To Be Chosen (53 page)

Orders be blighted, Jak focused Sonic Boom directly at the man who should be impotent, and the beam met the same type of shield. The Accomplished did not even have a baton, yet was able to shield himself and those with him. This was the man who defeated Balen Tamm. Jak did the only thing he could think of, summoned a rear shield and started running just as fast as his legs could carry him. He zigzagged around trees, actually hurdled over several bushes, vaulted over a fallen tree, all at the sound of roaring cougars, bellowing sasquatches, and howling wolves. He could sense Daniel Benhannon maneuvering to cut him off, so turned the other way. Branches slapped Jak in the face as he darted right and left. The Accomplished drew closer and closer, man was he fit. The idiot must exercise every blighted day! The stray thoughts did not make Jak feel any better, but they were better than giving in to abject terror. He topped a hill and fell, not having anticipated the steepness of the downward slope, and rolled to an abrupt stop at the bottom after slamming into a spruce.

His baton was gone, dropped and lost during his flight. He wished to Tarin Conn he could get that blighted casket open and use the powerful crescendo. Looking up, Daniel Benhannon stood over him. They were alone together. Jak formed a cone shield, leaving a small enough opening in the rear to breathe and communicate, and sneered at the man. “Everyone thought you were impotent, shows you what they know,” he blurted while his brain worked furiously to find a way out of the situation.  He could not use Sonic Boom while his shield was in place and he dared not drop his only defense. What happened to being at the right place at the ideal time?

Benhannon glanced at the casket. “I’ll be taking that from you now.”

Up close he looked no older than Jak, possibly the same age, yet something in his dark-eyed stare gave the impression that this fellow could see into your soul, much the way people described what it was like staring into the eyes of Tarin Conn. “I can maintain this shield all day,” Jak lied. “Why don’t we come to some agreement?”

Benhannon shook his head. “I am Daniel Benhannon, the twenty-first Royal Knight of the Realm of Ducaun, a Six-bolt Accomplished. You are responsible for the deaths of over two hundred Royal Guardsmen, and the theft of property consigned to the royal family of Ducaun. Do you deny these charges?”

Jak could feel liquid warmth in his pants at hearing the man’s ranking as an Accomplished and struggled to stop the flow. As to the question of how many guardsmen he killed, it did not matter, they were pieces in a larger game, and nothing more. He stood up, his bladder back under control. “I am Jak Taltin, a proud member of the Serpent Guild. I can’t be sure of the exact amount of guardsmen I personally killed, but I would say it amounts to scores. It was all done in the line of duty, so I cannot be held accountable for simply obeying orders. From my perspective, you are responsible for the deaths of thousands. I barely escaped from Serpent Central after you demolished it.”

Those dark eyes bored into Jak and made him sweat, even though his shield kept his body temperature at a comfortable level. “Jak Taltin, by my authority as a Royal Knight of the Realm, based on circumstantial evidence and evidence found in your possession, and your confession, I have found you guilty on multiple counts of murder of a Royal Guardsman within the realm of Ducaun and grand theft of property consigned to the royal family of Ducaun. The penalty is death.”

Jak laughed, not that he saw anything humorous about his situation, no it was the fact that Serin Gell would be facing this same man. Jak saw no pleasure in the eyes of his executioner, only a man with a grim chore to do. He wondered if dying would hurt and was surprised when a topaz beam of light easily overwhelmed his shield and struck him, then all he felt was a strong desire to close his eyes and sleep.

---------------------------

Daniel was going through the pockets of Jak Taltin when Silvia and David arrived. Sergeant Keenan and Duncan Hawk walked up moments later. The rest of the Guardsmen were filtering through the woods, some with Jonah, some with Corporal Carlin, and some with Sergeant Zaccum. The difference being, Daniel knew the exact location of the Aakacarn while the others were looking elsewhere, which is how he planned it. The only casualties were a few trees and a couple of bushes, destroyed by a spell he had never seen before.

“Not a mark on him,” David observed while looking at the dead man.

Silvia knelt on one knee and was about to stretch out her hand toward the body and then stopped short. “Is he dead?”

Daniel found some amulets, a few gold coins, and some gems.  Every item except the communication devices were probably stolen from Cantor’s vault. The most important treasure was in a cedar box lying beside Taltin. He glanced at Silvia. “His name is Jak Taltin, a confessed member of the Serpent Guild, and he was found guilty of the multiple murders of more than a score of Ducaunan Royal Guardsmen and grand theft of property consigned to the royal family of Ducaun. The penalty for the murders is death. As an officer of the crown, death was my only legal option, the sentence is mandatory. The grand theft from the royal family carries a death penalty but could have been mitigated to imprisonment. That really wasn’t an option in this case so yes, he is dead because I carried out the sentence.”

The legalistic language did not make Daniel feel any better about executing Taltin. Killing in the heat of battle or in a duel to the death, as with Balen Tamm, was one thing, but just quietly ending a man’s life seemed different. Did this man deserved to die? Daniel had no doubt. He just hoped he never came to enjoy fulfilling this part of his duty as a Royal Knight of the Realm.

“It was a kinder death than he deserved,” Sergeant Keenan observed, “looks like he dropped off to sleep.”

Duncan removed his helmet and was scratching his head. “Is that all we came after, some coins, a few gems, and a fancy cedar box?”

Daniel sensed the whereabouts of every person under his command and knew they were far enough away for him to do a few
things
without being seen. He had become extremely good at narrowing the focus of his potential and was about to test just how good he actually was. When he and all power wielders summon forth life force energy, their entire bodies glow, but with practice and deep concentration before the summoning, he learned to limit the glow down to the area from which the potential was to be focused. A fellow Accomplished would have to be watching him close to even know Daniel had summoned potential.

He picked up the box.
It was a cubit and half long, one cubit wide, and one cubit deep. On the lid, in gold script, were the stylized initials
,
D.L.
,
Della Lain, no doubt about it. The latch was simple, a gold-hinged device with a walnut-sized ruby, clearly an amulet, embedded in it. Daniel placed his hand over the amulet and cast, “What Is This?” while keeping the potential focused beneath his palm. He sensed down to the little worlds with moons circling them, but more importantly, he sensed the life force energy of the shield spell protecting the box and its contents. He ceased using, What Is This? and cast a new spell, disintegrating the amulet, destroying the shield spell, and then recreated the amulet and shield using his Symphonics.

He dared not open the box. By order of the Queen, no one not in the emergency meeting was to know about the trumpet. He cast
, What Is This? and sensed into the contents of the casket. Inside was a golden trumpet with silver styling and within the instrument was the residual potential characteristic of a crescendo. Having touched the baton of Tarin Conn, Daniel had no trouble identifying whose life force energy was built up in the trumpet. The verification was important. Otherwise people would have died for trinkets. He placed a shield on the instrument and added a Da Capo tied to his life force. Both shields; the one in the amulet protecting the cedar box, and the one on the trumpet, could absorb whatever potential was directed at them and would be strengthened. He was the only person who could open the box.

“If you can’t open it, maybe I can,” David offered, perhaps not realizing he was feeding the stereo type about Teki being masters o
f opening other people’s locks.

Daniel stood up while tucking the cedar box under his arm. Everyone was staring at him, but none mentioned seeing anything out of the ordinary. That along with David’s question led him to conclude they had no idea what he just did. They would not have seen a glow, none of them being Aakacarns, it was the destruction and reconstruction he wanted hidden. “No, I think we should turn the box, the coins, and the gems over to Lord Jonah.”

The amulets he would keep, they might just come in handy. “Sergeant, round up the men at the clearing we passed during our chase. We will camp there and start out early in the morning.”

“It will be as you say, Sir Daniel,” Keenan replied, and then motioned for Hawk to go with him. “Guardsman, it is not our place to question the value of a mission given us. Ours is to follow orders,” he was telling
Duncan.

“What about those blue shields that suddenly appeared when that Taltin fellow cast a spell at us?” replied Hawk with a question rather than agreeing with the Sergeant.

“Remember the meeting in the tent last night?” Keenan’s voice carried in the distance.

“Yes,”
Duncan finally replied with an answer that was not a question.

“Then consider the shields an extension of that, don’t talk about anything Aakacarn-like happening around Sir Daniel.”

The two men vanished among the trees and Daniel waved up at Yonder circling in the sky above. The swirl of animals was beginning to drift apart. After all, he did suggest they were free to do as they will. Half of the sasquatches, including Gurrumble, were heading toward the river, the gators, frogs, turtles, and pythons began acting normal, they seemed to sense that Daniel was intending to leave the area and so were getting on with their lives. The owls and ospreys were content to follow him, as were the wolves, cougars, and bears. The queen bee decided this was a good place to make a hive; at least that was the impression Daniel had from her. Goldie and her fellow racers were approaching from the south, along with the copperheads, being unable to keep up with the horses, but would likely arrive in the vicinity of the camp within a mark or two.

Silvia arched an eyebrow at him. “Why the extra shield?”

David was staring at the body. “Whatever he cast at us, your shield seemed to drink it up.”

“I just wanted to be sure you were all fully protected,” Daniel admitted. “That spell was cast with a beam broad enough to engulf both of you from head to toe. I think you may not have survived without the forward shields.”

“He hit you too,” David pointed out. “You would not have survived without the extra shield either.”

Daniel shrugged his shoulders. “By then, seeing you dead, I
would have altered my shield.”

David cracked a smile. “Thanks, thanks a lot. Do I get to become you
r food taster as well?”

Daniel looked the Teki up and down, viewing the gaudy colors he was wearing. “I’m not sure your taste is a match for mine.”

“Alright you two, stop joking and tell me what we are going to do with him,” Silvia interrupted the banter while pointing to Jak.

Daniel summoned potential, five beams of light lanced from his four fingers and thumb, intersecting a hand-length away, igniting fire, and sending a jet of flame at the Jak’s body, cremating it. “I couldn’t just leave him to be torn apart by the animals.”

“Yes, I believe you could,” David replied, and received an elbow in the side for his comment.

Silvia brought her arm back down. “Even a condemned man gets buried or cremated, this was no different.”

David eyed his wife and then focused on Daniel. “As I was saying, there’s no way you could have done otherwise,” he stated, earning a satisfied nod of the head from her.

Daniel resisted the urge to smile, not difficult, seeing as he had an equally grim task ahead of him. “Let’s get to the camp.”

  Jonah was the first to greet him when Daniel stepped into the perimeter just as the sun finally sank below the horizon. “I see Sergeant Keenan reported accurately, as usual. You have the stolen items,” the son of the Duke said while eyeing the cedar box and smiling from ear to ear. “But where are the other Aakacarns? I’ve been told you executed the one in possession of the stolen property.”

Fires were being lit by those designated to do so. Everyone who was not actively contributing to the ordering of the camp was gathered close enough to hear all that was being said, Daniel wondered who among them was a spy, yet took the time to answer the Ducalin. “I imagine the remaining thieves are looking for the one who betrayed them. I presented Jak Taltin with the formal list of charges, he confessed, and I did my duty, under the law, as a Royal Knight of the Realm.”

“And you did it well,” Jonah quickly replied. “The question is, do we return to my father’s estate, or do we pursue the remaining Aakacarns?”

Neither option was what Daniel had in mind, yet he understood the other man’s thinking. The trumpet was back in the hands of a Ducalin, which certainly was Jonah’s biggest concern, and the young lord likely wanted to see those responsible for the assault on his home and the death of his brother executed. The man knew nothing about the appointment in Tomrus. “We continue north. According to the message on the mud hut, the remaining Aakacarns are attempting to flee to Pentrosa, and so we are heading that way as well.” The answer seemed good enough to satisfy the Queen’s nephew.