The Shadow of the Rose
Chapter 15

Copyright© 2012 by R22CoolGuy

Lord Tsor materialized in the small informal throne room of the palace in Aithen. Duke Calan Beadle was sitting on the throne and having a discussion with Lord Tnuk and Marcus, the onetime aide to Carlos de Ponce. The three turned toward Lord Tsor and his two guests. The ladies were still bound, but conscious.

"Kneel!" Lord Tsor commanded tapping his staff to the ground and the two ladies dropped to their knees, heads bowed.

"Where did you find them?" Duke Beadle asked with glee apparent on his face.

"In Realto. Any news of the ambush?" Lord Tsor asked.

"No news," Duke Calan replied. "My men have their orders, If young Blackmoon shows up, they cannot interfere. I do not want to look like the aggressor, or worse, usurper. We have to hope the Black Hand will do their job."

"At least you have recovered the females," Lord Tnuk acknowledged. "Are they aware of what is going on around them?"

"No, I have them controlled, why?" Lord Tsor asked.

"I want them to know their fate," Lord Tnuk replied. "I want them to be aware of their place in life."

Lord Tsor struck the floor with his staff and the bindings on the ladies disappeared. The women shook their heads and stood, facing their abductors.

"Why have you taken us?" Lady Laura demanded. "When my father finds out you will pay."

"Lady Laura, shut up and listen!" Duke Calan leaned forward. "Your father is not here, you are. You will remain in Aithen as my guest and as insurance against any uprising from Malkur and your father. You should be happy; once I am crowned you will be betrothed to a King."

"Marcus, how could you betray me?" Anastasia asked, bringing her hand up and rubbing the coin she wore on a chain. She hoped Aaron was alright and more importantly she hoped he could finally sense her. She and Lady Laura were in grave danger, and he was their only hope.

"It was easy, I get you and your house," Marcus smiled, causing Anastasia to shudder. "You will soon learn your place."

"I will not be betrothed to a thug, and an ugly one at that," Lady Laura replied to Duke Beadle, crossing her arms. "Master Whiterune will rescue me."

"I am sorry to have to inform you that he is dead, Lady Laura," Lord Tnuk laughed. "You will get no help from him."


Aaron kneeled next to Rac-Nur and checked for a pulse and exhaled a long sigh upon finding one.

"Tanith, can you aid my friend?" Aaron asked. "The last time I tried to heal with Eldritch, I overacted and affected the person greatly."

Tanith kneeled next to Aaron and showed him how to heal without lasting exposure to Eldritch. She called forth her power and allowed it to collect on her fingertips until the concentration was great enough to form a viscous solution. She gently dripped it onto Rac-Nur's forehead, watching it absorb into the skin, while holding her other hand, which glowed with a silvery light, flat on his chest. Presently Rac-Nur opened his eyes and smiled at the sight of his liege.

"Another Dac-Ur, Shoc-Ti?" Rac-Nur asked. "How many do I owe you now?"

"Shh, rest. Do you know what happened to the ladies?" Aaron asked.

Rac-Nur recounted the events after the captain left, including describing the goblin sorcerer that took the ladies. Aaron knew who the goblin was by the description Rac-Nur gave; the involvement of said goblin explained much. Also Rac-Nur's description of the assassins pointed to a specific guild, or rather sub-sect of the Assassins' Guild: the Black Hand. They were a secret society of assassins that preformed contract work in squad-like units. The fact that they were involved concerned Aaron. They were good, admittedly, but more importantly, they had numbers, unknown numbers. Aaron would have to be careful.

Aaron stood and went over to one of the dead Guardsmen and removed the black arrow sticking out of him. Removing a leather sheath from within his cloak he carefully covered the arrowhead and stowed the arrow away for later. He was just about to order a stretcher for Rac-Nur when he felt Anastasia's need and knew where she was. Transferring the location to Black Rose, he told Tanith to see to Rac-Nur's needs and to follow him after. He told Micah to be careful, and told Caleb to watch over Micah. After giving these instructions he drew his swords and then teleported to Anastasia's side, just as Lord Tnuk told Lady Laura that he was dead.


"I am sorry to have to inform you that he is dead, Lady Laura," Lord Tnuk laughed. "You will get no help from him."

"The reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated, Lord Tnuk," Aaron materialized in the chamber, swords out, runes glowing and blades ablaze in a silvery flame, smiling his trademark feral grin.

"Lord Tsor, it is so nice to see you again. It has been such a long time," the sarcasm was obvious as Aaron struck with Eldritch, encircling Tsor in a silver ball of energy, thereby immobilizing him. "Red Rose, ward the room, no one leaves or enters."

"Yes, My Lord," Red Rose replied as the doors glowed with a silver light and sealed shut. This time the color difference did not go unnoticed, but Aaron had little time to ponder the reason why.

"Marcus, what did I tell you would happen if you betrayed me?" Aaron asked. "Black Rose, his soul is yours, but make it slow and make it painful."

Aaron released the sword and Black Rose danced its dance of death with a howling glee. It flashed in front of Marcus who tried to block it, but the sword easily turned aside the parry. Black Rose struck quickly, slashing his cheek and taking a small portion of his soul, causing Marcus to scream in agony. The sword struck again, slashing his shoulder and taking another piece, causing another scream. Duke Calan watched in horror, possibly realizing for the first time who, or what he had crossed. Black Rose struck again and again and again, each time bloodying him and taking a part of his soul. Marcus finally fell to his knees, weakened both physically and spiritually by the dual attack. The sword flashed one last time, decapitating him and taking the rest of his soul, and then returned to Aaron's outstretched hand.

"Aaron, the room is warded, please remove them," Tanith sent him through their bond. Aaron instructed Red Rose to allow Tanith entry.

The chamber was eerily quiet as the ladies looked on in shock, Aaron turned toward Duke Beadle when Tanith materialized in the room with a rejuvenated Rac-Nur, who moved over to protect Anastasia.

"So, Duke Beadle, what am I to do with you?" Aaron smiled. "You should not have aligned yourself as my enemy."

"I am not afraid of you," Calan Beadle replied, rising from his seat. "My Master will protect me."

"I do not see your master," Aaron smiled, looked around and then pointed Red Rose at him. "You should be afraid, very afraid."

A beam of silver energy burned a hole in Duke Beadle's chest incinerating his heart, killing him instantly. Duke Beadle's body crumpled back into the chair.

"Lord Tnuk, I am greatly disappointed," Aaron admonished him, again the sarcasm was evident in his tone. "I thought we had an agreement? I thought we were non-competitive equals?"

"Did you actually think the 'council' would allow that?" Lord Tnuk replied arrogantly. "You put yourself in direct conflict with the desires of the 'council'. You forced us to extreme measures."

"Really? And here I thought you had been planning this for sometime," Aaron's laughter caused an involuntary shiver from everyone within earshot. "Lord Tnuk, tell me truly, has not the 'council' been in league with House Beadle from the beginning? Has not the 'council' been lying to me from the beginning?"

Aaron saw Lord Tnuk begin drawing power from the surrounding rock. 'Saw' was perhaps the wrong word, Aaron could feel the power flowing toward the goblin and knew he was preparing to attack, so Aaron preempted the attack with one of his own.

"Stop," Aaron commanded combining Eldritch with the word.

Lord Tnuk froze in mid action. The flow stopped and Aaron started toward him, when Tanith interrupted.

"Aaron, did you know that goblins used a specialized form of Eldritch?" Tanith asked. "It's called rock magic."

"No, I did not," he replied, shaking his head. "Although, when I fought the goblin sorcerers in the Hall of the Mountain Folk, I could see them accessing their power, and right now I could feel the flow of power as Tnuk prepared to attack."

"When you had your dream, before I awoke you, you were pulling power from everywhere, even from me," Tanith explained. "When you release him, try to stop him from accessing the rock magic."

"Alright, I will try that," Aaron smiled and then turned back to Lord Tnuk and released him from the binding word.

After Aaron released the Eldritch in the word, he felt Tnuk start drawing power from the rock. Aaron reached out with his own power and pulled the power back, drawing it toward him. Using the power he built a magical barrier around Tnuk, effectively isolating him from the Eldritch.

Lord Tnuk looked at Aaron with surprise and even shock as he began to pull power from the rocks, when the source stopped! He could sense the power in the rocks but could not access it.

"You really have no idea what you have started," Aaron smiled and released the barrier and pushed more power into Tnuk than the goblin could sustain.

The goblin lord screamed in agony and started to glow as beams of silvery light began to stream out of his body everywhere. Lord Tnuk finally exploded in a brilliant flash of silver energy. Nothing remained of the Goblin Lord.

Turning to Lord Tsor, ex-head of the council of thieves and assassins, Aaron put up the same barrier as with Tnuk and with a sweep of his hand released the ball of energy that was holding him in stasis.

"I did not expect you to be involved, my old master," Aaron looked at him with contempt.

"It was not personal, Aaron, at least not from me," Lord Tsor replied. "There was a plan to bring Aithen, Malkur, Creton, and Re-An under one rule, purely for economic reasons. The King would not put aside his wife and take another. The young prince was just that; young, too young. With the Duchess of Malkur at a marrying age, with the right King, Malkur could be brought under the crown of Aithen. Creton and Re-An would have no choice but to swear allegiance and the kingdom would have Realto in the east, Malkur in the west, Re-An to the south, and finally Creton to the north. It was simple economics, nothing more."

"Except, once again, I was in the way," Aaron replied. "Or at least the fact that the principals involved were important to me. We have had this discussion before when the 'council' said they only backed Lord Colin so I would end up killing him. You never really wanted Colin Beadle, so at least that part was true. Who were you really setting up for the throne? Not Calan Beadle; he would have been no better than his brother."

"No, it was Duke Calan," Lord Tsor replied. "How are you blocking me? I did not think that was possible."

"I am just full of surprises," Aaron replied with a smirk and shrug. "And it is not Calan Beadle. If you think so then you were played as well. No, someone else is behind this plot. Someone else is trying to take control of the five realms, or at least a large part of it. But we need to deal with the here and now."

"What, so now you are just going to kill me?" Lord Tsor asked.

"Well, I had really thought about doing just that," Aaron replied smiling, "but, no, I am not going to kill you. I am going to strip you of your powers and then let you go."

"Tanith, what is the word for the Eldritch rune of binding?" Aaron asked her through their bond.

"Aaron, it is pronounced Et," Tanith replied. "It is drawn as three concentric rings. It means, Thrice Bound. Wyrms and elder dragons can do it naturally. You can also, by weaving Eldritch around something three times. Using the rune is stronger, however."

"Lord Tsor, before I banish you, answer me truly," Aaron looked at his old master intently. "Did the 'council' authorize, or participate in, or have knowledge of, an abduction plot of Lady Laura by Creton?"

"No, Aaron, they did not," Lord Tsor shook his head. "That would have made no sense. The plan all along was to wed her to Calan Beadle, strengthening both cities and the kingdom. It was just providence that brought her here from Re-An; providence in the form of an orc raiding party."

"I do not think so, Lord Tsor," Aaron also shook his head. "There are quite possibly two separate plots here. I just need to unweave and separate them. You should not have sided against me."

 
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