The Game of Fates (49 page)

“Aye,
Hemmet.  I saw it,” Mirrik replied.  “I felt the power he brought with him,
too.  Funny thing is, ever since that meeting, I’ve been feeling guilty about
not up and joining that Kale fellow on his trip to the Kale Gen’s caverns.”

Hemmet
looked surprised.  “You too, then?  Well, and I thought it was just me!”  He
paused for a moment in thought.  “Well, then, what shall we do about it?”

Mirrik
looked suddenly afraid and unsure, as if he were standing on the edge of a
cliff looking out into darkness.  “I don’t know, my friend.  You know the old
kobold would have our heads if we did follow after him.”

Hemmet
nodded in slow agreement.  “Yes, and how could we convince our people to follow
us?  After all, we were there to feel the power, but none of them were.”

“Aye,”
Mirrik solemnly agreed.  “And I’ll not leave my people to whatever horror it is
that’s coming our way, be it ants or something else.  I’d rather die with them
then leave them.”

Hemmet
nodded.  “But what if we could convince them to go anyway?”

Mirrik’s
mood perked up a bit.  “And how could we do that, do you think?”

Mirrik
and Hemmet sat there thinking for a while, but neither of them had any good
ideas.  All of a sudden, however, Mirrik had a flash of inspiration and he knew
where the answer to their quandary could be found.  His mind told him he
shouldn’t, not after beating them that is, but his heart told him it was the
right thing to do.

“Psst!” 
The sound came from the other side of the prison door.

“Psst! 
Hey!”  The hoarse whisper sounded again.  “Are you the Kale Gen warriors?”

Most
of Durik’s party stood, their chains clanking as they stirred.

“Yes,
we are warriors of the Kale Gen,” Gorgon answered firmly.

Quietly
a key was placed in the lock and it opened with a click.  As soon as the door
was opened just far enough, two rather broad shouldered kobolds, obviously
warriors by the look of them, slipped through the door, closing it silently
behind them.

“You’re
the leader of the warriors who took us prisoner!” Manebrow observed.  “What
could you possibly want with us?” he asked Mirrik.

Mirrik
and Hemmet looked at each other, the doubt showing on their faces.  Mirrik held
up his hands to calm the quickly angering group.  “Look, my friends, I was
doing what my lord expected of me.  Would you have done any less if you were in
my position?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders.

Durik
rubbed the bruise on his face from when he’d been thrown at Lord Sennak’s feet,
but didn’t answer the argument.  Instead, he held up his hand to cut off the
many comments his warriors were beginning to say.

“What
is it you want of us, Deep Gen leader?” he asked.

Mirrik
looked at Durik guiltily.  “I… I’ve come to ask you a question.”

Durik
folded his arms.  “What is it, then?”

Mirrik
paused.  He’d never been one to talk much about feelings, and asking a complete
stranger about such things was far out of his comfort zone.  Hemmet put a hand
on his shoulder, and Mirrik felt the strength to go on.

“Kale
Gen leader, when you came before Lord Sennak the Just, you mentioned something
about an ant invasion.”  Mirrik paused, not sure exactly how to proceed.  “You
said many things about these ants, but there was a power there when you spoke. 
It was a feeling, a powerful feeling that both of us felt.”

Durik’s
stern look began to soften as he saw that someone in the court had believed
him.

“Later,
just a short time ago, in the courts of Lord Sennak the Just, an outcast from
our gen, one by the name of Kale, came and told us all that we had to leave the
underdark and travel to your gen’s home.  He also said that Lord Sennak the
Just was to join our gen to the Kale Gen, and that he, this exile named Kale,
was the rightful ruler of the entire Kale Gen.

“Can
you tell me, what is this power, and what is it that we are supposed to do?”

Mirrik
had said more than he had intended to say, but when he finished he was glad it
had all come out.

Durik,
on the other hand, felt the fire of confirmation in his heart telling him that
what Mirrik had spoken was true.  He thought for a moment before answering. 
All around him the rest of the Kale Gen warriors stood in confusion.

“The
power that you felt when I spoke is the power of a being known as Morgra,”
Durik explained.  “Though I know little about her – I know she is pure and that
she has chosen me to be a paladin for her, to restore the Kale Stone to its
rightful holder.

“I
cannot speak to the power that this Kale had with him, but if he is indeed the
rightful heir and ruler of the Kale Gen, then it is likely the power of the
Kale Stone,” Durik finished.

Mirrik
and Hemmet stood in wonder. 

Finally,
Hemmet spoke.  “But I thought the Kale Stone was lost several generations ago. 
Is this not so?” he asked.

Durik
nodded.  “Yes, it was.  But it was also found.”

“Where
is this stone, paladin?” Mirrik asked.

“If
you let us out of this prison and give us back our things, I will show you
where it is now,” Durik answered him.  Around Durik, the rest of his party
seemed to be in anxious agreement with him.

Hemmet
looked at Mirrik.  The two of them had come this far, and now this Kale Gen
paladin was asking them to take a step beyond that which Lord Sennak would even
think of forgiving.

“Before
we do that, paladin” Hemmet asked, “what shall we do to convince our people and
our lord that we must flee our homes?  Surely they will not listen to us, for
they have not felt of this power and were not there to understand its
convincing power.”

Durik
smiled.  “My friends, there is power in Morgra to convince.  She will manifest
her power to accomplish her ends.  And if she commands your gen to leave its
home and travel to the home of my gen, then she will prepare the way for it to
happen.  I believe that Morgra will show us the way if we go back to Lord
Sennak and face him together.”

Mirrik
slowly nodded his agreement.  “Yes, this is true.  Though I don’t know how it
will be, I know it is the right thing to do.”  Beside him, Hemmet’s eyes showed
the worry of what was to come.

The
jailer who had let the two warrior guard leaders pass was no fool.  He knew
that the excuse Mirrik and Hemmet had made for getting to the Kale Gen warriors
was false.  ‘Doing a check of the prison facilities.’  Hardly.  The two had
never cared about the place before, and besides, they weren’t his warrior
leaders.  He was part of Lord Sennak’s personal guard, those whose purpose was
to run the government of the gen and to execute Lord Sennak’s will.  Therefore,
he had no warrior leader.  But out of respect for their high positions, he had
let the pair pass… then he had followed at a distance until he had discovered
their true destination. 

Now,
even as the pair were probably still in the cell with the Kale Gen warriors,
this loyal warrior of Lord Sennak’s personal guard had run to the chamber of
Lord Sennak to report to him the activities of his warrior leaders.  Finding
his pillared throne room empty, he went to his personal chambers.  There he was
greeted by a pair of his fellow personal guards, who blocked his way.

“But
I have news for Lord Sennak the Just about what two of his warrior leaders are
doing behind his back,” the jailer hissed at them urgently.

“Go
away.  He’s meeting with them now, and said he didn’t want to be disturbed.”

The
jailer paused.  “He’s meeting with all six of them?”

The
pair of guards looked at each other.  “No, I suppose he only has four of them
with him.”

“Precisely,
and it’s what the other two are doing that will be of great interest to him,”
the jailer smiled.

As
Durik strapped on his belts, he felt the pouch where he had put the Kale Stone
and was relieved to feel its weight and form still there.  Turning himself
about to face the wall, he opened the pouch and unwrapped the Kale Stone from
its covering, just to make sure it had not been replaced with something else. 
The clear rock with its bronze flecks lie still and motionless in his hands,
its power dormant, its consciousness passively aware.  Durik put it back in his
pouch.

He
took the sword that Lord Krall had given him from its place with the other
weapons as the warriors of his party took their weapons from the same pile in
silence, checking them for soundness and either strapping them on or leaning
them against the wall as they hoisted packs and sat them heavily on their
armored backs.

“Hurry
up, now,” Hemmet spoke in a low voice.  He’d not seen the jailer at his
station, and he and Mirrik were very worried by that.  Mahtu stood
dispassionately observing the Kale Gen warriors put on their armor and gather
their equipment.  Finally, they had finished and Manebrow gave Durik the nod.

With
a nod to the warrior leaders, the party was off.

They
were surprised to see the area of government empty.  The halls from which Lord
Sennak’s personal guard administered the gen were never empty, it seemed, yet
today fortune seemed to have smiled on them.

When
they arrived at the throne room, however, they knew why.

Lining
all the walls behind each row of pillars the personal guard of Lord Sennak
stood in ranks with weapons ready.  They looked as if they were awaiting the
arrival of some host through the main doors of the throne room.  Seated on his
throne, Lord Sennak was surrounded by his largest, most skilled warriors. 
Standing off to one side were his four remaining warrior group leaders.

Hemmet
stopped cold at the entranceway that led from the area of government into the
side of the pillared hall.  Behind him Mirrik came up short, followed in close
order by Durik’s party.

“Oh
no, they’re waiting for us,” he hissed back to Mirrik who now saw the danger.

Not
a heartbeat passed before Lord Sennak’s old, but firm voice sounded from the
dais off to their right.

“Don’t
keep us waiting, now.  Come!  Let’s see what you’ve done!”

Like
two wayward children, Hemmet and Mirrik stepped forward into the throne room,
the darkness of it made bright by the heat of so many warriors.  Behind them,
Durik, Manebrow, Gorgon, Jerrig, Arbelk, and Troka walked with varying degrees
of confidence into the chamber full of warriors.  Buoyed by the confidence of
the others, even Mahtu seemed less cowed than he had the first time they’d been
brought into Lord Sennak’s presence.

“Well,
then, what have we hear?” Lord Sennak’s voice carried through the chamber as the
group approached his throne.  “The Kale Gen warriors and a pair of traitors, it
would appear.”

Hemmet
and Mirrik came and bowed their muscled frames before their lord.  Behind them,
Durik and his party stood conspicuously straight.