The Hordes of Chanakra (Knights of Aerioch) (33 page)

Kreg glanced back at Shillond and nodded once.

Shillond whispered a string of words that Kreg did not understand.  He made tiny gestures with his fingers, moving them in intricate patterns.  A moment later he shook his head.

Kreg frowned.  Kaila was not with this group.  He nodded and tapped Shillond on the shoulder.  Together they backed away, crawling on their bellies.

Once they had passed the crest of the hill and descended far enough to do so safely, they stood up.

"Gods, Shillond," Kreg whispered so quietly that he was nearly mouthing the words. "It's been weeks.  If they still had her, they'd have been through here by now, wouldn't they?"

Despite the frustration he felt, Kreg never once raised his voice above the faintest of whispers.  They had learned to be cautious.

"It's too soon to give up yet, Kreg." Shillond kept his voice equally low. "Travel in winter is always slow.  And if they have more than a couple of wagons with them, they'll be slowed all the more."

"All right." Kreg sighed. "I guess I'd better get back up to lookout then."

Shillond clapped him on the shoulder and continued down the hill to their small camp.

At the hilltop, Kreg kept watch as he had for more than four weeks.  He piled leaves over himself, both to hide his position and to keep away the chill.  Winter had finally reached this far south, bringing constant frosts.  It snowed little, but the icy rains were in many ways worse.

About noon, Shillond brought him a gourd of warm soup and a leaf-wrapped bundle of acorn bannock.  Wordlessly, Kreg nodded thanks and ate while continuing his watch.

Late in the afternoon, Kreg saw another army approaching from the North.  In the distance Kreg could see that they had a number of wagons with them, drawn by mules.  While they were yet a good distance away, Kreg slipped out of his blind and trotted down the hill, long practice made even his trot nearly silent.

Kreg approached the camp with hand over mouth to warn Shillond to silence.  He made the hand gestures they had developed to inform Shillond of the approaching army and tell him its approximate composition.  Shillond nodded and gestured back up the hill.

Kreg and Shillond moved as fast as absolute silence would allow.  Several close calls in the preceding weeks had taught them the need for the utmost in caution.

The two of them reached the top of the hill before the army had reached its foot.  Shillond cast a quick spell and nodded to Kreg. "No scouts in the area.  We can speak."

Kreg nodded.  They could talk, but he preferred not to for the most part.

They crawled down to their position behind a low row of bushes.  When the army reached the foot of the hill Shillond cast a spell.  As Kreg watched, Shillond cut the spell short.

"Mage," Shillond whispered quietly.

Kreg's eyebrows twitched upwards. "Did he spot your spell?"

"I think not," Shillond said. "But I think something a little more subtle is called for."

Slowly, Shillond mumbled the words of another spell.  His fingers moved in a different but no less intricate pattern.

Kreg saw Shillond's breath catch as he completed the spell.

"Shillond?" He whispered urgently.

Shillond bit hard at his lip. "I...saw...Kaila's sword." He dropped his eyes. "I did not see her.  She is not with them."

Kreg had trouble breathing.  He tried to swallow, to clear his throat, but a cold lump made even that difficult.  He tapped Shillond's shoulder and backed up the hill.

Once clear, he stood and said. "So.  We feared it might happen.  If they have Kaila’s sword, but not Kaila, then..."

Shillond nodded. "Now we know."

Kreg looked up the hill as though he could conjure a vision of the army on the other side. "Can we at least recover her sword?  I know it's stupid but it seems the least we can do for her."

"There's a mage with them.  That will make it difficult--and dangerous."

"But not impossible?"

Shillond nodded. "But not impossible."

They returned to their camp, gathered their meager supplies, and headed south.  The two of them were able to move faster than the army, burdened as it was by wagons.  By nightfall they were several miles ahead of it.

#

The next morning Kreg strung his makeshift bow.  Neither as powerful nor as accurate as his Meronan longbow had been, it would nevertheless serve for their plan.  Five weeks of practice in bringing down small game for their meals had made Kreg reasonably accurate with it.

"The wizard will have to be our first priority," Kreg said.

"I know the plan, Kreg," Shillond said. "You be ready.  You'll have a few seconds only before he realizes he's under attack."

Kreg grinned. "I know the plan, Shillond." His grin faded. "Are you as nervous as I am?"

"Likely," Shillond said. "I could probably defeat this wizard in a duel--he did not seem terribly powerful--but I could not fight him and the army."

"And I'm not up to taking on either one single-handed," Kreg said. "I just wish we could use that ability of mine a little more positively."

"Kreg, we don't know if you can suppress some spells while permitting others.  I'm afraid now is not the time to test it."

Kreg nodded.

Shillond raised his hand in benediction before disappearing into the woods.  Kreg waited a few minutes before heading in a different direction.

Kreg found the road and selected a tree, a pine.  He climbed, finding a point where he could still see the road, but where he would be nearly impossible to spot from the ground.

He positioned himself comfortably, his legs bridging two branches and his back resting against the bole of the tree.

In the preceding weeks Kreg had become used to waiting.  He sat watching the road.  After a time, he reached into a rabbit-skin pouch at his belt and drew out a few pieces of broken bannock to munch.

In time, the Schahi unit came into view.  Kreg watched as the fore guard rounded a curve in the road.  He selected one of his two arrows and fitted it to his bowstring.  He would have one chance, maybe a second one.  If he failed with both, then nothing would matter.  Kreg licked dry lips as the leaders of the group passed under his tree.  The main body of the unit appeared around the curve and again Kreg waited, but now he focused on allowing magic to work.

Finally, Kreg heard a shout.  A man, just rounding the bend, stood wreathed in silver fire.  Shillond's spells had caused the wizard's magical defenses to flare visibly.  Locking his eyes on that figure, Kreg willed magic, all magic including any defenses the wizard called up, to cease.

In one smooth motion, Kreg drew, sighted, and let fly.  He had his second arrow to string and the bow drawn before the first struck.  He did not need the second arrow.  The first struck the wizard full in the chest.  He toppled to the ground.

As Kreg again concentrated on allowing magic to function, Shillond began the second part of the plan.  Flames burst out of the forest from the far side of the road.  Some of the Schahi fled into the surrounding woods.  Others charged into the forest, charging in the direction of the source of the flames.  Few stayed on the road.

Kreg grinned as he clambered down the tree.  As Shillond had warned him, he felt a faint tugging in his head.  He followed the direction of the pull.  It led him after one of the Schahi who had fled.

When Kreg hit the ground, he dropped the bow.  He raced off, letting the pull in his head lead.

Unarmored and carrying only his sword, Kreg could move much faster than a man wearing heavy armor.  He caught up to the Schahi as he slipped in the slimy bottom of an ice-rimmed stream.

Kreg stood at the edge of the stream and leaned on his sword as if it were a walking stick. "You have two choices," he said. "You can yield to me that sword and I'll let you leave here alive.  Or we can do this the hard way and I take the sword anyway."

The Schahi looked up from his stumbling in the streambed and seemed to measure Kreg with his eyes.  Kreg noted his measuring stare and said, "I'd better warn you.  I killed a peer of the realm of Aerioch in single combat.  Armor or no armor, he never touched me."

With a scream, the Schahi charged Kreg.  Kreg parried his swing, made clumsy by the slippery mud underfoot.  Kreg brought his sword hard against the back of the Schahi's sword hand.  The sword dropped to the ground as Kreg thrust with his own sword, stopping a fraction of an inch from the Schahi's faceplate. "I'd get lost if I were you."

The Schahi backed away.  He hesitated for a moment then turned and ran.

"Oh, wondrous well done!"

Kreg spun at the sound of that voice.  His sword dropped from nerveless fingers. "Kaila?  I thought you dead!"

She stood before him.  Thinner than he remembered, whipcord and muscle.  A light smile played about her lips.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"And I had thought both of you dead," Kaila said when they had finished relating to each other the events of the past few weeks. "When the wizard said that no mages survived in Norveth, what could I think but that you had fallen, Shillond?  And Kreg, for you I feared as well."

They sat around a small fire in the hollow in which Kreg and Shillond had hidden.  Several small animals roasted on spits above the fire while more acorn bannock baked on rocks next to it.  Kaila had already ravenously devoured the small store of food they had previously prepared.

Shillond nodded. "We escaped before the final fall of the city."

"You escaped, Shillond." Kreg's voice held no hint of rancor. "You kidnapped me.  So,” he continued, “You broke free of your chains and escaped the camp.  Then what?"

“They searched for me,” Kaila said. “For eight days I hid, never daring to stray too far lest they depart and I not be able to follow.  It was a peril-fraught time, but in time they ceased to search and resumed their march to the south.  I followed, and was much surprised to find you here.”

“And I had thought you lost when Dahren pushed you from the wall.”

"So the unknown squire was Dahren in disguise?" Kaila asked.

Kreg nodded slowly. "After he pushed you, Bertan reacted before I could.  When they fought, Dahren used that secret thrust of his--that's how I recognized him--and got Bertan in the shoulder.  His point hit that big artery and Bertan bled to death before I could stop it." He stared down at the frost covered leaves. "He died in my arms."

Kaila laid her hand on Kreg's, "I share your grief."

Kreg nodded slightly.

"So Dahren was a traitor?" Kaila asked after a short time.

"Probably.  I don't really know," Kreg said. "He may have been a traitor all along, or he may have just hated you enough..."

Kaila nodded. "Aye.  It may be that we will never know.  Nowhere is it writ that we shall always understand all things." She pulled one of the spits from the fire and tested the meat.  Satisfied, she bit into it. “I crave pardon for my hunger.  I have had little enough these past few weeks, some nuts and a few fish, eaten raw.” She looked the two of them over. "You have changed.  The both of you."

Kreg looked at Shillond, then down at himself.  They had both lost weight, nearly as much as Kaila.  The changes had come about so gradually that they had not noticed until Kaila pointed out the difference. "I guess food's been a little scarce," he said. "There's not much forage in winter."

"Aye." Kaila gestured down at her own body.  She had made a slit in the center of one of the blankets and draped it over her body with her head passing through the slit.  The sword belt at her waist converted it into a makeshift dress.  The other she had formed into a cloak, securing it at her throat with a short cord made of braided grass.  The boots had long since worn away and she had replaced them with sandals woven from more dry grass.  To protect her feet from cold she had wrapped them with wool cut from the edges of the blankets. "We must make plans."

Kreg blinked, confused for a moment at Kaila's sudden change of subject.  A moment later he nodded. "Since we're together at last, maybe we should go after Baaltor and find the answer to that changeling spell."

Shillond shook his head. "I don't think that would serve any purpose now.  Schah has already won.  Even if we defeat the demon and find a way to eliminate all the changelings, we'd still have to face the Schahi army, plus the Chanakran wizards.  I do not think the three of us could manage that."

"What of Faron?" Kaila asked.

"If he hasn't fallen already, he will soon.  Certainly before we can reach him."

Kreg nodded. "Yeah.  I think you're right, Shillond." He paused. "There must be something we can do."

"It was my thought," Kaila said, "when I believed you dead, to follow the returning army and hope that they would lead me to where the King and Keven are held.  It was my hope that in some way we might raise a revolt and thus restore Aerioch." She shrugged. "I had not thought beyond that."

"Maybe we can combine the two,” Kreg said. “Rescue the King and Keven, then go after Baaltor.  Five may not be much more than three, but when two are the King and the Prince, that may be enough to draw whatever remains of Aerioch to us.  It’s a chance, I think. "

"I think you have found our best chance," Shillond said. "Aye, we've been letting the Schahi dictate our actions for far too long."

A frown carved furrows into Kaila's brow at Shillond's words. "That brings a thought." She stared down at her folded legs for a long moment, then looked up. "The Schahi in the army that held me prisoner, their leaders spoke of returning, not to Schah, but to Chanakra.  Could it be that Chanakra is not ally to Schah, but master?"

Shillond considered that. "If that's so, we've been going about this campaign entirely wrong."

"What do you mean?" Kreg asked.

"We searched for answers in Schah, when Schah may very well have been a trap, meant purely to hide the true source of danger--Chanakra.  Early on, we could have sent a force to Chanakra by sea.  Perhaps the commandos you recommended, Kreg.  With their own shores attacked maybe..." He shook his head. "And maybe not.  I do not know.  Deception within deception within deception.  It has the feel of one of Baaltor’s games."

“Still," Kreg said. "I think Chanakra is where we'll have to go after all." He grinned ruefully, remembering the last time they had made that decision.  They had awaked the next morning in a dungeon. "So do we work our way down to a port city and take passage?"

Shillond considered for a long moment. "I think we dare not.  The only ships sailing will be under Chanakran control.  We will have to go overland." He shuddered. "It will be a long journey, and a difficult one, especially in winter."

#

"Keltac agrinthor rajeman." Shillond spoke to the innkeeper in the Chanakran language.  They all spoke it.  In the months they had journeyed, Shillond had cast a learning spell on all of them and they had spent every safe opportunity talking to those who spoke Chanakran.  Of the three, only Shillond had mastered accent.  Kaila still sounded like a knight of Aerioch while Kreg's speech was that of no land on that world.

Kreg, watching Shillond haggle for their room, did not want to remember that trip.  Crossing mountains in mid-winter had been particularly harrowing.  Kaila, Shillond, Kreg himself, they had all suffered frostbite more than once.  Only Shillond's magic had kept them from losing fingers and toes.

As they had come closer to Chanakra, nervousness had taken over for physical hardship.  Kreg remembered all too clearly the fiasco of their mission to Schah.

"It is robbery!" Shillond shouted with vigor, still speaking Chanakran. "You seek to beggar me so that my daughter and her husband will starve 'ere they set up household!"

"Nevertheless, that is the price," the innkeeper said. "Seven silver seridi."

Shillond's grumbles discussed the innkeeper's ancestry in amazing, and physically impossible, detail as he counted out the coins.

"Seven?" Kreg asked Shillond as they climbed the stairs to their rooms. "That's a lot better than you got in Melkor."

"That it is," Shillond said. "They must be desperate for custom."

"Shillond," Kaila said. "Certain are you of this tale you tell of Kreg and I being husband and wife?"

"Why, yes," Shillond said with a sly smile. "I think it's the best possible pretense, for more reasons than one."

Kreg glanced sideways at Shillond. "You're up to something," he whispered.

Shillond did not answer.

They found their quarters, two adjoining rooms.  Shillond had one room and Kreg and Kaila, posing as husband and wife, shared the other.

"I think we'd better stay here for a few days," Shillond said. "The journey has been hard and we could use the time to heal."

Kreg sighed, partly with frustration at the delay, but mostly with relief. "I think you're right.  I'm not sure I could draw my sword, let alone fight with it."

"Truly," Kaila said. "I find myself in like case."

In their room, Kaila looked with surprise at a pitcher of wine sitting on a small table." She poured herself a cup and tossed it back. "Ah.  Long has it been since wine has touched my throat."

"Kaila," Kreg asked worriedly, "are you sure that's safe to drink?  You seemed surprised to see it."

"Oh, aye, it should be safe enough." Kaila glanced at the pitcher once more, then turned her back on it and sat on one of the room's stools.  She began to pull off the boots they had stolen from a Schahi soldier. "Like as not, it is another attempt of the innkeeper to draw custom.  I surmise times are lean as wars interrupt trade."

Kreg nodded.  He fidgeted for a long moment. "Um.  Kaila?"

"Aye, Kreg?"

"Look, I'll make up a pallet on the floor like that first night."

Kaila stared at her boots, lying on the floor, for a moment. "Kreg, there is something I must know.  I charge you to tell me truthfully."

"Of course."

"What are your feelings for me?  I know we are friends, but I would know if you feel more or no."

Kreg decided it was his turn to stare at the floor. "I think I've been in love with you for a long time.  Since the battle of Griselde at least."

Only silence met his confession.  When at last he looked up his eyes met Kaila's.  Tears rolled down her cheeks. "I had not hoped... Kreg, you need not make pallet on the floor."

Kreg considered her words. "What about Keven?  As far as we know, he's still alive and we're on our way to rescue him and the King."

"Keven released me from my vow to marry him long since.  He saw that I loved you before even I did.  Keven and I have never loved one another, no more than as friends."

"So Shillond told me."

"So," Kaila said. "This is why he has chosen for us to play the roles we play."

Kreg stared at her for a moment, then laughed. "So it is."

#

Kreg and Kaila napped through the early part of the afternoon.  On rising, they descended to the common room.  Shillond had saved places for them although it had not been necessary.  The room was nearly empty.

The minstrel by the fireplace sang off-key.  At least it was a different ballad this time.

"Did you rest well?" Shillond asked.

Kreg thought for a moment, then decided that Shillond meant no more than he said. "Well enough.  Kaila?"

"Aye.  Well enough."

"I have been about the town," Shillond said, leaving Kreg to wonder where he got his energy.  After events that left Kreg and Kaila exhausted, Shillond always seemed full of vigor. "I've kept my ears open and my mouth shut.  Unfortunately, I learned nothing that we did not already know, perhaps when we cross into Chanakra itself."

"Just listening may never tell us what we need to know," Kreg said.

"I know," Shillond said. "But I think it better to try that approach for a time.  We are far less likely to reveal ourselves than if we went around asking questions.  I want to avoid drawing attention for as long as possible."

"What are our funds like?" Kreg asked.

"Good enough for another two or three weeks," Shillond said. "We'll stay here long enough to recuperate, then collect a little more and move on."

Kreg caught Kaila's eye and winked.  The two of them had been providing their meager funds.  Whenever they were short of cash, they would find a Chanakran or Schahi soldier in the nearest town.  The soldier would wake some time later a little poorer, but perhaps a little wiser.  This same source had provided Kaila, piecemeal, with clothes to replace the modified blankets, although finding targets large enough to fit her had often been a challenge.

They had always moved on after robbing a soldier and had been careful not to overdo.  They did not want to leave an impression of anything unusual happening.

#

Kreg's eyes snapped open wide for a moment before he hung a mask of studied indifference on his face.  The voice behind him had just said something that Kreg found interesting.

"Aye, I saw that pretender of Aerioch and his bastard." Kreg caught his breath. The "pretender of Aerioch and his bastard" could only be Marek and Keven, and the owner of the voice's next words confirmed that idea. "The High Mage parades them before the people once each tenday.  The time I was there, he said they will be executed as part of the Midsummer festivities."

"Ah, Kajak, you are always bragging about the things you've seen, whether you've actually seen them or not."

"Nevertheless, it is true," Kreg heard a gurgle as Kajak took a long drink. "I hear we seek to bring down Tanak next.  They have many wizards, but not so many as we."

After that, Kajak and his companions turned to more innocuous topics.  Kreg ordered another drink and sipped it slowly before leaving the tavern.  He returned to the inn and spotted Kaila and Shillond in the common room.  With a jerk of his head, he indicated that they should return to their rooms.

"I've got something," Kreg said once they door shut behind them. "Do you know anything about a 'High Mage'?"