Two Heirs (The Marmoros Trilogy Book 1) (49 page)

The city was full of nervous looking people as he rode back through the streets. When he reached the palace, Jaks ran down the steps to take his horse.

“Lady Falaise is asking for you, milord.”

“Is she inside the palace and unharmed?”

“Yes, milord.”

“Then I’m afraid she may have to wait a while. Where’s Prince Jeren?”

“He rode out about an hour ago, milord. I think he went to see that girl. You know the one, Rachel.”

“And do you know where she is?”

“I believe she’s still outside the city, milord. In the meadow with the others waiting for entry.”

David took back the reins and climbed into the saddle.

“Send Izzy to find Jorgen and tell him to call off the search and get his men back to defend the palace. I’m going to find the prince. You follow as soon as you can.”

As he crossed the bridge and headed towards the meadow, he could see that his instincts had been correct. In the centre of a cluster of wagons was a large grey hemisphere that looked decidedly out of place. The circle of onlookers parted to let him through but his horse was unwilling to approach close to the grey wall so he dismounted and handed the reins to one of the villagers. The first thing he saw when he walked into the circle was a dead body lying face down and Seb standing over it with sword drawn.

“What’s going on here, Seb?”

“They attacked the prince, my lord, as he was standing there talking to Rachel. They took him by surprise and he got a nasty gash on his
swordarm
trying to protect her. I think he nicked one of them and I got this one but the others were bearing down on him when this… thing appeared.”

“What happened to the other attackers?”

“They got away, my lord. I’m sorry. They had horses at the edge of the meadow.”

“Okay, let’s take a look at this one.”

Seb rolled him over with his foot and David frowned as he tried to put a name to the face.

“I knows ‘im
, milord,” one of the crowd offered. “That’s
Varga
as used to work for Lord Gaelan.
Them other two of ’is was ‘ere too, along with ‘is boy Raslo.”

“Gaelan’s here? Or did he just send his men to do his dirty work?”

“Didn’t see Lord Gaelan ‘isself, milord. Just the others.”

“All right, thank you. Now what have we here?”

David walked up to the grey wall and stood close to it. There was no reflection from it, nothing could be seen through it and even without touching it, he felt bitterly cold. He picked up a broom that was resting against one of the nearby wagons and thrust the end of the handle against the greyness. The resistance was total; there was no give at all and the end touching the wall was immediately covered in white frost. He pulled the broom back and tapped the white end with his belt dagger. The handle shattered into a million ice crystals.

He turned and showed the handle to the crowd. “Nobody is to touch that wall,” he warned. “You will lose a hand.”

He walked slowly around the perimeter of the wall. It was, as far as he could tell, a perfect circle about twenty paces across and completely uniform in nature. It also curved inwards at the top to form a dome.

“What is it?” Seb asked as he arrived back at the starting point.

“Difficult to explain,” David replied, “but it’s a kind of magical barrier. Now who or what is on the inside of it?”

“Well Prince Jeren and Rachel of course. Rachel’s wagon is in there but not Blaze.”

“Blaze?”

“Rachel’s horse. He’s tethered over there with the other horses.”

“And you’re sure there’s nobody else in there?”

“Absolutely. We were trying to give them a bit of privacy when it all happened.”

“There’s nobody else in there.” David stopped and gave a little chuckle.

“Suzanne,” he said out loud. “Are you monitoring this?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“What do Mikael’s instruments say about this dome?”

“It does not exist, my lord. There is nothing there. It appears to be a complete sphere, under the ground as well and it does not exist in our space-time continuum.”

The crowd were already looking nervously at David talking to himself and when he started to laugh, those nearest him began to edge away.

“Suzanne, you’d better notify Khan that we’ve all been looking in the wrong direction. The missing heir is not a boy at all. The Ystrad have got themselves a queen.”

Chapter 25

Falaise and Jaks arrived together with Baltur only a few strides behind, but all were forced to dismount at the edge of the crowd by their unwilling horses. Falaise ran into the circle looking frantically to left and right.

“Where’s Jeren?”

David hurried over to stand in front of her and took both her hands in his. “Falaise, look at me. Jeren is inside this grey dome. I believe him to be safe but we can’t get in there or even talk to him at the moment.”

“Why not? What is this thing?”

“It’s a barrier, my lady. A magical barrier that I believe was created to keep the people inside safe.”

“Safe from what? And who else is inside there?”

David led her over to where Seb was standing. She took her hands back and
pointed at the body
as she gave a gasp of recognition. “That’s
Varga
. Is
Gaelan here?”

“Nobody has seen Gaelan but Raslo was one of the group that attacked Jeren along with those two thugs who tried to ambush you outside our camp.”

“They attacked Jeren? Is he hurt?”

“Seb thinks he has a cut on his arm but nothing worse. He was defending Rachel. You know, the girl who came in with the Benyahim family.”

“And where is this Rachel now?”

David took a deep breath. “She’s inside the barrier with Jeren. In fact I believe this is her barrier. If you remember, Jeren saved her life when they first joined us. I think she created this barrier to save Jeren’s life.”

“You say this is a magical barrier? You’re a magician. Do something about it.”

“Falaise, I cannot. This is way beyond anything that I could construct or dismantle. I think I know what it is but I cannot do anything about it.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” she snapped. “Just stand here and look at it?”

“There are some people I can summon, Falaise. People like Rachel. But I don’t know if even they are powerful enough to take down this barrier. It may be that the only person who can dismantle it, is Rachel herself.”

“Send for them,” Falaise ordered. “And let me know the moment they arrive.”

David bowed as she turned on her heel and stalked away, the crowd quickly making way for her to pass through.

“Right Jaks, there’s a system on the city walls that can be used to signal the gates at the far end of the valley. Find it and use it. Nobody is to leave the valley until further notice.

“Baltur, I want you to erect a tent around this dome to hide it from view. Then I want guards inside the tent, two men at all times, four hour shifts. I’m putting you in charge of this. No-one is to approach the barrier or be inside the tent without myself or Lady Falaise being present.”

As Jaks and Baltur went hurrying away, a shout went up from the city walls which was quickly taken up by the crowd below. David looked in the direction the arms were pointing to see a dot in the sky that was growing larger by the second.

“Oh shit,”
he said to himself. Then out loud, “Seb, come and stand by me and keep your
sword sheathed at all times, whatever happens.”

The dot resolved itself into a standard gamma class skimmer that had a crude effigy of a dragon’s head attached to the front and some stylised ‘wings’ sticking out from the sides. It landed in the nearest open space with people scattering in all directions with shouts of terror.

“What is it, my lord?” Seb asked.

“Well it’s not a dragon, so don’t worry about that. It’s the people inside it we need to be concerned about. And take your hand off your sword hilt.”

The occupants of the skimmer emerged. First out were two very big men in long, brown monks robes that reached all the way to the ground and large cowls pulled forward over their heads, concealing everything beneath. Then a much smaller man climbed out, dressed in the robes of a court official and finally two more ‘monks’.

The crowd melted into the background as the group approached the dome.

“What is this?” the small man asked.

“Nice to see you too, Alcanzar,” David replied. “It’s quite unusual, isn’t it? What do you make of it?”

Alcanzar signalled to one of the ‘monks’ who produced a miniature monitoring device from under his robes and strode over to the dome. He held the device up to the grey wall several times, adjusting the settings on the recorder each time. Eventually he went over to the chancellor and muttered something to him in the guttural Belsian language.

“My man says it’s a combination of a spatial displacement barrier with some sort of temporal displacement interwoven into it.”

“That’s what I think as well,” David agreed. “I’m quite impressed with it. I think it’s absolutely unique.”

“I assume this is a creation of the Ystradian brat.”

“A harsh description but yes, I believe it was created by the heir to the throne of Ystrad.”

Alcanzar barked an order and another of the monks produced a compact laser assault rifle from beneath his robes.

“My, my. I wonder how many other illegal goodies they have hidden under those robes. Do you know how many Imperial laws you are breaking by having that on this planet?”

“The Emperor is half a galaxy away and the only firepower you have within a hundred light-years is that rusty little corvette in orbit. So I don’t greatly care what His Imperial Majesty thinks. This is a private matter between the Belsi and the Ystrad. So I suggest you stand aside.”

David shrugged and led Seb away to one side as the monk fired a blast at the dome with no visible effect. The assault rifle was capable of being switched between blast mode and continuous fire and the monk flicked a switch on the side before raising it to his shoulder again. This time he fired a continuous burst for thirty seconds, again with no obvious effect before lowering the rifle and looking to Alcanzar for instructions.

“Keep firing. Empty the power cell into it.”

The monk raised the rifle and resumed firing at the same spot in the wall. For several minutes nothing happened except that the laser beam was absorbed into the greyness. Then a dimple started to appear in the otherwise smooth surface.

“Keep firing,” Alcanzar urged him. “You’re breaking through.”

The dimple gradually deepened into a concave depression as the laser pushed further into the wall. Suddenly the internal surface of the depression changed to a mirror state which reflected the laser beam back along its incoming track. The rifle exploded with a blast that knocked everyone off their feet within twenty paces.

David picked himself up and rushed over to the wall but the depression had vanished and the surface was a uniform greyness once again. He looked over to where the body of the monk lay in a
shallow blast crater. His monk’s robes had been shredded revealing most of a suit of space armour. However, he had not been wearing gloves or a helmet and so his hands had vanished leaving only bloody stumps and his face had been completely destroyed.

The others had picked themselves up and were standing round the edge of the still smoking crater. “What happened?” Alcanzar demanded.

“I’m only guessing here but I would say that the dome just defended itself against an attack.”

“Is it sentient, then?”

“No, I’m detecting nothing like that. But that barrier was created by a very powerful intellect who may still be connected to it in some way.”

Alcanzar gestured to the remaining monks. “Get that body out of here.”

Then he snarled at David. “The Ystrad brat can’t hide in there for ever. We will know when he comes out and when we come back, I suggest you’d better not be here.”

David gave him a bland smile but felt no great need to disabuse him about his error on the gender of the Ystrad heir. He watched as they loaded the dead monk onto the skimmer and waved them farewell as the ‘dragon’ took off.

“Who was that?” Seb asked as the skimmer disappeared into the distance.

“That was Alcanzar. He’s acting as the chancellor to Duke Henry of Paelis but his real mission is to find your friend Rachel.”

“Why? What does he want with Rachel?”

“That is a long story but Rachel is actually the heir to a kingdom a very long way from here. Right now she’s safe behind that barrier but when she takes it down, she will be in a lot of danger.”

Seb considered this for a minute and then shook his head. “I don’t understand but I will accept what you say. What can I do to help?”

“Firstly find the Benyahim family and reassure them that Rachel is safe for the moment. Then help Baltur with erecting and guarding the tent. I’ll send Izzy down to sleep in the tent. I’ll probably feel when the barrier comes down but if not, I need to know as soon as it happens.”

As Seb left to find Josep and Agnes, David looked around to find himself alone with a grey, hemispherical dome, a dead body lying on the grass, a still smouldering blast crater and a lot of frightened faces peering out from behind wagons and tents.

“It’s all right,” he shouted. “It’s all over for now. You can come out and would somebody please remove that corpse.”

“Suzanne, how much of that were you monitoring?”

“I saw what you saw, my lord. On the instruments, Mikael observed the laser beam hitting the barrier but could not detect any change in its composition. Then suddenly, the laser beam thickened and there was an explosion. I have the evidence of your eyes but nothing scientific.”

“Okay, I want a delegation from the Ystrad ship down here tomorrow morning, one hour after dawn. No more than three ambassadors. I’ll pass them off as powerful magicians from a distant country. Notify Khan of what has happened but I am taking operational responsibility for this. Has that squad of Imperial Guard arrived yet?”