Williams, D M - Renegade Chronicles [Collection 1-3]

by David Michael Williams

  The Commander of Fort Valor cleared his throat. “I do not think this is the appropriate time for such a discussion. We should not linger on the past. Moreover, we should not linger here. There is no telling how many more enemies are about.”

  “Agreed,” Aric said quickly. “We should set out immediately. If we hurry, we should be able to make it to Rydah before the next sunset.”

  In all of the excitement, Ruben hadn’t noticed that night had passed and morning arrived. How long did I sleep? he wondered.

  “We’re not going to Rydah.”

  Mitto and the commander turned to face the owner of that mild voice. Toemis’s granddaughter stood before them all, her hood up and small hands folded before her. It was the first time Ruben had ever heard the girl speak—and the first time he had seen her without the old man beside her.

  “Toemis said we are going to Fort Faith,” the girl added, her softly spoken words drifting out from under the capacious hood.

  Aric strode over to the girl and knelt down beside her. “Your grandfather is sick and needs more help than I alone can give. He can get the treatment he requires in Rydah.”

  Then the Commander of Fort Valor surprised everyone by saying, “The girl is right. We aren’t going to Rydah.”

  * * *

  Amazingly, Mitto’s remaining horse as well as one of the Knights’ had survived the butchering at the lodge. The monsters had killed the other mounts in order to prevent a retreat.

  Either that, or they just like to kill things, Mitto thought gloomily.

  He supposed he shouldn’t complain. In addition to his horse and wagon, he still had his life. He wondered how long that was likely to last. Gods only knew know how many more of the creatures stood between them and their destination…

  No one said much of anything as they prepared to set out. Only two of the commander’s men had survived the night. One of them mounted the solitary war horse and took point, and the other watched their rear from the back of Mitto’s wagon. Aric, Zusha, Toemis, and the wizard also climbed into the wagon bed, where the healer continued to attend to Toemis, who looked more dead than alive.

  Commander Stannel Bismarc, on the other hand, joined Mitto on the driver’s seat. The two men shared a heavy silence.

  Mitto wanted to pepper him with questions, but the older man’s stony expression was not a welcoming one. Stannel Bismarc had much on his mind, and judging from body language alone, he was in no mood to open up to a stranger.

  Not that Mitto could blame the man for his reticence. Stannel had lost six of his eight men to the monsters. He pitied the man for his loss, but at the same time, there was something a bit odd about the Knight.

  Mitto suddenly had the impression the commander wasn’t mourning his men at all. Those bright blue eyes had shed no tears. The Knight is looking forward, not backward, Mitto thought. He’s not grieving. He’s thinking…calculating…scheming…

  Shaking his head, Mitto silently scolded himself. He didn’t know the commander at all. Anyway, who was he to condemn a Knight of Superius? It’s those damned creatures, he decided. They’ve got me seeing monsters all around me.

  Even Toemis Blisnes, old Goblin himself, seemed harmless when compared to those things.

  “Do you have any idea what they are?” Mitto asked the commander.

  Without looking at him, Stannel replied, “I cannot be sure, but I have my suspicions.”

  Mitto waited for the commander to elaborate. When it was clear he didn’t intend to, Mitto pressed the matter. “Do you mind sharing your suspicions? I, for one, have never heard of any animal remotely like them.”

  “They are not animals. They are goblins, I think.”

  Mitto might have tumbled off the driver’s seat if the commander hadn’t been there to steady him. “That…that’s impossible,” he stammered when he regained his balance and his voice. “Goblins aren’t real. They’re the stuff of fables…monsters meant to frighten children on long, winter nights.”

  In spite of his best efforts, he was having great difficulty keeping his voice steady. Surely it was coincidence that the creatures shared the name he had secretly given Toemis.

  “That is all the goblins have become to humans,” Stannel said. “Or at least, to most humans. But there are records of a war nearly four hundred years ago. It took place on this very island, only back then, it wasn’t called Capricon. Before the formation of the Confederacy of Continae, Glenning alone held claim to this land, and the Glenningers called it Novislond.”

  Mitto, who cared very little about history, couldn’t guess what that had to do with goblins, but he let the Knight speak on. If nothing else, Stannel’s story would keep his mind off the present.

  “Novislond…” Stannel chuckled. “It means New Land, and according to legend, the Glenningers had taken the island from a clan of dwarves. But that’s neither here nor there…or perhaps it is at that. You see, all of that happened shortly after the Wars of Sundering destroyed the three great empires of Western Arabond.”

  Now Mitto was lost. The Knight was talking about ancient history. If Mitto wasn’t terribly mistaken, the Wars of Sundering had taken place more than seven hundred years ago!

  “Bear with me,” Stannel said. “I’m getting to the goblins. Much of human knowledge was lost during the Wars of Sundering, so if any of the Three Kingdoms were aware of this island’s past before Canth, Yelhorm, and Nebronem were divided into countless territories and city-states, it didn’t survive the years of chaos that followed.

  “But getting back to Novislond…or forward to it, as the case may be…the Glenningers moved in after pushing the dwarves out. They likely thought they were safe when the dwarves didn’t try to take back the island. And Novislond did enjoy many years of peace and prosperity…until an unknown enemy appeared, sailing across the Aden Ocean in a fleet that spanned from one end of the horizon to the other.

  “They were a new race…or new to the Glenningers at least, and they fought with a brutality the Knights of Eaglehand had never before encountered. As a matter of fact, Glenning had to appeal to Superius for help, lest Novislond be overwhelmed by the foreign armies. Knights of Eaglehand and Knights of Superius fought side by side for the first time, and after three years of bitter war, the goblins were repelled. They left the island as suddenly and mysteriously as they had come.”

  Mitto scoffed. “You can’t seriously believe all that. Why hasn’t anyone in Capricon ever heard of these…goblins before?”

  “Time,” Stannel replied, as though the single word explained everything. After a long pause, he added, “You have never heard of the Goblin War, but rest assured, it happened. The goblins were pushed back almost four hundred years ago. It is believed that they came from the other side of the world. And since none returned in all that time, it is understandable that their existence has been largely forgotten.”

  “And now they’re back?” Mitto asked, his voice rich with incredulity. “After four hundred years, they show up again, just like that?”

  “Just as they had the first time,” Stannel said.

  It was too much for Mitto to take in. He couldn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it.

  But what else could they be?

  “If we are facing a goblin invasion, why go west?” Mitto asked. “Shouldn’t we warn Lord Minus and the rest of the capital?”

  “No,” the commander replied without hesitation.

  “Why not?”

  “That,” Stannel said, “is a secret.”

  Passage IX

  She sits beside Toemis in the back of the wagon. Toemis is breathing, and every once in a while, he says something in his sleep. She can’t understand him, though, because he isn’t using real words. She is worried because Toemis is very, very old, and if he dies, there won’t be anyone left to take care of her.

  She runs a hand through Toemis’s thin, coarse hair. It reminds her of a horse’s mane, but the thought of horses makes her feel sad. When they left the log-house that bro
ke in half, she saw some dead horses, which made her want to cry.

  Horses are big, strong, pretty animals. They like to run very fast, and when they whinny to each other, they are talking. But those horses didn’t move. They would never run or talk again. Just thinking about it makes her want to cry all over again.

  Toemis’s forehead is warm and sticky. The woman in white says he has a fever. She doesn’t know what she will do if Toemis dies. She knows he really wants to go to a place called Fort Faith. She doesn’t know why.

  There is a big bruise on Toemis’s forehead, and his shirt is red where he was stabbed. She wants to look at the hole in his side, but the woman in white has covered it up with bandages. The woman told her that her grandfather will be fine, that he just needs to rest. She doesn’t know if she believes the woman in white because Toemis looks like he might die soon. The woman in white might just be lying to make her feel better.

  She likes the woman in white. The woman has long, wavy red hair and smiles a lot. She wonders whether the woman in white will take care of her like Larissa used to, if Toemis dies. She thinks the woman in white would make a good mother.

  Toemis brought her to this new place. He told people that he is going to Fort Faith because he worked there once, but she doesn’t believe Toemis used to be a cook. She has eaten Toemis’s cooking, and it always tastes bad.

  There is not much to do in the wagon. Even though Toemis is not awake, she will not leave his side. After Larissa died, she promised she would obey Toemis, and he told her she must stay by him at all times. She wants to take off the heavy coat or at least remove the hood because it’s beginning to smell funny. But Toemis said the coat was for her protection, and she won’t disobey Toemis.

  Nobody in the wagon is talking. Besides Toemis, herself, and the woman in white, there are two others in the wagon with her. The man in the gray dress is the same one Toemis fought with yesterday. The other man, the man in metal, must be a knight.

  Julian used to tell her stories about knights. Knights like to fight, and they are good at it. Knights kill monsters, and Julian once told her a story about how a knight killed a dragon. Larissa said dragons aren’t real, just like sea serpents aren’t real. Larissa told her not to believe Julian’s stories.

  But she isn’t afraid of monsters anyway. Dragons are just big lizards with wings. She once saw a lizard by the river, and she wasn’t scared of it at all. When she dreams about dragons, they are always nice to her. They don’t burn her with fire or anything.

  She thinks the thing that hurt Toemis might have been a monster. These knights killed the monsters, just like in the stories Julian told her. Maybe Larissa was wrong. Maybe Julian was telling the truth. Before she was even born, Julian had left Larissa to travel around the world. Larissa never saw knights and dragons and sea monsters, but Julian said he had.

  The monsters that killed the horses look like people, but they look like animals, too. They have sharp teeth like wolves and eyes like the old tomcat that used to come by the house looking for scraps. Are monsters animals? Or are they people?

  She won’t ask the woman in white about the monsters because Toemis doesn’t like her talking to strangers. She likes animals, and she knows that some animals eat other animals. Some animals even attack people, but she knows that it isn’t because they are mean. It’s just what they are made to do. So she shouldn’t hate the monsters for killing the horses and those knights or for hurting Toemis. It’s just their nature.

  She likes all animals, even slimy snakes and creepy, crawly spiders. Therefore, she should like the monsters too…if they are animals. She wants to ask the woman in white for the name of the monsters, but she won’t. But if Toemis dies, she will ask the woman in white to be her new mother.

  * * *

  Mitto spent a long time thinking over what Stannel had told him about the goblins and decided he believed him. He didn’t know what to make of the man’s secretiveness regarding their destination, but who was he to question a Superian commander?

  Anyway, Stannel Bismarc wasn’t opposed to making conversation. He simply wouldn’t let the subject be steered down certain avenues. The man obviously put a lot of thought into everything he said. If that made him seem guarded or circumspect, well, there was no crime in that.

  All else aside, the Knight certainly knew a lot about history. He sounded more like a scholar than a warrior, and when Mitto had told him so, Stannel smiled and said, “I am not a true scholar, though you may be surprised to learn that every Knight must study history to some extent.

  “Anyway, what little I know about human history is confined to Superius’s and Glenning’s past.”

  Neither man had spoken for a while after that. There was nary a sound from the interior of the cart, so as the miles passed beneath them, Mitto had little else to do but let his mind wander. It was an old trick he had picked up long ago. When one spent so much time alone on the road, one had to do something to pass the time.

  Today, however, no matter how hard he tried to let his mind roam free, his thoughts invariably homed in on the same few topics, and of those limited mysteries, the goblins always won out.

  It still disturbed him that the monsters shared the name with Goblin, the character from his mother’s fables. But what bothered him more was they hadn’t a clue as to how many more goblins were out there.

  As daylight began to fade, Mitto’s imagination grew more and more active. He saw goblins peeking up over hills and creeping within copses. If he had been a little anxious throughout the long ride that day, he was downright tense at twilight. When the sight of a hare bounding across the road made him jump, he knew that he had to get his mind off of the monsters.

  “There is something I ought to tell you,” Mitto said to Stannel, who hadn’t left his side all day. “The old man, Toemis…I don’t trust him.”

  Stannel gave him a thoughtful look. “Does your suspicion have anything to do with this?”

  Mitto’s breath caught in his throat when Stannel produced Toemis’s coin purse. His surprise immediately gave way to anger. What right did the commander have to search the old man?

  That’s my gold, not yours! he silently screamed. Not trusting himself to speak, Mitto simply stared at the familiar pouch.

  “Aric found it while tending to him,” Stannel explained. “Do you know what is inside?”

  Mitto was about to disavow all knowledge of the old man’s treasure when it dawned on him how foolish he was behaving. Stannel would not have produced the purse if he planned to keep it for himself. He had been on the verge of sharing his suspicions about Toemis to the Knight, so why did he feel the need to conceal the truth?

  Mitto told Stannel everything about his meeting with Toemis and his granddaughter, careful to keep his voice low. He confessed he hadn’t fully believed the story the old man had fed the Knights at Rydah’s Westgate, though he had absolutely no idea what the man really wanted with the remote fortress.

  Stannel listened in silence, his face betraying nothing of his thoughts. When Mitto finished, he said, “The matter is undeniably curious.”

  When he said nothing more, Mitto added, “I have…had…a friend among the Knights in Rydah. He was there when the goblins first attacked us. I had told him about Toemis and his strange offer the night before. Then during the brush with the highwayman, Baxter…Sir Lawler, that is…and another Knight came to our aid. I think maybe they were sent to keep an eye on the old man.”

  “Or,” Stannel said, “Sir Lawler was simply worried about his friend, and his commanding officer allowed him to do you this personal favor.”

  Stannel’s statement was logical, but somehow Mitto got the impression the commander was again holding something back.

  Mitto sighed. “I suppose you’re right. After all, there’s nothing particularly important about Fort Faith. What harm could one old man do there?”

  That hit the mark. Stannel turned sideways in his seat and appraised him with a searching stare. When he turned
away, bringing his eyes looking forward once more, the Knight said, “You suspect Toemis’s reason for going to Fort Faith and my decision to go west rather than to Rydah are somehow connected.”

  “Are they?”

  “I cannot say.”

  “You can’t say, or you won’t say?” Mitto pressed.

  “A little of both,” Stannel replied, “for how am I to understand the old man’s intentions any clearer than you?”

  Mitto smiled in spite of himself. “Point taken.”

  Thinking the conversation was over, he settled back and stared up into the western sky, where the setting sun painted the horizon in oranges and yellows. Rather like the color of gold, Mitto thought wryly. The commander’s next words caught him by surprise.

  “What about the little girl? What is her name?”

  “Zusha,” Mitto muttered. “I think she warrants watching to.”

  “The girl is also more than she seems?”

  “Maybe. If nothing else, she’s tied to Toemis.”

  “Culpable through association,” the Knight provided.

  Mitto scoffed. “Something like that. I can’t say she’s anything more than a simple child, but there is something about her that’s not quite right. For one thing, she’s always covered by that big cloak of hers. I’ve not gotten more than a quick glance at her face.”

  He recalled the mystery of the girl’s eyes, how one day they had been blue and then brown the next, but he didn’t mention it to Stannel because he might have simply been wrong the first time. But then he remembered something about Zusha that did warrant mentioning, something he had almost forgotten in all of the confusion following the battle at the lodge.

  “I saw her during our fight with the goblins,” Mitto began, lowering his voice even more. “That healer of yours, Sister Aric, had taken her out of harm’s way. In the midst of it all, I glanced over at her. Now, wouldn’t you think a child would be crying with all that bloodshed and those horrifying monsters all about? Wouldn’t you think she’d be bawling her eyes out on the account of her grandfather’s injuries?”