Griffin's Destiny (28 page)

That got his attention!

“If I die, you will be king. Do you realize what that means?” Raidan stared into his son’s eyes.

“Of course I do, and I’ll be ready, but you’re not going to die today, Father,” Raidu insisted, frowning. He had a way of tilting down one eyebrow that instantly transformed his face into a masculine version of Taya’s.

Again, Raidan felt longing for his wife, like a shard of glass, pierce his heart. “Denial won’t change things, Son. I may die today, and I won’t feel easy unless I know you understand what must be done if I do.” He held up his hand to forestall the protest forming on Raidu’s lips. “Just listen! If Sen Sakehera survives the initial battle, and I don’t, then he will be in complete charge of the army. You follow his directions without question. He will be Alasiri’s last hope to avoid total conquest.”

Raidan paused to gauge his son’s reaction. Raidu had grown somber, with not the slightest hint of insolence in his eyes. “If the worst should happen and Sakehera also falls, then you must take whatever forces we have left, abandon the valley and retreat to Sendai.”

“And what if we can’t hold Sendai, Father?”

“Then your first duty is to survive and to ensure the survival of the elves as a people. If that means,” he had to force his next words past tense lips, “surrender and submission, then so be it. The elves can’t liberate themselves if they’re all dead. Our people will need a living Onjara as well, to eventually lead them back to freedom.”

Raidu lifted his chin and clenched both fists. “I have no intention of ever surrendering to the humans, Father,” he said. “I would rather die, and so should every okui. We’ll slaughter as many of them as we can until they kill the last of us. Then, they can have the hikui dregs for their slaves!”

“Goddess’ tits!” Raidan shouted. Raidu flinched and stepped back. “Son,” the prince continued, struggling to keep himself in check. “The elves as a people
must survive
. That is the most important…no, the
only
thing that matters. Swear to me…
swear
, Raidu, that you will obey my orders should the battle not go our way!”

The younger prince’s gaze remained unwavering, but the slight drop of his shoulders told Raidan his son had yielded.

“Yes, Father. I swear.”

Raidan regarded his son, who stood before him brimming with such vitality and youthful arrogance, and his heart ached with sadness.

If only my children could be spared this calamity
, he thought. He sighed and turned away. “When you’re ready, meet me at the castle gates,” he said over his shoulder as he left the tent.

***

The predawn darkness roiled with the sounds of an army readying itself for battle. Men and women shouted, horses neighed, armor clanked and harness jingled. The smells of wood smoke, dry grass, and horse manure permeated the air. High on the castle battlements, a bell rang the hour.

Raidan made his way through the controlled maelstrom, cursorily acknowledging the salutes of his troops. When he reached the outer gates, he found Odata and Morio waiting for him. The contingent of mages assigned to help with the frontal defense waited there as well.

The old man whom Sonoe had supplanted had charge of them. He stepped up to Raidan and sketched a bow. “My lord Prince, we will need an area up on the walls where we can view the entire battlefield so we might effectively aim our attacks. The captains up there won’t let us position ourselves in front. They say we will interfere with the archers!”

“Master…”

“Katram, my lord.”

“Master Katram, you and your fellow mages can position yourselves against the western tower. You should have a clear view of the valley and you’ll have the archers on the tower to cover you.”

“We require no additional protection, my lord Prince,” Katram sniffed. “But I suppose it does make more sense for us to be against the tower. Very well.” He gestured for the other mages to follow and the group headed toward the stairs leading up to the battlements.

“You never have put much faith in magic, have you, Highness?” Odata said as she watched the mages threading their way through the swirl of moving bodies filling the yard.

“Not true. I’ve always had the utmost faith in magic,” Raidan countered. “I’ve lived with Alasiri’s premier mage for over forty years, so I’m quite familiar with what magic can and can’t do. It will give us a much needed advantage, but it can’t save us in the end if we fail militarily.”

Morio shifted from foot to foot. Raidan glanced at the other man’s face and it looked as though the Lord of Ayame had something especially bitter in his mouth he had to chew.

“What’s troubling you, Morio?” Raidan asked.

Morio took a deep breath, much like a man does before diving into deep water. “I don’t like having to say this, especially now,” he replied. He looked through the gates at the frenzy of activity beyond.

Raidan felt a flash of annoyance. “Please say what you need to, my lord!” he growled.

“Very well.” Morio’s black eyes narrowed as he spoke. “It’s about Prince Raidu. I’ve had a chance to observe him closely these past weeks, and it pains me greatly to say this, but I must. If you should fall, then I don’t have much faith in his ability to lead. He is simply not ready!”

“If not my son, then who?” Raidan asked. A swell of anger rose within him, threatening to sweep away all his self control. “You’ve already made it clear you won’t support my niece Jelena. If not my son, or my brother’s daughter,
then who?
”

Morio remained silent for a few heartbeats. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “It seems disaster hems us in on all sides.”

“Do the other lords lack faith in my son?”

Raidan saw his answer in Odata’s eyes. “Your great lords will obey your orders, my lord Prince,” she murmured.

“I need to attend to something,” Raidan said. “Stay here. I’ll return shortly.” He turned on his heel and stalked away. As he passed through the gates, he heard Odata calling after him, but he ignored her. He had no real errand. He just needed to walk.

Morio thinks disaster hems us in and my son is not fit to lead. The worst of it is he’s right!

Raidan’s bleak thoughts beat against the inside of his head like bats as he moved along the base of the wall toward the west tower. The area lay deserted; the companies camped here had already vacated it. The fading stars overhead presaged the approach of the new day.

Sakehera’s forces should already be in place and ready to engage the Soldarans.

The storm is almost upon us.

“Prince Raidan!”

The hail came from somewhere up ahead. Raidan halted in his tracks and peered into the darkness. He could just make out a figure trotting toward him.

A scout, perhaps?

He waited while the figure approached.

“My lord! I’m so glad I found you!” The voice sounded familiar; Raidan felt certain he had spoken to this man before.

“Have you something to report to me, scout?” he called out.

“Yes, my lord…something very important.” The man stopped a stone’s toss from the prince and bowed.

Raidan moved closer so he could see the man’s face. “Goddess!” he exclaimed. “You’re alive!”

“Yes, my lord. Very much so,” Ashinji Sakehera said.

Captain Sakehera! Where have you been all this time?” the prince demanded.

“That is too long a story for right now, your Highness.” Ashinji raked his hands through his tousled hair. “I’ve ridden from Sendai to find you.” From the look of the camp, Ashinji guessed the army stood ready to march.

I’ve gotten here with barely a moment to spare.

The prince’s armor clinked as he moved closer. “You came from Sendai? Then my niece must know…”

“Please, my lord, you must listen. I don’t have much time!”

Prince Raidan frowned. “I’m listening,” he said.

Ashinji took a moment to gather his wits and clear the fog of weariness from his mind. It struck him that Raidan might not know of his brother’s death. “Your Highness, the king is dead,” he said.

The prince nodded. “Yes, I know. Lady Sonoe has come to Tono to take charge of the mages, per my wife’s orders. She informed me of my brother’s passing.”

So that’s how she plans to complete the spell that will open the Void. She’s going to use the other mages to boost her power.

“Where is Sonoe now, your Highness?” Ashinji had already scanned the camp and had detected nothing unusual, but then, the entity controlling Sonoe’s body would shield itself well.

“She rode out with your father a short while ago. Lord Sakehera is to hold off the Soldarans for a time at the valley entrance, and Lady Sonoe offered to help with some diversionary magic. What’s all this about, Captain?” Ashinji could sense the prince’s growing impatience.

“My lord, your wife must have told you something about Jelena’s…about the magic she carried within her, and what the Kirians needed to do about it.” Ashinji spoke quickly now.

“Yes, she did.” Raidan paused, then asked, “What happened? Did the Kirians succeed?”

Ashinji tried to keep his voice from breaking, but he couldn’t. “No my lord. They failed…Jelena is dead.”

Raidan gasped and uttered a soft curse.

“One of their own betrayed them,” Ashinji continued. “Sonoe must have been in league with the enemy all along. At the crucial moment, when Jelena’s death released the magic within her, Sonoe opened a way for the enemy to escape its prison. She had a double betrayal planned. She tried to enslave the spirit by speaking its true name, but it was ready for her.”

Ashinji shuddered at the memory of Sonoe’s hideous demise. “She paid for her betrayal with her life. The thing that came here two days ago is not Sonoe! It only wears Sonoe’s flesh. The Kirians call it the Nameless One, but it’s the undead spirit of your ancestor, the sorcerer king Shiura Onjara. Somehow, Sonoe found out his true name. He…
it
is now in possession of the very thing the Kirians fought so hard to keep from it.”

The prince’s eyes focused inward, as if he were trying to fit pieces of a puzzle together and make sense of it in his mind. “My wife kept a great deal from me, I see,” he murmured. His gaze sharpened with his next words. “I sensed something had changed about Sonoe, but I couldn’t figure out what. At times, when we’re together, a very strange sensation comes over me and once, I accused her of trying to scan my mind without my permission.”

“The spirit’s goal is simple, Highness. It wants to conquer the material world and enslave every living thing,” Ashinji explained. “To accomplish this, it needs an army that can’t be defeated by ordinary means. It also requires the deaths of all living Onjaras. The spirit may have been attempting to weaken you, drain you magically, which is why you felt the way you did.”

“Yes, that could be,” Raidan replied thoughtfully. “But how does the ghost of my dead ancestor plan on raising an army?”

“The magic Jelena carried within her is a key of sorts. The Nameless One has it now, and with it, he can open a gate into another dimension, a place the Kirians call the Void. According to their ancient writings, it’s not a void at all, but rather a terrible place full of creatures so unlike anything in this world, there are no words to describe some of them. These creatures will be bent to his will by the power of the magic contained within the White Griffin.”

“The White Griffin never leaves the hand of the king, and my brother is still in Sendai,” Raidan interrupted. “Unless…”

“Yes, my lord. Sonoe has it, or rather, the Nameless One does,” Ashinji confirmed. “He stole it, and at the same time, he nearly killed my mother and the other Kirians. My lord, he has everything he needs to complete the spell and open the Void.”

High on the ramparts, horns blared—three short blasts followed by one sustained note. Their clarion chorus rolled across the valley and the gathered troops below. The army stood ready to move into position behind the castle.

Raidan ran a hand over his sable hair. “I hope you’re here with a plan to stop this,” he said quietly.

“I’ll need to get close to Sonoe,” Ashinji answered. “When I do…”

“Say no more,” the prince said, raising his hand. “Take a horse and ride to the pass. You’ll find her there, and Sakehera…” the prince called as Ashinji turned to go, “I’m saddened more than you know about Jelena. Her death must count for something. Stop this Nameless One.
Stop him!
”

Ashinji nodded. “I will, Highness…I mean your Majesty.”

***

Open the spirit box and speak his name. That’s all I have to do. Somehow, I don’t think it will be quite that simple.

Determination warred with despair within him as Ashinji bent low over the neck of the galloping horse, hurtling through the predawn darkness toward a showdown he knew he dare not lose, but yet felt uncertain he could win.

Prince Raidan’s admonition still rang in his mind.

Stop this Nameless One. Stop him!

But what if I can’t?

The Kirians believed he could, else they never would have sent him.