Victory and Defeat: Book Five of the Restoration Series (7 page)

Flare’s forehead pulled down in confusion. “I don’t understand the lesson,” he said slowly.

“The lesson is that I was the far superior swordsman and I should have won easily. I did win the fight without any problem, but he still killed me. He killed me because I underestimated him. I turned my back on the boy, and he won because of my pride. I knew there wasn’t any way for that boy to beat me, but he did. He beat me because I beat myself.” Byron took a deep breath. “If you learn nothing else from me, learn to never underestimate your opponent.”

Flare nodded, reeling at the revelation of
Byron’s final fight. If the story he had learned was wrong, could they all be wrong? That thought chilled him, frightened him. Everything he had ever learned about Kelcer was wrong, and the histories that he had been taught also appeared to be wrong. He began to wonder if anything he knew was actually correct.

Byron stepped to Flare’s right, toward the empty animal pens.
He motioned for Flare to follow and he didn’t wait to see if he would be obeyed. Mere moments later they rounded the edge of the cottage. Standing in the shadows was a wooden rack. The rack was loaded down with swords of all shapes and sizes. Roughly half of the swords were wooden. Byron picked out two wooden swords seemingly at random. Turning he tossed one to Flare, and then he moved out away from the cottage. “Time for your second lesson.”

Flare broke back through the water and the heat descended on him, feeling like it was going to smother him. He glanced around at the location of the sun, but it was unnecessary; even though it seemed like he had spent decades in Sha’al, only a heartbeat had passed here. Everything was as when he had left.

Standing
up, Flare began to wade toward the shore. He slipped several times and once fell to his knees. Needless to say, he was pleased to finally step free of the water.

As he got dressed,
he felt the headache coming on. He wasn’t surprised by the headache; in fact, he had expected it. It seemed that trying to cram decades of memories into a heartbeat of time caused the worst imaginable headaches. Sighing, he reminded himself to try to avoid using sorcery for several days; the headaches would only intensify if he tried to control his spirit.

Chapter
7

Flare had them break camp a little before sundown and they headed southwest along the road. The wagon drivers knew better than to drive their wagons at night, and they passed a large number of camps off to the side of the main road. That wasn’t to say that the road was empty; many of their fellow travelers seemed to have had the same idea as Enton. There was a steady stream of people walking along the road to Elem, even in the dark. At least they weren’t walking into a steady dust cloud.

They
emerged from the trees onto the broad road. There were numerous small groups along the road, and each group maintained their distance from one another. Flare was actually pleased with all the other travelers. With the roads crowded, his group wouldn’t seem so out of place.

They made good time that night, only taking a few breaks. They continued walking past midnight, even when the other groups were getting off the road and catching some sleep. Flare drove them on, planning
to sleep through the day.

They kept walking
until the sun came up. As the wagon caravans began pulling onto the road, Flare led his group off into the trees on the northern side of the road. They made a quick camp, ate bread and cheese from their packs, and collapsed onto the ground.

Once again, Flare took first watch. He was tired, as was everyone
else, but he felt the obligation to let them sleep first. He was so tired that he refused to sit on the ground. He had never fallen asleep while on watch and he never intended to. He walked the perimeter of their small camp over and over. Today, unlike the first night he pulled watch, he did not stand guard an extra long time. Shortly after two hours, Flare woke Enton for the second watch, and when he lay down, he was asleep within moments.

Heather awoke with a start. Her eyes popped open and she stared into Enton’s face as he shook her.

“Wake up, it’s your turn for watch.”

She groaned and pushed herself to a sitting position. She hated the middle watch, but in all honesty, she hating standing watch at all. She yawned, stretched, and tried to dispel any thoughts of lying back down.

Enton tapped her on the shoulder and motioned for her to come over to the side of the camp.
With a sinking feeling, Heather nodded. She had been expecting just such an invitation and by no means had she been looking forward to it.

Enton led the way into the trees that surrounded their camp. They could still see the small clearing where the others were sleeping, but here they could talk without bothering anyone.
He leaned against a thick pine tree.

Heather stopped a little short and stood there, looking wary.

Enton grinned at her. “I’m not going to attack you,” he said quietly.

Heather no
dded and moved a bit closer. “What’s this about?”

Enton looked a little put off
, and he crossed his arms across his chest. “Well, we haven’t talked much lately, and I wanted to know how you’re doing.”

Heather didn’t answer right away; she suspected that he wanted to
do something besides talk, but she didn’t feel the need to say so. “I’m good,” she said slowly, not really sure what to say.

Enton frowned, “What’s the matter
? I thought you wanted to wait until you were no longer in charge before we …” he trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence.

“Before we what?” Heather asked
, and there was an angry look in her eye. “Did you expect that we would start sharing blankets now?”

Enton blinked at the sudden anger in her tone
, and then his face drew down in a scowl. “I didn’t expect any such thing, but I don’t know what to expect because we haven’t spoken.” His tone had gotten a bit louder but only to match hers.

She sighed deeply and some of the anger seemed to drain away. “I don’t know what to say. Flare’s trying to restore the Dragon Order and he already knows
wizardry. Wizardry!” She shook her head. “The last thing I want is some romantic relationship when the world is about to burn around us.” She paused and swallowed hard. “I like you,” she said and was surprised by how much she meant it, “but I want to wait and see how things go. We could both be dead tomorrow.”

Enton didn’t respond immediately but instead just glowered at her. To his way of thinking
, facing imminent death was a reason to accelerate their relationship, not slow it down. “Fine,” he said after a moment, trying to keep his anger out of his voice. He pushed himself away from the tree and left her without another word.

Heather let him go and remained in the trees. She spent most of her watch there, wrestling with her fears and desires.

Fl
are woke in the early afternoon miserable and still tired. The day had gotten hot, but he still felt comfortable; it was because of the dragon armor. He climbed to his feet and looked around the camp. They were in a small clearing in the shade of several trees. Heather and Mikela were already up, and Belgil was starting a fire. Only Enton remained asleep. Enton’s face was covered with little drops of sweat and Flare couldn’t imagine how he was still asleep.

Flare stretched and, ignoring Mikela’s attempt to wave him over, exited their small camp to find a nice bush.

With his business concluded, Flare returned to the camp. Belgil’s fire was small, but he was slowly adding some larger sticks
, and it wouldn’t be long before they would have a nice fire.

Flare nodded to the dwarf as he walked over to join Mikela and Heather.

“Better?” Heather asked, causing Mikela to grimace.

Flare smiled and nodded
. “Much.” He motioned toward the south. “Anyone check the road today?”

“Yes, it’s busy
, but not like yesterday.” She glanced at Enton’s still sleeping form and lowered her voice. “Looks like dark clouds coming up from the south.”

Flare seized his spirit, not so much to use sorcery, but to heighten his senses. There was a vibrant smell to the air and he sighed. “Well, at least it won’t be so hot.”

They walked half of that night in the rain before they gave up and made a semblance of a camp in the trees. None of them slept much and they started out again at daybreak. The rain continued to fall
, and the wagon trains didn’t even bother breaking camp.

The road was empty but for a few travelers on foot. The walking was more difficult than before as the water collected on the road and made the going slippery. In some parts the heavy rain was washing deep ruts in the road. The ruts didn’t cause them much of a delay, but they would be hell on a wagon train.

There wasn’t much conversation that day; they were all miserable, soaked, and a bit grumpy. There was more to it than that, though. Flare could sense a coolness between Enton and Heather. He had wondered about their relationship, but he had refrained from asking. Belgil didn’t appear to notice anything, or perhaps he just didn’t care.

They continued their trek during the daylight hours for the next three days as the rain continued. The wagon trains either couldn’t’ or wouldn’t move in the rain and there were few enough people on the roads during the day. They could have continued walking at night, but there wasn’t any reason to, and in fact walking in the light allowed them to avoid the large puddles and ruts.

On the fourth day, the rain disappeared and the sun came back out. The sun helped dry up the water, but it also got hot again, and the combination of heat and water made it humid.

They made good time that day, as many of the wagoners spent that day putting their wagons back in order.

They slept that night under the trees again, as Flare had steadfastly resisted staying at an inn, even when he was soaked to the skin. There had been a few small villages along the way. Most of the villages were there to cater to the wagon trains and travelers, but they had been small and Flare had not wanted to risk it. They would get several rooms once they reached Elem.

They had also passed a large castle that was on a hill overlooking the surrounding territory. Flare knew these lands belonged to House Steel, and he assumed the castle was a way of guarding the road, as well as the handful of farms that lay just off of the road on the southern side.

They started early the next day and walked without stopping to eat any lunch. They were close and they knew it. There had been farms in the distance along the southern side of the road, and there was a lot of the traffic of individual farmers carrying produce in their small wagons and carts.

T
hey rounded a small bend in the road and the ground descended for a ways. They could see the city of Elem laid out in front of them. The city had been built around a bay that formed a large natural harbor. A rocky peninsula to the west extended southwards and then curved back around to the east and provided protection for the many ships that docked at Elem.

The eastern part of the bay was a series of rocky cliffs where numerous houses dotted the precipices; more houses were set back a safe ways from the edge
. The houses on this edge of the bay were extravagant, and it was clearly the more affluent area of the city.

North and slightly west of the cliffs was a more populated jumble of houses and multi-story apartments. They lined the harbor edge and ran westward to where the docks started.
Once the docks started, they ran all the way around the harbor to the point where the rocks made more docks implausible. All around the docks were businesses and shops that catered to the sailors and merchants. Even from far away they could see the numerous brothels and pubs that lined the harbor front. Farther back from the beach, there were giant warehouses to hold the enormous amount of goods that arrived in the holds of the ships.

Off to their right, toward
the northern-most part of the bay, and farther back beyond houses, warehouses, and shops, sat the Abbey of Enlightenment. The abbey sat on a large hill that overlooked the bay. A twelve-foot high wall surrounded the abbey. They could see little of what was inside the wall, but from where they stood, it looked like little more a couple of outhouses.

A sigh came from Flare’s right and he turned to see Heather smiling; it was the first time he had seen her looking happy in days. “Oh, I’m so looking forward to a hot bath,” she said, her eyes looking a little
misty.

Flare returned h
er smile. He too would like a bath, but it was the bed he was really looking forward to.

Chapter 8

It was an hour or two after sunset, and Aaron wandered the halls of King Darion’s castle alone. It had been nearly a week since they had spotted Prince Danal fooling around with the young woman in the library, and strangely they had not seen him since. Dagan was getting worried as he had been so sure the boy would keep going back night after night. Aaron had to admit the old man’s logic had made sense.

Over the last week, both Warren and Aaron had gone out into the castle; two nights they had gone together, three nights they had both gone out but separately, and two times
only one had gone out. Regardless, their mission was the same: check the library first. If Danal was there, they were to return and fetch the others. If he wasn’t there, they were to discretely roam the castle to gather information, food, and water.

For the most part it had gone well except the one night
when Aaron had been gathered up with a bunch of the other servants to help with an emergency. It turned out that the roof was leaking over an oversized meeting room and he was forced to help clear the room. It wasn’t so bad once he realized that they were gathering up every servant they could find and were not targeting him. He had spent most of that night moving furniture and mopping up the water.

Aaron was more careful now. Early on he had strode bravely through the halls, counting on his appearance as a servant to help disguise him. But now he was more careful, trying to discretely check the hallways and rooms before he entered. It was both safer and more dangerous. On the one hand, he didn’t want to get gathered up and made to do anymore work and his sneaking might help him avoid that, but the dangerous part of sneaking was that it could attract unwanted attention. He strove to be careful, preferring to do another night’s work, rather than get caught.

Aaron stopped just outside the library and took a deep breath. He had returned here the night after finding the prince and his woman friend, and he had been excited. All he had to do was verify the prince was here and then return to get Dagan and the others, but the prince had not been here. Over the subsequent days, his excitement had completely disappeared to the point where he no longer expected to find the prince and he was beginning to doubt the plan. His first thought had been that Prince Danal had left the castle, but according to the servants, he was still here.

He looked around one more time, just to make sure the hallway was empty, and relieved that he was still alone, he pulled open the library door a crack and peered through.

There were several desks off to the right and they was nearly buried in books. Only on one occasion had he gotten lucky and spotted the girl at the desk; she wasn’t there tonight. Sighing, he pulled the door open a bit farther and tried to peer around back to the left. It took him a moment, but he finally managed to see that the library appeared to be deserted. Aaron pulled the library door open even farther and stuck his head through the gap. He turned his head several different ways but it was quiet; he couldn’t hear the first sound. Both excited and apprehensive, he opened the door wide and slipped through.

He stopped just inside the library and listened again; still he heard nothing. He continued in, being careful to walk as silently as possible. H
e stopped every ten yards or so but no sound reached him.

He directed his steps toward
the right rear corner, where he and Warren had first found Prince Danal and the young woman. He continued to scan the library as he made his way, but the library truly seemed deserted.

As he neared the spot where they had found Prince Danal, Aaron once again heard the unmistakable sounds. He hesitated only long enough to peek through the library shelves and
confirm that it was indeed the prince. Then he hastily headed back out of the library. He was careful to leave as quietly as he had entered.

He strode quickly through the halls of the castle, afraid that, if spotted, his quick pace might be noticed; he was moving faster than servants tended to
do. He needn’t have worried though, even though he spotted several servants and one guard, none of them paid him the least bit of attention.

Once he was past the more heavily traveled part of the castle, he broke into a run. This section of the castle was old; the roof leaked
, and it was rather drafty. Darion’s nobles and guests preferred the newer areas of the castle.

Sliding to a halt in front of the secret passage entrance, Aaron quickly pushed the three stones and the door slid open, revealing the darkness beyond.

In addition to the darkness, a smell wafted out of the hallway - a mixture of human waste and unwashed bodies. The smell caused him to wrinkle his nose, and he realized exactly how time was pressing on them.

Upon arriving back in the castle, they had taken a small room
off the secret passage and made it into a privy. Aaron had brought back a bucket with him, and even though he was able to empty the bucket daily, the smell was still building up.

Twice he and Warren had brought back extra water allowing the others to wash themselves, although it was a poor excuse for a bath. If the smell was any indication, they needed to do it again.

Atock and Cassandra’s stepped forward from the darkness and looked out at him. “You going to enter?” Atock asked.

“Maybe not,” Aaron answered.
“It’s smells horrible in here.”

“I can’t smell anything,” Atock said, looking confused.

“That’s because you haven’t been out of it,” Cassandra replied. She quickly turned her attention to Aaron. “What is it?”

Suddenly remembering the reason for his hasty retreat through the castle, Aaron
said, “He’s back.”

Aaron led the small group to the library. There had been a heated but short argument over who was to accompany him; everyone wanted to go, but that wasn’t feasible. It was understandable, as they were all tired of being stuck in that dark and stinking hallway, but the time had not come for them to abandon their hideout. Dagan and Cassandra walked side by side behind him, and Agminion brought up the rear.

Atock and Holgar had also wanted to go, but they would stand out in the hallways of the castle. One of the sorcerers could, of course, muddle their appearance, but someone had to stay and watch the priest.

He had to admit that having two sorcerers with him made walking the hallways much easier. Not only could Dagan and Agminion disorientate those they came in contact with, but they could also sense guards and servants before their small group walked up on them.

With the sorcerer’s help, they made good time and were back at the library roughly forty minutes after Aaron had left. They were all worried though, afraid the boy was done and gone.

Reaching the library doors, Aaron paused with his hand on the door handle. He looked back at Dagan. The old sorcerer’s eyes were a bit glazed and he had a faraway look.

“Well?” Aaron demanded.

The word snapped Dagan out of whatever fugue he had been enduring. “What?” he said with a brief shake of the head.

Aaron took a deep and calming breath. “Can you sense anyone in the library?” he asked in a
slightly irritated way.

Before Dagan could reply, Agminion quiet
ly answered for him. “Yes, there are two people in the far end of the library.”

Aaron smiled, ignoring the grumpy look on Dagan
’s face. He held his finger to his lips and silently pulled the door open.

They barely paused in the entrance in the library’s vestibule, passing through quickly and silently. Aaron tapped Agminion on the shoulder and motioned for the sorcerer to lead
the way. Aaron dropped to the back of the group, and he let the others pull away from him a bit; he didn’t expect any trouble, but trouble had been following him since he joined the Guardians several years ago.

Aaron broke away from the other three and moved down a shadowed aisle.
He moved forward slowly, knowing that in the quiet library he should be able to hear any commotion. If anything went wrong, he was counting on his presence in the shadows to be a surprise. Nevertheless, he drew his belt knife and crept forward.

Agminion could sense the presence of two people the next aisle over. He did a quick scan of the entire library again but, besides himself and his three companions, these were the only other people he could sense.

He focused his spirit on the two and studied them. They seemed half-asleep, befuddled perhaps. Given what they supposedly just finished doing, it was perfectly understandable.

He stopped next to a gap in the bookshelves. The gap would allow him to cross over into the next aisle, but he didn’t. Instead, he turned and found Cassandra and Dagan staring at him. He pointed at the two of them and then at the shadow entrance to the next aisle. Then, he pointed to himself and motioned on down the current aisle. He hoped they understood his meaning;
You cross here and I’ll go to the end of the aisle. We’ll meet with the prince in the middle.

He glanced back the way they had come, idly wondering where Aaron had
gone off to. He’d forgotten all about the Guardian as Cassandra and Dagan moved up next to him and stepped through to the other aisle.

Whirling, Agminion rushed to the far end of the aisle, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Prince Danal lay on the floor. It was a little uncomfortable as he had only a thick blanket to cushion the hard stone floor, but he was content. He was warm and drowsy, feeling the aftereffects of making love.
He stretched and groaned slightly, wanting nothing more than to sleep right where he was, but he knew he had to go. Only the gods would be able to help him if he were caught in this situation.

Julia stirred beside him
, and he felt her warm and naked body shift against him.

Grinning, Danal reached over and tickled her. She giggled and slid away, pulling the blanket and nearly uncovering him.

The sound of a man clearing his throat rang out, causing Danal to sit up quickly; this time, it was Julia who was nearly uncovered. She also sat up, frantically grabbing at the blanket to keep it from falling away.

Two people stood in front of them
, and Danal just gaped at the old man and the attractive woman. It was two people that they both recognized. Danal had once known them fairly well, but Julia had never spoken to either of them. Still they both knew exactly who was standing before them.

“Dagan,” Danal finally managed to say; his eyes were wide and he seemed like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Cassandra?” he added after a moment.

Dagan suppressed a chuckle at the look of pure terror that ha
d sprouted on the faces of the prince and his lady friend. They both had gone a bit pale, and sweat was visible on Danal’s forehead. He suddenly remembered what the young couple had been doing before his arrival, and he realized the sweat may have already been there.

“Hello, Prince Danal,” Dagan said
, and gave a formal bow. His eyes twinkled as he straightened back up. “I hope we’re not interrupting anything important.”

Danal didn’t respond; he just
sat there staring dumbly.

Dagan glanced at the young woman. He guessed her age to be somewhere around eighteen and he found her a bit common looking. She had brown hair and a thin face, but her nose was a bit too large for her face. He suppressed another chuckle at the thought that Prince Danal probably didn’t care a bit if her nose was oversized.

Dagan bowed again, but this time it was in the young lady’s direction. “My apologies, my dear, for disturbing you at such an inopportune time. Would you mind getting dressed? I really need to speak to the young prince, here.”

“Is it really you?” Danal asked
. The surprise was wearing off and he cautiously looked around. He spotted Agminion right away, and he paused, measuring the stranger. After a moment he turned back to Dagan. “Dagan, what is going on? How did you even get in the palace?”

“Peace,” Dagan said, hoping to quiet the boy’s fears. “We’re not here t
o harm you.” He motioned toward where the prince and his woman still sat on the floor. “Please get dressed so that we can talk properly.” Almost as an afterthought he added, “Of course, your woman can stay naked if she likes.” He threw in a wink for good measure, and the poor girl turned bright red.

“Dagan,” Cassandra said in a stern voice, “please don’t anger the prince.”

Danal did indeed appear to be getting angry, and he flicked his eyes to the side where his clothes were piled up.

Dagan walked over and started going through the pile.
He tossed the clothes to the couple on the floor, and he tossed the long belt knife down the aisle; it skidded along the stone floor, kicking up a spark or two.

The clothes landed with a Thumph on top of the blanket. Danal swallowed hard and glanced behind them, just to make sure that Agminion hadn’t moved. “It’s a
ll right, Julia. Do as they say.” He reached out and pulled the clothes toward them.

They got dressed under the blanket, mainly due to their modesty. It was slow going and rather difficult, but at last Danal threw the blanket back and climbed to his feet. His clothes were askew and his hair was disheveled, but he was properly covered. Julia also got to her feet, but she looked much worse than the prince
, as her long hair was rather wild looking. Julia looked both embarrassed and scared and she kept her eyes down.