The Misadventures of Ka-Ron the Knight (56 page)

What they saw was their defeat.

Several squadrons of guardsmen, more than fifty to a side, prepared to overtake the
Argo.

"From the gods, Ka-Ron," said Jatel. "What do we do now?"

The knight could only shake her head.

There was nothing they could do.

"We have lost, I fear," Ka-Ron whispered.

Both she and Jatel dropped their weapons.

En-Don continued to fight.

His obstacles had been reduced to just two. Several of the other guardsmen, impressed by his skill, stood aside, allowing En-Don his victories. It was quite evident to everyone but the young man that his situation could turn brutal at any elf's whim. He was vastly out numbered.

"En-Don!" Ka-Ron stated her voice shaky. "We are done here."

"Never, my mother!" he cried. "I will not be the one who introduces your sword to the taste of defeat."

"Defeat comes at you upon many different levels, my son," the knight stated, her face filled with pride. "This is only one. Stand down."

En-Don continued.

His skill was at its peak.

His eye keen to each and every movement.

The fifth elf attacked.

En-Don, with all his skill and luck, had been paying attention to the fourth.

"En-Don!" Ka-Ron screamed.

The young man stopped himself in mid-swing and turned his attention to his mother. Ka-Ron was screaming, and his father, Molly, and Keeth were doing all that their combined strengths could accomplish to hold the knight in place. En-Don was so proud that his mother wished to share in his victory. He had convinced himself that he would save the final kill for her.

He felt the gentlest of pushes upon his back.

Curiously enough, En-Don lost all strength in his arms.

"Nooooooooo!" Ka-Ron cried.

The young man tried to say something, but found he had no voice. It was a curious sensation.

En-Don's sword dropped to the deck.

He had been impaled through the chest.

The Guardsmen were back in control.

With the elfin rebels rounded up, and the deserters of their own rank captured and counted, order had once more been restored. But at what a price? Severed arms, legs, heads, and hands littered the earth. Where there had once been tree, rock, water, and mortar, there was now only pain, suffering, and death.

None of this seemed to detour Rakamore from his insane laughter.

"So, you all thought to take my crown?" the king mused, still high on top the roof of the Great Hall. His men stood in front of him in the chance that an angry arrow could still fly, hitting its mark. "The only burden you will have is the gravestone atop your heads by end of day."

Between the isles of silence, the Royal Courtyard echoed with the pitiful cries of Ka-Ron and Molly. Both women were the embodiment of how each and every person felt about the miserable little war that had just been fought and lost. How could one plan so carefully, consider each and every turn, knowing full well the consequences, attack with eyes wide and open, and still lose? Both Rohan and Rolmore were chained, beaten and outcast.

The guardsmen placed them both with the other traitors on board the
Argo
.

"What shall we do with the wizard's ship, sire?" an elf asked.

"Keep it where it rests," Rakamore stated. "Leave it there as a lesson for all time - a testament to the folly of questioning royalty."

Bowing, the guardsman accepted the logic of his king.

Ka-Ron's cries continued.

Upon seeing her son stabbed through, the knight finally broke free of her bonds, tearing herself away from the safety of her friends. The knight took out a dagger and stabbed the elf who had pierced her son's flesh. It was the greatest feeling in the world for her, to see the utter folly of the elf's attempt to keep his life force going, once she twisted the dagger's blade inside his lower abdominal.

En-Don had fallen to his knees, spitting out huge amounts of blood.

"Mother, I&" His eyes rolled white, and he was out.

Ka-Ron thought that she just witnessed the death of her son. Alas, to the praises of the gods, she was wrong. Her son's soul was too strong to leave so soon.

Where there is life, there is hope.

"Someone, please, help my son!" the knight cried.

A brave elf stepped forward.

"Do not touch him!" Rakamore ordered.

Ka-Ron glanced up toward the royal madman.

"Sire, I beg thee! He is my son."

Rakamore giggled. "Tell you what," the king said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "When he dies, I will have him stuffed, as he lies, so that I can place his mummified body at the center of my dining hall. There, all my court will know the price of treason."

A disturbed murmur spread throughout the elfin populace.

Stop with the grandstanding. We have won. Shut up!

Rakamore stood silently listening to the pitiful cries of the knight as she wrapped her loose skirts around the face of her dying son.

Jatel stood next to his master, feeling as if his guts had been torn out of him with a spoon - and a dull one at that. All his life he had been kin to disaster. He knew how to deal with bad tidings, he knew how to ignore those who looked upon him as being low-bred, but, he could not look upon the ashen eyes of his son and accept the inevitable.

"Let me pass, my son." Keeth had stated. In his arms, the wizard held a bag filled with charms and potions.

Ka-Ron's eyes beamed with hope.

"If anyone can save my son, it is you," the knight exclaimed.

"I will do all within my power, and then some," the old man promised. He, too, was almost at the point of tears.

Everyone stood back and watched.

During all this drama, no one seemed to notice the approaching rain clouds. They were dark, rumbling and totally out of season. In elfin lands it only rained three months of the year - non-stop. This was the dry time.

The wizard continued with his work.

Opening his eyes, En-Don noticed the crowd gathering around him. He smiled up at each of them, wondering what the trouble was. Molly joined Ka-Ron by her side, and beamed what happiness she could towards her lover.

"What is the news, wizard?" the young man asked.

Keeth forced a kind glance upwards. His hands were too busy to stop.

"You need to pay more attention to those behind you, boy."

"A wise piece of advice," En-Don agreed, laughing and stifling a cough. A trickle of blood dripped from his nose. "I will take your observations under advisement."

"Good," the wizard huffed.

Ka-Ron turned prayerful eyes to those of the wizard's. He was never one to lie. And, try as Keeth might, he could not hide the look of panic rising upon his features.

"There's nothing I can do for him." the wizard stated. "He needs the services of a Wicca Master."

"There are none in these parts," Ka-Ron cried.

"Ka-Ron&" Keeth's emotions got the better of him. He started to shake. His voice was barely below that of a whisper. "I am sorry."

The dark clouds settled atop the
Argo.

Keeth's eyes turned skyward. The wizard's face became puzzled. "This is something," the old man stated, slowly rising.

Lightening flashed outward, striking the spaces between the Imperial Guard and the wooden ship. Winds began to rise and all but rain seemed to be thrust upon them.

All eyes turned to Keeth.

"This is not of my doing," the wizard boldly stated.

The storm began to rise.

Again, the lightening flashes danced around the
Argo
. Whatever elfish forces that had been standing near the wooden vessel left, giving the thing all the room it wanted. No one in their right mind could argue with a bolt of energy and hope to win the battle.

Another bright flash blinded all.

Something had changed.

"Where are all the elves?" Dorian asked.

Everyone soon noticed that all the Imperial Guardsmen were gone. All that remained were the crew of the
Argo
. The only elves on board were Rohan and Rolmore.

Dorian, upon seeing that Rohan was alone upon deck, took up a sword and cut her lover's chains with one brutal assault. Rolmore, soon set free, thanked the little creature with a kind embrace.

"What is all of this?" Rohan asked.

"One does not look a gift-sheep in the mouth," Dorian stated, kissing the elf.

No one seemed to have noticed that the crew had grown by one.

Kai stood upon the bridge of the
Argo
.

"What a wonderful ship," the Wicca Master stated.

Keeth, upon seeing Kai, immediately started his attack. Powerful beams of energy shot forth from his hands, hitting the woman.

Kai raised up a hand, blocking everything.

"Wizard," she calmly stated, "I mean you no harm."

As quickly as he had attacked, Keeth retreated. Upon his face was a startling look of confusion.

"As before, I am not here, my friends," Kai stated. "However, I seem to have arrived too late to help you with your little war. No matter. In any case, I am here to help, nonetheless."

"Why?" the wizard demanded. "All you have offered so far is misery. Why the good shepherd now?"

Kai's features softened.

"Because, I am beyond my mourning, and I have seen the pain I have caused." The Wicca Master's eyes concentrated upon Ka-Ron.

The knight was not brave.

For the first time in her life, she knew how a coward felt. So terrified was she at how Kai could further ruin her life, that the woman urinated down both her legs. The knight turned to Jatel and hid behind him. The squire, in his shock, stood stupefied.

"Save me from her, Jatel," Ka-Ron pleaded. "She only seeks to make life more miserable. I cannot take it anymore. Please, hide me."

Kai gazed upon what she had done to the knight. Once brave and stout among all men. Once the fearful force capable of keeping the Xows at bay. Now, reduced to pissing all over herself and hiding behind a squire.

This was all her fault.

"Wizard," Kai softly stated.

Keeth was all attention.

"Is your craft seaworthy?"

"I believe so." Keeth shrugged. "There was some explosive damage at the bow, but I believe that only to be with the ship's weapons."

"Good. Listen to me. I am still within the confines of The Fire Mountains. I shall provide you with a vortex, whose destination will take you beyond the Tyming Seas and close to the township of Ur."

Keeth went over the directions in his mind. "That is close."

"Upon your arrival, hurry with great haste to my hut. There I will do what I can for the boy."

Ka-Ron was a nervous wreck. She continued to cry out loud.

"I am responsible, wizard." Kai's features turned soft. Her eyes stated it honestly.

Keeth believed her. "Life offers us all the tools we need for forgiveness," he said.

"Quite." The Wicca Master gazed out upon the people of the elfin nation. "There is great evil at work here, wizard. In time, we of the sacred arts will need to help these people."

"But not today."

"No, wizard," Kai's face filled with regret. "Not today."

Kai disappeared from the ship.

The crew was now quite alone.

Jatel tried to calm Ka-Ron down.

Rakamore did all that he could to halt the
Argo's
escape.

Once the vortex opened, the wizard turned the ship around, and drove it through.

Nooooooooo!

Upon seeing the ship disappear, King Rakamore killed over twenty thousand of his people. Just to make a point.

Within the beat of their hearts, the
Argo
was enveloped, transported, and dropped back into the ever-churning waters of the ocean. The glowing vortex disappeared faster than it had first appeared. Keeth later stated that most magic seemed to work quicker, when it was in the vicinity of the wizard who had evoked it.

"Ocean ahoy!" Jatel yelled, spitting water from his mouth. The squire was completely soaked by an oncoming wave.

The wizard responded, pulling and lifting levers.

The amazing "tracks" pulled up into the ship, closing the hull. Trap doors sprang to life, allowing the ship's tall masts to unfold and beam brightly in the twin suns. Another flip of a switch and the cloth sails unfurled, filling instantly with reliable propulsion. They were underway again!

"Ah! It is good to feel the buoyancy of the watery green under us again." the wizard huffed, turning the ship into the wind.

"I have missed the waves, myself, wizard," Jatel stated, securing the ship's rigging lines.

Out on the main deck, Ka-Ron stood troubled. Everyone knew that she had been deeply embarrassed by her reaction when she had last seen Kai, but none judged her. Anyone who had been made to suffer as much as she had, by one individual, could have performed even more badly. But, Ka-Ron was a knight of the blood. She was born to combat fear, not to cower like an animal about to be slaughtered.

Ka-Ron's face was covered with both tears and shame. She ran to hide in her cabin.

Keeth gave Jatel a sympathetic glance.

"You have a great matter of your own magic to weave, squire." the wizard stated, securing the ship's wheel.

"This I know, wizard."

Shaking his head, Jatel headed off to face his master.

The battle ahead would not be a pleasant one for him.

Delivering the truth often wasn't.

"Close the door, please."

Ka-Ron winced as the bright rays of the suns lit up the cabin. Only Jatel's form, blocking the brightest of the two suns, had kept the knight from raising her hand for protection.

"Master, I have come for your counsel," Jatel stated, his voice formal.

Ka-Ron glared at the man, sad. "Jatel, I believe I instructed you never to refer to me as "master."

"In this conversation, the title fits, sire."

"Proceed," Ka-Ron surrendered.

The squire closed the door, as ordered. He watched as the woman he had come to love, and the master he had served faithfully all of his life, sit in darkness and condemn herself for her cowardice. How could he go forward and not cross his line of servitude? What he had to state required passion and independent observations. To do so, however, was a breach of the social order.