Karl wasn't sure how long he had been asleep when the bells started ringing, but he noticed that the sky was still sunny as he jumped to his feet. Through the rolling thunder, he was peripherally aware of the others scrambling for their weapons, but he was unprepared for what he saw next. Surrounding the Alceans was a ring of mounted knights. The men were dressed for war with orange and white tunics over chain mail, and visored helmets covered their heads. Long pointed lances extended before the riders like a barbed ring around the group of Alceans. The horses were huge and sturdy and were also covered with armor.
Karl glanced nervously at his men as they moved to form a defensive circle. Knowing that none of the Alceans would survive a battle with the armored knights, Karl slowly bent over and placed his sword on the ground. The Rangers accepted their leader's decision, and they also put their swords down. The elves returned their arrows to their quivers and placed their bows on the ground. Only when the Alceans had submitted did one of the knights speak.
"You will place all of your weapons on the ground," ordered the knight. "Knives, arrows, anything that could be considered a weapon."
Karl nodded to his fellow Alceans, and they began to shed all of their weapons. When they were done, the knight spoke again as two of the horsemen moved their mounts aside to create a corridor through the circle.
"You will march single file until you are clear of the trees. There will be a wagon waiting for you there. You are to enter the wagon promptly. Anyone deviating from these instructions will be struck down. Move."
Karl looked at the others and nodded. He was the first to move towards the break in the line of knights, and he looked back to make sure that the others were following. There were more mounted knights in the woods, and they formed a corridor for the captives to walk through. The walk was not long and Karl soon exited the forest to see a broad expanse of grasslands. Sitting not far from the edge of the forest was a large wagon that resembled a moving jail cell. A cage made of sturdy wooden poles was fastened to a flat wagon, and Karl stepped up into the cell. When all of the Alceans were inside, the door was swung shut and a chain was fastened to keep it closed. Only after the cage was locked did the knight leader speak again.
"Take the spies to the castle," he shouted to the driver.
Chapter 18
Baron Ohmson
Karl Gree hung onto the wooden bars and stared out at the knights. Scores of the mounted warriors filed out of the trees, and the Knight of Alcea knew that his call to surrender without a fight had been wise, but the leader's statement about spies troubled him. Alcea executed spies, and he presumed the same would be true for the horse countries. Karl figured he would at least get a chance to speak to someone in authority before they were hung, and he started going over in his mind the statements that he would make.
"This doesn't look good to me," Clint whispered as the wagon started moving. "If they think we are spies, we will be killed."
"I know," Karl whispered back. "The trick will be convincing them that we are not spies. Not only will the truth be unbelievable to them, but I am not sure that they will buy the idea that we are merchant warriors from Tyronia. We don't know enough about Tyronia to fake it very well."
"The name of Sidney Mercado might be well known enough to cause them some hesitation," suggested Shawn.
"I doubt that Sidney Mercado has been in the horse countries in over twenty years," Karl replied. "No one has been able to get here since the Collapse."
"I wonder if that is true," Max interjected. "If no one has ever made it through the Forest of Death, why would they immediately take us for spies?"
"Maybe someone told them that we were spies," suggested Shawn. "Is it a coincidence that the old man stayed with us the whole way through the forest except for the few hours before we were captured?"
"What are you suggesting?" asked Karl.
"What if the old man is not from the Federation at all?" asked Shawn. "What if he is a spy for the horse countries, and he was returning home after spying on the Federation?"
"But he helped us survive in there," frowned Max. "Why would he do such a thing only to have us executed?"
"A number of reasons come to mind," replied Shawn. "He certainly could not kill all of us by himself, and we might end up being a treasure trove of information about the Federation. Why throw such a gift away when it would be so easy to capture us once we left the Forest of Death? Do you think these scores of armored knights were on a picnic today? They came specifically to capture us. They even had the wagon staged to take us to wherever we are going."
"He has a point about the wagon," conceded Clint. "Look around out there. There is not a village or building anywhere in sight. These knights came prepared to capture someone. If not us then who?"
"Keep it quiet in there!" shouted one of the knights as he banged the wooden poles with his lance. "There will be no talking."
Karl pressed his face against the wooden bars and stared in the direction the cart was traveling. He could see nothing except a broad expanse of grasslands. He turned his attention to the knights escorting the wagon. The men were all tall and broad shouldered, and they appeared to be seasoned warriors. The horses were also large and well trained. Karl didn't see any of the knights working the reins; the horses rode in parade style on both sides of the wagon with an ease that spoke of long days of practice. The tunics that the knights wore carried the same crest that was emblazoned on their shields. It was the image of a rearing horse between two vertical lances. As his eyes scanned over the knights, he noticed one of them carried neither shield nor lance. His tunic also carried two additional adornments; on each shoulder was a lightning bolt. After carefully studying the knights again, Karl found another rider with marks on his shoulders. It was a single bar, and Karl suspected that the man was some kind of officer.
A light tap on Karl's arm caused him to turn and look at Clint. The Ranger nodded towards the front of the cart, and Karl turned to look. Off in the distance a structure rose from the horizon. For a long time Karl focused on the castle as it drew closer, and it grew larger. Tall towers reached up from each corner of the main body of the castle. The castle itself was huge, and it towered over the wall around it. As they got closer, Karl was able to see that the wall itself was fairly tall, and men manned the ramparts. A huge pair of gates in the wall opened, and the escorting knights drew in closer to the wagon. There had been no shouted command for the maneuver, but not a single knight was out of formation as they executed it. He subconsciously nodded in appreciation of the training the knights must have undergone.
As the wagon passed under the wall, Karl realized that it was very thick as well as tall. Another pair of gates swung open, and the wagon moved onto a city street. Orderly rows of stone buildings lined the street, and people walked about in a casual manner. Some of the people turned and stared as the wagon rolled by, but it was with a look of curiosity and not fear. The wagon started climbing a hill, and Karl leaned back to gaze upward. The castle stretched high into the air above his head, and there was another wall surrounding it and separating it from the city. As they passed under the castle wall, Karl estimated it to be almost as thick as the one surrounding the city.
While the road from the city wall to the castle wall had been straight and broad, that changed as soon as they passed under the castle wall. The escorting knights executed another perfect maneuver that resulted in half of the knights preceding the wagon and the other half following it. The group turned to the right almost immediately and began traveling through a series of narrow, twisting alleys. Karl gazed up at the castle and realized that they were being led around it rather than straight to it.
The wagon eventually stopped at the rear of the castle. Half of the knights dismounted and drew swords while the others formed a ring around the wagon with their lances ready to strike should the need arise. The chain was removed from the door at the rear of the wagon, and the door was opened. The officer ordered the elves to step out of the wag
on. He pointed towards a tall set of wooden stairs leading up to a doorway several dozen paces above the ground. The wooden steps had no railing, but there was a wide platform at the top of them. On the platform stood a dozen archers with arrows nocked.
"Climb the steps," the officer ordered the elves.
Prince Rigal led Gerant and Lyron up the steps as the others watched helplessly. Once the elves had been swallowed through the doorway, the officer told the sailors to exit the wagon. He instructed them to climb the stairs. When the sailors had disappeared through the doorway, he told the rest of the Alceans to get out of the wagon. Karl led the Rangers up the steps. As he passed through the doorway in the wall of the castle, he found a dozen soldiers waiting for him. The soldiers had their swords drawn, and one of them instructed the Alceans to follow him. The door was slammed shut, and the corridor became dim. Four soldiers led the Alceans through a series of dim corridors while the other eight soldiers followed. The journey ended with the opening of a cell door and the instructions to enter.
"Where are the rest of my men?" Karl asked as he gazed into the empty cell.
"Enter the cell," the soldier replied threatening.
Karl glared at the soldier, but he complied with the order. As soon as the four Alceans were in the cell, the door was slammed shut and barred. The cell was unlit, but a window in the door let some light in from the torches in the corridor outside. The cell was easily large enough to hold a dozen men, but there was nothing in it. There were no beds or chairs or furniture of any kind. It was just a rectangular stone room with the single door.
"Why did they separate us?" Shawn asked.
"I am not sure," replied Clint, "but we often separate prisoners if they are to be interrogated, although we put each man in a separate cell. The question really is, why did they not separate each of us?"
"They know which of us are warriors," answered Karl. "They separated us from the sailors. I think they might have separated the elves for another reason, but I cannot be sure. Fakir Aziz said something to me once that has been bothering me. It had to do with taking elves to Tyronia. I suspect that there are no elves in Zarocca."
"Which will make it rather hard to explain their presence in our party if we are supposed to be Tyronian merchant warriors," commented Max.
"Exactly," nodded Karl as he stuck his finger into his breast pocket and stirred Peanut to life. "Undoubtedly we are going to be interrogated separately. It is essential that each of us tells the same story. Let's work that story out among ourselves and then Peanut can relay it to the others."
* * *
The officer opened the door and stepped into the baron's study. The baron put down the report that he was reading and waved the officer to a chair.
"How have you separated them?" asked Baron Ohmson.
"Warriors in one cell," answered the officer, "elves in another. I put four other humans in a separate cell. They are not warriors, but I have no idea what their purpose is."
"Are they mages?" asked the baron.
"I do not think so," answered the officer. "Yeltin was with us, and I asked him that question. He said it was improbable. No one in the group was using magic, and the non-warriors had callused hands as if they have toiled for many years. He suspects that they might be seamen."
"Seamen?" questioned the baron. "That would certainly be odd. Why didn't you put each man in a separate cell?"
"I want to give each group a chance to develop their false stories," smiled the officer. "Left alone, each man would try to feign ignorance of the reason for the others being part of the group. They will try to say as little as possible, but in small groups each group will quickly devise a common story, and they will willingly tell us that false story. The things they are most willing to tell us will be the false stories that they concocted. That will point to what they wish to hide."
"Clever," nodded the baron, "unless they have already planned for their capture. We shall see how well your theory works when put to the test. See that the prisoners are fed before you start extracting them from the cells. I want them nervous, but not fainting from hunger."
"How soon do you wish to start the interrogations?" asked the officer.
"Give me two hours to get everyone assembled," answered Baron Ohmson.
* * *
Karl sat alone in the cell and worried about his men. Shawn had been taken first and then Clint. Neither of them had been returned before they took Max away. Karl couldn't help feeling that he had failed his men in some way, but as he looked back over his decisions, he could not see anything that he would change if he had it to do over again. Stressed from hours of worrying about his men, Karl rose and began pacing the cell. He had dispatched Peanut to find Garth, but he had little hope that the other Knights of Alcea would come to their rescue. Even if they could make their way to Zarocca, they would not attack such a fortress as the castle they were being held in. Sending the fairy had merely been a way to keep the others apprised of the situation.
Karl almost jumped when the cell door was thrown open. He turned and saw the soldier waving him out of the cell. The Knight of Alcea tried to calm himself as he walked out of the cell and was surrounded by guards. Without a word, he was herded off through a maze of corridors and stairways. The trip moved upward through the castle, the dim torch-lit corridors giving way to broad hallways with sunlight streaming in through the windows. One of the soldiers halted the column outside a pair of elegant doors. The soldier knocked loudly on the door and waited for a response. While they were waiting for permission to enter the room, Karl glanced around the hallway. He fought to keep his emotions in check when he saw two men a hundred paces away. Fakir Aziz stood talking amicably to a finely-dressed man. Karl's eyes narrowed when he realized that the old man was not being held as a prisoner as the Alceans were. Shawn's suspicions immediately flooded Karl's mind, and he began to wonder if the old man was a spy for Zarocca after all.
Someone inside the room opened the door, and Karl was marched into a large conference room. A long table sat in the middle of the room, and a dozen men sat along the far side of it. On the side nearest the door was a single chair, and Karl was led to it and told to sit. The guards moved off to the sides, close enough to react if Karl had any ideas of causing trouble.
"I am Baron Ohmson," the man across from Karl said. "This is my land that you have trespassed upon. Who are you?"
"I am Karl Gree," answered the Knight of Alcea. "I apologize for any infractions we have made, but I assure you that we mean no harm. We are merely passing through Zarocca on our way to Tyronia."
"Through the Forest of Death?" asked the baron.
"Yes," nodded Karl. "We heard that Sebastian Pass was closed. We also heard that a small boat makes periodic trips between Korocca and Tyronia. We hoped to catch passage on that vessel."
"And you are the leader of this group of men?" asked the baron.
"I am," nodded Karl.
"Tell me about your group," urged the baron. "Tell me their names, and why they are accompanying you."
"We work for Sidney Mercado," Karl began. "Clint, Max, and Shawn are merchant warriors, as am I. We also have four sailors with us. Chanz, Cirris, Warren, and Ecaro are going to Tyronia to set up a shipping operation for Sidney. We also have three elves in our party. Rigal, Gerant, and Lyron were eager to put the Federation behind them. I saw some potential to using them as merchant warriors or scouts, so I took it upon myself to include them in the group. I will admit that I am not sure exactly how they will be received by Sidney, but I judge them to be good men."
"Must we go through this same story again," complained one of the baron's advisors. "It is obvious that they have practiced this story many times. We will not get to the truth with this type of questioning."
"I agree," added another advisor. "Let the torture chamber get to the real truth. We are wasting our time here."
Baron Ohmson held up his hand for silence. He looked across the table at Karl and sighed with frustration.
"As you can see," he said softly, "my advisors are convinced that you are lying. As you are foreigners trespassing on my lands, I have the legal right to hang all of you, and not even the king will question my actions. The problem with that approach is that I desire to know the true reason for your presence here. Of course, I really only need one of you alive to get that. Shall we start again?"
"We are not here to spy on you," replied Karl. "What kind of spies would sneak onto your lands and promptly fall asleep in a clearing? We really are on our way to Tyronia, and Sidney Mercado will vouch for us. Are Zaroccans so quick to kill innocent men?"
"Innocent men have no need to lie," retorted the baron. "As much as I abhor torture, it appears that you will force us to do this the hard way."
"My story will not change under torture," declared Karl. "If you must lower yourself to such means then so be it. I am ready."
"Oh, not you," the baron smiled thinly. "We will start with the sailors, and you shall watch. After they have been tortured, you will watch the executions. Then we will torture the elves, and finally the men who shared your cell."
Karl stiffened in his chair, and his hands curled into fists as rage flushed his face. "And I thought the Federation was my enemy," snapped the Knight of Alcea. "It would appear that the Zaroccans are no better."
The guards moved in close, but the baron merely smiled. "Now I think we are getting somewhere," he said. "Karl Gree, I am going to give you one, and only one, chance to be truthful with me. If I do not hear the truth from your lips right now, I will wash my hands of this matter and turn you and your men over to be tortured and killed as I have described. Once that process starts, I will not stop it. You may speak the truth now, or suffer the consequences."
Council of War Page 23