached.
“Master dwarf,” one of them said. “May I have your name for the log book?”
Al scoffed. “You don’t recognize us?” he said loudly. “I am Aldehenkaru’hktanah Sit’marihu brother to the King of the Dwarves. I suppose I can forgive your ignorance, but surely you don’t need to ask him for his name, do you?” Al thumbed to Erik.
Erik straightened his back, fighting the pain in his leg as he pushed down in the stirrups. With his right arm he slid his cloak back to reveal his sword of black, telarian steel. “Go easy on him Al,” Erik said in his best impression of Master Lepkin’s commanding voice. “Perhaps he is new to the guard.”
“Uh, er, I…” the guard stammered as he looked to the sword. The other guard ripped the log book out of his hands and quickly put pen to paper.
“Master Lepkin, excuse us please. We weren’t expecting you.” The guard scribbled their names down. “How long will you be in Drakai Glazei, and what will you be doing?”