Warriors of the Black Shroud

by Peter Howe

  Frankie shuddered. “I’m not looking forward to this,” she said.

  “You don’t have to come, you know,” Walker said. “Eddie, Astrodor, and I can do it by ourselves.”

  Frankie narrowed her eyes and looked at him with determination.

  “Listen, buster, don’t even think of going without me,” she said. “All I’m saying is I’m not looking forward to it.”

  “No, you’re right,” admitted Walker. “Me neither.”

  They started back down, looking for the opening in the wall that Jevon had told them about. Walker suddenly stopped. He noticed that one of the stones was a different shape from the others, tall and narrow while the rest were squat and square. Tentatively he pushed against it with his hand, and it slid open leaving a slender gap in the wall, not big enough for a fully grown man but one that a child might squeeze through.

  “This is still way too high,” Frankie said, peering down to the ground. The drop was enough to break legs or sprain ankles upon landing.

  “Yes,” Walker agreed, “but Jevon’s smart. He wouldn’t suggest something that was no good. Maybe there are other openings that we didn’t see.”

  They hurried down the stairs, and sure enough every thirty steps or so there was another lookout point, each of them facing out into the black wastes. The lowest of them was only about ten feet from the ground below.

  “Do you think we can get through here?” asked Frankie.

  “It may be a bit of a squeeze,” Walker replied, “but I think we can. Lightning can’t come with us, though.”

  “Oh no,” gasped Frankie. “I’d forgotten about Lightning. What’re you going to do with her?”

  “Jevon said this place is right next to the unicorn herd, so why don’t we try to slip her back into it and hope that grumpy old Mistress of the Herd isn’t around?” Walker suggested.

  “Ugh!” snorted Frankie. “That woman gives me the creeps.”

  Lightning was waiting patiently outside. Walker took off her saddle and put it in the tower. The two children could see the fences that marked the perimeter of the farm a short distance away and they headed toward them. There was a gate that looked as if it hadn’t been opened in some time, but with a lot of effort they finally managed to get it wide enough to push Lightning through. She didn’t look happy about being left behind, but soon a group of unicorns came up to her and she trotted off into the large paddock with them. Now there was nothing left for Walker and Frankie to do but go back to the tower and wait for Eddie and Astrodor.

  They sat in silence on the staircase until they heard the crunch of footsteps on the dusty ground. The door swung open to reveal Eddie by himself.

  “Couldn’t you find him?” Walker asked.

  “Yeah, I found him, all right,” replied Eddie, “but he didn’t want to come.”

  “Oh well,” said Frankie. “At least we gave him the chance.”

  “No, it’s not as simple as that,” Eddie warned them. “He said he felt duty bound to tell Lumina what we’re going to do.”

  “No!” cried Walker. “Why would he do that?”

  “He thinks he can get back into her favor,” said Eddie, “and she’ll make him a page again and he’ll still be able to be a Lightkeeper at some point. He wants to be a knight more than anything. It’s all he thinks about.”

  “Couldn’t you stop him?” Frankie demanded.

  “I was going to lock him in a room,” said Eddie, “but none of those stupid houses have doors.”

  “There’s nothing we can do about it now,” said Walker. “Let’s get going as fast as we can before anything else goes wrong.”

  Chapter 19

  The three children went back up the stairs to the first and lowest of the lookout points. Walker pushed it open and spread out before them was the utter blackness of the world beyond the walls. A shudder ran down his spine.

  “This is it, then,” he said more bravely than he felt. “No turning back.”

  The thought ran through his head of taking Frankie’s hand and then running as fast as he could until they materialized in the orchard or the barn or the fields near the woods, but instead he pushed his body through the gap until he was sitting with his legs dangling on the outside of the wall.

  “I only hope we’re doing the right thing,” said Walker. “This could be a disaster.”

  “Yes,” agreed Eddie. “It could be, and it probably will be if you think like that. Positive wins the day, and always has!”

  And with that ringing in his ears Walker pushed off and landed with a jolt on the rough and stony soil of Diabolonia. Frankie jumped next with considerably more grace and athletic skill than Walker had shown. Then Eddie jumped out, sword in hand. This dangerous gesture was supposed to add a dramatic touch to his descent, but all it did was unbalance him and he landed with a bang, rolling over several times. He got up, brushed himself off, and mustered as much dignity as he could. Then he felt for his fedora.

  “My hat!” he cried. “I’ve lost my hat. It must’ve fallen off in the tower.”

  “Too bad,” said Frankie, grinning. “I hope it didn’t have magical properties to protect you against evil forces.”

  “I have to go back for it,” Eddie said.

  Frankie looked up at the sheer face of the wall.

  “Good luck,” was all she could say.

  “Forget it, Eddie,” Walker said. “We don’t have the time. We’ve got to go.”

  “Okay, my captain,” Frankie declared cheerfully. “Lead us on into the darkness and victory!”

  “Actually,” Walker corrected her, “Eddie’s going to have to do the leading since he’s the only one who’s been to Litherium.”

  “It’s easy,” Eddie assured him. “There’s only one road and it goes directly from the Kingdom to the city. It’s a long way on foot, though.”

  “I don’t think we should take the road,” Walker said. “At least not in the beginning. It’s the obvious place to look for us and bring us back if that’s what Lumina wants to do.”

  “I doubt she’d do that,” replied Eddie. “She’s so frantic about not upsetting the Black Count.”

  “She may think that just us being in Diabolonia would antagonize him enough,” Walker said, “and that stopping us would show that she doesn’t want to annoy him. Let’s not take the risk anyway.”

  “If we go around it’ll be a long walk,” Eddie warned him.

  “In that case we’d better start right now,” Walker replied.

  They set off across the rocky ground. It was hard going in the dark and on stones that cut into their sneakers. It was also significantly colder on this side of the walls, and Walker tried to keep up a quick pace, not only to get to Litherium sooner, but also to keep warm.

  As they moved farther away from the Kingdom the only light they had to guide them was the glow that their bodies produced and that of Eddie’s sword. Walker kept looking over his shoulder back toward Nebula, partly to give himself a sense of the direction they were going in and partly for comfort. Hours later they were in total blackness and the Kingdom was just a faint glow on the horizon.

  “I think it’s safe enough to go back to the road now,” Eddie said. “It’ll make the walking a little easier.”

  Eddie veered to the left with Walker and Frankie closely following. They kept near one another not just for the feeling of safety it gave them but also for the light that they shed. Three children huddled together produced a greater brilliance than if they were spread out. Even so they could only see a few feet in front of them and progress got slower and slower. And the temperature was becoming more and more of an issue. Not only was it much colder the farther they went, but they could no longer walk fast enough to keep warm. Eddie’s Red Sox jacket helped him but Walker and Frankie were dressed for a summer afternoon in the Outerworld, and where they were now was anything but that.

  “I’m freezing,” Frankie complained. “And hungry. How can that be? I’m never hungry in the Kingdom.”
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br />   “That,” said Eddie, “is because you’re not in the Kingdom now and you’re not getting the energy from the Source that we all get there.”

  “We should have brought some food, then,” she grumbled.

  “Frankie!” cried Eddie. “Get real. Have you ever seen food in Nebula? Have you ever seen anyone eat there? We don’t need it as long as we have the Source.”

  “Does that mean I’m going to be starving until we get back?” Frankie asked.

  “That’s exactly what it means,” Eddie assured her.

  “Oh well,” said Frankie. “I suppose all we can do is suck it up and carry on. I warn you, though, I get mean and angry when I’m hungry.”

  They continued through the barren landscape. Walker had never seen anywhere as desolate as this. There were no plants, no animals, no hills or valleys, nothing except for an endless, flat wasteland.

  “How far to the road, do you think?” he asked.

  “It’s a ways yet,” Eddie replied. “We took a long loop around.”

  He paused for a while.

  “This place used to be beautiful,” he continued. “It was all covered in soft green moss, and had hundreds of flowers that sparkled with light. It was warm, smelled wonderful, and there was nowhere you’d rather be than out here. I used to come often with my mom and dad and we’d have huge picnics with lots of friends. Then it all got torn up during the first battle with the Shroud, long before Barren Plains, and after that everything died. People say it wasn’t the hooves of the battle unicorns that did it but the evil that flowed from the Black Count and the Shroud. Whatever it was, it’s never been the same since.”

  They continued in silence for a while until Frankie suddenly said, “Eddie, how old are you?”

  “How old do you think I am?” Eddie replied.

  “Well,” said Frankie, “you look about eleven, but you can’t be, can you? I mean if you were here with your folks before the battle that was even before the Battle of Barren Plains, then you must be centuries old.”

  “It’s a long story,” Eddie muttered.

  “Come on, Eddie,” urged Walker. “We’ve got time.”

  Eddie paused for a while as if trying to make up his mind.

  “I really don’t feel like getting into it,” he finally said.

  “Listen, Eddie, we’re your friends,” Frankie insisted. “You can trust us, both of us.”

  There was another silence. Eddie looked distressed, as if conflicting thoughts were clashing inside his head. Then he sighed deeply and began.

  “As you know,” he started, “I am a prince, and the reason I have that title is my father was the king. His name was Lindanor, and he was the king before Leukos, who was his younger brother.”

  “You mean King Leukos was your uncle?” asked Walker.

  “He was,” replied Eddie.

  “Why didn’t you ever call him uncle?” asked Frankie.

  “Because first and foremost he was my king,” said Eddie. “Now do you want to hear the story or not? Because if you keep asking questions we’ll have passed Litherium before I get to the end.”

  “Sorry,” said Walker. “Keep going.”

  “My mother, the queen, was a very beautiful woman who my father loved dearly, but she was an Outerworlder,” Eddie continued. “There have been Chosen Ones in the Outerworld for many Eons. How they first got there nobody knows, but what we do know is that any Outerworlder with the mark has Nebulite blood somewhere in their ancestry.”

  “Even me?” asked Walker.

  “Even you,” Eddie assured him.

  “Never mind Walker’s ancestry,” Frankie said impatiently. “Get on with the story!”

  Eddie continued. “My mother loved my father, and they were happiest when they were together, but that wasn’t often. In those days it was easy to travel between the Sister Cities, and as the king of Nebula my father had to visit them to sign treaties and perform other official duties. Sometimes my mother went with him, but mostly she was left behind. She became friendly with the Black Count. He was part of Nebula then, and the reason she found him fascinating was that he could do magic. Everyone in the Palace knew he could do tricks—make objects disappear, things like that—but nobody knew how evil his magic really was, not even my mother. The Count loved power—he still does—and he saw my mom as a way of getting it.

  “One day, when my father was on one of his journeys, I was playing by myself in the Lightkeepers’ chamber. I had made a hidden camp under the throne and was sitting in it when I heard two people come into the room. One was the Black Count, and I still don’t know who the other was, because he never said anything. I suspect it was Luzaro—Thoren, that is.

  “Anyway, the Count told this other person that he was going to bring my father’s reign to an end, marry my mother, the queen, and take power himself. The Count warned the other person that if he mentioned anything of the plot to anyone else, he would kill him, slowly and painfully.

  “They left the chamber, not realizing that I was there and heard everything the Count said. I was terrified that if he found out I knew all about the plot he would kill me slowly and painfully, so I never said anything to anyone. It was a cowardly thing to do, but I was so scared of the Count.

  “When my father returned the Count told him he had discovered a plot to overthrow him and would tell all the details if he would meet him on the ramparts, just the two of them, no guards or servants. My father agreed, but I think he suspected something was up. The Count’s plan was to push my father over the wall to his death below and pretend it was an accident, but my father was strong and a good fighter, and in the end it was the Count who was thrown over the parapet, not into Diabolonia, but into a courtyard inside the walls. It was a shorter drop so he wasn’t killed, but the impact blinded him.

  “My father was a merciful man, and he thought that losing his sight was punishment enough for the Count, but he banished him into the Outer Wastes. As he left the Count swore that as long as he lived he would live only for revenge, and if he was doomed to dwell in darkness he would bring darkness to all the citizens of the Kingdom and every other citadel across the land.”

  Eddie paused.

  “Shortly after this the mark of the Chosen One began to fade from my face,” Eddie continued.

  “You were a Chosen One?” gasped Walker.

  “I was,” Eddie assured him, “but I lost the mark many Eons ago because of my secret. When I didn’t warn my father I put his life in danger, and because he was the king I put all of Nebula in danger.”

  “But you were just a kid!” Frankie exclaimed.

  “That’s true,” Eddie agreed, “but I was also a prince, and from the time I was a young boy I was told that my duty was allegiance to the king and putting the welfare of my people before my own.”

  “Anyway, how do you know that the mark faded because of your secret?” Walker asked. “Nobody knew you had a secret.”

  Walker’s question made Eddie’s mind race back to that terrible day shortly after the mark had faded. His father had just returned from a visit to the Sanctuary, a grim look on his face.

  “I have disturbing news to tell you,” he said to Eddie, placing his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “We all make mistakes,” the king continued. “All of us. But yours was a dangerous one because it could have put the whole Kingdom in peril. Because of it the Source has removed your mark, but you have an opportunity to redeem yourself. You will remain a boy and be given the freedom to behave like a boy until you perform an act of bravery that is the true mark of a Chosen One. Until that time you will search the Outerworld for one who can replace you as my heir. This the Source has decreed.”

  Eddie shook his head to try to expel the memory from his brain. He turned to Walker with a look of intense sadness.

  “The Source knew, don’t ask me how. Just take my word for it,” Eddie said. “The Source gives power, but it can also take it away.”

  “What happened next?” asked Frankie.

>   “Nothing was heard of the Count for a long time and life carried on as usual,” Eddie told them. “Then there were rumors he had met up with a fearsome tribe of creatures that lived in the farthest parts of the Outer Wastes and had trained them into an army and named them the Warriors of the Black Shroud. Our patrols reported he had already destroyed some of the most distant citadels and that his army was advancing toward Nebula and the Sister Cities.

  “My father took his bravest knights and rode out to meet the enemy. The Count and his Warriors were waiting in ambush, and for the first time they used darkning bolts. They weren’t as powerful as they are now but they were still good enough to kill my father. I was standing next to him when he died. His unicorn reared up and then they both collapsed to the ground. The sword flew out of my father’s hand and landed at my feet. I picked it up and I’ve carried it with me ever since. It wasn’t until King Leukos fought the Battle of Barren Plains with the Lances of Light that the Count was defeated.”

  “What happened to your mother?” Frankie asked.

  “After King Leukos’s coronation she returned to the Outerworld, but her life was over, and shortly afterward she died of a broken heart,” Eddie answered. “I was left an orphan, and now the kingdom is as well. You are our only hope, for without a king in Nebula we will surely fall.”

  Chapter 20

  That is such an awful story!” Frankie exclaimed.

  “What happened to you after all this?” Walker asked.

  “King Leukos became like my father and protected me,” said Eddie. “He was a good man and he became a great king even though he never expected to rule. But he had no children, and since I couldn’t be his heir he ordered me to continue the search for a Chosen One. Even though King Leukos carried the mark he was never able to go between the two worlds because he had no Outerworld blood in his veins.”