Mindbender (20 page)

They reached the gatehouse and climbed the steps to the top of the wall. The enemy envoy sat atop their horses below. They were big men dressed in armor and furs. Each carried an assortment of weapons that looked to be of mediocre craftsmanship but no less lethal for it. More telling was the well-used look of the weapons. These men were killers. And they liked it.

“What is your purpose here?” King Fellenden asked. His voice broke slightly.

The leader of the enemy envoy, a big man with a bald head and a long goatee braided in two spikes, smiled up at the row of courtiers lining the wall. His teeth were crooked and stained.

“Lord Zuhl demands your surrender,” he said.

“Lord Zuhl?” Wizard Saul asked. “Is he in league with Prince Phane?”

“Never!” the soldier said and then spat on the ground. “The Reishi are an abomination that must be exterminated.”

“We have done nothing to provoke Lord Zuhl,” King Fellenden said. “Why does he invade our lands?”

The soldier smiled up at him with arrogant malice and shrugged. “Because he can. You will surrender and serve Lord Zuhl or you will be destroyed.”

“If we surrender, what will become of my people and my city?” King Fellenden asked.

“Your people will submit to Lord Zuhl. In exchange, they will enjoy Lord Zuhl’s protection from the coming scourge of the Reishi.”

“I need time to confer with my council,” King Fellenden said.

The soldier smiled knowingly. “There is one more condition. Send out your daughter as a gift for Lord Zuhl to prove your commitment to your new master.”

Lacy felt a chill race up her spine like nothing she’d ever felt before. It was terrifying and strangely exhilarating at the same time. Everything came into sharp focus. There was no past, no worry about the future, just this one moment. Her father looked over at her with wild eyes for only a moment.

“Never!” he said. “My family must be guaranteed safety or there will be no surrender.”

The soldier smiled like a cat with a mouse. “I was hoping you’d say that. But Lord Zuhl instructed me to give you a moment to reconsider. If you don’t surrender, there will be no quarter given. Your walls will be breached, your city overrun, and your people killed, raped, and enslaved. There is nowhere to run or hide. The entire Isle of Fellenden has been claimed by Lord Zuhl. Surrender will only be offered this one time. If you refuse, your people will be conquered without mercy.”

A little of the color returned to the King’s face. He seemed to find his mettle in the face of the unspeakable demands. “If I surrender it’s clear to me now that my people will be enslaved or worse. If we are to die, then we will die well. Tell Zuhl the answer is no!”

Lacy heard herself speaking but wasn’t sure where the words were coming from. “Father, if my sacrifice will save our people, then I will surrender willingly.”

Her whole life she had always wondered what sacrifice was. She had never experienced it herself. She didn’t even know what she was offering but she knew with a growing sense of certainty that she would endure whatever might come for the chance to do something worthwhile.

“No, Child,” her father said. “Your sacrifice wouldn’t buy what they promise.”

The soldier said something to the others with him and they laughed as they turned their horses away from the gate.

“He’s right,” Wizard Saul said. “They made their demands hoping they would be refused. This enemy wants bloodshed.”

“I fear they will have it,” the general said.

Word spread quickly through the streets of Fellenden. Even before Lacy had returned to the palace with her father and his entourage, there was the stirring of panic within the populace.

Not ten minutes after they returned to the King’s council chamber, a soldier burst in. “Your Majesty, the gates are breached!” the young man said with a quaver of fear in his voice. “A beast of magic is rampaging within the city walls and the enemy cavalry comes.”

The King of Fellenden looked at his son and his daughter, all that was left of the line of Fellenden, and his resolve hardened. He was an old man. His life was behind him, but he had married late in life and his children were just barely adults.

“General, muster what defense you can. Raise the alarm and warn the people of the city to flee to the surrounding towns and territories. We cannot hope to defend against this enemy, so we must do what we can to preserve the lives of our people. Use your forces to provide the people with the time they need to survive the onslaught.

“Torin, send riders to the other territories with warning of the enemy at our gates. You ride with them. Organize the forces of the other territories into an army under our banner. Do not fight the enemy on their terms. Use your knowledge of our lands to kill them when and where you can without battle. We cannot win in an outright fight so don’t give them one.

“Lacy, take Wizard Saul and go to Ithilian. King Abel has long been our friend. Beg him for any assistance he can offer. I saved his life once when he was a boy. Remind him of that if necessary.”

Lacy shook her head in denial but King Fellenden stepped up and drew his son and daughter away from the others in the room. “Lacy, I’m entrusting you with the legacy of the line of Fellenden,” he said as he pressed an ancient key into her hand. “Take this key to the family crypt in the south and find the tomb of Carlyle Fellenden. He ruled during the last years of the Reishi War. Within his sarcophagus is a small box. Take it with you to Ithilian and deliver it to Lord Abel’s court wizard. Do not open it, Lacy. The wizards will know what to do with it. It cannot be allowed to fall into Zuhl’s hands.”

“Father, what will you do?” Lacy asked.

He smiled sadly at his daughter. “I will do everything I can to preserve our people. Now off, both of you and know that I love you.” He held his son and daughter each in turn with his eyes and then turned to an aid. “Bring my sword and armor.”

Torin hugged Lacy quickly. “Be safe and listen to Wizard Saul. He’s wise. I love you,” he said and then dashed off toward the stables.

Lacy could hardly believe how quickly things were happening. Just last week she was trying on yet another new dress and fussing about the stitching. Now her whole world was coming undone.

“Lacy, we have to go quickly,” Wizard Saul said. “Go to your room and change into your riding clothes, pack your saddlebags, and get your knife. I’ll meet you at the stables.”

Lacy nodded. It took her a moment to realize that she hadn’t moved and then she was running. Her fear propelled her through the stone corridors of her home and up the stairs to her elaborate rooms. She ripped off her light-blue dress and quickly changed into riding clothes. She shoved an extra set of clothes into her saddlebags, crammed a heavy blanket into the other side, and grabbed her little-used waterskin and long knife.

She’d learned how to fight with a knife when she was younger, but it had seemed like such an academic exercise. Now she was striving to revive those lessons as she strapped the blade to her waist. She slipped a smaller knife into her boot and hoisted her saddlebags onto her shoulder.

She looked at her rooms one last time before she left. The light pastels and elaborate decoration seemed jarringly frivolous. She snorted with derision at what she’d made of her life and vowed that she would live up to the duty her father had assigned her. She tried not to think about him as she made her way to the stables. In the back of her mind she knew with terrible certainty that she would never see him again.

Soldiers were running and servants were scurrying about in near panic. Lacy tried not to let their fear infect her. The whole keep suddenly shook from a blow that rang the stone walls like a bell. She tried to swallow past a lump of fear in her throat. As she bounded down the stairs and into the courtyard, the main gate shuddered under another mighty blow from something that could not be of this world. She froze and watched splinters from the giant gates flutter to the ground. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The gate reverberated with the force of another attack, sending more splinters falling to the gatehouse floor. Soldiers poured into the courtyard prepared to meet whatever may come, but Lacy could see the fear in their eyes. Even the more experienced among the palace guard were afraid—or worse, they had a look of terrible resolve mixed with certainty that their time in this world was short.

“Lacy!” bellowed Wizard Saul from the stables.

She tried to pull her attention away from the impending doom that was trying to shatter the palace gate but couldn’t. The gate shuddered again and the mighty Iron Oak bar that held it shut against the assault started to crack.

Lacy snapped out of her trance and raced to the stables. Wizard Saul took her saddlebags and flopped them over the rump of her horse. He wasted no time strapping them down and helping her into the saddle. The horse was skittish and snorted with fear at the commotion out in the courtyard. Wizard Saul whispered something to the big animal and the beast calmed almost immediately.

He mounted his horse and took up his staff. “Follow me, Lacy. Do not get separated from me. My magic can get us out of the city but you must do as I say without question.”

She nodded tightly. The courtyard gates gave way with a thunderous crash. Wizard Saul led her cautiously into the courtyard just as the beast pushed through the ruins of the gate.

It stood twelve feet tall and looked like it was made of dark stone. It had broad shoulders and long powerful arms that ended in hammer-like stumps the size of a keg of ale. It walked on two legs but had no head or neck and only a single large eye in the middle of its chest. Lacy was stunned by how unnatural the beast looked. It was a thing that belonged in a nightmare.

The soldiers attacked with arrows and spears but the beast’s skin was as hard as stone. It waded into the gathering sea of men, swinging its mighty fists in great arcs. The sound of bones breaking could be heard every time it made contact. A man in full armor flew through the air and landed with a sickening thud, never to move again.

Outside the gates, there was chaos. The people of the city were running every which way. Wizard Saul started chanting in an old language. Lacy could only watch the carnage unfold before her. The wizard finished his spell and turned to her.

“You must remain absolutely silent,” he said before he took her reins and gently led the horses from the courtyard past the flailing demon and the growing field of human wreckage. The beast didn’t seem to notice them and the soldiers either didn’t see them or were too preoccupied to care.

Once they reached the streets, Lacy caught a glimpse of the army headed for her city. Thousands of men on horseback galloped across the plains in the distance. With the gates smashed by the demon, there would be little to stop them.

Wizard Saul stopped their horses and allowed a group of friendly soldiers to race by on horseback. They didn’t seem to notice Lacy or the old wizard. Once they passed, Wizard Saul started moving again. He was taking her toward the south gates where they could escape the city before the enemy horde arrived.

They moved slowly and cautiously through the streets of Fellenden. The people were fleeing with what they could carry, and the streets were clogged. Saul guided her down the lesser traveled passageways between buildings to avoid the panicked crowds. When they did encounter people, Saul stopped and remained very still and quiet. Lacy watched one person after the next look right at her and go about their business as if they hadn’t seen her.

As they neared the south gate, there was a loud cracking noise off in the distance. Lacy turned just in time to watch the central tower of the keep topple over and crash with thunderous noise. She felt the reverberations of her home’s death throes and swallowed hard to stifle a sob when the throng of people streaming through the gate started screaming in panic.

They parted like water as a platoon of enemy soldiers pushed their way into the city. They wielded all manner of weapons, from spears to battle-axes, great swords to menacing-looking flails. The people who were trying to flee through the gate scattered before the onslaught.

Enemy soldiers hacked and slashed at anyone near enough to reach. Men, women, and even children fell to their indiscriminate assault. Lacy looked on with a mixture of shock and morbid curiosity. In the back of her mind, she wondered how she’d managed to live for eighteen years without ever even knowing that men like these existed. She had been so sheltered and protected all her life that she’d never actually seen anyone die before. Now there were broken bodies crumpled in lurid pools of crimson lying all around.

The slaughter lasted only a few minutes before the remaining civilians fled the open area around the gate. The soldiers didn’t pursue but instead took up positions to prevent anyone from escaping through the gate, keeping the people inside the city so they could be enslaved or murdered more easily.

Wizard Saul looked at Lacy and gestured for silence. The men surveyed the scene of the battle with the intensity of trained hunters but they didn’t see Lacy or the wizard.

Saul looked deep in thought. Lacy realized that they were trapped and her fear started to push its way through her shock. Saul reached out and touched her on the forehead with his index finger. She heard his voice clear as day, yet his mouth remained closed.

“When I attack those men, we must use the confusion to escape the city,” Saul said in her mind. “Once outside the walls, run south with all possible speed. I’ll be right behind you.”