Knights of the Wizard (of Knights and Wizards Book 2) (17 page)

AN ELDERLY FELLOW SAT IN HIS DOORWAY on a chair he had made from branches that were tied together with strips of bark; he was playing with his long white beard, staring out at the fog that had rolled in overnight, enjoying the crispness of the morning air. The old man puffed on his pipe that he had carved out of a large tree branch, sending smoke up towards the heavens. Last night had been so hot and muggy and he was thoroughly enjoying the coolness of the early morn, and at his age he enjoyed every pleasant moment that he could manage. His eyebrows tightened as the dog came out of the fog and ambled by with the bird on its back like a man would ride a horse. He must have had a little too much wine with breakfast.

An hour later in the forest the fog persisted, creating a murky atmosphere amongst the trees, its mysteries even more mysterious under the cover of the mist, but the black dog was guided by his sense of smell more than his vision. Even the trees looked different under such a disguise; it would be difficult to spot anyone that was out there. Even though the canine didn’t see them he heard the two blue jays flying by overhead and heard several crows cawing in the far distance, now in stealth mode the dog had become wary. Berhtram remained on the dog’s back as they made their way through the forest, with the animal making his rounds from snare to snare, the last three he had checked had been devoid of an animal but the faint scent of the one’s that had been taken was away still in the air. It was risky business stealing from traps but a hungry dog needed some way to keep alive. The raven croaked as he could smell the dead rabbit in the distance; the dog also detected the wonderful scent of his next meal.

Blackie was highly intelligent and didn’t conduct himself like an ordinary dog because he wasn’t, he was a human that had been transformed, and the longer he remained in canine form the more his instincts changed, slowly losing his humanity. He remained mostly dog in a man’s world, travelling from place to place having stopped in this area longer than he normally would because of all the snares that were set and all the delicious animals that he could steal. He knew that he might be pressing his luck and was also enjoying the company of the raven as it had been a lonely two years, during that time he had been abused until he finally managed to escape.

As the dog approached the kill he stopped suddenly because the forest had become quiet, almost always a sign of danger. Was someone lurking? Blackie scented an unfamiliar smell in the area but the rabbit was intoxicating, pulling at his stomach and was most satisfying, and then a branch cracked just as he was about to bite the cottontail.

Lawrence was crouched down beside a tree with his bow at the ready, having had far too many kills stolen he was determined to catch the culprit. It was not going to be good for whoever was taking food from his family, but the problem was the heavy fog made it difficult to see much of anything. He thought he saw a silhouette of something but couldn’t be sure, whatever it was looked low to the ground and definitely some sort of animal and so he loosed his arrow, severing the very end of the dog’s tail and making it squeal, knocking Berhtram off as Blackie hightailed it out as fast as he was able, leaving the raven to fend for himself on the forest floor.

KING KAI WATCHED FROM HIS THROWN that had been carried into the courtyard as the two archers were situated four hundred yards apart, each with a longbow waiting for the kings nod to not only commence firing their arrows but to also slowly walk towards one another where they would soon be within striking distance. They needed another captain and the survivor would get the position, if neither survived the king would select two more. Neither Odura nor Rerec were archers which made it all the more interesting, because Kai felt luck would play an important role in the selection and that whoever won was destined for the position.

The king nodded and they commenced shooting their arrows, neither coming very close at first but Odura got lucky with a high arching arrow that caught Rerec in the left thigh, making it much more difficult for him to aim with such excruciating pain. Rerec did manage a close call when an arrow stuck just in front of Odura but he subsequently took an arrow to his chest and shortly thereafter he was dead.

King Kai made his way down to the dungeon to see what information his torturers had gathered from the unknown soldier they had captured in the area; he had been out hunting and wandered too close to the kingdom near the mountain range, his curiosity had cost him a lot. They had the knight from the kingdom of Newshore to the west of Leeander on a rack, had stretched him to such a degree that his tibia was pulled so far from his femur that he would never walk again. The death of one of the king’s wizards had left Kai in a foul mood, but the unconscious fellow being maimed and bloodied made him feel a little better.

The two torturers stood with black hoods over their heads and concealed smiles beneath the frightening facades that were covered in patches of dried blood, all part of the intimidation tactics. The king took in the pungent smell and was satisfied by its aroma; very few men couldn’t be broken, either physically or mentally or both.

“What have you learned?” asked the king.

The tall tormentor spoke. “This is a land of 101 kingdoms and he’s from the western part. Dragons are numerous in this part of the world but they tend to their own business. They barely survived a war two years ago and so many of the kingdoms are in a weakened state, some almost completely destroyed, and apparently the conquerors have been transformed into crows.”

Kai nodded. “Really? That sounds unpleasant. Who did the transforming?”

“Unknown your majesty.”

“Number of warriors per kingdom?”

“Also unknown your majesty.”

“What about the number of wizards in the area?” Kai stared at the fellow’s skin that was painfully and freakishly stretched and was glad that it wasn’t him.

“He was aware of five, including a young boy that is apparently quite powerful but is unable to cast a proper spell and so we shouldn’t have to worry about him. But with Chancailu deceased we are down to a single wizard.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“The boy wizard is apparently friendly with a dragon.” He smiled as he removed his hood, his ugly mug looked a lot better with it on, his crooked teeth almost unbelievable.

The king paced in the dungeon as he thought. “That’s another dragon that could be big trouble. Send word to Daijulan to get that damn dragon under our control and fast.”

“Right away your majesty.”

Back in his throne room Kai stared at a painting of his grandfather setting fire to a village long ago, an old man that was on fire was trying to extinguish the flames and most of the dozen dwellings were either aflame or smoking.

A black muscular messenger entered with unfortunate news. “Your majesty, a group of explorers is missing. We sent out a search party but there’s no sign of them. It is believed that they were either killed or taken prisoner your majesty. We followed their tracks for a time but heavy wind and rain has obliterated them. There are pockets of magic all across this land, some very dangerous. Or perhaps a dragon killed them.”

King Kai considered the implications. “When the time is right we shall march en mass, more than ten thousand strong. I need Daijulan to spell that stupid dragon and get his ass back here. There is magical work to be done.”

STONE MADE HIS WAY UP TO THE OPEN GEORGE TOWER where King Darius stood staring out at the landscape surrounding the castle, worried about Marcus and what would become of him. A single tear ran down his left cheek and he quickly disposed of it. How could he go on if something happened to his only son? If he hadn’t turned out to be a sorcerer he would most likely have been a knight and that would have been just as dangerous. The king wondered what had befallen Berhtram; after all this time he was certain that he’d never see him again. He expected there would be days when he experienced more than the loss of a raven but still he had to admit that he loved that bird. Darius stood adjusting his silky red cloak over his shoulders as Stone came up behind him.

“You summoned your majesty?”

“I want you to take some knights and go capture one of those pointy helmeted brutes.” Darius turned to face Stone. “I need one alive so we can question him. It seems that they kill everything and everyone that they come into contact with, so a confrontation with them appears inevitable. I certainly don’t understand all the indiscriminate killing.”

“Yes your majesty.”

“You may as well take Alexa with you because she’ll go out in search of you in any case.”

Stone looked up into the blue sky where in the far distance two red dragons were mating. “To tell the truth sire I wish she had never become a knight. She doesn’t have to go out on any of these missions. Oh I don’t know. Are the rumors true about Marcus creating magical knights?”

The king was troubled at perhaps having to engage in another war so soon. “Indeed. Ferocious fighters from what I hear. He makes them while he sleepwalks and then is unable to recall doing it. That boy is a riddle with no solution. I don’t know what’s ever going to become of him. We could certainly use a legion of magical knights but even Marcus doesn’t know how he conjures them.”

“We could use a powerful wizard even more even though I don’t care for magic. I never thought I’d see the day that Marcus would become a sorcerer.” Stone certainly hoped he was going to be okay but magic was way beyond him and apparently beyond the boy as well. He liked Marcus and his spirit and hoped he would be okay.

Darius nodded. “Stone don’t get killed. Try hard to find a small group of the enemy and bring some back alive. Don’t take unnecessary chances and always remember that your men’s lives are in your hands.”

Stone nodded remembering some of his fallen comrades, Alonzo and Denton in particular. “Yes and Alexa’s as well. Sorry about Marcus and Berhtram your majesty.”

The king nodded with a low grunt.

An hour before sunrise Stone led a dozen knights including Alexa out in search of the Dwagord. Their peculiar helmets would make them readily identifiable but the problem might be to find them in small enough numbers to be able to defeat them, he had no intention of getting his wife killed on this mission but intentions were often laughed at by fate. He took his spyglass that Adorok had made and scanned the horizon, seeing nothing he turned and perused a different area, spotting what looked to be perhaps as many as a thousand of the Dwagord, and as he continued to stare Alexa knew that he had spotted something.

“Stone, what do you see?” asked Alexa.

“I see one direction we’re not going in. Here look.” He handed the spyglass to Lance even though Alexa had her hand out.

Lance nodded as his horse seemed anxious. “We best get the hell of here before they decide to head this way.”

Alexa grabbed the spyglass from Lance and had a look. “Too many unless we all kill about a hundred of them.”

“Why didn’t I think of that,” said Merrill. “I’ll take the hundred on the left and you take the hundred on the right.”

Alexa gave him a stern look.

Stone started to gallop in the opposite direction and the others followed. They travelled for hours until Stone decided that it was safe to set up camp for the night, Stone then refused to let Obed start a fire for fear that they be spotted by the enemy. Stone set up his tent quite a ways from the others so that he and Alexa could get some quite time together but they ended up being quite noisy during their lovemaking.

“Oh come on!” Merrill had shouted.

Inside their tent Alexa and Stone had started a delicate conversation. “Alexa, you know that your father wants us to have more kids.”

Alexa nodded. “If it was up to him he’d want me pregnant every year.”

Stone smiled. “It’s understandable he’ll live on in all your children. We should have at least six or seven.”

“Six or seven?”

Before Alexa could finish Stone was called outside. Lance pointed to the horizon where a fire could be seen faintly and when Stone retrieved his spyglass from the tent he could see that it was the enemy around a large fire.

“Do you think they’re following us?” said Lance.

“Lord I hope not. They seem to have camped for the night. We’ll keep an eye on them and come morning we’ll hightail it out of here. They seem to have camped for the night.”

As the sun rose the next morning Stone scanned the horizon and the enemy were nowhere to be seen; he thought it peculiar that they had moved during the night. He decided that they would approach the location where they had been, to see if they had left anything behind and perhaps they would be able to spot them in the distance. Upon arrival at the site they discovered the remnants of a huge campfire, lots of ashes but little else and no sign of them.

“Look!” said Alexa. “One of them approaches.”

It was as if the warrior had come out of thin air ridding his black stallion, a single Dwagord looking like he meant business. It took some time for him to reach them. He brought the horse to a halt in front of Stone and stared down at him. “We have you surrounded. Follow me back to my brethren and we may allow you to live.”

Stone looked around but wasn’t able to see anyone else, thinking that they weren’t exactly surrounded if they were twenty miles away.

Merrill put an arrow into the Dwagord’s throat, watching as he toppled to the ground and then simply vanished along with his horse. They all looked at one another puzzled.

Lance looked at Stone. “It was a magical creation but what does it mean. How can they have us surrounded if we can’t see a single one of them?”

“They damn well know we’re here,” said Alexa. She examined the ground where the Dwagord’s horse had stood only moments ago. “Look no tracks, must have been an enchantment.”

Stone examined the tracks leading away from what had been a huge bonfire, heading north. Since the logical thing would be to head south he decided to head west instead, lest they had started out north and then turned south to trick them. In any case Stone now felt that they were all in danger and Leeander was a long ways away.