Kingdom's Reign (12 page)

William carried the young woman to a ragged bed and laid her on it. He raised her shoulders and head to give her some water to drink and a small bit of cornmeal cake. Both contained traces of the Life Spice. After some time, we returned to camp. William carried her part of the way, for she was too weak to make it completely on her own. Once back at camp, William could hardly leave her side, for the men-in-arms brought back all her fear. She had lived with fear too long to trust more than one, and William was that one. We learned that her name was Kendra. We delayed another day to allow her time to regain more strength, for she was in no condition to travel just yet.

“Sir Cedric,” Brenton called to me. He was the captain of the knights with us.

“Yes, Sir Brenton.”

“Our camp is set again. Is there something I can have the men do to keep them occupied?”

Brenton was a good man to have as captain. The men respected him, and he was an efficient leader.

I thought for a moment. “If any of the men want to hunt, we could use some venison. Just tell them to be back by late afternoon. Otherwise, the day is theirs.”

“Yes, sir,” Brenton replied as he withdrew.

Talea and I checked on Kendra and found William at her side. She had eaten but still looked weary, even though it was just late morning. William walked the few paces to us.

“I think she needs to rest some … I'll watch over her,” he said.

“Has she talked to you at all? Who is she, and where does she come from?” I asked.

William shook his head. “I don't know. She's still too disturbed to say much. She's nearly dead from starvation,” he said as he looked her way. She had finished a bit of soup and lay down on a blanket spread on the ground.

“We'll come back later,” I said.

Talea and I walked away and left William to his charge. We checked back with Brenton on the activity of the men for the day. When there was nothing left to do, Talea and I stood alone somewhat awkwardly.

“Care to take a ride?” I asked.

She looked at me the same way she always did, as if to question my motives. “I suppose so.”

We mounted and took a casual ride around Lake Pensing. The lake was large with many vantage points of great beauty. Our horses walked side by side.

“I feel compelled to tell you how important your father has been to me,” I said after we had ridden in silence for some time.

She smiled. “I wish I had known him while I growing up.”

“He mentored me and prepared my heart for the words of the Prince. He is a noble man, Talea,” I said. “When I was a child, he was like a grandfather to me. His heart is kind and so full of zeal for the King.”

“Mother talked of him every day,” she said. “It was hard to know that we were separated by the Great Sea and that I couldn't see him. Yutan did a great deal for me though … much as a father would do.”

I stopped our horses and looked at Talea.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I just realized that you are quite a few years older than me,” I commented with a half smile on my face.

“The concept of age is foreign to me,” she said. “I have lived my whole life where age is irrelevant. So if you are trying to insult me, you are wasting your time.”

I chuckled. “Talea, I'm teasing you.”

“Oh?” She looked quizzically at me.

We resumed our ride. I was curious as to how she seemed to see right through people yet couldn't tell when I was teasing.

“Talea, how did you know we were being watched by Kendra when we were at the lake?” I asked.

“I don't know,” she said. “I suppose it is something I learned from the Silent Warriors.”

“You have helped me a great deal as ambassador already. I cannot read people as you do … Thank you.”

She looked over at me. “Are you teasing me again?”

“No, of course not.” I was becoming aware of an interesting limitation in Talea's abilities. “How is it that you can't read
me
?”

She immediately turned away and did not answer for some time. “I don't know …” she whispered.

No wonder she continually questions my motives
, I thought. For some reason I was as much of an enigma to her as she was to me. I found some comfort in knowing that I was not an open book to her like most people seemed to be.

The rest of our ride was pleasant and filled with talk of the mission that lay ahead. That evening we joined William and Kendra around a small fire. She looked somewhat renewed and even smiled slightly when we approached.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Much better, thank you,” she replied politely.

Kendra cradled a cup of hot soup in her hands as she sipped the broth. I wondered what her story was but wasn't sure I should ask. Talea and I sat down on a nearby log.

“Have you lived here your whole life?” I began with a non-intrusive question.

She looked at me and then to the ground. “No, just a few years actually … just since the scynths came.”

Talea and I looked at each other as we remembered our encounter with a scynth onboard our ship years ago.

“Scynths?” William asked.

Kendra took a deep breath. “Yes, after my brother and little sister disappeared, things changed quickly. We lived in Elttaes. My father was not wealthy, but we had a comfortable life. One day, my brother came home excited about a story he'd heard about evil knights and a good Prince coming back to life after He'd died in Chessington. My parents and I considered it silly fantasy, but my little sister was taken with it. There was talk of some Code and a Dark Knight … It all seemed too strange and unbelievable. My brother began to tell others and tried to live by this Code. I saw him change, but I still didn't believe his strange stories, and neither did my parents.

“Before long, our city was split between those who believed, like my brother, and those who didn't. Then, when Alexander Histen came to power, everything changed. He sent horrible men to rule our city. The new prefect of Elttaes prohibited the telling of the story and began to imprison those who talked of it. In fact, my brother was in prison the day I woke up and couldn't find my little sister anywhere.”

Kendra paused and looked very sad. “That was the day Elttaes was devoured by evil.”

I felt a chill creep up my spine.

Kendra continued. “We searched everywhere but soon realized that many people were missing, not just my sister. Father went to the prisons, but many of the prisoners, including my brother, were gone too.”

I knew she was talking about the night of our silent exodus from Arrethtrae. It must have been eerie for those left behind,
but hearing Kendra describe it firsthand was dramatic. William, Talea, and I were all captivated by her story. She held her cup of soup tightly, but I think she forgot it was in her hands as she recalled this story from her past and gazed at nothing.

“We thought that somehow Histen had taken all of them and killed them,” she said. “Then later that day
they
came.”

“Who came?” William said gently.

“Those hideous creatures … the scynths!” she said, seeming stunned that we didn't know exactly what she was talking about.

William looked thoroughly confused but waited patiently for the rest of the story. Although I had some vague idea of what a scynth was, I hadn't heard of their presence in Arrethtrae. Talea listened and seemed to understand a bit more.

Kendra shuddered as she remembered the horror. “They flew in like a swarm of insects, but they were much worse. They were like … like scorpions with wings, only much larger.”

William's perplexed look told me he was questioning Kendra's sanity.

“Talea and I saw one too, William,” I said to confirm her story. “Although it was somewhat dark, and I didn't get a good look at it.”

“How could you have been spared the horror of the scynths?” Kendra looked at William. “We heard that all of Arrethtrae was infested with them.”

“Please, finish your story, and then we will tell you ours,” I said. “What does a scynth look like?”

She paused, as if hoping she couldn't remember. “Like a
monster from a dark nightmare … a hideous creature. Its skin is dark red and leathery. Some are nearly as big as a dog. Its head is small, with razor-sharp teeth and ugly black eyes.”

“Something like a bat?” Talea offered.

“Yes! Like a bat, only much larger, and it had a tail that—”

“Stings!” Talea and Kendra said simultaneously.

Kendra looked at Talea. “You know of them then?”

“Yes, I know of them,” Talea said.

“My father was stung by one, and he suffered from the pain for many days,” Kendra said. “He nearly went mad, but he did not die. Thousands were stung. It was horrible. The strange thing is that Histen's men did not seem to be concerned. None of them were stung. They claimed that the scynths were here because the King had sent them, but I believed otherwise.

“The scynths eventually went away and Father recovered, but life was still awful. People were beaten, daughters were taken, and many were killed. Those evil men made everyone swear allegiance to Histen, but even so, they pillaged every home.”

Kendra's eyes began to well with tears, and I felt bad that she was reliving this nightmare to satisfy our curiosity.

William put his hand on her shoulder. “Kendra, you do not have to continue,” he said softly. “We can talk another time.” I could tell that William felt like her protector now, and each sentence of her story was drawing him closer to her.

“No. I want to finish,” she said and straightened her shoulders. She looked at William. “But thank you.” She smiled at him briefly while wiping away her tears. With each word, she was regaining some of her lost dignity.

“Father knew of this abandoned hut, for he and my brother often used to hunt in these woods. One night we decided to flee the city and hide in the woods. He was concerned that we would not survive under the wicked rule of Histen's men much longer. We lived in the hut for some time, and it was a temporary relief from the daily oppression of the city, but fear of being found never left our minds.

“One day Father went hunting and did not come back. We waited until the next morning, but he still had not returned. Mother and I searched for days, but we could not find him. We did not want to think of what might have happened. Mother grieved for Father daily, and I sensed that her desire to persevere was beginning to waiver. We could not hunt like Father, so we became hungry. We did not dare return to the city … especially without Father to protect us. We gathered what food we could and barely survived day to day. Father had traps that I checked frequently, which helped, but it was not enough. I ventured far from the hut one morning in search of food and—”

Kendra broke down and began to sob quietly. William put his arm around her, and she leaned on his chest.

“I found him. They had tied him to a tree and tortured him. I'm sure they did not find us because he would not tell them …”

She sobbed heavily. Talea walked over to Kendra and knelt before her. She gently took the forgotten cup of cold soup from Kendra's hands and put her hands on Kendra's.

“I'm sorry,” was all she said, but it was enough to comfort Kendra.

“I never told Mother … I couldn't. After many months, she fell sick and died too. I was so lonely. Every day hurt to live.”

The evil of Sedah had indeed come to Arrethtrae when the Knights of the Prince left. Here was one story of one family … How many more stories of woe there must have been.
If only you had believed
, I thought.
If only you had believed
.

Although she was a broken woman, Kendra seemed comforted by William's strong arm and Talea's sympathetic eyes.

We left for Elttaes the next morning. I figured we would make it by mid to late afternoon. We did not have an extra horse for Kendra, so she rode with William. The scenery was beautiful and lush. At times we traveled in meadows between the breaks in the thick forest walls. The road was narrow, but it sufficed. After a few hours of riding, we came to a small clearing that ended in a growth of thick trees. The road was the only place where the trees broke open. As we approached, Talea became anxious.

I stopped the men. “What is it, Talea?” I asked.

Her face was stern and a bit fearful. We all listened for a moment, and then Talea quickly drew her sword from her scabbard. A moment later all of our swords were drawn.

“Where, Talea?” I said, feeling the tension of the moment rise.

“All around, Cedric,” she said. “All around!”

Kendra held tightly to William's waist, and the stark fear we had seen in her earlier returned.

“Brenton, fall back!” I called to the captain, but it was too late.

They came at us from all sides, and we had no time to form battle lines. In an instant, we were fighting for our lives against a force of renegade warriors that was twice as many as our own. The clashing of our swords filled the forest with the sounds of a desperate battle. This time, there were no Silent Warriors to call … 
We
were the warriors. William's fight was most difficult since he had to protect Kendra. I tried to cover his back, but there were vicious men all over. Talea fought like a true Knight of the Prince—as did all of the men. Our enemies were visibly surprised at how skilled our forces were, but we would soon be overrun simply because of their numbers. Three of my men were already down. As we fought, I spotted their leader circling the battle from behind.