The Greater Challenge Beyond (The Southern Continent Series Book 3)

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “I’ll be right there,” Grange said, before he took one last bite of food off of the piece of roast fowl that he held. The visitor was presumable Carrel, showing up unexpectedly early.

  Grange excused himself, then followed the messenger through the palace grounds to the main gate of the palace. When he arrived, he craned his neck, looking for some sign of Carrel, but couldn’t spot the man nor his mandolin in the vicinity of the guards who were on duty.

  “Did you have a visitor for me?” Grange asked the guards as he walked into the center of the passage.

  “Yes, your lordship,” one of them nodded. “Over there,” he gestured to the left of the gate.

  Grange looked over, past a woman, and saw no one waiting for him.

  “Is that all I get, that blank look?” the woman said.

  Grange adjusted his gaze, and looked at the woman’s features, surprised by her comment.

  Her face seemed familiar, and he knew he should know her, though he couldn’t imagine what woman he would know outside the palace grounds.

  “And after I let you into my bed,” she added.

  And then the misty memories of his short career as an escaped prisoner flashed to the forefront of his mind. He did recognize her – the pretty face, the voluptuous body, the heavy makeup, and the colorful clothing all were unforgettable.

  “Merched?” he said quizzically.

  “I am, and you are apparently in much better favor with the palace than you were the last time I saw you,” the woman said.

  “I had a dream that you were on a rough journey in the rugged wilderness,” she told him. “And I was there with you, helping you.

  “I felt like I had to come tell you, to find out if you are really going someplace, and to see if I can go with you?” she said.

  Grange blinked his eyes.

  “You had the dream?” he asked in surprise. “You want to come with me?”

  “It felt urgent – it feels urgent right now. I don’t know that I want to go traipsing through the wilderness – it doesn’t look fun – but I feel that I have to do it, I have to go,” she seemed to struggle to try to describe the compulsion she was under.

  “I plan to leave in three days,” Grange said faintly. There had to be a reason the gods had chosen Merched to travel with him, and he already was beginning to anticipate the reaction he would hear from Jenniline; it would not be gracious. But the delivery of the dreams and the selection of their recipients was not in his hands, so he could not deny any of them from coming.

  “Come back here the night after tomorrow, so that you’ll be with us when we leave,” he instructed.

  “You would like for me to spend the night with you?” she asked in a sultry voice. She sauntered over to him and put her hand to his cheek.

  “We’ll find some place for you to sleep,” Grange hastily clarified. “And we’re likely to be gone for a fortnight or more, so make any arrangements you need,” he advised.

  She looked at him speculatively. “I never knew when I saved you that I’d get dragged into all of this. I hope you make it worth my while.”

  “Good bye, Merched,” Grange said weakly, as he watched her turn and walk away.

  Back inside the palace grounds, Grange returned to his tower, to work on adding more energy to his wand. It was a comforting activity – he enjoyed handling the wand, and he enjoyed handling the power; it was less confusing than dealing with people much of the time. He let himself drift into a complacent state of tranquility as he watched the energy flow endlessly into his wand.

  “What’s this I hear?” Jenniline’s voice sounded metallic and harsh as she came up the steps to the top of the tower. His comfortable solitude was broken, and he steeled himself for what was to come next.

  “You mean about Merched?” he asked.

  “About a woman, a certain woman, a certain kind of woman, who you met at the palace gates. Did you tell her she could come into the palace?” Jenniline asked, as she took a position directly in front of Grange, her hands on her hips.

  “She told me she had the same dream as everyone else,” Grange said. “And I believed her. Why should she lie? Who would really want to go out into the wilderness to on a journey like this, unless they were truly called? How would she have even heard about it if it wasn’t genuine?” Grange asked.

  “Still,” Jenniline sputtered, “what are you going to do with her?”

  “I’ll just take her along,” Grange said. “I’m not sure what I’m going to ‘do’ with any of them. If it was up to me I’d just take you and the two of us would go alone down to the Bloomingians,” he said.

  Jenniline’s expression softened slightly. “Well, just be sure that I’ll be watching her. And you.”

  “I can’t do anything about that,” Grange grinned, and the princess stalked off in exasperation.

  They practiced at the armory, later that day and the next, and oversaw the gathering of supplies for their trip north, then Grange prepared for his concert for the palace, as Carrel and Merched came to the palace to take up residence before the next morning’s departure.

  Carrel and Grange put on their concert in the largest garden of the palace complex in the evening, and Merched surprised Grange by singing with them, in a lovely contralto voice that captivated the audience. She had come to the palace without any of her usual make up applications, looking fresh and wholesome in a way Grange hadn’t expected, as he carefully arranged for her to spend the evening in the rooms where Jenniline had formerly lived, before the princess had moved into the tower with him.

  Grange ended the night with an impromptu fireworks display, shooting off aerial explosions of power and light in a variety of colors and shapes, until someone in the crowd anonymously called out for a display of “the kissing scene”, which provoked laughter, even from Grange. Then everyone went to bed in anticipation of the departure of Grange and his companions on the way to their embassy with the Bloomingians.

  Chapter 30

  The departure from the palace was later than Grange expected. Some of the princesses had difficulty awakening and being prepared for departure soon after sunrise. Grange felt some annoyance as he went over the supplies that were loaded on the backs of a half dozen mules, but he waited and ate a larger, later, more leisurely breakfast than he had intended while the ladies slowly emerged from their rooms.

  That morning was the first time the full party of travelers gathered together, and they looked upon one another curiously, observing, with some surprises, who was included in the party. The six princesses were all prepared to travel: Jenniline, Hope, Acco, Paile, Hilto, and Brigin. Merched was the other female in the party. The men who were eager to travel included the two princes, Halsten and Inge, and their cousins Tranch and Skore. Two of Hope’s perpetual suitors, Kiergar and Remar, and Carrel the musician rounded out those who had dreamed of traveling into the wilderness with Grange.

  “Fourteen companions? That’s an unlucky number,” Skore observed “Why not a lucky baker’s dozen of thirteen?”

  “Maybe you could add Grange himself and call it fifteen,” Halsten suggested mildly.

  “Maybe we could disinvite one of the party,” Jenniline said darkly.

  “We all are here, and we all will go,” Grange said. He looked up at the balcony, where the king and several court members stood, waiting to watch the departure of the group.

  “We’ll take two days to reach Goala’s castle at Skengare, and we’ll spend the night there before we head out into the wilderness,” Grange advised. He and all the others waved to the watchers and well-wishers, then their caravan began to move forward, along the palace drive to the main gate, the way out into the city and beyond.

  The first day of their travels was along level, relatively well-maintained roads. All the members of the party had horses to ride for the first stage of the trip, and most of them did. Grange however, walked alongside his horse at least half the time, trying to re-accustom his legs to the rigors of walking long dist
ances; he knew that out in the thick brush of the wilderness, the horses would not be practical, as he and the others would spend much time on the ground, cutting a path open through the bushes and trees that were the unending obstacles to travels across the land.

  Grange deliberately drove the group in the early evening, past a small village with an inn, and then into a patch of forest, where he intended for the group to spend the night. The princesses were in for a shock, he knew, spending a night out of doors, sleeping on the ground, eating the food that could be prepared over an open fire at best. Other than for Jenniline, and Hope, to a lesser extent, it was a way of living that they had never imagined before.

  He lit globes of light that floated in the air over the campsite, and the glowing balls provided sufficient illumination, as Grange started assigning duties. “Inge, take Kiergor, Paile, Brigin, and Merched, and show them how to tend to the horses.

  “Tranch and Skore, set up sleeping areas for everyone.

  Jenniline, take Hope and Carrel and Halsten, to start preparing the meal,” he directed.

  “Hilto, Acco, Remar, come with me, and I’ll show you how we’re going to patrol around the perimeter of the campsite,” he finished with assignments.

  The following instructions in campsite preparations took nearly two hours, and all parties were exhausted when everything was complete. The training had been slow and frustrating for those who knew what they were doing, and for those who had tried to learn.

  Grange set up three sets of guards to patrol the campsite in shifts through the night, then lowered the brightness of his floating light globes, and let the travelers fall asleep. He and Acco were the first shift of guards, and together they walked about the perimeter of the camp, making sure that all was peaceful. They awoke Jenniline and Carrell for the second shift, and went to their sleeping blankets, to settle in for the night.

  Grange was the first to arise, shortly before dawn. He observed Skore and Merched walking the patrol around the campsite, and went out to join them.

  “We think we saw a rabbit,” Merched reported. “I’m not sure I feel safe with such wild animals running around,” she smiled in the darkness.

  “I’ve lived in some rough parts of the city, but after sleeping on the ground for half the night, and walking through the woods for the half the night, I think I’d go back to sleeping in the rough parts of the city, if only you hadn’t haunted me with that crazy dream,” Merched complained.

  “And I suspect my dear cousins will complain even more when they awaken in the morning,” Skore added.

  “Which isn’t far away,” Grange advised. He noticed that shades of gray were starting to appear among the shades of darkness, as light slowly climbed over the horizon.

  “With a good day’s progress, we’ll be back home in the castle tonight, and everyone can have a comfortable night under roof,” Skore pointed out.

  Grange returned to the campsite, and started preparing for the start of day, as others slowly rose, and asked for direction on where to find the restroom, or what to eat, or how to pack. Through patience, and then bullying, Grange managed to drive everyone to finally be prepared for departure early in the morning, and they resumed traveling south through the countryside.

  When they stopped at midday, several of the princesses complained of saddlesoreness. Grange went among them, using his control of the energy to relieve them of the pain, but only received cursory and grudging thanks from Acco, while Hilto, Paile, and Brigin accepted the relief without comment.

  “Is this the edge of the wilderness?” Brigin asked that evening, as the sun started to set on their slow-moving group. The roads had grown rougher as they moved further away from the capital city, slowing the pace of their travel, while Grange had lofted glowing balls of light to keep the path ahead of them lit, until they finally arrived at the gates of Goala’s castle.

  “This is how we take the horses to the stables,” Grange explained to some of the party who had never dealt with such mundane activities before. After a nervous welcome by Goala, and a hearty stew for their dinner, the princesses wearily went to the small number of suitable rooms, where they slept two to a room, while many of the men in Grange’s traveling party slept in the hayloft of the stables.

  “We’ll arrive among the Bloomingians in three or four days,” Grange explained to his assembled group the next morning. “Definitely four, possibly three,” he estimated. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that horses won’t do any good down in the wilderness. The brush is too thick, and we’d probably have to carry our own forage for them to eat.”

  “How are we going to travel then, in a carriage?” Hilto asked.

  Grange paused for a moment. “We’re going to walk – all of us,” he said firmly.

  There were groans from the audience.

  “Surely my lord, we’ll be able to take mules to carry supplies? You don’t mean to make us all carry our own food, do you?” Jenniline spoke up.

  “When he and I traveled through the wilderness together, we had to carry our food and supplies on packs on our backs!” she indignantly told the other princesses.

  “You deserve better than that!” she exhorted them.

  “Let us have mules, please, Lord Champion!” Paile called out, as the others muttered darkly.

  “Yes, certainly, we will take mules to carry our supplies,” Grange agreed, to murmurs of approval. He looked over at Jenniline, trying to decipher why she had stirred her sisters up. He had intended to take mules as pack animals all along, just as Asloe’s tin mine had relied upon mules to carry supplies.

  “Everyone pack as lightly as you can, and we’ll leave soon,” Grange ordered.

  There was a delay while a few of the travelers deliberated over how to reduce the amount of material they would pack into the wilderness, and Grange spoke with Jenniline as they waited.

  “What was all that about the mules?” Grange asked his counsel. “I planned to use mules anyway.”

  “I know you did, but making it look like you did us a favor made the princesses – and maybe a couple of others – feel better, as if they’d won a point in the contest,” Jenniline told him in a patronizing tone. “You’ll need to start thinking of these things if you’re going to be king someday,” she warned him.

  “Or maybe I just need to pick you to be my queen, and take care of them for me,” he threatened in response.

  “If you make me queen, I’ll be your widow before we’re married,” she threatened in response.

  “Look, mom and dad are arguing!” Inge helpfully called out to the others in the group as he spotted the two leaders in their dispute.

  Grange and Jenniline both laughed at the jibe, then Grange walked away to a spot where he had a clear view of the moon. He hadn’t communicated with Brieed in several days, and he wanted to let the Palmland wizard know that he was on the move.

  “Master Brieed,” he began as he stood alone in the castle yard. “I am traveling from Southgar into the wilderness,” he began his message. “When Acton named me as his champion, he said that I would reunite the Southgar people, bringing the exiles back into the nation. I am traveling now, on my way to visit them, and ask them to come back.”

  He thought about trying to explain the dynamics of the competing dynasties, and his role as the heir apparent of one dynasty, then decided it was not important to share.

  “I cannot tell you where I will be from day to day, but I will send you messages, and when we reach our destination in a few days, I will let you know. I hope all is well. I know that Grace must be a big help to you, and I’m glad she’s there to help,” Grange wrapped up his message.

  Shortly thereafter, Grange led the group out of the fortified castle, into the mostly settled region that bordered on the wilderness. It was a landscape he had crossed with Hope, many weeks before; he had little recollection of it, and so they travelled in a southern direction, wandering slightly to the west as they went.

  The road was rougher than
it had been in the heart of the nation, and so their travel was slow, but the group maintained good spirits. They camped at night, with a camp fire and Grange’s lights glowing, and traveled again the next day, their first full day of travel in the true wilderness. Halsten and Skore were in the lead, cutting bushes and branches away to create a path that the rest of the company could easily follow. Grange followed, walking in the midst of the princesses to offer protection to them, though he mostly focused on storing more energy in his wand, wanting it to be fully charged and available when the group reached the Bloomingian camp. The suitors and the other men escorted the mules at the end of the train.

  That night Grange set out three members of the group on each shift of the watch, and their fire was only a small one, not visible from any great distance. Grange, Jenniline, Halsten, and Skore talked about the likelihood of reaching the Bloomingian territory the following day.

  “The Bloomingians don’t come all the way up to our castle in Skengare,” Skore reported. “But they do make raids on farms within our liege lands. So we could run into a party of their folks any time now.”

  Grange notified the guards of the danger of a raid, and took the second shift of the guards patrol himself, but no troubles arose, and the next morning they resumed their trip south. The suitors were assigned to cut the path open for the travelers and their beasts to travel along, while the princesses were assigned to guide the mules, and the others strung out along the path and crashed through the brush on either side.

  They were ambushed by Bloomingians shortly before their lunch stop.

  Remar was cutting the brush in the lead, while Kiergar was lopping branches behind him to widen the path, when they both cried out in alarm.

  Grange looked up to see each of them taken hostage by a pair of roughly dressed men, and moments later there was crashing noises on either side of them as the rest of the raiding party emerged from the brush, sword, knifes, and arrows ready to attack.