Chapter Eight
When I finally stumbled out of the foliage with half of the forest still clinging to my clothes, the king’s men were finishing off the last dregs of bandits.
Giian’s tall form bounded over the hills, with something held in his fist, and when he finally skidded over to us on his large white mare, I could see it was the head of the marksman who had shot the fire arrow at the wall.
“Taken care of,” Giian panted as he threw the beheaded lump onto the ground. “Is this a common occurrence here?”
“More than we’d like,” I said as I made my way back to Ellyn, who immediately wrapped her arms around my middle. “It’s… complicated.”
“Well, we should like to know why Gladewood has suddenly become a target,” Giian said in a short, clipped tone.
“A once unremarkable and small town is now the host of violence and bloodshed,” Commander Nuro said as he wiped his bloody chin with the back of his gauntlet. “It doesn’t make sense.”
These soldiers had no intention of leaving any time soon, and if they were going to help us protect Gladewood, then I needed to be somewhat truthful.
The cat was out of the bag, and there was no way I could hide why the bandits and Shaar were attacking our little town. They were right. It didn’t make sense.
So, I made the decision to tell them a partial truth. One that would still keep me and the shard protected from the king’s keen gaze.
“They seem to think that a shard of the Emberstone is here,” I said. “One of the Wizards of Old Acre, Drakar Rathys, brought the shard to a lake just outside of town in order to charge its energy.”
“A Wizard left the Order?” Giian blinked. “Impossible.”
“The rumors we heard did not describe such a thing,” Wyllam, the lean soldier with the dark brown eyes, said, only to receive a sharp glare from Nuro that shut him up.
Clearly, Wyllam had already said too much. But now I knew that word about Drakar’s descent hadn’t fully reached the capital yet. Maybe the king was still under the illusion that the shard had abandoned its master, or that Drakar was just MIA.
That’s what the wizards had originally believed. It was an easier truth than their brother having betrayed them for a fouler, sinister cause born out of selfishness.
Thankfully, they’d come around to the truth, but it would be a similar hard pill to swallow for the man who shared blood with the queen who had shattered the source of their power in the first place.
“Trust me, you don’t know the half of it,” I scoffed. “Drakar is an evil viper. He tried to destroy this town until I ran him off.”
“And did he take the shard with him?” Nuro asked.
“I don’t know,” I lied through my teeth. “There’s a Lieutenant who goes by the name Shaar. Drakar’s Lieutenant. He’s the one who’s been organizing these recent attacks.”
“And is he the reason you darted off into the forest like a madman?” Giian asked.
“I saw him,” I said. “But… he disappeared.”
“And this ‘Shaar’ is acting in the stead of Drakar?” Nuro asked.
“Yes,” I said. “And he seems to think the shard is still here, too.”
I was playing a dangerous game in lying to the king, but I knew that if the king found out the truth, he’d take the shard for himself and either use it selfishly, or destroy it completely.
And I wasn’t going to let either of those things happen.
“That explains a lot, Nuro,” Giian said to his commander. “If the shard passed through here--”
“We don’t know if it has stayed or if it has gone,” Nuro snapped. “But that is not our mission, is it, soldiers?”
“No, Sir,” the remaining soldiers all chanted in unison.
Bullshit.
I could see right through their facade. I had the moment they’d strolled through the gate. They were after the shard, but I wasn’t going to let them find it.
“Our mission is to protect this town from the growing threat attacking it,” Nuro said as he faced me and my wife. “And that includes this ‘Lieutenant Shaar.’”
We couldn’t deny the extra help, and we couldn’t deny the king. Either way, we were stuck with these guys until they deemed their ‘duty’ had been done. I didn’t know if that meant Shaar being taken out, or if they would need to thoroughly search Gladewood and turn up nothing.
Either way, they were here and weren’t going anywhere. And I had to tread on very thin ice until they left.
“We appreciate the help,” I managed to say after I unlocked my clenched jaw. “Now… how about a drink at the inn?”
It was only midday, and I was already feeling exhausted. A mug of ale was sounding pretty good right now, and it might give me an opportunity to learn a little bit more about who these guys were and what their next moves were.
If they were going to come sniffing around my farm, we were going to have a problem.
I didn’t have many places I could hide the shard, and I didn’t really want to send it into the woods where anyone could steal it. And with Shaar still lurking in the shadows clearly taunting me, I didn’t want to give him an opportunity to take exactly what he was looking for.
“A drink does sound appealing,” Nuro said as he glanced around the barren hills. “Giian, did you see any other men?”
“No, Commander,” the Lieutenant promptly replied. “Nothing but rolling hills and the distant shadow of Midhallow.”
“And you, Glader?” Nuro asked me directly. “Did you see anyone else in the forest?”
“No,” I replied honestly. “I didn’t. Shaar disappeared into the shadows, but he was alone.”
“Then it should be fine to head inside,” Nuro said before he pulled off one of his gauntlets and stuck his fingers into his mouth.
He whistled sharply for his horse, who came galloping around the corner of the Mist Woods and over to him. Nuro pulled himself onto the saddle with a grunt before offering me his bare hand expectantly.
“I’ll walk back with my wife, thanks,” I said. “We’ll meet you there.”
“Suit yourself,” Nuro huffed. “Hands, to the inn.”
The king’s men steered away from the two of us and trotted back toward the entrance of Gladewood. The gate unfurled itself as they approached, and I spotted Alden and a handful of the dwarves who had been building the watchtower waiting anxiously on the other side.
“I was worried about you,” Ellyn said as the soldiers finally passed through the wall and out of earshot. “I was of half a mind to run after you.”
“That wouldn’t have been a good idea,” I sighed and wrapped my arm tighter around her shoulders. “It was pointless, anyway.”
“Was it really Shaar?” the pale-haired elf asked as she looked up at me with those big, icy-blue eyes.
“Yeah, but I don’t think he had any intention of fighting me,” I said. “He wanted to taunt me.”
“He’s just like Drakar, then.” Ellyn’s eyebrows twitched and then pulled down into a sharp ‘V’ shape.
“Like calls to like,” I huffed. “I’m sorry for leaving you, but I figured you had it handled pretty well.”
“It feels like my powers are getting stronger,” my wife agreed as she released her grip from around my waist and glanced down at her unbloodied hands.
“They must be,” I said before I dropped my voice down in volume. “You’re the closest to the shard out of every other elf here.”
“Hopefully, those soldiers don’t catch on to that,” the blue-eyed elf said with a smirk. “Otherwise, they’ll be hauling me into an interrogation cell.”
“Over my dead body,” I growled as I pulled her even closer to my chest. “They won’t lay a hand on you or anyone in this town if I’ve got anything to say about it.”
“Do you really think they’re here for the shard?” Ellyn asked. “I mean… it doesn’t make sense why the king would send help now.”
“Or why he would send help without knowing why it’s needed,” I added. “They didn’t even know about Drakar.”
“Yes, it does seem rather odd,” the blonde said before she chewed on her bottom lip. “I have a bad feeling about all of this, Noah.”
“Me, too.” I sighed and buried my nose into her hair.
It smelled slightly like smoke, as well as that earthy scent that was unique to her. I breathed it in for a few more moments before I glanced down at my wolf.
Fang’s crystal-white fur was stained with splatters of ruby red. You wouldn’t be able to tell that the pup had been fighting like an uncaged beast minutes ago. Not when he was sitting politely with his pink tongue lolling out of his mouth.
“We should head to the inn,” I said to the two of them. “I want to see if there’s more we can learn about these supposed saviors.”
“Just make sure they don’t learn too much more about you,” Ellyn warned. “If they’re going to search Gladewood with a fine-toothed comb, they might want to search your farm, too.”
“I know.” I ran my hand through my hair and felt my stomach twist at the thought. “I’ll have to figure out where I can hide the shard in case that happens.”
Maybe the well could suffice, but even then, I had no idea if the shard being dunked into my drinking water would affect us all from the inside. And I wasn’t particularly eager to start playing scientist, with myself and my girls being the test subjects.
Ellyn, Fang, and I began walking back toward the gate, which had closed behind the soldiers. Alden was still waiting on the other side when it unfurled for us, but the dwarves had quickly gotten back to building the watchtower.
“I-Is everything alright?” the anxious Overseer asked the moment we stepped foot on the cobblestone.
“Fine and dandy,” I said in a tone dripping with sarcasm. “It’d be even better if those guys left us the hell alone.”
“I’m afraid we’re going to be stuck with their… demanding presence for a little while,” Alden admitted with a wince. “I’m going to have to find a building we can use for their barracks.”
“Make them sleep on the ground outside the Frostfyre if they want their own space,” I scoffed. “They clearly don’t want to be clumped with the common rabble.”
“I’m afraid how we treat them is a reflection of how we treat the king.” The half-orc sighed and ran his hand across his face. “They are his Hands. An extension of him.”
“So, that’s why they’re called that?” I asked.
“Yes.” Alden nodded. “The king’s Hands act as his own. They deliver his justice… and his wrath.”