Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (35 page)

The king inhaled sharply. “Are ye sure?” Steve nodded. “But that means…” he trailed off as the implication set in.

Rhenyon looked at his king. “That means what, yer majesty?”

Lowering his voice, he looked at the captain. “We conducted an experiment in the Antechamber last night. Just the queen, myself,
Mikal
, Steve, and his wife, Sarah. No one else.” He took a breath. “At first, it appeared that anything Steve was holding would be unaffected by his jhorun and therefore would not burn, but was later proved false. Someone else was in that chamber, witnessed that part of the experiment, and then clearly left before the experiment was concluded. Whoever that was relayed what they had heard to a third party, and somehow that information ended up with those three men. My question is who? Who could it have been?”

Rhenyon stiffened. “There were three guards on duty that night in the Antechamber. I can vouch for all.”

Steve held up a hand. Catching the king’s eye, who nodded, he said, “Ummm, I believe there was another person in the Antechamber beside us and the soldiers.”

Both king and captain stared at him, and in unison, asked, “Who?”

“
The servant girl. Remember her? She came in to offer us drinks. You and I took a cup, the ladies didn’t. Anyone have any idea how long she might have stuck around?”

Rhenyon started scowling again, pacing around Kri’Entu and Steve. “We need to contact the kitchen staff immediately and find out who was on duty last night. I will have the truth out of that harlot or she will hang.”

Kri’Entu looked at his trusted friend. “Ye
really
think that girl is knowingly and willingly supplying confidential information to a Ylani spy?”

“
I’ll bet you she’s sleeping with someone,” Steve suggested, “and that person is using her for information, willingly or not.”

“
Regardless of who she’s sharing her bed with,” Rhenyon spat, “she should not be divulging any information she overhears to anyone else. Especially in royal matters.”

The king nodded sagely. “I agree. I will leave this problem in yer hands then.”

“
Aye, I will resolve this, fear not. As for these three,” Rhenyon gave a not-so-gentle kick to one of the bound men, “I will find out who they are working for and what their intentions are. Leave it to me.”

Turning, the king took Steve’s arm and guided him back into the castle, going straight to the Great Hall where Sarah was pacing. She had just sat down when they emerged into the
cavernous
room.

“
Steve!” She ran over to him and flung her arms around him, hugging him hard. “Are you okay? I was so worried about you!”

“
I’m okay. Really.”

“
What happened? How did you escape?”

Steve scoffed. “Escape? Didn’t have to.”

Comprehension flooded into her as she realized just what her husband had meant by that. “Did you have to, umm, I mean, did you-”

“
If you’re asking whether or not I killed them,” Steve interrupted, “then no. Umm, not directly.”

“
Not directly? What does that mean?”

“
Let’s just say I gave them some motivation to jump into the moat.”

Mikal jumped up, letting out a joyous whoop. “Bredo got ‘em, did he not? Alright Bredo!”

“
What about you?” Steve asked. “You actually teleported yourself didn’t you? Mikal, too!”

Sarah smiled. “I’ve been thinking about that. I don’t know how I did it. I’ve been trying to recreate the circumstances, but I apparently am not doing something right.”

“
How did you know you could do it then?”

“
I really didn’t,” Sarah confessed. “I wasn’t even trying. Everything happened so quickly. I knew I had to get Mikal to safety, and I knew you could take care of yourself. So I grabbed him and thought of getting some help. Suddenly we were here. The king was here, too, and even that soldier from the inn. Did you see him?”

Steve nodded.

“
After I told them we were attacked by the dragon cavern that Rhenyon fellow bolted outside, with every soldier I could see chasing after him. Then we heard the explosion. Honestly, sweetie, I’m surprised no one was killed. It was loud. The floor was shaking, and things fell off the walls.”

Steve grinned. He knew his first blast was strong, but they felt it all the way in the castle? Cool!

“
The purpose of the first blast was to eliminate the arrow.” He explained that, as before at the small lake, he saw an arrow being released. This time at him. He told her how he believed the purpose of the blast was to incapacitate his opponents, but not to harm.

“
Did you do that specifically?” Sarah wanted to know.

“
I wish I could say that I did. I’d rather have done the job with one blast and not two. What if I would have missed someone?”

Ny’Callé entered the Great Hall and rushed over to her son and her husband. “Is everyone alright? Mikal, are ye unharmed?”

“
He is fine,” Kri’Entu assured his wife. “It would seem that our Nohrin have arrived in the nick of time. It pains me to say this, but we have to get Mikal out of here. Tristan.”

Tristan appeared. “Sir.”

“
Locate Maelnar. I hereby authorize you to use whatever means necessary. Use whatever personnel you require. Now.”

The soldier gave a curt bow. “Consider it done, sir.”

True to his word, Rhenyon identified the hapless maid who had been relaying information to the Ylani spy. While the servant’s employment was terminated, the spy slipped away unseen, much to the captain’s frustrations.

The days passed with still no word as to the present whereabouts of the dwarf craftsman, Maelnar. The king, having received a response of ‘location unknown’ from the dwarves, expanded the search to include all of Lentari. Messengers were sent to the coastal village of Capily, the mountainous village of Avin, and it wasn’t until they sent messengers to the extreme northern village of Verdayn that they received their first glimmer of news.

****

Mikal came running into the Great Hall to find his guardians sitting down for their midday meal.

“
Steve! Sarah! We have news!”

Steve looked up from his plate of steaming phedras, cousin to their breakfast brethren. The luncheon variety contained seasoned meat, steamed veggies, and some type of red root. He had to keep telling himself it was just a chicken pot pie and they typically didn’t include beets. He hated beets.

Mikal was practically jumping up and down with excitement, anxious to share the news with his friends.

“
You appear to be bursting at the seams,” Steve observed, smiling at their charge. “What’s up, Mikal? What’s the news?”

“
We heard back from the messengers sent to Verdayn!”

“
Okay, with you so far.”

Sarah smacked her husband on the arm. “Does someone there know where Maelnar is?”

“
According to some old villager, he passed through Verdayn about ten years ago!”

Steve snorted. “Ten year old news is good news?”

“
I guess. Dad was really excited. He said that an old man remembered trading with a really good dwarf blacksmith who mentioned that he was on his way to Borahgg.”

“
Bo-rug?” Steve briefly wondered just how badly he had mangled that pronunciation. “Where’s that? I don’t remember your father mentioning that one.”

Mikal rocked back and forth on his heels, bursting with his secret. “That is the point! There are only two known dwarven cities. This makes number three!”

Sarah nodded. “Okay, so there are three dwarf cities. After ten years, how do you know that’s where he still is?”

“
Dad is positive that’s where he’s at. Why, he did not say.” Mikal suddenly snapped his fingers. “He did want to talk with the two of ye.”

Steve, working on getting as big a bite of phedra on his fork as possible, paused. “He wants to see us? Now?”

“
Aye, right now. I forgot to tell ye.”

As they walked to the Antechamber, Steve began noticing a subtle change in the general populace of the castle. Instead of everyone ignoring them, or else pretending that they didn’t exist, servants, kitchen staff, even soldiers were now starting to smile, tip a hat, or even give a small nod of recognition in their direction.

They had just exited the Great Hall, walking through the large, vaulted corridor that took them to various rooms in the southern wing of the castle, when, as they were approaching the outer door to the Antechamber, several soldiers leapt to attention at their approach.

The four guards, two on either side of the door, all nodded. One even grasped the handle and pulled open the door. “Nohrin. His majesty is waiting for you.”

Sarah beamed at him. “Thank you.”

Deciding his messenger duties were fulfilled, Mikal ambled off, hoping to find one of his friends before he was given another assignment. Entering the Antechamber, they found the king seated at his desk. He looked up as they entered. He shook his head.

“
Allow me to venture a guess. My son just asked ye to come in here, correct?”

Confused, Sarah and Steve nodded.

The king sat back, sighing. “I asked him to bring ye here close to an hour ago.”

He couldn’t help it. Steve chuckled. The king’s tired eyes swiveled over to his. “Sorry, no disrespect intended. Boys will be boys.”

“
Indeed. As he may or may not have told ye, we have a lead as to where Maelnar might be.”

Steve nodded. “Borug, wherever that is. Another dwarf city?”

Kri’Entu nodded. “Aye. Borahgg, a previously unknown dwarven city.” He rose from his desk and walked to a section of wall that had the map of his kingdom tacked up on it. Small colored markers were now dotted all over. He gestured to the northern Bohani Mountains. Red markers were scattered across every inch of the entire mountain range, with a few yellow mixed in. He started tapping the various markers.

“
Red signifies where we have already searched. Yellow is where we are presently searching. And here,” he tapped a small, southern section of Lake Raehón, “ye will notice there are no markers. And there is a reason for that. That area is known to be heavily populated by dragons. It is here that I believe contains an entrance to the dwarven realm. This is where the two of ye need to go.”

Sarah paled. Dragons! They had to traverse through dragon territory?

Steve cleared his throat. “With all due respect, your majesty, I seem to recall you mentioning that you weren’t too sure where to start looking for the dwarves. What makes you think that’s the right area? If we’re gonna go into dragon territory, I think we ought to be damn certain we’re going in the right direction.”

With a gleam in his eye, the king smiled. “Come with me.”

The king led them out the northern gate, continuing past the moat. With as much finesse as a fully armored phalanx of troops could attain, their armored shadow fell in step behind them.

“
Where are we going?” Puzzled, Steve looked around. “There’s nothing out here.”

Turning to gaze at Steve while he walked, the king smiled again. “Ye wanted to know how I know where to look for the dwarves. It is quite simple, really. I should have thought of it years ago. Ye ask a resident of the area.”

With that, they stopped at the familiar mound of rocks in the midst of the northern orchard.

Steve stared at the entrance to the great underground cavern.

“
Are you telling me-” He didn’t get to finish his question.