Chapter 3
"You don't remember me, do you Rhapsody?" the deep calm voice of the shadow murmured as he entered to wagon in which the Rhapsody was chained. Being still gagged, Rhapsody made none of the sarcastic responses that she had for him.
Chuckling, the man continued, "My, where are my manners? It isn't nice to ask someone questions while they are unable to talk. Let me help you with that my dear." The shadow descended on her as he untied the scarf that had her gagged. She could smell a faint burnt odor on the man, as if he had been standing too close to a fire for too long. His breathing was deep and measured, and a strange type of vibration seemed to emanate from him. He seemed almost familiar yet incredibly disturbing to Rhapsody.
"There, now tell me if you know who I am my dear."
"Maybe I would know you better if you would let me see your face. As of now all I know about you is your foul penchant of kidnapping Lady's for unknown purposes, right out of their own palace gardens. That takes some nerve. By now the whole army must be out looking for me and the men who took me."
"Hmm, still the brassy young girl that I remember, never one to go timid and scared in the face of danger," he said. "Well, if you don't know who I am already, I'm not going to enlighten you, yet anyways. We have a bit of a journey before I can be completely free to… converse with you."
"By converse I assume you mean do what you want to, if you make it to that point. You're going to have a lot of men on your trail very soon."
A soft derisive laugh came from deep in the shadow's throat. "I wouldn't worry too much about that, your people probably don't even know that you're gone yet. And even if they do, they should have no reason to suspect foul play. No one saw or heard any of our altercation and we left no evidence of it."
Stunned, Rhapsody suddenly realized that what this man said was probably true. She did have a hard time seeing her assailants, and silence had complete control during the battle. If this man could manage to silence and conceal his men, he must be able to have set everything back into order before leaving. There was no one to think that harm might have come to her. She would often sneak from the palace when she could, but she would always tell her husband or Anborn when she did this. With neither of them there, the other people at the palace would assume that she had just left for a while to clear her head.
"Oh, by the way, that was a very good fight that you put up back there. It seems those many years living on the street did some good. Of course, it helps when you have such a unique and special sword," he said as he pulled her sword from its sheaf that he now wore. There was no Clarion call like when she drew it, only a dull crackling sound. The blade glowed but instead of the clean flames that licked the blade when she held it, dark sparks would sporadically dance along it. If there had been any doubt in Rhapsody's mind before, it was gone now. This was a F'dor, and he had the most powerful elemental sword in his possession.
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Gwydion was asleep in his warm bed, dreaming peacefully when he suddenly roused from his sleep. There seemed to be nothing that could have awakened him when he looked around, but a nagging sensation in the back of his mind told him that he was not alone in his room. Slowly and quietly he pulled his sheaved sword from under his pillow and prepared to draw.
Then a shadow stepped into the moonlight that streamed through his window. "Good, you knew I was here. There are few who would ever even know that I was in the room before their throats were slit," a sandy voice grated.
Suddenly relaxing, Gwydion replied, "Achmed, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I wish you could learn to just announce your presence instead of testing me and my preparedness every time you come to call."
Achmed let out a short harsh laugh before lighting a near by lamp. "Perhaps it would be nicer of me, but then again, who ever accused me of being nice."
"That is true. Now why is it that you have come to scare me out of a perfectly good sleep tonight?"
Completely serious and standoffish as always, Achmed replied, "Your grandmother has been abducted from her palace and I need your help in getting her back. So get dressed and get us two of your fastest horses, we have a lot of distance to make up." Saying this, Achmed turned and was nearly out the door before Gwydion had recovered from his shock.
"Hold on, what do you mean Rhapsody has been abducted? I have heard nothing of this and if it were true the whole alliance would know about it."
Sighing, Achmed stopped and turned to face the young man once again. "I can explain more fully after we get underway, but right now all I can say is that I am the only one who knows of her disappearance and we are the only ones who are currently able to go after her. Your retarded godfather went and left her completely unwatched when he took himself, Anborn, and their son away on some stupid diplomatic trip over to that bloody sea mage island. Now, as always, I'm the one who has to leave my kingdom to go and rescue her. Now get dressed and meet me in the stables, I will tell you more later." With that he turned and vanished out the door, leaving the stunned duke in his wake.
After a few seconds of staring in unbelief after the Firbolg king, the Duke of Navarne quickly got up and began dressing, wondering what on earth had just happened to him.
Once he had dressed and quickly grabbed some provisions, such as dried meat, travel cakes, and water canteens, Gwydion ran out to the stable to find that Achmed had already chosen the horses that they would ride and had them saddled.
"Would you please explain to me exactly what is going on and where it is we are going?" the duke asked.
"I'll explain more once we leave. As for where we are going, best I can figure they are headed for the port in Avanderre. We must catch up with them before they reach the port."
"Or they'll sail away and we will not be able to catch them?"
"That and I will no longer be able to track them. Now this I will explain after we have left the city." With that Achmed leaped onto his horse and spurred it out of the stables and out the gates. Having no other choice, Gwydion did the same and quickly caught up with the king as he raced toward the city gates.
Guards stopped them as they came up close to the closed gates. "Who goes there, and where are you heading in such a hurry at this late hour."
"Relax Garit, it's me, Gwydion. His majesty, King Achmed, and I have some important business that we must attend to. Open the gates and let us pass."
Stunned the guard gave a few gruff orders to the other who ran to open the gate. "I'm sorry sir; I did not know it was you. This is a rare thing for likes of you two to have such great need to leave in these early hours."
"Don't worry, you had no way of knowing that we were coming. Just allow us to pass quickly."
"Yes sir"
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After nearly an hour of hard galloping from Haguefort, Gwydion could stand it no longer; he brought his horse into rein and waited for Achmed to notice his absence. Almost immediately, Achmed too brought his horse to a stop and then quickly cantered back to where the duke was waiting.
"I suppose that you think that I should explain things to you now," Achmed said.
"It would be nice to know exactly what you are dragging me into."
"Fine, we shall talk as our horses walk. We have no time to stop."