Chapter 10



Raon looked at them all, pleased with his news. "I don't know how you knew he was there, but we found him and we ran him off. I've organized a top to bottom search of the palace to make sure he didn't have any confederates."

Randor looked up, eyes perplexed. He wet his lips, took a deep breath, and said, "Pardon me, Sergeant, but just who have you found?"

"Whiplash, your highness. He was creeping back onto the grounds near the base of the north tower. My squad and I were just coming out of the barracks to respond to the alarm when we saw a figure dropping from the top of the wall to the ground."

"I see." Adam could see that his father was on the edge of some huge emotional expression, but he locked it down, and continued. "Thank you, Sergeant. Good work. Let -" He glanced over at Man-at-Arms, who was tucking an embarrassed-looking Teela into her bed, and revised what he had been about to say. "Let Stratos know what you find out."

Lieutenant Raon saluted his king, then nodded to Adam and left the room.

Adam looked back over at his father, who had once more buried his face in his hands. He lay back and tried to calm his own breathing after that latest intrusion. His legs had begun to ache abominably, as though all the movement had awakened the nerves somehow. He didn't want to upset his father any further, so he tried to ignore the pain and not draw anyone's attention to himself.

"It's all right, dear," his mother said. "Everyone has nightmares." She glanced around the room. "Not usually so publicly, but the situation's unusual."

"Father," said Teela through gritted teeth. "I'm fine. Why don't you go see if Adam's okay? He's the one who had people landing on him."

Adam glared at her, as both men and his mother jumped up and rushed his bed. Within seconds, and without consulting him, they ascertained that Adam was in pain, but instead of giving him the pain medication that the healers had left for him, they sent for Healer Dorgan.

"Mother, don't wake Dorgan, I'm fine."

"We don't know that, Adam," his father said firmly. "Heaven knows what I could have damaged, landing on you like that."

"Has anyone checked on Cringer?" Adam asked. The cat still had not emerged from under the bed. "He yowled pretty loudly."

Randor was on his knees, trying to coax the big cat out from under the bed when Dorgan arrived. He glanced around the room, raised one sardonic eyebrow, and demanded, testily, to know why neither of his patients was asleep at this hour of the night.

Adam covered his head up with the pillow again as all three adults began talking at once to explain the situation. Somewhere, someone was watching, convulsed in laughter, he thought. Probably Skeletor. That thought made him groan again.

Dorgan had never been one to hold high rank in undue esteem. In pretty short order, he sorted the king, queen and Man-at-Arms' stories out and came over to check on Adam.

"Young man, trying as this night must have been, you really must remove the pillow from your face."

Reluctantly, Adam lowered the pillow. Teela let out a high-pitched giggle, and he glared at her. Then he had a thought. "Teela got out of bed," he said, eyes flashing to see her response.

The outraged glare she gave him was worth it, but Healer Dorgan tutted at him. "You can hardly demand that I arrange physical therapy for her and then complain that she got out of bed." He turned to Teela. "I presume that you did not put any weight on your injured foot?" Teela shook her head virtuously. "Well, then, Adam, let's look at your legs."

"I don't think it's anything, really."

Dorgan gave him a wry look, but gave him a thorough examination. All three of the adults watched attentively. Adam felt like a sideshow attraction, but finally, Dorgan was finished. "You're quite right, it's nothing. Just unexpected and unaccustomed movement jarring awake aches and pains that had lain dormant." He opened the bottle containing the pain medication and gave Adam a small dose. "Now, go to sleep."

Randor stood up and started to speak, and Adam noticed that his cheek had begun to swell. Dorgan held his hand up to forestall him. "You, and you," he said, pointing at the king and Duncan, follow me." He marched them out like unruly schoolboys and Adam fell asleep again before they returned.



***



Adam was granted several hours of peaceful work the next morning when Dorgan came with a pair of crutches and bore Teela away to the infirmary for her physical therapy. Apparently she had some pretty bad bruising on her back that she hadn't mentioned to him. Four guards came in to keep watch over him, but they were quiet. For awhile, his mother sat on the armchair next to his bed, sewing, but even she left around midmorning, leaving Adam alone with his silent guards.

It was a very productive morning. He managed to settle a few of the points that had been troubling him, though he had to send for even more books to do so. His night stand was beginning to resemble a messy library table. When his mother and Teela returned just after lunch, they both gazed at it in startlement. Teela looked exhausted, and went straight to her bed. Marlena helped her get comfortable and tucked her in. For once, Teela didn't object to a little mothering.

"What have you been doing?" Teela asked, as his mother withdrew from the room again. He wondered where she was going.

"I managed to locate a few references that pin down precisely when Ramorgan took over Turan. It was earlier than your dad's book said, but not so early as Elegius thought." Teela perked up a little, so he grabbed the chronicle he'd badgered one of the servants into finding him. "See, here, Ramorgan's father did retire a few months before he died, but Ramorgan wasn't immediately given the post."

"That explains the inconsistencies during that stretch, doesn't it?" Teela said.

By the time his mother returned, they were once again scanning different books and noting down when and where events occurred.

Adam looked up, yawning, when the door opened. The greeting died on his lips in bewilderment as he watched her back into the room. Two servants followed her carrying a narrow bookcase, which she directed them to place next to his bed. The top shelf was no higher than his bed's headboard. The servants repositioned her arm chair and settled the bookcase in place. Instead of putting it with its back up against the wall, they situated with its side to the wall, about six inches away from the bed, facing Adam.

As they left, Marlena stood at the foot of Adam's bed. "Now, dear, can you reach the shelves?" Feeling very self-conscious, Adam stretched and found that he could easily reach the second and third shelves, and the top one with some difficulty. Anything lower was out of the question, however.

"Good. I thought those stacks on the night table were beginning to look a bit precarious." She walked over to the table. "So, which ones are you using right now?" Mutely, Adam pointed, and his mother gathered up the others and, leaning around the end of the shelves, arranged them in neat rows on the second and third shelves. The case was narrow enough that it didn't block his view of the windows, and it did make accessing the books more convenient. It just had an uncomfortable air of permanency about it.

Sighing, he went back to work. His father and Duncan were still out doing king and advisor things for the rest of the afternoon, and weren't expected back till evening. That morning, he'd watched, half in amusement, half in appallment, while his mother went over her husband's schedule. She'd made several changes, striking out a meeting with the weaver's guild and shortening the time allotted to a merchant's guild representative. Once she'd approved it, she'd let the king leave with the admonishment that he'd better take break she'd scheduled for him. It hadn't been easy for Adam to stifle his laughter at his father's expression. They weren't due back until after dinner.

Once he'd eaten, Adam tried to go back to reading, but he kept nodding off. Finally, he gave up and put the book on the second shelf - sigh - and lay back in bed. Teela was already asleep, but she'd had a more active day.

Adam drifted into a sort of half-awake, half-asleep state where he could hear his mother humming softly nearby and Teela's breathing, but he couldn't move. Periodically, he'd drift deeper and have a dream, usually very weird and elusive, then he'd drift back up again and become aware of his surroundings. He heard his father and Man-at-Arms come in during one of those semi-lucid states, and he was happy that they were back. This seemed to release him for real sleep, for he fell almost immediately into a deep slumber.

And was awakened, it seemed only moments later, by Teela screaming at the top of her lungs.

He started awake, but didn't move. Not after last night. He just opened his eyes and looked up. His father stood just to the right of the foot of his bed, a long, slender-bladed knife held aloft in his right hand, taking careful aim. The double-edged blade glittered in the lamplight. Adam's heart lurched, but he felt frozen, like he was still in a dream. The lights were on, and his father was still dressed for the day. His mother's chair was empty, and he couldn't see Man-at-Arms anywhere in view.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a glint as Teela's cobra staff extended, then she swung it back out of his range of vision. His father was so still and blank he almost didn't seem to breath. Teela's staff came abruptly back into view and struck the king's leg just above his knee-brace.

Randor fell backwards and hit the floor with an anguished cry.

Teela was yelling, and suddenly Adam could make out words. "Father!! Help, Father!!!"

Randor, still holding his knife, reached up and grabbed the bedpost with his left hand, dragging himself to this feet to stand over Adam's bed again, blade held high.

Adam's petrifaction broke, and he found himself screaming, "Duncan! Help!!"

The door flung open and Dorgan came through with Man-at-Arms right on his heels. The healer stopped in shock, staring at the tableau, but Duncan shoved him aside and tackled the king. They went down together, struggling for the knife. Adam lay back, breathing hard. His father was bellowing something, and so was Duncan, but he couldn't focus on either of their words.

Suddenly he felt a thump against the cast on his left leg. He sat bolt upright, heedless of the pain. He was alone on the bed, and he certainly hadn't smacked himself. A mottled, sinuous form lay coiled on the right side of the foot of his bed. Its teeth were buried in his cast. It reared back for a second strike, and Adam saw just how long its fangs were. He couldn't tell if it had gotten through to his skin because his leg was already screaming in pain. Its head weaved for a moment and it turned toward the unprotected skin of his thigh, at which point Teela shrieked, "Snaaaaake!" She raised her staff to bat it away, but Adam knew the blow would fall too late.

Suddenly, a green and yellow streak rose up between the two beds, snatched the snake just behind the head and began shaking it wildly. Its body whipped back and forth against the bedposts as Cringer worried at it. Adam cried out in horror. What if it bit Cringer? Was it poisonous?

At Teela's cry, the two men had broken apart, and now they both loomed over Adam, staring wide-eyed at him. Both men ducked when the snake flew free as Cringer flung it away. It thudded against the wall next to Dorgan's head.

He looked down at the creature and cried out. "A speckled insurname!"

"What?" Man-at-Arms exclaimed, staring at the snake.

His father sheathed his blade with an irritated gesture and felt at the bruise on his face. "That's what I was trying to tell you, Duncan!" he growled.

"It bit me," Adam said numbly, his gut going cold with fear. Silence fell in the room. The insurname, in all its various guises, was the most poisonous snake on Eternia. It was also among the most rare. He looked up into his father's eyes and saw the terror in them. He blinked, dreadful a certainty coming over him. "I'm dead. I'm dead." Randor shook his head, his mouth moving, but no words came out.

Silence filled the room, then Dorgan launched himself across the intervening space, swearing. "A knife! A knife! Someone give me a knife!"

Duncan didn't move, but Randor passed his dagger across to the healer.

"Hey, hey! What are you going to do?" Adam asked, dragging himself backwards a little.

"Adam, don't move," his father said. He rushed to the head of the bed, knocking the bookcase flat on its back in the process, and, reaching out, held his son down.

"But - no - what's he going to do?" Adam demanded shrilly, struck by a horrible premonition.