The guard hesitated. “Yes, of course Milord...”
Hugo could tell this wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but he didn't care. He had no time to chase after criminals that hadn't committed any serious crimes that he knew of.
Before Hugo could say any more, another guard ran up, saluted when he saw Hugo, and said to the other guard, “Sir, we have another report that may suggest foul play.”
“Report, soldier,” the original guard said.
“One of the guards just spotted a group of those assailants chasing a young woman and an old man. He attempted to investigate, but both parties eluded him.”
Hugo's heart sank. “Young woman?”
“That's right, Milord,” the second guard said, “but the strange part is that he could have sworn she looked just like Lady Kaina.”
Hugo took one long stride and closed the gap between himself and the second guard in less than a second. This caught the young man off guard, but Hugo grabbed him anyway and said, “Where were they?”
“Th-they were headed t-towards the stables, Sir,” the frightened guard stuttered.
Hugo released the guard and replied, “You and your men are in luck, because I am here to search for Kaina.”
The guards exchanged a glance and the first one said, “Well, that certainly explains your presence here, Milord.”
Hugo put a finger up and said, “Tell your men to search for Lady Kaina and bring her back to the manor. This is top secret, mind you, so do not allow any civilians to become aware of her absence. Understood?”
The men both saluted and said simultaneously, “Yes, Milord.”
They dispersed and the first guard went to another to spread the word. With any luck, one of the guards would spot her and Hugo would be able to bring her back to the manor without Prince Casimir being any the wiser.
Once Kaina became no more than a speck on the black horizon, Aldis turned back to face the hoard of Disciples coming his way. The old scholar pulled a parcel shaped like the book out from under his robe, held it above his head, and shouted, “You want the book? Come and get it.”
Aldis ran off towards the town cemetery, and heard the shuffling of feet as the men chased after him, and he made sure to keep a slow enough pace so that they had their eyes on him at all times. He passed through several alleys until he could see the peak of the Haventhorn family's mausoleum in the distance.
Aldis made it to the opposite end of the graveyard just as the men surrounded him. The man who tried to attack him before now held the knife again, and he stepped forward with the dagger drawn and said, “Now you can't run, old man. You walked right into your own death.”
Aldis smiled. “Or, I simply led you away from the town so that I could avoid innocent bystanders.”
“Give us the book,” the thug said.
“I'm afraid I cannot do that,” Aldis said. “I would hate to see it fall into the wrong hands.”
The men charged at Aldis and he cast his hand forward, sending waves of pure energy that formed into violet, concentrated blasts. These blasts hit each of the Disciples one by one, sending several of the smaller of them flying backwards, but the biggest among them merely stumbled and recovered soon after. Aldis focused his energy on the ground, and sent hundreds of pieces of rock hurdling towards the few who were still standing. The rocks pummeled the men, some even striking them hard enough in the head to cause them to drop to the ground.
Some of the men from before who had been hit by the initial wave managed to recover and charged at Aldis once again. He anticipated this, and was ready to cast yet again. He focused his energy again and this time, he cast a torrent of air and dust at the men. They were both blinded and disoriented, and for several seconds they coughed and rubbed their eyes to try to get the debris out.
Aldis attempted to ready another spell, but his body refused to act. Completely immobile, he could feel a sickness coursing through his veins. Try as he might, he couldn't even turn his head to see who the culprit was, but he knew that it could only be one thing.
Another wizard.
“I always suspected you were a wizard, Aldis, but I never thought you would be foolish enough to reveal yourself in public.”
Aldis didn't have to turn his head to know who his captor was. “I should say the same about you, Azemar.”
Azemar kept his hand trained forward with his binding spell active, pushing a paralytic energy through Aldis' veins. He moved forward until his fingertips were just inches from Aldis' temple and said, “Grab the book.”
The thugs all moved forward, but the one with the dagger snatched the book from Aldis' arm and began to open the parcel.
“What the...?”
When he removed the paper surrounding the book, he realized that it was nothing more than a piece of old wood that was shaped like a book.
Azemar walked around Aldis and stared into the old man's eyes. “Where is it? Where is the book?”
Aldis said nothing.
“No matter, I have my ways of getting you to talk,” Azemar said.
Azemar released his spell over Aldis, but before he could react the thugs fell upon him and held his arms in place. The former pointed two fingers at the latter's forehead and a green light appeared. When the light made contact with Aldis' skin, it seeped into it and burrowed into his soul, all while he remained helpless to stop it.
Azemar lowered his hand and stared into Aldis' eyes. “I can tell by the look on your face that you know what I did to you. I can now ask you anything and you will be forced to tell me the absolute truth.”
Aldis gagged and gasped for breath as the power of the truth spell assaulted his body and took control of his mind.
“Now then,” Azemar said, “where is the book?”
Aldis tried not to speak, but the more he resisted the more his body burned.
“It's...with...Kaina...”
“Kaina?” Azemar said. “You gave it to her?”
“N-n-no.”
“Where did she get it?”
“Didn...didn't...tell me...”
Azemar looked to the ground for a moment as he thought carefully about his next question, then he looked back up and asked, “Where is she?”
Aldis knew it would be pointless to fight, but the longer he resisted, the longer Kaina would have to have as much of a head start as possible.
“She...ngh...she...wen...UGH!”
Azemar stared into his eyes again and said, “That pain you're feeling is my magic coursing through your blood and manipulating you as I see fit. It doesn't like to be ignored, Aldis. You can make this stop by simply telling me what I want to know. Where. Is. Kaina?”
Aldis tried to hold it back, in spite of the pain, but the words came pouring out beyond his control, “She...she went to Eldercliff!”
“Why is she going there?”
“I sent her to find Melchior.”
Aldis bit his lip, knowing fully well he had said too much, but it was beyond his control.
Azemar's thin lips curled into a wicked grin as he said, “Now there is a name I haven't heard in years.”
Azemar gestured to the men. “Tie him up and bring him to the shack. I'll be along as soon as I'm done here. In the meantime, send word to our associates in Eldercliff to be on the lookout for Kaina Haventhorn and inform them that she will be waiting to hear from Melchior.”
Azemar turned and left the graveyard as the thugs surrounded Aldis and bound his arms, legs, and gagged him. As they hauled him off over the gate and out of Eboncrest, he could only hope that Kaina would have enough time to make it to Eldercliff safely.
Chapter 6
Hugo knew he heard voices when he sprinted towards the graveyard with a group of guards. When they arrived there, they found patches of dirt flung about, but otherwise there was no sign of any living soul stood on the deathly ground.
Hugo brushed a hand through his dark blonde hair as he tried desperately to think of what to do next. There had been no sign of Kaina and no sign of any more a
ssailants. Hugo feared that Kaina was long gone, and that the prince would take out his wrath on the Haventhorn family. His blood boiled at the thought of losing his title and honor all because of his cousin's pride, and he turned to the other guards and said, “Spread out and search every home, store, and building until you find Kaina Haventhorn.”
“Yes Milord,” they all said.
After they spread out to carry out their orders, Hugo decided to head back to the manor and report in with his grandfather, and along the way he mentally prepared himself for the lashing he was likely to endure.
Due to the stress of the night's events, Elias remained in his study after hours in a desperate attempt to form a plan to keep Prince Casimir from finding out that Kaina ran off. He knew that even though there would be no proof, people would talk and what she had done would soon be on everyone's tongues and the Haventhorn family would be the laughing stock of Ilesia.
Elias heard arguing somewhere out in the corridor, but he paid no heed to it. If he had any hope of saving his family from the shame that was sure to come, he had to ignore everything else and focus only on the task at hand.
“You were told to remain in the manor, Hugo,” he heard Roland shout.
“I couldn't just sit by while Kaina destroyed everything we've worked for,” followed Hugo's voice.
“Don't speak so loudly! If the Prince hears you, we'll be ruined!”
“We'll be ruined either way. Do you really expect him to believe anything other than the fact that Kaina ran away?”
At that point Elias acted. He shot up from his chair and ran to the door. He didn't hear anything else that was said, only that he threw the door to the study open and snatched the two by their collars and dragged them into the study.
After he had release them and they were standing straight and looking at him, Elias hissed, “What are you two going on about? Hugo, did you leave the manor when I specifically ordered you not to?”
Hugo shook his head. “I went to look for Kaina, but while in town I discovered that several unknown assailants were attacking the town guards. I don't know what they were after, but it seems they didn't take anything.”
An idea struck Elias, and that same rare smile formed on his wrinkled face. The other two noticed and grew visibly disturbed by this, especially when Elias said, “Or did they?”
Elias darted over to his desk and set a piece of parchment in the center. He snatched up his quill and dipped it in his inkwell, and with trembling fingers he began to write.
As he was working, Hugo and Roland stared and took a few steps forward to see what he was doing.
“Father,” Roland said, “what are you doing? We need to find Kaina and fix this mess.”
“We will,” Elias said. “After you post the reward for her safe return in tomorrow's post, there were surely be thousands of men searching for her.”
“Reward? But I thought you wanted to keep this discreet?” Hugo asked.
“Certainly not now that Roland has brought me the ransom note,” Elias said.
“What ransom note?” Roland asked.
Elias finished what he was writing and held up the parchment for both men to see. “This one, of course. You brought it to me after Hugo found it in town and showed it to you. He went into town to search for his cousin after he saw masked men dragging her off from the manor, remember?”
A knowing smile spread over Hugo's face. “That's right, I can't believe I had forgotten that.”
Roland chuckled. “Clever, father. Very clever.”
“Certainly Prince Casimir will be sympathetic to the family of his betrothed after she was snatched by unknown men who are demanding a price for her return?” Elias said.
“And the people would be flooding to our aid and our name would be known all across Ilesia,” Roland said.
Elias set the paper down and said, “Go and fetch Hamelin and alert the town guards. We will inform the prince in the morning, and by sunset tomorrow the entire kingdom will be looking for Kaina, and once we find her we can return her to the prince's waiting arms.”
“Of course,” Hugo said.
As soon as he left the room, Roland said, “Do you think this will work? Surely after what happened at the ball, the prince might suspect something is amiss?”
“If we didn't have witnesses who saw the assailants in town, then he might suspect that we fabricated the whole thing to cover up Kaina's actions. With this combined with Hugo's presence in Eboncrest and the men in town, however, I believe we have a convincing story,” Elias said.
“I don't know about this,” Roland muttered.
Elias peered at his son through narrowed eyes, stood up, and said, “There is one thing that I cannot seem to wrap my head around, though.”
“What's that?”
Elias circled his desk and continued, “You and Kaina have never seen eye to eye, yet you ironically have far more in common than you realize.”
Roland's skin blanched. “I do hope you aren't implying something.”
“I'm not implying anything. You've been a dutiful son, and although your brother will be taking my place when I'm gone, you've done all that you can to keep this family together. I take pride in my ways, Roland. I'm a traditional man with traditional beliefs: everyone must do their part to serve their family and their king.”
Elias stared into the fire and continued, “You criticize Kaina for her curious nature, yet isn't it strange how you often do the same? You question my decisions and make remarks about problems that are mine and mine alone to deal with.”
Roland tried to speak, but all that could come out was a series of utters and gasps.
Elias turned and began walking towards him. “For four hundred years, the Haventhorn family has lived by many laws, but there is one that we have followed since the time of our forefathers.”
Elias grabbed Roland by the collar, pulled him so close that the tips of their noses were almost touching, and he said, “'Never question the Patriarch.'”
He released Roland, whose legs had buckled underneath him and he collapsed to the floor. He struggled to keep his breath under control as Elias walked back around to his seat. The old man sat back down, and only then did Roland rise.
Elias kept his eyes trained on him as he said, “We stick to the plan. If I hear of any more doubts or if you deviate from the plan in any way, I will eliminate you.”
Roland stood up and gave no indication that he was agreeing to these terms, but he still stepped out of the room without another word.
Elias sat in silence with his hands folded in front of him. Though he normally retired by now, he had no desire to sleep. By morning the entire town would be buzzing about the “abduction,” and Prince Casimir would begin the search for his betrothed.
Everything would go according to plan, and the Haventhorn family would finally receive the recognition they deserved.
Kaina had already made it halfway between Eboncrest and the foot of the Crescent Mountains by the time she could see the faint hint of sunlight on the horizon. Duchess had slowed to a trot, and she knew the poor creature would have to rest soon. She rubbed her eyes and realized that she had been crying, no doubt over her worrying about Aldis. She could only hope that he was able to fend off the Disciples and get to safety.
A noise coming from somewhere behind Kaina caught her attention. It was a whistle, by the sound of it, and she turned around to look for the source. She saw nothing at first, but then she noticed that part of a figure coming up from one of the hills. Kaina had a hard time focusing on the figure, as the horse's gait prevented her from keeping steady enough to see, but something reflected the sunlight as it whisked her way, and before it landed Kaina knew exactly what it was.
“RUN!” Kaina shouted as she whipped Duchess' reins. An arrow landed mere inches from the mare's leg only a second later.
Duchess took off in a full sprint upon hearing the arrow and several more that flew through the air. One by one, arrow after arrow struck the gr
ound by the horse's legs. Kaina feared that they were attempting to hit her legs to stop any chances of them getting away. She presumed they were bandits, but there was still the lingering worry that it was those Disciples again.
Kaina looked back and saw several men in blue hooded cloaks and black jerkins chasing after her on horses while bowmen kept firing and missing Duchess by a hair. Kaina feared that the horse wouldn't be able to keep this up, so she tried steering her in different directions to better avoid the arrow fire. It was in vain, however, for wherever the horse went, the arrows fell and sent her in another direction.
“They're guiding her!” Kaina gasped.
Kaina looked back again and to her horror, she saw that the men were getting closer and they were getting ropes ready. Due to her horse's fatigue, there was no way to outrun them. The men came in close and tossed the ropes. They landed around the horse's neck, and once they were secure, the men halted their horses and in turn, Kaina's. Duchess bucked in an attempt to fight off the invaders, and it took everything Kaina had to hold on. A hand grabbed her, then several, and pulled her off of her horse and onto her feet.
The men held her in place and wrapped her hands behind her back as she watched Duchess get tied up and secured by her captors. She struggled in vain to get free, and with each passing second the realization that she was in deep trouble set in further.
“Let me go!” Kaina shrieked.
The men ignored her pleas and simply moved about without speaking. They handed her off to one of the other men, who pulled her up onto his own horse. She looked into his face, but now that she was able to see up close and personal, she realized that he, along with all the other men, wore masks over their mouth and nose.
Instead, she looked into the eyes of the man who held onto her and tried to read him. His eyes were a deep, warm shade of brown and were framed by small wisps of black hair that peeked out from under his hood. He stared back at her, giving no hint of his intentions, but to her surprise he spoke to her.
“Don't give us any trouble,” he said, “and you won't be harmed.”
Kaina's Dawn (Kaina Saga Book 1) Page 7