The High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain
In addition to all the courtiers, he picked out six Weapons and six cavalry officers who were Lady Estora’s guards for the excursion.
Interesting.
Some were mounted and others sipped tea and brandy while awaiting grooms to bring out their horses. Lady Estora sat sidesaddle atop her mare, the skirts of her habit splayed across her horse’s flank. Black was a harsh color on her, but he did not disapprove. The cut of Estora’s habit and surcoat had a military style to it, like that of many of the other ladies, but hers was filled out with enough brocade and frills to make it eminently feminine. Her golden hair was tucked and pinned under a hat that was decorated with long trailing pheasant feathers.
While his stallion, Goss, was readied, Amberhill made the rounds, greeting the assembled, making matrons blush and Estora’s sisters, both younger, giggle. The girls were pretty, but not of the same rare beauty as their elder sister. One still retained the roundness of prepubescence.
He counted fifteen additional nobles, accompanied by almost as many servants. Not a huge party, for which he was glad, but enough to permit confusion. Zachary, thank the gods, had not joined them.
Horses stamped and shook their manes and steam rose from their nostrils. It was a cold morning with a hard frost, but good riding weather. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.
A groom led Goss out to Amberhill and the stallion’s dark bay coat shone in the morning light. He mounted and soon the company rode off castle grounds, hooves clattering over the bridge at the gates, and onto the Winding Way. Three Weapons ranged ahead while the other three dropped behind to guard from the rear. The cavalry officers were more intent upon looking handsome in their uniforms and flirting with the ladies than performing guard duty. Lady Estora rode at the head of the nobles, conversing with Lady Miranda, and clearly enjoying herself. Last of all trailed the servants.
Amberhill stayed near Lady Estora, keeping watch on her. Townsfolk gathered to observe the company ride by, and to gaze upon the one who was to be their queen. She waved and smiled to them, and her greetings were returned with enthusiasm, and, it appeared, gratitude. Amberhill suspected she was going to make a popular queen.
When the party rode through the main city gates and emerged before the Eletian encampment, Lady Estora reined her horse to a halt. The colorful tents billowed in the breeze, their colors intense beneath the sun. As was usual, there was no sign of the Eletians astir in their camp, but if this disappointed Lady Estora, he could not tell. She just seemed glad to be free of the castle grounds, her features less taut, happier.
He edged Goss up beside her. “What do you make of it, my lady?” he asked.
“Eletian,” she said. Then she laughed.
“Truly,” and he couldn’t help but smile. “Do you have a particular course in mind for today?”
She laughed again and it made him think of the joyful girl she must have been before the world began to press its problems on her. “I did not think beyond this point.”
Those nearby who overheard began suggesting their favorite rides. Most were easy courses over rolling farmland, and well-traveled.
“I’ve another in mind,” Amberhill said, “perhaps a little more challenging, a little wilder, through the woods west of here. It is a trail most often used by hunters and woodsmen, but clear enough for those mounted. I daresay there will be logs to jump and streams to ford.”
Lady Estora looked uncertain, so he added, “There is a fine lake by which we may picnic. We are apt to see moose there, and waterfowl.”
“Oh, I know that place,” said Lord Henley. “It is as our Amberhill suggests, more challenging, but exhilarating. Most enjoyable.”
“Let us try it then,” she said. “I will not be put off by a little challenge, and today is all about different scenery.”
Amberhill fought to conceal his relief. If she had ignored his suggestion and taken some other route, it would have complicated his plans. He gestured down the road. “This is the way, my lady.” He reined Goss onto the Kingway and headed west.
Fields became apple groves, a sweet scent arising from fallen apples pulverized beneath hooves. Soon the apple groves turned to overgrown meadows with trees still clutching onto brightly hued leaves, and finally they entered the darker, more primal forest, all sounds subdued and the ground soft with pine needles and moss.
They had galloped and cantered over open land, jumped hedges and old stone fences, laughing and scattering birds and a fox from the fields before them. But now in the forest they quieted for a time, absorbing the feel and woodsy smell. Now and then a hoof clacked on a rock or a horse snorted.
Goss was turning out to be something of a nuisance. The run got his blood rising and he was all too interested in Lady Miranda’s mare, who must be in heat. He arched his neck and pranced, his ears perked straight ahead.
“This is not the time,” Amberhill murmured to his stallion. Goss tossed his head, uninterested in anything his master had to say.
Then, without warning, Lady Estora kicked her horse into a quick trot, then into a canter, and they were off again, careening through the trees, ducking beneath low limbs, clods of dirt flying up from hooves. They came upon a series of old rotted logs lying across the path and leaped them. Goss refused the trees and paced in a circle until Lady Miranda’s mare went before him.
Amberhill leaned forward and said into his horse’s ear, “Before the day is done I will see you gelded!” It was an empty threat, for he’d intended to use Goss as the foundation stud of his horse farm.
But Goss did not pay a whit of attention to him anyway, all his senses focused on the mare, his nostrils flared. Amberhill growled. He needed to be up front, closer to Lady Estora, but Lady Miranda, a more timid rider, hung toward the back. The trail was a narrow track, and it would not be easy to thrash through the trees to get to the front, and they were nearing the place…
In a moment of inattention, Goss snapped at Lady Miranda’s mare above the tail. The mare kicked and Goss sidestepped with a snort.
“Idiot!” Amberhill slapped Goss with his crop, causing the stallion to half-rear and circle. While he struggled to control his horse, he was passed by the servants. A Weapon on a steed as black as his uniform gave him a sympathetic glance as he cantered by.
“I will feed your bones to the dogs!” Amberhill told his unimpressed horse.
When Goss realized the mare was out of sight, he whirled and charged down the trail, Amberhill barely maintaining his seat. By the time Amberhill caught up with the party, it was too late.
FOG
An unnatural fog crept through the woods, tumbled across the trail, obscured everything farther than a few feet ahead. Panicked whinnies and shouts echoed through the woods. A riderless horse galloped back down the trail, dragging its reins. Then silence.
Goss seemed to run in place even as Amberhill laid his whip into him. “Damnation,” he muttered. The fog must be some trick of the plainshield’s. At its edge, he pulled Goss to a halt. He could not gallop heedlessly where he could not see. Goss pranced and snorted, but Amberhill held him in, trying to decide what to do.
A voice rang out somewhere ahead. “My lady, you will come with me.”
It was Morry. Amberhill imagined him sitting tall upon his sleek horse attired as the Raven Mask, the silk obscuring his features. The plan was going ahead even without Amberhill in his place.
Morry, as the Raven Mask, was supposed to present Lady Estora to the mysterious noble who was behind the abduction. Amberhill was then to pretend to be held at bay by the Raven Mask while the noble made his terms for Lady Estora’s release known. Then they’d go their separate ways, the noble with Lady Estora to whatever estate he held, Morry into the woods with his payment, and Amberhill back to the city to report the honor abduction and pass on the noble’s demands.
In an honor abduction, the captive wasn’t supposed to be placed in danger, and was required to be treated well by her captors. Nobles understood what was expected, for this cod
The unnatural fog, however, heightened Amberhill’s sense of foreboding. Anxiety knotted in his gut. Morry had warned him that the best of plans could go awry. Morry hadn’t liked this plan from the beginning…
Amberhill urged Goss into the wall of fog. It was like entering another world, or maybe one of the five hells. Horses thrashed this way and that, limbs of trees reached out of nowhere to grab at him. Goss leaped over an unhorsed servant cowering beside a rock. He glimpsed Estora’s youngest sister clinging to her horse’s mane as it bucked in fright.
He heard swords slide from sheaths. The Weapons would be moving forward to protect Lady Estora. His gut clenched at the whine of a crossbow bolt and the scream of a horse as it crashed to the ground. Goss reared and Amberhill fought him down.
“No!” he cried.
More bolts whined through the fog. Now there were human cries among the trampling hooves and the squeals of terrified horses.
“No.” This time it came as a whisper.
Goss planted his hooves, sweat foaming on his neck. Amberhill dug his spurs into the horse’s sides and Goss leaped forward. Deeper into the fog he found the dead horse lying on a dead or unconscious Weapon. He found a cavalry officer with a crossbow bolt through his neck, his eyes wide open.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” Amberhill said.
Lord Henley was draped across a log, his body twisted at an impossible angle. Another Weapon with a bolt in his stomach writhed on the ground, blood bubbling from his mouth.
A third Weapon appeared out of the mist beside him like a ghost. “Sir, you are all right?”
Amberhill nodded. “Yes, yes.”
He worked Goss along the trail, the fog wisping before him like layers of veils, revealing in only small increments the scene around him. Lady Miranda knelt on the side of the trail weeping, another dead cavalryman sprawled across a boulder.
Goss’ nostrils flared and he champed on his bit as they picked their way down the trail. Lady Estora’s other sister helped a Weapon with a bolt in his leg. The Weapon struggled to rise, holding onto a tree. With a scream of pain and frustration he fell back to the ground.
The sister looked up at him then, her face pale. “Someone has taken Estora.”
He did not answer, but nudged Goss forward and forward until the fog revealed a man lying prone on the ground on a bed of moss, a bolt in his back. A mask concealed his face.
“Morry!” Amberhill dismounted and knelt beside him. “Morry…” Gently he peeled away the mask, revealing the older man’s gray face.
Morry’s body quivered. “Betrayed,” he whispered. “Bad business, my boy. Bad men. Betrayed us. Not…not an honor abduction.”
“Morry?” A sob caught in Amberhill’s throat.
Morry’s mouth opened and at first nothing came out, then he whispered, “Remember honor, Xandis. Remember true honor.” He did not speak again.
Amberhill sat back on his heels and rubbed his face with his hands. All his fault. He moved his foot and his toe struck something that jingled. A bulging purse of gold. A mocking gesture from the men who had betrayed them.
He gathered Morry into his arms. At first Goss shied away, but then the stallion allowed him to place the dead man across his back. Amberhill took the purse of gold and led Goss through the fog.
He would not let Morry be found and the blame laid on him. He would find a place for him to rest until he could return his body to Hillander for a proper burial. He deserved no less.
All my fault.
Morry had been a devoted servant, had raised him when his own father was incapable. Had trained him in the ways of the Raven Mask. Now he was gone. Morry had said he didn’t trust the plainshield. Morry hadn’t thought the scheme worth any amount gold. He was right.
I did not listen.
It was one thing for the Raven Mask to steal jewels and trinkets, or even a piece of parchment from a museum, and quite something else to deal in human lives. He knew that now. Morry’s final lesson.
Without looking back, Amberhill led Goss out of the fog into the brightness of day. He would find a temporary resting place for Morry, then pursue the plainshield and his cohorts. When he caught up with them, he would make the plainshield eat the gold, one coin at a time.
“If you do not find my daughter, if any harm comes to her, the eastern lords will march on this city and see your crown removed.”
Lord Coutre’s face was so red Laren feared his heart would burst. Zachary sagged in his throne, rubbing his temple.
“You are under great strain, my lord,” Castellan Sperren said. “Do not use this time to make threats you will later regret. Under other circumstances, we would take your words as treason.”
Lord Coutre’s face only grew redder, his white eyebrows standing out in sharp contrast. “I shall say what I want! It’s my daughter who’s been abducted! What were you thinking by allowing her a ride in the country with the Eletian threat?”
“It was not the Eletians who took her,” Colin said. He displayed the crossbow bolt on his palm. It was common enough looking, and not of the sort of weapon Eletians were known to use.
Lord Coutre dismissed him. “What are you going to do about it?”
Zachary looked up and Laren wondered what thoughts flowed through his mind. Certainly he worried for Lady Estora’s welfare, but her abduction raised so many other questions: Who dared such a brazen act? Could it have been the Eletians? She didn’t think so, but she knew he must consider the possibility. If not, who else wanted the future queen? Some group, no doubt, that wished to destabilize Zachary’s power. Second Empire came immediately to mind.
There were likely other groups and individuals out there with all kinds of grievances. Enemies of Coutre, perhaps, who did not wish to see the clan rise to such prominence with Estora’s marriage to Zachary. Enemies they couldn’t even begin to imagine.
These possibilities and more must occupy Zachary’s mind. What enemy was he facing? Would Lord Coutre follow up on his threat if Lady Estora were harmed? It was not a complication he, or any of them, needed right now.
“We will find her,” Zachary said, his voice gruff. “I’ve a phalanx of Weapons assembling. And I will lead them.”
“No, you won’t,” Laren and Colin said simultaneously.
“They likely wish to draw you out,” Colin added, “so they can capture you, too, or worse.”
Zachary stood and upon the dais he towered over them. “I will not stay. I cannot just sit here and do nothing.”
Lord Coutre grunted. “Better that than you endangering the mission to rescue my daughter. Send your Weapons—they’ll do their job better if they don’t have to worry about you.”
They all looked at Lord Coutre in surprise, and Laren applauded his reasoning.
“I wish to go, too,” he added, “but I am an old man and would only hinder your Weapons. Wisdom is knowing when to go and when not to. I have a wife and children to comfort, so I will leave you now. But I want word sent to me the moment you know anything.”
They watched him as he made his way down the throne room runner. He moved slowly, was more bent than Laren remembered. Zachary sank back into his throne chair.
“I’ll send Ty and Osric with your Weapons,” Laren said. “They can bring word back.”
Zachary gave her the barest of nods. She called a Green Foot runner over to deliver her instructions.
“We’ve wasted so much time,” Zachary murmured.
“Necessary,” Colin replied. “The abductors may have a strong lead on us, but our Weapons shall be tireless in their pursuit. When the Weapons catch up with them, they shall be sorry they chose such a course.”
Such a fervor had grown in Colin’s voice that Laren could tell he longed to partake in the pursuit himself.
“Mea
“My cousin did not return,” Zachary said.
“No,” Colin replied. “Willis said he was not among the dead or injured, and was fine when last he saw him. We can only conclude he went in pursuit of the abductors immediately.”
What Zachary thought of this he did not say. “The fog Willis mentioned, it sounds like magic.”
“He said it was unnatural,” Laren recalled. “I agree.”
“The Eletians will have to be questioned.”
Laren thought that would be an interesting discussion.
Neff the herald rushed through the throne room doors and down the runner. He dropped to his knee before the dais. “Eletians, my lord, from the encampment. Three have come to speak to you.”
Laren and Zachary exchanged glances, stunned by the uncanny timing.
“Send them—” Zachary began, but the Eletians had already entered the throne room and were gliding down the runner.
They came unarmed, but the guards in the throne room moved in closer to their king, hands on the hilts of their swords. The Eletians did not appear intimidated in the least, their stride unflagging, their features unperturbed. Leading them was the one who had been their guide in Prince Jametari’s tent that day, his sister. She wore a gray-green cloak about her shoulders. But for a few thin, looping braids, her pale hair was unbound and flowed to the small of her back.
The other two Eletians, males, followed behind her, and were similarly attired in gray-green. Sunlight slanted through the throne room windows and played across their hair and brightened their faces as though pulled to them.
The woman in the lead knelt before Zachary, followed in turn by her companions.
“Greetings, Firebrand,” she said. “My brother bade us speak to you in this troubled time.”