Rise of the Darekian's, The (19 page)

Luken slumped downwards, only Sarenas arms held him steady, though could not stop him from dropping. Taylor concerned, ran forward to check on his father's welfare, as Lord Galliss and Aric checked on Darak. "I'm alright, just
feeling a little weak" Luken reassured Taylor, "I'll be fine in a minute." Galliss stood tall, looking over his son, before turning to General Skalton, "arrest my son," he said before walking away. The scene around the camp was that of chaos, not only were there items strewn randomly across the ground, but also the command tent was now draped over one of the timber buildings. Looking around, Luken noticed a new look on people's faces, fear, not of the enemy, but of him.

Sarena assisted Luken getting to his feet, as Darak was being dragged off by two guards.
General Skalton stepped up to the prince, looking him direct in the eye. "And what by the gods did you think you were doing? Trying to kill us all?" The General was one of the few people who spoke to Luken in such away, almost fatherly, "what do I do with him, you already half killed the boy?" he pointed to Darak disappearing around a corner. It was beginning to hit home what he had actually done; he had let his anger get control, and endangered everybody. He would never willingly cause harm to any innocent person, and although Darak had enraged him, he shuddered at the thoughts he had of killing him. Of more concern was the idea he may have caused harm to those he cared for and loved, Taylor and Sarena.

People moved about the camp, tidying up the mess caused by Lukens rage, and the command tent was removed from the timber buildings and put back to
its proper position. Reports had come back from the men working on the city walls, which revealed several new cracks had appeared in the stonework since the ground had been shaken. Father Dagon sought out Luken in his room, to give his opinion, and though he did not really want to hear it, he knew the elderly man was going to say it anyway. Taylor admitted Dagon in through the door, "did you see my dad, the water flew up in the air and the ground...", "Yes, I would imagine half the living world felt what he did." Turning to the prince, "Firstly, I must say what you did was utterly foolish and irresponsible. Secondly, you not only scared that poor man to death, flinging him around like a rag doll, but probably every man, woman and child within a twenty mile radius."

Luken looked up from his seated position, still feeling the exhaustion from his exploits, "anything else Dagon, I know what I did was wrong, stupid and whatever else you happen to call it. You think I'm proud of it?" he raised his voice. Sarena sat beside him, holding his hand, he was hoping she would stay doing so for some time yet, "
Well yes actually, if you will let me finish "Dagon added, "Thirdly, I spoke to Sandred about what you did, and well... he did not believe me at first. He told me it was unheard of for one man so young, to manifest all that power, but he did warn against doing it again. He says wielding such a force for too long can ...." he paused, looked at Sarena then Taylor, before returning his gaze to Luken and mouthing words "kill you."

After they had eaten lunch, and things had returned to some normality, it was Lord Galliss' turn to visit Luken. He gestured for the man to sit, and offered him a glass of wine that he and Sarena had been drinking with their mid day meal
. He took a glass, sipped it and sat staring at the table, before Luken broke the silence, "Firstly I will apologise, I am ashamed, my actions were not acceptable. I hope I did not cause harm to your son." Galliss looked up, his face weary and eyes bloodshot, "and I for the behaviour of my son. I cannot condone what he did, and it saddens my heart to see him destroy himself. He is bruised and battered somewhat and maybe a cracked rib or two, and yes, many would say you were...well heavy handed. That said, I also understand why you did what you did, I think if I had been in your shoes, seeing the woman I love being man handled and my son being assaulted, I would have not thought twice about killing the person responsible." Taking another drink of his wine, before continuing, "For that I am glad you did not do as I would have done."

The whole meeting was a rather sullen affair, both men full of apologies, though Galliss in truth was
not the one that should be giving them. It had been his son, a young man troubled by drink, and he explained the reasoning behind it. He told them his wife, the boy's mother, died a little over a year ago. Both he and Aric grieved and slowly come to terms with the loss, though Darak seemed unable to do so. Turning to drink to try to avoid what was real, his son was now lost to alcohol. Galliss put his head in his hands, a father concerned for his son, and no idea what to do about it. Sarena asked if it was all right to leave Hope with Taylor, while the two men talked, as she had something important to do.

Darak was tied by the hands, dirty, bloodied and clearly bruised heavily by Lukens actions. His
feet were also bound, and a rope kept him fastened to a post hammered into the ground. Had he wanted to, he probably, could easily have escaped his bindings. Here sat a dejected broken man. Sarena stood for a little while looking at him, whom only a few hours earlier had caused the bruising on her arms. She took a deep breath and stepped nearer, "You know your father loves you, he is apologising for what you did," she spoke in a firm tone. He looked up at her, "what do you care, you don't understand anything" he grumbled, coughing, and grimacing as it clearly caused him pain. Sarena stood her ground, "you are a fool, and you think life owes you something? You drink yourself stupid, do foolish things, you know your father just thanked the prince for not killing you." She started speaking more firmly, "it is time you grew up; you think you're the only one hurting? Your mother died, yes, it is sad. Do you not think your father and brother miss her too? You behaving like this is tearing your father apart, you selfish little man, grow up!"

He looked at her, quite shocked at the verbal
tirade being aimed in his direction, "you don't know what its like," he uttered. She fumed, "you are more idiotic than you look, and both my Mother and Father were killed not two weeks ago. Yes, I cry sometimes, but I do not go drinking myself into a stupor and behave as you did. The prince lost both his parents, and virtually everyone he knew and loved when Hamalin was destroyed. When does he grieve, everyone looks to him for leadership, to make it right. He is two years your younger, and yet more a man than you will ever be," and with that she huffed and stormed back to the Lukens room.

When she returned, the two men were still talking, and the mood appeared not so sullen. They now talked of the future,
and their plan for the new city. Galliss told them he would like to move there, once everything was sorted. He said he always felt more at home with lots of people around him, at the moment he had a nice house, with a good deal of land, but it was no longer what he wanted, and besides it held too many painful memories. Luken had already decided he liked this man; it was just unfortunate that recent circumstances had caused some trouble between them. Hope woke with a little cry, and Taylor was quickly on hand, to offer the baby his hand which it grabbed chuckling as she did. Galliss looked at them all, "I know this sounds a little odd, but I think you four make a lovely family. Even though you are all from different homes and backgrounds, it seems fate has put you together," he smiled for the first time since his arrival into the room.

With the daylight slowly fading away, bringing an end to what had been a very eventful day; Luken walked with
General Skalton towards the young man still sat bound and tied to the post. The General pulled a knife from his belt and proceeded to start cutting the rope, "stand up" he ordered the prisoner. Darak stood limply, his face still stained with tears and dried blood, "turn round and face the prince," the General said helping him do so by giving him a slight shove. Luken could already feel his heart beating faster; he looked at the injuries his temper had caused. In all his life, he had never so much as lifted a finger to inflict injury on anyone, and now he had nearly killed the young man before him. The two men eyed each other for a second before Darak bowed his head, "I'm sorry your highness. I don't know why I did what I did" he spoke in a tired, pained voice. Luken in some way did feel sorry for him, though that did not excuse him for what had done.

"Darak, what has happened is past, let us both learn from our
mistakes. I have mistreated you, just as you did Sarena and Taylor. I am not sure I can quickly forget what you did, but I guess I can forgive. Any punishment I give you would only hurt your Father, and I do not wish to do that. He is a good man, and is at his wits end as to what to do about you, you are breaking his heart." Darak looked up, nodded his head slowly, "I know, I've been selfish; I never thought my actions would cause him so much pain." Luken was a little surprised by the admission, but glad of it, "I am willing to put this behind us on two conditions. You promise not to drink anymore, and secondly you start behaving like the son your father deserves. Do we have a deal?" Luken proffered out his hand, and Darak tried a smile and took it, "I promise your highness." Luken smiled as well, it had been a trying day, and he was still tired from earlier, "go talk to your father, and you may want to clean yourself up."

Chapter 16.

After another day, of slowly moving southwards and stopping off on three separate occasions to warn others of the imminent dangers. The first stop had been at a similar farmstead to that Caldar had found Vanessa and her family. These people had not taken much persuading in travelling with them, having heard of many rumours of what was going on in the north. The second stop had held them up for quite some time, and had subsequently seen them be joined by the population of a small village. The local mayor had been arming every man, woman and child capable of holding a weapon in anticipation of an attack. Caldar had to give the man some credit, although he doubted too many of the eighty-seven residents so armed, would have put up much of an opposition.

Their final stop had been a fleeting visit to a small farming community, consisting of several families. These were already packed and were about to start evacuating the local area
, after hearing about enemy soldiers, when Caldar and his army arrived. After a quick briefing from Caldar, explaining who he was and where he aimed to go they had all willingly tagged along.

The last of the daylight was upon them and after making camp for the
night, Caldar sat in discussion with his other officers. They talked of the route they would ride tomorrow, trying to take in as many of the local villages as possible before starting to turn eastwards and finally head for Berston. They calculated, even allowing for stops, to be reaching their target within the next two days. It appeared this far south at least, there had been no attacks by Darekian raiding parties, though a number of North Besemian raiding groups had been spotted. For the first time since hearing the news of Hamalin and his family's destruction, Caldar had felt some sense of wanting to carry on. With Vanessa at his side this last day or so, he had started to come to terms with his grief, even allowing an occasional laugh or smile.

After an evening meal of stew and near stale bread, Vanessa joined Caldar as she had done every occasion she had opportunity to do so. On this visit however
, she had news he thought may be of interest, "your highness," she started. He however, stopped her, "Oh please, how many times, Caldar is fine enough", she smiled at him with an evil looking grin "as you say your highness."  He shook his head, knowing to well she was teasing him, and in some strange way he liked it when she did. Having his full and undivided attention, "anyway, what I wanted to tell you is I overheard some of the people talking." Caldar stared at her, the flickering light of the campfire showing her beauty, "oh and what great wisdom was it that you heard, some enhanced theory on the growing of carrots?" he joked never breaking eye contact with her.

She took his hand in hers, and he could feel his heart racing, as she placed her other hand on top, encapsulating his. "I'm not sure how to say this; I mean it may only be rumour
and I don't wish to give you false hopes," Caldar suddenly felt unsure of himself, what news did she have? She did not keep him waiting, "Well I heard some of the others say, that they had heard of others moving southward," he actually felt deflated, how was that important to him, nearly everybody they had come across was being told to move that direction. Realising she had explained it badly, "I mean, they said a large caravan of people from some place called...Forwich, or something like that."

Caldars mind froze,
Forwich. He knew people that lived there; perhaps they had news of anyone escaping from Hamalin. He gazed into the flames, cutting himself off from everything around him, wondering, before Vanessa shook his arm. "Hey, did you hear what I just said?" He slowly returned his eyes to look at her, she knew he had not heard so repeated it again, "they also spoke of many soldiers moving with them." He looked blankly at her, "oh, for a prince you are not the brightest are you? Think about it, if there were soldiers, where would they have come from?" He thought for a moment, "Forwich has a town guard, it is more than likely they escorted the people south," he said feeling a little more deflated.

Vanessa had not finished there, "maybe? However, I heard someone say a name. They said a well-known
General was leading them, Skeleton or something like that. Caldar laughed; in fact, he was laughing so much it had not registered with him, how important that name was. She had no idea what was quite so funny, "what did I say? Who is this General Skeleton? Did I get it wrong?" she laughed along with him. That was until the coin finally dropped, "it is General Skalton, Thomas Skalton. He is from the Elite Palace guard, which means..." Throwing her hands skywards, "that's what I've been getting at, if there was a soldier from the Capital, then..." Caldar jumped up, "then there maybe others" he shouted.

She stood placing her hands on his shoulders, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. Though she hoped that for his sake it was true, she knew it would not be good for him to build his hopes up, and once more have them dashed. Vanessa doubted the prince could cope with further heartache, and knew it
would be better for him to air on the side of caution. "Caldar, remember these are only rumours, and even if they are true, we do not know if anyone from Hamalin is actually with them." He looked at her, and she could already tell the renewed optimism in him, "but don't you see, if he is out, then there must be others." Vanessa could see him carried away with the moment, and knew she had to put a dampener on it all, "maybe, he was out of the city, when whatever happened, and well that is why he 'maybe' is still alive."

Caldar pondered a moment, "no, can't be, you don't understand. Thomas is in charge of the elite guard, they are responsible for the protection of the royal family, which means...," he could not say it. Although he wanted it to be true, more than anything
else, he hoped it so. Vanessa put her arms around him, "Don't do this to yourself, let's get back to Berston and Casham, ask a few more questions, maybe they have news." Caldar nodded, feeling more at ease now he was in her embrace, he knew what she said made sense.

On the fourth
day, since their arrival at Easton, the new big heavy oaken gates were ready to be put in place. The weight of the doors meant they took several strong men to carry them to the bridge gatehouse, and then a series of pulleys and lifts to help sit them on the huge hinges. With a loud clang, they were dropped into position, one by one, before the hinges were made so the doors could not be lifted back off again. The doors were not yet entirely finished, but were now a usable barrier to block the bridge. Hundreds of metal studs had yet to be fixed to the outside, but other than that, they were all but done. Work had already started on a second set for the city gatehouse. This set needed to be much bigger, being as the entry there was much larger.

With the bridge gatehouse now in a suitable condition for it to be used for the purpose it was built,
General Skalton had now set a guard to be permanently based there. The actual building was more than just a set of large gates; it had a number of steps up to the battlements, as well as a few rooms built into it. These had been cleaned up, the walls re-plastered and furniture put in. There was now a functional guardrooms office, a small storeroom for both weapons and supplies, and a bunkroom with sleeping space for twenty men. Probably the second most important addition, after the gates, was the fitting of a new warning bell. With the city only a short distance from the bridge, the bell was to be rung in emergency to notify the city of any possible impending threat.

The first of the New Easton watch were now on duty at the gatehouse. Their job to keep an eye on the
citizens and workers that operated on the northern bank of the river. Several teams of woodsmen, still felling trees, not just for the much-needed timber they needed for rebuilding, but also to push the tree line back as far as possible. The further this could be pushed, the better from a defensive point of view. With cattle and sheep still using the fields on the north side, there were also a number of people given over to the task of keeping an eye on them. This was a job normally given to the older of the children, those not yet old enough to be utilised in work elsewhere. Having soldiers at hand on the bridge, would give much needed security should the inevitable enemy invaders make an appearance. They hoped this would not be anytime soon; the latest scouting reports had not yet encountered any hostile force heading their direction. This did not mean the destruction and killing had stopped, just that for now at least, Luken and the refugees were safe.

Sarena had joined the prince and Taylor for the midday meal in his room. They sat around the table picking at plates of cold meat, cheeses and crackers. There was a plate of biscuits for afters and a jug of fruit juice to drink. A Knock on the door interrupted their talk, "enter" Luken, shouted, placing his hand over his mouth to cover the
half-chewed piece of ham within it. One of the guards stepped in, "Lord Darak is here your highness; shall I admit him?"  They had not seen sight of Darak since the incident two days ago; Lord Galliss had told them he was keeping away, trying to find solitude to help in his effort in giving up alcohol.

Luken nodded, once he was certain both Sarena an
d Taylor had no objections. The guard could be heard talking outside the door before Darak made his appearance. The first thing Luken noticed was how utterly terrible the young man looked. He had the face of someone who had not slept for a week, and his hands visibly shook. He entered the room and placed a bundle of something wrapped in burlap on the floor, before bowing and greeting them all in turn. He wiped his shaking hands on his shirtfront, appearing nervous, "firstly I would like, if I may, to apologise to both the Lady Sarena and your son Taylor. I was out of order, and my actions towards both were inexcusable." Sarena spoke, "As far as I am concerned the matter is done with and over, no more apologies are needed," and she finished off with a warm smile.

Taylor glanced at the man, and after looking at his father, just shrugged, in
an 'it doesn't matter' type way. Darak tried a smile, "I am afraid I look in a terrible state, and I confirm that I also feel the same. However I have kept my promise, and not had a single drink, I am told it gets easier after a while." Luken stood, "perhaps you would like to join us for lunch" he gestured to the spare chair. Darak shook his head, "An extremely kind offer your highness, but I do not think myself great company at the moment, another time perhaps. I did have a purpose for my visit, other than to apologise." Bending down to the floor and picking up the bundle, "I wondered if Taylor would like these, I made them myself, the last couple of days have been horrific for me, and well I needed to keep my hands busy and my mind off the alcohol." He removed the burlap cloth to reveal a wooden sword and shield bearing the insignia of the Elite Palace Guard.

Taylor leapt off his seat and over to Darak, "ooh Dad, can I?" he asked his permission to take them. Luken
nodded; "of course" he said noticing the look of complete joy on his son's face. The sword was much smaller than a normal one would be, but perfect for someone the size of Taylor. It had been carved from a single piece of timber, the pommel had been painted black, and the blade rounded so not to cause injury. The shield was also painted black which the emblem on the front and a leather strap at the back. Darak clearly took joy in helping Taylor strap the shield to his arm, and place the sword in his hand. Taylor beamed, swinging the sword left and right, then pushing his shield forward, then swinging the sword again nearly hitting Darak. "Thank you so much," Taylor finally said, realising he had probably swished the blade about enough. Darak knelt down to eye level, "when I am feeling a little better and if it is alright with your father, I could show you how to use it properly, if you would like that is?"

Taylor turned, looking expectantly to his father, hoping he would give his permission. Although it was clear, Darak was sincere in his apology and giving the gift was thoughtful, Luken was not overly sure whether he wanted the man spending time with Taylor, just yet. His son kept staring,
giving the look of a puppy yearning for attention, "oh very well, but just for a little while. Remember you are only six, and you will be careful wont you Darak?" Sarena butted in, "oh Luken, I'm sure he will be fine, you do sound like an old woman sometimes." Darak patted Taylor gently on the shoulder, "well young man, give me a few more days perhaps, until I feel a little better, then we'll start you practicing properly," he bowed before his prince and the Lady Sarena before leaving.

Luken turned to the young woman sat beside him, "I do not sound like an old woman...do I?" Sarena giggle
d, taking his hand "well, maybe a little, sometimes, but we love you all the same, don't we Taylor?" The young boy looked over taking a break from his sword swinging, "of course" he said, before continuing his fight against his imaginary foe. Those words did seem to appease Luken who was quite enjoying holding hands with Sarena, and loosing himself in her eyes. "Do you really love me?" he asked, lost in the moment as he was. She blushed a little, but remained composed, "with all my heart" she said. Luken swallowed, he had never really been one for romance, that had always been Caldars department. She looked at him expectantly, before he realised, "and I love you" he finally said. He thought how strange those small words were, as common as they were, he realised he had never said them in such a way or with such sincerity.

Taylor paused from his play once more, putting his sword on the tabletop, before struggling with the strap to remove his shield. Once he had placed that next to his sword, he made his way round to his father's chair and climbed up on his lap. He looked his dad straight i
n the eyes, "does this mean Sarena is going to be my mum?" Luken spluttered, to tell a girl you loved her was one thing, to marry her, for that is what he knew Taylor was asking, was quite something else. Sarena was just as gobsmacked by the question as Luken, but appeared to be more calm to answer, "Taylor, your father and I, well I love him dearly, and I hope he feels the same, and I would love nothing more than for you to call me mum." She took the boys hand in hers, "you are a very special, loving young man, you have a father who loves you very much, but maybe we should wait to see how we..."