Rob Scott - Lessek_s Key

‘You don’t have a Resistance Army big enough to stand against them?’

‘Hannah, I don’t believe Eldarn has ever had an army that could stand against them, not even when King Remond was in charge. It was as if those Seron monsters were- I don’t know, as if their brains had been scrambled by something nightmarish, but their bodies were still programmed to fight.’

Hannah shuddered, unsure which challenge she feared most: getting out of the palace or crossing the monsters’ encampment.

‘So no sword?’ Hoyt asked.

‘No, I’ll stay behind Churn.’

‘Good idea,’ Churn agreed.

‘You should wear this’ Hoyt said. He belted a dagger around her waist. ‘It’s light and well balanced, almost a throwing knife.’

‘Good, because I won’t do anything but throw it away at the first sign of trouble, anyway.’

‘I don’t care; it will help with your disguise, and it might just save your life if we get into a fight.’ He stepped back and looked at her. ‘Try to relax; you’re too stiff. It’s not going to stab you in the leg.’

‘It just might.’ She held the leather scabbard as if it were a live snake. ‘I’ll be some NRA statistic, another hunter shot by a shitfaced brother-in-law with a rifle.’

Hoyt looked to Churn.

‘No idea,’ the big man signed.

‘Let’s say we reach the river.’ Hannah gave up arguing; she wasn’t getting anywhere. ‘What then?’

‘Either we hop a barge, or we steal a boat. We ought to get out of here before dawn, because we’ll need at least an aven to get downriver and find some shallow water.’

‘Assuming Alen has the far portal.’

‘That’s where he said he was going.’

‘You think he’ll get it?’

‘I think he wants to kill Bellan. If the portal is in her chamber or a nearby chamber, I think he’ll get it. If not, then our suicide mission will have to wait until tomorrow night.’

‘I like the sound of prison break better,’ Hannah said.

The door opened and Alen stepped inside, talking to someone. ‘In here, Pepperweed. Don’t be afraid. They’re nice, too.’

Just before it faded for the night the sun invariably brightened, a final swell of light before slipping off to bed, Hannah thought. I’ll be back, it might have shouted, don’t forget me, even as Eldarn’s twin moons shouldered it out of the sky for another lap around the heavens.

‘We have to get it,’ she heard Hoyt say.

‘No, we don’t. We have to get Milla and all of you out of here.’ Alen was adamant.

He hadn’t found the far portal. Although Hannah was as enchanted with the little girl as any of them, she worried that the old man had forgotten why they were in Malakasia at all. She watched the last rays of sunlight and tried not to cry as she asked, ‘How will I get home, Alen?’

‘We have to get away,’ Alen said, his hands resting on Milla’s shoulders.

‘We will,’ Hoyt said, ‘but what’s wrong with you? We came here for the portal.’

‘I know,’ he said, ‘and a few other things, but-’

‘But what? What has changed so dramatically that we’re going to leave here without the far portal?’

Alen tried to sidestep the question. ‘A soldier named Tandrek is taking over the delivery of food – if you can call it that – to the cells. I have been doing that job for the past five days. He believes he is doing me a favour, and keeping both of us in the officers’ good graces, but he will discover that you aren’t in your cells, and haven’t been in your cells for some days, and the alarm will sound. So please understand, we have to leave right now.’

We can’t go without the portal, Alen!’ Hoyt shouted. ‘Think of Hannah.’

‘I am thinking of Hannah.’ The old man tried not to raise his voice.

‘No, you’re not, you are thinking of yourself and your personal vendettas – what happened, Alen? Did you kill Bellan? Is that it? Did you kill these slave-magicians who have been hunting you for so long? Did you get all your slaughtering done and then realise that we didn’t have the far portal?’

‘Enough!’ Alen shouted. Milla jumped and scurried away from him. Ignoring the others, he kneeled and whispered to her, ‘I’m sorry, Pepperweed. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t shout like that. I’m sorry.’

Her lip quivering, Milla clutched the straw-stuffed dog in a death grip.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said again. She gave him a watery smile.

Alen,’ Hoyt interrupted impatiently, ‘we have to get it. Let’s go; Hannah can stay with Milla.’

Alen got up and shrugged helplessly. ‘It’s not here, Hoyt, it’s in a town called Traver’s Notch, with my old colleague Fantus, Gilmour Stow. He and Steven Taylor managed to get it away from Nerak; I don’t know how.’

They stared at him in shock, and he said quickly, ‘I never had any intention of bringing you into the palace – who knew the bastard was watching us all the way? I am truly sorry, Hoyt; I wasn’t going to put you at risk, but I needed to come here.’ The words, so long pent up, bubbled out of him as he begged for their understanding.

‘I needed to kill Malagon’s daughter, because he took Reia from me, and I needed to kill those who have made me a prisoner in my own home for the past nine hundred Twinmoons, but none of that matters now, because the portal is in Falkan, and Fantus – Gilmour – has it. We will send Steven, Mark and Hannah safely back home.’

Hannah’s heart lifted; she almost sobbed in relief. He hadn’t forgotten her. Churn put a comforting arm on her shoulder.

‘Right now, the most important thing is to get this little girl out of this place safely,’ Alen continued. ‘She’s important, that I know, and that’s the reason I’ve lived this long, Hoyt, I’m sure of it: this is the path to the Northern Forest. That’s what Lessek wanted me to know; that’s why he let them watch me all those Twinmoons. He needed me enraged enough to come up here and rescue this little girl.’

Hoyt bit his lower lip, considering the old magician in the young sergeant’s body. Drawing a deep breath, he said, ‘You know, Alen, I’d wager that you could probably meet some really attractive women in that body.’

‘Oh, Jesus Christ,’ Hannah breathed.

The former Larion leader smiled in relief. ‘It’s been so long, Hoyt, I wouldn’t know how,’ he said with a laugh. ‘Now, are we ready to go?’

‘Not at all.’

‘Good. It will be more fun figuring it out along the way.’ Hoyt checked his weapons. ‘Churn, you stay with Hannah, no matter what.’

‘Right.’

Alen said, ‘Hoyt, you and I will take the lead; you carry Milla. If we run into anyone, she is Colonel Strellek’s daughter, and we are ordered to deliver her to him out near the river where he is inspecting a shipment from Treven. Got it?’

‘Colonel Strellek?’ asked Hoyt.

‘There is no Strellek, so it will confuse the issue long enough for us to get away, or to silence whoever is questioning us. We stop for nothing, but we don’t run. Walk purposefully, as if you are going somewhere. Don’t linger, drag your feet or stop for any reason. People don’t interrupt those who appear to be on their way to do something important. It’s just our nature.’

Hoyt handed Hannah a leather strip. ‘Tie your hair up. It’s like a rutting flag hanging down like that.’

‘Got it,’ she said, tying her hair into a ponytail, then tucking the end underneath and securing the whole lot. It didn’t feel terribly secure, but it was the best she could do.

‘Here’s the route,’ Alen continued. ‘Out the door to the right and down the stairs, two levels. At the bottom go left past the doors to the main dining hall. The kitchen is across the hall. Take the first stairs we reach on our right; it’s about a third of the way down the hall. Down two short flights to the grand foyer, cross the foyer and go out the main gate. From the moment we pass the first level hallway, one flight down, we will be among Malakasians. There is never a time when that hall is empty, so we might as well go when it is full to bursting – there is a guard change after the evening meal, so that’s right about now.