Savage Games of Lord Zarak (14 page)

The king moaned, and Lara immediately went to him. “Father,” she said, “can you hear me?”

King Falmor's eyes opened. “Lara, is it you?”

“Yes. It is I. You've been wounded, Father. Try to lie still. You'll be well soon.”

The king smiled faintly, but it was clear that pain was racing through him.

“I will return quickly,” Bentain said, and he left the hut.

Lara attempted to comfort her father.

It was quiet in Garn's hut. She looked about and saw that the dwelling was a single room with rude furniture carved from wood. At one end was a rough fireplace where the cooking was done and which would give off heat in the cold weather. There was only this one bed in the house. A ladder led up to a loft. She had never been inside such a place before. She whispered in wonderment, “And a whole family lives here!”

A shadow fell across her then, and she looked around to see Sarah and Roland enter. They stood silently beside the bed, and Sarah asked, “How is he, my lady?”

“Bentain thinks the arrow must have been poisoned. He has gone to get something from the woods. Some sort of special healing herb.” She looked up at them worriedly. “I couldn't bear it if anything happened to him.”

She was sitting on a rough stool, and Roland knelt beside her. Now his eyes were even with hers. “Do not fear, Lady Lara,” he said quietly. “You have friends here—and the Sleepers assure me that Goél has never failed. We must rely on him.”

Unthinkingly Lady Lara reached out her free hand, and he took it in his. “Don't leave me, Roland,” she said. “I'm so afraid.”

“I won't leave,” he promised.

Bentain returned after what seemed a long time. He said breathlessly, “I have found something that may help.” He quickly heated water and made a brew in an iron pot. The smell of it filled the small house with a pleasant aroma. He kept the pot over the fire so that the steam rose steadily. “It will do him good just to breathe this, but he must also drink as much as possible.”

It was difficult to get the king to drink, but Bentain insisted, “It is important that he drink a great deal of this.” He managed to get a swallow down, but then the king jerked his arm and spilled the rest.

Bentain shook his head. “We must give it to him a sip at a time.”

Even that proved to be difficult. Watching, Lara wondered at the kindness and concern shown by this old man of whom she had thought so little.

The hours went on, and Lara finally slumped on the stool. She felt herself being picked up, then realized that Roland was carrying her across the room. He placed her on a mattress. It was made of skins and seemed to be stuffed with straw.

“Sleep,” he said. “We will care for your father.”

“Don't leave me, Roland.” She reached up her hand like a child, and he sat down beside her and held it.

When Sarah went outside Garn's small hut, she found all of the Sleepers gathered at the doorstep.

“How's the king?” Jake asked, and Sarah's eyes met his with discouragement. “He's worse, I think.”

“Isn't there anything anybody can do?” Jake demanded. “If we only had a doctor!”

“I think most of the doctors around here wouldn't be much help for this . . . special kind of wound,” Sarah said quietly.

Dave picked up on her words and her tone. “What are you thinking, Sarah?”

“That this is more than just an arrow wound. It's likely Zarak had his men use some sort of poison on the tip of the arrow, and I think that is what's killing the king. The wound itself wouldn't do it. It doesn't seem that serious.”

“I do wish Goél were here,” Abbey said, her eyes filled with grief. “He could help.”

“That's what we're all hoping for,” Josh said. “And if he doesn't come soon, the king may die.”

“Well, one more time we'll just have to wait,” Dave said.

“And I don't like waiting.” Reb Jackson looked toward the forest with apprehension in his eyes. “If we get caught here by the soldiers of Lord Zarak, we'll all be goners. Not just the king.”

 

That afternoon, Josh was by the door of Garn's house when Goodman came running. “I must see the Lady Lara!”

Lara came out at once with Roland by her side.

They had left Bentain and Garn's wife, they said, to minister to the king.

“I have evil tidings, my lady,” Goodman reported. His face was twisted with both anger and worry.

“What is it?” Lady Lara asked.

“It's Lord Zarak, my lady.”

“What's the wizard done now?” Roland demanded.

“He's announced to the people that the king is dead!”

“What!” Lady Lara cried. “How could he dare do that?”

“He knows what he's doing. If the king is dead, you are the next in line. And he has also announced that an evil group has kidnapped you after killing the king. The Seven Sleepers, he calls them. And, of course, my men and I are on his list of enemies, too. He says he's going to rescue you. Then he will marry you and rule over the kingdom.”

“What do the people say?” Lady Lara asked, her eyes flashing. “Surely they can't believe that.”

“I don't think most of them do. But it doesn't matter much whether they believe it or not,” Goodman said sadly. “They hate Zarak, but he has the power.”

“But what can we do?” Lady Lara exclaimed.

“How is the king?” Goodman said.

“Not well,” Roland answered.

“I trust that he will be well soon,” Goodman said, “but if he does not survive, what will you do, Lady Lara?”

The princess drew herself up defiantly and said, “I will never marry that evil man! Never!”

“Then you are in great danger. I fear that if you refuse to marry Lord Zarak, you too will meet with an ‘accident,'” he said, stressing the word “accident.” He
added grimly, “Then the blame for that too could be put upon the Seven Sleepers and me.”

“That's exactly what he'll do, Lady Lara!” Roland exclaimed.

Josh was trying to think what the next step should be. “What else did you learn, Goodman?” he asked.

“That Lord Zarak is summoning all of his men. They'll be sweeping the forest soon and looking behind every tree.” His voice was still grim. “Sooner or later they'll find us, and we're too few in number to fight such an army.”

Lady Lara then proved herself to be, indeed, a princess. She stood straight, and her eyes went to Goodman. “You have been a faithful servant, Goodman.” She looked around at her friends, and there was warmth in her look. “All of you Sleepers, I thank you for your kindness. You came to do us good, and you have received an ill reception.”

“We want to serve you, lady,” Josh said. “What shall we do?”

“Is there any place where we can move my father that would be safer than here?”

Goodman rubbed his chin, thinking, but then shook his head. “This is as safe a place as any. My men and I will try to discover the movements of Zarak. If the enemy comes this way, then we will have to flee.”

Lara nodded. “So we can only pray that my father will regain his strength. I must go to him now.”

The Sleepers watched her go back into the house.

“She's changed a lot, hasn't she?” Roland said quietly.

“She has. And so have you, Roland.” Josh grinned at him.

“Me!” Roland looked surprised. “Oh . . . well . . . I suppose I have. Being a slave teaches you things!”

 

Lady Lara learned much over the next two days. While she nursed her father, she got to know the family of Garn and his wife. She learned to love their two children. But the biggest change of all was that great pity came into her heart as she saw the poverty and fear in which they were forced to live.

“If my father and I ever rule again,” she told Roland late one evening, “things will be different. People like Garn and his family will be the object of our care. You will see!” She turned to him and asked earnestly, “Do you believe that, Roland?”

He nodded. “I believe it now. As Josh said, you have changed. And I have changed.” Then he seemed to remember something. “It's the hard things, my father always said, that make people strong. If this hadn't happened to me, I suppose I would have gone on being the same selfish person that I've always been.”

“Your father sounds like a wise man,” Lady Lara said. “I hope to meet him one day.”

Roland took her hand. “I hope, indeed, that you will.”

The princess said no more, and together they sat looking down at the pale face of the king who struggled for life.

 

 

 

E
ach day Lady Lara and the Sleepers lived in constant apprehension over the movements of Lord Zarak. Messengers came secretly from Goodman, who had his men tracking Zarak's army—and usually they brought bad news.

“It is terrible,” one messenger said, a tall fellow named Coaltar. “Zarak is even far more cruel than we had believed.”

“What is he doing?” Lady Lara asked.

“He is taking many hostages. He is throwing old people and young alike into the foul dungeons of the castle. He keeps spreading the rumors that the king has been slain by the Seven Sleepers and that you are held captive by them.”

Josh, who had been standing by, exclaimed, “We've got to do something about Zarak!”

Coaltar turned to him. “Why does he hate you Sleepers so much?”

“How do you know that he does?” Josh asked curiously.

“We have one sympathizer in his ranks. He tells us that Zarak seems to go mad whenever the Seven Sleepers are mentioned. Don't let him take you alive,” Coaltar warned. “You will die slowly and in agony. But why does he hate you so?”

“Because we are the servants of Goél and he is an instrument of the Dark Lord.”

“Such things are too high for me,” Coaltar said, “but you would do well to stay out of his clutches.”

Lady Lara waited only until Coaltar left, and then she went back to sit beside her father. She took a quick breath for he lay very still, but when she laid her hand on his chest, she felt the slight rise and fall of his breathing. For a long time she sat beside him.

Roland came in after a while and sat across from her. “How is he?”

“He is worse. I fear he is dying, Roland.”

Roland did not disagree. Instead, he studied Lara's face and seemed to be trying to find words that might encourage her. Perhaps he decided to turn her thoughts to something else, for at last he said, “I can't stop thinking about what I was before I came on this mission.”

“What do you mean, Roland?”

Roland shifted his weight on the stool. “I mean that I was the most selfish human being that ever lived.”

Lara was able to smile briefly. “I doubt that,” she said. “I believe I was.”

He managed a smile, too. “But you don't know what I was like. I thought only of myself; I was a bully. Anyone smaller, anyone that I could push around, I did. I don't see how my parents or anyone else stood me.”

“You might be describing me,” Lady Lara said. Then she added, “I intend my life to be different from now on, though.”

“I'm glad to hear that.”

Both Lara and Roland jumped to their feet. Somehow the princess knew who the speaker was as soon as she saw him.

Goél's hood was shading his face, and he pushed it back.

Without a word, the two knelt before him.

Goél put one hand on Lara's head, the other on Roland's, and kept them there a moment. Then he said, “Rise up, my children. You indeed are passing through a deep valley.”

“Goél, my father is dying!” Lara looked up at him pleadingly. He took her hands and said, “Do not fear, Lady Lara.”

Somehow she could sense the man's strength. She had heard much about Goél from Roland and Bentain and Sarah. Now she found she could barely speak to him. She finally whispered, “I have been wicked, sire, but I want to be different.”