Steel and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy

by Klein, LaJonn O.

  “Which makes you all the more surprising,” Jengus smiled blandly at her. “For Koa is not one to go out of his way to befriend anyone.”

  “What demon does,” Freddie sneered.

  “He is not a demon,” Lia replied bluntly, then realized who she had contradicted, and paled as the arrogant lordling narrowed cold, blue eyes on her.

  “Don’t fret, lass. I vow, the last man fool enough to call Koa a demon to his face is greeting true ones in hell even now. Best you consider that, lordling, ere you see him again.”

  “Forgive my son, commander. He is yet young, and has yet to learn…..subtlety.”

  “In our world, Your Grace, do you insult a man, you do it with steel in your hand. Not hiding behind another’s back like a simpering fop.”

  “Simpering….”

  “Fredrick. God’s bones, you lackwit,” his father snapped when his son actually flung his goblet down, shattering it on the nearby hearth as he rose to his feet with a speed belied by his bulk. “Do you want to die?”

  Freddie froze on the edge of his seat, and realized the big warrior in black armor wasn’t cowing before his noble indignation. He was watching him with a smirk on his face. He had not reached for his sword, but his size and shape suggested he wouldn’t need it to break him in half with relative ease. He had the look of a man that would enjoy doing it, too.

  Freddie just glowered, then sank back in his seat.

  “Well, invaders, or nay, that….creature has little right to go about taking our slave stock as his own.”

  Lia shrank back, looking pale again as Jengus stepped forward and put a big hand on her shoulder. “Does Koa say the lass is free, then best you note he is not given to telling falsehoods. Am I understood here, lordling?”

  Freddie only glared at him.

  “Am I understood,” Jengus demanded imperiously, taking a step forward now. “Because when a man asks you something, you damn well answer him.”

  ”I do not see a…..”

  “Fredrick! Do not insult the man. He is not one of your lackeys you may browbeat. God’s mercy, son, use your wits here.”

  Freddie frowned, then glanced away, but he grumbled, “I understand.”

  “Did you raise a man, or a sullen child, Your Grace,” Jengus snorted as Lia couldn’t help but smile at his words.

  The duke, at a loss how to respond diplomatically, only sighed.

  Chapter 3

  Koa stood on the bank of the river, his dark armor wreathed in the shadows around him. All but invisible, he listened to the voices on the breeze, noting the location of the fires beyond the next shore, and the number of men indicated by stamping horses, cook fires, and the voices he overheard. Not quite a legion, but not just stragglers either.

  It was the late reinforcements from the northern garrison of Kybera that had been expected by the enemy when they first encountered them. A full two days late, they had arrived in time to find only dead men, and a few stragglers that survived the ambush. Now, joining with men from the immediate region, they were preparing to march on the duke’s estate where their own scouts had tracked the invading mercenaries.

  It was, Koa now realized, those scouts that had roused his suspicions. Unlike him, they were not quite as invisible in the night, and his enhanced senses had noted their passage despite the caution they wrapped around themselves as they had ensured the invaders had entered the walls, but not left. They likely felt they could trap them there, besiege the duchy, and hold them helpless until more men arrived to help them cut down the enemy.

  They obviously were very foolish men. The commander had anticipated their arrival, and already had plans in the works for dealing with them. Still, he was here now. He considered his best course of action, and didn’t feel the slightest degree of fear as he noted the roving sentries that crossed just a few feet from his hiding place. It would take better eyes than theirs to spy him when he was wrapped in his shadow cloak.

  Not that it would matter. In over six years, he had yet to find a man or weapon that could touch him. Just as Jengus had told him that first night. Some men felt that should make him glad. Or arrogant with power and ambition. In fact, it made him sad. In his own heart and mind, it lessened his own sense of humanity, and further disconnected him from the world of men around him.

  He suspected of all those he knew, or had known, only the commander truly understood how that made him feel.

  He watched the sentries walk past him again, timing their passage, and noting the voices that were dying down as men settled in for the night, or dozed off. Only a few voices remained now, but he could tell they were all coming from the same area. A place just off center in the middle of the camp of some four or five hundred men.

  The command tent for certain, and that made one of them the commander, or leader of these men.

  He watched for another fifteen minutes after the last voice faded, and the only sounds that could be heard were the occasional coughs of sentries, and the snorts and nickers of the restless mounts picketed not far away.

  He lowered his cloak just enough to step back into the world of men, and left his hiding place as he headed directly for the horses. He pulled a slender dagger from his belt, and set to work slicing the cinches of the saddles almost through as he visited each in turn. He then set to cutting the reins on bridles he found dangling from a makeshift equipment rail formed of branches and a few ropes slung between close saplings. He worked the reins so that they were all but cut through at critical points on the underside, but looked quite fine at first glance on the exterior.

  He smirked slightly, imagining the chaos sure to follow when the men tried to manage horses that were used to firm and sure handling.

  His sabotage done, he now moved toward the camp itself without bothering the horses themselves. Warhorses, after all, were still too well trained to run off like raw stock. Trying to run them off would be futile, and tip the sentries to his presence. He didn’t intend to do that just yet.

  He walked over to the command tent, slipping between tents and bedrolls, and moving so quietly that not even the few hounds dozing around the camp ever woke. He reached the tent he sought, and slipped inside. The man stretched out on a narrow bunk made with genuine satin sheets was wearing a colorful uniform better suited for parade fields, or palace balls. He had pulled his boots off, but was otherwise still fully dressed.

  He walked over to a nearby table, and studied the maps and charts that were lain out as he sifted a few parchments that had several lists scribbled out on them, and then turned back to the man that was obviously a garrison commander more than a true warrior. Likely a nobleman who was called into service by virtue of the fact that every legion in the land just now was riding off hither and yon as Ericson’s legions struck and ran, harassing the kingdom at key points, all while leaving a telling, and gaping hole in the borderlands they had entered to ride right through the center of Galdyn.

  Their destination was the greatest prize of all as the Valdorans kept the other enemy legions busy. They would ride right to Trinidad, and take King George’s entire family hostage before anyone realized what they were about. With the royal family in hand, even the mad king would have to yield, or watch his future die before his eyes.

  It was a clever, and daring ploy, and he had to admit that Commander Sanz was beyond bold in selling it to King Eric V when the man first wanted to simply invade, and lay waste to the entire land after the latest incursions against his own people.

  Having studied all the maps, reports, and papers to be had, he walked over to the apparent commander himself, and slid a forefinger over the man’s closed eyes. A faint smudge colored the man’s lids, and Koa stepped back, feeling the faint thrum as his power stirred, and carried out his will. When the man woke in the morning, he was going to find himself a part of the confusion and inevitable panic.

  Giving a faint smirk of satisfaction, Koa walked out of the tent, out of the camp, and seemed to flow through the shadows until he reached h
is own waiting horse. Mounting up, he turned in the direction of the estate in spite of the moonless night that left the forest darker than usual as he guided his horse without effort.

  It was, he decided, a good thing he had decided to investigate.

  He had found out information that would ease their mission, and make things all but fall in their favor for a change. They just had to be clever.

  He rode up to the gates, waved at the men on watch, and kept going up to the manor where he found the commander resting on an overstuffed divan, staring at the banked fire as he sat alone in the room.

  “Commander, the garrison troops from Kybera have arrived,” he said even as he joined him.

  “How many?”

  “Not quite as many as we first thought. At least, not yet. I placed their numbers at just shy of five hundred men.“

  “Enough to be annoying, but little else.”

  “Aye. Their plans seem to hinge on pinning us in the duchy’s walls, and keeping us contained until they can get enough men to aid them in putting paid to us. That, however, is not the news I found most intriguing.”

  “Oh,” Jengus asked, sitting up to stretch as he started to get up. “What did you find,” he asked, as he found his feet.

  “The king had advance warning of some kind, and moved his family. They are not in Trinidad any longer, as we thought. Fearing our very stratagem, it seemed, the royal family was moved to Kanlys Square.”

  “Which is not ten miles north of us,” Jengus murmured.

  “Just so,” he nodded. “’Tis why the other men delayed in coming to aid the others for so long. They wished to pause, and ensure the provincial capital was reinforced in case of attack there.”

  Jengus didn’t bother to ask if the young man was certain of his information. Koa was not the sort to fall for false leads, or inaccurate intelligence. “So, then, what mischief did you plot to delay them?”

  “I cut all their cinches nearly through, and weakened all their reins,” he said with the faintest of smirks. “I also put a temporary blinding haze over the commander’s eyes.”

  “Clever. All right. Let’s rouse the men, and ride right for the city. With a little luck, we’ll get the royals out ere they know we’re there, and be halfway back to the duchy ere dawn catches us.”

  Koa looked around as he nodded, and asked, “The lass?”

  “The duke sent her to a room to rest, assuring me he would see her treated properly until we were ready to depart.”

  Koa only nodded. “We should leave at once. I suggest we leave Captain Tode here to command our reserves.”

  “I assume you have a reason?”

  “Someone let the Galdynians know we were coming. He’s our newest officer, and the newest man to join the legion in general. He’s also K’Zir, who have been ever ambiguous about the war from the start.”

  “Aye, they are the sort to favor profit more than caring over battle lines. Still, you do raise a point. We’ve had a few close calls of late since Tode did join us.”

  “I suggest we leave Sgt. Winters behind, too. To watch for….secret messengers.”

  “A good notion. He’d be the one man I could trust with our backs without fearing he might bolt, or do something foolish.”

  “Aye. I’ll be ready to leave as soon as I see the lass.”

  “Oh,” Jengus asked with a knowing smile.

  “I told her I’d be back. I’d let her know that I am, and will return for her again so she does wake, and fears seeing me still gone.”

  “You care for the lass,” Jengus asked.

  Koa’s eyes were cool and impassive as usual as he simply stated, “There is something about her. Something that feels…..familiar.”

  “You think she is….like you?”

  “Like me? Nay. But there is something about her. I’d like to know what. Besides, as I said, she is Valdoran, and taken unlawfully by rogues exploiting the war.”

  “And we both know how you love to discomfit the slavers and guilders at the best of times,” he remarked.

  “I just do not like anyone that thinks they can steal another’s life without being accountable. I still think the Ranulf Accords were just an excuse to steal more without having to explain where they find their ‘stock,’” he said curtly, referring to new laws that the guilds had pushed through that made the adage ’once branded, ever a slave,’ virtually law. It also kept a slave from running from one land to another, as it allowed the guild to cross borders to hunt fugitives even if the border were technically hostile to the host kingdom.

  Valdor, however, was one of the few lands that did not sign the accords. Which was one of the real reasons the guilders had combined to join the Galdynian king in starting another war to try to enforce their own will on the other land, thinking they would take them by surprise, and beat them this time.

  They should have known better.

  Valdor was a race of warriors, and were ever alert.

  “I’ll go find Captain Roberts, and Lt. Caleb. And advise Samuel of his assignments,” he added, calling Sgt. Winters by name. “You go see the lass, and join us when you may.”

  “I shouldn’t be long,” he nodded, and left without pause, not needing a guide since he could sense the lass easily enough after having been in her presence.

  Koa walked into the room without knocking, and found her dozing in a huge, soft bed curled up in a tiny ball. It was telling that she would recoil from all the luxury around her, as if fearing even it might hurt her.

  “Lia,” he murmured, gently touching her cheek after watching her sleep a moment more.

  Her eyes opened instantly, and he simply nodded. “I am back, lass. Regrettably, we must ride out again on a mission, but we’ll be back soon enough. When I return next, we shall be leaving this land.”

  “Truly,” she asked, sitting up, and smiling at him. “I am truly going to be free?”

  He sat on the bed beside her, and smiled for the first time in earnest.

  “Lass, you are free. Let me remind you do you not know it, Valdorans are warriors born, and would spend their last breath fighting to keep that freedom. Just like your sister. You, however, were but a child. You did not know yourself at the time. Now you are grown. You are aware,” he said, and gently pressed a hand to her cheek. “And you are stronger than you know. For the time being, I lend you my strength. Stay strong, and safe, and when I return, we shall take you back where you belong.”

  She stared at him with overly bright eyes, and put her own hand over his.

  “None have ever been so kind as you, Koa Darke. I shall pray you stay safe.”

  “Just rest, lass,” he told her, guiding her back to the pillows, noting the duke had apparently allowed her to be bathed, and dressed like a lady in his absence. Her red curls were slightly lighter in color when clean, and she looked more than lovely.

  “How long will you be gone,” she asked as she settled back in the pillows and let him adjust the covers around her.

  “As long as it takes. Though if all goes well, we should be back sometime in the morn.”

  “I shall miss you. I know ’tis likely odd, but….I feel we already share a bond,” she whispered.

  “I believe you, Lia. But know this, I believe you are stronger than you realize. The duke is wise enough, I think, to watch you in my stead until my return. But know this, you are strong in your own right. Forget your collar, lass, and embrace that strength. Remember your pride. Remember your true self, and I know you shall be fine.”

  She smiled, and shook her head. “I shall be fine when I see you return, and the last of Galdyn behind us,” she said firmly.

  He gave a soft chuckle now. “See? Even your words declare your own pride, for I hear steel in them,” he smiled.

  “Steel,” she murmured. “I wish I were as strong as steel,” she told him with a sleepy smile. “I would never let anyone harm me, or you, ever again.”

  He smile again as he rose. “Lass, ’tis not a weapon born of man that has
ever been able to harm me,” he reminded her.

  “Aye, but…..I think we both know you do not always need a weapon to strike the deepest blows.”

  “You are wise,” he told her quietly as he turned to leave. “Now heed my wisdom, and rest while you may, lass. As I said, I shall be back soon enough.”

  She nodded, and settled back into the heavy quilts. “Koa.”

  “Aye, lass,” he asked from the door.

  “Know that you will be missed. And looked for. I……”

  “We’ve time enough to talk later, lass,” he told her, and left the room, closing it firmly behind him.

  A few moments later, he was mounting his own horse as not one man joked about ‘his lass,’ and Jengus remarked, “Lead the way, lad.”

  Behind them, Captain Thaddeus Tode watched them depart with a grim expression. The brown-haired mercenary from K’Zir had accepted his orders without comment, and was told to be ready to ride at any moment in case the mission to Malloric was thwarted. Jengus decided that if the man was a spy, it wouldn’t be smart to let him know their true objective. So he let him think they were riding thirty miles northeast to that powerful earl’s home to claim hostages that might bring a rich ransom, and help unsettle the region. It was close enough to the truth that he had little trouble convincing him.

  Nor did he miss the look of relief on Tode’s face when he heard that Koa was going out as scout rather than staying behind.

  A few hours later, they rode up to the edge of the forest where a sloping valley floor gave way to the high walls of the provincial capitol on the very border of Kanlys and Galdyn. The location of the city was the king’s way of letting the locals know just who ruled their land in spite of the governor that held sway over them in the king’s name.

  That the governor was a virtual tyrant in his own right hardly aided George Hastings’ reputation among his subjects, but such was life in their world.

  “All right. Captain Roberts,” he turned to him. “Take your lads, and ride no more than an hour due west, set fires, and burn down anything you find. Be it farmstead, guild hall, or shack. Lt. Barques, you remain here, and await the delivery of the royals. I‘ll lead the rest of our lads due north, dam the river, and leave them wondering what is happening. We rendezvous back at Clarke’s as soon as possible, so don’t dally, and don’t take chances. When you have done what ’tis to be done, ride hard for the duchy.”