Revelyn: 1st Chronicles - When the last arrow falls (15 page)

‘I cannot tell you with any certainty where the archer is desire.’

‘What do your
Wolvers
say?’ Zelfos cut in quickly. ‘What is their report?’

The Captain took a breath then went on.

‘I have not seen the
Wolvers
again. They did not return.’

There was silence for a short time whilst the three men considered the significance of the statement.

‘Captain,’ the king spoke icily, ‘No
Wolver
has ever not returned. I have heard that they are wounded in battle. I understand that this can happen when arrows fall all around and death can come unpredictably. But on a simple tracking mission! A simple following and killing of one man, alone in a forest, where the
Wolvers
are master. What do you mean they have not returned? Have they disappeared? Is sorcery involved? What have you to say man?’

As he spoke, the king became increasingly shrill, and by the end of his speech he was standing and almost screaming at the captain, who bravely stood, unflinching, before the onslaught.

‘The three
Wolvers
were chosen for their speed and forest ability.’ The captain spoke without emotion. ‘That they have not returned can only mean that they are dead, either at the hand of the one they pursued, or by some sorcery which is beyond my understanding.’ He paused for a moment before continuing. ‘The archer however has been seen since.’

‘What?’ Both the king and Zelfos spoke in unison.

‘I have a report from a Captain Loof of a unit which patrols the north edge of the forest. One of the towns under his supervision is called….’ He paused for a moment and pulled a small piece of parchment from his tunic. Squinting he read… ‘is called
Efilon
. He received a report of a wounded man asking there for lodgings. The informant was suspicious and thought he could make some money so contacted the captain with some story about the man. I believe he claimed the man was an outlaw, a thief, horse stealer, or something. Apparently the man was wounded and had walked out of the forest at nightfall the day after the pursuit by the
Wolvers
commenced.’

‘But who was it? How do we know it was the archer?’ the king asked anxiously.

‘Wounded in the right leg. A stranger. Timing. My
Wolvers
not returning. All points to it being the man we were after.’ The captain continued.

‘So what did this Loof do?’ Zelfos interjected.

‘Took a squad and apprehended the man. He was ill and it was quite easy.’

The king and Zelfos relaxed.

‘So he is caught then. This Loof will be well rewarded.’ The king spoke as one relieved.

‘Actually, as I said before, the whereabouts of the archer is not known.’ The captain continued with his report.

‘You speak in riddles Captain Leander,’ Zelfos was angry, but the soldier went on doggedly.

‘The report I received last evening by
carriave
is peculiar. It seems that as they were taking the archer into custody another man arrived, a monk of sorts who asked to be allowed to give some aid to the prisoner. As he did so both men disappeared.’

Captain Leander swallowed hard, and waited for the expected reaction.

‘What did you say Captain?’ The king spoke icily, as though he was being ridiculed. The Captain did not reply. He knew that both men had understood him.

Zelfos asked quietly. ‘This monk is a sorcerer, a wizard. He just made them disappear?’

It would seem so, sira,’ said Captain Leander. I can only report to you what has been sent to me.’

‘You had better send a reliable squad to interrogate this Captain Loof…

‘Already left desire.’ The captain knew his job.

Silence descended upon the three. Finally the king spoke.

‘So three
Wolvers
go missing and have not been seen, so are presumed dead, and likely at the hand of the archer. Unheard of! The man we want has been seen, wounded, and unable to protect himself, but is whisked away at the last moment by some wandering wizard, and had not been seen again.’

‘That is my report desire.’ The Captain stood his ground and waited. He knew his king was unpredictable. This could be his last day of freedom.

Lord Petros sat back on his simple throne in a daze; he rubbed his chin absently with his left hand.  Zelfos paced behind him, with a furrowed brow and angry eyes. He was muttering inaudibly about a monk. The Captain stood as protocol demanded, ready to receive orders and obey. After a short time in which a great many thoughts passed through the minds of all the men, the king spoke once more.

‘Captain, about the illness at the Merchant’s Gate.’

‘Yes desire.’

‘I want you to personally carry out my orders. Today.’

‘And what would these orders be desire?’

‘Anybody who is ill within half a league of the Gate is to be killed and their body burnt outside the town. This includes any person with a skin disease of any sort, a lesion or a running sore; they are to be treated in the same manner. Men women and children. No exceptions. This town cannot risk being infected with disease. All business and properties belonging to any so discerned is to become the property of the crown. If you carry out these orders to the letter, you personally, Captain Leander will be given the choice of any property or goods to the value of ten years service. Do you understand what I am ordering you to do Captain?’

‘Yes sira.’ The captain was not expecting such a change of direction, but he quickly understood the gift that was offered him. He knew that his wife’s brother who had never liked him, and whose constant criticisms had made his marriage impossibly diffucult, lived in a large house close by Merchant’s gate. He also knew that at that moment, he was in bed with a serious coughing illness.
I could live well in that house
thought the Captain.

The king’s final command brought him back.

‘Report to me when you have achieved this, and I also want to know as soon as you hear about the interrogation of Captain Loof. The capture of the archer is to be your only other priority. Leave us!’

Captain Leander turned smartly and in a moment had disappeared, leaving the king and Zelfos to discuss the implications of his report.

The king sat quietly for a while. Zelfos was occupied with private thoughts as well, and paced slowly behind the throne.

‘I can hardly believe this. Three
Wolvers.
It does not seem possible.’

‘Indeed it is a hard thing, but in the end they are still human desire,’ Zelfos spoke carefully as he thought aloud. ‘A cunning hunter might shoot them, although all three seems impossible. I think there is sorcery at work here my Lord. The wandering monk has some part to play. They disappear, together. I have never heard of such a thing, not even from the most powerful of wizards.’

‘Something more powerful than a wizard?’ King Petros whispered. ‘Is this possible?’

The king could not see Zelfos’s reaction. If he had, he would have been greatly alarmed for it seemed that the physician had suddenly realised something. His eyes narrowed and brought his hands together, at his face, in an almost prayer-like manner. ‘It cannot be,’ he whispered evilly to himself. ‘I have covered all my tracks. Surely not?’ He took a deep breath and quickly changed the subject.

‘I must visit the
Skolar.
I left him with some work to do and in the mood I’m in, he had better have had more success than I’ve heard today.’

‘Ah, the Sacred Sceptre. I don’t know why you are bothering,’ said the king, before continuing in a  different tone. ‘I have held it, and it confirmed my authority. It functioned as it should. The power was evident; I survived. It was witnessed, and testified to. I am the true king of Revelyn. I am the Light of my people. Lord Petros Luminos.. Without me, they will not survive. It has been ordained!’

As the king spoke, he stood, lifting both arms towards the vast roof high above, and raising his voice, transformed the mere words into a royal declaration of authority, which echoed off the thick stonewalls well after he had finished.

‘Desire, you are correct of course, but there is also the matter of the Shadow Blade which needs resolving. It is a fearsome weapon and it no longer resides in the royal household. I believe that somewhere in the history of Revelyn some accounts exist which can inform us more accurately about these two objects. Further, in the light of the prophecy and your obsession with it, and the news we have just received, I believe we need to know all we can about all things.’ Zelfos too had become more animated, and the hall once more resonated to strong words.

‘Go then and I will look forward to your report.’ The king sat once more upon his throne, proudly erect now, comforted and confirmed by his own echoing edict, in the vast empty hall.

Helgas happened to be passing a door towards the back of the hall as the king gave his last orders to the Captain of the night guard, and she stopped, intrigued by the voices. She carefully looked in, making sure she was not observed, but she heard every word. Her vision of these most powerful men in all Revelyn made her shudder. For the first time she saw an ugly, violent king, and an evil physician, men who destroyed and cared little for the pain they caused, and a soldier who had fought so many battles that death was of no account to him, willing to murder or worse on the whim of another. Suddenly she felt her world had changed, become colder and darker, and was no longer safe.

What am I to do?
She thought.
For
I can no longer stay in this place.

She left quietly, and went about her business, but what she had heard troubled her greatly thereafter.

The Royal Palace at Ramos was almost six hundred years old. It stood upon a steep hill, not quite a mountain, but a rocky upthrust which lent itself well to fortification and defence. The land for leagues around sloped down and away, giving an immense view. The mighty Luminos River flowed steadily past, not a league from where the Royal Hill met the more gentle plain. Over many years and generations, the town of Ramos had grown up around the Palace, which had also grown and been extended by a long succession of monarchs. Its ramparts stood high above the town, and the many turrets and towers were almost too numerous to count. But as high as it went toward the sky, it also went deep down into the earth, for the rocky hill had been important long before any human had come to Revelyn.

There was a time before Revelyn existed, when the land was known as
Morraine
and it was inhabited by small but powerful creatures, known later in the child-stories of Revelyn, as Mountain Dwarves, although they only ever called themselves
Dfors.
They were not comfortable on the plains but they were great miners and tunnelers of the mountains. They sought precious metals and rare stone; these things they prized above all else. They lived at a time when magic and sorcery were powerful in the land; the dwarves themselves possessed a remarkable and magical ability to tunnel through the hardest rocks with metals only they knew how to forge. These skills were lost as the ancient
Revelin
moved into the land from the north. There was great enmity between these first humans settlers and the Mountain dwarves, for one lived in the open air, the other, like animals it was said then, in tunnels and lairs. Battles were fought, won, and lost, on both sides, but slowly the dwarves departed to other places beyond the human mind, and  without record; and their passing was remembered only in stories of makebelieve. 

But their tunnels remained.

The first King of Revelyn, King AllSunder, fleeing the violence of his people came upon the mighty river and there chose the site for his new capital. He was a great warrior, and brother of the mighty Lord Ramos who was the last king of the ancient
Revelin
of the north
,
and whose name the settlement was given.  King AllSunder chose the site for his Royal Town partly because it was far south of the troubled north, but also because the hill on which he was to build his Palace contained what was then believed to be the most wondrous tunnel complex ever hewn by the Mountain Dwarves. Just below the summit of what, in later years would become known affectionately as the ‘Royal Hill’, a tunnel entrance was discovered which led deep and steeply underground to a vast array of chambers, halls and rooms. Even six hundred years later there was still more space below ground than stood proud above it in the form of the white polished marble and stone of the aging Palace.

One final tunnel remained to be explored. Deep beneath the ground, at the lowest level was a small but beautifully hewn passage, which sloped further down for five hundred steps until it ended in a solid stone door, which only Dwarves had ever had the skill to hew and balance and operate. On the door, carved deep into the rock was one word.

Sonder.

It stood bold in the middle of the massive door above a small slot for which a thousand possibilities had been put forward. It was believed that this word held the key to the opening of this last door, but although many had tried, none had succeeded in breaching the obstacle, either by wisdom, or magic, or tunneling around. The rock at that level could not be tunneled, being too hard some said, or rather that it was under a spell which blunted any tool. The door remained fast shut, and unyielding. No living creature had passed that way for almost an age.

What lay beyond that door was one of the great mysteries of Revelyn.

Half way down that final staircase was one last, vast chamber. It was here that all the records and history of Revelyn since the founding of the kingdom were stored. It was at the same time a library, and a museum, where forgotten relics lay out of sight in decaying wooden boxes or on shelves which none remembered.

It was to this library-store that Zelfos now slowly descended. There was a permanent guard placed at the top of the staircase, and one outside the huge oak doors which gave entry to the vast archive exactly two hundred and fifty steps below. The guards allowed Zelfos to pass without challenge, for it was he who had placed the sentries, and he was also custodian of all that the great chamber held. He, amongst all in Revelyn, had the greatest knowledge of what was kept safe so deep in the rock beneath the Palace. Except for one other.