Chapter 14: Friend or Foe?
Chapter 14: Friend or Foe?
THEY gave up on visiting the market and returned to the castle, whereupon they were ushered into the main residence’s reception hall. King Klinack and Vrba raced into the room with harrowed faces shortly after.
After Turek finished reporting what happened, Vrba remorsefully confessed, “Child kidnappings have been on the rise within my territory as of late too. We’ve been having a hard time stopping the problem because we still don’t know whether they’re orchestrated by a group or if each crime is unrelated to the other. I never thought it would happen in the royal capital as well.”
Klinack’s solemn expression was heavy with grief. “I have neither excuse nor explanation for the incident,” he said slowly.
Vrba quickly came to his rescue. “It’s not your fault. Bad people are everywhere in the world.” He turned to assure Unen and Irena, “It was an unfortunate turn of events, but you’ll be safe here. His Majesty will protect you.”
“Do you want to improve my image or trample it? Decide,” Klinack sighed.
Vrba stared back at him perplexed. “Your image has nothing to do with it. What happened in the city isn’t your responsibility, Klinack.”
Maintaining the security and safety of Yezero had long been the job of the Vigilante Corps, which was originally established by the townspeople. While the royal capital was of far grander scale than a rural town, the idea of self-protection had originated here.
Klinack sighed loudly for the second time. “Well, you have one thing right: as long as my guests are inside this castle, there is nothing for them to fear. I hope you can relax to your heart’s content within these walls.” Regret tinged his voice.
***
JUST as Sissel entered to inform them lunch was ready, Klinack left the room with Turek in tow. Unen expected to return to the annex tower, and was subsequently surprised when Sissel showed them to the main residence’s grand dining hall.
“I was ordered to have you wait in the main residence after lunch until Lord Harabal returns to the castle, Lady Unen.”
Sissel brought Unen to the second chair from the door at a long wooden table that could seat twenty. He directed Irena to the chair across from her, and placed Ori at the corner chair beside Unen.
Unen cocked her head inquisitively at the empty chair opposite of Ori. She hadn’t seen Mouru once since they had returned from the city. Life was easier without him leading them by the nose with all his ill-natured insinuations, but the longer he was away, the more Unen felt needless worries pop up in her. He could be plotting something evil, unpleasant, and/or dastardly in the shadows somewhere.
Unen stifled a sigh and voiced her worries by asking Sissel, “Excuse me, is Mouru not dining with us?”
“Ah, yes…Master Mouru said he was feeling under the weather soon after you went out. He has been resting in his room.”
“He is? Is he all right?” Irena asked, concerned. Then she leaned across the table to whisper to Unen, “And here I thought, with a personality as rotten as his, he wouldn’t die even if you killed him.”
“What a heartless fellow the Master Mage is to make a lady worry over him.”
The group looked in surprise at the door. There they discovered Vrba grinning devilishly, obviously pleased with his dramatic line that sounded as if it’d come straight out of Act 1 in some play.
“How’s his condition? Would you like to borrow my personal doctor?” Vrba offered.
Who would expect anything less of a lord who oversaw an entire province? He apparently brought his personal doctor on his trips to the royal capital. Despite his complaints of being inconvenienced by the shortage of servants, he brought far more vassals with him than Unen had assumed.
“Lord Vrba’s doctor served as the instructor of our castle’s live-in doctor,” Sissel explained with a big smile. “As for Master Mouru’s condition,” he said to Vrba, “he took some medicine earlier and was sound asleep when I went to call him on him for lunch. May I approach you later about your offer once he has awakened, Lord Vrba?”
Vrba gracefully brought his hand to his chest in mock modesty. “I don’t mind. I’d be delighted to be of any assistance.” He had a strange way of making theatrical gestures appear natural.
“By the way, why might you be here, Lord Vrba…?” Sissel dubiously prompted.
The question caught Vrba off guard. “Ah, err, I thought it’d be fun to join in the merrymaking.”
“Shall I request a server to bring a meal here for just you, Lord Vrba? Or will Sir Jalt be joining us as well?”
“No need. I just came to take a peek at how you were all getting along. With that said, I should be taking my leave now. I hope you all enjoy your meal.” Vrba exited the room, leaving only the lingering image of his incandescent smile.
“Is Jalt his doctor?” Unen hadn’t heard the name before.
“No,” Sissel responded in good humor. “His doctor’s name is Dzui. Sir Jalt is Lord Vrba’s chamberlain. He was the gentleman you saw standing behind Lord Vrba in the guest room this morning. His Majesty wants to introduce you to everyone of note at the banquet tonight, so you will likely have the opportunity to meet Doctor Dzui then.”
“Ban...quet...” Irena muttered, blue in the face. “How do we handle this, Unen? I didn’t bring any clothes fit for a banquet. I don’t OWN any, for that matter.”
Sissel rushed to assure her, “Oh! Please do not fret…! This will be a private banquet, so…umm…I will also be attending in the clothes I’m wearing, if that helps!”
“Me too,” Unen said, "these are my best clothes. How about you, Ori?”
“My clothes aren’t that dirty yet, so I don’t plan to change.”
Irena looked unconvinced. “Really? But is it really all right? Will these clothes actually be fine?”
Sissel firmly nodded. “It is perfectly all right. Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highness the Princess were full of praise for how dashing and stylish you looked while you were training with the sword last night, Lady Irena. If I may be so bold, I believe they will be ecstatic if you came in your normal attire.”
“They saw me?!” Red dyed Irena’s face.
Unen couldn’t suppress the urge to grin at her normally confident friend’s cute reaction.
***
HARABAL showed up at the grand dining hall while Unen, Ori, and Irena were enjoying some after-dinner tea. The aide soundlessly slipped in to the room with an austere expression after a reserved knock.
“Are you finished with your meal?” he inquired.
The relaxed mood in the room instantly turned professional.
“Lady Unen, I wish to speak with you for a bit as we agreed.”
“…All right.” Unen slowly rose to her feet and watched Ori from the corner of her eye.
He had apologized for putting her through something scary right after he saved her from an attempted kidnapping that morning. Those weren’t the words someone who just so happened to come across her being kidnapped would say. Especially not after going out of their way to rescue her. He had to have been secretly guarding her knowing there was a good chance she would be in danger.
But for what reason had someone targeted Unen? How did Ori know she was being targeted? Was Mouru truly sick in bed? And with what intentions was Harabal requesting a pointless conversation with her?
When it came down to it, were these puzzles connected or not? For that matter—
“Shall we depart then? This way, Lady Unen.”
Torn with how to answer, Unen’s glance flickered to Ori.
…For that matter, were Ori and Mouru actually on Unen’s side?
“Don’t worry,” Ori whispered in a barely audible voice. “We’ll protect you.”
His assurance was brief and concise. Then he brought the cup to his lips as if nothing had happened.
Unen quietly squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled until air filled her chest.
She still didn’t know to what degree she could trust Ori and Mouru. But she knew for the moment, at least, that she could believe in what Ori just said. After all, he was the man who bowed his head with a tormented expression to apologize, the one who had said, “I’m sorry for putting you in a scary position,” even though it could possibly expose the fact that he was secretly protecting her.
And more importantly, hadn’t he already faithfully protected Unen, just as he had said he would?
“Lady Unen?”
“Ah, okay. I’m coming.”
“Have a good chat!” Irena encouraged Unen, her tone carefree.
Unen followed Harabal out of the dining hall with the sound of Irena’s voice at her back.
***
THE turret in question was positioned on the opposite side of the main residence, across the courtyard. Built on the highest plateau of land, it loomed over the rest of the castle, and provided an unbroken view of the castle’s inner compounds in addition to the capital city.
Harabal led Unen up the dark, winding spiral steps and opened the door to the rooftop. Instantly, surging winds smacked Unen in the face. The raging wind in her ears sounded like the howls of a carnivorous animal.
The battlement encircling the turret’s rooftop had crenels at the height of an adult male’s waist and merlons taller than his head. Cerná’s national flag billowed proudly in the wind, framed against the blue sky, far above the base of its stand, which was fixed to the ground right beside the stairway entrance.
Unen could only see the sky beyond the merlons from beside the flag stand. Perhaps, she would’ve been able to see the entire horizon if she were only a little taller. She swallowed hard. This is the closest I can get to a true bird’s eye view.
“Lady Unen, this way.” Harabal beckoned her over while gazing down on the world in front of a crenel. “Take a look.”
Unen stood beside Harabal, taking care to leave a slight space between them.
Small houses and buildings, appearing like pieces of wood or tiny boxes, spread out below her eyes. She directed her gaze closer to the turret’s base, which brought the first castle wall that surrounded the inner compound as well as many roofs taller than she had seen in the city, into view. From there, her gaze shifted to the castle gate towers of the second wall, then to the main residence, the courtyard, and the annex towers.
“You can see the surrounding land clearly from here.” Harabal’s gaze slid over to Unen as he spoke slowly and deliberately, as if choosing each word very carefully, “Put another way, it also means this spot is in plain sight from its surroundings as well.”
Unen’s ears picked up on the sound of something slicing through the air before Harabal finished speaking.
A blast of wind slammed into her out of nowhere and shoved her to the ground. Staggering from the impact, Unen shakily crawled to brace herself against a merlon—Murmurs were mixing with the howling wind. Something hard crashed into the outer side of the merlon she was taking refuge behind.
What in the world is going on? Disoriented, Unen tried to push to her feet, only for Harabal to charge at her this time.
Diving in front of the merlon, he covered Unen with his body and knocked her to the ground again. Instantaneously, an arrow shot through the crenel above their heads, piercing into the door leading to the stairs.
She heard the Murmurs again—clearer this time.
Mouru was standing next to the stairway door. She hadn’t noticed he’d shown up. Fixing an aggressive gaze on where the arrow had shot from, he leisurely waved his right hand.
The sound of raging winds and Murmurs danced wildly in her ears, fighting against each other for supremacy. Shifting her gaze beyond the nearest crenel, Unen watched the third arrow decelerate and drop into the courtyard.
Mouru advanced to the merlon where Unen and Harabal shielded themselves and dropped his gaze below. The Murmurs promptly changed their tune.
“Ori, they’re located at the second gate; the tower to the west of the one we used.”
The wind carried away Mouru’s muttered information without delay.
Unen hurried to peek down through the crenel and spotted Ori sprinting into the tower Mouru had indicated.
A lone figure stood at the top of the other tower. They had tossed their bow on the ground and were making a mad dash for the stairs, but pulled back at the last second and instead drew their sword, flashing silver in the sunlight.
The Murmurs reverberated inside Unen slightly after the wind’s howls had ransacked her ears, screaming like nails on steal.
The man on the gate tower fell to his knees, spewing blood and an indistinct scream. Mouru used the same spell that had sliced up the highwaymen around Irena and Ori during the clash with Chelveny.
Drawn by the sound of triumph in Mouru’s voice, Unen looked up at him in dread. There, she saw the dully glowing eyes of a hunter who had trapped his prey, directed to where Ori was restraining the archer on the roof of the gate tower.
Unen swallowed back the saliva filling her mouth. She remembered anew why exactly Mouru and Ori had appeared before her.
They were masterful hunters, dispatched by a legendary mage. It was practically impossible to imagine any prey of theirs escaping once they had set their sights on it.
* * *
THE full moon began to sink into the western sky. Before the break of dawn when white would change the colors of the night sky to that of day, three large and small shadows stood behind the clinic.
“Must you go?” Milosh wrung out in a hoarse voice. “I don’t know much about these hunters of yours, but can’t they be handled if the entire town turns them away?”
Hereh feebly shook his head. “We can’t do that. Please understand.”
After several aborted attempts for the right words to say, Milosh angrily scratched his head. “Is this where the, ‘let me leave without saying anything’ and ‘don’t ask me why’ promise comes into play? Sheesh, who’s the halfwit who sensibly offered, ‘I’ll do three favors in return for all you’ve done for me until now’?” Milosh asked then remorsefully answered his own question, “Me. I’m the halfwit.”
“The third favor—”
“I know. I’ll perfectly act out our little script, so go wherever the hell you want and have your damned peace of mind.” Milosh swung his gaze away from Hereh in his anguished desperation.
“Thank you, Milosh. You too, Unen.”
After patiently listening to the adults’ conversation, Unen looked up at Hereh with a gleam of hope still in her chest. “Where are you…going?”
But Hereh only smiled ambiguously and didn’t answer. “Goodbye.” He lightly lifted his right hand and turned away.
“Hereh!” Unen called out to him on the spur of the moment, but she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to stay here longer. She wanted him to teach her more things. If those things were impossible, then he should just take her with him—
Hereh looked back at Unen and held her hostage in his eyes. “Listen to me closely, Unen. The world will open before you. You must never forget that.”
He intended to leave on his own no matter what. Unen could sense that from the bottom of her heart. In which case, there was only one thing she had left to say to him. Kicking her parched, twitching throat into use, she squeezed out, “Come back safe.”
He didn’t say he’d be back. Hereh wordlessly turned his back on her.
Unen stood motionless, watching until he was out of sight. It was then, when she was still staring at the road empty of the man who had saved her life, that she finally realized she had forgotten to thank him.
* * *