Michael Mathias - Kings, Queens, Heroes, and Fools

Had to be that fargin dwarf, thought Hyden, as he darted to the bushes for the fifth or maybe the sixth time that afternoon. Phenilous wouldn’t dare betray me. Brady Culvert was a possible suspect as well, but not a likely one. The Wildermont guardsman’s sense of duty was second to none. Hyden knew that someone had betrayed him though. Someone had conspired with High King Mikahl to get the squat weed into his cup or his canteen. Maybe it was the wagon driver, or one of his two helpers; or was it someone else in the escort?

“It’s like traveling with a wee little girl,” commented Oarly the dwarf from the top of his mule. His legs weren’t long enough to get around and over the back of a horse, so rather than teeter to and fro like a child’s toy, he chose a narrow-backed mule that his stumpy body could manage. On top of the hairy little man’s head was a pointy-topped, wide-brimmed hat that had long ago flopped over in the middle.

“I have to admire King Mikahl’s mode of revenge. It’s… It’s…”

Brady started to say “effective,” but the moaning grunt that Hyden Hawk made from the bushes on the roadside caused him to finish with the word “brutal,” instead.

“I swear by the goddess that if I find out which one of you helped him,” Hyden called out breathlessly, “I will… I’ll… Ooh! Ah! Oooh! Blast you!” The wet sloppy sound that followed caused them all to make sour faces and urge the horses a bit further away.

They were somewhere between Jenkanta and the High Port – Old Port split. They had crossed the Doon River the day before and camped at an often used cave called the Midway. They were on their way to Old Port to catch their ship and should have been beyond the split by now, but Hyden Hawk’s condition forced them to stop every few miles so that he could relieve himself.

At first Hyden thought that he had eaten something that disagreed with him, but then he remembered Mikahl’s comment as they had said their goodbyes. “Take plenty of soil cloth,” the High King had joked with a stupid grin on his face. Hyden thought that he’d meant to take extra soil cloth for the sea voyage. He understood the jest all too well now. This was Mikahl’s revenge for Hyden displaying him naked before the Princess, and it was, as Brady put it, “brutal.”

“Should we let the wagons run ahead?” the commander of their customary twenty man escort of Blacksword soldiers suggested to Brady from a discreet distance. “Captain Trant will want to load the gear and make ready. He likes to keep his schedules.”

“Aye,” Hyden called from the roadside. “All of you go on. I’ll catch up to you.”

“Escort the wagons on to port, Sergeant,” Brady said. “I’ll escort Hyden Hawk.”

“I’m staying with Hyden too,” Phen said. His loyalty to Hyden, as well as his worry, showed plainly on his face.

The sergeant spurred his horse away and spoke to the wagon master. The procession began forming back up and eventually started away.

Oarly made no move to join them. As soon as the procession had moved on, he urged his mule toward the clump of shrubs where Hyden was now standing to lace up his leather britches.

“It was I who got ye,” Oarly confessed with a mixture of pride and shame. “By the order of the High King, mind ye.” He began rummaging through his pack and brought his stumpy arm out with a grin. “Here, eat it.” He offered Hyden a thumb sized dried vegetable that still had the stem attached to it. It was glossy black, like a polished stone. “It might burn a bit going in and out, but it’ll plug you up, if you know what I mean.”

Hyden studied the dwarf’s eyes, which were on a level with his own since Oarly was still seated on his mule. It was hard to read the dwarf’s expression because his big silly looking hat shadowed most of his face. Hyden saw no malice or mischief in the squat man’s gaze though, so he took the offering and bit off a big piece. The heat of the pepper crept up on him as he was walking back to his horse. By the time he got there his entire head was glowing red and on fire. Sweat poured down his brow and his mouth felt blistered.

“Ahh!” Hyden yelled. “Wah-er! Wah-er!” He walked, almost sprinting, over to Brady who was unshouldering his canteen. “Whaaat-er!”

“It’ll only make it worse,” Oarly said with a grin, but it was too late.

“AAHHHHH,” Hyden yelled as he guzzled water like a mad man. When it didn’t cool his mouth his eyes grew panicked and desperate. He made a pleading gesture with his hands. “AAHHH! AAHHH!” His eyes were squinted and watering. Water from Brady’s canteen was running down his chin and his head looked as if it might explode.

By that time, even Brady and Phen were laughing.

A few moments later, after he’d cooled off and mastered himself, Hyden Hawk summoned what dignity he had left and climbed back up into his saddle. Without a word, but with plenty of angry looks, he spurred his mount down the road.

“What did High King Mikahl give you to do that?” Brady asked with genuine curiosity in his voice.

“For slipping him the squat weed he gave me this.” Oarly reached his stumpy arm over his shoulder to his back and patted the handle of the wicked looking double-edged axe that was strapped there. “That cinder pepper I just gave him, though,” Oarly chuckled, “now that was me own gag.”

“He’ll get you back, you know,” Phen boasted in Hyden’s defense. “He’ll get you back good!”

“No lad,” the dwarf said with a confident smile on his hairy face. “After that cinder pepper works its way out of him, he’ll know better than to jest with the likes of me. Mark my words.”

From Phen’s shoulder, Talon the hawkling cawed out his sharp disagreement with the dwarf.

Oarly hadn’t lied. True to his word, the effects of the squat weed quickly dissipated. Nevertheless, Hyden kept them trotting a few hundred yards behind the wagons and the escort just in case.

The land around them was green, but rocky. There were very few trees, but many clumps of shrubs and bushes dotted the landscape. They passed several herders whose large flocks of sheep and goats looked fat and healthy. After they took the Old Port branch of the ‘Y’ in the road, they began to see lively farms, and other humble dwellings out along the hills. It appeared that this part of the world hadn’t been touched by Pael’s madness.

As they drew closer to the ocean, Hyden grew excited. He’d never seen the sea. Berda the giantess had told him and the clan folk many a tale about it. The last few nights, at the fire, Hyden and Phen had taken turns reading from a book about tides and the moon’s other effects on the ocean. This only made Hyden want to see the splendor of the sea that much more. Before he could see or hear the water, though, he could taste the salt in the air. As soon as he did, he sent Talon ahead to explore. With his eyes clenched shut, he watched as the world passed below through the hawkling’s razor keen vision.

The road wound its way down among the sloping hills into a long stretched conglomeration of gray topped roofs and crowded, narrow cobbled streets. It extended southward farther than Talon could see at his present height. Hyden sent the hawkling rising in an upward circle, using the warmer air reflected off the rooftops until it was all well below him. Hyden saw through Talon’s eyes that they were starting out onto a finger-like peninsula that extended a good distance into the gray-blue ocean. The road went the length of the finger, with smaller dirt and cobbled lanes cutting across it toward the white rolling shores. Ships, boats, skiffs and trawlers lined the myriad docks that extended from the western side of the formation. To the east, the finger was open and a fat dark gray line separated sea from shore. As Talon swooped lower Hyden saw that it was a crude wall made of granite blocks. Rolling white-capped waves crashed into it, sending up huge explosions of foam and spray. Gray and white gulls were everywhere calling and shrieking and diving on schools of baitfish. They scattered when Talon soared past.