Council of War (29 page)

"And how do I get rid of the Federation soldiers?" frowned the prince.

"You don't," answered K'san. "Tyronia will join the Federation and become an equal member in the world's greatest coalition."

"That would break our treaties with the horse countries," stated the prince.

"Yes, it would," smiled K'san. "And what are they going to do about it? Their great cavalries have no path to attack you. More importantly, you will be one of the great ruling monarchs when the horse countries fall to the Federation. You can gloat over their defeat for how they treated you when you were younger."

"But," frowned the prince, "if the horse countries cannot attack Tyronia, how can we attack them?"

"That I will not reveal, even to you," declared the priest, "but rest assured, it will come to pass."

"I don't know," the prince sighed softly as he slumped into a chair. "There is great risk in this plan. If anything goes wrong, my head will be in the noose."

"Would your father really hang you?" asked the priest.

"He is loath to bring shame to our family," replied the prince, "but even he would be compelled to act when presented with evidence of such a heinous crime."

"And what would he do if he were presented with evidence concerning the deaths of those young girls in Giza?" asked K'san.

Prince Mectin bolted upright and stared at the priest with terror in his eyes. "You wouldn't," he gasped. "You promised that no one would ever learn of my part in that."

"There are those with great power in the Federation who are familiar with the details of those events," shrugged the priest. "I cannot assure you that such information will be kept from King Myer."

Prince Mectin slouched in the chair once again and brought his hands to his face. The prince's arms trembled with fear. K'san turned away, disgusted by the show of weakness.

"You see, Prince Mectin," the priest said threateningly, "you really have little choice in the matter. Your only path to an enjoyable life coincides with what I have asked of you."

"You truly leave me no choice," scowled the prince.

"Do not be angry with me, Mectin," K'san smiled as he turned around. "Be grateful that I arrived when I did. Instead of the Federation notifying your father of what occurred in Giza, you will ascend to the throne of Tyronia and become a major player in the Federation. You will have more power than any prior king in the history of Tyronia, and you will find that the Federation will give you a free hand in whatever way you choose to amuse yourself. Your life will be one of endless bliss."

* * *

The sky was lightening when Clint finally spied a large clearing. He signaled for a halt and Karl was at his side moments later. The other Rangers moved towards the front of the column as the sailors sat down for a rest.

"How far do you think we have left to go?" asked Karl.

"Not far," answered Clint. "These old trees are already starting to thin out. I don't think we have more than an hour's walk from here."

"We will take only a short rest then," declared Karl Gree. "I want to get across the Cyranak River before sleeping."

The Knight of Alcea turned to gaze at the men and his brow creased with concern. "Where is Fakir Aziz?"

Max turned and gazed back along the trail. "He should be along shortly. I think he was having a hard time keeping up with us, but he objected every time Shawn or I waited for him. I don't think he wanted to slow us down."

"So you left him behind?" frowned Karl.

"He insisted," replied Shawn. "Max is telling the truth. Several times we stopped and waited for him, but he waved us off each time. He can be a belligerent old man when he wants to be."

Karl closed his eyes and tried to sense the old man, but he could feel nothing. He sighed with acceptance of the situation and turned his gaze to the sailors. "How are they holding up?"

"They are doing fine," answered Max. "They are not frail men, Karl. They are merely out of their element. Give me a couple of weeks with each of them, and they would be ready to serve in the Alcean army."

"We don't have a couple of weeks," retorted Karl, "and the Alcean army is far away. We rest for five minutes and then we head out again."

"Even if the old man has not caught up by then?" asked Clint.

"Five minutes," repeated Karl. "No more. I want the Forest of Death to be only a memory."

Several times during the short stop, Karl closed his eyes and searched for Fakir Aziz, but he never detected anything. He began to doubt whether he truly had a gift or if had just been coincidence that had allowed him to place his friends in the proper locations.

"Let's go," Clint said softly as he rose to his feet. "The sooner we cross that river, the sooner we get to sleep."

The group rose silently and took their places in the column. As soon as they were formed up, Clint started the column moving. Within half an hour they started to hear the sounds of the river and the chirping of birds. Smiles broke out on the faces of the men, and their steps became livelier. A few minutes later the river came into view, and their excitement overrode the exhaustion of their bodies. Clint halted on the banks of the river and grinned as he scanned the opposite bank.

"We will need to find a ford," Karl said as he came up alongside Clint.

"I don't need a ford to get across that," stated Chanz. "I will even carry someone else's pack if you want."

Karl smiled as he glanced at the sailor. "Do we have any rope left?"

"We abandoned it when we lost the horses," Cirris replied, "but the current is not that swift. I think we could swim across it easy enough."

Karl opened his breast pocket and stirred Peanut to life. The tiny man popped his head out of the pocket and gazed up at the sunny sky.

"We are free of the gloom?" he asked.

"As soon as we cross that river," Karl answered. "See if there is a ford nearby."

"As you command," chirped the fairy.

Peanut shot out of the pocket like a fairy with a mission. He returned in mere minutes with a grin on his tiny face.

"Right around the bend to your left," he reported. "There are some large rocks strewn across the river. You could practically walk across."

"Lead us to it, Clint," ordered the Knight of Alcea.

The Ranger smiled and nodded as he started walking along the riverbank. The Alceans followed single file and in moments they saw the rocks stretching across the river. Most of the rocks extended above the surface, but a few would require getting their feet wet.

"This will be easy," stated Clint. "Shall I lead us across?"

"Yes," replied Karl, "but let's all watch our footing. I don't want to have to fish anyone out of the river."

"Find us a clearing on the other side," Karl said to Peanut.

The fairy saluted and took to the air while Clint crossed the bridge of rocks. The Ranger made it without incident, and the others soon followed. By the time Max had made it across, Peanut returned with word of a large clearing not far away. He directed Karl to the clearing and the column followed. Within five minutes the group had discovered the clearing and settled down. Karl gave the group the choice of a meal before sleeping, but everyone declined. The Knight of Alcea called for a perimeter wire to be set up with bells, and the entire group succumbed to sleep.

Karl wasn't sure how long he had been asleep when the bells started ringing, but he noticed that the sky was still sunny as he jumped to his feet. Through the rolling thunder, he was peripherally aware of the others scrambling for their weapons, but he was unprepared for what he saw next. Surrounding the Alceans was a ring of mounted knights. The men were dressed for war with orange and white tunics over chain mail, and visored helmets covered their heads. Long pointed lances extended before the riders like a barbed ring around the group of Alceans. The horses were huge and sturdy and were also covered with armor.

Karl glanced nervously at his men as they moved to form a defensive circle. Knowing that none of the Alceans would survive a battle with the armored knights, Karl slowly bent over and placed his sword on the ground. The Rangers accepted their leader's decision, and they also put their swords down. The elves returned their arrows to their quivers and placed their bows on the ground. Only when the Alceans had submitted did one of the knights speak.

"You will place all of your weapons on the ground," ordered the knight. "Knives, arrows, anything that could be considered a weapon."

Karl nodded to his fellow Alceans, and they began to shed all of their weapons. When they were done, the knight spoke again as two of the horsemen moved their mounts aside to create a corridor through the circle.

"You will march single file until you are clear of the trees. There will be a wagon waiting for you there. You are to enter the wagon promptly. Anyone deviating from these instructions will be struck down. Move."

Karl looked at the others and nodded. He was the first to move towards the break in the line of knights, and he looked back to make sure that the others were following. There were more mounted knights in the woods, and they formed a corridor for the captives to walk through. The walk was not long and Karl soon exited the forest to see a broad expanse of grasslands. Sitting not far from the edge of the forest was a large wagon that resembled a moving jail cell. A cage made of sturdy wooden poles was fastened to a flat wagon, and Karl stepped up into the cell. When all of the Alceans were inside, the door was swung shut and a chain was fastened to keep it closed. Only after the cage was locked did the knight leader speak again.

"Take the spies to the castle," he shouted to the driver.

Karl Gree hung onto the wooden bars and stared out at the knights. Scores of the mounted warriors filed out of the trees, and the Knight of Alcea knew that his call to surrender without a fight had been wise, but the leader's statement about spies troubled him. Alcea executed spies, and he presumed the same would be true for the horse countries. Karl figured he would at least get a chance to speak to someone in authority before they were hung, and he started going over in his mind the statements that he would make.

"This doesn't look good to me," Clint whispered as the wagon started moving. "If they think we are spies, we will be killed."

"I know," Karl whispered back. "The trick will be convincing them that we are not spies. Not only will the truth be unbelievable to them, but I am not sure that they will buy the idea that we are merchant warriors from Tyronia. We don't know enough about Tyronia to fake it very well."

"The name of Sidney Mercado might be well known enough to cause them some hesitation," suggested Shawn.

"I doubt that Sidney Mercado has been in the horse countries in over twenty years," Karl replied. "No one has been able to get here since the Collapse."

"I wonder if that is true," Max interjected. "If no one has ever made it through the Forest of Death, why would they immediately take us for spies?"

"Maybe someone told them that we were spies," suggested Shawn. "Is it a coincidence that the old man stayed with us the whole way through the forest except for the few hours before we were captured?"

"What are you suggesting?" asked Karl.

"What if the old man is not from the Federation at all?" asked Shawn. "What if he is a spy for the horse countries, and he was returning home after spying on the Federation?"

"But he helped us survive in there," frowned Max. "Why would he do such a thing only to have us executed?"

"A number of reasons come to mind," replied Shawn. "He certainly could not kill all of us by himself, and we might end up being a treasure trove of information about the Federation. Why throw such a gift away when it would be so easy to capture us once we left the Forest of Death? Do you think these scores of armored knights were on a picnic today? They came specifically to capture us. They even had the wagon staged to take us to wherever we are going."

"He has a point about the wagon," conceded Clint. "Look around out there. There is not a village or building anywhere in sight. These knights came prepared to capture someone. If not us then who?"

"Keep it quiet in there!" shouted one of the knights as he banged the wooden poles with his lance. "There will be no talking."

Karl pressed his face against the wooden bars and stared in the direction the cart was traveling. He could see nothing except a broad expanse of grasslands. He turned his attention to the knights escorting the wagon. The men were all tall and broad shouldered, and they appeared to be seasoned warriors. The horses were also large and well trained. Karl didn't see any of the knights working the reins; the horses rode in parade style on both sides of the wagon with an ease that spoke of long days of practice. The tunics that the knights wore carried the same crest that was emblazoned on their shields. It was the image of a rearing horse between two vertical lances. As his eyes scanned over the knights, he noticed one of them carried neither shield nor lance. His tunic also carried two additional adornments; on each shoulder was a lightning bolt. After carefully studying the knights again, Karl found another rider with marks on his shoulders. It was a single bar, and Karl suspected that the man was some kind of officer.

A light tap on Karl's arm caused him to turn and look at Clint. The Ranger nodded towards the front of the cart, and Karl turned to look. Off in the distance a structure rose from the horizon. For a long time Karl focused on the castle as it drew closer, and it grew larger. Tall towers reached up from each corner of the main body of the castle. The castle itself was huge, and it towered over the wall around it. As they got closer, Karl was able to see that the wall itself was fairly tall, and men manned the ramparts. A huge pair of gates in the wall opened, and the escorting knights drew in closer to the wagon. There had been no shouted command for the maneuver, but not a single knight was out of formation as they executed it. He subconsciously nodded in appreciation of the training the knights must have undergone.