Paladin's Fall: Kingdom's Forge Book 2 Read online

  “Thank you, Cleeger. Regardless of Koren, we must decide on a course of action regarding the caravans. King Baylest has charged us with protecting the gold road. We cannot afford to lose further shipments. We cannot let the orcs grow strong again,” Sera said, giving the table a sound thump with her fist for effect. There were nods and murmurs of agreement in the crowd.

  The wood elves had only begun to rebuild their society after the last great elf war. In the lands where many hundreds of thousands of her people had once lived, less than twenty thousand now remained. Wars with the Golden and the orcs had cut into their numbers viciously.

  “Elgin, what can be done to defend the gold road?” Dain asked.

  Although not an elf, her husband was well respected among her people. After the war, he had chosen to live with them, aiding in their rebuilding efforts and training a new generation of warriors. More than a few wood elves called themselves Paladins after his teachings.

  He had paid dearly for the choice to align himself with the wood elves—with her and Jin. Paid for it in blood and tears. Only she knew the accumulation of scars that crisscrossed his body. From birth Dain had learned war, and although she was a leader of her people, Sera let him have his way in this.

  “Baron, we can double our patrols and loan a few rangers to each caravan,” Elgin said. “Ask the smaller groups to bunch up for their own protection. If you could provide us with a few Paladins to bolster our ranks, we would appreciate it.”

  A low grumble ran through the crowd.

  The Paladins were a sensitive subject; one many were uncomfortable discussing. More than a few wood elves considered it improper for Dain—who, for all his support and sacrifice, wasn’t elven—to have his own private army, small though it was.

  “Honored Elgin, I have two-dozen fighters who can assist you. I will hold another fifty at the castle as a reserve force. Cleeger, you have the most experience sneaking into Mirr. Will you organize the scouts? We need more shapeshifter eyes in the sky,” Dain said.

  Cleeger nodded, absently stroking his chin. “I can easily triple the overflight coverage. Put one with every caravan, even. If Commander Elgin can get them grouped up.”

  “Good. I would also like at least one mage with every ranger patrol and the balance in the castle with the Paladins,” Dain said.

  “You will have them,” Celia said, inclining her head in Dain’s direction. In addition to her teaching duties among the mages, she served as their military leader.

  “What of the army?” one of the artisans asked.

  “Tarol is meeting with his soldiers now. Their forces will be assigned to guard the homesteads around the outlying villages. Tarol will personally take command of a thousand troops at the West River Keep to protect the valley entrance. He has a significant force of mages and shapeshifters with him,” Dain answered.

  “Is there any further business to discuss?” Sera asked, pleased with the orderly turn the gathering had taken.

  “Have we sent word to Galena?” a mage called out.

  “Yes, messengers have been dispatched,” Sera said. She paused to allow for further questions, but there were none. For that she was grateful. Answers were few.

  “If we have nothing further, let us adjourn,” she said in closing, and everyone turned toward the doors to leave in a great shuffle of feet and swish of cloth.

  Afterward, Sera, Dain, and Jin gathered in a small, informal room off the castle’s central chamber.

  “Better than expected,” Dain began.

  “Anything short of outright panic is better than expected,” Sera said with a sigh.

  “I notice neither you nor I have assignments, Mother,” Jin volunteered.

  “Baylest responded to our message. I chose not to share his words with the others. Galena offers no military aid, yet insists we keep the gold road open. The king is sending ‘ambassadors’ to meet with the Golden to discover their intentions. They’ve offered to receive him or anyone else he chooses to send,” Sera said.

  “That damned crown has scrambled the man’s brain. Either that or getting married to Noor,” Dain said. “Not that marriage doesn’t ruin the best of men.”

  He put a broad hand on Sera’s back and wiggled his fingers playfully. She knew he was trying to lighten the tension, and appreciated the attempt.

  “Certainly ruined a handsome young Paladin I used to know,” she said, arching an eyebrow at him and then turning back to the conversation at hand. “Didn’t you tell me that Queen Noor herself was with one of those caravans the orcs attacked years ago?”

  “I did,” Dain agreed. “That was back before we secured the road with the rangers.”

  “Strange that she wouldn’t argue on our behalf, then. She would know well the dangers of the road.”

  “They barely made it through. Wandered around lost in the wilderness for weeks before arriving in Galena, half-starved and every man among them wounded. Drogan met her the day they arrived and then married her just a few months later. He told me he was dumbstruck by her. It seems that was a fitting self-assessment,” Dain finished with a quick roll of his eyes.

  “Mother,” Jin interrupted, “you haven’t answered my question.”

  “Well, I am going to Mirr along with Galena’s ambassadors. Drogan asked that someone from our family go.”

  “That’s crazy,” Dain said, sitting up straighter in his chair. “Given our history, you might be killed as soon as they learn who you are.”

  “We have a treaty—one we’ve abided by, as have they,” Sera said. “Besides, would you trust Drogan’s ambassadors to do the job, or would you rather I saw for myself? That’s why I’m going.”

  “Like hell you are,” Dain said. Sera sighed, dreading what would come next. She had expected resistance from him.

  “Love, I have to go. You, the Baron, are needed here to lead the castle’s defenders and your Paladins.”

  “No,” he said, crossing his arms. “I will go alone. As the only human here, I can pass for one of Baylest’s men. Something neither of you can do.”

  “As part of Drogan’s party, the Golden have offered us entry into their lands, and as the ruler of the wood elves, I am honor-bound to go.”

  After Teran’s fall she’d wanted a council to rule their people, not a single leader, but as time passed she found that the council merely ratified whatever decision she made. Eventually she’d realized—for now, at least—her people needed a strong ruler, someone to organize their lands, someone to make the hard decisions.

  “If Koren is back, that offer is null and void,” Dain said, his voice tight.

  “You heard Cleeger, there’s been no sign of her,” Sera answered.

  “Well I’m going regardless,” Jin said. Dain and Sera stopped arguing and faced her. “I am heir to their throne, although I want nothing to do with it. My claim supersedes Koren’s despite the circumstances of my birth. I am going.”

  “Out of the question,” Sera said, shaking her head. “I won’t have you putting yourself in that type of danger.” This wasn’t going as planned. She’d expected resistance from Dain, but never from Jin.

  “I will accompany Jin,” Dain said. “Sera, the people need you here and your safety cannot be risked. Stay with Rhone and the twins inside the castle. Razel can lead the Paladins in my absence. Together, you and he can organize the defenses and protect our people if trouble is indeed on its way, which it seems it is.”

  “No, Dain, Jin, I—” Sera started, and then stopped herself. She had to regain control of this. She could not allow Jin and Dain to go in her place. “Neither of you know your way around Mirr. I do. I can find my way out if things go badly.”

  “You aren’t seeing this clearly, Mother,” Jin said. “The people need you. They will follow you. Father and I could never rally them in
the face of adversity the way you can.”

  “That isn’t true. They will—”

  “It is decided. Jin and I will go,” Dain said, a note of finality in his voice.

  Sera reached out to her chair’s arm to steady herself. The room suddenly felt hot. She tried to slow her breathing. “This is a terrible idea. I don’t want her going in there,” she said, her heartbeat thumping in her ears. “They tried to kill her enough when she was just a child!”

  Dain took her hand, his expression kind but resolved. “I don’t like it either, but someone has to go, and I trust no one more than her to guard my back. She needs someone to watch hers, as well,” he said. Jin nodded at Sera, her countenance a mirror of her father’s despite the fact that they shared no blood between them.

  Sera heaved a sigh, her breathing finally slowing. She knew her husband well. They’d never truly argued—not often, at least—but she knew when he had committed himself and, by his tone, she knew that this matter was now settled. It was true she ruled the wood elves, but when her husband decided to hold firm on something there was no pushing him and no changing his mind. He could be as stubborn as a dwarf. She didn’t like it. She hated it, truthfully. But after so many years of marriage, she knew when to let go.

  “Fine, but both of you better come back safe or I’ll rip every stone in Mirr from its foundations.”

  In the night, the envoys from Galena arrived, and Dain and Jin gathered their belongings and set out with them the following morning.

  Dain and Jin rode at the head of the little column, saying little as they traveled. They made their way along the old cobbled road, weaving among ancient trees of pine, maple, and broad-leafed oak and crossing the shallow brooks and silent streams.

  Dain tried not to study Jin too closely as they rode. He could guess at to how she felt. Nervous, excited, frightened—likely a roiling cauldron of all three. At times she was like her mother, emotions transparent to all those who knew her. Other times she hid herself behind an expressionless, opaque shell. Today it was the latter. He didn’t blame her. Having been hurt so much at a young age, and by her own family no less, it was natural for her to shut people out.

  As a child she’d been hunted by her uncle and father, who’d planned on sacrificing her to bless their armies. Her grandfather, King Elam, and her aunt Koren had been no less cruel. Then Sera’s family—the only home Jin had ever known—had been taken from her by the very people who’d hunted her.

  He felt for the tomahawk wrapped up in cloth and secured behind his saddle.

  And now Koren might have returned.

  Dain worried for his eldest. Although she was a more than capable fighter, her safety still lay in his hands. He had selected two of his most promising Paladins, Hexen and Perthe, and a pair of rangers to accompany them. The ambassador, of course, had her own guards.

  More than physical protection, Jin would need his support emotionally as well; something he’d never been any good at. He hoped that the Golden would see Jin as half theirs instead of all monster, as her birth father’s family had.

  By the afternoon they were miles down the gold road, close to the turnoff to Mirr, and the landscape had changed. The Golden had never been able to tame the forest on the south side of the road, but they had successfully broken up the thick trees on the north side into the occasional pasture. That was before their fall, though. Now, thin saplings and shrubs overgrew most of the Golden’s unplanted fields. Like an invading army, the forest is reclaiming what they’ve abandoned, Dain thought. Cleeger’s scouts couldn’t say why these fertile lands had been abandoned, but theories had arisen as they always did. They knew that the Golden had warred among themselves and, like the wood elves, that they’d lost much of their population.

  In all the years of quiet peace after Elam’s death, only three messages had passed between Mirr and the wood elves; the most important of which had been the treaty. Honoring its terms, Sera forbade settlement north of the paved road, even near the castle, and commanded her people to leave the Golden be. She needn’t have bothered with the second command. Few had seen a golden elf in years—the only exceptions being Cleeger and his shapeshifter spies, and they had only been able to report on a raging civil war that had ended just a couple of winters ago. The war’s cause remained a mystery.

  “The caravan was hit another five miles ahead,” Jin said, breaking the silence.

  “The turnoff to Mirr is closer than that,” King Baylest’s ambassador said. She had ridden up to join them.

  “Ambassador Neive, we didn’t hear you join us,” Dain said. He looked the woman over. She was tall and thin for an envoy. In his own experience most were pompous and lazy, more interested in banquets and celebrations than in anything useful. Unlike most, though, she’d refused a carriage, preferring a horse of her own. She’d even dressed sensibly for riding. She had her brother’s coloring down to the curly brown ringlets that framed her face.

  Dain didn’t know Neive well. Truthfully, he felt an immense guilt over that. Her brother had saved his life on the final day of the war with the Golden. Priest Verdant had sacrificed himself saving Dain from a golden elf mage. He owed this woman a debt he could never repay.

  At the same time, he was slightly puzzled by her presence on this journey. In addition to the loss of her brother, her husband, Maib, had been ambushed and killed by the Golden in service to his homeland of Arctanon. A large Arctanian army had been hired out by the bigger mines to guard a shipment of gold out of the valley. Maib had been second in command, and despite successfully holding off the orcs, the army had fallen to the greedy golden elves in the end. At the war’s conclusion, Neive had moved with her children to Galena. There, Dain knew she had risen through the clerical ranks, working for the king to become ambassador to Galena’s neighboring kingdoms.

  I should have spoken to her sooner, at least to acknowledge her brother’s loss, Dain thought as they rode side by side. I should have made the effort. But there was so much to do in the years after the war, an entire people to defend and help rebuild, children to raise, a peace to keep, a future to prepare for…

  He looked at Neive again. King Baylest could not have chosen a worse ambassador. This woman had lost both her brother and her husband to the Golden. There was no possibility of her remaining impartial—she had no reason to. What was the fool thinking?

  That question had been bothering Dain for a while now. Over the last few years Dain had avoided Galena whenever possible, and as his contact with the capital lessened so too his ties to King Drogan Baylest dwindled. Their last meeting, over two years ago, had ended in an argument over Dain’s request for stronger fortifications along the outer borders with Ghent and Arctanon and more of Galena’s soldiers to man them. Sera and Dain knew how their neighbors looked with envy on the fertile, enchanted lands they occupied and on Galena’s famously rich mines.

  From his removed existence on the throne, Baylest couldn’t see their envy. He’d ignored Dain’s pleas, refusing to listen and withholding additional troops and funds. The neighboring kingdoms and the protection of the gold road were Dain and Sera’s problem in Baylest’s eyes. Dain grimaced, remembering the damned fool’s words. It seemed that kingship had ruined the once-formidable miner and man.

  “King Baylest speaks highly of you, Baron,” Neive said, pulling Dain out of his head. “As does Queen Noor. I learned only last year that it was you who returned my husband’s body to my family. I’ve meant to thank you for that, but you haven’t been to the city lately.”

  Dain’s chest tightened. “No need to thank me. It is I and mine who should thank you. We owe your family a great deal.” He paused, considering his next words. “Verdant died paying for my life with his own. I wish I could have returned the favor for him. He was a good, brave friend.”

  He ignored the implied question about him not visiting the city. He
didn’t agree with many of Drogan’s recent policies and actions, but he wouldn’t undermine the king in front of his representative.

  The guard commander galloped up to join them then, his brightly polished chainmail jingling and flashing in the sun. Dain was hard pressed to find a spot of dirt on him. While most of Neive’s guards hadn’t impressed him much so far, their commander stood out as an exception. From head-to-toe he was neat and orderly, and he carried himself like a fighter.

  “Mother, we will camp for the night in the clearing ahead,” he said.

  “Thank you, Regan,” Neive responded.

  Mother. Dain felt the younger man’s eyes drift over him swiftly, measuring him up. Neive’s son looked very much like Maib, his dark hair worn long and straight. The night before, Regan had checked in on Dain’s accompanying Paladins and rangers. He had not seemed pleased to have four armed and unknown men in the party, but like a good soldier, he’d followed orders—and like a good soldier, he had made sure the men knew he wasn’t happy about it.

  Satisfied with his inspection of Dain, Regan looked over at Jin, who had remained silent during the exchange between Dain and Neive. This time, the young man’s assessment seemed a bit more than professional.

  “I…I will inform my men, then,” Regan said with a slight stutter, dragging his eyes away from Jin and nodding at the two of them before riding back to notify the rest of his command. Jin didn’t seem to have noticed the attention.

  “Verdant said his nephews wanted to be soldiers,” Dain ventured, and Neive smiled.

  “Regan serves in Galena’s army. Even though he doesn’t have much more to occupy his time than settling mining disputes, we seldom get a chance to see each other. The queen thought he would be a perfect choice to lead the guards for me.”