“We’re traveling peacefully,” Theus stewed. “Why should anyone be chasing us?”
“And who would be chasing us?” Montrose asked.
They increased their pace, and trotted along the road until they found a rocky outcropping not far off the road, where they veered and climbed the slopes to take up positions that were protected in the event of attack.
Within a half hour, the dust-producing followers appeared, and turned out to truly be a company of mounted travelers, who slowed as they approached the visible fortress of Southsand soldiers overlooking the road.
One member of group on the road broke away from the others, riding his horse directly towards the hill.
“It’s Forgon!” Theus exclaimed. He began to hurry down the hill to meet his friend. “I’ll be back with an explanation,” he promised his traveling companions in a loud voice.
“Theus, we’re so glad we finally caught you!” Forgon exclaimed when he stopped his horse and slid from the saddle. “Your army travels fast and light, I see!”
“We’re on our way home; that gives wings to our feet,” Theus spoke cautiously. He couldn’t imagine any reason – either good or bad – for why the nobleman had brought a company of men on horses to follow.
“I’m so sorry Theus, for ruining our homecoming the way I did,” Forgon apologized. “I should have kept my mouth shut, and spoken only about my own affairs.”
“You did nothing wrong,” Theus assured him. “You were not to blame for anything. You were brave to come riding so far so fast to try to help fight on behalf of Great Forks.”
“And I wasn’t needed because you are something greater than I ever imagined – and I always thought you were one of the best!” Forgon exclaimed. “I listened to story after story about what you’ve done, and all of that was after Amelia’s stories about how you rescued her – twice!
“I’m sorry we drove you away. The whole city is angry that you left before they could properly celebrate you,” Forgon laughed gently. “There were plans in the works to give you a medal, hold a parade for you – maybe even put up a statute of you!”
Theus laughed at the notion. “There was only the one reason left for me to stay in Great Forks,” he said, and he paused. “And so, leading my new army out of the city was the only thing left for me to do. I felt that the sooner the better. And the men are happier to be traveling finally.
“Is everything else okay at your home?” he obliquely asked about Coriae.
“By now, I imagine so. I left a couple of days ago to try to catch up with you, and things were still tense. But by now, Coriae should have been put on a vessel to Thuros and shipped out, so I imagine the house is calmer,” Forgon answered.
“I’ve never seen father so angry at anyone or anything, let alone at Cory!” he exclaimed in a low voice. “He was furious at her,” he seemed ready to say more, but then paused, and a long moment of silence ensued.
“Why are you here Forgon? Why are you stalking us?” Theus asked. “We left the city peacefully.”
“Yes, you did. Of course!” Forgon agreed eagerly. “There’s no question about that. Did you think?” he paused as he grasped how his pursuit might have appeared to his quarry.
“Oh Theus, we came to join you – as companions! We, our group from Stoke, came to Great Forks, riding harder than ever before, thinking we were about to enter a life-or-death adventure, but there was none there,” Forgon began to explain.
“And as we listened to all the amazing stories about the lost city of Limber returning to life, some of us thought we’d like to see it! So we decided we would travel along with you, but then we discovered that you had already slipped away and started your journey. So we all rested up from our last trip, and then started on this new trip,” Forgon explained.
Theus closed his eyes and shook his head as he grinned at the misunderstanding.
“We didn’t know why anyone was following us, so we assumed the worst,” He explained. “Let me call everyone down, and we can resume our journey.”
An hour later, the newly mixed group, a large entourage of foot soldiers and mounted soldiers, began to march to the south east, as the Landwide River began the wide, sweeping turn that went around the northern end of the small mountain chain and entered the Battle Valley.
The conversations among the mixed groups were awkward at first, but grew more comfortable as the people found topics to discuss. For Theus, having Forgon and Amelia along on the trip was both a pleasure, and a painful reminder of the Warrell family that he was seeking to leave behind. He quietly ruminated on Coriae’s exile to Thuros, sent to live with the family of the man she had decided to marry. He was convinced that she had come to resume her love for him, Theus, and was regretting her impetuous decision to marry Klermie.
“How did she meet Klermie to become engaged, anyway?” Theus asked Forgon one night, when the two of them were on guard duty together.
“She sailed to Thuros a week after you left. She was angry and hurt and wanted to get away, so she went to visit cousins we have who live on the island; we see them every two years or so – they’re cousins through mother’s side of the family,” Forgon explained.
“And apparently Cory threw herself into being enchanting and social, which led to the proposal from Klermie. He comes from a good family,” Forgon shrugged.
“She came back a month after the engagement, which seemed odd, and she moved about among the cities. I suppose she was just as happy to have Klermie as a distant fiancé as she would have been to have him as a close one,” Forgon confided.
“But I wasn’t really paying attention, because I had met Amelia, and I was focused on her,” he grinned at Theus.
And so Theus put the pieces together, and concluded that Coriae was going to live an unhappy life married to the man she didn’t love as much as she loved him, Theus. He couldn’t decide if he was pleased, sad, or angry about the outcome.
Chapter 6
Ten days after passing through the village of Northside, Theus’s blended military unit approached the outskirts of Greenfalls. They approached in the evening, so Theus decided they could spend the night on a farm, and arrive in the city at midday the following day. He had a particular farm in mind for their camp site. Galeci, one of the brash young noblemen of Stoke who Theus had befriended, asked where they planned to go.
“Gretki and Martle are poor farmers who won’t mind us using their pasture for the evening,” Theus replied. He led the cavalcade of forces off the main river highway and along farm lanes for half an hour, past astonished residents of the small farms and ranches in the river valley.
“Gretki!” he called when he walked into the dusty farm yard that he remembered.
“What is all the ruckus out there?” a man’s voice querulously asked loudly, and then a pair of care worn faces peered out the door in astonishment.
“We’re being attacked by the army! I told you to pay the right taxes!” Martle scolded his wife.
“We’re not being attacked,” she fired back. “Look, it’s that Theus that stayed in our barn back weeks ago. He’s been captured by this army behind him. Go see what he wants.”
“You know him better than I do; you go see what he wants!” the formerly invalid man responded.
“Theus,” Gretki stepped out of the doorway and into the yard, approaching Theus warily as she did. “What is this all about?”
“We need a pasture we can camp in for the night. I thought maybe you’d rent out your pasture to us,” he explained. “We’re on our way to Greenfalls.”
“Are you going to join the war there too?” Gretki asked. “I didn’t think you were the type to go picking over the bones of a city in ruins.”
“War?” Theus asked in shock. “What are you talking about?”
“I just heard at the market this afternoon that there’s going to be a war here. Some city named Stoke has sent soldiers to fight against Greenfalls after the city folks kicked out the old governor. He was a pretty
rotten governor, I hear,” Gretki explained.
“But you’re welcome to spend your night in the south pasture,” she continued. “Just go through the broken gate and follow the lane to the last field on the left.”
“Thank you,” Theus rifled through his pack to find a few small coins that he offered to the woman in payment, then hastened back to his comrades.
“We’re to go through the gate and down the lane to the last pasture on the left,” Theus gave directions, then pulled Forgon aside.
“She reports there’s an attack by Stoke against Greenfalls. Do you know if that’s true?” Theus asked.
“I hadn’t heard of it,” Forgon replied. “When the palace received news about the city rebelling against the governor, the king’s counselors were very angry. Holco told us how violently they spoke, but then I didn’t see him the last few days before we left for Great Forks, so I didn’t hear anything in particular about what the advisors would tell the king to do.
“He’s so old and tired he doesn’t do much of the ruling. His son is heir to the throne, Eudie,” Forgon seemed on the verge of saying more, but then refrained.
Theus recollected the words of the captain of the Greenfalls guard, Gane. Gane had been the leader of the force that had traveled with Theus to Great Forks, and in a casual conversation, Gane had also mentioned Eudie. His words had not been kind.
“Eudie isn’t well thought of, is he?” Theus asked Forgon.
The nobleman glumly shook his head. “He isn’t bright, and he listens to the wrong types of people,” Forgon agreed. “If Holco had been born heir and Eudie as the distant successor, the kingdom would have a much brighter future – a better present, for that matter.”
Theus realized there was a pattern. The throne of Stoke was supplying men of bad faith and poor morals as leaders throughout the kingdom. The displaced governor of Greenfalls, and the cowardly governor of Great Forks were two examples. There were magicians being used as advisors. It appeared to Theus that a conspiracy was tearing the kingdom apart and making it weaker.
“We’re a half day away from Greenfalls,” Theus was arriving at an abrupt decision. He wanted to know what was happening in the city, to discover if there was an actual battle being fought against Alsman and Eiren. If so, he would lead his Southsand forces into the battle to help protect his friends.
“I’m going to go to the city tonight and find out what’s happening,” he told Forgon.
Many of Forgon’s company were members of the nobility and merchant class of Stoke itself, he realized as he spoke. They would have different loyalties than he would. The situation suddenly became more difficult to predict and manage.
“I have friends in Greenfalls. If they are under attack from Stoke, I will help fight against the Stoke forces on their behalf,” he told Forgon forthrightly.
“Allow me to go with you,” Forgon suggested. “Perhaps we can learn what is really happening, and find a way to prevent another battle. These two cities shouldn’t be fighting against each other, spilling blood.”
“Come along,” Theus agreed. “We need to find out what’s happening.”
They led their forces to the pasture for the night, then explained that they were going into the city, and why they were going. Despite numerous proposals for others to join them, they resisted. Instead, they set a reinforced set of guard duties to make sure that no hostilities reached out into the country to catch their companions unaware, and then they set off on horseback to ride into Greenfalls.
They arrived at the outskirts of the city before midnight, and found unsettled conditions as they approached the city from the north. Refugees from the city were living in temporary conditions along the riverside and the highway, and then they reached the lines of Stoke soldiers who were settled into a siege of the city, barricading any travel in or out.
“What should we do?” Forgon whispered as they stood under the gaze of Stoke soldiers who had detained them on the road, their horses hobbled in a nearby field.
“I don’t know,” Theus replied. “We can wait to see what happens next.” He longed for the use of his white magic powers. Through the long days of the journey away from Great Forks, he had felt little need for them. He knew that the ruby pendant he wore was protecting his life, but it was also cutting him off from the use of white magic. With the unexpected conflict outside Greenfalls, he had come to a situation in which the magic would be useful.
If he took the pendant off, he would suffer the spread of the dark magic’s infection. Yet that might be the price he needed to pay temporarily in order to allow Forgon and himself to penetrate through the Stoke lines to reach Greenfalls.
“You’re not authorized to pass through to the city,” a sergeant approached them and then dismissed them summarily. “Don’t try to get through. If we find you at any location near our lines, you will be executed.”
“Have you been executing people here at Greenfalls already?” Theus asked, his sensibilities offended by the maliciousness the soldier’s voice conveyed.
“We’ve already shed plenty of blood, and we’re going to execute one of their leaders tomorrow at dawn,” the man said. “Now get going or we’ll add you to the list.”
Theus swung his staff up over his head and slung it securely behind his back, wedged between his shoulder blade and his pack.
“Put your hand on my shoulder, and don’t release the grip until I tell you to,” Theus told Forgon. His temper was flaring, and he had decided to act.
“Get moving out of here!” the sergeant pulled his sword to threaten the two travelers.
“What did you say?” Forgon asked Theus in confusion.
Theus grabbed Forgon’s hand with one of his own and slapped it hard on his good right shoulder. “Hold me here, and follow me wherever I go,” he commanded.
“I don’t understand,” Forgon said in a state of confusion.
“Hold on,” Theus repeated. He saw the sergeant starting to pull his sword back, as if to strike.
Theus reached over his head with one hand, and pulled the ruby pendant free, while he pulled his own sword free, and swung it forward in a single fluid motion. He recited the incantation to induce invisibility at the same time, and then felt a terrible reaction.
While his sword struck the sergeant in the shoulder, and sliced deeply into his arm muscle, Theus felt his spell release his energy, and he felt the evil darkness of his infected shoulder wound intercept and interact with the spell. His energy felt tainted, and then it felt awful – painful and domineering and in pursuit of evil ends. He felt it take his energy and reroute it, sending it through the plane of demons instead of the plane of angels, and it gave a dark, burning tint to his soul.
He was invisible, he knew. Somehow, while multiple actions and reactions were erupting around him, he could sense and comprehend them all. The sentries were reacting with astonishment, as they watched in the flickering light of the torches and lanterns, and saw Theus strike down the sergeant, then turn invisible.
The anger-tainted energy he channeled through the demonic plane told him to kill the sentries as well. He swung his sword to the right, and then to the left, and the two men lay on the ground, dead.
“Theus, what is happening?” Forgon asked.
Theus knew. The dark magic power contained in his shoulder wound had roared forth and attacked his free will in the moment that he had removed the ruby pendant. The darkness was attempting to overwhelm him. He had no doubt that there was a large, black stain spreading across the skin of his shoulder and his chest.
He had no doubt that the taint of the wound was what had driven him to unnecessarily kill the two robbers in Glory’s home the night he stayed with her. He had struck them and knocked each unconscious, which had been all that was needed. But he had struck each again, with enough power to kill them.
“Theus, what are you doing?” Forgon asked.
“We’re invisible; I’m using my magic to let us enter the Stoke camp. Stay with me and hold
on to me,” Theus snapped out the answer, then he turned and started walking into the camp. The three downed bodies laid silently on the side of the dark road, unnoticed for the moment, giving Theus a few minutes head start to stalk into the camp.
He wanted to find the prisoner, and set him free. It might very well be Almsman himself who was held. Theus would find the prisoner, free him, and then proceed through the siege to enter the city. Afterwards, once he knew the fullest extent of the situation, he could decide where his forces would attack the Stoke army.
Forgon was holding on, and following as Theus started to walk.
Theus felt the darkness that stained his soul. It urged him to seek out more men to kill. He had to ignore it; he had to move forward.
There were no men in the immediate neighborhood of the emptied checkpoint on the road. Theus walked south on the road, towards the Stoke camp, and the city of Greenfalls beyond. Forgon was silent behind him, trying to absorb the deadly situation he had been hurled into.
The road was dark, and they were guided by the sight of lights ahead, a few camp fires and a few lanterns that existed in the Stoke camp, several yards in the distance. They walked into the camp, where there were few men moving about at night, while the soldiers slept in their tents or in the open air.
Theus wanted to move fast, to find the captive, set him free, and move on. Forgon was slowing him down, acting as a drag on his progress, and he listened to a strange, internal debate over what to do. A part of him wanted to simply decouple from Forgon, and finish the mission, abandoning Forgon to his own devices. But another part, an even darker part whispered about disposing of Forgon, both to remove him as an impediment, and to punish his sister, Coriae, for her deceitful treatment.
“Theus, put the pendant back on, now,” he heard Limber’s voice whispering in his ear.
He looked down, and saw that his sword was gripped in one hand, while the fine silver chain of the pendant was gripped in the other. The ruby appeared to glow faintly, with an alluring red light.
Tangled Engagements (The Memory Stones Series Book 4) Page 7