SACORIDIA’S WORST ENEMY

Zachary was maintaining his composure well, Laren thought. He’d much practice over the years of reining in his emotions, of wearing a mask. He and his advisor, Les Tallman, were going through the contents of Karigan’s message satchel as Castellan Javien watched. They’d cleared out a meeting of Zachary’s war chiefs to do this, and a map of Sacoridia with markers placed in various positions remained on the long conference room table.

“Some old reports from Captain Treman,” Les Tallman said holding up a sheaf of papers.

“I saw those when we were in the north.” Zachary betrayed nothing with his words, but his expression was taut.

Laren glanced at Connly standing beside her, practically at attention, his face a little pale. He had yet to lose a Rider under his command. Not that they’d lost Karigan. They didn’t know what had happened to her, but the potential was there. Messenger horses were not easily parted from their Riders. She and Connly had found nothing among Karigan’s effects to explain why Condor had run to the castle without her.

“My goodness,” Les said as he pulled out another sheaf. He flipped through it while Zachary and Javien gazed over his shoulder. “She did it. She actually did it.” He looked up in wonder. “She found the p’ehdrose and drafted an alliance with them.”

Laren and Connly had already known this after having dug through her message satchel themselves, but her pride in her Rider expanded as others saw her success. Zachary’s mask faltered, emotion rippling across his face.

“You were right to send her after all, sire,” Javien said. He had not had much faith in the venture, but now he gazed at the document with barely suppressed excitement. “She deserves a commendation. If we see her again.”

Zachary’s jawline went taut at Javien’s words. Laren wanted to shake the castellan for his callousness, but instead said, “She will return, I’ve no doubt.”

Neither Javien nor Les seemed to hear her for their attention was fixed on the document.

“We will have to send a delegation, make plans with our new allies,” Les said. “I honestly believed the p’ehdrose were long passed into myth, but she found them.”

“Rider G’ladheon has always been an exceptional Green Rider,” Laren said.

“Yes,” Les replied absently as he pulled a knife wrapped in a handkerchief out of the satchel.

Laren knew the symbol on the blade well. Javien blanched when the handkerchief fell away, revealing he did, too.

“Is this mark what I think it is?” Les asked.

“The sword and skull ever belonged to one group,” Zachary murmured.

“Yes,” Laren said. “The Darrow Raiders are back.” They’d suspected it from the descriptions of attacks they’d heard about happening across the realm. Oh, yes, Laren was quite familiar with their ways.

“How did Rider G’ladheon come upon it?” Les asked. “It’s stained with old blood.”

Les and Javien spoke among themselves making guesses. Zachary gazed at her, and she gazed back. Had Karigan come upon the scene of an attack? Had she been involved in one? Was the knife a message she intended for them, the only way to send them word? Surely the blood was not hers.

Eventually, much to Laren’s relief, Les set the hideous thing aside, the blade once more draped. “Rider G’ladheon has given us quite a mystery,” he said. He turned his attention back to the satchel. “One more item.” He withdrew a sealed letter. “It is addressed to you, Your Majesty, with the Vinecarter seal on it.”

Laren and Connly had seen the letter, but had not read it since it was clearly intended for Zachary, but she knew the Vinecarter name well as it belonged to Zachary’s Aunt Omelia. Even before they saw the contents of the letter, it was a clue that indicated Karigan had gotten at least as far as Boggs before she’d been separated from Condor.

When Zachary finished reading the letter, he said, “All but Colonel Mapstone leave me.”

He and Laren stood in silence while the others exited the room. When the door was shut once more, Zachary dissembled little, even though it was just the two of them. They continued their silence for some moments before Zachary chose to speak.

“My aunt tells me a farm was hit in Boggs by raiders, an entire family wiped out, including children. That’s where Karigan picked up the knife. Apparently the farmer killed a raider before he in turn lost his life.”

Laren closed her eyes and let out a breath of relief. It was not Karigan’s own blood on the knife, then. But it did not explain her whereabouts.

“My aunt further recounts that Karigan aided a pottery merchant who was also attacked and injured by brigands on the Boggs Road, most likely raiders, as well. Unfortunately, she gives little information on that account, expecting Karigan to fill us in. She just wanted to ensure I was aware of what was going on in the countryside.”

They knew all too well, with more and more reports coming in every day, along with refugees seeking safety in the city.

“My aunt then speaks of Karigan herself.” Zachary turned away, gazed into the distance. “She praises Karigan, but suggests our menders take a good look at her. She reminded my aunt of her late husband Nickold after the war in the Under Kingdoms. I remember my grandmother explaining how his spirit had been deeply wounded in the conflict.”

Laren knew that story well. Nickold had returned home so shattered by his experiences that he gave up his lands and duties to lead a quiet life in the country.

Zachary turned abruptly to face her once more. “Laren, where is she?” Finally he revealed his pain. It was in his eyes and voice. “It is Blackveil all over again.”

“I don’t know where Karigan is,” Laren replied softly. “Neither her gear, nor Condor, offered any clues, but no, it is not Blackveil all over again. We can investigate. Once I saw Lady Vinecarter’s seal, I immediately sent out Tegan and Brandall to search for her between here and Boggs.”

“Good thinking. She could be hurt along the road.”

“Yes,” Laren said, but did not add that in that case it was unlikely Condor would have run off without her, though if she were conscious at the time, she might have commanded him to leave in hopes they found enough clues on Condor to come looking for her.

Zachary swept back and forth pacing in agitation, barely able to contain himself. “I’d go myself.”

“But you can’t.”

He paused. “No, I can’t.” He looked up at the ceiling. “And I have to act like she means no more to me than anyone else.”

“I am afraid it is true,” she said, “but you know you can always come to me if you need to talk.”

“Will you tell her father?”

Oh, gods. She hadn’t even given Stevic a thought. Thank the gods he was in Selium for the funeral of Lord Fiori. “No,” she said. “Not till we know more.”

“Omelia seemed to think Karigan was suffering.” Zachary shook his head. “I feel so helpless.”

“Anyone would suffer after what she went through, but we both know she is strong, and if she is in some kind of trouble, she can handle it. You know how she is.”

“It’s killing me,” he said, “that I can do nothing.”

“I know, Moonling, I know.” Karigan was not the only one suffering. Zachary, too, had been tortured at the hands of Second Empire, though most of his wounds were on the inside.

Their story was a tragic one of two people inexorably drawn to one another, but kept apart because of class and politics. The attraction had begun very early on, but circumstances kept them apart, permitting only a distant yearning between the two. Until the north.

Until the north where they’d been far away from court and gossips, and helped one another through the depredations of Second Empire. Zachary told Laren little, but Connly, who’d been there for some of the time, spoke of how protective Zachary had been of Karigan, and how she had cared for him through wound sickness. The intense situations they faced would have deepened their feelings even more for one another, she was sure. If only Lady Fiori, Karigan’s best friend who’d been there with them, could have returned to Sacor City. She would know everything, but of course she’d had to return to Selium to bury her father.

“If only I’d commanded her to come home with the rest of us,” Zachary said.

“Then she would not have gotten the alliance with the p’ehdrose.”

“Even so. And I would like to know, where is the Eletian in all this?”

It was a good question. He was supposed to have traveled home with Karigan, but there was no sign of him, and Lady Omelia had apparently made no mention of an Eletian in her letter.

Zachary gazed at her, his mask firmly in place, and said, “You will inform me the moment you hear from the Riders you sent out.”

“Yes, of course. I will also ask Hep to keep an eye on Condor.” Messenger horses often sensed something of their Riders even when far apart. If Condor stopped eating, became very depressed and listless, it was a good indication that things were not going well for Karigan. “She will be fine,” Laren reassured him. “She can take care of herself.”

“But she has not fully healed.”

Laren knew that, and she knew Karigan might not be fine, but she had to keep Zachary’s hope up. There was too much on the line with battle and troop movements and a war stance in the offing.

“I almost forgot,” she said. She pulled the pouch from an inner pocket. “This was also in Karigan’s satchel. I didn’t leave it there for Javien and Les to gawk at. I figured you might know what it was.”

He took it, loosened the string to look inside. A muscle spasmed in his cheek. “I do.”

Just as she’d thought. Such tokens were gifts between lovers.

He removed the bracelet made from Condor’s chestnut tail hairs. It was frayed and might have grown too loose on Karigan’s wrist.

“Clearly she wanted to keep it safe,” Laren said in case he thought Karigan was hiding it, or in some way rejecting it and thus him. “If you like, I can leave it in her room. For when she returns.”

He replaced the bracelet in its pouch. “No need. I’ll repair it.”

Laren saw that as a good sign, that he did have some hope Karigan would return none the worse from whatever had delayed her. Laren knew she shouldn’t do anything to encourage Zachary’s and Karigan’s feelings for one another, but trying to keep them separate certainly had not worked. It reminded her of those old stories about true heart mates.

In the distance, the bell down in the city rang out the hour.

“I’ve a meeting with the lord-mayor,” Zachary said.

Laren took it as a dismissal. She stepped outside, glanced over her shoulder to see Zachary with head bowed, the pouch clenched in his hand. She quietly shut the door.

Les Tallman, who waited for her in the corridor, asked, “Everything all right?”

“Fine,” she replied. “He says he has a meeting with the lord-mayor.”

“That’s not for another half hour.”

Then Zachary was, she decided, taking time to compose himself. “I would not disturb him, in any case.”

“How does he seem to you?” Les asked quietly.

Laren sighed. It was not the first time they’d had this discussion since Zachary’s return. “Hard to say. You know how he hides what is on his mind.”

If Les were aware of Zachary’s feelings toward Karigan, he did not speak of it. “I fear his experiences in the north will just fester. It is difficult to know what will happen when it breaks him down as it eventually must.”

Les referred not to the situation with Karigan, but to his torture at the hands of Second Empire, and he was right to be concerned.

“I sense him second-guessing himself, his strategy,” Les continued. “He doesn’t know what information he gave the enemy when he was held captive, and he is questioning his every move, wondering if he is playing into their hands.”

“I agree,” Laren replied. What Les did not mention was the possibility of a spell placed on Zachary by Grandmother, the former leader of Second Empire and a necromancer. Zachary was highly aware one or more may have been placed on him, and must wonder if a spell was influencing his decisions. She hoped any spells had died with Grandmother, but thought it unlikely. If only their other missing Rider, Fergal, were here with his ability to see magic in others. Then they would know for certain if a spell had been placed on Zachary.

In the meantime, the wondering, the waiting, must eat at Zachary. Sacoridia’s own king could turn out to be the kingdom’s worst enemy.