Both guards looked at Arik in a newlight and offered to share the last of their ale over stories ofCidal. Arik politely refused, telling the guards that his Lord wasexpecting him to take up position outside the Duke’s study. Theynodded and let him out.
No sooner had Arik left when two womenapproached the Royal Palace via the small gate near the old RedSword barracks. One wore the uniform of the Cidal Lord’s personalguard and the other was adorned with a long dress with large hoops.The dress was red as her hair and the soldiers all stared as shewas allowed entry to the courtyard. The picnic basket she wascarrying was promptly inspected and snickered at.
“You must understand,” thesentry was saying, “that the prisoner will not be allowed anythingin the basket. The dungeon guards will confiscate it if you don’tleave it here.”
The Cidal mercenary chuckled at thesentry. “And your men won’t confiscate it while we are in thedungeon?” Taking the basket from Niki’s arm, she looped it over herown. “Just point the way,” Tanya continued. “I will see that theLady and her basket survive the dungeon guards.”
The sentry tried to hide his smirk ashe detailed the path that the two women were to travel. Tanya andNiki followed the sentry’s directions and approached the outsidedungeon guard. He looked curiously as the two women approached, butheld his tongue at the sight of the basket.
“We have come to speak withTedi Markel, Lord Wason’s aide,” Tanya declared firmly.
“If you don’t mind, Tanya,”Niki offered eyeing the outside dungeon guard, “I would rather notenter the dungeon. Say what you have to say to the boy and then wecan be gone from here. I am sure that this strong man will keep mesafe until you return.”
“As you wish, My Lady,” Tanyaanswered respectfully and indicated her desire to enter thedungeon.
The guard banged on the door, nevertaking his eyes off the two women. Tanya’s sheath was without hersword and her quiver without arrows, but his training required himto treat her as a potential adversary and he did so. The dungeondoor opened and upon seeing the visitors, the guard’s eyes widened.He seemed disappointed that only Tanya entered the dungeon, butafter the door was closed, she found him inspecting herclosely.
“You are one of the chosenfour,” the guard exclaimed incredulously as he reached for thebasket on Tanya’s arm.
“I am one of Lord Wason’spersonal guards,” Tanya affirmed as she grabbed the guard’s thumband put pressure on it to bring him to his knees. “I am assigned toLady Wason and if you wish the basket, it would be polite to askfirst.”
The other guard was laughing at hispartner’s predicament and the guard on his knees was veryembarrassed. Tanya immediately let go of the guard’s thumb andapologized. “I am sorry. I guess Arik already told you how hard itwas on the two of us, being so young and all. I was out of line andapologize for my behavior.”
She handed the guard the basket and hetook it while rising to his feet and backed to the table to put itdown.
“Lady Wason thinks that Tediwill get that,” Tanya smiled. “I will tell her that he did. Shewould not understand security provisions in a prison. Helpyourselves.”
The seated guard hurriedly inspectedthe contents and his cries of excitement caught the embarrassedguard’s attention. Still watching Tanya out of the corner of hiseye, he peered into the basket to see the rich meats, cheese,fruit, and a bottle of expensive wine. Rubbing his thumb, he noddedthe way to Tedi’s cell and sat at the table to get his share of thebasket before his partner cleaned it out.
Tanya smiled as she made her way toTedi’s cell. She lingered at the cell door for about five minutesand went back to check on the guards. One of them was sprawled onthe floor and the other had his head lying on the table. She movedquickly to the dungeon door and pulled it open. Niki was standingover the outside guard who was propped up against the wall. Nikientered the dungeon quickly and raised her hoops. Tanya strippedtwo Cidal personal guard uniforms from Niki’s body where they hadbeen secured.
“That man was a letch,” Nikicomplained. “I think he would have felt the uniforms if he had anymore time. What took you so long?”
Tanya just pointed at the two large mensprawled at the table and hurried the uniforms to the General andSergeant. Tedi sprang from his cell and hauled the prostrate guardinto a chair and laid his head on the table like his partner. Tanyareturned to the large room while the General and Sergeant donnedtheir new uniforms. The two girls waited just long enough to seethe two soldiers appear before they exited the dungeon with theempty picnic basket and returned towards the courtyard.
The Sergeant looked surprised at thetwo guards sprawled on the table and asked about the outsideguard.
“These two should not havedrank the wine,” Tedi grinned. “They will wake up in an hour so weneed to be well on our way. The outside guard got his mixturethrough Niki’s ring. He may be out for even less time. Garth toldus about the exit from the Palace that the servants used before theCollapse. He said it is still passable, but it has been unused formany years. I can lead you there. There will be two horses outside.You can use them to get out of the city. Go to the field where theRangers waited to enter the city before King Eugene was unmaskedand Garth will meet you there. I hope you understand, because itmeans nothing to me.”
The General put his hand on Tedi’sshoulder and looked him in the eye. “You will make a fine soldiersomeday,” General Gregor stated. “You have the guts anddetermination already.”
Tedi nodded at the General and smiled.“I already am, Sir,” he replied proudly. “I am an Alcea Ranger.Let’s get out of here.”
The General grinned and shook his headas he followed Tedi out of the dungeon with his Sergeant closebehind. Tedi led them through the corridors of the Royal Palace asif he had spent time there before. If anyone saw them at adistance, it would look like a foreign servant and his two unarmedforeign escorts. It was Tedi’s job to make sure that no one got aclose look.
They made it without incident to thehalf collapsed corridor that led to the old servants’ entrance.Only two servants had seen them at a distance and they paid noparticular interest to the foreign men. The corridor was barelypassable in spots and the going was slow, as they had to climb overportions of crumbled walls. When they reached the end of thecorridor, the door was jammed tight. Tedi almost panicked as he puthis shoulder to the door and it refused to budge.
The Sergeant chuckled politely andtapped the pouch that Tedi held his picks in. “It’s locked,Ranger,” he prompted. “Work some of the skills from your misspentyouth.”
Tedi swore as he extracted his picksand went to work on the door lock. They had already exhausted toomuch time getting out of the dungeon and Fredrik should be donewith his meeting soon. Even if the guards did not wake up for anhour, somebody could discover them at any time. The door unlockedwas still hard to open, but Tedi cracked it enough to peer outside.There was more debris from the Collapse past the door, which hadnever been cleaned up, and Tedi soon realized why Garth chose thisdoorway. They were able to make it easily across the unoccupiedcourtyard to a small gate in the wall. The gate was locked onlywith a beam laid in metal braces, which was easily removed, and thethree escapees stepped into a street where two horses were tied toa tree.
The few passersby looked oddly at themfor using a gateway which had not been used in years, but thetethered horses and foreign uniforms on the men, with the apparentlack of weapons, caused them to go about their business. Tedi sawthe two military men mount their horses and then turned to walk theshort distance to the Palace Shadow.
* * * *
Fredrik led Duke Everich into aprolonged discussion of how the two countries might be of benefitto each other. The Duke seemed to be uninterested in most of theconversation with the exception of the Cidal Mercenary Company, buthe was patient enough to let Fredrik rave about the great nation hewas going to carve out of old Sordoa. The Duke probably thoughtFredrik a young fool, but was trying to find some angle to getcontrol of the mercenaries for his own benefit. Fredrik was surethat the Duke would use the mercenaries in some grand scheme of theContest of Power.
It suddenly dawned on Fredrik why theDuke was being so patient. As long as Lord Wason was tied up in hisstudy, the other players in the Contest could not talk to him. Eventhe length of time spent with Lord Wason would probably be used tosome advantage. Fredrik was mulling over these thoughts when heheard the bump of something against the door. That was Arik’ssignal that the escape was underway. Arik had hidden where he couldobserve Tedi’s group leaving and shadowed behind them to make surethey got off all right. The signal meant it was time toflee.
“Well,” Fredrik began, “Ithink this talk has given me much to think about, Duke Everich. Iwould like to meet with some of the other Council members tomorrowif you can arrange it, but I must be going now. I am afraid that asgood as the Palace Shadow is, I did not sleep as well as I wouldhave in my own bed.”
Duke Everich snapped his head up as ifhe had just heard Fredrik speak for the first time. “I couldarrange for quarters here in the Palace if you wish,” he offered.“The other members of the Council have very busy schedules and Imay not be able to arrange your meetings for a fewdays.”
“That is unfortunate,” LordWason declared. “I must start my journey back home tomorrow at thelatest and the Palace Shadow will do for one more night. Perhapsthere will be time for another meeting with you before I go. We cancontinue our plans by courier if that is not possible.”
“A pity,” grinned the Duke.“Well, I should send a guard down for your man to spare yourbodyguard the trip while I see you out.”
Fredrik showed no sign of panic as hereplied. “That won’t be necessary, Duke Everich. If you don’t mind,I will leave him there overnight. Perhaps he will be moreunderstanding in the morning. I can easily find my own way out ofthe Palace while you check with the other Council members abouttheir schedules for tomorrow.”
The Duke merely nodded, lost inthought, as Fredrik opened the door and stepped into the corridorwhere Arik was waiting. As quickly as they could, without appearingto be in a hurry, Fredrik and Arik made their way out of the Palaceto the Palace Shadow where they met with Tedi and all checked outwith great haste. Within minutes of each other, the three groups ofAlcea Rangers started their journey out of the city towards thefield where General Gregor and Sergeant Trank awaitedthem.
Garth, Kalina, Niki, and Tanya werewaiting for Fredrik, Tedi and Arik a short way from the city andthe group reformed into one. The field where the General waited wasnot far away from the city, but it was between the main roadwestward and the main road northward, which placed it in the forestwhere few would go. The General and the Sergeant were alreadytalking with Mitar Vidson, head of the Targa Rangers, and DavidJaynes, head of the Red Swords of Targa, when the Alcea Rangersarrived.
Garth introduced everybody and sat bythe campfire as the rest of the group joined him. “General,” Garthbegan, “I am sure that your old friends have brought you up to dateon why we are all here. I believe that you have met most of theAlcea Rangers already today. We will be leaving in the morning, butyou four will have much to do before we return.”
“I must not have been toldeverything,” the General prodded. “Why have you formed the AlceaRangers? Where are you going? When and why are you coming back andwhat is it you expect us to do?”
“Many questions,” mused Garth.“Still, you have the right to know what you are getting yourselfinto. First, I must ask a harsh question. Is your Sergeant Tranktrustworthy?”
“I have staked my life on itin the past,” the General declared, “and I have not regretted it.You may speak of anything in his presence that you wish to speak tome about.”
“Very well,” Garth continued.“You four must prepare for the rising of Alcea which will occurwhen next you see us. Targa’s Army is young, weak, and untrainedand, yet, a tremendous army will be coming to crush us. You mustround up the remnants of the Red Swords and the Targa Rangers andget them ready for battle and you must do it covertly. No one is toknow that you are forming this army. Let our enemies believe thatTarga is ill-prepared to fend off their attack.”
The General looked around the campfireexamining the faces before him. He understood the reference toAlcea rising because he had heard of the Prophecy and had been toldto prepare for it or train a successor to prepare for it. What hedid not understand was the great army that would be descending onAlcea. Nobody had mentioned that before.
“You lead me to believe that Ishould be kneeling before one of your Rangers,” the General stated.“May I know which one?”
“Not until I do,” Garthstated. “We know the Prophecy has begun, but little more. When Ireturn, it will be with your King.”
“I will accept you at yourword,” General Gregor acceded. “What is this talk of a great armydescending on Alcea? This was never mentioned before in conjunctionwith the Prophecy.”
“The Dark One will soon knowthat the Prophecy has begun,” Garth explained. “If my plans gowell, he will be unable to find us. His only recourse will be toeradicate Alcea to see that it never rises again. He has many underhis control and he will not hesitate to use every last one of them.If he attacked Targa today, do you think your Army would stand anychance at all?”
“No,” conceded the General.“And if Targa gets wind of the building army, the battle will beginbefore the first of the Dark One’s minions even get close. Iunderstand the urgency now, but you must buy us time. Many of thosewe will recruit are past their prime years. They can still fight,but they will make better officers and trainers for whatever youngwe can induct.”
“We will buy you whatever timewe can,” Garth responded, “but every day we delay increases therisk to our party. Make haste with your efforts,General.”
* * * *
Duke Everich was enraged with hisSergeant’s report. General Gregor and Sergeant Trank haddisappeared from sight. His dungeon guard had been dealt with bychildren from all accounts, children! He picked up the paperweightfrom his desk and hurled across the room.
“I want those three guardshung in the morning,” the Duke screamed. “And I want it done infull public view with the entire Palace guard in audience. I wantthose children found and brought to me, all five of them. Now getout!”
Duke Everich’s words echoed through hishead. There were five children running around his Palace as if theyowned it. His face turned red at the thought of him falling for thechild’s story about being a Lord. It was obviously a ruse to gainthem access to the dungeon to free the General, but why? He wassure the three whom he had seen were not Targan. They were asSordoan as any he had met. Why would Sordoan children want to freethe General of Targa’s Army? Or should that be Alcea’sArmy?
Unbelievable as it was, Duke Everichknew it was something that had to be reported immediately, but ithad to be reported in such a fashion that his Master would notrealize that the Duke had been tricked himself. He wasn’t about tolose his rank because of one slip. There would always be someoneelse he could blame.