by Chuck Black
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something move. She snapped her head to the left and stared at the trees there. All was still. The sounds of croaking toads mixed with the hoot of an owl sent shivers up her spine. Carliss’s heart began to race, and she forced herself to calm down. Ganoaf picked up on her apprehension and began to fidget.
Swish! Something rustled behind them, and they both jerked about, but all was still once again. Carliss gripped her bow tightly.
“Si Kon!” The faint but panicked cry of a young voice reached them in the darkness of the swamp.
“Si Kon!” The call came again.
“Let’s go, Ganoaf,” Carliss said. They quickly backtracked toward Si Kon.
“It’s Akiyma,” Si Kon said when they reached him. Lines of worry creased his brow.
They hurried back to the bridge to find Akiyma on the far side, waving for them to hurry. They quickly mounted and rode across to meet him. The boy was clearly distraught.
“Master,” he exclaimed, “your house is on fire!”
Si Kon waited for nothing. He spurred his horse and bolted off toward the city wall. Carliss put a hand down for Akiyma to grab and lifted him onto Rindy behind her. She and Ganoaf followed Si Kon in an urgent race through the gathering darkness.
They arrived shortly behind Si Kon to discover that the entire structure was ablaze. Si Kon’s family and the other Followers were nowhere to be found. Si Kon tried to run into the blaze numerous times, shouting for his wife and daughters all the while, but was driven back by the searing heat. He finally fell to his knees close to the fire with his arms outstretched, crying his torment to the kingdom.
“Stay here, Akiyma,” Carliss ordered as she dismounted. She handed him her long knife and her bow and quiver, then ran to Si Kon.
“Come back, Si Kon,” she pleaded, worried that the structure of the home would collapse and engulf him in the flames. “Surely Takara and the girls are away and safe.”
Si Kon looked at her with tears streaming down his face. His family’s absence seemed to completely contradict her words of hope.
“Come,” she urged again.
Ganoaf appeared behind them and lifted Si Kon from behind. He half carried the knight away from the intense heat and flames that licked high into the evening sky.
Carliss heard another rider approaching quickly. She turned to see Salina leaping from her horse.
“What has happened?” she panted. “Where are Takara and the girls? Where are the other—”
Her question remained unfinished, for the thunder of a dozen horses’ hooves suddenly mixed with the roar of the fire. Within moments they were surrounded by a force of castle guardsmen. Eight of them dismounted with swords drawn and encircled Carliss, Si Kon, Salina, and Ganoaf. It was pointless to resist against such odds.
“Si Kon of the District of Intar,” one of the mounted guards shouted. “You are in violation of Lord Malco’s liege edict and are guilty of establishing an unlawful order within the city of Moorue. You are also guilty of harboring members of the illegal order and will be sentenced immediately. Take them all to Baron Karoshi.”
Carliss looked beyond the guards toward Akiyma, who still sat atop Rindy. Since he was neither a threat nor a target, the guards had completely ignored him. Carliss motioned with her head for him to leave. The boy carefully took Rindy’s reins and backed away, disappearing into the obscurity of the night. Carliss’s relief over his escape was pierced with a new stab of worry. If something had happened to the group of Followers, which included Akiyma’s family, then he would be on his own in a hostile city.
Carliss and her friends were disarmed and hustled through the streets to the castle Intar. They were taken under heavy guard through the castle gate, across the courtyards, and into the echoing great hall. From the far end of the great hall, Carliss could see Baron Karoshi, a wiry figure almost dwarfed by a massive and ornate judgment seat.
Their footsteps clattered on the cold marble floor as they were brought before the lord of the castle. His lean face wore a huge, drooping mustache and a petulant expression. Around his neck hung a medallion bearing the dragon symbol of the Vincero knights. Carliss had never seen the medallion worn so boldly by a Vincero, a testimony to their power and influence in this region.
Karoshi gestured, and another knight came to stand beside him. Carliss’s stomach rose to her throat as she recognized the man. She looked at Salina, but Salina did not look at her.
“Salina,” she whispered desperately.
“Salina…yes indeed,” Sir Alston called out. “How wonderful to have you back!”
Salina stepped forward with a twisted smile and embraced her brother. She turned around and looked at Carliss.
“Baron Karoshi, I give you Lady Carliss, Knight of the Prince.” Salina joined Alston at Karoshi’s side.
“She betrayed us!” Si Kon shouted. He stepped forward as though he would tear her apart with his bare hands. One of the guards grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him backward.
Carliss stared at her presumed friend with her mouth open and her mind in a muddled state of confusion.
“Salina,” she exclaimed, “what have you done?”
“Only that which I was sent to do, Follower. And it would have ended much sooner if it hadn’t been for that fool Dalton getting in the way.” Salina’s face revealed the true master of her heart now, and Carliss could finally see it. “But all has turned out well. Not only have we captured you and the fools of the haven here, but we have killed Dalton as well.”
“All…all of this was just a ploy?” Carliss still found it difficult to believe. “Varlaken… your family… your imprisonment under Drox?”
Karoshi stood and walked toward Si Kon and Carliss while Ganoaf tried to cower behind her.
“We are infiltrating your havens and even your friendships,” Karoshi said with a piercing stare. “The foolish days of your order are numbered! The Vinceros will rule in Arrethtrae one way or another!”
Karoshi gestured to the men still standing guard over Carliss, Si Kon, and Ganoaf.
“Put them in a cell until I receive word from Lord Malco as to his desires,” he commanded.
Carliss glared at Salina and Salina sneered back as the guards pushed them to exit the hall. They were taken down two levels in the castle to a small dungeon with just two cells. Si Kon’s family and the other Followers were not there.
After the cell clanged shut, Ganoaf sat in the corner with his knees pulled in close to his chest. He rocked back and forth with his eyes closed, but Carliss did not have the spirit to console him. She was sickened in her heart by Salina’s deception, but more so by the devastation this deception had brought to Si Kon and his family.
How could I have missed it? she wondered.
The minutes became hours as they waited to see what would happen next. There was a change of guard outside their cell, then another, and eventually they were fed a meager meal of soup and stale, hard bread. Si Kon ignored the food. He just stood at the door of the cell with his arms crossed, staring at the floor.
There was another change of guard, and Carliss realized she had completely lost track of time. She had no idea if it was day or night. Was it like this for Si Kon when he was a prisoner in Drox’s dark cave?
Carliss worked to fight the darkness that seemed to close in on her. She paced, she worried, she cried out to the Prince in her heart. Finally she just sank to the floor and waited. Exhausted from days of riding and worry, she succumbed to a heavy sleep.
She woke to see Si Kon still at his post by the door, seemingly lost in a world of silent anguish. How long had he been standing there? Carliss had no idea how long she had slept.
She quietly walked to stand beside him. Her eyes welled up as she sensed her friend’s intense pain.
“I am sorry for bringing this great sorrow to you, Si Kon,” she said quietly.
Si Kon continued to stare in silence for a moment. Carliss felt all the worse, fully ex
pecting justified words of anger and resentment to come.
“I have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears, and felt with my own heart the dark evil of Lucius, his Shadow Warriors, and the Vincero Knights,” Si Kon said while still staring at nothing on the floor. Then he slowly turned his head to look at Carliss. “But I have also seen and heard of the goodness of the King and His Son. Before I became one of His knights, I was blind to the battle being waged in this kingdom—the battle between His goodness and Lucius’s evil.”
Si Kon turned to fully face Carliss, took a deep breath, and stared into her eyes. “I could never wish to be as I once was—blind. Though I suffer, and my family and others suffer, our blood is not wasted on the vanities of an ignorant life. Our sufferings give proof to the good cause for which we serve, and I will serve the King and His great Son all the more because of it!”
Carliss bit her lower lip. “Your courage and faith are an example to all of the Knights of the Prince, Si Kon… especially to me.”
Si Kon looked as if he was going to respond, but the sound of the heavy prison door opening interrupted their conversation. Salina came through the door with four guards and stood before their cell. “Good afternoon, my foolish friends,” she announced with cruel cheerfulness.
“Salina, how could you?” Carliss asked, wondering if there was even one small corner of Salina’s heart that had not been blackened by Lucius.
“It’s quite easy really. Watch.” Salina motioned for the guard to open the cell door.
She pointed to Si Kon. “Take him and the imbecile to the pit with the other Followers,” Salina commanded. Then she gestured at Carliss. “Bring her with me.”
Whatever the pit was, both Si Kon and Carliss were relieved to hear her words, for they gave the first indication that his family and the others were still alive.
By now Ganoaf had scurried over to Carliss’s side and was moaning incoherently. He crouched low to the ground and grabbed Carliss’s arm. When the guard tried to pull him away, Ganoaf gave a panicked whimper that tore at Carliss’s heart.
“Salina, you know he is harmless,” Carliss pleaded. “Please let him come with us.”
Salina scowled at Ganoaf, and he hid behind Carliss. Salina huffed, then walked to the dungeon door.
“Bring them both,” she ordered before stalking away.
Once out of the dungeon, two guards took Si Kon another direction. Carliss and Ganoaf were taken once more to the great hall to stand before Baron Karoshi.
“Why is that imbecile still here?” Karoshi asked, not expecting an answer. “Take him to the pit!”
The two guards saluted and began to pull Ganoaf away. Ganoaf cried out and pushed one of the guards so hard that he flew backward onto the floor. Three other guards brought their swords to Ganoaf, and he collapsed at Carliss’s feet, clinging to her leg.
“No!” Carliss screamed and moved to stand between Ganoaf and the guards.
Karoshi stood up, angry with the altercation.
“He is a harmless oaf,” Salina said to Karoshi. “You’ll have to kill him to get him away from her.”
For a moment everything froze as Karoshi glared at Carliss and Ganoaf with flared nostrils and eyes full of hatred. After a long moment, Karoshi turned and walked toward the doorway.
“I don’t want the mess on my marble. Bring them both!” he commanded the two guards.
The two guards escorted Carliss and Ganoaf as they followed behind Karoshi. Carliss wondered what their destination might be, but soon it was evident. They were taken through the castle gates and down the road that led to the same bridge Carliss had crossed the previous day. But this time, once on the other side, Karoshi opened the gate that led to the causeway, and they ascended the steps.
Before long, Carliss and the entourage were walking on the causeway toward Esca Prime. The sun was already sinking toward the west as they skimmed the tops of the swamp trees, soon to enter the Shadow Warrior’s evil abode.
THE ASSASSIN
Baron Karoshi and his two guards escorted Carliss and Ganoaf through the castle halls to the inner keep, where two guards allowed them entrance through the massive ornate wooden doors. Ganoaf seemed nearly overcome with fear and walked closely behind Carliss.
As they entered, a broad-shouldered man was intently studying a collection of parchments lying on the desk before him. The guards closed the doors behind them.
“Lord Malco,” Baron Karoshi announced. “As you have ordered, I bring to you Lady Carliss, Knight of the Prince.”
Lord Malco looked up from his work. His blond hair was tied in a braid that hung partway down his back. Decked in an elegant black leather doublet, matching trousers, and cape, he wore an air of stately authority. Deep blue eyes seemed to pierce Carliss as he looked at her. He opened his mouth to speak and then stopped. His eyes grew wide as he looked past her. He stepped away from his desk and threw back his cape to reveal a sword that was as powerful- and elegant-looking as its owner.
“Fool!” Malco shouted as he drew his sword. “What are you doing bringing him into my castle!”
Carliss was surprised and confused by what was happening, and evidently so was Karoshi.
“What do you mean, my lord?” The baron cringed at Malco’s anger as he looked about.
Carliss looked about too, just in time to see Ganoaf stand up straight and move with the speed of a tiger. He grabbed the nearest guard’s sword, then slammed his left forearm into the man’s chest. It was such a powerful blow that the guard flew backward four feet in the air, crashed into the wall, and crumbled to the floor. The other guard reached for his sword, but Ganoaf made one powerful, skilled cut that put him down in an instant. Ganoaf then ran to set the bar lock on the chamber door.
By now Karoshi had moved away from the ruckus and drawn his sword. Carliss stood frozen in utter amazement, stunned by Ganoaf’s actions. How could this apparent simpleton move like… a warrior?
Carliss shook herself from her daze and reached for the dead guard’s sword.
“So, Malco,” Ganoaf said with a voice that boomed through the hall, “this is where you’ve been hiding your pathetic self.”
Malco walked toward them quickly but cautiously, his sword ready and his face full of fury.
“How can you be so stupid as to bring a Silent Warrior into my own castle, let alone my chamber?” he said fiercely to Karoshi.
“I…I…didn’t know…,” Karoshi stammered.
“Shut up!” Malco shouted.
Carliss positioned herself beside Ganoaf. She couldn’t keep from glancing back and forth between her enemies and her friend. Ganoaf didn’t even look like the same man.
Ganoaf swished his sword back and forth as though he were dusting off an old set of skills. Shouts and banging came from the massive doors behind them.
“What exactly do you hope to accomplish, Ganoaf?” Malco said as his angry countenance transformed into awry smile. “You would need an army to destroy my castle, and I certainly don’t see an army.”
Ganoaf’s eyes narrowed, and the fire of an ancient battle seemed to kindle his spirit. “All I need to do is kill you, Malco.” Ganoaf emphasized his point by bringing a double-handed crosscut to Malco’s raised blade. They engaged in a vicious battle as Carliss brought her sword to bear against Karoshi. Though tempted to watch as the mastery of Ganoaf’s sword-fighting abilities was unveiled, she was quickly forced to give her full attention to Karoshi, for he was a very skilled swordsman himself.
The two fights separated as chairs were overturned and tapestries were shredded by the steel of opposing blades. Carliss realized that the outcome of one duel would determine the fate of both, so she held nothing back in her advance on the Vincero. Karoshi seemed to falter, and Carliss pressed him hard. With a few more cuts, Carliss had Karoshi backed up against Malco’s large desk. He made a desperate thrust with his blade, which she deflected and countered with a wide slice that was sure to find its mark.
The Vincero fell back
onto the desk as Carliss’s blade passed just above him. He lifted his legs and kicked Carliss in the abdomen, then rolled to the opposite side of the desk. Carliss doubled over, breathless from the blow. She fought to fill her lungs with air, for she knew Karoshi would be on her in an instant.
She looked up just in time to see that he had exchanged his sword for a halberd poleax from a display on the wall and was initiating a powerful vertical cut that the strongest of swords could not deflect. Pressing hard into her forward foot, she threw her torso back and out of the way of the deadly blade, but the maneuver was not enough. The razor-sharp edge of the ax head skimmed past her face, but the spike on the top of the halberd collided with the leather spaulder on her left shoulder and snapped. The ax continued its plummet downward, slicing clear through the front of her boot.
Carliss dared not wait for the explosion of pain and the flood of blood that was sure to come. She grabbed the pole of the halberd with her left hand and used it to catapult her toward Karoshi, executing a powerful slice in her final advance. Karoshi’s eyes grew wide as he realized there was nothing he could do to stop the inevitable. He screamed as Carliss’s blade tore into his side.
Both combatants tumbled to the floor and rolled away from each other just as the doors of Malco’s chamber blasted open in a shower of splinters. Karoshi made a feeble attempt to rise, then sank lifelessly back to the floor. Carliss glanced toward Ganoaf and realized that he had just disarmed the Shadow Warrior and was one stroke short of destroying the evil lord. But now the room filled with eight massive warriors, who were on them in an instant.
Carliss pulled her foot in to see how badly it was injured, surprised that she had not yet felt any pain. She felt for her toes and realized that the ax had passed perfectly between them, slicing only the front of her boot. This good news was little consolation however, since now she was probably facing an execution in short order. She was whisked to her feet by two massive warriors and brought before Malco. Ganoaf was in the grip of two other warriors, and two more held swords at his throat.