Rise of the Darekian's, The (12 page)

Jak joined the group and the three of them still tailed by
Levin and the guards, walked across to the market square and down a smaller side street where very few buildings still stood. Once they had turned a corner, Luken could see a short balding man, one whose face showed sign of age, waving at them as if to draw attention to him. "I assume by the fellow swinging his arms around you know who Father Dagon is" Jak said chuckling to himself as he did. "I assume he is unarmed. I mean I do not want to start sitting and talking with a man who quite evidently is a complete loon for him to start pulling daggers out at me or Taylor." Jak laughed again, "I think you are quite safe your highness. He may be a few potatoes short of a sack full but he is harmless enough, and besides you'll have young Levin here to keep an eye on you," gesturing to the teenager stood behind them.

  Father Dagon slowly walked up to Luken, gazing up at him before slowly walking around looking him up and down, as someone might view a prize cow.
"Err what are you doing?" Jak Corley enquired to the old man, "this man is Prince Luken of Corlan, and you do not wander around him as if he is an item for sale!" Luken raised his hand, "it is alright Jak, leave him be," watching as he was circled several more times before the elderly man came to a halt. "It is you," the man said breaking his silence. "I hope so" Luken replied with a smile, "and you are Father Dagon I am led to believe." The man nodded, as he turned to rummage in a leather satchel lying on the ground behind him. Removing a small red book, he proffered it to Luken, "read this boy and it should help you understand your powers." Jak Corley intervened once more, "you do not refer to his highness as boy" showing his irritability at Father Dagons lack of social decorum.

The old man nodded once more, "apologies, I meant no offence." Luken took the small book and quickly flipped through a few pages, "I am not entirely sure who or what you think I am, but let me
reassure you, I am no different from anyone else. Now if you will tell this Sandred person to get out of my head and stop putting voices in my sons mind I would be most grateful." Luken took Taylors hand and turned to walk away, "The men, they are already talking of your powers your highness, the way you glowed, the way you burnt that Darekian." Luken stopped in his tracks, turning his head, "I think you have just heard some gossip Father Dagon. A few men witnessed the man burning, and the reflection off the flames must have appeared to lighten my position, giving them the idea I had some kind of godly glow. I assure you if I had any such powers, do you not think I would be using them to help our rather pitiful state of affairs. Now if you would pass my message onto your friend Sandred, I have more important matters to attend." Father Dagon watched as the prince and his small entourage disappeared around the corner from view.

Taylor pulled at his father's hand, "will Sandred not talk to me anymore?"
he asked with a hint of disappointment in his voice. Luken stopped and squatted down to talk at eye level, "I think it is probably for the best. I am not sure what magical powers they think I have, but I am quite certain I do not have any. I think they just have the wrong person, there is nothing special about me." He patted his son on the shoulder, noticing the regret in his son's big brown eyes. "I tell you what, why don't we have a read this book of his later on and we can decide together" he added, seemingly appeasing Taylor of his negative attitude to the thought of magic powers. Continuing their way over to the main street and making for a makeshift canopy where his officers were congregating for a meeting.

As he entered the temporary accommodation all the officers stood to attention, "at ease please gentlemen" he said as he made for two chairs placed in the middle of the group. Once
he was seated with Taylor beside him, the others sat down on the several benches laid into two rows, and Levin positioned himself off to one side. It was General Skalton who stood to speak first, the mumbles of other conversations silencing as he did. "Your highness" he bowed to Luken first before turning to face the others, "Gentlemen we have to make a decision. We need to find a suitable solution to our predicament. This town has no defensible means, and although we can repel small raiding groups, we would not be able to protect it against a larger number." Luken listened as his General opened up the floor for suggestions from the other officers, as to any solutions they may deem plausible to rectify their current predicament.

A suggestion to build fortifications around part of Forwich was put forward, and although
it was not the worst idea in the world, it was rejected on the grounds of, the time and man-hours needed to carry out such a scheme. Not knowing when or even if another invading force would attack they needed something else. Other suggestions involved moving themselves to other towns, some of which did have some degree of defensive capabilities. One such town lay to the south of their current position. Sefton was a smaller town than Forwich had been before its attack. The advantage this location gave was it was built atop a small hill and indeed did have a short wall surrounding most of its perimeter. In fact, it sounded so good many of the men present in the meeting started to like the idea. Luken himself thought it the perfect location for them retreat to, that was until someone stood to speak and put a dampener on the entire idea. Sefton, as good as it was did not have a running water source into the town. The populace apparently had to fetch water from the lake at the bottom of the small hill on which it was sited. Not the place to defend if the enemy was able to cut you off from the one thing they would definitely require.

Luken stood as the men with him broke up into smaller conversations, no nearer a solution to the problem set before them. Standing at the table which had a large map of the land laid out upon it and held down by a number of brass weights around its edge. Taylor, always the inquisitive child picked one of the weights up to inspect it before placing it back, but not around the
edge, he put it a few inches in. Luken picked up the same weight to return it to its rightful place, when he noticed the large dot on the map that his son had placed it upon. Alongside the dot was the name of a place of which he had some reasonable knowledge. He knew its defensive capabilities, its water supply and even its history, having read about the place in so many books when he was a child. "Easton" he uttered to himself, "Easton! What about Easton?" he turned raising his voice to be heard by the others. "It is a ruin your majesty" one officer spoke up, "No! The buildings are ruined, the walls still stand, well most of them anyway. Not only that, but they are some forty or fifty feet tall. It has the river running beside it for water. People this place was built with defence in mind, we only left it because the buildings burnt and my grandfather thought it a better idea to move to Hamalin. But that move was meant more to increase trade possibilities because the River Fivan is not suitable for large trade ships."

With his audience all listening he continued, "We rebuild here, we don't just have the walls but the river will give us a line of defence, the only bridge is here" he pointed to the map to a small mark just beside the town's name. "If we need we can destroy the bridge, how I do not yet know. Though I'm sure if we can hold it or bring it down, the enemy cannot reach us, little short of making a few hundred mile detour around the Fivan hills
." These were a craggy range of mountains and hills not passable by foot and gave the river its name as well as its source. Luken even felt himself getting enthusiastic about his own idea, "we can rebuild our capital there. I know it does not give us the same trading prospects of Hamalin, but it can give us the protection we need to start again." He looked up expectantly at those around him, to see every set of eyes staring at him, "I agree" Jak Corley shouted, "I'm with the prince as well," voiced another, "as am I" shouted General Skalton.

Captain Jak Corley walked with the prince and Taylor, back towards the buildings in which they were housed. "You spoke well your highness, your father would have been proud if he could have watched you today. It was not just the perfect location but the way you sold it to the others, you showed so much passion." Feeling almost a little embarrassed at the sincerity of the compliment, he was not after all used to receiving them , "well if I am honest it was actually Taylor who put me on to the idea of Easton
," he replied looking down at his son, who returned the look with his usual big smile. "Well whoever, I for one would not have thought of it, but the more I listened to you the more I knew it was right for our purpose. In fact it is not just right it is perfect, granted it will require a lot of hard work, and we still have a long way to travel before we get there, but you have given something the people were lacking before." Luken stopped and looked at his old friend, "What is that Jak?" the aging Captain put a friendly hand on the young prince's shoulder, looking him in the eye, "Hope" he said, "The people need hope, and I think you have just given it to them."

As it stood the siege of the two border towns of Berston and Casham was in its status quo.
There had been no further attempts of attack on either, or movement of troops, which had given the defenders a most welcome rest bite. Soldiers were able to eat and sleep and damaged parts of the stockade around Berston had been patched up. The newcomers on the scene seemed content to do absolutely nothing, other than making sure its camp perimeter was secure. Caldar had been told by his officers that whoever they were, they certainly were not in allegiance with the army besieging his towns. The defensive lines they had erected were in such a position as to defend against the Besemians attacking them, rather than any attack that may come from the towns themselves.

The prince pondered, he knew he needed to kn
ow the purpose of the army, would they fight with him, or would they fight against him? It was clear that whatever the answer, the nation of Besemia appeared to be fighting itself. For now, at least he decided not to make any move, but wished he could maybe get a message to both the newcomers as well as the other town. He needed to know their situation, their numbers and supplies as well as the state of the defensive walls.

Father Dagon sat feeling rather dejected
, staring at the pendant held in his hands. He worried, how was he going to tell his master of his failing in convincing the young prince of his destiny? The fool boy was as stubborn as a mule, and had not even given chance for him to explain. Perhaps his master would understand how impossible the young prince had been, he after all had done everything required of him. Find the boy, tell him what he needed to know, that had been his orders, it was not his fault the incredulous little brat would not believe him enough to even listen. With those thoughts in mind he closed his eyes rubbing the stone in his fingers, "Master I have found the boy" he started, "but unfortunately he does not believe" he waited for a reply. It did not come straight away and he was beginning to think the contact using the pendant was not working. "You must make him believe, that boy is the only one who can muster the power to defeat Fenlor and his Darekian hordes. If he fails to utilise his powers they will fall, not just Corlan, Besemia will follow then the others, Murati and the countries beyond." Dagon nodded his acknowledgement before realising he actually needed to speak his reply, "I understand Master, and I will persevere to enlighten him. He asks you stay out of his head and that of his son." The man listened as he was told of further developments by Sandred, the old wizard from the Isle of Kelan told him of the imminent dangers heading there way, of Darekian and Besemian forces running amok across the north of the country. Worse of all the news Sandred kept until the end, "He has released his Orlacs."

Luken sat in the house allotted to him, around the small wooden table eating a simple meal of bread, cheese and cold ham. Taylor, as usual sat beside him and they were joined, as pre planned by the Lady Sarena, as well as the young babe she had named Hope who slept soundly in a nearby crib. The conversation moved on to the strange meeting they had had with the old man known as Father Dagon. Luken put the small red book on the
tabletop as he popped another piece of cheese in his mouth. In a mocking tone he said, "Apparently my lady, I have to read this and my great magical powers will come forth," covering his mouth with his hand as he ate and talked at the same time.

The Lady Sarena looked at the prince, "your highness I think what this man spoke of, well it may be true. When you rescued me, I ...well I could have sworn you glowed, like a firefly. It was not the reflection of the fire; it was you your highness of that I am sure." Luken looked up, shocked at what he heard. Of all the
people, he did not expect Lady Sarena to believe in such hokum. He decided to attempt a change of subject, rather than tell the Lady what she said was surely nothing but drivel.

Thinking quickly, "how is Hope doing?" he asked gesturing his hand to the small crib beside Sarena. Expecting an
answer, he looked back to her, to see she had picked up the small red book and already had the pages open. "Oh! Yes she is fine, you know your highness...", "Luken, please" he interrupted. Nodding her head slightly, "ah yes sorry, well maybe you should read this. You see here" pointing at a paragraph, "it says 'those blessed with the power have at times been known to emit an aura of light...' that is just like you did."

Luken sighed, he did wish everyone would stop going on about
the magical power he quite clearly did not possess. "You have heard of the plan to retreat southwards to Easton?"He asked in another attempt at changing the subject, "it was Taylor who gave me the idea" he added patting his son on the shoulder with a look of pride. Sarena lifted her gaze up from the pages of the book, "ooh what a clever boy. We head out tomorrow I understand, I will miss this place, and it saddens me to see it this way" she spoke with sadness in her voice. Noticing her sorrow Luken moved his hand across the table and placed it over hers, "hey, we can rebuild, you know when all this horrid fighting is over. Buildings can be replaced, and I know some of the people will not return but others will take their place in time." Sarena smiled at her prince, "Thank you Luken" she said softly placing her free hand on top of his. The two sat there staring googly eyed at each other before Luken realised what he was doing, pulling his hand free blushing profusely.