Wielder's Awakening (45 page)

“I do not believe we will be able to continue down this street,” said Kalista.

“Wise observation, my Princess,” the head guard replied with a smile.  “We can turn down this avenue,” he said, pointing to the intersecting street several yards in front of them.  “We can then follow the parallel street for a block or two before we cut back to the main avenue.  Shall we continue?”

“Lead the way,” Kalista replied as she fell back in the center of her escort.

She watched her merry subjects continue celebrating until she had turned down the narrower avenue and they were lost to her sight behind the tall buildings.  The small party followed the avenue for quite a while until it was crossed by another street.  They turned onto the narrow street and continued to make their way in the direction of the palace.

Kalista observed her surroundings as they started down the street.  She had never been down this street before.  It was different from the main streets she was used to but was clean and in good repair.  The street was much narrower than the other yet still wide enough to ride three abreast comfortably.  On both sides of the street, large buildings reached several stories into the air, leaving the street partly in shadow.  As they continued down the narrow street, she felt uneasy for some reason.  Glancing at her escort, she could tell that they were also slightly stiffer and more alert than normal.  At first she thought her unease came from a feeling of claustrophobia with the tall buildings pressing in on the narrow street, but soon she became aware of the real reason.

The street was completely silent.  The only sounds were those of the horses’ hooves clicking on the cobbled stone.  Just a block away there had been noise of every kind, but here all was still.  There was no one on the street besides them as far as she could see in front or behind them.  Kalista tried to dismiss her unease, telling herself that the street was so empty only because everyone had hurried to the spontaneous celebration on the main road, but the feeling she had would not go away.  She felt as if someone was watching her.  She sat tensely in her saddle as they continued on down the silent street.

The silence was suddenly pierced by two quick whistling sounds.  She glanced around but saw nothing.  Her two front guards suddenly fell from their mounts, crumpling to the ground with two loud thumps.  Kalista watched the lifeless bodies wide eyed as fear enveloped her.  Her four remaining guards quickly formed a tight circle around her with their swords drawn, trying to see in every direction at once.  Kalista joined the guards in their scan of the street, but like them, she saw nothing.  All was silent except for the quick breathing of her and her anxious guards.  The air was pierced again by two more whistles, immediately followed by two more.  She watched in terror as all four of her remaining guards fell from their saddles consecutively.

Kalista danced around on her horse, too scared to even scream.  Her frozen mind tried to realize what was happening.  She was now completely alone among her six lifeless guards.  The silence was pierced once again but this time it was the sharp whistle of a person.  Almost immediately two scruffy men on horses came out onto the road from a gate down the street.  Both wore evil grins, and Kalista knew that if she did not get away quickly she was in trouble.  She jerked at her mare’s reins and started quickly back down the street.  She stopped instantly with a whimper of despair.  Two other men were already riding up the road behind her.  They both chuckled at seeing the hopelessness on her frightened face.  She looked back and forth between the approaching riders frantically.  She was trapped!

Before giving in to complete despair, Kalista realized that if she could somehow break past them, she would be free.  She slowly reached down and grabbed the small crossbow that always hung at the side of her saddle.  She would not be caught without a fight.  She tried to determine which of the four men would be the easiest to break past as they continued to close in on her.  Realizing that she was almost out of time, she chose one randomly and slammed the heels of her boots into the flanks of her mare.  The horse leaped forward and broke into a dead run at the two closest men.  Both quickly had their swords out but to no avail.  The one on the left fell from his saddle with a bolt from her cross bow in his chest, and the remaining one watched wide eyed as Kalista blew past him on the other side of the dead man’s horse.

Kalista let out a triumphant sigh as one last whistling sound shot through the air.  After a few seconds her speeding mare came crashing to the ground, sending the Princess flying forward through the air.  She hit the street and bounced across the hard stone before coming to a stop.  She lay motionless for several seconds before she could remember what was happening.  She quickly tried to pick her dazed and aching body off of the ground, but the remaining three men were instantly upon her.  One grabbed her arms and yanked them behind her back as another roughly gagged her with a soiled cloth.  Her hands were quickly bound as well as her feet.  She was then rolled over onto her back.  As Kalista’s head finally cleared completely, she tried to scream.  The scream was effectively stopped by the rag, not letting out any sound at all.

“Quit struggling, little Princess,” one of the men said as he slapped her across the face.  The other two men joined him in laughing as tears came to her eyes.

“STOP!” someone shouted sharply from down the street.

The man jumped back from Kalista and whipped around with the other two.  Upon seeing who it was, they all calmed down.

“Keep on walking boy,” one of them spat.  There were then a few moments of intense silence.  “I said get moving!”

Kalista propped herself up on her elbows to see what was going on.  What met her eyes amazed her.  Not far down the street the young soldier who had shot against her so well stood defiantly facing the three men.  He was once again all in black.  Kalista felt a glimmer of hope that was almost immediately snuffed out as she realized her would be rescuer was outnumbered three to one.  She watched as the young man looked from the three men to her.  He offered a quick half smile before setting his jaw in defiance and returning his gaze to the three men.

“I’ll take care of ‘em,” one of the men said as he pulled out his sword.  “We warned you!” the man said mockingly to the young soldier as he started towards him.

The young man slowly unsheathed his sword, but other than that he did not move at all.  He watched his advancing attacker intently from his calm face with his sword gripped loosely at his side.  The man suddenly leaped forward with a yell at the young soldier.  Kalista was sure the young man was going to be cut down, but at the last second his sword shot up to block the slash.  With blinding quickness, the young man’s counter stroke left his opponent dead.  Kalista stared in amazement along with the other two thieves at the young man who had so effortlessly disposed of his attacker without hardly moving.  It was then Kalista remembered that General Blaize had said the young man was one of the best swordsmen in the army.  The warmth of hope slowly began to creep back into her cold body.

Kalista looked on as the other two men shook off their initial shock and bared their swords.  They advanced cautiously toward the killer of their partner.  The young man stepped over the lifeless body at his feet and with the same look of calm concentration as before poised his sword horizontally at his side.  The two attackers slashed at him simultaneously, but he easily avoided their slashes blocking one and dodging the other.  He then kicked one sharply in the stomach.  As his surprised attacker stumbled back with a grunt, the young soldier unleashed his fury on the other man.  Three quick swipes left the man face down in the street, never to rise again.  The young man then struck at the third man who had barely recovered from the surprise kick.  Their swords clashed together several times before the assailant fell to the ground to accompany his partners.

The young soldier, still alert, scanned the streets with his sword ready.  At his feet the white cobbled street was stained not by the bright crimson of wine as earlier but by the deep crimson of blood.  After several moments, he relaxed and bent down to cut off a piece of cloth from one of the attacker’s sleeves.  He then used it to wipe the blood from his sword quickly.  When his blade was clean, he sheathed it and hurried over to her.  He bent down at her side and with a shy smile undid the gag and pulled the soiled rag carefully from her mouth.

Kalista stared into the bright eyes of her smiling rescuer as gratitude flowed from her heart.  She was about to thank him, but his smile disappeared as a look of concern came to his eyes.  His eyes grew large, and Kalista heard a dull thud.  His eyes then rolled back, and the young man collapsed onto her, muffling her startled scream.  The young man’s limp body was almost immediately pulled off of her.  In its place a man with dark stringy hair and a thin face gazed back at her with a wicked grin.  His grin turned to a snarl as he brought something hard down into the side of her head.  The world went black.

* * * * *

Wraith walked nonchalantly away from the two still bodies and back to his horse.  He retrieved two large brown sacks and returned.  After retying the gag around the attractive princess’ mouth, he pulled the bag over her body and tied the end shut.  He then took the magnificent sword from the young man and after deftly gagging him and tying him up, stuffed him into the other bag.  He quickly rounded up two of his men’s horses and hefted the limp bodies onto them.  After making sure that they were secure, he pulled Kadrak’s seeker stone out one more time.

As he passed the stone over the sword it turned red.  The sword definitely had magical properties, but other than feeling as if it were molding to his grip, Wraith had no idea what they were.  The assassin then waived the stone over the sack that the young man was in.  It returned to black once again but with small, almost unnoticeable specks of red.  With a shake of his head he pulled the stone away, and it went solidly pitch black once again.  Wraith was not sure what to think about the young man, but he would have plenty of time to find out.  Wraith had watched as the young man defiantly stood against three of his small troop of cutthroats.  He had thought about shooting the man with his blow gun but had waited to see what would happen.

When the young man killed the first bandit effortlessly, Wraith had raised his blow gun, but on a hunch he had set it back down and pulled out the seeker stone.  To his surprise, it was the same mottled color that it had been that night when he had attacked the caravan months before.  He did not know what to think.  The young man could not be a wielder since the stone had not turned a solid red, but apparently there was something about him that affected the stone.  Wraith had quickly crept down to the street and subdued him.  He would have killed him, but dead people did not give any answers.  He wanted to know why the stone changed around the young man.  For that reason alone he had left the young man alive.

Wraith pulled himself onto his horse and leading the other two horses, turned down the next street.  When someone stumbled upon the scene of death and found the royal guards dead, the city would go into an uproar.  Wraith smiled to himself as he made his way past the unsuspecting citizens of Kalia with his prizes.  He had set out to kidnap the Princess Kalista.  He had succeeded as he always did and had even gained a magic sword and the young man whom he had followed to Calyn.  What a wonderful afternoon!

31

“Excuse me, Commander General.”

Gavin looked up from the papers that General Blaize and he were discussing.  A very pale and winded city watchman stood before them, anxiously waiting for Gavin to acknowledge him and let him give his message.  Gavin was slightly annoyed by the interruption, but from the look on the watchman’s face he could tell that the message must be somewhat important.

“Go ahead,” Gavin replied as he looked back down at the reports.

“The Princess Kalista has been kidnaped,” the young watchman said quickly.

“What!” Gavin shouted as he jumped up from his chair.  “Explain yourself,” he all but shouted at the quivering watchman.

“Yes, Commander General,” the watchman said as he took a deep breath.  “The guards escorting her were found dead on a side road in the Capila section of the city.  The Princess is nowhere to be found.  I was dispatched immediately to give word to you and lead you to the sight of the apparent abduction.” 

“Lead on,” Gavin commanded as he let the papers fall to the table.

Gavin followed the watchman quickly down the hall and out of the barracks.  He could feel the presence of the large general following close at his heels.  All three were soon on their horses and heading into the city.  Gavin was so stunned by the announcement that he did not know what to think.  His bride-to-be had been kidnapped!  A member of the royal family had not been touched for centuries.  As the realization of the situation began to finally sink in, he began to feel pangs of guilt.  He should not have let her ride back to the palace with only six guards.  He should have gone with her with the rest of the guards.  If anything happened to her, he did not know if he could live with himself.