“Go, man. Go, and tell them we yield. Then, pray God they are as merciful as they are deadly.”
Robbie nodded, and walked out of the parlor where the duke sat staring at the growing darkness of his unlit room. His son shook his head, and walked out after the steward. He would see this….shadow himself. Not that he believed his father. Demons were real enough. But shadows? Wife’s tales. Besides, a true priest of the true god would soon set this supposed demon on the path back to hell. He’d go find Father Benuus, and send him out to see this creature with Robbie. A bit of the true god’s light would send whatever shade was out there back to its pit, if ’twere not just some barbarian trick, as he suspected.
X
“Here comes the little duke’s envoy now,” Commander Jengus Sanz smiled darkly as he watched the gates open, and stay open as the men lining the walls of the fortress built around the duke’s manor just stared at them.
“Do you think he will yield,” Koa asked quietly, his grim visage as impassive as ever as he watched the two freeman walk toward them carrying a truce banner. One of them, he noted with some amusement, was a priest.
“A priest.” One of the men in black, leathern armor their band had adopted when the rumors of a ‘black legion’ first began to circulate after Koa helped their reputation spread when their victories soon began to outnumber their losses with him at that side. “Lad, I think they mean to exorcize you,” the warrior teased as he nodded toward the man in a gray cloak that looked better fed than half the men on the walls.
“Priests are but men,” Koa murmured, his voice as bland as his manner. “And usually, just as corrupt. I’ve yet to meet one that knew aught more than how to swindle his flock of dupes and pawns.”
“Just so,” Jengus nodded, watching the men walked toward them. He had to give the freeman credit. Where the priest lagged and showed a reluctant stride, the freeman in livery that marked him as having some standing in his lord’s service walked proudly, and without hesitation.
He could respect a man with such spirit and boldness. He hoped he wouldn’t have to kill him.
“Tode, Caleb,” he murmured as the men closed on their line. “Open the flanks now, and spread wide,” he told his captains as they all massed behind four columns so far. “Let them see us.”
The two officers nodded, gesturing as their men moved to open their flanks, and form a long line of armored men that stretched out as wide as the walls before them. Their legion of mercenaries had grown from those days when just barely forty men had survived their old commander’s folly to nearly a full legion’s strength. Two thousand men strong, those first men unanimously made Sanz their leader for having the wisdom and foresight to not only recognize Koa, but make him an ally. Teaching him to be a warrior himself, young Koa had soon mastered every weapon put in his hands, and with his powerful gifts, he became an engine of destruction that helped revitalize their band, and turn a handful of common mercenaries into the most feared legion in all the nine lands.
Just as Commander Sanz had predicted.
Koa always rode beside his commander, too. He carried no rank, accepted no favors, and did not indulge in the usual vices of men of their rank. He simply shadowed Jengus, leading many that did not know the truth to believe the ‘Wolf of the Mountain’ was truly a mage that had raised his own guardian-shadow.
It was a tale that only helped their already formidable reputation.
Even the Daviqi, the most notoriously stubborn raiders of the northern lands, had actually fled the field last year at just the sight of their banner. It was a tale that still made them laugh.
All but Koa.
He had watched the enemy bolt, and simply remarked, “How disappointing,” before riding away back to camp.
Now Jengus watched the men who paused to stare at the men moving into position before them, and then he rode up to greet them when they were just a few yards away.
“Name yourself, freeman,” he said, Koa right beside him, his cold, dark eyes likely fixed on the priest if he knew his friend.
The priest he was plaintively ignoring certainly looked discomfited.
“I am Sir Robert Deakes, in service to his most honorable Lord-duke of Andover, Andrus Clarke. He bids you know he surrenders, and would not risk his people’s lives needlessly when he knows you are true warriors, and his folk but farmsteaders, and simple freemen.”
“A wise man,” Koa commented blandly as he continued to eye the priest who seemed to be sweating heavily just then.
“The duke is a good man, and considers his people as much as aught else,” Robbie told Jengus. “He wishes to spare them, so relies upon your honor, sir, that by yielding he might save lives.”
“He will. Starting with his own. Go and tell him we shall accept his wisdom, but does any man strike at us during this truce, he, and his entire family, will die with him. Ensure your duke, and your people, understand this. I shall await your return. For all of one half hour.”
Robbie nodded respectfully, and turned to go.
In just ten minutes time, Robert Deakes returned to lead them into the gates of the estate, and to the duke himself.
Not that Jengus relaxed. They were now behind walls in the heart of the enemy’s territory. Still, it was just all part of the plan. One he was still hoping would work. After all, he had staked his reputation, and his men’s lives on it.
X
“Are you hungry,” the young girl asked as she approached Koa, carrying a bowl of steaming stew to him even as he glanced her way.
He turned from the night he was looking out into beyond the walls, and eyed the girl who could not be quite sixteen from the look of her slender, willowy body under the simple, and barely modest dress allowed most slave girls.
“I am fine. You should eat yourself,” he said mildly, his dark eyes assessing her at a glance.
“Slaves never eat until the masters are done,” she said quietly.
“As I am not a master, you may eat yourself,” he told her as he nodded at the bowl. “Do not fret, I am not overly hungry, and ’twould be a shame to waste such a fine meal by simply sending it back to be thrown out.”
“I…..”
“Eat, lass,” he told her gently. “I’ll not begrudge a hungry belly a meal when I can offer it back in turn. I know well how hunger feels,” he added when she still hesitated. “I would rather not see any suffer so if ’tis unnecessary.”
“You are very kind,” she said, and lifted the wooden spoon as she balanced the bowl in one hand to eat quickly, and with surprisingly large bites.
“How long have you been a slave,” he asked.
“Just over six years. Since the last war,” she said quietly as she ate with an intense focus on the food before her. “My family was taken on the borderlands near Trylls, I recall that much, but little else save we were attacked by slave-hunters ere the kings made their last peace.”
She sighed, and looked sad now, but finished the stew, and looked out at the darkness beyond the walls where she stood with a quiet dignity he had not seen in many of those he had met of late.
“What happened to your family,” he asked.
She sighed again. “Mother was sold ere I came here. My brother…. I don’t know if she is even alive. My father and older sister were both slain when they took us.”
“They slew your sister,” he frowned, wondering why anyone would slay a female for any reason.
“She was….very fierce,” she smiled proudly, eyes misting slightly as she remembered things only she recalled. “She took up an axe, and set to hacking at those Galdyn slavers like they were saplings. In the end, they brought her down,” she said in the same sad tone. “But, at least she died free.”
“Aye. You, though, must have been only a child.”
“Aye,” she nodded. “I was but nine. I wanted to flee, but there was nowhere to go, and even as I watched Anna die….. One of them…..”
He felt the pain and misery rise in her, and being more aware of hi
s own nature and powers since he had been found over six years past, he knew what she felt.
“I can understand in part,“ he told her quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I never knew my family. If I ever had any. I simply woke into this world, and learned only pain until the day Commander Sanz found me, and raised me up.”
“You are lucky,” She told him. “A good man found you.”
“Aye. I was.”
“Are…Are the stories true? Are you…..a demon?”
He looked down at the young lass with dark red hair cut in a short slave bob. Her bright green eyes dark with misery. Still, he saw no condemnation there. None of the usual fear or disdain he usually saw in most eyes.
“Do I look like a demon, lass?”
“You look like a man.”
“So I am. I am just….a different kind of man. I learned I could….do things others could not. That has made most men fear me. Shun me. And, aye, try to destroy me. But demons and devils? In truth, while I have seen many things even in my short time in this world, I’ve never seen anything like that,” he told her. “I vow, most men are monstrous enough not to need such creatures.”
“Do they…. Do your….comrades not fear you?”
He gave a wry snort. “Most of them care only that I ease their victories. Even those that were with the commander from the start only see me as another weapon they can use against their enemies. Only the commander treats me like I am a man. Like I am….human.”
“Then, aye, you are fortunate. At least you have one true friend in this world,” she said, not cringing as so many did when he touched them. She had not flinched when he had put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and when he left that hand on her, finding he enjoyed the feel of her soft, golden flesh that felt as hard and muscular as his own, he was loathe to release her.
“Do you not have any such friends even in the pens,” he asked her, finally dropping his hand, knowing he had little right to think in the direction his mind was going.
“I am Valdoran, warrior,” she told him quietly, looking up at him again. “Even the other slaves hate, and despise me. I have been fortunate not to be raped again.”
“Again?”
“I have been fortunate,” she said quietly. “The only time I was so abused was by the slavers that took me and my mother.”
“When you were but a child,” he exclaimed in genuine disgust.
“I lived,” she said in a low, sad tone that suggested she would have rather died, but did not have the courage to manage it at the time.
“Yet you are still haunted by that dark day, I can see,” he told her. “You have suffered much yourself for one so young, and lovely,” he remarked quietly as he looked down at her, meeting her gaze.
“I should return. The master will be expecting me to help clean the kitchens ere I can rest,” she said in a forlorn tone.
He took her by the shoulders before she could walk away, and stared down into her oval visage that did not shy from his gaze. “Are you the only Valdoran here?”
“Aye,” she nodded. “There was an older man a few years back, but he was whipped to death for spitting in the young lord’s face.”
He gave a faint grumble at hearing that, but only shook his head. “So,” he said, lifting his right hand, and gently plucking at her collar. “You are the only Valdoran remaining here?”
“Aye.”
She gasped as she felt his hand tug at the leather band encircling her throat just before the locked collar fell away, and he tossed it aside to fall into the darkness beyond the wall where they stood.
“Warrior!”
“Do not fret. We are in Valdor’s service, lass. We are here at the behest of its king, to protect, and serve his subjects. That includes you, who are now free, and who I shall personally see returned to your homeland. You have my word, none shall harm you again.”
“You…. You would do that for….me,” she murmured, staring up at him in genuine surprise.
“Aye,” he nodded solemnly.
“May I….know your name, warrior,” she asked, sniffing softly. “That I may thank the true god for your arrival, and pray you find your own destiny in due time.”
He did not remark on her words which meant very little to him. “I am called Koa Darke.”
“I am called….”
“Don’t give your slave name to me, lass. If you would, honor me, and your family, by giving me your true name. That which your family gave you at birth.”
She swallowed hard at that. She had been forbidden her birth name me for so long that she had answered out of habit. “Mother….called me…..Lia. I cannot recall our family name,” she admitted.
“A good name for a lovely lass far from home,” he said, and his impassive expression started to yield to the faintest of smiles when a fellow mercenary climbed the ladder to the section of the wall where Koa stood.
“I’m here to relieve you, lad,” the older man still called him as he had that first night long ago. “Yet here I find you dallying with a pretty nymph. I don’t recall my watch being so…..”
Koa’s smile died stillborn, and his dark eyes flashed for a moment as he turned to face the man. “The lass brought me food,” he told him. “Lift your wits out of the ditch, Byron. I’ve been hearing stirrings on the wind all evening. I think someone is coming.”
“Do you know who?”
“Not as yet. I may ride out once I see the commander. ’Twould be wise to stay alert this night. Recall how deep in enemy lands we are now.”
“Aye, and ’twould be hard to forget,” the man nodded grimly now.
“Come, lass. I shall take you to the commander for sanctuary.”
“Sanctuary,” the other asked.
“She’s Valdoran. Taken by force from her home. Her family slain, or stolen, too,” he told him flatly.
“All too common a tale in this world,” the warrior nodded. “If you are sensing things, though, I’ll be sure the watch is alert.”
Koa said nothing to that as he turned to climb down with Lia just behind him.
She walked into the manor’s back door first, and almost cringed when the first man she saw raised a fist at her.
“What are you doing out of collar, wench,” the burly man with sandy hair that marked him as Kanlysan, the province of Galdyn to the east. “You’re already late getting back, I ought to hide you….”
“Touch her, and I will remove your hands myself,” Koa walked into the kitchen behind Lia and growled. The big cook gaped as the man half the estate was talking about stepped up beside Lia who had returned the bowl and spoon to the kitchen.
“Now, see here. She’s…..”
“Under my protection as a free woman of Valdor,” he growled. “Now, heed me. Where is Commander Sanz? I’ve information for him.”
“He…. He is in the parlor with the duke.”
Koa eyed the man, and nodded curtly. “Come, Lia. Do not fear this lout any longer. He is of little import.”
“Fool bitch,” an older woman hissed from where she was peeling fresh herbs. “You damn your soul consorting with that kind, wench,” she hissed at Lia.
Koa froze, and looked back at her, making the woman bless herself thrice as she refused to meet his gaze.
“I see Galdyn remains an even more backward and ignorant realm than I had been told,” he drawled, and turned to walk out of the kitchen with Lia at his side.
Every servant in the manor that spotted him crossed themselves as he led Lia to the parlor. A few even dared look at Koa, but none got in his way.
“Commander,” he began as he walked into the parlor where Jengus stood near the duke’s seat by the hearth. He already knew the portly man in bright green silk was obviously his son by virtue of the arrogant smug he wore as he sat staring at his friend with a sneer while sipping the wine in a crystal goblet.
“Koa,” he nodded as he turned to face him. “How goes the night?”
“Something stirs on the winds. I thought I’
d ride out and investigate.”
“Do as you think best, my friend. You know I trust you in such matters.”
“Aye, commander. In the meantime, I would leave Lia with you. She is a Valdoran lass who requires sanctuary…..”
“Why are you calling that slave wench Lia,” Freddie Clarke huffed as his father eyed the young redhead. “And where did her collar go?”
“The lass is Valdoran, and was unlawfully taken from her homeland. I have given her my protection, commander,” he added for Jengus as he turned away, blatantly ignoring the lordling. “Assuring her we are here to serve and protect all Valdorans, wherever they are found.”
“Just so, Koa,” Jengus nodded from his place near the hearth, accepting the words at face value as he knew what the nobles did not. That in all the time since he had found the young shadow, he had never once looked on a lass of any age. Nor had he ever spoke up for anyone of any blood, or background. That he did so now suggested there was something telling about this lass.
“I should not be too long. ’Tis possible I but sensed the stragglers from that band of craven dogs we routed earlier. Best to make sure, though.”
“I think you are right. Best to make sure. And don’t fret over the lass. We shall see her well treated in your absence,” Jengus told him with a nod at the redhead.
“She’s our slave…..”
Koa’s gaze cut Freddie off before his father could even snap, “Be still, Fredrick,” at him.
“Don’t fret,” Koa murmured as he walked over to put a hand on the girl’s slender shoulder. “Commander Sanz is a good man, and may be trusted.”
“I trust you,” she told him. “Be careful, and return safely,” she bid him before he turned to go.
“Well, lass. You are quite the unusual little imp,” Jengus told her as Koa departed. “For never in all my years with Koa have I ever seen him befriend a woman, let alone champion her.”
“I did not ask it of him,” she answered demurely, head down as he eyed her just then, conscious of the Clarkes both studying her, too. “He simply chose to be kind to me.”
Steel and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy Page 2