Late afternoon of the last day, once the meeting adjourned until the spring
session, Milan cautioned Zoran once again. “Look, now that Baron Eckhard has a vested
interest in Dorumova, you had best be on a sharp lookout for all manner of plots,
especially assassinations. I’m sure that Eckhard will want to somehow shore up his hold
over Adapazan. I think he believes that he is about to conquer your planet.” This Zoran
didn’t need to hear.
What he found interesting was discovering that Gladno, Valtr, Cosma, Terra, and
Gonda now had between twenty and thirty golden dragons living there. Each Baron had
signed a defense pact with them and was paying the dragons in large gemstones for their
services.
That night, Zoran related this to Zdenka. “You know, I sometimes wonder if I did
the right thing, bringing the dragons to Adapazan. It has hardly been a year and now
they are on five other worlds.”
“Yes, you had no choice, Zoran. Besides, these five are our allies, but that’s not
what is troubling you, is it?” she astutely asked.
“No. What if the other worlds somehow get other dragons, different species, such
as the red dragons, to come to their worlds? I may have opened the flood gates to the
ruin of the whole Federation.”
“Oh don’t be so hard on yourself. You did what you had to do. Come to bed.”
Chapter 27 Winter’s Treason
The October’s early snow fell on Brn, as it did various places around Adapazan. The
warlords had their grain for the winter. The two large pockets of Yellers were now gone,
leaving only isolated groups in the other provinces. These he would handle somehow in
the spring.
Twice more, Zoran detected Kazimir attempting to Shadow Walk to his Tower.
Twice more, as he moved towards him to intercept him, Kazimir fled in a panic. Still
Zoran had no clue of the Baron’s intentions. Was he somehow testing him and his
defenses? He had no answer.
A thousand miles away in the comforts of Castle Dorumova, Damek was finding
life a bit annoying. First, his father was growing increasingly strange. His obsession with
a hidden Shadow Assassin was discussed nearly every day. Of course, no one had ever
heard of such a thing, which greatly annoyed Brunhilda, who reported the Baron’s
growing madness to her father back on Dietmar. Damek found the best way to deal with
Kazimir’s outbursts was to offer him a strong drink. It shut him up, anyway.
Beginning in October, Baron Kazimir began to make plans for an all-out assault
on Brn. “Son, there is one thing that I must do for you before I die and that is to
eliminate Zoran, my ill-gotten excuse for a son! Now, I have a pact with Baron Eckhard.
Come spring, he will be sending along a huge army. Together, we will take Brn away
from them! We must make our plans, son.”
Bit by bit, the Baron created his three dimensional model of Brn Province. Kindly,
Eckhard had lent him a Mage, who went Invisible, Teleported to the province, and cast
Fly on himself. Slowly, he began to obtain the data needed for the model that the Baron
was constructing. “Find their weakest point, son. That’s where we shall strike.”
During the winter, Kazimir worked his remaining soldiers, getting them as
prepared for a great battle as he could. No one dared mention the dragons to the Baron.
At the beginning of the training, one soldier did. It was the last thing he ever said; the
Baron killed him instantly. “You fill fight and die for me or I will kill you right now!” the
Baron swore at his commanders and soldiers. Damek attempted to become as invisible
as possible at these times. He had spent nine years as a soldier of the Baron’s, working
his way up from a buck private to sergeant. He knew well what fear was going through
the minds of the soldiers. They had seen thousands slain at Sholov and knew that nearly
three hundred of the very best of them perished as they attempted to storm this very
same tower last year. None wanted anything to do with the dragons, yet to say anything
meant instant death by the Baron.
Hence, unknown to the Baron, many soldiers began slinking off in the middle of
the night, heading for the Wild Lands beyond the reach of Kazimir. Of course, his
commanders also knew of the desertions, but none dared even mention this to the
Baron. He would take his wrath out on them! Worse, they had no Mages anymore. They
would be facing numerous Archmages as well as Mages and dragons. The assault was
pure folly, but they continued to drill their men in spite of this.
Married life with Brunhilda was not going well for Damek either. She was bossy
and condescending to him. Over and over, she barked, “Look, you are not Duska. I am.
You do what I say or else!” Now at night, he preferred to stay up and drink far into the
night with Kazimir. At least once the old man started drinking, he didn’t speak. Damek
became more and more unhappy with the turn that his life was taking.
Often during the battle planning sessions, Kazimir and Brunhilda left him totally
out of their conversations! Once he attempted to point out a small flaw in their planning.
Both told him to mind his own business and go for a walk. Useless, that’s how Damek
began feeling. He was adrift in a tempest and knew not what to do. Was there anything
even that he could do? Daily, he grew more and more convinced that he was nothing but
a mere pawn, of little or no value whatsoever. He took to brooding even more.
As Yuletide approached, Damek made a last ditch attempt to melt his relationship
with his wife. On his own, he searched the shops of Dorum and bought her what he
thought was a very fine diamond necklace. In his own defense, it was the finest diamond
that he had ever seen.
At dinner, he decided to give it to her. “My love, I got you a Yuletide present. I
hope that you will like it.” He handed her the nicely wrapped box, and for an instant he
thought that he had done it. She looked like an eager child opening a present.
As she opened the box and saw the diamond, her face fell. He felt crushed even
before she spoke. “Ah, tiny diamond. Not worth a whole lot. I have far better ones in my
jewelry box. Thanks anyway, Damek. The thought was nice at least.” He stared at his
plate until the other two left the dining room to return to their three dimensional
battlefield of Brn.
Midnight of the first night of Yuletide, Baron Kazimir decided to make one more
attempt at Shadow Walking. As he began to arrive at his usual location outside the
Archmage Tower in Brn, once more he saw his nemesis, the Shadow Assassin coming
towards him! Once more he fled into his own Castle, badly shaken up once again.
When he arrived, both Damek and Brunhilda were waiting for him. “I saw the
Shadow Assassin again! Damn him to the Eternal Fires!” He did not notice that Damek
had his broadsword out and pointed at the Baron. Behind him Brunhilda kept making
faces and motions towards Damek.
Her body language kept saying, “Go on! Do it! Stab him and let’s get this over
with!” The night before, she had finally taken Damek to bed with her and shown him a
wonderful time. Once finished with pleasure, she told him, “The next time that Kazimir
attempts to Shadow Walk and play around with this insane madness of his and this non-existent Shadow Assassin, it is time to strike. Have your sword out and when he returns,
stab him through his heart. He is a Duska, but now he is an insane, mad Duska. When
he comes back, he will be totally confused and quite mad, oblivious of what is going on
around him. That is the time for us to strike and get rid of this incompetent, insane, old
man. Be ready, Damek. For once in your life, do what is right. We cannot continue with
this madman around. Do you understand, my dearest love? With him gone, it will be
just you and I. Things will be much better. You enjoyed it tonight, didn’t you?”
Oh, she played him well. He did enjoy her pleasure, and he did see the need to get
rid of Kazimir. The man was quite mad, quite insane, he had to go. But he was a Duska.
He knew well that he stood no chance at all of even scratching the Baron, not with his
inner sense of emanate danger. The Baron would know instantly that he was about to
stab him and would launch his own brutal counterstrike. Damek would be killed at once,
just as he had seen so many soldiers slain in the last couple of months.
Ah, but now, now it would be different. His Duska, his wife, would be there to
back him up. Her plan made sense. He’d seen the Baron return from these Shadow
Walks, seen the condition the man was in, but normally just gave him a bottle to drink
and shut up about it. Now, he could take an action, one that would eliminate this mess,
this continual invalidation of him. Thus, he agreed to do it. Brunhilda gave him a warm
hug and passionate kiss, further solidifying his resolve.
Now that the time came to actually thrust his sword through this pitiful man’s
chest, he was frozen to the spot. Not because he was terrified of going into battle. No, he
was a trained soldier. Kazimir looked and was pitiful, a madman. Yet, he was his very
own father, who had sought him out and gave him the opportunity of a lifetime, a
chance to become a baron! He could not thrust his blade, no matter the ever-growing
wild gestures of Brunhilda, still standing behind Kazimir. He just could not slay him, not
like this, not in this way.
Absolutely furious with Damek, Brunhilda took action of her own accord. All
along, she had suspected that her husband would not be able to perform even this
simple a task! He was an idiot and a fool, a mere foot soldier promoted to a baron.
Already, she had formulated a variation on her original plan to kill Kazimir. Seeing the
frozen Damek standing there looking like an idiot, Plan B kicked in. She would deal with
Kazimir and then kill Damek. Both would be eliminated. She would then tell her father
and everyone else that the two men turned on each other and killed each other. She
would then be in total control of Castle Dorumova and its Circle. She could then choose
her own man to be the baron and she would choose wisely!
Brunhilda drew her dagger and made a lightning thrust, aiming to place her blade
between his shoulder blades, severing his heart. She wanted a quick kill. As her body
began its lightning move, Kazimir’s inner sense of eminent danger kicked in. However,
as distracted as he was, and the fact that his body was now old and out of shape, he was
not fast enough. His hand drew his own blade, but he felt her dagger diving deep into his
back. Kazimir performed his last lightning fast move. He whirled and brought his
broadsword up in one last desperate thrust, slicing open her gut from her navel to her
heart.
Brunhilda gasped and her hands frantically attempted to hold her insides in, to
keep them from pouring out onto the floor. The Baron’s blade dropped, clanking solidly
on the stone floor, his eyes closed, and he slumped to the floor. He was dead when his
body met the cold, hard stone. Brunhilda screamed and screamed, but her hands were
unable to keep her guts inside the huge cut. Now her arms felt cold, oh so cold. They no
longer seemed to move properly. Useless, she thought. She looked at last up at Damek
with a shocked and terror-filled face. Her eyes saw a man staring back at her, equally
shocked. Now her legs felt cold, numb. She felt her body falling to the floor. She tried in
vain to resist, but the floor offered her relief. Standing was so difficult. Perhaps if she lay
down, she could stop the bleeding. When her body met the unforgiving stone floor, she
was dead.
Damek continued to stare in a complete and utter shock. True, he’s seen men die,
many men. It was not the death of the man and woman that paralyzed him. Rather it
was the magnitude of who they were and what unexpected actions had occurred. He
continued to stare, unable to move a muscle. Yet, he now sensed that something else had
stayed his sword arm. Something warm, friendly. Kindness, but he knew not what this
was.
It was ten o’clock when Kazimir attempted his last Shadow Walk to Brn. Zoran
lay in bed with Zdenka, not yet asleep. As his Circle warned him of the approach of
Kazimir, Zoran found himself once more half in the Shadow World, on an intercept
course to prevent the Baron from arriving outside his Tower. He saw the Baron
perceiving himself and watched as the madman fled in terror. He was still half in the
Shadow World as the Baron arrived, standing before Damek, whose sword was drawn.
Zoran, still partially connected with the withdrawing madman saw Damek and
Brunhilda. Curiosity got the better of him or perhaps it was yet another instinct or
property of his unique connection to his Circle. No matter, he remained partially in the
Shadows watching what happened.