Child of Fate (11 page)

Alto remembered Kar’s words pointing out that
he hadn’t beaten Tristam. He’d made the seasoned warrior yield, but
their weapons hadn’t been real. These men had steel that gleamed in
the light that danced behind them and cast long shadows. Their
bodies were covered in metal-studded leather, and over that they
wore tabards with the Kingdom’s seal on it.

Alto gasped. He stumbled backwards, buying
himself time while he tried to make sense of it. Kingdom guards
working with goblins? Commanding them, even? And referring to their
boss whom they couldn’t escape?

“Traitors!” Alto growled and came to a stop
in the tunnel.

The men slowed. The one closest to Alto
laughed. “Traitors? Oh, the uniforms. You thought we were your
king’s men? Ha! Fool. Why, you’re nothing but a boy. A child with a
sword, playing soldier.”

“Careful, he’s big,” the other man
warned.

“Probably still wets the bed,” the first one
said. “Imagine his mother crying when she can’t tuck him in
tonight!”

Alto charged forward, smashing his broadsword
into the hastily raised defense of the man taunting him. He heard
him grunt from the impact and felt the pretend soldier’s blade
drop. He bore down on him, forcing the sword down farther until it
rested on the man’s chest.

“You are strong,” the man wheezed as he
struggled against Alto. “But are you—”

Alto slammed the fist not holding his sword
into the man’s face, knocking him back. Alto’s adversary kept his
feet and raised his sword back up to show a semblance of defense.
He turned and spat out blood, and then had his sword smashed free
from his hand by Alto’s battering blade.

The man’s partner saved him, slipping past
his partner and lunging at Alto. Remembering Trina’s move earlier,
the farm boy spun in hopes of driving the man back. Rather than
forcing a retreat, Alto’s blade glanced off the chain coif the man
wore, knocking him to the ground. His head crashed into one of the
rocks that had been pulled free of the cave-in. His body came to
rest without any further movement.

The other attacker had grabbed his sword and
was straightening to face Alto. He lunged forward, hacking at Alto
so crudely even the sixteen-year-old could knock the strike aside.
The sword struck the rock wall, bouncing back of its own volition
and hitting Alto on the hip as he stepped into his next attack.
Alto’s sword was blunted by the metal studs in the man’s armor but
the force of the strike knocked his foe to one knee and left his
sword arm hanging limp at his side.

“Surrender!” Alto said, leveling the wide
point of his blade at the man’s chest.

“This is a quicker death,” the goblin handler
wheezed, drawing his dagger in his left hand and lunging toward
Alto. The weight of his body and the speed of his leap forced
Alto’s sword to plunge into his chest. His dagger fell from his
hands and he slumped forward, gravity pulling him back off the
boy’s sword.

Alto stared down at him, shocked by the man’s
behavior. He heard noise behind him and turned to look back
instinctively. Trina pulled her sword free from the body of the
goblin that had surrendered and walked toward him. She looked
around him and passed him, and then stopped and stared up at
him.

Trina reached up with her free hand and laid
it on his shoulder. She pulled him so he bent over, bringing his
face closer to hers. She twisted her head and kissed him on the
cheek, and then whispered in his ear, “Don’t ever do that to me
again.”

Alto straightened, a fire burning in his
cheeks. He was so baffled by the kiss, it took him a moment to
process what she’d said. She slipped past him, pausing only to
check on both men to ensure they were dead before heading toward
the cave-in. Alto stared after her, his lips parted in an unasked
question.

“My friend, you’ve won something no man or
boy from her village could ever get.”

Alto stiffened, hearing Namitus speaking so
close to him. He turned and saw the boy staring after her. “What’s
that?”

“Her favor.”

“Her favor? She just touched, I mean…,” Alto
hesitated, confused. Had she kissed him? Maybe she’d leaned to
close as she tried to speak to him. The feel of her lips still felt
warm against his cheek. It certainly felt like she’d kissed
him!

“Yes, her first kiss. Her favor. You’ve won
it and earned the envy and wrath of a lot of Kelgryn.”

“What of you?” Alto asked, forcing some sense
into his head. He recognized the faraway tone in Namitus’s
voice.

“I’m the son her father never had. I’m her
play toy. She uses me to spar with, verbally and, when her father
and others aren’t around, with weapons. I teach her the magic of
poetry and song and through her, I learn its deeper mysteries.”

“But how do you feel about her?”

Namitus smiled. “I love her. I’d lay down my
life for her if she but asked me to.”

Alto nodded. “I’m sorry. I had no intentions
with her. I have none, I mean.”

Namitus chuckled. “Her heart’s not for me. I
like you, Alto. You’re a mountain of a man, or you will be soon
enough. But you’re not like those thugs. You’re smart and you’re
kind. If we make it out of here, I see great things coming your way
in time. You’re young—we all are—but Patrina could do far worse
than to end up with someone like you.”

“Bah, bunch of whelps that don’t know nothing
about the fine arts of love,” Drefan wheezed as he walked up to
them. He looked around at the bodies. “Well done with the gobs,
though. And a pair of men pretending to be Kingdom soldiers!”

Alto looked at the chaos around him. He’d
caused all of it. By himself, except for the goblin Trina had
executed. He took in a deep breath, noticing the stink of death for
the first time. He sheathed his sword, forgetting to clean the gore
from it, and nodded.

“Your hip all right?” Drefan asked him.

“What?” Alto turned and looked at his leg.
His leather gaped open from a slash in it caused by the man’s
blade. Blood had dripped down his leg but the wound was shallow. He
winced as he became aware of it, and then he nodded. “Aye, I’ll be
fine.”

“Good, then fetch me one of their blades
since your lady friend has mine.”

Alto blushed again but failed to act in time.
Namitus had already grabbed both swords and was handing one to
Drefan. “We’d better hurry,” Namitus said. “She’s not known for
being patient.”

Up ahead, Trina was sitting in the cave-in,
staring at them. “Hurry up!” she called to them.

Drefan and Alto looked at Namitus. The boy
with wisdom beyond his years gave them a knowing grin. Alto
chuckled while Drefan winced. They turned and walked toward her,
intent on finding their way out of the mines.

“Where do we go?” Alto asked. They’d stopped
past the cave–in to plot their next move and enjoy the lantern that
was hanging from a spike driven into a support beam. The tunnel
stretched ahead of them, curving slightly.

“Only one way to go.” Trina pointed down the
passage. “That’s the way we came, though.”

“And you ran from these people,” Alto pointed
out.

“We didn’t see any goblins, just the Kingdom
soldiers.”

“They aren’t Kingdom men!”

“I know that,” Trina snapped. “But we thought
they were then.”

“I heard the two men talking before…”

“Before what?” Namitus asked him.

Alto glanced behind them at the shapes in the
darkness. The two larger shapes were the men he’d killed. He took a
breath and blew it out. Yes, he’d killed two men but they were
going to kill him. He wasn’t sure how he should feel about it. He
fell back on the pragmatism he’d learned on his father’s farm and
decided he would deal with it later, when he had time. “Before they
attacked me,” he finished.

“And what did they say?” Trina asked after
waiting a long moment for Alto to continue.

Alto snapped his head around to look at her,
jerking himself out of the fog his mind had started to enter.
“What? Oh! Uh, they said they had to get you two back or they
couldn’t run far enough to get away from their boss.”

“Hard to get good loyalty in a bandit these
days,” Drefan muttered.

“But they were willing to kill you. I heard
them say that,” Trina said.

“Why are we special?” Namitus wondered.

“She’s the princess,” Drefan stated the
obvious.

Patrina turned on him, a hand on one hip and
her finger pointed at him threateningly. “I’m not a princess! We
have a king, too. My father’s only the jarl. And besides, how would
they know that? We weren’t traveling with a lot of guards or any
tabards announcing who I was.”

“You were going to see a wise-woman?” Alto
asked. Trina nodded, turning back to him. Her hand slipped off her
hip and her shoulders relaxed. “Why?”

“It used to be tradition for every Kelgryn
coming of age to learn what their destiny held for them. It was a
time for choosing, a time when they would learn what profession
they would have. For some, it even foretold who they would marry,”
she explained. “Only the nobles continue the tradition
anymore.”

“So you’re of age?” Alto had to ask the
question even though he knew it wasn’t relevant. He had to know and
she’d given him the perfect opportunity to ask.

“Sixteen winters,” she said, nodding. “Young
for your Kingdom, but we’re not so sheltered along the coast.”

Alto chuckled. “I’m sixteen,” he
admitted.

“In the heart of the Kingdom and in other
realms to the south, life is easier. Children are spoiled and soft;
they don’t leave the nest until they’re older. Where we live, boys
and girls endure hardship and grow up early,” Drefan said between
short breaths. “So that means nobody will think twice if you bed
the girl when we get out of here, but first we need to find our way
out!”

Alto and Trina stood with matching
expressions. Namitus wasn’t able to block his chuckle with his hand
before it slipped out. Trina punched him in the shoulder for
it.

“So,” Alto said, recovering from the shock
and ignoring his companion. “Perhaps they did know.”

“Know what—that I’d be coming?”

“Yes,” he reasoned. His eyes darted back and
forth as he thought up scenarios and discarded them. “Men in
Kingdom uniforms steal you away, and we find evidence of Kelgryn
weapons at the sacking of Highpeak.”

“Someone wants to start a war!” Namitus
blurted out.

Trina gasped.

“But why?” Alto asked. “Who would gain from
it?”

“Talk it over with Kar. I’m sure he could
chew your ear off with useless trivia,” Drefan said. He coughed a
few times and then managed in a tight voice to say, “It does us no
good here.”

Alto nodded. “You’re right. Come, let’s be on
our way.”

Alto and Trina bumped into each other as they
started down the tunnel. They stopped and stared at each other.
Alto nearly gestured for her to go ahead and then remembered danger
was almost certainly awaiting them. “I don’t want to have to pull
you out of the way again,” he said.

Trina’s eyes narrowed until her lips cracked
into a smile. She crossed her arms and shook her head but the ghost
of a smile remained. Alto moved past her, drawing his sword as he
went. Trina gestured for Namitus to take the lantern before she
picked up her sword from where she’d leaned it against the cave
wall and followed Alto. Drefan muffled his coughs into his hand as
he brought up the rear.

“How long is this tunnel?” Alto hissed over
his shoulder after they’d been walking a few minutes.

“We were in a hurry; we didn’t pay
attention,” Trina replied.

“There’s light ahead!” Alto warned them.
“Shutter the lantern!”

Namitus fumbled with the lantern until he
lowered the hood on it and blocked all but the faintest sliver of
light. He held it behind his back to further block the light from
anyone ahead of them.

They waited in tense silence for several long
minutes. Finally, Alto whispered back to them, “It hasn’t moved. I
think it’s another lantern on the wall.”

“Then let’s go. Your friend doesn’t sound
well,” Trina whispered.

Alto turned to look and nearly jumped at how
close Trina was to him. He forced his eyes off her and beyond, but
could barely make out Drefan’s outline in the darkness. He nodded
to Trina and turned back so he could begin the final approach to
the light ahead.

Alto crept as quietly as his large frame
could. Once, he caught the reflection of light off his blade so he
turned it so the edges were vertical. Proud of himself for noticing
the detail, he continued on until he identified {that} the light
marked the end of the tunnel. Each step made him feel more
confident that a room awaited them.

The sound of the savage goblin language ahead
made Alto freeze. He stopped and listened, holding up his hand in
silent warning to the others. He strained to hear more, picking out
a whinier voice responding in the same tongue. He heard a slap and
a yelp, and then more yelling before the sound of feet slapping
against rock reached him.

Alto nodded to himself. He had to see what
was ahead. They all had to, he supposed, if it meant getting away.
Besides, he’d bested several goblins now; they were hardly worth
being worried about. The trick was remembering he could beat them
when they were thrusting a spear or a sword at him.

Trina tapped him on the shoulder, stopping
him. “Let Namitus go,” she whispered into his ear. Alto suppressed
a shiver before he looked back uncertainly. “Trust me,” she said.
Alto nodded.

Namitus crept forward when she motioned for
him. “See what’s ahead of us, and try not to get yourself
killed.”

Alto grabbed the slim boy by the shoulder.
“Don’t do this only because she asks you,” he said.