Path of Kings

by James Dale

  When the search was well under way, Valarius suggested Braedan retire to the palace infirmary where his injuries could be attended. Though Jack was anxious to join the hunt for the two assassins, his leg was beginning to swell and stiffen, so he reluctantly agreed. Kaegel and Erlwin each took an arm, and supporting him between them, they followed the steward from Sir Algeron's Maze.

  At the infirmary they were met by a stern-faced nurse who directed them to a private room. After helping Jack onto a padded examining table, Erlwin took up guard outside the room, leaving Braedan under the care of Kaegel and Valarius to await the arrival of the king's physician, Maerdias Gallon. The good doctor arrived soon afterward, eyeing Kaegel's drawn blade with distaste.

  "You've no need of that pig-sticker in here my boy," he announced firmly, but Kaegel made no move to put it away.

  "So," the doctor said, turning to Braedan, "what have we here? You've injured your right leg, yes?"

  The king's physician was perhaps sixty or sixty-five years old. What little hair remaining on his head had gone completely white, and hung about his ears in a haphazard manner suggesting Gallon was concerned with weightier matters than the location of a comb. His long, dexterous fingers moved with the confident assurance of a man secure in his craft as he bent to examine Jack's knee.

  "Yes," Braedan nodded, gritting his teeth in pain despite Gallon's delicate manner as he removed his boot.

  "His grace twisted it leaping the hedge is Sir Algeron's Maze," Valarius informed Maerdias. "Chasing assassins."

  "Assassins? My, my," the physician said. "Your knife please young man," he commanded Kaegel abruptly. The guardsman handed his blade to the doctor obediently, and before Jack could protest, Maerdias deftly slit his pant leg passed the knee. "You've done this before yes?" he asked, probing the swollen flesh around the joint.

  "About...oooww!"

  "Sorry."

  "About four months ago."

  "I thought so," Gallon sighed. "It will have to come off I'm afraid."

  "What!" Jack cried.

  "A little joke," the doctor said quickly, revealing strong white teeth as he smiled for the first time. "'Tis only a sprain. Lucinda!"

  "Yes?" asked the stern-faced nurse, popping her head the door.

  "Bring me a jar of Coolroot Salve and some three-inch wrapping."

  "Yes doctor."

  "So, you are the new Duke of Thonbor?" Maerdias smiled.

  "How did you know?" Jack asked. No one had addressed him by name in the doctor's presence, though Valarius had called him 'his grace'.

  "Your description in on everyone’s lips this morning m'Lord," the physician grinned. "And there are those stitches on your forehead of course. How do they feel?"

  "I hardly notice they are there," Jack admitted.

  "A nice bit of needle work," Maerdias observed. "Though I'm sure that old bar-keeper took great pains with them, I think we'll have a look at them when we're done with your knee. Just in case Sirranon was drunk when he sewed you up."

  "You know Sirranon sir?"

  "I was first medic in that reprobate's company once upon a time," the doctor grinned. "His body sports some of my best work. Learned most of what I know about wounds putting him back together. The next time you are in the Dancing Unicorn, ask him why he has ten toes when he should rightly have only seven. If he doesn't praise Doc Gallon of the Twenty-seventh Thondil Heavy Horse, tell him next time Doc says he can just hop back from the March of Peril on one leg."

  "I certainly will sir," Jack grinned, despite his pain.

  "Where in the devil is Luc...ahhh, there you are my dear."

  The nurse scowled at Gallon as she entered carrying a tray with the items he requested. "Will that be all doctor?"

  "Where are my good scissors?"

  "In your coat pocket perhaps?" she asked, as if speaking to a forgetful child.

  "Why so they are!" Gallon smiled. "Thank you, Lucinda."

  Doctor Gallon turned back to Jack, opening the small glass jar provided by his nurse, and rubbed a generous dollop of a clear, sweet smelling gel on the swollen joint. A cool, tingling sensation spread quickly throughout the injured area and the pain diminished almost instantly.

  "It will reduce the swelling," Maerdias informed him when the gel had worked its way beneath the skin and he'd wrapped the knee tightly. "You'll need to stay off your feet for at least a week. Keep your leg elevated and apply the Coldroot Salve once a day, or when the pain becomes bothersome. Now let's take a look at those stitches, shall we?"

  Before Gallon could critique Sirranon's work however, a breathless guardsman burst into the room.

  "Forgive me doctor," he cried. "Lord Th'lann! They have found one of the assassins!"

  "Where?" Valarius gulped, going pale.

  "He was attempting to scale the wall by the east tower!" the guard informed him excitedly. "One of the servants spotted him and Sergeant Jussain put an arrow in his leg. He's barricaded himself in the tower. They are attempting to ram the door even as we speak!"

  "Lead the way," Valarius nodded. "Excuse me your grace, but I should oversee his...capture."

  "Of course," Jack replied, wondering why the steward looked so...distressed. Something wasn't...right. But he couldn't put his finger on it.

  "I should go as well," Doctor Gallon sighed as Valarius hurried from the room. "There will be bloodshed 'er this day is done. Lucinda! My field bag woman! And quickly!"

  "Go with them Kaegel," Jack instructed his Lion. "And for God's sake, see they take him alive!"

  "Yes, your grace," the guardsman saluted, following Gallon.

  "Erlwin!"

  "m'Lord?" Erlwin asked, taking Jack's arm as he slid from the examination table.

  "Let's go!"

  "Go where?"

  "To the east tower!"

  The pair hurried across the palace grounds with an awkward, three-legged trot, but Jack soon grew impatient at their slow pace and shook off Erlwin's arm. He gingerly tested his injured knee, and felt a brief twinge when he put full weight on the leg. The Coldroot Salve dulled the pain enough he could walk unsupported, but he would probably pay for it later. Jack nodded assurance when Erlwin gave him a concerned look, then grimly set off again towards the east tower.

  They arrived a few minutes later to find the door still standing, though six burly guardsmen were pounding at it with a battering-ram under the direction of a shouting lieutenant. Nearby stood a dozen more with swords drawn, waiting for the door to give way. Kaegel was at their front. Valarius was also there, cringing noticeably with each strike of the ram. Seeing Jack approach, he swallowed nervously and looked up at the tower in dismay. Why in the hell was the steward acting so oddly? Doctor Gallon was kneeling beside Valarius, hurriedly inspecting the contents of his field bag. When he looked up and saw Jack, he frowned in disappoint.

  A final swing of the ram collapsed the door with a splintering crash and the dozen guardsman, led by Kaegel and the Dragon lieutenant, rushed into the tower. They were quickly halted by another barred door at the top of the keep however, which forced them to call down for the ram once more. As it was passed up the narrow staircase, Doctor Gallon took the opportunity to work his way to the front, with Jack limping close behind. A single swing of the ram ripped the door from its hinges and Kaegel and the officer entered cautiously.

  "Doctor Gallon!" both men cried at once.

  "Out of my way!" the physician commanded, shoving his way through the milling soldiers.

  "Careful doctor!" Jack called after him, following as quickly as his injured leg would allow.

  When he entered the room however, Jack saw instantly the old man would be in no danger. Though the assassin, the one dressed in black he had seen slipping around the corner of the maze, had a dagger clutched in his left hand, he was beyond threatening anyone. But it was not the arrow in his thigh or the thrust from Jack's sword which had disabled the man in black. Something more horrific had caused his demise. His eyes were wide open, completely red
from ruptured blood vessels, and a yellow, viscous fluid was seeping from both his nose and mouth.

  "He's taken poison," sighed Doctor Gallon, kneeling beside the dying man to study him more closely. "Black Rapture Powder would be my guess by the look of him. Though I cannot be certain without examining his spleen of course,” he remarked sadly.

  "Is there an antidote?" Jack asked hopefully.

  "One I could give him in time to stop the hemorrhaging?" Gallon snorted, standing to wipe the dust from his trousers. "Not unless you happen to have some crushed Ahvendalia leaves in your pocket. You don't do you? No? Then I'm afraid this poor fellow is as good as dead."

  "Shit," Jack muttered, sinking down beside the assassin.

  "Is this one of the men you saw in the maze your grace." the Dragon Guard officer asked.

  "Well of course he is," Valarius sighed, sounding almost... relieved?

  "Yes," Jack nodded, looking at the steward curiously. What the hell was going on here?

  "Do any of you recognize him?" Th'lann asked quickly, avoiding Braedan's eyes. "Lieutenant?"

  "No m'Lord," the officer replied.

  "Bring in your men and have them take a look."

  None of the other guardsman recognized the man in black either.

  "Unfortunate," Valarius said sadly. "Lieutenant, have his body taken down to the Dragon Barracks and shown to everyone who stood watch at the palace gates in the last twenty-four hours."

  "At once sir," the officer saluted and motioned for a pair of guardsmen to collect the assassin, now clearly dead.

  "I must go and make a report to the king," Valarius sighed quietly. "He will want an explanation from me when he learns the assassin was not taken alive."

  The steward turned and followed the lieutenant from the tower, unaware Jack had suddenly grown deathly pale. He had finally recognized the familiar voice in the maze.

  "Your grace?" Erlwin said quickly, dropping to his side. "Are you well?"

  "I'm fine," Jack hissed. "Erlwin, I want you to follow Valarius! Don't let him out of your sight!"

  "Follow the steward? Why m'Lord?"

  "Because the sonofabitch was the other man in the maze!" he snarled with righteous rage. The second conspirator was Valarius Th'lann, the Steward of Brydium!

  "You are certain?" a confused Prince Thonicil asked a few minutes later when Jack reported his suspicions to the heir of the Dragonslayer. He had arrived just as Kaegel was assisting him over the shattered remains of the tower door and Braedan wasted no time informing the Prince of Brydium of the steward's treachery.

  "Absolutely," Jack assured him. "His was one of the voices I heard in the maze. I even heard him use the same phrase, 'He'll want an explanation from me', once in the maze then again in the east tower. The bastard also knew I injured my leg leaping over the hedge. I never told anyone how it happened. He knew because he saw me! He was there. I'm sure of it!"

  "Valarius has been the chief steward since...since as long as I can remember," Thonicil argued, as if years of service alone could absolve him. "His family has been loyal servants of the throne for a thousand years!"

  "It was him dammit!" Jack repeated. "I don't care if he is God's own shoe-shine boy. He's a Judas Bloody traitor!"

  "But why?" the anguished prince demanded, unable to comprehend how Valarius Th'lann could be a...a traitor. "What possible reason could the steward have for betraying the House of Th'nar?"

  "If I may highness," Doctor Gallon interrupted. "Perhaps I can explain." Maerdias had heard Jack tell Erlwin to follow Valarius, and his reason. After confronting Jack, he had had no choice but to tell the doctor the entire story of Nalon-Lox and his nest of traitors in the west.

  "I wish to hell someone would," Thonicil cried.

  "If memory serves me," the physician continued, massaging his bald plate as if trying to dredge up some deeply hidden knowledge. "When King Bryden the First died heirless, the houses of Th'lann and Th'nar contested bitterly to for the throne until the High Council finally bestowed the crown upon Lord Tharus Th'nar."

  "You remember correctly," the prince nodded. "But what does that have to..."

  "Bear with me highness," Gallon interrupted. "Now if Kiathan Ellgaer is in league...in league with the enemy to usurp the throne of Doridan as Duke Jack claims, it may be possible Valarius hopes..."

  "The Dragon Throne," Jack nodded, seeing where the doctor's reasoning was headed. "He wants your father's crown."

  "A crown he considers the rightful property of the House of Th'lann," Gallon finished sadly. "No doubt Valarius has been promised the kingdom as bounty for betraying the west to Gorthiel."

  "Guards!" Thonicil shouted, convinced at last. "Attend me!"

  "Highness?" a sergeant bowed, rushing to his side.

  "Take your squad and arrest Valarius Th'lann," the prince commanded, his voice trembling with rage.

  The sergeant saluted with closed fist over heart and turned without a word.

  "But highness," Doctor Gallon ventured hesitantly. "If you arrest Valarius, do you not run the danger of altering other traitors?"

  "That is of little consequence," the prince replied. "Cut off the serpent's head and the body will die!"

  "I have Erlwin following him," Jack informed Thonicil. "He won't be able to move without us knowing it."

  "No!" Thonicil cried, refusing to be swayed. "Protocol may not allow us to openly name Kiathan Ellgaer a traitor, but I vow, Valarius Th'lann will not spend another second plotting against the king!"

  No argument the doctor raised could sway Thonicil and Jack certainly did not try again. He was also anxious to get his hands on Th'lann. But apparently that chance would not come any time soon. A runner arrived not many minutes later and informed the prince Valarius was nowhere to be found. He was not in the east wing of the palace where the king was meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, nor was he in his office. The runner then went on to say however, they had found Erlwin lying unconscious on the floor of the steward's private study.

  After reviving the guardsman, Erlwin had groggily recounted how he had followed Valarius as ordered. When the steward had entered his study, Erlwin had hidden himself in a nearby alcove where he could watch the door unobserved. He had only been waiting there a few minutes when a mysterious figure in a hooded, black robe appeared, entering Th'lann's study. Thinking to catch the pair in compromising conversation, Erlwin burst into the room and...there his actions ended. He had been struck senseless as soon as the crossed the threshold. By a blow or some other means he could not say.

  Not long after his account, another runner arrived with the message one of the Dragon Guards had recognized the man in black as someone he passed through the palace gate earlier in the morning. He remembered the man because he had refused him entrance to the palace grounds until he had produced papers identifying himself as a member of the Royal Intelligence Service. The papers had also stated the bearer was not to be detained or delayed for any reason, and all actions undertaken by him were done with full knowledge and approval of the crown. The papers had been signed and stamped with the personal seal of Valarius Th'lann.

  "Close the city!" Thonicil commanded when he heard this disturbing news. "No one enters or leaves Brythond until Valarius is found!"

  Chapter Seventeen

  A Tidy Sum

  For the first time in a generation, Brythond was placed under the booted heel of martial law. Dragon guardsmen roamed the streets, searching house to house without regard to position or station. No rich merchant's villa or noble's palatial estate, no beggar's hovel or grandfather's dusty attic was safe from their prying eyes. Neither high nor low was spared, for when the chief steward of the king was a traitor, who could be above suspicion?

  Only the consulate of Doridan resisted the determined search of the Dragonslayer's troops, Ambassador Hawthorne adamantly refusing King Theros' men admittance into his estate to hunt for the fugitive Valarius. No amount of diplomatic negotiation could open their doors. It finally too
k the threat of expulsion of the entire Doridanian mission from Brydium and a severing of the Whesguard Treaty to convince Hawthorne Theros was resolved to search every square inch of Brythond, damn the cost, before the ambassador relented. But no sign of Th'lann or the mysterious black robed man was found in the embassy of Dorshev.

  With empty hands the Dragon Guardsmen left to redouble their efforts in the city, rounding up known malcontents and arresting average citizens who could not immediately explain their reason for begin on the streets of Brythond. After three days of this the city jails were filled to the point of bursting and the populace began to grumble.

  The situation came to a head on the sixth day of martial law in a seedier section of the Circle of Services, when a group of one hundred land-locked fishermen, denied the pursuit of their lively hood because they could not reach Lake Issa, confronted a patrol of guardsman. No one could say for certain afterwards what caused the standoff to turn violent, but before order was finally restored half a city block had burned to the ground and forty-seven people had lost their lives.

  The terrible tragedy shocked the citizens of Brythond beyond words, and the crown even more. Theros wept openly as Field Marshal Tolkaen read him the report of the incident the following morning. The king retired to his study in the company of Queen Elaynor and Nael Hartwain the Minister of Justice, and an hour later, emerged with the order to suspend the search for Valarius forthwith. Everyone confined in Brythond's swollen jails not charged with some other crime was immediately released with heartfelt apology, and instructed to submit writs of grievance for lost wages and suffering. The Dragon Guards lifted road blocks and checkpoints and returned to their barracks and the city heaved a collective sigh of relief.