time. She was a very beautiful girl with her flaming red hair and pert nose, but sometimes he wished he were traveling alone. She never seemed to listen to reason and never missed an opportunity to punish him with silence at some unseen offense he was supposed to have committed. Eventually, Fredrik went to bed still mystified about the ways of women.
The next day the pair wound their way back to the coastal highway and towards Cidal. There was very little traffic on the road and the people they passed did no more than acknowledge the couple. Several days later they reached the outskirts of Cidal and immediately proceeded to a less traveled street. Like most towns, there were some abandoned houses and Fredrik picked the one that seemed to be in the best shape and yet out of the way. They did pick up a few strange glares entering the house, but most people were afraid to say anything to strangers. Still, they could not stay here long before somebody reported their presence in the house to whoever passed as the authorities in Cidal.
After they got settled in, Fredrik went out alone to see what the town was like. Cidal was in much better shape than Forgum as no army had yet ravaged it. There was a fair amount of people and the businesses seemed to be doing rather well. Fredrik visited some of the inns, always blending in and keeping to the shadows, and picked up the local rumors. There was a local organization of mercenaries, which probably accounted for the fact that Cidal had not been plundered yet. The most important piece of information was of the Black Devils who had left town this morning. They had obviously killed an old sea captain and taken over his mansion while in Cidal. Fredrik learned the name of the sea captain and hurried back to Niki. Within moments, Fredrik and Niki were back out of town in the woods where they dressed in their finest outfits. Fredrik was dressed in gray flannel breeches with a fine white shirt whose wrinkles were covered by a gray flannel vest. Niki donned a violet silk dress with white frilled sleeves and a lavender sash around her waist.
Once suitably attired, the pair strode into town with Fredrik leading the train of six horses. This time everyone turned and stared at them as they walked along the coastal highway. Niki walked right up to a group of mercenaries that seemed to include an officer or at least someone whom the others deferred to. The men all stared at her and she had to push back images of drooling dogs else she would ruin her entrance.
“Excuse me, kind Sir,” she cooed, “but we are just in from Trekum and I am seeking my uncle, Amos Alrecht. “Could you possibly direct me? We’ve had such a dreadful journey with the wagon burning and all and I really wish to make an early night of it.”
The smiling faces all grew dim at the mention of the old sea captain and most of the group melted away. The authoritative man remained and appraised her. “Your uncle, you say?” he asked. “Old Amos never mentioned any kin to me.”
Niki had to strain her neck to look up at the man. “Well, that is quite a minor problem, Sir. I can assure you that I am his niece as I am sure he will also attest, but that is no concern of yours. I am merely asking for directions to his home so I might settle in with my brother.”
The man appeared suitably rebuffed, but eventually nodded. “All right, Mistress Alrecht, I can show you to his home, but you won’t be finding old Amos there, I’m afraid.”
“Well, if he is not in, I am sure he will return soon, Sir,” she smiled. “He is, after all, expecting us.”
“It is not that he is out, Mistress,” the man frowned. “Old Amos was killed a few days ago by Black Devils. They claimed he was a sorcerer. When we found out, it was too late to do anything for Amos and it didn’t make much sense to start a war with the Black Devils over something that could not be undone.”
The man lowered his head sheepishly; obviously ashamed of letting the Black Devils have their way within his domain. Niki collapsed in the street and Fredrik let go of the horses and rushed to her aid. He frowned up at the mercenary, but nodded at the man. “It’s all right, Sir,” Fredrik added. “Similar tragedies have occurred in the South as well. I’m sure you and your men would have done something if you had known before it happened. Could you have some of your men grab our horses and help us to his house?”
The man was only too eager to help Amos’ kin after not avenging his death. Fredrik and Niki allowed the men to fawn over them and see them safely put into Amos’ mansion. The head mercenary introduced them to the servants and scowled at any objections to the youngsters moving in. By the time the mercenary left, the servants were satisfactorily cowed to accept their new Lord and Lady.
Chapter 7 Escape
Arik and Tedi rose at first light and surveyed the area they had chosen to camp at the night before. “It’s a good thing we didn’t try to roam around last night,” Tedi commented, looking over the cliff to the sea. The promontory they were on was about eighty feet above where the waves crashed into the rocks below. The view was spectacular with long vistas of beach, both north and south. This was clearly the highest point for some distance and afforded glimpses of the coastal highway farther inland where the trees were sparse enough to see through or the view was not blocked by the plateau itself.
Arik fixed breakfast while Tedi stood inhaling the strong salt air. After a quick breakfast Tedi cleaned up the campsite while Arik checked out the surroundings. “Hey, Tedi,” Arik called. “I think I see something coming down the beach.”
Tedi ran over and looked northward. “I don’t see anything,” he remarked. “It’s too far to see anything, anyway. Maybe it’s just someone out for a morning walk.”
“Could be,” Arik muttered straining for a better view, “but not unless they’re on horseback and it looks like two people. Wait, they’ve stopped.”
Tedi looked once again, trying to make out what Arik was looking at. “I don’t know about seeing people or horses,” he commented, “but that looks like the area where we left the beach yesterday.”
“Yeah, well, they are, too,” Arik said hurriedly as he watched the tiny dots disappear into the forest. “I think someone might be tracking us. If they are on horseback, they’ll catch us for sure.”
“How do you know they are on horseback?” Tedi asked. “I can’t see anything at that distance.”
“By the relative size of the two dots,” Arik answered. “I think one of them got down for some reason and led his horse. I could be wrong, but can we afford to take a chance?”
Tedi thought for a while and said, “Horseback won’t help them that much on the trail we took yesterday. It was hardly more than an animal trail and not often used, at that.”
“Unless they swing out to the coastal highway,” declared Arik. Arik swung his eyes back to the only major road in the area and froze. “Tedi,” he whispered. “Look down at the road.”
Tedi joined his friend and looked where he was pointing. A large group of riders was gathered milling around, not traveling. “The trees are in the way,” Tedi frowned. “I can’t quite make out who they are or how many of them there are, but I am beginning to not like this.”
“I like it even less,” added Arik. “It looks like more than ten, but worst of all, one of them is almost assuredly a woman.”
“Okay, let’s keep calm,” instructed Tedi. “If they knew right where we were, we would have been dead on our blankets this morning.”
“You have a great way of making me feel calm,” Arik quipped. “We can’t outrun them if they have even one fairly decent tracker. We can’t go out to sea or to the road. A couple of them are coming in from the North. We really don’t have much of a choice on which way to go.”
“We do have the option of staying right here,” declared Tedi. “This place is pretty defensible.”
“I don’t think I’m ready to start killing people even if they turn out to be Dark Riders,” frowned Arik.
“Well, you better get ready, Arik,” Tedi scolded. “If they come for us, it won’t be to take us home to our fathers. Even if the witch is with them, Dark Riders don’t openly track someone just to ask questions. Oh, she may ask some questions before she kills us, but you better believe that we’ll end up dead no matter what. The Dark Riders don’t normally leave anything alive behind them.”
Arik stood staring at the milling riders on the road for several minutes. “Okay,” Arik finally said, “we’ll shoot if we have to, but staying here is suicide. We may kill some of them before they get us, but there are too many of them for us to win. We will head south trying to avoid them. If it comes to a fight, we’ll fight, but we’ll hide and avoid it if we can. We may kill fewer of them with this plan, but how many of them are dead will matter little to us if we are dead, too.”
