The Forgotten Shall Rise

Chapter 11: Not all is as it seems

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Prince Roald, once he had learned of his father's absence, had taken to hiding in his rooms when not otherwise needed. The members of the Hall of Conservation, as well as many, many other nobles, had taken to harassing him. Of course, they didn't exactly consider it harassment; they only wanted to know where the king was, and why he wasn't here. And frankly, Roald was rather tired of that. If he knew where his father was, which, wherever it was, must be far away from here, he would join him, if only to get away from these horrible gossips.

He knew it irritated Shinkokami to no end, having various distinguished personnel interrupt private conversations. She, not being tied to the palace in the way he was, especially now that his wonderful father had decided to go missing, had hot footed it out of here, first chance she got. Of course, she had made sure Roald would survive without her first, but he couldn't keep her tied down, even if he wanted to, which, by the way, he didn't. She, along with a handful of court ladies, had decided to travel to Port Caynn for a few days, to prepare themselves for the endless parties and balls that would come hand in hand with the cold winter days and nights.

Roald hadn't exactly been thrilled to see her go, but at least it meant he could hide away, catching up on reading, or reports, without worrying about his lovely wife being hassled by curious lords and ladies. Fortunately, the ladies who had accompanied her to Port Caynn, will decently curious about the ongoings of the Royal Family, were wellbred enough, and close enough to the Princess, that they would forget all about the disappearance of the three most powerful people in court, and enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately, he couldn't say the same for the others, who snatched up ever chance they got to pry. By now, he was quite ready to tie the lot of them in canvas bags, and set them up in the training yards as punching bags. Maybe that would beat some sense into them, and if not, at least it would keep them out of his hair. Unfortunately, as the Royal Heir, he did not have the luxury of carrying out such wicked thoughts.

"Prince Roald?"

The prince looked up from his book, suppressing the groan that came with recognizing his visitor. "Yes Lord Marakus? And if this is about the whereabouts of my father, need I tell you again that I know nothing of them?" He gave the Lord a pointed look, which clearly said 'ask me again and I'll personally escort you to a nice cozy little cell in the dungeons'. He couldn't tell if the Lord got the message, and resigned himself to looking regal, and rather impatient. It was look he did well, especially with all the practice he'd gotten in the past week.

Lord Marakus raised his nose a hair's breadth at Roald's 'impertinence'. Roald though this was rather unfair, considering he was well into his twenties, married, and an accomplished knight. "Your highness, I do not come to ask anything of you, only to deliver news. Your lady mother asked me to relay it to you upon hearing it herself. She regrets she is not here herself, but she was needed urgently. We have discovered your father, or, more accurately, we have discovered his body."

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Keladry had been through page training, she had been through squire training, she had been through war. She had been forced to climb up heights, and down heights, and had jousted three rounds with Lord Wyldon, but nothing was so horrible as travelling with relatively newlyweds. Especially when one half of the couple was Neal.

Of course, she didn't have anyone to compare them with, as her experiences with married couples were fairly limited, but she did know that this was hell. Actually, it might be worse than hell, considering the fact that she was considering running both of them through, then dragging their bodies behind a horse for a week or two. She was also unawares, that at the same time, Prince Roald was seriously considering doing much the same thing to an unfortunate group of nobles. And that, like him, she would not be able to actually follow through with these wishful fantasies.

"Oh Keladry..."

Kel groaned. The only thing worst than having to listen to Neal and Yuki, was having to listen to Sebastian yammer. Unfortunately, she was doomed to both for quite a while. Fortunately, Dom and his squad also had to suffer, so she wasn't alone in her misery. Dom had actually volunteered to gag Sebastian, but she had denied him, and thus herself, of the pleasure. Why? She wasn't quite sure.

"Yes Sebastian?" She asked, careful to keep the annoyance out of her voice, no matter how much she wanted to sock him.

"Copper for your thoughts?" He asked, and she had to clench her reins tightly, or she might have actually attacked him. Something about the casual way that he didn't wear a weapon, something that was considered suicide if you weren't a powerful mage, or extremely lucky, which she knew he wasn't, made you think twice about lunging at him and attempting to close your fingers around his throat. Tempting as it may be.

"Is that why you disturbed me? Because if it is, your dinner is going to be black as pitch for a week." Keladry said, conveniently forgetting that, if she were allowed to cook, all their food would be black as pitch. Whatever cooking skills she had once had, they had all abandoned her now, leaving her lucky if she didn't burn water. She had a feeling that this had something to do that she was constantly distracted from the food by the need to go give something a good thwack. Which could be directly linked to Sebastian and/or Neal.

Sebastian, somehow sensing that it would not be a good idea to bring up her cooking skills, or lack therefore of, just gave her a weak smile. "That wasn't why. But you looked like you were thinking of something, so I thought I might as well ask what. I can see now that that was a mistake, one I won't be making again. I wanted to know how many days you think this journey will take. You see, I'm kind of eager to get to Corus, and not only because of the libraries. It feels sort of like we are being followed."

Keladry snorted. "Not likely, I think we might have noticed if we were. Thanks for the thought though." Sebastian had enough sense not to holler at her, not if he wanted to live to eat dinner, burnt or not. Instead he rolled his eyes and waited for his temper to pass. This may have been the only sensible thing he had done this entire trip, but he wasn't keeping score.

"Not physically followed." He told her as patiently as he could, which wasn't very patiently considering. "Magically. We're being watched. And before you say it, no, you wouldn't notice, but I would and that's why I'm part of this little travelling party. The sooner we get to Corus, all of us, the safer we'll be."

"How do you know it's not one of our mages, keeping track of us?" Keladry demanded in a loud voice, drawing the attention of the others. Thankfully, she had enough sense to keep the volume down in the future. "We do have several who are powerful enough."

"I just know, I can't really explain it, not to a none mage. But I can tell you this, it's not one of ours, it's foreign, and the farscryer, or farscryers, I can't tell, knows what they're doing. Is it possible to pick up the pace at all?" He asked, eyes glittering. "I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

Keladry hesitated, if they sped up, their horses would be tired, they would be tired, and should they be attacked, they wouldn't be able to fight very effectively. But if they went slow, there was a higher chance of being ambushed, and with only one healer, as well as a lady, she didn't know how well they would be able to fend any would be attackers, physically fit or not.

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Raoul flinched as he was shoved into the cell with the other four, banging his knee on the iron door. Lord Aleck, once he had frozen all of those around him, excluding Raoul and Flyndan, had proceeded to magically gag Flyndan. Once the captain was unable to contribute anything to the conversation, Aleck decided to give the Knight Commander a little update, both on things already done, and things to come.

Raoul wasn't sure whether having this knowledge was a comfort or a curse. Especially since he was locked in a cell, he would know what was happening, and he wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop it. He also knew that he would suffer unmentionable torment being locked in a cell with the Lioness, what with that damn hero complex she had.

Of course, once he told Jon what was planned, it would be even worse. The entire cell had a shield, both on the inside and out. Anyone who touched the invisible barrier would be shocked, and magic couldn't get through it to the bars. Aleck had decided to try and crush what little hope Raoul had left when he heard what was going to happen to him, unfortunately, it worked.

He had, upon hearing where he was going, hoped that he would be able to escape while they were travelling to Corus. Of course, he forgot that Aleck, along with one other Master, had mastered teleporting. Actually, he didn't really forget that, he just hadn't known, same as everyone else. What he had forgotten was how secretive mages could be. He wasn't given a chance to escape, or even alert anyone that something was wrong. Instead, he blinked, and then he was standing outside a large cell, complete with a bucket and two wooded benches.

Before he had even had time to blink again, he was shoved through the open door, and locked in. Which was were he was now. Thankfully, the only guard posted was at the top of the stairs, these particular cells hadn't been used in several decades, and it showed, what with all the dust. This left them able to talk freely among themselves, without fear of being overheard. And maybe they could find someway that they could escape from their prison. None of that would be capable with a guard right outside the door.

Unfortunately, none of the cell's original occupants were surprised to see him. Alanna and Jon were sitting together on the one bench, with Gary stretched out on the other. None of them looked particularly thrilled to see him, but he couldn't really blame them, this meant that the country was to be left in the hands of a twenty something year-old knight, and the Hall of Conservation. Not comforting thoughts at all.

Gary, upon the Knight Commander's arrival, sat up to make room for the taller man. No one spoke until the guard was well out of sight and sound. And still, no one spoke. Raoul glanced around the cell, learning all he could about his new quarters. Which, considering, wasn't much. As he had seen when he had first been pushed in, it had two benches, and a bucket. Further inspection proved that there were no weak spots. As the cell was far underground, there were no windows, but Raoul had known better than to expect one. All four walls were stone, the only exception being the cast iron door, which was made up of several steel bars. And as Aleck had told him, these bars were very well protected. Not even Numair would be able to break through these shields, even if he some how managed to wander down here. Which, unfortunately, he never would.

An unusual soft white glow was lighting the room, and it took Raoul a moment to discover its origins. A crystal imbedded in the ceiling of the cell proved to be the source. At least they weren't going to be stuck in the dark for how ever long Aleck planned to keep them down there, which, of course, he had neglected to tell Raoul.

Finally, Jon spoke, for which Raoul was rather grateful. The King's voice was hoarse, Raoul suspected him of having a screaming match with Alanna, but knew better than to ask. To do so was suicide; it was bad enough in the cell without two of his friends angry with him. "I don't suppose you know any more than we do?" It sounded like Jon wasn't expecting him to say yes.

"Aleck decided to go along with the cliché, and tell me all his plans. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be able to foil them. I learned quite a few interesting things. Several of which directly concern you Alanna." Raoul said grimly. Alanna, upon hearing this raised her head to stare at him with those unnerving violet eyes of hers. Knowing what he did, Raoul couldn't seem to look her in the eye. Instead he looked over to Gary. "And one or two that you need to hear. But, most importantly, Jon, there's something you should know. But before I tell any of you anything, let me say this; none of this is good news, and you will probably hate me for telling you."

The other three shrugged this off. They had nothing to loose, nothing at all. Anything Raoul had to say would only help them, after all, anger and fear would only make them stronger. Jon waved Raoul on. "Tell Gary first." Raoul nodded, hating himself for the news he had to deliver.

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Sylvia scowled at her map, not liking what it was telling her. Apparently, they had taken a wrong turn somewhere, because this field was not where they wanted to be. Setbacks like this were not going to help them catch the Lady Knight and company off guard. Actually, at this pace, they would be lucky to catch them at all.

She reached behind herself, trying to find her scrying mirror in her pack. Finally finding the pocket she had slipped it into, her hand grabbed air. She felt around for a second, before turning on her moving horse to see what had become of her mirror. Her horse, not particularly thrilled with this plan of action, sped up an unnecessary amount, something she had never done before, causing Sylvia to curse loudly, and tumble to the ground.

The weight on the mare's back lifted; she kicked up her heels and ran. Sylvia, from her seat in a dried up mud puddle, frowned. Something was making the mare irritable, because usually, she was the calmest horse around, who made good time without being frisky. Someone or something had happened to her. Of course, that didn't matter now, because the bay was about a mile away and gaining, Sylvia's pack going along for the ride.

At least she still had the map.

Or at least, she still had a piece of the map. Somehow, when the mare had decided to go for a run, the map must have gotten stuck in her pack, because she only had about one third of it now. And that third was the third they had already ridden through.

Sylvia threw the map fragment down and swore again. This was not going her way at all, and Emerish would find some way to blame her, and so on and so forth. Then again, they could always try to find their way without the map; after all, they couldn't get any more lost than they already were. Later, on reflection, Sylvia realized she should have known better than to say that.