Chapter 22
The night came and went with no disturbances, the guards changing like clockwork and everyone soon woke up with the beginning of dawns light as the three moons set in the west. Soon the whole camp was a flurry of activity and the smells of breakfast cooking on the camp fire was making many mouths water in anticipation. This morning it was the soldiers who were doing the cooking and it wasn’t long before the group came together by the fire to eat and prepare for the day ahead. Princess Lunansa Brightwater was the most anxious of the group wanting desperately to get home and see her Father.
Davkas, Vekao, Lizzy and Taithmar were all sitting by the fire, warming their feet and just beginning to eat the morning meal. They were greeting the dwarves as they came up to join them, soon it seemed that everyone was eating or packing items up for the journey, it was Argha who first noticed Nelas wasn’t there with them.
“Has anyone seen that old smith Nelas?” he asked the other dwarves around the fire.
Heads turned towards the mind mage but they all shook their heads negatively and went back to there food. Argha though stood up and was looking around, “I don’t see him anywhere” he said, then looked over at Captain Hammerstone and Sergeant Blackrock with a frown.
“I’ll look for him” Sergeant Blackrock mumbled and got up from the fire and the food. He first looked over to where the dwarves had bedded down for the night, but couldn’t see any signs of where Nelas had slept. He was soon heading out towards the wooded area surrounding the camp site, mumbling and grumbling the whole way.
“Maybe he is just out for a morning stroll” Lizzy said helpfully to Argha.
“Well it’s not like Nelas to miss out on breakfast though, I’ve know him for a good long time now and I know he hates to miss a meal.” Argha responded back to Lizzy, but he had a very worried look on his face by this time.
Lizzy just smiled back at the old mind mage and nodded, she looked over at her father who was now standing up and looking out towards the edge of the woods, just trying to catch a glimpse of where the dwarf might be.
Soon there was shouting from the soldiers and all kinds of commotion. From the woods came Sergeant Blackrock carrying Nelas in his arms! The friends were on their feet in an instant and ran out to meet him.
“What is wrong!” was all the words that they got out before they reached Blackrock and Nelas. The Sergeant placed Nelas softly on the ground before them. Then looked up at the group, “He’s dead! I found him in the woods over yonder,” Blackrock points back the way he came, “he looks to have been stabbed and left to die.”
“Stabbed!” shouted Lizzy as she stumbled back a bit in shock. “How could that be? We are miles from any other people, it is just us and the creatures in the woods around here?” Lizzy then looks at her friend Vekao and her father for answers.
Vekao came up and examined the dwarf and the wounds on him. He said rather grimly to the group, “Well this doesn’t look like goblin work either. They are usually more brutal and sloppy in how they take a life, and I’m sure we would have heard something.”
Just then Captain Silverstar came striding up, parting his men and the others to look down at the body of Nelas. “Well what are you saying minotaur?” he asked Vekao with a cynical look on his face, “You can tell just by looking at this poor dead dwarf whether or not a goblin killed him?”
Vekao looked down at the captain and just smiled at him. “Yes human I can. I have fought and killed many goblins in my day, seen many die in wars and battles, and I am saying that this dwarf here was stabbed from behind, by a sneak thief or coward.”
“You know nothing!’ Captain Silverstar snarled at the hulking minotaur and turned to leave. He then called out to his men “It is time to break camp and get back to the city. Mount up we move out within the hour” he then turned to the friends still surrounding Nelas, “you will have some time to deal with your dead friend, but we need to move out in case there is a raiding party out there somewhere just waiting to attack!” He then marched off to his horse and finished stowing his gear.
Davkas turned to his friends after seeing the Captain march off, “He‘s acting rather strange for an experienced guard captain?” he said with a frown nodding towards the departing Captain Silverstar.
“Davkas please he is just concerned for our safety, there is nothing strange about that.” Princess Lunansa said in reply. “Besides he is right we need to get moving just in case there is a goblin band waiting to attack.” Then she too turned to leave but before she took two steps she turned to Argha and the other dwarves, “I grieve for the loss of Nelas I really do, he was my friend as well and I will see that he is honored when we return to my home.” She then bowed slightly to the dwarves, who nodded and bowed back towards the Princess, and then she went her way, but was soon looking about for Captain Silverstar.
Davkas and Vekao looked at each other grimly, they were not so easily convinced, yet they wanted to honor the Princess’s wishes and were soon helping the dwarves with Nelas’s body. They had decided to take him with them instead of burying him here as they did the dwarven soldier from the other day, so they took and placed him on the horse that one of the soldier had offered and got ready to leave.
But what the Princess and Captain Silverstar had said did not stop them from talking about the situation. The two old friends talked about it as they walked along with the party, they were soon joined by Taithmar and Lizzy, who had also been discussing what took place. Then Davkas pointed out a problem in his thoughts, he pointed out that he remembered seeing Captain Silverstar coming back into the camp late last night and with a strange look on his face.
“What are you suggesting Davkas?” Taithmar said to him after he had shared what he had seen and how the captain had spoken to them all about the artifact.
Davkas just shrugged slightly in response, not saying anything else at this time. So the four friends walked on, but they kept watching Captain Silverstar, he was spending a lot of his time riding next to the Princess, which wasn’t unusual in it’s self, but they noticed too that he kept looking back at the dwarves, who were on the trail at the rear of the group.
Captain Silverstar was very concerned; he wasn’t sure how he was going to pull this off. Here they were less than a day’s ride now out of Castitrona and he didn’t have much of an idea of how to get the artifact from the mind mage Argha. So he did the only thing that came to his desperate mind at the time, to fake an illness! He snuck some special black powder out of his pack on his horse, he had used this powder once before on a rival officer whom he had a feud with. It made a person terribly ill when they ingested a few pinches of it sprinkled on their food or drink, so the Captain figured if he used a little of it on the Princess, they would be forced to stop when she got sick. So he excused himself from riding next to her and rode towards the back of the group, feigning interest in the dwarves.
When the Captain reached the dwarves he asked them how they were holding up, with concern written on his face. When they responded that they were just fine and thanked him for his concern, he drifted to the back of the column. Little did he realize that now Davkas was keeping a very sharp eye on him and noted his every movement, so Davkas saw the Captain take his water skin out and sprinkle some substance down into it, he wasn’t sure what the Captain was up to but he saw this none the less.
The Captain then rode back up to the front where the Princess was riding, she smiled at him when he came up to ride beside her again. The Captain took out his waterskin and pretended to take a drink of the water, and he then offered the Princess a drink. She smiled again and took the waterskin from him. She took a long drink and thanked the Captain for the water, smiling shyly back at him, batting her eyes a little in an attempt to try and flirt with the handsome captain. He smiled back and they both laughed a little, yet Davkas was puzzled by what he had seen but didn’t say anything yet.
Soon the Princess was feeling a bit strange, she was feeling really dizzy and before long she actually fell from the saddle of the horse she was riding on! The whole group gasped as one and everyone stopped in their tracks! Captain Silverstar leaped down from his horse and was at her side instantly.
“Princess Lunansa what is wrong!” he practically shouted as he rushed up to her. By this time she was trying to sit back up from the ground but was having trouble doing so. Then she leaned over to the side and vomited, and not in a very lady-like fashion either!
Captain Silverstar helped her to her feet and she leaned on him heavily as they walked to the shade of a nearby tree. The soldiers and the others all came up around her to see what help they could offer. Soon Argha Flintrock came up to offer the Princess his aid, he knelt down besides her and took her hand in his.
“What is wrong Princess?” Argha said to her as he knelt down.
“I don’t know?” the Princess responded back to him. She found that she was having trouble focusing on his face, and simply closed her eyes, and lay back down against the tree.
Argha looked concerned and questioned her on what she might have eaten that morning? When she told him that she hadn’t eaten anything, just had drunk some water, he was puzzled?
“I don’t understand what this could be? Perhaps something bit her during the night and she is reacting to it now?” Argha said with a look of concern on his face. “Princess I will try to help you if I can.” So with that the elder dwarf closed his eyes and concentrated on the Princess and her illness.
Soon though it became evident that nothing much was happening, Argha just shook his head and stood back up. “I’m not sure what is happening with the Princess.” He said, “My only thought is that this is perhaps some sort of magical attack and not an illness at all.”
Captain Silverstar then stepped in and took over the situation, “Well we must make her as comfortable as possible while I send one of my fastest riders to the King to let him know that we need to have his most powerful mages here to help the Princess.” He then turned to Argha and said, “Thank you for trying mind mage but it seems that you can do no more for her, so please step aside.”
Argha looked up at Captain Silverstar and said “B-but I’m not finished!”
“Yes you are for I am in charge here and I say step away from the Princess!” Captain Silverstar practically screeched at the surprised dwarven mind mage, his anxiety over the whole situation was growing rapidly now. He then motioned his men and all of them drew their swords menacingly.
This of course caused the small contingent of dwarves to pull their weapons free and glare at the men and elves with their drawn weapons pointed at their beloved mind mage. At this point Davkas shouted out “Enough! Everyone put your weapons away! We are not the enemy, we are among friends here.”
With that Captain Silverstar motioned for his soldiers to comply and lower their weapons then said in reply to Davkas “I appreciate your words and we do not wish to come to blows over this either, yet I must insist that everyone do as I say for the sake of the Princess.’
Davkas held his tongue he knew something was not right, for he remembered what he saw the Captain doing just moments before the Princess collapsed. Yet he also knew if he accused the Captain openly in front of his men then they wouldn’t stand a chance to help the Princess. So he chose to comply for the time being, he simply nodded to the Captain and backed away, he then whispered something under his breath towards Vekao and together they walked away leaving the others behind. Soon the mind mage Argha got up to his feet, gave Captain Silverstar another withering look and the dwarves all shuffled quietly away from the Princess, but not too far.
When Davkas and Vekao got a little ways off from the rest of the party Vekao looked down at his elven friend and said “So what’s going on Davkas?”
Davkas looked the minotaur in the eye, which was a little hard to do, and replied back to him “Well I have a bad feeling about all of this Vekao. I saw the good Captain back there put something in the water before the Princess took a drink of it. And then again last night I saw the Captain return alone from outside the camp looking a little shaken. I’m just thinking that there is more to what is transpiring than what he wants us to believe.”
Vekao just nodded and looked back towards where the Princess still lay under the tree. About this time Taithmar and Lizzy came strolling up, trying to look bored and disinterested. Lizzy spoke first to he father “So what was that about back there?”
Davkas just looked at his daughter for a moment, he marveled how much she reminded him of her mother, his wife, who had died many years ago. But here she was all grown up and in a very dangerous situation. “Well Lizzy, Taithmar, I’ll explain it this way. I believe that the Princess is in danger, and I don’t feel that Captain Silverstar is telling us the whole truth about what is going on here. I think he has some kind of ulterior motives that would explain his actions.”
Taithmar and Lizzy just looked at Davkas kind of funny like, obviously not convinced yet that something was going on. So Davkas huddled his three friends together and explained everything that he saw to this point. In the end he seemed to convince them that the Captain was acting suspiciously and they had to have a plan of action. But they also knew they needed the help of the dwarves to have any hope of a chance. So Davkas went to talk with the dwarves…
“Well you don’t have to explain to me that something fishy is going on!” Exclaimed Captain Hammerstone said to Davkas, in a way only a dwarf would say. Very loud, and not caring to much that others might hear him, but luckily for Davkas no one else did, so after he shushed the dwarven Captain he explained the rest of their plan to him. Captain Hammerstone nodded his agreement and went and spoke to his remaining warriors, including Sergeant Blackrock, while Davkas went to find Argha Flintrock, he finally found the old dwarf sitting by himself next to an old oak tree.
“Argha, we need to talk.” Davkas called out to him as he approached him under the tree. The tree was massive and was very old; Argha was just sitting there gazing up at its branches. He looked over to Davkas approaching him and replied, “Greetings Davkas, I was just sitting here admiring this old tree, I don’t get to see any tree’s down in Ironhold.” He then chuckled a little at his own joke, if that’s what you’d call it, and then smiled up at Davkas, who by this time was standing over him.
“Yes I can only imagine.” Davkas said in response to the old mind mage. Then he got serious and sat down next to Argha. “Could I have a word with you?” he asked him.
“Certainly, tell me what you need?” Argha replied back to Davkas.
So Davkas explained their situation to the mind mage, about what he had witnessed on the trail and what he saw at the camp the night before. Argha’s expression soon turned very sad and angry at the same time. He looked at Davkas and said “Are you sure about all of this?”
“Yes I am very sure.” Davkas said with a sorrowful look on his face. So they soon hatched their plan on how they would turn the tables on Captain Silverstar and find out what he was about.