Anneli turned and began walking back toward the abandoned city. Faric, Stephen and her palace guard followed, but Penny stayed behind. She looked at William and Owen as they stepped up to stand beside her.
“It is a good plan,” William offered. “Any army trying to cross these boardwalks can be easily picked off by a few dozen good archers. And with scouts patrolling the edges of the forest, the Gronstavers won’t be allowed to build any more, no matter how much influence Dourok has over them.”
“But what of Emberlyn? His corruption will spread to our people, William. Even if we can keep the enemy from returning to the Great Forest, all the lands beyond it will fall to Dourok. What then?”
William lowered his eyes. “Anneli will figure it out.”
“And you have that sword,” Owen said. “That has to count for something.”
William sat on the black tree stump Anneli had been using. “Do you remember how we marveled at these trees when we first crossed the Bleaklands?” He laughed. “I still have the shavings I took from one of them. And so much has happened since then, hasn’t it? Things we never thought possible?”
Penny nodded.
“What seemed impossible to us then is now commonplace. I know that right now stopping Dourok also seems impossible, but we can stop him. We will. Give Anneli time to think it over. When she has the answer, we must be ready to play our parts.”
Penny nodded again. “Yes. You’re right, of course.”
William stood and reached out for her hand. She let him take it and turn her away from the bog. “Now, if we’re going to be living here for the foreseeable future, I say we go claim one of those hovels as our own. Surely they can’t all smell as bad as the few I poked my head into.”
Penny smiled. She reached her other hand out to Owen, and together the three started back toward the abandoned city.
Chapter Thirty-One
Penny’s Vision
Penny stood by the stone tower, the building Anneli said had been Dourok’s keep. In the plaza in front of it were piled the contents of the other buildings, meager though they were. Most of the Dourosh, it seemed, had slept on thin mattresses stuffed with straw and hair. Stools were common, but proper chairs were not. Tables were little more than rough-hewn slats nailed to blocky posts. She walked over to a pile of rusty cooking pots and frowned down at them. She didn’t imagine many of them would be reused once everything was sorted and redistributed amongst the soldiers who had to make this place livable.
Next to the pots were buckets filled with eating utensils and small tools. As she looked them over, a soldier walked up with a canvas bag and emptied its contents into one of the buckets. She sucked in a breath and looked up at the man. “Where did you find these?”
The soldier furrowed his brow. “Here and there, Miss Blackmoor. I can’t say for certain.”
She bent down and removed a sheathed knife from the bucket. “This one. You don’t know?”
He shook his head and turned away.
Penny grasped the knife in her hand as she walked back toward the tower. She went inside and found Anneli, General Braedok and William standing around a large table that had been brought in, looking over a map.
“Where are Owen and Sir Stephen?” she asked.
“They are helping to clear the buildings,” William said. “Why? Do you need them?”
Penny held out the knife. “Look.”
William shrugged. “It’s a small hunting knife. I don’t—” He swallowed. “Oh. I see.”
“What?” Anneli demanded. “What is the significance of this knife?”
Penny cradled it in both hands. “It was George’s knife. I’m certain of it.”
General Braedok crossed his arms. “It doesn’t mean he was here. It could have been taken by one of the Dourosh who killed him.”
Penny shook her head. “No. It’s… it’s infused with his energy. There’s like a… a link.”
Anneli walked over to Penny and placed her hand on the knife’s handle. “Did George have this knife long?”
“As long as I knew him. It was passed down to him from his father, and he used it for everything. I don’t recall ever seeing him without it on his belt.”
“Sometimes objects become linked to their owners, but few can detect so subtle an energy.”
“But I can?”
“It’s because you knew George. Because you were close to him.” Anneli glanced up at William. “Penny, I want you to try something for me. Send magical energy out, through the gap in the ward. Try to find George. I know I said Dourok was blocking our probes before, but now, with this physical link to him, you may be able to find him.”
Penny nodded and closed her eyes. The Lion’s Sword was humming with excitement, but she ignored it and focused on the images in her mind. She saw the room she was in. Her consciousness glided out through the door and into the plaza. She soared up above the wooden city, looking down at the Lanosh soldiers as they worked at emptying the buildings and clearing the streets of muck. She moved north, past the black tree stumps and out over the bog. From there she veered west, speeding over an unfamiliar landscape. She turned north again and crossed over dense forest. It began to thin and then was overtaken by fields, the soil dark from tilling. She saw laborers in the fields, planting the new year’s crops. Horse-drawn carts and wagons lumbered slowly over muddy roads still wet from the melting snow. The scene made her homesick for Fenhold Village; she could imagine her old neighbors engaged in the same kinds of activities as these Gronstavers.
Then, ahead, there was a city. Beyond it was the ocean, blue water stretching away to the horizon. Near the water’s edge, on a hill, was a castle. She entered through a window in the top floor, spiraled down a staircase and finally found herself in a great hall. A large bearded man sat on a throne, and behind him hung a banner bearing a staff, green in color, with a lattice of twisted branches growing from its top. A single white flower had blossomed from one of the branches.
She looked away from the banner and back at the seated man. This was Mehrkohst, the capital of Gronstave; this was the king. Her attention was drawn to the king’s right side, where a small chair had been placed. As she watched, a man stepped up to the king, bowed and then took a seat in that chair.
Her eyes flew open, and she let out a cry. William grabbed her and held her up as her knees buckled. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head heavily against his chest.
Queen Anneli collapsed onto the chair behind her. She had been watching Penny’s thoughts; she had seen everything Penny had seen. “George? It was him?”
Penny nodded. She let go of William and stepped up to the map on the table. “Here,” she said, pointing at the symbol indicating the city of Mehrkohst. “He was here, in a castle overlooking the ocean. He was… he was sitting at the side of Gronstave’s king.”
Anneli looked past Penny, at the far wall. “Then Dourok already has the king in his thrall. I’d hoped he’d only gotten to a local lord and had his men build the boardwalks and fell the black trees. But if George is already in the capital and already an advisor to King Heinrich….”
Anneli regained her feet and moved toward the stairs leading up the tower. “I need to be alone. If Stephen returns, please tell him not to disturb me.”
Penny watched the queen disappear up the steps then looked at William and General Braedok.
“We knew we were too late,” Braedok said, “but Anneli didn’t imagine we were this late. George must have gotten out before the winter. He must have been in Gronstave for months now.”
“Does that matter?”
Braedok nodded. “It means that Queen Anneli’s plan may not work.”
“She had a plan?” Penny asked. “What plan?”
William looked down at the map and pressed his finger against it. “We were just discussing it when you came in. If we wish to stop Dourok, we cannot do it ourselves.”
Penny looked at the spot where he’d placed his finger. “Granisl
e?”
William nodded. “You and I are to go to Granisle Castle and ask for King Edward’s help. We are returning to Emberlyn, Penny. We are going home.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
The King of Gronstave
George Ashberry shuddered and closed his eyes. He heard a hoarse grunt of interest from beside him. “Are you unwell, George?”
He opened his eyes and turned to look at King Heinrich. “No, Your Majesty. I merely had a feeling. Something… familiar.”
The king let out a deep laugh. “Another of Lord Dourok’s invisible communications?”
George shook his head. “No. Not entirely unlike that, but….” He blanched. “Someone else. Someone I knew.”
The king’s amused smile remained. “I regret I will never get used to this”—he waved his hands in the air—“magic. Still, if Lord Dourok and I are to be allies, I must abide it.” His face grew serious as his gaze drifted away from George. “Such power. Such… monstrous power. Never in all my days could I have imagined it. Tell me, George, do you know when I might meet Dourok in person? I am eager to do so.”
George shook his head. “I have still received no word about that. But I have been told that he will send instructions soon.”
Heinrich grunted. “Instructions? To a king?”
George smiled. “Requests.”
Heinrich cocked an eyebrow but nodded. “Still, I wish I could meet him. One can only get a sense of a man by meeting him. Tell me, George, what kind of a man is he?”
“I don’t know that I can really say, Your Majesty. I dealt mostly with General Gralock and only met Lord Dourok but once, and even then only for a moment. He seemed reluctant to be with me for too long. Perhaps it was the old prejudice. They call us ‘hornless,’ you know, and it’s meant to be an insult.”
The king placed a finger against his temple. “Horns… such a strange thing. Like demons! Well, I suppose that if he can look past our lack of horns, I can look past the fact that he has them. He’s the man who’s promised to help me reclaim lands stolen by Emberlyn, after all. I can’t very well judge him on his looks.”
“Aside from the horns, he is quite handsome,” George said. “I think you’d be surprised.”
Heinrich grunted. “But how about you, George? You’re looking tired. You look as though you’ve aged ten years since coming here.”
“It’s the winter, Your Majesty. I’ll look like myself again once I can get some sun on my face.”
“Perhaps. I suppose I haven’t been feeling quite the same vigor this season either. It’s been a long one… a cold one. So, who was it?”
“Sire?”
“You said you felt someone. Not Lord Dourok but someone you knew.”
George frowned. “Yes. A young woman I once knew from my village. But I don’t know how it’d be possible.”
“Was she someone you knew… intimately?”
“She was, Your Majesty.”
“Well, then that explains it. Who among us hasn’t had a past love visit our daydreams now and again?”
“Yes. Perhaps that’s all it was.”
The king let out a sort of low growl then began describing the figure of a chambermaid he’d seduced in his youth. George smiled as the king spoke, but he wasn’t listening to his words. His thoughts were of Penny. He’d often thought of her since losing her in the forest. General Gralock had said she’d died at the hands of the Lanosh, along with the rest of the party. It was beyond a miracle, Gralock had said, that he’d lived long enough to be found by Dourok’s scouts and nursed back to health. He didn’t remember any of it. He knew nothing from the moment he was shot by the arrow until he woke up in a small cell, where he was kept until it was determined he was not in league with the Lanosh.
He was from Emberlyn, after all. He’d found it hard to believe that his people had chosen to side with the Lanosh, but General Gralock had been sincere and convincing as he explained how the Lanosh had been persecuting his people for two thousand years and were now seeking help from outside in order to exterminate the Dourosh once and for all.
So, as a hornless—someone who wouldn’t be instantly killed by those who lived outside the Hobswood Forest—he’d been sent as an emissary to King Heinrich. Fortune after fortune had met him as he’d made his way across Gronstave and finally to the walls of Mehrkohst, the capital of the kingdom. He’d befriended a knight of Gronstave who could get him into the court of the king. And Heinrich, after being initially dismissive, accusing him of being a lunatic or a spy and having him forcefully removed from the castle, had come around. He’d come to see the threat that Emberlyn and the Lanosh posed not only to the Dourosh but to his people as well. The course of events had been swift and strange, but George had understood that Lord Dourok was helping in unseen ways—magical ways.
But why had he just gotten the feeling that Penny was still alive? Why now, after months of accepting that she was dead? The king finished his story and let out his deep, booming laugh. George joined in, pretending he’d been listening.
“Now you tell one, George,” the king said. “Your young lady… was she as naughty as that?”
George rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his head. “I’m afraid not. But have you heard the song about the farmer and his twelve daughters?”
King Heinrich leaned in toward George, his eyes twinkling. “Twelve, you say?”
George smiled. “Twelve daughters, and each more wanton than the last. It’s a popular ballad in Emberlyn.”
Heinrich grinned. “You have my attention, George. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I won’t, Your Majesty. I think you’ll find it to your liking.” An image of Penny flashed into his head again, but he pushed it away as he began to sing.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Parting
Penny, Anneli, William and General Braedok once again stood around the map. Anneli ran her finger along the edge of the forest where it had been breached. “I’ve determined that Dourok and his army are camped just to the west of here, among some small farming communities. That means that you should not encounter them as you head east, toward the border of Emberlyn.”
“Once we’re in our own country, we should be safe enough,” William said. “I still have my letter from the king stating that I travel on his behalf.”
“That’s good. But don’t let the fact that you’re outside of the Great Wood make you drop your guard. I would not be surprised if Dourok has already spread his corruption into the communities along the border. Penny, you cannot use the sword or cast spells where anyone can see you. In fact, keep the sword hidden from sight. Exercise caution until you’re far from this area and are certain none of Dourok’s agents are around. You can sense his corruption; you’ll know.”
“And what will you do?”
“We’ll protect the borders of the forest as best we can. But if Emberlyn does not come to our aid, it will be for nothing. Emberlyn must either rise up against Dourok or else fall sway to him. Your king must not be left with any doubt about this.”
“I will do what I can to convince him,” William said, “but my association with the king was brief.”
“Will he not believe what you tell him?”
“I cannot say for certain. I fear he may believe I’m overstating the danger. Or he’ll think I’ve returned from the Hobswood a lunatic, which is not without precedent. And it will depend on what that damned astrologer of his has to say. I sensed he did not like me much. I questioned his methods and abilities, and he may take an opposing position out of spite.”
“I can use a spell against the king,” Penny said. “If he cannot be convinced by our words, I will make him agree to help us.”
Queen Anneli frowned but said nothing. Penny knew what the expression meant. The Lanosh did not use magic to directly manipulate the thoughts of others. It was too similar to the way Dourok’s influence corrupted people and made them give their lives over to him. With a simple look, she had told Penny not to do it.
The Lion’s Sword hummed against her thigh, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. If the sword wanted it, then she definitely couldn’t do it. Still, if there were no other way….
She cleared her throat and looked down at the map, desperate to think about something else. “The path we’re taking will lead through my village, won’t it?”
“Yes,” William said. “It will be quicker to get onto the Peat Road rather than travel across country. We needn’t stop if you don’t want to.”
“No,” she said, “it’s all right. They should know what happened to us.” She looked at Anneli. “When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow. We have no time to waste. Even if you are successful and an army is sent out from Emberlyn without delay, it may be too late as it is.”
Penny took a breath. “Owen can’t come with us?”
“I fear his abilities will be needed here before you are able to return. He performed well during the battle and showed great skill when facing off against that Dourosh caster. If there is another battle, having him by my side, protecting me from magical attack, will allow me to concentrate. I can barely stand to lose you and William.”
Penny nodded. “That’s it, then. Tomorrow we part ways for who knows how long.” She blinked back the moisture in her eyes. Anneli was right—it might already be too late for Emberlyn to help, if the king decided to help at all. The war could be fought and lost while she was a hundred miles away, accomplishing nothing.
“At least we can communicate remotely,” she said. “I’ll be able to know how you’re doing.”
Anneli shook her head. “You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“We can’t risk Dourok detecting your magical energy. I don’t know how much he already knows about you, but he can’t know that you’re going to Emberlyn for help; he might hasten his plans or even try to stop you. When we say goodbye tomorrow, it must be until we are face to face once more.”
The Lion's Crypt (The Emberlyn Chronicles Book 2) Page 17