Kingdom's Reign (18 page)

“The one thing I have desired to win the most I have failed in, my sweet Talea … your heart,” I whispered softly.

Talea slowly opened her eyes, and I became embarrassed. I hadn't realized she was still awake. She looked at me and did not hide her heart from her eyes this time. The flames of the fire radiated a soft glow that reflected from her cheeks. I fumbled for an excuse, but she put her fingers to my lips.

“You won my heart the day we met, Cedric, but I was incapable of letting you know. These years away from you helped me overcome that.”

For a moment I thought I was hearing the wishful words of my own dream, but the touch of her fingers on my lips was too real to be the wisps of a dreamscape. I reached for her hand to affirm what she said, and she took my hand in hers. The warmth of my cheeks subsided, and I gently kissed her hand.

“Tomorrow the kingdom may fall, but tonight I have found contentment in the welcome of your words,” I said quietly.

She smiled and closed her eyes once again. “That is why I could never read you, Cedric,” she whispered. “My feelings for you clouded my discernment.”

The mystery of the fair maiden is solved
, I thought to myself, delighted. “Sleep well, Lady Talea.”

“And you, Sir Cedric.”

Maybe my sleep would be peaceful after all.

I awoke in the early morning to the nervous neighing of our horses a short distance away. I opened my eyes but did not move, for I was immediately aware of a dark presence. I could hear an occasional flutter of wings that sent chills down my back. Talea was asleep, and her hand was still in mine. I scanned as much of the area as possible, moving only my eyes, but I could not see anything. Tremendous fear began to well up within me. I slowly raised myself on my left arm to look over Talea and saw the monsters of a nightmare surrounding us—scynths! One large scynth was just an arm's length away from Talea's back. I could see two more in the trees behind it.

While keeping a close eye on the scynth behind Talea, I slowly squeezed her hand, hoping she would not move too abruptly. I did not dare look over my own back. Talea moaned slightly, and the scynth behind her spread its wings and raised its deadly tail high into the air. I could see the finger-long stinger protruding from its tail. It looked as sharp as a viper's fang, and a drop of poison glistened on its tip. Talea opened her eyes and immediately registered the fear on my face.

“Shh,” I said quietly.

The scynth opened its mouth to reveal dozens of razor-sharp teeth. Black eyes glared at me, dark as the depths of the caverns
of Sedah. It began to hiss and looked as though it was ready to strike at any moment. It was a hideous creature that seemed to live for the sole purpose of striking fear into the hearts of men.

Talea searched my eyes for help, but I was at a loss for what to do. I released her hand, and she carefully placed her knife in mine. Just as my hand encircled the grip of the knife, the scynth jumped into the air. Its wings flapped, and the tail whipped from its high position to beneath its body toward the exposed back of Talea. I lunged across her and plunged the knife down onto the striking tail, hoping I would not miss. The knife found its mark as it penetrated clear through the tail and embedded into the ground. The fanglike stinger stopped
just short of Talea's back. The scynth screeched in pain and flapped its wings violently, trying to free its tail. Talea reached for her sword, but she was momentarily trapped beneath me as I held the knife firmly to the ground. The scynth dropped to the ground and lashed at my hand with its wicked teeth. I released the knife and withdrew my hand just before its jaws clamped down on the handle of the knife.

I grabbed Talea's shoulder, and we rolled away from the enraged creature. I became aware of the screeches and flutters of other scynths and wondered how long before they, too, attacked. With swords drawn, we rose to our feet just in time to see another scynth screaming toward me with its tail striking forward beneath it. I ducked and felt the whoosh of air on my neck as the poisonous stinger whipped past my head. Talea executed a powerful slice above me and nearly cut the creature in two. I recovered, and we guarded each other's back. The other scynths remained in the trees—staring and hissing. My heart was pounding, and my legs hurt from the sudden exertion of the encounter. The creature on the ground flailed and screeched violently as it tried to free itself from the knife through its tail. We slowly moved toward our horses a short distance away. Once clear of the camp and the scynths, we quickly mounted our steeds and hastily left the area. A few moments later we stopped and looked back to the trees.

Talea looked shaken. “Are you all right?” I asked.

“I will be,” she replied. She shook her head. “That was absolutely horrible. It can only mean one thing, Cedric.”

I turned and looked to the south. “Yes … I know.”

Talea reached for my hand. “Thank you!”

“You're welcome and thank
you
!” We both took a deep breath. “If you'd like, we can go back for your knife,” I said with a smile.

She laughed. “I think I'd rather leave it with the scynth.”

Talea and I rode a bit farther and then stopped briefly for a quick breakfast before continuing our journey south. Three days later, on the morning of the second day of the tenth feast, we approached the Chessington Valley. On any normal day, we could've made Chessington by noon, but this was not a normal day. We crested a ridge of the rolling green plains north of the valley and nearly froze at what we saw. A massive army of destruction larger than any force I had ever seen blanketed the area. We quickly retreated and found better cover in a grove of trees, which also afforded a higher and clearer vantage point to spy on the force. We moved to the edge of the trees, and as we watched, smaller armies continued to join from all directions except the south, where Chessington was ironically celebrating the tenth year of peace and prosperity of the kingdom.

“Talea, even if all of the King's Silent Warriors were here, we still could not overcome an evil army of this size. Look, even more are still coming!” I exclaimed. “What could Lucius have promised the cities of the kingdom to raise such an army as this?”

Talea shook her head in disbelief. “How can we possibly get through this mass of warriors to the valley?” she asked.

“You can't!” The voice came from the trees behind us. Talea and I quickly turned about, drawing our swords as we did. We were so preoccupied with the evil before us that we hadn't
sensed a presence behind us—five massive Shadow Warriors. The appearance of a Shadow Warrior is daunting indeed, but these wore a look of consuming hate and revenge for their years condemned to the prison pits of the Wasteland.

As they glared at us, they immediately recognized the mark of the Prince upon our breastplates and swords. Two of them cursed and charged upon us. The other three followed close behind. Though tired from the long journey, my heart quickened, and the rush of the fight immediately empowered my arms and legs to battle-ready strength. I did not dare consider our odds of surviving. I did, however, momentarily consider the cost of our failure—the kingdom. I tried to formulate some plan that would allow Talea to escape to warn the Prince of the evil army that would soon encompass Chessington. Whatever that plan, it would surely cost me my life.

Talea and I readied ourselves as the first two brutes stormed at us without hesitation. We separated slightly, for this fight would require more from us in the way of speed, power, agility, and strategy than any other fight before.

Talea feigned the look of a frightened, inept knight—at least I hoped it was a ploy. The other Shadow Warrior bore down on me aggressively. We needed to overcome these first two adversaries quickly if there was any chance of surviving.

Talea's foe initially made a massive vertical cut upon her. She used both hands on her sword to stop the blow of his wicked sword, but it appeared to be too much for her to stop. She gave with the blow and dropped to the ground on one knee. The warrior smiled evilly and recoiled for another vertical strike. As
he did, Talea spun her body with the speed of a panther and brought her screaming sword around in an arc with such power that her blade brought a quick and immediate end to her shocked opponent. He fell to the ground with a thud.

My adversary recklessly brought blow after blow as I countered and retreated slightly. He thrust at my chest, which I quickly parried left and followed with a thrust of my own. He could not recover quickly enough, and my blade penetrated deep into his torso. He fell to the ground, unable to utter his final curse.

The remaining three warriors appeared momentarily shocked at the sight of their two fallen companions. Two of them engaged me while the other faced Talea. We would have to rely upon all the training of the Prince if we hoped to survive these wicked adversaries. The two I faced immediately separated to divide my attention. I had trained for such situations in the past but never against Shadow Warriors. I quickened the speed of my sword to counter their cuts and tried to maneuver toward a large tree to protect at least one side of me. Talea was heavily engaged with her opponent but was holding her own.

One of my challengers executed a quick combination, which I countered, but the other saw my distraction and lunged with a thrust aimed at my torso. I turned sideways and moved just enough to miss the thrust from behind me. His sword passed close to my chest as the other warrior brought a mid-high cut at me. I jumped toward the warrior with the extended thrust to miss the other's cut, and I heard him grunt as I impacted his chest with the full force of my body, which sent
him reeling backward far enough for me to recover and advance on the other warrior. My time was short, so I abandoned caution and attacked so quickly that he did not expect the final vertical cut that nearly caused him to lose his sword. He fumbled for just a moment—a moment too long—and my sword found its mark as he dropped to the ground dead.

I turned to face my remaining foe, only to see his blade racing toward my throat. I pulled my sword up just in time to meet his powerful blow, but it was too much force for me, and my sword was thrown from my grip. I screamed as his blade ripped through my left shoulder. I fell to the ground to retrieve my sword, but the Shadow Warrior swung his deadly weapon high in the air to deal his final deathblow. He did not finish, however, for just as he was about to strike, Talea's blade sliced through his chest from behind. She had been victorious over her enemy and had come to my aid at the last moment.

It was all over very quickly. I leaned up against a tree, and Talea came to attend to my wound. She retrieved a bandage from her horse and wrapped my shoulder speedily since we were not sure if others might come. As she did, I studied the region and realized that we had to travel farther east to skirt the army before resuming our route to the valley. It would cost us time, but we had no choice. I hoped we would reach the valley before Lucius had positioned his forces and begun his attack. Our task seemed futile, for I felt like we were attempting to outrun a Banteen dust storm with no place to hide. At least the Shadow Warriors on the ground about us would not foil our warning to the Prince.

THE TENTH FEAST