Hunt of the Bandham (The Bowl of Souls: Book Three) (27 page)

He turned his focus to the visitors.

“You two may have noticed that this is a small class. These are my advanced graduate students. They are the most skilled students in the academy and they would all have moved on a long time ago if they had not agreed to be part of this special class.”

He introduced his four prize students to them.

“Starting on your left, this is Jobar da Org, Qenzic, son of Sabre Vlad, Poz, son of Weld, and as for the woman on the end, you may refer to her as Daughter of Xedrion until she tells you differently.” Faldon always hated introducing Jhonate. Her customs made the ritual so complicated. Half the time, he ended up having to explain everything to the people. To his relief, Locksher and Vannya took it in stride, simply nodding politely. “You two may sit down in the empty seats if you like.”

There were plenty of empty seats left for them to choose from. They took seats on the second row just behind the four students. To their credit, Qenzic and Poz kept facing their instructor even while following the mage as far as they could with their eyes. Jobar, though, half turned in his seat to watch with a stupid grin stuck on his face. Jhonate elbowed him in the ribs to get his attention back to their commander.

Faldon shook his head and walked around to the front of his desk. He leaned back against it, his arms folded across his chest. “I am sorry about the delay first of all. The council received some horrible news this morning and we have been in meetings ever since. I must announce the sad tidings that King Andre Muldroomon and all ten of his councilors were assassinated two days ago.”

Stunned silence gripped the room. Locksher was the first to speak.

“This has been confirmed?” The wizard’s eyebrow was raised again.

Faldon nodded. “Proud Harold, the Dremald representative on the Academy Council, confirmed it this morning.”

“What do we know about what happened, sir?” Jhonate asked.

“Only what Dremald is saying. The official position is that somehow assassins snuck in to the castle and slaughtered everyone in the council room while they were in session with the king. No alert was raised until after the assassins were gone. There’s only one eyewitness and he says that he saw three foreigners wearing red cloaks.”

“Foreigners?” Locksher said. “How did he know they were foreigners?”

“That’s a good question. Tad the Cunning asked the same thing and Proud Harold did not know the answer,” Faldon said. “Do you know of any assassin group that uses red cloaks? I asked the other members of the council and even Hugh the Shadow didn’t know any.”

“No. Assassin organizations prefer dark or drab colors. Red stands out too much,” Locksher said. “Now, several military organizations use red, but I can’t think of any that would have a reason to incite war.
Dremald
Castle
is in the center of the city. Whoever did this would have had to travel through throngs of people to get there. Surely they would have been noticed. But then again, I very much doubt that they would have donned their red cloaks until they were ready to attack. What time did this take place?”

“In the evening. Proud Harold said that the king liked to meet with his councilors just after dark. Evidently he knew the old men would keep it short so that they could get to bed.”

“There has to be other witnesses.
Dremald
Castle
is still full of people at that time of night. What about guards or servants?”

“No one.”

“What are those fools doing in Dremald? The king dies and so little is known about it? Such shoddy investigative work . . .” Locksher’s lips were pursed, his brow furrowed in thought.

The two men had been the only ones talking. Everyone else in the room was too focused on the conversation. The students weren’t even facing forward in their seats anymore. They were all watching Locksher think. Faldon smiled a bit. He had reacted the same way the first time he had met the wizard.

“You wish you were there right now, don’t you Locksher?” Faldon remarked, his smile widening. He looked to Vannya. “Can’t let a mystery go by, can he?”

Her eyes were focused on the wizard too. “No he can’t. In fact, we would have been here a few days ago, but he had to stay in Wobble to help the dwarves figure out -.”

“Could you please be quiet, Vannya? I am thinking here . . .” Locksher said. “Faldon, could you tell me more about this witness?”

“Yes, and I think that you will find this bit of information interesting, Locksher. The witness is none other than Ewzad Vriil. Remember him?”

“Of course I do. King John banished him after we uncovered his involvement with that vampire.” Locksher frowned in concern. “I had heard he was back in favor after King Andre was crowned.”

“That was true up to a couple weeks ago. The word was that the king was furious with him and revoked his title and lands.  Now he is being hailed as the big hero coming out of this event. They are saying that he saved the life of Princess Elise. Supposedly, he happened to be walking by and saw the assassins killing the guard outside of the princess’ door. He fought them off and escorted the princess to the throne room where they found the bodies of the king, the councilors and the king’s two guards.”

“Weren’t the king’s guards academy-trained, sir?” asked Poz, son of Weld.

“Of course,” Faldon said “I knew those men. Sanger and Lupold. They were ex-students of mine and very skilled. To be selected as the king’s personal guard, you have to be. Those assassins must have been good.”

“How were they killed?” Vannya asked.

“The report is that they all had their throats slit, except for the king who was killed with a knife wound to the heart,” Faldon responded.

“Throats slit? Academy-trained guards would not have been killed so easily,” Jhonate said. “They would have fought to the death to protect the king.”

“True. There is a lot wrong with this,” Locksher observed. “Were there any other wounds on the bodies?”

“I really don’t know. Harold only had so many details he could give us,” Faldon said. “Perhaps after you leave us here, you could go help them with the investigation.”

 “There has to be something that is being covered up by the nobility,” Vannya remarked.

“Yes. Most likely,” Locksher said. “The more I hear about this, the less I think they would want my help. They know more about what happened than they are telling the populace. They have to . . .” The wizard shook his head as if clearing his mind and glanced up to see everyone’s eyes on him. He looked apologetically to Faldon. “Forgive me for taking over your meeting. I know that you have more to discuss with your students. Vannya and I can make our plans afterwards. Please go on.”

“Right.” Faldon had been so interested in what Locksher was going to say that he had almost forgotten what the purpose of the meeting was. He cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, the result of these events is that the plans for our mission tomorrow have been altered. Proud Harold announced to the council that Elise Muldroomon was coronated Queen of Dremaldria yesterday.”

“That quickly, sir?” Qenzic asked. Any coronation without weeks of pomp and pageantry was unheard of. Such events were the lifeblood of the nobility.

“Yes, and Ewzad Vrill was given the status of Lord Protector to the Queen. Her first official act was to recall all Dremaldrian troops to Dremald.”

“All troops, sir?” Jobar said.

“What about the border?” Poz put in.

“All troops, Jobar. Even Proud Harold is being recalled to the capitol. The Queen is convinced that these ‘foreigners’ may attack again and in force next time. She is fortifying the city,” Faldon said. “We have filed an official complaint for Harold to take back to Dremald with him, but to answer your question, Poz, the academy will be patrolling the border on our own until someone can talk some sense into the queen. This morning, the council decided to pull our remaining troops together and take strategic positions. The patrols will warn the villages on the border and advise them to withdraw as well.

“Our forces will be stretched so thin that we are lucky our mission is still on at all. It wasn’t easy to convince the rest of the council to let us continue with our operation. The end result is that we will have no Dremald
support
troops, so it will just be the five of us. This means that we must do this quietly. We are not to attack any enemy forces, no matter how tempting the target. This is a reconnaissance mission only.”

Locksher was unable to hold his tongue any longer. His eyebrow was raised so far, it had to be giving the man a cramp. “Faldon, pardon me for interrupting, but I must ask, where are you taking this mission where there would be enemy forces? Is there a war going on somewhere?”

Faldon told Locksher about the army of trolls and ogres and goblinoids that had been massing at the border and how it had suddenly disappeared into the mountains. When he told Locksher about the moonrats they found among the army, the wizard’s excitement was palpable.

“Moonrats controlling trolls? Fascinating. How strange to see them so far from the Tinny Woods.”

“The last one we cornered had some kind of mental powers. Some strange voice tried to take our minds over as well,” Poz said.

“The moonrats were behaving strangely when we came through the woods on our way here too,” Vannya remarked. “In the darkest part of the woods, they were so thick in the trees around the road, that it seemed they were testing the barrier.”

“True,” Locksher said. “I cannot say that I have ever seen so many of those creatures gathered around the path before. The road was littered with the corpses of moonrats that had come too close to the barrier and when we neared the end, I had to kill two of the beasts that had entered the path from the far side. It was quite eerie actually.”

“Our mission has several purposes,” Faldon explained. “We received reports in the fall that the town of
Jack
’s Rest was attacked by the enemy army. This is a town well-known for the number of retired academy warriors living there. We usually have a lot of correspondence coming back and forth between the academy and the town, but we haven’t heard from any of those retirees since the attack. There were rumors that the invading army was using the town as a base. Then two days ago, we received reports of fighting going on in Jack’s Rest again.

“Our first priority is to search for survivors in the town and if there are any, see what we can do to offer assistance. Our secondary mission is to scout out the opposing army, see if they are still infesting the area, and look for clues as to who is controlling this army. This is all the more important with the recent events in Dremald. If this army was to regroup and attack the border again while Dremald has called their troops away, we would be in serious trouble.”

“Faldon,” Locksher said. “We would like to come with you if we may. I can’t help but think that this situation with Dremald is somehow related to this army you are speaking of and if the moonrats are somehow involved, then this could be linked to something much worse.”

“But what about Sir Edge’s book and the Scralag?” Vannya asked.

“That will have to wait until we get back I’m afraid. This is much more important.”

“You mentioned the Scralag.” Jhonate said. “You are here to investigate it?”

“Yes,” Vannya said. “We are here about the book the Scralag left with Sir Edge after placing the frost rune on his chest . . .” Vannya stopped as she noticed Faldon and Jhonate’s open mouthed stares. “What?”

“Vannya, I don’t think that your father has told them about Justan’s naming,” Locksher explained. Now everyone was staring.

“Justan’s naming?” Faldon asked

“Ah yes,” Locksher said, looking uncomfortable. “I apologize. We had assumed that you would have known by now. It probably isn’t my place to be the one telling you this, but you see, when your son went into the ceremony to receive the office of Apprentice in the
Mage
School
, things didn’t go as expected. The Bowl of Souls took over and named him instead.”

“Twice,” Vannya added, to the further astonishment of all in the room.

“No, once,” Locksher corrected. “He was named once, but as both warrior and wizard. He has uh . . . .” He held up both hands, the left palm and back of his right hand facing out. “Two runes to prove it. His name is now Edge.”

“Justan named?” Jhonate said, twisting the ring on her finger. “That can not be right, can it?”