Lord Ellrich, bodily pulled Sir William toward his office. The young soldier followed nervously. He was too afraid to put his hands on his Lord to help the Weapon Master stop him, even though his superior, Sir William, was ordering him to do so.
Sir William wanted Ellrich to go with him to the stables. There, they could gather enough men to escort Ellrich away from the fighting, but the Lord of Settsted wouldn’t hear of it. After glimpsing the burning town from one of the arrow slits in the long hall, he had only one thing on his mind. He remembered as clearly as if it had been an hour ago, Pael and King Glendar arguing for the soldiers of his border guard to be taken away. The wizard had a hand in this, Ellrich was sure of it. And if it was so, then all of Westland was in trouble.
He ordered both Sir William and the boy to get out, then changed his mind, and ordered the young soldier to follow him to his study. The Weapons Master was doing everything, short of physically assaulting his Lord, to try and get him to see a reason, but it was no use. Ellrich just dragged him along as if he were a child.
Once in the study, Lord Ellrich sent Sir William stumbling across the room with a heavy shove. Sir William slammed into the wall, and decided that he had tried as hard as he could. His Lord was determined to do whatever it was that he was about to do.
Lord Ellrich took a parchment and quill, and after clumsily spilling ink all over the stacks of unanswered petitions and reports on his desk, he began writing with furious intensity. He sanded the paper, and burned his hand lighting a wax candle in the torch flaming on the wall sconce. He showed no regard, not even a wince, as the flames licked, and blistered his knuckles. The room filled with the acrid smell of burnt hair. Lord Ellrich didn’t care. He blew the sand from the note, rolled it quickly into a scroll, and then blotted a globule of wax on it to seal it. After pressing his ring into the cooling stuff, he handed the scroll to the boy.
“You are to ride!”
He said it quickly, placing a hand on each of the young man’s shoulders for emphasis. They were eye to eye then, and the Lord’s order took on a deadly weight.
“Ride like the wind to Lakebottom, and give that to either Lady Trella, or my daughter, Lady Zasha. Do you understand? Lady Trella or Lady Zasha only!”
“Yes, milord,” the soldier answered dutifully. The idea that he was being ordered away from the slaughter taking place around him, the hope that he might not die this night, filled him with confidence.
“Stop for no man. Not even for the King himself!” Ellrich said sharply. “And take as many horses as you need to make it through without stopping. Now go!”
The boy didn’t hesitate. He was off in a flash of boot heels and elbows, leaving Lord Ellrich and Sir William alone in the room. A bright, orange blast of light suddenly shone through the shuttered window that overlooked the training yard. It was accompanied by an earth-shaking roar, which chilled both men to their core. There was no time to even think after that. The building shook, and pieces of the ceiling beams splintered downward. A huge piece of stone flooring came down on them from above, crushing both of them to death in an instant. The last sound either of them heard was Claret’s battle roar as she tore Settsted Stronghold to the ground.
Lord Ellrich would never know it, but the young soldier managed to get clear of the stronghold and the Zard army that was closing in around it. The horses he chose were fast, strong, and more importantly, they were rested. There was a good chance that he would manage to escape the two geka that were chasing him.
Chapter 34
The siege of the Redwolf’s mountain castle had lasted a week so far. According to the lists before him, King Jarrek knew that they could go another half a year or more. They had plenty of stores hidden away in the caverns. Considering that they had over three thousand soldiers behind the secondary wall, and nearly eight thousand other people that were waiting.