“It has not been a secret,” lied Fredrik. “It is just not something that needs to be disclosed to every contract holder. If there was a conflict because of it, you can be assured that Captain Grecho would disclose it.”
“Of course,” nodded the Duke. “In any event, you are too late to speak with the King, I’m afraid. King Byron is dead.”
'My condolences,” offered Fredrik. “I do hope it wasn’t sudden. Has his heir been crowned yet?”
“Alas,” frowned Duke Everich, “King Byron had no known heir. The Council of Advisors rule Targa. I can guess what Cidal has to offer to an alliance, but what does it wish from Targa, my young Lord?”
“A common border, King’s Advisor,” Fredrik calmly stated.
A look of shock fell over the Duke’s face. There was an awful lot of territory between Targa and Cidal. If they were to have a common border, quite a few countries or cities would have to fall. The young Lord would have to be either a fool or have access to an army larger than a mercenary company. Either way, he would be very useful or very dangerous, perhaps both.
“I think we should speak more of this before I present it to the Council,” Duke Everich said. “Perhaps you would accompany me to the Royal Palace?”
“It would be a pleasure, Duke Everich,” Lord Wason replied.
Everyone rose and left the dining room, much to the chagrin of the other nobles waiting to interrogate the newcomer. The walk from the Palace Shadow to the Royal Palace was short. Fredrik was amazed at the sheer size of the Palace and had trouble remembering the path so he could retrace his steps if necessary.
Duke Everich showed them into a room that looked like a study. He again frowned as the two Cidal underlings followed Fredrik into the room. Fredrik seized the opportunity before it passed.
“Duke Everich,” Fredrik inquired, “I do not particularly want my fellow countrymen involved in this conversation. I would post my bodyguard outside the door, but not with the servant to look after. I wonder if I might indulge myself of your good graces and store my servant in your dungeon until I am ready to leave?”
“An excellent idea,” laughed the Duke. “I can arrange for some punishment while he is there if you desire.”
“That will not be necessary,” chuckled Lord Wason. “If you could just issue authorization for my man to deposit and collect him, that would be sufficient.”
The Duke scribbled an authorization and handed it to Arik. “I will have one of my men show him the way,” offered the Duke.
Lord Wason leaned close to the Duke’s ear and whispered, “Don’t bother. Let him find it on his own.”
After being dismissed, Arik gently shoved Tedi out the door and closed it. Looking at the authorization, Arik gave a smile and proceeded down the stairs he knew led to the dungeon. Garth had spent some hours trying to detail the inside of the castle to Tedi and himself and Arik felt like he had been there before.
They reached the dungeon quickly and showed the authorization to the outside guard. Without a blink he opened the door to the dungeon and let them in. Inside the dungeon were two more guards seated at a table. They looked up as soon as the door opened and watched as Tedi and Arik approached. Arik walked past Tedi to give the authorization to one of the guards and was reproached for letting his back to a prisoner.
“He is not a prisoner,” Arik stated. “He is just a troublesome servant that needs to be kept out of my hair for a while. You need not even trouble yourself with getting up. I will shove him in a cell.”
“Nobody goes into the cell block without one of us,” the guard stated as he rose. “Servant or prisoner, he gets the same from me either way.”
Arik began to fear that Tedi would be searched. Without his tools, this whole charade would be wasted and possibly worse if they found the lock picks Tedi had on him. The guard pointed the way and followed them into the cellblock. Arik’s heart dropped when he saw no other prisoners in the cells.
Arik stopped and turned to the guard. “Is there a cell with a neighbor?” Arik asked. “This lout’s snoring will add some punishment to the culprit’s torment.”
The guard laughed heartily and pointed Arik and Tedi towards another cellblock. “You have the makings of a Royal Tormentor, lad. The way you think makes me warm all over.”
The guard let them walk down the corridor until they came to a cell next to another prisoner and ushered Tedi in and locked the door. The man in the cell next to Tedi looked too young to be the General.
The guard turned to Arik. “Now that we have your friend locked up,” the guard laughed, “you’ll come with me and answer some questions.”
Arik’s stomach turned as he looked at the massive guard with the wicked grin.
Chapter 20 Lady Wason
Tedi craned his neck in an attempt to see into the other cells in the block, but he was unable to see anyone other than the man in the next cell. Quietly, for a while, he pondered his options. He was supposed to talk with the General and arrange his escape, but if the man in the next cell was not Sergeant Trank, who was General Gregor’s aide, he would call the jailers called down on him in a moment.
“What is your name?” Tedi hesitantly asked.
The man looked at him and pointedly ignored him. Tedi wasn’t sure what the dungeon guards had up their sleeve with their last comment to Arik, but he didn’t have a lot of time to deal with his neighbor’s reluctance to talk.
“I had a cousin who looked a lot like you,” Tedi probed. “People often told him that he looked like General Gregor’s aide. Say, you wouldn’t happen to be Sergeant Trank, would you?”
“You wouldn’t even know anyone who had ever seen a General’s aide,” the neighbor sneered. “Why don’t you do us both a favor and let me get some rest? Tell Duke Everich he will have to come up with a better scheme than sending you in here, so save your breath.”
Tedi was taken back at the man’s hostile attitude, but clearly the Duke wanted something from this man and, just as clearly, this man didn’t want to give it. Tedi was going to get nowhere fast following his coy little approach.
“I don’t know if you are Sergeant Trank or not,” Tedi gambled, “but my gut instinct tells me that you are. I do not work for the Duke, but I do need to talk to the General. I was hoping that they would put me in the cell next to him.”
The man’s hostility seemed abated and Tedi bet his life on his next statement. “I was told to tell the General that I was sent by Garth Shado to affect his release.”
The man stared at Tedi for the longest moment without speaking. After rolling something around in his mind, the man asked, “Who told you to say Garth Shado sent you?”
“Garth himself,” Tedi answered. “He is a tall man, extremely well-built with long black hair in a tail. He called General Gregor his cousin and travels with a woman named Kalina. Does that satisfy you that I am telling the truth?”
“Not hardly,” the man laughed. “This friend of his, Kalina, she has a special trick she likes to pull on new acquaintances. Surely, if you ever met her you would know of it. What is the trick?
Tedi had no idea what the man was talking about. Kalina had done nothing that stood out as a welcoming trick. How would he be able to convince the man without knowing her trick? In desperation, he threw up his hands.
“How am I supposed to know anything about her tricks?” Tedi blurted out. “I don’t know anything about magic and everything a witch does is a trick to me. What trick are you talking about?”
Oddly, the man smiled. “Witch is a very derogatory term,” the man scolded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Kalina filled your sleeping bag with worms for that statement. How do you plan to get the General out of the Royal Palace? Just waltz him past the dungeon guards?”
“That is for me to discuss with the General,” stated Tedi. “You still haven’t told me who you are or where they are keeping the General.”
“You are a brave fool,” chuckled the man. “I see no harm in admitting that I am Sergeant Trank and that the General is in the last cell down. The Duke didn’t want me close enough to him to converse. You will have as poor luck in trying to talk with him as you have of getting him out of here, now that you are stuck being my
