The Hordes of Chanakra (Knights of Aerioch) (34 page)

Shillond nodded. "A council of wizards rules in Chanakra.  Their chief, their King if you will, is the High Mage.  He is always the most powerful of their number."

Kreg nodded. "I suspected something of the kind.  I overheard someone say that the High Mage will be executing Marek and Keven at the Midsummer Festival."

Kaila scowled. "He will not if I have ought to say in the matter."

"Midsummer," Shillond said. "That leaves us about two months.  Did your informant say where?"

"I'm afraid not," Kreg said. "His companions didn't believe that he really knew, but the way he sounded, and the way he didn't make a big deal out of it, make me think he saw and heard what he claimed."

"Perhaps we should speak with this Chanakranon," Kaila suggested.

Shillond shook his head. "I don't think so.  We don't want anyone to know that someone interested in the fate of the King and Prince is near."

"Besides," Kreg said. "I didn't get a look at him.  He went on before Kaila could speak. "He was behind me and I didn't want to turn around and maybe let him know I was interested.  Sorry, Kaila." Kreg did not say that he knew the man's name.  He agreed wholeheartedly with Shillond and did not want an argument.

"How then," Kaila asked, "should we proceed?"

"As we planned, I think," Shillond said. "We'll finish our rest here than move on.  Our eventual goal is the capital of Chanakra.  Wherever they are holding the King and Prince, it will not be far from there."

"But we cannot delay!" Kaila visibly fought to keep her voice from rising and attracting attention from outside their rooms. "We must haste lest we arrive too late."

"We must complete our recovery," Shillond said. "If we are to accomplish anything, we will have to be at our best."

Kreg shook his head. "Sorry, Shillond.  I'm with Kaila on this one.  We'll need to move and soon.  We'll take it easy on the road, rest while traveling." He thought for a moment. "Do we have enough to purchase three horses?  Cheap ones, just for riding?"

Shillond shook his head. "Not by a dozen seridi."

"Then we take the money we need here," Kaila said, "and buy the horses in the next town we pass.  I like not the thought of waiting idle while my King and Liege lies under sentence of death."

Shillond nodded. "All right.  I don't like it, but there's merit to your views too.  Tonight then?"

Kreg shook his head. "Tomorrow.  One extra day of rest won't delay us enough to matter but will make a major difference in our conditions."

Kaila opened her mouth to protest, then stopped and nodded. "Tomorrow."

"Agreed." Shillond made it unanimous.

#

Kaila lounged on a corner, her tunic hitched shorter than usual.  She wore no breeches and had exchanged her boots for soft sandals.  She had also removed her weapons.

Passersby leered at the amount of leg showing, at the way her belt pulled the tunic tight over her breasts.  She returned their stares with indifference, an indifference that encouraged them to move on without stopping.

Finally, the street was empty except for a lone Chanakran soldier.  As he leered at her, Kaila let her lips pull into a slow, inviting smile.

"Payday, soldier?" she asked.

"No," he said.

Kaila pouted.

The soldier grinned. "But I have had wonderful good fortune at knucklebones."

"Is that so?" Kaila tugged at her tunic, causing it reveal even more closely the shape of her breasts.

"Is so." The soldier reached for her shoulder.

Kreg dropped from the overhanging rooftop where he had been waiting.  He and the soldier sprawled to the street together but Kreg was on top.  His arm clamped around the soldier's throat.

As the soldier started to struggle, Kreg shifted his grip slightly so that his arm pressed against the carotid arteries on either side of the neck.  In a few seconds, the soldier went limp.

As usual, Kaila grumbled as they searched the soldier's unconscious form for coin. "I like this not.  It is not proper for a knight of Aerioch to skulk in alleys like a thief."

Kreg grinned and prodded the body. "We are thieves."

"He is an enemy of Aerioch and as such his life is forfeit.  He is fortunate indeed that we take only his coin." Kaila kept her voice stern, but the corners of her mouth twitched with humor.

Kreg nodded. "Absolutely." He held up the soldier's belt. "Count it here or wait until we reach Shillond?"

Kaila took the pouch and spilled its contents into her palm.  Among the sprinkling of copper and silver the gleam of gold glinted in the light of the twin moons, both near full.

Kreg suppressed a low whistle as Kaila dug three gold coins out of her handful. "He spoke sooth about his fortune."

Kreg grinned at her. "Too bad we had to come along and change it for him."

Her grin mirrored his as they slipped into the shadows of the alleys. "With this," she said as they hastened through the streets, "we will be able to purchase mounts for all of us and, I think, we need not worry about funds 'ere we rescue the King or die in the attempt."

Kreg nodded and touched fingertips to his mouth for silence.  They were entering a more populous section of town.

They met Shillond at the edge of town.  He accepted their prize without comment.  At the gate, he cast a spell that put the guards to sleep, then used another spell to unlock the gates.  Once they had passed a few hundred yards into the countryside, he cast a third and final spell, waking the guards.  They would think that they had merely dozed for a few minutes and would not notice anything amiss unless they confessed their falling asleep to their compatriots and learned that all had fallen asleep at once.  Since flogging was the penalty for sleeping while on watch, that was an unlikely prospect.

"We have not enough to purchase battle-trained destriers," Kaila said sadly. "But methinks good quality palfreys are within our reach."

Shillond shook his head. "We're poor travelers. Buying anything more than a peasant cobb would attract the attention we want to avoid."

Kaila frowned a long moment, then sighed. "Aye.  You speak truly."

#

Kreg, Kaila, and Shillond rode into the capital of Chanakra three days shy of six weeks later.  Kreg's horse walked with a noticeable limp, spavined.  It could not travel more than fifteen miles a day but was much less tiring than walking.  Further delays had come from the need to purchase provisions.  Only Shillond could do that, for only he had learned the Chanakran language well enough so as to not cause suspicions.  Kreg could assist in smaller villages since no one would recognize his accent.  Kaila, however, had to remain either mute or hidden, usually the latter.  An Aeriochnon accent would be damning.

"State your purpose for entering Bonaka," the bored guard at the gate regarded them idly.

"We come for the Midsummer Festival," Shillond said.

"Who are these with you?"

"Ah," Shillond affected an air of sadness.  Obviously affected. "The girl is my daughter.  There is drought in my lands and we cannot afford any more to keep her.  I hoped to sell her at the festival where I might get a good price.  The other is a hired guard.  He is not much, but he is willing to work for a share of what she brings."

"Your daughter, huh?" The guard seemed frankly skeptical.

"I speak nothing but the truth."

The guard's eyes flicked from Shillond, to Kaila, and back, "She looks nothing like you."

"Takes after her mother, she does.  A charming lass, if a bit tall. Still, she's quite strong and useful on the farm.  I refer to the mother, of course.  The girl has no head for keeping to chores." Shillond winked. "Comely though, is she not?"

Kaila started to redden, whether with anger or embarrassment Kreg did not know.  He poked her sharply in the ribs and the angry red of her cheeks faded.

"Comely enough, if you like them tall," the guard said, "and I do.  I may buy her myself.  I'll give you five gold for her."

Kreg felt a moment of panic before Shillond said, "Would that I could, good sir, if only to be quit of this surly guard, but I pledged to the Wizard Lord of my village to sell her only at the festival.  I believe he made a sending to his cousin on the High Council, recommending that he have a look at her.  I would hate to disappoint him."

The guard blanched. "Yes...I see.” He regained his composure. "Entry fee is one silver per person, one copper per beast."

Shillond nodded and paid for the three of them.

Once in the city they found an inn and again Shillond dickered for a room.  They returned to their old story: old man, his daughter and her husband.  In a city the size of Bonaka the chance of meeting the gate guard again was vanishingly remote until they left.  And if they left at all, it would be with Marek and Keven.

They had proposed various plans for the rescue of Keven and Marek during the ride to Bonaka.  Proposed, and discarded.  Eventually, they had settled on one desperate gamble, a variant of the ploy that had successfully recovered Kaila's sword.  Even if the plan succeeded, how they would escape the city and return to Aerioch was still undetermined.

"As before," Shillond said when they were alone in their rooms. "Eyes and ears.  Anything we can learn about the execution beforehand will help."

#

Two weeks passed with unbridled haste.  In that time all they had learned about the coming execution was time and place.

Kreg and Kaila sat on a low rooftop overlooking the site of the planned execution.  At their sides were bows, hand-carved from ash staves and strung with sinew cords.  While Kreg had not been quite up to constructing a full composite bow, he had suggested they back the bows with sinew, which would increase their power and accuracy.  The arrows, instead of having chisel-like bodkin points to pierce armor, carried broad bladed hunting arrowheads.  They did not need to pierce armor, just to kill mages; kill them quickly.

A low wall around the rooftop concealed Kreg and Kaila from casual view.  They had wedged shut the trapdoor giving access to the roof so as to keep spectators away.

Kreg and Kaila passed a goatskin container back and forth, drinking the watered ale within in slow sips.

"I hate waiting," Kreg said.

Kaila smiled. "So you have said."

"This is insane, you realize that, don't you?"

"That too, you have said."

Kreg snorted. "I guess I'm just nervous."

Kaila nodded. "I too.  How much longer, think you?"

Kreg squinted up at the sun, which was approaching zenith. "Not too.  Noon, they said."

"Noon." Kaila peeked over the wall. "A crowd gathers.  It will be difficult to pass them."

Kreg peeked with her. "But they'll add to the confusion."

"Aye."

Across the square he saw a flash of light.  Repeated.

"There's the signal," he said to Kaila.

She nodded.

Shillond occupied a position on the far side of the square from where he could watch for the approach of the procession.  His signal had nothing of magic that could reveal them to the Chanakran wizards, but came from a simple mirror reflecting sunlight.

A few minutes later, a procession entered the square.  First came four guards, as tall as Kreg but heavy with fat.  Barefoot, they wore only linen tunics belted at the waist and reaching to mid-thigh.  The guards carried short, heavy-bladed spears vertically in front of them.  Behind them came two other guards, similarly dressed but without weapons.  Instead, each of them held the end of a chain.  The other ends of those chains ended in slave collars around the necks of two men.  The men were dressed in rags, their hair matted and filthy and unkempt beards covered their faces.  Nevertheless, Kreg recognized Marek and Keven.

Behind Marek and Keven were four more guards, the same as the leaders, several men in long white robes, and then more guards.

Finally, in the rear, was the biggest man Kreg had ever seen.  Heavy with fat, like the guards who preceded him, but the graceful glide with which he walked told Kreg that there was muscle under that fat.  He held a large curved sword horizontally before him across his upturned palms.

The first four guards split to either side of a raised dais that surrounded a fountain.  No water flowed in that fountain and Kreg wondered if it ever had.  The next two, leading the King and Prince, mounted the dais.  The guards after them also split to surround the dais.  While the robed men in their turn mounted the dais, the two leading Marek and Keven took them to a wooden scaffolding set to one side that overhung the fountain.  Rust brown stains under that scaffolding told Kreg that it had been used for executions before.

Finally, the executioner, for Kreg could envision no other role for the massive figure that finished the procession, mounted the dais.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Kreg saw that Kaila had half drawn her bow. "Wait for it," he said, fitting an arrow to his own bowstring.  He concentrated on letting magic function.

The guard who had been leading Marek shoved him to his knees at the edge of the scaffolding.  Marek twisted, shaking off the hand and drove his elbow into the guard’s groin.  Despite the seriousness of the situation, Kreg grinned at the King's pluck.