Tedi picked up his staff and handed it to the queen. She pulled the hood forward to obscure her face, and Tedi and Edmond moved into position behind Garth and the queen.
"Alright," Garth sighed. "Let's go."
The group marched through the corridors of the Royal Palace. Once they moved out of the royal section of the palace, other people moved about the hallways. Most of those they passed looked upon the group with interest, but no one spoke to them or challenged them. General Blackmoor walked with a perpetual scowl and glared at anyone who looked at the group. That technique of intimidation tended to make the curious avert their eyes, which is exactly what Garth intended. Above all else, he didn't want anyone scrutinizing the female member of the party. Just as they were approaching the front door of the palace, Tedi heard a distant shout coming from somewhere far behind them.
"I think someone has discovered something amiss," he whispered. "I heard distant shouts."
General Blackmoor nodded silently and waved his two escorts forward to open the doors. Edmond and Tedi moved quickly past the others and opened the front doors. The outside guards immediately stiffened and turned to see who was passing through the doors they guarded. Cobb and Bork, who had been waiting outside with the door guards, immediately walked forward with the horses. As General Blackmoor swung into his saddle, Cobb helped the healer into hers.
"Be quick about it," snapped General Blackmoor. "I have already missed a fair amount of Lady Ferini's party."
The four escorts vaulted onto their mounts, and Cobb and Bork led the way towards the gate. While the door guards had not spoken, the guards at the gate were curious about the queen's condition.
"How is the queen?" asked one of the guards.
"I do not recall telling you the purpose of our visit," General Blackmoor snapped. "Are you in the habit of questioning your superiors?"
"No, General," the guard replied as he stiffened.
"Open the gates," General Blackmoor demanded.
The two guards nearly stumbled in their haste to comply with the general's order, and the party moved out of the palace grounds. The group turned towards the street that led to Lady Ferini's and were soon out of sight of the palace gates. Cobb and Bork stepped up the pace as they headed for the city gates. The streets of the city were fairly deserted, and the group soon came to the city wall. Cobb knew that the gates were closed, but manned. The caravan warrior immediately detached from the group and rode swiftly to the gates.
"Open the gates," Cobb said to the gate guards.
"For what purpose?" asked one of the guards as he leaned against the wall.
"For the purpose of retaining your head," Cobb replied. "General Blackmoor's party is approaching, and he has urgent business in Karamin. He is not a man to be trifled with."
"I've never heard of him," shrugged the soldier.
"You've been warned," smirked Cobb. "You shall never forget his name in the future."
The gate guards frowned as they saw Cobb's smirk, but they made no move to attend to the gates before they absolutely had to. It was not forbidden to leave the city at night, but the guards were supposed to keep a log of who came and went. Just then the rest of the party came into view.
"Open those gates," bellowed the general, "or you'll be spending your nights at the front."
The guards scrambled to comply as the general berated his own man about the need to wait.
"If I ever have to wait for the gates to open again," the general lectured Cobb, "you will be joining the gate guards at the front. Do you understand?"
"Perfectly, General Blackmoor," Cobb said.
The general's party passed through the gates, but Cobb lingered as the guards began to close them.
"Thanks a lot," he scowled at the guards. "Don't say that I didn't warn you."
"Sorry," apologized one of the men, "but we thought you were joking. We heard a rumor tonight that the Federation was repelled at the pass. As there is no front, we didn't take you seriously."
"The rumor is true," stated Cobb, "but there is a front. Karamin is getting ready to attack."
"Karamin?" questioned one of the guards.
Cobb did not reply. He chuckled inwardly as he turned and raced after the general. When he caught up with the group, he moved forward to join Bork in the lead.
"Did you spread more disinformation?" asked General Blackmoor.
"I did," chuckled Cobb. "They are now expecting Karamin to attack Vinafor."
"Good," smiled the general. "Any confusion will be good confusion as the rumors start to swirl. How far down the Calusa Road do we have to go, Edmond?"
"About a league," Edmond answered. "We will be out of sight of the gates within a third of that, but I want to pass the area where all the caravan wagons are parked. It will add a large number of witnesses that Daramoor's men can question."
"Why are we heading for Karamin?" asked the queen. "I would think that is the least safe place for me now."
"It might just be," smiled Garth, "but we want General Daramoor to think that is where you are heading. Sometime tomorrow his searchers will discover your body in a shallow grave."
"I trust that is a joke?" frowned the queen.
"It will be for General Daramoor," chuckled Garth. "We will be leaving this road and cutting through the forest to the Lombardi Road. Eventually, we will meet up with the Mercado caravan, and you will be taken into Sidney's wagon and hidden there. The rest is up to Sidney and Edmond."
"Then how will they find my body?" asked the queen.
"We have associates who are burying a body at this very moment," explained Garth. "It is a fair ways down the Calusa Road, but General Daramoor's men will find it."
"And they are going to think it is me?" scoffed the queen. "How will you manage that?"
"The body will be adorned with your clothes," replied Garth. "Don't ask," he added quickly when he saw the queen getting ready to question him.
* * *
The eagle soared over the winding Calusa Road, its eyes continually scanning the edges of the road for signs of life. When it finally saw the horses, the eagle dipped and circled searching for signs of life beyond what it was expecting. Seeing none, the eagle dropped through the branches of the trees and settled on the ground. Had anyone been watching, they would have seen the eagle shimmer and transform into a beautiful young woman dressed in clothes fit for a queen, although the clothing was a bit dirty from being worn in a cell in the tower. Kalina stepped out from behind the tree and saw Natia waiting patiently.
"Beautiful dress," Natia remarked. "Couldn't you have saved that one and brought something more disposable."
"It is what she was wearing," chuckled Kalina. "Give me my clothes so I can get out of this."
Natia turned to one of the horses behind her and tossed Kalina her pack. Kalina quickly changed clothes tossing the queen's clothing to Natia.
"Give me a hand here," grunted Natia. "I have never dressed a dead person before."
"And you think I have?" retorted Kalina as she moved to help.
As Kalina helped Natia, she got her first glimpse of the corpse's face. Kalina nearly gagged and backed away.
"What happened to her face?" asked Kalina.
"I asked the same question," frowned Natia. "They told me that I didn't want to know, and I left it at that. She really doesn't have a face. Maybe that is why they chose her."
"She had one not too long ago," frowned Kalina as she moved back to help Natia complete the dressing of the corpse. "I can not imagine what kind of sick mind could do such a thing."
"That's it," Natia announced. "Let's get her in the hole and get out of here."
Kalina saw the shallow grave a few paces away. She helped Natia move the body into the grave, and then turned to look for a shovel to cover it up.
"Where is the shovel?" she asked.
Natia turned around, and as her eyes landed on the trunk of a large tree, she sighed heavily.
"Harker must have taken it back with
him," moaned the gypsy princess. "I knew things were going all too good. What do we do now?"
"I am not going to dig in the dirt with my fingers," declared Kalina. "Move away from the grave."
"Not magic," warned Natia. "It might be sensed by the K'sans."
"Not the amount of magic I need to use," replied Kalina. "Someone would have to be nearly on top of us to sense it. Don't worry."
Kalina called forth a spell of wind. A tiny tornado grew over the mound of dirt and began sucking it upward. When Kalina saw the grass appear where the pile of dirt had been, she moved the tornado over the grave and then banished it with a flick of her wrist. The dirt that had been suspended within the tornado instantly dropped into the grave, filling the hole and leaving a mound of dirt on top.
"You must be a thrill to have around when it's time to clean up after a party," laughed Natia.
"Magic does have its uses," Kalina replied jovially and then turned suddenly serious. "You can't imagine how much I miss using it. I knew that I would have to refrain from magic on this trip, but I never thought it would bother me as much as it does. It's like being told that you can't talk for days at a time."
"Yet you risk the chance of discovery if you do use it," stated Natia. "Why did you come along if there is no need for your magic?"
"Because if there is a need," answered Kalina, "everyone else would die for the lack of it. I will use my magic when it is absolutely necessary to keep everyone alive. We will deal with repercussions of exposure at that time, but at least we will be alive to try to deal with it."
"Well," shrugged Natia, "unless your magic can make us and the horses fly, we need to be going. We have a longer ride than the rest of the group."
* * *
Seven men lay in the snow atop the eastern peaks of the Barrier. The bitter wind swept across the face of the mountain causing the snow to swirl and dance in a beautiful display, but that beauty was also biting as the wind whipped the exposed flesh with the same tiny, stinging bits of ice. The men's bodies were covered lightly with drifting snow as they peered into the distant flatlands called Elfwoods. Max Caber lifted his head, his beard and mustache encrusted with ice from the moisture in his breath. He looked around briefly and lowered his head in frustration.
"What if the fairies cannot find us in all this snow?" he asked. "We are all fairly covered in white. Maybe we should stand up and wait for them to return."
"They will find us," Prince Rigal declared. "How many times have they boasted that they can find anyone anywhere?"
"And boasts those might be," retorted Max. "I am not trying to speak ill of the little people, but have you looked at us recently? We are becoming part of the snow up here. Another hour and we will be mere lumps in the white landscape."
"I wouldn't mind getting out of the wind," commented Shawn Cowen. "If we retreated down the western face of the mountain just a bit, it would ease the wind tremendously."
"We told the fairies that we would remain here," Karl Gree responded.
"But they can find us anywhere," Max quipped in response. "Let them find us where it is a bit less windy."
Prince Rigal glanced over at Clint McFarren. Clint nodded his agreement and rose to his feet. The elven prince also rose.
"There can be no harm in getting out of the wind," Prince Rigal declared. "Let's move down the western side just far enough to get out of the worst of this."
The rest of the men rose, and all seven of them began the trek back the way they had come. Already the snow had obliterated their previous footprints. Clint McFarren, the leader of the Ranger detachment, was the most skilled in mountain climbing. He led the group westward, but the fallen snow made finding the path of their previous ascent impossible. Even worse, the wind was blowing blankets of snow over the edge and making it difficult to see the mountain below.
"Perhaps this is not a wise idea," he shouted as the wind howled at his back. "One misstep and we will drop a long ways."
"There is shelter on the other side," a tiny voice said in his ear.
"Runt!" grinned the Ranger. "We had just about given up on you."
"We have only been gone a few hours," replied the fairy as he hung onto Clint's ear. "Let me stay with you as I direct you to shelter. The winds make landing on you difficult."
"Lead away," yelled the Ranger. "Just get us out of this wind."
Runt started feeding directions into the Ranger's ear, and the other men followed in single file. With the snow streaming into his face, Clint could barely see the ground before him. He walked slowly, placing each foot with care as Runt guided him around snow-covered rocks and onto a sloping ledge leading downwards. The wind-driven snow now blasted up the side of the mountain as well as directly out of the east. He had never experienced such a turbulent snowstorm before, and he was relieved when Runt directed him into a crevice in the face of the mountain peak.
The area formed by the crevice was large enough for at least a dozen men. It was not a cave as there was no protection overhead, but the updraft of winds kept the snow from falling into the crevice. Clint stopped within a few feet of the entrance and scraped the snow from his body so that they would not have to sit in puddles. The others followed his example and soon the seven men were sitting in a rock canyon protected from the winds and snow. Runt let go of Clint's ear and flew to a small ledge on the wall. Mite and Peanut soon joined him.
"What did you discover?" Clint asked when everyone was assembled.
"Elfwoods is indeed the home of the elves," Mite reported. "The forest is mature and expansive."
"Were there humans there as well?" asked Prince Rigal.
"We did not see any," answered Peanut. "Only elves."
"A lot of elves," added Mite. "There are villages on the ground as well as structures up in the trees. There must be thousands of them."
"Our destination is determined," declared Prince Rigal. "Seeing as there are no humans in the Elfwoods, it makes sense for Karl to accompany the Rangers from now on."
"What do you plan to do down there?" asked Karl.
"We are here are to learn about our enemy," the elven prince replied. "The three of us will mingle with the Dielderal and learn what we can."
"Garth mentioned the possibility of pitting the Dielderal against the humans," stated Karl. "Is that something you intend to do?"
"Not at this point," answered Prince Rigal. "We will learn what we can and then share that information with Garth. Perhaps once we understand all of our enemies better, we can devise strategies to split them apart."
"Then we part company in the morning," Clint said. "We will be working our way northward along the peaks of the Barrier. Use Mite to keep us informed of your progress. We will use Runt or Peanut to forward that information on to Garth."
* * *
Colonel Pfaff halted outside the mansion of Lady Ferini and gazed through the windows. Scores of the elite mingled in one of Waxhaw's most celebrated parties, and loud music flowed out onto the street. The colonel had never been invited to one of the parties, and he had always wondered what they were like. The colonel straightened his uniform and marched up the stairs. Before he could knock on the door, a servant opened it and blocked the doorway with his body.
"The party is by invitation only," announced the servant.
"I have an important message for General Daramoor," declared Colonel Pfaff.
"The general left instructions that he was not to be disturbed," retorted the servant.
"Except in an emergency," countered the colonel. "Move aside because the affairs of the Royal Palace demand that I speak to the general immediately."
The servant hesitated, and the colonel made his move. He marched straight for the door as if intending to push his way inside. The servant suddenly thought better of his policy of blocking the door. He quickly stepped to one side, and the colonel breezed past him.
"If you will wait here," offered the servant, "I will summon the general."
"I do not think a servant is c
apable of summoning the general," retorted the colonel. "You had best stick to guarding the door."
The servant looked as if he had been slapped across the face, but Colonel Pfaff didn't even notice. He was already making his way into the throng of guests. Most of the guests paid no attention to the officer as he passed by them, but several of the young women followed his path across the room with interest. Colonel Pfaff also noticed them, and he yearned to spend some time mixing with the young, rich daughters of the elite. It would not only be pleasurable, but it had the potential to accelerate his career. Unfortunately, he saw General Daramoor, and worse, the general saw him.
General Daramoor was surrounded by a large group of people who were hanging on his every word. The general appeared to be enjoying the attention, until he spotted the colonel. The general's features darkened, and he excused himself from the crowd. As the general headed straight towards the colonel, he nodded towards a doorway at the side of the room and then altered his path to head for it. The colonel obligingly altered his own course, and they met at the doorway. The general opened the door and stepped into a private sitting room. The colonel followed him and closed the door.
"What are you doing here?" scowled the general. "I left explicit instructions not to be disturbed."
"The body of Faldor was found in the palace," stated the colonel. "He was brutally cut with a knife or sword."
One of the general's eyebrows rose in surprise, but he didn't seem particularly upset. "That's it?" he asked. "You disturbed me for that small trivial matter?"
"A death in the Royal Palace is not a small matter," frowned the colonel, "especially a brutal murder. I felt certain that you would want to know immediately."
"And I am beginning to feel certain that I need to assign you to General Cornalos at the front," retorted General Daramoor.
The colonel frowned heavily. "But General Cornalos is dead," he replied in confusion. "Isn't he?"
"Where did you get such an idea?" frowned the general. "Cornalos is holding the Ramaldi Pass."
"I heard that General Blackmoor took his place," stated the colonel, "and that the Federation was turned back in a glorious victory for Vinafor."
Final Voyage of the Remora Page 29