“We’re already here, Kind Erods,” said Eric, kicking a chair out of the way and raising a sword. The king turned around in outrage that gave way to fear. “Soliander, make sure no one comes behind us.”
“Right.”
“Who are you?” demanded the king.
“The Ellorian Champions. Two of them, anyway. Don’t try anything or I’ll stick you with this sword.”
The sound of two bodies falling made Matt look across the room, where Ryan and Dravo strode in, followed by Anna and the wizards. He saw Ryan was bleeding from his leg until the knight used his Trinity Ring to heal himself. They could hear yelling beyond them and barred the door against the reinforcements that were on the way. This was the part that the prince had needed them for. Matt knew he and the wizards were the key to keeping a considerable force of dark elves from breaking into this room and killing them all before Dravo’s troops could get up here to protect him.
“How did you get in here?” the king demanded of Dravo.
“Why would I tell you that?” the prince asked as he approached. He shoved the table aside, then tore a long piece of cloth off the counselor’s robe and ripped it in half. He roughly gagged King Erods and tied his hands behind his back, shoving him into a chair. “I don’t have time for pretty speeches. Your hostages are gone. I will be king and I will try you for war crimes.”
The counselor said, “But, Dravo, no one will recognize your sovereignty, just as other lands are refusing to acknowledge we control Aker.”
The prince turned on him. “I have an arrangement with both Aker and Thiat for exactly that, and enough of our people agree that this war should never have happened that they, too, will support me. We will withdraw from Aker.”
The counselor seemed taken aback but accepting of this news. “What of Prince Kammer? He will not agree.”
“His opinion won’t be needed much longer. Enough of this.” He turned to Eric. “The tower bell has spoiled our plan to get my forces up here for protection. We need another plan.”
Eric turned to Matt. “How good of an illusion can you do?”
Matt shrugged. “What do you need?”
The rogue smiled, and they got to work so quickly that it made Matt nervous of a mistake being made. The shouts and heavy footsteps of armored dark elves charging up the stairs didn’t help. Eric threw open the doors to the room and everyone assumed their positions. It had taken some hair from the dead and living elves and themselves, plus the skills of all three wizards, to create the scene the rogue devised. The dark elves charged into the room to find the bodies of several humans scattered about, King Erods standing with a dagger at the throat of a kneeling and captured Price Dravo, who was the only person whose appearance was not an illusion. A half dozen elven guards appeared to be already in the room, having defeated the intruders and captured others.
“You’re a little late!” snapped King Erods. “Next time try not to be asleep when someone is trying to kill me.”
The lead elven guard looked aghast and bowed. “Your Majesty, we did not expect–”
“What?” King Erods interrupted. “To be hanged for incompetence? If you want to be useful, bring me every one of those disgusting ogre and goblin leaders from the prince’s forces. And bring the biggest and meanest looking of the warriors, too. And their weapons still on them, so they suspect nothing. I’m thinking we’ll have a little fun in the courtyard today with these traitors.”
The guard nodded and turned on his heel, instructing his men to remain behind until the king barked at him to take them because he had his band of heroes already. He told them to guard the entrance to the castle, and no was allowed up here until the errand was complete. The humiliated guards left and everyone remained in their positions until they heard the sounds of them running across the courtyard.
From his knees, Prince Dravo looked up at the king and rose. “That was a fine performance.”
“Thank you,” said Ryan, stepping back and pulling the blade away.
“That went better than I expected,” said Eric, looking like a dark elf guard. The real guards were all dead on the floor and disguised as humans. The actual king and counselor were among them, bound and gagged, though no one could tell. They talked it over and put into play Dravo’s plan to deal with Prince Kammer.
Before leaving Thiat, Dravo had revealed that, while magic portals were rare, the people most likely to have there were royalty, of course, regardless of race. An elven Mirror of Sulinae was on the first floor of the castle and was part of a pair. The Ellorians had used one on Honyn when escaping Castle Darlonon. With King Erods not much interested in travel but recognizing the value of appearing in Aker as its new sovereign, he had made his son bring the other Mirror of Sulinae to Aker. Dravo had suspected they existed but been unsure where they might be.
But he learned the truth after he arrived in Avaran by horseback in the vanguard of his rebel band. The sneering Prince Kammer had made no indications of planning to travel from Aker to Kiarven, as Dravo had just done, and yet Kammer had somehow gotten here before Dravo, who then discovered the Mirror of Sulinae. This meant the other one must be in Aker.
Now the group staged a scene, most of them standing out of sight beside the Mirror of Sulinae. Dravo held a knife to the neck of Ryan, who was still pretending to be King Erods. Matt studied the words on the device. Memories from Soliander helped him understand how ones like this, though the design was slightly
