Last Knight (The Champion Chronicles Book 2) (5 page)

              “Who?”

              With no more patience left, he was done with the conversation and it was now time for Hibold to leave.  With clenched teeth and incredible control of his emotions, the prince replied, “The King Slayer.  The boy from Karmon.  The one who were supposed to deliver to me.”

              “How do you know he’s there?”

              Before the echo of the words faded away, Prince Tarcious released his anger.  Two words were muttered from his lips and he pointed at the wall behind the emissary’s head.  A small fiery ball exploded from his fingertips and struck the wall, exploding the wood into small shards, some of which embedded in the skin of Hibold.  He gave a shout and fell to the ground, pulling at the small pieces of wood stuck in him.

              “That was your warning,” Prince Tarcious said.  “No questions.  Now leave me.  And do not return without the King Slayer.”

              The prince turned away from Hibold, who was slowly picking himself up from the ground.  He looked back down at the elegantly drawn map of his empire and the small eastern kingdoms.  Soon enough, he would have the Ark, and that put a smile on his face.

Chapter Five

Conner touched the wound.  There was a slimy substance that covered it and the thread that tied his skin together.  The pain had subsided to a tolerable ache, but when he moved a certain way the stinging came back.

              “It will take some time to heal,” Laurin said.

              Conner looked at her and nodded his head, thankful that she was there to save his life.  She was a young woman, maybe just a little older than Princess Elissa…Queen Elissa, he had to remind himself.  She was pretty in a rough sort of way, but not nearly as beautiful as Elissa.  He shook his head at himself.  He needed to stop thinking about her and just put all of his past out of his mind.  He was long gone and there was no going back.

              “How long until I can swing a sword?”

              “Quite some time…” Laurin started to say.

              But Steven interjected, “It depends on how much pain you can take.  It will hurt.  A lot.”

              “Steven!” Laurin snapped.  To Conner, she said, “The wound must first heal.  One week at least.  Probably longer.  Too soon and the threads will rip and you’ll start bleeding again.”

              Conner looked around at his surroundings.  They were camped deep in the woods in a very small clearing that was surrounded by thick underbrush.  Tall trees encircled them, hiding the sun from view.  A small fire pit held the smoldering remains of a fire.  A thin trickle of smoke emanated from it.  It made him think of how hungry he was.

              “I need to pick up their trail,” Conner said.  “How far away are we from when we last saw them?”

              Steven and Laurin shared a look.  Then Steven said, “Today is the third day since the attack.  I gave you a drink that helped you sleep.  It helps the healing process, too.”

              Conner looked around for his gear, but he did not see any of it.  “Three days is not too bad.  I can still pick up their trail.”

“Bandits roam the forest,” Steven said.  “And not just those that attacked us.  We are still far from the reaches of the centurion patrols and many bands of all sorts of thieves and murderers run free.  We must do all we can to avoid them and anyone else we come across or else they will kill us, like they almost did last time.  Laurin and I were not careful.  We strayed too close to the forest paths.  We need to stay in the deep part of the forest and pick our way through it until we get past the Rijer River and to Iseron.”

              “I’ll be fine.  I know my way through a forest and I can handle myself,” Conner said confidently.

              “Even a trained knight such as yourself cannot stand against five men,” Laurin said.

              The words came out of his mouth before he thought about them.  Despite their truth in general, he knew that they did not apply to him, but he said them anyway.  “Knights can easily handle five men at once.  They are unskilled brigands.  Thieves and murderers.  Not trained soldiers.”

              “They’ve killed.  Have you?”

              Conner looked directly at Steven and his gaze did not waver.  “Yes.”

              After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Laurin said, “We must eat before we move again.  Iseron is still a few days walk.  You’ll need food to get your strength back.”

              Conner glanced at the fire pit that no longer had a burning fire.  “Is there meat?”

              “No meat,” Laurin said.  “We did not have time to hunt.  But I made a stew from roots and vegetables I foraged.”

              Conner smiled, trying not to let his disappointment show.  Vegetable stew did not sound tasty at all.  But as soon as the bowl of stew was handed to him, he realized that he was famished.  And with the addition of some special spices that Laurin added, the stew ended up being delicious.  Conner ate his fill, and then some.  After he finished his third bowl, he wondered if he had left enough for the couple.  Neither complained and seemed satisfied after the last of the meal was scooped up.

              While Laurin cleaned up their bowls and utensils, Conner and Steven moved to a sunny spot in their small clearing.  The foliage opened just enough for a bit of sun to break through the tops of the trees.  It wasn’t much, but it was enough to comfortably warm them.

              “How much longer,” Conner asked, nodding at Laurin.

              “The baby?  A while, yet.  She is about half a year.  We want to get to Iseron and settled in before the baby comes.  I certainly don’t want to be stuck out here in the middle of winter.”

              “So what’s the story?” Conner asked.  “You said it was complicated.”

              Steven glanced at Laurin, and then down at the ground.  “Well, Laurin, like I said, she’s not my wife.  At least not yet.  We had planned to be married.  I was still working up to pay her dowry that her father demanded.  But we…”  He turned his head as his cheeks began to turn red.  “She and I just… you know.  Heat of the moment kind of thing.”

              “Her father threw her out, calling her a whore and all.  The village wanted to burn her as a witch.”

              “A witch?” Conner asked.

              Steven glanced at Laurin and a sad smile fell across his face.  “Yeah.  My father is the village leader.  He told everyone that there was no way that I could be at fault.  It was her fault for seducing me and only a witch could do that.  My father was trying to protect me, I know.  But he just made it worse.  I was to be the village leader after him and he knew that the village council would not support me if I had a bastard child.”

              “So you just up and left?”

              “No, not right away.  We tried to make it work.  I love her and she loves me.  We were still going to get married, but my father and her father could not get along.  They got into blows and then my uncle and one of her cousins got in a fight.  That’s when the accusations of witchery really went crazy.  My father actually convinced the village to build a burning pile to burn her alive.  That’s when we left.  It’s been several weeks that we’ve been in the forest, heading to Iseron.  It’s the closest city and we can start fresh.”

              “You two, all alone,” Conner said.  “You’re pretty brave.”

              “No,” Steven countered.  “Pretty stupid.  We weren’t careful and we came across that group.”  He glanced down at Conner’s bloodied shirt.  “Thank you for coming to our rescue.  If not for you, we would be dead.  I’m just sorry that they hurt you.”

              “I’ll be fine,” Conner said.  “But you won’t have to worry about them anymore.  I’ll take care of them.”

              “Conner, please don’t.  There are too many of them.  Not just those four, but so many others.  They run in packs.  You might come across them when there are twenty of them.  You may be a knight, but surely you can’t go against twenty?  We will be okay.  We just need to stay to the deep parts of the forest.  It’ll take us longer, but we’ll make it.”

              Conner looked away, a furious anger burning inside of him.  “They hurt me and they’re going to pay.  Last time I wasn’t prepared.  I didn’t have any weapons.  This time I’ll get myself a sword and then we’ll see how well they go against a Karmon Knight.”

              “Can you really swing a sword injured like you are?  As soon as you try, you’ll tear the threads, the wound will open up and you’ll bleed to death.  You need to heal.  Stay with us at least to Iseron.  Laurin can clean your wounds and put more salve on.  In a week, you will be almost whole again.”

              Conner looked from Steven to the forest.  The bandits were out there somewhere, roaming free and without care.  They were probably laughing about the death that was slowly coming to Conner.

              “They already know you survived, and it’s been three days.  We haven’t seen any signs of them.  They are probably off in some other place, terrorizing some other poor traveler.  But as long as we stay to the deep forest, they won’t find us.”

              Laurin walked into the clearing, a smile on her face.  “Sir Conner!  How do you feel after eating?”

              Conner touched his chest, feeling the squishiness of the salve under his tunic.  “No longer famished.  Thank you again for a fine meal.”

              “You keep touching your wound, is it sore?” Laurin asked.

              “A little uncomfortable.  Not really painful.”

              “It will be for a few days.  But a strong knight like yourself, you must be used to combat and wounds!”

              Conner smiled and chuckled, not sure what to say.  This was truly the first injury that he’d ever experienced.  He hoped it was his last.

              “Conner is going to stay with us to Iseron,” Steven announced.

              Laurin’s smile grew even wide.  “Great!  It will be good to travel with a third.  We are all packed and ready to go.  Do you feel strong enough, Sir Conner?”

              Conner nodded, still uncomfortable at being addressed with the title, as he knew he didn’t deserve it.  But he had to admit to himself that he liked how it rang in his ears.

***

It was slow going through the forest.  Not only because of the underbrush that they had to continually skirt, but because Laurin did not have the same stamina as the men.  She did not complain or make any excuses, she simply trudged on.  But Conner found himself constantly looking back at her, waiting for her to catch up.

              Steven kept them moving in a generally southwest direction.  Although he had never been to Iseron himself, he knew where it was.  All roads in this part of the empire led towards that city, so as long as they found themselves on a road, they could just follow it into the city.  But they did stay away from any roads or paths that they came across.  They certainly did not want to run into Harmack and his band of outlaws.

              Although they spent much of their travels in the trees, they tried to stay within sight of the edge of the forest or a road.  This allowed them to keep moving in the right direction without getting lost, but maintain the cover of safety.  Several times through the day, voices carried to them and they hunkered down and let travelers pass them by.  None seemed to be a threat, but there was no sense in pushing their luck.  As long as the baby stayed inside Laurin, there was no real hurry to make it to Iseron.  Safe and slow would get them there alive.

              As the sun started to make its fall from the height of the day, Steven looked back at Laurin and realized that it was time to rest.  They had been on the move since morning, and even Conner was starting to get a bit fatigued.

              “We’ll push a bit deeper into the forest,” Conner said.  “The underbrush should clear up and we’ll be able to find a nice clearing to rest.”

              “If we go far enough in, we should be able to make a fire for hot food.”

              Conner wrinkled his nose.  Although the vegetable stew that Laurin had made was tasty, his stomach was aching for something with a bit more meat.

              “Enough of her stew, huh?”

              Conner simply smiled his reply.

              “What we had, Harmack and his men took,” Steven explained.  “We were only able to get about half our stuff back.  And that was thanks to you.”

              “Oh?”

              “Well, you made a pretty big scene when you came upon us, announcing yourself and all.  After that, they seemed more interested in killing you than dealing with us.  So as soon as you and Harmack got into it, Laurin and I grabbed what we could and just ran into the trees.”

              “They never followed you?”

              Steven shrugged his shoulders.  “Might have, but we ran for a long time.  I guess they figured you were more fun than we were.  I’m sorry we didn’t stay and help.”

              “I’m glad you didn’t.  If you had, they would have killed you.  But I am glad that you came back to help me.”

              “Well,” Steven said sheepishly.  “That was really Laurin’s doings.  I wanted to keep going, but she insisted on coming back to see if you were still alive.  We waited for some time and when we did come back, they had all left and it was just you tied to that tree.”

              Conner glanced at Laurin, who was struggling to pick up her feet as she walked.  Then he looked around at the trees and the cover that they offered.  “Maybe we should call it a day.  Make a nice fire, catch a nice fat rabbit.”

              “Rabbit sounds nice,” Steven said.  “But we have no bow.”

              “Trust me,” Conner said with a wide smile.  “I know a much easier way.  I’ve spent much of my life in the forest, and catching rabbit is my specialty.  You two get comfortable and rest.  And start a nice fire because there’ll be meat for dinner!”

              Borrowing the necessary supplies from Steven, Conner turned into the forest, rejuvenated at being able to be productive and find food for their dinner.

              Most of his time was spent finding the right place.  Game trails for the larger animals were easy to spot.  They tended to be well worn and packed.  Locating a path frequented by smaller animals was something that was difficult, but not impossible.  Through his time alone in the forests of Darkenwood, he learned to pick out the tell-tale signs of a path left by the small animals of the forest.  As he slowly walked, his eyes scanned the forest floor for the signs and once his trained eye saw the path, he began to lay out his plan.