"Very possibly," Eddie replied. "When I first heard Prince Darok's story, my thoughts immediately fell on K'san. It is too much of a coincidence not to be related."
"Was there a Temple of Balmak in Hega?" asked Lord Clava.
"No," King Arik replied. "The only one in Cordonia that I am aware of is in Kantor."
"It sounds like the attack on the dwarves occurred before the preaching in Trekum," Queen Tanya pointed out. "Perhaps we should have General Fernandez monitor that temple to see if they start preaching hatred?"
"I think we need the fairy army back," suggested Lord Markel. "If we are going to have to communicate over long distances, they will be necessary."
"I have already requested it," replied King Arik. "I am also reactivating the Knights of Alcea. Those who have not already been contacted will be soon."
"Where is Fredrik?" Tanya unexpectedly asked Niki. "His counsel is missed here."
"He seldom speaks," shrugged Niki. "I didn't even think he would be missed."
"I value Fredrik's opinions highly," Arik responded. "I know he does not speak often, but whenever he does he brings light into the darkness. Is he ill?"
Niki did not respond right away, and Tanya became instantly suspicious. She had traveled long enough with the redheaded mage to know when something was amiss.
"What is he doing?" demanded the Queen. "Speak."
"Why do you always pick on him?" Niki blubbered. "Can't you just leave him alone?"
"Niki," Tanya said sternly. "Tell me where Fredrik is."
"I told him it was wrong," Niki cried out, "but he wouldn't listen."
"Niki…"
"He is in the dungeons."
"Why would he be in the dungeons?' asked King Arik.
"He is mind-probing the assassin," answered Tanya. "That is what he is doing, isn't it Niki?"
Niki sobbed and didn't answer except for the nodding of her head.
"I thought that was evil," frowned Lord Markel.
"Master Khatama taught me that it was wrong without the person's consent," explained Tanya. "I guess his lessons form the backbone of my ethics, so I look upon it as the wrong thing to do, but in this case, I believe that Fredrik is right. I am glad that he had the gumption to do it."
"You mean it is alright?" gasped Niki. "You really don't think Fredrik is wrong?"
"The mind probe will not harm the assassin," answered Tanya. "In fact, he will not even feel it unless he is a mage. Master Khatama stressed his ethics, yet very little is cast in stone regarding magic. Jenneva probed Master Khatama's mind on several occasions, but she did not do so with evil intent. Yes, Niki, I think Fredrik did the right thing. I probably could not bring myself to do it, so I am especially thankful for his intervention."
Niki was wiping the tears from her eyes when the door to the corridor opened and Fredrik walked in. Everyone's eyes were instantly upon him, and the Royal Sorcerer felt like he had walked in on something embarrassing.
"Did you get anything from him?" asked Queen Tanya.
Fredrik was shocked at the question, but he saw Niki wiping her tears. He figured out that everyone had been talking about the mind probe in his absence.
"Very little," answered Fredrik. "It would have been more fruitful if I could have gotten to him soon after he was caught. He has managed to confuse himself with memorizing false tales, so it is hard to separate fact from fiction. His poor health did not help, either."
"What did you learn?" asked King Arik.
"His task was to find one of the sailors and interrogate him," replied Fredrik. "He was to learn anything he could extract, but primarily the details of the voyage we took out of Dalek. He wanted to know who was on the journey and where the destination of it was."
"And had he learned any of those details?" asked Lord Clava.
"No," answered Fredrik. "I should also mention that the six men killed or captured in Southland represent only one out of six teams with the same task. There are another thirty assassins out there hunting for the brothers."
"What was he to do if he got the information?" asked Eddie.
"Their mission was to last a year," replied Fredrik. "At the end of the year they are to return to Sandy Point."
"Where is Sandy Point?" asked General Gregor.
Fredrik shrugged and everyone else shook their heads to indicate their lack of knowledge.
"The only other thing that I could get out of him," Fredrik continued, "is that he is from a city named Giza. I have never heard of it, and my attempts to get him to place it for me were unsuccessful."
"Another blank for me," sighed General Gregor. "I have never heard of Sandy Point or Giza."
"Could they be code words?" asked Eddie. "Maybe anagrams of the real locations?"
"I will have men scour the maps," offered General Gregor. "I think the problems with Balmak are far more serious. We need to deal with that soon."
King Arik wasn't so sure about the general's statement, but he wasn't about to vocalize that thought.
"I want a list of every Temple of Balmak in Alcea," stated the king. "All of our allies are to be warned about potential attacks by other races. They must also be assured that the attacks are false provocations. I will not let our people be divided by some unknown enemy."
"I would like to follow up on the assassins," offered Wylan. "If I can get Cirris to act as bait, I may be able to get a fresher victim for Fredrik."
"Cirris must be informed of the risks beforehand," warned the king. "I will not use him as bait without his permission."
"Nor would I," agreed Wylan. "We talked a bit about it on the way here. He fears for his remaining brothers, so I feel confident that he will risk his life to save them. I also do not plan to allow anyone to harm him."
"Unicorns would be helpful," suggested Fredrik. "I will need to get to wherever Wylan is to do the mind probe. Will our unicorn friends agree to help us?"
"I am sure that they will," nodded King Arik. "I will request their help tonight. Unless there are further suggestions, I think we can all get back to doing whatever we do."
There were no more suggestions or questions and the people began to file out of the library. King Arik caught Eddie's eye and indicated that he should stay. When everyone else had left, Tanya shut the door leaving the three of them alone.
"I need Larc to get all of his people on this Balmak matter," Arik said to Eddie. "Will you carry that message to him for me?"
"I saw him briefly before coming here," replied Eddie. "I will also see him again tonight. I will deliver the message, but I think it is unnecessary. Larc indicated that he considered the new religion a serious problem. He is trying to get people into the priesthood, but he is not having any success. We are losing people trying."
"Losing people?" asked Queen Tanya. "Do you mean their status as a spy is being exposed?"
"No," Eddie shook his head. "The Spiders are dying or going missing. Whoever runs the Balmak temples is playing for keeps. That is precisely the reason for Larc's alarm. If it keeps up at this pace, the Spiders will be seriously damaged as an organization."
Chapter 11
Chi-Chan Calamity
Bin-lu was pleased when he saw the town of Chi-Chan come into view. He had only ridden his fourth horse for half a day, so it would still be useable after a rest. He had feared that he might arrive with a dead horse and be stuck with no way to flee.
The Knight of Alcea was still without a plan to rescue Rut-ki, and he was exhausted from lack of sleep. He had originally planned to dress as an Intelligence Officer and merely say that he was there to escort the special prisoner back to Ongchi, but that would leave his cover exposed when Wei-ra arrived by boat. Ideally, he would like to rescue Rut-ki and return to Ongchi before he was noticed missing. He just hadn't been able to develop a plan to accomplish that.
Dressed in a plain gray robe, Bin-lu rode slowly into Chi-Chan. The main street of the city paralleled the Chi River, and the spy scanned the river to see if the weekly boat had
arrived, but it was impossible to tell. The river was wide at Chi-Chan and hundreds of boats lined the wharf. Without knowing where the boat would tie up, it was an impossible task. He dismissed it from his mind and started the search for a suitable inn.
After viewing half a dozen inns, Bin-lu turned around and selected the Lotus Blossom Inn. It was built fairly recently, but was not fancy enough for someone like Wei-ra to stay in. It also had rooms that overlooked the main street and the river. Bin-lu stabled his horse and entered the inn. He haggled over the price of the room so that the innkeeper would not peg him as a rich traveler. The last thing he needed in Chi-Chan was to be the target of bandits.
The sun was still high in the sky when Bin-lu entered his room and collapsed on the bed. Whatever steps he would take to free Rut-ki would have to wait until he was rested. He closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately. When he awoke, the sky was dark. Bin-lu straightened his robe and went down to the common room. Every table had at least two people at it, so he sat at the first one, which already had four other patrons. He nodded a polite greeting to the others and ordered a bowl of fish chowder when the innkeeper came by.
As he waited for his food, Bin-lu listened to the conversations around him. Most of the conversations were typical of any inn. People spoke of the weather and places they had traveled to. What was unusual was a fair amount of talk about religion, but the spy was not surprised by which religion was being discussed. Chi-Chan was one of the cities with a Temple of Balmak, and several conversations were devoted to it.
"Is this your first time to Chi-Chan?" one of Bin-lu's tablemates asked.
"No," smiled Bin-lu. "It has been a long time, but I have traveled this road before. How about you?"
"I have a farm twenty leagues east," answered the man. "I come here once a month."
Bin-lu's chowder arrived, and he began to eat while still listening to the conversations.
"When does the weekly boat from Ongchi stop here?" asked Bin-lu.
"It should have been here today," answered one of the men at the table, "but it never did. It will probably be here tomorrow."
Now that Bin-lu had shown that he was open to conversation, the four men at the table began asking questions. The questions were innocent enough, but Bin-lu remained evasive with his answers. He claimed to be from Barouk and on his way to Porang to visit his cousin. He asked about the availability of work in Porang, but none of them had any specific knowledge of the city upstream from Chi-Chan.
Bin-lu finished his chowder and rose. He nodded politely to the other men and exited the front door of the inn to take a short walk. His walk turned into a long one, and it encompassed much of the city. After he had familiarized himself with the general layout of Chi-Chan, the Knight of Alcea focused on the administration building where the jail cells were located. The building was square and quite large. It was three stories high and the top two floors had bars on the small windows. Unless some of the offices had bars on the windows, there were an exceedingly large number of cells to be searched. Bin-lu sighed with frustration. Had he reconnoitered the building in the daylight, he could have dallied near a street merchant and observed the patrols, but the merchants closed up shop at dusk.
Bin-lu walked around the building three times. When he saw the same patrol twice, he moved away from the building to avoid suspicion. The Knight of Alcea lingered away from the building, but where he still had a glimpse of it. He counted the windows on the third floor on one side of the building and multiplied it by eight. He was thinking about using his special skills to peek into each window, but there were so many windows that he could spend the entire night checking them and still not find Rut-ki. Again Bin-lu sighed as he realized that even if he found her cell, it would take a long time to unbolt the bars from the window. The task might take more than one night, and the weekly boat would surely arrive tomorrow. He decided to return to the Lotus Blossom Inn to dwell on the problem and give the citizens time to bed down for the night. He did not want any eyes awake to see him crawl along the walls of the administration building.
Bin-lu was approaching the front of the Lotus Blossom Inn when he saw a woman leaving it. He halted and slid into the shadows of an alley. The woman turned and started walking towards Bin-lu and the Knight of Alcea grinned to himself. When she passed the mouth of the alley he was hiding in, he called to her.
"Natia!" Bin-lu called softly. "Come here."
The gypsy princess did not halt her walk, nor did she give any indication that she had heard him. Bin-lu frowned and stuck his head out to see where she was going. She was gone. Bin-lu heard a noise at the far end of the alley he was hiding in and turned to gaze towards the stables. The meager light of the waxing moon silhouetted a man at the far end of the alley. The man held a staff and appeared to be staring at Bin-lu. The spy felt a shiver run up his spine. As he stared at the man, Bin-lu saw a woman appear next to the man and wave to him. It was Natia. Bin-lu ran along the alley and saw that the man was Tedi. He grinned broadly and hugged both of them.
"What are you doing in Chi-Chan?" asked Bin-lu.
"We are on our way to Tagaret," answered Tedi.
"And you are staying at the Lotus Blossom?" asked Bin-lu. "What room?"
"We are not staying there," answered Natia. "We are looking for six men. I have been asking the innkeepers if there are any customers in groups of six. That is why you saw me leaving the inn."
"What have these men done?" asked Bin-lu.
"Come to our room," whispered Tedi. "We do not want to stand out here and talk."
Bin-lu nodded in agreement and followed the gypsies to their room.
"Do you remember the sea voyage we took out of Dalek?" asked Tedi.
"Of course," nodded Bin-lu. "How could I forget such a thing?"
"Do you remember the seaman who crewed the ship?" asked Natia.
"The six brothers?" questioned Bin-lu.
"One of them died outside Porang," reported Tedi. "Six men were preparing to torture him when the gypsies broke up their little party. The assailants killed him as they fled."
"And that is why you are going to Tagaret?" frowned Bin-lu.
"It is," confirmed Tedi. "People torture others to learn their secrets. I don't think Garander had any secrets other than that voyage, at least not big enough to kill him for."
"Not to mention that it is awfully strange for an experienced seaman to even be in Porang working at cattle pens," added Natia. "Something is very strange about the whole thing."
"I agree," stated Bin-lu. "A seaman of his caliber should not be in Porang. He was trying to hide from someone. It sounds like he did not succeed."
"Now that you know our story," Natia grinned excitedly, "will you come with us to Tagaret? It will be like old times."
"I cannot," frowned Bin-lu. "I am on a mission."
"What kind of mission?" asked Tedi. "Maybe we can help?"
"That is kind of you to offer," Bin-lu shook his head, "but I must do this alone. I am trying to discover the nature of the rebels, and my investigation is not only leading me towards the Temples of Balmak, but also to the Intelligence Section of Lanoir."
"Temples of Balmak?" asked Natia. "What are they?"
"Some previously unknown god," shrugged Bin-lu. "The temples seem to be sprouting up everywhere, and the priests are against the government. I am sure they are involved somehow in the rebellion."
"If the rebels have infiltrated the Intelligence Section," posed Tedi, "won't they know that you are a Knight of Alcea?"
"Evidently not," grinned Bin-lu. "They have just promoted me to an Intelligence Officer. My superior is due here tomorrow, and I must free a captive out of the jails before he arrives."
"You are playing a dangerous game," cautioned Tedi. "I cannot imagine that they don't know you are a Knight of Alcea."
"My name was never widely known as a Knight of Alcea," explained Bin-lu. "Besides, I had Za-hong manufacture a clean history for me. They seem to have bought into it."
"Who is the man you have to free?" asked Natia.
"It is not a man," answered Bin-lu. "Rut-ki is a female instructor of martial arts in the Imperial Palace. She is helping me with the investigation, but she was somehow discovered up here. Wei-ra will arrive by boat tomorrow. I fear he will kill her."
"We have experience in breaking people out of Lanoirian jails," chuckled Tedi. "Ask the guards in Lori about us."
"We rescued my brother, Adan, out of jail," agreed Natia. "Tedi smashed a hole in the wall with his magical staff."
"That ability would be good to have," frowned Bin-lu, "but I have not even found out which cell she is in yet. Chi-Chan has so many cells it may take all night to find her."
The three Knights of Alcea fell silent as each of them tried to think of a plan to rescue Rut-ki. Bin-lu finally rose and walked to the window. He gazed up at the sliver of the moon and decided it was time to scale the side of the administration building.
"Do they segregate the women and men in the jails?" Natia asked.
"I am not sure about Chi-Chan," answered Bin-lu, "but most cities do if there is room. Still, that will not help us. I do not know which section would be for women."
"We can find that out," declared Natia. "You said that you are an Intelligence Officer. Did you bring a uniform?"
"Of course," answered Bin-lu, "but I am trying to avoid using my name. Wei-ra will be here tomorrow, and my cover would be blown."
"Do you have to use your name to put a prisoner in jail?" asked Natia.
"No," Bin-lu frowned in confusion. "What are you thinking about?"
"Arrest me," suggested Natia. "Put me in jail, and I will signal which window is mine. You can rescue me and Rut-ki at the same time."
"I don't like this plan," protested Tedi. "What if something goes wrong?"
"No," Bin-lu said excitedly, "it might work. We will not even have to rescue Natia. Often when prisoners are being transported, they will be locked up in the jail overnight. I can put Natia in jail and take her out in the morning. That will give me a chance to see what other cells are occupied."
Knights of Alcea Page 14