Secrets at the Keep (Kingdom of Denall Book 2) (30 page)

“If you pass any other servants on the way, please have them all gather outside the keep. Pentra, I need you to sweep the halls on the south side of the building. If you see any soldiers refusing to go outside, and who will not listen to your orders, take them out.” Pentra and Brooklyn both nodded, then left the room.

When he was alone with Kire, Bendar took a deep breath. “Is this going to work?”

Kire rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “This plan has a favorable probability of success,” he replied. “Even if it is a complete failure and we don’t stop Mordyar’s men, at least you will know that you helped bring an end to Omer today.”

Bendar scowled slightly. “That is not very comforting.”

Kire smiled at him and pointed down the hall. “Time to go. You have a speech to give.”

*****

When they came around the corner of the massive stone building, Kaz was surprised at the group that had gathered. It seemed like all the soldiers, servants and workers from the keep had been ordered to gather. The guards led the men from Hess out into the open area to stand in front of a large wagon. When they were out in the courtyard, Kaz began looking around. He thought Bendar would be here waiting for them when they arrived, but it seemed things had changed.

To his left, the servants were loading supplies into small carts. On his right soldiers were lined up standing at attention as if ready for an inspection. Many of the castle workers were bringing more carts with them as they assembled in a large crowd. Despite the large crowd, a hooded man caught his eye. But before he could investigate he felt someone tapping on his arm.

“Excuse me, Kaz,” Kaz turned around and saw a blonde servant girl about his age.

“Yes?” he responded hesitantly.

“I’m Brooklyn, I have a note for you,” she passed him the note and waited for a second. “Omer said it was urgent,” she added.

Kaz opened the note and recognized Kire’s handwriting:

Eight traitors. They know about Bendar. Keep a sharp eye, bow ready.

Kaz looked up from the note at the girl who delivered it. “Who gave you this?”

“He didn’t give his name,” she admitted. “He was an older man, salt and pepper hair, seemed a bit rude and abrupt.”

“That’s a perfect description of Kire,” Kaz concluded.

“It sounded like they could use some help. What can I do?” she asked.

“I’m not even sure what I should do,” Kaz admitted. He drew an arrow from his quiver and placed it on his bowstring. “If you could stay close and watch my back, that would be great. Did Kire mention anything about the men we should be looking for?”

“He told Pentra to check the halls for any soldiers who were unwilling to go outside. He said that if they wouldn’t respond to the order to go to the courtyard, she should take them out.

Knowing that Mordyar’s men were dressed as soldiers, Kaz first looked at the men standing in formation along the side, hoping to see something that made them stand out. There were no men who were massively bulky like Omer’s servants, so he looked for any who were acting differently than the others, but they all stood in their regular lines. He looked up at the keep, with its hundreds of arrow slits and felt a small shudder run through him at the prospect of any one of them having an enemy hidden behind it.

With the excitement of the entire castle being brought out for an announcement, several nobles and guests had gathered on the turrets to watch what was going on, which gave Kaz more people to try to watch. He began to think that his part in the plan was impossible. How was he going to pick out eight assassins from a group of hundreds of people?

While he looked at the keep walls, he saw one man through an arrow slit on one of the highest levels of the keep. He had something in his hand, but at this angle it was impossible to tell what it was. Using the trick Pentra had taught him, Kaz focused on a point behind the man to bring details into clear focus. The man was large, probably a strongarm, but not nearly as big as Omer’s guards. He was looking out at the crowd, and when he stepped back a little, Kaz saw that it was a crossbow that he had hanging at his side. Something seemed off about the man, but Kaz couldn’t place what it was, and he certainly wasn’t going to put an arrow in the stranger based on a hunch. Not many people in the keep were allowed to have weapons, but the way he held it to his side was casual and non-threatening.

Kaz continued to watch the man carefully.
Was this one of Mordyar’s men? How was he going to know?
As he looked at the man, a knife came out of nowhere, puncturing his arm and he dropped the crossbow to the floor. Kaz watched eagerly, not knowing what was happening outside of what he could see from the narrow opening. He held his bow in his hand and tugged slightly at the string to make sure his arrow was nocked and ready. Through the opening, Kaz saw the man reach for something, then Pentra came into view, slicing him down with her curved short swords. The man fell out of view.

Kaz used his enhanced sight to look up into the opening, but he couldn’t see anything for a moment, then Pentra came into view again. She looked down on the crowd as she wiped off her throwing knife. When she found Kaz in the crowd, she nodded her head, then held up her hand with one finger showing. “That’s one down,” Kaz said to himself.

“Only seven more to go,” Brooklyn added.

Kaz was still not sure how Pentra knew the man was one of Mordyar’s followers, but he kept looking at the servants, the slaves, the soldiers, and anyone else who was gathered. He needed to keep Bendar safe; he was not going to lose another friend.

As he was watching the growing crowd, Bendar stepped out of the keep and made his way to an empty cart. He took his place on top of the cart and held his arms outstretched as the people quieted down. Kaz looked at the gathered group, and it seemed that everyone from the keep was here.

“This morning my daughter came to me with tears in her eyes, begging for the life of some men who I had imprisoned,” he paused for a moment for dramatic effect, “I reviewed the evidence and found that they were wrongfully kept in my dungeon.” Bendar pointed at the group of slaves who were just beginning to raise their heads up, as though not quite understanding the words that were being spoken. “Today I give them their freedom, and I return them to their families with supplies from my own storage.”

At this pronouncement, the slaves stared in wide eyed amazement, the servants looked to one another in surprise, and everyone else began eagerly talking to each other. Brooklyn gasped and put a hand on Kaz’s shoulder as tears sprung to her eyes. Bendar waved his hands and the noise stopped. “I have also gathered you here today to tell you about a traitor. A pathetic sorcerer who has taken the lives of some of our people because his men were too weak to win in battle otherwise.” Kaz stood in shock. Bendar was practically calling out to Mordyar’s men. As his friend spoke, he noticed that there was a slight stirring among the soldiers.

Along the line of men, one soldier stepped slightly forward and no longer stood at attention. Instead he had his hand on the pommel of his sword. Kaz silently brushed his finger along the feather of his arrow as Bendar continued. “This pitiful weakling of a sorcerer and his feeble army made up of cowards and…” It seemed that was all the soldier could take, he grabbed his sword and began moving forward. Before he took two steps, Kaz pulled back his arrow and fired one shot above the crowd into the soldier’s eye, then nocked another arrow as he looked out into the group of people.

As the soldier fell to the ground, many of the servants dropped the supplies they were loading and began running for the keep, the slaves all huddled together for support, and Brooklyn began running for the door back into the servant’s quarters. Just then, Kaz saw motion in an arrow slit as a man raised his crossbow to his shoulder. He nocked an arrow and drew his bow, releasing the arrow, but it was not in time as the man pulled the trigger on his crossbow. Kaz watched in horror as the bolt launched through the air. A fraction of a second after the man had pulled the trigger, Kaz’s arrow found its mark and Pentra tackled the man to the ground, but it was too late to stop him. There was nothing Kaz could do! The world seemed to come to a stop as he watched the bolt shoot at Bendar.

Then another motion caught Kaz’s attention. A shield was flying up from the ground. It must have been thrown from the crowd a moment before the bolt was even shot. It flew into the air from behind Bendar’s cart and deflected the bolt before it could make contact with Bendar. From the spot where the shield had been thrown, Kaz saw a beautiful woman dressed in a silk riding dress with her long, straight hair falling down her back. She looked familiar, but it took a moment for him to realize where he had seen her before.
It was Maggie.
The dark birthmark on the right side of her face was unmistakable. He was shocked to see her, but even more surprising was that she was aiming a bow directly at him. She released an arrow a moment later and it flew just over his shoulder, brushing his right ear. Thud!

Kaz turned and saw a man who was standing on a cart behind him with a sword in his hand. The man dropped the weapon and clutched at the arrow which had lodged deeply in his chest. Kaz turned back to Maggie, but she had disappeared. He looked around in confusion.
What was she doing here?

Kaz pushed his way forward, trying to get to Bendar, but the frightened mass of men from Hess, along with the servants who were scattering in all direction made it impossible for him to get through.

He watched as Bendar reached his arms in the air and shouted, trying to be heard above the sounds of running and screaming. “If you want me here I am!” he bellowed, taunting Mordyar’s men further.

Kaz pushed through the group and got to the stage. He jumped up next to Bendar. “How many more?” Bendar asked.

“Four more,” Kaz replied as he looked over the crowd.

“I think that is all that will come today,” Kire said softly as he stood on the other side of Bendar. “For now we need to stop this from becoming a riot.”

At that moment two things happened so quickly, Kaz was barely able to process them. A truly enormous soldier broke through the crowd and was running full speed for the cart where Kaz and Kire were gathered with Bendar. He held a dagger in each hand, and seemed prepared to smash them to pieces in his eagerness to get to Bendar. A moment after the soldier broke into the open, Kaz heard a familiar voice yell from behind him.

“For Hess and Denall!” From behind, an arrow flew past them and struck the large soldier in the middle of his chest. Amazingly, he still managed to take a few steps forward before collapsing to the ground. Kaz turned and was overcome with joy to see his friend Digger.

Bendar raised his hands in the air and shouted for everyone to resume order. As they saw that nobody was being attacked anymore, the volume slowly decreased, and a man from the group of huddled slaves came forward.

“Hello archer,” Digger called to him jubilantly.

Kaz jumped to the ground and threw his arms around Digger’s fragile frame. “It’s amazing to see you!” he said as he held the man tightly. “I thought you were dead. We would have helped you! I thought I would never see you again. Where is Asher?”

Digger uncomfortably patted Kaz on the back. “I didn’t think I would see you again either,” he admitted. “Asher and I had a bit of a rough winter getting healed up. We stuck close to the area, trying to learn news of you and Lady Pentra. We caught wind of a supply caravan heading east with three hundred of our friends. Asher decided to slip into the ranks, and go with the group. It was a pretty unusual number of men and wagons to send out, and he wanted to find out what Omer’s plans were. He figured that since he wouldn’t be on the list, he could slip out away again if he needed to get word to someone. So I’m guessing that we have you to thank for this?” he asked.

Kaz smiled and pointed over Digger’s shoulder at Pentra who was now running to join them, Dirt and Smudge in tow. “Mainly it was her.”

When Digger saw Pentra he rushed over to her, and Kaz hurried over to embrace Dirt and Smudge. He was filled with such a mix of emotions he found himself laughing and crying at the same time. He was so overwhelmed with joy for their freedom and reuniting, but as he looked at the group, he was also pained by those who should have been there with them, but had given their lives to help this moment happen. After only a minute or so, some of the other freemen noticed Digger and came over, overcome with joy to find that the friend they had thought dead for so long, was alive, and part of the effort to free them. Kaz stepped away from the group, watching the rejoicing all around him for a moment before remembering he had someone of his own that he had wanted to find.

He looked out again into the group of people, but this time he was searching for Maggie.
Where had she disappeared to?
He climbed back up onto the cart that Bendar had been using as a makeshift stage and began scanning the crowd to find Maggie. When he was sure he couldn’t see her from that vantage point, he headed to the back entrance of the keep. He grabbed a servant who was standing at the door, “Did you see a young woman pass this way? She has long, straight brown hair, and a dark birthmark on her face and is carrying a bow.”

“She went that way,” he answered as he pointed down the hall. Kaz ran as quickly as he could deeper into the keep. When he came to an intersection he asked anyone if they had seen Maggie, then he ran in the direction they pointed.