“This makes little sense, son. You wish to kill me so that I shall not be killed by them?”
“They will kill both you and your child. I will only kill you. Then I can tell my mother that at least I saved a child.”
The logic was grotesque, but probably what one could expect of a savage, and she had already seen the ease with which he had killed, and she stayed put.
***
“Bring the last savage over to me,” General Sarim said.
They pulled Lord Roden up from the ground and dragged him over to Sarim, bringing him down on his knees before the general.
“So, Mr. Roden.” The general paused slightly. “I know you prefer to be called Lord Roden, but you’re just a savage with more money than the average savage. That doesn’t make you a lord.”
“My family can trace lordship further back than you can and it was granted by the King of Gardir.”
“Sorry, but you will be nothing but a simple savage to me.” Sarim shrugged to show that he didn’t care what he called himself. “However, I always found you a decent chap, but when you take it upon yourself to kill our king, we have to react.”
“We had a deal; you told us to kill the king, and you would grant us access to the roads.” Lord Roden spoke out loud so that as many of Sarim’s men as possible could hear about the conspiracy.
Sarim bent down and moved his lips close to Roden's left ear.
“I see what you are trying to achieve,” General Sarim gloated. “Let me tell you something. These are my most trusted men; they knew all about it, of course, even before you did.” Sarim laughed when he saw Roden's baffled expression. “You can shout it out as loud as you like, because nobody that can hear you will care.” General Sarim moved theatrically around in front of Lord Roden with both arms out wide in the air. “Or better yet, let me shout it,” he said with a wry smile.
He took both hands up to his mouth and screamed as loud as his voice echoed from the mountains.
“I, General Sarim, plotted to kill the king of Gardir and, as a bonus, I made you kill the Queen and Prince of Antuk as well.”
All of his men burst out in laughter, and none showed any sign of surprise. Sarim went over to Lord Roden and bent down in front of him and whispered, “Then only one person with a birthright to the throne remains, the no good moronic son of our late king, but I have a plan to get rid of him, and the throne will be there for the taking for someone with ambitions.”
Lord Roden sighed; he was more disappointed in himself for letting a false snake like Sarim make a fool out of him.
“But before I get rid of Prince Adrian, I must kill you.” General Sarim got up and drew his sword out of his sheath. “By the way, the savages will never get access to the roads as long as I live.”
“So you’re nothing more than a simple liar.”
“I am sorry I lied to you, Mr. Roden, but there is one promise I can give you that I will keep. Whenever there is a savage down in my country, we will kill him.” Sarim turned towards his men while resting his sword onto his shoulder. “What do you say, my trusted soldiers? Will you help me keep this promise to my dying friend here?”
The crowd cheered and raised their swords high in the air.
“Enough talk. Time to kill you, Mr. Roden.” General Sarim turned towards Roden again. Roden looked up at him and agreed he would rather die with his men than live on with the likes of these. He spotted something at the south end of the field, hidden in the dark of the forest and partly hidden by leaves. He took a moment before he realized what it was, but finally, he saw Oakentere with his bow fully bent and one of his broad-head arrows pointing at them. However pleasing the thought of killing General Sarim was, he knew it would not save him and only put Oakentere in jeopardy. General Sarim isn’t worth it, Roden thought, and he shook his head, hoping Oakentere could see him before he made the shot.
“What? Do you not wish to die, Mr. Roden?” General Sarim had noticed him shaking his head. Roden continued to shake his head. “Do you want me to spare your life?” General Sarim asked.
Roden saw Oakentere lower his bow, and Roden nodded to signal that he had done the right thing.
“How sweet; the savage is pleading for his life.” General Sarim had mistaken his nodding as an answer to his question. The crowd laughed at the general’s mocking of Lord Roden.
“Please, just one second,” Lord Roden said. He realized there was one more thing he needed to do before he died. It was then he realized that his mouth had dried up so much he could hardly speak. He tried to gather as much saliva in his mouth as possible. He pushed himself up in a standing position and spit in General Sarim’s face. The general responded by swinging the sword hard towards Lord Roden's neck, and Roden fell dead to the ground.
“Make ready the king’s carriage. We are riding back to Genora in a funeral procession.”
The Genorians moved around, clearing the carriages for savages and dead soldiers.
“What about the king’s guard?”
“We will send someone else out for the rest of the dead. We only take the royals.”
Chapter 10
“Oh god, why did General Sarim want to kill the king?” Queen Amrya exclaimed.
“I don’t know. I have never met a king, much less thought of killing one,” Oakentere replied. Right now, his mind was occupied by his own loss, the friends from his village, and at last, Lord Roden.
“What do we do now?” Queen Amrya more stated than asked.
“Wait until they are gone, I suppose.”
“But where shall I go? I can’t go to Genora now.”
“Then go somewhere else.”
“I need to go to Engriole.”
“Can you find your own way? I need to get back to my village.”
“Sure, I just follow the road, and hopefully, I will get a lift with someone.”
“Good, then we’ll wait.”
They sat down fifty yards into the forest, well out of sight, but they could hear the voices from the soldiers in the field. They sat no more than ten minutes before a voice rang over the others.
“General, the queen is gone.”
Oakentere stood up to get a better view of what happened.
“It’s the queen’s overcoat, but that sure isn’t the queen.”
Oakentere could see the general run over to the carriage the queen and the maid had escaped from. A second later, he looked around. Oakentere knew he had spotted the dead maid and Ayreto, and had put two and two together. He realized they needed to run.
“My Lady, which direction is Engriole?”
The queen pointed to the direction where the carriage had arrived.
“Take my hand; we need to run,” he said but didn’t wait for her to take hold of his hand, rather grabbing her as he passed and pulled her along as he ran in the direction she had pointed.
“Search the forest at the south end of the field, and find and kill the queen,” Oakentere heard the general command. He sped up even faster, but the queen had trouble following him.
“I can’t run this fast carrying the child; he is too heavy.”
“Let me carry him,” Oakentere said.
“Are you sure?” The queen looked at Oakentere’s wiry figure.
“I am a good runner. I can carry the load.”
“You need to tie him to your body. It will ease the load.”
She unfolded the cloth that tied little Endir to her body and tried to tie him to Oakentere’s back as she had seen the nurse do so many times. She tied it in a knot on his front.
“How does that feel?”
“Good enough. Come; let’s go.”
Then they ran again. The part of the forest they ran through was the newer part where the forest had grown past its old boundaries. The ground was therefore much smoother than a forest normally would be, but it was also far easier for horses to get by.
***
“There are tracks heading eastwards,” a scout came out of the forest and re
ported back to General Samir.
“Pursue them, Theyrin, and don’t return before they are dead.”
“And the bodies?”
“Leave them in the forest. Now make haste; they can’t have come far.”
“Yes, sir.” Theyrin rode back into the forest and blew his horn to gather the other ones.
“Brule,” the general shouted.
“Yes, sir.” The large knight stepped out towards the general.
“I now have sent ten men to follow their tracks inside the forest, and that ought to be enough, but you know I am a man that needs to be certain.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I figure she will not make it all the way to Engriole going through the forest. Sooner or later, she will try to get back on the road. Take thirty men and patrol the road to Engriole.”
“Yes, sir. How far?”
“As far as it takes; she must not reach Engriole at any cost. Do you understand?”
“Trust me, my Lord, she will not.”
“I will take the king to Genora and sort out the business there. I’m leaving you in charge of finding the queen.”
“I won’t let you down, sir.”
***
“It’s hopeless; we can’t outrun horses.” Queen Amrya sounded desperate as they heard the horses of their pursuers behind them. Oakentere looked back without slowing down his pace. He got a glimpse of the horses about half a mile behind them and the tracks they made on the forest floor. Running like this, they could pursue them all day and far in to the night.
“We must go where the horses cannot go,” he said. Then he changed his course and headed deeper into the woods where the trees grew tighter.
“We can’t go deeper into Teigldur; we will be lost.”
“Lost is better than dead,” Oakentere replied.
“But the forest is cursed. Something evil lurks in there.”
“Something evil is on our backs as well.”
Oakentere did not try to slow down or change direction but headed straight into the forest.
“They are heading into the forest,” their pursuers called out. “Stay on them no matter what.”
Oakentere turned and saw one of them was coming close. He let go of the hand of Queen Amrya and lifted his bow in his left hand as he picked an arrow from the quiver with his right, all whilst he kept running. The soldier was about fifty yards distant when he let the arrow go. Having little time to aim, he aimed at the torso and hoped the arrow would pierce the armor plate. The blacksmith back home had always said about his arrowheads that they would fly straight through armor. Oakentere retrieved the queen’s hand before he looked back again to see the soldier falling off his horse with the arrow solidly planted in his chest.
As the forest grew thicker, the horsemen stopped gaining on them. The horses still got through the brush, but not faster than a normal walk. Oakentere kept going at almost the same speed, not minding the branches that whipped them in their faces.
“I think we are losing them. Can we slow down just a little?” the queen pleaded.
“It is so easy to run in the lowlands; it’s like I could go on forever without losing my breath.”
“But I can’t go on forever,” Queen Amrya replied.
“That’s why I’m holding your hand.”
Oakentere rushed on with a firm grip around the queen’s wrist, pulling her along with him. The ground was uneven by roots and rocks, and Queen Amrya stumbled twice before Oakentere realized he had to slow down the pace.
“Thank you,” she said, breathing heavily as Oakentere shifted from running to a fast walk. “How deep into the forest are you planning to take us?” she continued.
“My plan is that by nightfall, the distance between us and the soldiers is so big that we may risk an open fire to cook a decent meal.”
“Have you been here before?”
“By the looks of it, no one has for a very long time.”
“That’s because no one dares; people get lost in this forest every year.” She pulled Oakentere’s hand to make him stop and look at her as she talked. She needed him to realize the grave situation they were in. “How are we going to find our way out from here?”
“We are in a forest; everything here tells a story.” He realized she had not grown up reading the signs of the forest like he had. “The trees are talking to me. They always stretch their branches towards the sun. This means they grow longer and thicker towards the south, especially when we have the mountains taking away so much of the sunlight from the north.” He pointed at a tree nearby. “You told me Engriole was to the east. That means that way.” He pointed to the east. There was no way Amrya could have told. She realized she had no choice but to trust the young savage.
“But first we need to cross the river.”
“What river?”
“Not far,” he said.
***
“It’s hopeless. The forest is too thick for horses, Theyrin.”
The horses could hardly push forward, while the fugitives were out of sight.
“You are right; take four men with you and pursue them by foot, then the rest of us will bring back the horses to the easier terrain and wait for them. Sooner or later, they are bound to head back to the road.”
“They will be easy enough to follow through the shrubbery.”
Five men got off their horses. They handed their horses to the others and started slowly jogging through the forest, following the tracks of the queen and Oakentere.
Chapter 11
“How did you know there was a river here?” Queen Amrya asked.
“When you don’t talk, I listen.” Oakentere studied the bank of the river. The river was not more than four or five yards wide and not very deep. “Lift your dress so you don’t wet your clothes,” he said as he rolled up his trousers as far as he could.
“What about my shoes and stockings?”
“Keep them on; they will dry.”
They waded out in the water. As it was late spring, and they had been running for a couple of hours, the water didn’t feel cold at all.
“Now, my Lady, you must wade down the river.”
“But isn’t that the wrong direction?”
“Yes, but first we must lose our pursuers, then we can walk towards Engriole,” Oakentere said. “No hurry.”
“What about you?”
“I will make tracks for them to follow. Be back soon.”
The queen waded down the river and Oakentere hastened through the bushes. A minute later, he jumped into the water and followed after the queen. They waded more than a quarter of a mile before he led her up on the back of the other side of the river. The first hundred yards, they walked carefully so as not to make any marks for anyone to follow.
They walked for a half an hour before Oakentere made a sign to stop. He put his index finger over his mouth to hush her. He raised his bow and pulled an arrow out of his quiver. Queen Amrya’s heart pounded within her. It had been an hour and a half, or maybe even two since she heard or saw their pursuers. She had finally felt a little safe. Then, all of a sudden, they had caught up with them, or was this a different kind of danger?
The arrow flew through the air and landed somewhere in between the trees.
“Perfect,” Oakentere rejoiced and ran toward the arrow.
“What is it?” she asked as he got back.
“Goose; great supper.” Oakentere held up the dead bird, then he used his dagger and cut out the bird’s intestines and let it bleed out before he hung it from his belt.
***
They arrived to Genora after the eruption of darkness. General Sarim had sent a messenger ahead of them, so when the king’s carriage was pulled slowly into the city with two hundred soldiers following in a procession after, people stood along the road with torches burning. The whole city was lit up all the way to the parade square. At the end of the parade square, the parliament and the high court buildings faced each other in a V shape. At the head of the V, b
etween the buildings, the gates to the royal garden leading to the king’s palace stood. General Sarim rode first, in front of the carriage, along with a soldier holding the royal banner high. Trumpets sounded as they entered the square. It was the same melody just to signal the king’s entry, only this time, it was a whole octave lower and at the speed of a funeral march. All the horses marched at the same beat, so the hooves stepping on the cobblestones stayed in perfect rhythm with the trumpets. The carriage stopped at the entry of the large square, and the horses passed it, making a straight allée of horses. Each line of horses turned towards the other. Then the soldiers drew their swords and crossed them over the horse-allée. Four soldiers carried a stretcher at shoulder height. Upon the stretcher the king lay with both hands folded on his chest as they grasped his sword. The soldiers marched slowly but firmly towards the stairs of the parliament. The leader of the king’s council, the high counselor of the court, and Prince Adrian, the king’s son, waited for them on the stairs of the parliament’s building. As the four soldiers reached the stairs, they stopped. General Sarim kneeled down before them and presented his sword.
“With all the haste we could muster, still we were too late to save the king.” The general paused, making sure his words carried through the crowd. “We have failed our king and country.”
“Your apology is accepted,” the high councilor answered. Before the king’s heir could be installed as a new king, the country would be governed by the court. The leader of the court was therefore now the one who would speak on the behalf of the country.
“It’s not an apology, my dear Lords. It is an allegation.” General Sarim heard a sigh run through the crowd and carefully waited for the silence before he continued. “Someone set us up to fail, and the king and his brave guard all had to die most needlessly."
The silence in the crowd was now lost for good as all started speculating at whom the general pointed towards. The leader of the court and Prince Adrian both stood with baffled expressions. Lord Kaene, the leader of the king’s council realized who the general was accusing and gave him a look that could freeze anyone but General Sarim to ice.
“Bring the king inside and thank you for your service, general.” The high councilor found it best to end the ceremony before a riot broke loose. The king’s body was brought inside the parliament, while General Sarim got back on his horse and rode out along with his soldiers. Torches were put out one after the other. Still the word kept spreading throughout the city; someone had plotted to kill the king.