Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) (12 page)

He crept down off his perch, disgusted, and
debated what to do. The only person he would trust with this was
Gareth, but he was still unconscious. He pondered his options. He
could, of course, do nothing; but that was not an attractive
choice. He could not stand the thought of the Elders doing
who-knows-what to the people in the Lost Lands simply because of
their own refusal to give up their hatred of a man long-dead. He
didn’t believe that people were only the sum of their ancestry.
People made their own choices. Eradicating the Dark King’s seed
would not eliminate the evil in the world.

There was always Katya’s friend…Lorcan felt
the twinge of jealousy again and pushed it aside. His own
insecurities were hardly relevant in light of the Elders’
misrepresented intentions. This time the Elders had gone too far.
Lorcan had been caught up in the excitement of the Arrival, as was
everyone else, but if the Elders had revealed just what this baby
meant, their plan may not have had such a positive acceptance. The
rest of the tribe had been led to believe, as Lorcan himself had,
that the baby was the blessed one who would help usher in the new
era, and that their taking of it was necessary to relieve it of its
ills in order for it to fulfill its destiny. Not that it would be
used to help the Elders play the role of gods and put some sort of
curse on the child. It was disgusting.

Lorcan went back and forth with the idea of
going to the imprisoned man, and finally decided to sneak to the
window of the cell. He would just see if Gareth had woken yet…

“Psst!” he whispered into the darkened room.
He heard the sound of someone shuffling around and footsteps drew
near the opening. Lorcan glanced around him quickly, making sure
there was no one to witness the exchange.

“Who’s there?” a man’s voice asked warily
from the darkness.

“My name is Lorcan,” he answered, “I’m a
friend of Katya’s.”

“It appears Katya’s friends in the tribe
haven’t treated her as such,” the man commented a bit harshly.

Lorcan bristled. “I got her out of prison,
didn’t I? Just because you got yourself caught again isn’t my
fault!”

The man’s voice softened, “Oh, you’re the
young man who helped get her out.”

“That’s right,” Lorcan said proudly.
More
than
you
did for her
.

“What can I do for you?”

Lorcan hesitated. He didn’t really know. “Is
Gareth awake yet?”

“Who’s Gareth?”

Lorcan sighed impatiently. “The old man who
is in the cell with you. He’s been unconscious since the night
Katya got out.”

There was a pause and the sound of movement.
“No, he’s still out. Is this Katya’s father?”

“What?” Lorcan asked, confused. “No, he’s not
her father.”

“He didn’t have a little girl who was exiled
because of her mark?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t
know…listen, there’s something going on that isn’t right.”

The man simply waited for him to
continue.

“I think that the Elders have done something
to the baby that you stole…I mean rescued,” Lorcan amended,
adjusting his thinking to the truth of the matter, rather than what
the Elders had wanted them to think.

“Like what?”

“They put some sort of spell on her to
cleanse the taint of the Dark King from the world.”

“How would she do that?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it was, the
Elders were planning to use her to spread it to the rest of the
Lost Ones.”

The man sucked in his breath. “So that’s why
they wanted her to be returned.”

“What do you mean?” Lorcan asked, annoyed
that this man seemed to have information that he didn’t. “How did
you know that?”

“Katya was told to warn the King and Queen
that it had been the Elder’s plan all along to return their
daughter to them. That’s why we think it was so easy for us to get
out, and that there was hardly a search for us afterwards. I had
hoped that we had gotten her out before they finished whatever it
was they were doing to her, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the
case.”

“The King and Queen?”

“Of Gelendan,” the man said, and Lorcan
recognized the name for part of the Lost Lands. “The baby is the
Princess of this land?” he asked incredulously. He thought back to
the Elders’ talk about spreading the enchantment to the palace,
which now made a great deal more sense. “Wait a minute, what do you
mean, it was easy for you to get her out?”

“I knew it was too easy that Natalya and I
had been able to sneak in and escape with the baby without much of
a fight,” the man replied, “there was hardly even a search party
sent.”

“The Elders told us they returned her
themselves, and that you left.” Lorcan snorted, finding it not at
all difficult to believe the truth of this stranger’s words in the
wake of all he’d learned about the Elders. “Of course, they also
seem to be spreading the rumor that you got attacked by Katya and
are currently in critical condition.” He peered in through the
window at the extremely healthy-looking man. “But that doesn’t seem
to be the case either.”

Lorcan knew he was speaking traitorously of
the Elders in front of the outsider, but he didn’t care. He was too
angry over all the lies.

“The King and Queen need to know what was
done,” the man said.

“How can we warn them?” Lorcan asked, and the
stranger was silent for a moment. He had the impression that his
sincerity was being measured. “I just found out what they’re really
doing and don’t agree with it,” he snapped.

“Can you get a message to the King and
Queen?”

Lorcan contemplated. “No,” he admitted
finally, defeated. It was beyond his abilities to either get the
message that far, and definitely to do so without the Elders
detecting it.

“We’ll need to figure something out,” the man
said and Lorcan tensed at the demanding tone. He was the one who
had just told him what the Elders’ plan was. And Hunter was the one
locked in a jail cell.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Lorcan told him,
adding with a pinch of sarcasm, “Sit tight.”

CHAPTER 6

The search of the castle had proven largely
unhelpful aside from the documents that could not yet be
understood, and Natalya had suggested to Sir Ruawn that they speak
with the townspeople about the place. They were currently riding
into the town square, met with untrusting stares and worried
curiosity. As they rode down the street, people seemed to suddenly
remember that they had business in the opposite direction and
hurried away from their procession. The streets cleared as quickly
as if there had been a sudden storm.

Sir Ruawn cornered one of the merchants in
front of his shop. “What’s been going on in the castle?” he asked
pointedly.

“N-n-nothing, I don’t know what you mean,”
the man stumbled, clearly frightened out of his wits.

“You don’t know anything about monsters being
created in there?”

The man’s lack of surprise – but intense fear
– revealed the truth without his answer. He busied himself with
tidying up his wares and tried to ignore them. Sir Ruawn, seeing
that they would get little out of this man, moved on to another. He
asked the same question several more times, and got several of the
same answer, though slightly modified.

All said that there was absolutely nothing
going on in the castle, and yet every single one was terrified at
the mention of it. They finally found an old man whose old age made
him bold, and he hailed them from across the street.

“Yer the ones frightenin’ everyone by askin’
‘bout the castle are ye,” he stated rather than asked.

They nodded.

“No one here’ll tell ya nuthin.” He informed
them. “They’re all too scared of the Death-bringers. For good
reason.” His withered face cracked into a maniacal grin and he
barked out a hoarse laugh. “Lord Farthen released one just ta show
us what would happen if we talked.”

“What happened?” Natalya asked.

The old man locked his gaze with hers, his
eyes bulging out amongst the dark and sunken-in skin around them
giving him a horribly creepy look. Natalya tried not to break the
stare-down, but soon had to look away. “The Death-bringers are Lord
Farthen’s newest project. That beast has been dabblin’ in
blood-magic fer ages, keepin’ us all silent with his threats an’
fear. Now, he’s doin’ in on
people
. Turned ‘em inta wild
blood-thirsty crazy monsters. An’ he set one on us just to show
what they could do.” He swallowed, his gigantic Adam’s apple
bobbing up and down his wrinkled throat. “It killed six people
before he sent his guards down in to stop it. And the worst part,”
he leaned in closer to Natalya, lifting a gnarled finger to make
the point. “Was watchin’ it eat the dead. We couldn’t do nuthin’
but stand by an’ watch as it tore our friends apart. The blood-red
eyes staring us all down and darin’ us to make a move fer it.”
Natalya’s memory was drawn involuntarily back to the incident at
the castle and she swallowed hard.

“Do you know what happened recently?” Sir
Ruawn asked.

“Been some strange activity lately,” the old
man replied thoughtfully, releasing Natalya from his intense gaze,
“another big fine lord came in to visit some time back, then a
bunch of carriages and carts left all in a hurry-like. The castle
staff was all sent home and told not to come back until they were
called for. We haven’t seen much since then up there, but no ones
willin’ to go look.”

“Any idea what the lord came for?”

“Nope,” the old man said, apparently having
lost his interest in talking to them. “I tolds ya all I know.”

Eventually they convinced a few of the other
townspeople to part with some information after the old man filled
them in on the reason for their reluctance and they were able to
assure people that Lord Farthen was not going to set another
Death-bringer on them.

“There was another lord that visited, he
might be able to tell you more,” one woman whispered to them,
glancing around her worriedly and pulling a shawl around her
face.

“Do you know who he was?” Sir Ruawn
asked.

“Oh, aye,” the woman nodded, “he kept saying
‘don’t you know who I am?’ like he was somethin’ special. I doubt
there’s anyone in town who doesn’t now know his name.”

“And what was it?”

“Lord Morven,” she said, her eyes darting
this way and that. Natalya sucked in her breath.

“What was he doing here?” he prodded.

“He visited the castle and came out with a
young woman.”

“What did she look like?” Natalya interjected
excitedly. It could be Alina!

The woman met her eyes briefly, no doubt
startled by her conviction, and immediately clammed up.

Sir Ruawn soothed her. “Whatever was going on
in the castle was not authorized by the Queen, and this Lord Morven
you speak of is currently under investigation and wanted for
questioning. Any information you can provide us with will help to
get him to a position where he will be unable to make any threats,
nor carry out any he may have already made. The castle is currently
empty, we have gotten rid of the rest of the – experiments – he was
working on, so they are no longer a threat.” He paused and glanced
at Natalya. “The young woman’s life, the one who he left the castle
with, is also in danger.”

The woman wrung her hands. “She was young,”
she nodded towards Natalya, “even younger than you, and similar
coloring.” She looked closer. “In fact, she looked a lot like you,”
she commented in a questing tone.

“My sister,” Natalya whispered, unable to
keep the pain from her voice.

A spark seemed to light in the woman’s eyes
and she straightened her back. “He took her down the south path out
of town, but before he did they stopped at The Old Lantern.” She
stood and motioned for them to follow. “Jasper is sure to have
noticed them. Come on, we’ll go ask him what he knows.”

She led them down to The Old Lantern, which
turned out to be a tavern, and marched straight up to the bartender
who eyed their approach warily.

“Bethany,” he greeted her shortly.

“Jasper,” she returned, “These people need to
know about the lord that was in here the other day with the young
woman. It appears that the girl is in danger, so we need to tell
them anything that might be able to help them locate her.”

“Beth…” he drew out her name in a warning
tone.

“Don’t you ‘Beth’ me, Jasper! Now listen
here; we’ve been covering up for the dealings in that gods-forsaken
castle for too long now. The Queen’s not going to stand for it any
longer, and neither should we. We need to tell them what we
know.”

Jasper sighed, defeated. “The lord said they
were headed south, but didn’t say where to. He asked for a place to
buy supplies and I sent him to Nathan. He might be able to tell you
more about where he was heading from what he bought.”

“Did the girl seem alright?” Natalya asked
worriedly.

He looked at her and cocked his head to the
side. Natalya wondered if he noticed the same resemblance that the
woman did. He answered slowly. “She looked in good health,” he
answered, and Natalya sensed there was a ‘but’ coming.

“But?” she prompted when he wasn’t
forthcoming with it.

“But she didn’t look like she was all there
in her head, you know? All staring off into space and vacant
eyes.”

“How did he treat her?” she asked
tentatively, fearing the answer.

Jasper shrugged. “Indifferently. Didn’t say
much of anything to her, just dragged her around on his arm
like.”

“Anything else you can tell us?”

“No,” Jasper shook his head vigorously and
gave Bethany a withering look.

“Can you tell us where to find Nathan?”

The woman spoke up, “I’ll show you.” Jasper
looked relieved to be let off the hook and he went back to drying
mugs, keeping his eyes glued to the task.