Tarizon, The Liberator, Tarizon Trilogy Vol 1

  A few days later Lorin was going through TGA communiques that had been recently intercepted. She gasped when she read one from Pegaport Command.

  "Three unidentified men and a TGA soldier have been killed in the Drogal Mountains on the Isle of Muhl while fleeing from base security . It's unclear if the soldier went voluntarily with the men or had been kidnaped. The security met up with the intruders in the Drogal Mountains near Shaft 22 and they were killed while trying to escape. Two security force personnel were also killed and seven are missing, reportedly carried away by drogals angered by the intrusion into their domain. The abducted soldier was identified as Tamurus Lavendar a recent washout from officer training school at Pogo Island. We will update once the bodies are found and identified. . . . Col. Ruhl."

  Lorin printed out the communique and took it to her father, who read it grimly.

  “I can’t believe this,” Lorin said. “I just talked to Jake yesterday by GC. They were all fine.”

  "This could be the end of us. Just when Peter was really coming along and people were starting to believe in him. Had he come out of the Drogal Mountains having rescued his friend, no one would have doubted that he was truly the Liberator."

  Lorin nodded. "I know. I was just starting to believe in him myself. I feel badly the way I treated him when he first came to Tarizon. It was just that he was such a disappointment compared to my conception of what the Liberator would be like."

  "It wasn't your fault. It was my foolish plan to make people believe he was the Liberator. In my desperation to save Tarizon I forgot about Peter's rights as a human being."

  Tears welled in Lorin's eyes. "So, now we've killed him," she whispered.

  "Technically, he died trying to save a friend. I shouldn't have let him go to Muhl. It was an unnecessary risk, but I thought—” The Councillor ran his fingers through his hair. . .“I thought for sure he'd make it back." He laughed. "I was beginning to fall for my own deception."

  "Are you going to tell Threebeard?"

  He shook his head. "Nobody knows Peter is dead. They don't even know he went to Muhl. It could be many days before the truth comes out. We needn't dash the hopes of our citizens quite yet. Peter may yet fulfill the Prophecy."

  "What about Lucinda?"

  The Councillor sighed. "Don't tell her yet. Let's wait until we have some bodies. Pegaport command obviously hasn't recovered them yet, or they'd have already identified Peter and his friends. There's still a slim chance that the report was wrong. Go ahead and take Lucinda to the base and by the time you get there we should have more reliable information.”

  29

  A Persistent Friend

  While Peter was unconscious he had a vivid dream about the rhutz who had twice appeared during their journey across the Drogal Mountains. First, appearing out of nowhere to save his life from a Drogal about to carry him off to his nest. Then, appearing again just in time to draw away the soldiers from Pegaport. It was as if Peter was looking through the eyes of the rhutz and his thoughts were in his head.