Leslie Moore - Griffin's Destiny

“Is something wrong, Raidan?” Sen inquired.

“No, no. I’m fine,” Raidan replied. Perplexed by what he had just experienced but having no ready explanation, he dismissed it from his mind. He stared into Sonoe’s face, and saw written there the very thing he feared most to hear.

“My brother is dead,” he murmured.

Sonoe’s eyes shone like luminous disks of jade in her pale, heart-shaped face. Something flickered within their depths, a glow the prince had never seen before.

Her chin lifted before she spoke to confirm what Raidan had already stated. “Yes,” she whispered.

Even though he knew it might happen and he believed himself prepared, the reality of Keizo’s death still struck Raidan like an axe blow. For a few terrible moments, he couldn’t breathe.

“The One have mercy on us.” Sen murmured, then asked, “What of my daughter-in-law?”

Sonoe turned her unsettling gaze on the Lord of Kerala. “She is devastated,” the mage replied. “She has sunk into a despair so deep, I fear she may never emerge.”

Raidan’s lips twisted into a frown. “Jelena is strong. She knows what’s at stake. She will recover.” He framed his words as a statement, for to do otherwise would be to admit his uncertainty.

“Highness, I have ridden practically without pause to reach you. May I sit?” Sonoe asked.

“Yes, of course.” He gestured for one of the servants to bring a stool, and the sorceress sank onto it with a grateful sigh. Her fellow mages remained standing in the background, their faces masks of consternation and worry. Even the dour old man whom Raidan had presumed to be their leader remained on his feet, as if he had already ceded his authority to the Companion.

Sonoe’s next words confirmed her new office. “I’m here to take command of the mages, your Highness,” she stated. “I can’t help the king…I mean, I can’t help Keizo any longer, but as a First Mage of the Kan Onji, I’m the most powerful practitioner in Alasiri after your wife. The princess herself ordered me to come.”

“Father,” Raidu interrupted. He stood at the tent flap, holding it open with one hand. “The scouts have brought the human. They’re outside with him now.”

“Have him brought in,” Raidan ordered. “Sonoe, we must talk, but I need to question this human.”

Too much is happening at once , Raidan thought. He felt oddly unbalanced, as if some unseen force sucked at him, draining him of vitality.

“Yes, my lord Prince,” Sonoe answered, inclining her head in submission. Raidan stared for a few heartbeats at the Companion, trying to fathom why she seemed different , somehow, then ascribed it to grief and fatigue, both his own and hers. He turned his attention to the commotion at the pavilion entrance.

Two scouts pushed their way through the flap, dragging a struggling figure between them. They hauled their captive to the center of the room and shoved him hard, sending him sprawling to the mats. Both scouts bowed, then readied themselves to pounce should the human try to make an escape.

“Your Highness, we captured this human on the east ridge,” one of the scouts stated.

“Stand up,” Raidan ordered in Soldaran. The man, who’d been crouching on the floor, unmoving, looked up sharply. His thin, ugly face bore a look of such astonishment that Raidan had to laugh. “I said, stand up,” he repeated, “or is my Soldaran so bad that you do not understand?”

The man unfolded his lanky frame and stood, though his shoulders remained stooped, as if he expected a killing blow to fall at any moment. “I understan’ ye well enough, tink,” the man muttered. His brown eyes burned with sullen defiance. It was difficult to tell his age; humans did not weather the passage of time very well, but Raidan thought he might be just past his youth.

“I am a merciful man,” Raidan said. “Tell me what I need to know and I will spare your life.”

The human sniffed, then with cool deliberateness, spat on Raidan’s boot.

Everyone in the room froze.

Like a hound unleashed, Raidu sprang to attack. He felled the captive with a brutal punch to the man’s face, then began kicking him in the ribs. The prince’s guards, after a moment’s hesitation, joined in. The sound of their boots made a meaty, thudding accompaniment to the man’s screams. Raidan heard the unmistakable wet crunch of breaking bone.

“What are you doing!” Sen Sakehera shouted.

“ Stop this at once!” Raidanroared. The guards fell back immediately, but Raidu, face alight with savage glee, aimed a final kick at the human’s head. The man convulsed, then lay still, blood and vomit leaking from his nose and mouth. Raidu spat in his face, then backed off.

Raidan stared at the broken, bleeding human, too consumed with rage to speak. Everyone in the tent shrank back against the walls except Sen, Raidu and Sonoe. Sen clutched the sides of his head and uttered a string of curses. Raidu insolently held his ground while Sonoe crouched and carefully laid a hand on the human’s forehead. She remained thus for many heartbeats, a living statue, eyes closed.

The air in the room, saturated with violence and horror, shimmered on the verge of ignition.

“We…are not…barbarians,” Raidan finally managed to croak through jaws clenched so tight, they ached. “We do not kick prisoners to death!” He whirled around to glare at the guards, who all fell to their knees like wheat beneath the scythe, heads bowed. Out of the corner of his eye, Raidan saw Kaisik staring at his brother, whey-faced. The boy pressed a hand to his mouth, stumbled over to the wall then vomited against the canvas.

“Sorry, Father, but the cur had it coming,” Raidu drawled. “He dared to insult an elven prince.”

Raidan lowered his head and focused for a moment on his dusty, spittle-stained boots, reining in his anger so he could respond to his son without howling.

“I needed the information that man could have provided,” he said. “Something he knew may have spared the lives of many of our troops. Did you even… for an instant …consider that?” He looked into Raidu’s eyes, hoping to find the tiniest scrap of remorse, but he saw none. His son merely shrugged.

“Your Highness,” Sonoe spoke up softly. “I’ve scanned the dead man’s mind and retrieved some images. They might be of use.”

If a trained mage scanned a person’s mind immediately after death, the deceased’s last thoughts, impressions, and memories could sometimes be recovered.

Perhaps Sonoe has been able to salvage something useful out of this debacle , Raidan thought.

“I commend you on your quick thinking, my lady,” he replied, then snapped to the guards, “Get this body out of here!”

The guards scrambled to obey, dragging the dead human out of the tent, leaving a bloody trail in their wake.

“You,” Sen gestured to the two scouts, both of whom had jumped out of the way the moment Raidu had attacked. “Could you tell whether or not the Soldaran had a partner?”

The pair stepped forward, shaking their heads in unison. “No, my lord,” the older man answered. “He was alone. Neither of us sensed any others nearby.”

“Tell us what you learned,” Sen ordered, turning to Sonoe.

“He did have a partner, Highness,” she answered. “But I got no sense that they were together when your scouts discovered this man. The other one may very well still be up on the ridge, or he may have already returned to the main body of the Soldaran army. This man felt certain, though, that the Soldarans will have no difficulty retaking the valley.”

“Very good,” Sen commented.

“You see, Father?” Raidu interjected. “Questioning that creature would have been useless, so there’s really no harm done…”