“Listen,” Aedan said to his captors, “if you mean us any harm, then know that my father will pay handsomely for the safe return of my little brother and me.”
One of the goblins chuckled as he sat astride his wolf. His laughter was an ugly, rasping sound.
“Brothers, is it?” he said with a sneer. “Funny, I seem to recall that the emperor had only one son.”
Aedan tried to keep his alarm from showing-They knew! But perhaps there was a chance he could still convince them otherwise. He glanced at Michael, who apparently didn’t even know enough to be afraid.
Instead, he looked angry-furious, in factand was making noises into his gag, which fortunately were completely unintelligible.
“The emperor?” said Aedan, trying to look surprised. “What in Haelyn’s name makes you think our father is the emperor? He is but a lowly viscount.”
“Save your breath, boy,” said the goblin leader.
-The prince has already told us who he is. He has promised to have us all drawn and quartered and then boiled in oil for daring to lay hands on his royal person.- He chuckled. “No one but a prince could possess such arrogance at so young an age.”
Aedan silently cursed Michael for a fool. If only he’d known enough to keep his mouth shut! “What did you tell them that for, you little idiot?” he said to Michael angrily. ‘If they think you are the prince, they’ll only demand a higher ransom, more than our father could ever hope to pay!” He turned back to the goblin leader. ‘Don’t listen to him; he’s just a child! He must have hoped to frighten you into releasing him. He didn’t know that goblins would not fear the power of the emperor, as we do!”
The goblin leader smiled. “A good attempt, young lord,” he said. ‘And I might even have believed you had I not had the prince described to me in detail, nor seen the royal signet graved in gold on his left hand.”
He held up the ring. “I shall keep this as a trophy. Our quest has gone far more easily than I could ever have expected. Who would have thought that our quarry would come riding straight into our waiting arms?”
The goblin leader’s words sent a chill through Aedan. They had not merely stumbled onto a raiding party. These wolfriders had come specifically for the purpose of kidnapping the prince! They knew the royal seal, and they had a description of the prince, as well. They must have been waiting in the forest for an opportunity to seize Prince Michael as
he was out hawking or riding, and they had come prepared to do battle with an armed escort that, Aedan realized miserably, he should have brought along with him as he usually did. All that could only mean one thing-someone had given them that information. There was a traitor in the Imperial Court! But who?
Who stood to gain the most from some tragedy befalling Michael? Arwyn of Boeruine, of course.
Aedan’s father had considered the possibility of Arywn’s ambition leading him to treachery, but he had not considered that Arwyn could be so bold and black-hearted as to ally himself with goblins. But then, if Arwyn wanted Michael dead, why go to such lengths? Why not just hire some brigands or some mercenaries to perform the task, or else entrust it to some of his own men, whose loyalty to him was beyond question? Why involve the goblins? And why, for that matter, would goblins enter into any plot with a human warlord? There had to be some reason that would benefit both parties. Aedan tried to think clearly.
If he could reason out their motives, it might help him figure out what to do.
If the goblins planned to hold the prince for ransom, as seemed likely from their behavior and what the goblin leader said, Arwyn of Boeruine would be the logical choice to deliver that ransom. And since the emperor was at Seaharrow and not Anuire, he had no immediate access to the treasury, which meant Lord Arwyn would have to raise the ransom himself. And that would put the emperor-and more significantly, the empress-in his debt. But what would be in it for the goblins? Well, the ransom itself, obviously. That could be enough. The only heir to the imperial throne would bring, literally, a princely ransom.
However, if no ransom was forthcoming, Michael would probably be killed.
The goblins would get all the blame, and no suspicion would ever fall on Lord Arwyn. All he had to do was fail to deliver the ransom, or claim the goblins had killed Michael anyway, in spite of the ransom being paid. And that, of course, would mean war.
That had to be the answer, Aedan thought. A war would benefit both Lord Arwyn and the goblin prince of Thurazor. If the Archduke Boeruine declared a war of retribution against Thurazor for the murder of the prince, the empire would surely unite behind him, for any noble who refused the call to arms would appear to be taking the side of the go lins. And the same thing would unite the goblin kingdoms behind Thurazor. The elves living in the Aelvinnwode would be caught squarely in the middle, and it would be impossible for them to remain neutral in the conflict. They would have to choose one side or the other. There would be no question of their siding with the goblins, their ageold enemies. Even at the height of the gheallie Sidhe, the elves had hated the goblins just as much as they had hated humans, if not more.
Besides, since then, the elves of Tuarhievel had established tenuous trading ties with the outposts of the empire.
It was a foregone conclusion that, caught between two warring armies, the elves would take the empire’s side. Regardless of which side they chose, however, they would be the losers in the end, for the war would be fought upon their lands, which lay between the goblin kingdom of Thurazor and the
empire’s northern frontier. It would mean the end of Tuarhievel’s independence. Because of geographical factors alone, the elves would suffer the greatest death toll, and when, at length, the war was concluded with a negotiated peace that would allow both sides to claim victory, the elven lands would be partitioned between the empire and the goblin kingdom, and any elves who had survived would either be forced to flee or else live in subjugation under the goblins or the humans.
It all fit together and made perfect sense, but reasoning it out gave Aedan little satisfaction at this point, for it meant Michael almost surely had to die.
And if Michael’s death was a foregone conclusion, so was his. Well, Father, he thought, it seems I’ve learned how to consider possibilities, for all the good it’s done me. And I thought my worst worry would be Laera.
Several of the goblins dragged over a crude litter they had lashed together from pine boughs and branches. They harnessed it to two of the larger wolves, so that one end dragged upon the ground, and tied Michael to it. The goblin leader then rode over to Aedan.
“I perceive you are a noble’s son,” he said. “Therefore, you should be worth something, as you attend the prince. Well, you may continue to attend him, provided you do not slow us down. You are too big for the wolves to draw upon a litter, so you shall have to run. Keep up, and you shall live. But if you cannot keep pace. . . ” The goblin made a slashing motion across his throat.
Aedan gulped. “I shall do my best,” he said.
“We shall soon see if your best is good enough,” the goblin said with a sneer.
Aedan’s arms were tied behind him securely, and a rope was looped around his neck, the end held by a wolfrider who grinned at him maliciously, showing his pointed teeth.
“Let us go,” the goblin leader said. “Before long, these two shall be missed and a search party will be sent out. I intend to be deep in the Aelvinnwode by then.”
The wolfriders moved off, with Michael drawn on the fitter, bound and gagged securely. Aedan had to run to keep up and keep slack in the rope around his neck, which he soon realized had been tied with a slipknot.
If he allowed any tension, it would choke him. Unlike Michael, he had not been gagged. The goblins were not concerned about his calling out, since it was not likely anyone would hear. Besides, one jerk on the rope would cut off any cry he made, and they had Michael as a hostage for his silence. It occurred to him that Michael might have been spared his gag, as well, had he possessed the sense not
to lose his temper with his captors and annoy them.
Aedan was amazed at Michael’s lack of fear, but then, the prince had never had any real reason to be afraid before. Perhaps his young mind simply did not grasp the danger, or the fact of his own mortality.
In any case, Aedan soon forgot all about Michael as his attention became occupied with trying to keep up with the wolfrider who held his rope.
The wolves were trotting through the thick forest at a good pace, but fortunately, they were not running all out, otherwise Aedan would never have been able to keep up with them. Clearly, the wolves drawing Michael’s litter could manage no more than a trot, for which ol Aedan was profoundly grateful. As it was, it wasn’t long before his lungs were burning and his legs aching and he was gasping for breath.
Several times, he faltered as he tripped over a rock or an exposed root, and the rope tightened around his neck. To his relief, he discovered that the slipknot was tied in such a manner that it would loosen once again after he got some slack back in the rope, but it still took some time before the tension eased and there were periods when he found himself struggling to draw breath while having to run harder to catch up and gain more slack. His entire world became simply putting one foot in front of the other and avoiding any obstacles that could trip him up and bring about disaster. It was sheer torture.
After a while, they stopped to rest, just when Aedan felt he couldn’t run another step. He had lost all track of time as he had tried desperately to keep pace. As they stopped, he fell gratefully to the ground, sobbing for breath. His clothes were drenched with sweat and his legs felt as if they were on fire. They still had a long way to go to reach Thurazor, which Aedan assumed must be their destination. He tried to recall his geography lessons. He seemed to remember that Thurazor was at least three or four days’ travel from Boeruine, through the Five Peaks region covered by the Aelvinnwode. He did not see how he could possibly last that long. He already felt completely worn out.
Still, he could not afford to think about his own exhaustion. His first duty was to the prince. Gasping for breath, he dragged himself to his knees and looked up at the wolfrider who held his rope.
“May I please see to the prince?” he asked hoarsely.
The goblin grunted and released the rope, jerking his head toward the litter. Aedan knew there was little reason for them to fear he would run away.
With his hands tied behind his back and exhausted as he was, he would not have gotten ten steps before the wolves brought him down. He struggled to his feet and made his way over to the litter, while the goblins sat cross-legged on the ground, munching on some sort of dried jerky they had taken from their bags. Aedan didn’t want to speculate on what sort of meat it was. He crouched beside the litter, then glanced at the goblin leader. He could not loosen Michael’s gag, since his own hands were tied. He knelt beside the litter.
“I am deeply sorry about this, my lord,” he said.
“If I had met you at the stables, as I should have, none of this would have happened.”
Michael simply shook his head. It was evident that the seriousness of their situation had finally sunk in, but as his eyes met Aedan’s, there was no reproach in them.
“We are in very desperate straits, indeed,” said Aedan, keeping his voice low. “We must try our best to keep our wits about us.”
Michael nodded that he understood.
Aedan hesitated. Should he share his suspicions with the prince? He had no proof that Lord Arwyn had a hand in their abduction, and he could hardly make such a serious accusation without evidence, although he wasn’t sure how much it really mattered now. Still, he felt he owed it to Michael to be honest with him about how precarious their plight truly was. He took a deep breath and then continued.
“I doubt there is much hope for rescue,” he said.
“At least we are still alive. It would seem they intend to demand ransom for us. There is, however, another possibility. They might intend to sell us into slavery.
A goblin lord who held the Prince of Anuire as his personal slave would gain immeasurable status, and as such, you would bring a considerable price. Aside from that, Thurazor and all the other goblin realms would greatly benefit from instability within the empire.”
Aedan paused and swallowed nervously, then plunged on. “And if the heir to the throne were killed … it would almost certainly lead to war, which could be of benefit to certain factions within both the empire and the goblin realms. The succession would be placed in doubt, and any number of powerful nobles in the empire would intrigue to gain the throne. In such a climate, armed conflict would be inevitable, and the goblins would be able to increase their territories and gain strength while the empire was torn by civil war.”
Michael’s gaze was somber. He shook his head slightly, his eyes asking the question.
“What are we to do?” said Aedan, guessing what he meant.
Michael nodded.
Aedan sighed wearily. “For the moment, there seems to be nothing we can do. We shall have to bide our time and wait for an opportunity to escape, if we can. I shall be honest with you … our chances are very slim. Still, we must try. In the meantime, we must not antagonize our captors, as you did before.
We must act frightened and submissive, and hope for the best. There is no shame in showing fear in a
situation like this, and it could work for us. Let them think they have broken our spirits. Then they may get careless, and we may get lucky.”
Michael nodded once again.
“You, there!” the goblin leader called out. “What are you whispering about?”
“I was merely trying to reassure His Highness,” said Aedan. “He is frightened and having trouble breathing. Can you not remove the gag, at least? I promise he will not trouble you.”
The goblin leader jerked his head at one of the wolfriders. “Remove the boy’s gag,” he said. “But if he does not keep his mouth shut, it goes right back on again.”
“Could we please have some water, too?” Aedan pleaded.
“Give them water,” the goblin leader said curtly.
“Thank you. You are most gracious,” Aedan said, bowing his head slightly.
The goblin leader chuckled. “Gracious, am I? Well, no one has ever said that to me before. You hear that?” he said to the others. “I am most gracious.
How do you like that?”
They all laughed maliciously.
One of the goblins removed Michael’s gag and cut Aedan’s bonds, but left the rope around his neck. He handed him a waterskin and said, “I will leave your arms untied, but mind that if you try to run, we shall set the wolves on you. We have the prince. We do not need you.”
“You think I would leave my prince?” said Aedan.
“You might to save your own skin,” the goblin said.
“If you believe that,” said Aedan, “you know nothing of honor and duty.”
“I know you’ve a rope around your neck,- the goblin said, sneering, “and you would dangle nicely from a tree, so mind your mouth, boy!”
Right, thought Aedan. Don’t antagonize them. He would do well to take his own advice. He offered the waterskin to Michael, but the prince shook his head.
“No, you drink first, Aedan. You have been running, and you must be exhausted.”
Aedan was in no mood to argue. “Thank you, my lord,” he said, and drank greedily. He then held the skin to Michael’s Ups so he could drink, as well.
“I do not blame you for this, Aedan,” Michael said when he was finished drinking. “it is all my fault. I should have waited for you instead of riding off alone.”
“And I should have been doing my duty, instead of…. Well, I suppose it really doesn’t matter now.
We shall get through this somehow, I promise you.”
“I am not afraid,” said Michael.
“I am,” Aedan confessed.
“Haelyn will not let us die,” said Michael with conviction.
Aedan sighe
d. “I wish I shared your faith, my lord.”
“Right now, I am lord of nothing,- Michael said, so you may as well call me by my name. After all, it is not as if we are at court.”
Aedan had to smile. “Very well, Michael.” He patted his shoulder.
“With any luck, we may live to see court once again.”
“Aedan, listen … if you have a chance to escape without me, you must do so.”
‘Absolutely not,’ said Aedan.
“I insist. I order it.”
Aedan smiled. “As you said, we are not at court now. When we return, you can have me punished for my disobedience. But I shall not leave you.”
“I will have you lashed for your impertinence.”
“As you wish.”
“I will make you marry Lady Ariel.”
Aedan grinned. “That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
“Would you rather marry my sister?”
Aedan stared at him, completely taken aback.
“I heard you, you know,” said Michael. “In the stall. Why do you think I left? I knew what you were doing.”
Aedan was stunned. “But … what would you know of such things?”
“I’m not stupid, you know.”
“I … I don’t know what to say,” said Aedan, blushing with embarrassment and shame.
“You could certainly do much better,” Michael said. “Laera may be my sister, but she is selfish and mean-tempered. She cares nothing for you. She cares nothing for anyone except herself. She will only bring you trouble.”
Aedan snorted. “You mean, this isn’t trouble enough?”
“You may have a point, there.”
Aedan shook his head ruefully. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, it’s over. I finally came to my senses, though a bit too late, I fear.
I am truly sorry, Michael. And deeply ashamed. I’ve let you down.”
“You certainly have,” said Michael. “I see I shall have to choose your wife for you. You seem to have no judgment in such matters.”
Aedan could not help smiling. “And you, of course, are vastly experienced.”
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