The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (39 page)

Without much thought, and feeling truly hopeful for the first time, Gully blurted, “The Mercher clan! They can put their skills to use and help!”

Roald looked curious and said with the pipe hanging out of his mouth, “Hmm? Skills? What skills do you speak of, Bayle?”

Thaybrill glanced curiously over at Gallun and Gellen, both of whom looked uncomfortable with the sudden attention.

Gully realized his mis-step and tried to deflect attention from it. He stammered, “Well, they know the South Pass Road and...”

“How does that help us get advance information?” asked Roald. “It sounded like—”

“I misspoke,” interrupted Gully, feeling his skin tingle in his embarrassment at giving away the Merchers in a way he had promised solemnly not to do.

Gellen, though, had stood in the meantime. Gully noticed this, and his eyes pled with Gellen for forgiveness at almost giving them away. But Gellen had already taken his tunic off and began to take his breeches off as well.

The prince and Roald noticed Gellen’s strange behavior, too. Prince Thaybrill said, “Why is he disrobing?”

Gallun watched his brother, sighed when he realized the decision his brother had made, and then began to take his clothes off as well. The instant Gellen was undressed, his image fluttered in the firelight, and then there was a large wolf where the man had been.

Gully felt awful at putting them in this position, but also thankful that Gellen was willing to be the one to actually betray the secret.

The prince cried out and jumped from his chair while Roald lunged for his sword against the wall. Gully leaped across the room to where there were now two wolves standing quietly while everyone else was frantic.

Gully stood between Gallun and Gellen and said, “Wait, Roald! Stop! Thaybrill, please!” He put his hands on the heads of the wolves and said, “This is still Gallun and Gellen! They are the same men you saw but a moment ago, but they can take the form of wolves.”

At seeing Gully with the animals, his hands calmly on their heads and the wolves allowing it, the prince stopped from trying to flee around the table and stared dumbly. Roald stood frozen, waiting to see if the wolves would attack or not.

“You need not be afraid of them, you have my word,” said Gully, kneeling down to be closer to his friends, to prove they were not violent. Gallun turned and even licked at Gully’s face once.

“Gallun, please,” said Gully impatiently and wiping at his face.

Gellen turned back into a human, causing both Roald’s and the prince’s eyes to almost pop out of their heads.

Roald put his hand to his forehead like he was feeling ill. “Can this be real?” he said in a whisper.

“This is some sort of evil magic!” exclaimed Prince Thaybrill, as white as a sheet.

“No,” said Gully with a sigh. He could not help but feel like he had betrayed the Merchers and the patriarch in particular by not holding his tongue, and his heart felt very heavy as a result. “No, Thaybrill. No magic, and no evil. The Merchers are merely different from us, and there are very few of them left. But they are good, honorable people, and peaceful. I was being truthful when I told you that they have suffered much worse at the hands of the slave traders than Iisenors have. But they can help us, Roald! Gallun and Gellen can change between human form and wolf form at will. I have seen their fighters skirmish, and they are very skilled, even without weapons. Others among them can transform into birds of prey, keen of eye. Think of the value of having eyes in the sky to study the gathering Maqaran forces!”

Gellen stood in human form with his arms crossed over his chest while Gallun remained in wolf form next to Gully. Gully bit at his lip while he hoped that Roald and Prince Thaybrill would be able to shed their fear.

“They can turn into wolves, or other animals? Whenever they choose?” said Thaybrill curiously.

“Yes,” said Gully, nodding.

“But they do not attack us. The wolf sits next to you as if he knows you.”

“He does know me. It is still Gallun sitting here. He has a human body, and a wolf body, too, but it is always Gallun’s mind and soul that inhabits them. It is still Gallun seeing and hearing us speak right now. Isn’t that right, Gallun?”

The wolf nodded his head to prove he understood every word.

Roald said, “That is the most remarkable thing I have ever seen in my life!”

“They are few in number and do not wish to cause trouble or have trouble find them, but they will help if we ask,” said Gully.

Thaybrill stepped forward and put his hand out tentatively. “May I?” he asked as he reached nervously towards Gallun. Gallun nodded again and the prince put his hand on the wolf’s head.

A look of amazement crossed his face again and he turned to Roald and said, “The wolf is as real as you or I!”

“You should have one throw himself upon you in the woods in panic or excitement and you find how very real they are!” said Gully dully.

Gellen shifted back into wolf form and began to growl sullenly at Gully.

Gully began to argue with him, “Every time! You don’t have to... oh never mind, this is not the point! You may as well stay in whatever form you are most comfortable with for now. Back to the plan...”

Roald seemed to have trouble tearing his eyes from the unbelievable sight of his brother arguing with a growling wolf, even if it felt very much as if it was mostly in a good humor. He said, “The plan... yes! We need to send one of the guards south to veKinn’s fief to gather the contingent there. Another guard will go north to veOusthendan’s fief.”

Gully piped in and said, “Roald, I would like for you to go with Gallun and Gellen to ask the patriarch of the Merchers for their help.”

“Nay, nay,” said Roald, shaking his head. “You should go to the gypsy clan since they know you. I will be of better service here to see to it that the Domo Regent and the Lord Marshal are taken into arrest.”

Prince Thaybrill finally spoke up. “No, Roald. You must be at the Pass.”

Roald looked confused. “Sire, why is that?”

“Because you will be in charge of all the forces defending Iisen there.”

“Me?!” gasped Roald. “Your Highness, I am but a lieutenant. I cannot—”

“But you obviously have a mind for this, and I need someone leading the forces there that I trust without question,” said the prince. “And I trust you.”

“Yes,” said Gully, “I agree with Prince Thaybrill. We cannot afford to let someone take charge of our forces and risk them being a part of the conspiracy. You can do this, Roald!”

“But... who will arrest the Domo Regent and the Lord Marshal?” asked Roald.

“Two soldiers to gather forces from veKinn’s and veOusthendan’s fiefs. Two soldiers to go to arrest veBasstrolle personally. You will go gather the Merchers to help and travel to the pass. That leaves two more from your squad. Those two, plus myself, will go after the Domo Regent and the Lord Marshal,” said Gully.

“There will be four of us,” said the prince firmly. “I will not send you into this without being willing to go with you. And I know where the Domo Regent and Lord Marshal will likely be inside the Folly.”

Gully would have argued, and he also had been inside the Folly a few times himself under less than honest circumstances, but he could scarcely admit to that at the moment. The knowledge of the likely locations of the Domo and the Lord Marshal would be very useful, though.

“Yes, I suppose you are right. Once the traitors in charge of this conspiracy are arrested and the head of the viper is removed, it will be safe for Thaybrill to re-emerge. It is agreed then?” asked Gully.

They all agreed to the plan, and began to put it in motion.

Roald left immediately to gather his squad. In the meantime, and since dusk had fallen, Gully took the prince up onto the roof so that he could pray to his father on behalf of all of Iisen for support and luck.

Gallun, Gellen, and Gully sat quietly while the prince prayed. When he was done, Thaybrill said to Gully, “Bayle, I again find myself in your debt. I was at an utter loss for any way of preventing total disaster. And here tonight, you and your brother Roald have constructed a plan that very much sounds like it stands a chance of success!”

Gully shrugged and said, “There is much that can go wrong, prince. But my Roald is a very skilled soldier and leader, despite his modesty regarding his talents. He has taught me much over the years, and you will not be disappointed to trust him to lead our forces.”

“I believe you share his modest nature, Bayle. You and your brother Roald share more than you realize, I think,” said Thaybrill. “You are lucky to have each other. He is a very... ah... well, he is very...”

Thaybrill stopped speaking and Gully prompted, “Very what, prince?”

Prince Thaybrill shifted around and faced away from Gully. “Oh, well, I was just saying that Roald is... very determined. Yes, determined,” he said.

Gully felt so proud of Roald. He knew that with a plan in place, his brother would astound everyone involved with his skills. He laughed lightly to himself yet again. If there ever came a day when he was dragged in front of King Thaybrill for being a thief, he would be proud for it to be Roald that did so.

As they sat in silence with the clear night sky overhead, the laughing moon was beginning to show her bright face over Kitemount’s crest and washing the city in her blue light. Gully’s pride in Roald contrasted with his own dour feelings that he was now betraying the prince the very same way he had betrayed Gallun and Gellen. He had betrayed them by allowing them to think he was someone better than he was, and now he was repeating the mistake out of cowardice with the prince.

Gully sat up more stiffly and decided that it was time to rectify that, even if it complicated what they needed to do together. At least he wouldn’t have to hide how he would know how to sneak into the Folly grounds, which would be critical to their success. Whatever his fate would be after his debt of conscience to the prince had been settled would then be sealed, and he could have a lighter heart in the meantime.

Before he could begin his admission to the prince, though, he heard horses in the street below stopping at the apartment. He walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down to see Roald returning with his squad and several horses.

Already, the prince had stood to go and meet the returning Roald and his fellow guards. Gully looked up at the shining blue moon, its light showing the sum of all the guilts and doubts storming inside him so that all the stars from east to west could see them there. His shoulders slumped and he decided that his confession would have to wait for a better time.

Gully sat in the darkest corner of the apartment, allowing Roald to put everything into motion. Partly, he was pleased to see his brother lead men the way he knew Roald was born to do. But another part of him was skittish about being in a closed room that was now crowded with so many swordsmen of the Kingdom Guard. It had been chaotic at first when they found their crown prince in the room with them, alive and well, but Roald brought them to order quickly and began to explain the true situation, and the role they would play in trying to save the kingdom.

As Roald explained the situation to them fully, their initial joy at finding the prince safe gave way to the reality of the tasks ahead of them and the enormity of the challenge. There was shock, and fury, and amazement, and concern for families and loved ones, but each one of the guards accepted their tasks bravely and gladly.

Gully watched them silently, thankful none of the guards were ones he had ever had direct confrontations with, ones who might recognize him for whom he was.

Roald had introduced Gallun and Gellen as representatives of the gypsy clan, which had set off a nervous reaction from the swordsmen, who had heard the stories like so many other Iisenors that had been told of these notorious vagabonds. Roald reassured them of the two fighter’s good intentions and told them that the gypsy clan was going to help repel the invading army. He chose to leave out exactly how they were going to join with the Iisenors to help for the time being, though, since he was personally going to seek the assistance of the Merchers.

When everything had been explained and everyone’s orders made clear, one of the soldiers asked whom the man hidden under the hood in the corner was.

Roald replied, “That is my foster brother, Bayle. He will help with the arrests in the Folly itself,” and gave no more information than that. Roald gave Gully a questioning glance as he answered this way, and Gully wordlessly nodded his approval of the brief answer.

Roald had the foresight to fetch parchment, quills, ink and sealing wax for the prince while he had been out gathering his squad. Prince Thaybrill wrote letters to both noblemen, Brythe veOusthendan in Wilch’s Post and Ionor veKinn in Kindern, explaining the situation, that he was safe but that Iisen was not. He named the Domo Regent and the Lord Marshal as traitors and he ordered every member of the Kingdom Guard under their governance to go to the Maqaran Pass and to report to Lieutenant Roald Delescer to fight against the invasion. He finished by signing the letters for the guards to take with them and sealing the orders with his signet ring.

Roald gave special orders to the two guards selected to go to arrest veBasstrolle, to not take the nobleman to the gaol in East End. He warned them that soldiers working the slave trade for veBasstrolle may try to free him and flee to Maqara with him, so they were to bring the nobleman directly back to Lohrdanwuld without delay. The room grew very quiet when Roald gave the order to kill any fellow guard that tried to interfere with their orders. The dire implications of having traitors in their midst hit their hearts closely upon hearing this, and the prince himself had to agree with Roald that such measures were necessary.

The mood in the room was cheerless but determined as Roald sent the first four soldiers on their way to carry out their orders.

“Eyes true, my good friends,” he said as he clapped the men grimly on the shoulders one by one. “Keep your eyes as keen as the hawks of Kitemount. Some of our fellow swordsmen have already betrayed us and will do so again to save themselves from justice. May your family stars speed you on your way this night! Eyes true!”